Camp Beecher
by Hortense Balderston Campbell
May 1934 (Vol. 3, No. 2), pages 172 to 186
Transcribed by lhn; additional HTML by Susan Stafford;
digitized with permission of the Kansas Historical Society.
CAMP BEECHER was established at the junction of the Big and Little Arkansas rivers on the site of the present city of Wichita, May 11, 1868, [1] to protect the settlers from the attacks of the Indians, particularly from the terrors of the Cheyennes, who had been raiding the east central portions of Kansas. It was not an isolated camp, but was one of many forts built in Kansas to safeguard the settlers from Indian raids. Its primary purpose was as headquarters for a border cavalry patrol which extended northward to Marion Center. [2]
The necessity for establishing the camp here at this time is evident, for on the 17th of May, 1868, two men were massacred by Osages in Butler county on the Big Walnut. A dispatch from a Eureka correspondent in the Kansas Daily Tribune tells of this horrible event:
TWO MEN KILLED BY OSAGE INDIANS, ON BIG WALNUT, BUTLER COUNTY, THE BODIES FRIGHTFULLY MUTILATED THE TRIBE SURRENDERS TWO OF THE GUILTY PARTIES FOR TRIAL
[From our Traveling Correspondent]
Eureka, May 27, 1868.
EDITOR TRIBUNE: On the evening of the 17th inst. Mr. Sam T. Dunn and James Anderson, living on what is known as the Government Strip, were examining a corner stone, near their residence, when they suddenly were Surrounded by fourteen Indian warriors.
Mr. Dunn was killed, it is supposed, instantly. Mr. Anderson was first disabled by a tomahawk and then shot.
Their heads were both cut off and scalped, that of the former being left several rods from the body. The fingers were also cut off from one of the bodies and taken away.
After the massacre was completed, the party let down the fence to an eighty-acre field nearby, and drove off two mules; they also chased a horse to within a hundred and fifty yards of the house.
They were followed by a party of white men some twenty-five miles, far enough to convince them that they were Osage Indians. They were recognized by the cut of their hair, their clothes, and by articles left on their trail, as being Osages. I have the above from a brother of one of the deceased.
J. S. B. [3]
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The Kansas Daily Tribune also prints this article about the massacre:
The Journal of yesterday morning has the following:
After the signing of the Osage treaty, a Mr. Dunn, whose parents reside in Johnson county, arrived in the commissioners' camp from Walnut creek, Butler county, bringing the report that his brother, Samuel, and a partner by the name of James Anderson, were killed on Sunday, the 17th inst., by a band of White Hair Osages. The commissioners immediately called the chiefs in council, and peremptorily demanded the surrender of the guilty parties. The next morning, after two hours parleying, amid the moaning of the squaws and the most intense excitement on the part of the warriors and braves, they gave up two young men, who were brought by the commissioners to Ottawa, where they will be turned over to U. S. Marshal Whiting to be tried for the crime charged.
The matter of sending troops had been under consideration before this atrocity was committed, Gov. Samuel J. Crawford having written to Gen. Philip H. Sheridan previous to April 14, 1868. On that date General Sheridan posted the following letter to the governor:
HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI.
FORT LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS, April 14, 1868.
GOVERNOR
I am in receipt of your letter in reference to the establishment of a military post at the mouth of the Little Arkansas, to protect the settlers in the county of Sedgwick.
I had already ordered an examination of this point, intending to send a small military force there and the place will be occupied by at least one company by the 1st. May.
I am, Governor, Very Respectfully Your Obedient Servant P.H. Sherman Major General U.S.A. [4]
His Excellency
S. J. Crawford
Governor of Kansas
Topeka, Kansas
Many years later, writing of Camp Beecher in his article, "The Little Arkansas," James R. Mead said, "Why a company of infantry should be sent to this point we were never able to learn. In the previous years we had been coming and going over these plains with no protection whatever and all had been peace and quiet in this part of the state. A company of infantry would not have been effective beyond one half mile of their camp. None but well-mounted horsemen, trained to plains life, could have protected an extended frontier." [5]
At first. the camp was called Camp Butterfield but that name was
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not used long, for by June, 1868, the place was known as Camp Davidson, and on October 19, 1868, this was changed to Camp Beecher, [6] which name it kept until it was abandoned in June, 1869. [7] Why the camp had three names in a little over a year is not explained, although it is easily understood why the name was changed to Camp Beecher, in honor of First Lieut. Frederick H. Beecher, hero of the Battle of the Arickaree. [8]
In those days news traveled very slowly, for the order changing the name of the camp to Camp Beecher, issued October 19, 1868, at Fort Hays, was not printed in the Leavenworth Times and Conservative until Sunday morning, November 1st. It ran as follows:
Camp Beecher
Headquarters Department of Missouri
Fort Hays, Kansas, October 19, 1868
General Field Orders, No. 3
The station of United. States Troops at the mouth of the Little Arkansas river, Kansas, will hereafter be known as Camp Beecher, in commemoration of the name and services of Frederick H. Beecher, 1st Lieutenant, 3d Infantry, who was killed in battle with Indians, on Arickaree Fork of the Republican river, September 17, 1868.
