Ancient to 1885

Had you visited the townsite of Whitewater 250 million years ago, you would have needed a boat. Kansas at that time was covered by the Western Interior Seaway.1 Invertebrate fossils are common in the limestone deposits that formed the Flint Hills. The limestone, shale and chert (or flint) rocks were left when the seas gradually receded carving valleys out of the sea bottom. Many of the foundation stones used for the early buildings around Whitewater in the 1800s came from limestone pits near Florence, Marion County, Kansas. These stones reflect sediment of the sea bottom. Figure 1 shows an example of fossilized mollusks in a limestone used in construction. As the sea receded, many marine reptiles were also fossilized and can be seen at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History, Hayes, Kansas.

As the waters receded the rivers and hills of south central Kansas were etched into the landscape including the West Branch of the Whitewater River. This territory that was to become Kansas was in the center of the large North American continent. The soils of Kansas reflect its limestone or sea-bottom origins and tend to be alkaline. The rainfall now averages between 29-34 inches per year. The sun shines more than 250 days per year. It tends to be windy and the temperature can oscillate widely in a day from 50° to 105° F reflecting the intercontinental climate. The Whitewater area is in USDA Hardiness Zone 6a and averages 150-180 frost free days per year, ca. April 13 to October 15. The elevation is 1386 feet above sea level.

Had you come to the Whitewater area at the time that Jesus lived in Palestine, you would not have been alone. Native Americans were traversing the area and unfortunately lost a few of their projectile points. Two points have been found on Section 17 just east of town and are shown in Figure 2. These isolated finds are points chipped from Kansas Wreford chert (flint) and depict Late Archaic Williams points (ca. 1000 B.C.E. – 500 C.E.).2

Had you come to Section 18, Milton Township in 1869, you could have offered to help brothers George Peter Neiman and Isaac Howard Neiman construct their log cabin on the southwest quarter, which George homesteaded per the Homestead Act of 1862. See Figures 3 & 4. Born in Pennsylvania, they moved with their parents to Iowa as boys. As youths in their early twenties, they came by covered wagon to the then trackless prairies and became the first settlers of Harvey County in 1869. After only a few months they relocated to the east bank of the West Branch of the Whitewater River, just south of the present town-site of Whitewater.3 The grasses were as tall as the height of a horse’s back.4 At that time, antelope, deer, and prairie chickens were abundant. Although the Neiman brothers may have seen buffalo on the west bank of the West Branch of the Whitewater River facing their log cabin, the buffalo were slaughtered in mass between 1872-1874 for their hides and meat. By 1875, few, if any, buffalo still existed in Kansas.5 However, they were not the first settlers in Milton Township; Milton C. Snorf located on the northeast quarter of Section 36 in 1868. The Neiman brothers did organize the first Fourth of July celebration on the West Branch of the Whitewater River at their place in 1871. The festivities included the usual: patriotic songs, a picnic dinner, and dancing.

The Neiman brothers could have received letters from or sent messages to their concerned relatives remaining in Iowa. In 1869-1870, Towanda was the nearest post office; Towanda was an Indian Trading Post with a post office starting in 1865. A local post office, the Holden Post Office, was initiated on Section 18 in 1871 in the home of B. C. Leveredge as postmaster. After a few years, Thomas H. Storms was appointed postmaster and the office moved to his home on Section 8. Later the post office was moved to the Eton residence on Section 20 and E. T. Eton was appointed postmaster. In 1886 he moved the post office to Brainerd on Section 22 where it remained until closed in August 31, 1907.6 The mail was carried by horseback, wagon, or on foot.

In the late summer of 1876, a group of eight families of West Prussian Mennonites purchased land in Milton Township through C. B. Schmidt, the German-speaking General Agent of the German Department of the Topeka Land Office of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad (a.k.a. Santa Fe Railroad). On January 1, 1870 about 15 percent of the land of Kansas had been given to the railroads by the Federal government through the Land Grant Legislation of 1863 and signed into law by Abraham Lincoln. The Santa Fe Railroad had 3,200,000 acres to sell in order to finance the completion of the expansion of railroads and telegraph lines across Kansas from the Missouri River to the Colorado state line. The state granted to the railroads the odd numbered sections 20 miles on either side of the railroad track, including the Santa Fe right-of-way through Peabody and Newton. This included all of Milton Township. The even numbered sections of land were reserved for homesteading per the Homestead Act of 1862. One of these Mennonites, Bernhard Harder, Sr., purchased Section 17.7 See Figure 5. The Mennonites were good farmers and built large houses and barns and put out orchards and gardens.8 They raised noteworthy horses and cattle. Their word was as good as their bond and they believed in settling their own affairs without resorting to law. Swiss Mennonite families also located to the township and vicinity between 1881 and 1884. Each group maintained a church of their own with services in their native languages. All these people were sincerely devoted to their church and were good neighbors, upright citizens, and had large families of native born American children.9

Contact Us:
P.O. Box 87
Whitewater, KS 67154
Phone: (316) 799-2137