EARLY DAY CONDITIONS—THEIR ADVANCEMENT—PRIOR DICKEY—HENRY C. BUCHANAN—EUGENE L. BELL—CHARLES INGRAM—CHARLES J. FERGUSON—HENRY DICKEY—DR. FRANK ADRIAN PEARL, M. D.—DR. W. W. CALDWELL, M. D.

The story of the African race in Atchison county makes an appeal to the thoughtful and intelligent student of history. It is not a mere platitude to say that the negro has made marvelous progress in many lines, and not the least striking illustration of this assertion is to point to what he has accomplished in this county under circumstances that have not been altogether propitious. The record of African bondage here is not voluminous, but it is sufficient upon which to base a story of his development. As early as 1856 a reference to slavery in Atchison county is found in the Squatter Sovereign, which on September 16 of that year contained the following advertisement:
$500 REWARD.

Ran away from the subscribers on the night of September 9, two negro boys, Ned and Harrison.

Ned is about eighteen years old, stout and well built, about five feet, eight inches high, and weighs about 170 pounds. At the time of his leaving was dressed in a brown velvet coat.

Harrison is a bright mulatto, about five feet, four inches high, weighs about 120 pounds, is about sixteen years old, and was rather shabbily dressed.

Said negroes took with them two horses.

One black, six years old, branded H on left hip, quite thin, about fifteen and one-half hands high.

One claybank, dark mane and tail, rather bony, six years old, about fifteen and one-half hands high, paces.

335Five hundred dollars reward will be given for the apprehension and safe return of the negroes, or $250 for the recovery of either of the negroes and horses.
A. J. Frederick,
R. H. Cabell.
Atchison, K. T.

A search of the files of the Squatter Sovereign fails to disclose the sequel to this advertisement. Whether or not “Ned and Harrison” were subsequently apprehended and the reward paid must be left to the imagination, but doubtless they were among the four million black men from whose limbs, a few years later, Abraham Lincoln struck the shackles, and whose descendants this day are breathing the pure air of freedom. There is no definite record of the number of slaves in Atchison county at the time the advertisement in the Squatter Sovereign appeared. When the first census was taken in 1855 no counties had been established and the territory in Atchison county was included in the fifteenth election district. This census provided for the enumeration of the slaves in the territory, and as far as can be determined, the following men in and around Atchison were slave owners: D. A. N. Glover, three; W. M. Size, five; John Samuel, one; R. A. Walker, one; Charles Echer, three; S. F. Raz, three; and Grafton Thomasson, the sawmill man, of Atchison, owned three, one of whom drowned herself in the Missouri river, which fatality was the direct cause of the famous Pardee Butler incident. It is a far cry from “Ned and Harrison” to Prior Dickey and Henry Buchanan, successful farmers of Walnut township, and it will be the object of this chapter to show how far that cry is, by tracing somewhat intimately the lives and careers of Dickey and Buchanan, and other leading negroes of the Mills neighborhood.

