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THE
Kansas Historical Quarterly
KIRKE MECHEM, Editor JAMES C. MALIN, Associate Editor
Volume 1 1931-1932
(Kansas Historical Collections)
VOL. XVIII
Published by
The Kansas State Historical Society
Topeka, Kansas
14-5605
Contents of Volume 1
Number 1 — November, 1931
PAGE
PIONEER PRINTING OF KANSAS Douglas C. McMurtrie, 3
FREIGHTING: A BIG BUSINESS ON THE SANTA FE TRAIL. .Walker D. Wyman, 17 THE FIRST DAY'S BATTLE AT HICKORY POINT: From the Diary and Remi- niscences of Samuel James Reader Edited by George A. Root, 28
THE MILITARY POST AS A FACTOR IN THE FRONTIER DEFENSE OF KANSAS,
1865-1869 .* Marvin H. Garfield, 50
WAS GOVERNOR JOHN A. MARTIN A PROHIBITIONIST? James C. Malin, 63
NOTES ON HISTORICAL LITERATURE OF THE RANGE CATTLE INDUSTRY,
James C. Malin, 74
KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE STATE PRESS . . 77
Number 2 — February, 1932
PAGE
THE PRATT COLLECTION OF MANUSCRIPTS Esther Clark Hill, 83
SOME BACKGROUND OF EARLY BAPTIST MISSIONS IN KANSAS: Based on Letters in the Pratt Collection of Manuscripts and Documents,
Esther Clark Hill, 89 SURVEYING THE SOUTHERN BOUNDARY LINE OF KANSAS: From the Private
Journal of Col. Joseph E. Johnston Edited by Nyle H. Miller, 104
DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER, 1864-1865 Marvin H. Garfield, 140
NO-KO-AHT'S TALK: A Kickapoo Chief's Account of a Tribal Journey from Kansas to Mexico and Return in the Sixties,
Edited by George A. Root, 153
NOTES ON THE LITERATURE OF POPULISM James C. Malin, 160
THE ANNUAL MEETING (1931): Containing a Summary of the President's Address ; Report of the Executive Committee ; Report of the Secre- tary; Revised Charter, Constitution and By-laws. . .Kirke Mechem, 165
RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY Compiled by Helen M. McFarland, 176
KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE STATE PRESS 184
KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 190
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Number 3— May, 1932
PAGE
EXTRACTS FROM DIARY OF CAPTAIN LAMBERT BOWMAN WOLF,
Edited by George A. Root, 195 GENERAL BLUNT'S ACCOUNT OF His CIVIL WAR EXPERIENCES,
James G. Blunt, 211
UNITED STATES SURVEYORS MASSACRED BY INDIANS (Lone Tree, Meade
County, 1874) Mrs. Frank C. Montgomery, 266
SOME PHASES OF THE INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF PITTSBURG, KANSAS,
Fred N. Howell, 273 Book Review — Nichols: Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite
Hills James C. Malin, 295
KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE STATE PRESS 298
KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES . . 304
Number 4 — August, 1932
PAGE
EARLY KANSAS IMPEACHMENTS Cortez A. M. Swing, 307
DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER, 1866-1867 Marvin H. Garfield, 326
SOME FAMOUS KANSAS FRONTIER SCOUTS Paul I. Wellman, 345
THE LEAVENWORTH BOARD OF TRADE, 1882-1892 Lela Barnes, 360
A HISTORY OF KANSAS CHILD-LABOR LEGISLATION Domenico Gagliardo, 379
KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE STATE PRESS 402
KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES . . . 410
Number 5 — November, 1932
PAGE
THE MILITARY PHASE OF SANTA FE FREIGHTING, 1846-1865
Walker D. Wyman, 415
THE EMIGRANT AID COMPANY IN KANSAS Samuel A. Johnson, 429
DIARY OF SAMUEL A. KINGMAN AT INDIAN TREATY IN 1865 442
DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER, 1868-1869 Marvin H. Garfield, 451
KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE STATE PRESS 474
KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 481
INDEX TO VOLUME I 483
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THE
Kansas Historical Quarterly
Volume 1 Number 1
November, 1931
PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT
B. P. WALKER, STATE PRINTER
TOPEKA 1931
14-1266
The Quarterly
For some years many members have felt that quarterly publication of the historical material printed in the biennial Collections would be of advantage to the Society. This of course was not criticism of the content of the Collections, since their popularity has always testified to their worth, but it was believed that the unwieldiness of the volumes and the infrequency of their appearance set a regrettable limit to their use and value. The Kansas Historical Quarterly was authorized by the directors in the hope of gaining a wider range of usefulness for this type of publication. Every effort will be made to secure articles that are historically sound as well as interesting in style and subject. It is planned to make frequent use of the Society's vast collection of original manuscripts and documents. Over the two-year period the Quarterly will publish approximately as much material as did the bien- nial Collections. It is printed in larger type and on better paper. Each volume will be indexed. An arrangement whereby members may exchange unbound numbers for bound volumes will be announced later. — THE EDITOR.
Pioneer Printing of Kansas
DOUGLAS C. McMuRTBiB
BY AN act of congress of May 26, 1830, the United States govern- ment, as if in the belief that its domain embraced land enough for all its people to grow in, magnanimously set aside an indefinite area, some six hundred miles from north to south and two hundred miles in width, as Indian territory. To this region, which lay west of the territory of Arkansas and of the ten-year-old state of Mis- souri, extending northward to the Platte and Missouri rivers, all Indians from the eastern portion of the country were to be removed as rapidly as the government could persuade them to cede their an- cestral lands and take other lands, far to the west, in exchange.
The plan of the government seems to have been to make over these various Indian groups, once they had been transplanted to their new homes, into self-supporting communities. To this end, provision was made for teachers and missionaries to accompany them, and for agricultural tools and supplies, paid for out of funds held in trust for the Indians by the paternal government, to be dis- tributed under the benevolent direction of agents appointed from Washington. The teachers were to teach the Indians their letters and the rudiments of civilized deportment. Farmers and artisans employed by the government were to teach them to plow, sow, and reap, and such elementary industrial arts as blacksmithing. Mis- sionaries were to persuade them to give up the evil ways of barbar- ism and become Christians. Meanwhile, the evacuated Indian lands east of the Mississippi could be distributed to land-hungry pioneers.
There is abundant record of how that grandiose plan, in its ex- ecution, fell somewhat short of expectations. And there would be no place for even a mention of it here except for the fact that one of the missionaries who accompanied a certain band of Indians into the far west had started life as a printer and in his new career combined printing with preaching.
Jotham Meeker was the name of this printer-missionary. He had been born in or near Cincinnati, Ohio, November 8, 1804. His birth- place had been settled in the wilderness only some dozen years be- fore, and he first saw the light a little over a year after the Louisiana Purchase had brought into the United States the far-distant terri-
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4 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
tory in which he was to spend most of his active life. In the days of his youth, Meeker was trained as a printer at Cincinnati.1
In the summer of 1825, when he was in his twenty-first year, Meeker decided to become a missionary teacher, and just after his twenty-first birthday he arrived at the Carey Mission Station, in the wilds of Michigan, among the Pottawatomies on the Saint Joseph river. Here he was about one hundred miles from Fort Wayne, the mission's nearest outpost of civilization. About two years later he was superintendent of the newly established Thomas Station, among the Ottawas, on the Grand river. Here he received his license to preach the gospel, under the authorization of the Baptist congrega- tion at Carey. After nearly five years of mission work, Meeker married Eleanor Richardson, a fellow worker at the Thomas Station, and with a wife and mother to support went back to Cincinnati to work as a printer. But in 1832 he and his wife were back in the missionary field, this time among the Chippewas, at Sault Ste. Marie.
The Pottawatomies, Ottawas, and Chippewas all spoke closely re- lated languages, in the use of which young Meeker had become fluent. At Sault Ste. Marie he first began his experiments in devis- ing for the Indian languages an orthography which might be written or printed with the ordinary characters of our alphabet. He re- corded in his journal that after a few hours' instruction he had suc- ceeded in teaching two young Indian boys to read. But before he could carry his experiments further he was transferred to a new location in the Indian territory. It was now arranged that Meeker should take with him a printing outfit. He went to Cincinnati to procure the equipment, which cost, press, type and everything else, $550, and set out for the West.
Just west of the Missouri boundary, and just "over the line" of the city limits of the present Kansas City (Missouri) , Meeker set up the first press in what is now the state of Kansas, in February, 1834. On the first day of March he set the first types in the new territory, and on the eighth of that month he made the first press impression. These details of printing chronology are accurately known from the precise entries in Meeker's own journal, which sets forth his life and
1. The two printing concerns principally identified with Cincinnati at what was probably the time of Meeker's apprenticeship were Looker, Reynolds & Co. (later Looker, Palmer & Reynolds, and Looker & Reynolds), and Morgan, Lodge & Co. (later Morgan & Lodge, and Morgan, Lodge & Fisher). There were six or seven other master printers at work at Cincin- nati for a year or two at a time during the same period, but the probability is that the young apprentice served his time in the plant of one of the two larger and more firmly estab- lished firms.
McMuRTRiE: PIONEER PRINTING OF KANSAS 5
doings in brief but comprehensive form from his twenty-eighth birthday, in 1832, until within ten days of his death in 1855.2
The press which Meeker operated was at first set up at the Baptist Shawanoe (Shawnee) Mission. Here, until May of 1837, Meeker produced about ninety pieces of printed matter.3 Most of the output of the press was in the form of small books containing hymns, selec- tions from the Scriptures, and other works of a religious nature, translated into various Indian languages by Meeker and by other missionaries. The orthography was that which Meeker had devised, whereby the letters of the alphabet were assigned, sometimes rather arbitrarily, to the task of representing sounds found in the Indian speech. The system seems to have been quite successful with those Indians who would permit themselves to be taught.4
In the summer of 1837, Meeker established himself as a mission- ary and teacher among the band of Ottawas, from Michigan, who had been given lands near the present city of Ottawa, Kansas. The press remained at Shawanoe, in charge for a time of Rev. John G. Pratt, also a Baptist missionary, who must be recorded as the second printer in Kansas.5 In the summer of 1846, the press, still in charge of Pratt, was removed to Stockbridge, an outpost of the Shawanoe Mission which had been opened in 1843 at a site a short distance north of the Kansas river, near the Missouri. Pratt is known to have produced eighteen pieces of printing at Shawanoe and four at Stockbridge. But this printer did not keep a diary as Meeker did, and it may be that there were some other products of his press of which there is now no record.
Meeker returned three times from Ottawa to Shawanoe to see to the printing of books prepared by himself for his Ottawas, or to help Pratt— in 1838, in 1840, and again in 1845. Finally, in 1849, Pratt having discontinued the use of the press entirely, Meeker transported the dismantled equipment to Ottawa and there occasionally did
2. The original of Jotham Meeker's journal is in the possession of the Kansas State His- torical Society, at Topeka. Copious extracts from it, especially as the record concerns Meeker's activities as a printer, will be found in Jotham Meeker, Pioneer Printer of Kansas, pp. 45-126.
3. See Jotham Meeker, Pioneer Printer of Kansas, pp. 34-35.
4. Op. cit., pp. 25-30. In Meeker's orthography the functions of the letters differed ac- cording to the language. Thus in the Shawnee texts the letter b represented the sound of th in "thin," but in Delaware it was used for the sound of u in "tube"; in Pottawatomie and Ottawa, the letter r represented the sound of e in "met," but in Dtelaware it stood for a in "fate." These arbitrary differences in the use of letters seriously impaired the general use- fulness of the system.
5. This statement is not strictly accurate. Before Pratt had come to Shawanoe, Meeker's journal had recorded the temporary employment of Thomas E. Birch as a journeyman in the summer of 1835; during November, 1835, Meeker employed a "Mr. Day," and in April, 1837, a "Mr. Quisinbury." But these representatives of the printing craft are shadowy figures, existing for us only momentarily in the pages of Meeker's journal.
6 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
some printing. About ten pieces of printing are listed from the press at Ottawa up to the time of Meeker's death in January, 1855.
Notable among the products of the Meeker press was a little four- page or sometimes two-page paper in the Shawnee language. To this paper may be granted the distinction of being the first printing in the form of a newspaper in what is now Kansas. In the Meeker orthography its name was printed Siwinoe Kesibwi, pronounced, according to contemporary spellings, Shauwaunowe Kesauthwau, meaning in English Shawnee Sun. This publication began with a fairly regular monthly issue, but in its later years it seems to have been an occasional affair, published whenever Johnston Lykins, its Baptist missionary editor, had time for it. Contributions written by some of the Indans themselves appeared now and then in its columns. Its first issue was printed by Meeker on March 1, 1835, and it was continued until about 1844. Meeker mentions the printing of it from time to time in his journal up to the fourteenth issue, in April, 1837. The only existing copy of it is one dated November, 1841, printed at Shawanoe Mission by John G. Pratt, who was then the printer at that station. It has only recently been discovered in private ownership in Kansas City, Kansas.6
The activities of this pioneer Kansas press covered in all a period of twenty-one years, during which time it had operated at three lo- calities—Shawanoe, 1834-1846, Stockbridge, 1846-1848, and Ottawa, 1849 — ca. 1854. Of these, Stockbridge and Ottawa were the third and fourth printing points in what is now Kansas. For the second point at which printing was done in that area, we must turn to an- other Indian mission, in the northeastern corner of the present state.
Here, a mile or so east and north of the present town of Highland, was a Presbyterian mission among the loway and Sac Indians. This mission had been established in 1835, and in 1837 there had come to it two young men from Pittsburgh, Samuel M. Irvin and William Hamilton. Already in 1835, and again in 1837, Presbyterian mis- sionaries had engaged the services of Jotham Meeker, at Shawanoe, to print for them two or three small books in the language of the loways.7 But Irvin and Hamilton wished to do their own printing.
6. Jotham Meeker records in his journal that on December 12, 1836, he had bound up two sets of the eleven issues of the Sun which had appeared up to that time. And in Oc- tober, 1839, Johnston Lykins transmitted copies for 1835, 1836, and 1837, to the Depart- ment of Indian Affairs, at Washington, with other material from the Baptist Mission Press. But all these have disappeared. The one copy now extant was reproduced in the Kansas City (Kansas) Sun of February 18, 1898, and only recently came to light again, in March, 1930, after the publication of Jotham Meeker with the statement (p. 33) that it could not be located.
7. Jotham Meeker, pp. 145-146 (nos. 37 and 38), p. 150 (no. 54).
McMuRTRiE: PIONEER PRINTING OF KANSAS 7
In April, 1843, therefore, the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions sent them a small printing equipment, at a total cost of about $250.8 With this outfit, the two missionaries set themselves to the task of learning how to print.
For neither Hamilton nor Irvin had had any previous experience with printing. Not only that, but they had first to devise a sylla- bary for the sounds of the loway language and also to translate the texts which they desired to print — all this, of course, in addition to their other missionary labors. Yet one of the first fruits of their labors was a book of 101 pages. The pages were small — about 3% by 5% inches — but the production of the book was nevertheless an achievement under the circumstances. The title was An Elemen- tary Book of the loway Language, and the imprint was "Iowa and Sac Mission Press, Indian Territory, 1843."9
Even in 1848, when they had had the press for five years, the two self-taught printers thought it necessary to insert in their 156-page loway Grammar an apology for their craftsmanship. "Any de- fect, which may appear in the mechanical execution of this work," they said, "will be accounted for, when it is remembered that the little press at the station, on which it has been done, is provided with only two kinds of type, and that our experience in the art has been acquired entirely in the Indian country, and without any instructor."
The known output of this Presbyterian mission press was quite small; only nine titles from it have been recorded. But it deserves mention as the second press to operate in Kansas.
Since Meeker first set up his press at Shawanoe in 1834, many changes had come over the Indian territory before the death of that pioneer in 1855. The pressure of population threatened the far- spreading prairie lands set apart for the Indians, and the country was becoming distracted with the question of slavery. The result was that on May 30, 1854, President Pierce signed the Kansas- Nebraska bill. This meant that the Indians had to readjust them- selves once more to an invasion of their lands by the whites, and that the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska were to settle for themselves, on drafting their state constitutions, whether or not they should permit slavery. The rush of settlement began at once. And with the settlers came newspapers, and bitter political campaigns.
An interesting little thread of connection between the old Indian
8. A Forgotten Pioneer Press of Kansas, p. 14.
9. Op. cit., p. 16.
8 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
territory and the new territory of Kansas is found in Jotham Meeker's journal. On September 5, 1854, he wrote: "A Mr. Miller staid with us last night — he came to try to buy our printing estab- lishment to commence his Kansas Free State, but the press being too small he does not buy."10 And on November 7 of the same year the entry was: "Write a letter to Messrs. G. W. Brown & Co., and sub- scribe for their Herald of Freedom, published at Wakarusa, K. T." The following January, Meeker passed from the earthly scene and left the printing field to the Millers and the Browns of the new order of things.
The new order of things was in sharp contrast with the relatively peaceful days of scattered Indian reservations. The newcomers to Kansas were partisans, whether of slavery or free soil, and came de- termined to predominate in the voting which should determine the status of Kansas as slave or free. There is no proper occasion here to mention the bitter and tragic conflicts that arose, other than to say that the spirit of them gave a characteristic brand to the early news- paper press of Kansas, and attracted to local journalism, which would have been normally inconspicuous under other circumstances, the attention not only of the nation, but of the world.
The forerunner of the long line of Kansas newspapers was the Kansas Weekly Herald, which began publication at Leavenworth on September 15, 1854. Its printer and publisher was William H. Adams, a Kentuckian by birth, who happened to be publishing the Platte Argus at Weston, Missouri, when the Kansas excitement started. He also happened to be the son-in-law of George W. Gist, who organized a company to create a townsite not far from the gov- ernment's military outpost at Fort Leavenworth. The fact that the new town was to be laid out on lands that still belonged to the Dele- ware Indians does not seem to have been considered by the pro- moters. Even before there was a town, there was a newspaper. Adams set the type for his first issue in the open air, under an elm tree. Some visitors to this interesting scene described "four tents, all on one street, a barrel of water or whisky under a tree, and a pot, on a pole over a fire. Under a tree a type- sticker had his case before him and was at work on the first number of the new paper, and within a frame, without a board on side or roof, was the editor's desk and sanctum."11 When these same visitors returned a little later
10. Jotham Meeker, p. 125, and pp. 41-42.
11. Boynton and Mason, A Journey Through Kansas, with Sketches of Nebraska (Cin- cinnati, 1855), pp. 23-24.
McMuRTKiE: PIONEER PRINTING OF KANSAS 9
from a short journey into Kansas, the editor had removed his office from under the elm tree to "the corner of Broadway and the levee," where, with the exception of Fort Leavenworth, there was probably not another house on either side for forty miles.
Adams was a mild-mannered person, a printer rather than an editor, and his paper at first was colorless enough, although repre- senting the proslavery cause. For the first six issues Adams was in partnership with William J. Osborn. Then General Lucien J. Eastin became a partner in the publishing enterprise in place of Osborn, and under the firm of Eastin & Adams the Kansas Weekly Herald began to emit editorial fire.
Leavenworth was the fifth site of printing in Kansas, although the first under territorial conditions. The second location of a press in the new territory was at Kickapoo, about seven miles from Leaven- worth. Here A. B. Hazzard and a man named Sexton started the second proslavery paper, the Kansas Pioneer, in November of 1854. This press seems to have had the distinction of printing the earliest known official document connected with the territorial history of Kansas. This was a broadside list of the officers and members of both houses of the legislative assembly, which convened at a place called Pawnee on July 2, 1855, and a few days later moved to the Shawnee Manual Labor School, a Methodist establishment not far from the Baptist mission where Meeker had first labored. John T. Brady, of the Manual Labor School, was chosen as public printer by the assembly, but such printing as he did not send to Saint Louis seems to have been executed at Kickapoo.
Hazzard in all probability was also the printer of the opinion of Samuel D. Lecompte, chief justice, concurred in by Rush Elmore, associate justice, of the territorial supreme court, concerning the validity of the acts of the legislative assembly. This is a pamphlet of nine printed pages, with the imprint "Shawnee M. L. S.: J. T. Brady, 1855." The New York Public Library has a copy of each of these rarities.
At first, the proslavery party had everything its own way. It could find plenty of sympathizers just across the border in Missouri, while the free-state adherents had to make long journeys to reach Kansas. The legislative assembly of July, 1855, known to history as the "Bogus Legislature," had been chosen largely with the help of bands of determined Missourians who had moved into Kansas for the purpose. The free-state settlers ignored its enactments and in
10 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the following winter organized their own "government" at Topeka, much to the embarrassment of the authorities at Washington. And in a very short time the first free-state newspapers appeared. The first of these, and the third newspaper in territorial Kansas, was the Herald of Freedom, established at Lawrence by George Washington Brown on January 3, 1855. This was the paper for which Jotham Meeker had entered his subscription two months before its first ap- pearance.
There were three entries in the race to become the first free-state paper in Kansas. These were Brown's Herald of Freedom, the Kan- sas Free State, by Josiah Miller and Robert G. Elliott, and the Kan- sas Tribune, by John Speer. All three had independently fixed on the new settlement at Lawrence as their goal, and Brown's paper won by a lead of only about one week. Brown was the editor and publisher of the Courier at Conneautville, Pennsylvania. As early as March, 1854, he published in the Courier an announcement of his intention to go to Kansas and start a newspaper. A little later he procured the backing of the newly organized Massachusetts Emi- grant Aid Company, which widely advertised the proposed new paper at Lawrence, where the company's first settlement was to be made. The prospectus of the Herald of Freedom was published in the Courier in July, 1854, and on September 21 Brown printed at Conneautville the first number, with the date line "Wakarusa, Kan- sas Territory, October 21, 1854." Twenty-one thousand copies of this issue were widely circulated. Soon after its issue, Brown started west with a party of about three hundred prospective settlers, in- cluding a printing crew of seven persons. In his outfit Brown had a newly purchased press.
Difficulties of transportation delayed the arrival of Brown's party until December. In the meantime, the name of the proposed settle- ment had been changed from Wakarusa to Lawrence. With the aid of the Emigrant Aid Company's sawmill, a building for the news- paper plant was completed about the first of January, 1855. The first issue of the Herald of Freedom at Lawrence appeared on Jan- uary 3, although it was dated January 6.12
Josiah Miller had decided upon establishing a newspaper in Kan-
12. Contemporary evidence abundantly establishes the priority of the Herald of Freedom over the other two papers at Lawrence, in spite of claims to the contrary. The evidence is conclusively set forth in Flint's Journalism in Territorial Kansas, pp. 49-54. I am much indebted to this searching and exhaustive essay for many details of early Kansas newspaper history. Much of Flint's account of the events at Lawrence in January, 1855, is based on personal interviews with Robert Elliott and with William Miller, a brother of Josiah Miller, in the summer and fall of 1915.
McMuRTRiE: PIONEER PRINTING OF KANSAS 11
sas at about the same time that Brown did. He had already visited the region in April, 1854, and when the Kansas-Nebraska bill was passed he formed a partnership with Robert Gaston Elliott, then a school teacher in Tennessee, and returned to Kansas, deciding upon Wyandott as the place in which to locate. Elliott was to procure materials and follow, but was delayed by difficulties of transporta- tion. We have seen how Miller, in the hope of hurrying matters, had visited Jotham Meeker, but finding his press too small did not buy it. Elliott finally arrived, with a press bought in Cincinnati and type and paper procured in Saint Louis, but the partners could not get a suitable location at Wyandott and so moved on to Lawrence. Refused assistance there by the Emigrant Aid Company because of its arrangement with Brown, Miller and Elliott had some difficulty in getting a building, but finally were able to begin installing their equipment in an unfinished shack which had been intended as a dwelling. Neither Elliott nor Miller were printers, so we must as- sume that somewhere they had procured technical assistants. When they started work on their initial issue of the Free State, Brown with his well-equipped establishment was on the ground, and also John Speer.
Speer, editor and publisher of the New Era at Medina, Ohio, first came to Kansas in the summer of 1854. Because his was to be a free-state paper, he was coldly received at Tecumseh, near Lecomp- ton, where he first planned to settle. He then went to Lawrence and prepared part of the copy for his projected Kansas Pioneer, expect- ing to get the printing done at the plant of the Enterprise in Kansas City, Missouri. But that establishment also refused to help a free- state publication, and so did the Herald, at Leavenworth. Speer re- turned to Ohio, therefore, and issued his first number there, dating it October 15, 1854. With his foreman, Charles Garrett, he then set out again for Kansas, hoping to get out his second issue before any other free-state paper should appear.
It was a season of low water, and Speer, like his competitors, was delayed by difficulties of transportation. His load of equipment was put on shore near Boonville, Missouri, in November or December, and Speer and Garrett set out for Lawrence in light marching order, with "two composing sticks and a change of clothing." Meanwhile the proslavery Kansas Pioneer has made its appearance at Kickapoo, so Speer changed the name of his projected paper to Kansas Tribune.
At Lawrence, in order to comply with the terms of his prospectus,
12 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Speer tried to arrange with Brown to get out the first issue of the Tribune for him, offering a partnership when his equipment should arrive. Brown refused, so Speer threw in his lot with Miller and Elliott. The Tribune was to use the matter set up for the Free State, with a change of heading and with a few columns of new material. With all their efforts, however, the Free State-Tribune combination, with type enough for only one side of the sheet to be printed at a time, was defeated in the race with Brown and his seven printers and big equipment. The first Free State was dated January 3, but was not actually on the streets of the crude settlement at Lawrence until a week later.
Following Leavenworth and Kickapoo, Lawrence was the third printing point in territorial Kansas. Atchison was the fourth, with the establishment of the Squatter Sovereign, a violently proslavery paper, by John H. Stringfellow and Robert S. Kelley, on February 3, 1855. Fifth was Topeka, where E. C. K. Garvey established the Kansas Freeman on July 5, 1855. Fort Scott may have been the sixth, but the record of the Southern Kansan is not clear whether it began in August, 1855, or in August, 1856. The press, brought from Boonville, Missouri, seems to have been actually on the ground, how- ever, in 1855.13
Topeka was the site of the free-state "government" set up in oppo- sition to the "bogus legislature" at Shawnee. This Topeka govern- ment, however, evidently refrained from putting itself on record by printing anything, although there was a press at Topeka as early as February, 1855. The first printed record of free-state politics, other than newspapers, seems to have been the proceedings of the terri- torial convention held at Big Springs on September 5 and 6, 1855. These proceedings were printed in a 16-page pamphlet by the Herald of Freedom office at Lawrence. The so-called "Topeka Constitution" was written in 1855, but it was not printed until 1857, when it ap- peared in 16-page format from the office of the Lawrence Republi- can, a paper established on May 28 of that year.
Although the proslavery partisans made the first start in Kansas territorial printing, they were soon outnumbered by the free-state printing establishments. Because the advocates of the "peculiar in- stitution" could not migrate and settle in Kansas without the risk of losing their slave property if the new state should vote itself free, they were at a disadvantage in point of numbers against the free-
13. Kansas Annual Register, 1864, p. 138; Flint, pp. 600-601.
McMuRTRiE: PIONEER PRINTING OF KANSAS 13
state settlers, who brought no embarrassing "property" with them. But in spite of the disparity in numbers, the struggle between the two factions lacked nothing in bitterness and violence, with both sides at fault for deeds of cruelty and ruthlessness, until after the close of the Civil War. Newspapers and printing plants suffered from violence as well as individuals and other forms of property.
The first newspaper to suffer from violence was the Leavenworth Territorial Register, established July 7, 1855, by Mark W. Delahay and A. M. Sevier. Delahay was a delegate to the Topeka constitu- tional convention in the fall of that year, and while he was away a party of Missourians, not liking his political attitude, crossed the Missouri river on the ice and on December 22 ransacked the Register office. The press was dropped through a hole in the ice, and the type was distributed in the street. Five months later, following an in- dictment charging them with constructive treason in denying the legality of the territorial authorities, the plants of the Free State and of the Herald of Freedom were destroyed by violence on May 21, 1856. John Speer's Kansas Tribune escaped by having been removed to Topeka a short time before. The Tribune and E. C. K. Garvey's Kansas Freeman, both at Topeka, were for a time the only free-state papers left in Kansas.
New printing points in 1856 were Doniphan, where Thomas J. Key planted the proslavery Constitutionalist on May 3, and Le- compton, where the Union, also proslavery, was established on the same date by A. W. Jones and C. A. Faris. Printing materials were also assembled at Osawatomie by Oscar V. Dayton and Alexander Gardner, of New York, in the spring of 1856. But during the dis- turbances of that year the materials were hidden, and the projected Osawatomie Times did not appear. But in 1857 the tide definitely turned. Newspapers started in at least fifteen new locations, and only two of these were of the proslavery faith. In the order of their appearance they were as follows:14
Quindaro Chindowan: May 13, by J. M. Walden and Edmund Babb. Lawrence Republican: May 28, by Norman Allen and T. Dwight Thacher. Wyandott City Register: May, by M. W. Delahay. White Cloud Kansas Chief: June 4, by Solomon Miller. Emporia Kansas News: June 6, by Preston B. Plumb.
Centropolis Kansas Leader: June 13, by William Austin and Elias Beard- sley.
Prairie City Freeman's Champion: June 25, by S. S. Prouty.
14. This list is compiled from the "Roll Call of Newspapers in Territorial Kansas," Flint, pp. 595 ff.
14 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Atchison Kansas Zeitung: June, by Charles F. Kob.
Geary City Era: June, by E. H. Grand and Earle Marble.
Elwood Advertiser: July, by John S. Fairman.
Tecumseh Note Book: July, by S. G. Reid (proslavery).
Sumner Gazette : Sept. 12, by J. P. and D. D. Cone.
Wyandott Citizen: Sept. 19, by Ephraim Abbott (revival of the Wyandott Register).
Ottumwa Journal: September, by Jonathan Lyman; removed in October to Burlington, where it became the
Burlington Free Press.
Delaware Kansas Free State: revival in the fall of 1857, by R. G. Elliott, of the Free State destroyed at Lawrence in May, 1856.
Marysville Palmetto Kansan: November, by J. E. Clardy (proslavery).
Osawatomie Southern Kansas Herald: November, by Charles E. Griffith.
Some of the products of the early Kansas press deserve mention, as they may be said to be comprised among the incunabula of terri- torial Kansas. Some of the printing done by A. B. Hazzard at Kick- apoo for the proslavery, or "bogus," legislature has already been mentioned. In all probability, Hazzard also printed the four-page pamphlet containing the drastic act to punish offenses against slave property passed by that legislature August 14, 1855. Other publi- cations of that session — the journals of the council and of the house of representatives, and the volume of more than a thousand pages containing the statutes passed — were printed in St. Louis, although they bear the imprint of John T. Brady, public printer, at the Shaw- nee Manual Labor School.
Eastin & Adams, of Leavenworth, printed at their Herald office the proceedings of the Kansas Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons in an adjourned meeting at Leavenworth in July, 1856. In 1857 there appeared two addresses to the people of the United States from the two opposing parties in Kansas. The Democratic Terri- torial Convention, held at Lecompton on January 12, 1857, had its address printed in Leavenworth at the office of the Leavenworth Weekly Journal, a proslavery paper established about June 1, 1856, by S. S. Goode in partnership with a Major Wilkes of South Caro- lina. The Free State convention met at Topeka on March 10, 1857, and its address was also issued with a Leavenworth imprint, though it is not known which office in that town had the hardihood to print it.
The journals and the laws of the second session of the territorial legislature, held at Lecompton in January, 1857, were issued at Le- compton by R. H. Bennett, successor to John T. Brady as public
McMuRTRiE: PIONEER PRINTING OF KANSAS 15
printer and probably associated with the office of the Lecompton Union, & proslavery paper established at the new temporary capital in May, 1856. In 1857 the imprint of Eastin & Adams, of the Leav- enworth Herald, again appeared on the proceedings of another meet- ing of the Masonic grand lodge that assembled in Leavenworth in October. In that year the Leavenworth Journal office printed A Historical Sketch and Review of the Business of the City of Leaven- worth— the city being then about three years old.
The laws of the third and fourth sessions of the territorial legis- lative assembly have the imprint of S. W. Driggs & Co., at Lecomp- ton in 1858. Driggs had established there, in July, 1857, the Na- tional Democrat, still another organ of the proslavery party. But in 1859 and thereafter the imprints of printers identified with the free-state sentiment come more and more to the fore. The proceed- ings of the Wyandott constitutional convention of July, 1859, were printed at Wyandott (now a part of Kansas City, Kansas) by S. D. Macdonald, "Printer to the Convention." This printer about a year before, in August, 1858, had begun publication of the Wyandott Commercial Gazette. It was under the so-called Wyandott constitu- tion, also printed at Wyandott in 1859, that Kansas eventually was admitted to the Union in 1861. The journals of the legislature of 1859 have the imprint of J. K. Goodin, at Lawrence, and the laws of that session were printed at the "Herald of Freedom Steam Press," the imprint showing that G. W. Brown's paper had been quite suc- cessfully revived after the destruction of its plant in 1856.
In the period before 1860, the press in what is now Kansas got no farther west than Junction City, which point was reached in June, 1858, when B. H. Keyser began his Sentinel there, with George W. Kingsbury as printer. A line drawn from Marysville at the north, southward through Junction City to Cottonwood Falls, and thence southeast to Fort Scott, will delimit the area in which the early press of Kansas operated. It is noteworthy that no fewer than eight enterprising printers set up their presses in the small area of the present Doniphan county, all but one of these being free-state ad- vocates arriving in the years 1857-1859. This area, in the extreme northeastern corner of the territory, was probably more accessible to the free-state invasion than locations that could be reached only by quite extended journeying through hostile Missouri.
This chapter on the press in Kansas may well close by taking leave of the old press first brought there by Jotham Meeker. After
16 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Meeker 's death, the press became the property of George W. Brown, of the Lawrence Herald of Freedom. From Brown it passed to S. S. Prouty, who used it in connection with his Freeman's Champion, at Prairie City in 1857, and with his Neosho Valley Register at Bur- lington in 1859. Prouty sold it to S. Weaver, who used it at Lecomp- ton. Thence it went to Cottonwood Falls and from there on south to Cowley county, where it was used at Winfield. It is also said to have been at Liberal, in Seward county. Next it passed into Okla- homa and into a period of obscurity and neglect. In the summer of 1929 parts of an old wooden press were found in a cellar in Guymon, Oklahoma, and tentatively identified as belonging to the ancient Meeker press. Whether this actually is the press of Meeker is doubtful, as all accounts describe the original press as an iron press of the Seth Adams make. At last accounts the old press found in Oklahoma was the property of Mr. Giles Miller, editor of the Pan- handle Herald, at Guymon.15
15. The story of the wanderings of this old press was told by S. S. Prouty in the Win- field Courier of August 27, 1870, quoted by Flint, p. 613, as "the most probable account," and repeated in Martin's Hand Book of the Kansas Publishing House (Topeka, 1875), pp. 34-35. It was carried further by Mr. J. T. Crawford, general secretary of the Kansas State Baptist Association, in an article in the Kansas City Star of October 15, 1929. According to Prouty, twenty stars on its original frame indicated that it had been made in 1817, before Illinois became the twenty-first state in 1818.
Freighting: A Big Business on the Santa Fe
Trail
WALKER WYMAN
"Kearny's baggage train started a new era in plains freight- ing. ... It became a matter of business, running smoothly along familiar channels. . . . Between the Mexican and the Civil Wars was its new period of life. . . ." l
IN THE fifties overland freighting became a great business, em- ploying a vast outlay of capital and great numbers of men and animals. Like a tide it rose through that decade, reaching its flood in the sixties. Then came the Kansas Pacific railroad, stretching westward from Kansas City. Overland freighting with ox teams re- ceded as the railroad advanced. With this ebb tide went the big business of freighting.
During the last half of the decade of the forties, Independence, Missouri, became the best market west of St. Louis for cattle, mules, and wagons. Overland freighting gradually fell into fewer hands. St. Louis, Philadelphia, and other eastern cities continued to be pur- chasing places for goods. As the years of the fifties came, steamers ascended the Missouri beyond Independence to Westport, Kansas City, Ft. Leavenworth, and Atchison with goods destined for the New Mexican trade. From these towns caravans of prairie schooners pulled by ox and mule teams made the monotonous journey across the plains on a trail which became a wide, hard-beaten road.
Before the fifties cargoes of calico, groceries, and leather goods were exchanged for specie, furs, and mules. Much of the goods went to Chihuahua, Mexico, some five hundred miles south of Santa Fe. A high ad valorem tax on goods entering Mexico as well as the flour- ishing market in the territory of New Mexico in which no duties were charged after 1852, discouraged the Chihuahua trade. The de- velopment of gold fields in the territories of Arizona and New Mexico, the flow of Americans to these areas, and the rapid Ameri- canization of the natives created demands for a diversified supply of goods. There was an "uncommonly large demand" for calicoes, bleached domestics, and small white hosiery. A contemporary, in giving a survey of the trade, commented upon the diminutive char-
1. Frederick Logan Paxson, The Last American Frontier (N. Y., 1910), p. 67.
(17) 2—1266
18 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
acter of the Mexican women's feet which made small sizes neces- sary.2 Dealers of shoes also had to meet this requirement. But flour, whisky, hardware, and ammunition — packed in boxes, sacks, and barrels — formed the bulk of the freight. By 1860, reported this writer, a greater part of the specie had been drained from New Mexico by the demands of commerce, and mules had long since ceased to be of any importance as an article of exchange.3 After about 1858 enormous quantities of wool began to flow to Missouri in wagon trains many of which had heretofore returned empty.4 Goat and sheep skins were additional articles of import. In the year of 1859 nearly 30,000 skins were imported into Missouri, selling at twenty-five cents each. Dry hides, some tallow, and a few furs con- tinued to come. Total imports in 1859 were valued at $500,000.5
Until 1850 Independence was the principal outfitting place. In the first few months in 1849 traders were arriving from New Mexico. The frozen snow and jagged ice along the trail lacerated the feet of some of the mules. One train had been snowbound for three days. For five days the men had existed on nothing but "an ear or two of corn." These instances were rare merely because the overland trains were few until June. At that time an observer said that there was a Mexican invasion. "These swarthy teamsters . . .," he said, "were having a great life in breaking 'mulos'. Many who had never seen a mule professed to understand 'all about them' — , and it is quite amusing to see these gentlemen undertake the taming of these animals." Good mules were scarce after May, and cholera was bad. Traders hurried out of town. Adjutant Hart, with the purpose of settling in Chihuahua, took machinery with him. Carriages for Mexican senators were dragged through the streets along with the caravans. The Expositor mused: "How they [the carriages] will delight the belles of Mexico." 6
The extent of trade in 1849 is difficult to explain. Many mer- chants were reported to have failed in Santa Fe during the winter of 1848. The whole country, according to one merchant, was com- pletely glutted and every town overstocked with goods. He be- lieved there were sufficient supplies for several years to come. This
2. This excellent article, "The Great Overland Trade with New Mexico," appeared in the Missouri Republican (date not given) and was quoted in the Topeka State Record, October 16, 1860. Author unknown.
3. Ibid.
4. Kansas City Star, April 5, 1908, found in volume 1 of Trails Clippings (Kansas State Historical Society), p. 187.
5. Topeka State Record, October 16, 1860, quoting Missouri Republican.
6. Missouri Republican, June 3, 1849 ; St. Louis Weekly Reveille, June 22, 1849.
WYMAN: FREIGHTING ON THE SANTA FE TRAIL 19
condition was unchanged after the arrival of the caravan in the sum- mer of that year. William Messervy, a merchant of Santa Fe, warned "introducers of new goods" that they were bound to lose money. Calico sold in New Mexico for the cost price in St. Louis. The high duties levied on goods imported into Chihuahua, ranging from sixty per cent to thirty-three and one-third per cent, made freighting for that market hazardous as a profit-making enterprise. It was alleged that merchants lost approximately eight cents on every yard of cloth imported from Missouri.7
The plains Indians caused no great trouble during the summer although a band of them camped on the Arkansas during most of the freighting season. The government gave them $1,000 worth of pres- ents which, perhaps, kept them in a friendly mood. Hard weather conditions were the most distracting elements with which freighters had to contend. James Browne, enroute to Santa Fe in the fall, ex- perienced a three-day snowstorm in the middle of November. A newspaper reported that the weather "was so intensely cold as to freeze all the oxen attached to the train, leaving the wagons standing in the Jornada . . . [the Cimarron desert south of the Arkan- sas in the present state of Kansas] ." A few men went for aid while ten or fifteen stayed with the goods all winter. In March, 1850, they were seen by a passing trader. Two wagons had been burned for fuel in the struggle for life during the winter.8
The greatest tragedy of the year was the murder of J. M. White, his family, and a few of his employees. In the latter part of the freighting season he started to Santa Fe with thirteen wagons. Va- rious reports say that when some of his mules became exhausted, he cached a part of his goods, and pushed ahead. About 150 miles from Santa Fe, in the area where the Apache and Comanche had attacked many trains and were to attack many more, the bodies, with the ex- ception of Mrs. White and her youngest child, were found in a muti- lated condition. Merchants of Santa Fe were sufficiently aroused to offer $1,000 reward for the recovery of Mrs. White. The troops later found her, but not before her life had been taken.9
The following year, 1850, passed without great change. Trade was brisk, without doubt. A fatal disease, "dry murrain," caused from drinking unwholesome water, left many oxen along the trail to
7. Missouri Republican, February 16, August 25, and September 8, 1849.
8. Missouri Commonwealth, quoted in the Weekly Reveille, January 21, 1850.
9. For various reports see Weekly Reveille, December 9, 1849 ; February 11 and May 6, 1850.
20 ,' THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
die. The Missouri Republican believed that nearly all trains had lost animals. The dry season threw many wagons out of service. It may have been local pride that caused the Republican to remark that "of all the wagons taken to and from Santa Fe this year, those only that were manufactured in this city [St. Louis], by Mr. J. Murphy, have withstood all the injurious effects of the heat." 10 The Arkansas river was believed to have been the lowest it had ever been in that particular season. The Indians south of the Arkansas were extremely hostile. One train of Browne's was attacked and ten teamsters killed. Others were robbed and pillaged. One journalist spoke of the "imbecility of our government [which] excites the pity of our own people and the contempt of our poor Indians." n Ft. Mann and an encampment on the upper Arkansas gave some protec- tion to the Trail north of the Arkansas.
The removal of the army depot in 1851, from Santa Fe to Fort Union, caused the report that business was dull in Santa Fe. When one hundred and twenty-nine wagons had arrived it was believed that there were enough goods to last two years. A few traders went on south to Chihuahua. The postmaster of Santa Fe, one Mr. Mc~ Knight, said that 549 wagons constituted the total trade for the year. These wagons were in trains ranging from seven to forty.12
Since the days of the Kearny military government, merchants of Santa Fe had paid a license for transacting business. Much of the time an ad valorem tax on imports had been paid in spite of great protest. In 1852 the latter restriction was removed, thereby permit- ting free trade for practically the first time since overland commerce began in 1822.13 Trade with Mexico decreased because of the high duties levied at Paso del Norte (El Paso). The failure of crops along the Rio Grande prostrated trade in that region until 1854.
Independence continued to share the overland trade with West- port in the early fifties.14 The Republican testified in 1851 that a "great many wagons still depart from Independence, particularly the trains for New Mexico, but the town is not advancing. . . ." 15
10. Missouri Republican, September 28, 1850.
11. Independent, June 16, 1850, quoted in Missouri Republican, June 23, 1850.
12. For this account and other reports which seem to vary somewhat see the Missouri Republican, September 8, August 18, September 28, and July 8, 1850.
13. H. H. Bancroft, Arizona and New Mexico (San Francisco, 1890), 644 ; Senate Execu- tive Documents, 34th Congress, 2d session, vol. VIII, part 4, p. 536, ser. No. 831.
14. A clipping from the Kansas City Journal, May 22, 1905 (given in Trails Clippings, vol. I, p. 70, Kansas State Historical Society), quoting the Annals of the City of Kansas and of Great Plains of the West, says that in 1847 it was conceded that Kansas City fairly di- vided the trade with Independence, and since 1850 the former had exclusive benefit of all business "save a few wagons which were owned in Independence."
15. Missouri Republican, August 11, 1851.
WYMAN: FREIGHTING ON THE SANTA FE TRAIL 21
The heyday of this river town was over. Westport Landing, a good dock a few miles west of Independence, became a popular shipping point. A settlement grew up around the landing. Kansas City, located south of the Kansas (or Kaw) river, grew up as an auxiliary to Westport. As late as 1859 a correspondent wrote that "nearly all" the trade came first to Westport and was from thence dis- tributed." 16
The treaty of Fort Atkinson was signed with the Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache in 1853. Good behavior, the inviolability of the plains traffic, and the right to establish military posts and railroad depots was pledged in exchange for an annual payment of $18,000 for ten years in "strips of red calico, red blankets, red beads, copper kettles, butcher knives, and hatchets [but no guns]." But "irre- sponsible Indians and evil white men soon violated every pledge made." 17
Smallpox and Indians made freighting hazardous in 1854. In- solent Indians accosted many trains begging for whisky and tobacco. They were inveterate thieves, and this often led to casualties, but some traders formed bands to oppose them effectively. In some cases the Indians were quite as eager to trade. One old freighter be- lieved that bright silks attracted them as strongly as scalps.
The year of 1855 was one of the wettest seasons in the memory of the oldest inhabitants. Business was poor, and money was scarce. Kansas was in a state of turmoil. In 1856 the passion aroused over the status of Kansas territory played havoc with the Santa Fe freighting. Trade on the Missouri river was reported dead. Some of the steamers went elsewhere since "passengers were few . . . and freights comparatively unknown." Westport merchants com- plained that they had no business. There was no demand for horses, cattle, or wagons. By the latter part of April only Mexican trains had departed for Santa Fe. A special correspondent of the New York Tribune wrote that the warehouse of Russell, Majors & Wad- dell in Leavenworth, was a reselling shop for rifles, stores, and agri- cultural implements which had been stolen from free-state immi- grants.18 Abolitionists attacked trains starting from Kansas City or
16. Ibid., July 18, 1859. Given in a letter written from Westport, July 15, 1859.
17. An account of the activities of Thomas Fitzpatrick in negotiating this treaty is given in LeRoy R. Hafen and W. J. Ghent, Broken Hand, The Life Story of Thomas Fitzpatrick, Chief of the Mountain Men (Denver, 1931), pp. 250-255; also, see Wichita Beacon, March 11, 1928, quoted in Trails Clippings, vol. II, p. 198.
18. New York Tribune, July 17, 1856.
22 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Westport, the two cities presumed to be proslavery in sentiment.19 Colonel S. L. McKinney lost about sixty cattle and ten wagons, in- cluding the contents, to a band under a Captain Cutter.20 Accord- ing to the Evening News, the men were well treated and upon release were given a wagon and six oxen.21
A dry season and begging Indians caused difficulties of a nature slightly less dangerous than the Abolitionists. Many wagons had to turn off the trail for miles to find grass for the oxen. The Repub- lican (August 26, 1856) believed that there was "scarcely a wagon train . . . but which . . . has to pay tribute for the sake of passing through [the Indian country] without . . . being killed." This paper stated that each train had been compelled to give $200 or $300 worth of goods as bribes to the Indians.
The Kansas Weekly Herald (Leavenworth, Kansas), proudly stated on August 8, 1857, that the Santa Fe trade was not "pining" away, but instead the trail was one great bustle for nearly 800 miles, "almost lined with wagons, stock, and horsemen." Indians above the Arkansas were harassing beggars, demanding "ox," "shug," and "tobac" as frequently as ever before. Some traders, to show a com- plete lack of suspicion, did not arm their trains.22 Kansas troops were recalled from the frontier posts. When a great number of Indians surrounded J. C. Hall and his train, demanding "ox," he pointed to Fort Lamed in the distance. They showed their insolence, according to Hall, by replying "Fort! Dam! Forty men." One of them stayed for a meal with the train, and was a guest of eight different messes without serious injury to himself.23
The character of the trade changed in 1857.24 Machinery for gold mines, such as crushing machines, was sent from the States. In that year the first American caravan loaded with wool arrived in Mis- souri. The previous year Mexicans had tried that business on a limited scale. Wool was a resource undiscovered until this year. Beck and Giddings, New Mexican ranchers, had driven 1,100 sheep overland in 1853 to make the first attempt to improve the sheep of
19. History of Jackson County, Missouri (St. Louis, 1881), p. 432; New York Tribune, September 16, 1856; also, Wallace Law in Kansas City Journal, March 10, 1905, given in Trails Clippings, p. 61.
20. Kansas Weekly Herald, September 13, 1856.
21. New York Tribune, September 16, 1856.
22. J. C. Hall in Kansas Magazine, vol. V, p. 54.
23. Ibid.
24. This statement is based upon information taken from the Kansas Tribune} April 6, 1857; Missouri Republican, March 28, 1857; History of Jackson County, Missouri, p. 434; and Charles P. Deatherage, Early History of Greater Kansas City (Kansas City, 1927), I, p. 468.
WYMAN: FREIGHTING ON THE SANTA FE TRAIL 23
the territory. Great herds had been driven to Chihuahua, and some to California, to be marketed for the carcasses. Now this source of wealth could be utilized, and empty wagons could be filled in return- ing from New Mexico. The importation of wool rose to unparalleled volume. Sheep, in being driven from the mountain valleys to the haciendas of the proprietors in the spring, lost much wool on the prickly bushes and branches through which they passed. The Kan- sas City Journal believed that one large herd often lost from 1,000 to 2,000 pounds in a single drive. Shearing was unknown, but peons, eager to earn an extra penny, armed themselves with sacks and picked the wool as if it were cotton, and sold it for a trifling sum to freighters. Some of the proprietors, offered the fleeces to the freight- ers if they would shear the sheep. The Journal estimated that fleeces could be sheared for two cents per pound, freighted to Kansas City for three or four cents per pound, and shipped to St. Louis for less than one cent. Thus it argued that the wool business gave indica- tion of a profitable future.25
S. M. Hayes & Company, located on the trail at Council Grove, Kansas, kept a registry of those engaged in the Santa Fe trade. In 1858 they recorded 2,440 men, 1,827 wagons, 429 horses, 15,714 oxen, 5,316 mules, 67 carriages, and 9,608 tons of goods. They estimated the total capital invested at $2,627,300. If wagons were included the astounding sum of $3,500,000 was spent in this trade in that year, or enough, they said, to build 350 miles of railroad at $10,000 per mile. The cash record of this firm showed receipts in gold and silver for $1,600 in one day of that busy season. Proud citizens be- lieved that " 'C. G.' has a future that no other town off the Missouri river can ever hope to have in Kansas." 26
An old pioneer remembered some years later that on a certain day in May, 1858, the entire quarter section of land at Lone Elm, Kan- sas, was covered with wagons. The wagons commenced to pull out at twelve o'clock at night and the last train did not pass him before four o'clock in the afternoon.27 These wagons distributed goods in Chihuahua and the territories of New Mexico, Arizona, and Colo- rado.28 The legislature of New Mexico raised the license fee re-
25. This resum6 of the wool trade was taken from the Missouri Republican, December 17, 1858, quoted from the Kansas City Journal.
26. These statistics are pasted in front of the copy of John Maloy's History of Morris County, Kansas, 1820 to 1880, which is in the Kansas State Historical Society.
27. Kansas Historical Collections, XI, p. 457, "The Santa F6 Trail in Johnson County, Kansas." A Mr. Ainsworth gave an address at the dedication of the Trail marker at Lone Elm, Kansas, November 9, 1906.
28. A correspondent of the Missouri Republican (October 21, 1858), made this statement in a letter from Santa Fe, September 22, 1858.
24 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
quired for merchants, which was the only source of revenue, hoping to liquidate a debt of nearly $10,000 in a year or so! But this did not materially discourage traffic on the trail, nor did the abolitionists who surrounded wagon trains that fall.29
Before the grass in 1858 was at any height, Westport bustled with business. The Westport Border Star proudly wrote that the "Mex- ican trains and traders are arriving daily with gold, silver, furs, pelts, wool. At Bernard & Go's we see a pile of silver rocks ... At the same place a piece of pure gold (from Mexican mines, not from Pike's Peak) as large as an apple dumpling. . . ." 30 The streets were crowded with wagon trains. "Sometimes it was difficult to tread one's way across the streets on account of the blockade of wagons, mules, cattle, bales, boxes, etc.," wrote a correspondent of the Republican,51 Among the exports he noticed a "patent reaper, and mower, a steam engine and boiler, together with all the ma- chinery necessary for a new flouring mill at Albuquerque." By July 15 the streets were again quiet, "the merchant trains having all de- parted, and the last hunter, peon, and greaser have left. . . ." 32
The trade in 1859, believed one contemporary writer, had risen to $10,000,000 annually. Between March 1 and July 31, the Missouri Republican, perhaps quoting S. M. Hayes & Company, reported that 2,300 men, 1,970 wagons, 840 horses, 4,000 mules, 15,000 oxen, 73 carriages, and over 1,900 tons of freight left for New Mexico. These figures were exclusive of gold seekers who "were too numerous to count." 33
The Civil War affected the trade to some extent. Trade from Kansas City and Westport practically ceased, according to W. R. Bernard, a merchant of Westport. Cities farther north on the river became safer starting places. The suspected slavery sentiment of Kansas City brought upon wagon trains starting from there the wrath of Kansas abolitionists. Wallace Law, a contemporary, said that trains starting from Ft. Leavenworth were never molested.34
29. The Missouri Republican, September 8, 1858 (quoting the Independent, September 3), states that after the proslavery party had decided to cease activities for awhile the Abolition- ists, "driven to extremity by hunger," surrounded returning Santa Fe trains. William Mc- Kinney's train of twenty wagons, oxen, and provisions were taken while "Bent's and one or two others" close in the rear may have shared the same. One of the outward bound trains was afraid to leave.
The Missouri Republican, September 1, 1868 (quoting the Kansas City Enterprise) says the drivers of McKinney's train were released since most were from northern states.
30. Quoted in Missouri Republican, June 1, 1859.
31. Missouri Republican, June 8, 1859.
32. Ibid., July 18, 1859.
33. Ibid., August 15, 1859.
34. Kansas City Journal, March 10, 1905, given in Trails Clippings, p. 61.
WYMAN: FREIGHTING ON THE SANTA FE TRAIL 25
The State Record (Topeka) reported the largest return train of the season: Thirty-seven wagons extending for over a mile, bringing 50,000 pounds of wool from New Mexico. S. M. Hayes and Com- pany gave the total of the season: 2,984 men, 2,170 wagons, 464 horses, 5,933 mules, 17,836 oxen, 76 carriages, and 80,000 tons of freight.35
The wool crop of 1860 was unprecedented. One firm in Tecolati, New Mexico, had contracted for 150,000 fleeces. Shearing sheep had become quite common. Provisions were scarce in Santa Fe — flour sold for $14 per hundred pounds, and other articles sold in propor- tion. Indian hostilities continued in spite of the great hordes of men and beasts which poured across the continent. The race of Governor William Gilpin of Colorado, with a force of infantry and cavalry, aided in driving the Confederates out of northern New Mexico be- fore the arrival of the annual caravan. R. L. Duffus says that the Cimarron route, or the short cut across the headwaters of the Cimar- ron river was abandoned entirely during the war because of the fear of Confederates and the ever present Apache.36 S. M. Hayes & Company reported that business was paralyzed during the last of the year, but the Mexican teamsters going eastward the following spring had been "thick as locusts." 37
In 1862 the Council Grove Press reported that more than 3,000 wagons, 618 horses, 20,812 oxen, 6,406 mules, 96 carriages, and 3,720 men made their way over the old trail to the Southwest. The busi- ness had grown to amazing proportions, for now over 10,000 tons of freight valued at $40,000,000 constituted the cargo.38
It was "flush times" in Council Grove in 1864. S. M. Simcox of that village registered the traffic of the season: 3,000 wagons, 618 horses, 20,812 oxen, 8,046 mules, 98 carriages, 3,012 men and 15,000 tons of merchandise.39
The Kansas Tribune (Lawrence) complained of a great amount of pillaging and robbery on the trail in that year. "Bushwhackers and
35. Topeka State Record, September 29, 1860.
36. Robert L. Duffas, The Santa Fe Trail (London, New York, and Toronto, 1930), p. 247.
37. "Innumerable small trains" had passed through Council Grove in the latter part of 1860, exclusive of the Pike's Peak immigration, which, according to S. M. Hayes, "would out- fit here had we the goods to outfit them." See the Council Grove Press, July 28, 1860, and the Topeka State Record, July 28, 1860. The report of the eastbound traffic is given in Council Grove Press, April 27, 1861.
38. Council Grove Press, June 15, 1863.
39. These figures given by John Maloy in his History of Morris County, Kansas, 1820 to 1880.
26 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
thieves have joined themselves in trains in disguise, palming them- selves off as belonging to these trains, for the purpose of spying out a good show for stealing. Then they saunter back in small squads and commit their depredations." 40 Colonel Milton Moore, who had been a Santa Fe freighter in his youth, said that after the com- mencement of the Indian war on the upper Arkansas in 1864, cara- vans were not permitted to proceed west of Fort Lamed unless they were in groups of one hundred men or more.41
The plains Indians were on the warpath in 1865. H. W. Jones says that they attacked every train that crossed the plains. His train proceeded through the Indian country in two columns side by side. When they started from Fort Larned 1,000 wagons made up the enormous train. An escort of troops accompanied them from Fort Dodge to Bent's Fort, but did not prevent Indian attacks. C. H. Whittington wrote to the Emporia News that the following had crossed the Osage bridge at 142 creek between May 12 and July 12, 1865: 1,188 wagons, 2,692 men, 736 horses, 2,904 mules, 15,855 oxen, 56 carriages, and 10,489,200 pounds of freight.42
On February 28, 1856, Fort Riley and Fort Larned were desig- nated by the military department of Missouri as the rendezvous for trains for New Mexico. Trains were compelled to organize for de- fense, arm themselves properly, and submit to the regulations laid down by the captain of the train, before they would be permitted to enter the Indian country. No train consisting of less than twenty wagons and thirty armed men was allowed to leave the forts.43
Colonel J. F. Meline toured the plains with a troop of cavalry in 1866. His journal records that he passed great numbers of ox teams. For the season he estimated that between 5,000 and 6,000 would pass over the trail. "The trains are remarkable," he wrote, "each wagon team consisting of ten yokes of fine oxen, selected and arranged not only for drawing but for pictorial effect, in sets of twenty, either all black, all white, all spotted or otherwise marked uniformly."
In that eventful year the Kansas Pacific railroad pushed west- ward. Where ox teams were once counted by the thousands, regret- fully said the Junction City Union (August, 1867), "the shriek of
40. Kansas Tribune, March 24, 1864.
41. Kansas City Journal-Post, September 6, 1925.
42. John Maloy, op. cit.
43. Raymond Welty in his Western Army Frontier, 1860-1870 (Doctor's Thesis, Uni- versity of Iowa, 1924), appendix IV, pp. 392-397, gives General Pope's military order No. 27, issued from the Headquarters of the Department of Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri, February 22, 1866. His reference is Senate Executive Document, No. 2, 40th Congress, 1st session, pp. 2-4, ser. No. 1308.
WYMAN: FREIGHTING ON THE SANTA FE TRAIL 27
the iron horse has silenced the lowing of the panting ox and the old trail looks desolate." Hordes of cattle began to pour from the ranges of Texas to be shipped eastward over the Kansas Pacific. Trade continued from the end of the rails. In 1873 Las Animas, Colo- rado, was the "Kansas City" of a decade before. The old and the new were in a death conflict. Destiny settled down on the Old Trail. The ox team made way for the iron horse, and with the ox team went a big business. In the decade of 1860-1870, the number of oxen de- creased forty-one per cent in the United States. This industry of supplying the traders with cattle had enriched the country adjacent to the Missouri. Before the Mexican War, and hence before the rise of the big business of freighting, the people of New Mexico could buy but a few articles for consumption. Sugar and coffee to them were practically unknown. Calico had sold for fifty cents per yard, which was more than most women could earn in a week. A cloth of hairy wool had been used but "even this could not conceal the grace that had survived the wreck of so many noble gifts." Indians gave way to white men as had the Mexicans. The commissioner of Indian affairs said that it was of no regret that so much of the United States had been wrested from the original inhabitants and "made the happy abode of an enlightened and Christian people." The Indian and the "bullwhacker," soldiers of a receding and an advancing frontier, were but the workers at a "vast roaring loom on which was woven the fabric of modern America."
The First Day's Battle at Hickory Point
From the Diary and Reminiscenses of Samuel James Reader
Edited by GEORGE A. ROOT
I. INTRODUCTION.
OAMUEL JAMES READER was born in the village of Green- O field, now Coal Center, Pennsylvania, January 25, 1836. He was the son of Francis Reader and Catherine James. His mother died when he was four months old, leaving him and his sister Eliza, aged two years, in the care of their aunt, Miss Eliza James. In 1841 they removed to La Harpe, a frontier town in western Illinois, where in 1843 Miss James married James M. Cole. Mr. Reader attended school in La Harpe until he was sixteen. For a time he worked on a farm and later in a stone quarry near Hillsgrove, sixteen miles from La Harpe.
On May 10, 1855, the family started for Kansas Territory in a covered wagon. By the middle of June they were located on the farm near Indianola, north of Topeka, where Mr. Reader resided until his death. On December 17, 1867, he was married at La Harpe, Illinois, to Miss Elizabeth Smith. They had three children, a daugh- ter who died at sixteen, a second daughter Elizabeth, who still lives, and a son who died in infancy. Mrs. Reader died March 30, 1898. After her death Mr. Reader spent most of the winter months with his daughter in Topeka. He died September 15, 1914.
Samuel Reader's unique contribution to Kansas history was a diary which he began when he was thirteen years old and in which he wrote every day to the end of his life. Despite his meager school- ing he constantly improved an active and observant mind by reading and study. He taught himself the Pittman shorthand system and acquired a reading knowledge of French. In some places his diary is a strange mixture of shorthand, French and abbreviated English. It is illustrated throughout with marginal and full-page sketches, many in water colors. During his later years he wrote his "Remi- niscences," based upon the diary. The volumes of the diary and a copy of the reminiscences are among the prized possessions in the manuscript collections of the Kansas State Historical Society, to which they were given by his daughter, Miss Elizabeth Reader, who now lives in San Diego, California.
(28)
ROOT: FIRST DAY'S BATTLE AT HICKORY POINT 29
Mr. Reader observed and experienced much of the Kansas Terri- torial conflict. He was a free-state sympathizer. The community centering at Indianola was largely proslavery. Mr. Reader was by nature a pacifist and for the most part avoided the clashes that often stirred the neighborhood. He became, however, a member of the Sec- ond Kansas State Militia and participated in the first day's fight at Hickory Point. During the Civil War, in 1864 when the Price Raid threatened Kansas, he joined the Topeka contingent that was thrown into the defense. He was captured in the Battle of the Big Blue, but later escaped while being taken as a prisoner to Texas. This ended his military service, for after recovering from the effects of this ex- perience he returned to the farm.
The battle of Hickory Point occurred on September 13 and 14, 1856, and was one of the many collisions between the free-state and proslavery forces. Gov. John W. Geary had just arrived in the territory, and had issued his proclamation ordering all armed forces to disband. Gen. James H. Lane was at or near Topeka and did not hear of the order to disperse. With a small party of men he was about to start out towards Holton when he was met by messengers from the neighborhood of Osawkie, who informed him that proslav- ery men were committing outrages in the vicinity, that Grasshopper Falls was burned, and that it was their intention to burn other free- state towns and drive the citizens from the country. Lane marched to Osawkie at once, where his force was recruited from the free-state settlers near there. Learning that a large party of proslavery men was at Hickory Point, Lane marched his men to that place. The proslavery men were under command of Capt. H. A. Lowe, and in- cluded about forty South Carolinians.
Hickory Point consisted of a few buildings on the Ft. Leaven- worth-Ft. Riley military road and the Atchison-Topeka stage road. Its location was five and one-half miles north of the present Oska- loosa and about twenty-eight miles northeast of Topeka.
II. ENTRIES FROM THE DIARY: SEPTEMBER 8 TO 20, 1856.
[In the following extract from the diary the words which were written in shorthand are indicated by small capitals, stars appearing where shorthand characters were undecipherable; the words which were written in French are italicized. An explanation of some of the abbreviations and names follows: Jenner, Dr. Thomas Jenner; Fouts, J. W. Fouts; Captain Whipple, alias of Aaron D. Stevens; C., James M. Cole; Me, Robert McNown; E, Eugene Cole; Cole and Doc, James M. Cole and Dr. M. A. Campdoras; Milne, David Milne;
30 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Young, George L. Young; Kemp, Kemp Ferguson; T-a, Topeka; La, nickname for Eliza Reader; B. R's, Border Ruffians; Pepper box, Allen revolver, 7-shot, commonly dubbed a "pepper box"; I-a, Indianola; Peter, Peter Fiederling; H. P., Hickory Point; Mrs. F. & Kemp, Mrs. Ferguson and Kemp Ferguson; Col. Harvey, Col. James A. Harvey.]
September, 1856.
Monday.8 Cloudy. KANSAS MUST BE FREE. 70° I no go to war. God for me. I to Jenner's. Dr. bad wounds. Sore. Went to Drs. maison. T. Jenner got me a little nitric acid. I to the spring at Fouts. Saw Stevens, Moffat, Capt. Whipple and Dennis. Came home C. to Mcs trial P. M. I to CLAIM, fenced my stack. E put acid dans son den. It dident smoke like a tar kiln, as old Alley said
it would. I beat hens. [ COLE AND Doc HOME.] Milne
and Me here. He on bail. A DRUNKEN TIME. Cohee jumped INTO creek the morn WE WERE there. He has moved to Topeka.
Tues 9 Warm COOL agreeably. MOWING GRASS. I TO MY CLAIM. GOT A FEW STONE PUT SOME PLUMS TO DRY. CAME HOME. P. M. MADE MY AX HANDLE. COLE MOWING. MILNE HERE PUT UP HIS HORSES AND WENT ON FOR COLE TO TOWN TOPEKA BOYS WENT BY. COLE HOME THEY PLUNDERED YOUNG (?) ... OF $1200. LEFT MILNE'S because Mrs. M. said they were free STATE. Osawkie WAS PLUNDERED liier. Wells went on Kemp's horse TO GET Fulton's au riviere, but lost his own. COLE TO GO OVER TOMORROW FOR THEM. THER. WAS 92° TODAY.
Mercredi 10 Clair; le soir passe. Chaud. Ther. 75° I took team drew all my rails &c. 4 load and the stones. Got wood. Came home. Sprinkly, cleared. C. and Kemp to T-a. Len and Johnny left INDIANOLA. Good. P. M. C home. Got horse. A boy took it of Holls. Farnsworth I GUESS. C. to town. I to my claim. Got plums. Warm. Milne here at night. Dr. better. La milked Kaw cow.
Thurs. 11. I put plums to dry. C. to town to head WELL bucket. THER. etais 47°. Warm, clear. TOWN quiet. FIRE (?) TODAY. P. M. mowed. Jenner here. His horse gone. I to claim, cut a board tree with new ax. Home. Another gang IN TOWN. Plundered Fulton. C. saved Milne. Got un chapeau. Buck sick. Mrs. Milne here. Fulton has taken his horse.
Frid. 12. Clear. Kittens play. C. and I mowed. Jenner and others here. Went to river, for horse ; met Co. Shook hands with Lane. Home. P. M. Hot. Mowed. Milne here. B.Rs TO BE at
ROOT: FIRST DAY'S BATTLE AT HICKORY POINT 31
Calhoun. C to T-a. I to town. Paper. C. et Penfield here. T-a boys to go to Lane. I to Papans. Helped THEM cross 30 of them. Came on in wagons.
Sat 13. Got to 0[zawkie] after sun up. Gen. Lane there. Ate at houses* Started to H. P. [Hickory Point.] Fisher let me ride old grey horse. 11. Got to H. P. They will fight. Fired some. We retreated to 0. 3 of our horses and 1 man wounded. Several B.Rs killed; horses &c. Ate watermelons. 8 or 9 started home for fear of U. S., the Gov. &c. I will buy a pepper box $6. Got home late. Sleepy and tired but full of glory.
(*Captain Bainter I guess. Yes.)
Sund 14 Read Ate melons. Young Kemp and others to Ta for help to get horses of Fulton &c. P. M. I wrote got nuts. Kemp Furgeson here. 12 men from I-a. I sick at night. VOMITED. THER. 92. hot windy
Mond 15 Feel better. Windy COOL & agreeable. I read. P. M. Fulton's going to la [Indianola]. Got corn. C. to town. I there. Got socks 30 caps 10. DUG UP MY MONEY [and] TOOK OUT $20. WARM . . . Peter here. He wants to fight. Wells drunk. THER 92.
TUESDAY 16 CLEAR. WARM. WROTE. . . . last NIGHT. SCON BE WINTER. AWFUL. WE DREW ONE load of hay. WINDY. I put a BETTER LOCK ON MY pistol ; fired 2 TIMES Shoots well. P. M. THER 92 Hot. McN. here. Will turn out to fight. Got nuts.
WEDNESDAY, 17 Clear. Warm. WINDY. I TO MY CLAIM. CUT A
HOLE IN MY HOUSE FOR CHIMNEY. Bruno WANTS TO CUT HAY. Came
home. P. M. I made some chimney. A hard N. W. rain. Fisher and a fellow were here; left his gun. Col. Harvey and Lawrence boys drove out B. Rs. from H. P. last Sund. Cold. N.
Jeudi 18. Warm. I made chimney all day. Went to Young's. Paper. A letter to E. FROM S. ONE TO ME FROM pere. Gov. troops at T-a taking us boys.
Frid 19. We drew 2 loads hay. Warm. My glass gone, I think. Bon p — n pie. P. M. Drew other load; all in. GOES TO Johnsons. .... Dr. quite sick. Got nuts.
Sat. 20. I to claim. MAKE CHIMNEY UP to plates. Chiens avec moi. Buck cross. C. drew stone from Kemps, and melons. P. M. I with C. for stone. Got nuts. Mrs. F. & Kemp came with us. I took them to ferry to get Nell [mare]. Fine stone from Kemp's.
32 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
III. REMINISCENCES.
On September 12 Mr. Cole1 and I were mowing grass south of Indianola. At 10 a. m. Thomas Jenner2 and others came to us and reported that his ( Jenner 's) horse had been "pressed" into military service in the "free-state army," by his having been mistaken for a proslavery horse. Our assistance was asked in recovering the animal. We dropped our scythes and all started for Topeka.
When we reached the Kaw river we saw a body of mounted men who had just crossed at Papan's ferry.3 They were all armed and equipped and evidently on the warpath.
"There is Lane!" cried my uncle, pointing to a man riding a cream-colored or "clay-bank" horse. When we met, my uncle, who was well acquainted with the general, explained to him our neigh- bor's trouble in regard to his horse. In the meantime I was looking at the redoubtable chief with great curiosity.
He was a medium-sized, dark-complexioned man, rather thin of face, clean-shaven jaw and chin, and wore a short, black mustache. His eyes seemed dark (what could be seen of them through their half -closed lids), giving them a rather searching expression. The nose was a little irregular in outline ; the chin firm and shapely. On the whole he was a harsh-featured, severe-looking man. There was nothing about him to indicate his rank. His wool hat was gray and coarse. He wore a dark-blue flannel overshirt, and his side arms were a Colt's revolver and a large butcher knife.
As we were about to separate Mr. Cole said: "General, this is my nephew, Reader."
General Lane gave me a penetrating glance as he leaned from his
1. Joseph M. Cole, uncle ojf Samuel J. Reader.
2. Dr. Jacob F. Jenner was born in the Kingdom of Wurtemburg, Germany, January 16, 1828. He came to America with his parents in 1838, settling in Vandenburg county, Indiana. After completing his school studies he took up the study of medicine at a medical college at St. Louis, Mo., where he was graduated. He came to Kansas in 1855, settling near Topeka or Indianola, and took part in some of the early struggles in the territory. In 1857 he married Mary J. Bradshaw. They were parents of five children. Dr. Jenner moved to Grantville and later to St. Marys.
3. Papan's ferry was located at the west end of a large island in the Kansas river at Topeka, west of the Kansas avenue bridge of later days, the south terminal being at the foot of Western avenue. Giles' Thirty Years in Topeka, 1886, pages 16 and 17, says: "The first ferry that is known to have been established on the Kansas river, however, was that by Joseph and Ahcan Papan, in 1842, at the precise site of Topeka. At that time the south bank of the river was four or five hundred feet farther to the north than at present, and the Papan's dwelling house was near the bank. During the great flood of 1844 their house was carried away, as well as their ferry boats, and when the waters subsided they found the site of their home to have become an island, a portion of which still remains above the bridge. It was several years before the Papans reestablished themselves, but their ferry was popular and remunerative." [Within the past forty or fifty years, this island has again become part of the land on the south side of the river.] . . . "the military road from Leavenworth to Santa Fe lay across that stream via Papan's ferry, to the west of Burnett's mound, crossed the Wakarusa near the site of Auburn, and bore away to the southwest."
ROOT: FIRST DAY'S BATTLE AT HICKORY POINT 33
saddle with the murmured words, "I'm happy to make your ac- quaintance," or something of the kind, and our hands clasped for the first and only time. I felt it an honor to have shaken hands with Jim Lane. Seeing him for the first time, I perhaps involuntarily invested him with heroic attributes. He was immensely popular with the "free-state boys"; they made themselves hoarse hurrahing for him, and I might have done so myself, had I been of an ex- citable temperament.
I also saw Whipple. He was Colonel Whipple4 now, and he car- ried a bugle on which he sounded a call. Then came the command, "Second regiment, fall in!" The men mounted, and the gallant band with Lane at its head took the road toward Fort Leavenworth. Many of my former comrades were in the regiment and I was press- ingly invited to go along. But I could not; they were all mounted men and I had no horse. So I regretfully returned home to the humdrum of ordinary life.
In the afternoon we began mowing grass again, when David Milne5 came to us in haste and reported that a band of border ruf- fians were marching on Calhoun, our county seat. This, if true, would be a serious matter. My uncle threw down his scythe and started for Topeka as soon as possible, while I returned to the house to await events.
Our neighborhood was badly stirred up. Only three days before
4. Captain Charles Whipple, whose real name was Aaron Dwight Stevens, was born at Lisbon, Conn., March 15, 1831. He was a son of Capt. Aaron Stevens, of Norwich, Conn. He resided in the vicinity of his birth until about 1845, when he left for Boston where he joined a company of volunteers for the war then beginning with Mexico. He served through the Mexican campaign, and on coming out was honorably discharged. On returning home, he remained there until 1851, when he enlisted as a bugler in a United States D*ragoon regiment, commanded by Col. E. V. Sumner, being drafted to the west at once. He served in western Kansas and Nebraska, and in Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. In 1855, when his regi- ment was returning to Fort Leavenworth, Stevens thoroughly chastised a major who had harshly disciplined a member of the company, and for this attack Stevens was marched across the plains with a ball and chain attached to his ankles. On reaching Fort Leavenworth he was courtmartialed and sentenced to be shot. On application to the President this sen- tence was commuted to three years hard labor, with ball and chain attached to the ankle. He served the government in this way till -early in January, 1856, when he deserted and con- cealed himself among Delaware Indians on the Kaw river. He remained with them about two months, then appeared in Topeka, where he at once identified himself with the free- state cause, assuming his mother's name and being known as "Charles Whipple." He filed on a preemption claim in Shawnee county. During the spring of 1856, Whipple organized several mounted companies which were formed into the Second Regiment of Free-state volun- teers. Later he joined John Brown's command, and during the fight at Harper's Ferry, was dangerously wounded while bearing a flag of truce. He recovered from this, and on March 16, 1860, was hung for his participation in the Harper's Ferry affair.
5. David Milne, a Scotchman, who located at Indianola and built a small half-log shanty in 1854, which he operated for a time as the Milne Hotel. This early hotel later became the Clinton Hotel.
3—1266
34 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
a party of free-state men visited Indianola6 and took from the most rabid proslavery citizens their arms and military stores, together with sundry articles claimed to be contraband of war. The whisky was emptied into the street. I had no hand in it, and whether the act was justifiable or not is not for me to say. It was called a reprisal. Osawkie7 had taken a dose of the same kind of medicine only the day before (on the 8th). But it was claimed that our ruthless enemies did far worse; besides plundering they added "fire and sword," and numberless outrages on free-state men.
Toward night my uncle returned, and his first words were: "Sam, there is going to be a battle to-morrow — do you want to go with the Topeka boys?"
Boy like, I was only too eager to be off, but I met with strong opposition on the part of the women of the family. My sister was determined I should not go, and when all arguments failed she hid my gun. But I searched until I found it, and soon had my blanket, powderhorn and ammunition pouch gathered together.
General Lane had sent Guilf ord Dudley8 back for reinforcements with orders to join him at Osawkie by sunrise next morning. The journey was to be made in wagons, and the party would not leave Topeka until some time after dark. I started on foot for the ferry and reached it in less than an hour. No one was there; I wrapped my blanket around me and sat down on a log to wait. Hours seemed to pass, and no sign of Dudley or his party. The moon
6. Indianola was laid out in November, 1854, by John F. Baker, Hayden F. McMeekin and George H. Perrin. It was situated at the crossing of Soldier Creek, a mile and a half from Papan's ferry, on the road from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Riley. The land for the townsite was purchased from Louis Vieux, a Pottawatomie-French half-breed, who operated a ferry at this point. The first public sale of town lots was on June 27, 1855. A good frame hotel, the Clinton House, and other buildings were erected, and during the next year or two the town attained quite a degree of prosperity. During the '60s the town was gradually over- shadowed by its neighbor, Topeka, and began declining and later disappeared. The last re- maining structure on this once flourishing village, that of the old hotel, was used in later years as a barn.
7. Osawkie is the oldest town in Jefferson county. The first settlement was made in the spring of 1854 by W. F. and G. M. Dyer, who erected a store and staitted a trading ranch on the old military freight road. The Dyers were soon joined by Wm. H. and O. B. Tebbs, and later by R. McCauslin and Morris S. Knight. Early in 1855 a town was laid out by these parties, and when the county was organized, became the county seat. A large hotel was erected at a cost of many thousands of dollars, and for a time the town grew rapidly. In 1858 the county seat was removed to Oskaloosa. Osawkie, which had been on the decline for several months, now entirely collapsed and was deserted by nearly all its residents. Soon after the removal of the county seat the large hotel was burned down. In later years, after the surrounding country was settled, the town became a quiet little country village.
8. Guilford Dudley was born at Bath, N. Y., in 1835. He came to Kansas in 1855, settling for a time at Lawrence, then locating at Topeka, where he engaged in the real-estate business and also opened a hotel. During the territorial troubles he enrolled himself with the free-state forces and took an active part. In 1859 he was clerk of the territorial legis- lature, city clerk in 1861, and in 1862 was appointed adjutant general of Kansas. In 1869 he started a bank, with which he was connected for more than thirty years. He was a farmer and for years was a breeder of fine stock. He was also president of the Crosby Roller Milling Co., of Topeka, of which he was principal owner. He was married at Topeka, June 5, 1867, to Samantha V. Otis. He died at Topeka April 14, 1905.
ROOT: FIRST DAY'S BATTLE AT HICKORY POINT 35
climbed high and I had almost lost hope when I heard a rumble of wheels coming up the river from the direction of Topeka. It stopped at the landing opposite.
"Bring over the boat!" shouted a voice.
The ferryman's house was near at hand, but I found it impossible to arouse him to a sense of his duty; he only grunted. I returned to the landing and reported.
"Bring the skiff, and we'll man the boat ourselves!" they called. I crossed to them in the skiff, not without great difficulty, as I knew nothing of the management of a boat. Sometimes I was pulling upstream, sometimes down, and I finally reached shore a long way below the landing.
Four or five men returned with me, and we manned the old flat- boat. It was attached to a rope stretched across the river, and we used poles to propel it. In about an hour we had the whole party on the north bank of the river. It consisted of about thirty men and three or four wagons, which were in charge of Quartermaster Chas. A. Sexton.9 I went to him and asked for transportation which I considered I had fully earned. He answered briefly, "Climb into one of those wagons."
He and Dudley were horseback, as were also, I think, several other men ; the rest of us rode in the wagons. We left the river after midnight. Osawkie lay eighteen miles northeast from our starting point. The roads were good and dry and the night was warm and still. At break of day we were on the open prairie a few miles from our destination.
"We would have been crossing the Kaw river about this time if it hadn't been for you," said Dudley, as he rode alongside the wagon in which I sat.
Guilford Dudley was then a beardless youth, younger than my- self, and a typical free-state soldier; ardent in his enthusiasm for our cause, and having a gayety that dispensed cheerfulness on all sides. Charley Sexton was a different type of soldier; cool, sedate and taciturn, he might well have been compared to one of Oliver Cromwell's "Ironside Puritans." Between these two extremes, we had with us men smarting under intolerable wrongs visited upon
9. Charles A. Sexton was one of the pioneers of Shawnee county, and took an active part in the affairs of the early days. A Topeka city directory of 1868 lists him as engaged in the book and stationery business. Enuring the latter 70's he was proprietor of a "racket" store. Radges' directory of 1880 lists him as a minister, pastor of the Wesleyan Methodist church r and for 1883-'84 as proprietor of a Faith Cure establishment, and publisher of Good Tidings. In 1887-'88 he was operating a broom factory. Later he was engaged in a small job printing establishment. His death is said to have occurred some years since.
36 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
them by the proslavery faction, others actuated by a restless love of adventure, and, I fear, a very few, by mercenary motives. In the same wagon with me was a man who had been captured at Indianola a few weeks before, on the charge of not having a clear title to the horse he rode. He claimed to be innocent, and he may have been. I did not see him, but was told that some of the proslavery men in town proposed hanging him on general principles. However, cooler heads prevailed and he was taken to Osawkie and put at hard labor in a blacksmith's shop. Here he remained until the 8th of Septem- ber, when he was released during the raid. Whether he had had any previous political sentiments or not, he now developed into a zealous free-state man, but I could see that the men generally stood aloof from him. During the night he must have gathered from what I said that I was from Indianola, and at the first light of dawn he scanned my face with great curiosity ; probably to see if I were not one of his former would-be executioners.
The sun had risen as we reached the high ground west of the Grasshopper [now the Delaware], and the little town of Osawkie could be seen nestling on its banks. Guilford Dudley pointed toward it and cried out, "0 — saw — keel Oh, how we sacked it!"
General Lane and his command were waiting for us, and we were sent to different free-state houses for breakfast. Boyd and I got a very good one at Captain Bainter's.10 While we were eating the captain came in and hastily buckled on his revolver and bowie knife. His wife looked anxious and distressed, but seemed resigned to the situation.
It was not long before we were on our way to Hickory Point, which was some fifteen miles nearly due east of Osawkie on the military road. The cavalry was in advance, the infantry in wagons next, and perhaps a baggage wagon or two in the rear. We had a number of recruits from the surrounding neighborhood, and it was estimated that we had about a hundred and fifty men all told ; some said more, some said less.
When we had gone about half the distance a man named Fisher whom I knew very well, rode up and proposed that I should take
10. Captain Ephraim Bainter was one of the pioneers of Jefferson county, and took a prominent part in the territorial troubles of 1856. He was with Whipple's men at the sack- ing of Osawkie and with Lane at Hickory Point the day before the battle. He was captured later with other free-state men and was taken to Lecompton, where he was tried and sen- tenced to six years in the penitentiary. He got out on a furlough and that fall was elected free-state sheriff of Jefferson county. During the period of the Civil War he is said to have been a jayhawker, and eventually got in trouble with the federal government on that ac- count. His later life was uneventful and he was a respected citizen. His death occurred late in April, 1891, and he was buried at Osawkie on the 30th of that month.
ROOT: FIRST DAY'S BATTLE AT HICKORY POINT 37
his horse and he take my place in the wagon as a mutual rest. I consented, and the exchange was made. The horse was a large gray with a remarkably prominent spine and a general lack of flesh. Fisher assured me that the noble beast had carried General Lane from the "States" into Kansas; that some of the boys had presented the general with the clay-bank he was then riding, and the gray had become the common property of the regiment.
There was an old quilt strapped to his back but no saddle. I soon found it impossible to make him go faster than a very slow trot. His walk was uncomfortable; his trot was agony, and my feet soon felt as if two flatirons were suspended from them. Some of the boys bantered me; advising that I lose no time in "pressing" a saddle as soon as "we met the enemy and they were ours." I had made a bad bargain, but was obliged to make the best of it.
About one mile from Hickory Point we stopped at a farmhouse for water. The man who lived there was "all right on the goose," or at least a sympathizer of the proslavery party. After I had taken a drink of water from a barrel standing in the yard, I noticed a lot of our men standing at the door of the cabin. I joined them, and looking in, saw General Lane slowly pacing to and fro across the room. Colonel Whipple and some others of our party were seated near the door. Lane had just about finished telling some tale of atrocity said to have been committed by the border ruffians. His listener was a young lady seated near the door of an inner room, where other members of the family could be seen. Then to show the other side of the picture, the general told her what chival- rous, kindly, nice boys we were in comparison, but still the lady seemed incredulous. She happened to mention that she was a school teacher, when Lane promptly offered to assist her in finding a school.
"What is your name?" she asked. Lane glanced inquiringly at Whipple.
"Tell her! Tell her!" laughed the colonel, in his boisterous, hearty way. General Lane turned to the young woman, and said very quietly and impressively:
"My name is Lane/'
"What?" she asked. "You are James H. Lane?" Lane bowed. "Well," she continued after a slight pause, "as I am not personally acquainted with General Lane you must excuse me for doubting
38 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
your identity." There was a general laugh. Whipple fairly shouted, and Lane looked very sheepish.
Just then some one in the yard called out:
"What are we waiting here for? — let's be going." It certainly did not seem judicious from a military point of view to stop and chat with the neighbors on the eve of a battle.
Some people living in the neighborhood had told us by this time that the Kickapoo Rangers,11 some fifty strong, were at Hickory Point. (A man named Boydson [Nathaniel Boydston?] who was one of them, has since told me their number was eighty-five.) We were soon on the road again and toward midday reached the brow of the hill overlooking Hickory Point from the west.
It could not be called a town, as it consisted only of a double log house, of very respectable size for those days, a log blacksmith's shop and a few sheds and outbuildings. They were on the north side of the road nearly at the bottom of the hill, and just west of a small stream of water which had a general course from south to north. A few stunted trees and bushes fringed its banks south of the road, while to the north of the house quite a cluster of trees could be seen. The shop was west of the house and on somewhat higher ground. About 100 yards further up the hill was a slight elevation or "bench," which partly hid the buildings from our sta- tion at the top. We could see nearly all of the shop, but only the roof and upper part of the house. A man named Charly Har[d]t12 lived there in 1855; afterwards a Mr. Lowe owned or occupied it.
From where we stood we had a magnificent view of the surround- ing country. We could see the military road after it crossed the stream, winding its way up the opposite slope and appearing on the crests of successive ridges until lost in the distance to the east.
11. Hall and Hand's History of Leavenworth County, Kansas, page 320 says : "The term 'Kickapoo Rangers' was a name quite early applied to the northern division of the territorial militia of the Territory of Kansas. They numbered all the way from two to three hundred men. The majority of these men were of proslavery inclination and their officers were all pro- elavery leaders. A great many of the ruffian acts of territorial days were committed by parties of these men under the guidance and direction of their radical leaders. David R. Atchison, at one time senator from Missouri, was a leader and advisor among them and urged them on to commit many of their atrocities." In Blackmar's History of Kansas we find the following account of a speech made by Atchison, the occasion being immediately after the entering of Lawrence by this body May 21, 1856 : "Boys, this day I am a Kickapoo Ranger. This day we have entered Lawrence with 'Southern Rights' inscribed on pur banner, and not one abolitionist dared to fire a gun. And now, boys, we will go in again with our highly honor- able Jones, and test the strength of that Free State hotel and teach the Emigrant Aid Com- pany that Kansas shall be ours. Boys, ladies should, and I hope will, be respected by every gentleman. But, when a woman takes upon herself the garb of a soldier by carrying a Sharp's rifle, she is no longer worthy of respect. Trample her under your feet as you would a snake. If one man or women dare stand before you, blow them to hell with a chunk of cold lead."
12. Charles Hardt settled at Hickory Point in June, 1854, on the government road from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Riley, and started a trading house. Hardt's house was designated as a voting place in the election of March 30, 1855. In June, 1856, Capt. H. A. Lowe be- came owner of Hickory Point, and was in possession at the time of the battle.
ROOT: FIRST DAY'S BATTLE AT HICKORY POINT 39
General Lane soon made his dispositions for attack. The cavalry were formed to the south of the road. They crossed the stream and occupied an elevation about four hundred yards southeast of Hick- ory Point. I think Captain Mitchell was in command of this party.
As my steed seemed hardly in fighting trim I tied him to one of the wagons and fell in with the infantry that was just being formed in line across and to the left of the road. Our formation was one rank and we had at least fifty men. We were commanded by Cap- tain Creitz,13 who was a stranger to me. He worked pretty hard in getting his men properly placed and "dressed up," for some of our new recruits were very "raw." "No crowding," was frequently added to the military commands. At last we were in some kind of shape, and stood at "order arms."
We had all sorts of guns ; perhaps not more than one-third of our force had Sharp's rifles. Kickapoo Stevens was armed with a Hall's breech-loading rifle, and there were a good many condemned United States rifles and muskets. The rest of us were armed with sporting rifles and shotguns.
We were now all ready for the work before us. The sensations and emotions of soldiers waiting for the signal that may possibly mean death, are as various, perhaps, as the temperaments of the men themselves. For myself I felt almost as if it were a dream, and this feeling of unreality benumbed a latent dread of possible wounds and death. While a sense of duty and a natural curiosity to participate in actual battle; pride and the fear of ridicule and disgrace, all contributed in keeping me at my post.
General Lane was in the saddle less than thirty yards from where I stood, and by his side was the sturdy Whipple and other officers. There was a short consultation, then a horseman left the group carrying a white handkerchief tied to a ramrod. He galloped down the hill waving his flag as he went. We saw two or three men on foot coming to meet him from the direction of the shop. They walked deliberately, and met our messenger near the rising ground. The conference was very brief, and when he returned I heard him say to the general : "The leader of the gang read your summons and returned it with these words, Take this dirty paper back to
13. Captain William F. Creitz, was one of the pioneers of Calhoun (now Jackson) county, arriving there in 1856. He took an active part in the territorial troubles in that section. He erected the first house on the townsite of Holton.
40 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
' (I think the name given was Colonel Harvey),14 'and tell
him we will fight him and all the hireling cutthroats and assassins he can bring against us.' "
I heard afterwards that Lane simply demanded unconditional sur- render, stating that resistance would be useless against our force, which he claimed to be 1,500. Evidently he had not signed the paper ; why, I never learned.
I heard the bearer of the flag say to a comrade: "I was glad enough to leave those fellows. The leader was a bullet-headed, vicious looking ruffian, and I didn't think myself safe even under the flag of truce."
"Look!" cried some one, "there goes one of their men now." Some five hundred yards to our left we saw a man on foot with a gun on his shoulder, walking briskly in the direction of Hickory Point. A young man named Shepherd left the cavalry line and dashed past out front to engage the Ranger in single combat.
The attention of the entire command was enlisted. With silent, thrilling interest we watched every movement of the actors in this possible tragedy. We could almost imagine ourselves back in the days of chivalry, as Shepherd, like a gallant knight, urged his horse to its utmost speed across the slope, and rapidly neared his man.
The footman saw his pursuer, and changing the direction of his course a little to the north, ran with great swiftness toward the trees and bushes on the creek. He had too much of a start to be cut off,
14. James A. Harvey arrived in Kansas in August, 1856, at the head of a company of seventy-six emigrants fitted out in Chicago in June of that year. A written statement of Harvey's, found in the Hyatt manuscripts in the Historical Society, gives his age as twenty- nine, and married. Johnson's History of Anderson County, Kansas, states that he was a sol- dier in the Mexican War. While at Iowa Point, on his way into the Territory, he was elected captain of his company. He and his party arrived at Tppeka on August 13, twenty- six of his men having dropped out by the way. Troubles having broken out afresh in the Territory, Harvey and his men were actively engaged in fighting from the time of their arrival. On reaching Lawrence, Harvey was requested to remain and assist in its protection, and was made colonel of the Third Free-state Regiment. He took part in the siege and cap- ture of Fort Titus, Douglas county, August 16, following. Early in September he took part in an expedition against Easton, Leavenworth county. On September 11, 1856, he surprised and captured a proslavery camp on Slough creek, near present Oskaloosa. Two days later his company had a fight with proslavery forces under Lowe and Robertson, at Hickory Point, the battle taking place on an upper branch of Little Slough creek, in the southeast corner of section 32, township 8, range 19, six miles due north of Oskaloosa, the proslavery forces surrendering after a six hours fight. After the battle, and while his men were in the vicinity, they were surrounded by United States troops under Col. P. St. George Cooke, arrested and disarmed, and marched to Lecompton, where they were held prisoners for some time. On being liberated, Harvey and his men made their way to Lawrence where they arrived penniless and stranded in dead of winter. Thaddeus Hyatt, president of the National Kansas Com- mittee, seeking relief for these unemployed men, formed a colony and led them to Anderson county where a town called Hyattville was started, Mr. Harvey being one of the trustees of the new venture. Mr. Hyatt provided tools, agricultural implements and subsistence for the colonists who at once set to work erecting buildings, but were obliged to live in tents for the most part of that winter. This was the first settlement in Anderson county. Mr. Harvey lived on a claim at this place, and died there during the year 1858. Hyattville began de- clining during the gold rush to Pike's Peak in 1859, and a few years later had disappeared. The sword of Colonel Titus, captured during the taking of his fort, and a South Carolina flag, captured during the Slough Creek fight, are in the museum of the State Historical Society.
ROOT: FIRST DAY'S BATTLE AT HICKORY POINT 41
but Shepherd succeeded in getting within less than one hundred yards of the Ranger. He then suddenly reined up his horse, quickly dismounted and took deliberate aim at the fugitive. As the man saw Shepherd about to fire, he stooped as he ran, so as to almost resemble a four-footed beast. I could not help mentally wishing he would not be hit — it looked cold-blooded and cruel. The white puff of smoke came, the report of the rifle followed — but the human target ran on I If hurt the man was not disabled, and in a few moments he dis- appeared from view.
"Well!" exclaimed one of the men, "that's the first time I ever saw a man chased and shot at, like a wolf."
But the spectacle was not ended. We saw Shepherd insert a fresh cartridge in his breech-loader, swing himself into the saddle, and ride rapidly in the direction of the rising ground near the shop. When he reached it and was in full view of the enemy, he suddenly checked his horse, took a rapid aim and fired. As he wheeled around and put spurs to his horse, a scattering volley came from the buildings. Shepherd swayed in his saddle from side to side, while his horse galloped zigzag back and forth across the road as he ran in our direction.
"There — he's shot!" cried one.
"Yes, he's falling from his horse," said another. "He'll keep his seat!" "He'll come out all right!" was heard from all sides, as the rider straightened himself up and urged his horse up the hill. As he neared us, Colonel Whipple rode forward and met him. They were both laughing when they reached our position. Shepherd was un- hurt; his pretense of being wounded was a ruse to induce the Rangers to cease firing. There was a reckless daring in the whole perform- ance that was captivating, and the praise of Shepherd's gallantry was heard on all sides. General Lane himself was hardly more popular for the hour.
Captain Creitz stepped to our front. "Attention, Company!" All eyes were directed toward him. "Right shoulder — shift arms." He glanced along our motley line, then with a sweep of the arm in the direction of our foe, he shouted the single word: "March!"
The line moved forward down the slope, Creitz in advance. His coat was thrown aside, his vest was open in front, and he wore but a single suspender. He was intending us to assault those log buildings, but we had advanced less than fifty paces when the order was given to halt; I think by Lane himself. Creitz looked disappointed. Just
42 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
then an elderly man rushed up to him and exclaimed: "Captain, we can't take those houses with the number of men we have — it will be little better than murder to try ; I live here and know how strongly the houses are built." The man's face was twitching with excite- ment as he spoke. Creitz answered not a word.
General Lane and his staff rode up near our right flank. "Try them with your Sharp's rifles!" he called out. Creitz cautioned us to fire with no other guns. This left me out of the game entirely.
The man who had been released at Osawkie stood second from me to the right. He stepped out in front, dropped on one knee, took careful aim and fired. But the ball fell short; we could see where it struck the ground by the rising dust. Two men who stood at my left now walked out some two or three paces in front. One rested his rifle over the other's shoulder and fired, and again the ball fell short of the mark. Some one remarked that "Sharp's rifles were not what they were cracked up to be." A man near General Lane dis- mounted and came over to us. He was likely an expert marksman. A carbine was put in his hands. He fired offhand ; this time no dust was seen, and we knew the bullet had reached the mark or passed beyond.
In the meantime a cracking fire extended along our entire infantry line. Some of the balls struck the ground, but the shooting seemed better than at first. I think there was little or no firing from the cavalry line. Now and then we could see a puff of smoke from our flanking party on the other side of the stream and hear the distant sound of the shots.
At last the enemy was awakened. I was looking at the shop when I saw a tiny, circular cloud of white smoke appear ; then in the road some thirty paces in front of our line a sudden dash of dust was seen, followed by a fearfully wicked whiz, that came buzzing over our heads like a monster hornet. Our line recoiled a few paces for ten or fifteen feet on either side of the diabolical sound. I was not in the slightest danger, as the glancing bullet sped some dozen feet to my right, but I must acknowledge taking several backward steps. At the stern command of our captain we all dressed up into line again, and there was no more dodging.
The enemy's fire was very deliberate, but their shooting seemed better than our own. None of us were hit, however. Their bullets generally passed over our heads with a clean-cut "zip," that was far
ROOT: FIRST DAY'S BATTLE AT HICKORY POINT 43
less unpleasant than the nerve-shaking whiz of the introductory one. We were learning to "face the music."
I wanted to take a shot myself. I either saw or fancied I saw some of our men firing with muskets, and I had noticed some spare arms in the wagon where I had tied my horse. Without considering what a breach of discipline I would be committing, I left the line and went back to the wagons. Among the arms was an old United States musket which I eagerly seized upon.
"That gun won't go off," explained a man who appeared to be in charge of the wagon. "Your own gun will serve you better." I re- turned to my place at the front; not the slightest notice was taken of my absence or return.
The rangers had now ceased firing altogether. They were either sparing of their ammunition or took this course to challenge us to advance. On our side we were wasting good powder and lead against the log walls that concealed our foe. Our own fire soon slackened and then died out completely. It was a regular deadlock; what next?
A small group of men were collected about General Lane. "We can drive them out, but we should lose too many men," he said. "We must wait another day and get artillery."
Preparations were now made for the infantry to withdraw. Con- sidering our military experience it was done with considerable grace and precision. Captain Creitz faced us to the right. We were in Indian file, and at the word "March!" we stepped out marching by the right flank toward the south. Hardly had we gone a dozen paces when the command, "File right!" turned our file-leader sharply at right angles to the west. Some twenty paces were covered, when the same command was repeated, and the head of the file turned to the north. About the same distance was traversed when the command, "File left!" turned our file-leader to the west, and in a moment more were were out of sight of the enemy behind the ridge.
We broke ranks when we reached the wagons, and most of the men got in and started for Osawkie, where, I understood, we were to go into camp for the night. The season was dry, and I think there was no water for the horses nearer than the Grasshopper.
In the meantime our flanking party, that was posted across the creek, returned and joined the main body of cavalry on the ridge. Charley Lenhart was with them and may have been in command. The mounted men remained in nearly their original position over-
44 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
looking Hickory Point, and acting as a rear guard to cover our re- treat.
Fisher was gone and I found that the gray horse was committed to my care again. After adjusting the quilt over his bony struc- ture as well as I could, I climbed on. I was hardly seated when I heard a rifle shot from the cavalry line on the ridge. There was a small group of mounted men to the left and rear of it, and I joined them. The only one whom I knew was Dr. Geo. A. Cutler,15 a very youthful looking man but no doubt a good surgeon. The buildings were hidden from our position by the crest of the hill in front of us.
There came another shot from the line; then another and still another. Then a brisk scattering fire that increased to quite a hot engagement. There was no sparing of ammunition now, and soon a thin veil of smoke gave the farther end of the line quite a hazy appearance. Most of the men fired from their horses, especially such as had Sharp's rifles, but some dismounted on account of their horses being restive, or for greater ease in loading. Some of the horses were held just behind the line. I could hear the sound of shots from the direction of Hickory Point, accompanied at inter- vals by fierce yells. A young fellow near me remarked:
"Our men must be hitting them the way they holler." It was not that; it was the embryo Southern war cry or "Rebel yell," after- wards heard on so many battlefields. Our line fought in silence so far as cheering was concerned.
The scene was in the highest degree inspiring. It was a battle.
15. Dr. George A. Cutler was born in Nashville, Tenn., December 25, 1832. He was a graduate of the University Medical College of New York City, in 1853, and shortly afterwards moved to Gentry county, Missouri, and commenced practicing medicine. Upon the passage of the Kansas -Nebraska bill he moved to Kansas, settling at Doniphan, which was then being laid out. He took an active part in the free -state struggles. In the spring of 1855 he was selected as the free-state candidate for the territorial legislature, being opposed by Dr. John H. Stringfellow. At the election Cutler received every free-state vote, and Governor Reeder sent him a certificate of election. He was next elected a member of the constitutional convention which met at Topeka, October 22, 1855. Being a member of the Topeka Town Company, at the close of the convention he decided to make Topeka his home. He was elected auditor under the Topeka movement, and reelected again in 1857. In the spring of 1859 he, with others, started a new town at the junction of the Cottonwood and Neosho, in what was then Breckenridge county. He was elected to the first free-state legislature from the counties of Osage, Breckenridge and Coffey. He was appointed by President Lincoln as United States Indian agent to the Creeks. He helped organize the Indian regiments for the Union service. He later resigned from the Indian service and removed to Sherman, Texas, and founded the Sherman Patriot. He later founded the Red River Journal and the Dallas Daily Commercial. He was the originator of the Texas Press Association, and was one of its founders, and its president in 1873. Dr. Cutler was in every battle (with possibly two or three exceptions) fought on Kansas soil. He was married at Topeka, in February, 1857, to Miss Hattie A. Tuttle, of that place, who died in the spring of 1878. He married later Miss Fannie J. Dougherty, by whom he had three children. Dr. Cutler later removed to Gueda Springs, Sumner county, where in the early 80 's he conducted a drug store, practiced his profession, and was postmaster. He later removed to California, where he was living about 1890.
ROOT: FIRST DAY'S BATTLE AT HICKORY POINT 45
But a rear view cannot compare with what may be seen in front. I was just kicking up my old Rozinante intending to ride up to the left of the firing party, and at least see what the enemy looked like, when I saw a man leave the line and ride toward us at full speed. Blood was trickling down his face, and I saw that the outer angle of one of his eyebrows was shot away. The ball had appar- ently glanced from the bone but had cut the skin and flesh com- pletely from it. He rode up to Doctor Cutler and demanded his attention. The doctor tied a bandage over the hurt so as to leave one eye uncovered. The man was either naturally gruff or the pain of his wound made him crabbed, for he gave me a very short answer when I addressed a question to him, coupled with an ugly expletive. But he had true grit, for instead of remaining in the rear, he re- mounted and dashed back in the midst of the fray.
Immediately after another man joined us from the front; he was not hurt. He looked to be well up in years, and was probably one of our recruits from the neighborhood. As he rode up he exclaimed vehemently.
"I'll swear, if a dozen bullets didn't come within a foot of my head!" and added as if in excuse, as he called our attention to the gun he carried, "I couldn't do a particle of good out there, so I thought I'd better leave."
This made me think that I myself would be out of place if I rode out on the ridge ; my own company was gone, and my presence would be utterly useless as my rifle had a range of only 150 yards. For a brief space I halted between two opinions, and when I at last determined to ride forward I found it was too late — the firing had slackened and died out. It had lasted but a few moments.
The rear guard fell back from the crest of the hill and came into the road. There seemed to be no hurry, and of course no pursuit was now apprehended. I gathered from what was said that the Rangers had left their cover and fought us until our fire drove them back to the shelter of the buildings. It was supposed that their loss amounted to half a dozen or more in killed and wounded. There was no one killed on our side and the man I had seen was the only one wounded. (He was an Irishman, judging from his brogue.) Three horses were hurt, one of them fatally.
We soon resumed our backward march. It was very hot for the time of year — for several days the thermometer had been over ninety degrees in the shade. There had been no water on the field,
46 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
and I was suffering fearfully with thirst. We made a short halt at the Evans house, but I got no water there. But I succeeded in get- ting Fisher on the old war horse and took my place in the wagon, to my great relief and comfort.
When we were within a few miles of Osawkie our wagon stopped at a settler's cabin for water. General Lane was there, talking to a very fine looking old lady who was at the door. He had evidently been telling her about our skirmish, for as we drove up I heard her inquire how many men the enemy had lost in the affair.
"Six or seven," replied the general promptly. "None of our men were killed, and we had only one wounded; here he comes," added Lane, as the Irishman and several companions rode up and halted near by.
"The poor fellow!" exclaimed the lady. "Oh, sir, won't you come and have some bread and butter? — The general is going to have some."
But the wounded hero answered curtly, "No, mum." He then said something to a comrade in a low voice. The other produced a flask filled with some kind of amber-colored liquid. The Irishman took off his bandage, poured some of the contents in the hollow of his hand, bent down his head and applied it to his wound. After thoroughly rubbing it in, he put the flask to his lips and allowed quite a quantity of the remedy to run down his throat. Was it the popular cure for snake-bite? It looked like it.
We reached Osawkie rather late in the afternoon, and went into camp west of the Grasshopper.16 We were close to the town and on the north side of the main road. A little further north of us was an enclosure on a hillside. Fisher came to me and reported that there were "lots of watermelons up there," and added that the pro- prietor was a good free-state man and was willing we should help ourselves. The patch contained four or five melons less by the time we were through with it. Many thanks to the "good free-state man," for we were nearly famished. A good supper of slapjacks and bacon still further revived us, and we were soon in the best of spirits. As a matter of course our conversation was principally "war talk." We fully discussed the incidents of the day and the probabilities of success of our intended attack in the morning.
General Lane had his headquarters in a house just east of our camp and close to the road. It was here that I first saw Charley
16. Now called Delaware river.
ROOT: FIRST DAY'S BATTLE AT HICKORY POINT 47
Lenhart17 to know who he was, and it came about in this way. Lenhart was leaning against the side of the house smoking a cigar when a young man the boys nicknamed "Brick" came around the corner, much exhilarated by stimulants. He was complaining bit- terly that some one had accused him of having shown the "white feather."
"Charley Lenhart!" he cried, "you know I didn't act the coward in the fight to-day." Lenhart assured him that he certainly had not, but "Brick" was not satisfied with his words of approval.
"I'm a brick molder of Topeka," he went on excitedly, "and I'll whip any man in the regiment who says I'm a coward. Why, I can
whip the whole regiment, if you only come down to the
reality of the thing!"
At the name "Lenhart," I took a good look at the possessor of that renowned cognomen. Instead of a dark, fierce-eyed frontiersman, I saw a slender young man with an indolent, inoffensive manner that I could hardly reconcile with his reputation as a daring, reckless, fighting man.
Brick went to Captain Mitchell and different ones in camp, all the time loudly and profanely declaring his ability to whip the entire regiment if the reality could be tested.
"Put that man under arrest!" cried Lane in thundering tones, as he suddenly appeared on the scene. "What, is the whole camp to be kept in an uproar by one man?"
As he was seized, Brick once more cried out, "I could whip the
whole regiment!" He was pulled down on his back and
held by two stout men, but still he raised his head and shouted, "If you only come down to the reality of the thing!"
Night came and I was looking for a suitable place to spread my blanket, when a rumor crept in among us that to-morrow's battle was "off." Governor Geary was "up and doing," the terrible United States dragoons were to take the field, and we would have two ene- mies to fight instead of one. We still felt a respect for the soldiers of our country, even when they appeared in the guise of active enemies and oppressors. We were already denounced by the pro-
17. Charley Lenhart came to Kansas in the spring of 1855, from Iowa. He was then eighteen or nineteen years old. He began work on the Herald of Freedom as a printer. He was in the Wakarusa war in the fall of 1855, and took an active part in free-state activities later. In 1856 he allied himself with the Lane and Brown factions. From this time on very little is known about him. He was of a reckless, adventurous nature, ardently free-state, and ready to fight for the cause at any time. It was reported that he was shot under the walls of the prison at Charleston, Va., where he was reconnoitering with a view of effecting the escape of Captain John Brown.
48 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
slavery administration as traitors and outlaws, and an armed con- flict with the federal troops would have proved our utter ruin.
(I was told long afterwards that Governor Geary sent word to Lane on this Saturday evening, requesting him to disband his men, as our presence as an armed force embarrassed him in the discharge of his official duties.)
Lane immediately sent a messenger to Colonel Harvey at Law- rence, countermanding the order for a field gun and reinforcements; sent the infantry back to Topeka, and started himself for Nebraska with the mounted men the same night. We were in the wagons ready to start about eight or nine o'clock in the evening. The general came out to us and gave us a few words at parting. He ended by saying, "I'll give you a chance at them some other time." It is unnecessary to say that this promise was never fulfilled. It was the last time I ever saw Whipple and Mitchell and many of my comrades, for I never bore arms in the free-state cause again.
With our backs a second time to the foe, we pursued our dreary, sleepy way back to Topeka. Save for the dull rumble of the wheels and the driver's voice urging on his team, a cheerless silence pre- vailed. Several times we were halted and formed in line to repel some fancied attack. They were all groundless alarms, but they served to awaken us for the time being. It was almost impossible to keep my eyes open, and several times I narrowly escaped falling from the wagon.
I reached home about two or three o'clock the next morning, and a few moments afterwards was lost in the oblivion of sleep, deep and dreamless. It was needed, for in little less than thirty hours I had been transported a distance of seventy miles and had witnessed that most exciting of all human events, an armed conflict.
Sunday, Sept. 14, 1856. The day was far advanced when I awoke It was warm and clear, with some breeze. On this day was fought what I have generally called, "The second day's battle of Hickory Point." Colonel Harvey attacked the Rangers with musketry and artillery, but failed18 to dislodge them. After some loss on both sides he withdrew, and nearly all of his command were afterwards captured by the United States troops.
This is a matter of history and is well known, but I have yet to learn that any written account whatever exists of our own attack on the day before, and it is for this reason that I have written out these
18. Error. The Rangers were forced to surrender after a six hours' fight.
ROOT: FIRST DAY'S BATTLE AT HICKORY POINT 49
additional details. It has been my aim to state nothing but the facts that came under my own personal observation. It may contain some errors, for the memory is often a little treacherous after a lapse of forty years. My diary of 1856 is not voluminous, but it gives all the dates and main incidents, and can be relied upon as correct so far as it goes.
As a private soldier I knew nothing of the plans and motives of our leaders. They were brave men and may have been able, but they certainly proved to be unfortunate. General Lane's friends called him a clear-headed, heroic champion of our cause; his enemies the reverse. He was and still is, a puzzle. Perhaps there was no one who came in personal contact with him who was not swayed more or less by his subtle influence. Some of that influence lingers with me still, and there is a secret pleasure in the knowledge that I was one of "Jim Lane's boys."
But to a cool, dispassionate judgment this Hickory Point affair yields him little credit. It was a series of abortive attempts culmi- nating in an unfortunate blunder that left Colonel Harvey to fight and suffer defeat alone. On the other hand, had Lane disregarded Governor Geary's request and gained a victory at Hickory Point, would our cause have been advanced? The nation was seething, and a successful battle might have acted like a spark to a powder maga- zine, and precipitated our Civil War four years too soon. Most likely all was ordered for the best. For it was ballots and not bullets that finally freed Kansas from the threatened curse of African slavery.
JANUARY 25, 1896.
•1266
The Military Post as a Factor in the Frontier Defense of Kansas, 1865-1869
MARVIN H. GAEFIELD
/TVHE name "fort" is perhaps a misnomer when applied to the A military posts of the western frontier during the sixties. No huge, grim structure of defense which usually is associated with the name fort was ever erected on the western border. Nor did the western fort usually possess a stockade or blockhouse for defensive purposes. Officers' quarters, soldiers' barracks, stables, military storehouses and headquarters buildings, grouped around a trim pa- rade ground, constituted the frontier fort. While no doubt a dis- appointment to many of its critics the military post of the Middle West admirably fulfilled the purposes for which it was constructed, i. e., the keeping open of lines of travel and communication and the protection of outlying settlements.
Forts were located without any definite prearranged plan. A mili- tary necessity for a post at a certain point determined that the post should be there established.1 During the Civil War and in the period immediately following, increased Indian activity on the plains caused an expansion in the total number of frontier posts. In 1860 there were seventy-three army posts on the frontier, four located in Kansas. These forts had an average garrison of 180 men. By 1864 the number of forts had increased to 101. Kansas, in the meantime, had had its quota raised to five. In 1867 the American frontier possessed 116 posts with an average of 212 men per post. This was the high mark in frontier garrisons. By 1870 the number of posts had decreased to 111 with an average garrison of 205 men.2
Army forts were of two types : The permanent fort, and the tem- porary outpost or camp. The former was built as a definite protec- tion to some route of travel or communication and was in service for years, whereas the latter usually was operated for only a few weeks or months as military needs determined.
The first military post in Kansas, Cantonment Martin, was estab- lished in 1818 when Kansas was nothing but an unknown portion of the Louisiana Territory. The cantonment, or military camp, came
1. Raymond L. Welty, "The Army Fort of the Frontier," North Dakota Historical Quar- terly, v. II, No. 3, p. 155.
2. Ibid., 156-157.
(50)
GAEFIELD: THE FRONTIER DEFENSES OF KANSAS 51
into existence as a base of supplies for Major Stephen H. Long's engineering expedition of 1819-'20. It was located on Cow Island in the Missouri river within the bounds of the present Atchison county, Kansas.
Major Long and his explorers reached Cantonment Martin, August 18, 1819, on the Western Engineer, the first steamboat to go up the Missouri river. Before leaving Cow Island for his famous scientific journey into the Rocky Mountains, Major Long held a peace pow- wow with thirteen Osages and 161 Kanzas Indians. The Kanzas or Kaws as they were later called, admitted depredations against the soldiers but promised to be peaceful in the future. White Plume, ancestor of Vice President Charles Curtis, was one of the Kaw chiefs who signed the agreement.
Cantonment Martin was occupied until Long's expedition re- turned in October, 1820. The camp was then abandoned until 1826 when it was temporarily occupied by the First United States In- fantry and called Camp Croghan. No buildings remained on the island in 1832 due to numerous destructive floods of the Missouri. The island was not occupied again until the Civil War. On June 3, 1861, members of the First Kansas Volunteers used it as a base of operations against the Confederate town of latan, which lay opposite on the Missouri side of the river.3
Nearly all the permanent military establishments within the state of Kansas were built to serve as guardians of the great highways to Colorado and New Mexico. The Santa Fe trail was defended by three of these : Forts Zarah, Lamed, and Dodge ; while Forts Riley ,
3. Authority for the statements concerning Cantonment Martin comes from the following sources :
Andreas, A. T., History of Kansas, pp. 58, 54, 59.
Remsburg, George J., Atchison County Clippings, v. 1, pp. 8, 15, 28, 48, 69, 70, 92, 192.
Adams, F. G., "The Kansas Indians," Kansas Historical Collections, v. 1, pp. 280- 285, 287, 289, 297-299, 301.
McCoy, John C., "Survey of Kansas Indian Lands," Kansas Historical Collections, v. 4, p. 303.
Remsburg, George J., "Isle au Vache," Kansas Historical Collections, v. 8, pp. 436-442.
Chappell, Phil E., "A History of the Missouri River," Kansas Historical Collections. v. 9, pp. 277, 278, 309, 312.
Adams, Zu, and Root, George A., Historic Locations in Kansas, with map, Kansas Historical Collections, v. 9, pp. 565, 676.
Montgomery, Mrs. Frank C., and Root, George A., compilers, "Indian Treaties and Councils Affecting Kansas," Kansas Historical Collections, v. 16, p. 748.
Morrison, T. F., "The Osage Treaty of 1865," Kansas Historical Collections, v. 17, p. 699.
Napton, William B., "The Pioneer Soldiers of Missouri, Kansas and Iowa. History of Cantonment Martin and Council Bluffs," unpublished manuscript in Kansas His- torical Society.
Thwaites, Reuben G., ed., Early Western Travels, Maximilian, v. 22, pp. 255, 256.
Long, Major Stephen H., Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, Performed in the Years 1819 and '20, Compiled by Edwin James, v. 1. pp. 110-118, 136, 137, 141; v, 2, p. 321, 324, 325. Apx. pt. 1, pp. 14, 15; pt. 2, p xlii.
52 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Marker, Hays and Wallace stood guard over the Smoky Hill route to Denver. Fort Leaven worth, father of all the Kansas military posts, stood at the head of both these famous trails, in addition to being connected with the Platte trail to California and Oregon. Of the major forts, Fort Scott alone remained aloof from the busy thoroughfares to the West.
Kansas was defended during the sixties by two types of forts ; the U. S. army posts of both classes, garrisoned by army regulars, and the local defensive fort which sprang up to meet some sectional emer- gency and was usually garrisoned by state militia, although some- times merely by local settlers. A map of Kansas in 1868 indicated eight United States army posts within the boundaries of Kansas.4 A ninth, Fort Wallace, was also in service although not shown on the map. The following United States army posts were denoted: Fort Leavenworth in Leavenworth county, Fort Scott in Bourbon county, Fort Riley in Riley county [now in Geary county], Fort Ellsworth (Harker) in Ellsworth county, Fort Zarah in Barton county, Fort Larned in Pawnee county, Fort Hays in Ellis county and Downers Station in Trego county. The last was a temporary outpost; the first seven were permanent structures.
To give a clear notion of the extent of frontier defense in pioneer Kansas it is necessary to do more than merely name the United States army posts. To do justice to the subject not only must each of these major military defenses be located and a brief history of each given, but mention must be made of the more important tempo- rary camps or stations of the regular army as well as the local fort- resses of the settlers. It would also be illogical to overlook those army posts located adjacent to but outside of Kansas. These ma- terially aided in the state's defense. The following study, therefore, will concern itself with each class of fortifications in the order named: (1) Permanent United States army forts in Kansas; (2) temporary United States army camps or stations in Kansas; (3) local defensive forts in Kansas ; (4) permanent United States army forts adjacent to, but outside of Kansas.
Fort Leavenworth was the first permanent United States army fort established in Kansas. It was founded by Colonel Henry Leavenworth in 1827. From that date until well in the 70's this fort on the Missouri served as the chief unit in the system of frontier de- fense. In the fifties and sixties it was the general depot from which
4. Daily Kantas State Record (Topeka), June 19, 1868.
GARFIELD: THE FRONTIER DEFENSES OF KANSAS 53
supplies were sent to all the United States military posts,* camps and forts in the Great West.5 Here the military commanders of the de- partment of Missouri, of which Kansas was a part, made their head- quarters. With only a few exceptions Leavenworth remained the de- partment headquarters. When necessity demanded the department commander shifted headquarters to the other forts within his de- partment. For example, General Sheridan moved his headquarters to Fort Hays in 1868 and later to Camp Supply in Indian Territory. During the winter of 1869-70 General Schofield was forced to shift his headquarters to St. Louis in order to make room at the post for the Seventh Cavalry, which had been on the plains the previous year.6 The importance of Fort Leavenworth is demonstrated by the fact that General Sterling Price made it one of the objectives in his famous raid of 1864.
Fort Scott was established four miles west of the Missouri line in east central Kansas in 1842. Because of its location it never was a factor in the frontier defense of the state against the Indians in the sixties; although for a short time in 1865 garrisons stationed in the town patrolled the eastern border of the state as a protection against possible bushwhacker invasion from Missouri.7
Fort Riley was established in 1853 on the north bank of the Kan- sas river at the junction of the Smoky Hill and Republican forks. Since it was closer to the area of Indian troubles it soon became the point of departure for most of the mounted expeditions against the hostile tribes.8 During the great Indian wars of the sixties, how- ever, the forts farther to the west and south became the starting points for expeditions against the Indians. Fort Riley's chief func- tion during that period became one of organizing and drilling troops and as headquarters for military supplies. Here the famous Seventh Cavalry was organized in the fall of 1866. The fort held a unique position in the military organization of the nation, being listed in army records as an independent post.9
5. Elvid Hunt, History of Fort Leavenworth 1827-1927 (Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, The General Service School's Press, 1926), 97. Hereafter cited as Hunt, History of Fort Leaven- worth.
6. Ibid., 97.
7. Telegram from General Robert B. Mitchell to Governor Samuel J. Crawford, May 12, 1865, Correspondence of Kansas Governors, Crawford (Telegrams), 6, Archives, Kansas State Historical Society. Hereafter cited C. K. G., Crawford, (Telegrams). [The various forms of this series of correspondence will hereafter be cited C. K. G.] Mitchell, commander at Fort Leavenworth, stated that Colonel Blair of Fort Scott was under orders to look after the eastern border of Kansas as far north as the Kaw river.
8. Hunt, History of Fort Leavenworth, p. 93.
9. Report of the Secretary of War, 1868, 40th Cong. 2d sess., House Ex. Docs., v. II, No. 1, part 1, p. 39.
54 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Of the guardians of the Santa Fe trail in Kansas during the six- ties, Fort Larned was the oldest and most important. Established in 1859 as the "Camp on Pawnee Fork," its history dates back further than that of either Forts Dodge or Zarah. On February 1, 1860, the place was rechristened Camp Alert, and later in the year received its permanent name, Fort Larned. The fort was located on the bank of the Pawnee Fork about eight miles west of its junc- tion with the Arkansas river near the present town of Larned. Fort Larned's principal usefulness was as a headquarters for military forces detailed to guard traffic along the trail. It also served as an Indian agency and gathering place for the plains tribes. When a rumor reached Kansas in 1872 that General Pope proposed to dis- continue Fort Larned as a military post Governor Harvey protested vigorously, stating that the people of south-central Kansas, and especially the workmen engaged in constructing the Santa Fe rail- road, needed the fort as a protection against the Indians.10 Accord- ingly the fort was not abandoned until 1878.
Fort Zarah, located on Walnut creek about one mile from its con- fluence with the Arkansas, was established by General S. R. Curtis in 1864 and named in honor of his son.11 Fort Zarah aided ma- terially in the guarding of the Santa Fe trail, escorts being con- stantly employed to accompany trains west to Smoky Crossing be- tween Zarah and Larned and east for twenty-five miles toward Council Grove.12 The post was abandoned in December, 1869.13
Fort Dodge, the most westerly of the big forts along the trail in Kansas, was established in 1864 by Major General Grenville M. Dodge. The post was near the intersection of the dry and wet routes of the Santa Fe trail. It lay between the two points where the Indians most frequently crossed the Arkansas — the Cimarron Crossing, twenty-five miles west, and Mulberry Creek Crossing, fifteen miles east. It attained its greatest importance during the latter part of 1868 when it was used for a time by General Sheridan
10. Letter of Governor James M. Harvey to General John Pope, February 2, 1872 C K G., Harvey (Letter press books), v. I, pp. 101-102.
11. Landmarks, Barton County (a typewritten collection of notes and manuscripts dealing with the historical landmarks of Kansas, compiled by the library of the Kansas State His- torical Society, Topeka). Hereafter cited as Landmarks with or without the county name following.
12. W. F. Pride, The History of Fort Riley (n. p., n. pub., c. 1926), p. 148.
18. List of military forts, arsenals, camps, and barracks, T. H. S. Hamersly, Complete Army and Navy Register (New York, T. H. S. Hamersly, publisher, 1888), 162. Hereafter cited as Hamersly.
GARFIELD: THE FRONTIER DEFENSES OF KANSAS 55
as headquarters for his famous winter campaign against the In- dians in Indian Territory and Texas.14
That the locality near Fort Dodge was of strategic importance in guarding the trail is evidenced by the fact that several other forts preceded it in the region. The earliest of these was Fort Mann, established in 1845 near the Cimarron Crossing and abandoned in 1850.15 While Fort Mann was in its prime another post called Fort Mackay was located farther to the east. The exact date of its establishment and abandonment are unknown. In 1850 Fort At- kinson was established, and was abandoned in 1854.16 It was near the site of Fort Atkinson that Fort Dodge was later established.
In 1864 and 1865 a chain of forts extended along the Smoky Hill valley through which ran the Butterfield Overland Dispatch from Leavenworth and Atchison to Denver. Forts Harker, Wallace and Hays were built in the order named to guard this short cut to Denver which passed through the most Indian-infested region in Kansas.
Fort Harker, originally Fort Ellsworth, was built in 1864 near the present town of Ellsworth, thirty-six miles from Salina. It was located on the Smoky Hill river at the crossing of the old Santa Fe stage road.17 A brief description of it is given by the traveler, Bell, who refers to it as a "well-built, three-company post, with spacious storehouses filled with munitions of war, but like all these military establishments, carrying out in no particular the term fort.18
During its active career of nine years Fort Harker proved to be a bulwark of defense against the hostile Indians. It was one of the strongest, if not the strongest, of the western Kansas forts and effec- tively protected the town of Salina from Indian incursions.19 When General Pope, commander of the department of the Missouri, was considering the abandonment of Fort Harker in 1871, the Kansas legislature, on February 16, passed a joint resolution of protest to
14. G. D. Bradley, "Famous Landmarks Along the Trail," Santa Fe Employees Magazine, v. VI, No. 11, pp. 41-42.
15. Letter of May 2, 1924, from Joseph R. Wilson to William E. Connelley, secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, Landmarks.
16. Ibid.
17. Hamersly, p. 136. With the construction of the Union Pacific, Eastern Division, through the Kaw and Smoky Hill valleys in 1866 and 1867, much of the Santa Fe traffic shifted north to the railroad. Travelers to Santa Fe took the railroad to "End of Track," where the stage made connections. From there they went by way of the Fort Harker-Fort Lamed military trail to its junction with the Santa Fe Trail at the latter place.
18. William A. Bell, New Tracks in North America (Second Edition, London, Chapman & Hall; New York, Scribner, Welford & Co., 1870), pp. 27-28.
19. The Republican Journal (Salina), January 31, 1902, refers to Fort Harker as the Strongest post on the plains in 1868. Perhaps local pride entered into the statement.
56 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the government. The legislature gave as reasons, first that Fort Harker was essential to the defense of the north-central Kansas frontier, and second, that it would be a great financial loss, since the buildings cost the United States $1,000,000 and would sell under the hammer for about $25,000.20 The government finally abandoned the fort in 1873.
Forts Hays and Wallace came into existence at approximately the same time, Wallace being constructed in September while Hays was established in October of 1865.
Fort Hays was known as Fort Fletcher until November 11, 1866. It was located on the line of the proposed Kansas Pacific railroad, near the site of the present city of Hays. Like all the forts on the Kansas Pacific line, Hays contributed much toward protecting con- struction camps along the road and keeping open the Smoky Hill route. In the Indian wars of 1867 it was headquarters for General Hancock during part of his campaign. Again in 1868 General Sheri- dan made Fort Hays the headquarters for his campaign.21 This honor must be shared with Fort Dodge and Camp Supply, however. The famous Seventh Cavalry, under Colonel George A. Custer, was quartered at Hays from 1867 to 1870, and the Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry was mustered out there in the spring of 1869.22 The fort was abandoned by the government in 1889.
Fort Wallace was first called Camp Pond Creek. It was located near the western boundary of Kansas on Pond creek, a tributary to the Smoky Hill. Wallace was the last and most western military post of any permanency in Kansas. From 1865 to 1878 it bore the brunt of the contest with the Indian tribes.23 Its functions were similar to those of Forts Hays and Harker with the exception that the latter were larger and were more often selected as headquarters for large expeditions against the Indians. That Fort Wallace was unusually active in frontier protection cannot be doubted however. There is little evidence to refute the following statement concerning the importance of the fort:
"It is very evident after checking up the assignments of troops and engage- ments between the Indians and the military in Kansas, that the small garrisons at Fort Wallace participated in more actual engagements with the Indians and were sent to the relief of more scout and escort parties than the soldiers from
20. Senate Miscellaneous Documents, p. 76, 41st Con., 2d sess.
21. J. H. Beach, "Fort Hays," Kansas Historical Collections, v. XI, p. 571.
22. Ibid., p. 574.
23. Mrs. Frank C. Montgomery, "Fort Wallace and Its Relation to the Frontier," Kansas Historical Collections, v. XVII, p. 189, Hereafter cited as Mrs. Montgomery, Fort Wallace.
GAKFIELD: THE FRONTIER DEFENSES OF KANSAS 57
any other post in Kansas. Other posts were bases of supplies and regimental headquarters where large forces were mobilized for Indian campaigns. But none defended a larger territory on the western frontier of Kansas. . . ." 24
Garrisons at Fort Wallace were usually low during the Indian wars of 1866-'69, since troops were constantly acting as escorts for railroad surveyors and laborers, stage coaches, wagon trains, and for government officials and quartermasters trains.25
Notwithstanding the fact that these forts comprised the backbone of the frontier defense in Kansas they were ably assisted by smaller outposts and camps of a temporary nature. Among those graced with the dignity of the term "fort" were the posts of Aubrey, Downer, Monument, Ogallah, Kirwin and Lookout. Of the camps the most prominent was Camp Beecher.
Fort Aubrey was built to aid in the defense of the Santa Fe Trail during the Indian war of 1865. Its location was sixteen miles west of Choteau's island on the Arkansas river and approximately one hundred miles west of Fort Dodge by the wagon road and fifty miles east of Fort Lyon, Colorado. The site of the fort is four miles east of the present town of Syracuse, Kansas. Fort Aubrey was established by Companies D and F of the Forty-eighth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry in September, 1865.26 The fort was abandoned April 15, 1866, during a lull in Indian activities along the Old Trail.
Fort Downer, an outpost on the Smoky Hill route to the Colorado gold fields, was located about fifty miles west of Fort Hays in Trego county. It was established as a stage station in 1865 and was a military post in 1867-'68.27 The place was abandoned May 28, 1868. The post was used by General Custer as a base for Indian operations in Trego County in 1867. An eating station of the But- terfield Overland Dispatch, located at this point, was burned in 1867 by hostiles.28
Fort Monument or Fort Pyramid was another outpost which was short lived. It was established in 1865 and abandoned in 1868. The post was constructed in Gove county on the route of the Kan- sas Pacific railroad between Forts Hays and Wallace near some
24. Ibid., p. 203.
25. Ibid.
26. Landmarks.
27. H. Harlan, Trego County Clippings, p. 76. (A series of unbound newspaper clippings in the library of the Kansas State Historical Society) ; Landmarks, Trego County. The first of these references gives 1865 as the date for the founding of Fort Downer, while the second says 1867; Hamersly states that the fort was established May 30, 1867, p. 181, List of Forts; see, also, Kansas Historical Collections, v. IX, p. 578.
28. Landmarks, Trego County.
58 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
monument-shaped rocks which gave the station its name. Although originally merely a station on the Butterfield Overland Dispatch it was soon found necessary to station troops there as a protection to the stage road. General Dodge in 1865 placed soldiers at this point simultaneous with the garrisoning of Big Creek, Pond Creek, and other B. 0. D. Stations.29
Trego county boasted of another defense besides Fort Downer. Camp Ogallah, on the Kansas Pacific railroad about one mile west of Wakeeney, came into existence in 1867 or 1868. It protected the railroad builders during a most hectic period of Indian depre- dations.30 According to one pioneer version the camp's name was taken from the expression "0 Golly"! A better explanation is that early settlers corrupted or mispronounced the name of the famous Ogallala band of Dakota Indians and applied it to the fort.31
Camp Beecher, located in June, 1868, at the junction of the Little Arkansas and Big Arkansas rivers, was a new unit in the defensive chain of forts in Kansas. It was built following the great Indian scare of 1868 when the Cheyennes raided the east central portion of the state. The primary purpose of Camp Beecher was as head- quarters for a border cavalry patrol which extended northward to Marion Center.32 During the Sheridan winter campaign of 1868-'69 against the Indians, Camp Beecher was used as a supply station by the Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry. The camp was abandoned in October, 1869. Even as early as 1868 the camp site was referred to as Wichita.33
Somewhat different from that of other forts in Kansas is the his- tory of Fort Kirwin. Built to meet the necessity of frontier de- fense, it failed to meet that need and consequently was abandoned. The fort was established in 1865 by Colonel Kirwin and a company of Tennessee volunteers who were sent to protect the Kansas frontier. The site chosen was near the confluence of Bow Creek with the North Solomon river in what is now Phillips county. Colonel John Kirwin, its builder, finding the country swarming
29. Mrs. Frank C. Montgomery, Fort Wallace, 198.
30. Ogallah should not be called a fort. It was never more than a railroad construction camp, although used for defense against Indians by construction gangs. Kansas Historical Collections, v. XVII, p. 228.
31. Trego County Clippings, 78.
32. Daily Kansas State Record (Topeka), June 12, 1868.
33. Daily Kansas State Record (Topeka), June 12, 1868. A news item reprinted from the Kansas Daily Tribune (Lawrence) mentions that "A company of United States infantry and eighty -four volunteers are stationed at Wichita at present and will probably remain there during the winter."
GARFIELD: THE FRONTIER DEFENSES OF KANSAS 59
with the hostile Indians, judiciously decided to vacate. There were no settlers needing protection within one hundred miles of the fort.34
Another of the lesser fortifications was Fort Lookout, in Republic county. Situated upon a high bluff commanding the Republican river valley, it guarded the military road from Fort Riley to Fort Kearney, Nebraska. Unlike the large military posts, it was con- structed in the form of a blockhouse. This sturdy two-story log structure performed regular duty before 1868, when it was aban- doned by the regular army. State militia used the building during the Indian war of 1868. Following their withdrawal the old fort was used as a rendezvous for settlers of the White Rock and Re- publican valleys during the Indian scares of the early 70's.35
Pioneer Kansas was well supplied with local fortifications to which the settlers could fly for refuge during the numerous Indian raids and scares of the 60's. Included in this group were Fort Montgom- ery at Eureka, Fort Brooks in Cloud county, Fort Solomon in Ottawa county, Fort Camp Jewell on the site of present Jewell City, and two forts, names unknown, located in Mitchell and Republic coun- ties respectively.
At the beginning of the Civil War citizens of the Eureka neighbor- hood constructed Fort Montgomery as a fort for home guards. When they disbanded at the close of the war the fort was occupied by a de- tachment of the Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry.36 During the Indian scares of 1864-1869 it was used as a rallying place for settlers of Greenwood county.
Enterprising militia of Shirley county, later Cloud county, con- structed Fort Brooks in August or September, 1864. Situated on the left bank of the Republican river the log blockhouse was head- quarters for the local militia engaged in frontier defense.37
Fort Solomon in Ottawa county was a true frontier block house. Built early in 1864 as a defense against the Indians, it was the only shelter for the majority of the people of Ottawa county from the summer of 1864 to the spring of 1865. It consisted of log houses, arranged in the form of a square and enclosed with palisades. For-
34. Z. T. Walrond, Annals of Osborne County, Kansas 1870-1879 (a bound volume of clippings in the library of the Kansas State Historical Society), p. 21.
35. Kansas State Historical Society, Twenty-fifth Biennial Report, 1925-1926, pp. 74-75.
36. Greenwood County Clippings, I, 15.
37. Clay Center Times, January 12, 1922.
60 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
tunately for the settlers they were never forced to undergo a siege by Indians.38
Home guards of Jewell county were responsible for the construc- tion of a sod fort in 1870 as a protection against the Indian raids, while Republic county in 1869 and Mitchell county in 1867 each con- structed an Indian defense. In May, 1869, nearly all the settlers on Salt and Reily creeks, in the Republican river region, left their claims and took refuge in a log fort in Belleville township until a small body of militia was sent to their aid.39 The Mitchell county fort was built by settlers in 1867 during the period of great Indian activity in northwestern Kansas. Indian scares during that year greatly retarded immigration into the county.40
In harmony with the home-guard movement during the Civil War, the state capital built a wooden stockade at the intersection of Sixth and Kansas avenues. Although intended as a place of refuge against guerrillas, it was never forced to defend Topeka from invaders. Christened with the enlightening title of Fort Simple, its existence was never complex from its birth in 1863 to its final destruction by Topekans after the Civil War.
Kansas was not entirely defended by forts within her own boun- daries. Since the plains Indian roamed unwittingly over state boundary lines it frequently happened that Indian depredations were broken up by soldiers stationed in the forts of the adjacent terri- tories of Nebraska and Colorado.
Of these frontier watch dogs, Fort Kearney, Nebraska, was the most prominent. Located on the Platte river in southern Nebraska its jurisdiction often extended into northern Kansas.41 From the time of its founding in 1848 this fort on the Platte trail was the headquarters for nearly all the military operations in Nebraska.42 . Forts Cottonwood and Sedgwick also defended the Platte trail and contributed to the defense of Kansas. The former, located at Cot- tonwood Springs, one hundred miles west of Fort Kearney, on the south bank of the Platte, proved of valuable assistance in keeping
38. Landmarks, Ottawa County.
39. Landmarks, Republic County.
40. Letter from a settler in Ottawa County, Kansas, to Governor Samuel J. Crawford, September 23, 1867, C. K. G., Crawford (Incoming Letters).
41. Telegram from Adjutant General John P. Sherburne of Fort Leavenworth to Governor Samuel J. Crawford, July 20, 1866, C. K. G., Crawford (Telegrams), 28. Sherburne informed the Governor that one company of cavalry from Fort Kearney and Fort McPherson was scouting in the region of the Little Blue river.
42. Frank A. Root and William E. Connelley, The Overland Stage to California (Topeka, Kansas, published by the authors, 1901), p. 242. Hereafter cited as Root and Connelley, The Overland Stage.
GARFIELD: THE FRONTIER DEFENSES OF KANSAS 61
overland traffic going during the Indian raids of 1864.43 Two years later the fort's name was changed to McPherson. During the grand trek to the western mining country, Cotton wood Springs was an im- portant supply depot for the miners.44
Farther west on the Platte trail, near Julesburg, Colorado, was a sod fort named Fort Sedgwick. It, too, was an important point since it was a depot of government supplies for a region extending fully one hundred and fifty miles along the South Platte.45
South of Fort Sedgwick, on the Arkansas river, stood Fort Lyon. It was situated on the Santa Fe Trail about one hundred and fifty miles west of Fort Dodge. Known first as Bent's New Fort, from the time of its building in 1853 until 1859 when it was leased to the government, it later adopted the title of Fort Wise and finally, in 1861, Fort Lyon.46 When it became necessary to relocate the fort in 1867, it was renamed New Fort Lyon. In 1890, by act of con- gress, the fort was abandoned. The site of New Fort Lyon is near the present town of Las Animas, Colorado. Although principally engaged in protecting commerce and travel on the Santa Fe Trail, the troops of Fort Lyon participated in numerous Indian campaigns, chiefly that of Sheridan into Indian Territory in 1868-'69.
Particularly fitting is the observation of a prominent traveler of the period concerning the military forts of the frontier.
"Along the main lines of travel throughout the whole western country, at distances from sixty to three hundred miles apart, the United States govern- ment are obliged to maintain a great number of these little military establish- ments. ... In many instances not a white man lives in the intervening country, and yet without them overland travel would be impossible." 47
A brief explanation of the military organization of the Middle West following the Civil War will help to an understanding of ref- erences to posts and commanders.
The United States was divided into military divisions com- manded by major generals of the army. The Middle West be- longed to the military division of the Missouri, which was organized in 1865 by the War Department to include the states of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois and the terri-
43. Ibid., p. 498.
44. Julius Sterling Morton, Illustrated History of Nebraska (In two volumes, Lincoln, Jacob North & Co., 1905, 1906), v. II, p. 168.
45. Root and Connelley, The Overland Stage, p. 342.
46. For an interesting and colorful history of Bent's Fort see George Bird Grinnell, "Bent's Old Fort and Its Builders," Kansas Historical Collections, v. XV, pp. 28-88.
47. W. A. Bell, New Tracks in North America, p. 28.
62 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
tories of Nebraska, Dakota, and Montana. Headquarters of the division was variously located at St. Louis, Chicago, Omaha and Fort Leavenworth. The division was subdivided at the time of its organization into four geographical departments of the Dakota, the Platte, the Missouri, and the Arkansas.
The third of these, the department of the Missouri, maintained permanent headquarters at Fort Leavenworth. This department was subdivided into four districts: The District of Kansas with headquarters also at Fort Leavenworth; the district of the Upper Arkansas whose headquarters was Fort Harker; the district of New Mexico, headquarters at Santa Fe; and the district of the Indian Territory, with headquarters at Fort Gibson.48 Of these districts in the department of the Missouri, the district of the Upper Arkan- sas was of the most interest to Kansans. Within its limits were Forts Dodge, Larned, Zarah, Wallace, Hays, Harker and Lyons. Down- er's Station, Monument Station and "End-of -Track/' Union Pacific, Eastern Division, were also included.49
From 1865 to 1869 the military division of the Missouri was com- manded by Generals Pope, Sherman, and Sheridan in the order named. Department commanders changed even more frequently. The department of the Missouri during this period was in charge of Generals Dodge in 1865-'66, Hancock in 1866-'67, Sheridan in 1868-'69 and Schofield in 1869. Prior to the organization of the military division of the Missouri, the state of Kansas made up three districts of the department of Kansas under the command of Gen- eral S. R. Curtis.50
In addition to the national military organization each state had its geographical departments for militia organization. Under a legislative act of February 13, 1865, Kansas was divided into four brigade districts with a brigadier general of militia in command of each district. The entire militia was then under the supervison of a major general commanding. General W. F. Cloud, of Leavenworth City, acted in the capacity of state commander from 1865-'67, when he was succeeded by General Harrison Kelley.
48. Report of the Secretary of War, 1868, 40th Cong., 2d sess., p. 39. Home Ex. Docs., v. II, No. 1, part 1.
49. Ibid., p. 40.
50. Kansas Daily Tribune (Lawrence), March 4, 1864.
Was Governor John A. Martin a Prohibitionist?
JAMES C. MALIN
adoption of the policy of prohibition of the liquor traffic by A constitutional amendment in 1880 brought little but embarass- ment to many Kansas politicians. When it became clear that pop- ular sentiment supported strongly the new departure, those who wished political preferment at the hands of the voters found that they must conform, outwardly at least, on this highly explosive matter.
John A. Martin, editor of the Atchison Champion since 1858, was opposed to prohibition and spoke out vigorously during the cam- paigns for adoption of the prohibition amendment and for the en- actment of the enforcement legislation. He had been deprived of the nomination for governor in 1878 by a peculiar combination of cir- cumstances not associated with the liquor question. At that time temperance, as distinguished from prohibition, was an important factor in politics and Martin gave it his full endorsement. During the next four years the radical position on the liquor question de- veloped within the St. John wing of the Republican party and domi- nated party councils. During the same period the Democratic party offered itself as the champion of the liquor interests as well as of the "practical" temperance people. The defeat of Governor St. John in 1882 by an antiprohibition Democrat, George W. Glick, meant the downfall of the radical faction in the Republican party, although it did not mean the overthrow of prohibition. A Republican legisla- ture was chosen which refused to resubmit the prohibition amend- ment. But Martin had one political ambition — to become governor of Kansas. Politically speaking, it was his turn in 1884, except that he was not understood to have followed the trend of opinion in the state on the subject of liquor. Could he be nominated, and if nomi- nated, could he be elected as an antiprohibitionist? An ambitious, practical politician could have adjusted himself easily to the neces- sities of the situation, but could a man of John A. Martin's convic- tions? Shortly before the meeting of the nominating conventions, however, he indorsed prohibition. Was his change sincere, and if so, what caused him to reverse his position? Was it a shift for the sake of political expediency dictated by a long-standing personal ambi-
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64 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
tion which could not be gratified otherwise under the changed con- ditions? The liquor faction chose to accept the second view, and likewise many of the radical prohibitionists believed him insincere. The latter prepared to join the Prohibition party if Martin was nominated by the Republicans.
The selection of Martin to lead the Republican party in 1884 placed upon him the responsibility of rehabilitating a demoralized party and reconciling factional conflicts which had developed as a result of the attempt of the radical St. John prohibitionists to domi- nate the party. The line of argument used during the campaign of 1884 to explain his position on the prohibitory amendment, and to reconcile differences among Republicans who were at odds on the question, emphasized the practical considerations involved and ap- pealed to reason. The single aim of Republicans should be to insure a Republican victory, and with this as the goal of the campaign he argued that the amendment had been adopted by a majority of the voters, and that it had been upheld by the court as legal in all its aspects, therefore it was the duty of all good citizens to conform to the expressed will of the majority. So far as his personal position was concerned it is best expressed in his speech at Washington, Kansas, October 24, 1884:
"I want to be fairly, explicitly understood. If I am elected governor, when in the presence of Almighty God and the sovereign people of Kansas, I raise my hand to take the oath of office, I shall not do so with falsehood on my lips and perjury in my heart. I will not equivocate. I will do my duty, under the con- stitution and laws I have sworn to see faithfully executed. I make no apology to any person under the shining stars for holding this faith. . . . Alike as a citizen and as a public officer I shall at all times maintain and uphold these ideas of private and public duty, because the whole fabric of our American system of government rests upon them." 1
As governor his first message to the state legislature January 13, 1885, restated his position invoking the authority of the expressed will of the people and asked for legislation to provide certain adjust- ments in detail of the enforcement law to make it less obnoxious and, as he hoped, more effective. Even at this time the general public was not wholly convinced of his sincerity on the liquor question, al- though there were few who doubted his personal integrity. Ex-Gov- ernor Charles Robinson, a vehement opponent of prohibition, a man who had spent most of his life in Kansas politics and who passed
1. "The Republican Party," John A. Martin, Address. Collected by D. W. Wilder. (Topeka, privately printed, 1888), pp. 50-63, at 60, 61.
MALIN: WAS GOVERNOR MARTIN A PROHIBITIONIST? 65
judgment on public men in the light of that experience, wrote to Martin cynically on January 15:
"Today's mail brings your inaugural & message, both of which I have read with deep interest & gratification. The recommendations are excellent & your navigation of the fluids is worthy of a Columbus. You have dodged both Scylla and Charybdis with consummate skill & I shall now watch the nautical maneuvers of the legislature with brother Anthony as pilot with great in- terest."2
The opponents of prohibition found little comfort, however, in the action taken by the governor and the legislature during this session. The public was not fully informed regarding the background of pro- hibition legislation enacted but Martin explained it privately to a correspondent.
"Concerning the prohibition law of 1885, to which you refer, every section of it was drawn up, and the law was presented to the Legislature, by the offi- cers and Executive Committee of the State Temperance Union, the recognized organization of the prohibitionists of the State. If it has any faults, neither the Legislature nor the Governor is responsible for them. The Legislature has never hesitated a moment in passing all laws regarded by the prohibition- ists themselves as essential to the enforcement of the prohibitive amend- ment.'*
He pointed out in this letter, as he often did in writing on the sub- ject, that prohibition was not in danger in Kansas from its enemies, only from its fanatical friends. The philosophy of moderation on which he based his own course is epitomized in another letter:
"Maryborough said that it was patience that conquered everything. He is a very stupid man who, when everything is drifting in the direction of his own ideas, turns the current by his own intemperate zeal."4
At the end of this article four letters are printed. These have been selected from Martin's confidential letterbooks because they seem to answer as fully as seems possible the question which is put by the title of this paper. In the light of the evidence the reader may frame his answer to his own satisfaction. The first of these letters was written to Sol Miller and was occasioned by two edi- torials which appeared in Miller's weekly newspaper, The Kansas Chief for November 19 and December 3, 1885. Under the title of "Done Monkeying" Miller declared that he intended to remain
2. Correspondence of Kansas Governors, Martin (personal). Hereafter cited as C. K. G Martin (personal).
3. Martin to Judge James A. Ray, Manhattan, Kansas, July 13, 1886. C K G Martin (Letterpress books, personal), vol. VII, p. 294.
4. Martin to J. R. Detwiler, Erie, Kansas, December 4, 1885, ibid., vol. V, pp. 61-65,
5-1266
66 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
straight Republican henceforth regardless of candidates except in cases where a candidate was notoriously dishonest. He analyzed the last three campaigns and concluded that the Democratic party was not sincere, not even in prohibition. Whenever prohibition itself was an issue he would vote against it, but where candidates were to be voted on he would vote Republican. If Kansas was to have pro- hibition, however, he preferred to have it "under Republican rule," rather than to use it to break up the Republican party. After awaiting reactions to the first editorial he wrote the second "The Returns All In" in which he renewed his pledge.
"We are honestly opposed to political prohibition, and were willing to go half way to meet members of any other party in united opposition to it. But we were not willing to go all the way over. This was the only thing that would satisfy the Democratic party."
While Martin was influenced by several factors in the situation the general argument which pervaded the letter to Miller might be stated as the necessity for eliminating the evil influence of liquor from politics. More particularly this argument centered around two points. First, he had come to the conclusion that the basic aim of the liquor interests was complete freedom from regulation, and that they would join any faction or party which held out a hope of bringing about a relaxation of control. As soon as this was realized they would desert freely their allies and join any other party who would assist in carrying a step further the removal of liquor re- strictions. This process would stop only when they had gained their goal. Martin came to see clearly that it was not prohibition that liquor was fighting, it was regulation of any kind. When the issue was stated thus, his course became clear. Second, the liquor interests were using the prohibition question to break the ranks of the Republican party. To the full-fledged Republican of Martin's type such an act was little less serious than disloyalty to the nation.
The second of the letters in the series was written for the pur- pose of setting forth the political situation in the state with relation to the prohibition issue. His conclusion emphasized the contention that the liquor interests were definitely allied with the Democratic party, that they were in the minority, and that therefore the Re- publican party had nothing to gain by a backward step on the pro- hibition question.
The third letter was written to Judge David Martin of Atchison, November 10, 1886. By this time Governor Martin had dropped
MALIN: WAS GOVERNOR MARTIN A PROHIBITIONIST? 67
all arguments in justification of prohibition. He was now speaking with all the ardor of a confirmed prohibitionist in expressing the one ambition for his term of office — the real enforcement of prohi- bition. The purpose of the letter was to secure the assistance of the judge in framing the proposed "metropolitan police law" which would enable the governor to enforce fully the liquor laws in cities of the first and second classes, when the local authorities did not perform their duties. The bill of Senator R. N. Allen, of Chanute, was the foundation of the proposed system, and Judge Martin formulated such changes as he considered necessary to make it effective. These changes were incorporated into the bill which was introduced by Allen January 12, 1887. It had a stormy legislative history but finally a substitute was accepted and signed by Gover- nor Martin March 1, to become effective the following day.
The fourth of the letters was written in answer to an appeal for assistance in the prohibition campaign then in progress in Texas. It is similar in many respects to letters written to leaders in other states where prohibition was a pending issue. In a sense it com- pletes the cycle in Governor Martin's expressions on the subject. When Kansas was voting on prohibition in 1880 he was writing in the interest of the opposition. In 1887 he was defending prohibition in Kansas and throwing his influence into the balance in support of it in several other states.
LETTER No. I. Personal. DECEMBER 4, 1885.
MY DEAR MILLER — I have read your article of two weeks ago, and that published in the Chief this week, with very great pleasure. I have never doubted, however, that sooner or later you would reach the conclusions you now have. I never doubted because I knew that, like myself, you were a Republican born and bred, and could not possibly become a Democrat.
I got my fill of the antiprohibition-Democrat business in the spring of 1883. You probably remember that the Republicans carried Atchison in the spring of 1881, electing Sam King as mayor, and a Republican council. The previous administration had been extrava- gant and reckless, and went out of office leaving a floating debt of $16,000, and nothing to show for the large expenditures made. King was an antiprohibition Republican. He took charge of the city gov- ernment just before the prohibition law went into effect. For two
68 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
years he protected the saloon keepers ; had ordinances passed favor- ing them ; and used all of the power of the city government to pre- vent prosecutions against them. He, however, demanded of them two things: First, that they should close these places on Sunday; and second, that they should not sell liquor to habitual drunkards or minors. And these rules he enforced.
From a business point of view, he made an unusually good mayor. He had, before the end of six months, paid off the floating debt ; he made many improvements; and at the close of his term he went out leaving $40,000 in the treasury. The Republicans renominated him, by acclamation, and nearly every business man in the city supported him.
The previous fall Mayor King and hundreds of other Republicans in Atchison supported Glick. In the spring of 1883, when the Re- publicans nominated King, a confessed good officer, an antiprohibi- tionist who had protected the saloons for nearly two years, the Democrats put a candidate in the field against him, and every saloon keeper in the city, with possibly three exceptions, voted for and bit- terly opposed King. Why? Simply because he had insisted that they should close on Sunday, and should not sell to minors and hab- itual drunkards.
This election satisfied me concerning three things: First, that the saloon keepers as a rule, were a lot of shameless ingrates, who were not only opposed to prohibition but to any and all restraints on their dirty business; second, that they were wedded to the Democratic party ; and third, that the Democratic party was, in the prohibition business as in everything else, selfish and insincere.
I served notice on the saloons, immediately after that election, that I was against them from that time on. I made up my mind, then, that they were, no matter what we might say or do, against the Republican party, and that Republicans whether they wished to or not would be compelled to fight them. Everything I have seen since that time has only confirmed and strengthened my convictions.
I am against the saloons, first, because they are naturally and in- evitably against the Republican party; and second, because no decent man can afford to defend or endorse the saloon business. In Kansas we have got to down the saloons, or they will down the Re- publican party. A saloon keeper with his white apron on behind his bar is a powerful political factor; when he is sent to jail for thirty days for selling whisky, he has no more political influence than a horse thief.
MALIN: WAS GOVERNOR MARTIN A PROHIBITIONIST? 69
I am not, I think you know, a "crank" on any subject. Certainly I am not on prohibition. But I am, as you are, a born Republican, and I am against everything that assails the Republican party whether it be the prohibition "cranks" of the St. John variety at one extreme of the line, or the whisky "cranks" at the other extreme.
I didn't mean, when I started, to write so long a letter. I only wanted to express my gratification that you have written the articles you have, and to congratulate you on the position you have taken.
Yours very truly, Hon. Sol Miller, Troy, Kan. JNO. A. MARTIN."
LETTER No. II.
Personal. AUGUST 14, 1885.
J, B. Lawrence, Esq.:
MY DEAR SIR — I write to express my sincere appreciation of the kindly and generous articles published in the Journal, concerning my official action and utterances! I only hope that I may, in all that I do, deserve the good words you have said concerning me.
My term of office has, thus far, had crowded into it an unusual number of difficult and delicate questions. The legislature had hardly adjourned before the Missouri Pacific "strike" occurred, and this was followed by the pleuropneumonia trouble, the Texas cattle difficulty, the Indian scare, and a dozen or more serious local compli- cations, all presenting phases of danger or annoyance. So I have kept unusually busy and it is a source of gratification to be assured that I have made few mistakes.
The position of the governor, in this state, is now one of extreme delicacy and difficulty. There is danger, in the prohibition question, on every side, as I suppose you know: First, prohibition is the con- stitutional and statute law of the state. Whether right or not, an ex- ecutive officer must recognize the law. Second, more than one-half of the Republican voters of the state are advocates of, and firm be- lievers in prohibition, and any backward step, by the party organi- zation, on this question, would alienate their sympathy and support. Probably one-fourth of the Republican voters care little whether prohibition is or is not enforced, while the remaining one-fourth is opposed to prohibition. Third, the fanatical prohibitionists — the St. John faction, who want a third party organization, and who are not Republicans — are actively working to alienate more Republicans
5. Ibid., vol. V, pp. 61-67.
70 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
who believe in prohibition from their allegiance to their party ; while the fanatical antiprohibitionists are, on the other hand, as actively at work endeavoring to alienate those Republicans who do not believe in prohibition. Fourth, the Republican party of Kansas, has lost, permanently, the support of the liquor interests. These interests are identified with the Democratic party, and cannot be brought back.
I believe this is a fair statement of the situation in Kansas, and you will easily understand how difficult it is, with all these con- flicting ideas and sentiments, to preserve harmony in the party ranks, and keep the organization united. To take any backward step would alienate the support of fully one-half of the Republican voters, and it would not bring back those who, on account of pro- hibition, have already left the party.
On the other hand, it is equally important to avoid radical or extreme measures, which might eliminate those Republicans who are indifferent on the question of prohibition.
