MAY2O1907

LIBRARY.
Fifty Years in Kansas

A Brief Sketch of the Life of George
W. Martin, Secretary of The Kansas
State Historical Society :::::::::
BY WILLIAM E. CONNELLEY

cPr).L

Fifty years is longer than the average of hu
man life. No great proportion of the human
race is so fortunate as to have so long a period of
time for active labor. George W. Martin has been
fifty years in Kansas. He was well grown, robust
and strong when he came. He immediately ap
plied himself steadily to useful labor, and if he
has ever lost a day since I have not heard of it.
He has spent a half-century here on the Great
PJains in hard work. A review of his life is a his
tory of the State. Few men were ever so active
in public life, and Martin has left his impress on
Kansas and her institutions. No State ever had
a more lpyal son or devoted citizen. George W.
Martin caught the true inspiration of Kansas the
day he entered her borders. It has been his guid
ing star. He helped make Kansas, and is proud
of his part in the job. Few men ever had a wider
acquaintance in the State, none ever had more
friends. He has had enemies and still has them.
He has made mistakes and may make others.
But he is outspoken, rugged, square, honest. He

& Fifty Years in Kansas.
is in the prime of life, strong and vigorous, and we
hope he has many years of useful toil in Kansas
yet before him. This brief sketch is written by
one who has known him many years — known him
in prosperity and the most blighting adversity,
and who always found him with his face to the
foe, sword in hand, battling heroically as every
real man should — always found him cheerful, with
a hopeful heart, doing his duty as a true man, con
fident of the future, and always without, a word of
-complaint. The influence for good of such a man
is always great. WILLIAM E. CONNELLEY.
Topeka, Kansas, April 15, 1907.

FIFTY YEABS IN KANSAS.

BY WILLIAM E. CONNELLEY.

In some corner of North Ireland there must be
a region devoted exclusively to the propagation of
the Clan Martin. It is quite evident that the in
dividuals of that name have overrun that country,
and have been for many years spreading abroad
engaged in the conquest of the .earth. Martins
are found here and there — everywhere— Martins
with black eyes and Martins with blue eyes —
Martins with brown hair and Martins with red
1
hair — Martins of all kinds, sizes, and dispositions.
They have settled in Kansas in such numbers that
it is doubtful if they can ever be entirely eradicated.
Look at'this list, hurriedly made:
Martin, John A. : Governor, Secretary "Wyan
dotte Constitutional Convention, State Senate
1861, Colonel Eighth Kansas Regiment.
Martin, John : United States Senator, District
Judge, and twice Democratic nominee for Gover
nor, House 1874, 1875.
Martin, David : Chief Justice Supreme Court,
and Judge of District Court.
Martin, George W. : State Printer, House
1883, and Secretary of State Historical Society.
(3)

Fifty Years in Kansas.

Martin, Wyly: Captain Regular Army, who
established first military post in Kansas, in 1818.
Martin, J. W. : Captain Kickapoo Rangers,
1855. (
Martin, F. L., Hutchinson : Judge Ninth Dis
trict, 1892-1900.
Martin, H. W., Shawnee county: House, 1862.
Martin, Dr. J. S., Highland: House, 1869.
Martin, C. S., C"sage City: Senate, 1873-74-
75-76. Martin, William, Winfield: House, 1874.
Martin, James G., Louisburg: House, 1879.
Martin, J. H., Parsons: House, 1879.
Martin, J. C, Kingman: House, 1879.
Martin, I. G., Paola : House, 1883.
Martin, J. W., Ladore: House, 1885-87-89.
Martin, W. W., Fort Scott : Senate, 1889, 1891.
Martin, A., Bluff City: House, -1889.
Martin, S. G, Linda: House, 1901.
Martin, J. L., Yates Center: House, 1903;
Senate, 1905, 1907.-
Martin, W. W., Richfield: House, 1903.
Martin, C. I., Fort Scott: Senate, 1905, 1907.
Martin, Wm. H., Wyandotte: House, 1907;
And these are the names of only a few of those
who have broken into public life. Think of the
countless number by this name swarming beneath
this public list, ready to burst forth and seize the
direction of affairs at any time! But we can stand

George W. Martin.

it! When pinned right down to the facts and
made to cross our heart, we are compelled to ad
mit that they have been worthy men, and that
their courses in Kansas have been creditable in
the extreme. So, we say, may the tribe increase ;

GEORGE WASHINGTON MARTIN.

may it grow and flourish here on the green sod of
Kansas! And while it is doing so we will take up
for discussion a member of the clan who once
boasted a head as red as was ever shown in a con
vention, but now, alas, assuming the hues of the
flowering almond.

Fifty ' Years in Kansas.

David Martin and Mary Howell, parents, of the
subject of this sketch, were married at the head
of Six, on the old Alleghany Portage inclined road,
near Cresson, Pennsylvania, September 16, 1840.
David was born in County Antrim, near Belfast,
Ireland, December 1, 1814, and emigrated to Amer
ica in 1819, arriving at Baltimore, and settling in
Indiana county, Pennsylvania. Mary Howell was
born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in the year 1822.
Her mother was a Spargo, whose family came from
Wales and settled in Pittsburg in the year 1820.
David Martin's grandfather, William Martin,
emigrated from Scotland to Ireland. His son
John married Elizabeth Martin, belonging to
another family, and also from Scotland. David
Martin and Mary Howell, upon their marriage in
1840 settled at Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. In
1855 Mr. Martin came to Kansas to make a new
home, and in the spring of 1857 brought his family
to Douglas county. At 4 : 30 p. m. Friday, July
29, 1892, Mary Martin died; and at 1:30 p. m.
Saturday, July 30th, 1892, David Martin joined
her in the land beyond the border. They were
buried in one grave, Sabbath, July 31st. They
had celebrated their golden wedding two years
previously. They were of Covenanter stock.
David Martin was a Mason and an Odd Fellow.
He left home in 1834 to work on the construction
of the Alleghany Portage Railroad, built by the

George W. Martin.

State of Pennsylvania to connect the waters of the
Conemaugh and the Juniata. They reared seven
children : George W., the subject of this sketch;
Edmund McKinney, Enid, Oklahoma; Mrs. An
nie L. Williams (now deceased), Rawlins county,
Kansas; Elizabeth Lowe, in Nebraska; David
Martin (deceased); John Martin, Colorado; and
Stephen D. Martin, Colby; Kansas.

