D. R. ATCHISON—MATT GERBER—J. H. TALBOTT—WILLIAM OSBORNE—JOHN W. CAIN—W. L. CHALLISS—GEORGE SCARBOROUGH—SAMUEL HOLLISTER—JOHN TAYLOR—JOHN M. CROWELL—LUTHER DICKERSON—LUTHER C. CHALLISS—GEORGE W. GLICK—W. K. GRIMES—JOSHUA WHEELER—WILLIAM HETHERINGTON—WILLIAM C. SMITH—JOHN M. PRICE—SAMUEL C. KING—CLEM ROHR—R. H. WEIGHTMAN—CASE OF MAJOR WEIGHTMAN.
One of the really creditable and most pretentious newspaper enterprises ever undertaken and accomplished in Kansas was E. W. Howe’s Historical Edition of the Atchison Daily Globe. It contains much interesting and valuable information written in the unique style which has made Mr. Howe famous. With the consent of Mr. Howe, which he has very kindly granted the author of this history, there will appear in this chapter, almost verbatim, a number of biographical sketches and other interesting matter, which should be printed in book form so that it could be assured of a permanent place in the archives of the State. There are but few copies left, and these are in a bad state of disintegration. The sketch of Gen. D. R. Atchison will first be reproduced herein, and then will follow others, touching upon the lives and characters of early settlers, who contributed their part to the upbuilding of this community. Much has already appeared in this history touching upon the activities of General Atchison, but a sketch of his life is important, inasmuch as he is perhaps the most conspicuous early-day character in the history of Atchison county.
GENERAL D. R. ATCHISON.
David Rice Atchison, for whom Atchison was named, was born near Lexington, Fayette county, Kentucky, August 11, 1807. The son of William 187Atchison, a wealthy farmer of that county, he received all the advantages of a liberal education. His mother’s maiden name was Catherine Allen, a native of the State of Georgia. William Atchison, the father, was a Pennsylvanian by birth.
David R. Atchison was blessed with six children, four sons and two daughters. In 1825 he graduated with high honor from Transylvania University, then the leading institution of learning in the State, and since incorporated in the new University of Kentucky.
Upon receiving his degrees in the arts, Mr. Atchison immediately applied himself to the study of law. In 1829 Mr. Atchison was admitted to practice in his native State, and a few months after, in 1830, removed to the comparatively wild district of Clay county, Missouri. In April of that year he received in St. Louis his license to practice in the supreme court of the State and immediately settled in the village of Liberty, now the county seat of Clay county. About this period, Mr. Atchison was appointed major general of the northern division of the Missouri State militia.
General Atchison soon commanded a lucrative practice in his new home, where he continued to reside in the discharge of the duties of his profession until February, 1841, when his superior legal attainments, which were known and recognized throughout the State, won for him the appointment as judge of the district court of Platte county on its organization in February of that year, when he moved his residence to Platte City. It appears that in that day judges were appointed to this position by the Government, with the advice and consent of the Senate. The office was not made elective until several years after. In 1834 and 1838 he was elected to the Missouri legislature from Clay county.
Upon the death of Dr. Lyon, United States senator, in 1838, Judge Atchison was appointed by Governor Reynolds to the vacancy in the Senate. It was by many considered that this appointment was merited and he had been recommended by Colonel Benton and other authorities of the Democratic party; by others it was said that the governor himself was ambitious of the senatorship and had selected Judge Atchison as a person who could be easily beaten at the next election. The death of Governor Reynolds, however, occurred before the meeting of the next legislature and Judge Atchison was elected with but slight opposition. He was re?lected for two more terms, the last of which expired March 4, 1855, during the administration of Franklin Pierce. Two years after this he moved his residence from Platte to Clinton county. He was elected president of the Senate to succeed Judge Mangun, a Whig senator from North Carolina.
188The 4th of March, 1849, occurring on Sunday, Zachary Taylor was not inaugurated until the following Monday. Judge Atchison thus, as presiding officer of the Senate, became virtually President of the United States during the term of twenty-four hours. In referring to this accidental dignity, on being interrogated as to how he enjoyed his exalted position, the venerable senator good humoredly replied that he could tell but little about it as, overcome with fatigue consequent to several days and nights of official labor, he slept through nearly his whole term of service.
