Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-12-06

tations. Its first location was about
quarter of mile west of the Little Ar
kansas, but along in July it was moved
| oyer mile or two west 10 site near
the big Arkansas. Nine months later
not house was left of Park City. They
had been moved to rival town site,
Sedgwick City, on the east side of the
Little Arkansas, about twenty miles
above Wichita. Thus while some
Western towns developed with wonder
/ full suddenness into cities, others per-
ished in their infancy. The location of
Park City was on a narrow peninsula
between the two rivers. very low and as
flat as could be. The effect on me of
this utter flatness was very melancholy.
| could understand something of the
terrible inconsistencies which is ssaid to
beset Swiss mountaineers exiled to
flat country. Many line of Burns and
Scott. picturing crags and glens, rip
ping rills and towering hills, kept ring
ing in my mind longed again to see
the rough hills and deep ravines of Wy
alusing and Glen Haven which year
before had had so poor an opinion Of
did not get over this melancholy till l
stood on the top of the little swells east
of the Little Arkansas, which were the
only "hills' in all that region.
Meanwhile Wichita grew with Won
derful rapidity; and faster than the city
grew the saloons in number and size.
One had in attendance a silver cornet
band, and when walking out at night,
you heard from that gaudy and glitter
ing hall ga burst of lordly music"
stately march or gay waltz, you might
know that inside one lucky player had
just said ''Kenor' and hundred I'M
lucky ones had responded, "Oh! hellr'
In the latter part of February, 1871, l
had occasion again to visit the site of
Newton. The A., T. g. S. f. Company
had just decided to push their road
along to the Trail, and they had laid off
a town exactly where we had camped
for dinner nine months before. 1t was
still solitude. The tall brown prairie
grass rustled in the winter wind with a
lonely sound The herds of buffaloes
of which had in the spring caught
glimpses like patches of burned prairie
away to the west, had gone forever.
The prairie dogs still remained in their
little villages, and held turn-vereins and
concerts, and their shrill notes were the
only sounds that broke the silence. The
Texan Trail stretched like black belt
across the brown prairie, but no cattle
were moving on it. Here and there
lay the skeletons of some pilgrim steers
that had fallen in the late fall drive,
and the broadwinged turkey buzzards
lowered low and slow above. In the
tall, rustling grass were rows of stakes,
some inscribed Commercial Avenue"
others s'Main Street." etc. In the
midst of this solitude these inscriptions
seemed an amusing piece of Western
braggadocio. But week later the
scene was bustling with busy human
life. did not see the place again for
many years, for when | went east two
months afterward, found the terminus
of the railroad at Florence, forty or
fifty miles east of Newton. But Newton
grew rapidly and in few months the
railroad reached it and then the vast
stockyards filled with thousands of long
horned cattle, and the long stables
filled with little Texan ponies, were
transferred from Abilene to Newton and
remained there until the railroad COM
pany leisurely fulfilled it contract with
the Spectator ring of Wichita by build
ing railroad into that city. The COM
pany fulfilled its promise TO the letter
but not to the hope. 1t did not build
its main line into Wichita and never in
tended to do so. 1t ran short stub
from the main line at Newton down to
Wichita. But both cities, backed up
by the unbroken, fertile farming coun-
Try around them, grew, attracted other
railroads and thrlved in spite of the
loss of the cattle trade, which finally, as
the railroad was extended toward Santa
Fe, went to more southwestern rival,
Dodge City, as the rapidly increasing
number of farmers in Sedgwick and
Harvey Counties pressed the legislature