Sumner County: 150 Years of History

Sumner County - 1871-2021 150 Years of History

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Sumner County 1871-2021

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Sumner County 1871-2021

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December 2021

Sumner County is rich in history

By Travis Mounts TSnews

Sumner County turned 150 in 2021, with a rich history in its towns and in the spaces in between. The county was part of Indian land for many years after other parts of Kansas were settled by white pioneers.

Before 1867, the area that became Sumner County was divided between Butler County and Marion County.

Sumner County was officially established on Dec. 20, 1870, and was named for Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner.

The early years were a struggle. Indian territory laid just to the south. Railroads had not come to the county yet, nor had the immigration companies that facilitated growth.

The Chisholm Trail helped bring non-natives to the area in the post-Civil War years. Longhorn cattle in Texas had roamed uncontrolled for a long time. But in peacetime, demand for beef shot up, and the cattle provided a ready supply.

Starting in 1871, the Chisholm Trail helped change the fortunes of Sumner County. The trail entered Sumner County at Caldwell, just east of where the current town sits. Those wild days gave Caldwell a unique, wild and often bloody history.

The trail passed about seven miles west of Wellington, near Mayfield, and it went through the Walton farm. The family began offering goods to the cattle drovers, since the nearest trading post was in Wellington. In fact, the area was known as Walton for a while.

The trail continued north, going through Millerton, a hamlet between Conway Springs and Clearwater. Not much stands in Millerton today, and what is left there gives few hints about the city’s past. An old grain elevator rises above the trees and brush that surround it, a monument to a bygone era. A handful of rural homes dot the landscape around the elevator. Millerton had some early promise, with a post office that operated from 1875 to 1912, although the post office was called Rolling Green until 1884. The trail then continued to Clearwater, crossing the Ninnescah River at Old Clearwater not far from the current city. It then went

to Oatville and into Wichita.

The expansion of railroads in the Great Plains brought an end to the Chisholm Trail after a few short years, but led to the growth of counties like Sumner County and some of the cities in those counties.

The Santa Fe came first, finalizing plans in 1878. The line from Wichita was extended to Mulvane, Belle Plaine, Wellington and Caldwell. It was incorporated as the Cowley, Sumner and Fort Smith Railway Company, opening in September 1879. In 1880, rail service moved west, with one line running to Harper and another going to Anthony. In the 1880s, a new line went west from Wellington, bringing trains to Mayfield and Milan. Argonia, Conway Springs and Milton all sit on rail lines.

Today, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe remains very busy, running through Argonia, Milan, Mayfield and Wellington before continuing east through Belle Plaine and Mulvane. The Union Pacific runs through Peck, Riverdale, Wellington, Perth, Corbin and Caldwell. The Southern Kansas and Oklahoma line goes from Wellington through Rome, South Haven and Hunnewell. The Central Kansas Railway runs from Conway Springs to Wichita.

Wellington was named the county seat early on, but there was competition.

Oxford, Meridian, Sumner City, Belle Plaine and Caldwell all wanted to be government seat of the county. Sumner City folded as a community, and a number of buildings were moved to Wellington.

The first courthouse was built at Washington and 10th, and was used until 1940.

A citizen going up the front stairway fell through rotted floor boards. The courthouse was then condemned and torn down. The Harvey House then hosted county business until 1952, when the current courthouse was completed.

Today, Sumner County is populated by towns and villages ranging in size from several thousand people to just a hundred or even a few dozen. Current cities (both incorporated and unincorpated) include Anson, Argonia, Ashton, Belle Plaine, Caldwell, Conway Springs, Corbin, Dalton, Drury, Geuda Springs, Hunnewell, Mayfield, Milan, Millerton, Milton, Mulvane, Oxford, Peck, Perth, Portland, Riverdale, Rome, South Haven and Wellington.

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Old Oxford Mill dates back to county’s founding

The Old Oxford Mill, located just north of Oxford and sitting on a mill race near the Arkansas River, was built by D.N. Cook and John Hewitt. This makes the mill one of the first permanent structures in Sumner County.

The mill race – three miles long – was dug by hand parallel to the river.

Charles Champeny and B.F. Fisher purchased the mill in 1910.

Champeny bought out Fisher in 1918. The mill has remained in the Champeny family since then.

For more than 100 years, Oxford’s Best flour and cereals helped shape the Oxford community’s identity. Flour production eventually moved to the new mill, which was constructed around 1935 and sits immediately west of the old mill. The old mill was retrofitted to provide electric power.

The Old Oxford Mill’s history was recognized in April 1982, when it was placed on the National Historic Register.

Over the decades, the old mill deteriorated. In the late 1980s, Wallace Champeny and Hall Ross invested more than $500,000 into restoring the building. Wallace – the grandson of Charles Champeny – became the third generation of the Champeny family to own the mill.

After the restoration, the Old Oxford Mill became a restaurant and gift shop and operated from 1990 to 2006. Starting in 2008, an agreement was reached for Oxford High School students to run the restaurant as part of the school’s entrepreneurship class. It was open just for lunch on Sundays.

The mill has been closed during the pandemic.

The scenic Old Oxford Mill is located just outside of Oxford, on a hand-dug race west of the Arkansas River.

Travis Mounts/TSnews

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December 2021

Taking the waters: Natural springs were important in early Sumner County

By Sam Jack TSnews When people of European ancestry first began to move into Sumner County, it must have been clear to everyone that some parts of the county would become urbanized, while other parts would remain rural or semi-rural.

How this sorting process would play out mattered a great deal to landowners, business owners and other residents. A section of land in or adjacent to a prospering city would be worth far more than a section with purely agricultural use.

The challenge, for enterprising early Kansans, was that one potential site for urbanization could look interchangeable with competing sites – or at least close enough to interchangeable that potential investors and residents might be swayed by an impassioned pitch.

