Group H's Blog

Ellsworth was destined for a turbulent reputation from its very inception. Fort Ellsworth had been established at the very edge of the frontier in 1864. The Cheyenne had driven everyone off the trails leading to Denver City, Colorado Territory, and it was up to the military to reopen the trails. Fort Ellsworth lay at the point of division between the Fort Riley Military Road which led to the Santa Fe Trail and the Smoky Hill Trail, the most direct but also the most treacherous route to Denver City.

The Cheyenne would not go willingly. There were raids upon wagon trains, horses were stolen directly from Fort Ellsworth, and ill equipped soldiers were led on wild chases across the sea of grass known as the Great American Desert. In 1866, the fort was renamed Fort Harker and, in 1867, relocated one mile to the northeast.

Fort Harker would become the major supply post for the military campaigns to subdue the Plains Indians. In this atmosphere the idea of Ellsworth City was conceived. Of course, the idea was to make money from the soldiers and so the city was platted just beyond the Fort Harker Military Reserve. The railroad was nearing the city and the new town overflowed with frontiersmen of every kind. A man could dig a hole in the bluff that bordered the town, set up a table with some cards and a bottle of whiskey within its curtained door, and open for business. In no time, his little dugout would be overrun with soldiers, gamblers, bullwhackers, railroaders, Texas cowboys and the inevitable unruly women that made up the character of doing business in an “end of the line” town.

Only months in existence, Ellsworth was struck a series of near fatal blows. The Smoky Hill River raged out of its banks leaving the town standing in nearly four feet of water. Cholera struck at Fort Harker and spread to Ellsworth. Those who didn’t die fled in fear. Nearby Fort Harker was no deterrent to the Cheyenne who killed railroad workers just west of town, attacked bull trains on the trail to Santa Fe, and even stole horses from Ellsworth itself! A handful of people endured it all and began again on higher ground west of the original townsite.

The town was soon to prosper once again and a photograph taken by Alexander Gardner in September of 1867 shows a vibrant and active business district. Ellsworth continued its wicked ways. It was said that “Ellsworth has a man every morning for breakfast!” And that it did! Gunfire and revelry in the streets could be heard at all hours of the night or day. Outlaws rode in and took over the town only to be hung on the hangin’ tree when the vigilante committee tired of their shenanigans. Wild Bill Hickok ran for Sheriff in 1868, but there were many equal to the calling in frontier Ellsworth. Former cavalry man, E.W. Kingsbury, defeated him, and along with Chauncey Whitney kept the town from complete madness. Hickok and Redlegs sidekick, Jack Harvey rode the district as Deputy U.S. Marshals.

The tales of gunfights, hangings, and fortunes won and lost are legend. By 1872, the Texas cattle trade had abandoned Abilene. The wild Texas Longhorn trailed through the streets of Ellsworth to the Kansas Pacific Stockyards. The Cowboy reigned supreme, or at least, the gamblers let them think so. The Plaza was filled with men and women from around the world and reporters marveled at the diversity. Nearly every other business was a saloon even though the sign outside might read “Restaurant”. The railroad cut the extra wide street in half with businesses facing the tracks, a line on the south and a line on the north. On north main, The OLD RELIABLE HOUSE sold everything a cowboy could ever want or need. The Drovers Cottage was across the tracks and was headquarters for many Texans who could see the stockyards just out their window.

In 1873, Ellsworth geared up for the largest drive of Texas Longhorns to date. They expected trouble, and beefed up the police force to five men. Four of them were named either Jack or John, the other was Ed Hogue who also served as assistant Sheriff of Ellsworth County under Sheriff Chauncey Whitney. The Cowboys poked fun at the city lawmen referring to them as “four Jacks and a Joker”. Sheriff Whitney they liked.

The season remained quiet; only one killing. One hot August Sunday Ellsworth erupted in gunplay that would in due time mark the beginning of the end of cattletown Ellsworth. City Marshal, “Happy Jack” Morco sided with a gambler against Texan Ben Thompson in a dispute over the winnings of a game. Ben was a notorious gunman with a reputation equal to Wild Bill’s. Ben and his drunken brother Billy had moved to the middle of the Plaza near the depot and called to the others to meet them in the open. The city law was out of control and unable to intercede peaceably in the matter, and so Ellsworth County Sheriff, Chauncey Whitney stepped into the street and called to the Thompsons. In short order he convinced them to take a drink with him and as they stepped into Joe Brennan’s Saloon, Happy Jack charged down the street guns drawn. Ben wheeled and fired his Henry rifle narrowly missing Morco, Billy stumbled and discharged his shotgun mortally wounding the Sheriff.

Ben and an army of Texans held off the town as Billy rode away. In the next few weeks ‘Hell was in Session in Ellsworth.” Happy Jack was fired, Ed Crawford, a new city marshal pistol whipped a Texan to death, Vigilantes roamed the streets issuing “white affidavits” to Texans to “get out of town or else”, Happy Jack was gunned down in the streets when he failed to disarm, and a Texan killed Ed Crawford in the dim hallway of Lizzie Palmer’s Dancehall.

