In September of 1854 Charles B. Boynton and T. B. Mason crossed Missouri’s western border into the newly organized Kansas Territory. Their experiences were published one year later in the book, A Journey Through Kansas.

Following a brief visit to Fort Leavenworth the adventurers set out across the prairie. Great care had been taken in procuring supplies to meet any eventuality.

If only we could see today the prairie as they saw it.

Having supposed the prairie to be not unlike Indiana and Illinois, they were staggered to find an utterly indescribable landscape.

“The soul melts in the presence of the wonderful beauty of the workmanship of God.” Mr. Boynton labored at the thought, at the very idea, that the reader could understand the vision that lay before him.

“The Kansas prairies cannot be described — mere words cannot reproduce in another’s mind the impression which the scene has made, but if a man sees them … he feels the poverty of language — he finds no fitting words.”

“The first hour’s ride over the prairies of Kansas spread before us such a picture, varying every moment and beautiful in every change, as we had no previous conception of, and drew from us continued expressions of a delight that would not be suppressed.”

Bounding over the prairie in a two-horse carriage time passed quickly as they envisioned their mid-day stop at a “settlement” said to be nestled in a grove of timber along a clear and bright “living stream.”

Just as predicted, with the mid-day sun overhead they found themselves descending from the high rolling prairie toward a dark green line of trees.

The ambling stream was nearly hidden beneath spreading branches.

Beyond the stream, a field of corn “injured by drought,” feebly offered the promise of a humble harvest.

A barn made of logs and the requisite log cabin stood just beyond the field. A blacksmith shop completed the compliment of buildings that were the “settlement” in its entirety.

The log cabin, being the only manor on the road for many miles, served up “entertainment ... for man and beast” as an Inn and “hotel.”

The travelers had bagged several quails upon their arrival at the stream. A chicken “born and brought up” at the settlement joined the quails in the roasting pan for dinner.

The house was governed by a slave woman.

“She was cheerful, apparently, and with the sole charge of the household, even the hotel bills and funds.”

Inexplicably, Boynton explained that her husband was a free man, but their “bright, intelligentlooking children (were) a little group that neither father nor mother owned — that might at any moment be sold and driven off with the pigs and calves.”

Under the cool overhang of the log hotel’s veranda their hostess spread a white cloth on the earth, “where as yet no dirty floor covered up the natural beauties of the rich soil.”

About the guests dogs looked on in hopes of appropriating a morsel of meat. Strawberries and plumbs freshly picked from nature’s bounty, were served with milk worthy of that delivered by a Cincinnati milkman. The chickens agreed and vigilantly watched, “not always in vain, for a chance to dip their bills in the pan.”

Having staved off starvation in a pleasant frontier manner, the travelers paid 25 cents apiece for their fare and another 25 cents for feeding and stabling each horse. The road beckoned.

A rainy afternoon offered little hindrance to the travelers as they had prepared for the eventuality. “Covered with rubber overcoats we could snap our fingers at the showers, and kept on our course without annoyance.”

Just at sundown the travelers recognized the figure of a horseman silhouetted in the distance against the background of the forlorn sky. A rifle could be seen resting across the front of his saddle. As they drew nearer the countenance of an Indian from one of the local tribes became apparent. He had planted himself squarely in the middle of the road and with a “glittering eye fixed steadily on us” the men feared the stranger was “bent on mischief.”

It was still raining and growing dark as they slowly approached, their revolver, rifle, and doublebarrel shotgun close at hand. When they pulled alongside of the horseman, he called to them in unintelligible words. Repeating his demand, “Chebok, chebok,” but the travelers were ignorant of his request. Finally, he summoned all his knowledge of English and added, “give some,” with signals that revealed his desire for tobacco. Alas, none of the travelers chewed or smoked! Imagine his surprise, for as far as he knew everyone on the frontier carried tobacco. The necessity of an ample supply of tobacco was one eventuality that Boynton and Mason had not prepared for 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.