A Legend of The Turkey Creek Valley



Selma McIntire, selea@terraworld.net, contributed this wonderful history of some of the families of Ridge Twp., with this note: "It was written by Henry Walter Davidson (1873-1966), son of William Wilkie Davidson and Maria Julia Needham. The family lived in Ridge Twp, and in the article he describes all the people he could remember living there, when he was young. His memory was amazing! Henry Walter married my Aunt, Edith Ella Bird, daughter of Edgar Amasa Bird and Julia (Noble), who lived in Banner Twp. They had 2 daughters and one of them, now deceased, shared it with me many years ago.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"In the year 1870, two brothers by name of Henry B and William W Davidson of Jacksonville, lllinois, came west into Dickinson County, Kansas with the purpose of filing on government land under the privilege of U.S. Soldiers to file on 1/4 (one-fourth) Section of land. They were both Civil War Veterans and were volunteers in the 12th Illinois Cavalry Co G and served about 3 years except for about six months when William was in the Chicago Hospital with a bullet wound in his hip, after which he went into service again. They were accompanied by two friends by the names of Hugh McLaren and Jacob May.

From the land office at Junction City, Kansas, they split up in two parties, two each, to spy out the land. One pair went up to the Solomon River Valley, one of the richest part of land in Kansas, and the other pair went south around where Hope, Kansas now stands. They afterward came together again and decided to locate in South Dickinson County. Hugh McLaren and Jacob May located north of the town site of Hope, Kansas and the Davidson brothers filed on land about 4 1/2 miles west or north west of Hope, Kansas, and about 2 miles East of Turkey Creek on opposite sides of the public road running East and West. Henry B Davidson on the South side and William W Davidson on the North side. In later years someone asked Hugh McLaren why they had all decided to settle on the South Prairie land of Dickinson County instead of the rich bottom land of the Solomon River, and he said either one pair or the other were the biggest liars when they compared notes.

After filing on their land, the two Davidson brothers set about to make a place to stay on their land. They hauled lumber on a wagon with an ox team from Abilene to the Quarter Section of W W Davidson to build a two room house on the prairie. Henry B Davidson was a carriage maker by trade and was also a good carpenter and built the house with hgis brothers help. Remember this was on open prairie land at that time. There were few settlers along the creeks and streams, but not too many.

Henry B Davidson did not make any place to live on his Quarter Section of land, but depended on his brother to look after it for him. So, William wanted some help and went back to Illinois with his brother and looked for a helpmate. He must have had some idea where he was going to find soneone to helphim. At least he persuaded a maiden lady from Virginia, Cass County, Illinois to join up with him. Her maiden name was Maria Julia Needham, a blond of slight build of about 90 or 95 pounds. They were married April 8, 1872, and came west and started their married life in a two room frame house, which still stands and is used as a blacksmith shop as of my last visit to the farm home. In the spring of 1873, to be specific, May 8, 1873, they had an addition to their home and family in the person of a youngster whom they gave the name of Henry W Davidson and he was rather stout built fellow, but not too large. I suppose he helped entertain them, I do not know for sure, I was a little too young to know all about that. Those were trying years, with short crops and grasshoppers and not very favorable weather and seasons. In a little over three years from my birth, I had a visitor to keep me company in the person of a baby brother and they called him Joseph W Davidson. He arrived August 7, 1876, and he was quite an active fellow from the start, but rather slender in build from the first 10 or 12 years of his life. After that he developed into a good sized man, and was taller than I, when we were grown. Things began to get more active around the home and otherwise, as time went on there were other additions to the family. In the year 1880 about October 18, we had another brother by name, Arthur W Davidson, came on the scene, and he added to the interest and number, and to add to our interest a sister came in the year 1885, November 13, and she was named May Belle Davidson. When she grew to be older and larger, she was really the life of the party by times. My father started farming with an ox team and that would really be a novelty to many people today. He did a great part of his breaking of the sod prairie and broke out the strips for the hedge rows around the two farms and the cross fences that inclosed the farm and inner fields. These hedge fences were supposed to keep the stock in place, but unless they were quite close together, they did not do a very good job. In after years when these hedges grew to be larger trees, we cut them off and made a great amount of firewood and the best kind of posts. How much farming would the farmers do today with one team of oxen, or many teams of oxen? They would not compare very well with the modern tractor which pulls anywhere from three to five 14 inch bottom plows and plows anywhere from 15 to 20 acres of ground a day and pulls every kind of modern machinery and does all the operations from plowing and preparing the soil, planting the grain and harvesting and delivering the grain to the grain bin or County Elevators. We wonder at the improvements in the last 100 years.