The "cranks" at each extreme of the line are equally annoying and unreasonable. The prohibition "crank" is always insisting that something unusual and absurd shall be done, while the anti- prohibitionist "crank" is always demanding that the party shall do something which would be equally unwise and unpolitic.
It may fairly be said that the "fool friends" of prohibition are its most dangerous enemies, while the "fool enemies" of prohibition are its most efficient helpers. The "fool friends" of the cause nomi- nated St. John for a third term and adopted a platform which alien- ated the support of the moderate people, thus incurring a Demo- cratic victory; the "fool enemies" of prohibition whip ministers, deny the rights of free speech, interrupt the orderly proceedings of public meetings, and insist that the saloon business is as honorable and reputable as any other business, thus intensifying and pro- moting the public sentiment against the liquor traffic.
Pardon this long letter. But I want to give the Journal my im- pression of the condition of affairs in this state, so that you may understand the situation. Of course, this letter is not for publica- tion. It is personal and private.
Please accept for yourself and your associates on the Journal my grateful thanks for the constant kindness you have shown me.
Yours truly, JNO. A. .MARTIN.6
6. Ibid., vol III, pp. 45-47.
MALIN: WAS GOVERNOR MARTIN A PROHIBITIONIST? 71
LETTER No. III.
Personal NOVEMBER 10, 1886.
MY DEAR JUDGE — Among the many letters of congratulations I have received since the election, none were more highly esteemed and more gratifying to me than was yours. Public office is attended with many embarrassments and annoyances, but it has its com- pensations, and not the least among these are assurances of confi- dence and regard expressed by citizens of such high character and great judgment as yourself.
The late canvass was a very arduous and embarrassing one. All the forces of the opposition were massed against me and in every section of the state there was a definite understanding that every one was to be traded off for votes for Moonlight. Under such cir- cumstances, the majority I received was in the highest degree satis- factory.
I have one ambition which I wish to realize during my term of office, and that is that on the expiration I may be able to surrender the office to my successor, and say to him that there is not an open saloon within the limits of the state of Kansas. You probably fully understand, however, that while the constitution of the state says that the governor shall see that the laws are faithfully executed, the laws at present upon the statute book really confer upon him very little authority to enforce its directions. More than ten years ago Governor Osborne called the attention of the legislature to the embarrassing fact, in a special message, but nothing was done at that time to correct this defect, nor has anything been done since. Under our laws, their enforcement largely rests with the local offi- cers of the several counties and cities, and, although the constitu- tion distinctly imposes upon the governor the duty of seeing that the laws are enforced, our lawmakers have failed to provide the ma- chinery by which this duty may be discharged.
I fully realize that it is dangerous to confer upon any executive officer arbitrary powers which might, if in the hands of a tyrannical or bad man, be abused. But surely some provision should be made by law for giving the governor .power to see that the local officers are not the tools and creatures of unlawful combinations, or are not the willing abettors of lawbreakers. It has been suggested that in our cities a metropolitan police should be established. There are some objections to any system of this character. It is, however,
72 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
notorious that the city governments, in many of the cities of the first and second classes, are in entire sympathy with the liquor in- terests, and really encourage and assist them in avoiding the pen- alties of the law. This is true, also, of some of the county officers of several of the counties of the state. Now can you suggest a remedy for this, or could you find time to draw up a law that would confer upon the governor sufficient authority to carry out what the constitution enjoins upon him, avoiding, at the same time, the con- ferring of extraordinary or arbitrary powers? I am sure you will realize how difficult and embarrassing the situation is, especially to the incumbent of this office. I am anxious to perform the duties which the constitution imposes upon me, and yet I lack all the essential power to see that the laws are faithfully executed. Surely something ought to be done by the lawmakers to supply this defect in our laws. But I am not lawyer enough to suggest the proper remedy. If you can do so, I will be under many obligations, and I feel confident that your experience and knowledge of the laws, and of their existing defects, may enable you to suggest the proper remedies.
Accept my sincere thanks for your kind congratulations and the assurance that I cordially appreciate your good wishes.
Very sincerely yours, JOHN A. MARTIN.T To Judge David Martin, Atchison, Kansas.
LETTER No. IV.
JUNE 15. 1887. Judge J. Mellhany, Baird, Texas.
MY DEAR SIR — I acknowledge the receipt of your letter of June 13th. If the opponents of temperance reform in Texas deny the authenticity of a printed message to the legislature, it seems to me that it would be useless to endeavor to convince them of the au- thenticity of a written letter. I gave, in my last message to the legislature of Kansas, my candid and honest opinions concerning the results of the prohibition law in this state. I was not, originally, in favor of the prohibition amendment. In fact, I voted against it when it was submitted to the people for approval or rejection. But a personal and official observation of the effects of prohibition, dur- ing the past six years, has thoroughly convinced me that, in so far
7. Ibid., vol. VIII, pp. 388-390.
MALIN: WAS GOVERNOR MARTIN A PROHIBITIONIST? 73
as Kansas is concerned, our prohibition law has abolished fully nine-tenths of all the drinking and drunkenness in the state; has added very largely to the general prosperity and happiness of the people; has abolished the always pernicious influence of the saloon in politics; and has made the people of Kansas the soberest people in this country.
I do not claim, and never have claimed, that our prohibition laws have entirely abolished drinking and drunkenness. To expect that a vice, existing for centuries under the protection of the law, can be wholly abolished in a few brief years, would be absurd. But we have wholly obliterated the saloon in Kansas, and with it have abolished unnumbered evils that are inseparable from the saloon. The open doors of the saloon no longer tempt the youth of our state to dissipation, and to the forming, through social influences, of habits which, in the end, make drunkards of them. We have steadily and thoroughly reduced, almost to a minimum, the evils of the drinking habit. And I feel confident that the next generation in Kansas, if the present laws are sustained and enforced, will be a soberer and purer generation than the present.
If this expression of my views will be of any interest and service to the cause of temperance in Texas, you are at liberty to use it as you please. Yours very respectfully,
JNO. A. MARTIN.8 8. Ibid., vol. X, pp. 154-155.
Notes on Historical Literature of the Range Cattle Industry
JAMES C. MALIN
THE traveler who views the wheat fields of western Kansas in 1931 can see little sign that this region, within the span of a gen- eration, was once dominated as completely by cattle as it now is by wheat. The plains region is a large country and its industries seem to partake naturally of the magnitude of their geographical setting.
The contemporary Kansan, surfeited with wheat, may look back to the day of the cattlemen with a sense of escape from an unpleas- ant situation into a romantic past. But the economic system of that day suffered also from depressions and surpluses accompanied by disastrous failures, and the social system was agitated by its liquor question and crime wave— even its equivalent of the Wickersham commission. While these economic and social accidents may have left some scars, time has a way of easing painful memories.
For the most part the cattlemen did not acquire a talent for writ- ing that was in any way comparable with their skill in handling steers. The industry during the open range era was never stabilized. The period was less than twenty-five years in duration. Under the circumstances it was impossible to accumulate a relatively large store of standardized information. In consequence there are few contemporary accounts that are comprehensive in scope, or that possess a high quality of content or form. One classic work was pro- duced, however, within the Kansas region — Joseph G. McCoy, His- toric Sketches of the Cattle Trade of the West and the Southwest (Kansas City, Mo., 1874) . A second contemporary work of impor- tance was printed as a United States government publication in 1885 — Joseph G. Nimmo, The Range and Ranch Cattle Traffic. These books are now long out of print and are difficult to obtain, outside of large libraries. Toward the close of the range period the appeal of the subject to eastern readers created a substantial demand for magazine articles dealing with the various phases of the cattle busi- ness. In this class of literature Kansas readers will be interested particularly in C. M. Harger's "Cattle Trails of the Prairies," in Scribner's magazine (June, 1892) .
It is only in recent years, and more particularly since the World War, that historians have undertaken systematic collection of his-
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MALIN: NOTES ON THE RANGE CATTLE INDUSTRY 75
torical materials in this field, and on this foundation, promoted his- torical research and writing. In reviewing a few selected titles from the product of such investigations it is in keeping with the subject matter to begin at the south and work north as the cattle did.
In the brush country of south Texas the first scene is laid and the story is told by J. Frank Dobie, of the University of Texas, in A Vaquero of the Brush Country (Dallas, Texas, The Southwest Press, 1929). The book is based on the recollections of a prominent cattleman, but is supplemented by substantial research and is written in a masterly style. Chronologically this book is among the more recent publications in the field, but historically it properly ante- dates all the others and is the first to deal with that region from which most of the cattle drives originated. It is true to the local color, even to the cover, which is in simulation of a section cut out of the back of a huge rattlesnake skin.
Contrasting with the brush country of south Texas and the period of beginnings, the next book deals with the high-plains country of the Texas Panhandle where ranching was developed near the end of the open-range period. This story is related by J. E. Haley in The XIT Ranch of Texas (Chicago, Trustees Capitol Reservation Lands, 1929). The story of this enterprise illustrates effectively how the range herds were built up into high-grade Hereford and Angus cattle, superior to much of the stock produced on the farms of the corn belt during the eighteen nineties. This angle of the cattle business recalls also one of the major reasons why the latter regions came to depend on the range for feeders instead of producing them as formerly on middle western farms.
A book which gives an overview of most of the industry is that of E. E. Dale, The Range Cattle Industry (Norman, Oklahoma, Uni- versity of Oklahoma Press, 1930). Professor Dale has spent many years studying cattle, especially in the Oklahoma area. The book is therefore a mature piece of work. It epitomizes the results of his own research, and reflects the contributions made by special studies of others. While there is little in it that is essentially new, neverthe- less it possesses distinction in the concise but comprehensive quality of the presentation.
The northwest high plains region, which Dale omits, is treated in a remarkably able volume by E. S. Osgood, The Day of the Cattleman, a Study of the Northern Range, 1845-1890 (Minne- apolis, The University of Minnesota Press, 1929). In this work
76 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the manuscript records of the cattlemen's associations are used ex- tensively and, it might properly be said, for the first time in any extended study of the Northwest.
Closely related to the studies in the economic history of the in- dustry come two recent and able works on that all but legendary person, the Cowboy. P. A. Rollins in a book, The Cowboy (New York, Scribner's, 1922), stripped him of most of the clap-trap of the wild-west story and movie, describing in more sober terms the men who handled range cattle. More recently the subject has been dealt with from a somewhat different angle in an uneven but brilliant volume by E. Douglas Branch called The Cowboy and His In- terpreters (New York, Appleton, 1926).
Possibly the reader has already discerned a gap in the record of the cattle industry as it would be treated by the books mentioned. The omission is not intentional, but one of necessity. No inclusive story of cattle in the Kansas region proper has yet been written. Books of varied quality are available which deal with certain phases of Kansas live-stock history, but for the most part the basic re- search must yet be done. Such work on the subject as is known to be under way has made only what might be called substantial be- ginnings.
Kansas History as Published in the State Press
Kansas newspapers publish many historical articles. In this and succeeding issues we wish to mention editors and authors who are helping to preserve the record of the past. Space does not permit us to reprint the articles, but complete files of Kansas newspapers are maintained by the Society, where they may always be consulted. This list is necessarily very incomplete; the editor will welcome notices and copies of articles so that recognition may be given.
The 104-page seventieth anniversary edition of the Marshall County News, Marysville, appearing February 27, was an out- standing weekly Kansas newspaper achievement. The edition was filled with historical news of the county and city.
"Stories of a Kansan" (46 chapters) , by Bernard James Sheridan, was published in The Western Spirit, Paola, during 1930 and 1931.
The Chapman Advertiser conducted a series of pioneer articles, commencing February 5, on eastern Dickinson county.
"A History of Burlingame" was the title of a series of articles by Frank M. Stahl which started in The Enterprise-Chronicle, Bur- lingame, March 26.
The May 1 edition of The Yates Center News announced that it was celebrating its fifty-fourth anniversary and printed a brief history of the city.
"Women in Butler County History" was the theme of the 36-page woman's pictorial edition published by The El Dorado Times, April 29.
The issues of April 30 and May 7 of The Garden City News con- tained many historical articles on the Finnup pioneer day celebra- tion held in Garden City, May 8. The Garden City Daily Tele- gram also published a special edition.
Residents of Sherman county who have lived in the county forty years or more were listed in the May 6 edition of The Goodland News-Republic, a dedicatory issue for the corner-stone laying of the new courthouse.
An "Early History of Sedgwick," by Francis Doty, was published in the May 14 issue of The Sedgwick Pantagraph.
The Democratic Messenger, Eureka, published a 24-page his- torical and industrial edition, July 16.
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78 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Horton of the "gay nineties" was recalled in a 12-page edition of The Horton Headlight-Commercial appearing July 27.
The Hays Daily News of June 20 published a 14-page special announcing the official dedication of the Fort Hays Frontier Park, June 22 and 23.
Pony express riders brought five letters to Marysville August 17 and delivered them at the speakers' stand at the dedication of the Pony Express marker. Both The Advocate-Demo cat and the Mar- shall County News carried historical matter pertaining to this famous western service and the latter newspaper published a lengthy article by John G. Ellenbecker.
The "Final Indian Scare in 1885" in the counties of Kingman and Barber, was the title of an article by Ed M. Moore in the weekly edition of The Hutchinson News, August 7. Mr. Moore also conducts a "History of Reno County" as a regular feature in the daily News.
The Marion Review of September 15 and The Marion Record of September 17, issued special pioneer editions announcing the annual Marion County Old Settlers' picnic which was held Friday, Sep- tember 18.
The "History of Kingman," by Mary Alice Livingston, was a feature of the September 18 issue of The Kingman Leader-Courier.
The Fiftieth Anniversary of The Clifton News was observed with a 16-page historical edition, September 17. It was compiled by Edna L. Rossman, the editor.
A 43-page pamphlet, The Story of Old Ft. Hays by Eye Wit- nesses, including the widow of Buffalo Bill, Mrs. Geo. A. Custer, Mrs. Josephine Middlekauff, C. J. Bascom, and others, was published under the auspices of the Fort Hays Frontier Park Committee. "Some Ancient History," by Mrs. Frank C. Montgomery, was a part of this collection.
Reminiscences of Geo. Throckmorton reprinted from the Daily Republican, Burlington, appeared as a pamphlet early in 1931.
Famous Indian battles of the West have been pictured through the pen of Paul I. Wellman, magazine editor of The Wichita Eagle during the last several years.
A personal history of the development period of northwestern Kansas entitled Prairies and Pioneers, by J. S. Bird, was pub- lished by McWhirter-Ammons Press, Hays. This attractive fifty- six page pamphlet is in its second edition.
KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS 79
A history of the Donner Party, one of the caravans which trav- ersed Marshall county on the Oregon Trail in 1846, was written by Wm. E. Smith, of Wamego, for The Advocate-Democrat, Marys- ville, in the June 11, 18 and 25 issues.
The Major Robert H. Chilton monument in Chilton Park, Dodge City, was unveiled May 28. The Dodge City Daily Globe and The Dodge City Journal carried historical articles in connection with the dedication.
PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT 8. P. WALKER, STATE PRINTER
TOPEKA 1931
D
14-1266
THE
Kansas Historical Quarterly
Volume 1 Number 2
February, 1932
PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT
B. P. WALKER, STATE PRINTER
TOPEKA 1932
14-2345
Contributors
ESTHER CLARK HILL is known to all Kansans as a writer and poet, author of The Call of Kansas and other poems. She is now a member of the staff of the Kansas Historical Society.
NYLE H. MILLER, who has charge of the newspaper section of the Kansas State Historical Society, is a graduate of the College of Wil- liam and Mary.
MARVIN H. GARFIELD is instructor of history in Roosevelt Inter- mediate School, Wichita, Kansas.
GEORGE A. ROOT, curator of archives, Kansas State Historical Society, has been an employee of the Society since March, 1891. His father, Frank A. Root, was an express messenger on the Holladay Overland Stage Line, a pioneer Kansas editor, and co-author of The Overland Stage to California.
JAMES C. MALIN, associate editor of the Kansas Historical Quarterly, is associate professor of History at the University of Kansas. He is author of United States After the World War, and other books.
KIRKE MECHEM is editor of the Kansas Historical Quarterly and secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society.
HELEN M. MCFARLAND is librarian of the Kansas State Historical Society.
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The Pratt Collection
ESTHER CLARK HILL
/TVEE Pratt collection of manuscripts and documents takes its A name from that of John G. Pratt, a young missionary-printer who came to the old Shawnee Baptist Mission from Reading, Mass., in 1837, to take the place of Jotham Meeker, who was going farther south in the Indian Territory to found the Ottawa Baptist Mission on the Marais des Cygnes (Osage) river.* These two young men operated the first printing press in Kansas, and there is much men- tion (and some samples) of their workmanship among the Pratt papers.
The collection, which had lain for years in the attic garret of the old Delaware Mission house (since torn down), was given to the Kansas State Historical Society in 1907 by Rosamond Pratt Burt, a daughter of John G. Pratt. The original mission building was of walnut logs, with hewed edges, and stood, in 1837 (the year of its founding by Ira D. Blanchard and his wife, Mary Walton Blan- chard, Baptist missionaries), on the present site of Edwardsville, Wyandotte county, Kansas, at the Grinter crossing of the Kaw river, on the old military road between Fort Leavenworth and Fort Scott. The flood of 1844 broke up the school, and in 1848 John G. Pratt removed the log building to higher ground, putting it up again in its first form, and for fifty years it served as the middle part of the Pratt homestead.
It was from this old mission-homestead that the Pratt collection was removed by George A. Root, a member of the staff of the Kan- sas State Historical Society. The Society had had some correspond- ence with Mrs. Burt on the subject. Mr. Root's diary in 1907 records:
"Nov. 5. Called on Mrs. Rosamond Burt, daughter of Rev. John G. Pratt, the Delaware missionary. She gave me several papers to add to the Pratt collection, one being Rev. Pratt's last sermon, and another a photo of him. Mrs. Burt asked me to go down to the old mission at Piper, Wyandotte county, and tell Mrs. Pratt [her sister-in-law, widow of E. H. Pratt, who was living in the old Pratt mission-home] that she was anxious that her father's old pa- pers should be added to the Historical Society collection. . . .
* See the next article, Some Background of Early Baptist Missions in Kansas, in this issue.
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84 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Reached the Pratt home about 7:30; found Mrs. Pratt absent, but a daughter of one of the Journeycakes in charge. She was also looking after the four Pratt children. She got me a supper, saying that I was expected. Mrs. Pratt got back about 9:30, and we had a pleasant chat for an hour or more.
"Nov. 6. Raw and chilly. Good frost. Put in entire day ran- sacking the attic, third floor, hunting up boxes, papers and manu- scripts. Packed a number of curios, a communion set (pewter) globes for studying geography in school room, a cuspidor used by Rev. Pratt and his Indian callers, etc. . . .
"Nov. 7. Finished packing the last of the things I had boxes for this morning. ... In the afternoon I got a relative of Mrs. Pratt to drive to the depot, where we went with the load of Indian things I brought back with me. There was an Indian-made bookcase, cherry lumber and glass front, which was in the collection. Ran out of nails and had to take the last of the collection to the depot loose, where the station agent, a young girl, kindly offered to pro- cure string and wire and bind them for shipment."
There are, it is estimated, 10,000 papers in all; handwritten and printed, with not a typed line in the lot. There are letters, land grants, allotments, deeds, contracts, government papers and a va- riety of miscellany, covering a period of more than sixty years, the bulk of them lying between 1837 and 1870. John G. Pratt was not only a missionary-printer, but teacher, preacher, United States In- dian agent, and physician extraordinary to the Indians, in the course of his western life.
Taking it as a whole, the collection falls logically into the fol- lowing divisions of Pratt's varied activities:
From 1837 to 1844 he was missionary-printer at the Shawnee Baptist Mission in Johnson county.
From 1844 to 1848 he was in charge of the Stockbridge Mis- sion, near Fort Leavenworth. (This was abandoned in the lat- ter year.)
From 1848 to 1864 he was in charge of the Delaware Baptist Mission in Wyandotte county (from which the collection was taken) .
From 1864 to 1868 he was United States Indian agent at the old Delaware agency, with headquarters at Leavenworth. He was the last of the Delaware agents, as the tribe removed to the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in 1868.
HILL: THE PRATT COLLECTION 85
Other Indian agents and individuals are represented to a lesset extent in the collection, which is broken and in many instances il- legible from stains and the wear and tear of the manuscript. The government papers are for the most part intact, and the series fairly in order.
The letters for the first few years are altogether personal; even those from officers of the missionary board in Boston, under whose auspices the Pratts had taken the Indian post, were often pleasantly chatty of mutual acquaintances and interests. What, after all, were these two adventurous young missionaries but babes in the dark woods along the shores of the sullen Missouri river, alone save for other missionary company hardly older than themselves?
The families of both John G. Pratt and Olivia Pratt are well rep- resented in this correspondence. The letters are extremely religious in tone, and those of friends and acquaintances not the less so. Even the younger children of the Evans family caught the solemnity of the elders, and the letters that passed between the young Pratts before their marriage are not only models of propriety, but deeply serious in contemplating their coming separation from home and kindred, and the spiritual importance of the western undertaking. Their very youth made the step the more momentous, for all their high courage. And their inexperience in the wild new country and the perils that may befall them there is never for an instant out of mind with those in the east, who had sent them forth with blessings and prayers and not a few tears.
The reports of the missionary-printer from the beginning of his long correspondence with the secretary of the missionary society in Boston, Dr. L. Bolles, are almost painfully detailed as to the ex- penditures of the slender funds placed in his hands, and his recital of the hardships and privations of the Indian wilderness. The last penny is faithfully accounted for; the calculations of how much more will be actually needed for bare comforts are stated with an apologetic hesitation.
Practically all the letters of those first years, both from the board and the families and friends, as well as the western Pratts them- selves, are written on the old-fashioned, unruled foolscap, once white but now yellowed with age and much handling. There are one or two daintily penned missives on a faded pink paper, from the young ladies of the female seminary which Olivia Pratt had so lately left, but even their cheerful color does not relieve the awful solemnity of their religious tone.
86 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
There being no envelopes used in this country until about 1845, the letters are addressed in the middle of the back, or fourth, page. In many instances they were sent by persons traveling west, or tucked in the "missionary barrels" and boxes that were sent from the missionary rooms in Boston to the several stations under their supervision in the Indian Territory of that day. Lists of the ar- ticles sent always accompanied the container, and were usually a part of the letters. Homely and useful items, all of them — clothing for the children, which were beginning to arrive in the missionary families, as well as for their elders; bedding and household necessi- ties of the plainest character.
With the removal of the Pratts from the Shawnee Mission to that of the Stockbridge Indians (still under authority from the Boston board) the letters are infrequent from the families and friends, but increase in volume from the mission board as the scope of the work in the west widens. The bookkeeping is somewhat involved and irregular, as the business accounts are almost invariably in- cluded with letters, and often on the same page with personal mat- ter. But John G. Pratt remains faithful to detail and conscientious in the smallest expenditure, to the very end of his dealings with his Boston superiors.
In the beginning the salary for the double office of printer and missionary had been $300 annually ; on Pratt's taking charge of the Stockbridge Mission, in 1844, this was increased to $400, and by 1859, according to the letters, he was receiving $500 a year.
From 1844 to 1848 there is an appreciable increase in the ac- countancy contained in the letters, both to and from the board. At times the soul of the conscientious young missionary was sorely tried by the demands made upon him from headquarters. There seems to have been one kind of accounting done there and another at the mission. More than once he writhes, in his letters, at what he deems injustice done him by those to whom he is humanly ac- countable. Once, indeed, he and Mrs. Pratt gave up the Shawnee Mission and went back to Massachusetts. But that was for barely a year, and in 1841 they had returned to their first charge.
After the abandonment of the Stockbridge Mission, and the re- opening of the Delaware Mission, the letters of various Indian agents begin to increase in this collection. Also those of a certain shrewd commission merchant in St. Louis, R. H. Stone, whose busi- ness correspondence is mixed with much dry humor and a bit of Baptist piety. His bills of lading, however, of which there are many
HILL: THE PRATT COLLECTION 87
as the letters drop into the 1850's, are scrupulously drawn up, and his accounting with his missionary customers is rigidly correct, in figure and in detail.
It is not until 1864 that John G. Pratt was made United States Indian agent for the Delawares and took up his office in Leaven- worth. In the following four years the government papers of the collection swell in volume, running into the thousands, of printed form and more or less filled in. These usually follow a series, and considering the length of time the papers have lain in the old walnut log building's attic, it is remarkable that they have retained as much of their physical integrity as they have ; and there are few missing numbers in any given series. Treaties, land allotments, reports of Agent John G. Pratt to the government, letters to and from poli- ticians in Washington and elsewhere — these form the mass of the papers of his four-year term. That his relations with his charges were almost invariably cordial is richly in evidence all through the collection, both in letters — some from the Indians themselves — and in contracts and treaties made with them.
With his entrance into government service Pratt seems to have left behind him the pressing cares of the missionary and the fac- tional differences that grew up with the new territory. The last years of the letters are devoted to government business: with offi- cials and commissioners of the Indian Department in Washington, superintendents in St. Louis, St. Joseph, Atchison and elsewhere, and with other agents at different stations. There is not, in the official correspondence, a very clear distinction between agents and subagents, and the seat of the superintendency shifts often. In the latter years, too, there was some desultory communication with army men; sometimes Indian guides were wanted; in one instance the Pratts, for all their kindly character, needed the protection of the army from an unfriendly Stockbridge Indian, one Konk-a-pot, whose viciousness aroused the commandant at Fort Leavenworth to a most spirited letter to the Pratts.
After the retirement of John G. Pratt from his duties to the gov- ernment, in 1868, the letters dwindle down to personal and real- estate matters until the time of his death in 1900. The letters of the last of the century are negligible in quantity and in historical value.
The miscellanies of the collection include some irregular church records of the Delaware and Stockbridge church, beginning in 1841 and ending abruptly in 1848, about the time of Ira D. Blanchard's abrupt dismissal from the church and the withdrawal of his ordina- tion.
88 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
There are also many fragments to which there are no supporting papers that might add a valuable chapter to the history of this section of those days. Painfully scrawled Indian letters; others purporting to come from the Indians but written in the intelligible and by the intelligent hand of the white man — usually some Indian agent. Many of these leave a speculative interest with the reader as to how much of the first American's demands on the government and the Great White Father (as he is addressed) originated with themselves, and how often they were prompted by the cupidity of the white men.
Two letters, in a class by themselves, are in the year 1855, from a Mrs. C. P. Chapman; one addressed to Commissioner George W. Manypenny, of Washington, and the other to the local Delaware agent, B. F. Robinson. They outline a most ingenuous plan for an Indian school along communistic lines, which is rather startling at that date in the United States and in that particular section. The fact that the proposed school was to be nonsectarian is indicated in so many words, and the inference left that it was to be more cul- tural than religious, with only women in charge of the boys and girls proposed to be taken, and a single man-of-all-work.
Some Background of Early Baptist Missions
in Kansas
Based on Letters in the Pratt Collection
of Manuscripts and Documents
ESTHER CLARK HILL
A PACKAGE of letters, some of them nearly a century old, that •**• have lain in the vault of the Kansas Historical Society for al- most twenty-five years, are an integral part of the foundation of the Baptist church in Kansas, if not its very corner stone. These letters belong to what is known as the Pratt collection, and those of the first decade (1837-1847) are mostly from the families and friends of the two young missionaries, John Gill Pratt and his wife, Olivia Evans Pratt.1 All are of a deeply religious nature, but there is in the letters of Amos Evans, father of Mrs. Pratt, and Elizabeth Pratt, mother of John Gill Pratt, a keen note of parental solicitude that in places rises to real anguish in their contemplation of the perils and privations of the far-distant new country which seemed to have swallowed up their children.
At the time these letters were written the Indian missions were still in the pioneer stage in the United States. They had only a bare foothold in the Indian country to which the eastern tribes were being removed under the authority of the act of May 26, 1830. This location, selected by Isaac McCoy and two other commis- sioners for such tribes, lay west of Missouri and Arkansas, and be- tween the Platte and Red rivers. Of emigrant tribes, the Shawnees had been the first to come, settling south of the Kaw river, just over the western Missouri boundary, directly after the treaty with the Kanzas and Osages in 1825. The Delawares followed them, locating in the fork of the Kaw and Missouri rivers some five years later; and the Sac and Fox tribe, about the same time, took up land
1. John Gill Pratt was born September 9, 1814, at Hingham, Mass., and after a period in Wakefield Academy, Reading, he graduated from Andover Seminary 1836, completing the entire course, including the theological. On March 29, 1837, he married Olivia Evans, of South Reading, and they almost immediately started for the Indian Territory, where Pratt was to succeed Jotham Meeker as missionary -printer at Shawanoe Baptist Mission. In 1844 he left that point to take charge of the Stockbridge Baptist Mission, which was abandoned in 1848, Pratt going directly to the Delaware Baptist Mission. He was made United States Indian agent to the Delawares in 1864, serving until 1868, when the tribe removed into the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Mrs. Pratt was closely associated with all his missionary work, and after his death, April 23, 1900, she survived him only two years.
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90 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
north of the Delawares. The Kickapoos came in 1832 and held their ground between the Delawares and the Sac and Fox. And the Pottawatomies, coming in 1837, were the new settlers in what is now Miami and Linn counties (removing in 1846 to the lands northwest that have shrunken to their present holdings in Jackson county). This was the distribution of the more important tribes, up to about 1840, in what is now northeastern Kansas.
It was in 1817 that Isaac McCoy, at his own request, had been appointed the first Baptist missionary to the Indians.2 His first charge was among the Miamis in Indiana, and later the Carey and Thomas stations among the Pottawatomies in Michigan. During his missionary years he had drawn to himself a group of younger men who, under his direction, were to lay the groundwork of the Baptist missions in the Missouri valley. The Shawanoe Baptist Mission, opened July 7, 1831, was in charge of Johnston Lykins.3 It was a log structure and stood about five miles west of the Shaw- anoe Methodist Mission (built about the same time) in Johnson county, and an almost equal distance from the Shawanoe Quaker Mission, established in 1834, a mile southeast of Merriam, Kan.
In 1837 Ira D. Blanchard founded the Delaware Baptist Mission, where the town of Edwardsville (on the interurban line between Kansas City and Lawrence), in Wyandotte county, now stands.4 (This mission building was swept away in the flood of 1844 and was rebuilt in 1848, by John G. Pratt, on higher ground.) Jotham Mee-
2. Isaac McCoy, government surveyor, missionary, preacher, was born June 13, 1784, in Fayette county, Pennsylvania. He married Christianna Polke, October 6, 1803, and she was ever after that associated with his missionary life. After his first years as missionary to the Miamis and other tribes in Indiana, he entered the service in Michigan at the Carey and Thomas stations, leaving them to establish missions in the newly opened Indian Territory in the Missouri valley, after the passage of the act of May 26, 1830. It was McCoy's idea to give the Indians a permanent home in the territory, with a seat of government, and eventually ask for admission of the territory as a state. He was known as "the Apostle Paul of the Baptist denomination to the Indians of Kansas Territory" and his work among them continued until the last four years of his life, which were spent in editing a Baptist magazine at Louis- ville, Ky., where he died, June 21, 1846.
3. Johnston Lykins was born April 15, 1800, in Franklin county, Virginia, and his asso- ciation with Isaac McCoy began when he was 19, as teacher among the Weas and Kickapoos on the Wabash river. He followed McCoy into Michigan and married Delilah McCoy, Feb- ruary 27, 1827. She lived but a few years. Lykins founded the Shawanoe Baptist Mission, in the Indian Territory, in 1831, and later did much translating of the Indian language. He was associated with Jotham Meeker in the publication of the first newspaper in Kansas, in the Indian language, the Shawanoe Sun, which lasted from 1836 until 1842. Lykins was one of the founders of Kansas City, Kan., building its first "mansion" and being its first full -term mayor. He was a practicing physician at the time of his death in Kansas City, Mo., August 15, 1876.
4. Ira D. Blanchard first entered missionary work as a teacher under Isaac McCoy, in the Indian Territory in 1833. In 1835 he married Mary Walton, a missionary teacher, and they founded the Delaware Baptist Mission, at Grinter's crossing of the Kaw river, in 1837. He did a valuable work on the Indian alphabet and syllabary, and in his translation of the Harmony of the Gospel, the original compilation of Rev. Zeisberger, of the Moravian mission farther south. The Blanchards left the missionary field in January, 1848, and retired to a farm in Iowa.
HILL: EARLY BAPTIST MISSIONS 91
ker,5 who had been a convert to missions under the preaching of Robert. Simerwell6 in the East, had arrived with him from Michigan at the Shawanoe Mission in 1833. Meeker was leaving that station in 1837 to found a similar one among the Ottawas on the Marais des Cygnes (Osage) river, south, where the town of Ottawa now stands. But he stayed at the Shawanoe Mission, along with another Baptist missionary, David B. Rollin (who seems to have been but a transient there) , long enough to welcome the young Pratts and in- duct them into the work they had undertaken.7
They had decided on this step only after much agonizing heart- searching and prayer, as is evidenced by their mutual letters. A sense of solemnest responsibility to God and man attended them. In a letter from Reading, Mass., dated October 5, 1836, Olivia Evans writes to young John G. Pratt at Andover Seminary (the same state) :
"In regard to the state of my own mind, since I concluded to go with you to the far west, I think I can say I have enjoyed great peace."
And on December 21, 1836, from the Charlestown Female Semi- nary, a letter from her expresses the wish that —
"that western valley become indeed the cultivated garden of the Lord. And shall we be the unworthy instruments of bearing these glad tidings to them? I feel it to be a glorious privilege to labour for God. I know that if we would labour among the Indians we must forego the enjoyment of friends and home, and deny ourselves — take up the cross daily."
No responsive letter from the sober young student at Andover Seminary appears in the collection ; but her own to him, January 20, 1837, bears witness that he shared her exaltation:
5. Jotham Meeker, missionary-printer, was born November 8, 1804, in Hamilton county, Ohio, and received his training as printer in Cincinnati. In the summer of 1825 he came under the influence of Robert Simerwell, a Baptist missionary to the Indians in Michigan, who was touring the East, and the two were associated at the Carey and Thomas stations in Michigan until 1833, when they both came to the Indian Territory. In September, 1830, Jotham Meeker married Eleanor Richardson, a missionary teacher, in Cincinnati, and the two immediately took up work at the Shawanoe Baptist Mission, leaving it in 1837 in charge of the Pratts. In 1832 he began a daily entry in his remarkable journal, which has survived him, and kept it up until a week before his death at Ottawa, Kan., January 12, 1855. Mrs. Meeker, whose life was devoted with his to the cause of missions, survived him until March 15, 1856. His system of "writing Indian" opened a new world to those in his charge, and he did much patient translating for them.
6. Robert Simerwell's association with missions, under Isaac McCoy, began in 1824, when Simerwell came to the Carey station, in Michigan. On March 17, 1825, he married Fannie Goodridge, a missionary teacher there. Simerwell was a practical blacksmith and farmer, and turned his hand cheerfully to these duties in the missionary field. He spent some time in the early 1830's at the Shawanoe Baptist Mission, but later devoted his time wholly to the Pot- tawatomies, beginning at the mission five miles west of Topeka, in 1848. This is said to have been the equivalent of a modern training school. It is claimed the youngest daughter of the Simerwells was the first white girl born in Kansas. The family has several descendants in Shawnee county.
7. David B. Rollin and his wife were workers among the Creek Indians in 1834, and following some disturbances in that nation they came to the McCoy home in Westport, No- vember 4, 1836. They spent some time at Shawanoe Mission, being there on the arrival of the Pratts in 1837. Rollin was then in failing health and left missionary work in 1839, dying at the home of his wife's father in Michigan, April 11, the same year.
92 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
"I rejoice in those feelings of devotion to [the] cause of God, which you express. I think much of our usefulness as well as happiness depends upon the state of feeling with which we enter upon this great work, and how very important [it is] that we should be entirely consecrated to the service of God. 0 how unworthy am I to engage in such a glorious work. How weak and in- sufficient am I in and of myself; but God is my helper."
In the meantime John G. Pratt had received a letter from Jotham Meeker, which he mentions in writing to Olivia Evans, January 31, 1837:
"He speaks of the resolution of the board to release him from his present field of labor on our arrival, with much feeling. 'We thanked God and took courage.' . . . We [the Pratts] are . . . confidently expected soon. . . . With all my courage the work looks big with importance, and full of momentous consequences. I feel sensibly we shall both of us need divine as- sistance in every step of this great undertaking. Sometimes temptations strong and trying may fall in our way. On account of them shall we abandon the cause? ... I hope you remember me at the throne of grace, where alone our mutual hope of success is centered."
The letter concludes unemotionally, "Yours in truth." Before Olivia answers this serious communication she has re- ceived a letter dated December 11, 1836, from Mary Walton Blan- chard, wife of Ira D. Blanchard, both in charge of the Delaware Baptist Mission, which is particularly illuminative of the missionary situation at that time :
"I have just received an intimation . . . that it is possible that I may have you for a neighbor in the spring. I do not know as more cheering in- teligence could be received than that there is a sure prospect of a printer for Shawennoe, not even that of a much-needed laborer at this [the Delaware] station, for it does seem altogether wrong that brother Meeker, after having spent six years of hard labor in acquiring a knowledge of the Ottawa language, should be kept from them [the Ottawa Indians] by work that another could just as well perform while there is probably no man upon earth that can, with- out spending much time in conquering an unwritten language, fill his place among a people with whom he can converse and over whom he has gained an influence. . . . -
"I presume that you are expecting that it is at a distance from the abodes of civilized beings, that you must be deprived of all the conveniences and many of the comforts of life; but it is not so; it is but four miles to West Port, to which place steamboats commenced running last summer. When I came here, it was a dense harsh thicket with only two buildings on the site of the town, one of which was a P. O. I do not know the number of inhabitants it contains but there are at least four dry goods and grocery stores, any of which for a draft on the board are willing to put their goods at 30 per cent advance on their cost, which brings them to about St. Louis retail prices. The rooms that Mr. Mteeker] ocopies are a large one below and a small one (which was fited up for the press but not being large enough for two to work in, it has
HILL: EARLY BAPTIST MISSIONS 93
been moved to the schoolhouse) and a half-story chamber with a small fire- place. I mention these things more to gratify your mother than yourself, for I hope that no such consideration would move you in your purpose, but per- haps you would like to know what things you cannot obtain here. Among these are beds and cabinet furniture, except at an enormous price. We have all procured ours at Cincinnati, but iron and crockery ware are plenty almost al kinds of clothing will be more easily obtained than to take more than a present suply as I know by experience that trunks are a great care in travel- ing ; one thing however is very scarce woolen yarn I know not what I should have done had not our Ohio friends suplied us, but the setlers, most of whom are from the South, are begining to find that our winters are too cold for cotton or silk stockings, and are trying to raise sheep; our Indians talk of trying it, but wolves are too plenty, it will not however be so bad with you as it is here. We are 16 miles from Shawnee and the Kaw is % mile wide between us, and the feriage for a single person 50 cents and for a wagon 2 dollars yet we are far better situated as to obtaining supplies than I had ex- pected to be. I should think this the most healthy place I ever was ac- quainted with, this is a great thing for without health we cannot do much. There has been no regular school either here or among the Shawwenoes since I have been here but our's is to be commenced very soon. It seems as though little had been done here but what can one family do alone? Yet something has been accomplished; many have learned to read their own language and nearly half of the gospels' is ready for the press and the rest of it in a state of forwardness. ... I feel anxious to see an English school commenced here; but I hardly see how it is to be kept up; it will be impossible for Sylvia or I to be much in school as you know that my health is not very good and I have a babe, and we shall have to cook dinners for all the children and ought to board at least three orphans children of deceased members of the church, who will otherwise be left without instruction as the relitives live at so great a distance that they cannot come daily; nor would it be satisfactory to the In- dians at present for a female to teach as many who design to attend are young men. If Mr. B[lanchard] is confined to a school, who shall finish the translation of the gospel? Who shall visit from family to family as he has done? he will it is true have some time left for to devote to these subjects, but each seem to demand all his time. Oh, that some one of the hundreds of young men who have professed to give themselves to the Lord might feel it duty and be permited to labor for the poor Delawares. If they are needed more in other places how great indeed must be the want of labourers ! . . . I have an opportunity to send to the ofice this morning and think of nothing but shoes, which you perhaps would think of, I thought I took a good suply but now have reason to regret I did not take more, there are plenty to be had, but I will not say of what quality."
Under date of February 8, 1837, Olivia comments happily upon the letter:
"It is indeed gratifying to hear from one so near the field of our future labors."
And in a very feminine "P. S." she writes:
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"The young ladies of the seminary . . . frequently say '0, I wish I was going with you.' Yes, say[s] one yesterday, 'My soul exults for your happy fate thus to give all to Christ. Go. I would not wrest the privilege from you. And though Nature frowns and foes surround, yet it will be sweet to suffer for Christ/ "
From Reading, March 2, 1837, Olivia writes to John Pratt, still at Andover Seminary. For all its high courage and resolution there is an undercurrent of youthful heartache at the prospect of leaving her familiar surroundings:
"Having bid adieu to the loved ones at Charlestown I have returned to my own dear home. I felt that the dear friends in C. were bound to my heart by the strong ties of affection, but I knew not how strong till the hour of separation arrived. If the ties of nature are stronger than those of friendship, I know not how painful it will be to rend them. I will not however, be over- anxious about the parting hour. . . . Since my return, friends and home seem so dear that the wish to always stay with them has sometimes half in- truded itself into my mind. But six hundred millions of precious souls are perishing . . . and shall I hesitate to leave friends and home, however dear, if I can in any way be instrumental to leading any to the knowledge of the truth? . . . The glory of God and the salvation of these poor perishing souls is infinitely more important than my own personal feelings . . . Christ ... is entitled to my all, and He shall have it. ... I cannot contemplate this great work upon which we are so soon to enter without emo- tions of deep concern and intense anxiety; its responsibilities cause me to tremble . . . it is arduous enough to task to the uttermost the noblest energies of man. ... I have been told that it is indeed impracticable to go among those cruel and revengeful Indians who thirst for the blood of the white man — that it is an insalubrious clime that will surely deprive me of health and prevent my doing any good . . . that a mother's love is too dear to be sold for any other . . . 'yet none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself' ... for this glorious object would I live, for this labor, and for this die."
A scant "P. S." only is devoted to personal matters: "He [father] will attend to the publishment of our intentions, if you desire it." (Probably the publishing of the old-time "banns.")
This is the last of the letters of the collection that passed between Olivia Evans and John G. Pratt. The diary of Jotham Meeker (May 11, 1837) speaks briefly of their advent at the Shawnee Mis- sion: "Mr. and Mrs. Pratt arrive from Massachusetts."
The slip of a girl who, with the young printer-and-theological student had "left all for Christ," was yet to "learn to bear the dis- appointments and trials of life with patience," as she had written him, December 27, 1836, and to find among "the cruel and revenge- ful Indians" some of the warmest friends of her after life. She is
HILL: EARLY BAPTIST MISSIONS 95
said to have been a most attractive young woman at the time of her marriage, red-cheeked, black-eyed and with her hair worn in ring- lets, as was the fashion for many of the young women of that day.
A picture of her that has come down with the collection shows her as she became in her last years — the black eyes still sparkling, and with glints of the humor in them for which she is said to have been noted, though none of it appears in her letters. The hair that was worn in ringlets on her wedding day is softly white and parted in the middle, above a face that all the sorrows of the lean missionary years could not make less than lovely. For she had borne seven children, at the different missions, and four of them had died — little Ann, the first, and Johnny and Eddie, all in childhood; only Lucius, the second born, had lived to manhood. He married Nannie, the daughter of Charles Journeycake.
It was June 24, 1837, before John G. Pratt made an informal re- port to the society that had sent him west, as its missionary-printer. Under that date he writes to Dr. Lucius Bolles, corresponding secre- tary, describing a fairly uneventful journey, and then proceeds to affairs nearer at hand:
"We met with a very kind reception at the mission house from our friends, Messrs. Rollin, Meeker and their families. Though much disappointed at the appearance of things in this wilderness and benighted country, it is agree- ably so. The location of the mission buildings is elligible; being a little re- moved from the immense Prarie, health must be retained much better than in the more marshy and timbered lands. I have found scarcely one object to meet the expectations I had previously formed, except the great moral desti- tution. We are located where the principles of the Gospel are much wanting; and it is truly painful to us to notice the stupidity of these 'sons of the forest,' in the reception of religious instruction. How was my heart pained the first Sabbath after we reached this place, to see so few attend religious ex- ercises; four or five Indians, only, being present. Their inattention and dis- regard to the word preached was lamentable in the extreme. While in the room, instead of listening, they were diverting themselves with some object, which uniformaly kept them engaged; and when that ceased to engage their curiosity, they would rise and walk out of doors a few minutes and then re- turn; all their actions seemed to say — 'We desire not a knowledge of his ways.' And though faithfully informed of the blessedness of religion, and the love of Christ, as manifested on the cross towards others; by actions they replied 'we will not have this man to reign over us.' We have previously felt for the condition of those without the Gospel, and destitute of its sancti- fying influences, but when we now behold how degraded they are, and how unhappy in time and eternity they must be, we pity their case; we rejoice that God has directed our steps to this land of darkness, and pray that as those who love the blessed Saviour, we may shine as lights amid the sur- rounding midnight; that these poor souls wandering they know not where,
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may be induced to embrace the same Saviour, and become heirs, also, of the kingdom of Heaven. We feel that there is here abundant opportunity to try the effect of example; and excellent situation to live religion and show by works that there is a reality in the doctrines we profess to believe and teach them.
"In many respects we are tried, but not discouraged, though so far from home and earthly friends, we feel to adhere the closer to our friend in heaven, who we find in truth 'sticketh closer than a brother.' Leaving, as we have done, at an early age the land that gave us birth, and the friends and other en- joyments we had ever been accustomed to hold dear, it may not seem strange to you that we often think, and speak of what we have left behind; it is hard to realize how great the distance is which separates us from home, but [we] feel happy in the reflection that we are no farther from heaven and our kind parent above. We never for a moment suffer ourselves to be carried away with reflections on our present condition in comparison with what it was in Massachusetts; though deprived of many enjoyments we then possessed, still Christ is ours, and in him all our wants are supplied, and every needed com- fort is granted us from his liberal hand; so that while health and the pros- pect of usefulness are ours, we remain happy and content.
"Brother Meeker left on the 17th for the Ottawa settlement with his family; the man who moved them has just returned and says they arrived in health and spirits. The missionaries are generally in health except my wife, who has been feeble and billious ever since we arrived. We have had for several weeks past almost daily much rain, accompanied with heavy thunder; everything is so wet and decaying, fevers are much feared. Whenever the sun appears, it is so scorching as to be almost unendurable in the open air. My health has uniformly been good thus far.
"I have been so much engaged since my arrival in preparing to fill Bro. Meeker's place, it has kept me out of the printing office more than was disir- able. There has for some time past, been much work in the office, so that a man employed by Mr. Meeker before my arrival, is still with me, assisting in printing Mr. McCoy's Register, which is nearly finished.
Yrs. JOHN G. PRATT."
This seems to be the letter proper; but there is some additional matter on the last page :
"We have found much difficulty in preparing to keep house since Mr. Meeker's departure, every article is exorbitantly high, both of furniture and food. So that of the money left after paying for our journey we have spent 50 dollars for the house. We have purchased but few articles with the above sum, as few as we could get along with, and have nearly exhausted our first half year's salary, still our want of necessary articles in the house is very great. Much is needed to be done both in the house and printing office, before the winter months set in, to make them comfortable. Mr. Meeker feeling un- settled as to his stay at Shawanoe, has neglected repairs; the buildings all being made of log and the space in between each log filled with nothing but mud, the mud has fallen out, leaving large cracks for the admission even of rabbits. We have already been thoroughly drenched while in bed at night several times, and it cannot be conducive to health, especially as slender as is
HILL: EARLY BAPTIST MISSIONS 97
that of my wife. It should be fixed with lime mortar, and in regard to it I hope you will remark, before winter sets in. The following is the state of my money affairs with the Board:
Received for myself and wife before leaving Boston $115
Do. to defray expenses to this place 185
Do. of Mr. Smith in Cincinnati an addition of 50
$350
Expense of the journey was $166
Paid for feathers at Louisville, Ky 29
For furniture and so forth at this place 50
$245"
In an unsigned, undated letter, evidently written about the same time, and to Dr. Bolles, the young missionary speaks of the new field darkly, as "a land shaddowing with death."
"We are frequently compelled to lament that so little is or can be done for the religious advancement of these Indians. We sometimes think our usefulness might have been greater had we remained among friends at home, but we do not cherish such feelings; if God has sent us to this part of his vineyard and bid us occupy it, here we desire to remain until he in his wise providence shall make it plainly our duty to remove. We do not feel our- selves alone; Bro. Rollin and family are the kindest of friends; in their society and council we enjoy much. We look to them as our earthly guides in all matters of doubt, as those who have been over that part of the path of life which remains for us yet to travel.
"On the Sabbath, we as families, have resolved ourselves into a Bible class which we attend to after the public services are over. We feel happy in our situation, notwithstanding [we are] away from home and friends. The health of Mrs. Pratt has not been as good as formerly since our arrival; and so many persons frequently being with us considerably increases her labor. Many friends in Mass, have predicted we shall soon become unreconciled to our condition, because we were young, this has often been mentioned; but while Christ remains our hope; while we love him and his cause; while a field of usefulness remains open at this place we apprehand no disinclination to remain will be manifested by us."
There is an appealingly boyish anxiety in the "P. S.": "Will the magazine be sent to us?" Possibly this was some Baptist periodical.
A letter from the mother of John G. Pratt is a chronicle of the village happenings since the departure of the young missionaries, and voices a concern for their welfare:
"WOBURN, [MASS.] July 31, 1837.
"My DEAR SON — With deep feelings of emotion I now sit down to address an absent Child although Huge Mountains and deep valies separate us in person yet we have the privilege of communeicating our thoughts on paper and convey them to each other but their is another and still greater — we can meet at a Throne of Grace and there ask those blessings wich will stand
7—2345
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in dayly need, in wich you share largely among your friends here. I cannot but rejoice that you have been permited to arive to your destined station without any accident after you left we heard of a great many Steamboat disasters wich caused me some anxiety but learning that most of them started on the Sabbath I was confident that you were not among them. ... I will endeavor to give you an acount of the afaires here as for myself I have a verry pleasant situation and find Woburn people friendly and inteligent . . . Louisa is with me yet [a daughter] Harrison [possibly a son] is still in North Reading has had but little Business . . . they have a son wich was born the 27 of May Olivia [Harrison's wife] got along verry comfortable for 2 weeks . . . Harrison at her solicitation and without the consent of her Nurs prepared and gave her some Bacon wich distressed her verry much . . . she went into fits and continued to have them for 24 hours . . . and did not sleep all that time continually talking upon every subject except religion she would repeatedly say John [G. Pratt] is Married is he not well I did not go to his wedding at other times she would say I did not have any of his Cake, she has since been to Wfoburn] and appears very much herself they have a fine little boy they think of nameing John Gill or John Harrison I supose you will have no objection. . . . Wee attended meeting yesterday Saw George Evans [brother of Olivia Evans Pratt and a strong Abolitionist] he came to W[oburn] to attend an Antislaverry Lecture by W[endell] Philps ... he said he had not received a letter from Olivia he said he suposed you had not got your lugage yet was one reason ... as neare as I can learn Olivia's mother did not break her heart about her [Olivia] leaving . . . Brother Silas Richardson he called to see me the other day says that the Printing Business is verry dull. Mr. Gould has dismissed most of his printers . . . Mr. Clough has no painting ... he has ben to Boston to seek imployment but could find none . . . Capn. West has failed and Esq. Funnall [?] Posted down to Martha's Vinyard to atach his property but it was all out of his power to find anything . . . W. O. Johnson your late teacher and principal of the Lattin Academy is no more. . . . Caleb Shute has resigned the office in the Sabbath School Depository and ben out of Business for 3 months . . . I do not know any one that does not Complain of the times Business of all kinds is stagnated Many that were rich have become poor and those that were poor have become distressed it verryly [is] serious times here in a Pecuniary point you are better of[f] where you are ... I have ben thus particular because you wanted to know all the particulars now I want you in return to tell me all the partic- ulars and wheather you have got cured of the dispepsia and how Olivia's health is I feel sometimes that you were to young to go so far to labour among the Indians wich are so savage and a climate so uncongenial? I then ask myself the question was it an uncalled for Sacrifice ... I have lived nearly 60 years in the pleasantest part of our Country, but have found it thus far but a vaste howling wilderness and a desart to the aspiring mind wich believes nothin true but Heaven
"Yesterday we attended the ordination of Mr. Hoper and there I saw your Father and Mother Evans from them I received a letter to read from Olivia to Emily Mr. E[vans] said ... he was verry anxious about you on
HILL: EARLY BAPTIST MISSIONS 99
account of your leakey house he said he should see the board and have Something done . . .
"I will now give you some information concerning our ministering brethren. Mr. Sayer of South Reading has ben found guilty of kissing his maidservant ... it took place some time since but of late the Editor of the Trumpit was applied to to publish it he desirous to know the fact aplyed to Sayer to know the truth of the story he acknowledged it but remarked that it was more disgraceful than wicked it was not published but the story is going the rounds amongh the Universalists the Church However has settled it with him and forgiven . . . Another case is that of Mr. Harris of Maiden he has come out a Universalist and publickly acknowledged it before his Congregation and the consequence was that his people dismised him he has got up quite a flowerishing high Scool in M[alden] has contracted for a valuable Apperatus for the use of it he has also applied to several young ladies to become his Wife but has hitherto ben unsuccessful . . . Amasa [Brown, her son-in-law] is here he thinks much of you and prays fervantly for you. Louisa [Brown's wife] says she often imagines herself where you are and looks in to see what you are doing your Aunt Otterman wishes to be remembered to you with her best wishes and kind regards she thinks much of you Aunt Shute and family visited me this summer they tender the same love give my best love to Olivia and tell her to rite me verry soon I hope you will be suported under your various hardships and tryals to this end you must look to God he a lone is able to give you strength eaqual to your day to him I commend you
ELIZABETH PRATT to John G. Pratt."
The faint warning of the struggle to come a quarter of a century later, in the reference to Wendell Phillips' antislavery lecture, deep- ens in tone in the letters from George Evans himself, several years later. But on the whole the New England correspondents were more concerned with the Indian perils to which their young family in the new territory were subjected. Elizabeth Pratt Js letters, in their fidelity to homely detail, must have somewhat appeased the human hunger for home news; and for all their rather bleakly ma- ternal note the "deep feelings of emotion" are there.
A calamitous strain runs through much of the eastern news, re- flecting an economic depression similar to that of our own times. An undated letter with those of 1837, from Catherine Wellington, contains the intelligence that —
"L. Wyman of Woburn has faild and commenced bisness again at Hudson faild again and tryed to hang himself B. Brooks in company with Darius has taken the bankruptcy law and now they are looking him up, so you see we all have a share."
Another letter of this period, undated and signed only "M. L. L.," swings away from the religious line a bit in confessing:
"I suppose that some time hence I may leave the home of my youth and cast my lot with another, but do you keep this hint & not let any one know
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that ever I gave it to you. that person is a relative although a distant one, a person that you never saw, my friends like him. there may be something to prevent on further acquaintance, but I hope my heavenly father will direct me."
There is a marginal note: "Burn this." 0 faithless Olivia!
Another letter from young Pratt to Dr. Bolles, September 22, 1837, complains of receiving no word from the Society to which he was responsible, and contains the news that Mrs. Pratt "has been very sick for some weeks past."
"The disease appears to have been brought on" he writes "by the change of climate and working beyond her strength. . . . The labor is too severe for her feeble constitution and help is not easily obtained 'in these ends of the earth.' "
Again the appealing postscript: "Can we have the magazine?"
Before Dr. Bolles has answered this, the third of John G. Pratt's letters to him, in the collection, comes one to his "Beloved Children" from Amos Evans, under date, Reading, October 23, 1837 :
"We have heard some thing respecting the hostile appearance of the Osage Indians" the anxious father says. "We hope & pray that the Lord will pre- serve you from all harm & restore your health that you may labor for him. But we ask, if the Indians appear quarrelsome & have lost confidence in the whites & are not disposed to receive the truth from you or hear your words, does not prudence & duty require you to leave them? We know God can preserve us amid the greatest dangers, but can there be any confidence placed in the specious appearance of friendship of the Indians, when their jealousies are aroused against our people? . . . Dr. Bolles read your letter sent to us, & said that he did not believe it was required that you do so much for other missionaries, to labour excessively & destroy your health, or to continue there for any considerable time if it is evident you cannot enjoy health in that climate . . . We hope your house will be made comfortable should you be directed in the providence of God, & spared to labour there . . . Mr. Pratt's mother & brother have recently called on us . . . We all ex- change letters which are sent from you . . .
"Business is dull with us, we think the labouring class of the community anticipate a harder winter than we have been wont to see. We live in an extravagant world, & at an extravagant age; and we must now learn by ex- perience that we do not really need (as you have expressed it in your letter) so much as we have been in the habit of thinking. And now as to the little church, you requested me to write all about it. As to our outward sircum- stances the state of business is such that I think we shall not be able at present to pay the Debt on the M[eeting] house, the notes on those pews which were just sold are now due, & altho 20 per cent was paid at the sale yet some say they had rather give up their pews than to be compelled to pay the remainder at this time; for notwithstanding the scarcity of money & the want of em- ployment every article of food bears a high price. Yet we are waiting for brighter prospects, & would not repine under these adverse providences, but pray that they may all work for our good. . . .
HILL: EARLY BAPTIST MISSIONS 101
"I feel I am not half awake, & that I do not feel a hundredth part as I ought upon the subject [of religion.] I sometimes think I wish to feel so as to prevent my usual repose, that I may offer up my supplications with strong crying & tears to him who is able & willing to answer the prayer of faith. But Alas, it is too often otherwise with me."
On the same sheet, George Evans, Olivia's brother, wrote:
"In one of Olivia's letters she mentioned about Amos [another brother] and me thinking of the West . . . This emigrating is not what it is cracked up to be. I have seen a great many from there who do not give very favor- able accounts of the country and the people."
It is in his short letter, too, that "little Rosetta," a younger sister, makes her first appearance:
"She says she should like to slip her hand into a large pan of red plums and I don't doubt it."
On November 20, 1837, Dr. Bolles, of Boston, writes the long- looked-for letter:
"My DEAR BROTHER — We are concerned to hear of the sickness of your amiable companion & hope you will take measures without delay to afford her some relief. If no faithful assistant can be obtained for her for a time, she must decline serving others than her own family, as I perceive from her letters to the friends in Reading, she has accustomed herself to do. Strangers have no claim to crowd themselves on your hospitality, when your wife is actually too feeble to serve them, nor shd. you hesitate under such circum- stances to excuse her, & request them to seek accommodations elsewhere. The house which you occupy must be made tight & comfortable, & we wish, if it has not been done, that you will take immediate measures to make it so, when this reaches you. You will exercise a sound discretion as to the amount of repairs, & see that they are obtained on the best terms & report the same to us. For the expense so incurred, presuming it will not be large, you will be at liberty to draw on our Treasurer."
It must have warmed the hearts and cheered the failing spirits of the youthful missionaries, so recently transplanted from New Eng- land soil, to know that the Society in Boston was really concerned for their earthly as well as their spiritual welfare. Anxiety over the health of Olivia Pratt spread through both families in the East, as well as to their friends, and occasioned much perplexity as to what Divine Providence expected of its young emissaries under the trying circumstances. That they were both homesick to the genuine im- pairment of their health, is apparent. The eastern contingent of the blood might advise and caution, as they assuredly did in their letters, but seldom was anything that might be construed as a com- mand to return ever given. The New England Baptist did not trifle with the Higher Will, nor question it too rigidly. In spite of the
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very natural forebodings of Olivia's mother and father, and the mother of John G. Pratt, there seems to have been a feeling among them all that the very finger of God was pointing to the west, and that His hand was overshadowing His bewildered children in "that Western Valley" where young, untried Olivia Evans (while still in the shelter of Charles town Seminary) had expressed herself as will- ing to "labor" and if necessary, "to die."
But she lived to see much of it "the cultivated garden of the Lord" under the ministrations of John G. Pratt and herself, though not until they had both found in a welter of hardships and disappoint- ments— and in times of stress when the Society in Boston seemingly had failed them — that "there is no discharge in that war."
"Our prayer is," Elizabeth Pratt once wrote to her much-tried son (Nov. 22, 1837), "that you may come out of the furness as gold tryed in the fire."
They could hardly have done that had it not been for the whole- some cheer of the home letters, burdened though they are, for the most part, with deep religious solemnity in contemplating the ul- timate salvation, not only of the western savages but of themselves. The quaint expression, "indulging a hope," occurs in almost every letter, even in an undated and unsigned one: "Sarah Williams has lately spoke of a hope."
The friendly, heart-warming gossip of Elizabeth Pratt's letters is conscientiously toned down before their close. On November 22, 1837, she writes:
"Joseph Shute has returned and appears . . . much improved in his manners at least. I should think he had returned from an Acadimy instead of a man of Wars vessel, he bids fair to make a stidey man Ebens wife has become pios and James wife also I hope their Husbands will soon follow their example ... I need tryals and the Lord knows how to try me."
There are but two letters from Catherine Evans, the mother of Olivia, one a scant half page to "Ever Remembered Olivia," under date April 16, 1838, after the arrival at Shawanoe Baptist Mission of little Ann Eliza Pratt, to whom brief reference is made: "Rosett says you must kiss Ann for she and Jonas."
But some years later, from the pen of the same young Rosett (February 13, 1841), we have an appealing picture of the mother:
"She says ... I must write for her ... She cannot tell you how much she wants to see you all. when she thinks of you for awhile the great big tears would roll down her cheeks . . . she hopes she shall see Ann before she grows so large she shall not know her she has got the little chair all painted up green ready for her when she comes."
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From Catherine Evans herself, in the second letter (September 14, 1843) :
"Do write very soon. I feel as if I could not wait one day longer. How I long to see them little children [Ann and Lucius] do kiss them for me. Tell Ann she cant tell how much I do want to see her and ask her if she thinks she shall ever see me again."
The sweet and shadowy figures of the two children, especially little Ann, run in and out of the letters; but sometime before 1848 she fades from the picture; but not until she had made one or two visits to the East with her parents, since on March 4, 1844, from Reading, Mary Evans, the sister of Olivia, writes:
"It seems but yesterday that I saw Ann in grandma's garden picking posies to carry to meeting."
There is nothing in the letters more poignant than the picture that simple sentence draws, unless it is of a contented little Ann sitting by the loving-hearted Catherine Evans, in the little green-painted chair.
It is to be regretted that there are so few letters in the collection from John G. Pratt himself, and none from Olivia Pratt after her marriage. There are scores of letters from the East; human, whole- some, intelligent, for all the depressing character of their somberly religious content. They are valuable as well for the faithful deline- ation of the sturdy life of New England in that period, from which so much of the actual life of Kansas was drawn; and which, in its hard idealism, was no doubt the mainspring of the fanatical puritan- ism of which Kansas stands accused at times. There is prima fade evidence that the letters did much to keep alive two valiant young souls who had chosen the Indian service as their portion until the hardy faith of the early Baptists, somewhat modified of its primitive sternness, had taken unmistakable root in the Missouri valley. The Baptist church in Kansas was founded on a rock, no less that of Israel because human hands in New England helped in the laying of it.
Surveying the Southern Boundary Line of Kansas
From the Private Journal of Col. Joseph E. Johnston Edited by NYLB H. MILLER
I. INTRODUCTION.
ON March 25, 1856, nearly two years after Kansas was organized as a territory under provisions of the Kansas-Nebraska act, May 30, 1854, a bill was introduced in congress by John S. Phelps, representative from Missouri, to provide for the survey of the south- ern boundary line of the territory.1 The boundaries of the territory after its organization were described as follows:
"Beginning at a point on the western boundary of the state of Missouri, where the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude crosses the same (about thirty miles north of the southwest corner of Missouri, or 36° 30' parallel of north latitude) ; thence west on said parallel to the eastern boundary of New Mexico; thence north on said boundary to latitude thirty-eight; thence fol- lowing said boundary westward to the east boundary of the territory of Utah, on the summit of the Rocky Mountains; thence northward on said summit to the fortieth parallel of latitude; thence east on said parallel to the western boundary of the state of Missouri ; thence south with the western boundary of said state (being a meridian line passing through the middle of the mouth of the Kansas river) to the place of beginning." 2
Until January, 1854, the parallel 36° 30' was the proposed south- ern boundary of the new territory. This was to enable the territorial government to control the Santa Fe trail.3 The significance of the line 36° 30' in the Missouri compromise also might explain its use in tentative bills for territorial organization drawn up previous to that date ; the proposed repeal of the Missouri compromise did away with this significance.4 A map of Kansas and Nebraska, indorsed August 5, 1854, by George W. Manypenny, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, shows the thirty-seventh parallel as the dividing line be- tween the Osage and Cherokee reservations.5 This and similar mappings of the territory may have influenced Senator Stephen A.
1. House Journal, 34th Cong., 1st and 2d sess., part 1, s. n. 838, p. 719.
2. Martin, Geo. W., "The Boundary Lines of Kansas," Kansas Historical Collections, v. 11, p. 55. See, also, Kansas-Nebraska bill, 10 U. S. Stat, L.f pp. 283-284.
3. Hall, Willard P., February 10, 1853. Congressional Globe, 32d Cong., 2d Bess., p. 560.
4. Gittinger, Roy, "Separation of Nebraska and Kansas From the Indian Territory," Chronicles of Oklahoma, v. 1, p. 28.
5. The compiler erred. Corrected maps show the division 3 miles north of the thirty- seventh parallel.
(104)
MILLER: KANSAS BOUNDARY LINE SURVEY 105
Douglas to establish the thirty-seventh parallel in section nineteen of the Kansas-Nebraska bill as the southern boundary of Kansas.6
Indian tribes located within the limits or jurisdiction of the terri- tory were expressly "excepted out of the boundaries," in the provi- sions of the act, and were in no way to become a part of the terri- tory of Kansas until such tribes signified their assent to the Presi- dent of the United States to be included within said territory.7 A similar "exception" clause was contained in the act of January 29, 1861, admitting Kansas as a state.8 Thus, the thirty-seventh paral- lel did not become the effective southern boundary of Kansas until the treaty of February 23, 1867, when the Quapaws, last of the tribes to conform, ceded all their right, title and claim to land in Kansas.9 The Cherokee Nation, another principal Kansas land-owning tribe, relinquished its title by the treaty of July 19, 186.6, ratified and con- firmed by the act approved July 31, 1866.10
Surveying of the ultimate boundary line was not to be delayed un- til such Indian claims had been quieted, however, for the house re- ferred the bill providing for the survey of the southern boundary of Kansas (34th Cong., 1st sess., H. R. 197) as introduced by Mr. Phelps, to its committee on territories. The bill was returned with an amendment in the nature of a substitute therefor which was passed by the house June 23, 1856. n Seven days later the senate concurred,12 and the act as approved on July 8 became law:
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States is hereby authorized and directed to cause the southern boundary line of the territory of Kansas, between the state of Missouri and the territory of New Mexico, to be surveyed and distinctly marked, and a plat of said survey shall be deposited in the office of the Secretary of the Interior, and another plat of said survey shall be deposited in the office of the secretary of the territory of Kansas." is
A supplementary act making an appropriation of $35,400 for the work was approved August 18, 1856.14
The Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, on April 25, 1857, printed notices of military movements for the spring and summer. Among these was the announcement that Lieut.-Col. Joseph E.
6. 10 U. S. Stat. L., p. 283.
7. Ibid., p. 284.
8. 12 U. S. Stat. L., p. 127.
9. 15 U. S. Stat. L., Treat. 3, p. 30.
10. 14 U. S. Stat. L., Treat. 8, pp. 120-121.
11. House Journal, 34th Cong., 1st and 2d sess., part 2, s. n. 839, p. 1100.
12. Ibid., p. 1132.
13. 11 U. S. Stat. L., p. 27.
14. Ibid., pp. 139-140.
106 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Johnston,15 First cavalry, with four companies of that regiment and two companies of the Sixth infantry, was to proceed early in May upon duty connected with the survey of the southern boundary of Kansas.
On May 2 the Herald reported that extremely cold weather as- sured but little grass for two or three weeks and the expedition might be delayed as a result. Colonel Johnston had been in St. Louis, April 25, on business relating to the survey. He was to return to Fort Leavenworth and conduct the troops to the starting point on the Missouri line at the thirty-seventh parallel, there to be met by J. H. Clarke and Hugh Campbell, astronomers, and J. E. Weyss, surveyor, with their party.
Colonel Johnston kept a day-by-day account of this survey, covering the period from May 16, when the expedition left Leaven- worth, to October 29, 1857, when he encamped on Spring river be- low Cherokee county, Kansas, on his return. The journal was penciled in an account book, 8 x 14 inches, and is a part of the Johnston collection donated to the library of the College of William and Mary in Virginia by Hon. Robert M. Hughes, a nephew of Joseph Johnston. Through the courtesy of Dr. E. G. Swem, college librarian, the journal is here reproduced exactly as written except for the employment of punctuation marks and capitalization for clarity.
A plat of the survey, in seven sections, is a part of the Kansas State Historical Society's map collection. It was an 1878 accession from former-governor James M. Harvey and assisted materially in the preparation of notes for the journal. Presumably it is the copy provided the office of the secretary of the territory in compliance with the act of congress relative to the survey. The trail of the wagon train as it meandered about the thirty-seventh parallel to the New Mexican boundary line and as it returned through the confines of present-day Oklahoma is clearly shown.
The supply train which was due on the Santa Fe trail August 31, near the end of the line, was delayed, and part of the command was dispatched nearly 80 miles toward Fort Leavenworth to meet it.16
15. Joseph Eccleston Johnston was born at Cherry Grove, Va., February 3, 1807. He was graduated at West Point on July 1, 1829. Following the customary advancements for meri- torious service, he attained the rank of lieutenant -colonel of the First cavalry March 3, 1855, and was in command of the surveying party sent to mark the southern boundary of Kansas in 1857. On June 28, 1860, he was made quartermaster general of the army with the rank of brigadier general, but resigned April 22, 1861, after Virginia seceded. He was then made major general of Virginia volunteers and later full general in the Confederate service. He died on March 21, 1891, in Washington, D. C.
16. Letter from the Secretary of War, house of representatives, 35th Cong., 1st sess., Ex. Docs., No. 103.
MILLER: KANSAS BOUNDARY LINE SURVEY 107
A report from friendly Kiowas that a large band of Cheyennes was in the vicinity sent the troops scouring the countryside while the surveyors were completing their work, but the search was futile.
Final calculations on the line were made September 10. The corner stone was established on that date near the source of Willow creek, a small tributary of the Cimarron river. Total distance from the Missouri border was 462 miles, 1,001 feet.17
The homeward march was begun September 20. A copy of a letter from Colonel Johnston to the adjutant general, June 5, indicated that the party would return via Crawford's Seminary.18 Receipt of a communication September 8 from John B. Floyd, Secretary of War, dated May 5, 1857, directed Colonel Johnston to ascertain the most practicable route for a railroad from the initial point of the boundary to the Rio Grande.19 The tardy delivery of the message prohibited a thorough exploration of the terrain, but, obviously as a result of this order, Colonel Johnston split the caravan when it reached the juncture of Buffalo creek with the Cimarron river in order that the two divisions might examine more territory on their return. Captain Wood was instructed to lead the wagon train back to the Missouri line. Colonel Johnston, with a cavalry company, turned south to the bend of the Canadian river near the ninety- ninth meridian, before again resuming the northeasterly trek to the southeast corner of Kansas.
II. ENTRIES FROM THE JOURNAL: MAY 16 TO OCTOBER 29, 1857.
May 16th. Left Fort Leavenworth about 11 o. c. A. M. with two companies 6th Infy (E & K — Capt. Garnett; Lieut. Smith & Mc- Lemore)20 & two squadrons 1st cavalry, with two-fifths of six- months provision. Cavalry officers: Capts. Wood, De Saussure, &
17. Methvin, J. J., "The Fly Leaf," Chronicles of Oklahoma, v. 6, pp. 348-349.
18. The letter, Johnston to Samuel Cooper, was copied on a flyleaf of the journal, now in possession of the College of William and Mary library. Crawford Seminary, a Quapaw mis- sion school of the M. E. Church, South, was established in the Quapaw Nation, March 27, 1843, and was named for T. H. Crawford, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1832-1845. About April, 1848, it was moved to a new site about five miles north, near and east of the present Baxter Springs, close to the north line of the Quapaw lands. This new site was on the military road from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Gibson, about five miles west of the Missouri line, and was the most southern post office on the government mail route in the territory from 1848 to 1863. See Mrs. Frank C. Montgomery's list of "Dead Towns of Kansas," Kansas State Historical Society. (Not published.)
19. House of representatives, 35th Cong., 1st sess., Ex. Docs., No. 103.
20. Infantry officers were : Capt. Richard Brooke Garnett, who became a brigadier general, C. S. A., and was killed July 3, 1863, at the battle of Gettysburg; Lieut. Benjamin Franklin Smith, who was made a brigadier general of volunteers in the Union army, and Lieut. Owen Kenan McLemore, who went into the Confederate army as a lieutenant colonel, and died from wounds, September 14, 1862. Heitman, Francis B., Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, v. 1.
108 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Anderson; Lieuts. Bell, Otis, Thompson, Ingraham & Taylor.21 1,000 bushels of corn had been sent forward 200 miles by Capt. Beall.22 Forage for 12 days accompanied the party. Three Dela- ware guides were employed: Jim Connor, Benjamin Love & George Washington (the last name probably selected by the bearer) . The 1st encampment was on 9 Mile creek.
May 17th. Marched at 7 o. c. The Corny train which had started on the 15th & the two companies of Infy with their wagons were sent to the Delaware Crossing.23 The rest of the party went to Tola's ferry. Companies F & K with the prairie guns, crossed. So did the Infantry at the lower ferry.
May 18th. Companies C & I crossed, the latter at the lower ferry, & joined the other four near the Baptist church on the Califor- nia road,24 where we waited for the Corny & forage wagons which came up about 9 A. M.
May 19th. The whole party encamped on Indian creek, where Dr. Wright joined it, about 13 miles from the ferries.
May 20th. Passed Little Santa Fee,25 about 2 miles from Camp. 4 miles further a branch of the Big Blue. A mile further the Big Blue. Four M. further wood & water on the left. Four further crossed the head of Grand river.26 Encamped 2% M. further on a small branch, at the upper timber.
May 21st. March at 6h 45m. Crossed a small stream at 7h 45m & at noon reached Sugar creek27 & encamped.
May 22d. Misled by the guides through West point Mo.28 5 M. from camp. A mile from it, passed into the valley of the Marais des Cygnes, crossing several of its small branches. Troublesome.
21. Captains of the cavalry were: Thomas John Wood, who remained in the Union army and retired with the rank of brigadier general ; William Davie De Saussure, who joined the Confederate army as a colonel, and was killed July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg, and George Thomas Anderson, who became a Confederate brigadier general. Lieutenants of the cavalry were: David Bell, who died December 2, 1860 ; Elmer Otis, who became a colonel, U. S. A. ; John A. Thompson, who followed the same flag to attain the rank of major; Edward Ingraham, who became a Confederate captain; and Joseph Hancock Taylor, who reached the rank of a colonel, U. S. A. Ibid.
22. Capt. William N. R. Beall joined the Confederate army and reached the rank of a brigadier general. Ibid., p. 203.
23. Delaware crossing was at the mouth of Delaware creek, about seven miles west of the Missouri border on the Kansas river. The stream is now known as Mill creek, Wyandotte township, Wyandotte county.
24. The Baptist church was located about three miles west of the Missouri border, and about the same distance south of the Kansas river, on a trail leading from Westport, Mo., to California.
25. Little Santa Fee or New Santa Fe is near the state line in Jackson county, Missouri.
26. Grand river rises in northeastern Miami county and is a tributary of the Osage river.
27. Sugar creek has its source in the east central part of Miami county and flows south, emptying into the Marais des Cygnes river in Linn county.
28. West Point, Mo., was about three miles east of the old Fort Lea venworth- Fort Scott- Fort Gibson military road, a trail followed by the caravan for a considerable distance. The old town site was north of the present city of Merwin, Bates county, Missouri.
MILLER: KANSAS BOUNDARY LINE SURVEY 109
Crossed the stream (at the lower crossing) & encamped about a mile from the ford at noon, on a small tributary. Twenty-five Corny wagons remained on the N. side.
May 23d. A fatigue party deployed until 7h 30m in assisting the wagons which had encamped on the N. side, in crossing. Marched at 8h. Crossed in 1% mile, a bold little stream. 3% miles further a creek in timber & a small tributary on the S. At 10 on summit of "divide." At 12 crossed (in timber) a branch of the Osage. In three miles the little Osage.29 Encamped a mile from it, on a little branch.
May 24th. Marched at 7 A. M. At 8h 5' halted at a little prairie stream (or rather succession of pools) to water. In motion again at 8h 30'. Crossed the Marmiton30 at 9h 50'. Fort Scott at lOh. En- camped at llh 30' on a small creek which looks as if it might be dry in summer. Heavy rain in the afternoon & evening. Coal found in the bank of the creek.
May 25th. On account of rain of yesterday, started at 10. At eleven crossed a stream with wood on its banks. At llh. 40' crossed the big Dry Wood. Stream rising rapidly, so that only 3 or 4 of the Compy wagons were able to cross. Encamped on a bold stream 3 miles further, to "wait for the wagons."
May 26th. Moved at 9h 10'. Road parallel to the stream two miles. At four, about a thousand yards from it. At llh watered at a prairie stream. A patch of timber a half M. below (east). In motion again at llh 35'. At Ih halted to encamp on a creek in which the water lay in deep pools. No wood. Timber visible about two miles to S. W. Coal visible in the channel of the creek.
May 27th. Marched at 7h 10'. In a half hour opposite to the wood mentioned yesterday & about a mile from it. The wood of an- other creek almost parallel to the road from this point. At 8h 20' halted to water at such a creek as that at the last encampment. At 8h 45' in motion. At lOh 50' at Cow creek. At 12h 45' reached & encamped on a wet-weather stream with abundance of wood. Coal in its bed also. Rain before night.
May 28th. Waited until 9h 10' to let tents & the surface of the ground dry. At lOh 30' the party left the Mil. Road to avoid spring river. I followed that road. Crossed the river at the mouth of Shoal creek, at llh 45'. At Ih 15' passed the Agency, once Crawford Seminary, & in an hour's ride up "five miles creek," reached Mr.
29. The Little Osage river, flowing eastward through northern Bourbon county.
30. Marmaton river.
110 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Clark's Camp. Found his position established (in lat:) by satis- factory observations. Extreme difference between means of the results of each of three nights being 0" 18. Found the party en- camped on a creek a half mile N. of Baxter's,31 the 2d below the road. Coal abundant in the neighborhood. A strong Calybeate spring32 at Baxter's (or rather two near each other), each rising in the vertex of an obtuse cone of red mud.
May 29th. Moved to the edge of the wood opps to the ford near Baxter's. Mr. Clark fixed his meridian, about 150 ft. W. of the Missouri line. Gave it to Mr. Weysse on
May 30th. Mr. Weysse commenced work on the line. Marked the initial point 5,770 ft. north of Mr. Clark's observation. The Missouri line is marked by blazing trees on a breadth of from ten to twenty feet, so that we had no mode of fixing the initial point accurately with reference to it.
May 31st. Mr. Weysse commenced running & marking the Kan- sas line. The wood being thick & the ground broken, his progress was slow. About a mile & one monument.
June 1st. Moved the camp about a mile S. Mr. Clark established his observatory by it (N). Mr. Weysse at work on the line. Mr. Kennerly33 moved his camp to within about a mile of "the Agency" on five mile creek.
June 2d, 3d, 4th & 5th. Mr. Clark established another astronom- ical point34 & Mr. Weysse reached the prairie W. of Spring river & connected his work with it & measured iy2 miles beyond.
June 6th. Heavy rain in the morning. Mr. Clark moved his observatory to the W. side of the Neosho. Troops moved about 7% miles to Tar creek,35 to which the line was measured.
June 7th. The troops encamped on Russell's Ck36 about 4 miles from the ford of the Neosho near Mr. Clark. Mr. Weysse crossed Four Miles creek, on which Mr. Kennerly made his camp.
31. Home of A. Baxter, a squatter, and a Universalist missionary. His claim, lying along Spring river in Cherokee county on the military road, was a favorite camping place for trav- elers. Later, the townsite of Baxter Springs was located here. See Kansas Historical Col- lections, v. 7, p. 245, and Allison, N. T., History of Cherokee County, pp. 35, 152. A cor- respondent of the Missouri Democrat, quoted in the Lawrence Herald of Freedom, June 27, wrote of the assembling party as follows: "The surveyors are already on the ground and prepared for running the southern boundary line ; their duties to commence about first proximo, and continue during the season. Surveyors, commissioners, dragoons — more than one hundred wagons with their teamsters — a thousand horses and mules! Such are a few of the require- ments for running the line of the state. . . ."
32. Chalybeate springs — impregnated with salts of iron. 83. Mr. Kennerly probably heads the wagon train.
34. Astronomical station was located about % mile south of Baxter Springs.
35. Camp was established one mile south of line on Tar creek, nearly midway between the Neosho and Spring rivers.
36. This stream funs nearly parallel to the line (in Oklahoma) and empties into the Neosho river 1^ miles from the boundary.
MILLER: KANSAS BOUNDARY LINE SURVEY 111
June 8th. The cavalry started at 10 A. M. for Camp Snow37 twenty miles W. where we have 800 bushels of corn. Mr. Weysse reached the Neosho too late, when it was rising rapidly and no longer fordable. Rained all night.
June 9th. River still rising. Another rain at night.
June 10th. Mr. Weysse's surveying party crossed the river in a canoe. Ran the line about % mile in the bottom. On the llth, reached Mr. Clark's station. On the 12th, Mr. C. gave the Meridian & the new tangent was established. The river falling, but not ford- able.38
June 13th. Mr. Clark went to (started) the west side of the Ver- digris. Neosho not fordable. Two fords above examined, near Roger's & Magee's. Said to be shallower than the lower one.
June 14th. McMaster employed to guide Mr. Kennerly to Ma- gee's ford. Reached the camp so late that the wagon couldn't get nearer to the ford than a mile. Mr. Weysse's party crossed in the canoe in the afternoon & worked two or three hours.
June 15th. Mr. Kennerly crossed the river during the forenoon (including cutting a road) & went about 7 miles. Encamped in the prairie on a rain-water stream. Capt. Garnett moved to the same ground. Mr. Weysse made about 6 miles on the line, passing the 30th [mile] . The line marked this side of the Neosho, with a mound (conical) at the end of every mile; a stake in the center with the distance marked on its east face, & the letter K on the north. The mounds two feet high, except every sixth, which is four. The line to-day parallel to Russell's creek & from half to three quarters of a mile from it. The country gently undulating & soil rich black loam, limestone showing itself occasionally. Wood showing itself two or
37. On Snow Camp creek, which crosses the border four miles east of the Verdigris river.
38. A letter from the Neosho river, dated June 11, was published in the Lawrence Herald of Freedom, July 11. It was signed by "Camanche," a member of the expedition, and is herewith quoted in part: "This morning four companies of cavalry and one of infantry struck tents and, together with seventy-five wagons laden with supplies, took up their line of march westward across the prairie toward the Verdigris river, thirty miles distant, where they will again encamp until they shall be joined by those in the rear. The services of the military portion of the expedition being wholly unneeded at this early stage of the route, they are enabled to make more rapid progress than the scientific corps and those in immediate attendance thereon.
"Messrs. Clark and Campbell, who have charge of the astronomical calculations, are now encamped on the western bank of the river, near the mouth of Russell's creek, where they must, of course, remain until an observation can be had. Yesterday the surveyors struck the eastern shore, near the mouth of Fly creek, where they are detained by reason of high water, the Neosho having been swollen by recent heavy rains. Every twenty -four hours we are favored with one or more heavy storms of wind and rain accompanied by thunder and light- ning; and at this writing, the Neosho is rising and rolling rapidly. At this point, owing to a sudden bend in the river, the line will run for a distance of three miles, directly through the heavily timbered bottom, which being now covered by water, is impassible; therefore a de- tention of several days must be endured. And here the great thoroughfare from the vast lead region and Grand Falls in S. W. Missouri, which has been greatly improved by the passage of this expedition along the route, crosses the Neosho, whence a good carriage road has been opened along the southern boundary to its western extremity. . . ."
112 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
three miles to the S. E. on the crest of a ridge beyond the creek. The wood of the creek terminates opposite to the camp. Heavy rain in the afternoon & night.
June 16th. Mr. Weysse made near 7 miles stopping on the "divide" between 12 Miles creek & an affluent of the Verdigris, the latter running to the S. W. in a broad & beautiful valley, the West- ern side of which is abrupt; wood scattered through it. The surface of the country like that passed over yesterday. A 2d wood visible to the S. E. of that seen from the last camp. Found Mr. Kennerly & the two companies encamped on 12 Miles Ck near the road. The 37th mile passed.
June 17th. The ground more broken than yesterday. After cross- ing the valley mentioned yesterday, the line follows the "divide" be- tween a branch of that valley & Su-ka-tunk [Turkey creek] . The camp was fixed by Capt. G. near (about a half mile above) Camp Snow. Parallel to this creek (the portion below Camp Snow) is an- other, some 3 miles to the N. W. The wood skirting it visible from its mouth to a point nearly N. of Camp Snow, from a hill W. of the latter. Its Osage name is Watunk a kashink (Pumpkin creek). The 44th mile was marked. The line passes near two miles S of Camp Snow. The soil passed over rich like that of yesterday. Mr. Clark observed dis: Z. D. of 10 prs. of stars.
June 18th. Capt. G. marched at 9 A. M. following Capt. Wood's road, it being ascertained from Joe Spaniard that the left-hand one, which is nearest to our course, terminates at the wood on this side of the Verdigris. 6 M. from camp crossed the Wa tunkakashink at a very bad ford, thence to the ford of the Verdigris, 3 M. The mouth of Nenetunk [Big Spring creek] is just above the ford. An Osage village of 27 huts, a half mile west of the ford.39 The inhab- itants buffalo hunting. Two miles to the S. is Niskeokaka (Salt creek) coming from the west; well wooded.40 Found Capt. Wood encamped on the south side near its mouth. Mr. Clark, a mile to the S. W.; by his observations of the night before 19" north of the line. The most beautiful district of Kansas visible from a hill % M. S. of his observatory. Mr. Weysse reached the wood skirting the river on the E. Mr. Clark observed Z. D. of 14 prs. of stars.
June 19th. Looked for a route westward, accompanied by Lt. Bell, who had ridden over the ground. Went to the crest of the
39. The Osage village was located in what is now the northwest part of the city of Coffey- ville, Montgomery county.
40. Description fits that of present-day Onion creek.
MILLER: KANSAS BOUNDARY LINE SURVEY 113
dividing ridge this side of the Little Verdigris,41 from which every- where S. of the line the country appeared to be much more broken & wooded than that east of the Verdigris.
Mr. Weysse crossed the river. The dis. to the E. bank: 52 miles, 1,400 ft.
Night cloudy. A little rain. No ast'l observations.
June 20th. Mr. Weysse came up to Mr. Clark's camp at noon (about 5 M. back to the river) . Night not favorable. 8 prs. of stars observed.
June 21st. The party (except Capt. Wood's company left to fol- low with Mr. Weysse) moved at 9 A. M. Lt determined & Medn fixed by 10. Mr. Weysse's line [omission] ft. S. of astl pt., the route taken along the dividing ridge between the Piematunk & the Niskeokaka as far as the divide & between the Main & E. b. of Little Verdigris.42 A large body of timber on the left. A mag- nificent view from the summit of the ridge, about 9 miles from the last camp. A wide valley on the west, that of the Little Verdigris enlarged by several intermediate tributaries. The country beyond wooded & broken. Encamped on the nearest branch, about 4 M. further.
June 22d. Marched at 10 A. M. preceded by a pioneer party of 20 under Lt. Thomson. In 5 miles reached the Little Verdigris. Pioneers employed some 2 hours in making a road across it. The ford S. of the line. Moved on a little S. of W. to avoid rugged hills. In 4 M. another creek (water stagnant) which employed the pio- neers an hour. 5 M. further encamped on a creek, Cow-a-wha (horse head) having a very deep channel, 1^ M. N. of its mouth in a stream W. branch (largest) of the Little Verdigris, the valley of which seems to come from a little N. of W. An Osage trail apparently crossing the little Verdigris S. of our ford, was struck 2 M. from the latter & followed to camp. The country, especially to the N., very broken. A good deal of oak in the heights. Obser- vations on B. U. M. & B. Librae showed our camp to be in Lat: 37° 58' 20".
June 23d. After crossing the creek went about 20° N. of W. (the Osage trail bearing S. of W.) 2 M. to the top of a ridge from which the route entered & followed the valley of a small creek, which was crossed 3 M. further, then passed over a rugged ridge covered with
41. The Little Verdigris, as described here by Colonel Johnston, is now known as the Little or North Caney creek where it crosses the boundary.
42. Between the Verdigris river and Little or North Caney creek.
8—2345
114 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
post oak 12 M. into the valley of a middle branch of the Little Verdigris some 2 M. above its junction with the S. one which seemed to come from the S. W. Both broad, well wooded & deep. Followed this valley a little N. of W. 7 M. & encamped. The channel of the stream very deep; the water accessible at very few points. Lat: as determined with the sextant by Mr. Clark, 37° 00' 12". A large valley enters this one from the S. which has its course from the W., a mile above the junction.
June 24th. Mr. Thomson reported a ford a mile above & an easy route from it to and along the ridge between the vallies & made a road thro' the river bottom.43 Capt. Anderson & Lt. Ingraham followed the ridge 15 miles, finding it nearly due west in its course, & a good route. Moved camp in the afternoon to its point, between the branch & main stream. Mr. Clark fixed his observatory; com- menced operations.44 The additional obser. made 25 and 26th were thought sufficient. The Meridian was marked.
June 27th. Moved 1% mile up the creek, crossing it. Saw Mr. Weysse in the afternoon, in the N. edge of the valley, 4% miles below.
June 28th. Capt. Anderson, with Compy I & the pioneers, went forward to reconnoitre & make a road. Mr. Weysse connected his line with the astronomical point; his tangent 1,531 feet N. of the pt fixed astronomically. Capt. Wood came into the camp with his company.
June 29th. Left Capt. De Saussure with compy F to escort Mr. Weysse & moved with the other five on Capt. A's road. Found that he had left the "divide" after 4 or 5 miles, to enter & follow the creek on the north, two or three miles from the line.45 The troops followed to his camp. I followed the dividing ridge about 12 Miles opposite to where I supposed his camp to be, then turned to the creek. Found the camp 3 M. below. Moved it up to where I had struck the creek. Our last camp was just with the timbered country. The march to-day was in prairie. The dividing ridge opposite is a plateau about 300 feet above this valley; the sides very abrupt & rocky. Limestone near the summit. The distance by the road to the last camp said to be 16 miles.
June 30th. Muster & inspection between 7 & 9 A. M. Moved up
43. The Big Caney crosses the boundary three times, in two miles, in central Chautauqua county, and caused the party considerable trouble.
44. The observatory was established in Oklahoma, one- quarter mile southwest of Elgin Kan.
45. The troop train followed Rock creek, which flows east from Cowley county, emptying into the Big Caney above Hewins.
MILLER: KANSAS BOUNDARY LINE SURVEY 115
a branch about 2^ miles S. to the plateau & turned then due west. Soon found that the slopes on the left are those of the Arkansas. Encamped on the W. side of a small creek (Ne-is-ka-bi-ka-kha or Spring creek) after bridging it.46 The slopes on this side of the dividing ridge are comparatively gentle. This valley broad & rich. A good deal of timber below (S. S. W.), apparently. Mr. Clark observed with his sextant & found our position to be % M. S. of the line.
July 1st. Marched at S1/^ due west, after turning a branch which enters the Ck a little below the pt at which our camp had been. Four miles from camp crossed a little stream; clear, cool water, skirted with wood. 2 M. further a canon with a clear stream. 7 M. further, after crossing two gentle ridges & a broad valley, encamped on the W. side of a little creek lined with timber, in a very narrow valley, l1^ M. from its mouth in the Arkansas. The soil passed over to-day is much like that E. of the Verdigris. The grass knee high & very thick & fresh looking.
July 2d. Moved into the timbered bottom. The Infantry made a ferry boat, under Capt. Garnett's direction, of four of the metallic wagon beds. Crossed & encamped on the W. bank, the loads of more than half the wagons carried over in the boat. The wagons forded a half mile below. Mr. Ingraham sent up the valley of river, crossed a clear creek 3 miles above the ferry & a much larger one 9 M. further, both coming from the N. E.47 The river valley here is about a half mile wide, very sandy. The surface irregular. Mr. Clark crossed immediately after the infantry. The course of the valley a little W. of S. from the mouth of the creek 3 M. above, to a point about 4 M. below.
July 3d. Mr. Taylor went down the river on the west side about 10 M. & made in the afternoon a sketch of it & its little tributaries. The 3 companies of cavalry crossed after the remainder of the corny wagons & encamped above the ferry. Mr. Clark fixed his observatory on a hill 1 M. N. of camp & about a half M. S. of the line. The neighbouring country resembles very much that E. of the Verdigris.
July 4th. National salute fired by "Taylor's Battery," the troops being under arms, at noon.48 Capt. De Saussure arrived, with his
46. One of the streams now known as Beaver creek rising in southeastern Cowley county and flowing south into Oklahoma.
47. Lieutenant Ingraham crossed Grouse creek and Walnut river, in Cowley county.
48. The troops were encamped slightly over five miles east of Chilocco, Okla., on Inde- pendence day.
116 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
company about 3 o. c. P. M., reporting the surveyors have sent back a guard for their camp.
July 5th. Mr. Kennerly's wagons in sight at 8 A. M. A party detailed to assist him in crossing. Mr. Weysse in sight at 10. Mr. W. triangulated across the river. Mr. Clark's observations very satisfactory. His observatory 2,601 ft. S. of 37°.
July 6th. Mr. Clark's obsv of last night excellent. Pioneers moved at 8%. Troops started under Capt. Wood at lOh A. M. The Meridian marked & 2,601 ft. measured northward on it. Mr. Weysse unwell. Capt. Anderson & his company left to escort the surveyors. Instructed to lead the unmounted men every day with the party on the line. Found the camp on the Ni-hi-pa [Good-for-nothing creek], about 14 miles from the Arkansas. The road crossed the Bay-Chay-ne-ata49 at about 7 miles. The dividing ridge between the Ck & river very broad & low. The grass on it thick & luxuriant. Soil, black loam. Limestone shows itself in the bluffs on the river. The Ck is marked by a line of trees about 8 M. The dividing ridge between the last Ck & this one is also low and broad with very gentle slopes. The top of it dry with poor thin grass; in the valley vegetation is fresh. Another branch of the Ck heading a mile E. is indicated by a strip of wood, like this one. They seem to join l1/^ M. southward & probably flow into what Joe says the Osages call the Little Arkansas: the Red fork as Col. Boone calls it.50
July 7th. March at 9 A. M., an hour after the pioneers, crossing the Ck a little above the camp & a branch of it coming in from the W. I/A M. further. After crossing a gentle ridge, another Ck 1% M. from camp. Our route then crossed a plateau 5 or 6 miles wide, the soil of which seemed very dry & the grass thin. Another Ck, the wood of which commences % M. S. of the road; 7% M. from camp. Then another low ridge & broad rich valley in which we crossed two branches of a Ck % M. apart,51 the 2d 10 M. from
49. Bache-e-ne-o-ta or Whisky-drinking creek.
50. The "Little Arkansas" and "Red Fork" refer to the stream now known as the Salt Fork of the Arkansas river. Col. Nathan Boone, whom Colonel Johnston cites, made a cir- cuitous trip from Fort Gibson (eastern Oklahoma) in 1843, along the Arkansas river, crossing into Kansas in Harper county and traveling as far north as McPherson and Barton counties before heading south again, touching at the Cimarron and Canadian rivers on his return. Nathan Boone was the youngest son of Daniel Boone, famous Kentucky pioneer. He moved with his family in 1796 into the present borders of Missouri, and grew into manhood there. At the outbreak of the War of 18i2 President James Madison commissioned him captain of a company of Missouri volunteers. When Missouri was admitted to statehood under the pro- visions of the Missouri compromise of 1820 Nathan Boone was elected delegate to the state constitutional convention. Later, when the First regiment of United States Dragoons was or- ganized, Boone quit politics and accepted a captaincy with that unit. After twenty years' service he retired, with the rank of lieutenant colonel, to a Missouri farm, where he died January 12, 1857. For a copy of Boone's journal and a map of the route traversed, see Chronicles of Oklahoma, v. 7, pp. 58-105.
51. Forks of Shoo Fly creek.
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camp. From the table land just mentioned, a broad valley is visible 3 or 4 M. to the south, a line of timber in it indicating a considerable stream. The Cks crossed yesterday & to-day have not running water. A slight ridge in which (E. side) soft whitish limestone ap- pears, separates this valley from that mentioned above. After riding in it across more than 3 M. came to a small river flowing from N. W., clear, with a sandy & deep channel.52 It joins 3 or 4 M. E. S. E. another of nearly the same size, but less clear, flowing nearly from the west.53 The grass in the low bottom land (the valley first men- tioned is a 2d bottom) is in some places very luxuriant; in others, like much of that passed over to-day, thin & burnt. The country this side of the Arkansas seems to have [been] much frequented by buffalo until the last two or three weeks. The soil is easily washed ; every little hollow has a deep gully. The channels of the creeks are very deep. The bank of this river wherever the stream strikes the side of the bottom, is perpendicular & 30 or 40 ft. high, of red clay. A spring of cool water found, as usual.
July 8th. Marched at S1/^, 1% hours after the pioneers. The route lay for 4 M. in the 2d bottom, then crossed the S. branch of the Ne-shu-che-sink & was carried so near its valley on the S. as to cross innumerable spurs & ravines.54 The soil, red clay, apparently sterile. Limestone visible occasionally. Passed the red bluff seen ahead yesterday at 10^2- Just opposite to it the Ck seemed to fork, one branch coming from the N.,55 the other pafssing] a little N. of W. Encamped on the last timber of a S. branch of the latter 1% M. from the main valley, & 14 from the last camp, % M. from our course. Wood within sight 4 or 5 M. to the S. when we turned off. Water very near, lying in pools which have been frequented by buffalo very lately. A party of 30 or 40 Osages of the band of Big head & Black Dog,56 made us a visit while we were pitching tents, under Big Head & Shun-ma-lo. Gave them a little hard bread & sugar. They asked for more sugar, coffee & tobacco, & thought people who travel without a supply of the latter to give away, very improvident. They informed us that some of their people were hunting Comanches & that another party would set off in a few
52. Chikaskia river.
53. Bluff creek and Fall creek become one, before crossing the boundary line and join the Chikaskia four miles south of Hunnewell, Kan. (in Oklahoma), all emptying into the Salt Fork of the Arkansas river about 25 miles south.
54. This creek is now known as Bluff creek.
55. Fall creek.
56. A party of Osages under Black Dog met the Nathan Boone expedition in southern Pratt county on June 27, 1843. See Boone's journal, Chronicles of Oklahoma, v. 7, p. 88.
118 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
days, to join in the war. They had heard of no Comanches this year.
July 9th. Marched at 8h 10' due west, soon getting upon a plateau near 6 M. wide. 8 M. from camp crossed a small stream in a very slight valley. A mile further another with a single cotton- wood in sight. The first on slaty limestone. The red clay was much washed by the rain. After crossing a broad ridge near 3 M. wide we came to a lower country with much fresher vegetation. That passed before is parched by the sun. Encamped after marching 18 M. on a ravine containing a few pools of muddy water.57 Hot south wind all day.
July 10th. Marched at 8h 35', a range of sand hills on our left which our route gradually approached. Jim Conner says that "the salt" is beyond it. The end of it was passed 6 M. from camp. I turned to the left to see the country from the range of S. hills. The country from the last pt low & sandy. A creek crossed at 3 M. I overtook the party at another 3 M. further & turned it back to en- camp on the first, opposite to "the salt." Said to be 5 or 6 M. to the south. Mr. Clark prepared to observe.58 Rain soon after tents were pitched.
July llth. A buffalo hunt; two bulls, two cows & three calves killed. Mr. Clark made obsns on 12 prs. of stars. A little rain in the morning.
July 12th. Started at 8h 45' to the salt plain59 accompanied by the Hon. J. S. Phelps, his nephew Mr. Eno, Capt. Garnett & Lts. Otis & Thomson. Rode S. 8 miles to a range of sand hills on which there is a growth of low cottonwood. From the top of one of these hills the salt was seen 5 or 6 miles to the S. Continued on that course. A mile before reaching it, crossed a stream of fresh water in a broad shallow channel. The plain is about 4 miles in extent, formed probably by the filling up of a lake. It is a bed of sand in which the salt water coming from the river above is absorbed, ap- pearing in occasional pools generally filled with crystallized salt. The higher parts are covered with a thin efflorescence, not clean enough for use. Found several broad & shallow dry channels en- tering the plain from the West & one small stream of salt water. The cavalry sent to encamp 4 M. further west for better grazing. Hot south wind.
67. Encampment was made in southern Spring township, Harper county. 58. Observatory set up one-half mile south of the line on Sandy creek, Alfalfa county, Oklahoma.
69. Salt plain visited on July 12 was in Alfalfa county, Oklahoma.
MILLER: KANSAS BOUNDARY LINE SURVEY 119
July 13th. Waiting for surveyors & astronomical point. Hot south wind.
July 14th. Hon. Mr. Phelps left camp with Mr. Eno to return home.60 Compy I & Mr. Kennedy's party came into camp at 1 p. m. Mr. Weysse in the evening. Hot, south wind.
July 15th. March 10 miles to a clear stream of sweet water in a broad channel shallow & sandy.61 The valley nearly a mile wide. The sandy country ended about the middle of the march, the latter half of it over a dry hard soil and gentle undulating country. Mr. Weysse's line brought up before sunset. The hot wind repeated*
July 16th. Mr. Weysse desired not to move. Marched at 8h 30', 17% miles over a plateau in which we crossed several ravines along which are scattered cottonwoods. The first, 5 M. from camp, is moist and sandy. The two last contain chains of pools of clear & slightly brackish water. Encamped on the W. side of the last. The plateau has been much frequented by buffalo. The soil very hard & dry, covered with very short buffalo grass. The south wind hotter & stronger than ever.
July 17th. March at 8h 40'. In 2 M. crossed a dividing ridge from which a broad valley is visible, on the farther side of which we could see abrupt hills of red clay. At 6 M. passed a Ck with pools of water & a little timber. At 8 M. reached the river of the salt plain, in a valley of % M. wide; sandy & sterile.62 The channel 50 yds. in breadth. A bed of sand saturated with water. No stream. The grass in the valley thin ; a little timber, principally elm & cot- tonwood. ll/2 mile further encamped on a little Ck resembling the river in character. A high cliff of red clay over hanging the creek opposite the camp. The country passed over to-day a desert, like that of yesterday, & indeed the 3 previous days March. Cool water, but brackish (68°), obtained by digging 7 ft. in the "bottom."
July 18th. Marched at 8h 30', following for 12 M. the ridge dividing the valley of the river from that of the camp of last night.
60. Mr. J. S. Phelps, Missouri congressman, returned after reaching the present Harper- Barber county line. An article published in The Missouri Republican, St. Louis, August 15, reprinted in the Kansas Tribune, Topeka, September 5, 1857, and the Lawrence Herald of Freedom, September 12, said: "Maj. Phelps was in this city yesterday on his way to the East. He accompanied Col. Johns [t]on's expedition to survey and mark out the southern boundary of Kansas, for about 220 miles west of the Missouri boundary line. When he left, the expedition was making good progress, expecting to complete their work and return by the month of November. The command had met with no interruption whatever, and Col. Johns [t]on it is believed will make a very flattering report of the country over which he has passed and will have to pass hereafter. A well-marked road has been made by the number of wagons attached to this expedition and work done upon it at the crossing of streams and other difficult places. Hereafter there will be no difficulty in following this route to New Mexico and wood and water will be found in abundance."
61. Probably refers to the Medicine river.
62. Salt Fork of the Arkansas river.
120 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The country, red clay, intersected in every direction by hollows and deep ravines worn by rain water. The course of the dividing ridge being too southerly, left it & after marching 3 M. further over its spurs, encamped in a little grove of elm & cottonwood, on a creek percolating in sand. A few cedars seen in the heads of ravines near the top of the dividing ridge.
July 19th. Marched at 8h 30', the country less dry, the hills less abrupt, & the ravines less decided. After marching 12 M. we halted on the ridge between the valley of the Cimarron & that of the Salt Plain river. George Washington pointed out, a little E. of S. what he took to be the mouth of the Cimarron.63 Conner, when he came up, agreed with him. Turned to the left & encamped in a hollow with pools of fresh water & a line of cottonwoods in it. The top of the dividing ridge & those of the spurs near it are of pale yellow clay, having a thin covering of sandy soil. This yellow clay is shown in the ravines too, near the ridge. All the hollows near this ridge have lines of cottonwood & elm.
July 20th. Mr. Clark prepared to observe. Night cloudy. Ther- mometer at 4 P. M. 106°.
July 21st. Cavalry moved 1% M. to the north, for better grass & water.
July 22d. Went with Company I (Capt. A. & Mr. I.) to find the junction of the Cimarron & Red fork. Morning rainy. Started at lOh. Jim Conner, guide. Course, a little E. of S. 3h & 40' to the edge of the channel of the Cimarron opposite to the point of the cliff between the two rivers. Just 20' in riding across it at a brisk walk. A good deal of small drift in the channel. Near the middle we came to a thin crust of salt which gradually increased in thick- ness; then shallow & apparently stagnant salt water in which the salt is not less than an inch thick. Near the S. W. shore for 15 or 20 yards, the water was 6 or 8 inches deep & the salt several inches in thickness. Conner pointed out a cove to the S. E. on the farther side of the Red Fork as the point where the salt is thickest & hardest. In riding to it across the bed of the Red fork, we crossed two streams of very strong salt water each 15 or 20 yards wide with smooth swift current, on a bed of crystallized salt 3 or 4 inches thick. About the point which Conner showed, the salt lay in broad sheets between the running water & S. shore not in water. Several
63. Buffalo creek, originating in Harper county, Oklahoma, joins the Cimarron river to form what Colonel Johnston, and other members of his party, designated the Red Fork of the Arkansas river. Now, the whole length of the river, until it unites with the Arkansas river at Keystone, Okla., retains the name of Cimarron.
MILLER: KANSAS BOUNDARY LINE SURVEY 121
holes cut in them showed a thickness of not less than 8 inches. At one of these holes there is a very small discharge of salt water. The nearest approach we could find to the salt springs mentioned in Capt. Boone's journal. The ridge separating the two valleys is, for a mile, very narrow. A heavy stratum of transparent gypsum near the middle of its height makes cliffs on both sides.64 From the point, the Red fork is visible 10 or 12 miles below. Its course a little S. of E. ; the salt disappeared in a mile or mile & a half. Beyond, the reddish sand between high bluffs made a shore like the Mississippi.
We crossed the Red fork a half mile above the Cimarron, finding no change in the quantities of .water & salt. Encamped in the valley of a creek which has fine running water 10 or 12 miles off. Here, but two or three bitter pools. The grass destroyed by buffalo & grasshoppers.
July 23d. Moved up the Red fork. The appearance of salt & water diminished gradually & ceased [altogether about 2^ M. from the Cimarron. The valley from % to % M. wide. Quite green compared with the country we have been seeing for the last 100 M. A few hundred yards above the salt, I found a small pool of salt water. Some 3 miles further, abundant pools of fresh water were found in the channel. Between 5 & 6 miles from the fork, two little groves of wild China trees.65 Cottonwood occurs after 7 M. From this point turned N. N. E. & reached the salt plain of the Cimarron in about 5 M. No salt, the water percolating through the sand strongly saline. 4 M. from the plain, in the valley in which our camp lies, Jim Conner found a very bold boil- ing spring of cold water, near which we encamped.
July 24th. Moved up the ridge west of the valley. 2 M. from camp saw the troops & train moving westward, Mr. Clark's astro- nomical tent visible at the same time. Compy turned N. W. to join. I reached camp at 9%. Found the Pt satisfactorily de- termined. (39 Obns.) The Meridian marked & Lat. computed so that Mr. Weysse resumed his line westward about 12 M. I found
64. The above is a description of the salt marsh near Leafie, Okla., at the juncture of Buffalo creek with the Cimarron. John Bradbury in Thwaites' Early Western Travels, v. 6, pp. 192-193, says the "Grand Saline" is situated "between two forks of a small branch of the Arkansas, one of which washes its southern extremity; and the other, the principal one, runs nearly parallel, within a mile of its opposite side. It is a hard level plain, of reddish- colored sand, and of an irregular or mixed figure. Its greatest length is from northwest to southeast, and its circumference full thirty miles. . . . This plain is entirely covered in hot dry weather, from two to six inches deep, with a crust of beautiful clean white salt, of a quality rather superior to the imported blown salt; it bears a striking resemblance to a field of brilliant snow after a rain, with a light crust on its top. . . ." See, also, Nathan Boone's description in Chronicles of Oklahoma, v. 7, pp. 89-91.
65. A shade tree sometimes known as chinaberry, pride of India, bead tree, Indian or Persian lilac, etc.
122 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Capt. Wood, with the Cavalry, encamped 3 or 4 M. W. Capt. Garnett with the Infantry and Mr. Kennerly's party, 2 M. further.
July 25th. Capt. De Saussure reported the death of private Brown of Compy F last night. He was buried this morning. Marched at 9l/2. Came to the edge of the salt plain, after passing through a slight range of such sand hills, on a small scale, as those of Cape Cod, 4 M. from camp. Our route crossed a sort of bog of this plain, bordered E. & N. by the sand hills, then a green low sandy ridge _% M. wide, then the Cimarron (its channel waterless) 200 yds. wide. By digging a foot in the sand we found water very slightly brackish & near above, a pool of water nearly fresh. Above the line the valley turned almost westerly, the line itself gradually rising for 3 or 4 miles over very gentle spurs. The soil hard & dry. Buffalo grass short. 7 M. from the Cimarron we crossed a hollow having in it a few pools of water. 6 M. further, in the next hollow, we encamped on Pioneers Ck,66 the Cimarron apparently 3 or 4 miles to the N. A violent storm at night.
July 26th. Didn't move until 10 on account of the rain of last night. The crest of the ridge dividing the valley of the last camp from the next one W., the Cimarron on the right, a branch seem- ing to join it from the N. W. The line nearing the river. At 6 M. crossed a creek of swift, dark red water, the deep channel 60 or 80 yards wide.67 From the crest of the next hill saw the Cimarron on our course, the valley broad. A range of sand hills on each side, the northern one much the largest & covered (thinly) with scraggy cottonwoods. A stream of clear salt water at the -edge of the valley, the first sand hills separating it from the river valley. The chan- nel of the Cimarron 200 yards wide, water not visible; wet sand. Water about a foot below its surface, slightly brackish. The sand hills about 1% M. apart. A pond of strong salt water in the flat N. of the channel. At 15 M. Mr. Thompson's route led into the sand hills on the right. Waited there 1% hour for the wagons. They then appeared 3 M from [us] . Moved S. W. to the Cimarron 1% & encamped. The wagons came up at 5%. 7 M. of the day's march in deep mud or heavy sand generally. A little water running in the broad bed of the river. Thunder & heavy clouds in the west in the afternoon & evening. The pioneer party didn't come in. Jim Conner reported it 5 or 6 M. ahead.
66. Probably Snake creek, Cimarron township, Clark county.
67. The stream is now known as Redoubt creek. (Named for the redoubts built by the government for Indian protection in southern Clark county on the trail between Camp Supply and Fort Dodge.)
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July 27th. Marched at 9%, guided by Ben Love, to where he had passed the night with Mr. Thompson. Found him 6 M. off, at the W. edge [of] the very broad valley of the Cimarron which termi- nates here, beginning 12 or 15 M. below. A mile further reached the top of a high ridge from which the valley of a large Ck68 [was visible] & beyond it that of the Cimarron, could be seen crossing our course. Took the first to be that described by Jim Conner as rising near Fort Atkinson. The country broken. Deep gullies washed in the hillsides. Grass more abundant & green. 3 M more to Conner's branch, 15 yds. wide, running in a broad deep valley from the N. W. Destitute of wood, but very green. 4 more miles into • the valley of the Cimarron & one along it to camp. The valley % M. wide, without trees, but grass abundant & green.
•Just before we marched the channel of the Cimarron, about 200 yds. wide at our camp, & until then showing very little water, con- tained a stream near two feet deep entirely across it. Here the river is about 30 yds. wide, running freely, probably from the late rains, as the water contains a great deal of pale mud.
July 28th. Private Charlton of Compy C died at 2 A. M. & was buried at 9 o. c. this morning. Marched 7 miles due west up the valley, after crossing the stream. The lower slopes of the hills on the S. side very sandy. Left the valley immediately after crossing a broad arroya with a few cottonwoods on its banks. Marched about 5 M. over abrupt ridges, having the river in view on the right. Then turned N. W. 2 M. & encamped in the valley, the ap- pearance of which is unchanged.69 After we had encamped Ben Love reported a good spring in an arroya which we had crossed, 1 M. from camp.
July 29th. Marched up the valley at 8l/2. 6 M. from camp crossed a very large dry creek. The lower slopes of the hills sandy. At 8 M. from the last camp left the valley. After crossing several spurs, reached in 3 M. more, a plateau. Several ponds of rain water. Grass poor, very, the country a sandy desert. Very little buffalo "sign." Encamped 2*/2 M. further on some little ponds about which we found better grass. Storm of wind & rain at night.
July 30th. Mr. Thompson with 18 men besides two of the Dela- wares, sent forward to examine the country for 25 M. on our route. Three wagons sent back 14 or 15 miles for wood. They returned at
68. Crooked creek.
69. A notation on the surveyors' maps near the place of this encampment reports "No wood along the line from this point till after crossing the Santa Fe road. Dist. about 105 miles."
124 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the corporal in charge reported that the party had met & talked with (in Mexican) two Indians calling themselves Kioways & that Capt. Garnett's party had encamped on the river 8 or 9 M. from us. A little after 6 o. c. 4 of Capt. G.'s men, mounted on mules, arrived. They were sent, they said, to report that "the Indians had driven in the surveying party, killed the ambulance driver & driven off its two mules."70 Capt. De Saussure ordered with Jim Conner as guide, to go with his company to Capt. Gar- nett's camp to-night to take up the pursuit at daybreak. The messengers questioned could give account of but two Indians seen. Lieut. Ingraham was sent to ascertain the distance north to the Cimarron & its course. Reported the distance 7% M., course N. N. W. The plateau extends to the river valley.
July 31st. Mr. Thompson returned with his party at 2 p. m. Had gone nearly 30 M. due west, finding the plateau unbroken, plenty of water from the recent rains, & grass; but no fuel. No signs of buffalo, or any other animals than antelopes.
August 1st. Capt. Garnett's party arrived about 10. Mr. Weysse about 12. His account of the affair two days ago was, that two Indians joined his party from the front, shook hands with every- body. Gave them to understand partly in Mexican, partly in English, that they had talked with me & with Capt. G. & that they were going then to find a broken-down horse I had given them. They accompanied the party for some time, long enough to see who were armed, then took leave & went off to the rear. Soon re- joined, accompanying the party as before, watched their opportunity &, when the little wagon was hidden by a low ridge from the guard, shot the driver & drove off the vehicle at full speed, one riding on each side. The guard ran back, but when they reached the crest of the hill the Indians were at long gunshot. The soldiers, out of breath, fired without effect. After crossing the Cimarron, they cut the mules out of the harness, ransacked the wagon, cutting off some of the curtains, & drove off the two mules. They had thrown the driver, Le Clair, out, on stopping. He was probably dying, for when our men came out, his hand was grasping the single tree as if he had caught it in his fall & died instantly. Mr. W. corrected by the new astronomical determination & went on. We marched in the afternoon 4 miles to find better grazing & encamped near Capt. Garnett's party.
70. The skirmish occurred in the vicinity of the ranch kept by Geo. H. McCoy, thirty years later, at the most northern bend of the Cimarron in Meade county.
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Jim Conner came up before dark, reporting that he had left Capt. De Saussure on the Cimarron 2 or 3 miles above our last camp on it, & that Capt. Wood had, when he left, just encamped a little above Capt. D. The trail of the Indians (2, each with a led mule) had been followed about 33 miles E. of N. They had, after riding 6 or 7 miles, mounted the mules; had evidently traveled all night & were on their way to the gathering of Indians in the vicinity of Fort Atkinson to receive their annual presents. Capt. D. after becoming satisfied on this point, turned back, according to instructions. Poor Le Clair was probably killed with a gun & ammunition just presented to the savage by the strange policy of the Indian Department.
August 2. Capt. De Saussure came into camp just as we were about to move a half mile to get near more abundant water. En- camped on a comparatively large pond close to Capt. Garnett's road. His party had just passed. Capt. Wood came up at ll1^. A shell fish like the king crab found in the pond, about 2 inches long. A storm passed from N. to S. a few miles west of us.
August 3d. Marched at 8h 40'. In 5 or 6 miles found the ground very heavy from the rain of last night. Passed a great many ponds of several acres each, the country more level & less sandy. The place of the Infantry camp of last night 12 M. from their previous one. Marched 8 M. further & encamped, 300 or 400 yds. S. of the road on 3 or 4 little pools of rain water.71 Bois de vache abundant for the first time on this plateau.
August 4th. Marched 8h 40'. Appearance of the country un- changed for seven miles. Water abundant. Found Capt. G. just leaving camp at 6 M. The pools of water disappeared. Surface of the ground sand. This continued 15 M. In the next 3, the sand almost disappeared, the grass becoming fresher, even luxuriant. A good deal of what the Texans call Gramma grass.72 Encamped at the end of 24 miles on a large pool of good water. Another still larger % M. to the south.
August 5th. Remained in camp to give horses & mules the bene- fit of the good grazing. Mr. Weysse made 10 miles on the line, passing the camp [at] 7.
August 6th. Remained in camp for the sake of horses & mules. Directed Mr. Bell, with company K, to prepare to move southward to-morrow morning to look for the N. fork of the Canadian.
71. Encampment was south and slightly west of Liberal, just across the boundary line in Oklahoma.
72. Grama grass, a creeping grass, belonging to the genus Bouteloua.
126 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
August 7th. Marched at 8%. Mr. Bell & his company taking the Delawares, set off on his expedition. We found the plateau very flat for 10 or 12 miles, then it seemed to take the form of a ridge, very flat, the crest on the right. 8 or 9 M. further crossed this crest & had the valley of the Cimarron in view. After crossing the spurs of the dividing ridge for 6 M. encamped without water. The ground for the last 2 or 3 M. very sandy. Grass fresh, but coarse. A refreshing shower at night.
August 8th. Left the Infantry & surveyors & marched at 8h 22', 10 M. due west, the ground sloping gently toward the Cimarron, the valley of which seemed to be about 5 M. from camp & 2% from the 10 M. pt. Turned from this pt N. W. & encamped on the dry channel 15 or 20 ft. wide & 3 or 4 deep.73 The Santa Fe road 150 yds. N. of camp & a pool of water in the channel 400 yds. above. The bottom of the valley % M. wide. The slopes of the hills gentle. Obtained abundant water by digging 1 or 2 feet in the channel. The route to-day through loose sand. Mr. Weysse came into camp with his party a little after dark.
August 9th. Moved up the valley (by the Santa Fe road) 10 M., its character unchanged. Halted to fix an astronomical station. We had made so much southing that I thought we could not be north of the parallel. It turned out by Mr. Clark's observations, that we were 3' 43" S. of it.
August 10th. Marched down the valley at 8h 30' to place the ob- servatory near the parallel, which was done by moving nearly 5 miles.74 Met Capt. Garnett's party & also Mr. Weysse's, just at the point. A teamster dangerously wounded with a butcher knife & picket maul by another. Mr. Clark observed at night, also, August llth.
August 12th. Meridian marked & Mr. Weysse placed on its in- tersection with the parallel, about noon. March at Oh 50' to the point at which the road leaves the Cimarron & encamped at 2h 40'.
August 13th, 14th & 15th. Remained at this point waiting for the Santa Fe mail party to inquire concerning the supplies to be sent to us from Fort Leavenworth, expected at the end of August. This mail party arrived about noon on the last of the above dates. Heard from Dr. Geisler, U. S. A. & Capt. [A. A.?] Gibson, Mil. Storekeeper, that they had not left F. L. on the 24th July.
73. The party encamped approximately four miles west of the present Kansas-Colorado boundary.
74. The observatory was set up nearly nine miles west of the southwest corner of
MILLER: KANSAS BOUNDARY LINE SURVEY 127
Mr. Weysse running the line westward under protection of the two Infantry companies.
August 16th. A party of New Mexican Indian traders coming up the Cimarron, arrived about 7%. Waited until 9 o. c. to order [at the order of?] the general, while the men were buying moccasins, &c. The course up the valley 287° 30' for 10 miles. At 7 M. passed Capt. Garnett's first camp; at 12 M. the 2d. At 10 M. crossed Aubrey's road,75 above which the valley becomes narrow, the bluffs coming in close to it. These bluffs of sandstone. The valley very winding. Cottonwood in view everywhere above Aubrey's road. The soil very poor, grass scanty. At 15% M. found the Cimarron a bold running brook. Encamped 1% M. further. A Texan "wet" norther at night.
.August 17th. North wind with rain, all day. Remained in camp.
August 18th. Marched at 10. Found Capt. Garnett's camp within four miles. Four miles further the valley widens very much. At this point met Lt. Bell & his company. He had come down Cedar creek, which joins the Cimarron 3 miles above & is the larger stream.76 Encamped & rode up the Cimarron S. W. 3% & W. 2. Then N. 4 M. to a branch of the C. on which is a large (compara- tively) clump of cottonwoods & several deep pools of good water.
August 19th. Moved to the point last named. Mr. Ingraham, with 12 men, went up the creek, leaving camp at 7%, to examine its valley. Made at night, an unfavorable report.
August 20th. Moved up the Cimarron about 7 M. above Cedar Ck, then turned N. N. W. into a broad valley, & encamped 1% M. from its mouth.77 The ridge which divides it from the valley of the Cimarron twice as high as the hills east of it. The upper half of burnt sandstone. A scanty supply of water in a deep winding & muddy channel lined with young willows. The grass short & poor. The line crosses this valley about 3% M. from its mouth. Capt. Garnett remained at the camp of yesterday. Mr. Weysse's party came at night to our camp.
August 21st. Capt. Garnett's party came up. We encamped a mile further up the valley. Mr. Weysse reported at night that but
75. Aubrey's road or trail was named after the famous freighter Col. F. X. Aubrey, who went over this short cut in a record-breaking ride from Santa Fe to Independence. It crossed the Cimarron river about 25 miles from the southwest corner of Kansas. See Kansas Historical Collections, v. 7, p. 61.
76. Cedar creek rises south of the present town site of Mineral, Okla., and flows north into the Cimarron river.
77. Apparently Colonel Johnston's train turned up Carrizo creek, rising in Colorado, and encamped 1% miles from its mouth in the Cimarron. The troops remained in this valley until the morning of August 26.
128 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
1% M. remained to be run. Capt. Anderson & Mr. Ingraham spent the morning in looking for the best position for the final astro- nomical station & reported a good one within about 1% M. of the end of the line. Rain at night.
August 22d. Moved camp % M. north for better grazing, the grass in the country everywhere too poor & thin to permit us to occupy any one point for several days. A N. E. storm at night. August 23d. Storm continued & prevented another move. August 24th. Moved at 2 P. M. 1 M. N. E. Remained in this place.
August 25th. Mr. Clark encamped about 6 M. W. of camp to establish his final observatory.78
August 26th. Moved about 3 M. W. into the valley in which Mr. Clark is encamped.
August 27th. Mr. Ingraham (with a party of 13, including a corporal, of company I) sent to Cedar Spring79 to meet the upward Santa Fe mail to inquire concerning the train with our supplies. Moved camp 10 or 12 hundred yards up the valley for fresh grass. August 28th. Moved camp a few hundred yards to place the horses on fresh grass at night. Mr. Clark had made observations on the 3d pairs of stars. Very satisfactory. Set up transit instru- ment & prepared to observe moon culminations.
August 29th & 30th. Moved each day far enough to put the horses on fresh grass at night. Same 31st. Muster.
Sept. 1st. Mr. Ingraham returned at 11 A. M. The mail had passed Cedar Spring on the night of Aug. 30th. Left our train at Council Grove on the morning of the 19th. The conductor of the mail was told, he said, by the wagonmaster, to say to Col. Johnston that "the train would reach Cedar Spring in 20 days." Moved a few hundred feet. Left that place Sept. 3d to approach the Santa Fe road, down the Cimarron. Marched 12 miles. Rain at night.
Sept. 4th. Continued the march down the valley. Somewhat less than 8 miles below, turned out of it to the north. Encamped on a rocky ravine, after marching 5 M. further. Night cold & rainy. N. E. wind.
Sept. 5th. Marched S. S. E. about 3 miles into the valley & encamped about 3 M. above Aubrey's road. N. E. wind continued.
78. Observatory was established on or near the Oklahoma -New Mexico boundary on the left bank of the Cimarron river.
79. Authorities and maps differ as to the location of Cedar Springs. Colonel Johnston does not include it on his map but, presumably, it was near the present town site of Garrett, Okla.
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Weather of course cloudy with drizzling rain. Capt. Anderson set off with his company, before us, to go down to the road to watch for our supplies.
Sept. 6th. Moved a mile down the valley & encamped. At 12 o. c. at night received a note from Capt. A. He stated that a party or traders who had passed his camp during the day had just sent to inform him that a small party of Kioways reported a body of about 300 Cheyennes (on foot) passed on the road 22 or 23 miles below his (Capt. A's) camp. They further said that an ox-wagon train had crossed the Arkansas on the 4th. I supposed it to be ours.
Sept. 7th. Marched at 4 A. M. Breakfasted 13 miles from camp near the "upper crossing."80 The Kioways came up. Knew of no Cheyennes. Had not been on the road. Had seen Cheyennes several days' journey to the E. between the Arkansas & Cimarron. Nevertheless, we moved on. Reached the trader's camp about 3 p. m., about 13 M. further. Encamped two miles below it. In- formed by the chief of the party, Mr. Hickman of Westport, that the Cheyennes were reported to be about 10 miles off, on the 9- mile ridge.
Sept. 8th. Set off at 4 A. M. Searched the locality designated to no purpose. No other "sign" than a few pony tracks. Went on to the middle Cimarron spring.81 Met one train there. Encamped & remained till the morning of (borrowed $15 from Capt. Wood for 5 of Mr. Kennerly's men).
Sept. 9th. Returned. Met the mail party 3 or 4 M. below the mound marking the line. Advised Mr. Fields, the conductor, to wait for Mr. Wells & his train, regarding the road as unsafe for so small a party ; but five. Encamped a little above the mound. Mr. Wells went on with his train to the neighborhood of the upper crossing.
Sept. 10th. Went to our old camp at the upper crossing. Left Capt. De Saussure ... the unloading was [remainder of page torn off containing entries for September 11, 12 and 13].
Sept. 14th. Marched 7 or 8 miles to McNeiss creek,82 4 miles
80. The troops breakfasted at the trail's upward crossing of the Cimarron river.
81. The middle Cimarron spring was located in southwest Morton county, about seven miles north and six miles east of the southwest corner of Kansas. See Kansas Historical Society's Eighteenth Biennial Report, p. 122.
82. Ralph E. Twitchell in Leading Facts of New Mexican History, v. 2, p. 127, wrote t "McNees' creek was the site of one of the melancholy tragedies of the days of the old trail. Here McNees and Munroe, two traders from Franklin, Mo., on their way home from Santa Fe, in 1828, were killed by the Indians. This creek is now known by the name of Currum- paw; it flows into Beaver creek, thence into the North Fork of the Canadian." The trail crossed the creek 555 miles from Independence, Mo.
9—2345
130 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
below the road. Went down the valley 4 miles for wood. Remained there for 1 day.
Sept. 15th. That the men might wash their clothes.
Sept. 16th. Marched to the Cottonwood83 without touching the Santa Fe road, & encamped 1% M. below the road.
Sept. 17th. Marched to the Rabbit Ear84 & encamped on it 1% miles below the point at which the road crosses it. The valley narrow, the south side abrupt & rocky, like the hills about the upper [remainder of this entry and that for September 18, torn off] .
[Sept. 18th or 19th] — they asked as an addition to their escort, two skeleton companies of [omission]. Didn't feel authorized to comply.
Sept. 20th. Marched at 9h 40', parallel to the Rabbit Ear. The character of the valley changed very much 4 miles below camp. The valley widening & the south side sloping gently, water dis- appearing. 8 or 9 further it again contracts & is very narrow for some five miles. The channel lined with cliffs of sandstone, at the base of which are occasional pools of water. Below this it again widens. Is joined by McNeiss' Ck; the channel very wide & dry. Its valley sandy. Occasional cottonwoods. Found water & wood 25% M. from the last camp. Halted for the night.
Sept. 21st. Marched at 9h 55', about E. leaving the valley to the left. The country like that over which the line runs before striking the Cimarron near the Santa Fe road. After marching nearly due east 11% M. struck Mr. Bell's trail & followed it into the valley, finding several large pools. Encamped. Distance 19% M.
Sept. 22d. Marched at 7 o. c., leaving the valley to the right. Course S. 76° 30' E. The plateau level, ground smooth & fine; grass short. 14% M. from the camp of last night encamped on a shal- low pond of 50 or 60 acres.
Sept. 23d. Marched at 8h 20" due east. Country like that passed over yesterday, the grass short, but green & thick. 14% M. from last camp found a large pond (about 40 acres, shallow water) on the right, near our course. Course struck the Ck (N. F. of Cana- dian) 21 M. from last camp. A mile from Ck turned N. E. &
83. The Cottonwood, as referred to by Colonel Johnston, was a tributary of Rabbit Ear creek, rising in New Mexico and flowing southeast. Its entire length as shown on the sur- veyors' maps was not over 13 miles, and crossed the Santa Fe trail between McNees' and Rabbit Ear creeks.
84. Rabbit Ear creek derived its name through its proximity to the Rabbit Ear moun- tains, so named by early travelers because of the peaks' fancied resemblance to a rabbit's ears. The stream flows eastward, joining the Currumpaw to form Beaver creek (N. F. of the Canadian).
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reached the Ck 23% M. from camp of last night.85 The valley 600 or 800 yds. wide, water abundant; grazing very good. Some fuel, dry brushwood, picked up (drift) .
Sept. 24th. Marched at 8h 30' N. 62 E. (first 2 M. E., the course above then commenced). At 12% M. recrossed the Ck, a bold, running stream of excellent water.86 The valley broad, sides sloping gently. Valley about equally divided between sand & soil, the latter partly covered with luxuriant grass. The course of the valley below the camp of last night being concave to the south, the march was on the chord of the arc. The plateau on the south of the valley is as level as that on the north & covered with short but abundant grass. No wood. Distance 14 M., 2,000 ft. Lat. 36° 42' 18".
Sept. 25th. Marched down the valley at 8h 30'. First 5 M. on N. side of the stream which, where we crossed, is twice as large as at our camp of last night. Some two miles after crossing the stream a party of Indians met us, about 20 Kioways headed by the principal chief. Their camp, they said, was a few miles down the valley. They accompanied our march, guiding us by what they said was a better route than that of the valley, along the hills on the S. Passed in sight of their camp of about 50 lodges, more than half of which had been dismantled, their owners having fled, probably at the news of our approach.87 Few people or horses were visible about it. Encamped in the valley some two miles below. March 16 M., 2,920 ft. Had a conference with [omission in the MS.] in the after- noon in relation to the existing treaty. He professed to be most friendly to the whites, in which expressions the members of his party joined. He averred his determination to execute faithfully the terms of the treaty. Promised to have the two murderers of the man of the surveying party surrendered to us as soon as they could be discovered. The stream 12 or 15 feet wide & two deep, with a bold current. Distance marched, 16 M., 2,900 ft. Lat. 3,6° 42' 42".
Sept. 26th. 30 or 40 Kiowas, a few women among them, spent the morning in camp trading buffalo robes, moccasins, & lariets. The spokesman of yesterday, who seemed to [be] the old chief's staff officer, was so grieved to see us going, that he thought nothing but whisky could revive his drooping spirits. Marched at 8h 30'.
85. Camp was established approximately nine miles east of Rice, Okla., on the North Fork of the Canadian.
86. The train crossed Lowe creek, Texas county, Oklahoma, at 7% miles and recrossed it at 12% miles.
87. The Kiowa camp was located about 2% miles west of Hardesty, Okla. The troops passed to the south of the camp and spent the night of September 25 almost on the present town site of Hardesty.
132 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The valley to the east seemed to make a long bend concave to the N. Our march was on the plateau, by the chord of the arc, the latter part of the march in heavy sand. The descent into the valley was thro' bare sand hills like those of the seashore, down which it was difficult to pull the wagons. The valley a mile wide, the stream much larger than at the last camp. The soil poor, much of it bare, in which a salty efflorescence is visible. A salt pond 300 yds. long be- tween our camp & the stream. A little cottonwood among the sand hills. Distance marched, 18 M., 4,600 ft. Found afterwards that the salt pond is a copious spring discharging itself by a bold stream into the N. F. of Canadian. Lat. 36° 41' 55".
Sept. 27th. About 20 mules missing this morning. Not found & brought back until 11 A. M., consequently we marched but 9 M., following the valley N. of the stream for about 4 M. then crossing it, & marching on the S. slope, a gentle one, the soil poor. Encamped on a little tributary from the S. Fresh water, bois de vache & gramma grass abundant. The N. side of the valley more abrupt, generally high bluffs of bare sand. Lat. 36° 45' 05".
Sept. 28th. Marched at 8h 50', continuing to follow the slope on the S. side of the valley. The soil like that of yesterday, hard & poor, the grass short but green ; water abundant. A stream in every 2 or 3 miles, two of them copious. All the banks of a very bright red clay. Distance to-day, 20 M., 1,800 ft. Lat. 36° 46'. Camp on Kiowa Ck, the valley broad (500 yds.), stream 25 ft. wide.88 Visited by 3 begging Kiowas.
Sept. 29th. Marched at 8h 30'. Sent Jim Conner under escort of 8 men, including a corporal, to look on the N. side of the valley, for our route to the hd of the Red fork. The country like that of yes- terday. A large bank of chalk, or something very like it, passed 2 or 3 miles E. of Kiowa Ck. After marching 18 M. & 2,000 ft., en- camped on the N. side of the little river, a good running ck, crossed 11*4 M. from Kiowa ck, the hills on the N. showing red banks in- stead of the bare sand banks seen on that side above. Ben Love gave [me] a lump of what seems to be red chalk picked up near Kiowa Ck. Lat. 36° 46' 15".
Sept. 30th. Marched at 8h 30' leaving the valley & ascending the hill N. E., obliquely. After marching about 2 M. along the hill found a hollow in front running to the N. into a large valley we supposed to be that of the Red fork. After moving N. E. about 8 M. further,
88. Possibly one of the streams now known as Clear creek, emptying into the North Fork of the Canadian 3% miles east of Beaver, Okla. (Not the present Kiowa creek in Beaver county.)
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recognized the valley of the Cimarron, the broad plain & sand hills in the neighborhood of the 2d "crossing." Turned back & encamped on a shallow pond 13^ M. from last camp.
Oct. 1st. Marched at 8h 30', as usual, moving due S. 4% M. to a range of sand hills % M. from the Canadian. Turned then East- wardly, & about 11 M. further struck the first branches of the N. branch of the Red fork & encamped.89 We crossed no perceptible ridge between the valley of the Canadian & this one, but after turn- ing eastward, until the first branches of the Red fork were met, the ascent was insensible. It seemed, until we looked down the valley of the Red fork, from the "divide," that we were still among the sand hills of the Canadian. For the last 4 or 5 M. the heights on the N. of the Red fork were visible; those on the south only when we had almost reached the summit. Level. The distance between these heights from N. to S. there, seemed to be 5 or 6 M. March to-day, 16 M. The heights all appear to be of red clay. In the gullies, at their bases, pale yellow clay appears.
Oct. 2d. Marched at 8h 30' in the general direction of the valley (E) or rather, basin, crossing the spurs running down from the S. Rain began to fall just before we started & continued all day. The broad valley dotted with herds of buffalo. Encamped in the bottom of the valley, immediately on the stream, the channel of which is here about 30 yds. wide. A small stream of clear & pure water in it. A great deal more percolating in the sand. Distance, 17.8 M.
Oct. 3d. Marched at 9h 30', having waited for tents to dry, taking a route along the S. slope as yesterday. Entered the valley about 2 M. above the mouth of the S. branch. Followed it to within 2% M. of the Cimarron. Encamped on a small S. tributary. Distance, 13.7 M. The frequent crossings of the creek made the march a hard one. The appearance of salt gone. It was abundant opposite our camp in July, probably swept out by the recent flood, which seems to have been a very high one.
Oct. 4th. Moved a mile eastward, & encamped on a little stream in a wide valley coming from the south. Detailed a party of 75 cavalry under Capt. De Saussure (Lt. Thomson) to accompany me to the Canadian. Capt. Wood instructed to conduct the main party E. to the Arkansas; thence Mr. Weysse connect the marking of the
89. Surveyors' maps show that the train had now reached tributaries of Buffalo creek, which empties into the Cimarron (or Red fork of the Arkansas as Colonel Johnston some- times calls it) farther east.
134 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
line to the initial pt. Capt. W. to endeavour to strike the head of the S. W. branch of the Little Verdigris. Mr. Ingraham, after ex- amination, reported that the large deposits of crystalized salt that we had seen in July had disappeared.
Oct. 5th. The two parties marched at 8h 40'.90 Our course 35° (by Smalkalder) crossing a very rough country, the main hollows running to the N. E., but their sides cut up by deep gullies worn by rain water. At 5 M. crossed a clear stream 12 ft. wide in a sandy channel of 40 yds. ; the valley narrow, between rocky bluffs. 8 M. further came to a broad valley, or rather cove, in the S. E. side of which we found a good stream, in a narrow hollow. Its bed sand. Lined with trees. Pine (short leaf) & cedar on the bluffs. En- camped. Distance about 15 M.
Oct. 6th. Marched at 8h 30', S. 35 E. 3 M. to the summit of the ridge between the N. F. of Canadian & the Salt [Cimarron] river. The dividing ridge crossing our course, we turned due south 15 M. to the N. F. of C. & encamped, the valley 1% M. wide, Sandy, in- tersected by ranges of sand hills.91 The channel of the river about 50 yds. wide, the stream 30 [feet wide] & 2 ft. deep, with a bold current. Course of the valley S. 39 E., the S. slope of the "divide" a sandy plain, dotted with sand hills, like that we ascended in pass- ing from this valley to that of the Red fork. Cottonwood & Elm abundant ; comparatively.
Oct. 7th. Marched at 8h 30' S. for 1% M., crossing the river at the % M. Then turned S. 22 E. for 3 M. on a plain somewhat sandy, but sufficiently firm. Then struck & passed thro' a range of sand hills % m. across (running from W. to E.) ; on their S. side a bold & clear Ck 5 or 6 ft. wide, lined with wood of different kinds. S. 53% E. the rest of the march, ascending very gradually for 7 M., a Ck running from the W. crossing our course at three miles. Re- mains of an Indian camp just above. 1% further encamped on a
90. At the division of the party here at the junction of Buffalo creek with the Cimarron river, Captain Wood was directed to conduct the train in a northeasterly direction to the original starting point. The surveyors accompanying Captain Wood marked the camp sites of the train on their maps until the return trail converged with the outward one. On Octo- ber 6 the party encamped about four miles southwest of Whitehorse, Woods county, Okla- homa; October 7, near Hopeton; October 8 and 9, near Daley, Alfalfa county; October 10, three miles southwest of Florence, Grant county; October 11, five miles west of Medford; October 12, north of Numa; and October 13, on Bluff creek, in northeastern Grant county, Oklahoma. On October 14 the expedition again entered Kansas southwest of Drury, Sum- ner county, between Bluff creek and the Chikaskia river. The return trail was lost here, but it is likely they followed the outward road back to the Missouri border. Colonel John- ston turned south, October 5, with seventy -five cavalrymen, and does not again refer to Captain Wood's party in his journal. The government maps do not show his route from here, but it may be traced fairly accurately by a check of directions and distances in the journal.
91. Colonel Johnston's party encamped about midway between Sharon and Cedardale, Woodward county, Oklahoma.
MILLER: KANSAS BOUNDARY LINE SURVEY 135
branch of the last. The course of the N. F. of C. nearly parallel to the last course & about 3 M. distant.
Oct. 8th. Marched at 8h 30' S. 40 E. about 6 M. to the top of the dividing ridge whence the Canadian was visible 2 or 3 M. before us, coming from the S. W. & bending around to the S. E. Turned along the "divide" about 4 M. & encamped on the E. side of a little branch running into the Canadian which was about 1% M. dis- tant S.92 The channel about as wide as that of the Arkansas where we crossed it (250 yds.). A bottom of nearly the same breadth, only 2 or 3 ft. higher, & the 2d bottom, some % M. wide, about 20 ft. higher, still. The N. F. seemed to be but 6 or 7 M. from the curve of the Canadian, the ridge between them 300 or 400 ft. above the Canadian. The valley of the N. F. not so low as the former.
Oct. 9th. Marched at 8h 45' N. 75 E. along the N. edge of a post- oak wood extending as far southward as we could see on both sides of the N. F. & into the valley of the Canadian. All the heads of the creeks emptying into the N. F. make gaps in the dividing ridge. About 8 M. from last camp we left the crest of the ridge & after crossing two arroyas crossed the N. F. 14 M. from camp of last night, & encamped on its bank a M. below.93 Its course being nearly E., 1% M. below camp it turns strongly southward. The valley where we entered it very broad. The slopes gentle. Its ap- pearance less barren than above.
Oct. 10th. Marched at 8h 45' in the direction taken yesterday. At 4 M. in the edge of a blackjack wood which proved to be 4 M. in breadth, its E. edge at the brow of the hill from which we looked down into a very broad valley running eastward, which we followed, & encamped on the Ck running thro' it at 3 P. M. 4 M. from Ne-ish- ke-koash-ke-pi (Rock Salt river).94 A S. branch, apparently the largest, joined that [which] we had followed, just above the pt at which we encamped.
Oct. llth. Marched at 8h 30'. At 9h 30 reached the river & crossed two channels divided by an island, the E. one the main. As- cended a gentle slope 15' (N. 75 E.), found a plateau covered with black-jack woods. Marched on this plateau 8 M., wood & prairie about equal. Encamped a M. E. of the last wood, on two little pools, at the head of a hollow running N. into a larger, 3 M. distant, apparently running E. Grass poor, having been consumed by buffalo.
92. Camp was situated west of Munice, Dewey county, Oklahoma.
93. The expedition encamped about three miles east of Fonda, Okla.
94. Colonel Johnston and party were now approaching the Cimarron river, southeast of Isabella, Major county, Oklahoma.
136 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Oct. 12th. Marched at 8h 30' 115° (by Smalkalder) . At 9h 45' crossed a clear Ck of brackish water flowing Southward (the hollow of last night's camp joins its valley), the branches of this Ck being troublesome. Worn deep in the red clay. At 2h 15' crossed a 2d clear Ck, but of fresh water.95 The valley like the last, very broad. Buffalo numerous. 3 or 4 Osages chasing them, spoken with by Joe Spaniard. Said their camps & families are on the Little Arkansas. Encamped on the E. side of the Ck.
October 13th. Marched at 8h 30', 115°, 6 M. to the ridge separat- ing the valley from one running northward, the channel in which was 9 M. from the last camp. The summit E. of it 3 M. further. A valley running E. visible from it, of which the one last crossed is a branch. A line of cottonwood marking the course of the stream winding thro' it, as far as the eye could reach. Numerous branches indicated also by cottonwood. Encamped on one of them at 3 p. m. Joe Spaniard gives as the Osage name of the creek, Wasaape oche (Black bear).96 We crossed the Ck 2 M. above camp. The grass luxuriant.
Oct. 14. Marched at 8h 30' (115°) 5 M. to the crest of the dividing ridge. A very broad valley visible to the N. & a heavy line of timber. Opposite to us a large branch of the Ck on our right seemed to come in from W., the branch we had just left bending strongly S. to meet it. Our course for 13 M. crossed the S. branches of the valley, gradually approaching the timber marking the streams. Encamped on one of them, about l1/^ M. from the main stream. The soil passed over to-day better than any seen W. of the Arkansas. The grass fresh & rank.
Oct. 15th. Marched at 8h 15' (115°), the Ck on our left receding. Our course still over the spurs from the ridge on the S. Appearance of the country unchanged. 12 M. brought us to the edge of the valley of the Arkansas, 1 M. from it, & 2 M. S. of the mouth of the Ck, which is near the head of an island (main channel on its E.) some 3 M. long.97 At the lower end of the island the river turns to the N. E., the lesser channel first striking a rocky bluff. We moved S. about 2 M. & encamped on an Osage trail from the E. after crossing the two branches of a Ck, the mouth of which is just above
95. Probably Mulberry creek, south of Enid, Garfield county, Oklahoma.
96. The expedition encamped in mideastern G'arfield county, on a tributary of Black Bear creek, the latter creek bearing the same name to-day.
97. The creek referred to here may be the present Red Rock creek emptying into the Arkansas river in western Pawnee county, Oklahoma. The camp site on the evening of October 15 was south of the mouth of the creek and west of the present town of Masham.
MILLER: KANSAS BOUNDARY LINE SURVEY 137
the bluff aforesaid. Where we struck the Arkansas, a high ridge covered with post oak, is parallel to it & E. The river runs from N. E. around the N. end of this ridge & in the same way turns to the N. E. around its S. E. end. A good deal of post oak on the hills S. W. of the river. Much more on those opposite. A quantity of sandstone.
Oct. 16. Marched E. on the Osage trail found yesterday, 14 M. to the point at which the party making it had crossed the river. Found it barely fordable. Crossed & encamped, the ground passed over being rough; our course being perpendicular to the ridges which run to the Arkansas.98 A deep gully in every hollow. The valley of the A. broader than at the 37th parallel & the land better. More timber also.
Oct. 17th. Marched at 9 up the valley on the Osage trail about 1 M., then turned up a steep hill of 200 ft. high. A short detached ridge. From its summit turned to 115°. A great deal of wood (oak) on the right. Our course crossed ridges running almost due S., to the river, all day. Near the top of each hill & on each side, a ledge of rock was encountered. The soil good, & grass fresh & abundant. Encamped in the edge of an apparently extensive oak wood. Dis- tance 14 M. Rain, with a cold strong S. wind, began about 1 o. c. & continued.
Oct. 18th. Rain continued. Marched at 12. Country very rug- ged & wooded. At 3 M. crossed a Ck in a deep valley which was followed about 2 M. The road required great labour. Encamped at 4 o. c., rain continuing.
Oct. 19th. Marched at 9h 30' over the ridges (rocky & wooded) between the branches of a deep stream, the valley of which could be seen running off to the S. E. near 20 M." This valley is broad & beautiful. Prairie & woodland mixed. Its branches, which we crossed, have very rich soil. The rock, like that on the Verdigris, generally sandstone. Some limestone. Encamped in one of these branches at 3 o. c., the third. All the water crossed E. of the Ar- kansas seemed to flow into the same valley.
Oct. 20th. Marched at 9 o. c., crossing a ridge covered with post oak & blackjack. The valley E. of it broad & open in both direc- tions (N. & S.). Crossed a small Ck following its valley on the N. E. side 2 or 3 M. 3 or 4 M. of high prairie succeeded. Then a
98. The camp was located across the Arkansas east from Ralston, Okla.
99. Bird creek, a stream rising in Osage county, Oklahoma, empties into the Verdigris river.
138 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
wooded & stony hollow & ridge. Then a broad valley (open) in which are two streams a mile apart, the first 30 or 40 ft. wide with a good current, the other, on which we encamped, small.
Oct. 21st. Rain. Moved (115°) at llh 40', about 5 M. in rough prairie & one in a blackjack wood. The ground so heavy that we encamped at the end of these 6 M. on a little stream flowing S.
Oct. 22d. Marched at 10 (drizzle), 120°, about 6 M. thro7 oak wood (P. 0. & B. J.) over ridges running S. Detained near 2h making a practicable road down a steep & rocky hillside. A broad open valley at the foot of this hill. Encamped on a branch (W.) of the main stream, 2 M. from the foot of the hill. This main stream, the Little Verdigris, was but a quarter of a mile from our camp.100 Lined with heavy timber 400 yds. wide, the low ground more than a mile in breadth, perhaps 1% M. on an ave.
Oct. 23d. Employed all day in making a way & getting the wagons across the L. Verdigris. Encamped in the N. E. edge of the low ground, near a Cherokee road. A Mr. Keyes has a house 1% W. of the camp, near the L. V. Trades with the Osages.
Oct. 24th. Marched at lOh 15' (124°), having been kept waiting for two wagonloads of corn. Ascended gently for a mile, then marched 4 M. on a level prairie, 3 M. crossing obliquely a valley running to the S. W., then 4 M. on a plateau, a step (upward) in the country about 3 M. to the N. running across to the valley of the Verdigris from that just left, parallel to our course. Then 12 M. brought us to the top of the descent into the valley of the Verdigris, very broad & open. The courses of the river & its tributaries marked by belts of wood. Encamped near the foot of the hill.
Oct. 25th. Marched at 9 o. c. E. 4 M., under the guidance of Joe Spaniard, to the first house of Coodey's settlement. 2 M. further E. S. E. struck the California road.101 5 M. from this point, reached the Verdigris at Coodey's.102 Detained 2h repairing the road & encamped a Mile to the E.
Oct. 26th. Marched at 9h 20' in a heavy rain which continued until noon, for 5 M. followed a trail leading E. N. E. Then struck a road leading, Joe Spaniard said, to Hudson's on the Neosho just
100. The expedition was now nearing the Little Verdigris in southern Washington county, Oklahoma.
101. The California road mentioned by Colonel Johnston probably was the route which passed through Fayetteville, Ark., thence across the corner of the Indian Territory, entering Kansas in Chautauqua or Montgomery county. The trail joined the old Santa Fe trail in McPherson county. See Kansas Historical Collections, v. 5, p. 90; v. 9, pp. 576-577; and "Early Trails Through Oklahoma," Chronicles of Oklahoma, v. 3, pp. 110-111.
102. The expedition may have crossed the Verdigris at the present town site of Coodys Bluff, Nowata county, Oklahoma, although maps and references do not entirely coincide.
MILLER: KANSAS BOUNDARY LINE SURVEY 139
above its junction with Spring river.103 A range of heights like that west of the Verdigris, parallel to the road on the left. En- camped on a creek running S. E. This road from the pt where we entered it to the brow of the hill, % M. above camp, runs thro' a high and almost level prairie; apparently the dividing ridge be- tween the Verdigris & Neosho. Camp % M. from the road.
Oct. 27th. Marched at 8h 35' a little S. of E. in a very broad valley subdivided by low ridges separating several branches. At 9 M. opposite to a projection from the range of heights mentioned yesterday (timber hill). Course to the pt in the road opposite to the camp of last night 272° .(n. 51 E.). At this pt the course of yesterday was resumed ; the road had been bent around the wooded hill. The country passed over to-day generally better land; the ridges low, all of rich soil. Encamped on E. side of a Ck which, Joe Spaniard informed me, is the last this side of the Neosho.104
Oct. 28th. Marched at 8h 35' (114°) over a succession of low ridges separating hollows running S. E. into Grand river. In 10 M. struck the road leading down the Neosho from Blyth's, following it 2 M. (S. E.) came to the Emigrants' road to Texas at Hudson's.105 Turning into that road (154°) we reached the Neosho in 1% M., 2 M. above its junction with Spring river. Marched l^fe M. from the ford, the 1st 2 M. 154°, 2d 148°, 3V2 M. 167°. Encamped in the edge of the timber of Spring river. Country, high prairie.
Oct. 29th. Marched at 8h 30' (145°) 6 M. to the lower ford of Spring river. Crossed & encamped in the W. edge of the prairie near the middle ford. Rain.
103. Present-day maps show Hudson creek flowing northeast into the Neosho river in Ottawa county, Oklahoma. It is likely that this stream is identified with the Hudson men- tioned by Colonel Johnston.
104. Little Cabin creek, Craig county, Oklahoma.
105. During the Mexican War many emigrants to Texas left Kansas through Cherokee county and followed the divide between the Verdigris and Grand rivers to Fort Gibson. Chronicles of Oklahoma, v. 3, p. 117.
Defense of the Kansas Frontier, 1864-'65
MARVIN H. GARFIELD
BEFORE the outbreak of the Civil War, the plains Indians and the rapidly onrushing white invaders had come to look upon each other as enemies. To the plains Indians it mattered little during the Civil War whether a white man espoused the cause of the Union or the Confederacy. They recognized all white men as common enemies. The Comanche Indians will serve as an illustra- tion. In Texas the members of this tribe raided the settlements of Confederates, while farther to the north in Kansas other Co- manches were engaged in depredations upon the lives of Union men and women. These Indians were too little concerned with the issues in the slavery struggle and too far away from the scene of action to have been an important factor in the war. Nevertheless, North and South accused each other of having incited Indian at- tacks. Especially was this accusation circulated in Kansas. Throughout the Civil War Kansas newspapers alleged that Con- federate plotters were at work among the plains tribes, and par- ticularly among the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. Governor Craw- ford shared this view also.1
In contrast with the number of rumors of collusion between the Confederates and Indians, however, the proven instances were few. In 1864 Gen. S. R. Curtis, commander of the Military Department of Kansas, fearing that the Confederates were planning to make a raid upon Fort Lamed and Fort Lyon, ordered federal troops to be transferred from the Platte to the Arkansas river. The Con- federate raid proved to be only a rumor.2 Some evidence, never- theless, does exist to show that the Indians were aware of Con- federate plans. Simon Whitely, United States Indian agent at Denver, mentioned having heard threats by Comanches, Kiowas and Cheyennes to take all the forts on the Arkansas river when joined by the Texas soldiers.3 Despite these disquieting rumors, the War Department reports from the plains indicate that prior to March, 1864, no conclusive information had reached headquar- ters that the Indians were planning hostilities.4
1. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, 223.
2. G. B. Grinnell, The Fighting Cheyennes (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1915), 144. 8. Report of the Commission of Indian Affairs 186%, 236-237.
4. Grinnell, The Fighting Cheyennes, 131.
(140)
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER. 141
General Curtis was busily engaged at that time in fighting bush- whackers on the border and evidently had no idea that an Indian war was at hand. Like the Sioux War in Minnesota during 1862, the Cheyenne War of 1864 was precipitated by injudicious action upon the part of young military officers. A certain Lieutenant Eayre, in attempting to recover cattle supposedly stolen by Chey- ennes, punished the wrong Indians. To make matters worse, Lieu- tenant Dunn, of the First Colorado cavalry, on April 12 attacked a small band of Dog Soldier Cheyennes on the South Platte. The Indians were young warriors who were on their way north to visit their Northern Cheyenne relatives. A little later Lieutenant Eayre drove Crow Chief and his Cheyenne band from their camp on the Republican river. In another expedition Eayre and his troops met a. group of Cheyennes near Fort Lamed and attacked them. This time he received the worst of the encounter and was forced to re- treat to the fort. The wrath of the warlike Cheyennes was aroused to a high degree by these attacks. A general Indian outbreak in eastern Colorado and western Kansas and Nebraska was the result.
Logically the Indians selected the great western highways as their main objectives. Immediately following Lieutenant Eayre's fight with the Indians near Larned the redskins raided the stage road between Fort Larned and Fort Riley. Arapahoes, antagonized by Captain Parmenter, of Fort Larned, joined their Cheyenne friends on the warpath. The combined tribes then set about sys- tematically to attack the Platte trail and Santa Fe trail, concen- trating their efforts on the former. The trail to Santa Fe was gen- erally left to the tender mercies of the Kiowas and Comanches residing south of the Arkansas river, who also took to the warpath.
