by Betty Jane Wilson, society president
The Valley Falls Historical Society’s 42nd annual meeting and dinner were held Oct. 11 at The Barn Bed and Breakfast Inn.
The following officers and directors were elected for the 2009-2010 fiscal year: Betty Jane Wilson, president; Lesa Brose, vice president; Maxine Hefty, secretary; Gary Coleman, treasurer; Kyle Quasebarth, James Durand, Joan Reichart, and Rosalind Jackson, directors; and Frank Shrimplin, historian.
Entertainment featured the Lecompton Re-enactors, a theatrical group of amateur historians garbed in period costumes who created a townhall atmosphere revealing personalities and opinions, both male and female, which existed in the Kansas Territory from 1854 to 1861.
The Valley Falls Historical Society Museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17. Admission is free.
October 23, 2009
October 02, 2009
From the Almanac
by Betty Jane Wilson, society president
The household almanac, gem of the family reference texts, unique in dispensation of Zodiac mysteries, chronological cycles, weather conditions, and countless household hints, medical advice, and bits of humor survives the centuries.
No less popular in the late 1890s, The Hostetters Illustrated United States Almanacs provided sage sayings, wit and wisdom in the language of the century as follows:
“There are many ways to convince a man, but the easiest way is to agree with him.”
“Beeswax and salt will make your rusty flat irons as clean and smooth as glass. Lump the wax in a rag and keep for that purpose. When the irons are hot, rub them first with a wax rag, then scour with a paper or cloth sprinkled with salt.”
“What is a cigar, I want you to tell me?” lisped little Tom Brown to his knowing big brother. “It’s a roll,” was the answer, “of silly enchantment, with a fire at one end, and a fool at the other.”
“For ingrowing toe nails, cut the end square and close and scrape with a sharp knife or piece of glass, a line in the center of the top of the nail so thin that only the inner lining of the nail is left. If this is kept up the edges will raise instead of growing down.”
“To make roses bloom, scrape from the chimney or stove pipe where wood is used for fuel, a quantity of soot, put into a vessel and pour boiling water over it. Let it stand for a few days, and then use the liquid to water the earth around the plants. The application should be made every two or three days.”
“When a clock strikes, it’s working, but when a man strikes, he isn’t.”
“The region where no man hath ever set is called tomorrow.”
“Waterproof paste for boots and shoes — Melt in an earthenware pot, 6 parts of spermaceti, add 12 parts of cadutchouc cut up very fine, and when this is dissolved, further add 12 parts of tallow, 4 parts of lard, and 8 parts of amber varnish. Mix and it is ready to use. Apply as ordinary with a brush. It gives a good gloss.”
“The lamb and the lion may lie down together, but the lion will be the only one to get up.”
The Valley Falls Historical Society Museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3.
2010 calendars are now available at the museum.
The household almanac, gem of the family reference texts, unique in dispensation of Zodiac mysteries, chronological cycles, weather conditions, and countless household hints, medical advice, and bits of humor survives the centuries.
No less popular in the late 1890s, The Hostetters Illustrated United States Almanacs provided sage sayings, wit and wisdom in the language of the century as follows:
“There are many ways to convince a man, but the easiest way is to agree with him.”
“Beeswax and salt will make your rusty flat irons as clean and smooth as glass. Lump the wax in a rag and keep for that purpose. When the irons are hot, rub them first with a wax rag, then scour with a paper or cloth sprinkled with salt.”
“What is a cigar, I want you to tell me?” lisped little Tom Brown to his knowing big brother. “It’s a roll,” was the answer, “of silly enchantment, with a fire at one end, and a fool at the other.”
“For ingrowing toe nails, cut the end square and close and scrape with a sharp knife or piece of glass, a line in the center of the top of the nail so thin that only the inner lining of the nail is left. If this is kept up the edges will raise instead of growing down.”
