The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-11-27
A RIVERS PRANK
Remarkable Mishap to a Big Kan
sas Settlement
A once LivelyTown Eaton Up by
the Missouri

III lNo tt1lN Oh thN iiaN HhN Ahi' N+
Weatern boom towns within the past
generation there IS one strange history
that has never boon written-tho pass
ing Of Elwood, Kan.
The Missouri river twenty feet deep,
rolls aud gurglos and ioams over the
spot that was once the main street
Where hustling merchants once dis
played their wares in commodious
houses, aud the hardy plainsman
bumped elbows with the moneyed
tenderioot fresh from the East, the
broad and erratic river flows today.
The corner lots that once fitted back
and forth IN the real estate exchange
have been glimmering like the will o
the wisp Of the gold seokors-gone TO
make sands on the seashore. FL
wood has tumbled into the muddy |
Missouri
One Seth Allen, whose memory is
still reyored along with that Of his !
famed colonial ancestors, of whom he
often boosted, flung his lank frame
from a prairie schooner at the door Of
the principal tavern on the eastern
shore one spring day in the carly sos,
swearing he would 30 no further The
emigrauts of whose party he had been
one recuperated a few days, and then
started for the gold fields. Allen
stood on the river bank aud watched
the wagons across the stream; he
stood on the bank and watched them
touch the further shore Then, it us
presumed an idea occurred TO him
that the western side Of the Missouri
River was the proper place for emf
grants to outfit and make their de-
parture.
At any rate, few days passed before
n wooden building, with the sign,
; Last Chance Tavern, swinging from
the door, stood on the pleasant
5 prairie across from ST. Joseph. Other
? houses soon clustered around Tavern
8 Keeper Aliens, and Yankee industry,
0 combined with foreign capital, had o
e line of ferry steamers-sturdy stern
II wheelers - actively churning the
II muddy waters of the Missouri into
i foum before the summer was dead
i Elwood grew-grew and prospered
g Truly, it filed long-felt want
sS The next year overland traffic in
70 creased. Long caravans came an
> went; settlers and pioneers came an
81 remained. The bustling real estnt
IS agent, the honest home-seeker, th
&C. rakish river gambler, the arsenal-b'
l'S girdled terror, the nondescript hang
OF er-on, all drifted into EIwood.
The great Western Hotel, the fine
structure of its kind anywhere on Il
river, was built, and old timers of til
city-former residents of Elwood, wi
came and went with its powers nj
:. glory-today relate many wonderf
- tales OF the rovels that went on b
-, meath ITS prosperous roof
- Little by little the best part OF /
go wood crumbled and was swept into
~ stream. Today there is but little
~ the once prosperous town lel. star
:. ing. One OF the most interesting
~. the old landmarks yet remaining
LIZ the .Elwood Jail, built on land hi
lat and dry, far removed from the ri
III bank. Within its narrow conf
- many tough character has b.
,ntn thrust by the town marshal.
~ AS tho place looks today, it prese
,aon the appearance Of deserted villn
~. The houses now standing were in
o~ suburbs before the course Of the ri
49, was changed. The greatest evide
49, of life that is there now is the de
..,I, of the st. Joseph and Grand Isl
tho Railroad Company, which is abou
49, mile from the original town {
III This road was built after Elwood
!; on the wane. Tue few remnii
houses IRE occupied by fishermen
the people who exc out a preoar
existence by doing odd jobs in
yinal- city across the rlver'-o'' Louis
ative public.
The One Thing Essential.