The drought of 1860 was exceptionally devastating to settlers who had staked their futures in Kansas.

The Kansas (Kaw) River reportedly was so low at Topeka, that the river practically stopped running. The territory was dependent upon river boat traffic to carry passengers and cargo to villages developing along the river. The drought severely limited that development.

The Kansas legislature concluded the Kansas rivers west of the Missouri River were unreliable for commercial transportation. An act declaring the Kansas, Republican, Smoky Hill, Solomon, and Big Blue Rivers unnavigable was approved Feb. 25, 1864.

Railroads, with significant overland advantage, represented the future on the plains.

On the day the legislative act was passed, grading crews for the Union Pacific Eastern Division Railroad reached a point across the river north of Lawrence, Kan. The legislature also addressed the need to bridge the rivers and even place dams on the waterways to further the expansion of the railroads.

The age of mechanization had come to Kansas. Factories, machine shops, mills and grain elevators were in demand, and new machines required mechanical power.

At Lawrence, entrepreneurs were fully aware of the industrial advantage river power could provide.

A dam was built across the Kansas River in 1872. A configuration of cables driven by the power from the water wheels transferred that power from the wheels to Lawrence businesses through a system of connected cable stations.

Unfortunately the dam was initially unstable. An “ice-gorge” gave way during the winter of 1873, washing into and destroying a good portion of the dam. For several years the dam was rebuilt only to wash out every spring. The local economy declined and fell into depression.

But James H. Gower, operator of the Douglas County Flour Mill, recognized opportunity. He purchased the property in 1877 and continued the struggle to make the dam work. Gower died suddenly Nov, 12, 1879, at age 73.

His son-in-law, Justin Dewitt ( J.D.) Bowersock, took control of the business and finally built a dam that withstood the mighty Kaw.

Bowersock’s success gave the businessmen of Lawrence the tremendous industrial advantage that had been predicted. As for Bowersock, farmers for miles around brought wagon-loads of grain to his mill to be ground into flour. That was the intention of John Sweeney when he drove his team and new wagon into town. The wagon was loaded with “grist” (grain intended to be milled was known as grist).

Sweeney unloaded his wagon at the mill before driving downtown to pick up his daughter, Irene, who worked for insurance agent T. H. Kennedy. Following an afternoon in town, Sweeney and his daughter drove to the mill to pick up their flour and bran.

Just as Sweeney drove up to the mill, the Santa Fe passenger train passed through. Thinking the horses might be frightened, Mr. Bowersock rushed out to hold the team. To his surprise the team remained steady and once the train had passed he and Sweeney stepped into the office while Irene remained in the wagon holding the reins to keep the horses in place.

Within minutes another train could be heard approaching from the east. “The team had been so quiet while the passenger train went by that all felt more confidence in them.”

As the second train thundered by, the horses trembled, but stood in place until the bell of the engine rang out. Irene strained to hold them but the horses nervously began to step back toward the mill flume, a reservoir of water diverted from the river to power the water wheels.

Irene’s cry for help brought her father running to hold their heads but, “No power on earth outside of their own brute strength could stop the horses.” The back of the wagon crashed through a light fence. All at once the wagon, Irene, and horses fell 20 feet into the freezing water.

Irene plunged under the water with one horse “floundering” above her. Somehow, she made it to the surface. She could see her father among the crowd of panicked men on the bank above. Seeing the trestlework at the edge of the flume she swam with all her strength toward the ice-covered timbers. In desperation she grabbed at the ice but the ice collapsed and she again sank beneath the surface. When she resurfaced, she felt someone take hold of her hand and several men pulled her to safety.

One horse could not be saved, but the other was rescued and taken to Donnelly’s stables where under the very best care he was “likely to come out none the worse for his cold bath.”

Mr. Bowersock had long intended to build a sturdy rail around the flume. He actually began to construct a barrier that very day. There would be no more wagons in the flume.

Justin Dewitt Bowersock is remembered as “The Master of the Kaw”. The argument can be made that his dam saved Lawrence and shaped it into the city that it is today. But few remember Irene Sweeney and her narrow escape at Bowersock’s Mill on The Way West.

“The Cowboy,” Jim Gray is author of the book Desperate Seed: Ellsworth Kansas on the Violent Frontier, Ellsworth, KS. Contact Kansas Cowboy, 220 21st Road, Geneseo, Kan. Phone: (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.