Bluemont Central College

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A terrible drought has prevailed

Rev. Hugh D. Fisher came to Kansas as a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1858. His direct observation of the conditions in Kansas Territory just prior to the War Between the States are captured in his book, The Gun and the Gospel, published in 1896. “No pioneers in all this great country,” he wrote, “have suffered the disastrous series of drawbacks which have had to be met and overcome by the courageous and enduring Kansan…” In reference to the drought that began in Kansas about September 1859 and continued for many months, Rev. Fisher wrote:

The spring of 1860 opened auspiciously. Fields were planted and the hardy pioneer went to his work of opening up new farming ground and planting new sod-crops with confidence that the fertile prairie would repay him for his toil and privations. But he was to be disappointed. As the young crops came along the rain fell not. The skies were as clear as the most beautiful Italian skies ever depicted by poet or painter. The sun shone upon beautiful Kansas with a generosity that would have given us the most bountiful harvests had not nature forgotten to turn on the water. But though the winds blew and the sun shone, and the sky was clear, and all nature looked gay enough in the spring and early summer, yet for seven long months we suffered the horrors of a desert drought. For four months consecutively there fell not a drop of rain. The country was blighted almost as if by a great prairie fire. The grass dried up; the leaves fell from the trees as if from the autumnal frosts; the ground opened with great yawnings, by which horses and cattle were often stumbled and injured; running streams went dry; the rivers became so low that steamers of even the lightest draught could navigate them with difficulty; the wells and cisterns were soon emptied, and people had to haul water for domestic purposes many miles in many instances; horses, cattle, and even buffalo on the plains died from thirst, the blighting drought being destructive in the extreme upon every living thing. Hundreds upon hundreds of struggling pioneers were compelled to exist for month upon the most unsavory and unhealthful food, the result being that sickness and death added terror to the disaster. It is impossible to depict the suffering and distress incident to the terrible drought and awful famine of 1860. So widespread were they that thousands of brave pioneers were compelled to return overland to their former homes to keep from starving.

By the summer of 1860, county-organized “relief committees” had begun to solicit contributions of money and clothing from eastern benefactors. When assistance stalled late in the year, however, the Kansas Relief Committee distributed an “appeal for help” in an attempt to convey the degree of destitution then prevailing in the territory. In their October 30th broadside, which was to be distributed throughout eastern newspapers, the committee wrote,

During the year preceding…, a terrible drouth has prevailed throughout the interior of Kansas… We believe that four-fifths of the cultivated land in the Territory has not yielded the smallest crop of any kind, except a little corn fodder… In our localities the best yield of corn does not exceed ten bushels to the acre; not a potato or vegetable of any kind has been raised; gardens have proved an entire failure, although they have frequently been replanted. Fields have been resown to wheat, then buckwheat, then turnips, and all a total failure… Nor is there money to buy bread. Our people have expended all available means in making improvements. The commercial disaster of 1857 left us stranded. The tide of returning prosperity has relieved our eastern friends. The Mississippi Valley is rapidly righting. But the first wave has not reached us. Now comes the loss of our crops, and with it goes our hope of returning prosperity… Many thousands of our people have no bread and little clothing for the coming winter. While some of them will be enabled, by great sacrifices of property, or by the timely aid of relatives at the East, to live through the winter, there is a very large number who must be aided by the public, or suffer the last extremity of famine… We endorse this appeal for aid from our fellow citizens of Kansas, as one of real and pressing importance. We hope an immediate and generous response will be made. Wherever this appeal comes, let a contribution be at once sent in to Dr. Thomas H. Webb, No 3 Winter Street, Boston. He will forward the same to the County Committees, chosen by the people of each respective County, to be distributed by them to the destitute. We ask all ministers of our churches who are willing so to do, as soon as effectually as possible, to interest their people in this matter, and in such way as thy shall think best, secure their contribution.

