Trails to Rails
Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Chisholm Trail N
ewton was founded in 1871 as the Santa Fe Railroad chugged westward across the plains and cowboys drove cattle up the Chisholm Trail from Texas. Newton’s early years as a cowtown were brief but rowdy. Though the cowboys soon moved farther down the trail, the railroad continued to shape the town as Mennonite immigrants from Germany and the Ukraine, including Bernhard Warkentin, helped establish Newton as an important influence in Kansas’ agricultural future. Newton’s only cattle season was the summer of the town’s founding in 1871, when 40,000 head of cattle barreled into town and cowboys brought with them saloons, corruption and a notorious gunfight now known as the “Gunfight at Hide Park” or the “Newton Massacre.” Virtually none of the original sites from Newton’s oteworthy rail andmarks Chisholm Trail days exist today. Despite its cowtown beginnings, the character of Newton • Swales, located on Kauffman Museum property on changed quickly as the “barbaric domiciles,” as described by Bethel College campus, North Newton The Newton Kansan, were replaced by businesses supporting • Chisholm Trail plaque, Bethel College campus, North the growing agriculture and the strengthening railroad. Those Newton industries remain integral parts of the Newton community • Chisholm Trail marker, 0.2 miles west of intersection today. of 36th and Kansas Ave. on 36th Street West. Although “cowboy culture” was headed south to Wichita by • Plum Street, general route the trail took through 1872, the railroad still brought remnants of the Newton to Sand Creek West into town, including Buffalo Bill, who • Okerberg Park, historical marker, located at Fourth made the first of several trips to Newton with and Plum streets his famed “Wild West Show” in the 1870s. The • Site of Newton Massacre, southwest corner of West railroad also brought other notable guests, includSecond St. and Old Mill Road. Now a bank parking lot. ing then-New York Governor Teddy Roosevelt, who stopped in Newton while campaigning with William McKinley in 1900 during the presidential race. By the mid-1870s, the Warkentin family was settling into an agricultural life in Kansas. Bernhard Warkentin discovered that the winter wheat Mennonite farmers were accustomed to growing in the Ukraine also grew well on the Kansas plains. He established grain mills in Halstead and Newton and worked to recruit fellow Mennonites still facing persecution in Russia to immigrate to the United States and establish farms. The resulting migration established a strong link to Mennonite culture in central Kansas. Warkentin’s influence on Newton also remains evident today, as his grandest and final home stands on First Street and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is now a house museum that
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Continued on next page Pictured at left, “Scratchin’ Where It Itches” by Patsy E. Lane. The sculpture is featured in the Chisholm Trail Anniversary Western Art Show at Carriage Factory Art Gallery. 6 • Newton Visitor Guide