By command of Major General Sheridan J. Schuyler Crosby, Brvt. Lieut. Col., A. D. C. [9]
Camp Beecher, as it is most commonly known, was located on the present site of Wichita, the exact spot being in dispute. There are three possible places where it might have been located.
John S. Whigan, a member of Company H, Fifth United States infantry, visiting Wichita in 1916 after an absence of forty-eight years, located it near Ninth and Waco. Mr. Whigan recalled that
CAMPBELL: CAMP BEECHER 175
the soldiers built for their quarters a dugout seventy-five by fifty feet, mostly underground. [10]
A dugout which William Finn said he had been told was used by a troop of U. S. soldiers in the winter of 1868-'69 housed the first school held in Wichita. Mr. Finn, speaking in 1928 of this first school house, reported that the only building he could find [for it] was a dugout half a mile north of the settlement and that it was quite commodious, with a fireplace and dormer windows on the south side of the roof. There was no log house of any shape or kind, as some one else has pictured it, on top of the dugout [11]
This first schoolhouse was located at Twelfth and Jackson, according to Mr. Finn, who in 1924, took a party including his son-in-law Earl C. Schaefer of Sedgwick; Earl's father, Charles Schaefer, also of Sedgwick; Finlay Ross, former mayor of Wichita; Billy Peacock, of Wichita, now of Aiken, S. C.; and Bliss Isely, who says that Mr. Finn did not say that this was the site of Camp Beecher; in fact that he did not ask him about the location of Camp Beecher. Mr. Isely ventures the statement that this location might have been a sentry's outpost. [12]
On November 9, 1933, the school children of Wichita placed a granite marker on the site at Twelfth and Jackson to commemorate the place where the first school was held in Wichita, but it was not definitely stated on this occasion that it was the site of Camp Beecher though it was reported by Mrs. Earl Schaefer, the daughter of William Finn, that the dugout. formerly located there had been used by Company A of the Fifth infantry. [13]
The third point at which Camp Beecher is said to have been located is at the junction of the Big and Little Arkansas, between the two rivers, just across the Little Arkansas from the present municipal bathing beach. Kiowa, chief of the Wichita Indians, in an interview with Mr. Isely in 1924, is authority for this location. Chief Kiowa and the Wichita Indians left the present site of Wichita in 1867, according to Mr. Isely, but returned to trade. [14]
At all events, wherever the dugout was located, it was close to the Little Arkansas river, where the soldiers could fish for cat fish and carp, could pick sand plums along the banks when they ripened late in the summer, could make wine out of elderberries growing
176 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
nearby, and could shoot buffalo and prairie chickens out on the plains.
Mr. Whigan further declared: "Shortly after we pitched camp, a man by the name of Lewellyn, his wife and three daughters, built a cabin near the east bank of Little river about a mile above the mouth." [15] Lewellen's patent from the United States government shows settlement was made prior to July 15, 1870, but does not give the exact date. [16]
Curious to relate, no one seems to know Lewellen's given name or the correct spelling of it. The Kansas State Gazetteer of 1888-1889, listing him later as a resident of Chelsea, records it simply as Lewellen. [17] Andreas' History of Kansas, in its history of Chelsea township of Butler county, lists him as Doctor Lewellen [18] and the Wichita City Directory and Immigrant Guide, 1878, in its history of Wichita, gives the name as Doc. Llewellen. [19] Additional proof that he never used his first name or that by some strange fate he had no other name than Doctor is demonstrated by the fact that in as important a transaction as securing the patent. for his land he used only the name Doctor Lewellen. [20]
Durfee's store must have been built then, too, for the Leavenworth iTimes and Conservativeo of December 18, 1868, says, "Mr. Durfee has the honor of breaking the first sod at the new town of Wichita, Sedgwick county, at the mouth of the Little Arkansas river, where early in January, 1868, he erected a large store building or `ranch' at a cost of $2,500, stocking it with $25,000 worth of goods. Since then emigration has poured into that section of country and now, where a year ago were only his buildings, is now the thriving town of Wichita." [21]
Durfee's partner was Philip Ledrick [22] who, according to records in the tract. book in the General Land Office at Washington, was granted a patent on land located on the E212, SW-1 and Lots 1 and 2 of Section 17 of Township 27 South, Range 1 East of the Sixth
CAMPBELL: CAMP BEECHER 177
Principal Meridian, on April 15, 1873. In the proof Mr. Ledrick gave the date of settlement as February, 1868. [23]