“To make roses bloom, scrape from the chimney or stove pipe where wood is used for fuel, a quantity of soot, put into a vessel and pour boiling water over it. Let it stand for a few days, and then use the liquid to water the earth around the plants. The application should be made every two or three days.”
“When a clock strikes, it’s working, but when a man strikes, he isn’t.”
“The region where no man hath ever set is called tomorrow.”
“Waterproof paste for boots and shoes — Melt in an earthenware pot, 6 parts of spermaceti, add 12 parts of cadutchouc cut up very fine, and when this is dissolved, further add 12 parts of tallow, 4 parts of lard, and 8 parts of amber varnish. Mix and it is ready to use. Apply as ordinary with a brush. It gives a good gloss.”
“The lamb and the lion may lie down together, but the lion will be the only one to get up.”
The Valley Falls Historical Society Museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3.
2010 calendars are now available at the museum.
August 27, 2009
A.G. Patrick recalls a buffalo encounter
by Betty Jane Wilson, society president
A decade plus, prior to his varied enterprises in Grasshopper Falls, A.G. Patrick, son of a printer, became a very young typesetter and left home at an early age to serve apprenticeship of his trade in Terre Haute, Ind.
He worked as a journeyman printer for numerous newspapers in Kentucky and Indiana. At one time was persuaded to publish a paper; however, lack of financial aid compelled him to relinquish the effort after five issues. Following a short stint in merchandising with his brother, he decided to go to California and joined a company organizing a wagon train.
His experiences and encounters prompted him to write his recollections, which he shared with F. C. Scott, publisher of the Valley Falls New Era, predecessor of the Valley Falls Vindicator.
An early episode he recalled occurred after leaving St. Joseph, Mo., for the gold fields.
“The first buffalo that we met was (sic) in the neighborhood of Ash Hollow on the North Platte, seven- or eight-hundred miles west of St. Joseph. It was a herd of a dozen or so and men on horseback were chasing them in every direction. The thought struck us that we (Note:Patrick is referring to himself in the style often used in those days) might get a shot at one, so we took our gun and walked ahead of the wagons and hid ourself in the tall grass near a pond of water. We did not have to wait long before the old bull buffalo was heading directly for us. The mere thought of his coming made us quite nervous, for we had often heard a wounded buffalo would attack and trample a man to death.
“By the time he was close enough to get a good view, we had a sudden attack of buck ague and with difficulty held on to our gun. His very looks was (sic) enough to frighten anyone, his eyes flashing like balls of fire, tongue protruding from his mouth and snorting for all that was out, his heavy tread making the earth fairly shake.
“What to do revolved quickly in our mind. We were afraid to shoot, as that might be the last of us, so we deliberately threw our gun into the tall grass; jumped into the pond and took a long dive coming up at least a hundred feet away spouting like a porpoise, and on looking around saw the buffalo heading in another direction.
“It took at least five minutes to find our gun, and the next day traded it to an Indian for a pony, not wanting any more buffalo in our sport.”
Jamie and Julie Durand will be hosts at the Valley Falls Historical Society from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29. Admission is free.
A decade plus, prior to his varied enterprises in Grasshopper Falls, A.G. Patrick, son of a printer, became a very young typesetter and left home at an early age to serve apprenticeship of his trade in Terre Haute, Ind.
He worked as a journeyman printer for numerous newspapers in Kentucky and Indiana. At one time was persuaded to publish a paper; however, lack of financial aid compelled him to relinquish the effort after five issues. Following a short stint in merchandising with his brother, he decided to go to California and joined a company organizing a wagon train.
His experiences and encounters prompted him to write his recollections, which he shared with F. C. Scott, publisher of the Valley Falls New Era, predecessor of the Valley Falls Vindicator.
An early episode he recalled occurred after leaving St. Joseph, Mo., for the gold fields.
