The Story of Bluff City

To begin, perhaps we should lay to rest a story of a Bluff City that had absolutely nothing whatever to do with the Bluff City that is celebrating a centennial in May 1986. This story is about a fictitious “Bluff City” supposedly located NW of where Anthony is now located, and is in County history and Kansas history and has been written about many times. We will deal with it briefly before going on to our real story.

The story goes back to 1868 when the legislature created Harper county as a geographical division of the state. During the five years that ensued, early historians say the county did not have a single resident. Sometimes a camping area for Indians, otherwise the buffalo, coyote and prairie dog made their home at large. Early in 1873 a scheme was conceived by N. W. Wiggins, a grocer at Baxter Spring, Kansas. With George Boyd and William H. Horner, two “soldiers of fortune”, he laid plans to organize several new counties in southern Kansas. Wiggins sold his grocery to obtain funds and the three conspirators set out for Harper County. They stopped at a point on Bluff Creek, about five miles northwest of Anthony. Here was a log cabin or they built a small frame house, as the case may be, dug a well and started the fictitious “Bluff City” organization. They set up buffalo bones and named the inhabitants from the city directory of Cincinnati, Ohio. A petition was sent, names were listed, a census was taken and 641 names were sent in by John Davis, asking the county of Harper be organized under the laws of the state of Kansas. Names filed on Aug. 20, 1873 and the Governor declared the county organized. In Dec. 1873, $25,000 in bonds were issued as “Court House Bonds” as Bluff City, supposedly the county seat. In 1874 bonds were issued to refund an indebtedness for $15,000. Registered with the state auditor on April 4, 1874. Wiggins, Boyd and Horner proceeded to sell the bonds, pocket the cash and disappear. Nothing more was heard of them in Harper County.

So when the old organization of the county was effected, Bluff City, a bare piece of prairie, several miles northwest of Anthony, was designated as the seat of justice. But only one building was ever erected there, and when the new organization was effected in 1878, Bluff City was almost an unknown spot. At the first meeting of the county commissioners Aug. 26, 1878, they had entered in the records that they had procured conveyance and made diligent search for the alleged city of Bluff City, supposed to be the county seat of Harper County, and that they failed to find town or village, or anything resembling same, and we do not believe there is such a place in Harper county.
So the perpetrators of the fraud used the name “Bluff City” for their scheme and made away with the money, later having interest added to the debt and was owed by the county. So this shows this “Bluff City” had nothing whatever to do with the Bluff City planning the centennial May 24-25, 1986.

To add a bit to this item, however, the first settlers or earliest settlement was near the east line of the county in 1876, and one of the settlers was M. Devore.

The first election in the township was held Aug. 27, 1878 and the voting precinct for Stohrville Township was held at S. G. Reid’s. (See Bluff Creek story). The first commissioner was Francis Singer from this area, appointed by the Governor.