Ogallah is not quite a ghost town, although some think it will be within a few years. If so, it is to be hoped that the "spirits" left behind are those of courage, faith, hope and love that inspired our pioneer forefathers and mothers to trade the known for the unknown and to make homes on the prairies that had only known the Indian and the buffalo.

The Homestead Act passed by Congress in 1862 was designed to help settle the west. The government was in possession of vast tracts and as an inducement to settlers, this act provided that if a person filed on a claim and lived there a year, he would receive a deed to the land. Following the Civil War, a number of restless young men who had returned from war service to their homes and others became filled with the spirit of adventure and the desire to own their own farms and the Homestead Act offered a fine opportunity. The completion of the railroad through Kansas made it easier than coming by covered wagon, as some did, and so a number of young men from the east came to the prairies and filed their claims. Most then returned east for their brides or families, or their families followed them after a few months. Another means of acquiring land was to purchase railroad land. This land had been given to the railroads to encourage and subsidize the building of the lines. This land was sold to the settlers at a very low cost. Later on, March 3, 1873, the Timber Claim Act was passed, which enabled a man to acquire the land at the end of 8 years if he planted so much timber. The effort to grow timber on the high plains was like prohibition, a well intentioned, but futile experiment. The only tree which grows native in this part of the state is our state tree, the cottonwood.

With the coming of settlers it was necessary to have schools for the children so the townships which were established set aside so much land to be sold for the building and support of the schools. This land could also be purchased for a nominal cost. So when you hear an old timer refer to his acreage as homestead land, railroad land, timber claim or school land, as they usually do, you will understand how it was acquired.

Trego County was surveyed in 1867. During the building of the railroad there was a sort of earthwork thrown up to protect the workmen from Indian attack, which was known as Fort Ogallah, which would seem to give credence that the town was named before it was platted. The name is Indian, of Sioux origin, and means "big hill", it is thought because of the steep grade between Ellis and Ogallah, which the early locomotives had difficulty pulling.

Warren Keeney and Co. of Chicago selected the site of Wa- Keeney in 1877 and the town was platted in 1878. Ogallah was promoted by the same interests. It was platted in 1878 to Durham F. Keeney and Henry S. Austin. At this time Trego County was attached to Ellis County, so the plats were filed with the register of Deeds in Hays as follows:

WaKeeney, April 3, 1878

Collyer, February 11, 1879

Ogallah, April 18, 1879.

Trego County was organized by proclamation of Governor St. John, June 21, 1879. He appointed T. W. Miller, H. C. Bryant, and W. H. Fuson as temporary county commissioners and George Pinkham as county clerk. On July 26, 1879, a county election was held and County and Township officers elected. About 360 votes were cast in this election. The population of the county was 1,500 at that time. The U. S. Land Office was moved from Hays to WaKeeney in October of 1879.

"In Remembrance - Early Pioneer Settlers of Ogallah and Community - 1877-1881"

In 1938 Norah Yetter Tawney and Harriet Ridgway Clark compiled a little book entitled, "In Remembrance of Early Pioneer Settlers of Ogallah and Community 1877-1881". From this volume which was divided into a page for each family and written by a member of that family, I have gleaned my information of the brave souls who came out of everywhere into the here.

Of the 26 families commemorated in the book, thirteen had lived in Illinois before coming to Ogallah. These were: the Andersons and Bakers from Aurora; the Cutlers, McCollums and Marquands from Newman; the Cortrights from Sterling; the Furbecks from Jo Davis County; the Barneses from Spencer; the Harrisons from Niles; the Harveys from Vermillion; the Musgraves from Streater; the Stonexes from Philo; and the Yetters from Pontiac.

The Olsons came originally from Sweden. Mr. Olson came to Illinois in 1870 but returned to Sweden. In 1879 they came to Assaria, Kansas and in 1880 moved to their homestead near Ogallah. Swen Pearson was born in Sweden and his wife, Sarah Ericson, was born in Norway. They immigrated separately to the U. S. but met and married in Paw Paw, Illinois in 1875. There they lived until coming to Kansas in 1879. Darvin John Wilson was born in New York state but was brought by his parents to Illinois. In 1879 he came with friends to the Ogallah community.