George W. Martin was born at Hollidaysburg,
Pa., June 30, 1841. He there worked in a print
ing-office. His father was a quiet man of pro
nounced views, and the attention attracted by
Kansas in the fifties did not escape his notice, but
so aroused him that, like thousands of other pa
triotic men, he determined to cast his lot in the
new Territory, sink or swim, live or die. Having
taken up and improved a claim near Lecompton
in 1855, he arrived with his family at Kansas City,
April 7, 1857. George was impatient to go on,
and set out late in the afternoon in the direction
of Westport, passing on his way the fires of hun
dreds of men on their way to the fertile prairies of
"Bleeding Kansas," camped in solid timber,
where now stands Kansas City the wonderfid.
In the darkness their fires flared high all along the
road. He stayed overnight at Westport, and early
the next morning, in company with another boy
and four men, he entered the promised land. The

i Fifty Years in Kansas.

party was two days on the old California road.
The last half-day after passing Lawrence, Martin
suffered much from blistered feet. About four
p. M., April 9, 1857, he limped into Lecompton,
then a pro-slavery town and the capital of the

LYDIA COULSON MARTIN.

Territory, and found lodging at the Locknane
boarding-house. Going immediately to the post-
office to get any mail that might have been sent
to the family in the three weeks they had been on
the road, he found a man from Hollidaysburg, the
postmaster. This man began a tirade against

George W. Martin.

the preacher (Rev. David X. Junkin, D.D.*) in
whose church Martin had been brought up, and
who had prayers with the family at four o'clock
in the morning of the day they left Pennsylvania.
Martin resented this abuse of the minister, and

JOSEPHINE BLAKELY MARTIN.

high words resulted ^n the threat of the postmaster
to throw him out. The enterprise of the Martin
family must be noted here, for this is the first
*Dr. Junkin wrote a New Year's address for Martin, with which
he gathered in $47.50, January 1, 1857, as carrier for the Hollidays-
burg Register.

10 Fifty Years in Kansas.
religious war of which there is any record in Kan
sas. George got started early in his work of mak
ing Kansas history. His family did not arrive
for a week, being delayed by the father's convic
tion that the Kaw was navigable; he discovered
his delusion at Lawrence, and hired a team to
complete the journey.
Young Martin secured a position in the office
of the Lecompton Union, an intensely pro-slavery
paper, edited mainly by L. A. MacLean, which
gave way about July 1, 1857, to the National
Democrat, a moderate-toned Democratic paper.
Here he remained until October, 1859, when he
left home for the first time. Most of the editorial
matter for the Lecompton Democrat was furnished
by William Brindle and Hugh S. Walsh, but as
chore-boy in the office he also received a great deal
of editorial copy from Robert J. Walker, Fred P.
Stanton, and Samuel Medary. He believes that
Judge Cato wrote for the Union, but is of the opin
ion that Gov. Denver never troubled himself with
editing a newspaper. If at that time Martin had
possessed his present historical tendencies, what
a story he might tell of those men, for they talked
much in' his presence. They frequently kept him
, waiting for copy, and One of the vivid pictures yet
on his mind is a memory of the vicious but well-
rounded profanity of L. A. MacLean in his con
versations about the Free-State Pennsvlvanians

George W. Martin. 11
in that vicinity. He remembers the pro-slavery
leaders in Lecompton as clever and hospitable
men, wild only in their language concerning "Ab
olitionists" and on the slavery question.
The father had settled near Lecompton in 1855,
and Martin once heard him say that during the
summer of 1856, as he was going to Lecompton
from his claim, which was two miles south, he was
looking to the east and some miles off towards
Lawrence he saw a fire start and a man coming
from it in his direction. He continued to watch,
and in traveling a few miles the man set fire to four
or five barns and houses. Hiding in the brush, he
followed the incendiary' into town and discovered
that he knew him well — a very prominent pro-
slavery man.
Martin was greatly impressed by Samuel Walker
because of two incidents which occurred within
•his knowledge. A notorious pro-slavery desper
ado had succeeded in bluffing several officers
who attempted to arrest him, two Leavenworth
policemen having been stood off by his pistol.
Walker came after him one day, when he tried
the same game ; but the officer was too quick for
him, and knocked his pistol up with the left hand
while he thrust a heavy revolver in his face with
the right. The desperado succumbed. This same
tough was at a card-table one day in Doyle's
saloon with Judge Cato and two leading pro-

12 Fifty Years in Kansas ."
slavery men. He told his companions that he
had burned a stable near Lawrence, and that he
expected Walker to arrest him. They each laid
a revolver on the table and said he should not be
molested. A Free-State Pennsylvanian was in
the room and heard all of this. He came out of
the saloon and met Walker in search of the man;
he related what he had heard, and begged Walker
to wait until he could get a gun and go along to
assist him. After some persuasion Walker waited,
but when the time came he rushed into the room,
seized the desperado by the throat and dragged
him unaided towards the door, covering the others
with his revolver.
The morning that Martin left Lecompton for
the East, in October, 1859, he took the stage at
the Rowena Hotel. During the night the news
that John Brown had captured Harper's Ferry
had been received, and the pro-slavery men were
all excitement. Martin went to Philadelphia,
where he remained until the spring of 1861, work
ing in a book office, where he completed a five-
years' apprenticeship.
George W. Martin was here almost at the be
ginning of Kansas history. Always active and
stirring, he has witnessed as many exciting scenes
and participated in as many important events as
any man in the State. He is himself a part of our
history. He was in the mass meeting of Free-

George W. Martin.

13

State sympathizers which gathered at Lecompton
at the sitting of the extra session of the Territorial
Legislature in December, 1857, convened by Stan
ton to provide for the submission of the Lecomp
ton Constitution to a full and impartial vote of

WILLIAM SAVERS BLAKELY.

the people. He remembers well the speeches of
Lane, Robinson, and Champion Vaughan, and it
is his opinion that William Leamer, who still
lives at Lecompton, saved the town that day.
Sheriff Jones was determined to assault G. W.