Realizing that a general outbreak was at hand, Gen. Robert B. Mitchell, commanding the Nebraska district of the Military De- partment of Kansas, asked General Curtis on May 27 for one thou- sand men and an artillery battery to protect the Platte trail. Gov- ernor Evans, of Colorado territory, also requested that Curtis protect the South Platte and Arkansas routes. The Colorado executive, apparently not getting satisfaction from the department commander, on June 16 turned to General Carleton at Santa Fe for aid. He desired that Carleton send troops to Fort Union, New Mexico, subject to call from Colorado.5 An attempt at handling the hostile Indians was made by Governor Evans in June. A proc- lamation was issued and sent to the Indian tribes in eastern Colo-
5. Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs 186^, 229.
142 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
rado warning all friendly bands to report at specified concentration points. Cheyennes and Arapahoes were assigned to Fort Lyon while the Kiowas and Comanches were ordered to Fort Lamed. But this proclamation was generally ignored by the Indians.6
Since the aborigines preferred taking chances with their lives in preference to coming in and being "good Indians/' the war on the plains continued throughout the summer. In July the hostiles again commenced depredations in the neighborhood of Fort Lamed. A government train bound for Fort Union, New Mexico, was attacked and twelve men were killed, while a large quantity of merchandise was destroyed.7 Shortly afterwards four large trains were besieged near Cow Creek, where a battle ensued. The beleaguered crews were finally rescued by some of Curtis' forces from Fort Riley.8
General Curtis had taken the field during July in a campaign de- signed both to protect the trails and settlements and intimidate the Indians. Kansas militia, stationed at Emporia, were ordered to re- port to Curtis and hold themselves in readiness for assistance.9 Curtis reported that his force numbered 396 men and consisted of militia, volunteers and regulars aided by a section of Ninth Wiscon- sin artillery. In his letters the general referred to the siege on Cow Creek and an attack by Indians on Fort Larned.10 Curtis was highly commended by the press for his energetic campaign.11 Before he had time really to accomplish much in an Indian war, however, it became necessary for him to abandon the project and return to Fort Leavenworth. The eastern border of Kansas demanded im- mediate protection against the threatening raid of Gen. Sterling Price into western Missouri. Curtis' chief accomplishment during his summer on the plains was the founding of two military posts, Fort Ellsworth (Harker) and Fort Zarah.
While Curtis was still on the plains numerous Indian attacks oc- curred in northern Kansas and southern Nebraska. Newspaper reports from Marysville, Kan., stated that sixteen whites had been killed and scalped and that nearly the entire population of Wash- ington county was encamped in the town for protection.12 In
6. Ibid. 23, 218-219.
7. Kansas Daily Tribune (Lawrence), July 27, 1864.
8. Ibid. August 7, 1864. (Reprint from the Leavenworth Conservative.)
9. Adjutant General's Correspondence 1864, (Kansas). Major Pollard, commander of the Eighth regiment K. S. M. had previously urged Governor Carney to let the regiment assist Curtis. Pollard to Carney, July 24.
10. Kansas Daily Tribune, (Lawrence) August 7, 1864. A reprint from the Leavenworth Conservative.
11. Kansas Daily Tribune, August 10.
12. Ibid., August 23. Reprint from Marysville (Kansas) Enterprise.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER. 143
Marshall county the militia, assisted by a company of Seventh Iowa cavalry, staged a four-hour battle with a superior Indian force, but were compelled to retreat.13 In Nebraska and eastern Colorado the overland mail was forced to abandon 400 miles of its route, while all stations but one along a line of 120 miles had been burned. Im- migration into Colorado and California over the Platte trail was seriously checked.14 The hostile Indians were reported to have pro- claimed that the land belonged exclusively to them and that they intended to regain and hold it if they were forced to destroy every white man, woman and child to accomplish their purpose.15 To meet this situation Governor Evans in August issued a proclamation to Colorado citizens advising them to hunt down Indians and kill all hostiles. This resulted in all the Indians of the region going to war.16 Evans later testified before a joint congressional committee that he had issued this proclamation at a time when Colorado had no troops to defend it.17
In an effort to make peace, Major Wyncoop, commander at Fort Lyon, rounded up the leading Cheyenne and Arapahoe chiefs and took them to Denver to interview the governor. Evans refused to come to terms with the chiefs, informing them that he was not the peace-making power and that they must make peace with the mili- tary authorities.18 For taking this stand Governor Evans was se- verely rebuked by Commissioner Dole of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Mr. Dole reminded Evans that his duty as ex officio superintendent of Indian affairs in Colorado required him to receive and encourage all overtures of peace made by the Indians.19
Peace efforts having failed, the Indian war continued until cold weather drove the hostiles into winter quarters. Before the descent of winter, however, there were several Indian scares in Kansas. Manhattan residents on October 19 informed Adjutant General Holliday that the entire military escort of the Santa Fe express had been massacred west of Salina. Holliday was petitioned, conse- quently, to send the Pottawatomie county militia back to the west- ern frontier at once.20 The adjutant general as a result directed
13. Ibid., August 24. Reprint from Leavenworth Conservative.
14. Letter from general superintendent of the Overland mail line to the Hon. Wm. P. Dole, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, August 31, 1864, Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1864, 254.
15. Ibid., 255.
16. Grinnell, The Fighting Cheyennes, 148.
17. Senate Report No. 156, Appendix, 39 Cong., 2d sess., 48.
18. Ibid., 47.
19. Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs 1864, 256.
20. Adjutant General's Correspondence 186$. (Kansas.)
144 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Col. John T. Price, of the Fifteenth Kansas militia, then located at Fort Riley, to give special attention to the frontier in the neighbor- hood of Salina. Governor Carney was also requested by Holliday to grant the petition concerning the Pottawatomie county militia. Colonel Price, however, discovered that the story of the massacre of the stage escort was a fake. The escort arrived safely at Fort Zarah although the frightened stage driver, having mistaken buffalo for Indians, returned to Salina. Price promised to keep the state authorities informed concerning future Indian disturbances. He clearly indicated, on the other hand, that he would use his discre- tion in defending the frontier settlements.21
As a climax to the year's fighting came the Chivington massacre of the Cheyenne Indians at Sand creek on November 29. The Sand creek camp was located near Fort Lyon on the reservation which had been set aside for the Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes by the treaty of Fort Wise [later Fort Lyon] in 1861. As a matter of fact the Cheyennes had seldom remained on the reservation, which lay south of the Arkansas river in Colorado, but had roamed at will from the Red river to the North Platte. In the late summer of 1864, however, Black Kettle and White Antelope, in compliance with Governor Evans' proclamation, brought in a part of their respective bands of Cheyennes and camped near Fort Lyon. The camp was composed almost entirely of women, children, and old men. The warriors in most cases remained on the warpath.22 While Black Kettle, White Antelope and other chiefs were in Denver engaging in a peace pow-wow with Governor Evans three war parties of Chey- ennes and two of Arapahoes were still out.23
On November 29 the Cheyenne and Arapahoe camp on Sand creek was attacked by Colonel Chivington with a large force com- posed of regulars and Colorado volunteers. Of the 500 Indians in camp about 150 were killed, two-thirds being women and children.24 The slaughter was frightful, since the Indians were surprised and poorly armed. Atrocities committed by the troops were fully as bad as those usually practiced by Indians upon their victims.25 Fol-
21. Price to Holliday, October 31, 1864, Adjutant General's Correspondence, 186Jf.
22. Even George Bird Grinnell, who presents the Cheyenne side of the story, admits that most of the Indians in the tribe were hostile. He states that the old men were for peace while the young men were all for war, The Fighting Cheyennes, 152 ; for Governor Evans' side of the case see Senate Re-port 156, Appendix, 43-49, 39 Cong., 2d sess.
23. Black Kettle and other chiefs to Major Colley, August 29, 1864, Grinnell, The Fight- ing Cheyennes, 152.
24. Kansas Historical Collections, VII, 67, footnote. Chivington in his report stated that over 500 were killed, while George Bent estimated 150.
25. Numerous testimonials given before the Joint Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War agree on this statement.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER. 145
lowing the attack, the remnants of the tribes fled to the Big Timbers of the Smoky Hill river in western Kansas.
A great furore was raised in the East when the news of the massacre was fully published. General Halleck, chief of staff, at once ordered an investigation of Chivington's conduct, while Gen- eral Curtis attempted to have him court-martialed. Chivington's term of service had expired, though, and he was beyond the reach of military law. Congress in 1865 attempted to punish Chivington and all members of the Third Colorado regiment who engaged in the massacre. The resolution, S. R. 93, was introduced into the senate to suspend the pay of all officers and men who had participated until an investigation could take place. The measure passed the senate in January, but was defeated in the house.26 In the following session of congress, however, the annual Indian appropriation bill was so amended that the members of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe bands who suffered at Sand creek were to be recompensed in United States securities, animals, goods, provisions or such articles as the Secretary of the Interior might direct. The total amount of these gifts was $39,050.27 This congressional act was in harmony with article six of the treaty of the Little Arkansas, which had been drawn up on October 14, 1865. The entire article was a condemna- tion by the United States government of Chivington's action.28
Explanations of the Sand creek massacre stressed three factors. First, that it was good judgment to carry the war to the home of the Indian, and that experience had proved that by such methods alone could Indian uprisings be crushed. Chivington used the same pro- cedure which later won such nation-wide fame for Sheridan and Custer. Secondly, there had been a demand for a winter campaign against the Indians. This had been urged on November 19, by Gen- eral Hunt, commander of the upper Arkansas district, in a letter to General Curtis.29 Also, Governor Evans, of Colorado, had previ- ously suggested the scheme as the only means of conquering the hostiles and bringing them to respect governmental authority.30 Public opinion in the frontier regions also was favorable to the plan. The Junction City Union, a Kansas paper, openly advocated it on August 20, 1864:
26. Senate and House Proceedings 1865, Cong. Globe, 38 Cong., 2d sess., 254, 1336.
27. Senate Debate 1866, Cong. Globe, 39 Cong., 1 sess., 3506.
28. Official Copy of the original treaty. Archives, Kansas State Historical Society.
29. Grinnell, The Fighting Cheyennes, 161.
30. Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1864, 222.
10-2345
146 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
"A successful war can only be waged against them [the Indians] by or- ganizing an expedition that will penetrate their country and find the rendez- vous of their women and children. Then they will stand and fight armed men and not before."
A third reason for the massacre is that the "hundred-day volun- teers" who made up the Third Colorado cavalry were chiefly fron- tiersmen who had suffered at the hands of the Cheyennes and Arap- ahoes throughout the previous summer. To these men rules of war- fare meant nothing. They retaliated with atrocity for atrocity.31
In the long run the real sufferer from the Chivington massacre was the frontier settler. Public sentiment in the East largely turned against him and sympathized with the Indian. This view spread into congress and seriously handicapped legislation aimed at frontier defense. Senator Ross, of Kansas, on July 18, 1867, attempted to amend an army bill by providing that the general of the army should be authorized to accept the services of mounted volunteers from the governors of western states for suppression of Indian hos- tilities. He was outvoted, however, and compelled to accept a modi- fication which defeated the purpose of the amendment.32 Morrill, of Maine, speaking in opposition to Ross, stated that volunteers from the frontier states caused all the difficulties with the Indians. As an example he cited the work of the Colorado volunteers in the Chivington Massacre.33
Indian raids did not die out altogether during the winter of 1864- 1865. Early in the new year a raid occurred on the Santa Fe trail west of Fort Lamed. Cheyennes and Arapahoes numbering close to 150 attacked a wagon train at Nine Mile ridge, wounding six white men. The Indian loss was unknown.34 Shortly after this episode the hostile bands of the two tribes moved north into Ne- braska headed for the Powder river country. General Mitchell, commanding the district of Nebraska (this was before its reorgani- zation in 1865 as the Department of the Platte), in order to drive the Indians out of the Republican valley region, burned the prairie grass for over 100 miles.35 The burned area extended throughout a favorite Indian hunting region. This action of Mitchell's con- tributed to the exodus of the hostiles from Kansas and southern Nebraska. It simply meant, on the other hand, that their forces
31. Root and Connelley, The Overland Stage, 353-356.
32. Senate Debate 1867, Cong. Globe, 40 Cong., 1 sess. (Debate on the Ross Amendment to S. 136.), 708-709.
33. Ibid., 708.
34. Kansas Daily Tribune (Lawrence) January 15, 1865.
35. Ibid., February 2, 1865. Report of General Mitchell to General Curtis January 29.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER. 147
were to be concentrated with the hostile Sioux along the Platte trail and Overland telegraph line. As a consequence the great Indian wars of 1865 took place outside of Kansas.
During the absence of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes the Kansas frontier enjoyed a brief respite. Of course, the Kiowas and Coman- ches were engaged in a series of depredations, but, comparatively, things were quiet during the spring and summer. On April 25 In- dians attacked Cow Creek station on the Santa Fe Stage Company line driving off sixteen head of cattle.36 On June 9 Kiowas charged upon a wagon train on Crooked creek in the southwestern section of the state. The train, which consisted of about seventy wagons un- der a military escort, successfully defended itself. In August the government was compelled to send a heavy escort to Fort Zarah in order to prevent the Indians from confiscating the 8,000 rations which were being delivered to the fort.37 These rations were con- signed to the Indians, but the Great Father at Washington pre- ferred handing them out to his red children instead of having them taken by force.
Having learned by experience the terrible cost of the Indian war of the preceding year, the United States military authorities took steps in 1865 contemplated to bring the war to a close. A three- fold plan was developed: First, to defend the settlements and routes of travel from Indian aggression ; second, to invade the Pow- der river region in the Dakotas and strike a blow which would teach the Indian to respect the power of the government; third, to make peace with the Indians in Kansas and arrange for their removal from the state. In pursuance of the first objective the Kansas government and people cooperated. Kansas troops also made up a large part of General Dodge's Powder river expedition. As to the wisdom of the third part of the plan, making peace with the Indians, Kansans were frankly dubious.
The Kansas state legislature on January 17, 1865, adopted a concurrent resolution requesting congress to secure from the Presi- dent (1) full and ample protection against hostile Indians on the western border; (2) prosecution of an active campaign against the Indians by an adequate force of federal troops; (3) permission for the governor of Kansas to organize a regiment of veteran volunteer cavalry to serve for one year in the Indian campaign.38 These
36. Kansas Daily Tribune (Lawrence), May 2, 1865.
37. Junction City (Kansas) Union, August 19, 1865.
38. House Journal, Kansas Legislature 1865, 88-89.
148 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
requests reveal the trend of popular feeling within the state at the time.
Another event of significance in January was the reorganization of the military departments. The old Department of Kansas was replaced by the Department of the Missouri with Gen. Grenville M. Dodge succeeding General Curtis. The state legislature upon receipt of this information extended Curtis a vote of thanks for his services.39
In an effort to insure a greater degree of safety to travel on the Santa Fe trail, Colonel Ford, commanding the district of the upper Arkansas, provided for escort service between Council Grove and Fort Larned.40 Twice a month, on the first and the fifteenth, a company of troops left Council Grove as an escort for travelers and freighters. From Larned west to Fort Union, New Mexico, the escort was composed of troops sent from the district of New Mexico.41 A similar arrangement was made for east-bound trans- portation. Fort Dodge was also constructed during the year as an added protection to Santa Fe travel.
An additional burden of protection was put upon the shoulders of the military authorities in Kansas when the Butterfield Over- land Despatch line was organized* in 1865. Its route extended 585 miles from Leavenworth and Atchison to Denver via the Smoky Hill river.42 In order to give the route adequate defense, a chain of forts and outposts was constructed along the Smoky Hill valley by the government. The Butterfield line, despite this assistance, failed to make profits. Hostile Indians and the competition of the Holladay line on the Platte trail proved its undoing.43
The frontier settlements in Western Kansas were successfully defended during the year by Colonel Cloud and the Fifteenth Kan- sas cavalry.44 A contemplated offensive against the Indians by Colonel Ford was never carried out due to the interference of Colonel Leavenworth, agent to the Kiowas and Comanches, who fancied that he could end the war by negotiation.45 Colonel Ford was delayed by Interior Department officials until spring was so
39. House Journal, Kansas Legislature, 1865, 168.
40. Colonel Ford's order was published in the Kansas Daily Tribune (Lawrence) May 11, 1865.
41. Ibid.
42. Root and Connelley, The Overland Stage, 395.
43. Root and Connelley, The Overland Stage, 400-401.
44. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, 224.
45. Editorial, Kansas Daily Tribune (Lawrence) May 2, 1865.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER. 149
far advanced that the hostiles were too strong to be attacked by his forces.
While these events were transpiring, Governor Crawford was not idle. With his customary energy he plunged into the problem of frontier defense early in the year. In answer to numerous petitions from settlers in the south-central portion of the state, he en- deavored to persuade both Curtis and Dodge to send a small force of cavalry to the region.46 Troubles had arisen between settlers and Indians in the Indian Territory on account of cattle stealing. Many settlers were leaving because of the danger of possible In- dian raids.
In August the governor wrote to General Sheridan asking for the immediate muster-out of the Eighth and Tenth Kansas volun- teer infantry. The reason given for the request was that the In- dian situation on the western border looked threatening.47 A few days later a similar request for the muster-out of the Sixteenth Kansas cavalry was transmitted to General Grant.48
While the Fifteenth Kansas cavalry remained in the state, the Eleventh and the Sixteenth were sent north with General Dodge to restore communication along the Platte trail, to protect frontier settlements, and to drive the Indians into the Black Hills.49 Al- though in February it had been the purpose of the Department of the Missouri to send the entire Eleventh cavalry into the Smoky Hill region for an Indian campaign, a change of orders sent them to Fort Kearney, Nebraska. While part of the regiment guarded the Platte trail and Overland telegraph, the remainder was sent to Fort Laramie for the spring campaign against the Sioux on Powder river.50 The work of protecting the transcontinental highway was difficult. Indians fairly swarmed along the telegraph line, but the soldiers were never driven from the field and the wires were kept in working order.51 On June 11 Col. Preston B. Plumb was ordered to reopen and protect the Overland stage line and give all possible protection to emigrants and other travel. For the next
46. Crawford to Curtis, February 7, 1865, Correspondence of Kansas Governors, Crawford, (Letterpress books), 1863-1865, 28. Hereafter cited C. K. G. Crawford (Letterpress books) ; Letter from Crawford to General Dodge, February 11, 1865, Correspondence of Kansas Gov- ernors, Crawford, (Copy Book), 4-5. Hereafter cited as C. K. G. Crawford (Copy Book). Archives, Kansas State Historical Society.
47. Crawford to Sheridan, August 12, 1865, C. K. G. Crawford, (Copy Book), 13.
48. Crawford to Grant August 29, 1865, C. K. G. Crawford, (Letterpress Book), 53.
49. Will C. Ferril, "The Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry in the Black Hills in 1865," The Kansas Historical Collections, XVII, 855.
50. Official Military History of Kansas Regiments, 338-339, Library of the Kansas State Historical Society, n. d., n. p.
51. Ibid., 342.
150 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
two months Plumb and his men guarded the stage line, drove the stages by using cavalry horses, and kept the United States mail on schedule.52 In August the Eleventh cavalry was ordered to Fort Leavenworth and mustered out of service.
Less glorious was the performance of the Sixteenth Kansas cav- alry in the Black Hills. The Sixteenth had the misfortune to par- ticipate in a disastrous campaign. General Connor's forces were outnumbered and outgeneraled by the Sioux and Cheyenne war- riors. The attempt to strike the Indian in his stronghold resulted in so much grief that the project had to be abandoned. The losses of the Sixteenth nevertheless were very small. One soldier was killed and one wounded.53
In October General Grant announced his Indian policy. Gen- erals Sherman and Pope were instructed to give particular atten- tion to the problem of putting an end to Indian troubles along the great overland highways. Additional permanent forts were to be established along the Platte, Smoky Hill and Arkansas river routes. Finally the volunteers were to be replaced by 4,000 colored troops.54 The Negroes were supposedly more free from prejudices against the Indians.55 In addition to this advantage the Negroes were willing to serve, whereas the white volunteers became quite in- effective on account of their anxiety to be mustered out.56
Another important event of October, 1865, was the negotiation of a treaty with the southern plains tribes. The Chivington mas- sacre had had the effect of practically annulling the treaty of Fort Wise, since the Cheyennes and Arapahoes were afraid to remain in the region set aside for them in Colorado by the treaty. Hence it was desirable to make a new treaty which would include not only peace terms but provisions for settling the Indians on a permanent reservation. Indian commissioners selected by con- gress came to Kansas in October and negotiated treaties with the Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Comanche, and Kiowa tribes. Two treaties were made: one with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, the other with the Comanches and Kiowas. On October 14, on the Little Arkan- sas river, near the site of the present city of Wichita, the final agreements were drawn up. The United States was represented
52. Official Military History of Kansas Regiments, 342.
53. Wilder, D. W. : Annals of Kansas, 381.
54. Junction City (Kansas) Union, October 28, 1865; Daily Kansas Tribune (Lawrence) October 26, 1865.
55. Junction City Union, October 28, 1865.
56. Kansas Daily Tribune (Lawrence), September 14, 1865.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER. 151
by seven commissioners: General Sanborn; Gen. W. S. Harney; Thomas Murphy, superintendent of Indians affairs in the central superintendency ; Kit Carson, the famous frontiersman; William W. Bent, the fur trader; Jesse H. Leavenworth, agent of the Co- manches and Kiowas; and James Steele. The Indian delegation was composed of the most influential members of their respective tribes.57
The most important terms of the treaty were contained in articles 2, 3 and 4. The first of these provided for setting aside a permanent reservation for the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, south of the Arkan- sas river in Kansas and Indian Territory. The Kiowas and Co- manches were assigned to a region in northwestern Texas and Indian Territory. The Indians were not to settle upon the reservations until the United States had extinguished the titles of the Cherokees and other claimants. When absent from these reservations the Indians were not to go within ten miles of any of the main-traveled routes. All claims of the Indians to the region between the Platte and the Arkansas were given up. Article 3 permitted the Indians to range in the unsettled portions between the two rivers. Article 9 abrogated all existing treaties.58
The United States senate on May 22, 1866, ratified the treaty with four amendments. The most significant of these was the amendment to article 2. The senate provided that no Indian reser- vation mentioned in the treaty should be located within the state of Kansas. It was also amended to remove personal reference to Colonel Chivington.59
The senate amendments were accepted by the Indians in Novem- ber, 1866, and the treaty was formally proclaimed by President Johnson on February 2, 1867.60
As a preventive of future Indian wars the treaty was defective. The Cheyennes and Arapahoes were left without any definite reser- vation, since the senate amendment to article 2 excluded them from Kansas, while article 9 took away their Colorado reserve. With these tribes turned loose and allowed to roam at will between the Platte and the Arkansas, the danger of conflict with the whites remained as grave a problem as ever. Furthermore, that part of article 2 which provided for the Indians remaining away from the
57. Official Copy of the Original Treaty, Archives, Kansas State Historical Society.
58. Ibid.
59. cf. previous reference to article of the treaty.
60. Official Copy of Original Treaty. Archives, Kansas State Historical Society.
152 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
main-traveled routes could not possibly have been enforced except by the Indians themselves.
Much evidence exists to cast doubt upon the permanency of the Indians' peaceful intentions. On their way to the council grounds a party of braves celebrated by attacking a Mexican train near Fort Dodge and killing five men.81 Also, the treaty, like most agreements with the Indians, was made in the fall when the warriors were tired of fighting and were looking forward to a winter of rest and recuperation in order to get ready for another big year. In November, 1865, consequently, Colonel Leavenworth was able to report truthfully that "his Indians" had for the most part, if not entirely, stopped depredations along the Santa Fe trail.62
61. Editorial in Kansas Daily Tribune (Lawrence), October 5, 1865.
62. Report of the Central Superintendency, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1865, 46.
No-ko-aht's Talk
A Kickapoo Chief's Account of a Tribal Journey from Kansas
to Mexico and Return in the Sixties.
Edited by GEORGE A. ROOT
IN 1867 Franklin G. Adams,1 the agent for the Kickapoo Indians, received a visit from Chief No-ko-aht, who, a few years before, had led a band of about 120 Kickapoos on a visit to relatives in Old Mexico. No-ko-aht, with less than a dozen of his followers, had just returned from their pilgrimage to the reservation in Kansas. The "talk" which took place during this call was at the agency, at Kennekuk, Atchison county, on May 31, 1867, and forms the basis of this article. This interview was taken down in shorthand by Mr. Adams in a book of Kickapoo memoranda, now in the manuscript collection of the State Historical Society.
The Kickapoos were first found by white men in the country bor- dering Lake Michigan on the west. The earliest mention of the tribe is of their near destruction at the hands of the Puans (Winne- bagos)2 between 1640 and 1660. After the lapse of nearly a hun- dred years, and much warfare, the tribe took up new homes on the Sangamon and Wabash3 rivers, in present Illinois and Indiana. By 1820 most of the Kickapoos had moved to a new home on the Osage and the Pomme de Terre4 rivers, in southwest Missouri. This location had long been the hunting ground of the Osages, and they objected to their new neighbors settling down there, protesting they would spread all over their grounds and kill the game.5 In 1824,
1. Franklin George Adams was born in Rodman, N. Y., May 13, 1824. He came to Kansas in 1855 from Cincinnati, returning there, where he was married to Harriet Elizabeth Clark on September 29. He returned to Kansas in 1856, settling at Leavenworth, taking an active part in the free-state struggles. He engaged in the banking business in Leavenworth in 1857, and that fall moved to Atchison, becoming part owner of the Squatter Sovereign, changing its politics to free-state. He was elected first probate judge of Atchison county in 1858. In 1861 he was appointed register of the land office at Lecompton, removing the office to Topeka and serving till 1864. He was first secretary of the State Agricultural So- ciety, and edited the Kansas Farmer. In 1862 he was part owner of the Kansas State Record, of Topeka. He removed to Atchison in the spring of 1864, and established the Atchison Daily Free Press. He was appointed agent of the Kickapoo Indians in the spring of 1865, serving until 1869. In the fall of 1870 he moved to Waterville and edited the Waterville Telegram from January, 1871, to August, 1872. In the winter of 1872-73 he published The Homestead Guide, a volume of 312 pages. In 1875 he removed to Topeka, and in 1876 was chosen secretary of the newly organized State Historical Society, serving in that capacity up to the time of his death on December 2, 1899. A more extended biography will be found in Kansas Historical Collections, v. 6, pp. 171-175.
2. Basqueville de la Potherie's Histoire de I'Amerique Septentrionelle, published at Paris in 1722 and again in 1755, in Wisconsin Historical Collections, v. 17, p. 7.
3. Hodge, Handbook of American Indians, part 1, pp. 684, 685.
4. Treaties Between the United States of America and the Several Tribes of Indians, from 1778 to 1837, p. 283.
6. Houck, Louis, A History of Missouri, v. 1, p. 196.
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154 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
therefore, a number of these Kickapoos left and started south, finally presenting themselves to the alcalde in the city of Austin, in the then republic of Mexico. They stated that they wished to acquire land and make a home for themselves with the Mexican people. They were granted a tract lying to the north of where the San An- tonio road crosses the San Angelo river, and acted as a buffer be- tween the Mexicans and the wild Indian tribes of the plains.
In the years following a part of these Kickapoos crossed the Rio Grande and settled in the state of Coahuila, Mexico. The balance of those who had gone south lived on the tract allotted them until 1842, when by common consent they were given another tract, forty miles square. Here they lived until the outbreak of the Civil War in the United States, when at the advice of Gen. Sam Houston, they moved north into Indian Territory, settling in the vicinity of present Shawnee, Okla. In 1862 these Kickapoos decided to return to Texas and make their home in the wilds of that state, their objective being the Concho river, in Tom Green county.
This band finally arrived at the ranch of William Tankersley, about two miles from Knickerbocker. Tankersley was known to them, and at his invitation they camped on his ranch. The next day a large company of Confederate cavalry appeared at Tankersley's, inquiring for the Kickapoos. The officer in charge said that the Kickapoos had a large number of fine horses which would be of more value to the Confederacy than their friendship. He ordered a charge on the Indians. The Kickapoos were not expecting an as- sault, but nevertheless offered a most stubborn resistance, and as a result the cavalry lost sixteen men mortally wounded. The Con- federates withdrew for reinforcements, not even stopping to bury their dead. The Kickapoos broke camp at once and started for Mexico, thinking Texas had declared war on them, and the trail of carnage and destruction they left in their wake is a matter of Texas history. They forded the Rio Grande and entered Mexico at the north end of the Sierra del Carmen range, following down this range into the state of Coahuila, finally taking up their home at Nacimi- ento. Here they were welcomed by both state and federal authori- ties, not only because they were a protection to the native popula- tion of the country, but in remembrance of the protection that these same Indians had been when Texas was a part of Mexico. President Benito Juarez made a service grant to them and a treaty by which the Kickapoos rendered valuable aid in exterminating the Lipans and in driving the Comanches beyond the Mexican border.6
6. 60th Cong., 1st Sess., Senate Document No. 215, Pt. 3, pp. 1885, 1886.
ROOT: NO-KO-AHT'S TALK 155
The Kickapoos who had remained in Missouri moved during 1832 and 1833 to the reservation provided for them on the Missouri river, in present Kansas.7 In 1864 about one-half of those remain- ing on the reservation, becoming dissatisfied with their treatment at the hands of the government,8 started south under No-ko-aht, and joined their relatives in Old Mexico. Not finding conditions to their liking, No-ko-aht and a few followers returned to Kansas.9 The statement which follows gives the reasons for the pilgrimage of No-ko-aht and his band, and an account of the trip going and coming:
TALK WITH NO-KO-AHT.
May 31, 1867.
The following talk was had with No-ko-aht at the agency: "When we left here we went and joined with two parties of Kickapoos, making then three parties. Two other parties were al- ready gone. We followed. That was the same fall [1864] that we left. We overtook the other parties in the spring. There were about 700 of us in the three parties. My party numbered [number not stated]/ In the winter we had a fight with the Texans. It was very cold. I joined the two parties of Kickapoos just on the Kansas river line. We started to go south in the same fall. We traveled slowly along over and hunting buffalo on the plains. We joined the other two parties — not till after the fight. The other two parties had no trouble. Those two parties numbered about 1,000. We overtook the two parties just as we got out of Mexico. There were about twenty persons living in Mexico. They had lived there for about twenty years. The seven men were soldiers in the Mexican army and had been for a long time. The men stay in a little town called San Juan, close by a lake, about 40 miles from the Rio Grande, and about 40 miles northwest of Santa Rosa. We arrived in Mexico in the spring of '65, early, about time to plant corn in that country.
"When the Kickapoos first went to Mexico, about twenty years ago, the president of Mexico offered them a sack of money, but they came away before they received the money. The president of Mexico had ordered them to go on an expedition against the Comanches. They had made one expedition and had turned their spoils over to the Mexicans, but refused to go again and the presi- dent refused to give the sack of money unless the Kickapoos would
7. Kansas Historical Collections, v. 12, p. 66.
8. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report 1865, p. 373.
9. Ibid., 1867, p. 295.
156 THE KANSAS HISTOKICAL QUARTERLY
do it, and then the Kickapoos came away. Then in 1864 the presi- dent sent a message to the Kickapoos to request them to come and get their sack of money. The Kickapoos went. When we got there the Mexicans wanted our young men to enlist. They wanted fifty young men to each party, 200 men, and came down to twenty. The Kickapoos refused. The Mexicans became displeased and ordered us into the mountains. There nothing can be raised. They should live by hunting. It was a false message that came to us. It was brought by Tas-ca-tap-ia, one of the seven. We went where we were ordered. That was the same spring of 1865. There were some white families and some black. They had farms, and ap- peared to have been there for some time. They were planning on the Mexican government taking their produce and stock which they raised for rent or taxes. There were six families of whites and eight or ten families of blacks. The whites left and the blacks remained for a short time. They raised cattle, sheep, and horses a good deal, and corn, pumpkins, and sugar [cane] and made sugar [?] and raised sweet potatoes. It was in a little valley at the foot of the mountain where the Sobrinas river comes out. The white families left in the spring of 1866. They didn't say where they should go to. They would come to the Rio Grande and work till they should get some money and would then come to the North. They didn't belong to the South. They went into Mexico for the war next, and all returned after it closed. The farms were pretty old and must have been bought of Mexicans. The Indians took the farms after the whites left. The white men offered to trade their farms for the Kickapoo lands in Kansas.
"Our first trouble in going out was the killing of one of our num- ber by one of the wild tribes — Kiowa, on the Red river, pretty well west. He was cut off while out hunting. After that we went on till we got to where we saw some tracks of soldiers. We camped and sent a messenger to hunt them up. We failed to find the soldiers, and leaving a white flag went on. A number of days after we reached another track by a stream and we camped seven days. One day I was out setting traps when I met one of our leading men who told me we were to move back next day. Next morning I was out hunting horses, and I went across a mountain, and as I was going home I was fired upon by soldiers. I saw as I was on the mountain, a good many horses, and thought they were ours, but think they were soldiers. All our young men were scattered that morning hunting horses, and one or two were killed while out.
ROOT: NO-KO-AHT'S TALK 157
Then the soldiers came upon our camp. There was a stream be- tween the two camps. The first killed was Aski. The Indians con- tinued firing yet. Then a woman was killed. This was before we fired. The fight was but a few minutes. A good many were killed on both sides. When we drove them to one side another force came in behind us. Then we whipped the second party back and the third one attacked us and we fired on them once. We killed a good many of the first party, a few of the second and none of the third. When we were first attacked we divided, part pursuing the first Texan party and the others fighting the rest. The second and third Texan forces went [?] to the mountains and we couldn't do any- thing with them. We followed the first force quite a distance. The two parties at the mountain went and drove up all our stock. After it was all over we went up to the mountain and saw a good deal of blood. After the Texans drove off our stock we pursued for awhile, when we returned. We saw bodies of two or three Kickapoos who had been killed before the fight. They had taken two of our boys prisoners before the fight, and they took them along with them. Afterwards they got away. We had fifteen killed altogether: Aski, Kap-i-o-ma, Ki-sha-pi, Pen-i-a-la, Ki-
sha-qui, George Washington, Ko-ki-pi-ah, , Me-sho-kum-i,
Pa-mo-tha-ah, Ah-chi-mo, Me-hahq, Nan-ma-qua-tah, Ka-ke-to, and a boy.
"All our stock was taken away nearly; some families had none. We were obliged to leave most of our things. Aski tried to shake hands and make peace with the Texans, but they shot him.
"We found some papers among the Texans which showed that they had followed us ten days.
"After we had got into Mexico and had gone to the mountains the Texans later came and asked the Kickapoos to deliver the girl prisoner.
"We think we killed about forty Texans. They left their dead on the field of battle. They came back and buried them. There was a Texas family living not far away. The Kiowas had been into a settlement and took a girl prisoner. The Kiowas pointed to our trail so that the Texans thought we had stolen their child.
"The killed were seven of my party.
"From there we had a hard time. Some had to walk. We had sent for water — it was a dry region.
"During the year that we remained in Mexico we subsisted by hunting. We sold beaver, deer and bear skins. We sold our ponies
158 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
[?] for $10 apiece for subsistence. We raised a very little corn. About 40 started home last spring ; 33 Kickapoos, the rest Delawares. Over one-half of all started once, and when we got out a short dis- tance, our horses were so poor and we were out of ammunition, and most went back. After we had come on ten days, two young men overtook us and wished us to wait ten days till they could go back for their things. We waited, but they didn't come. Before we started two of the chiefs wanted us to go around through the Comanche country.
"In coming home we had no trouble except in one place. We came upon three parties of plains Indians, one of whom shook hands with us, but the others refused. In a few days twelve of our horses were stolen. The friendly chief advised us to go on, which we did. After that ten more were stolen. We went back to hunt our horses and Indians brought us twenty horses. These Indians had a good many cattle which they had stolen. There had been a fight near there recently.
"I think these Kickapoos will come back this year to the Indian country. Some of them may come here. Some will have to stay because they have no ponies. They may get into trouble by steal- ing. They steal nearly everything in that country. The best man gets it. The chiefs can't control the young men. It's all war — the conversation down there. There were a good many traders from the French.
. (No-ko-aht has nothing, but argued that the government ought to do for these Indians. The most of them want to return and live under our government.)10
"You asked me the other day how I felt. I told you I didn't feel well in my mind. There had been a great change here since I left. I want to know how all our arrangements with the government stand. At the time the treaty of '63 was making I always told the agent the treaty should not be left till a certain time. Finally I [illegible] about making a treaty. I thought I would go south and see the country. I saw that I couldn't live among the white people, for every year my stock was being stolen. I thought I had better leave. I tell you why I got scared. I insisted that the agent gave notice to all the white people around to steal our stock so that we would be obliged to go because we were poor. The agent told us that if we didn't make the treaty we would be taken prisoners and
10. Comment by F. G. Adams.
ROOT: NO-KO-AHT'S TALK 159
removed. That is why I left. The treaty was forced upon us. The agent told us the government owned the land, and the Indians only had a lease for a certain number of years. It is a fact that much complaint has been made about trouble between the Indians and the settlers. All this [was made] by the white people. In old times all Indians were called together when the treaty was made, and if all the old men and the young men were willing the treaty was made, and there was no trouble. So the [illegible] to choose a chief. The trouble arises because the agent chooses chiefs. When you told me about the treaty lately made, I thought the tribe was all broken up. It was the understanding of the Kickapoo tribe in 1854 that the Kickapoos should remain here as long as the world stood. In twenty years we were to meet so we should obtain that $100,000. Now you understand me how I feel towards treaties. I ask you how these Pottawatomies come in."11
11. No-ko-aht's reference was to those Pottawatomies who had been living with the Kickapoos since about 1819- '20, and had intermarried. In 1851, by a treaty or national compact, they had been adopted into the Kickapoo tribe. The rights of nationality pur- chased from the Kickapoos cost the Pottawatomie nation nothing. In 1865 these Potta- watomies were for the first time permitted to enjoy the privileges of the tribe. By order of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs this year they received allotments of lands under the late treaty and were fully incorporated with the tribe. This was in conformity with the agreement of 1851.
Notes on the Literature of Populism
JAMES C. MALJN
TO THE general reader of historical literature the word Populist usually carries with it a simple and elemental meaning. But as one becomes more inquisitive regarding its causes and its rela- tions with other political, economic and social movements he finds himself facing an extremely baffling subject. Pursuit of satisfac- tory explanations will lead him halfway around the world. So far as Populism was an agricultural movement, it involved two different features. First, agriculture as an industry had not developed as rapidly as urban industry in its application of scientific discoveries, in its use of machinery and power, in its utilization of scientific management in farm operations, or in its organization of business methods as applied to marketing its products. This fact applies to agriculture in Europe as well as in America, and in New England and the Middle States as well as in the West and South. The de- velopment of railroads, steamships, refrigeration, and the telegraph, toward the end of the nineteenth century, produced a revolution in much of the machinery for marketing such basic farm products as grain, cotton and meat. The prices came to be made in world markets on the basis of world-wide competition. These changes occurred so rapidly that much of the marketing machinery worked inefficiently because adjustments were not made as rapidly as needed, and on occasion these conditions invited unfair manipula- tion in the interest of speculators. All of these matters affected the whole of the agricultural industry.
The second aspect of Populism was the local complications which aggravated the problems presented by the first group of factors. In the South there was the heritage of the Civil War, reconstruction and carpetbaggers, the peculiarities attached to the production of cotton and the social demoralization aggravated by racial antag- onisms and lack of education. Poverty had become the most cherished institution of the rural South, and every feature of the prevailing farm life seemed to be designed to preserve it. In the West the complicating factor was frontier conditions complicated by what was probably the greatest agricultural expansion the world had ever witnessed in a similar length of time. More land was brought into cultivation in the United States between 1870 and 1900 than in the whole preceding period of American history. In
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MALIN: LITERATURE OF POPULISM 161
the Northeast agriculture was demoralized, and by 1880 the aban- donment of farm land had become a subject of concern. The farm- ers' revolt centered in the South and West, however, and an al- together adequate answer has never been given which will explain why the revolt did not take a stronger hold upon the Northeast.
The Farmers' Alliances preceded the People's party and in their beginnings approached the farm question primarily from the point of view of improving rural social conditions. This approach to their problems soon led the farmers to shift the emphasis to the improvement of economic conditions, especially to methods of mar- keting farm products. There were two of the Alliances, the South- ern and the Northwest, as they were conveniently referred to. In 1889 and 1890 attempts were made to unite them and other farm groups into one national organization. The plan even contemplated bringing into the combination certain groups of organized labor. The plan of union failed, and this failure marks the transition of the movement to the third or political approach to farm relief — the People's party — and the high point of this period of rural agitation.
The Alliance and Populist movements gave rise to a voluminous literature of exposition and argument and inspired several of their members to write "histories" which resembled communiques from the field of battle rather than judiciously phrased historical narra- tive. One of the first of these histories was that of William L. Garvin and S. 0. Davis, History of the National Farmers' Alliance and Cooperative Union of America (Jacksboro, Tex., 1887). Garvin was one of the state Alliance leaders in Texas, where the Southern Alliance originated, and the book was written before the national aspect of the organization had developed very fully, so it centers around the Texas region. By 1891 the Alliance movement had reached its high point or passed it. The Populist phase was already in the offing. The farmers were threatened with overproduction of histories as well as field crops, but only three will be mentioned here: W. Scott Morgan, History of the Wheel and Alliance (several editions 1889-1891) ; J. E. Bryan, The Farmers' Alliance: Its Ori- gin, Progress and Purposes (Fayetteville, Ark., 1891) ; and N. A. Dunning (editor in chief) , The Farmers' Alliance History and Agri- cultural Digest (Washington, D. C., 1891). A later book was that of F. G. Blood, Handbook and History of the Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union (Washington, D. C., 1893). The Populist
11—2345
162 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
movement had its literature, also, but less of it was historical, as is indicated by the following titles: William A. Peffer, The Farmers' Side (New York, 1891) and James B. Weaver, A Call to Action (Des Moines, Iowa, 1892). Peffer was the Populist senator from Kansas and Weaver was the presidential candidate for the party in 1892. No doubt many readers, if they look through their book- cases or attics, can find copies of some of these books, as well as others not mentioned here. If the books have not been read for thirty-five or forty years, to reread them would be an excellent method of measuring whether the world, or the reader, has changed any in that time.
During recent years Populism has become a favorite subject of historical research. A few of these studies are of book length: Alex M. Arnett, The Populist Movement in Georgia (New York, Colum- bia University Press, 1922) ; F. B. Simpkins, The Tillman Move- ment in South Carolina (Durham, N. C., Duke University Press, 1926) ; Paul R. Fossum, The Agrarian Movement in North Dakota (Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1925) ; F. E. Haynes, James B. Weaver (Iowa City, The State Historical Society of Iowa, 1919). Shorter studies of the length of magazine articles are more numerous than the longer studies and deal with the move- ment in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Indiana, North Caro- lina, Louisiana and Texas.
The history of Populism as a whole has been attempted only a few times. The first such study was that of Frank L. McVey, The Populist Movement (New York, 1896) and it was written in a highly critical spirit. The second landmark in this field was the book by F. E. Haynes, Third Party Movements Since the Civil War (Iowa City, Iowa, The State Historical Society of Iowa, 1916). As the title indicates, this book is not limited to Populism, but it brought together within the covers of one book a good summary of what was then available. Of similar character, but more superficial, is Solon J. Buck, The Agrarian Crusade (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1920). As most of the special state studies indicated in the preceding paragraph were written after the World War, the time is ripe for a new book based on this wider range of specialized in- formation.
During the late summer of 1931 the University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis) published a book by John D. Hicks, The Pop- ulist Revolt. It was advertised as a "definitive" history of the Farmers' Alliance and the People's party. Readers should not be
MALIN: LITERATUKE OF POPULISM 163
misled by such advertising, however, even when it comes from one of the large university presses. The book is not definitive within any accepted meaning of that term, even if one grants the possi- bility of any history being definitive. The book does not deal with the international economic situation which was a major contributing cause of the depression of the nineties in the United States. The chapter on silver is similar to much of the writing of the "goldbugs" of the McKinley era. There is no analysis of the machinery for marketing and distributing farm products which would afford the reader a background by which to judge Alliance and Populist griev- ances against the middlemen. More broadly speaking, there is a serious want of a comprehensive survey of agriculture for the whole period in question. When judged from these points of view the book is a conspicuous example of what most American historians have been doing — trying to write the history of the United States in a vacuum, assuming tacitly if not explicitly, that this country is isolated from the rest of the world and insulated completely from the influence of economic and political events outside. There are serious gaps in the local material. The author has made systematic use of the Minnesota and Nebraska newspapers and has used simi- larly one paper in each of the following states: Illinois, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, together with two papers published in the interest of the Alliance and the People's party, re- spectively, in Washington, D. C. The author has made good use of these, but Kansas readers may ask why no paper representing their state is in the list, as Kansas was generally understood to be one of the leading Populist states. Kansas men appear only oc- casionally, and then scarcely more than as names, in spite of the prominence they held in the headlines of contemporary newspapers. This is not the provincial criticism of a Kansan, but it illustrates similar deficiencies in the narrative for other states, especially those whose newspaper files Professor Hicks has not examined personally. In the field of manuscript sources the limitations are even greater. Only four important collections are listed: Those of Donnelly of Minnesota, Weller of Iowa, and Allen and Maxwell of Nebraska. Labor union connections with the Alliances and People's party are alluded to at various times, but no systematic study was made of that field. There is reason to believe that an investigation of these connections is essential to the solution of several peculiar turns of events in Populist history.
Prof. John D. Hicks was for several years head of the history de-
164 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
partment at the University of Nebraska and at present is Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. For about a decade he has been making the Populist movement his special field of historical re- search. He brings to the writing of this book a mature background of knowledge of his chosen subject. In his preface Professor Hicks calls attention to the book of McVey, to that of Haynes, and then states his own position thus :
"But Haynes lacked monographic material on which to rely, and in the case of a movement so widespread and so many-sided as Populism the work of a single investigator was bound to be inadequate. Since the time when Haynes wrote, books and articles dealing with various phases and segments of the Populist movement have multiplied amazingly, and for this reason, if for no other, the time is ripe for another general treatise on the subject."
Here, then, is a statement of what Hicks set out to do, and his book should be measured by the degree to which he accomplished his own purpose and not by the exaggerated claim of his publishers. From this point of view an estimate of the book becomes a very different matter. He has supplemented his own investigation with the special studies of others and has fused the whole into an effective book. He has developed to a high degree his ability to write in a simple and direct language a story which in itself is highly compli- cated. Criticism might be directed at some minor questions, but there are rather few points in which he has failed to appreciate fully the significance of monographic materials he has used. The present writer is of the opinion that more emphasis should properly be given to the work of H. C. Nixon, "The Cleavage within the Farmers' Alliance Movement" in The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 15 (June, 1928) 22-33. In this study Nixon emphasizes the sharp differences which developed over the oleomargarine and lard-com- pound questions. The cotton and range-cattle interests of the South defended these products and the dairy and hog-corn interests of the North demanded federal legislation which would limit if not destroy those industries. This controversy illustrates a fundamental truism in the whole field of economic legislation, that what is relief to one industry may be disaster to another. On some other of these sec- tional differences Hicks has given a most illuminating treatment. Such conflicts as these help to explain more adequately why the Populist farm-relief program went on the rocks at that time. Tak- ing the book as a whole, it sums up in a quite satisfactory manner what is known about the Alliance and Populist movements.
The Annual Meeting
THE fifty-sixth annual meeting of the Kansas State Historical Society and the board of directors was held in the rooms of the Society on October 20, 1931. Since the Society is required by law to submit a biennial report of its activities, a full account of the proceedings will appear in the biennial report to be published following the annual meeting of 1932. In order to avoid duplication, a summary only is given here.
The officers elected for the year 1931-1932 were John S. Dawson, president; Thomas A. Lee, first vice president; H. K. Lindsley, sec- ond vice president. The directors whose terms of office expired at the annual meeting were reflected for three years. New directors elected to fill vacancies were: for the term ending October, 1933, Wilder S. Metcalf, Lawrence; Charles E. Beeks, Baldwin; T. F. Morrison, Chanute; Mrs. W. D. Philip, Hays; for the term ending October, 1932, John G. Ellenbecker, Marysville; John H. Wilson, Salina. Mrs. W. E. Connelley, widow of the late secretary of the Society, was elected to honorary membership.
The retiring president, Charles M. Harger, of Abilene, made a most interesting extemporaneous address. A summary of his talk, prepared by Mr. Harger, follows:
THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS
The annual meeting of the State Historical Society is merely a milestone in a long path of usefulness. Here we can evaluate our progress and plan for the future. The past year has been one of advancement, with new functions and revision of old ones to fit into the needs of these times. No organization of this kind can go on successfully without constant readjustment of its methods and the acceptance of new ideas that will further its object. This is what gives stimulation to its membership and accomplishment worth while in its achievements.
Recorded history, as other phases of civilization, is undergoing change. In the beginnings of historic time the record was of dates and persons. Wars, massacres, cruelty stalked across the pages. Revolutions, assassinations, all the brutal characteristics of untamed rulers, made the story. Later, affairs of state, of conquest by well-instituted armies, crept into the picture.
With the settlement of the new world came the recital of the trials and tribulations of settlerhood, of the varied methods evolved by pilgrim fathers to establish order in an environment strange in its physical aspects and a citizenry difficult to please in government.
Until within a century and a half of these times the history of America was of experiment, of migration to the West, of setting up new communities, later
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166 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to be gathered into states. It was concerned largely with the objective, only incidentally with the subjective in human experience.
Gradually into our national life came modern problems of government, the complexities of industrial life, the dawn of new theories in social progress, the rise of literature, the press and rapid communication. The tide of popula- tion swept to the Pacific coast and turned back on itself — there was no more free land, Uncle Sam was not "rich enough to give us all a farm" — his farms were exhausted. Storm and stress of a civil war disturbed and then abated. This nation finished one era and began another. Settlement in its first forms of development was over. Succeeding came the period of ideas, of changing social orders, of problems of maintaining among more than a hundred million persons constituting our population a rational procedure in living so framed as to give to each his opportunity and to protect the weak against the strong.
Somewhat parallel to this hastily sketched program has been the history of Kansas. The Kansas State Historical Society is entering a new era, one in which it has to deal with the subjective rather than the objective. For more than a third of a century it has been gathering the facts of early settlerhood. Marvelous is this collection of historical material preserved for the future. But Kansas is not old. We shall by continuing the process eventually gather all available records of what our forefathers did and how they developed this commonwealth. The efforts of this Society and of the county associations — that are working toward the same end — must some day have the picture of settlerhood completely recorded.
After this comes the period when we consider causes, events, civic and so- cial accomplishments rather than the story of the pioneer. The rise and fall — or the establishment — of movements in government; the psychology of social trends; the spectacular rise of new leaders — and why; the cross currents in the commonwealth's administrations — what all these factors in Kansas life mean and how they were evolved — all these are to be part of the Society's endeavor, and upon it rests the duty of preserving these while they are fully attainable and their interpretation — or at least their real historic value — is possible.
The preservation of material things — pictures, diaries, furniture of signifi- cance— is not to be belittled. These have their place. No one can traverse the countryside of Virginia valleys or the hills and vales of New England without being impressed by the devotion to their noble history that animates their people. Kansas has no history going back 300 years as do they. Its his- tory is recent. Many of those who took part almost in its beginnings are yet with us. It is far simpler to record events than in older commonwealths. Hence this Society has opportunity for a comprehensive record that will not only preserve every possible feature of the beginnings of things but may add to this an interpretation of the events that have come in the building of the structure of state and in its many significant activities.
Kansas is making history to-day that is as fascinating as any in its past. Present-day events will be as interesting to future generations as is to us the record of pioneering and settlerhood. The new era is concerned with things spiritual rather than with adventure; it touches on economics and social re- adjustments. The story of trends in government, in education, in rural and urban life will never end.
Coming historians will look back on these years as offering material for
THE ANNUAL MEETING 167
speculation as to what sort of people we were in the second decade after the World War. They will realize that Kansas faced a type of problems new to its experience, and will seek to determine how it met them. The stress of eco- nomic conditions — its effect on community life, on government, its influence in retarding progress or in arousing a determination to conquer and so spir- itually uplifting the people to new heights — will be analyzed to decide what kind of men and women made the Kansas of to-day.
The history of these times should be preserved fully that it may be known by those who come after how sanely, fearlessly and intelligently this common- wealth overcame difficulties — for so it will solve its problems. Kansas has ever won victories; it has never known defeat. We shall fail in our full duty if we do not visualize for future generations the strong manhood and woman- hood of this Kansas of our period.
We should not devote all our energies to gazing into the past, for we are makers of history now, writing a page in the chronicle of the state's accom- plishments that challenges in abundant interest the pages our forefathers in- scribed. All the glory of days gone by was but the forerunner of the greater glory of the Kansas of to-day.
The Society has a wider field than merely the local tradition. In every county should be an historical society that will have for its object the preserva- tion of material and records that pertain to its own existence. The state So- ciety has for its field the consideration of broader trends in development. Notable as is its accomplishment, it cannot hope to cover every minor field. To devote its attention to those matters that relate to the state as a whole seems to me its true function. If we accomplish that successfully, if we give to that our unified attention, if we make this Society a group of earnest seekers for establishing a picture of Kansas -as its history develops and so arrange and preserve that record as to make it available to those who come after us we shall have accomplished its high purpose. This is the duty that lies before us as members of the Society. This is the path that will lead the Society to its greatest usefulness and make its endeavors a satisfaction to this generation and of notable value to our children and our children's children.
The members of the executive committee for the year 1930-1931 were W. W. Denison, chairman; E. A. Austin, H. K. Brooks, Thomas A. Lee, T. M. Lillard. This committee was reappointed by President Dawson for the year 1931-1932. The annual report of the executive committee for the year ending October 20, 1931, follows:
REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
The executive committee of the board of directors of the Kansas State His- torical Society hereby submits the following report :
Monthly meetings of the committee have been held except during the sum- mer months, at which the president, Mr. Harger, and the secretary, Mr. Mechem, attended.
The committee has examined the vouchers made in the expenditure of funds from the membership-fee fund, and three members of the committee, in ac- cordance with the constitution and by-laws, have approved of all the vouchers for such expenditures.
168 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The state accountant has audited and checked the books of the treasurer and the receipts and disbursements of the Society, including state appropria- tions and other receipts and disbursements.
The committee has reconciled the books of the treasurer of the Society with the report of the state accountant and with the cash certified to be on hand by the National Bank of Topeka to the credit of the Society.
The special committee of seven appointed by the president to rewrite or revise the charter, constitution and by-laws of the Kansas State Historical Society, performed this duty and made a report revising the charter, constitu- tion and by-laws, practically following the constitution and by-laws of the American Historical Society, which by the direction of the executive committee has been approved and copies sent out to each member of the board of direc- tors of the Society more than four months prior to the annual meeting now in session. The committee recommends its adoption.
The president and secretary recommended to the executive committee the publication of a quarterly in place of the annual or biennial bound volume of the Collections. The executive committee approved this recommendation and the first number of the Quarterly is now ready for distribution.
The executive committee accepted the generous offer of John A. Hall, Esquire, of Pleasanton, Kan., to deed to the Society a small tract of land near Pleasanton, Kan., of very considerable historical interest from several points of view, explained more fully in the secretary's report.
The executive committee takes pleasure in reporting to the Society that our president, Mr. Charles M. Harger, has shown a most unusual and diligent in- terest in the affairs of the Society, unexcelled by any previous president, and the committee hereby tenders to him the thanks of the Society for his services.
The committee further reports to the Society its very real satisfaction with the services of our new secretary, Mr. Kirke Mechem. We feel that the Society has made unusual progress during the past year under his efficient and able management.
Further actions of the committee will be shown by the secretary's report to the Society. Respectfully submitted,
W. W. DENISON, Chairman, EDWIN A. AUSTIN, THOMAS AMORY LEE, HENRY K. BROOKS, T. M. LILLARD,
Committee.
The report of the secretary, as read at the annual meeting, is given below. The report in detail will appear later in the biennial report:
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY
The Society in the past year has progressed steadily in all departments, both in volume of accessions and in usefulness to the public. In the affairs of an organization so large and so well established there is little necessity for innova- tion. With the exception of the new work being done in the archives depart- ment and the establishment of the Quarterly there have been no changes. This statement, therefore, is mostly a recital of the volume of routine work ac-
THE ANNUAL MEETING 169
complished. While our staff is limited it is efficient and harmonious, and it handles smoothly the many demands made upon it.
The secretary has been greatly assisted in the work of the year by the president of the Society, Mr. Charles M. Harger, and by the executive com- mittee. The executive committee has met regularly once a month, and all matters of importance have been referred to it. Mr. Harger came from Abilene for nearly every meeting.
LIBRARY
The library has had a normal growth in number of accessions and in volume of business transacted. The loan file constantly increases in number of subjects and in usefulness. During the year approximately 2,000 requests for information were received. Much help was given to students preparing thesis material.
Accessions to the library proper and to the archives and newspaper sections for the year ending June 30, 1931, were as follows:
Books (volumes) 886
Pamphlets 2,909
Newspapers and magazines (volumes) 1,149
Archives :
Separate manuscripts 84,445
Manuscript volumes 84
Maps 20
Maps, atlases and charts 134
Pictures 255
These accessions bring the totals in the possession of the Society, including the museum, to the following figures:
Library, including books, pamphlets, bound newspapers
and magazines 336,247
Archives, separate manuscripts 847,699
Archives, manuscript volumes 26,541
Archives, maps 414
Maps, atlases and charts 10,051
Pictures 14,092
Museum objects and relics 32,430
ARCHIVES
The 1931 legislature gave the Society two additional clerks for repairing and calendaring manuscript material in the archives. These clerks began work the first day of July. In order to be able to institute proper methods the secre- tary made a trip to the East, where he inspected processes used in the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library and the Pennsylvania Historical Society. The preservation and cataloguing of manuscripts presents a difficult problem in any institution, and this is especially true in one like ours, where the work is new and the methods unfamiliar. Progress is slow and but little headway can be made by two clerks on the vast collections owned by the Society. We have been taking inventory and have unearthed hundreds of priceless manuscripts that have been stored away uncatalogued and forgotten. It is essential that this source material be made available to the historian and the public, and it is hoped that two more clerks may be secured at the next session of the legislature.
170 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Many valuable accessions have been received by the archives department. Notable among the additions to official state documents was the voluminous accession which came from Gov. Clyde M. Reed, including thousands of letters from the general office correspondence of former governors.
NEWSPAPER SECTION
The death on March 10 of William E. Bacon, who for thirty years had been in charge of the newspaper section, was a severe loss to the Society. Mr. Bacon had a wide acquaintance in the state, especially among newspaper men, and he had done much to build up what is one of the largest newspaper collections in the country.
The Society is now regularly receiving 735 newspapers and periodicals. Of these 56 are dailies and 504 are weeklies. The 1931 legislature appropriated $1,800 for new steel shelving, which is now installed and which for the time relieves the congestion in this department. It is still necessary to stack hundred of volumes of out-of -state newspapers on benches. New shelves for these are necessary for their proper preservation. Outstanding among news- paper accessions for the year were 81 volumes of Leavenworth newspapers dating from 1864 to 1921, which the late D. R. Anthony II, of Leavenworth, donated to the Society before his death. In September the Society made a gift of 186 volumes of duplicate northwestern Kansas newspapers to the State Teachers College at Hays. The 1931 annual list of Kansas newspapers and periodicals received by the Society was published in June.
MUSEUM
The museum continues to be the most popular department with the general public. During the year ending June 30, 1931, the attendance was 29,546. The total number of accessions was 131. With the exception of the Goss collec- tion of birds, all the relics in the museum have recently received a thorough cleaning and have been newly labeled. The 1931 legislature appropriated money to give the walls a much-needed plastering and painting. This work is now being done and the museum will be closed for nearly two months.
KANSAS UNIVERSITY SEMINAR
For the first time in the history of the Society a class of students did special research work under the direction of an instructor. Dr. James O. Malin, associate professor of history at Kansas University, conducted a seminar dur- ing the last summer and six students of the University spent their full time examining source material. In addition to this class many other students, a number of whom came from universities out of the state and in the East, did special work. Also, several well-known writers and historians consulted the Society's records. Much constructive use was made of source material during the past year.
MEMBERSHIP
The year since the last annual meeting has been a most successful one from standpoint of membership. We now have 716 life members and 234 annual members. Since the last meeting 102 life members have been enrolled, con- siderably more than in any one year in the history of the Society. Senator H. K. Lindsley, of Wichita, personally secured 68 of these. Aside from his personal efforts there has been no membership campaign. The secretary ex-
THE ANNUAL MEETING 171
pects to make a more S3'stematic effort to secure members as soon as the press of other work will permit. The membership of the Society, considering its size and importance, is not nearly as large as it should be.
THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
For some years many members have felt that quarterly publication of the historical material printed in the biennial collections would be of advantage to the Society. This, of course, was not criticism of the content of the Collections, since their popularity has always testified to their worth, but it was believed that the unwieldiness of the volumes and the infrequency of their appearance set a regrettable limit to their use and value. After investi- gation by a special committee and approval by the executive committee of the committee's report, the proposal was submitted to the board of directors by letter for approval. With only one exception the answers expressed full approval. Over the two-year period the Quarterly will publish approximately as much material as did the biennial Collections, and it is believed that their more frequent appearance will be of greater value in maintaining the interest
of our members.
PUBLICITY
In the belief that publicity about the activities of the Society will attract members and increase its usefulness, a series of newspaper stories has been written and will be sent regularly to all the leading daily and weekly news- papers of the state. The first of these was released this week. For the past three months station KFBI, owned by the Farmers & Bankers Life Insurance Company, of which Senator H. K. Lindsley, a director of this Society, is president, has been broadcasting a series of biographical sketches of eminent Kansans which were prepared by this Society. By this means a wide distribu- tion of historical information is secured, for which the Society is given proper credit. The new Kansas Historical Quarterly, it is believed, will also attract new friends to the Society.
LOCAL AND COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETIES
Since the last annual meeting two county historical societies, two local his- torical societies, and one old settlers association have affiliated themselves with the state Society by taking out life memberships. In addition the Society has given assistance to the organizers of three other county historical societies not yet affiliated. Since our records show only twelve county historical so- cieties in the state it is felt that the past year represents a good beginning upon what should develop into an important branch of the Society's activity. In this connection it may be of interest to know that the Society has given advice and instruction to several persons planning to write county histories.
County societies are asked to submit annual reports prior to the Society's annual meeting. Only one complied this year, the Hodgeman County Society. This society reports a membership of 119. It held eight meetings during the year, possesses 50 manuscripts relating to county history and has collected 212 historical relics.
SHAWNEE MISSION
The most important of the properties belonging to the Society is the Shaw- nee Mission at Kansas City, Kan. In their present condition these buildings do little credit to the state. The north building is in such a bad state of re-
172 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
pair that visitors cannot be admitted. The east building has had considerable work done upon it and is fairly presentable. It was discovered this spring that all the original oak and walnut studding had rotted out and the building had to be jacked up and new timbers installed. When the plastering and painting which is to be done this fall is finished this building will be in good condition. The legislature reduced our appropriation for repairs at the Mission below what we thought was necessary. However, it allowed $500 a year for 1931 and 1932 for landscaping. Under the supervision of L. R. Quinlan, of the Kansas State College at Manhattan, the first year's appropriation was used in grading the grounds and seeding them to blue grass. The Shawnee Mission Floral Club is installing at its own expense a lily pool and rock garden.
FIRST CAPITOL OP KANSAS
The First Capitol building, on highway 40 near Fort Riley, continues to attract many visitors. Road signs erected by the Junction City Chamber of Commerce have greatly increased the attendance. There were 9,349 visitors for the five months ending with September, an increase of 1,788 over the cor- responding period last year.
PIKE PAWNEE MONUMENT
Pike Pawnee monument, near Republic, was improved last spring by the addition of a slate promenade with stone trim about the base. It has been suggested to interested persons in Republic that the road from the town to the monument be suitably marked.
KANSAS FRONTIER HISTORICAL PARK
The 1931 legislature established at Hays the Kansas Frontier Historical Park on the site of old Fort Hays. The park is under the control of a board of five, of which the secretary of the Historical Society is a member. On the 23d and the 24th of June the citizens of Hays celebrated the dedication of the park and the thirtieth anniversary of the Kansas State College. It was esti- mated that 10,000 persons visited the two old stone buildings and heard Gov. Harry H. Woodring dedicate the park. Vice President Charles Curtis spoke in the auditorium of the college in the morning. Charles M. Harger, president of the Historical Society and chairman of the State Board of Regents, presided at both meetings.
GIREAU TRADING POST
John A. Hall, of Pleasanton, a director of the Society, recently gave to the Society the site of the old Gireau trading post. This is situated in the town of Trading Post, where Highway 73E crosses the Marais des Cygnes river. It is in the center of a section full of historical associations. The site itself marks the spot where Michael Gireau traded with the Indians as early as 1834. It was later the site chosen by General Scott for the erection of barracks, be- fore Fort Scott was established in 1842. It was here that John Brown dated his famous Parallels, which were written in January, 1859. Only a few miles northeast the Marais des Cygnes massacre occurred; just outside the town the bodies of the victims now lie; here General Pleasanton quartered his troops during the winter of 1864; and only a few miles south of the near-by town of Pleasanton the battle of Mine Creek was fought.
In addition to giving the site Mr. Hall will pay one-half the cost of a
THE ANNUAL MEETING 173
permanent marker which will be erected. Signboards descriptive of the his- torical significance of the site and surrounding country will be erected.
Respectfully submitted, KIRKB MECHEM, Secretary.
REVISED CHARTER, CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS
As directed by the Society at its 1930 meeting, the president ap- pointed a committee to revise the charter, constitution and by-laws. The members of the committee were George P. Morehouse, chair- man; Mrs. Lucy Greene Mason, John S. Dawson, T. F. Doran, and James C. Malin. The revisions as prepared by this committee were submitted to the executive committee. After approval by the executive committee they were submitted in writing to the directors. In the absence of Mr. Morehouse, chairman, the revisions were pre- sented to the members of the Society at the annual meeting by James C. Malin. Upon vote, they were unanimously adopted. The revised charter, constitution and by-laws, as adopted, follow:
CHARTER
Be it resolved by the Kansas State Historical Society: That the charter of said Society, heretofore filed with the secretary of state on December 15, 1875, as amended June 2, 1928, by the action of its executive committee, be further amended to conform to the provisions of the constitution and by-laws of said Society adopted by it December 3, 1912, and that section 4 be amended to read as follows :
Fourth. The said corporation shall be managed by a board of ninety-nine directors of three classes, one class of thirty-three to be elected each year at the annual meeting of the Society.
And further be it resolved by the Kansas State Historical Society: That the amendment of section 2 of the said charter, duly adopted by the executive committee of the Society May 28, 1928, and duly filed with the secretary of the state of Kansas, June 2, 1928, by which amendment power is given to acquire by purchase and otherwise title to historic spots, together with the authority to improve and repair grounds and structures, be and the same is hereby confirmed and approved.
CONSTITUTION
SECTION I. The name of 'this Society shall be the Kansas State Historical Society.
SEC. 2. Its object shall be the promotion of historical studies.
SEC. 3. The Society shall consist of annual, life and honorary members, to be elected by the board of directors. Fees and dues of life and annual members shall be fixed by the board of directors. The term of life and annual member- ship shall begin with the date of payment of fees or dues, subject to election by the board. County and city historical societies may affiliate with the state Society by taking out one life membership and may elect one delegate mem- ber. Editors and publishers of newspapers and periodicals who contribute
174 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
regular issues of their publications to the Society shall be considered annual members during the continuance of such contributions.
SEC. 4. The officers shall be a president, a first vice president, a second vice president, a secretary and a treasurer. The president and the vice presidents shall hold office for a term of one year. The term of office for the secretary and treasurer shall be two years, each new term to begin on July 1 after elec- tion.
SEC. 5. There shall be a board of directors consisting of ninety-nine, who shall be elected from among the members, and who shall maintain their resi- dence in Kansas. The directors shall serve for three years and shall be divided into three classes, one class of thirty-three to be elected each year. Vacancies on the board shall be filled for the unexpired term by the executive committee. Any number not less than ten shall constitute a quorum.
SEC. 6. The board of directors, in conformity with the state laws governing the Society, shall conduct the business, manage the property, and care for the general interests of the association. In the execution of its proper functions the board of directors may appoint such committees, commissions and boards as it may deem necessary.
For the transaction of necessary business when the board of directors is not in session, there shall be an executive committee of five members, to be chosen from among members of the board of directors, as follows: The president elected at the 1931 meeting shall appoint two members for one year and three members for two years, and thereafter each newly elected president shall appoint members to fill vacancies as they expire, the term being two years. Subject to the general direction of the board of directors, and in conformity with the state laws governing the Society, the executive committee shall be authorized to exercise the powers of the board, and shall be responsible for the management of the Society and the carrying out of its policies.
SEC. 7. The annual meeting shall be held in Topeka on the third Tuesday in October. Any number not less than fifteen shall constitute a quorum.
SEC. 8. This constitution may be amended at any annual meeting, notice of such amendment having been given at the previous annual meeting, or the proposed amendment having received the approval of the executive commit- tee and having been submitted in writing to the members of the board of di- rectors at least three months previous to the annual meeting.
BY-LAWS
1. The officers provided for by the constitution shall perform the duties and functions customarily attached to their respective offices, together with those fixed by law, and such others as may from time to time be prescribed. The secretary and treasurer shall be required to give satisfactory bonds.
2. Income from membership fees shall be used to supplement state appro- priations. All warrants drawn on the treasurer shall be upon sworn vouchers approved by a majority of the members of the executive committee. The executive committee shall examine and audit the accounts and vouchers of the treasurer annually before the time of the annual meeting, and at the annual meeting they shall make a written report to the board of directors.
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3. There shall be a committee on nominations, to consist of five members of the board, to be selected by the president. It shall be the duty of this com- mittee, annually, at some time previous to the annual meeting, to make a se- lection of persons whom they deem proper to recommend for officers and mem- bers of the board of directors, and shall present the same for action at the annual meeting. If elective offices become vacant it shall be the duty of this committee to nominate candidates; vacancies on the directorate shall be filled by the executive committee. KlRKE MECHEM, Secretary.
Recent Additions to the Library
Compiled by HELEN M. MCFARLAND, Librarian
OINCE the library is specialized, books which are purchased or O received by gift generally fall into the following classes: The Kansas library, including books by Kansans and books about Kan- sas; the western section, covering explorations, overland journeys and tales of the early West; genealogy and local history, including family histories, vital records, Revolutionary records, publications of patriotic and hereditary societies, and state, county and town his- tories; and books on the Indians of North America, United States history and biography.
We are always interested in obtaining information about Kan- sas authors and their work and shall consider it a great favor if our readers will send us any information that will put us in touch with local authors.
The following books have been added to the library from October 1,1930, to October 1,1931:
KANSAS
AI/THATJS, GAEL B. : Study of School Legislation and School Support; Or- ganization and Financing of Special High School Provisions in Kansas.
Published in mimeograph form by author, 1931. ANDERSON, G. W., Publishing Company: Atlas of Nemaha County, Kansas,
Containing Maps of the Townships of the County. Des Moines; Anderson,
1922. ANDERSON, THOMAS: Rebel Prison Life, 1863-65; a Graphic Story of the
Capture, Imprisonment and Escape of a Union Soldier. Lawrence, Kan.;
Lawrence Journal Company, 1906. BAYS, MRS. BERTIE (COLE) : The Harp of One String. Newton, Kan. ; Kansan
Printing Company, 1930.
BIRD, JOHN S.; Prairies and Pioneers, n. p., Ellis County News, n. d. BRAINERD, A., Publisher: Atchison City Directory for 1876. Atchison; Daily
Champion, 1876. BROCK AND COMPANY, Publisher: Atlases of Cheyenne, Rawlins, and Thomas
Counties. 3 vols.; Chicago, Brock, 1928. BROWN, LTJLA LEMMON: Cherokee Neutral Lands Controversy. Pittsburg;
Girard Press, 1931. CARLSON, ANNA MATILDA: Heritage of the Blue Stem; a Romance of the
Prairies. Kansas City; Burton Publishing Company, 1930. CHAMBERS, W. L.: Niles of Nicodemus; Exploiter of Kansas Exodusters.
Los Angeles; Washington High School, n. d.
CLEMENTS, FREDERIC EDWARD: Rocky Mountain Flowers; an Illustrated Guide , for Plant Users. New York; H. W. Wilson Company, 1914.
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RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 177
COATES, MRS. GRACE (STONE): Black Cherries. New York and London; A. A.
Knopf, 1931. CONNELLY, MRS. CLYDE DAVIS: Facts for Patriots. Kansas City, Mo.; Craf-
ters Publishing Company, 1919.
CRAVEN, THOMAS: Men of Art. New York; Simon and Schuster, 1931. CRAWFORD, NELSON ANTRIM: Unhappy Wind. New York; Coward-McCann,
1930.
DALTON, EMMETT: When the Daltons Rode. Garden City, N. Y.; Double- day, Doran and Company, 1931. DAVIS, MARGARET BURTON: The Woman Who Battled for the Boys in Blue.
Mother Bickerdyke; Her Life and Labors for the Relief of Our Soldiers.
San Francisco; A. T. Dewey, 1886. DE Moss, JAMES ANDREW: From Patmos to the Holy City, or The Ages
Foretold; a Treatise on the Book of Revelation. Cincinnati; Standard
Publishing Company, 1902. DE Moss, JAMES ANDREW: Information About Thayer, Kansas. Thayer;
News Printing House, n. d. DE Moss, JAMES ANDREW: A Look Through the Lens of Prophecy, or What
Daniel Saw and Heard. Cincinnati; Standard Publishing Company, 1903. DE Moss, JAMES ANDREW: Medics, or the Glory of Man. Thayer, Kan.;
n.p., 1931. DREELING, B. M.: Golden Jubilee of German-Russian Settlements of Ellis and
Rush Counties, Kansas, August 31 and September 1 and 2, 1926. Hays,
Kan.; Ellis. County News, 1926. DRISCOLL, CHARLES BENEDICT: Doubloons; the Story of Buried Treasure. New
York; Farrar and Rinehart, 1930. ENDACOTT, JOHN: Biographical Booklet Compiling Information to be Used
in Celebrating the Centennial of Kansas Methodism, Especially on Sunday,
November 2, 1930. Parsons; Commercial Publisher, 1930. ERNEST, ELVENOR: Present Status of Women in Medicine. Reprinted from
Journal of Kansas Medical Society, December, 1930. FARNHAM, MRS. MATEEL (HOWE) : Wild Beauty; a Novel. New York; Dodd,
Mead, 1930. FISHER, R. H.: Biographical Sketches of El Dorado Citizens. El Dorado;
Thompson Brothers, 1930.
HAUGHAWOUT, MARGARET E.: Sheep's Clothing. Pittsburg, Kan.; n. p. 1929. HAUGHAWOUT, MARGARET E., Editor: Pittsburg College Verse, 1924-30. Pitts- burg; College Inn Book Store, 1930. HAWLEY, D. E., Compiler: Atchison City Directory for 1878-79. Atchison;
Champion Steam Print, 1878. HUBER, MRS. FLORENCE M.: The Golden Stairway ; a Book of Verse. London;
Stockwell, n. d.
HUGHES, LANGSTON: Not Without Laughter. New York; A. A. Knopf, 1930. JACKSON, MRS. MAUD C.: Faith Lambert. Nashville; Sunday School Board
of Southern Baptist Convention, 1929. KUYKENDALL, WILLIAM L.: Frontier Days; a True Narrative of Striking
Events on the Western Frontier, n. p., J. M. and H. L. Kuykendall, 1917.
12—2345
178 THE KANSAS HISTOKICAL QUARTERLY
LIVERMORE, MRS. MARIAN (SORLIE) : Prairie Flowers and Heather Bells;
Poems. St. Joseph, Mo.; American Printing Company, 1910. McCLiNTOCK, MARSHALL: We Take to Bed. New York; J. Cape and H.
Smith, 1931.
McENTiRE, MRS. ADELE (TUTTLE) : Candlelight. Topeka; author, 1930. McKERNAN, THOMAS A.: Musings; Lines and Rhymes in Varied Mood. No
impr.
McMuRTRiE, DOUGLAS CRAWFORD: A Forgotten Pioneer Press of Kansas. Chi- cago; John Calhoun Club, 1930. MALONE, D.: Atchison City Directory, 1872-73. St. Joseph, Mo.; Steam
Printing Company, 1872. MARKHAM, WILLIAM COLFAX: Forty Years Agone; Address at the Final Chapel
Assembly of Baker University, May 30, 1931. No. impr. MARKHAM, WILLIAM COLFAX : The Secret of the Years. Washington ; Ransdell
Incorporated Press, n. d. Memorials of Henry Brace Norton, Born February 22, 1836, Died June 22,
1885. n. p. [1885]. NORTH, MARY M.: A Prairie Schooner; a Romance of the Plains of Kansas.
Washington; Neale Publishing Company, 1902. OGLE, GEORGE A., AND COMPANY, Publisher: Atlases of Bourbon County,
1920, Chautauqua County, 1921, Decatur County, 1921, Dickinson County,
1921, Geary County, 1909, Harper County, 1919, Harvey County, 1918, Kingman County, 1921, Lane County, 1920, McPherson County, 1921, Marion County, 1921, Miami County, 1901, Osage County, 1918, Rice County, 1919, Saline County, 1920, Wallace County, 1908, Wichita County, 1920, and Wilson County, 1910. Chicago; Ogle, 1901-1921.
PERKINS, JACOB RANDOLPH: Trails, Rails and War; the Life of Gen. G. M. Dodge. Indianapolis; Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1929.
POLK, R. L., AND COMPANY, Publisher: Topeka, Kan., City Directory, 1931, Including Shawnee County Taxpayers. Kansas City, Mo.; R. L. Polk and Company, 1931.
PUGH, BURTON HOMER: Legend of St. Augustine, or The Love of a Cavalier; a Florida Idyll. Kansas City, Mo.; Homerian Publishing Company, 1930.
Record of Hiester Clymer and Historical Parallel Between Him and Maj. Gen. John W. Geary. No impr.
RULEY, A. N.: History of Brown County. Hiawatha; World, n. d.
SCOFIELD, MRS. DOLORES MAY: Beacon Lights; Poems by Princess LaLomita. Pittsburg, Kan.; Beacon Light Publishing Company, 1930.
SCOTT, JOHN R.: Ottawans in Rhyme. Ottawa, Kan.; Central Printing Com- pany, 1927.
SLOSSON, EDWIN EMERY: A Number of Things. New York; Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1930.
STEVENS, ARTHUR ALONZO: Key of the Universe. Norcatur, Kan.; author, 1925.
THRASHER, AMANDA McCLURE, Compiler: In Memory of Luther A. Thrasher, 1835-1903. lola; Daily Register Print, 1916.
WALTERS, MRS. MAUDE OWENS, Editor: Book of Christmas Stories for Chil- dren. New York; Dodd, Mead and Company, 1930.
RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 179
WARE, EUGENE FITCH: From Court to Court, 6th ed. St. Paul, Minn.; West
Publishing Company, 1930. WOODS, NELL LEWIS: Over the Back Fence. Boston; R. G. Badger, 1929.
THE WEST
ATWOOD, A.: The Conquerors; Historical Sketches of the American Settlement of the Oregon Country. Cincinnati; Jennings and Graham [1907 ?].
BANNING, WILLIAM, AND GEORGE HUGH: Six Horses. New York; Century Company, 1930.
BIRGE, JULIUS CHARLESS The Awakening of the Desert. Boston; R. G. Badger, 1912.
BRANCH, EDWARD DOUGLAS: The Cowboy and His Interpreters. New York; D. Appleton and Company, 1926.
BRANCH, EDWARD DOUGLAS: Westward; the Romance of the American Fron- tier. New York; D. Appleton and Company, 1930.
BREWERTON, GEORGE DOUGLAS: Overland with Kit Carson; a Narrative of the Old Spanish Trail in '48. New York; Coward-McCann, Inc., 1930.
CANTON, FRANK M.: Frontier Trails; the Autobiography of Frank M. Canton. Boston; Houghton Mifflin Company, 1930.
COKE, HENRY J.: A Ride Over the Rocky Mountains to Oregon and Cali-
. fornia. London; Richard Bentley, 1852.
DALE, EDWARD EVERETT: The Range Cattle Industry. Norman, Okla.; Univer- sity of Oklahoma Press, 1930.
DUFFUS, ROBERT LUTHER: The Santa Fe Trail. New York; Longmans, Green and Company, 1930.
FERGUSON, CHARLES D.: Experiences of a Forty-niner During Thirty-four Years' Residence in California and Australia. Cleveland; Williams Publish- ing Company, 1888.
FOREMAN, GRANT: Indians and Pioneers; the Story of the American Southwest Before 1830. New Haven; Yale University Press, 1930.
GOODWIN, CARDINAL LEONIDAS: John Charles Fremont; an Explanation of His Career. Stanford University, Cal.; Stanford University Press, 1930.
HAFEN, LfiRoY R., AND GHENT, WILLIAM JAMES: Broken Hand; the Life Story of Thomas Fitzpatrick, Chief of the Mountain Men. Denver; Old West Publishing Company, 1931.
HASKINS, C. W.: The Argonauts of California, Being the Reminiscences of Scenes and Incidents that Occurred in California in Early Mining Days; by a Pioneer. New York; Fords, Howard and Hulbert, 1890.
HITCHCOCK, ETHAN ALLEN: A Traveler in Indian Territory; the Journal of Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Late Major General in the United States Army. Edited and Annotated by Grant Foreman. Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Torch Press, 1930.
HOBBS, JAMES : Wild Life in the Far West ; Personal Adventures of a Border Mountain Man; Comprising Hunting and Trapping Adventures with Kit Carson and Others; Captivity and Life Among the Comanches; Services Under Doniphan in the War with Mexico, and in the Mexican War Against the French. Hartford; Wiley, Waterman and Eaton, 1872.
180 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
HOWE, OCTAVIUS THORNDIKE: Argonauts of '49; History and Adventures of the Emigrant Companies from Massachusetts, 1849-1850. Cambridge; Harvard University Press, 1923.
HUNT, FRAZIER: Custer, the Last of the Cavaliers. New York; Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, 1928.
KELLY, CHARLES: Salt Desert Trails; a History of the Hastings Cut-off and Other Early Trails Which Crossed the Great Salt Desert Seeking a Shorter Road to California. Salt Lake City; Western Printing Company, 1930.
LEACH, A. J.: Early Day Stories. 2d ed. Norfolk, Neb.; Huse Publishing Company, 1916.
LYMAN, GEORGE DUNLAP: John Marsh, Pioneer; the Life Story of a Trail Blazer on Six Frontiers. New York; C. Scribner's Sons, 1930.
MUMEY, NOLIE: Life of Jim Baker, 1818-1898, Trapper, Scout, Guide and Indian Fighter. Denver; World Press, Inc., 1931.
PAGE, ELIZABETH: Wagons West; a Story of the Oregon Trail. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1930.
PAXSON, FREDERIC LOGAN: When the West Is Gone. New York; H. Holt and Company, 1930.
RAINE, WILLIAM MACLEOD: Cattle. Garden City, N. Y.; Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1930.
RIEGEL, ROBERT EDGAR: America Moves West. New York; H. Holt and Com- pany, 1930.
RIEGEL, ROBERT EDGAR: The Story of the Western Railroads. New York; Macmillan Company, 1926.
RONSHEIM, MILTON: Life of General Custer. Cadiz, Ohio; Reprinted from Cadiz Republican, 1929.
RUCKER, MRS. MAUDE (APPLEGATE) : Oregon Trail and Some of Its Blazers. New York; W. Neale, 1930.
SAGE, LEE: The Last Rustler; the Autobiography of Lee Sage. Boston; Little, Brown and Company, 1930.
STANLEY, CLARK: Life and Adventures of the American Cowboy, n. p., Stan- ley, 1897.
STEELE, JOHN: Across the Plains in 1850. Chicago; Printed for the Caxton Club, 1930.
SUTLEY, ZACHARY TAYLOR: The Last Frontier. New York; Macmillan Com- pany, 1930.
WEBB, JAMES JOSIAH : Adventures in the Santa Fe Trade, 1844-1847. Glendale, Cal.; Arthur H. Clark Company, 1931.
WILLIAM, JAMES: Seventy-five Years on the Border. Kansas City, Mo.; Press of Standard Printing Company, 1912.
GENEALOGY AND LOCAL HISTORY
ALLEN, CHARLES EDWIN : History of Dresden, Maine, Formerly a Part of the Old Town of Pownalborough, from Its Earliest Settlement to the Year 1900. Augusta, Me.; Kennebec Journal Print Shop, 1931.
ARMSTRONG, ZELLA: Taylor of Tennessee. Chattanooga; Lookout Publishing Company, n. d.
BEESON, JASPER LUTHER: Beeson Genealogy. Macon, Ga.; Burke Company, 1925.
. RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 181
BELL, OVID: Cote Sans Dessein. Fulton, Mo.; Author, 1930.
BOYD, JOHN : Annals and Family Records of Winchester, Connecticut. Hart- ford; Press of Case, Lockwood and Brainard, 1873.
BRAND, FRANKLIN MARION: The Brand Family of Monongalia County, Vir- ginia. Charleston, W. Va.; Tribune Printing Company, 1922.
BRAND, FRANKLIN MARION: The Wade Family, Monongalia County, Virginia. n.p., 1927.
BURHANS, SAMUEL: Burhcens Genealogy; Descendants from the First An- cestor in America, Jacob Burhans, 1660. New York; Printed for Private Distribution, 1894.
CAMPBELL, WILLIAM W.: Annals of Try on County. New York; Dodd, Mead and Company, 1924.
CHALKLET, LYMAN, Compiler: Chronicles! of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia; Extracted from the Original Court Records of Augusta County, 1745-1800. 3 vols. Rosslyn, Va.; Commonwealth Printing Company, 1912- 1913.
COLTON, GEORGE WOOLWORTH : A Genealogical Record of the Descendants of Quartermaster George Colton. Lancaster, Pa.; Wickersham Printing Com- pany, 1912.
COOK, MRS. ANNA MARIA (GREEN) : History of Baldwin County, Georgia. Anderson, S. C.; Keys-Hearn Printing Company, 1925.
CRAIG, H. STANLEY, Compiler: Cape May County (New Jersey) Marriage Records. Merchantville, N. J.; H. S. Craig, 1931.
CRAIG, H. STANLEY, Compiler: Gloucester County, New Jersey, Marriage Records. Merchantville, N. J.; H .S. Craig, 1930.
DAUGHTERS OP THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: Lineage Book. vols. 115-120. Washington, D. O.; Press of Judd and Detweiler, Inc., 1931.
DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, GEORGIA: Historical Collections of the Georgia Chapters, Daughters of the American Revolution. 3 vols. Atlanta, Ga.; C. P. Byrd, State Printer, 1926-1930.
DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, KENTUCKY: Directory of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Kentucky, 1926-tfl. No impr.
ELY, WILLIAM: The Big Sandy Valley; a History of the People and Country from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time. Catlettsburg, Ky.; Central Methodist, 1887.
HAYDEN, HORACE EDWIN: Virginia Genealogies. Washington, D. C.; Rare Book Shop, 1931.
HOFFMAN, LABAN MILES: Our Kin; Being a History of the Hoffman, Rhyne, Costner, Families. Charlotte, N. C.; Press of Queen City Printing Com- pany, 1915.
HUDDLE, WILLIAM DAVID: History of the Descendants of John Hottel (Immi- grant from Switzerland to America). Strasburg, Va.; Shenandoah Publish- ing House, Inc., 1930.
HUGHES, WILLIAM JOSEPH LEANDER: The Hughes Family and Connections; Especially the Gass, Ward and Boze Families. Owensboro, Ky.; n.p., 1911.
Index to Printed Virginia Genealogies, Including Key and Bibliography. Rich- mond, Va.; Old Dominion Press, 1930.
JACOBUS, DONALD LINES : Genealogy as Pastime and Profession. New Haven ; Tuttle, Morehouse and Taylor, 1930.
182 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
JACOBUS, DONALD LINES, Editor: History and Genealogy of the Families of Old F 'airfield. New Haven; Tuttle, Morehouse and Taylor, 1931.
JOHNSTON, JOSIAH STODDARD: Memorial History of Louisville from Its First Settlement to the Year 1896. Chicago; American Biographical Publishing Company, 1896.
JONES, MRS. MARY (GIBSON) : Coweta County Chronicles for One Hundred Years, with an Account of the Indians from Whom the Land Was Acquired, and Some Historical Papers Relating to Its Acquisition by Georgia. At- lanta, Ga.; Stein Printing Company, 1928.
KISLINQ FAMILY ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH: Record of the Family Kisling. Fredonia, Kan.; author, 1931.
MCINTYRE, WILLIAM IRWIN: History of Thomas County, Georgia. Thomas- ville, Ga.; n. p., 1923.
McNAiR, JAMES BIRTLEY, Compiler: McNair, McNear, and McNeir Geneal- ogies. Chicago; author, 1923.
MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Milton Town Records, 1662-1729, Issued in Ob- servance of the Tercentenary of the Founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Milton, Mass.; Sherill Press, 1930.
OHIO; ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE: The Official Roster of the Soldiers of the American Revolution Buried in the State of Ohio. Columbus, Ohio; F. J. Heer Printing Company, 1929.
OUTLAW, ALBERT TIMOTHY: Outlaw Genealogy; Including English Records. Wilson, N. C.; Gold Publishing Company, 1930.
PRICHARD, ARMSTEAD MEAD, Compiler: Abstracts from the County Court Minute Book of Culpeper County, Virginia, 1763-1764- Dayton, Va.; Joseph K. Ruebush, 1930.
PRICHARD, ARMSTEAD MEAD: Allied Families of Read, Corbin, Luttrell and By- waters. Starting from Culpeper County, Virginia. Stanton, Va.; McClure Company, Inc., Printers, 1930.
RICE, JAMES CLAY: History of the Town of Worthington (Massachusetts) from Its First Settlement to 1874- Springfield; Bryan and Company, 1874.
RICHMOND, MABEL E.: Centennial History of Decatur and Macon County. Decatur, 111.; Decatur Review in Cooperation with the Decatur and Macon County Centennial Association, 1930.
ROGERS, R. W.: History of Pike County (Georgia) from 1822 to 1922. Zebu- Ion, Ga.; n. p., n. d.
ROWE, H. J., Publisher: History of Athens and Clarke County (Georgia), 1923. Athens, Ga.; McGregor Company, Printers, n. d.
SHINN, JOSIAH HAZEN: The History of the Shinn Family in Europe and America. Chicago; Genealogical and Historical Publishing Company, 1903.
SWAIN, GEORGE THOMAS: History of Logan County, West Virginia. Logan, W. Va.; author, 1927.
U. S. CENSUS OFFICE: Census Returns of Harrison County (West Virginia) for 1850. Clarksburg, W. Va.; Printed by Clarksburg Publishing Company, 1930.
U- S. CENSUS OFFICE: Census Returns of Lewis County (West Virginia) for 1860. Clarksburg, W. Va.; Printed by Clarksburg Publishing Company, 1930.
RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 183
VIRKUS, FREDERICK ADAMS, Editor: Compendium of American Genealogy, Vol. 4. Chicago; Virkus Company, 1930.
BOOKS ADDED BY MRS. CARRIE A. HALL TO THE LINCOLN AND ROOSEVELT COLLECTIONS DONATED BY HER
ABRAHAM LINCOLN ASSOCIATION: Papers Delivered Before the Members of the Abraham Lincoln Association at Springfield, III., 1929. Springfield, 111.; Lincoln Centennial Association, 1930.
ANGLE, PAUL MCCLELLAND, Compiler: New Letters and Papers of Lincoln. Boston; Houghton Mifflin Company, 1930.
BROWN, KATHARINE HOLLAND: The Father. New York; John Day Company, 1928.
FRY, SMITH D.: Lincoln and Lee; a Patriotic Story. Washington, D. C.; Model Printing Company, 1922.
LEWIS, LLOYD: Myths After Lincoln. New York; Harcourt, Brace and Com- pany, 1929.
LINCOLN, ABRAHAM : Four Speeches by Abraham Lincoln, Hitherto Unpub- lished or Unknown. Columbus; Ohio State University Press, 1927.
LUDWIG, EMIL: Lincoln. Boston; Little, Brown and Company, 1930.
SHAW, ALBERT: Abraham Lincoln; His Path to the Presidency. New York; Review of Reviews Corporation, 1929.
SHAW, ALBERT: Abraham Lincoln; the Year of His Election. New York; Re- view of Reviews Corporation, 1929.
WALL, BERNHARDT, Etcher-Publisher: The Invitation to Gettysburg. Lime Rock, Conn.; Wall, 1930.
WARREN, RAYMOND: The Prairie President. Chicago; Reilly and Lee Com- pany, c. 1930.
EINSTEIN, LEWIS DAVID: Roosevelt, His Mind in Action. Boston; Houghton Mifflin Company, 1930.
WISTER, OWEN: Roosevelt, the Story of a Friendship, 1880-1919. New York; Macmillan Company, 1930.
Kansas History as Published in the State Press*
"A History of Coffey County," by Judge Burton L. Kingsburg, one of the pioneer jurists of the county, appeared in the May 29, June 5 and 12 issues of the Le Roy Reporter. Articles written by John P. Hamilton, Sr., during the middle eighties on "Pioneers of Coffey County," "Early Modes, Manners and Customs," "Some Border War Experiences," "Indian Refugees in Coffey County," and "Stories of Old Wagon Trails," were republished in the Reporter from June 19 through August 28. An account of the organization of two Indian regiments at LeRoy was appended in the issue of September 4, by the editor.
"Reminiscences of Early Days in Coffey County" is a regular feature of the Burlington Daily Republican. In this column a series of historical sketches by old settlers is run, telling of events in the early days and incidents of pioneer life.
How Oakley and Colby were named, and the reason for Oakley avenue in Colby, was explained by David D. Hoag, town founder, in a letter published in the Oakley Graphic, September 18. The article was later reprinted in an eight-page pamphlet.
A "Historical Sketch of the Immaculate Conception Parish," by Rev. W. T. Doran, S. J., of St. Mary's College, and Rev. Gilbert Gallaghan, S. J., of St. Louis University, was published in the St. Marys Star June 25, July 2, 9 and 16.
An old mill, built by Edgar Nichols in 1874 on the Smoky Hill river, southeast of Russell, was the subject of an article by Oswald Dryden, writing for the Hoisington Dispatch, July 23. It was re- printed in the Russell Record of July 30, and supplementary in- formation appeared in the latter newspaper on August 6.
W. K. Myers, of Cotton wood Falls, last survivor of the Indian raid on Adobe Walls, retold the story of the attack in the Dodge City Journal, July 30.
"Trail Days in Kansas," dealing with aspects of the history of the cattle business in the state, was written by Alice Hockley for the July 31 and August 7 issues of the Cedar Vale Messenger.
* All dates are in 1931.
(184)
KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS 185
Pioneer reminiscences of William Wayman and George Knouse were published in the August 6 issue of the Emporia Times. Her- bert Miller, pioneer cattleman, recounted some of his experiences in the Times of August 13.
Early life in Alexander was reviewed in the La Crosse Republican, August 13.
Mrs. John Hennes, of Beloit, recalled the last Indian raid in Mitchell county, on its sixty-third anniversary, in the Beloit Daily Call, August 13.
A "History of the Beef Cattle Industry from Frontier Days to the Present Time," by Dorothy Woodbury, ran in the Cawker City Ledger, August 13, 20 and 27.
"Turning Back the Pages of History" was the title of a column conducted in the Kansas Optimist, Jamestown, from August 13 to September 10. Information for this series of articles was gleaned from old records of Grant township.
On August 21 and 22 Oskaloosa celebrated the passing of the three-quarter-century mark. John Arnold was among the pioneers who wrote of early-day scenes in the August 14 issue of the Inde- pendent. He came to Jefferson county in July, 1859.
The Santa Fe trail picnic August 27 at Baldwin prompted the Baldwin Ledger to publish accounts of pioneer events in its issues of August 21, 28 and September 4.
A letter from E. T. Wickersham, of Fall River, published in the Eureka Herald, August 27, related some of the early-day incidents in Greenwood county.
Historical notes of Elk community, Marion county, compiled by William Knode, appeared in the Marion Review, September 1 and 8.
J. F. Randolph, writing for the Clyde Republican, September 10, reviewed many incidents relative to pioneer days at Clyde, Cloud county.
The Humboldt Union, of September 24, in advocating a new bridge for the Neosho river at Humboldt, traced the evolution of the river crossing from 1867 to 1931.
Jack Ebbutt, veteran cattleman of Geary county, recalled his part
186 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
in driving 6,000 head of Texas cattle to Abilene, in an interview ap- pearing in the D wight Advance, September 24.
A sketch of the life of Jacob Achenbach, builder of the Beaver, Meade and Englewood railroad, and organizer of the town company of Hardtner, was contributed by John Hudson to the September 27 issue of the Wichita Eagle.
"A Brief History of Fort Riley and the Cavalry School" appeared in the Junction City Union, September 28.
Announcing an old settlers' picnic held at Schnack park, Lamed, the News of October 1 carried letters and interviews from early settlers and historical authorities of Pawnee county. Among them were S. E. Huston, Mrs. C. E. Grove, Kelso Clark, J. F. Upson, J. M. Pruett and Isaac Ulsh.
The monument erected in Library park, Baxter Springs, by the Daughters of the American Revolution in honor of Gen. James G. Blunt and the 135 soldiers killed in the Quantrill massacre, October 6, 1863, was dedicated October 2. Frank Arnold, a survivor, was in attendance. A special edition of the Baxter Springs News, October 1, contained historical articles apropos of the anniversary. "Baxter Springs as a Military Post, 1862-1863," written by Hugh L. Thomp- son in 1895; "Account of Baxter Springs Massacre, Including Quantrill's Report," from F. D. W. Arnold's history of the Arnold family ; and "The Baxter Springs Massacre," as dictated in 1929 by Lewis G. Coon, Co. I, Third Wisconsin cavalry, a survivor, were features of the edition.
The fiftieth anniversary of McCune as a city of the third class was observed Friday, October 9, according to the McCune Herald. Many old-timers participated in a pageant which depicted early scenes.
A brief history of the Jewell City Catholic church, by Mary Hurley Fay, appeared in the Abbey News, Atchison, October 10.
"Pioneer Railroading Out West," was the title of a series of articles commencing in the Ellis Review October 15, by Jesse C. Martin.
An article on the "History of Beef Cattle Industry from Pioneer Days Until the Present Time," by Geraldine Hammond, appeared in the October 22 issue of the St. John County Capital.
KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS 187
A short history of St. Mary's College, incidental to its change from a college to a school for priests, appeared in the October 22 issue of the St. Marys Star. It was reprinted from the Jesuit Bulletin, a St. Mary's College publication.
The dedication of the reconstructed monument over the grave claimed to be that of Juan de Padilla, Franciscan priest who was slain by Indians in 1542, was held October 25 at Council Grove. The site, as originally marked with a heap of stones by friendly Indians, has been restored by the Emporia Knights of Columbus organizations, and was presented to the Council Grove Historical Society by George Bordenkircher, president of the Kansas Catholic Historical Society. Father Padilla accompanied Coronado in his search for the cities of Quivira and remained on the plains with the Indians after Coronado's return. It has been recited that the priest suffered martyrdom on December 25, 1542, while he was kneeling in prayer. The Emporia Gazette and the Topeka Daily Capital of October 26 printed the dedicatory program.
The battle of Mine creek, October 25, 1864, was described by Milton Tabor in the Topeka Daily Capital, October 29. Company A, Eleventh Kansas regiment, was among the Union troops engaging the Confederate forces under General Sterling Price.
The stirring days of Carrie Nation's saloon-smashing activities were recalled by Jimmy Woods in the November 1 issue of the Wichita Beacon.
A copy of Topeka's first city directory, published in 1868-1869, inspired Arthur L. Conklin to an article entitled a "History of To- peka," appearing in the Topeka Daily Capital, November 1.
The Eleventh Kansas regiment's expedition to the Platte river country in Wyoming in 1865 was described by Paul I. Wellman in the Wichita Eagle, November 1. In the issue of December 20 the massacre of the Bogardus family near Beloit by raiding Indians was featured. These stories appeared in Mr. Wellman's series of Sunday magazine articles on Indian battles of the West.
The history of the Pawnee Capitol, where the first territorial legislature met, was sketched by Rufus Babb in the Junction City Union, November 2, and the Junction City Republic, November 5.
188 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Kansas pioneer women were the subject of a special edition of the Osborne County Farmer, Osborne, November 5. The editor ex- pressed hope that the edition would create greater interest in the proposed Kansas women's pioneer memorial to be erected on the statehouse grounds in Topeka. The number was replete with pio- neer reminiscences.
Russell county was first permanently settled on April 19, 1871, by a colony of seventy persons, organized at Ripon, Wis. The names of the first child born in the county, first teacher, first school board, first persons married, and old settlers before 1880, were listed in the Russell County News, Russell, November 5.
Nearly 100 old settlers answered the roll call of the Phillips County Old Settlers Association at its third annual meeting held in Phillipsburg, November 11. Marion Scott, Will Churchill, E. G. Lee and K. W. Rutherford recalled pioneer experiences. Early songs, "Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim," and "Kansas Land," were sung. A detailed program with the list of registered old settlers was published in the Phillipsburg Review, November 19.
Comanche county celebrated its seventh annual home-coming of old settlers at Antioch church, in Avilla township, November 5. The Western Star, Coldwater, published the register of those at- tending, in its issue of November 13.
C. W. Sprouse, of Sublette, an Indian relic collector, has made arrowhead and scraper "finds" near the Cimarron river in Haskell county. An account of his activities appeared in the November 12 issue of the Satanta Chief.
Stolzenbach post office and mission house, fifteen miles northeast of Marysville, one of the oldest landmarks in Marshall county, was described in the Topeka Daily Capital, November 15. A sketch of an old English colony in Harrison township, five miles northwest of Wetmore, Nemaha county, was another feature of this issue. The site was selected and colonized in 1870 by the Cooperative Coloniza- tion Company, of London.
"Kansas Memorials" was the subject of a newspaper sketch by Paul Schmidt and Corwin Schawe, appearing in the Spearville News, November 19.
KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS 189
Construction of a miniature mountain in a rock garden along the west side of Boot Hill block is being considered by Dodge City busi- ness men and historians, according to the Dodge City Daily Globe, November 25. Historic spots such as Adobe Walls, El Quartelejo, Fort Atkinson, Wagonbed Springs, site of the Lone Tree massacre, Fort Larned, Fort Zarah, and various other places will be scaled geographically with two streamlets, representing the Arkansas and Cimarron rivers.
"The Wichita Eagle is the real 'Father of Oklahoma/ " Major Gordon W. Lillie (Pawnee Bill) is quoted as saying to John Hud- son, Eagle reporter, in a story appearing November 29. Under Col. Marsh M. Murdock the Eagle aggressively demanded that Okla- homa be opened for settlement. It assisted in Boomer organization along the border and helped induce Pawnee Bill to accept the lead- ership of a Wichita contingent to the territory.
Old Fairmount College, the forerunner of Wichita University, was the subject of a historical sketch by Rea Woodman in the Wichita Democrat commencing in the November 28 issue.
A biographical sketch of John W. Niles, of Nicodemus, was pub- lished in the Oakley Graphic, December 4. The account was writ- ten in 1925 by W. L. Chambers, former editor of the Stockton Rec- ord, at the request of the late Judge C. W. Smith, of Topeka. Mr. Niles was one of the leaders of Nicodemus, a Negro colony in east- ern Graham county, inhabited by over 500 persons in 1880.
The days of buffalo hunting in the late sixties and early seventies were recalled by Byron E. Guise in an interview with John Branden- burger, Sr., in the Marshall County News, Marysville, December 4.
Mrs. Robert Laughlin, of Girard, described the battle of Mine creek, in Linn county, in 1864, in a news article printed in the Wichita Eagle, December 8. She witnessed the battle from a hill near Mound City.
Christmas advertising as it appeared in the first Kansas news- papers, seventy-seven years ago, was reviewed in the Topeka Mer- chants Journal, December 19, by Paul A. Lovewell, editor.
David D. Leahy, pioneer Kansas editor, told of early-day Wich- ita newspapermen in the Wichita Eagle, December 21.
Kansas Historical Notes
The Southwest Historical Society, Dodge City, has issued a mimeographed list of the books on Kansas history available at the city library.
Early-day Abilene received formal recognition October 21, when seven markers were placed by the Abilene chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Charles M. Harger, of the Daily Reflector, composed the inscriptions marking the site of the first home in Abilene, the log cabin of Mr. and Mrs. Timothy F. Hersey, now the corner of First and Vine streets; Texas street, of cattle days; site of Drover's cottage, famous hostelry during cattle days; the Overland trail and Mud creek ford; site of the Abilene shipping yards, whence were shipped to eastern markets over three million head of cattle in 1867-1871; Sand Springs and a pioneer burial ground; and the first public school.
The Dickinson County Historical Society at its annual meeting elected H. L. Humphrey, president; T. W. Sterling, vice president; W. W. Vickers, secretary ; Mrs. 0. L. Thisler, treasurer. The society is compiling data on the various trails that crossed the county in its early history.
Plans are being formulated in Gray county to mark the point of the Lone Tree massacre southwest of Cimarron, and the old Cimarron crossing, west of Cimarron, where the Santa Fe trail crossed the Arkansas river. It is proposed to use stone from the old courthouse at Ravanna for the monuments.
The Neosho County Historical Society convened for a semiannual meeting in Chanute, November 23. The building of the Leaven- worth, Lawrence & Galveston railroad to Thayer, and accompany- ing incidents in the city's early history, were described in a paper by Mrs. Abby H. Forest, a resident of Thayer since February, 1876. Histories of the First Presbyterian and St. Patrick's Catholic churches were read. Other features included letters and interviews from pioneers and an informal discussion of the Osage Mission and the Erie county seat fight.
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KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 191
Preparation is being made in Emporia to celebrate the city's seventy-fifth anniversary. Emporia, "Kanzas territory/' was founded February 20, 1857, by the Emporia Town Company, with George W. Brown as president, and G. W. Deitzler as secretary. As planned the celebration would be held concurrently with the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of George Washington on February 22.
A monument is soon to be erected by the Daughters of the Amer- ican Revolution of Marshall county at the Barrett crossing on the Vermillion river. The site is thought to be the first crossing on the Oregon trail in that section. The first emigrants used it in 1827.
Old settlers of Shawnee county convened in their seventy-fourth annual reunion at the Hotel Jayhawk in Topeka, Saturday, De- cember 5. A feature of the program was the unveiling of a tablet in memory of the pioneers which will be placed on a boulder in the new high-school grounds.
A memorial association has been formed at Medicine Lodge to honor Carrie Nation, a former resident. The association will pre- serve various articles which once belonged to the militant crusader and arrange them in her old home. J. Fuller Groom was chosen temporary president.
The sixty-first anniversary of Independence and the First Chris- tian church prompted the issuance of an eighty-page booklet by the church organization, commemorating the event. The publication was illustrated with pictures of early-day Independence and church scenes and persons.
Plans for installing a lily pool at historic Shawnee Mission by the Shawnee Mission Flower Club were sketched in the Kansas City (Mo.) Star, October 18. The organization will cooperate with the State Historical Society in the proposed landscaping.
Orville W. Mosher, associate professor of history at the Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia, has called upon old settlers of the Neosho and Verdigris valleys to aid him in preparing an archae- ological map of that section. Mr. Mosher is a collector of Indian relics.
At the old settlers' picnic which was held in Enterprise, September 3, a paper entitled "History of the Early Swedish Settlers East of
192 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Enterprise" was read. The paper gave names and details of the arrival of many of the families in that section from 1858 to 1880.
The third edition of Kansas Facts, cyclopedia of information of general state interest, appeared in December, 1931. The volume was compiled and published by Charles P. Beebe. Federal census returns for all incorporated cities and counties; classification of Kansas birds; statistical information on agriculture and industry; service records of the 35th, 42d and 89th American divisions in the World War; history of the Kansas Federation of Women's Clubs; and a list of state officers of the Parent-Teacher Association are features of this edition.
D
14-2345
THE
Kansas Historical Quarterly
Volume 1 Number 3
May, 1932
PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT
B. P. WALKER, STATE PRINTER
TOPEKA 1932
14-3416
Contributors
GEORGE A. ROOT is curator of archives of the Kansas State Historical Society, where he has been employed since March, 1891.
JAMES G. BLUNT was major general of volunteers in the Union army during the Civil War. He saw active service in Kansas, Missouri, Ar- kansas and the Indian Territory. He died in 1881.
MRS. FRANK C. MONTGOMERY has been employed in the archives department of the Kansas State Historical Society since April, 1909. Her husband, the late Frank C. Montgomery, was an early Kansas newspaper editor.
FRED N. HOWELL is assistant professor of history at the Kansas State Teachers College, Pittsburg, Kan.
NOTE. — Articles in the Quarterly appear in chronological order with- out regard to their importance.
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Extracts from Diary of Captain Lambert Bowman Wolf
EDITED BY GEORGE A. ROOT I. INTRODUCTION.
THE manuscript here printed comprises the experiences and ob- servations of a cavalryman on the plains of Kansas during the four years preceding the Civil War. For the most part his troop was engaged in protecting Colonel Johnston's survey of the southern boundary line of Kansas, patrolling the Santa Fe Trail, and guard- ing the United States mails.
While this account is in the form of a diary, some of the entries apparently were expanded somewhat at a later date. The manu- script in the possession of the Kansas State Historical Society was presented in 1905 by A. J. Hoisington, of Great Bend, who had re- ceived it from Captain Wolf. It is a typewritten copy, presumably made from the original either by Mr. Hoisington or Captain Wolf. In sending the copy to the Society Mr. Hoisington said: "Captain Wolf's diary contains largely more of his experiences and what he saw during his soldier life on the plains than is recorded in the fore- going, but so far I have been unable to secure from him a complete copy."
All efforts to locate Captain Wolf's original and complete diary have proved fruitless. Apparently it went the way of so many per- sonal records of the early days and was lost or destroyed.
Capt. Lambert Bowman Wolf was born June 2, 1834, at Evans- burg, Coshocton county, Ohio. He was of the fourth generation of Wolfs descended from German-born ancestors, and was reared on the farm where he was born. From 1856 to 1861 he served in Com- pany K, First U. S. cavalry, serving with his troops on the plains of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and Indian Territory, and on a trip to Utah during the Mormon war. Upon the breaking out of the Civil War he became captain of Company E, 142d Ohio volunteer infantry. He was discharged September 2, 1864, at Camp Chase, Ohio. In April, 1885, he returned to Kansas and settled in Ness county, where he engaged in the harness and saddlery business. He was twice married, first to Sarah Jane Loos, who died September 22, 1892, and next to Mrs. Emeline Waterbury, a pioneer settler of Great Bend. He died in Ness City August 29, 1918.
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196 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
II. ENTRIES FROM THE JOURNAL: 1856 TO 1861.
December 20, 1856, enlisted at Newcomerstown, Ohio, as a re- cruit in Capt. George H. Stewart's1 [Steuart] Co. K, then 1st U. S. cavalry, Col. E. V. Siimner2 (Bull of the Woods) commanding, and sent to Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, Mo.
April 1, 1857, three hundred of us recruits were loaded on the Amizon, a big sidewheeler off the Mississippi, and sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where we arrived on the 15th. During this trip we had our first experience of short rations, caused by delays when stranded on Missouri river sandbars.
May 10, received orders for Companies C, I, F and K, First U. S. cavalry, and E and K of the 6th U. S. infantry, to go on a campaign under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph B. [E.] Johns [t] on.3
May 16, everything in readiness, the command formed in line and orders for a summer's campaign read to us, in substance to wit: That we escort and guard the government surveyors while they run the now south line4 of Kansas and establish the southwest corner thereof. On this expedition the stake hauler for the surveyors was killed by the Kiowa Indians and his mule team taken off by them. He got too far from his infantry escort while driving around some bluffs and draws near the Cimarron river. Our Mexican cattle herder was shot by one of our own horse guards, being mistaken for an Indian. Two of our men died from scurvy. . . .
Nov. 14 we marched into Fort Leavenworth — back again — a rusty but hearty appearing command.
March 18, 1858, Companies F and K, First cavalry, and E and H, Sixth infantry, under command of Capt. Hendrickson,5 of Co. H,
1. George H. Steuart was a native of Maryland; cadet Military Academy, July 1, 1844; brevet 2d lieutenant, 2d dragoons, July 1, 1848; 2d lieutenant Nov. 11, 1849; 1st lieutenant 1st cavalry, Mar. 8, 1865; captain Dec. 20, 1855; resigned Apr. 22, 1861 (Brig. Gen. C. 8. A., 1861-1865). — Heitman's Historical Register and Dictionary U. S. Army, v. 1, p. 922.
2. Edwin Vose Sumner, born in Boston, Mass., Jan. 80, 1797. He entered the army in 1819, as 2d lieutenant of infantry. Served in the Black Hawk, Mexican and Indian wars. Was governor of New Mexico, 1851 -'53. In 1855 was promoted colonel of 1st cavalry and made a successful expedition against the Cheyennes. Was in Kansas during the territorial troubles. In 1861 he was sent to relieve Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston in command of the Department of the Pacific, but was recalled the following year to the command of the 1st Corps of the Army of the Potomac. At his own request in 1863 he was relieved, and being appointed to the Department of the Missouri, he was on his way thither when he died at Syracuse, N. Y., Mar. 21, 1863. — Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, v. 5, p. 750.
3. For short sketch of Joseph E. Johnston, see footnote, Kansas Historical Quarterly, Feb., 1932, p. 106.
4. See Kansas Historical Quarterly, Feb., 1932, pp. 104-139, "Surveying the Southern Line of Kansas, from Journal of Col. Joseph E. Johnston," edited by Nyle H. Miller.
5. Thomas Hendrickson was a native of Pennsylvania; became a 2d Lieut. 6th infantry in 1838 ; 1st Lieut. 1840 ; served in Mexican War, receiving rank of brevet captain for gallant and meritorious services; made captain 1853; major 3d infantry 1862, and served with distinction in Civil War. Retired 1863. Died Oct. 24, 1878. — Army and Navy Register, Hamersley, p. 506.
ROOT: EXTRACTS FROM DIARY OF CAPTAIN WOLF 197
Sixth infantry, ordered to escort supply trains to Col. Johnston6 at Fort Bridger,7 Utah, said supplies being hauled by cattle trains and located at Fort Laramie and unable to proceed safely on account of Indians.8
March 20, Col. Huffman9 joined us and took command.
June 3 we passed through the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains.
June 10 we arrived at Fort Bridger during a heavy snowstorm. Found that Col. Johnston's command had been living on quarter rations of jerked beef.
June 13 the Second dragoons took up line of march for Salt Lake City under command of Col. Cook [P. St. George Cooke] .
June 14 the peace commissioners10 arrived and they, with the bal- ance of Col. Johnston's command, start for Salt Lake City.
August 21, we start on return to Fort Leavenworth — that is, Companies F and K, First cavalry, under Capt. Dessashore,11 he being senior officer of our battalion, via Bridger's Pass and Fort Laramie.
September 1, we pass through Bridger's Pass, going into camp in a beautiful dead pine grove with splendid water and grass. This pass reminds much of the valley between the double hump of a dromedary. It has no resemblance to the South Pass.
September 2 we awoke with 6 inches of snow on the ground. It snowed on us all day as we marched and it was very disagreeable marching. Lieut. D. D. Bell12 and John Hootinger went out on a hunt yesterday — no news from them this evening.
September 17, at Fort Laramie. Here we learn that Bell and Hootinger were seen at the bridge on Ham's Fork,13 heading for
6. Albert Sidney Johnston (1803-1862). He was in command of the Department of the Pacific. At the outbreak of the Civil War he joined the Confederate army and was killed at the battle of Shiloh.
7. In 1843 James Bridger built a trading post in the valley of Black's Fork of Green river, Utah Territory (now Wyoming), to catch the emigrant trade going west. This post was comomnly known as Fort Bridger. In 1853 the Mormons captured the post and held it until the winter of 1857, abandoning it on the appearance of the United States army, but not until they had burned everything inflammable on the site. — J. Cecil Alter, James Bridger — A Historical Narrative, pp. 176-178, 244-263.
8. This was during the time of the Mormon War. Live stock and provisions sent to Utah for the subsistence of the United States army had been captured, stolen or burned by the Mormons, and the army had been reduced to scant rations, suffering many privations during the severe whiter that followed from lack of proper food and clothing. — Bancroft, History of Utah, pp. 512-522.
9. William Huffman, native of New York, who had a long and distinguished military service. Was in Mexican and Civil Wars, and was brevetted. major-general in 1865 for distinguished service. — Hamersley, Army Register, p. 614.
10. L. W. Powell, ex-governor and senator-elect, of Kentucky, and Major B. McCul- loch, a soldier of the Mexican War, were sent to Utah as peace commissioners.
11. William David De Saussure.
12. David D. Bell, born in Ohio. 1st. Lieut., 1st cavalry. Died Dec. 2, 1860. — Hamers- ley, Army Register, p. 292.
13. Ham's Fork, a small river of Uintah county, Wyoming, runs southeastward and unites with the Black Fork of Green river. — Lippincott's Pronouncing Gazetteer of the World, v. 1, p. 1357.
398 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Fort Bridger. They got lost and four days were without rations They obtained rations from the parties who met them, enough to last them into Fort Bridger.
October 4, arrived at Fort Kearney.
October 5, leave for Fort Leaven worth.
October 18, joined by Bell and Hootinger — great rejoicing there- for by Co. K.
October 20 finds us going into quarters at Fort Leavenworth.
November 25. It appears we are not to winter at Fort Leaven- worth, as to-day we start on a march to Fort Riley.
November 30, we arrive at Fort Riley. Since we started last March we have traveled over 2,300 miles and feel almost like our- selves and horse were one animal.
I will now give you a favorite song with the men during the winter of 1858-'59. It is entitled—
"BUCKING AND GAGGING."
Come, all Yankee soldiers, give ear to my song; It is a short ditty, 'twill not keep you long; It's of no use to fret on account of your luck, We can laugh, drink and sing yet in spite of the buck. Chorus: Dary down, dary down, &c.
Sergeant, buck him and gag him, our officers cry, For such trifling offenses they happen to spy; Till with bucking and gagging of Dick, Tom and Bill, Faith! the Mexican ranks they have helped to fill. Chorus.
The treatment they give us, as all of us know, Is bucking and gagging for whipping the foe; They buck us and they gag us for malice or for spite, But they are glad to release us when going to fight. Chorus.
A poor soldier's tied up in the sun or the rain With a gag in his mouth till he's tortured with pain; Why, I'm blest! if the eagle we wear on our flag In its claws shouldn't carry a buck and a gag. Chorus.
Eighteen hundred and fifty-nine carries me into [what is now] Barton county, with its tragic scenes indelibly impressed upon my mind.
The winter of 1858- '9 at Fort Riley passed away as also have our daily drills, both mounted and foot. These, with other usual camp duties, prevented all ennui. But we are restless, are longing for a campaign on the broad prairies — a change of some kind. Gar- rison duty becomes monotonous, the more especially to those who, like ourselves, have tasted the wildness of plain and mountains.
ROOT: EXTRACTS FROM DIARY OF CAPTAIN WOLF 199
May 25, the monotony is broken with great rejoicing. We, the cavalry, have received orders to prepare for a campaign, nothing further known.
June 10, Companies F, H and K, First cavalry, under command of Capt. E. V. Dessashore,14 captain of Company F, start for the Santa Fe Trail (Cimarron) Crossing of the Arkansas river. Capt. Walker's15 G company, he commanding, is detailed to escort an English lord into the buffalo range northwest of Fort Riley and join us on the Arkansas river near the location of old Fort Mackey.16 Our summer's work is to guard emigrants on the Santa Fe Trail.
June 17 finds us going into camp near what is known as Doc Beach's17 ranch on Cow creek. The Doctor has quite a trading station here, his stock consisting of "Dead Shot" whisky, sugar, flour, and bacon. This is also a mail station and post office.
June 19, we cross Walnut18 creek a little west of Allison's19 big ranch (the regular old trail crossing). The ford has a fine pebbly bottom. We have not seen any Indians, but rumor says they are just a little further on.
June 20, a fine soaking rain and we had just got nicely on the move when it came down in torrents. We pass Pawnee rocks, cross
14. William D. De Saussure.
15. William S. Walker, a Mexican War soldier; captain 1st cavalry 1855; resigned 1861.
16. Fort Mackay was located at the crossing on Arkansas river in present Ford county, and named for Col. A. Mackay, Q. M. D. It was about six or eight miles from present Dodge City, and was established Aug. 8, 1850, by Col. E. V. Sumner, after a treaty talk had been held there with the Indians. The fort was built of sod, covered with poles, brush, sod and canvas. The soldiers quartered there gave it the name of "Fort Sod," and later "Fort Sodom." It was known as Camp Mackay until June 25, 1851, when the name was changed to Fort Atkinson. Sept. 22, 1853 the fort was abandoned. It was temporarily re- occupied in June 1854, but on October 2 following was permanently abandoned and the buildings destroyed to prevent their occupancy by the Indians. — Green's Kansas Region, p. 22 ; Kansas Historical Collections, v. 7, p. 78, 444 ; v. 8, p. 489 ; v. 9, p. 567, 576 ; v. 12, p. 226; Blackmar's History of Kansas, v. 1, p. 656, 657.
17. Beach's Ranch or Trading Post was built on Cow creek, Peketon (Rice) county, about 1858 or 1859, by Asahel Beach and his son, Dr. A. J. Beach. It was on the line of the Santa Fe Trail, about one mile south of present Lyons, or near old Atlanta. A post office was established at the ranch April 1, 1859, called Beach Valley, with Doctor Beach postmaster. The territorial legislature of 1859 authorized Asahel Beach et al. to build a bridge across the Arkansas. The following year Beach Valley was incorporated by Asahel Beach, Dr. A. J. Beach and Samuel Shaff, and was the county seat of Peketon county, 1860, the county commissioners being the incorporators. Asahel Beeach was a brother of Moses Y. Beach, of the New York Sun, and came west from Leavenworth. Dr. A. J. Beach waa a surgeon of the 9th Kansas, 1864. Smoke houses were erected on the ranch and buffalo meat was cured for the eastern market. The ranch was abandoned in 1864, about the time of an Indian battle near by. — Laws, Kansas, 1859, 1860, 1861 ; U. S. Official Register, 1860-'63; Historical Society, Archives Department, original documents.
18. There were two crossings of Walnut creek in present Barton county, one a short dis- tance east of present Great Bend, on the Santa Fe Trail, and the other slightly to the north, on the road from Fort Harker to Fort Larned. The old trail crossing was 278 miles from Independence, Mo., and near site of Fort Zarah of later date.
19. Allison's ranch or trading station was built by — — Allison, of Independence,
Mo., in 1857. It was located at the mouth of the Walnut, about 100 yards from the cross- ing of the creek, on the east side, and on the north side of the road. It was merely a trading post, no attempt being made at agriculture or stock raising. Allison died suddenly at Independence, and the ranch was rented to George Peacock. — Kansas Historical Collections, v. 8, pp. 487, 489; v. 10, p. 665.
200 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Ash20 creek, going into camp on the west bank of Pawnee Fork. Rumor has 1,000 painted warriors 40 miles up the river waiting our appearance.
June 25 finds us going into camp on the Arkansas river near where old Fort Mackay used to be.
June 29, Lieutenant Col. Johnston, our old commander in 1857, comes into camp with the Santa Fe mail. He is now inspector general of forts and troops and on his way to New Mexico.
July 4, a gill of whisky for each man, and some horse racing, to celebrate the day.
July 8, the first Indians in camp or seen — 3 bucks and 1 squaw.
August 2. A terror of a rain last night. Many hats are short this morning, even the bass and tenor drums took trips down the river and we are a wet and sorry looking set generally.
August 3. Tahosan, the head chief of the Kiowas, with his squaw and three of his braves, visit us. They go into camp about 100 yards above our camp.
August 20. Capt. Walker, with his Co. G, joins us. Several of his men have the scurvy.
August 28. Two mules gone, so Lieut. D. D. Bell, with a detach- ment of one sergeant and four men, is sent after them.
August 21 [31]. In the afternoon Lieut. Bell and party return, bringing with them 3 Indians and 4 mules, two of which belonged to the mail route. The Indians played "good Indian," were given flour, sugar and bacon and were sent on their way rejoicing. Yes, the mules were found running loose !
September 1. Co. H sent to Pawnee21 Fork to guard contractors of the mail station there.
September 14. In the morning we break camp and start for Fort Riley.
September 17 finds us at Pawnee Fork camping with H Co. The mail station builders have not reported yet. H Co. men report two large camps of Kiowa and Comanche Indians on the Walnut desir- ing to make a treaty with Uncle Samuel.
September 18. Just before leaving camp, Big Pawnee, second chief of the Kiowas, came into our camp and traveled with us to Walnut creek, then went to his own camp located on the south side
20. Ash creek, first known as Crooked creek, was crossed by Santa Fe Trail about 9% miles northeast of old Fort Larned. Name probably suggested by ash and elm that shaded the creek. — Kansas Historical Society, Eighteenth Biennial Report, p. 120.
21. Pawnee Fork, first known as Pawnee creek or river, was a little over 302 miles from Fort Osage, on the Missouri river. — Kansas Historical Society, Eighteenth Biennial Report, p. 120.
ROOT: EXTRACTS FROM DIARY OF CAPTAIN WOLF 201
of the creek (between what is now — 1900 — known as the old John Cook farm, and the bridge next west of it.)
September 19, on the Arkansas river, east of Allison's ranch, my- self and four others made a still hunt for buffaloes and got two good ones. Capt. Dessashore this morning, before leaving camp, held a powwow with Tahosan, Pawnee, and Buffalo Hump (a Comanche chief) . Buffalo Hump desired to make a treaty. Capt. Dessashore told him to go back to Texas.
September 21 finds us lying in camp on Cow creek22 below Beach's ranch resting and cleaning up.
September 22. Last night midnight express from Allison's ranch brings word that Pawnee, with part of his band, threaten the ranch- men's lives. G and K Co.'s were immediately ordered to the ranch, leaving Cow creek at 2 a. m. Arriving near the ranch just as the sun peeped over the eastern horizon, half a mile from the ranch, Lieut's D. D. Bell and Baird galloped ahead of the command to the ranch. The Indians were all gone except Big Pawnee, and him they took prisoner. When we came up they had disarmed him. The officers held a council and decided to have Pawnee guide them to the Indian camp. A dismounted soldier had Pawnee in charge. He was in- structed to take Pawnee to get his pony, which was tied to a wagon in the rear of the ranch. He was taken to it. The pony had been so frightened as to pull hard on the lariat and Pawnee could not untie it. He asked the soldier for his sheath knife to cut the lariat. The knife was handed to Pawnee, who cut the lariat and quickly threw the knife under the wagon, mounted the pony, gave a great yap and was off like the wind towards the bluff northeast. Lieu- tenants Bell and Baird, being still mounted, took after him, also R. M. Peck,23 of Co. K. Peck's horse being very fleet soon passed the lieutenant's and overtook Pawnee and then turned and asked Baird if he should shoot him. "No," said Baird, "I want to talk with him." Peck veered off, Baird came up and asked Pawnee to halt. Pawnee, with an ugly defiant face, said "Bah," and went on. Baird stayed with him, dropped his revolver in front of Pawnee and commanded him to halt. Pawnee, yet more sarcastic, repeated his "Bah, bah." Baird tried him again but no good, so dropped
22. Cow creek, present Rice county, first known as Cold Water, a point on the Santa Fe Trail, slightly more than 246 miles from Fort Osage. — Kansas Historical Society, Eighteenth Biennial Report, p. 119.
23. Robert Morris Peck was from Covington, Ky., at which place he enlisted in Co. E, First U. S. cavalry. After five years' service as a private soldier on the plains of Kansas, he became a wagonmaster in the Army of the Frontier. For many years after the close of the Civil War he was a citizen of Leavenworth and Baxter Springs. He was a frequent contributor to the National Tribune^ Washington, D. C., mostly on frontier history. — Kansas Historical Society, Eighteenth Biennial Report, p. 43.
202 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
off a little and shot him in the head. (Now, right then, our winter's trouble and our next summer's campaign commences.) At the crack of the revolver Baird's horse ran away. Peck then took after him and caught it. Lieut. Bell came up, found Pawnee dead and rode back and reported to Capt Walker.24 Fearing the bluffs were full of Indians an express was sent after the balance of the com- mand. Pawnee's body was brought in and buried just under the break of the bank about 40 or 50 yards above the Santa Fe Trail ford.
September 23, at 7 a. m., Capt. Dessashore arrives with the bal- ance of the command. While they are at breakfast the officers de- cide to go to the Indian camp. Breakfast over we moved for the Indian camp, found it; that is the place, but the Indians were gone. We then moved a few miles up the creek. As the first detachment had but one day's rations left the officers decided to return, so that evening we camped by Allison's ranch.
September 24 the mails for Santa Fe arrived and demands an escort to Pawnee Fork. Lieut. E. Otis,25 of F Co., and 25 men de- tailed for that duty. Evening finds us in camp on Cow creek.
September 25, we have a wagon and team in camp with three days' rations for Lieut. Otis' detachment. In the evening we camp on the Little Arkansas.
September 26 we laid in camp. An express arrived from Lieut. Otis informing us that one hour after the mail left him and it was getting dark, they being on the "dry route,"26 they were attacked by the Indians and the conductor and one of the drivers (being brothers and on their last trip) were killed. The other driver shot the Indian that was trying to tangle the mules. That created a powwow and the driver escaped in the darkness. He was badly wounded, but got in with some Mexicans and reached Lieut. Otis' camp next morning. Otis and his detachment buried the men as best they could. The mules, bedding, and rations were all gone, the male [mail] scattered. Otis had the latter gathered up and brought it back to Beach's ranch on Cow creek.
24. William S. Walker was born in Pennsylvania. Served in Mexican War and was brevetted captain in 1847 for gallant and meritorious service at the battle of Chapultepec. Made captain of 1st cavalry in 1855. Resigned May 1, 1861. — Hamersley's Army Register, p. 837.
25. Elmer Otis was born in Massachusetts. Was made 1st Lieut., 1st cavalry in 1856; captain, 1861; major, 1864; brevet colonel, 1865; lieutenant colonel, 1876. Died Aug. 18, 1897. — Hamersley's Army Register, p. 674; Heitman's Register, p. 762.
26. The "dry route" was a short cut on the Santa Fe Trail, running in a southwesterly direction from the vicinity of old Fort Zarah, past Fort Larned and striking the Arkansas river close to site of Fort Dodge. This route encountered water in but one place, at Coon creek, some fifteen miles beyond Fort Larned. — Great Bend Register, Jan. 22, 1880; Map of Kansas, by Ado Hunnius, 1869.
ROOT: EXTRACTS FROM DIARY OF CAPTAIN WOLF 203
September 27, in the evening, Lieut. Otis and his men join us; men and horses jaded, and foregoing account confirmed. A detachment of ten men from each company, 40 in all, and 2 noncommissioned officers, under command of Lieut. Eli Long,27 of Co. H, with rations to supply them until more supplies could be sent them from Fort Riley, was sent back to Beach's ranch to escort the mail to the Santa Fe crossing of the Arkansas and remain out 40 days unless sooner relieved.
October 2 finds our command entering Fort Riley.
October 7. Company K ordered to Pawnee Fork to relieve Lieut. Long. An express has just arrived from Long reporting that Allison [Peacock] had been shot by Satank,28 the war chief of the Kiowas. Particulars of the report as follows: Satank, with 3 or 4 of his braves, called on Allison [Peacock] ; found him alone at his ranch on the Walnut with a sick man lying on a bunk in the ranch build- ing. Now Indians dread sick people and so Satank told Allison [Peacock] there were some soldiers coming by way of Pawnee Rock and asked him to take his glass, go on top of the ranch, and see if he could tell who they were. Allison [Peacock], believing the Indian, got on top of the ranch, adjusted his glass and was in the act of putting it up to his eye when his eye caught Satank pointing his gun at him. Instantly understanding his danger he started to whirl about face exclaiming, "Satank, you damned son of a bitch," when crack went Satank's gun and Allison [Peacock] fell dead on the top of his own ranch. The sick man rolled up in the covers of his bed and over the back side and then down under his bed. The Indians then came in the ranch, gathered up a few things and then
27. Eli Long was born in Woodford county, Ky., June 16, 1837, and died in New York Jan. 6, 1903. He was graduated from the military academy at Frankfort, Ky., in 1855, and received an appointment in the 1st United States cavalry in 1855. Was in the Cheyenne expedition in 1857 and served through the Civil War, being several times wounded, and was brevetted brigadier general of volunteers. Retired as major general in 1866. — The Americana, v. 9.
28. The late James R. Mead, of Wichita, credits Satanta with the killing, giving the date as September 9, 1860. (See Kan. Hist. Cols., v. 10, pp. 664, 665.) The late Robert M. Wright, of Dodge City, in his "Frontier Life in Southwestern Kansas," published in Kansas Historical Collections, v. 7, pp. 48, 49, names Satank as the guilty one.
Satanta, or White Bear, was born about 1830, and for about 15 years before his death was recognized as second chief in the Kiowa tribe, the first rank being accorded to his senior, Satank. Satanta's eloquence in council won for him the title "Orator of the Plains." He was one of the signers of the Medicine Lodge treaty in 1867. He committed suicide in Texas state prison, October 11, 1878, by throwing himself from an upper story of the hos- pital.— Hodge, Handbook of American Indians, v. 2, p. 469.
Satank, or Sitting Bear, was born about 1810 in the Black Hills region. He became prominent at an early age, and was credited with being one of the principal agents in nego- tiating the final peace treaty between the Kiowas and Cheyennes about 1840. His name heads the list of signers of the noted Medicine Lodge treaty in 1867. Sometime during 1871 Satank was arrested for a murderous attack on a wagon train in Texas in May of that year, in which seven white men lost their lives, and in an attempt to escape his captors was shot and killed by troops surrounding him. He was buried in the military cemetery at Fort Sill. — Hodge, Handbook of American Indians, v. 2, p. 513.
204 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
lit out. Long's detachment soon coming up took the sick man on to Beach's ranch. The detachment buried Allison [Peacock] at his ranch before starting on. The foregoing story of the killing of Allison [Peacock] is the substance of the story as related by the sick man, and I believe it mainly true.
Our captain is now at Leavenworth on short leave. The com- pany has gone to work getting ready.
October 14 finds Company K on the move for Pawnee Fork, Capt. G. H. Stewart returning the 12th.
October 21, during the day we met Lieut. Long with his command on his way to Fort Riley. The 10 men of our Co. who were with him rejoin our Co. with much grumbling. Their horses are badly used up.
October 22 we arrive at Pawnee Fork, a location for a Fort is selected and we go into camp on the site of the location.
October 23, plans are made for the horse and cattle stable, also for officers' and company quarters, all of which are to be built of sod cut with spades by members of our company. Our stable is to be 100 feet square on the inside, wall 12 feet high and 3 feet thick at bottom and 2 feet thick at top, with a large gate in the south wall. Our detachment left at Beach's ranch join us, bring the mail with them.
October 30. Everything has been passing off smoothly and nice. Our corral is growing apace. We are having lots to do with not much rest — heavy guards at night with lots of work through the day. This morning, just as we got ready to eat our breakfast, three citizens came into our camp reporting that 15 Kiowas had driven them in. Boots and saddles sounded, leaving our hot coffee. In 10 minutes 20 of us, under command of Lieut. D. D. Bell, were moving lively southwest for the Arkansas river. Three miles from camp we overhauled 2 Kiowa Indians with six ponies — they were made "good Indians" and the ponies brought into camp. In the shield of the first one killed we found 27 bunches of different human hair, sup- posedly his trophies. We now carry our arms with us, always prepared for any surprise.
November 3, two men, one woman and two children, the youngest one 3 months old, who were on their way from New Mexico to the states, came into our camp and will await the escorts going to Beach's ranch before going on. They report that the Kiowas had attacked them at the Santa Fe crossing (of the Arkansas) , took their oxen and cow and plundered their wagon of eatables and clothing;
ROOT: EXTRACTS FROM DIARY OF CAPTAIN WOLF 205
had one of the men bound ready to torture when a friendly party of Cheyennes put in their appearance, released the man and made the Kiowas give back the oxen and cow, with a part of the clothing and provisions, sending the travelers on their way, thankful for their release.
November 21, orders received by special express from Fort Leavenworth for us to leave 30 men, under command of Lieut. Bell, to garrison the fort, and escort the mails east and west, and also guard the mail station now built here (below our location and at the Santa Fe crossing of Pawnee Fork). Our corral about completed and officers' and company quarters well along. A supply train from Fort Riley arrives being escorted by a detachment of the Sixth infantry.
November 26. Our company starts for Fort Riley, taking the 30 horses belonging to the detachment left behind. We kill buffalo for beef to take with us, leaving the beef cattle with Lieut. Bell.
November 27 finds us camping on the Arkansas river below Allison's ranch. We find the ranch occupied by the parties that the Kiowas ran off early in the fall. We left with them three broken-down horses.
November 30 finds us in camp on Big Turkey29 creek with no wood except that we brought with us from Cow creek. The weather is, and has been during the past few days, most beautiful.
December 1. Zounds, boys; we've got it this morning. Sure it would freeze the horn of a brass monkey, remarked Kelly, (an old veteran) , and I thought it might do it, for a blizzard had come upon us about midnight and I thought it a howling success. No break- fast, formed line, shot 7 horses that were so chilled could not get up, started out by twos from the right, trot march for Cottonwood creek.30 Seven of us got there in formed line, the balance strung back along the trail, some not getting in until after dark, a frozen set. The captain had his left cheek and ear, hands and feet badly frozen, Rogers his hands and feet, "Pickles" Houston's hands frozen and the sight of his left eye ruined.
December 4, in the evening, finds us ensconced in quarters at Fort Riley and the frozen men in the hospital being tenderly cared for by good old Doc. Madison.31 Houston lost the sight of his eye and was discharged with a pension of $8 per month.
29. Now known as Turkey creek, McPherson county. This stream has several branches — Dry Turkey creek, Spring Turkey creek and Running Turkey creek.
30. Cottonwood creek, Marion county, 192 miles from Independence, Mo.
81. Thomas C. Madison, a native of Virginia; major and surgeon, 1856; resigned Aug- ust 17, 1861; surgeon, C. S. A., 1861-'65. — Heitman's Register, v. 1, p. 683.
206 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
I860 — Major J. Sednic's [Sedgwick's] Campaign After the Kiowa and Comanche Indians.
Remained at Fort Riley all winter.
May 15 finds Companies F, G, K and H, under command of Major John Sednic [Sedgwick]32 all of the First U. S. cavalry, moving out of Fort Riley on a campaign after the Kiowa and Co- manche Indians (to punish them for their murderous depredations during the past winter, all caused by, or at least commencing with, the killing of Pawnee by Lieutenant Baird at Allison's ranch on the Walnut last fall). We pass through Junction City, composed of half a dozen houses that were mostly dugouts, camping 14 miles above, on the northeast bank of the Smoky Hill river.
May 18, we pass through Salina, a thriving young town with a fine valley to spread out in. To-day 3 Delaware guides join us — Falleaf , Bullet and Dead Shot.
May 20 finds us in the buffalo range. This evening Lieut. Tay- lor's horse pulled his picket pin and ran off with the buffalo and we never saw him again.
May 21, had a 41-mile march, camping on the Walnut creek (at old military road crossing 5 miles northwest of now Great Bend) a mile, about, above the Kiowa camp ground of last fall. The major walked us alternate hours. It was dry and hot and he came near losing some of his men by thirst. On this day's march we passed through what is now known as Cheyenne Bottom.33
May 23 finds us camped below Fort Larned. Our detachment left here last fall is relieved by two companies of the Second infantry.
May 25 we draw our pack mules and are joined by Captain
32. John Sedgwick, American soldier, born Cornwall, Conn., Sept. 13, 1813. Served in Seminole War in Florida; Mexican War; Civil War, besides many engagements against hos- tile Indians. Shot by a Confederate sharpshooter during battle of Spottsylvania, May 9, 1864. — The Americana, v. 13.
83. Cheyenne Bottoms, Barton county, "within a few miles of the geographical center of Kansas, is a huge basin. . . . The floor of this basin embraces an area approxi- mately the size of the Sea of Galilee or 64 square miles. During the major portion of the last half century the basin has been dry, with the exception of a few ponds. . . . Two wet-weather streams flow into it, they being Blood creek from the northwest and Deception creek from the north. . . . During August, 1927, heavy rains caused high-water condi- tions in those creeks . . . sufficient to create a lake of approximately 16,000 acres in the eastern portion of the basin. . . . Extensive rainfall during the summer of 1928 caused a rise in the lake and at one time the water was 18 inches deeper than at any time during 1927. The water area of the lake was increased to almost 20,000 acres." In fall of 1927 steps were taken by the Kansas Forestry, Fish and Game Commission to convert the lake into a national bird preserve, the lake at the time being literally alive with countless numbers of ducks, geese, shore birds and gulls. Measures were introduced in congress look- ing to the establishment of a federal game preserve. The lake was also alive with fish, probably from the overflow of some streams, as none were placed there by the Kansas Fish and Game Department. In 1929 a bill passed congress making an appropriation of $250,000 and work was started toward acquiring a title. During 1930 evaporation caused by a severe dry spell materially reduced the waters, and in 1931 during a protracted drouth, it was feared the lake would go dry. The federal government definitely intends going ahead with plans for establishing a game preserve. — Kansas Forestry, Fish and Game Department, report, 1927-'28, pp. 33-35; Topeka Daily Capital, Nov. 6, 1931.
ROOT: EXTRACTS FROM DIARY OF CAPTAIN WOLF 207
Steele's34 command of two companies of the Second Dragoons, mak- ing our command now 6 mounted companies, about 500 men. Wagons and tents are turned in to the quartermaster.
June 3 finds us camping about 3 miles below the Santa Fe cross- ing of the Arkansas.
June 4 we cross the river and point for the Cimarron river.
June 7 finds us camping on the Cimarron.
June 9 finds us camping on Granet [?] Fork of the Canadian, not far from the North Fork of the Canadian.
June 15 is another hot day; a march of 40 miles and we go into camp on the North Fork of the Canadian, near one of our old camps in 1857.
June 22 finds us camping at the F. X. Aubrey crossing35 of the Cimarron river.
June 25 finds us camping on Bear creek, still on the Aubrey trail.
June 28 finds us camping on the north side of the Arkansas river by the Aubrey crossing, 56 miles from our camp on Bear creek.
July 3, still in camp, resting and to let our horses recuperate on the good grass. Our supply train reports to-day, and not any too soon, as some of our companies are out of flour.
July 9 we camp in the bottom just west of Bent's new fort at the Big Timbers36 of the Arkansas river. Capt. Steele, with a detach- ment of 100 men and guided by a volunteer Cheyenne Indian, were sent in pursuit of a party of Kiowas in the vicinity of here and the Smoky Hill river, leaving last night at 12 m. with 2 days' rations.
July 11, Col. Bent informed the Major that Satank, chief of the
34. William Steele, who resigned May 30, 1861, and became a brigadier general, C. S. A. Died Jan. 12, 1885. — Heitman's Register, v. 1, p. 919.
35. Aubrey trail and crossing of Cimarron. This trail started at Fort Aubrey, on Arkansas river, in present Hamilton county, Kansas, and according to a map by Ado Hun- nius, made in 1869, ran in a southwesterly direction, leaving Kansas on west line of state at about township 28 or 29, range 42 west, near present Bear creek, Stanton county. The trail crossed the Cimarron river a short distance south of old Camp Nichols, Indian Terri- tory (present Oklahoma), where it joined the Santa Fe Trail.
36. The Big Timbers of the Arkansas was one of the most famous places in the whole plains region in early days. From the vicinity of Council Grove in eastern Kansas to the mountains the old trail up the Arkansas was practically treeless except at this one point. Pike, in 1806, was the first to note the groves at Big Timbers, and here he noted signs of Indians, for even at that early period the site was a favorite wintering place for the peoples of the plains. There is reason to believe that in early years the Big Timbers extended over thirty miles along the river. The trees were very large cottonwoods, standing in open groves without underbrush on the bottom lands, also up the numerous small islands in the river. George Bent states that about 1853 the Big Timbers were only about five miles long by two miles broad. The same year Gunnison and Beckwith passed up the Arkansas, and they described Big Timbers as a section of the river about 24 miles in length, on the islands and banks of which more than the usual amount of cottonwood grew. The Cheyennes called this place Tall Timbers in early days, but after 1833 they called the grove, or the upper end of it, "Red Shin's Standing Ground." The upper end of Big Timbers was set down by Gunnison and Beckwith as about 13 miles by the old trail, below the mouth of the Purgatoire. William Bent is said to have had a trading house there as early as 1844. Another trader, Thorpe, had a trading house there in 1846. By 1863 the last of the big trees had disappeared.— George Bird Grinnell, in Kansas Historical Collections v 15 pp
208 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Kiowas, had been there just before our arrival and learning of our proximity he, with his family and a few warriors, pulled for the north. Lieut. Stewart with 20 men were immediately dispatched in pursuit.
July 12, report from Lieut. Stewart 5 miles north they discovered 5 Indians, gave them chase but a stern chase is often a hot one and so was this. Twenty miles and Capt. Steele's command sighted the detachment, took them for Indians, gave chase and the two parties were near coming together before the mistake was seen. Result: The Indian braves got away, less 2 that were killed. Satank's squaws and children were captured, 15 of them altogether, and brought into camp. Lieut. Baird,37 the slayer of Pawnee, got an arrow clinched in his upper jaw. The last we heard of him he was on his way to New York from St. Louis to have it extracted.
July 13, we move camp 3 miles up the river. The squaws and papooses were turned over to Bent for safe-keeping and to exchange for the depredations of last winter.
July 14, a party of 80 of us are sent under command of Capt. Dessashore on a scout up the Purgatory38 creek, called Picketwire.
July 18, after fruitless wandering over bluffs, through ravines and over prairies, we have rejoined the command where we left it, dis- covering nothing but a very old Indian camp and some bear tracks.
July 20, in the forenoon, Bent was issuing government annuities to the Apaches and Arapahoes who are now camped near his fort. A band of Cheyennes is also encamped here. In the afternoon I spent about two hours taking in the sights and appreciated it. There are now about 3,000 Indians here and they make quite a representa- tion of the original settlers of this continent.
July 23 finds us camping where our supply train came to us.
July 26, Lieut. Bayard [Baird], with an escort, starts for the states to have the arrow point extracted. We leave the Arkansas river, striking northeast for the Smoky river.
July 30 finds us camping on the east side of the Smoky river.
August 2. Our route has been down the Smoky. In the after- noon we cross a fresh, plain Indian trail, leading to the north. "Bullet" says, "Major, Indian one day." The Major answered,
37. Absalom Baird, born in Washington, Pa., 1824; cadet military academy; had long list of promotions in the military service, and was made a brigadier general during the Civil War. Retired Aug. 20, 1888. — Heitman, Historical Register, v. 1, pp. 182-183.
38. Purgatory river, or creek, is a tributary of the Arkansas and is designated on old maps as the "First Fork." It was known among the Spaniards of New Mexico as the river of the souls in purgatory. The stream was noticed by Pike, who noted it on his map as the "First Fork." It joins the Arkansas near present La Junta. Spaniards had two names for the stream — Rio Purgatoire and Rio de las Animas. Picketwire is a corrupted English form in use later. Thwaites, Early Western Travels, v. 16, pp. 62, 74.
ROOT: EXTRACTS FROM DIARY OF CAPTAIN WOLF 209
"Bullet, where is that water?" And Bullet replied, "Right around there," directing to a point about 2 miles ahead of us. We camped by the water ponds.
August 3, we move down the river. There is some swearing done because we do not follow up the Indian trail we crossed yesterday, but to no purpose.
August 5, Capt. Steele is sent with 3 companies for two days' farther march down the river and to join us at Pawnee Fork. Sedg- wick takes the balance of the command and that evening late camps on the Walnut, about 5 miles west of now Great Bend.
August 7, we pass Pawnee Rock and camp on Ash creek.
August 8, we camp one mile west of the mouth of Pawnee Fork. Our commissary train from Fort Larned joins us here. News from Bent's Fort is that he, Bent, gave up the prisoners to their tribe. He sent an express after us, who was overtaken 25 miles from the Fort, shot, scalped, and left for dead, but some friendly Cheyennes found him and took him back to the Fort. This occurred 2 days after we left there. Further, we learned that Capt. Sturgis,39 who had a command out after the Kiowa and Comanche Indians, from Fort Cobb, Texas, crossed our trail on the Smoky, following up that Indian trail Bullet pointed out to us the next day after we made our trail. He had a two day's fight with the Indians, badly defeat- ing them in the first day's fight, camping on the battle ground. We also received orders from Washington to cease hostilities against the Kiowa and Comanche Indians and Sedgwick to take the four companies of the First cavalry and repair to the Big Timbers of the Arkansas river in the vicinity of Bent's New Fort, there to es- tablish a Fort to be named Fort Wise.40 Capt. Steele and command joined us this evening.
39. Samuel Davis Sturgis saw much service on the plains; was brevetted lieutenant colonel Aug. 10, 1861, for gallant and meritorious service in battle of Wilson's Creek, Mo., and brevetted major general in 1865 before being mustered out of volunteer service. Became colonel of 7th cavalry, May 6, 1869. Died Sept. 28, 1889. — Hamersley's Army Register, p. 790; Heitman's Historical Register, v. 1, p. 934.
40. The original post was located near Bent's Fort on the Arkansas river, and was called Fort Wise. Established June 29, 1860. Name changed June 25, 1862. This site was abandoned in June 1867, and the present selected on the north bank of the Arkansas river two and one-half miles below Purgatory river. — Hamersley's Army Register, Forts, etc., p. 142.
Fort Wise originally was Bent's New Fort, built in 1853, near "Big Timbers" and oc- cupied by Bent as a trading post until 1859, when it was leased to the U. S. government as a military post. It was at once garrisoned and in the spring of 1860 the name was changed to Fort Wise, in honor of the governor of Virginia. In 1860 the troops began to build a new post one mile west of Bent's stone fort and on the exact site of Bent's log houses which he had occupied during the winter of 1852- '53. When the Civil War began Governor Wise joined the Confederates, and Fort Wise was renamed Fort Lyon, in honor of Gen. Nathaniel Lyon, killed at Wilson Creek, Mo. In 1866 the Arkansas began cutting away the bank and threatened to destroy Fort Lyon, and the place was abandoned and New Fort Lyon was built
twenty miles further up the river, two miles below the mouth of the Pureatorv
Historical Collections, v. 8, p. 487.
14_3416
210 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
August 28 brings us to Bent's Fort and we go into camp in a nice little river flat just west of it. We find quite a few Cheyennes and Arapahoes camped near us, the Indian prisoners all given up as before stated.
August 29, I visited Bent's Fort and saw his scalped messenger, above described. He is a pitiable sight. Each arm had received arrow wounds. His revolver had failed him entirely. The Indians closed in on him, tomahawked him from the rear and then scalped him. His hair was all gone, less a small strip behind his right ear. The tomahawk wound on the top of his head was nearly healed up, a thin gauzy skin had grown over the scalp part, his arm wounds were slowly healing, so that now he can feed himself. He remarked that when well he would lift some of their hair.
September 10, business commences building Fort Wise. A little more scouting is done by detachments, but to no purpose.
January 1, 1861. By this time the officers' and company head- quarters are occupied, with the four corral stables completed. And well it is so as we get a terrible blizzard. I remained with my com- mand at Fort Wise through the summer and until November, when R. M. Peck, David Killinger, John Ward, John Huggins and your humble servant received our discharges.
After the death of Gen. Lyon, Fort Wise was no more the name as Lyon supplanted the name of Wise.
General Blunt's Account of His Civil War Experiences
JAMES G. BLUNT I. INTRODUCTION.
ONE day nearly thirty-five years ago when an employee in the state capitol was cleaning the basement he uncovered a manu- script roll addressed to Col. T. J. Anderson, adjutant general of Kansas. Written in a bold hand, the document completely filled 116 legal cap pages. The 117th page was fragmentary. Apparently the signature had been torn off, but the handwriting and character of the manuscript unmistakably identified it as that of Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt.1 Colonel Anderson denied any knowledge of the existence of the report and expressed regret that it had not appeared among the early official military reports of the state of Kansas.
Since the record had failed of publication in these volumes, Colonel Anderson requested Capt. Patrick H. Coney, of Topeka, to retain it and provide for its preservation. Realizing the significance of the document, Captain Coney submitted it to Col. Thomas Moon- light,2 of Leavenworth, who had served under Blunt through most
1. James Gillpatrick Blunt was born July 21, 1826, in Trenton, Hancock county, Maine. At the age of fifteen he went to sea for five years. Subsequently he studied medicine and in 1849 a degree was granted him from Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio. After- ward he practiced in New Madison, Ohio. He was married there to Nancy Carson Putnam.
In 1856 he moved to Kansas and settled at Greeley as a physician. His strong antipathy toward slavery soon drew him actively into politics. As a constitutional delegate from Anderson county Blunt attended the convention held at Wyandotte, July 5, 1859, and helped write the constitution of Kansas. He served as chairman of the committee on militia. At the first call to arms in the Civil War he volunteered for service, and later became Kansas' first major general.
After the war General Blunt settled in Leavenworth, where he resumed the practice of medicine. About 1869 he removed to Washington, D. C., and for twelve years solicited claims before the federal departments. On April 9, 1873, Blunt and others were charged by the Department of Justice with conspiracy to defraud the government and a body of Chero- kee Indians in North Carolina, but the case was dismissed two years later.
Toward the end of his life Blunt became ill with what was diagnosed as softening of the brain. On February 12, 1879, he was admitted as a patient to St. Elizabeth's, a gov- ernment hospital for the insane. He died there July 25, 1881.
2. Thomas Moonlight was born near Arbroath, Scotland, November 10, 1838. At the age of thirteen he ran away and shipped as a forecastle hand on board a schooner bound for the United States. Landing in Philadelphia without funds he worked at several trades before enlisting in the regular army on May 17, 1853. He saw service in Florida and was with Albert Sidney Johnston's command in the campaign against the Mormons in Utah. A short time after receiving his discharge at Fort Leavenworth in 1858 he settled on a farm in Kickapoo township, Leavenworth county. At the beginning of the War of the Rebellion he raised a light battery and was commissioned a captain of artillery in the Union Army. He received prominent mention for his services at the battles of Dry Wood and The Blue, and at Prairie Grove. At the end of the war Moonlight was colonel of the Eleventh Kansas, with the brevet rank of brigadier general. Upon returning to civilian life he became prominent in political circles. In 1868 he was elected secretary of state. During President Cleveland's first term he was appointed governor of Wyoming, and in 1893 he became minister to Bolivia. He returned to the United States four years later, where he settled on a farm. He died February 7, 1899.
(211)
212 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of his war campaigns. Moonlight's opinion of the manuscript is recorded in the following letter:
"LEAVEN WORTH, KAN., September 20, 1898.
"Mr DEAR FRIEND CONEY: I received your telegram this morning on my return home, and have this day sent by express the Blunt manuscript.
"I have read it over carefully twice and I thought once I would edit it, so to speak, and have divided it off into ten sections or publications, but when I thought over the selfishness of the whole thing and his many personal abuses against Robinson, Carney, Schofield, Curtis, &c., it seemed to me to be assum- ing Blunt's part, who never had done anything for me, much as I had done for him, for I say now, what I have never spoken of before, that but for myself Blunt would not stand in history with the same military victories at- tached to him, particular [l]y in the battles of old Fort Wayne, Cane Hill, Prairie Grove, the Van Buren Raid and the battle of Honey Springs in July, 1863. As I say, he never did anything for me, but I have always stood by him as a fighter. I left him before the Baxter Springs massacre, his troubles at Fort Smith, &c., and his successors were at all times, even in the Price Raid, where we were together. I hope you will publish it and send me a paper of each publication, as I may make up my mind to have something to say.
"Your friend, THOS. MOONLIGHT."
Despite the opinion of Anderson and Moonlight as to the impor- tance of Blunt's account and the desirability of its publication, it was never printed.
A history and short summary of the manuscript appeared in the Topeka Mail and Breeze November 4, 1898. On June 29, 1900, Captain Coney officially presented the report to the State Historical Society with the request that it be published some time in its en- tirety. In view of the highly controversial nature of the subject matter of Blunt's report, and the impossibility of justifying many of the statements it contains, no attempt has been made to edit it. The report as published here is a true copy of the original, except that to secure uniformity a few changes were made in Blunt's use of capital letters.