The response, though delayed, was generous. Rev Fisher describes:

The generosity of eastern people who watched with intense interest the struggles of the Kansas pioneers was an open-handed generosity, and succor came to the distressed as fast as the steamers and the overland freights caravans could carry it. Senator Pomeroy especially distinguished himself, and won a sobriquet which ever after clung to him, by soliciting and sending a great many carloads of New England beans to the drought-stricken district. It was his splendid efforts toward bringing relief to his distressed neighbors, more than anything else, which made him United States Senator when Kansas was admitted to the Union [in 1861]. “Baked Beans” Pomeroy was a character in early Kansas history, the awful drought affording him an opportunity his generous nature took advantage of to assist the territorial pioneer at a time when assistance was demanded by the highest considerations of humanity.

One of the ministers sent by the Methodist Conference to solicit aid for the suffering Kansans was Rev. Joseph Denison of Manhattan. In this task, he and many other ministers, representing all denominations, succeeded in funneling large quantities of donations through Atchison, then the western terminus for rail traffic. Anxious to improve his public image in the aftermath of suspicious land speculation deals, Samuel Pomeroy saw an opportunity to use his pre-established business contracts with the railroad to secure low freight rates for the carloads of relief being sent westward.

Samuel C. Pomeroy, from Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

The series of letters that follow include three written to James from Rev. Denison while soliciting donations in three major eastern cities – New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. When James apparently responded to Rev. Denison that the people of his district would be happier if the church disassociated itself from Samuel Pomeroy and his freighting business, Rev. Denison makes it abundantly clear that the reduced freight charges are simply too significant to ignore and that the church’s purpose would be better served by not only joining forces with the civil relief efforts underway, but by temporarily setting aside any differences of opinion the church members might have with Samuel Pomeroy.

Among the aforementioned three letters from Rev. Joseph Denison are letters exchanged between James to Augusta on the eve of the 1860 and 1861 annual Methodist Conferences, one from Augusta's brother, Ralph Goodrich, and two from her mother, Mary Ann Goodrich. There is also the following letter written from Rev. Denison giving the first hint of the drought in its early stages and announcing the opening of Bluemont College, forerunner of Kansas State University, in Manhattan (see link above).

Manhattan, [Kansas Territory]
January 12, 1860

Dear Brother & Sister Griffing,

We received your very kind letter in due time but absence from home and a press of other duties have prevented our answering sooner. So pleasant was the weather and so good the road that we arrived at your house earlier in the afternoon than we anticipated and had you been at home we might only have made a short call. Your absence to visit Father Jordan was surely pardonable. We slept that night with Sister Wallace and the next day, being quite as pleasant and the roads as good, we arrived at home that Eve before 8 o’clock. It was well we did for just after, the weather turned extremely cold and had we been obliged to travel we must have suffered much. We were sorry we missed seeing you and Sister Giddings & Brother. We will endeavor to pay the call again some time & trust you will surely call on us.

Bluemont College opened on Monday of this week with thirty scholars. Mr. Marlatt & Sister Bailey are teaching. We all continue to enjoy good health & witness some prosperity on the District. We all unite in wishing you a happy new year. Very truly yours, -- Joseph Denison.

Rev. Joseph and Francis Denison
University Archives, Special Collections, Kansas State University

Leavenworth, [Kansas Territory]
March 14, 1860

My Dear Cutie [Augusta],

I have just come up from examining the boys. We had quite a lively time and examined them all the time they did not examine us during the whole day. Some were posted, others presented a dull chance. What conference will do them I know not. Some could not tell what an adjective was. Others could not tell now to parse a pronoun. Some were at home in all the branches.

We had quite a pleasant time coming down. There was about 30 of us through from Lawrence. Some of the brethren brought their wives. Viz. Davis, Prather, Moys, Lloyd, Goodnow, Blackford, Duvall, &c. We reached Leavenworth on Tuesday nearly at sundown. The place appointed me was with Br. Piper at the Rev. Mr. Leggett’s – Congregational Minister, formerly a lawyer, from Xenia, Ohio, acquainted formerly with Brother Cosly’s sister Allen Br. Connelly, &c. It is a first-rate place. He has been preaching only four months, is acquainted with Brother Bodwell. Have seen Brother [William] Goode, [Hiram] Birch, [John] Chivington, &c.

