MIAMI COUNTY.

LOCATION, TOPOGRAPHY AND NATURAL RESOURCES.

Miami County is located in the eastern tier of counties, next to Missouri, and in the second tier south from the Kansas River. It is bounded on the north by Johnson County, on the east by Missouri, south by Linn County, and west by Franklin County. When organized the county was named Lykins, in honor of David Lykins, long a resident of the county, and member of the first Territorial Council. The first Legislature of the Territory passed an act in 1855, bounding Lykins County as follows:"Beginning at the southeast corner of Johnson County, thence south twenty-four(24) miles, thence west twenty-four (24) miles, thence north twenty-four(24) miles to the southwest corner of Johnson County, thence east twenty-four (24) miles to the place of the beginning." Lykins County, as thus defined, was twenty -four miles square, and contained 368,640 acres. The name of the county was changed from Lykins to Miami by the Legislature, June 3, 1861 and on March 3, 1868 an act approved which changed the boundaries of the county so as to include an additional half-mile strip on the west, and thus to increase the area by the equivalent of twelve sections, or 7,680 acres. The section line between the second and third tiers of sections in range twenty-one east, was made the western boundary; but since north of the third standard parallel, which is three miles south of the north line of the county, the corresponding ranges are one-half mile farther to the east than those south of said parallel, Miami County loses three half sections or 900 acres; therefore, the exact area of the county is 375,360 acres.

Miami County is diversified as to surface, about twenty per cent being bottom land, and eighty percent upland. The uplands are, for the most part, gently rolling, the highest hills in Osawatomie township not being more than 130 feet above the level of the bottom lands. These latter average one mile in width. the valley of the Marais des Cygnes, the widest of the valleys, averages about two miles in width.

The principal streams are the Marais des Cygnes and Pottawatomie Creek, both of which enter the county from the west, and uniting one mile west east of Osawatomie, form the Osage River which flows east five miles, then south, leaving the county nine miles west of the eastern boundary line. Bull Creek is a large stream entering the county from the north, and flowing south into the Marais des Cygnes; Rock Creek and Wade's branch are tributary to Bull Creek from the west, and Little Bull, Ten Mile and Wea creeks from the east. Wea is a large stream with three branches. Elm Creek is a short stream, rising near the center of the county, and flowing south into the Marais des Cygnes. Middle Creek sites in the eastern part of the county, and flows generally southwardly into the Marais des Cygnes in Linn County. Sugar Creek rises in the southeast part of the county, and flows south into Linn County. Walnut Creek is a branch of Middle Creek from the west. Mound Creek rises in the southwest corner of the county, and flows east, then southeast, into the Marais des Cygnes, Linn county. Besides these streams, there is a large number of smaller ones; an abundance of springs and good well water is found at a depth varying fifteen to one hundred feet.

The principal varieties of native grasses are "prairie" grass, blue-joint and wire grass. Prairie grass grows everywhere on the uplands, and is most abundant; blue-joint grows on moist ground, and is very sweet and nutritious; wire grass is not specially valuable.

The principal kinds of native timber are the cottonwood, coffee-bean, hackberry, hickory, linn or basswood, maple, mulberry, oak-Spanish, black, burr and post-pecan and walnut. These grow mostly along the creeks, average width of belts being about one-half mile, and occupying about ten per cent of the surface, open prairie occupying ninety per cent.

On the uplands the soil varies in depth from one to four feet; in the valleys from four to thirty feet. It is everywhere exceedingly fertile. The subsoil is usually clay. Good limestone is found in almost every locality. There is also considerable sandstone. A species of limestone, resembling gray granite, is found in Mound Township, and in the central and southern portions is found what is called "Fontana marble", from the town Fontana, near which the principal quarries of the marble are located. This marble resembles the Junction City stone, is readily shaped with saw or plane, and is quite valuable for building purposes.

Coal is believed to underlie about one-fourth of the county but the quality is generally too poor, and the layers are too thin to justify working.

In various parts of the county there have been found "tar springs" and "oil springs". The most noted of these are the "Wea Tar Spring", the "Beaver Tar Spring", the "Won-Zop-peach Tar Spring", "Dales Oil Spring", and "Honeywells Oil Spring." The existence of some of these springs had been known to the Indians from time immortal, and to the white men about thirty-five years. But prospecting for petroleum was not undertaken until 1882. In July of the year the Kansas Oil and Mining Company bored down on the farm of A. Westfall, about seven miles east of Paola, to the depth of 300 feet, obtaining a copious supply of gas. In order not to lose this gas the drill was raised and a second well commenced in August, about thirty rods from the first, with the determination of reaching petroleum or the level of the sea, about eight hundred feet below the surface. At a depth of 330 feet, reached September 1, sufficient gas flowing from the two wells to light a city of 1,000,000 inhabitants, and the gas was remarkably pure.