One such “pitch,” or value proposition, that swept not only Kansas but the nation in the 1880s is exemplified by this rave review of Geuda Springs, which appeared in the Winfield Courier in March 1884: “Geuda mineral water is famous for curing everything under the sun. It is a lasting panacea to suffering humanity; a specific that combines in its properties a wonderful cure for all the ills and pains and the various vicissitudes that beset man during his stay on this mundane sphere.”

Such extravagant claims are characteristic of hydropathy, a pseudoscience that, from 1850 through the second World War, enjoyed widespread popularity and the endorsement of well-known doctors. In Kansas, the fruits of the national enthusiasm for natural springs were humbler.

No fewer than 25 Kansas cities and towns are named for or associated with springs, including Geuda Springs and Conway Springs, each of which owe substantial early economic development to the phenomenon of “taking the waters.”

‘The Legend of Geuda Springs’ According to “Remembering Geuda Springs,” by Margaret Russell Stallard (as excerpted on Bill Bottorf ’s local history website, ausbcomp.com/~bbott), the first bath house at Geuda Springs was built in

The bath house at Geuda Springs, was said to have room for 50 guests. Construction began in 1880 and it was open by September 1881.

Public domain image/ youhavewatermail. blogspot.com

1878, by “Messrs. Hackney and McDonald,” two attorneys from Winfield. This first structure was soon torn down, and the springs and adjoining lake were purchased by A.A. Mitchell of Arkansas City.

What business partners Mitchell may have had is unclear, but he was apparently responsible for building a much larger and more luxurious Geuda Springs hotel and bath house.

In newspaper articles compiled by the Cowley County Historical Society, the “commodious and tasteful bath house” is first referenced on July 28, 1880.

“The place is beginning to be quite a resort for the ailing,” the Arkansas City Traveler reported. “Some remarkable cures of catarrh, rheumatism, and cutaneous diseases are related. There are always camps of invalids in the vicinity.”

A certain spring might serve to cure rheumatism, while another would ease ulcers and dyspepsia, the owners claimed.

They backed their promises with a “WRITTEN CONTRACT TO CURE any of the diseases above named; no cure no pay, and will pay the board of invalids besides, in case they are not benefitted by using the waters.”

It’s debatable whether the people of today are generally wiser about health claims than the people of 1881, but it should be clear enough to a modern reader that these particular claims are wildly dubious. Whatever benefit the water-takers derived from their trips to Geuda Springs, it did not come from the water itself.

That is not to say that there was no benefit. Patients such as L.B. Thomas (rheumatism), J.E. Searle (scrofulous sores) Mrs. Day (ulcers) and J. Allen (diabetes) got the benefit of an enjoyable carriage ride from Winfield or Arkansas City.

(Carriages were running daily from those two cities to Geuda Springs by 1882.)

Once they arrived at the resort, they could sit on a large, breezy patio; commiserate with fellow sufferers; dine; and relax with a warm bath.

All the high-flown, extravagant promises seemed to pay off for Geuda Springs.

By 1883, the city had two saloons, a dancing club, and a men’s club, the International Order of Good Templars.

And in June 1886, the civic boosters of Geuda Springs won their era’s ultimate prize: a passenger train arrived at the brand new Geuda Springs station, ready to transport ever greater numbers of water-takers, and people of all stripes, to the community.

Historic well uncovered in Conway Springs On Nov. 28, 2018, workers replacing water lines on Spring Avenue in Conway Springs made a historic find.

They uncovered a long-sealed well, apparently one of seven wells fed by underground springs that town founder Hiram M. Cranmer developed as a local amenity and tourist attraction.

According to the centennial history book “Conway Springs: Memories of the

First 100 Years,” Cranmer discovered the natural springs that gave Conway Springs its name in 1882. He began taking the spring water home and using it exclusively, and he felt that his health improved as a result.

Cranmer later filled in two of the nine springs he had discovered. Two others he “cased with 24-inch circular tile and enclosed with a spring house built of lattice and painted green.”

The five remaining springs were located at intervals for a distance of about 200 feet to the east of the springhouse, according to the history book, and Cranmer encased those in limestone, “about 6x6 feet square and about that deep.”

People came from all over to drink the supposedly health-promoting waters of what were then called the Cranmer Springs, helping to draw water-takers to the nearby Spring Avenue Hotel.

In 1909, Conway Springs Central Park was established around Cranmer’s springhouse, preserving access to two springs out of the original nine. “The rest were closed up as dangerous to pedestrians,” according to the history book.

The discovery of the spring water well was interesting, but fortunately it did not present a problem for the engineers who were then working on water line replacements as well as a new water treatment plant and water tower.

“Any time you have a project of this size and length, surprises are bound to pop up – good and bad, historical otherwise,” said Jessica Gerlach, who was mayor of Conway Springs at the time. “This is a cool one that points to the history of our town, and the very nature of our name.

(It) takes us back to our roots and the very reason we are working on this project in the first place.”

Completed in 2019, the new water treatment plan addressed nitrate pollution caused by agricultural runoff, making city water safe to drink for infants, who are especially susceptible to nitrate poisoning.

Spring water still flows into a cement pool in the Central Park springhouse.

City workers clean the pool on a regular basis. People are invited to wade, though the water is not intended for drinking.

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Conway Springs celebrates old and new history

By Travis Mounts TSnews

Founded in 1884, Conway Springs was made famous by its spring waters.

The city’s name reflects both its location in Conway Township and the mineral spring.

The spring house in Central Park is listed on the Kansas Register of Historic Places, and honors the city’s spring water connection.

The first home in Conway Springs was built by Capt. Hiram Cranmer. Afflicted with rheumatism as well as kidney and bladder inflammation, history says the spring water helped improve his health within a week. Word spread, and many others said they were helped by the water.

Central Park was built in the early 1900s where the springs were, with the spring house covering two of the original nine springs. The rest were closed up as they were considered dangerous to

pedestrians.

