A Snowy Day 150 Years Ago

 (Garfield, Kansas)

By Seth McFarland 

January 22, 2023

 

150 years ago this month, thirty pieces of land near Camp Criley were filed at the land office in Pawnee County by members of an organization known as "The Volunteers Free Homestead Colony" from Geneva, Ashtabula County Ohio. A few ex-union soldiers had formed the association and adopted a constitution to locate a colony on the public lands under the existing homestead acts. The group organized on August 12, 1872, and would send a committee to visit three prospective sites in October of that year. The committee arrived at Camp Criley in late October, and found a railroad workforce camp engaged in laying track west of Dodge City. At the time, only 400 miles of track of the new railroad had been completed.

 

The committee hired a pair of ponies and an old buckboard from a buffalo hunter, and traveled to explore the Pawnee Valley. The committee split up, two rode the train to hunt buffalo, and the other two went to inspect Fort Larned. Upon reuniting, the committee would move on to examine other locations in Kansas and Nebraska. Upon returning to Ohio, they unanimously agreed to locate the Ohio colony to Fort Criley, the site between Larned and Dodge City, Kansas.

 

In January, 1873, the committee returned to visit the site; however, they would find the railroad camp abandoned along with the boarding house that had been built by the railroad. They arrived during what was described as a "furious snow storm, and soon after our arrival and by dark, a regular blizzard was raging with the cold intense." Many experiencing the weather today can related to that eventful evening. That evening, they would play the game "seven up" while wearing overcoats and mittens. On this trip, the general agent of the committee filed thirty filings for members of the colony at the Wichita land office.

 

Soon thereafter in March, 1873, the first party of settlers arrived. They would have to use abandoned boxcars and railroad shanties until lumber could be shipped in by rail to build proper houses. The name of the site was named Garfield to honor the first town to bear the name of "the illustrious and revered patriot." The settlers had been the constituents of General Garfield who had been elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1859, and so they had chosen the name of their beloved congressman from the Buckeye State. (He would serve nine consecutive terms in that office.) The first house to be erected in the town of Garfield was by Mr. Dirlam, and would shelter fifteen to twenty people while other houses were under construction.

 

Buffalo were still abundant in the area, and helped feed the new community. Schools and churches were held in private houses until proper buildings could be constructed. The first church was the Congregational church built in 1875, which was the first building erected in western Kansas strictly for religious purposes. As a gift to the community, General Garfield presented a bell which hung in the steeple of that church. Today, the bell hangs in the small roadside chapel of Garfield.

 

When the town of Garfield was located, it was in the geographical center of Pawnee County; however, shortly after at the next legislative session, the county lines were changed to their current shape, and Garfield lost the strategic location it once had. Today, Garfield is still one of the four incorporated towns of Pawnee County. 

 SILOS

 Seth McFarland

January 26, 2026

Silos - those tall, cylindrical structures used to commonly used to store silage. They are monuments of the twentieth century seen rising above the horizon across the country. For decades these structures were some of the tallest in most communities, and helped indicate where farms and townships stood. From their height, one could take in a rare view of the sweeping landscape below. The towers are also used as radio beacons, and enjoyed for perches of vulture committees.

 

In 1919, Pawnee county was dotted with many silos. The average size of silos in other Kansas counties averaged thirty feet in height, but the concrete silos in Pawnee County averaged sixty feet. The capacity of the silos, along with the number of silos indicated the crop yields of the time. Pawnee county listed over 325 silos. While the average height was sixty feet, some silos in Larned were as tall as seventy- two feet with a five hundred ton capacity.

 

The average price for silage was $5.000 to $10.00 per ton, and so it was estimated that the silo owners averaged $50 to $150 per acre of kafir corn crops. Other varieties of corn and sweet sorghum were also used, although the kafir yielded a greater tonnage.

Although the silo was indicator of prosperity, the silo was also considered the handmaiden of thrift. This is because the silo eliminated waste, and made it possible to get the full feed value of the whole plant.

Noted silos included two silos at the Larned State Hospital and at the Fort Larned ranch, which was a private ranch at that time. Other types of silos included tile silos and pit silos. The pit silo was noted to be especially adaptable to Pawnee county.

 

(Image taken from the 1919 Tiller and Toiler Wheat Edition) 

 The Larned Press

Seth McFarland

January 18, 2023

One of the first newspapers in the region was the Larned Press published by William C. "Doc" Tompkins who operated the first hotel, along with a drug store and printing establishment. It was located on the site of what many would remember in more recent times as the Lischesky store at 501 Broadway. The paper was described as a three-column, four page tabloid. The first volume was published on June 17, 1873. 

 

The headline story "An Important Land Sale" stated:

    "It is beginning to be well understood that the endowment lands of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, numbering three million acres, have introduced an extraordinary current into the tide of enterprising emigration which is setting westward this spring of 1873.  Men of intelligence, energetic purpose and capital are coming here who propose to remain and develop themselves and the country. 

    "But a short time since, the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe railroad sold to thirteen gentlemen from Illinois, sixty-six sections of land lying in the Arkansas Valley, being 40,960, or in one continuous tract sixty-six miles long and one mile wide."  

