Bos Americanus

[W. Gray]

From the Howard County Ledger (Elk Falls), July 23, 1874

"Recently three head of buffalo strayed out of their usual range and crossed the Arkansas river. On Saturday last they were discovered on Big Caney, in this county; and on Sunday one of them was shot and killed in the suburbs of Howard City. This is something remarkable, and the more so as this was probably  the last specimen of the bos Americanus that will ever be seen in this county."

There is a story in the Elk County history book about this event but it has the event in 1875 rather than 1874. The story is by Lily B. Rozar, who has written several stories about the area. I do not think she is from Elk County but if anyone knows who she is, please let me know.

According to Rozar's story, one of the buffaloes, a cow, was killed near Howard by a group and they continued chasing the bull which they brought down north of town. It took seven bullets to down the animal. Another story says it was brought down on north Wabash. One of the group was teenager Fred C. Flory, who seventeen years later became publisher of the Elk County Citizen and renamed his newspaper the Howard Citizen around 1919. He passed on in 1942.

Generally, the gist of all the stories on this subject is that the last remaining buffalo in southeast Kansas was killed in Howard, Kansas.

According to the Encarta Dictionary, a suburb does not have to be residential.

[frawin]

Waldo, I will try to remember to ask Fred Flory's Great-Grandson about Lily B. Rozar and also about the Buffalo article. He worked in the paper with his Grandfather Floyd Flory for awhile.
Frank

[W. Gray]

She also wrote an article for the Wichita Eagle in the mid 50s which had a photo of the Elk County courthouse. She said that building would not be in Howard but would be 15 miles southwest in Boston had events not turned sour in Howard County.