- Fall River, Kansas 1921-22 - (Part 2 of 2) - submitted by Mike Pitko
“One morning in April Alec Carnes and John Ivey, Jr., while hunting wolves with their dogs about two miles west of Fall River, scared up a large Wild Cat, which they killed after a chase of a half-mile. The animal was a monster in size, being about twenty inches high, and measuring five feet from tip to tip and weighing thirty pounds.
After chasing the cat for half-a-mile, it stopped and fought off the dogs until Mr. Ivey shot it. They gave the animal to Clyde West who sent it to a taxidermist to have it mounted. The next day Mr. Ivey and Wallace Taylor killed another one which was not near so large as the first one.
In April Clyde West received a radio receiving set which he set up in his garage building. With it he can receive from a distance of six hundred to one thousand miles. This is the first radio for Fall River, but it is likely that others will be installed in the near future.
The A.H. Hill Lumber Co., Wichita, of which Mr. E. Abbott is the representative at Fall River, has sold to the Cannon Ball Highway 268,000 bags of Dewey cement for the construction of the automobile road. This is 350 train car loads and is the largest cement deal ever contracted in Kansas.
Enrollment figures for Fall River High School for the 1921-22 school year are as follows: There were 32 boys and 43 girls. Two boys and three girls dropped out the first two weeks of school making enrollment 30 for boys and 40 for girls. Average attendance for the boys was 24 and for the girls 36. School was in session only 159 days instead of the usual 175 days. This, of course, was due to the enforced vacation on account of the small pox. The work, however, was made up by the addition of an hour to the daily program each day since the last week of February.
In June Sheriff Brewster of Wilson County was called to Fall River by Glenn Eby, of near New Albany, who charges a young man with stealing wheels from his barn yard.
The sheriff investigated the case and it seems that the young man, who claims to have been an overseas veteran, had broken his wagon near the Eby farm, while on his way to western Kansas in search of work. He found the wheels in the Eby barn yard and claimed they were given to him, which Eby denied. However, he put them on his wagon and went on but was found near Fall River.
As he was in destitute circumstances and had a wife and two little children with him, Mr. Eby declined to push the charge, gave him the wheels and allowed him to depart in peace.
In August of 1922 the officers of Greenwood and Elk Counties made a raid on a farm a few miles south of Severy. A double-still was found and several gallons of corn whiskey. Five men who were working at the still at the time of the raid, were captured by the officers and taken to Howard, and lodged in the Elk County jail.
As hunting season was starting in September of 1922 the following articled titled “Don’t Shot” was found in the Fall River Star.
1. Don’t shoot or trap more than the natural increase of the game in your cover. Your brood stock will soon be wiped out if you do. 2. Don’t shoot more than the legal limit in any one day, nor that many if you cannot use them. 3. Don’t shoot for your friend’s table. Let them kill his own birds. 4. Don’t shoot mated or nesting birds. It is equivalent to taking a setting hen off the nest and putting her in the pot. 5. Don’t shoot before the season opens, nor after it closes. 6. Don’t shoot the farmer’s poultry or stock. He will then not have to post his land against you. 7. Don’t shoot yourself or your companion or at anything else until you know exactly what you are shooting at. 8. Don’t shoot unless you have a hunter’s license. One fine will pay your annual license for a lifetime. 9. Don’t shoot from an automobile or along a public road. The first is unsportsman like, the second dangerous. 10. Don’t shoot the game warden. He is only doing his duty.
In September of 1922. On a Sunday, Mr. Banks and his son found a horse tied a few rods from the road on Vinegar Hill, about four miles northeast of Fall River. The horse evidently had stood for many hours without food or water. The question arose to whom did the horse belong and where was the owner?
Wednesday morning a man appeared at the house of Mr. Ralph Sherwood and asked for something to eat. He seemed in a dazed condition and unable to express himself well. Mr. Sherwood brought him to Fall River and the sheriff was called.
The sheriff arrived shortly after noon and on investigation discharge papers were found showing that he had been a soldier in the WWI, and that his home was near Winfield, Kansas.
He was turned over to the American Legion of Fall River, who cared for him and returned him to his home.
A hearing before the Public Utilities Commission for the state of Kansas for the application of the Fredonia Gas Company to increase the rates for gas to consumers at Fall River, Kansas, from thirty-five cents per thousand cubic feet to forty-five cents per thousand cubic feet at a hearing in Fall River on August 31, 1922. The Fredonia Gas Co. presented its testimony and the Mayor of Fall River appeared and offered no objection to the increase in rates sought by the applicant. There was presented to the Commission a petition signed by the mayor and five councilmen of the City of Fall River, together with about 100 residents of said city requesting the Commission to grant the application of Fredonia Gas Company. After hearing testimony and listening to statements of various citizens, the Commission took the matter under advisement and adjourned.
Now on, this 23rd day of September, 1922 the matter comes on before the Commission for final determination and order. The evidence shows that the present price for gas is thirty-five cents per thousand cubic feet. It further shows that the gas is procured from a local field, but that the field from which said gas has been obtained is practically exhausted and that it is necessary for the Company to move into a new neighborhood and develop new gas and for such purpose to build considerable new pipeline to conduct the gas from the field to the City of Fall River.
The Commission further finds that the owners of the Fredonia Gas Company own a field other than that from which it expects to draw its supply for the City of Fall River, from which it supplies the City of Fredonia and that the supply from said is abundant and greater than is necessary for said City of Fredonia.
The Commission further finds from the evidence that the new field from which the Fredonia Gas Company expects to obtain its gas to supply its patrons at the City of Fall River is but temporary, and while it is estimated to last for three years there is a possibility that the supply might be exhausted sooner and that it might not be sufficient to furnish efficient service to said patrons at Fall River at all times through the peak demand, but the Commission further finds that that the owners of the Fredonia Gas Company so supplying the City of Fall River have abundant gas, which they might turn into the pipeline supplying the City of Fall River in any emergency and that the owners of said gas company have pledged the Commission and the people of Fall River that should occasion demand that they will so supply said City and that they will at all times agree and guarantee to furnish said citizens of Fall River, their patrons, efficient and sufficient service.
The Commission further finds that considering all of the circumstances connection with the supplying of gas to the citizens of Fall River by the Fredonia Gas Company, that said Company cannot furnish gas and make a reasonable return on its investment therefore for less than forty- five cents per thousand cubic feet should be established at which the Fredonia Gas Company may sell its gas to its patrons in the City of Fall River and vicinity.
It Is Therefore By The Commission Considered And Ordered That The Fredonia Gas Company is entitled to and may be permitted to file with the Commission a rate of forty- five cents per thousand cubic feet for gas furnished to its patrons at Fall River. Fredonia Gas Company must at all times supply the citizens of Fall River with an ample supply of gas to fill all of their demands and should they fail or neglect to furnish gas to the citizens of Fall River and vicinity, the rate herein fixed of forty-five cents per thousand cubic feet shall not obtain, may be set aside by this Commission.”
