First Building in Seneca, Kansas

 Finley Lappin, member of the original town company which staked out Seneca in 1857 built this house probably that year or the following year.

Native log do not lend themselves well to the building of log cabins but Lappin seems to have managed fairly well. The doorway shown in the picture led to a hall which divided the building equally in two parts. Lappin made his home in one end and the other became a hotel and grocery store. Lappin was  elected register  of deeds and had his office in his Cabin.

At another stage in the history the building became a carpenter shop then Lappin  tore it down and replaced it with a drug store.

This building was location where  Fashions Unlimited is located today.   The Courier-Tribune referred to the white fence a landscaping however  this was more a necessity because of the Open Range Law which meant you had to fence the  livestock out of you property as they roamed free.

The Courier-Tribune goes on to mention that the second building in Seneca was nothing more than a frame of four upright poles covered with brush. It was the blacksmith shop of   Levi Hensel,   who was a western correspondent for the New York Times. Hansel’s daughter was the first child born on the town site. The Town Company gave the baby a building lot.

Above information and picture above taken from the Anniversary edition of the Courier Tribune 1938 with edited notes added in italics

The area where the ducks have their puddle is in the middle of Main Street however at this time it was only a part of the Leavenworth Military Road. This was  built here to sell to the people passing through. Oats were seeded on the trail to Richmond crossing so as to divert the Trail traffic through Seneca. Many wagon  trains came through this flat main street from 1859 to the time of the coming of the railroad. Our main street is  wide because there were wagon caravans coming through town and not because of any idea of autos in the future.

There was another thing happened about this time and that was the seeding of oats or millet on the trail to divert the trail traffic to Seneca instead of Richmond crossing over the Nemaha. This must have  taken place some two miles east of the south edge of Seneca. The trails followed the high ground and this would seem to be the logical place and old maps show the trail at this point. 

There is a story about the wagon train coming to a mud hole in the trail with no way around. However there was a man with four head of mules who offered to pull them through for a reasonable price. As they were parting they asked the man, "Do you do this a lot?" His  reply was, "Sure do". Then they asked. "What do you do when it is dry. His  reply was, "Haul water." It could be something like this  was going on here as Finley Lappin son Samuel Lappin  did end up going to South America to avoid trouble with the State because they said he used state funds when he was short. He and his brother-in-law Charles Stafford were builders in promoters in Seneca. Do you suppose some of our streets and building in Seneca were partly funded by the State? This is still happening  only it's legal now, He did reappear later in the United states as you will read in another page.

There are extra linked pages below and you  will have to use your Backspace on your keyboard to return to the main track. Some people do not build web pages as I do. However they are very likely working for someone. 

Why the Fence around the cabin? Click here 
 

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This page last updated on  08/09/2006