The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-04-17
By HARRY ROOT.


The forty years and more your cor
respondent has been travelling thru the
short grass counties and before some
Of them were organized, wonderful
changes have been made not only in
settlement but in the development of
all classes of farming The first visit
to Oberlin was in 1879, one year after
the Indian raid. which occurred in
September, 1878. From Norton to
Oberlin by way of stage road. was
about As miles. There may have been
a few frame houses, while the sod
house and dugout were notable. and
more so in the draws Two or more
sod school houses were passed, and in
one the school was in session. The
stage stopped long enough to give the
passengers a chance to see inside the
sod house. Here was a school Of II
or Is scholars. bright looking and
clean, sitting on benches, and appar-
emily as happy as they could be. The
teacher was a lady and on being asked
where the children came from for
there wasn't another house in sight,
she replied that many of her scholars
lived in sod houses. and most of them
were built in the draws on account
OF being easier to obtain water. The
teacher appeared pleased with her
school. Continuing the journey, the
next stop was at dugout for sonae-
thing to eat No one at home but the
at work on the railroad in Colorado.
and her two children were in school
No fuel to cook with, she gave US the
best she had That day she had baked
corn bread with the aid Of a hot sun,
and a fearful hot wind had burned up
all vegetation She had COW, and
with milk and the sun-baked bread
We ate our fill -lade Up a purse and
presented il TO her and started on She
thought Is cents was enough for our
dinners She appeared pleased to be
living in Decatur county and Kansas.
Many sod houses we passed we could
see piles Of buffalo chips which was
the principal fuel on the farms in the
pioneer days Going over the same
route now by railroad one seldom sees
a sod house or dugout- where a third
OF a century ago they could be
counted by the dozens.
It was a cold day IN February.
1883. the writer Of these notes visited
Scottsville. a small stoWu in Mitchell
county, of about zoo population. The
wind was blowing lively gait of forty
miles an hour from the northwest. and
the mercury below zero A foot OF
snow was on the ground and the wind
was piling it up in huge drifts Sure
] il was a thOrO Kansas blizzard The
Tri-County News was getting out its
! first issue the same day The town
was enjoying a small boom. Yet Il was
| large enough with the air OF bonus"
! to want a paper. The name Of the
/ editor was Seward Jones, who was also
publisher. business manager, proof
reader, printer and office boy He was
| seen to get off his stool several times
/ TO throw ears of eight cents bushei
corn in the stove. il being cheaper fuel
/ to keep the office warm than coal.
! The next door to the office was a
I mercantile firm and young man
named A D.-Birch was the manager,
the two business houses being the pria-
cipaI ones in town. They gained one
another's friendship in Scottsville, and
! il lasted ever since Today Jones &
! Birch are operating a thoroIy equipped
I job office in Topeka and enjoy high
class of business. For some time
Jones was connected with the Beloit
& Birch have been in the job printing
I business. while Birch is one of the
managers of the Grand Opera house.
the pioneer settlers in Osborne county.
writes the following
7 note that Cawker City Will cele-
brate her fifIieth anniversary on April
IS this year. When four young men
drove stakes for the first homestead
in the vicinity. near the same time
four Young men, 7. Walrond. J ].
VFzItrout Albert Wells S=d a Mr. VIII
tIis-pitched their tent near the pres
emit townsite of Ports and built e
stockade for protection against the
Arapahoes and the foundation trench
Of this stockade may still be seen. So
this spring marks the semi-centennial
Of the first permanent settlement OF
the white man in Bethany township
Osborne county Every year the men
and women whose memories go back
to those days are becoming fewer Mr.