Monument memorializes Indian marker
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
Standing atop a high knoll overlooking Doyle Creek and U.S.-50 about four miles east-northeast of Peabody is a 12-foot high monument built in remembrance of Indians who used the site as a guide in their travels to eastern Kansas. It also is a memorial to T.B. Townsend, founder of Townsend Ranch.
The monument is located about a half-mile south of the highway. It is on private property and is not accessible to the public.
In winter, glimpses of it can be seen from the highway through the bare branches of deciduous trees, but in summer, the leaves of the trees along the creek shield it from view.
The current monument, built in 1927, is one in a series of three which have graced the spot.
The first settlers in the Peabody area saw on a high hill several miles east of town a tall pyramid of rough, native stones. They supposed it was erected by Indians and named it Indian Guide.
Helen Lyon Cooper, who lived in Peabody in the early 1870s, gave a description of the guide marker. It was eight feet square at the base and tapered to a foot square at the top.
Years later, the history of the monument came to light. Three brothers by the name of Holler, who originally lived in the Peabody area, moved to Oklahoma and settled there. Most of the land around them still was owned by Indians as it had been Indian Territory.
One day, one of them entered into a conversation with an Indian who was more than 85 years old. He said he was the great-grandson of Old Chief Black Kettle.
When Holler told him he had come from Peabody, Kan., the man told him the true story of Indian Guide.
He said a tribe of plains Apaches lived in the far west where hunting was plentiful.
One time, the tribe's hunters journeyed far to the east and found a valley full of flint rock for use in making arrowheads and spears. The old Indian said the valley was "in the land the white men call Chase County."
He said the Apache warriors built the original stone pyramid on their way back home so they could find their way back to the prized valley.
Later, the whole tribe returned to the valley and camped "many, many days," according to the Indian. While hunters supplied them with meat and fish from the Cottonwood River, women and arrow makers created a large number of arrowheads, knives, spearheads, and other useful items. Then all returned home.
(In 1967, many Indian articles, mostly broken and unfinished, were found on Roniger's Ranch in Chase County. Speculation is that was the spot where the Indians had camped.)
In the early days, law enforcement officers studied the monument with concern, thinking it could be some kind of an outlaw signal, but they found nothing to support that notion.
Many settlers believed for a time that a rancher named Wilcox, who lived 12 miles south in Whitewater Valley, had marked the area as his exclusive range.
Later, he became friendly with the settlers and was a leader in the Masonic Lodge. The township named Fairplay is said to have been so named because of the change in feeling toward Wilcox.
Around 1900, when T.B. Townsend of Ohio purchased the ranch on which the pyramid sat, he found the pile of stones remaining after sightseers had carried off pieces of it.
Because he was interested in Indian history, he erected a 15-foot monument of concrete and stone with a bronze plate, his name and date inscribed on it.
The present Indian Guide monument was built on the site in 1927 in memory of Townsend by his son. It is made of concrete, four feet square at the base and 12 feet high. It is topped by a flagpole.
The Townsend ranch was sold in 1937 and has seen several other owners since then. At present, it is owned by M.H. Wilson. The ranch headquarters, including a magnificent limestone barn and home, is located to the north of U.S.-50, northwest of the monument site.
Indian Guide Terrace, a low-income apartment complex in Peabody, was named in recognition of the historic monument.
(Sources: Peabody, The First 100 Years, 1971; Marion County Past and Present by Sondra Van Meter, 1972.)
