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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01064 7102
TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
COM PH ME NTS OF .
Secretary Kansas State Historical Society.
ALSO,
A CATALOG OF KANSAS CONSTITUTIONS, AND TERRITORIAL ANP STATE
DOCUMENTS IN THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY.
EDiTEb BY GEO. W. MARTIN, Secretary.
VOL. VI .
TOPEKA:
W. Y. MORGAN, State Printer.
1900.
-Os^ X
d
Ty ■•■f-^
TRANSACTIONS
OP THE
KANSiS SITE
1897-1900 :
TOGETHER WITH
ADDRESSES AT ANNUAL MEETINGS, MEMORIALS, AND
MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS.
ALSO,
A CATALOG OF KANSAS CONSTITUTIONS, AND TERRITORIAL AND STATE
DOCUMENTS IN THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY.
EoiTEt* BY GEO. W. MARTIN, Secretary.
A
VOL. VI .
97iA
¥\ i^^
M, C
•
TOPEKA :
W. Y. MORGAN, State Printer
1900.
1(^-X*^ij ,<^^
OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS.
Officers for the year 1S97.
HARRISON KELLEY, Burlington President.
JOHN SPEER, Garden City President.
WILLIAM H. SMITH, Marysville Vice-president.
STEPHEN McLALLIN, Topeka Vice-president.
WM. A. PEFFER, Topeka Vice-president.
FRANKLIN G. ADAMS, Topeka Secretary.
JOHN GUTHRIE, Topeka Treasurer.
Note.— Hon. John Speer was elected the 22d day of November, 1897, by the executive com-
mittee of the Society to fill the unexpired term caused by the death of Pres. Harrison Kelley.
At a meeting of the committee November 12, 1897, Hon. Wm. A. Pelfer was chosen to till the
vacancy ai'ising from the death of Vice-pres. Stephen McLallin.
Officers for the year ISOS.
JOHN SPEER, Wichita President.
EUGENE F. WARE, Topeka Vice-president.
Wm. a. PEFFER, Topeka Vice-president.
FRANKLIN G. ADAMS, Topeka Secretary.
JOHN GUTHRIE, Topeka Treasurer.
Officers for the year 1S99.
EUGENE F. WARE, Topeka President.
GEO. W. MARTIN, Kansas City Vice-president
GRANT W. HARRINGTON, Hiawatha Vice-president.
FRANKLIN G. ADAMS, Topeka Secretary.
GEO. W. MARTIN, Kansas City Secretary.
JOHN GUTHRIE, Topeka Treasurer.
Note.— At a meeting of the executive committee of the Society December 6, 1899, Geo. W.
Martin was chosen to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Sec. Franklin G. Adams, for that
portion of the unexpired term ending January 16, 19U0, the date of the annual meeting, when
he was elected for the remainder of the term.
Officers for the year 1900.
JOHN G. HASKELL, Lawrence President.
E. B. COWGILL, Topeka Vice-president.
JOHN FRANCIS, Colony Vice-president.
GEO. W. MARTIN, Kansas City Secretary.
JOHN GUTHRIE, Topeka Treasurer.
DIRECTORS.
For three years ending January 15, 1901.
Adams, Miss Zu Topeka.
Blackmar, Frank W Lawrence.
Caldwell, Alex Leavenworth.
Chase, Harold T Topeka.
Connelley, W. E Topeka.
Dallas, E.J Topeka.
Gleed, Chas. S Topeka.
Graham, I. D Topeka.
Guthrie, John Topeka.
Hackbusch, H. C. F Leavenworth.
Harrington, Grant W Hiawatha.
Haskell, John G Lawrence.
Holliday, C. K* Topeka.
Hopkins, Scott Horton.
Horton, A. H Topeka.
Johnson, A. S Topeka.
Johnson, Mrs. Elizabeth A White Rock.
Kuhn, Henry t Marion.
Lane, V. J Kansas City.
Legate, Jas. F Leavenworth.
Lowe, P. G Leavenworth.
Martin, Geo. W Kansas City.
Moore, Horace L Lawrence.
Morrill, E. N Hiawatha.
Murdock, T. B El Dorado.
Popenoe, F. O Topeka.
Reynolds, Adrian Sedan.
Sims, William Topeka.
Smith, W. H Marysvillo.
True, A. E Vera.
Vandegrif t, Fred L Kansas City.
Wellhouse, Fred Topeka.
Williams, A. L Topeka.
*Died March 29, 1900.
tDied Junell, 19C0.
KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
DIRECTORS.
For t?ircc ycnrs ending January 21, 1902.
Adams, J. B El Dorado.
Anderson, T. J Topeka.
Brown, W. L Kinpniau.
Clark, Geo. A Junction City.
Cowgill, E. B Topeka.
Dodge, S. H Beloit.
Francis, John (Colony.
Gilmore, Jt)lm S Fredonia.
Grimes, Frank E Leoti.
Hoch, E. VV Marion.
Houston, D. W Garnett.
Hudson, .J. K Topeka.
Lowelling, L. D Wichita.
McKeever, E. D Topeka.
Martin, John Topeka.
Mulvauc, John K Topeka.
Murdock, M. M Wichita.
Nelson, Frank Lindsborg.
Padgett, W. W Fort Scott.
Peiier, Wm. A Topeka.
Remington, J. B Osawatomie.
Rice, Harvey D Topeka.
Rockwell, Bertrand Junction City.
Scott, Chas. F lola.
Semple, R. H Ottawa.
Stanley, W. E Wichita.
Taylor, Edwin Edwardsville.
Troutman, James A Topeka.
"Valentine, D. A Clay Center.
Whiting, A. B Topeka.
Whittemore, L. D Topeka.
Wilkinson, West E Seneca.
Woodward, B. W La'wrence.
For three pears ending January 20, 190S.
Anthony, D. R Leavenworth.
Baker, F. P Topeka.
Barnes, Chas. W Topeka.
Bush, W. E Fort Scott.
Bigger, L. A Hutchinson.
Capper, Arthur Topeka.
Carruth, W. H Lawrence.
Coburn, F. D Kansas City.
Conway, John W Norton.
Doster, Frank Topeka.
Gi'eene, A. R Lecompton.
Herbert, Ewing Hiawatha.
Harris, Edward P Lecompton.
Hamilton, Clad Topeka.
Hodder, Frank H Lawrence.
Howe, E. W Atchison.
Junkin, J. E Sterling.
Kingman, Miss Lucy D Topeka.
Leis, Geo Lawrence.
McVicar, P Topeka.
Mac Lennan, F. P Topeka.
Meridith, Fletcher Hutchinson.
Montgomery, F. C Topeka.
Morphy, J. W Smith Center.
Madden, John Emporia.
Nelson, W. H Smith Center.
Riddle, A. P Minneapolis.
Seaton, John Atchison.
Speer, John Wichita.
Ware, E F Topeka.
White, W. A Emporia.
Wilder, D. W Hiawatha.
Wright, John K Junction City.
CLASSIFICATION OF DIRECTORS BY DEPARTMENTS.
Arcliaeology.— F. W. Blackmar, J. W. Conway, E. B. Cowgill, J. K. Wright, E. N. Morrill,
'W. H. Smith, R. H. Semple.
Historic Relics.— A. R. Greene, W. E. Bush, W. A. White, E. W. Howe, E. J. Dallas, J. K.
Hudson, B. W. Woodward.
Explorations. — E. F. Ware, A. B. Whiting, Alex. Caldwell, L. A. Bigger, P. G. Lowe, A. L.
Willianis, John Madden.
IiMlian History.— John Guthrie, V. J. Lane, A. S. Johnson, H. C. F. Hackbusch, W. W.
Padgett, A. E. True, W. E. Connelley.
History of the Territory.— D. W. Wilder, M. M. Murdock, John Speer, C. K. Holliday,
Jas. F. Legato, J. B. Remington, A. P. Riddle.
History of the State.- F. H. Hodder, D. R. Anthony, W. E. Stanley, F. P. Baker, L. D.
Lewelling, E. W. Hoch, B. Rockwell.
Geography (including maps, views of buildings, and scenery).— F. D. Coburn, J. B. Adams,
J. W. Conway, W. H, Carruth, F. O. Popenoe, J. W. Morphy, Jas. A. Troutman.
Orij^in of Local Names.— F. C. Montgomery, E. P. Harris, John S. Gilmore, W. L. Brown,
John G. Haskell, Scott Hopkins, F. W. Blackmar.
Journals, Diaries, and Manuscripts.- John Madden, L. D. Whittemore, J. E. Junkin,
Frank Doster, Fred. WoUhouse, F. P. Mac Lennan, T. B. Murdock.
Local History, Interviews, and Chi-onicles.- W. E. Connelley, Harvey D. Rice, D. A.
Valentine, Grant W. Harrington, John Seaton, H. Kuhn, J. W. Morphy.
Organ izatirtn of Local Historical Societies.— A. P. Riddle, Mrs. Elizabeth A. Johnson,
Adrian Reynolds, W. H. Nelson, Geo. Leis, Fletcher Meridith, Geo. W. Martin.
Hiography.— John Martin, D. W. Houston, T. J. Anderson, J. B. Remington, C. W. Barnes,
P. McVicar, West E. Wilkinson.
Portraits.— C. F. Scott, Frank E. Grimes, J. R. Mulvane, William Sims, Clad Hamilton,
Zu Adams, T. J. Anderson.
Gen<'al««:y and Hireotories.- H. L. Moore, John Francis, Edwin Taylor, E. D. McKeever,
E. B. Cowgill, A. H. Horton, M. M. Murdock.
Newspapers, Periodicals, and S< rap-hooks.— F. L. Vandegrift, Geo. A. Clark, S. H.
Dodge, T. B. Murdock, Arthur Capper, H. T. Chase, J. E. Junkin.
Literature.— W. H. Carruth, Ewing Herbert, Frank Nelson, Lucy D. Kingman, B. W, Wood-
ward, W. A. Peffer, C. S. Gleed.
KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS,
With Teems of Service, from 1876 to 1900.
Abbott, Mrs. Elizabeth W., De Soto. 1897-'98.*
Abbott, James B., De Soto, lS85-'97.*
Adams, Franklin George, Topeka, 1878-'99.*
Adams, John B., El Dorado, 1899-'00.
Adams, Nathaniel A., Manhattan, 1887-'92.*
Adams, Miss Zu. Topeka, 1899-'00.
Admire, Jacob V., Osage Citv, 1886-'8S.
Ady, John W., Newton, 1884-'85.
Amos, J. Wayne, Gypsum City, 1887-'89.
Anderson. James W. D., Baldwin, 1891-'92.*
Anderson, T. J., Topeka, lS99-'00.
Anthony, D. R., Leavenworth, 1875-'76 ; 1879-'00.
Anthony, Geo. T., Ottawa, l»85-'87 ; 1890-'92.*
Arnold, Andrew J., Topeka, 1896-'99.*
Atkinson, R., Ottawa, 188.>-'86.*
Bailey, Lawrence D., Garden City, 1888-91.*
Baine, James S., , 1884.
Baker, Floyd P., Topeka, 187.5-'0O.
Baker, Lucien, Leavenworth, 1893-'95.
Ball, Volney, Lincoln, 1888- '90.
Ballard, David E., Ballard's Falls, 1879-'80.
Barnes, Cha«!. W., Topeka, 1900.
Barnes, W. H., Stockton, lSS5-'86.
Barnes, William H., Topeka, 1897-'99.
Barrett, Albert G., Barrett, 1879.*
Berry, Ed. A., Waterville, 1891-'9J.
Bigger, L. A., Hutchinson, 1900.
Billingsly, James, Axtell, 188.5-87.
Bissell, John, Phillipsburg, 188.=J-'86.
Blackmar, F. W.. Lawrence, 189:)-'92; 1899-'00.
Blair, Charles W., Fort Scott, 1882-'8S.*
Bliss, John A., Atwood, 1885.*
Blood, .James, Lawrence, 1879-'80.*
Blue, Richard W., Pleasanton, 1881-'88.
Bonebrake, P. I., Topeka, 1879-'88.
Booth, Henry, Larned, 1880; 1889-'91.*
Brown, A. Z., Guilford, 1891-93.
Brown, W. L., Kingman, lS93-'00.
Buchan, William J., Kansas City, 1886-'88.
Burton, J. R., Abilene, 1886; 1887-'89.
Bush, William E., Mankato, 1897-'00.
Butterfield, J. Ware, Topeka, 189.5-'97.
Caldwell, Alexander, Leavenworth, 1892-'00.
Caldwell, John C, Topeka, 1894-'96.
Caufield, James H., Lawrence, 1890-'91.
Capper, Arthur, Topeka, 1894-'00.
Carr, Erasmus T., Leavenworth, 1886-91.
Carroll, Ed., Leavenworth, lS81-'94.
Carruth, W. H., Lawrence, ls94-'00.
Case, Geo. H.. Mankato, 1881-'82.
Cavanaugh, Thomas H., Salina, 1877.
Chapman, J. B., Topeka, 1893-'95.
Chase, Harold T., Topeka, 1898-'00.
Christian, James, Arkansas City, 18S9-'91.*
Clark, George A., Junction City, 1899-'00.
Clark, J. R., La Cygne, 189.5-'1898.
Clarke, W. B., Junction City, lS84-'86.
Clogston, J. B., Eureka, 1886-'89.
Cobun, M. W., Great Bend, 1891-'93.
Coburn, F. D., Kansas City, 1894-'00.
Coleman, Albert L., Ceatralia, 1887-89.
Collins, Ira F., Sabetha, 1881-82.
Collins, James S., Topeka, 1892-'93.*
Connelley, Wm. E., Topeka, 1899-'00.
Conway, John W., Norton, 1903.
Cordley, Richard, Lawrence, 1890-'92.
Cowgill, E. B., Topeka, 1893-'00.
Crawford, George A., Fort Scott, 1875-'81.*
Crew, E. B., Delphos, 1887-'89.
Crozier, Robert, Leavenworth, 1879.*
Dallas, Everett J., Topeka, 1886-'(j0.
Davis, Chas. S., Junction City, 1893-'95.
Davis, J. W., Greensburg, 1894-'96.
Diggs, Mrs. Annie L., Lawrence, 1893-'95.
Dodge, S. H., Beloit, 1899-'00.
Doster, Frank, Marion, 1897-'00.
Doty, Geo. W., Burlingame, 1887-'99; 1891-'93.
Downing, Jack H., Hays City, 1885-'86 ; 1889-'90 ;
1892.
Drinkwater, Orlo H.. Cedar Point, 1885-'86.
Drought, E. S. W., Wyandotte, 1885.
Dumbauld, Levi. Hartford, 1893-95.*
Eckert, T. W., Arkansas City, 1892-'93.
Edwards, Wm. C, Larned, 1S86-'91 ; 1896-'98.
Elder, P. P., Ottawa, 1883-'87 ; 189l-'93.
Elliott, L. R., Manhattan, 1886-'99.*
Elliott, Robert G., Lawrence, 1890-92.
Elliston, Henry, Atchison, 1890-'92.
Emery, James S.. Lawrence, 1880-'99.*
English, A. N., Wichita, 188S-'90.*
Eskridge, Chas. V., Emporia, 1886-'9;i.
Everest, AaroQ S., Atchison, 188t-'87.*
Fairchild, Geo. T., Manhattan, 1890-'92.
Faulkner, Charles E., Salina, l^H6-'89.
Felt, Andrew J., Atchison, 1896-'98.
Fenlon, Thomas P., Leavenworth, 1887.
Finch, Lucius E., Burlingame, l«.'s6-'88.*
Forney, A. G., Belle Plaine, 1893-'98.
Foster, Warren, Hutclunson, 1893-94.
Francis, John, Colonv, 1877-'90: 1899-'00.
Gaines, Henry N., Salina, 1893-'95.
Gillett, Almerin, Emporia, 18S6-'88.*
Gilmore, John S.. Fredonia, 1880-'81 ; 1899-'00.
Gleed, Chas S., Topeka, 1892-'00.
Glick, Geo. W., Atchison, 18S3-'93.
Goodnow, Isaac T., Manhattan, 188.5-'94.*
Goss, Nath'l Stickney, Neosho Falls, l»>j2-'91.*
Graham, George, Seneca, 1879-"81.*
Graham, Isaac D., Topeka, 1898-'00.
Green, Chas. R., Lyndon, 1894-'96.
Green, Henry T., Leavenworth, 188:^'S1.*
Greene, Albert R., Lecompton, lH84-'00.
Green, Nehemiah, Stockdale, 1881-'82.*
Greer, Ed. P., Winfleld, 18S5-'87 ; 1888-'90.
Griffin, Albert, Maahattan, lS85-'86.
Grimes, Frank E., Leoti, 1899-'00.
Guthrie, John, Topeka, 1S92-'00.
Guthrie, Warren W., Atchison, 1879.
Hackbusch, H. C. F., Leavenworth, ]895-'00.
Hackney, William P., Winfleld, 1884-85.
Hagaman, James M., Concordia, 1893-'95.
Halderman, John A., Leavenworth. 18S0-'81.
Hale, George D., Topeka, ]890-'92.
Hamilton, Clad, Topeka, 1900.
Hamilton, James W., Wellington, 18'^8-'90.
Hanna, Benjamin J. F., Saliua, 1S89-'91.*
Hardesty, R. G., Dodge City, 1885.
Harding, Benjamin, Wathena, 1897-'98.
Harrington, Grant W., Hiawatha, ]898-'00.
Harris, Edward P., Lecompton, 1900.
Harris, William A., Linwood, 1894-'98.
Harvey, James M., Topeka, lS79-'8.5.*
Haskell, John G., Lawrence, 189o-'00.
Haun, T. S., Jetmore, 1887-'89.
Havs, R. R., Osborne, 1889-'97.
Hebbard, Joseph C, Seneca, 1879-'93.*
Heizer, David N., Great Bend, 1.889-'91, lS94-'97.
Herbert, Ewing, Hiawatha, 1894-00.
Higgins, William, Topeka, 1890-'92.
Hiller, Chas. A., Salina, 18SS-"90.
Hills, F. M., Cedar Vale, 1889-'91.
Hoch, Edward W., Marion, 1890-'00.
