Rediscovering The Village
Webster County was opened to homesteaders in 1870. In 1872, the village site was homesteaded and placed under cultivation.
In 1875, Elizabeth Johnson discovered the remains of a Pawnee village in Republic County, Kansas. She thought that it might be the site of Pike's flag incident; but hearing of another village in Webster County, Nebraska, she dispatched her husband and another man to investigate this site. Because the surface had been altered by cultivation, they found little evidence of habitation, and Johnson was persuaded that the Republic County site was Pike's village. She prevented its being plowed on several occasions, and eventually purchased the land.
Johnson's claim was supported by Elliott Coues, who had edited Pike's journal; with his endorsement, it was accepted by the Kansas State Historical Society. In 1901, Johnson donated the land to the state of Kansas, which built a 26-foot (7.9 m) granite monument commemorating Pike's symbolic triumph over Spain. At the dedication of the monument, several of the speakers drew parallels between the Pike episode and the recent American victory in the Spanish-American War. In 1906, a four-day festival was held to celebrate the centennial of the flag incident.
Read more about this topic: Pike-Pawnee Village Site
Famous quotes containing the word village:
“To fair Fidele’s grassy tomb
Soft maids and village hinds shall bring
Each opening sweet of earliest bloom,
And rifle all the breathing spring.”
—William Collins (1721–1759)