The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1882-06-08
A QUARTER OF A CENTURY!

In the lssue of the thteJ Oi July O'h, iSO'S N"N
beginning of Volume 9, st the close Of review
of the preceding eight years, we wrote;
I'VE now splash away. with an eye hxed on s@-
ume 25 as another place to take look back, and 20
in again.
We have reached that Volume, and gone
through it, and this issne of the paper, being the
close of the Volume, completes the 25th year OF
the publication of the Ckicf. That is long time
in the life of a newspaper in a new State. of all
the papers published in Kansas at the time the
Chief was started, they gradually dropped of,
one by one, until the last one went down, years
ago; while the Chief remains, the oldest paper
in Kansas. One or two papers, built upon the
ruins Of some Of the dead ones, still claim the
age that the departed ones would have attained,
had they lived; but these claims are generally
received by the State press with good natured
sort of assent, something like the innocent nat
tery bestowed upon a child, when admitting his
claim that he is bigger than his grandfather.
The Dead Sea rolls over the ruins of sodom; but
the Dead Sea is not Sodom.
II is needless to recount the struggles OF
country newspaper, in those twenty hve years.
They are familiar to all who have tried 1t; and
those who have not, cannot appreciate them.
As the Chiefs prosperous now, we shall not shlV-
er over the memory Of the storms Of long ago.
The newspaper wrecks strewn along those years,
tell the tale more eloquently than we can write
it, Twenty-ssven papers have died in Doniphan
County alone, since the Chief was started, an ay-
ersge of more than one year for each of these
twenty-five years. Some of these have been
dead so long, that even their names are unknown
to the people of the County; on the graves OF
others, the grass is green; while there are fresh
graves, where the earth has recently been heaped
up Half dozen towns that once had newspa-
pers, now scarcely have an existence.
The Chief was started at White Cloud, and
published there until July 4th, 1872, when it
was removed to Troy, and the publication kept
ON, without the loss of single day in issuing.
II is now almost ten years since it has been To-
Gated at Troy, and its business is constantly in
creasing.
What mass Of history has been made, in those
twenty-five years! The United States, although
the same are not the same. They are new Na-
ton. The country has been revolutionized, pO-
litcally and commercially. Since the Chief was
first issned, slaves have not only been held, but
have been bought and sold in DOniphan County.
At the first election held after the commencement
of the Chief, many legal voters were dsfranchis-
ed because they believed it would be better for
the State not to have slavery here-a sentiment
that is now embalmed in the National Constitu-
tion, in the form of prohibition of slavery.
The changes in Northern Kansas, in that time,
have been wonderful Iowa Point was the Iarg-
est and best trading town above Leavenworth,
and Doniphan was ahead of Atchison. There
was nothing at Troy but one or two shanties;
NW-t-. Fft-. IL.
the Indians, had less than half dozen small
houses. Elwood, Palermo and Geary City were
what would be called, in this day, "booming"
towns, with immense prospects, and Wathena
was an insignificant place that had not yet ta-
ken n start ahead. Columbus, in Burr-0ak
Township, that is now a farm, was then one of
the aspiring towns Of the County; and large
number of towns, which afterwards showed well
on paper, and made desperate efforts to become
great cities, were then only in contemplation.
Hiawatha was a green prairie, belonging to the
United States of America and from White Cloud
to Marysville there was but an occasional ranch,
or the lone house of some advanced squatter, few
and far between.
At that period, every settler in Northern Kan
sas lived on Government land. We do not think
there was patent issued on any piece of land in
this part of the State. From near Wolf River,
below Iowa Point and Highland, extending to
the Nebraska line, running to q point north Of
Hisuatha, were the Indian Trust Lands. Nearly
every quarter section had a stake, rude found
alton, miserable shanty, by which it was
held by some 'squatter." These squatters were
principally young men, who were staying only
to bid in the land, at the sales which occurred
l..
bags full of gold, were thick in the country.
They wsuld furnish these young men money to
buy their claims, for which they received half
the land, and would generally then buy the
other half for from one to three hundred dollars,
according to the desirableness of the land, when
the squatters would depart, probably to take
claims on other Indian lands where the sales
were TO come off later
We digress slightly, to mention a fact which
we at the time thought remark able, and still
think it so. The country was in a very unsettled
condition, and men of all kinds and classes, from
all over the land, were gathered here, and Indi-
ans were prowling around at all hours. Yet per-
sons seldom locked their doors at night, and we
never heard of theft. No attempt was ever
made to rob one Of these spectators, travelling
over the prairies with thousands of dollars about
them. We knew public house, that was crowd
ed to its utmost capacity, up stairs and down,
many persons sleeping promiscuously in a single
room; among them were these land spectators,
their saddle-bags heavy with gold COIN and the
doors not fastened Yet not dollar was stolen,
or an sttempt made TO steal, rs far as we ever
heard. This speaks well for the people who first
settled Northern Kansas.
While we are switched off the main line, allow
ms another observation, suggested by the forego-
ing, There existed, and still does. to this time.
n hateful habit of carving reyolyers on all occs-
sions. When we came to Kansas. the troubles
were still at fever heat bands of rufians were
barborinr in almost every community. and muir
ders were frequent. Soon after came the war.
and the country was oyerrun with Jayhawkers.
Red Legs bogus detectives. and marauders of
every description. and the country U,. almost
as unsettled a. if it had been situated in the re-
cion of active military operations. Yet we never
saw the dsy, or hour. or minute. when we had