Judge Atchison became especially prominent in the legislature for the organization of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and claims to have originated the repeal of the Missouri Compromise bill. On his retirement from the Senate, of which he was an honored member for the space of twelve years, during the larger part of the time as presiding officer, he continued to take a lively interest in the politics of the country, and was regarded as a leader and chief adviser of the pro-slavery party in Kansas during the troubles which preceded the admission as a State. In 1856 we find him in command of 1,150 men at a point called Santa Fe. On the 29th of August, the same year, a detachment from General Atchison’s army attacked Osawatomie, which was defended by about fifty men, who made a vigorous resistance but were defeated with a loss of five wounded and seven prisoners. Five of the assailants were killed and thirty buildings were burned. The next day a body of Free State men marched from Lawrence to take Atchison’s army. Upon their approach the latter retired and withdrew its forces into Missouri. The admission of Kansas as a free State soon after this occurred put an end to this much vexed question and restored tranquility to the country.
General Atchison lived in retirement on his magnificent estate in Clinton county until the breaking out of the Rebellion, when he left for the South and was present at the battle of Lexington. Governor Jackson secured him a commission as brigadier general at the commencement of the war. This General Atchison declined, as his residence was in Clinton county, outside the limits of the division. He, however, remained with the army and assisted in its organization. He joined temporarily for the purpose of making up the company under Ephraim Kelley’s command from St. Joseph and remained with the army until after the battle of Elkhorn.
At the close of the war, General Atchison returned to his home in Clinton county, where he continued to reside in almost unbroken retirement on his 1,700–acre farm in a neat cottage erected on the site of his spacious brick mansion, which was accidentally destroyed by fire February 2, 1870. He never married, and died at his home in Clinton county, January 26, 1886.
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MATT. GERBER.
Matt. Gerber came to this county originally in 1855, as pastry cook on a Government steamer. There was almost no town at Atchison then, and he went to Sioux City with the boat and afterwards returned to St. Louis. In 1856 he was pastry cook on the “A. B. Chambers,” which ran between St. Louis and Weston and was commanded by Captain Bowman, the father of Mrs. D. C. Newcomb and Mrs. G. H. T. Johnson. Mr. Gerber was born in Baden in 1833 and came to America in 1853, landing at New Orleans, and for a time ran on boats on the lower Mississippi. For many years he was the hero of Atchison children, as he operated a bakery, confectionery and toy store on the south side of Commercial street, near Fourth. Mr. Gerber first located in Sumner in 1858, where he ran a bakery, coming to Atchison in 1860, and was in business at the same location for over thirty-four years. Mr. Gerber died in Atchison, December 14, 1907.
S. O. POMEROY
JIM LANE
J. H. TALBOTT.
J. H. Talbott came west in 1855 and was a passenger on the “A. B. Chambers,” of which George W. Bowman was captain and E. K. Blair, second clerk. The cholera was so bad that year that Mr. Talbott left the boat at Jefferson City and came overland to Monrovia, although his passage was paid to Leavenworth. Several passengers on the “A. B. Chambers” died of 190cholera and were buried on sand bars. Mr. Talbott pre?mpted a claim at Monrovia, and when his family came two years later he kept a boarding house at Monrovia for four years. Albert D. Richardson was often a guest at his house. He was a clean, neat city man of about thirty, and was engaged in writing up the Kansas war for the New York Tribune. Jim Lane also stopped at J. H. Talbott’s occasionally. Mr. Talbott first heard him make a speech in a grove at Pardee, and A. J. Westbrook was in the audience. Lane made some abusive reference to Westbrook, who made a movement as if to pull a pistol, but Lane shook his celebrated boney finger at Westbrook and defied him to shoot. At that time Atchison was controlled by the pro-slavery element, but the Free State men predominated around Monrovia and Pardee. The noted Colonel Caleb lived at Farmington. James Ridpath was often at J. H. Talbott’s, and D. R. Anthony and Webb Wilder appeared there as young men and took up claims.
Another famous place in those days was the Seven Mile House, seven miles west of Atchison on the road traveled by the freighters, kept by John Bradford. Talbott’s boarding house was built of logs and the beds were nailed against the wall, one above another. Sometimes the house was so crowded that the floor was also occupied with beds.
Mr. Talbott was born in Canal Dover, Ohio, where he knew W. C. Quantrill real well. Quantrill afterwards became the noted guerilla and sacked Lawrence. Mrs. Talbott went to school with Quantrill, and the teacher was Quantrill’s father, a very worthy man. After Mr. Talbott married he removed to Zanesville, Ind., and kept a store with S. J. H. Snyder, who was one of the early settlers of Atchison county and a fierce Free State man. In a little while Will Quantrill appeared at Zanesville and taught school in the country. He usually spent his Saturdays and Sundays at J. H. Talbott’s house, on the strength of their acquaintance at Canal Dover. Mr. Talbott says he was well behaved and attracted great attention around the store, particularly from the young men.