Miami County is remarkably productive. It contributed largely to the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. The largest apple on exhibition there was from the farm of Fred. Wygant, near Osawatomie, Miami county. This apple was twenty-four and one-half inches in circumference and weighed twenty-eight and one-half ounces, and a corn-stalk nineteen and one-third feet long was designed for that exhibition, but while on the way through Osawatomie a pair of mules ate two or three feet off the top of it and the sending of it was then abandoned.

POPULATION.

POPULATION (FEDERAL CENSUS)

                              1870       1880
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Marysville Township          1,383      1,599
Miami Township                 725      1,206
(a) Middle Creek Township      650      1,260
Mound Township                 498        739
(b) Osage township           1,396      1,196 
(c) Osawatomie Township      1,182      1,199
Paola City                   1,811      2,312  
Paola Township                 624      1,008
Richland Township              844      1,436
(d) Stanton Township           844        904
Sugar Creek Township           444        809
(e) Valley Township                       867
Wea Township                 1,324      2,467
                             -----    -------
                            11,725     17,002
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(a) In 1874, part detached to form Valley.
(b) In 1874, part detached to form Valley.
(c) In 1874, part detached to form Valley.
(d) In 1874, part detached to form Valley.
(e) Organized in 1874, from parts of Middle Creek,
    Osage, Osawatomie, and Stanton

INDIAN HISTORY.

The Indians that have lived in Miami County are the Miamis, the Confederated tribes, the Pottawatomies and the Shawnees.

The Shawnee reservation embraced a strip of land across the northern end of the county, about two and one fourth miles in width. Some of them continued to live here until 1866, when with the remainder of their tribe they moved to the Indian Territory.

The Pottawatomie reservation, which was partly in Franklin County, embraced in Miami County, Mound and Osawatomie townships and a small portion of Stanton and Valley township, in all about eighty square miles, or 51,000 acres. This tribe was removed to a reservation on the Kansas river in 1847-48 where a portion of them still remain.

The Confederated Tribes were composed of the Weas, Piakeshaws, Peorias and Kaskaskias. They inhabited the northern part of the county, bordering the Shawnee Reservation. Upon their removal here they were but remnants of previously large and powerful tribes. The Weas were at one time a portion of the Miami tribe, their language being almost identical with that of the Miamis. The Confederated Tribes formerly lived in Southern Illinois. In 1818 they removed to Eastern Missouri and settled near St. Genevieve. In 1827 the Weas and Piakeshaws moved to what is now Miami County, the Peorias followed in a year or two, and the Kaskaskias came in 1832. From this time until 1854, these tribes continued to live in undisturbed possession o their reservation, when it became necessary to open the country to settlement, and a treaty was made between them and the Government by which they sold all their lands except for 160 acres for each member of the tribe, ten sections for tribal purposes, and one section for the support of a Mission School. In the formation of this treaty, Col. Manypenny represented the Government and Kio-kun-no-zah, Yellow Beaver, and others as chiefs the Indians; Baptiste Peoria acting as interpreter. As white settlers came in and filled up the county, the Confederated tribes made preparations to make one more removal. With the consent of the Government, a delegation from the tribes purchased a portion of the lands of the Quapaws and Senecas in the Indian Territory in 1866. The purchase was ratified by treaty in 1868 and most of the Confederated tribes removed to their new homes, on Spring River, that year. Many of those who remained were admitted to citizenship and were prosperous members of the community, while some have since gone to the Indian Territory.

When the treaty of 1854 was made, the Confederated Tribes numbered 260, but they have steadily declined in numbers.

At least two of the members of the Confederated tribes are worthy of brief mention-Win-ris-cah, or Christmas Dagnette, and Baptiste Peoria.

The former was born near Terre Haute, Ind., about the year 1800. He was a nephew of a Wea chief, and received a liberal education. Besides three or four Indian languages, he could speak English, French, and Spanish, and at the age of sixteen acted as interpreter for the Government. He removed to Kansas with his tribe, which he served for a number of years as chief and died in 1848.

Baptiste Peoria was born also about the year 1800, near Kaskaskia, Ill. He did not receive a school education but by the natural force of his intellect acquired a number of Indian languages, the Shawnee, Delaware and Pottawatomie, besides those of the several Confederated Tribes, and also English and French. He acted for many years in the capacity of interpreter, and for some time as chief, but generally preferred to be on the "outside" as there he could be of much more use to his tribe, which during almost the whole of his long life continued to look up to him as their best advisor. When the tribes removed to the Indian Territory, Baptiste went with them and died there in the year 1874. He was a man of large and enlightened views, and was distinguished for the virtues which spring from a kindly heart and generous spirit. His widow, who was at the time of her marriage to him, the widow of Christmas Dagnette, still resides in Paola, at the ripe age of eighty-two, loved and respected by all who know her.