Prior Dickey was born in Barren county, Kentucky, March 9, 1861, a son of Jackson and Edith Dickey, the father a native of West Virginia, and the mother of Kentucky. The first eighteen years of his life were spent in Kentucky, and in 1879 he came to Kansas, and his first employment was in a rock quarry at Millbrook, Graham county. He possessed $3.75 when he landed in this town. He helped build sod houses, and in fact turned his hand at anything that offered for his board and lodging. During the spring of 1880 he walked from Millbrook to Concordia, a distance of 200 miles, in search of work. He was accompanied by a friend, Calvin Trotter, and their joint capital was $1.25. After reaching Concordia, and also having gone 336without food for two days, he secured work with a railroad construction crew, and was sent from Concordia to Atchison, and thence to Rich Hill, Mo., and later to Texas, where he worked on the extension of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railway. When this work was finished he started for Kansas, and wishing to save his money stowed himself in a box car. While the train was at a standstill in a Texas town, a white man knocked on the door, demanding admittance. Prior was scared, and stealing out of the opposite door, started to run. The white man called out, “Stop, neighbor,” and Prior stopped. They became friends, and came north together in the box car. On arriving at Ft. Scott, Prior gave his white friend $1, fed him at a restaurant, and sent him on his way. From Ft. Scott he came to Atchison, and later was employed in railroad construction work of various kinds in Nebraska, on the Central Branch railroad in Kansas, the Wabash in Missouri, and elsewhere. In 1833 he secured his first employment on a farm, a field of endeavor in which he has since made a signal success. From ten dollars a month to twenty-one dollars, with board and lodging, was his wage. Prior possessed a spirit of thrift and saved his wages. In 1885, while working for Medad Harvey, in Grasshopper township, Atchison county, he bought his first forty acres. On this place he put his father and mother, bringing them from Kentucky. They lived here until their deaths, that of the father, in 1895, and the mother in 1911. Prior’s example in caring for his aged parents, even refusing to marry on account of attendance on his mother, is worthy of emulation. Three years after his first purchase of land he bought his second forty, a year later a third forty, then an eighty, and later from John J. Ingalls, he bought a 160 acre tract. He is also the owner of a 160 acre farm in Oklahoma, and his various holdings total over 500 acres. He is a capable and industrious agriculturist, employs modern methods, is in close touch with the advancement in scientific farming, and is a successful breeder of high grade cattle and hogs. His herd of grade Herefords is the equal of any in the county and numbers over fifty head. His property is well improved and well kept. He is a stockholder in the State Bank of Potter and conceded to be no mean financier. He is a stanch Republican and states “not a black man in the United States can conscientiously be anything but a Republican.” He cast his first vote in Graham county in the first election held in that county after its organization. He is a Mason and a Baptist. A sister and her children comprise his household. Possessed of ambition to succeed and gain an assured position in his adopted State, of untiring energy, intelligence and the quality of thrift, Prior Dickey has developed into a citizen who is worth while.

337Henry C. Buchanan was born in Lincoln county, Kentucky, on April 8, 1844. His father was a slave, owned by Dr. Thomas Montgomery, and named Martin Montgomery, and his mother was Violet Shanks, a slave girl, owned by Archie Shanks. Their son was born on the Shanks plantation. Following the death of Archie Shanks, his daughter, Sarah, inherited the boy, Henry, along with thirty other slaves. She afterward married a man by the name of Buchanan, and this family name was given the boy. He grew to young manhood on the Buchanan plantation, and was given fair treatment, but not any schooling. In 1864 he left the plantation and enlisted in the Fifth United States cavalry, at Camp Wilson, on the Kentucky river. He served about twenty-two months and was mustered out at Little Rock, Ark. He then returned to the old plantation in Kentucky, and found it had been made a Government post. He was fairly well posted on farming, as he had been one of the best field hands on the Buchanan plantation, and this fact being known to the land owners of the neighborhood, he had no difficulty in leasing a portion of the old plantation. A brother-in-law was associated with him in this venture, but Henry was the manager. He later leased land in the adjoining county. His farming was profitable, and he saved his money, eventually accumulating enough capital to engage in the general merchandise business in Lancaster, Ky., on a small scale. In 1881 he concluded to go west, and chose Atchison Kan., as his place of location. He arrived here at the time of the great flood, and shortly afterward opened a grocery and produce store on Fifth street. He continued in this business until 1891, when he sold out, and with the proceeds bought 100 acres of land in Walnut township. This property he improved, and as the years have passed he has added to the acreage, until now he owns 400 acres. The property is well improved, well kept and well farmed. He was married in 1878 to Belle Hogans, of Garritt county, Kentucky, who died in 1899. Handicapped by the lack of education, he has spared no reasonable expense in the matter of educating his children, and his sons are now carrying forward their father’s farm enterprise along modern lines, and are well educated, intelligent members of the community. A deceased daughter, Luella B., graduated from the Atchison county high school, at Effingham. Henry Buchanan has always been a Republican. He has served as precinct committeeman, and as a member of the election board at several elections, and also as judge of election. He is a member of the Baptist church, and has been a member of the board of trustees of his local church for many years. Measured from the standpoint of a man who has done the things which have come to his hand from time to time, he has done those things well. He has 338assisted in the development of the county’s agricultural resources, has been thrifty, and has gained the respect and esteem of the residents of his township and county.