Central Park is home to the historic band shell, built in 1910.

Conway Mineral Springs water was advertised in the Conway Springs Star newspaper, boasting of the water’s medicinal benefits. A large hotel, the Spring Avenue Hotel, was erected to lodge visitors.

Notable people from Conway Springs include Lloyd Bishop and Harvey Nininger.

Bishop attended Wichita State University, and played one season in Major League Baseball. He was a right-handed pitcher for the Cleveland Naps, and was on the roster from Sept. 5 to Sept. 14, 1914. Bishop had a record of 0-1 with an earned run average of 5.63. He recorded one strikeout. The Naps, founded in 1901 as the Grand Rapids Rustlers of the Western League, went on to become the Cleveland Indians. The franchise is rebranding again as the Cleveland Guardians. Bishop died June 18, 1968, in

Wichita, at the age of 78.

Nininger, born Jan. 17, 1887, was a meteoriticist (one who studies meteorites) and educator. He founded the American Meteorite Museum, which was located near Meteor Crater, Arizona, and then later in Sedona, Arizona. The museum closed in 1960, and his collection was sold to the British Museum and to Arizona State University.

At one time, Nininger accounted for half of all meteorite discoveries in the world. He published 162 scientific papers and four books on meteorites. He was self-taught and self-financed.

Over the past 25 years, no sports team has achieved more success than the Conway Springs Cardinals football team.

The current run of success includes seven 3A State football championships. Former head coach Mark Bliss brought in the single wing offense and changed Conway Springs’ fortunes, with the Cardinals winning their first State title in 1998.

They won four consecutive titles from 2001 to 2004, and again in 2008 and 2011.

Conway Springs was undefeated when it won its first five State titles.

The Conway Springs Cardinals won 62 consecutive games from 2001 to 2005. That streak ties the Cardinals for the 22nd longest winning streak in high school football in the United States, according to USA Today. Maine-Endwell in New York also won 62 games from 2011 to 2015. Kansas is well-represented on the list. Smith Center placed fifth with 79 wins, and St. Mary’s-Colgan in Pittsburg tied for 16th with 66 wins. In fact, Kansas has the most teams in the top 25, with three.

The Conway Springs volleyball won five State championships, including three consecutive titles (1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005). The CSHS girls won State titles in all three seasons of the 2000-2001 school year, with 3A titles in volleyball, basketball and track.

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Sumner County 1871-2021

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December 2021

Caldwell’s history is more than just violence

By Travis Mounts TSnews

In 1883, the grateful citizens of Caldwell gave Brown a Winchester rifle with a gold medallion embedded in the stock. Brown married a local girl from a prominent family and looked like he might settle down.

But then he decided to go for one last big score.

“He took a gun and robbed the bank in Medicine Lodge,” Sturm said. “They killed the president of the bank, and they also killed the teller.

“It was a miserable, rainy day when they did this,” Sturm continued. “When they made their getaway, they got trapped in one of those box canyons around Medicine Lodge, and they were captured and taken into town.”

Brown was shot while trying to flee; his three co-conspirators were hanged. All four were thrown into a common grave, though three bodies were later reburied by relatives.

The town fathers put up with all the criminality and unrest because they were making so much money off the cattle boom – and because Caldwell would never have existed without the Chisholm Trail and the industry it enabled.

“It was kind of like the town was divided,” Sturm said.

The Wild West was a big part of Caldwell’s early history, but the city was built on more than just cattle, cowboys and saloons.

The Last Chance Saloon was the first building erected at Caldwell, located about a mile southeast of where the current Last Chance Saloon now operates. A sign on the building greeted Texas Drovers as they crossed into Kansas, proclaiming it was the “First Chance Saloon,” according to the historical marker located on Main Street. But heading back into Indian territory where liquor was prohibited, it was the “Last Chance Saloon.” The original saloon was burned by a posse in pursuit of outlaws. It turned out the men they were hunting were not in the building. A second saloon was built on the same spot, but by then most of the area’s saloon business was going to new establishments within the city of Caldwell.

Today’s Last Chance Saloon sits where the Exchange Saloon was first built. It saw a number of shootings in the 1870s and 1880s. That building was destroyed by an 1898 fire. The first floor of the current building was built in 1902. The second floor was built from stone taken from a neighboring building. The different types of stone are noticeable on the south side of the building. The stone was handdug from a quarry about five miles outside of town.

The Leland Hotel was an important business in early Caldwell. It was built in 1880, but was lost to a 1870 fire. It was three stories tall. Each of the 46 guest rooms had its own running water. It also was home to a billiard hall, barber shop, bridal chamber, barroom, dining hall and kitchen. At the time it opened, the Leland Hotel was one of the largest hotels in southern Kansas.

See CATTLE, Page 7

See CALDWELL, Page 7

Downtown Caldwell, circa 1893, was a bustling place. By this time, railroads had replaced cattle drives.

Cattle trade brought wealth, violence to Caldwell

By Sam Jack TSnews During the 20 years it was active in Caldwell, the cattle trade brought vast wealth and intense violence to the city, according to local history enthusiast Karen Sturm.

More than a dozen brothels operated in Caldwell between 1879 and 1885 – the peak boom years – along with a similar number of saloons. Cowboys who came into town having just completed long, dusty treks across Indian Territory were ready to whoop it up.

“South of town, there’s what’s called Mount Lookout, which is really just a big hill,” Sturm said. “The story is that the saloon girls would climb up on top and look out south, and if they saw dust in the distance, they’d know a drive was coming, and they’d get back to town to get ready for their customers.”

During those years, a number of lawmen tried to get a handle on the chaos in town. Many of them were killed in the line of duty.

By July 1882, a former bandit, Henry Newton Brown, had taken up the marshal’s badge.

“He made the cowboys check their guns in when they got into town,” Sturm said. “They could have them back when they left. That quieted things down.”