The Miamis were the first settlers in Miami County. They, as a a portion of the Shawnees, were originally from Ohio. They were removed to what is now Indiana, by Gen. Anthony Wayne, in accordance with the treaty of August 3, 1795. In 1840, a treaty was made by which they agreed to remove to new homes in the Indian Territory (now Kansas) and in 1846, eight hundred Miamis located in the southeast part of the present Miami County, on Sugar Creek. In 1847 about 300 more arrived; and in 1848 about 500 of them returned to Indiana, which return was afterwards acquiesced in by act of Congress.

In the same year those Miamis remaining in the county removed their home from Sugar Creek to the Marias des Cygnes in the central southern portion of the county, locating at what has since been known as Miami village. The removal was caused by sickness, superinduced by change of climate, privation and exposure. In three years from the time of their arrival on Sugar Creek their number was reduced by death from 600 to 300, one-half the deaths occurring on Sugar Creek. Their principal burying ground was then about two miles southeast of the present village of Rockville.

The original Miami reservation consisted of about 500,000 acres of land, and was bounded on the east by Missouri, on the south by the reservation of the New York Indians, on the west by the Pottawatomie reservation, and on the north by that of the Confederated tribes. In 1854, as white settlers began to see homes on the Miami reservation, the Government purchased all but 72,000 acres, Col Manypenny acting for the Government and Now-a-lun-qua ("Big-Legs") on the part of the Miamis and Jack Hackley as interpreter.

The Miamis remained on this remnant of their reservation until 1871, when having been reduced to about 130 in number, the most of them removed to the Neosho River in the Indian Territory. A few remained and became citizens of the United States, made considerable progress in agriculture, and became useful, upright and respected citizens.

The agents for these tribes have been the following: Col. Ely Moore, until 1854; Col. A. M. Coffey, 1854 to 1855; Col. M. McCaslin, 1855 to 1857; Gen. Seth Clover, 1857 to 1861; Col. G. A. Colton, 1861 to 1869; James Stanley, 1869 to the time the Agency was abolished. Col. McCaslin was removed by President Buchanan for having protested against the invasion of Kansas by Missourians. He was Colonel of the Fifteenth Virginia Infantry during the rebellion.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

One of the first white men to settle in Miami County was David Lykins, who came here in 1844, from Vigo County, Ind. as missionary to the Confederated tribes of Indians. Other missionaries and teachers came to these tribes and to the Miamis, from time to time, and also traders, all of whom came to aid or live among the Indians.

In 1854, bona fide settlers began to arrive with the object of making homes for themselves and developing the resources of the county. Among these in various parts of the county were S. H. Houser, in Stanton township; in Osawatomie Township, Daniel Goodrich, C. A. Foster, John Childers, Harmon Dace, C. H. Crane, John Serpell, William Chestnut, S. L. Adair, R. W. Wood, and O. C. Brown; In Paola, Knowles, Isaac and William Shaw and their mother in June and their brother Cyrus in September, T. J. Hedges, D. L. Peery and W. A. Hesikell; in Richland Township, David Anderson and others; in Middle Creek township, William Blair.

In 1855, the following settlers arrived at Paola: Capt. Arbuckle, Charles Alexander, S. P. Boone, W. D. Hoover, Elias Hughes, Thomas Hill, H. Harbison, Dr. Finlay, James and Joseph Lykins, Peter Potts, J. A. and J. H. Phillips, George Tomlinson, and Allen T. Ward; in Osawatomie, Thomas Roberts, S. M. Merritt, James Hughes, James Williams, N. T. Roscoe, William, John, and Patrick Poland, W. A. Sears and John Littlejohn; in Stanton Township, H. B. Standiford, Benjamin Goodrich, James and W. H. Kinkaid, the Bingham boys, Samuel and William Whitehead, Israel Christie, John West, Caleb and Robert Sherer, Hiram Mullens, Josiah and D. H. Bundy, W. B. and Isaiah Nichols, John T. Benning, John Van Horn, Thomas and Perry O'Brien, Orrin Williams, John Oliver, Thomas Roberts and Rev. Martin White. In Wea township, George Town and sons arrived in 1856 and in 1857, J, W. Chandoins, William Blair, Nathan Childers, William Catching, Thomas Grinter, Sumner Myers, S. G. Echols and quite a number of others.

In Osage Township, A. Mobley settled as early as 1854 and in 1857, when the lands were open to settlement, quite a large number came in, among them, John Dodd, William Tovinger, J. H. Bruner, A. Westfall, Jonas King, Abijah Bales, James Jones, and A. P. Brown; in 1858, Jerimiah Jolly, Jonathan Ruble, Isaac Polhamus and from fifteen to twenty others. In Marysville Township, H. L. Lyons, James and John Beets, J. G. and Enos McDaniel, J. J. and Owen Park, James Tindle, Joseph Goodwin, John Reed and Charles Barry.