Sedan, Kansas

[W. Gray]

Seems, someone on this forum said they were from Sedan or lived in Sedan.

The below is from the quarterly Chautauqua County Historical and Genealogical Society newsletter Gen-Tree.

It would be nice if Elk County had an active historical society as Chautauqua County.



PREDICTION OF A SEDAN METROPOLIS
By Waldo E. Gray

A March 4, 1885, Sedan Graphic editorial opinion, complete with many misspellings, long sentences, and mysterious reference to a newspaper poultry department, predicts the future of Sedan. Chautauqua County was booming in the 1880s and the population would reach 12,300 by the end of the decade.

"Here's the way we picture the future of Sedan, say five years—or more—hence. Sedan will then be as large—probably—as Wichita. Visitors to the city will get off the train at the Union depot of the D.,M.&.A, and the Santa Fe and take a carriage, or street car for the Occidental, Liddell, Grand Central or Delmonico, eat a square meal, and after dinner they can saunter around the city and see the sights, or go out to the park, and after supper—if the visitor hasn't fallen into a coal shaft—he can stroll down to the corner of Fourth and Main to Bryan's Opera House and hear Emma Abbot warble in the "Boheman Girl," or "King for a Day." The GRAPHIC will be printed on a Hoe two-revolution press, and the Times-Journal will be so full of hotel arrivals and other personals that its poultry department will be related to its patent outside, and the Colonel will probaby be in some ancient graveyard in Massachuetts taking a short-handreport of the epitaphs on the various tombstones to send home to his paper. The GRAPHIC—that is the WEEKLY GRAPHIC—will be a sixteen-page paper, while our nine-column Daily will contain all the dispatches. Whoop!"

Despite the editor's enthusiasm, Sedan was never close to equaling Wichita. Population in 1880 was 665. Wichita had a population that year of 4,911 and grew to 23,853 by the end of the decade. The highest Sedan population, 1,948, came in 1940.

The daily Sedan Times-Journal was a merger of the Sedan Times and Chautauqua Journal. A Colonel Ward was publisher. After the Civil War, there was an almost universal courtesy to the nation's military saviors, to call former officers by their wartime rank.

The Chautauqua County Times began life in 1878. The publisher sold out shortly after to A.D. Dunn who changed the name to the Sedan Times. The Chautauqua Journal was the second newspaper in Sedan having moved from Elk Falls in 1875. The newspapers merged after Dunn sold his interest in the Times. He then started the weekly Graphic with Major J. L. Mattingly, editor.

Coal shafts seem unknown in Sedan. Two notable histories of Kansas suggest settlers found coal along the streams in Chautauqua County. However, the veins produced such limited quantities exploitation was unprofitable.

There was an Occidental Hotel at the time. The editor misspelled "Lindell" the other hotel. The additional named businesses and mention of streetcars were part of the editor's optimism for the future. Eventually, townspeople did run an old stagecoach to ferry visitors between the depot and hotels.
Emma Abbott was an in demand nationally known opera singer of the time. Only the big cities could afford her. She passed away at an early age before the Sedan Opera House opened in 1896.

Although the editor refers to two Sedan railroads, there were no rail lines at the time. The prospective companies he notes are the Denver, Memphis, and Atlantic and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe. The DM&A arrived eighteen months later but offered freight only service. Missouri Pacific bought out DM&A shortly after that.

Santa Fe never made it to Sedan. The editor may be thinking of a proposed extension of the Elk & Chautauqua Railroad. That company was part of the Kansas City, Emporia, and Southern Railroad. Santa Fe leased the entire line, which at the time ended in Howard. The intent was to extend the road south to Sedan and into Indian Territory, but it never happened. The line reached Moline the following year and stopped.
There would never be a "Union depot" i.e., one centrally placed railway station jointly owned and used by two or more rival railroads. Other railroads slated for a Sedan connection also did not make it. These were the Moline and Sedan Railway; Wichita, Douglass, and Sedan Railway; and the Grenola, Sedan, and Elgin Railroad. These roads did not live past incorporation papers.

***

A note about Major J.L. Mattingly, the Sedan Graphic editor.

After the 1874 Boston War, Howard County appointed Mattingly acting treasurer. He replaced elected treasurer Elisha D. Custer, Peru, who fled the county after embezzling $30,000, leaving Howard County broke.
In late 1874, Howard County elected Mattingly county commissioner. The new Chautauqua County appointed him assistant treasurer in June 1875. Later that fall, citizens elected him sheriff.

Major Mattingly's appointments and election victories came following his action as a serious scofflaw. He was an original stockholder of the Boston Town Company living there from 1871 to 1875. He managed a successful general store and was visible in all town decisions.