Sumner County 1871-2021

December 2021

Cattle From Page 6 “You had the west part of town, which was your nicer people, the schools, the churches. On the east part of town were the brothels and the saloons.”

Today, Caldwell is a town of around

1,000 people, two or three bars, and, of course, zero brothels. Many of the residents volunteer to keep the Old West legacy of the “Border Queen” alive.

“We’re lucky to have a strong volunteer base,” Sturm said. “I credit that to our forefathers here in town, who promoted our history, preserved it and made sure all the kids knew about it. I feel like that’s what we’re doing, too.”

Henry Newton Brown, second from left, and Ben Wheeler, far right, were employed as lawmen in Caldwell when they tried to rob a bank in Medicine Lodge. Brown was shot and killed after he tried to escape. Wheeler and two others, John Wesley and Billy Smith, were hanged.

Caldwell From Page 6 The Grand Opera House brought fine culture to Caldwell. Built at a cost of $20,000, it seated 1,200 and had a roller skating rink in the basement. It was dedicated in January 1885. A showing of “The Mascotte” by the Fay Templeton Comic Opera Company as the Grand Opera House’s first show. Like a handful of other Caldwell buildings, the Grand Opera House was lost to a fire in February 1918. There were plans to rebuild but nothing ever developed.

Caldwell also played a role in another major historical event, the Oklahoma Land Rush. On Sept. 16, 1893, roughly 15,000 White settlers gathered to make “the run” into the Cherokee Outlet.

Caldwell was mong nine sites where more than 100,000 settlers moved into land that had been set aside in 1835 for Native Americans. The Cherokees eventually sold the land to the United States for $8.5 million but were shorted

Page 7 $200,000 upon payment, just another of many broken promises.

As the Caldwell’s cowtown days faded into history, the town became more peaceful with a focus on the railroads and on agriculture. The excitement and violence left, going hand-in-hand, a peaceful although slower pace of life took over.

In 1985, the Caldwell sixth grade class and teacher Larry Miller started the campaign that led to the ornate box turtle being named the state reptile of Kansas. In 1986, the mayor signed a proclamation declaring Caldwell as the Ornate Box Turtle Capital of the World.

In 1912, the Carnegie Library was built. St. Martin’s Catholic Church was constructed in 1924 in the style of old Spanish missions.

Caldwell remains the home to the Sumner County Fair, and the community celebrates its Czech heritage.

The city’s reputation as the “Border Queen” is remember each December as Caldwell High School hosts the Border Queen Classic basketball tournament.

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December 2021

Deadly 1892 tornado devastated Wellington

By Jim Bales

Chishol Trail Historical Museum

There are many important stories to be told about Wellington. This one has been told many times, but is such an important story, I feel it needs to be revisited one more time, if for no other reason than to clarify the impact this incident had on Wellington.

The date was Friday, May 27, 1892.

The large cattle drive business had moved westward, but had been here long enough for Wellington to get a good economic start. Some papers stated that Wellington was growing faster than Wichita.

There were two railroads, four banks, and six newspapers in this young community of 21 years.

The population at the time was between 12,000 and 14,000. Wichita’s population at the time was 24,000.

The tornado was first spotted in Crystal Springs, a little town five to six miles directly west of Harper.

It struck Harper at 7:47 p.m., destroying railroad depots, the mill, the opera house and several other structures. Six people were killed before the storm moved on to the north edge of Argonia, where it leveled some farmhouses.

At 8:57 p.m., the tornado touched down on the west end of Harvey Avenue and began to wreak destruction on Wellington. All four newspapers were damaged or destroyed; three churches were destroyed, with one rolled over onto its top; 24 businesses and one hotel were destroyed. The second floor of the 2nd Ward School was blown off, and at least 21 residences were completely obliterated.

Newly married Milt Sasher, who worked as a traveling farm machinery salesman, had just arrived at the barbershop that was located inside the Phillips House Hotel on the southeast corner of Washington and 7th.

As he was stepping through the doorway, his good friend Jim Hastie was getting into the barber chair, but Hastie stepped aside and let Sasher take his place. Barbering finished, Sasher left the hotel, walked west across the street toward the old opera house, turned,

This historical photograph shows the damage of the May 28, 1892, tornado that was inflicted upon downtown Wellington.

Sumner County Emergency Management

and started walking a block north to his home, and his new bride.

The tornado came through as he was stepping into the street. He had to step back behind the opera house, where he was protected from the strong winds and debris. The brick-built opera house survived and protected him.

The apartment that he and his wife lived in collapsed, trapping his wife and her sister in the basement, then caught fire. He had to be restrained from running into the flames.

The Phillips House Hotel was also flattened, killing six people, including Sasher’s friend Hastie, who minutes earlier had given up his place in line for the barber’s chair.

In total, 11 died and 29 were wounded, several with broken bones and head injuries.

Harry Woods, the long-time Wellington Daily News editor for whom Woods Park was named, was interviewed and quoted by a reporter from the Wichita Eagle. I felt it was the best description of how things were that night.

“The whole thing was rendered a thousand times worse…from the fact that, at the time, so many husbands were down town when the storm descended.

You never saw such confusion. Men were

simply wild. All the men who were down town rushed home and saw their houses in ruins and supposed their wives were buried and the women and children in turn supposed their husbands were buried in the ruins down town. Everybody consequently thought that everybody else was killed.

“All this confusion was worst confounded by darkness, black as pitch. I was stopped by women a half dozen times, who took me for their husbands. People were crying, men and women alike, and some acted stark mad. This terrible state of affairs lasted till nearly daylight, and did not end till everybody had some tidings that their friends were safe.

“I passed up on the street, in all this din, Henry Conrad, the restaurant owner, whose wife and baby were buried and rescued, rushed up to me and cried, ‘Tell me about my baby, give me my baby.’ The men were working hard to liberate the baby.

