Seems, someone on this forum said they were from Sedan or lived in Sedan.
The below is from the quarterly Chautauqua County Historical and Genealogical Society newsletter Gen-Tree.
It would be nice if Elk County had an active historical society as Chautauqua County.
PREDICTION OF A SEDAN METROPOLIS
By Waldo E. Gray
A March 4, 1885, Sedan Graphic editorial opinion, complete with many misspellings, long sentences, and mysterious reference to a newspaper poultry department, predicts the future of Sedan. Chautauqua County was booming in the 1880s and the population would reach 12,300 by the end of the decade.
"Here's the way we picture the future of Sedan, say five years—or more—hence. Sedan will then be as large—probably—as Wichita. Visitors to the city will get off the train at the Union depot of the D.,M.&.A, and the Santa Fe and take a carriage, or street car for the Occidental, Liddell, Grand Central or Delmonico, eat a square meal, and after dinner they can saunter around the city and see the sights, or go out to the park, and after supper—if the visitor hasn't fallen into a coal shaft—he can stroll down to the corner of Fourth and Main to Bryan's Opera House and hear Emma Abbot warble in the "Boheman Girl," or "King for a Day." The GRAPHIC will be printed on a Hoe two-revolution press, and the Times-Journal will be so full of hotel arrivals and other personals that its poultry department will be related to its patent outside, and the Colonel will probaby be in some ancient graveyard in Massachuetts taking a short-handreport of the epitaphs on the various tombstones to send home to his paper. The GRAPHIC—that is the WEEKLY GRAPHIC—will be a sixteen-page paper, while our nine-column Daily will contain all the dispatches. Whoop!"
Despite the editor's enthusiasm, Sedan was never close to equaling Wichita. Population in 1880 was 665. Wichita had a population that year of 4,911 and grew to 23,853 by the end of the decade. The highest Sedan population, 1,948, came in 1940.
The daily Sedan Times-Journal was a merger of the Sedan Times and Chautauqua Journal. A Colonel Ward was publisher. After the Civil War, there was an almost universal courtesy to the nation's military saviors, to call former officers by their wartime rank.
The Chautauqua County Times began life in 1878. The publisher sold out shortly after to A.D. Dunn who changed the name to the Sedan Times. The Chautauqua Journal was the second newspaper in Sedan having moved from Elk Falls in 1875. The newspapers merged after Dunn sold his interest in the Times. He then started the weekly Graphic with Major J. L. Mattingly, editor.
Coal shafts seem unknown in Sedan. Two notable histories of Kansas suggest settlers found coal along the streams in Chautauqua County. However, the veins produced such limited quantities exploitation was unprofitable.
There was an Occidental Hotel at the time. The editor misspelled "Lindell" the other hotel. The additional named businesses and mention of streetcars were part of the editor's optimism for the future. Eventually, townspeople did run an old stagecoach to ferry visitors between the depot and hotels.
Emma Abbott was an in demand nationally known opera singer of the time. Only the big cities could afford her. She passed away at an early age before the Sedan Opera House opened in 1896.
Although the editor refers to two Sedan railroads, there were no rail lines at the time. The prospective companies he notes are the Denver, Memphis, and Atlantic and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe. The DM&A arrived eighteen months later but offered freight only service. Missouri Pacific bought out DM&A shortly after that.
Santa Fe never made it to Sedan. The editor may be thinking of a proposed extension of the Elk & Chautauqua Railroad. That company was part of the Kansas City, Emporia, and Southern Railroad. Santa Fe leased the entire line, which at the time ended in Howard. The intent was to extend the road south to Sedan and into Indian Territory, but it never happened. The line reached Moline the following year and stopped.
There would never be a "Union depot" i.e., one centrally placed railway station jointly owned and used by two or more rival railroads. Other railroads slated for a Sedan connection also did not make it. These were the Moline and Sedan Railway; Wichita, Douglass, and Sedan Railway; and the Grenola, Sedan, and Elgin Railroad. These roads did not live past incorporation papers.
***
A note about Major J.L. Mattingly, the Sedan Graphic editor.
After the 1874 Boston War, Howard County appointed Mattingly acting treasurer. He replaced elected treasurer Elisha D. Custer, Peru, who fled the county after embezzling $30,000, leaving Howard County broke.
In late 1874, Howard County elected Mattingly county commissioner. The new Chautauqua County appointed him assistant treasurer in June 1875. Later that fall, citizens elected him sheriff.
Major Mattingly's appointments and election victories came following his action as a serious scofflaw. He was an original stockholder of the Boston Town Company living there from 1871 to 1875. He managed a successful general store and was visible in all town decisions.
According to Thomas E. Thompson, Howard Courant editor, Mattingly and Boston saloonkeeper Pat Nulty, conceived the idea and co-produced the Boston War. During this war, the county seat was forcefully moved from Elk Falls to Boston in January 1874.