Hodder, Fk. H., Lawrence, 1900.
Hodgdon, D. P., Lyons, 1894-'99.
HoUiday, Cyrus K., Topeka, 1878-'00.*
Holt, Joel, Beloit, 1884-'85 ; 1888-'90.*
Hopkins, Scott, Horton, lS89-'00.
Horton, Albert H., Topeka, 1879-'82; 1892-'00.
Houk, L., Hutchinson, 1896-'97.*
Houston, D. W., Garnett, 1899-00.
Howe, Edgar W., Atchison, 1890-'92; 1900.
Hudson, Joseph K., Topeka, 18S5-'ao.
Hudson, T. J., Fredonia, lH^.5-'^6.
Humphrey, James, Junction City. 1889-'9t. _
Humphrey, Lvman U., Independeuce, 1885-'93.
Hunt, McCown, Leavenworth, 1893-'98.
Hurd, Thomas A., Leavenworth, 1SS7.*
lagalls, John J., Atchison, 1879.
Inman, Henry, Larned, 1881-'87.*
Ives, John N.,lS91-'93.
Jaquins, Edward, Winfleld, 1897-'99.
Johns, Mrs. Laura M., Salina, 1893-98.
Johnson, Alexander S., Topeka, l8»5-'00.
Johnson, Mrs. E. A., White Rock, 1898-'00.
Johnson, John B., Topeka, 1886; ls92-'94.»
Jones, C. J., Garden City, 1885-'yi.
KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
Jones, John P., Coldwater, 1888-'90.
Junkin, John E., Sterling, 1S94-'(X).
Kellev. Harrison, HurliuKton, KH94-'97.*
Kellogf;, L. B., Emporia, l.S.S(V92.
Kelly, H. B., McPherson, 18S7-'92.
Kimball, Charles H., Parsons, 18S6-'92.
Kintimaii, Lucv D., Topeka, l.s9H-'00.
Kingman, S. A., Topeka, l!>75-'76; 1879-'80;
18S4-'9.5.
Knapp, Geo. W.. Clyde, lS87-'89.
Knox, John D., Topeka, 1886.
Kuhn, Henry, Marion, 1898-'00.*
Lane, Vincent J., Wyandotte, 1886-'00.
Leedy, John W., Lawrence, 1897-99.
Legate, J. F., Leavenworth, 1879-96; 189S-'00.
Leis, George. Lawrence, 1S97-'(X).
Lemmon, Allen B., Winfield, 1881-'82.
Leonhardt, Charles W., Paola, 1879.*
Lester, H. N., Syracuse, 188S-'90.
Lewelling, L. D., Wichita, 189::i-'00.
Lippincott, J. A., Topeka, 1890-'92.
Little, Edward C, Abilene, 1894-'99.
Little, John T., Olathe, 1893-'95.
Lowe, Joseph G., Washington. ISS.VSfi.
Lowe, Percival G., Leavenworth. 1835-'00.
McAfee, Josiati B., Topeka, 1SH7-'89.
Mc Bride, W. H., Kirwin, 1885-'93.
McCarthy, Timothy, Larned, 1890-'92.*
McCoy, John C. Kansas City, 1882-"85.*
McCoy, Joseph G., Wicliita, 1897-'99.
McDowell, J. L., Manhattan, 1879.
McHenry, J., Minneapolis, 1885-'86.*
Mclntire, Timothy, Arkansas City. 1888-'96.
McKeever, Edwin D., Topeka, 1899-'UU.
McLallin, Stephen, Topeka, 1893-'y7.*
Mac Lennan, Frank P., Topeka, 1891-'00.
McXall, Webb. Gaylord, 1895-'96.
McNeal,T. A., Medicine Lodge,Topeka,1885-'92.
McTaggart, Dan, Liberty, 18»9-'9l.*
McVicar, Peter, Topeka, 1890-'00.
Madden, John, Emporia, 1900.
Maloy, John, Council Grove, 1892-'97.
Martin. George W., Kansas City, 1880-'00.
Martin, John, Topeka, 1892-'94; 1899-'00.
Martin, John A., Atchison, 187ii-'9il.*
Maxson, Perry B., Emporia, 1893-'98.
Mead, James R., Wichita, 1889-'94.
Meridith, Fletcher, Hutchinson, 1894-00.
Miller, Sol., Troy, 1875-'77; 1879-82; 1884-'88;
1890-'97.
Mohler, Martin, Osborne, 1884-'88.
Montgomery, Frank C, Topeka, 1891-'00.
Moody, Joel, Mound City, 1889-'94.
Moore, H. Miles, Leavenworth, 188.i-'90.
Moore, Horace L., Lawrence, 1897-'00.
Morphy, James W., Smith Center, 1897-'00.
Morrill, E. N., Hiawatha, 1879-'82 ; 1892-'00. ,,
Mulvane, John R., Topeka, 1896-'U0.
Murdock, M. M., Wichita, 1880-'8S; 1890-'00.
Murdock, T. B., El Dorado, 188.5-'92; 1898- '00.
Nelson, Frank, Lindsborg, 1899-"U0.
Nelson, W. H., Smith Center, 1900.
Osborn, R. S., Stockton, 1894-'96.
Osborn, Thomas A., Topeka, 1886-'89; 1891-'93.*
Otis, Mrs. Bina A., Topeka, 1896-'98.
Padgett. W. W., Fort Scott, 1900.
Paine, Albert B., Fort Scott, 1894-'96.
Patton, W. G., Cottonwood Falls, 1885-'87.*
Peck, George R., Topeka, 1886-'94.
Peffer, William A., Topeka, 1897-'00.
Phillips, William A., Salina, 1879-VO: 1888-93.*
Pilkenton, Wm. H., Wa Keenev, 1885-'86.*
Plumb, Preston B., Emporia, 1879.*
Popenoe, Frederick O., Topeka, 1S98-'00.
Pratt, John G., Piper, 1887-'89.*
Prentis, Noble L., Atchison, 1886-'98.
Price, John M., Atchison, 1892-'97.*
Purcell, Edward B., Manhattan, 1885-'89.
Quayle, W. A., Baldwin, 1890-'92.
Remington, J. B., Osawatomie, 1893-'00.
Reynolds, Adrian. Sedan, 1889-'0O.
Reynolds, Milton W., Parsons, 1879; 1885-'90.*
Rice, Harvey, D. Topeka, 1896-'00.
Rice, John H., Fort Scott, 1886-'89.
Rice, William M., Fort Scott, 189l)-'92.
Richardson, John Benton, Hiawatha, 1886-'88.*
Riddle, Alex. P., Minneapolis, 1881-'00.
Robinson, Charles, Lawrence, 1878-'94.*
Robinson, Mrs. Sara T. L., Lawrence, lS95-'99.
Robison, J. W., El Dorado. 1896-'98.
Rockwell, Bertrand, Junction City, 1900.
Rogers, William, Barnes, 1893-"95.
Root, Joseph P., Wyandotte, 1880-'81 ; 1885.*
Ross, E. G., Lawrence, 1882-'83.
Rus.sell, Edward, Lawrence, 188I-'96.*
St. John, John P., Olathe, 1879-'87.
Schilling, John, Hiawatha, 1889-'91.
Scott, Chas. F., lola, 1890-'00.
Scott, John W., lola, 188.5-"89.*
Seaton, John, Atchison, 1897-'00.
Semple, Robert H., Ottawa, 1893-'00.
Shean, Woodman M., Gardner, 188.V88.*
Simpson, Benjamin F., Paola, 1879-'82; 1884-97.
Sims, William, Topeka, 1892-'00.
Slavens, W. H., Yates Center, 1885-'88.*
Sluss, H. C, Wichita, 1884-'».'>.
Smith, A. W., McPherson, 1887-'92.
Smith, Ed. R., La Cygne, 1879-'8U.
Smith, James, Mary.'^ville, 1882-'88.
Smith, William H., Marysville, 1892-'00.
Smith, William W., Waterville, 1885-'88.
Snow, E. H., Ottawa, 1894-'96.
Sno\v, Francis H., Lawrence, 1892.
Speer, John, Wichita, 1879-'&0; 1883-'00.
Spicknall, W. R., Wellington, 1895-'97.
Sponsler, A. L., Hutchinson, 1895.
Spring, Leverett W., Lawrence, 1885-'86.
Stanley, Edmund, Lawrence, 189.5-'97,
Stanley, Wm. E., Wichita, 1899-'00.
Steele, James W., Topeka, 1886-'88.
Stewart, A. A., Olathe, 1893-'98.
Stewart, Samuel J., Humboldt, 1891-'93.
Stotler, Jacob, Emporia, 1879; ]882-'94.
Street, W. D., Oberlin, 18S9-'91 ; 1897-'99.
Stringfellow, Benj. F., Atchison, 1880 '83.*
Strvker, William, Great Bend, 1897-99.
Sutton, William B., Russell, 1895-'97.
Swensson, Chas. A., Lindsborg, 1889-'94.
Taylor, Albert R., Emporia, lS90-'92.
Taylor, Edwin, Ed wards ville, 1896-'00.
Taylor, J. E., Seneca, 1885-'86.
Taylor, Thomas T., Hutchinson, 1885-'89.
Thacher, Solon O., Lawrence, 1883-'87 ; 1893-'95.*
Thacher, T. D., Lawrence, 1877 ; 1879-'93.*
Tilton, W. S., WaKeeney, l885-'89.
Troutman, James A., Topeka, 1896-"00.
True, A. E., Vera, 1895-'00.
Trueblood, W. P., Barclay, 1897-'99.
Valentine, Daniel Mulford, Topeka, 1890-'92.
Valentine, D. A., Clay Center, 1899-'00.
Vandegrift, Fred L., Kansas City, 1898-"00.
Veale, Geo. W., Topeka, 1887-'89.
Waggener, Bailie P., Atchison, 1894-'96.
Wagstaff, William Ross, Paola, 18n.5->6.«
Wakefield, W. H. T., Lawrence, 1893-'9d.
Walrond, Z. T., Osborne, 18s9-'91.
Walters, J. D., Manhattan, 1894-'96.
Walton, Wirt W., Clay Center, 1883-'86.*
Ware, Eugene F., Fort Scott, Topeka, 188.3-'00.
Warner, Alexander, Baxter Springs, l896-'98.
Wasson, L. C, Ottawa, 18>-5.
Waters, J. S., Oswego, 1882-'83.*
Waterson, Thomas W., Marysville, 1880-'81.*
Weightman, Matthew, Topeka, 1891-'96.*
Wellhouse, Fred, Topeka, 1889-"00.
Wheeler, S. C, Concordia, 1891-'93.
White, Wm. A., Emporia, 1900.
W'hiting, Alva B., Topeka, 1893-'00.
Whittemore, L. D., Topeka, 1896-'00.
Whittington, A. N., Lincoln, 1891-93.
Wilder, Daniel Webster, Fort Scott and Hia-
watha, 1875-'76; 1879-'80; 1883-'00.
Wilkiu.son, West E., Seneca, 1899-'00.
Williams, Archie L., Topeka, 189.VO0.
Williams, Henry H., Osawatomie, 1887.
Williamson, Charles, Washington, 1887-'89.
Wood, Mrs. M. L., Strong City, 1892-'99.
Wood, Samuel N., Topeka, 1879-'88; 1891.*
Woodward, Brinton W., Lawrence, 1896-'00.
Wright. John K., Junction City, 1892-'97; 1900.
Wright, R. M., Dodge City, 1884-'90.
* Deceased.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Officers, 1897-1900 3
Directors 3^ 4
Classification of directors by departments 4
Members of board of directors, 1877-1900 4,5
Proceedings of meetings 9
Report of secretary, January 16, 1900 30
Address of Col. Horace L. Moore, January 19, 1897 35
Memorial of Gov. James M. Harvey, by L. R. Elliott, January 19, 1897 53
Address of Prof. E. B. Cowgill, January 19, 1897 56
Address of Hon. John Speer, January 18, 1898 60
Address of Chancellor F. H. Snow, January 18, 1898 70
Presentation of bronze bust of Hon. D. W. Wilder, by Hon. Eugene F. Ware,
January 18, 1898 7G
Address of Brinton W. Woodward, January 18, 1898 77
Memorial on Hon. Timothy Dwight Thacher, by Rev. Richard, Cordley, Jan-
uary 18, 1898 8.3
Address of Prof. William H. Carruth, January 19, 1897 90
Address of William E. Connelley, January 17, 1899 97
Address of Pres. A. R. Taylor, January 17, 1899 Ill
Address of Col. W. F. Cloud, January 17, 1899 122
Address of Prof. S. W. Williston and H. T. Martin, January 17, 1899 124
Address of Maj. W. L. Brown, January 17, 1899 130
Address of Col. Wilder S. Metcalf, January 16, 1900 ia3
Address of Maj. A. M. Harvey, January 16, 1900 137
Address of Lieut. Col. James Beck, January 16, 1900 113
Address of Lieut. J. R. Whisner, January 16, 1900 116
Address of Hon. Eugene F. Ware, January 16, 1900 117
Memorial on Franklin G. Adams, by Daniel W. Wilder, Samuel A. Kingman,
and Floyd P. Baker, January 16, 1900 169
Biographical sketch of Franklin G. Adams 171
Address of Col. Richard J. Hinton, January 16, 1900 175
Memoir of Gov. Charles Robinson, by Prof. Frank W. Blackmar 187
Memoir of Gov. Geo. T. Anthony, by Hon. P. I. Bonebrake, January 18, 1898, 202
Memoir of Hon. Solon O. Thacher, by Stuart Henry 206
Memoir of Hon. Harrison Kelley 219
Memoir of Hon. Edward Russell 221
Memoir of Hon. James S. Emery 223
Memoir of Maj. James B. Abbott, by L. F. Green, January 18, 1898 225
Memoir of L. R. Elliott, by Frank A. Root 231
Memoir of Dr. Stephen McLallin, by Mrs. Annie L. Diggs 2:5;3
Memoir of Matthew Weigh tman 2.34
Memoir of Hon. George A. Crawford 2.37
Paper on Col. Samuel Walker, by Chas. S. Gleed 249
Memoir of Hon. Almerin Gillett -"i^
(7)
8 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Memoir of Capt. Andrew J. Arnold 275
Memoir of Maj. Henry Hopkins, by Mrs. Florence M. Hopkins 276
Memoir of Gov. Thomas A. Osborn, by Chas. S. Gleed 284
The value of local history and the importance of preserving it, by William
E. Connelley •. ... 288
Topeka and her constitution; address of Gov. Charles Robinson, February
26, 1877 291
Address of Hon. John Speer, January 17, 1899 305
Organization of the republican party, by Hon. O. E. Learnard .312
The Lawrence raid, by Capt. H. E. Palmer 317
Pike of Pike's Peak, by Noble L. Prentis, February 19, 1877 325
The story of Kansas, by Hon. D. W. Wilder. 3.36
James Montgomery, by Maj. E. S. W. Drought 342
The Indians agree to abandon Kansas, by Hon. T. A. McNeal .344
The battle of Arickaree, by Winfield Freeman 346
The first Kansas railway, by Charles S. Gleed 357
Claims for losses of Kansas settlers during the troubles of 1855-'56, by Hon.
William Hutchinson 360
Marais des Cygnes tragedy, by Ed. R. Smith 365
Pens that made Kansas free, by Col. R. J. Hinton 371
Bibliography of Kansas constitutions 3^
Bibliography of Kansas territorial documents 394
Bibliography of Kansas state documents 419
Appendix: The real Quivira, by W. E. Richey 477
General index 487
TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS.
NOVEMBER 17, 1896.
The board of directors met in the west room of the Historical So-
ciety, at three p. m., November 17, 1896, Pres. Edmund N. Morrill
in the chair. The following members were present : E. N. Morrill,
John Guthrie, William Sims, S. McLallin, H. D. Rice, Mrs. B. A.
Otis, James B. Abbott, A. J. Arnold, A. P. Riddle, Fred. Wellhouse,
John Speer, F. D. Coburn, E. B. Cowgill, Miss Lucy D. Kingman, J. E.
Junkm, A. B. Whiting, L. D. Whittemore, J. Ware Butterfield,
Brinton W. Woodward, W. H. Carruth, L. R. Elliott, James F. Legate,
W. H. Smith, W. C. Edwards, F. G. Adams, Arthur Capper, R. H^
Semple, E. F. Ware, John R. Mulvane, Scott Hopkins.
Letters of regret were received from Chas. F. Scott, P. G. Lowe,
D. R. Anthony, and P. B. Maxson.
The secretary submitted the annual report for the consideration of
the board, which, on motion, was adopted.
The financial report submitted by the executive committee, of which
the following is an abstract, was read and approved. The finances of
the Society for the year ending November 1, 1896, are as follows :
1S95. RECEIPTS.
Nov. 1. . . . Balance of apppropriation to June .SO, 189G $3,431 90
1896. Balance in hands of treasurer of Society — fees 1.30 15
July 1 . . . . Appropriation to June 30, ] 897 5,680 00
Receipts from membership fees GO 00
Total receipts $9,302 11
EXPENDITURES.
Salaries and clerk hire 8-1,609 03
Purchase of books 358 62
Postage, freight, and contingent 621 40
Treasurer's account, membership fees 171 04
5,7(J0 09
Unexpended balance S3,542 02
On motion of W. H. Smith, the following resolution was adopted:
Resolved, That the legislative committee of this Society be and is hereby
instructed to prepare a bill and endeavor to procure its passage by the incoming
legislature to secure the action contemplated in the report of the committee on
(9)
10 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
the subject of the transfer of the miscellaneous department of the state law
library to the library of the State Historical Society; also, to secure a provision
by law by which the governor and one or more of the executive officers of the state,
together with the chief justice of the supreme court, be added to and made
members of the board of directors of the State Historical Societ}'.
On motion of John Guthrie, the president and secretary were di-
rected to select a committee on legislation for the ensuing year, to
consist of twelve members.
On motion of John Guthrie, the following resolution was adopted,
and the president requested to appoint the committee:
Resolved, That the legislative committee (to consist of the secretary and
twelve members to be appointed) confer and advise with the incoming executive
council concerning the completion and furnishing of the rooms for the Society
in the east wing, as contemplated by concurrent resolution No. 22 of the legisla-
ture of 1895.