The Lofsteads came to Kansas directly from Sweden. The Pershings and the Reynolds family came from Wayne County, Ohio, where they had been friends, and settled near each other in 1879. The Rosses came from Madison County, New York and the Ridgways from Conshocton, Ohio.

The Caskeys came from New York to Iowa and thence to Kansas, and the Rich family came from Delmar, Iowa. Benjamin Mapes walked from Aurora, Nebraska through Colorado to Ogallah. The Cross family came from Lexington, North Carolina.

W. F. King's starting point is unknown to me. It is not in the book.

Of this group of permanent settlers, the earliest seems to have been J. P. Marquand, who filed on his claim in the fall of 1877. He then returned to Newman, Illinois for the winter, returning the next march of 1878 with his three sons, Acquilla, Wesley and Joseph. They built a small house which had the distinction of having the first shingle roof in the township. Mrs. Marquand, with the four remaining children, Laura, Charlie, Ella and Earl, arrived two weeks later.

Eleven of the heads of families came during 1878. Four families joined their husband and father in 1879, and four new families arrived and five new heads of families. In 1880, Mrs. Anderson joined her husband and two other families, the Olsons and the Crosses arrived. In 1881, the Lofsteads arrived from Sweden. Other early settlers not mention in the book were the Mike Richards family, who came in 1878 and the Sam Kernan family, who arrived in 1881. Other early settlers were the Hunts, the Blakelys, and the family of R. A. Samuels, (Uncle Bob as he was universally known).

There are many others who would be just names to you, but who evoke in those who knew them, many memories of their fortitude in the early days.

No record of those days would be complete without mention of the children who came with their parents and lived to inherit the prairies. The twenty-six families, covered by the little memorial volume, brought with them sixty-one children. Later arrivals after coming to Kansas totaled seventy-five, ten of whom died in infancy or very young. Most of these children are now gone, but a number of their children still live in the surrounding country.

My own personal recollections of Ogallah would begin about 1903. I remember running barefoot along the road, squishing between my toes the dust as fine as talcum powder, keeping a watchful eye out for snakes, as I ran to my Uncle Albert Tawney's general store, housed in the old stone building, still standing and still in use, now as the Ogallah Post Office. My arrival usually produced a handout of candy. This was a stop on the way across the tracks to the depot, where my Aunt Norah Tawney held sway. What marvelous delights it held for a child; the clicking telegraph instruments, the big levers to change the semaphore signals, the big bound canvas books with yellow tissue on which the records were impressed. This was done by first wetting a cloth, applying it to the back of the original which was laid face down on the yellow tissue sheet, and then putting the book in a huge press. After a little time, the impression was transferred to the yellow tissue.

Then when the freight trains came in, there were seals to be broken, packages of all shapes and sizes taken out and then the cars resealed. The seals were numbered and strung on a round wire and sometimes I was allowed to carry the seals. This was a great thrill.

I would then run over to the elevator, which my father, C. D. Yetter, operated for the firm of Ross and Waldo of Ellis. In harvest time the big teams would pull the wagons filled with wheat onto the scales, and father would take the little brass bucket with the scale attached to measure the bushel weight. Then the wheat load ;around be weighed on the big scale, the horses driven into the elevator, the pit door opened, and the wagon tipped back. Thus, the golden grain was dumped and the empty wagon returned to the scale for weighing. What city child ever had the privilege of seeing these things.

Later when I was given my shetland pony, I used to ride him over to Uncle Bob Samuel's store across the tracks. Uncle Bob, who had been a cowboy and always dressed that way, insisted that I ride the pony into the store, where both the pony and I had a candy treat. It was a wonderful thing to live in a small town at the turn of the century.

by: Sadie Yetter Simmons

(This article taken from a pamphlet "1 in a series of 9 pamphlets" that the Trego County Historical Society has) The Trego County Historical Society has a lot of good information & materials of early day Trego County. Stop by & check it out. Located north of the railroad tracks on Hi-Way US - 183 on the Trego County Fair Grounds in WaKeeney, Kansas.