Mr. Whigan says that D. S. Munger's house wasn't here when he came, [24] although the Daughters of the American Revolution of Wichita, in their Illustrated History of Early Wichita, are authority for the statement that it was the first house built in Wichita. [25] In his proof, submitted to the Humboldt land office, February, 2, 1870, D. S. Munger, filing on the SE4 of Section 17, Township 27 South. Range 1 East, of the Sixth Principal Meridian, stated that he had settled on the land prior to May 15, 1868. [26]
Another resident in the early part of 1869 was Phares C. Hubbard whose entry on land in the same section as Munger shows proof of settlement made April 17, 1869. [27] He must be the Hubbard whom Fred A. Sower,, in his chapter of Bentley's History of Wichita and Sedgwick County, entitled "The Early History of Wichita," mentions thus, "Jack Ledford traded Hubbard out of his interest with
178 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Matsill in the general merchandise business, getting also the Grand Hotel, then being built (afterwards the rear part of the Tremont)." [28]
Eli P. Waterman settled on the NE 1/4 and Lots 1 and 2 in Section 20 of the same township and range, prior to June 20, 1869, and William Mathewson made settlement on NE 1/4 of Section 21, on July 20, 1869. [29] James R. Mead, entering his claim to the NW 1/4 of Section 21 in the Humboldt land office July 29, 1870, showed no date of settlement, though he says in his paper, "The Little Arkansas," that lie first saw the Little Arkansas on a sunny afternoon in June, 1863. [30] However, he says later in the article that he was then visiting the valley on a three weeks' hunting and exploring trip, [31] so he probably did not settle here permanently at that time.
No doubt these early settlers were well known to the local officers in charge of Camp Beecher, none of whom remained on duty for a long period at a time. Capt. Samuel L. Barr of the Fifth U. S. infantry Was in command first, from May 11, 1868, to June 10, 1868, then Capt. Robert M. West of the Seventh U. S. cavalry took charge from June 11, 1868, to September, 1868, after which Captain Barr again resumed command from September, 1868, to April, 1869. He was followed by First Lieut. George McDermott, Fifth U. S. infantry, April 22, 1869, and by Capt. Owen Hale, Seventh cavalry, May 20, 1869.
Company H, Fifth infantry, was stationed at the camp from May 11, 1568, to May 20, 1869, practically all the time the camp was in operation. Company K, Seventh cavalry, served from June 11, 1868, to August. 12, 1868, and from May 20, 1869, to June, 1869. [32]
Captain Barr was not. an amateur at frontier posts for lie had seen service in the Civil War in Arizona and New Mexico, having been stationed at Camp Lewis, near Pecos Church, N. M., in 1862, [33] and at Fort Whipple in 1864, [34] and had surprised an Indian camp near Sycamore Springs, Ariz., and killed four Indians on December 31, 1864. [35]
Barr was a Delaware man who seems to have spent all the years
CAMPBELL: CAMP BEECHER 179
of his service with the Fifth United States infantry, being appointed a second lieutenant October 24, 1861, promoted to first lieutenant April 30, 1863, and made a captain, October 31, 1866. Unassigned May 19, 1869, he was mustered out January 1, 1871. [36]
Of the four men in command at Camp Beecher, Capt. Robert M. West had the most distinguished military career. During the Civil War he was an officer in charge of artillery with the Fourth Army corps in the Peninsular campaign, [37] was in command at Fort Magruder in the North Carolina and South East Virginia campaign, [38] participated in the attack on Williamsburg, [39] and was present at the siege of Yorktown in April, 1862. [40]
Born in New Jersey, West enlisted as a private in Pennsylvania Mounted rifles April 12, 1856, and was discharged February 5, 1861. He was made a captain in the First Pennsylvania light artillery on the 25th of July, 1861, was promoted to the rank of major on the 13th of September of that year, and to the rank of colonel on the 28th of July, 1862. He was transferred to another branch of the service, the Fifth Pennsylvania cavalry on April 29, 1864, was made a brevet brigadier general April 1, 1865, for gallant and meritorious service at the battle of Five Forks, Virginia, and was honorably mustered out August 7, 1865. [41]
The Seventh cavalry, which was stationed later at Camp Beecher, had West for its captain July 28, 1866. West was also honored by being made a brevet major, March 2, 1867 42 for gallant and meritorious service, in action at Charles City C. [ourt] H. [ouse], Virginia, December 13, 1863, and was made a brevet lieutenant colonel, March 2, 1867, for the same kind of service in the battle of New Market Heights, Virginia. West resigned March 1, 1869, and died September 3d of that year. [43]
An Irishman, First Lieut. George McDermott., who was at Camp Beecher from April 22, 1869, to May 20, 1869, was an officer
180 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