14 Fifty Years in Kansas.
Brown, publisher of the Herald of Freedom. Mr.
Leamer hung to Jones until he got him away from
the party. If Jones had carried out his intention,
Martin believes the town would have been de
stroyed. A large poster had been circulated call
ing on the people to " assemble at Lecompton and
witness the inauguration of the first legal Legis
lature ever assembled on the soil of Kansas,"
and they came by the hundreds. It was said that
many of the wagons were loaded with guns, con
cealed under feed and other things. The picture
in John Speer's book of Jim Lane making a speech
from a wagon is good, he says, and he thinks Rob
inson spoke from the steps of the Land Office.
He recalls one expression from the speech of
Vaughan: "We are now crowing on their own
dunghill; let them come forth!" Of this first
session of a Free-State Legislature, elected in 1857
by Walker and Stanton, when they threw out the
Oxford fraud, but three are now living: O. E.
Learnard, member of Council ; E. N. Morrill, of
Hiawatha, and H. Miles Moore, of Leavenworth,
members of the House.
Martin first saw Topeka in the summer of 1858.
He borrowed a pony and rode up to see the town.
The frame building on the corner of Fifth and
Kansas avenue, south of the Federal Building,
was there at that time, and an election was being
held in it. On the opposite side of Kansas ave-

George W. Martin. 15
nue, between Fifth and Sixth streets, there was a
deep gully with a small three-foot bridge across
it. No , man in Kansas has ever had a wider ac
quaintance among our prominent men than has
George Martin. He has met and known person
ally every man of consequence in public affairs in
Kansas from the beginning down, except Geary,
Reeder, John Brown, and D. R. Atchison. He
has seen every session of the State Legislature
except that of 1861 ; and he saw the sessions of
the Territorial Legislature of 1858 and 1859, also
the special session of 1857. Of the first State
Legislature, in 1861, but eight members are now
living: P. P. Elder, of Franklin county; S. D.
Houston, of Saline; Robert Morrow, of Douglas
county; and J. M. Hubbard, of Wabaunsee, now
a resident of Middletown, Conn., — State Senators;
and David S. Ballard, of Washington county;
Samuel J. Crawford, of Baxter Springs ; Ambrose
U. Mussey, of Pottawatomie, and James McGrew,
of Wyandotte, — House of Representatives
Martin, founded the Junction City Union, a
newspaper that exercised a greater influence on
Kansas politics than any other weekly ever es
tablished in the State. He arrived in Junction
City, August 1, 1861. His paper was the most
westerly in the State until 1867, when B. J. F.
Hanna established the Salina Herald. For five

16

Fifty Years in Kansas.

years the Union was the only paper published
between Junction City and Denver. He says.
some of the editorials written in those days on the
agricultural possibilities of western Kansas were
marvels of nerve and ignorance, but he has lived

DAVID MARTIN.

long enough to see them vindicated; that he was
then an unblushing prevaricator, held responsi
ble for all the crop failures up the Smoky Hill,
but can now claim that he was a prophet. He
made a "boom" issue in February, 1869, and be
lieves it was the first in the State ; he published a

George W. Martin.

17

daily for nine months, ending in August, 1867. The
Leavenworth Conservative in 1864 remarked : "The
editor of the Junction City Union believes that
when God made things he put one point of the
compass where Junction City now stands and gave

MARY HOWELL MARTIN

it a twirl." Before the establishment of the Un
ion there had been three attempts at a Democratic
paper in the town, all failures. The Republicans
then asked the Democrats if they would stand
aside and let them try a paper. They consented,
saying they had made several failures, and would

18 Fifty Years in Kansas.
give all possible support to a Republican local
paper, which they did. In an address entitled
"The Country west of Topeka prior to 1865,"
delivered before the Historical Society, January
15, 1889, Hon. James Humphrey said:
"In 1859 a newspaper was established, which
proved to be a lively sheet. This was soon after
turned over to George W. Martin, who made it
livelier still. The history of, Junction City is
recorded in twenty-odd volumes of the Junction
City Union, and cannot be compressed within the
limits of a few pages. No history of the town can
be written without making distinguishing note of
the Union. Its tone was vigorous and aggress
ive; it possessed the most marked individuality
of, perhaps, any paper in the State, Many able
pens wrote for it at different times, but they all
caught its gait and tone. For years it was Junc
tion City's chief evangel. It castigated the vi
cious, rebuked -the sinner, raised its voice like one
crying in the wilderness against 'Owl' clubs and
other midnight carousals. It was a potent factor
in local affairs, and its influence extended to every
quarter of the State."
In an address entitled "Kansas Journalists — i
Men of '57," Noble L. Prentis said:
"The reflection of the editor's head casts its
radiance all over the columns of the Union. Like
[Sol] Miller, an elegant printer, as publisher of the :
Union Martin always kept his paper in the group

George W. Martin. 19

of a half-dozen very handsome weeklies of Kansas,
which may be styled the belles of the newspaper
ball." That the "Men of '57," so interestingly sketched
by Noble L. Prentis in the American Journalist,
December, 1883, possessed "sand" and endurance,
it may be recalled that in addition to Martin,
James Humphrey, who came to the Territory in
1857, is still in the public service,, and Cyrus
Leland, Jr., who also came that year, was a mem
ber of the Legislature of 1865 and did splendid
service as a leader in the Legislature of 1907, just
closed. Prentis wrote of T. Dwight Thacher,
D. W. Wilder, John A. Martin, M. M. Murdock,
T. B. Murdock, Jacob Stotler, Sol Miller, D. R.
Anthony, Thomas A. Osborn, P. B. Plumb, and
S. S. Prouty. * The list contains a United States
Senator, two Governors, three State Printers, a
State Auditor, six State Senators, four members
and one Speaker of the House, and in the second
generation two native-born members of Congress.
D. W. Wilder, the two Murdocks, and the subject
of this sketch are the only ones living.
The first manufacturing enterprise in the vicin
ity of Junction City was the production of sawed
stone. A great effort was made to secure the use
of that stone in the construction of the Capitol at
Topeka. But the screaming of the Union was

20 Fifty Years in Kansas.
outdone by a Topeka combine, who found a red
sandstone in the neighborhood of Vinewood. The
foundation was laid in the fall of 1866, and, in
January following it was already apparent that the
frost was making havoc with it. By spring it was
a mass of mud. It cost the State $40,000 to put
it in and take it out. The indignation of the
Union overwhelmed everything else, and Junction
City stone was finally used. The material" for the
remainder of the building was brought from Cot
tonwood, the choice turning on the question of
transportation, the Union Pacific having but one
member of the Commission, and the Santa Fe two.
For a few years about that period one cognomen
for the editor of the Union was "J. C. Sawed
Stone." As a newspaper man Martin. has never been
surpassed jn Kansas. He was a vigorous and
sometimes a violent writer, always saying some
thing worth while, and constantly stirring things
up. From August, 1868, to August, 1870, he
carried his life in his hands because he called at-
tention to a gang of horse-thieves in the vicinity
of Junction City. The headquarters of the gang
were in Junction City, in a saloon called the
"Unknown."* The north end of the route was
Nebraska City and the, south end at Douglass, in
Butler county. On the 22d of August, 1868, a
prominent citizen was hung by parties unknown.

