Volume 15 , Issue 31

History of Grant County, Kansas

Chapter III, of "The History of Grant County, Kansas," talks about settlers moving in and the Santa Fe Trail.

The Santa Fe Trail was the first great route from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico. It crossed Kansas passing through Pawnee Rock, Dodge City and Garden City and on to LaJunta, Colorado. A cut off from Cimarron passed through Grant County and many travelers took that road in coming in to take up land. The cut off was known as the Dry Route, as there was little water after leaving Cimarron until they reached Wagon Bed Springs.William Becknell was called the father of the Santa Fe Trail and was the first to take the Cimarron cut off.

The Santa Fe markers in Grant County were located at sections: 1-29-35; 35-29-36; 9-30-36; 28-30-37; 33-30-37.

The main movement of settlers into Grant County was in 1885, 1886 and 1887. Up to that time there were only three cattle ranches in the county. There was what was known as the "Pig Pen Ranch", which was located on the south fork of the Cimarron river in the bend of the river just below where Highway 25 crosses the river. This ranch and stock were owned by John O'Laughlin of Lakin, Kansas, and was managed by Richard Joyce, who at that time had a filing on a homestead on which the Wagon Bed Springs was located.

D. C. Sullivan Sr. had a ranch on the north fork of the Cimarron river about four miles southwest of the present town of Ulysses.

A ranch known as the T. V. ranch was located on the Cimarron river in the southeast part of the country. The manager was Billie Jay. These three ranches were all of the settlers of what is now Grant County, until the spring of 1885.

In the spring and summer of 1885 things started to move. The town of Old Ulysses was started and arrangements made to organize the county. The settlers began to arrive and take claims. A great many came and filed on claims and returned to their former homes and came back in 1886 to live.

In 1886 and 1887 the boom was on in full blast and every desirable quarter of land was filed on. The settlers moved to their claims in different ways. Some came in covered wagons drawn by horses, mules or oxen. Some shipped their belongings, including stock, in emigrant cars by rail to the nearest railroad station, which was Lakin or Hartland. The cars were loaded with household goods, farm implements and farm animals, such as cows, mules and horses. About twenty-five percent of the settlers used ox teams for farming, freighting and going to town and church. They had no other means of conveyance. Some settlers had but on team of horses or mules and a few cattle. Sometimes they had the misfortune to lose one of the horses and would replace it with a cow from the herd. They would harness the cow the same as the horse, only turning the collar upside down. Most of the settlers built sod houses and dugouts. If they had stock they built sod stables for them. Some, who were financially able, built nice homes and barns of lumber. In some cases members of the same families built a house on the line dividing their claims.

Sod Houses

In preparing for the building of a sod house it was first necessary to plow the sod from the prairie. This was done with a common sod plow. The sod was from two to four inches thick and was cut in lengths about two feet long. This was done with a spade. The walls of the house usually were about two feet thick and seven feet high. They always hunted for a thick coat of grass so that the sod would be tough. Near the Cimarron river and other streams where there was a heavy alkali salt grass sod the sod was extra tough and was good for building sod houses. It was somewhat like adobe. To handle the sod so that would not break apart it was placed on a board and carried to where they wanted it.

There were no foundations but he sod was placed directly in contact with the ground. The houses were short lived as the wind and water soon caused the sod to disintegrate. If they had used cement foundations and laid the sod in mortar the houses would have stood for many years.

Almost any size windows or doors were used. It depended on what the builder wanted or could get. The frames were placed in the walls and the sod built around them.

The roofs were usually made of inch boards and wet called, car roofs, as they were rounded similar to a box car roof. After the boards were in place a layer of tar paper was put over the boards, then covered with dirt or sod. Some used sheeting and shingle roofs. In some cases they put in board floors and others used the dirt floors.

These houses were built in all shapes and sized; some with several rooms and partitioned with lumber, some with curtains. Calico or muslin was sometimes used to cover the walls for protection from the dirt. In some cases the inside was plastered with lime and gypsum, which could be found in different localities, especially along the streams or rough land. The outside walls were rarely plastered.

Besides dwellings, many other buildings were built of sod. They were warm in winter and cool in summer.

Dug-outs were dug into the ground about six feet, then covered over with boards and a heavy coat of dirt. A half dug-out was dug into the ground about three feet deep and a sod wall laid up for three or four feet and covered the same as a sod house. These half dug-outs were sometimes built from the top of the ground with lumber and shingle roof.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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