H C G S

HARVEY COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETYPO BOX 75 NEWTON KS 67114

www.rootsweb.com/~kshcgsEmail: kshcgs@gmail.com

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

We have a winner! As you can see, the winning entry of our “Name This Newsletter” contest was “The Homesteader”. The person who submitted this entry wishes to remain anonymous, but we can tell you that they re-ceive a free one-year membership in HCGS for their great idea!

You will notice that this issue includes information focusing on the city of and people who settled in Sedgwick, which was the first city laid out in Harvey County (surveyed and platted in the summer of 1870). It is located in Sedgwick Township in the south-central part of Harvey County. An excellent map for this area can be found at http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=Sedgwick,+KS (yes, that is a comma between the word Sedgwick and the plus sign), which includes a link to a satellite image and hybrid image. There were many firsts in Sedgwick - first school, resi-dence, store, mill, jail, church, hotel, and newspaper - and it had quite a large population before Newton was started. It was incorporated as a third class city on March 18, 1872. The Lillian Tear Library and Sedgwick Historical Mu-seum are located there, the museum being the oldest building in the city.

Our website continues to grow, with more items and new pages being added. It is our goal to provide Harvey County genealogists with as many online resources as possible, all without having to pay a fee. This will take time, and we have a lot of work ahead of us, but we see many great things that will come about in the future from this endeavor. If you are a member, send in your Harvey County surnames to be included on our Member Surnames page, and biographies of your Harvey County ancestors for our Ancestor Biographies page. Both members and non-members can have their queries posted on our website -- this is a free service to aid in your search for Harvey County ances-tors. And the Online Research page can contain your research transcriptions. Items may include: documents, books, newspaper articles, etc. with information about Harvey County ancestors. Check the Society’s website or contact us for specific details on each of these.

If you have family or friends who would be interested in joining HCGS, the Membership Registration Form and Individual Member Survey can be downloaded from our website. Feel free to print as many of these as you like to have on hand. This would also be a great idea for libraries, historical and genealogical societies, museums, and other organizations. If you are unable to access the internet, contact us and we will send you the forms by postal mail.

Plan to attend our next program, “Digging for Ancestors: Settling in Harvey County,” to be presented by Carol Gibbens on Saturday, November 19, 2005 at 1:00 p.m. at the Harvey County Historical Museum and Archives, 203 North Main, Newton, Kansas.

Prosperous digging!Diana Carmichael

HCGS wishes to extend its deepest condolences to those affected by hurricane Katrina during the last week of August. Our thoughts & prayers are with all the families.

September 2005

Volume IIssue 2

THE HOMESTEADERnewsletter of the harvey county genealogical society

Program Notes by Kelly Krotz

The first general meeting of the Harvey County Genealogical Society was held on Saturday, August 20th at the Harvey County Historical Museum, 203 North Main in Newton. President Diana Carmichael opened the meeting by welcoming members and

guests and then introduced Karen Wall who presented a program entitled Family Stories: Ethnic Experiences in Harvey County. Approximately two years ago Karen, who has been an avid genealogist for several years, began helping her granddaughter trace her family history. From the slim beginnings of having only names and a few dates obtained from another grandparent, Karen and her granddaughter have filled several 3-ring binders with copies of documents, pertinent facts and information, have obtained numerous pictures of ancestors and have even participated in an archeological dig in Illinois this past summer.

Karen shared with the society members and guests stories of how she was able to obtain much of her documentation regarding the Anderson, Rickman, McWorter and Clark

families. She told us how a phone call to a county courthouse resulted in her finding out about a book written on the life of Free Frank McWorter and how another call and email exchange resulted in locating a trunk full of old photos. She offered tips on the importance of “pressing forward” when it seems that all possible leads have been exhausted – even to the extent of getting down on your hands and knees and digging through the grass at the cemetery. The program concluded

with the presentation of a certificate of appreciation to Karen. We express our thanks to her for presenting our first program and especially for sharing her discoveries of these early settlers of Harvey County.

THE PRAIRIE POST

MURPHY, DUNKELBERGEREdward & Bessie (Murphy) Dunkelberger lived in Sedgwick. Information on the Thomas Murphy family of Macon Township & the Dunkelberger families of Harvey County is needed & appreciated. Will trade info. Submitted by Jane Colvin. Email JColvin68@aol.com.

