Note: The Peabody Gazette gives us some real insight into life in Plum Grove in the late 1870s and early 1880s. In this weekly newspaper, we find columns entitled “Plum Grove Items.” These columns were mostly submitted by two authors. The first contributor signs his name “A Star Cus,” It is easy to deduce from the style the columns are written and the similarity of the name that this is Starchus M. Spencer. The other contributor signs his name “Num Skull.” We are never given a clue as to the identity of Num Skull. In these bi-monthly columns, both of these authors garner a lot of information about the people, the area, and the climate of Plum Grove and vicinity.
PEABODY GAZETTE
February 27th 1880
PLUM GROVE, BUTLER CO., KANSAS, February 27th 1880
EDITOR: Gazette
Plum Grove Items,
I. A. Shriver was the man who did the blowing in the last case tried before our Chief Justice; I. A. is a fair talker, a smooth hog buyer, and we think a proper kind of a man.
👉🏻 Farmers all busy plowing for spring crops.
👉🏻 Montgomery Bros. has nearly completed their shop walls; they intend to be in running order within ten days.
👉🏻James M. Tucker has returned and is now filling the foreman position in S. M. Spencer’s firm.
👉🏻 C. W. Parsells will return to St. Joseph.
👉🏻 Butler county Teachers’ Association met at this place last Saturday
👉🏻 Miss Horner, of Holden, is visiting friends at this place
👉🏻 R. S. Martin is the high constable of Plum Grove.
👉🏻 Wilder & Morgan will commence operations again on the coal hole next Thursday.
Yours,
A St✶r Cus.
𝚨nything for A Quiet LifeΩ 