Town Building in the South-East Corner of Montgomery County

This source describes the early efforts to establish towns in the southeastern corner of Montgomery County, Kansas, near the Verdigris River. Driven by the belief that this location was ideal for trade, numerous settlements like Claymore, Westralia, and Tally Springs were quickly projected, but competition and lack of unity among developers hindered their growth. The text also highlights significant early historical events within this region, including the first documented settler, early instances of community organization like schools and churches, a murder and subsequent vigilante justice, and the controversial bonding of the county to attract a railroad. Ultimately, many of these early towns failed, paving the way for the eventual prominence of present-day Coffeyville.

By Dr. T. C. Frazier

Claymore, Westralia, Tally Springs, and Old Coffeyville.

The Verdigris river (so named on account of the dark green color of its waters) has its origin in Woodson and Greenwood counties and, running in a southeasterly direction, crosses the south line of the state near the southeast corner of Montgomery county.

In the early days, just preceding the opening of the Osage Diminished Reserve to white settlement, no less than four Indian villages occupied the banks of this stream, near the point of its emergence from the state of Kansas on the way to its confluence with the Arkansas near Fort Gibson. Whether from this fact, or because certain traders had established themselves near these Indian villages, the idea that an important city would soon spring up near this point seems to have taken fast hold upon the minds of the early settlers.

So nearly unanimous was this opinion among the hardy pioneers that no less than six towns were projected, within an area enclosed by the segment of a circle drawn from a point five miles up the east line of the county to a corresponding point on the south line, within two years after the country was opened to settlement. Some of these were laid out and plats prepared for filing even before the ratification of the treaty by which the Indian title was extinguished, and almost every “squatter” indulged in rosy dreams of the time when his claim would become a part of the metropolis of the county.

There can be no doubt, now, that the confidence of the early settlers, in the fitness of this location for the upbuilding of an important trade center, was well founded, but the eagerness of so many of them to enjoy the honor and emoluments, supposed to accrue to the founder of a prosperous city, came near disappointing the hopes of all, for the fierce battle for supremacy, by which the aspiring villagers were rent and torn, so dissipated the town-building energies, which should have been concentrated in one united effort, that capital, which might have been attracted to any one of the sites chosen, was driven away by uncertainty as to what the outcome would be.

What might have been the result if either of these locations had been backed by a united effort, none can know, but any old settler will tell you, that the energy wasted in the fierce struggles for supremacy, among those rival towns, would, if expended in building up one locality, have made it the best and biggest town in Southern Kansas; as it is I doubt not that many loyal citizens will now tell you, that the best, if not the largest, town in Southern Kansas is to be found in the southeastern corner of Montgomery county.

In June 1869, Governor Harvey issued a proclamation organizing the county of Montgomery and appointing three commissioners who, at their first meeting, in the following month, divided the county into three townships, indicated by two parallel lines crossing the county from east to west. Later on these townships were subdivided by two parallel lines crossing the county from north to south, thus creating nine townships, each having an area of about seventy-two square miles. Of these subdivisions, the southeastern, comprising the territory now included in Parker and Cherokee townships, was known as Parker township and within the limits of this territory much of the early history of the county was made. Here the towns of Claymore, Westralia, Tally Springs, Parker and Old Coffeyville rose and fell in rapid succession, to be succeeded by the present city of Coffeyville, all located, as above stated, in the southeast corner of the township, near where the Verdigris river crosses the south line of the state.

Inasmuch as the early population was concentrated in and about the villages, and that it shifted from one to another as confidence in the stability of one site waned, to be succeeded by a boom movement in a rival place, it is evident that the makers of the early history were interested in the growth and development of more than one of the rival towns. It seems advisable, therefore, that certain early events, which affected the community as a whole, should be treated of before entering upon the recital of the special life history of the individual villages.

