- Eureka 1910-1919 - (Part 9 of 12) -
“In February 1919, John Taylor wrote about the history of Salt Springs, located in the southeast part of Greenwood County. These springs were discovered by a man whose name, I think, was Graves. Mr. Thomas Rodes took a claim on them some time previous to the Civil War and made a great quantity of salt. He sold the claim in 1860 to Thomas Livingston, the noted Missouri desperado who was killed at Stockton, Missouri, in 1863. He tested the springs several times and claimed that the brine would yield half a pound of salt to the gallon. Rodes endeavored to sink a well at the spring, but was prevented by the copious flow of brine. He only succeeded in getting down about twelve feet, and even this he was unable to wall up. In 1861 Livingston sold the springs to Charles Mograin, Chief of the Osages, from whom and from persons who had taken possession of them during my absence in the army. I had purchased the springs. I have manufactured about 100 bushels of fine white salt. In one day, with seven small kettles, holding from ten to twenty gallons each, and two small pans, I have made every 24 hours. My stock is never salted. The spring saves me over $100 a year in this one item. My neighbors’ cattle from far and near, also come to the spring for salt. If this brine were manufactured, as it should be, a large sum would be saved and kept here to aid in improving our own country. I will give anyone who will manufacture salt at these springs all he can make for two years and after that I will lease him the springs at reasonable rate, giving him, meantime, entire control of the water. These springs also posses’ valuable medical properties. They contain muriate of magnesia, etc. and experience has shown that they are very helpful in healing diseases of the skin such as salt rheum. I am now putting up a large building with apartments for the use of invalids who may visit the springs. There is good opening for a dry goods store here. (Do not know if he ever put up any buildings) E.N. Ladd, of Eureka, has sold his Twin Falls ranch of 300 acres to Frank Russell, of Fall River township, the consideration being $30,000 or $100 per acre. The ranch is one of the finest in the county and lays up and down Fall River about five miles east of Climax.
In March 1919 the Prairie Oil Company brought in a gusher three miles south of Sallyards or twelve miles west of Eureka. It started flowing at the rate of 1000 barrels a day and is not yet under control. It was accompanied by a strong flow of gas and within minutes the rig caught fire and everything combustible within reach was destroyed. The well was still burning last night and was not under control.
Petitions for 14 miles of hard surface road, the first to be built in Greenwood County, are being circulated in May 1919. The road has been designated as the “Reece Road” and extends from Eureka west through Reece to the Butler County line. Under the plan being used it will require the signatures of owners of 60 per cent of the land within the benefit district before the road can be built. At this time more than half enough signers have been secured.
Three kinds of roads are being considered. They are gravel road which can be built at a cost of approximately $12,000 per mile, bituminous macadam which will cost about $22,00 per mile and concrete which will cost not more than $35,000 per mile. The government pays 50 per cent of the cost of the road.
An announcement was made in May of 1919 that the building and grounds of the Southern Kansas Academy, which for a third of a century has stood at the head of Main Street, Eureka, and which for a quarter of a century was one of the leading educational institutions of Southern Kansas, will be sold at public auction on June 12, 1919. The trustees have come to the decision to dispose of the property to the highest bidder in order to meet outstanding obligations and in the sincere hope that the property may be put to some creditable use in the community. It was not until every effort had been resorted to find some other way out that the decision to sell was finally reached.
Business judgment has for years suggested the wisdom of disposing of the property in order that all indebtedness might be liquidated and all business affairs honorably terminated, but sentiment and tradition weighed against sound business methods and so the board held on hoping against hope that something would intervene and the building could again be opened, if not as a Christian Academy at least as some public enterprise that would prove useful and creditable to the community.
The trustees assure The Herald that this will be a genuine sale regardless of price. Provision will be made before the date of the sale to take care of all indebtedness and incumbrances. Should the sale price not cover the indebtedness the board will personally assume the difference between said sale price and the amount of indebtedness. Should the sale price exceed the amount of the indebtedness the board will not profit to the extent of one penny but any balance in the hands of the treasurer will be devoted to some worth cause.
Certainly, this is a fair proposition when it is known that before and after the closing of the doors of the institution the board and friends used their own private funds in no small amounts to meet pressing obligations.
The only things reserved in the sale will be the bell and the clock. The bell was purchased largely by the children of this community, now men and women, and the board feels that this bell, which is a particularly fine one, should be offered to the community if there is any use to which it can be put or any sentiment in favor of keeping it here. The clock is reserved for the reason that at this time the board is a little in doubt as to its ownership.
The Academy property consists of about 15 acres of ground, beautifully located, a two-story stone and brick building, 72 x 48 feet, with basement under and attic over the whole. The building is in fair condition except for a portion of the roof and a number of broken window glass. It has an excellent heating plant, running water and lavatories, electric lights and a fire escape from the attic to the ground.
In addition to the main building there is a fiveroom cottage 20 by 32 foot, a good barn 18 by 36 feet, a sheep barn 14 by 26 feet and a hog shed 8 by 12 feet.
The people of Eureka and vicinity should find some practical use to which this building might be put. It has been suggested as an ideal location for a business college, a branch agricultural experiment station, a co-operative creamery and cold storage plant, a farm products company, a hospital, a country club or a home. It was at one time considered by some of the school districts near Eureka as a desirable place for joint rural school.
In June the Southern Kansas Academy, buildings and grounds were sold at auction. The purchasers were H.A. Lovett, D.S. Mc-Neill, L.S. Hoover and Lon Smethers, the price $3,250. To erect a building like the academy today (1919) would cost at least $25,000. The fifteen acres of ground are worth $200 per acre.”
