Early History of Elk Falls

[genealogynut]

Howard Courant
July 21, 1927

Early History of Elk Falls

By Donald Lockhart

If the town of Elk Falls was mentioned at all in the late state road directory, it would probably be described thus:  "Population approximately 300, on No. 12 dirt road at junction of short cut to Howard, El Dorado, and Wichita, good natural camping grounds on Elk River for outing parties," while the casual tourist would speed by unobservantly and dub it, with other country towns as "only a wide place in the road."

But lo, what a different view the hoary headed pioneer holds as he looks upon the town and vicinity, for he and the country have aged together.  A few of the pioneers can hark back almost three score years to the first settlement and a great change indeed they see.  At that time the Elk Falls country seemed to be a favorite camping and fishing place of the Osage Indians.  In several places, the scars of the old Indian trails are plainly visible at the present time.

Back in the latter sixties, the Osages will tell you, the prairie schooners, as the covered wagons were called, began to arrive and the country which had lain dormant for all these centuries began to show signs of awakening with activities of civilized man.  In the short space of two or three years, nearly every claim was occupied along the streams and the Indian tepee was displaced and in its place were the pioneer cabins.

Elk Falls was once the capital of, what is now, Elk and Chautauqua counties.  To prove that the settlers were of good clean mind we only have to turn back to the construction of the town.  There we find the first M. E. church in Elk or Chautauqua was organized at Elk Falls when only a few small houses composed the town, even before a school was taught.  This church organization was sponsored chiefly by Mrs. R. H. Nichols in 1870.  Previous to that time the townsite and vicinity were in an unsurveyed Indian reservation known as the Osage Dimished Reserve, the townsite being plotted and surveyed before the U. S. Government township or sectional survey was made, hence the streets as we see at the present do not correspond to the section lines which were established later by the U. S. Government.

The first settlers arrived over two trails, one from the Independence country following the river valley which was covered with blue stem grass "higher than the back of an ox."  Some of the settlers arrived over an old trail from New Albany on Fall River, the nearest trading point.  This trail crossed Elk River just above the cataract.  Besides the arrival of the settlers many Indians passed to and from their buffalo range in the west.

Mr. E. B. White, now of Howard, at that time a boy, once walked from Independence with an Osage Indian boy friend to a point on Elk river near the falls to meet a band of returning Osage buffalo hunters.  On Mr. White's arrival they found the Osages had fought with the Cheyennes and had Cheyenne scalps.  The boys accompanied these hunters and warriors back to the Indian village east of Elk City where the Indians proceeded to hold a scalp dance and three day pow-wow over their victory.

The Osages were friendly with the white settlers from the beginning of the settlement and according to Brady's history, it was Osage Indians from lower Elk river who piloted General Custer's troops from Medicine Lodge, Kansas to the valley of the Washita in the Wichita Mts. of Oklahoma in pursuit of the southwest Indians.  Some of thee Osages were killed in the massacres of Custer and his army on the Little Bighorn river in Montana.

There is no way to ascertain who first settled on the individual farms of today in the vicinity of Elk Falls as a settler very often sold his right of possession after the erection of his "claim shanty" and moved on farther west or possibly relocating on another claim and selling again.  Often the second entrant would sell out and sometimes two or three entrants would live on a claim before the land was finally deeded.  Young men very often came two and three together with only one team and wagon.  Some walked in and took claims with no equipment for farming operations but built their cabins for the adventure of living on a claim in a new country.  Not all, however, were land seeking for speculation or pastime.  The majority were seeking a home and found the ideal of their dreams here on Elk river.  Many were soldiers from the Civil War who left their wives and women folks at home until suitable quarters could be arranged.  A few brought their women, but at first women were scarce and almost looked upon with reverence.

In the Nichols' sketches of Elk county history, the following names are given as some of the very first settlers in the Elk Falls vicinity in the fall of 1868; W. H. Conover, Charley Weatherby, William and Phelix Lorence, Fletcher, J. D. Eddy, and William Doyle, W. H. Conover being the first settler on Wild Cat creek.

All who made any pretense at farming in the Elk Falls vicinity previous to 1870 did so as farmers of Indian land as the land was not opened for homestead entry until that year.  These tenants were called squatters waiting for the reservation to be opened for homestead entry.  Among these squatters were William and Phelix Lorance.   Each paid the Indians $2.50 per year for a residence right to farm land which they located on the river bottom one and one half miles east of the Falls.  They afterwards deeded this land as homesteads.

In 1869 the townsite of Elk Falls was located and platted by three gentlemen named Johnson, Nichols, and Gitchell.  Nichols' sketches gives the first house built in Elk Falls by R. H. Nichols, size 12 by 14.  The family consisted of himself, wife and one daughter, Luly May.   This residence was erected in the early part of 1870 and in this year many settlers arrived both in the town and the adjacent country, for besides the opening of the reservation for homestead entry, Howard county was organized with Elk Falls as the county seat.

Howard county was composed of three township named LIberty, Elk Falls, and Belleville.  Elk Falls township comprised the greater part of the present county of Elk and Belleville township was composed of the present county of Chautauqua and the southwest part of Elk.