“The first buffalo that we met was (sic) in the neighborhood of Ash Hollow on the North Platte, seven- or eight-hundred miles west of St. Joseph. It was a herd of a dozen or so and men on horseback were chasing them in every direction. The thought struck us that we (Note:Patrick is referring to himself in the style often used in those days) might get a shot at one, so we took our gun and walked ahead of the wagons and hid ourself in the tall grass near a pond of water. We did not have to wait long before the old bull buffalo was heading directly for us. The mere thought of his coming made us quite nervous, for we had often heard a wounded buffalo would attack and trample a man to death.
“By the time he was close enough to get a good view, we had a sudden attack of buck ague and with difficulty held on to our gun. His very looks was (sic) enough to frighten anyone, his eyes flashing like balls of fire, tongue protruding from his mouth and snorting for all that was out, his heavy tread making the earth fairly shake.
“What to do revolved quickly in our mind. We were afraid to shoot, as that might be the last of us, so we deliberately threw our gun into the tall grass; jumped into the pond and took a long dive coming up at least a hundred feet away spouting like a porpoise, and on looking around saw the buffalo heading in another direction.
“It took at least five minutes to find our gun, and the next day traded it to an Indian for a pony, not wanting any more buffalo in our sport.”
Jamie and Julie Durand will be hosts at the Valley Falls Historical Society from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29. Admission is free.
August 20, 2009
Enemies become 'loving' as doves
Tales from the trail by A.G. Patrick, New Era editor
(Compiled by Betty Jane Wilson, Valley Falls Historical Society President)
Prior to settling in Grasshopper Falls in 1856 and chalking up a vast amount of history for the town and Jefferson County, A.G. Patrick caught the gold fever and with nine others formed a company of wagons and oxen for a journey to the “Land of Promise” on the Pacific Coast. The company started from Green Castle, Indiana, on March 1, 1849, and reached “Hangtown,” (Placerville, Calif.) on September 3.
Decades later, Mr. Patrick shared recollections of his experiences with F.C. Scott, editor of the Valley Falls New Era (predecessor to the Vindicator).
Relating his many experiences, he recalled the incident of the Odd Fellows. In Patrick’s company was a man named Bob Hankins who belonged to the Fraternal Order of the Odd Fellows. In the same group was another Odd Fellow named Adamson. According to Patrick, “Between the two there was a constant quarrel, never agreeing on anything, and Bob had threatened a thousand times to kill Adamson.”
“To tell the truth, none of the company liked Adamson, and the fervent prayer of all was that Bob might muster up courage enough some day to commit the deed. . . One evening Bob and Adamson had a high old time and Bob came to us swearing vengeance, and that he was determined to kill Adamson the very next morning and wanted us to accompany him and see that the job was done. In agreeing to accompany Bob, it was with no murderous intent upon our part, but for the fun that might come out of it, knowing that when it came to a pinch he would flunk.”
Bob and Patrick, out early the next morning, found a secluded spot from which Bob could attack Adamson who rode his horse ahead of the wagons. Finally, he was seen half a mile off!
In Patrick’s words, “The closer Adamson got, the more Bob trembled. He had his pistol out, cocked and ready, and by the time Adamson got within twenty yards, somehow or other the thundering pistol went off, shooting Bob in the heel.
“He rolled and tumbled on the grass and made a terrible to-do. As Adamson rode up and dismounted, we looked for Bob to shoot, but instead he piteously cried, ‘Oh, Brother Adamson, I have shot myself! What in the world am I to do?’
‘Keep a good cheer, my brother’ said Adamson. ‘You can ride my horse and I will walk.’
“Bob bawled like a calf and with tears running down his cheeks, exclaimed ‘Oh, Brother Adamson, you are so good and kind to me. I don’t see how I will ever be able to repay you!
“While this was all going on, there we stood, a silent listener and spectator, we actually mean and dejected, fully determined never to be again inveigled to accompany one Odd Fellow to kill another. From that time on, the two Odd Fellows were loving as a pair of doves. That little episode fully convinced us ‘never give advice or act as mediator . . . !” A.G. Patrick
Galen Reichart, Glenn Lester, and Engelbert Heuertz will be museum hosts from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22.