Early Settlers

Lewis Scott, a colored man, who made a settlement in the Verdigris valley mid-way between the sites subsequently chosen as the location for the towns of Coffeyville and Parker, in February 1867, claimed to be the first “white” settler in Montgomery county. This claim is confirmed by the late E. E. Wilson, author of a valuable historical sketch published in Edward’s Historical Atlas of the county in 1881. Andreas, in his History of Kansas, accords whatever honor that may be due to the pioneer settler to Green L. Canada who, he says, “in January 1866, settled at a point on Pumpkin creek, which was subsequently selected as the site for the village of Claymore.” This historian, however, is in error. Green L. Canada did make a settlement on Pumpkin creek in 1866, as stated by Andreas, but at a point within the borders of Labette county, one of the subdivisions of which — Canada township — still bears his name. From this place Mr. Canada moved in December 1868 to a point lower down the creek which was subsequently selected as the site for the village of Claymore. So the fact remains, as stated by Mr. Wilson, that Lewis Scott was the pioneer settler of the county.

In December 1867, Zachariah C. Crow settled on a claim adjoining that of Lewis Scott. The following names are remembered as being among those who came to this corner of the county in 1868: John A. Twiss, T. C., J. H. and Allen Graham, J. F. Savage, Jack Thompson, F. K. Kounce, William Fain, Mrs. F. C. Powell, John Lushbaugh, Green L. Canada, John McIntyre, Joe Roberts and W. T. and S. W. Mays. Of these, only J. F. Savage, John McIntyre and Mrs. F. C. Powell remain, while many who came in 1869 are still here.

Within the limits of Parker township, as originally constituted, the first three school districts in the county were organized. Within this territory the first school-house in the county was built; the first school taught; the first sermon preached; the first marriage solemnized; the first church organized and the first building to be used exclusively for church purposes erected. Here was held the first inquest and the first preliminary examination on a charge of murder, conducted under the forms of law. Within the limits of this township the most startling and sensational act of mob violence known in the history of the county was enacted, and here an enormous bonded debt was fastened upon the county by election methods the most daring and conscienceless that can be conceived.

The first school-house, erected near Tally Springs, in the early summer of 1869, was a very primitive structure indeed. Its walls consisted of slabs set on end and supported in an upright position by poles attached to four posts set in the ground. The bare earth served as a floor and the roof was partly of clapboards and partly of straw cut from the prairie near by. Windows were unnecessary, as the chunks between the slabs of the walls admitted all the light and air that was needed. In this rude structure John C. Kounce, a young son of Dr. F. K. Kounce, taught a small subscription school in the summer of the same year; which is believed to be the pioneer school of the county. During the winter of 1869-70 Miss Laura Foote conducted a school at the village of Claymore which, some historians claim, was the first school taught in the county, but there can be no doubt that the Kounce school preceded that taught by Miss Foote by several months.

Religion

The itinerant Methodist preacher is usually the first to spread the “glad tidings” in pioneer settlements of the west, but in this county he was preceded by his Baptist brother. Rev. F. L. Walker, a Baptist minister from Oswego, Kansas, preached an open-air sermon at Tally Springs in the summer of 1869, which is believed to be the first effort at religious teaching ever attempted in the county. At this time the first church organization was effected under the name and title of Salem Baptist Church.

A little later on Elder John Haddle, a Christian minister, preached a series of sermons in the same locality, sometimes occupying the school-house above described and sometimes holding forth in the open air, or at the houses of the neighboring settlers; especially at the home of the widow Fike whose daughter the Reverend gentleman afterward married. This is claimed by the old settlers of that neighborhood to be the earliest protracted meeting, or religious revival held in the county.

The old log church which stood on an elevated point in the northwest corner of the township, beside the wagon road leading from Coffeyville to Independence, was undoubtedly the first building erected in the county to be used exclusively for church purposes. It was built by the united efforts of the settlers in that part of the township, of rough hewn logs, contributed by the “squatters” on the timber lands along the river and raised by an assemblage of neighbors gathered together by previous appointment for that purpose; the four corners being securely notched together; the space between the logs filled with bits of wood plastered with clay and the whole being covered with a substantial roof of clapboards.

This old church was, for years, the shrine toward which young and old bent their steps on each recurring Sunday, but time, which effaces all things, has left nothing, save the neighboring graves, to mark the site of the sacred edifice.