Brother Chivington said Fanny [Giddings] had set aside Freeman and married a man named [Chauncey] Norris during an absence of her parents. The Methodist minister refused to marry them under the circumstances. How they were married he did not state. [1] Says [my brother] Ossy was well. Waits on the girls some, but was the most steady Christian young man in all that section.

I hope I may be able to get home Wednesday night if we only break up in time Tuesday. Probably may and will if possible. How are yourself & Johnny tonight? I hope to get a letter tomorrow telling all about it. Boats are passing up & down the river every day. It is late and I must away to bed as I am keeping Brother Piper awake. I have not asked Brother Graham yet about Brother Curtis’ relatives, but will try and think to do so. Good night. A kiss for my boy and one from your husband. – James S. Griffing

Owego [New York]
April 1, 1860

Dear Augusta,

We received yours mailed March 23rd after your husband returned from [his] [Annual] Conference [at Leavenworth]. Our folks have gone to church today and since they went it has commenced raining. Sarah had a letter from Lucy Fiddis last week. She wrote she had quite a treat the day before – had 6 letters all at once. I believe one was from yourself, one from Hartford and one from _____ and the other two from James and Anna and one from one of her school mates. I believe I wrote you that Mrs. Truman and Dora went to Albany with her husband…

[Your sister] Sarah has had a letter from Maria but I believe I wrote about it before. I hope you got the [Owego] Times and in it you will see a good deal that is going on in Owego.

I was over to the village yesterday and went up to see where the fire was. I do not see how they could save the other buildings. George Goodrich had all his goods taken out. Mr. Page – one of his clerks – said they did not think that boys set fire to the store. They were then having an investigation at the court to see what they could find out. It is thought and said by many that they think Mr. Stone set fire to his own store to get the insurance. Dr. G. Perkins, Dentist, lost everything – about 1000 dollars – and had no insurance. He boarded with Mrs. Kimball in the Ransom house and did not know anything about [the fire] till he was eating his breakfast and then he had lost all. They did not ring the bells but a short time. It was a cold snowy, tedious night.

A brief summary of the Owego fire appearing in the New York Times

I have forgotten whether I wrote you about Hans Hennus’ death or not, but if you get the [Owego] Times, you will read about it. We hear that he went to Jacob Catlin’s. [Your sister] Sarah says she thinks it was some time ago that he went and wanted to stay, but they drove him away. It may not be so. Dr. Churchill and other doctors with Dr. Tinkham held an inquest. They put the work on to Dr. Tinkham. They said he went to work like an old physician and took out the breastbone and made the examination. Said there was barely two spoonfuls of food inside of him. He was in the village the day before and wanted somebody to put him into jail so that he could get something to eat. He has almost died of starvation. [He was] a young man that bid fair to make a smart man until that Horton and Catlin trial when everyone thinks he was hired to swear falsely. Since that [time] he has been going down the ladder till he has got to the bottom.

We are all usually well. Tuesday evening they had a party at Mr. Daniel Taylor’s. [Your brother] Steve and [sister] Mary went. Thursday evening, [your brother-in-law] Grove Pike had a [maple] sugar party at Samuel [Griffing’s]. Sarah went up with Mary and Stephen. They were the only ones that were invited from this neighborhood, but John Goodrich went up and took up Charlie Smith and his music box. [Samuel Griffing’s wife] Malvina did not like it much, and John wanted [your brother] Steve to ask them if they might dance, but Steve knew better. Only a week or two before, Jack and John had a large party and did not invite Mary. Sam was very polite to John – gave him an extra cup of coffee and another saucer of warm maple sugar. I suppose John thought he was treated better than the rest.

[Your brother] Ralph has had a letter from you. I suppose you have got the lace we sent you…. Am glad [your brother] James is going to be so near home. We have had to do without milk nearly two months. Friday morning we [had] a calf and Saturday morning another, so we shall soon have milk.

Our folks have come home [from church], but come on foot from the corner. In coming up the hill beyond Mr. Johnson’s, Charles Goodrich and another carriage came by them, which frightened [our horse] Prince and run jumped a little and in coming around the corner by the brickyard, the wagon broke down, pitched them down and Prince walked along with the fore wheels as soon as Steve could get out from under the girls. He said ‘whoa’ to Prince and he stopped. Now it is snowing. They came home with their shoes through the snow and mush.