George W. Martin. 21
Immediately the impression was manufactured
that the hanging was done by a Republican vig
ilance committee, and because of certain expres
sions in the Union Martin was held responsible
by this manufactured sentiment. For a year the
friends of the dead maU made life very uncom
fortable for Martin, and many nights the author
ities had special policemen about his home. Two
years later (August, 1870), the friends of the dead
man concluded they were on the wrong scent.
They secured from St. Louis two detectives, and
Martin became their principal adviser. The re
sult of the fight was that the leader of the gang,
who had for years been a notorious outlaw defying
the officers all over central Kansas and out to the
Pike's Peak region, was killed. Some eight men
were sent from that neighborhood through the
Federal court to the penitentiary, and fifteen
more were run out of the country. At Douglass,
the south end of the route, in November following,
seven men were hung by the citizens. After that,
horses had some value in central Kansas.
In the early days the management of the Ag
ricultural College persisted in ignoring the pur
pose of the act of Congress creating it, and at
tempted to rival the University. This the Union
criticised and condemned. A bill had been drawn
to consolidate the institution and its great grant
from the United States with the University at

22

Fifty Years in Kansas.

Lawrence, and would have been presented in the
Legislature of 1874. One day in the spring of
1873,. John A. Anderson tame into the Union
office, and said : "A man* up at my house wants

LINCOLN MARTIN.

me to be president of the Agricultural College.
What do you know about it?" "There is your
*N. A. Adams, one of the early pioneers of the State. Born in
Putnam county, New York, September 14, 1835. Settled in Riley
county in 1859; Major of the Elevenlh Kansas Regiment; for many
years a Regent of the Agricultural College, and an active and all-
around useful citizen. He died at Manhattan, May 2, 1895.

George W. Martin.

23

chance to make or break," said Martin. "Tell
him you will investigate it." Anderson wanted
to go to Indianapolis, where Benjamin Harrison
had secured him a church. He thought his work

AMELIA MARTIN SURGE.

in Kansas was finished. But he accepted the
presidency of the College, and then followed a
very vicious fight for three or four years, ending in
that magnificent collection of students, build
ings and grounds at Manhattan, the first of its
class in the United States, a monument to Ander
son which no other Kansan will equal in a century.

24, Fifty Years in Kansas.
In a collection of letters recently obtained by the
State Historical Society is one from Chancellor
John Fraser, telling of and disapproving the move
ment to consolidate, because either the Univer^-
sity or the Agricultural College would necessarily
become a side-show.
Martin began holding office in 1865, when he
was twenty-four years of age, and is still in the
business, and if he holds his present position as
long as the people will demand, he will have made
the longest public record of anybody in the history
of Kansas. This can be accounted for only by
recognizing the fact that he is about as honest a
man as ever lived, and that he is fearless and con
scientious in the discharge of public duties. No
graft or boodle ever attached to his name; none
ever stuck to his hands. He is clean and square.
He was always independent, and could not be
brought under control of cliques, combines, or
interests. He has done what he considered right
and his duty, and let Consequences take care of
themselves. That made him a good citizen, a
power in his community, and an excellent public
official. Perhaps his luck for holding office has
been due to his associations or surroundings, be
cause up to date eleven> Junction City men have
held, Federal and State positions aggregating
eighty-four years, or, including district judge, 109
years. He was appointed Register of the Junction

George W . Martin. 25
City Land Office April 1, 1865, and seryed until
November, 1866, wThen his was the first removal
made by Andrew Johnson. He was the first to
be reinstated by Grant in 1869. He was the first
victim of the Senatorial trouble in 1871, when he
was traded out and the office changed to Salina.
In administering the affairs of the office he never
shirked responsibility, and had no fea'r of going
outside of the law to do the fair thing. Many
instances like the following could be related:
An Irishman fresh from the old sod filed on a
piece of land, and two smart Americans jumped his
claim. They got out contest papers, and had the
advantage of him only through his ignorance.
Martin told them they could not steal the man's
land right before his eyes. They might have suc
ceeded in their contest by taking an appeal to
Washington, but they were told that they had bet
ter secure other land, and if they did not, he would
give them all the trouble he eould. After a
whispered consultation they took other land, and
the Irishman told Martin years afterwards that
he had a half -section of fine land for which he was
indebted to him.
A case came before Martin in which Gen. Nelson
A. Miles was interested. Miles was a Colonel in
the regular army, and in command at Fort Harker.
Some boomers at Brookville and Ellsworth dis
covered coal on Government land on the hilltop

26 Fifty Years in Kansas.
 \  :  . —  ;  '—
across the Smoky Hill from Ellsworth. They got
up a stock company, got General Miles interested
as a stockholder, and after a time quarreled, and
all rushed to the Land Office to file on the land.
A contest resulted, and it came before Martin, as
Register. The civilians had an all-round lawyer,
a good land lawyer, as their attorney, and Miles
managed his own case. Half an hour after the
hearing began, Miles raised a point which Martin
sustained. The lawver, as is the custom with
that tribe, told Martin what an ignoramus he
was, but the case went on. In a short time Miles
raised another point which Martin sustained, and
that knocked the case out of court. The lawyer
ripped and snorted, but Miles walked out with a
smile on his face. An appeal was taken, and the
Commissioner of the General Land Office sus
tained the rulings of Martin. Then the case went
up to the Secretary of the Interior, who also sus
tained Martin, * which convinced him that there
was a chance occasionally for the application of
ordinary common-sense in a law suit, even by a
layman. During the time he was Register of the Land
Office, partly in 1865, 1866, 1869, and 1870,—
these years covering the beginning of the real
settlement of Kansas upon the close of the war, —
he did the largest business ever done at one land
office in the State. For more than half the time

George TF. Martin.