I did quite a bit of traveling and exploring when I was quite young. I used to walk about two miles to the Post Office, Newbern by name and it was in the farm home of Wm Murray, and he and his family handed out the mail. I guess they knew who I was or where the mail belonged. Anyway, I must have brought the mail home. I have an old letter among my souvenirs that as written by my Uncle Henry B Davidson to my father. It has the Newbern post mark on it under date of April 10, 1875 as near as I can make out.

I had some amusing experiences as I remember them at times when I went to the Post Office. There were people from all around the community came to get their mail, and there was a large fellow by the name of John Root, not too bright, but he could talk and I suppose he talked to me as well as the other folks. But it seemed that he made made people take note of his pecularity and I knew he seemed off and I was afraid of him and did not linger any longer than necessary, and it was funny how many times I met up with him at this Post Office and I never stayed any longer than I had to. This fellow had one brother and two sisters that were odd. There were also two sisters that were normal. D A Root was the father of this family, and he and his wife seemed to be quite well educated for those times and locality.

This was for the most part a farming or agricultural community and quite a mixture of nationalities. The German people settled closer to the water courses or streams, and Turkey Creek was the principal stream and it had some small tributaries, and the main stream emptied into the Smokey Hill River.

At the North border of this little country settlement Mrs Doctor Scheufle lived and doctored mostly the babies of that settlement. There was a large spring close to their home and near the public road. The Meuli families lived west and north of her home. As we come south we visit the Engle home and a widow woman by the name of Mrs Siegle. She had one son, Andrew Siegel. Next south we come to the Wm Row and wife. They had a family of three girls and two boys. Mary, William Jr, Carrie, James and Lillie. He was an Englishman who with others came from the mines from Michigan. He was a tool dresser by trade and set up a blacksmith shop on the corner of his 80 acre farm and sharpened the plow shares for the farmers, his work was not very smooth and he did not have an emery wheel to smooth it off in those days.

Up the road about one half mile on the west side lived a family by the name of Tonkin. I saw Mr Tonkin but do not remember Mrs Tonkin. They had a family of about seven children. Most of the children were older than me and I did not associate with only about three of them, Charles, Julius and Lillie which were the youngest of the family. Next on the road about one fourth mile farther south was the Wm Murray, Sr family. They consisted of Father and Mother and six daughters and three sons. Some of them married and settled in the neighborhood. They had the first Post Office in their home, by name of Newbern. Several of them were school teachers in the early days of that countryside.

We travel south about one fourth mile and come to the home of Mr and Mrs Hiram Springer. They had two children. The boy, Tad was the older and he died in early life. Alice was the girl and she was quite a popular girl with the young men of the neighborhood and the boys and young fellows had several fights over her, until she was married to Charles Siler, a German jeweler of Hope, Kans.

As we travel south we come to the home of Mr and Mrs Amos Bohannon. Mrs Bohannon was a sister of Hiram Springer who lived next neighbor to them. The Bohannon children were Emma Ida, Levi, Nora, Earl, Leo and Owen. Emma and Ida became deaconess' in the Methodist Church. Ida went as a missionary to Mexico and Emma was worker among the Chinese people in Los Angeles, Calif, until in 1950 {sic,Typographical error?} or later. Amos Bohannon was a progressive man and acquired some acreage of land, about a section, which was quite a holding in those days. In the southwest corner of his land stood the first school house in our part of the country, and they named it Mount Ayr. This was where I first attended school and where I started to accumulate what learning I received during my career. It served also as a church house where the people of that community assembled on Sunday for religious services, and as I remember they were called Methodists and the class leader was (Old Man Curtis), and he came from Abilene and conducted the class. He had their names in a book, and as he called their names they arose and gave testimony of their Christian experiences. In my youthful days these meetings were quite interesting some times when some of the women mostly gave their testimony.