Wedding Bells

About midsummer of 1869 “Old Man Vasser,” the pioneer gunsmith, living on a claim just north of the village of Claymore, gave his daughter, Catherine, in marriage to one, James Danehu. This was believed to be the first marriage in the county and the men and boys from the village, and neighboring claims, proceeded to celebrate the event in true frontier style; creating such a frightful din that some unsuspecting neighbors fled from their homes in mortal fear of an Indian uprising.

The First Murder

In March or April 1870, an old man named McCabe, living alone in a little cabin a short distance northwest of Tally Springs, was found dead a few yards from his cabin door. The discoverer of the body, having reported his ghastly find to George Carlton, a claim-holder living nearby, alarmed the neighborhood and led a party of half a dozen or more to the scene of the tragedy.

The condition of the premises, as seen at this visit, indicated that the old man had been stealthily approached while sitting at his breakfast; that a shot, which passed through his boot leg, had given the first intimation of danger; that McCabe had risen hastily and engaged in a struggle with his assailant, and that the victim, after being shot through the body at such close range as to set fire to his clothing, had run from the hut and fallen forward on his face, and that the body had been rolled over and the pockets rifled.

This murder furnished the occasion for the first inquest held in the county, and incidentally showed the “squatters'” respect for orderly methods of procedure in such emergencies. The county not yet being fully organized, there was no officer in reach, so far as these settlers knew, who was qualified to take charge of this case, but the assembled neighbors, desiring, as far as possible, to observe the forms of law, proceeded to elect a jury composed of J. F. Savage, George Carlton, Mike Carlton, F. K. Kounce, John McCaleb and John Swarbourg. These gentlemen effected a formal organization by electing Mr. Savage foreman and were sworn in as a coroner’s jury by C. H. Wyckoff, an attorney at law.

This jury instituted a formal investigation which resulted in the conclusion that the facts were substantially as stated above, and that the motive was robbery. A bullet digged from the earthen floor where it had buried itself after passing through the victim’s trousers and boot leg, indicated that the attack had been sudden and unsuspected, and the upset table and scattered ware showed that the man had risen hastily to defend himself, or escape by flight. The burned clothing at the point where the fatal bullet entered the body indicated close contact with the murderer, as if there had been a struggle for life, and the similarity of the exhumed bullet to the one cut from the body of the murdered man was evidence that the assault was made by but one person, while the inverted pockets showed robbery to be the motive for the deed.

It was also apparent that the assassin had done his bloody work hastily, as several dollars in bills were left in his victim’s vest pocket and a piece of script, or fractional paper currency, was found on the ground beside the body.

The finding of the jury was, that “deceased came to his death by means of a leaden bullet fired from a pistol in the hands of some person unknown.” The body was then removed to the house of George Carlton and prepared for burial which, however, was further delayed, as will be seen below.

First Preliminary on the Charge of Murder

The unauthorized proceedings of the Tally Springs settlers, in the matter of the McCabe murder, although honorable and well-meant, were not permitted to pass unchallenged. While McCabe’s body still waited for burial, Eli Dennis, of Westralia, who had recently been commissioned a Justice of the Peace, appeared upon the scene with a posse and, taking possession of the body, proceeded to hold another inquest. I am not informed as to the finding of the second jury, but it must have cast suspicion on three brothers named Shaw, who were holding a bunch of cattle in the neighborhood and contesting the right of McCabe to hold the claim he occupied.

It was alleged by the settlers on the north side of the creek, that the Westralia party came out prepared not only to hold the inquest but to execute the murderous Shaws, who, it is believed, were already adjudged guilty of the crime. An air of probability is given to this suspicion by the fact that one of the equipments of the party was a length of new rope which could have had no legitimate office to perform in the ceremonies attending a legal inquest upon the dead body. However this may be, word had gone out that the Shaws were in danger and the Tally Springs party hastened to the scene of action where they found the suspects under arrest, and a council in progress under a large oak, with spreading branches standing out from the body suggestively. The most of these neighbors having brought their long squirrel rifles with them, the visiting gentlemen from the south side of the creek, esteeming discretion the better part of valor, silently withdrew leaving their prisoners in the hands of the Tally Springs contingent. This movement proved only to be a feint, as a posse was sent out early the next morning to re-arrest the Shaws and bring them to Westralia for trial.