PUCKETT, BRUNNERSeeking information on Frank PUCKETT; he was born 1881 in Illinois. He married Clara May BRUNNER on November 1, 1904 in Newton; she was born 1883 in Newton and died 1906 in Newton. Frank may have later married Carrie ? and in 1930 they may have lived in Saline County, Kansas. Submitted by Cathy Lampshire, 2771 East Norm Place, Anaheim, California 92806. Email clampshire@fullerton.edu

ROBERTSONSeeking information for Andrew J. ROBERTSON and his second wife, Mary E. ?, probably married between 1865/1869. Mary was born in Iowa. They moved to Harvey County from Iowa sometime in late 1869 or early 1870 when their son Isaac (born August 5, 1869) was an infant. Andrew was previously married to Susan ? and they had three daughters (their first, Susan, was born April 18, 1860). Submitted by Doris Brown. Email djbrown2534@aol.com.

BOARD MEETINGS

HCGS Board Meetings are open to the public. They are currently held at 7:00 p.m. in the Source of Light building 901 SW 14th St, Newton.

September 15October 20

November 17

HCGS HOLDINGS

HCGS now has an area for its Society holdings in the Archives section (upstairs) of the Harvey County His-torical Museum & Archives, 203 North Main, Newton, KS. Many thanks to Jane Jones for her help in provid-ing this! We may now accept genealogical items you want to have placed with HCGS. Please contact us before bringing or mailing any of your items.

www.rootsweb.com/~kshcgs

The Homesteader is published bi-monthly by the Harvey County (Kansas) Genealogical Society. It may be freely photocopied and distributed, as long as it is not reproduced for profit or other personal gain.

DIGGING FOR ANCESTORS:

SETTLING IN HARVEY COUNTY

Presented byCarol Gibbens

Saturday, Nov. 19, 20051:00 p.m.

Harvey County Museum& Archives

203 N Main - Newton

Tumbleweeds....Sedgwick, being the oldest settled town in Harvey County, built the first school building in the county (1870), the first flouring mill (1871), and witnessed the first death in the county - an unknown

man who was shot in the fall of 1870.

The first birth in Harvey County was in Sedgwick Township, August 12, 1870. Rosa A. Schaefer was daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Charles Schaefer. The first male birth in the county also occurred in Sedgwick on February 13, 1870 - Henry, son of Mr. & Mrs. P. M. Morgan.

One of the worst tornadoes in Kansas history occurred May 25, 1917 at 2:00 p.m., leaving 23 dead and 70 injured. The mile-wide funnel swept away homes and entire farms in the Sedgwick and Andale area.

One-Room School Houses in Sedgwick Township1. District 10 - Sedgwick City - Section 342. District 19 - Sand Creek - Section 11 (website with photos - http://www.freep-ages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~harvey/sandschool/sand.html)

W. M. Congdon in 1868 grew tired of working in his father’s factory in Vermont, so he packed his belongings, left his family behind, and traveled west for a short vacation. He met his brother-in-law, O. H. Sherman, who owned a lumber yard in what would become Sedgwick. They spent the winter there, and in the Spring Mr. Congdon wrote his wife saying, “Sell everything but

the kids and the feather beds and come out here, because I’ll never leave this place.” He bought the lumber yard from Mr. Sherman, and built a farmstead, and later built a bank in town.

Charles Schaefer was 5 years old in 1850 when he was sent to live with his uncle in St. Louis. However, he accidentally boarded the wrong steamship, which took him to Arkansas. He never saw or heard of his parents again. He joined a wagon train of soldiers who were being sent to New Mexico. When he left the army in 1869, he settled north of the present site of Sedgwick and was prominent in the settling of the town.

Dr. T. S. Floyd and John Corgan, among others, decided that a trading point was needed along the trail north of Wichita. They were attracted to a beautiful area near the Sand Creek & Little Arkansas Rivers. In June, 1870, they formed the Sedgwick Town Company and an 80-acre townsite was laid out. For some time Dr. Floyd & his family lived in a covered wagon just north of town. Dr. T. S. Floyd had been an army doctor and he was the town’s only doctor for a long time.

Other old settlers of the town included John Wright, Simeon Decker, Mike Ragen, F. M. Dick, Charles Dotson, S.B. Cretcher, P.M. Morgan, N. A. Mathias, and Chamberlain & McIntire families. These people who came in 1969 were known as the 69’ers.

The name of Sedgwick City was suggested by Dr. Floyd, who had served under General John Sedgwick during the Civil War. The early town and surrounding homesteads were frequently endangered by Indians. Upon threat of attack all of the women and children were locked in the bank, while the men went out to protect their interests.

In this vicinity lived John Corgan, W. T. Wetherel, William McOwen, John Wright, & S. Decker. Mr. McOwen erected a store in July of 1870. Log houses and tents soon dotted the town and it enjoyed steady growth. Other early settlers included the Pugh, Sheeve, Adams, Beecher, and Wesley families.