II. GENERAL BLUNT'S ACCOUNT.
WASHINGTON, D. C., April 3, 1866. Col. T. J. Anderson, Adft. Genl. of Kansas.
SIR — Upon the receipt of your circular in October last, requesting me to furnish for your office "a brief or synopsis of my military history during the late war," I at first determined that inasmuch as many of the more prominent of my military operations have been made public through one source or another, I would forego the task of reviewing them; but since the renewal of your request in person, while in this city a short time since, I have reconsidered
BLUNT: CIVIL WAR EXPERIENCES 213
the matter, and shall now endeavor to note, as briefly as possible, such events with which I have been connected in the military serv- ice as I shall deem worthy of record and preservation in the archives of the state. In complying with your request in this matter I am prompted by no desire that my acts shall be paraded before the public, as many of them are already before the country, and whether they are good or bad, by them I must be judged.
The only inducement for performing this labor arises from the fact that there are many things connected with the public events in which I have been an actor that are best known and understood only by myself, and concerning which, in consequence of the posi- tion I occupied as an officer, I have heretofore been content to re- main mute, but as they are matters, a correct knowledge of which should be accessible to the future historian in his research for data to enable him to form a correct and impartial estimate of historical events, and being now freed from the restraints of army regulations, I deem it not only justice to myself but to the state that has honored me with her confidence, and more particularly to her gallant sons, who, with those of other states, have ever so nobly sustained me with their courage and fidelity, that I shall leave upon record for future reference, such facts connected with my career as a public servant, as may be of future interest.
Such details of events as have been given in my official reports, copies of which are accessible, I shall here omit, and in dates I may not in all cases be exactly correct, as I have no data or records here to which I can refer, and must write from memory, but the facts are substantially as follows:
About the first of May, 1861, a few days after the call of Presi- dent Lincoln for seventy-five thousand volunteers to suppress the Southern Rebellion, which, at Fort Sumter, on the 17th day of April previous, had culminated in an assault upon the flag of the nation, I joined a company recruited by Capt. S. J. Crawford (the present governor) in Anderson and Franklin counties, Kansas. A few days later, in conjunction with other companies from different parts of the state, we rendezvoused at Lawrence, to be incorporated into the Second regiment, but the speedy completion of this regiment being retarded in consequence of Governor Robinson attempting to control its organization, to subserve his own personal and political interest, and, in the meantime, the Hon. James H. Lane (U. S. senator) re- ceiving authority from the Secretary of War to recruit and organize the Third, Fourth and Fifth regiments, and the Second, not having
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yet been mustered into service, I proceeded to assist in raising one of the new regiments, the Third, the recruiting of which was com- menced immediately and rendezvoused at Mound City. By this regiment I was chosen its Lieut. Col. On the 24th of July, im- mediately succeeding the battle of Bull Run, the government being greatly in need of troops, we were mustered into service, by special order of the Secretary of War, with a full complement of officers, although none of the companies were recruited to the minimum re- quired by law.
Fort Scott being threatened by the rebel forces under Gen'l Ster- ling Price, my regiment (the 3d) was ordered by Gen'l Lane, to that point, about the 10th of August, and formed a part of what was known as the "Lane Brigade." A short time prior to the battle of Drywood I was assigned to the command of the post of Fort Scott, and after the battle referred to, which occurred on the 2d of Sep- tember, I remained at that post with the 6th Kansas (cavalry) while Gen'l Lane, with the other forces, moved north, on the left flank of Price's army, as they moved upon Lexington.
About the 20th of September, I left Fort Scott with 200 of the 6th Kansas, in pursuit of the guerrilla band under the lead of the notorious Matthews, who had been the terror of southern Kansas, and who but a short time prior, had sacked and burned the town of Humboldt, and t«hen fallen back to their haunts in the Cherokee country. After hard marching for three consecutive nights, lying in covert during the daytime, we surprised their camp at daylight, and succeeded in killing their leader (Matthews) and two others, and dispersing and breaking up the band.
On my return to Fort Scott, I learned of the battle of Lexington, the defeat of Mulligan, and the occupation of the place by Price's rebel command. Believing, as every one else did, that troops would be concentrated to give him battle north of the Osage river, and de- siring to participate in the affair, I asked to be relieved of the com- mand of the post at Fort Scott, to join my regiment, then at Kansas City, where, upon my arrival, I found concentrated, in addition to the "Lane Brigade," about three thousand volunteer troops under the command of Brig. Gen'l Sturgis.
Information as to the movements and purposes of Price was very vague and contradictory, and, as for Gen'l Fremont, I have ever doubted that he had any correct conception of the military situation in his department, or at least, he made very poor use of the means at his command to meet the exigencies of the case in hand.
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The day following my arrival in Kansas City, I asked, and ob- tained permission from Gen'ls Lane and Sturgis, to make a recon- noissance in the direction of Rose Hill, to endeavor to ascertain the whereabouts and movements of Price's command, which, from in- formation I had received, I had reason to believe, had evacuated Lexington and was retreating south. With about four hundred cavalry, I left Kansas City at sundown, and the night being dark and rainy, we were enabled to move quietly and unobserved through Independence, and the country east, and at daylight reached the town of Lone Jack, forty-five miles southeast from Kansas City. At this point I learned beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the entire rebel force under Price, had evacuated Lexington a few days previous; that they had been encamped at Rose Hill, eight miles east of Lone Jack, for forty-eight hours, and had only left there, in their hasty retreat to the Osage river, at the middle of the night on which I was making the reconnoissance, or a few hours before my arrival at Lone Jack.
From the information that I obtained, it was evident that Price was anxious to escape the consequences of the concentration of fed- eral troops which he supposed would be made to crush him. I lost no time in returning to Kansas City, and reporting the facts that I had learned to Gen'ls Lane and Sturgis, and about twelve hours after I had done so, an order was received by them (Lane and Sturgis) from Gen'l Fremont, dated at Jefferson City, and directing them "to evacuate Kansas City, destroy all government supplies, and fall back to defend Fort Leavenworth," saying that "Price was moving up in force on both sides of the river to attack and destroy it." Although this order was imperative, leaving no margin for discretion, and under the broad seal of the Department of the Missouri, with a large amount of red tape tied around it, yet Gen'ls Lane and Stur- gis took the responsibility to defer its execution until they could communicate to him (Fremont) the facts they were in possession of in reference to Price's movements, the result of which was, that the order was revoked and the commands of Lane and Sturgis or- dered to move in the direction of Springfield, Mo., upon the trail of the retreating army.
Upon Price's arrival at the Osage river, in his retreat, he found that stream much swollen, occupying his army seven days in cross- ing. Had the available troops at Kansas City, Sedalia and Jefferson City, and the seven thousand men under Gen'l Pope on the north
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side of the Missouri river, been rapidly concentrated for offensive operations, Price's entire command could have been destroyed ere they could have crossed the Osage, but when Price was making his safe retreat, our troops were lying idle in camp, while Gen'l Fremont was cooped up in the Brant mansion at St. Louis, surrounded by his Bohemian guard and staff, making it hazardous for anyone to at- tempt to approach him on the most important and urgent business, or else making his triumphal entry to Jefferson City, treading his way from the depot to his hotel, upon a carpet spread for the oc- casion; and the people and the soldiers looked on in disappointment and disgust.
The "Lane Brigade" left Kansas City about the 18th of October, at which time I was detached from my regiment and placed in com- mand of the cavalry of the brigade. Our march through Missouri was noted for nothing very remarkable except that our trail was marked by the feathers of "secesh" poultry and the debris of dis- loyal beegums. We arrived at Springfield, November 1st. General Fremont had already arrived in person, and forty-eight hours after our arrival, there was concentrated at that point forty-five thousand efficient troops, well armed and equipped, having near one hundred pieces of artillery and many of them rifled, while the rebel forces, under Price, did not exceed twenty-five thousand, many of whom were armed with shot-guns and squirrel rifles, with only about twenty pieces of artillery, and of poor quality. At this time Price's command was encamped at Crane creek, twenty miles south from Springfield, while at the latter place there was much of "the pomp and circumstance of War," especially about Gen'l Fremont's head- quarters. While the troops were eager for a fight, and anxiously waiting to be led in front of the enemy, Gen'l Fremont, each suc- ceeding day, would ride out to the south of the town, accompanied by his immense staff, to examine the topography of the country and select his battle ground for the anticipated bloody conflict, which he had already illustrated on large maps, with suitable embellish- ments.
Fremont's plans were all upon the weak delusion that Price would attack us, and thus we presented more the spectacle of a beleaguered army than an offensive one. This condition of things continued until one day a scout brought in the information that Price had retreated into Arkansas, leaving us to "hold the bag." I thought then, in common with others, and still think that with twenty
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thousand men, less than one-half of Fremont's force, he could have gone out and attacked Price on his own ground and defeated him. The difficulty that interposed as a barrier to our success appeared to arise from the fact that Gen'l Fremont, on taking command of the Department of Missouri, had planned a campaign upon a mag- nificent and extended scale. It had been minutely mapped out with the aid of his foreign staff, and presented numerous prospective battle fields. It all looked very plausible, on paper, and might have proved a success could he have controlled the movements of the enemy as well as of his own forces. But, as Price had no more respect for Fremont than to have ideas and plans of his own, and did not choose to work to Fremont's programme, and as it would have been "unmilitary" in the latter, to have made any change in his plans to meet the exigencies as they occurred, therefore the cam- paign in Missouri, in the fall of 1861, was a failure on the part of the federal forces. All may have been planned and conducted on scientific principles and according to the text books, but there were many of us, who were novices in the art of war and did not possess the advantages of West Point, who could not appreciate the "strat- egy," and, agreeing with an eminent son of Illinois, who remarked of Gen'l McClellan that "no man who wore a six and a half-inch hat was competent to be commander in chief of the armies of the U. S.," we also concluded that no general who parted his hair in the middle was capable of leading an army in the field with success.
Coincident with the information that the enemy had eluded us, Major General Hunter arrived at Springfield and relieved Gen'l Fremont of the command, and a few days subsequent, about the 12th of November, under orders from Hunter, we marched for Fort Scott, while other brigades and divisions marched to Sedalia, Jeffer- son City, Rolla and other points, and no sooner had the army been broken up into detachments, so as to render it inefficient, than Price, with his entire command, again moved north to the Osage river, where he reposed in quiet, gathering his supplies from the surrounding country, until the expedition against him was organized by General Curtis, in the spring of 1862.
On our march back from Springfield to Fort Scott, I felt, as did many others, a disgust for our new profession of arms, and con- cluded that, at the rate we had been progressing, it would take a long time to put down the rebellion.
The winter of 1861 I spent with my regiment in camp on Mine
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creek, on the eastern border of Linn county, where, for the want of anything else to kill, we "killed time," in masticating government rations. During this time Gov. Robinson was assiduously engaged in his efforts to deprive me, and other officers, from further duty in the military service, for the patriotic reason that he could not use us to accomplish his own personal and political ends. His efforts in this direction finally culminated about the 1st of April, 1862, in the issuing of a general order from the office of the adjutant general of the state, breaking up the 3d and 4th regiments, trans- ferring a portion of the companies to other regiments, and consoli- dating the remainder into a new regiment (the 10th) with the ap- pointment of new field officers, to supersede myself and others, whom he desired to get out of the service; and while it was patent that the governor had no right to deprive an officer of his command, who had been mustered into service, or to interfere with the organization of troops mustered into the U. S. service, except by authority of the Secretary of War, yet, having the approval and cooperation of Gen- eral Denver, and General Sturgis, commanding the troops and the district, by orders issued by the latter, the programme of the gov- ernor was carried into effect.
The day preceding the march of the Third regiment to Paola, to be consolidated with the Fourth into the Tenth regiment, and at the time I was expecting to be relieved from my position in the service, I received information of my appointment and confirma- tion as Brig. General of Vols., which dated April 8th, 1862.
This appointment, which had been unsolicited and entirely un- expected, created no less surprise on my part than it did with the citizens of Kansas.
On the 4th day of May, 1862, 1 received by telegraph, orders from the Secretary of War establishing the Department of Kansas, to comprise Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and the Indian Territories, with headquarters at Fort Leavenworth, and assigning me to the command. This brought me into a new field, and imposed upon me greater responsibilities than I would voluntarily have assumed, but recognizing that it was the first duty of a soldier to obey orders, I assumed the command, inexperienced in the routine of military af- fairs, and with many misgivings as to my qualifications for the posi- tion, but with a firm resolve to discharge its duties and responsibil- ities to the best of my ability, relying upon the indulgence and co- operation of my comrades in arms, and the loyal citizens to sustain me and strengthen my hands for usefulness.
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The command of the Department of Kansas, to which I had been assigned, was, for many reasons, to me, an unpleasant and em- barrassing position, which I would have gladly avoided if the matter had been left to my own choice.
Of the troops in my command, the greater portion of them were Kansas regiments, all of which had become more or less disaffected in consequence of the unauthorized interference of the governor with their organizations, while the fact that military matters in Kansas had been conducted very much in the manner of a political canvass, rendered the administration of the affairs of the department any- thing but pleasant to an inexperienced commander. My assignment to this command was the signal for a combined attack of all my personal and political opponents, as also the opponents of all with whom I had held intimate personal or political relations, and to make my position still more difficult, this crusade against me was headed by the governor of the state, from whom, in his official ca- pacity, I had a right to expect cooperation, but whose acts seemed to indicate more of a desire to embarrass and complicate military operations than to contribute to their success. In this opposition to me, as commanding officer of the department, ready and willing allies were found in many of the officers of the staff departments, and others on duty at Fort Leavenworth who were of the regular army, and whose loyalty, in the case of some, at least, was not above suspicion. Their opposition was first organized by convening a "Council of War" at which Gov. Robinson and some of his political allies, together with the military officers just alluded to, were present. This convocation took place at Leavenworth city, and was intended to be kept secret, but believing it to be a movement of the "enemy," I took the precaution to ascertain their plan of attack, which was as follows: Gov. Robinson, who had already commissioned and pro- cured the muster into service, in many instances, of two and three of- ficers for the same position, had brought with him, to Leavenworth, a large number of commissions to be issued indiscriminately to all his friends who would accept one, when it was known that there were no vacancies for them to fill. Major Prince, the post com- mandant at Fort Leavenworth, was to have these officers mustered upon the request of Gov. Robinson, and thus impose upon me the responsibility of deciding who was the rightful claimant when sev- eral had been commissioned and mustered for the same position or place, expecting and hoping that my action and decision in the mat- ters at issue would result in a general wrangling and demoralization
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of the troops. Another feature in their tactics was, that the officers of the regular army, before referred to, assuming that I was a novice in military affairs, were to take advantage of my inexperience, and endeavor to involve me in as many difficulties and complications as possible, and from which to extricate myself, they supposed that I would have to be relieved of the command. With the proof of these facts before me, I believed it my duty to meet their conspiracy promptly, and as I could not afford to have the usefulness of my small command sacrificed, I directed Major Prince not to permit the muster of any officer upon a commission issued by Gov. Robin- son, except upon specific instructions in each case from department headquarters, while, at the same time, I warned all persons of the consequences of tampering with troops in the U. S. service, for the purpose of creating among them, dissension and discord, assuring them that anyone so attempting would be promptly dealt with, even though they might be high state functionaries. This routed my ad- versaries from their preconcerted purposes, and I had but little further trouble in that direction.
In complications already existing, such as a conflict of interest between officers holding commissions for the same place, I endeav- ored to decide the matter in question, upon the principles of law and justice, observing a strict regard for the rights of all parties concerned. Officers who had been deprived of their commands by the action of Gov. Robinson and Gen'ls Denver and Sturgis, before I assumed the command of the department, I again assigned to duty wherever there was a vacancy equal to their rank. This I did upon the assumption that the act of Gov. Robinson, in depriving them of their command, was illegal and unauthorized. In this position I was sustained by the Attorney-general of the United States, to whom the matter was referred by the Secretary of War.
Prior to the reinstating of the Department of Kansas, the same territory had been included in the Department of the Mississippi, commanded by General Halleck, who had just started an expedition of near five thousand troops to New Mexico, under the command of Brig. Gen. R. B. Mitchell. This expedition had reached Fort Riley, and was encamped there when I took command of the department. A few days later I received a telegram from the Secretary of War saying that "if I had any troops that I could spare from my depart- ment, that I should send them to General Halleck," then before Corinth, "that a decisive battle was anticipated, and that Halleck was greatly in need of reinforcements." Although I had no troops
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that I ought to have spared from my command, yet I was so im- pressed with the importance of a victory over Beauregard, and being then so unsophisticated as to believe that the war should be prose- cuted with the utmost vigor, to suppress the rebellion, I counter- manded the order for the New Mexico expedition, and directed General Mitchell to move the troops, by forced marches, to Fort Leaven worth, where, upon their arrival, I had steamers in readiness for their embarkation, and sent them without delay to Pittsburg Landing. Two days after these troops had left Leavenworth, I learned of Beauregard's safe retreat from Corinth, while Halleck was entrenched in his front with a force outnumbering the enemy as two to one. Then, when it was too late, I regretted having parted with my troops. How much my efforts to serve this officer (General Halleck) by sending him my troops, that I could not spare with- out great detriment to the interests of my own department, was appreciated by him, his subsequent conduct will prove.
Soon after Halleck's miserable failure at Corinth, to the astonish- ment of the whole country, he was ordered to Washington and made commander in chief of the armies of the United States, and en- tertaining, as he always had, the most bitter and hostile feeling towards Kansas, and everything pertaining to her, and this, for no other reason than that her people were truly loyal, and understand- ing the real issues of the war, desired to punish traitors, while he (Halleck) being of questionable loyalty, sought to exhibit his ani- mosity and hatred towards the state, through me, as the representa- tive of her radical element. This was made manifest by one among the first of his acts after being installed as commander in chief, in sending to me an official paper, with an indorsement by himself, which was a studied and intended insult to the loyal people of my state, whose honor and reputation I felt it my duty to protect to the best of my ability. I therefore wrote to Mr. Stanton, Secretary of War, stating the case to him, and saying that "I would hold no further official intercourse with him (Halleck) as commander in chief, but, as a department commander, I would report directly to the Secretary, and if that was not satisfactory, then I desired to be relieved of the command of a department, and assigned to some subordinate position, where the army regulations would not require me to report to the commander in chief." In this matter I was sustained by Mr. Stanton, and never after did I have any official intercourse with Genl Halleck, but, while I continued to command
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a department reported directly to the War Department, and re- ceived instructions direct from the same source.
In entering upon the discharge of the duties of commander of the Department of Kansas, I found myself with a large extent of terri- tory, much of which was exposed to the operations of the enemy, and with but few troops with which to meet the emergencies. Especially was this the case after I had sent the greater portion of my best troops to reinforce General Halleck. In addition to protecting the numerous trains with government supplies, en route to New Mexico, which were exposed to raids from the Indian country and Texas, and the protection of the border from rebel incursions from Missouri, and the constantly increasing demand for troops for police duty in all parts of Kansas, to protect peaceable citizens, in the absence of the administration of the civil laws, I had information that a large rebel force was being organized and concentrated in western Arkan- sas, under Gen'l Hindman, for offensive operations in Kansas and Missouri. To meet this threatened invasion by Hindman's forces, I made application to the Secretary of War for additional troops, urging upon him the necessity of immediate action to avert the threatened danger. His response was that, "in consequence of the pressing demands made upon him from all quarters, for troops, he could not then furnish me the reinforcements I asked for, but would do so as soon as possible, and, in the meantime, authority would be given to raise new regiments within the department." For this pur- pose, Hon. James H. Lane was appointed by the Secretary of War, commissioner of recruiting, and under his immediate supervision was recruited and organized, the Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Kan- sas infantry, and Third Colorado, and First Kansas Colored infan- try, of which, the Eleventh and Thirteenth Kansas were ready for service in September, and joined me in the field in time to partici- pate in the campaign in western Arkansas in the fall and winter of 1862.
A short time prior to my taking command of the department, au- thority had been given by the Secretary of War, to recruit and or- ganize two regiments of infantry from the loyal refugee Indians (Cherokees, Creeks and Seminoles) then in Kansas, and field and staff officers (white men) had been appointed by the War Depart- ment for that purpose ; but my predecessor, Gen'l Sturgis, had inter- fered to prevent the organization of these regiments, declaring that "it was not the policy of our government to fight high-toned south-
BLUNT: CIVIL WAR EXPERIENCES 223
ern gentlemen, with Indians," and threatened the arrest of the of- ficers if they persisted in carrying out their instructions from the Secretary of War. Immediately after assuming command, I revoked the order of General Sturgis, and facilitated the organization of these regiments as rapidly as possible.
In June I organized and started the first expedition for offensive operations south of Kansas. This force consisted of the Second, Sixth and Ninth Kansas (cavalry), the Tenth Kansas (infantry), Ninth Wisconsin (infantry), Second Ohio (cavalry), First Kansas and Second Indiana batteries, and the two Indian regiments, num- bering in all about six thousand effective men, and under the im- mediate command of Col. William Weer, of the Tenth Kansas.
My purpose in sending this force into the Indian country was to operate against small forces of the enemy that were concentrating there, restore the loyal Indians to their homes, and, in that advanced position, to cover Kansas and southwest Missouri, until I could ob- tain additional troops, when I designed to take the field and operate against Hindman in western Arkansas.
This expedition penetrated as far south as Tahlequah (the capital of the Cherokee nation) , defeating and capturing several small rebel forces, and was in every respect as successful as could have been anticipated, until disagreements and difficulties arose among officers, that finally culminated in mutiny and the forcible arrest of the com- manding officer (Col. Weer) by his subordinate (Col. Soloman, of the Ninth Wisconsin) and the assuming of the command by the latter, and the abandonment of the Indian country.
As soon as I received intelligence of this affair, and that Col. Soloman, with the command, was falling back to Fort Scott, upon the false plea that a large rebel force was flanking him on the east, I despatched a messenger directing him to halt the command wher- ever the order reached him, to send certain troops to reinforce or support the Indian regiments that had not yet abandoned the Indian country, and with the remainder of the command await further orders, assuring him at the same time, that there was no enemy threatening him on his flank, or elsewhere, and then placing the headquarters of the department in charge of an Asst. Adj't Gen'l, I left Fort Leavenworth about the eighth of August, and proceeded south, with as little delay as possible, to assume command of the troops in person.
On my arrival at Fort Scott, to my great surprise, I found the entire command at that place, notwithstanding Col. Soloman had
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received my order at Baxter's Springs, sixty-five miles south of Fort Scott.
Accompanying this expedition back to Fort Scott was Chief John Ross and family and others of the Cherokee officials, bringing with them the treasures of the nation. The Cherokee regiment organized for the rebel service in 1861, and known as "Drew's Regiment," taking advantage of the presence of our forces in the vicinity of Tahlequah, abandoned the fortunes of the rebel confederacy, came within our lines, surrendered, and offered their services to the gov- ernment. I accepted their offer and had them organized and mus- tered as the Third Indian regiment, with field and staff officers and one lieutenant for each company selected from the white regiments. This regiment numbered twelve hundred men. They served three years, which terminated just at the close of the war, and did ex- cellent service for the Union cause.
Upon my assuming command of the troops in the field, I found them in a disorganized and demoralized condition, resulting from the mutinous proceedings before referred to. A general wrangling among officers and charges and countercharges had followed this occurrence. For the purpose of investigating the conduct of officers accused of being implicated in this insubordination and mutiny, I convened at Fort Scott a general court martial, but on learning that a large proportion of the officers were in one way or another involved in the affair, and foreseeing that an investigation would consume more time than could be afforded, I therefore dissolved the court, restored such officers as had been placed under arrest, and proceeded to reorganize the command for an active campaign in the field.
About the 30th of August, and before preparations had been com- pleted for an advance movement, I learned that a force of rebel cavalry, of about four thousand, under Shelby and Coffee, had passed northward through Missouri; and although not within my department, I considered it my duty to act in the matter promptly, with the view of defeating them in their enterprise, which I believed to be the destruction of some of the towns on the Missouri river. With such cavalry as were well mounted, and infantry, in wagons, numbering in all between three and four thousand men, I left Fort Scott at dark, and marched all night in the direction of Pappins- ville, hoping to be able to strike the enemy on the flank, but as they were all well mounted and moving very rapidly, I struck their trail twenty-four hours after they had passed north. We pushed on vigorously, moving day and night, with but little rest, and in
BLUNT: CIVIL WAR EXPERIENCES 225
sixty hours after leaving Fort Scott, and after marching one hundred miles, we came upon the enemy at Lone Jack, where, the evening before they had defeated a small force of Missouri militia, who, under the command of Major Foster, had made a gallant and desperate fight before they were overpowered by superior numbers.
The rebels, on learning of our close proximity, showed no dis- position to risk an engagement, and, it being near the close of the day, they fell back under cover of heavy timber, and availed them- selves of the darkness of the night to commence their hasty retreat. A terrific storm coming on, and the night being extremely dark, we were unable to resume the pursuit until daylight, when the chase again commenced and continued until near the southern boundary of Missouri; when our stock becoming exhausted and worn out, we were compelled to abandon further pursuit. Although we were unable to bring the enemy to an engagement except several times on their retreat, to attack his rear guard and punish them slightly, yet it cannot be doubted that our prompt and vigorous movements saved Lexington and Kansas City from attack and destruction.
Immediately upon our return from the pursuit of Shelby and Coffee, operations were again resumed to prepare the command for a forward movement. In addition to the forces heretofore enumerated as comprising the expedition into the Indian Territory, was a por- tion of the Third Wisconsin cavalry, the Third Indian regiment, and the Second Kansas battery, which had been recruited and organized, by my order, at Fort Scott.
This force was divided into three small brigades, commanded respectively by Brig. General Soloman (who had just been pro- moted), Col. William Weer, of the Tenth Kansas, and Col. William F. Cloud, of the Second Kansas.
About the 15th of September, I directed General Soloman to move forward with the first and second brigades, in the direction of Carthage, Mo., to cover the front of a small rebel force which was understood to be in Southwest Missouri, intending to follow myself and overtake them, with the third brigade in a few days, or as soon as I could arrange for the administration of affairs, at de- partment headquarters, during my absence.
The day that I had intended to leave Fort Scott, I received a communication from General Curtis, announcing that the Depart- ment of Kansas had been merged in the Department of Missouri, and inclosing an order assuming command of the consolidated de- partment, Gen'l Curtis directing that all of my available troops
15—3416
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were to be consolidated with the troops concentrating at Springfield under command of Brig. General Schofield. In this new arrange- ment, I was given the choice of returning to Fort Leavenworth and contenting myself with the command of a district, without troops, or go with my troops under the command of Gen'l Schofield, and at the same time retain command of the "District of Kansas." I chose the latter, and on the same evening, October 1st, left Fort Scott to overtake that portion of the command sent forward under Gen'l Soloman. About midnight, I met a messenger from Gen'l Soloman with despatches stating that he had an engagement the day previous with rebel forces under Generals Cooper and Shelby, at Newtonia, in which he (Soloman) had been defeated and driven back to Sarcoxie. With a small escort I pushed rapidly forward, leaving the Third brigade to follow with as little delay as possible, and the next evening, at 9 o'clock, just twenty-four hours after leav- ing Fort Scott, I reached Sarcoxie, a distance of eighty-five miles. General Schofield had preceded me in his arrival at Sarcoxie about twenty-four hours, and being the ranking officer, I reported to him early the morning after my arrival, for orders.
Upon consultation between us it was agreed that we should at- tack the rebel forces at Newtonia (six thousand strong) at daylight the following morning. It was conceded that Cooper and Shelby would not risk an engagement after learning of the strength of our force, if they could avoid it, and our plan of operations was as fol- lows: As it was to be presumed that the enemy would be expecting an attack in front, and would have the approaches by the direct route guarded, we agreed that, with my command I should move to the right by a circuitous route, through the town of Granby, and attack them in their left flank, while Schofield was to move to the left, come in on the east of Newtonia, and throwing his cavalry — of which he had a large force — in their rear, cut off their retreat, after I had broken their lines and routed them. As either of us had suf- ficient force to risk a battle without the aid of the other, we agreed upon this plan as the surest way of "bagging all the game." We had also agreed upon signal guns to notify each other when we were in position. I had a distance to march of twenty-five miles, and before reaching Granby, I encountered a detachment of the enemy in am- bush in a narrow defile, who, opening a vigorous fire upon my ad- vance, in the darkness of the night, impeded our march for a con- siderable time. At daylight we encountered a regiment of mounted men at Granby, six miles from Newtonia, who fled rapidly before
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us. Driving in their pickets and advancing over the high prairie overlooking the town and surrounding country, I had an excellent view of the enemy's position and movements. Having been delayed by the ambuscade just mentioned, which brought me behind the time agreed upon, I feared that Schofield would be waiting on my movements, but on firing the signal guns I got no response, and see- ing that the enemy was anxious to get away and avoid a fight, I opened a fire upon them, which, in a few minutes, resulted in their rout and hasty retreat with a small loss in killed and wounded. "After the bird had flown," General Schofield's column could be seen approaching over the prairie from the east. He had five miles less distance to march than I had, did not encounter even a picket, and yet failed to carry out his part of the arrangement, which, had he done as agreed upon, the greater portion of the rebel force could have been captured.
From Newtonia we followed slowly on the trail of the retreating rebels, occupying near ten days in our march from that point to Pea Ridge, a distance of forty-five miles. In the meantime General Schofield had organized the command into three divisions, and desig- nated it the "Army of the Frontier." I was assigned to the com- mand of the first division, comprising all the troops from the former Department of Kansas. The other two divisions were commanded respectively by Generals Totten and Brown.
Our arrival at Pea Ridge was about the 15th of October, and the time since leaving Newtonia had been spent by General Schofield in making a survey of the country and mapping out roads in our rear, while the enemy kept just far enough in our advance to avoid danger and gather from the surrounding country the supplies that we should have appropriated to the use of our command. At Pea Ridge, where we lay in camp for a week, the same farce was reenacted, and during this time the rebel forces, which we had driven out of Newtonia on the 4th of October, were encamped at Elm Springs, twenty-five miles south of us, at which point they had been rein- forced by about six thousand men under General Marmaduke. On the morning of the 20th of October, information was received that the rebel forces had divided at Elm Springs, Cooper and Stand Watie, with six thousand men moving west to Maysville, while Marmaduke and Shelby had moved east, with about the same num- ber, to the vicinity of Huntsville. General Schofield then came to my headquarters and intimating that he had finished his geographi- cal and topographical survey of the country, asked me if I had any
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suggestions to make relative to future movements. This was the first time that he had consulted me since the day previous to the fight at Newtonia. I proposed that, with his permission, I would take the second and third brigades of my division and move against Cooper and Stand Watie at Maysville, leaving the first brigade to guard the transportation and supply trains of the whole command, if he (Schofield), with the other two divisions, would move against Marmaduke at Huntsville. To this proposition he agreed, and the same evening, at dark, with thirty-five hundred men, I moved to Bentonville, where we bivouacked the following day, and making a march of twenty-five miles during the second night, we surprised and attacked Cooper and Stand Watie at old Fort Wayne on the morn- ing of the 22d of October. After a brief but spirited engagement, the enemy was completely defeated, and routed with the loss of all his artillery. In his hasty retreat to the Arkansas river, we pur- sued him as far as the exhausted condition of our stock would per- mit, and then abandoned the chase.
Ordering up the first brigade with my transportation and supply trains, I established the camp of the first division near Maysville. General Schofield, who had failed to attack Marmaduke and Shelby, at Huntsville — notwithstanding they, with an inferior force, had offered him battle — had returned with the second and third divisions to Pea Ridge, while Marmaduke and Shelby, after Schofield's re- fusal to fight, had fallen back to the Arkansas river.
I now urged Schofield to permit me to move forward with my division, but, instead of obtaining such permission, I received an order "to fall back to the vicinity of Pea Ridge, to be within sup- porting distance of the other two divisions." Where the danger was, to the second and third divisions, requiring this support, I have never yet been able to learn.
In compliance with this order, I commenced moving back to the "support" of Schofield, and established my camp four miles south of Bentonville, and about twelve miles in advance of Schofield's headquarters, where I awaited further orders. Here I remained until about the 10th of November, and receiving no instructions from Schofield, but learning unofficially that he had abandoned the country, and with the second and third divisions moved back to- wards Springfield, the question naturally arose in my mind, what I should do. Not yet having had much experience in military affairs, I did not know but that it was a part of West Point tactics for a superior officer to abandon his subordinate, and leave him in the
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face of the enemy, with an inferior force, without any order or in- structions, but I was not well enough versed in the science of war to appreciate the "strategy" of such a movement. I was now well convinced that I had been abandoned to my fate, and must act upon my own responsibility. The supply of forage being exhausted where I was, I determined to move forward where supplies, such as forage, could be obtained. Therefore, about the 10th of Novem- ber, I advanced twenty-five miles, and established the camp of the first division on Flint creek, where the old military road to Fort Smith crosses that stream, and fifteen miles south from Maysville. The day after our arrival at this point, I received intelligence of Marmaduke being at Cane Hill, and having learned that Schofield, with the greater part of the "Army of the Frontier/' had abandoned the campaign, he contemplated moving against my division before I could be reinforced. I determined, however, to risk a battle, and made my dispositions accordingly; and at this time, while I was each day expecting to be attacked by a superior force, I received a copy of the St. Louis Democrat containing a letter from Schofield's "army correspondent," and dated at his (Schofield's) headquarters, saying that "the Army of the Frontier had fulfilled its mission, and had gone into winter quarters near Springfield, and that General Schofield was about to leave for St. Louis to recruit his health, which had been shattered by long and arduous duties in the field."
This newspaper letter afforded me the only information as to the whereabouts of the second and third divisions that I had been able to obtain since — in compliance with Schofield's order — I had moved from Maysville back to the vicinity of Pea Ridge, to "sup- port him."
For some reason, Marmaduke, at this time, failed to attack me, but fell back over the Boston mountains.
On the 26th of November, I learned that Marmaduke had again advanced to Cane Hill with eight thousand mounted men, and eight pieces of artillery, and that Hindman, with over twenty thousand infantry and artillery, then on the south side of the mountains, would join him by the 30th, when they intended moving against me in force, and crush me before I could receive assistance. In this emer- gency there was no alternative left me but to follow the example of my superior, and abandon the country to the enemy, or to advance upon Marmaduke at Cane Hill, attack and defeat him before he could be joined by Hindman, and then rely upon holding the entire rebel force in the Boston mountains until I could obtain reinforce-
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ments. In the enemy's country we had no posts or important points to guard, and no long lines to defend. My command, though small, was mobile and free, whereas, were I to fall back before the enemy, we would have Springfield and Fort Scott, with their large depots of supplies, as well as other important points to protect, which would necessarily divide our forces, and the enemy would be free to oper- ate where they chose; besides, to have retreated in the face of the enemy, would have the effect to discourage and demoralize my own command, and give confidence and boldness to our adversaries. After weighing all these considerations, and duly impressed with the responsibility my position imposed upon me, I determined to take the offensive.
Early on the morning of the 27th of November, after parking my transportation and supply trains, and detailing a sufficient guard to protect them, I left "Camp Babcock" with five thousand effective men (cavalry and infantry) and sixteen pieces of artillery, taking with us four days' cooked rations. Notwithstanding much of the road was rough and mountainous during this day's march, we made a distance of twenty-five miles by eight o'clock p. m., when we bivouacked ten miles from Cane Hill. At four o'clock the following morning, the column was again moving, and at ten o'clock a. m. the attack was made upon the enemy's lines at Cane Hill. After a brief engagement, their line was broken and they fell back to a second position from which they were a second time routed, and then com- menced a hasty retreat. With the second and third brigades, I pur- sued them in their retreat for a distance of twelve miles, over the Boston mountains, they making stubborn resistance and getting severely punished. At dark we abandoned further pursuit.
I now established my headquarters at Cane Hill, and ordered up all my transportation and supplies. Learning that Marmaduke had fallen back upon Hindman's main army at Lee's creek, on the south side of the mountains, and that they intended to advance upon me in force, I felt that I had no easy contest before me. To meet the emergency, I issued a general order assuming command of the "Army of the Frontier," and despatched to Springfield to the second and third divisions to reinforce me by forced marches. Fortunately, Gen. F. J. Herron had arrived at Springfield a few days previous and had assumed command of these two divisions, and, in a few hours after receiving my telegram, was marching to my assistance. On the morning of the 5th of December, the advance of Hindman's forces, who were moving by the Cove creek road, attacked my
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outpost six miles southeast of Cane Hill and at the junction of that road with the Cane Hill and Fayetteville road. In this attack they were repulsed. On the morning of the 6th they renewed the attack in greater force, and the outpost not being strengthened, as I had directed, was driven back, thus giving the enemy possession of the Fayetteville road which led north on our left flank, and as the position then occupied by both armies was rough and mountainous, and heavily timbered, the holding of the road was an important matter, as troops could not be moved to any advantage, except by the main roads, until they got six or eight miles north of that point. All day of the sixth was spent in skirmishing in front of the second and third brigades of the first division, while Hindman was bringing up and massing his whole force at the junction of the roads before named.
Fearing a flank movement of the enemy by the Fayetteville road during the night, while with a small force they would make a feint in my front, I sent Col. J. M. Richardson, of the 14th M. S. M. (who asked to be detailed for that duty), with a force of three hundred cavalry to move out from Cane Hill by a crossroad, until he intersected the Fayetteville road, then move down said road as near to the enemy as was prudent, and there select a strong posi- tion, and if the enemy should attempt a flank movement during the night, to resist his advance and immediately notify me. Knowing well the topography of the country and that it would be impossible for them to succeed in forcing a passage until daylight, if Col. Richardson did his duty — as I had reason to expect that he would — I awaited the result of their demonstrations in my front.
At dark the cavalry of the second and third divisions arrived at Cane Hill and reported to me for duty. Despatches from General Herron informed me that with the infantry and artillery of those two divisions, he would be at Fayetteville by daylight the next morning. I sent back instructions to him to press forward rapidly until he joined me, and apprising him of the purpose of Hindman to get between us.
At daylight on the following morning (the 7th of December) about two thousand of the enemy appeared in front of the second and third brigades. Although I had yet heard nothing from Col. Richardson — upon whom I relied for information — I felt convinced that the main force of the enemy had passed north by the Fayette- ville road, and acting upon this theory, I directed all the transpor- tation to Rhea's Mill, and with the first division and the cavalry of
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the second and third divisions, moved rapidly in the direction of Fayetteville, on a road running parallel to that upon which the enemy were marching. About ten o'clock a. m. and about two hours after the command had been ordered to fall back in the direction of Fayetteville, I received a note from Col. Richardson, saying "that the enemy had been passing our flank on the Fayetteville road since twelve o'clock the night previous, and he judged from the rumbling of wheels that they had with them a large amount of artillery." Subsequent investigation proved that this officer (Col. Richardson) had not been nearer than a mile of the Fayetteville road, where he had quietly bivouacked, and for eight hours heard the passing of the enemy's column without even notifying me of the fact. Had he obeyed my instructions he could have successfully resisted their ad- vance until daylight, and by promptly notifying me I could in the meantime have made such disposition of my forces as I chose.
Immediately upon the reception of this note from Col. Richard- son, I detached a battalion of cavalry, and two pieces of light ar- tillery with instructions to move rapidly across to the road upon which the enemy were moving, and attack the rear of their column, with the view of retarding their movements until I could form a junction with General Herron.
Hindman's advance met General Herron's command at the cross- ing of the Illinois river, and twelve miles south of Fayetteville, where skirmishing commenced about 11 o'clock a. m. Between one and two o'clock p. m. with the first division, I came in on the left front of the enemy, joining Herron on his right, just as Hindman was making his dispositions to crush him with an overwhelming force. Up to this time the engagement between Herron and Hind- man's command had been carried on principally with artillery, but with very damaging effect to the latter. At two o'clock, the first division having got in position, I ordered an advance of our entire line, and then commenced one of the most determined and sangui- nary conflicts of the war. The enemy occupied a position of their own choosing, which was a body of timber known as "Prairie Grove," the formation of which was such that their line was formed in the shape of an elliptic, with their rear protected by heavy tim- ber, while we were compelled to occupy the open plain on the out- side of their semicircular line.
From two o'clock until dark the battle raged furiously, and with- out a moment's cessation, along our entire front. Our troops, know- ing the disparity of numbers, and the odds against them, fought
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with desperation, and advancing to the edge of the timber, boldly met their foe, when, for hours, the two lines swayed to and fro, while all the time our batteries were pouring into their ranks a deadly fire of cannister at short range. This condition of things continued without any material change of position, or perceptible advantage to either party, until near dark, when the enemy, seeing our inferiority of numbers, massed a heavy force to flank us on our right, while at the same time they made their dispositions to charge the batteries along the line of the first division. This movement they attempted to execute with boldness and determination, but at each point were driven back in confusion and with terrible slaughter. Darkness now put an end to the bloody strife, and not knowing to what extent we had punished them, I proceeded to make my ar- rangements to renew the battle at daylight the following morning. The command was directed to occupy their position in front of the enemy's lines — sleeping upon their arms. The wounded were brought off the field and cared for ; subsistence was brought up and supplied to the command; all of the transportation and supply trains sent to Fayetteville where it would require but a small guard, and General Soloman's brigade, which had been guarding it at Rhea's Mill during the battle, was brought to the front. Many of the men of the second and third divisions who had become ex- hausted and given out in the forced march from Springfield, came up during the night and joined their commands. The cavalry, ex- cept two or three regiments, were dismounted and prepared to fight on foot, and therefore, notwithstanding my losses in killed and wounded on that day, I could have renewed the battle in the morn- ing with my force increased at least four thousand effective men.
During the latter part of the night I received, by truce, a note from General Hindman, appealing in the name of humanity, "for a personal interview at daylight, to agree upon terms, to enable him to care for his wounded." To this I assented and met him at daylight, at a place agreed upon, when I discovered that his army had been occupied during the entire night in a hasty, and disorderly retreat over the Boston mountains, leaving all his dead, and a portion of his wounded on the field, and having torn up the blankets of the soldiers to muffle the wheels of his artillery, to enable them to steal noiselessly away. The sacredness of a truce had been prostituted, and proved to be a trick of the high-toned chivalry to get their defeated army out of further danger.
The entire federal force engaged in the battle of "Prairie Grove"
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was not to exceed eight thousand. An additional force of two thousand (cavalry) were on the field, but did not participate in the battle.
The rebel force engaged, as acknowledged by General Hindman himself, in the interview held with him, was twenty-eight thousand, while commissary returns, captured, showed that he was issuing rations to thirty thousand. The exact number of his loss in killed and wounded, I had no data of knowing. After a detail of one hundred and forty rebel soldiers, left with my permission, had oc- cupied an entire day in burying their dead in trenches, over eight hundred of the enemy's dead were buried by my command, while fifteen hundred of his worst wounded were left upon the field in their retreat. I have since learned, from rebel sources, that the loss of the enemy in this engagement did not fall short of six thousand in killed and wounded.
The stake played for in this battle was an important one. Upon the result hung the fate of Missouri and Kansas. St. Louis was their objective point. Had our little army been defeated, there was nothing in our rear to have checked their progress, and flushed with victory, they would have moved rapidly north, augmenting their forces from the disloyal elements, as they marched, and would have entered St. Louis with a force of forty thousand before the government, at that time, could have concentrated sufficient force to operate against them.
Succeeding the battle of "Prairie Grove" some time was occupied in camp near the battle field, awaiting further developments of the enemy, and caring for the wounded.
On the 25th of December, I learned through my scouts and spies, that Hindman had been reinforced at Port Smith, with nine thous- and infantry from Little Rock and that he contemplated moving against me again and risking another battle, and I at once de- termined to "beard him in his own den."
Hindman's forces were on the south side of the Arkansas river, and knowing the facilities he had for ferrying them across at Van Buren, I was convinced that he could not have more than half his force on the north side before I could reach that point ; and although the proposition was dissented to by all my subordinate commanders, I determined to move on him rapidly, surprise and attack him in detail, or in other words, while the river divided his force, to defeat those on the north side, and then, if the river could be crossed, at- tack those on the south side. Preparations for this movement were
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made with the utmost expedition and secrecy. I had created the impression in camp that I was going to fall back to Springfield, all of which was carried speedily to the enemy by their numerous friends who were inside oj our lines, as I intended it should be. I directed six days' cooked rations to be prepared and a peck of shelled corn to be carried by each trooper for his horse.
On the evening of the twenty-sixth, I received a telegram from General Curtis, commanding the department, saying, "that he had information via Helena, Ark., that Hindman had been reinforced by Gen. Henry McCulloch, with nine thousand infantry from Little Rock, and designed attacking me," and "advising me to fall back and not take too great risks." At the same time I received a tele- gram dated at Wellsville (between Springfield and Holla) from General Schofield, who had recovered his health, or in other words had failed to secure the promotion to major general, that he went to St. Louis for, and was returning to the command that he had, two months before, deserted. This telegram from Schofield repeated the same intelligence contained in General Curtis' despatch, and ordered me to parole the rebel wounded within my lines; remove my own wounded, then at Fayetteville (where a general hospital had been established) to Springfield, and then fall back to Spring- field with the command. I considered that a decidedly cool proposi- tion to come from an officer who had deserted his command in the face of the enemy, and immediately replied to him that "I was in command of the Armly of the Frontier, and that until a superior officer arrived there and assumed command by general order, I should direct its movements, and that I should commence moving on the enemy at Van Buren at daylight the next morning."
At daylight on the morning of the 27th of December, with eight thousand efficient troops (cavalry and infantry) and thirty pieces of artillery (taking only four guns from a battery and doubling the teams), we left camp at Rhea's Mill and Cane Hill; the first division moving by the Cove creek road which passes through a narrow gorge in the Boston mountains, and frequently crossed by the mean- dering stream (Cove creek) which, being at that time much swollen, the infantry were compelled to wade it thirty-seven times in that day's march, the water sometimes waist deep. The second and third divisions I directed to move by the "Telegraph road," which passes over a plateau of the mountains, parallel with the Cove creek road, and from two to four miles distant. After making a march of thirty-five miles we bivouacked at ten o'clock p. m. At
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four the following morning we were again on the march, and at day- light arrived at "Oliver's Store," on the south side of the mountains, and where the two roads (Cove creek and Telegraph road) form a junction. Here I placed the cavalry of the three divisions in front of the infantry and artillery, with the Second Kansas cavalry and two mountain howitzers 'in advance of the whole column. The distance from this point to Van Buren was twenty miles; and with the cavalry I pressed rapidly forward, directing the infantry and artillery to follow with as great speed as possible. My purpose was to surprise and capture two regiments of Texas cavalry that I knew were encamped at Dripping Spring, a point eight miles north of Van Buren. Five miles from Oliver's store we encountered the rebel pickets, and following them up rapidly came upon the rebel outpost at Dripping Springs, where we found the two regiments referred to, in line of battle and making hurried efforts to save their transporta- tion, and camp and garrison equipage. The ground being favorable, I deployed a portion of the cavalry as they came up, and dashing upon their line, routed and drove them back in disorder, capturing their camp, transportation, &c. ; and a running fight followed from there to Van Buren, the enemy several times making a determined stand, and each time being routed with more or less loss from the free distribution among them of "spherical case" from our howitzers.
The flight of the rebel cavalry through the streets of Van Buren, hotly pursued by our troops, was the first intimation had at that place that there were federal troops within sixty miles, and they were quite confident that the "Army of the Frontier" had fallen back to Springfield.
The entry to Van Buren was quite an exciting race. The two regiments of Texas cavalry dashing through the streets at full gal [1] op, with the despised "Yanks" close upon their heels, the sharp crack of carbines and revolvers, with the consternation and terror of the citizens, all contributed to make up an interesting tableau.
The advance entered Van Buren at ten o'clock a. m. Four steamers in the employ of the Confederate government, that had just arrived from Little Rock with supplies, having their steam up, attempted to escape down the river. I directed a detachment of the Second Kansas cavalry to capture them, which they succeeded in doing, and brought them back to Van Buren. Some of the rebel cavalry attempted to escape across the Arkansas river in the ferry- boat, but when in the middle of the river a shell from one of our
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howitzers disabled the boat, when they jumped into the stream, and most of them succeeded in swimming to the opposite shore. The remainder of the two rebel regiments scattered in different direc- tions, but were pursued by our cavalry and many of them captured and brought in.
In reading a book entitled The Great Rebellion, by J. H. Inger- soll, of Iowa, I notice that he gives the credit of the fighting done on the morning of the 28th in the advance on Van Buren, and of the capturing of the steamers, &c., to the First Iowa cavalry. While I do not wish to detract a particle from the merits of this gallant regiment, yet it is due that I should correct this error. What is ascribed by Mr. Ingersoll to the First Iowa cavalry, was done by the Second Kansas cavalry. Being myself in the advance, where all operations were conducted under my immediate direction, I can- not be mistaken as to the part taken in this affair by the different regiments.
The main force of the rebels were encamped on the south side of the river. After we had occupied the place about two hours with the cavalry, the enemy brought a battery to the south bank of the river and opened a fire upon the town, from the effects of which I lost one man killed and two or three wounded. The fire of this battery con- tinued for about an hour when the infantry and artillery coming up I placed the First Kansas battery (ten-pound rifled Parrotte) in position, which soon silenced them and put a stop to their further amusement. The greatest damage sustained from the fire of this rebel battery was by their own friends. Early in the evening (there being a bright moon) I sent a battalion of the Second Kansas cav- alry, and two sections of the First Kansas battery down the north bank of the river about four miles to a point opposite which there was a large camp of rebel infantry, with instructions to open fire upon them. The shells falling thick and fast in their camp from these rifled Parrotts, proving disagreeable visitors, they hurriedly left. A scout sent up opposite Fort Smith returned and reported to me that the enemy were burning their steamers there and evacuating the place, and the next morning revealed the fact that Hindman with his entire army had been retreating all night in the direction of Little Rock. Deserters who came in reported that they retreated in disorder and completely demoralized, doubtless the effect of their several defeats, as following this last demonstration against Hind- man's command, it crumbled to pieces, and became entirely in- efficient.
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Thus in the space of thirty days had a rebel army of thirty thou- sand men inspired by the most extravagant anticipations of success, and operating in their own country, been successively defeated and finally broken up and destroyed by a force not half their equal in numbers, and operating far from their base of supplies.
On the evening of the 29th, the troops having become rested, and as nothing more could be accomplished in that direction, I ordered the burning of the captured boats with their supplies, and directed the command to move back to our camp north of the Boston moun- tains, where we had left all our supplies, transportation, &c.
Twelve miles from Van Buren, the command was met by General Schofield and staff, who returned with us to Rhea's Mill, where, on the first day of January, 1863, he resumed command of the "Army of the Frontier." It was my intention, after returning from the Van Buren expedition, to have moved east to the valley of White river, and thence through a section of country that afforded supplies, and to have attacked Little Rock and Arkansas Post, which I had reason to believe I could do with success, and establish, at the former place (Little Rock) a base for further operations, having the Arkansas and White rivers as a line of communication for supplies, &c., but the arrival of Schofield defeated all further plans, and on the third of January I left the "Army of the Frontier" and proceeded to Fort Leavenworth to attend to the administration of affairs in my dis- trict, that had been much neglected in my absence. My geographi- cal district now comprised Kansas, the Indian Territory and western Arkansas. Before leaving Arkansas, I made application to General Schofield for troops to hold the conquered territory then embraced in my district, and for which I was responsible, as I knew that he (Schofield) intended falling back with the "Army of the Frontier," into Missouri. In response to this request he ordered to report to me the three Indian regiments, a battalion of the Sixth Kansas (cavalry) and Hopkins' battery (a four-gun battery organized from the Second Kansas cavalry with the rebel guns captured at the battle of Maysville). This force I left in northwestern Arkansas, under the command of Col. Wm. A. Phillips, of the Third Indian regiment, to serve as an outpost and protection to southern Kansas, until I could procure troops with which again to take the field.
On my arrival at Fort Leavenworth, I met for the first time in my life, and at his request, Thomas Carney, who had just been inaugu- rated governor of Kansas. The governor promised me his hearty support to secure the success of military operations within my com-
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mand, or district. This I hailed as the dawning of a new era, and was rejoiced to think that at last I could rely upon the cooperation of the governor of Kansas, especially as my position imposed upon me, in the absence of the execution of the civil laws, the regulation of police affairs throughout the state.
During my absence in the field, matters left in charge of subordi- nates had been running rather loosely in the district. Among other things, an organization had sprung into existence known as "Red Legs," and whatever had been the primary object and purpose of those identified with it, its operations had certainly become fraught with danger to the peace and security of society. The organization embraced many of the most desperate characters in the country, while the inducements of easy gain had allured into it many persons who, in ordinary times, would never have consented to be connected with such an enterprise. Officers, soldiers and citizens had become infected until the leaders became so bold as to defy interference with their operations. Letters intercepted, passing from one to another of the principal actors in this organization, proved a most deplorable state of affairs, and showed that it extended into Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa. A reign of terror was inaugurated, and no man's property was safe, nor was his life worth much if he opposed them in their schemes of plunder and robbery. In this condition of things I con- sidered it my duty to interfere for the protection of honest and peaceable citizens, and to a great extent was successful, notwith- standing I daily received anonymous letters threatening me with assassination if I did not desist arresting and punishing these of- fenders.
General Curtis had promised that as soon as the season would permit it, I should have sufficient troops to make a campaign south of the Arkansas river, and with that view I had ordered Col. Phillips to move from western Arkansas to Fort Gibson, in the Cherokee Nation, as soon as there was sufficient grass in that sec- tion to sustain his stock, with the expectation of joining him as soon as additional troops could be procured. I soon after ordered to his (Col. Phillips) support, at Fort Gibson, the first regiment of Kan- sas colored troops, the Second Colorado, and one section of the 2d Kansas battery. This force, on its way to join him, was attacked by a rebel force under Stand Watie and Cabell, at Cabin creek, with the view of capturing the train. After a brisk engagement the enemy was defeated and routed and the train proceeded in safety.
In the meantime, General Curtis was relieved of the command of
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the Department of Missouri by General Schofield, who, without any provocation, had become my bitter personal enemy, when he should have been my friend, for the reason that when he so basely aban- doned me in the face of the enemy, I did not complain or say aught against him, whereas but few other officers, similarly situated, would have failed to have preferred against him serious charges. For my forbearance and good will towards him in this instance, he wrote a letter to the department commander the day after he resumed com- mand of the "Army of the Frontier," of the most infamous char- acter declaring "that on returning to his command, he found it demoralized and its efficiency destroyed, and that all of its opera- tions while under my command were a series of stupid blunders." This was the commencement of his crusade against me which he afterwards so persistently followed up.
Governor Carney, from whose friendly declarations I had reason to believe was cooperating with me for the public good, I now dis- covered was secretly doing all in his power to oppose and embarrass me in my official capacity. In Schofield he found a hearty coworker, and with other worthy allies, they deliberately plotted for my ruin. If I alone had been the only one to suffer, it would have been of little consequence, but, in the position I occupied, to reach me others must suffer, and the public interest be jeopardized.
Just before Schofield assumed command of the department, I had given my consent to some of the most responsible citizens of Atchi- son, including the sheriff, that they should try by citizens' court and punish several desperate villains charged with murder, robbery and every other species of crime. This I did because there was no at- tempt made to execute the civil laws, and I had then already more of that kind of work on hand than I could well dispose of by mili- tary commissions, and moreover, I believed that some such example of summary punishment was required for the protection of life and property. They were tried and hung, and I believe received their just deserts. This my enemies made the pretext for a terrible howl against me. A huge document, addressed to the President, was drawn up by Gov. Carney's man of "thirty years standing," and signed by the governor himself, reciting the Atchison affair, and charging me with "being a usurper, a tyrant and a murderer," that I had "overridden the civil law, had inaugurated a reign of terror, and that under my administration of affairs, no man's life or prop- erty in the state was safe," and demanded that I should be dismissed from the service. This document was taken by Carney to St.
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Louis, where, very opportunely had arrived Thomas Ewing, Sen'r, of Ohio (who at that particular junction appeared to take quite an interest in Kansas matters). Also was there his son, Gen. Thomas Ewing. These parties, together with Gov. Gamble, of Missouri, held frequent sessions with General Schofield, at his headquarters, to devise a programme or plot to insure my discomfiture and de- struction. If they failed to win on the charges preferred by Carney, then the district of Kansas was to be divided. I was to be sent to the Indian country in the face of a superior force of the enemy, and all support withheld from me, with the expectation that I would be defeated and destroyed.
I know that I am making serious accusations, but I know whereof I speak. There is proof to show that certain parties were willing to sacrifice the lives of over three thousand Union soldiers, and the in- terests of the country, if necessary, to accomplish the ruin of one who they imagined, and without cause, stood in the way of the suc- cess of some of their ambitious schemes, and I envy neither the head or the heart of those, who to gratify personal malice, or secure personal or political agridizement [aggrandizement] could contem- plate, and give countenance to such a heartless and cold-blooded conspiracy.
Thomas Ewing, Sen'r, was the bearer to Washington of the docu- ment before referred to, and in company with Attorney-general Bates, presented it to the President with very tragical effect. The result was that the President became quite excited, and at first threatened dismissal, but on reflection, telegraphed me for a report upon the matter. I complied, and gave him in detail all the cir- cumstances attending the hanging of the men in Atchison, and the necessity for such action, and telling him that "under like circum- stances I should do the same thing over." This report was accom- panied by letters from several officers of the state government, sev- eral of the judges, and many of the leading lawyers, certifying that the civil law was powerless to protect the innocent, or punish the guilty, and that the action complained of had done much to insure the security of life and property. The President became satisfied and wrote me privately that I need apprehend no trouble from the charges of Governor Carney.
Not more than four months ago, Governor Carney, in speaking of this transaction, admitted to me "that my course in the Atchison affair was the best thing that could have been done, under the circumstances, and was the only thing that could give protection
16—3416
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to peaceable and honest citizens, and that he knew such to be the case at the time it occurred, but that they had determined to make a fight on me, and intended to use all the weapons they could get" And I mention this now only to show how assiduously the governor was laboring to promote the interest of the state.
The conspirators against me having failed in their efforts in this direction, now resorted to the second proposition. General Scho- field ordered that the district of Kansas be divided into the district of the border, and the district of the frontier, the former to com- prise Kansas, except the southern tier of counties and Fort Scott, to be commanded by Brig. Gen. Thomas Ewing, while I was to command the latter, embracing the Indian Territories, western Arkansas, and that part of Kansas excepted in General Swing's command.
While I did not admire the motive that prompted this change, yet so far as the change itself was concerned, I was well satisfied, for the reason that I desired and intended, in any event, to take the field to operate against the enemy south of the Arkansas river; and to be relieved of the responsibility of protecting the border, liable to rebel raids from Missouri, when I could not be there to personally direct affairs, was to me certainly most satisfactory.
In May I had received my commission as major general of volun- teers, to date from Nov. 29th, 1862, and soon after was directed by the Secretary of War to recruit and organize two new Kansas regi- ments, one of cavalry (white) and the other, infantry (colored), and to select the officers for the same. For this purpose I tried to select from the old regiments, noncommissioned officers and privates who had proved themselves worthy soldiers, for appointments as recruiting officers. When I had not a personal knowledge, and had to rely upon recommendations of other parties, I may have made, in some instances, poor selections. Many persons who had never seen a day's service, although the war had been in progress over two years, were urged upon me by politicians for appointments, but as it was not voters that I needed, but men upon whom I could rely when in the face of the enemy, I preferred to take those who had smelt gunpowder, although they might not have as much influence as the other class, in a town caucus.
On the 13th day of June, Gen'l Ewing arrived to take command of his district. I therefore relinquished the command of the district of Kansas, and the following day left for Fort Scott, the head-
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quarters of the reduced command — my command being reduced in proportion as my rank was increased.
Upon my arrival at Fort Scott I received a letter from General Schofield, saying that he desired that "I should take the field in person and if possible maintain the line I then held," which was the Arkansas river. This was what I desired and intended to do if I could be provided with troops ; and not having over two thousand effective men outside of the small force at Fort Gibson (holding the Cherokee country) and my depot, and line of communication for supplies to protect, as also the southern border of the state to guard, I applied to Gen'l Schofield for additional force, representing to him the actual condition of affairs, and urging the necessity of more troops, if it was expected to "hold the line of the Arkansas river." To this application I got no response whatever. After waiting for some time I renewed my application, telling him that the enemiy was massing a large force on the south side of the Arkan- sas river, and, without troops, it would be impossible to hold that portion of the Indian country we then occupied. This second ap- plication was treated as the first, and was not answered at all, for the reason, I suppose, that he did not wish to put his refusal on record. It now became evident that all troops were to be withheld from me in accordance with the previously arranged programme of my enemies, while in southwest Missouri there were not less than five thousand efficient troops and three batteries that could have been sent to me without detriment to the interest of the service elsewhere.
During all this time the enemy were being strengthened in front of the weak garrison at Fort Gibson, and on the morning of the 5th of July, I learned from an unofficial source that that post, with its garrison, was in imminent danger of being captured. Leaving the headquarters of the district in charge of my adjutant general (Major Curtis), and the recruiting and organizing of the two new regiments, before alluded to, in charge of Major T. J. Anderson, ass't adj't gen'l, I left the same evening for Fort Gibson with about 350 of the 6th Kansas cavalry, and a section of the 2d Kansas battery, and ac- companied by two members of my staff. By forced marches I reached Fort Gibson on the morning of the llth, where I found that the administration of military affairs had been very badly con- ducted. Detachments of the enemy had been allowed to cross the Arkansas river at pleasure, and amuse themselves by capturing all
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stock sent out to graze, and in every other way annoy our troops, who were kept close to the fortifications, while rebel spies were inside of the garrison in the full confidence of the commanding officer, and acting as his military advisers, and in this way they (the rebels) were enabled to "play both hands," and it is not to be wondered at that they always "took the tricks."
On my arrival at Fort Gibson I found the Arkansas river swollen. Cooper with a force of six thousand was on the south side, having all the crossings guarded, and the one opposite Fort Gibson, at the mouth of Grand river, protected by artillery. Learning that rein- forcements from Texas were moving up to join Cooper, I determined to take the offensive, and strike him if possible before they could arrive.
At midnight of the 15th, taking a battalion of the 6th Kansas (cavalry) and four pieces of light artillery, I crossed Grand river and the Verdigris, and proceeded about twelve miles up the north bank of the Arkansas, to a point opposite the Creek agency, where we arrived soon after daylight. This crossing was guarded by about one hundred rebel cavalry, who abandoned the position and fled as soon as we brought our artillery to the river bank. Fording the river at this point, I proceeded down the south side with the hope of capturing their outpost and artillery opposite Fort Gibson, but they had learned of my approach, abandoned the position and fallen back to Cooper's camp on Elk creek, twenty-five miles south of the Arkansas. I now commenced crossing troops in flat boats built for the occasion, and by 10 o'clock p. m. was ready to com- mence our long and weary night's march. At daylight we en- countered about five hundred rebel cavalry, and driving them rapidly before us, came upon Cooper's entire force in line of battle, about 10 o'clock a. m. Their position was on the north side of Elk creek, and in the edge of the timber, which served as a cover, while w« Were compelled to advance over the open prairie. After halting my command to obtain a couple of hours' rest and eat a lunch from their haversacks, we advanced upon their positions and after two hours of severe fighting, the center of their line was broken, when they fell back from one position to another, and were each time routed. This running fight continued until near night, when my men and stock became so exhausted that I could pursue no further. Before dark I observed General Cabell coming up with about three thousand troops to reinforce Cooper; and supposing that with this increased force, they would offer me battle in the morning, my com-
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mand slept upon their arms ready to renew the engagement, but the morning revealed that, during the night, they had retreated to the Canadian river. My force in this engagement did not exceed twenty-five hundred, while that of the enemy was six thousand. This affair is known as the battle of "Honey Springs."
On the 19th I fell back to Fort Gibson to make preparations for other movements. With a knowledge that Cooper would be rein- forced, I despatched General Schofield the result of the battle of the 17th and urged upon him the necessity of sending me additional troops. His reply was that "I could not have any reinforcements, that I was too far advanced and must fall back," notwithstanding he had previously directed me to take the field in person and "hold the line of the Arkansas river." My position now was a delicate and trying one. Prostrated by severe sickness; far in the enemy's country, with but a handful of troops, and in the face of a foe greatly my superior in numbers, and constantly increasing, I felt that I was purposely abandoned to fate. In addition to the rein- forcements under Cabell, General Cooper had been joined by troops from Texas under General Steele, and his force, now encamped on the Canadian, forty-five miles south of Fort Gibson, numbered eleven thousand. To fall back from my position on the Arkansas river would be to abandon all the country that had been conquered by the expenditure of blood and treasure, and transfer the theater of war to the borders of Kansas and Missouri. While reflecting what course to pursue in this emergency, I heard, by accident, that the Second Kansas cavalry, a portion of the 7th and 8th M. S. M. and Second Indian battery, had moved down from Springfield to the vicinity of Fayetteville, Ark., thereby getting within the limits of my district. I immediately sent couriers to them with orders to join me at Fort Gibson by forced marches. To this order they promptly responded, and reported to me on the 20th of August. In the meantime the 13th Kansas (infantry) had arrived at Fort Gib- son, as escort for a supply train. Leaving a sufficient force to hold the garrison of Fort Gibson, with the remainder of my available troops, numbering four thousand five hundred, I again commenced crossing the Arkansas river, on the 22d of August, for offensive operations. On the evening of the day the command had crossed the river, I received a despatch from General Schofield — the first that I had received since his order to me to "jail back" This de- spatch stated that it was the "desire of the Interior Department that we should obtain possession of all the Indian Territory to Red river,
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that they could remove and locate the Kansas Indians in that coun- try, in accordance with an act of congress of 1862, and to enable me to accomplish that object, I was authorized by him (Schofield), to recruit and organize into battalions and regiments, such Indians of the friendly tribes in Kansas as would enlist for a limited period for that kind of service." Knowing that I was in the face of a superior force of the enemy, who might attack me at any hour, I was di- rected by him to obtain reinforcements to meet the emergency, by recruiting in Kansas, three hundred and fifty miles away, half- civilized Indians, and transform them into soldiers. This was cer- tainly "strategy" but comment is unnecessary. If his previous conduct had exhibited cowardice, this was certainly an unmistak- able evidence of his weakness and imbecility. I considered that forbearance was no longer a virtue, and immediately wrote to the Secretary of War, and to the President, saying to them "that I was the superior officer of General Schofield, and should no longer regard his orders, but act upon my own responsibility." At the same time I raised for decision the question of rank between myself and Scho- field, taking the position that he was only a brigadier general until he was confirmed upon his appointment of major general, and that under the law "authorizing the President to assign officers of the same grade, to command in the same field or department without reference to seniority of rank," did not authorize him to assign General Schofield (a brig, gen'l) to command over full major gen- eral, as he was not an officer of the same grade.
After crossing the Arkansas river, on the 22d, as before stated, we moved rapidly on the enemy who were encamped near "Brier- town" on the Canadian river. At midnight of the 24th, learning of our approach, they hastily made preparations to avoid a battle. Cabell, with a force of three thousand, returned to Fort Smilh, while Cooper and Steele with the remainder — seven thousand — re- treated in the direction of Red river. Eight hours after their re- treat I arrived in their deserted camp, and scouts were immediately sent out to learn of their movements. Having ascertained that Cooper and Steele were retreating off by the Boggy Depot road, I moved at daylight on the morning of the 26th, and with all the cavalry and a few pieces of light artillery in the advance, pushed on rapidly after them. In the after part of the day our advance sev- eral times skirmished with their rear, and at nine o'clock p. m., after a continuous march of fifty miles, we entered the town of Perry- ville, driving out their rear guard, and capturing and destroying
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their depot of supplies. From this point we returned by easy marches to the Canadian river, and there sending a portion of the command back to Fort Gibson, with less than two thousand men, I moved against Cabell at Fort Smith.
We arrived at the crossing of the Poteau river, nine miles from Fort Smith — and at which point Cabell had determined to defend that place — on the evening of the 31st of August. Here we drove in the enemy's outpost and skirmished in their front until dark. At daylight the following morning, we moved upon their position ex- pecting to meet with a determined resistance, but were surprised to find that they had abandoned their position during the night and were retreating in the direction of Arkadelphia. Sending the cavalry, under command of Col. Cloud, in pursuit, who overtook and engaged them, in the latter part of the day, at "Devil's Back- bone," while, with the infantry and artillery, I quietly entered the town of Fort Smith, September 1st, and lowered the rebel flag that had been left floating in this garrison, and raised upon the same staff the "stars and stripes." This post (Fort Smith) had been captured from the U. S. forces under Gen'l Sturgis in April, 1861, and until now had been held by the enemy as an important base for their military operations. My health, which had been rapidly failing since my first arrival at Fort Gibson, now completely gave way, and I was confined to my bed until the 12th of September, when, being able to ride in a carriage, I left the command in charge of subordinate officers, and returned to Fort Scott for the purpose of completing the organization of the Second (colored) and Four- teenth Kansas regiments, and removing the headquarters of the district to Fort Smith.
On the fourth of October, with a portion of my staff, the records, and everything pertaining to district headquarters, and accompanied by a small escort (less than one hundred) , I left Fort Scott on my return to the command at Fort Smith. On the 6th we met with a party of guerrillas, numbering six hundred and fifty, under Quantrill, in the vicinity of Baxter's Springs. As they were dressed in blue uniform and carried our flag, they were at first supposed to be federal troops, but a doubt arising as to whether they were friends or enemies, I approached their line, alone, to ascertain their true character, and when within three hundred yards of them, they opened a fire on me. When, upon turning to my escort to signal them to return the fire and charge their line, I discovered that the entire escort (who were new recruits) had broken at the first fire
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of the enemy, and were flying in disorder over the prairie. In vain I endeavored to halt and rally any portion of them until they had continued their stampede for a distance of two miles, when I suc- ceeded in halting a squad of fifteen men, with which I checked the advance of the enemy, and followed them back over the field that was strewn with our dead. Sending six of the fifteen men with Lieut. Tappen of my star! back to Fort Scott for other troops, with the remaining nine I hovered close around the enemy, creating in their mind the impression that I had a large force coming up, which induced them to move rapidly off. In this affair eighty-seven men, including escort, clerks, teamsters, servants and musicians were killed. All who fell wounded or were taken prisoners were in- humanely murdered. Among the killed were two members of my staff, Major H. Z. Curtis, my adj't gen'l, and Lieut. Farr, the former being murdered after he was taken prisoner. Had the escort stood their ground, as they should have done, instead of becoming panic stricken, all would have been well, and the horrible massacre would not have occurred.
Returning again to Fort Scott, I procured a new outfit of records, &c., for district headquarters, and on the 29th of October, with fifteen hundred troops, and a supply train of seven hundred wagons, all under the immediate command of Col. S. J. Crawford, of the Second Kansas (colored), I left Fort Scott a second time for Fort Smith.
The day before we were to leave Fort Scott, I received an order from General Schofield, directing that Brig. Gen'l McNeal [Mc- Neil] should relieve me at Fort Smith of the command of the "Dis- trict of the Frontier," when I was to proceed to Leavenworth and report to him (Schofield) by letter. A few days subsequent, in- formation was received from Washington of the decision of the question of rank between Schofield and myself, which was adverse to Schofield and sustaining me in every point that I had raised, affirming that "Schofield was only a brigadier general."
I arrived at Fort Smith on the 12th day of November, when I found that Gen'l McNeal had preceded me several days, and, by Schofield's order, had assumed command. Although I was not bound to relinquish the command, yet as McNeal had assumed it, and to avoid further complications, I acquiesced, and turned over to him the other troops and supply train.
I learned on my arrival at Fort Smith, that Schofield, anticipating that I would pay no attention to his order, had telegraphed to Gen-
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eral McNeal, "that if I did not comply with his instructions to pro- ceed to Leavenworth, &c., he should arrest me forcibly and send me under guard to St. Louis." I thereupon requested Gen'l McNeal to telegraph him, in my behalf, that if he (Schofield) wanted me arrested he had better come and do it himself, and then for the first time during the war, he might see a little "active service"
Instead of proceeding to Fort Leavenworth and reporting by letter to Gen'l Schofield, I wrote to the Secretary of War, enclosing a copy of Schofield's order, and telling him that "I should not obey it, or any other order from him (Schofield) or hold any further intercourse with him unless it should be to prefer charges against him for im- becility and cowardice/' and that "I should remain in Fort Smith until I received orders direct from the War Department." And here I leave General Schofield, and will let others take him up and finish his record, except to add what I have before omitted to state, that anxious to leave nothing undone that could injure me, he (Scho- field) sent a smelling committee, dubbed with the respectable cog- nomen of "board of inspection," through my district while I was making the campaign in the Indian country, in the summer of 1863. They merely "walked over the track," and then signed a report previously agreed upon at Schofield's headquarters in St. Louis, which was not only false in every particular, but infamous in its character. This board refused to comply with my request to come to Fort Smith, where I was lying, confined to my bed by sickness, and where the headquarters of my command was, notwithstanding they were within thirty miles of that place, neither did they make any inspection of my staff departments or of the troops, but their talent for drinking whisky was remarkable. This report was in- tended to be used against me at Washington, and it was only by accident and good luck that I obtained a copy of it.
In response to my letter to the Secretary of War, asking for or- ders, I received instructions to recruit and organize, at Fort Smith, the Eleventh regiment, U. S. Colored troops, and appoint the officers for the same.
Early in January, 1864, and after the organization of this regi- ment had progressed so far that my personal attention with it was no longer required, I made application to the Secretary of War for assignment to other duty, in answer to which I received a telegram from the President to proceed to Washington, where I arrived on the 27th of January, and there learned that the object for which I had been called to Washington was for consultation in reference to the
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condition of affairs in the Indian territories, and with the view to a campaign, early in the spring, into Texas, through the Indian country. Before leaving Washington to return to the West, I was assured, by Mr. Lincoln, that I should have every facility afforded me for the organization of this Texas expedition that I desired, to insure its success. In the meantime the Department of Kansas, to include the Indian territories and the military post of Fort Smith, had been reinstated with General Curtis in command. On the 7th day of February, I left Washington for Fort Smith, via Kansas, where I arrived and resumed command of the "District of the Fron- tier," on the 12th day of March, 1864. Here I found that all the troops belonging to my command, by reason of their location when the Department of Kansas was reinstated (Jan'y 1st) had been transferred by Gen'l Steele, with the aid and assistance of Col. Jud- son of the Sixth Kansas (temporarily in command at Fort Smith) to the Department of Arkansas. A controversy ensued relative to the jurisdiction of the troops in question, in which General Halleck, the commander in chief, took the part of General Steele. At this result I was not at all disappointed, as I had already learned that I had not left Washington twenty-four hours when General Halleck, with his chronic hatred of Kansas, had determined to defeat the contemplated Texas expedition, which had had the sanction and approval of the President and Secretary of War; and to this end he had been in collusion with General Steele in robbing my district of all available troops before I could arrive there. Being satisfied that so long as General Hallack was commander in chief, I was to be the special object of his malice, I asked to be relieved of the responsibilities of the administration of military affairs in a large extent of territory that I could have no troops to protect. Accord- ingly, on the 18th day of April, by telegram from the Secretary of War, I was relieved of the command of the "District of the Fron- tier," which was transferred to the Department of Arkansas, and from thence proceeded to Leavenworth. By the strangling and de- feat of this contemplated Texas expedition, three thousand loyal Texans, whom, through secret agents, I had organized, and were ready to join me as soon as I reached the Red river country, were doomed to bitter disappointment, followed by every species of cruelty that could be inflicted for their suspected sympathy for the Union cause, and in its stead followed the Camden expedition of Gen'l Steele, the disgraceful results of which are before the country and need not be commented upon here.
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There now being no field for active service in the Department of Kansas, I applied to the Secretary of War for assignment to some other, and while at Leavenworth awaiting orders from Washington, I was ordered by General Curtis to the command of the "District of the Upper Arkansas," to operate against the hostile Indians, who were becoming very troublesome upon the plains. I arrived at Fort Riley and assumed command of this new district on the 2d of August.
Here I again found myself with a large extent of territory filled with hostile "redskins," and but few troops with which to operate against them, and no horses to mount the few I had. After pro- curing horses to mount two hundred and fifty men, I proceeded to Fort Lamed, where I added to the detachment, one hundred and fifty of the 1st Colorado cavalry and two pieces of light artillery, and with this force started on an "Indian hunt."
I had received information of a war party of Arapahoes and Cheyennes on the head of the Smoky Hill who were contemplating a movement across the Arkansas to the Cimarron river. Leaving Fort Larned on the 21st September, I proceeded west as far as old Fort Atkinson, where I obtained information that satisfied me that no large body of Indians had recently crossed the Santa Fe road. I therefore determined to move north in the direction of the Smoky Hill, and if possible to intercept them; and as it was impossible to move over these extended plains without being observed by Indian scouts I therefore, with the aid of a party of Delaware Indians as guides, did all my marching by night, halting during the day in the deep ravines that afforded grazing for our stock and a secure hiding place from the view of Indian spies.
At daylight of the third night's march, September 25th, we struck the Indian picket on Pawnee Fork, eighty miles northwest of Fort Larned. A lively fight ensued with a party of fifteen hun- dred Cheyenne and Arapahoe warriors, lasting about four hours and resulting in the defeat and retreat of the Indians. I followed them rapidly up the Pawnee for two days without again being able to overtake them, when, in consequence of the exhausted condition of our stock, the chase had to be abandoned. I now returned to Fort Larned with the view of obtaining more troops and organizing a campaign against the "redskins" on a larger scale; but before reaching that place I was met by a courier, with despatches from General Curtis, saying that "Price, with a large rebel force was in Missouri, had captured Pilot Knob, and was moving towards the
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Missouri river," and directing that I should "report in person at Fort Leavenworth with as little delay as possible." The informa- tion of Price's movements was not unlocked for by me, as I had come in possession of facts previous to my leaving for the District of the Upper Arkansas, that convinced me that such a raid was contemplated, and at that time stated my apprehensions to General Curtis, and urged upon him the necessity of preparation to meet the threatened danger.
Upon receiving General Curtis' despatch before referred to, I traveled night and day, and lost no time en route to Leavenworth, arriving there on the 8th of October, where, to use a curt phrase, I found matters very much "mixed." Price was moving from Boon- ville up the line of the Missouri river, constantly augmenting his forces by recruits and conscripts, while it was difficult to tell what General Rosecrans was doing, or intended to do. There were but few regular troops in the Department of Kansas that could be made available for the defense of the state, and the main reliance must be upon the militia. General Curtis had been in a controversy for a week with Governor Carney in reference to calling out the militia of Kansas, the governor refusing to do so, and declaring that there was no enemy in Missouri, that Kansas was not in danger, and that the whole excitement and furore had been gotten up by "Jim Lane" for political purposes. As soon as I arrived at Leavenworth, I pro- ceeded, in company with Hon. James H. Lane, to the fort, to urge upon Gen'l Curtis the necessity of immediate action to avert the threatened danger. Gen'l Curtis sent his adjutant (Major Char- lott) to confer with the governor and ask him to issue a proclama- tion calling out the militia forces of the state. The governor, in an angry mood, gave many reasons for not acting in this matter, but finally summed up all in the declaration that "Blunt should not command his militia" He promised, however, to telegraph General Curtis in an hour what he would do, and at his (Curtis) request we waited at the fort till near midnight, but no telegram came. The following morning General Lane and myself went again to General Curtis' headquarters, and urged upon him that the danger from delay was imminent, and that not a moment should be lost in mak- ing preparations to meet it, and that if he did not declare martial law and call out the militia force of the state, he would be held responsible for the disaster which would follow. General Curtis finally determined to issue the necessary proclamation, and that evening, under orders from him, I left Leavenworth for Paola to
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relieve Major General S'ykes of the command of the District of South Kansas. Riding all night I reached Olathe early the next morning, when I assumed command by telegraph and directed all troops in the district to concentrate as rapidly as possible at Paola, at which place I arrived that evening. Early on the morning of the 13th with such regular troops and militia as had arrived, I left Paola for Hickman's Mills, in Jackson county, Missouri, arriving there on the following morning. The same evening other troops arrived, and the force then under my immediate command was the llth, 15th, and detachments of the 5th, 16th and 14th Kansas (cavalry), a por- tion of the 3d Wis. cavalry, 1st Colorado, and section of 2d Kansas battery and eight twelve-pound mountain howitzers with the addi- tion of the 5th, 6th and 10th regiments of Kansas state militia. For the latter (militia) I procured the best of arms and equipments in the place of those they had which were of poor quality, and while thus engaged day and night to make my little command as efficient as possible, I was cognizant of the fact that the governor and others were endeavoring to produce disaffection and mutiny among the state troops, themselves remaining in the background, while they used "other paws to rake the chestnuts out of the fire." These mutinous proceedings culminated on the 16th by Brig. Gen'l Fish- back, of the state militia, and Col. Jas. T. [D.] Snoddy of the 6th Reg. state militia refusing to obey my orders, and attempting to march their commands back to Kansas. This movement I promptly met by placing Gen'l Fishback and Col. Snoddy in arrest, and substi- tuting other officers in their places, at the same time admonishing others of the consequences of a repetition of such an offense, and no further difficulty of this kind occurred. It is due the militia regiments referred to that I should here state that, with the excep- tion of the persons named, none ever showed any disposition to question my authority to control them, but were willing to advance into Missouri, or elsewhere, to meet the enemy, and cheerfully per- formed every duty required of them.
With the remainder of the militia and a few regular troops, Gen- eral Curtis was fortifying a position for defense on the "Big Blue," between Kansas City and Independence, and as there was no re- liable information regarding the locality and movements of Price, I asked permission of General Curtis, to make a reconnoissance in the direction of where I supposed the enemy to be. He (Curtis) consented that I might move as far east as Pleasant Hill. There- fore, after dark on the evening of the 16th, leaving the militia and
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heavy artillery at Hickman's Mill, under the command of Col. C. W. Blair, of the 14th Kansas — with about two thousand cavalry and eight mountain howitzers — I left the last-named place, and arrived at Pleasant Hill before daylight the next morning. After halting here a short time we again moved forward, repairing the telegraph as we marched, and arrived at Holden about one o'clock p. m. Between Pleasant Hill and this place (Holden) we met a train of citizens and irregular militia from Warrensburgh, who stated that, as they evacuated the place, Shelby's division (rebel) which had captured Sedalia a few days before, was entering the town. Taking back with me the militia and telegraph operators I allowed the citizens to move on. While my command was bivouacked, for rest, at Holden, I sent forward Major Foster, with a detachment of the Warrensburgh militia and a telegraph operator to Warrensburgh to ascertain if the enemy were occupying that place. At dark he telegraphed me that there was no enemy there, but that he had ob- tained what he believed reliable information, that Price was below Waverly. I learned also that General A. J. Smith's command — of seven thousand veteran infantry and artillery — were at California, held back by orders from General Rosecrans, and that a cavalry division of six thousand, under Generals Sanborn and McNeal, was at a point about 12 miles northwest from Sedalia, and upon the flank of the enemy. I immediately telegraphed Gen'l Curtis, re- questing him to send me the 16th Kansas and Second Colorado cavalry, and 1st Colorado battery, by the Independence and Lexing- ton road, and join me at the latter place, where I expected they would join me early the next morning. It was my intention then to form a junction with Sanborn and McNeal, then with General Smith, and assuming command of all the troops in the field, attack Price at once, and with this view I had despatched messengers to Generals Sanborn and Smith, apprising them of my movements.
Leaving Holden the same evening at 8 o'clock, and marching all night, we arrived at Lexington at 11 o'clock a. m. the following day (October 18th) and awaited there the arrival of the troops that I had requested Gen'l Curtis to send to me.
On my arrival at Lexington I learned that the advance of Price's army was at Waverly, twenty miles below or east of Lexington. At 10 a. m. of the 19th, I received a despatch from Gen'l Curtis, by messenger, saying that "he could not send me the troops asked for," that "Gov. Carney and others were making him much trouble with the militia, that he could get them no further into Missouri," and
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that he "was fortifying on the Big Blue" for the defense of Kansas. An hour after receiving this despatch my pickets were attacked on three different roads, leading into Lexington from the east and south- east, by Price's forces, who were moving in three separate columns. The only thing I could now hope to accomplish was to develop the enemy's strength and intentions. For this purpose we resisted his advance until his whole force was brought into position, and in full view, upon an open plain. Keeping the Independence road in our rear, we fell slowly back before his overwhelming force, punish- ing him severely as we retired, and continuing the fight until dark. I had now ascertained that Price's armed force was about twenty thousand, while in addition he had about six thousand unarmed recruits and conscripts, and furthermore that Kansas was his ob- jective point.
During the night of the 19th we fell back towards Kansas, and at 10 o'clock the following morning reached the Little Blue, nine miles east of Independence. Here, on the west side of this stream, I observed that the topography of the country was admirably adapted for defense against the advance of Price's column. On a semicircular ridge extending to the river on the right and left, I bivouacked my command in line of battle, with the artillery in the center commanding the road and the bridge. I then sent one of my staff to General Curtis, requesting him "to send me subsistence for my men, and also to order forward to me the 16th Kansas and 2d Colorado cavalry and 1st Colorado battery, and with that force I would resist the enemy's advance, leaving the militia at the Big Blue, as a reserve to fall back upon if it should be necessary to do so." In response, General Curtis sent one of his staff to direct me "to leave a picket of two or three squadrons at the Little Blue and with the remainder of the troops fall back to Independence, that he was going to make the fight at the Big Blue, where he had been fortifying."
Instead of leaving two or three squadrons as directed, I left Col. Moonlight with all of the Eleventh regiment and four howitzers, di- recting him to keep all the crossings of the Little Blue picketed; also keep a strong guard well in the advance on the Lexington road, and if the enemy advanced in force to notify me immediately, and burn the bridge, and make as stubborn resistance as he could. Upon my arrival at Independence that evening I urged upon General Curtis the mistake that had been made in abandoning the Little Blue, and demonstrated to him that when the enemy had crossed
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that stream, they would be in an open country free to move in any direction they chose, and that it was not reasonable to suppose they would move against a fortified position, when it was much easier for them to pass around our flank and rear. At Independence, I also found Governor Carney and his political staff busy in their efforts to produce disaffection in the ranks of the militia, declaring that in my despatch to Gen'l Curtis, informing him of my engagement with Price at Lexington, "I had lied," that he knew "that Price was south of the Arkansas river, that there was no enemy in Missouri except a few bushwhackers/' and that "the calling out of the militia upon the pretext of defending Kansas was an outrage." He (Carney) had also a proclamation prepared to disband and send home the militia, that he intended to issue the following morning. This was the situa- tion on the night of the 20th of October.
On the following morning (the 21st) General Curtis acceded to my request to move back to the position I had left the previous evening, on the Little Blue, and taking with me the troops that I had previously with me, and those that I had asked to be for- warded to me the evening before. I lost no time in getting the command in readiness to move, and just as they were filing out of the streets of Independence, a telegram was handed me from Col. Moonlight (I had sent to him the night before, an operator with an instrument and a ground wire to tap the line) saying that he had burned the bridge, that the enemy was crossing in force at several points (fording) and that he was making all the resistance that he could. I now pushed forward at a rapid speed, hoping that Col. Moonlight would be able to hold them in check until I could get in position on the ridge before alluded to, but upon arriving upon the field I found that although Col. Moonlight, with the Eleventh regi- ment, had been making a desperate resistance, they had been driven back nearly a mile. Deploying the other regiments into line and dismounting them, they dashed forward and pressed the enemy back for a distance of half a mile, when our flanks becoming en- dangered by the overwhelming numbers of the enemy, we were compelled to fall back. About this time Gen'l Curtis came up, and by interfering with the disposition of my troops without conveying his orders through me, threw the command into confusion that might have been avoided. He soon after left the field and gave me no further trouble during the day, except, on his return to Inde- pendence, he ordered back my ammunition wagons which I had ordered to the front, which circumstance came near proving dis-
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astrous to the whole command. My entire available force did not exceed three thousand men, with which to contend against Price's entire command, and my purpose now was to fight for time, that Rosecrans' forces might come up in the enemy's rear, and to enable the militia of Kansas to concentrate on the border.
With the sm,all force at my command I formed two lines, fighting each alternately while the other was falling back and taking a new position, and thus the fight continued from 9 o'clock a. m. until 4 o'clock p. m., when the enemy refused to advance upon our last line, formed on the east side of Independence. In this day's fighting our loss was slight while the enemy were punished severely. I have never for a moment doubted that had I been allowed to remain on the Little Blue the night of the 20th, and received the reinforcements I asked for, the contest would have been settled there in a manner entirely satisfactory to our arms. I had no doubt of my ability in that position to have held the ground until Pleasanton could come up when we could have crushed Price's command.
During the evening of the 21st, we fell back to General Curtis' "fortified position on the Big Blue," where the militia were en- camped. Here again a disagreement arose between General Curtis and myself relative to the probable movements of Price the follow- ing day. General Curtis contending that he must move direct on the Kansas City road and in front of his fortifications, while I believed that he would only make a feint in front, while with his main army he would flank us on the right ^ and cross the Big Blue at one of the upper fords, and as Gen'l Curtis would not take the responsi- bility to give direct orders for the disposition of the troops, I acted upon my own theory and sent Col. Jennison with his brigade to guard Byron's ford, with instructions to keep his pickets well out in the direction of Independence, to notify me promptly of any movement of the enemy, and in case they attempted to cross at that ford, to make determined resistance until reinforcements could reach him. I only heard from General Curtis twice during the day, once to notify me "that he would move his headquarters a couple of miles to the rear," and then again, "that he would es- tablish his headquarters at Westport."
At about 9 o'clock on the morning of the 22d, a small rebel force demonstrated in front of us on the road leading from Independence to Kansas City. I immediately sent a detachment of the Second Colorado cavalry to develop their strength and purposes. They
17—3416
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(the rebels) were rapidly driven back in the direction of Inde- pendence, and proved to be only a small force sent to make a feint, or draw our attention in that direction, while the main force should attempt to force a passage of the Blue, on our right, as I had pre- viously anticipated. At about 2 o'clock p. m. I heard firing from Col. Jennison's howitzers at Byron's ford, and soon ascertained, as indicated by the firing, that they were being driven back from the ford. Without waiting to hear from Col. Jennison, I sent orders to Col. Moonlight then at HinckePs ford, two miles below Byron's ford, to move up with his brigade to his support, and immediately ordered Col. Ford with his brigade to move to the same position, with instructions to keep their forces united, and attack the enemy's flank, and not permit themselves to be cut off from Kansas City. I had now to turn my attention to the militia, who were still where Gen'l Curtis had placed them, in the "fortified position at the Big Blue." With the exception of the 5th, 6th, and 10th regiments of militia, under the immediate charge of Col. Blair, I had assumed no command over them, they having received their orders direct from General Curtis; but our position had now been successfully flanked by the enemy, and different dispositions must be made, and jhearing nothing from Gen'l Curtis, I directed Major General Deitzler, the immediate commander of the militia, to withdraw them, and fall back to Kansas City. This militia force numbered probably ten thousand and on the arrival of the head of the column near Kansas City, at dark, I attempted to get them into position on the south side of that place and have them to bivouac during the night in line of battle, but the north side of the Kansas river possessing peculiar attractions for them at that time, and it being dark it was with great difficulty that I succeeded in halting and forming in line, a small portion of them. While I had been looking after the militia, the brigades of Col. Moonlight, Jennison and Ford (compromising all the regular troops) had been engaging the enemy on his right, south of Westport, and after a stubborn re- sistance had turned his flank and driven him back until dark. After dark and while engaged in getting the militia in position, as before stated, I received a despatch from General Pleasanton that he had come upon the enemy during the afternoon, and had attacked their rear. I also learned at the same time that General Curtis — who had again changed his headquarters — (this time to the Gilliss House, Kansas City) had sent orders to the commands of Cols.
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Moonlight, Jennison and Ford, to fall back to Kansas City. I immediately sent a messenger countermanding the order, telling them to receive no orders except through me as their immediate commander, and directing them to lay upon their arms in front of the enemy, and that I would provide for their subsistence and ammunition and join them before daylight.
After spending the greater part of the night in procuring and for- warding subsistence and ammunition to the command, and sending Col. Blair's brigade (5th, 6th and 10th, state militia) to the front, I left Kansas City at three o'clock, at the same time notifying Gen'l Curtis of the position of the enemy, and of my purpose to attack him at daylight, and that I should rely upon others to form a line of battle with the militia on the south of Kansas City, that in case I should be driven back by overwhelming force, I could avail myself of them for support.
The enemy during the night had bivouacked on the south side of Brush creek, which lies immediately south and near Westport. Soon after daylight I formed Blair's brigade as a reserve on the north side of Brush creek, and advanced the brigades of Cols. Moonlight, Ford and Jennison to the edge of the timber on the south side, when they immediately engaged Shelby's and Marmaduke's divisions of the enemy. Soon as the engagement had commenced I sent a despatch to General Curtis, at Kansas City, requesting him to send forward to me all the militia, in response to which they soon commenced ar- riving at Westport and reported to me by regiments. After the en- gagement had continued near two hours, the conflict becoming un- equal and my flanks being endangered in consequence of the superior numbers of the enemy, I withdrew my forces to the north side of the creek to enable me to bring up the militia and get them into position, and having accomplished this and taken measures against my flanks being exposed, I ordered an advance of the whole line. Moving steadily forward across the creek and through the timber we met the enemy at the edge of the prairie on the south side, and the en- gagement soon became general along the entire line. After a brief but fierce contest the enemy's lines were broken, and a rout and re- treat soon followed. Driving them back a mile and a half over the prairie, I discovered Fagan's division of the rebel command engag- ing Pleasanton, who — during the morning — had come up from the east, on the enemy's flank. Their line was formed at right angle with the advancing line of my division, and massing three batteries of artillery on my left, they poured a murderous fire into the flank
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of Fagan's division, just as they were in the act of charging Pleas- anton's line. The terrible fire of these batteries on their flank, routed them in confusion, and joining the flying fugitives of Shelby's and Marmaduke's divisions they moved rapidly south, while Moonlight's, Ford's and Jennison's brigades, of my command, moved past Pleas- anton's command, and pressed rapidly upon their rear until dark. That night, my command and Pleasanton's bivouacked at and near Little Santa Fe. Here I urged upon Gen'l Curtis the importance of moving the following morning at two o'clock (at which time the moon rose) , with the view of coming up with Price at Grand river, where I knew he must bivouac that night. Gen'l Curtis decided that we should not march until sunrise, and by that time I was moving with my command on Price's trail down the military road, except Col. Moonlight's brigade, which I had directed to move down on the enemy's right flank to prevent raiding parties into the state. On arriving at the crossing of Grand river, where Price had bivouacked during the night, I ascertained from deserters that the rear of their column had left there about three hours before, and had we moved at two o'clock in the morning, as I urged, we would have overtaken them at that point.
After a march of fifty miles, we arrived at West Point at sundown. Here I received an order from Gen'l Curtis, who was with Pleas- anton's division, about six miles in the rear, to halt my command until they came up. It was evident that the enemy at this point had taken the Fort Scott road, and it was also evident that he would halt until morning at the crossing of the Osage, twelve miles south of West Point, and while waiting for the arrival of Gen'l Curtis, scouts whom I had in the advance, returned to me with information that they (the enemy) were bivouacked on the south side of the Osage (at the trading post) with a strong rear guard on the north side of the river.
Upon General Curtis coming up, a consultation was had in reference to further movements. In this conference a decided dif- ference of opinion was held. Being well satisfied that the enemy were expecting our attack upon their rear, and that their flanks were unguarded, I proposed that we should leave a few squadrons of cavalry to make a feint on their rear, while, with the main column, we should pass to the right, cross the Osage river four miles above the trading post, pass entirely around their flank, and before daylight in the morning have our line of battle formed in their front, our right resting on the Osage below them, and our left on
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the same stream above them, while the enemy would be in the sack formed by the course or bend of the river. Understanding well the topography of the country, I felt assured that this movement could be made with complete safety and success, and would result in the capture of Price's entire army with but little loss to us. Gen- eral Pleasanton seconded this proposition and subsequent events proved that had it been adopted and we had been in position in their front at daylight, where they neither looked for, or were pre- pared to meet an attack, no portion of the rebel command could have escaped, but General Curtis disagreed with me, and decided that we should follow up and attack their rear. I now despatched a messenger to Col. Moonlight to move with his brigade by way of Mound City, past the enemy's flank, and proceed to Fort Scott with as little delay as possible, for the defense of that place.
After halting about two hours at West Point, for rest, Pleasanton, by Gen'l Curtis' order, moved his division past my command and took the advance. The column then moved forward, and near mid- night our advance came upon the enemy's pickets, when the column halted until daylight. The attack was then made by Pleasanton's division on their rear guard, when they showed more disposition to make a safe retreat than to fight, but being pressed hard, they were compelled to form their line near Mine creek, where they were soon routed with severe loss and the capture of near all their artillery and a large number of prisoners, among whom were Gen'ls Marmaduke and Cabell. In this engagement, my division, except three squadrons of the Second Colorado cavalry, took no part, in consequence of the crossing of the Osage being obstructed by the rear of Pleasanton's command, and thus prevented from getting up in time. From Mine creek a running fight continued until dark, when the enemy reached the timber of the Marmaton about four miles east of Fort Scott. General Curtis having now left the field, leaving me without orders, or even an intimation of what he in- tended doing, and my men being without rations, and the night so excessively dark that we could not move on the enemy's rear, I marched my division to Fort Scott, where on my arrival I found that Gen'l Curtis and General Pleasanton with his command had preceded me, and believing that Price must bivouac until morning near the junction of the Dry wood and Marmaton, I urged the im- portance of moving east from Fort Scott, as soon as the command could be supplied with rations, and at daylight place ourselves on the enemy's flank, but in this I was overruled by General Curtis,
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and did not leave Fort Scott until noon the next day (Oct. 26th), when the enemy had had time to get far in our advance.
I now again got the advance with my division, and near night struck the enemy's trail near Shanghai and pressed forward as rapidly as the condition of our stock would permit. At three o'clock on the morning of the 28th, we bivouacked at Carthage, and at daylight again moved forward, arriving at Granby about noon. I there ascertained that we were close upon the enemy's rear, and hav- ing with me, in the advance, only the first and fourth brigades of my division, I sent back messengers to hurry forward the second brigade, and also Gen'l McNeal's brigade of Gen'l Pleasanton's command, both of which I supposed were only a short distance in my rear. Arriving on the high prairie overlooking the town of New- tonia from the northwest, I discovered the enemy bivouacked in the edge of the timber south of the town, while a detachment numbering some fifteen hundred were occupying the town, and were preparing to manufacture flour for their command. They had stopped here upon the supposition that we had abandoned the pur- suit, and upon observing our advance approaching, they made hasty preparations for leaving. Although I had not to exceed one thou- sand men on the ground, yet seeing the enemy was anxious to avoid a fight, I determined to attack them at once, relying upon Col. Moon- light's and Gen'l McNeal's brigades to come up in time for support. Placing the First Colorado battery in position on the high ridge west of the town, and directing them to open fire upon the enemy, I advanced in line with the cavalry and two mountain howitzers, until we met their line moving out of the timber, when skirmishers were immediately thrown out, the battery ordered up and a spirited engagement ensued. A second line of the enemy soon advanced from the timber and with less than one thousand men I found myself confronting all of Price's available force, and according to the estimate of his own officers, not less than ten thousand in number. Having sent back messengers repeatedly to hurry forward the other troops, and momentarily expecting their arrival, I determined if possible to hold the ground until they came up. In this situation of affairs the battle raged on an open plain from two o'clock p. m. until sundown, the enemy, by their superiority of numbers, at- tempting to overwhelm and crush us, while the two diminutive brigades of Col. Ford and Lt. Col. Hoyt fought with a heroism seldom equalled, and as the enemy repeatedly attempted to charge
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our artillery, they were each time driven back by a terrible and deadly fire of cannister.
Just in the twilight of the evening, and as the enemy were mov- ing a heavy column to flank us on the left, and when the ammuni- tion of the First and Fourth brigades was exhausted, the brigade of Gen'l Sanborn came in sight. I immediately ordered him forward to form on my left, when the rebels seeing that I had been rein- forced, fell back under cover of the timber, and occupied the night in their hasty retreat, leaving their dead, and many of their wounded on the field.
My loss in this engagement, in killed and wounded, was one hundred and fourteen, while the enemy's loss, according to their own estimate was over eight hundred.
After dark General Curtis came up with the remainder of the command and directed the pursuit to be continued the next morn- ing, but during the night, orders were received from Gen'l Rose- crans for the troops belonging to his department to return to their respective districts, and General Curtis then determined to abandon the chase. Upon our arrival at Neosho, on our return, despatches were received from Gen'l Grant, countermanding Gen'l Rosecrans' orders, and directing that the pursuit be continued to the Arkansas river, but we had now lost two days' time, which rendered it very improbable that we could again overtake the enemy, yet we pressed forward as rapidly as possible. At Cane Hill we were twenty-four hours behind them, and here I learned, fromS the official report of Gen'l Price's adjutant, that their losses in killed, wounded, prisoners and deserters, from the time that I met them at Lexington, was ten thousand, five hundred and fifty.
From Cane Hill we strained every nerve to overtake them, but arrived at the Arkansas river on the 8th day of November three hours after the rear of their column had crossed, thirty miles west of Fort Smith; and from this point we commenced our long and weary march back to Kansas.
Had Gen'l Thayer, who had six or seven thousand efficient troops inside of the fortifications at Fort Smith — and who was apprised of our movements by despatches by messengers — sent a small force with two or three pieces of artillery up the river on the south side, to attack and check Price's advance while crossing, as he (Thayer) was urged to do, we would have been enabled to have captured the entire rebel force at the Arkansas river.
While I have not gone into minute details regarding the campaign
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against Price in the fall of 1864, yet I have been more elaborate than I otherwise would if it were not that my official report of the affair has been manipulated, while many accounts of the same have been spread before the public which were far from being correct, and while I have not said all that I might in reference to this cam- paign, yet what I have narrated I know to be correct.
I arrived in Kansas on my return from the campaign against Price, the 24th of November, and remained at Paola, the head- quarters of my district, until after the surrender of Lee, when it being supposed the war would be continued west of the Mississippi, I was ordered by Gen'l Pope, commanding military division of the Missouri, to the command of the cavalry division of an army that was to move against Gen'l Kirby Smith, who with a command of sixty thousand rebels, was occupying the line of Red river. About the middle of April I left Kansas and proceeded by way of St. Louis and the Arkansas river, to Fort Gibson, when I commenced to con- centrate and organize my command, which was to consist of ten thousand cavalry, and several batteries of light artillery. With this force it was expected that I would move as a separate column through the Indian country, cross Red river, and come in upon the enemy's left flank, while the infantry columns moved from Little Rock, and Fort Smith, to form a junction, but the surrender by Kirby Smith, of all the rebel forces west of the Mississippi, saved us further efforts in that direction. While I was making active preparations, and in a short time would have been in readiness to move against the enemy, I received information, on the second day of June, of the surrender just alluded to, and considering the war was at an end, I forwarded on the following day (June 3d) to the Secretary of War, my resignation as Major General of Vols. and asked of Gen'l Reynolds, commanding Department of Arkansas, to be relieved of the command as soon as convenient. Accordingly I was relieved on the 18th day of June and proceeded to Leavenworth to await action on my resignation, which was accepted on the 29th of July, 1865, and thus terminated my connection with the army, after serving a period of over four years.
In the foregoing recital I have not attempted to go into the minor details of events with which I have been connected, or refer to the part taken by individual officers or particular commands. For these I must refer you to my official reports, in which I have en- deavored to do justice to all according to their merit. If I have
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erred, or omitted what was due to anyone, it has not been inten- tional.
While there are some pleasant reminiscences connected with my service in the volunteer army during the late war, yet my path was not free from thorns. To be compelled always to contest with an enemy double and treble my superior in numbers, and thrown upon my own resources to provide for every emergency, was not the mis- fortune that annoyed me the most. I had as much to fear from the treacherous and cowardly enemy in my rear, as from armed rebels in my front. When I first entered upon the duties of a responsible command, I verily believed it was the duty of every loyal man to sustain the government in its hour of peril, and to strengthen the hands of those who were laboring to put down the gigantic rebellion by a vigorous prosecution of the war. In this I was mistaken. Ex- perience has since taught me that patriotism
[There is a gap in the manuscript here; the top of the final page is missing and what is left appears as follows.]
knew better than they, the and the remedy to be I been willing to have sac- principle, honor and self-respect, back upon those with whom my lot had been cast, and played the sycophant and toady to men for whom I had a supreme contempt, and some of whom I even doubted their loyalty, notwithstanding they occupied high official positions in the army, I should probably have been one of the favored instead of the persecuted. That I did not comply with their requirements, I shall never regret.
Another annoyance and barrier to my usefulness, that met me at every step, and one that I felt more keenly than all others was the unrelenting crusade against me by those exercising authority and influence. [Apparently the report does not quite end here, but it is evident that Blunt was concluding his narrative. If there were other pages they have been lost.]
United States Surveyors Massacred by Indians
Lone Tree, Meade County, 1874 MRS. F. C. MONTGOMERY
THE completion of the task of surveying the public lands in Kan- sas was provided for under eight contracts entered into July Sv 1874, by Carmi W. Babcock, of Lawrence, the surveyor general of Kansas. Contract No. 382 was signed by Capt. Oliver Francis Short and Capt. Abram Cutler, both of Lawrence. The final cost of their contract was $9,677.92 for 1,055 miles of section lines. Contract No. 381 was taken by Capt. Luther A. Thrasher, a Mr. Steele, W. C. Jones and Harmon Scott, all of lola. Their com- pensation was $9,117.35 for 920 miles of section lines. All these men had contracts in former years and their plats and field notes are in the auditor's office in Topeka.1
The surveying expedition for the performance of these two con- tracts was formed at Lawrence for the most part. Captain Short, the ranking officer, left there July 29, 1874, for Wichita, where he bought oxen and some equipment. He was joined at Dodge City on August 4 by his sons Harry C. and Daniel Truman Short, Captain Cutler, James Shaw and son J. Allen Shaw, J. H. Keuchler, Fleming (Clem) Duncan, Wm. and Richard Douglas, Frank Blacklidge, and Harry C. Jones, who was a nephew of Captain Cutler. All of these were of Douglas county, and with the exception of the contractors and James Shaw, farmer, were young students of Kansas University.2
They were soon joined at Dodge by Captain Thrasher, of lola, second in command of the expedition, and S. W. Howe, of Florence, Marion county; also a Mr. Crist, a Mr. Woolens, and others of his party, as yet unknown. Crist, no doubt, was S. B. Crist, the Allen county man who had been a chainman in the survey of the Cherokee Neutral lands in 1867, by the government. The whole Meade county expedition comprised twenty-two men, eighteen for field work, and four for camp duties, including Prather, a mulatto of Lawrence. The location of their general camp was on the north- east corner of section 4, township 33, range 28 west, just a short
1. Rept. Surv. Gen. Kan., 1873. (In Report Secretary of Interior, Commissioner General Land Office) pp. 93-98; 1874, pp. 106-112; 1875, pp. 30, 39, 40, 210-214; Serial Nos. 1601, 1639, 1680.
2. Lawrence Tribune, Aug. 20, 27; Oct. 29, 1874; Lawrence Western Home Journal July 28, Sept. 3, 1874.
(266)
MONTGOMERY: U. S. SURVEYORS MASSACRED 267
distance east of the old "Lone Tree." This is a well-known land- mark on the east side of Crooked creek, six miles southwest of Meade, and about forty miles south and twenty miles west of Dodge. Captain Short's party was to survey the exterior lines of township 33, and be away from camp for the entire week. The parties of Captain Thrasher and Captain Cutler returned to camp each night, after surveying the township into sections.3
From this camp Captain Short wrote to his wife on August 16 and 22 that water had been found for the oxen, and that a pump driven down at the camp had furnished cool water for the men. Stone was plentiful for cornerstone markers. It had been agreed that in case of Indian attacks they would set fire to the grass as a signal to other surveyors, but they had been forced to fight prairie fires to save the grass for their oxen. On the last Sunday afternoon in camp, August 23, Captain Short had read passages from his New Testament and joined in the singing of hymns. The morning had been spent in washing clothes. His letters were sent to Dodge by hunters passing by the camp on Monday morning, August 24, 1874.
On that fatal day Captain Short chose his party for a week's survey. It included his son, Daniel Truman Short, aged fourteen; James Shaw, aged fifty-one; and his son J. Allen Shaw, who was about eighteen; Harry C. Jones, about twenty -two, and John H. Keuchler, who was seventeen or eighteen. Harry C. Short, who had been chainman for his father, was assigned to stay in camp that week under his protest, to harmonize camp troubles. The other two field parties took different directions to mark the virgin prairie into sections for future occupants.
About noon of Wednesday, August 26, Mr. Crist, of Thrasher's party, saw Captain Short's wagon standing on the east side of Crooked creek, about eight and one-half miles south, and two and one-half miles west of Meade. Captain Thrasher was notified, and he reconnoitered with his force, including Mr. Woolens, S. W. Howe and Richard Douglas. They armed themselves, then unhitched their oxen from their cart and drove them ahead to the empty wagon. There they found the bodies of Captain Short and his five men lying on the ground in a row, as they had been left by the Indians. The oxen were dead in their yokes, with the hind quarters cut off, and the camp dog lay dead beside its master. Captain Short, his
3. Crist, [S. B.]t Adjutant General. Kansas, 1873-'74, p. 20; U. S. Survey Cherokee Neutral Lands, plat book 1867, S. B. Crist, chainman. Howe, S. W., biog. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 1265; Lawrence Tribune, Nov. 29, 1874. Smith, E. D., letters on locations, to Historical Society, Jan. 11, 16, 1911, Mss. White, Thomas K., statements in interview with author.
268 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
son, and Harry Jones had been scalped, and others had their heads crushed. The pockets of all had been turned inside out. There were twenty-eight bullet holes in the wagon, and eight bullets were found in the water barrel.
James Shaw was the last man killed at this place, as shown by tracks made there by the irons on his boot heels. It was learned later that the Indians had carried off their own dead and wounded. The bodies, after a careful search, were put in Short's wagon and drawn back to camp. They were buried near sundown, about 100 yards southeast of Lone Tree, and the same distance southwest of the camp. One lone grave three feet deep was made for all the victims, who were wrapped in tent cloth. Initials were carved on rough stones which were placed at the head of each body.
Captain Thrasher, Richard Douglas and others had traced the route of the surveyors back to the first point of attack. This was one-half mile north of the extreme southwest corner of section 31, township 33, range 28 west. It is about eleven miles southwest of Meade "as the crow flies" and was near Stumpy arroya and a creek later called Short's creek. The location was about two miles west of old Odee post office. From the first point of attack, to section 20 northeast, the surveyors attempted to make a running fight from the wagon. They tossed out their water barrel, mess kit and other equipment to make room for the bodies of those killed. For about three and one-half miles the trail toward the camp was strewn with cartridge shells, showing a desperate fight.
Next morning, Thursday, August 27, hunters passing by the camp reported they had seen a party of twenty-five Cheyennes about fifteen to twenty miles west of the camp. Waiting until the Indians passed well out of sight they examined the camp of the Indians. Here they found Short's compass, papers and chains; also Cheyenne arrowheads. It was learned later from Mochin, a squaw of this party, and from the Indian agent, that it was the band of Chief Medicine Water. Truman Short's horse was found in Medi- cine Water's camp about a hundred miles west of Camp Supply. Years afterwards Chief Yellow Horse began to tell H. C. Perkins, of the auditor's office, Topeka, about his prowess in the Short mas- sacre, but shut up like a clam when he feared that Mr. Perkins might inform the government about his deeds.
The Cheyennes had been angered by an order which called out 300 soldiers from Fort Dodge to drive the Cheyennes back to their reservation. These soldiers had passed by Captain Short's camp
MONTGOMERY: U. S. SURVEYORS MASSACRED 269
on their way south. At that time he had asked the commanding officer to give him a smiall detail of soldiers to act as scouts or guards for the surveyors. The officer said he had no authority to grant his request, and stated that there were no Indians in the vicinity. These Cheyennes who killed Short's party, and the German family of five near Fort Wallace soon afterward, were convicted and sent to a government prison in Florida later, but were soon liberated.4
Mrs. Short, mother of six children, was informed of the catas- trophe by Captain Thrasher at Dodge. He had assumed charge of the camp affairs, as second in command. He requested Captain Cutler to remain in camp with the remaining surveyors, while he went to Dodge for more men, arms and equipment. Captain Cutler declined to remain, or to continue the survey unless he be given full control. The whole force broke camp on August 27 and went to Dodge to await reorganization. Here Captain Thrasher com- municated with Mrs. Short as to the continuance of Captain Short's contract, in which Captain Cutler was partner.5 Mrs. Short em- powered Captain Thrasher to finish this contract, which he then undertook in addition to his own.
Mrs. Short, at all times acquainted with affairs of the survey and its personnel, determined that all bodies of the murdered surveyors should be removed at the same time from near Lone Tree to their permanent burial places. She was aided in this by the surveyor general of Kansas, and by Gen. John Pope, of Fort Leavenworth. Richard Douglas and other surveyors left Lawrence on January 20,
4. Captain Short was born in Ohio, July 9, 1833, son of Rev. Daniel and Diana (Pete- fish) Short. He came to Kansas from Illinois, where he married Frances Celia Ann Catlin, of Springfield. He was one of the first professional surveyors in Kansas, having served on all frontiers of Kansas, and from the Dakota line into the Indian Territory, as contractor, compassman or chainman. He had some narrow escapes from rabid proslavery men during his early surveys. For a short period in 1857 and 1858 he was owner and editor of the Atchison Squatter Sovereign, a free-state paper. One of his early contracts was No. 303, dated 1864, when he was loaned a tent and six rifles for his party of six, by the surveyor general of Kansas. He surveyed in Cowley and Sumner counties in 1871, and later from Wallace county southward. His wife had surveyed with him in 1863, being paid as a flagman, riding over 1,600 miles, swimming rivers, hunting buffalo, meeting Indians, with whom their relations were always friendly. Adj. Gen., Rept. 1878-'74, pp. 20, 21, 84; Andreas, pp. 278, 375; Biog. Scrap Book, S., Bol. 9, pp. 183, 191; Atchison Freedom's Champion, Feb. 20, 1858, and Squatter Sovereign, Dec. 5, 1857 ; Lawrence Tribune, Oct. 29, Nov. 19, 1874; Lawrence Western Home Journal, Sept. 3, Nov. 19, 1874; Meade Co. Clip- pings, pp. 28, 48, His. Soc. Lib. ; Meade Globe, Aug. 23, 30, Sept. 26, 1907 ; Meade Globe- Mews, July 2, 10, Aug. 14, 21, 28, 1924; Surv. Gen. Kan., Journal of Office Work, p. 82 in Archives; 17. S. Biog. Die. Kan., pp. 107-110.
5. Captain Cutler abandoned the survey and returned to Lawrence, Sept. 3, 1874, in company with Frank Blacklidge and Fleming Duncan, of his own party, and Harold C. Short, who was now the only support of his mother. Captain Cutler had been taken into partnership with Captain Short for some business reason. In 1879 he wrote to a friend some unsubstantiated assertions about Captain Thrasher, which only serve to prove that as a government officer, Thrasher would not tolerate any insubordination in that time of peril. Captain Cutler had been a member of the Topeka free-state legislature, an officer in the Lawrence Stubbs and other militia, and a private in Co. I, 10th Kan. Vol. Inf., in 1861. Little else is known of him except that he was buried in Ohio.
270 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
1875, with six caskets, arriving at Dodge on the 26th. Here they were given a military escort from Fort Dodge to Lone Tree Camp and return. Captain Short and son Truman were buried on Feb- ruary 6, at Mount Muncie cemetery, Leavenworth, their former home. James Shaw,6 who had come to Lawrence in 1866, was buried in that city in Oak Hill cemetery, with his son, J. Allen Shaw. H. C. Jones, nephew of Captain Cutler, was also buried at Lawrence, but the body of John H. Keuchler was sent to his father, a doctor of Springfield, 111.
Mrs. Short filed a $10,000 claim against the government for loss of life. It was reported adversely in 1875 and 1878, although in- dorsed by the Cheyenne Indian agent, the U. S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, by Enoch Hoag, of Lawrence, who was the central superintendent of Indian affairs, and by Gov. T. A. Osborn, of Kansas. Finally, by special act put through by Congressman D. C. Haskell, of Kansas, $5,000 each was allowed to Mrs. Short and Mrs. James Shaw. Among those who assisted Mrs. Short was Mrs. Fanny Kelley, of Allen county, once a prisoner of Indians. She secured signatures of Cheyenne chiefs, indorsing Mrs. Short's claim.7 Thrasher also joined Mrs. Short in a claim for $678 for loss of prop- erty taken from the surveyors by the Indians.
Captain Thrasher's work in completing the survey contracts was hampered by danger of further Indian depredations and by un- usually unfavorable weather. He had reached Dodge with the surviving surveyors on August 31, 1874. The next day he notified Governor Osborn of the massacre and requested arms and ammuni- tion be sent him. This was done, and he was also given an escort of soldiers from Fort Dodge for a short time. After reorganizing the parties he resumed work in the field October 1, about twelve miles north and fifteen miles west of Lone Tree on the Cimarron. On November 27, upon his return from a business trip to Lawrence, he found four men suffering from frozen feet. He had to go into camp December 20 on account of an eight-inch snow heavily crusted. Feed for the oxen gave out in early January, 1875. He started for Dodge, taking three men and the oxen, leaving twelve men in camp.
6. James Shaw was a graduated civil engineer of a Maryland college, and brought his instruments with him to Kansas. Both Short and Shaw located on farms near the present stadium of Kansas University. Mrs. James Shaw lived later at the residence of Joel S. White at Lawrence.
7. Archives, Gov. Letter Bk., 1875-'77, No. 6, pp. 24, 40, 281; Biog. Die. of Leav., Doug. & Franklin Go's., pp. 363-364; Lawrence Tribune, Oct. 29, 1874; Lawrence Western Home Journal, Jan. 28, 1876; H. C. Short, statements, 1931.
MONTGOMERY: U. S. SURVEYORS MASSACRED 271
On the way another blizzard swept over them. The men made a dugout and got the stock into some thick brush. Finally they reached Dodge and sent hay, food and clothing back to the camp. Work was resumed about January 20.
Captain Thrasher kept Mrs. Short fully informed, and she in turn reported progress of the work in a Lawrence paper, for the benefit of the surveyors' families. From one issue we quote as follows: "The energy and bravery with which this contractor has maintained the field since the massacre of his copartner, 0. F. Short, is worthy of respect." On February 22, 1875, Captain Thrasher notified Gov- ernor Osborn that he was ready to return all unused ammunition and all guns, except two stolen by the Indians. He was back in lola before March 6, 1875, with no loss of life to men or oxen.8
Several futile efforts have been made to erect a memorial to the surveyors of 1874. At an old settlers' picnic held in Odee grove on August 28, 1907, Mrs. M. A. Brown, a sister of Captain Short, told the story of the massacre, and read Captain Short's last letters. Rev. J. M. McNair was president, and Mrs. M. P. Petefish, a rela- tive of Captain Short, was secretary of a committee to consider plans for a monument. In 1908 a Rev. Martindale, of Plains, sponsored a plan to erect a community meeting house on Crooked creek, but the plan failed. Fifty years after the massacre a second attempt was made. On August 24, 1924, Harold C. Short, of Leavenworth, was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. John Haver, a relative of Captain Short, and with other settlers, in motors, visited the scene of Cap- tain Short's last survey. The last stone he set, which originally was two feet square, was found to be worn to but a few inches. In the afternoon at a meeting under the shade of Lone Tree, Mr. Short retold the story of the survey. His address was followed by the
8. Captain Thrasher was born at Lynchburg, Va., June 26, 1833, and died there on Nov. 15, 1903, after twenty-two years service as an internal revenue agent for the United States. He was appointed in 1881 from Douglas county, served from San Francisco to Washington, and was known as the most daring agent in the service. He came from Illinois to Kansas in 1859, settling in Allen county. He served in the 3d and the 10th Kan. Vols., from 1861 to 1865, ending as quartermaster of the 79th U. S. Col'd Vols. He engaged in surveying of state roads, with Dr. J. W. Scott, at one time on a road from Tola to Wichita, thence to Abilene, during which time they were attacked by Indians. In December of 1867 he organized a cattle drive from Texas to Abilene, and kept a diary which is of much inter- est. At Abilene he received his appointment as quartermaster of the 19th Kan. Vol. Cav. After a hard service he was mustered out in April of 1869, and became principal of lola schools. Next he engaged in surveying for the Santa Fe railroad, and is said to have laid out the towns of Florence and Lamed. From Dec., 1877, to May 14, 1878, he was one of three state commissioners to select indemnity school lands, in lieu of lands taken by the railroads in the Indian reservations. His burial at Arlington was witnessed by the Kansas congressional delegation.
272 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
organization of a memorial association. This effort also failed in its purpose.9
Mrs. John Haver, Mrs. R. F. Todd, former editor of the Meade County News, Meade, and Frank Fuhr, former editor of the Meade Globe, formed the latest committee to arrange for a memorial. Mr. Fuhr took the lead in this organization in June, 1931. It is planned to raise sufficient funds to erect a monument in the courthouse square at Meade, and to place markers on the camp site, and the site of the massacre.
9. Harold C. Short, of Leavenworth, is now the only survivor of the government survey in Meade county, being then under sixteen years old. He was born at Atchison, Sept. 17, 1858. Since 1885 he has maintained the oldest abstract office in Leavenworth county, and since 1904 has been chairman or member of the board of county commissioners, his present term ending in 1933. He has given such details of the survey as he remembers to the His- torical Society, and a picture of himself taken under Lone Tree in August, 1924. He gave, also, a copy of a map of township 33, range 28, which Captain Thrasher had made for Mrs. Short. This map shows the camp, routes of the three surveying parties, point of first at- tack, route of flight northeast toward the camp, place of massacre and the common grave near Lone Tree.
Some Phases of the Industrial History of Pittsburg, Kansas
FEED N. HOWELL
THE history of the founding and the growth of Pittsburg has been closely and vitally connected with the development of the coal industry of southeast Kansas. The original Pittsburg was nothing but a coal-mining camp located on a railroad constructed for the express purpose of tapping a coal field and furnishing an outlet for Joplin, Missouri, zinc and lead. Thus the camp grew in proportion to the development of the coal industry of its vicinity and zinc industries of southeast Kansas and southwest Missouri. Two other industries which have been important factors in the de- velopment of Pittsburg were the clay products factories and the meat-packing plant.
THE COAL-MINING INDUSTRY.
The earliest known coal mining in southeast Kansas was about 1850, and was carried on to a limited extent by residents of the neighboring section of Missouri.1 As settlers came into what be- came Crawford and Cherokee counties, more coal was mined from year to year. While most of that output was for home use some was hauled to such towns as Fort Scott and Baxter Springs, Kansas, and Granby, Missouri, where it was sold for cash or traded for supplies.
During the ten years following the first influx of permanent settlers little attention was paid to coal mining and but little thought given to the value of the coal-bearing lands, due to lack of market and cost of local transportation. With the advent of the railroad into the coal fields casual and occasional coal mining gave way to an established industry.
The first real mining was done by the stripping process, using plows, scrapers and teams. This was profitable only where the overburden was light. But in most places where the overburden was light the coal was poor and limited in extent. As a result, that kind of mining soon ceased and remained in disuse until the coming of the modern steam shovel some thirty years later. However, an attempt at steam-shovel stripping was made in 1876, when Hodges and Armit began stripping near Pittsburg with a shovel made for
1. C. M. Young, "Kansas Coal, Its Occurrence and Production," Bulletin, University of Kansas, March 1, 1896, pp. 88-89.
(273) 18—3416
274 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
railroad work. The shovel was operated for three years successfully. But since it could operate in strips with but ten or twelve feet of overburden it ceased operations due to lack of suitable stripping territory. While that shovel was too small for general coal stripping Hodges was satisfied that a shovel of sufficient size could be built. The shovel makers, however, declared a shovel of sufficient size to uncover a wide strip of deep coal was absolutely impractical and could not be made.2 Nevertheless, such a shovel was built within the next thirty years. A revolving stripping shovel was first put into operation in the Pittsburg field in 1911. It cost $25,000 and could operate to a depth of twenty feet only, but it was not much of a shovel compared with one developed twenty years later, costing from $150,000 to $175,000 and operating to a depth of forty-five feet.3
The amount of production of the strip mines kept pace with the improvements in shovels. During the early days of the shovel a production of 200 tons per day was unusual. In 1930 daily pro- duction in the large mines ran as high as 1,500 tons.
The cost of equipping an up-to-date mine was no small item. During the year 1929 $300,000 was spent on an electrically equipped shovel, a loader, a tipple, and other equipment for a single mine.4 This was doubtless the best-equipped mine in the Pittsburg field.
The first shaft, worthy the name, in southeast Kansas, was sunk by Scammon Brothers, just north of Scammon, in 1874.5 A year or two later shafts were sunk in the Pittsburg district. The exact location of the first one is a matter of dispute, but there is suf- ficient evidence to show that during the year 1877 at least one shaft was sunk on the Pittsburg town site and one on Carbon creek, a few miles northeast of Pittsburg.6 How fast shaft mining increased during the next twenty years there is no authentic record. In 1898 there were fifty-three mines in operation in Crawford county, ac- cording to the State Geological Survey for that year. Of the fifty- three mines in the county approximately thirty were within five miles of Pittsburg ; of the thirty within the five-mile radius approxi-
2. Ibid., p. 100.
8. Interview, K. A. Spencer, Pittsburg, Kan., vice president and manager, Jackson- Walker Coal and Mining Company.
4. Interview, Joseph Klaner, Pittsburg, Kan., strip mine operator, 1911-1930, Pittsburg territory.
6. Interview, P. S. Boulware, retired stockman, Pittsburg, Kan. Settled six miles west of Pittsburg, 1869.
6. Interview, Franklin Playter, Galena, Kan., retired lawyer, banker, promoter. Assisted in organizing Joplin Railroad Company, and in establishing Pittsburg town site.
HOWELL: INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF PITTSBURG 275
mately seventeen were within two and one-half miles of the center of the town.
According to both state and federal statistics Crawford and Cher- okee counties have been the leading coal-producing sections of the state. Of the two, Crawford county has been by far the larger producer. However, only the southeast quarter, approximately, is considered good coal territory. Since that part of the county is almost entirely Pittsburg trade territory the importance of the coal industry to the town may be shown by the following comparative table of coal production, expressed in tons:
|
Year. 1885 |
Crawford county. 221,741 |
Cherokee county. 371,930 |
State. 1,212,057 |
|
1890 |
900,464 |
724,861 |
2,259,922 |
|
1895 |
1 517 936 |
918,944 |
2,926,870 7 |
|
1900 , |
2,307,130 |
1,547,471 |
4,467,870 8 |
|
1905 |
3 729 953 |
2,132,589 |
6,423, 979 9 |
|
1910 |
2,986,411 |
1,477,529 |
4,921,451 10 |
|
1915 |
4 843,232 |
1 707 456 |
6,824,474 n |
|
1920 |
4 508 747 |
1,090,186 |
5,926,408 12 |
|
1925 |
3,107,829 |
1,177,235 |
4,524,000 1S |
|
1930. . |
1.634.947 |
539,890 |
2,603,156 i* |
The sharp decline in production since 1920, as shown in the chart, is not peculiar to the Pittsburg field alone. All other local coal fields of the United States have experienced a similar decline. This has been due to four principal causes. First, between 1925 and 1930 combustion engineers had made great progress. The efficiency of all heat and motive power producing appliances had been in- creased about 35 per cent. Second, increased use of substitutes for coal, such as oil and natural gas. Third, increased use of hydro- electric power. Fourth, unsettled labor conditions which have caused large producers to hesitate to enter into long-time delivery con- tracts, lest difficulty be experienced in filling such contracts.15
The part the coal industry has played in the economic life of Pittsburg is shown further by the following table :
7. Eighteenth Annual Report, United States Geological Survey, Mineral Resources, part V, p. 626.
8. Mineral Resources of the United States. Calendar Year, 1902, p. 380.
9. Mineral Resources of the United States, 1905, pp. 601-602.
10. Ibid., 1910, part II, p. 186.
11. Ibid., 1915, part II, p. 948.
12. Ibid., 1921, part II, p. 585.
13. Ibid., 1925, part II, p. 499.
14. Annual Report of Coal Mine and Metal Mine Inspection and Mine Rescue Depart- ment, 1930, p. 80.
15. Interview, K. A. Spencer.
276 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Average number
Number of of days mines
Year. miners. operated.
1890 1,447 198
1895 3,098 16116
1901 5,038 239 17
1905 6,190 21218
1910 7,458 14819
1915 9,094 18220
1920 6,915 2062i
1925 5,584 16422
1930 3,753 93.7 23
In the study of the above table one should take into consideration the wage scales in effect during the thirty-nine-year period.
The early-day miners were paid about $2 per day. This wage had been increased to but $2.98 per day by 1916. In May, 1917, when the coal industry was placed under a national board, wages were fixed at $3.60 per day. That scale remained in effect until October, 1917, when wages were increased to $5 per day. Early in 1919 a provisional scale of $5.70 per day was established. This was increased to $6 in the fall of the same year. In the fall of 1920 a wage scale of $7.50 went into effect and operated until April, 1923, when the famous Jacksonville four-year agreement, fixing wages at $7.50 per day, was adopted. In 1927 the Jacksonville agreement was continued for one year. In August, 1928, a three-year agree- ment with a $5 wage scale was adopted.24
The part the coal industry has played in the economic life of Pittsburg and Crawford county, and the part it will play in the future, is worthy of consideration from another viewpoint. Whether the economic loss resulting from the destruction of the surface by the shovels is counterbalanced by the increased production of coal per acre was an unanswered question, January, 1930. By that time approximately 4,000 acres of coal land had been stripped and there remained to be stripped during the next twenty-five years approximately 800 acres.
16. Eighteenth Annual Report, United States Geological Survey, Mineral Resources, part V, p. 526.
17. Mineral Resources of the United States, Calendar Year, 1902, p. 380.
18. Mineral Resources of the United States, 1905, pp. 601-602.
19. Ibid., 1910, part II, p. 136.
20. Ibid., 1915, part II, p. 948.
21. Ibid., 1921, part II, p. 585.
22. Ibid., 1925, part II, p. 499.
23. Annual Report of Coal Mine and Metal Mine Inspection and Mine Rescue Depart- ments, 1980, p. 81.
24. Interview, Bernard Kerrigan, Pittsburg, Kan., secretary, Southwestern Interstate Coal Operators' Association.
HOWELL: INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF PITTSBTJRG 277
The average price of farm land in the stripping territory has been $25 to $35 per acre. Stripped land has been valued by the coal companies at $10 per acre. The loss to the county in taxable valuation is evident. On the other hand, the shovels take out 100 per cent of the coal, while the shaft mines remove only 40 per cent to 50 per cent of it. From this viewpoint, stripping is an economic gain.
Little experimenting in reclaiming the abandoned strip pits had been made prior to January, 1930. During a two-year period prior to that time the Spencer interests had done some experimenting on a ten-acre tract of six- to eight-year-old strip land. The surface soil of those particular ridges and pits contained considerable shale. Nothing was done to level down the ridges. They were planted to alfalfa and to catalpa trees just as the shovel had left them, plus six to eight years' erosion. Both the alfalfa and the trees have done well during the two-year period.25
From personal observations, the author has found that many of the earliest stripped lands have become quite well reforested with practically all the native varieties of trees, such as elm, cotton- wood, willow, wild cherry, hackberry, etc. Some of the trees have attained a diameter of twelve to fifteen inches. Wild blackberries, especially, grow well on many of the older stripped areas.
Nature has converted the last runs of the shovels into lakes, many of which have been stocked with fish through natural processes. A number of these pit-lakes have been leased by private parties for recreation grounds and have been made to yield small returns to the owners. In 1928 the citizens of Pittsburg purchased 400 acres, 80 per cent of which is old strip pits, and presented the tract to the state of Kansas. This became the Crawford County State Park. It is a rugged, well-timbered park through which wind many beau- tiful narrow lakes. Since taking it over the state has improved it greatly and has converted it into a pleasant recreation center.
Since the middle eighties the coal industry of the Pittsburg field has been characterized by independent action on the part of the leading operators. This independence of action has been evident in purchasing and leasing coal lands, in production, and in market- ing the output of the mines. Several of the large producers of the early period were still in the field January, 1930. A few were operating under their original trade names while the remainder were
25. Interview, K. A. Spencer.
278 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
under new names but governed primarily by the earlier business policies.
Transportation has never been a very serious problem with the coal companies, except possibly during the first ten years of the industry. At times freight rates on coal have discriminated in favor of Pittsburg. For example, for several years prior to 1918 Pittsburg coal was sold within fifty miles of St. Louis, Missouri, in competition with other coal of like grade. This was manifestly unfair to the Illinois and other neighboring coal fields. But this attitude of the transportation companies toward the coal operators is easily ex- plained. In 1929 the railroads had $4 invested in coal marketing equipment, such as coal cars, switch engines, mines spurs, etc., for each $1.50 invested by the mine operators in mines and mine equip- ment. A similar ratio of investments runs back through most of the history of coal mining in the Pittsburg district.
Independent marketing has characterized the Pittsburg coal field in spite of the tendency to merge which dominated so many busi- ness interests during several decades. During the year 1929 86 per cent of Pittsburg coal was marketed by seven companies. Two of the seven were exclusive sales companies. The other five were both producers and distributors and marketed 50 per cent of the coal mined in the district. Competition was keen and there was no tendency to fix prices. It is said that practically the same gen- eral statements relative to marketing are applicable to any period of the coal history.26
Two mine disasters stand out boldly in the history of coal min- ing in the vicinity of Pittsburg. The one occurred at Frontenac the afternoon of November 9, 1888; the other at Stone City, some eight miles southwest of Pittsburg, about midday, December 13, 1916.
The story of each disaster has been graphically told in The Daily Headlight, from whose columns the following is quoted:
"Yesterday evening witnessed the most terrible holocaust that ever occurred in this mining district or the west. Mine No. 2 of the Pittsburg and Cherokee (Santa Fe) Mining Company at Frontenac blew up, causing a horrible toll of life. Number of lives lost is not known. Men in the mine at the time of the explosion numbered 164. Many of them made their way out uninjured. . . .
"Every available doctor from Pittsburg, Girard, Litchfield and other places from over this district are at the shaft ready to give emergency treatment.
"Rescue parties have endeavored to enter the mine, but have been driven
26. Ibid.
HOWELL: INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF PITTSBURG 279
back by foul air. The fans were demolished by the explosion and men are working frantically to replace them so air can be sent into the mine."27
The second tragedy was told by the same paper as follows:
"Twenty men, at least, lost their lives in the explosion at a mine near Stone City early this afternoon. According to reports thirty-nine men were entombed by the explosion. One hundred men are said to have been employed in the mine.
"The explosion is said to have been one of gas accumulated in an old entry that is being reopened. Part of the men were working so far back from the shaft that it is a difficult task for the rescuers to reach them. . . .
"The state mine inspector and the engineer for the Bureau of Mines started at once for the mine, provided with rescue apparatus. . . .
"Unequipped with rescue apparatus several miners tried, time after time, to explore the smoky entries, only to be driven back. . . .
"Death came to most of the victims by suffocation. For, with the excep- tion of a few, none of the bodies were burned to any extent."28
The mine had started work but shortly before the day of the catastrophe. As a result, many families were left practically desti- tute. Pittsburg at once requested aid. Governor Capper joined in this appeal to the citizens of Kansas. The responses to the ap- peals were generous. The two largest contributors were the United Mine Workers of America, with $1,000, and the Coal Operators Association of Pittsburg, with $1,000. Small individual contribu- tions poured into the hands of the committee in charge. In addi- tion to these contributions various means were employed to swell the fund, such as concerts, picture shows and church collections.29
Two other mine disasters in the Pittsburg field stand out promi- nently. On December 20, 1906, there was an explosion near Stone City which resulted in seven killed and sixteen injured. This mine was just being opened; no coal had been taken from it. It was be- lieved that the explosion was caused by faulty electric wiring set- ting off some cans of powder.30
An explosion, March 18, 1911, in an M. K. & T. mine near Min- eral, caused the death of five miners. This was a gas explosion at- tributed to workmen breaking through into a gas-filled abandoned mine adjoining.31
The mine death toll during the past few years has been small. The majority of fatal accidents have been from rock falls resulting from conditions seemingly beyond control. But, with the increased care
27. The Pittsburg Daily Headlight, Nov. 10, 1888.
28. Ibid., Dec. 13, 1916.
29. Ibid., Dec. 13-27, 1916. 80. Ibid., Dec. 21, 1906. 31. Ibid., Mar. 19, 1911.
280 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
given mine inspection, fatalities from this cause have gradually grown fewer.
To protect the lives of the miners as fully as possible the state took early action in the establishment of the office of state mine in- spector. The original act of 1883,32 creating that office and defining its duties, was amended materially in 1913 for the purpoee of widen- ing its scope of activities and enabling it to perform its duties more efficiently.
The general duties of the state mine inspector were to safeguard the lives and health of the miners. In addition to that it was his duty to determine the cause of mine disasters and to fix the blame. In his office were kept many records of the coal mines, such as amount of production, number of miners employed, etc. In addi- tion to that there was kept a complete file of maps and charts of all the underground mines. These maps and charts were prepared especially as aids in rescue work in case of disaster.
The mine rescue department was created by act of the legislature, January, 1917.83 This additional provision was prompted by the serious mine disaster at Stone City the previous December, which emphasized strongly the need for a well-equipped organization to supervise and aid in the work of rescuing imprisoned miners.
The year following the creation of this bureau three rescue sta- tions were established. One was located at Scammon, one at Anna, and one at Pittsburg. A few years later, in 1923, the Scammon station was closed for lack of appropriation by the state legislature. The other two stations have continued to function. Both are well equipped to render efficient service, with motor trucks ready to rush to the rescue. The Pittsburg truck, especially, is well equipped with all that is needed for first-aid work, or for the more dangerous task of entering a mine on fire or one filled with the dreaded fire damp.
Danger of explosions and accompanying fires was ever present, even in the well-ventilated mines. Much explosive was still used in loosening coal (January, 1930). Whenever a shot was fired for such purpose there was the ever-accompanying danger of an ex- plosion. For this reason the rescue crews were always on duty until early evening, or until all shot firers had completed their work for the day.34
32. Session Laws, 1883, chap. 117, sec. 9.
33. Ibid,, 1917, chap. 239, sees. 1-4.
34. Data furnished by state mine inspector's office.
HOWELL: INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF PITTSBUKG 281
THE SMELTERS.
It has been said that the coal fields adjacent to Pittsburg made a good mining camp out of the town, while the smelters made a city out of a mining camp.
The immediate vicinity of Pittsburg produced neither zinc, lead nor silver. Yet Pittsburg for a number of years was ranked among the zinc-smelting centers of the country. And for a time a silver smelter also was operated successfully in the city.
For some years prior to the founding of Pittsburg the presence of zinc and lead deposits in southeast Kansas and southwest Mis- souri had been known. During the year 1870 J. B. Sargent and E. R. Moffet discovered lead ore in large quantities within the present limits of the city of Joplin, Mo.35 By 1872 positive knowl- edge had been gained of the presence of ore near Baxter Springs, Kan.36 In 1877 came the big Galena, Kan., strike. With these discoveries the mining industry was established.
Following the discoveries of lead and zinc in paying quantities in southeast Kansas and in the neighboring districts of Missouri it remained to refine the crude ore and market the metal at a profit. The vast storehouse of coal in the north part of Cherokee county and in the south part of Crawford county offered a solution if the coal field and the zinc-producing areas could be brought closer together. Moffet and Sargent solved this problem by building a railroad from Joplin, Mo., through the coal fields to Girard, Kan., and there connecting with a line to eastern markets. This road was constructed through the present site of Pittsburg during the summer of 1876. At this point it may be well to state that Pittsburg was laid out as soon as the railroad was established.37
During the late winter of 1878 Robert Lanyon arrived in Joplin, Mo., from his home in La Salle, 111., in quest of a suitable location for a zinc smelter. After looking over the zinc fields around Joplin and the coal fields around Pittsburg he decided to build a smelter at the latter place. Cheap and abundant fuel was the deciding factor in his decision. In those days slack coal could be purchased at fifty cents a ton, delivered. Zinc smelters must be located as closely as possibly to an ample supply of cheap fuel. A smelter operated at a profit must produce from eight to ten tons of metallic zinc a day. It required about three tons of ore to produce one ton
35. The University Geological Survey of Kansas, v. 8, p. 20.
36. W. E. Connelley. A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, v. 2, p. 1007.
37. Register of Deeds, Crawford county, book E, p. 108.
282 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of metallic zinc and about six tons of coal to smelt one ton of ore. Lanyon located his smelter in the east part of Pittsburg and at once commenced the construction of the plant.38 The progress made in building the plant, its capacity, and the interest taken in its con- struction can be traced in the Girard Press:
"The oven for cooking the ore is being laid up and will soon be ready. Two furnaces will be put in operation and then two more will be built."39 "Mr. Lanyon says he thinks he will have one furnace in operation by the first week in June."40 "It is expected that the Lanyon smelter will produce about twelve tons per day and from thirty to fifty hands will be employed."41
The plant was soon completed, and during August seven cars of zinc were shipped.42
The Robert Lanyon smelter was a success and established the fact that Pittsburg was a suitable place for carrying on smelting operations on a large scale. By the end of two years this pioneer smelter and a companion plant at Weir City, eleven miles away, were doing a large volume of business. According to the govern- ment report for 1880 they were the only smelters in Kansas. They employed 180 men, with a pay roll of $110,000, and produced spelter worth $254,000.43
The success of the Robert Lanyon smelter soon brought other smelters to Pittsburg. In 1881 came the firm of S. H. Lanyon and Brother; and also that of W. and J. Lanyon. Each organization constructed a plant of about eight tons daily capacity. In 1882 the Granby Mining and Smelting Company, with mines at Joplin, built a smelter in the north part of Pittsburg.
The position occupied by Pittsburg during the early eighties in the zinc-smelting industry of the United States was shown by the following quotation from the Missouri Geological Survey: "In 1882, according to the Mineral Resources of the United States, three plants were in operation in Illinois; five in Kansas (four in Pittsburg and one in Weir City) ; and five in Missouri."44
The smelters ran practically all the time, nights and Sundays, as well as week days. Shutdowns were infrequent, as the following quotation illustrates: "The large furnace at the Granby 's, which
38. Interview, E. V. Lanyon, Pittsburg, Kan. Formerly smelter operator. President of the National Bank of Pittsburg.
89. Girard Press, April 18, 1878.
40. Ibid., May 16, 1878.
41. Ibid., May 23, 1878.
42. Ibid., Jan. 9, 1879.
43. Compendium of Tenth Census of the United States, part 2, p. 971.
44. Missouri Geological Survey, 1894, v. 6, p. 302.
HOWELL: INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF PITTSBURG 283
has held fire for more than three years, was shut down last Tuesday for necessary repairs."45
It is difficult to obtain facts relative to the output and pay rolls of the smelters, regardless of location. The Pittsburg Kansan of December 4, 1889, contained the following: "The daily production of metallic zinc by the smelters is 90,000 pounds, and the annual pay roll amounts to $180,000." Again the Pittsburg Kansan of August 20, 1890, gives the production of the different smelters for the week ending August 16, 1890:
R. Lanyon & Co 188,000 pounds
S. H. Lanyon & Co.. 96,000 pounds
W. and J. Lanyon 97,000 pounds
Granby Mining and Smelting Company 95,000 pounds
The next smelter concerns to enter the Pittsburg field were the Cherokee Zinc Company and the St. Louis Zinc Company, during the fall of 1889. Their entrance into the field was on terms some- what different from those which brought the other companies. These two concerns sought a bonus for locating in the city. On October 9, 1889, the Board of Trade of Pittsburg entered into contracts with these companies providing for a bonus of $15,000 each. In con- sideration of that amount each company agreed to construct and operate a plant for a period of one year.46 The Cherokee Zinc Com- pany was primarily a Lanyon organization; the list of stockholders of the St. Louis and Pittsburg Zinc Company contained the names of several persons prominent in the development of Pittsburg.47 Construction of both plants was commenced in the spring of 1890 and rushed to completion within a few months. While these plants were being built the Granby Mining and Smelting Company in- creased the capacity of its plant by the addition of more furnaces.48
The St. Louis and Pittsburg Company, especially, experienced dif- ficulty in housing its employees. In order to meet this condition it was necessary for the company to build houses of its own, and within a short time it had twenty buildings under construction.49
During the early nineties the Pittsburg zinc smelters reached their greatest output. The following table shows the size of the Kansas smelters and the production of each; also the output of the two other large zinc-producing states, for the year 1893 :
45. Pittsburg Headlight, Oct. 2, 1886.
46. Pittsburg Kansan, Oct. 9, 1889.
47. Ibid., April 9, 1890.
48. Ibid., Sept. 9, 1891.
49. Ibid., Sept. 10, 1891.
284 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Number Number Output^
NAME. furnaces. retorts. approximate.
R. Lanyon & Co 10 960 3,500 tons
S. H. Lanyon & Bro 6 672 2,500 tons
W. and J. Lanyon 6 672 2,500 tons
The Cherokee Zinc Co 12 1,344 3,500 tons
The Granby M. & S. Co 6 672 2,500 tons
St. Louis and Pittsburg 8 896 3,000 tons
Girard Zinc Co 12 1,344 3,000 tons
Weir City Zinc Co 14 1,568 3,750 tons
State of Illinois 27,000 tons
State of Missouri .... 16,000 tons50
During the same year, 1893, there were twenty-five active zinc smelters in the United States, distributed as follows: Illinois, 4; Indiana, 1; Kansas, 9; Missouri, 4; Pennsylvania, 2; all other states, 5.51 Of the nine smelters in Kansas, six were located in Pittsburg. Pittsburg did not long continue as the leading spelter-producing city. By the middle nineties the natural gas fields of southeast Kansas were being developed rapidly. These gas fields offered a fuel cheaper than coal. Many towns in the gas field were reaching out for industrial plants. Free gas, or gas at a very low cost, was offered them. This played havoc with the zinc smelters, as well as with some other industries, in the coal fields. Pittsburg began to lose its smelters. Soon all but two were gone. These two, the St. Louis and Pittsburg and the Cockerill smelters, continued to operate for a time on coal. Soon they were forced to close down because they could not meet competition. They remained closed until 1914, when the high price of spelter and the great demand enabled them to operate again. They continued to operate for a period of three years, after which they were closed down and dismantled.
The closing of the zinc smelters was a severe blow to Pittsburg. It was followed by a loss in population of about 2,500 and a pay roll of approximately $25,000 a month.52
In addition to the zinc smelters Pittsburg numbered a silver smelter among its industries for a few years. During the summer of 1890 some men looking for a suitable place for locating a silver smelter visited Pittsburg. They were attracted by cheap coal and the desire of the citizens for additional industrial plants. After looking the field over they decided to locate if sufficient aid in es- tablishing the plant could be obtained from local citizens. After a few days' negotiations between the visitors and the Pittsburg Corn- so. Missouri Geological Survey, 1894, v. 7, pp. 495-496.
61. /bid., vol. 6, p. 246.
62. Interview, E. V. Lanyon.
HOWELL: INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF PITTSBURG 285
mercial Club an agreement was reached and a formal contract was entered into.
This agreement between the Pittsburg Commercial Club and the Short Method Refining Company of Pittsburg provided that the smelter company should refine not less than twenty tons of refrac- tory ores at Pittsburg daily for a period of three years; and that the Commercial Club should erect a suitable building on a five-acre tract, which was to be donated, and supply $2,000 to be expended in the construction of furnaces. In addition, the smelter company agreed to install machinery in the amount of $16,000.53
The smelter company started construction work without delay, but was slow in completing the plant. Not until September, 1891, was it put into operation.
The Commercial Club was equally slow in paying its bonus. The day before the expiration of a "six months" clause of the contract, it lacked $750 of the amount due the smelter company. That night it held a meeting for the purpose of raising the amount due. Two hundred dollars was raised from those present. As a means of en- thusing others arrangements were made to run a special train to the plant the next morning. About one hundred men took advantage of the excursion. The enthusiasm of the occasion raised another $100. On returning to Pittsburg a committee raised the balance, $450, in about three hours.54
The silver smelter operated at a profit for some four years. It shut down for want of operating capital, due to the fact that the ore-purchasing agent had managed to get hold of most of the money in the treasury through fraudulent invoices and other means and had left for parts unknown. The plant shut down, never to reopen. Fortunately for the stockholders, the plant had earned and had paid to them in dividends during its period of operation more than the stock had cost.
The silver smelter was not a financial success for its owners, nor did it add materially to the pay roll of the town. But it was con- sidered to have performed a valuable service for the town in ad- vertising it and in furthering business enthusiasm.55
53. Pittsburg Kansan, Aug. 27, 1890.
54. The Pittsburg Daily Headlight, May 20, 1891.
55. Interview, J. H. Seeley, Pittsburg, Kan. Retired building contractor. Stockholder in the silver smelter.
286 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
THE HULL AND DILLON PACKING PLANT.
The beginning of the Hull and Dillon Packing Plant is set forth in the following story related by Lewis Hull.
In the fall of 1885 Hull found himself in Pittsburg, Kan., full of ambition to enter the meat business, but lacked the funds to do so even on a very modest scale. However, he managed to secure on credit a location and to provide himself with meager equipment. To get a supply of meat he rode out into the country to the homes of two farmers with whom he had a slight acquaintance. From one he bought a cow, from the other a hog. He told each to call at his shop the following Monday for his pay.
The two animals were slaughtered and the meat was placed on sale. That was Saturday. The first day's sales brought Hull twenty-eight dollars and left about half of the meat. The cash receipts of the first day's business paid for the cow and the hog. He then bought another cow and hog on the same basis. The meat was readily sold and from that time on he was able to pay cash for the beeves and hogs as he bought them.
At the time Hull opened his shop all sausage, bologna and other smoked meats sold in Pittsburg were shipped in from Kansas City. Hull saw an opportunity for increasing his earning by smoking his own meats. But he had neither a smoke house nor money with which to build one worth while. The problem was met by the purchase of a hogshead, which Hull converted into a smoke house and put into operation. Within a short time he was selling home- cured sausage, bologna, hams and bacon. Increased trade forced Hull to secure larger quarters. At this time he was joined by his brother-in-law, Thomas Dillon.56 In the new, modest, but up-to- date meat market was laid the foundation of the packing plant located, in 1891, west of the city on the banks of Cow creek.
The plant was put into operation in the fall of 1891 and its first kill was ten beeves and thirty hogs.5T From time to time it was enlarged. During the year 1925 a large addition was made by rais- ing the main building from one story to three stories. Again in 1928, a twenty-thousand-dollar addition was made. The buildings and yards then occupied about fourteen acres. The plant was elec- trically equipped and the refrigeration system was modern through- out.
56. Interview, Lewis Hull, Pittsburg, Kan. President, Hull and Dillon Packing Company. 67. Ibid.
HOWELL: INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF PITTSBURG 287
Two government inspectors were stationed at the plant. The duty of one, a veterinarian, was to inspect each animal to be slaugh- tered. The duty of the other was to inspect the meats and the sanitation of the buildings, yards and equipment.
The value of the plant to the community and surrounding terri- tory is best indicated by its volume of business. The average daily kill for some years has been one hundred hogs and twenty-five beeves. During the year 1928, 30,000 hogs, 7,500 beeves and 200 sheep, all purchased from the farmers and stockmen of the trade territory, were slaughtered. In addition, several hundred head of cattle were bought and shipped to other packing plants. Approxi- mately $1,187,000 was paid to the producers. Market prices were based on Kansas City markets, less freight differential.
The company employed in the neighborhood of one hundred men throughout the year, with no "shutdowns." Nine salesmen were kept on the road (1930). The business has had a steady growth from year to year. During 1929 the volume of business reached the million-dollar mark, with a payroll of a hundred thousand dollars.
In order to reach its customers as promptly as possible Hull and Dillon instituted truck delivery service in 1918 to all accessible points in its trade territory. With the extension of good roads truck delivery was increased until the entire local territory was covered. In 1915 regular shipments of lard were made to London, England. Some by-products which were not produced in sufficient quantities to justify conversion into finished products were sold to other manu- facturing concerns. Since 1920 all hides have been shipped to the International Shoe Company, St. Louis, and all grease has been sold to the Procter & Gamble Company, Chicago.
The company has operated, since 1922, a 1,200-acre grain and stock farm in connection with the packing plant. This farm was secured for the purpose of taking care of all stock that the packing plant could not at once consume. This enabled the company to purchase all cattle offered and to put all unconditioned beeves in condition for local slaughter or shipment to other markets. Several hundred head of cattle have been handled on the farm each year.58
In 1918 Lewis Hull bought Dillon's interest in the plant and in- corporated the business with a capital of $150,000. E. D. Henne- berry became associated with the company in 1921 and assumed a large part of the management of the business. Lewis Hull con-
68. Interview, E. D. Henneberry, Pittsburg, Kan. Vice president Hull and Dillon Pack- ing Company.
288 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
tinued to take an active part in the management. His greatest interest was in the killing and curing departments, over which he exercised full personal supervision, despite his seventy-five years. Hull's hobby remained, January, 1930, what it was more than forty years before, curing and smoking hams, bacon and sausage — the three products that played the greatest part in building the Hull and Dillon business.59
The management of the Hull and Dillon Packing Company had more than passing interest in the welfare of its employees. After the fall of 1923 night classes for the benefit of the employees were sponsored by the company. These classes were organized by and were a part of the work of the State Teachers College under the Smith-Hughes act. Such classes met at regular intervals for class instruction. The average attendance was about thirty. In this work the regular college professors were aided by several lec- turers from Kansas City and Chicago furnished by the Institute of American Meat Packers. Full credit was given by the State Teach- ers College for all work completed. As a closing exercise for each year's work the packing company gave a banquet to its employee- students. The expense of these night classes from the beginning was borne by the packing company.60
The social life of the employees also received consideration and attention. This was furthered by the Hull Club, organized among the employees and sponsored by them. Through this organization many social activities were carried on. The crowning event of the social functions of the year was the annual picnic, given by the company to its employees.
Economic" assistance and protection was provided for employees. Group insurance written by one of the large companies was in force for all after 1926. Each employee carried insurance to the amount of $2,000. Foremen carried $3,500. Half the cost of the insurance was borne by the company.
It has been the policy of the company to maintain close personal relations with employees. Some of its workmen have been with the concern for more than twenty-five years. In recognition the Institute of American Meat Packers has presented each of these with a silver medal.61
59. Interview, Lewis Hull.
60. Ibid., Interview, J. A. Yates, head of Department of Physics and Chemistry, Kansas State Teachers College of Pitteburg.
61. Interview, E. D. Heimebeny.
HOWELL: INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF PITTSBURG 289
CLAY PRODUCTS INDUSTRIES.
Since the early nineties Pittsburg has occupied a prominent place in the clay products industries of Kansas and the neighboring states. While some localities have exceeded it in volume, but few, if any, have excelled it in variety of products.
The history of brick making in Pittsburg dates back to the early history of the town. As early as 1878 it boasted of a fairly good plant. The Girard Press, January 16, 1879, said: "Steinmetz and Company are still making brick, their first kiln having turned out a complete success. You can count brick making one of the successful industries of Pittsburg, . . ."
The Steinmetz brickyard has long since passed away. It has been almost forgotten by even the oldest settlers of Pittsburg. The buildings for which it furnished the bricks have been replaced. But the economic fact that was established lived on in the vitrified brick plant, in the pottery plant and in the tile factory.
The immediate vicinity of Pittsburg contains extensive areas of clay, or shale, suitable for making a variety of clay products. This fact, combined with a cheap and abundant supply of coal resulted in building up an industry comparable with that of any other locality in the Southwest.
The value of the clay products factories to the community was well expressed by the following statement of facts for the year 1927, the only year for which data were available: Total number of employees, 275; total payroll, $275,277.25; total value of prod- ucts, $826,909.01. During the same year 2,486 cars of the output of the factories were shipped out of Pittsburg.62
The Pittsburg Paving and Building Brick Company, better known as the Nesch and Moore Brick Company, was the pioneer modern brick plant of Pittsburg. Previous to its establishment there was little or no real knowledge of the extent or the quality of the clay deposits in and around Pittsburg.
