I am pretty sure a couple of hundred wagons passed through Battles Gap during the time we lived there. But even with all the wagons coming through, it was hard on my mother. The nearest neighbors were about fifteen  miles away. My mother was a sociable woman, and she missed the more civilized kind of life she had back in Lawrence. I think those folks stopping by probably kept my mother from drifting into madness. It gave her something to look forward to, and most of all, it allowed her to catch  up on the news, no matter where it came from. In those days, you didn’t find out anything for months after  it  actually  happened.  We  didn’t  learn  about  William  Quantrill’s  1863   raid  on  Lawrence—in which  almost  two  hund...

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