“A little further on, I met two men supporting poor Sasher. His head had dropped to his chest and his legs were tottering. His mind was gone.

“I went over to where a group of men and women and children stood watching and waiting. It was the most solemn crowd I ever saw. Nobody said anything.

They did not converse, not even in whispers. In the gray dawn, three stretchers with bodies filed past this group, and I did not hear a sound.

“If there was any curiosity to know whose bodies had just been carried past, it was not expressed in audible words.

Every lip seemed to be sealed by the calamity and every mind subdued.”

The Rock Island rail line telegraphed Wichita for aid, and on Saturday morning a special train was sent, bringing people to Wellington to view the destruction.

On Sunday, several trains with an estimated 15,000 people – some of them traveling in stock cars – came from towns and surrounding cities as far away as Herington and Hutchinson to view the ruins.

It was hot that Sunday, and the demand for drink was so great that the city council was compelled to put up large barrels of ice water on every corner of the principal streets.

A bulletin was sent down from Wichita that Sunday stating that conditions were favorable for another tornado. Most people treated this as a joke. However, at 4 p.m., a dark cloud came up, and alarm was raised that there was a tornado approaching and to quickly find shelter. The crowd became chaotic, but no one was injured. A tornado was in fact spotted north of Corbin.

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December 2021

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Actors, baseball and a Duke helped build Wellington

By Travis Mounts TSnews

Wellington’s history goes back to 1871, when it was originally platted. It became the county season of Sumner County in 1872.

Trade with cattlemen on the Chisholm Trail played a key role in the early history of Wellington. Then as railroads expanded west, they in turn played an important role in Wellington’s growth. Today, a different form of transport is important to the city, with several aircraft parts plants calling Wellington home.

A tornado in 1892 created a major challenge to Wellington’s early growth (see related story). The city was growing, with more than 12,000 residents. The tornado caused major damage to a 26-block area, killing 11 people and injuring 29 more. A few years later, a major fire destroyed more buildings.

Wellington was named for the Duke of Wellington, a two-time prime minister of Great Britain who helped end the

Napoleonic Wars. The railroad came to Wellington in 1887, when the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway built a line from Herington to Caldwell.

Wellington is proudly known as the Wheat Capital. Each summer, the Kansas Wheat Festival celebrates the city’s history, present and future.

A number of notable people have called Wellington home. Native Ernie Barrett, known as Mr. K-State, was a first-round pick by the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association. Nate Cornejo was selected by the Detroit Tigers in the first round of the 1998 Major League Baseball draft. Ara Bartlett served as the second chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Dakota Territory.

Walter Chrysler, founder of the Chrysler Corporation, lived in Wellington briefly in 1897. This was nearly 30 years before he started his famous auto company. Actor David Carradine spent about a year in town in the early 1980s while filing “Americana” near Drury.

The bronze field guns in downtown Wellington were presented to the city in 1909. They were used in the MexicanAmerican War and then on the Union side in the Civil War.

Three different museums keep alive the history of Wellington and Sumner County. The Chisholm Trail Museum is located in the historic Hatcher Hospital.

The collection has thousands of items, including military items, early local business history, antique furniture, and pioneer and cowboy artifacts. The National Depression Glass Museum is dedicated to the history of the U.S. glass industry, with

an emphasis on Depression Era glass. The Panhandle Railroad Museum houses furniture pieces that were used in the Santa Fe railroad system, including trainmen’s uniforms and safety items.

The Wellington Golf Club was founded in September 1919 at a cost of $12,000.

Roughly 145 acres were purchased from the Woods Estate. The original 75 members of the club each donated $10 to build a nine-hole sand green course.

Wellington owns a small slice of baseball history. The Wellington Browns were part of the Kansas State League, a minor league that operated only in 1887. Teams came and went, and the league fold in early August before the season was completed. The league returned for three seasons, starting in 1895, but without the Browns.

Today, education is a major force in the city. Cowley College has built a new Sumner campus. The Technology and Innovation Center opened for classes in August 2019. The Short General Education Center opened in 2019.

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December 2021 Sumner County 1871-2021 Bartlett Arboretum highlights Belle Plaine’s rich history

Page 10

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We are proud of our rich heritage in Sumner County!

By Travis Mounts TSnews

Like many cities on the Kansas prairie, railroads played an important role in the founding of Belle Plaine. In French, its name means “beautiful plain.”

Belle Plaine was found in 1871, the same year as Sumner County, giving Belle Plaine the claim as the first city founded in the county. The first families came from Iowa and Ohio. Eventually, people from as far away as New York and Canada moved to the area, arriving on horseback, by covered wagon, and even on foot. Belle Plaine was officially incorporated in 1884.

According to the history of Belle Plaine on the Chamber of Commerce website, three other town sites were laid out before Belle Plaine, but they quickly faded into history.

The city reportedly was named Belle Plaine at the request of Olive North, who hailed from Belle Plaine, Iowa.

In 1883, the Southern Central and Fort Scott Railway came to town. By 1910, the Missouri Pacific Railroad and the Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe Raildroad cut through the town.

Early businesses included two hotels, a bank, a flour mill and a grain elevator, a stagecoach stop and a blacksmith shop, a newspaper, and two brick factories. Later, Belle Plaine was home to an opera house and a roller skating rink.

For just more than a century, the Bartlett Arboretum has been a major part of Belle Plaine. Known by many as the “arb,” it was established in 1910 by Dr. Walter E. Bartlett, a physician, naturalist and civic leader. He purchased 15 acres on the west side of Belle Plaine to create his vision.

A baseball diamond with a grandstand was built as part of the arboretum, and served as a major attraction for the young town.

Dr. Bartlett died in 1937, according to the history on the Bartlett Arborteum website. His son, Glenn, carried on his father’s legacy, incorporating ideas he learned while serving in the Army’s 1st Division in France during World War I. He was a student at Toulouse University, and studied the gardens at the Palace of Versailles near Paris.

