Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-07-31

| w. mcN zeal, OF MEDICINE Lodge. LII IS
handsome two-story brick, 50xSO feet,
built in modern style. This bank is
doing a good business, and Mr.. Nc
Neal owns some of the best property i'll
the city. d. L. Flynn, the postmaster,
also of Barber county, has several valu-
able lots, including the one his Office is
on, and good corner lot. Mr. Fitch
has large hotel, and he and Sam War
rem are running grocery store. Other
Barber county people doing well III
Guthrie are Shaw & Adair, who have
grocery store {; Judge Ben. Carr, prom
inent attorney; Judge Orner, chair
man of the town lot arbitration com
mittee; A. j. johnson, who has pay
ing restaurant; Dave Gregg, who is
doing well as musician. Others are
holding down lots, and waiting for
something to turn up.
Leaving Guthrie at a. M, in the
rain, on Concord coach, with ten 9TH
ers, the INDEX repl sentative passed
| over beautiful, rich country, on the
high land south of the Clmarron, and in
eight hours arrived at Kingfsher-39
miles, by road, west of Guthrie. Along
the route, at convenient stations. were
wells or springs of good water, and the
traveller need not go hungry, for the ia
miliar sign, LUNCH" was to be seen.
on the sides of tents and shanUies, that
would have been passed by with scorn
in cities back east. Ham sandwiches,
hard boiled eggs, very sour bread and
very muddy coffee tastes we'll to a hun
cry man. Along the road one quarter
section in fifty appeared to be inhabit-
ed. On every tenth quarter some work
had been done in the way of sod-plow-
ing, but there were very few evidences
of:crops. Between Guthrie and King
fisher can be seen two or three fair
helds of sod-corn. All over the Terri
tory this same state of affairs exists.
Outside of the towns there are few peo-
pie. The settlers have gone back to the
states to raise or take care of their
crops, and if they cannot sell out prof
itably at their old homes, they will sell
their Oklahoma claims. The good crops
of Kansas are having much to do with
making the average Oklahoma settler
willing to sell his REIMBURSEMENT very
cheap.
Kingfisher (for that is what every
body calls Lisbon now,) has about as
many inhabitants as has Medicine
Lodge. 1t has more houses, but they
are not so large. Of the two-story
houses in the town, Cunningham Bros,
of this city, own the best one. The
other is a hotel, and it is neither ceiled
nor plastered. The water here is plen-
tiful, but it is not as good as some we
have tasted. The two streams, Uncle
Johns creek on the east, and kingish-
er on the west, are nice streams, skirt
ed by timber, reminding one of Medi-
cine Lodge. The best farming land is
said to be northwest and southwest of
town. j. IL. Posey, F. M. Fleming, j.
M. Sherry and Miss Nellie Brown, all
Of Barber county, have choice claims
in the favored country near Kingfsher.
Posey says he can cash his for S4,500
any day. The Browns are cultivating
squaw-man's place, oyer the line, in
the Cheyenne and Arapahoe country,
and making a good living out of veget-
ables and milk, which they sell in town.
Mr.. Brown has a good claim, with $50
acres of timber on it, 16 miles from
| town. A Saw-mill Will soon be located
on his quarter. Other Barber county
citizens are doing well at Kingfsher or
in the vicinity; but our short stay there
made it impossible to see them. That
town had to haul its lumber SO miles.
and, of course, did not have as good a
chance to build up as did the towns on
the railroad. But it will have a rail-
road by the middle of October, the peo-
| pie say, the Rock Island having started
! there from Pond Creek. A telegraph
| line runs there now. The Ellis Bros.
| formerly of Kiowa, and later of Hazel
ton, are publishing a paper, The New
World, at Kingfisher. Mr.. Mcdonald.
also at Kiowa at one time, is connected
with the paper, we believe. There, as
at every place in Oklahoma, are many
people who left Kansas for No-Man's-
Land and the Panhandle country, and,
becoming tired or Disguised, cast their
fortunes in Oklahoma. They would
probably leave for any other new coun-
try that might open up. The gamblers
and soiled doves, who are now having
a harvest in Oklahoma, are the same
ones who drifted to Kansas and Colo
RADIO. and other western states and ter
ritories during the past ten years, when
the west was booming" On the trip
we saw people OF the classes mention
ed whose faces were familiar to the cit
liens of Medicine Lodge, and Kiowa
especially. In one thing Kingisher has
no rival The slowest and most inefi-
Gent postofice service in the known
world. Several capital illustrations
could be given: but want of space for
bids. The town has plenty of profess
sional men and tradesmen-more. in
fact, than can hope for support until
the country is better settled, and people
have made some money. The epthusi-
astic citizen will tell you that Kingfish-
er is to be the capital, just as will the
same class at every town or village in
Oklahoma; but the cool head does not
talk such stuff. Kingfsher will prob
ably be good town-some day it may
be county-seat, but it will meyer be
be the capital.
From Kingfsher, by stage, the INDEX
went south, the first stop being at Cad
do Springs, just over the line from Ok
lahoma, i'll the Cheyenne and Arapahoe
country. Here is the best spring and
the coolest water in Oklahoma, and
here is located an Indian school. the