Monday's Diggings

Discovering the Story of Neosho Falls, Kansas

One of the joys of genealogy research is that a search for an ancestor often uncovers the history of the communities where they lived. Understanding the town can help explain the lives of the people who called it home.

While going through my files, I came across several photocopied pages about Neosho Falls, Woodson County, Kansas. Unfortunately, the pages are missing the title page and publication information. The even-numbered pages are headed "Southeast Kansas," suggesting that may be the title of the book, but I have not yet been able to identify the exact source.

Even without the complete citation, the article provides a fascinating overview of one of Kansas' oldest communities.

The Rise of Neosho Falls

According to the article, Neosho Falls traces its beginnings to April 6, 1857, when Col. N. S. Goss and I. W. Dow arrived from Iowa and discovered that only two settlers—Judge John Woolman and John Chapman—were living in what was then the New York Indian Reserve.

When the land opened for preemption in 1858, the settlement quickly grew. Businesses appeared, including the Falls House hotel and a general store, and on August 16, 1858, Neosho Falls was designated the county seat for Woodson County.

The article includes an entertaining description of the first courthouse from Judge Leander Stillwell. Court was held upstairs in what he described as a ramshackle two-story building reached by "rickety stairs" with missing steps. Inside, the courtroom had no carpet—only a layer of fresh sawdust spread across the floor.

Railroads, Politics, and Prosperity

The arrival of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad brought new residents and economic growth. Unfortunately, that prosperity was short-lived.

The battle over the county seat became one of the defining events in the town's history. Although Neosho Falls successfully defended its position in an 1867 election, the controversy continued until September 12, 1876, when the voters of Woodson County permanently selected Yates Center as the county seat.

The town also suffered economically when changes in railroad routes caused the railroad's roundhouse and land office to move elsewhere.

When the President Came to Town

One of the most surprising episodes described in the article is the visit of President Rutherford B. Hayes in the fall of 1879.

Thousands of people traveled from across southeastern Kansas, southern Missouri, and northern Oklahoma to hear the President speak. Hotels quickly filled, forcing many visitors to camp outside town. Contemporary accounts estimated the crowd at 40,000 people—an astonishing number for a community whose population was only about 1,200 the previous year.

According to one account, Hayes' first question upon arriving was:

"Where is the city?"

Later, after seeing the immense crowd gathered for the event, he reportedly exclaimed:

"Where did they come from?"

Decline and Reinvention

Like many Kansas communities, Neosho Falls experienced repeated cycles of boom and bust.

The article recounts a series of hardships:

• Water-powered mills closed as steam and electricity became dominant.
• A hydroelectric plant was built and later abandoned.
• The devastating 1926 flood damaged the town and claimed one life.
• Natural gas discoveries in 1927 proved short-lived.
• During the 1930s the town lost both its newspaper and its bank.
• Railroad service eventually disappeared.

Hope briefly returned in 1937 when oil was discovered in the backyard of Dr. A. J. Lieurance, sparking additional drilling south of town. Unfortunately, the boom lasted less than fifteen years before production declined.

By the 1940s and 1950s, fires and floods had left much of Neosho Falls abandoned. Yet even in the 1970s, the author found reminders of its earlier days, including beautiful stained-glass windows in a former church that had become City Hall. Fortunately, local residents removed those windows in 1979 to preserve them.

Why Local Histories Matter

Articles like this remind me why I enjoy collecting local histories. They provide the context that census records, deeds, and probate files cannot. They tell us what our ancestors experienced—the excitement of a railroad arriving, the political battles over a county seat, the crowds that gathered to hear a President, and the floods, fires, and economic changes that transformed a thriving town into a quiet reminder of Kansas history.

If you have ancestors who lived in Woodson County, reading the history of Neosho Falls offers valuable insight into the world they knew.

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Transcription

The following is a transcription of the photocopied pages from an unidentified publication, believed to be a book titled Southeast Kansas. Because the title page and publication information are missing, the complete source citation is currently unknown.

NEOSHO FALLS
Woodson County

Neosho Falls is the oldest town in Woodson County, and it was named after the river that flows nearby. On April 6, 1857, Col. N. S. Goss and I. W. Dow arrived in the area from Iowa, and just before reaching the Neosho River, they found the cabin of Judge John Woolman. Another settler named John Chapman was living on Spring Creek just north of the Neosho River. These two men were the only known settlers in the county because it was still the New York Indian Reserve and not open to preemption.

Late in 1857 the company of Ruggles & Stevens built a cabin on the south bank of the Neosho River and sold merchandise to the Indians. In 1858 when the county was opened for preemption, the firm erected a hotel called the Falls House and a frame store building they rented to Clark & Company. Although these two buildings were among the first in town, they were preceded by some crude log cabins constructed by a few settlers along the banks of the river.