(Compiled by Betty Jane Wilson, Valley Falls Historical Society President)
Prior to settling in Grasshopper Falls in 1856 and chalking up a vast amount of history for the town and Jefferson County, A.G. Patrick caught the gold fever and with nine others formed a company of wagons and oxen for a journey to the “Land of Promise” on the Pacific Coast. The company started from Green Castle, Indiana, on March 1, 1849, and reached “Hangtown,” (Placerville, Calif.) on September 3.
Decades later, Mr. Patrick shared recollections of his experiences with F.C. Scott, editor of the Valley Falls New Era (predecessor to the Vindicator).
Relating his many experiences, he recalled the incident of the Odd Fellows. In Patrick’s company was a man named Bob Hankins who belonged to the Fraternal Order of the Odd Fellows. In the same group was another Odd Fellow named Adamson. According to Patrick, “Between the two there was a constant quarrel, never agreeing on anything, and Bob had threatened a thousand times to kill Adamson.”
“To tell the truth, none of the company liked Adamson, and the fervent prayer of all was that Bob might muster up courage enough some day to commit the deed. . . One evening Bob and Adamson had a high old time and Bob came to us swearing vengeance, and that he was determined to kill Adamson the very next morning and wanted us to accompany him and see that the job was done. In agreeing to accompany Bob, it was with no murderous intent upon our part, but for the fun that might come out of it, knowing that when it came to a pinch he would flunk.”
Bob and Patrick, out early the next morning, found a secluded spot from which Bob could attack Adamson who rode his horse ahead of the wagons. Finally, he was seen half a mile off!
In Patrick’s words, “The closer Adamson got, the more Bob trembled. He had his pistol out, cocked and ready, and by the time Adamson got within twenty yards, somehow or other the thundering pistol went off, shooting Bob in the heel.
“He rolled and tumbled on the grass and made a terrible to-do. As Adamson rode up and dismounted, we looked for Bob to shoot, but instead he piteously cried, ‘Oh, Brother Adamson, I have shot myself! What in the world am I to do?’
‘Keep a good cheer, my brother’ said Adamson. ‘You can ride my horse and I will walk.’
“Bob bawled like a calf and with tears running down his cheeks, exclaimed ‘Oh, Brother Adamson, you are so good and kind to me. I don’t see how I will ever be able to repay you!
“While this was all going on, there we stood, a silent listener and spectator, we actually mean and dejected, fully determined never to be again inveigled to accompany one Odd Fellow to kill another. From that time on, the two Odd Fellows were loving as a pair of doves. That little episode fully convinced us ‘never give advice or act as mediator . . . !” A.G. Patrick
Galen Reichart, Glenn Lester, and Engelbert Heuertz will be museum hosts from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22.
August 13, 2009
A.G. Patrick recalls Harry Hoover
compiled by Betty Jane Wilson, society president
A.G. Patrick was an 1856 Grasshopper Falls (Valley Falls) settler, avid abolitionist, adventurer, later postmaster, mayor, short-time editor of The Valley Falls New Era and one-time prisoner of pro-slavery sympathizers at Lecompton. He recalled events of his personal history with short sketches of well-known characters he encountered.
Of one Patrick wrote “Harry Hoover, in 1855-56 lived on the Delaware River about half way between Ozawkie and Valley Falls. He was arrested by U.S. troops and put with Hickory Point prisoners at Lecompton.
“He was a tall, uncouth looking specimen. He wore an old white fur, bell crowned hat, making him look at least seven feet tall, and in appearance not altogether unlike “Uncle Sam” as portrayed by pictures in papers nowadays.
“Hoover’s hair was long and unkempt, and the luxurious growth of it on his face hid everything but a low forehead, eyes and nose. His pants were altogether too short, and his feet no socks, but he wore an old pair of moccasins made out of green cowhide.