Then followed the arraignment and trial which, as before stated, was the first formal examination held in the county on a charge of murder. Eli Dennis, J. P., presided and J. M. Schuyler enacted the role of prosecutor, while P. W. Ellis and J. D. McCue, two young men who subsequently rose to positions of prominence in the judiciary of the state, were retained as counsel for the accused. The legal battle raged fiercely for several days but victory finally perched upon the banner of the defendants’ attorneys and their clients, being released, hastily left the country.

The real murderer of McCabe will never be known, but some of the settlers north of the creek suspected one, Bill Howell, a suspicious-looking fellow, who had for some time been hanging around the camp of the Shaws and who, as was afterward remembered, disappeared on the day of the murder, and was never again seen or heard of in this part of the country.

Bonding the County

In 1870 the L. L. & G. Railway Company submitted a proposition to build twenty-one miles of road in the county, conditioned upon the voting to said company, in aid of the enterprise, the sum of two hundred thousand dollars in county bonds. As it was evident that the road would be built across the county near its east line, Parker township undertook to see that the proposition was accepted by an affirmative vote, and in order that there might be no failure in carrying out that purpose, all restrictions on the elective franchise, on account of age, sex and residence, were temporarily removed.

The election was held at the town of Westralia and for that day the fight between the rival towns was suspended, the citizens of each vicinity vying with those of the others in their efforts to carry the proposition through to a successful issue, each faction, of course, expecting its favorite locality to be made the terminus of the line, and each, no doubt, having assurances from the manipulators of the project, that its desires would be gratified. All were, therefore, animated by a determination to poll enough votes to overcome any opposition that might be developed in other parts of the county.

When the day appointed for the election arrived a board, friendly to the proposition, was installed and the voting began. It soon developed, however, that Eli Dennis, one of the judges, was inclined to be over-critical as to the qualifications of voters, so a novel scheme was concocted to get him out of the way. It chanced that he was the local justice of the peace and numerous litigants had business with him that day that was too important to admit of delay, so he was called aside for frequent and prolonged consultation, during which intervals visitors from Labette county, the Indian Territory, Arkansas and Missouri, and such small boys as were ambitious to cast their “maiden ballot,” were rushed to the polling place and permitted to vote for the bonds, no questions being asked, except that each voter give a name, his own or not, no matter, to be entered on the tally sheets.

Under these circumstances it is not surprising that men voted “early and often,” but even these irregularities were not sufficient to satisfy the manipulators of the job. It is alleged that Fred O’Brien, an expert penman employed in George Hall’s grocery at Parker, procured some blank tally sheets which he filled with names copied at random from an old New York directory found among the effects of his employer. These were passed in to the election board with the number of ballots to correspond with the names on the bogus sheets, and made a part of the returns.

I can not now recall the number of votes polled at Westralia on that eventful day but it was not far short of the total population of the county. By such means the coveted aid was voted and in the following year the road was built, but with characteristic ingratitude the company ignored the claims of all the friendly towns and selected a site just north of the village of Coffeyville for the terminus of the line.

This exhibition of bad faith on the part of the company aroused an intense feeling of bitterness in the outraged community which culminated in an effort to defeat the delivery of the bonds. Suit was brought in the United States court at Leavenworth, with Albert H. Horton as attorney for the county, but for some reason — which has never been satisfactorily explained — the county commissioners suddenly changed front and ordered the suit dismissed “without prejudice;” this was accordingly done and an order issued for the delivery of the bonds, which of course, passed into the hands of innocent purchasers, and thus another link was forged in the conspiracy against the county.

The bonds being delivered and sold, it became the duty of a subsequent board of county commissioners to levy a tax for the payment of interest and to provide a sinking fund for the ultimate redemption of the bonds. This the board declined to do and the case again went into the courts. This time the people took a hand in the fight and appointed an advisory committee to collect evidence and advise with the commissioners as to the best method of conducting the defense. The Parker township contingent of the advisory committee made a thorough inquiry into the Westralia election methods and secured the consent of a number of the chief actors to appear in court and testify as to the irregularities herein described, but for some reason the commissioners compromised the case and the evidence failed to become a matter of record, but the facts as herein stated may be confidently accepted by the student of the early history of the county as being substantially correct.

