The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1913-07-10
NOW LIVES IN OATv|LLE,
KANSAS
Mrs. Bernell BigelOw, Formerly OF
Sk0whegan. Something of Herself
and Family


esting narrative in continuance of our
notices of former Somerset County
people. Mrs. Bernell Bigelow and
her family are subjects of this sketch.
In answer to the appeal of friends
to write something of my life, and
the circumstances surrounding my
immigration to Kansas, it is a ques-
ton whether my life has been event
full enough to be interesting | will
submit the following for your consid-
Grafton. Beginning with the years
1878 and 1880 when Hiram Bigelow
and family bought tickets for Wichita,
Kansas, | was living at the home of
my aunt, Mrs Fred Weston. Every
one was filled with awe and appre-
hension at so hazardous an undertake
ing as a family moving into the wilds
of Kansas. The newspapers were
full of the accounts of the raids of the
Cheyenne Indians through Kansas, OF
the stampedes of buffaloes, and prai-
RE fires, destroying everything lin
their paths, of the COW boys riding
their ponies through the streets OF
Wichita, and into the business houses
and with their revolvers shooting
holes in the hats of the pedestrians,
and snuffing out the lights. or the
cattle thieves, droughts, grasshoppers
and many other things which would
tend to make place appear most I'M
tenable. All of which may have pos
sibly happened sometime, but not as
commonly as portrayed
I'D in ho
and his wife Harriet followed him in
the year 1907 at the age of 81 years.
They were laid at rest in Greenwood
Cemetery, near Oatville, very pretty
plot of ground by the side of the Old
Chisholm Trail, one of the historic
trails of Kansas. Lauren and Loutrel
are farmers, Lauren living on the
home place, one mile from Oatville
and Loutrel on farm nearby. In child
hood Bernell and were play
mates, and after the i'm
migration of the family to
Kansas were correspondents until the
correspondence reached its clumina-
ton on the morning of March 4, 1894
when | purchased ticket for Wichi-
ia. Mr.. Eaton, then station agent
telling me that | was the second per
son to purchase a ticket from SkoW-
hogan to Wichita.
During the nineteen years of my
residence here, only two persons from
Skowhegan have visited me in my
western home, namely, Rev. Abram
Wyman and Miss Linnie E. Weston.
came directly to the home in which
| am now living, a post card picture
of which | enclose herewith. Ber-
nell and | were married the following
June Bird, 1894. A baby boy was
born March 18th, 1896 and died Au-
gust 9Th, of the same year. Our
thirteen years of age, whom we took
to raise ten years ago.
Kansas is conceded to be a very
progressive state. Thrift and indus
try are apparent on every side. With
our colleges and various places OF
learning, together with band of wide
awake people, it is fast becoming one
of the leading states of the union, and
not the home of the buffalo and In
dian, as some of the Eastern people
believe ii to be, as indicated by some
of the letters written by Eastern peo-
pie to delegates attending a Sunday
school convention at Wichita a couple
of years ago, when they warned theiI
relatives and friends not to venture
too far from town after dark for feal
of being scalped by the Indians.
Wichita is an up to date city of 65,
600. The first house was built il
1868. Oatville is seven miles from
Wichita. Its principal business is
the shipping of wheat, corn, oats
hogs, cattle and alfalfa hay. My hus
band received his appointment oil
postmastership in 1891. AS he Is
also station agent here, most of the
duties of the office and the grocery
store which we run fall upon me. Sc
| do not have much time to get into
mischief We have a rural route OF
81 1-2 miles with a patronage of sc
boxes and the carrier Roy c. Hay
den, whose picture is enclosed is
second to none in efficiency and popu-
larity as mail carrier.
To give you an idea of the Kansas
roads will say that our carrier has
used his motorcycle a greater part
of the winter and through the month
of April, which is usually bad month
he used it 20 days out of the 80.
While | prefer the Kansas winters
| would much rather live in Maine
during the summer, as it gets ex-
tremely hot here during that period
of the year.
My husband and his brother Laur-
en- have purchased eighty acres of
land near the Rio Grande in Colorado
and | certainly wish that | might
pass each summer there as the eli
mate and scenery of Colorado is
simply grand. Five years ago this
summer | took a trip to Pueblo, Colo
Springs and Denver. | wish that |
could describe to you the scenery
through the Garden of the Gods, the
Royal Gorge and the trip over the
Rocky Mountains; but is is beyond
description, one must see for them
selves. AT one point in the noun
tains, we could look from the train
straight down a distance of 1000 feet
onto Yankee Doodle Lake, a small
lake, the bottom of which has never
been sounded. At Corona, the high
est point on the railroad, over the