The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-01-15
THE DODGE HOME.
John r. Cooke Writes of the
Soldier Cottages.
Established by Kansans for the
Veterans of the War.
AN HISTORIC SPOT.
Old Fort Dodge and It's Career
Supplanted
By Cottage Homes for Grateful
Families.
N HISTORIC SPOT.

Families.
| John r. Cooke, of the Soldiers
Home at FIT. Dodge, Kan, some time
ago paid a visit to his old birthplace
and scene of his boyhood. He had
| been absent from that locality Mt. Gil
| lead, Ohio, fifty-three years. The
Sentinel of this place quotes him as
saying these kind words of Kansas.
Kansas people and the Soldiers
Home:
| Now my dear old Mount Gilead
| Sentinel, as was your name when
was a little barefooted boy, you will
pardon my pride when / tell you that
you were read on the bloody border
of Missouri and Kansas in the days
when mems and boys souls were tried
in crucible OF liberty and justice,
and as / am asked where ever go to
tell about Kansas, know of no better
/ way to inform your readers about
| Kansas than to tell of her past and to
thank Ohio for her part in it.
The Cradle of Liberty.
Kansas was the cradle of liberty.
The first camp-fires of the American
/ rebellion were kindled on her soil five
years before Beanregard fired that
fatal shot on FIT. Sumter that was
heard around the world and saddened
| every home in our land.
Kansas that furnished more SOL
diers during the rebellion than any
other state according to her popula-
ton. Kansas that had one-half as
| many men and boys killed for liberty
and union as CORVALLIS surrendered
to George Washington at Yorktown.
kansas that furnished 1912 SOL
d1ers more than her quota, thus ex-
empting ourselves from the draft.
Kansas that answered every one of
Father Abrahams calls before the
echoes died away. We Kansans prop
! er do not expect the readers of the
Sentinel to realize what it has cost
IN blood and sorrow to group our
historical collection together at To-
peka- And did it ever occur to you,
| readers, that when we were in a life
and death struggle with the Border
BushWhackers. of Missouri. that we
were beset on our western border
with the merciless wild plains Indians
until it seemed that the lintels of ev-
! cry cabin in Kansas was marked for
death? And yet we struggled on until
we could exclaim, 'Ad astra per as
pera,' through difficulties to the stars,
| and there is where we are today, up
| in the third heaven.
Eve are the banner old soldier state
of the union, having at one time 1O0,-
600 union soldiers who needed Mr..
Lincoln's call and afterwards took
Horace Greeley's advice. Thirty-f1ve
thousand old soldiers are buried in
Kansas soil.
The Home at Dodge.
According to National Inspectors
report on soldiers homes. we have the
best soldiers cottage home in the I'M
| ion; it is where myself and wife have
| taken up our abode. 1t is the Kansas
| State Soldiers Home, FIT. Dodge, Kan,
by designation. Its present command
ant was formerly Mt. Gilead boy,
I, a..
near the old Cottonwood Falls Asa
seems to have good business ideas as
to how such an institution should be
conducted and one of his particular
hobbies is the care and comfort of
the cOmrade and wife, who have lost
out in the battle for bread and the
comforts of life and by reason. of age
and misfortune are compelled to ac
cept the comforts that generous peo-
pie have provided for us.
His rules governing the home are,
briefly: Try to be a gentleman. try to
be lady; and there you have Breese's
rules of government. In speaking of
| BreeSe, reminds me that when told
him was going to Mt. Gilead he said
| Well, when you get back there you
will see the neatest and prettiest town
| you ever saw in all Of your travels !"
| Mr.. Cooke. who is the author 1.-THE
| Border and the Buffalo" published by
Crane & Co., of Topeka. writes the fol-
Dodge, for the State journal:
'In 1862 before Quantre1l raised the
black flag, he captured a company of
unarmed recruits at Olathe, Kan. At
ter killing four of them, he had enough
humanity left to parole the rest of the
company that were to help make up
| the Twelfth Kansas volunteers, then
i being organized at Paola, Kan These
| parOled prisoners were sent to Fort
Leavenworth and mustered into the
/ N-rN1vv %GGava
Twelfth Kansas infantry. From there
they were sent to Fort Riley, Kan, to
| guard the Indian frontier. (F'or Kansas
| had war on both sides of her at that
time.) In April. 1866 this company, as
| q transportation escort to Fort Union,
N. NJ. camped one night on the site
| that was afterwards named Fort Dodge
| Gin honor Of Col. Dodge of the regular
army.
| I'm this same April came the Second
| Colorado cavalry, escorting a large
| train of government supplies to Fort
| Lyons, Col. They had with them a
| battalion of men. some 300. who were
| called Galvanized Yankees They were
land, I'LL They were captured confed-
crates who took the oath of allegiance
| to the Union to fight Indians. and they
| made good soldiers.
Fort Dodge Established.
'"These so-called 'Yanlxs' were left at
Dodge cantonment. They built dug
| outs for shelter and sod walls to put
| their commissaries and forage in.
"a little later on the military authori-
| ties decided to make this permanent
| military establishment and named it
| Fort Dodge. 1t is situated on the north
| bank of the Arkansas river, five miles
Is Your Health