In 1854 Quantrill left Zanesville and settled at Lawrence, Kan., as a Free State man and taught school, where he became acquainted with Robert Bitter Morrow, whose life he afterwards saved during the massacre. Robert Morrow kept the Byram in Atchison several years. When Talbott went to Monrovia in 1855, the country was full of Kickapoo Indians. He remembers seeing an Indian grave there: a rail pen covered with brush. In the middle of the pen could be seen the dead Indian in a sitting posture, with his gun beside him.
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COL. WILLIAM OSBORNE.
Colonel Osborne built the first railroad to the Missouri river—the Hannibal & St. Joseph. He built and owned the transfer ferry “Wm. Osborne,” which was famous in Atchison in the early days. He also built the first 100 miles of the Central Branch to Waterville, as has been previously stated. He lived and died in Waterville, N. Y., but visited Atchison frequently to see his daughter, Mrs. R. A. Park, who was the wife of the president of the Atchison Savings Bank.
AMOS A. HOWELL.
Amos A. Howell was one of the plains freighters who distinguished Atchison in the early days. He ran twenty-seven wagons with six yoke of oxen to each wagon. An extra head of oxen was taken along, known as the “cavvy” to spell the others and take the places of those that gave out. Altogether he owned 400 head of work oxen. The oxen were expected to pick up their living on the way, but when mules were used in the winter it was necessary to carry grain for them. Thirty men were necessary in the train of twenty-seven wagons pulled by oxen. Mr. Howell was assisted in his wagon business by his son, Nat.
In those days there was a Government regulation that all trains should be held at Ft. Kearney until 100 armed men had collected. Then a captain was elected, who was commissioned by the Government and had absolute charge of the train while it was passing through the Indian country. Mr. Howell frequently occupied the position of captain, being well known on the plains. On one occasion while he was captain he halted at Cottonwood Falls on the Platte, as the Indians were very bad, and soldiers were expected to go through with the train, but none came and finally Mr. Howell unloaded five wagons, filled them with armed men and started out. Almost in sight of Cottonwood a gang of gaily painted Indians attacked the train, supposing it was a little outfit. But when the Indians came within range, the “Whiskey Bills” and “Poker Petes” in the covered wagons began dropping the Indians off their ponies, and there was a pretty fight, in which the Indians were badly worsted.
Mr. Howell says that the Indians never attack wagon trains except very early in the morning, or late in the evening.
The favorite sport of the Indians, however, was to run off the stock 192after the train had gone into camp at night, and they always had one way of doing it, which Mr. Howell finally learned. The Indians are no wiser than white men, for they say that white men always fail in business the same way and act the same way when they have a fire. An Indian would ride up onto a high point and look around a while. This would always be in the evening when the train was near a camping place. Then the Indian would disappear and come back presently with another Indian wrapped in his blanket and riding the same pony. One Indian would then drop into the grass, and the rider would go back after another one. The Indians were collecting in ambush; thinking the freighters would never think of it. Mr. Howell had in his employ a driver, an Atchison man, named “Whiskey Bill,” who was particularly clever at hating Indians, and whenever an ambush was preparing “Whiskey Bill” would select four or five other men equally clever and go after the Indians. He often killed and scalped as many as four in one ambush, and sold their scalps in Denver to the Jews for a suit of clothes each. The Jews bought them as relics and disposed of them in the East. The killing of Indians in this manner was according to Government order and strictly legitimate. Another driver in Howell’s train was an Atchison man named Rube Duggan. He was a great roper and used to take a horse, when in sight of a buffalo herd and go out after calves, which made tender meat. Riding into the herd he would lasso a calf, fasten the rope to the ground with a stake and then go on after another one before the herd got away. He caught several calves in this way for Ben Holladay, who took them east. Mr. Howell remembers that once, this side of Fort Kearney, it was necessary to stop the train to let a herd of buffalo pass. The men always had fresh buffalo meat in addition to their bacon, beans, dried apples, rice and fried bread.
There was a cook with the train who drove the mess wagon, but he did not do any other work. Every driver had to take his turn getting wood and water for the cook and herding the cattle at noon, but the night herder did nothing else and slept in the wagon during the day. Occasionally he was awakened about noon and hunted along the road. The cattle fed at night until 10 or 11 o’clock when they would lie down until 2 in the morning. The night herder would lie down by the side of a reliable old ox and sleep too, being awakened when the ox got up to feed. The oxen were driven into the wagon corral about daylight and yoked. Every wagon had its specified place in the train and kept it during the entire trip.