On motion, the legislative committee was instructed to ask the in-
coming legislature for an addition to the contingent fund for the fiscal
year ending June 30, 1897.
The following committees were then appointed to secure the i^repa-
ration of memorials on deceased members :
On Charles Robinson : V. J. Lane, D. R. Anthony, and John
Guthrie.
On George T. Anthony : A. P. Riddle, J. R. Mulvane, and W. H.
Smith.
On James M. Harvey: L. R. Elliott, E. B. Cowgill, and J. E.
Junkin.
On Solon O. and T. Dwight Thacher: B. W. Woodward, W. H.
Carruth, and E. F. Ware.
The committees were instructed to prepare such memorials without
regard to length, and to be delivered as addresses at special or stated
meetings of the Society or to be published in the collections of the
Society, as the committees may deem best.
On motion, the board adjourned to meet at three p. m., Tuesday,
the 19th of January, 1897.
MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS.
JANUARY 19, 1897.
The twenty-first annual meeting of the board of directors of the
Xansas State Historical Society was held in the Society's west rooms,
Tuesday afternoon, January 19, 1897, and was called to order by Vice-
Pres. Harrison Kelley, the president. Governor Morrill, being absent.
The following members of the board participated in the meeting :
Harrison Kelley, James S. Emery, John Speer, L. R. Elliott, James
B. Abbott, John G. Haskell, Mrs. M. L. Wood, A. E. True, A. R.
Greene, John Guthrie, B. W. Woodward, Matthew Weightman, W.
TWENTY-FIRST ANMUAL MEETING. 11
H. Carruth, Samuel A. Kingman, C. R. Green, Mrs. Bina G. Otis,
Fred. Wellliouse, P. G. Lowe, F. G. Adams, F. D. Coburn, A. B.
Whiting, Arthur Capper, E. B. Cowgill, J. Ware Butterfield, L. D.
Whittemore, J. E. Junkin, P. B. Maxson, and H. D. Rice.
Secretary Adams read the proceedings of the meeting of the board
of directors held November 17, 189(i, which is included in the tenth
biennial report of the board, since published.
The bill to consolidate the two miscellaneous libraries of the state
in the library of the Historical Society was read, and the following
resolution and accompanying declaration of the Society adopted :
Resolved, That the Kansas State Historical Society has built up its li})rary
and collections for the people of the state, and that it has always been the inten-
tion and purpose of the Society that such library and collections should be held
as the property of the state.
Resolved, That to remove all doubts which may hereafter exist as to the
legal ownership of said library and collections, the president and secretary of the
Society be and they are hereby authorized by the Society to execute and file with
the constituted authorities of the state a written declaration signed by them
under the seal of the Society, granting and relinquishing to the state all right
and title to the property of the Society, its library, and its present and future
collections of every description, to be and to remain the sole property of the state
forever, in form as follows :
Declaration : In pursuance of authority vested in the president and secretary
of the Kansas State Historical Society, by formal action taken by said Society at
its annual meeting, January 19, 1897, we, the undersigned, such president and
secretary, do hereby, in the name of the Society, grant and relinquish to the state
all right and title to the property of the Society, its library, and its present and
future collections of every description, to be held and to remain the sole property
of the state forever.
In witness whereof, we have hereunto affixed the seal of said Society, this —
[seal.] day of — , 1897.
A. B. Whiting presented the report of the nominating committee,
giving the names of thirty-three members of the board of directors,
for action at the evening meeting of the Society ; also, the names pro-
posed for officers of the Society and committees to be elected at the
evening meeting of the board.
Names proposed for honorary, active and corresponding member-
ship were then read by the secretary, and additional names were
added by members of the board present, for action at the evening
meeting of the board.
A resolution, suggested by Edward Russell, of Lawrence, was pre-
sented by the secretary, and finally adopted, as follows :
Resolved, That a committee of six be appointed by the president of the
Society to cooperate with its secretary, to consider the propriety of holding a
general state memorial convention under the auspices of the Society, for the
object of commemorating the public events in the history of the state ; said com-
mittee to determine the time and place of holding such meeting, and to report
12 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
within sixty days at a called meeting of the board of directors; state and judi-
ciary officers and members of the legislature especially, from the beginning of the
territory to the present time, to be invited to attend and participate.
The president appointed Edward Russell, John G. Haskell, John
Guthrie, P. G. Lowe, Henry Booth and Mrs. M. L. Wood members of
such committee.
Samuel A. Kingman then presented to the Society, in the name of
G. G. Gage, of Topeka, a handsomely bound copy of the volume en-
titled "The Battle of the Blue." On motion of John Guthrie, the
thanks of the board of directors were extended to G. G. Gage. Ad-
I'ourned.
MEETING OF THE SOCIETY.
JANUARY 19, 1897.
The twenty-first annual meeting of the Kansas State Historical
Society was called to order in Representative hall, Tuesday evening
January 19, 1897, at 7:30 p. m., by Harrison Kelley, vice-president.
An abstract of the report of the board of directors, including the
financial report of the executive committee, was read by the secretary,
and on motion was adopted.
The further proceedings of the meeting were in accordance with
the following program :
Music by the Washburn glee club.
Address by Col. Horace L. Moore, of Lawrence, on the svibject "The Cam-
paign of the Nineteenth Kansas Volunteer Regiment against the Indians of the
Plains, 1868-'69."
Memorial address by L. R. Elliott, of Manhattan, on Gov. James M. Harvey.
Paper by Prof. W. H. Carruth, of the state university, on "The New Eng-
land Emigrant Aid Society as an Investment Company."
Paper by Prof. E. B. Cowgill, Topeka. on the subject "The Kansas Descend-
ants of the Emigrant Passengers of the Ship 'Welcome,' 1682."
At the close of the program, John Guthrie offered the following :
Resolved, That the appreciative thanks of the Historical Society are extended
Horace L. Moore, L. R. Elliott, W. H. Carruth and E. B. Cowgill for their in-
teresting addresses, and the Washburn glee club for its charming music.
The following members of the board nominated at the afternoon
meeting were then elected for the three years ending January 16, 1900:
D. R. Anthony, F. P. Baker, W. H. Barnes, W. E. Bush, Arthur
Capper, W. H. Carruth, F. D. Coburn, Frank Doster, A. R. Greene,
Ewing Herbert, D. P. Hodgdon, Edward Jaquins, J. E. Junkin, Har-
rison Kelley, Miss Lucy D. Kingman, J. W. Leedy, George Leis, E. C.
Little, P. McVicar, F. P. Mac Lennan, Fletcher Meridith, Frank C.
Montgomery, J. W. Morphy, A. P. Riddle, Mrs. Sara T. D. Robinson,
John Seaton, John Speer, W. D. Street, William Stryker, W. P. True-
blood, E. F. Ware, D. W\ Wilder, Mrs. M. L. Wood, and Horace L.
Moore. The meeting adjourned.
TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 13
MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS.
JANUARY 19, 1897.
At the close of the annual meeting of the Society a meeting of the
board of directors was called, P. G. Lowe taking the chair. The fol-
lowing officers were then elected by ballot :
President, Harrison Kelley, Burlington; vice-presidents, W. H.
Smith, Marysville, S. McLallin, Topeka; secretary, F. G. Adams,
Topeka ; treasurer, John Guthrie, Topeka.
The new president, Harrison Kelley, then took the chair, and the
following committees and members of the Society, nominated at the
afternoon meeting of the board, were appointed and elected :
Legislative committee: S. McLallin, A. B. Whiting, E. J. Dallas,
J. R. Mulvane, J. W. Morphy, E. B. Cowgill, W. J. Costigan, Arthur
Capper, E. F. Ware, W. L. Brown, Fred. Wellhouse, and Geo. M.
Munger.
Executive committee: John W. Leedy, W. E. Bush, C. K. Holli-
day, A. J. Arnold, and William Sims.
Honorary members : John Sherman, Mansfield, Ohio ; Gen. Nelson
A. Miles, Washington, D. C, suggested by P. G. Lowe ; Gen. William
Brindle, suggested by A. R. Greene.
Corresponding members : Adoniram Judson Patterson, D. D., Rox-
bury, Mass., suggested by Rev. C. D. Bradlee ; John P. Jones, San
Diego, Cal. ; George M. Herrick, Washburn College ; Henry B.
Blackwell. Boston, Mass.; James W. Steele, Chicago, 111.; Henry
King, St. Louis, Mo.; George T. Pierce, Goodrich, Kan.; Rev. H. D.
Fisher, Topeka ; J. V. Brower, St. Paul, Minn., by L. R. Elliott ; An-
drew T. Still, Kirksville, Mo., by John Speer; Rev. Richard Cordley,
Lawrence.
Active members : J. F. Todd, Topeka ; C. A. Lewis, Weir City ;
Mrs. Elizabeth A. Johnson, White Rock ; George Johnson, White Rock ;
D. S. Alford, Lawrence ; F. W. Blackmar, F. H. Hodder, and E. D.
Adams, of the state university, Lawrence, suggested by W. H. Carruth.
The board then adjourned.
MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
NOVEMBER 12, 1897. .
The executive committee of the State Historical Society met in
the Society's south rooms, November 12, 1897, at three p. m., for the
object of filling vacancies in the board of directors and officers of tlie
Society. There were present : J. W. Leedy, C. K. HoUiday, W. E.
Bush, and William Sims, A. J. Arnold being unavoidably absent.
Vacancies in the board of directors were filled as follows : J. G.
McCoy, of Sedgwick county, in the place of Harrison Kelley; Wni.
14 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
A. Peffer in the place of S. McLallin ; Mrs. Elizabeth W. Abbott, of
De Soto, in place of James B. Abbott; Benjamin Harding, of
Wathena, in the place of Sol. Miller.
Vacancies in the officers of the Society were filled as follows : For
president, Peter Mc Vicar, of Topeka, in the place of Harrison Kelley,
deceased; Wm. A. Peffer, in the place of S. McLallin, deceased.
The meeting then adjourned.
APPOINTMENT OF JOHN SPEER TO BE PRESIDENT.
Peter McVicar having declined the appointment of president ten-
dered to him by the executive committee, the committee, under date of
November 22, 1897, by the following writing, signed by all the mem-
bers, appointed John Speer to fill the vacancy caused by the death of
Pres. Harrison Kelley, July 24, 1897 :
The under.signed, members of the executive committee of the Kansas State
Historical Society, in view of the fact that Peter McVicar has, owing to ill
health, declined the office of president of the Society, to which he was appointed
by us to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Harrison Kelley, we, and each
of us, favor the appointment of John Speer to the place, and authorize the
secretary to enter such record of appointment upon the books of the Society.
(Signed) William Sims.
Cyrus K. Holliday.
W. E. Bush.
A. J. Arnold.
J. W. Leedy.
MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS.
JANUARY 18, 1898.
The twenty-second annual meeting of the board of directors was
held in the west rooms of the Society, January 18, 1898, John Speer,
president of the Society, presiding.
The following members of the board were present : J. W. Leedy,
L. R. Elliott, E. B. Cowgill, F. C. Montgomery, Peter McVicar, A. B.
Whiting, F. P. Baker, Fred. Wellhouse, Mrs. Bina A. Otis, L. D.
Whittemore, J. E. Junkin, Geo. W. Martin, Miss Lucy D. Kingman,
John Guthrie, J. Ware Butterfield, Horace L. Moore, Brinton W.
Woodward, Frank W. Blackmar, Robert H. Semple, William Sims,
Cyrus K. Holliday, William A. PefPer, Chas. S. Gleed, John G. Has-
kell, William Stryker, W. H. Carruth, Fletcher Meridith, William E.
Bu.sh, Harvey D. Rice, and F. G. Adams.
The annual report was read by the secretary, and approved by the
board, on motion of John Guthrie.
The report of the executive committee on the finances of the So-
ciety was read by C. K. Holliday, and approved.
The committee on nominations then made its report. The report
was adopted. Honorary and corresponding members were then nomi- ^
nated. John Guthrie reported for the committee on the memorial
TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 15
of Charles Kobinson, and upon his motion, F. W. Blackraar, of the
state university, was appointed to prepare the memorial for publica-
tion in the Society's collections.
B. W. Woodward reported that the memorial on T. Dwight Thacher
had been prepared by Rev. Richard Cordley, and would be presented at
the evening meeting of the Society, and that the memorial of S. O.
Thacher was being prepared by Stuart Henry.
Secretary Adams stated that L. F. Green, of Woden, Tex., had been
chosen by Mrs. Abbott and the friends of her husband to prepare a
memorial on James B. Abbott, and the paper had been received by
the Society. The secretary also stated that a memorial of George T.
Anthony had been prei^ared by P. I. Bonebrake, at the request of the
committee, and had been printed by the family, and a copy furnished
the Society.
On motion of F. C. Montgomery, it was voted that the memorials
prepared and on file, of George T. Anthony, James B. Abbott, and T.
Dwight Thacher, be printed in the sixth volume of the Society's col-
lections.
The secretary then reported the following names of deceased mem-
bers of the board for whom memorials should be prepared, and on
motion the executive committee was requested to obtain suitable
memorialists : George A. Crawford, Matthew Weightman, Sol. Miller,
Harrison Kelley, and S. McLallin.
The secretary then made a statement regarding a collection of
manuscripts made by William E. Connelley, of Beatrice, Neb., relat-
ing to the Wyandotte and other tribes of Indians in Kansas, and to
the earliest steps which had been taken towards opening Kansas
territory to settlement. At the secretary's request, Mr. Connelley had
brought the manuscripts to Topeka in order that the board of direct-
ors at this meeting might take such action as might be thought best
in reference to securing the manuscripts for the Society's use. Charles
S. Gleed, who had seen the manuscripts, also made a statement testify-
ing to their value.
The following resolution, offered by the secretary, and seconded by
Charles S. Gleed, was then adopted :
Resolved, That a committee of five, consisting of Wm. A. PefFer, W. H.
Carruth, L. D. Whittemore, John Speer, and F. W. Blackmar, be appointed to
examine the manuscripts of William E. Connelley, and report the results of their
investigations to the executive corhmittee and that the executive committee be
authorized to act.
L. R. Elliott offered the following resolution, which was adopted :
Whereas, We deem that it will be a matter of interest to future residents of
Kansas to be able to associate the faces of the directors of this Society with their
recorded names : therefore, be it
Resolved, That the secretary of the Society be requested to solicit from each
]6 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
of the several persons vrho have served as directors a i)hotograph, of such size
and style as he may designate; and we hereby instruct the secretary to procure a
proper receptacle for said j)hotographs, and place them therein, with suitable
statements of the dates of service of each; and we further reijuest the secretary
to obtain, if possible, from friends of deceased directors, the photographs of those
who have passed away. ,
On motion-of E. B. Cowgill, the following resolutions were adopted :
Whereas, This Society has received from J. V. Brower, of St. Paul, Minn., a
copy of his memoir of his investigations in Kansas concerning the prehistoric oc-
cupants of this region, and especially concerning the semi-historic Quivera, men-
tioned by the Spanish explorers in 1541; and
Whereas, The developments made by J. V. Brower in his examinations in the
central portion of the state have been of a unique and interesting character: and
Whekeas, The information obtained by the author and recorded in the inter-
esting memoir he has prepared leads us to believe that the subject of the earliest
occupancy of Kansas has not by any means been thoroughly investigated; and
Whereas, The chief purpose of the existence of this Society is to secure and
record the history of Kansas from its beginnings: therefore,
Resolved, That we do hereby appoint a committee, consisting of Vice-pres.
.Eugene F. Ware, Treas. John Guthrie, and L. R. Elliott, who may in their dis-
cretion, and in the name of the Society, and under its auspices, arrange for the
continuance of the investigations begun by J. V. Brower, and for the publication
of the results thereof in a volume which shall be of a style creditable to this
Society and to the state of Kansas, or in the regular series of volumes of the col-
lections of the Society. And that we may avail ourselves of the valuable services
and ripe knowledge of J. V. Brower, who also is a corresponding member of the
Society, we hereby cordially invite him to act with the above-named committee.
Also,
Resolved, That the committee herein named be requested to procure from
J. V. Brower the use of the illustrative cuts and maps now in his possession, to
the end that the new volume to be prepared may contain the important matter
presented in the memoir this day dedicated to this Society, as well as all such
additional information as the contemplated investigations of the committee may
develop.
The following resolution, offered by W. H. Carruth, was unani-
mously adopted :
Resolved, That this Society views with concern the absence throughout the
state of adequate records of births and deaths, and advocates the enactment of
measures requiring the keeping of such records; that a committee of five be
appointed to draft a bill to this effect, and to advocate its adoption by the next
legislature.
The committee was appointed by the president, consisting of H.
L. Moore, John Guthrie, George W. Martin, W. H. Carruth, and L.
R. Elliott.
The meeting ^hen adjourned.
TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 17
MEETING OF THE SOCIETY.
JANUARY 18, 1898.
The twenty-second annual meeting of the Historical Society con-
Tened in Representative hall, Tuesday, January 18, 1898, at 7:30 p. m.
The meeting was called to order by John Speer, president. The an-
nual report of the board of directors was then presented by the sec-
retary, and adopted.
Thirty-three members of the board of directors were then elected
for the term of three years, ending January 15, 1901, as follows: F.
G. Adams, Topeka : Alexander Caldwell, Leavenworth ; Harold T.
Chase, Topeka ; J. R. Clark, La Cygne ; E. J. Dallas, Topeka ; L. R.
Elliott, Manhattan ; J. S. Emery, Lawrence ; Charles S. Gleed, Topeka :
I. D. Graham, Manhattan ; John Guthrie, Topeka ; H. C. F. Hackbnsch.
Leavenworth ; Grant W. Harrington, Hiawatha ; John G. Ha.skell,
Lawrence; C. K. HoUiday, Topeka; Scott Hopkins, Horton : A. H.
Horton, Topeka : A. S. Johnson, Topeka : Mrs. Elizabeth A. John-
son, White Rock ; Henry Kuhn, Marion ; V. J. Lane, Kansas City :
P. G. Lowe, Leavenworth ; Geo. W. Martin, Kansas City ; Horace L.
Moore, Lawrence; E. N. Morrill, Hiawatha; T. B. Murdock, El
Dorado ; F. O. Popenoe, Topeka ; Adrian Reynolds, Sedan ; William
Sims, Topeka; W. H. Smith, Marysville; A. E. True, Vera; Fred L.