“After prison, he was a frequent visitor to the town (Valley Falls), always making his appearance barefooted. His droll and comical looks attracted the attention of the boys and they would follow him from place to place as vehement and noisy as a pack of hounds in a fox chase.
“Hoover was a regular glutton, the boys often chipping in and buying sugar and they liked to see how much the fellow would eat. He crammed down five pounds easily at a sitting. He had a good digestive apparatus, and a stomach like an ostrich, and to test the matter further, the boys gave up sugar, candies and the like, and tried him on eggs. Five dozen raw was an easy matter without any show of an overdose. Hard boiled ones were the next test, two dozen to begin with, and then another dozen added, and to cap the climax, on a wager, he crammed down another dozen, shells and all! A man with such a capacious and unbounded stomach, to fill him up was like pouring water down a rat hole.”
Source: Valley Falls News Era, Jan. 25, 1902
A.G. Patrick was an 1856 Grasshopper Falls (Valley Falls) settler, avid abolitionist, adventurer, later postmaster, mayor, short-time editor of The Valley Falls New Era and one-time prisoner of pro-slavery sympathizers at Lecompton. He recalled events of his personal history with short sketches of well-known characters he encountered.
Of one Patrick wrote “Harry Hoover, in 1855-56 lived on the Delaware River about half way between Ozawkie and Valley Falls. He was arrested by U.S. troops and put with Hickory Point prisoners at Lecompton.
“He was a tall, uncouth looking specimen. He wore an old white fur, bell crowned hat, making him look at least seven feet tall, and in appearance not altogether unlike “Uncle Sam” as portrayed by pictures in papers nowadays.
“Hoover’s hair was long and unkempt, and the luxurious growth of it on his face hid everything but a low forehead, eyes and nose. His pants were altogether too short, and his feet no socks, but he wore an old pair of moccasins made out of green cowhide.
“After prison, he was a frequent visitor to the town (Valley Falls), always making his appearance barefooted. His droll and comical looks attracted the attention of the boys and they would follow him from place to place as vehement and noisy as a pack of hounds in a fox chase.
“Hoover was a regular glutton, the boys often chipping in and buying sugar and they liked to see how much the fellow would eat. He crammed down five pounds easily at a sitting. He had a good digestive apparatus, and a stomach like an ostrich, and to test the matter further, the boys gave up sugar, candies and the like, and tried him on eggs. Five dozen raw was an easy matter without any show of an overdose. Hard boiled ones were the next test, two dozen to begin with, and then another dozen added, and to cap the climax, on a wager, he crammed down another dozen, shells and all! A man with such a capacious and unbounded stomach, to fill him up was like pouring water down a rat hole.”
Source: Valley Falls News Era, Jan. 25, 1902
July 09, 2009
The Octagon Hotel
by Clarke Davis
Valley Falls had an octagon-shaped hotel called The Octagon in the 19th century.
It was built by a frontier doctor who came here long before the railroad and only four years after Kansas Territory was opened to white settlers.
Librarian Kay Lassiter has now discovered in her reading why he built an eight-sided structure. It was simply the “in thing” at that time.
In Paul Collins’ “The Trouble with Tom,” a book about Thomas Paine, she discovered Orson Fowler, a phrenologist and social reformer who lectured and published a lot from 1834 to 1889.
Besides convincing people to be vegetarians, he also thought they should live in eight-sided houses, which he promoted as a “Home for All: Or a New, Cheap, Convenient, and Superior Mode of Building.”
Collins writes, “Scattered across the United States to this day are a motley collection of half-baked gingerbread Victorians built by Fowler’s disciples. They go by local nicknames like the Bandbox, the Inkwell, or — less imaginatively — the Octagon House.”
Fowler looked to nature for the perfect shape and found mostly spherical things like an egg. But building a house and bending the wall like a barrel, he thought, would be too difficult. But local carpenters were skilled enough to build an octagon.
Fowler also looked back to Thomas Jefferson who built an octagonal house for his daughter with a pair of octagonal outhouses.
