the summer of ‘78: a town is born

the k.c., ft. scott, and Memphis railroad

Each season bears with it a certain feeling that seems to flavor the day. Like in May, at the very end of a school year, when students are clearing out their desks and turning in books, and, in their heads, they are already in that glorious classroom free time called summer. For 10 year old Louise Sherfic, her 10 year old brother Elmer, their classmates Daisy and Margaret McCune it would be a very special summer indeed; for, along with the usual splendor and wonder of summer days, they would experience something especially exciting that summer of 1878: the birth of a town.

It had been a wet spring with heavy storms on May 17, and then, in the next few days, parts of Osage Township would get three and a half more inches of rain. It would make for a difficult wheat harvest that year and some of the corn would be drowned out; but, that’s the way it is in farming: you get what you get and work through it. So, along with the chores that these young Kansans would have to finish, and the coming of a new town, what other excitement could possibly lurk on the horizon for them? How about the building of a railroad - right through their farms and countryside!

The construction of the Kansas City, Ft. Scott, and Memphis narrow gauge railroad occupied the imagination of the youth and the keen interest of adults. “Boss” Proctor, with his sixty teams and wagons, and over 100 workers were making a cut in the grade near the McCune area. All those tents, horses, wagons, and workers formed a town of its own just to the south of where the iron rails and wooden ties would pass through town. To the east, in Cherokee, track was already being laid west out of town. Some of the citizens there were expecting an excursion to Lightning Creek almost any day.

To the west, in a town named Jacksonville, there were four young men, N.M. Smith, Tom Highland, Frank McCaslin, and George McCaslin. They were also aware of, and keenly interested in, the coming narrow gauge. We can’t know whether these young men knew, at the time, that the birth of one town would spell demise for another - but they would know it very soon, and very soon they would all play vital roles in the development of McCune.