Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1904-10-01
,.on HE spectacle OF q churcl


just made the longest journey of any
church on record, forty miles, Ii
went overland to Peek. Kan, in the
wake of three traction engines hitched
tandem.
The town of Andale did not need the
church, and Peck did; SO the official
boards arranged for a transfer OF title,
and the problem Of moving the prop
erty was before them. The railroads
asked a large sum of money for freight,
and to ship the building In that way
meant to tear it down and rebuild 1t.
The proposition Of taking 1t overland,
laughed at in the beginning. was finally
accepted, and the movers secured three
of the largest threshing engines OF the
county for the purpose. The building
was placed on trucks with large
wheels, and the long trip began.
Owing to the smooth roads and the
lovcl lands of the Arkansas Valley,
there was little trouble in moving the
structure. Passing west of Wichita,
ii arrived Mt its new landing place
without a piece of plaster being dis
turbed and in as good condition as
when it left. 1t is in readiness for
worship, and the owners are proud of
their success in obtaining so easily
new edifice.
This experience is but part of the
reimbursement of the towns of the
wiped out by every Legislature. The
last session in Kansas changed about
forty paper cities into farm land.
Many of these municipalities had a
score Of buildings, and some aspired
to be centres Of business activity. They
issued maps showing dozens of rail-
roads centering there, factories belch-
ing smoke, and street cars rushing to
the far suburbs.
Eastern people bought lots on the
strength of these maps, and then
waited for the towns to grow. Instead,
they faded away until whole munich
palities had but one family left to
each. Schoolhouses costing thousands
of dollars stood empty, cattle were
sheltered in the one-time emporiums Of
trade. Out in Southwestern Kansas
cattleman owns the entire town site
of what was to have been q county
seat.
Men were killed in the struggle to
make prosperous towns Of paper cities
which have at last gone back to the
open plain and have been sold by the
acre instead of by the lot.
A Boston woman owns $4,000
schoolhouse in Western Kansas. A
homesteader has taken possession of
former county seat and its court house.
The dreams Of many an investor in
Western Nebraska and the DakOtas
have been shattered by the events Of
the last few years, while population
has been readjusting itself. They tell
for great cattle packing centre, on
the theory that the packing houses
should be located near the range.
An Eastern syndicate put hundreds
of thousands Of dollars into the town.
II ~ described as having brick blocks,
plate glass windows, dwellings enough
for 5000 persons, and a 100000 steel
bridge-but with no inhabitants eX-
cept the caretakers.
1t never succeeded in even the be-
ginnings Of Its vast undertakings. The
people for whom it was built never
came.
The West Is adjusting these errors
of early Judgment with characteristic
prOmptitude and directness. For in
stance, in Western Nebraska two
towns We're rivals for the county seat.
One Of them, HemmingfOrd, had Sc
cured the honor, but Alliance obtained
the railroads favor, and it became evil
dent that it would be the larger of
the two places. So the court house.
and measuring thirty-six by forty-eight
feet, was made rigid by trusscs and
placed on four trucks of freight cars,
with diagonal guy ropes reaching to
coal cars carrying 10000 pounds each,
and hauled by an engine at a rate of
ten miles an hour to its new location,
where it now stands.
Out in Western Kansas, at Page
City, in Logan County, was hotel
three stories high that became useless
because it was in town with no in
habitants. 1t was placed on moving
trucks and five traction engines We're
hitched to it such engines as are used
in threshing the Western crOps-the
automobiles of the plains. 1t was fifty
miles to Cove City, but the engines
had before them track as smooth as
the surface. of peaceful sen, and
they made the journey at swift
walking pace, nothing in the vast
reach Of level sod interfering with
their trip. The sight was a novel one,
as the huge building took its way over
the prairie and attracted many specta-
tors.
The changing fortunes of Western
towns induce the moving of houses
over long distances. NJ. Westhaver, of
! Sterling, Kan., decided to move to
NickersOn.
He did not find a sale for his house,
so he put 1t on trucks that weighed,
with the timbers, nine tons, hitched
it to traction engine and took it
ten miles over sandy roads to its new
location, where 1t was set down unin-
jured. This would be possible only
with the level roads of the prairie
region.
| 1t will be many years before the
West arranges its possessions salts
factorly and decides where it wishes
to have its buildings permanently To-
Gated. The methods by which 1t re-
models and transfers its towns and
buildings will In the meantime prove
very interesting.
| Nowhere else Is it considered q
tritiing thing to transfer and relocate
city or to change a court houses
situation. More than that, q dispatch
related the other day that whole
county was lost, the high winds hav-
ing drlfted the sand over the boundary
| o+ol,oe onA r,ola 20 AIN