The History of the Early Settlement of Norton County, Kansas

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disappointed in me caused me to leave home, an outcast for no cause except that I was born a girl. During this summer I herded cattle for Mr. Ed Johnson at $15 a month with my crutches at my saddle side and my crippled leg resting on a pillow. I followed this until cold weather set in. I was inexperienced in domestic work and was as simple as a child. I spent the winter with the family of Volney Ball; in the spring I went to my oldest brother's nine miles from home, and here I met the Rev. Mr. Seymour and his wife and they promised to give me a home for my labor but not by any adoption. In the spring of 1874 we removed to Norton Center and I remained in that place two years; I left Mrs. Seymour because at my age (16) I could do better for myself than but to earn my board and clothing as I was then doing at the Rev. Mr. Seymour's, and so I left them and secured a position at the Commercial hotel as dining room girl at a salary of $15 dollars per month.

Norton Center consisted of two hotels, one livery stable, one dry goods store, (which was a grocery, drug and nearly everything else combined) and a blacksmith shop. There was a county seat war during this time, and while I was there they built a court house and jail, but before this, the jail was a room connected with the Commercial hotel, and in going to and from the hotel kitchen we passed the door of the prison room, and could see the prisoners chained to the floor and partly covered with blankets, not a very pleasant sight for timid people, but in those days of Kansas history timid people were scarce. Mr. Posson, proprietor of the Commercial hotel was the sheriff. During my first year at Norton there was a grasshopper plague which became so unbearable as to necessitate building fires in the yard to keep the pests out of the houses. We also had an Indian outbreak in the county west of Norton and several whites were killed.

At last, tiring of Norton I journeyed to Hastings, Nebraska, and soon found employment in my old position as dining room girl in the Commercial house. I can remember the advent of the first railroad into Hastings and the great excitement it caused. I remained here nearly two years and hearing a good deal of Denver, Colorado, I determined to leave for here. This was also a trip across the country in a wagon. We arrived in Denver in the later part of July 1880. We found the Colorado metropolis to be a primitive and thinly populated town. We camped near the union depot on the banks of the Platte river. I went to work in the American restaurant on the corner of 16 and Blake St. I only remained here a short time and then went to the Goodwin House that owned by a friend from Hastings. Here I met Mr. Walter Peterson and was married to him September 13, 1880. I then started a hotel for myself, calling it the Railroad house. I named it this because nearly all my guests were railroad men; having one hundred and fifty that were connected in some capacity with the railroads centering in Denver.

After being in business about four years I sold out and bought a home and shortly afterward, on one Thursday morning, November 20, 1884 in my own home I was converted. One year later, 1885 my child, a little girl was born. In 1887 the Lord distinctly called me to His work and I entered the field as a worker in the blessed vineyard of the Lord. As an instrument to his hand I have had hundreds of conversions. I have had gospel meetings in jails and hospitals, missions and street corners, and most of the leading churches of the city. I could fill volumes with the glorious experiences I have had in this line, and I sometimes can hardly realize the goodness of God in raising me from a child, caring for the stock of a Kansas farm to be one able to

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