27

the applicants for land waited upon in the office
would run from fifty to one hundred and twenty-
five a day. The first great settlement of the. Re
publican, Smoky Hill and Solomon valleys was at
that time, and thousands upon thousands of the

CHARLES COULSON MARTIN.

titles to land in central Kansas are based on Mar
tin's certificate.
During the interim (1867-68) between his terms
as Register of the Land Office, Martin served as
Assessor of Internal Revenue for all the region

28 Fifty Years in Kansas.
between Manhattan and the west line of the State.
It was his duty to go every month along the line
of the Union Pacific Railroad and look after
Uncle Sam's income. At that time every person
was taxed at least ten dollars a year for living. He
had many adventures in his work, but never had
any trouble with the rough characters with whom
he was brought into contact by his business. His
usual greeting was, "Here comes that  revenue
man again!" They would invariably get out a
bottle and a glass, but he always refused to drink,
saying he could not. do business and take that
stuff. After some good-natured badinage they
would tell Martin to tax them what was right and
they would pay it. Everybody was flush, and the
tax was treated as a sort of joke. Scores of men
paid one hundred dollars for a wholesale liquor-
dealer's license rather than twenty-five dollars
for a retailer's license. They did that as a matter
of pride and dignity. Upon one occasion he left
Hays City for Ellsworth at ten o'clock at night, in
a passenger coach at the end of a freight train.
He was the only person in the car. Soon the
trainmen disappeared. It was the coldest night
he remembers ever to have experienced. There
was a stove in the car, but it was locked, and he
had to walk back and forth the length of the car
to keep from freezing ; he reached Ellsworth about
five a.m.

George W. Martin. 29
In his youth Martin was very zealous in punish
ing whisky-sellers, and in that work he secured an
occasional black eye, something modern enforcers
of the law know nothing about, because they do
nothing but bark and howl at officers instead of
doing something themselves. This gave him some
vigorous ideas about the matter, and led him to
always antagonize putting the contemptible an
nual, quarterly and daily scramble for beer in the
fundamental law, to maintain which the legal and
political jugglery had almost entirely overshad
owed moral suasion and the duty of individual
sobriety. One of the stories told of those days
mav not be amiss here :
Martin was a witness in a case against a man
for selling whisky to an Indian. He had hap
pened, as he was passing, to see a saloon-keeper
bring a brown stone jug out of the back door, put
it in a gunny-sack and give it to the Indian. On
cross-examination Martin was asked what was in
the jug, and he replied, "Whisky." "How do
you know it was whisky?" "My reason tells me
so." "Did you taste it?" "No." "Smell it?"
"No." "See it?" "No." "Then how do you
know it was whisky?" "Because a saloon
keeper would not put water- in a brown jug, take
it out of the back door and give it to an Indian.
Now, I swear it was whisky." He wasn't the kind
of witness to give the whole thing away, by say-

30 Fifty Years in Kansas.
ing in the end he didn't know anything about it.
His Owl Club letter, written in 1880, has been
pronounced by William Allen White the most
powerful temperance exhortation he ever read.
Martin was always a Republican in politics.
He cast his lot with the Republican party before
he could vote. But he was always a good citizen
before a party man. He was too independent and
straightforward in character to be a party to any
job or scheme. When shysters, political mounte
banks and party-pluggers put up a job in the Re
publican party, Martin bolted and helped to stop
the party scandal. He bolted when prohibition
was put in the platform, denying the right of the
party to do any such thing, and he has only con
tempt for what he calls " the awful shystering and
double-dealing the thing has fastened on the State
of Kansas." He supported Glick lor Governor
in 1882. He never had much respect for the idea
of reform within the party, but always said that
the best way to reform his own party was to vote
the other ticket once in a while. He led the bolt
for John A. Anderson for Congress in the Fifth
District in 1886, when a lot of political rounders,
through the local candidate dodge, beat Anderson
in the convention. In Wyandotte county he
denounced the party when by the most infamous
treachery and ballot-box stuffing it put up a can
didate, and Mason S. Peters, a Democrat, was

George W. Martin. 31
elected to Congress from the Second District. A
score of names of successful party leaders might be
called, showing that bolting corrupt candidates or
jobs never politically hurt a man in Kansas.
The Republicans of Kansas received their first
whipping in 1874, and Martin was charged with
some of the responsibility because he had a Dem
ocrat employed as binder in the State printing,
but he thought that possibly two defaulting county
treasurers holding jobs in the Governor's office
might have had some influence in the matter. In
January, 1875, a caucus was conceived for the sole
purpose of getting Martin out of the office of
State Printer. His friends carried a motion to
adjourn the caucus without action by a majority
of three; a row was caused and a second count
was had, with adjournment two ahead ; another
row and another vote resulted in one majority for
adjournment, whereupon one-half the caucus gath
ered up their hats and coats and ran down the
stairs, and Martin was given his second term.
There was no caucus for Printer in 1873, 1877, or
1879, The caucus for United States Senator,
January, 1879, was most disgraceful. After three
days of balloting, Horton claimed enough to elect,
at 3 A. m. January 31; but in joint convention
that day Ingalls won by a vote of 86 to 80, 85 be
ing necessary. When a member of the Legislature

32 Fifty Years in Kansas.
in 1883, Martin refused to go into a caucus for.
Speaker. In the early days of Junction City, not because
of any excessive piety, but because he was raised
that way, he was always interested in church
work, and every preacher who came along was in
vited in and made welcome. Until he believed
the proper time had arrived, he opposed all at
tempts to organize a Presbyterian church there.
He believed it folly to organize a church which
could not support itself. In 1865 a fellow drifted
in one Friday and said he was a New School Pres
byterian preacher, and wanted to preach Sunday.
Saturday afternoon Martin fixed up a room with
boxes and boards for seats, and on Sunday morn
ing drummed up a good crowd. The fellow
preached all right, but Monday morning he began
to talk about organizing a church. Martin said
there was no chance for a church there then ; that
the time had not come. He bored Martin all day
Monday, all day Tuesday, Wednesday arid Thurs
day. Martin was living at a boarding-house, and
Friday morning the preacher got all the^ boarders
on their knees and prayed the breakfast cold and
made everybody mad. After breakfast Martiii
took him around the corner of the house and said,
"Now, you git ; don't you stay another minute on
my account." He went west and settled on the
Saline, and for many years the people coming in

George W. Martin.