Vandegrift, Kansas City; Fred. Wellhouse, Topeka ; A. L. Williams,
Topeka.
Geo. W. Martin offered the following resolution, which was adopted
on the second of the secretary of the Society :
Resolved, That in the judgment of the State Historical Society all controversy
concerning the state library should end, and the committee is hereby discharged
from further consideration of the subject.
The iDresident then read the annual address, on the subject "The
Importance of Accuracy in Historical Statements."
L. R. Elliott made a few remarks explanatory of the work of J. V.
Brower-in tracing Coronado's route in Kansas, and his antiquarian
researches near Manhattan.
Francis H. Snow read a paper entitled "Beginnings of the State
University."
Charles S. Gleed then formally presented to the Society, in behalf
of Eugene F. Ware, a bronze bust of D. W. Wilder, executed by R.
E. Bringhurst, of St. Louis. Charles S. Gleed read a paper commu-
nicated by Eugene F. Ware, relating to the gift, and containing the
following limitation :
I retain my proprietary interest in the bust until it can be determined whether
or not the state will give the Society proper rooms and necessary facilities in the
State-house. If not, I will remove the bust elsewhere. E. F. Ware.
18 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Samuel A. Kingman offered the following resolution, which was
adopted on motion of President Speer :
JiesoJved, That hearty thanks be oflfered to Eugene F. Ware for his generous
gift, valuable as a work of art, but precious to us as a perfect representation of an
early and tried friend and former president of the Historical Society and doubly
prized as linking the name of the munificent donor with that of D. W. Wilder
in a perpetual memorial of these two esteemed members of our Society.
Alexander S. Johnson, of Topeka, who was born in Kansas in 1832,
then presented to the Society a gavel made from the wood of an Eng-
lish Golden Russet ajjple tree, one of the trees in an orchard planted
by his father, the Rev. Thomas Johnson, on the farm of the Shawnee
Indian manual labor school (now in Johnson county, Kansas), in
the year 1837. Colonel Johnson said the gavel had been prepared by
E. P. Diehl, a prominent horticulturist of Johnson county, who was
somewhat familiar with the history of this orchard, and took this
mode of preserving, in the Historical Society of Kansas, a relic of the
first orchard planted in Kansas. Mr. Diehl, in his letter accompany-
ing the gift, had referred to Colonel Johnson's association with that
orchard in his childhood, and had brought to his mind many reminis-
cences of those early days when Kansas was a wilderness, its inhabit-
ants the red men, a few missionaries and teachers who were seeking
to teach them the ways of civilization, and a few Indian traders ; and,
besides these, only the occupants of the military posts at Fort Leaven-
worth. In this manual labor school was instituted, it is said, the first
effort to teach industrial pursuits to Indian children. It was the ini-
tiatory step in Indian education, which, followed by other societies
and by the government of the United States, embraces so prominent
a feature in the work of Indian civilization at the present time.
On motion of H. D. Fisher, a vote of thanks was given A. S. John-
son and E. P. Diehl for the gift of the valuable memento of the Rev.
Thomas Johnson.
B. W. Woodward then read a paper on "Reminiscences of Septem-
ber 11, 185(3; Invasion of the 2700."
Rev. Richard Cordley read a memorial address on T. Dwight Thacher.
On motion of the secretary, a vote of thanks was extended Frank
Weightman for his entertaining solos, and to Oscar, Thomas, Grace
and Marion Darlow for their well-rendered orchestra music.
The meeting then adjourned.
MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS.
JANUARY 18, 1898.
The board of directors was called to order by the president, on ad-
journment of the annual meeting. Ofiicers were elected for the
following year, as follows : President, John Speer, Garden City : vice-
presidents, E. F. Ware, Topeka, and W. A. PefPer, Topeka.
SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BOARD. 19
The following honorary and corresponding members were also
elected :
Honorary member : Aldace F. Walker, New York city, nominated
by C. K. Holliday.
Corresponding members: Angus McDonald, M. D., Ph.D., nomi-
nated by Rev. C. D. Bradlee ; Julius T. Clark, Topeka ; William E.
Connelley, Beatrice, Neb. : Bradford Kingman, Brookline, Mass.,
nominated by Samuel A. Kingman ; Sidney Clarke, Oklahoma City,
O. T. ; W. R. Brown, El Reno, O. T. ; Addison Danford, Canon City,
Colo. ; Edmund G. Ross, Albuquerque, N. M. ; Elias S. Stover, Albu-
querque, N. M. ; Allen B. Lemmon, Santa Rosa, Cal. ; Henry C. Speer,
Chicago; W". H. H. Lawrence, Plainesville, Ohio; William Higgins,
Kansas City, Mo. ; E. P. McCabe, Guthrie, O. T.
MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS.
NOVEMBER 15, 1898.
The November meeting of the board of directors of the Kansas
State Historical Society was held in the west rooms, November 15,
1898, to consider the eleventh biennial report.
In the absence of the president, John Speer, detained at his home
through illness, Eugene F. Ware, first vice-president, presided.
There were present the following members of the board : Horace
L. Moore, George Leis, John G. Haskell, J. S. Emery, Geo. W. Mar-
tin, John Guthrie, W. H. Barnes, F. P. Baker, William Sims, Peter
Mc Vicar, L. D. Whittemore, E. F. Ware, Harold T. Chase. L. R. El-
liott, Miss Lucy D. Kingman, Fred. Wellhonse, Fred O. Popenoe, E.
B. Cowgill, E. J. Dallas, F. D. Coburn, and F. G. Adams.
The secretary read letters from the daughters of John Speer and
V. J. Lane, stating the serious illness of their fathers, and expressing
regret that they were unable to attend the meeting; a telephone mes-
sage from A. B. Whiting mentioned that he would be necessarily ab-
sent on account of the celebration of his fortieth wedding anniversary.
A letter from D. W. Wilder was read, explaining the reasons for
his absence. The letter also contained the following suggestion, the
subject of which, on motion, was referred to a committee of three to
be appointed by the president, for action at the January meeling of
the board :
I have a proposition to make: The Centennial managers at Philadelphia,
about 187i, called upon states, counties and towns to signalize 187G by publish-
ing histories. A good response was made in the states, and especially in Kansas»
with new county histories. I found time to compile the "Annals."
Now we are near the end of the century. I want our Society to father a
movement for new local histories all over the state. The editors, all of whom are
members of the Society, are the men who will make the most numerous responses.
But city councils and county commissioners will also take up the patriotic work.
Frank Montgomery will complete the "Annals." The State Historical Society
can greatly aid in the work.
20 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The secretary then read the eleventh biennial report, which, in-
cluding the financial report of the executive committee, on motion of
John Cxuthrie, was adopted and ordered to be printed.
Vice-president Ware stated that urgent business compelled him to
retire. He called E. J. Dallas to the chair.
H. L. Moore, from the committee on the subject of proposed legis-
lation to secure the recording of vital statistics, stated that he had ex-
amined the laws of Eastern states on this subject, and had selected that
of Massachusetts as most applicable to the needs of our state. He had
secured from John Guthrie the promise to draw up a bill, patterned
after this law, to be submitted to the coming legislature. He thought
the records of marriages as now preserved by the probate courts were
adequate, and that the new law should have special reference to the
preservation of records of births and deaths.
John Guthrie called the attention of the board to the Society's
lack of room. He also said that an effort ^hould be made with the
coming legislature to restore the appropriations in salaries and clerk hire
which were reduced by the legislature of 1897. On his motion, the
president was instructed to appoint a committee of seven to cooper-
ate with the president and secretary for the purpose of securing
through the executive council the rooms accorded the Society by the
legislative resolution of 1895. The president was also instructed to
appoint a new committee on legislation.
L. Vernon Briggs, secretary of the Old Colony Commission, Boston,
was elected an honorary member of the Society, by nomination of Sec-
retary Adams.
James S. Emery, on motion of Geo. Leis, was invited to prepare a
paper of reminiscences relating to the early history of Kansas for
filing among the manuscripts of the Society.
E. B. Cowgill si^oke of the im^Dortanc'e of securing the cooperation
of local historical societies throughout the state, and suggested that
this might be done by giving some officer or other member of such
societies representation on the board of directors of the state Society.
On motion, he was requested to formulate a re.solution to that effect
for presentation to the annual meeting of the board.
The following resolution offered by H. L. Moore, at the suggestion
of Dr. H. Z. Gill, secretary of the state board of health, was then
adopted :
Resolved, That, in the opinion of the board of directors of the State Histor-
ical Society, at its meeting, November 15, 1898, the vital statistics of the state,
being of so great importance, should be carefully collected and preserved in such
manner as shall secure them for future use; that the state health authorities, as
now organized, should be strengthened, and collection of said vital statistics be
facilitated by additional legislation.
On motion, the meeting adjourned.
%
TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING. 21
MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS.
JANUARY 17, 1899.
The twenty-third annual meeting of the board of directors of the
Kansas State Historical Society was held in the west rooms of the
Society, Tuesday afternoon, January 17, 1899, commencing at two
o'clock.
In the absence of the president, John Speer, who was unable
through illness to attend the meeting, Geo. W. Martin was called to
the chair. Franklin G. Adams also being ill, the assistant secretary
was requested to act in his place.
The following members of the board were present : Geo. W. Mar-
tin, D, W. Wilder, Mrs. Bina A. Otis, Peter Mc Vicar, Eugene F.
Ware, John Guthrie, A. B. Whiting, John G. Haskell, William Sims,
C. K. Holliday, F. P. Baker, Frank C. Montgomery, Harvey D. Rice,
William H. Barnes, W. L. Brown, E. B. Cowgill, Miss Lucy D. King-
man, J. B. Remington, A. R. Taylor, Fred. Wellhouse, L. D. Whitte-
more.
D. W. Wilder, for the committee on nominations, reported a list of
thirty-three members of the board of directors for election at the an-
nual meeting of the Society in the evening, and officers and honorary
and corresponding members for election at the evening meeting of
the board. The report of the committee was accepted.
On motion of D. W. Wilder, the following resolution was unani-
mously adopted :
Resolved, That the secretary of this Society be requested to prepare a circu-
lar and send it to every editor in the state, suggesting the timeliness of preparing
histories of every town, city and county in the state as a fitting patriotic me-
morial of the end of this century. A request similar to this was made to the
nation by the Centennial commissioners in 1874, and was appropriately responded
to in 1876 by people in all parts of the union, Kansas being a generous and dis-
tinguished contributor.
John Guthrie reported that he had prepared a bill for submission
to the legislature, providing for the collection and preservation of
vital statistics by the state. After a brief synopsis of the bill by
John Guthrie, and remarks upon the subject by members of the
board, the matter was withdrawn by consent, and referred again to
the committee for consideration.
E. B. Cowgill then made the following report, which, on motion,
was adopted :
Your committee on cooperation of local historical societies with the State
Historical Society begs leave to recommend that each county or other local his-
torical society be entitled to one delegate to the State Historical Society, who
shall have all the rights and privileges of membership in the State Historical
4
22 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL* SOCIETY.
Society, including the right to be elected a director or officer of said society, the
right to take part in the discussions, and the right to vote. It is further recom-
mended that every such county or other local historical society be invited to
deposit in the library of the State Historical Society such historical collections
as it shall make.
The following resolution was then ofPered by Geo. W. Martin, and
seconded by S. A. Kingman with appropriate and forceful remarks :
Resolved, That the executive council is respectfully memorialized to comply
with concurrent resolution No. 22, adopted by the legislature of 1895, granting to
the Historical Society for its library and museum the two floors of the east wing
below the senate chamber, upon the removal of the state library.
After a lengthy discussion upon the subject of additional rooms,
the resolution was adopted.
S. W. Williston, of the state university, then read his paper on '"An
Ancient Sod House in Western Kansas."
On motion of Samuel A. Kingman, the thanks of the Society were
accorded Doctor Williston for his very interesting pajjer, and a copy
was requested for publication in the collections of the Society.
J. C Price, of Republic City, was then invited by the chair to make
some remarks explanatory of the objects of the Pawnee Republic His-
torical Society, and of the proposed purchase by the state of the vil-
lage .site. He responded at some length, and presented, in the name
of Mrs. Elizabeth A. Johnson, of White Rock, a fine crayon portrait
of Capt. Zebulon M. Pike.
At the close of J. C. Price's remarks, a cojDy of a bill prepared for
presentation to the legislature, by F. M. Woodward, member from
Republic county, was read for the consideration of the board, and on
motion of Peter McVicar was referred to the legislative committee.
On motion of D. W. Wilder, the thanks of the board were extended
to J. C. Price, and he was requested to put his remarks in writing for
publication in the minutes of the meeting.
E. F. Ware made a brief verbal report for the committee on J. V.
Brower's Coronado investigation, stating that the committee, composed
of John Guthrie, L. R. Elliott, and himself, had examined the i^ropo-
sition to continue the investigations of J. V. Brower, and believing
that the investigation and publication of the result by the Society
would require an outlay which the Society could not afford, the com-
mittee decided adversely to the proposition. The report of the com-
mittee was accepted.
The following report of the committee on the Connelley collection
of Wyandotte Indian manuscrij)ts was approved, and the committee
discharged :
The committee appointed by the State Historical Society, composed of Wm,
A. Pelfer, L. D. Whittemore, John Speer, F. W. Blackmar, and W. H. Carruth,
TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING. 23
agree that the Connelley collection is well worthy of deposit in the files of the
Kansas State Historical Society, and are of the opinion that the legislature,
upon proper information, will appropriate funds sufficient to make reasonable
compensation for the collection, and they would be pleased if W. E. Connelley
should find it convenient to place the collection in the care of the Society for
preservation, and for submission to the proper committee of the legislature, at
its next meeting, and in case Mr. Connelley does so place the collection, the
Society will undertake to make proper representation as to their value as ma-
terials of history.
W. E. Connelley, of Beatrice, Neb., being detained at home through
illness, Geo. W. Martin, of Kansas City, the former home of Mr. Con-
nelley, stated the subject of his address to be "The First Provisional
Government of Kansas," and said that as the paper was lengthy he
would not attempt to read it. Mr. Martin said further, that Mr. Con-
nelley probably knew more about the history of the Wyandotte In-
dians than any one now living ; that he was an indefatigable collector
of the materials of the history of the tribe, and was an accurate and
painstaking historian.
On motion of John Guthrie, the address was ordered to be printed
in the collections of the Society.
The meeting then adjourned. .
MEETING OF THE SOCIETY.
JANUARY 17, 1899.
The Society met in Representative hall at 7:45 Tuesday evening,
the 17th of January, 1899, Vice-pres. E. F. Ware presiding. An over-
ture by Wood's orchestra was followed by an invocation, pronounced
by Rev. H. D. Fisher, in the absence of Rev. Allen Buckner. who was
prevented from attendance on account of illness.
The thirty-three members of the board of directors nominated at
the afternoon meeting were formally elected, as follows :
Mrs. J. B. Abbott, De Soto; J. B. Adams, El Dorado; T. J.
Anderson, Topeka; A. J. Arnold, Topeka; W. L. Brown, Kingman;
Geo. A. Clark, Junction City ; E. B. Cowgill, Topeka ; S. H. Dodge,
Beloit ; A. G. Forney, Belle Plaiue ; John Francis, Colony ; John S.
Gilmore, Fredonia ; Frank E. Grimes, Leoti : Benjamin Harding, Wa-
thena; E. W. Hoch, Marion; D. W. Houston, Garnett : J. K. Hud-
son, Topeka; L. D. Lew^elling, Wichita; E. D. McKeever, Topeka;
John R. Mulvane, Topeka; M. M. Murdock, Wichita; Frank Nelson.
Lindsborg; W. A. Peffer, Topeka; J. B. Remington, Osawatomie;
Harvey D. Rice, Topeka; Chas. F. Scott, lola; R. H. Semple,
Ottawa ; W. E. Stanley, Wichita ; Edwin Taylor, Edwardsville ; James
A. Troutman, Topeka ; D. A. Valentine, Clay Center ; A. B. Whiting,
Topeka; L. D. Whittemore, Topeka; B. W. Woodward, Lawrence.
24 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Further proceedings of the meeting were in accordance with the
program.
John Guthrie read extracts from President Speer's address entitled
"The Burning of Osceola, Mo., September 23, 1861." At the close
of the address, the following resolution was adopted, on motion of D.
W. Wilder :
Resolved, That the Society greatly regrets to learn that its president, John
Speer, the surviving pioneer journalist of our state, is prevented by illness from
attending our meeting. With our regrets we send him our heartfelt sympathy,
and our hope for his speedy recovery to his usual and Kansas robust health.
The program was then continued, as follows :
Mr. Frank Weigh tman, of Topeka, sang a solo, and responded to an encore.
Dr. A. R. Taylor, Emporia, read a paper entitled "History of Normal School
Work in Kansas."
Orchestra music.
Col. W. F. Cloud, of Kansas City, explained the objects of the Kansas
Soldiers' Monument Association, and made a brief address on the subject.
Orchestra music.
Maj. W. L. Brown, of Kingman, read a paper on "Kansas in the War with
Spain."
Samuel A. Kingman then offered the following preamble and resolu-
tion, which was adopted :
Whereas, I have long been a member of this Society, and have known its
officers and members from the beginning — have seen them come and go — but
I never before missed from his place of duty the secretary, who has, since his
appointment in 1875, always performed his office at the annual meeting: and be it
Resolved , That we hereby extend to him our sincere sympathy in his illness,
and express the hope that he will be restored to health, and enabled to resume
his post of duty.
A vote of thanks was then requested by Geo. W. Martin in ac-
knowledgment of the songs of Mr. Weightman and the music by-
Wood's orchestra, which was unanimously given.
The meeting then adjourned.
MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS.
JANUARY 17, 1899.
At the close of the annual meeting, a meeting of the board of direc-
tors was called to order by John Guthrie. The following officers were
elected for the year ending January 1(3, 1900 : President, Eugene F.
