Horace, the Village of, by Matt Hayes

Horace - The Beginning

TEXT: While the community that would become Horace probably had formed as of March 5, 1892, no post office existed there, or even in Township 15, Range 2 – the six mile by six mile square that would become Tohee Township.  That Chandler News edition, however, contained a short news item regarding J. W. Ferrier of Peabody, Kansas, who would come late to the community but would become one of the often cited members of Horace. By May 27, 1892, Horace was official as it was given its own post office.  The very next week a random event occurred, as if underscoring the fact that other forces, beyond the control of the local people, could make or break the life of a town - even one with a post office.  A cyclone passed through a portion of Tohee Township on June 3, likely sending a chill through the Horace residents’ collective spine.

The first column that described the Horace community came in the July 15 edition of the Chandler News, more than two months after the first column for nearby Ingram.  However, over the next two months, Horace would post four more columns while Ingram posted none.  This was likely due to the energy of the column’s contributor, J. W. Caldwell who wrote into the News regarding local happenings.  Mr. Caldwell was quite energetic in his business dealings, as noted in the end of this first column:  “J. W. Caldwell is postmaster, notary public, and fills several other positions in a manner entirely satisfactory to his neighbors.  Mr. Caldwell represents THE NEWS at Horace, and will receive subscriptions."

In addition to Mr. Caldwell, the other businessmen in Horace were commented upon.  B. (Benoni) Rea was a wagon maker, and the aforementioned jeweler, Mr. Ferrier, was now part of Horace.  Dr. Underwood was the town doctor, and there were two blacksmiths – John W. Murphy and M. H. Carpenter.  Wesley Johnson, an African-American pioneer, was the local carpenter.  The community was augmented by two individuals who were serving at the Iowa Indian mission at nearby Mission - Rev. John F. Mardock and a teacher, Miss Lina Lunt, of Maine.  Finally, it was noted that M.H. Fallis (whose name was actually William H. Fallis) was, like Mr. Ingram of the neighboring namesake town, both a general merchant and the saw mill owner. William Fallis, a Democrat, would later on hijack portions of the Horace community and form a new one at neighboring Mission – which would eventually grow and be renamed in his honor – Fallis.

As part of the "General News" column, the July 15, 1892 edition of the News recorded two important Horace events.  First, it noted that Horace was to get a new store the following week.  This likely was the enterprise that would be run by August Homann and his wife – soon to be residents to the community.  Secondly, it was stated: "There will be a Sunday school convention at Horace, on Thursday, July 21st."  This likely occurred in “the Grove” where many future religious events, led by both local and visiting leaders, would take place.  Strangely, in the same edition, it was stated that while Wellston (a neighbor to Ingram) lost its post office, Mission was given a one, named Mission Church.  Horace’s Rev. Mardock was to be its postmaster.  Within two months, six mile by six mile Tohee Township went from no post offices to two.

Two weeks later the News published the second column covering Horace, entitled “Horace Items.”  It consisted of two stories, the short one noting the good condition of the board of trade road.  The larger item was also more interesting, and pointed to the uneasy relationship between the white and black members of the community.  Black residents, while likely a minority in Horace, may have comprised as much as 40% of the population.  The topic of the longer news item was in itself mundane - the successful elimination of a panther that was eating chickens from local farms.  However, it was noted that white residents initially suspected black residents of stealing their chickens until James Murphy, a white resident, killed the panther.  The column stated, “For some four weeks the chickens around Horace have been missing from first one family, then another, until suspicion was aroused against some colored people and they were accused of taking them.  It must have been the same animal that Murphy killed that took the chickens”.  It is interesting, and I think significant, that the effort was made to not just report the death of a marauding, chicken-eating panther but also to publicly put to rest the earlier racist suspicions.

While Ingram’s Mill was designated the voting place for its precinct in the August 12, 1892 News, Horace was not designated as such for Twp. 15, Range 2 – the voting was to take place in section 15.  This could simply be because Twp. 14, Range 2 was not yet complete (not until the Cherokee Strip run), and did not yet even have a section 15, - which was a standard designation for voting for many other precincts.  Also, since postmaster J. W. Caldwell lived in Section 15 at the time, this location was appropriate to be the precinct voting location.  It is a little funny that Horace was not simply identified as the polling place, but this might underscore how unformed this town was at that point.

The third column was published on August 8, 1892 while the fourth and fifth Horace columns were published in consecutive weeks in September (“Horace Items” on page 5, Sept. 2 and “Horace Notes” on page 1, September 9, 1892).  All three were more newsy than the previous two and as such would reflect a pattern that would continue until the columns ended in 1895.  The news content was varied.  News regarding people ancillary to Horace itself (e.g., “Emory DeFord, of Ingram, is wrestling with a heavy charge of malaria.”) would be included, at times clouding who was and who was not a Horace resident.  Simple things like “John Brown has put up eighty tons of hay” and “Hogs are in great demand on account of the heavy corn crop.” would show up, especially as the subject related to agricultural and business ventures.  Social happenings (“There was a picnic at Mr. Frazier's, near Iowa village, on Thursday, July 28^th”.) and individual’s health  (Mrs. Joel Rogers took violently sick while at the Sunday school union near Horace, and suffered seriously for some four hours with something like sunstroke”.) were common topics.  Also common were reports of the comings and goings of local residents and visitors (e.g., “Mr. and Mrs. Darrough, of Oklahoma City visited at Horace last week.”) - and sometimes permanent goings (“Report says that Rev. John F. Mardock has moved to Shawneetown, where he is in charge of a missionary post.”).  When a local visited elsewhere, it was not uncommon for his musings on the favorable comparison between the Horace area and that which he visited would be printed – “John L. Tailor has just returned from Topeka.  He says Oklahoma is the best place yet”.  Newspapers in these days were shamelessly proud of their communities.  And of course, important family happenings were published, such as, “R. A. Hudson's bland smiles are to be accounted for from the fact that a new boy came to spend 21 years under his guidance."  

These topical elements would repeat over the coming years in the pages of the Chandler News, and, in combination, comprise a rich source of information describing the former workings of the Horace community.

Because this was a Republican newspaper and blacks were then an important Republican voting block, the News gave time to black members of the community in addition to those who were white.  It would also be unusual that the News would identify when news was specific to black citizens, as was the case when one of the items began, “Joseph Thompson, colored, met with a horrible accident….”  In this specific Horace column, those not identified by race were white, but in the inaugural column, Wesley Johnson, the town carpenter, who was African-American, was also not identified by race.  

As noted before, Horace would at times host religious events, both local and larger.  The latter was the case as noted on August 5:  “Rev. Neal, of White Chapel, London, addressed the people of Horace.  Rev. Neal is an enthusiastic and forcible speaker, rivaling the most able pulpit orators."  This likely was a large event necessitating that it be held outside – probably at “the Grove”, which will be highlighted later on.  To host a speaker who was all the way from London in this small town and in a new territory, speaks both to the rising importance of this particular community and the ends to which barnstorming revivalist preachers would go to as they  put together a tour.