ABOVE: The tulips were in bloom this spring for Art at the Arb, which included live music and more at the Bartlett Arboretum.

LEFT: Earlier this year, The Belle Plaine Historical Museum celebrated the city’s 150-year anniversary by painting a new logo on the side of the museum.

More history on the city of Belle Plaine can be found in the book “Facts and Fables of Belle Plaine, Kansas,” which is available through the Belle Plaine Historical Museum.

Stephanie McKennon and Travis Mounts/TSnews

Surviving family members decided to sell the arboretum in 1997. Happenstance led to the new owners.

As many people know, Robin Macy was a founding member of the Dixie Chicks.

In 1997, she was a teacher and a disc jockey for a radio station in Texas. She took a wrong turn while traveling to the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, and eventually came upon a “for sale” sign on the gates of the arboretum.

The arb’s best days were far in the past, but Macy saw potential and was able to put together the funds for a downpayment. Not long after, on a night out at a barbecue restaurant in Wichita, she met Ken White, who had recently become a Kansas resident.

As they built their relationship, they also restored Bartlett Arboretum to its glory days. Today, it is the site of 40,000 tulips that are shown off during the Tulip Time Festival. The arb also hosts concerts and serves as the site for weddings.

Bartlett Arboretum closed early in the coronavirus pandemic, as it did a century earlier during the Spanish Flu global pandemic, but the future remains bright for this Sumner County treasure.

Each year, the Belle Plaine Downtown Festival – also knowns as the Tulip Time Festival – celebrates the community. Tens of thousands of tulips are on display at Bartlett Arborteum, and the city hosts live entertainment, a dance, a car and bike show, a carnival, the Art at the Arb show, and more.

Sumner County 1871-2021

December 2021

Page 11

Sumner County firsts happened in Oxford

Oxford’s history really began in 1869, when the Osage Indians camped near the large cottonwood ford which winds along the Ninnescah River and dumps into the Arkansas River. Chief Napawalla first gave Oxford its name. When the Treaty of 1870 was signed, the Osage Tribe moved from the area and left thousands of acres of the town “Napawalla” to be purchased by settlers.

J. M. Buffington is recorded as the first white man to cross the Arkansas River.

Whether he did or not, he was a prominent figure in the history of Oxford. He was the mayor of Oxford, and also ran the toll bridge on the Arkansas River.

“Oxford Town Company” was the first business to open in 1871. This changed the town name to Oxford. Many citizens hoped this name would place the town on the same educational status of Oxford, England. Oxford established the first school district in Sumner County. A newspaper, hotel, schools, churches, and a mill helped the town grow quickly.

Oxford sits on the west bank of the Arkansas River.

Oxford was the first school district established south and west of the Arkansas River. For many years it was known as School District #1. The first teacher was Minnie Whaley. When it was planned, the organizers hoped the schools would become a center of higher learning, possibly even having a college. Thus Oxford has a large campus, and the name of the street in front of the elementary school is

College Street.

Oxford has had several school buildings in the past 138 years. The first school house was a one room wooden building built in 1871. It was built near the center of town and was moved many times until it finally rested on the west side of town.

In 1872, a two-story stone building was built. This was used for all classes, with a tower being added later for the high

school classes which were organized in 1895-96. In 1913, a new building for both grade and high school was built; and in 1927, a new high school building was started. The first classes were held in the fall of 1929. In January 1930, the grade school burned down. A new school, the one used now, was erected. The newest high school was completed in 1967, with additions and remodeling later.

As Sumner County’s first town, Oxford led the county in many firsts. These include the first store, the first post office (named Neptawah), the first sawmill, and the first newspaper, the Oxford Times.

In the 1930s, the town was booming with oil, increasing the population. The town even had an opera house. For many years, Oxford was a busy shipping and transportation center. Three railroads ran regular schedules. Gradually, oil production lessened, and after World War II, people were transferred to other areas.

Editor’s note: This history is courtesy of the City of Oxford website.

Sumner County 1871-2021

Page 12

December 2021

Argonia mayor was a national historic figure

By Sam Jack TSnews

In 1887, Susanna Madora Salter was elected as America’s first female mayor and served a one-year term.

The duties of Argonia’s mayor were unglamorous, though essential, much as they are today. But the office itself was not Salter’s main challenge. An article Monroe Billington wrote on Salter in a 1954 Kansas Historical Quarterly shows that at the age of only 27, she had to negotiate both the prejudices of a sexist society and the glare of a global spotlight.

“There were several really huge issues going on,” said Mary Beth Bookless, curator of the Salter Museum. “She was very involved with the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, and their platform was to have prohibition. The other thing was that women won the right to vote the same year she was elected mayor, 1887.

There were a lot of people, mostly men, who thought that was a big mistake, let alone that they could now hold office.

Those were the undercurrents happening here in town.”

The WCTU was assertive in promoting their views on smoking and drinking, Bookless said. Minutes of the group’s meetings showed that they tallied the number of cigarettes snatched from the mouths of men found smoking on Main Street.

The local success of both the temperance movement and the suffrage movement in Kansas discomfited many men, including a group of 20 “wets,” who printed Salter’s name on ballots without her permission. The WCTU had already chosen an all-male slate of candidates to support for local offices, and the men figured that placing a woman on the ticket might sink the whole slate. A landslide election loss would put Salter and the WCTU in their places.

It didn’t work out that way. Salter made it known that she would accept the office if elected and received two-thirds of the votes.

National press correspondents attended Salter’s council meetings throughout her term, reporting on her clothing and com-

portment. A New York Sun reporter who witnessed her first meeting described her dress and hat, but also said that she had “checked discussion which she deemed irrelevant, showing that she was a good parliamentarian.”

