Kalida Contributed and transcribed by Woodson County Commissioner Bill Linde. ------------------------------------------------------------------- KSGENWEB INTERNET GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In keeping with the KSGenWeb policy of providing free information on the Internet, this data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other gain. Copying of the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. -------------------------------------------------------------- WOODSON COUNTY KANSAS KALIDA And VICINITY By R. W. Rhea Eighty years ago, the 16th day of this month, three covered wagons headed for Texas. They were seem crossing the prairie about two miles east of Yates Center. They were nearing the little town of Chellis, which later became Kalida. A man who had been watering his horse in a ravine, came in sight of this trio going toward the little town. My father, who was walking ahead of the wagons, called back my mother "that fellow walks like Frank Girdner. The man jerked off his hat and started back as fast as he could, leading his horse. He wished to see who knew Frank Girdner’s walk so well. The man was Dr. F. W. Girdner, a cousin of mine who located in Chellis. This meeting was purely coincidental, as my parents had not known of Dr. Girdner’s whereabouts for some time. Our family stopped for a visit, but before their visit was out they fell in love with the country and settled on the quarter section adjoining the little town to the east. Just when the community was first settled. I cannot say, but I. S. Landis was the first settler in the neighborhood and the nearest neighbor was at Fort Belmont, five miles southwest. The first school was taught in the spring of 1868 in an abandoned log house, a quarter of a mile west of where Claude Woodruff now lives. The first teacher was Miss Anna Faler, an aunt of Rafe Faler, who later became Mrs. Dr. J. W. Turner. The pupils were Sarah, Frank and Charlie Landis; Charles, John and Mary Woodruff; Jonathan, Tom, and Mary Scott and two boys from the George family. At that time there was not an organized district and the school was known as a "subscription school." When Miss Faler went to the Woodruff home to engage the children for her school. Mrs. Woodruff hesitated to permit the children to attend because of her being so young for a teacher. Miss Faler replied "now, Mrs. Woodruff, I am well qualified to teach school, I have been in the third reader. I will get along alright"-- and she did. The first day of school a band of Indians was seen coming toward the schoolhouse and Miss Faler put her pony inside the school house until they had passed. She was afraid that they might take her pony. The Indians passed through Kalida quite frequently, and before Kalida was a town great loads of them wintered in the Brush south of Fort Belmont for at least two winters. They came up there for the government to feed them, as they had starved out in the Indian territory. The first Indian I can remember seeing was an old buck who wanted to trade his bow and arrow to my father for the little papoose. I was that papoose and indeed a scared one. The old Indian was having lots of fun and laughed long and loud. It was no laughing matter for me. The last Indian tribe I ever saw pass our place was in 1884, and they were a sorry looking bunch. There were three or four men riding horseback, and three ponies dragging poles tied to each side with sticks across behind the ponies, and their luggage piled on the sticks. The women and children were walking, with two of the women carrying babies strapped to their backs. As to the little town of Chellis, a man by the name of Conconnan homesteaded it and sold it to H. T. Chellis sometime in 1868. Mr. Chellis started the little towns, and Dr. Girdner built the first new house. Mr. Chellis was a cabinet maker and made burial caskets of solid walnut without a knot in them. They were truly a thing of beauty. His trade territory consisted of more than half the county, which was large for that day. Mr. Chellis and his entire family were good singers and were leaders in the social life of the little town. Mr. Chellis was the father of Mrs. Ella Palmer, Mrs. Mollioe Cramer and Mrs. Fannie Shurtleff, who still reside in Yates Center, and also the late Effie Phillips. T. H. Davidson came to Chellis in 1870 and bought the town site, which he renamed "Kalida." The original Davidson residence is still standing. Mr. Davidson was a very conscientious and public spirited man. In fact, he went broke trying to make Kalida not only a town but a respectable one. No saloons were ever permitted there. Mr. Davidson donated ground for the cemetery and later an addition was given by the Fry family very generous of both families. According to the late Dan Cannady, Mr. Davidson’s son Jim, was the best ox driver in the country. He could drive three yoke of oxen to a breaking plow and make the furrows straight as a gun barrel. He plowed the longest furrow I ever heard of, which started at Kalida and ended at Eureka. It’s purpose was to guide people across the wide prairie, as there was no established trail. The Davidsons, like the Chellis family were an educated family and Jim took over as song leader after the town moved away. Another son Will, became an outstanding educator in later years. He was superintendent of city schools at Topeka for five years; at Omaha, Nebraska, seven years; Washington, D. C., two years and at Pittsburg, Pa., until his death several years ago. While he was at Pittsgburgh, he was president of the National Teachers’ Association. He wrote a series of textbooks. Many of you should remember the U. S, History with the name "Davidson" on the cover. His daughter, Miss Helen Davidson, is teaching in the city schools