The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1859-06-23
JOHN HAYN
]. Q. BUCKWoRTH.
AN OVERLAND JOURNEY
Notes on Kansas.

LAWRENCE, Kansas. May 90, 1850.
1t resumed raining in Kansas, after a
few dry days, ou Thursday the 18th inst
and rained "off and on" till Saturday y
night. Sunday the 18th was cloudy aud
chilly, but without rein, until evening hen
thunder-showcrs came up from every side,
and kcp, flashing and rumtlipg and pour
ing nearly throughout the night Kan
sas brags on its thunder and lightning;
aud the boast is well founded. | EeVer
before observed a display Of celestial py-
rotechny SO protracted, inces>ant and Wv
i'd as that of last Sunday night. The
country, already saturated with water,
was fairly dreucted ty this deluge which
rendered many streams ordinarily iu>is-
uiGcant either dang 2erous OF for season
impossible.
At 6 a N. on Monday morning, four
of US left Atcbinson in atwo horse wagon,
iutcpt Oh reaching Osawstamie (some
eighty miles rather east of south-one
hundred By any practicable route) next
evening. The ky was still trcatening;
we kucw that the streams were sweiled
beyond reason; but our pilot was most
experienced pioneer 10 had forded, been
ferried oFer or swan. every stream in
Eastern Kansas, and was confident of his
ability to 60 through by some route or
other. So We went ahead in soutberly
direction, across swclls of prairie rather
steep-sided for Kansas, and through ra.
vines in which what were usually rills
were swelled into torrents. From the
high level of the prairies little but broad
sweep Of grass on every side was visible;
but 5000 We we're descending into new
ravine, and now belts and spurs of tiu Der
were seen. generally widening as they de-
scend. | noted that these woody spurs,
composed mainly of Black Oak and Cot
touwood (the latter very poor but quick
growing timber, ranging somewhere be-
tween Poplar and Basswood). began to
extend ou every side wherever the sn-
nual fires were repclled from the ada
cent prairie, whether ty the interposi.
ton Of road or otherwise, and that
the young trees that thus spring up
along the sides of the ravines aud run
out into the level prairie, are quite often
Hickory, White Ash, &c, even where
none such arc visible among the adjacebt
timber. | was fully convinced that wood
grows more abundant with the progress
OF settlement aud cultivation. OF course
there is timber enough to-day in the Ter
r:tory; but the better portion of it is too
l.. C.l
larger streams, too far for their comfort
from most settlers on the prairies. Could
prairie fires be wholly arrested, the in.
crease of timber would ovebalance tenfold
the annual rise and waste; aud the quail
ty improves even faster than the quantity
This is real progress. For, though
there is quite enough in the Territory
and pretty good variety of all species
except the eVergreens, which arc lament
ably deficient, there are points at which
none is within two or three uiles-tbe
little that formerly ran up the small ra
vines which cut in upon the great high
prsries being soon exhausted by use foI
building, fuel and fencing, and requiring
years for its reproduction.
Twelve or fifteen miles south of Atchi
son. We struck the great California trail
from LeaVen worth, and thence followed
it east by south into that city, some fif
teen to eighteen miles. | should have
liked Gerrit Smith as one of our party
that / might show him the practical work
ing of his theory that Government has nc
other legitimate business than to keep one
mans fingers off another u an throat and
out of any pocket but his own. The
great California trail, like the Ssnte IL
and all other primitive roads through this
prsirie country, keeps along the highest
divides" or prairie swells, avoiding the
miry bottoms Of the streams aud (so
far as possible) the ravines which the wa.
ter falling on the high prairie has cut
down to them, OF course winding consid
erably, but making the hest and most ser
viceable natural road that caO be. and
one that in dry weather is excellent and
in wet as good as is possible. But eact
settler along this trail, in the absence o
any legal establishment of the trail as q
highwsy, is at liberty to run bis fence.
right across it as the line Of bis land run.
and SO crowd it off the high "eiyides" in
to all manner of angles and zigsags, a
cross this rayine and into that slough, un
Oil the trail is fast becoming the very
worst road in all Kansas. | have had {
pretty full experience Of bad roads during