Other newspapers reported the “news” that Salter did a competent job as mayor, with varying degrees of implicit or explicit sexism. While the Leavenworth Times described her as “intelligent, capable and conscientious,” another paper mocked her decision not to seek reelection, writing, “She is tired of the burdens of office.

(She plans to) return to private life and leave the government of Argonia to the card of the sterner sex.”

A mother working outside the home was very unusual in the 19th century, and Salter’s status as the mother of four children caused much comment. An unidentified Massachusetts newspaper wrote, “She is not an ‘unsexed female’ ... but the wife of a lawyer and the mother of four children. There is no more likelihood of her neglecting her babies ... than that her husband would neglect his practice if he had been elected to the same office.”

The positive media coverage for Salter and Argonia led the Kansas towns of Oskaloosa and Syracuse to elect women as mayors the following year. Simply by serving, Salter gave the lie to the proposition that it was ridiculous, unsuitable or “against nature” for a woman to play a role in public life.

“Gentleman, what is your pleasure? You are the duly elected officials of this town; I am merely your presiding officer,” Salter reportedly said at the opening of her first council meeting as mayor.

Billington goes on to write that Salter’s term was “politically uneventful,” with no new ordinances passed. Still, from the evidence that follows, it seems clear that Salter did have political beliefs, and a political agenda that she actively pursued.

“She is an officer of in the Argonia W.C.T.U. (Woman’s Christian Temperance Union), much interested in the enforcement of the prohibitory law,” wrote Kansas suffragist Laura Johns in a Salina newspaper, “and in the study of the best

means of suppressing and eradicating the vices that beset our city.”

She also had political connections. Her father served as Argonia’s first mayor. Her father-in-law, Melville J. Salter, served as Kansas lieutenant governor.

As mayor, Salter was able to “suppress and eradicate vices” through government, rather than through guerrilla actions such as snatching cigarettes. Partly on the strength of her opposition, a proposal to lower the license fee for billiard tables from $25 (more than $700 in 2021 dollars) to $12.50 was defeated.

The billiard hall, like the saloon, was an exclusively male preserve in 1887, and a male editorialist in the New York Herald expressed concern that, under feminist rule, billiards might become a “lost art.”

“The women have entered politics for the purpose of reforming the men, and it is a well-known fact that their principal objection to the modes of male recreation is to billiards. ... the male sex will be compelled to go back to the days of their youth, when they played ‘hookey’ for devices to escape the lynx-eyed rulers of the town,” he wrote.

The failure of the license fee reduction measure was apparently the death knell for Argonia’s billiard hall, which closed shortly after the election of Salter and her male, but WCTU-approved, slate of council members. The sale of hard cider, which had carried on despite prohibition

laws, was also halted.

“The morals of the little Quaker town became stricter than ever,” Billington wrote. “Men thought that it was necessary to put on a clean shirt and to black their boots before they consulted the mayor about the enforcement of the hog law.

This was gall and wormwood to their souls, so some of those who originated the scheme which backfired (and resulted in Salter’s election) left town, if one newspaper report is to be trusted.”

Salter’s local efforts to bring Argonia into conformance with her moral views seem to have been a considerable success.

Her impact on the national and global women’s rights and suffrage movement is less easily quantified, but the historical record shows that she was as highly involved as she could be, from her rural vantage point.

She carried on a voluminous correspondence with many female and male activists, spending much more than her $1 mayor’s salary on postage alone. The Salter Museum includes facsimiles of many of the letters she sent and received.

Frances Willard, the well-known suffragist and temperance activist, wrote asking for a letter on Salter’s “official heading” that she could read at lectures, “showing the good of woman’s ballot as a temperance weapon, and the advantage of women in office.”

Laura Johns, of the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association (quoted above), corresponded with Salter several times and involved Salter in fundraising and lecturing opportunities in support of the cause. In fall of 1887, Salter accepted an invitation from Johns to speak at the association’s convention, held in Newton.

Susan B. Anthony was among the speaker’s sharing the podium. Anthony reportedly greeted Salter with a clout on the shoulder and a cry of, “Why, you look just like any other woman, don’t you?”

Salter left the Argonia mayoralty at the age of 28, then lived another 73 years, dying in 1961 at the age of 101. Billington, who met Salter in 1954, wrote that at the age of 90 she still took “an active interest in political and religious affairs.”

Sumner County 1871-2021

December 2021

Page 13

Argonia: From Greek ships to street races

By Travis Mounts TSnews Founded in 1881, the city of Argonia was named for the ship Argo, from Greek mythology. The Argo was built with the help of the gods. Jason and the Argonauts sailed on it to retrieve the Golden Fleece.

Alfred E. Parker proposed the name.

Argonia was projected by a town company which was organized on March 9, 1881. The directors for the first year were Joseph E. Hallowell, Marcus L. March, Daniel B. Harrison, Amos B. Cook, Elisha Parker and Benjamin Nicholson. After a crop of wheat was taken off the town site in 1882, the building of the town began.

The city’s post office was established on June 17, 1881.

Early businesses included druggist and physician J.S. Baughman, grain and coal dealer A.C.E. Gates, justice of the peace J.C. Kilbourn, and hardware dealer L.A. Salter. Most early settlers were farmers.

An 1883 history described Argonia as a live little town of about 100 inhabitants, located on the K.C.L. & S.K. Railroad, near the western county line. Joseph Hallowell was the president of the town company which laid out Argonia in February 1881.

According to that history, “The first store in the town was brought from the river by A. B. Cook, and opened with a general stock. A post office was soon opened, and Cook made Postmaster. A few months later he sold out to L. L. Crites, who soon after took the post office.”

Frances Argonia Salter – one of two children born to L.A. Salter and his wife, Susanna M. (Kinsey) Salter, was the first

child born in Argonia – thus his middle name. He was born Feb. 13, 1883.