I shall send a paper of onion seed with this. – [Your mother, -- Mary Ann Goodrich]  

Owego [New York]
August 15, 1860

My dear Augusta,

No letter from you for nearly two weeks. I suppose you have been to [Table Rock] Nebraska and perhaps have got home again. Is it dry there as with you? Did you feel that heated wind, the 8th and 14th of July? And was that tornado near you?

From the 4 August 1860 issue of the New York Times

How far is Mound City from you? I have read a letter from B. H. S., dated at that place, and written to [Horace] Greeley telling about the draught. The letter is published in the [New York] Tribune. It is dreadful. I do not know what you will do, but I think you had better come back to your old home. We have enough to spare. I do not like Kansas. I think the seasons are too changeable for health, or for raising grain. And what do you stay there for, wearing yourselves out and spending your best days there, and living on corn bread? And now I do not suppose you can get that. This man writes that they have pudding & milk but shall not have milk long for there is nothing for the cows to eat. And here we have had an abundance of rain and an abundant harvest, which we ought to be very thankful for, while in many other states they are suffering nearly as much as in Kansas.

We had a letter from [your brother] Ralph last week. [He says] it is very dry in Florida, [that] the corn crop is a failure, and the cotton will not be much. He is not going to stay there much longer. He has resigned but is still in the school. Major [George T.] Ward wants him to stay till the first of October. It has not been so hot in many years as it is this summer there. Ralph writes that the country does not agree with him. He is very thin and he has to work so hard. They do not use him much better than they do their slaves. He has had a talk with the [former] Governor [Thomas Brown] of that State, and he says none but a fool would stay and be treated so. This Governor is from Virginia and Ralph writes that he has a friend that is trying to get him a place further north.

Left: Florida's Ex-Governor Thomas Brown (1785-1867) 

Do they have better crops in Nebraska? Your mother Griffing has not heard from [her son] Ossy since February or March and she is feeling bad about it. We are all usually here today. [Your sisters] Sarah & Mary have gone to church driving [our horse] Prince. Your father is reading. Steve and George Berry are in the lounge asleep. Your Aunt Lucy Berry has gone to Newark and George is staying here part of the time. Last Tuesday was a hot day here. Your father and [your brother] Steve both came near giving out, and it was hot all the week till Friday night [when] we had a very heavy shower, which has cooled the air, and it is very comfortable now. Our oats are all cut and one load in the barn.

Did I write you about black Charley? Hope you have received it and also the things we have sent in paper. We want to hear from you. I read a letter from Hancie to Annie. She does not like it at all because you do not write to her.

Mr. Charles Ransom at Pipe Creek hung himself Saturday night. He and his wife had just come from the wake held at Binghamton. He was deranged. [Your mother -- Mary Ann Goodrich]

August 18, 1860,      Owego [New York]

My dear Ralph.

 ...There is a great deal [discussed] here about the hot winds [and draught] in Kansas. William Catlin has got home. [He] was there in southern Kansas 3 weeks. Says he does not like the country. Nothing can grow three it is so hot and dry. He went about 70 miles south of the Kansas River. The letter we had from [your sister] Augusta last night was written in Nebraska [Territory]. They were there on a visit [with the Giddings family and] was expecting to start the next week for [their] home [in Kansas Territory]. It is not as dry in Nebraska as in Kansas. They have vegetables and corn there. Augusta says they are so good. She had not had any at home. James Griffing writes to his mother that their prospects for Johnny Cake is dull this winter, but He who numbers all our hairs will prosper us.… -- Mother

[Box 1 , Item 49, Ralph L. Goodrich Collection, Arkansas History Commission]

Little Rock, Arkansas
October 20, 1860

My Dear Sister [Augusta],

I intended to answer your letter before, but concluded to wait until I got settled in a place some where. I left Belair, Florida on the last day of September for this place & arrived here after a voyage of two weeks. I came by way of New Orleans as it was the cheapest & because I would have company nearly the whole way – Major Hayward from Tallahassee who was going to the northern part of Louisiana.