They allowed more windows, thus were lighter and healthier and good health was necessary for the moral improvement of the world.
The octagon was a hit. Henry Ward Beecher built one, P.T. Barnum built one. Clarence Darrow spent his childhood in one. The group that Fowler appealed to mostly was doctors and ministers.
The movement spawned the Vegetarian Settlement Company that had the intent to build an Octagon City in Kansas. Prospective settlers committed $50 to $10,000 into the enterprise, but utopia would escape them. The expected fairyland turned into death and dispair.
Dr. Lorenzo Northrup began building an Octagon House in Valley Falls in 1858. It was located in Block 21 where the Ryan Shaw Body Shop and Old Elevator saloon are now in operation.
The foundation and corners were stone and the walls a mixture of concrete and stone. The rooms were finished with black walnut. The house was built for a residence, but became a hotel with Dr. Northrup as the proprietor.
Northrup designed the house himself. Each side of the octagon was 16 feet. It was two stories high with a basement, eight gables, a cupalo, and observatory. There were 20 rooms in the house.
One source put the cost at $20,000 but it took several years to build and the doctor wasn’t sure how much he did have invested in the home. It was completed in 1865 and became a hotel in 1872.
The doctor owned the bottom farm east of his house and here he started a brickyard, made brick and got together many cords of wood. The floods of 1858 sent the whole business down the river.
The Octagon House was destroyed by fire March 5, 1905.
Dr. Lorenzo Northrup, one of the pioneer physicians in Kansas and one who figured prominently with the early history of Jefferson County, was a native of New York. He was born May 10, 1819.
According to history recorded by the Valley Falls Historical Society, his maternal grandfather was a musician in the Revolutionary War. Lorenzo was educated at the Homer Academy in New York. In 1840, he entered on the study of medicine, attended the Willoughby Medical School, and in 1843 commenced to practice.
His first practice was in Ravenna, Ohio. At this time the treatment of strabismus, or cross eyes, was in its infancy. Northrup was among the first to introduce it into practice, and became very successful. He attained a wide reputation for proficiency as an anatomist, and skill as a surgeon. He removed from Ravenna to Limaville, Ohio, continuing his practice there for a time, thence to Newcastle, Pa., and after a temporary sojourn, returned to Limaville, residing there until 1853, when he came to Kansas.
He located in what was then Grasshopper Falls, where he successfully practiced medicine and surgery. In 1857, he built a schoolhouse here, and employed a teacher at his own expense, so deeply was he interested in the education of not only his own family, but the children of his neighbors. This was the first school in the town, and was conceded to be the first in the county.
He was a member of the school board for four consecutive terms, and largely through his exertions and contributions the first stone schoolhouse was built.
Politically, the doctor was a Whig and a strong Anti-slavery man. When he came to Kansas he identified himself with the Free-state party and acted with the Republican party, since its organization.
He married Jane Gray Brooke, of Ellsworth, Mahoning County, Ohio, in 1844. She was the daughter of James Brooke. Her grandfather Brooke was a citizen of Maryland and was the first man in the state to manumit his slaves, being compelled under the then existing laws of the state to become responsible for their conduct.
Dr. Northrup and wife had five children, Hester M. B., Elmer B., Kirtland B., Daniel B., and Kate.
Valley Falls had an octagon-shaped hotel called The Octagon in the 19th century.
It was built by a frontier doctor who came here long before the railroad and only four years after Kansas Territory was opened to white settlers.
Librarian Kay Lassiter has now discovered in her reading why he built an eight-sided structure. It was simply the “in thing” at that time.
In Paul Collins’ “The Trouble with Tom,” a book about Thomas Paine, she discovered Orson Fowler, a phrenologist and social reformer who lectured and published a lot from 1834 to 1889.
Besides convincing people to be vegetarians, he also thought they should live in eight-sided houses, which he promoted as a “Home for All: Or a New, Cheap, Convenient, and Superior Mode of Building.”