The establishment of this plant was the outgrowth of a casual circumstance. In 1890 John Moore, of Atchison, Kan., through the efforts of the Johnson Brothers, of the Pittsburg Town Company, visited Pittsburg. Moore knew something about clay. He observed that there were seemingly good deposits around Pittsburg. He made a study of the local industry and inspected the buildings
62. Data on file with the Chamber of Commerce (Pittsburg, Kan.) based on reports of individual companies.
19—3416
290 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
that had been constructed of local bricks. He became interested in the possibilities of a modern vitrified brick plant.
When Moore returned to Atchison he took with him sufficient clay for experimental purposes. He produced a few vitrified bricks.63 These were shown to Robert Nesch, a brick manufacturer of Atchi- son. Nesch, observing the quality of the sample bricks, at once became interested in Pittsburg clay. As a result, Nesch and Moore went to Pittsburg with the intention of establishing a brick plant if sufficient support was given them by the citizens of the town. They asked the city to agree to pave several blocks with their prod- uct. Their proposition was accepted and provision was made to pave some nine blocks with homemade vitrified brick.64
Some interesting facts relative to the first paving contract may be gleaned from the records of the city clerk. One is the fact that it authorized the mayor to sign a paving contract with Nesch and Moore before the ordinance authorizing the paving became effec- tive.65 Just why the city council acted as it did is problematic. Possibly its method was the "Pittsburg way" of securing the loca- tion of an industrial plant by means of a bonus paid through the taxing power of the city. Nesch and Moore at once commenced the construction of their plant on a ten-acre tract, a part of which was underlaid by a vein of coal, which was to furnish fuel for the kilns. The original plant was a small one. But the Pittsburg paving attracted so much attention that it soon was necessary to enlarge the plant in order to take care of the increased business. Additions to the plant continued until it attained a capacity of 100,000 paving bricks per day. It was completely equipped with modern brick-making machinery and kilns.
The brick plant enjoyed an exceptionally good trade in paving bricks from the time of the first kiln until brick paving and brick walks were supplanted years later by concrete. With the decline in the demand for paving bricks the plant turned its attention to building bricks, the sale of which met with good success. A market for its output was found throughout Kansas and western Missouri, and especially in Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo. Due to the fact that the early paving bricks stood the test of use they went into miles of pavement in Kansas City, Mo., during the late nineties, and 50,000,000 of them went into the Kansas City Stock- yards Company pavements.66
63. Pittsburg Kansan, Aug. 6, 1890.
64. Records Council Proceedings, book No. 1, pp. 818-345.
65. Session Laws, 1875, chap. 72, sec. 1.
Ho WELL: INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF PITTSBURG 291
After being operated by the Nesch interests for more than thirty years the brick plant was sold to the United Clay Products Com- pany, 1926, 67 and the business of the local plant was merged with that of the larger corporation. The Pittsburg plant was operated under the new organization for one year, when it was closed down, and has so remained.
The W. S. Dickey Clay Manufacturing Company, better known as the "Tile Factory," was established in 1899. One day in the spring of that year two practical brick and tile makers, W. L. Taylor and Charles Loose, arrived in Pittsburg in quest of a loca- tion where clay suitable for making hollow tile building blocks could be had. They were shown several possible sites, the most desirable being one where they thought the quality of the clay questionable. To dispel their doubts they were induced to ship a few bags of it back to Terre Haute to the tile factory with which they formerly had been connected. That was done and the two men soon fol- lowed the shipment.
About two weeks later Taylor and Loose returned to Pittsburg and stated they would establish a factory if sufficient local aid could be secured. They proposed to organize a company for making hol- low building tile with a paid-up capital of $25,000, if local citizens would take stock in the amount of $9,000. As an evidence of good faith they presented a draft in the amount of $16,000. The stock to be purchased by local men was subscribed for in one day's time by eight business men. A member of the stock-selling committee, who has been a resident of Pittsburg since 1878 and who has been in the real-estate business there for more than forty years, said the establishment of that industry was easier than any with which he had ever been connected.68
The general management of the business was placed in charge of a competent and experienced local business man; Loose and Taylor, the two principal stockholders, looked after the manufacturing end of the business. But the business did not prosper as expected. Prac- tically the entire capital of the company was expended for the site and for kilns and other equipment, with but a very limited work- ing capital. The plant earned enough to pay all operating expenses, allowing fair compensation for the three officials in charge; but it earned nothing for the stockholders. To make the business a profit-
66. Interview, J. J. Nesch, Pittsburg, Kan. Son of Robert Nesch, founder of the plant, connected with the brick plant from the early nineties to 1926.
67. Ibid.
68. Interview, C. A. Miller, Pittsburg, Kan. Realtor.
292 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
able one more working capital was necessary. The local stock- holders would not furnish this because they were not getting any returns on their investment. Taylor and Loose could not furnish more capital because they did not have it. As a result, all interested in the plant agreed to sell. A buyer was found in the person of Robert Nesch, then owner of the Pittsburg Vitrified Paving Brick Plant, who took it over at $25,000.69 Under the Nesch management the plant was converted primarily into a sewer-tile plant, after which it was sold, 1900, to the W. S. Dickey Clay Manufacturing Company,70 and became a unit of that larger organization.
Whatever possibilities Nesch and Dickey saw in the Pittsburg plant were realized, at least, in part. The plant was a growing and a successful concern after its transfer to Nesch, and later to the Dickey interests.71 From a plant of limited capacity it grew into one of 100 tons per day capacity by 1909, when the last addition to it was made.
An interesting fact in connection with the operation of the plant is that after 1920 the kilns were fired with oil, consuming per month the equivalent, approximately, of 773 to 833 tons of coal. Oil was used as fuel not because it was cheaper, but because the uncer- tainties associated with the coal-mine labor troubles did not enter into the supply of oil.
The products of the plant were sewer tile, hollow tile bricks, flue lining, ornamental flue caps and wall coping. Of these products sewer tile was the principal one after 1900. The company's trade territory was southern and western Kansas, Oklahoma and parts of Arkansas, Texas and New Mexico.
The value of the tile factory to Pittsburg is shown in part by the following facts. In 1929 the plant employed an average of one hundred and twenty-five men, about twenty of whom were skilled clay molders and burners. The annual pay roll approxi- mated $135,000 and the sales for several years exceeded $500,000 per year.72
The Pottery Plant was established principally as a community enterprise. The success of the other clay products plants suggested the possibility of additional uses for Pittsburg clay. Previous to 1910 numerous chemical and burning tests had been made in a small way with satisfactory results in the laboratories of the local
69. Ibid.
70. Interview, A. H. Schlanger, Pittsburg, Kan. Coal merchant.
71. Ibid.
72. Interview, W. L. Walter, Pittsburg, Kansas., local superintendent, W. S. Dickey Clay Manufacturing Company.
HOWELL: INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF PITTSBURG 293
state school. Also, samples of clay had been sent to kilns in Ohio, where they had been tested and approved.73
During the years 1911 and 1912 the problem of securing addi- tional industries for Pittsburg was an important one to many of its citizens. In the latter year the desire to see a pottery plant es- tablished took definite shape. A meeting of business men resulted in thirty- one of them agreeing to contribute sufficient money to construct and put into operation a small plant.74 The contributions amounted to $20,000, which was spent on a site, a one-kiln plant and a general-purpose building.75
The plant was put into operation in 1913,76 under the manage- ment of a capable superintendent, but the first burnings were not a success. This was due, as it was afterwards learned, to faulty con- struction of the kiln and not necessarily to lack of knowledge on the part of the superintendent. However, the owners set about at once to secure a new manager. In this many difficulties were ex- perienced. Failure seemed evident. Efforts were then made to in- terest eastern pottery plants in the local plant. The stockholders even offered to back the operation of the plant with their own money, sustaining any losses themselves that might occur, if some success- ful pottery company would take over and operate the local plant for a definite period. Failing in this, the stockholders finally offered to give the plant to an Ohio concern if it would agree to operate the plant for a definite time. The offer was accepted, but soon rejected.
So much confidence in the project had some of the stockholders that two committees made trips at their own expense to the pottery plants of Ohio and Illinois in quest of a competent superintendent. One was found, as they thought.77 But his lack of understanding of that particular kiln was a source of trouble for him and for the com- pany. That was not the only trouble that beset the plant. To it must be added serious labor troubles and discriminating freight rates.
For a while the plant struggled along, but in 1915 it went into the hands of a receiver and was closed for three years. It was then sold to a small group of citizens who completely reorganized the business. The first act of the new organization was to reconstruct the original and only kiln, which had been the principal cause of all
73. Interview, Prof. J. A. Yates.
74. Interview, A. H. Schlanger.
75. Ibid.
76. Pittsburg Daily Headlight, April 30, 1913.
77. Interview, A. H. Schlanger.
294 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the trouble. An aggressive campaign of expansion was entered upon. The plant was enlarged by the addition of three kilns, increased molding equipment and enlarged drying rooms. Happily, the en- largement of the plant and increased production facilities were fol- lowed by more favorable freight rates on clay products in that sec- tion. A reduction in freight rates, secured only after diligent ef- forts, enabled the Pittsburg plant to compete with the established plants elsewhere, and to build up a successful business.
The pottery plant produced a large variety of products, such as jugs, water jars, pitchers, measures, milk pans, sun dials, lawn vases, bird baths, garden jars, flower pots, cut-flower vases, jardinieres, etc. For these varied products sale was found in western Missouri, Kan- sas, western Arkansas, Texas Panhandle and that part of New Mexico on the Santa Fe lines. By 1925 Pittsburg had become such a pottery center for the above territory that the railroad tariffs on pottery goods were quoted from Pittsburg. During the same year truck delivery service was instituted by the pottery company throughout its territory within a radius of 135 miles.
The largest single purchaser of Pittsburg pottery was the Gift Shop and Necessity Company, Kansas City. The first shipment was made to this concern in 1926. Subsequent shipments amounted to thousands of dollars a year. The Gift Shop shipments consisted principally of cookie jars, salad bowls, chocolate jars, lemonade sets, ice-box jars, etc. All these different articles were retouched or re- decorated in Kansas City, and from there shipped to various parts of the United States and to some foreign countries.78
78. Interview, M. O. French, Pittsburg, Kan., president, Pittsburg Clay Products Com- pany.
Book Review
FRANKLIN PIERCE: YOUNG HICKORY OF THE GRANITE HILLS. By Roy Franklin Nichols. (Philadelphia, University of Pennsyl- vania Press, 1931. xvi + 615 pp. $5.)
A LIFE of Franklin Pierce (President 1853-'57) is an event of major importance in the literature of Kansas history, because hitherto no scholarly biography of the fourteenth President has been available. In Kansas tradition Pierce has received harsh treat- ment as the result of hostile partisanship based on the single issue of slavery in the territories. The balanced picture has been lack- ing. The present biography is written by a man who is thoroughly conversant with the period and has written The Democratic Ma- chine, 1850-'54 (New York, Columbia University Press, 1923) and "Jeremiah Sullivan Black" in The American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy, Vol. VI. (New York, A. A. Knopf, 1928.) Doctor Nichols is now professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania.
Franklin Pierce was born in the town of Hillsborough, New Hampshire, in 1804. He graduated from Bowdoin College and then took up the study of law and along with it the practice of politics as a Jacksonian Democrat. His father enjoyed some prominence in New Hampshire and was elected governor about the time Frank- lin was entering politics, so the rise of the younger Pierce was rela- tively easy. From 1838 to 1842 he was in congress, first the house and then the senate. During this period he married, and while this brought him much needed aristocratic social connections, it was in many respects unfortunate as his wife was afflicted with illness and a morbid Puritan conscience. Pierce retired from the senate be- fore the expiration of his term and set himself again to the practice of law and local politics. The Mexican War gave him an important military appointment, but he found that glory was elusive. The next three years (1849-'51), Professor Nichols concludes, were his years of greatest effectiveness. He was again in his familiar New Hampshire environment and virtually dictator in his party.
In 1852 Pierce was nominated for President as a dark horse and elected on the platform of the finality of the compromise of 1850. The preparation for his administration was embarrassed by insur- mountable problems of peaceful conciliation of factionalism, and the fact that Pierce was not recognized as the real party head. Of
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296 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
course, the party had no head, but he was not the leader even of an important faction. That was why he was available as a compromise candidate in 1852. Just before the inauguration the Pierces were overwhelmed by the tragic death of their small son in a railroad accident. This was no small factor in the inauspicious opening of the new administration. Professor Nichols tells the story of the next four years from the national point of view, making the story revolve around the White House as the pivot, and narrating the events as they unfolded to Pierce. The President had to balance factional quarrels over patronage, insistent business interests, land questions, the slavery issue, and foreign affairs and out of the conflict hope to insure the success of his administration and the well-being of the nation. Scandals and controversies in the western territories were an old, old story. Minnesota land graft appeared more important than the early stages of the Kansas land quarrels. Even after making allowances for Pierce's weaknesses, he appears primarily as a victim of circumstances ; the break-up of the Democratic party, the realign- ment of political forces which proved to be creating a new political party, and the unscrupulous tactics of some of the antislavery-Re- publican politicians who were more interested in advancing their political fortunes than in contributing to a peaceful settlement of the Kansas question. This last point Nichols hints at, but does not de- velop as he might have done from Kansas sources. Pierce tried sin- cerely to maintain an impartial national administration. After re- tirement from office, he traveled awhile and then settled down in New Hampshire. The abuse that was heaped upon him during the Civil War period is one of the things which the American people may well wish to forget. He died in 1869.
A biographer has a choice of two general courses in treating his subject. He may write what is essentially a history of the period with the subject as the chief character, or he may confine himself to personal narrative, recording the interaction between the man and his environment, but assuming that the latter is already known to the reader. Professor Nichols has chosen the second course, which has the advantage of permitting a more intimate personal portrayal of the individual, but which is somewhat disappointing in its larger contributions to the solution of historical problems. Professor Nichols has saturated himself in the atmosphere of New Hampshire and Washington and has been able to fill in the personal record so completely that at times Pierce can be followed in detail in his daily routine. Of course, at other times there are unfortunate gaps in the
MALIN: BOOK REVIEW 297
materials at critical points, which are no fault of the author. Nichols has based his book primarily on manuscript collections and news- paper files, many of which have never been used before for a major historical study. On the personal side of Pierce's career, therefore, a large part of the detail of this biography is new.
The student of Kansas history cannot but be a little disappointed in the book. The balanced picture of the man Pierce and his ad- ministration are important contributions, but scarcely any major political problem is solved. It scarcely need be said that Nichols would have had a surer grasp on the Kansas question if he had used the files of Kansas newspapers and the manuscript collections of the Kansas State Historical Sfociety. Governer Reeder's land deals would have been clearer in the light of his own records of holdings in Indian lands and townsite companies. The governor showed no partisanship in accumulating shares in both proslavery and anti- slavery towns.
Pierce's sincere devotion to the Union is one of his outstanding characteristics. He felt that its preservation could be accomplished only by mutual concessions, by moderation and compromise. His public adherence to the principle underlying popular sovereignty dates from 1846 when he assisted in framing the following resolution in the New Hampshire state Democratic convention :
"That the policy to be pursued in reference to slavery rests with the states and territories within which it exists — that whatever parties may profess, it is only as citizens of such states and territories that the members of those parties can influence that policy — and that angry external agitation, by exciting the prejudices of the slaveholding communities, while it may endanger the Union tends rather to fasten than to destroy the bonds of the enslaved."
This is one of the earliest known statements of the idea as applied to the territories and in the light of this resolution Pierce's consist- ency is clear on the compromise of 1850, the platform of 1852 and the Kansas question. — JAMES C. MALIN.
Kansas History as Published in the State Press
"Early Days in Oskaloosa," by Francis Henry Roberts, is being published serially in current issues of the Oskaloosa Independent.
"A Pioneer Relates of Bison Hunts in the 60's," by John G. Ellen- becker, was the title of an interview with W. M. McCanles pub- lished in the Marshall County News, Marysville, December 25, 1931.
The story of a furrow plowed by Jos. G. McCoy from the Red river to Abilene was recalled by Frank D. Smith in a brief article in the Coffeyville Daily Journal, January 1, 1932. Mr. McCoy used only cattle power to make this furrow as a marker for a new cattle trail.
"Some Experiences of an Amateur Officer of the Law" were re- counted by David D. Leahy, former United States marshal located in Wichita, in the January 3, 1932, issue of the Wichita Sunday Eagle. "How the Buffalo Hunters Fought a War of Their Own," was the title of a narrative of the Staked Plains war against the Comanche Indians, by Paul I. Wellman in the same issue. Several Kansas buffalo hunters were among the participants in this skir- mish in the Texas Panhandle in the spring of 1877. Other stories of the Wellman series which are regular weekly features of the Eagle included such names as Gen. George Custer, Crazy Horse, Rain-in- the-Face, Sitting Bull and Kit Carson. A biographical sketch of William Patrick Hackney, an attorney for the vigilantes during the frontier days of south-central Kansas, was another article of his- torical interest in this issue. It was contributed by Bob Herrick.
The Lincoln Sentinel-Republican observed its forty-fourth birth- day, January 7, 1932, with a short sketch of the newspaper's his- tory featured in its columns. Supplementary historical data on Lincoln county newspapers as recorded in the Souvenir History of Lincoln County (1908), by Elizabeth N. Barr, was published Jan- uary 28.
At the beginning of its fifty-third year, January 7, 1932, The Rooks County Record, Stockton, published several letters from old subscribers telling of their pioneering experiences.
Interviewing celebrities in the "Golden Age of Journalism" was a venturesome task to David D. Leahy. In a two-column article on
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KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS. 299
"Great Kansans of Past Had Many Humorous Quirks" Mr. Leahy related some of his experiences for the Wichita Sunday Eagle, Jan- uary 10, 1932.
The First Presbyterian church of Arkansas City celebrated its fifty-ninth anniversary, January 12, 1932. Finley Marshall, one of the pioneer members, spoke of the "Little White Church," north of the present edifice, where he and others attended as early as 1877. Historical notes of the church were published in the Daily Traveler and Tribune.
A sketch of the growth and development of Independence and Montgomery county was given in a talk by Donald W. Stewart, attorney and state commander of the American Legion, at the dedicatory program of Montgomery county's new courthouse Jan- uary 11, 1932. The speech was printed in the Independence Daily Reporter, January 12.
The twentieth anniversary edition of the University Daily Kan- san, official student publication of Kansas University, Lawrence, made its appearance on January 17, 1932. Early university pub- lications, present occupations of former staff members and historical matter pertaining to the university and its school of journalism were discussed in this issue.
A resume of the contents of The Kansas Plainsman, May 20, 1876, an early Russell newspaper, was published in The Russell County News, Russell, January 21, 1932. An issue of the Russell Hawkeye, for March 29, 1883, was similarly reviewed in the Jan- uary 28 issue of the News. Names of many pioneers were men- tioned in these articles.
The first of a series of Cheyenne county pioneer editions was pub- lished by the Bird City Times, January 21, 1932. Old settlers' reminiscences were featured, with many pioneers contributing. "Cheyenne County in 1885," by James G. Butler; photographs of Benjamin Bird and Frances L. Emerson, for whom Bird City and St. Francis were named; histories of Wheeler, Kan., and the early county schools were the edition's highlights.
Tales of early Waterville as told to Waterville high-school stu- dents by Mrs. F. P. Thome and "Mike" Delaney, pioneers, were printed in the January 21, 1932, issue of the Telegraph.
A series of articles reminiscent of early-day Kansans and other historical figures of the past and present, by Dave D. Leahy, is pub-
300 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
lished regularly in the Wichita Sunday Eagle. The articles com- menced with the January 24, 1932, issue. Sketches include such persons as Sen. Hiram Johnson, William Jennings Bryan, General Weaver and Judge Willis in the January 24 issue ; Ernest Thompson Seton, John L. Sullivan, Ned Turnley, January 31 ; Pat McDonald, Seth M. Tucker, February 7; James Cardinal Gibbons and a dis- cussion of Friar de Padilla, reputedly the first white man to settle in Kansas in 1541, February 14; George Washington, February 21; Col. Henry Watterson, Senator W. A. Clark, February 28, and St. Patrick, March 13.
Reno county celebrated its sixtieth birthday anniversary Tuesday, January 26, 1932, as the opening day's feature of Farm and Home Week, promoted by the Hutchinson Herald and News. "The Romance of Reno/' a historical pageant representing a decade of development in Reno county, was presented. H. S. Lyman was the oldest settler of Reno county who attended the anniversary fes- tivities. He came to the county in April, 1871. Salt jacks of pioneer times were feted the second day of the week's program. Special recognition was given to Marion Foster, one of the men who drilled the first salt well in Hutchinson. On Thursday, A. W. McCandless, first teacher at Sherman school in Hutchinson in the 70's, was the guest of honor at the pioneer school gathering. The hog callers, cow callers, bullwhackers, cowboys and bone pickers were all af- forded opportunities to meet with their contemporaries on this day. Native Kansans of the county celebrated Kansas Day on January 29. Two native territorial Kansans were in attendance. They were John S. Simmons, Hutchinson attorney, who was born in Douglas county in August, 1860, and Mrs. Clara L. Barker, who was born in what is now Chase county on June 28, 1860. The Reno county 4-H clubs sponsored Saturday's finale.
The first radio founders' day program of Kansas State college was broadcast February 16, 1932, from KSAC. The present college was founded as Bluemont college. It was taken over by the state in 1863. The Kansas Industrialist, Manhattan, published brief biographical sketches of the founders in its issue of January 27.
How Henry Brown, sheriff of Douglas county, Rev. H. D. Fisher, Methodist minister, and Lawyer S. A. Riggs escaped the vengeance of the Quantrill raiders at Lawrence, August 23, 1863, was told by Lewis Brown, son of the pioneer sheriff, to the Hutchinson News January 27, 1932. Mr. Brown was only a few weeks old when the
KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS. 301
massacre occurred, and his recollection of the affair came from his parents' description.
A short history of Mayetta as summarized from E. J. Lunger's speech to the Mayetta high school January 22, 1932, was published in the Holton Signal, January 28.
More than 100 Russell citizens, all of whom have been residents of Kansas for fifty years or over, were invited as guests of honor at a program sponsored by the Russell Cosmos Club, January 29, 1932. The names and short biographical sketches of a few of these early settlers were included in news accounts published in the Russell Record, January 28 and February 1, and The Russell County News, Russell, February 4.
Hardships of early-day Kansans were related by Mrs. E. F. Brown in the Liberal News of January 29, 1932. Mrs. Brown came to Kansas in 1857, locating near Emporia, and recalls the sacking of Lawrence and other territorial incidents. She removed to Seward county in 1885 and is reputed to be the county's first school teacher.
Residents of Salina who preceded the railroad into the city in May, 18.67, were honored by the Saline county chapter, Native Daughters of Kansas, at its annual Kansas Day dinner, January 29, 1932. The names of this historical group published in the Salina Journal January 30 were assembled by Mrs. Effie Campbell, secretary of the Saline County Historical Association.
The history of the Mennonites, "their trials, persecutions and triumphs," was briefly sketched in The Mennonite Story, a 24-page illustrated booklet issued in February, 1932, by Bethel College, of Newton. Particular note was made of the Kansas settlements. Hundreds of these immigrants were carried across the continent in special trains, settling chiefly in Marion, Harvey, McPherson and Reno counties. The material was compiled by A. J. Graber.
A series of historical sketches of Wabaunsee county and Kansas, by F. L. Hodgson, are featured in current issues of the Harveyville Monitor. The first installment was published February 4, 1932. "Trouble With the Indians," "The Theft of Brain's Horse," "Charlie — the Slave," and "A Meal for a Tanning," are characteristic sub- titles for these articles.
Mrs. Julia M. Winters, who settled in Sedgwick county on October 16, 1872, told of early-day life in south central Kansas in the Hal- stead Independent, February 4, 1932.
302 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The February 5, 1932, edition of the Leon News was edited by members of the Leon Methodist church in connection with the cele- bration of "Booster Sunday," February 7. Church sketches of a historical nature were featured.
A short history of the Emporia Kansas State Teachers College appeared in the February 12, 1932, issue of The Bulletin, the official student publication. The college was founded as the Kansas State Normal School February 15, 1865.
A brief sketch and photograph of the old mill erected by J. M. Piazzek at Grasshopper Falls (Valley Falls) in 1855, was a feature of the Topeka Daily Capital, February 14, 1932. C. C. Nicholson was the contributor.
Fifty years ago in the West were recalled by George M. De Tilla in a lengthy newspaper article in The Western Times, Sharon Springs, for February 18 and 25, 1932. Mr. De Tilla is a former cowpuncher, stage driver, miner and railroad worker.
Russian German Settlements in the United States, written in German by Dr. Richard Sallett, was translated by Judge J. C. Ruppenthal and the parts pertaining to Kansas were reprinted in The Russell County News, Russell, in its issues of February 18, 25 ; March 10 and 24, 1932.
A biographical sketch of Thomas Byrne, a Dickinson county pioneer, written by Mrs. Mary Byrne Clennan, a granddaughter, was published in the Chapman Advertiser, February 18, 1932. Other biographical articles followed in succeeding issues. A sketch of the life of Michael Cogan was contributed by Mary Cogan, his daughter, in the February 25 issue; Mrs. Fred Pierce wrote of her pioneering experiences in Kansas in the March 3 edition ; a story of Jack Nash was featured March 10, and an account of the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Scott E. Poor, by a son, William Poor, was published March 17 and 24.
"Old Osage Mission" at St. Paul, was the subject of a historical sketch in the Wichita Evening Eagle from February 19 to March 3, 1932. Rev. Wm. Schaefers contributed the series.
A brief history of Sod Town, now Stafford, by Helen Akin, ap- peared in the Wichita Sunday Eagle, February 21, 1932. Many early-day settlers were named in the article.
An "Honor Roll of Old Settlers" of Seward county was prepared by Abe K. Stoufer for the Liberal News, February 23, 1932.
KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS. 303
The Kingman Journal took official note of Kingman county's fifty-eighth birthday on February 27, 1932. A short sketch of the county's organization and settlement was published March 11.
The sixtieth anniversary jubilee of the building of the first rail- road up the Arkansas valley was observed with a week of festivities in Hutchinson, February 29 to March 5, 1932. Sixty years ago, Hutchinson, Sterling, Dodge City and many other cities of the valley were born. Monday, February 29, the citizens of Hutchinson and their guests buried "Old Man Depression." Tuesday, pioneers of the 70's, later settlers of the 80's and 90's, and youngsters of the 1900's were garbed alike in the costumes of the early settlers. Transportation day on Wednesday brought out everything from the travois of the Indian tribes of the prairie down to the airplanes that soar over the wheat belt to-day on the air lines. The Santa Fe displayed one of the first engines used in the valley in 1872, and placed near it one of the larger locomotives of to-day. The Rock Island also featured a transportation display. Old-time handpump handcars manned by typical crews of Irish paddies, operated on the trolley tracks. Labor and industry celebrated their progress Thursday, and Friday was the official farm and grain day. Satur- day was junior jubilee day. The event was well advertised in the newspapers of the valley, particularly in the Hutchinson Herald and News.
"Tribulations of an Early Day Editor," by H. S. Givler, was a column feature of the Western Kansas World, Wakeeney, on March 3, 1932, its fifty-third birthday anniversary edition. Mr. Givler was editor of the World from 1894 to 1919.
The March 3, 1932, seventh anniversary edition of the Douglas County Republican, Lawrence, was dedicated to Charles Sumner Finch, Kansas pioneer editor, now a member of the Republican's staff. Mr. Finch entered newspaper work in the fall of 1880 with the purchase of a part interest in the Harper Times. Since then he has been associated with many newspapers in Kansas and Missouri. The edition contained tributes from his friends and associates.
Prominent citizens of Florence, Peabody and Marion were named by Helen Akin in a three-column historical sketch which appeared in the Wichita Eagle, March 4, 1932.
Kansas Historical Notes
The Wabaunsee County Historical Society was reorganized Janu- ary 23, 1932, in a meeting at Alma. Officers elected were: Wm. Pringle, president; Dr. H. J. Wertzberger, vice president and cura- tor; 0. W. Little, secretary-treasurer.
The first observance of a "Kansas Week" leading up to and fol- lowing Kansas Day was introduced at Chanute January 25 to 30, 1932. It was intended to emphasize traditions, institutions and natural assets of the state. Under the direction of the late Esther Clark Hill the Chanute library prepared special Kansas displays for its bulletin board. The Chanute Tribune published during the week a series of articles by well-known Kansans. On Monday, a letter from Gov. Harry H. Woodring introduced the event. Tues- day, Carl P. Bolmar, artist, sketched the history of art in the state. Kansas flowers, as discussed by William C. Stevens, were featured on Wednesday. Thursday, Kansas newspaper history was reviewed by George A. Root. "A Kansas Chamber of Truth and Beauty" was advocated by William Allen White in the fifth article. And, in the sixth, Kirke Mechem, secretary of the Kansas State His- torical Society, wrote of the activities of the Society in preserving historical material.
Washburn College, Topeka, observed its sixty-seventh anniver- sary February 8, 1932. A special Founder's Day program was held, with Justice John S. Dawson, president of the Kansas State Historical Society, as the principal speaker.
Members of the Shawnee Mission Indian Historical Society were entertained at the Chatham hotel, Kansas City, Mo., February 13, by Mrs. Edna Anderson and Mrs. Cora E. Fuller, daughters of Rev. Thomas Johnson, founder of the Methodist Shawnee Mission. Kirke Mechem, secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, was a speaker.
The First Baptist church of Topeka celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary the week of March 1-6, 1932. The church was or- ganized March 1, 1857, with six charter members: Jesse Stone, Sarah E. Miller, Charles A. Bliss, Joseph C. Miller, William Jordan and Christopher Fitzgerald. The reading of the church history was featured Thursday night.
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THE
Kansas Historical Quarterly
Volume 1 Number 4
August, 1932
PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT
B. P. WALKER, STATE PRINTER
TOPEKA 1932
14-4823
Contributors
CORTEZ A. M. EWING is associate professor of government at the University of Oklahoma and is acting chairman of the board of edi- tors of the Southwestern Social Science Quarterly. He collaborated with R. J. Dangerfield in compiling a collection of documentary sources entitled Source Book in American Government (D. C. Heath & Co., 1931).
MARVIN H. GARFIELD is instructor of history in Roosevelt Inter- mediate School, Wichita.
PAUL I. WELLMAN is a feature editor for the Wichita Eagle who has specialized on Indian battles of the Southwest.
LELA BARNES is a member of the staff of the Kansas State Historical Society.
DOMENIOO GAGLIARDO is associate professor of economics at the Uni- versity of Kansas.
NOTE. — Articles in the Quarterly appear in chronological order with- out regard to their importance.
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Early Kansas Impeachments
CORTEZ A. M. EWING
THE first Kansas impeachments occurred in 1862. Kansas was admitted to statehood in January, 1861, under the Wyandotte constitution, the fourth constitution that had been framed in antici- pation of admission.1 It is not my purpose here to enter into a dis- cussion of the struggle over slavery that dominated the politics of that territory following the passage of the fateful Kansas-Nebraska act. The archives of Kansas history are indeed rich in memoirs and personal accounts of survivors of those bitter days. In addition, historians were quick to perceive that there along the Kaw and the Missouri the Civil War, from point of fact, was waged in miniature, but in no diminished degree of violence, long before the actual firing on Sumter.
The story of "bleeding" Kansas is one of a clash of conflicting political ideas, of different social mores, and of personal aspirations of politicians, scrupulous and otherwise. The histories of the Ameri- can frontier have failed to stress sufficiently the dependence placed upon political action and ballot solution of problems by those sparsely settled communities. The bitter character of Kansas pol- itics did not vanish when the proslavery supporters became hope- lessly outnumbered. The preponderant antislavery majority de- veloped schisms scarcely less acrid than the controversy over slavery. For instance, though the Republican party came to encompass most of the voters of the territory, there appeared two strong factions which struggled for control and leadership of the party. Charles Robinson and James H. Lane were the leaders of these factions ; and the rivalry between these leaders, more than anything else, pro- duced the three impeachment trials of 1862.
Charles Robinson was a product of Puritan New England, having been born in Massachusetts in 1818. 2 According to the standards of his time, Robinson received a good education. He attended both the academy and the college at Amherst and, as a matter of fact,
1. These constitutions were named after the towns in which the respective conventions were held, and were, in order of origin, the Topeka (1855), Lecompton (1857), Leavenworth (1858), and Wyandotte (1859).
2. The most exhaustive work on Robinson is Prof. F. W. Blackmar's The Life of Charles Robinson. See, also. "Genealogy of Charles Robinson," Kansas Historical Collections, v. IX, p. 377; F. W. Blackmar, "Charles Robinson," ibid., v. VI, pp. 187-202; F. W. Blackmar, "A Chapter in the Life of Charles Robinson, the First Governor of Kansas," Annual Report of the American Historical Association, 1894, pp. 213-226.
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he taught three terms of secondary school before he began the study of medicine. After studying under some of the famous New Eng- land doctors, he started his career as a general practitioner in Belch- ertown, Massachusetts, in 1843. Two years later he moved to Springfield and, in the year following, to Fitchburg, where he built up a large general practice — too large, in fact, for his health failed and he was forced to take a vacation. His vacation plans took him to California in 1849. Others were there for decidedly different rea- sons. In Massachusetts, Robinson had entered actively into church and school work. In California, his political interests broadened and his cultural interests narrowed. There he took up the struggle which the squatter settlers were waging against the large landhold- ers. Politics proved too engrossing and Robinson was never able to return undisturbed to the practice of medicine.
Robinson was a member of the California legislature in 1851, but later in the same year he returned to Massachusetts. There he en- tered the field of journalism, and in 1854 he became affiliated with the Emigrant Aid Society and was sent to Kansas to look after the interests of that company. Robinson's part in Kansas politics from 1854 to 1860 have been too well recounted to need recapitulation here.3 Though always opposing slavery, he consistently advised against the employment of radical offensive measures. His con- servatism was not always popular with the rank and file of the anti- slavery settlers ; yet, when state officers were chosen under the Wy an- dotte constitution in December, 1859, Robinson was elected gov- ernor.
James H. Lane was a man of entirely different character. Those who knew him and have written of him are far from agreement. Professor Blackmar describes him as one of those who came to Kan- sas as politicians. "From the beginning to the end of his career in Kansas," he continues, "political ambition was his ruling passion. It did, indeed, cause him to do many brave and noble things, but it also caused him more than once to swerve from the path of justice and right; and finally, disappointed ambition brought him to an untimely death."4 On the other hand, there were those who fol- lowed Lane's leadership with enthusiasm. He was a born leader of men, even though he may have wavered upon principles. John Speer, one of his biographers, proudly quotes Colonel Veale's ap-
8. See Sara T. D. Robinson, Kansas: Its Interior and Exterior Life; Chas. Robinson, The Kansas Conflict; L. W. Spring, Kansas; Eli Thayer, A History of the Kansas Crusade; Horace Greeley, The American Conflict; the various volumes of the Kansas Historical Collec- tions are veritable mines of information concerning the history of territorial Kansas.
4. Life of Charles Robinson, p. 18.
EWING: EARLY KANSAS IMPEACHMENTS 309
preciation of him: "Jim Lane loved his state and his country, and was as true a patriot as ever lived."5 One of his supporters referred to him as the "Cicero of the United States senate."
The most scintillating characterization of Lane came from the pen of Senator J. J. Ingalls, who wrote that "professing religion, he was never accused of hypocrisy, for his followers knew that he partook of the sacrament [sic.] as a political device to secure the support of the church ; and that with the same nonchalant alacrity, had he been running for office in Hindostan [sic.], he would have thrown his offspring to the crocodiles of the Ganges or bowed among the Parsees at the shrine of the sun."6
Lane was born at Lawrenceburg, on the Indiana side of the Ohio river, in 1814. His father was the speaker of the first house of repre- sentatives of that state. The son's education was, at best, of desul- tory and unprofitable character. When the Mexican War broke out, he enlisted as a private, but was immediately elected colonel by the regiment. Military advancement was, in those times, unencum- bered by seniority or even by the exclusive prerequisite concerning knowledge of the principles of military science. After a triumphant return from the war, he served as lieutenant governor of Indiana and as member of congress. In politics, he was a Democrat. In 1854, he had supported Pierce and Douglas in voting for the Kansas- Nebraska act. He arrived in Kansas in April, 1855. To his sur- prise, he discovered that the act of 1854 had not solved the slavery issue, and especially not in the territory of Kansas. However, he set to work to organize the Democratic party, relying substantially upon the political apothegms of Jefferson and Jackson to produce reasonableness and constitutional toleration of slave property. This embarrassment in which the northern Democrats found themselves after 1854 irritated greater party leaders than Lane. This infernal intolerance known as abolitionism was destroying traditional politi- cal alignment and violating the express provisions of the constitu- tion. Some Democratic leaders, like Pierce, were helpless in their bewilderment, and could only mumble the shibboleths of the sage of Monticello. Others, like Lane, passed through the "black law" way station and finally landed, in a somewhat travel-worn condition, in the headquarters of the new Republican party.
Lane soon revealed consummate cleverness as a politician. With- out the assistance of powerful allies, such as Robinson had in the
6. Life of General James H. Lane, p. 330.
6. John J. Ingalls, "Kansas.— 1541-1891," Harper's, 86:696-713 (April, 1893).
310 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Emigrant Aid Society, Lane became one of the leaders of the hosts for freedom. There existed little love and much jealousy between Robinson and Lane; and, although they were thrown together by political exigencies, theirs was little more than a personal truce pending the successful conclusion of the vital questions at hand. Robinson was naturally cautious; Lane caught and reflected the least evidence of political readjustment. When the propitious mo- ment arrived, Lane broke with his rival and led the parade — directly to the United States senate.7 "On the realization of his long- cherished dream," remarks a reliable commentator, "a crazy passion for power seized him — an ambition to absorb the entire civil and military functions of the state."8 Lane enjoyed the confidence and the patronage of President Lincoln. Armed thusly, he precipitated an unseemly controversy with Governor Robinson over the organiza- tion of state troops.9 Concerning this squabble, Spring says: "Lane, inflamed by old grudges and new provocations, by long-nursed hatreds and obstructions that crossed his plans, broke out into violent hostilities against Governor Robinson and his successor."10
The election of state officers under the Wyandotte constitution took place in December, 1859. On account of the failure of con- gress immediately to admit Kansas into the Union, these elected officers did not assume office until February, 1861. The unexpected lapse of time created a constitutional question as to the expiration of the two-year terms for which governor and the chief administra- tive officers had been elected. Opponents of Robinson contended that an election should be held in November, 1861, to select officers for the biennium from 1862 to 1864. Robinson and his supporters interpreted the constitution to mean that the first state officers should serve two-year terms. An election was held in November, 1861, but Robinson refused to permit the canvassing of the votes for governor and principal administrative positions, and, on a petition for mandamus, the state supreme court upheld the governor.11
Aside from the political animosities, the first Kansas impeach- ments resulted from the issuance of state bonds. The state's finan- cial condition was indeed sorry in 1861, when the legislature au-
7. Lane was elected in April, 1861, after a sensational struggle in the legislature. On April 1, thirteen senators, a majority, agreed to expedite the election process. It really repre- sented a campaign pact between Lane and Pomeroy for the senatorships. The bribery period was soon ended, and both were declared elected. For a long time, the election of senators was to be of suspicious character.
8. Spring, Kansas, p. 273.
9. See S. M. Fox, "The Story of the Seventh Kansas," Kansas Historical Collections, v. VIII, p. 14.
10. Spring, op. cit., p. 273.
11. Kansas, ex rel. Crawford, v. Robinson (1862), 1 Kan. 17.
EWING: EARLY KANSAS IMPEACHMENTS 311
thorized the bond issues. Two issues were voted, one known as the "war bonds," the other as the "seven per cent" bonds. Under act of May 7, 1861, the issuance of war bonds to the sum of twenty thousand dollars was approved.12 The question arose as to whether the "twenty thousand" limit referred to par or actual value of the issue. Since the bonds would sell for less than half of their par value, the administration interpreted the limit to be against the sum of money that was brought into the state treasury through the sale of the bonds. Under this presumption, bonds to the par value of forty thousand dollars were signed by the governor and counter- signed by the other two necessary state administrative officers. Thirty-one thousand dollars' worth of these bonds were sold to Robert S. Stevens at forty per cent par value. Was that portion of the sale over twenty thousand dollars par value in violation of the act of May 7, 1861?
The "seven per cent" bonds were issued under authority of an act of May 1, 1861. 13 Messrs. Clark and Stone were, by the statute, empowered to negotiate the sale of these bonds. This plan of dis- posal was discarded a month later, when the legislature enacted a supplementary law which provided that the governor, auditor, and secretary of state, or a majority of them, could sell, at not less than seventy per cent of the par value, one hundred thousand dollars of these bonds. The money derived therefrom was to be used in the retirement of the outstanding state scrip with which the state had, up until that time, been paying its obligations.14
Attempts to sell the "seven per cent" bonds to eastern financiers failed. Those with money for investment in securities of this nature remembered wholesale state repudiations. United States bonds were looked upon as safer investments. In late 1861, J. W. Robinson (secretary of state) and George S. Hilly er (state auditor) went to Washington in the hope of being able to dispose of the bonds. Their attempts were at first unsuccessful. Finally Stevens, who had bought the "war bonds," appeared on the scene. Through the aid of a mysterious Mr. Corwin, who, incidentally, was a brother-in-law of the Secretary of Interior, Stevens was able to dispose of the bonds to the Department of Interior, which bought them with a fund held in trust for certain Indian tribes.
Originally from upstate New York, Stevens came to Kansas as
12. Statutes of 1861, pp. 205, 206.
13. Proceedings in the Cases of Impeachment Against Charles Robinson, John W. Robin- son, and George S. Hillyer, pp. 317-319. Hereafter, this official record will be cited merely as Robinson Proceedings.
14. Ibid., pp. 319, 320.
312 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
an Indian contractor, furnishing supplies for and constructing build- ings and improvements on the Indian reservations. Prior to that time he had been employed in the Department of Interior. Senator Lane, in a head-hunting mood, maliciously declared that Stevens had been expelled from his Washington position "for fear he would steal the stone steps of the Patent Office."15 It must be remembered that Stevens was, in Kansas, an associate of Governor Robinson in the banking business and that he was being mentioned as a can- didate for United States senator to succeed Lane. Stevens had been elected to the state senate in November, 1861. The bonds were sold in December of that year. So, there were political implications of a vital nature in the disposal of the bonds.
If Stevens had offered his services without expense to the state, the impeachments would probably never have materialized; but such charity could scarcely be expected of professional jobbers. Before he would consent to assist in selling the bonds, he presented J. W. Robinson and Hillyer with a contract, by the terms of which Stevens was to receive, as his share in the transaction, all over sixty cents on the dollar that he was able to sell the bonds for. The two officials were unable to dispose of the securities at any price. Kansas needed money, and badly; and as a last resort they agreed to the Stevens offer. Stevens thereupon sold eighty-seven thousand dollars' (par value) worth of the bonds to the Indian Office at eighty-five cents on the dollar. His profit was a mere twenty-five per cent of that sum.
Despite the consummate business acumen of Stevens, the negoti- ations threatened to break down when Lane temporarily withheld his approval to the sale. Of vital importance to this whole trans- action was the fact that Lane enjoyed the confidence of the Presi- dent. Therefore Lincoln refused to give final endorsement to the purchase unless Lane would advise it. Stevens knew his way about Washington, and he was not to be thwarted. He was not a man completely motivated by selfishness. He would be glad to com- pensate others for assistance. So, he engaged Lane's secretary in a very private conversation. Lane's signature was quickly forth- coming. In a formal deposition, Lane's memory suffered temporary paralysis. He couldn't recall having ever read the agreement of sale. Though admitting that his name was signed thereto, he could explain it only upon two grounds — that it was a rank forgery or that, as was sometimes the case with him in his busy life in Wash-
15. W. E. Connelley, An Appeal to the Record, p. 47.
EWING: EARLY KANSAS IMPEACHMENTS 313
ington, he signed the paper Without reading it.16 Stevens testified later that he agreed to give Reynolds, the secretary, one thousand dollars if he could induce the "old man" to approve the sale.17 It seems that Lane did not object so much to the terms of the trans- action as to the fact that Stevens would have a considerable amount of money at his disposal with which to popularize his senatorial candidacy with members of the Kansas legislature.18 That was a vital consideration. No one denies that Lane was thoroughly con- versant With the ethics of state legislatures and senatorial elections, and he was obsessed with the desire to be returned to the senate.
The bonds were sold in December; the legislature convened in January; and Lane visited the state. He may have returned to consult his constituents concerning national legislation ; and he may not. Anyway, on January 30, the house of representatives adopted a resolution investigating the sale of the bonds. A fortnight later, on February 14, the house passed a resolution formally impeaching Governor Charles Robinson, Secretary of State John W. Robinson, and Auditor George S. Hillyer, for high misdemeanors in office.19 A house committee of three appeared in the senate on the day following and officially notified that body of the impeachment. Rules for the conduct of the trial were adopted by the senate on February 18. The rules used in the impeachment trial of Judge Jackson by the Missouri senate in 1859 were obviously used as a model.20
In brief, the impeachment articles against J. W. Robinson charged:
1. That J. W. Robinson, being empowered with Governor Robinson and Auditor Hillyer to sell state bonds to the sum of $150,000 at not less than 70 per cent par value, contracted with one Robert Stevens to act as the agent of the state in selling the said bonds, and that Stevens thereunder sold $87,000 worth of the bonds to the United States Department of Interior for 85 per cent par value, paying the state of Kansas only 60 per cent par value; such sale, approved by Robinson, being in direct violation of the laws of the state; and that the state was thereby defrauded out of its just money with the full knowledge and consent of the said Robinson; and that the state thereby suffered great pecuniary damage wherein Robinson betrayed the trust reposed in him as an officer of the state of Kansas;
2. That he, knowing that the law specified that such bonds could not be sold for less than 70 per cent face value, did secretly enter into the agreement above set forth, so that the state should receive no more than 60 per cent
16. Robinson Proceedings, p. 147.
17. Ibid., p. 261.
18. Ibid., p. 351.
19. Robinson Proceedings, p. 34.
20. Cf. Trial of the Hon. Albert Jackson, pp. 45-48.
314 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
face value, even when he knew that Stevens was receiving 85 per cent face value for the bonds;
3. That he permitted Stevens to detach the semiannual interest coupons, payable on January 1, 1862, for the first six months' interest, and presented them to the state treasurer for payment, receiving the amount thereon, for which permission Robinson was guilty of a high misdemeanor in office;
4. That he, in the contract with Stevens, took no security or other guaranty from Stevens when the $87,000 worth of bonds were turned over to him, con- stituting another high misdemeanor in office;
5. That he and Hillyer, upon going to Washington, knew that the bonds could be sold for 85 per cent par value, but that they made the deceitful con- tract with Stevens for the purpose of defrauding the state; and that on the bonds they permitted Stevens to keep no less than $14,000; and they also permitted Stevens to collect the first interest coupon payment;
6. That he, in printing the banking law prior to the election of 1861, per- mitted one Oummings, of Wabaunsee county, to publish the same in a non- existent newspaper and to collect money from the state for the same; no such newspaper ever existed; and the publication was effected only to procure the money from the state;
7. That he, entrusted with the duty of countersigning bonds to the sum of $20,000 (war bonds), actually countersigned $40,000 worth, thereby com- mitting an high misdemeanor;
8. That he, in conjunction with the auditor and treasurer, were empowered to let the contract for public printing for the year 1861 ; and they did let such contract to Trask and Lowman, of Lawrence, which successfully low bidder filed the bond as required by law in the office of secretary of state, and that he (J. W. Robinson) later permitted the said company to withdraw its bond and bid, whereby the contract was let to the next lowest bidder, thereby causing the state to suffer great pecuniary damages.
The impeachment articles against Hillyer charged:
1. That Hillyer, with the two Robinsons, contracted with Robert Stevens as alleged in article 1 of the articles against J. W. Robinson, all of which amounted to an high misdemeanor in office;
2. That he knew well that the bonds could not be sold legally for 60 per cent par value, according to state law;
3. That he permitted Stevens to cash the first interest coupons;
4. That he permitted Stevens to take the bonds without giving any sort of security, and thereby failed to protect the interests of the state ;
5. That he entered into a conspiracy with J. W. Robinson and Stevens in the illegal sale of the bonds;
6. That he entered into a conspiracy with the above-named persons to cheat the state out of the first interest coupons ;
7. That he, by false representations, induced Senator Lane to support the transactions.
The impeachment articles against Governor Robinson alleged: 1. That Governor Charles Robinson, contrary to the law which authorized
the issuance of the $20,000 worth of war bonds, signed and issued such bonds
to the extent of $40,000;
EWING: EARLY KANSAS IMPEACHMENTS 315
2. That he, together with J. W. Robinson and Hillyer, conspired with Robert Stevens in the fraudulent sale of the seven per cent bonds;
3. That he, and the other two state officers, knew that the bonds could be sold for 85 per cent par value;
4. That he consented to the sale for 60 per cent par value, when he knew that such sale was contrary to the laws of the state of Kansas;
5. That he officially approved the said sale, and thereby committed an high misdemeanor in office.
TRIAL OF J. W. ROBINSON.
On February 24 the senate duly resolved itself into a court of im- peachment for the trial of J. W. Robinson, and the members were sworn. The secretary of the senate administered the oath to the president and he, in turn, to the members. Counsel for the re- spondent entered the plea and on the day following the board of managers made replication.21 The case for the prosecution de- pended upon the procuring of depositions from persons outside the state, and especially from those in Washington who had participated in the negotiations incident to the disposal of the bonds. Therefore the board of managers, composed of members of the house and the attorney-general of the state, through the latter, moved on February 28 that the impeachment court adjourn until the first Monday of the following June.22
The senate court met on June 2, pursuant to the adjournment resolution. The pro-Lane forces proceeded immediately to reorgan- ize the court. On the fourteenth ballot T. A. Osborn was selected as presiding officer.23 The authority of an impeachment court to select a presiding officer is not questioned, but the court thereupon pro- ceeded to declare seats vacant and to fill those vacancies. From February 28, the time of adjournment of the court, to June 4, when the trial actually began, the pro-Lane members had seated five new members. Three were seated prior to the adjournment of the legis- lature in March, and I raise no question as to the authority of the senate to do so. That the whole episode was a political trick is admitted by D. W. Wilder, the faithful chronicler of the period.24 However, when the court met in June, it seated two pro-Lane mem- bers. An effort was made to secure the admission of a pro-Robinson member, but the pro-Lane majority were of grave doubt as to
21. No demurrers were offered in any of these three trials.
22. Robinson Proceedings., p. 84.
23. Osborn was one of the supporters of Lane in his election campaign before the legis- lature in early 1861, and he had signed the agreement to terminate the delay and to proceed immediately to the balloting. Three other signers of this pact were members of the Lane bloc in the impeachment court.
24. Annals of Kansas, p. 314.
316 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
whether a vacancy actually existed in that district. Did anyone know whether Senator Lynde had actually accepted a military com- mission? An indefinite postponement of the motion to seat Kunkle emphasized the refusal of the pro-Lane leaders to treat so informally this matter of membership in the impeachment court!25
The authority of an impeachment court to alter the membership of the senate is of extremely doubtful validity. The court is com- posed of senators, to be sure, but membership in the impeachment court is only incidental to membership in the senate. If an im- peachment court has the authority to qualify and seat new mem- bers would the senate be bound to accept those new members at a subsequent legislative session? In most instances, when the im- peachment trial is conducted during the legislative session, the prob- lem would not arise. However, in these early Kansas cases, the trials were held in an adjourned session of the impeachment court. The February resolution did not adjourn the senate, the legislative body; it adjourned only the impeachment court. The state consti- tution expressly provided that each house of the legislature should be the judge of the election and qualifications of its own members.26 The constitution did not give such authority to any other body. The senate is a legislative body. No political casuistry need be con- scripted to define the nature and functions of such a body, for they have long been understood and interpreted by the courts of this country. The concept of the separation of powers clarifies the defi- nition, even though the insistence, as practical means of govern- mental limitation, on the inclusion of checks and balances produces an opposite result. However, when the senate is trying an impeach- ment, it ceases to be a legislative body and becomes a judicial one, the highest in the state on offenses of that character. No one would maintain that a law, passed by an impeachment court, had been constitutionally and validly enacted.
By all the rules of logic and legal reasoning, the impeachment court would be forced to accept all members of the senate as mem- bers of the court. Otherwise, what would prevent an impeachment court, by a majority vote, from excluding regularly elected senators and replacing them with other persons, who supported the majority viewpoint, in sufficient numbers to effect a two-thirds majority for conviction? If an impeachment court be the sole judge of the elec- tion and qualification of its members, what court exists that could
25. .Robinson Proceedings, pp. 230-234.
26. Article II, sec. 8.
EWING: EARLY KANSAS IMPEACHMENTS 317
nullify a plain infringement of the constitution? Can an impeach- ment court disqualify a member of the senate from sitting as a mem- ber of the court for the trial of an impeachment? No student of American impeachment precedents would answer in the affirmative. Even though members of the impeachment court may be vitally interested personally in the outcome of the trial, their right to par- ticipate has been universally upheld. Did not Senator Wade vote to sustain the articles of impeachment against President Johnson, even though Wade would have been elevated to the Presidency if Johnson had been removed? In the same trial, the President's son- in-law was a member of the court and, it should be noted, he voted against each and every article of impeachment.
Even though the Johnson precedents were established subsequent to the Kansas Civil War impeachments, the action of the Kansas impeachment court cannot be justified on any ground. The only explanation is, of course, that the pro-Lane forces needed additional strength. And, to anticipate somewhat the final decisions in the cases, those illegally seated members did not disappoint those who were instrumental in securing their qualification. In case an im- peachment court insists upon its right to alter the membership, the defendants, depending upon the good will of the court members for acquittal, find themselves in an embarrassing situation. Are they in a position to challenge a plain violation of the constitution? When the credentials of John Bayless^ first of the new members, were pre- sented, Case, counsel for the respondent, objected to his being sworn in. John J. Ingalls, at that time a young man of twenty-seven, threatened to have Case forcibly ejected from the chamber if "he continues his impertinent and unwarrantable interference with our deliberations."27 Case persisted and was ejected. These early Kan- sas trials were certainly informal, though effective.
On June 3 the respondent asked permission to file a paper setting forth his objections to the validity of the proceedings. The objec- tions were: (a) the sine die adjournment of the legislature on March 6 formally ended the authority of legislature unless called into legal existence by proclamation of the governor, which had not been done ; (6) the power to impeach lies wholly and exclusively in the lower house, and that power cannot be delegated to a board of managers while the house is not in session; (c) there is no constitutional au- thority for the senate to convene separate and apart from the house
27. Robinson Proceedings, pp. 91, 92.
318 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of representatives; (d) the law governing impeachments and their procedure could not apply to this case because it was enacted sub- sequent to the passage of the impeachment resolution; and (e) the proceedings of this illegally assembled tribunal are unlawful and any decision, either of acquittal or conviction, will be a nullity.28 During the argument upon these objections, the defense counsel asked permission to file a bill of exceptions that might be used in later quo warranto proceedings in the courts of the state. The court voted eleven to six against filing the paper. Respondent's counsel then remained to "watch the proceedings."29
After the opening argument of the managers, the depositions of six persons from without the state were opened and read. These in- cluded those of Senators Lane and Pomeroy, Representative Con- way, Secretary of Interior Caleb Smith, Indian Commissioner Wil- liam Dole, and the mysterious Mr. Corwin. Thereafter, fifteen witnesses, including four members of the impeachment court, the secretary pro tern., and Governor Robinson and Auditor Hillyer, gave testimony. Witnesses were not put under the rule, and ap- parently were free to visit the sessions and listen to the testimony of others. The court experienced some difficulty in maintaining a quorum; on several occasions, the sergeant at arms was dispatched to bring in a sufficient number of members so that the trial might proceed.
One would scarcely characterize this trial as a dignified proceed- ing. Personalities were frequently flung from counsel to court mem- bers and vice versa. Rumors persisted that money and politics, rather than equity, were going to determine the court's decision. It was an ugly rumor, and was reflected in the manner in which court members regarded it. On Saturday afternoon, June 7, just before time for adjournment, J. J. Ingalls made his second attack against N. P. Case, counsel for defense. Ingalls thundered: "I am informed, and am prepared to fortify my statements, by the affidavits of eminently respectable gentlemen, members of the bar in this city, that Mr. Case has publicly declared, on the street corners, in the halls and other places of common resort, both before and during the
28. Robinson Proceedings, pp. 107, 108.
29. The validity of the whole proceeding came before the Kansas supreme court in 1863. Following their conviction, J. W. Robinson and Hillyer refused to surrender their offices and quo warranto proceedings were brought against them. The court upheld the validity of the adjournment, saying that the sine die adjournment of the legislature terminated only the legislative business. The impeachment court could meet pursuant to adjournment, and its convening without the lower house's being in simultaneous session did not violate the state constitution. However, the court did not consider the validity of the court's seating of new members. See State of Kansas, ex rel. Daniel M. Adams, v. Oeorge S. Hillyer, (1863) 2 Kan. 17.
EWING: EARLY KANSAS IMPEACHMENTS 319
progress of the trial, that this senate is a jury packed against his client, and that there is but one senator whose verdict cannot be bought with money. No one can be more indifferent than myself to the vulgar assaults of calumny and slander. Personally, I would pass them by as unworthy of the slightest consideration; but this man appears here, in an official capacity, and we are compelled to notice the contempt of which he has been guilty. In insulting us, he insults the great state which we represent . . ."30 Mr. Case was not present. His colleague expressed great surprise that any shadow of suspicion should have fallen on "this honorable body." When Case appeared at the next session, he suavely withdrew from the case after remarking that "no candid man would be warranted in making assertions of that character in reference to this respectable body." The withdrawal of the attorney did little to stifle the tongue- wagging on the streets and in the barrooms of Topeka. It was gen- erally believed that Lane had packed the impeachment court. A week later the court was to take spectacular, though ineffectual, steps to exonerate its members of the public vilification.
The managers tried assiduously to prove conspiracy on the part of the officials to defraud the state. Being a member of the court, Stevens was sworn in his seat before he testified. He related the whole story of the bond transactions and denied that he had given or promised to give any compensation whatever to the impeached officers. In long arguments, the managers, led by the attorney- general, emphasized the fact that the state officers had made it pos- sible for Stevens to make a profit of nearly forty thousand dollars on the total bond sales. If they were not corrupt, they were negli- gent or, worse still, mere boobs. Counsel for defense stressed the state's urgent need for money and the lawful discretion of the of- ficers in making arrangements for the disposal of the bonds. No bad faith had been shown, no actual corruption proved. Everything depended upon the interpretation placed upon the three statutes of May and June, 1861.
Without doubt, the learned counsel might just as well have waived the right to present final argument. I doubt if a single vote was changed by either argument or testimony. On June 13 the court proceeded to vote upon the eight articles. The first article was sus- tained by a vote of 17 to 4. On no one of the remaining seven was a majority of the votes cast for conviction, and on each of the last three, the votes were unanimous for acquittal. Table one records
30. Robinson Proceedings, p. 248
TABLE ONE 31 Votes in impeachment of J. W. Robinson
|
T |
n1 |
TTT |
TV |
V' |
VT |
Dis- quali- |
To |
tal. |
|||
|
fica- tion. |
A. |
N. |
|||||||||
|
Barnett |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
o |
8 |
|
Bayless |
A |
A |
N |
A |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
4 |
4 |
|
Cobb |
A |
A |
A |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
4 |
4 |
|
Connell |
A |
N |
N |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
2 |
6 |
|
N |
N |
N |
N |
5 |
|||||||
|
Denman |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
o |
8 |
|
Essick |
A |
N |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
2 |
6 |
|
Holliday |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
1 |
7 |
|
Hubbard |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
1 |
7 |
|
Ingalls |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
0 |
8 |
|
Keeler |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
1 |
7 |
|
Knowlea |
A |
A |
A |
N |
A |
N |
N |
N |
A |
4 |
4 |
|
Lambdin |
A |
A |
A |
N |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
4 |
4 |
|
Lappin |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
o |
8 |
|
vf_T)nwpii |
|||||||||||
|
Osborn |
A |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
2 |
6 |
|
Rankin |
A |
A |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
3 |
5 |
|
Reea |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
1 |
7 |
|
Roberts |
A |
A |
N |
N |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
3 |
5 |
|
Sleeper |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
, |
7 |
|
o |
A |
A |
A |
N |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
4 |
4 |
|
Stevens |
|||||||||||
|
Total "A"s |
17 |
10 |
8 |
5 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
47 |
|
|
Total "N"s |
4 |
11 |
13 |
16 |
14 |
21 |
21 |
21 |
20 |
121 |
31. Data compiled from Robinson Proceedings, pp. 344-348. "A" signifies a vote to sus- tain the article of impeachment; and "N" to acquit the respondent of the charge. The column under "Disqualification" reveals the votes for and against Robinson's disqualification for future office holding; "A" means to disqualify.
EWING: EARLY KANSAS IMPEACHMENTS 321
how each member voted on each of the articles and on the motion to disqualify Robinson from further office holding.
Only four members voted for acquittal on each article. By the constitution, a two-thirds majority of the twenty-five elected mem- bers was required for removal. Thus the seventeen votes on the first article represented the minimum number by which the neces- sary majority might have been secured. The last-minute seating of the two members was, in effect, decisive. Both voted to convict. Senator Stevens asked to be excused from voting and his request was granted, though, like the three absent members, his failure to cast a vote for conviction constituted, in effect, a vote for acquittal. The official proceedings offer no explanation as to why the absentees were not required to attend the trial. If the pro-Lane bloc had mus- tered but sixteen votes, an interesting constitutional question might have been raised as to whether absentee, and maybe disqualified, members were "elected members" within the meaning of the con- stitution.
By a vote of twenty to one, the court refused to disqualify Rob- inson from future office holding. The decisiveness of this decision leaves some doubt as to the true conviction of the court as to whether Robinson had actually proved false to the responsibilities of his office. Robinson was later appointed as surgeon in the Union army. He died at Fort Smith, Ark., in December, 1863. Upon hearing of his death, D. W. Wilder wrote in his chronicle that "no other Kansas politician had died of a broken heart." Lane was later to con- tribute another exception to the rule.
TRIAL OF GEORGE S. HILLYER
Immediately upon the conviction of J. W. Robinson the impeach- ment court proceeded with the articles against Hillyer. By agree- ment of opposing counsel, all evidence offered in the preceding case, except the testimony of Hillyer, was to be considered as legitimate evidence in the case at bar. Only three witnesses were called to the stand, all by the prosecution. Less than three days were re- quired to complete the trial, and most of this time was consumed in an effective investigation of charges concerning the court's in- tegrity.
The rumors regarding the partisan nature of the impeachment proceedings persisted throughout the trials. On June 14 Senator Barnett addressed the court upon the subject of these rumors. It
21—4323
322 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
appeared that a certain senator, in braggadocio, had declared that he could secure the acquittal of J. W. Robinson if given three thousand dollars with which to lubricate the court machinery. The person who had informed the senator (Barnett) had neglected to mention the name of the member who had offered to manipulate the wheels of justice. The judicious members of the court were, of course, duly shocked, especially those who had voted to sustain the articles against Robinson.32 The charge was a gross insult to the court. The slanderer must be apprehended and exposed: The court thereupon, by resolution, requested Senator Barnett to divulge the name of his informant. He complied. It was Mr. Cummings, the state legislative printer. Mr. Cunwnings must be taken into custody before he fled the jurisdiction of the court. The sergeant at arms was dispatched post haste under urgent instructions. A short time later, a very wobbly legislative printer was ushered into the presence of the august impeachment court. The average age of its members was thirty-three years. It was youth carrying on, and with all the dignity of nonagenarians.
Mr. Cummings' recollection proved faulty. He was obviously too inebriated to give accurate information, but the court was loath to postpone the inquisition. Mr. Cummings wouldn't name the senator who had started the rumor, but he would say that the sen- ator had admitted that, through the influence of Lane, he could get an office worth two thousand dollars, if he voted to convict J. W. Robinson. The investigation was revealing matters all too im- portant, so Cummings was remanded to the custody of the sergeant at arms. Cummings must be very drunk to give voice to such a base rumor. However, he never sobered up to the calmness neces- sary for further questioning. At the afternoon session J. J. Ingalls advocated a novel plan for discovering the name of the traitorous court member. Each individual member should be put under oath and asked five very pointed questions relative to his past conversa- tions with Mr. J. F. Cummings. God was conscripted to effect the divulgence of information that had eluded the best efforts of the human inquisitors. Despite these precautions, none of the worthy members admitted the contemptuous attack, and the court, thereby whitewashed of the charges, turned gladly to the testimony of the
32. The solons need not have been so completely demoralized at the report. Memoirs of the period show that bribery and attempted bribery of legislators in the election of United States senators was not an unusual occurrence. See S. J. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, pp. 346-349 ; E. C. Manning, "The Kansas State Senate of 1865 and 1866," Kansas Historical Collections, v. IX, p. 364.
TABLE TWO 33
Vote in the impeachment oj George S. Hillyer
|
j |
H |
in |
IV |
v |
VI |
VII |
Dis- quali- |
Tol |
al. |
|
|
fica- tion. |
A. |
N. |
||||||||
|
Barnett |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
0 |
7 |
|
Bavless |
A |
N |
N |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
2 |
5 |
|
Cobh |
A |
A |
A |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
4 |
3 |
|
Connell |
A |
N |
N |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
2 |
5 |
|
Curtis |
A |
A |
A |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
4 |
3 |
|
Denman |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
o |
7 |
|
Essick |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
1 |
|
|
Holliday |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
1 |
g |
|
Hubbard |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
1 |
g |
|
Ingalls |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
o |
7 |
|
Heeler |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
1 |
|
|
Knowles |
A |
A |
N |
N |
N |
A |
N |
A |
3 |
4 |
|
Lambdin . |
A |
A |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
3 |
4 |
|
Lappin |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
o |
|
|
6 |
1 |
|||||||||
|
Osborn |
A |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
2 |
5 |
|
Rankin |
A |
A |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
3 |
|
|
Rees |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
1 |
g |
|
Roberts . |
A |
A |
N |
N |
N |
A |
N |
N |
3 |
4 |
|
Sleeper |
A |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
N |
JN |
j |
g |
|
A |
A |
A |
N |
A |
A |
N |
N |
5 |
2 |
|
|
Stevens |
||||||||||
|
Total "A"s |
17 |
9 |
6 |
5 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
43 |
|
|
Total "N"s . . |
4 |
12 |
15 |
16 |
19 |
17 |
21 |
20 |
104 |
|
33. Data compiled from Robinson Proceedings, pp. 392-396. "A" signifies a vote to sustain the article of impeachment; and "N" to acquit the respondent of the charge. The column under "Disqualification" reveals the votes for and against Hillyer's disqualification for future office holding; "A" means to disqualify.
324 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Hillyer trial.34 Altogether, this represents one of the least dignified episodes in all United States impeachment history.
At the close of the testimony taking, the managers waived their right to argue their case. A defense attorney spoke very briefly. Hillyer was also convicted on the first article, with each member voting as on the first count against J. W. Robinson. On the re- maining six articles the respondent was exonerated by decisive votes. The sustention of article one was logical, since Robinson had been convicted on the same charge. If one were guilty, the other was equally so. Mr. Stevens again was excused from voting. And by another vote of twenty to one the court refused to disqualify the officer from further office holding. Table two records how each member voted on the articles and the disqualification motion.
TRIAL OF CHARLES ROBINSON.
Hillyer was convicted at the afternoon session of June 16. The case against Governor Robinson was immediately brought up and arrangements concerning the admission of earlier testimony an- nounced. Interest in the case seems to have subsided considerably, for there creeps through the whole proceeding the feeling that the lawyers and the four witnesses were mere marionettes who were scheduled to dance to uninspiring music for a few short hours. The dance was listless, and was completed on the evening of the same day. This remains one of the shortest impeachment trials on record. Counsel for the managers spoke for ten minutes ; counsel for Robin- son spoke less than half that time. On the balloting, only three votes were cast in favor of conviction.35 It was a complete and decisive triumph for the governor.
Why was Governor Robinson exonerated by so decisive a margin when the other officers were convicted? There are several factors that should be considered. In the first place, he did not directly participate in the bond sale, but remained in Kansas while J. W. Robinson and Hillyer were peddling the bonds in Washington. His most exhaustive biographer clears him of any collusion in the whole proceeding.36 In the second place, the reputation of the governor was such, in 1862, as to protect him from even the caprice of poli- ticians. Kansas had known him for eight years, and had followed his leadership during most of that period. In the third place, he had
34. Robinson Proceedings, pp. 256-376.
35. Curtis and Lambdin voted against him on the first article, and Essick on the fifth.
36. Blackmar, Life of Charles Robinson, p. 287.
EWING: EARLY KANSAS IMPEACHMENTS 325
at his immediate disposal superior weapons with which to thwart the removal designs of Lane. He controlled the state patronage and, because of the war, there was an unusually large number of desirable political plums to be distributed. His bitterest critic, W. E. Connelley, charges that he and his two confederates, Stevens and Treasurer Button, used J. W. Robinson and Hilly er as cat's- paws to rake the chestnuts out of the fire.37 He also charges the governor with having appointed a number of senators to military office, inferring that he thereby purchased his acquittal.
An investigation of the military appointments of Robinson's ad- ministration shows that he appointed only four of the members of the court to later positions. On the other hand, immediately prior to his trial, he placed five senators in important offices. If he had feared conviction he would certainly have deferred appointing these friends until after the impeachment trial. Of course, one cannot conclusively say that his appointments subsequent to his acquittal were not in payment of prior promises, but in the absence of material proof of such trafficking, accusations will be of little weight.
Governor Robinson retired from office in January, 1863. Between that time and his death, in 1894, he served the state in many ca- pacities. The whole impeachment episode remained a brown spot upon his career, and few of his friends and friendly historians have given it much attention. Yet, without seeking to detract from the due respect and reputation that should be accorded Robinson, the trials contribute valuable document upon the almost savage nature of frontier politics. It is an episode well worth studying. It repre- sents or epitomizes politics running amuck. Incidentally, it pro- duced its own antitoxin, for not a single senator who sat as a mem- ber of the impeachment court was returned to the senate in the election of five months later.
37. W. E. Connelley, An Appeal to the Record, p. 41.
Defense of the Kansas Frontier 1866-1867
' MARVIN H. GARFTBLD 1866
/COMPARATIVELY speaking, the year 1866 passed rather ^ quietly on the Kansas frontier. Indian depredations were not only less numerous but of a more petty nature than those of the previous years. Early in the year the Southern Cheyennes and Arapahoes sent messengers to their northern tribesmen to persuade those hostiles to make peace. Col. E. W. Wyncoop, former com- mander at Fort Lyon, was appointed by the War Department to escort the envoys.1
Indian outbreaks in Kansas began in May along the Solomon river and near Lake Sibley.2 Gov. S. J. Crawford at once organized a battalion of militia and sent them to the region. The state troopers soon engaged a band of Cheyennes in a sharp fight in the Lake Sibley neighborhood.3 In July and August several raids by the Pawnees and Omahas occurred on White Rock and Lulu creeks, tributaries of the Solomon river.4 In October and November hunters were driven in by Indians on the Solomon, and petty robberies and thefts were committed in Clay, Republic and Shirley counties.
Governor Crawford discovered in August that not only the Paw- nees but Osages as well were responsible for recent frontier outrages. He therefore ordered Col. W. F. Cloud of the state militia to visit their reservations and investigate. Gen. W. S. Hancock, command- ing the Department of the Missouri, was requested to furnish an escort from Fort Riley for Colonel Cloud.5
Overland transportation suffered more than did the frontier settle- ments during 1866. 6 The Smoky Hill route continued to receive its full share of attention by the Indians. This no doubt was due to the fact that the Union Pacific railroad, eastern division, was mov- ing rapidly westward along the Kaw and Smoky Hill valleys and gave promise of soon threatening the favorite buffalo hunting
1. Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, December 12, 1865.
2. "Report of Major General Cloud, K. S. M.," Adjutant General's Report, 1866, p. 3.
3. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, pp. 231-232.
4. Major Cloud's Report," p. 4.
5. Crawford to Hancock, August 30, 1866, Correspondence of Kansas Governors, Crawford, Copy Book, p. 39. Manuscript, Archives, Kansas State Historical Society.
6. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, p. 231.
(326)
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 327
grounds of the red men. The Butterfield Overland Despatch, which monopolized traffic over the route, was purchased by the Holladay interests in 1866 and merged with the Platte line into the Holladay Overland Mail and Express Company.7 On April 20 the new com- pany started a daily schedule from both Topeka and Denver. As fast as the railroad was completed westward the stages were moved to "End of Track."8
As a protection to freighters the War Department in February issued an order which required wagon trains to be made up of at least twenty wagons and thirty men before they would be allowed to pass Fort Kearney on the Platte trail, Fort Riley on the Smoky Hill route or Fort Lamed on the Santa Fe trail.9 Stages on all routes were guarded, generally by military escorts, while passing through the Indian country. At each station a noncommissioned officer with a squad of soldiers met the stage and escorted it to the next station.10
Throughout the year Governor Crawford exerted tremendous ef- forts to put down Indian disturbances. The expense of defending the frontier with state militia was so great that the governor hesi- tated to use them. As a consequence he appealed to the War De- partment and district commanders to protect the settlements, but received no response.11 He telegraphed to the Secretary of War for cavalry arms, with which to arm the settlers, but failed to get them. The War Department informed Crawford that a shortage of troops prevented them from properly guarding the border. Crawford re- plied by offering to raise a Kansas regiment to be mustered into the United States service for the purpose of protecting the frontier until it could be replaced by army regulars. This offer was also rejected.12 These efforts having failed, the Kansas executive telegraphed to the department commander at Fort Leavenworth stating that immediate action was needed and that, if the department commander would not act, he (the governor) would send Major General Cloud (formerly Colonel Cloud) with militia to pursue the Indians to their reserva- tions, punish them and compel indemnity for their past conduct.13 This elicited a response from General Hancock who, on August 28, assured the governor that he would cooperate with the state authori- ties in every possible way. Hancock had sent a scouting party of
7. Root and Connelley, The Overland Stage, p. 47.
8. Ibid., p. 55.
9. Ibid., p. 310; Junction City Union, March 10, 1866.
10. Root and Connelley, The Overland Stage, p. 100.
11. Governor Crawford's annual message, 1867, Senate Journal, Kansas Legislature, 1867, p. 35.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid., p. 36.
328 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
one hundred cavalrymen from Fort Harker to the Solomon and sug- gested that they operate with the state militia who were already scouting in that region.14
In the meantime General Cloud was touring the settlements upon the Republican and Solomon rivers. Here he proceeded to organize the residents into militia companies. He reported that the majority of the settlers were Civil War veterans and possessed guns, but needed ammunition.15 As a result of his personal observations Cloud recommended to Governor Crawford that the militia be re- organized and that a United States military post be established in the exposed region.16
In the latter part of August Colonel Wyncoop, in his official role as peacemaker, assembled a group of Cheyenne and Arapahoe chiefs at Fort Harker for a council. The Indians thought that the govern- ment had forgotten them, since their promised annuities hadn't been received. Their attitude toward the construction of the railroad up the Smoky Hill was one of resignation to the inevitable. They realized (so they said) that the white man was too numerous to be overcome. Futhermore, they promised to restrain their young men from additional depredations.17
At no time in 1866 did the activities of the Indians assume the proportions of a general outbreak such as that of 1864-'65. The strenuous attempts of Governor Crawford to compel the War De- partment to intervene in behalf of Kansas now seem unnecessary. He accomplished, however, another piece of work which perhaps was more constructive. Having learned from the commander of Fort Harker that most of the outrages and murders committed by the Indians could be traced to alcoholic liquors, Governor Crawford recommended that the state legislature prohibit all liquor traffic in Kansas beyond the limits of the organized counties.18 The legis- lature, in compliance with this suggestion, passed House bill No. 105, which became a law on February 23, 1867. 19
14. Ibid., p. 37.
15. General Cloud to T. J. Anderson, adjutant general, July 5, 1866, Adjutant General's Correspondence. (Kansas.) Archives, Kansas State Historical Society.
16. Cloud's Report, Adjutant General's Report, 1866, p. 5.
17. News item, Junction City Union, August 25, 1866.
18. Governor's Message, Crawford, 1867, pp. 37-38. Liquor traffic was already prohibited by federal law in the Indian country, which included the unorganized counties of Kansas. The law was not being well enforced, however. Crawford felt that enforcement could best be accomplished by state law. He adopted the theory that the state government held jurisdiction over the entire state whether organized into counties or not. In taking this position he dif- fered sharply with the interpretation of the commander at Fort Harker, who held that the federal government had sole jurisdiction over the region.
19. House Journal, Kansas Legislature, 1867, p. 929.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 329
Additional evidence that the governor and people of Kansas may have been excessively excited over Indian troubles during the year was furnished by Gen. William T. Sherman, who had been touring Kansas and Colorado in the fall of 1866. Sherman encountered no Indian troubles other than rumors. In referring to the latter he said, "These are all mysterious, and only accountable on the supposi- tion that our people out West are resolved on trouble for the sake of the profit resulting from the military occupation."20
1867.
In his personal narrative Governor Crawford stated: "When I returned from Washington in April, 1867, General Hancock was in the field with a handful of United States troops, and the plains of Kansas were swarming with bloodthirsty Indians."21 Hancock had left Fort Leavenworth early in March upon a campaign designed to bring the Indians into submission. By showing a large force, in- cluding artillery, it was hoped that the red men would be frightened into a permanent peace. Hancock with six companies of infantry and artillery marched to Fort Riley, where he was joined by Col. George A. Custer with four companies of Seventh cavalry and one infantry company. At Fort Harker the expedition added two more cavalry troops. With this small army Hancock marched to Fort Larned, arriving April 7.22
Cheyennes and Sioux were camped on Pawnee Fork about thirty miles northwest of the fort. When the Indians persistently refused to come in and make a treaty, Hancock decided to march on their encampment. On April 11 the regiment moved forward. Before reaching the camp they were met by a large body of Indians bear- ing a white flag. The chiefs said they wanted peace instead of war; nevertheless Hancock's troops moved forward and camped near their village. The Indians, fearing another Sand Creek massacre, fled during the night. Custer pursued them the next day, but the In- dians, after raiding the Overland Stage Company stations on the Smoky Hill, scattered. Hancock burned the Indian village on Pawnee Fork and then marched to Fort Dodge. After remaining at Dodge several days his troops headed for Fort Hays. Then he returned to Fort Harker, and on May 7 left that place for Leaven-
20. Letter to John Sherman, October 20, 1866, The Sherman Letters (Correspondence between Gen. W. T. Sherman and Senator John Sherman, 1837-1891. Edited by Raphael Sherman Thorndike. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1894), p. 277. Hereafter cited as The Sherman Letters.
21. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, p. 251.
22. William E. Connelley, "The Treaty Held at Medicine Lodge," Kansas Historical Col- lections, v. XVII, pp. 601-606. Hereafter cited as Connelley, "Medicine Lodge Treaty."
330 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
worth. Ouster with his Seventh cavalry remained in the field in pursuit of Pawnee Killer and his band of hostile Sioux. "Hancock's War" thus came to a sudden end following an auspicious beginning.23
Ouster's pursuit of Pawnee Killer extended northward into Ne- braska. The hostiles refused all overtures of peace and several times turned on Ouster and became the pursuer instead of the pur- sued. After campaigning throughout the greater part of the sum- mer the expedition returned to Fort Wallace in July, having failed to gain a decisive victory. Lieutenant Kidder and a party of ten men, sent from Fort Sedgwick, Nebraska, with dispatches for Ouster, were annihilated by Indians.24
Hancock's campaign was unfortunate in its results, since it ac- complished little except to incite the Indians to commit further depredations. Indian outbreaks in Kansas had been negligible prior to the expedition up Pawnee Fork. It is possible, therefore, that the war in 1867 was thus precipitated by General Hancock him- self. With both the Pacific railroads stretching out through the Indian country, the situation was extremely delicate when the year opened.25
Indian depredations in Kansas were centered on the Smoky Hill route and the settlements in the Solomon and Republican valleys. By the middle of July the Union Pacific, eastern division, had reached Fort Harker and the town of Ellsworth. On September 18 the track extended to the 275-mile post at a point within ten miles of Fort Hays.26
As early as April 22 Indians were reported swarming along the Smoky Hill route.27 It was estimated by stage passengers that they numbered from two to three thousand. Possibly a great many of these were the Cheyennes and Sioux whom Hancock had routed a few days previously on Pawnee Fork. The greatest danger point along the route was the stretch between Ellsworth and Fort Wallace. During most of the summer engineering and road-building crews were advancing through this region. On May 23 R. M. Shoemaker, general superintendent of the Union Pacific, eastern division, tele- graphed Governor Crawford announcing an Indian attack on work- ers near Monument station.28 In June Shoemaker's telegrams per-
23. The narrative of Hancock's War is taken from Mr. Connelley's article.
24. Connelley, "Medicine Lodge Treaty," p. 603.
25. For a criticism of Hancock's judgment see Grinnell, The Fighting Cheyennes, p. 239.
26. Letter from B. Marshall to Col. John B. Anderson, September 18, 1867, the John B. Anderson Papers. Personal correspondence of Col. John B. Anderson, prominent eastern fin- ancier, Archives, Kansas State Historical Society. Hereafter cited as the John B. Anderson Papers.
27. Dispatch from Denver, April 22, in Junction City Union, April 27, 1867.
28. C. K. G., Crawford (telegrams), pp. 42-43. Archives, Kansas State Historical Society.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 331
sistently called upon Crawford for aid. Beginning with a raid west of Fort Harker on June 14, the depredations increased in number and intensity. Shoemaker wired Crawford on June 21 asking for militia. This was followed three days later by an urgent message in which he informed the governor that two workers had been killed and all workmen driven off the line for a distance of twenty miles. Five hundred stands of the best arms and plenty of ammunition were requested. The telegram closed with this state- ment: "Unless you send us protection our work must be aban- doned."29 On June 24 John D. Perry, president of the Union Pacific, eastern division, appealed to Crawford for immediate aid, stating that in the absence of General Hancock he knew no other one to whom he could turn. Perry explained that Indian depredations extended along the whole line of road, that one thousand laborers on seventy-five miles of line had been driven in, and that his men were practically unarmed.30 Shoemaker frantically wired Crawford on June 28 announcing more depredations west of Fort Harker and closed with a sweeping declaration that unless the road were promptly protected all the workers would be driven off and all the citizens would be forced to leave the region.31
Upon the receipt of Shoemaker's wire of June 21 Governor Craw- ford acted. His first efforts were directed toward getting arms and ammunition for the railroad workers. On June 22 he appealed to the War Department for two thousand stands of cavalry arms and ammunition.32 Two days later he again wired Secretary Stanton asking him immediately to direct the commanding officer at Fort Leavenworth to turn the arms and ammunition over to the state.33 Before sending this message to Stanton the Kansas executive had attempted to get ten thousand rounds of ammunition from Fort Leavenworth.34 Whether or not the arsenal had refused the request until otherwise instructed by Stanton is not clear. The fact remains that on the same day, by special order No. 136, General Hancock directed the commander of the Leavenworth arsenal to issue ten thousand round of 58-caliber cartridges to the state of Kansas.35 Many of the guns needed were in possession of the militia; con- sequently Crawford instructed Capt. John G. Haskell, at Lawrence,
29. Ibid., p. 43.
30. Ibid., p. 134.
31. Ibid., p. 37.
32. Crawford to Stanton, June 22, 1867, C. K. G., Crawford (Telegrams), p. 133.
33. Crawford to Stanton, June 24, 1867, Ibid., p. 133.
34. Crawford to commanding officer at Fort Leavenworth, June 24, 1867, Ibid., p. 135.
35. Adjutant General McKeever to Governor Crawford, June 24. 1867. Adjutant Gen- eral's Correspondence, 1867 (Kansas).
332 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to call in all the state and Federal arms and ammunition in Law- rence and have one thousand stands packed for immediate ship- ment.36 On June 28 the governor wired Capt. J. C. French, at Fort Leavenworth, to ship what arms and ammunition he had as soon as possible.37 Shoemaker's men were thus provided with plenty of munitions within a few days after the sending of their appeal for protection.
Simultaneously with his campaign to provide arms for the rail- road workers, Governor Crawford endeavored to gain permission to organize a regiment of volunteer cavalry for service on the frontier. In his telegram to Stanton on June 24 Crawford volunteered to raise such an organization. To give additional weight to his request the governor inclosed President Perry's dispatch and added his own observation that the railroad west of Fort Harker and all Kansas frontier settlements would have to be abandoned unless prompt and decisive measures were taken. Stanton replied on June 27, referring him to General Grant, commander in chief of the army.38 Grant naturally turned the matter over to Sherman, who was commanding the military division of the Missouri.
Sherman wired Crawford on June 26, accepting the battalion of mounted volunteers provided that Gen. A. J. Smith, at Fort Harker, deemed them to be necessary. Sherman stipulated that the battalion should consist of six or eight companies to be used for four months.39 General Smith signified his consent the next day in a telegram to Crawford ; however, on June 28 he informed the governor that Sher- man had countermanded the order.40 Shoemaker's message of the twenty-eighth also reported Sherman's change of mind. Crawford accordingly telegraphed Sherman and earnestly requested a reversal of his orders. In his plea the governor said that it was impossible to move against the Indians with militia.41 As a result of this action General Sherman again reversed his decision and on July 1 gave Crawford permission to raise the volunteer battalion.42 At once Governor Crawford issued a proclamation calling upon the people of Kansas for volunteers. Thus the Eighteenth Kansas cavalry came into existence.
36. Crawford to Haskell, June 24, 1867. C. K. G.f Crawford (Telegrams), p. 134.
37. Ibid.
38. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, p. 256.
39. Sherman to Crawford, June 26, 1867, C. K. G., Crawford (Telegrams), p. 43.
40. General 9. J. Smith to Governor Crawford, June 27 and 28, 1867, Ibid., p. 44.
41. Crawford to Sherman, June 28, 1867, Ibid., p. 44.
42. Sherman to Crawford, July 1, 1867, Ibid., p. 45.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 333
Why did General Sherman first consent to the raising of the volunteer cavalry and then countermand the order? Apparently a conflict was going on in Sherman's mind between his personal views of the situation and his desire to cooperate with Crawford and the railroad officials. Sherman had little sympathy with the Indian, whom he considered the enemy of civilization.43 At the same time he favored government protection for the transcontinental roads.44 Why, then, should he object to a proposition whereby the Union Pacific, eastern division, should get immediate protection? The answer is that he was heartily opposed to the raising of volunteer troops by any state for the defense of its local interests because all other states and territories that had contact with the Indians would instantly start a clamor to do likewise.45 It was his personal belief that each of the western states and territories wanted the entire United States army for its own protection.46 Sherman had stated his views quite plainly in a long telegram to Crawford on June 24. The general tone of his message was a bit of advice to Crawford to act cautiously. The complete text of the telegram is given below:
"Your dispatch of to-day is this moment received. I had already com- mitted myself to be in St. Louis to-morrow from Omaha. I mailed you a circular defining as clearly as I can express how far you can help us to main- tain peace on the border. This circular you ought to receive to-day. Until congress gives to the military power the right to say what Indians are at peace and what at war, this conflict of races must go on. In the meantime I must leave to General Hancock to do his best. He is to-day at Denver, will start back on the Smoky Hill on the 27th and should reach Fort Harker and the telegraph in ten days. The Indians thus far seem to confine their attacks to isolated trains and to the roads and are in small bands strung from . . . Minnesota to ... Texas. Yet almost every Indian agent says his particular Indians are at home and at peace. If you choose to or- ganize a battalion of volunteers, say six or eight companies, and offer them to General Hancock on his arrival at Fort Harker, if he wants them I will approve, but my notion is he has troops enough. If we can only see where the Indians will turn up, which seems impossible, I prefer you deal with General Hancock as he is on the spot all the time."47
43. Letter from Sherman to Dodge, January 16, 1867, Grenville M. Dodge, Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and William T. Sherman (Council Bluffs, Iowa, The Monarch Printing Co., 1914), p. 196. Hereafter cited as Dodge, Personal Recol- lections. Sherman had referred to the Indian wars as follows: "I want to punish and subdue the Indians, who are the enemies of our race and progress, but even in that it is well some- times to proceed with due deliberation."
44. Letter to Senator John Sherman, September 28, 1867, The Sherman Letters, p. 296. In reference to Senator Henderson's theory that congress had not intended to furnish govern- mental protection to transportation companies, Sherman emphatically stated that he, himself, had always acted upon the theory that when congress located a road it amounted to a promise to protect that road.
45. Sherman to Dodge, May 27, 1867, Dodge, Personal Recollections, pp. 200-201.
46. Ibid.
47. Sherman to Crawford, June 24, 1867, C. K. G., Crawford (Telegrams), p. 50.
334 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Having yielded to the insistence of Crawford and the railroad people, however, Sherman came to Kansas immediately in order to be near the scene of action.
When General Sherman reached Fort Harker in July to investigate the Indian situation, railroad construction was advancing at an unusually slow rate up the Smoky Hill valley, while transportation from "End of Track" to Denver on the Smoky Hill Stage line was virtually suspended. Only two stages had passed through to Denver during the month of June, and none had made the attempt in July up to the time of his arrival at the fort.48 Sherman at once looked into the matter. The result was a startling discovery which, if known sooner, likely would have forced him to withhold perma- nently his consent to the organization of the Eighteenth Kansas cavalry. Sherman, upon investigation, was convinced that Indian depredations were not the real reason for the suspension either of railroad building or of travel on the Smoky Hill stage line. He contended instead that the railroad was delayed by excessive rain- fall, while the stage line did not operate due to selfishness and cowardice on the part of the stage company officials.49 The general was also led to suspect that Kansas newspapers and citizens were exaggerating Indian rumors. His natural conclusion, accordingly, was that neither Kansas nor the railroad and stage line needed the protection which they had gained as the result of Governor Craw- ford's persistent efforts.
Following his investigation of the Smoky Hill stage situation Sherman transmitted a telegram to Crawford in which he condemned the stage company in no uncertain terms for its failure to operate.
"I believe there are other causes than Indians why the Smoky Hill stage has not run. The railroad was delayed by high water and not by Indians and the stages have stopped for want of connection and because it is not profitable. I want both railroad and stage companies to prosper, but cannot excuse them from doing their share of service unless they make efforts equal to the occasion. All our posts and intermediate stations to Denver are safe. Trains of wagons go with light escort and even single carriers run from post to post. General Smith has offered the stage company any amount of guard, but they won't go. Keep this to yourself, only help me quiet down unnecessary alarm, which as you can see often does as much harm as real danger, and of course all parties having close contracts avail themselves of the alarm to avoid services and claim com- pensation and damage." 50
48. Leavenworth Daily Conservative, July 10, 1867.
49. Sherman's assertion that high waters was the chief cause for the delay in railroad construction is substantiated by the fact that the bridges all along the Union Pacific, eastern division, were built too low, thus inviting destruction of the road bed by floods. Statement of B. Marshall to Col. John B. Anderson, September 18, 1867. The John B. Anderson Papers.
50. C. K. G., Crawford (Telegrams), p. 47.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 335
Two days later Sherman informed Crawford that the Eighteenth Kansas cavalry was being mustered in at Fort Harker and that a company each of infantry and cavalry had been assigned to guard Shoemaker's construction trains. He then closed with this state- ment: ''Though I assert that Indians have not delayed the progress of this road one hour. The stage company deserves severe treatment for their efforts to avoid their contract, and they may be the means of breaking up the Smoky Hill line altogether." 51
The stage company referred to by General Sherman was Wells Fargo & Co., who had bought out the Holladay interests in 1866 and had perfected a merger of several mail, express and stage lines in the West.52
Sherman's indictment was not the only one hurled at the company. Senator Pomeroy, of Kansas, while attempting to defend Wells Fargo & Co. before the senate, unwittingly let fall information which sup- ported Sherman's contention. Pomeroy and Thayer, of Nebraska, were denying the oft-repeated accusation of eastern papers that the contractors of the West wanted an Indian war. In the course of debate Pomeroy stated that, due to Indian raids, Wells Fargo was losing money daily in the performance of their United States mail contract, and that they would give a million dollars to get out of it.53 This in itself is an indication that the company was not overly eager to continue operations on the Smoky Hill route during June and July.
From still another source Sherman's criticism is substantiated. Postmaster General Alex W. Randall, in his report for 1867, men- tioned a similar denouncement of Wells Fargo & Co. as follows :
"During the spring and summer months the complaints as to the manner in which the service was being performed, and the great delay in the arrival of mail from the east at Denver . . . were more numerous than at any time since the present route has been in operation. It was charged that the Indian troubles, complained of by the contractor and given by his agents as an excuse for nonperformance of service, were a pretense, and that this was no reason why the mails should not be conveyed regularly and within schedule time." 54
The postmaster general concluded, on the other hand, that the contractor (Wells Fargo & Co.) was not to blame for the delay in service. The Indian situation on the plains, he decided, was really serious. As proof for this final conclusion, he cited official reports to
51. Sherman to Crawford, July 10, 1867, C. K. G., Crawford (Telegrams), p. 48.
52. Leroy R. Hafen, The Overland Mail, 1849-1869 (The Arthur H. Clark Company Cleveland, 1926), p. 319.
53. Senate Debate 1867, Cong. Globe, 40 Cong., 1 sess., p. 688.
54. House Ex. Doc., No. 1, 40 Cong., 2 sess., pp. 4-5.
336 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the War Department by General Sherman and other army officers.55 It is evident that the postmaster general knew nothing of Sherman's revelations to Crawford concerning the refusal of the stage company to resume service even under heavy escort.
Western transportation companies undoubtedly did take advan- tage of the United States government during this period. By the nature of their contracts they could collect their money whether or not they maintained an unbroken schedule. Regardless of the mo- tive of the stage company, whether it was to make money with a minimum amount of effort, as implied by Sherman, or to keep from losing money, as may be inferred from Pomeroy's statement, the fact remains that service was suspended intentionally for several weeks on the Smoky Hill line.
There is, of course, some evidence to justify the stage company for discontinuing its service. A special correspondent of the Leaven- worth Conservative, located at Fort Wallace with a railroad engi- neering expedition, declared that the route was closed because the troops for its protection had been sent to guard the Platte line. The writer was highly indignant because the interests of the Smoky Hill line were sacrified for those of the Platte. This correspondent, in two separate articles, maintained that the stage stations were being attacked daily and that during the month of June $100,000 worth of property was destroyed and many lives were lost. An account of an Indian raid at Pond Creek station was also given. Even Fort Wal- lace was attacked on June 21 by about 300 Indians, according to the writer. The article of July 2 stated that the fort was still besieged.56 Practically the same assertions were made by Gen. W. W. Wright, chief engineer of the Union Pacific, eastern division, in a report to Pres. John D. Perry on June 29. Wright was commander of the engineering expedition at Fort Wallace.57
The truth of the whole matter probably is that during the Indian raids of the latter part of June the stage company officials had reasons for abandoning service; nevertheless in the early part of July, when traffic should have been resumed, they failed to perform their duty.
Another problem with which General Sherman had to contend was that of false reports and rumors of Indian uprising. His personal attitude toward this question was well expressed in his telegram to Governor Crawford on July 8, in which he requested that Crawford
55. Ibid., p. 5.
56. Printed in the Leavenworth Daily Conservative, July 10, and 11, 1867.
57. Senate Debate, 1867, Cong. Globe, 40 Cong., 1 sess., p. 688.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 337
help him to quiet unnecessary alarm. In a letter to his brother, Senator Sherman, the general denounced the publication of rumors. "Not only real depredations are committed" (by the Indians), he asserted, "but every fear, or apprehension, on whatever it may be founded, is published, and protection claimed and demanded." Sher- man furthermore emphasized the fact that the clamor of the western people for protection really weakened the military power in the region since it necessitated breaking up his forces into small groups. This, he declared, prevented the collection of any large army to carry an offensive into the Indians' own country, the Yellowstone and Red river localities.58
Sherman's belief that Indian rumors were harmful was upheld by the Fort Harker correspondent to the Leavenworth Conservative. In an article to his paper on July 8, 1867, the writer complained about the false propaganda which was being circulated by a rival paper, the Leavenworth Commercial. The writer for the Conservative denied that there was any truth to the recent stories of Indian raids near Ellsworth. He added that between Harker and Hays all was quiet. Beyond that point he had no information, since, for some reason unknown to the people of his vicinity, 4,he stage had not come through from the west for some time.59
After General Sherman had returned to St. Louis the Republican of that city printed an article from Fort Harker which reported the massacre near Fort Lamed of a party of Catholic priests and nuns. Sherman at once published a reply denying the truth of the incident and rebuking newspaper journalists for publishing unfounded ru- mors.60 Later it was proved that the article was false. The story of the massacre had been published by a Leavenworth rival of the Conservative. The editor of the Conservative, although stating that he had not printed the report, denied that the newspapers of Kansas were publishing exaggerated stories. At the same time he warned his readers to beware of Indian news printed in any rival Leaven- worth papers.61
Additional proof that one of the Leavenworth papers was guilty of "yellow journalism" comes from an entirely different source. A prominent official of the Union Pacific, eastern division, writing from Leavenworth, Kan., in September, 1867, reported that the
58. Letter to Senator Sherman, July 16, 1867 (written from Fort Harker), The Sherman Letters, p. 290.
59. Leavenworth Daily Conservative, July 10, 1867.
60. Reprint of Sherman's letter of July 19 to the St. Louis Republican, Leavenworth Daily Conservative, July 23, 1867.
61. Ibid.
22—4323
338 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
town was a great place for the manufacture of news. He also mentioned that a reporter for a Leavenworth publication was filling his paper with startling accounts of Indian raids and horrible mur- ders which were being copied by "all the eastern papers as the true state of affairs in the West." 62
While the Sherman investigation and newspaper controversy were taking place the Eighteenth Kansas cavalry was organized, mustered into service and baptized with fire. When Governor Crawford issued his call for volunteers on July 1 it was his intention to raise eight companies of cavalry for six months' service. As a matter of fact only four companies were raised and the regiment was required to serve only four months. The reason for this change of plans will soon be apparent.
Recruiting officers found that they could get sufficient men but very few horses. Crawford on July 3 asked Sherman if the govern- ment would furnish horses for part of the men. Sherman refused, stating that if eight mounted companies could not be furnished a less number would be sufficient.63 Telegrams and letters literally poured into the executive offices in Topeka during the next few days. The majority of these were in regard to getting horses. Ac- cordingly, Crawford on July 10 again telegraphed Sherman, inquir- ing if he would take part of the men unmounted. Sherman again rejected the suggestion, remarking that if the men could not be mounted they were not wanted.84 This attitude of Sherman was quite disconcerting to certain Kansans who were striving mightily to organize a full eight-company regiment. On July 5 Governor Craw- ford received the following telegram from A. Green, of Manhattan: "I can get horses if adjutant general will issue certificate of indebt- edness. Pottawatomie is best place. I came up with General Sher- man. He would not grieve if you fail. Come up to-morrow."65
According to the terms of enlistment, each volunteer was supposed to furnish his own horse. He was then to be armed, equipped and paid by the United States as were other regular troops. In case a volunteer had no horse and was unable to purchase one the state guaranteed to stand security for the payment.66 In order to pay all creditors for horses purchased without waiting for a delayed legis- lative appropriation, the recruits gave their personal notes at the
62. B. Marshall to Col. John B. Anderson, Sept. 18, 1867. The John B. Anderson Papers.
63. C. K. G., Crawford (Telegrams), pp. 136; 47.
64. Ibid., p. 48.
65. Ibid., p. 69; (the italics are mine).
66. Crawford's instructions to Colonel Moonlight, of Leavenworth, July 5, C. K. G., Crawford (Telegrams), p. 136.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 339
time of purchase. The recruiting officer was then instructed to draw the cash pay of each soldier so indebted and transmit it to the creditor until the note was paid in full.67 The governor assured all questioners that each soldier who furnished a horse would be reim- bursed later by legislative appropriation.
With the horse problem once solved the routine of organization went on steadily. By July 15 the Eighteenth Kansas was mustered into United States service at Fort Harker. The battalion was made up of four companies with a total enrollment of 358 officers and enlisted men.68 That there was a real need for the regiment was revealed by General Sherman in his annual report for the year. The report explained that the Eighteenth was called into service to re- place six companies of Seventh cavalry that had been transferred to the Platte in the summer.69
Under the able leadership of Maj. Horace L. Moore, of Lawrence, the Eighteenth Kansas performed creditably and was of real service to the state and nation. In addition to fighting the Indians the men faced a far deadlier enemy, cholera, which took a heavy toll of re- cruits at Fort Harker. On July 24 the regiment was at Fort Larned. Shortly afterwards it was moved to Fort Dodge and finally to Fort Hays on August 15.
While stationed at Fort Hays the Eighteenth performed its most active service. On August 22 part of the regiment participated in the battle of Beaver creek. Following an Indian raid on the Smoky Hill stage line at Big Creek station, Maj. George A. Armes organized an expedition of the Tenth United States and Eighteenth Kansas cavalry and pursued the hostiles north into the Republican valley. While out on a scout for the expedition Captain Jenness, of the Eighteenth Kansas, and a small body of troops were attacked by about 500 Indians. They withstood the onslaught until rescued. The Indians then attacked the entire force. The battle raged for six hours before darkness caused the fighting to cease. Satanta, the Kiowa chief, was reported to have led the Indians.™ The sol- diers' losses were three killed and thirty-five wounded.71 Mean- while Major Moore and the remainder of the Eighteenth were cam- paigning in the same general region. Although neither Indians nor
67. Crawford's instructions to Col. John A. Martin, of Atchison, July 8, Ibid.
68. Wilder, Annals of Kansas, July 15, 1867.
69. Annual Report of the Military Division of the Missouri, October 1, 1867, Report of Secretary of War, 40 Cong., 2 sess., pp. 34-35.
70. "The Battle of Beaver Creek," George B. Jenness, Kansas Historical Collections, v. IX, pp. 443-452.
71. General Hancock's report to Governor Crawford, Aug. 24, C. K. G., Crawford (Tele- grams), pp. 38-39.
340 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
soldiers could claim decisive victories, the campaign had the effect of breaking up the Indian concentration along the Smoky Hill and the Republican. The northern Indians retreated to the north, while the Comanches, Kiowas, southern Cheyennes and Arapahoes headed south, where they met the Peace Commission at Medicine Lodge in October.72 The Eighteenth continued to serve until October 29, when it was ordered to Fort Harker to be mustered out. On Novem- bed 15 the final muster took place.73 It was deemed unnecessary to keep the soldiers in service for six months since there was no need for them during the winter. About ten per cent of the regiment lost their lives during their four months of service.
Throughout the months of July and August reports of Indian depredations had continued to come in. A perfect reign of terror took place in Colorado Territory during the early part of July. Settlers left the country, and there was talk of discontinuing over- land travel.74 One of Custer's scouts, in relating the story of the Kidder massacre and an attack by Indians on Custer's supply train, closed the interview with these words: "If any man thinks there is no war with, or danger from, the Indians, let him make a trip from Wallace to Harker and then he will realize it."75
Service was finally resumed on the Smoky Hill route, the first west-bound mail coach reaching Denver July 27, after a ten-day trip from Fort Harker. Indians were numerous between Harker and Monument station, and according to reports were virtually in pos- session of one hundred miles of the road.76 Santa Fe coaches, on the other hand, were coming through to Fort Harker unmolested, though many Indians were seen along the route.77
Osages dwelling in the southeast section of the state caught the fever of the Indian war on the plains and performed some minor depredations. Governor Crawford paid them a visit in August and called them to account for thieving of horses and other stock from settlers. The Osages promptly returned the property and thereafter remained "good Indians."78 The governor discovered that Indian traders were daily supplying the Osages as well as the wild plains tribes with arms and ammunition.79
72. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, p. 261.
73. Wilder, Annals of Kansas, p. 468.
74. Letter from news correspondent in Denver, Leavenworth Daily Conservative, July 18, 1867.
75. Reprint from Junction City Union, Leavenworth Daily Conservative, July 25, 1867.
76. Reprint from Denver News of July 27, Leavenworth Daily Conservative, August 4, 1867.
77. Leavenworth Daily Conservative, July 27, 1867.
78. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, p. 280.
79. Crawford to Sherman, August 5, 1867, C. K. G., Crawford (Telegrams), p. 138.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 341
The Indian Peace Commission, which had been appointed in July by act of congress, held a meeting in St. Louis on August 8. As a result General Sherman ordered all department commanders in the division of the Missouri to assume defensive tactics only, thus giving the Indians a chance to receive messages sent out from the Peace Commission and to act on them.80
In view of this change of tactics upon the part of the military au- thorities, matters became somewhat complicated when the Indians again attacked the Smoky Hill route in September. Shoemaker wired Crawford on September 21 informing him that one of the principal contractors and three men had been killed by Indians on September 19. Since Gen. A. J. Smith, at Fort Harker, could give no additional protection the general superintendent asked the governor for an infantry regiment at once to guard the working parties.81 Crawford replied immediately. "Your dispatch received. Will tender regiment to General Sherman. If he will not accept on behalf of government, I will endeavor to make other arrange- ments."82 Governor Crawford then made a speedy trip to Fort Hays to investigate matters and upon his return sent two telegrams to Sherman describing the situation and offering to immediately organize a regiment of volunteers.83
Sherman's reply threw cold water on the proposition. The com- plete telegram follows:
"HEADQUARTERS, MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI,
ST. Louis, September 24, 1867.
"Governor Crawford: With the present convictions of the Indian Com- mission to be at Fort Harker the eighth I would not be willing to accept more volunteers. Mr. Shoemaker ought not to push his parties too far out till we meet the Cheyennes. W. T. SHERMAN, Lieut. General"**
Sherman thus remained consistent with his previous position. Crawford, plainly, was out of sympathy with the Peace Commission and considered defense of the railroad paramount. The crux of the matter was whether or not the road actually needed more protection than it was already getting. Considerable light was shed on the question by Mr. Marshall, who was on the scene at Fort Harker as a representative of the railroad's eastern financial interests. Writ- ing from Junction City on September 18, Marshall explained that
80. Sherman's Annual Report, Report of the Secretary of War, 40 Cong., 2 sess., p. 37.
81. C. K. G., Crawford (Telegrams), p. 34.
82. Ibid., p. 138.
83. Ibid., p. 138. The two telegrams are similar to content, the first having been directed to Sherman at Omaha, while the second was sent the following day to St. Louis. Crawford apparently wanted to be sure that Sherman would get the message immediately.
84. Ibid., p. 40.
342 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
he had just gone up to the end of the track with the railroad com- missioners, that a military escort had accompanied the train and that they were not molested. Further on he stated:
"The Indians west of us have been making some trouble lately, but I do not apprehend any trouble with our trains. There have been several attacks made on wagon trains and some stock stolen, and a few men killed, but those things you must expect when you pass over other people's grounds."85
The Peace Commission, following its meeting in St. Louis, headed northwest up the Missouri river in order to treat with the Sioux and northern Cheyennes before meeting the tribes in Kansas. Sherman invited Crawford to meet the commission at Fort Leavenworth on August II.86 Crawford accepted and presented his views to the commissioners. A Leavenworth daily, reporting the governor's pres- ence in town, had this to say: "The governor will confer with the peace powwow-ists, but is not known to sympathize with their policy. He is for exhorting peace, we guess."87 In September Craw- ford further vented his opinion of the commission. "I am waiting patiently," he wrote, "the result of the efforts of this Peace Com- mission. If they fail to do their duty the state of Kansas will not fail."88 Sherman, also, was not optimistic about the possibility of peace, although he expressed some hopes. Writing to his brother on September 28, he predicted that the Indian wars were not over, since it would take years for the Peace Commission to fulfill the requirement of the law passed by congress.89
In October the Peace Commission arrived in Kansas. Its per- sonnel had been carefully chosen from both military men and civilians. Generals Terry, Harney, Sanborn, and Auger represented the army, while Commissioner Taylor upheld the interests of the Indian Bureau. Senator Henderson, of Missouri, represented con- gress and Col. Samuel F. Tappan stood for the nation at large. For a month prior to the meeting the Indian Bureau had been assembling a vast amount of material near Medicine Lodge to give the Indians as presents. These stores included coffee, sugar, flour, dried fruits, arms and ammunition and a herd of cattle.90
Once the Indians were assembled, the powwow began. Estimates of the number of Indians present vary from five thousand to fifteen
85. Letter to Col. John B. Anderson, the John B. Anderson Papers.
86. Telegram to Crawford, August 10, 1867, C. K. G., Crawford (Telegrams), p. 38.
87. Leavenworth Daily Conservative, August 11, 1867.
88. Letter to J. R. Mead, an Indian trader, Sept. 4, 1867, C. K. G., Crawford (Copy Book), p. 57.
89. The Sherman Letters, p. 296.
90. Connelley, "Medicine Lodge Treaty," pp. 603-604.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 343
thousand.91 The tribes represented were the Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Comanche, Kiowa, and Kiowa-Apache. Tall Bull, a prominent Cheyenne war chief, ably stated the Indians' case when he told the commissioners that the red men were on the warpath to prevent Kansas and Colorado being settled by palefaces. He said that the Indians claimed that part of the country as their own, and did not want railroads built through it to scare away the buffalo. At one time during the early stages of the conference it seemed that negotia- tions would stop and a general massacre ensue. Since there were less than five hundred soldiers present, the commissioners exhibited some uneasiness. Nevertheless, the Indians were kept in awe by a show of artillery, so the powwow continued.92
Two treaties were drawn up and signed. On October 21 the com- missioners reached their final agreement with the Comanche, Kiowa and Apache tribes. The Cheyennes held off until a week later, when they and their Arapahoe allies came to terms. The two treaties were nearly identical. According to the final arrangement the Indians agreed to —
(1) Withdraw all opposition to the construction of the Pacific railroads.
(2) Relinquish their claims lying between the Platte and Arkansas.
(3) Withdraw to reservations set apart for them.
In return the Indians received the following concessions :
(1) A large reservation and an enormous amount of supplies. (The Coman- ches, Kiowas and Apaches were assigned to a reserve north of the Red river. The Cheyennes and Arapahoes were allotted about three million acres in the Cherokee outlet in Indian territory.)
(2) The right to hunt south of the Arkansas river so long as the buffalo ranged there in such numbers as to justify the chase. No white settle- ments were to be allowed between the Arkansas river and the southern boundary of Kansas for a period of three years.93
Contrary to a general impression which has grown up in the United States, the Medicine Lodge treaty did not bring peace to the frontier. After loading the Indians with guns and ammunition the Peace Commission promised to provide more for them the next spring. This mistaken policy on the part of the commissioners practically undid everything that had been accomplished by the treaty. It remained for the military authorities to bring about peace
91. Connelley says 5,000. Crawford estimated the total number of warriors at 3,000. This would mean a total population of approximately 7,500.
92. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, p. 277.
93. Terms of the Medicine Lodge Treaty derived from: Sheridan, Personal Memoirs, v. II, p. 284 ; Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, p. 278 ; Charles J. Kappler, Indian Affairs, Laws, and Treaties, v. II, p. 764.
344 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
by conquest in 1868.94 Even from the standpoint of the Indian, the treaty was a failure. "The giving of a few presents and the signing of treaties by a few chiefs would not appease the Indians, whose livelihood, the buffalo, was being destroyed and driven away." 95 The young men of all the tribes bitterly opposed the treaty; hence it could not be expected that the terms of the agreement would be observed.
After the break-up of the great Medicine Lodge encampment the Indians headed south and west, leaving the Kansas frontier in peace during the fall and winter. Sheridan, upon taking command of the Department of the Missouri, reported everything comparatively quiet.96 At the very close of the year reports reached Topeka of Indian depredations on White Rock creek in Republic county. These proved to be the work of a party of Omahas and Otoes.97
The year 1867 was outstanding in the annals of plains warfare. Commencing early in the spring, the war between Indians and whites dragged through a long summer and well into the autumn. While no general massacre of settlers took place, there were over four hundred citizens murdered by the southern tribes in Kansas and Nebraska during 1866 and 1867. Sixteen engagements occurred dur- ing the latter year between Indians and United States troops in the Missouri department. So numerous, indeed, were the conflicts on the plains that one writer has credited the summer of 1867 with more actual cavalry fighting than any season in the ten years of plains combat from 1864 to 1874.98 While this statement may be correct, it is well to add that the conflicts between the military and Indians during the year were not especially bloody. In the entire Depart- ment of the Missouri during 1867 nineteen soldiers were killed and fifty wounded, while only ten Indians were sent to the happy hunting grounds.99
94. Connelley, "Medicine Lodge Treaty," pp. 604-605.
95. Grinnell, The Fighting Cheyennes, p. 266.
96. Sheridan, Personal Memoirs, v. II, p. 282.
97. Letter from Thomas Lovewell to Governor Crawford, December 23, 1867, Adjutant General's Correspondence, 1867 (Kansas).
98. James A. Hadley, "The Death of Lieutenant Kidder," Indian Depredations and Bat- tles, Clippings, v. I. p. 64., Kansas State Historical Society.
99. Report of the Secretary of War, 1867, 40 Cong., 2 sess., Ser. No. 1324, pp. 45, 46.
Some Famous Kansas Frontier Scouts
PAUL I. WELLMAN
IN THE divers Indian wars which kept the western frontier in a turmoil throughout much of the time between 1857 and 1878 Kansas played a tragic and at the same time a heroic part. Like her sister states of Nebraska and Texas and the Dakota territories she suffered under the scourge of the Indian raiders, and many of her citizens died in the glare of their burning homes in the settle- ments on the Smoky Hill, the Republican, the Arkansas, the Solo- mon and elsewhere.1 Like these other states she sent her sons to avenge the atrocities committed.
Thus far Kansas played a part akin to that of all the other frontier states. But there was one respect in which she outshone all the others. That was in her contribution of great plains scouts to this frontier war, in which she surpassed every other state in the West.
Study the big Indian campaigns between 1860 and 1878 — Kansas men were the real leaders in every one. Kansans were the keen-eyed followers of the trail ; the canny diagnosers of ambuscades ; the wise advisors to ward off the duplicity of Indian diplomats; the inter- preters at the councils. In a word, more Kansas men qualified as high-class scouts in the Indian wars — and the position of the scout was often far more important than was the position of the com- manding officer himself — than qualified from any other state or territory.
Sharp Grover, Billy Comstock, Charlie Reynolds, Billy Dixon, Jack Stillwell, Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill Cody, William Mathewson — even Kit Carson and William Bent,2 to mention only a few, received a part or all of their training in plainscraft, in Indian strategy, and in the lessons of hardihood, endurance and loyalty, on the plains of Kansas.
1. Between August 10 and November 25, 1868, there were government records of the kill- ing of 120 people; the capture of seven more; the running off of 619 horses and mules and 958 cattle; the burning and plundering of twenty- one homes; and the destruction of four wagon trams in Kansas, eastern Colorado and the Indian territory. This record covered a period of only three and a half months. — George Armstrong Ouster, My Life on the Plains, p. 87.
2. Abner T. Grover, 18 1869; William Comstock, 18 1868; Charles Alexander Rey- nolds, 1842-1876; William Dixon, 1850-1913; S. E. Stillwell, 1849-1889; James Butler Hickok, 1837-1876; William Frederick Cody, 1846-1917; William Mathewson, 1830-1912; Christopher Carson, 1809-1868, and William Bent, 1809-1869.
(345)
346 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
To understand why this should be it must be remembered that the frontier history of the West is divided into three epochs, each sig- nificant of the progress of the civilized white man in occupying the land, and of the growing resentment of the savage red man because of that encroachment.
First came the epoch of the trapper and the trader. A wild, dar- ing, irresponsible class of men they were, those forerunners of the pale face's civilization. They little resembled heralds of civiliza- tion. More savage in dress, actions and habits were many of them than the very Indians among whom they wandered to wrest their precarious livelihood from the wilderness. Yet they sowed the seeds from which were to spring the beginnings of the new era.
These trappers and traders fared forth with a hardihood and re- source absolutely amazing, braved the peril of death by torture, and filtered among the wild tribes of the plains and mountains in search of beaver and other peltries. In this search they penetrated to the uttermost corners of the present United States. They went in search of furs; but they acquired something more important to the nation than that — a priceless knowledge of the geography, people and characteristics of the great unknown hinterland, which, dis- seminated in the East, probably had greater influence on the quick settlement of the West than any other one factor.
To this period belong men like Kit Carson, the Bent brothers and their partner, Ceran St. Vrain, "Old Bill" Williams, Jim Bridger, "Broken Hand" Fitzpatrick, Jim Beckwourth, Ezekial Williams and others. These were but the better-known typical examples of the hundreds who were cut out of the same piece of cloth, and who could shoot "plumb-center," trail a moccasin track over a bare rock, battle a grizzly bear with a bowie knife, and live off anything in hunger time, from their own leggins to "raw buzzart," as occurred in one traditional case.
They did not go forth as conquerors of the soil, these forerunners of their race. The land meant no more to them than it did to the Indians. They made friends with the red men whenever it suited their capricious purpose; often took wives from among them;3 and many times took part in their tribal wars.4 In some cases they
3. William Bent, Kit Carson, Sharp Grover, Ed Curtis, Ceran St. Vrain, and many others had Indian wives.
4. There is even reason to think that some of these white men "gone native" fought against their own race. Thus, at the Beecher Island fight, when all of Forsyth's horses were killed, the men on the island heard a voice announce in perfect English, "There goes the last of their horses, anyway." Besides this, from time to time, the notes of an artillery bugle were heard from the shore. See Indian Fights and Fighters, p. 84, by Cyrus Townsend Brady.
WELLMAN: FAMOUS KANSAS SCOUTS 347
wrought remarkable changes in the relations of the tribes. A typical case of this is quoted by Billy Peacock,5 for years a member of the Cheyenne tribe, by whom he is still known as Numose, "the Left Hand."
After the building of Bent's Fort, according to Peacock, the Bents and St. Vrain, with Kit Carson and Ed Curtis, traded with the Comanches and Kiowas. The Cheyennes at that time — about 1828 or '29 — still lived north in the Black Hills country. To increase their trade, Bent and St. Vrain built the trading post on the Canadian river known as the Adobe Walls from the material used in building the fort. This post was not long occupied. Trouble was stirred up among the southern Indians by the "Spanish" traders of Santa Fe, Taos and other New Mexican towns, who were jealous of Bent and St. Vrain. Things reached such a crisis that St. Vrain, who was in charge at the southern post, was forced to use a subterfuge to get away.
The Kiowas and Comanches had run off his stock. He ran up a white flag and invited their chiefs in for a council. As soon as these chiefs entered the stockade he closed the doors and promised them death unless the stock was returned speedily and he was given safe conduct to Bent's Fort. This stratagem was later used by Custer and others, but this is the first time it appears on the plains. It was effective. The mules were returned and St. Vrain was unmolested in his northward journey.
The Indians still refusing to trade with them, William Bent, with true Yankee cunning, looked around for a new source of business. He had dwelt among the Cheyennes and had a Cheyenne wife.6 He arranged for a meeting with some of the Cheyenne leaders who were hunting in the Arkansas valley, and after a big powwow in- duced about half the tribe to move their permanent camps from the northern hunting grounds to the vicinity of the fort.7
This, according to Peacock, is how the southern Cheyennes sepa- rated from the northern Cheyennes, who remained in the North. He insists that although these bands have always been considered dif- ferent and distinct tribes they are in all essentials the same. History records that they were intermarrying and visiting back and forth
5. William C. Peacock, now 75 years old, is at present residing at Valley Center, Kan.
6. His first wife was Owl Woman. After her death in 1847, he married another Indian woman named Yellow Woman. — George Bird Grinnell, "Bent's Old Fort and Its Builders," Kansas Historical Collections, v. XV, pp. 46, 47.
7. Grinnell tells a different story. He says that the fort was built after instead of be- fore the conference with the Cheyennes, which took place at the mouth of the Purgatoire in 1826.— Ibid., p. 31.
348 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
as late as 1875, when the band of Bull Hump, a northern Cheyenne, returning from a visit to the southern Cheyennes in the Indian territory, was set upon and wiped out by soldiers and buffalo hunters on Sappa creek, in northwestern Kansas.8 If this story is true, it forms an interesting illustration of how the white men changed the habits, history and habitat of many an Indian tribe.
With the beginning of settlement in the eastern part of Kansas and Nebraska began a second epoch. Discovery of gold in the mountains and in California brought a rush of emigrants. The slavery question caused thousands to move into Kansas with the purpose of making it proslavery or antislavery, and thus it was dis- covered that the "Great American Desert," so-called, was really a fertile and productive territory.
Naturally the Indians resented this high-handed incursion. Be- ginning in 1857, when Sumner campaigned against the Cheyennes9, the frontier was always in danger of a raid, and the youths of that frontier were reared in the art of Indian fighting, taught the secrets of woods and plains craft, and schooled in all the fine arts of com- bating at their own game the fierce nomads of the wilderness. This was the period when most of the Kansas scouts got their training and fitted themselves for their strenuous and important adventures, which occurred in the third epoch, the epoch of the real Indian wars.
In 1858 gold was found in Colorado and a new rush of emigrants started up the Santa Fe and Platte trails. The passage of thousands of white men with their stock and their families up these trails, frightening away the game, excited and angered the Indians.10 Trouble soon broke out. There were brushes with the red men on the overland trails, and then sporadic raiding began against isolated settlements. In the main, however, the tribes kept the peace until 1863, when minor depredations increased to a point where they resembled a general war, and the government, in the throes of civil war, decided it must do something to put an end to these troubles. There were several minor fights with the Indians, and on November 29, 1864, occurred the massacre of Black Kettle's village on Sand
8. For an account of this fight see Buffalo Days, pp. 99-112, by Col. Homer W. Wheeler. See, also, William D. Street's "Cheyenne Indian Massacre on the Middle Fork of the Sappa," Kansas Historical Collections, v. X, pp. 368-373.
9. An excellent account of this campaign is contained in an article by R. M. Peck, who was a soldier in Sumner's command, in Kansas Historical Collections, v. VIII, p. 484.
10. According to Grinnell, the Cheyennes at first thought these gold miners insane, be- cause they wandered about aimlessly seeking for gold. — The Fighting Cheyennes, footnote, p. 119. During the month of May, 1859, not less than 10,000 persons went up the Republi- can river route alone, and Bancroft estimates 150,000 went up the Platte and Arkansas routes in the spring of 1859. — George Bancroft, History of Colorado, p. 457.
WELLMAN: FAMOUS KANSAS SCOUTS 349
creek by Chivington,11 which set the whole Indian country into a blaze of hatred.12
The chief theater of war was in Wyoming and the Platte valley of Nebraska during 1865 and 1866. In 1867 occurred the campaign by General Hancock in southern Kansas and present-day northern Oklahoma, which resulted in nothing except to give the Indians renewed confidence.13 The following year, 1868, saw the red men receive three stunning defeats — the repulse of Roman Nose's band by Col. G. A. Forsyth's command at Beecher's Island; Gen. George A. Ouster's winter attack on Black Kettle's village on the Washita; and Gen. Eugene A. Carr's defeat of Tall Bull's band at Summit Springs. In each case the leading chief was killed.
After that the Indians subsided until 1874, when, maddened by white buffalo hunters who ignored the Medicine Lodge peace treaty, they flamed into revolt again.14 For the next year the troops were kept busy pursuing the hostiles, and the bloody battles of Adobe Walls,15 Palo Duro Canyon and elsewhere, together with scores of massacres and raids, painted the frontier a gory hue.
Scarcely was this war brought to an end, in 1875, when the Sioux to the north went on the warpath. In the year which followed, Reynolds was defeated on the Powder river, Crook was defeated on the Rose Bud, and Custer and all his immediate command were wiped out on the Little Big Horn. The Sioux were finally subdued and the Northern Cheyennes were rounded up and moved to the reservation of the Southern Cheyennes in the Indian territory, which precipitated Kansas' last real Indian raid — the Dull Knife raid of 1878.
11. Col. J. M. Chivington, First Colorado cavalry.
12. Concerning this massacre there was almost universal condemnation of Chivington Gen. Nelson A. Miles, greatest of all the Indian fighters, said of it : "The Sand Creek massacre is perhaps the foulest and most unjustifiable crime in the annals of America." — Personal Recollections, p. 139. The Indian Peace Commission of 1868, which reviewed the case, said in its report : "It scarcely has its parallel in the records of Indian barbarity. Fleeing women, holding up their hands and praying for mercy, were shot down; infants were killed and scalped in derision; men were tortured and mutilated in a manner that would put to shame the sav- ages of interior Africa. No one will be astonished that a war ensued which cost the govern- ment $30,000,000, and carried conflagration and death into the border settlements. During the spring and summer of 1865 no less than 8,000 troops were withdrawn from the effective forces engaged against the Rebellion to meet this Indian war." — George W. Manypenny, Our Indian Wards, p. 165. An excellent description of the Sand Creek massacre may be found in J. P. Dunn's Massacres of the Mountains, pp. 396-437.
13. "Hancock had threatened to chastise these Indians most severely if they made any trouble, but having now driven them to hostilities he found it impossible to strike them at all, as they moved much more rapidly than his troops. — George Bird Grinnell, The Fighting Cheyennes, p. 244.
14. One provision of the Medicine Lodge treaty was that the white men should not molest' buffalo or other game south of the border between Kansas and the Indian territory.
15. This fight took place near the site of the old Bent-St. Vrain fort by that name, on the banks of the Canadian. Traces of the ancient adobe walls were still visible. The fort, built by the buffalo hunters and traders, was of logs, set picket fashion, with one sod house (Hanrahan's saloon), but it was named "Adobe Walls" for the older structure.
350 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
That campaign, resulting in the death of scores of Kansans in the path of the desperate Cheyennes, ended Indian troubles in this state, although in other states, notably in Colorado during the Ute up- rising, in Arizona and New Mexico during the Apache wars, and in the Dakotas during the Ghost Dance outbreak, there was plenty of bloodshed and bitter fighting before the red warriors were convinced that, whether it was right or not, might held the winning hand.
Now let us glance at the part the Kansas scouts played in this panorama of warfare.
One of the best and bravest of them was Charlie Reynolds. Born in Kentucky in 1842, he came to Kansas when only a boy of sixteen, by way of an emigrant train bound for California. The train was attacked by Indians on the Platte and most of the emigrants were killed, but Reynolds escaped to become a Nemesis to the race which had done that deed. After some wandering he came to Atchison county, and at the opening of the Civil War enlisted in and served in a Kansas regiment for three years, chiefly as a scout.16
At the end of the war he went on a trading expedition and again ran afoul of the Indians when his party was attacked on the Smoky Hill. Reynolds' fellow trader was killed, but he took refuge in a wolfer's dugout and stood the Indians off until nightfall, when he escaped and finally reached Santa Fe in safety.17
During the summer of 1866 Reynolds hunted buffalo in western Kansas and eastern Colorado, where he earned such a reputation as a plainsman that he was appointed an army scout. He accompanied the troops north in 1873 and was Custer's chief of scouts in the Black Hills expedition in 1874. Reynolds it was who discovered that Rain-in-the-Face, the Sioux chief, was guilty of the murder of Doctor Honzinger, a veterinarian, and Balleran, a sutler, during the Black Hills expedition. He also helped in the arrest of the chief.18
Reynolds was chief of scouts in the ill-fated expedition to the Little Big Horn. He died trying to stave off the rush of the Sioux warriors who were shooting down the soldiers of Major Reno as they tried to retreat across the Little Big Horn river. He is buried,
16. Brininstool, E. A., A Trooper With Ouster, p. 204.
17. He was on his way to New Mexico at the time.
18. Rain-in-the-Face, the Sioux chief, said that Reynolds recognized him at the time he killed the two civilians. In his story of the Little Big Horn fight and the events preceding it, published in the magazine Outdoor Life, March, 1903, and quoted by Cyrus Townsend Brady, he says: "Charlie Reynolds knew me (he was seen after the killing) and told Long Yellow Hair who did this brave deed." He was mistaken, because Reynolds got his informa- tion much later, while Rain-in-the-Face was undergoing the Sun Dance tortures. To keep up his courage he boasted of his exploits, this being one of them. Reynolds, a witness of the Sun Dance, heard him and reported it. — Brady, Indian Fights and Fighters, footnote on p. 283.
WELLMAN: FAMOUS KANSAS SCOUTS 351
and a tablet shows where he died bravely fighting, on the field of the Little Big Horn.19
Another excellent scout and daring fighter was Sharp Grover. He is said to have been a "squaw man," having lived as a member of the Sioux tribe and been married to a Sioux wife.20 When Colonel Forsyth organized his famous expedition for the Beecher Island campaign Grover went along as chief of scouts.
That was a real distinction in that group, for most of them were veteran plainsmen in their own right. They were all Kansas men, too — trappers and hunters and ranchers and ex-soldiers, many of them former members of the Confederate army. In this hard-bitten and efficient detachment Grover still managed to stand out, and his commanding officer later wrote of his high opinion and trust of him.21 He could speak Sioux, and was also expert in sign talk, the universal language of the plains. Moreover, he was a finished plainsman.
Largely through his guidance, Forsyth trailed and overtook the Cheyennes and Sioux under Roman Nose and fought the almost disastrous battle with them on Beecher's Island. It was Grover who pointed out a huge Indian as Roman Nose himself,22 and Grover is reputed to have killed this Indian, although the Cheyennes later denied that this was Roman Nose. Still, Roman Nose was killed in this battle, and Grover should have known him from personal ac- quaintance. It is the writer's opinion that he was correct in his identification.23
At the time he scouted for Forsyth, Grover was suffering from a still unhealed wound in the back which he had received when his friend Billy Comstock was treacherously killed by Sioux Indians, in August, 1868, on the Solomon river. This occurred only a month before the Forsyth expedition, yet the painful hurts did not prevent
19. Reynolds' grave is marked with an iron tablet.
20. Wheeler, Col. Homer W., Buffalo Days, p. 246.
21. "My guide was Sharp Grover, a plainsman . . . who had passed his life in hunt- ing and trapping along the western border. . . He was well posted on Indian craft, spoke the dialect of the Sioux and knew many of them personally. A keen eye, a good shot, and a cool head made him a valuable man. ... He (William Comstock), Dick Parr, Grover and William Cody (Buffalo Bill) were ... a strong quartet of able and compe- tent plainsmen, bred to their work by years of service, and men to be relied upon under all circumstances. — "A Frontier Fight," by Gen. G. A. Forsyth, printed in The Beecher Island Annual (1917), p. 8.
22. Ibid., p. 15.
23. The Cheyennes present at this fight told George Bird Grinnell that Roman Nose was killed on the evening of the first day, instead of early in the fight, as related by Forsyth, Custer and others. Says Grinnell: "As the most famous of the northern Cheyennes, Roman Nose was regarded as the hero of this fight on the Indian side, yet it is clear that no one in Forsyth 's command knew Roman Nose. General Forsyth states that the scout Grover identi- fied Roman Nose, but while Grover had some intercourse with the Sioux he did not know the northern Cheyennes." — Grinnell, The Fighting Cheyennes, p. 281.
352 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
him from riding, fighting and scouting as daringly and as intelli- gently as at any period in his life.
Grover was killed in a shooting affray at Pond Creek, Kan., in the year following this campaign. He was shot by a man named Moody in a saloon brawl. Grover was not armed, having delivered his pistols to the barkeeper, but Moody was allowed to go free as he claimed he had shot in self-defense, thinking Grover armed, when the latter, drunk, started toward him with a flow of abusive epi- thets.24
The name of Billy Comstock has been mentioned above. He was another Kansas scout who stood high in the esteem of the officers with whom he associated. In General Ouster's book, My Life on the Plains, he is referred to as "a host in himself" when fight- ing against the Indians.25
Billy Comstock was born in Wisconsin, but came west at an early age, living on the frontier by preference. He was one of the original pony express riders, at the time when Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody were similarly employed.26
In the winter of 1867 he got into trouble in a fight with a cheating wood contractor who had agreed to pay him a certain sum of money if he would show him where a good supply of wood for the post at Fort Wallace could be found. Comstock lived up to his part of the agreement, but the contractor failed to pay.
This man posed as a bad man and boasted of having been a mem- ber of the Quantrill raiders, but that made no difference to Com- stock. He met his defrauder on the porch of the post trader and shot him dead. His arrest followed and he was taken to Fort Hays for trial. Arraigned before a judge there, he was asked how he would plead.
"Guilty, sir," Comstock replied.
The astonished judge asked him if he wished to alter his plea.
"No, sir," said Comstock, who did not know what it was to lie.
"In that case I discharge you for want of evidence," said the judge, who seems to have known Comstock's late adversary.27
24. Wheeler, Buffalo Days, pp. 247-248.
25. My Life on the Plains, p. 63. In the same book, Ouster gives this typical Kansas scout the following tribute: "Thoroughly reliable in his reports, brave, modest and per- severing in character, with a remarkable knowledge of the country and the savage tribes in- festing it, he was the superior of all men who were scouts by profession with whom I have had experience." — p. 100.
26. Buffalo Days, p. 244.
27. Colonel Wheeler also hints that the judge thought that Comstock's friends intended to help him to escape and decided that to dismiss the case was the easiest way out of the affair.— Ibid., p. 245.
WELLMAN: FAMOUS KANSAS SCOUTS 353
In 1868, when the Indian war broke out, Gen. Phil Sheridan sent for Comstock for the purpose of employing him as chief of scouts. Comstock refused to come at the summons, for fear he was to be rearrested for the killing of the wood contractor, so Sheridan, emu- lating Mahomet in the incident of the mountain, went to him and offered him the position.
He accepted and left his ranch, never to return to it. It was dur- ing this service that he met Ouster. He was chief scout for that officer during the campaign which resulted in the massacre of Lieu- tenant Kidder and his men, and also in the fight of Colonel Cook with the hostiles between Fort Wallace and Fort McPherson.28
Comstock's tragic death has been mentioned. With Grover he was out on a scouting expedition to see if he could discover any traces of hostiles. About fifty miles from Fort Wallace they found the friendly village of Sioux under Turkey Leg, on the banks of the Solomon river. Grover knew these Indians well, as his wife was a member of the band.
Turkey Leg informed them that Roman Nose and his Cheyenne dog soldiers were in the vicinity. Taking the warning, Comstock and Grover started for the fort. Comstock had a beautiful ivory- handled six-shooter. A young Indian had tried to trade him out of it, but he refused. On the way to the fort the two white men fell in with several young braves and were conversing with them in a friendly manner when two or three suddenly whipped their rifles out and fired, killing Comstock instantly and wounding Grover. The latter defended himself with a rifle, driving the Indians off. Wounded as he was he made his way to the nearest railroad station, where he was brought to the post. General Bankhead sent out an expedition which brought in Comstock's body and gave it Christian burial.29
Jack Stillwell, whose real Christian name was Charles, was an- other member of the Forsyth expedition who later became famous as a scout. At the time he enlisted with Forsyth at Fort Hays he was just a boy, only nineteen years old, but already an experienced hunter and plainsman. He took part in the Beecher Island fight, and, with Pierre Trudeau, was the first to volunteer to get through the Indian cordon when night fell and go for help.30
The pair managed to get only a short distance when daylight
28. Custer, My Life on the Plains, pp. 64-67. See, also, pp. 75-77.
29. Buffalo Days, p. 247.
30. Two of the better known accounts of this exploit are Gen. G. A. Forsyth's "A Frontier Fight," Harper's (June, 1895), pp. 42-62, and Brady's Indian Fights and Fighters pp. 97-100.
23-4323
354 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
came and they hid all day in a small washout, in full view of the Cheyenne camp. Fortunately no Cheyennes investigated the place and when night fell again they resumed their journey. This time daylight caught them in an open plain, with nothing better to hide in than a buffalo wallow. The story of what followed has been dis- puted, but it is given for what it is worth :
Soon after they took refuge in the wallow a band of Cheyennes came up and dismounted about fifty yards away. At almost the same moment, a rattlesnake made his appearance, crawling down into the wallow toward the two men. They were in a fearful dilemma. If they killed the snake the noise would be heard by the Indians who were almost on top of them. If they did not kill it, it would be almost sure to bite one or both of them. Stillwell solved the problem in an unexpected way. He was chewing tobacco and as the reptile approached he expectorated a mouthful of tobacco juice all over its head and eyes. That routed the unwelcome visitor, which turned tail and crawled dejectedly away. Soon after the Indians also left and the men were free to continue, eventually reaching Fort Wallace with news of the fight.31
After that, StillwelPs reputation as a scout was made. He served with distinction under Custer and was guide for the Nineteenth Kansas during its winter campaign in 1868.32 He also served during the campaign of 1874, and made a daring ride from the Darlington agency to Fort Sill, seventy-five miles alone through hostile country, to bring news of the outbreak and get help. Later he was a scout for Gen. "Black Jack" Davidson.
At the close of the war he acted for a time as a deputy United States marshal, and later was a United States commissioner at Anadarko. He spent his last days on the Wyoming ranch of Buffalo Bill Cody.33
The name of Billy Dixon is known wherever the Indian war of 1874 is recalled. He was probably the outstanding single figure of that struggle, being an individual hero at the battle of Adobe Walls and at the Buffalo Wallow fight, and serving with distinction as a scout.
Dixon was born in West Virginia, but came west to Missouri at the age of twelve to live with an uncle. Two years later he went
31. Trudeau died the next spring as a result of his fearful exertions during this journey. He was buried at Fort Sill. — Miles, Personal Recollections,, p. 149.
32. "John McBee's Account of the Expedition of the Nineteenth Kansas," Kansas His- torical Collections, v. XVII, pp. 363-365.
33. Miles, Personal Recollections, p. 149, and Kansas Historical Collections, v. XVII, p. 364.
WELLMAN: FAMOUS KANSAS SCOUTS 355
"on his own" to Kansas and the plains. At Leavenworth he ob- tained a job as a bullwhacker for a wagon train operating between that city and Fort Scott. Later he freighted between Leavenworth and Fort Collins, Colo., and drove a wagon for the government peace commission to the treaty of Medicine Lodge in 1867.34
From bullwhacking he drifted into wolf hunting, and then into buffalo hunting, in which he engaged from 1870 to 1874, hunting buffalo first in western Kansas, then gradually drifting south into the Indian territory and finally the Texas panhandle. In this work he became a wonderfully proficient rifle shot; in fact, he was one of the most expert ever seen in the Southwest.
During the summer of 1874 he was hunting in the vicinity of the old Adobe Walls location of Bent and St. Vrain, when the Indians, without warning, suddenly went on the warpath. They killed a number of hunters and made a surprise attack on the hunter's stock- ade at Adobe Walls, where Dixon with twenty-five other men and a woman, the wife of one of them, were headquartering at the time. They were nearly all Kansans, most of them being from Dodge City, then the buffalo-hide capital of the world.35
In the bloody fight which followed Dixon and his fellow hunters beat off the Indians with heavy losses and held them at bay until help came from Dodge City. During this siege Dixon made one of the most celebrated shots in the history of the West. At a distance of nearly a mile from the fort which the buffalo hunters were defend- ing, is a steep bluff. Observing some Indians watching them from the top of this acclivity, Dixon decided to try a shot at them. He took careful aim, and pulled the trigger of his big "50" buffalo gun. Incredible as it may seem, the bullet struck its target and an Indian fell from his pony, to be carried away by his friends. In later years a state surveyor measured the exact distance from the bluff to the fort, and found it was 1,538 yards, not far from seven-eighths of a mile.36
A few months later Dixon, while traveling with a small party with dispatches from Gen. Nelson A. Miles, then camped on Mc- Clellan creek, to Fort Supply, was surrounded by a war party of approximately 100 Kiowas and had to fight for his life in a buffalo wallow. In the party were Amos Chapman, another scout, and four
34. Authority for the incidents in Dixon's life related here is contained in the Life of Billy Dixon, his autobiography, dictated to his wife.
35. The records show that the A. T. & S. F. railroad shipped 459,453 buffalo robes in the years 1872, '73 and '74. Dodge City was the chief shipping point. — E. A. Brininstool, Fighting Red Cloud's Warriors, pp. 212-213.
36. Dixon always modestly said this was a "scratch shot."
356 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
soldiers. One of the soldiers was killed and every man in the party was wounded more or less seriously, but they succeeded in repulsing the Indians and holding them off until help came. Dixon rescued his friend Chapman from under the very guns of the Indians during the fight. Every member of the party received congressional medals of honor for their bravery.37 Dixon died in 1913. He had taken up ranching near the scene of the Adobe Walls fight and was successful. His widow, who is the author of his spirited biography, still resides at Amarillo.38
James Butler (Wild Bill) Hickok was another Kansas product. Although his chief fame arises from his exploits as a gun-fighting marshal in various frontier towns, he was long a scout and a good one, too. He had an adventurous experience as a scout in the Union army during the Civil War and later on the plains. Custer speaks of him with high praise.39
Wild Bill was, born in Illinois, but like the others described in this article, came early to Kansas, then the very focus of adventur- ous frontier life. He served as an attendant at a stage station, dur- ing which time the much publicized "McCanles gang" fight is said to have taken place.40 Whether or not this fight occurred exactly as has been told, the fact remains that Hickok became one of the great- est of plains celebrities.
After his Civil War experience he returned to Kansas and spent most of the remainder of his life in the state. He scouted for Han- cock and Custer, and then was marshal of several successive towns, including Abilene, Fort Hays and Dodge City, finally being shot down from behind at Deadwood, S. Dak., in 1876.
Another Kansas scout about whose career there is much contro- versy was William F. Cody, known to hundreds of thousands as "Buffalo Bill." Whether or not he killed the numerous Indians he claims to have slain in his autobiography, it is certain that he was employed as a scout by many officers, including Carr,41 Sheridan,42
37. Miles, Personal Recollections, pp. 173-174.
38. Mrs. Olive K. Dixon, of Amarillo. Gifted and interested, she has done much to perpetuate the history of the Southwest, not only by her writings, but by her activity in promoting the recognition and marking of historic spots.
39. Custer, My Life on the Plains, pp. 83-84.
40. The usual story, that Wild Bill, in a hand-to-hand fight, killed ten desperadoes who made up the McCandless or McCanles gang, is denied by Edwin L. Sabin. His version is that there were only three in the gang, that Hickok shot the leader, Dave McCanles, from behind a curtain with a rifle, and finished his two companions with a revolver. — Sabin, Wild Men of the Wild West, pp. 234-235.
41. Brady, Indian Fights and Fighters, p. 170.
42. Ibid., p. 308. Also, Richard J. Walsh's The Making of Ruffalo Bill, p. 127.
WELLMAN: FAMOUS KANSAS SCOUTS 357
and Miles,43 and therefore must have been efficient and able in that line. Cody was reared near Leavenworth, and rode pony express before his scouting and buffalo-hunting days.44 He became world- famous as a circus man and probably will always remain an almost legendary character of the frontier.
Comparatively little is known about William Mathewson, al- though he was an associate and friend of Kit Carson and did many highly important scouting services for the government. Mathew- son, of Scotch descent, trapped all over the Rockies in the days be- fore there was any thought of settlement. Later he traded among the Indians in western Kansas for years. In 1853 he established a post known as the Cow Creek ranch on the great bend of the Ar- kansas.
It was here that Mathewson earned the Kiowa name Sillpah Sin- pah, signifying "Long Bearded Dangerous Man," from his treat- ment of the celebrated chief, Satanta, who attempted to help him- self to a part of Mathewson's trade stock without paying for it. Mathewson gave the Indian a terrific beating with his fists and ended by kicking him and his friends out of the store room. Strangely the incident made a life-long friend out of Satanta, who rode hundreds of miles to warn Mathewson when the Kiowas went on the warpath in 1864.
On June 20, 21, 22, 1864, Mathewson and five employees in the Cow Creek ranch fought a three-day battle with an overwhelming force of Kiowas who surrounded them. Finding they could not carry the fort, the Kiowas turned their attention to a wagon train which came into the vicinity, bound for New Mexico, laden with government ammunition and guns. Mathewson had been notified of the approach of the wagon train and its freight several days be- fore. But for some reason the 150 men and boys in the train did not know they were carrying munitions.
When the Indians attacked they at first could scarcely defend themselves from lack of arms, but Mathewson, seeing their dan- ger, leaped upon his horse, and rode right through the Indian lines into the wagon inclosure. Under his direction some of the boxes of guns and ammunition were opened, and the hostiles soon were made to realize that they had better retreat.45
43. In the article "The War With the Messiah," by Gen. Nelson A. Miles, in the Sep- tember, 1911, issue of the Cosmopolitan magazine, there is printed an interesting picture on page 522 of Miles and Cody together reconnoitering a hostile Indian village.
44. Visscher, William Lightfoot, The Pony Express, pp. 49-62.
45. Portrait and Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kansas (Chapman Bros., Chi- cago, 1888), p. 172.
358 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
In 1864 Mathewson rode as a scout for General B hint's expedition. Later he did much to bring the Indians together for the Little Arkansas treaty which preceded the great Medicine Lodge peace council.
When the government wished to treat with the Indians and move them out of Kansas into the Indian territory it was Mathewson who went out at the risk of his life and visited band after band and in- duced them to attend the council. His son, William Mathewson, Jr.,46 told the writer that Mathewson's chief danger in this perilous work was that he would be shot before he could identify himself to the Indians. Once he was known to them he was always received gladly, because his reputation among them as an honest and gener- ous trader was universally accepted.
In approaching a village Mathewson made a practice of creeping up close to it, so that when he suddenly revealed himself he was close enough to be recognized, his son says. Largely through his efforts the great concourse of tribes was gathered at Medicine Lodge, with the results which history has recorded.
It was Mathewson, incidentally, who first bore the title of "Buffalo Bill," due to his prowess in killing buffalo for starving settlers in I860.47 This title was later conferred upon Cody through the "generosity" of Ned Buntline, the dime-novel writer, who came west to write his particular type of lurid literature. In an inter- view printed in a newspaper now in the possession of William Mathewson, Jr., Cody acknowledged that Mathewson was the "orig- inal" Buffalo Bill.
Among Mathewson's exploits was the rescue of the two Kirk- patrick girls, Helen and Louisa, from captivity among the Indians. Through his influence with the savages he is said to have made arrangements for the release of no less than fifty-four women and children during his years on the frontier.48
Mathewson's extreme reticence and modesty were such that he never would talk to newspaper men or relate his adventures except on rare occasions. He is deserving of a much greater place in history than he has thus far received.
These are only a comparative few of the Kansans who won fame as Indian scouts. Even the great Kit Carson got much of his ex- perience in this state. His first Indian fight was in Kansas, and
46. William Mathewson, Jr., is a Wichita oil and real -estate broker at the present time.
47. Portrait and Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kansas, p. 160.
48. Ibid., p. 173. The names of the rescued persons, except for the Kirkpatfick girls, are not given.
WELLMAN: FAMOUS KANSAS SCOUTS 359
Pawnee Rock is said to have been named by him in honor of a brush with that tribe which took place there.49 He spent much time at Bent's fort, almost on the present Kansas-Colorado border, and made many trading trips into Kansas.50 On one occasion, with two other trappers and three Delaware Indians, he was surrounded by Comanches in the southwestern corner of the state, and there fought one of his most spectacular battles.51
Ben Clark, Amos Chapman, California Joe, Billy Peacock, John Cook — all spent some part of their lives in Kansas. And so it was with many others. Kansas furnished the scouts who formed the vanguard in the wars which brought civilization to the West.
49. Stanley Vestal in his Kit Carson, p. 22, calls this story apocryphal, and declares that Carson never had a fight there.
50. Carson was employed as post hunter. During the construction of the fort, according to Grinnell, he was in charge of a party of woodchoppers. — Kansas Historical Collections, v. XV, p. 33.
61. Vestal, Stanley, Kit Carson, the Happy Warrior of the Old West, pp. 107-113.
The Leavenworth Board of Trade 1882-1892
LELA BARNES
THE proceedings of the Leavenworth, Kan., Board of Trade, run- ning from April, 1882, to June, 1892, comprise part of the H. Miles Moore collection of manuscripts1 now in the possession of the Kansas State Historical Society. Moore served as secretary of the organization during the greater part of this period. The records are interesting in that they offer a detailed account of the industrial growth of Leavenworth during the ten years of the organization's existence; and they are significant in setting forth the conditions and circumstances which surrounded the builders of a thriving fron- tier city fifty years ago.
With the chartering of the Union Pacific railroad in 1862, its completion in 1869, and the subsequent building of other great routes to the west, a feverish activity pervaded the entire trans- Missouri region. United States census reports for the period 1870- 1880 show amazing percentages of increase in population in the states of Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and Dakota Territory. Kansas had an increase of 173.4 per cent, despite the fact that the state formed a part of the Great American desert, that vast area looked upon until a short time before as unfit for human habitation. This misconception regarding soil and climate in the plains region was dissipated by the intensive advertising campaigns of the rail- roads and state and local organizations. A great westward move- ment of population set in during the late seventies, and by the middle eighties had assumed all the aspects of a boom which rolled along, after the manner of booms, gathering impetus, sending land prices to absurd heights, and bringing thousands of bewildered set- tlers into the region until the sky, seemingly, was the only limit to projected development.
1. This collection has taken its name from the donor, H. Miles Moore, a citizen of Leaven- worth from 1854 until the year of his death, 1909. Moore was born in the village of Brock- port, N. Y., September 2, 1826. He was educated in the schools of the state and was admitted to the bar in 1848, going shortly thereafter to Louisiana, where he engaged in the practice of law. During his residence there he owned slaves and at the time of his removal to Weston, Mo., in 1850, his sympathies were with the south in its attitude toward slavery. He was one of the organizers of the Leavenworth Town Company in 1854 and prepared the original agree- ment, which was signed by the thirty-two members. From the beginning of his residence in Kansas Moore took a leading part in the free-state cause ; he was a delegate to the Topeka constitutional convention in 1855 and was elected attorney-general under that constitution. He represented Leavenworth county in the legislature in 1857 and was returned in 1868. For many years he served as secretary of the Democratic state central committee, and the Moore collection contains many records of this work. In his law practice he represented numerous commercial agencies, including Bradstreet's. The collection contains approximately 15,000 pieces and covers the period 1837-1904.
(360)
BARNES: LEAVENWORTH BOARD OF TRADE 361
During this period the towns of Atchison and Leavenworth, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo., were rivals for supremacy in the trade area of Kansas and the Southwest. All were located on that great artery of the West, the Missouri river. Leavenworth, at that time, had the largest population. The town was built upon a spot of unusual natural beauty, and its growth had been due in part to its situation, adjacent to Fort Leavenworth, which had assured protection during the troubled territorial period. By 1870 Kansas City had forged ahead and Leavenworth had twice received serious setbacks. Head- quarters of the Union Pacific, eastern division, were removed from that city to Wyandotte in 1863, and subsequently a branch rail- road from the Hannibal & St. Joseph at Cameron, Mo., was brought to the east bank of the Missouri river at Kansas City in spite of the frantic efforts of Leavenworth to secure the line. These losses were among the determining factors in the ultimate ascendancy of Kan- sas City. However, the great activity of the late seventies un- doubtedly gave fresh hope to Leavenworth. The year 1880 found her still the largest city of Kansas, still pushing ahead, humming with trade and manufacturing, her citizens eager to develop the many possibilities for growth, bigger business and increased popula- tion which were considered then, as now, the highest of all possible goals for an industrial community. The builders of the city saw that new markets were opening up in the far West and Southwest; that manufacturers of the East were looking for desirable locations west of the Mississippi; that the state was progressing as a grain- producing region and manufacturing center. The town itself was producing a wide variety of commodities ranging in size and char- acter from steam engines to watches. Her factories were turning out wagons, furniture, stoves, barrels, tinware, boilers; her mills were producing flour and corn meal of excellent quality. The discovery of bituminous coal in 18702 had opened a large field of employment,
2. In 1854 Maj. F. Hawn, while engaged in making a geological survey of the state of Missouri, became convinced that there was coal underneath Leavenworth. Afterwards he made a complete geological survey of Leavenworth county, and gave it as his opinion that coal would be found in the city at a depth of a little more than 700 feet. In 1858 he organized a com- pany with Thomas Ewing, Jr., W. H. Russell and others, and obtained from the government the right to sink a coal mine on twenty acres of government reservation adjoining the city on the north. Major Hawn was in favor of sinking a shaft, but the company concluded that it would be more practical to drill down first and ascertain whether there was coal. Work was commenced with a drill of the most primitive construction, with an old horse for the motive power. It was not many weeks until funds were exhausted and work abandoned. Hawn and those interested with him did not, however, give up the idea of finding coal. In 1863 work was again commenced, but for the second time funds were exhausted and the work came to a standstill. In 1866 the Leavenworth Coal Company was organized, and in 1870 the first coal from a Leavenworth mine was put on the market. The coal was reached at a depth of 713 feet ; the vein was twenty-one inches in thickness, of superior quality and easily worked. It was estimated that there were at least four hundred square miles of coal in the locality, containing 1,920,000,000 tons. In 1870 twenty men were employed in the mines. By 1880 there were 200, and in 1888 1,100, producing 36,000 bushels a day. From actual tests it was found that a ton of Leavenworth coal would run a locomotive engine thirteen miles farther than any coal in the western market. — Pamphlet, Coal Resources of Leavenworth, Kan., by E. Jameson, 1888, pp. 3-4.
362 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
given fuel for factories and mills, and provided a valuable com- modity. There was need for cooperative effort to find markets for these products and to develop transportation facilities; and with growth of population and expansion of business as goals, it was necessary to bring to the city as many industries as could be secured.
Responding to a call issued by Mayor W. M. Fortesque and pub- lished in the Leavenworth papers of April 21 and 22, 1882, "a large and enthusiastic meeting of citizens . . . assembled in the Academy of Science rooms for the purpose of organizing a board of trade." 3 Temporary officers were chosen, a committee was ap- pointed to report on permanent organization, and the following resolution was adopted: "Resolved that it is the sense of this meet- ing that in organizing a board of trade, no political question or issue shall be allowed, either directly or indirectly, to enter into the de- liberations or actions in any way whatever." 4 The provision of this resolution was later incorporated into the articles of association.
Following the meetings under temporary organization, the first regular meeting of the board was held on July 13. Seventy-nine subscribers had signed the articles of association and had paid the membership fee of twenty dollars. Alexander Caldwell5 was chosen president. Directors were elected and instructed to prepare by-laws. Section 8 of these by-laws is of special interest. It is as follows: "If any member of this board of trade is found guilty of fraud, misrepresentation or deception in trade or business, or guilty of any dishonorable conduct unbecoming a business man, he may be fined, suspended or expelled, at the pleasure of the board of trade after trial." 6 The proceedings of the body contain no record of any such trial.
The first matter brought up for consideration was the threatened removal of the United States signal service station from Leaven- worth. The station had been established May 21, 1871.7 One phase of its work was the maintenance of a river gauge for the benefit of
3. Proceedings of the Board of Trade of the City of Leavenworth, Kan., p. 1. Hereafter cited as Proceedings.
Corporations, State of Kansas, show that from July, 1878, until May, 1882, charters were issued to boards of trade or organizations of similar purpose in the following towns: Wichita, Atchison, Lawrence, Wyandotte, Concordia, Newton, Osage City, Topeka, Winfield, Marion Center, Florence, Wellington.
4. Proceedings, p. 2.
5. Alexander Caldwell, United States senator March, 1871, to March, 1873, served as presi- dent of the board of trade continuously from its organization until June 14, 1888. He was four times elected over his protest. His successor, in June, 1888, was H. D. Rush, who was followed in June, 1889, by J. M. Graybill. Upon Graybill's resignation the next year, W. M. Todd was elected. He was serving at the time of the reorganization in July, 1892.
6. Proceedings of the directors of the board of trade of Leavenworth, Kan., p. 3.
7. The first meteorological observation was made on May 24, 1871. — Statement by G. E. Kumpe, colonel, signal corps, March 29, 1932.
BARNES: LEAVENWORTH BOARD OF TRADE 363
navigation on the Missouri river, which was still playing a part in transportation.8 It is not known to just what extent the efforts of the board to retain the station were effective, but its operations under the signal corps continued until June 30, 1891. 9 At this first meeting it was decided to submit interrogatories to manufacturers and business men of Leavenworth to obtain statistical information regarding numbers of employees, importation of raw materials, sell- ing fields, volume of business, etc. The information thus secured was later used in the preparation of the first annual report of the board. What may be termed a motif was announced at this first meeting. It was the need for transportation facilities. Whatever else assumed importance from time to time, this theme was dominant and runs through the entire history of the organization.
The scope of the work of the board, as it developed through the years, is indicated in the appointment of committees. But four committees were organized in the beginning: railroads and trans- portation; trade and commerce; finance; and manufacturers. As need arose, others were formed.