On August 16, 1858, Neosho Falls was formally declared the county seat, and money for a courthouse and a jail was presented to the town by Col. N. S. Goss.¹ Judge Leander Stillwell of Yates Center remembered the courthouse and gave a vivid description of it:

Court was being held in a ramshackle two-story frame building, which was situated, as I remember, on the east side of the principal street running north and south through the village. The court room was in the second story of the building, and one gained access to it by means of a flight of rickety stairs built on the outside. The stairway was . . . built on the ladder plan, with open steps. I remember that at intervals some of the steps were gone. . . . The court room proper was small and stuffy, with the ceiling villainously low. No matting or carpet of any kind was

Photo Caption: The Township Hall in Neosho Falls. Built in 1922, this building was a useful meeting place until it was damaged by the 1951 flood. Today it stands abandoned.

...upon the floor, but in lieu thereof it had a topdressing about half an inch thick of fresh, green timber sawdust.²

When the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad built its line south from Junction City through Neosho Falls in order to handle the shipments of Texas cattle, it erected a round house and a land office there. The coming of the railroad added numerous families to the community and gave it a feeling of industrial permanence.³

Misfortune, however, awaited the citizens of Neosho Falls. In other sections of the county, the people were resentful of the Falls's status as county seat. Agitation grew until 1867 when an election was held on the issue, which Neosho Falls won by a vote of 129 to 118 over its rival, Yates Center. Again and again the county seat controversy was renewed until finally, on September 12, 1876, the question was decided permanently when the citizens of Woodson County cast 488 votes for Yates Center against 426 votes for Neosho Falls.

Due to the construction of a railroad line from Junction City directly to St. Louis and Chicago, the Neosho Falls branch of the railroad became a local line only, and the round house and land office were moved away.

In spite of these setbacks, Neosho Falls had a population of 1,200 in 1878.

In the fall of 1879 President Rutherford B. Hayes visited Neosho Falls and spoke to thousands of people who came from all over southeast Kansas, southern Missouri, and northern Oklahoma to hear him. Hundreds of people had to camp in the fields outside of town because the hotels and rooming houses could not handle such large crowds, and several descriptions of the visit were written.⁴

On the day the Pres. and his retinue arrived, they were met at the M. K. & T. depot with a six-horse coach, brass bands, and a large delegation of leading citizens. I never will forget the noise and the music as the stately procession wended its way across the bridge, under the beautiful arch and into the shady grounds, where thousands and thousands of Kansas people had gathered for the great occasion.⁵

A week before the fair opened people were arriving in covered wagons and before the President was due to arrive, 1,000 were encamped nearby. . . . At 9 o'clock A.M. September 25, the presidential party, accompanied by General Sherman with a military escort arrived here. The President's first remark was "Where is the city?" Upon entering the grounds Hayes was honored by a salute of 21 guns given by the troops from Fort Riley. Seeing the vast throng of people the President exclaimed, "Where did they come from?" The attendance was estimated at 40,000.⁶

During the 1900s Neosho Falls suffered one disaster after another. When steam and electricity replaced water power, mills were closed down. A hydroelectric plant was constructed, but before long it too was abandoned. In 1926 a disastrous flood on the Neosho River caused thousands of dollars in damages and cost one person his life. In 1927 natural gas was discovered near Neosho Falls, but the wells were shallow and were depleted within a short time. In the 1930s Neosho Falls lost its only newspaper, the Neosho Falls Post, the oldest paper in the county, and in August 1933, Neosho Falls's only bank closed its doors. Soon after building a branch line from Neosho Falls to Yates Center, the Santa Fe Railroad abandoned the line and the town was left without any rail service.

Neosho Falls's last chance for prosperity came in 1937 when several men drilled for oil in Dr. A. J. Lieurance's backyard. At 1,145 feet the drillers struck oil, and the well produced 150 barrels in the first few days. This strike sparked a great deal of interest on the part of oil companies in the Neosho Falls area, and many more oil wells were drilled south of town.

Photo Caption: This photograph of stained glass windows was taken at a Neosho Falls church (later City Hall) on Main Street in 1976. Three years later the window was removed by townspeople in order to preserve it.

Within fifteen years, however, the oil had stopped flowing, and the wells had been abandoned.

During the 1940s and 1950s several destructive fires and floods left the town in ruins. Many buildings on Main Street are deserted now except for an old café on the east side and a post office several blocks away on the west side. The once modern high school of the 1930s is abandoned, and the community hall looks neglected and forlorn with an old broken piano standing mutely inside. A church with its pretty purple stained glass windows awaits the same fate that has affected most of the rest of town as it, too, is deserted.⁷

Neosho Falls can be visited by taking U.S. Highway 75 south from Burlington. Directions are well-marked; watch for signs to Neosho Falls. Turn east on a marked road and go ten miles. The town is on both sides of the road.

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Have you identified this book?

If you recognize these pages or know the complete bibliographic citation for the book Southeast Kansas from which they were copied, I'd love to hear from you. I'd like to update my files with a complete source citation and give proper credit to the original publication.