Salina Police Department
City History...
Where north meets south and east meets west stands the city of Salina, Kansas, the largest city nearest the geographical center of the contiguous (48 state) United States, give or take 90 miles, a city with a unique history and a unique Police Department. This is their story.
BATTLE OF INDIAN ROCK
1856 Before there was a town, there were the Plains, and the original inhabitants thereof – the American Indian. The area that would become Salina was a hunting ground for the nomadic tribes – the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kansa and Osage. In the mid 1800s, members of the more peaceful tribes, the Pottawatomie, Kaw and Delaware ventured west. Inevitably there was conflict.
A colony headed by Preston B. Plumb (destined to become a U.S. Senator) was organized at Zenia, Ohio, in 1856, and located a settlement on the Saline River near the present day site of the city. The western Indians drove the colony east.
In the summer of 1856, Gotthart and John Schippel came to the territory and settled on the Saline River about three miles northeast of present day Salina. That first summer they traded with the Indian tribes that were friendly; but, in the fall they abandoned their frontier outpost, not only because they needed further provisions, but more importantly, because the warring Cheyenne and Pottawatomie Indian tribes were a constant threat. The following spring they returned to their original claim. That year, 1857 marked the first appearance of Colonel William A. Phillips, Salina’s founder. The Schippels and the colonel had to leave again the following winter because of the hostile Indians and to replenish their provisions.
The conflict between the warring western Indians and the peaceful tribes occurred in 1857 and probably played an important part in opening what is now Salina and the surrounding area to white settlers. Known as the Indian Rock Battle, it arrayed the two groups of Indian tribes against each other. Battle came when the eastern tribes ventured too far to the west and were surprised by a western redmen hunting party. The wild plains Indians drove the interlopers east to Dry Creek, west of what is now Salina.
After severe fighting there, the eastern tribes again retreated, and took their final stand on a hill and under the cover of a large rock – Indian Rock – where the tide of battle changed. The eastern Indians received reinforcements from an encampment of Kaw – two war parties, armed in part with rifles. The Plains tribes had only bows and arrows, but they charged the hill fiercely five times.
The eastern riflemen took their stand behind the large rock and fired into the ranks of the enemy, taking a terrible toll. Big Chief, the Cheyenne leader, was killed and at last the shattered western bands retreated, never again to make war so far east. About this time Colonel Phillips, who had left the area because of the hostile Indians was looking over a possible town site on the Blue River near present day Manhattan.
He planned to start a town there. News of the Battle of Indian rock reached him and his friends, however, and they decided to travel further west and stake out a town site in Salina. They arrived in February 1858. It is quite possible that Phillips and his friends, A.M. Campbell and James Muir, would have settled near Manhattan if the victory for the Friendly Indians had not assured them of a safe location. Indian Rock, thus, is a name to remember, for if the battle had never been fought, who can say what Salina’s history would have been? And so, three years before Kansas was admitted to the union, Salina was born. Originally it was named “Saliena” and pronounced “Saleena”, but later the name was shortened to “Salina” and the pronunciation to “Sa-lye-na.” Phillips, 34; Campbell, 23 and Muir, 24, were soon joined by brother, David, and Alexander C. Spilman, both 21. The five are considered the town founders, all fascinating figures in Salina’s history.
Go West Young Man, Go West
Phillips was a lawyer, journalist, historian and industrialist. He went to work for Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune and in the fall of 1855, Phillips became the Tribune’s correspondent for the Kansas territory and came to the state to report on “Bleeding Kansas.” Settling Kansas was the burning issue of the day with the Free State versus Slave State controversy raging.
He fought in the Civil War as a colonel commanding a regiment of Cherokees in the battle for the Oklahoma Territory. Later he would serve the infant state as a congressman-at-large in 1873, and become the only man Salina ever sent to Congress, 1875-1879.
Campbell, Phillip’s brother-in-law, was the town’s first postmaster and storekeeper. His wife, Christina, was among the first white women in what became Saline County. David Phillips provided Salina’s first mystery. A few years later he disappeared from a train en route to California and was never heard from again. Spilman, a surveyor, eventually moved on to McPherson County and later became a probate judge there. “Uncle Jimmy” Muir, took up land in the Roxbury area and lived a long life there.
In 1859 gold was discovered in Colorado and many stopped in Salina on the way west, making the town a trading center.
By 1861, W.A. Phillips had carted in a steam-powered gristmill, establishing the early character of Salina’s industry.
By 1930, Salina was ranked fifth in the world in flour production. Milling continued as a principal industry until the 1960s when the Interstate Commerce Commission changed the rules on freight rates for flour as compared with rough grains. Most of the mills departed to population centers where the bread was made.
Railroad Brings Settlers
1867 The Kansas Pacific Railroad pushed through Salina in 1867, changing forever the frontier settlement. The railroad brought settlers, materials, ideas, and cowboys.
The businessmen had expended a good deal of money to secure the trade that would be derived from the town being made a trading point for cattle, but having secured it, the people soon discovered that it was not such a desirable thing to have after all. The trade in itself was good enough, and the business of the merchants in town was greatly increased thereby, but the town became infested with such a crowd of disreputable character, both male and female, that whatever advantage was gained in trade was more than counterbalanced by loss in morals. When the cattle trade moved westward two years afterwards, the citizens of Salina were more than rejoiced at its departure than they were at its coming. Salina was a mill town and a trading center, and that’s the way they liked it.
As it was in the days when William Phillips’ gristmill ground away on the banks of the Smoky Hill, Salina continues as a trade and service center for central Kansas and beyond. Physically, of course, it’s different from the Salina of a century ago, but its purpose remains the same: to provide a secure and pleasant community with opportunity, education and culture.
As the city developed, grew and progressed through the century, it faced the ever-present danger of crime and mayhem. Because the city has survived Indians, cowboys, bootleggers, bank robbers and drug dealers, is due in no small part to its fine police department.
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