The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-07-11
GOES TO REWARD.
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Mrs Louis Wismeyer of Fairfax
! Okla. Mrs Fred B. Carpenter of To-
peka; Homer Huffaker of Fairfax,
Okla, and George and Carl Huffaker.
School a Landmark.
If you had asked to be directed to
points of interest at Council Grove
the first place to have been pointed out
would have been the Kaw Indian Mis-
sion building, which stood directly on
the bank of the Neosho river, few
blocks from the business section OF
the town. 1t no longer is used as
school but is occupied as a residence.
Directly across the river in g. rambling
house bearing unmistakable signs of
southern architecture lived Thomas s
Huffaker. the man under whose d.
rection the mission was built and who
presided over the Indian who attend
ed school in it's walls in the early
fifties.
Mr. Huffaker was sent to Council
Grove by the United States govern
ment in 1850 and the school building
was constructed under his personal SUI
pervision the same year. 1t was built
of native stone with walls of thickness
which left the impression that they
were designed to Withstand siege.
1t contained eight rooms and orig
inally served as a residence for the
instructor and his family The M. 2.
church, south, paid for the building,
but the superintendent was paid by
the government.
In 1851 the school was opened.
superintendent Huffaker said that the
Indians did not take kindly to the
school. The daughters were not al
lowed to attend and the sons of the
chiefs and leading men of the tribe
would have been degraded in the eyes
of the Indians if they had received in
struction in the white mems school.
Mr.. Huffaker said that in consequence
the school was made up principally
of orphans and Indian children who
had no one to care for them. The
largest number of students to attend
at one time was forty. This was in
the early days of the school In 1854,
Mr.. Huffaker reported to the govern
ment that the school could not be kept
up on the allowance of $50 student
and asked that the amount be in
creased. No attention was paid to his
request, and the Kaw mission school
ceased to exist after a short period of
three years.
The Indians held a large reserva-
ton, which included practically all of
Morris county, extending five miles
west, fifteen miles east, ten miles north
and ten miles south of Council Grove.
Had it not been that the city was in
the heart of the Kaw Indian reserva-
ton, Council Grove might be the CAPT.
tai of the state now.
An Indian Uprising.
While the Kaw Indians were consid-
cred peaceable, they caused trouble at
Council Grove OH one occasion. That
was July 2, 1859, when a band of one
hundred Kaw warriors appeared on
the main streets, hideous in their war
paint. Their leader was Ah-le-gah-
wah-ho, who year previous had been
depoSed as chief of the tribe. He en-
gagged in a discussion with S. NJ Hays
in regard to two horses the Indians
had stolen from a Mexican trader. All
le-gah-wah-ho began to taunt and
heap abuse on the whites. Hays shot
into the air in front of them and re-
tired into his store as the Indians
cried, "Shoot him, shoot himI" What
ever words were exchanged between
the deposed Indian leader and Hays
was through T. S. Huffaker. who act
ed as interpreter.
Some of the Indian young bloods on
hearing the cry Shoot hint" fired,
and one man, Charlcs Gilkey. who
was standing beside the interpreter,
received a dangerous arrow wound in
the neck. Another young man, named
Parks, was hurt, and for a time
thought dead. Huffaker, who was
greatly respected by the tribe and
who spoke the Kaw language f1uently,
knowing well the danger that was
threatened, told the Indians they had
killed one man and mortally wounded
another, and that they had better
leave town as soon as possible, as the
white people would surely avenge the
outrage.
A company was organized to follow
the Indians and the meeting is de-
scribed as having been with the OPP
posing forces only 200 yards distant
from each other. It was here that
Mr.. Huffaker's services again were
used to good advantage He consent
ed to go to the Indians and demand
the surrender of the two tribesmen
who had shot Gilkey and Parks. The
red men consented to give up the man
who shot Gilkey, but refused to sur
render the Indian who had wounded
Parks, as he was young chief and
popular with the tribe. The situation
assumed a sanguinary aspect, but final
ly the Indians acceded to the terms
as communicated to them by Mr. HUFF
faffer. The two Indians were sur
rendered and further bloodshed
averted.
A Story on Senator Curtis.
About three miles down the Neosho
river the government built two Indian
schools, both of which have been torn
down. In one of these quarter
blood Indian boy of Topeka was en-
rolled. He is now Senator Charles
Curtis. The time the youthful Curtis
spent in the Indian school was short,
but it is one of the stories Morris
county settler will tell when talking
of early days, only he usually makes
the mistake of asserting that it was
the Huffaker Indian mission school in
Council Grove which Mr.. Curtis at
| tended.
| Mr.. Huffaker often liked to tell this
story of Senator Curtis: 81 was down
| in the Kaw valley one day in 1858, and
Mrs Curtis was there with her little
son Charles. They were visiting the
tribe. While I was there the report