vicinity, was ever dreamed of, and even before Tom Fortune opened a store there. It seems that the chief promoters of Martinsburg were two brothers named Martin; hence the name. Not much is known concerning them, or what became of them. “Uncle Joe” Potter says that one of them came to his house on one occasion when he and his brother, Marion Potter, were making rails. Martin stood around a while and finally insinuated that they were foolish for working so hard, and in a confidential way, “just the same as told them,” as Mr. Potter expressed it, that they could make lots of money and make it easy stealing horses, whereupon Marion Potter promptly ordered him off of the place, and told him never to return. James Low’s father bought the town site of Martinsburg in the fall of 1855 and moved onto it in the spring of 1856, converting it into a farm. Thus perished Martinsburg. Even the name did not survive in the memory of the settlers, and it was only by accident that it was recently recalled after a lapse of fifty-four years. At an early day the locality became known as Mercer’s Bottom, after Joe Mercer, one of the earliest settlers, and it is known by that name today. It is not known what became of Mercer. James Low says the last time he saw him was in Denver, in 1859. Mercer was a queer character. It is told of him that he lived in a little cabin and subsisted principally on mussels, which he found in Stranger creek. Alex Hayes, the Martinsburg storekeeper, has also been lost trace of, but Dick King says there was an oldtimer named Alexander Hayes, who died many years ago and was buried in the Sapp graveyard at Oak Mills. The town site of Martinsburg was a favorite camping place for soldiers and emigrants passing over the old Military road in the early days on account of the fine spring, the large meadows and the protection of the hills around it. To catch this tide of emigration was, in all probability, the object of those pioneer town projectors in selecting this site. BUNKER HILL. There appears to be no data available which enables the historian to determine exactly where this town was located, but a prospectus publication March 18, 1858, in _Freedom’s Champion_, states that it was on Independence creek, within ten miles of Atchison and twenty-five miles of St. Joseph. Its chief promoter was Dr. Charles F. Kob, of Atchison. Dr. Kob was a German physician and surgeon, who located in Atchison at an early date. He had been a surgeon in the army, and a member of the Massachusetts and Connecticut medical societies. He lived and practiced medicine in Boston for some time. About the only advantage for Bunker Hill, set forth in the prospectus, was that coal was found around the place, but Bunker Hill never seemed to have any coal in her bunkers. She failed to flourish and no Bunker Hill monument perpetuates her memory. LOCUST GROVE.