The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-07-15

but it rained enough to freshen up the
stagnant pools and form many small
new ones. Stock water was not so
scarce and once more the COW and the
yoke Of steers could have enough to
drink.
1.-The drouth had lasted for n ore than
a year. The dates of it's beginning and
ending vary with localities, but it may
be said in general that there were from
twelve to fourteen calendar months
during which time the total rainfall
did not exceed one inch.
.'Of course, an crops were a practical
failure. In fields around the base Of
the mounds, which, in ordinary years,
are wet and springy, and in some
places in the low bottom lands. corn
was raised, in some instances as much
as five bushels to the acre of little
nubbins.
There were a few intermittent rains
and SHOWS during that fall and win
ter, but the flood gates were not opened
and the streams flushed until early in
April, 1861
The suffering was so great in the
year 1860 that the abolition societies of
New England, which had sent fam
lilies to Kansas to make it a free state.
We're reorganized into aid societies, and
so came the New England Kansas re-
lief committee, which sent to the ter
ritory Samuel G. Pomeroy, afterwards
United States senator from the new
state, to be its distributing agent. This
con mittee had its main office at No.
Winter street, Boston, and it was COM
posed of John A. Andrew, Martin
Brimmer, c. J. Higginson, S. G. Howe,
Henry Lee, Jr-, Isaac LiVermOres Moses
Mellen, J. p. Putnam, Thomas Russell,
George L. Stearns, J. Sullivan Warren
and Thomas H. Webb. The committee
solicited contributions of money and
clothing. Other states had similar
committees and contributed their share
to the relief of the people, but the Bos-
ton committee was the most active and
81
was located at Atchison. where people
gave him the title of General and he
bore 1t until his death. They also gave
him the title of Old Beans on account
of the vast quantities of beans he dis
tributed among the people. Later he
became "Old Subsidy" but that was
after he had become a. United States
senator and was putting his thrifty
hand into the railroad land grants of
the latter sos.
The local population helped the great |
charity, which, toward the end, be-
came almost national in its asSOcia ton. |
1t was the poorer classes, or newly ar
rived settlers, who needed aid. The |
more provident were able to provide for |
themselves, and had a little besides to |
give to their less fortunate neighbOrS. !
All manner of means were devised to
help the good work, and the most pop |
ular was balls and dancing parties. I
The archives of the state historical so |
ciety contain reprints of ball tickets. |
ferers.'' issued in the winter of 1861, |
Daniel Foster, general agent of the |
New England Kansas relief committee, |
gave a statement OF conditions. There /
was a rival committee known as the /
Leavenworth central relief com /
mittee," and it seems that politics en- |
tered largely into the contention be-
tween the two organizations. In this /
statement Foster said:
i. The population of Kansas was /
100, 900 last June No surplus of old /
~
1859, simply because the pioneers were
obliged to sell the last bushe1 they /
could spare to pay for their land. sup
port their families and make needed
improvements.
NINE MONTHS UNBROKEN
DROUGHT.
go. A severe and unbroken drought |
of nine months commencing in Septenl-
her 1883 cllt off entirely the winter and
spring wheat in Kansas. During the
summer, there were showers in the Mis-
souri, valley, which made partial crop
of corn, so that 1000 people the num-
Der in that valley, were partially sup
Piled with food I was in interior Kan
sas, and know that the drought in all
Kansas away from the river, continued
the summer, so that all the
crops failed, leaving $4,000 people in a
state of fearful restitution. In Cen
tralia, my own home, we planted 1900
acreS-and replanted again and again,
but we did not get the seed back which
we had put into the ground. Our pop
ulation was $50. and the first of last
we had only four weeks
supply, reckoning in all our money
and food. Such was substantially the
condition of all interior Kansas.
.'3. 1t is estimated by the best inform
ed that 10000 have left the state of
Kansas to winter elsewhere, taking
their stock with them. That would |
leave As, 900 needing relief till next July.
They need food clothing and seed.
nave letter from G. L. Squire of Cen
tralia. chairman of our town relief COM |
nittee, dated January 20, in which he
says: The snow is two feet deep, and
the weather very cold. Two hundred
md thirty-six of our people live entire
y on the food we haul from Atchison.
sixty miles. given by the benevolent a
he east. They have no other resource
i'll the harvest of next autumn comes
n. They have no seed, or means of get
ing any as yet. Our sufferings are Sc
we're, but the relief afforded sustains
Is and holds US up. We would not have
endured the cold of this winter with