in the Fifth infantry, [44] the same company in which Captain Barr served. McDermott was wounded at Valverde, N. M., February 21, 1862, in a battle between Union and Confederate troops [45] and later, upon his recovery, was stationed at Fort Whipple, Ariz., Lieutenant Barr being there at the same time. [46] Lieutenant McDermott was appointed from the army, being successively a private, corporal, sergeant, and then first sergeant in the Fifth infantry. Made a second lieutenant in the same infantry July 17, 1862, he was promoted to a first lieutenancy July 14, 1864. He died June 21, 1878. [47]
All of these commanding officers saw service in the Civil War, Capt. Owen Hale of the Seventh cavalry being no exception. His stay at the post Was short, for he was in command only from May 20, 1869, to some time in June, when the camp was abandoned. [48] Captain Hale entered the service the first year of the War of the Rebellion as a sergeant major of the Seventh New York cavalry, and was made a second lieutenant in the Ninth New York cavalry, May, 1863. For gallant and meritorious service during the war he Was commissioned a brevet captain March 13, 1865, was mustered out November 29, 1865, but reenlisted as a first lieutenant in the Seventh cavalry the 28th of July, 1866, and was promoted to a captaincy March 1, 1869. Hale was killed in a battle with the Nez Perce Indians at Snake river, Montana, September 30, 1877. [49]
Camp Beecher was established here in 1868 in spite of the fact that in 1865 and again in 1867 treaties had been made with the Indians which, if they had been lived up to, would have put an end to Indian warfare, at least for a while. The treaty made in 1865 was witnessed not far from the spot on which Camp Beecher was located, for James R. Mead, in his article, "The Little Arkansas," says the Indians and the White Men met on the east bank of the Little Arkansas, six miles above its mouth and negotiated the Treaty of the Little Arkansas. The 14th day of October, 1865, the treaty with the Cheyenne and the Arapaho was made. [51] Later the Apache, the Cheyenne and the Arapaho negotiated with the White Men, [52]
The treaties at Medicine Lodge were also made in October, the one being entered into at the Council Camp, on Medicine Lodge creek, seventy miles south of Fort Larned, on the 21st day of October, 1867, by and between the United States of America, represented by the commissioners duly appointed thereto, to wit. Nathaniel G. Taylor, William S. Harney, C.C. Augur, Alfred S. [H.] Terry, John B. Sanborn, Samuel F. Tappan and J.B. Henderson of the one part, and the Confederated tribes of Kiowa and Comanche Indians Represented by the chiefs and headmen, duly authorized and empowered to act for the body of the people of said tribes, [54] and the Comanche and the Kiowa on October 18, 1865, concluded a treaty with the whites. [53]
On the same day, another treaty was made with the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache, [55] and on the 28th of October, 1867, another one was made with the Cheyenne and Arapaho. [56] This treaty provided that the Indian tribes with whom it had been concluded should consent to unrestricted settlement by the whites of the country between the Arkansas and Platte rivers, should not interfere with the construction of the Pacific railroads through the same territory and that the Indians themselves should thenceforward occupy reservations in the Indian territory south of the Arkansas river which had been designated for their use. In return for these concessions, the government was to furnish arms, ammunition and supplies, and to pay certain sums as annuities toward the support of the several tribes of Indians. [57]
"These treaties had been made, in the usual course, with the the several tribes, but in the following spring it was found that the young men and warriors were opposed to the agreements made, and claimed they had been procured by personal bribes offered to these unworthy chiefs by whom they had been signed." [58]
The Indian chiefs who sought to confer with Sheridan said they had been deceived in signing the treaty they had made and had never understandingly agreed to the stipulations it contained." [58]
There was no excuse for the outrages committed by the Indians since the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867, states Thomas Murphy
182 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of the Central Superintendency No. 69, Office of the Indian Affairs, with headquarters at Atchison, in his report for the year 1868. He says that every promise made to them in the Medicine Lodge Treaty had been complied with. Yet without provocation they attacked the white settlers and committed numerous outrages. He recommends they be left to the tender mercies of the army till they shall be forced to sue for peace. [60]