I secured the place I have through the Bishop [Henry Chaplin Lay] & the Episcopal clergyman of this place. It is in a private school. I have the ____ of the scholars from the number of 20 to 35 & all above that we divide evenly. This number 15 gives me a salary of $150. We have 37 scholars which will give $800 out of which I have to pay my way. My board only costs me $20 a month & besides I shall have to pay for washing & fuel. But our school has every prospect of increasing, & I shall be satisfied. The principal teacher is a [28 year-old] young man [named James W. Mathews] & a member of the Episcopal Church. He has been teaching for 10 years. He gives the school up to me if I purpose teaching another year. He is from Kentucky. He likes the State, has bought land [now valued at $1500], & advises me to do so too when I am able. I received at Belair $275. It cost me about a hundred to get here. Steve wants me to pay him & I owe S__ for the watch I got of him. I can only send home $140 to pay what I owe at home & the rest to go toward paying Uncle Elizur [Goodrich]. What I owe together with the interest amounts to more than $600. I hope to pay it all off by next summer.

Mother writes that the times in Kansas are hard, provisions &c. high & people starving. If it’s so that I can send you some money, I will. I know what you will have to suffer & I will help you if I can. I don’t need help myself. I was not pleased with this state or town when I first came here, but I am better now. I shall try to do something here. Bishop says it is the state for an energetic young man & one reaches he says at the age of 30 the point which in other states he would not till 45. I came by Steamboat from Florida to New Orleans. I had a pleasant journey though a long one & had opportunity of seeing a great deal. We had to stay nearly 2 days in New Orleans. It has not been sickly there this year. That is the yellow fever has not raged. I have become quite a southerner.  My journey up the Mississippi [River] would not have been quite so agreeable if I believed I was an abolitionist.

I arrived here the night of the 12th October & have not received a letter from home since I came though I told them to write here in a letter I wrote just before leaving Florida. I was awfully homesick the first few days nor has the feeling entirely worn off. I feel sorry that it cost me so much to get just from Memphis over here, a distance of about 170 miles. I had to pay 30 dollars for myself & baggage. 40 miles of the way is railroad, the rest staging. Then to find that I had to pay so much for board, it was a disappointment hard to bear.

Mr. [James W.] Mathews with whom I am teaching is Superintendent of the Sunday School. I am a teacher in the Sunday School [of the Episcopal Church]. He is unwell & probably I shall have to officiate tomorrow. I have had a little experience that way in Florida. The Bishop will be [here] in a month or two & Mr. Mathews says he will urge me to enter the ministry, which he advises me to do. Surely they accuse me here of more piety than was ever granted to me at home. I am going to be better & do better than I have [done before], but I don’t think of entering the ministry. I hope I can get along well here. The State is filled up by Lawyers & I don’t know whether I can do anything that way or not. I shall try when the time comes. Albert Pike [2] lives in this place, also the Arkansas Traveler [3], at least a picture representing him. They say it is unhealthy here for healthy persons, but healthy for those in ill health, & as I am almost as thin as a June shad. [4] I hope to have good health by being careful. Everything costs double what it does at the North. This place contains about 5 thousand inhabitants, is a pretty place but not a very pretty town. Write soon. With love to all. I am your affectionate brother, -- Ralph L. Goodrich.

Boston, [Massachusetts]
November 22, 1860

Dear Brother Griffing,

Last evening at four, I left New York for this city after about a week of very hard labor with the members of the Missionary Commission & Board. Their final conclusion decided to give the Kansas Preachers on the five districts $3,000 for present relief till March next. This will be about $50 to each but some may have more who most need & others less. Our appropriation for next year is $7,000. I expected more but Bishop Ames, who represented us from the Bench of Bishops, could not see that we needed it and all effort availed not to raise it above that. When we return to Kansas, the Presiding Elders will meet & represent each Preacher’s wants to Dr. Davis & he is to decide how much each must have.

Money is already coming in here from our churches but it is mostly paid to T. H. Webb & will go to pay freights through him to Mr. [Samuel] Pomeroy & Brother [Milton] Mahin so that if you need provisions for yourself or others, them a team to them and get it.