According to Thomas E. Thompson, Howard Courant editor, Mattingly and Boston saloonkeeper Pat Nulty, conceived the idea and co-produced the Boston War. During this war, the county seat was forcefully moved from Elk Falls to Boston in January 1874.

After the end of the two-month war, in which Governor Thomas A. Osborn became actively involved, no one received punishment. Eventually, the Kansas Supreme Court decided against Boston as county seat.
Moving to Sedan after the June 1, 1875, Howard County division, Mattingly was the first elected Chautauqua County sheriff succeeding Eli Titus, a Howard County holdover. Mattingly served one term and went into the livery business.

In late 1884, A. D. Dunn hired him as editor of the new Graphic. He had previous editorial experience with the Howard County Messenger (Boston) and the Fort Scott Monitor. With much fanfare, Pat Nulty, his Boston partner in crime who also moved to Sedan after division, bought the first subscription.

A few months after the Sedan metropolis prediction, Major Mattingly, a Democrat, resigned from the Graphic. He left to run a second time for sheriff. Despite the military title, Mattingly spent Civil War years mining in the remote Montana goldfields and had no service experience. In the November 1885 election, his opponents pointed out there was no record of his participation in the Civil War and loudly charged him with fighting for the South.

This time he was soundly defeated.

[Marcia Moore]

     Yes, Waldo.  I am from Sedan and am a member of the Chautauqua County Historical Society, as well.  I enjoyed reading your article in the newsletter I received a few days ago.  The historical society at Sedan is growing all the time and is accumulating quite a library. 
     And yes, it is really too bad Elk County does not have an active historical society.  They only meet once a year.  I sure wish they would have monthly meetings and work on putting out another history book.

[W. Gray]

Well, for $125 plus handling you can get a copy of the the 900 plus page volume I of Chautauqua County history that the society is planning on reprinting if they can get enough orders.

For reference purposes, I have had to obtain a copy via interlibrary loan and would really like to have a copy. The wife has not said one way or the other yet.

[W. Gray]

Marcia,

I have been wanting to go take a look around Elgin.

Do you know if there is a paved road into the place, say that one off of 99 south of Chautauqua?

Is there anything still there?

[sixdogsmom]

Waldo, there is a paved road to Elgin by going to Oklahoma, then going back to Elgin. The county road from Chautaqua is quite interesting, but in poor condition.

[Marcia Moore]

Yes, Waldo, there is a partially paved road, though in poor condition, from Chautauqua to Elgin, and also the road from Boulanger, OK to Elgin, that is much better.  There isn't much left at Elgin, but it is still worth seeing.  If you go, please go inside the Methodist Church and look at the beautiful Tiffany stained glass windows.  That is worth the trip in itself.  They are real Tiffanys and they are absolutely gorgeous.  The old Episcopal Church building is still there, though beyond repair.  The Baptist Church has been gone for over twenty years.  There are very few business buildings left, though in very bad condition.  The school house has been gone for over thirty years now and the depot has been gone for over forty years.  I grew up around Elgin (my grandparents lived at Boulanger, OK and my parents had a ranch at Boulanger, just six miles south of Elgin) and I delivered mail there (out of Sedan) for a time, too.  Used to know everyone in town, but that is not the case now.  I do collect photographs of Elgin - have lots of them.  The Elgin Cemetery is located north of Elgin, on the road going north out of Elgin (on the northwest side of town).  Rome Hanks is buried there.

[Marcia Moore]

     Margaret's Cafe was my favorite place to go at Elgin when I was a kid.  Shirley and Margaret Brim owned the cafe.  Grandad and I went there all the time.  I always ordered meatloaf.  When I delivered mail there in my 20's, Margaret remembered I didn't like tomatoes, so she made sure she didn't put any on my plate. 

[W. Gray]

Have any of you folks ever heard about the triple lynching in Elgin in 1873?

[Marcia Moore]

I know there were at least two lynchings at Elgin.  A photo was taken of one of the lynchings, and I have been searching hard to come up with the photo.  Margaret and Shirley Brim had that photo in their museum next door to the cafe, but back in the early 1980's when the museum items were sold, it sold for $90 to Mike Holroyd.  I contacted Mike a few years ago, and he said the photo was stolen from him.  I contacted the author of "Without Sanctuary" hoping he might have the photo, but he didn't.  I have contacted a couple other collectors of lynching photos, as well, but to no avail.  There are surely other photos of this lynching out there - somewhere.  The photo shows a black woman and her son lynched from the bridge south of Elgin.  I would know the photo if I saw it.

[W. Gray]

Was the photo from 1873 or thereabouts?