Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1893-01-14
ROLL OF HONOR.
Embracing Those Who have Lived
In Trego County for More Than
IL rS.-ReminiscenceS.

On the 26th of February, 1879, Thomas
j. Hinshaw landed in Wa-Keeney. he
in company with forty others from Ran
dolph county, Indiana, had chartered
passenger coach with the intention of
forming a Hoosier colony in this western
land.
During the journey the youngest son
of Mr.. Hinshaw was stricken with scarlet
fever and. as consequence, upon arriv
ing in Wa-Keeney, no one would admit
them to his house for fear of contracting
the disease.
Thus they were obliged to build be-
fore they could procure shelter. In
rough board shanties. located in the west
part of town, near where the Badger
Lumber Co.'S lumber yard now stands,
the family, for three weeks, endured the
rigors of winter and the ravages of fever.
They were told by the land agents that
no public land could be secured near
town and, at one time, were induced to
look at land south of the Smoky river
but Mr.. Hinshaw could not be prevailed
upon to settle so far from town. He at
last gave one Allen, afterward sheriff OF
Trego county, five dollars to locate him
upon quarter of school land in section
1913 "a eleven miles southwest of Wa
Keeney. Upon arriving at this place,
death Immediately visited the family, two
of whose members lay dead in the house
the same day, the work of fever.
During the fall Of 1878 a prairie fire
had swept over the country and the set
tiers were compelled to buy hay in town,
paying from SIG to $40 per ton.
Early in the spring, with two teams,
Mr.. Hinshaw drove to Jewell county, q
distance of $50 miles, to buy corn for his
horses, that being the nearest point where
it could be procured at reasonable rates.
During this trip he obtained the first OF
his nursery stock, and as he has always
been interested in fruit culture, he soon
had a fine young orchard aud several
acres of timber in f1ourishing condition.
Even now the site Of this settlement may
be found by the number OF trees that
still grow there.
Mich COWS were very scarce and COM
manded high price. After few exper-
fences in trying to break the Texas COWS
that were offered them by the cowboys,
and year without milk, a COW was Sc
cured in Graham county. The owner
was needing money very badly and was
induced to part with her for $25 which
was considered "dirt cheap at the time.
BY June of the first year their small
store of money was exhausted and, as
there was no work to be had, the only
means of keeping so1l and body together
was by collecting and selling buffalo
bones, which then brought from So to $40
per ton. During the late summer, his
boys, with scythe, cut all the hay to be
found within miles and sold it in town
for SO ton. This was the poor, three
cornered rush grass, which only grew in
scanty patches in the bottoms Of the lar
ger draws. Now, in many places, an
acre of upland will produce as much
good hay as twenty-five would then of
the best draw or bottom land.
Through the discouraging, droughty
years of 1879, 1880 and 1881 the family
lived as best it could, often living on
scanty rations, sometimes consisting OF
boiled rice-corn, sorghum molasses and
black-eyed beans. This, to people used
to plenty in the East, was terrible. but
never for once was hope lost, nor did the
thought of abandoning the country once
enter their heads.
Dear reader, permit us to digress long
enough to ask if the "Roll OF Honor" is a
misnomer when applied to designate
early settlers of Trego county like these?
But the land upon which Mr.. Hinshaw
located did not suit him as the water
found there was tainted with shale. In
February, 1882 he bought the relinquish-
ment to the southeast quarter of section
SO-lO-AO SeN6u lAllSS cOulA VI "o-NOO~
ney, to which place he Immediately NOV
ed, living in small dugout for time.
Almost the first thing done by him was to
drive to Osborne county for fresh sup
ply of fruit trees. He next began the
erection of comfortable stone house.
In the midst of this one of the horses
died. With the remaining horse and a
two-year-old Texas heller, which was
drafted into the service, he completed
hauling the stone necessary for the house.
Two of his sons now worked upon the
railroad and every endeavor was made by
the entire family to earn livelihood.
Between this time and 1886 quite q
herd of cattle were gathered together but
during the terrible blizzard of that year
he lost SO many that his attention was
turned from stock raising to horticulture
almost exclusively, and in which he has
been very successful.
In spite of the discoQIagirg remarks
Of friends and neighbors, who offered the
gratuitous assertion that he would fail,
Mr.. Hinshaw kept to work on his favor
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