33

from that region would tell Martin of the abuse
that fellow gave him. Later, Martin became in
terested in a good old Congregational brother who
was at one time much mistreated by some of the
people, and in consoling the old fellow told him to

GEORGE TV. MARTIN- WHEN HE CAME TO KANSAS.
(From an old daguerreotype. I
go back to his farm and let the town go to hell —
that he had done his duty. Noble L. Prentis
dressed this incident up and made it a good story
which he never missed an opportunity to tell to
a gathering of preachers. But do not understand

34 Fifty Years in Kansas.

from this that Martin was not on good terms with
all the pioneer preachers. There were many
strong men among them who made their marks
in the development which followed. His view
after forty years of observation is that the home
missionary was the most useful man in the com
munity, exhibiting more statesmanship than a
whole county full of politicians; many instances
could be named of farseeing judgment and heroic
and patriotic service rendered by the pioneer priest
or preacher, aside from the solace of their minis
trations among a people attempting to establish
homes in an unbroken wilderness with no capital1,
but their faith in the future.
From the moment Martin met John A. Ander
son the two men were as twin brothers. Anderson
came to Junction City in 1868, and the church
was a success from that time, and for thirty-nine
years it has been a prosperous, self-supporting,
harmonious institution. Mrs. Elizabeth Hender
son, widow of the late Captain Robert Henderson,
and Mr. Martin, are the only ones now living of
the charter members of this church. This or
ganization obtained $1200 from the Board ~ of
Church Erection, but never a dollar from the
Home_Mission Board.

December 20, 1863, Mr. Martin was married to
Lydia Coulson, whose family was on the way to

George W - Martin. 35
Kansas from Columbiana county, Ohio, at the
same time in the spring of 1857 that the Martin
family was on the river. She was born at Mi
nerva, Columbiana county, March 16, 1845. She
died in Kansas City June 7, 1900. She was the
daughter of Allen and Catherine Coulson. The
father was a Quaker from Pennsylvania and the
mother a Methodist from Virginia. They had
some interest in the Underground Railroad, for
her first recollections were concerning the arrival
of negroes at their barn in the morning and their
disappearance in the evening. Mrs. Martin was
the mother of five children: Lincoln, born in
Junction City November 1, 1864; married June
22, 1904, to Mary C. Ferguson, daughter of James
Ferguson of Kansas City, Kansas; Amelia, born
June 10, 1867, in Junction City; married October
7, 1903, to Napoleon Bonaparte Burge of Topeka ;
Charles Coulson Martin, born at Topeka, October
7, 1876; married September 22, 1904, to Mar-
gurite Haskell, daughter of W. W. Haskell, of
Kansas City, Kansas; Elizabeth and Ruth died
in infancy. Three members of the Coulson fam
ily served in the Kansas Legislature : Ambrose
U. Mussey, of Pottawatomie, first State Legis
lature, 1861 ; George W. Martin, of Geary, 1883,
and George H. Coulson, of Harper, 1891 and 1893.
October 10, 1901, Mr. Martin married Mrs.
Josephine Blakely. Mrs. Blakely was the first

36 Fifty Years ,in Kansas.
girl Martin met when he went to Junction City
in 1861. Her first husband was Major William
S. Blakely, Martin's partner in the publication of
the Union for three years; he quit the newspaper
and went into the hardware business. He served
in the State Senate two sessions, and in the House
of Representatives one term, and postmaster at
Junction, and also Mayor of Junction City. He
participated in the battle of Wilson Creek as a
member of Co. B, Second Kansas. He was born
in Troy, New York, July 20, 1838. He refused an
appointment to. West Point by Russell Sage, then
a member of Congress, because he preferred to
come West. He settled in Geary county in 1858.
Josephine Morgan was born in New York, Feb
ruary 11, 1846. She reached Kansas with her
parents in April, 1858. June 4, 1865, she was
married to William S. Blakely. They were the
parents of the following children: Selden Price
Blakely, March 13, 1868, married Jennie Furth,
and living in Okanogan county, Washington;
Frederick William, September 25, 1870, died in
infancy; Josephine, born September 8, 1872,
married E. J. Clough, and living at Portland,
Oregon; Ellen J., April 6, 1874, married E. R.
Ketner, died June 27, 1904 ; Catharine C, born
September, 30, 1875, married Frank O'Reilley,
living in Chicago, Illinois ; George Martin Blakely,
born January 16, 1879, married to Miss Elsie

George W . Martin.

37

Cochran, and living in Condon, Oregon; Warren
S. Blakely, born September 22, 1882, married to
Ethel Loftin, and living in Shaniko, Oregon.
Mr. Blakely died June 11, 1885.

The second story was the home of the Union in 1861, first floor
the City Jail. Torn down in 1906.
In January, 1873, one week before the York-
Pomeroy exposure, Martin was elected State
Printer, at the close of the most violent one-week's
campaign ever known in the Kansas Legislature.
The fight was bitter, although there were but three
ballots, and it was carried into the Supreme

38 Fifty Years in Kansas.
Court in a contest. The Topeka Commonwealth
was then the Republican organ of the State. The
State printing was run in about as loose a manner
as anything could be, and Martin was selected
by those desiring to make a change for the better.
He was elected State Printer four times, and came
within a scratch of making it the fifth time, and
had a fight on his hands every minute of the en
tire eight years in which he held the office. The
first time he was offered a bonus not to qualify,
and his response was: "The men who voted for
me meant something, and I will not sell them out."
An examination of the printing prior to 1873 will
show that the State paid about as much for pica
slugs as it did for straight reading-matter. The
reorganization of the State printing on its present
basis by Martin attracted attention throughout
the country. A high Eastern authority stated
that it was the first time public printing had ever
been made equal in quality to the best commercial
printing. The first job Martin turned out was
12,000 copies of the Kansas school laws, and under
the same fee bill, with the same Secretary of State
to measure, and the same copy to the letter, he
made the 12,000 copies cost $1,370 less than
10,000 cost the year, before ; while the reports of
the State officers, with some increase in size, cost
invariably from twenty-five to thirty- three per
Cent, less than they cost the year before. It is

George W. Martin. 39
the opinion of the writer that an examination of
the records will show that Martin is the only man
who ever reformed any public job at the expense
of his own pocket. And if anybody thinks it is
an easy matter to ,make a practical reform in a
public office, the writer will state that Martin
had a hades of a time whenever the Legislature
met. Not that the legislators were bad, but a
robust set of grafters infested Kansas, and they
had no respect for the economy he had wrought.
In his five contests but one man approached him
for boodle, and that man was not a member of the
Legislature. A host of grafters were cut out by
Martin's election, and they pursued him for years,
but he won out all right. He once mentioned to
a State Senator that a certain bill had been in
troduced in the House the day before, the purpose
of which was to divide up the printing and annoy
him. In attempting to give the details the Sena
tor shut him off with the statement that he did
not have to understand the details of the bill;
that Martin had twenty-two fellows in the Senate
who would dance every time he fiddled, and ended
with " Now you fiddle, and don't bother me again."
Martin never took a job in his life that he did
not improve or advance, and he has a holy con
tempt for any man who thinks there is nothing
in a position but the salary. He has always main
tained that the best service was the best politics.

