Osage County, Kansas Santa Fe Trail

The Santa Fe Trail, a vital artery of commerce and westward expansion in the 19th century, etched its path across the landscape of Kansas, leaving behind a rich tapestry of stories and historical landmarks. In Osage County, Kansas, the echoes of wagon wheels and the footsteps of traders, soldiers, and settlers still resonate, inviting us to explore a significant chapter in American history. Following the trail’s passage through this region offers a glimpse into the challenges, triumphs, and transformations that defined the era.

After traversing Douglas County, Santa Fe Trail travelers found themselves venturing into northern Osage County. Their westward journey, a 25-mile stretch, carried them past the locations of what are now the towns of Overbrook, Scranton, and Burlingame. Remarkably, this segment of the trail deviated only slightly southward, a mere mile, and closely mirrors the path of Highway 56 as it exists today. This proximity allows modern travelers to trace the footsteps of those who came before, experiencing the landscape that shaped their journeys.

Rock Creek Springs-Walton: A Lifeline on the Trail

For many weary travelers, Rock Creek Springs #1 offered a welcome respite. Situated approximately 1.5 miles east of present-day Overbrook, this campground and watering stop was more than just a place to rest. It boasted a blacksmith shop, a general store, an inn, and even a post office, making it a vital hub for those traversing the long and arduous trail.

The story of Rock Creek Springs is intertwined with the tale of Daniel Walters, the initial settler of this land, which later became known as the "Old Bryson Farm" under the ownership of V.C. Bryson. Walters, a man of ambition and diverse skills, erected a substantial stone building to house his store and hotel. This establishment also served as the location for the post office, officially established in October 1858. He further solidified his presence by constructing a two-story house with a basement. Though Walters christened his settlement and post office "Walton," it remained widely recognized by Santa Fe Trail travelers as Rock Spring No. 1, a testament to the enduring importance of the natural spring that sustained them.

Daniel Walters was a true "Jack of all Trades," proficient as a shoemaker, stonemason, and farmer. Despite his reputation as a hardworking individual, he struggled to keep up with his bills, facing increasing financial strain. Adding to his troubles was an ongoing dispute with his neighbors, Lee and William Daughterty, two outspoken pro-slavery advocates. The heart of the conflict lay in the location of Rock Springs, the renowned watering place, situated a mere 300 yards west of Walter’s store and hotel. As the spring was close to the boundary line, the Daughterty brothers sought to have the line surveyed, hoping to claim the spring for themselves.

The dispute escalated when Lee Daughterty accused Walters of passing a counterfeit half-dollar, even alleging that Walters had manufactured the spurious coin. This accusation led to Walters’ arrest and imprisonment in the Olathe, Kansas jail, where he remained for several weeks. However, when the trial date arrived, no evidence could be produced against him, and he was subsequently discharged. In the meantime, Walter Jennerson had been appointed as assistant postmaster in place of Dan Walters. Disheartened and disillusioned by his experience in Kansas, Walters packed up his belongings, gathered his family, and relocated to Colorado.

The tranquility of the Santa Fe Trail in Osage County was further disrupted by the turmoil of the Civil War. In May 1863, a Confederate guerrilla leader ventured from Missouri into Kansas. On May 4th, they encamped near Council Grove and then raided Diamond Springs, resulting in the death of one man and the wounding of a woman. On their return journey, they paused at Rock Springs, where they encountered and killed George N. Savin, a soldier of Company K, Eleventh Kansas, who was on leave from his home in Pottawatomie County, returning to his regiment. Seven miles further along, Yeager’s men shot and seriously wounded David Hubbard at his Stage Station in Globe, Kansas, before continuing through Baldwin and Black Jack, where they robbed the stage, before returning to Missouri via Gardner. The Walton post office met its end in June 1864, closing its doors permanently. Today, nothing remains of this historic spot on the Santa Fe Trail.

Overbrook: A Town Forged by the Trail

As travelers continued west along the Santa Fe Trail from Rock Creek Springs, they would have passed the location of the present-day Overbrook Cemetery. Today, faint outlines of the trail’s ruts can still be discerned, leading towards the school building. Near the 200 block of Ash Street in Overbrook, a spring once served as a vital watering stop. The trail itself ran westward through Overbrook, following the path of what is now Santa Fe Trail Street. At Sycamore Street, the trail veered slightly north, continuing through the grounds of what is now the Brookside Manor Nursing Home. The Santa Fe Trail then turned north, near the old railroad bridge on Highway 56, west of Overbrook. A windmill stands just west of the bridge, north of the highway, marking the location of Flag Spring, also known as Santa Fe Spring.

Approximately four miles west of Overbrook lay a place known as Boneyard. This grim moniker originated from a tragic incident involving a wagon train of traders caught in a blizzard while attempting to return to Westport (Kansas City), Missouri. While the men were able to reach the safety of the 110-mile Crossing, the oxen perished in the storm. For years afterward, the bleached bones of these animals served as a somber marker for wagons traveling along the trail.

