Dancharthos : Genealogos

Daniel B. Cogswell

Newspaper article, February 9, 1950, with a bit of biographical information.

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N.B.: This article in the original newsprint is copied by Dancharthos in August 2002. The original text appears to be full of typographical errors which have been corrected to the best of this copyist's ability. I apologize if I have thus removed the local color or idiomatic variance.

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Sherman County Herald, Goodland, Kansas; Thursday, February 9, 1950

SEE BRIGHT FUTURE FOR BIG WESTERN KANSAS GRAVEYARD

A Kansas geologist recently predicted that fate for the remains of billions of tiny one-celled water plants, called diatoms, resting in the diatomaceous marl beds of northeastern Wallace and neighboring Logan counties.

In November of last year the first carload of diatomaceous marl produced on a commercial scale in Kansas was shipped from Edson, in Sherman county. This diatomite was excavated from a deposit on the Cogswell ranch in northeastern corner of Wallace county.

Geologists of the State and Federal Geological surveys at the University of Kansas explain that the microscopic diatom thrived abundantly and multiplied rapidly in the ancient Kansas seas, extracting silica from the water in which they lived. As many as 50 million individual siliceous skeletons have been found in a cubic inch of diatomite, the scientific name for this assemblage of corpses.

The Wallace-Logan county marl beds are impure deposits of diatomite and are called diatomaceous marl. Buried along with the diatom skeletons are fragments of calcareous shells of fresh water snails and clams. This diatomaceous marl is suited for use in the manufacture of hydraulic cement, as filler in paint, as an abrasive in silver polish, automobile polish, dental powder and paste as an abrasing agent in match heads and box sides.

The above conclusions are given by Glenn C. Prescott, Federal Geological Survey of the Univesity of Kansas, and indicate that a great field for the development of this product is now in the making, and brings to mind a story we prepared several weeks ago giving due credit to a man who has given many years of his life to the development of western Kansas products.

During the past several months you have read and heard much about "the little boy from the country" who returned home to his friends and neighbors in Independence, Missouri and told them a story so fantastic that he himself hardly dared believe it to be so.

This "boy from the country" had the intestinal fortitude to stand--almost alone--and carry his fight against great odds to the whole nation. His success turned higgledy-piggledy every forecast of top notch editorial writers, political prognosticators of every description, pollsters and the boys who make the books on Wall Street--so complete was the rout that most of the world stood aghast at what happened.

That's the American way of life--the right to dare to do and carry on. Faith in oneself, undaunted courage when the world scoffs and unbounding energy often leads one to the top. In 1887 in the little town of Lincoln, Kan., a young son first saw the light of day. As the years went on he grew up to be a "greenhorn country boy" who was destined to make history in the financial world and a name for himself.

The son of a "horse and buggy doctor," endowed with the firm determination to dare to do and carry on he inherited many of the sterling traits of his father who for 15 years served that little community unselfishly. He kept six horses and hired two men in order that he could drive to his calls in a radius of about twenty miles from his office. He would often go days without sleep except what he could sleep in the buggy returning home from his calls. This dogged determination won the admiration of his young son who wanted to grow up to be a man of action.

The young son undoubtedly gained much of the incentive of life from the country doctor and upon his graduation from high school entered the University of Washington law school, and after graduating returned to Lincoln, Kan., to carry on practice of law. Here he met and married a fine little lady from one of the best families in the community, and to them a son and daughter were born, who with true Kansas spirit have carried on.

However, in the days of long ago, young attorneys often found it quite a struggle to get along. This young attorney, being of a restless nature, who always wanted "things done now," determined to make his mark in the world and upon the declaration of war 1917 lost no time in joining the first officers training camp. He continued in the army for a period of 23 months being discharged on April 1, 1919. During his service he had become a pilot with R.M.A. rating and was awaiting orders to be sent overseas when the Armistice was signed. He was then made Post Adjutant of the field until mustered out of the service.

Following World War I came a great period of unrestfulness for all and this "greenhorn country boy" went to St. Louis where he accepted a position with an oil well supply company which was a subsidiary of one of the big steel mills in the east. He soon became head of the credit department living in St. Louis. A few months later he received a flattering offer to join an expanding natural gas company and moved the family to Houston, Tex.

Upon reporting for duty this promising young man, Daniel B. Cogswell, by name, full of the vim and vigor of life and possessing enough faith in his ability to tackle most any task was informed by the big boss that they "had nothing definite for him to do but to pretend that he owned the company." While this was a great disappointment to Cogswell, who had contemplated a position of action, he hung around unobstrusively until one day he was told the organization "needed funds." With faith, hope and determination to see things through he made a trip back east to the steel mills--and like the "little country boy" first mentioned in this story surprised even himself when he negotiated a loan of one million dollars. Returning to Houston from New York City his organization hardly dared believe the fantastic story he told, but when the next day the steel people arrived and gave a check for a million dollars they were elated.

