thought nothing of taking an occasional trip to Kentucky on horse

back.

William Ferril, the grandfather of William C. Ferril was born in Kentucky, in 1798, and was a boy only about 12 years of age when Cooper's fort was built. He was the Rev. William Ferril, for many years a Methodist minister in the Missouri conference. His son, the Rev, Thomas Johnson Ferril, the father of William C. Ferril, was born at Independence, Missouri, in 1831, and is still a member of the Missouri Conference of the Methodist Church, and is now the only active member remaining of that conference when it included the states of Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and Texas. The Rev. William Ferril married Miss Elizabeth Clemens, daughter of Thomas Clemens, of Kentucky, and located at Independence, now a suburb of Kansas City, many years before the latter city was thought of. Independence was then the frontier town on the border of the Wild West, where the freighters outfitted for the Santa Fe trail. The Rev. William Ferril helped to drive the Mormons out of Independence. He, and John M. Chivington, who was later known as the fighting Methodist parson in Colorado, were members of the Missouri Conference of the Methodist Church when the slavery agitation began, and afterwards braved the mob and threatened violence of that period. A short time before his death, in Cass County, Missouri, a crowd of about fifty men came to the residence of the Rev. William Ferril to mob him, or drive him out of the state, because of his loyalty to the Union. He stood on the porch, rifle in hand, to meet them, but they did nothing more than to make threats. Some of the Younger Brothers, Jesse James and others happened to be in the vicinity and heard of it. They hastened to his residence, and calling him out told him that he could live there in peace as long as he wished. One of them, whom some have thought was Dick Mattox, a Lieutenant of Quantrells, said, "Parson Ferril, you have performed the marriage ceremony of the fathers and mothers of this neighborhood; buried our dead and preached their funeral sermons, and we will give orders to have you left alone." He was thus permitted to live and die in peace, and on his tombstone, in the country church yard, his children have placed the following inscription: "He was loyal to his country and to his God." The most of the Ferril family sympathized with the South, and fought in the Confederate army. The Rev. Thos. Johnson Ferril, though was an exception, for he was a prominent free-state preacher in the border-ruffian days of Kansas. His cousin, Hiram Ferril, a son of Henry Ferril, was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Confederate service with General Marmaduke, and was often commended by him and Gen. Joe Shelby for gallantry on the field of battle. The grand-children of those pioneers of 1807-10 fought in both armies in that great conflict. The Rev. T. J. Ferril preached the first Methodist sermon in Lawrence, Kansas, and before the next Sabbath the old sod church was torn down, and the first time the people of Lawrence,

Kansas armed themselves against the border ruffians was to defend the home of the Rev. T. J. Ferril, whose loyalty and fearless support of the Union greatly aroused the pro-slavery element. This event was on the 30th day of September, 1854. John Speer, the fearless editor of the Lawrence Tribune, and Governor Robinson, gave the warning, and helped to supply the rescuing party with arms. The borderruffians were already preparing to attempt to carry out their threats, when the rescuing party arrived, and thus he was saved from the mob. After that he was often threatened with violence, but was never injured. His family for four generations had been schooled in the hardships and dangers of the frontier that developed courage. He had also been fortunate in his early training, for in his childhood he had been cared for by a step-mother, the niece of the Rev. J. B. McFerrin, for many years the editor of the Nashville Christian Advocate, and she was a woman of strong character and great influence. By inheritance and early education came just that courage that was needed in the borderruffian days, for many times both in Kansas and Missouri his life was in danger. He was a member of Judge Lecompte's famous grand jury, and with a few others voted against finding indictments against the loyal leaders in Kansas, in that heroic struggle. But their votes were of no avail, for the pro-slavery influence was then predominant.

He was at one time Chaplain of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Kansas. When the war broke out he was made the Chaplain of the 16th Kansas Cavalry; served in the Price raid, and was in the battles of the Blue, Pea Ridgeand Prairie Grove. "How are Hiram Ferril and my other cousins!" he asked of General Marmaduke, when the latter was captured. "Hiram and all the rest of the boys were doing well when I saw them last,” replied General Marmaduke, who later became the Governor of Missouri. After the Price raid he served with his regiment on the plains fighting the Indians. He was stationed at Julesburg, Fort Laramie, and was in the Sully expedition up north. As an evidence of his prominence in the border-ruffian troubles, when Quantrell burnt Lawrence, his men searched through the town to find him.

On February 14th, 1854, the Rev. Thomas Johnson Ferril was married to Miss Minerva Hornsby, who was born in Rhea County, Tennessee; she was the daughter of Brinkley and Esther A. Hornsby, early settlers in Johnson County, Missouri. Her people came from the Carolinas and Tennessee. Of this marriage was born William C. Ferril. The "William" is for his grandfather, the Rev. William Ferril, and the middle name, "Columbus," is for Columbus Hornsby, his mother's brother, who was one of the prominent free state men of Kansas, and was one of the first merchants in Lawrence; was also one of the founders of Emporia and a member of the House in the Legislature of Kansas that President Franklin Pierce had dispersed at the point of the bayonet.