Collins writes, “Scattered across the United States to this day are a motley collection of half-baked gingerbread Victorians built by Fowler’s disciples. They go by local nicknames like the Bandbox, the Inkwell, or — less imaginatively — the Octagon House.”
Fowler looked to nature for the perfect shape and found mostly spherical things like an egg. But building a house and bending the wall like a barrel, he thought, would be too difficult. But local carpenters were skilled enough to build an octagon.
Fowler also looked back to Thomas Jefferson who built an octagonal house for his daughter with a pair of octagonal outhouses.
They allowed more windows, thus were lighter and healthier and good health was necessary for the moral improvement of the world.
The octagon was a hit. Henry Ward Beecher built one, P.T. Barnum built one. Clarence Darrow spent his childhood in one. The group that Fowler appealed to mostly was doctors and ministers.
The movement spawned the Vegetarian Settlement Company that had the intent to build an Octagon City in Kansas. Prospective settlers committed $50 to $10,000 into the enterprise, but utopia would escape them. The expected fairyland turned into death and dispair.
Dr. Lorenzo Northrup began building an Octagon House in Valley Falls in 1858. It was located in Block 21 where the Ryan Shaw Body Shop and Old Elevator saloon are now in operation.
The foundation and corners were stone and the walls a mixture of concrete and stone. The rooms were finished with black walnut. The house was built for a residence, but became a hotel with Dr. Northrup as the proprietor.
Northrup designed the house himself. Each side of the octagon was 16 feet. It was two stories high with a basement, eight gables, a cupalo, and observatory. There were 20 rooms in the house.
One source put the cost at $20,000 but it took several years to build and the doctor wasn’t sure how much he did have invested in the home. It was completed in 1865 and became a hotel in 1872.
The doctor owned the bottom farm east of his house and here he started a brickyard, made brick and got together many cords of wood. The floods of 1858 sent the whole business down the river.
The Octagon House was destroyed by fire March 5, 1905.
Dr. Lorenzo Northrup, one of the pioneer physicians in Kansas and one who figured prominently with the early history of Jefferson County, was a native of New York. He was born May 10, 1819.
According to history recorded by the Valley Falls Historical Society, his maternal grandfather was a musician in the Revolutionary War. Lorenzo was educated at the Homer Academy in New York. In 1840, he entered on the study of medicine, attended the Willoughby Medical School, and in 1843 commenced to practice.
His first practice was in Ravenna, Ohio. At this time the treatment of strabismus, or cross eyes, was in its infancy. Northrup was among the first to introduce it into practice, and became very successful. He attained a wide reputation for proficiency as an anatomist, and skill as a surgeon. He removed from Ravenna to Limaville, Ohio, continuing his practice there for a time, thence to Newcastle, Pa., and after a temporary sojourn, returned to Limaville, residing there until 1853, when he came to Kansas.
He located in what was then Grasshopper Falls, where he successfully practiced medicine and surgery. In 1857, he built a schoolhouse here, and employed a teacher at his own expense, so deeply was he interested in the education of not only his own family, but the children of his neighbors. This was the first school in the town, and was conceded to be the first in the county.
He was a member of the school board for four consecutive terms, and largely through his exertions and contributions the first stone schoolhouse was built.
Politically, the doctor was a Whig and a strong Anti-slavery man. When he came to Kansas he identified himself with the Free-state party and acted with the Republican party, since its organization.
He married Jane Gray Brooke, of Ellsworth, Mahoning County, Ohio, in 1844. She was the daughter of James Brooke. Her grandfather Brooke was a citizen of Maryland and was the first man in the state to manumit his slaves, being compelled under the then existing laws of the state to become responsible for their conduct.
Dr. Northrup and wife had five children, Hester M. B., Elmer B., Kirtland B., Daniel B., and Kate.
