JOHN C. FOSTER of Hedrick, a former resident of Leon and Decatur County
who is a former real estate broker and still does a little business, has
written several interesting articles of early history here in a letter
to JESSE MCKELVEY, real estate broker in Leon.

The letter in part:

"I notice you are still in Leon, which calls to me some of my youthful
days, for it was at the north side of Leon where we made our last camp
from our trip from Kansas in a covered wagon about the year l879 or 80."

"On account of the old folks' health the doctor had advised them to go
east, so on the third day of July, I think in l870, we left the farm
located about twelve miles northwest of Eldorado, the county seat of
Butler County.  I remember the Fourth came on Sunday, Eldorado
celebrated on the third, and Newton on the fifth, so one had two chances
to celebrate.  I had herded cattle on a section of land in front of our
l60 for four years, on land given the Santa Fe Company to build a
railroad through that section.  We left the farm on the third of July,
arrived in Leon in the latter part of July, left Leon for Garden Grove,
traveled north about two miles then turned east close to a station named
Crown.  When about two miles east of Crown, we picked up a man walking
named SAM GOODMAN, who lived in a large brick house on the north side of
the highway about two miles east of Crown.  In a conversation with the
folks, who advised him they were intending to buy a farm, he mentioned a
farm that was for sale about three quarters of a mile east of his place
which the folks bought; a part on the north side and a part on the south
side.  There had been a town by the name of Franklin in the early days,
as some of the town lots were included in the abstract the house was on;
the south and the barn on the north, and later we learned that PAUL
CASTER had at one time used the barn to make hickory seat chairs and
later took up Chiropractic or rubbing methods of doctoring and set up
his business in Ottumwa, Iowa, which later proved quite a success."

"The brick school house that stands about a quarter of a mile south of
the road which turns south where we lived, was our school and we boarded
the men who built the school when it was changed to brick."

"I recall one incident that occurred while on the GARDNER farm, as that
was the man's name we bought the farm from.  We had traded a bull for a
horse and I was instructed to take the bull to Leon and exchange for the
horse, which I did."

"While there, I noticed some excitement and found that two Mercer boys
who had been shot by officers in south Missouri was to arrive in Leon on
that day, and of course I could not miss such an occasion as that.  It
seems that Davis City, a town just south of Leon was having a fourth of
July celebration and a man by the name of ELLIS or ENLOW had been
appointed as special marshal, as Davis City had the reputation of being
a wide open city at that time, it seems that one of the Mercer boys was
drunk, and this special marshal was arresting Mercer for being drunk and
was on the way to jail when they passed another Mercer, a brother; he
demanded of the marshal to let his brother alone, and trouble arose and
in the end the Mercer brothers killed the marshal and skipped the
country.  A reward of $l,000.00 was offered and they were shot and
killed and shipped up to Leon in large boxes used for shipping harvester
parts.  It was them in the boxes and they took pictures showing where
the shots struck one's breast and full of shot, the other had shot
himself in the head as it was thought they pledged each other never to
be taken alive."

"This SAM GOODMAN had triplets, one boy and two girls, ABRAHAM, MARTHA,
and MARY.  I think you will find some of the GOODMANS still around
Leon."

"We took a trip to Clearfield some years ago, and we went through Leon,
and they had built a new court house on the same sight of the old one I
think."

"Since we left Kansas, they discovered oil at and around Eldorado and
that land could have been purchased for a song when we were there.
Millions have been made in the oil game, in hills and rocks near
Eldorado that was fit for nothing but pasture."
 

"We were on the GARDNER farm a couple of years then moved about three
miles east of Garden Grove on the TOM FARQUHAR farm, and then to the
JORDAN farm about six miles northwest of Garden Grove and from there we
moved to Hedrick."

"When on the FARQUHAR farm I took a load of timothy seed to the town of
Corydon, Iowa, and inspected the bank on the north side of the court
house which was robbed by the James boys and Younger boys in the early
l870s."
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Shared by Larry McElwee
Dodge City, Kansas
macmouse@globenetworks.com

Note: I do not know what year this was written. Nancee