How Pioneer's are Born - The Story of Stephen James Fields & Emmaline Tripp

The mid September Saturday in 1893 was ushered in with a cloudless sky and a welcome cool breeze from the north. The day would be a good one to reflect on the hard work of the summer spent up on their farm in Ellsworth County Kansas however the day was meant for the chase of a new 160 acre homestead dream. Quiet the day would not be. Thousands of people were on the streets of Caldwell and Arkansas City, Kansas making final preparations for the run to the strip. In Arkansas City, hundreds remained all night in the waiting rooms and platforms for the Santa Fe train. It was easy to distinguish spectators from lot & claim takers, the latter being provided with stakes, flags, axes, hatches, shovels, etc. A few had bundles of trees to plan. Soldiers stationed where fleet footed horses were to start from. Chaos as reports came in that hundreds of people were left at stations between Wichita and Caldwell. In Wellington, Kansas the crowd took possession of the train, climbing on top of cars. Even then several hundred were left at Wellington. The information that this train wold make an early morning run through the strip had preceded it, making some want to hold on, hoping they might jump off at convenient places in the strip. At twelve miles an hour the jump could be a profitable one. People broke camp to get ready for the run. While walking around one would see several places on the streets where ponies and horses of all descriptions being sold at auction at high prices. People were wild in their efforts to obtain some sort of conveyance to the strip. Many would take their chance on foot. This is the scene for the Fields family on Saturday, September 16, 1893. We don't know where on the line Stephen set up on but he was one of the lucky ones, obtaining a homestead northwest of Newkirk, Oklahoma. He would have been near Arkansas City at the line near Chilocco. Having been blessed so far with seven children, the youngest, Fred who would be three in October. Emmaline had her work cut out for her keeping them safe while Stephen completed the mission of a homestead. They left their previous farm of just over ten years in Ellsworth County Kansas and made the journey to the southern border of Kansas where the dream of free land awaited. Danyle's great grandfather, Manasseh would be born the following year in April, making Emmaline's time a bit more challenging as she would have been pregnant at the time. This is how a young boy born in Kentucky landed in Oklahoma. Stephen James Fields led a life of the American dream.

Arkansas City Daily Traveler, Saturday evening September 16, 1893

One of many ads for headed south into Oklahoma. Taken from the Arkansas City Daily Traveler, September 16, 1874

Back to our connection story! Our story continues from our previous posts on the Fields and Tripp families. Danyle and Jennifer's families crossed paths in Kentucky, taking their own journey west landed them within miles of each other homesteading in Kansas. At the time Stephen & Emmaline were in Kansas they homesteaded within 30 miles of Jennifer's Stark Family connection as Eva Ruhanna Stark married John James Hudson in Saline County in 1891 with both of their families homesteading in western Saline County with the Stark Family in Republic County first. The Hudson/Stark family homesteads would have been just north of Marquette, Kansas near a town called Falun. The Fields homestead was just to the west of this location, probably close to where Kanapolis Reservoir is now.

The Stark Connection is not any connection to the Combs family line which Stephen's aunt married into and resided near in Kentucky. However, The Stark Family is our direct connection at ten generations back. The web of travel for so many of our ancestors lines weave so closely together. Danyle & I were destined to become great friends!

Let's get back to Stephen and Emmaline. Stephen & Emmaline married on September 14, 1874 with both listing they resided in Oregon, Missouri.

Taken from The Holt County Press, September 22, 1874

Here is yet another example of where research scope creep occurs. When looking into their marriage announcement in the The Holt County Sentinel on the date of September 18, 1874 I located news about yet another ancestor line for Jennifer, this being her Wilson-McCully line. They lived in the same area with their youngest daughter marrying the town's pharmacist. Just with that you know their paths just had to cross!

In 1880, Stephen and Emmaline leave the area near Holt & Andrew County Missouri after their first daughter, Carrie was born in 1875 to homestead in Kansas. How did Stephen and Emmaline land in northern Missouri we ask? Stephen landed in this northwest corner of Missouri as his father to work guiding the ferry across the Nodaway River. As a child, Stephen lived in Kentucky and by the age of ten his father moved the family into Arkansas, living northeast of Fayetteville, Arkansas. Between 1860 & 1870 the family leaves Arkansas and land in the upper northwest corner of Missouri where his father ran the ferry on the Nodaway River.

Emmaline was born in the territory of Kansas after her father's time with the Army was completed and he took his family to Missouri. Her father was murdered by Mormons in the Mountain Ridge Utah area and her mother remarried after a decade or so after her father perished in Utah, her stepfather taking work in the area as a stagecoach driver. That took Emmaline back to Nebraska in 1870 but they were back in Missouri by 1880. Emmaline and her older sister, Sarah Ellen lived into adulthood, with Sarah following Emmaline into Oklahoma. Their families residing next to each other in the Longwood Township in Kay County Oklahoma. The girls had an older brother with the only naming located for him were his initials, E. O. Let's assume that he was named after his father, Eli. E.O. passed away between 1860 and 1870. Emmaline and Sarah, a strong sister relationship.

In Kansas, Stephen & Emmaline land first in a small township, Bonaville, in the northeast corner of McPherson County Kansas and by 1882 are in Ellsworth County Kansas. During this time, Jennifer's Stark Family connection, Eva Ruhanna Stark marries John James Hudson in Saline County Kansas in 1891. The Stark Family for Jennifer lands in the county in between McPherson and Ellsworth, a travel so close but yet never touches, however the days in their lives so closely resemble each other.

Stephen & Emmaline have ten children, nine verified making it into adulthood. Good stock! The only child research did not find into adulthood was their youngest child, Mary Elta who would have been born after 1901. Their eldest daughter lived until 1973 and is buried in Emporia, Kansas. Another daughter, Amaltha Amanda married a man with the last name Neill and lived near Clovis, New Mexico until her death in 1968. The rest of their children remained in Oklahoma.

Danyle's direct line stems from their 8th child, Manasseh who lived to be 98, passing in 1991.

Further research will be conducted on Stephen and Emmaline's homesteads with a trip planned to visit these places. Their story continues.......