Our means of travel was by lumber wagon or else we walked. My father hitched his team of horses to the farm wagon and took the family to the school house for church, and if we went to visit our neighbors or relatives, we went that way. I quite often went with my father to the nearest town to market, either to sell something that we raised on the farm or to purchase supplies for the house. It took all day to make the trip to Abilene and back home, a distance of 17 1/2 miles.

Mr and Mrs Henry Smith lived just across the road from the schoolhouse. They had two daughters and one son. Minnie was the oldest girl and grew up to be a s school teacher and never did get married and was an old maid school teacher all her life. The younger daughter, Clara died in her teens of Typhoid s I remember. The third child was a boy, Wesley by name and he grew up to be a man and became interested in the oil business. He lived in Oklahoma. Sometimes he was rich, and other times he was poor. I never heard how he finished his career.

Almost one half mile west from the school house and back from the road lived Mr and Mrs Anthony Lorson. He was a farmer and came to Kansas from Pennsylvania. He was a large dark complexion and rather gruff talking man. Mrs Lorson was a large blonde plain-spoken woman. They were Catholic by Church relation. Their family consisted of nine boys and two girls. By name the boys were Frank, Edward, George, Joseph, Albert, Ambrose, John and Thomas. As I heard and remember, the older boy died and I do not know his name. Two girls, Flora and Elizabeth. Flora married Charley Reidy and they lived south of Hope, Kansas. Elizabeth was an old maid, by choice I guess. She lived her last days in Hope, Kansas. They mostly all followed farming and stock raising and acquired farm lands quite extensively south of Dillon, Kansas.

The next inhabitant west of the Lorson farm was Mr and Mrs James Burton. They had two children, a boy by the name of Mark and a girl by the name of Lucy. He was a farmer but followed the business of a Public Auctioneer and cried sales for farmers and other people who desired their services.

Mr and Mrs Henry Horning lived west and north of the Burton place. They had a large family of boys,as I remember, they may have had some girls. I did not know this family so well. Several of the boys came to Mount Ayr school.

East of the H A Smith farm on the next quarter section lived Mr and Mrs N K Gray and they had one daughter, they named her Annie but nicknamed her "Frank". "Nick" as the neighbors called him was quite a character and as I knew him when I was a boy. He was quite rough spoken and as I remember a neighbor, Mr Altman, with his boys rented some of Nick Grays land and they had an argument or disagreement over some of his style of language and Mr Altman described him "Er ist ein Switzer Devel." ("He is a Swiss devil").

W W Davidson lived on the southwest quarter of this section and that is where I was located most of the time while I was growing up. Mr and Mrs George Dunks lived on the southeast quarter in that section. He was a son-in-law of Wm Murray, Sr of earlier mention. George Dunks often visited in our home and he was quite a character, and quite a story teller. He seemed to pick on me for his listener and always called me Master Henry. He told me about Uncle Henry chasing an antelope round and round they would go, but Uncle Henry never did catch the antelope. Then he told me when I grew older, he and I would go out and hunt wolves and that took my fancy. We used to hear the cayotes howling around on the prairie after dark and that was a weird wail out on those lone prairies after dark. I can hear their lonesome howling yet in my memory and it used to make the cold chills creep over my body.

On to the west and south of us, was the Mr and Mrs T B Mosley family. They had a family of three boys and two girls. They came from Tennessee as I remember and he had some money and bought a large piece of land for those days, about 400 acres. Mrs Mosley was a Southern lady and was rather proud. She did not let her girls get married. I suppose she thought they were a little above the common run of people. So Ida the oldest child and daughter never did get married, although she had lots of suitors. She was a very good musician and could sing quite well and Lola, her younger sister, often sang with her. In later years when her mother died, she, Lola, got married to a widower in Dillon by of J B Wells, Station Agent. He had two sons and Lola took care of the whole family while they were together. She was quite a pal of mine, if she was a few years older than I. We used to run races and she could out-run me. We went to the same school and she was in advanced classes to what I was. Milton Mosley was the oldest boy and he was quite a lively fellow. He used to ride a pony and most of the young fellows did then. I have seen as many as a dozen or more young men on saddled horses, and they were often running races on a Sunday afternoon. Jerome Mosley was younger and was quite lively also and they would both imbibe too much liquor by times. Henry Mosley was the youngest boy and youngest child in the family and was about my age and he contracted Uremic poisoning and died when he was about 20 years old, or younger. They were our nearest neighbor. Ida, the oldest child in the family often came to our home and visited with my Mother. She was quite a bit older than I and was not a companion to me. Later they moved from the farm to Dillon and erected a large building which housed a store, Post Office and served as a residence also. Milton Mosley married Mena Zish, a sister of Mrs Dr N P J Ketchersid and they lived on part of the Mosley land. Jerome Mosley also married and he and his wife Hulda and family lived on the old home place, or original home buildings close to us and we became well acquainted with his wife. She was a Swedish lady by nationality. They had a nice family of children.