Ware ; vice-presidents, Geo. W. Martin and Grant W. Harrington.
For the two years ending January 15, 1901 : John Guthrie, treasurer;
Franklin G. Adams, secretary.
Eugene F. Ware then took the chair, and the following honorary
and corresi^onding members, nominated at the afternoon meeting of
the board, were elected :
Honorary members: Noble L. Prentis, Kansas City, Mo,: Noah
Brooks, New York city.
TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 25
Corresponding members: Robert Tracy, St. Joseph, Mo.; J. W.
Baird, Louisville, Ky.; E. E. Ayer, Chicago; Albert Bigelow Paine,
New York city ; August Bondi, Salina.
The president informed the meeting that he would postpone the
appointment of the standing committees for the present.
The meeting then adjourned.
APPOINTMENT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
MAY 13, 1899.
I hereby appoint the following as the executive committee of the Kansas
State Historical Society, to serve until the next regular annual meeting: W. E.
Stanley, Geo. A. Clark, C. K. Holliday, William Sims, A. B. Whiting.
(Signed) E. F. W^are, President.
MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
DECEMBER 6, 1899.
A meeting of the executive committee of the Kansas State His-
torical Society was held in the west rooms of the Society, at two p. m..
Wednesday, December 6, 1899. There were present : Geo. A. Clark,
William Sims, and A. B. Whiting. Gov. W. E. Stanley was pre-
vented by illness from attending, and C. K. Holliday was absent from
the city. Geo. A. Clark acted as chairman.
On motion of William Sims, Geo. W. Martin, of Kansas City, was
elected to fill the vacancy caused by the death, on the 2d instant, of
the secretary, Franklin G. Adams.
Vacancies in the board of directors were filled by the election of
the following persons : West E. Wilkinson, Seneca, in place of Mrs.
J. B. Abbott, of De Soto ; John Martin, Tojoeka, in jjlace of A. J.
Arnold, of North Topeka ; Frank W. Blackmar, Lawrence, in place of
James S. Emery, of Lawrence ; W. W. Padgett, Fort Scott, in j^lace
of Benjamin Harding, of Wathena ; Wm. E. Connelley, Topeka, in
place of L. R. Elliott, of Manhattan; Zu Adams, Topeka, in place of
Franklin G. Adams, of Topeka.
President Ware appointed D. W. Wilder, Samuel A. Kingman and
F. P. Baker a committee to prepare a memorial on the late secretary,
Franklin G. Adams, to be read at the next annual meeting of the So-
ciety. Adjourned.
MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS.
JANUARY 16, 1900.
The twenty-fourth annual meeting of the board of directors of the
Kansas State Historical Society was held in the hall of the house of
representatives, Tuesday afternoon, January 16, 1900. The meeting
was called to order at 1:30 by Pres. Eugene F. Ware.
The roll of members being called by the secretary, the following
were found to be present : A. B. Whiting, F. P. Baker, William Sims,
—2
26 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
William E. Coimelley. E. F. Ware, James A. Troutmah, Mrs. M. L.
Wood, B. W. Woodward, Robert H. Sample, Mrs. Elizabeth A. John-
son, Fred. Wellhouse, William H. Smith, L. D. Whittemore, Horace
L. Moore, John Francis, F. D. Coburn, W. H. Barnes, Lucy D. Kinoj-
man, William A. Peffer, Harold T. Chase, Peter McVicar, John
Guthrie, D. A. Valentine, Frank W. Blackmar, John Martin, D. E.
Anthony. Frank Doster, E. D. McKeever, Frank Nelson, Harvey D.
Rice, West E. Wilkinson, Geo. W. Martin, E. B. Cowgill, John G.
Haskell, V. J. Lane, J. E. Junkin, John K. Wright, Zu Adams, L. A.
Bigger, E. P. Harris.
Secretary Martin read the annual report of the Society, which was
unanimously adopted. (See page 30.)
The report of the nominating committee was read by the secretary,
and on motion of John Guthrie was adopted, and referred to the even-
ing meetings of the society and board of directors for action.
On motion of W. H. Smith, the name of E. R. Fulton, of Marys-
ville, was added to the list of nominations for active membership; also
the name of John D. Milliken, of McPherson, on nomination of Presi-
dent Ware.
William Sims, for the executive committee, made the following
report of the Society's finances for the year ending October 30, 1899,
which was accepted:
1898. RECEIPTS.
Nov. 1 . . . . Balance of appropriation to June 30, 1899 $3,038 85
1S99. Balance in hands of treasurer of Society — fees 94 44
July 1 . . . . Appropriation to June 30, 1900 .5,140 00
Deficiency in salary, two years 1,200 00
Receipts from membership fees 54 00
Total receipts $9,527 29
EXPENDITURES.
Salaries and clerk hire '. $4,940 00
Purchase of books 604 55
Postage, freight, and contingent 500 07
Treasurer's account, membership fee 85 00
Total expenditures 6,129 62
Balance $3,397 67
John Guthrie then offered the following resolution, which, after
discussion, was adopted :
Resolved, That the thanks of this Historical Society and other patriotic
people of the State of Kansas are due and are hereby tendered to Mrs. Elizabeth
A. Johnson, of White Rock, Republic county, for donation to this Society of
eleven acres of land, embracing the site of the Pawnee Indian village where Capt.
Zebulon M. Pike, in 1806, first raised the American flag on Kansas soil. Mrs.
Johnson, in her patriotic zeal, paid $2300 for a quarter-section of land, in order
to prevent this interesting spot from passing into careless hands, and to further
protect it bought a roadway around it, and it is the judgment of this Society
that the legislature should suitably mark the same.
TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 27
The following resolution, oflfered by William E. Connelley, led to
much discussion, but was adopted without amendment :
Resolved, That a committee of three, of which the secretary of the Society
shall be one, be appointed by the president, to consider the propriety of amend-
ing the constitution of this Society in relation to the charge of annual fees for
membership and the admission of delegates from local historical societies in the
state; and that said committee be required to report to a meeting of the Society
to be held on Tuesday, the 1st day of May, 1900, and if in the opinion of the
committee such amendment or any amendment is desirable, such amendment be
formulated by such committee and reported at said meeting.
H. L. Moore then presented the following resolution, prepared by
W. H. Carruth, of the state university, which was unanimously
adopted :
Resolved, That the work of this Society be organized into divisions, as fol-
lows: Archa?ology; historic relics: explorations; Indian history: history of the
territory: history of the state; geography (including maps, views of buildings,
and scenery); origin of local names; journals, diaries, and manuscripts: local
history, interviews, and chronicles; organization of local historical societies;
biography: portraits: genealogy and directories; newspapers, periodicals, and
scrap-books; literature; and that the directors, according to their own prefer-
ence and subject to the discretion of the executive committee, be assigned to
committees which shall have especial care and supervision of the work com-
prised under such divisions, subject to the advice and control of the executive
committee.
Miss Zu Adams offered the following resolution, which was adopted :
Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed to prepare for a suitable ob-
servance of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the organization of the Kansas State
Historical Society.
The president announced that the required committees would be
appointed by his successor.
H. L. Moore requested that the matter of vital statistics be re-
ferred to the members of the committee on genealogy, and that they,
in cooperation with the state board of health, be requested to prepare
a bill on this subject for submission to the coming session of the
legislature.
John Gr. Haskell then presented to the Society two volumes, enti-
tled "Select Charters and Other Documents Illustrative of American
History, 160(i-1775," and "Select Documents Illustrative of the His-
tory of the United States, 1776-1861,"' edited by William MacDonald.
B. W. Woodward nominated William MacDonald, who holds the
chair of history in Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, as corre-
sponding member of the Society.
The board adjourned, and the Society met in session.
28 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
MPJETIN(J OF THE SOCIETY.
JANUARY 16, 1900.
Richard J. Hinton was invited by the president to make a few-
remarks. He paid a brief but eloquent tribute to the work of Frank-
lin G. Adams for the State Historical Society.
Col. W. S. Metcalf then delivered an address on "The Twentieth
Kansas in the Philippines." At the close of the address, D. R. Anthony
moved that the thanks of the Society be extended to Colonel Metcalf
for his admirable paper, and that a copy be requested for publication
in the collections of the Society.
Maj. A. M. Harvey followed with an address on "The Organization
and History of the Twenty-second Kansas regiment." On a motion by
John Martin, the thanks of the Society were given Major Harvey for
his excellent paper, and a copy was requested for publication.
The secretary then read an address by Lieut. -col. James Beck,
who was unable to be present, on "The Organization and Services of
the Twenty-third Kansas." Upon conclusion of the paper, D. R. An-
thony moved that, in consideration of the historical value of the docu-
ment and the influence it may have on the future organization of
troops, a copy be requested for preservation.
The meeting then adjourned to eight p. m.
The evening meeting was held in Representative hall, and was
called to order by President Ware.
Preceding the program of the evening, an informal reception was
held in honor of Richard J. and Mrs. Hinton, and was largely partici-
pated in by members of the Society and other citizens.
Rev. John S. Glendenning, of the Second Presbyterian Church,
Topeka, pronounced the invocation.
The thirty-three members of the board of directors nominated at
the afternoon meeting of the board were elected for the three years
ending January 20, 1903, as follows :
D. R. Anthony, Leavenworth ; F. P. Baker, Topeka ; Charles W.
Barnes, Topeka ; W. E. Bush, Fort Scott ; L. A. Bigger, Hutchinson ;
Arthur Capper, Topeka; W. H. Carruth, Lawrence; F. D. Coburn,
Kansas City; John W. Conway, Norton; Frank Doster, Marion; A.
R. Greene, Lecompton ; Ewing Herbert, Hiawatha ; Edward P. Har-
ris, Lecomptoa; Clad Hamilton, Topeka; E. W. Howe, Atchison; J.
E. Junkin, Sterling; Miss Lucy D. Kingman, Topeka; George Leis,
Lawrence ; E. C. Little, Abilene ; P. McVicar, Topeka ; F. P. Mac
Lennan, Topeka; Fletcher Meridith, Hutchinson; F. C. Montgomery,
Topeka; J. W. Morphy, Smith Center; John Madden, Emporia; W.
H. Nelson, Smith Center ; A. P. Riddle, Minneapolis ; John Seaton,
TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 29
Atchison ; John Speer, Wichita ; E. F. Ware, Topeka ; W. A. White,
Emporia ; D. W. Wilder, Hiawatha ; John K. Wright, Junction City.
A. G. Forney, in list for 1902. failed to qualify, and Bertrand Rock-
well, of Junction City, was elected to fill the vacancy.
E. C. Little having declined to serve, the executive committee ap-
pointed F. H. Hodder, of the state university, to fill the vacancy.
President Ware then read his address on the "Neutral Lands."
Mrs. Mary G. Smith sang an original song, "Alone," with violin
obligato by Prof. Henry B. Beerman. The words of the song were by
Mrs. C. S. Baker.
Secretary Martin read the report of the memorial committee on
Franklin G. Adaifis, which was followed by his favorite hymn, "Lead,
Kindly Light," rendered by the St. Cecilia quartette.
Lieut. Jacob R. Whisner and Fred. D. Heisler then presented, in
behalf of company B, of the Twentieth Kansas regiment, a flag cap-
tured by that company February 7, 1899, at Caloocan, P. I. On motion
of Johrw K. Wright, the thanks of the Historical Society were given
company B for the flag.
Miss Irma Doster and Professor Beerman then rendered a violin
duet.
The address of the evening, by Richard J. Hinton, followed : "The
Nationalization of Freedom and the Historical Place of Kansas
therein."
The St. Cecilia quartette then sang Schubert's "Serenade."
On motion of Wm. E. Connelley, the thanks of the Society were
extended to Mrs. Mary G. Smith. Misses Gertrude, Mary and Lucia
Wyatt, Miss Irma Doster, Miss Eleanor Work and Prof. Henry B.
Beerman for the excellent music they had given for the entertain-
ment of the annual meeting of the Society.
The meeting then adjourned.
MEETING OF THE BOARD.
JANUARY 16, 1900.
The evening meeting of the board was called immediately after the
adjournment of the annual meeting, by President Ware, and the fol-
lowing officers were elected for the term of one year : John G. Ha.s-
kelL president; E. B. Cowgill, first vice-president; John Francis,
second vice-president ; Geo. W. Martin, secretary, to fill the vacancy
caused by the death of Judge Adams.
President Haskell was conducted to the chair.
The following honorary, corresponding and active members, nomi-
nated at the previous meetings, were then elected :
Honorary members: Clark Bell, publisher, 89 Broadway, New
30 KANSAS STATB HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
York ; James Burton Pond, Everett House, Union Square, New
York ; J. W. Ozias, Lawrence.
Corresponding menil)er8 : William Henry Wyman, Omaha, Neb.,
general agent ^liltna Insurance Company, Hartford ; Warren Upham,
secretary Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul ; William MacDon-
ald, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me
Active members : Mrs. Susannah Marshall Weymouth, 418 Harri-
son street, Topeka; J. S. Dawson, Hill City; E. L. Ackley, Con-
cordia; Miss Viola Troutman, Topeka; E. R. Fulton, Marysville ;
John D. Milliken, McPherson.
President Haskell appointed the following committees :
Executive committee : W. E. Stanley, John Martin, Geo. A. Clark,
William Sims, A. B. Whiting.
Legislative committee : R. H. Semple, Arthur Capper. J. W^. Mor-
phy, John Seaton, W. A. White.
Committee on program : C. K. Holliday, Charles F. Scott, F. W.
Blackmar, W. L. Brown, D. A. Valentine.
Nominating committee: S. A, Kingman, E. B. Cowgill. J. E.
Junkin, F. P. Baker, L. D. Whittemore.
Committee on fees and membership : W. E. Connelley, F. W.
Blackmar, George W. Martin.
Committee on twenty-fifth anniversary : E. F. Ware, Lucy D.
Kingman, D. R. Anthony, J. W. Conway, W. H. Smith.
Adjourned.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
STATEMENT OF THE GONDITION, GROWTH, EXTENT AND USEFULNESS OF THE
KANSAS HISTORICAL LIBRARY.
To the Board of Directors, Kansas State Historical Society:
Since the last annual meeting of the State Historical Society, the public serv-
ice and the duty of historic collection, the precept and example of the good
man and good citizen, have suffered by the death of Franklin G. Adams, the
secretary of the Society since its organization, twenty-four years ago.
The theory of your organization placed the principal responsibility for the
gathering, arranging and preservation of materials illustrative of the history of
Kansas upon the secretary, and my first duty is a pleasant one, of testifying to the
completeness, the perfect order, scrupulous neatness and surprising exactness of
system which characterizes the splendid collection this Society has the honor
of bestowing upon the state of Kansas. Judge Adams lost much of individual
credit and proper appreciation with the general public because of his exceeding
modesty, but this by no means circumscribes a limit to the results of his labors
or his delightful example. There may be another man in Kansas who could have
shown the same patience and perseverance and self-sacrificing devotion under
constant discouragements and apparent lack of appreciation as these shelves tes-
tify, Vjut he is beyond my acquaintance or conception. I am not indulging in obitu-
ary gush, but testifying to an important public and official fact. If we regard the
starting-point of our state's history as worth anything, Franklin G. Adams per-
formed, if not greater, then more interesting public service for less compensation
TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 31
than any other official. In the early days of the Society his wife assisted for
weeks and weeks, at various times, and his children for a long lime gave their
hours after school, without compensation, in assorting and systematizing the
great collection which began to pour in from his solicitation and efforts. An in-
timate acquaintance with his methods and labors for years justifies me in saying
that, from my standpoint, the only criticism possible is that he started this work
on a basis bordering upon the penurious, rather than that of extravagance or even
liberality, which was due to an intense honesty and the scrupulous care he gave
to every dollar the state placed at his disposal.
I am familiar with the criticisms of this Society and its collections for many
years. Much has been said about the ability or judgment of a secretary, or a
collector of historic material, to discriminate. A notion prevails quite generally,
even with public men whose names appear frequently and sometimes constantly
in the newspapers and public records of the state, that this Society conducts
some sort of a junk-shop; that for some mysterious and inexplicable purpose, to
develop away off in the future, you are engaged in piling away "trash." There
is a wide-spread absence of any appreciation of the fact that the collection of
history is for daily use — a blindness to a constant and uniform demand to-day
for practical use of history made and preserved years ago, and which will be re-
peated in the years to come until the record of our actions will be called for by
people just as deeply interested as the current crowds who visit these rooms.
In the face of much of this sentiment. Judge Adams exhibited a heroic per-
sistence but little short of inspiration ; and while there is no doubt much of trash
here, because human ambitions, tastes and performances are so varied, it is a
safe proposition that posterity will justify and admire the foundation he has laid.
Such peculiar ideas held by many concerning a historic collection suggested
that a test of some sort be made. This Society has a function of practical every-
day value to perform, and if it has not, then all this labor and expense bestowed
causes an empty sentiment to come high. The collection gathered by this
Society is of indispensable use in the daily administration of aif airs -official,
political, and general business. The student and the gentleman of leisure who
may have but an idle curiosity to gratify constitute but a very small per cent, of
those who daily consult the records preserved in these rooms. The public officials
(state and countyi, public men, newspaper men, politicians, lawyers, those en-
gaged in various enterprises or speculations, constantly call for data to them
important, and oftentimes essential in their business. Every day the old man
appears, searching for something he neglected to care for when he was younger
and smarter and engaged in sneering at this "pile of trash." The young man,
you all know, is full of hope, vpith the world in his grasp, the future wide open
before him, wholly indifferent to the present, while the old man indulges in regret
that he lacked the proper appreciation of the sweet now-and-now when he was
on earth, cutting some figure in public or business affairs. A serious difficulty
in the way of a proper historic interest in Kansas is this idea that the young or
the middle-aged have no interest in it — that the collection and preservation of
history is especially the duty of the old people; and hence a preliminary task is
to impress present actors in life's drama that what they are doing is history, in
which the future will take greater interest than we do in that which has gone
by, because events just as interesting constantly occur, and, as many believe, a
revival in historic work is near at hand. I have no desire to belittle the abstract
idea of preserving history, but to show that this generation is getting something
out of this work.