Murder and Mob Violence

In 1871 the deliberate and coolly planned murder of an inoffensive old man, which furnished the occasion for the startling and sensational act of mob violence already referred to, occurred almost within sight of the town of Parker. Old Jake Miller and John A. Twiss were rival claimants for a quarter section of land adjoining the original settlement of Lewis Scott in the Verdigris Valley. Not succeeding in ousting Twiss by intimidation, Miller called a consultation of his friends to devise some more effective means of getting rid of the prior claimant. In pursuance of this purpose John Sturman, William Ross and Jim Braden, a negro, met at Miller’s house and, after discussing the situation, concluded that as Twiss lived alone in his little cabin, the safest and most expeditious plan was to remove him by assassination. A plan of procedure being agreed upon, and a certain Sunday night set for the perpetration of the bloody deed, the conspirators dispersed to their several homes to await the appointed hour for the performance of their respective parts in the bloody drama. On that fatal Sunday night the church-going part of the community were surprised to see old Jake Miller and his entire family enter the village church, and many whispered comments were made upon the unusual circumstance.

The movements of Sturman on that day are not now remembered, but they were such as to enable him to prove an alibi, if it should be necessary. Ross lived several miles up the river and on that account was not likely to be suspected; and in the case of the negro, Braden, there was no known motive to connect him with such a crime. However, as was developed by the subsequent investigation, Ross was to commit the murder and the negro was to wait for him at a certain point on the river, where a skiff was known to be kept, and there set him across that he might return to his home by the most direct and least traveled route.

On the afternoon of the day appointed for Twiss’ removal Ross called at the store of W. W. Ford, in Parker, and purchased an iron wedge, which had the price marked upon it with white paint, in the merchant’s private cipher. He also bought a lunch of some kind and ate it in the store, taking so much time about it that it was quite late when he took his departure. From there he evidently went to the home of Twiss where he shot the old man as he sat at his table reading a small pocket bible. This shot not proving immediately fatal the old man appears to have risen and rushed to the door, where he was met by the murderer who clubbed him with his gun, crushing his skull and breaking the stock from the barrel of the gun.

The assassin then repaired to the place appointed for crossing the river, sank the broken gun in the water and was ferried across by Braden, who then returned to his own home in the heavy timber.

The body of the murdered man was soon discovered by a neighbor returning from the church where old Jake Miller had that night attended church. The alarm was given and an immediate search for a clue to the perpetrator of the crime instituted.

In those days claim troubles were not an infrequent cause of enmity between neighbors, and Miller’s known contention with Twiss for possession of the claim they both occupied, and his sudden piety on the night of the murder, caused him to be suspected of complicity in the crime. He was, therefore, arrested on the following Tuesday morning. The arrest of Sturman and Braden soon followed, not because there was any evidence against them but because of their known intimacy with Miller subjected them to suspicion of having a guilty knowledge of the crime.

In the meantime search was being made about the Twiss cabin for a clue which resulted in the finding and identification of the iron wedge purchased by Ross on the day of the murder. This, of course, connected Ross with the crime and he was immediately arrested. The prisoners were arraigned before S. B. Morehouse, J. P., for examination on a charge of murder, J. M. Scudder appearing as attorney for the state and C. W. Ellis acting as counsel for the accused. A plea of “not guilty” was entered, and as there was no evidence upon which to hold Miller, Sturman and Braden, they were released.

Marshall S. S. Peterson, however, still kept his eye on the black man and, finally, by threatening to lock him up in the little one-celled calaboose with Ross, he was so wrought up, on account of his superstitious fears, that he made a full confession to the facts as above recited.

On the strength of this confession Miller and Sturman were re-arrested, and Braden, being assured of his personal safety, consented to come into court and give evidence for the state.

