Comanche County History
Comanche County was settled well over a century ago. Coldwater, Protection and Wilmore survive out of the twenty named towns and county post offices. The locations of some of these "ghost" towns are now marked only by cemeteries.
Indians were the earliest residents of the region. Books and legends help preserve the spirit and heritage of the Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne, Arapahoe and Plains Apaches who once camped along the streams and hunted bison on the prairie. Artifacts are still being unearthed today bearing proof of the region's ancestors.
Indians were the earliest residents of the region. Books and legends help preserve the spirit and heritage of the Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne, Arapahoe and Plains Apaches who once camped along the streams and hunted bison on the prairie. Artifacts are still being unearthed today bearing proof of the region's ancestors.
Agriculture has always been a mainstay of Comanche County's economy. Annual livestock and crop production totals about $25 million.
Countless hours of research by the Comanche County Historical Society has produced two Comanche County History books. These books are full of interesting information and history of the entire county along with pictures of events and life as it was when the county was settled over 125 years ago. Some of the stories that will follow are taken from these books. Stories will be changed periodically to stimulate interest in the website.
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The Comanche County Pool, organized back in 1877, was perhaps the largest cattle outfit in Kansas. In its heyday, the pool took in all of Comanche County and parts of the neighboring counties on all four sides. Cowboys rode the range and spent the night in "dugouts" or "soddies" built about a days ride apart. Some of the dugouts are still found on some private property in the county.
By 1881 fifteen cattlemen had joined the pool and ran their herds together, making a herd of 80,000 head. When running together, it cost about $1.00 a year to keep each head of stock. The pool broke up in 1885 when Comanche County adopted the "Herd Law" requiring land to be fenced. You can find lots of information about the Comanche County Pool at the museum in Coldwater.
STORIES IN HISTORY
Comanche County Historical Society 1981 quotes:
Coldwater was first a dream of a group of men from Harper County who wanted to start a county seat town. C.M. Cade, one of the founders, related the story of the town's beginning in the Western Star in 1921:
Comanche County Historical Society 1981 quotes:
Coldwater was first a dream of a group of men from Harper County who wanted to start a county seat town. C.M. Cade, one of the founders, related the story of the town's beginning in the Western Star in 1921:
"In the spring of 1884, there assembled in the office of Sam Sisson, George Vickers, Tim Shields, J. Paul Grove and myself. We decided to go through on the Kansas line by Kiowa to a centrally located point east and west of Comanche County, where we would get a corner and survey north and locate a town near the center of Comanche County. Mr. Vickers being a civil engineer, our party had a little grub, a shotgun to kill game, the necessary medicine for snakebites, and a surveyor's outfit.
When we got to Kiowa, we went through Nescatunga, a new town started by some people from Medicine Lodge, aiming to make it the county seat of Comanche County. The cattlemen and the cattle had destroyed all the government surveyors' marks except a few township lines, which we could find now and then. So we went south to the state line between the Cherokee Strip and the Kansas line in the Indian Territory, Vickers being the surveyor and the rest of us the chain carriers and the flagmen. So we started to survey north.
The chain carriers, after they had worked half a day and had taken lunch and gone back to work, came to the conclusion that there was a great danger of rattlesnakes, so they would take a little of the snake medicine which they had with them, and then it was 'stick, stuck' until they had to change pins, and when they did that, of course they would take a little medicine for snake bites. So about three o'clock in the afternoon, the chain carriers got tired and took a nap. When they woke up, one said to the other, 'How many chains?' He said, 'Forty-eight.' The other said it was fifty-eight or something of the kind, so they split the difference.
On a piece of school land where we found this township corner was C.C. Tincher, who was a member of the Nescatunga Township Company, but after he took a meal with us and partook of the necessary snake medicine, he abandoned his comrades at Nescatunga and joined our townsite company, I paying his way in. We surveyed over Coldwater and found just below us on Cavalry Creek, where we had camp for water, Mr. C. D. Bickford, who was also figuring on a townsite. He was from Coldwater, Michigan, and told us that if we would let him name the town, he would give up his townsite project. That is the way the town was named Coldwater. We left all the land around Coldwater for the settlers. We took a section for the townsite."
When they came to the center of what was supposed to be Comanche County, they had missed it a mile and a half. They went east then, heard of a township corner and stayed all night; and then surveyed from that corner to the present town site.
Bonnie and Clyde in Comanche County, Kansas: (taken from Comanche County History book and The Western Star Newspaper)
On September 4, 1933, Alva Trummel was returning in his Chevrolet car from the Sun City rodeo, and when within a mile and a half of home, he was suddenly stopped by a car which stood across the road, and in which there were three men and one woman. The men displayed a machine gun and two automatics and ordered Alva to turn over his car to them.