In common with all public libraries, cheerfully maintained for the general
32 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
good, the collections of this Society have a wide patronage, with the addition to
the usual educational and literarj' features of a practical business use. It is
proper that the legislature should know that the money expended in aiding this
Society is not alone for the preservation of the state's history, but that the peo-
ple and the taxpayers draw liberal returns from the help so extended. 1 had
hoped to have some statistics for thirty days showing the calls upon this Society
and the special interest in any particular feature, but our ideas were crude, and
with some misunderstandings the results have been clear and satisfactory in but
one respect, and that concerning the newspaper files. Such information we
thought might aid the executive council in furnishing the rooms designed for
the final' home of the Society, in the east wing of this building.
From December 21, 1899, to January 1.3, 1900, SO'! persons visited the rooms
in the south wing. Of this number, 120 called for 222 books and 8 maps. This
was an average of about sixteen visitors per day. This room contains the assort-
ment of Kansas books and general historical works. At the room in the west
wing the visitors for the same time averaged ninety-eight per day. This room
contains portraits, curios, and relics, in which the public interest seems to cen-
ter. We had hoped to have some measure of the absorbing desire general among
all classes for relics and pictures, but our count is not svifiicient. We have a
large quantity of museum material, but now sadly piled up.
In view of the criticisms which have been common concerning the newspaper
portion of this collection, the figures are gratifying and significant; gratifying
because they were accurately kept, and significant because they demonstrate.
The newspaper room had 715 visitors from December 12, 1899, to January 13,
1900, who did not call for papers. Those who called for newspaper files num-
bered 189, and they consulted 918 volumes. In addition, the correspondence of
the office during this time required the use of 155 of these newspaper volumes.
A great many people believe that this newspaper feature must some day be aban-
doned or curtailed because of the space required. Some extraordinary stories
are told of the value these newspaper files have been to public officers, property
owners, and litigants, from which it is apparent that the people have made ten-
fold more than they have cost the state. I am not saying this with any bias, be-
cause I have entertained doubts about the jjracticability of so large a collection.
And as to curtailing or discriminating, it is enough to say that the most insignifi-
cant issues have been of the greater use in dollars and cents to those who needed
them. Every officer in the building has frequent use for these newspapers in ob-
taining data that each could not keep for himself, and which is not to be had
from any other source. This room is the Mecca of politicians and newspaper
writers. In the recent trial of the Hillmon case the file of the Hutchinson jVeics
for 1879 and the file of the Leavenworth Timea for 1883 were used ; the former to
show the Santa Fe time-card governing trains at Kingman, which could not
be had at the railroad offices, and the latter for a legal document, the particular
number being lost from the files in the Times office. Such instances, showing
the great value and the wide, varied and constant use of this newspaper collec-
[ From January 1 to 31, 1900, inclusive, 1221 persons visited the Historical rooms; 553 called
in the west rooms, looking at pictures, relics, and curios; 211 patrons called for 6t)3 volumes of
newspaper files, and there were 110 visitors in this room who did not call for papers ; 176 patrons
called for 141 Kansas historical books and 221 volumes of general history, and there were 171 who
did not desire books. During the montli, there were 193 letters written on Kansas historical
topics, 247 acknowledgments or receipts mailed, and 47 letters sent after missing copies in the
newspaper files.
During the mouths of January, February, and March, 1900, 3710 people visited the rooms of
the Society. Of these, 561 persons called for 1769 newspaper files; 340 Kansas historical books
were called for, and 458 books of general history. Two-thirds of the visitors each month call to
see the pictures, relics, and curios.— Sec. I
TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 33
tion, making it the most important public record we have, might be given several
times for each week in the year. Great care has always been exercised in having
each volume complete ; during the past thirty days 220 postals and circulars were
mailed calling for missing numbers, and 810 volumes for the year 1899 are now in
the hands of the binder.
The correspondence indicates also a general demand upon this collection.
Since December 12, 1899, besides ninety-eight formal receipts or acknowledg-
ments, 223 letters have been written in response to requests for information or sug-
gestions concerning every feature of Kansas history or development. Many of
the letters required hours of research through books, pamphlets, and manuscripts.
Two requests were made during this time — one from Washington and the other
from New York — for information of a historical nature, each of which required
from a week to two weeks of searching through scores of volumes, which we were
compelled to decline because they were too much for our present help.
The original intent of the Society to gather material illustrative of the his-
tory of Kansas has expanded until we have here a reference library of wide-
spread proportions. There is but a trifle of a purely literary nature in this
collection, and, outside of a few Kansas publications, we have no calls in that
line. We have an extensive collection of western travels which is largely used.
Our customers call for information in history, or for facts or figures concerning
public questions or public administration. The actions of political parties,
church associations, educational, philanthropic and reform gatherings, states-
men, authors, men of note, are here on record because of a general demand.
Anything in this line not on hand, when called for, we secure by gift or exchange,
if possible. To illustrate: The latest received by gift, which we requested be-
cause called for, and they were not on hand, was a full set of the police reports
of the city of New York. I think this an outgrowth of the newspaper files.
Men spend hours and days in these rooms digging after something in this line.
Young men are constantly calling and spending much time looking up their
fathers' military records. The Sons of the Revolution have desk room with us,
and time and work are given by the officers in gathering information for individ-
uals and families in different parts of the state concerning their ancestors in the
revolution, or ancestors they hope to find involved in the events of that period.
This feature, as well as a like interest from other motives, indicates that a desire
for family history, or genealogy, exists to a considerable extent in Kansas, and,
as a resvilt, this collection must grow in that direction.
This collection is almost wholly the result of gifts or exchange: hence, there
are doubtless many books in it that would not otherwise be here. The small sum
appropriated for the purchase of books I find has been conscientiously limited to
the line of history. It will please you to know, as it pleases me to state, from
correspondence, publications, and gentlemen of distinction who have called, that
this Society and its work stand very high in literary, historic and library cii-cles
throughout the country.
We have a full collection of books, pamphlets, photos, curios and newspaper
clippings concerning the Kansas soldiers in the Spanish-Philippine war. In all
features of current events the duty of gathering is closely followed. The Society
is under great obligations to J. W. Ozias, of Lawrence, a private in company H,
Twentieth Kansas, for his thoughtful consideration every day during the Philip-
pine campaign, in gathering and forwarding relics and curios: and also to A. M.
Coville, of Topeka, a private in the Rough Riders in Cuba, for a like service.
The museum feature has been wonderfully enhanced by these gentlemen.
On the 6th of July, 1899, Mrs. Elizabeth A. Johnson conveyed by deed to the
34 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Kansas State Historical Society eleven acres of land in Republic county, a part of
section 3, in township 2 south, of range 5 west, being the site of Pike's Pawnee
Indian village. This deed has been placed in escrow with the secretary. The con-
ditions of this deed are, that the State Historical Society shall fence and suitably
mark said described land to commemorate the first raising of the American flag
on Kansas territory, within four years from date, or, if at any time thereafter the
land shall not be used for state or national purposes, then the same shall revert
to Mrs. Johnson. Capt. Zebulon M. Pike, on his famous expedition of 1806, held
a council with the Pawnees on the 29th of September. In his diary for this date
he says :
"After the chiefs had replied to various parts of my discourse, but were silent
as to the flag, I again reiterated the demand for the flag, adding that it was im-
possible for the nation to have two fathers; ' that they must either be the children
of the Spaniards or acknowledge their American father.' After a silence of some
time an old man rose, went to the door, took down the Spanish flag, brought it
and laid it at my feet. He then received the American flag and elevated it on
the stafT which had lately borne the standard of his Catholic majesty."
The location of this Pawnee village, where this interesting and patriotic inci-
dent occurred, has been definitely and authoritatively established on the land
embraced in Mrs. Johnson's deed, and it would be a" handsome and inspiring act
for the state of Kansas to suitably mark it forever.
During the year there have been added to the library 951 volumes of books;
4932 unbound volumes and pamphlets; 1545 volumes of newspapers and period-
icals; 2000 single newspapers containing matter of historical interest; 69 maps,
atlases, and charts; 389 manuscripts : 200 pictures and other works of art; 35
pieces of scrip, currency, and coin; 96 relics and miscellaneous contributions;
166 war relics. Thus to the library proper, of books, pamphlets, newspapers,
and periodicals, during the year, have been added 7428 volumes. Of these, 7175
have been procured by gift and exchange and 253 by purchase.
Of newspapers and other periodicals now being published in Kansas, our list
shows 807 in all : 51 dailies, 619 weeklies, 3 semiweeklies, 103 monthlies, 10 quarter-
lies, 12 semimonthlies, 1 bimonthly, and 8 occasionals. The regular issues of all
these, with scarcely an exception, are being given the Society by the publishers,
and are bound in annual or semiannvial volumes.
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS DELIVERED AND READ
AT ANNUAL MEETINGS.
1214C22
D
THE NINETEENTH KANSAS CAVALRY.
An address by Hon. HoRArE L. Moore, before the Kansas State Historical Society,
at twenty-first annual meeting, January 19, 1897.
URING the summers of 1868 and 1869 the western part of Kansas, the
_j^_^ southeastern part of Colorado and the northwestern part of Texas were
raided over and over again by war parties of what were called the Plains Indians.
The Indians engaged in these forays were Cheyennes, Arapahoes. Kiowas,
Comanches, northern Cheyennes, Brule, Ogalalla Sioux, and the Pawnees.
On the 10th of August, 1868, they struck the settlements on the Saline river.
On the 12th they reached the Solomon and wiped out a settlement where the
city of Minneapolis is now situated. In this raid fifteen persons were killed, two
wounded, and five women carried off. On the same day they attacked Wright's
hav camp, near Fort Dodge, raided the Pawnee, and killed two settlers on the
Republican. On the 8th of September they captured a train at the Cimarron
crossing of the Arkansas river, securing possession of seventeen men, whom they
burned: and the day following they murdered six men between Sheridan and
Fort Wallace. On the 1st of September, 1868, the Indians killed four men at
Spanish Fori:, in Texas, and outraged three women. One of these women was
outraged bv thirteen Indians, and afterwards killed and scalped. They left her
with the hatchet still sticking in her head. Before leaving, they murdered her
four little children. Of the children carried off by the Indians from Texas in
1868, fourteen were frozen to death in captivity.
The total of losses from September 12, 1868, to February 9, 1869, exclusive of
the casualties incident to military operations, was 158 men murdered, sixteen
wounded, and fortv-one scalped. Three scouts were killed, fourteen women out-
raged, one man was captured, four women and twenty.four children were earned
off" Nearly all these losses occurred in what we then called western Kansas,
although the Saline, Solomon and Republican do not seem so very far west now.
In 1867 the Union Pacific railroad was built as far west as Fort Hays, and as
the graders were constantly being attacked by Indians, the Eighteenth Kansas
cavalry (a battalion of four companies, was mustered into the service of the
United States for the purpose of furnishing protection to the laborers on the
railroad and to keep the Santa Fe trail clear for the passage of wagon trains and
the overland coaches. The battalion was rendezvoused at Fort Marker near
where Ellsworth is situated, on the 15th of July, 1867. I was mustered with the
rank of major in command. At that time the Asiatic cholera was epidenuc on
the plains, and the hospitals at Harker were full of soldiers and laborers sick
with cholera. . , . f„f:,^„
As soon as the command was mustered into the service and t-ansportation
and supplies could be obtained, it marched to the southwest to strike the Arkan-
sas river near Fort Zarah, at the mouth of Walnut creek. The sick were left at
(35)
36 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Harker. The afternoon march of the 15th of July developed no new cases of
cholera. On the Kith a long march was made, and camp pitched on the left bank
of Walnut creek, about ten miles above Zarah (Great Bend now). The day
brought no new cases, and everybody felt cheerful, hoping that the future had
nothing worse in store than a meeting with hostile Indians. By eight p. m. sup-
per was over, and in another hour the camp became a hospital of screaming
cholera patients. Men were seized with cramping of the stomach, bowels, and
muscles of the arms and legs. The doctor and his medicine were powerless to
resist the disease. One company had been sent away on a .scout as soon as the
command reached the camp, and of the three companies remaining in camp the
morning of the 17th found five dead and thirty-six stretched on the ground in a
state of collapse. These men had no pulse at the wrist, their hands were shrunken
and purple, with the skin in wrinkles, and their eyes wide open. The doctor pro-
nounced them in a state of hopeless collapse. By sunrise a grave had been dug
and the dead buried.
Commissary and quartermaster stores were then thrown away, and two of the
sick (most favorable cases) were put into the single ambulance with the com-
mand, and the remaining thirty-four were put into the wagons with blankets
under them. A government wagon is wide enough for three men to lie side by
side, and long enough for two men at the side, so that each wagon would carry
six. In this way the sick were all taken along. It was necessiry to follow up
Walnut Creek three or four miles before a crossing could be effected. While this
was being done the sick were examined, and not one was found to have died
since the cholera camp was left. On this the doctor took new courage, and
during the balance of the day he was unremitting in his attentions. He went
from one wagon to another, giving stimulants where it was possible to get the
patient to swallow, and details were made to assist him in chafing the hands and
feet to restore, if possible, the circulation.
A long march was made on the 17th, and camp was finally made on the Ar-
kansas river above Pawnee Rock. Not a man had died during the day. A buf-
falo calf was shot, soup made, and the sick taken from the wagons and made as
comfortable as possible under the circumstances. The night was spent in the
most assiduous care of these sick men, and in the morning a detachment was
sent to Fort Larnedto notify the commanding officer of the post of the condition
of the command. On arriving at the crossing of Pawnee Fork, now Larned, the
sick were turned over to United States surgeons who had established a hospital
at this place. Although these thirty-six men were in a state of collapse when
they were loaded onto the wagons at the camp on Walnut creek, every one of
them lived to be turned over to the doctors at Fort Larned at noon on the 18th.
Their circulation had been restored and they were able to take nourishment. I
think this favorable result is entirely unprecedented in the treatment of Asiatic
cholera. The doctor, a young contract surgeon, by the name of Squire, from
New Hampshire, was attacked with cholera during the night of the 19th. As
the command had to move in the morning, the doctor was given his choice, to
move with it or remain in the hospital. He chose the latter, and on the second
day his case terminated fatally.
The command moved up Pawnee Fork without a medical attendant, and on
the second day after leaving Fort Larned one of the sergeants was attacked, and
died of cholera that night. This was the last fatal case in the command. The
hospital steward was attacked at the same time but recovered.
The battalion served four months on the plains, marched about 2200 miles, and
fought a battle with the Cheyennes on Prairie Dog creek, a branch of the Re-
THE NINETEENTH KANSAS CAVALRY. 37
publican, in which it suffered a loss of fourteen officers and men killed and
wounded.
The depredations of the Indians during the fall of the following year ( 1868)
satisfied the war department that something more effective than a summer cam-
paign would have to be resorted to, to protect the frontier settlements and teach
the Indians that the army was able to punish any tribe that made a pastime of
robbery and murder. General Sheridan, who was then in command of the de-
partment of the Missouri, determined on a winter campaign. If there is anything
that strikes terror into the heart of the soldier, it is a winter campaign. There is
no feed for his horse except what he can haul in the train, and the roads are
generally impassable for trains and artillery. His camp equipage must be cut
down all that is possible to save transportation. Tents, camp stores and cloth-
ing must give place to commissary stores, and, as a general statement, the im-
pediments of the army must be reduced to the lowest point possible.
The battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 1.3, and the army went
into winter quarters, where it remained till May 2 following. On the last of
September, Meade retreated across the Rapidan from Mine Run, and did not
move again till the ith of May following, when Grant began the Richmond cam-
paign, and Sherman began the Atlanta campaign at the same time. The final
campaign that resulted in the capture of Richmond began on the 29th of March.
The battle of Borodino was fought on the 17th of September, and soon after Napo-
leon was forced to begin a winter campaign that lost him his army. In a winter
campaign was the only hope of subduing the Indians. In the summer the plains
were covered with grass and buffalo. The Indians' forage and rations were
everywhere. In the winter the buffalo were in the caiions and mountains, snow
covered the grass, and blizzards swept the plains.
On the 9th of October, 1868, General Sheridan called on Gov. S. J. Crawford,
of Kansas, for a twelve-company regiment of cavalry, to be mustered into the
United States service for this winter campaign. On the 15th of October General
Sherman wrote as follows to General Sheridan :
"As to extermination, it is for the Indians themselves to determine. We
do n't want to exterminate or even fight them. At best it is an inglorious war,
not apt to add much to our fame or personal comfort: and for our soldiers, to
whom we owe our first thoughts, it is all danger and extreme labor, without a
single compensating advantage. ... As brave men, and as the soldiers
of a government which has exhausted its peace efforts, we, in the performance
of a most unpleasant duty, accept the war begun Vjy our enemies, and hereby re-
solve to make its end final. If it results in the utter annihilation of these In-
dians, it is but the result of what they have been warned again and again, and
for which they seem fully prepared. I will say nothing and do nothing to re-
strain our troops from doing what they deem proper on the spot, and will allow
no mere vague general charges of cruelty and inhumanity to tie their hands, but
will use all the powers confided to me to the end that these Indians, the enemies
of our race and of our civilization, shall not again be able to begin and carry
on their barbarous warfare on any kind of pretext that they may choose to
allege. I believe that this winter will afford us the opportunity, and that before
the snow falls these Indians will seek some sort of peace, to be broken next year
at their option: but we will not accept their peace, or cease our efforts till all
the past acts are both punished and avenged. You may now go ahead in your
own way, and I will back you with my whole authority, and stand between you
and any efforts that may be attempted in your rear to restrain your purpose or
check your troops." (Se"e Sen. Ex. Doc. No. 18, XLth Cong., 3d session, p. 5.)
This letter of General Sherman's will be understood when it is remembered
that the Indian bureau is a part of the department of the interior. The Indian
department appointed Indian agents, bought and issued supplies, and had entire
control of Indian affairs, till an outbreak occurred, when the war department
3S KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
was called upon to force the hostiles into submission. As soon as the army
struck the Indians, "the charges of cruelty and inhumanity," mentioned by
General Sherman, were made and reiterated from one end of the country to the
other, with the result that the army was called olf. Now Sherman promised
Sheridan to "back him with his whole authority" and stand between him and
the querulous and impracticable humanitarians of the East.
The Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry was called into the United States service under
instructions received by his excellency S. J. Crawford, governor of Kansas, from
Maj.-gen. P. H. Sheridan, dated October 9, 1868. The proclamation of the
governor calling for volunteers was dated October 10, 1868, and the regiment was
mustered, anned and the organization completed at Topeka, Kan, on the 4th of
November, by the muster-in of Samuel J. Crawford as colonel. I was mustered in
with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
In obedience to orders from General Sheridan, Captain Norton, D troop, and
Captain Lender, G troop, were sent by rail to Fort Hays on the 5th, with their
command'^, and, under instructions from the same source, the remaining ten com-
panies broke camp at Topeka, and marched en route to the mouth of Beaver
creek (the north branch of the North Canadian), where a depot of supplies was
to be established by General Sully on the 15th inst. Our route was via Camp
Beecher, now Wichita, at the mouth of the Little Arkansas, distant 150 miles,
which distance we were to make with a new organization, supplied with five days'
rations, and depend upon procuring forage from the country through which we
were to pass, as our limited transportation of fifteen wagons precluded the possi-
bility of carrying any supply with us. The command arrived at Camp Beecher
on the 12th inst. This was the first experience of the regiment in making five
days' rations do the work of ten, and, like all first efforts, it was not a complete
success. General Sheridan says:
"On November 15 I started for Camp Supply to give general supervision and
to participate in the operations. I deemed it best to go in person, as the cam-
paign was an experimental one — campaigns at such a season having been deemed
impracticable and reckless by old and experienced frontiersmen — and I did not
like to expose the troops to great hazard without being present myself to judge
of their hardships and privations." (Page 45.)
The regiment marched from Camp Beecher on the 14th of November, with
five days' rations, ea route to Camp Supply: supposed distance, 140 miles. On
the night of the 16th the command camped on the Chicaskia, and the last of the
forage was fed to the animals. On the night of the 18th the regiment camped
on Medicine Lodge creek. A stampede of the animals of B, I and K troops oc-
curred here, and about eighty horses were lost.
The regiment moved out of camp on the morning of the 19th without forage
for the animals or subsistence for the men, marching through an unexplored re-
gion in search of a camp of supplies supposed to be situated somewhere on the
Canadian river, and on the night of the 22d carnped on Sand creek, during a
heavy fall of snow, in sight of the bluffs of the Cimarron. Buffalo were abun-
dant, and thus far the command had subsisted on them. Captain Pliley, A
troop, and Lieutenant Parsons, C troop, with fifty of the best-mounted men of
the command, were sent forward from this point to find General Sheridan, if pos-
sible, and cause supplies to be sent back to the regiment.
November 23 a blinding snow-storm continued all day. The guides found it
impossible to keep the direction, and the command was forced to lie in camp.
November 24. The snow this morning was fifteen inches deep. The horses
had subsisted on cotton wood bark and limbs, and were, by this time, so much ex-
hausted that the men walked and led them. The country was so broken that, in
<
THE NINETEENTH KANSAS CAVALRY. 39
some instances, ten miles were traveled winding around the canons to make two
miles on the line of march. The regiment camped that night at Hackberry Point,
on the Cimarron, so named by the men from the abundance of hackberrie^ in the
vicinity, which were used for food. The canons of the Cimarron are not like
those of Arizona, which are cut in the solid rock and have perpendicular walls,
but are like the canons of the Llano Estacado, or staked plain. The Cimar-
ron cuts its way through a plateau of clay or loess, and the main stream, together
with the innumerable side streams, have cut the whole country into a labyrinth
of canons or deep gulches that are almost impassable. The snow was from a foot
to eighteen inches deep everywhere. The guide knew no more about the country
than any man of the regiment, and the only course left was to continue the
march, keeping a southwest course as nearly as possible, and keep going until the
command got out of the canon country. It happened that about sundown of the
2ith a bunch of buflfalo bulls were seen among the bluffs. The command was
halted while the guides stole up on them and shot the whole number. The train
failed to come up at night and the command bivouacked on the snow without the
usual small supply of blankets.
November 2o. The train got in by morning, and the regiment was divided.
Four hundred and fifty men (the best mounted) crossed the Cimarron atone p. m.
and marched in a southwest course in search of Camp Supply. Those horses
which were most nearly exhausted, together with the train and the sick, were left
in camp under command of Major Jenkins, with orders to remain until supplies
reached them. The country on the south side of the Cimarron at this point is
much broken, and the command was forced to reach the table-land above by follow-
ing up the dry bed of the stream which had cut its way down through the inacces-
sible bluffs. The men dismounted, and leading, single file, wound their way
around cliffs and over broken banks for several miles, till a little after sunset
and just as the full moon came up they emerged from the canon, and by climb-
ing a precipitous cliff were enabled to overlook the inhospitable table-land cov-
ered with snow. To-night we bivouacked in a small ravine with the never-failing
buffalo meat for supper, no salt.
November 26. Still southwest over rolling prairie and through deep canons,
horses perishing by the way, but with stout hearts the command moved forward,
one company after another taking their place in front to break the road through
the deep show. The crust to-day in some places was strong enough to hold up
the men. Bivouacked on a nameless stream, fifteen miles north of the Canadian.
November 27. Crossed Captain Pliley's trail at noon and bivouacked at night
on the Canadian, at a point supposed to be twenty-five miles below the mouth of
Beaver creek. Made supper from wild turkey.
November 28. Moved up the Canadian, and at three p. m. the advance came
back to the regiment with the welcome news that Camp Supply was in sight.
The advance of the command took up the shout, and it was carried back along
the column with a vigor which evinced the fact that each had felt more anxiety
for the safety of the command than he cared to express. Made camp at sun-
down, canvas being furnished from the post by General Sheridan. Captain
Pliley had arrived on the 25th instant, and supplies had been sent to the detach-
ment left at Hackberry Point on the 25th. The detachment arrived at Camp
Supply on the 1st of December. The camp where the train was left was always
known among the men as Camp Starvation.
After leaving Camp Beecher the regiment marched 205 miles on three days'
forage and five days' rations, consuming fourteen days in making the trip: seven-
ty-five horses perished from the cold and want of food. The health of the regi-
40 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
ment was good and it endured the hardships of the march without a murmur.
We did not lose a man.
Touching the loss of the regiment in the Cimarron canons, General Sheridan
aays in his "Memoirs":
"Instead of relying on the guides, Crawford had undertaken to strike through
the canons of the Cimarron by what appeared to him a more direct route, and
in the deep gorges, filled as they were with snow, he had been floundering about
for days without being able to extricate his command. Then, too, the men were
out of rations, though they had been able to obtain enough butfalo meat to keep
from starving."
This was written in 1888. It is better to quote from the general's official
report, made at the time, twenty years before he wrote his "Memoirs" :
"On November 25 I was relieved from great anxiety by the arrival of Cap-
tain Pliley and about thirty men. The regiment had lost its way, and becoming
tangled up in the canons of the Cimarron, and in the deep snow and out of pro-
visions, it could not make its way out and was in a bad fix. Provisions were im-
mediately sent, and good guides to bring it in. It had been subsisting on butt'alo
for eight or nine days."
The word "good" is important, as it implies that the one sent to Topeka was
"no good," and the statement that Colonel Crawford did not rely on the guide
till the guide got lost is entirely without foundation. The report was current
in the command that when the guide met Sheridan the said guide picked up
considerable information as to the way English was spoken by the British army
in Flanders on a certain occasion. The general reported of the regiment:
" Officers and men behaved admirably in the trying condition in which they were
placed."
When the regiment arrived at Camp Supply it found a camp prepared. The
snow had been cleared otf the ground, "A" tents pitched for the men, and
wall tents for the officers, with hay in every tent for bedding. This was a palace
hotel compared with the canons of the Cimarron, and Sheridan had captured
the regiment at one blow.
On the 6th of December Captain Norton, D troop, reported at Camp Supply,
and was ordered to the command. Captain Moody, M troop, being detailed for
escort duty in his place.
Captain Norton reached Fort Hays on the Ith of November, and escorted
a train to Camp Supply, arriving on the 22d inst.: returned to Fort Dodge and
escorted a train to Camp Supply, arriving on the 6th. On the same day Maj.
Chas. Dimon, with one captain, three lieutenants, and 250 men, were detached
from the command and left at Camp Supply: this included the dismounted and
the sick. This detachment was employed during the winter in garrisoning the
post and escorting supply trains.
On the morning of the 23d Custer had been ordered to follow on the back
track a trail that came up from the southwest and crossed the Fort Dodge road
between Supply and Dodge. The trail led him to an Indian camp on the Wash-
ita, some seventy-five miles south of Supply. Custer attacked the camp at day-
light on the morning of the 27th of November, and had a hard fight. He lost
nineteen officers and men, killed and wounded, with Major Elliott and fifteen men
missing. He killed 103 Indian warriors, and some of the squaws and children
were killed and wounded in the excitement. He captured saddles, buffalo robes,
Ijrovisions, and 875 horses. These were surrounded and shot. General Custer
returned to Camp Supply November 30.
On the 7th of December the whole command marched for Fort Cobb. This
included the Nineteenth Kansas, Seventh United States cavalry, and a company
¥
I
MARCH OF TJiE /S'^'KANS/iS CAWiLRY.
rTPOAt OCT. /eea to /n/tRcn /669.
41
ik of Wolf
command
rch was a
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ing a full-
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the Nine-
;he fate of
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as the ser-
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e stripped
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the Nine-
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riking his
er bosom,
•rning the
THE NINETEENTH KANSAS CAVALRY. 41
of Osage Indian scouts. The first day's march was to the south bank of Wolf
creek, a distance of ten miles. The snow was still deep, and, when the command
left Supply, the temperature was below zero. The second day's march was a
little more than thirty miles, and camp was made on Hackberry creek, with
plenty of wood for fires. During the night the wind rose, and by morning a full-
fledged norther, or blizzard, was on the boards, billed for two nights and a mati-
nee. The country seemed to be full of blizzards. The first had struck the
regiment in the caiions; the second while it was in camp at Supply; this was
the third. General Sheridan says of No. 3:
"We camped in excellent shape on the creek (Hackberry), and it was well we
did, for a norther, or blizzard, struck us in the night. It would have been well to
remain in camp till the gale was over, but the time could not be spared. We
therefore resumed the march at an early hour next morning, with the expecta-
tion of making the south bank of the main Canadian, and there passing the night,
as Clark, the guide, assured me that timber was plentiful on that side of the
river. The storm greatly impeded us, however, many of the mules growing dis-
couraged, and some giving out entirely, so we could not get to Clark's 'good
camp,' for, with ten hours of utmost effort, only about a half day's distance could
be covered, when, at last, finding the struggle useless, we were forced to halt for
the night in a bleak bottom on the north bank of the river. But no one could
sleep, for the wind swept over us with unobstructed fury, and the only fuel to be
had was a few green bushes. As night fell, a decided change of temperature
added much to our misery. The mercury, which had risen when the ' norther ' be-
gan, again falling to zero. It can be easily imagined that, under the circumstances,
the condition of the men was one of extreme discomfort; in truth, they had to
tramp up and down the camp all night long to keep from freezing. Anything
was a relief to this state of things, so, at the first streak of day, we quit the
dreadful place and took up the march."
The next morning the command crossed the Canadian, which was about half
a mile wide, by first breaking up the ice with axes and then marching the cavalry
through. It took till noon to get the command over. Luckily there was timber
on the south side of the stream. Fires were built and clothes thawed out and
dried. General Sheridan says, in his official report: "We moved due south until
we struck the Washita, near Custer's fight of November 27, having crossed the
main Canadian with the thermometer about eighteen degrees below zero." The
command marched in the afternoon and made camp on the Washita about dark.
As wood was abundant, it was determined to lay over here till the storm subsided.
The next day, December 11, General Sheridan, with several officers of the Nine-
teenth and Seventh, visited the battle-field to determine, if possible, the fate of
Major Elliott and his men. It took but a few minutes to discover the bodies on
the bank of a tributary of the Washita, called Sergeant-major creek (as the ser-
geant-major of the Seventh was one of the killed), on the south side of the battle-
field. They were lying in a circle, feet to the center, and a pile of empty cartridge
cases by each man told how dearly he had sold his life. The bodies were stripped
of clothing, except the knit undershirt, and the throat of every one of them had
the appearance of having been cut. This was caused by the Indians having cut
out the thyroid cartilage. None were scalped, and none of the bodies had been mo-
lested by wolves. The men all lay with their faces down and the back was shot
full of arrows. Wagons were sent for and the dead buried that night in a grave
dug on the north bank of the river, opposite the scene of the battle.
On his way back to camp. Doctor Bailey, of Topeka, surgeon of the Nine-
teenth, discovered the body of a white woman and a little boy two years old.
The woman had been shot in the forehead, and the child killed by striking his
head against a tree. The mother had a piece of bread concealed in her bosom,
as though she had attempted to escape from the camp. The next morning the
—3
42 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
woman was laid on a blanket on her side and the boy on her arm, and the men
ordered to march by to see if possibly some one might identify her. It was Mrs.
Hlinn, captured by the Kiowas October 6, with a train going from Lyon to Dodge.
Her husband was killed at the time. The body of the woman and child were
taken along, and finally buried in the government cemetery at Fort Arbuckle.
On the 2d of November a number of Mexican traders had been in the Kiowa
camp, and she had taken the opportunity to send out a letter by them. It is
dated Saturday, November 7, 18(38, and reads as follows:
"Kind friends, whoever you may be: I thank you for your kindness to me
and my child, '^'ou want me to let you know my wishes. If you could only buy
us of the Indians with ponies or anything and let me come and stay with you
until I can get word to my friends, they would pay you, and I would work and
do all I could for you. If it is not too far to their camp, and you are not afraid
to come, I pray tKat you will try. They tell me, as nfjar as I can understand,
they expect traders to'come and they will sell us to them. Can you find out by
this man and let me know if it is white men ? If it is Mexicans, I am afraid
they would sell us into slavery in Mexico. If you can do nothing for me, write
to W. T. Harrington, Ottawa, Franklin county, Kansas, my father: tell him we
are with the Cheyennes, and they say when the white men make peace we can
go home. Tell him to write to the governor of Kansas about it, and for them to
make peace. Send this to him. We were taken on the 9th of October, on the
Arkansas, below Fort Lyon. I cannot tell whether they killed my husband or
not. My name is Mrs. Clara Blinn. My little boy, Willie Blinn, is two years
old. Do all you can for me. W^rite to the peace commissioners to make peace
this fall. For our sakes do all you can, and God will bless you. If you can, let
me hear from you again: let me know what you think about it. Write to my
father: send him this. Good-by. Mrs. R. F. Blinn.
" I am as well as can be expected, but my baby is very weak."
The command marched on the morning of the 12th, following the Indian
trail down the Washita. This was a hard day. It is well to see what so old a
campaigner as General Sheridan thought of it:
"At an early hour on December 12 the command pulled out from its cozy
camp and pushed down the valley of the Washita, following immediately on the
Indian trail which led in the direction of Fort Cobb, but before going far it was
found that the many deep ravines and canons on this trail would delay our train
very much, so we moved out of the valley, and took the level jjrairie on the di-
vide. Here the traveling was good, and a rapid gait was kept up till midday,
when, another storm of sleet and snow coming on, it became extremely difficult
for the guides to make out the proyjer course: and, fearing that we might get
lost or caught on the open plain without food or water — as we had been on the
Canadian— I turned the command back to the valley, resolved to try no more
short cuts involving a risk of a disaster to the expedition. But, to get back was
no slight task, for a dense fog just now enveloped us, obscuring the landmarks.
However, we were headed right when the fog set in, and we had the good luck to
reach the valley before nightfall, though there was a great deal of floundering
about, and also much disputing among the guides as to where the river v/ould be
found. Fortunately we struck the stream right at a large grove of timber, and
established ourselves admirably. By dark the ground was covered with twelve or
fifteen inches of fresh snow, and, as usual, the temperature rose very sensibly while
the storm was on, but after nightfall the snow ceased and the skies cleared up.
Daylight having brought zero weather again, our start on the morning of the 13th
was iKvinful work, many of the men freezing their fingers while handling the horse
equipments, harness, and tents. However, we got oflf in fairly good season, and
kept to the trail along the Washita, notwithstanding the frequent digging and
bridging necessary to get the wagons over ravines."
Three days' march brought the command within striking distance of the
Kiowa camp. The Indians did not suppose it possible for soldiers to move in
such weather, and were taken by surprise. While the command was being got
across a bad ravine, some of them appeared with a flag of truce, and delivered a
letter from General Hazen saying the Kiowas were friendly. The soldiers repre-
THE NINETEKSTH KANSAS CAVALRY. 43
sented the war department and Hazen the Indian department. It was exactly
this back-fire and this influence that General Sherman had promised to guard
against. There was no way out of it now, however, and Sheridan accepted the
promise of the chiefs, Satanta and Lone Wolf, to move their families to Fort
Cobb at once, and said the warriors would go with the command. So the march
was resumed. In a little while the warriors began to drop out one by one. At
last Satanta tried to get away, when he and Lone Wolf were both put under
guard. The command reached Fort Cobb on the evening of Dc cember 18, and
General Sheridan reported only two sick men in the Seventh cavalry and six in
the Nineteenth. He said: "The whole command is in shelter tents, as we could
not spare transportation for others, but the men now prefer the 'shelter,' even at
this season of the year. Everybody is feeling well and enthusiastic."
On the march from Camp Supply to Fort Cobb the command lost 148 horses,
perishing from cold and want of food. Brigadier-general Forsythe, assistant
inspector-general, department of Missouri, inspected the regiment on the 22d of
November, and said in his report:
" The soldierly bearing and military appearance of this regiment has made
rapid and marked improvement since my inspection at Camp Supply; for this
favorable condition of alTairs the field officers are entitled and are deserving of
special mention and praise. I have the pleasure, in concluding this report", to
mention particularly the military bearing and soldierly appearance of Captain
Norton's company D of this regiment. Next to Captain Norton's company, I
'have the pleasant duty of bringing to your notice Capt. A. J. Pliley's company A.