40 Fifty Years in Kansas.
Noble L. Prentis, in the paper already referred to,
said: "The dingy old 'pub. docs.' of the Eastern
States were as tattered rags beside a silk gown,
when compared with the books which came from
the State Printing House in Martin's time. He
it was who (outside of these) published Wilder's,
'Annals of Kansas,' the handsomest, most useful
and worst paying book ever printed in this western
country." James F. Legate, who always opposed
Martin, introduced the following resolution, which
was adopted by the joint convention which elected
his successor, January i8, 1881 :
"Resolved, That Geo. W. Martin, the retiring
State Printer, is entitled to, and we tender him,
the warmest commendations of the Legislature of
the State of Kansas in joint convention assem
bled, for the high standard to which he has raised
the State printing; for his integrity of character
as State Printer, being ever watchful of the rights
of the people, even to his own expense. He com
menced his career eight years ago with an un
tarnished character, and leaves it to-dav with a
character unblemished, even by the severest critic."
That was the only time a joint convention of the
Legislature ever' did such a thing.
In 1888, Martin removed from Junction City
to Kansas City, Kansas, to establish there a
Kansas daily, advised by three of the most prom
inent and successful business men in the West.

George W. Martin. 41
There was much humor and tragedy in the twelve
years that followed. The effort was on the high
road to success when the panic of 1893 knocked
all the small or medium enterprises in the town,
but with the heroic help of W. L. and D. W.
Witmer, business partners, the debris, in the shape
of bills, has been practically all cleaned up, and
there are no judgments to come disturbing the
slumbers of any one in consequence, leaving the
proprietors with a large, rich and varied stock
of experience, for which they paid an unprecedented
premium. The friends who never tired, and the
friends made,' in that struggle, more than out
weigh all disappointed ambition.
One of the most vicious fights Martin ever had
was with the labor unions of Kansas City, Kansas.
They attempted to have the City Council pass an
ordinance limiting all work for the city to members
of labor unions. It came up in the Republican
primary election, and the politicians and candidates
were so frightened that Martin could not get any
promises out of them not to pass the ordinance. He
wrote a speech, but so timid are public officials when
confronted with a contest with unions that he was
not allowed to deliver it. So, he printed it and
delivered it direct to the people. He distributed
thousands of copies. It went into every house and
every shop in the cities about the mouth of the
Kaw. Every passenger on the street cars had

Fifty Years in Kansas.

one to take home. The address was entitled
"Organized Labor in Wyandotte County — Its
Record of Lawlessness, Infamy, and Disaster to
Workingmen, their Wives and Children." The
effect of the address was to check the movement,
but in June an order to renew the fight was made
by the Trades Assembly, and Martin wrote an
other speech, on "The Viciousness and Lawless
ness of Labor Unions." This address was de
livered before , the Council of Kansas City, Kansas,
October 24, 1899, and the ordinance was beaten
by a vote of eight to three. Over 75,000 copies
of these two speeches were printed, and he had
calls for them from all parts of the country. 'The
typographical union with which he had this fight
had its charter taken from it. In every contest
through a period of four or five years Martin
whipped all the unions in the two cities.
He was Grand Master of the Odd Fellows in
1872 and 1873. He was likewise strenuous in
this position. He suspended a Grand Treasurer
and took the money from him just in time to save
loss; and he had the entire Grand Lodge in
volved in a libel suit, in approving a certain action
of a local lodge, in which the Supreme Court of
the State finally sustained him. He was made an
Odd Fellow in Frontier Lodge No. 25, at Junction
City, where his membership still remains, forty

George TV. Martin. 43
years ago, on March 29, 1867. In 1883 and 1884
he was Mayor of Junction City.
The wagon-bridge across the Republican river
alongside of the Union Pacific Railway is an in
teresting evidence of Martin's determination to
get through with a thing. In the early days a
bunch of promoters in the town worked through
Congress a grant to the State of Kansas of all
the land between Junction City and the Smoky
Hill and Republican rivers, a portion of the mil
itary reserve, about four thousand acres, for
bridge purpose, the State obligating itself to keep
the bridge there free for the use of the United
States forever. The Legislature passed the land
over to a local bridge company, and took a straw
bond to maintain the bridge. The bridge was
built, the land divided, and in a year or so the
bridge fell down. As Representative from that
county in the Legislature of 1883, Martin failed
to get a direct appropriation to replace the bridge,
but he got the consent of the State that the War
Department replace the bridge and hold the ex
pense out of any funds due the State. After a
marvelous lot of red tape the transfer of funds
was made, when it was discovered that there was
not enough money by $1500. He circulated a
petition asking the county commissioners to put
up the balance, which was done, and there it
stands — a local bridge built by the State. Martin

,44 Fifty Years in Kansas.

was not a riiember of the bridge company, but at
the sale of the land, April 20, 1869, representing
a friend who was, he bid in six or eight acres,
where three bridges now stand, at $250 per acre,
to be paid in the scrip of the company, which Was
then as good as money because it had 4000 acres
of land, at a reasonable appraisement* back of it.
The State sued the bondsmen in September, 1877,
and lost. The Attorney-General, closing his re
port, said: "The State must now maintain the
bridge forever, without the hope of getting a
dollar." At the time of the suit three of the com
pany were dead, and seven were bankrupt.
He always had a fad for Kansas books, arid be
gan early to make a collection. A few years ago
he turned this collection over to the College of
Emporia. It now numbers 825 volumes, besides
a quantity of pamphlets, and is in an alcove bear
ing his name.
Martin was intensely interested' in the rebuild
ing of Fort Riley. During the first year or two
the job moved slowly, although the Post was
known as Sheridan's pet. After fie had gone to
Kansas City, in 1888, Capt. Bertrand Rockwell'
wrote him that he had a letter from Senator P. B.
Plumb saying that Fort Riley was simply a local
affair, and he could not do anything for it. Mar
tin prepared a column editorial in the Kansas
City Gazette on the advantages of Fort Riley,