In 1912, Argonia sat at the junction of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway and the Missouri Pacific Railway. The city had an international money order post office, telegraph office, telephone connection, grain elevators and a school system. Baptists, Methodists, Friends and Presbyterians had houses of worship.

Argonia is most known for the election of Susanna Madora Salter, the first woman in the United States to be elected mayor of a town (see related story). Not only was she the first woman elected as mayor, she was the first woman elected to any political office in the United States.

Today, the Salter House Museum carries on her legacy. Salter is buried with her husband, Lewis, in the Argonia Cemetery. She was a centenarian, born in 1860 and died in 1961.

There are no other cities with the name Argonia. The airplane Argonia flew in the D-Day Invasion into Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. The C-47 was piloted by Argonian Charles Young.

Argonia remains a small community today. The annual Argonia Days in May and the Argonia Street Races in October are popular events.

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Sumner County 1871-2021

Page 14

December 2021

National Register of Historic Places honors Sumner County locales

The National Register of Historic Places is an official list maintained by the United States government that recognizes districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation based on their historical significance. The register was created by an act of Congress in 1966.

Ten different locations in Sumner County are included, with locations in Belle Plaine, Oxford, Argonia, Caldwell and Wellington.

The list includes the Bartlett Arboretum in Belle Plaine, the Carnegie libraries in Wellington and Caldwell, the Old Oxford Mill in Oxford, the Salter House in Argonia, the Edwin Smith House and

the H.F. Smith House in Wellington, the United States Post Office in Caldwell, the downtown Wellington Historic District, and the Buresh Archeological Site.

The downtown Wellington Historic District is described as the area bounded by 10th Street, Fourth Street, Jefferson Avenue, and the alley behind the Washington Avenue-facing businesses.

The Buresh Archeological Site is located near Caldwell, and was put on the National Register of Historic Places in May 1971. The site is part of the Bluff Creek Complex, and artefacts there date from the Middle Ceramic Period, circa 1000-1500 CE. It may be related to the Washita Focus, another archeological

The Edwin Smith House in Wellington, above, and Argonia’s Salter House Museum are among the most-notable historic places in Sumner County.

Carnegie libraries were built in Wellington, above, and in Caldwell.

Both buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places.

site in Oklahoma. At Buresh, the remains of four houses were excavated, yielding ceramic jars and bowls.

The Edwin Smith House is more commonly known as the Pink House, a reference to its pink stucco exterior. The house was built in a Spanish eclectic style and has a 60-foot long facade topped by a parapet. Its unique style makes it stand out from houses in other Kansas small towns. It is located at 114 S. Jefferson.

Construction began in 1930, and was completed five years later, during the peak of the Great Depression. The home also is known for its murals, created by nationally-acclaimed artist A.D. Greer.

The home has 10-foot ceilings and was built with a billiards room for Smith.

It was originally one of two houses built between two churches; the other house has since been demolished, sometime after 1950. The only major change in construction was the addition of air conditioning. According to the National

Register nomination form, Edwin Smith arrived in Wellington as a baby and is considered the first pioneer child in Sumner County. He lived his entire life in Wellington.

Local tradition says that the Smith family kept monkeys in a netted area at the back of the house. The Woolford estate purchased the home in 1962. Mable Glamann bought the home in 1969 and lived there until 1993. Debbie Romaine bought the house in 1998, and Tom and Gala McAlister purchased it in December 2002.

Another notable home in Wellington is the H.F. Smith House, a Queen Annestyle house built in 1886. Originally a one-story structure, it was expanded to two stories in 1896. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.

The Caldwell Post Office has been on the register since 1989. It is Classical Revival in style, and was constructed in 1941.

Sumner County 1871-2021

December 2021

Page 15

By any other name, Mayfield is just the same Mayfield and the rest of Sumner County Kansas, had humble beginnings.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act opened land to settlers in 1854, and the boundaries of Sumner County were set in 1867. By 1870, there were 22 people of European ancestry living in Sumner County.

Among the early settlers in the Mayfield area was George Walton, who came to Sumner County from Leon, Iowa, in 1874. A house was built west of Wellington, near today’s Osborne Cemetery where the old missile base is. In July 1875, Walton came back from Iowa with his family in tow.

The Chisholm Trail went through the Walton farm. With the nearest trading post at Wellington, the Waltons began offering goods to drovers and traders along the trail. In fact, for a time, the area was referred to as Walton.

The Stocking family was among the first Mayfield settlers. According to family history, the first house in Mayfield was a combined store and house built by Henry Shopcott. The first church was organized by the Methodist Episcopals, and the first church built was the Presbyterian church.

Sherry Stocking Kline said her ancestor, Roderick Stocking, came to Wichita on the train, before loading up on wagons and coming to Mayfield.

The stage coach from Wichita came to Wellington and not Mayfield. Mail arrived about three times a week. At the time, Mayfield and Wellington were similar in size, with Wellington being less than 300 people.

The year 1880 saw the arrival of the railroad. That made goods more accessible to Mayfield residents, as well as travel to Wichita.

There’s no clear history how Mayfield got its name. In addition to being known as Walton, the area was referred to as Marengo, and as Belleview and Bellevue.

Spellings were less precise in those days.

It appears the name Mayfield came from a railroad official, but it seems the finer details of that story have been lost to history.

There were efforts to get the Chisholm Trail moved closer to Wellington, several miles to the east of Mayfield. Some early businessmen in the 1870s hatched a plan

to plow up the trail west of Wellington in an effort to get those using the trail to come through their city. The effort did not work. Within a few years, the expansion of railroads meant the Chisholm Trail ended at Caldwell, and many more cattle were driven up the Western Trail to Dodge City.

Mayfield was incorporated as a city on Feb. 1, 1927.

A simple marker located at the corner of Andon Road. and 20th St. S. commemorates where this trail passed between Mayfield and nearby Wellington to the east. The spot is just over a mile from the edge of Wellington Lake, and three miles straight north of Wellington City Park.

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