Following the discovery of the tragedy which had been enacted at the lonely Twiss cabin, popular excitement had raged at fever heat and the sessions of the court had drawn such crowds of interested spectators as to tax the capacity of the little school house where the trial was held, and it was expected that the final sitting would bring out an unusually large attendance, and that the tide of popular excitement would reach the danger limit. So a posse was summoned to secure the safety of court and prisoners, but notwithstanding the rumored confession of the negro and its confirmation by the finding of the broken gun at the place pointed out by him, the finding of the iron wedge and its identification as the one bought by Ross on the day of the murder, and the sensational story that Braden was expected to tell about the conspiracy and crime, the attendance was noticeably small. There seemed to be a sudden lapse of popular interest in the proceedings and when the prisoners were remanded to jail to be held for trial before the district court, only a few idle men and boys were on hand to follow them and their guards to the calaboose, where they were manacled and locked up for the night; a guard being placed about the building for additional safety.

Some time during the night the seeming lapse of popular interest in the court proceedings at the little school house was explained in a startling manner. Another court, that of “Judge Lynch,” had evidently been holding a star chamber session with a full attendance. The guards at the jail were suddenly confronted with overwhelming numbers and quietly ordered to surrender. So orderly and unexpectedly was the attack that the men seemed to have risen up out of the ground and in such numbers as to make it apparent that resistance would be worse than useless. So the officer and his posse silently obeyed the order to lay down their arms. The jail key was taken from the pocket of night marshal, John Sowash, the door unlocked and the prisoners brought forth. The officers and guards, except two young fellows, were pushed into the jail and the door closed upon them and locked. The two young fellows were stationed a little way from the building with their faces to the west and told not to move for a given time on pain of death. A wagon was procured into which the prisoners were mounted and a procession formed which moved a little way east and then turned north in the direction of the scene of the late tragedy. All these movements were executed so silently that the sleeping inmates of the nearest residences were undisturbed.

The two young men with their faces to the west stood like statues until sure their probation had expired, when they procured a sledge hammer and broke the lock from the jail door, releasing the officers and guards, but no pursuit was attempted until morning, when the bodies of their prisoners, Miller, Sturman and Ross were found hanging from a branch of a large oak which stood near the door of the Twiss cabin.

The man who kept the ferry nearby reported that he had set an armed party, numbering about sixty men, across the river on that fatal night, and the guards at the jail estimated the number of their captors from fifty to sixty, but the exact number has never been known. Neither has the identity of these self-appointed executioners ever been made public.

This was no ordinary mob moved to deeds of violence by fierce unreasoning passion, but a company of cool-headed, determined men, who, seeing in the Twiss murder a menace to the peaceful and orderly administration of affairs, so necessary to the safety and good repute of the community, resolved to forewarn those who were inclined to yield to the promptings of evil passion, by visiting swift and terrible punishment upon the stealthy and cowardly assassins of an unoffending old man. This is amply proven by the entire absence of the usual methods of the mob. There was no noisy bluster, no wanton destruction of property, no effort to terrorize the community by the reckless discharge of firearms and the mutilation of the bodies of the victims, but just a quiet and orderly infliction of the death penalty upon a convicted murderer and his fellow-conspirators.

Ordinarily no good citizen can afford to condone the taking of human life without due process of law, but in a frontier settlement such executions as is here described sometimes afford the best possible safeguard to the lives and property of the well-disposed. That such was the effect of the summary execution of the Twiss murderers, there is little doubt, as in those days there were many conflicting interests which might have terminated in murder if this one had been permitted to pass unavenged.

Rival Towns

In the winter of 1868–69 the trading post of G. L. Canada, on Pumpkin Creek, became the nucleus of the village of Claymore which grew to be a smart little town of perhaps one hundred souls. Early in the spring following, a town company was formed with G. L. Canada, president, and A. M. Duncan as secretary. A few small stores were opened to supply the villagers and scattered settlers with dry goods and groceries and to trade with the Indians. John Lushbaugh, one of the storekeepers, also kept a tavern for the entertainment of man and beast, and Dr. Stewart, the pioneer doctor, whose armamentarium consisted of a few obsolete journals, a time-worn dispensatory, a pair of dilapidated saddle bags, a tooth forceps and a dozen or so of bottles and packages, set up an office in one corner of Lushbaugh’s store.

