The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1901-04-19
STORIES OF ! !
! THE SETTLERS
BY G. M. Dewey
BY G. M. Dewey


Our fathers crossed the sea,
To make the West as they the East
The homestead of the free.
We go to rear wall OF men
On Freedoms Southern lima,
And plant beside the cotton tree
The rugged Northern pine.
We go tn plant her common schools
On distant prairie swells,
And give the Sabbaths OF the wild
The music OF her BELLS
The "Stories of the Settlers" are
not intended in any respect to be a
connected narrative of events in the
order in which they occurred or to
be considered as historical matter.
They are merely the noting from
memory Of some of the incidents,
"sunshine and shadows" of the set
ting up of the Usage lands as came
under the personal observation OF
the writer. His memory, never very
strong on names and dates, is be-
coming more at fault as the years
come and go, hence he may make
mistakes in names and dates, still
he will endeavor to "score to the
line" as near as possible.
The third day after taking our
claims on Cedar Creek, or about
the middle of May in '69, accom-
panied by Henry Carver, who was
a neighbor and came from Bourbon
county with us, we started on a
several days trip westward. The
grass in the Valley, even so early in
the season, was luxuriant and heavy
and from which many hocks of quail
and prairie chickens would rise up
and sail away from the strange wa
gon as it passed and several small
groups of deer would be startled
out of the hollows and bushy bot
toms, trot off little distance and
turn to watch the strange sight.
These signs proved that the white
man was stranger in that country.
Two or three small bands of Indians
were camped in the bends on the
creek and parties of young bucks,
as soon as they saw the wagon,
would noun. their ponies and come
dashing alongside, making as much
display as possible of guns and knives
as they rode up, but when they saw
that no attention was paid to their
antics they would soon quiet down
and then beg for "baca" and "whis
XII" When they found that they
could get nothing by bluffing or beg
ging they would grunt and scurry
away on their fleet little ponies.
At that time there was good deal
of timber and some nice groves in
the bends of the creek but the prairie
settlers soon got away with most of
this for foundation logs or poles to
hold their claims, and for fuel.
After leaving our claims and
Frank Bacon's tent we saw no other
signs of settlement until we came to
the Verdigris river and here were
several settlers on the the bottoms.
John McClaren had located on a
splendid bottom farm as had Dream
er and number of others. These
men had lived among the Indians
for years and some of them would
not get to see the face of a white
man, perhaps, in year. Lower
down, where the Indian trail or ford
crosses the river white man by the
name of Getty lived in little pole
shanty on the east bank and near
the shanty few sawlogs had been
brought from the timber above.
Getty kept little store-whiskey
and tobacco principally-and he
told US that sawmlll was expected
every day and it would be put to
work right away to saw up lumber
10 build town there and to supply
the settlers. Getty was quite Kan
sas town boomer and he showed us
where they would build dam across
the river, put in their grist mill, and
build bridge and make things hum.
Taking us back on the prairie be-
tween the river and Cedar Creek he
pointed out the town, or where he
said it was to be. He showed the
site for the depot, which was to be
a union depot for railroad running
up and down the river and another
east and west from Fl. Scott. AS
this was nearly in the center of the
county, of course the new town
would be the county seat of Wilson
county. 1t couldn't help but be
big town. The new town was to be
called Gettysville or Gettysburg and
soon to be the leading town in
Southern Kansas.
He talked a blue streak about
banks, post Office building, business
blocks, residence streets and factor
les and then said we were in awful
good luck as there were plenty of
splendid lots for sale cheap and now
was the time to strike. When he
found we were not hunting lots he
seemed much disgusted at our lack
of foresight and left US very abruptly.