The Holly chieftain., 1922-06-15
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF THE HOLLY CHIEFTAIN

IhlS year marks the completion
of the twenty-flfth year of the con
tinuous publication OF The Holly
Chieftain. Its existence is almost
co otemporaneous with the existence
of the town. AS early as the six
teenth century explorers like De
Vaca and De Coronado passed over
the town site of Holly. In 1906 Pike
opened up the Santa Fe Trail and
inaugurated trade with Mexico.
Just south of the site OF the San
ia Fe Depot on Wild Horse Creek
there was from earliest times an
open water hole called Warm
Spring where buffalo and antelope
would gather for miles around when
water everywhere else was frozen.
Later this spring became q familiar
camping place. When Mr.. Holly es-
tablished the "SS" Ranch he cover
ed the spring over with a stone
house and built his stone ranch
home near by. 1t was In 1871 that
Hiram S. Holly established his great
cattle ranch here. In 1893 the Ar
kansas Valley Land and Cattle com.
pany bought the "SS" ranch. In
1896 the Amity Land and Irrigation
Company was founded and at about
the same period The Great Western
Water Storage Co., was incOrporat-
ed. In 1901 the present A. v. Sugar
Beet and Land Co, was formed.
In December 1896 Ed Tuttle
bought the first lot in Holly. There
was, however. q store. boarding
house at the Ranch House. q school
house and few dwellings at the
time. There was also small one
room depot. Then began the exc
tlus from Greeley county. Kansas
to the Holly site and the town wac
fairly launched. They came in most
ly from the two rival towns of Hor-
ace and Tribune WHO warred to
their extinction or practically .s0a
Two months after Mr.. Tuttle
bought the first lot in Holly, H. w
Milford moved his paper. The Gree
ley County Leader" from Tribune
and called it The Holly Chieftain
So the paper began its existence
about. Feb. II, 1897, The files OF the
paper for these earlier years have
been lost to the Chieftain office
and the editor is dependent on
Robert King OF Holly who has kept
on file portion of the papers OF
these earlier years.
The earliest of the papers pre-
served by Bob King is dated Oct
q, 1898, Vol. 2, No. 81. 1t is seven
column, four page paper. about the
size of the present Chieftain but
with half the number of pages. The
business firms advertising at that
time all appear strange except thos'
of j. S MeMurtry, DR.. r. D. Wilson
snl l7obert King. II any OF the
business men OF the present werr
in business then they were not ad
vertising at that date.
Two or three items from this an
oient paper may be interesting
The County Commissioners at theil
last session made total levy-cOun
ty, state and schOOl--Of forty ant
tilree-fifths mills" The same lew
today is 23.4S mills. Even counting
the taxes of the town, which wa!
not incorporated twenty-five year.
ago the total tax now Is but foul
mills greater.
Another item: ~ 8. McMurtry Il
over in western Kansas talking o
the beauties of farming under II
,iaation to the inhabitants OF tn
short grass region Another: "Wh!
cant we have sidewalks for q blocl
at least on each side OF Main street
We believe that every owner OF
lot would be willing to build
sidewalk in front of his premises
providing others would do tn
same. The only thing to do Is t.
get together and start the worl
going"
Two trains left Holly daily eacl
way. There were no churches bu
Sunday School was held at tn
school house. There were "a pupil
ana two teachers during the follow
ing year and in 1900 this had increa
ed to 100 pupils and four teacher
with n nine year school In plac
of eight. The Methodist and Pre-
byterinns appear to have organize
about this time, the later erectin
building. The beet sugar booT
of 1900 gave impetus to the growt