Isaac Werner Visits Cullison, Part I

James B. Cullison (1857-1936)

First, before linking the information taken from Isaac B Werner's journal about his visits to Cullison, I must give credit to Jeffrey R. Cullison for his "A Brief History of Cullison, Kansas" posted online and dated 1997.  The last activity I found on the web page is more than ten years old, but I am grateful his information remains available, and it makes the journal entries by Isaac in 1887 even more interesting.

Growing up, I was very familiar with Cullison, for its school was in the Skyline League, along with the Byers School that I attended.  There was an active 4-H Club in Cullison, so I knew kids my own age through 4-H activities.  

My husband and I left Kansas after college, and although I had passed Cullison by on the highway, I had not visited the town for many years.  In the "Brief History" written in 1997, author Jeffrey R. Cullison writes:  "Not much remains of the old Cullison of prosperity and boom times.  A few old buildings are all that is left of those years.  I visited Cullison in 1987 and could not help but think of part of it almost as a ghost town."  At the 1986 reunion, several thousand people had come to celebrate its Centenial Year, and an unpublished "History of a Prairie Town" was written by Clara B. Farnsworth, which author Jeffrey R. Cullison consulted.  Pratt author J. Rufus Gray added information in his 1977 "Pioneer Saints and Sinners."  Now, I can supplement their records with entries from the journal of Isaac B. Werner.  Like author Jeffrey R. Cullison, when my husband and I finally exited the highway to tour Cullison, little that I remembered remained.

Founder James B. Cullison, pictured above, was a young lawyer with a wife and baby when he staked a preemptive claim and built a little shack on the land that would become Cullison.  The town was platted on his homestead on March 17, 1885.

Like many communities on the prairie, success depended on the railroad, and those towns through which the railroad passed were more likely to prosper.  J.B. Cullison realized this, and attempted to profit from acquiring land through which a proposed railroad would pass.  A good idea--but when the railroad changed its mind, his investment dreams disappeared.  He participated in another site, but as for his family, his dreams had moved south.  He staked a claim in the Oklahoma Cherokee Strip, and made his dreams come true as a lawyer practicing in Enid.

Cullison did plat a town and get a railroad, and by 1887 was incorporated as a 3rd class town with about 2,000 residents.  It was during that very year that Isaac B. Werner paused in Cullison several times, which are recorded in his journal.  More about that in next week's blog post.    

Remember, you can click on the images to enlarge them.

  

Surnames of early settlers

Last week's blog shared the importance of preserving information descendants have about their ancestors so that future generations will not forget their past ancestry.  Often in writing my manuscript about Isaac B. Werner and his community, I have asked readers to look for old photographs.  This week I am urging readers of the blog to review the surnames I am sharing to see if family names appear.

Homesteads and Timber Claims, Albano, Stafford Co., KS

This map was copied by me from  Stafford County History, 1870-1990 and I do not know who to credit with making the original map.  It identifies those settlers who originally claimed homesteads and timber claims in Albano Township.  I copied it while doing research in order to enlarge it, and this copy is of my enlargement, which is still difficult to read because of labeling each of the 36 square mile sections in the township, all of which are subdivided.  The sections are numbered 1-36, beginning in the upper right and continuing in horizontal rows until concluding with #36 in the lower right corner.  Some of the divisions differ, with a larger or smaller claim.  The identification "TC" indicates a timber claim.

You will recognize some of the names from earlier blogs, for example Isaac H. "Doc" Dix has both a homestead and a timber claim in the north half of Section 31.  Isaac's two claims are in Section 33, his homestead in the lower-left corner and the timber claim that was assigned to his brother Henry in the upper-left corner.

Claims were limited to 160 acres, but you will notice that not all claims were in the corners of the sections.  For example, California Smith claimed 160 acres in the center of Section 21 and Mattie M. Beck and Peter A.N. Beck (no known relation) claimed rectangular properties in Section 18.  In addition, not all the claims were a full 160 acres.

To help you read the surnames, I will list them by section number:  #1 Pelton, Hunt, Frack, Wenzel; #2 Eddingfield, Long, Toland; #3 Smith, Williams, Webber; #4 Wasson, Neelands, Dunlap; #5 Neil, Bowling, Weeks, Clark; #6 McKibben, Mainline, Lynch; #7 Curtis, Smith, Goodwin, Markham, Martin; #8 Stambaugh, Shilt, Osgood, Curtis, Rex; #9 Neelands; #10 Cubbage, Neelands, Loftiss; #11 Frack, Pixley, Bowker, Bair; #12 Wenzel, Moody, Moore; #13 Cubbage, Davidson; #14 Tanner, Kackelman, Newton; #15 Toland, Loomis, Bedenhamer, Dilley, Stimatze; #16 Neelands, #17 Grunder, Hart, Frazee, Toland; #18 Beck, Rea, Hainline, James; #19 Smith, Skinner, Fox, Tousley; #20 Hall, Furman, Fitch, Rice; #21 Blanch, Rice, Smith, Stimatze; #22 Tobias, Frack, Carnahan; #23 Tanner, Davison, McHenry; #24 Davison, Hazelton, Goodman, Tompkins, Gibbs; #25 Bushell, Goodman; #26 Davison, Tobias, Cullison; #27 Stimatze, Campbell, Graff; #28 Shattuck, Frack, Henn; #29 Holbrook, Wasson, Vosburgh; #30 Webber, Rearick, Smith; #31 Dix, Fountain, Rogers; #32 Barker, Vosburgh, Rowe; #33 Werner, Ross, Bentley; #34 Mayes, Bonsall, Gareke, Shoop; #35 Young, Cullison, Smith, Tompkins, Dumen; #36 Reynolds, Jacobs.

You will notice as you read the surnames that I did not repeat the surname if the property extended into another section nor if more than one person with that surname made a claim.  You will also notice that many of the claimants were women.   For example, in Sections 24 and 25 you will see the surname of Gibbs, which indicates a claim by two unmarried sisters who occasionally visited Isaac to admire his trees or buy seed potatoes. Sometimes when families arrived they would each build separate residences, whether dugouts, soddies, or shanties, so that each member of the family could claim 160 acres.  This was especially true of siblings.  For example, Jerome M. Vosburgh and his wife claimed the southeast quarter of Section 29 and his unmarried sister Persis Vosburgh claimed the adjacent northeast quarter of Section 32.  Single women were entitled to claim their own homestead; however, when Jerome's wife died and Aunt Persis assisted her brother in caring for his children, some neighbors attempted to claim Persis' quarter, saying that she no longer maintained her own home on the land.  Isaac Werner and other neighbors supported the right of Persis to claim the property as a single woman and supported her contention that she did maintain her own home there.

I hope some of you with ancestors in this region will take time to study this drawing of Albano, Stafford Co., KS and consider whether you have stories or images to share with me.