Savages had been collecting about Forts Dodge and Larned, from whence it was expected they would proceed during the summer to their reservations in the Indian territory, but as the season advanced it became evident that they had no intention of complying with the treaty and were only awaiting a favorable opportunity for an outbreak. Savages to whom Sheridan was opposed had a force of about six thousand warriors, and had at their disposal country extending from Platte river in Nebraska to Red river in Indian territory. There were large herds of ponies to mount the warriors and transport the women and children, with their tepees and other property, and, through traders and the bounty of the government, they were well provided with arms and ammunition. General Sheridan determined to confine operations during grazing and hunting season to protecting the people of the new settlements and those on the overland routes, and to begin an active compaign after winter set in. Then the savages would be settled in their villages, their ponies would be weak and thin from lack of grazing, and there would be little game to be had. Headquarters was established at Fort Hays, then on the extreme western line of settlement and the terminus of the Pacific railroad. [61]
To guard the lines of the Union Pacific Railroad (usually spoken of at that time as the Kansas Pacific) and the Denver stage road, in addition to protecting the line of the Arkansas to New Mexico, General Sheridan had only a force of about twelve hundred cavalry and fourteen hundred infantry, he said in his report to the Secretary of War, for 1868-1869. There were in the territory to be protected Forts Harker, Hays, Wallace, Larned, Dodge, Lyon, and Reynolds, and the outposts of Cedar Point, Zarah, and Camp Beecher. [62] General Sheridan's total of two thousand six hundred men was in sharp contrast to the Indians' six thousand warriors. [63]
CAMPBELL: CAMP BEECHER 183
As for the men stationed at the camp, the number varied from time to time. The "Annual Report" of the Adjutant General of the United States, October 20, 1868, says that there were stationed at Camp Davidson, Kansas, near the mouth of the Little Arkansas river, two companies of the Seventh cavalry and the Fifth infantry. There was one post chaplain, one surgeon [Mr. E. B. Umstaetter], [64] one major, one regimental adjutant., one regimental quartermaster, and one subaltern. [65]
In a proposal for fresh beef and beef cattle, the Office of the Chief Commissary of Subsistence, Department of the Missouri, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, advertised on May 3, 1869, for meat for only one company, quartered at Camp Beecher. Evidently the Chief of the Commissary Department did not know that Camp Beecher was to be abandoned so soon for he stipulates in this "proposal for new beef from the block" that the contracts will commence at. all posts July 1, 1869, and expire December 31, 1869. [66] From these two sources we know then that there were two companies stationed at the camp at one time, and only one at another time.
No record has been found of any major engagements which occurred at Camp Beecher. Mr. Whigan remembered that a band of Indians attacked the camp in July or August of 1868, and that the soldiers rallied behind the Lewellen camp to fight them off. He recollected that one soldier was wounded and a number .of Indian ponies were killed. If any Indians were wounded their bodies were carried away. [67]
Methods of transportation in Camp Beecher's territory were still quite primitive in 1868-1869, though three years later, on May 15, 1872, the Santa Fe ran its first train through Wichita. [68] A post road between Towanda and Wichita established in 1868 was no doubt used by the soldiers occasionally for various purposes, especially by the infantry. [69] Their mail came through Fort Harker, addressed to Wichita, Kansas. [70]
The dreaded cholera came with the soldiers, James R. Mead says in his article, "The Little Arkansas." He gives the date of the
184 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
troops being stationed here as 1867, [71] although the records already quoted in this paper definitely establish the dates as 1868-1869, [72] and he gives the name of the captain of the Fifth infantry as Thomas F. Barr [73] instead of Samuel L. Barr. [74] There was no doubt cholera here when the troops came, though no official record of it is available in the Army Medical Library; the records there do show, however, that the disease was prevalent at Fort Zarah [75] in 1868, so it was likely to have been here, too.
The Wichita Indians who were moved in 1867 from Butler county, Kansas, to their former homes on that part. of the "Indian territory known as the leased district" were sorely afficted with the cholera and had to be moved in wagons, many of them dying enroute, according to the report made by J. H. Chollar, the special agent for removing the Wichita. [76]
Mr. Mead corroborates the latter data in his same article on "The Little Arkansas." He also states that the Nineteenth Kansas cavalry, organized by Governor Crawford to fight the Indian, stopped at Camp Beecher on the twelfth of November, 1868, and remained till November 14, whence they proceeded to Camp Supply. [77] This seems to be the only occasion on which any Kansas troops were at Camp Beecher.
