Miss Ring: Boston to Valley Falls

—by Betty Jane Wilson, society president. (Information taken from the Jefferson County Historical Society’s Yesteryears.)


“Those having the experience of teaching in a new country know that the facilities for teaching successfully would seem almost impossible.”

Words of experience form Lydia Maria Ring, first public school teacher of Grasshopper Falls.

Miss Ring, an extremely literate Bostonian, proved herself a true Valley Falls (Grasshopper Falls) pioneer through a series of columns on her life and travels through Kansas that appeared frequently in the Valley Falls New Era, a predecessor to the Vindicator.

Beginning in March 1878, apparently intrigued by glowing tales of the new territory, Miss Ring wrote, “Left Boston ‘Dear Old Hub’ in April 1858 for the fertile soil and saubrius climate of Kansas.”

Although Miss Ring used the journalistic terms “We, ourselves, etc.,” she evidently traveled alone.

She continued, “We were not favorably impressed upon our first arrival. We landed at Leavenworth late at night, during a pouring rain and not a carriage, dray or even a truck was at the wharf to take ourself or baggage to a place of security, so we were obliged to accept the protection of a stranger as an escort to a hotel, which was the old Shawnee House on Shawnee Street.”

Miss Ring had to bang loudly and persistently to arouse the host only to find no rooms available, including the parlor, which was filled with men. The host routed the men grumbling that it was a shame to disturb so many men for “only one woman.”

Two days later her sister Adaline’s husband, W.C. Hicks, arrived to take her to her new home. Relating the trip, Miss Ring wrote, “The trip to Grasshopper Falls was made in a large lumber wagon. It seemed immense, but it required immense vehicles and immense horses to get through such immense mud! Suppose we should say ‘rich soil.’ We were convinced of newspaper accounts of richness and depth of soil when our wagon wheels were immersed nearly to the hub and the horses knee deep in rich black mud — No! Soil!”

According to Miss Ring, “There were many ludicrous mishaps, jests and not a little merriment at our ignorance as well as readiness to believe the many false representations and glowing descriptions of what we would see and enjoy after a long hard day’s ride. We arrived upon the brow of  a hill where we took our first view of Grasshopper Falls. [We] had been told it was a large and flourishing place; and when we said, ‘Do you call that a big town?’ with much gravity, our relative exclaimed, ‘Oh, that is only the suburb you see. It will soon be dark and you will probably not see the town tonight.’

“We then asked, ‘Shall we not see the falls either?’ Answer, ‘Oh, yes, we are not far from them. Do you not hear  them  roar?’ Meekly, we said, ‘No.’ ”

Part II tells of fording the stream and the revelation of grandeur and roar of falls, town of Grasshopper Falls, and sister’s farm house.