Source: https://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-historical-quarterly-ferries-in-kansas-part-vii-saline-river/12654
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 13:01:30+00:00

Document:
Although big floods have occurred from time to time in the stream, the earliest of which we have printed record is that of 1858,  which swept away such bridges as spanned the river at that time. Another destructive flood occurred during early June, 1867.  The flood of 1903  did vastly more damage, as the country by that time was pretty well settled.
The old military road up the Smoky Hill crossed the Solomon river near its mouth, and about nine miles farther on crossed the Saline at a point about a mile a little west of the village of New Cambria of later date. This crossing was at the point where the Union Pacific railroad bridge was constructed, and a short distance north of the Ben Holladay stage station.  The first ferry on the Saline above its mouth was the one operated by James Jasper Woodward at this point. The earliest mention of this enterprise we have located was in the Junction City Union, of June 4, 1864, which printed the following notice: "Free Ferry. -- Jim Woodward is running a free ferry across the Saline. In addition to this inducement, the road to Salina by way of his ferry is considerably shorter than by any other. Freighters would do well to try that route."
Woodward's ferry probably was first operated as a free ferry, he apparently having some sort of an understanding with Salina merchants who made this free service possible. He was attentive to business and had the reputation of crossing his patrons with promptness and despatch. This free service probably was terminated by 1866, when the Woodward family organized themselves as the Saline River Bridge and Ferry Company. The new company consisted of J.J. Woodward, R.W. Woodward, Hugh T. Woodward, J.B. Woodward and U.S. Shreves.
Our neighbors of Saline county have before them a proposition to vote the issue of ten thousand dollar bonds with which to bridge the Saline and Solomon. A practical and sensible expenditure of money. Far different with our neighbors over in Riley, who propose to vote bonds for the building of a courthouse. To build a courthouse now would be like putting jewelry on a hog. Riley is like Davis -- within her limits she can get so far away from a settlement as to be in danger of wolves and wild beasts. Be practical and not ornamental, at least while there are so few taxpayers.
G. Schippel's was the next ferry upstream, and was located on the road directly north of Sauna. This was the first ferry service inaugurated on the Saline river.
Gotthart Schippel, a native of Germany, was born on May 6, 1835. He came to America in 1852 and settled in Iowa, where he farmed until about the middle of June, 1857, when he came to Saline county, following the Leavenworth-Fort Dodge wagon trail to the site of the Saline river ferry. Although it was his intention at first to cut hay for his stock, he also dealt somewhat with the Indians. He had some traffic with the Kaws, but was soon obliged to leave on account of the unfriendly Cheyennes, who were numerous and powerful. Afterward he went to Kansas City and brought some goods to Kansas Falls. He chopped wood and ran a sawmill during the winter of 1857-1858. The following spring he returned to Saline county and located on S. 29, T. 13, R. 2 W, where he began farming and stockraising. In 1857 the government had a pole and plank bridge across the Saline for the use of the supply trains going to Dodge. They had also built at the bridge head a log house, since dismembered and strewn about Salina as souvenir and relic material. Mr. Schippel took possession of this log house. Mr. A.M. Campbell, Sr., had observed the building on a previous reconnoitering trip into central Kansas in 1856 or 1857. When he came in 1858 to settle in the territory he expected to move into the log house, but when he was within a mile of it, he saw a stack of hay in the creek bend and knew he'd been outdone. Schippel was comfortably settled and was making a little cash -- something which was very scarce in that part of the country in those days -- selling hay and anticipating correctly the sale of corn to the government and independent freighters.
In 1859 William A. Phillips obtained from the legislature a charter for a ferry across the Saline at the town of Salina, with the exclusive privilege of landing within two miles of that town, up and down the river, for the period of twenty-three years. He was to keep a good and sufficient boat or boats at all times sufficient to cross the traveling public and was to be entitled to take toll for this service, the county board being allowed to fix ferriage charges. The ferry was to be placed in operation within nine months, or the privileges granted by the legislature were to be forfeited. This act was approved by Gov. Samuel Medary, February 10, 1859.  If this ferry went into operation we have failed to find any mention of it.
The dam at Rocky Hill, we learn, has been seriously injured by the cantankerosity of the Saline. -- May 22, 1873.
The river is said to be higher than at any previous time the present season. -- May 22, 1873.
River still on the war path. -- May 29, 1873.
The bosom of the Saline river has been swelling with emotion in consequence of the several 'drouths' last week. -- June 5, 1873.
In consequence of high water the mail experienced considerable difficulty in coming up from Salina last Monday. Royal, being the most preserving cuss we ever saw, weathered it though and returned on Monday as usual. -- June 5, 1873.
A temporary bridge is being built on the Saline just below Rees' mill to facilitate ingress and egress to and from our city. Is it not about time some steps were taken to build one or two permanent bridges in the county? -- June 19, 1873.
We understand that a portion of the new bridge the citizens of this and Valley township have been building over the Saline, has taken a new departure in consequence of the first little freshet that occurred. -- July 3, 1873.
The bridge over the Saline at Rees' mill is now completed, and persons who come to our city can cross without fear of ducking. -- July 24, 1873.
Immigration still pours in without any prospect of ceasing, so long as a claim is vacant in so good a county as ours. -- October 27, 1873."
So far as we have been able to learn, the Rees ferry before mentioned, was the uppermost and last crossing of the kind on the Saline river.
1. Blackmar's History of Kansas, v. 2, p. 639. Everts' Atlas of Kansas, pp. 225, 241, 249, 252, 285, 295, 303, 330.
2. U.S. Geological Survey, Water Supply and Irrigation Papers, No. 66, p. 142.
3. Pierre Margry, Memoires et Documents Pour Servir a L'Histoire des Origines Francais des Pays D'Outre Mer (Paris, 1888), v. 6, p. 432.
4. Coues, The Expedition of Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike, v. 2, p. 405.
5. Kansas Historical Collections, v. 9, p. 12.
6. Statement of Jacob C. Ruppenthal to author, March 29, 1935.
7. U.S. Geological Survey, Water Supply Papers, No. 84. p. 108; No. 99, p. 227.
8. Kansas Historical Collections, v. 9, p. 12.
10. Ibid., v. 10, pp. 626, 627.
11. U.S. Geological Survey, Water Supply Papers, No. 99, p. 227.
12. Junction City Union, August 8, 1866.
13. Kansas Historical Collections, v. 17, p. 191.
14. Corporations, v. 1, pp. 186, 187.
15. Junction City Union, March 14, 1868.
16. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 709. Letter of R. Lynn Martin, Brookville, October 7, 1934, to the author, the data being obtained in an interview with John Schippel, a son of Gotthart.
17. From a letter of Mrs. A.M. Campbell, Jr., to the author.
18. Private Laws, Kansas, 1859, p. 119.
19. Letter from J. Albert Smith, of Lincoln, to the author. Mr. Smith also wrote: "I have lived here fifty-one years and never heard of any other ferry in this section."
20. House Journal, 1859, p. 153.

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