William Finn, the County surveyor, was attracted to this location since his first acquaintance with it. He & George Weeks decided to open up a real estate office in Sedgwick, and homesteaded claims that adjoined the town site. Their office became a gathering point for the townfolk when times were dull. Weeks played a fiddle and Finn had a flute, and chess was a favorite game to play.

One night quite a group were enjoying themselves in various ways, Weeks & Finn playing their instruments, when a cowboy suddenly appeared at the door and began shooting wildly. The cattle trail passed near the city, and it was a favorite stunt of the drivers when they needed a little excitement to “shoot up” some nearby town just to scare the folks a bit. This evening when the cowboy burst in upon the gathering, the townfolk dispersing through the back door, Mr. Finn persuaded the man to put up his gun and go home. The only injury sustained was Mr. Weeks’ violin that had a bullet hole through the body.

The only saloon to ever open its doors in Sedgwick in those early days soon closed for lack of business. By 1872 there were three Churches, the Methodist, the Congregational, and the United Brethren.

SED

GW

ICK

The Villages of Harvey County

AMASA NELSON ALLENSedgwick, Kansas

Amasa Nelson Allen was born December 7, 1852 in Dereham Township, Ontario, Canada. He was the son of Thaddeus Houghton Allen and Mary Ann “Polly” Otis Allen who migrated from Vermont to Jefferson County, New York, then to Canada (where Amasa was born), finally settling in Michigan where the family lived on a farm near Alcoa. Amasa Nelson Allen’s father, Thaddeus Houghton Allen, was a trapper and was gone for months trapping all over Michigan and Canada. Thaddeus gave land for the first school house near Ruby, Michigan and in addition, donated land for a church. All records for Thaddeus Allen state he was E. Methodist. The country church in Michigan which occupied the land donated by Thaddeus was called the Allen church, and it remained open until 1965.

By the early 1870’s some of Amasa’s siblings had decided to migrate to Kansas and reported favorably back to those Allen children still on the farm in Michigan. And so, after supper on March 1, 1876, 23 year old Amasa Nelson Allen along with his brother-in-law Nick Ditmore left Port Huron, Michigan for Kansas. They traveled to Kansas by train, but because they could not buy a direct ticket to Sedgwick they traveled second class (in the smoking car), then purchased another ticket in Newton for 60 cents to take them to Sedgwick- where they arrived around midnight on March 3, 1876. The train consisted of a combination car i.e., baggage, mail and express in the one end and passengers in the other. He brought all of his possessions to Sedgwick in a camel back trunk, which in 1973 was given to me by Amasa’s daughter (my grandmother)- Frances Harriet Allen Kennedy. When I received the trunk from my grandmother, it still contained pictures of the Allen family, including photos of Thaddeus and Polly Allen and their farm in Michigan.

Amasa traveled to Kansas on the pretext of seeing what the country was like, but when he learned that he could take 2 ponies, break an acre of land and raise a crop on it in 12 months, he decided it was better than farming in Michigan where it took several men months to clear a small piece of timber and then several more years before it was really ready to cultivate, and he decided to stay.

On January 31, 1878 Amasa Allen married Rhoda Greenleaf Quiett. Amasa bought a relinquishment from a Mr. Ridley and moved the one room house across the slough to his farm northeast of Sedgwick, where he lathed and plastered it. The little farmstead had Maiden Blush Early Harvest and Snow Apple trees which still bore fruit when Amasa left the farm and moved into Sedgwick in 1918. Amasa and Rhoda had twelve children:

Elvira Annis Allen, born 27 Nov 1878, died 19 Dec 1909 Sannah (Susie) Susanah Allen, born 11 Jul 1880, died 22 Dec 1905 Seth Houghton Allen, born 4 Mar 1882, died 4 Sep 1942 Eslie Allen, born 26 Oct 1883, died 13 Nov 1883 Lucy Hester Allen, born 30 Oct 1885, died 23 Oct 1963 Thomas Allen, born 7 Jan 1887, died 20 Feb 1887 Demeris (Demas)Ellen Allen, born 25 Jan 1888, died 3 Dec 1960 Amasa Burton Allen, born 9 Mar 1890, died 10 Feb 1905 Frances “Fannie” Harriet Allen, born 2 Dec 1891, died 21 Sep 1992 Elinor Isabel “Bell” Allen, born 23 Jun 1895, died 7 Jun 1984 William Luther Allen, born 21 Jul 1897, died 28 Jul 1961Nelson Allen, born 22 Nov 1899, died 29 Nov 1899

Amasa died at his home at 101 Commercial in Sedgwick, April 30, 1947.

By Patti Unruh

Generations