The first store was located in Elk Falls in the spring of 1870.  This same year a goverment post office was also established and the mail was carried overland by pony riders from Eureka in Greenwood county thirty-five miles north.  The first printing press in Howard county was operated at Elk Falls.  Mr. Flory's history "Pioneer Days" gives the first issue of the Elk Falls Examiner a weekly newspaper, as Saturday, February 4, 1871.

In 1871, lively times were experienced around Elk Falls.  A county seat election was held and Peru in Belleville township won the county seat from the Falls. Elk Falls went to court and Judge Campbell, now of Wichita, ruled out Peru.  Another election was then held, this time between Elk Falls and Boston in Belleville township, again Elk Falls lost the county seat and again Elk Falls went to court and won back the county seat after most of the books and county fixtures had been moved to Boston.  The Boston settlers were chiefly of Irish descent and were not so easily disposed of and excitement ran high almost to the point of blood shed.  The affair was never really settled until the county organized when Elk Falls again lost the county seat to Howard City by an act of state legislature in 1874.

About 1877, a railroad boom was started.  Previously, all the goods and merchandise had been freighted in by wagon from Humboldt first and then Chanute and later, Independence was the railway was extended in this direction from Lawrence.  The Atchinson, Topeka, and Santa Fe originally known as the Lawrence, Leavenworth and Gulf, first planned a narrow guage railway through Elk Falls and bonds were voted as such but plans were changed later and a standard guage line was built.

Many stories of fiction have been written, narrating how early day western towns have greeted their first trains with hilarity but not so with Elk Falls.  Elk Falls had no boom at any time only a normal growth such as natural resources would produce.  The railway was talked of, bonds voted and for a time railway was the main topic of the day.  First the preliminary survey was north of town, then the premanent survey south of town, then the grading, laying of rails, etc., all so gradually that no one was unduly excited when the first train finally arrived on July 10, 1879, though an effort was made for the first train to arrive on July the fourth, six days earlier.  Shortly afterwards, the Santa Fe also made another survey for a road from Emporia south to connect their Southern Kansas line at Elk Falls, but owing to an error of business men of Elk Falls the road was never built but was extended to Moline instead.  This proved to be the undoing of Elk Falls.  Several families had followed the county seat to Howard and a greater number moved to Moline through Elk Falls at that time was the largest town in the county and contained a number of stores, printing office, bank, hotels, livery barns, operating stage lines, real estate and loan offices, etc., besides the roller mill with a large capacity for that age putting out an excellent flour called Queen Bee.

Most of us who were children inthe 80's, have a vivid recollection of wearing under garments made of Queen Nee flour sacks.  We, of Elk county were not alone in eating and wearing Quenn Bee for the sales of the Elk Falls roller mills covered the territory of adjoining counties.

Elk Falls held its own for awhile after losing the county seat and second railway, but when the paniky nineties came, many houses wre vacated, some were drawn to the country and used as farm buildings.  But again Elk Falls is coming to its own and is classed as one of Elk County's prominent and substantial towns.

Historical incidents and facts recollected by some of the older residents of the vicinity:

Mr. Phelix Lorence remembers when the first settlers arrived and women were few.  A family, name forgotten, settled just west of the Falls, this family consisted of man, wife, and two daughters, young ladies.  Mr. Lorance, in company with other young men of the neighborhood, went one afternoon and helped the new man roof and floor his claim house.  The wife and daughters cooked supper for them, after which the evening was spent visiting, singing songs, and playing games, this was the first young folks party of the vicinity.

Mr. Ed Nelson remembers when a boy, of playing and running foot races with the Indian boys encamped with their tribe along Elk river.

Mr. W. M. Williams remembers when shippers drove hogs on foot to Independence to market and there was not a bridge on any stream or water course in all of this distance.

Mr. Byron Fancher remembers when he was a partner with Mr. Ransom in a cabinet and repair shop and some of his repair work was on hunting rifles belonging to the Indians.

Mr. Wert Wicker remembers when places, now covered with a dense growth of timber, could have been mowed and some, at that time, actually were hay fields.

Mr. John Bennett remembers when he was connected with the livery business and drove stage to Sedan and Elgin before the railway was built to those towns.

Mr. M. F. Arnall remembers when the railway was under construction and the town had two licensed saloons and two or three joints selling liquor.

Mr. George Bennett remembers when the blue stem grass was dense every where on the prairie and no county roads were marked and few fields were broken out.  The greatest dread of the settlers was in the fall of the year when the frost dried the grass, prairie fires were a serious danger; occasionally a claim house with all contents was consumed by such fires in spite of the united efforts of the settlers of the neighborhood.

[W. Gray]

He says road twelve goes through Elk Falls. But, if one looks at the Howard County Map on a previous post, road 12 goes north and south west of Moline.

Anyone know if the east-west roads used to be numbered also?

[W. Gray]

I have Howard County on the brain. I meant Elk County map.

[genealogynut]

Waldo, the only explanation I can think of would be is, that article was printed in 1927, and it's possible there was a Road # 12 there around Elk Falls at that time.(I do not really know).  On the current Elk County Road Map that was posted recently, yes, Road # 12 is west of Moline.  The naming and numbering of the roads were just established/changed a few years ago.  If anyone else has a better answer, let's hear it.

[Flintauqua]

Before there was a US 160 accross southern Kansas, the route was designated K-12.

[W. Gray]

Now we know, there was once a K-11 and a K-12 in Elk County.