Another Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) marker stands just south of the intersection of Highways 56 and 75. About 1 ½ miles west of the marker was the 110 Mile Crossing. This crossing was named for its distance from the start of the Trail in Missouri, as measured by the survey of 1825.

110 Mile Creek/Crossing: A Crossroads of Commerce and Conflict

Originally known as Jones Creek, the creek was renamed to reflect its distance from Fort Osage, Missouri, as determined by the expedition that surveyed the Santa Fe Trail between 1825 and 1827. In July 1854, the portion of the Shawnee Reserve down to the Sac and Fox Reserve was opened to settlement. Fry P. McGee stopped at 110 Mile Creek on a return trip from Oregon that summer. There, he found three families of mixed-blood Shawnee Indians engaged in farming. On August 2, McGee and his brother Mobillion purchased the crossing site from two white men who had married Shawnee Indian women.

Soon after acquiring the land, Fry McGee’s wife, Martha Booth McGee, and their two daughters joined him at the Crossing, occupying the structures built by the previous owners. Here, McGee provided lodging and meals to Santa Fe Trail travelers. Additional income was generated from a toll bridge constructed over the creek. Records indicate that the crossing fee was 25 cents per wagon, and on some days, as much as $30.00 was collected. The crossing served as a nexus, connecting the Santa Fe Trail to the west, the Fort Scott Road from the southeast, the 110-mile road going north, and a segment of the Mormon Trail that ran northwest to Fort Riley.

The McGees, influential Southerners with previous ties to Westport (Kansas City), Missouri, actively encouraged other Southerners to settle on the headwaters of the Osage River. However, their settlement remained relatively isolated from other pro-slavery communities. Fry McGee became a prominent advocate for pro-slavery sentiment, and his "station" served as a local voting place.

Fry’s brother, Mobillion, also claimed the mouth of Switzler Creek, though he maintained his residence in Westport. Another pro-slavery advocate, C.M. Linkenauger, also established a claim nearby. The wealthy and well-connected McGees persuaded more Missourians to make claims in the area, aiming to secure the new Kansas Territory for slavery. Fry McGee’s daughters had slave servants in their home, and a neighbor kept some 20 or more slaves working a farm nearby, even though Council City (Burlingame), just 8 miles away, was a Free State stronghold.

In November 1854, McGee’s Tavern was one of only 16 voting places for the entire Territory. The location was chosen by Missourians as a strategic point to gather and cast a significant vote on the proposition of whether Kansas should be a Free or Slave Territory. Horace Greeley, in his New York Tribune, described it as the worst point in the whole Territory, with 597 of the 607 votes cast there found by the congressional investigating committee to be fraudulent. The following year, the voting place was moved from McGee to Council City.

On March 30, 1855, the first election was held to elect a delegate to the first Territorial legislature. The day before the election, a large group of armed Missourians arrived at Council City and camped in the woods. They spent the night drinking whiskey, yelling, cursing the Free-State cause, and firing their guns.

On the morning of March 30, the Election Board met at the unfinished log cabin of I. B. Titus. As soon as the polls opened, the Missourians appeared, tore a window out of the cabin, drove away the judges, and appointed others of their group. They then took possession of the polls and drove the Free-State men away. They spent the day drinking, swaggering about, and making threats of violence toward the Council City people. All voted, some of them several times. That night they closed the polls and moved back as far as 110 Mile Creek, where they camped, continued their drunken orgies, and went through the form of counting the votes, declaring Mobillon McGee to be elected by a unanimous vote (about 250). Though he had located a claim the fall before, McGee was then a resident of Westport, Missouri. The following day, the ruffians resumed their march to Missouri.

Governor Andrew Reeder ordered a new election, at which Hollam Rice was elected, receiving 28 votes. Governor Reeder issued a certificate of election to Rice, but upon meeting the legislature, they excluded him and admitted McGee.

On January 9, 1855, 110 Mile Creek gained a post office named Richardson for the original owners. James McClure was appointed census taker for the Territory’s 7th and 8th voting districts early that same year. Governor Andrew Reeder had forewarned McClure of McGee’s radical attitude, which, unfortunately, McClure would find out about firsthand. Upon his arrival at the Fry McGee Tavern and Hotel, McGee engaged McClure in an argument, leading the census taker to spend the night in a log building with no furniture or heat. A few years later, McGee would pay for that mistake in Kansas Territory. In 1857, the raiders looted the 110 Mile Station, and McGee was robbed of all his personal property.

A table of distances published in 18Crossingcrossing provided mail service for crossing travelers, water, wood, grass, coal, and entertainment. Entertainment might have been defined as simply liquor and card playing, but it could also have meant prostitution.