Columbus Hornsby organized the first Masonic lodge in Lawrence, Kansas; he was a schoolmate of George W. Miller, Judge of the County Court, Denver, and Senator Cockrell, of Missouri, at Chapel Hill, that state. He died during the war at Lawrence, where his widow, who was a Miss Elmira Wormley, of Corning, New York, before her marriage, survives him; she, her sister and brother-in-law, ex-State Senator Alonzo J. Worden, of Kansas, were all schoolmates of Senator Henry M. Teller in New York, and were prominent workers in the free state cause.

William C. Ferril was born in Lawrence, Kansas, August 28th, 1855; his mother died when he was very young, and his early home training devolved upon his stepmother, who was a Miss Cleopatra E. Lynch, of Virginia; she was a sister of John T. Lynch, a member of the House in the Colorado Legislature when that body met at Golden as the state capitol, and who was later postmaster at Salt Lake City. William C. Ferril is a graduate of Lewis College, Glasgow, Missouri, and also of the North Missouri State Normal School at Kirksville, that state. In 1876 he was principal of the Bentonville, Arkansas, High School, which numbered 300 students; he then read law in the office of James H. Berry, the present United States Senator from Arkansas.

Mr. Ferril then studied law with Peak & Yeager, Kansas City, and soon after, starting out for himself in the law, he came to Colorado, owing to ill-health. He roughed it in the mining camps till his health was restored, then drifting into journalism; he was employed on the Silver Cliff Miner, and later was city editor of the Silver Cliff Daily Republican and also the Daily Prospect at that place. In 1882 he was one of the proprietors and editor of the Silver Cliff Daily Herald. In 1883 he came to Denver and was employed on the staff of the Denver Republican. From the spring of 1885 till March, 1887, he was the city editor of the Denver Republican; he then went to the Rocky Mountain News, and for nearly a year was city editor of that paper; he then returned to the Denver Republican, where he is now employed. Since 1884 he has been the Colorado correspondent for the Kansas City Journal. In 1885 he became correspondent for the New York World and, a little later, for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. For those papers he has written many letters, that have been published in their Sunday issues. Mr. Ferril is also on the staff of Bacheller & Co., the leading newspaper syndicate of New York City; through this syndicate he has also published western sketches in the New York Mail and Express, Brooklyn Times, Philadelphia Press, Chicago Herald, Chicago Times, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Savannah (Ga.) News, Louisville Courier-Journal, Kansas City Journal, Denver Republican, Galveston (Texas) News, Dallas (Texas) News, Portland Oregonian, San Francisco Call, Sacramento Bee and other leading papers. His people were pioneers in

Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado and Humboldt County, California, in which last named place his uncle, John Ferril, a grandson of John Ferril, of old Cooper's Fort, scouted with General Grant during the Indian troubles before the war. Hence he always has plenty of data for sketches of western life. He was married December 12, 1888, at Rome, New York, to Miss Alice L. MacHarg, daughter of John B. and Susan MacHarg, of that city. He has one sister, Mary Alice, the wife of Dr. O. C. Trice, residing at Brookfield, Missouri. His father, the Rev. T. J. Ferril, resides at Glasgow, Missouri, and, at the present time, is the chaplain of the Grand Army of the Republic for the department of Missouri.

UTA

CHAPTER XV.

UTAH-1847 TO 1889.

TAH TERRITORY was established in 1850 out of the northeast third of the Mexican cession in 1848 to the United States, and included all of its present limits, nearly all of that which afterwards became the State of Nevada, and about one-half of the area now embraced within the State of Colorado.

The territory was named after the famous Ute tribe of Indians that inhabited that region at the time of its acquisition by the National Government. The Mormons had, however, been led into the Salt Lake valley by Brigham Young, in July, the year before, and that little band constituted the only white settlement in the territory, and were the actual discoverers and explorers of the territory.

In 1850, when the territory was organized by act of Congress, Brigham Young was appointed its Governor, and Salt Lake becoming the seat of the Territorial Government, began to assume the proportions and aspects of a city. The Mormons rebelled in 1857 against the National Government, which rebellion was only quelled by the speedy dispatch of Federal troops to the territory. They established a post (Fort Douglas), which overlooked the city, and was so arranged as to be able to destroy the city in a very short time, and by that constant menace the Government has since been able to check any extensive resistance, which, however, has not been anticipated for many years, and the fort is now used more as a park than a menace of war. The discovery of gold caused many gentiles to flock to the territory, until now it is believed the Mormons are in the minority in the two principal cities of the territory Salt Lake and Ogden.

In 1861, Congress passed an act establishing the Territories of Nevada and Colorado, which cut the limits of Utah down, and in 1866 an additional strip was detached from Utah, and added to the then organized State of Nevada, which left the territory with its present boundaries, comprising 84,970 square miles.

Utah is an immense basin, elevated about 4,000 to 5,000 feet above the level of the sea, surrounded by high mountains 7,500 to 13,500 feet. There are no considerable rivers in the territory. The Green, Grand and Colorado rivers flow across the southeast corner of the state; the Santa Clara, across the southwest corner; other rivers all flowing into the Great Salt Lake. This great valley is formed by the Rocky Mountains on the east, and Sierra Nevadas on the west.