Pioneer Days

[W. Gray]

I am not sure how many times I said it, but I do not see anything negative by you asking.

I have a few microfilm reels of newspapers and several three-inch notebooks full of Howard, Elk, and Chautauqua County and other newspaper articles from 1869 through 1956. Some portions of them, especially the early ones, have to be read with a magnifying glass because the print quality is so poor. That includes the Progressive Communist, which published in Cedar Vale. Other than the tidbits of political news I have posted in the political section, I am more interested in piecing researched information into a story. Even then, except for Thomas E. Thompson, alligators, the Elk County courthouse, Elk County railroads, and the Howard Hotels, I am usually more interested in Howard County.

I would also like to say that the older I get, the dizzier I get looking at microfilm frames flashing by.

Your previously posted item on 1880s coal caught my attention and the below short item was researched a couple years ago about area coal ten years earlier:

The Emporia News reported in 1870 there was plenty of coal in western Howard County and Cowley and Greenwood counties were burning "Howard County Coal." Three years later part of the coal was coming from the bluffs along Bakers Branch feeding Middle Caney Creek near Boston. The owner described a vein on the bluffs as being four feet under the surface with a sixteen inch depth of clear coal, easily strip-mined. The Longton Weekly Ledger reported a twenty-one inch layer of coal mined near Boston from a 360-foot dig into a hillside.

A contractor found the black ore at a depth of thirty-two feet when digging the Longton city well. The deposit was not thick but optimism became widespread prospectors would find more in the vicinity. The Howard County Ledger (Longton) reported several veins within five miles of Elk Falls. One of these was a three-foot vein at the surface. Another was a wide seam found near Elk Falls public square at a depth of less than twenty feet. The going consumer rate for Howard County coal was eight cents a bushel. In comparison, a cord of firewood was selling for three dollars delivered in the town of Boston.

Miners worked several coal deposits in the former southern half in the years following the death of Howard County. The southern half also had deposits of lead ore never panning out for mining even though in at least one place, lead averaged out at eighty-seven percent. One lump measuring twenty-five pounds went on display in Peru. Prospectors found silver ore three miles west of Peru in late 1873 but the find never panned out.

Even though Kansans began drilling for oil in 1860, there is no evidence of any Howard County discoveries. Chautauqua and Elk counties, though, would see many successful wells tapped into part of a larger oil pool originating under Butler and Cowley counties to the west.
   

[W. Gray]

One newspaper item that I did want to post word for word, I cannot find. It was printed sometime between 1874 and 1880.

There is an old well at the intersection of Randolph and Wabash in Howard. During heavy rains, it overflows and water runs up through the brick pavers and down Wabash. I saw it running over one day and remembered the article but have lost patience trying to find it.

From what I can recall, an Elk Falls newspaper editor wrote the item. He chides the people of Howard for the deplorable condition of their public wells. The article said Howard had four public wells and went on to explain the wells were full of old clothes, dead animals, and other trash.

[W. Gray]

Found it. It was worse than I remembered.

Howard City Beacon, August 28, 1875

"Would it not be well for the citizens of Howard to see that the public wells are cleaned out? Two of them are very near half full of old hoopskirts, discarded bustles, false hair switches, dead cats, rabbits, dogs, pigs, two-year steers, old hats, pants, coats, and for what we know, candidates for county offices. An investigation into this matter is very much needed, for, above everything, we have no candidates to spare."

[Cyntlittle]

I found my Great Grandparents Mr. & Mrs. Henry Woolford and their son James in the Pioneer Days posting.  This is incredible!!!!  If anyone has information on them or where Mrs. Sarah Jane Woolford (or Wolford) is buried I would appreciate it.  She died 3/25/1881. Great story to learn about our family history.  And Alfred and Ed Glidden are cousins!  Where may I find a copy of the complete text?  Thanks.

Interesting Incidents and History of Early Days In Elk County

The first school taught in this section was in a log hut on a farm, on the east side of Paw Paw about two milles north of Howard.  The teacher was a young man named Frank Hobbs.  This was a subscription school and was in the winter of 1869-70.  The following were the pupils who attended this school:  Sherley Greenwood, Belle Greenwood, Ed Chirpolled, Jennie Wilder, Nancy Wilder, Geo. Wilder, Jennie Cooper, Geo. Yokum, Ella Yokum, Frank Mahurin, Sarah Mahurin, Emma Hobbs, Alfred and Ed Glidden, Nancy Cole, Leta and Mark McBee.

The first child born in this neighborhood was to Mr. and Mrs. Henry Woolford in 1869.  He was named James.














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[flintauqua]

The first post in this thread is excerpted from an article that is available in full here:

http://ksgennet.org/ks/ek/omni/pioneers.html

Also, the October 1883 Marriage License of Henry Woolford and Elizabeth Glidden is notated here:

http://www.ksgennet.org/ks/ek/newspaper/newsarticles05.html

That's all I could find at the Genealogy Trails site for Elk County

http://genealogytrails.com/kan/elk/

[Cyntlittle]

Thank you for the links for the Wolford family.  Cynthia

[ddurbin]

Also on the Elk County Genealogy Trails site are listings for 3 early burials for members of the Glidden family in the Grace Lawn Cemetery at Howard.  They might also be connected to Elizabeth and your other Gliddens.

[Diane Amberg]

Do you happen to know if Grace Lawn is the first and only cemetery in Howard and when it first opened? Where were people buried before that time? I didn't see anything in the Elk County History book. Perhaps I just missed it.

[W. Gray]

By my count there are around 25 cemeteries in Elk County. I don't know which would be the oldest, although it would seem the further north they are located the older the cemetery. For instance, the first burial in Clear Creek was in 1863.

The web site listing the burials for Gracelawn says the ground site has been used since 1869. However, I could not find a listing for anyone buried there in that year nor in 1870.

Additionally, Howard City was originally at a site two or three miles north of the present site until late 1870 or early 1871.

I did find burials at Gracelawn in 1871 and 1872.

[W. Gray]

According to one web site there are 3,746 burials in Grace Lawn.