We have a public meeting in Tremont Temple to make a general move to raise money for Kansas. Next week we shall go to New York and try for a general demonstration there. By & by we shall make an effort for clothing, boots, and shoes.

Brother Webb says we must raise money first & organize for the whole campaign and then will come clothing &c. I urge that winter is already here and clothing, boots & shoes must go soon or suffering ensue. We will do as fast as possible. Please write me immediately & tell me what you as a community now most need, how many need & how much. See if the south side folks need & if they will receive it from you. Help them as all others who really need.

Kind regards to all the Brethren and friends. Very truly yours, -- Joseph Denison

If the Brethren or any people in Topeka need provisions, let them send either through the Gen. Committee or by your or Brother Leland’s order.

New York [City, New York]
November 30, 1860

Dear Brother Griffing,

Yours of the 15th inst. has just come to hand. You say that our church movement has no connection with Senator S. C. Pomeroy &c. Let me say just how the matter is & how it must be from the very nature of the case. We could not get along to any advantage unless connected with him. He, as is right, had the contract with the Hannibal & St. Louis Railroad at a very low rate – 1/4th usual rate. They would not open another contract but would carry all consigned to him & Brother Mahin, who acts with him. So Brothers Dennis, Taylor & Holiday arranged before they left to have all consigned to

Pomeroy & Mahin
Atchison

The contracts with the [rail]roads farther East all require that the goods be consigned to S. C. Pomeroy or Pomeroy & Mahin & they will not carry at reduced rates for any others; all must send in this way. Besides, public sentiment in the States – especially here – require that all our operations for relief in Kansas should be consolidated. To do otherwise would defeat us entirely. Messrs. Pomeroy & Br. Mahin act together and are every way reliable. Our church operation cooperates with them for the relief of the whole of the people and not ours only, & in this way can help ours much more. After paying our part of the freight, we hope to have money to send you to help our needy people.

Please do all you can to explain & harmonize things under the above plan. Our Church operation working distinctly & solely alone must surely have failed, but cooperating in part with them helps us & them too as all I think who know all the facts must see. Very truly yours, -- Joseph Denison

Kind regards to all. I hope to send you some money soon.

Philadelphia [Pennsylvania]
January 3, 1861

Dear Brother Griffing,

The Draft of $100 I sent you was not a part of the Missionary appropriation for special relief to the preachers. It was intended for you to distribute to the most necessitous cases to supply food and clothing and prevent suffering. I leave it wholly to your discretion how to distribute it. Maybe you really need some of it for yourself. If so, use it. As nearly all the results of my work in raising funds have gone into the general Treasury at Atchison, our people in need with others must apply there.

Business throughout the country is very much interrupted by the Secession movements in the South. Many think that War is inevitable. Even the most conservative here think so and affirm that if it does come, it will be the end of slavery. This intense excitement is a hindrance to our work in seeking relief for Kansas and General [William S.] Harney’s Dispatches [5] greatly increase the obstacles in our way. But we make some progress notwithstanding. The statement of the actual distribution from Atchison to the different counties shows that but a small portion has gone to Montgomery’s (Linn) County.

I find it impossible for me to visit Owego as I was obliged to come from New York City here & thence must go to Pittsburg. I have not seen Brother [Ira] Blackford since about the middle of November. He intended to raise relief for Kansas and especially for Topeka. I trust they have heard from him before this. I sent you by mail the Genealogy of the Redfield Family from New York [City]. It cost $2.25, I think. I am very anxious to get home to my family. I trust the Lord will keep them in my absence. I will write you of the time of your next Quarterly Meeting.

I am sorry to hear of the loss of your horse. [6] I stated the fact to Brother Lawrence [7] and I trust he will do something for you through his society (Norfolk Street, New York City are very much in debt. I have also read the item to a number of others and it tends to stir them up). Could we get all the items of a like kind before the people, it would awaken them to a sense of the real suffering in Kansas. May the Lord bless and guide us. Kind regards to all. Very truly yours, -- Joseph Denison