Truman L. Sturdevant 1877-1945

Memories of Truman L. Sturdevant (1877-1945)

I was born in Binghamton, N.Y. on Sept. 25, 1877. Later that year my parents, George and Tenie Sturdevant, brother Herbert and I came west to near Lawrence, Kansas. In the fall of 1880 we came on down to our future home here in Harper County. The country was all grassland then. My father owned two ponies, a wagon and a crippled cow. We were here only a short time when lightning killed one of the two ponies. We erected a sod house soon after coming. My recollection of the sod house was that it was warm in the winter and cool in the summer. As the roof also was made of sod, it would leak badly after every rain for several hours. My mother would put out pans and kettles to catch the drip. Our fuel for several years was cow chips. Many a wagon load of these chips I have helped pick up. At different times my father and the neighbors would go down in the Strip and bring back a load of Blackjack timber for fuel.

My brother Frank and his twin brother Clarence, were born September 1882 while we still lived in the sod house. Clarence lived only eleven days and was buried in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery, his being the second grave in the cemetery. Jonathan Cantwell’s daughter, Mary Belle was the first grave. Both died in September 1882.

At first, our post office was Caldwell which was sixteen miles east of our home. The post office was soon changed and was known as the Bluff Creek post office. Sam Reed was postmaster. Later the office was changed to a point due east of the present Bluff City and was in connection with a store run by a Jew. At this point is my first recollection of candy. I can still taste that stick candy that Dad bought for Herb and me.

At this time, Indians were very numerous around Caldwell, and cowboys also. There were several killings in and around Caldwell which was known as the Queen of the Border. The cowboys, when sober, were very accommodating, but when drinking were bad men. A few names of the cowboys that I remember were Bob Cross, Quince Hunter, Hank Fogle and Fen Warrensburg.

As I have stated, we came down here in the late fall of 1880. A sod schoolhouse had been built. The district was known as the Pleasant Hill School. In 1881, a frame school building was erected. My father, George Sturdevant was the carpenter in charge of the building. A three month term was the first effort to have a school. Sue Martin was the teacher. This school was situated one-half mile south of the present Bluff City, on the N.W. corner of the Kate Brook farm. It was there that I first attended school. The school district families were, as I remember them to be:

Benny Martin, Jonathan Cantwell, Bill Nelson, John Griffith, Joseph Bruey, SI., James Bruey, Si., Jake Harmon, Jake Seifert, Eckert Peters, Anton Albert, Joe Topinka, Joseph Zeigler, SI., Mr. Small, Mr. Timey, William Frutchey (my uncle), George Sturdevant, David Henline, John Bybee, Bob Cross, Cal McGuire, Ike Miller, Joe Davis, Ben Wilson, Sam Martin, Sam Read, James Burlie, James Kaizer, Bob Johnson, Mr. Kramer, Sam Lahman, Fred Lahman, Frank Kottis, Mr. Williams and Mose Hatfield.

The school teachers as I remember them were: Miss Sue Martin, Miss Rena Huff, Miss Nola Huff, George McMichael, Sumner McGuire, Carrie Newman (my cousin) and Jake Hutchinson.

Schoolmates that I remember were: Mart and Clarence Henline; George, Lem and William Nelson; McGuire boys; Fred, John and Alfred Davis; Gus, Bird, Walt, Bill, Norma and Kate Miller; Bill, Clarence, Homer, Clint, Edd and Mary Cantwell; Nancy Harmon and brother; Burr, May and John Frutchey; Bob Small and brother; Joe Bruey; Charles and Frank Kaizer; Charles Burlie; Charles and Gus Albert; Joe and Andy Topinka; Adolph, Charles, Emil, Pete, Joe and Frank Jelinek; Charles and Jim Lahman; John and Edna Bybee; the Seifert boys; Howard and Effie Bridges.

For community entertainment we had literaries. I remember riding behind an ox team one night to attend the literary. Sure was slow travel.

In 1883, the Christian Church people held services in the Pleasant Hill school, but disbanded for the winter. In 1884 and 1885 they held their services in the Arnold Schoolhouse just north of Bluff City…. now known as the Union Center School District. In 1886 they moved back to the Pleasant Hill School. Mr. Culberson (a Baptist, I believe) was the first minister. There was quite a discussion between the Baptists and the Christian Church people.

Bluff City was born in the fall of 1886. The frame building for the school burned and a new brick building was erected just outside the city limits to the south and is known as District #17. The first Sunday School that I remember to be held in town was in the early 90’s. It was upstairs in the bank building….the upstairs room south of the bank itself. I remember Mr. Bird as one of the teachers. I still have the new testament that my folks gave me at the time.

I remember my first experience in the harvest field. It was on the Seifert farm, (north of Frank Jess’s farm). The horse-drawn reaper had a device that raked the cut grain from the platform, leaving it untied in the field. It was bound up by the men following the reaper. At the dinner table at this harvest I had my first taste of syrup. Good? I’ve been hunting for some like it all my life. I also remember the horsepower threshing machine, also the first steam engine that was hauled in by horses. I can still hear the whistle from that engine.

Correspondent Notation: Sent in by Dorothy Sturdevant Stahl as a contribution from Linda Jess Del Valle (Uncle Truman’s granddaughter). Truman or “T.L.” Sturdevant was a multi-talented man, especially music of many kinds of instruments and vocal. A Christian man, he was Postmaster for nearly thirty-five years as he retired in 1945. He married Elsie Glover and had two children at Bluff City: Harold, a great pianist and organist; and Helen Sturdevant Jess (Mrs. George Jess) and mother of Linda Del Valle and Carol. Helen was also musically talented.