certain lands. The case was finally settled by Judge David Brewer of the United States circuit court on Sept. 3, 1885, in favor of the settlers. His decision threw open to settlement some 27,000 acres and immediately there was an influx of immigrants.
The general surface of the county is level, the soil is fertile and highly productive. The valleys average a mile and a half in width and the timber belts about a mile. The principal varieties of trees native to the county are black walnut, hickory, cottonwood, oak, hackberry and elm. The main water course is the Neosho river, which flows through the western part of the county from north to south. Its tributaries are Indian, Martin's, Deer, Elm, and other small creeks. The Little Osage flows through the northeast and the Marmaton river through the southeastern part of the county.
The chief agricultural products are corn, wheat, oats, Kafir corn and potatoes, and the county is one of the leaders in the production of flax and broom corn. Live stock raising is an important industry, and many fine orchards afford good profits to their owners.
Natural gas is the most important mineral resource. There are several large wells, but the field is particularly well developed near Iola in the west and La Harpe in the north central part, and valuable oil wells exist near Humboldt. There are vast quantities of raw material for Portland cement, which is manufactured and sent to all parts of the United States. An almost inexhaustable supply of shale has been found for making high grade brick and tile, which are manufactured and shipped out of the state. A good quality of limestone is also found. The county is divided into the following townships: Carlyle, Cottage Grove, Deer Creek, Elm, Elsmore, Geneva, Humboldt, Iola, Logan, Marmaton, Osage and Salem.
According to the U. S. census for 1910 the population of the county was 27,640, a gain of 8,133 during the preceding decade. The report of the State Board of Agriculture for the same year gives the total value of farm products as $1,362,654.60, corn leading with 1,123,290 bushels, valued at $550,412.10.
Allendale, a little hamlet of Allen county, is situated about 5 or 6 miles northeast of Iola, the county seat, from which place it receives mail by rural delivery. It is about equally distant from Carlyle on the Santa Fe and La Harpe on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railroads, which places are the nearest railway stations.
Allis, Samuel, Jr., an early missionary to the Indians west of the Missouri river, was born at Conway, Franklin county, Mass., Sept. 28, 1805. He learned the trade of harness maker and worked at various places in his early manhood, finally reaching Ithaca, N. Y., where he united with the Presbyterian church, though his parents were Congregationalists. In the spring of 1834 he left Ithaca in company with Rev. John Dunbar (q. v.) as a missionary to the Nez Perces. Upon arriving at St. Louis he found that the company of traders with which he had intended to journey to the Indian country had already left that city.
