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 its vicinity.
“Since the late rains, our farmers carry smiling countenances. The grumblers have concluded that this portion of Kansas Is neither too hot nor too cold. Too dry, nor too wet, too windy, or too calm, since they have heard of the destructions of lives and property in other States by the storm which occurred last month, the day that we shall never forget as the ‘blowy day for Kansas.’
Nonetheless, the grumblers are now saying we are having too much rain.”
A STAR CUS
THE PEABODY GAZETTE
FRIDAY, 11 JUNE 1880
PLUM GROVE, BUTLER CO., KANSAS, FRIDAY, 11 JUNE 1880
PLUM GROVE ITEMS.
EDITOR GAZETTE .- After so long a time, we will send you a few items. First and foremost, the wheat, which the “grumblers” had past redemption two weeks before the rain came, is going to make an
average crop, except that sown on sod which will barely pay for harvesting.
S. M. Spencer is shelling out his big pens of corn. T. S. Ferrier bought 700
bushels of it, and the rest he will send west and give the proceeds to the poor of Plum Grove. As “A Star Cuss” is the poorest man there, I suppose he will come in for a considerable share. We had a slight sensation, Saturday and Sunday last. Many colts came up missing from a pasture over in Clifford township. They were supposed to be stolen, and the Moonshiners (Anti-horse thief league) turned out en-masse. This was too much for the colts, so they returned to the pasture, where they were found on Sunday, right side up.
We are waiting, impatiently waiting for news from Chicago. I used to think a great deal of John A. Login when he commanded the old 15th Army corps. We hate to go back on him now, but he’s a Grant man, and I can’t stand that. Wonder if that very brainy, “A Star Cuss,” has found a better way “to make a few dollars” than to change his politics for that purpose. He’s a brilliant man, but we think he is on the weak side this time.
👉🏻 Harvest next week.
YOURS,
NUM SKULL
𝚨nything for A Quiet LifeΩ 