In 1875 Charles Rumsey, a disabled Union Veteran, his wife Carrie Hardin
     Rumsey, and their family left Indiana to come to Kansas to live on a claim
     near Little River in Rice County. They were prepared to face Indians, but
     not prairie fires where the grass was as tall as the horses. They soon
     moved south to Barber County to Kiowa (Old Kiowa) where his brother A.W.
     Rumsey, had a store and Indian Trading Post since 1872, trading with the
     Indians in the Indian Territory.
       In 1883 the Santa Fee Railroad bought a right-of-way about six miles
     southeast of the town. The New Kiowa Town Company was formed in 1884 - 
     laying the town along the right-of-way. In the spring of 1885, the Rumseys
     and most of Old Kiowa moved to the new town.
       Here Grandfather Rumsey built a skating rink with lumber freighted from
     Attica, read the law, and became Justice of the Peace. Grandmother made
     cakes for the cowboys at the rink. They had many pioneer experiences, but
     spoke most often of the furious blizzard of 1886 and the terrible winter
     that followed. One scarcely dared even to hang clothes out to dry, as the
     straying, starving cattle would eat them.
       It wasn't long after the Rumseys moved to Kiowa that one of the girls, 
     Nell (Helen Maria), caught the eye of a young Kentuckian named Samuel T.
     Ishmael. He had come to Kiowa with a cattle drive on the Chisolm Trail
     from Texas and stayed to run a livery stable and feed yard till he started
     in the cattle business with a partner named Kansas Rudolph. The men were
     known far and near as "Sam and Kan.'
       The young couple were soon courting and in a little while were married.
     Their family consisted of four children: Caroline, Robert, Roy, and myself
     (Marjorie). I went through school at Kiowa, went on to graduate from the
     University of Kansas, came home, and taught music till Thomas V. Stranathan
     and I were married.
       Tom's father was William V. Stranathan, who came to Kiowa on New Year's
     Day, 1885. His mother was Fannie Smith, daughter of William and Mary (Uncle
     Billy and Aunt Mary) Smith, who had brought their family from Delaware to 
     Sedgwick County in 1875. They had come on to Barber County in 1877, settling
     on the claim southwest of Medicine Lodge. It has been in the Smith family
     for over one hundred years.
       Tom went to school in Medicine Lodge and has been busy ever since, running
     the ranch. He has been "Coronado" in the Indian Peace Treaty Pageant since
     1941; and when Carry Nation was added to the Pageant, I was chosen for the
     role.
       I have always been extremely proud of my great aunt, Dr. Rachel Rumsey
     Packson - one of the first two women graduated from the Chicago School of
     Medicine. She came to Kansas expecting to find a 'dry' state, but found 
     Kiowa a typical border town with twenty-one saloons. She ran for mayor in
     1891 on a 'Dry' platform and was elected, but was unsuccessful in improving
     conditions and retired from politics.
                
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas, pg. 397
     Submitted by: Marjorie Ishmael Stranathan