Memory's Storehouse Unlocked, True Stories: Pioneer Days In Wetmore and Northeast Kansas
John Locke · en
Bob Ridley (Robert Sewall) brought his colorful record with him when
he came to Wetmore. Here, he was just like everyone else—maybe a little
more so. He took life easy, did not brag overly much about his past
exploits. Early in his career as stage driver on the Overland Trail, he
fell into the habit of helping a red headed girl wait table at Mrs. D.
M. Locknane’s celebrated eating house just west of Granada, grabbing
bites now and again from his plate in the kitchen, as he worked, all
through the twenty minute stops—and when this got monotonous he pepped
up matters by grabbing the redhead, all in one take. He married Cicily
Locknane—and established her in an eating house of their own at a
station in the Little Blue valley west of Marysville, while he himself
continued driving stage. But the frequent Indian raids in that section
soon sent Cicily back to her mother at Granada. Then, when there was no
more stage driving, Bob and Cicily moved down from Granada to Wetmore.
Their activities here have been noted in other articles. Robert Sewell
died in 1884.
J. T. B.
The Overland Trail, along which the mighty traffic of the plains moved,
was first laid out from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Kearney in 1849. The
road was definitely established in 1858, with a weekly mail route from
Saint Joseph to Salt Lake. In its settled state, the line ran daily from
Atchison to Placerville, and Sacramento, California.
Prior to that the route through this section was used by gold-seekers,
following the discovery of gold in California in 1849. It was used by
emigrants, trappers, and adventurers coming from the East. Military
stores from Fort Leavenworth to the posts in the northwest were handled
over this trail. Also, freighting by ox-train was carried on extensively
from Leavenworth to the Mormon settlements in the Salt Lake valley.
Mormons, too, may have traveled the road. And, as has been asserted in
print, Mormons there might have been who camped in a clump of timber a
few miles west of Atchison, causing it to be locally known as “Mormon
Grove.” Straggling Mormons, maybe. But not the main exodus. Contrary to
fixed assumption, the great migration of Mormons to the Salt Lake valley
in 1847 did not pass this way. Driven out of Missouri, they went to
Illinois; and again driven out of Illinois, they traveled through Iowa,
crossed the Missouri river at Council Bluffs and did not touch ground on
which the Old Trail was subsequently established until they reached the
Platte valley at or near Fort Kearney. The offense that had so incensed
the righteous citizens of Missouri and Illinois was flagrant polygamy.