July 02, 2009
Celebrating the 4th
Compiled by Betty Jane Wilson, president
“There is in the juvenile heart a respect for the traditions of the Fourth (July 4), which no municipal neglect, no public indifference, no ill-timed respect for the peace and comfort of adult mankind can ever stifle, and until the race of boys is wholly extinct, The Fourth will never be forgotten,” declared S. Weaver, Editor of the July 9, 1874 issue of the Kansas New Era reporting the Independence Day activities of Grasshopper Falls (now Valley Falls).
The editor continued “We had a celebration of the fourth, in fact it commenced on the evening of the third, when Old Mc. and the rest of the boys set the ball in motion by opening a box of torpedoes . . hence all through the night of the third the cracking of torpedoes, the furtive popping of crackers on the streets and in dry goods boxes and the occasional bark of a rusty pistol undergoing preparatory trial, drove the drowsy God from the eyelids of our wakeful citizens. . . as usual, the shooting ordinance had been suspended so that we might trust the boys, the firecrackers, the small cannon, and the fifty-cent pistols to secure for us all a day of orthodox peril and discomfort . . .
“About eleven o’clock the merchants closed their doors and the procession headed by a band of horsemen and keeping step to the excellent music furnished by the Cornet Band, took their line of March for Frazier’s Grove where the truly interesting and enjoyable part of the day’s exercise took place.
“The weather was excessively warm and the roads very dusty, but despite all the disadvantages, the celebration taken as a whole, was a complete success. The speaking, especially that of Capt. George T. Anthony, was excellent. The music of the band was first-class, while the ladies and gentlemen of the Glee Club covered themselves with glory.
“The booths and stands and the grounds all around seemed to be doing a fair business. We should judge that the stand of the First Baptist Sunday School took in the most money. The Congregational Sunday School had the most artistic and inviting stand and the booth on the ground. The Methodist Sunday School had quite a large stand presided over by Weatherholt and Frazier. . .
“There were one hundred and twenty-seven loaded vehicles (city hacks not included) counted as they left the grove against one hundred and eighteen last year.”
The Valley Falls Historical Society museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, July 4.
“There is in the juvenile heart a respect for the traditions of the Fourth (July 4), which no municipal neglect, no public indifference, no ill-timed respect for the peace and comfort of adult mankind can ever stifle, and until the race of boys is wholly extinct, The Fourth will never be forgotten,” declared S. Weaver, Editor of the July 9, 1874 issue of the Kansas New Era reporting the Independence Day activities of Grasshopper Falls (now Valley Falls).
The editor continued “We had a celebration of the fourth, in fact it commenced on the evening of the third, when Old Mc. and the rest of the boys set the ball in motion by opening a box of torpedoes . . hence all through the night of the third the cracking of torpedoes, the furtive popping of crackers on the streets and in dry goods boxes and the occasional bark of a rusty pistol undergoing preparatory trial, drove the drowsy God from the eyelids of our wakeful citizens. . . as usual, the shooting ordinance had been suspended so that we might trust the boys, the firecrackers, the small cannon, and the fifty-cent pistols to secure for us all a day of orthodox peril and discomfort . . .
“About eleven o’clock the merchants closed their doors and the procession headed by a band of horsemen and keeping step to the excellent music furnished by the Cornet Band, took their line of March for Frazier’s Grove where the truly interesting and enjoyable part of the day’s exercise took place.
“The weather was excessively warm and the roads very dusty, but despite all the disadvantages, the celebration taken as a whole, was a complete success. The speaking, especially that of Capt. George T. Anthony, was excellent. The music of the band was first-class, while the ladies and gentlemen of the Glee Club covered themselves with glory.
“The booths and stands and the grounds all around seemed to be doing a fair business. We should judge that the stand of the First Baptist Sunday School took in the most money. The Congregational Sunday School had the most artistic and inviting stand and the booth on the ground. The Methodist Sunday School had quite a large stand presided over by Weatherholt and Frazier. . .
“There were one hundred and twenty-seven loaded vehicles (city hacks not included) counted as they left the grove against one hundred and eighteen last year.”
The Valley Falls Historical Society museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, July 4.
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