The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1901-06-14
FOR SALE Ny stock Of
Sundries. together with tools, etc.
5 . bargain rs aaea # J. O. Harvey
Edwards County.

Edwards County.
We are very much pleased to give
our readers the following history OF
the county, taken from a speech de-
livered before the Old Settlers AssOci-
McCanse. We regret not being able
to give the speech in full as be gave
us great deal of history which does
not appear in his notes.
My Friends-this is the first time
that l was ever called before a public
audience that my heart did not come
up into my throat and for awhile
would not know whether I was on foot
or on horseback. But your committee
have requested me to confne my re-
marks to the history of Edwards coun-
ty and of it's first settlers.
1t is now generally accepted as true
that Coronado saw this country be-
fore anybody else, when he travelled
across the continent i'll search of the
seven tabled cities and their wealth of
gold.
BY act of the territorial legislature
of 1850 all that territory west of the
9th principal meridian was organized
into a county to be known as Pekton
county. This includes what is now
Edwards county. Beach Valley was
made the temporary county seat and
Samuel Shroff, Ashall Beach and A.
G.. Reaob,were named county commits
sioners. The location of that comfy
seat and the personality of those
county commissioners is shrOuded in
mystery. Having served their pure
pose they vanished. Whence they
came and whittier they went no one
has ever told. But we should con-
graduate ourselves that they did not
issue a lot of bonds and saddle US
with debt that would have kept their
name and place of residence in the
history of the county.
In 1867 the bound aries of the county
were changed and it's name changed
to Pawnee, after the Pawnee indians.
A treaty was at that time made with
the Cheyenne indians by which they
stipulated to abandon the country
north of the Arkansas river, making
the river the northern limits of their
hunting grounds.
In the summer of 1872 there was a
colony org anized in Chicago for the
purpose of locating in Kansas. l
joined the colony, paid $25 for mem
Dership, and am the only one of the
colony who ever came here. / reach
ed this locality August 10th 1872 and
am therefore the first settler in this
county.
The Santa Fe railroad had at that
time reached Dodge City but no regu-
lar trains were rum west of Great
Bend. In September of that year the
first lumber arrived for building q
hotel. A carpenter by the name of
Page was sent here to put up the
building and he and l lived here all
the following winter without shelter,
we did not even have stove to cook
our food upon.
The legislature of 1873 passed an
act changing the boundaries OF Paw
nee county, leaving what is now Ed
wards county outside the boundaries
were with out law. If crime had been
committed it could not have been le-
gally punished as no court had jur-
isdiction over us.
In the spring of 1873 the hotel being
lnclosed, Mr.. A. D. Chute and M. d.
Hetzel opened the house for business:
trains stopped for breakfast and sup
per.
A gentleman from Grasshopper
Falls, in April of that year, erected q
small building for a drug store and
placed N. G.. Bowles in charge. In
May of that year a possoffice was es-
tablished with N. G. Bowles as post
master. In the month of March, 1873,
the settlers began arriving.
The settlers of that year were not
numerous. Out of about l28 persons
who have a right to wear upon their
escutcheons ''Settlers of 1929 only
nine are left. Some are known to have
crossed that border unmarked by the
trail of returning footsteps, whence
no pilgrim returns with either glaC or
sorry tales. The seal of silence is on
their lips. yet where they dwell we too
must soon seek an abiding place.
wish 1 could remember their names,
but you will remember that twenty
seven times the SHOWS have fallen
since the pioneer men and women set
the stakes for their new homes; twenty
seven years have come and gone and
a generation has grown up since then.
Children's children play on ground
preempted from the ffalOs and pref
ty homes are reared above the camp
ing ground of the indian.