It was about this time that the big bosses decided they should sell a small oil company they owned for as near three million as possible. Cogswell was delegated to go east to consumate the deal with a large syndicate. After two or three weeks negotiations the deal looked hopeless but with dogged determination he sought another outlet and brought about the sale which called for $200,000.00 on the morrow and the balance in 60 days. When Cogswell returned and handed his boss the $200,000.00 check down payment he was assured their appreciation and as a reward he was given $30,000 commission.

That was the first clear money he had ever made in any sizeable sum and spured him along to carry on. In a short time he involved his company in a sulphur deal in Texas. Friends were skeptical of his judgment in the matter and inclined to scoff, even suggesting, that when the big bosses discovered what "Cogswell has gotten them into it will be curtains for Cogswell." However, in a short time sulphur was pouring out of exploratory well and the company is now on the New York board, and has made millions.

Cogswell was apparently designed to fill a niche in life for developing and doing seemingly impossible things and at this time set about to interest his people in the thought that there was possibly a great gas field in western Kansas which he would like to investigate but informing them it would no doubt take several hundred thousand dollars to develop it. By this time Cogswell was on a $20,000 a year salary (which was a good salary in those days) and an unlimited expense account. His organization informed him here that he was associatated with them to spend their money and not worry about the amount, so he set at his task.

In a short time he investigated two little gas wells in the Hugoton gas field in Kansas, and in a few months had 550,000 acres under lease and the more wells they drilled the greater became the field. Cogswell was here advised that they had enough acreage and open flow gas and the task was now to find a market for the gas. By this time Cogswell had been dubbed "The Daddy of the Hugoton field," and set sail for Omaha, Neb., a city in which he was entirely unacquainted, to find a market. Within four months he had things moving satisfactorily and was president of the gas line headed east that was to siphon thousands of cubic feet from the western Kansas wells. With about all of the right-of-way purchased, something over 400 miles at that time, he was enjoying offices covering two floors of a big office building in Omaha. But, since many were inclined to doubt the stories this enthusiastic young man told, he tells an incident that stands out yet well in his memory. he phoned the boss to the effect that he thought they needed money to pay their bills and requested that $40,000.00 be placed to his credit. The next day received a wire from a New York bank that $600,000.00 had been placed to his credit. Completing the Omaha job, which in the end required some twenty million dollars of pipe, he returned to Houston and was later awarded a bonus of $60,000 for his service.

Engaging in business--on his own--he got on in the oil business in a fair way, but to one accustomed to doing big things he soon tired and went to Denver becoming interested individually in a gas system which was to supply natural gas from the Hugoton field to southwestern Kansas and southeastern Colorado. The system proved a success and after getting things well under way Cogswell sold his interest and returned to Houston.

Going to Washington and New York on a business deal later, returning by way of Chicago, he awoke one morning to find himself in a hospital, after having been 10-days unconscious. Physicians, in attendance, told him a few days later that he had been hit on the back of his head and his blood saturated with a dope that gangsters gave to destroy ones memory. For the first ten days he did not know where he lived but later recalled his trip to Washington, New York and Cleveland, but from Celveland to Chicago was an absolute blank. What really happened he never knew. Specialists informed him later that he was "off" for the first year and a half after the accident but was now all right, although he would always have a defective sense of balance caused from a part of the brain not healing properly.

Undaunted by the loss of time and his now apparent affliction the family settled on what is now known as the Cogswell ranch to the southeast of Goodland, Kan. Later Cogswell moved to Goodland opening offices in the city building where he carried on for a number of years.

While on the ranch--still with undying faith in his ability to develop--he became interested in a huge deposit of diatomaceous marl located on the ranch. Many samples were submitted, laboratory tests ran, and considerable expense incurred in an attempt to interest big business. As, has been the case in many instances of his life before, many people scoffed at him and "laughed up their sleeve" contending that "Old Dan was a buggy as ever." But none of that dimmed his ardor or his belief in the possibilities of the deposit.

And now as of November 1949 comes a crowning achievement, and no small amount of credit, to Cogswell for the development in a new industry on the plains of western Kansas. The National Lead Company, one of the largest and most outstanding in the United States, has signed a contract to develop and use the products of this great deposit which according to University of Kansas geologists contains as much as a million tons of diatomaceous marl of an exceptional high quality. This rock is important not because of the calium carbonate it contains but because of the silica. Diatoms are tiny, one celled plants with out shells of silica. When the diatoms die the shells settle to the bottom of the lake or seas and are there accumulated. This development gives further evidence that western Kansas was once covered by a great sea of water.

The National Lead Co. has already moved temporary equipment to the Cogswell ranch and plan, when capacity is reached to take possibly as much as a thousand tons a day from the deposit, thus bringing to western Kansas one of the most extensive development programs in many years.

As Cogswell scans the development program he sits and smiles happy that in the declining years of a most active life that he has brought to his native state of Kansas and to western Kansas, a development that will mean many thousands of dollars in the years to come.

All of which is another evidence of the boundless opportunities that abound in this great nation of ours if only one has faith, courace and determination to carry on.