Attention centered during the first months on the railroads, the desirability of securing new factories and industries, facilities for the storage and milling of grain, mail and express service, and city im- provements. Replies to the questions submitted to business men and manufacturers had indicated a general need for additional transpor- tation; in particular there was call for a branch of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway by way of Olathe. The first efforts of the committee on railroads and transportation were directed to an investigation of this situation. Among the industries for which it was felt there was special need were a pork-packing plant, whole- sale dry-goods house, and a glass factory. It is interesting to note, however, that the first industry sponsored by the organization served a cultural rather than a utilitarian purpose. It was an organ factory.
One project of considerable importance to the city was begun in this first year — the securing of a federal building. At a special meeting held in July, 1882, plans were formulated for urging the necessary appropriation in congress. The board pledged itself to lend all possible aid to Representative John A. Anderson. The story of the building is long and involved and runs through several years
8. Steamboat travel and river tonnage began to decline with the coming of the railroads to Leavenworth from Chicago and St. Louis. In 1886 not more than 500 tons of freight were received by river, and only about 100 tons were shipped out. During that year 450,000 tons were received by rail, and 425,000 tons were sent out. — Interrogatory, May 10, 1887, H. Miles Moore collection.
9. Statement by G. E. Kumpe, colonel, signal corps, March 29, 1932.
364 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of the proceedings. Members of the board worked tirelessly to bring the project to a consummation. Contracts were not let until 1886, and in the fourth annual report, January 1, 1887, was the happy prediction that the building would be ready for occupancy the fol- lowing year.
In September, 1882, the board took the first definite step to adver- tise abroad the resources of Leavenworth, its promising industrial outlook and need of certain industries. A series of advertisements appeared in the American Manufacturer of Pittsburg, Pa., of which the following is a typical example:
"LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS.
"MANUFACTURERS AND CAPITALISTS, ATTENTION!
"We offer you one of the most desirable locations for the successful invest- ment of capital in manufacturing in the western country. We have various reasons for making this statement:
"First: Because the city of Leavenworth is underlaid with coal in inex- haustible quantities, as has been practically demonstrated, 20,000 bushels of the shining mineral being brought to the surface daily. Second : Our location as a distributing point is unexcelled, and can be proven by consulting any man engaged here in manufacturing or in the jobbing trade. Third: We have the best system of water-works in the West, furnishing an abundance of water for all manufacturing purposes. This is already the largest manufactur- ing center in the Missouri valley. The most extensive glucose works, wagon factories, steam engine and boiler works, stove manufactories, furniture factories, organ factory, and many other enterprises too numerous to mention are already in successful operation, and capable of being expanded into indefinite propor- tions. Fourth: The cost of living is cheaper than in eastern cities. Fifth: Business locations can be obtained for much less than in any city east of us con- taining the same number of inhabitants. Sixth: Our railroad facilities for reaching the large territory naturally tributary to Leavenworth are first class, and the prospect for other railroads, soon to be completed to this point, justifies us in saying that the year 1883 will see us without a rival on the Missouri river as a distributing point. There are many other satisfactory reasons which could be given, but we hope the above will be sufficient to justify you in giving our city your attention, either in person or by letter to our board of trade. The city of Leavenworth joins the military reservation of Fort Leavenworth on the south, the most extensive, the most useful and the most beautiful military reservation in the United States.
"We want a first-class oil mill; a novelty ironworks in connection with malleable iron castings; a paper mill and glass works, and an institution for manufacturing all kinds of agricultural implements.
"Flax seed is raised here in great abundance, and the quality of it is such as to command the highest market price. This product is now being shipped out of this town daily to eastern mills.
"As an argument in favor of ironworks, or malleable iron-works, there is a firm here will contract for $30,000 worth of this commodity annually.
BARNES: LEAVENWORTH BOARD OF TRADE 365
"As a point for a paper mill it must be very apparent to any man of ordi- nary intelligence that no better location can be found west of the Mississippi river. The crude material is here in great abundance, the cost of which would be but little more than the price of hauling to market; and as a point for the successful manufacture of agricultural implements we defy the United States to offer a better location.
"We shall be glad to answer all letters of inquiry. If you visit our city— whether you wish to invest or notr— make yourself known, and we will take pleasure in making your stay among us as pleasant as possible.
A. CALDWELL, President Board of Trade.
H. MILES MOORE, Secretary Board of Trade"
Inquiries began to pour in at once from manufacturers who de- sired a midwestern location for the production of a wide variety of articles — car wheels, steel, brass and iron castings, fruit evaporators, silk, castor oil, etc. It was found necessary to withdraw from the advertisement appearing in the American Manufacturer the follow- ing phrase which had undoubtedly been given a too literal inter- pretation by some of those making inquiries: "The city council, board of trade and business men generally stand ready and willing to render you material aid if you will come here and engage in any of the above enterprises or any other business you may wish to engage in." The matter of just how much aid should be extended by the board was a moot question at all times. The proceedings show that some sites were secured for factories and that much stock in various enterprises was sold by board members to citizens of Leaven- worth.
Before the end of 1882 several other major projects were launched, including the improvement of the road to the State Penitentiary and a new railroad and wagon bridge across the Missouri river. The macadamizing of the penitentiary road was announced as a com- pleted enterprise in the report of January, 1887, but the story of the bridge spreads over many years. The bill authorizing its erection became a law on June 21, 1884. The correspondence supplement- ing the proceedings of the board shows persistent effort on the part of that organization, working with Representative E. N. Merrill and Senator Preston B. Plumb, to secure the passage of the measure. Following the granting of the charter, surveys, soundings and esti- mates of cost were made for construction at different points on the river. But agreements could not be reached with the railroads enter- ing Leavenworth from the east to use the bridge sufficiently to war- rant building it. Some years later the Burlington railway, desiring means of receiving and delivering freight at Leavenworth, expressed a willingness to build or lease terminals in the city and to pay rent
366 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
for the use of a new bridge across the river if one were constructed in the proper location for entering the business section of the city. The charter of 1884, presumably, had lapsed or run out and a new charter was thought to be necessary. In the meantime a pontoon bridge — of which more later — had been chartered and constructed, but had proved somewhat uncertain in the accommodation of traffic. It was deemed expedient to amend this charter to provide for a wagon and railroad bridge and arrangements were made to this end. The act was approved July 25, 1890. Again plans and surveys were made and finally approved by the Secretary of War. At this time the Rock Island railroad also opened negotiations for bridge rights and in 1892 contracted for the use of the bridge and terminals. Sufficient earnings were thus assured to pay interest on the sum necessary to cover costs of construction, and the probable earnings from wagon traffic appeared sufficient to care for maintenance and operation. Preparations for building were begun in July, 1892, and dikes were started the following November. The bridge was opened to traffic on January 2, 1894, with a celebration that lends color to the history of Leavenworth.10
A comprehensive report on the progress and outlook of Leaven- worth was compiled by the board's secretary, H. Miles Moore, at the beginning of 1883. In a foreword to the report President Cald- well said:
"The year just closed has been a prosperous one for Leavenworth. There has been a large increase in business. Many buildings have been erected, and large additions have been made to our population. . . . Leavenworth has already attained much prominence as a manufacturing center. There are 10,000 wagons manufactured here each year, on which is stamped the name Leavenworth. As they go rolling on, over hill and dale, mountain and plain, from the Mississippi river to Puget Sound, they are traveling advertisers that silently but effectively give evidence of the skill and energy of our artisans.
"In almost every town and hamlet in the states and territories west of the Mississippi river you can get a meal cooked on a Leavenworth stove, and eat bread made from the flour of Leavenworth mills. In the far West, even to the Pacific, you will find in first-class hotels furniture from our factories, and can rest your weary frame on a Leavenworth bed.
"In the mines and mills of Colorado, and in the forests of the Rocky Moun- tains, may be heard the shrill whistle of Leavenworth's steam engines per- forming their part in developing the riches of the great West.
"Hundreds of thousands of men and women are tramping their way through life, safely shod in Leavenworth's boots and shoes.
"Our immense glucose factories are rapidly distributing their sweetness every- where.
10. The Leavenworth Times, January 2, 1894.
BARNES: LEAVENWORTH BOARD OF TRADE 367
"Even in the cities of the silent dead may be seen grave stones and lofty shafts which are no less monuments to the dead than they are to the skill and enterprise of our manufactories. In fact, the products of our numerous factories are rapidly being distributed all over our vast country, and the name of Leaven- worth is becoming a household word. No manufacturer has ever failed in our city, and the great success of those now engaged in business will be sufficient warrant for others to embark in similar enterprises. . . . Our progress in the future will be much more rapid than in the past . . . and Leavenworth may continue to be, as she is now, the Pittsburgh of the Missouri valley."
Leavenworth assuredly was getting on. Here were tangible evi- dences of strides toward the established goals. Here, also, was the determined optimism of American business at work, overriding ob- stacles, bolstering hesitant spirits, acknowledging no bounds.
The report contained statistics on the manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade of Leavenworth for 1882. The total volume of manu- facturing was $10,103,320. Wholesale trade amounted to $14,926,997 and retail trade totaled $14,224,595. The report presented a com- plete survey of the city's institutions, industries, organizations, etc. There were four daily papers, five weekly papers and three monthly publications. Nearly all church denominations were represented and the community enjoyed a "high moral condition of society." Public and private schools, business colleges, and musical and fine-arts academies filled educational and cultural needs. Secret societies and orders maintained "large lodges, chapters, asylums, and encamp- ments in the city"; all brethren in good standing found "some one to extend the hand of welcome and relief (if necessary)." Telephone and telegraph companies expedited the transaction of business. There were two opera houses, "the old opera house, as contradistinguished from the new, [was] used as a public hall for political and other meetings, and the new opera house, one of the neatest, coziest and best- arranged opera buildings in the whole country [was] used for operas, theatrical entertainments, concerts, and lectures . . . seating 800 persons comfortably, besides about 200 in the aisles." There were military companies, hotels and cemeteries. There was a well- equipped and efficient fire department whose horses were trained for their special duties and were kept constantly harnessed. There were banks, hospitals and omnibuses. Was there anything to be desired? Apparently there was, for in the list of needed enterprises may be noted an agricultural implement factory, paper mill, car wheels and malleable ironworks, stockyards and packing houses, grain elevators and a candy-bucket factory (presumably to aid in the further dis- tribution of sweetness) .
368 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Though the second year of the board started with railroads again heading the list of projects under consideration, affairs of an entirely different character appeared upon the program. The bonded in- debtedness of both city and county, the necessity for the improve- ment of city walks and streets, the need for a union station, the excessive rates of fire insurance, damage to the Missouri river below Fort Leavenworth by erosion, the growing need for grain and stock inspectors, inadequate hotel accommodations, a city sewage system — all came up for investigation. In line with this widened scope of activity was the appointment of additional committees. The follow- ing standing committees were added to the original four: Insurance, arbitration for grain inspection, meteorological, and grain inspec- tion, the latter consisting of but one man.
Among the new projects that came before the board during this second year, probably those receiving the greatest attention were the union station, fire insurance rates and the erosion of the river bank. In April, 1883, the need for the union station was presented to the board by Mayor Shaw F. Neely, who stated: "There is no doubt we can have a new union station if the board of trade will take hold of it." A committee was appointed to look into the situation, and from that time until late in 1888 the union station was an issue before the organization. Even after the completion of the building in September, 1888, a special meeting was called to consider how to force the station company to open it, the railroads having been un- able to reach an agreement on the apportionment of expenses. It was decided at this meeting to place the whole affair before the State Board of Railroad Commissioners. The station was opened shortly thereafter. From a study of the proceedings one may fairly assume that the board of trade should be given considerable credit for secur- ing the station for the city.
In June, 1883, a committee was appointed to look into the pre- vailing rates for fire insurance, which it was felt should be reduced because of the lessened risk brought about by the installation of an excellent water system. The investigations of the committee re- sulted in much interesting information regarding the operation of the so-called board and nonboard companies; in other words, those companies belonging to a pool and pledged to charge certain fixed rates, and those on the outside, operating independently. In October, 1884, following an investigation of rates in Atchison, St. Joseph, Kansas City and Lawrence, the committee made an extensive report. It had been learned that Leavenworth rates had been raised by
BARNES: LEAVENWORTH BOARD OF TRADE 369
board companies during the dull years while no improvements were being made and many business houses were vacant. This increase was made on account of the moral risk or hazard of property de- creasing in value. After the installation of the water system, rates were reduced 15 per cent, but this cut was felt to be insufficient inas- much as the cost of insurance had been, before the cut, from 30 to 50 per cent higher than in other cities of the Missouri valley. It was pointed out that rates on stocks had even been increased after the installation of the waterworks by reason of possible damage by water. The committee recommended "that good nonboard com- panies receive the patronage of the business men of Leavenworth, at least until an adjustment of the rates is made by the board com- panies to meet the just demands of our citizens and of this board of trade." n In April, 1885, the committee was able to report that a new basis of insurance was practically completed and would be pre- sented at an early meeting. It recommended that business men continue to give a percentage of their risks to nonboard companies to keep up the competition inaugurated through the action of the board.
During the summer of 1883 it had become evident that the bank of the Missouri river at Fort Leavenworth was being rapidly worn away by erosion, and that immediate action was necessary to pre- vent further damage. The board placed the matter before Senator Plumb, asking him to direct the attention of the chief engineer of the Missouri river improvement to the condition. It was not until 1886, however, that the river and harbor improvement bill was en- acted by congress, appropriating $375,000 for work on the Missouri river from its mouth to Sioux City, Iowa.12 Senator Plumb and Representative Morrill worked untiringly in the interests of Leaven- worth.
Under the general head of railroad affairs coming before the board during the second year may be mentioned the need for more ade- quate switching facilities in the city yards, for more trains to move stock and grain, for better passenger service and lower freight rates. The board called the attention of the State Board of Railroad Com- missioners to the failure of the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Gal- veston railroad to build and operate the road from Lawrence to Leavenworth, thus failing to fulfill the termte upon which the char- ter had been granted ; also to the lack of adequate passenger service
11. Proceedings, p. 130.
12. U. S. Stat. L., 49th Cong., 1 sess., ch. 929, p. 327.
24—4323
370 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
on the Leaven worth, Topeka & Southwestern between Leavenworth and Topeka. Said President Caldwell, describing the latter: 'There is no passenger train at all on the road and but one train a day for freight; to this freight train there is attached a coach which goes dangling along behind the hogs, cattle and other freight. Passengers are thus jerked and bumped back and forth from Leavenworth to Topeka, the cattle and the hogs getting in first."13 Daily passenger service on this line was secured within six months.
The growth of Leavenworth and its industries, unquestionably given great impetus by the work of the board of trade, was set forth fully in the report compiled by the secretary at the close of its second year. The note of optimism was again sounded by President Caldwell, who stated in his foreword: "The wonderful progress of our city during the year just closed is as surprising as it is gratifying, and must serve to impress the 'chronic croaker' of the past with the certainty of the bright future dawning upon Leavenworth." The note was taken up by the secretary :
"We believe that Leavenworth has at last awakened from her long com- mercial sleep, has aroused herself and shaken off her garments of quiet rest and slothfulness, and once more girded herself anew, and, like a young athlete, has again entered the list in the mighty race of western towns, for manufactur- ing and commercial supremacy.
"The most sanguine hopes of her truest and best friends, on the 1st of January, 1883, have been fully realized in her rapid increase in wealth and population, her magnificent development in trade and manufactures, her general advancement all along the line of general improvement. . . . Our prospects for 1884 are even brighter and more prosperous than they were one year ago to-day. There are no laggards or drones in this busy hive of progress. . . . We have the handsomest city west of the Mississippi river and will act harmoniously in building it up."
During the year 1883 more than 600 houses were erected, repre- senting in the aggregate a million dollars; mills, elevators and fac- tories were constructed and enlarged; real estate advanced 25 to 50 per cent; new subdivisions were laid out; the city's population was increased by 5,000; the new E. V. White mill, with a capacity of from 300 to 500 barrels a day, was about ready to begin full operation ; fruit and lumber took on added importance ; a new bank was opened; wholesale trade increased 25 per cent, and retail trade from 10 to 30 per cent; manufactures totaled $20,000,000, an in- crease of $8,000,000 over the year 1882; a sewage system was in- stalled. There was but one discordant note in the report: "The . . . railroads now seem fully to realize that Leavenworth is
13. Proceedings, p. 84.
BARNES: LEAVENWORTH BOARD OF TRADE 371
deeply in earnest, and that business is daily increasing in every avenue of trade and commerce, and they must bestir themselves, and that right speedily, to meet and accommodate this new and in- creasing demand upon their energies." The report contained a special article on coal, soon to become a major issue before the board.
About this time camfe the first call upon the board to take part in national movements for the furtherance of certain projects. Late in 1883 requests were received, followed later by many others, to lend aid in the work to secure enactment of a uniform bankrupt law. Early in 1884 an invitation was received to send representa- tives to a convention at Washington to consider improvement of the Mississippi river and its tributaries. President Caldwell and Mayor Neely were chosen to represent Leavenworth. In May of the same year the National Industrial Congress, meeting in Chicago, asked for representatives.
Early in 1884 the need for a new coal shaft became a major con- sideration. It had been estimated that the supply of coal contained in the beds underlying the region was practically inexhaustible and that there was a market to the north and northwest which, if prop- erly developed, would absorb twenty times the amount of fuel being produced by the shafts of the Leavenworth Coal Company and the penitentiary. The board now began its program of develop- ment of coal resources. By 1885 outside capitalists had become interested in the possibilities of the Leavenworth field and the fol- lowing year the Riverside Coal Company commenced a shaft. Coal was struck on September 17, 1886. The Kansas City market for coal had been shut off from Leavenworth on account of the high rates charged by the railroads for transportation. The Riverside company sent coal to Kansas City by barge at a cost of only fifteen cents per ton. By 1888 four additional mining companies had been organized. The stock of the Home Coal Mining Company was held by Leavenworth business men who planned to supply coal to new factories at the lowest possible margin of profit. Their lands were on the river bank and coal was to be shipped by rail or river. The Brighton Coal Company bought 1,600 acres of land about three miles south of the city. The owners were nearly all Germans, resi- dents of Kansas City. The Enterprise and Equitable mining com- panies were sponsored by citizens of Leavenworth. Both bought lands south of the city.14
14. Pamphlet, Coal Resources of Leavenworth, Kan., by E. J. Jameson, p. 9.
372 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
An act authorizing the building of a branch home for disabled volunteer soldiers and sailors, to be located in one of seven middle western states, including Kansas, was passed by congress in July, 1884. The sum of $275,000 was appropriated for the work. A com- mittee was at once appointed by the board of trade to act with a committee from the city council in presenting the advantages of Leavenworth as a location. Within a few months the board of managers of the Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers announced the selection of Leavenworth as the location for the new branch.
The next year natural gas was among the subjects up for dis- cussion. Early in 1885 resolutions were sent to the Kansas legis- lature requesting an act to authorize a thorough geological survey of the state. A report to the board, by President Caldwell, on the use of gas in Pittsburgh, Pa., stimulated the interest of the organiza- tion in its use for heating and lighting. The enthusiasm probably cooled, or perhaps attention was diverted to other more pressing affairs. At any rate, there is little in the proceedings relating to natural gas beyond this one mention. The refunding of the county debt, the advisability of bringing in outside capital — referred to in the minutes as cheaper money — for improvements; such lesser matters as the cleaning up of the city, the keeping of vital statistics — these received the consideration of the board at this time, with transportation, as usual, the dominant subject running concurrently with all others. Two new standing committees were created, one on city and county government, and one on retail trade. A complaint had been voiced by the retailers of the city, who were beginning to feel that all of the board's efforts were being directed toward the im- provement of conditions for the manufacturers and jobbers. The new committee was to work for the benefit of the retailer. A report, sub- mitted in November of 1886, gives an interesting account of its efforts:
"We find upon inquiry that the C., R. I. & P. railroad bridge15 has not been completed, but we have the assurance of the agent of the company that they are doing all they can for the comfort and convenience of the traveling public. In case of disagreeable weather, if preferred, a carriage will be provided to take passengers to the east end of the bridge without extra charge. Special attention is given to ladies who are in our city shopping in making transfers at the bridge. The railroad company assures us that it will only be a short time before it is completed.
15. The old "Fort" bridge, as it used to be called, was the second bridge to span the Missouri river. It was begun in 1871 and was opened as a toll and railroad bridge in 1872. It was used by the Rock Island railroad until about 1892. One disaster followed another and it was finally abandoned by the railroads upon completion of the new bridge in 1894. — Kansas City Star, July 26, 1925.
BARNES: LEAVENWORTH BOARD OF TRADE 373
"The committee further finds that the putting on of the passenger train on the L., T. & S. W. railroad has already proved of benefit to our retail trade. If, in so short a time we can feel a benefit, we are assured that the future will develop a much greater one.
"We would suggest that the secretary be authorized to call the public's attention to the effort that Mr. Baker, superintendent of our street railway, is putting forth to meet the wants of the public, and that we should all give him as hearty a support as in our powers. Mr. Baker, we find, is having the track put in a first-class condition and is running cars on schedule time, which is something that has not been done heretofore. ... In regard to our citizens buying goods away from Leavenworth, would say that we have carefully in- vestigated this matter and find that a large amount of merchandise in every branch of trade is bought away from here. Taking the basis of one month it will amount to about $125,000 or $150,000 a year. Since the last meeting of the board, about one month, fifty-one ladies, by actual count, have gone to Kansas City and returned with packages of dry goods, clothing, etc. Most of these ladies were the wives of our wealthiest and most prominent business men, who get their support from Leavenworth, and a good many the wives of the members of the board of trade. We think if the members would take some action in this matter it could be stopped to a great extent."
History fails to record whether or not this vicious practice was stopped, but one hazards the guess that the ladies continued the trek to the city across the river.
In November, 1886, a serious charge was brought against the city government and was voiced before the board — that of incompetency and irregularity. Mayor Neely at once invited an investigation by the board's committee on city and county affairs, and in January, 1887, a detailed statement by this committee was given to the board and published in the Leavenworth Times for January 23. The re- port covers a thorough investigation of the expenditure of city funds, work of various departments, need for legislation and sundry items.
Statements were prepared showing that the sum expended for general city expenses and special improvements during the nine years previous to Mayor Neely's administration was $408,658.95. The amount spent during three years and seven months of the Neely regime was $474,373.90. There was apparent carelessness in drawing appropriation ordinances. A law defining the manner of expenditure for street work had been disregarded. The police force was felt to be insufficient to cope with the steady flow of discharged criminals from the state and government prisons. Records showed more arrests during the three-year period under investigation than in any other city of equal population in the West. The fire depart- ment was inadequate for protection of property; only seven men were employed, who, in case of two fires occurring simultaneously,
374 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
would have had to let one burn without relief from the department. The salary of the city treasurer had been raised by the council, an action prohibited by law. Complaints of citizens regarding irregu- larities were cited, but not verified in all cases. An error had been made in computing interest on city funds. Neither the bank acting as depository, nor the committee chairman in charge, had detected the mistake. Although the city council had authorized the investiga- tion by the committee and had agreed to pay the costs, financial support was withdrawn before the survey had been completed. The committee made recommendations for various acts to safeguard the expenditure of city funds and insure better administration of city affairs, and closed its report with this statement:
"We have no apologies to make for so lengthy a report. We have en- deavored without fear or favor to carry out to the letter the instructions re- ceived from, this board of trade authorizing a thorough and searching in- vestigation, and in the brief time allotted us have done so to the best of our ability, and while we have criticized officers of the city for what we conceive to be violations of the law, we would do less than our duty should we fail to remind you that in more than one instance money, has been appropriated by the city council without sanction of the law for some public enterprise on the recommendation of this board of trade, and we believe the recommendation will be sanctioned by each member present that we provide by legislation a fund out of which on the recommendation of the board of trade the city council may legally appropriate money for public enterprise."
The report of January, 1887, recapitulates the achievements of a year and expresses confidence in the future of the city. Two new railroads had been secured — the Leavenworth, Northern & Southern, and the Leavenworth & Olathe; factories and mills had been started; long-delayed projects, such as the macadamizing of the State Peni- tentiary road, were brought to completion; extensive city improve- ments had made of Leavenworth a more attractive and desirable place of residence; and it was confidently felt that the next ten- year period would show an increase of 500 per cent in manufactures, due, in large part, to the cheap and abundant fuel from the vast source of supply underlying the city.
However, even in the face of such large planning, the board con- cerned itself with the smaller affairs. There was a resolution asking that the mayor install drinking fountains for "man and beast"; a protest to the railroad companies against the manner of designating Leavenworth on their maps; the planning of excursions by which buyers were brought to the city; the entertainment of conventions, quite in the modern manner, except that visitors were conducted
BARNES: LEAVENWORTH BOARD OF TRADE 375
about the city in horse-drawn vehicles; trade trips, also in the modern mode, to adjacent cities.
The need of advertising the city again came before the board. It was decided to confine the advertising, this time, to the columns of the local papers and to pamphlet publications. The Evening Stand- ard™ and the Sun17 arranged for special editions setting forth facts regarding the city. Five thousand copies of each were mailed out by the advertising committee. One hundred daily papers were mailed each day over a period of a year to reading rooms, boards of trade and hotels. Pamphlets on coal, trade and industries were widely distributed. Probably as a result of this campaign inquiries about Leavenworth came from many sections of the country and many manufacturers expressed an interest in locating in the city. But they expressed, generally, a hope of securing a subsidy from the city in the form of sites, stock purchases, etc.
The proceedings for this period indicate that dissension was raising its head insidiously within the ranks. The following con- stituted part of a report to the board by the committee on advertis- ing, March 8, 1888:
"Capitalists are looking towards this city. They desire to come and help us to enjoy our prosperity, that is, if we intend to have any, which is a matter entirely with ourselves, and this committee believes the time has come when it is better to speak out plainly. There seems a disposition among our people to talk. Every man has a pet scheme of his own, and he stays at home and takes care of it. The letters that have come in response to our advertising have been handed by the secretary to committees that exist and were ap- pointed by the board of trade, but no action has ever been taken by said committees. . . . The board of trade at the present time is the laughing stock of the city. It is neither use nor ornament."
A special meeting was called at which there was a general airing of grievances. Probably the relief afforded by this opportunity to speak out in meeting enabled disgruntled members to settle down again, temporarily, to the consideration of such matters as street paving, taxes, the development of clay beds and new coal shafts. It was becoming increasingly evident, however, that the board had come upon dull and profitless days. New blood was needed, new incentives, and, incidentally, more money. Hoping to attract to its membership a large number of the younger business men of the community, the fee was at this time (May, 1888) reduced to ten dollars.
16. The Evening Standard, Leavenworth, was published July 24, 1881-1903. — Kansas Historical Society, History of Kansas Newspapers,, 1916, p. 223.
17. The Sun, Leavenworth, was published October 4, 1887-1890. — Ibid., p. 223.
376 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
A last glimpse is had, about this time, of an institution that was soon to pass into the limbo of outmoded transportation. Consider- ation was given to the suggested purchase by the city of the ferry boat, "Willie Cade." The original charter for this ferry had been granted by the territorial legislature in 1855 ; it was later amended and renewed. The "Willie Cade" had plied between Leavenworth and the Missouri side for many years, charging toll for persons, wagons and teams, and earning a fair profit for its owner, Capt. Al Cade. Although ferry receipts in 1887-1888 had been satisfactory, the captain wanted to retire and was eager to dispose of his boat and privileges. But apparently the board took no action, for the ultimate fate of the "Willie Cade" is not disclosed in the minutes.
There also came before the board the subject of a pontoon bridge, proposed by Vinton Stillings as a practical plan for linking the east and west banks of the Missouri river. Stillings had applied for a franchise in 1885, but had met with opposition. Those in con- trol of the railroad bridge did not want a rival bridge leading into the heart of the city. Owners of a ferry operating between the Missouri side and a point one and a half miles below Leavenworth also fought the project. The War Department objected on the ground that the Missouri was a navigable stream and that the proposed bridge would interfere with river traffic. However, upon examination of the model, which showed that provision had been made for opening the bridge when necessary, a charter was granted. Inasmuch as the old Kansas and Missouri bridge, built in 1871, had never been of much benefit to Leavenworth because of its location three miles above the city, the board responded with interest to Stillings' plan, and sent a committee to Nebraska City to investigate a pontoon bridge in operation there. Another committee investi- gated the feasibility of the plan for Leavenworth. Both committees reported favorably and resolutions were passed asking for bids on construction. Despite the support of the committees, opposition developed, and in the end the bridge was financed entirely by Stillings. The Kansas City Star, April 5, 1925, thus describes the official opening:
"On an August morning in 1889 a pair of quivering horses with distended and snorting nostrils squatted on their haunches at the foot of Cherokee street, in Leavenworth. Behind the horses was hitched a fire engine of the type used in that day, black smoke pouring from its stack. Stretching away across the yellow tide of the Missouri river floated a slim ribbon of pine boards. The driver on the seat of the fire engine coaxed the horses and slapped his reins. Patrick Burns, chief of the Leavenworth fire department,
BARNES: LEAVENWORTH BOARD OF TRADE 377
talked to the horses and patted their shaking flanks. Suddenly the horses leaped forward and went galloping across the flimsy-looking structure. A great shout went up from the thousands of spectators massed on the water front as the fire engine rocked its way across. At the Missouri end of the bridge the driver wheeled his team and trotted them proudly back. The first pontoon bridge to span the lower reaches of the Missouri was declared officially opened."
It is recorded that Mayor D. R. Anthony had not favored the bridge and that on the morning of the opening he sent the police wagon to the scene to take celebrants, returning from the Missouri side, to the station. The bridge did a thriving business until 1893. A village sprang up at the eastern end and flourished as long as Platte county was "wet" territory. The story of the pontoon bridge has in it something of the passing of an era, the flavor of the old West giving way to the new.
A new phase of the coal situation arose during this period. It was felt that the mining of coal at the State Penitentiary shaft for any use other than by the state was harmful to labor. However, in the investigation of the matter by the board, it was quite clearly brought out that whatever in the situation worked hardship upon miners wrought equal hardship upon workmen in other industries also maintained by the penitentiary. The following resolution was passed:
"Resolved, That the legislature of the state of Kansas be respectfully re- quested to enact a law prohibiting the manufacturing of any articles or using any of the convicts in any manner that shall come in contact with either skilled or unskilled labor."
Early in 1889 the financial affairs of the board became a disturb- ing element. Fees had not been paid regularly and expenses had mounted. The restoration of the original cost of membership, twenty dollars, did not entirely relieve the situation. It is recorded that in November of that year "an animated and interesting discussion . . . took place, in which each member of the board of trade took part, as to the necessity and importance of maintaining the board of trade intact and infusing into it new life and vigor, [be- cause of] the great good it had accomplished for our city in years past and the work still before it. It was unanimously resolved to maintain it."
Of significance during the period 1888-1892 are the many national projects which the board was asked to support. Among them were: the centennial celebration; the Torrey bankrupt law; the deep har- bor at Galveston; opposition to the Conger lard bill; Nicaragua
378 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
canal; opening of the Oklahoma Indian lands; opposition to the Butterworth bill; western states commercial congress; trans-Missis- sippi congress. The breaking down of sectional barriers, the coming together of the parts into the whole, is suggested in these national movements.
No particularly important project is set forth in the proceedings from 1889 until the end. There are, however, two gaps of several months each for which there are no records. At the close of the fiscal year in June, 1892, President Todd called a joint meeting of board members and other interested citizens for the purpose of reorganizing the board and defining a more comprehensive program of work. It was felt that the organization had served its purpose and had worked as efficiently as possible in view of inadequate sup- port. Leavenworth was surely entering upon a new era of prosperity and the time had come for a "live and pushing organization."
It is difficult to point to the causes that led ultimately to the discontinuance of the board. There are indications that personal gains were not always forgotten in the larger issues and that in- difference, at the last, supplanted the enthusiasm of the first years. Income did not always keep pace with obligations and debts accu- mulated. It became increasingly difficult to secure unified effort. Probably there was a deeper cause, a current that was rushing along towards a vortex, into which was to be sucked much that had been built up during the ten years of building and expansion. The dark days of 1893 were but a little way off.
Though goals and methods may be questioned in the light of fuller understanding after fifty years, much achievement may be fairly credited to the board during the ten years of its work. Manufac- turing was stimulated, resources and markets were developed, popu- lation was increased, and the city was made a place of greater charm. And all of this work went on, though the Leavenworth board of trade came to an end. Out of the general reorganization came the commercial exchange, quite similar in character and purpose and equally imbued with a determination to build a greater, fairer city.
A History of Kansas Child-Labor Legislation
DOMENICO GAGLIARDO
TWO studies of Kansas legislation affecting children have already been published by the Kansas State Historical Society. The first of these, by Nina Swanson, is almost entirely devoted to a study of legislation regarding agencies caring for children, educa- tion, protection of health of mothers and children, and children in need of special care.1 Only three pages are devoted to child labor, and in these the major developments in legislation are barely out- lined. There is no discussion of either the movement leading to legis- lation or of the administration of the laws.
The second study, by Edith Hess, considers labor legislation affecting both women and children.2 Relatively little concerns child labor, and most of this consists of an analysis of the provisions of laws enacted. Very little data are given regarding the administra- tion of child labor laws. Furthermore, in making her study Miss Hess did not use the session laws, but relied completely on com- pilations. Numerous inaccuracies as to dates appear in the work.3
These two studies do not therefore satisfactorily discuss the his- tory of child-labor legislation in Kansas. In this article the writer describes the nature and extent of child labor in Kansas, records the development of this legislation, and discusses its administration.
EXTENT AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR.
The problem of child labor has never assumed really formidable proportions in Kansas. No doubt the principal reason for this is that agricultural and industrial operations in Kansas have not been generally adapted to the use of child labor. Tables I and II will give some notion of the nature and extent of the problem, although the data given are not strictly comparable and are not at all useful
1. Nina Swanson, "The Development of Public Protection of Children in Kansas," Kansas Historical Collections, v. XV, pp. 231-277.
2. Edith Hess, "State Regulation of Woman and Child Labor in Kansas," Kansas His- torical Collections, v. XV, pp. 279-333.
3. For example, the date given for the first mining law regulating the employment of children is 1901, while the accurate date is 1883. See Laws of Kansas, 1883, ch. 117. The commissioner of labor is said to have been given authority to bring about the enforcement of labor laws in 1901. This law was really enacted in 1898. See Laws 1898, ch. 34, sec. 3. There are other errors of this kind. The writer apparently assumed that the laws were en- acted as of the date when they first appeared in a volume of Compiled Laws or General Statutes.
(379)
380
THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
in showing trends. Yet they do reveal certain striking features of the child-labor situation in this state.
TABLE I. — Total children of each sex 10 to 15 years of age gainfully occupied in Kansas, 1880 to
|
YEAR. |
Total number in age group. |
Total gainfully employed. |
Males. |
Females. |
|
1880 1000 |
138,317 201 209 |
14,447 21 679 |
13,225 19 706 |
1,222 1 991 |
|
1900 |
200 810 |
22 489 |
20 304 |
2,185 |
|
1910 : |
200,794 |
18,730 |
16,997 |
1,733 |
|
1920 |
211,706 |
7,270 |
6,224 |
1,046 |
* From United States census reports.
Perhaps the most important conclusion to be drawn from these tables is that the number of children gainfully employed in Kansas has never been great. Less than 14,500 children from ten to fifteen years of age were returned as gainfully employed in 1880; the largest number reported was somewhat less than 22,500 in 1900; and for 1920 the figure was 7,270. This ploes not, of course, accu-
TABLB II. — Number of children of each sex 10 to 15 years of age engaged in each class of occupation in Kansas, 1900 to 1920. (a)
|
OCCUPATION. |
19 |
X). |
19 |
10. |
19 |
20. |
|
Male. |
Female. |
Male. |
Female. |
Male. |
Female. |
|
|
Agriculture Mining |
17,292 (&) |
261 (D |
14,345 184 |
440 o |
3,613 99 |
142 3 |
|
Manufacturing and mechanical Transportation |
891 683 |
152 76 |
592 181 |
46 65 |
566 266 |
155 155 |
|
Trade Professional and public service |
(c) 10 |
(c) 18 |
752 18 |
107 16 |
949 38 |
150 17 |
|
Domestic and personal service |
1,458 |
1,678 |
192 |
926 |
241 |
426 |
|
Clerical occupations |
108 |
33 |
362 |
44 |
452 |
82 |
a. From United States census reports.
b. Included under "Manufacturing and Mechanical."
c. Included under "Transportation."
rately represent the decrease in child labor from 1900 to 1920. Nor is the proportion of employed children 10 to 15 years of age large, compared with the total number of children in that age group, the percentage having never exceeded 12. Furthermore, most children gainfully employed are males. Of the total number the percentage
GAGLIARDO: KANSAS CHILD-LABOR LEGISLATION
381
represented by males exceeded 90 for each decade of the period, and for 1920 exceeded 86.
It appears clearly from the data given in Table II that the major- ity of children gainfully occupied in Kansas are in agricultural employments. In 1900 more than 78 per cent, or 17,553 out of 22,489, were returned as agricultural laborers. The percentage thus returned in 1920 fell to slightly more than 53, or 3,755 out of a total of 7,270. But the census of 1920 was taken during a very dull agricultural season, when large numbers of children who would normally have been at work were attending school. Even so, the proportion returned as agricultural workers in 1920 is large. The
TABLE III. — Distribution of children 10 to 17 years of age engaged in agricul- ture in Kansas in 1920t by type of work and sex*
|
TYPE OF WORK. |
Total. |
Male. |
Female. |
|
Dairy farm laborers Farm laborers (home farm) |
55 7,189 |
48 6,959 |
7 230 |
|
Farm laborers (working out) |
3,103 |
3,068 |
35 |
|
Garden, greenhouse, orchard and nursery laborers |
102 |
92 |
10 |
|
Stock herders, drivers and feeders |
138 |
129 |
4 |
|
36 |
27 |
g |
|
|
Total |
10,618 |
10,323 |
295 |
* From United States census reports.
type of agricultural work performed by children is shown in Table III. Farm labor is the occupation reported for practically all of them. Most of the children working in agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry are employed on the home farm. In the census of 1920, of a total of 10,618 children between ten and seventeen years of age, 7,419, or almost 70 per cent, were returned as thus employed. And while it does not appear from the data given above, yet it is true that most of those returned as working out were un- doubtedly employed on the farms of neighbors and relatives. The situation regarding child labor in agriculture has not changed ma- terially in recent years.
The number of children employed in other occupations listed in the census reports is small. This is especially true of public service, professional service, and mining. No figures are given for the build- ing trades, but here also the numbers are small. At no time in the history of Kansas have many children been employed in these occu- pations. Moderate numbers are employed in manufacturing, trans-
382 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
portation, trade, domestic and personal service, and in clerical occu- pations. But the numbers are not, and have not been, formidable. The remainder of this study is concerned with the employment of children in occupations other than agriculture. For there has been but little direct regulation of the labor of children in agriculture. Some indirect regulation has been achieved by means of school- attendance laws, and this is touched upon in the study. It does not appear, however, that the conditions under which children are em- ployed in Kansas agriculture are such as to necessitate immediate and direct regulation except in the sugar-beet and berry industries. It is well to face the fact, nevertheless, that direct regulation would be practically impossible.
EARLY CONDITIONS.
In 1890 the commissioner of labor statistics, at the suggestion of the federal labor commissioner, made an investigation of the extent and conditions of child labor in Kansas.4 Satisfactory data bearing directly on the extent of the employment of children were not se- cured. Conditions of labor in mines, workshops, and factories, al- though not intolerable, considering the date, were found to be not satisfactory. The typical working day was ten hours, beginning at 7 a. m. and ending at 6 p. m., with an hour off for lunch. Weekly wages were in many cases quite low, and averaged about $3.50. The situation, while not alarming, was becoming worse. Foreigners com- ing from countries where their lot as children had been hard and marked by unremitting toil were accepting this same destiny for their children in America. And the commissioner was perhaps justi- fied in his statement that, "A visit to our coal mines, and to our large manufacturing establishments, reveals the fact that as a whole the volume of child labor is increasing, and that the time is rapidly approaching when legislative interference will become necessary to regulate and protect it." 5 No data were given regarding conditions of labor in agriculture.
DEVELOPMENT OF CHILD LABOR LEGISLATION.
APPRENTICESHIP.
The earliest Kansas law relating to the employment of children was an apprenticeship act passed by the first territorial legislature in 1855. This was modified in 1859 and again in 1868.6 No further
4. Kansas Bureau of Labor, Sixth Annual Report, pp. 8-66.
5. Ibid., p. 8. A law prohibiting the employment of children under 15 in mines, factories and workshops was favored by 56 out of 58 county school superintendents in 1890. — Ibid., p. 34.
6. General Statutes of 1868, ch. 5.
GAGLIARDO: KANSAS CHILD-LABOR LEGISLATION 383
changes have been made since 1868. All three of the acts are almost identical, even to the language used.7 Children may be bound in apprenticeship with the consent of the father; or if he is dead, a family deserter or habitual drunkard, with the consent of the mother; or of a guardian. Orphans without guardians may bind themselves, with the consent of the probate court. Any poor child who is a beggar, or who may become a county charge, whose parents are poor, whose father is an habitual drunkard, or, if he has no father, whose mother is of bad character, may be bound an apprentice by the probate court. Orphans or minors with estates insufficient for their maintenance may be bound by their guardians. The master's duties, as denned by law, are few. He —
"Shall cause such child to be taught to read and write, and the ground rules of arithmetic, the compound rules and the rule of three, and at the expiration of his time of service shall give him or her a new Bible and two new suits of clothes, of the value of forty dollars, and ten dollars in current money of the United States." 8
To guard against abuse, the probate court is given power to see that the terms of the indenture are fulfilled and that the apprentice is not ill-used. Complaints by apprentices against their masters of immoderate correction, insufficient food, clothing or lodging, want of trade instruction, or violation of the indenture, are received and heard by the probate court. No master may remove an apprentice from the state. If necessary, an apprentice may be discharged by the court.
Certain conduct on the part of the apprentice is made punishable : desertion without good cause; misconduct or ill behavior. Willful desertion without cause is especially frowned upon. In such cases the probate court may assess the apprentice ten dollars a month for each month absent, to be collected after the apprentice becomes of age. Furthermore, the master is given a right of action against the apprentice for any damages he may suffer from willful desertion without cause, judgment to be effective after the apprentice becomes of age. Anyone who counsels, persuades, entices or assists an ap- prentice to desert is liable to damages of $20 to $500, to be sued for and recovered by the master. And any person knowingly enter-
7. Statutes Kansas Territory, 1855, ch. 6 ; General Laws, 1859, ch. 13. The law of 1855 contains the following, which was omitted in 1859: "When an apprentice is a Negro or mulatto, it shall not be the duty of the master to cause such colored apprentice to be taught to read or write, or a knowledge of arithmetic ; but he shall be allowed, at the expiration of his term of service, a sum of money in lieu of education, to be assessed by the probate court." Sec. 10, Under the act of 1855, the period of indenture was till the age of twenty- one, or for a shorter time. In 1859 the indenture for girls was made to expire at -age sixteen. In 1868 the boys' indentures were made to expire at age eighteen.
8. General Statutes, 1868, ch. 5, sec. 8.
384 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
taining, harboring or concealing a runaway apprentice forfeits to the master one dollar for each day he does so, this also to be sued for and recovered.9
CHILDREN AND THE MINING ACT OF 1883.
The first legal enactment directed specifically against the em- ployment of children came in 1883, as an amendment to the coal- mining law.10 The employment of children under twelve years of age in coal mines was absolutely prohibited. Minors between twelve and sixteen could be employed only if they were able to read and write and furnished a certificate from a school teacher to the effect that they had attended school at least three months during the year. It was made the duty of agents employing minors to see that these provisions were not violated, and "willful" violation on the part of any agent was made punishable by a fine not to exceed $50 for each and every offense. This law was undoubtedly a step forward, but it was a faltering step. Its chief virtue was that it recognized the problem of child labor in coal mines, while its chief weakness was its lack of machinery for enforcement. Experience of other states has shown conclusively that an act bearing a penalty only for "will- ful" violations cannot be enforced. Yet the commissioner of labor, in 1888, expressed the hope that the provisions of the mining act would be extended to factories and workshops.11 In 1894, however, the impossibility of enforcing the law was recognized. In that year the commissioner said: "It is extremely problematical whether this law is very rigidly enforced."12
ACTS TO PROTECT MORALS OF CHILDREN.
A second direct restriction of child labor came in 1889, as part of an act for protecting the morals of children.13 It was made un- lawful to employ any child under fourteen years of age as an acro-
9. Another early law provided that a payment made to a minor on a contract for labor made with him alone could not be collected again by the minor's parent or guardian — Com- piled Laws of Kansas, 1862, ch. 146.
10. Laws, 1883, ch. 117, sec. 17.
11. Kansas Bureau of Labor, Fourth Annual Report, p. 38. The following child-labor law was proposed in 1887 : "In all manufactories, workshops and other places used for mechanical or manufacturing purposes, the time of labor of children under the age of eighteen years, and women employed therein, shall not exceed eight hours in one day; and any employer, stock- holder, director, officer, overseer, clerk, or foreman, who shall compel any woman or any such child to labor exceeding eight hours in any one day, or who shall permit any child under fourteen years of age to labor more than ten hours in any one day in any such place, if he shall have control over such child sufficient to prevent it; or who shall employ at manual labor any child under twelve years otf age in any factory or workshop, where more than three persons are employed, or who shall employ any child of twelve and under fourteen years of age in any such factory or workshop for more than seven months in any one year, shall be punished by fine not less than five nor more than fifty dollars for each such offense." It failed of passage. — Kansas Bureau of Labor, Third Annual Report, p. 325.
12. Ibid., p. 27.
13. Laws, 1889, ch. 104, sees. 1, 48c, d and f.
GAGLIARDO: KANSAS CHILD-LABOR LEGISLATION 385
bat, gymnast, contortionist, circus rider, rope walker, "or in any ex- hibition of like dangerous character/' or as a beggar, mendicant, pauper, street singer or street musician. The penalty for violation was a fine not to exceed $250, or imprisonment not to exceed a year, or both. Any duly incorporated society whose object was the pro- tection of children and who maintained a trustworthy and discreet agent to carry out its object, could have this agent appointed as a special police officer, to enforce this law. Furthermore, it was made the duty of sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, and police officers in counties and cities to aid such societies in enforcing all laws for the protec- tion of children, and they were given the power to arrest without warrant for any violation. And it was made the duty of county attorneys to prosecute cases arising under this act. But in cases where complaints were filed by a society for the protection of chil- dren, that society's attorney could, with the consent of the court or magistrate, carry on the prosecution, and for this purpose he was granted all powers conferred by law upon county attorneys. The machinery for enforcing the act was certainly far superior to that set up in the mining act. And this machinery was in all probability effective, due largely to the nature of the labor concerned, which has always been frowned upon as being cruel and tending to immoral- ity.14 An extension of the provisions of this act was made in 1903 when the employment of children under eighteen as practitioners or subjects in public, open exhibitions, seances or shows of hypnotism, mesmerism, animal magnetism or so-called psychical forces was prohibited.15
THE SCHOOL LAW OF 1903.
Compulsory school attendance dates in Kansas from 1874, when it was required that children between eight and fourteen be sent to school for at least twelve weeks in the year, six of these to be con-
14. An attempt was made in 1898 to secure the passage of a fairly good child-labor Jaw. The following was introduced and its passage recommended by the committee on manufactures and industrial pursuits, but it failed to pass: "No child under fourteen years of age shall be employed at any time in any factory or workshop or about any mine. No such child ehall be employed in any mercantile establishment nor in the service of any telegraph, telephone, or public messenger company except during the vacation of the public schools in the school district where such child is employed. No person under sixteen years of age shall be employed at any occupation nor at any place dangerous or injurious to life, limb, health, or morals, nor at any labor of any kind outside of the family of such person's residence before BIX o'clock in the morning nor after seven o'clock in the evening, nor more than ten hours in any one day, nor more than sixty hours in any one week, except in accordance with the following express permission or condition, to wit: Children not less than fourteen years of age may be employed in mercantile establishments on Saturdays and for ten days each year before Christ- mas until ten o'clock in the evening: Provided, however, That this permission shall not be BO construed as to permit such children to toil more than ten hours in any one day nor over sixty hours in any one week." — Kansas Bureau of Labor, Fourteenth Annual Report, p. 258.
16. Laws, 1903, ch. 219.
25—4323
386 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
secutive.16 Exemption was allowed if the parent or guardian was too poor to clothe the child properly.17 In 1903 this law was modi- fied, and children between eight and fifteen were required to attend school during the period it was in session.18 But children of four- teen or more, if employed for their own or for their dependents' support, and if they could read and write English, were required to attend only eight consecutive weeks; and for those graduated from the common schools and those mentally or physically in- capacitated, no attendance was required. This was an improve- ment over the previous law in that the period of attendance was increased, but the poverty clause weakened the act. A further amendment, made in 1907, authorized boards of education to permit temporary absences from school of children between eight and fif- teen "in extreme cases of emergency or domestic necessity."19 This provided another large loophole, and one which is said to have been regularly used in the sugar-beet regions of western Kansas.20
THE LAW OF 1905.
A distinct step forward was taken in 1905, when the first com- prehensive Kansas child-labor law was enacted.21 The employment of children under fourteen in factories, packinghouses or in or about mines was absolutely forbidden, and no child under sixteen could be employed at any occupation or in any place dangerous or in- jurious to life, limb, health or morals. Before employing children, employers, whenever possible, were required to secure age certifi- cates from school authorities.22 When a certificate could not be obtained, a statement from the parent or guardian, verified under oath administered by an authorized officer, would suffice, except where the employer had actual knowledge that the child's age was below the legal minimum. Certificates and statements were to be kept on file, and factory and mine inspectors were charged with the
16. Laws, 1874, ch. 123. A short summary of the development of Kansas school laws concerning children was made by Nina Swanson: "The Development of Public Protection of Children in Kansas," Kansas Historical Collections, v. XV, pp. 241-240.
17. The labor commissioner was of the opinion that this law was never adequately en- forced and was of no help in regulating child labor. "So far aa the law is concerned, a child over eight years of age may be required to work every day in the year, so that he attends a night school for twelve weeks of the time; if the parents or guardians show that they are not able to clothe him properly, no education whatever is required, and the child is permitted to grow up in utter ignorance." — Sixth Annual Report, pp. 11, 34.
18. Laws, 1903, ch. 423.
19. Laws, 1907, ch. 317.
20. Court of Industrial Relations, Third Annual Report, p. 123.
21. Laws, 1905, ch. 278.
22. The form of certificate prescribed was as follows: State of Kansas, county of-
jity or district. This certifies that , according to the records of this school
and from all knowledge that I can obtain, was born at , in county, and
city, of the state of , and is now under
(Signed)
GAGLIARDO: KANSAS CHILD-LABOR LEGISLATION 387
duty of inspecting the certificates, examining the children for viola- tions of law, and of filing complaints. Complaints filed were to be prosecuted by county attorneys. The penalty for violation, or for permitting or conniving at violation, was a fine of $25 to $100 or imprisonment for 30 to 90 days.
This act marks a distinct advance in the regulation of child labor in Kansas. First of all its scope was fairly broad, including many of the occupations — except agriculture — where children were likely to be employed for long periods under bad conditions. It should be noted that all mines, not merely coal mines, were included. In the second place, the age limit was set fairly high. Here again it should be noted that the age limit for coal mines was raised from twelve to fourteen years, although the corresponding section of the mining law was not specifically repealed. Lastly, the administrative fea- tures were an improvement over those set up under all previous laws. The chief weakness in the act was that its regulatory features were inadequate. No child under sixteen could be employed in any occu- pation or place dangerous or injurious to life, limb, health or morals, but little more specific than this was provided. Such general pro- visions usually were well enforced only where there was well-organ- ized machinery manned by aggressive officials. Unfortunately, such was not generally the case in Kansas at the time, nor for the next ten years.23
Apparently the law of 1905 was needed. A special investigation made by the department of labor in 1906, covering 15 of the more important manufacturing counties, showed that 1,951 children were taken out of factories in those counties when the law first went into effect.24 The operation of the child-labor and compulsory education laws together is said to have put in school, for the state as a whole, about 5,000 children.25
Despite this good showing, the child-labor problem was not solved. The commissioner of labor complained in 1907 that the law did not "place any restriction upon the length of day's work of the children coming under its regulation."26 Furthermore, he found that the law's scope was not inclusive enough, covering "not more than one- half of the child-labor employment that should be regulated." 27 He
23. The Kansas commissioner of labor thought this provision quite important. "Kansas has a child -labor law second to none in the United States, especially on account of the pro- vision which prohibits all children under sixteen years of age from being employed at any place or at any occupation that is dangerous or injurious to life, limb, health, or morals." Kansas Bureau of Labor, Twenty-eighth Annual Report, p. 137.
24. Ibid., Twenty-second Annual Report, p. 144.
25. Ibid. School authorities have always cooperated reasonably well in enforcing the child- labor law.
26. Ibid., Twenty-third Annual Report, p. 127.
27. Ibid., p. 142.
388 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
therefore recommended that the scope be enlarged to include work- shops, and that mercantile establishments, telephone and telegraph offices, and the work of public messengers also be included, except during school vacation. As another improvement, he recommended a maximum day of ten hours, and a maximum week of sixty hours.28 The following year it was recommended that the scope of the act should be widened by including workshops, theaters, and the opera- tion of elevators, and that data on age certificates should be based only on school records.29
A general movement to improve the child-labor law developed in 1908, led by the State Society of Labor, the State Federation of Labor, a child-labor committee consisting of representative leading educators and professional workers, and the Federation of Women's Clubs. A bill was drafted embodying the recommendations of the commissioner of labor, and going somewhat beyond them. This bill would have prohibited the employment of children under fourteen in any factory, workshop, theater or packing house, in the operation of elevators, in or about any mine, and in any business or service whatsoever during school hours. Children under sixteen in these employments, and in the distribution or transmission of merchandise or messages, would not have been employed between 6 p. m. and 7 a. m., and not for more than eight hours daily and forty-eight hours weekly. The age at which children could be employed at any place dangerous or injurious to life, limb, hearth or morals was raised to seventeen. Work permits based on school census records, with a prescribed form, were provided for. Provisions for enforcement and penalties remained unchanged.30
AMENDMENTS OF 1909.
The 1909 legislature adopted some of the changes suggested.31 Two important amendments were made. Children under fourteen could no longer be employed in any factory or workshop "not owned or operated" by the child's parent, and not at all in a theater, pack- ing house, or as an elevator operator, or in or about a mine, and no child under fourteen could be employed in any business or service whatever during school hours. The provision prohibiting employ- ment of children under sixteen where body, health or morals were endangered, was retained. Thus the scope of the act was broadened.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid,, Twenty-fourth Annual Report, 1908, p. 91.
30. Ibid., pp. 93-94.
81. General Statutes of Kansas, 1909, sees. 5,094-5,098.
GAGLIARDO: KANSAS CHILD-LABOR LEGISLATION 389
A new step forward was taken in that hours of labor were regulated. No child under sixteen could be employed in the occupations men- tioned above, or in distributing or transmitting merchandise or messages, between 6 p. m. and 7 a. m. or more than eight hours per day, or forty-eight hours per week. The more elaborate form of age certificate recommended in the proposed bill was adopted without change for all children under sixteen.32 No changes were made re- garding affidavits. Provisions for inspection, enforcement and prose- cution remained unchanged, as did the penalty for violation.
The provision that no child under sixteen could be employed where his life, limb, health or morals were endangered was given a liberal interpretation by the state supreme court.33 A dangerous occupa- tion was defined as being one in which there was reason to anticipate injury, whether because of its nature or the manner of its conduct, and this even though the danger could be eliminated by the exercise of due care and skill on the child's part. Violation of the law was held to be the proximate cause of injury. This provision, the court held, gave the minor a right of action for damages, despite the fact that the statute did not in terms give him this right. Moreover, it- was not necessary that the employer should know that the employ- ment was dangerous.
INDUSTRIAL WELFARE LAW OF 1915.
Another significant step forward was taken in 1915 when the in- dustrial welfare act was passed.34 The act made it unlawful to employ "minors in any industry or occupation within the state of Kansas under conditions of labor detrimental to their health or wel- fare," and made it unlawful to employ them "at wages which are not adequate for their maintenance and for more hours than is consonant with their health and welfare . . ." 35 The word minor was defined in the law to mean any person, male or female, under eighteen years, and the word occupation was defined to mean any and every vocation and pursuit and trade and industry. Thus for the first time Kansas adopted a comprehensive policy for the regu- lation of child labor. A commission was created with broad powers
32. General Statutes, 1909, sec. 5,096. The form had to be "substantially" as follows: , Kan., . This certifies that (full name), according to the records
of the school census and from all knowledge that I can obtain, was born (day), (month),
(year), at , in county, state of , and is now years and
months of age. His (or her) height is (tall, short, medium), complexion (fair or dark), hair
(color), and he resides at No. , street.
(Signature) •
(Official school position) of (name of school) school or district No. ."
33. Casteel v. Brick Co., 83 Kan. 533.
34. Laws, 1915, ch. 275. This act was supplemental to existing laws on child labor.
35. Ibid., Bee. 2.
390 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to carry out this policy and the administration of the act was put in its hands. Under the authority of this law the welfare commis- sion did regulate the wages, hours and conditions of many minors in Kansas.36
THE KANSAS LAW AND THE FEDERAL ACT OF 1916.
The federal child-labor act of 1916 prohibited the shipment in interstate or foreign commerce of the products of mines or quarries situated in the United States if children under sixteen were employed in them at any time within thirty days prior to the removal of that product from the mine or quarry, as well as the product of any mill, cannery, workshop, factory or manufacturing establishment similarly situated if thirty days prior to its removal from, the place of its production children under fourteen were employed, or children be- tween fourteen and sixteen were employed for more than eight hours a day, or for more than six days a week, or between 7 p. m. and 6 a. m.
At that time the Kansas act fell somewhat short of the federal standards thus set. This stimulated local interest in the state law, and recommendations looking to its improvement were made by the commissioner of labor almost at once.37 These recommendations, however, went beyond the federal standards in some respects. They were as follows: A sixteen-year limit for mines and quarries, facto- ries, canneries, packing houses and all dangerous or extra-hazardous work places; the commissioner of labor to be authorized to add to this list; age certificates for children between fourteen and eighteen; work permits for those between sixteen and eighteen, upon proof of age, physical fitness, completion of sixth grade, and employment; an eight-hour day, forty-eight hour week, with no work between 6 p. m. and 7 a. m. for those under eighteen years of age.
AMENDMENTS OF 1917.
Amendments were made in 1917 to bring Kansas into line with the federal standards.38 The field in which the employment of chil- dren was specifically prohibited was slightly extended. The provision of the 1909 law which allowed children under fourteen to be em- ployed in factories and workshops owned or operated by their par- se. A detailed analysis of this work has been made in a separate study dealing with minimum wage legislation for women and minors, which the author expects to publish later.
37. Kansas Department of Labor and Industry, Combined Thirty-first and Thirty-second Annual Reports, pp. 228, 229.
38. Laws, 1917, ch. 227.
GAGLIARDO: KANSAS CHILD-LABOR LEGISLATION 391
ents was repealed. The age for the employment of children in mines was raised to sixteen, and this was made to extend to quarries. Prohibition of night work and work for more than eight hours daily and forty-eight hours weekly, provisions found in the 1909 act, was extended to include hotels, restaurants and mercantile establish- ments.
Important changes were made in the matter of certificates for children under sixteen. Work permits were to be issued by the superintendent of schools or his representative, or by the judge of a juvenile court, but only after certain papers had been duly executed. The first of these was a written statement from the employer or his representative stating the occupation at which the child was to be employed. Second, a school record showing the eompletion of the elementary course was required; or when this information was not available a statement showing a successful examination over an equivalent course of study. Permits could be issued to children under sixteen who had not completed the elementary course or its equivalent, but only for the time during which school was not in session. Third, evidence showing that the child was fourteen years of age was necessary, the form of this evidence to be prescribed by the commissioner of labor and to comply substantially with the re- quirements laid down in this respect by the federal child labor law of 1916. Information as to name, sex, date and place of birth, etc., was also required. An important innovation in the matter of per- mits was designed to make it possible to keep an accurate record of the number of children employed in the permissible vocations. Per- mits were to be made out in duplicate, one retained by the employer, the other going to the commissioner of labor. When employment terminated, the employer was required to return his copy to the officer issuing it, and he in turn to the commissioner of labor. The commissioner of labor was authorized to revoke a permit improperly or illegally issued, or when by so doing the physical or moral wel- fare of the child would best be served. Provisions for inspection and enforcement and penalties for violation were not changed.39
After the 1917 amendments to the labor law there appears to
39. When the new federal child labor law was enacted, the Internal Revenue Department immediately accepted the Kansas work-certificate standards and system and put Kansas on the list of states whose certificates were accredited. But shortly after this Kansas was removed from the list because of the carelessness of the probate judge of Wyandotte county, in which many packing houses are located, in issuing permits contrary to the provisions of the federal law. — Kansas Department of Labor, Thirty-fifth Annual Report, p. 49. The duplicate permit system was not well observed, "partly due to the carelessness and misunderstanding on the part of the employers, who insist upon retaining the original permit, thinking that it may serve as a protection at some future time." — Ibid., p. 48.
392 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
have been a conflict between the school and labor laws. The school law made attendance compulsory until the fifteenth year, while under the provisions of the labor law a child under sixteen could not be granted a work permit while school was in session, unless he had completed the elementary school course. This conflict caused some confusion, and it is said that because of it the enforcement of the child labor law was hindered.40 To eliminate this difficulty it was recommended that the attendance age be raised to sixteen.41 An attempt was made by those administering the labor act to reconcile this conflict pending proposed legislation by accepting fifteen years as the age, after which no work certificate was required. But this practice was soon discontinued.42
The 1919 legislature raised the compulsory school attendance age from fifteen to sixteen.43 But the "poverty" clause, excusing children at fourteen if regularly employed for their own or their dependents' support, was retained. This provision also caused much confusion, and became a "loophole which almost annulled the en- forcement of the higher standards of the two laws." 44
CHILDREN'S CODE COMMISSIONS.
A movement to revise, organize and bring up to modern standards the laws concerning children, which ultimately led to the elimination of the conflicts between the labor and compulsory education laws, began in 1918 with the establishment of the Kansas Children's Code Commission.45 No attempt was made by this commission to develop comprehensive revisions and recommendations. It contented itself with drafting and presenting six bills to the 1919 legislature. Three of these, none dealing with child labor, were passed. Nothing more was done by this commission.
A second children's code commission was established in 1919.46 It grew out of a central group known as the Kansas Woman's Com-
40. Kansas Department of Labor, Combined Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Annual Re- ports, 1917-1918, p. 13. See, also, Thirty- fifth Annual Report, p. 55.
41. Ibid., p. 13.
42. Court of Industrial Relations, Second Annual Report, p. 96.
43. Laws, 1919, ch. 272.
44. Kansas Department of Labor, Thirty-fifth Annual Report, p. 56. The bars were let down some in 1919 by the commissioner of labor, on his own authority. During school vaca- tion children between twelve and fourteen were allowed to work, without permits but not in certain industries — factory, workshop, theater, mill, cannery, packing house, creamery, elevator, mine, quarry, and in a telephone exchange, laundry, restaurant, hotel, or place where Boft drinks are sold.
45. This body was established by Lieutenant Governor Huffman, at the request of Dr. Lydia Allen DeVilbiss, chief of the Division of Child Hygiene of the State Board of Health. — "Proposed Child Welfare Legislation," Report of the Kansas Children's Code Commission, January, 1921, (Topeka), p. 6.
46. Largely at the request of Dr. Florence Brown Sherbon, successor to Doctor DeVilbisa. Kansas Department of Labor, Thirty-fifth Annual Report, p. 56.
GAGLIARDO: KANSAS CHILD-LABOR LEGISLATION 393
mittee on Child Welfare, representing groups and organizations and certain state departments such as the Division of Child Hygiene and the Industrial Welfare Commission. A Kansas Child Welfare Sur- vey was made. "The survey revealed a very general disregard of the Kansas child labor law." 47 On the basis of the information acquired in this and in other ways, a preliminary report was made, tentatively recommending certain legislation.48 Twenty-one bills covering vari- ous phases of child welfare were drafted and presented to the legis- lature of 1921. 49 Two of these, one dealing with compulsory educa- tion and the other with child labor, are of interest here. The compulsory education bill provided that the ages of compulsory school attendance be from eight to eighteen, unless the high-school course were completed before eighteen; that children of fifteen or more actively and regularly employed according to the provisions of the child-labor law be required to attend continuation schools for two hours daily and four days weekly while school was in session, unless they had completed the tenth grade; and that children of fourteen who had completed the eighth grade be allowed to work pro- vided they attended continuation school as above. The child-labor bill provided that no child under fifteen be employed except at odd jobs around the house or farm, this employment not to interfere with school attendance; that children of fourteen who had completed the eighth grade be allowed to work provided they attended continu- ation schools ; that the list of prohibited industries be extended and that the commissioner of labor be authorized to add to this list; that a weekly maximum of six days be set; and that various changes be made in the matter of age certificates and work permits. Only three of the twenty-one bills presented were passed, and neither of the above two was included.
The commission was reorganized again in the spring of 1922. An executive secretary50 was appointed to take charge, and the com- mission then proceeded to work on a code. In its report to the legislature of 1923 it recommended twenty-one bills pertaining to various aspects of child welfare.51 These recommendations were largely based on those set up by the international conference held at Washington in 1919, but fell short in many particulars.
47. "Proposed Child Welfare Legislation," p. 17.
48. Ibid. The plans of the survey are published as Bulletin No. 2 of the Kansas State Board of Health, February, 1920.
49. These will be found described in the preliminary report of 1921, referred to above.
50. Mrs. H. Mayfield, of Kansas City.
51. Pamphlet published by Crane & Company, Topeka.
394 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The amendments to the child-labor law suggested were practically identical with those suggested by the previous commission, except that the age limit was reduced from fifteen to fourteen. The same is true of the compulsory education bill. It should be pointed out in this connection that this bill would have abolished the "poverty" clause, together with the "emergency or domestic necessity" clause then in force. Neither of these bills was passed. But both the "poverty" clause of the 1903 act and the clause of the 1907 law authorizing temporary absences from school of children in cases of emergency or domestic necessity were repealed.52 Children under sixteen who have not completed the eighth grade are now required to attend school, the minimum term of which is by law eight months, unless they are mentally or physically incapacitated. Thus the conflicts between the compulsory school attendance and labor laws have been eliminated. A street-trades bill was recommended, but was not introduced, although it appeared that child labor was in- creasing in these trades.53
ADMINISTRATION.
The first step forward in the administration of child-labor laws was taken when their enforcement* was placed in the hands of the state commissioner of labor in 1898.54 The same act provided that the commissioner should succeed to this office by virtue of being secretary of a worker's organization known as the State Society of Labor and Industry. An arrangement of this kind would seem to be especially desirable in so far as the enforcement of labor laws is concerned. But experience proved that in this respect it was not very successful. Nevertheless, for the first time, a central authority with some power was charged with the duty of seeing that the law was enforced. The law of 1913, which provided for a woman factory inspector, while not strictly a child-labor law, was also of some im- portance in this connection, for among the results of this law was the gathering of data concerning wages, hours and conditions of children, and a somewhat more rigid enforcement of the e-hild-labor law.
In 1921 the office of state labor commissioner was abolished and the duties pertaining to that office were consolidated with those of the industrial court. Similarly, the industrial welfare commission was made a part of the court. The administration of the child-labor
52. Laws, 1923, ch. 182, sec. 2.
53. Court of Industrial Relations, Fourth Annual Report, p. 123.
54. Laws, 1898, ch. 34, sec. 3.
GAGLIARDO: KANSAS CHILD-LABOR LEGISLATION 395
law was thus vested in the industrial court. For a short time this work was carried on under the supervision of the woman factory inspector, but in October, 1921, the industrial welfare and the child-labor work were united to form a woman's division under the supervision of the court.55 Better results were anticipated from the consolidation. "With closer correlation between the child-labor, in- dustrial welfare, and industrial court laws, some developments may be possible in child-labor work which could not be brought about under the former organization." 56 But no great improvement in enforcement resulted. When in 1925 the industrial court was abol- ished and its duties transferred to the Public Service Commission, the woman's division was retained as an integral unit in the com- mission. The child-labor law was administered by this body until 1929, when an industrial commission was created and charged with this duty.
In general, the child-labor law has not been well enforced by any of these different agencies. Lack of funds for inspection and prose- cution, and a lack of public interest in enforcement, have combined to bring about this result. When, in 1918, the first federal child- labor law was declared unconstitutional, Kansas "felt keenly the loss of the moral support" which this law gave to local enforcement.57
Official figures on the number of work permits issued are not satis- factory. Such figures as are available, however, are given in Table IV. Some of these should be commented upon. The great decrease in regular permits issued in 1921, from 374 to 193, and in school vaca- tion permits from 617 to 116, does reflect some decrease in the em- ployment of children. This decrease is attributable to lessened busi- ness activity due to depression, to the more rigid enforcement of the federal child-labor law, and to better enforcement of the state law, for which purpose there was available a larger body of state factory inspectors. It is not at all improbable, however, that the depression in business was the most important factor. The decrease in school vacation permits was due, however, almost wholly to a change in the interpretation of the law, which allowed children to work without per- mits in occupations not listed in the law. In these occupations there was an increase in the number of children employed.58 The further
55. Court of Industrial Relations, Second Annual Report, 1921, p. 88.
56. Ibid., p. 96.
57. Kansas Department of Labor, Combined Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Annual Re- ports, pp. 12-13.
58. Court of Industrial Relations, Second Annual Report, 1921, pp. 97, 99. "Little girls twelve and thirteen years of age are found employed in restaurants, and boys ten and twelve years of age are found in the messenger service when the protection of the work- certificate system is removed," p. 99.
396
THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
drop in 1924 was due almost wholly to a change in base to the calen- dar year. Improvements in the school laws are given some credit by the industrial court for this decrease, but it seems reasonable to sup- pose that these exerted but little influence.59 A thorough checkup of the industries in Kansas City, Kan., in which a large number of children were employed, is given as the reason for the increase in the number of regular work permits issued in 1926. 60 This last state- ment brings out clearly the general unreliability of the figures. They do not give an accurate picture of child labor in Kansas.
TABLE IV. — Regular and school vacation permits issued to children between 14 and 16 in Kansas from 1918 to 1930, by years.
|
Y*AR.* |
Regular permits. |
School vacation permits. |
||||||
|
Manufac- turing. |
Mer- cantile. |
Mes- senger. |
All others. |
Totals. |
||||
|
Males. |
Females. |
Grand total. |
||||||
|
1918 1919 |
158 85 178 76 75 81 20 28 |
160 132 110 60 60 21 11 6 |
69 67 31 49 22 28 26 14 |
114 94 55 28 34 39 37 22 |
262 265 191 117 110 106 64 57 |
140 113 183 76 81 63 30 13 |
502 378 374 193 191 169 94 70 |
790 577 617 116 162 158 67 57 |
|
1920 |
||||||||
|
1921 |
||||||||
|
1922 |
||||||||
|
1923 1924 |
||||||||
|
1925 |
||||||||
|
1928 |
54 |
15 |
42 |
10 |
83 |
38 |
121 |
43 |
|
1927 |
30 |
16 |
76 |
2 |
107 |
17 |
124 |
67 |
|
1928 1929 |
47 78 29 |
19 27 17 |
60 63 47 |
12 |
101 145 79 |
27 25 14 |
128 170 93 |
82 37 30 |
|
1930 |
||||||||
* September 1 to September 1 for 1918 to 1923 inclusive, and calendar year from 1924 to 1929, inclusive.
Prosecutions for violations have never been numerous. This in itself is not a criticism, for this method of enforcement is not neces- sarily, or even generally, the best possible. Enforcement comes best through cooperation and education, and these means were largely used in Kansas. However, there are times when prosecution is neces- sary, and at those times it should be applied vigorously. But in Kansas prosecutions appear to have been inadequate in number and, what is worse yet, appear to have been misdirected. Rarely ever
59. Ibid., Fifth Annual Report, p. 100.
60. Public Service Commission, Eighth Biennial Report, p. 695.
GAGLIARDO: KANSAS CHILD-LABOR LEGISLATION
397
were prominent individuals or firms prosecuted; and in not a few instances it appears that those in charge hunted out small employers against whom there was perhaps already some local public prejudice and prosecuted them; or some traveling theatrical company would be pounced upon with much show and apparently with great glee. Figures showing the number of prosecutions and convictions obtained are given in Table V. Apparently there have been no prosecutions since 1920, at which time the administration of the law passed first to the industrial court, then to the Public Service Commission and finally to the Commission of Labor and Industry.
TABLE V. — Prosecutions and convictions for violation of child-labor laws in Kansas, 1906 to 1920, by years.
|
YEAR. |
Prosecutions. |
Convictions. |
|
1906 |
21 |
15 |
|
1907 |
.0 |
0 |
|
1908 |
1 |
1 |
|
1909 |
o |
15 |
|
1910 |
21 |
15 |
|
1911 |
o |
o |
|
1912 |
o |
o |
|
1913 |
7 |
6 |
|
1914 |
3 |
3 |
|
1915-'16 |
•14 |
*12 |
|
1917-'18 |
o |
o |
|
1920 |
6 |
8 |
* Prosecutions and convictions for violations of all labor laws.
If factory inspection figures were comprehensive enough, and com- parable, they would afford some indication of the effectiveness of the administration of the child-labor law. Kansas figures are compre- hensive enough in so far as the total number of workers covered is concerned, but the data gathered by factory inspectors concerning the employment of children are not satisfactory. The establish- ments inspected at different periods have varied considerably. In- spections were conducted at different seasons of the year, and what is more important still, inspectors displayed varying degrees of zeal in discovering child labor. All this leads to the conclusion that the data available are unsatisfactory. They are given, nevertheless, in Table VI.
398
THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
TABLE VI. — Number and percentage of children between 14 and 16 employed in Kansas industrial and mercantile establishments inspected, 1901 to 1920.*
|
YlAB. |
Wage earners covered by inspection. |
Children between 14 and 16. |
|
|
Number. |
Percentage. |
||
|
1901-'02 |
18,873 23,410 35,410 27,143 37,719 40,303 47,256 55,224 43,074 21,322 42,104 40,658 37,405 57,484 59,986 |
775 305 729 909 625 595 491 139 48 67 1S5 114 71 211 45 |
4.61 0.8T 2.06 3.35 t.M 1.48 1.04 0.25 0.11 0.21 0.32 0.28 0.19 0.37 0.07 |
|
1903-'04f |
|||
|
1905 |
|||
|
1908 |
|||
|
1907 |
|||
|
1908 |
|||
|
1909 |
|||
|
1910 • ... |
|||
|
19H |
|||
|
1912 |
|||
|
1913 |
|||
|
1914 |
|||
|
1915-'16t |
|||
|
1917-'18f • |
|||
|
1920 |
Official reports of the Kansas Bureau of Labor.
t Averages.
Despite the fact that the data are not satisfactory, it would seem to be reasonable to infer from the figures given that the number of children between fourteen and sixteen years of age employed in industry has declined appreciably since 1905. It has been estimated that the law of 1905 took approximately 5,000 children under sixteen out of industry and put them back in school.61 This statement may well be doubted. Nevertheless, child-labor and school-attendance laws have had some effect in reducing the number of children in industry. A general increase in the real wages of Kansas workers has no doubt led to some diminution in the number of children work- ing for wages.
DEFECTS OF THE PRESENT LAW.
As compared with the labor provisions of the minimum standards for child welfare, set up by the federal Children's Bureau,62 the Kansas law shows some defects. The standards suggest a sixteen- year minimum for any occupation, while the Kansas law has a
61. Kansas Department of Labor, Thirteenth Annual Report, p. 28.
62. Publication number 62, pp. 8-5.
GAGLIARDO: KANSAS CHILD-LABOR LEGISLATION 399
fourteen-year minimum for factories, workshops, packing houses, elevators, mills, canneries, and theaters, and, with certain excep- tions, for all occupations during school hours. During school vaca- tions the standards recommend a sixteen-year minimum for all oc- cupations except agriculture and domestic service, where a fourteen- year minimum is suggested until schools are continuous throughout the year, while the Kansas law sets a fourteen-year minimum for specified occupations, but has come to be interpreted as requiring no age minimum whatever for occupations not specified in the act.63 For hazardous employments the standards set a lower limit of eighteen years for mines and quarries, and twenty-one years for special-delivery service in the post office and for girl telegraph messengers, and would prohibit altogether the employment of minors in "dangerous, unhealthy, or hazardous occupations or at any work which will retard their proper physical or moral development/'64 while the Kansas act sets a sixteen-year minimum only for mines and quarries and for occupations and places dangerous or injurious to life, limb, health, or morals;65 but there are no restrictions on the employment of girls as telegraph messengers in Kansas except during school hours or after 6 p. m., according to the present in- terpretation of the law.
The educational minimum set by the standards is that children should be required to attend school at least nine months annually from their seventh to their sixteenth years. Kansas requires at- tendance only during the period when school is in session, which is now a minimum of eight months, and only from the eighth to the sixteenth year.66 No exceptions are allowed for in the standards, but the Kansas law excepts mentally and physically defective children, without providing special training for them, and excepts also children between fourteen and sixteen who have completed the eighth grade. Furthermore, part-time and continuation schools suggested in the standards are not found in the Kansas law.67 Physical examinations upon entering employment and annually
63. Court of Industrial Relations, Second Annual Report, p. 99.
64. Publication number 62, p. 8.
65. Laundries and telephone exchanges were declared to come under this provision. Court of Industrial Relations, Second Annual Report, 1921, p. 99.
66. Revised Statutes, 1923, 72-5002.
67. It is suggested in the standards that children between sixteen and eighteen who have completed the eighth grade but not the high-school grade, and who are legally and regularly employed, shall attend continuation schools at least eight hours a week; and children between sixteen and eighteen who have not completed the eighth grade or those who have and who are not regularly employed, must attend full-time schools. Occupational training for the mentally subnormal is suggested. For all children, vacation schools, "placing special emphasis on healthful play and leisure-time activities," are recommended.
400 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
thereafter, included in the standards, are not to be found in the Kansas law.
In the matter of hours of employment the Kansas law is also deficient. For those under twenty-one the standards set a day of eight hours, and forty-four hours per week, without the special pro- visions that the maximum working day for children between six- teen and eighteen be shorter than the legal working day for adults, and that the time spent by children under eighteen in continuation schools count as part of the working day; night work between 6 p. m. and 7 a. m. to be prohibited. The Kansas law limits the hours of those under sixteen to eight daily and forty-eight weekly. Pro- vision for night work is the same as in the standards, but applies only to those under sixteen.
Perhaps the Kansas provisions as to minimum wages are, on paper, fairly satisfactory. A wage based on the "necessary" cost of proper living as determined by a minimum wage commission or other similar official board; apprenticeship and learning wages to be based on "educational principles only," are recommended in the standards. Power to regulate the wages of minors is now vested by the Kansas law in the Commission of Labor and Industry. But this law has been a dead letter ever since the regulation of the wages of adult women was declared unconstitutional. A central agency to deal with all juvenile placement and employment problems, recom- mended in the standards, is not provided for in Kansas.
The administrative features of the Kansas child labor law are also inferior to those set up as model. Instead of issuing employ- ment certificates to all children between sixteen and eighteen, and to those between fourteen and eighteen for agricultural employments during vacation, the Kansas act requires them for children between fourteen and sixteen only in specified occupations. No certificate of physical fitness is required in Kansas. In other details of the certificate system, such as promise of employment, evidence of age and completion of eighth grade, standardized report forms, etc., the Kansas law is up to standard. Compulsory school attendance provisions are weak in Kansas. Instead of full-time attendance officers and state supervision of enforcement, there is local super- vision and there are very few full-time attendance officers. So it is, also, with factory inspection. There is an inadequate number of factory inspectors, and no provision for a staff of inspectors to examine working children annually.
The bills prepared by the Kansas Children's Code Commission
GAGLIARDO: KANSAS CHILD-LABOR LEGISLATION 401
embodied numerous improvements over the law as it then existed, and as it exists now. Fourteen years was the age limit proposed for all employments, including commercialized agricultural work, and sixteen years for all hazardous work. The list of what constitutes hazardous work was greatly extended, and power to declare any specific occupation hazardous was vested in the industrial court. A work week of six days was the only improvement proposed in the matter of hours; the day of eight and week of forty-eight hours, with no night work between 6 p. m. and 7 a. m., were retained. Work certificates were to be required for all employments, other features of the certificate system being retained and some brought up to standard. For children between fourteen and eighteen there was to be part-time school attendance until the completion of the tenth grade. Physical examinations were to be required of all children upon entering employment. But the proposals of the Children's Code Commission dealing directly with child labor have not been accepted by the legislature. No change has been made in the pro- hibitive or regulatory provisions of the child-labor law since 1917. Even the proposed child-labor amendment to the federal constitution was rejected, in 1925.68 The attitude of those in power appears to be one of indifference. A deaf ear has been turned to all attempts at improvement.
68. Laws, 1925, ch. 191.
26—4323
Kansas History as Published in the State Press
A series of historical articles on Americus and vicinity has been conducted in the Americus Greeting, starting with the issue of No- vember 4, 1931. The items have been taken from the diary of D. C. Grinell.
The snowstorm of April 13, 1873, was recalled by old-timers in the Clyde Republican, January 21 and 28, 1932. Fred French was one of the pioneers interviewed.
"The Black Pioneer/' a history of the founding of Nicodemus by the Negroes in 1877-78, by W. L. Sayers, was published in the Bogue Messenger, February 18, 25, and March 3, 1932.
The seventy-fifth anniversary edition of the Leavenworth Times, issued March 6, 1932, contained much early-day information. The Times was first published March 7, 1857. On May 5, 1871, the newspaper was purchased by Col. D. R. Anthony and has remained in the control of the Anthony family since that date.
"In Osborne Forty-eight Years Ago" the Osborne County Farmer, March 10, 1932, recalled the last effort to operate a saloon in that city. Since Kansas was already under a liquor prohibitory law the adventure was able to survive only three days.
Historical sketches of Bucklin's clubs and churches were featured in the Banner March 10, 1932. The edition was sponsored by the city's Business and Professional Women's Club.
A historical and pictorial edition of the Garden City News, pub- lished March 10, 1932, contained biographies and pictures of promi- nent Garden City women.
Early days in Kansas were recalled by W. S. Rees in the March 10, 1932, issue of the Lincoln Sentinel-Republican. Mr. Rees ar- rived in Lincoln in November, 1872.
The Leon News, in its issue of March 11, 1932, published a short letter from the late Thomas Dixon, pioneer of Butler county, which had been sent to his parents, then residents of England. Mr. Dixon homesteaded in Little Walnut township, Butler county, in 1874.
The Beloit Gazette on March 16, 1932, issued its sixty-first anni- versary edition. A short biographical sketch of the city's first mayor,
(402)
KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS 403
Timothy F. Hersey, was published. Other features included the his- tory of the Gazette and excerpts from several issues of the Mitchell County Mirror, founded on April 5, 1871, as the county's first news- paper. Pioneer names prominent in the edition were: J. E. Laff, J. B. Hyde, C. R. Herrick, Chas. W. Cooke, Herman Kendall, John Mahaffa and G. W. Port.
An article entitled "The Story of Abilene High School," by Phyl- lis Dentzer, was published in the Abilene Weekly Reflector in the issues of March 17, 31 and April 21, 1932. The complete history was illustrated and republished in the Abilene High School Booster, May 13.
Summerfield history was briefly reviewed by Helen Smith in the Sun of March 18, 1932.
A brief historical and industrial sketch of Topeka was published in The Merchants Journal, Topeka, March 19, 1932.
Reminiscences of early Rooks county, by Edward T. Taylor, United States representative from Colorado, were featured in The Rooks County Record, Stockton, March 24 and 31, 1932. Mr. Tay- lor settled on Elm creek in Rooks county, March 17, 1872.
Edmund B. Tarvin, a Civil War veteran, was interviewed by Byron E. Guise for the Marshall County News, Marysville, March 25, 1932. Mr. Tarvin recalled his war experiences, the grasshopper invasion of 1874 and many other incidents of pioneer life.
The killing of Jack Ledford, early Wichita hotel proprietor, was described by Manly Wade Wellman in the Wichita Sunday Eagle, March 27, 1932. A column historical sketch of Conway Springs, by Helen Akin, appeared in the same issue.
Dave D. Leahy, in his regular Wichita Sunday Eagle feature en- titled "Random Recollections of Other Days" recalls many stories of interest in the South west's history. Subjects treated during the past three months were: Early Caldwell lynchings, March 27. 1932; Batt Carr and other Caldwell figures, April 3; Judge William P. Campbell, southern Kansas jurist, May 1; a Lisbon, Okla., election in the town's infancy, May 22; incidents of forty years ago in Wellington during one of southern Kansas' worst storms, May 29; scattering events during the opening of Oklahoma territory, June 5 ; and the growth of Enid, Okla., to a population of 5,000 within ten minutes, shortly after the opening of the Cherokee strip, June 12.
404 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Biographical sketches of Dickinson county pioneers featured re- cently in the Chapman Advertiser include: Mr. and Mrs. George Russell Barnes, March 31, 1932; Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Scherer, April 7; Martin J. Schuler, April 14; George Tyler Winters, April 21; Michael Nicholson, April 28; James Nash, May 5; the family of Simeon Levi Graham, May 12; Robert Kenney, May 19, and ad- denda to biographies published previously, June 2.
Special Coffeyville and Pittsburg historical sections were featured by The Kansas Knight, St. Paul, in its issue for April, 1932.
A biographical sketch of David L. Payne was contributed by John C. Nicholson to the Hutchinson Herald, April 3, 1932.
Hard times in the middle seventies were recalled by J. M. Sat- terthwaite in the Douglass Tribune, April 8, 1932.
A brief history of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Paola was published in The Western Spirit, Paola, April 8, 1932. The church was organized in 1858.
Pony express days of the West were described by Milton Tabor in the Topeka Daily Capital, April 10, 1932. The express was started April 3, 1860.
The sixtieth anniversary edition of the Baxter Springs Citizen, issued April 14, 1932, republished many articles of historical inter- est from old newspaper files.
John W. Suggett, early-day mail carrier, was interviewed by Byron E. Guise for the Marshall County News, Marysville, April 15, 1932. Mr. Suggett came to Marysville in 1859, and carried mail for two years from Guittard station over the Oketo cut-off to Big Sandy, Neb.
A brief historical and industrial sketch of Hillsboro, by Helen Akin, was published in the Wichita Eagle, April 16, 1932.
Incidents in the life of William Mathewson, compiled by J. G. Masters, was published in a Sunday edition of the Omaha World- Herald and republished in the Lyons Daily News, April 19. 1932.
Names of leading Butler county citizens were featured by Helen Akin in a historical sketch of the county published in the Wichita Eagle, April 19, 1932.
The sixty-seventh anniversary of the granting of a charter to Ottawa University was celebrated April 20, 1932. The original charter was granted in 1860 to an association known as Roger
KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS 405
Williams University. A new state charter was issued in 1865, to Ottawa University. Historical articles were published in the Ottawa Campus and the Ottawa Herald.
"Reminiscences of a Home Missionary's Daughter," by Mrs. R. R. Hays, was published by the Osborne County Farmer, Osborne, April 21, 1932. Mrs. Hays was a speaker at the Woman's Home Missionary Society's thirtieth anniversary celebration, April 7.
The razing of Salina's "Upper Mill," built some time before 1870, inspired the Salina Journal to a review of the city's early milling activities in its issue of April 21, 1932.
Reminiscences of John Fisher, a Neosho county resident in 1869, were published in the St. Paul Journal, April 21, 1932.
Wellington history was featured in the Wichita Sunday Eagle, April 24, 1932. Paul V. Jefferies and Helen Akin contributed the article.
A column-length historical article on Mound Valley township, as written by B. P. Oakleaf for the Mound Valley Herald, April 27, 1882, was republished in the Mound Valley Times- Journal, April 21, 1932.
Life in Sumner county in the seventies was described by J. A. Seitz for the Wellington Daily News, April 27, 1932. The Seitz family settled two miles southeast of present-day Anson on the old cattle trail from Texas.
On the occasion of the fifty-sixth annual meeting of the Order of the Eastern Star, of Kansas, the Pittsburg Sun and Headlight of April 27, 1932, published brief histories of the organization.
Stafford county's first destructive tornado in the memory of the white settlers occurred fifty years ago last April, and was the sub- ject of an article by Al McMillan in the Macksville Enterprise, April 28, 1932. The story was republished in the Stafford Courier, May 5.
"The Oakley House," Oakley's first hotel, was the subject of an illustrated historical sketch by Laura Dell Zeigler in the Oakley Graphic, April 29, 1932.
A biographical sketch of 0. M. Dannevik, president of the Port Landis Town Company, was published in the Norton Daily Tele- gram, April 29, 1932. Port Landis, an extinct town, once was located
406 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
about one-half mile west of what is now Edmond, to which place the post office was moved about 1880.
The building of the Soule irrigation canal and a railroad from Dodge City to Montezuma were described by Dorothy Dallin for the Topeka Daily Capital, May 1, 1932.
Some of the troubles of an early-day liquor prohibition crusader were recalled by Frank M. Stahl, of Burlingame, in an interview with Margaret Whittemore for the Topeka Daily Capital, May 1, 1932.
Wichita's first schools were discussed by Victor Murdock in an interview with J. L. Mead for the Evening Eagle, May 3, 1932.
Doniphan county history from 1837 to 1932 was published in the eighteen-page illustrated seventy-fifth anniversary edition of The Kansas Chief, Troy, May 5, 1932. The Chief was first issued by Sol Miller at White Cloud under date of June 4, 1857, and was moved to Troy July 4, 1872.
"Interesting Spots Around Shawnee" was the title of a newspaper article appearing in the Northeast Johnson County Herald, Over- land Park, May 5, 1932. A brief description of the Dutch cemetery located at First street and Fisher road was a feature.
The fiftieth anniversary of the Tonganoxie Mirror was observed, May 5, 1932. Special illustrated historical articles were printed.
Humorous incidents in fifty years of Ottawa history were re- counted by Phil Gover in the Ottawa Herald, May 6, 1932.
Life in Mankato during the late eighties was reviewed by Jay Gould Keyes, of West Gowanda, N. Y., for The Jewell County Monitor, Mankato, May 6, 1932.
A brief history of the Mariadahl community as read by F. S. Gustafson before the Kiwanis club community meeting at Maria- dahl, May 3, was published in the Manhattan Morning Chronicle, May 8, 1932.
In the opinion of Billy Peacock, frontiersman, Gen. George Arm- strong Custer was only a "grandstander." To substantiate his belief Mr. Peacock reviewed the events leading up to the tragedy of the Little Big Horn for Paul I. Wellman, who recorded the interview in the Wichita Sunday Eagle, May 8, 1932, as a highlight in his series of weekly stories on Indian battles of the West. Mr. Peacock was
KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS 407
made a member of the Cheyenne tribe years ago and had personal contact with many of the foremost scouts on the western plains.
District school number 20, located two miles east of Falun, cele- brated the sixtieth anniversary of its organization, May 7, 1932. A brief history was published in the May 10 issue of the Salina Journal.
"Thayer in 1876" was the title of an article written for the Neosho County Historical Society in November, 1931, by Mrs. Abby Howe Forest, and was published in the St. Paul Journal, May 12, 1932.
A series of new tales of pioneer life, relating the experiences of Rea Woodman in five early schools of Wichita, were commenced in the Wichita Democrat, May 14, 1932.
Incidents in early-day Kansas were recalled by C. W. Horr for the Lawrence Daily Journal-World, May 19, 1932. Mr. Horr came to Kansas in 1854 and has been a resident of the state since that time.
"Memories of Days Gone By," from the souvenir edition of 1898, is a historical feature in the Overbrook Citizen. The series com- menced with the issue of May 19, 1932.
The oldest house still standing in Gove county is located ten miles east and one mile south of Gove City, according to John Norton, in a statement to the Gove City Republican-Gazette, May 19, 1932. The house was cut and framed in Chicago by the Kansas Pacific Railway Company and was shipped to Collyer in 1869. It was moved into Gove county in 1898. Another house, the property of Mrs. Anna Van Marter, situated about eleven miles northwest of Gove City, was mentioned. Part of the original building, con- structed in 1879, still remains.
Reminiscences of the days when the Indians roamed over Wash- ington county were briefly related by W. C. Hallowell, of Fort Mor- gan, Colo., in the Washington County Register, Washington, May 20, 1932.
David L. Payne, pioneer of Harvey county, was the subject of a biographical sketch in the Topeka Daily Capital, May 23, 1932, by John C. Nicholson.
The Sterling Kansas Bulletin of May 26, 1932, issued an illus- trated historical edition commemorating the forty-fifth anniversary of Sterling College. The college was opened November 1, 1887, un-
408 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
der the acting presidency of A. N. Porter. Thirteen students were enrolled for the first term.
Fury of the cyclone which demolished Wellington, May 27, 1892, was described and illustrated in the Monitor-Press, May 26, 1932.
In observance of the fiftieth anniversary program of the Morrill Free Public Library of Hiawatha the Daily World for May 27, 1932, published a historical sketch of the institution. Rebecca D. Kiner, a former librarian, contributed the article.
The sixtieth anniversary edition of the Wichita Eagle was ob- served May 29, 1932, with a special historical section. The issue featured a story of the city by Manly Wade Wellman, and a resume of the Eagle's activity since April 12, 1872, when the first issue appeared.
Topeka Typographical Union No. 121 observed its golden jubilee in May, 1932, with the issuance of an eighty-eight page illustrated booklet entitled Fifty Years of History. The union was first or- ganized in Topeka in 1869, but in 1874 the charter was permitted to lapse. The present organization was effected on May 19, 1882. A year-by-year history of the local union, biographical sketches of well-known state and local printers, histories of the city's leading newspapers and the state printing plant were features of the edition. Dwight Thacher Harris and Clifford V. Souders were the compilers.
Letters from C. Q. Chandler, of Wichita, and Tom McNeal, of Topeka, recalling early Barber county history were features of the sixth annual home-coming edition of the Hazelton Herald, June 3, 1932.
Early historical notes of McPherson county, when "buffalos drank the Smoky Hill river dry," were published by the McPherson Re- publican, June 3, 1932. The information was obtained from an 1883 atlas of the county, compiled and written by H. B. Kelly.
A selection of the late Tom Tilma's editorials and articles was re- published in the thirteenth anniversary edition of the Wichita Plain- dealer, June 3, 1932, the labor newspaper formerly edited by Mr. Tilma.
The descendants of the pioneers composing the Beecher Bible and Rifle Company, who founded Wabaunsee in 1856 and settled the sur- rounding farm land, organized May 30, 1932. A brief history of the
KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS 409
original colony was printed in the Kansas City (Mo.) Times, June 4, and was republished in the Wamego Reporter, June 9.
Sixty years of McPherson history were reviewed briefly in the McPherson Republican, June 6, 1932. The city was organized in 1872 and was named in honor of Gen. James B. McPherson.
A revised publication of J. C. Ruppenthal's translation from the German, of Russian-German Settlements in the United States, by Dr. Richard Sallett, was begun in The Ellis County News, Hays, June 9, 1932. Mr. Ruppenthal's translation was published in part in The Russell County News, Russell, in February and March.
The proposed reunion of former students of Central Normal Col- lege at Great Bend prompted Kent Eubank, Wichita Eagle reporter, to publish a history of the now defunct institution in the Sunday Eagle, June 12, 1932. The college was first opened in 1888 and passed out of existence in 1902.
A brief history of Burchfiel community church, Harper county, was published in the Anthony Republican, June 16, 1932.
A short history of Mountain Slope Masonic Lodge, No. 186, and A. C. Furman's reminiscences of the McKague family, were features of the fifty-third anniversary edition of the Oberlin Herald, June
16, 1932, announcing the dedication of the new McKague Memorial Masonic Temple.
The golden jubilee of Immanuel Lutheran Church, situated west of Linn, was observed June 12, 1932. A special illustrated history of the organization was published in the Linn-Palmer Record, June
17, 1932.
Kansas Historical Notes
The rock garden and lily pool which were presented to Shawnee Mission by the Shawnee Mission Floral Club were dedicated April 3, 1932. Gov. Harry H. Woodring accepted a Washington elm in behalf of the state and Kirke Mechem, secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, accepted the rock garden for the mission.
A monument to Dodge City's "cow town" history was unveiled on Boot Hill June 6, 1932. It is estimated that seven million Texas longhorns came over the trails from Texas to Dodge City during the seventies and eighties.
The Scott County Historical Society met in the Scott County State Park June 13, 1932. The following officers were elected to head the association for the ensuing year: J. K. Freed, president; W. S. Manker, vice president; Mrs. Clarence Dickhut, secretary; Elmer Epperson, reporter; Mrs. Daisy Elrod, librarian.
Stories of early-day life in Manhattan and community were told June 18, 1932, at a meeting of the Pioneers' association of Riley county.
Relics of interest to Harvey county and Kansas are being collected by the Bethel College museum at Newton.
Bing; the Story of a Tramp Dog (New York: Wm. Morrow & Co., 1932), by Dr. Thomas C. Hinkle, of Carbondale, is a recent book of interest to young Kansans. The locale of the story is laid near Junction City during the cattle- and sheep-herding days of the early eighties.
ORDER OF THE PURPLE HEART AWARDED TO GENERAL
METCALF.
Gen. Wilder S. Metcalf, of Lawrence, president of the Kansas State Historical Society in 1919, recently was awarded the Order of the Purple Heart by the War Department, in recognition of his services on February 23 and March 29, 1899, while serving as a major in the Twentieth Kansas volunteer infantry in the Philip- pines.
The Order of the Purple Heart was established by Gen. George Washington as a permanent decoration at Newburgh, August 7, 1782, for the performance "of any singularly meritorious action, instances
(410) I
KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 411
of unusual gallantry and extraordinary fidelity and essential service in any way." It is believed that only three awards of the decoration were made at this time. Subsequent to the Revolution the award of the decoration was forgotten, and was not revived until February 22, 1932, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Washington.
General Metcalf has been a resident of Kansas for many years. During the Spanish-American War he succeeded Gen. Frederick Funston in command of the famous Twentieth Kansas regiment of volunteers, and during the World War he served as a brigadier-gen- eral in command of Camp Beauregard, La. He has been active in the American Legion, and was the state commander in 1921-J22. He has served on the national executive committee, and has been chair- man of the national finance committee of the Legion for almost ten years. At two different times he has served as the commissioner of pensions in Washington. He has also been a member of the national militia board, and recently retired from active service in a Topeka life insurance company of which he had served as president.
D
14-4323
THE
Kansas Historical Quarterly
Volume 1 Number 5
November, 1932
PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT
B. P. WALKER, STATE PRINTER
TOPEKA 1932
14-5605
Contributors
WALKER D. WYMAN is instructor in the department of social sciences at State Teachers College, River Falls, Wis.
SAMUEL A. JOHNSON is associate professor of history at the Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia.
MARVIN H. GARFIELD is instructor of history in Roosevelt Intermediate School, Wichita.
NOTE. — Articles in the Quarterly appear in chronological order without re- gard to their importance.
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The Military Phase of Santa Fe Freighting, 1846-1865
WALKER D. WYMAN
THE Mexican War brought a great and rapid change in the traffic on the Santa Fe trail. Over this highway moved troops, traders, expresses, and hundreds of wagons belonging to the quartermaster's department. The northern province of Mexico, having been eco- nomically a part of the United States for several years, fell before this avalanche of guns and goods, which was a part of the Army of the West.
Official hostilities between the United States and Mexico began May 12, 1846. Stephen W. Kearny's Army of the West was en route to Santa Fe in detachments by the end of June. Col. Sterling Price's regiment and the Mormon battalion followed later in the summer.
The problem of supplying the army was of no small import. Re- ports from New Mexico indicated a grain shortage in that country. Reliance upon that area for a food supply was impossible. The alternative was to send all subsistence overland, in wagons pulled by mules or oxen. Grave doubts were expressed concerning the food supply for approximately 6,000 Americans who would be in New Mexico. The Santa Fe trail ran through a land of hostile tribes. Santa Fe was 873 miles from the government depot at Fort Leaven- worth. Kearny realized the precarious position in which his army would be placed, and demanded supplies for twelve months. This was a demand impossible to meet. One spectator said that 250 wagons accompanied Kearny, and another said that sufficient pro- visions for six months were to leave with the army.
Captain Turney of Colonel Kearny's staff arrived in St. Louis from Fort Leavenworth on June 12 with instructions "to furnish necessary provisions, baggage, trains, etc.," for the contemplated trip to New Mexico. It was estimated that 900 wagons, 1,000 teamsters, and about 10,000 oxen and mules would be required. Government agents operated actively in St. Louis and vicinity, buy- ing mules, horses, wagons and provisions, and in contracting for the manufacture of wagons, knapsacks and various other articles neces- sary for the army. Thousands of barrels of pork at $10 per barrel and thousands of pounds of "clear bacon-sides" at five cents per pound were purchased in St. Louis and sent by way of steamer to
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416 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Fort Leavenworth. Agents of the commissary department pene- trated Missouri and near-by states for mules, paying $100 apiece for all they could get. An incomplete report of the quartermaster gen- eral shows that 459 horses, 3,658 mules, 14,904 oxen, 1;556 wagons, and 516 pack saddles were used by the government in the fiscal year of 1846-1847.1
All the supplies were shipped to Fort Leavenworth. Provisions came faster than wagons, accumulating on the banks of the river. By June 20, just six days before the last of Kearny's army left the fort, a provision train was on the trail and "others are being loaded and started every day." Provisions for 1,300 men to last three months were in the wagons going across the plains. Soldiers not yet dispatched performed what they called "fatigue duty" in loading wagons, and they did it with "utmost cheerfulness," some one ob- served. When a steamer brought a deck load of wagons, they were immediately loaded and sent off in groups of seven or eight, and instructed to wait for Kearny at the crossing of the Arkansas river. Even far-away Pittsburgh supplied wagons. Steamers seemed to be afflicted with a wagon epidemic or eczema, being literally covered with them. The St. Louis New Era skeptically advised the govern- ment to send a few wheelwrights and blacksmiths ahead of these wagons "to secure their arrival at the place of destination."
The wagons accompanying the army were poorly distributed. Tents and utensils were not always with the proper company. The instances of intense hunger on the part of some companies were not rare. Undisciplined volunteers assaulted one train and used the contents regardless of the objections of the drivers who said it was a "through" train, not to be opened until its arrival. Even Kearny had to call a wagon train back upon one occasion.
All provision trains which did not accompany the army to New Mexico were sent by mistake to Bent's Fort.2 The effects of this surprising blunder were both immediate and far-reaching. Even Kearny's army suffered en route. At Bent's Fort the army was placed on half rations. Before their arrival in Santa Fe part of them were existing on one-third rations. From August 1 until the last of September they had no sugar or coffee and but one-half ration of flour. The march of the day before they reached Santa Fe was made "without a morsel of food." Even the cooking uten-
1. This report was given November 24, 1847, in Senate Executive Documents, 30 Cong., 1 sess., v. 1, s. n. 503, Doc. No. 1, p. 545.
2. The teamsters refused to drive their oxen beyond Bent's Fort, maintaining that their articles of agreement did not require them, to go farther. See Senate Executive Documents, 30 Cong., 1 sess., v. IV, s. n. 506, Doc. No. 23, p. 4.
WYMAN: SANTA FE FREIGHTING 417
sils had not yet arrived. Dough was wound around a stick and baked over an open fire. The first night that American sentries paraded the public plaza in Santa Fe, hungry soldiers went from door to door trying to buy food. These conditions were not remedied for some time — as late as November 14 a soldier wrote that he had beef and bread for breakfast, bread, beef and coffee for dinner, and for dessert twice each week rice soup was served. This beef, he said, was boiled six hours from aa not-being-able-to-walk- any-longer disease" (sic) cattle. At least one New Mexican was under contract to deliver beef in Santa Fe. This beef, if one is to believe the above testimony, was of questionable value as an article of nourishment. Native flour was purchased, being "a miserable stuff — exceedingly coarse, and operates on the bowels of many persons." However, in spite of the murmurings on the part of soldiers, the commissary general reported on November 17, 1846, that there had been "no official complaint of either quality or quantity of subsistence furnished to the armies. . . .''
To remedy the precarious condition of the troops in Santa Fe and vicinity, soldiers were sent to Bent's Fort to aid in forwarding supplies. In early November one soldier wrote that the ten wagons of provisions which he had the pleasure of bringing from Bent's Fort were pretty well exhausted; there had been no other arrivals "nor do we know when we shall have. . . ." By the latter part of October wagons were being forwarded from Bent's Fort at the rate of thirty per week. Some commissary trains were going straight through, but even these went the long route by way of the fort. There were about one hundred forty tons of provisions stored at Bent's Fort on October 30, and only about a dozen wagons were en route there from Fort Leavenworth. The quartermaster reported that no wagons were to leave the states after September 8, but there is reason to believe that some were dispatched at a later date. Many wagons, mules and oxen were kept in Santa Fe to accompany troops to the south and to the Indian country. Upon the arrival of wagons in Santa Fe the quartermaster had the tires reset, and immediately sent them on their return trip.
The Mexican War may have been planned some time before the shedding of blood on American soil, but the method of supplying its army shows lack of deliberation. Wagon trains were dispatched without guard in a country through which few could hope to pass without attack by roving bands of mounted Indians. Inexperienced drivers were employed. As high as fifteen cents per mile per pound
418 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
was paid by sutlers. Goods were sent to a fort on the Arkansas river while an army was in need of food. The cost of all this was excessive. Pork was purchased in St. Louis for $10 per barrel. The cost of it transported from Fort Leavenworth to Bent's Fort was more than $32 per barrel. From there to Santa Fe the cost was $18 per barrel. By adding the original price to the cost of trans- portation, a barrel of pork cost $50 in Santa Fe.3 As the St. Louis New Era commented, "the dear people pay."
The new and quite abnormal traffic in the bustlings days of 1846 demanded scores of teamsters and wagons. Wagons came from Pitts- burgh, St. Louis, and were also purchased from anybody who had one to sell. Many young men who had rushed to the frontier for the purpose of enlisting in the Army of the West found that source of enlistment closed, hence they joined the ranks of the army team- sters.4 This type of service paid from $25 to $30 per month, in- cluding subsistence, while ordinary soldiers received but $7 for the same period of service on regular duty. Oftentimes soldiers were given "extra duty" at the salary of $14.90 per month. These team- sters became foot soldiers of a wagon train subject to dangers far more perilous than those faced by many of the regular soldiers. These men were not accustomed to handling several yoke of oxen or teams of mules over a desolate plain, contesting the right of way with Comanche or Pawnee. Neither did they know how to care for the animals. Lieut. J. W. Abert complained that teamsters mis- treated cattle and wagons. The road from Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fe was strewn, it was said, with "about $5,000,000 worth of U. S. government supplies ; the bones of cattle, and in many places the drivers, lie side by side — a melancholy result, brought about alone by inexperience." Innumerable wagons lay amidst a "griev- ous waste of provisions." Near Santa Fe in December, 1846, Lieut. Abert saw many carcasses of oxen. "Some were half-devoured by the wolves and ravens, others had not been dead long, for the birds of prey had only torn out their eyes."
The supply trains, as a rule, were dispatched without military guard but were given ammunition with which to protect themselves from the Indians. A writer from Bent's Fort complained that only two rounds of ammunition were given to some of the trains. The Missouri Republican remarked that unless Colonel Price, who left Fort Leavenworth in latter July, did not "give the Indians a drub- bing, all provision wagons are in danger of being cut off, and the
3. Niles' Register, August 8, 1846, quoting the Missouri Republican.
4. Senate Reports of Committees, 30 Cong., 2 sess., s. n. 535, No. 291.
WYMAN: SANTA FE FREIGHTING 419
army left to starve. There is gross neglect in failing to send military guard."
Further distress was expected because of lack of grass for animals. The season had been dry and there was great scarcity of water. Fires had destroyed much of the grass. The troops had driven the buffalo far from the trail. Private traders, anticipating a lack of provisions, took an additional supply with them. A returned soldier reported on October 30, 1846, that the grass was "very indifferent and very scarce . . . and extremely dry weather [had caused] . . . much suffering from want of water for the teams,"
In the winter of 1846-'47 the trail was covered with snow. Over- land freighting was hazardous. Two hundred miles of the trail were covered with two feet of snow. The ravines were impassable. A few government trains tried to go through. One Mr. Coons, a pri- vate trader who made the trip from Santa Fe in December and January, saw a government train which had left Santa Fe on Decem- ber 8. The teamsters were in "a very destitute condition, twenty of them having subsisted for ten days on the meat of a government mule."5 Eight teamsters were seen one hundred miles from Bent's Fort in January, 1847. They were all afoot and nearly out of provisions. Some of them had frozen hands and feet. Captain Clary found two dead men at the foot of a tree, the bark of which had been eaten all around. By the middle of March it was sup- posed that approximately fifty government employees had perished on the trail. Lieutenant Abert, while returning to the states in the first part of the year, had his mules stolen by the Indians. His men pulled one of the wagons for a while. A thirty-six-hour storm covered them with five feet of snow at Turkey Creek, Kansas, and in that snow they left their bedding, provisions, guns, and utensils. A twenty-seven-mile walk brought them to Cottonwood Fork, where they met a wagon master with plenty of provisions.6
During 1847 commissary trains and troops continued to ply back and forth between New Mexico and Fort Leavenworth. The volun- teers had enlisted for a year. The romance of the war being over, most of them refused to serve again. In small groups, usually with wagon trains, many of them returned to Missouri. More troops rode across the plains to fill the fast-depleting ranks. Some one in Santa Fe who remembered the drunken brawls and the flagrant
5. The experiences of Mr. Coons are given in the St. Louis Reveille, February 26, 1846, and quoted in the New York Tribune, March 10, 1847.
6. Abert's account is a classic. It is given in the St. Louis Union, March 9, quoted in the New York Tribune, March 19, 1847 ; also given in Senate Executive Documents, 30 Cong., 1 sess., v. IV, s. n. 506, Doc. No. 23, p. 4.
420 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
violation of civil rights which existed when General Price was in command, wrote that "we almost dreaded the arrival of new troops, fearful lest the scenes of last year were about to be enacted again."
Commissary wagons made their way across the plains, but none arrived in Santa Fe before July 5. The commissary department had experienced some anxious weeks, for private trains had been arriving since June. John Dougherty contracted to take 550 head of cattle across to Santa Fe at the rate of $2.50 per hundred pounds. The cattle and a large train of government wagons and private traders were protected, in a sense, by a company of dragoons. In the meantime prices were high in Santa Fe. Crushed wheat could be purchased only in limited quantities. Sheep weighing thirty pounds sold from $1.50 to $2. Mules reputed to be worth $35 sold for $60 each; oxen "worth $30 in Missouri" brought $70; and corn to feed them was offered at $3.50 per bushel. Some one on the commissary staff remarked that "we have freely paid them, rather than levy forced contributions." Only specie would talk to the native of New Mexico.
According to the Reveille (June 3, 1848) the Indians attacked almost every train that crossed the plains in 1846 and 1847. A man from Bent's Fort wrote that the "Pawnees are playing the deuce with the provision wagons . . . [they have] killed men, burned several wagons . . . and I am glad of this because now, per- haps, Uncle Sam, the old fool, will punish these Indians who have so long committed outrages upon the traders with impunity." The commissioner of Indian Affairs in his annual report of 1847 exoner- ated the Indians north of the Arkansas by saying that, with the ex- ception of the Pawnee, no plains Indians had attacked any wagon trains. However, property, "which was no doubt plundered from trains, has been found in the possession of two or three tribes [of the plains] . . . but they alleged having received it in trade. » . . They all cheerfully gave it up . . . except the Paw- nees, who were compelled to do so."7
The chief depredations were committed between the Cimarron river and Pawnee Fork at the bend of the Arkansas. The Co- manches told that they were advanced large droves of horses and mules as well as considerable money by the Mexicans. In return they were to kill Americans and destroy all their property.8 The penetration of the Indian territory by the various trails and the
7. Senate Executive Documents. 30 Cong., 1 sess., v. I, s. n. 503, Doc. No. 1, pp. 742, 743.
8. This explanation was given in the St. Louis Reveille, August 30, 1847.
WYMAN: SANTA FE FREIGHTING 421
rapidly diminishing buffalo upon which the Indian relied to supply physical wants, may explain the attitude of the Indian more sympa- thetically, perhaps more scientifically. Facing their approaching doom, and having once tasted the plunder of the caravans, the plains Indians gathered at the Arkansas crossing each year to harass the passing wagon trains. Mounted on horses, armed with bows and arrows, spears, and guns, few travelers were free from their attack or their night prowlings. Cattle were speared and the tails cut off close for trophies. Scalps were lifted from many heads. As Col. Alton Easton's regiment filed across the prairies in June and July, 1847, great herds of buffalo were driven in close to the trail by the Indians, for the purpose of decoying troops away from the main body. Great piles of fuel at various points on the south side of the Arkansas succeeded in luring men away upon one occasion. Eight men paid for this venture with their lives.9
One government train was surrounded by a horde of Indians. Three hundred sacks of flour were cut open, so the story goes, and scattered "to the four winds of Heaven. The prairie for miles around ... is said to have been as white ... as snow. The villainous rascals, immediately upon getting possession of the wagons, set to work powdering themselves and the color of their yellow skins was soon changed to one of snow whiteness. The sport of snowballing each other with hands full of flour they en- joyed to a great degree; . . . they bedecked themselves out in the sacks, and in this garb several were seen by the men who returned to Fort Leavenworth . . . two or three days after the robbery. One fellow had modeled his sack into a turban, and the brand U. S. was immediately in front. The letters were quite unintelligible to them, but they seemed to prize them quite highly, as in all the breech clothes made of them the U. S. was ... in front." These Indians, according to the story, besides having their fun, did the conventional thing of carrying away the arms, clothing, and fifty head of mules.10
A Delaware Indian came in from the plains in June, 1847, and told of the assault of 1,000 Indians upon thirty government wagons. The teamsters were driven from the saddle and massacred. The wagons, stores, and mules were taken.
These incidents are not rare. Col. William Gilpin estimated the total losses from Indians in 1847 to have been 47 Americans killed,
9. Ibid., August 7, 1847.
10. This tale is given in the St. Louis Era, quoted in the New York Tribune, December 4, 1847. The incident is typical in general nature, if not in detail.
422 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
330 wagons destroyed, and 6,500 head of stock plundered.11 The greater amount of these losses was sustained by government trains, Gilpin believed, since "no resting places, depots, or points of security exist between Council Grove and Vegas, a bleak stretch of 600 miles." These losses evidently caused the government to heed the demand for military protection. On November 30, 1846, an Indian agent had been appointed for the Indians between the Platte and the Arkansas.12 Small forts on the Arkansas had been temporarily used by soldiers. Wagon trains had banded together as many as 180 at a time. The troops which went across in 1847 carefully sheltered accompanying wagon trains. In September, 1847, Gilpin was placed in command of a battalion to be used in guarding the Santa Fe trail. These troops were organized at Independence and St. Louis and outfitted at Fort Leavenworth. Including the teamsters there were 519 in this battalion; 70 wagons carried provisions for 100 days; 856 horses, mules, and cattle completed the force. The last of this detachment left on October 6, the whole force concentrating at Fort Mann, on the Arkansas. Gilpin left three companies to rebuild the fort, and he proceeded up the river to winter among the Cheyenne and Arapahoe. Supplies were drawn from Santa Fe and Taos. Horses lived on dead grass. After an expedition to the south the Indians retreated from the Arkansas for the first time in several years. He then concentrated his troops on the eastern part of the trail. In early 1848 troops were divided, Captain Pelzer was in command at Fort Mann, and Gilpin at Bent's Fort. It was reported that the troops were in a "disgraceful state of insubordination, officers doing as they pleased."
In 1848 wagons loaded with pork and flour continued to creak along on the Santa Fe trail. The plains Indians did not wreak their vengeance on the oxen and their drivers in that season. Some trains and a herd of beef cattle were escorted by troops en route to New Mexico. Gilpin and his little band of soldiers stayed at their posts on the Arkansas. Thomas Fitzpatrick, a confirmed cynic in the matter of a peaceable relationship existing between white man and the Indian, tersely stated that Gilpin had acted only in the defensive. He did not succeed in that, he said, "as the Indians took by force many of their horses." However, he did admit that Indian attacks were less frequent, but this may be attributed to the fact that the marauders had "secured so much
11. House Executive Documents, 30 Cong., 2 sess., v. 1, s. n. 537, Doc. No. 1, p. 137.
12. Leroy R. Hafen, "Thomas Fitzpatrick and the First Indian Agency of the Upper Platte and the Arkansas," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, v. XV., pp. 374-384.
WYMAN: SANTA FE FREIGHTING 423
booty . . . and have been luxuriating in and enjoying the spoils." The peace treaty with Mexico was confirmed by the senate in May. Eight hundred seventy-five troops were retained in the seven posts of New Mexico. Santa Fe continued to be the army depot to which government wagons came with supplies. According to a gentleman who arrived in the latter part of August, 400 public wagons were on the trail in August. Gilpin estimated that 3,000 wagons, 12,000 people, and 50,000 head of live stock passed over the trail in the last year of this period of conquest. The first army con- tractor, James Browne, of Independence, made several agreements in May and June to deliver government stores to Fort Union, New Mexico. In one of his contracts he agreed to buy a number of wagons, ox yokes, and chains, from the quartermaster's department. This indicated that the government was slowly withdrawing from the freighting business.13
The conquest of northern Mexico had been made, the political transfer merely consummating what had been done economically several years before. It was the uncompromising nature of our new wards, the Apache Indians, that made necessary the establishment of a permanent military frontier. The barren nature of the country made reliance upon local food supplies somewhat precarious at all times, and undesirable most of the time. Hence Missouri river towns settled down to the booming business of freight depots, con- necting the steamer (and the railroad) with the prairie schooner, the old world with the new. The "contract system," or the employ- ment of private freighting firms by the government to transport supplies for a fixed sum per mile per pound, became the accepted means of furnishing "Navaho Land" with food. To these lonely posts, located in the fastnesses of the marauding red man, wagon trains pulled by oxen and manned by bullwhackers, made their toilsome way.
These "forts," which were to make up the Ninth Military De- partment's defense system, were scattered throughout the territory. In 1849 there were 987 soldiers occupying seven posts. Ten years later sixteen posts accommodated over 2,000 troops.14 However,
13. These contracts are given in Senate Executive Documents, 31 Cong., 1 sess., v. VI, 8. n. 554, Doc. No. 26, p. 12; House Executive Documents, 31 Cong., 1 sess., v. VII, s. n. 576, Doc. No. 38.
14. A complete survey of all the forts and posts occupied, the time of the construction and excavation, is given in House Executive Documents, 35 Cong., 2 sess., y. IX, s. n. 1008, Doc. No. 93, pp. 21, 22. The distribution of the troops for various years is given in Senate Executive Documents, 31 Cong., 2 sess., v. I, s. n. 587, Doc. No. 1, p. 110; Ibid., 32 Cong., 2 sess., v. II, s. n. 659, Doc. No. 1, p. 56; Ibid., 33 Cong., 2 sess., v. II, s. n., 747, Doc. No. 2, p. 6; Ibid., 34 Cong., 3 sess., v. Ill, s. n. 876, pp. 244, 245; Ibid., 36 Cong., 1 sess., v. II, Part 2, s. n. 1024, Doc. No. 2, pp. 606, 607 ; House Executive Documents, 40 Cong., 2 sess., v. II, Part 1, s. n. 1324, Doc. No. 1, p. 40.
424 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the presence of uniformed men did not subjugate the Indian. In the years 1846-1850 the people suffered the loss, according to con- temporary reports, of 150,231 sheep, 893 horses, 758 mules and asses, and 1,254 cows.15 Treaties were made only to be broken. Implements, rugs, and calicoes were brought from California and Missouri to bribe them.16 Troops marched and countermarched. The Indian agent of the territory complained that such conditions were a result of a combination of circumstances — the wild, desert, and mountainous country and the "savage and untamed habits of most of the Indians who roam over it." More troops were de- manded by citizens in Santa Fe. Thomas Fitzpatrick, in reply, accused the traders who "live and thrive on the expenditures of the troops" of being the loudest in asking for protection. They care less about protection than they do about augmenting and increasing the expenses of the general government . . ,"17 Even Mexico advised the United States to remember her treaty obligations and stop depredations on the boundary. The government slowly ac- quiesced and troops marched down the Old Trail to protect a bulging frontier.
Thus the Indian gave rise to the necessity of feeding troops lo- cated several hundred miles from the military frontier of the Mis- sissippi valley. The Missouri Republican pointed out that one- seventh of the army was in New Mexico trying to protect one- twentieth of our frontier.18 Santa Fe was the headquarters of the army and the depot for supplies until 1851. In that year Fort Union, located some 100 miles northeast of Santa Fe, became the military depot. Freighters transported goods to this place for dis- tribution, or freighted the goods directly to the scattered posts in that district. Forage and fuel were purchased in the territory, as a rule. In the latter part of the decade the expenses of overland freighting were decreased by purchasing beans and vinegar from merchants of Santa Fe or near-by towns.
During the Mexican War the quartermaster's department trans- ported most of the supplies for the troops in New Mexico. Perhaps it was the waste and inefficiency of this war-time experience which caused the government to make greater use of the contract system for overland transportation. In 1848 James Browne, of Inde- pendence, Missouri, agreed to transport 200,000 pounds of goods
15. Senate Executive Documents, 32 Cong., 1 sess., v. Ill, s. n. 613, Doc. No. 1, p. 271.
16. Ibid., 36 Cong., 1 sess., v. I, s. n. 1023, Doc. No. 2, p. 173.
17. House Executive Documents, 31 Cong., 2 sess., v. I, s. n. 595, Doc. No. 1, p. 53.
18. Missouri Republican, September 6, 1850.
WYMAN: SANTA FE FREIGHTING 425
and other "such government stores as may be delivered to him" at $11.75 per hundred. To aid the government in converting its freighting equipment into capital he offered to buy the surplus wagons, ox yokes, etc."19
In 1849 the era of government contract freighting properly began. The freighters, James Browne and William H. Russell, contracted to transport such stores as could be delivered to them at $9.88 per hundred.20
Between July 8 and October 2, 1850, 278 wagons left Fort Leaven- worth for Santa Fe and El Paso. The contractors were Joseph Clymer, David Waldo, James Browne, "Brown, Russell & Com- pany," and Jones & Russell. Brown, Russell & Company were the principal freighters, with 135 wagons. Rates ranged from $7.87% to $14.33%, depending on the destination and the time of the year. The average rates were $8.87% to Santa Fe and $13.47% to El Paso. There were no contracts to the other posts.21 In the spring of 1850 Fort Leavenworth was literally flooded with barrels which had been shipped up the river from St. Louis. Since there was no warehouse, the nine-pin alley, company quarters, and two "leaky blockhouses" served as temporary places of deposit until the freighters loaded them for the plains. Later in the year a public warehouse was built out of the proceeds from the sale of unserviceable horses and wagons, the "whole of which might have been given away with ad- vantage."
George McCall, inspector general of the War Department, gave a few helpful suggestions for freighting bacon and hard bread. Since the bacon sides were cut in squares, when packed in the round whisky barrels they left large "interstices." In addition to that, the round barrel left much unused space in the wagons. He recom- mended square boxes for both bacon and bread. Freighting a barrel which weighed one-half as much as the contents seemed a costly procedure, so he asked why a baker could not be sent. How- ever, his suggestions were not followed — soldiers of the adobe forts continued to eat hard bread while contractors prospered.22
19. This contract is given in Senate Executive Documents, 31 Cong., 1 sess., v. VI, s. n. 554, Doc. No. 26, p. 12.
20. House Executive Documents, 31 Cong., 1 sess., v. VII, s. n. 576, Doc. No. 38.
21. An elaborate report of freighting for the years 1850 and 1851, including the dates of departure of the wagons, the number of wagons, the number of pounds, the exact destination, and the rate for each contract, is given in a report by Asst. Quar. E. A. Ogden, of Fort Leavenworth (October 4, 1851). See Senate Executive Documents, 32 Cong., 1 sess., v. I, s. n. 611, Doc. No. 1.
22. This full report is given in Senate Executive Documents, 31 Cong., 2 sess. v I s. n. 587, Doc. No. 1, Part 2.
426 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
In 1851 contractors made long pilgrimages to Santa Fe, El Paso, Albuquerque, Dona, Taos, Las Vegas, Fort Union, and Rayado. Jones & Russell sent 131 wagons from Fort Leavenworth in May. Clymer, who seems to have been the only other contractor, sent one train of thirty wagons. Freight rates were lower than in the previous year, the highest being $12. 84.23
It is fair to assume that some of the goods, upon delivery, were in a deplorable condition. The long drive of 800 or 1,000 miles, during the summer months, had unfavorable effects on meat, in particular, as well as on other food products. At the post of El Paso from October 1, 1849, to July 31, 1851, these goods were con- demned: Three barrels and 68 pounds of pork; 58,561 pounds of bacon; 7,088y2 hams; 36 barrels and 172 pounds of flour; 394 pounds of hard bread; 3 bushels and 7 quarts of beans; 517 pounds of rice; 96 pounds of coffee; 183 pounds of sugar; 12 pounds of candles; 4 quarts of salt; and 114 gallons of pickles.24 However, not all of these goods had come from Missouri.
In 1851 an experiment was tried in supplying the troops in the southern part of the district from San Antonio.25 The total cost of $22 per hundred made it prohibitive as a regular source of supply. The quartermaster decided that the Santa Fe trail was the cheaper route. The continued use of whisky barrels in shipping bacon and hard bread was the cause of the commissary general's report that flour would be more convenient to pack and "generally preferred by the men." A trial had been made in the use of the "meat biscuit" in the hope that it could form a part of the soldiers' rations. But the commissary general thought the reports gave "reason to believe that it cannot be used as a substitute for the bulkier parts of the rations."26
Alexander Majors and J. B. Yager were the principal contractors in 1853.27 Rates had increased to $16. In that year the commissary department, perhaps moved by the humanitarian spirit as much as by the scientific, experimented on salt cures for pork. The possi- bility of spoiled meat was somewhat lessened when J. C. Irwin drove 2,000 cattle down the trail to New Mexico to be used as a source of fresh meat.28 This probably did much to solve that calory problem.
23. Ibid., 32 Cong., 1 sess., v. I, s. n. 611, Doc. No. 1 (see footnote No. 21).
24. Ibid., p. 252.
25. See a detailed report of the quartermaster general of November 22, 1851, given in Senate Executive Documents, 32 Cong., 1 sess., v. 1, s. n. 611, Doc. No. 1, pp. 219 et seq.
26. Ibid., p. 336.
27. House Executive Documents, 33 Cong., 1 sess., v. I, s. n. 721, Doc. No. 63, p. 33.
28. Wichita Beacon, March 11, 1928, as given in Trails Clippings (compiled by the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka), v. II, p. 198.
WYMAN: SANTA FE FREIGHTING 427
Supplies were freighted to El Paso, Fort Fillmore, Albuquerque, and Fort Union, directly from Fort Leavenworth, in 1854. The cost of transportation had decreased; but the system of contracting for the goods to be delivered at Fort Leavenworth began to cause some trouble. The contracts were given to the lowest bidder and were "let" nine months before delivery. In 1850 some had been defaulted because of the rise in prices. In 1856 Comm. Gen. George Gibson complained that the provisions were not of a good quality and "consequently the decay is greater. The contractors as a general rule are not dealers in articles, but speculators, without the same inducement to produce good articles as a regular dealer." He concluded that in his thirty-eight years of experience he had failed to find a single benefit to the government in the contract system, "whilst its evils have increased. . . ,"29 In 1857 no bids to supply the troops were accepted. Supplies were purchased outright as needed.
In the freighting season of 1857 Majors & Russell contracted to transport 5,000,000 pounds of supplies from Fort Leavenworth or Fort Riley to Fort Union, intermediate points, or New Mexico posts.30 Other contracts were made during the year. They vir- tually had a monoply, and were well on their way toward becoming towering figures among the freighters of the West and Southwest.
On January 16, 1858, Russell, Majors & Waddell agreed to receive all supplies turned over to them in 1858 and 1859, and to deliver these goods to posts in Kansas, New Mexico, and the Gadsden Purchase. The aggregate each year was to be from 50,000 to 10,- 000,000 pounds. Freight charges varied from $1.25 to $4.50 per hundred pounds per hundred miles with an additional 10 per cent for hard bread, bacon, pine lumber, and shingles.31 This firm was the principal contractor in 1860 and 1861, being engaged at both ends of the terminals, Fort Leavenworth and Fort Union, in for- warding supplies.32
The quartermaster general in 1865 reported that his department had no statistics to show the extent of overland freighting in the number of wagons engaged. The total cost of transporting stores to Fort Union and posts in New Mexico and along the trail was $1,439,538. While the policy had been long adopted of having the troops as self-sufficient as possible, the cost of grain transported
29. House Executive Documents, 33 Cong., 1 sess., v. I, Part 2, s. n. 711, Doc. No. 1, p. 141.
30. Ibid., 35 Cong., 1 sess., v. IX, s. n., 955, Doc. No. 57, p. 8.
31. Ibid., 35 Cong., 2 sess., v. VII, s. n. 1006, Doc. No. 50, pp. 4, 5.
32. Ibid., 36 Cong., 2 sess., v. VIII, s. n. 1099, Doc. No. 47, pp. 8-10.
428 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to New Mexico in that year was $697,101.69. A bushel of corn purchased at Fort Leavenworth and delivered at Fort Union cost $9.44.33
Two forces were at work in the first half of the decade of the sixties — the railway and the farmer. By 1865 the lines of survey crossed the trails at all angles. Farmers began to fence in their "160's" according to "the unyielding lines of his rectangular bound- aries." The homestead act of 1862 made the Santa Fe trail a meandering line, not following the ridges as of old, but often leading through wet, low land to avoid some farmer's corn field or shocks of wheat.34
The railroad put an end to the government contractor. The Kansas Pacific pushed westward. A government inspector advised against shipping from the terminal of the railroad in 1866, since there were no warehouses at the end of the line.35 In 1867 the railroad transported goods to Fort Harker, thus saving the con- tractor 215 miles. From that point John E. Reeside agreed to transport the stores to forts in Kansas, Colorado, and to Fort Union. Mitchell and Craig freighted from Fort Union. Military posts in Arizona required one-fourth of the total supplies consumed in the Ninth Military District.36 However, some of the public trains came overland from California.
When the shrill whistle of the Kansas Pacific was heard in Den- ver, the death knell of the Old Trail was sounded. The branch south from Bent's Fort was all that was left of the most famous trail in the Southwest. The great business of government freighting was never again to be of great importance to the men with ox teams. Many of the cattle were fattened and shipped back over the road in a box car to serve as an article of food in the Mississippi valley. The trail, the unbroken prairies, the roving Indian became a mem- ory. In a few years the soldier moved to the border, while the Indian took up agriculture. The railroad spanned the plains and solved the food problem of the Army of the Southwest. Isolation, that factor which had given character to a type of transportation and which had given the frontier its uniqueness, vanished before the impact of the industrial revolution. The Old West was no more.
33. Ibid., 39 Cong., 1 sess., v. Ill, Part 1, s. n. 1249, Doc. No. 1, pp. 112-114; also Ibid., p. 750. Corn was sent to New Mexico in 1863, 1864 and 1865 because of a drought in some places, devastation from insects throughout the territory, and because of a flood on the Rio Grande which destroyed the crops.
34. Ibid., p. 113.
35. Report' of Brig. Gen. James F. Rusling in House Executive Documents, 39 Cong 2 sess., v. VII, s. n. 1289, Doc. No. 45, pp. 8-16.
36. Senate Executive Documents, 40 Cong., 2 sess., v. II, s. n. 1317, Doc. No. 74, p. 2.
The Emigrant Aid Company in Kansas
SAMUEL A. JOHNSON
A GENERATION ago a favorite indoor sport among Kansas •*"*• writers was arguing who saved Kansas to freedom. Partisans of Jim Lane, John Brown and the Emigrant Aid Company engaged in all but mortal verbal combat in defense of the claims of their re- spective heroes, while literary kill- joys bluntly declared that Kansas was saved by the unsung farmers from the Ohio valley. There is no purpose in the present discussion to continue that wordy battle, but whatever may be said for or against the contention that the Aid Company saved Kansas, the fact remains that the story of that organization is entangled inextricably in the history of territorial Kansas. It may be argued, as it was by the late W. E. Connelley,1 that the Aid Company did more harm than good to the free-state cause, but for better or for worse this company played a part in the making of the state, and common honesty demands that it be given a place in narrating the state's history.
It would be outside the scope of the present discussion to recount in detail the origin and aims of the Emigrant Aid Company. Any- one interested in that phase of the subject is referred to the New England Quarterly of January, 1930. 2 As applied to Kansas, how- ever, the project may be briefly summarized. The New England Emigrant Aid Company, incorporated as a stock company after the first few months of its operation, was a queer combination of philan- thropic venture and money-making scheme. Its promoters and managers were genuinely anxious to make Kansas a free state, and believed that everything they did would contribute to that end. At the same time they expected to capitalize the rise in land values which would come with the growth of settlement, and from this source to repay the capital invested with a considerable profit. The plan of operations was, first, to disseminate information and en- courage migration to Kansas; second, to assist eastern emigrants by securing reduced railway and steamboat fares and by organizing them into conducted parties; third, to invest all the capital that
1. Connelley, W. E., An Appeal to the Record (Topeka, Crane & Co., 1903), p. 128.
2. Johnson, Samuel A., "The Genesis of the New England Emigrant Aid Company," New England Quarterly, January, 1930.
(429) 28—5605
430 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
could be raised in mills, hotels and other local improvements in Kansas in order to attract settlers from all parts of the North.
Theoretically the plan was a perfectly feasible one, but it met with obstacles at every turn. First of all, its success was contingent upon the securing of capital in large amounts. The stock of the company was attractive neither as an investment nor as a specula- tion. One of the most active managers of the concern, Amos A. Lawrence, although he put many thousands of dollars into the en- terprise, never expected the stock to pay out, and advised prospec- tive subscribers to invest no more than they could afford to lose or were willing to contribute to the cause.3 The total amount of money raised throughout the period of activity was less than $140,000.4 Thus the project was handicapped from beginning to end by lack of financial means.
The propaganda work was done almost too well. Eli Thayer, the originator of the idea, spent most of his time during the first year of the company's existence lecturing in New England and New York, and was assisted by Edward Everett Hale and other lecturers of lesser note.5 A document written by Thayer and Hale in the early summer of 1854, and given wide publicity, indicated that $5,000,000 was to be raised and spent in Kansas and that 20,000 settlers were to be sent at once.6 Horace Greeley, of the New York Tribune, William Cullen Bryant, of the New York Evening Post, and Thurlow Weed, of the Albany Journal, backed the enterprise editorially. Leading newspapers (as the New York Times') carried fanciful tales of the extent of the Aid Company activities, even asserting that the company was establishing a line of packets to bring settlers from Europe.7 The company issued various tracts, including a pamphlet of information for Kansas emigrants, and encouraged the publication of such books as Hale's Kanzas and Nebraska and Mrs. Robinson's Kansas: Its Interior and Exterior Life, to stimulate migration, while Whittier wrote his well-known Song of the Kansas Emigrant to aid the cause.
Emigration started off with a bang. A "pioneer party" of twenty- nine left Boston even before the promoters had succeeded in forming an organization. Five other parties who went out before the freezing
8. Letters of Amos A. Lawrence about Kansas Affairs (bound typewritten volume in archives of Kansas State Historical Society, hereafter cited as Lawrence Letters), p. 148.
4. The account books of the company show $138,775.16 received from stock subscriptions and donations.
5. Minutes of the Trustees and of Executive Committee of the Emigrant Aid Company.
6. "Organization, Objects and Plan of Operations of the Emigrant Aid Company; also a Description of Kansas" (issued as a pamphlet, Boston, 1854), quoted in Eli Thayer's A His- tory of the Kansas Crusade (Worcester, Mass., F. P. Price, 1887), pp. 27-29.
7. The New York Daily Times, October 13, 1854.
JOHNSON: EMIGRANT AID IN KANSAS 431
of the Missouri river closed migration for the fall brought the total for 1854 up to about 450. 8 The following spring seven parties took about 800 more. But the excitement in Kansas and the success of the Proslavery party in organizing the territory had a depressing effect on prospective emigrants. Many were deterred by the stories sent or brought back by persons who had been out to Kansas ex- pecting to find fully developed communities with up-to-date con- veniences and plenty of work at high wages. So, while the effort to organize weekly parties continued on through 1857, after June, 1855, the parties were small and irregular, and the number of settlers in- cluded in each is not always stated in the record. Beginning in 1857 and continuing through 1859, the company offered individual tickets to persons wishing to migrate to Kansas, but no record has come to light of the number of such tickets sold.9 It is thus impossible to tell with any definiteness the total number of persons who came to Kansas under the auspices of the Emigrant Aid Company, but it was probably under 2,000, of whom a considerable number, probably a third, returned.
Besides those who came under the direct auspices of the company, there were many persons who were influenced in various ways. First of all, there was an indeterminate number, not large, but including such noteworthy individuals as D. R. Anthony and Dr. John Doy, who joined the Aid Company parties en route.10 Thayer asserted, without much substantiating evidence, that the parties often doubled before they reached the territory.11 Then there were those who came to Kansas under the auspices of organizations formed as sub- sidiary to or in imitation of the New England Emigrant Aid Com- pany. Most notable of these was the group sent by the American Settlement Company of New York, which founded Council City (Burlingame) . Other groups were sent by similar organizations in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Then there were some — we can never know how many — who came entirely on their own initiative, but who were influenced in a greater or less degree by the Aid Com- pany propaganda and by the belief that the company was spending $5,000,000 in Kansas.
But even when we add to the most liberal estimate of those who migrated under Aid Company auspices, a reasonable allowance for
8. Minutes of Trustees and Executive Committee.
9. Letter of Thomas H. Webb, secretary of the Emigrant Aid Company, to Moses Emery, June 25, 1857, Aid Company Letters (bound letter-press copies), Book C, pp. 62-63.
10. Doy, John, The Narrative of John Doy (New York, Thos. Holman, 1860).
11. Thayer, Kansas Crusade, p. 54.
432 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
persons influenced, the number, as compared to the total population of Kansas according to the federal census of 1860, is not impressive. One must agree with those who have published independent studies of the subject that, numerically speaking, the emigrant aid move- ment was at best a minor factor in the peopling of Kansas.12 But numbers aside, the effort was important in several ways. In the first place, the Aid Company effort centered largely in the first and most critical year of Kansas settlement; the company pioneered the movement to fill the territory with free-soilers and gave moral sup- port to those who came independently. E. L. Craik was of the opin- ion that at the time of the greatest crisis in 1856 more than a third of the free-state strength was from New England, with nearly an- other third from the middle Atlantic states in which the Aid Com- pany influence was felt.13 In the second place, the Aid Company colonists were largely town founders, and, as Hale pointed out, the towns were the centers of free-state activity and defense.14 Finally, those who maintained an active association with the company ex- ercised an influence out of all proportion to their numbers. This was obvious in cases like that of Robinson, agent of the company and foremost leader of the free-state movement. The fact may not be without significance that of the first state officers chosen under the Wyandotte constitution, Robinson, the governor, Pomeroy, one of the two senators, and Conway, the representative in congress, had all been agents of the Emigrant Aid Company ; that the subse- quent records of these men left something to be desired is another story.
Another way in which the company contributed to the building of Kansas and the furtherance of the free-state cause was in the launching of towns. The three communities which loomed largest as centers of free-state activities, Lawrence, Topeka and Osawato- mie, were all, in greater or less degree, creations of the company and its agents. Lawrence, the very heart of the free-state movement, was preeminently an Aid Company town, and was often referred to in territorial days as the "Yankee settlement." The first group to occupy the site was the company's "pioneer party," about August 1, 1854. They were joined a month later by the second party, number- ing 114, piloted by Robinson. It was this second party that organ-
12. Craik, E. L., "Southern Interest in Territorial Kansas," Kansas Historical Collections v. XV, 348 ff. ; Miller, W. E., The Peopling of Kansas (Columbus, O., Heer Press, 1906).
13. Craik, loc. cit.
14. Speech of Edward Everett Hale, Bismarck Grove (Lawrence, Kan ) Old Settlers Re- union, September 16, 1879, in C. S. Gleed (ed.), The Kansas Memorial (Kansas Citv Ramsev Millet & Hudson, 1880), pp. 146-148.
JOHNSON: EMIGRANT AID IN KANSAS 433
ized the Lawrence Association and launched the town project, naming the prospective city in honor of Amos A. Lawrence, treasurer of the Aid Company, who had advanced all funds in the company treasury down to that date. These easterners found a number of claims staked out partly overlapping the townsite ; out of this grew the inevitable land dispute, without which no frontier project was ever complete, with its usual charges and counter charges of claim jumping.15 Throughout the period of conflict Lawrence remained the chief center of free-state activities, and the chief objective of proslavery attack. It was recognized by friend and foe alike as the foremost outpost of the Aid Company effort in Kansas.
The case of Manhattan is almost as clear-cut and is in some respects similar. A party of colonists was organized by the Aid Company in Boston in the spring of 1855 under the leadership of "Professor" Isaac T. Goodnow. Goodnow proceeded to Kansas a week ahead of his party and, in conjunction with Pomeroy, selected the site at the mouth of the Blue river. The colony soon arrived, piloted by Luke P. Lincoln, and, as in the case of Lawrence, dis- possessing prior claimants without too much regard for "squatter rights/' formed a town association and launched the "Town of Bos- ton." A month later the steamboat Hartford, bearing a group of colonists from Cincinnati, calling themselves "The Cincinnati and Kansas Land Company," ran aground just below the mouth of the Blue. The Cincinnati party had been financed by persons in New York City and were pledged to call their settlement "Manhattan." To induce them to cast in their lot with the Aid Company settle- ment, the Boston Town Association agreed to change the name of their settlement to Manhattan.16 On the way back down the Kan- sas river the Hartford was burned, and the Aid Company bought the boiler to run its Lawrence sawmill.
The company's part in the launching of Topeka was less direct. The town association was formed in December of 1854 by nine men, seven of whom had come from New England, presumably under Aid Company auspices. Among the group was Charles Robinson, agent of the company, and the original articles of asso- ciation provided for granting to the company one-sixth interest in the town in return for a promise to locate a sawmill, build a school- house and make other improvements.17 While the Aid Company
15. Cordley, Richard, History of Lawrence, Kansas (Lawrence, Journal Press, 1895), pp. 4-14, 17-22.
16. Goodnow, I. T., "Reminiscences," Kansas Historical Collections, v. IV, pp. 244-253.
17. Giles, F. W., Thirty Years in Topeka (Topeka, Crane & Co., 1886), pp. 20-22.
434 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
never took the interest in Topeka that it did in Lawrence, company agents continued to direct settlers to the place and it was known throughout the territorial period as an Aid Company town.
Osawatomie was projected by a group of three proprietors: Orville C. Brown (the original "Osawatomie Brown"), William Ward, of New York (who never migrated to Kansas), and S. C. Pomeroy, who was admittedly acting on behalf of the Emigrant Aid Company, and who later quitclaimed all his "right, title and in- terest" in the town project to the company. Thus the Aid Company was in reality one of the original proprietors of Osawatomie and held a one-third interest in the town.18
The Aid Company can claim a large share of the credit for the founding of Wabaunsee and Hampden (Burlington) , and apparently had some part in the establishment of Humboldt, Zeandale, Maple- ton and Milford, but none of these played a conspicuous part in early Kansas history. It later acquired extensive interests in Quin- daro and Atchison, but it had no part in their founding.
Of far more importance to the early settlers than the founding of towns, though it appears less spectacular in retrospect, was the establishment of mills in Kansas. This was the activity upon which the Emigrant Aid Company concentrated its major efforts. The most urgent need of any isolated frontier community was a means of sawing lumber for building and of grinding grain for food. No better means could be found of encouraging the development of a community and of inflating the value of its real estate (from which the Aid Company hoped to derive a profit) than by locating in it a sawmill or grist mill. The company is known to have located nine mills in Kansas — at Lawrence, Topeka, Manhattan, Osawatomie, Burlington, Wabaunsee, Atchison, Batcheller (Milford) and Claflin (Mapleton) , and there is some evidence that one or two others were sent out only to be lost or destroyed. All of these were steam- operated, and all but the one at Atchison were primarily sawmills. At Osawatomie, Manhattan, Wabaunsee and Milford, however, grist mills were established in connection. The cost of mills placed in operation varied from two or three thousand dollars to nearly ten thousand in the case of the Atchison mill.19 Nine or ten small mills do not appear to be a very great contribution to the building of a state until one compares it with the total milling facilities available to the Kansas settlers. Prof. H. A. Richardson, formerly of the
18. Minutes of Trustees and Executive Committee.
19. Ibid. ; also account books of company.
JOHNSON: EMIGRANT AID IN KANSAS 435
department of economics of the University of Kansas, made an extensive study a few years ago of early milling in Kansas. In a very thorough search of the records he was able to discover only twenty-four mills of all kinds established in Kansas prior to 1860 in addition to those belonging to the Emigrant Aid Company. Of these, five belonged to the federal government (located at military posts) and two to Indian missions. Of the seventeen remaining, several were small affairs that operated only for a short time.20 Hence, it would probably not be far wrong to assert that about half the mills actually accessible to the settlers of territorial Kansas were sent out by the Emigrant Aid Company.
Another activity by which the company set great store was the establishment of hotels for the accommodation of settlers and so- journers. In the summer of 1854 Robinson purchased for the com- pany the old Gillis house in Kansas City. For about a year the company operated it through lessees as the American hotel. In the summer of 1855 a contract of sale was made with S. W. Eldridge. Eldridge, who resold to an irresponsible party from whom he was never able to make collections, failed to complete his payments, so that the title to the building remained in the hands of the company until the final closing out of the real estate in 1862.21 Throughout the period of the Kansas conflict the American hotel was the chief stopping place of free-state settlers on their way to Kansas, and it served as a sort of general headquarters for free-state people when in Kansas City.22
At Lawrence temporary huts were provided by the agents of the company to serve as boarding houses until a hotel could be built.23 Work on the Free State hotel was begun in the summer of 1855, but such were the delays in construction (due chiefly to lack of funds) that it was just ready for opening when it was destroyed by Sheriff Jones' "posse" May 21, 1856. The building had been erected at a cost of approximately $20,000, and friends of the company asserted that it was the finest hostelry west of St. Louis.24 Preparations were begun at once to rebuild. The rubbish was cleared and a new basement built. But the work was slow, money was scarce, the crusading spirit had spent itself and there was little likelihood of
20. Richardson, H. A., A History of Milling in Kansas (Bulletin of Bureau of Business Research, University of Kansas, Lawrence, 1928), ch. I.
21. Minutes of Trustees and Executive Committee.
22. Testimony before Howard Congressional Committee, "Report of the Special Com- mittee Appointed to Investigate the Troubles in Kansas," No. 200, House Reports, 34 Cong., 1 sess. (called Howard Report), pp. 837, 844-846, 850, 884-885.
23. Cordley, History of Lawrence, p. 13 ; minutes of Executive Committee.
24. No. 29, Senate Miscellaneous Documents, 37 Cong., 2 sess.
436 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
pecuniary returns. November 11, 1857, the hotel basement was sold to S. W. Eldridge for $5,000.25 The present Hotel Eldridge stands on the site.
When the company purchased an interest in Atchison in 1857 it acquired, along with other properties, a small hotel there. This building was enlarged and improved, and was operated through lessees until the company closed out its affairs in 1862. Consider- able efforts were made through 1857 and 1858 to induce the company to build hotels in Manhattan, Osawatomie and Topeka. It finally did underwrite, to the extent of a few hundred dollars in each place, projects for the building of hotels by private individuals in the first two of these localities, but it never held a major interest in them.26
Another activity in which the company was repeatedly urged to engage was the establishment of newspapers. Its only major venture in this field was the Herald of Freedom at Lawrence. In the fall of 1854, George W. Brown, a Pennsylvanian proposing to found a free- state paper in Kansas, sought and eventually secured a loan of $2,000 from the company with which he purchased his press and other equipment, giving the company a bill of sale of his press as security. The loan dragged on until 1859, when it was finally paid in Quindaro town shares which soon became worthless. In the meantime A. A. Lawrence repeatedly referred to Brown's press as Aid Company property.27 While neither Brown nor the company officers would openly avow such a relationship, the Herald was uni- versally regarded both in Kansas and in the East as the official organ of the Emigrant Aid Company. It invariably supported the company against all detractors, while the company office in Boston acted as general subscription agency for the Herald for all New England. Many people, both at the time and since, have believed that the Herald, because of its radical tendencies and the tactless- ness of its editor, did more harm than good to the free-state cause. Nevertheless, it was a powerful propaganda agency in the East, and for better or for worse, it was the mouthpiece of the Emigrant Aid Company.
The only other newspaper in which the Aid Company is known to have had a direct financial interest was a German-language sheet, Die Kansas Zeitung, first published in Atchison in 1857 by Dr. Charles F. Kob, and later removed by a subsequent proprietor to
25. Minutes of Executive Committee; also, file of copies of quit-claim deeds.
26. Minutes of Executive Committee.
27. Lawrence Letters, pp. 64-65 ; also shown in account books.
JOHNSON: EMIGRANT Am IN KANSAS 437
Leavenworth. The Aid Company advanced the funds for the pur- chase of type and other equipment; the Zeitung did not own a press.28 Herbert Flint, who made a study of journalism in territorial Kansas in 1916, was of the opinion that the Emigrant Aid Company owned virtually, if not actually, the Atchison Freedom's Champion (the old Squatter Sovereign, renamed after it passed into free-state hands) and the Quindaro Chindowan.2® The former was owned for a time by Pomeroy while he was agent of the company, and the latter by Robinson after he had ceased to be an agent. An inspec- tion of the records of the company reveals that the executive com- mittee declined to purchase the Champion when it bought into Atchison, whereupon Pomeroy purchased it himself (to fulfill the agreement with the Atchison Town Association) and resold it at the first opportunity. There is nothing in the records to indicate that the company ever had any interest, other than a purely senti- mental one, in the Chindowan.
In the realm of what might be called more definitely social service activities, the company as such did something, and individuals as- sociated with it did more. One of the aims avowed in all of the Aid Company advertising was the encouragement of schools and churches. Rev. S. Y. Lum, sent by the Home Mission Board of the Congrega- tional Churches, accompanied the second Aid Company party to Lawrence, arriving September 1, 1854. His letters tell of the active cooperation of Doctor Robinson as Aid Company agent in organiz- ing the religious life of the young community. Plymouth Congre- gational Church was organized October 15, 1854, in the "Pioneer Boarding House," a "hay tent" built by the agents of the company to serve temporarily as a hotel. S. C. Pomeroy served as secretary of the meeting and wrote out the articles of association.30 Amos A. Lawrence, treasurer of the Aid Company, gave funds for the build- ing of a "combination church and schoolhouse" in Lawrence, which was used for a time by the Plymouth church,31 and subsequently gave $1,000 toward a permanent house of worship for the congrega- tion.32 Robinson, E. B. Whitman and others connected with the Emigrant Aid Company had a considerable part in the launching of the Unitarian church in Lawrence and in securing in Boston the
28. Minutes of Executive Committee.
29. Flint, Herbert, Journalism in Territorial Kansas (M. A. thesis, University of Kan- sas, 1916. Bound typewritten copy).
30. Cordley, History of Lawrence^ pp. 13, 17.
31. Lawrence Letters, pp. 28-34.
32. Lawrence to S. N. Simpson, August 7, 1856, Lawrence Letters, pp. 164-165.
438 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
funds and equipment for a building.33 The company, as such, donated a building lot to the Lawrence Episcopalians.34 The min- utes of the executive committee of the company abound with re- quests for aid for territorial churches, and while few of the requests could be acceded to the committee showed a willingness to cooper- ate by passing these appeals on to individuals, mission boards, and Sunday school boards, and by offering the facilities of the company for the sending out of all such supplies; in numerous instances the minutes and correspondence mention sending out, through company channels, communion sets or other church supplies donated by in- dividuals. During the first year of activities Doctor Webb, secre- tary of the company, collected several boxes of books for an Athe- neum and Sunday School Library at Lawrence, and sent them out.35 Later he sent at least one such box to Topeka. The company gave the use of a room in its office building in Lawrence for a subscription school, the first opened in the territory,36 and in 1857 built a two- story brick schoolhouse in Topeka at a cost of about $2,000, of which the community had the use practically rent free.37
The Emigrant Aid Company may claim some share, too, in the origin of the institutions which were to become the University of Kansas and Kansas State College. In the fall of 1854 Lawrence wrote to Robinson suggesting the establishment of an academy for boys in Lawrence. Before the end of the year he had placed $10,000 in the hands of Robinson and Pomeroy as trustees for the founding of a "monumental college" on Mount Oread.38 Eventually, after sev- eral religious denominations had failed in attempts to establish the proposed college, the fund passed to the State University and was used to build Old North College, the first building on the campus.39 In Manhattan, just as soon as the town had begun to take form, Goodnow, who had been a school man in Massachusetts, began to project a college. There were two Manhattan town associations, one composed of the New England colony, the other of the Cincin- nati group. The former, the Aid Company settlers, at once donated fifty towns shares (100 lots) to the project; the latter predicated its
33. Letter of Rev. W. M. Backus, Pastor Unitarian Church, Lawrence, Kansas, November 27, 1930. (In possession of author.)
34. Minutes of Executive Committee and record of quitclaim deeds.
35. Letter of Webb to Robinson, November 20, 1854, Aid Company Letters, Book A, p. 59.
36. Morehouse, G. P., "Probably the First School in Kansas for White Children," Kansas Historical Collections, v. IX, pp. 231-233.
37. Giles, Thirty Years in Topeka, pp. 161-162.
38. Lawrence Letters, pp. 205-207, 214-216, 231-232.
39. Snow, F. H., "The Beginnings of the University of Kansas," Kansas Historical Col- lections, v. VI, pp. 70-76.
JOHNSON: EMIGRANT AID IN KANSAS 439
gift upon the college first obtaining property to the value of $100,000. During 1857 and 1858 Goodnow and other solicitors raised a sufficient sum of money in the East to inaugurate the college.40 After repeated solicitations the executive committee of the Aid Company voted to turn over to the college a number of town lots in Manhattan to be sold with the understanding that one- half of the sum realized from the sale should go to the college, the other half to be paid to the company. The copies of quitclaim deeds among the company's effects show that nineteen lots were thus disposed of, netting each party $785.41 In the fall of 1860 "Bluemont Central College" opened its doors with Rev. Joseph Dennison, one of the original Aid Company settlers, as its first president. Three years later Bluemont was adopted by the state and became Kansas State Agricultural College.
In the relief movement of 1856, when money and supplies were being sent to Kansas to relieve the destitution of the settlers, the Emigrant Aid Company took a prominent part. Not only did the company officers participate in the formation of the national Kansas committee and cooperate actively with the Massachusetts state and Boston committees in the general efforts, but it appears to have assumed virtually the whole responsibility for collecting and sending clothing from the Boston area. In October, 1856, Doctor Webb re- ported that he had shipped 175 boxes and barrels of clothing to Kansas, besides sending considerable money to be spent locally by company agents and volunteer workers in the relief of destitution.42
The exact relation which the Aid Company bore to the free-state movement in Kansas is not altogether clear, and probably never will be. At the time it was asserted by all proslavery advocates that the Emigrant Aid Company was responsible for all the trouble in Kansas. Such was the burden of the testimony before the Howard congressional committee,43 and such was the view advanced by Stephen A. Douglas in the United States Senate, 44 and by President Franklin Pierce in two messages to congress.45 Whether or not, as asserted, it was primarily the pronouncements of the company and the arrival of its parties that incited the invasions of the Missouri-
40. Walters, J. D., "The Kansas State Agricultural College." Kansas Historical Collections, v. VII, pp. 167-188.
41. Minutes of Executive Committee, and record of quitclaim deeds.
42. Webb to S. N. Simpson, October 25, 1856, Aid Company Letters, Book B, pp. 417-420.
43. Howard Report, pp. 929, 996, 1114.
44. No. 34, Senate Reports, 34 Cong., 1 sess., v. I; Congressional Globe Appendix, 34 Cong., 1 sess., pp. 280-289.
45. Richardson, J. D., Messages and Papers of the Presidents (Congressional Ed., Wash- ington, 1899), pp. 354-355, 404-405.