Most Texans went home to the “girl they left behind” and family dear. Few if ever spoke of the things they saw and did at the “end of the trail”. But, the mementos were there. In Ellsworth they had often purchased the first “store bought” clothes they had ever worn. With saddlebags packed with gifts from the north they triumphantly rode home. And though Ellsworth would close its shipping pens in 1875, the story would be told again and again of “Abilene, the first, Dodge City, the last, but Ellsworth the wickedest”.
Posted by Matthew Larsen. All information taken from http://www.droversmercantile.com/history.cfm

Sam Weinberg

The labor movements of the late nineteenth century, sparked by aggressive business owners and a lackluster effort of protection by politicians, gave birth to a new political movement determined to give the American worker a fighting chance against the rail, oil, and steel tycoons of the day. The populist movement as it was later named sprang primarily out of destitute farmers paying high shipping prices to transport their crop to market. Sky high freight charges coincided with a severe drop in grain prices spurred farmers to elect Democratic congressmen, senators, and state officials who vowed to better look out for their well being. What the anarchists, communists, and socialists were doing in the cities for factory workers, the Grangers were doing for farmers in the rural establishments of the mid-west. In Kansas, which had become known as the liberal and progressive testing grounds of the country, the Grangers found widespread support – undoubtedly due to the disproportionate number of grain farmers in the state. The principles of the Grangers – and later the Populists – were not unlike those of socialists: stressing cooperation and a unified labor force; which appealed greatly to disadvantaged farm workers. James D. Holden, in his twenty three page treatise on the state of the American farmer titled Is It Ignorance? Or Is It Treachery? Are our National Rulers the Tools, or, Are they the Dupes of the Money Changers? (1893), describes the tenets of the Populist platform which was published from Topeka in 1893 – the height of the Populist upwelling (http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/200111/page/1) . Holden argues that the economic and political system was designed to undermine the workers in favor of big business and bureaucrats; rejecting the term ‘money’ and the economic system of the status quo. While no Kansan was elected to the presidency on a Populist platform, several won seats in the house, senate, and governorship of Kansas. But as quickly as it started Populism fizzled out after the 1896 elections when Democrats began adopting the same platforms.

Clarina Nichols was born in Vermont in 1810. She received a very good education before she married in 1830. She was a mother, teacher, and worked for a newspaper. She divorced her husband in 1843 after having three kids with him. She then married George Nichols, who was a newspaper editor. In 1854 she moved to Lawrence, Kansas. After her husband’s death a few years later she moved to Wyandotte Country and became an associate editor of an abolitionist newspaper called Quindaro Chindowan. She went throughout Wyandotte lecturing about woman’s rights. She also tried to get as many women as possible to sign a petition that they would present in the Wyandotte Convention. During this convention she would use any opportunity she got to talk to the delegates about her feelings about equality. She would attempt to talk to them during recess and whenever she could. It is said that she had influence in Wyandotte’s constitution because is included some things she felt passionately about. These things were: woman having right in regards to child custody, property rights of married women, and equality in public school. It makes sense why these issues were so important to her. She was a woman who went through a divorce where children were involved. There were not a lot of divorces during this time period so it makes sense that there would not be many laws pertaining to custody of children after a divorce. She later joined with other women such as Susan B. Anthony in the fight for women’s suffrage.

Information from:

http://www.kshs.org/real_people/nichols_clarina.htm

Picture From:

http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/7787

I decide to research Annie Diggs a bit farther after this week’s lecture. I thought that she was a very influential Kansan, and wanted to know more about her contributions to not only Kansas but politics and political parties.

Annie Diggs was a political inspiration during the heyday of Kansas Populism. Born in 1848, Diggs moved to Kansas in the early 1870s. She married a postal clerk from Lawrence in 1873, where the couple pursued a Midwestern, middle-class, small-town lifestyle. The Diggs were early supporters of the Kansas Farmers’ Alliance, a network of Populist farmers in the late 1880s. Annie published a weekly column in the Lawrence Journal, where she gained notoriety and respect as a woman journalist. A Populist advocate, Diggs toured the nation with the People’s Party in 1892, served on the Populist National Committee, and was president of the Kansas Women’s Free Silver League and of the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association. She played a central role in transforming the Kansas Farmers’ Alliance into a political body, the People’s (later Populist) Party, and became one of its most effective speakers and organizers. She was a principal figure in Populist election campaigns in Kansas in 1894 and 1896. By the turn of the century she was appointed Kansas State Librarian and elected president of Kansas Press Women. After the end of her political career Diggs published two books, The Story of Jerry Simpson (1908), on her fellow Kansas Populist, and Bedrock (1912). Diggs later died on September 7, 1916 in Detroit, Michigan.

http://www.kshs.org/portraits/diggs_annie.htm

http://www.autrynationalcenter.org/explore/exhibits/suffrage/anniediggs_full.html