Some Recollections by M. St John

"Ottawa Daily Herald," 01 Jan 1913, page 2, column 2.

Up in the northwest corner of Franklin County, one mile south of the Douglas County line and one mile east of the Osage county line, is a farm of 160 acres which has never changed ownership since it was pre-empted from the government in 1858. The man who owns it lives in Ottawa today. He is M. St. John, father of Mrs. F. O. Hetrick.

Mr. St. John has lived in Kansas and Franklin County during the intervening time and he has seen many changes in the county. He has always taken a keen interest in the life of the county and he is well acquainted with the early history of the northwestern part of the county. He was on his farm when Dick Yeager, one of Quantrell's lieutenants passed through the county on a raid near council Grove. He was a member of a party which pursued Yeager and he has taken part in many of the other stirring events of this county's history.

Away back in 1856 in East Townsend, Ohio, Mr. St. John, then a young man, sat in a small store while a number of his friends and companions talked of that new and strange country of Kansas. People referred to Kansas in awed tones. A trip to Kansas was like that of starting to another world. On this particular night in the early spring of 1856, the young men of the country were planning a party to come to Kansas. Mr. St. John was asked to join but he declined. He had a home in Ohio and Kansas did not appeal to him. But after much urging he yielded and the party left in a few days by boat on the Ohio river. They struck the Mississippi river and entered the Missouri, coming to the old Westport landing.

Samuel N. Woods was with the party. He had been in Kansas before and had been making a lecturing tour in the East to urge the young men to come to Kansas and help build up the country. Woods took a prominent part in the early Kansas history and was once a newspaper man in the early days. He was shot to death at Hugoton in Western Kansas several years ago.

"On that first trip of mine to Kansas, there is one thing I will never forget," said Mr. St. John the other day when he was talking of the early days. "We had anchored along the Missouri river not far from Jefferson City. We knew that the inhabitants were unfriendly to us but did not look for trouble. I was sitting near the boat rail when a Missourian walked up the gang plank without invitation and said, "Have you all got a man by the name of Sam Woods on board this boat."

"As he stood there, Woods, who was not afraid of anything, stepped out and the Missourian advanced before him. A large number of the young men on board looked for trouble and they surrounded Woods and each drew a revolver. The Missourian wasted no time in making for the shore and there was no further disturbance."

With Mr. St. John in this party on the way to Kansas were James Robbins of this city, and his brother, the late C. L. Robbins. They drove overland from Kansas City to Lawrence in that spring of '56 but Mr. St. John remained only a month. He returned to Ohio and was married. In May, 1858, he and his wife left for Kansas to make their home. They went by railroad, travelling on the old Wabash & Western.

No time was wasted in starting out from Westport and they arrived at old Palmyra where they spent one night with a family whom they had known in Ohio. The next day he walked over into Franklin County and located a claim of 160 acres on the Appanoose. A brother was already here. He had come to Kansas in 1857.

"Minneola had already begun its decline when I came," Mr. St. John continued to say. "The legislature had adjourned a few months before to meet again at Lawrence. There were probably 300 persons in Minneola then. Only a few empty houses were there however as the decline had just begun."

Mr. St. John lived six miles west of Centropolis. The settlers in that locality sent their mail first to Centropolis and later to St. Bernard and still later to Minneola. In old Minneola the town tavern stood for several years and here the militia had headquarters. Mr. St. John had a commission as first lieutenant in that company and he still has the commission at his home. It was signed by Charles Robinson, governor of Kansas.

When Minneola organized its company Centropolis became envious and another company was organized near there. The two companies finally fused.

"And my commission was not worth the paper on which it was written but I have kept it for a relic," said Mr. St. John. "All of us fellows were just 'high privates in the rear rank.' This company was organized in '62."

Mr. St. John had some of the early newspapers of the state in his possession and they with others relics, were in the attic of his home, when the big cyclone of 1860 came. The roof of his home was blown away and his relics were lost. In that cyclone a brother of Ben Sands of this city, was killed at Minneola.

"I am not very well acquainted with the history of Franklin County except from what I heard others say and I do not remember it as I would if I had been directly connected with the events. In the fall of 1863 I moved to Centropolis and practiced shoemaking my trade. I enlisted in April, 1864, in Company E of the Eleventh Kansas. Later I was in Company M. I was away when some of the stirring things of the county happened and some of the big political fights were going on.

"When the statehood question came up, I voted for it at Minneola. Later we used to come across the fields to old Ohio City to vote. During the early days, there was nothing where Ottawa now stands. Indians were plentiful but there was no sign of a town. Some historians say an old building used to stand near the Hickory street ford but I don't remember it when we crossed.

The earliest settler up in our part of the county around Centropolis were the Clarks, Williams and Charles. They were here when I came in 1858 and had settled on the 8-mile Creek."

"There used to be a Congregational minister at old Minneola," said Mr. St. John," and he would trade with us Appanoose settlers. He would come out to Appanoose one Sunday and preach and Appanoose would send a quartet to Minneola the next Sunday to sing. Mrs. St. John, my brother, my sister and myself composed the quartet."

go to top