The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-06-27
GOOD AT RUSTLING
GROWTH OF SHAWNEE, A LUSTY IN
FAINT OF THREE MONTHS.
Founded When the Shawnee Country In
the Indian Territory Was Thrown Open
to Settlement-The First Settlers Were
Hustlers--Some Queer Characters.

the Indian Territory Was Thrown Open
to Sottlement-The First Settlers Were
| Hustlers--Some Queer Characters.
Down at the apex of the Kickapoo coun-
| try, in the Indian Territory, is the town of
| Shawnee, which has lately taken unto it
self the ambitious appeliation of city"
| 1t was founded when the Shawnee country
was opened, from which it took its name
Lately il has assumed very ambitious air
and proposes to be the metropolis of the
Kickapoo country when the latter has be-
come covered with thrifty farms. 1t and
Choctaw viii be the railroad points for
that country.
The Shawnee of today is three months
old and is the "old town moved north
two streets. 1t was at first situated on
parts of two claims and consisted of a long
wide street with a well in the center. and
one end of the street hated and despised
the other end. Along the street were scat
tered at intervals implanted wooden build
ings, and all around were the stumps of
trees. The largest building in the town
was the millinery store"-in a town
where the women wore sunbonnets in sum
mer and knitted hoods in winter The
IeAt ldTStSb DullUiHS was tilt iictti-o
hideous structure unfinished everywhere.
Up stairs the windows were without glass,
and in its place thin cheesecloth was tackled
in the sashes, giving the rooms a dim re-
Ggious light. All the rooms were unlathed,
and the rafters in all their naked and splin-
terry ugliness glared at the unfortunate
guests
The hotel was kept by man from Ken
q Ill L.. f<,ot-
tall, three grown daughters as tall as their
mother, a girl Is years old who was taller
than her mother and weighed over 200
pounds and was nevertheless graceful,
and boy who was SO young and big and
fat that he had been offered a handsome
salary to exhibit himself. The girls were
all exceedingly handsome in face and fig
ure, as was their mother also.
One evening, two years ago. two weary
travellers drove up to the hotel from long
drive across the Kickapoo country. They
were hungry and grimy and had mental
visions of a good supper and plenty OF soap
and water. When they asked for supper,
the host got down a long shotgun from the
rafters and walked silently out of the
house. A half hour later he returned with
some squirrels and rabbit, and half an
hour after that supper was served. To be
sure, there was no milk for the tea and no
butter for the soda biscuits, but the girls
grouped themselves picturesquely around
the table to wait ON the travellers, and the
younger man neglected his supper, to the
profit of his more practical and older COM
panion, who ate the young mans squirrel.
There were Q grocery store, a saloon and
two bakeries, whereby hangs a tale. That
was old Shawnee, thriftless as a backwoods
town in Georgia, hopeless except for the
then very uncertain coming of the "Choc-
taw road and the opening of the Kicka
poo country. The town was full of ''wait
ers," who starved along contentedly, pay
ing no rent and living off the scanty finan
cial droppings Of chance travellers.
But all this has changed. One day the
Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf railroad de-
cided to make Shawnee a point on its line.