Wagons were always left in a circle at night, forming a corral. Into 193this corral the cattle were driven while being yoked. In case of an attack, the cattle were inside the corral and the men fought under the wagons. The teams started at daylight and stopped at 10 or 11 until 2 or 3, and then they would start up and travel until dark. Mr. Howell always rested on Sunday, making an average of 100 miles a week with his ox teams. When the train started out each man was given ten pounds of sugar which was to last him to Denver. On the first Sunday the men would make lemonade of sugar and vinegar and do without sugar the rest of the trip. Mr. Howell saw the attack on George W. Howe’s train on the Little Blue when George Con—— was killed and the entire train burned. Con—— was an Atchison man. Howell’s train was corraled and he could not go to Howe’s assistance.
Howell came to Atchison county in 1856 by wagon from Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where he was born, December 26, 1824. At seventy he was stout and vigorous, getting up every morning at 4 o’clock to go to work. His plains experience did him good. He died on the 1st day of August, 1907, owning a large tract of land in Grasshopper township.
BELA M. HUGHES
ELLSWORTH CHESEBOROUGH
JOHN W. CAIN.
John W. Cain and his two sons, John S. Cain and William S. Cain, came to Atchison in 1856 from the Isle of Man, and pre?mpted a quarter section, five miles west of Atchison. A. D. Cain, another son, came to this county in 1856, accompanying his brother, John M. Cain, who had gone to his old home 194in the Isle of Man on a visit. A. D. Cain attended school longer than either of his three brothers and was a graduate of King William’s College, a celebrated institution of learning. After leaving school he learned the business of a druggist. He was born in 1846. John M. Cain was seven years older.
John M. Cain enlisted in the Thirteenth Kansas infantry in 1862. His brother, William, enlisted in Col. John A. Martin’s regiment the year before. In less than a year John M. Cain was given the position as captain in the Eighty-third U. S. infantry and raised Company C in Atchison. Phillip Porter, the celebrated negro politician and orator, of Atchison, was orderly sergeant of Company C, which had ten men killed in the battle of Prairie Grove. After serving in the army nearly four years, John M. Cain returned to his farm in Atchison county in 1866 where he remained until 1872, when he removed to Atchison and engaged in the grain business. The Cains started the exporting of flour from Kansas and their business was very largely export business during their operation of the mill.
John W. Cain, father of the Cain brothers, was a fierce Free State man in the days when it was dangerous to be a Free State man in Atchison county, but as he was a powerful man and of undoubted courage, the pro-slavery fans thought it wise to forgive him. His memory as well as the memory of his sons, John M. Cain and A. D. Cain, are still highly esteemed by the older settlers of Atchison county.
DR. W. L. CHALLISS.
Dr. W. L. Challiss came to Atchison June 3, 1866, on the steamboat “Meteor” from Moorestown, N. J., where he had been a practicing physician. At that time John Alcorn was operating a horse ferry on the river and Dr. Challiss, in company with his brother, L. C. Challiss, purchased a three-fourths interest in the ferry franchise after operating a little rival ferry for a time, which was known as the “Red Rover.” The price paid for the franchise was $1,800.00.
In the fall of 1856 Dr. Challiss went to Evansville, Ind., and contracted for the building of a steam ferry. This was completed in November and started for Atchison. In December it was frozen up in the Missouri river at Carrollton, Mo., and left in charge of a watchman. The crew was made up of old acquaintances of Dr. Challiss in New Jersey, and these he brought to Atchison in two stage coaches hired for the purpose.
On February 7 of the following year Dr. Challiss started down the river on horse back after his ferry boat, accompanied by George M. Million, Granville 195Morrow and John Cafferty. There had been a thaw and a rise in the river, and when the men reached the vicinity of Carrollton they learned that the boat had gone adrift. They followed it down the river, hearing of it occasionally and finally came up with it in sight of Arrow Rock. The boat had grounded on a bar and a man was in possession, claiming salvage. Dr. Challiss caught the man off the boat, took possession and settled with him for $25.00. A story was circulated that there had been small-pox on the boat and it narrowly escaped burning at the hands of the people living in the vicinity. Dr. Challiss went on down the river and met his family at St. Louis. When the steamer on which they were passengers reached Arrow Rock, the captain was induced to pull the ferry off the sand bar, and within four days it arrived in Atchison.