There were other settlers along Turkey Creek about one and on half or two miles west from my fathers farm and along the creek. Gotlieb Heller was a German and he was one of these and he conceived the idea of building a flour and grist mill on the creek and faving a dam and running it with water power over an old mill wheel, which he did for a number of years. He hired a miller to run the mill and they made flour which I think they branded "White Goose" and of course they had the off fall Bran and Shorts. They also had corn meal. The water power proved in adequate and they used steam power later. I often went with my Father to this mill where he had wheat exchanged for flour and Bran and Shorts. My Mother did not like this flour as well as the Fanchion Flour from the Hoffman Flour Mills at Enterprise, Kansas, but that was father away and my Dad did not go there very often. Arnold Brunner, a brother of Emil Brunner who operated a flour mill at Hope, Kansas, took over the operation of the mill on Turkey Creek for a few years.

The Gantenbein Brothers lived a little further north down the creek and father south lived the Roofeners and Millers and Chris Rohrer. Nottorfs, Wm Sandows and Klingbergs, John Rumold, Jacob Rumold, Bertschingers and A L Evers. To the west lived Joe Sterling with a large family. When the Missouri Pacific Railroad was built through our country in 1885, a number of new towns sprang up almost over night, and the town of Dillon was among them. We had a Post Office before the Railroad came and Postmistress was Miss Emma White and her brother Gideon White was the first school teacher in the new School House in Dillon if my memory serves me right. At one time in its prime Dillon numbered nearly 300, counting in some of the rural families. There were two General Merchandise Stores, the larger one was built by M D Herington who was one of the mainstays of Herington, Kansas. Why he should build a general store in Dillon, I never knew. There was one hardware and implement store, lumber yard, railroad depot, grain elevator, stucco plaster mill which employed in all about 30 men at the peak of production. A Mr Ball was the manager. School house, two rooms, blacksmith shop, barber Shop, small hotel and livery barn, two churches, Methodist and Presbyterian, which were quite well attended and I must mention the Plowmans Band composed of the young men of that wonderful neighborhood. Dr N P J Ketchersid was the leader and they made quite a reputation for themselves and traveled to different towns and performed with distinction and merit for themselves.

I would not fail to mention the influence of these two churches on this neighborhood. Many of these people, especially the younger generation attended one or the other of the two churches at Dillon, because they had preaching after Sunday School at alternate Sunday mornings, first at one church and most of the Sunday School folks from the other church would come to that preaching service, and the next Sunday morning they would all go to the other church for preaching service. The Methodist church had preaching service in the evening much of the time.

Our family had their membership in the Methodist Church and we had an attendance at Sunday School on an average of sixty to seventy five. I was a teacher when I was quite young and after a few years they elected me Superintendent of the Sunday School and my first wife and mother of my two and only daughters played the piano for Sunday School for some time. These churches cast an influence over that neighborhood including a territory of almost eight miles from one extremity to the other.

There were sevral families who lived east and northeast and southeast of Dillon who attened besides the families I have mentioned in the earlier part of my story. They included Mr and Mrs Wm Arthur and family of two boys and three girls, William Jr, Charles, Susie, Laura and Sadie. The Mr and Mrs Roberts lived just across the road on the east side of the north and south road. They had a family of three girls and three boys. The girls names were Katie, Esther and Susie and the boys were Richard, ___ and John. They were musical and helped in that way in church work. John was very good on the cornet. He could play what they called the triple tongue on the cornet.