440 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ans can be answered only on the basis of prejudice or personal opinion; there seems to be little room to doubt, however, that the Aid Company propaganda and activities were one factor in arous- ing the Missourians. It is obvious, too, from the preserved corre- spondence, that the Aid Company agents, Robinson and Pomeroy, who were among the most active founders of the Free-state party, were constantly keeping the officers of the company informed of their plans and activities, and were receiving advice and financial aid from Boston.46 The company must stand convicted, also, of arming the free-state settlers. This matter was worked out twenty- five years ago by W. H. Isely,47 and a careful retracing of his in- vestigations has verified his conclusions, namely, that the rifles, while not authorized by official company action nor paid for out of the company treasury (so that the officers of the company were technically correct in asserting that no weapons or munitions were furnished by the company) , were purchased by the directors of the Emigrant Aid Company and distributed through company channels. Furthermore, the company engaged in an extensive propaganda effort on behalf of the free-state movement. Lawrence corresponded with President Pierce,48 and on more than one occasion lobbyists were sent to Washington.49 When a delegation of the Free-state party went East to campaign in the election of 1856 they made the Aid Company office their headquarters, their speaking tours were arranged by the secretary of the company, and they were usually accompanied by Aid Company agents or lecturers.50 While it is extremely dangerous to draw too definite conclusions regarding the company's relations to the local free-state organization, it would seem safe to say that in addition to its material contributions to the young territory the company was a very real factor in the Kansas conflict.
Whatever may be the judgment of history, the participants in the emigrant aid movement were firmly convinced that their efforts had saved Kansas to freedom. Discounting the extravagant claims of such zealots as Hale, Thayer, Robinson and G. W. Brown, it is noteworthy that conservative men of affairs like A. A. Lawrence, John Carter Brown and Horace Claflin, who had lost thousands of
46. Lawrence Letters; Aid Company Letters.
47. Isely, W. H., "The Sharps Rifle Episode in Kansas History," The American Historical Review, April, 1907.
48. Lawrence Letters, pp. 126-128, 152.
49. Aid Company Letters, Book A, p. 195; Book B, pp. 57, 67, 219.
50. Minutes of Directors and Executive Committee, Book 2.
JOHNSON: EMIGRANT AID IN KANSAS 441
dollars in the enterprise, asserted that they felt amply repaid for their loss by seeing freedom triumph. And yet, if the average Kansan is asked to-day what he knows about the Emigrant Aid Company he will say that he never heard of it. Of course Kansas would have become a state ultimately if the Aid Company had never existed. In all probability it would have been a free state in any case. But certainly Kansas would not have developed in ex- actly the way it did, and would not be exactly the same to-day, had it not been for the activities of this organization.
Diary of Samuel A. Kingman at Indian Treaty in 1865
I. INTRODUCTION.
ON July 27, 1853, the United States negotiated a treaty with the Kiowa and confederate tribes, the Comanche and Apache, to the end that constantly increasing travel and traffic could move with greater safety over the Santa Fe trail. Raiding and marauding did not cease, however, with the making of this treaty, and at the close of the Civil War it became necessary to treat again with these wild plains tribes. The Indians themselves had expressed a desire for peace, and a commission was sent to the mouth of the Little Arkansas in August, 1865, to make preliminary agreements and arrange for a later meeting. Accordingly the commissioners again met the tribes in October, and on the fourteenth day of that month a treaty was made with the Cheyenne and Arapahoe, with the Apache on the seventeenth and with the Kiowa and Comanche on the eighteenth.1 By the terms of these treaties the Apache were de- tached from the Kiowa and Comanche and attached to the Chey- enne and Arapahoe, who agreed to removal from their reservation in southeastern Colorado to one in Kansas and the Indian territory. The Kiowa and Comanche agreed to relinquish all claims in Colo- rado, Kansas and New Mexico and to remove to a reservation in southwestern Indian territory and the region of the Staked Plains in Texas. These two tribes surrendered five white captives.2
The short diary which follows is a record of the trip from Atchi- son, Kan., to the mouth of the Little Arkansas for the meeting with the tribes, as it was set down in a small pocket notebook by Samuel A. Kingman3 who, in 1865, was a partner of John James Ingalls in the
1. A marker commemorating the treaty of October 18, 1865, has been placed on the meeting ground by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The site is seven miles north and one mile west of present Wichita, Kan.— Topeka Capital, April 15, 1925.
2. Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1895- '96, Part 1, "Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians," by James Mooney, p. 180.
3. Samuel A. Kingman was born in Worthington, Mass., June 26, 1818. He was edu- cated in his native town; began teaching school in his seventeenth year, and when nineteen went to Kentucky, where he taught school and studied law. For three years he was a member of the legislature from Livingston county in that state. He assisted in forming a new constitution for Kentucky. In 1856 he removed to Marion county, Iowa, and in the spring of the following year to Kansas. He spent six months in Leavenworth and then took up a claim in Brown county, near the site of present Horton. In the summer of 1858 he removed to Hiawatha and resumed the practice of law. He was a delegate from 'Brown county to the Wyandotte constitutional convention which convened July 5, 1859, and upon the organization of the state was elected associate justice of the supreme court. He was nominated for the same position on the Union Republican ticket in 1864, but was defeated.
(442)
DIARY OF SAMUEL A. KINGMAN 443
practice of law at Atchison. Kingman states in the first entry that he accompanied the party in the employ of Thomas Murphy, one of the commissioners, who was superintendent of Indian affairs for Kansas. The nature of Kingman's duties is not stated. The other commissioners were Gen. John B. Sanborn, Gen. William S. Har- ney, noted Indian fighter, Kit Carson, frontiersman, William W. Bent, Indian trader, Jesse H. Leavenworth, agent for the Kiowa and Comanche, and James Steele.
II. THE DIARY.
Atchison, Sept. 21, 1865. Left Atchison this morning in the employ of Tom Murphy for the council ground on the Arkansas where he with other com[missione]rs are to treat with the Coman- ches, Kiowas, Arapahoes, Cheyennes and Apaches. We are to await at Leavenworth the arrival of other com[missione]rs until Monday, the 25th.
Monday. Neither money, instructions or com[missione]rs having arrived, Murphy determines to wait.
Thursday, 28. Col. Leavenworth & Mr. Steele having arrived, we started in 3 ambulances & a baggage wagon. Reached Ozawkie 35m.
Friday, 29. Reached St. Mary's mission 4 ; made sure that one of the passengers in Steele's ambulance is a woman in men's clothes. Distance made, 40.
30. At 30 miles passed the Blue, dining at Manhattan. 18 M. with Capt. McClure to Ft. Riley.
1st Oct. Left the Fort late, reached the Republican & Junction City in 3 miles. Stopped an hour making the last purchases. One mile further reached the Smoky Hill. The baggage wagon which had gone ahead missed the road & detained the train an hour or two.
Crossing Smoky Hill we started up Lyons creek southwardly & kept up the creek in same direction till night, making 22 miles in all
In 1866 he was elected chief justice of the supreme court and was returned to the office in 1872. He resigned on account of ill health in 1876. He served for a time as state li- brarian and was the first president of the Kansas State Historical Society. His death oc- curred on September 9, 1904. His opinions as supreme court justice are regarded by lawyers of Kansas as models of judicial expression. — Kansas Historical Collections, v. 9, pp. 46, 47, 60. 4. In 1837 a band of 150 Pottawatpmie Indians came from Indiana to Linn county, Kansas, settling near the headwaters of Big Sugar creek, four miles northwest of the present site of Centerville. A church was built and a school opened. Other groups of Indians joined the original band and by 1840 a larger church and a separate school for girls be- came necessary. The whole settlement was given the name of St. Mary's Mission. On June 17, 1846, this reservation was sold to the government and a new reservation was given to the Pottawatomies. This was situated on the Kaw river, 28 miles west of Topeka, where the present town of St. Marys stands. The original village in Linn county disappeared when the tribe went to its new home, and no legend has come down as to its fate. — Wm. Ansel Mitchell in Linn County History, p. 37.
444 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
that day. At 8 miles from Junction met Capt. Lowe with 100 mounted infantry, having gone out as an escort for Gen. Sanborn. Our escort started at daylight & we have traveled so slow we have not seen them since. The creek is settled all the way up as far as we have got with occasional farms. Pat Burns, Jas. Carroll, Martin Cobas are the drivers.
Oct. 2d. Got breakfast and all ready to start at daylight, still following the creek; at 18 miles crossed the Santa Fe road at Lost Springs, 30 miles west from Council Grove, the Santa Fe road run- ning between the heads of Cottonwood & Lyons creek. Near this crossing are a number of sulpher springs. 5 miles further on struck timber of Cottonwood & still 5 miles further passed Mr. Wise's farm, a well cultivated place with good looking women about. They have been there 5 years. Camped at night at Marion Centre. 36 miles made to-day. Grass three feet high all day as fine as any I ever saw. Marion Centre consists of a cabin covered with punch- eons & dirt on which large weeds are growing. Have not yet got up with our escort which is with Col. Leavenworth.
Company roll
Com[missione]r Steele } Washi ton
O. T. Atwood f
Thos. Murphy, Wm. P. Murphy
S. A. K, Atchison
Capt. Gaylord of the escort
3 servts. Alex, Henry and Willis with 4 drivers,
making 14 in all and making quite a sensation through this section little frequented by travelers — road good but little used.
This point is 50 miles west of Emporia on Muddy5 a branch of Cottonwood. The owner of the cabin is Mr. Snow formerly from Brown county near Padonia. Besides the persons enumerated above is the mysterious personage dressed like a man & looking like a —
Oct. 3, 1865. Traveled 40 miles most of the way through a vast prairie without timber in sight, and away from water. Camped on a small creek with a few willow trees, having 35 miles passed civil- ization. This morning we were met by Lieut. Fiske & 20 men who accompanied us as an escort. One of the escort saw an elk. This was the only incident of the day, except good weather. The roads are gone, a slight mark only indicating the course we are to take, which is so dim that we twice missed the road in the day. Grass
5. Mud creek, sometimes spelled Mudd, joins Clear creek at Marion, Kan., the latter stream flowing into the Cottonwood a short distance beyond.
DIARY OF SAMUEL A. KINGMAN 445
lighter. Prickly pear in patches with occasional indications on the last 10 miles of alkali.
Oct. 4. An early start brought us in 10 miles to the camp on the little Arkansas, 5 miles from its mouth. All the other com[mis- sionejrs are already here & will wait a few days to see if the Indians will not come over here to treat as Gen. Sanborn and Harney both think it would be bad policy to cross the Arkansas at this season as we would be liable to be detained for weeks by high water. So we have a week's loafing in comfortable anticipation.
Oct. 11. We have been here one week. The monotony of camp life is growing intolerable. The same faces, the same ideas & the same routine of daily sensations and occupations soon become tire- some. Eating, smoking, talking and sleeping make the whole day. Below us a few miles are the villages of several bands of refugee Indians. They have raised small crops of corn, pumpkins, beans & watermelons. They are destitute, dirty, half-clad beggars — fine physique. The men all lazy, the women all lewd. They visit camp in great numbers daily. The Osages also visit us. They are like the others save that they do not beg, are better clad & the men shave the head all but the scalp lock. They are a stalwart brawny set of men and the squaws like all the others. So one day is like another. A great many fish — a few catch them. Some hunt but bring in little game. We change camp, have a storm — pretend we suffer for our country. Evening. The prairie is covered with Indians. Arapahoes & Cheyennes in addition to those previously gathered here. They have come to treat and are considered the best Indians of the plains. Tomorrow the council will begin. The goods that were to have started the day after we did from Ft. Leavenworth have not yet arrived. Some fears are entertained that they have become the spoil of Kansas patriots. Gen. Sanborn has sent out two parties to look for them and all are growing anxious for $50,000 is a great tempta- tion in this country.
Oct. 12. The council met this morning & lasted 4 hours. Only the Arapahoes & Cheyennes were represented & these tribes only partially. The commission propose to treat with them first. It is apparent that these tribes have always been our friends until driven by the Sand creek massacre6 into hostilities, and the com[missione]rs will treat them gently & use them liberally. The com[missione]rs
6. See footnote 8.
29—5605
446 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
are Gen. J. B. Sanborn, president, Gen. Harney, James Steele, Thos. Murphy, J. H. Leavenworth, Kit Carson & Col. Wm. W. Bent.
Oct. 14. The treaty with the Arapahoes & Cheyennes was com- pleted & signed today. It is very liberal in its terms to the Indians, probably more so than will be sanctioned by the senate. 31 sections of land outside of the reserve in fee simple, a reserve large enough for their use with presents, back pay, and large annuities for 40 years. $20 per capita now & $40 per capita after they go upon their reserve.7
The consultations were harmonious & friendly, the commissioners being conciliatory and the Indians apparently frank and friendly. They will probably keep the terms if we do. Some of their speeches were eloquent, especially in reference to the massacre of Sand creek. Black Kettle,8 when he spoke of the desolated wigwams, murdered braves, squaws & children on that occasion, sent a thrill throughout the whole of the Indians present & even in translations touched every heart there. The speeches were all reported in full and all proceedings of council copied into the record. The general manner of conducting proceedings has been often and correctly described. While everything is sober and orderly, the bare legs and bodies of the chiefs & braves destroy all idea of dignity & tend to destroy the romance of the affair.
October 15, Sunday. This day of rest to the toiling members of
7. The treaty as proclaimed Feb. 2, 1876, provided in article 2 that the following dis- trict of country, or such portion of same as might be designated by the President of the United States for that purpose, be set apart for the use and occupation of the tribes who were parties to the treaty, viz., commencing at the mouth of the Red creek or Red Fork of the Arkansas river; thence up said creek or fork to its source; thence westwardly to a point on the Cimarron river opposite the mouth of Buffalo creek; thence due north to the Arkansas river; thence down the same to the beginning. Article 5 allots thirty-one sections of land in fee simple to individuals related by blood to the Cheyenne or Arapahoe. Article 6 makes reparations for outrages perpetrated at Sand creek, Colorado territory, Nov. 29, 1864, and article 7 provides for the payment of annuities over a period of 40 years, $20 per capita until such time as the Indians shall be removed to the reservation, $40 per capita there- after.— A Compilation of all the Treaties between the United States and the Indian Tribes, 1873, pp. 122-127.
8. Black Kettle, famous Cheyenne chief, was born near the Black Hills of South Dakota about 1803. When his tribe separated into northern and southern divisions he chose to go with the latter and his name appears as ranking chief on the treaty negotiated with the Cheyenne at Fort Wise, Colo., in 1861. In September of 1864 he visited Governor Evans at Denver at the head of a delegation of Cheyenne and Arapahoe chiefs to ask for peace. The two tribes had warred with the whites during the preceding summer. Evans, who was also superintendent of Indian affairs for Colorado territory, refused the request. Black Kettle and his fellow chiefs then took a large band of their people to Fort Lyon, Colo., where they surrendered to the commander, Maj. E. W. Wynkoop, giving up their horses and arms as a pledge of good faith. Wynkoop was relieved of his command shortly thereafter and his successor returned the horses and arms to the Indians and asked that Black Kettle remove his people to a point on Sand creek. With confidence in the military authorities, the In- dians acceded. Somewhat later an expedition was organized by Col. John M. Chivington, district commander at Denver, for the purpose of exterminating the surrendered Indians. The attack was made at daybreak on November 29, 1864, and the camp was destroyed; 161 out of 600 were killed, including many women and children. Despite all of this, Black Kettle continued to place his trust in the whites, although some of the Cheyenne made war against them. He moved his people to the valley of Washita, Indian territory, in 1868. This un- fortunate move resulted in his death on November 27, 1868, in an attack by the Seventh U. S. cavalry under General Custer.— National Cyclopedia of American Biography v 19 pp. 308, 309.
DIARY OF SAMUEL A. KINGMAN 447
a civilized community presents no feature of distinction in a place where indolence is the prevailing characteristic. Listless & lazy, tame and monotonous alike are the people, the scenery and the weather and so the day. Soldiers & civilians Indians & animals all alike harmonize and such a life has its charms soothing and quieting the whole man. The nervous men are condemning it as false life, making the common error of constituting themselves as the test by which the problem of life for others is to be solved.
A black man from Texas comes in today & reports that he has redeemed his wife & two children from the Comanches, giving there- for 7 ponies. That in the trade a Mrs. Fitzpatrick, about 40 yrs. old, and her granddaughter, were to have also been delivered up, but on getting the ponies the Indians refused to give up the others. Mrs. F. he represented as the widow of a Union man who was hung because he would not join the rebels. The child is about 4 years old. I hope no treaty will be made till all prisoners are delivered up.
October 16. The council met today. The President addressed the council in conciliatory manner being extremely liberal in his promises which will probably never be realized. It is estimated that the Cheyennes & Arapahoes number over 4,300. If they remain the same in number & do not go upon their reserve for 5 years, the am't of the annuities is $6,450,000. This with back annuities, presents and compensation making over $100,000 more is a large price to pay for peace. Besides 19,840 acres of land are granted in fee simple to half breeds and over 5,000 to the survivors of the Sand creek massacre. Comanches estimated at 10,000. Kiowas 2,500. Apaches 200. Cheyennes & Arapahoes 4,300, of which the Cheyennes are somewhat the more numerous.
October 17, 1865. The council met again & the terms will prob- ably be agreed on & the treaty prepared by the next meeting.
It is a singular fact that no person not born in the tribe ever yet learned the Kiowa language. It is very harsh and gutteral in its sound & barren in its words. Even conversation among each other is mostly conducted by signs. This fact of the inability to learn the dialect is attested by Cols. Bent & Carson, and all the interpret- ers on the ground, & Gen. Harney speaks of it as a fact long & well understood upon the plains. The weather is cold & windy and the awning under which the councils meet being on the open prairie, the bare backed and bare legged orators are compelled to be short in their discourses. As to prolixity they seem much like the whites, given to much repetition.
448 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Oct. 18. The water froze in the bucket last night one-half inch thick. This is the first frost that has fallen here & the boys com- plain of sleeping cold. The soldiers have very comfortable quarters in the bank showing a great variety of designs as well as ingenuity in their construction. The cold weather scares me & I am tired of the whole thing. Hope something will be concluded today. Be- lieve I could have closed the job in one day. Treaty with 4 bands of the Comanches concluded & signed. The other 5 bands are not represented in the council and it is said have not been engaged in hostilities. Quien Sabe?
Two councils were held with the Osages today with a view to obtain a relinquishment of that part of their reservation west of the Arkansas river. They declined alleging that they had twice before sold parts of their land but had not yet seen any of their money. "Heap talk no money." They concluded to wait & see if they got any money for what they had sold & then have another talk when the grass is green.
It was determined not to sign a treaty with the Kiowas until they had delivered up their prisoners. The terms are agreed on & the treaty drawn up ready to sign. The prisoners are in the hands of those who do not wish peace and it is doubted whether they can be got. Not for some days yet. A runner from the Wichitas came in saying that 4 members of that tribe had died from starvation in the last 4 days. They won't work & their food is light and does not give them strength enough to stand a chill. These 7 refugee bands are in a bad condition. This winter will likely finish them up. If it does not then they propose returning to their old homes in & about the Wichita mts. next spring.
The work being done I start for home tomorrow with Cols. Bent & Carson. The com[missione]rs wait a few days to hear from the Kiowas.
Oct. 19. Shook hands & left camp without regret. The Chey- ennes, Arapahoes & Apaches had all left yesterday, the Osages & Comanches this morning. Our German friends Van Horn & Hoi- stein also leave so that the life of the camp will grow still more wearisome. I have had my curiosity gratified & leave as willingly as I did the prairie dog village a few days ago.
A very late start only enabled us to make about 30 miles & reach camp about dark. This makes 20 nights I have slept out of a house & I don't like the prospect for tonight. Have my weak longings for home, house and a feather bed.
DIARY OF SAMUEL A. KINGMAN 449
Oct. 20. Started at daylight and traveled 20 miles to breakfast. Bless the widow Strawhecker for she gave us a good breakfast. The first approach to civilization. The house had no floor. The roof was puncheons covered with earth on which was a good crop of weeds showing a rich soil and careful culture. Here I left Kit Car- son's ambulance & took Col. Bent's having a whole one to myself with a good mattress in it. The warm day after a cold night holds out fine inducements for ague. The land on Cottonwood lies well & the grass looks fine. The widow's farm however shows her state. Her husband died in 6 weeks after she arrived here from Indiana, so her sister Hoops informed me, & left her with an only son and small hopes of consolation. After a short drive we camped for night near a dry creek. After the others had done supper Mrs. W. & myself sat sipping our coffee in the twilight and in the confidence which such an hour begets she told the story of her life — Twas fine; tis pitiful. Daughter of John Prince, [? — illegible] widow of Fitz- patrick & Wilmarth, the creature of many loves, the subject of many sorrows. After supper while the drivers cared for their stock, we took our pipes & the chat ran on, interweaving itself with the wreaths of smoke taking on many forms and being nearly as un- substantial. But there was a bed in the ambulance which I alone was to occupy. After three weeks of the ground the anticipation was delightful. No broken slumbers, no aching bones, weary of their contact with the solid earth. So I early mounted the am- bulance to bed. Delightful luxury. I stretched myself, turned over, spread out. Ah, this is grand; all it needs for perfect happiness is the company of one to say "how nice." So I felt as I lay for an hour listening to the chat of the rest of the company. At 9 o'clock all was quiet in camp & I slept, little dreaming how short my enjoy- ment would be. Shortly after 10 Lieutenant Tanhause came into camp and said that he must up and away. That Bent's train had passed Lost Springs that day & he wanted the ambulance to go on with it. So hitching up both teams we started and about 1 o'c[lock] reached Lost Springs, the ambulance to go west and I east. I stuck to the bed till 5 but had to divide with the Lieut, whose breath was redolent of whisky and onions, so different from the breath I had sighed for the night before.
Oct. 21. Starting at daylight we drove 10 miles to Six Mile creek for breakfast. There again overtook Carson & Bent. Do not find a heavy wagon as comfortable as an ambulance nor is the widow as interesting as by twilight. We have today the advantage of an old road to travel on. Six miles farther on we passed Dia-
450 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
mond Springs.9 The remains of 3 buildings of stone 2 stories high tell their own story of violence. A good monument for the builder. A small room used as dramshop is all left fit for use save a large stone corral surrounding 5 or 6 acres with a small supply of hay. 6 miles further on stopped for dinner on Elm creek, thence 8 miles brings us to Council Grove and within the range of stage travel and severs me from those with whom I have been more or less associated for the last month.
Their characters are severally written on their faces and impressed on my mind. Their fate as com[missione]rs will be that they died of too large views.
9. Diamond Springs, Morris county, Kansas, was a well-known stage and relief station during the years of the great movement along the Santa Fe trail. The settlement, composed of several large two-story stone buildings and a stone corral, was built upon the site of a spring that had been known by the Indians and plains animals long before its discovery by the white man. Santa Fe traders camped upon the spot as early as 1804. The buildings, corral and sheds were the most pretentious of the kind between Council Grove and Santa Fe. The place was the scene of several encounters between Indians and whites and in May, 1863, was raided by Dick Yeager, one of Quantrill's officers, and a band of Missourians. The raiders murdered inhabitants, burned and destroyed property and left a scene of desolation and destruction. — Kansas Historical Collections, v. 14, pp. 794-800.
I
Defense of the Kansas Frontier 1868-1869
MARVIN H. GARFIELD
1868.
NDIAN affairs in Kansas remained unusually quiet in the spring of 1868. Nothing of note happened until the early part of June when the Cheyennes raided Council Grove. Minor depredations occurred during July, followed by an invasion of the Saline and Solomon valleys in August. On August 23 Gen. Philip H. Sheridan ordered the Indians out of the state. While a volunteer battalion patrolled the frontier districts, Sheridan organized his regulars and carried on a fall and winter campaign into the Indian's stronghold in the Indian territory and Texas. The result was the complete subdual of the Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Comanche, and Kiowa tribes. Sheridan's forces were ably assisted in this campaign by the Nine- teenth Kansas volunteer cavalry.
Before entering into a discussion of the Sheridan campaign it is necessary to explain in detail the events which led up to that final crushing of the plains tribes of the Southwest. In the spring of 1868 the nomadic Indian tribes went into camp near Fort Larned and Fort Dodge, where they proceeded to draw rations from the government until the buffalo migration reached the Kansas plains. The Kiowas, Comanches and part of the Cheyennes located at Larned, while the Arapahoes, Apaches and the remainder of the Cheyennes chose Fort Dodge.1 During this period General Sheridan endeavored to establish a more friendly basis for Indian relations. In an effort to explain further the terms of the Medicine Lodge treaties special agents had been sent among the tribes the previous autumn. William Comstock and Abner S. Grover had gone to the Cheyennes and Richard Parr to the Kiowas and Comanches. For a time it seemed that success would crown their efforts, but by the time spring arrived it became apparent that the Cheyennes were not to be reconciled so easily.2 Comstock and Grover were treacher- ously attacked, Comstock losing his life as a result. General Sheridan powwowed with the Indians at Fort Dodge, but gained little satisfaction. The young men were extremely dissatisfied with
1. S. J. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, p. 287.
2. C. C. Ulster, The Southwestern Frontier, p. 106.
(451)
452 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the Medicine Lodge arrangements and were in an ugly mood. Warriors, chiefs, medicine men, all the tribal leaders, united in a demand for arms and ammunition.3
The problem involved was a thorny one which had remained unsolved from the previous year. In January, 1867, Gen. W. T. Sherman had ordered Gen. W. S. Hancock to stop the practice of Indian agents' selling arms to the Indians. All sales by law were to be under the rigid control of the commanding officers of posts within the Indian districts. The law was being flagrantly violated, how- ever. Sherman had threatened, consequently, to withdraw United States troops from the plains region altogether unless the unlimited and unlicensed sale of arms was stopped.4 Sherman appealed to Ulysses S. Grant, who in turn addressed the Secretary of War urging the abolition of civil Indian agents and licensed traders.5 Grant also had seconded Sherman's threats to withdraw the troops from the frontier. Since the arms question involved a conflict be- tween the War Department and the Interior Department, which contained the Indian Bureau, congress became the final authority. On February 1, 1867, Sec. E. M. Stanton transmitted to the house committee on Indian affairs a letter from Major Douglas, com- mander at Fort Dodge. Douglas had reported that a large trading business had grown up at the fort between traders and Indians, that Butterfield, the former head of the Overland Despatch, had the largest investment of all the traders, and that several cases of arms had been sold by Butterfield to the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. "Be- tween the authorized issue of the agents and the sales of the traders," said Douglas, "the Indians were never better armed than at the present time." Continuing, the letter related that the Indians were openly boasting of their preparedness for war in the spring. Further incriminating statements were made by Major Douglas:
"The agents have no real control over the traders; in fact, they are accused by many, both Indians and white men, of being in league with them, and of drawing a large profit from the trade. The anxiety of the Indians at the present time to obtain arms and ammunition is a great temptation to the trader. For a revolver an Indian will give ten, even twenty times its value in horses and furs."6
It developed that Butterfield had consulted experienced Indian agents before selling arms to the Indians. William W. Bent, E. W.
3. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, p. 288.
4. House Miscellaneous Documents, No. 40, 39 Cong., 2 sess., Sherman to Hancock, January 26, 1867.
5. Ibid., Grant to Stanton, February 1, 1867.
6. Ibid., No. 41, 39 Cong., 2 sess.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 453
Wyncoop, and Col. J. H. Leavenworth had addressed a circular letter to the new trader informing him that he was authorized to sell arms or ammunition to any Indians that were at peace with and re- ceiving annuities from the United States.7 Feeling that he had re- ceived official consent, Butterfield accordingly had gone ahead with his sales, since the Cheyennes and Arapahoes were receiving annui- ties and so were technically at peace.
While congress was debating the question in committee, the prac- tice of evading the law had continued. Gov. S. J. Crawford, while in Washington in April, 1867, visited the Interior Department and roundly denounced it for supplying the Indians with arms and am- munition to be used against frontier people. The secretary promised that arms would not be issued to the tribes that were on the war- path. This promise was then immediately broken.8 Indian supplies were sent to Atchison in July consigned to the Cheyennes and Arap- ahoes who were on the warpath. Hearing of the presence of the supply train in Kansas, Governor Crawford telegraphed General Sherman and threatened to have it burned unless the War Depart- ment prevented the supplies from reaching the Indians. Sherman therefore ordered the cavalry from Fort Riley to capture the train and store the supplies in Fort Larned. There they remained until October, when the Peace Commission distributed them to the In- dians at Medicine Lodge.9
His indignation once aroused, Governor Crawford was relentless in his persecution of Indian traders and agents. Having learned that one of Colonel Leavenworth's traders at Wichita was supplying the Kiowas and Comanches with arms and ammunition, the gover- nor made a public statement denouncing such practices. The trader, J. R. Mead, then wrote Crawford in an aggrieved tone, denying everything. Crawford sent a scorching reply on September 4, 1867. Extracts from the letter follow:
"You, I am informed, are one of his (Leavenworth's) traders. If such be the fact, it is doubtless to your mutual interest to cooperate with each other in explaining and covering up as far as possible the damnable outrages committed by agent traders and Indians during the present year."
The governor then proceeded to tell Mead that arms and ammu- nition had been passing into the Indian country all summer by way of the mouth of the Little Arkansas. Crawford warned Mead not to
7. This letter was inclosed by Sherman to Grant. — Ibid., No. 40, 39 Cong., 2 sess.
8. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, pp. 249, 250.
9. Ibid., p. 251.
454 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ship any more arms to the Indians, and closed with this: "The Kiowa or Comanche Indian who has committed most fiendish out- rages in Kansas is no worse than his agent who represents him as at peace, or the trader who furnishes him with supplies which enable him to execute his designs."10
With this history of the previous year as a warning, General Sheridan refused to deliver more arms to the Indians in the spring of 1868.
The month of June, 1868, brought the biggest Indian scare that Kansans ever witnessed. On June 3, citizens of Marion county and vicinity received warning that a large band of Indians was ap- proaching. Settlers from miles around flocked into Marion Centre for protection. The Indians appeared, some three hundred strong, but passed by the frightened town without molesting it. Farm houses were ransacked and stock killed by the invaders.11 The ob- jective of this Cheyenne raid was the Kaw Indian reservation at Council Grove. On June 5 the Cheyennes, led by Tall Bull, ar- rived and attacked the Kaws. After a long-drawn-out battle in which few fatalities occurred the Cheyennes were driven off and headed westward, committing petty outrages as they went.
Instantly the entire east-central portion of the state was aroused. Armed bodies of citizens collected in Morris, Lyon, and Chase coun- ties, but the men were entirely without organization and recognized no one as commander.12 Not knowing where the Indians would strike next, the suspense was terrible to the people in the region. Efforts to allay their fears were made by the newspapers. It was soon discovered that the Cheyenne raid was aimed only at the Kaws, and that the motive back of it was retaliation for the death of seven Cheyennes at the hands of the Kaws the previous summer.13
The chief result of the raid was that the state government, in cooperation with the federal military authorities, evolved a more effective system of frontier protection. As an emergency measure General Sheridan dispatched cavalry from Forts Harker and Riley to the Council Grove vicinity.14 On June 8 the general ordered that fifteen thousand rounds of ammunition be shipped to Governor
10. Correspondence of Kansas Governors, Crawford (Copy Book), pp. 54-57. Archives, Kansas State Historical Society. Hereafter cited C. K. G., Crawford (Copy Book).
11. Bulletin from Cottonwood Falls, June 3, 1868, in Kansas State Record, Topeka, June 6, 1868.
12. Ibid., June 7, 1868.
13. Ibid., editorial.
14. Sheridan to Crawford, June 5, 1868, C. K. G., Crawford (Telegrams), p. 75.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 455
Crawford for distribution among the frontier settlers.15 Four days later J. B. McAfee, adjutant general of Kansas, left Topeka in order to distribute the ammunition and arms provided by Sheridan. McAfee also had instructions to organize a company of reserve cavalry.16
For permanent protection of the western border Sheridan decided to organize a cavalry patrol by establishing temporary camps in the exposed region. Prior to the raid a cavalry company had been stationed at the mouth of the Little Arkansas.17 On June 20 Sheri- dan informed Crawford that another company had been posted at the Kaw crossing of the Santa Fe trail on the Cottonwood river near Marion.18 The two companies in cooperation with the troops at Fort Harker thus patrolled the border from Fort Harker south to Wichita.
These precautions were in line with the demands of the settlers of the region and did much to relieve their anxiety. The War De- partment also aided by issuing an order directing the commanders of departments to use their own judgment in issuing ammunition to state and territorial authorities for frontier protection.19 It suited the people of Kansas to have this power in the hands of General Sheridan rather than the War Department, since they had great confidence in the good judgment and cooperative spirit of "Little Phil."
Tall Bull's Council Grove raid proved costly to the Cheyennes because it prevented them from collecting their annuity, arms and ammunition for a time. By the middle of July, however, the Indians appeared in large numbers at Fort Larned and threatened to storm the fort and take the arms by force.20 Had not General Sully main- tained a bold front the hostiles might have carried their threats into action.21 Finally the tribes deserted the fort, but the general im- pression among the military officers was that they intended to re- turn after placing their women and children in positions of safety.22 Shortly afterwards the Indians came back. This time, by astute diplomacy, they were able to get the desired arms. They promised
15. Ibid., Sheridan to Ward Burlingame, June 8, 1868, p. 76.
16. Daily Kansas State Record, Topeka, June 12, 1868.
17. Sheridan to Crawford, May 27, 1868, C. K. G., Crawford (Telegrams), p. 73.
18. Telegram, Sheridan to Crawford, cited by the Daily Kansas State Record, June 20, 1868.
19. Letter from War Department to Sen. E. G. Ross, of Kansas, June 19, 1868, Adju- tant General's Correspondence, 1868 (Kansas), Archives, Kansas State Historical Society.
20. Daily Kansas State Record, July 21, 1868.
21. Atchison Daily Free Press, July 27, 1868.
22. Ibid.
456 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to use the arms for hunting purposes only, claiming that they needed more ammunition in order to hunt on their way south in the autumn. Gen. Alfred Sully was completely hoodwinked by their fair promises, and accordingly issued the arms. By August 3 the last of the arms were distributed. Immediately the Indians left for parts unknown.23
At the first hint of trouble, Col. Thomas Murphy, superintendent of Indian affairs for the Central Superintendency, had gone to Lar- ned to investigate the situation. He found the Indians irritable and sullen because of the nondelivery of arms and ammunition. When he left conditions were quiet. Colonel Murphy therefore was able to announce to the press on August 5 that an Indian outbreak was unlikely to occur and that the Indians were convinced of their own inability to continue hostilities against the whites.24 While the colonel was publishing this statement a band of approximately two hundred Cheyennes was on the warpath under the command of the Dog Soldier chief, Red Nose, and The-man-who-breaks-the-marrow- bones, a prominent member of Black Kettle's band. Nearly all the Cheyenne bands were represented in this war party.25 Beginning on the Smoky Hill valley and Kansas Pacific railroad, the Indians swept northward to the Saline and thence to the Solomon and Re- publican valleys. In the course of a few days they had killed at least a dozen settlers, outraged several women, some of whom were carried into captivity, burned and ransacked houses, stolen stock, driven hundreds of settlers from the region and paralyzed the citi- zens of northern Kansas with fright.26
First news of the raid reached Topeka on August 15. Colonel McAfee and Governor Crawford at once hastened to the exposed regions in order to make preparations for arming and organizing the settlers for defense. Fortunately for the Asher creek settlement, Colonel McAfee had delivered them a shipment of arms before the raid. They were thus able to drive the Indians away. McAfee toured the settlements for several days, organizing, arming and providing for the destitute.27 All attempts at pursuing the raiders
23. Major Wyncoop, Indian agent at Fort Lamed, has stated that the arms were de- livered on August 9. He also maintained that the war party which committed the Saline- Solomon raid left Larned before the arms were issued. Not knowing of the issue they were angry because the government had not given them their promised weapons. See correspond- ence upon this subject in Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1868, p. 70. See, also, Sheridan, Personal Memoirs, v. II, p. 289; Rister, The Southwestern Frontier, p. 107.
24. Atchison Daily Free Press, August 5, 1868.
25. Testimony of Edmund Guerriere, half-breed Cheyenne, Report of the Secretary of War, 41 Cong., 2 sess., p. 47.
26. Daily Kansas State Record, August 15-19, 1868.
27. Ibid.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 457
failed. Governor Crawford hastily organized a volunteer company at Salina, but it was too late to accomplish much.28 On August 17 Crawford appealed to President Johnson for aid. In his message the governor asked not only for assistance but requested: (1) That the Kiowas, Comanches, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, and Apaches be driven from Kansas; (2) That the President keep the Indian Commission at home; (3) That the government stop issuing arms and ammunition to the Indians. Crawford promised the coopera- tion of Kansas in any effort to drive the Indians from the state. His message was referred to General Sherman who ordered im- mediate action.29 Regular troops were rushed to the scene of the raids by command of General Sheridan. Troops stationed on the Little Arkansas and detachments from Forts Riley and Harker were at once transferred to the Saline and Solomon region.30 Sheridan then ordered General Sully to erect block houses on the Saline, Solomon, and Republican. These forts were garrisoned with in- fantry while the region lying between the posts was patrolled by cavalry.31 On August 21 Sheridan informed Crawford that he would order all the Indians to their reservations. The order was issued two days later.
After a week of intense excitement Kansas realized that the worst was over. Settlers accordingly returned to their claims, and life went on as before. One beneficial result of the raid was that the settlers and the military became better prepared to withstand future Indian depredations in the region. By October the inhabit- ants of north-central Kansas were so destitute as a result of Indian raids and crop failures that it became necessary to send them financial relief. Various organizations in the eastern part of the state put on campaigns and raised funds to enable these pioneers to remain on their claims through the winter.32
Governor Crawford's appeal to the President evidently produced results. The War Department was given a free hand to prosecute the Indian war to a finish. Even the Commissioner of Indian Affairs approved of punishing the guilty.33 The Indians in Sep- tember resumed their depredations in earnest. Comanches and Kiowas made a dash at Fort Dodge on September 3, killing four
28. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, p. 290.
29. Ibid.
80. Adjutant General's Report, 1868 (Kansas), p. 7 ; Daily Kansas State Record August 19, 1868.
31. Sheridan to Crawford, August 21, 1868, C. K. G., Crawford (Telegrams), p. 69.
32. Daily Kansas State Record, October 8, 1868.
33. Ibid., August 26, 1868.
458 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
soldiers and wounding seventeen before being driven off.34 A Mexican wagon train was attacked on the Santa Fe trail near Fort Dodge by Cheyennes and Arapahoes. Sixteen of the Mexicans were reported killed and scalped.35 Farther north, along the Smoky Hill and South Platte, the Cheyennes pursued their methods of previous years. Great excitement prevailed in Denver, and Gov. A. C. Hunt, of Colorado, organized a volunteer company to protect the stage lines.36
On September 7 Sheridan ordered General Sully to invade the region south of the Arkansas river to make war on the families and run off the stock of the Cheyennes and their allies. At nearly the same time Col. George A. Forsyth was ordered to operate against the Cheyennes in the vicinity of Fort Wallace. Forsyth headed an organization of frontier scouts which was formed on August 24 by authority of General Sheridan. The scouts were all experienced plainsmen and buffalo hunters who had been recruited at Forts Harker and Wallace by Lieut. Fred Beecher.37
Scouts had reported to Sheridan that a band of Indians not ex- ceeding two hundred fifty was encamped on the western frontier of Kansas. The Indians attacked a wagon train near Sheridan, on the Smoky Hill route, and fled northward. Forsyth's company at once left Fort Wallace in pursuit of the raiders. After six days marching they camped on Arickaree creek in northeastern Colorado. On the morning of September 17 the camp was attacked by a large force of Cheyennes and Sioux. For six days the little band with- stood both the warriors and slow starvation until rescued by Col. John C. Carpenter and the Tenth cavalry.38 The conflict is gen- erally known as the Battle of Beecher's Island, in honor of Lieut. Fred Beecher, who died there.
Numerous contradictory accounts have been written of this battle. Estimates of the number of Indians vary from four hundred fifty to two thousand, while statistics on the number of Indian dead and wounded have been similarly divergent. Forsyth numbered the In- dians at approximately four hundred fifty and reported that at least thirty-five were killed and many more wounded.39 Governor Craw-
34. Ibid., September 8, 1868.
35. Ibid., September 10, 1868.
36. Ibid., news dispatch from Denver, August 29, 1868.
37. Winfield Freeman, "The Battle of the Arickaree," Kansas Historical Collections, v. VI, p. 347.
88. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, pp. 295, 296.
39. Forsyth to Colonel Bankhead, commander at Fort Wallace, September 19, 1868. Cited by Mrs. Frank C. Montgomery in "Fort Wallace and Its Relation to the Frontier," Kansas Historical Collections, v. XVII, pp. 189-283.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 459
ford estimated the Indians at eight hundred.40 Newspaper ac- counts of the battle stated that there were from six hundred to seven hundred Indians well armed with Spencer carbines and heavy rifles. Stories written by participants in the battle differ considerably, al- though all agree that the Indian casualties were heavy. Tom Murphy, one of Forsyth's scouts, writing years afterwards, said that it was impossible to tell in the confusion of battle how many Indians fell. In 1870 Mr. Murphy met Phil McClosky, a trader to the Comanches, who had been with the Indians before and after the battle and had heard them discussing it. McClosky told Murphy that three hundred sixty Indians were killed on the Arickaree.41 Another scout, Louis McLaughlin, believed that the Indian death rate must have been heavy since sixty-eight Cheyenne bodies were found by Carpenter's troops on their way to rescue Forsyth. Mc- Laughlin stated that more Sioux than Cheyennes participated in the battle and that they lost more heavily than did their southern allies.42 The highest statistics encountered were printed in a Kan- sas newspaper of comparatively recent times. This paper placed the number of Indians engaged in the battle at two thousand and esti- mated the dead at seven or eight hundred.43 Standing alone against this array of figures is George Bird Grinnell's account. Mr. Grin- nell has suggested that stories of the battle written by the white participants are colored by their own imaginations and is of the opinion that the Indians' accounts to him are much more reliable. According to the Cheyenne version, which Grinnell relates, there were about six hundred Indians in the battle and only nine killed. The Cheyennes have even gone so far as to name the Indians who fell.44 While it seems almost impossible to decide between such conflict- ing statements, a bit of logic may help solve the problem. Obviously the Indians must have numbered between four hundred fifty and eight hundred since most of the estimates range thereabouts. It is infringing upon a person's credulity, however, to state that several hundred Indians fell in the conflict. Equally ridiculous is it to maintain that fifty sharp-shooting plainsmen, armed with seven-shot repeaters, could kill only nine Indians in six days of battle and siege. As a consequence, until some better proof to the contrary can be
40. Kansas in the Sixties, p. 294.
41. Indian Depredations and Battles (Clippings), v. Ill, p. 16, Kansas State Historical Society.
42. Topeka State Journal, September 8, 1907.
43. The Kinsley Graphic, December 13, 1928.
44. Grinnell, The Fighting Cheyennes, pp. 281, 282.
460 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
furnished, the official report of Colonel Forsyth sounds most plaus- ible. The chief value of Forsyth's victory is that it broke up a large concentration of Indians which otherwise might have done consid- erable damage to overland travel and the frontier settlements in Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado.
While Forsyth and his men were on the march toward the Aricka- ree, preparations were being made in Kansas for a strong offensive against the Indian strongholds to the south. In order to invade the Indian country with any sizable force it was necessary to relieve many of the regulars who were engaged in patrol and scout duty. To meet this need the First Frontier battalion was organized from the militia of Kansas. For some time Governor Crawford had been urging General Sheridan to accept a battalion of militia for frontier duty, but up to September 11, 1868, his offers had been rejected.45 On September 9 Sheridan had sent a long telegram to Crawford an- nouncing Sully's movements south of the Arkansas and once more refusing the militia battalion. Sheridan said that he was not yet convinced there was a necessity for such troops, but that if he dis- covered his regulars were insufficient he would call upon Crawford for aid. In the meantime he asked that the people of Kansas have more patience and their Indian troubles would be settled perma- nently. It was impossible, Sheridan added, to protect every house and person on the frontier. Small parties of whites who carelessly exposed themselves to danger would have to take the consequences.46
Sheridan apparently changed his mind about the militia battalion following fresh, Indian disturbances, since he finally acquiesced to Crawford's plan. On September 11 the governor had telegraphed Sheridan as follows:
"Will you issue to me five hundred stand of Spencer carbines with ac- coutrements and ammunition? If so, and you will supply rations, I will at once organize a battalion of picked men well mounted to guard the border from the Republican to the Arkansas." 47
In his acceptance Sheridan stated that Crawford's proposition would enable him to use seven companies of regulars who had been patrolling the frontier.48 Adjutant General McAfee on September 15 informed Governor Crawford that Sheridan would order the
45. Possibly Crawford was influenced by a letter from Major Armes, of Sheridan's staff, who secretly informed him that Sheridan was short of regulars and needed the aid of Kan- sas volunteers. — Armes to Crawford, September 8, 1868, C. K. G., Crawford. (Incoming letters.)
46. C. K. G., Crawford. (Telegrams), p. 98.
47. Ibid., p. 154.
48. Ibid., p. 97.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 461
guns from Fort Leavenworth and sixty days' rations from Fort Harker to be sent immediately to Salina, where the battalion was to organize. He added that Sheridan wanted the battalion in the field as soon as possible, since the seven companies of regular soldiers were needed on the plains at once.49
The next day Governor Crawford issued his proclamation for volunteers. Instructions were also telegraphed to recruiting officers. Organization plans called for five companies of cavalry to enlist for three months' service with possibilities of only sixty days' service required. Each recruit was expected to furnish his own horse. Guns and ammunition were to be supplied by the United States through General Sheridan.50 After assembling at Salina, the head- quarters for arms, supplies, and enlistments, the companies were ordered to their respective stations. One company each was sta- tioned in the following localities: Lake Sibley, Solomon Valley, Salina, Marion Centre, and Topeka.51 The Topeka company was evidently held in reserve to reinforce the troops at other points.
The period from the sixteenth to the twenty-eighth of September was spent in preparation. Before the battalion was fully recruited and outfitted a call came from Sheridan to send the first company organized to the southwest frontier. Reports had reached Sheridan that a war party of Cheyennes and Arapahoes had crossed the Arkansas east of the Great Bend.52 Shortly afterwards Crawford was notified by Sheridan that the supposed Indian raid was a false report.53 On September 26 Sheridan wired Crawford to relieve his troops on the Saline and Republican as soon as possible.54 Two days later the first militia company marched away to the south- west. The other soon followed, and they assumed their respective positions along the line of patrol which extended from Nebraska south to Wichita. Good work was performed by this frontier battalion. No Indian depredations were committed during its sixty days of service except for one small raid on the Solomon in which four men were killed, one wounded, and a woman taken captive.
After sixty days' rations had been consumed, Adjutant General McAfee asked Sheridan if he wanted the battalion disbanded. Sheridan replied that he would ask authority for more rations.
49. Ibid., p. 82.
50. Crawford's instructions to recruiting officers, ibid., p. 149.
51. Daily Kansas State Record, Topeka, September 16, 1868.
52. Sheridan to Crawford, September 21, 1868, C. K. G., Crawford (Telegrams), p. 83.
53. Ibid., p. 84.
54. Adjutant General's Correspondence, 1868 (Kansas).
30—5605
462 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Soon after, however, he left Fort Hays to take the field against the Indians. Upon referring the question to General Sherman, McAfee received a refusal; consequently the Frontier battalion was ordered home by Colonel McAfee in the latter part of Novem- ber. Many of the soldiers were wholly destitute of winter clothing and both horses and men were near starvation when mustered out.55 It was really unnecessary to keep the men in service any longer, since by November the Indians had practically withdrawn from the state and Sheridan was carrying the war to them in a winter campaign. Many of the men in the battalion, however, seemed to think otherwise. On November 26, Gov. Nehemiah Green, who had succeeded Crawford, received a petition from members of the battal- ion near Salina. Permission was asked of the governor to retain one hundred men for a period of thirty more days with authority to drive all Indian hostiles outside the state. The petition further requested that they be rationed by the state and allowed to retain their arms. The reason given for this desire to extend their time of service was that four hundred Cheyennes and Arapahoes were in the Saline valley.56
Colonel McAfee, in order to fulfill this request, called upon the post adjutant at Fort Harker to issue more rations. His suggestion was promptly rejected by the adjutant, who stated that the issuance of rations to state militia was unauthorized and could not be com- plied with.57 State officials seemed willing to keep the militia out as long as the United States government furnished the rations. On the other hand, when the burden of rationing the troops fell to the lot of the state treasury the Indian danger at once became negligible and the militia was withdrawn.
It is extremely doubtful if the Indians reported on the Saline were Cheyennes and Arapahoes. It is even possible that there were no Indians in that region at the time. One month previous, Maj. George B. Jenness, of the Frontier battalion, had reported that the only hostile Indians remaining in northwestern Kansas were the Sioux on the Republican river, all Cheyenne and Arapahoe bands having gone into winter quarters.58
The last big Indian fight of the year in Kansas occurred on October 18, when Colonel Carpenter and the Tenth cavalry ex-
55. Adjutant General's Report, 1868, pp. 9, 10.
56. Adjutant General's Correspondence, 1868 (Kansas).
57. Ibid., letter from Post Adjutant Gardner to Colonel McAfee.
58. Major Jenness to Colonel McAfee, October 26, 1868, C. K. G., Crawford (Incoming letters).
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 463
changed blows with a large party of Cheyennes and Arapahoes near Buffalo Station, sixty miles west of Fort Hays. Nine Indians were killed and thirty wounded. Carpenter's losses were three wounded.59 On October 30 Indians derailed six cars of a Kansas Pacific ex- cursion train near Grinnell, Kan., but no one was hurt. Colored troops charged on the Indians and drove them away.60
Sheridan's winter campaign against the Cheyennes had been fore- shadowed on September 11 when he called upon Governor Craw- ford for the Frontier battalion. It was also predicted by General Sherman in the following prophetic statement: "When winter starves their [the Indians'] ponies, they will want a truce and shan't have it, unless the civil influence compels me again as it did last winter."61 General Sully 's September campaign south of the Arkansas had not succeeded in crushing the Indians. In fact, Sully himself was hard pressed before he managed to get back to Fort Dodge. Gen. W. B. Hazen at Fort Lamed attempted on September 19 and 20 to come to terms with the Kiowas and Comanches, but he failed to secure either peace or their removal to their reservation.62 The Indians "worked" Hazen, as they previously had hoodwinked Sully, and obtained arms and ammunition with which they promptly took the warpath.63 Continued Indian depredations after Sheridan had ordered the Indians out of Kansas exasperated the military authorities, Sherman finally authorizing Sheridan to proceed on a winter offensive.
On October 8 Sheridan informed Governor Crawford of his recent orders and called upon Kansas for a regiment of volunteer cavalry to serve six months.64 The Indian Peace Commission having sus- tained the war policy, military preparations could go forward with- out fear of interruption.65 Sheridan's plans for the Kansas volun- teers were that the cavalry should muster in Topeka and march overland to Camp Supply, in Indian territory, where they were to unite with Sheridan's forces from Fort Hays and Fort Dodge. Upon receipt of Sheridan's request Governor Crawford issued a proclama- tion calling for volunteers.
59. Daily Kansas State Record, Topeka, October 24, 1868; The Times and Conservative, Leavenworth, October 27, 1868.
60. The Times and Conservative, October 31, 1868.
61. W. T. Sherman to Sen. John Sherman, September 23, 1868, The Sherman Letters (edited by Raphael Sherman Thorndike), p. 322.
62. Sheridan to Crawford, October 8, 1868, C. K. G , Crawford (Telegrams), p. 87.
63. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, pp. 318, 319.
64. Sheridan to Crawford, October 8, 1868, C. K. G., Crawford (Telegrams). 65 Sheridan to Crawford, October 9, 1868, ibid., p. 88.
464 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The response was instantaneous. Letters and telegrams came from all over the state offering services of officers and men.66 On October 20, 1868, company A was mustered in at Topeka. Other companies were rapidly added to the ranks until the regiment was complete. On November 4 Governor Crawford resigned his office to take command of the expedition.67 The next day the Nineteenth Kansas cavalry began the long trek across the plains to meet Sheri- dan. The regiment reached Camp Supply on November 26, after suffering great hardships. Freezing weather and lack of food killed many of their horses ; consequently nearly half the regiment finished the campaign as infantry. Before the Nineteenth arrived Gen. George A. Custer, with his Seventh cavalry, had advanced south- ward to the Washita river and destroyed Black Kettle's Cheyenne village.68
Custer's work on the Washita was but a part of the campaign plan of Sheridan. The entire plan called for the concerted operation of three separate columns of troops from Fort Hays, Kan., Fort Lyon, Colo., and Fort Bascom, New Mex. Col. A. W. Evans, with six cavalry troops and two infantry companies, was to leave Fort Bascom and work down the Canadian river. Gen. E. A. Carr and seven troops of Fifth cavalry were scheduled to march southeast from Fort Lyon to the North Canadian. Sheridan, with the main force, expected to strike the Indian villages along the Washita river. The three columns planned to converge and punish the Indians in a series of decisive engagements. The aims of the campaign were to force the Indians on their reservations and, if that failed, to show them that they would have no security winter or summer unless they respected the laws of peace and humanity.69
The battle of the Washita has received so much publicity that only the main facts of the affair need be told. On the morning of November 27, after having followed the trail of a returning war party, Custer's men surrounded the sleeping village. At dawn the charge was sounded and the cavalry swept down upon the surprised Indians, driving them from their tepees. The Cheyennes never had a chance and were badly beaten. Black Kettle, their chief, fell at
66. Governor Crawford's correspondence in the archives of the Kansas State Historical Society contain seventy-four letters from men in twenty-three different counties all of which were offers to serve in the Nineteenth Kansas Volunteer cavalry.
67. Crawford responded to a popular demand on the part of the officers and men of the regiment. Many of his personal friends advised him against taking the position. — Daily Kansas State Record, Topeka.
68. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, p. 325.
69. Sheridan, Personal Memoirs, v. II, pp. 307-309; Report of the Secretary of War, 41 Cong., 2 sess., p. 45.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 465
the first onslaught. Ouster's men destroyed the village and killed the captured pony herd. Unknown to Ouster, the entire valley below the Cheyenne village was full of Indians — Arapahoes, Kiowas and Comanches. These Indians, hearing the sounds of battle, came to the rescue of their Cheyenne friends. Seeing such overwhelming numbers arriving, Custer very prudently withdrew and marched back to Camp Supply. Statistics of the battle are greatly at vari- ance. In his report Custer stated that one hundred three warriors were killed and fifty-three women and children captured. The Indians themselves told Gen. B. H. Grierson in 1869 that the Chey- enne loss was thirteen men, sixteen women, and nine children.70 Ouster's own losses were nineteen killed and thirteen wounded.71
Much controversy has existed since the Washita battle as to whether or not Black Kettle's band deserved what befell them. Sheridan himself thought that Black Kettle deserved what he got since he had freely encouraged the Saline and Solomon raids, even though he did not personally participate in them.72 In his report to the Secretary of War Sheridan referred to the Cheyenne chief in the following uncomplimentary fashion :
"Black Kettle, ... a worn-out and worthless old cypher, was said to be friendly ; but when I sent him word to come to Dodge before any of the troops had commenced operations, saying that I would feed and protect himself and family, he refused, . . . He was also with the band on Walnut creek, where they made their medicine, or held their devilish incantations previous to the party setting out to massacre the settlers."73
Other references to Black Kettle have been more kindly. William Windom, of Minnesota, during debate in the house of representa- tives, mentioned "Black Kettle and his friendly band."74 George Bird Grinnell has cited Black Kettle as a fine example of a patriot and has eulogized him in these words: ''Black Kettle was a striking example of a consistently friendly Indian, who, because he was friendly and because his whereabouts was usually known, was pun- ished for the acts of people whom it was supposed he could con- trol."75
J. R. Mead, writing in the Wichita Eagle many years after the battle, called the Washita affair a massacre of innocent Indians. The writer declared that Black Kettle was not a hostile and never
70. Grinnell, The Fighting Cheyennes, p. 289.
71. Sheridan, Personal Memoirs, v. II, p. 314.
72. Ibid., p. 318.
73. Report of the Secretary of War, 41 Cong., 2 sess., p. 47.
74. Congressional Olobe, House proceedings, 1869, 40 Cong., 3 sess., p. 683.
75. The Fighting Cheyennes, p. 298.
466 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
had been, that General Hazen had given the chief a letter guaran- teeing him and his band protection, and that when William Griffen- stein, a friendly trader and afterwards mayor of Wichita, accused Sheridan of striking a camp of friendly Indians he was ordered out of the Indian territory by Sheridan and threatened with hanging if he returned.76
The best statement on the mooted question has been offered by George Bent, the half-breed Cheyenne. Bent said that Black Kettle himself was friendly, but that the Cheyenne raiders on the Saline and Solomon joined Black Kettle's camp, making it appear that the band was hostile.77 Little Raven, an Arapahoe chief, testified on April 9, 1869, before General Grierson that the Cheyennes and Arap- ahoes did not understand where their reservation was located. The Arapahoe chieftain thought Custer's attack was due to the fact that the Indians were off their reservation.78
On December 7 Sheridan's entire force left Camp Supply and ad- vanced to the Washita. Upon their approach the Indians broke camp and fled, the Cheyennes and Arapahoes retreating southward while the Kiowas and Comanches headed for the Wichita moun- tains. Sheridan followed the latter group after having thoroughly explored the site of the Washita battlefield.79 The expedition over- took the fleeing Indians on December 17 near Fort Cobb. While preparing to strike the Kiowa village, Sheridan was stopped by a message sent from Fort Cobb by General Hazen. The latter in- formed Sheridan that the Indians had surrendered to the Interior Department and that they were not hostile.80 Once more the con- flict of authority between the War and Interior Departments pre- vented decisive military action. Sheridan was very angry at Hazen for interfering because he believed that the Kiowas richly deserved a severe trouncing.81 Hazen, of course, was acting under orders, since he had been detailed by both the War Department and the Indian Bureau to take charge of the arrangements for bringing about peace and putting the Kiowa and Comanche Indians on their reser- vation. The difficulty was that Hazen's and Sheridan's instructions were not in harmony. Hazen had regarded the Cheyennes and
76. The Wichita Daily Eagle, March 2, 1893. (It is of interest to know that the writer of this article, J. R. Mead, was the Indian trader at Wichita who was accused by Governor Crawford in 1867 of having sold arms and ammunition to hostile Indians.)
77. "Forty Years With the Cheyennes," The Frontier, March, 1906.
78. Report of the Secretary of the Interior, House Executive Documents, 41 Con., 2 sess., v. Ill, p. 524.
79. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, pp. 326-328.
80. Sheridan, Personal Memoirs, v. II, p. 323.
81. Report of the Secretary of War, 41 Cong., 2 sess., p. 49.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 467
Arapahoes only as being hostile. He had therefore refused to allow them to come in to Fort Cobb and make peace, although Black Kettle and a delegation had appeared for that purpose shortly be- fore Ouster's attack.82
Although professing friendship, the wily Kiowas and Comanches endeavored to escape Sheridan and flee southward. By a bit of stratagem Sheridan prevented this and managed to accomplish a complete surrender. Sheridan's method was quite simple but effec- tive. It consisted of capturing Satanta and Lone Wolf, the principal Kiowa chiefs, and threatening to hang them.83
The backbone of the Indian rebellion was broken on December 25 when Colonel Evans completely crushed the last hostile band of Comanches on the Canadian river. This had its effect upon the Cheyennes and the Arapahoes who were still at large. At midnight on December 31 a delegation of chiefs from these tribes came into Fort Cobb begging for peace. They reported that their tribes were in mourning for their losses . . . their people starving, ponies dying, dogs all eaten up, no buffalo. Sheridan accepted their un- conditional surrender and decided to punish them justly. "I can scarcely make error in any punishment awarded, for all have blood upon their hands," he firmly asserted.84
The year thus ended with fair prospects of the Indian wars in Kansas soon coming to a close. In the meantime Governor Green of Kansas had appealed to General Sully to place a permanent patrol of troops on the Saline and Solomon. Sully answered by sending one hundred fifty regulars to the region and promised to keep men there in the future.85 No outbreaks occurred in that sec- tion until the following spring. The close of the year found the Nineteenth Kansas cavalry in good condition with forty-six officers and 1,112 men on duty.86
1869.
Throughout the winter months of the new year Sheridan's cam- paign continued. By the end of March the Indians had all been forced upon their reservations and the war was practically over so far as the southern tribes were concerned. There still remained in
82. On this occasion Black Kettle and the other chiefs said they wanted war with Kan- sas but peace at Fort Cobb ; i. e., war in summer and peace in winter. — Hazen's report to Sherman, June 30, 1869, Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1869, p. 390.
83. Sheridan, Personal Memoirs, v. II, p. 335.
84. News dispatch of Sheridan's report to Sherman dated January 16, 1869, printed in the Kansas State Record, Topeka, January 20, 1869.
85. Kansas State Record, Topeka, December 30, 1868.
86. Ibid.
468 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Kansas the danger of depredations from the Sioux, Northern Chey- enne and Dog Soldier bands, who usually spent part of each year hunting buffalo along the Smoky Hill and Republican. As a con- sequence, renewed outbreaks occurred and Governor Harvey was compelled to follow the example of Crawford in calling out a militia battalion for frontier duty. Pawnees and Osages also gave some trouble. In general, though, the Indian raids were much less serious than those of 1864 to 1868.
Sheridan remained camped at Fort Cobb for several weeks, after which he moved farther south to the Wichita mountains. Near the latter he established Fort Sill. The Cheyennes had not remained true to their peace pledge. Part of them and nearly all of the Arapahoes gave themselves up, but Little Robe and the remainder of the tribe refused to come in. With this band were two captive white women, victims of the Saline-Solomon raids of the previous summer. Sheridan and Custer were especially anxious to recover these unfortunate captives.
On March 2, 1869, the Seventh cavalry and the Nineteenth Kan- sas cavalry left Fort Sill under the respective commands of Gen. Geo. A. Custer and Col. Horace L. Moore, who had succeeded Gov- ernor Crawford in February. The object of the expedition was to recapture the captive women and force Little Robe's band into submission. After an exhausting pursuit the Cheyennes were over- taken near the Staked Plains of Texas. Instead of destroying the Indians, as could easily have been done, Custer used diplomacy in order to recapture the women. By a repetition of Sheridan's "hang man" stunt, Custer frightened the chiefs into ordering the release of the women. Little Robe's band then surrendered and returned to Camp Supply.87
This affair closed the winter campaign. General Sheridan was called to Washington to become commander of the Military Division of the Missouri in place of Sherman, who had been appointed gen- eral in chief of the United States army upon Grant's vacating that office for the presidency. In his report of the campaign Sheridan was able to say that all objectives had been accomplished. This meant that punishment had been inflicted, property destroyed, the Indians disabused of the idea that winter would bring security, and all tribes south of the Platte forced upon their reservations.88
87. Sheridan, Personal Memoirs, v. II, pp. 344, 345; Horace L. Moore, "The Nineteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry," Kansas Historical Collections, v. VI, pp. 44-47 ; Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, pp. 330-335.
88. Moore, op. cit.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 469
When Gen. J. M. Schofield succeeded Sheridan as commander of the Department of the Missouri on March 20, 1869, the winter campaign had practically ended and the troops were en route to their usual stations.89 The Nineteenth Kansas was ordered to Fort Hays on March 31, and was mustered out April 18. Only one man of the regiment was killed in service.90
Indian affairs by this time were fairly well settled. The Arapa- hoes were located at Camp Supply in complete submission. The Comanches, Kiowas and Apaches were on their reservation. The Cheyennes had promised to make their submission in a short time, but dissension was rife in their ranks. The Dog Soldier bands under Tall Bull refused to make peace, whereas the majority of the tribe had tasted enough of war and favored accepting the reservation. As a consequence the tribe divided, Tall Bull and 250 warriors with their families joining the Sioux and Northern Cheyennes on the Republican, while Little Robe and the greater part of the tribe re- mained in Indian territory and were ultimately provided with a reservation in the vicinity of Camp Supply.91
Tall Bull and his cohorts on the Republican were not content to let matters rest. On May 21, 1869, Sioux and Cheyennes made a raid in Republic county, killing thirteen persons and taking two women and a child captive.92 On May 29 Indians attacked the Kansas Pacific railroad near Fossil creek. Two miles of track were torn up, a train was ditched and traffic held up for nearly a day.93 The next day the Saline valley was victim of a raid nearly identical to that of May 21. Thirteen people were killed and wounded and two more women were captured.94
General Custer immediately left Fort Hays in pursuit, but failed to catch the Indians. It remained for Major General Carr to ad- minister the final blow to Tall Bull's band. Carr with his Fifth cavalry had been operating under Gen. C. C. Augur in the Platte division of the Department of the Missouri. On July 11, Carr with seven companies of cavalry and one hundred fifty Pawnee scouts under Major North, completely destroyed Tall Bull's village at Summit Springs, Colo. Tall Bull was killed and his band nearly
89. Schofield's report to the Secretary of War, October 23, 1869, in Report of the Sec- retary of War, 41 Cong., 2 sess., p. 67.
90. Wilder, Annals of Kansas, p. 502.
91. Schofield's report, pp. 67, 68.
92. Wilder, Annals of Kansas, pp. 502, 503.
93. Indian history (miscellaneous collection of MSS, Archives, Kansas State Historical Society).
94. Adjutant General's Report, 1869 (Kansas), p. 7.
470 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
annihilated.95 Hearing of this, the Cheyennes in Indian territory hastened to Fort Supply to make peace. The remnants of Tall Bull's tribe drifted in later and begged for peace. As a result there were no hostile Indians left on the plains of Kansas and Colorado.96
While the Nineteenth cavalry had been pursuing Little Robe's band in Texas, Indian affairs in Kansas were not entirely quiet. In January General Sully warned Gov. James M. Harvey that hostile Indians had recently been seen near Hays. Sully believed that the exposed settlers should be warned. He added that all of his spare cavalry was engaged in patrol duty on the Saline and Solomon, but that more had been applied for.97 Indians also were reported in February on the Smoky Hill west of Junction City.98 Governor Harvey accordingly warned the settlements and ordered various frontiersmen to raise squads of scouts for defense. Colonel McAfee hastened towards the frontier to make arrangements for supplying these scouts with rations.99 Adjutant General McKeever, of Fort Leavenworth, on February 27 issued three thousand rounds of ammunition to Governor Harvey for distribution among frontier settlers.100
The Kansas state legislature took action in February and passed two measures for frontier protection. The first of these authorized the governor to call into immediate active service not more than two hundred state militia to be stationed at the most exposed points. To meet the expense of supplying this group of militia an act was passed providing for the issuance and sale of state bonds. Both of these acts were approved by Governor Harvey on February 26. 101
After the Indian raids of May and June, the militia was again called into service. Four companies and a detachment were mustered in during July and stationed on the northwestern frontier. The Second Frontier battalion, as it was called, served until November 20, 1869, when the final muster out occurred. Although originally organized with a roll of eleven officers and three hundred enlisted men, the number was gradually reduced as the Indian danger dimmshed. Only one hundred fifteen remained at the final muster.102
95. George Bird Grinnell, Two Great Scouts and Their Pawnee Battalion, pp. 196-202.
96. Schofield's report, Report of the Secretary of War, 41 Cong., 2 sess., p. 68.
97. Sulley to Governor Harvey, January 18, 1869, Adjutant General's Correspondence, 1869 (Kansas).
98. Kansas State Record, Topeka, February 3, 1869.
99. Ibid., January 20, 1869.
100. Order from McKeever to commander at Fort Leavenworth, Adjutant General's Cor- respondence, 1869 (Kansas).
101. House Journal, Kansas State Legislature, 1869, pp. 722, 784, 786, 866, 917; Laws of Kansas, 1869, p. 169.
102. Adjutant General's Report, 1869, p. 7.
GARFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 471
The four companies were located as follows: Company A at Spill- man creek, Saline valley; Company B at Plum creek, Solomon valley; Company C at Fisher creek, Solomon valley; Company D at the forks of Beaver creek and Republican river. The troops patrolled the border line effectively, but never came into contact with any large numbers of Indians. This was the last militia battalion ever called out to defend the Kansas frontier.103
Before the organization of the Second Frontier battalion Adjutant General Moorehouse had called into service several companies of regular militia. These were ordered by Governor Harvey to co- operate with the United States cavalry on the Solomon river fol- lowing an Indian attack near Minneapolis in June.104 Light ar- tillery from Fort Riley was also mounted and armed as cavalry at the request of the governor. The artillery men performed quite efficiently.105
In addition to its troubles with the savage plains tribes Kansas suffered at the hands of its own reservation Indians. Numerous complaints reached Governor Harvey concerning petty depredations of Pawnees, Otoes and Osages. One Junction City citizen wanted the "scalawag Pawnees and Otoes" to be warned to keep clear of all settlements during times of Indian hostility because all Indians looked alike to white men and many of these "friendlies" were being killed as a result.106 Cowley county settlers petitioned Harvey to protect them from Osages, who had driven off stock, burned a store, confiscated settlers' claims, and in general acted arrogantly toward the white men in the region.107 Osages were also driving settlers off the Osage neutral lands during the year.108
In order to repay in a measure the Kansas settlers who had suffered at the hands of the Indians, the state legislature in 1869 passed an act providing for a commission to investigate and allow claims of citizens for damages done by Indians in 1867-1868.109 The commission visited Ellsworth, Saline, Ottawa, Cloud and Mitchell counties and allowed a total of one hundred twenty claims
103. A. T. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 211.
104. Governor Harvey to Colonel Moorehouse, June 13, 1869, Adjutant General's Cor- respondence, 1869 (Kansas).
105. Ward Burlingame to General Pope, May 20, 1870, C. K. G., Harvey (Letterpress books), Archives, Kansas State Historical Society. (Burlingame mentioned the use of artil- lerymen as cavalry in 1869 and wanted Pope to permit it again in 1870.)
106. S. D. Houston to Governor Harvey, February 19, 1869, C. K. G., Harvey (Incom- ing letters).
107. Petition of fifty-five settlers of Cowley county, Adjutant General's Correspondence, 1869.
108. Letter from Joe M. Culver, citizen of Montgomery county, ibid.
109. Laws of Kansas, 1869, pp. 201-204.
472 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
for an aggregate of $58,944.34. The number of offenses charged to various Indian tribes were as follows: Cheyennes, seventy-seven; Sioux, thirty-four; Pawnee, fifteen; Kiowa, nine; Arapahoe, seven; Comanche, one. In its tour of investigation the commission found many claims abandoned and fields deserted. In concluding its report the commission urged that all Indian tribes be excluded from the state, adding that until such measures were taken there could be no permanent feeling of security on the frontier.110 The claims audited by the commission were referred to congress for final pay- ment.
Kansas in addition carried on some relief work in cooperation with the United States army. In February General Sully rationed the destitute settlers of the Saline and Solomon regions and then in- formed Governor Harvey of his investigations.111 General Sherman also sent an inspector to the locality, who in turn reported to the Kansas governor. In this report Gen. N. H. Davis, assistant in- spector general of the Department of the Missouri, announced that the government had provided for the immediate wants of the set- tlers by issuing food and clothing. The settlers, however, were in great need of seed wheat, which the military authorities were un- able to furnish; consequently he appealed to Governor Harvey to furnish it.112 As a result the Kansas state legislature on March 1 passed an act authorizing the governor to purchase and distribute $15,000 worth of seed wheat to the destitute frontier citizens. The counties affected by the act were Clay, Cloud, Ellsworth, Lincoln, Marion, Mitchell, McPherson, Jewell, Ottawa, Republic, Saline and Washington.113
War Department statistics for the years 1868-1869 indicated that these two years were the worst in the history of plains warfare in the Department of Missouri. Indian depredations for the period ran as follows: One hundred fifty-eight people murdered; sixteen wounded; forty-one scalped; fourteen women outraged; one man, four women, and seven children captured; twenty-four houses at- tacked and burned; twelve stage coaches attacked and impeded; four wagon trains destroyed; and eighteen Indians killed in these attacks. Statistics on conflicts between the Indians and the military were as follows: Number of engagements, eleven; total number of
110. Report of the commission to Governor Harvey, August, 1869, House Miscellaneous Documents, No. 20, 41 Cong., 2 sess.
111. Sulley to Harvey, February 12 and 18, 1869, C. K. G., Harvey (Incoming letters).
112. Davis to Harvey, February 25, 1869, ibid.
113. Laws of Kansas, 1869, pp. 262-264.
GAKFIELD: DEFENSE OF THE KANSAS FRONTIER 473
soldiers killed, thirty-five ; total number of soldiers wounded, forty- nine; Indians killed, two hundred ninety-one; Indians wounded, two hundred fifty.114 With the close of this period the worst Indian troubles in Kansas had ended, although the years that followed brought their toll of death and destruction to the venturesome pio- neers of the Jayhawk state.
114. Report of the Secretary of War, 41 Cong., 2 sess., v. II, Part I, pp. 52-55.
Kansas History as Published in the State Press
Historical notes of early Stockton were published in a column entitled "In the Days of Old," in the Rooks County Record, Stock- ton, December 17, 1931, and succeeding issues. The notes were gathered from an early newspaper file by F. E. Young.
Interesting records gleaned from account books kept by Peter Robidoux, a storekeeper at Fort Wallace, were published in the Hois- ington Dispatch, December 17, 1931. The story, a reprint from the Oakley Graphic, named many early-day personalities who had ac- counts with Mr. Robidoux.
Brief historical sketches of each of Kansas' 105 counties pro- vided a daily feature for the Kansas City (Mo.) Journal-Post, start- ing with its issue of March 24, 1932. A page story of Jacob Achen- bach, builder of the Kiowa, Hardtner & Pacific and the Beaver, Meade & Englewood railroads, is also of interest to Kansans. It was published by the Journal-Post May 8.
"Wichita From 1717 to 1900," by E. V. Long, is published serially in the Wichita Independent. The first installment appeared May 17, 1932.
The Protection Post, starting with its issue of May 26, 1932, and the Wilmore News, commencing with its issue of June 3, published weekly the reminiscences of J. W. Dappert, an early-day surveyor in Comanche county.
Emanuel Lutheran congregation of Hepler celebrated its fiftieth anniversary May 29, 1932. A history of the organization was con- tributed by Rev. R. Hildebrandt to the Girard Press, June 2.
An interview with "Our Doctor Mary" Bennett, now 80 years old, pioneer woman physician of Kansas, was published in the Greensburg News, June 2, 1932. The article was written by A. B. MacDonald and first appeared in the Kansas City (Mo.) Star.
The St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran church of Alta Vista cele- brated its twenty-fifth anniversary June 12, 1932. A brief history of the church was published June 9 in the Alta Vista Journal.
Early Washington county history was republished by the Wash- ington County Register, Washington, June 10, 1932. The material
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KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS 475
was taken from an old state history. On June 24 the Register recorded the history of its post office. In the issues of August 5, 12 and 19 the editor featured the names of prominent citizens active in various county organizations which had been in existence before 1886. The papers had been preserved in a cornerstone box of the Washington county courthouse, which was recently razed.
Stories of travel over "Old Trails of the Southwest," by India H. Simmons, have been printed in the Dodge City Daily Globe, com- mencing with the issue of June 21, 1932.
Reminiscences of prairie schooner days of the West, by Harry Johnson, were published in the Colony Free Press, June 23, 1932.
Disastrous fires in Parsons' history were recalled by Walter Buel, fire chief, in the Parsons Sun, June 23, 1932.
Scott county historical notes have provided the Scott City News Chronicle with material for a regular front-page feature. The series started June 23, 1932, under the supervision of Elmer Epperson, director of the Scott County Historical Society and editor of the News Chronicle. Letters from pioneers and short paragraphs re- lating county facts are published.
Impressions received by Finlay Ross, Ellsberry Martin and Dave D. Leahy on revisiting Caldwell, a city they visited many times a half century ago, were recorded by Leahy in his column "Random Recollections of Other Days," appearing in the Wichita Sunday Eagle June 26, 1932. Life at old Runnymede was featured in his Eagle column July 10, and an article "Anecdotes of Barber County/' inspired by an interview with Tom McNeal, was published Sep- tember 4.
Two interviews which W. W. Graves read at a meeting of the Neosho County Historical Society June 23, 1932, have been pub- lished in his St. Paul Journal. One, an interview with the late Francis M. Dinsmore, was published June 30. Mr. Dinsmore settled in East Lincoln in 1865. The other, an interview with Stephen C. Beck, early resident of St. Paul, who told of the found- ing of Erie, appeared July 21.
At the death of James J. Peate, June 23, 1932, the Lincoln Sen- tinel-Republican and the Lincoln County News, Lincoln, in the issues of June 30, recalled his part in leading rescuers to Gen. George A. Forsyth and his band besieged on Beecher's Island at the battle
476 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of the Arickaree. Mr. Peate came to Kansas in 1866 and engaged in scouting duty. He later settled at Beverly, where he resided until his death. A memorial address was dedicated to Mr. Peate at the annual Beecher's Island reunion, September 18.
The fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Everest was observed with a community picnic, August 13, 1932. The Everest Enterprise published historical editions June 30 and July 7, commemorating the event.
"The Story of Hutchinson and Reno County, Year by Year," by Ed M. Moore, staff historian, was published in a 32-page illustrated historical supplement commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the Hutchinson News, July 2, 1932. First settlers of Reno county, first churches, first hotels, first trains, first flour mill, first gas fran- chise, first electric street lights, Reno county's "ghost" towns, names of pioneers still living in Reno county and a full-sized reproduction of the first edition of the News issued on July 4, 1872, were features of the supplement.
A history of the Wichita Beacon was published July 3, 1932, as a part of the fourth anniversary edition commemorating its purchase by Max, Louis and John Levand. The Beacon was first established by F. A. Sowers and D. C. Millison on October 18, 1872.
"The 'Cowboy' Struts Again in Dodge City" was the subject of a radio address by Henry L. Carey over KGNO recently. The ad- dress, in part, was published in the Dodge City Daily Globe, July 6, 1932.
"Early History of Cowley County," by Nadina Carr, was a weekly feature of the Winfield Independent-Record from July 7 through August 25, 1932.
The story of the founding of Utica was told in the Hutchinson Herald, July 10, 1932, by Mrs. Ella Ferrell, one of the first settlers on the original townsite. The Utica Star-Courier reprinted the article on July 14.
A two-column history of Alexander, Rush county, was published in the Alexander Booster, July 12, 1932. The first settlement was made by Alexander Harvey.
The fifty-fourth anniversary edition of the Kingman Leader- Courier was published July 15, 1932, featuring pictures and stories
KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS 477
of early-day Kingman. The Leader-Courier was founded as the Kingman Mercury, June 14, 1878, and took its present name in 1889.
Salina's history was reviewed briefly by George T. Woolley in The Merchants Journal, Topeka, July 16, 1932, and was reprinted in the Salina Journal, July 18. Mr. Woolley came to Salina in 1867.
A description of the breastworks at Battle Canyon, and the death of Col. Wm. H. Lewis, were recalled by Henry Howell in a letter published by the Scott City News Chronicle, July 21, 1932.
Excerpts from the diary of the late Mrs. Z. N. Jackson, a Civil War nurse, were published in the Olathe Mirror, July 28, 1932. Al- though a resident of the South, Mrs. Jackson took up her duties with the Union forces while her husband fought with the Confederates. They were reunited after the war and settled in Kansas in 1868.
'The Story of Our Shawnee Mission," by William C. Scarritt, was published in The Northeast Johnson County Herald, Overland Park, July 28, 1932. The article was a resume of an address given by Mr. Scarritt at the dedicatory services of the Shawnee Mission Indian Historical Society, held in Shawnee Mission last June.
A Royal buffalo hunt in 1872, in which Grand Duke Alexis of Russia figured, was described by Sue Carmody Jones for the Topeka State Journal, August 6, 1932. The story was based on the manu- scripts of James Albert Hadley and "Chalk" Beeson, now in th? possession of the Kansas State Historical Society.
Fifty "lost" towns of Kansas were recalled by the Kansas City (Mo.) Journal-Post in a half-page feature article August 7, 1932.
"When Times Were Really Hard in Kansas" was the title of a feature story published in the Wichita Sunday Eagle, August 14, 1932. The article was based on a series of letters written by the late J. Hout Minnich from El Paso, Kan., covering the period from June 3, 1872, through 1874.
A diary kept by the late Capt. J. H. Baker, of Palo Pinto county, Texas, recording a cattle drive to Wichita in 1869, was featured in the Wichita Sunday Eagle, August 21, 1932. The story was reprinted from an article by E. B. Ritchie in the Fort Worth (Tex.) Cattleman.
A special pictorial supplement commemorating the sixtieth an- niversary of the Newton Kansan-Republican was published August 22, 1932. The edition featured Newton newspaper history. 31—5605
478 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
"Some Early Lawrence History" was the title of a column ap- pearing in the Lawrence Democrat, August 25, 1932, which recalled Quantrill's raid on the city in 1863.
A brief interview with L. J. H. Wooden, one of the first editors of the Dighton Herald, was published in the Herald August 25, 1932.
"Historical Sketches from the Scrapbook of James J. Peate" is the title of a column appearing serially in the Lincoln Sentinel- Republican. The series started with the issue of August 25, 1932, and reviews many incidents of interest to Lincoln county pioneers.
Names of the early residents of northwest Kansas who registered at the old settlers' picnic at Oberlin August 26, 1932, were published in the Oberlin Herald September 1. Speeches by W. S. Langmade, of Oberlin, C. C. Andrews, of Norcatur, and John S. Dawson, of Topeka, president of the Kansas State Historical Society, were features of the occasion.
A brief sketch of the Clearwater schools, as contained in a history of education in Sedgwick county, by Mrs. C. R. Rankin, was published in the Clearwater News September 1, 1932.
The experiences of Albert J. Beveridge in Dighton and Lane county were published by the Dighton Herald September 1, 1932, from a recent issue of the Literary Guild.
"An Episode in the Life of Capt. John Brown," as related by the late Charles Smith to J. Albert Smith, of Lincoln, provided a three- column feature story for the Wetmore Spectator in its issue of September 2, 1932. Mr. Smith, a Brown county settler in 1856, entertained Brown and his party in his log-cabin home on January 31, 1859, as they were fleeing northward after the "Battle of the Spurs."
Featuring news stories taken from old files, The Johnson County Democrat, Olathe, published a special historical section in its issue of September 1, 1932, announcing the thirty-fifth annual old settlers' reunion held at Olathe, September 3, 1932. A special historical edition was also published by the Olathe Mirror September 1, and the names of the five hundred old settlers registering at the event were printed in its September 8 issue.
The sixtieth anniversary edition of the Smith County Pioneer, Smith Center, was published September 8, 1932. The newspaper was first issued at Cedarville, but was removed to Smith Center in
KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS 479
1873 following the location of the county seat at the latter place. A story of the growth and decay of old Salem, the establishment of the Smith Center town site, the organization of the county, the coming of the railroad, and recollections of the pioneers were high lights of the edition.
Letters from David Hoag, founder of Oakley, and Edward Kleist, editor of the city's first newspaper, were published by the Oakley Graphic September 9, 1932, in a special issue announcing Oakley's forty-seventh birthday anniversary held September 15. William Wyscarver, another early Oakley resident, wrote briefly of his ex- periences in the Graphic, September 16. Mr. and Mrs. Wyscarver were the second couple to be married in the city.
Frontenac's mine disaster of November 9, 1888, was recalled by James Hall, one of the survivors, for the fourth annual coal editions of the Pittsburg HeadUght September 12, 1932, and the Sun, September 13.
Special historical editions of interest to Marion county residents were issued by the Marion Review September 13, 1932, and the Marion Record September 15. The newspapers featured programs for the old settlers' picnic which was held at Marion September 16.
A two-column history of the Clyde Methodist Episcopal church was published by the Republican September 15, 1932, in com- memoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the organization. Charles H. French was the compiler.
"Memories of the Early Days in Southeast Kansas," by W. N. Baylor, was the title of a sketch appearing in the Edna Sun Sep- tember 15, 1932. Mr. Baylor came to Labette county in 1872.
Norton's newspaper history was briefly reviewed in the Norton Champion, September 15, 1932.
"Days of 1879," an early history of Stafford county, is published serially in The County Capital, St. John, starting with the Septem- ber 15, 1932, issue. The historical record was first published in 1895 and was republished this year as a feature of the county's old set- tlers' reunion.
A history of the Garden City community church, by Mrs. W. A. Blanchard, was published in the Garden City News September 15, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the first organized church in the city.
480 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The twenty-fifth anniversary of St. Paul's Lutheran church, near Washington, was celebrated September 11, 1932. John Stamm con- tributed a brief history of the parish to the Hanover Democrat Sep- tember 16.
Early history of the Richmond Methodist Episcopal church was briefly reviewed in the Richmond Enterprise September 22, 1932.
A special 24-page historical edition announcing the sixty-fifth anniversary of the signing of the peace treaty between the United States and the five tribes of Plains Indians was published by The Barber County Index, Medicine Lodge, September 22, 1932. Eye- witness stories and a reproduction of the original treaty were fea- tured. The signing of the peace treaty is officially commemorated by the citizens of Medicine Lodge every five years. This year it was held on October 5, 6 and 7.
Kansas Historical Notes
A Kiowa County Historical Society was organized at Belvidere August 19, 1932. Officers for the new organization are: J. A. Sherer, Mullinville, president; W. L. Fleener, Sr., Greensburg, first vice president; Bert Woodard, Haviland, second vice president; Mrs. Anna McQuey, Belvidere, third vice president; Mrs. B. 0. Weaver, Mullinville, secretary; and Mrs. Charles T. Johnson, Greensburg, treasurer. Officers were installed September 6 at the courthouse in Greensburg.
Facts establishing the site of the first Southeast Kansas mission, one mile west of Shaw, were presented at the annual meeting of the Neosho County Historical Society June 23, 1932, by T. F. Morrison. "Neosho" mission was founded September 15, 1824, by a young Presbyterian minister, Benton Pixley, who came westward from Harmony Mission in Bates county, Mo., which had been established three years earlier. Papers prepared by W. W. Graves from inter- views with two Neosho county pioneers were also read at this meeting.
A historical parade representing every period in the history of Abilene and central Kansas featured the week's program celebrating the opening of KFBI, Abilene's new radio station, on July 14, 1932.
General Motors' radio program, "Parade of States," was devoted to Kansas September 19, 1932. A tribute to the state's historical and industrial development, by Bruce Barton, was read. A framed copy of the address was presented to the Kansas State Historical Society.
Annual old settlers' reunions are becoming a part of city and com- munity life in Kansas. Limited space does not permit a detailed discussion of these gatherings, but a list of a few of the communities sponsoring meetings, and the dates, are appended: Stockton, July 22; Green, July 28-30; Cherryvale, August 8-13; Jewell, August 9, 10; Arvonia, August 10; Halstead, August 10, 11; Baldwin, August 12; Leoti, August 16; McPherson, August 17; Sublette, August 17; Nickerson, August 18, 19; Belvidere, August 19; Oskaloosa, August 19, 20; Mantey, August 20; Rantoul, August 23; Dorrance, August 24, 25; Mulvane, August 25; White Rock, August 25; Meade, Au- gust 25; Sparks, August 25-28; Oberlin, August 26; Selden, August
(481)
482 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
26 ; Lawndale, August 28 ; Wabaunsee, August 28 ; Ford, September 1 ; Pratt, September 2 ; Olathe, September 3 ; Topeka, September 12 ; Lawrence, September 12; Oakley, September 15; St. John, Septem- ber 16 ; Marion, September 16 ; Howard, September 16 ; Potwin, Sep- tember 22; Cimarron, September 24; Smith Center, September 28, and Herington, October 4.
Errata to Volume I
Page 28, first paragraph, read "Joseph M. Cole."
Page 29, third line from bottom, read "Thomas Jenner," not "Dr."
Page 29, bottom of page, read "Joseph M. Cole."
Page 32, footnote 2, Thomas Jenner and Dr. Jacob F. Jenner were residents
of Indianola at the same time, and both were interested in the success of the
Free State cause.
Page 90, third line from bottom of page, Johnston Lykins was second mayor
of Kansas City, Mo.
Page 106, footnote 3, read "Joseph Eggleston Johnston."
Page 153, footnote 1, fifth line from bottom, read "Waterville Telegraph."
Page 212, line 17, read "successes" instead of "successors."
Page 300, third line from bottom, read "August 21, 1863."
Page 395, footnote 1, read "Abner S. Grover."
Index to Volume I
A.
Abbey News, Atchison, cited 186
Abert, Lieut. J. W 418
— mules stolen from, by Indians 419
Abilene 186
— cattle drive from Texas to 271
— Drover's cottage 190
— historical parade held in 481
sites marked by D. A. R 190
—McCoy's cattle trail to 298
— "Wild Bill" Hickok, marshal of 356
Abilene Daily Reflector, cited 190
Abilene High School, The Story of, by
Phyllis Dentzer 403
Abilene High School Booster, cited 403
Abilene Weekly Reflector, cited 403
Abolitionists, attacked wagon trains start- ing from Kansas City or Westport in
1856 21
— surround returning Santa Fe trains 24
Achenbach, Jacob, railroad builder and
town founder 186, 474
Adams, Daniel M 318
Adams, Franklin George 158
— agent for Kickapoo Indians 153
— biographical sketch of 153
— "The Kansas Indians," cited 51
Adams, Seth, printing presses made by . . 16
Adams, William H 9
— publisher Kansas Weekly Herald 8
— set type for his paper under elm tree. . 8 Adams, Zu, and George A. Root, "His- toric Locations in Kansas," cited 51
Adobe Walls 189
— battle of 184, 349, 354', 356
— buffalo hunting at 355
— site of 349
— trading post, built by Bent and St.
Vrain 347
Advocate-Democrat, Marysville, Pony ex- press marker dedicatory issue 78
Ah-chi-mo, Kickapoo Indian 157
Ainsworth, Mr. 23
Akin, Helen, cited 302, 303, 403, 404, 405
Albany (N. Y.) Journal 430
Albuquerque, N. M., supplies for 427
Alcoholic liquors, Indian outrages traced
to 328
Alexander, Rush county, historical notes
of 185, 476
Alexander Booster, cited 476
Alexis, Grand Duke of Russia, buffalo
hunt of 477
Alfalfa, thrives on stripped coal lands... 277
Alfalfa county, Oklahoma 118
Alkali 445
Allen, Charles Edwin, author .".'."!! 180
Allen, Norman, and T. Dwight Thacher,
found Lawrence Republican 13
Allen, Sen. R. N., Chanute 67
Allen, William V., Nebraska 163
Allen county 266
Allen revolvers, dubbed pepper boxes 30
Alley, 30
Allison, N. T., cited 110
Allison (Peacock), mentioned 203, 204
Allison's ranch 201, 202, 205
— at mouth of Walnut creek 199, 206
Alta Vista Journal, cited 474
Alta Vista St. Paul's Evangelical Lu- theran Church, twenty-fifth anniversary
of 474
Alter, J. Cecil, "James Bridger — a His- torical Narrative" 197
Althaus, Carl B., author 176
American Historical Association, annual
report cited 168, 307
American Historical Review 440
American Hotel, Kansas City, formerly
the Gillis House 435
American Legion 299
American Manufacturer, Pittsburgh,
Pa 364, 365
American Settlement Company, New
York 431
Americus Greeting, cited 402
Amherst college, mentioned 307
Amizon, steamboat 196
Ammunition, freighted to New Mexico... 18 Anderson, Mrs. Edna, daughter of Rev.
Thomas Johnson .' 304
Anderson, Capt. George Thomas 114,116
120, 128, 129
— biographical mention of 108
Anderson, G. W., Publishing Co 176
Anderson, John A 363
Anderson, Col. John B., papers of, cited, 330 334, 338, 342
Anderson, Thomas, author 176
Anderson, Maj. T. J., adjutant general.. 211 212, 243, 328
Andover Seminary, Andover, Mass 91, 94
Andreas, History of Kansas, cited 51
267, 269, 471
Andrews, C. C., Norcatur, cited 478
Angle, Paul McClelland, author 183
Annals of the City of Kansas and of the
Great Plains of the West, cited 20
Anson, Sumner county, on Texas cattle
trail 405
Anthony, Col. Daniel Read 402, 431
— mayor of Leavenworth 377
Anthony, Daniel Read, II 170
Anthony Republican, cited 409
Antioch church, Avilla township,
Comanche county 188
Apache Indians 19, 208, 343
442, 443, 447, 451, 457, 469 — Cimarron route abandoned because of
fear of 25
—new wards of United States 423
— treaty of Fort Atkinson with 21
— wars in Arizona and New Mexico 350
Appleton, New York, publishers 76
Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biog- raphy, cited 196
Apprenticeship, laws relating to 382,383
Arapahoe Indians 140, 141, 146
147, 150, 208, 210, 326, 340, 343, 422, 442
443, 445, 446, 447, 451, 452, 453, 457, 461
462, 465, 466, 467, 468, 469
— assigned to Fort Lyon for concentration, 142
— at treaty, Little Arkansas, 1865. . . 150, 151
— attack Mexican wagon train 458
— camp attacked by Col. Chivington 144
— Kansas offenses charged against 472
— left without a reservation 151
— recompensed as result of Sand Creek massacre 145
(483)
484
GENERAL INDEX
Arapahoe Indians, reservation near Fort
Lyon 144
— war party of 251
Arickaree, battle of 458-460, 475, 476
See, also, Beecher Island, battle of.
Arizona, Apache wars mentioned 350
— development of gold fields of 17
Arkadelphia, Ark 247
Arkansas 3
— campaign of 1862 in 222
— mentioned as Indian land boundary. ... 89
— Price's army retreats to 216
— rebel forces under General Hindman
concentrated in 222
— troops under command of Col. Wm. A.
Phillips left to protect 238
Arkansas City, First Presbyterian Church,
fifty-ninth anniversary celebrated 299
Arkansas City Daily Traveler 299
Arkansas City Tribune 299
Arkansas Post, General Blunt planned to
attack 238
Arkansas river 19, 22, 57
58, 115-117, 120, 121, 129, 133, 135-137
140, 141, 144, 151, 189, 190, 200-205, 208
238, 242, 243, 245, 246, 251, 256, 264, 343
345, 445, 446, 458, 461, 463
— Aubrey crossing 207
— Blunt 's pursuit of Cooper and Stand
Watie to 228
— Cimarron Crossing of 54, 199
— ferryboat carrying rebels disabled
in 236, 237
— Fort Lyon, located on 61
—forts on 418, 422
— forts to be established on 150
— Hindman's forces south of 234
— Indian depredations on 420
— Indians attack traders at crossing of.. 421
—low in 1850 20
— Price's army retreats to south of 263
— Salt Fork of 116, 117
119-121, 132-134, 446
— Santa Fe crossing of 207, 416
Arkansas river route 348
Arkansas valley, Cheyennes induced to
move permanent camps to 347
— first railroad built up 303
Arlington cemetery 271
Arma, mine rescue station located at.... 280
Armes, Major George A 460
— expedition under, pursues Indians 339
Armit, Hodges &, steam shovel stripping
used in mining coal 273
Arms and ammunition, requested for
state 331, 332
Armstrong, Zella, author 180
Army depot, removed from Santa Fe to
Fort Union 20
Army of the Frontier 201, 236
— campaign in Arkansas abandoned by.. 229 — Gen. Schofield resumes command of,
Jan. 1, 1863 238
Army of the Potomac, First corps 196
Arnett, Alex M., The Populist Movement
in Georgia, cited 162
Arnold, Frank, survivor Baxter Springs
massacre 186
Arnold, F. D. W., author 186
Arnold, John, reminiscences of 185
Artillery, used in campaign against
Indians 251
Arvonia, old settlers' reunion held in.... 481
Ash creek 209
— known as Crooked creek 200
Asher creek settlement, attacked by
Indians 456
Aski, Kickapoo Indian 157
Atchison, David R., senator from Mis- souri, quoted 38
Atchison 87, 148, 153, 272, 442, 453
— approval of hangings at 241
— Board of Trade chartered 362
— Butterfield Overland Despatch ran to
Denver from 55
— criminals tried and hanged by citizens
court 240
— Emigrant Aid Company interested
in 434, 436
— fourth printing point in Territorial
Kansas 12
— goods for New Mexican trade brought
to 17
— Kansas Zeitung founded by Charles F.
Kob at 14
— saloon keepers, protection of 68
— Town Association 437
Atchison Champion 176, 177
— John A. Martin, editor of 63
Atchison county 153
— 'Cantonment Martin located on Cow
Island 51
Atchison Daily Free Press, cited 455, 456
— establishment of 153
Atchison-Topeka stage road 29
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway 363
— buffalo robes hauled by 355
— first engine used in Arkansas valley. . . . 303 — Fort Lamed soldiers protect during
construction of 54
— surveying of 271
Atheneum and Sunday-school Library,
Lawrence 438
Atlanta, Rice county 199
Atwood, A., author 179
Atwood, O. T 444
Aubrey, Col. F. X 127
Aubrey's trail and crossing 127, 128
— description of 207
— on Cimarron river 207
Augur, Gen. C. C 469
— peace commissioner 342
Austin, E. A 167, 168
Austin, William and Elias Beardsley,
found Centropolis Kansas Leader 13
Austin, Tex 154
Avilla township, Comanche county 188
B.
Babb, Edmund, and J. M. Walden,
founders Quindaro Chindowan 13
Babb, Rufus, author 187
Babcock, Carmi W., surveyor general,
Kansas 266
Bache-e-ne-o-ta (Whisky -drinking)
creek 116
Backus, Rev. W. M 438
Bacon, William E., death of 170
Bainter, Capt. Ephraim 31
— biographical sketch 36
Baird, Lieut. Absalom 201,202
— arrow clinched in jaw of 208
— Big Pawnee killed by 206
— biographical note of 208
Baker, Geo. A., superintendent Leaven- worth street railway 373
Baker, Capt. J. H., diary of 477
Baker, John F., member Indianola Town
Company 34
Baldwin, old settlers' reunion held in. ... 481
Baldwin Ledger, cited 185
Balleran, , sutler 350
Bancroft, H. H 348
— History of Utah, quoted 197
— Arizona and New Mexico, cited 20
Bankhead, Gen. Henry C 353, 458
Banning, William, author 179
Baptist Church, founding of, in Kansas. . 89 — on California road, mentioned 108
GENERAL INDEX
485
Baptist Church, First (Topeka) seven ty-
fifth anniversary celebration 304
Baptist Mission, Boston board 86
—Delaware 84
—Ottawa 83
— Shawnee 83, 84
Meeker press first operated at 5
near Shawnee Manual Labor School, 9
opened 90
Baptist Missions in Kansas, Some Back- ground of, by Esther Clark Hill. . . 89, 103
Baptist Society in Boston 101, 102
Barber county 119
— early history of 408
— final Indian scare 78
• — historical notes of 475
Barber County Index, Medicine Lodge,
peace treaty edition of 480
Barker, Mrs. Clara L., date and place of
birth 300
Barnes, Mr. and Mrs. George 404
Barnes, Lela, member staff Kansas State
Historical Society 306
— '"The Leavenworth Board of Trade,
1882-1892" 360, 378
Barnett, Wm. B 320, 321, 322, 323
Barr, Elizabeth N., Souvenir History of-
Lincoln County 298
Barrett Crossing, Vermillion river 191
Barton county 116
—in 1858-'59 198
Bascom, C. J 78
Bates, , attorney general of Mis- souri 241
Bates County, Mo., Harmony Mission es- tablished in 481
Battle, Beaver creek 339
—Blue 29, 211
—Bull Run 214
—Cane Hill 212
— Chapultepec, Mexico 202
—Dry Wood 211, 214
—Fort Wayne 212
— Hickory Point, date of 29
— Honey Springs 212, 245
— Lexington, Mo 214
— Mine Creek, Mrs. Robert Laughlin's
reminiscences cited 189
—Prairie Grove 211, 212
numbers of forces engaged 234
— Shiloh 197
— Spottsylvania 206
— Wilson's Creek 209
Battle Canon, description of 477
Baxter, A., claim of, favorite camping
place 110
Baxter Springs 107, 224, 273
— establishment of 110
— histories of, cited 186
— lead and zinc deposits near 281
— massacre, mentioned 186
— Quantrill's attack on Blunt 's forces
at 247, 248
Baxter Springs Citizen, sixtieth anniver- sary edition of 404
Baxter Springs News, cited 186
Bayless, John 317, 320, 323
Baylor, W. N., reminiscences of, cited... 479
Bays, Mrs. Bertie (Cole), author 176
Beach, Asahel 199
Beach, Dr. A. J 199
Beach, James H., cited 56
Beach, Moses Y., connected with New
York Sun 199
Beach's ranch, on Cow creek 199
202, 203, 204
— threatened by Indians 201
Beach Valley, incorporation 199
Beall, Capt. William N. R 108
Bear creek, on Aubrey trail 207
Beauregard, Gen. P. G. T., retreat from
Corinth, Miss 221
Beaver, Okla 132
Beaver, Meade & Englewood Rail- road 186, 474
Beaver creek, Cowley county 115
—Phillips county, battle of 339
troops stationed in 471
— Oklahoma 129, 130
Beck and Giddings, New Mexican
ranchers 22
Beck, Stephen C., reminiscences of 475
Beckwith, E. G., Big Timbers described
by 207
Beckwourth, James 346
Beebe, Charles P., author 192
Beecher, Lieut. Fred, recruits Indian
scouts 458
Beecher Bible and Rifle Company 408
Beecher Island, annual reunion at 476
—battle of 346, 349
351, 353, 458-460, 475, 476
See, also, Arickaree, battle of.
Beecher Island Annual, cited 351
Beegums, disloyal 216
Beeks, Charles E., Baldwin 165
Beeson, "Chalk," manuscripts of 477
Beeson, Jasper Luther, author 180
Bell, Lieut. David 112, 127, 130
197, 198, 200-202, 204, 205
— biographical mention 108
— directed to explore North Fork of
Canadian 126
Bell, Ovid, author 181
Bell, W. A., author, cited 55, 61
Beloit, Bogardus killed by Indians near. .187
— T. F. Hersey first mayor of 403
Beloit Daily Call, cited 185
Beloit Gazette, sixty-fifth anniversary
edition 402
Belvidere, old soldiers' reunion held in. . . 481 Bennett, Doc. Mary, pioneer physician. .474 Bennett, R. H., territorial public printer, 14
Bent Brothers, traders 346, 347
Bent, George 144, 466
— Big Timbers described by 207
Bent, Col. William W 207, 209
345, 346, 446-449
— Cheyenne wife of 347
— Indian commissioner 443
— trader 151, 452
— train of, captured by Abolitionists 24
— trading house at Big Timbers 207
Bent's Fort 209, 210, 347
359, 416, 419, 420, 428
— Col. Wm. Gilpin in command 422
— cost of pork transported to 418
— Mexican War provisions stored at 417
— U. S. soldiers for Mexican War sent to,
by mistake 416
— troops accompany freighters from Fort
Dodge to 26
Bent's New Fort 209, 210
—at Big Timbers 207
— later became Fort Lyon 61
Bent-St. Vrain location at Adobe Walls. . 355
— on Canadian river 349
Bernard, W. R. & Co., Westport mer- chants 24
Bethel College, Newton 301
— museum 410
Beveridge, Albert J., reminiscences of 478
Beverly 476
Big Blue river, Mo 108
— Gen. Curtis' fortified positions
on 253, 255, 257
Big Caney creek 114
Big Creek, station B. O. D. line 58
— • — Indian raid on 339
Big Head, Osage chief 117
486
GENERAL INDEX
Big Pawnee, Kiowa chief 200, 201, 208
— death and burial of 202
—killing of 206
Big Sandy, Neb., on Overland route 404
Big Spring creek (Nenetunk) 112
Big Springs, territorial convention held at, 12
Big Sugar creek, Linn county 443
Big Timbers, Arkansas river 209
Bent's New Fort at 207
— Smoky Hill river 145
Big Turkey creek 205
Birch, Thomas E., printer employed by
Meeker 5
Bird, Benjamin, Bird City named for. . . 299
Bird, John S., author 78, 176
Bird City 299
Bird City News 299
Bird creek, Osage county, Oklahoma 137
Birds, on Cheyenne Bottoms 206
Birge, Julius Charless, author 179
Bismarck Grove, Lawrence 432
Bison Hunts in the 60s, A Pioneer Relates
of, by John G. Ellenbecker 298
Black Bear (Wasaape oche) creek 136
Black Dog, Osage chief 117
Black Hawk War 196
Black Hills 149
— Cheyenne Indians once lived in 347
— expedition of 1874 to 350
— U. S. troops outgeneraled by Sioux
and Cheyenne warriors in 150
Black jack timber 135, 137
Black Kettle, Cheyenne chief 456
— biographical sketch 446
— camp near Fort Lyon 144
— Sand Creek massacre 348
— Washita village attacked by Custer's
force 349, 464-467
Black Pioneer, The, Founding of Nico-
demus 402
Blacklidge, Frank ."*."." Jfl'fl' 269
Blackmar, Frank W 308
— History of Kansas, cited .'.'.' 38, 199
— Life of Charles Robinson, cited . . 307 324
Black's Fork of Green river 197
Blair, Col. Charles W 258
— eastern border of Kansas protected by, 53
— officer of Fourteenth Kansas 254
Blair's brigade 259
Blanchard, Ira D 87, 92, 93
— Baptist missionary 83
— biographical sketch 90
— dismissal from church 87
— founder of Delaware mission 90
Blanchard, Mrs. Mary Walton, Baptist
missionary 83
— letter quoted 92
Blanchard, Mrs. W. A., author 479
Bleeding Kansas, story of 307
Bliss, Charles A 304
Blizzard, on Santa Fe trail, 1858 205
—surveyors at Lone Tree caught in 271
Block House, Shirley (Cloud) county 69
— Republic county 59
Blood, F. G., author, cited 161
Blood creek ' 206
Blue river 443
— Manhattan at mouth of 433
— Missouri, battle of 211
Bluemont Central College, Man- hattan 300, 439
Bluff creek, Grant county, Oklahoma 134
— Ne-shu-che-sink 117
Blunt, James Gillpatrick 258, 858
— action regarding Robinson's appoint- ments 220
— appointed brigadier general 218
major general 242
— arrival in Kansas after campaign
against Price 264
Blunt, James Gillpatrick, asked to be relieved
of command of post at Fort Scott 214
— assumes command, expedition at Fort
Scott 223
Army of the Frontier 230
District of Upper Arkansas 251
— attack on Newtonia, Mo 226
Van Buren, Ark 235
— attacked by Quantrill at Baxter
Springs 247
— authorized to recruit Eleventh Colored
regiment 249
— biographical sketch 211
— charges preferred against 240
— commanding District of Kansas 226
Fort Scott 214
—death of 194
— directed to recruit two regiments 242
— efforts to destroy 241
— engagement with Price at Lexington . . . 256 — federal campaign in Missouri in 1861
deemed a failure 217
— first expedition to the south 223
— Flint creek camp established 229
— "General Blunt 's Account of His Civil
War Experiences" 211- 265
— hostility towards 219
— illness of 247
—letter quoted 221
— lieutenant colonel Third Kansas 214
— Maysville, Mo., camp of 228
— military ideals shattered 265
— monument erected to 186
— opposition to, as commander Depart- ment of Kansas 219
— order to Colonel Solomon ignored 223
— ordered by Schofield to hold country
south of Arkansas river 243
— • — to retire 246
to Washington by President for con- sultation for Indian territory cam- paign 249, 250
— plan for southern campaign 223
— pursuit of Marmaduke 230
Shelby and Coffee 224
— removes headquarters to Fort Smith.. 247
— request for troops not granted 254
— requests to be relieved from protection
of certain territory for lack of troops. . 250 — resignation as major general of volun- teers 264
— return to Fort Leavenworth 238
— revoked order of Sturgis regarding en- listment of loyal Indians 223
— spends winter of 1861-'62 on Mine
creek 217, 218
— Schofield's enmity of 240, 249
"board of inspection" 249
— support of Colonel Moonlight 256
— sustained by government officials. . 220, 221 — writes Secretary of War and President
regarding his military rank 246
Blyth's, on Neosho river, mentioned 139
Boards of Trades, charters issued to,
1878-1882 362
Bogardus family, massacre of 287
Boggy Depot road, Indian territory 246
Bogue Messenger 402
Bois de Vache 125, 132
Bolivia, Thomas Moonlight, minister to. . 211
Bolles, Dr. Lucius 95, 97, 100
— letter quoted 101
— secretary Baptist Missionary Society,
Boston 85
Bolmar, Carl P 304
Bonds, early Kansas issues 311
— sold to R. S. Stevens 311
Book review 162, 295
Boone, Daniel 116
Boone, Col. Nathan 117
GENERAL INDEX
487
Boone, Col. Nathan, biographical sketch, 116
— journal cited 121
Boot Hill, Dodge City 189,410
Boots and shoes, made at Leavenworth . . 366 Bordenkircher, George, president Kansas
Catholic Historical Society 187
Border Ruffians SO
— driven out of Hickory Point £
— reported marching on Calhoun 33
Border Star, Westport, Mo., quoted 2
Boston, Riley county 433
Boston, Mass., parties for Kansas from. .431
Boston mountains 229, 235, 238
Boulware, P. S., retired stockman 274
Bourbon county 178
Bow creek, tributary North Solomon 58
Bowdoin College 295
Boyd, John, author 181
Boydston, Nathaniel, at Hickory Point.. 38
Boynton and Mason, cited 8
Bradbury, John, quoted 121
Bradley, Glenn D., author 55
Bradshaw, Mary J 32
Bradstreet's Commercial Agency 360
Brady, Cyrus Townsend,
cited 346, 350, 353, 356
Brady, John T., territorial public
printer 9, 14
— succeeded by R. H. Bennett 14
Brainerd, A., publisher 176
Branch, E. Douglas, author 76, 179
Brand, Franklin Marion, author 181
Brandenburger, John, Sr., reminiscences
cited 189
Breckenridge (Lyon) county 44
Brewerton, George Douglas, author 179
"Brick," nickname of member Hickory
Point expedition 47
Brick-making, Pittsburg, history of 289
Bridger, James 197, 346
Bridger's Pass, described 197
Bridges, across Missouri river 365, 366
Briertown, on Canadian river 246
Brighton Coal Company 373
Brininstool, E. A., author, cited 350,355
Brock & Co., publishers 176
Brooks, B., Woburn, Mass 99
Brooks, Henry K 167, 168
Brown, Russell & Co., freighters 425
Brown, General • 227
Brown, Private , death of 122
Brown, Amasa 99
Brown, Mrs. E. F 301
Brown, George W 8, 11, 12
15, 16, 191, 440
—founded Herald of Freedom 436
— published Courier, Conneautville, Pa. . . 10 Brown, Henry, sheriff of Douglas county, 300 Brown, James, Independence, Mo., ex- periences during trip to Santa Fe. . . . 19
— freight contractor 423- 425
Brown, John 172, 429
— at Charleston, Va 47
— episode in life of 478
— Harper's Ferry fight mentioned S
— Parallels mentioned 172
Brown, John Carter 440
Brown, Katharine Holland, author 183
Brown, Lewis, of Lawrence 300
Brown, Louisa 99
Brown, Lulu Lemon, author 176
Brown, Mrs. M. A., sister of Captain
Short 271
Brown, Orville C., the original "Osawa-
tomie Brown" 434
Brown county, historical notes of 478
— history of, by A. N. Ruley, mentioned, 178 Brant mansion, St. Louis, Mo., Fremont cooped up in 216
Bruno, 31
Brush creek, Price's army bivouacked
south of 259
Bryan, J. E., author, cited 161
Bryan, William Jennings 300
Bryant, William Cullen, of New York
Evening Post 430
Buck, Solon J., author, cited 162
"Bucking and Gagging," frontier soldier
song of 1858-'59 198
Bucklin Banner 402
Buel, Walter, Parsons fire chief 475
Buffalo 121, 201, 205, 206, 403
— being destroyed and driven away 344
— gun, owned by Dixon 355
— hunters, Indians maddened by 349
kill band of Northern Cheyennes. . . 348
—hunting 350, 355
grounds 326, 327
—in Canadian valley 133, 135, 136
— Indians drive close to decoy troops. ... 421
— meat cured for eastern markets 199
— Medicine Lodge treaty provisions re- garding 349
— migration of 451
—range 206
—robes 131
— — hauled by Santa Fe railroad 355
Buffalo Bill. See Cody, William F.
— William Mathewson the original 358
Buffalo creek, Oklahoma 107, 120
121, 133, 134, 446
Buffalo Hump, Comanche chief 201
Buffalo Station, troops skirmish with
Indians near 463
Buffalo Wallow fight 354
Building brick, manufacture of 290
Bull Hump, Northern Cheyenne 348
— band under, wiped out by buffalo
hunters 348
Bull Run, battle of 214
Bullet, Delaware guide 206, 208, 209
Bulletin, Emporia 302
Bullwhackers 300
Buntline, Ned, dime novel writer 358
Burchfiel community church, Harper
county 409
Burhans, Samuel, author 181
Burlingame, Ward :•••.•• 455, 471
Burlingame, founded as Council City. ... 431
— Frank M. Stahl's history of, cited 77
Burlington, formerly Hampden 434
— old Meeker press used at 16
Burlington Daily Republican, cited . . 78, 184
Burlington Free Press 14
Burlington railway 365
Burnett's Mound, near Topeka 32
Burns, Pat, member treaty party 444
Burns, Patrick, chief Leavenworth fire
department 376
Burt, Rosamond Pratt, donor Pratt col- lection ;•••-.•• 83
Bushwhackers, protection against invasion
of 53
— and thieves loot wagon trains 26
Business, poor in 1855 21
Business and Professional Women's Club,
Bucklin 402
Butler, James G 299
Butterfield, , Indian trader 452,453
Butterfield Overland Despatch 55, 452
— Downer station burned by Indians 57
— organized in 1865 148
— route of 327
— troops protect stage road of 58
Byrne, Thomas, Dickinson county pioneer, 302 Byron's ford, Jennison ordered to
guard 257, 258
488
GENERAL INDEX
c.
Cabell, Gen. William Lewis. . . 239, 244- 247
— capture of 261
Cabin creek, federal forces attacked at.. 239 Cade, Capt. Al, ferryboat operator at
Leavenworth 376
Caldwell, Alexander 365, 370- 372
— president Leavenworth Board of Trade, 36
— U. S. Senator 362
Caldwell, early lynchings at 403
— historical notes of 475
Calhoun, town of -
— county seat Calhoun (Jackson) county, 33 California, Charles Robinson member
Legislature of 1851 308
—gold rush to • • • • • • 348
— immigration to, checked by Indian
depredations 14
— road, through Indian territory IS
— sheep driven to 23
California Joe 359
"Camanche," letter of, quoted HI
Camp Babcock 230
Camp Beauregard, La 411
Camp Beecher, short history of 58
Camp Chase, Ohio . . 195
Camp Croghan, occupied site of Canton- ment Martin 51
Camp Mackay, later Fort Atkinson 199
Camp Nichols, Indian territory 207
Camp Ogallah, Trego county 57, 58
Camp on Pawnee Fork, history of 54
Camp Pond Creek, Fort Wallace first
known as 56
Camp Snow, on Snow Camp creek, south
east Kansas HI, H2
Camp Supply 56, 122
268,463-466, 468- 470
— Gen. Sheridan moved headquarters to. . 53 Campbell, Mrs. Effie, secretary Saline
County Historical Association 301
Campbell, Hugh, astronomer for southern
boundary survey of Kansas 106, 111
Campbell, William P., judge 403
Campbell, William W., author 181
Campdoras, Dr. A. M 29
Canadian river 107, 116
133,135, 245, 247, 464
— Bent-St. Vrain fort on 349
— Comanche Indians attacked on 46 1
— Granet and North forks of 207
—North fork of 125, 129- 132
134, 135, 207, 464
— rebels encamped on 246
Cane Hill, Ark 235, 263
—battle of 212
— General Marmaduke at 22
— rebel forces driven from 230
Cane Hill and Fayetteville road 231
Cannon, captured from rebels at Mays-
ville, Mo 238
Canton, Frank M., autobiography men- tioned 179
Cantonment Martin, first military post
in Kansas 50
— length of time occupied 51
Capper, Gov. Arthur, appeals for aid for
victims of coal mine disaster 279
Caravans, in New Mexican trade 17
— not permitted to pass Fort Lamed with
less than 100 men 26
Carbine 42
Carbon creek, coal shaft sunk on 274
Carey, Henry L 476
Carey Mission, Michigan 90, 91
— location of station 4
Carleton, Gen. James Henry, asked to
protect Western trails 14
Carlson, Anna Matilda, author 176
Carney, Governor Thomas 142,144
212, 238, 254 approval of Blunt's course in Atchison
affair 241
— hesitates calling out militia 252
— opposition to Blunt 240
— planned disbanding Kansas militia dur- ing Price Raid 256
— skepticism of 256
Carpenter, Col. John C., commanded troops
rescuing Arickaree survivors 458, 459
engages Indians near Fort Hays.. 462,463
rrf Gen. E. A 356, 403
— author 476
— campaign of 464
—defeats Tall Bull's band 349
—destroys Tall Bull's village 469,470
Carriages, shipped to Mexico. 18
Carrie Nation Memorial Association,
Medicine Lodge 191
Carrizo creek 127
Carroll, James 444
Carson, Christopher ("Kit") 151, 179
298, 345-347, 357, 446-449
—first Indian fight in Kansas 358
— Indian commissioner 44
Carthage, Mo., Blunt's troops at 262
Case, B. P 318, 319
Catalpa trees, thrive on stripped coal
lands 277
Catholic priests and nuns, reported
massacre unfounded 337
Catlin, Frances Celia Ann 269
Cattle, business 184- 186
— drive from Texas to Abilene 271
— driven to Dodge City 410
— for Mexican war soldiers 417, 420
— industry, Kansas, no complete history
yet written 76
.Range, Notes on Historical Litera- ture of, by James C. Malin 74
— Texas, shipped over Kansas Pacific
railroad 27
— trains, for Fort Bridger 197
Cattlemen's associations, manuscript rec- ords of, used for study of northwest.. 76
Cawker City Ledger, cited 185
Cedar creek 127
Cedar Spring 128
Cedar Vale Messenger, cited 184
Cedardale, Woodward county, Okla 15
Cedarville, newspapers in 478
Census, first U. S. compendium, cited . . . 282
Centerville 443
Central Normal College, Great Bend 409
Centropolis Kansas Leader, founding of, 13
Chalk, red 132
Chalkley, Lyman, author 181
Chalybeate springs, at Baxter Springs... 110
Chambers, W. L., author 176, 189
Chandler, C. Q 408
Chanute 190
—library 304
Chanute Tribune ?l
Chapman Bros., Chicago, publishers 357
Chapman, Amos 355, 356, 359
Chapman, Mrs. C. P 88
Chapman Advertiser 302, 404
— pioneer articles of Eastern Dickinson
county published in 77
Chappell, Phil E., cited 51
Chapultepec, Mex., battle of 202
Charlestown (Mass.) Female Semi-
n&rv ••• ..•• • 91 ? 102
Charlottj ' Maj'o'r 252
Charlton, Private , death of 123
Chase county 454
Chatham Hotel, Kansas City, Mo 304
Chautauqua county 114, 138, 178
Cherokee county 1°6
GENERAL INDEX
489
Cherokee county, coal mining in 273
— second largest coal producer in Kansas, 275
— vast coal deposits of 281
Cherokee Indians 151
— cede title to Kansas lands in 1866 105
— in rebel service, known as Drew's regi- ment 224
surrender to Union force and offer
services to U. S 224
— loyal, regiment of, organized 222
— of North Carolina 211
— rebel forces defeated in reservation of, 223
— reservation, boundary of 104
Cherokee Neutral Lands, United States
survey of 266, 267
— Controversy, by Lulu Lemmon Brown,
mentioned 176
Cherokee Outlet, Indian territory 343
Cherokee road, mentioned 138
Cherokee Strip, opening of 403
Cherokee Zinc Co., zinc production of... 284
— a Lanyon organization 283
Cherryvale, old settlers' reunion at 48"!
Cheyenne Bottom, described 206
— a national bird preserve 206
Cheyenne county 176, 299
Cheyenne Indians 107, 129
140-142, 146, 147, 150, 207, 208, 210, 268 330, 341, 343, 347, 350, 354, 407, 422, 442 443, 445-448, 451-453, 457, 462, 467-470
— agent of 270
— angered by order for soldiers to drive
back to their reservation 268
— assigned to Fort Lyon for concentra- tion 142
— at treaty, Little Arkansas, 1865.. 150,151
— attack Mexican wagon train 458
troops on Arickaree 458- 460
— befriend whites captured by Kiowas . . . 205 — Black Kettle's village destroyed.. 464- 467
— camped on Pawnee Fork 329
— dog soldiers 353
— driven from Republican river camp. ... 141
— expeditions against 196, 203
—fight with 326
— fight with U. S. troops in Black Hills, 150
—friendly 209
— Kansas offenses charged against 472
— left without a reservation 151
— lived in Black Hills country 347
— murder of surveying party under Cap- tain Short 269
—Northern 342, 351, 469
depredations of 468
— — removal to Indian territory precipi- tated last Indian raid in Kansas. . . 349
— peace treaty with Kiowas 203
— raid, 1868 58
— raid Council Grove 451
— raid Kaw Indian reservation 454, 455
— raid Smoky Hill, Solomon and Republi- can valleys 456
— recompensed as result of Sand Creek
massacre 145
— reservation near Fort Lyon 144
— Sand Creek camp, attacked by Colonel
Chivington 144, 445, 446
— sent to Florida prison, soon liberated. . 269
— separation of 347
— Southern 326, 340
in Indian territory 349
— Sumner's campaign against 348
— war of 1864, cause of 141
— war parties of 251, 461
— winter campaign against 463- 467
— and Arapahoe treaty, 1876, provisions
of 446
—and Sioux Indians, under Roman Nose, 351 Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railroad, bridge at Leavenworth 372
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railroad,
transportation display 303
Chihuahua, Mexico, goods shipped over
Santa Fe trail to 17
— high duties levied on imported goods. . 19
— sheep driven to 23
Chikaskia river 117, 134
Child Hygiene, Division of 393
Child labor, "A History of Child Labor Legislation," by Domenico
Gagliardo 379- 401
—laws 384-386, 388- 390
— — administration of 394
— table showing permits issued for 396
showing prosecutions and convictions
for violation of 396
Children, employed in mining 384
— number in gainful occupations 381
employed in certain establishments
inspected 398
Children's Code Commission 392
Chilocco, Okla 115
Chilton, Major Robert H., monument to,
unveiled 79
China tree, description of 121
Chippewa Indians, Jotham Meeker a mis- sionary to 4
Chivington, Col. John M 145, 146
151,349,446 — condemned for Sand Creek massacre. . . 145
— Colonel of First Colorado cavalry 349
— Sand Creek massacre 144, 150
Chivington massacre. See, also, Sand Creek, massacre.
Cholera, bad on Santa Fe trail 18
— deadly foe to the military 339
Chouteau's Island, on Arkansas river. ... 57 Christmas advertising, in first Kansas
newspapers 189
Churchill, Will, reminiscences of 188
Cimarron 190
— <>ld settlers' reunion held in 482
Cimarron crossing, Arkansas river 54
190, 199
—Fort Mann established at 55
Cimarron desert, south of Arkansas river,
in Kansas 19
Cimarron river 107, 116
120-128, 130, 134, 135, 188, 189, 196, 207 251, 270, 446
— Aubrey crossing 207
— Indian depredations on 420
— route abandoned during Civil War 25
— second crossing 133
— upper crossing 129
Cimarron spring, middle, Morton county, 129
Cimarron township, Clark county 121
Cincinnati, Ohio, early printing concerns
of 4
Cincinnati and Kansas Land Company. . 433
Civil War 29, 140, 154
187, 194, 195, 350, 356, 477 — effect on New Mexican trade from
Kansas City and Westport 24
Claflin, Horace 440
Clardy, J. E., Palmetto Kansan founded
by 14
Clark, Ben 359
Clark, Harriet Elizabeth 153
Clark, Kelso, reminiscences of, cited 186
Clark, Sidney 311
Clark, Sen. W. A 300
Clark county 122
Clarke, J. H 110-116, 118, 120, 121, 126
— astronomer for southern boundary sur- vey of Kansas 106
— established final observation on south- ern boundary line 128
Clary, Capt. 419
490
GENERAL INDEX
Clay and shale, extensive deposits of, at
Pittsburg 289
Clay Center Times, cited 59
Clay county, seed wheat given to 472
Clay products, southeastern Kansas 273
— industries, Pittsburg, statistics of 289
Clear creek 132
Clearwater, history of schools at 478
Clear-water News, cited 478
Clements, Frederick Edward, author 176
Clennan, Mrs. Mary Byrne 302
Cleveland, President Grover 211
Clinton hotel, Indianola 33
Clifton News, historical edition of 78
Cloud, Col. William F.... 148,225,326-328
— commander state militia 62
— engagement at Devil's Backbone 247
Cloud county 471
— Fort Brooks located in 59
— seed wheat given to 472
Clough, Mr. 98
Clyde Methodist Episcopal Church, fif- tieth anniversary of 479
Clyde Republican, cited 185, 402, 479
Clymer, Hiester, record of, mentioned... 178
Clymer, Joseph, freighter 425, 426
Coahuila, Mexico, Kickapoo Indians
settle in 154
Coal, barge shipments from Leayenworth, 871 — Cherokee and Crawford counties largest
producers of 275
— discovered beneath Leavenworth 361
— mined at State Penitentiary 377
in Pittsburg district 273
— percentage removed by stripping and
deep shaft processes 277
— Pittsburg favored by freight rates on
shipments 278
• — statistics of production 275
— underlying Leavenworth district 371
— use of explosives in mining 280
Coal Mine and Metal Mine Inspection
Department, annual report cited.. 275,276 Coal mining, disasters in Pittsburg dis- trict 278
— statistics of 276
• — steam shovels used in 273, 274
— stripping process 273
— wages paid miners 276
Coal Operator's Association, of Pittsburg, aid extended families of coal mining
victims 279
Coates, Mrs. Grace (Stone), author 177
Cobas, Martin 444
Cobb, Stephen A 820, 323
Cockerill smelters, Pittsburg 284
Cody, William Frederick (Buffalo Bill) . . 345 351,352,356
• — acknowledged Mathewson was the orig- inal "Buffalo Bill" 358
— pony express rider 357
— Wyoming ranch of 354
Cody, Mrs. William F 78
Coffey, Gen. , rebel cavalry under,
invades Missouri 224
Coffey county 44
— history of, by Judge Burton Kingsburg,
cited 184
Coffeyville 112
Coffeyville Daily Journal 298
Cogan, Mary 302
Cogan, Michael, sketch 302
Coke, Henry J., author 179
Cohee, • 30
Colby, naming of 184
Cole, Eugene 29
Cole, Joseph M 28-30, 32
Colley, Major • 144
Colony Free Press, cited 475
Colorado (territory and state). . 141, 458, 460
Colorado (territory and state), eastern
section threatened by Indians 143
— gold discovered in 348
• fields 57
— immigration into, checked by Indian
depredations 143
— regiments, First battery 254, 255, 262
First cavalry 251, 253, 349
expeditions against Dog soldier
Cheyennes 141
Second cavalry 239, 254
255, 257, 261
Third cavalry 146, 222
at Sand Creek 144
— reign of terror 340
— Ute uprising mentioned 350
Colored infantry, order to recruit 242
Colton, George Woolworth, author 181
Columbia University Press 295
Comanche county, seventh annual home- coming of old settlers 188
— surveyor's reminiscences of 474
Comanche Indians 19, 117, 118
147, 151, 154, 155, 158, 179, 201, 209, 340 343, 359, 418, 442, 443, 448, 451, 453, 454
457, 465-467, 469 —at treaty, Little Arkansas, 1865.. 150,151
—attack Fort Dodge 457, 458
—Civil War interests of 140
— Colonel Leavenworth agent of 148
—desire treaty with United States 200
— depredations on Santa Fe trail 141
— employed by Mexicans to kill American
traders 420
— Negroes ransomed from 447
— offenses committed in Kansas charged to, 472
— ordered to Fort Larned 142
— peace overtures to 463
— Sedgwick's campaign against 206
— Staked Plains war against 298
— traders to 347
— treaty of Fort Atkinson with 21
Commerce, with New Mexico 18
Compulsory school attendance 385, 386
Comstock, William ("Billy") 345
— chief scout for Sheridan 353
— Indian agent 451
—killing of 351, 353
— Pony Express rider 352
— trial for killing wood contractor 352
Concho river, Tom Green county, Texas,
Kickapoo camp on 154
Concordia Board of Trade, chartered 362
Cone, D. D. and John P., found Sumner
Gazette 14
Coney, Capt. Patrick H 211
Confederate army 351
— cavalry engagement with Kickapoo
Indians 154
— driven out of New Mexico 25
— under Price, evacuate Lexington, Mo., 215
Conger lard bill, mentioned 377
Congress, investigates Sand Creek
massacre 145
Congressional medals of honor, scouts re- cipients of 356
Conklin, Arthur L., author 187
Connell, J 320, 323
Connelley, William E 55, 60, 146
148, 281, 312, 325, 329, 330, 342-344, 429 Connelley, Mrs. William E., honorary
member Kansas State Historical So- ciety 165
Connelly, Mrs. Clyde Davis, author 177
Conner, Jim, Delaware guide 108, 118
120-125, 132
Conner's branch 123
Connor, Gen. Patrick E., Indians out- number force of, in Black Hills 150
Constitution, Topeka, written in 1855... 12
GENERAL INDEX
491
Constitutionalist, Doniphan, founding of, 13
Constitutions, Kansas 307
Contract system, employed by freighting
firms 423
Contributors 82, 194, 306, 414
Conway, Martin F 318
— chosen representative in Congress 432
Conway Springs, historical sketch 403
Coody's Bluff, Nowata county, Okla 13
Goody's settlement 138
Cook, Colonel 353
Cook, Mrs. Anna Maria (Green), author, 181
Cook, John, farm on Walnut creek 201
Cook, John, scout 359
Cooke, Charles W 403
Cooke, Col. P. St. George, troops under, capture Harvey's Hickory Point sol- diers 40
Coon Lewis G., Co. I, Third Wis. Cav., 186
Coon creek 202
Coons, Mr. , trader on Santa Fe
trail 419
Cooper, Gen. Samuel, Confederate 107
226-228,244- 246
Cooperative Colonization Co., of London, 188 Corinth, Miss., Gen. Halleck's failure at, 221
Corn, New Mexican prices for 420
— price of, at Fort Union ,428
Coronado, explorer 187
Cordley, Richard, cited 433,435,437
Corwin, Mr. , mysterious person con- nected with sale of Kansas bonds, 311, 318
Cosmopolitan Magazine 357
Cottonwood creek, Marion county.. 205,444 — New Mexico, tributary of Rabbit Ear
creek 130
Cottonwood Falls 15
— old Meeker printing press used at 16
Cottonwood Fork 419
Cottonwood river 44, 449, 455
Cottonwood Springs, Neb., important sup- ply depot for miners during Pike's Peak
gold rush 60
— on south side of Platte river 60
Cottonwood trees 127, 130
—at Big Timbers 207
Council City, founding of 431
Council Grove 54, 128, 207, 422, 444, 450
— Kaw reservation raided by Chey-
ennes 454, 455
— military escorts from 148
— New Mexican freight statistics compiled
at 25
— one day's receipts of Hays & Co., in
1858 23
— Padilla monument restored 187
— raided by Cheyennes 451
Council Grove Historical Society 187
Council Grove Press, cited 25
County Capital, St. John, cited 186,479
Courier, Conneautville, Pa 10
Court of Industrial Relations, reports
cited 386, 394
Cove creek road, near Cane Hill, Ark 230
235, 236
Cow callers 300
Cow creek, Rice county. . . 109, 201, 202, 205
— Doc Beach's ranch on 199
—known as Cold Water 201
— Mathewson's trading post on 357
— wagon trains besieged near 142
Cow creek, Crawford county, packing
plants located on 286
Cow Creek station, on Santa Fe trail, at- tacked by Indians 147
Cow Island, Missouri river, occupied by
First Kansas volunteers 51
— Cantonment Martin located on 51
Cow-a-wha (Horsehead) creek 118
Cowboys 300
Cowboys, in Dodge City, Reminiscences of, 476
Cowley county 16, 114, 115
— historical notes of 476
— settlers petition governor for Indian
protection 471
-surveys in 269
Craig, , freighter 428
Craig, H. Stanley, author 181
raig county, Okla 139
Craik, E. L., cited 432
Crane & Co., Tppeka 393, 429, 433
Crane creek, Price's army encamped at.. 216
Craven, Thomas, author 177
Crawford, J. T., general secretary Kansas
State Baptist Association 16
Crawford, Nelson Antrim, author 177
Crawford, Gov. Samuel J 60, 140, 213
326, 327, 330-332, 334, 335, 338, 342, 344 458-464, 468 — asks arms and ammunition from Fort
Leavenworth 331
— colonel of Second Kansas, colored .... 248
— correspondence cited 326
330-335, 338- 342
— denounced Indian Bureau's policy 453
— distributes arms among frontier
settlers 454, 455
— efforts to compel War Department to intervene to prevent Indian outrages.. 328
• — frontier defense activity of 149
— Kansas in the Sixties, cited. . 140, 148, 240
322, 326, 329, 332, 343, 451-453, 457-459
463, 464, 466, 468
— letters quoted and cited 149, 453
— message cited 327
— offers to raise regiment of volunteer
cavalry 332
— organizes Kansas First Frontier bat- talion 461
frontier settlers for Indian
defense 456, 457
— telegrams cited 53, 460
— views of Peace Commission 342
— visit to Osages 340
Crawford, T. H., Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, Crawford Seminary named for, 107 Crawford county, coal, acreage stripped
and unstripped 276
largest producer in Kansas 281
mining in 273, 274
vast deposits of 281
— register of deeds' record book cited... 281 Crawford County State Park, presented
to state 277
Crawford Seminary 107
— Indian Agency at HO
— establishment of 107
Crazy Horse 298
Creek Agency 244
Creek Indians, missionaries for 91
— regiment of loyal refugees organized... 222
Creitz, Capt. William F 39, 41, 42
Criminals, from state and government
prisons 373
Crist, S. B 266, 267
Crook, Gen. George, defeated at the Rose
Bud 349
Crooked creek 123, 267
— called Ash creek 200
— plan to erect community meeting house
on 271
— wagon train attacked at 147
Crosby Roller Mill Co., Topeka 34
Crow Chief, Cheyenne Indian leader 141
Culver, Joe M., cited 471
Cummings, , of Wabaunsee county. . 314
Cummings, J. F., legislative printer 322
— questioned during impeachment of
Robinson and others 322
Currumpaw (McNees') creek 129, 130
492
GENERAL INDEX
Curtis, Ed 346, 347
Curtis, Charles, Vice President 51, 172
Curtis, Alonzo 320, 323, 324
Curtis, Major H. Z., killed by Quantrill
band at Baxter Springs 248
Curtis, Maj. Gen. Samuel R 141, 145
149, 212, 225, 243, 250-252, 255 256, 258, 261, 263 — attempts to court martial Col. Chiving-
ton 145
— blunders of 256
— Blunt's request for troops granted.... 259
— campaign against Price in 1862 217
— commended by Kansas press 142
— dilatory tactics of 260
— expedition against bushwhackers 141
— fortifying for defense on Big Blue, 253, 255 — Forts Zarah and Ellsworth established
by 54, 142
— orders troops to Arkansas river 140
— relieved of command Department of
the Missouri 148, 239, 240
— troops requested of 254
rescue besieged wagon train 142
Custer, Gen. George A 145, 180, 298
340, 349, 354, 356, 406, 468, 469
— Black Kettle's camp captured by 349
364- 367
— Charles Reynolds, chief scout of 350
— defeated at Little Big Horn 349
— estimate of William Comstock 352
— joins Hancock expedition at Fort Riley, 329 — made Fort Hays headquarters for Sev- enth cavalry from 1867 to 1870 56
— pursuit of Pawnee Killer 330
— used Fort Downer as a base during In- dian operations in 1867 57
— Wild Life on Plains, cited. . . 345, 352, 353
Custer, Mrs. George A .' 78
Cutler, Capt. Abram 267, 269
— biographical mention of 269
— buried at Lawrence 270
— surveying contract of 266
Cutler, Dr. G. A 45
— biographical sketch 44
Cutler, Mrs. George A., death of 44
Cutter, Captain , wagon train of
Capt. S. L. McKinney captured by. ... 22
D.
Dakota, Ghost outbreak mentioned 350
— Powder river region 147
Dakota Indians, Ogallala band of 58
Dale, E. E., The Range Cattle Industry,
cited 75, 179
Daley, Alfalfa county, Okla 134
Dallas Daily Commercial, founded by Dr.
G. A. Cutler 44
Dallin, Dorothy, cited 406
Dalton, Emmett, author, When the Dai- tons Rode 177
Dangerfield, R. J., compiler 306
Dannevik, O. M 405
Dappert, J. W., reminiscences of 474
Darlington Agency, Indian Terr 354
Daughters of the American Revolution,
Georgia Society 181
— Kansas Society 442
^erect monument to Gen. J. G. Blunt
at Baxter Springs 186
historical sites at Abilene marked
by 190
Marshall county, marking of Barrett
crossing on Vermillion proposed by, 191
• — Kentucky 181
Davidson, Gen. "Black Jack" 354
Davis, Margaret Burton, author 177
Davis, Gen. N. H., assistant inspector general of Department of the Missouri, 472
Davis, S. O., and William L. Garvin, History of the National Farmers' Alli- ance and Cooperative Union of America,
cited 161
Dawson, John S 167, 173, 304
— president of the Kansas State Historical
Society 165, 478
Day, Mr. , employed by Meeker... 5
Dayton, Oscar V., and Alexander Gard- ner, attempt to start newspaper at
Osawatomie 13
Dead Shot, Delaware guide 206
Deatherage, Charles P., Early History of
Greater Kansas City, cited 22
Deadwood, Dak., "Wild Bill" Hickok
killed at 356
Decatur county 178
Deception creek 206
"Defense of the Kansas Frontier," articles
by Marvin H. Garfield 50- 62
140-152, 326-344, 451- 473 Deitzler, Col. George W., commanding
Kansas militia during Price raid 258
Delahay, Mark W., and A. M. Sevier,
start Territorial Register, Leavenworth, 13 — Wyandotte City Register founded by.. 13 Delaney, "Mike," pioneer of Waterville. . 299
De la Potherie, Basqueyille, cited 153
Delaware Baptist Mission 83, 84, 92
— destroyed by flood 90
— founded at Grinter's crossing of Kaw
river 90
—founded by Ira D. Blanchard 83, 90
—rebuilt by John G. Pratt 90
— reopening of 86
Delaware church 87
Delaware creek 108
Delaware crossing, Kaw river 108
Delaware Indians 8, 33, 87
90, 93, 158, 359, 421
—as guides 108, 123, 126, 206, 251
— B. F. Robinson, agent for 88
— J. G. Pratt, agent for 84
— removed to Indian territory 84
— settlement in Kansas 89
Delaware river 36, 46
Democratic Messenger, Eureka, historical
and industrial edition of 77
Democratic party 309
Democratic State Central Committee 360
Democratic Territorial Convention, Le-
compton, 1857, mentioned 14
De Moss, James Andrew, author 177
Denison, W. W 167, 168
Denman, H. B 320, 323
Dennis, 30
Dennison, Rev. Joseph, president Blue-
mont College 439
Dentzer, Phyllis 403
Denver, Gen. James W 218, 220
Denver, Colo 144, 458
—Butterfield Overland Despatch started
daily schedule from 327
— but two stages on Smoky Hill State
line reach Denver June, 1867 334
— terminus of Butterfield Overland
Despatch 148
Denver News, cited 340
Department of Kansas. See U. S. Army,
Department of Kansas. Department of the Mississippi. See U. S.
army, Department of the Mississippi. Department of the Missouri. See U. S.
army, Department of the Missouri. Department of the Pacific. See U. S.
army, Department of the Pacific.
De Saussure, Capt. William Davie. . 107,114
115, 122, 124, 125, 129, 133
199, 201, 202, 208
— biographical mention of 108
GENERAL INDEX
493
DeTilla, George M., reminiscences of 302
Detwiler, J. R 65
DeVilbiss, Dr. Lydia Allen 392
Devil's Backbone, engagement at 247
Dewey county, Okla 135
Diamond Springs 450
"Diary of Samuel A. Kingman at Indian
Treaty in 1865" 442- 450
Dickey, W. S., Clay Manufacturing Co.,
Pittsburg 291, 292
Dickhut, Mrs. Clarence 410
Dickinson county 178
— eastern, articles in Chapman Advertiser
concerning 77
— Historical Society, election of officers. . 190
— pioneers, biographical sketches of 404
Dietzler, G. W 191
Dighton, historical notes of 478
Dighton Herald, cited 478
Dillon, Thomas 287
— forms partnership with Lewis Hull in
meat business 286
Dinsmore, Francis M., reminiscences of.. 475 District of Kansas. See U. S. army, Dis- trict of Kansas. District of Southern Kansas. See U. S.
army, District of Southern Kansas. District of the Border. See U. S. army,
District of the Border. District of the Frontier. See U. S. army,
District of the Frontier. District of the Upper Arkansas. See
U. S. army, District of the Upper Ar-
Dixon, Thomas, Butler county pioneer... 402
Dixon, William, scout 345, 356
—sketch of 354, 355
Dixon, Mrs. William (Olive K.) 356
Dobie, J. Frank, A Vaquero of the Brush
Country, cited 75
Dodge, Gen. Grenville M.. . 62, 149, 178, 333 — commander Dept. of the Missouri .... 148
— Fort Dodge established by 54
— garrisoned stations on B. O. D. route. . 58
— Personal Recollections, cited 333
— Powder river expedition included Kan- sas regiments 147
Dodge City. . 190, 199, 266, 267, 270, 271, 406
— buffalo hide capital 355
— cowboys in 476
— monument dedicated 410
—Wild Bill, marshal of 356
— murdered surveyors escorted to 270
Dodge City Daily Globe, cited, 189, 475, 476 — historical articles announcing dedication
of Chilton monument in 79
Dodge City Journal, cited 184
— historical articles announcing dedication
of Chilton monument in 79
Dog Soldier Indians 353
— depredations of 468
— expedition against 141
— raid Republic county 469
Dole, Wm. P., U. S. Indian Commissioner, 318 — rebukes Governor Evans of Colorado
Terr 143
Doniphan 44
— Constitutionalist founded at 13
Doniphan county, historical notes of.... 406
— newspapers started in 1858-1859 15
Donnelly, Ignatius, Minnesota 163
Donner party, historical notes of 79
Doran, Thomas F 173
Doran, Rev. W. T., author 184
Dorrance, old settlers' reunion held in. . . 481
Doty, Francis, author 77
Dougherty, Miss Fannie J., became Mrs.
George A. Cutler 44
Dougherty, John, contractor 420
Douglas, Maj. , commander at Fort
Dodge, letter quoted 452
Douglas, Richard 266- 269
Douglas, Stephen A 309, 439
— sponsor of Kansas- Nebraska bill.. 104,105
Douglas, William 266
Douglas County Republican, Lawrence,
seventh anniversary edition of 303
Douglass Tribune, cited 404
Downer's Station 62
— on Butterfield Overland Despatch route, 57
— Trego county 52
Doy, Dr. John 431
Dragoons, wagon trains on Santa Fe trail
protected by 420
Dfeiling, B. M., author 177
Drew's regiment, Cherokee Indian force
known as 224
— abandon the Confederacy and enlist in
Union army 224
Driggs, S. W. & Co., legislative printing
done by 15
Drinking fountains, Leavenworth citizens
petition for 374
Dripping Spring, Ark., Texas cavalry en- camped at 236
Driscoll, Charles Benedict, author 177
Drums, lost by troops during flood 200
Drury, Sumner county 134
Dryden, Oswald, author 184
Dry route, Santa Fe trail 202
Dry Turkey creek 205
Dry Wood creek 109, 261
—battle of 211, 214
Dudley, Guilford 35, 36
— biographical sketch 34
— member expedition against Hickory
Point 34
Duff us, Robert Luther, author 25, 179
Dull Knife raid, 1878 349
Duncan, Fleming (Clem) 266, 269
Dunn, Lieut. , First Colo, cavalry,
expedition against Dog Soldier Chey-
ennes 141
Dunn, J. P., Massacres of the Mountains,
cited 349
Dunning, N. A., The Farmers Alliance
History and Agriculture Digest, cited, .. 161
Dutch cemetery, Shawnee 400
Dutton, Hartwin Rush, state treasurer . . 325
Dwight Advance, cited 186
Dyer, G. M., store at Osawkie operated
by 34
Dyer, W. F., store at Osawkie operated
by 34
E.
"Early Kansas Impeachments," article by
Cortez A. M. Ewing 307- 325
East Lincoln, Neosho county 475
Eastin, Gen. Lucien J., partner of Osborn
in Kansas Weekly Herald 9
— printing done by 14, 15
Easton, Col. Alton, regiment of, crossing
prairies 421
Easton, Leavenworth county, expedition
against 40
Eayre, Lieut. , expedition against
Indian cattle rustlers 141
Ebbutt, Jack, reminiscences of 185, 186
Edmond, Norton county, Port Landis
post office moved to 406
Edwardsville, Wyandotte county 83, 90
Edna Sun, cited 479
Einstein, Lewis David, author 183
El Dorado, biographical sketches of citi- zens cited 177
El Dorado Times, cited 77
32—5605
494
GENERAL INDEX
Eldridge, Col. Shalor W 435, 436
Eldridge hotel, Lawrence 436
Election, Kansas, 1861 310
Elgin 114
Elk community, Marion county, early in- cidents, cited 186
Elk creek, Indian territory, Cooper's camp
on 244
Ellenbecker, John G., Marysville 165
— "A Pioneer Relates of Early Bison
Hunts in the 60's" 298
— newspaper story on pony express, cited, 78
Elliott, Robert G 10, 12
— a school teacher in Tennessee 11
— Kansas Free State started by 14
Ellis county, German -Russian settlements, 177
Ellis County News, Hays, cited 176, 409
Ellis Review, cited 186
Ellsworth, Fort Harker near 55
— stories of Indian raids near 337
— Union Pacific completed to 330
Ellsworth county 471
— given seed wheat by legislature 472
Elmore, Rush, associate justice supreme
court 9
Elm creek 450
— Rooks county 403
Elm Springs, rebel forces encamped at . . 227
El Paso 477
El Paso, Tex., military post of 427
— provisions condemned at 426
El Quartelejo 189
Elrod, Mrs. Daisy 410
El wood Advertiser, founded by John S.
Fairman 1*
Ely, William, author 181
Emerson, Frances L., St. Francis named
for 299
Emery, Moses, cited 431
"Emigrant Aid Company in Kansas, The,"
article by Samuel A. Johnson 429- 441
— See, also, New England Emigrant Aid
Company.
Emigrant companies, Massachusetts, men- tioned 180
Emigrant's road to Texas 139
Emporia 444
— Kansas militia stationed at 142
— Kansas State Teachers College, his- torical notes of 302
— seventy-fifth anniversary of 191
Emporia Gazette, cited 187
Emporia Knights of Columbus, Padilla
monument restored by 187
Emporia News 26
— founded by Preston B. Plumb 13
Emporia Times, cited 185
Endacott, John, author 177
"End of Track" 62, 334
— on Union Pacific, stages made connec- tion with 55
— stages ran westward from 327
Engineering expedition, at Fort Wallace .. 336
English colony, Nemaha county 188
Enid, Okla 136
— growth within ten minutes 403
Eno, Mr. 118, 119
Enterprise, Swedish settlements near, 191, 192 Enterprise-Chronicle, Burlingame, cited.. 77
Enterprise Mining Company 371
Epperson, Elmer 410
— editor Scott City News Chronicle .... 475
Equitable Mining Company 371
Erie, Neosho county seat fight at 190
— notes on founding of 475
Ernest, Elvenor, author 177
Errata 482
Essick, M. L 320, 323, 324
Eubank, Kent, author 409
Eureka, Fort Montgomery at 59
Eureka Herald, cited 185
Evans, , near Hickory Point 46
Evans, Amos 98
— letters quoted 89, 100, 101
Evans, Col. A. W., campaign of 464
— crushes Comanche band on Canadian
river 467
Evans, Catherine, letters quoted 102,103
Evans, Emily [ ?] 98
Evans, George 98, 99
— letter quoted 101
Evans, Gov. John, Colorado territory.... 446
— Indian proclamation cited 144
— issues proclamation to Colorado citizens
to kill all hostile Indians 143
— issues proclamation to friendly Indians
to concentrate 141, 142
— rebuked by Indian commissioner 143
— request for troops 141
— urged winter campaign against Indians, 145
Evans, Mary, letter quoted 103
Evans, Olivia 91, 92
— See, also, Pratt, Olivia Evans.
— letter quoted 93, 94
Evans, Rosett, quoted 101
Evans family 85
Evening Standard, Leavenworth 375
Everest, fiftieth anniversary of 476
Everest Enterprise, cited 476
Ewing, Cortez A. M 306
— "Early Kansas Impeachments," article
by 307- 325
Ewing, Gen. Thomas 241, 361
— in command District of Kansas 242
Ewing, Thomas, Sr 241
Expositor, cited 18
F.
Fagan, Gen. , commanding division
of rebel army 259
Fairman, John S., Elwood Advertiser
founded by 14
Fairmount College, historical notes of . . . 189
Fall creek 117
Fall River 185
Falleaf, Delaware guide 206
Falun, Saline county 407
Faris, C. A., and A. W. Jones, Lecomp-
ton Union started by 13
Farm land, average price per acre in
stripping territory 277
Farmers and Bankers Life Insurance Co., Kansas broadcast over KFBI owned by, 171
Farmers' Alliance movement 162, 163
— its inception 161
Farmers, employed by the government to
teach Indians rudiments of agriculture, 3 Farnham, Mrs. Mateel (Howe), author.. 177
Farnsworth, 30
Farr, Lieut. , killed by Quantrill
raiders at Baxter Springs 248
Fay, Mary Hurley, cited 186
Fayetteville, Ark., general hospital estab- lished at 235
—road 231, 232
— trail 138
Federation of Women's Clubs 388
Ferguson, Mrs. 30, 31
Ferguson, Charles D., author 179
Ferguson, Kemp 30, 31
Ferrell, Mrs. Ella, pioneer 476
Ferril, Will C., cited 149
Ferry, at Soldier creek crossing, operated
by Louis Vieux 34
— Papan's, mentioned 84
Ferry boat, Willie Cade 376
Ferry boats, carried away in flood 32
Fiederling, Peter 30, 31
Fields, Mr. , mail train conductor.. 129
GENERAL INDEX
495
Finch, Charles Sumner, Lawrence 303
Finnup pioneer day celebration, Garden
City 77
First capitol of Kansas 172
First Fork (Purgatory) creek 208
Fishback, Brig. Gen. W. H. M., arrest for
disobedience 253
Fish, for lakes formed in stripped coal
areas 277
Fisher, 81, 46
— member Hickory Point expedition. .36, 44 Fisher, Rev. Hugh D., Methodist
preacher 300
Fisher, John, Neosho county pioneer. . . . 405
Fisher, R. H., author 177
Fisher creek, Solomon valley, troops sta- tioned 471
Fiske, Lieut. — — 444
Fitzgerald, Christopher 304
Fitzpatrick, 449
Fitzpatrick, Mrs. 447
Fitzpatrick, Thomas "Broken Hand" 21
179, 422, 424
Five-mile creek, mentioned 110
Flag 40
— captured during Slough creek fight .... 40
—lowered at Fort Smith 247
Flat boats, used for crossing troops 244
Fleener, W. L., Sr., Greensburg 481
Flint, Herbert, Journalism in Territorial
Kansas, cited 10, 12, 13, 16, 437
Flint creek, Blunt establishes camp on... 229
Flood of 1844 32, 83
Florence 266
— Board of Trade chartered 362
— laying out town of 271
Florence, Grant county, Okla 134
Flour, character of Mexican 417
— captured by Indians 421
— freighted to New Mexico 18
— ground at Leavenworth 366
Floyd, John B., Secretary of War, letter
cited 107
Flue caps, ornamental, produced at Pitts -
burg 292
Fly creek Ill
Fonda, Okla 135
Ford, Col. 148, 258, 259, 260, 262
— proposed Indian attack delayed by In- terior Department 148, 149
— provides escort service for Santa Fe
trail 148
Ford, old settlers' reunion held in 482
Foreman, Grant, author 179
Forest, Mrs. Abby Howe 190, 407
Forsyth, Gen. George A. . . 346, 349, 351, 45S
— "A Frontier Fight," cited 351, 353
— besieged on Beecher's Island 475,476
— expedition of 353
— report of, after battle of the Arickaree,
cited 460
Fort. See, also, Forts.
