Kansas or bust: part 1

- compiled by Betty Jane Wilson, society president

"One could see, in those early days, the prairie schooner or 'ships of the desert' as they were sometimes called, with long-horned Texas oxen hitched to them, wending their way further west, seeking a home.

"On the sides of the many of the wagons were signs reading like this, 'Kansas or bust.' Later on would come the return of same families, perhaps, with  the  sign  then  reading,  'Busted,' " recalled Mrs. Charles Bliss in a paper written and read to the club in response to a Rambler Club member's request for some reminiscences of her early life in Kansas. The article was printed in The Farmer's Vindicator Dec. 9, 1921.

"It may be of some interest to know," she wrote, "I was ushered into this mundane sphere March 23, 1849, in London, Madison County, Ohio, USA. I continued to grow in stature, beauty and age until I reached one score and six months when I married Charles F. Bliss of Whitesboro, New York, Sept. 2, 1869.

"We had been married less than a year when Mr. Bliss got a spell of wanderlust — Kansas had been in the Union but nine years at that time, so Grasshopper Falls, Kansas, was our destination.

"We arrived in Atchison Aug. 8, 1870. There being no railroad nearer than Effingham, and from there by stage to the Falls, we decided to drive from Atchison. Mr. Bliss succeeded in finding a spring wagon.

"We, with the driver, loaded our trunks into it, mine being a Saratoga which was considered indispensable to a bride in those days. By the way, this trunk was almost as large as some of the homesteader's shacks. We three piled into one seat.

"We made the trip without accident, even down Newman's hill, which was very steep at that time, fording the Grasshopper River near Piazzek's Dam, and arrived right side up to safety.

"As we turned a corner, we saw a small house with a large white sign on it  which bore in black letters the word 'Saloon' and from that was my introduction to the main street of the town. 

"From there we soon arrived at the magnificent Cataract Hotel which was the only public stopping place in town. We were shown a large front room on the first floor with a bed in it and told that it was the parlor of the place and also duly notified that this was the room we were to occupy.

"Weary with my long ride on the cars and spring wagon, it mattered little to me whether it was bridal chamber or the parlor, just so I could have a place to lie down and rest.

"I cannot say I had a very good night's rest, for there were too many creeping things hidden away in the bed to make a meal off me in the darkness of the night, but somehow or other I managed to pull through till morning."

Mr. Bliss located Mrs. Bliss's brother who had a large cattle ranch south of Valley Falls. the two men decided it would be nice for Mrs. B. to visit relatives in Doniphan County and they would drive to Atchison to wait for the Bliss household goods to arrive. The visit and return to Valley Falls continues in Part II.

The Valley Falls Historical Society's museum will be open at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 22.