City of Fairway History

By Fairway Folks

Just in time for the 70th anniversary of the city!

A wonderful and fascinating history of the city of Fairway, Kansas, commissioned by the city to celebrate the American Bicentennial in 1976, and written by several prominent local residents. Starting from early Native American tribes before settlers came, it then covers the early settlers, the local area's role on the Santa Fe trail, the Shawnee Indian Mission to help educate the Native Americans, the "Bloody Kansas" statehood conflicts surrounding slavery and the civil war, the growth of the area in the 1900s, to ultimately becoming a new city in 1949, with all the growing pains that entailed. Biographies are included of the authors, five couples who were early city residents and who helped found and govern the city, who share their anecdotes and memories of the early days.

Long out of print (and likely a limited print run initially), it has been brought back to life by a grandson of some of the authors after a happenstance contact by the current owner of the Fairway house his grandparents built. The book has been carefully digitized to reproduce the original, preserving its charming character and appearance.

A delightful read for anyone who enjoys Americana, histories, or has ties to Fairway.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ReAnimus Press
• Release date: Nov 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463232620

Book preview

Publisher’s Note

I hope you find this small book as interesting as I do. My grandparents (Roy & Edna Burt) helped write it in 1976. Although I never lived in Fairway, I have many fond memories of summers and holidays visiting their house, which was one of the first built in the area, around 1930. So, when the current owner of the house recently contacted me asking for anything historical I might have, I remembered this book. Since I own a publishing business that happens to specialize in bringing out of print books back to life, including many history titles, it seemed a natural fit for ReAnimus Press to make this fascinating book available again.

We’ve attempted to reproduce it as faithfully to the original as possible. Virtually nothing has been changed from the original, except for correcting a handful of obvious typos (no spell check back then!) and replacing one of the illustrations. The map of the Kansas Nebraska territories by Chapter IV unfortunately wouldn’t digitize well, so a close likeness has been substituted. Everything else is as-is from the original.

For those living in Fairway or having ties there, I hope this book brings you as much enjoyment as it’s given me.

—Dr. Andrew Burt

ReAnimus Press

www.ReAnimus.com

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PREFACE

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This booklet entitled HISTORY... together with its smaller companion, ORDINANCES... resulted from our desire to celebrate this Bicentennial Year in a manner that would be heritage-oriented and leave some sort of legacy behind, yet would NOT be a stuffy museum-like piece.

With that objective in mind, we rejected the usual short-lived kinds of activities, which appear to be in vogue with other cities, such as... festivals, parades, picnics, extravaganzas, politically-oriented speeches, commercialized souvenir items, etc.

Instead, we chose to compile a home-grown version of a history of Fairway. It is literally home-grown in the sense that no professional or outside help was involved in the entire endeavor. It was ALL done by just Fairway folks. Possibly it would have been more technically accurate from a pure historical point... maybe more interesting from a narrative point, or... probably more polished from a professionally written point. But what seems, to me, to be more important is that, as it now exists, it is something that has been done just for you and for me by some of our friends and neighbors, people who preceded almost all of us to this community, now known as the City of Fairway. It comes to us as the result of hundreds of hours of effort and filled to overflowing with their personal dedication to the project.

I hope that each of you reads this and shares my special thrill with its significance even more than its contents.

So it is my pleasure to present this History to you, on behalf of all those who made it possible, as the City of Fairway’s official endeavor to mark the American Bicentennial of 1976.

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Neale R. Peterson

Mayor

MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL

Mark A. Anderson

Mary E. Ballinger

Leroy E. Campbell

Gordon M. Grohman

Clifford N. Jarrett

Harry A. Shinkle

Robert L. Stutz

Mark A. Viets

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Daughters of the Chief

Artist: MARY CAMPBELL

Chapter I

EARLY INDIAN TRIBES

The early inhabitants (1600-1800) of what was to become Kansas in later years were the Kansa or Kaw Indians, living in the lower Kaw valley. South of them, toward the borders, were the Osages. In the north central area along the Republican River were the Pawnees while straight west from there were the Arapahoe and Cheyenne tribes. The southwestern area was occupied by the Comanches, Kiowa and Kiowa Apache tribes. In the central part, approximately where there is now a city of the same name, were the Wichitas, also known as the Quiveras.

In early 1540, a Spanish explorer named Don Francisco Vasquez de Coronado led an expedition from northern Mexico seeking the fabled cities with streets paved with gold. Led on by an Indian slave who professed to know where these riches were, they moved north and east, eventually reaching central Kansas in the summer of 1541. At first the natives were frightened by men on horseback, having never seen a horse previously, but gradually overcame their fears and became co-operative. In later years the Indians became expert horsemen and were able to use the horses to great advantage in their search for game and food and their greater mobility contributed to the nomadic nature of the Indian, and the change in the basic cultural life of the Plains Indians from pottery-making farmers into hunters.

Coronado found nothing except a country populated by poor, practically naked Indians and no gold or silver. Feeling betrayed by the Indian slave who had guided them on this fruitless expedition, he was killed and shortly thereafter Coronado started the return journey to Mexico. The Spaniards were impressed by the fertile valleys and immense herds of buffalo. While there were a few small parties of friars and soldiers who returned to the Pueblo country in the southwest from 1581 to the end of the 16th century, there is no record of any further exploration of Kansas by the Spanish.

Late in the 17th and early in the 18th centuries, French explorers and traders reached Kansas and Missouri, but they were interested principally in fur trading with the Indians. The French established forts and trading posts and St. Louis became the base of operations for the fur trading industry. Their operations took them as far as Santa Fe using routes later to be incorporated into the famous Santa Fe Trail.

President Thomas Jefferson purchased Louisiana from the French in 1803 and the following year Lewis and Clark were commissioned to explore the northern part of the land purchased. Their travels up the Missouri River took them close to Johnson County, but it is not likely that they actually visited this area. In 1806, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike was sent by the government to explore the southern part of the purchase. Famous Pike’s Peak was named in his honor.

Meanwhile, relations between the white people and the Indians had reached a point where there was beginning to be hope that there could be peace between the two factions, but relentless pressure from the whites kept growing to