After the end of the two-month war, in which Governor Thomas A. Osborn became actively involved, no one received punishment. Eventually, the Kansas Supreme Court decided against Boston as county seat.
Moving to Sedan after the June 1, 1875, Howard County division, Mattingly was the first elected Chautauqua County sheriff succeeding Eli Titus, a Howard County holdover. Mattingly served one term and went into the livery business.
In late 1884, A. D. Dunn hired him as editor of the new Graphic. He had previous editorial experience with the Howard County Messenger (Boston) and the Fort Scott Monitor. With much fanfare, Pat Nulty, his Boston partner in crime who also moved to Sedan after division, bought the first subscription.
A few months after the Sedan metropolis prediction, Major Mattingly, a Democrat, resigned from the Graphic. He left to run a second time for sheriff. Despite the military title, Mattingly spent Civil War years mining in the remote Montana goldfields and had no service experience. In the November 1885 election, his opponents pointed out there was no record of his participation in the Civil War and loudly charged him with fighting for the South.
This time he was soundly defeated.
Yes, Waldo. I am from Sedan and am a member of the Chautauqua County Historical Society, as well. I enjoyed reading your article in the newsletter I received a few days ago. The historical society at Sedan is growing all the time and is accumulating quite a library.
And yes, it is really too bad Elk County does not have an active historical society. They only meet once a year. I sure wish they would have monthly meetings and work on putting out another history book.
Well, for $125 plus handling you can get a copy of the the 900 plus page volume I of Chautauqua County history that the society is planning on reprinting if they can get enough orders.
For reference purposes, I have had to obtain a copy via interlibrary loan and would really like to have a copy. The wife has not said one way or the other yet.
Marcia,
I have been wanting to go take a look around Elgin.
Do you know if there is a paved road into the place, say that one off of 99 south of Chautauqua?
Is there anything still there?
Waldo, there is a paved road to Elgin by going to Oklahoma, then going back to Elgin. The county road from Chautaqua is quite interesting, but in poor condition.
Yes, Waldo, there is a partially paved road, though in poor condition, from Chautauqua to Elgin, and also the road from Boulanger, OK to Elgin, that is much better. There isn't much left at Elgin, but it is still worth seeing. If you go, please go inside the Methodist Church and look at the beautiful Tiffany stained glass windows. That is worth the trip in itself. They are real Tiffanys and they are absolutely gorgeous. The old Episcopal Church building is still there, though beyond repair. The Baptist Church has been gone for over twenty years. There are very few business buildings left, though in very bad condition. The school house has been gone for over thirty years now and the depot has been gone for over forty years. I grew up around Elgin (my grandparents lived at Boulanger, OK and my parents had a ranch at Boulanger, just six miles south of Elgin) and I delivered mail there (out of Sedan) for a time, too. Used to know everyone in town, but that is not the case now. I do collect photographs of Elgin - have lots of them. The Elgin Cemetery is located north of Elgin, on the road going north out of Elgin (on the northwest side of town). Rome Hanks is buried there.
Margaret's Cafe was my favorite place to go at Elgin when I was a kid. Shirley and Margaret Brim owned the cafe. Grandad and I went there all the time. I always ordered meatloaf. When I delivered mail there in my 20's, Margaret remembered I didn't like tomatoes, so she made sure she didn't put any on my plate.
Have any of you folks ever heard about the triple lynching in Elgin in 1873?
I know there were at least two lynchings at Elgin. A photo was taken of one of the lynchings, and I have been searching hard to come up with the photo. Margaret and Shirley Brim had that photo in their museum next door to the cafe, but back in the early 1980's when the museum items were sold, it sold for $90 to Mike Holroyd. I contacted Mike a few years ago, and he said the photo was stolen from him. I contacted the author of "Without Sanctuary" hoping he might have the photo, but he didn't. I have contacted a couple other collectors of lynching photos, as well, but to no avail. There are surely other photos of this lynching out there - somewhere. The photo shows a black woman and her son lynched from the bridge south of Elgin. I would know the photo if I saw it.
Was the photo from 1873 or thereabouts?
I don't know the exact date, but the photo at the Elgin museum that sold was a real photo postcard, and since real photo postcards didn't become popular until 1904, I would say it was probably after that date. If I remember correctly, the woman and her son were cattle thieves.
Not to mention that there were not supposed to be any bridges in Howard County until late 1873.
The Longton Weekly Ledger in November 1873 gives Longton the credit for building the first bridge in Howard County in November 1873. That would make it the first in Elk County.
The bridge was a span across Hitchen Creek and three years later a huge flood took it.
The bridge just south of Elgin that I was referring to was in Oklahoma, not Kansas. The Oklahoma line runs along the south edge of Elgin.
