1872 Journey to Kansas

SHAW, GODOWN, MCHENRY, ELLIS, GIBSON

Posted By: Volunteer Ramona Clark (email)
Date: 9/9/2005 at 07:06:23

Written by Mrs. Della Huffman 1926

I will endeavor to write something of my parents and their life in the early days of Kansas. My father, Eli Shaw, was born in Evansville, Virginia September 12, 1843. When a very small child his parents, Benj. and Elizabeth Shaw moved to Iowa, where they bought a farm about a mile from Vernon, Van Buren County. When the call for volunteers came in the Cival (sic) War he enlisted, was in Co A Fourteenth Regiment of Illinois Infantry, serving three and one-half years. He received an honorable discharge June 24, 1864. He attended the funeral of Abraham Lincoln at Springfield, Illinois. My mother, Tamar L. Godown was born in Franklin County, Ohio, Aug. 23, 1844. When she was seven her parents moved to Iowa where she grew to womanhood. They were married at Keosauqua, Iowa, Sept. 14, 1865. They lived two years in the little town of Vernon; here my father worked on a ferry boat on the Des Moines river, between the towns of Vernon and Bentonsport. It was pulled across the river by hand. They were parents of nine children, six boys and 3 girls all living; I, Della, am the oldest. Their church was Methodist and my father was a Republican.

My parents wanted a home of their own and when I was 6 years old, they with a party of neighbors decided to come to Kansas. They started Oct. 15, 1872. There were four families and two single men in the party: Mr. & Mrs. Samuel McHenry and 2 sons, Nelson & William; Mr. & Mrs. John Ellis and three children, Mary, Emma & John a baby four weeks old; Mr. & Mrs. Jerry Gibson, my parents and 3 children, Della, Carrie & Albert; David Gibson and Oscar Godown. There were 23 head of stock, 10 horses & 13 head of cattle. On the second day out, one of Mr. McHenry's horses died. Mr. Ellis had 3 and sold them one so they could come on with the crowd.

We reached Council Grove after three weeks, camping over Sunday & starting again early Monday morning. The men secured work for the winter cutting saw logs so we rented a house for a month at Council Grove. After we had been there a few days, Indian women came to a window and wanted to borrow a butcher knife. They brought an old cracked plate for security until they would return the knife. The men were all away and the women were pretty badly frightened. We children stayed close to the house after that. There was a tribe camped there that winter. We saw them start out for a hunt. They had ponies with tent poles tied on each side and dragging on the ground. The men rode on ponies ahead, then came the sqwaws (sic) with a papoose strapped on their backs and many other children riding in front.

The first thing after the wagons were emptied was the trip to Salina to file on the claims, which took several days. At the end of a month we moved to a house on Monkers Creek that a man by the name of Monker had built for us on his land. The house was 12x48, built of rough lumber. Our wagon sheets served as partition walls, each family having a room 12x12. Oscar Godown, my mother’s cousin, lived with us so that made 6 in our family.

Our furniture consisted of a bureau & 6 chairs we brought with us. Father bought a small stove. Our beds & table he made of rough lumber & a box served as a cupboard. The other rooms were furnished about the same.

It was a beautiful winter, the cattle grazed the timber along the creek & we children went barefoot.

In March about the 12th I think we started for McPherson County for our new homes. The men had been to Salina the second time to homestead. I do not remember how many days we were coming

I do remember about the young man that was killed by the Indians not long before that. A young man by the name of Ed Miller started with the mail from Marion to King City. On the way back the Indians overtook him. He ran his horse until it gave out. They killed & scalped him. The people at Marion knew the Indians were on the war path. When the youth didn’t return a party started to hunt for him. They followed the trail until about 2 miles east of where Canton now stands. A little knoll they found the body & buried it, marking the grave with a sand stone rock. The land was homesteaded later by Mitchell Jones, who gave a plot for a cemetary (sic). This grave is now marked by a tomb stone & the sand stone rock stands in about the center of a beautiful little cemetary (sic). Mr. & Mrs. Jones still own & live on the farm.

Four of our party homesteaded on the same section Jerry Gibson the northeast quarter; David Godown the northwest, Oscar Godown¸the southwest and father the southeast quarter of Section 32 Canton twp. Samuel McHenry homesteaded southeast and John Ellis the northeast quarter of Sec. 29, Canton twp.

