In June of 1854, the first white settler settled in Franklin County, KS, under the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which awarded him land recently “transferred” from the Shawnee Indians. Reuben Hackett, 44, and his family had come from Illinois seeking the opportunities they hoped this new land would provide.
Reuben was born in 1810 in Quebec, Canada, the son of Ephraim Hackett, a Master Mason and farmer. In 1812, Ephraim moved the family to Ohio, where he joined the Regiment of Ohio Militia during the War of 1812. By 1825, the family moved to Indiana where Ephraim settled. Reuben helped on the farm and spent long hours on the Wabash and Mississippi Rivers, learning to pilot flatboats. He later purchased land in Illinois and at age 24 returned to Indiana to marry 17-year-old Matilda Jones. Reuben then farmed and continued to pilot flatboats on the rivers, delivering cargo between St. Louis and New Orleans, as the two began their family.
Reuben also became a brick-maker. During a contract for a large new church, prices skyrocketed and in honoring his contract, Reuben went broke. Soon, the family planned their trip to the West. Among their possessions were Reuben’s Illinois law books; Reuben was adding legal knowledge to his other varied skills and had served four years as an Illinois Justice of the Peace.
After arriving from Illinois by boat, Reuben and his son, Ephraim, built their new Kansas home and put up fences on their new homestead near what would become Centropolis. His indomitable wife Matilda, pregnant at the time, waited in Kansas City with their other three children. By November 1854 the family was settled in their new home, and their fifth child was born, becoming the first white child born to settlers in Franklin County.
The Hackett’s land of opportunity quickly became a hotbed of tension, as the slavery issue between Missouri and Kansas escalated. During the first Franklin County election held in 1854, Reuben cast one of the few legal ballots. In a community of only 30 voters, 160 votes had been cast–by armed “voters” from Missouri.
Reuben was appointed as the first Justice of the Peace for the Fourth District in February 1855, and he followed the laws in his free-state Illinois law books. His decisions as a Justice were sound and were never overturned. He also joined a Free State unit of the militia.
Political strife was only one of the hardships of life for the Kansas settlers. They endured flood, grasshoppers, drought and the attrition of their family: Matilda had given birth to 16 children, but she and Reuben faced the tragedy of burying eleven of them as children, and outliving all but two. When the Civil War erupted, though it probably seemed an extension of the skirmishes in Kansas, both Reuben and his son William enlisted, each incurring health issues that would plague them the rest of their lives.
Yet Reuben and Matilda endured and found much to enjoy in the Kansas territory. They strongly supported education for their children and held church services at their home. Friendly and garrulous, they both enjoyed the company of their neighbors, including, for a time, John Brown and his sons, whom Reuben fought behind during skirmishes along Tauy Creek near Reuben’s home. John Tecumseh “Tauy” Jones and his wife Jane were also friends of the Hacketts. The college-educated Jones was a Chippewa native adopted by the Ottawa tribe. With his knowledge and skill in Native languages, he played a major role in the settlement of the area.
Reuben continued to read, study and learn. Long a natural geologist, he enjoyed roaming the land around his home looking for interesting geological formations. His collection of rocks, fossils, and minerals became so extensive that after his death he left it to be used at Ottawa University. He also studied weather phenomena and was frequently consulted by his neighbors on impending weather. Hackett went on to write books and articles about geology and science, including “Gleanings of Geology” and “Selected Sketches of Science, Art and Literature.” In both he stressed the importance of science and God.
He was able to use his geological knowledge for his benefit when land that had been the Ottawa Indian reservation opened up to settlers. Reuben was able to ascertain that there probably was coal in the area, and, after he sold his original homestead, he made a claim on 133 acres on a mound southeast of Centropolis. The mound became known as Hackett’s Hill.
Hackett farmed the land and in 1867 opened a mineshaft into the hill revealing the coal-rich vein he had anticipated, the first coal found in northern Franklin County. The Hacketts’ two sons settled down near their parents and worked in the mine. Their daughters also married men who worked at the mine. On their new homestead, besides farming and running the successful mining operation, the Hacketts also built a small store, became part time innkeepers, established a cheese factory, and later began a limekiln brick-making operation in Ottawa. With faith being a large part of their lives, they were happy to finally help build the Christian Church in Centropolis in 1883.
In 1884, the Hacketts celebrated their 50th anniversary with a party for their family and neighbors, who held both Hacketts in great esteem. They moved briefly into Ottawa, during their brick-making venture, but in 1890 they moved back to Hackett Hill with their children. (Hackett Hill had its own post office and was a thriving community until 1903, when Centropolis outgrew it and was awarded a post office, causing the one at Hackett Hill to close.)
On May 28, 1893, Reuben Hackett, 83, died at home on Hackett Hill. His obituary eulogized his “sterling integrity,” noting he was one of the first Justices of the Peace in the Kansas Territory and “a great reader and thinker.” Two years later he was followed by Matilda, then 77, whose funeral on Hackett Hill attracted too many people to fit into the house. They were both buried in Highland Cemetery, Ottawa, Kansas.