Cottonwood Falls 1889
Chase County Kansas
Those who came found rolling hills and valleys, hot summers, cold winters, and strong winds that blew either from the south or the north depending on the season.
The rocky soil was thin but thick with lime, the subsoil of a clayish cast. Timber skirted the Cottonwood River and its streams, but the width of the timber belt was less than one half a mile kept close by prairie fires that once swept the plains; the forest, if one could call it that, no more than 5 per cent, consisting of cottonwood, hackberry, sycamore, elm, hickory, and walnut. In the beginning there was buffalo but they were gone by now. Deer and turkey roamed the land along with antelope and coyote. Some land was good for crops, what was left was good for cattle.
And so they came.
The Civil War interrupted the growth of the county, for more than a quarter of the settlers enlisted in the Union cause when war broke out. They fought, some died, those that didn’t returned to carry on their lives. They were staunchly Republican.
Cottonwood Fall was meant to be Chase County’s major city lying peacefully on the Cottonwood River that occasionally flooded. But the Santa Fe Railroad understanding the difficulty of rivers and floods laid its tracks just to the north and so Strong City was born. The two cities became known as the Falls.
Still Cottonwood Falls thrived, home to a beautiful courthouse built of native limestone.
Broadway, as it was known back then was a dirt street. A horse driven trolley car traveled between Cottonwood Falls and Strong City. Telephone wires had newly been strung. The automobile had yet to make its appearance on the streets and roads of Chase County, Kansas.
In April what began as a prank resulted in the election of Wilhelmina (Minnie) D. Morgan as Cottonwood Falls’ first female mayor, and also Mrs. D. G. Groundwater as Cottonwood Falls’ first female police judge, and an all female council to rule over the unruly men.
It was an event of which much more should be said.
The following excerpts were printed in the Chase County Leader.
1889
Feb. 12 – Judge S. P. Young dies, aged 67 years. He came to Chase county in 1871.
Apr. 4 – The city of Cottonwood Falls attracts national attention by electing women to all city offices. It was begun as a piece of good-natured fun at the expense of the “women folk” but by noon the movement took on an earnestness, and try as they might the practical jokers could not stop it. Mrs. W. A. Morgan is elected mayor and Mrs. D. G. Groundwater, police judge. Miss Allie Hunt, Mrs. Sadie Grisham, Mrs. Elizabeth Porter, Mrs. Barbara Gillett and Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson are elected councilwomen. They sweep the ticket.
Apr. 25 – The Bazaar Land and Cattle Co. is chartered.
A destructive fire in the Falls burns four fine horses belonging to the Grey Bros. valued at $8,000.
May 4 – A telephone line is installed between Matfield Green, Bazaar and Cottonwood Falls.
May 27 – The third high school commencement is held at the Falls. Maude Johnson is the only graduate. L. A. Lowther is superintendent.
May 28 — A destructive tornado strikes the western part of Chase county at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Captain Milton Brown is killed and Mrs. Brown and their son, Edward, are badly injured. The J. W. Byram, Wm. Pinkston, Bob Johnson, and B. M. Chappell homes were damaged, while the homes of M. E. Hunt, Dr. Rich and S. Fargard were demolished. The path of the storm was 200 yards wide and where it crossed the Cottonwood just above Clements not a tree was left standing.
Jul. 14 — Francis Bernard is chosen president and Francis Laloge, secretary, of the association of French people, Marion, Chase, Lyon, and Osage counties. The Fall of the Bastille is celebrated.
Wm. Austin, who was canvassing for tombstones in Chase county last year, falls heir to a fortune of $25,000 from an uncle.
Oct. 31 — A double wedding takes place at Strong City; Miss Lizzie Lantry and James C. Farrington, Miss Nellie Lantry and W.H. Cushing.
Nov. 7 – A movement almost an exodus to Oklahoma, takes place in the southern part of Chase County. A number of the Sharpe families leave for the new country.
The entire Republican ticket is elected over a fusion ticket of the Democrats and Union Labor parties.
Nov. 28 — Lantry and Sons have the contract for building the cog road up Pike’s Peak.
Compiled by D. A. Ellsworth from the Chase County Leader
Cottonwood Falls 1890
Abandoned, old, and interesting Kansas 