The Western Star, 8 Sept 1933, Headline reads: Alva Trummel Kidnapped by Bandits: Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker: the infamous Bonnie and Clyde. Most everybody who reads the daily papers is familiar with some of the capers of the "bold, bad men" who have been at large during the past few months. But among Comanche-co. people, it remained for Alva Trummel, who lives six miles east of Wilmore on the former Sombart place, to have some actual experience with a bunch of bandits. Here is the way it happened:
On Monday afternoon of this week, as Mr. Trummel was returning in his Chevrolet car from the Sun City rodeo, and when within a mile and a half of home, he was suddenly stopped by a car which stood across the road, and in which there were three men and one woman. The men displayed a machine gun and two automatics and ordered Alva to turn over his car to them.
They left the car in which they had been riding - an old Ford which they had stolen near Meno, Okla. - and all got into Mr. Trummel's car and they drove on west past Alva's home. His wife, who was in the yard, saw the car go by, and thought it must be their car, but, of course, could not stop it. Alva told the men to take his car and let him out at home, but they told him to "duck down" and he "ducked" without hesitation. The bandits (for it is evident that they were trying to get away from officers who wanted them to answer to the charge of committing some crime) drove the car to the Herd corner near Coldwater, then north to near the county line and west to the Pleasant Ridge school house. There they stopped long enough to break in the door and steal some towels, buckets, rope, etc.
Then they proceeded on to Meade, but, near Meade, the unexpected happened. One of the bandits was driving the car. The woman, presumed his wife, was badly wounded, having been shot in one leg. The driver started to move an automatic to make the woman more comfortable and as he did so the car slipped into a deep mud hole along the newly graded road. They were unable to drive the car out of the mud hole and commandeered a small car when it was unable to pull the Chevrolet out of the ditch.
One of the bandits was ordered to go to the town park nearby and commandeer a large car. The man went to a car in which a woman was sitting and told her to keep quiet and turn the car over to him. Instead, the woman screamed and some croquet players nearby grappled with the bandit, but could not get his gun way from him. A woman grabbed a croquet mallet and struck the bandit and he was overpowered. The other bandits, seeing the hard luck of their pal, drove away in the small car - nobody knows where, as yet. The third bandit was arrested and placed in the Meade jail. Thus it happened that Mr. Trummel was left alone with his car. With the aid of some Meade people, he got his car out of the ditch and, the next day, returned home, unharmed. Meanwhile, his wife and neighbors had been making a thorough search for him, at least up to late Monday night when Alva phoned his wife from Meade - and she fainted when she heard the good news.
In Tuesday's issue of the Dodge City Globe, the following statement by Mr. Trummel was printed: "They needed more room and I had it," explained A. E. Trummel, rancher from Wilmore, Kans., who was kidnapped Monday afternoon by four bandits, including a wounded woman, who previously had escaped from officers in a gun fight at Enid, Okla.
Mr. Trummel was in Meade Tuesday morning, where his car was stalled in a ditch by the bandits at 9 o'clock Monday evening, after which they commandeered a Chevrolet coupe from Alvin Gerber of Fowler, whom they had called from a picnic to help get them out of the ditch.
"I was going home from the rodeo at Sun City and I was within a few miles of my ranch ten miles east of Wilmore, when they stopped me," Mr. Trummel said. "The three men drew a machine gun and automatics on me as they stopped me along the road. I have a Chevrolet sedan. They were driving a Ford roadster they had stolen in Oklahoma, the fourth car they had taken in their flight, I later learned. The woman was badly hurt. She had a badly lacerated leg and several cuts, and I thought she acted as tho she may have been hurt internally. The three men also had minor injuries. They said they ran into a place where a bridge was washed out north of Alva, Okla.
They said something about a clash with officers in Oklahoma, and the papers this morning said it was at Enid. They didn't talk much on the road.
They did the driving. The driver ran into a ditch right by the park and stalled my car. They tried to get it out and then one man went over into the park to see if he could pick up a car. The others called some Fowler people to help get my car out of the ditch. The Fowler boys went to work, but I said I wasn't so anxious to get them out, because it was my outfit. Then about that time we heard all the commotion over in the park and they put a machine gun on the Fowler boy and took his Chevy coupe. They loaded the injured woman and their guns into the car and took off.
They didn't offer to take any one with them and I was glad I was out of the mess with my car, even if it was stalled in the ditch.
On Tuesday, Sheriff W. T. Giles of this county brought the car to Coldwater that had been left by the bandits east of Wilmore. Judging from the blood in the car, it is evident that the woman in the car with the bandits was badly injured. The owner of the car, an Oklahoma farmer, came to Coldwater on Thursday and after identifying the automobile, drove it home.
The other bandits, seeing the hard luck of their pal, drove away in the small car - nobody knows where, as yet. The third bandit was arrested and placed in the Meade jail. Thus it happened that Mr. Trummel was left alone with his car. With the aid of some Meade people, he got his car out of the ditch and, the next day, returned home, unharmed. Meanwhile, his wife and neighbors had been making a thorough search for him, at least up to late Monday night when Alva phoned his wife from Meade - and she fainted when she heard the good news.
On September 4, 1933, Alva Trummel was returning in his Chevrolet car from the Sun City rodeo, and when within a mile and a half of home, he was suddenly stopped by a car which stood across the road, and in which there were three men and one woman. The men displayed a machine gun and two automatics and ordered Alva to turn over his car to them.