This boat was named the “Ida” for Dr. Challiss’ oldest daughter, who became the wife of John A. Martin, editor of the Atchison Champion, colonel of the Eighth Kansas regiment and governor of the State two terms. The “Ida” was brought up the river by George Million and Granville Morrow, pilots, and John Cafferty, engineer. George Million was the captain when it began making regular trips as a ferry, receiving originally $50.00 per month. During the last years of his service he received $125.00 a month. The ferry boat business was very profitable and $100.00 per day was no unusual income. In 1860 Dr. Challiss built a larger ferry at Brownsville, Penn., and called it the “J. G. Morrow.” When it arrived at Atchison the Government pressed it into service and sent it to Yankton with Indian supplies. Bill Reed was pilot and Dr. Challiss, captain. A quick trip was made to within seventy miles of Yankton where the pilot ran the boat into a snag and sank it. The boat cost $25,000.00 and nothing was saved but the machinery. This was afterwards placed in the ferry “S. C. Pomeroy,” which was operated here until the bridge was completed in 1877. After this the “S. C. Pomeroy was taken to Kansas City, where it sank during a storm. S. C. Pomeroy owned a one-fourth interest in the “J. G. Morrow” and “S. C. Pomeroy” and the wreck of the “Morrow” cost him $5,000.00.
The “Ida” was taken to Leavenworth on the completion of the bridge and was in service there many years.
In the early days Dr. Challiss was a Free State man and for years he had in his possession a letter warning him to leave the country, which was written during the exciting period before the war. Dr. Challiss remained active in the affairs of the town for many years but practiced his profession only spasmodically. He died in Dayton, Ohio, at the home of his daughter, on April 23, 1909.
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GEORGE SCARBOROUGH.
George Scarborough was one of the most romantic characters that ever lived in Atchison county. Influenced by his niece’s description of Kansas, he came to Sumner in 1859 and purchased a tract of land now owned by E. W. Howe and known as Potato Hill. The location is probably the finest on the Missouri river. The farm lies on top of the bluff, and Scarborough’s house was built near the river. He was well fitted to enjoy the life of elegant leisure and seclusion, which he did. Early in life he went to Kentucky from Connecticut and taught school. While there he married the daughter of a congressman named Triplett. The wife died a year later, and Scarborough came into possession of considerable money. After that he adopted a literary and scientific life and spent much of his time abroad, where he collected many pictures and other art treasures. These were displayed in his home below Sumner. Scarborough was a botanist, and made a complete collection of the flora of this section, which he sent to the Smithsonian Institution, at Washington. One of his discoveries was that Atchison county had eleven varieties of the oak. Scarborough was one of the original founders of the First National Bank of this city, furnishing most of the original capital.
In 1869 he went to Vineland, N. J., where he married a girl of twenty-three, although he was nearly seventy. His wife died within a year, in child birth, under precisely the same circumstances as his first wife. Scarborough died in 1883, in his old home in Connecticut, in absolute poverty, at the age of eighty-four. He is spoken of as one of the most elegant gentlemen who distinguished the early days.
SAMUEL HOLLISTER.
Samuel Hollister was one of the original settlers of Sumner. He landed at Leavenworth May 1, 1857, coming by boat from Jefferson City. Two weeks later he met a number of the members of the Sumner Town Company who were looking for somebody to go to Sumner to build a hotel. Having been a contractor and builder in his old home in New Jersey, Mr. Hollister accompanied the men to Sumner, which then consisted of a claim cabin, used as a hotel, and four frame houses in course of construction. The material for the frame houses had been brought from Cincinnati, ready framed, and when completed were 16×24, containing two rooms each. Mr. Hollister took the contract to build the Baker House, which contained three rooms on the 197ground floor. The half story above was all in one room, where the guests slept. The frames for the Baker House were hewn out in the timber adjoining the town; the weather boarding and shingles were shipped up the river. The hotel was completed in the summer of 1857, and was operated by Hood Baker, a cousin of Capt. David Baker, for many years a prominent citizen of Atchison.
In the fall of the same year Mr. Hollister began work on the Sumner House, the contract price being $16,000.00. The brick used were made on the ground. The lumber came by boat from Pittsburgh, Penn. This hotel was completed in the summer of the following year. It was built by the town company, which owed Mr. Hollister $3,000.00 at the time of his death, a few years ago.
