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, 09 JULY 1880
PLUM GROVE, BUTLER CO., KANSAS, FRIDAY, 09 JULY 1880
PLUM GROVE ITEMS.
EDITOR GAZETTE – On the night of the 3d inst. this portion of the country was blessed with the heaviest rainfall that fell here during the past four months. As a result, our farmers now say that the corn crop is safe.
👉🏻 The 4th was celebrated by the Christian people in this vicinity on Sunday. By attending worship at Mr. Rowlands grove, Mr.Tenney of Peabody preached two very able discourses, which ere listened to very attentively by the Congregation.
👉🏻Mr. Geo. Ogden sold his lot of nice steers to Mr. John Daily. Mr. Daily says he is bound to send out the best lot of cattle that has ever gone from Butler county next spring.
👉🏻 Stark Spencer will sow 40 acres to wheat this fall notwithstanding the edict put forth by the great I am, i.e., I. A. Shriver. But, Shriver, could not you donate a corn sheller and that old thresher and have a small bonfire on your own account? We think that some of the farmers would appreciate that kind of a bonfire.
👉🏻 Mr. M. C. Snarf is the man who will run the store at Plum Grove; S. M. S. has stepped down but not out. So “Num Skull,” come to the front, and report the items that transpire at Plum Grove and vicinity as this will be the last from “A Star Cus,” headed, Plum Grove items, for some time to come, my next maybe from the summit of the Rocky mountains or it may be from one of the Peaks of the green mountains in Vermont.
To all correspondents of the GAZETTE, let me exhort you to be more punctual in filling the space allotted to you by the filing editor. In so doing, you will receive the blessings of,
A ST✬R CUS.
YOURS,
𝚨nything for A Quiet LifeΩ 