Our Past Is Present July 27, 2018

July 27, 2018

            This is “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.

            Today’s story is titled “The Night The Indians Came."  The information came from a 1934 article in the “Republic” newspaper. 

“The McFarland’s, located in Junction City either in 1861 or 1862.  There were no more than a dozen houses in town.  The only substantial building was the Henry Ganz Store, which was a two story stone building located on the southeast corner of what is now the Bartell House Block.  The building was well built to withstand Indian attacks. 

            At times a hunting party of as many as three to five thousand Indians would go out in the vicinity of Solomon City and return with a load of buffalo meat.

            It was a well know custom that Indians did not travel at night – unless something extraordinary was in their plan.  One night Junction Citians were aroused by a crier telling the people that the wild Indians were going to attack.  Arrangements had been made to rendezvous at the Henry Ganz Store where guns and ammunition were stored.

            We all expected to be annihilated, but the friendly Indians were returning from their hunt, and ran into a band of Cheyenne, their enemy whom they whipped and scalped and were coming back for a war dance.  In those days all the east and west traffic passed by the McFarland residence and that was where the Indians began their celebration.  All the locals survived that scare."

            And… that’s today’s story on “Our Past Is Present from the Geary County Historical Society.