 

Another article headed "Arkansas Valley in Kansas" stated:

    "The valley is the grandest in the west, its soil and climate has no superior and is destined to be one of the richest agricultural as well as manufacturing districts in the country.  Only a few years ago, this part of the United States was considered a desert, and the soil sterile to all but prairie and buffalo grasses, but this has been proven false.

    "The soil is rich, black loam from two to six feet deep.   The gentle rolls give every foot of land a natural drainage, while in most  every hollow can be found a creek or brook of living water, which peculiarly adapts the country to stock raising. 

    "Stone are generally found convenient for all purposes.  They are not scattered promiscuously over the land, but in ledges and quarries from which they can be taken in any required size. 

    "Coal is abundant and can be had at only a small expense.  In many places, timber is quite abundant.

    "Coal is principally used for fuel.  It is now brought here by rail and costs at retail about $8 per ton.  It is claimed that coal has been found in this county  On the Walnut and Pawnee Fork, there is considerable timber and wood sufficient for all local uses."

     

The paper continues to tell of the measures to build a new school at the cost of no less than $2,500, to be completed for the fall term of school.   A Sabbath school was also in operation at the time of printing. 

 

Other reports included that a large herd of cattle - 2,800 head had been camped on Judge Bright's farm, near town.   They were being driven to Rocky Canyon, Colorado from northeastern Texas.  

 

A heard of  800 beeves was driven through the previous week going east for a market. The herd was owned by Mr. Horn of Trinidad Colorado.  

Larned was in need of a good shoemaker and a good blacksmith.   

The next article made it clear that Larned was not always a quiet and subdued town.  

    "A shooting affair unfortunately occurred in a billiard saloon in this place last Saturday evening.    A misunderstanding occurred between some parties which culminated in blows.  A third person interfered and struck one of the parties - James Murray- over the head with a piece of board, bruising him considerably.   Murray went home, a distance of nearly half a  mile - got his revolver - and came back with "blood in his eye" and a six shooter in his hand.   The sheriff went into the saloon to arrest him when Murray told him to stand off, and brought the revolver in dangerous range with the sheriff's person. Mr. Sheriff struck the pistol up and the load went through the ceiling.   Murray was arrested and had an immediate examination which resulted in his being sent to jail to wait his trial.

 

    "The proceedings of the board of county commissioners published in the paper was signed by George Nolan as county clerk.  A. R. Boyd, chairman of the board, and T. McCarthy were present at the meeting."

 

    Advertisements appearing in The Larned Press included the Land Agency of W.R. Adams; T.J. Clark, dealer in general merchandise; Nelson Adams, attorney at law; Henry Booth, notary public; D. A. Bright, real estate and insurance; and Miller & Christy, general dealers in lumber, coal and grain.

 

 

 

 

 

The Pocket Utensil  

Seth McFarland

 

September, 2022

 

In 2019, a donation was made to the Santa Fe Trail Center - a unique utensil with a direct connection to the Santa Fe Trail. The folding utensil belonged to Henry Mayer, and was donated to the museum by Mr. Peter Levy. The tool includes a fork and bottle opener. Mr. Mayer would have kept this handy tool on his person at all times, and it would have been used on a regular basis on his travels across the Santa Fe Trail. The nineteenth century folding cutlery has ivory scales and is possibly Bavarian in origin, although there is no visible hallmark to identify the maker. Similar utensils were also made in England and the United States. This personal effect would have been generally used by a gentleman of the time such as a merchant or tradesmen. A fixed blade knife was often used by hunters and soldiers.

 

Henry Mayer was born in Germany in 1816, the same year as the Treaty of Munich. As a young man, he left Europe and arrived in New Orleans in 1834, and quickly established a sales business. Before long he started freighting along the Santa Fe Trail, with business trips that extended south to Chihuahua, Mexico. On a trip to Cincinnati, he spent time at the home of a family friend and entertained a young Rebecca Cohen with stories of his trail travels. In 1851, Henry proposed to her. Two months after their June 1852 marriage, Rebecca began a honeymoon journey at the age of fifteen. They traveled by horseback and covered wagon from Independence to Chihuahua with 500 hundred mules and 50 men. They arrived in late November and lived in Chihuahua for two years before moving to San Antonio, Texas. Henry died at age 90 in 1906, while Rebecca died in 1930 at age 93.

 

On the trip from Independence to Chihuahua, Mrs. Mayer was surrounded by a buffalo herd as she rode horseback, and was rescued by her husband and other members of the party through what they considered a miracle. Subsequently she took half a dozen other trips with him from Independence to Chihuahua, a distance which took them four months to travel. He figures prominently in her account of their journey and was a well-established businessman. Mr. and Mrs. Mayer settled in Chicago in 1874.

 

This material came to light only quite recently. One of their daughters, a stenographer, recorded many of Mrs. Mayer's stories for posterity. Joy Poole, a historian and co-founder of the Santa Fe Trail Association, collected these materials and has added a foreword, while Kay Goldman has added an introduction. Information on Henry and Rebecca Mayer is available in Vickie Vogel's "Travels and Travails of Henry Mayer" in the December 2014 article in Texas Jewish Historical Society News Magazine, and in Alice Anne Thompson's "Having a Grand Time: Rebecca Cohen Mayer on the Santa Fe Trail, 1852" in the Kansas Historical Society's Kansas History: Journal of the Central Plains.