Down the road a quarter mile lived Mr and Mrs Albert Murray and they had four children. Joseph Murray was the oldest and when quite young he started a paper which he published and sent over that neighborhood. He finally became a newspaper man in Lawrence, Kansas. Lottie was next in age. She was a nice good looking girl. Luann was next and she started a teaching career at an early age and later became my youngest brothers wife and they had a nice family. The youngest boy was Roy Murray and he grew up to be a good citizen.

As we go 1/2 mile south and 1/4 mile east we come to Mr and Mrs T J Cook home. He was an active sort of man, a cabinet maker and carpenter and in partnership with a neighbor farmer, they handled a threshing machine run by horse power and threshed wheat, oats, rye and barley over quite a large part of that country. He also operated a corn sheller, was quite a show man and participated in many of the public entertainments around the country at the school house. They had a family of four boys and two girls. Fred was the oldest, Sadie and Bertha were the two girls and Earl and Merl were twins and Leo was possibly the youngest. They all grew up and scattered out. Most of them married and established homes of their own.

On the quarter section east of them lived Mr and Mrs Alexander. They had a family of four boys and two girls. Newton, Robert, Clark and Ira. The girls were Stella and Alice, and Alice became the wife of my younger brother, Joseph.

Next south of them lived a family of Mr and Mrs Charley Crimble and about three boys and three girls. I do not remember their names. He was a Welchman and she was one of the Falen girls.

Next south of them lived Mr and Mrs George Dillon. They had three girls and one boy. Jessie, the oldest girl, then Iva and Pearl and George Jr was the only boy. Some other families in that part of the country were Mr and Mrs Charlie Anderson. They had, as near as I know, five boys and four girls. The boys were William, Aaron, John, Ernest and Roy, and the girls were Rose, __, __, and Agnes.

Mr and Mrs Hixon. Skill was the only boy and there were several girls whose names I do not recall. Dr and Mrs Ketchersid had two girls and one boy, Agnes, Lillian and James. He was our country Doctor and made his trips in a top buggy drawn by two ponies and in the winter cold days and nights he had a coal lantern under the lap robe to keep his feet warm and when the snow was too deep for team and buggy he would ride horseback over the snow banks. Later he moved to Hope where he built a sanitarium to take care of patients and had his headquarters there.

I often went with my Father and Mother to visit my Father's Mother who married after she came to America and her husband was Christian Slater. They had, as it were, a second family, two boys and three girls, Maria, Cecelia, John, Agnes and Arthur in order of their ages. I sometimes stayed with Grandma Slater for several days at a time and I thought that was fun as she made doughnuts and I had my share of them and I played around their house.

About one mile further away lived a first Cousin of my Father by the name of George and Lizzie Mill. They had a family of seven boys and one girl. Alex, Arthur, Edward, Walter, George, Hugh, Harry and Myrtle.

The Union Valley School house was about one half mile south from the George Hill place on the corner northeast of a quarter section of land that was owned by his Mother who was married the second time to A W Sibbald. She was a sister to my Grandmother, Mrs Isabelle Slater. Mr and Mrs A B Sibbald lived in Abilene, Kansas and she operated a hotel, which I think they called the Commercial in early days. I remember that when I went to Abilene with my Father that he took me with him to his Aunt's hotel for dinner, and he would have a long visit with her. I did not see much of Uncle Siobbald as they called him. He was a painter by trade and also a grainer, that is he would paint the wood in doors to look like the natural grain of wood.

From the two room grade school in Dillon, Kansas, where this writer graduated from the grades, along with two other boys, Chris Rohrer and Chris F Rumold entered into the Dickinson County High School. That next fall we all went to Chapman, Kansas to take up our work in the High School. That was quite an experience from the "grade school." Note: This Dickinson County High School started as a modest school has grown to no small school by now, and is spreading its influence over quite a wide territory, and has benefitted many young people of this county and state.

Many young people have attended this school since our time and has sent out, some to teach school, others to go to schools for higher learning and some back to the farm to carry on farming. They have built new buildings to take care of extra attendance through the years and who can tell what will come of tyhis new school program for the state. The State if having districts consolidate until it will all be changed. Some places they are building Junior Colleges to take care of the overflow."

Source: "A Legend of Turkey Creek Valley", by Henry W Davidson (1873-1966), privately printed.