And so the soldiers came in May, 1868, to Camp Beecher and left in June, 1869. The Leavenworth Times and Conservative of June 3, 1869, reports their final activities in the following order issued by General Schofield, the commanding officer of the Department of the Missouri: ". . . The Seventh cavalry, now at Camp Beecher, will at once move northward towards the big bend of Smoky Hill, scouring the country between the Arkansas and Smoky Hill. If no Indians are discovered they will go to Fort Harker." [78] Evidently no Indians were found for a dispatch from Ellsworth to The Times and Conservative, under the date of June 15, 1869, reports that: "Company `K' of the Seventh United States cavalry, Brevet Major Hale commanding, arrived yesterday at Fort Harker, from Camp
CAMPBELL: CAMP BEECHER 185
Beecher, where they had been relieved by a detachment of Company "C," Tenth Cavalry. Signed, W.W. Creighton" [79]
Several of the men who were in the army remained as settlers. Sergeant Mohen afterwards became a policeman, and sergeants John Ward and Charles Bush also made their homes here.89 In the Wichita Eagle for April 6, 1876, the following picturesque account is given of the later careers of these men:
During the winter [1868] a company of infantry were quartered at this point. Several of the boys having served out their time were discharged and took Claims. One or two married and are still with us, honored and useful citizens. One went to the mountains and his quietus made with his boots on. Another was chosen by unanimous vote, without even asking it, to represent Sedgwick
Notes
1. U. S. War Department, Adjutant General's Office, letter from the adjutant general, C. H. Bridges major general to rs. Hortense B. Campbell, January 13, 1933. A. G. 14.71 Camp Beecher, (1-3-33) Off. 442.
2. Kansas State Record, Topeka, June 12 1868 quoted by Marvin H. Garfield, in his "The Military Post as a actor in the Frontier Defense of Kansas, 1865-1869" in Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. I, p. 58; November, 1931.
3. Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, May 31, 1868, p. 2.
4. Letter from Maj. Gen. P. H. Sheridan to Gov. S. J. Crawford, April 14, 1888, in Archives division of the Kansas Historical Society, Topeka.
5. Kansas Historical Collections (Topeka, Kansas Historical Society, 1907-1908), v. X, p. 13, and O. H. Bentley, editor, History of Wichita and Sedgwick County, Kansas (Chicago, C. F. Cooper and Company, 1910), v. I, p. 129.
6. Bridges to the author, loc. cit.
7. June, 1869 is accepted as the date of abandonment of Camp Beecher, on authority of the letter listed in note 3, although Mrs. Frank C. Montgomery, in her article on Fort Wallace, published in the Kansas Historical Collections, v. 17, p. 233, gives a later date, which evidently is based on the U.S. War Department Report, 1869-1870, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1870 (U.S. 41st Congress, 2nd session, House of Representatives, Executive Order No.1, part 2, s.n. 1412, p. 70. Here Major General Schofield makes the following statement: "The outposts of Fort Zara and Camp Beecher on the Arkansas have been broken up." The date of a dispatch on the same page as this notice is October 23, 1869.
8. Frederick Henry Beecher, born in New Orleans, June 22, 1841,, was one of the famous family of Beechers, being a nephew of Henry Ward Beecher and a son of the Reverend Charles and Sarah Coffin Beecher. (Dictionary of American Biography; under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies; edited by Allen Johnson, N. Y., Scribner's, 1929, v. 11, pp. 126, 129.)
Beecher was in the battles of the army of the Potomac from Fredericksburg to Gettysburg. The severe nature of his wounds necessitated his transfer to the second battalion veteran reserve corps, where he served as lieutenant and acted as adjutant general in the Freedman's Bureau. He was transferred to the Third U. S. infantry in November, 1864, and was made first lieutenant in July, 1868. (Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography; edited by J. G. Wilson and John Fiske, N. Y., Appleton, 1888, v. I, p. 221.)
In 1866, he was stationed at Fort Riley. Later he built several buildings at the Fort Wallace army post. He was killed by the Indians in the Battle of Beecher Island, Colo. [or Arickaree], September 17, 1868. (Beecher Island Annual, Wray, Colorado, Beecher Island Battle Memorial Association, 1917, v. V, p. 55.)
9. The Leavenworth Times and Conservative, November 1, 1868, p. 1.
10. Wichita Eagle, September 9, 1916, page 5.
11. Ibid., March 4, 1928, Magazine section, page 6.
12. Letter from Bliss Isely to Mrs. Hortense B. Campbell, December 4, 1933.
13. Wichita Eagle, November 10, 1933, page 2.
14. Isely to the author, loc. cit.
15. Wichita Daily Eagle, September 9, 1916, p. 5.
16. U. S. Interior Department, General Land Office, letter from the acting assistant commissioner, D. K. Parrott, to Mrs. Hortense B. Campbell, May 18, 1933, 1495563 "B" CWB, advice relative patented entries.