The Western Star, 8 Sept 1933, Headline reads: Alva Trummel Kidnapped by Bandits: Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker: the infamous Bonnie and Clyde. Most everybody who reads the daily papers is familiar with some of the capers of the "bold, bad men" who have been at large during the past few months. But among Comanche-co. people, it remained for Alva Trummel, who lives six miles east of Wilmore on the former Sombart place, to have some actual experience with a bunch of bandits. Here is the way it happened:
On Monday afternoon of this week, as Mr. Trummel was returning in his Chevrolet car from the Sun City rodeo, and when within a mile and a half of home, he was suddenly stopped by a car which stood across the road, and in which there were three men and one woman. The men displayed a machine gun and two automatics and ordered Alva to turn over his car to them.
They left the car in which they had been riding - an old Ford which they had stolen near Meno, Okla. - and all got into Mr. Trummel's car and they drove on west past Alva's home. His wife, who was in the yard, saw the car go by, and thought it must be their car, but, of course, could not stop it. Alva told the men to take his car and let him out at home, but they told him to "duck down" and he "ducked" without hesitation. The bandits (for it is evident that they were trying to get away from officers who wanted them to answer to the charge of committing some crime) drove the car to the Herd corner near Coldwater, then north to near the county line and west to the Pleasant Ridge school house. There they stopped long enough to break in the door and steal some towels, buckets, rope, etc.
Then they proceeded on to Meade, but, near Meade, the unexpected happened. One of the bandits was driving the car. The woman, presumed his wife, was badly wounded, having been shot in one leg. The driver started to move an automatic to make the woman more comfortable and as he did so the car slipped into a deep mud hole along the newly graded road. They were unable to drive the car out of the mud hole and commandeered a small car when it was unable to pull the Chevrolet out of the ditch.
One of the bandits was ordered to go to the town park nearby and commandeer a large car. The man went to a car in which a woman was sitting and told her to keep quiet and turn the car over to him. Instead, the woman screamed and some croquet players nearby grappled with the bandit, but could not get his gun way from him. A woman grabbed a croquet mallet and struck the bandit and he was overpowered. The other bandits, seeing the hard luck of their pal, drove away in the small car - nobody knows where, as yet. The third bandit was arrested and placed in the Meade jail. Thus it happened that Mr. Trummel was left alone with his car. With the aid of some Meade people, he got his car out of the ditch and, the next day, returned home, unharmed. Meanwhile, his wife and neighbors had been making a thorough search for him, at least up to late Monday night when Alva phoned his wife from Meade - and she fainted when she heard the good news.
In Tuesday's issue of the Dodge City Globe, the following statement by Mr. Trummel was printed: "They needed more room and I had it," explained A. E. Trummel, rancher from Wilmore, Kans., who was kidnapped Monday afternoon by four bandits, including a wounded woman, who previously had escaped from officers in a gun fight at Enid, Okla.
Mr. Trummel was in Meade Tuesday morning, where his car was stalled in a ditch by the bandits at 9 o'clock Monday evening, after which they commandeered a Chevrolet coupe from Alvin Gerber of Fowler, whom they had called from a picnic to help get them out of the ditch.
"I was going home from the rodeo at Sun City and I was within a few miles of my ranch ten miles east of Wilmore, when they stopped me," Mr. Trummel said. "The three men drew a machine gun and automatics on me as they stopped me along the road. I have a Chevrolet sedan. They were driving a Ford roadster they had stolen in Oklahoma, the fourth car they had taken in their flight, I later learned. The woman was badly hurt. She had a badly lacerated leg and several cuts, and I thought she acted as tho she may have been hurt internally. The three men also had minor injuries. They said they ran into a place where a bridge was washed out north of Alva, Okla.
They said something about a clash with officers in Oklahoma, and the papers this morning said it was at Enid. They didn't talk much on the road.
They did the driving. The driver ran into a ditch right by the park and stalled my car. They tried to get it out and then one man went over into the park to see if he could pick up a car. The others called some Fowler people to help get my car out of the ditch. The Fowler boys went to work, but I said I wasn't so anxious to get them out, because it was my outfit. Then about that time we heard all the commotion over in the park and they put a machine gun on the Fowler boy and took his Chevy coupe. They loaded the injured woman and their guns into the car and took off.
They didn't offer to take any one with them and I was glad I was out of the mess with my car, even if it was stalled in the ditch.
On Tuesday, Sheriff W. T. Giles of this county brought the car to Coldwater that had been left by the bandits east of Wilmore. Judging from the blood in the car, it is evident that the woman in the car with the bandits was badly injured. The owner of the car, an Oklahoma farmer, came to Coldwater on Thursday and after identifying the automobile, drove it home.
The other bandits, seeing the hard luck of their pal, drove away in the small car - nobody knows where, as yet. The third bandit was arrested and placed in the Meade jail. Thus it happened that Mr. Trummel was left alone with his car. With the aid of some Meade people, he got his car out of the ditch and, the next day, returned home, unharmed. Meanwhile, his wife and neighbors had been making a thorough search for him, at least up to late Monday night when Alva phoned his wife from Meade - and she fainted when she heard the good news.
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