Pawnee
County, Kansas - Land owned by:
William D., John, William M., and Jane PORTEOUS, also one piece owned by John
Rouse VAMPLEW.
The yellow circle approximates the location of Pawnee County, Kansas. Below is the township map of the county. The colored squares are the Townships where the family land was located.
Garfield
Township is where most of
the land was bought by W.D. PORTEOUS, John PORTEOUS, W.M. PORTEOUS, and
Jane PORTEOUS.
Keysville Township is where John Rouse VAMPLEW bought land. Later sold to W.D. PORTEOUS. (The township names in red are correct.)
Scroll further down for more defined images.
The
shaded and outlined sections show the relationship of the Porteous property.
The top, right red-outlined area is
Jane's purchase for timber speculation. The shaded area around Jane's
is where the WD Porteous
homestead property. The red dot locates Lot 5, Block C
and in-town property owned by William Dennis.
On the map to right, the small outlined box with a "cross" locates
the Garfield Cemetery
where the Porteous Family plot is – also a parcel of land. John Vamplew
may also be buried in this cemetery.
The bottom left, the outlined area is John's
land. The
Santa Fe Trail
runs through John's property as does the Atchison-Topeka- Santa Fe Railroad
tracks. Garfield was called Camp Criley when the railroad was being built
in the early 1870s. It was a supply camp for the workers. In May of 1848,
The
Battle at Coon Creek happened not far from where John purchased land.
William M. Porteous owned the plat below with the Arkansas River dissecting it. In the years to follow up to the 1960s, William M. would acquire or inherit most of the property owned by WD and Jane.
He and his Elsie would lease land to gas companies. The transaction documents are available and a numerous. It will take a trip out to Larned, Kansas to the County Offices to look through and photocopy them.
The
red circle below, points out the approximate location of the "in-town"
property bought by WD Porteous in 1878.
A
Deed of 1878 Filed.
The oldest deed which has been filed in the county in recent years was brought
to J.J. Via. register of deeds, a few days ago. In clearing up the estate
of W.D. Porteous, this deed, dated in 1878 was found. It conveyed a city lot
in Garfield (lot 5, block C) for $? form the Garfield Town Company in William
D. Porteous. The property had changed hands several times since, but this
discovered deed serves to clear the title.
(Tiller & Toiler, Aug. 1926)
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(Images
contributed by Art Gould, Wichita, KS.)
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John Vamplew's sod house as described by his nephew in the Henry Van Plew family diary.
Written
about 1882
"We
kept following the Santa Fe R.R. and I remember of hearing them speaking of
Garden City and Garfield and others. When we got to Larned
we took the road for a while then started across the fields to go to our Uncle
John Vamplew's where we had planned a visit for a few days. John Vamplew
was a brother to my father. As we were coming across the field toward his
house we saw him sitting near his kitchen door with his foot bandaged up.
As we came along he got up and pointed to where we should go. He had cut his
big toe and had it bandaged up with a soap and sugar mixture. He lived in
a sod house with a bedroom and kitchen. The roof
was covered with logs covered with hay and sod. He had a window on the north
and west side of the bedroom and the four bed posts for the bed were stationary
from the ceiling to the floor and the bed slats between all built in together.
It had one door in the kitchen from the outside entrance and a door from the
kitchen into the bedroom. The kitchen was about five feet wide with the stove
fitted in at the farthest end as you come in. The walls were about a foot
thick made of sod packed together from the ground to the roof...."
another
entry in the diary:
"We
had an uncle 'John Rouse Vamplew,' brother of our father
living near Larned Kas. not far from Garfield on a farm.
Dad had planned to go there to see him. He lived alone in a sod house
about 12 ft by 15 ft inside, flat roof covered with sod. A small narrow kitchen
with stove at far end and bedroom with door at left hand of it leading to
main part of the house which served as bedroom, dining room and parlor. The
bed was built in center of room, four posts to ceiling which served as four
bed posts as well as supporting the roof. It was built in as a permanent
fixture. Off from foot of the bed was a window. There was room enough between
the bed and the window for a small table. There was only one door for entrance
into the kitchen which was only just wide enough for the stove to fit in place
at the far end. It was a regular cast iron kitchen stove with four griddle
and oven. The house was back from the road about 100 feet and he had a vegetable
garden along the road between the house and barn. Next to the barn was a chicken
house. Practically no fencing on the place except around the barn, chicken
house and garden. A wide space was kept plowed around the buildings to stop
prairie fires that might come that way...."
Another link to information on Soddies.
