My Genealogy Hound

CHARLES A. SAUNDERS, dealer in general merchandise, was born in the town of Bridgewater, Oneida County, N. Y., September 26, 1847. He received a liberal education, attended several terms at Chamberlain Institute, Randolph, N. Y., and graduated from Eastman Commercial College in the spring of 1865. At four years of age, he moved with his parents to Chautauqua County, N. Y., where he lived till 1866. In the spring of 1866, he went to Illinois, where he engaged in business for about six years, principally soliciting and collecting for an insurance company, after which time he came to Kansas and was employed by the Missouri River, Fort Scott & Galveston Railway Company as agent at Columbus and other points on the road for about six years. In 1876 he was elected Mayor of the city of Columbus. During his administration, the city indebtedness was reduced from $1,800 to about $800 without making a levy on the taxable property for city purposes for a single cent. It being the first and only administration that had made no levy for city purposes in the history of the city either before or after his administration. In 1877, he was elected County Clerk of Cherokee County, and re-elected in 1879, holding the office four years. In 1879, was the only candidate elected on the Democratic ticket in the county. At the expiration of the second term of office as County Clerk, he engaged in the real estate and loan business. Has been engaged in his present business about one year. The first settlers of Cherokee County believed the Government would extend to them the usual terms of purchase or homestead to their lands; but, instead, the government sold what was known as the Cherokee Neutral Lands, which embraced the lands of Cherokee and other counties, to James F. Joy and the Missouri River, Fort Scott & Galveston Railway Company for $1 per acre. The railroad company placed such a high price on their lands that the settlers refused to purchase and organized a land league to oppose the railroad company. The leaguers would not purchase the land themselves, and, in self-defense, refused to let others purchase at prices and on terms of the railroad company. The government sent troops into the county to guard the railroad. The land question overshadowed all others, and, for a few years, was about all the politics in Cherokee County. This state of affairs was keeping out emigration and retarding the growth of the county. Several committees had been sent to Boston and other places to confer with the railroad officials and try and compromise the trouble, but all had failed to accomplish any good. In January, 1880, Mr. Saunders, with the assistance of two or three citizens of the county, succeeded in effecting a compromise with the railroad company, by which the railroad company agreed to make a large reduction on price of their lands if the settlers would purchase at least 50,000 acres for cash by July 1, 1880. The proposition was accepted by the people, and Mr. Saunders started at once for New York and the East to negotiate a loan for the people to purchase their homes with. The arrangements were so well managed that by July 1, 1880, Mr. Saunders had sold and paid the company for 118,000 acres, he being appointed to manage the business by both the people and railroad company. After many years of trouble and failure to compromise, Mr. Saunders succeeded in arranging a satisfactory settlement of the “vexed land question,” so quietly that none outside of the league knew of it until the matter was all settled, and to him, more than any other person, is due the credit for obtaining for the farmers of Cherokee County their homes and settling a trouble since which has put the county on the highway to prosperity. He is interested in lead and zinc mines in Cherokee County, and owns two good farms in the same county. Also owns an orange grove in Florida of 500 trees. For the past three years he has spent his winters in Florida, and returned to Kansas in the spring. He has traveled over the greater portion of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. He was married to Miss Jessie L. Casselman, of Columbus, Kan., in June, 1874. They have lost their only child— Jay R., who died in August, 1882, aged nearly five years. Mr. Saunders takes an active part in all matters pertaining to the interests of Cherokee County, and is considered one of the leading men of the county.