The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-10
WHEN THE RAILROAD Came

some great investments, although peo-
pie laughed at him when he did it. He
bought numerous quarter sections for
so $50 and kept them. But at the
time he bought, people were trying
to find their way back east to friends
and relatives. They only laughed at
Kelley and told him he was a fool.
One day Kelley bought a little strip
of land, which is now his home. He
paid $3.50 for the place. Year after
year Kelley stayed on the land. His
faith was never shaken. He never
wavered. When Kelley came to To-
peka, people joked with him about his
western investments But Kelley only
smiled Well, Kelley could close out
today for a fortune. That place for
which he paid $3.50, for instance,
carries standing offer of $4,000. The
land which Kelley bought for twenty
five cents an acre, is selling for SO.
$12 and SIS an acre and there is a
rather lively demand for it, too.
Kelley not only owns land. but he is
a power in the political affairs of that
buffalo grass district. Recently Kelley
organized the Santa Fe land company
and began disposing of several thou
sand acres of western soil which the
Santa Fe railway company owns.
There is Bob Crawford E. w. Joce-
Ign, r. L. Smith, Handy brothers and
a half dozen more men who have made
thousands of dollars because they
stayed with their land when other peo-
pie became discouraged and went back
east. All of them were at the Hugoton
picnic. Each wore his best smile. They
knew that the new railroad meant
doubling the value of their land and
they were happy.
When the new line was built through
to Oklahoma from Dodge City, how
ever the land owners in the benefited
district did not pay one cent for the
road. No bonds were asked or voted.
The Santa Fe just decided to build
and built. 1t may be several years be-
fore the line pays dividends. But to
the railroadless counties of yesterday,
the road comes as a new hope.
Every town along the new line shows
the ear marks of a new prosperity,
Montequma, Copeland, Sublette, Satan
ia, Moscow and Hugoton look brand
new. Satanic is a brand new town.
There isn't tree on the townsite, but
there are 80 new houses and stores
and the town looks like a resurrection
of the Oklahoma boom days Hugoton
was already well established when the
railroad came. But she has put on new
paint and added air of prosperity
since the Santa Fe began to run trains
to the town. The town has three big
lumber yards. two banks a newspaper,
hotel. the court house and every in
dication- that it may become one of
the substantial towns of the sandy,
half mile high country to which the
Santa Fe has given a new lease on
life.
Steve Cave came to Hugoton for the
picnic. Caves home is in Sublette
which is fighting to become the new
county seat of Haskell county. Once
many years ago. Steve Cave came to
Topeka as a member of the Iegisla-
ture. He had a mission to perform
and he performed it. He took home a
S., 900 appropriation to fight the prairie
dogs. Largely through Caves efforts,
a bounty was also placed on gopher
scalps. So Cave was looked upon as
great man in that district Standing
in the tent Thursday, his white collar
made limp by perspiration from a
fleshy neck, Cave held the babies of
two Hugoton women in his arms while
he discussed the tariff program and
swayed to and fro with the babes as
emphasis of his remarks.
Another character at the picnic was
Robert White, of Dodge City, former
president of the state historical society.
White has been prominent in the from
tier life in western Kansas and settled
in Dodge when the Indians and buffalo
lived on the townsite.
Former Lieutenant Governor Fitz-
gerald also went from Dodge to the
picnic Fitzgerald knows every man in
that western country by his first name.
He knows the story of every county
seat war, of every lost town and every
personal conflict in all that sandy.
breezy country. All day he visited
with the men and the women from
Syracuse to Johnson City and from
Great Bend to Liberal He knew them
all and everyone in all that crowd of
5000 people seemed to know Fitzgerald.
Zone good crop in this county" said
Attorney General John S. Dawson,
means the payment for the land, the
erection of a big white house, a big
ger red barn, erection of a windmill
and a barbed wire fence around the
entire place. It's the same story as
that in the northwest country. One
good crop here means that the land
owner is started on his way to easy
street"
Dawson came to Topeka from Hill
City and he knows something of the
western life. And if Dawson's theory
holds good. there will be a good many
white houses and red barns and noisy
windmills built this year. 1t looks like
the best opportunity in years for big
crop in the country blessed by a new
railroad and more than the average
amount of spring rain.
Real coal will be burned in these
western counties next winter. Out in
those counties, COW chips have been
the fuel supply since the white man
came to drive the buffalo and the In
dams from the plains. Fifty miles
from the nearest railroad. these ex-
treme southwestern counties were un-
able to secure a supply of coal even
though they felt able to pay for it.
Now, with a sure enough railroad
there will be coal to burn in Hugoton
and Montequma and Santanta next
winter.
People who went to Hugoton, at
H. I'll, L.