17. Kansas State Gazetteer, 1888-1889 (St. Lotus, R. L. Polk and Company, [c1889]), v. VI, p. 239.
18. Andreas, A. T., publisher, History of the State of Kansas . . . . (Chicago, A. T. Andreas, 1883), p. 1450.
19. Wichita City Directory and Immigrant Guide, 1878, compiled by D. B. Emmert (Kansas City, Tiernan and Wainwright, 1878), p. 15.
20. Parrott to the author, loc. cit.
21. The Leavenworth Times and Conservative, December 18, 1868, p. 2.
22. Wichita City Directory and Immigrant Guide, 1878, compiled by D. B. Emmert (Kansas City, Tiernan and Wainwright, 7878), p. 15.
23. Parrott to the author, loc. cit. The author's examination of a township reveals that roughly speaking, early Wichita was built on Sections l6, 17, 20, and 21 of Township 27 South, Range 1 East of the Sixth Principal Meridian. The present boundaries of these sections would approximate Thirteenth street on the north, Hydraulic on the east, Kellogg on the south, and the Big and Little Arkansas rivers and Seneca on the west.
In present-day Wichita, the claims of these early settlers would be in the following locations according to the information in the survey plats of the city of Wichita in the county clerk's office, Wichita, Sedgwick county, and the original township plats in the office of the county surveyor, Sedgwick county-, as prepared by Mr. N. W. Bass, U.S. Geological Survey with headquarters in Wichita. (now of Washington, D. C.)
Ledrick, Philip: E 1/2 SW 1/4 and Lots 7 and 2, -Section 17- This tract extends from Central avenue north to Riverside avenue and its extension due eastward across the Little Arkansas river, and from Sherman avenue and its projection northward though Central Riverside Park west to Buffum avenue and its projection southward through Riverside Park (Central and South Riverside Park.) to the north bank of the Little Arkansas river in South Riverside Park, thence southeast along the bank of (he river to Central avenue.
Munger, D. S.: SE 1//4 section 17-The south boundary- of this tract is Central avenue; the north boundary falls about 730 feet north of Ninth street between Lawrence avenue (name changed to Broadway by Ordinance No. 11326 of the City of Wichita, adopted October 30, 1933-Wichita city clerk's "Office Ordinance Book"), and Waco avenue, and from Waco avenue on westward it is the alley south of Ninth street; the east boundary is Lawrence avenue and the west boundary is Sherman avenue and its projection northward through Central Riverside Park.
Hubbard, Phares C.: NW 1/4, Section 17-The south boundary of this tract is Riverside avenue, which runs between Buffum avenue and the west hank of the Little Arkansas river, and the projection eastward of Riverside avenue, along a line that would fall shout 150 feet south of Ninth street; the north boundary- is Thirteenth street; the east boundary is a north-south line about 34 feet west of Lewellan avenue; and the west boundary is Buffum avenue and its projection northward through Riverside Park and Oak Park.
Watterman (usually spelled Waterman), Eli P.: NE 1/4 of NE 1/4 and Lots 1 and 2, Section 20-This tract extends from Douglas avenue north to Central avenue and from Lawrence avenue west to the east banks of the Little Arkansas and Arkansas river.
Mathewson, William: NE 1/4, Section 21-This extends from Douglas avenue north to Central avenue and from Hydraulic avenue west to Washington avenue.
Mead, James R.: NW 1/4, Section 21-This extends from Douglas avenue north to Central avenue and from Washington avenue west to Lawrence avenue.
24. The Wichita Daily Eagle, September 9, 1916, p. 5.
25. Illustrated History of Early Wichita; Incidents of Pioneer Day, compiled by and written for the Daughters of the American Resolution (Wichita, Eunice Sterling Chapter, Daughters of the American Resolution, c1914), [p. 10].
26. Parrott to the author, loc. cit.
27. Ibid.
28. Bentley, O. H., editor, History of Wichita and Sedgwick County, Kansas. (Chicago C. F. Cooper and Company, 1910), v. I p. 9; Andreas, A. T., publisher, History of the State of Kansas . . . . (Chicago, A. T. Andreas, 1883), p. 193.
29. Parrott to the author, loc. cit.
30. Kansas Historical Collections, v. X, p. 7.
31. Ibid., v. X, p. 10.
32. Bridges to the author, loc. cit.
33. War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1883), series 1, v. IX, p. 538.
34. Ibid. (1873), series I, v. XLI, part IV, pp. 381, 994.
35. Ibid. (1896), series 1, v. XLVIII, part I, p.907.
36. Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, From its Organization, September 29, 1789 to March 3, 1903, published under act cf Congress approved March 2, 1903 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1903), v. I, p. 194.