Mr. Hollister lived in Sumner twelve years, vigorously fighting Atchison. In the fall of 1858 he built a mill, in company with Al Barber, later adding a gristmill, which was the second built in the county, the first having been built in Atchison, by William Bowman. Mr. Hollister went down the river in a boat in January, 1859, and when he reached his old home in the Catskill mountains, he crossed the Hudson river on the ice. During this trip east he was married to Miss Harriet Carroll, a lineal descendant of Charles Carroll, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. His wife returned with him to Sumner, and they afterwards moved to Atchison, where they lived for many years. Mr. Hollister died March 28, 1910.
JOHN TAYLOR.
John Taylor, who for many years lived on a farm immediately south of the State Orphans’ Home, was a resident of Missouri, a mile and a quarter above East Atchison in 1844, ten years before Kansas was opened for settlement. His father, Joseph Taylor, came to the Platte Purchase in 1838, from Pennsylvania, settling near Weston. At that time most of the best claims were taken. John Taylor’s recollection was that the very earliest settler in that vicinity was in 1837. Joseph Taylor did not secure a very good claim, and afterward removed to Andrew county, finally locating a mile above East Atchison, in 1844. John Taylor said that George Million was living on the present site of East Atchison when his father’s family settled in the bottom. It was Mr. Taylor’s opinion that George Million settled in East Atchison in 1842, and that he did not start his ferry until 1850. In the spring of that year John Taylor crossed the river on George Million’s flat-boat ferry, and 198went to California, in company with his brother, Joe. There was no wagon road running west from Atchison at that time. John and Joe Taylor mined in California for eighteen months, never making over $20.00 per day, and usually only $5.00. They returned home by the way of the Isthmus of Panama, and John Taylor got the small-pox at Glascow, Mo., which did not break out on him until he reached East Atchison. This was supposed to be the first case of small-pox in this section of the country. All the other members of the family got it, and the wife of Jim Stultz, who came in to help his mother, also got it. Their physician was a Doctor Ankrom, who lived in the Narrows, near Rushville, and he got it, too. This was in the winter of 1851 and 1852. In September, 1854, ten years after settling in East Atchison, Mr. Taylor came to this side of the river. When he arrived Ladd Yocum was running a hotel in a tent; there was nothing else on the town site. Late in the fall George T. Challiss completed his store, which was the first building of any kind in Atchison, according to Mr. Taylor. He says that George Million did not erect his claim shanty until the following year.
Mr. Taylor first settled in the bluffs, northeast of Atchison, but afterwards moved to a tract of land owned by a man named O. B. Dickerson, who afterwards built the first livery stable in Atchison. Dickerson sold his claim to a man named Adams, B. T. Stringfellow’s father-in-law, for $600.00, but Adams did not comply with the law and Taylor jumped it. For a while Taylor and Adams lived on the same quarter, and became acquainted; then Taylor discovered that Adams paid $600.00 for the claim, and gave him his money back. Taylor said he never had any short words with Adams about the claim, but once. They met on the hill, overlooking the river, one day, and were looking at the wreck of the old “Pontiac,” which is now said to have contained several hundred barrels of whiskey. “Well,” said Adams, “when are you going?” “Going where?” asked Taylor. “To Nova Scotia,” replied Adams. “I am not going at all,” was Taylor’s response, which Adams understood to mean that he was not going to leave the claim, but intended to fight. A compromise soon followed.
Taylor says the “Pontiac” was carried off by Atchison people, and put into their houses, and that years afterwards, the writing on the wheel house could be seen around town. There was no whiskey left in the hold; indeed, the hold was carried away.
The Taylor place was considered a great deal more valuable in 1855 than it is now; people felt sure that within four or five years John Taylor would cut it up in town lots and sell them at fabulous prices, and go abroad.
199John Taylor’s sympathies were always with the South Carolinians, who made this section so warm in 1856, but said that only one in ten were good citizens; the others were toughs. One of them, a man named Newhall, was killed in the fight at Hickory Point. John Robinson, captain of a southern party at Hickory Point, was an Atchison man, and was shot in the hip.
Mr. Taylor said that in 1844 and several years later the country was full of bee trees, and that cattle turned into the rush in the river bottom in winter, came out fat in the spring. In 1844 there was a settlement of fifty Kickapoo families on the flat just above the island on the Kansas side. They made a great deal of maple sugar. In summer these Indians went out to the buffalo grounds, sixty to eighty miles west of the river, returning in the fall, to be near the Missouri settlers. There never was an Indian village on the site of Atchison, although Mrs. Joe Wade, who was George Million&rsquo............