- 1920s - (Part 2 of 14) -
“In March of 1920, the Eureka Chamber of Commerce undertook the task of raising $2000 to repair the road from Lapland to the Teter oil field, a distance of five miles. One thousand dollars has been raised and the committee is meeting with enthusiastic and financial welcome from the business men of Eureka. The road must be graded and two or three culverts built to put the road in first class shape. The oil people want to make headquarters here, have so expressed themselves time and again, but they cannot resort to airships even to reach Eureka. The county road ends at Lapland, the road from there to the oil field is almost impassable especially so for heavy hauling. The money will be placed at the disposal of the County Engineer, who will supervise the work.
The Eureka Red Sox suffered their first defeat of the baseball season at the fair grounds when a professional ball team from Beloit played Eureka. All the Beloit players are salaried men and the lowest salary is $1800 per year.
The Methodist have let the contract for their church, to be finished in a few weeks, it is to be of pine 24x44 and 12 feet high and cost thirteen hundred and twenty-five dollars, all completed with seats, painting and all.
In June of 1920, the baseball game at the fair grounds Sunday afternoon between Eureka and Burlington ended in the fifth inning when the visitors became peeved at a decision of the umpire and left the field. In the first inning the umps made a close decision in favor of Burlington which allowed the visitors to score two runs. That went fine with them and they were all smiles, but in the fifth when a similar decision netted two runs for Eureka and tied the score, 5 to 5 the Burlington players exhibited their broad band of yellow and refused to abide by the umpire’s call. After some wrangling, they sacked their bats, climbed into their jitneys and beat it for the Coffey County seat. By doing so they forfeited the game to Eureka. The decision which caused the trouble was made when Hargrove drove a homer over third base, scoring Sherman and himself. The umpire called it a fair ball, Burlington claimed it was foul. Bystanders who were in line with the ball are disagreed on that point. Some saw it was foul, some say it was fair. At any rate Burlington had been the beneficiary of as close and questionable a decision early in the game and should have been big enough to abide by the umpire’s decision when it went against them. No one thinks for a moment that Umpire Hill was unfair to either side.
The county commissioners received from the County Health Officer a report on diseases in the first half of 1920. Influenza -896, Pneumonia-51, Mumps-5, Whooping Cough-30, Measles- 62, Small Pox-33, Tuberculosis-15, Chicken Pox-3, Scarlet Fever-1, Diphtheria-2, Cancer-2.
It seems as if there is a well-organized gang working on the Frisco east of Severy holding up harvest hands. Last week four men on the Frisco freight held up about 17 harvest hands a few miles east of Severy as the train was going up the steep grade, and after taking what money and watches in the crowd ordered them to jump off the train, which most of them did. About $120 and a number of watches were taken. From all reports this makes about the third time this gang has worked the harvest hold up on this same grade. Last year the same game was worked and one man was knocked on the head and nearly killed because he did not act quick enough to suit the men who were “doing the job.” The robbed men came to Severy where some of them caught the “blind” west and some left here for their homes, having seen enough of the wheat fields to suit them for some time. On July 27, 1920, 90 wagon and truck loads of wheat were weighed over the scales at Quincy, Kansas, for shipment or storage in the local elevator. This the Quincyites think is a day’s record in Greenwood County. The Griggs Operating Co. brought in a well fourteen miles west of Eureka, that has caused a sensation in oil circles. The well was shot and responded by throwing oil in a solid stream twenty feet higher than the derrick. This performance continued for two hours before the flow could be controlled partially and the stream of black gold turned into the tanks connected with the Prairie Pipe line. Thousands of barrels of oil were wasted while the gusher continued to belch forth its seemingly inexhaustible supply of liquid gold. Nothing like it has been seen in Kansas since the Trapshooter was drilled three years ago in the Towanda pool.
Crowds of sensation seekers and oil men have flocked to the well, while operators and lease buyers vie with one another in an attempt to secure acreage near the gusher.
Three Eureka men have cleaned up fortunes with the bringing in of the well. Each owns a one-eight interest in the gusher and the eighty acres lease on which it was drilled. They have received tempting offers to sell their interests, but only smile and shake their heads as they watch the stream of oil pouring into the tanks at the rate of 3,000 barrels per day.
Shall Eureka have a country club? Thirty men met in the court house to discuss the proposition. It was voted to incorporate and issue stock to the amount of $25,000, divided into 125 shares of a par value of $200 per share. A number of sites for the club have been under consideration. It is the intention to buy or lease forty to sixty acres of ground near Eureka, build a suitable club house, with kitchen, dinning room, reception hall and other conveniences. A swimming pool, tennis courts and a nine-hole golf course are also included in the country club plans In August 1920, the Sample place located northeast of Severy had a nice watermelon patch the first of the week which was entered by a gang of boys this week and nearly destroyed, the vines being pulled up and the watermelons pulled. If the boys had taken a melon or two that were ripe it would not have been quite as bad, but to destroy the patch is going a little too far. Boys who will do this should be taught a lesson.”