The Santa Fe trail ran through Jerry Gibson’s farm, it also cut off the southwest corner of David Gibson’s place.

We camped one-half mile north of our farm by a pond while they were building our houses. We used the water of the pond for washing until it dried up then hauled the water for cooking and to drink four and one half miles from Mr. Dnims or Drums? well. We drove the stock to Emmet Creek.

Father built us a little sod house and had to haul the lumber from Newton.

The lumber was ready for the roof, door and window casings on Sun. morning. It was so cold & snowed. Father & Mr. McHenry took those long boards & laid them across the walls. They put sod on each end to keep the boards on. They set up the stove & we moved in. A few mornings after that, there came a whirl wind that took the boards off and tumbled the sod in on us. We children were still in bed but it didn’t hurt any of us. We lived in this house for 2 years. It had 2 windows and a dirt floor. After 2 years we built a larger house. It was of sod and had 3 windows and after about one year we had a floor. I remember how proud we were to have a floor. It was made of rough boards, some narrow & some wide. It soon wore smooth & we could scrub it till it would be clean and white.

Father had the first well in Canton township. Don’t know that it was ever pumped dry.

In the fall of 1873 after we had a place to live and a well we began to wonder how we would get through the winter. By that time we had one neighbor one half mile east of us. He & father went out by Medicine Lodge to hunt buffalo meat. One morning in Nov. they started & were gone for 3 weeks. We never heard a word from them while they were gone. It was foggy & misty nearly all of the time. Mother was so worried with 3 little children the oldest only past 6. The wolves would howl at night. We had a young dog. She would chain it out beside the door many a night. The wolves would often come up and fight the dog.

Father said that on one night of the hunt they tied the team and followed the herd. After getting two, skinning them and cutting them up, they found out that they were lost. They spent the night there rather than wander too far from the team.

We dried some of the meat for the next summer.

In the summertime we had a garden of perhaps from 5 to 10 acres.

One summer the sky darkened & a horde of grasshoppers came down. We started to cut the corn, piled it on the ground and intended to shock it later. The hoppers ate all but the stalks. Father had set out 100 little peach trees that spring. We had a little musty hay. He would make a smoke with that to keep them off in the day time. In the night we would take clothes and knock them off the trees. They ate the leaves but not the bark. We saved the trees. I don’t remember how many days they stayed, but not many. By that time what little money people had when they came was gone and nothing was left to live on.

It was about this time that the Grange was organized. They called a meeting and decided that they must have aid or starve. Father was choosen (sic) to go back to Iowa for help. The people we knew back there sent corn, meat, meal, flour, molasses and some clothing and shoes.

In those days boys wore boots and I remember the pair they gave my brother. One had a copper toe & the other didn’t.

There were 2 stores, a post office and a blacksmith shop four miles west of our place, called Empire. Sister Carrie & I have walked there many times carrying a bucket of eggs. I never remember getting more than five cents a dozen. In 1879 the M & M branch of the Santa Fe was built through Canton. Our home place was 3 ½ miles from town.

My mother died Jan. 23 1897, father died Aug. 20, 1924.

The Ellis family moved from Canton years ago. We have heard that she was dead. Their daughter, Emma died at the age of 11 years.

As far as I know David Gibson, Nelson & Wm. McHenry, my sister Carrie and brother, Albert & myself are the only ones living of this party.

I was born in Vernon, Vanburen (sic) County, Iowa June 14, 1866. My first school was 2 ¼ miles from home in a dugout. The walls were damp & mouldy. For seats there were piles of sod, and a narrow board laid across. Our books consisted of a blue backed speller, McCuffy’s (sic) reader and arithmetic, a slate and pencil.

When a school house was built it was 2 miles from us. In 1880 Garfield school house was built one mile north of our place. I have washed all forenoon many times and walked to school in the afternoon. I have worked in the field, milked cows, hoed in the garden and done many other hard jobs.

My husband, James Huffman was born on a farm 5 miles from Burlington, Des Moines County, Iowa Sept. 29, 1863. He came to Kansas in May of 1880. We were married at Canton, Kansas Dec. 23 1883. We have three daughters all married. We have 4 grand children. We are members of the Methodist Church and have lived in Canton for _?_ 20 years.

[Typed from handwritten copy by Ramona Maree Carter Clark in 2005]