Eugene L. Bell, prosperous farmer, Walnut township, was born at Oak Mills, Kan., July 28, 1875, a son of Joseph and Sydney (King) Bell, natives of Missouri and Kentucky, respectively. Joseph Bell, the father, was born in October, 1844, in Platte county, Missouri, of slave parentage. He lived in Missouri until 1863, and then located in Leavenworth, Kan., where he joined the United States army, becoming a member of Company G, Seventy-ninth regiment, United States Colorado infantry. He served until the close of the Civil war, taking part in fourteen battles. After the war he married Miss Sydney King at Leavenworth, Kan. In 1872 he removed to Oak Mills, Atchison county, and settled on a farm in Walnut township. He was one of the pioneers of this settlement and developed a fine farm. Mr. Bell took an active part in matters pertaining to the betterment of his community and was an exemplary citizen. Many of the noted men of his day in Kansas were his warm and steadfast friends. Mr. and Mrs. Bell were the parents of nine children, six of whom were reared to maturity: Eugene L., the subject of this review; Mrs. Birdie Norman, of Omaha, Neb.; Mrs. T. C. Brown, and Miss Pearlie Bell, of Chicago, Ill.; Humphrey Bell, of Pittsburgh, Pa.; and Mead Bell, of Cleveland, Ohio. Joseph Bell died May 30, 1914. Mrs. Bell died April 18, 1903. Like her husband, she ran away from slavery to Kansas.

Eugene L. spent his boyhood days assisting his father in cultivating the home farm, and managed to attend school about two and one-half months out of the year until he attained the age of nineteen years. He then began to hustle for himself and completed a three years’ course in the Atchison county high school at Effingham. Ambition and a desire to educate himself led him to make sacrifices in order to prepare himself to better cope with the struggle for a livelihood. The priceless boon of an education was his after considerable effort, and he graduated from the county high school in 1896. He then returned to the avocation of farmer and rented land in Walnut township, which he cultivated for some years. Mr. Bell is the owner of a fine farm in Walnut township.

He was married December 26, 1901, to Miss Mamie Churchhill, of Monrovia, Kan., a native of Hardin county, Kentucky. They settled in Atchison, Kan., and lived there three years after this marriage. Mr. Bell then moved to Walnut township and taught school for two terms in District No. 20. He then bought forty acres of land, on which he has since made his home. Seven 339children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Bell: Inez, Orville, Eugene, Leslie, Jr., Justin, Irene, Pearlie, Ruthanna. Mrs. Bell died December 7, 1912.

Mr. Bell has been the local newspaper correspondent of his neighborhood for several years and has a decided literary talent. For the past eighteen years he has been connected with school district No. 20 in the capacity of teacher and school trustee. He is a progressive Republican in his political affiliations, and has been honored by his party. On May 27, 1915, he was appointed by Governor Capper as a member of the board of trustees of Quindaro University, Kansas, and also received a complimentary appointment to attend the Farmers’ Congress as a negro delegate, held at the Panama Exposition at San Francisco. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church of Atchison, and has been a member of the Masonic fraternity for the past fifteen years. Mr. Bell has taken a prominent part in the educational and civic life of Atchison county. He has served as a delegate to county and State conventions of his party, and filled the position of doorkeeper and sergeant-at-arms in the house of representatives at Topeka. His newspaper experience includes a term of employment in the printing department of the Omaha Bee when nineteen years old, where he learned typesetting, going from there to Chicago and attending the World’s Fair. After ............