Bazaar, Chase County, Kansas

 Why Bazaar?

William Edward Chesney

Ruth Ann Evans

(her father, James Vance Evans, froze to death in 1900 -

see also a biography of him written by a descendant)

 

Before moving to LeCompton, Douglas County, Kansas sometime before 1905, William Edward and Ruth Ann Evans Chesney lived in Chase County, Kansas. Prior to that they were married March 19, 1863, in Abingdon Knox County, Illinois. In 1870 there were in Indian Point, Knox County and in 1880 in Bedford, Taylor County, Iowa. Sometime between 1880 and 1885 they apparently moved from Bedford, to Chase County. (What was their motivation?) They are shown living in the area of Strong City, Falls Township, Chase County, in both the 1885 Kansas State Census and the 1900 U.S. Census. By the 1885 and 1905 Kansas State Censues they are living in LeCompton, Why they moved there in their late 60's is a mystery!

Some time ago, on the recommendation of my cousin, Evelyn Mae Chesney Baumer, I bought William Least Heat-Moon's book, PrairyErth.  It was a fascinating read and introduced me to "Chase County's voices past and present..."  From the book cover:

Chase County is a sparsely populated tract in the Flint Hills of central Kansas, "the last remaining grand expanse of tallgrass prairie in America," and PrairyErth lovingly details its 774 square miles and 3,00 souls till it looms as large as the universe while remaining as intimate as a village.

Heat-Moon divides his book into geographic sections of the county and then details his experiences and research into various locations of importance. I made sure to give special attention to his section on the community of Bazaar, because I knew from my genealogy research that I had many Evans and a few Chesney ancestors buried in the Bazaar Cemetery.  My mother's eldest brothers, Kent Loyal Chesney, Everett Mize Chesney, and her only sister, Isabelle Chesney were all born Chase County, which meant that my mother's parents also lived in the area as well.

Heat-Moon writes about the community of Bazaar:

The tracks: slicked with mist and starting to freeze, and the train coming on and passing, and I bending to feel a rail warmed and dried by the heavy freight heading toward California, and then I cross the line running along her backyard, and just behind me, where the depot once stood, there is still the Santa Fe sign: BAZAR, an old spelling, and its brevity odd in a county where village names can have more letters than people. although here the hamlet has double its characters... (p. 181)

 

 Santa Fe Sign

(I took this photo as an illustration of his opening paragraph about Bazaar.)

 In 2005 I went to Kansas to research and photograph Evans and Chesney graves in the
Bazaar Cemetery

 

Bazaar Cemetery

I took Heat-Moon's book with me when I visited Chase County (Cottonwood Falls, Bazaar, Matfield Green, the Flint Hills), so that I could better identify landmarks he wrote about. It was an enriching experience to be "on the ground" where my Evans and Chesney ancestors walked. I went to the railroad crossing where the "Bazar" sign stands and opened Heat-Moon's book. I found the paragraphs that described that exact location and then took the photo of the sign. I looked up and down the current railroad tracks trying to imagine what would have been at this crossing during my ancestors' era - wondering whether they ever took any cattle to the now-long-gone cattle pens and loading chutes that would take their cattle to market in Kansas City.

Did the menfolk sit on the porch of the Santa Fe station, watch the cattle mill around in the pens, and visit with their neighbors who had brought their livestock to be loaded on the train. Were there any Chesneys or Evanses among them? Did they get into important discussions about the price of a steak on dinner plates across America? Did they say anything about what they sold their cattle for? What did they do when they heard the familiar whistle of the train as it came up to the terminus from the South?

It was with the help of Heat-Moon's book that I was able to conjure up those scenes and others in my mind and come to understand just a little bit better the county's contribution to my family story.

You see, Bazaar was a cattle town when the Evans and Chesneys lived in Chase County in the mid 1800's. Bazaar was the end of a Santa Fe spur and one of the largest cattle-shipping points in Kansas. From here grass-fed steers, being held in pens awaiting shipment, went down the line and up "to the dinner plates in Kansas City." Cattle raising was and and still is the main industry in Chase County.

The railroad tracks that once ended at Bazaar were extended in 1923 to Kansas City, and now long, cross-country freight trains roar non-stop every 30 minutes through the crossing just to the East (right) of this sign. I was able to see and hear those cross-country freight trains all the way from the cemetery a few miles northwest of town. They never varied a minute from their 30 minute intervals. You could set your watch by them just like Heat-Moon wrote.

For information on the Bazaar Methodist Church click here