George W. Martin. 45

and then wrote letters to about twenty newspaper
friends covering all sections of the State, asking
, them to each write something along the same line
for their papers. Every editor did so. When
their papers reached Washington Senator Plumb
took hold with all his vigor. The trouble was not
.that Plumb had any objection to assisting any
local job or interest in Kansas, but that he had
some antipathy to the regular army. Those who
knew Fort Riley twenty-five years ago would not
recognize a foot of it to-day. Had Sheridan lived
five or ten years longer, Riley might have out
stripped Fort Leavenworth. Leavenworth once
fined Sheridan for fast driving.
, He never was satisfied with the name of Davis
(given by a pro-slavery legislature in honor of
Jefferson Davis) for a county in Kansas, much
less the one in which he found a home. Several
suggestions of a change had been made, when the
Union thought that John W. Geary, third Ter
ritorial Governor, a great Major-General, and
twice Governor of Pennsylvania, should be hon
ored with a place on the map of Kansas. Ten
years was occupied in a quarrel about this, a
change resulting to that of Geary, in the Legis
lature of 1889. Three sessions of the Legislature
were bothered with this matter, when it was
finally submitted to a vote of the people. The
name Geary prevailed by a majority of 65, being

46 Fifty Years in Kansas.
the only name for a county thus established.
Martin's father and Geary were friends away
back in the thirties, in the Alleghany Mountains.
Martin has been wrongfully held responsible for
the change of Wyandotte to Kansas City, Kansas.
The name was changed before he became a citizen
of that city, but he did his utmost as a newspaper
editor to establish the new name.
Martin has been around the Legislature during
every Senatorial fight except that of Lane and
Pomeroy in 1861, and the Ingalls-Pomeroy con
test of 1873. In his State Printer fights he passed
through the Pomeroy and anti-Pomeroy contests,
and also the Horton-Ingalls fight in 1879, and he
was never expected to take sides, and always had
supporters in all factions.
When asked about finances, Martin replied,
"I have never had any sense about money matters,
but have always managed to pay one hundred
cents on the dollar." Who would wish to do better?
In 1873 D. W. Wilder, as Auditor of State, un
covered a shortage of some $35,000 in the State
Treasury, and the State Treasurer was impeached^
In his report for 1874 Mr. Wilder charged that State
officers had been in sympathy with the defaulting
State Treasurer, and used all their power to shield
and protect him in his crime, closing with this
statement: "The officers who did not connive at
fraud, but who wanted the truth told and dis-

George W. Martin. 47
obediertce of the law to stop, were Samuel A.
Kingman, George W. Martin, and David Dick
inson." In the Republican State Convention of 1894 Mr.
Martin received 122 votes for Governor. He had
a few friends in different parts of the State who
thought he ought to be thus honored, but he him
self was not dangerously afflicted or in the slight
est inflated. If he had been called then, who
knows but that the subsequent political history
of the State might not have been different ? — for
he has a faculty of getting along with people and
at the same time doing things to suit himself,
and doing them well.

George W. Martin was one of the founders of
the State Historical Society. Its interests were
ever near his heart. Upon the death of its first
Secretary, Franklin G. Adams, December 2, 1899,
one of the greatest men of Kansas and one of the
founders of this great State, Mr. Martin was
elected Secretary. There was not another man
in Kansas who could so successfully have filled
that position. The Collections of the Society are
being increased at a wonderful rate, and many
new features have been added. The Society has
been brought into close touch with the people of
the State. It is beginning to be appreciated by
the State Legislatures, and in ten years it is be-

48 Fifty Years in Kansas.
Jieved measures will be taken to secure the erection
of History Hall for the accomriiodation of the vast
Collection already on hand and to be secured. In
many respects and in many ways the Kansas His
torical Society is the foremost institution of the
kind in the United States. And taken altogether
there is hut one now in advance of it. It is the
pioneer in the collection and preservation of cur
rent newspapers published in its jurisdiction. This
newspaper collection is the most remarkable in the
world. The publications of the Society are the
best put out by any similar institution in America.
These things are true because Kansas has kept
men at the head of the Society who helped to make
the history they were set to preserve. They were
familiar with everything pertaining to that his->
tory — were themselves a part of it.
Martin is profoundly grateful for the fact that
after all these years of political and editorial scrap
ping, in which he no doubt did and said many
unreasonable things, there seems to be only good
feeling toward him on the part of all.
George W. Martin is one of the successful men
of Ka,nsas. It is now fifty years since he made the
State his honie. Incidents of a practical value to
, the State abound through his entire career. There
has not been a day of all that time that he was not
a good citizen, a kind father, an affectionate hus-~
band, a patriot, and a power for good.

George W . Martin. 49

THE ANNIVERSARY OBSERVED.
The completion of Mr. Martin's fifty years in
Kansas was observed at the home of Mr. and Mrs.
Martin, 823 Topeka avenue, Monday evening,
April 8th, by a dinner with the following guests :
. Gov. and Mrs. E. W. Hoch.
Chief Justice and Mrs. W. A. Johnston.
Secretary of Agriculture F- D. Coburn and
Rev. Dr. S. S. Estey and wife. [wife.
William E. Connelley and wife.
Eugene F. Ware and wife.
John E. Frost and wife.
B. F. Flenniken and wife.
W. A. McCarter and wife.
F. P. MacLennan and wife.
Joseph G. Waters and wife.
George A. Clark and wife.
H. B. Kelly and wife.
L. D. Whittemore and wife.
A. K. Rodgers and wife.
Mrs. Ellen H. Orr.
And again Tuesday evening, April 9th, by a
family reunion and dinner with the following
guests : Mrs. Eva C. Burge.
Miss Fannie C. Burge.

50 Fifty Years in Kansas.
Miss Alzina B. Burge.
Miss Ruth C. Burge.
Napoleon B. Burge and Amelia Martin, his
Cornelius B. Burge and wife. [wife.
Lincoln Martin and wife and Charles C.
Martin and wife, of Kansas City, Kansas.
George A. Root and wife.
Miss Zu Adams.
Miss Clara Francis.
Miss Lucy S. Greene.
William E. Bacon.
Miss Gertrude Coburn.
Miss Willa Rodgers.
Miss Nannie Veale.
Mrs. Geo. W. Veale, jr.
Col. Geo. W. Veale and wife.
Mrs. J. M. Sullivant.
Mrs. J. P. Griswold.
Mrs. Elizabeth A. Johnson, of Courtland.
W. H. Mackey, sr., and wife.
Miss Elizabeth Henderson and
Loring Trott, of Junction City.
Mrs. Ellen H. Orr.

Crane & Compant
Topeka, Kan.
1907.