Fort Atkinson 123, 125, 189, 251
— called Camp Mackay 199
— dates of establishment and abandon- ment 55
— treaty of, with Comanche, Kiowa and
Apache 21
Fort Aubrey, location of 57
— on Arkansas river 207
Fort Bascom, N. M 464
Fort Bridger, Utah 198
— date established 197
Fort Brooks, Cloud county, location of . . 59
Fort Camp Jewell, Jewell county 59
Fort Cobb, Texas 209, 466- 468
Fort Collins, Colo., freighting from Leav- enworth to 355
Fort Cottonwood, Neb., a protection to
Northern Kansas 60
— name changed to Fort McPherson .... 61
Fort Dodge 54, 56, 61, 62
122, 152, 202, 270, 329, 339, 452, 463, 465 — attacked by Comanches and
Kiowas 457, 458
—built to defend Santa Fe trail 51
— early forts in vicinity of 55
— established 148
— Indians rationed from 451
— short history of 54, 55
— soldiers from, ordered to drive Chey-
ennes back to their reservation 268
— troops from accompany freighters to
Bent's Fort 2fi
Fort Downer, short sketch of 57
Fort Ellsworth (Fort Harker) 52
— built in 1864 55
— founded by General Curtis 142
Fort Fillmore, supplies for 427
Fort Fletcher, name changed to Fort
Hays 50
Fort Gibson . . 62, 107, 116, 139, 245, 247, 264
— Cherokee Nation 239
— garrison annoyed by rebel raids 244
— in danger of capture by rebels 243
— military road 108, 109
Fort Harker 52, 62, 199
330, 332-335, 337, 340, 341 454, 457, 458, 461, 462 — cavalry troops from, join Hancock ex- pedition 329
— cavalrymen from, to scout on Solomon, 328
— cost of buildings of 56
— Eighteenth cavalry mustered in at 339
— founded as Fort Ellsworth by General
Curtis 142
— freighting from 428
— frontier patrol from 455
— Indian chiefs assemble at, for council.. 328
— short history of 55
— victims of cholera at 339
Fort Harker-Fort Lamed military trail.. 55
Fort Hays 52, 62, 329
330, 337, 339, 352, 353, 462-464, 469, 470
— a Story of Old, by eye witnesses 78
— Seventh cavalry under Custer quartered
at, 1867 to 1870 56
— Sheridan, General, moved headquarters
to 53
— short sketch of 56
— Union Pacific completed to point near, 330
—"Wild Bill," marshal of 356
Fort Hays Frontier Park, dedication of . . 78
Fort Hays Kansas State College 170, 172
Fort Kearney, Neb 60, 198, 327
— base for Eleventh Kansas cavalry 149
— military road 59
Fort Kirwin, short sketch of 58
Fort Laramie 149, 197
Fort Larned 62, 146, 189, 199, 200, 202
206, 209, 251, 327, 337, 339, 455, 456, 463
— built to defend Santa Fe trail 51
— Hancock expedition marched to 329
— Indian contempt of 22
skirmish near 141
— Indians rationed from 451
— Kiowa and Comanche Indians ordered
to 142
— military escorts from 148
— most important guardian of Santa Fe
trail 54
— once called Camp Alert 64
— Santa Fe wagon trains not allowed to proceed west with less than 100 men. . 26
— short history of 54
— storage of supplies at 453
496
GENERAL INDEX
Fort Lamed, troops ordered to, for de- fense of 140
Fort Leavenworth 8, 9, 33, 60, 62
84, 87, 106, 126, 142, 150, 196-198, 205,
211, 219, 221, 223, 226, 238, 249, 252, 2G9
327, 329, 331, 332, 342, 361, 415-417, 419
421, 422, 427, 428, 445, 461, 470
— erosion on river below 368, 369
— father of all Kansas military posts 52
— first meteorological observation at 362
— flooded with freight 425
— Fremont's orders to defend 215
— goods for New Mexican trade brought
to 17
— headquarters Department of Kansas es- tablished at 218
— Major Prince, commandant at 219
— military road 108, 109
— New Mexican trade starting from, never
molested 24
— objective of Price's army 53, 215
— provisions accumulated at, for Mexican
war 416
— short history of 52
— troops sent out for southern Kansas
boundary survey from 107
— wagons for Santa Fe and El Paso de- parting from 425
Fort Leavenworth -Fort Riley military
road 29, 38
— • — Indianola at crossing of Soldier
creek 34
Fort Leavenworth-Fort Scott military
road 83
Fort Leavenworth -Santa Fe road, govern- ment supplies strewn along 418
Fort Lookout, Republic county 67
— short history of 59
Fort Lyon 57, 62, 144, 210, 464
— building of new 209
— Cheyennes and Arapahoes asked to con- centrate at 142
— Col. E. W. Wyncoop, former com- mander at 326
— located on Arkansas river 61
— troops ordered to, for defense of 140
Fort McPherson, Neb 353
— a protection to Northern Kansas 60
— formerly Fort Cottonwood 61
Fort Mackay 200
— location of 55
— short sketch of 199
Fort Mann, Captain Pelzer in command, 422
— established at Cimarron crossing 55
— on upper Arkansas 20
— troops under Col. Wm. Gilpin concen- trated at 422
Fort Montgomery, Eureka, brief sketch
of 59
Fort Monument, short sketch of 57
Fort Osage 201
— on Missouri river 200
Fort Pyramid, Fort Monument also
known as 57
Fort Riley . . 52, 141, 172, 198-200, 203- 206 251, 326, 327, 427, 443, 453, 454, 457, 471
— brief history of, cited 186
— built to defend Smoky Hill route. .51, 52 — General Custer joins Hancock's expedi- tion at 329
— military roads 29, 38, 59
— short history of 53
— troops, rescue besieged wagon train... 142
under General Mitchell reach 220
Fort Riley-Fort Leavenworth military
road 29
Fort Riley and Fort Lamed, designated as
rendeivous for trains for New Mexico, 26 Fort Scott (city) 15, 109, 273
Fort Scott (city), may have been sixth printing point in territorial Kansas. ... 12
Fort Scott (military post) 52, 172
224-226, 242, 243, 247, 248, 261, 262
— Blunt, commands post of 214
troops of, return to 217
— Chief John Ross, of Cherokee Nation,
and other Cherokee officials arrive at.. 224 — Colonel Solomon abandons Indian
country and retreats to 228
— established in 1842 53
— regiments organized at 225
intends to fall back upon 223
— supply depot at 230
— threatened by rebel forces 214
Fort Scott-Fort Leavenworth military
road 83, 108, 109, 260
Fort Sedgwick, Neb 330
— a sod fort d
— a protection to Northern Kansas 60
Fort Sill 354
— establishment of 468
— military cemetery at 203
Fort Simple, Topeka, short sketch of... 60
Fort Smith 237, 247-250, 263, 321
— Blunt removes headquarters to 247
— captured by forces under General
Sturgis 247
— military road to 229
— rebel flag lowered at 247
— rebel forces retreat to 246
Fort Sod and Fort Sodom (Fort Atkin- son) 199
Fort Solomon, Ottawa county, brief
sketch of 59
Fort Supply 355
Fort Sumter, assault on 213
Fort Union, N. M 141, 142, 148, 423, 427
— a military depot 424
— army depot removed from Santa Fe to, 20
— cost of corn at 428
— supplies for 427
Fort Wallace 52, 55, 62
269, 330, 340, 352-354, 458, 474
— attacked by Indians 336
— constructed in September, 1865 56
— Custer expedition returns to 330
— short history of 56
— small garrisons at, during Indian wars, 57
Fort Wayne 4
— battle of 212
— Blunt attacks Cooper and Stand Watie
at 228
Fort Wise, Colo 445
— building of 210
— establishment of 209
— renamed Fort Lyon 61 209
—treaty of (1861) 144
annulled by Chivington massacre... 150
Fort Worth (Texas) Cattleman, cited. . . 477
Fort Zarah 54, 62, 144, 189, 199, 202
— built to defend Santa Fe trail 51
— founded by General Curtis 142
— rations for 147
— short history of 54
Fortesque, W. M., mayor of Leavenworth, 362
Forts, in Ninth Military Department 423
— log, in Republic county 60
— on Arkansas river 418, 422
— some statistics 50
— See, also, Names of forts; names of camps. Fossum, Paul R., The Agrarian Movement
in North Dakota, cited 162
Foster, Maj. 254
— Missouri militia under command of, de- feated by Shelby and Coffee 225
Four-mile creek no
Fouts, J. W 29, 30
GENERAL INDEX
497
Fox, Simeon M., "The Story of the Sev- enth Kansas," cited 310
Frankfort, Ky., military academy at.... 203 Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills, by Roy Franklin Nichols,
review of, by James C. Malin 295- 297
Free-soilers 432
Free State, Lawrence, starting of.... 11, 12 Free-state Convention, Topeka, 1857.... 14
Free-state Hotel, Lawrence 435
Free -state legislature, first 44
Free-state regiments, Third, James A.
Harvey made colonel of 40
Free-state volunteers, second regiment.. 33
Freed, J. K 410
Freedom's Champion, Atchison 269, 437
Freeman, Winfield, "The Battle of the
Arickaree," cited 458
Freeman's Champion, Prairie City, found- ing of 13
— old Meeker press used on 16
Freight, articles composing bulk of,
shipped over Santa Fe trail 18
— contractors, long journeys made by. ... 426
— rates of, exorbitant 426
— —on Santa Fe trail 425
Freighters, protection to 327
Freighting, business and military phases of, articles by Walker D. Wyman, 17- 27
415- 428
— overland, dangerous character of 419
— smallpox and Indians made hazardous
in 1854 21
Fremont, Gen. John Charles 179,214
— at Springfield, Mo 216
— complaint of pomp about headquarters
of 216
— delusions regarding Price's army 216
— Department of Missouri under com- mand of 217
— hazardous to approach during Price in- vasion 216
— order to evacuate Kansas City and de- stroy all government supplies at 215
— relieved of command 217
French, Charles H., cited 479
French, Fred 402
French, Capt. J. C., at Fort Leavenworth, 332 French, M. O., president Pittsburg Clay
Products Co 294
Frontier Days, by William L. Kuykendall,
mentioned 177
Frontier magazine, cited 466
Frontier Scouts, Kansas, Some Famous,
article by Paul I. Wellman 345- 359
Frontenac, coal mine disaster at 278,479
Fry, Smith D., author 183
Fuhr, Frank, former editor of Meade
Globe 272
Fuller, Mrs. Cora E., daughter of Rev.
Thomas Johnson 304
Fulton, — — 30, 31
Funnall [ ?] , Esquire 98
Furman, A. C., Oberlin 409
Furniture, made at Leavenworth 366
G.
Gadsden Purchase 427
Gagliardo, Domenico, "A History of Kan- sas Child Labor Legislation" 379-401
• — associate professor of economics, Kan- sas University 306
Galena, strikes of lead and zinc at 281
Gallaghan, Rev. Gilbert, author 184
Galveston, deep harbor, mentioned 377
Gamble, Gov. H. R., of Missouri 241
Garden City Community Church, fiftieth anniversary of 479
Garden City Daily Telegram, account of Finnup pioneer day celebration pub- lished in 77
Garden City News, cited 479
— account of Finnup pioneer day celebra- tion published in 77
— historical edition of 402
Gardner, , post adjutant, Fort
Harker 462
Garfield, Marvin H 306
— "Defense of the Kansas Frontier,"
articles by 50- 62
140-152, 326-344, 451- 473 — instructor history, Roosevelt Intermedi- ate School, Wichita 82, 414
Garfield county, Okla 136
Garnett, Capt. Richard Brooke 111, 112
115, 118, 122, 124- 127
— biographical mention of 107
Garrett, Charles, foreman in John Speer's
office 11
Garrett, Okla 128
Garvey, E. C. K 13
— Kansas Freeman founded by 12
Garvin, William L., and S. O. Davis, History of the National Farmers' Alli- ance and Cooperative Union of America,
cited 161
Gas, natural, Kansas fields 284
Gaylord, Capt. — • — 444
Geary, Gov. John W 29, 47-49, 178
Geary City Era, founding of 14
Geary county 178, 185
Geisler, Dr. 126
General Motors', dedicates radio program
to Kansas 481
Geological survey, Kansas 274
— request to legislature for 372
German family, killed by Cheyennes 269
German-Russian settlements, Ellis and
Rush counties 177
—in the United States 302, 409
Ghent, William James 179
— and LeRoy R. Hafen, Broken Hand, the Life Story of Thomas Fitzgerald, Chief of the Mountain Men, cited .... 21
Gibbons, James Cardinal 300
Gibson, Comm. Gen. George 427
Gibson, Capt. [A. A. ?], military store- keeper 126
Giddings and Beck, New Mexican ranch- ers, import sheep to improve native
stock 22
Gift Shop and Necessity Co., Kansas
City, Mo 294
Giles, Fry W., Thirty Years in Topeka,
cited 32, 433
Gillis House, Kansas City, Mo 435
— General Curtis establishes headquarters
at 258
Gilpin, Gov. William, Colorado, aided in driving Confederates out of New
Mexico 25
— commanding battalion guarding Santa
Fe trail 422
— estimate of losses from Indians in
1847 421,422
Girard Press, cited 282, 288. 474
Girard Zinc Co., zinc production 1893.. 2B4 Gireau, Michael, French Indian trader... 172 — site of trading post deeded to Kansas
State Historical Society 168, 172, 178
Gist, George W., townsite promoter 8
Gittinger, Roy, cited 104
Givler, H. S., editor Western Kansas
World 308
Gleed, Charles S., editor The Kansas
Memorial 432
Click, George W 68
498
GENERAL INDEX
Glick, Geo. W., defeated St. John 63
Glucose, Leavenworth factories 366
Goat skins, shipped from New Mexico... 18
Gold, discovery of 348
— fields, development of, in Arizona and
New Mexico 17
— mines, machinery for, shipped over
Santa Fe trail 22
— rush, Pike's Peak, 1859 40
— seekers, too numerous to count 24
— and silver, from Mexican mines brought
to Westport 24
Goode, S. S., one of publishers of Leav- enworth Journal 14
Good-for-nothing (Ni-hi-pa) creek 116
Goodin, Joel K., legislative journals of
1859 printed by 15
Goodland News -Re-public, dedicatory issue, for laying of corner stone of new court
house 77
Goodnow, Isaac T 439
— Manhattan organized under leadership
of 433
Goodridge, Fannie, missionary-teacher. . . 91 Good Tidings, Topeka, religious publica- tion issued by C. A. Sexton 35
Goodwin, Cardinal Leonidas, author 179
Gould, Mr. , printer 98
Government wagon train, captured by
Indians 421
Gove City Republican- Gazette 407
Gove county, Fort Monument an outpost
in 57
— monument -shaped rocks in 68
— oldest house in 407
Gover, Phil 406
Graber, A. J., The Mennonite Story com- piled by 301
Graham, Simeon Levi, family of 404
Graham county, Negro colony in 189
Grama grass 125, 132
Granby Mining & Smelting Co., build
smelter at Pittsburg 282
• — zinc production figures 283, 284
Grand, E. H., and Earle Marble, found
Geary City Era 14
Grand Falls, Mo Ill
Grand river 108, 139
— crossing of 244, 260
Grand Saline, description of 121
Granet [?] Fork, Canadian river 207
Grant, Gen. Ulysses S 149, 263
333, 468, 452
— Indian policy of 150
— requested by Governor Crawford to muster out Sixteenth Kansas cavalry. . 149
Grant county, Okla 134
Grant township, Cloud county 185
Grasshopper Falls, now Valley Falls 302
• — rumored burning of 29
Grasshopper river 36, 43, 46
Grasshoppers 121
— invasion of 1874 403
Graves, W. WM author 475, 481
Gray county 190
Graybill, J. M., president Leavenworth
Board of Trade 362
Great American Desert 348
Great Bend 209
— Walnut creek crossing near 206
Great Bend of the Arkansas 461
Great Bend Register, cited 202
Greeley, Horace, of New York Tribune.. 430
— The American Conflict, cited 308
Green, A., telegram to Governor Craw- ford, quoted 338
Green, Max, Kansas Region, cited 199
Green, Gov. Nehemiah 462, 467
Green, old settlers' reunion held in 481
Green river, Black's fork of 197
Greensburg 481
Greensburg News, cited 474
Greenwood county, Fort Montgomery a
rallying place for early settlers of 59
— historical notes of 185
Grierson, Gen. B. H 465, 466
Griff enstein, Wm., mayor of Wichita,
cited 466
Grinell, D. C 402
Grinnell, George Bird 207, 348
359, 465, 470 —"Bent's Old Fort and Its Builders,"
cited 61, 347
— The Fighting Cheyennes, cited 140
143-145,330,344, 351, 459 Grinnell, Kansas Pacific train derailed
near 463
Grinter crossing, Kansas river 83, 90
Groom, J. Fuller 191
Grouse creek, Cowley county 115
Grove, Mrs. C. E., reminiscences cited.. 186
Grover, Abner S., Indian scout 345
346, 353, 451
— had Indian wife 351
—killed at Pond Creek 352
Gueda Springs, Dr. G. A. Cutler post- master of 44
Guerriere, Edmund, half-breed Cheyenne, 456 Guerrilla band, under command of Mat- thews 214
Guise, Byron E., author 189, 403, 404
Guittard station, on Overland route 404
Gunnison, Capt. J. W., Big Timbers de- scribed by 207
Gustafson, F. S 406
H.
Hackney, William Patrick 298
Hadley, James A 344
— manuscripts of 477
Hafen, LeRoy R., author 179, 422
— The Overland Mail, 18^9-1869, cited.. 335 — and W. J. Ghent, Broken Hand, The Life Story of Thomas Fitzpatrick, Chief
of the Mountain Men, cited 21, 179
Hale, Edward E 432, 440
— connection with New England Emigrant
Aid Co 430
— Kanzas and Nebraska, cited 430
Haley, J. E., The KIT Ranch of Texas,
cited 75
Hall, Mrs. Carrie A., additions to Lincoln and Roosevelt collection in Kansas State
Historical Society 183
Hall, J. C. surrounded by Indians 22
Hall, James, survivor of Frontenac mine
disaster 479
Hall, John A., Gireau trading post pre- sented to Kansas State Historical So- ciety by 168, 172, 173
Hall, Willard P., cited 104
Hall and Hand, History of Leavenworth
County, Kansas, cited 38
Hall's breech -loading rifle 80
Halleck, Gen. H. W 220, 222
— chronic hatred of Kansas 250
— Department of the Mississippi com- manded by 220
— failure of, at Corinth, Miss 221
— made commander in chief of U. S.
Army 221
— orders investigation of Sand Creek
massacre 145
Hallowel, W. C 407
Halstead, old settlers' reunion held in... 481
Halstead Independent, cited 301
Hamersly, T. H. S., Complete Army and
Navy Register, cited 54, 56
196, 197, 202, 209
GENERAL INDEX
499
Hamilton, John P., Sr., Coffey county
reminiscences of, cited 184
Hamilton, William 7
— at loway and Sac mission 6
Hammond, Geraldine, article on cattle in- dustry, cited 186
Hampden, founding of town of 434
Ham's Fork, described 197
Hancock, Gen. W. S 62, 327
330, 331, 333, 339, 356, 452 — burns Indian village on Pawnee Fork. . 329
— campaign in Kansas in 1867 329, 349
— commander Department of the Mis- souri 326
— Indian War 1867 possibly precipitated
by 330
— made Fort Hays headquarters during
1867 56
— threat to chastise Indians 349
Hancock's War, close of 330
Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad 361
Hanover Democrat, cited 480
Hanrahan's saloon, at Adobe Walls 349
Hardesty, Okla 131
Hardt, Charley, short sketch 38
Hardtner, founding of 186
Hardware, freighted to New Mexico .... 18
Harger, Charles M 167-169, 172, 190
— "Cattle Trails of the Prairies," cited. . 74 — president Kansas State Historical So- ciety, address of 165- 167
Harlan, H 57
Harmony Mission, Bates county, Mo 481
Harney, Gen. W. S 445, 446, 447
— Indian peace treaty commissioner 151
342, 443
Harper county 116, 119, 178
— Burchfiel community church 409
— Spring township 118
Harper county, Okla 120
Harper's Magazine, cited 309, 353
Harris, Mr. , Maiden, Mass 99
Harris, Dwight Thacher 408
Harrison township, Nemaha county 188
Hart, Admiral, machinery taken to Mexico
by 18
Hartford, steamboat, colonists from Cin- cinnati brought to Kansas by 433
Harvey, Alexander, first settler of Alex- ander 476
Harvey, Col. James A 30, 31, 48, 49
— at Hickory Point 40
— biographical sketch 40
Harvey, Gov. James M 106, 470- 472
— calls out militia for Indian defense. . . . 468 — protests against discontinuance of Fort
Larned 54
Harvey county 178
— David L. Payne, a pioneer of 407
— Mennonite settlers in 301
— historical relics of 410
Harveyville Monitor 301
Haskell, Capt. John G 331, 332
Haskell, Dudley C., congressman 270
Haskell county, arrowhead and scraper
"finds" 188
Haskins, C. W., author 179
Hastings (Neb.) cut-off 180
Haughawout, Margaret E., author 177
Haver, Mr. and Mrs. John 271,272
Hawley, D. E., author 177
Hawn, Maj. F 361
Hayden, Horace Edwin, author 181
Hayes, S. M., & Co., Council Grove, New Mexico freight statistics compiled
by 24, 25
— registry of those engaged in Santa Fe
trade, kept by 23
Haynes, F. E 164
— James B. Weaver, cited 162
Haynes, F. E., Third Party Movements
Since the Civil War, cited 162
Hays, Mrs. R. R 405
Hays Daily News, special edition an- nouncing dedication of Fort Hays
Frontier Park 78
Hazelton Herald, cited 408
Hazen, Gen. W. B 466
— peace efforts with Indians fail 463
Hazzard, A. B., early printing done by. . 14 — Kickapoo Kansas Pioneer, started by. . 9
Heath, D. C., & Co 306
Heitman, Francis B., Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States
Army, cited 107, 108
196, 202, 205, 207- 209
Henderson, Sen. [Thomas J. ?] 333
Hendrickson, Thomas, sketch 196
Henneberry, E. D 288
— vice president, Hull & Dillon Packing
Co 287
Hennes, Mrs. John, Mitchell county's last
Indian raid recalled by 185
Hepler Emanuel Lutheran Church, fiftieth
anniversary of 474
Herald of Freedom, Lawrence 8, 12, 16
47, 111, 119, 436 — article on Kansas southern boundary
survey, cited 110
— date established 10
— destruction of 13, 15
Herington, old settlers' reunion held in.. 482
Herrick, Bob 298
Herrick, C. R 403
Kerrigan, Bernard, secretary Southwestern Interstate Coal Operators' Association, 276
Herron, Gen. F. J 232
— assumes command of two divisions of
Army of the Frontier 230
— goes to assistance of Blunt 230
Hersey, Mr. and Mrs. Timothy F. . . 190, 403 Hess, Edith, "State Regulation of Woman and Child Labor in Kansas," cited... 379
Hewins 114
Hiawatha Daily World 178, 408
Hickman, Mr. , Westport wagon- master 129
Hickman's Mill, Mo 253, 254
Hickok, James B. (Wild BUI).. 345,352,356
Hickory Point 31
— "First Day's Battle of," from the diary and reminiscences of Samuel James Reader, edited by George A. Root, 28- 49
— Kickapoo Rangers surrender at 40
— Lane makes disposition for attack on.. 39
— line of march on 36
— location of 29
— Pro -slavery forces at, under command
of Capt. H. A. Lowe 29
— South Carolinians at 29
Hicks, John D., The Populist Revolt, re- viewed 162- 164
Hides, dry, value shipped from New
Mexico in 1859 18
Highland, Presbyterian Mission, early
printing done at 6
Hildebrandt, Rev. R., author 474
Hill, Esther Clark, writer, poet 82, 304
— "Some Background of Early Baptist
Missions in Kansas," article by... 89- 103 — "The Pratt Collection of Manuscripts,"
article by 83- 88
Hillsboro, historical notes of 404
Hillyer, George S 312, 314
315,318,324,325
— house resolution impeaching 313
— impeachment articles against 314
— state auditor 311
— table showing vote in impeachment of, 323 —trial of . . 321
500
GENERAL INDEX
Hinckel's ford, Colonel Moonlight guard- ing 258
Hindman, Gen. Thomas C 230, 234, 237
— attack upon Herron's command 232
— Blunt 's preparations before taking the
field against 223
— defeated at Battle of Prairie Grove... 233
— plan to crush Blunt's force 22
— rebel forces in Arkansas under 222
Hinkle, Dr. Thomas C., The Story of a
Tramp Dog 410
Historical Society. See Kansas State
Historical Society.
"History of Kansas Child-Labor Legis- lation, A," article by Domenico Gag-
liardo 379-401
Hitchcock, Ethan Allen, author 179
Hoag, David D., reminiscences of... 184,479 Hoag, Enoch, central superintendent of
Indian affairs 270
Hobbs, James, author 179
Hockley, Alice, notes on cattle business in
state, cited 184
Hodge, F. W., Handbook of American
Indians, cited 153, 203
Hodgeman County Historical Society,
activities of 171
Hodges & Armit, steam shovel stripping
used in mining coal 273
Hodgson, F. L., reminiscences of 301
Hoffman, Laban Miles, author 181
Hog callers 300
Hoisington, A. J 195
Hoisington Dispatch, cited 184, 474
Holladay Overland Stage Line 82, 148
Holladay Overland Mail and Express Co., Butterfield Overland Despatch
purchased by 327
Holliday, Cyrus K 320, 323
— Adjutant General 143, 144
Hollow tile brick, produced at Pittsburg, 292
Holls, 30
Holstein, 448
Holton 29
— first house on townsite erected by
W. F. Creitz 39
Holton Signal, cited 301
Home Coal Mining Co 371
Home for Disabled Volunteers, Leaven-
worth 372
Home Mission Board of Congregational
Churches 437
Honey Springs, Ark., battle of 212,245
Honzinger, Doc. • 350
Hootinger, John 197, 198
Hoper, Mr. — — 98
Hopeton, Okla 134
Hopkins' battery 238
Horr, C. W 407
Horse racing, indulged in by troops 200
Horsehead (Cow-a-wha) creek 113
Horton Headlight -Commercial, historical
edition of 78
Hotels, established by Emigrant Aid Co., 435 Houck, Louis, A History of Missouri,
cited 153
Houston, "Pickles," trooper 205
Houston, Gen. Sara 154
Houston, Samuel D., cited 471
Howard Congressional Committee 435
• — report of, cited 439
Howard, old settlers' reunion held in.... 482
Howe, Octavius Thorndike, author 180
Howe, S. W., of Florence 266, 267
Howell, Fred N 194
— "Some Phases of the Industrial History of Pittsburg, Kan.," article by. . . 273- 294
Howell, Henry, reminiscences of 477
Howitzers, Jennison's 258
• — mountain 253- 255
Hoyt, Lt. Col. George H 262
Hubbard, J. M 320, 323
Huber, Mrs. Florence M., author 177
Huddle, William David, author 181
Hudson, John, pseudonym of Paul Well- man 186, 189
Hudson creek, Ottawa county, Okla 139
Hudson's ranch, on the Neosho 138, 139
Huffman, Chas. S 392
Huffman, Col. William 197
Huggins, John 210
Hugh, George, author 179
Hughes, Langston, author 177
Hughes, Robert M., Norfolk, Va 106
Hughes, William Joseph Leander, author, 181
Hull Club, Pittsburg 288
Hull, Lewis 287, 288
— account of his start in meat business at
Pittsburg 286
Hull & Dillon Packing Co., Pittsburg 286
— night classes for employees sponsored
by 288
— statistics of plant of 287
Humboldt, establishment of 434
— sacking of 214
Humboldt Union, cited 185
Humphrey, H. L 190
Hunnewell 117
Hunnius, Ado, map of Kansas, 1869,
drawn by 202, 207
Hunt, Gen. , urged winter campaign
against Indians 145
Hunt, Gov. A. C., Colorado 458
Hunt, Elvid, History of Fort Leaven- worth, 1827-1927, cited 53
Hunt, Frazier, author 180
Hunter, Maj. Gen. David, relieves Fre- mont of command 217
Huston S. E., reminiscences cited 186
Hutchinson, first salt well drilled at 300
— historical notes of 476
— sixtieth anniversary jubilee of building
of first railroad up Arkansas valley .... 303 Hutchinson Herald, cited . . 300, 303, 404, 476
Hutchinson News, cited 78, 300, 303
— sixtieth anniversary edition of 476
Hyatt, Thaddeus, colony in Anderson
county started by 40
— manuscripts of, in Historical Society . . 40
Hyattville, founding of 40
Hyde, J. B 403
I.
latan, Mo., a Confederate town 61
Illinois, zinc production, 1893 284
Illinois river, Arkansas 232
Impeachments, Early Kansas, article by
Cortez A. M. Ewing 307- 325
— first Kansas 310
Independence, First Christian Church,
sixty-first anniversary of 191
—historical notes of 299
Independence Daily Reporter 299
Independence, Mo., best market for cattle,
mules and wagons west of St. Louis. . . 17 — principal outfitting place for Santa Fe
trade to 1850 18
— road to Kansas City from 257
— shared overland trade with Westport,
Mo 20
— troops for protection of Santa Fe trail
organized at 422
Independence and Lexington road 254
Indian Affairs. See U. S. Indian Affairs;
U. S. Indian Bureau; and U. S. Indian
Department.
— agency, at Fort Larned 54
—agents 422
warned against selling arms to
Indians 452
GENERAL INDEX
501
Indian Affairs, battles of the west 406
—depredations 456-458, 463
1866 326
in Kansas, 1867 330
— • — on the Solomon 461
on White Rock creek 344
reports of 340
See also, Names of tribes.
— lands, east of Mississippi 3
— missions, pioneer stages of 89
See, also, Name of church, missions;
Name of tribe, missions ; Name of
mission.
— outrages, traced to alcoholic liquors. . . 328 — protection in Kansas, legislature adopts
resolution to congress for 147
— raid, last in Kansas 349
on Smoky Hill stage line at Big
Creek station 339
— raiders, states scourged by 345
• — regiments 223
Second battery 245
• Third 225
— composed of Cherokee Indians . . 224
in Army of the Frontier 238
organization of 184
organized from loyal refugee Creeks,
Cherokees and Seminoles 222
See, also, Kansas regiments; U. S.
regiments. — reservations, none provided in treaty of
1865 to be located in Kansas 151
— '"Scouts, Some Famous Kansas Fron- tier," article by Paul I. Wellman, 345- 359
— sign language 351
— trader, James R. Mead an 342
— traders, New Mexican 127
— treaty, 1865, from the diary of Samuel
A. Kingman 442- 450
• — tribes 105
Kansas bonds purchased by trust
funds held for 311
— troubles, Fort Riley close to area of . . 53
— wars 196
1864, on Upper Arkansas . 26
— —1865 147
1867, Fort Hays headquarters for
General Hancock during 56
1868 353
1874 354
— • — small garrisons at Fort Wallace
during 57
Indian creek 108
Indian Peace Commission. See U. S. Indian Peace Commission.
Indian territory 61, 83, 84
86, 149, 179, 453, 463, 466, 469,. 470
buffalo hunting in 355
changes in before 1855 7
Indian tribes to settle in 151
Kickapoo Indians settle in 154
set apart by act of Congress, in
1830, extent of 3
Sheridan's campaign in 451
Indiana regiments, Second battery 223
Indianola 28, 36
— Clinton and Milne hotels 33
— Pro -slavery community 29
— raid on Pro-slavery residents of 34
— short sketch of 34
Indians 60, 94, 95, 97, 145
146, 172, 184, 185, 187, 197, 199, 200, 267
271, 333-335, 340, 341, 407, 417, 447, 450
— attack emigrant train on Platte 350
Fort Wallace 336
government train bound for Fort
Union 142
mail escort on "dry route" of Santa
Fe trail 202
Mexican wagon train 152
Indians, attack wagon trains on plains.. 420 — attitude toward railroad building up
Smoky Hill valley 328
— beg freighters for whisky and tobacco, 21 —concentration along Smoky Hill and
Republican rivers broken up 340
— defeats of 349
— depredations of 468
between Cimarron river and Pawnee
Fork 420
— derail Kansas Pacific train 463
— efforts to bribe 424
— encamped on Arkansas during freight- ing season 19
— favorite hunting grounds of 146
— Fort Scott never a factor in defense
against 53
— gathered at Arkansas crossing each year
to harass traders 421
—hostile 251
south of Arkansas 20
— number murders committed by, in 1866
and 1867 344
— number whites killed by, in 1868 345
— on Santa Fe trail in 1856, demand tri- bute of freighters 22
— ordered out of Kansas 451
— Plains 480
on warpath in 1865 26
— plan to remove to newly created terri- tory 3
— raid on Santa Fe trail 146
Overland Stage Co. stations 329
— raiding and marauding of 442
— railroad men killed by 341
— refugee 445, 448
— removal to West 89
— supplied with arms and ammunition by
traders 340
— surrender white captives 442
—treaty of October 1865, with 145
150, 151
diary of Samuel A. Kingman
on 442- 450
— U. S. Surveyors Massacred by, article
by Mrs. Frank C. Montgomery.. 266- 272 — use captured flour to bedeck themselves, 421 — See, also, Names of tribes. Industrial welfare, law of 1915, Kansas, 389
Ingalls, John J 317, 318, 320, 323
— characterization of Lane 309
—"Kansas— 1541-1891," cited 309
— partner of S. A. Kingman 442
Ingersoll, J. H., The Great Rebellion,
cited 237
Ingraham, Lieut. Edward, on Kansas
southern boundary survey 114, 115
120, 124, 127, 128, 134
— biographical mention of 108
Institute of American Meat Packers, lec- tures furnished by 288
Insurance, for employees 288
— rates, Leavenworth, considered 368
International Shoe Co., St. Louis 287
lola 266, 271
lola Daily Register 178
Iowa Indians, books printed in language
of 6, 7
Iowa and Sac Indians, Presbyterian mis- sion among 6
— mission of, date established 6
press, elementary book in Iowa lan- guage published at 7
Iowa Point, Doniphan county 40
Iowa State Historical Society 162
Iowa regiments, First cavalry 237
— Seventh cavalry, fight with Indians . . . 143
Irvm, Samuel M 7
— at Iowa and Sac mission 6
502
GENERAL INDEX
Irwin, J. C., cattle driven to New Mexico
by 426
Isabella, Major county, Okla 135
Isely, W. H., cited 440
J.
Jackson, Albert 313
Jackson, Andrew 309
Jackson, Mrs. Maud C., author 177
Jackson, Mrs. Z. N., Civil War diary of, 477 Jackson -Walker Coal & Mining Co.,
Pittsburg 274
Jackson county 90
Jacksonville agreement, cited 276
Jacobus, Donald Lines, author 181, 182
James, Catherine 28
James, Edwin, compiler 51
Jameson, E. J., Coal Resources of Leaven- worth, Kan., cited 361, 371
Jayhawk hotel, Topeka 191
Jefferson, Thomas 309
Jefferson barracks, near St. Louis, Mo. . . 196
Jefferson county, historical notes of 185
Jeffries, Paul V 405
Jenner, Dr. Jacob F 29, 30
— biographical sketch of 32
Jenner, Thomas 29, 30
Jenness, Maj. George B 462
— "The Battle of Beaver Creek," cited.. 339
Jennison, Col. C. R 258- 260
— guards Byron's ford 257
"Jerked beef" 197
Jesuit Bulletin, St. Marys, cited 187
Jewell City Catholic church, historical
notes of 186
Jewell City, Fort Camp Jewell at 59
— old settlers' reunion held in 481
Jewell county, given seed wheat by legis- lature 472
— sod fort constructed in, as protection
against Indians 60
Jewell County Monitor, Mankato, cited.. 406
Joe Spaniard 112, 116, 136, 138, 139
Johnson, 31
Johnson, President Andrew, appealed to
for protection from Indians 457
— impeachment trial of 317
— proclaimed Indian treaty of, 1865 151
Johnson, Mrs. Charles T., Greensburg . . . 481
Johnson, Harry, cited 475
Johnson, Hiram 300
Johnson, Samuel A., associate professor of
history, Teachers college, Emppria.... 414 • — '"The Emigrant Aid Company in Kan- sas," article by 429- 441
Johnson, Rev. Thomas 304
Johnson, W. A., History of Anderson
County, Kan., cited 40
Johnson, W. 0 98
Johnson Brothers, of Pittsburg Town
Company 289
Johnson county 84
— historical notes of 478
— Shawnee Methodist mission built in ... 90 Johnson County Democrat, Olathe, his- torical edition of 478
Johnston, Gen. Albert Sidney 196, 197
— at Fort Bridger 197
— Utah campaign of 211
Johnston, Lieut. Col. Joseph E 195, 200
— biographical sketch of 106
— diary of, on Kansas southern boundary
survey 107-139
— directed to ascertain route for railroad
to Rio Grande 107
— journal of 196
— manuscript collection of 106
— selected to command survey of Kansas'
southern boundary 105, 106
— visits St. Louis ... . . 106
Johnston, Josiah Stoddard, author 182
Jones, A. W., and C. A. Faris, Lecompton
Union started by 13
Jones, H. W., wagon train of 26
Jones, Harry C 266, 267
— buried at Lawrence 270
— scalped by Indians 268
Jones, Mrs. Mary (Gibson), author 182
Jones, Samuel J., Free State hotel de- stroyed by posse under 435
— sheriff Douglas county 38
Jones, Sue Carmody, author 477
Jones, W. C., of lola 266
Jones & Russell, Santa Fe freight con- tractors 426
Joplin, Mo., lead and zinc smelting
center 273, 281
Joplin Railroad Company 274
Jordan, William 304
Jornado, the Cimarron desert 19
Journeycake, Charles 84, 95
Journeycake, Nannie, married Lucius
Pratt 95
Juarez, President Benito, of Mexico, 154, 155 Judson, Col. William R., of Sixth Kansas, 250 Julesburg, Colo., Fort Sedgwick located
near 61
Junction City 15, 443, 444, 470, 471
— Chamber of Commerce of 172
— composed mostly of dugouts 206
Junction City Republic, cited 187
Junction City Sentinel, started by B. H.
Keyser 15
Junction City Union 26,145-147
150, 186, 187, 327, 328, 330, 340
K.
Ka-ke-to, Kickapoo Indian 157
Kansas 7, 8
— abolitionists, practically stop New Mexi- can trade from Kansas City and West-
port 24
— admission, date of 307
to Union delayed 310
—bleeding, story of 307
— boundary proposed for southern line . . 104
— Bruce Barton's tribute to 481
— buffalo hunters 298
— Civil War waged in 307
— constitutions voted on 307
— counties, historical sketches of 474
— early newspaper press of 8
— financial condition of 310
— first impeachments in 310
military post in 50
printing press 83
types set up by Meeker 4
— forts in 50
— frontier settlers, destitute given relief. .457
— geographical center of 206
— grain growing center 361
—General Halleck's hostility towards 221
— hard times in 477
— Indian tribes located within limits "ex-
cepted without the boundaries" 105
— land quarrels 296
surveys completed 266
— Legislature, 1855, known as "Bogus
Legislature," met at Pawnee 9
1857, Laws and journals of, printed
by R. H. Bennett 14
1867 327, 328
distributes seed wheat to destitute
frontier settlers 472
extends vote of thanks to Gen.
Curtis 148
issues bonds for maintenance of
militia 470
protection against Indians asked of
Congress 147
GENERAL INDEX
503
Kansas, Legislature, 1869, provides com- mission to investigate claims of citizens
against Indians 47, 472
resolution regarding convict labor .. 377
— lost towns of 477
— map of, drawn by Ado Hunnius 202
— Meeker press set up 4
—Military Department of 140
— military division of 62
establishments built on Santa Fe
trail 51
— militia 326
^-ordered to report to Gen. Curtis... 142
— mills of all kinds in, before 1864 435
— natural gas fields of 284
— New England Emigrant Aid Company
a minor factor in peopling of 432
— objective of Price's invasion 255
— Pioneer Printing in, article by Douglas
C. McMurtrie 3- 16
— population increase 360
— propaganda to stimulate emigration to, 430 — protection of border from rebel raids. . 222 — regiments, cavalry in Staked Plains
campaign 468
colored troops in 239
included in Gen. Dodge's Powder
River expedition 147
First battery 223, 237
colored infantry 222
Frontier battalion, organization
of 460, 461
petitions governor to be per- mitted to stay in field 462
Second battery . . 213, 225, 239, 243, 253
cavalry 223, 225, 236, 237, 245
Colored 247, 248
Frontier battalion 470, 471
militia 29, 33
Third cavalry 213
consolidated with Tenth 218
rendezvoused at Mound City.... 214
Fourth 213
consolidated with Tenth 218
Fifth cavalry 213, 253
militia 253, 258
Sixth cavalry 214, 223
238, 243, 244, 250
militia 253, 258
Seventh cavalry 310
Eighth infantry 149
Ninth cavalry 199, 223
Tenth infantry . . .149, 218, 223, 269, 271
militia 253, 258
Eleventh cavalry. . 87, 211, 222, 253, 256
bases at Fort Kearney 14-9
expedition to Black Hills 149
to Platte river country 187
mustered out 150
Twelfth infantry 222
Thirteenth infantry 222, 245
Fourteenth cavalry 247, 253, 254
Fifteenth cavalry 59, 148, 149, 253
— ordered to protect Salina neigh- borhood 144
Sixteenth cavalry 253- 255
Black Hills campaign 149, 150
casualties in 150
request for muster out 149
Eighteenth cavalry 332, 334, 339
difficulty in procuring horses for, 338
mortality of 340
— mustered in at Fort Harker, 335, 339
method of procuring horses
for 338, 339
Nineteenth cavalry 59, 271
354, 451, 467,470
mustered in 463, 464
• out 469
Twentieth infantry 410, 411
Kansas, scrip, state obligations paid with, 311 — settlers petition Gov. Crawford for
Indian protection 149
—smelters in, 1880-1882 282
— survey of southern boundary. . 104-139, 195
— territory, boundary of 104
troubles in 21, 29, 196
— war bonds of 314
— women's pioneer memorial proposed... 188
— zinc production, 1893 284
Kansas Academy of Science 362
Kansas Annual Register, cited 12
Kansas river 5, 21, 32, 53, 89, 155, 443
— Grinter crossing 83, 90
— one-fourth mile wide near Shawnee
Mission 93
— steamboat Hartford burned on return
trip 433
Kansas Catholic Historical Society 187
Kansas Chief, Troy 65
— seventy-fifth anniversary of 406
Kansas Child Welfare Survey 393
Kansas Children's Code Commission .... 392
400, 401
Kansas City 6
— children employed in industries of .... 396 — Kansas Pacific railroad extended west- ward from 17
— Pittsburg paving brick used by 290
Kansas City (Kan.) Sun, facsimile of
Shawnee Sun reproduced by 6
Kansas City, Mo 4, 361
— an auxiliary to Westport 21
— Civil War affected trade of, with New
Mexico 24
— Curtis moved headquarters to 259
— evacuation of, and destruction of gov- ernment supplies ordered at 215
— Mexican wool shipped to 23
— Pittsburg paving brick used by 290
— Proslavery in sentiment 22
— troops under Sturgis at 214, 215
Kansas City (Mo.) Enterprise, cited 24
Kansas City (Mo.) Journal, cited, 20, 23, 24 Kansas City (Mo.) Journal-Post, cited.. 26
274, 277
Kansas City (Mo.) Star, cited 16, 18
191, 372,376, 474
Kansas City (Mo.) Times, cited 409
Kansas Day 304
Kansas Facts, third edition published . . . 192
Kansas Farmer, Topeka 153
Kansas Federation of Women's Clubs ... 192 Kansas Fish and Game Department, re- port cited 206
Kansas Forestry, Fish and Game Com- mission 206
Kansas Free State, Delaware, history of, 14
Kansas Free State, Lawrence 8, 10
— destruction of 13, 14
Kansas Freeman, Topeka 18
— founded by E. C. K. Garvey 12
Kansas Frontier, defense of,
1864-1865 140- 152
1865-1869 50- 62
1868-1869 451- 473
Kansas Frontier Historical Park, Hays,
establishment of 172
Kansas Geological Survey, reports cited.. 281 "Kansas Historical Notes," 190, 304, 410, 481 "Kansas History as Published in the
State Press" 77-79, 184- 189
298-303, 402-409, 474- 480
Kansas Indians 24
— desire to locate in Indian territory.... 246
— peace pow wow with 51
— reservation of, Council Grove raided by
Cheyennes 454, 455
— treaty with 89
504
GENERAL INDEX
Kansas Industrialist, Manhattan 300
Kansas Knight, St. Paul 404
"Kansas Land," pioneer song, cited 188
Kansas Medical Society Journal, cited... 177
Kansas-Nebraska bill 11, 104, 309
— date of signing 7
— passage of 307
— provisions of 105
Kansas Optimist, Jamestown, cited 185
Kansas Pacific railroad 17, 26
27, 56-58, 428
— Indian attacks on 456, 463, 469
Kansas Pacific Railway Company 407
Kansas Pioneer, Kickapoo 9, 11.
Kansas Plainsman, Russell 299
Kansas Public Service Commission. . 395- 397
Kansas secretary of state 173
Kansas state accountant, audit of Histor- ical Society 168
Kansas state adjutant general 218, 267
— correspondence and reports cited. . 142, 143 269, 326, 469
Kansas State Agricultural College 172
438, 439 — founders day program broadcast by
radio 300
Kansas State Agricultural Society 153
Kansas state auditor, land survey plats
and field notes in office of 266
Kansas State Baptist Association, J. T.
Crawford, general secretary 16
Kansas State Board of Health, Bulletin,
cited 393
Kansas State Board of Railroad Com- missioners 368, 369
Kansas State Historical Society, activi- ties in preserving historical materials. . 304
— aim of 166, 167
— Archives Department 53, 270
326,328, 332
accessions 169, 170
— biennial reports cited 129, 200, 201
— Blunt manuscript given to 212
— charter, constitution and by-laws re- vised 168, 173- 175
— city and county historical societies
affiliated with 171, 173
— executive committee 167, 175
report of 167, 168
— fifty-sixth annual meeting, report, 165- 175
— first capitol of Kansas 172
— Kansas Historical Collections discon- tinued 168, 171
— History of Kansas Newspapers cited. . . 375 — Hodgeman County Historical Society,
report of 171
— Hyatt manuscripts in 40
— Kansas Frontier Historical Park, Hays,
establishment of 172
— Kansas Historical Quarterly 82
168, 171, 196
reasons for starting 2
— Kansas University conducts seminar at, 170
— library 269
-accessions 176-183
— Lincoln and Roosevelt collections in... 183 — manuscripts, cataloging and repairing
of 169,297
— Meeker journals in possession of 6
— membership 170, 171
— museum, accessions, visitors, etc 170
— newspaper section 169, 170, 297
— officers and members elected 165, 174
— old settlers associations 171
— Pike Pawnee monument 172
— Pratt manuscript collection 89, 103
—President Harger's address 165- 167
— publicity 171
— Secretary Mechem's report 171
Kansas State Historical Society, Shawnee Mission restoration activities .... 171, 172
— treasurer's report 168
accounts audited 168
Kansas State Labor Department,
reports cited 382, 384
386, 387, 394, 397, 398, 400
Kansas State Mine Inspector 279,280
Kansas State Normal School, Emporia . . 302 Kansas State Record, Topeka, cited.. 25, 52 58, 153, 454-458, 461, 463, 464, 467, 470 Kansas State Teachers College, Em- poria 191,414
Kansas State Teachers College, Pitts- burg 194, 288, 302
Kansas Survey or -General 266, 269
Kansas Tribune, Lawrence, cited 11, 12
22, 25, 26, 58, 62, 142, 146-148, 150 152, 267, 269, 270, 326
—moved to Topeka 13
— started by John Speer 10
Kansas Tribune, Topeka, cited 119
Kansas Supreme Court, report cited .... 818
Kansas University, Lawrence 82, 266
273, 299, 306, 435, 437
—Old North college 438
— seminar conducted at Kansas State
Historical Society 170
— stadium of 270
Kansas Week, first observance of 304
Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth,
establishment of 8
— printing done by 14
— quoted and cited 9, 11, 22, 106
Kansas Woman's Committee on Child
Welfare 392
Kansas Zeitung, Atchison 437
— Emigrant Aid Company financially in- terested in 436
— founding of 14
— removed to Leavenworth 436
Kap-i-o-ma, Kickapoo Indian 157
Kappler, Charles J., cited 343
Kaw crossing, Santa Fe trail 455
Kearny, Gen. Stephen W 17, 20, 415
Keeler, Charles G 320, 323
Kelley, Mrs. Fannie, of Allen county,
once a prisoner of Indians 270
Kelley, Gen. Harrison, state commander
of militia 62
Kelley, Robert S., a publisher of
Squatter Sovereign 12
Kelly, , trooper on Santa Fe trail . . 205
Kelly, Charles, author 180
Kelly, H. B 408
Kendall, Herman 403
Kennekuk, Atchison county, Kickapoo
Indian agency located at 153
Kennerly, Mr. Ill, 112
116, 119, 122, 129
— head of wagon train, accompanying Johnston survey of southern boundary
line of Kansas 110
Kenney, Robert 404
Keuchler, John H 266, 267
—buried at Springfield, 111 270
Key, Thomas J., Constitutionalist founded
by 13
Keyes, Mr. , Osage Indian trader.. 138
Keyes, Gould 406
Keyser, B. H., Junction City Sentinel
started by 15
Keystone, Okla 120
KFBI, Abilene radio station, opening of, 481
biographical sketches of famous
Kansans broadcast from 171
KGNO, Dodge City radio station 476
GENERAL INDEX
505
Kickapoo (town of) 14
— Kansas Pioneer started at 9
— public printing done at 9
— second printing point in Territorial
Kansas 12
Kickapoo Indians 90
—dissatisfied with treaty 159
— engagement with Confederate cavalry. . 154 — receive service grant from Mexico, 154, 155
— settlement in Kansas 90
— tribal journey of 153- 159
— young men hard to control 158
Kickapoo Rangers 41, 42
— fight at Hickory Point 38
— name given Northern Division of terri- torial militia 38
— surrender at Hickory Point 40
Kidder, Lieut. , and party, mas- sacred by Indians 330,340,344,353
Kiner, Rebecca D 408
King, Samuel C., mayor of Atchison, 67, 68 Kingman, Samuel A., diary of, at Indian
Treaty, 1865 442- 450
— -short biographical sketch 442
Kingman, historical notes of 477
— history of, in Kingman Leader-Courier, 78 Kingman county, fifty-eighth birthday of, 303
— final Indian scare 78
Kingman Journal, cited 303
Kingman Leader-Courier, cited 78
— fifty-fourth anniversary edition of , 476- 477
Kingman Mercury, cited 477
Kingsburg, Judge Burton, cited 184
Kingsbury, George W., printer on Junc- tion City Sentinel 15
Kinsley Graphic, cited 459
Kirkpatrick, Helen 358
Kirkpatrick, Louisa 358
Kirwin, Col. John, established Fort Kir- win in 1865 58
Kirwin 57
Kiwanis Club, Mariadahl 406
Kiowa County Historical Society, organ- ization of 481
Kiowa creek, Beaver county, Okla 132
Kiowa, Hardtner & Pacific railroad 474
Kiowa Indians 107, 124, 129, 140
151, 196, 205, 207, 209, 340, 343, 442, 443
447, 448, 451, 453, 454, 457, 465-467, 479
— at treaty on Little Arkansas, 1865, 150, 151
— attack Fort Dodge 457, 458
Kickapoos on Red river 151
travelers at crossing of Arkansas . . . 204
wagon train on Crooked creek 147
— camp ground of, 1859 206
— Colonel Leavenworth, agent of 148
— depredations on Santa Fe trail 141
—desire treaty with United States 200
— girl prisoners of 157
— Kansas offenses charged against 472
— kill ambulance driver 124
— killed by troopers 204
— language of, hard to learn 447
— Lieutenant Steuart's pursuit of 208
— on war path in 1865 357
— ordered to Fort Larned 142
— peace overtures to 463
— Satanta and force in fight on Beaver
creek 339
and Lone Wolf captured by Sheri- dan 467
— Sedgwick's campaign against 206
— traders to 347
— trading with 131, 132
— treaty of peace with Cheyennes 203
Fort Atkinson 21
Ki-sha-pi, Kickapoo Indian 157
Ki-sha-qui, Kickapoo Indian 157
Kisling Family Association for Research.. 182 Klaner, Joseph, strip mine operator..... 274
Kleist, Edward, reminiscences of 479
Knickerbocker, Texas, Kickapoos assaulted
by Confederate cavalry at 154
Knight, Morris S., early resident of
Ozawkie 34
Knode, William, author 185
Knopf, A. A 295
Knouse, George, reminiscences of 185
Knowles, Horatio 320, 323
Kob, Dr. Charles F., publisher Die Kan- sas Zeitung, Atchison 436
Ko-ki-pi-ah, Kickapoo Indian 157
Konk-a-pot, Stockbridge Indian 87
Kumpe, G. E., colonel signal corps. . 362, 363
Kunkle, 316
Kuykendall, William L., author 177
Labette county, historical notes of 479
Labor, State Federation of 388
Labor, State Society of 388
La Cross Republican, cited 185
Laff, J. E , 403
Lake Michigan 153
Lake Sibley, Indian outbreaks near 326
— troops located at 461
Lakes, formed in stripped coal lands,
stocked with fish 277
Lambdin, John C 320, 323, 324
Landmarks, Kansas, cited 54
Lands, stripped for coal, reforested 277
Lane, James H 29-34, 36, 38-43, 46
48, 49, 213-215, 252, 315, 318, 429
— appointed recruiting commissioner 222
— approves sale of Kansas bonds 312
— biographical mention of 309
— died of broken heart 321
— elected senator 310
— enjoyed confidence of Lincoln 310
— estimate of 308
— identity doubted by young lady at
Hickory Point 37
— Ingalls' characterization of 309
— John Speer a biographer of 308
— leader during territorial troubles 307
Lane-Robinson controversy 310
Lane Brigade 214
— in pursuit of Price 216
— poultry feathers mark march through
Missouri 216
Lane county 178
— historical notes of 478
Langmade, W. S., Oberlin, cited 478
Lanyon, E. V., Pittsburg 282, 284
Lanyon, Robert, location of smelter .... 282
— zinc smelter built by 281
production figures 283, 284
Lanyon, S. H., & Brother, smelting plant
of 282
Lanyon, S. H., & Co., zinc production
figures 283, 284
Lanyon, W. & J., smelting plant of 282
— zinc production figures 283, 284
Lappin, Samuel 320, 323
Lard, shipped from Pittsburg to London,
England 287
Larned 54
— laying out town of 271
Larned News, cited 186
Las Animas, Colo., a cattle shipping town
in 1873 27
— New Fort Lyon located near 61
Laughlin, Mrs. Robert, reminiscences of
Battle of Mine creek, cited .189
Lawndale, old settlers' reunion held in.. 482
Lawrence, Amos A 436-438, 440
— Lawrence, Kan., named for 433
— letters cited 430, 436- 439
— manager N. E. Emigrant Aid Co 430
506
GENERAL INDEX
Lawrence 11, 266, 269, 270, 434
— a center of free-state activity 432
— Board of Trade chartered 362
— early hotel accommodations 435
— Episcopalians of 438
— Federal arms and ammunition at 332
— historical notes of 478
— known as "Yankee Settlement" 432
—Oak Hill cemetery 270
— "Pioneer Boarding House" 437
— Ply mouth Congregational Church 437
— Quantrill's raid on 478
— sacking of, mentioned 38, 301
— saw mill for 433
— third printing point in territorial Kansas, 12
—Unitarian Church 437, 438
Lawrence Association; organization of.. 433 Lawrence Daily Journal-World, cited.... 407
Lawrence Democrat, cited 478
Lawrence Journal 4S3
Lawrence Republican, founding of... 12, 13 Lawrence Stubbs, military organization. . 260
Lawrence Tribune, cited 266
Lawrence Western Home Journal, cited. . 266
Law, Wallace, cited 22, 24
Leach, A. J., author 180
Lead and zinc, deposits of southeast
Kansas and southwest Missouri. . 273, 281
Leafie, Okla., salt marsh near 120, 121
Leahy, David D., reminiscences cited. . . . 189 298-300, 403, 404, 475
— former U. S. marshal 298
Leavenworth, Col. Henry, Fort Leaven- worth founded by , 52
Leavenworth, Jesse H., Indian agent.... 148 151, 152, 443, 444, 446, 453
Leavenworth 14, 55, 87
14-8, 153, 204, 249, 251, 252, 264, 272, 443
— advertising campaign of 375
—arsenal 331
— cost of administration 373, 374
— federal building secured for 363
— fire department of, Patrick Burns,
chief 376
— fire protection at 373, 374
— "Fort" bridge, second bridge to span
Missouri river 372
— fifth site of printing in Kansas 0
— first printing point in Territorial
Kansas 12
—growth of 369, 370
— Kansas Weekly Herald established at.. 8
— manufactories of 361
— military road from 32
— pontoon bridge built at 366
— resources of 364
— Russell, Majors & Waddell's warehouses
in 21
—setbacks 361
— statistics on manufacturing 367
— wagon trains operating from, to Fort
Scott 355
Leavenworth Board of Trade, call for
meeting to organize 362
— financial affairs of 277
— interrogatories sent out by 363
— organization and activities, article by
Lela Barnes 360- 378
Leavenworth Coal Co., organized... 361,371
Leavenworth Commercial, cited 337
Leavenworth Commercial Exchange 378
Leavenworth Constitution, 1858 307
Leavenworth Daily Conservative, cited.. 142 143, 334, 336, 337, 340, 342 Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston rail- road 369
—building of 190
Leavenworth, Northern & Southern rail- road 374
Leavenworth Times, cited 366, 373
Leavenworth Times, seventy-fifth anni- versary of 402
Leavenworth Times and Conservative,
cited 463
Leavenworth, Topeka & Southwestern
railroad 370, 373
Leavenworth Town Co 360
Leavenworth Weekly Journal 15
— establishment of 14
Le Clair, , ambulance driver, killed
by Indians 124, 128
Lecompte, Samuel D., chief justice 9
Lecompton 11, 153
— Democratic territorial convention held
at, in 1857 14
— Hickory Point prisoners confined at... 36 — old Meeker press used at, by S. Weaver, 16
Lecompton Constitution, 1857 307
Lecompton Union, a proslavery newspaper, 15
— date of starting 13
Ledford, Jack, killing of 403
Lee, E. G., reminiscences cited 188
Lee, Thomas A 167, 168
— first vice president, Kansas State His- torical Society 165
Lee, Gen. Robert E., surrender of 264
Legislature. See, Kansas Legislature. Lenhart, Charley, at Hickory Point battle, 43
— member Hickory Point expedition 47
—reported killed at Charleston, Va 47
Leon Methodist church, historical notes of, 302
Leon News, cited 302, 402
Leoti, old settlers' reunion held in 481
Le Roy Reporter, cited 184
Levand, John 476
Levand, Louis 476
Levand, Max, Wichita Beacon publisher .. 476
Lewis, Lloyd, author 183
Lewis, Lt. Col. William H., death of 477
Lexington, Mo., battle of 214
Lexington and Independence road 254
Liberal 1 25
— old Meeker press said to have been
used at 16
Liberal News, cited 301, 302
Library park, Baxter Springs, Blunt mon- ument erected in 186
Lillard, T. M 167, 168
Lillie, Maj. Gordon W. (Pawnee Bill)... 189 Lincoln, President Abraham, 44, 250, 312, 333
— Association, mentioned 183
— Blunt's visit with 249, 250
— call for 75,000 troops 213
— investigation of Atchison hangings 241
— Lane enjoyed confidence of 310
— speeches of, cited 183
Lincoln, Luke P., Manhattan colonists
piloted by 433
Lincoln 478
Lincoln county, anniversary Souvenir of, compiled by Elizabeth N. Barr, cited. . 298
— given seed wheat by legislature 472
— historical notes of 478
Lincoln County News, Lincoln, cited.... 475
Lincoln Sentinel- Republican, cited 402
475, 478
— forty-fourth anniversary of 298
Lindsley, H. K 170, 171
— second vice president, Kansas State
Historical Society 165
Linn, golden jubilee of Immanual Lutheran
church 409
Linn-Palmer Record, cited 409
Linn county 90, 189
Lipan Indians 154
Lippincott's Pronouncing Gazetteer of the
World, cited 197
Liquor traffic, steps taken to prevent in unorganized counties of Kansas 328
GENERAL INDEX
507
Lisbon, Okla., early election in 403
Little, O. W., secretary-treasurer Wa-
baunsee County Historical Society 304
Little Arkansas river 58, 116, 136, 202
442, 445, 453, 457 — cavalry company stationed at mouth of, 455
—treaty council of 1865 held on 145, 150
358,445- 448 Little Big Horn, Custer defeated at . .
349-351, 406
Little Blue river (Kansas-Nebraska) 60
Little Blue river (Mo.), defense of, by
Colonel Moonlight 256
— near Independence, Mo 255
— pickets left to guard 255
Little Cabin creek, Craig county,
Okla 139
Little Caney creek 113
"Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim,"
pioneer song, cited 188
Little Osage river 109
Little Raven, Arapahoe chief 466
Little Robe, Cheyenne chief 469
— U. S. campaign against 468, 470
Little Rock, Ark., Blunt planned to at- tack 238
Little Santa Fe, Mo 108
— Confederates camped near 1560
Little Slough creek, battle on 40
Little Verdigris river 113, 114, 134, 138
Little Walnut township, Butler county. . . 402 Livermore, Mrs. Marian (Sorlie), author, 178
Livingston, Mary Alice, author 78
Log fort, Republic county 60
Lone Elm, dedication of trail marker at . . 23 — entire quarter section of land at, covered
with wagons 23
Lone Jack, Mo., Blunt's reconnaissance
to 215
• — Missouri militia at, defeated by Shelby
and Coffee 225
Lone Tree, Meade county 189, 190
— U. S. Surveyors Massacred by Indians at, article by Mrs. Frank C. Mont- gomery 266- 272
Lone Wolf, Kiowa chief, captured by
Sheridan 467
Long, E. V., cited 474
Long, Lieut. Eli 204
— sketch of 203
Long, Maj. Stephen H 51
— engineering expedition of 51
Long Yellow Hair, Sioux Indian 350
Looker, Palmer & Reynolds, Cincinnati
printers 4
Loos, Sarah Jane 195
Loose, Charles 291
Lost Springs 449
Louisiana Purchase 3
Louisiana territory, Kansas an unknown
portion of 50
Love, Benjamin, Delaware guide, 108, 123, 132
Lovewell, Paul A., author 189
Lovewell, Thomas 344
Lowe, Capt. 444
Lowe, Capt. H. A., in command of pro- slavery forces at Hickory Point 29
— owner of Hickory Point 38
Lowe creek, Texas county, Okla 131
Lowman, Hovey E 314
Ludwig, Emil, author 183
Lulu creek, Indian raids on 326
Lum, Rev. S. Y., arrival in Kansas 437
Lunger, E. J 301
Lykins, Johnston, associated with Jotham Meeker in publication of Shawanoe Sun, 90
— biographical sketch of 90
— editor Shawanoe Sun 6
Lyman, H. S 300
Lyman, George Dunlap 180
Lyman, Jonathan, Ottumwa Journal
started by 14
Lynde, Sen. Ed 316
Lyon, Gen. Nathaniel 209, 210
Lyon county 454
Lyons creek 443, 444
Lyons Daily News, cited 404
M.
McAfee, Col. , rations scouts 470
McAfee, Josiah B., adjutant general of
Kansas 455, 456, 460- 462
McBee, John, cited 354
McCall, George, inspector general of War
Department 425
McCandless, A. W., early Hutchinson
school teacher 300
McCanles, 298
McCanles gang fight 356
McCauslin, R., early resident of Ozawkie, 34 McClellan, Gen. George B., military com- petency questioned 217
McClellan creek, Indian territory 355
McClintock, Marshall, author 178
McClosky, Phil, trader to the Comanches, 459
McClure, Capt. J. R 443
McCoy, Delilah, wife of Johnston Lykins, 90 McCoy, George H., Indian skirmish near
ranch of 124
McCoy, Rev. Isaac, biographical sketch . . 90 — first Baptist missionary to the Indians, 90
— Indian commissioner 89
— printing of Annual Register 89
McCoy, John C., cited 51
McCoy, Joseph G., cattle trail of 298
—Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade
of the West and Southwest, cited 74
McCulloch, Major B., peace commissioner, 197 McCulloch, Gen. Henry, reinforces Hind- man 235
McCune, fiftieth anniversary of 186
McCune Herald, cited 186
MacDonald, A. B., author 474
McDonald, Pat 300
MacDonald, S. D., printer to Wyandotte
Constitutional Convention 15
McDowell, J. H 320, 323
McEntire, Mrs. Adele (Tuttle), author.. 178 McFarland, Helen M., librarian Kansas
State Historical Society 82, 176
Machinery, for gold mines shipped over
Santa Fe trail 22
— taken to New Mexico 18, 24
Mclntyre, William Irwin, author 182
McKague family, Oberlin 409
McKague Memorial Masonic Temple. . . . 409 McKay, Col. A., Fort Mackay named for, 199
McKeever, , adjutant general Fort
Leavenworth 331, 470
McKernan, Thomas A., author 178
McKinley, President William 163
McKinney, Capt. S. L., wagon train of,
captured by abolitionists 22
McKinney, William, wagon train of, cap- tured by abolitionists 24
McKnight, Mr. , postmaster at
Santa Fe, N. M., in 1851 20
Macksville Enterprise 405
McLaughlin, Louis, Indian scout 459
McLemore, Lieut. Owen Kenan, bio- graphical mention of 107
McMaster, , employed as guide.... Ill
McMeekin, Hayden D., member Indianola
Town Company . 34
McMillan, Al 405
McMurtrie, Douglas C., cited 178
— "Pioneer Printing of Kansas" 3- 16
McNair, Rev. J. M 271
508
GENERAL INDEX
McNair, James Birtley, author 182
McNeal, Thomas A 408
— reminiscences of 475
McNees, , killed by Indians 129
McNees (Corrumpaw) creek 129, 130
McNeil, Gen. John 249, 254
— brigade of 262
—relieves Blunt at Fort Smith 248
McNown, Robert 29- 31
McPherson, Gen. James B 409
McPherson, old settlers' reunion held in. . 481
— sixty years of history 409
McPherson county 116, 138, 178
— early history 408
— given seed wheat by legislature 472
— Mennonite settlers in 301
McPherson Republican 408, 409
McQuey, Mrs. Anna Belvidere 481
McVey, Frank L., cited 162. 164
McWhirter-Ammons Press, Hays 78
Madison, "Doc" (Thomas C.) at Fort
Riley 205
Magee's and Roger's ford on the Neosho, 111
Mahaffa, John 403
Mail, for Santa Fe, N. M., escorts
for 202, 203
scattered by Indians 202
— station, Pawnee Fork, guarded by
troopers 208
Major county, Okla 135
Majors & Russell, freight contractors. . . . 427 Majors, Alexander, freight contractor. . . . 426
Malin, James C 173
— author, associate professor of history,
Kansas University 82
— "Notes on Historical Literature of the
Range Cattle Industry" 74- 76
— "Notes on the Literature of Popu- lism" 160- 164
— review of Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills, by
Roy Franklin Nichols 295-297
— seminar at Kansas State Historical So- ciety conducted by 170
— "Was Governor John A. Martin a Pro- hibitionist?" 63- 73
Malone D., author 178
Maloy, John, History of Morris County,
cited 23, 25, 26
Mankato, in late eighties 406
Manker, W. S 410
Manhattan 143, 172, 436, 443
— early-day life in 410
— grist mill located in 434
— organization of 433
— two town associations 438
Manhattan Morning Chronicle 406
Manning, Edwin C 322
Mantey, old settlers' reunion held in 481
Many penny, George W., Commissioner of
Indian Affairs 88
— indorsed map of Kansas 104
— Our Indian Wards, cited 349
Mapleton, establishment of 434
Marais des Cygnes massacre 172
Marais des Cygnes river 83, 91, 108, 172
Marble, Earle, and E. H. Grand, found
Geary City Era 14
Mariadahl community, brief history of . . 406
Marion 44-, 58, 455
— old settlers' picnic and reunion held
at 479,482
— threatened Indian attack on 454
— troops stationed in 461
Marion Board of Trade 362
Marion county 178, 185, 266
— historical notes of 479
— Indian attack in 454
— Mennonite settlers in 301
— seed wheat given by legislature to 472
Marion County Old Settlers, announce- ment of picnic 78
Marion Record, historical editions of, 78, 479
Marion Review, cited 185
— historical editions of 78, 479
Markham, William Coif ax, author 178
Marmaduke, Gen. John S., at Cane Hill,
Ark 229
— capture of 261
— commanding division of Price's
army 259, 260
— rebel forces under 227, 228
Marmaton river 109, 261
Marshall, B 330, 334, 338, 341
Marshall, Finley, Arkansas City 299
Marshall county 188, 191
— Indians battle troops in 143
Marshall County News, Marysville,
cited 189, 298, 403, 404
— Pony Express history recalled in 78
— seventieth anniversary of 77
Martin, Judge David 66
— letter of John A. Martin to, quoted, 71, 72
Martin, Ellsberry, impressions of 475
Martin, George W., cited 16, 104
Martin, Jesse C., cited 186
Martin, John A 64, 339
— editor of Atchison Champion 63
— indorsed prohibition 68
— letter to J. B. Lawrence quoted... 69, 70
Judge J. Mellhany quoted 72, 73
Judge David Martin quoted 71, 72
Sol Miller quoted 67- 69
—speech, Oct. 24, 1884, quoted 64
— "Was John A. Martin a Prohibition- ist?" by James A. Malin 63
Martindale, Rev. 271
Marysville 15, 188
— Palmetto Kansan started at 1
Marysville Advocate-Democrat 79
Marysville Enterprise, cited 142
Mashum, Okla 136
Mason, Mrs. Henry F 173
Masonic Grand Lodge, of Kansas... 14, 15
Masters, J. G 404
Mathewson, William, Cow Creek ranch of, 357
—first bore title of "Buffalo Bill" 358
— incidents in life of 404
— scout and Indian trader 345, 357, 358
Mathewson, William, Jr 358
Matthews, — — , guerrilla 214
—killing of 214
Maxwell, Judge Samuel, Nebraska 163
Mayetta, short history of, published.... 301
Mayfield, Mrs. H., Kansas City 393
Mead, James R., cited. . . . 203, 406, 465, 466
—Indian trader 342, 453
Meade, location of 267, 268
— old settlers' reunion held in 481
Meade county 124, 269
— "U. S. Surveyors Massacred by Indians at Lone Tree, 1874," article by Mrs.
Frank C. Montgomery 266-272
Meade County News, Mrs. B. F. Todd, a
former editor of 272
Meade Globe, cited 269, 272
Meade Globe-News, cited 269
Meat Packers, Institute of American. . . . 288
Meat packing plant, Pittsburg 273
Mechem, Kirke, secretary, Kansas State
Historical Society 167, 168
173, 175,304,410
— editor Kansas Historical Quarterly .... 82 — report as secretary of Historical So- ciety 168-173
Medford, Okla 134
Medicine Lodge, Carrie Nation Memorial
Association formed at 191
— Peace Commission met at 340
GENERAL INDEX
509
Medicine Lodge, vast amount of supplies assembled at, to distribute to Indians, 342
Medicine Lodge Treaty 203, 329, 330
349,355, 358, 451, 453
— considered a failure. . 344
— Indians dissatisfied with 452
— sixty-fifth anniversary of 480
— substance of 343
Medicine river 119
Medicine Water, Cheyenne chief, massacre of surveying party by band under lead- ership of 268
Meeker, Jotham 11, 92, 95, 96
— associated with Johnston Lykins in pub- lication of Shawanoe Sun 90
— biographical sketches 3, 9
— contributions in Indian language £
—death of 5, 8, 16
— diary, cited and quoted 91, »*
—Indian orthography 4,
—journals of 4, 5>
—marriage of - -
— Ottawa mission founded by »
— printing press, brought to Kansas by.. 15
became property of George W.
Brown •• JJ
— . — bought in Cincinnati 4, 11
first operated at Baptist Shawnee
mission .•
printing done at Ottawa Mission on, 6
— — Seth Adams make • • 1°
wanderings of 5» *
—superintendent of Ottawa Indians on
Grand river *
Me-hahq, Kickapoo Indian 157
Meline, Col. J. F., journal quoted...... 26
— toured plains with cavalry troop in
1866 26
Mellhany, Judge J., Baird, Texas, letter
to John A. Martin, quoted 72, 73
Mennonites, history of 3C
Merchants Journal, Topeka, cited 189
403,477
Merriam • 90
Messervy, William, merchant of Santa
Fe, N. M 1
Me-sho-kum-i, Kickapoo Indian 157
Metcalf , Gen. Wilder S 165, 410
Meteorological Observation, first in Kan- sas at Fort Leavenworth 362
—1856 30, 31
Methodist Episcopal Church, Paola 404
—South 107
Methodists, Kansas, mentioned 177
Methvin, J. J., quoted 107
Mexican cattle herder, accidentally killed, 19 Mexican wagon train, attacked by Indians, 458
Mexican War 27,196,197
202, 206, 295, 309, 424
— soldiers mentioned 15'
— traffic on Santa Fe trail changed by. . . 415 Mexicans, employ Comanche Indians to
kill American traders 421
Mexico, conquest of northern 423
— gold and silver brought from mines of,
to Westport 2'
— high ad valorem tax on goods entering, 1'
— Kickapoo Indians, journey to 15'
ordered by president on expedition
against Comanches 15
— peace treaty with 42
— small feet of women of 1
Miami county 90, 17
Miami Indians 9
Michigan, Carey Mission station
Middlekauff , Mrs. Josephine 7
Miles, Gen. Nelson A 35
— Personal Recollections, cited, 349, 354, 35 — "The War With the Messiah," cited.. 35
3a— 5605
Vlilford, establishment of 434
— grist mill located in 434
Vlilitary academy, Frankfort, Ky 203
Military Post as a Factor in the Fron- tier Defense of Kansas, 1865-1869,"
by Marvin H. Garfield 50- 62
Military posts, Kansas 52
—mills located at 435
Vlilitary road, Fort Leavenworth to Fort
Gibson 107
— Fort Leavenworth to Fort Riley, 29, 34, 38
— Fort Leavenworth to Fort Scott 83
— Fort Riley to Fort Kearney 59
— Leavenworth to Santa Fe 32, 418
Vlilitia, state, used blockhouse in Jewell
county during Indian war of 1868 59
Mill Creek 108
Miller, C. A., Pittsburg realtor 291
Vliller, Giles, editor Panhandle Herald,
Guymon, Okla 16
Vliller, Herbert, reminiscences of 185
Miller, Josiah 10, 12, 304
— publisher Kansas Free State 8
Miller, Nyle H., cited 196
•in charge of newspaper section, Kansas
State Historical Society 82
— editor, "Surveying the Southern Bound- ary Line of Kansas" 104- 139
Miller, Sarah E 304
Miller, Sol 65, 66, 69
— founder of White Cloud Kansas
Chief 13, 406
Miller, W. E., cited 432
Miller, William 10
Millison, D. C., pioneer publisher 476
Mills, located in Kansas by New Eng- land Emigrant Aid Co 434
— number of all kinds in Kansas before
1860 435
Milne, David 29, 30, 33
Milne, Mrs. David 30
Milne hotel, Indianola 33
Mine creek, battle of 172, 187, 261
— Blunt spent winter of 1861-'62 on, 217, 218
Mine rescue department, creation of 280
— location of rescue stations 280
Mine inspection 280
Mineral, Okla 127
Mineral Resources of the United States,
cited 275, 276, 282
Mining, children employed in 384
Minneapolis, Indian attack near 471
Minnesota, land graft in 296
Minnesota University 162
—Press 75
Minnich, J. Hout, letters of 477
Missions, Kansas, mills located at 435
— Michigan 90, 91
Missionaries for Indians in new territory, 3
Mississippi river 121
— improvement of 371
Mississippi Valley Historical Review,
cited 164, 422
Missouri, a ten-year-old state in 1830... 3 — Confederate cavalry under Shelby and
Coffee invade 224
— Indian boundary 89
—Little Blue river 255, 256
— militia, defeated at Lone Jack by
Shelby and Coffee 225
— protection from rebel incursions from. . 222
— pursuit of rebel forces by Blunt 224
— regiments, Seventh militia 245
Eighth 245
Fourteenth 2.31
— smelters in, 1882 282
— west boundary line 4
— zinc production of 1893 284
Missouri Commonwealth, cited 19
510
GENERAL INDEX
Missouri Democrat, St. Louis, cited 110
Missouri Geological Survey 282, 284
Missouri, Kansas & Texas mine, near
Mineral, explosion in 279
Missouri Pacific railroad strike 69
Missouri Republican, St. Louis,
cited 18-20, 23, 119, 418, 424
Missouri river 3, 5, 85, 155, 252, 360, 361
— an Indian boundary 89
— appropriation for improvement of 369
— bridges across 365, 366
— decline of steamboat travel on 368
— destructive floods in 51
— erosion below Fort Leavenworth. . 268, 369 — Indian Peace Commission headed up.. 342
— stranded on sandbars in 196
— Western Engineer, first steamboat up. . 51
— trade on, reported dead 5
— troops under Price, headed for 252
— work for benefit of navigation 363
Mitchell & Craig, freighters 428
Mitchell, Capt. , commander of com- pany at Hickory Point battle. . 39, 47 48
Mitchell, Gen. Robert B 220 221
— asks for troops to guard Platte trail 141 — burned prairie to dislodge Indians. . 146
— commander District of Nebraska 146
— telegram to Gov. Crawford, cited . . 53 — troops under, sent to New Mexico. . 220
Mitchell, William Ansell, quoted 44-3
Mitchell county 471
—fort built by settlers in 59, 60
— last Indian raid in 185
— seed wheat given by legislature to .... 472 Mitchell County Mirror, county's first
newspaper 403
Mochin, Cheyenne squaw 268
Moffat, 30
Moffet, E. R., and Sargent, railroad
from Joplin to Girard, built by 281
Money, scarce in 1855 21
Monitor-Press, Wellington 408
Montezuma 406
Montgomery, Frank C 194
Montgomery, Mrs. Frank C. . . . 58, 107, 194 — Fort Hays, "Some Ancient History,"
cited 78
— "Fort Wallace and Its Relation to the
Frontier," cited 56, 57, 458
— "United States Surveyors Massacred by Indians, Lone Tree, Meade County,
1874" 266-272
— and Root, George A., compilers, "In- dian Treaties and Councils Affecting
Kansas," cited 51
Montgomery county 112, 138
—dedication of new court house in 299
Monument Station, Smoky Hill route 57
62, 340
— Indian attack on 330
Moody, , kills Sharp Grover 352
Mooney, James, cited 442
Moonlight, Col. Thomas ... 71, 258-261, 338
—biographical sketch 211
— driven back by Price's force at Little
Blue, Mo 256
— guarding Little Blue crossings 255
Hinckel's ford 268
—letter to P. H. Coney 212
Moore, Nesch &, Brick Company, Pitts- burg 289
Moore, Ed M., Hutchinson historian 476
— author of "History of Reno County,"
and "Final Indian Scare in 1885" 78
Moore, Henry Miles, Leavenworth, manu- script collection of 360, 361
— secretary Leavenworth Board of
Trade 365, 366
Moore, Col. Horace L., cited 339, 468
Moore, John, of Atchison 289
Moore, Col. Milton, Santa Fe freighter.. 25
Moore Commercial Agency 360
Moorehouse, Gen. Wm. S 471
Morals, acts to protect 384
Moravian mission 90
Morehouse, George P 173, 438, 439
Morgan & Lodge, Cincinnati printers .... 4 Morgan, Lodge & Co., Cincinnati printers, 4 Morgan, Lodge & Fisher, Cincinnati
printers 4
Morgan, W. Scott, cited 161
Morrow, Wm. & Co., publishers 410
Mormon battalion, in Mexican War 415
Mormons, capture Fort Bridger 197
— Johnston's campaign against 195, 211
Morrill, Edmund N 365, 369
Morrill, Lot Myrick, U. S. Senator, of
Maine 146
Morris county 454
Morrison, T. F 165, 481
Morrill Free Public Library, fiftieth anni- versary of founding 408
Mosher, Orville W 191
Morton, J. Sterling, cited 61
Morton county 129
Mound City 189, 261
— Third Kansas rendezvoused at 214
Mound Valley Herald 405
Mound Valley Times-Herald 405
Mound Valley township 405
Mount Muncie cemetery, Leavenworth.. 270
Mount Oread 438
Mountain Slope Masonic Lodge, No. 186,
Oberlin 409
Mud creek ford, Abilene 190
Muddy creek 444
Mulberry creek 136
— crossing, Arkansas river 54
Mules, as an article of exchange in New
Mexican trade 18
— New Mexican prices for 420
— purchased for Mexican War 416
— stolen from troops 200
Mulligan, Gen. , defeated at Lexing- ton, Mo 214
Mulvane, Old Settlers' reunion held at.. 481
Mumey, Nolie, author 180
Munice, Dewey county, Okla 135
Munroe, — • — , killed by Indians 129
Murdock, Col. Marsh M 189
Murdock, Victor 406
Murphy, J., wagons manufactured by,
withstood heat of Santa Fe trail 20
Murphy, Thomas, superintendent of In- dian Affairs 151, 443, 444, 446, 456
Murphy, Tom, Indian scout 459
Murphy, William P 444
Myers, William P., survivor Adobe Walls fight 184
N.
Nacimiento, Mexico, Kickapoo Indians
settle at 154
Nan-ma-qua-tah, Kickapoo Indian 157
Napton, William B., cited 61
Nash, Jack, story of 302
Nash, James 404
Nation, Carrie 187, 191
National Bank of Pittsburg 282
National Bank of Topeka 168
National Democrat, Lecompton 15
National Industrial Congress, Chicago... 371
National Tribune, Washington, D. C 201
Native Daughters of Kansas, Saline
County Chapter 301
Natural gas 372
—Kansas fields 284
Nebraska 7, 460, 461
GENERAL INDEX
511
Nebraska, Ouster's pursuit of Pawnee
Killer extended into 330
— Indian wars in Platte valley, 1865,
1866 348
— threatened by Indians 143
— University of 164
Nebraska district, Military Department
of Kansas 141
Neeley, Shaw F 373
• — mayor of Leavenworth 368, 371
Negro troops, replace volunteer units 150
Ne-ish-ke-koash-ke-pi (Rock Salt) river, 135
Ne-is-ka-bi-ka-kha (Spring creek) 115
Nemaha county 176
Nenetunk (Big Spring) creek 112
Neosho county, historical notes of 481
Neosho County Historical Society. . . 407, 475
— meetings of 190, 481
"Neosho" mission, establishment of 481
Neosho river 44, 110, 138, 139, 185, 191
— heavy rains on Ill
Neosho Valley Register, Burlington,
Meeker Press used on 16
Nesch, J. J., Pittsburg 291
Nesch, Robert, of Atchison, brick manu- facturer 290, 291
• — purchases Taylor and Loose plant at
Pittsburg - 292
Nesch and Moore Brick Co., Pittsburg.
289
Ne-shu-che-sink (Bluff) creek. New England Emigrant Aid Company . . 38, 180,308,310, 429, 435
290 117 10 437 — a minor factor in peopling Kansas... 432
— account books of, cited 430
— activities of, roused Missourians 440
— amount of money raised by 430
— emigrants from 432
— final closing out of real estate owned by, 435
— Herald of Freedom financed by 436
— in Kansas, article by Samuel A. John- son 429, 441
• — letters and books cited 430
431, 434, 435- 440
— mills located in Kansas by 434
— number coming to Kansas under aus- pices of 431
—relief for Kansas in 1856 439
— saw mill brought to Kansas by 10
New England Quarterly, cited 429
New Era, Medina, Ohio, John Speer, edi- tor and publisher of 11
New Fort Lypn, near Las Animas, Colo., 61 New Hampshire state Democratic conven- tion, resolution regarding slavery 297
New Mexican Indian traders 127
New Mexican trade, goods brought up
Missouri river on steamboats for 17
New Mexico, Apache wars mentioned. ... 350
— cattle driven to 426
— Col. E. V. Sumner, governor 196
— country overstocked with goods 18
— Confederates driven out of 25
— development of gold fields of 17
— expedition to, Blunt countermands order
for ...221
— high ad valorem tax on goods entering, 17
— Kiowas attack travelers to 204
— legislature of, raised license fee required
for merchants 24
— protection of government eupply trains
to 222
— trade statistics for 1859 24
—troops under Brig. Gen. R. B. Mitchell
sent to 220
— U. S. troops retained in 423
— wool shipped to Missouri from 18
New York, N. Y., Cincinnati colonists for Kansas financed by 433
New York, N. Y., Public Library 169
early Kansas imprints owned by 9
— 'University Medical College of 44
New York Evening Post 430
New York Sun 199
New York Times 430
New York Tribune 21,. 22, 419, 421, 430
Newspaper offices, suffer from violence of
proslavery mobs 13
Newspapers, Christmas advertising in
earliest Kansas 187
Newton, Board of Trade chartered 362
Newton Kansan- Republican, eixtieth an- niversary edition of 477
Newtonia, Mo., battle of 263
— Price's army encamped near 262
—rebel forces at, attacked by Blunt 226
— rebel forces driven out of 227
Nicaragua canal 377
Nichols, Edgar 184
Nichols, Roy Franklin, author 295
Nicholson, C. C 302
Nicholson, John C., author 404, 407
Nicholson, Michael 404
Nickerson, old settlers' reunion held in. . . 481
Nicodemus 189
— founding of 402
Ni-hi-pa [Good-for-nothing] creek 116
Niles, John W., of Nicodemus, biography
cited 176, 189
Nimmo, Joseph G., The Range and
Ranch Cattle Traffic, cited 74
Nine-mile creek 108
Nine-mile ridge, wagon train attacked at, 146
Niskeokaka (Salt) creek 112, 113
Nixon, H. C., author, cited 164
No-ko-aht, Kickapoo chief, "Account of Tribal Journey From Kansas to Mexico and Return in the Sixties," article by
George A. Root 153- 159
North, Maj. Frank 469
North, Mary M., author 178
North Caney creek 113
North Dakota Historical Quarterly 60
North fork of Canadian river. See Ca- nadian river, north fork. North Platte river. See Platte river,
north fork. North Solomon river. See Solomon river,
north fork.
Northeast Johnson County Herald, Over- land Park, cited 406, 477
Northern Cheyenne Indians. See Chey- enne Indians, Northern.
Norton, Henry Brace, memorials of 178
Norton, John 407
Norton, newspaper history of 479
Norton Champion, cited 479
Norton Daily Telegram, cited 405
Nowata county, Oklahoma 138
Numa, Okla 134
"Numose," the Left Hand, Cheyenne name of Billy Peacock 347
O.
Oakleaf , B. P 405
Oakley, forty-seventh anniversary of 479
— founding of 479
— naming of 184
— old settlers' reunion held in 482
Oakley Graphic, cited, 184, 189, 405, 474, 479
Oakley House, first hotel at Oakley 405
Oberlin, old settlers' picnic at 478, 481
Oberlin Herald, cited 409, 478
Odee grove, picnic held in 271
— post office 268
Ogallah, camp. See Camp Ogallah. Ogallala band of Dakota Indians 58
512
GENERAL INDEX
Ogden, E. A., assistant quartermaster,
Fort Leavenworth 425
Ogle, George A., & Co., publishers 178
Ohio, emigrants sent to Kansas from 48
— regiments, Second cavalry 223
— One hundred and forty-second infantry,
Co. E 195
Oketo cut-off, on Overland route 404
Oklahoma • 84
— boomer organizations for settlement of, 189 — parts of an old wooden press found
at Guymon 16
— school lands, opening of 378
— territory, opening of 4C
Oklahoma University 306
— press ?5
Olathe -. 253
— old settlers' reunion held in 482
Olathe Mirror 477
— historical edition of 478
Oliver's store, in Boston mountains 236
Omaha Indians, depredations of 344
—raids by 326
Omaha World-Herald 404
One hundred and forty-two creek 2
Onion creek 112
Order of the Eastern Star, Kansas, fifty- sixth anniversary of 405
Order of the Purple Heart, awarded Gen.
eral Metcalf 410
Oregon trail 79, 180
— Barrett crossing in Marshall county... 191
Osage bridge at 142 creek 26
Osage City, Board of Trade chartered. . . 362
Osage county 44, 178
Osage county, Okla 137
Osage Indians 100, 116
117, 136, 138, 153, 448
— depredations of 340, 468, 471
—described 446
— frontier outrages committed by 326
— peace powwow with 51
— reservation of, boundary 104
—trails of 113, 136, 137
— treaty with 89
— village of, Montgomery county 112
Osage mission 190, 302
Osage river, Mo 153, 214- 216
— crossing of 260
— trading post 260
— Price's retreat to 215
Osawatomie 436
— attempt to start a paper at 13
— center of free state activity 432
— Emigrant Aid Company's interest in.. 434
— grist mill located in 434
— Southern Kansas Herald started at. ... 14
Osawatomie Times 13
Ozawkie 29, 31, 36, 42, 43, 46, 443
— oldest town in Jefferson county 34
— plundered 30, 34
— short history of 34
Osborn, Gov. Thomas A 71, 270
271, 320, 323 — presiding officer during impeachment of
Robinson and others 315
Osborn, William J., one of publishers of
Kansas Weekly Herald 9
Osborne, last saloon operated in 402
Osborne County Farmer, cited. . 188, 402, 405 Osgood, E. S., The Day of the Cattle- man, a Study of the Northern Range,
18^5-1890, cited 75
Oskaloosa 40
— becomes county seat Jefferson county . . 34 — early day notes of, by F. H. Roberts. . 298
— old settlers' reunion held in 481
— seventy-fifth anniversary of 185
Oskaloosa Independent, cited 185, 298
Otis, Lieut. Elmer 118, 203
— biographical mention of 108, 202
— escorts Santa Fe mail 202
Otis, Samantha V., became Mrs. Guilford
Dudley 34
Otoe Indians, depredations of 344, 471
Ottawa, fifty years of history 406
— Ottawa Indians given lands near 5
Ottawa Baptist Mission 83, 96
Ottawa Campus, cited 405
Ottawa county 471
— fort Solomon in 59
— given seed wheat by legislature 472
Ottawa county, Okla 139
Ottawa Herald, cited 405, 406
Ottawa Indians, from Michigan, given
lands in Kansas 5
— Meeker's mission on Marais des Cygnes, 91 — on Grand river, Thomas mission for. . 4 Ottawa University, sixty -seventh anni- versary of 404
Otterman, Aunt — 99
Ottumwa Journal, history of 14
Outdoor Life, cited 350
Outlaw, Albert Timothy, author 182
Overbrook Citizen, cited 407
Overland freighting, dangerous character
of 419
— with ox teams 17
Overland mail line, letter from general
superintendent, quoted 143
Overland Park, Northeast Johnson County
Herald, cited 477
Overland Stage Company stations, raided
by Indians 329
Overland Stage line, protection of 149
Overland telegraph line 147
• — guarded by troops 149
Overland trails 190, 348
Overland transportation, suffered from
Indian depredations 326
Owl Woman, Cheyenne wife of William
Bent 347
Oxen, attacked by dry murrain 19
— decrease of, in United States from
1860-1870 27
— frozen during snow storms on Santa Fe
trail 19
— New Mexican prices for 420
— Santa Fe trail strewn with carcasses of, 418 Ox teams, in overland freighting 17
P.
Pacific railroads, through the Indian
country 330
Packing plant, Pittsburg 286
Padilla, Friar Juan de 300
— monument to 187
Padonia, Brown county 444
Page, Elizabeth, author 180
Palmetto Kansan, Marysville, starting of, 14
Palo Duro Canon, battle of 349
Palo Pinto county, Texas 477
Pa-mo-tha-ah, Kickapoo Indian 157
Panhandle Herald, Guymon, Okla., old
wooden press found at 16
Paola, headquarters of Blunt at 264
— Kansas militia concentrated at, during
Price raid 253
— Methodist Episcopal Church of 404
Papan, Ahcan. 32
Papan, Joseph 32
Papan's ferry 31, 34
— in 1856 propelled by poles 35
— location of 82
Pappinsville, Mo 224
Parent -Teacher Association 192
Parmenter, Capt. — — , antagonizes
Cheyennes 141
GENERAL INDEX
513
Parr, Richard 351
— Indian agent 451
Parrott guns, 10-pound rifled 237
Parsons, early-day fires in 475
Parsons Sun, cited 475
Paso del Norte (El Paso), Mexican duties
levied at 20
Paving brick, markets for 290
"Pawnee Bill" (Maj. G. W. Lillie), led
settlers into Oklahoma territory 189
Pawnee, history of, cited 187
— legislature of 1855 met at 9
Pawnee county, Okla 136
Pawnee Fork 54, 200, 202-205, 209, 330
— Cheyenne and Sioux camped on 329
— expedition up 330
— fight with Indians on 251
— first known as Pawnee creek or river.. 200
— fort built at 204
— Indian depredations near 420
— mail station at 200
Pawnee Indians 418
— attacks on wagon trains 420
— depredations of 468, 471
— Kansas offenses charged against 472
— raids by 326
— scouts assist military 469
Pawnee Killer, Sioux chief, pursuit of... 330
Pawnee Rock, Santa Fe trail 199, 203
—Kit Carson's first Indian fight at 359
Paxson, Frederic Logan, author 180
— The Last American Frontier, cited 17
Payne, David L., Harvey county pioneer,
404, 417 Pea Ridge, Ark., pursuit of rebel forces
to 227
Peace commission, Little Arkansas treaty,
442- 450
— Medicine Lodge treaty 340, 453
Peacock, George 203, 204
— Allison's ranch rented by 199
— shot by Satank 203
Peacock, William C., scout 347, 359, 406
Peate, James J., Indian scout, death of. . 476
— memorial address dedicated to 476
— reminiscences of 475, 476
— scrapbook of 478
Peck, Lieut. Robert Morris 201
202, 210, 348 Peffer, William A., Populist U. S. senator
from Kansas, cited 162
Peketon county 199
Pelzer, Capt. , in command at Fort
Mann 422
Penfield, 31
Pen-i-a-la, Kickapoo Indian 157
Penitentiary, state 365
— coal mined at 377
— road to, macadamized 374
Pennsylvania, emigrants sent to Kansas
from 431
Pennsylvania Historical Society 169
Pennsylvania University Press 295
Peons, Mexican, pick wool like cotton ... 23
People's party 161- 163
Pepper box, Allen revolvers dubbed 30
Perkins, H. C., employee in Auditor of
State's office 268
Perkins, Jacob Randolph, author 178
Perrin, George H., member Indianola
Town Company 34
Perry, John D 336
— president of Union Pacific 331
Perryville, Indian territory, rebel supply
depot destroyed at 246
Petefish, Diana 269
Petefish, Mrs. M. P 271
Phelps, John S., Missouri congressman. .
118, 119
Phelps, John S., introduces bill for Kan- sas southern boundary survey 104
Philip, Mrs. W. D., Hays 165
Phillips, Wendell 98, 99
Phillips, Col. William A 238, 239
Phillips county, establishment of Fort
Kirwin in 58
— swarming with Indians 59
Phillips County Old Settlers'. Association,
third annual meeting 188
Phillipsburg Review, cited 188
Piazzek, J. M., mill at Grasshopper Falls
erected by 302
Piematunk creek 113
Pierce, Mrs. Fred, pioneering experiences
of 302
Pierce, President Franklin. .. 7, 309, 439, 440
—abuse of 295, 296
— biographical mention of 295
— tragic death of son 296
Pike, Z. M 208
— Big Timbers first noticed by 207
— Pawnee monument 172
Pike's Peak, emigration 25
— gold rush 40, 61
Pilot Knob, captured by troops under
Price 251
Pioneer women, Kansas 188
Pioneers' Association, Riley county 410
Pioneers (Snake) creek 122
Piper, Wyandotte county 83
Pittman shorthand system 28
Pittsburg, Board of Trade 283
— Chamber of Commerce 289
— clay products industries in 289
— coal shaft sunk on townsite of 274
— Commercial Club 284, 285
— council proceedings, cited 290
— favorable freight rates on coal shipped
from 278
— Hull and Dillon Packing Plant 286
— industrial history of, article by Fred
N. Howell 273- 294
— Lanyon smelter built at 281
— manufacture of building brick in 290
— mine rescue station located at 280
— National Bank of 282
— originally a coal mining camp 273
— smelters in mining district of 281
— vitrified brick paving in 290
— zinc smelting center 281, 283
Pittsburg and Cherokee Mining Co., dis- aster at coal mines of 278
Pittsburg Clay Products Co., M. O.
French, president 294
Pittsburg College Verse, by Margaret E.
Haughawout, cited 177
Pittsburg Headlight, cited 278, 279
283, 285, 293, 405
— fourth annual coal edition of 479
Pittsburg Kansan, cited 283, 285, 290
Pittsburg Landing, troops from Fort
Leavenworth sent by boats to 221
Pittsburg Paving and Building Brick Co., 289
Pittsburg Sun 405
— fourth annual coal edition of ,479
Pittsburg Town Company "289
Pittsburg Vitrified Paving Brick Plant.. 292
Pittsburgh, Pa., use of gas in 372
— supplied wagons for Mexican war 416
Pixley, Benton, Presbyterian minister. . . 481 Plains Indians, Medicine Lodge treaty
with 203, 329
330, 349, 355, 358, 451, 453, 480 — See, also, Indians, Plains. Platte Argus, Weston, Mo., published by
William H. Adams 8
Platte river 3, 60, 140, 151, 422, 468
— forts to be established on 150
514
GENERAL INDEX
Platte river, Indians attack emigrant
train on 350
— mentioned as Indian boundary 89
— north fork of 144
— valley of, Indian wars, 1865, 1866 349
Platte river trail 52, 60
61, 147, 148, 327, 348
— Indian depredations on 141
— need of protection for 149
— threatened by Indians 143
• — troops sent to protect stage line on. . . 836
Playter, Franklin 274
Pleasant Hill, Mo., Blunt makes recon-
noissance in direction of 253, 254
Pleasanton, Gen. Alfred 172, 259
260, 261, 262
— attacks Price forces from rear 258
Pleasanton 168, 172
Plum creek, Solomon valley, troops sta- tioned on 471
Plumb, Sen. Preston B 365, 369
— Emporia News founded by 18
— ordered to protect Overland Stage
line 149, 150
Plymouth Congregational Church, Law- rence 437
Polk, R. L., & Co., publishers 178
Polke, Christianna, wife of Isaac McCoy, 90
Pollard, Maj. , letter of, quoted... 142
Pomeroy, Samuel C 318, 335, 433
—chosen U. S. senator 310, 432
Pomme de Terre river, Mo 153
Pond Creek 352
— Indian raid on 336
Pond creek, tributary of Smoky Hill
river 56
Pond Creek station, on B. O. D. line 58
Pontoon bridge, at Leavenworth 366
— built by Vinton Stillings 376, 377
Pony Express 404
— W. F. Cody, rider 357
— riders, marker for, dedicated 78
Poor, Scott E 302
Poor, Mrs. Scott E 302
Poor, William 802
Pope, Gen. John 26, 54, 62, 215, 269, 471
— commander Department of the Mis- souri 65
— ordered to protect overland highways. . 150 — orders Blunt to move against Kirby
Smith 264
Population, increase 1870-1880 360
Populism, Notes on the Literature of,
article by James C. Malin 160- 164
Pork and bacon, for American army in
Mexican war 415, 418
Port, G. W 403
Port Landis, extinct town 405
Port Landis Town Company 405
Porter, A. N 408
Poteau river, crossing of, near Fort
Smith 247
Pottawatomie Indians, adopted into
Kickapoo tribe 159
— mission of, west of Topeka 91
on St. Joseph river, Michigan 4
— settled on Sugar creek 443
— settlement in Kansas 90
Pottawatomie county militia, needed on
western frontier 143, 144
Pottery, made at Pittsburg 289, 292- 294
Potwin, old settlers' reunion held in 482
Powder river 146
— Dodge's expedition to 147
— Reynolds defeated on 349
— troops campaign against the Sioux.... 149
Powell, L. W., peace commissioner 197
Prairies and Pioneers, by J. S. Bird 78
Prairie City 16
— Freeman's Champion, founded at 18
Prairie Grove, Ark., battle of 211
212, 232- 234 Prairie Schooner, a Romance of the Plains
of Kansas, by Mary M. North 178
Prairie schooners, employed in New
Mexican trade 17
— reminiscences of 475
Prather, , mulatto, of Lawrence... 266
Pratt, Ann 95, 103
—birth of 102
Pratt, E. H 83
Pratt, Eddie 96
Pratt, Elizabeth 100
—letters of, quoted 89, 97-99, 102
Pratt, Harrison 98
Pratt, John Gill, Baptist missionary and
early printer 5, 83, 85
91-93, 98, 99, 102, 103
— appointed agent for Delawares 87
— biographical sketch of 89
—Delaware Baptist Mission rebuilt by.. 90
—letters of 97, 100
— manuscript collection of 83, 89- 103
— mission report 95- 97
— removal to Stockbridge mission 86
— salary of 86
—United States Indian agent 84, 87
Pratt, John Harrison 98
Pratt, Johnny 95
Pratt, Jonas [ ?] 102
Pratt, Louisa 98
Pratt, Lucius 95, 103
Pratt, Olivia Evans 85, 98, 100, 102, 103
—described 95
—letters of 89
Pratt, Olivia, wife of Harrison Pratt 98
Pratt, Rosett 102
Pratt, old settlers' reunion held in 482
Pratt county 117
Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, 7
Price, Col. John T., quoted 144
Price, Gen. Sterling 187, 214
217, 253, 261, 415, 418, 420
— campaign against, in fall of 1864 264
— casualties in troops of 263
— difficulty crossing Osage river 215
— Fort Leavenworth his objective in raid
of 1864 53
—in Missouri 251, 252
— Kansas the objective of 255
— move on Lexington 214
— movement of troops under 215
— north of Osage river 217
— number of armed force 255
at Springfield 216
—retreat of 216
— threatened raid into Missouri 142
Price raid, Kansas threatened by 29
Prichard, Armstead Mead, author 182
Prickly pear 445
Pride, W. F., The History of Fort Riley,
cited 54
Prince, Maj . , commandant at Fort
Leavenworth 219
— warned not to permit muster of officers commissioned by Governor Robinson.. 220
Prince [ ?] , John 449
Pringle, William, president Wabaunsee
County Historical Society 304
Printing, early Kansas 5
Printing presses, brought to
Kansas 4-9,11- 16
Procter & Gamble Co., Chicago 287
Prohibition amendment, opposed by
John A. Martin 63
Proslavery party, success in organizing
Kansas 431
Protection Post, cited 474
Prouty, S. S 16
GENERAL INDEX
515
Prouty, S. S., Freeman's Champion,
Prairie City, founded by 13
— old Meeker press in possession of 16
Pruett, J. M., reminiscences cited 186
Puan (Winnebago) Indians 153
Pugh, Burton Homer 178
Pumpkin (Watunk a kashink) creek.... 112
Purgatoire river 207-209, 347
— short description of 208
Putnam, Nancy Carson, became Mrs.
James G. Blunt 211
Q.
Quantrill, William C 450
— massacre of Blunt 's force near Baxter
Springs 186, 247
— raid on Lawrence 478
Quantrill raiders 300, 352
Quapaw Indians, cede right to land in
Kansas 106
—lands of 107
Quindaro, Emigrant Aid Company inter- ested in 434
— town shares 436
Quindaro Chindowan 437
— founding of 13
Quinlan, L. R., Manhattan 172
Quisenbury, Mr. , employed by -
Meeker 5
Quivira, cities of 187
R.
Rabbit Ear creek 130
Rabbit Ear mountains, on Santa Fe trail, 129 Radges, Samuel, Topeka Directory, pub- lished by 35
Railroad, first built up Arkansas valley. . 303 — from Joplin to Girard, built by Joplin
parties 281
Railroad construction, slow progress up
Smoky Hill valley 334
Railroads, investments in equipment for
marketing Pittsburg coal 278
— put end to government contractors. ... 428
Rain-in-the-Face, Sioux chief 298, 350
Raine, William MacLeod, author 180
Rains, on plains Ill, 199, 200
Ralston, Okla 137
Randall, Alex W., postmaster general, re- port quoted 335
Randolph, J. E., Cloud county reminis- cences cited 185
Range Cattle Industry, Notes on Litera- ture of, by James C. Malin 74
Rankin, 320, 323
Rankin, Mrs. C. R., author 478
Rantoul, old settlers' reunion held in... 481
Rattlesnake story 354
Ravanna 190
Rawlins county 176
Ray, Judge James A 68
Reader, Eliza 28, 30
Reader, Elizabeth 28
Reader, Francis 28
Reader, Samuel J 32, 34
— biographical sketch of 28
— "First Day's Battle at Hickory Point," from the diary and reminiscences of,
edited by George A. Root 28- 49
Reader, Mrs. Samuel J., date of death.. 28
Rebel raids, protection against 222
Rebel yell, heard at Hickory Point 44
Red creek 446
Red fork, Arkansas river. See Arkansas river, Salt fork.
"Red Legs," organization of 239
Red Nose, Cheyenne Dog Soldier chief. . 456 Red river 144, 155, 245, 246
Red river, mentioned as Indian boundary, 89 — rebel troops under Gen. Kirby Smith
occupying line of 264
Red River Journal, founded by Dr. G. A.
Cutler 44
Red Rock creek 136
Red Shin's Standing Ground, Cheyenne
name for upper end of Big Timbers.. 207
Redoubt creek, Clark county 122
Reed, Gov. Clyde M 170
Reeder, Gov. A. H 44
— Kansas land deals of 297
Rees, Jacob G 320, 323
Rees, W. S., early resident of Lincoln. . . 402
Reeside, John E., freighter 428
Refugee Indians 448
— described 445
Reid, S. G., Tecumseh Note Book
founded by 14
Reily creek, settlers on, driven out by
Indians 60
Relics, Harvey county 410
Relief movement, 1856 439
Remsburg, George J., cited 51
Reno, Maj. Marcus A 350
Reno county, 4-H clubs of 300
— historical notes of 78, 476
— Mennonite settlers in 301
— sixtieth birthday anniversary of 300
Republic county, defenses against Indians
built in 60
— Fort Lookout established in 59
— given seed wheat by legislature 472
— Indian depredations in 344, 469
Republican Journal, Salina, cited 55
Republican party 307, 309
— St. John wing dominates 68
Republican river 53, 340
345, 443, 461, 462, 468, 469
— block houses erected on 457
— gold seekers travel over 348
— troops stationed on 471
— valley of 59
grass burned in 140
hostile Indians pursued into 33
Indian depredations in 330
raided by Cheyennes 456
settlers driven out by Indians 60
Reynolds, 313
Reynolds, , defeated on Powder
river 349
Reynolds, Gen. Joseph S., commands
Department of Arkansas 264
Reynolds, Charles Alexander, scout 345
— biographical sketch 350
Rhea's Mill, Ark 231, 235, 238
— Blunt's supply trains at, guarded 238
Rice, James Clay, author 182
Rice, Okla 131
Rice county 178
Richardson, Eleanor, became Mrs.
Jotham Meeker 91
— teacher at Thomas Station, among
Ottawa Indians 4
Richardson, H. A 434, 435
Richardson, J. D 439
Richardson, Col. J. M.,
14 Mo. S. M 231, 232
Richardson, Silas 98
Richmond, Mabel E., author 182
Richmond Enterprise, cited 480
Richmond Methodist Episcopal Church,
historical notes of 480
Riegel, Robert Edgar, author 180
Riggs, S. A., Lawrence lawyer 300
Riley county, Pioneer's Association 410
Rio de las Animas (Purgatoire
river) 208, 209
Rio Grande 154, 156
— failure of crops along 20
516
GENERAL INDEX
Rio Grande, flood in 428
Rio Purgatoire 208, 209
Rister, C. C., The Southwestern Frontier,
cited 451, 456
Ritchie, E. B., author 477
Riverside Coal Co., Leavenworth 371
Road, Fort Leavenworth to Fort Gibson, 107
to Fort Riley 29, 34, 38
to Fort Scott 83
— Fort Riley to Fort Kearney 59
— Leavenworth to Santa Fe 32, 418
— to state penitentiary macadam- ized 365, 374
— Topeka-Atchison stage 29
Roads, state, surveying of 271
— See, also, Trails.
Roberts, 320, 323
Roberts, Francis Henry, historical notes
of Oskaloosa 298
Robidoux, Peter, account books of 474
Robinson, B. F., agent Delaware Indians, 88
Robinson, Charles 65, 212, 213
311, 318, 325, 433, 435, 437, 438, 440 — a vehement opponent of prohibition. . 64
— agent Emigrant Aid Co 432
— biographical mention of 307, 308
— Blackmar's "Life of" 307
— chosen governor 432
—hostility toward Blunt 218
— house resolution impeaching and articles
against 313, 314
— impeachment trial of, article by
Cortez A. M. Ewing 307- 325
—Kansas Conflict, cited 308
— leader during territorial troubles 307
— promiscuous military appointments
by 219, 220
— questionable methods of, in appointing
officers for Kansas regiments 219
Robinson, John W., secretary of state.. 311 312, 314, 322, 324, 325
— appointed surgeon in Union army 321
—date and place of death. 321
— house resolution impeaching and
articles against 313, 314
— impeachment trial of, article by
Cortez A. M. Ewing 307- 325
— Lane -Robinson controversy 310
— table showing votes in impeachment of, 320 Robinson, Mrs. Sara T. D., Kansas: Its Interior and Exterior Life, cited. . 308, 430
Rock creek, Chautauqua county 114
— Cowley county 114
Rock Island railroad 366
Rock Salt (Ne-ish-ke-koash-ke-pi)
river 135
Rocky Mountains .•;•••. 1<ir8
— Long's scientific expedition into 51
Roger Williams University, Ottawa Uni- versity chartered as 404, 405
Rogers, , trooper 205
Rogers, R. W., author 182
Roger's and Magee's, near ford on
Neosho HI
Rollin, David B 95, 97
— biographical sketch 91
Rollins, P. A., author 76
Roman Nose 353
— Cheyenne and Sioux Indians under 351
—killed during Beecher Island fight, 349, 351
Ronsheim, Milton, author 180
Rooks county, reminiscences of 403
Rooks County Record, Stockton 403, 474
— beginning fifty-third year of 298
Roosevelt Intermediate School, Wichita . . 82
306, 414
Root, Frank A., express messenger and co-author of The Overland Stage to California, cited . . 60, 61, 82, 146, 148, 327
Root, George A., curator of archives,
Kansas State Historical Society 51
82, 194, 304
— diary of 83
— "Extracts from the Diary of Capt. Lambert B. Wolf," article edited
by 195- 210
—"First Day's Battle at Hickory Point,"
article edited by 28- 49
— "No-ko-aht's Talk," article edit-'
by 153- 159
— and Mrs. Frank C. Montgomery, com- pilers, "Indian Treaties and Councils
Affecting Kansas," cited 51
Rose Bud, General Crook defeated at ... 349 Rose Hill, Mo., Blunt's reconnaissance
of 215
Rosecrans, Gen. W. S 252, 254, 256, 263
Ross, Sen. E. G 146, 455
Ross, Finlay 475
Ross, John, chief of Cherokee, brings
treasures of nation to Fort Scott 224
Rossman, Edna L., editor, Clifton News, 78
Rowe, H. J., author 182
Rucker, Mrs. Maude (Applegate), author, 180
Ruley, A. N., author 178
Running Turkey creek 205
Runnymede, historical notes of 475
Ruppenthal, Jacob C., translations
by 302, 409
Rush, H. D., president Leavenworth
Board of Trade 362
Rush county, Alexander, historical notes
of 476
— German -Russian settlements in 177
Rusling, Brig. Gen. James F 428
Russell, Majors &, Leavenworth, freight
contractors 427
Russell, Majors & Waddell 427
— charged with selling property stolen
from free-state ^m: grants 21
Russell, William H 361
— government freight contractor 425
Russell 184
Russell Cosmos Club 301
Russell county, early settlement of 188
— old residents of 301
Russell County News, cited 188, 299
301, 302, 409
Russell Record, cited 184, 301
Russell's creek 110, 111
Russian-German settlements, Ellis and
Rush counties 177
• — in the United States, book by Dr.
Richard Sallett, cited 302, 409
Rutherford, K. W., reminiscences cited.. 188
S.
Sabin, Edwin L., cited 356
Sac and Fox Indians 90
— settlement in Kansas 89
— Presbyterian mission among 6
St. Elizabeth's hospital for the insane. . . 211 St. Francis, Cheyenne county, named for
Frances L. Emerson 299
St. John, John P 63
— nominated for third term 70
—prohibitionists 69, 70
St. John, old settlers' reunion held in. ... 482
St. Joseph, Mo 87
St. Joseph river, Michigan, Pottawatomies
settled on 4
St. Louis, Mo 87
— cost of Mexican wool shipped to 23
— Fremont's headquarters at 216
— objective of Hindman's campaign 234
St. Louis and Pittsburg Co., zinc pro- duction of 1893 284
GENERAL INDEX
517
St. Louis Democrat 229
St. Louis Era, cited 421
St. Louis New Era, cited and
quoted 416,418
St. Louis Republican 337
St. Louis Reveille, cited 19, 419, 420
St. Louis Union, cited 419
St. Louis University 184
St. Louis Weekly Reveille, cited 19
St. Louis Zinc Co 283
St. Marys College 184
— changed from college to school for
priests 187
St. Marys Mission 443
St. Marys Star, cited 184, 187
St. Paul Journal, cited 405, 407, 475
St. Vrain, Ceran 346
— ruse used on Indians by 347
Sage, Lee, autobiography of, mentioned.. 180
Salem, historical notes of 479
Salina 462
• — express military escort reported mas- sacred near 143
— Fort Harker, 36 miles from 55
— frontier defense of 144
— historical notes of 477
— in 1860 206
— Kansas' First Frontier battalion organ- ized at 461
— razing of "Upper Mill" 405
— residents who preceded railroad hon- ored 301
— volunteer military company organized
at 457
Salina Journal, cited 301, 405, 407, 477
Saline county 178, 471
— given seed wheat by legislature 472
Saline County Chapter, Native Daughters
of Kansas 301
Saline County Historical Association, Mrs.
Erne Campbell, secretary 301
Saline river 451, 456, 461, 462
— block houses erected on 457
— military patrols on 467, 470
Saline valley, Indian raids in 465
466, 468, 469
— settlers rationed by troops 472
— troops stationed on Spillman creek. . . . 471
Sallett, Dr. Richard, cited 302, 409
Salt, crystalized 134
Salt creek (Niskeokaka) 112
Salt creek, settlers driven out by Indians, 60 Salt Fork, Arkansas river. See Arkansas river, Salt Fork.
Salt jacks, of pioneer days 300
Salt Lake City, Utah, Johnston's com- mand starts for 197
Salt marsh, near Leafie, Okla., de- scribed 120, 121
Salt plain, Alfalfa county, Okla., de- scribed 118
Salt pond 132
Salt (Cimarron) river 134
Salt well, first drilled at Hutchinson .... 300
San Angelo river, Texas 154
San Antonio road, Texas 154
Sanborn, Gen. John B 254, 444- 446
— Indian Peace Treaty Commissioner. ... 151
342, 443 — troops under, at Battle of Newtonia. . . 263
Sand Creek, Colorado 446
— massacre of Indians on 144- 146
329, 348, 445, 446
— short account of 349
Sand Springs, Abilene 190
Sandy creek, Alfalfa county, Okla 118
Sangamon river, Illinois 153
San Juan, Mexico 155
Santa Fe, N. M., army depot removed to
Fort Union 20
— business failures in during 1848 18
— coaches unmolested coming from 340
— distance from Fort Leavenworth 415
— headquarters of army 424
— express 143, 144
— hungry American soldiers at 417
— "Military Phase of Santa Fe Freight- ing," by Walker D. Wyman 415
— prices compared with those of Missouri, 420 — number wagons of freight taken to,
1851 20
— scarcity of provisions in 25
— stage road, crossed Smoky Hill near
Fort Harker 55
— trade, 1858, account of 22
registry of men, teams, wagons and
animals engaged in 1857 23
— traders 450
trains of, snowbound 18
Santa Fe Employes Magazine 55
Santa Fe Stage Company, Cow Creek
station attacked 147
Santa Fe trail 61, 106
123, 126, 130, 138, 152, 179, 180, 195, 200 201, 207, 251, 327, 348, 415, 422, 444, 450
— a meandering trail in 1862 428
— Cimarron crossing 190, 199
— crossing, Arkansas river 207
— Col. Wm. Gilpin's battalion guarding. . 422
—death knell of 428
— defended by three forts 51
— dry route 54, 202
— escort service provided 148
— Fort Aubrey built for protection of... 57 — Fort Lamed most important guardian
of 54
— freight rates on 425
— Indian depredations on 141, 146, 458
— Kaw crossing of 455
—mail 128
— Pawnee Fort crossing 199, 202- 205
— pillage and robbery on 25
— picnic celebration at Baldwin 185
— routes mentioned 54
— scurvy among troops on Santa Fe trail, 200
—statistics 26
— traffic on, shifted north to Union Pa- cific 55
1848, estimated 423
Santa Rosa, Mexico 155
Sappa creek, Northern Cheyennes killed
on 348
Satank, Kiowa chief 207
—George Peacock killed by 203
—sketch of 203
— squaws and children of, captured 208
Satanta, Kiowa chief, captured by Sheri- dan 467
— credited with Peacock killing 203
—in fight on Beaver creek 339
— licking received at hands of Mathew-
son 357
—sketch of 203
Satterthwaite, J. M 404
Sault Ste. Marie, Chippewa Indians at . . 4 Saw Mills, owned or located by New
England Emigrant Aid Co 10, 434
Sayer, Mr. , South Reading, Mass., 99
Sayers, W. L 402
Scammon Brothers, coal mining by 274
Scammon, coal mining at 274
— mine rescue station at 280
Scarritt, William C., cited 477
Schaefers, Rev. William 302
Schawe, Corwin, author 188
Scherer, Mrs. Ralph , 404
518
GENERAL INDEX
Schlanger, A. H., Pittsburg 293
Schmidt, Paul, author 188
Schnack Park, Lamed 186
Schofield, Gen. J. M 62, 212
226, 241, 242, 245, 246, 248, 470
— accused of weakness and imbecility 246
— board of inspection appointed by 249
— Department of Missouri commanded
by 460
— dilatory tactics of 227
— enmity against Blunt 240
— geographical and topographical survey
made by 227
— ignores Blunt's request for more
troops 243
— orders to Blunt ignored 235
— organizes Army of the Frontier 227
— resumes command Army of the Fron- tier, 1863 238
— scored by Blunt for lack of coopera- tion 228, 229
— shifts headquarters to St. Louis 53
School attendance, required 394
School lands, indemnity, commissioners to
select 271
School law, 1903 385
Schuler, Martin J 404
Scofield, Mrs. Dolores May, author 178
Scott, Harmon, of lola 266
Scott, John R., author 178
Scott, Dr. John W 271
Scott, Marion, reminiscences, cited 188
Scott, Gen. Winfield 172
Scott City News Chronicle, cited. . 475 477
Scott county, historical notes of 475
Scott County Historical Society.. 410 475
Scott County State Park 410
Scouts, Some Famous Kansas 345
Scribners, New York publishers. . . 76 329
Scribner's Magazine, cited 74
Scrip, Kansas 311
Scurvy, among troops 196
on Santa Fe trail 200
Sedalia, Mo., captured by troops under
Shelby 254
Sedgwick, Major John 209
— brief sketch of 206
— campaign against Kiowa and Comanche
Indians 206
Sedgwick county 301
— history of education in 478
— Portrait and Biographical Album of,
cited 357
Sedgwick Pantograph 77
Seeley, J. H., of Pittsburg 285
Seitz, J. A 405
Selden, old settlers' reunion held in, 481, 482 Seminole Indians, loyal refugees in Union
military service 222
Seminole War, Florida 206
Seton, Ernest Thompson 300
Sevier, A. M., and Mark W. Delahay,
Territorial Register started by 13
Seward county 16
— first school teacher of 301
— honor roll of old settlers 302
Sewer tile, manufactured at Pittsburg. . . 292 Sexton, Charles A., biographical sketch.. 35
Shaff, Samuel 199
Shale and clay, extensive deposits at
Pittsburg 289
Sharon, Woodward county, Okla 134
Sharp's rifles 44, 440
— used at Battle of Hickory Point... 39, 42
Shaw, Albert, author 183
Shaw, J. Allen 266, 267
— buried in Oak Hill cemetery, Lawrence, 270
Shaw, James 266, 267
— biographical mention 270
Shaw, James, killed by Indians 268
Shaw, Mrs. James, allowance by Govern- ment for death of husband 270
Shaw 481
Shawanoe 7
Shawnee, bogus legislature met at 12
— interesting spots around 406
Shawnee, Okla., Kickapoos settle near. . . 154
Shawnee Baptist Mission 83, 84
92, 93, 96, 102
— founded by Johnston Lykins 90
— Jotham Meeker in charge 81
Shawnee county 91
— tablet to pioneers 191
Shawnee Indians, settlement in Kansas . . 89
Shawnee Manual Labor School 9, 14
Shawnee Methodist Mission 86
— described 92
— historical notes of 477
—lily pool at 191
— near Shawnee Baptist Mission 90
— restoration activities at 171, 172
— rock garden 410
Shawnee Mission Floral Club... 72,191,410 Shawnee Mission Indian Historical So- ciety 477
Shawnee Quaker Mission, establishment
of 90
Shauwaunowe Kesauthwau (Shawnee
Sun), account of 6
— first newspaper in Kansas 90
Sheep, driven overland to New Mexico.. 22 — herds driven to Chihuahua and Cali- fornia 23
— shipped from New Mexico 18
Shelby, Gen. J. 0 226- 228
— commanding division of Price's
army 259, 260
— Missouri invaded by 224
— Sedalia captured by 254
— and Coffee, Blunt's pursuit of 225
Shepherd, , at Hickory Point ... 40, 41
Sherbon, Dr. Florence Brown 392
Sherburne, Adj. Gen. John P 60
Sherer, J. A., Mullinville 481
Sheridan, Bernard James, "Stories of a Kansan," published in Western Spirit .. 77
Sheridan, Gen. Philip H 54, 61, 62
145, 149, 344, 356, 455, 460-462, 465-469 — campaign against Indians in Indian
territory and Texas 55
— captures Lone Wolf and Satanta 467
— Comstock chief scout for 353
— establishes Fort Sill 468
— Fort Hays headquarters of 53, 56
— letter from Gov. Crawford cited 149
— orders Indians out of Kansas 451
Indians to reservations 457
— Personal Memoirs cited 343, 456
— refuses arms to Indians 454
— winter campaign against Cheyennes. . . 58
463, 464
Sherman, Sen. John 333, 337, 463
—letters cited 329, 337, 342
Sherman, Gen. William T 62, 334-336
339-342, 452, 453, 457, 458, 463, 472
— appointed general in chief 468
— attitude regarding organization of
Eighteenth Kansas 338
— Division of Missouri commanded by. . 382
— had little sympathy for Indians 333
— indictment of Wells, Fargo & Co. stage
line 335
— ordered to protect overland highways . . 150 — quoted regarding Indian troubles in
Kansas 829
— refuses to further ration Frontier
battalion 462
GENERAL INDEX
519
Sherman, Gen. William T., telegrams to
Gov. Crawford, quoted 333, 334, 341
Sherman county court house, laying of
corner stone for new 77
Sherman school, Hutchinson, first teacher
of 300
Sherman (Texas) Patriot, founded by
Geo. A. Cutler 44
Shinn, Josiah Hazen, author 182
Shirley county, block house in 59
Shoal creek 107
Shoemaker, R. M 335, 341
— general superintendent Union Pacific . . 331 — provided with arms and ammunition
for self protection 332
Shoo Fly creek 116
Short, Rev. Daniel 269
Short, Daniel Truman 266, 267
Short, Harry C 266, 269-271
— biographical sketch 272
Short, Capt. Oliver Francis, biographical
sketch 269
— buried in Mount Muncie cemetery,
Leavenworth 270
— contract for surveying 266
— surveying camp of 266- 268
Short, Mrs. Oliver F 271, 272
— allowed $5,000 by Government for
death of husband 270
— assisted husband in surveys in Kansas, 269
— claim against government 270
— informed of massacre of husband by
Indians 269
Short, Truman 268
— buried in Mount Muncie cemetery,
Leavenworth 270
Short Method Refining Company, Pitts -
burg, subsidy given to 285
Short's creek 268
Shovels, electrical and steam for coal
mining 274
Shun-ma-lo, Osage chief 117
Shute, Aunt 99
Shute, Caleb 98
Shute, Joseph 102
Sierra del Carmen mountains 154
Sillpah Sinpah, Kiowa name of William
Mathewson 357
Silver smelter, Pittsburg 284
— not a financial success for owners 285
Simcox, S. M., quoted 25
Simerwell, Robert, biographical sketch . . 91
Simmons, India H., author 475
Simmons, John S., place and year of
birth 300
Simpkins, F. B., cited 162
Simpson, S. N 437, 439
Sioux Indians 147, 330, 342, 462
— attack troops On Arickaree creek. . 458- 460
— campaign against, on Powder river 149
— camped on Pawnee Fork 329
— depredations of 468
— fight with U. S. troops in Black Hills, 150
— Kansas offenses charged against 472
— raid Republic county 469
— Rain-in-the-Face, chief of 350
— Sharp Grover once lived with 351
— village of, on Solomon river 353
— war in Minnesota, 1862 141
Sitting Bull, Sioux chief 298
Siwinoe Kesibwi (Shawnee Sun), account
of 6
Six Mile Creek, on Santa Fe trail 449
Skins, number imported from New
Mexico, in 1859 18
Slavery, resolution of New Hampshire
state Democratic Convention regard- ing 297
— question 7
Sleeper, H. S 320, 323
Slosson, Edwin Emery, author 178
Slough creek, capture of proslavery
camp and flag on 40
Smallpox, freighting hazardous in 1854
on account of 21
Smelters, in Pittsburg district 281
Smith, Gen. A. J 254
— at Fort Harker 332, 341
Smith, J. Albert, author 478
Smith, Lieut. Benjamin Franklin, bio- graphical mention 107
Smith, Caleb, U. S. Secretary of Interior, 318
Smith, Charles, cited 478
Smith, Judge Charles W 189
Smith, E. D 267
Smith, Elizabeth 28
Smith, Frank D 298
Smith, Helen 403
Smith, Gen. Kirby, Blunt ordered to
move against 264
— surrenders forces under 264
Smith, S. J 332
Smith, William E., author, cited 79
Smith Center, historical notes of 478, 479
— old settlers' reunion held in 482
Smith county, historical notes of... 478,479 Smith County Pioneer, Smith Center,
sixtieth anniversary of 478, 479
Smith -Hughes act, mentioned 288
Smoky crossing, between Zarah and
Larned 54
Smoky Hill region 149
Smoky Hill river 53, 145, 148
184, 206-209, 333, 340, 345, 408, 468, 470
— forts to be established on 150
— Indian attack on traders 350
depredations on 453
— Pond Creek tributary of 56
— Santa Fe stage road crossing near Fort
Harker 55
— war parties of Indians on 251
Smoky Hill route 56, 57, 327, 335
— Indian depredations on. . 326, 330, 341, 458 — Indians in possession of 100 miles of. . 340
— posts guarding 52
— resumption of service on 340
Smoky Hill Stage line 339
— suspension of service on 334, 336
Smoky Hill valley, chain of forts along. . 55
— raided by Cheyennes 456
— railroad construction up 328, 334
Snake creek, Clark county 122
Snoddy, Col. James D., arrested for dis- obedience 253
Snow, Mr., formerly of Brown county... 444
Snow, F. H., cited 438
Snow Camp creek (southeast Kansas)... Ill
Snowstorm of April, 1873, recalled 402
Sobrinas river, Mexico 156
Sod fort, Jewell county 60
Sod Town, now Stafford, brief history,
by Helen Akin 302
Soldier creek, Indianola crossing of 8
Soldiers' Home, Leavenworth 372
Solomon, Gen. 225
— abandons Indian country after assum- ing command "2
— arrests Col. Weer 223
— defeated by Shelby and Cooper at
Newtonia 226
— supply trains at Rhea's Mills, guarded
by 233
Solomon river 345, 351, 451
— block houses erected on 457
— Indian outbreaks along 326, 461
—North fork of 58
—patrols on 467, 470
— Sioux village on 353
520
GENERAL INDEX
Solomon valley, Indian raids in 330,456
465, 466, 468,471
— troops stationed in 461, 471
• ration settlers 472
"Some Famous Kansas Frontier Scouts,"
article by Paul I. Wellman 345- 359
"Some Phases of the Industrial History of Pittsburg, Kansas," article by Fred
N. Howell 273- 294
Souders, Clifford V 408
Soule irrigation canal 406
South Carolina flag, captured at fight on
Slough creek 40
South Carolinians, at Hickory Point 29
South Pass, Rocky Mountains, compared
with Bridger's Pass 197
South Platte river 61, 141
— Indian depredations on 458
Southern Cheyennes. See Cheyenne
Indians, Southern. Southern Kansan, Fort Scott, date of
starting in doubt 12
Southern Kansas Herald, Osawatomie,
started by Charles E. Griffith 14
Southwest Historical Society, Dodge City, 190 Southwestern Interstate Coal Operator's
Association 276
Southwestern Social Science Quarterly ... 306
Sowers, F. A., pioneer publisher 476
Spanish -American War 410, 411
Spanish traders 347
Sparks, old settlers' reunion at 481
Spearville News, cited 188
Specie, demanded by Mexicans for sup- plies sold 420
— great part of, drained from New
Mexico by demands of commerce 38
Speer, John 10, 13, 309
— biographer of James H. Lane 308
— difficulties encountered in starting
Kansas Tribune 12
— editor and publisher of New Era,
Medina, Ohio 11
Spencer, K. A 274, 275, 277
Spencer carbines 459
Spillman creek, Saline valley, troops sta- tioned 471
Spottsylvania, battle of '. . 206
Spriggs, Wm 320, 323
Spring, L. W., cited 308, 310
Spring (Ne-is-ka-bi-ka-kha) creek 115
Spring river 106, 110, 139
Spring township, Harper county 118
Spring Turkey creek 205
Springfield, Mo., Lane's Brigade at 216
— depot supply at 230
Sprouse, C. W 188
Spurs, Battle of, cited 478
Squatter Sovereign, Atchison... 153,269,437
— starting of 12
Stafford, old settlers' reunion at 470
—once known as Sod Town 302
Stafford county, first tornado in 405
— 'historical notes of 479
Stafford Courier 405
Stage stations on Smoky Hill route 57
Stages, guarded by military escorts 327
Stahl, Frank M., author "History of
Burlingame" 77
Staked Plains 442
—battle of 468
— war against Comanche Indians on 298
Stamm, John, cited 480
Stanley, Clark, author 180
Stanton, E. M., Secretary of War 221
331, 332, 452 Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, 211
State Federation of Labor 388
State Society of Labor 388, 394
State Temperance Union 65
Steamboats, ascend Missouri river for
goods for New Mexican trade 17
— burned by Hindman's forces 237
by Blunt's forces 238
— Confederate, captured by Federal troops
at Little Rock 236, 237
— decline of travel on Missouri river by, 363 — wagons for Mexican war brought west
by 416
Steele, Capt. 206, 208, 209
Steele, Gen. 246
— Camden expedition of 250
— Texas troops under 245
Steele, Mr. -, of lola 266
Steele, James, Indian commissioner 151
443, 444,446
Steele, John, author 180
Steinmetz, & Co., Pittsburg 289
Sterling, T. W 190
Sterling College, forty-fifth anniversary
of 407
Sterling Kansas Bulletin 407
Steuart, George H., Captain 1st U. S.
cavalry 196, 204
— Kiowa Indians pursued by 208
Stevens, Aaron Dwight S
— biographical sketch 33
— "Captain Whipple" an alias of 29
— "Kickapoo" a nickname of 39
Stevens, Arthur Alonzo, author 178
Stevens, Robert S 313, 314, 320, 323- 325
— associate of Charles Robinson 312
— Kansas bonds sold to 311
sold to Indian Office 312
Stevens, William C 304
Stewart, Donald W., state commander
American Legion 299
Stillings, Vintpn, pontoon bridge across
Missouri built by 376
official opening of 376, 377
Stillwell, Jack, scout 345
— member Forsyth expedition 353
Stillwell, S. E 345
Stockbridge, outpost of Shawnee Mission,
location and date of opening 5
Stockbridge church 87
Stockbridge mission, abandonment of, 84, 86
Stockbridge Indians 86, 87
Stockton, historical notes of 474
— old settlers' reunion held in 481
Stockton Record, cited 189
Stolzenbach post office and mission house, 188
Stone, 311
Stone, Jesse 304
Stone, R. H., St. Louis commission
merchant 86
Stone City, coal mine explosion at, 278- 280
Stone corral, on Santa Fe trail 450
Stoufer, Abe K., roll of old settlers of
Seward county prepared by 3C
Stoves, manufactured at Leavenworth . . . 366
Street, William D., cited 348
Stringfellow, John H., publisher of
Squatter Sovereign 12
Stumpy arroyo 268
Sturgis, Gen. Samuel Davis 214, 215
218, 220, 223
— biographical mention 209
— efforts to prevent enlistment of loyal
Indians 222
— Fort Smith captured by forces under.. 247
Strawhecker, Widow 449
Sublette 188
— old settlers' reunion held in 481
Sugar creek 108
Suggett, John W., early day mail carrier, 404
Su-ka-tunk (Turkey) creek 112
Sullivan, John L 300
GENERAL INDEX
521
Sully, Gen. Alfred. . . . 457, 458, 463, 467, 470
— issues arms to Indians 455, 456
— moves against Indians south of the
Arkansas 460
— patrols Saline and Solomon river. . 467, 470 — rations destitute settlers of Saline and
Solomon regions 472
Sulphur springs 444
Summer-field Sun 403
Summit Springs, Colo 469
Sumner, Col. Edwin V 33, 134, 199
— campaign of 348
— nicknamed "Bull of the Woods" 196
—sketch of 196
Sumner county, in the seventies 405
— surveys in
269
Sumner Gazette, founded by J. P. and
D. D. Cone 14
Summit Springs, Tall Bull's band de- feated at 349
Sun, Leavenwprth 375
Sun Dance, Sioux 350
Supreme Court, Kansas 310
Survey of southern boundary of
Kansas 104- 139
— appropriations for 105
— authorized by Congress in 1856 105
— description of party on Ill
— J. E. Weyss, surveyor of 106
— J. H. Clarke and Hugh Campbell,
astronomers for 106
— Col. Joseph E. Johnston in command
of expedition 105, 106
— plat in possession of Kansas State His- torical Society 106
— termination of 107
Surveyors, United States, Massacred by Indians, Lone Tree, Meade County, 1874, article by Mrs. Frank C. Mont- gomery 266- 272
— protection to 196
— suffering from frozen feet 270
Sutley, Zachary Taylor, author 180
Swain, George Thomas, author 182
Swanson, Nina, cited 379, 386
Swedish settlements, near Enterprise, 191, 192 Swem, E. G. librarian of William and
Mary College 106
Sykes, Major General , commander
of District of Southern Kansas 253
Syracuse, Fort Aubrey located near town of 57
T.
Tabor, Milton, author 187, 404
Tahlequah, capital of Cherokee Nation. . 223
Tahosan, Kiowa chief 200, 201
Hall Bull, Cheyenne war chief 343
— raids Council Grove 454, 455
Republic county 469
— village of, destroyed by Maj. Gen.
Carr 469, 470
Tall Timbers, Cheyenne name for Big
Timbers 207
Tanhouse, Lieut. 449
Tankersley, William, ranch of 154
Tappan, S. F., Peace commissioner 342
Tappen, Lieut. 248
Tar creek HO
Tarvin, Edmund B 403
Tas-ca-tap-ia, Kickapoo Indian 156
Taylor, Lieut. 206
Taylor, Edward T., Rooks county remi- niscences by 403
Taylor, Lieut. Joseph Hancock 115
— biographical mention of 108
Taylor, Nathaniel G., Indian Peace com- missioner 342
Taylor, W. L 291
Taylor & Loose, Pittsburg 292
establish tile factory at Pittsburg 291
Taylor's battery 115
Teachers, for Indians in new territory. . . 3 Teamsters, wages for, during Mexican
war 418
Tebbs, O. B., early resident of Ozawkie.. 34
Tecumseh 11
Tecumseh Note Book, founded by S. G.
Reid 14
Telegraph road, Arkansas 235, 236
Temperatures, 1856 30, 31
Tennessee soldiers, Fort Kirwin estab- lished by 58
Terre Haute, Ind., Pittsburg clay shipped to tile factory at, for experimental pur- poses 291
Territorial militia 38
Territorial Register, Leavenworth, found- ing and destruction of 13
Terry, Gen. Alfred S. H., Indian Peace
commissioner 342
Texas, brush country of south 75
— cattle, driven to Dodge City 410
shipped over Kansas Pacific railroad, 27
trail, Sumner county 405
— cavalry pursued through Van Buren,
Ark 236
— Indian tribes to be settled in 150
— loyalists of 250
— Palo Pinto county 477
— plans for expedition to, defeated 250
— Panhandle, buffalo hunting in 355
high plains country of 75
ranching developed in 75
— regiments, engagement with Kicka-
poos 155- 157
— Sheridan's campaign in 451
Texas county, Okla 131
Texas Press Association, originated by
Dr. Geo. A. Cutler 44
Texas State Prison, Satata confined in ... 203
Texas street, Abilene 190
Texas University 75
Thacher, T. Dwight, and Norman Allen,
found Lawrence Republican 13
Thayer, , of Nebraska 335
Thayer, Gen. , troops under at Fort
Smith 263
Thayer, Eli 431, 440
— A History of the Kansas Crusade,
cited 308
— officer New England Emigrant Aid
Company 430
Thayer 190
—in 1876 407
— First Presbyterian church 190
—St. Patrick's Catholic church 190
The-man-who-breaks-the-marrow-bones,
Cheyenne chief 456
Thisler, Mrs. O. L 190
Thomas county 176
Thomas Mission, Michigan, men- tioned 90, 91
Thomas Station, for Ottawa Indians on
Grand river 4
Thompson, Hugh L., author 186
Thompson, Lieut. John A 113, 114
118, 122-124, 133
— biographical mention of 108
Thorndike, Raphael Sherman 329
Thome, Mrs. F. P., Waterville pioneer.. 299 Thorpe, — — , Indian trader at Big
Timbers 207
Thrasher, Amanda McClure, author .... 178
Thrasher, Capt. Luther A 267
268, 270- 272 — biographical sketch 271
522
GENERAL INDEX
Thrasher, Capt. Luther A., buried in
Ohio 269
— In Memory of Luther A. Thrasher by
Amanda McClure Thrasher 178
— surveying contract of 266, 269
Throckmorton, George, reminiscences of,
in Burlington Daily Republican 78
Thwaites, Reuben G., cited 51,121,208
Tile, made at Pittsburg 289
Tilma, Tom 408
Titus, Col. H. T., sword of, captured at
Hickory Point 40
Todd, Mrs. R. F 272
Todd, W. M., president Leavenworth
Board of Trade 362, 378
Tom Green county, Texas, Kansas Kicka-
poos headed for 154
Tonganoxie Mirror, fiftieth anniversary of, 406
Tola's ferry, mentioned 108
Torrey bankrupt law, mentioned 377
Topeka 153, 436, 455, 456
— Butterfield Overland Despatch started
daily schedule from 327
— center of free state activity 432
— fifth printing point in territorial
Kansas 12
— First Baptist Church, seventy-fifth
anniversary of 304
— Fort Simple, a wooden stockade built
at 60
— free state legislature 269
— historical sketch of, in Merchant's
Journal 403
— known as an Aid Company town 434
— Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry mustered
at 463, 464
— old settlers' reunion held in 482
— school house built by Emigrant Aid
Company 438
— site of free state government 12
— territorial government formed at 10
— troops stationed in 461
— Wesleyan Methodist Church 35
Topeka -Atchison stage road 29
Topeka Board of Trade chartered 362
Topeka Constitution, 1855 307
— first printed 12
Topeka Constitutional Convention ... 44, 360
Topeka Daily Capital, cited 187, 188
206, 302, 404, 407, 442
Topeka Mail and Breeze, cited 212
Topeka State Journal, cited 18, 459, 477
Topeka Town Association, forming of . . . 433 Topeka Typographical Union, No. 121,
golden jubilee of 408
Totten, Gen. , a commander in Army
of the Frontier 227
Trade, Mexican, high duties decrease ex- tent of 20
— New Mexican, goods brought up Mis- souri river 17
Trader and trapper, epoch of 346
Traders, Spanish 347
Trading Post, Linn county 172
— on Osage river 260
Trail, Fort Harker-Fort Larned to junc- tion with Santa Fe trail 55
Trails, Southwest, notes on 475
Trans- Mississippi Congress, mentioned . . 378 Transportation, Pittsburg favored by
freight rates 278
Transportation day, celebrated at Hutch -
inson 303
Trask, Josiah C 314
Travois, Indian 303
Treaty, at Fort Atkinson, with Kiowa,
Comanche, and Apache 21
— with Kanzas and Osages, 1825, men- tioned .. .89
Trego county, Indian operations in, 1867, 57
— military posts in 58
Truck delivery service 294
Trudeau, Pierre, death of 354
— in Forsyth expedition 353
— and Stillwell, volunteer to go for help
for Forsyth survivors 353 354
Tucker, Seth M 300
Turkey creek 112, 419
— McPherson county 205
Turkey Leg, Sioux Indian, village of, on
Solomon river 353
Turney, Capt. 415
Turnley, Ned 300
Tuttle, Miss Hattie A., became Mrs.
G. A. Cutler 44
Twelve Mile creek 112
Twitchell, R. E., cited 129
U.
Ulsh, Isaac, reminiscences cited 186
Union Pacific railroad 360, 361
— Eastern division 62, 337
building westward 326
completed to Fort Barker 330
— — construction of 55
Governor Crawford appeals to War
Department for arms and ammuni- tion for workmen on 331
Indian attacks while building.. 330,331
protection given to 333
R. M. Shoemaker, general superin- tendent 330
request for additional protection... 341
W. W. Wright, chief engineer of... 336
See, also, Kansas Pacific railroad.
United Clay Products Co., Pittsburg,
Nesch interests sold to 291
United Mine Workers of America, aid sent to families of victims of coal mine
disaster by 279
United States, condemns Chivington for
Sand Creek massacre 145
— Army, in Mexican War, problem of
provisioning 415
military divisions of 61
plans in 1865 to bring Indian wars
to close 147
provisions for, captured by
Mormons 197
Sherman appointed general in chief, 468
supply trains on Santa Fe trail sent
out unguarded 418
See, also, United States regiments.
Department of Kansas 219, 222
227, 251, 252
combined with Department of the
Missouri 225
establishment of 218
— formerly included in Department
of the Mississippi 220
General Blunt in command of... 218
Nebraska district 141
reinstated 250
replaced by Department of the
Missouri 148
states comprising 218
territory included in 218- 220
troops transferred to Department
of Arkansas 250
Department of the Mississippi,
formerly included Department of
Kansas 220
Department of the Missouri. . . 149, 196
240, 344, 468
commander of 469
displaced Department of Kansas, 148
General Hancock commander of .. 326
GENERAL INDEX
523
United States, Army, Department of the Missouri, headquarters at St.
Louis 26
Kansas a part of 53
places where variously located ... 62
Platte division 469
provides for destitute settlers
wants 472
states included in €
subdivisions of 62
Department of the Pacific 107, 196
Department of the Platte, military
division of 146
District of the Border 242
District of the Frontier 242
Blunt in command of 250
District of Nebraska, reorganized
into Department of the Platte 146
District of New Mexico 143
District of South Kansas 253
District of the Upper Arkansas. . . . 145
148, 252
Division of the Missouri, early com- manders 62
organized in 1865 61, 62
— Attorney -general 220
— Census office 182
reports • 360
—bonds 311
— Bureau of American Ethnology, annual
report cited 442
— Geological Survey, reports cited. . 275, 276
— Indian Affairs, Department of 6
— Indian bureau 466
criticized for selling arms to Indians, 452
Commissioner of 270, 457
reports cited 140, 141, 143
145, 152, 155, 159, 420, 456, 467
— Indian Department 87
criticized by Col. J. E. Johnston... 125
— Indian Peace Commissions 341-343
349, 457
arrival in Kansas 342
personnel of 342
sustains war policy 463
at treaty on Little Arkansas,
1865 150, 151, 442- 450
— infantry, stationed at Wichita 58
— Interior, Department of 145, 245
311-318, 466
denounced for selling arms to
Indians 453
in conflict with War Department... 452
Secretary of 266, 311
— Internal Revenue, Department of 391
— Justice, Department of, charges against
Blunt and others 211
— Land Office, Commissioner of, cited... 266
— mails, guarding of 195
— Military Academy 196
— Peace Commissioners, Mormon war 197
— regiments, First cavalry 104,107
196, 197, 199, 201, 203, 209
companies F, G, H 206
-company K 195, 206
First infantry, occupy site of Can- tonment Martin in 1826 51
Second dragoons 197, 207
Second infantry 206
Fifth cavalry 464
destroys Tall Bull's village.. 469,470
Sixth infantry 107, 196, 197, 205
Seventh cavalry 330
at Fort Hays, 1867 to 1870.. 53, 56
destroys Black Kettle's Cheyenne
village 446, 464- 467
organized at Fort Riley 53
six companies of, transferred to
Platte 339
Staked Plains campaign 468
under Custer 329, 330
United States, regiments, Tenth
cavalry 339, 458, 459
engagement with Indians near
Fort Hays 462, 463
Eleventh colored, Blunt authorized
to recruit 249
— • — Seventy-ninth colored, Captain
Thrasher quartermaster of 271
— rifles and muskets 39, 44
— signal service station, Leavenworth .... 362 — surveyors, massacred by Indians, Lone Tree, Meade county, 1874, article by
Mrs. Frank C. Montgomery 266
—War Department 140, 222, 327
331, 336, 376, 410, 425, 453, 455, 457, 460
in conflict with Interior Department, 452
Secretary of .... 214, 218, 220, 222, 223
242, 249-251, 264, 327, 366, 452, 465
reports of, cited 53, 62
339,341,344,469
statistics on Indian warfare in
1868-1869 472, 473
United States Biographical Dictionary,
Kansas, cited 269
University Daily Kansan, Lawrence,
twentieth anniversary edition of 299
University Geological Survey of Kansas.
See, Kansas Geological Survey. University of Kansas. See Kansas Uni- versity.
Upson, J. F., reminiscences cited 186
Ute Indians, uprising in Colorado 350
Utica, founding of 476
Utica Star-Courier, cited 476
V.
Van Buren, Ark., Blunt attacks rebels at, 235
—raid 212
Van Horn, 448
Van Marter, Mrs. Anna 407
Veale, George W., appreciation of J. H.
Lane 308, 309
Verdigris river 111-113
115, 137-139, 191, 244 Vermillion river, Barrett crossing on.... 191
Vestal, Stanley, cited 359
Vickers, W. W 190
Vieux, Louis, ferry at Soldier creek cross- ing operated by 34
— Pottawatomie-French half breed 34
Vigilantes, W. P. Hackney attorney for. . 298 Virginia genealogies, index to, mentioned, 181
Virkus, Frederick Adams, author 183
Visscher, William Lightfoot, author, cited, 357 Vitrified brick, made at Pittsburg. . 289,290
W.
Wabash river, Indiana, Kickapoos resided
on 153
Wabaunsee, founding of 408, 434
—grist mill located in 434
— old settlers' reunion held in 482
Wabaunsee county, historical sketches of, 301 Wabaunsee County Historical Society, re- organization of 304
Waddell, Russell, Majors &, freight con- tractors 427
Wade, Senator Benjamin F 317
Wagon trains, banded together for pro- tection 422
— Pawnee attacks on 420
— War Department orders for protection
of 327
— Westport, Mo. , crowded with 24
Wagonbed Springs, on Cimarron 189
Wagons, for American army in
Mexico 416- 418
— number manufactured in Leavenworth, 366
524
GENERAL INDEX
Wakarusa, first number Herald of Free- dom dated at
Wakarusa creek
Wakarusa war, mentioned
Wakeeney, Trego county
Walden, J. M., and Edmund Babb, Quin- daro Chindowan founded by
Waldo, David, freighter
Walker, Capt. Wm
— biographical mention
— escort for English lord
Wall, Bernhardt, author
Wall coping, produced at Pittsburg
Wallace county
— surveyors in
Walnut creek 200, 209,
— Allison's ranch at mouth of 199,
— crossings of, in Barton county 199,
Walnut river, Cowley county
Walrond, Z. T., "Annals of Osborne County," cited
Walsh, Richard J., cited
Walter, W. L., Pittsburg
Walters, Prof. J. D., cited
Walters, Mrs. Maude Owens, author
Walton, Mary, wife of Ira D. Blanchard,
Wamego Reporter, cited
War bonds, Kansas 311,
Ward, John
Ware, Eugene Fitch, author
Warren, Raymond, author
"Was Governor John A. Martin a Prohibitionist?" article by James C. Malin 63-
Wasaape oche (Black Bear) creek
Washburn College, Topeka, sixty -seventh anniversary of
Washington, Gen. George 300,410,
— two hundredth anniversary of birth ol,
Washington, George, Delaware guide, 108,
Washington, George, Kickapoo Indian. . .
Washington, D. C •
Washington, Kan., history of post office..
—St. Paul's Lutheran church, 25th anni- versary of • • • • • • •
Washington county, given seed wheat by legislature • • •
— historical notes of * >*>
— razing of court house
— reminiscences of
— threatened by Indians
Washington county, Okla. ......... . . . .
Washington County Register, Washington, cited 407, 474,
Washington elm, presented to Kansas...
Washington High School • • • •
Washita river, battle of 4t
—Black Kettle's camp on
Washita valley
Waterbury, Mrs. Emehne
Watermelons, captured by Hickory Point soldiers
Waterville, tales of early
Waterville High School
Waterville Telegraph, founding of
Watie, Gen. Stand, C. S. A
— rebel forces under 227,
Watterson, Col. Henry •
Watunk a kashink (Pumpkin) creek
Wayman, William, reminiscences of
Wea Indians, mentioned
Weaver, Mrs. B. O., Mullinville
Weaver, Gen. James B
— presidential candidate
Weaver, S., old Meeker press in posses- sion of
Webb, James Josiah, author
Webb, Thomas H 438,
— secretary Emigrant Aid Co
10 32
47 58
13 425 200 202 199 183 292 178 269 465 206 206 115
59 356 292 439
178
314 210 179 183
72 136
304 411 191 120 157 147 475
480
472 475 475 407 142 138
475 410 176 467 349 446 195
46
299 299 153 239 228 300 112 185 90 481 300 162
16 180 439 431
Weed, Thurlow, of Albany Journal 430
Weer, Col. William 225
— arrested by subordinate 223
— expedition commanded by 223
Weir City, Lanyon smelter located at ... 282 Weir City Zinc Co., zinc production of
1893 284
Welfare commission 390, 393
Weller, Lemuel H., of Iowa 163
Wellington, Catherine, letter quoted .... 99 Wellington, Board of Trade chartered... 362
— cyclone at 408
— during a storm 403
— history of, featured in Wichita Eagle.. 405
Wellington Daily News 405
Wellman, Manly Wade 403, 408
Wellman, Paul 1 187, 406
— author of series of Indian articles pub- lished in Wichita Eagle 78
— feature editor on Wichita Eagle 306
— "How the Buffalo Hunters Fought a
War of Their Own," cited 298
— "Some Famous Kansas Frontier
Scouts" 345- 359
Wells, 30, 31
Wells, Mr. , operated wagon on
Santa Fe trail 129
Wells Fargo & Co., Holladay stage line
up Smoky Hill valley purchased by. . . 335
Welty, Raymond, author, cited 26
Wertzberger, Dr. H. J., vice president
Wabaunsee County Historical Society. . 304
West, Captain 98
West Point, Mo 108, 260, 261
West Point Military Academy 106
Westport, Mo., arrival of Mexican trains
and traders at 24
—fight near 258, 259
— Gen. Curtis moves headquarters to 257
—in 1836 92
— merchants complain of lack of business, 21
— proslavery in sentiment 22
— shared overland trade with Independ- ence 20
— trade with New Mexico affected by
Civil War 24
Westport Landing, a popular shipping
point 21
Western Engineer, first steamboat to go
up Missouri river 51
Western Home Journal, Lawrence,
cited 269, 270
Western Kansas World, Wakeeney 303
Western Spirit, Paola, cited 77, 404
Western Star, Coldwater, cited 188
Western States Commercial Congress.... 378 Western Times, Sharon Springs, cited... 302
Wetmore 188
Wetmore Spectator, cited 478
Weyss, J. E., member Johnston's corps,
and survey work of Southern boundary
of Kansas done by 106
111-114, 116, 119, 121, 124-127, 133
— survey commenced 110
finished 128
Wheat fields, western Kansas 74
Wheeler, Col. Homer W., Buffalo Days
cited 348, 351- 353
Wheeler, history of, mentioned 299
Whipple, Colonel Charles. . 30, 37, 39, 41, 48
—alias of Aaron D. Stevens 29
— biographical sketch 33
Whisky, freighted to New Mexico 18
— insolent Indians beg freighters for 21
— issued to troops 200
— poured into street at Indianola 34
Whisky -drinking (Bache-e-ne-o-ta) cneek, 116 White, E. V., flour mill of 370
GENERAL INDEX
525
White, J. M., wagon train attacked and
family killed by Indians 19
White, Joel S., of Lawrence 270
White, Thomas K 267
White, William Allen 304
White Antelope, Cheyenne chief 144
White Cloud Kansas Chief, founded by
Sol Miller 13
White Plume, Kaw chief, ancestor of
Vice President Curtis 51
White river, Ark 238
White Rock, old settlers' reunion held in, 481 — settlers rendezvous at Fort Lookout
during Indian scares 59
White Rock creek, Indian raids on.. 326,344
Whitehorse, Woods county, Okla 134
Whitely, Simon, U. S. Indian agent,
quoted 140
Whitman, E. B 437
Whittier, John Greenleaf, "The Kansas
Emigrant's Song" cited 430
Whittington, C. H., quoted 26
Wichita 266, 455, 461, 466
—Board of Trade chartered 362
— cattle drive to 477
— historical notes of 474
— Jack Ledf ord, early hotel proprietor . . . 403
—schools of 306, 406, 407, 414
— site of Camp Beecher 58
Indian treaty of 1865, near 150
Wichita Beacon, cited 21, 187, 426
— history of 476
Wichita county 178
Wichita Democrat, cited 189, 407
Wichita Eagle (morning) 78, 186, 187
303, 806, 403, 405, 409, 466, 475, 477 — fight for opening of Oklahoma made by, 189
— sixtieth anniversary of 408
Wichita Evening Eagle,
cited 298-300, 302, 406
Wichita Independent, cited 474
Wichita Indians 448
Wichita mountains 448, 466, 468
Wichita Plaindealer 408
Wichita University, successor to Fair- mount college 189
Wickersham, E. T., reminiscences of.... 185
Wickersham commission, mentioned 74
Wilder, Daniel W., Annals of Kansas,
cited and quoted 64, 150
315, 321, 339, 340, 469 Wild Bill. See Hickok, James B. Wilkes, Maj. , one of publishers of
Leavenworth Journal 14
William and Mary College 82
—library 107
Joseph E. Johnston's manuscripts in, 106
Williams, Ezekiel 346
Williams, James, author 180
Williams, "Old Bill" 346
Williams, Sarah 102
Willie Cade, Leavenworth ferry boat 376
Willis, Judge 300
Willow creek, mentioned 107
Wilmarth, 449
Wilmore News 474
Wilson, John H., Salina 165
Wilson, Joseph R., letter of, cited 55
Wilson county 1 78
Wilson's creek, Mo., battle of 209
Windom, William, member of Congress,
Minnesota 465
Winfield, old Meeker press used at 16
Winfield Board of Trade 362
Winfield Courier 16
Winfield Independent -Record, cited 476
Winnebago (Puans) Indians 153
34__5605
Winters, George Tyler 404
Winters, Mrs. Julia M., early settler
Sedgwick county 801
Wisconsin, emigrants sent to Kansas
from 481
—regiments, Third caralry 186, 225, 258
Ninth artillery 142
Ninth infantry 223
Forty-eighth infantry 67
— State Teachers College, River Falls. . . 414 Wisconsin Historical Collections, cited... 158
Wise, Mr. 444
Wister, Owen, author 183
Wolf, Capt. Lambert B., biographical
sketch 195
— "Extracts from Diary of," edited by
George A. Root 195- 210
Wolf, Mrs. Lambert B 196
Wolf hunting 855
Woman's Home Missionary Society 405
Women in Butler County History, pub- lished in El Dorado Times 77
Women's Clubs, Federation of 388
Wood, Capt. Thomas J 107, 112-114
116, 122, 125, 129, 133, 184
— biographical mention of 108
Wood, Bert, Haviland 481
Woodbury, Dorothy, author 185
Wooden, L. J. H., reminiscences of 478
Woodman, Rea, author 189
— experiences in Wichita schools 407
Woodring, Gov. Harry H 172, 804, 410
Woods, Jimmy, author 187
Woods, Nell Lewis, author 179
Woods county, Okla 134
Woodward county, Okla 134
Wool, from New Mexico 18, 23, 25
— shipped from Mexico to Missouri in
1857 22
Woolens, Mr. 266, 267
Woolley, George T., cited 477
World War 162, 167
Wright, Dr. , accompanied surveyors
of southern boundary of Kansas 108
Wright, Robert M., cited 203
Wright, Gen. W. W., chief engineer
Union Pacific railway 886
Wyandotte 1
— Board of Trade chartered 362
— Union Pacific moved headquarters to. . 861
Wyandotte Citizen, starting of 14
Wyandotte Commercial Gazette, S. D.
Macdonald a publisher of 15
Wyandotte Constitution 307, 482
— election of officers under 810
Wyandotte Constitutional Conven- tion 211, 442
— S. D. Macdonald printer to 1
Wyandotte county 83, 84
Wyandotte City Register, founded by
Mark W. Delahay 18, 14
Wyman, L., Woburn, Mass 99
Wyman, Walker D., instructor, State
Teachers College, River Falls, Wis 414
— "Freighting: A Big Business on the
Santa Fe Trail" 17- 27
—"The Military Phase of Santa Fe
Freighting, 1846-1866" 415- 428
Wyncoop, Major E. W. 446, 456
— former commander at Fort Lyon 826
—Indian trader 452, 453
— rounds up Cheyenne and Arapahoe
chiefs 143
Wyoming, Indian wars of 1865, 1866 in. . 349
—Thomas Moonlight, governor of 211
Wyscarver, William, reminiscences of 479
526
GENERAL INDEX
Y.
Yager, J. B., freight contractor 426
Yates, J. A., Pittsburg 288, 293
Yates Center News, fifty-fourth anni- versary of 77
Yeager, Dick, raid on Santa Fe trail by . . 450 "Yellow journalism," Leavenworth news- paper guilty of 337
Yellow Horse, Cheyenne chief 268
Yellow Woman, Cheyenne wife of Wil- liam Bent 347
Young, C. M., cited 273
Young, F. E., cited 474
Young, George L 29- 31
Z.
Zeandale, establishment of 434
Zeigler, Laura Dell 405
Zeisberger, Rev. David, Harmony of the
Gospel compiled by 90
Zinc, daily production at Pittsburg 283
— and lead, deposits of in southeast
Kansas 281
— smelters, in United States 284.
D
14-5605
Fort Lewis College Library,