Memory’s Storehouse Unlocked
(SUNSHINE AND ROSES)
True Stories
by
John T. Bristow
PIONEER DAYS IN WETMORE
And Northeast Kansas
January - - 1948
WETMORE, KANSAS
and
FRESNO, CALIFORNIA
1005 Ferger Avenue
This 411 page book is a collection of articles that were published in the Wetmore Spectator while and after J.T. Bristow was editor. Bristow was one of the early settlers in the area (1865), before the town of Wetmore was founded and most of the articles deal with events in the latter half of the 19th century. The Overland trail, the Pony Express and a branch of the Union Pacific railroad ran through this area.
The author survived Confederate bushwhackers, prairie fires, rattlesnake bites, smallpox, a locust plague and a Texas steer that kept him treed for several hours. There are stories of Indian fights, murders, ghosts and a vigilante lynching.
I attempted to post the Llewellan Castle chapter on the thread about how people stayed warm in the 18th century. However Hermione was concerned about copyright so I scanned in the whole book and put it on Project Gutenburg. [
www.gutenberg.org]
The Llewellan Castle chapter describes a failed colony attempt by a London company. It was established on a full section (640 acres) near the present town of Goff, Kansas. It was originally divided into 10 acre parcels which the Company thought would make viable farms. Six men were sent ahead to build housing but they only managed to build one eight room house during that first summer. They nearly froze to death the following winter. Even more tragic was the decision to send another man over late in the fall to build fences. That was an impossible task when the ground was frozen solid to a depth of 3 feet.
Bristow self published the book and sent copies to libraries and old friends so it is very rare. In fact my parent’s copy ‘disappeared’ from my mother’s house when she died. Some time later I found a copy for sale on the internet for $150.00.
"The Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil"
-- Sheikh Zaki Yamani
