Vol 38 • No.6
www.theactiveage.com Kansas’ Kansas’Award-winning Award-winningTop Top55+ 55+News NewsSource Source
Trail created 'cowboys,' towns
ACTIVE AGING PUBLISHING, INC 125 S West St., Suite 105 Wichita, Ks 67213
Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Wichita, KS 67276 Permit 1711
The first herd of Texas cattle arrived at the Great Western Stock Yards in Abilene in August of 1867. Over the next several years millions of head of cattle were driven up the Chisholm Trail to be loaded onto railroad cars and shipped off to eastern markets. The cattle trade helped feed a starving nation and boosted the economy in the aftermath of the Civil War. It also gave birth to cattle towns, the Old West and the legend of the American Cowboy. Kansas’ cattle towns owe their existence to the Chisholm Trail. The cattle trade along the trail, and the people and money it brought with it, allowed cattle towns to spring up and encouraged settlement into the new state. There was sometimes fierce competition between towns to get the railhead built in one place or another. Of course, along with the money came the cowboys — more properly
called drovers, as boy was often taken as a derogatory term following the war — and their rowdy and lawless ways. It wasn't uncommon for a town to segregate the cattlemen into an area away from the town proper to try and control some of the vices that came with the cattle trade. These districts featured saloons, brothels and hotels offering rest and recreation for the trail-weary drover. One example of this is Delano, which sprang up across the river from the new town of Wichita. Wichita required the cattlemen to check their guns with the town marshal when they entered the town, effectively keeping them west of the river. Fines that were levied on the sins in Delano provided much-needed funds to help the city fathers build the new town. After a few years, as settlers moved in and populations grew, town residents would often become weary of the lawlessness. After only one year, Newton supported Wichita in a bond effort to get a railhead in exchange for becoming the county seat of a new county created from the north part of Sedgwick County. Eventually, increasing conflicts with settlers and homesteaders caused the cattle trade to move further west to Dodge City, located on the Great Western Cattle Trail. This information was provided by historians Jay Price and Mary Lou Rivers, members of the Kansas Chisholm Trail Committee. To commemorate the trail and its important place in American history, a year of activities were planned - from San Antonio through Oklahoma to Abilene. More information and activities can be found at CT.150.com.
Questions about services?
Illustration courtesy of ct.150.com
May 2017
Farmers’ Markets opening
Farmers' markets go way back in the history of our country. Smithsonian magazine, in an article about the markets’ resurgence, reported that in July 1806 President Thomas Jefferson went to a Georgetown market and bought beef, eggs and assorted vegetables. In the first decades of the 1900s most cities with at least 30,000 people sponsored municipal markets, according to the article. But as better roads and refrigeration ushered in supermarkets and wholesalers, many small farms and markets were no longer a part of that food cycle. About 20 years ago a farmers' markets renaissance began. The impetus was to preserve local farmland and improve the livelihood of small farmers. Today, customers interested in See Markets, page 23
The death of Jesse Chisholm By James R. Mead After eating our breakfast and grazing our horses for an hour or so, we proceeded on our journey... which was Jesse Chisholm’s camp on the North Fork of the Canadian. Here, two or three weeks previous, I had left Mr. Chisholm and his trading outfit surrounded by a great number of Indians of various tribes who looked to him as their father, counselor and friend, as well as a trader. Near this campground, midway between the North Fork of the Canadian and the Cimarron, there is a large salt spring gushing out at the base of a high cliff covered with cedar timber. Here the Cherokees and other semi-civilized Indians resort every year
Central Plains Area Agency on Aging or call your county Department on Aging: 1-855-200-2372
to boil down salt and where, previous to the rebellion, Mr. Chisholm had taken a number of large iron kettles for use in manufacturing salt. ...This camp at which Mr. Chisholm was located was a central and well-known point, and where he and the Indians expected to remain for quite a length of time. The buffalo were also in reach, supplying them with meat. When I arrived at the camp... it was abandoned. I was more surprised, as I knew the Indians were at peace, and that it was Mr. Chisholm's intention to remain there for a considerable length of time. Also, I had arranged to meet him See Chisholm, page 10
Butler County: (316) 775-0500 or 1-800- 279-3655 Harvey County: (316) 284-6880 or 1-800-279-3655