Around the same time, McGee’s daughter married William Harris, and the two settled on the opposite side of the road. McGee and his son-in-law organized a town company named Washington at the station, but the town never developed. However, Harris remained in the partnership until McGee died in 1861. Subsequently, he built a store he operated through 1866 when the Union Pacific Railroad closed the Santa Fe Trail traffic east of Walnut Creek. However, a post office remained here until September 1874, when it closed its doors forever.

Despite its rich history, nothing remains of the McGee-Harris Stage Station at the 110-Mile Creek Crossing. It was about a mile southwest of U.S. 56 (West 157th Street) and Old Highway 75 (South Topeka Avenue).

From 110 Mile Creek, the trail ran southwest through the southern edge of present-day Scranton, Kansas. A DAR marker is located in the northeast corner of Jones Park, two blocks east of Highway 56 on Boone Street.

Burlingame: From Council City to a Trail Town

Before reaching the Santa Fe Trail town of Burlingame, travelers would have crossed Switzler Creek, sometimes called Bridge Creek, on the eastern edge of town. In 1847, John Switzler constructed a toll bridge over the waterway, which remained in operation into the 1860s.

The trail enters Burlingame at the east end of the present Santa Fe Street and proceeds downtown. The original trail is now and has always been the town’s principal street, and several businesses are named after this famous highway across Kansas. Burlingame is the oldest town in Osage County, having been built up from the nucleus and started under the name of Council City in 1855. In 1857, the site was surveyed, which took in a larger area, and the name was changed to Burlingame in honor of Anson Burlingame, who was later minister to China.

During these early years, Burlingame was second only to Council Grove in its importance to getting supplies and blacksmith work done before going west on the Santa Fe Trail. In the center of the town was a fine well, the watering place for miles around in the dry seasons. Improvement in the town was rapid from 1857 until the breaking out of the Civil War. This well was walled around to protect it from attack and ruin during the Civil War. Additionally, a large round fort was built in 1862, and several armed men were stationed to protect the town from destruction threatened by Bill Anderson, one of Quantrill’s guerrilla bands. As soon as peace was restored, the town renewed business activity. A bridge was put across Switzler Creek, sawmills and grist mills were built, and durable buildings, some of them of stone, were erected. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad reached Burlingame in 1869, signaling the end of Santa Fe Trail traffic through the community.

Today, Burlingame’s Santa Fe Street offers a nostalgic panorama with its classic red brick streets, antique-style street lights, and historic brick and stone buildings, a unique reminder of those early Trail days. The vast expanse between the store buildings is reminiscent of the Trail days when the trail was wide enough for the ox-drawn freight wagons to circle as the wagon trains camped to restock supplies and make repairs before heading west. Today, residents park their cars in the middle of the street and at the curb.

The Santa Fe Trail then headed west over the hill and out of town, roughly paralleling Highway 31.

Dragoon Creek & Havana Stage Station: Echoes of the Past

Approximately three miles northwest of Burlingame and north of Kansas Highway 31 lies the Dragoon Creek Crossing, a natural rock crossing point that retains much of its appearance from the Trail days. The creek is believed to be named after a troop of dragoons who traveled over the Santa Fe Trail in the 1850s or possibly for a dragoon, Samuel Hunt, whose grave is located just west.

The site of the old Havana Stage Station is about one mile west of Dragoon Creek and just south of Kansas Highway 31. Reportedly built in 1858, a store and a hotel complemented the station. The site was home to about 50 German and French families in its earliest days. The townsite included six small buildings in addition to the stage station, store, and hotel. The stage station operated as a stop on the main stage line, offering meals and lodging until around 1869, when the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad arrived in nearby Burlingame. The town was abandoned in the early 1870s. Many Germans moved to Alma, and the property was sold for taxes.

Today, only the remains of the stage station are discernible. However, the trail’s ruts or swales can still be seen in the field south of the roadside marker as it continues southwest from the Havana Station.

Samuel Hunt Grave: A Lone Sentinel

The Samuel Hunt Grave is located just north of Kansas Highway 31 and about ½ mile west of the Havana Stage Station site. Private Samuel Hunt, US Army Dragoons, served with Colonel Henry Dodge’s Rocky Mountain Expedition in 1835 and died at this location on the return march to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. This is the earliest known gravesite of a soldier on the Santa Fe Trail.

Soldier Creek Crossing: A Place of Sorrow

Southwest of Samuel Hunt’s Grave, Santa Fe Trail ruts lead to the Soldier Creek Crossing. The creek is reportedly named after an army unit that suffered heavy losses from cholera at this location in 1851.

From Soldier Creek, the trail continues, briefly crossing into Wabaunsee County and the northern edge of Lyon County.

The passage of the Santa Fe Trail through Osage County, Kansas, offers a compelling journey through time. From the bustling Rock Creek Springs to the crossroads at 110 Mile Creek and the enduring legacy of Burlingame, the landscape is imbued with the stories of those who shaped the American West. While much has changed, the faint echoes of the trail remain, inviting us to explore and remember the challenges and triumphs of a bygone era.