37. War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1883), series I, v. XI, part I, p. 282.
38. Ibid. (1887), series I, v. XVIII, p. 266.
39. Ibid. (1887), series I, v. XVIII, p. 262.
40. Ibid. (1884), series I, v. XI, part I, p. 359, 360.
41. Heitman, op. cit., v. I, p. 1020.
42. Hamersly, T. H. S., Complete Regular Army Register of the U. S. for One Hundred Years (1779 to 1879), (Washington, Hamersly, 1880), part I, p. 850, gives the rank of brevet colonel, March, 1867, for gallant and meritorious service in the Battle of Five Forks, Virginia.
48. Heitman, op. cit., v. I, p. 1020.
44. Bridges to the author, loc. cit.
45. War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1883), series I, v. IX, p. 487.
46. Ibid. (1893), series I, v. XLI, part II, p. 986. 47. Heitman, op. cit., v. I, p. 662.
48. Bridges to the author, loc cit.
49. Heitman, op. cit., v. I, p. 487.
50. Kansas Historical Collections, v. X, p. 11.
51. U. S. Congress, Senate, Indian Affairs Committee, Indian Affairs; Laws and Treaties, compiled, annotated, and edited by Charles J. Kappler (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1904), v. II, pp. 887-891.
52. Ibid., v. II, pp. 891-892.
53. Ibid., v. II, pp. 892-895.
54. Ibid., v. II, pp, 977-982.
55. Ibid., v. II, pp. 982-984.
56. Ibid., v. II, pp. 984-989.
57. Davies, Henry E., "Great Commanders" Series, General Sheridan (N. Y., Appleton, 1895), pp, 286-288.
58. Ibid.
59. Ibid.
60. U. S. Interior Department, Indian Affairs Office, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1868 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1868), pp. 9, 257.
61. Davies, op. cit., pp. 288-290.
62. U. S. War Department, "Report of the Secretary of War, 1868-1869" (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1869), 40th Congress, 3d session, House Executive Document No. 1, s. n. 1367, p. 17.
63. Davies, op. cit., pp.288,290.
64. Bridges to the author, loc. cit.
65. U. S. Congress. House Executive Document No. 1, 40th Congress, 3d session, s. n. 1367, pp. 732-733.
66. The Leavenworth Times and Conservative, May 12, 1869, p. 1.
67. The Wichita Daily Eagle, Wichita, September 9, 1916, p. 5.
68. Wilder, Daniel Webster, The Annals of Kansas, 1541-1885, new edition (Topeka, T. Dwight Thacher, 1886), p. 572.
69. The Kansas State Record, Topeka, May 6, 1868, p. 3.
70. The Wichita Daily Eagle, Wichita, September 9, 1916, p. 5.
71. Kansas Historical Collections, v. X, p. 13.
72. Bridges to the author, loc. cit.
73. Kansas Historical Collections, v. X, p. 13.
74. Bridges to the author, loc. cit.
75. U. S. War Department, Army Medical Library, letter from the librarian, Edgar Erskine Hume, major, medical corps, U. S. A., to Mrs. Hortense B. Campbell, January 19, 1933.
76. U. S. Interior Department, Indian Affairs Office, Annual Report, 1867 (40th Congress, 2d session, House of Representatives, Executive Documents), v. III, part II, pp. 330-337.
77. Kansas Historical Collections, v. X, pp. 13-14# v. XVII p. 105; v VI p. 38. Crawford, Samuel J., Kansas in the Sixties (Cicago, McClurg, 1911), pp. 321-322.
78. The Leavenworth Times andConservative, Leavenworth,June 3,1869, p.1.
79. Ibid., June 16, 1869, p 1. No record has been found of the Tenth cavalry being here, although it was in the field at the time, according to the "Report of the Secretary of War for 1868-1869," House Executive Documents, 411th Congress, 3d session, v. I, p. li. One local authority, the Wichita City Directory and Immigrant Guide 1878 compiled by D. B. Emmert (Kansas City, Tiernan and Wainwright, 1878), p. 15, reports that a colored company, commanded by Captain Rowelson was stationed here at the time, but the letter to Mrs. Hortense B. Campbell, January 13th 1933, from C. H. Bridges, major general, says that there is no one by that name in the rolls of their office. The War Department also reports that only the Fifth infantry and the Seventh cavalry were stationed at Camp Beecher.
80. Wichita City Directory and Immigrant Guide, 1878, compiled by D. B. Emmert (Kansas City, Tiernan and Wainwright, 1878), p. 14.
81. The Wichita City Eagle, April 6, 1876, p. 1.