The promoters of this town started out with high hopes of building a town of importance but, alas, for the stability of human hopes, the summer was not half over before the enterprise was overshadowed by the founding of the rival town of Westralia.

This village was founded by Capt. H. C. Crawford and Eli Dennis in the early summer of 1869. It was located on a broad plateau, midway between Claymore and the south line of the state, on an old cattle trail leading from the south, known as the West Trail, hence the name, Westralia.

The village sprang into prominence and in a very few months boasted a population numbering several hundred. It was the mart toward which long lines of prairie schooners, freighted with fruit and produce, from Missouri and Arkansas, wended their way, and its merchants did a flourishing business with the scattered settlers in the neighborhood, the Osage Indians from the several villages scattered along the river and the residents of the Cherokee country on the south. When I visited the place in the late summer of the same year it presented an air of bustling activity surprising to see, in a country so sparsely settled, but it was the supply point for a territory many miles in extent and its merchants did a thriving trade. McWhinney & Fagan, E. C. Robertson and N. F. Howard were leading merchants. O. E. Hines conducted a harness and saddlery shop. Louis Longier kept the village hotel. Joe Benoist, of Baxter Springs, put in a stock of drugs (the first in the county) presided over by John Fleming. Perry Clary and Ed. Suydam were dealers in live stock. Joe McCreary ran a saw mill near by and Dr. Allen, afterward famous as a Masonic lecturer, was the village doctor. The pioneer newspaper of the county was published here, as appears in the chapter on “Newspapers” in this book.

It would seem that a town with five or six hundred inhabitants, located on a commanding site, doing a large and lucrative business in nearly all lines of trade; its professional men, merchants and tradesmen owning their stores, shops and residences, might well hope to hold its own against all later rivals, but such was the state of uncertainty as to the final location of the metropolis that men held themselves in readiness to mount their buildings on wheels and move them to any point which, for the moment, might seem to be backed by a more powerful influence. So Westralia, with all her business and bustle and bright prospects, was destined soon to experience the fate of her sister — Claymore.

Tally Spring’s

In August 1870, J. F. Savage, E. K. Kounce, William Fain and Dr. Dennison formed a town company and laid out the village of Tally Springs, around a large natural spring of that name on Potato Creek, about one and one-half miles northwest of Westralia. Lying directly in the line of the L. L. & G. R. R., as afterward constructed, this village might, by liberal management, have become a formidable rival to the village of Westralia and prevented altogether the founding of Parker and the present town of Coffeyville, but E. K. Kounce, whose claim formed a part of the site, had such an exaggerated idea of the importance of the location that he refused to encourage the investment of capital by giving away building lots.

It is said that Parker, York & Co., the wealthiest of all the pioneer merchants, prepared to open up their immense stock of merchandise here, if given a one-eighth interest in the town site of three hundred and twenty acres, but Kounce promptly informed them that if they wanted lots in that town they must buy them. This undoubtedly settled the fate of this promising village, which never attained a population above fifty or seventy-five people. After the building of the railroad the name of the village was changed to Kalloch, and a station maintained there for a few years, but even this was finally abandoned and the land reverted to farm purposes.

Coffeyville — Old Town

About the time the Tally Springs townsite was being platted or a little later, Col. Coffey, N. B. Blanton, Ed. Fagan, John Clarkson and William Wilson formed a company and laid out a town around Col. Coffey’s trading post, previously established for the purpose of trading with the Black Dog band of Osages, who then had their little village south of Onion Creek, on the site subsequently appropriated by Ben. Chouteau, and still known as the Chouteau place. The new town was named Coffeyville in honor of its principal founder, but it did not assume much importance until 1871. Col. Coffey was the principal merchant, N. B. Blanton kept the hotel, Peter Wheeler, an accomplished young physician, administered to the ills of the people. E. Y. Kent presided at the blacksmith’s forge, and S. B. Hickman kept a little store and handled the United States mail.

A little later on C. W. Minn, Barron & Heddon, J. B. Burns and Bead Bros., were added to the business circles, but as before stated the real history of the place did not begin until the L. L. & G. Railroad was built in 1871, so it will be treated under the head of Coffeyville, of which it soon became a part.