 Closer
view of Lot 5 (far right). |
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 Corner just south of Lot 5. |
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 Left: Garfield City Limits along the Trail. Above: Town Hall/Library & Post Office which is in an old bank building. |
In
1886, two blizzards battered Kansas
The Wichita Eagle
This is one in a series of vignettes celebrating Kansas history. The series'
name comes from the state motto, Ad astra per aspera: "To the stars through
difficulties." For previous articles in this Eagle series, visit Kansas.com
and click on "To the Stars... ."
BY BECCY TANNER
The blizzards of 1886 -- back-to-back storms that struck eight days apart
-- left their mark on Kansas lore and history. The first storm started New
Year's Eve 1885, with rain turning to ice, followed by howling winds and blowing
snow. Temperatures dipped to 30 below zero. The next storm struck Jan. 7,
1886, and lasted nearly three days.
They were the deadliest storms in Kansas history, killing at least 100 people
and thousands of head of livestock.
The 1886 Annals of Kansas, taken from newspaper accounts from across the state,
reported that settlers became bewildered when landmarks and trails were obliterated,
and several froze to death searching for their homes. "Rabbits, prairie
chickens, quail and antelope died," the Annals reported. "Railroad
traffic and business were paralyzed."
Snow drifted over the roofs of railroad cars and houses. In western Kansas,
where homesteaders lived in dugouts or crudely constructed sheds, many ran
out of food and fuel and froze to death.
The Garden City Sentinel reported Jan. 9, 1886: "It is estimated
there are 10,000 dead (cattle) between this city and the White Woman River,"
near the Colorado border.
Many of the great cattle companies were ruined. About 80 percent of the cattle
in the storm's path were killed. People used whatever fuel they could to keep
warm: wood, corn, buffalo and cattle chips, even furniture.
One Ness City survivor recalled that her father put all the family's cattle
around a haystack, and then the family went inside the house to wait out the
storm. "I heard my father say, 'This is the longest night I ever put
in,' so he got up and lit the coal oil lamp and found it was 3 o'clock in
the afternoon," Lillie Price recalled. "He found the snow had drifted
over the windows and door."
The family's cattle, she wrote, drifted 15 miles away in the storm. Most died,
and those that survived had frostbite so bad that they had to be killed. A.R.
Brown, another survivor, was 19 years old when the storms struck his family's
homestead in southeast Edwards County.
On Jan. 6, Brown and his father gathered a wagon load of cow chips for fuel.
In 1953, the 86-year-old Brown was interviewed by a Wichita newspaper. "The
day was nice for January, but on the horizon to the north it was plain a storm
was approaching," he told a reporter. "We were scheduled to go the
next morning to Kinsley for a load of provisions -- we were very short of
food."
Not anticipating such devastating weather, the family had only enough food
to feed their livestock. The storm hit before they could get supplies, and
for the next four days, the family of 10 lived on livestock rations. "We
ate boiled rye," Brown said.
The family also brought its livestock into the house to weather the storm.
For those who survived and lived to tell their stories, the storms would remain
a focal point for generations.
Garfield,
KS Postcard 1915
This
parcel of land shows " Wm. D. Porteous" as the landowner, but the
original "Land
Patent" coordinates show John R. VAMPLEW was the owner. I don't know
when it was sold to William Dennis PORTEOUS. John R. lived on this land in
a "soddie" or sod house. A description of this
house.
Images are of a Pawnee County Sod House some 10 miles southwest of Larned. I particularly wanted images of soddies in that county because they would be more indicative of the type built from the materials at hand. Other areas may have different types of sod which could make a difference in the construction style.
This soddie is much bigger than Uncle John's. He was a bachelor, so he didn't need much more than his 12 x 15 ft two-room one. The bottom picture gives an idea of the wall construction.The roof isn't sod as described for John's house. It could be a later construction when materials were more available.
Images from the Kansas State Historical Society files.
Copyright 2005-2006 Karen Porteous Glass. All rights reserved. Contact
Satellite images are from Google Maps.
 The William Dennis and Elizabeth Porteous family settled in Garfield, Kansas. This is the homestead farm. On the map this piece of property is the yellow shaded block up near the town of Garfield. The very northwest corner of the property meets the railroad tracks. Jane and her son [John] William M., lived with WD & E. Later William M. would become known as Jane's brother. I don't know when or if a formal adoption was made. All I know is he was the grandson up until the time they settled in Kansas. |
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(barn image from the late Bill Porteous) |
 Homestead barn. In the panoramic above on the far right, you can see part of the barn. |
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