of Pittsburgh at the present time. When we went to school at Kalida, we kids recognized Will as an authority. We called him "Daniel Webster," John Woodruff was our "Henry Clay," and Charley Landis our "Patrick Henry." There were eight enrolled at school the winter that the late J. P. Kelley taught and he would stand them up and whip them two at a time. It was said that he whipped Will Davidson every morning before opening exercises. The town of Kalida had a hotel, livery stable, two grocery stores, two stores that advertised "Hats and Caps: Boots and Shoes"; a barber shop, drug store, shoe shop, blacksmith shop, post office, billiard hall, meat market, three doctors, two preachers, one lawyer and a newspaper "The Kalida Advocate." In the fall of 1872 the town sponsored a free county fair. The fairgrounds were a little more than half a mile west of the present schoolhouse. The only things I can remember seeing were some big pumpkins and two little buffalo calves nursing an old buckskin cow. I also remember seeing a horse fall with Cora Bideau, a sister to the late Frank D. Bideau, as she was competing for the best lady rider. The accident was caused by a dog which ran onto the track and grabbed her horse by the nose, and they all went down into a pile. There were no injuries. They had races, but I do not remember them. There were many contests between the towns of the county to determine the county seat. As it shifted many times, the county seat was practically on wheels for a few years. Kalida won it at the general election of 1873, but it did not keep it long. The records were hauled from Defiance with one yoke of oxen at one trip. I am probably the only living man who saw the records unloaded at Kalida. I remember seeing several men boost the safe up an outside stairway to a hall above Tom Wilson’s store. I also remember T. H. Davidson was the man who said "he-oh-eh" each time they raised the safe a step. There were only three good wells in the town, the George Willie well, the Kay well and the Davidson well. Had there been plenty of good water at Kalida, there probably would never have been a Yates Center. Wild Bill Hickok was a visitor to Kalida the spring of 1873. The following winter Charles, Cole and Bob Younger wintered a heard of cattle on what is now the Clayton Peck farm. They were fine looking, well behaved young men while they were here. There were no unusual events relative to their stay here. Walking in those days was considered excellent exercise. Even the children walked to school, some as far as 3 ½ Miles; some first graders as far as 2 ½ . John Herder, at the age of 8, frequently walked 5 ½ miles to Kalida carrying two small buckets of eggs, selling them for 3 cents a dozen. It was such things as this that inspired James Whitcomb Riley to write "When we Were All so Happy and Poor." One winter A. T. Woodruff worked at the carpenter trade in Neosho Falls. Every Saturday night he walked to his home in Kalida carrying a 50 pound sack of flour on his shoulder. He walked back to Neosho Falls each Sunday evening to be ready for work the next morning. At the Fall election of 1873, when Kalida became the county seat, J. B. Fry, father of the late Tom Fry, went to Neosho Falls to electioneer for Kalida. There he met Mr. Woodruff who had been working and they campaigned together until they campaigned together until they suddenly realized it was very late to get to Kalida in time to vote. Mr. Fry had a pony but Mr. Woodruff was afoot. Mr. Fry suggested that they ride and tie. Mr. Woodruff replied: "No, Jim, you go ahead and save your vote, – I will walk and cut across and make it if I can." Mr. Fry rode fast and voted with a little more than half an hour to spare. He then dispatched a livery rig to meet Mr. Woodruff and rush him back in time to vote if Possible. Mr. Woodruff, with that long stride of his, was met only a mile out, so he got in before being too late after all. Here is one about horses: One time my father rode an old farm horse from our home at Kalida to Humboldt, a distance of 20 miles, in one hour and 45 minutes. My sister, Kate Rhea, taught school at Defiance one winter and rode the same horse, side saddle a distance of 3 ½ miles in less than 20 minutes when the weather was cold. I plowed corn with the same horse many times and also rode him after cattle when he was 21 years old. This horse was still fat and sleek when he died at 22 years. J. B. Fry had a white mare which he rode to Howard, Kansas, one July 4 th, entered and won three races and then rode her to Piedmont, where he spent the night with a relative. This was a ride of more that 65 miles. Men were men and horses were horses in those days! There were a few large families in the Kalida school district even after the town moved away. There were six children in the Dawson family, seven in the Hall family, seven in the Hiestand family, eight in the Cannady family, seven in the Layton family, eight in the Landis family, nine in the Woodruff family and I was the youngest of eleven children. There are not many people left who were here when Kalida was: Mrs. Palmer and Mrs. Cramer and their sisters, Mrs. Myrtle Long of Bvoise, Idaho; George and Al Kay and their sister, Mrs. Maude Dearns; Jim Girdner of Cornville, Ariz. And Mrs. Elora Kelley Davidson, habitat not known. I think are all the living former residents of Kalida. Those who lived outside the town, but within the school district, include Mr. W. C. Mills, her uncle Barton Cannady of California, Will Hiestand of Iola and Oran Hiestrand of Hutchinson, Kansas, Mrs. Sallie Afflerbaugh of Toronto, Hale Landis of Oklahoma, his sister, Mrs Ollie Myers of Denver, Mrs. Dora Parrish Dawson of Oregon, and her sister, Mrs Frank Wagner of Iola, Miss Elizabeth Agnew of Hays and myself.