I am from Sedan. Iwas a 1963 graduate of Sedan High School. I have been to the historical society library many times . It is a great little library with lots of resource material. There is a lot of information on historical web sites as well.
Marcia,
If Howard County did not have any bridges in 1873, I doubt if Indian Territory did either. So that picture probably came later.
There is a book author who wrote of one or two sentences about a triple lynching of three black brothers in Elgin in 1873.
They were hanged for stealing some prize horses in Jefferson City. The owner chased them all the way to Elgin, where he enlisted help.
After the brothers were hanged they went looking for the mother and hanged her.
The person writing the book said that in 1979 he was shown a picture in the Elgin cafe that showed three black brothers hanging together and was told by the folks in the cafe their mother was hanged also.
He pointed to an 1873 edition of the Junction City Union for additional reference but that article says only two were hanged and the other got away but probably died from wounds.
He also said the newspaper article is the only known written source on the subject.
When I write on that subject I have been careful to source him directly.
He further said he took a film crew to Elgin in 1993 in relation to the Lonesome Dove TV series and said the picture was still there and was told the same story. He said the feature aired but does not give any other information.
Waldo, on Genforum.com, under Chautauqua Co, KS, the following query is there from Betty Scarborough, dated Jan. 14, 2004:
"I would like to find out if there is any information available on a hanging that took place on or about March 15, 1873.
From Pension papers I have just gotten John A. Stroup was supposedly "unlawfuly hung and killed by a mob near Elgin in Howard County now called Chautauqua ..the news became notorious and caused much excitement at the time "
It was certified by several members of the locality that he was innocent.
It was also stated a "Dr. Donaldson has the skeleton." I would appreciate any leads - or where to look."
So, according to Betty Scarborough, only one person was hung. Wonder if, through the years, the stories on the two hangings got entertwined?
I think there were other hangings and this Stroup might be separate. It seems I have come across the Stroup name before but cannot recall where.
There was notorious horse rustling going on in southern Kansas from the Missouri border west through Sumner County.
There was another southern Howard County hanging that involved a fifteen year old who screamed his innocence as he was jerked from his horse. But I dont know the kids name or the date. A Judge Dyer wrote about that one.
I think the two black brothers hanged in Elgin in August 1873 and then the black man and his mom hanging from the bridge might have gotten intertwined to be three black brothers and their Mom. I doubt if the folks in the cafe had any real knowledge of what happened. But who knows, the man and his mother in the photo might have been hanged at a much later date and were related to to the two brothers.
Before reading about this mother being hanged, I had never before came across a woman being lynched.
I knew I was aware of a Stroup. Does not sound like he is that innocent.
Just as a note, the Elk Falls Examiner moved west in January 1873 becoming the Winfield Courier.
Winfield Courier, MARCH 27, 1873.
A TERRIBLE AFFRAY.
One Man Killed and Another Wounded.
From Mr. Gilstrap of Silverdale we learn the following.
On Saturday morning last four men traveling horseback were in camp at Hilton's crossing of Grouse creek below Silverdale in this county, and about daylight four men in a spring wagon rode up to the horseback party, and enquired for stolen horses, whereupon one of the horseback party drew a revolver and discharged two shots at Van Orm, a deputy U. S. Marshal, one of the party in search of horses, and at the third shot killed Parker, another of Van Orm's party, the ball passing clear through his body. At the time Parker was shot he was scuffling with one John Stroup for the possession of a shot gun, and which Stroup obtained when Parker fell, and turning it upon Van Orm, fired without effect; whereupon Van Orm shot Stroup in the shoulder. He now lies at the house of Mr. Gilstrap in a critical condition under arrest. Parker's body was taken back to Elgin, in Howard county, by his friends.
It appears that the horse thieves passed through Elgin Thursday or Friday last, coming west, and that the evening mail brought a poster that advertised some stolen horses and thieves that answered the description of the party, whereupon Van Orm, Parker, and two other men, citizens of Elgin, started in pursuit of the thieves with the result as above related.
April 10, 1873,
John Stroup, the horse thief who was shot in the shoulder in the affray on Grouse Creek some weeks since, was taken possession of by a party from Howard county, who said they were going to take him back for trial. It is supposed that he never got to Howard.
June 12, 1873,
John Stroup, the horse thief that was wounded at the same time Parker was killed, was taken from the officers by a posse of armed men and hung in Howard County, a few days after the fight occurred.
This is all very interesting..
Waldo.. haven't you ever heard of the best way to see anything is to "Travel Gravel?" ;D
My old van racked up many miles in rural Elk County.
Sometimes I had an inch of fine dusty dirt standing on my front and rear bumpers.
However, I was prevented from going to Elgin on that gravel road out of Chautauqua by my other half because we had a new vehicle. I agreed with her. But, it will be getting old.