ROMANCE, LOVE AND TRAGEDY A CENTURY AGO
Almost 100 ears ago, a 12 year old boy by the name of Ezra Adkins was killed by the Indians. It happened June 8, 1869. Because he was an uncle of Mrs. John Shaver a former resident of this community, the story is of special interest.
Anona Blackburn and Nina Engwalll visited Mr. and Mrs. John Shaver at their home in Concordia last week and were told this story.
Mrs. Shaver's grandparents, Homer and Hannah Adkins and their seven children, Homer, Ann, Jennie, Lucy, Ezra, Paul and Achel came from Illinois to Kansas in 1868 in a covered wagon and settled on a homestead on the east side of the Republican River about eight miles northwest of Concordia. Sibley was the nearest settlement.
The boy, Ezra, was tending cattle on the west side of the river, not too far from his home across the river. Indians came, took his pony and when he attempted to escape, they shot him. He had run only about 100 yards. His mother saw this happen.
When it was deemed safe, the family crossed the river and brought the lifeless body to the settlement of Sibley, where burial took place. Today, a large native stone, surrounded by small stones, marks his resting place. However, Mrs. Shaver plans to have a marker placed in the Sibley cemetery.
It was after the Indian scare that the militia was called from Clay Center. They came to Sibley and camped for sometime in the Adkins yard. In this company was a young man by the name of Gerrett Shaffer. He fill in love with the beautiful Lucy Adkins, who later became Rose Myrtle Shaffer's mother. Mrs. John Shaver, as we know her, said her father rode horse back from Clay Center to court his future bride.
John Shaver came with his parents to the Kackley community in 1884 from Missouri. They settled on the farm in Beaver township, 5-miles south and one-half east of Courtland, where his grandson, Irwin Johnson, now lives. There were ten children, four girls and six boys and of the six boys, four were barbers and two farmers. Their school district was No. 99. Mr. Shaver and Mrs. Shaver who now live in Concordia, recalled the old wagon trail that led directly from Kackley northwest to White Rock, also the one which went east to Scandia. It was necessary to ford the river to get there.
John Shaver met Rose Shaffer when she came from her home in Oklahoma to visit her cousin, the Phillips family in Kackley. After a brief courtship, they were married in 1902.
The Shaver's have three children; Harold Shaver, Enid, Oklahoma., Mrs. Edgar Johnson (Velva) Courtland, Mrs. Russel Hanson (Lucene Jamestown, and three grandchildren and seven-great grandchildren.
The grave of Ezra Adkins is in Miller's pasture about one and one half miles northwest of Concordia a few hundred feet west of Highway 81, near old Sibley town.
Ezra Adkin's father was Homer Adkins. Homer Adkins and Lydia Adkins Wilson were sister and brother. Their father and mother are David and Asenath Camp Adkins.
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