By reference to the table before given, it will be seen that Captain Pliley was the
only officer either in the Seventh cavalry or Nineteenth Kansas that made the
march through from Camp Supply to this post without losing a single horse."
Perhaps some of you have never made the acquaintance of a " shelter" tent.
During the war it was always called a "dog" tent. It is made of ducking, very
thin, is about six feet long and five or six feet wide. To pitch his tent the soldier
must first hunt up a couple of sticks with a fork or crotch, stick them in the
ground with the fork a couple of feet from the ground. Now he hunts another
stick that will reach from one fork to the other, and then stretches the cloth over
this, pinning the edges as close to the ground as he can. This leaves his tent
open at both ends, with an open space of three or four inches between the cloth
and the ground on each side. It always seemed to me that in zero weather this
tent sacrificed a great deal in the interest of ventilation.
When the command reached Cobb they found no Kiowas, but Sheridan told
Satanta and Lone Wolf that he would hang them both on the day following if
the tribe did not report by that time. Satanta was put into a Sibley tent witk
an armed guard around it. He would wrap his blanket around himself and come^
out and sit down by the side of the tent, then swaying back and forth, chant the
most doleful and monotonous death-song. Then stooping over he would scoop-
up sand and dirt and put into his mouth. Then he would go around to the
south and west side of the tent and, shading his eyes with his hand, would sweep-
the horizon to discover if possible the approach of his people. But Satanta's.
hour had not yet struck. Before sundown the advance of his tribe came in, andi
before morning the Kiowas were camped around Fort Cobb ready to obey orders.
This settled the Kiowas, and the Comanches had all reported except one small
band. General Evans struck this band on the western base of the Wichita
mountains on Christmas day, killing twenty-five warriors: then what was left
reported, some at Fort Cobb and some at Fort Bascom. Messages wese sent to
Yellow Bear, of the Arapahoes, and Little Robe, of the Cheyennes, to report, and
the former finally got his band in. This left nothing out but the Gheyennes.
44 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The command now moved south to the Wichita mountains, and established
Fort Sill, on Cache' creek. The Indians were all required to accompany the com-
mand. It was impossible to obtain forage for the animals that had survived the
st'vere winter and hard service, and after the arrival of the command on Cach<?
creek the horses of the Nineteenth were turned in to the regimental quartermas-
ter, Capt. L. A. Thrasher, and taken to Fort Arbuckle. While we were in camp
at Fort Sill, General Custer took a scout of about fifty picked men and, passing
along the southern foot of the Wichita mountains, marched to the west a dis-
tance of a hundred miles or more. He got into a desolate country of sage-brush
and mesquite, entirely destitute of game and almost without water. As he could
discover no signs of the Indians he returned to camp.
On the 12th instant Colonel Crawford received a leave of absence for twenty
days, and resigned his commission as colonel, to take effect at the expiration of
his leave of absence. He left the command on the 15th of February, carrying
with him the best wishes of the regiment, both officers and enlisted men. I as-
sumed command of the regiment by virtue of seniority of rank.
On the 2d of March, 1869, the Nineteenth Kansas and the Seventh cavalry
marched from Fort Sill with intention to find Little Robe's band of Cheyennes.
The command marched to the west, and on the second day out camped at Old
Camp Radziminski, a camp where the Second dragoons, under Colonel Van Dorn,
wintered, long before the war. The course was still west, across the North Fork
of Red river and across the Salt Fork of Red river, till the command reached
Gypsum creek. Here the command was divided. Most of the train, and all the
footsore and disabled were sent to the north up the North Fork and along the
state line, with orders to procure commissary stores and halt on the Washita till
joined by the balance of the command.
The Seventh and Nineteenth then pushed on up the Salt Fork, and on the 6th
of March struck the trail of the Indians. It was as broad and easy to follow as
an ordinary country road. The scanty rations were now reduced one-half, and
the pursuit began in earnest. At the head waters of the Salt Fork the trail
turned north and skirted along the foot of the Llano Estacado. The trail led
through a sandy mesquite country, entirely without game, although the streams
coming out of the staked plain furnished abundance of water. By the 12th of
March rations were reduced again. The mules were now dying very fast of
starvation, as they had nothing to live on except the buds and bark of cotton-
wood trees cut down for them to browse on. Every morning the mules and horses
that were unable to travel were killed by cutting their throats, and the extra
wagons were run together and set on fire. On the 17th the command came onto
Indian camp-fires with the embers still smoldering. The rations were all ex-
hausted on the 18th, and the men subsisted, from that on, on mule meat, with-
out bread or salt.
On the afternoon of the 20th the Nineteenth Kansas came in sight of a band
of ponies off to the west of the line of march, which was now in a northeast direc-
tion. In a few minutes Indians began to cross the line of march in front of the
command, going with all haste towards the herd. The regiment quickened its
pace, and I directed the line of march to the point from which the Indians were
coming. In another mile the head of the column came upon a low bluflf over-
looking the bottom of the Sweetwater, and saw a group of 250 Cheyenne lodges
stretching up and down the stream and not more than 100 yards from the bluflf.
The men thought of the long marches, the short rations, the cold storms, of Mrs.
Blinn and her little boy, of the hundred murders in Kansas, and, when the order
"left front into line" was given, the rear companies came over the ground like
THE NINETEENTH KANSAS CAVALRY. 45
athletes. But "there is many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip." Lieutenant
Cook, Seventh cavalry, rode up to the commanding officer, and, touching his hat,
said, "The general sends his compliments, with instructions not to fire on the
Indians." It was a wet blanket, saturated with ice-water. In a minute another
aide came with orders to march the command a little way up stream and down
into the valley to rest. The order was executed and the regiment formed in
column of companies, with orders to rest. The men laid down on the ground or
sat on the logs, but always with their carbines in hand. Custer was close by,
sitting in the center of a circle of Indians chiefs holding a powwow. In two or
three minutes an officer of the Seventh came up, and in a low tone asked that a
few officers put on their side-arms and drop down one at a time to listen to the
talk. While Custer talked he watched the officers as they gathered around, and
in a few minutes he got up onto his feet and said, "Take these Indians prison-
ers." There was a short but pretty sharp struggle, and a guard with loaded guns
formed a line around these half-dozen chiefs, and Custer continued the talk.
But he had pulled out another stop. The tone was different. He told them
they had two white women of Kansas, and they must deliver them up to him.
They had denied this before, but now they admitted it, and said the women were
at another camp, fifteen miles further down the creek. He told them to instruct
the people to pick up this camp and move down to the camp mentioned, and we
would come down the next day and get the women.
As soon as the chiefs were taken prisoners, the warriors mounted their ponies,
and, armed with guns or bows and arrows, circled around the bivouac of the
troops. They looked very brave and warlike. They wore head-dresses of eagle
feathers, clean buckskin leggins and moccasins, and buckskin coats trimmed
with ample fringe. Lieutenant Johnson, commissary of the Nineteenth, watched
them awhile, and then remarked: "This is the fartherest I ever walked to see a
circus." In a surprisingly short time after Custer gave them permission, the
whole camp was pulled down, loaded onto the ponies, and not an Indian was in
sight except the half-dozen held by the guards. Another night of stout hearts
but restless stomachs, and in the morning the command began a march of
fifteen miles down the Sweetwater to the other camp. The trail was broad and
fresh for five miles, and then it began to thin out and get dimmer and dimmer,
until at the end of ten miles not a blade of grass was broken. At the end of
fifteen miles an old camp was reached, but no Indians had been there for two
months. The regiment bivouacked for the night, and General Custer had the
head chief taken down to the creek, a riata put around his neck and the other
end thrown over the limb of a tree. A couple of soldiers took hold of the other
end of the rope, and, by pulling gently, lifted him up onto his toes. He was let
down, and Romeo, the interpreter, explained to him that, when he was pulled up
clear from the ground and left there, he would be hung.
The grizzly old savage seemed to understand the matter fully, and then Cus-
ter told him if they did not bring those women in by the time the sun got within
a hand's breadth of the horizon on the next day, he would hang the chiefs on
those trees. He let the old chief's son go to carry the mandate to the tribe. It
was a long night, but everybody knew the next afternoon would settle the matter
in some way. As the afternoon drew on the men climbed the hills around camp,
watching the horizon, and about four p. m. a mounted Indian came onto a ridge
a mile away. He waited a few minutes, and then beckoning with his hand to
some one behind him he came on to the next ridge, and another Indian came on
to the ridge he had left. There was another pause, then the two moved up and
a third came in sight. They came up slowly in this way till at last a group of a
40 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
dozen came in si|?ht, and with a fjlass it could be seen that there were two per-
sons on one of the jionies. These were the women. The Indians brought them
to within about 200 yards of the camp, where they slid off the ponies, and Romeo,
the interpreter, who had met the Indians there, told the women to come in.
They came down the hill clinging to each other, as though determined not to be
scjiaratcd whatever might occur. I met them at the foot of the hill, and taking
the elder lady by the hand asked if she was Mrs. Morgan. She said she was,
and introduced the other. Miss White. She then asked, "Are we free now?"
I told her they were, and she asked, "Where is my husband?" I told her he
was at Hays and recovering from his wounds. Next question: " W^here is my
brother?" I told her he was in camp, but did not tell her that we had to put
him under guard to keep him from marring all by shooting the first Indian he
saw. Miss White asked no questions about her people. She knew they were all
dead before she was carried away. Custer had an "A" tent, which he brought
along for headquarters, and this was turned over to the women.
I forgot to say that on the trip a scouting party had chased an Indian who
got away from them, but he lost a bundle, which was thrown into one of the
wagons. On examination it proved to be some stuff that he had bought of some
of the traders at the fort. It contained calico, needles, thread, beads, and a
variety of things. The bundle was given to the women, and in a surprisingly
short time they had a new calico dress apiece. The stoiy the women told us of
their hardships, the cruelty of the squaws, the slavery to which they were sub-
jected, their suffering during the long flight of the Indians to escape the troops,
ought to cure all the humanitarians in the world. The women told us the In-
dians had been killing their dogs and living on the flesh for the last six weeks.
At the retreat that night, while the women stood in front of their tent to see
the guard mounted, the band played " Home, Sweet Home." The command
marched the next morning for the rendezvous on the Washita. It was a couple
of days' march, but when the end came there was cotTee, bacon, hard bread, and
canned goods. Any one of them was a feast for a king. From Washita to Sup-
ply, Supply to Dodge, Dodge to Hays, where the women were sent home to Min-
neapolis, and the Nineteenth was mustered out of the service. The Indian
prisoners were sent to Sill, and soon after the Cheyennes reported there and went
onto their reservation.
The generals had a good word for the Kansas volunteers and the work they
had done. General Sheridan :
" I am now able to report that there has been a fulfilment of all the condi-
tions which we had in view when we commenced our winter's campaign last
November, namely, punishment was inflicted; property destroyed : the Indians
disabused of the idea that winter would bring security; and all the tribes south
of the Hlatte forced on the reservations set apart for them by the government,
where they are in tangible .shape for the good work of civilization, education, and
religious instruction. I cannot speak too highly of the patient and cheerful con-
duct of the troops under my command : they were many times pinched by hunger
and numbed by cold: sometimes living in holes below the surface of the prairie,
dug to keep them from freezing; at other times pursuing the savages, and living
on the flesh of niules. In all these trying conditions the troops were always cheer-
ful and willing, and the officers full of esprit."
General Custer says in his official report:
"The point at which we found the Cheyenne village was in Texas, on the
Sweetwater, about ten miles west of the state line. Before closing my report, I
desire to call the attention of the major-general commanding to the unvarying
good conduct of this conunand since it undertook the march. We started with all
the rations and forage that could be obtained, neither sufficient for the time for
which we have already been out. First, it became necessary to reduce the amount
THE NINETEENTH KANSAS CAVALRY. 47
of rations: afterwards, a still greater reduction was necessary, and to-night most
of my men made their suppers from the tiesh of mules that had died on the march
to-day from starvation. When called upon to move in light marching order,
they "abandoned tents and blankets without a murmur, although much of the
march has been made during the severest winter weather I have experienced in
this latitude.
"The horses and mules of this command have subsisted day after day upon
nothing but green cottonwood bark. During all these privations the officers and
men maintained a most cheerful spirit, ivnd I know not which I admire most,
their gallantry in battle, or the patient but unwavering perseverance and energy
with which they have withstood the many disagreeable ordeals of this campaign.
"As the term of service of the Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry is approaching its
tenjiination, and I may not again have the satisfaction of commanding them dur-
ing active operations, I desire to commend them — officers and men — to the fa-
vorable notice of the commanding general. Serving on foot, they have marched
in a manner and at a rate that would put some of the regular regiments of in-
fantry to the blush. Instead of crying out for empty wagons to transport them,
each morning every man marched with his troop, and, what might be taken as
an example by some of the line officers of the regular infantry, company officers
marched regularly on foot at the head of their respective companies; and now,
when approaching the termination of a march of over 300 miles, on greatly defi-
cient rations, I have yet to see the first straggler.
"In obtaining the release of the captive white women, and that, too, without
ransom or the loss of a single man, the men of my command, and particularly
those of the Nineteenth Kansas, who were called into service owing to the mur-
ders and depredations of which the capture of these women formed a part, feel
more fully repaid for the hardships they have endured than if they had survived
an overwhelming victory over the Indians."
The expedition resulted in forcing the Kiowas, Comanches, Cheyennes and
Arapahoes onto their reservations, and since then the frontier settlements of
Kansas have been practically free from the depredations of Indians.
The campaign was a most arduous one, prosecuted without adequate camp
equipage, in the midst of winter, and much of the time with an exhausted com-
missariat. The regiments of Kansas have glorified our state on a hundred battle-
fields, but none served her more faithfully or endured more in her cause than the
Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry.
See roster of commissioned officers, next page et seq.
48
KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
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as
MEMORIAL ON JAMES M. HARVEY. 53
MEMORIAL ON JAMES M. HARVEY.
An address by L. R. Elliott, read before the Kansas State Historical Society,
at tweuty-lirst annual meeting, January 19, 1897.
JAMES MADISON HARVEY was the son of Thomas and Margaret Walker
Harvey. He was born in Monroe county, Virginia, September 21, 1833, of
Virginia parents, who, when their children were young, removed to the West,
first to Bush county, Indiana, thence to Iowa, and thence to Adams county,
Illinois, and it was under such conditions that he received his early education
amid the stirring scenes of pioneer life, in the public schools of Indiana, Iowa,
and Illinois.
He began going to school when very young, and it is said that he always stood
at the head of his class. He very soon acquired a great thirst for knowledge ;
and any history, no matter how large, was none too big for him. Even before he
was ten years old, his favorite pasttime was to busy himself with a book of his-
tory so big that he could not handle it. He would set it against the wall, and
lie down on the floor in front of it, and so completely forget all else that he would
hardly stop to eat his meals. His memory was excellent, and he never forgot
anything he read, and to the day of his death was always accurate in his refer-
ences to matters of history. His body and mind were well developed at an early
age. At seventeen years he was a match for the brawniest harvest hand in the
field, or the most learned historian or politician he met in debate. While he was
a strong and logical reasoner face to face on many subjects, he was not an orator,
and a man greatly his inferior in knowledge and honesty would excel him in that
one particular gift. The cognomen, "Old Honesty," given him in the Kansas
legislature, continued through his two terms as governor, and followed him
through the United States senate. It was a well-merited designation and far too
appropriate to be lost sight of in this sketch.
Very early in life he became an admirer of military heroes, and he never failed
to praise a brave or to condemn a cowardly act. He knew no such thing as fear,
and was always to be found where duty called him, regardless of consequences.
In fact, duty was his guiding star through all his life, and he was never known
to swerve an iota from what he conceived to be his 'duty.
He was married in 1854 to Miss Charlotte Richardson Cutter, of Adams
county, Illinois. She, with six children, four daughters and two sons, survives
him. In 1859 he removed from Adams county, Illinois, where he had followed his
chosen occupation of land surveying, to Kansas, where, with an interval of a few
years spent in Virginia, he made his home until his death. In Kansas, he at
once began to develop his preemption claim which he had taken in Riley county,
and upon which he made his permanent home.
In 1861, at the beginning of the war, he enlisted as soldier in the union army.
He organized a company at Ogden, Kan., and was mustered into the service at
Fort Leavenworth; and from 1861 to 1864 was captain, successively, of companies
in the Fourth and Tenth regiments of Kansas volunteer infantry. He was mus-
tered out in 1864 and returned to his homestead farm, and in 1865 served as repre-
sentative from Riley county in the Kansas legislature, and was returned in 1866.
At this second election there was but one vote cast against him. He was a mem-
ber of the state senate in 1867-'68, from the then seventh district, composed of
5-4 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Marshall, Riley and Shirley counties: was elected governor of Kansas in 1868,
anil reflected in 1870, each time for the usual term of two years.
Prior to the holding of tlie primaries in 18G8, Mr. Harvey canvassed his
chances of support for the gubernatorial nomination in perhaps a dozen counties
and found a good support; but to make a canvass required money, and this was
not at his command, so he had decided to retire from the field. The state con-
vention was about to be held. At this stage, a neighbor of Senator Harvey was
informed by a friend in another part of the county that if the senator needed
money to conduct his campaign he would supply him. The result of this unex-
pected offer was that Senator Harvey borrowed $200 of this friend, and that sum
paid all the expenses of the campaign. Some years later Governor Harvey said
to this friend: " That offer of yours tendering me money was the turning-point
of my life. I had decided not to go before the state convention as a candidate,
and had given it all up. I would not ask anyone to loan me money, but the ten-
der of it unasked was the occasion of my going into the convention, and the
result made me governor and, later. United States senator." The prominent
candidates before the convention were Geo. A. Crawford and ex-Governor Car-
ney, with the former in the lead, but after the second ballot Carney withdrew
and Harvey was nominated. That was before the days of prohibition. Some of
Harvey's supporters thought that a little whisky was desirable, but there was not
a drink of Harvey whisky to be had; for he had said: "If I can't be elected
without paying for whisky votes with drink, I prefer to remain a private citizen."
Those most familiar with the campaign say that not a dollar was spent for
whisky, nor for anything except personal expenses. He was a plain man and
not at all given to display, and his success seems to have come because of his
worth as a citizen. His majority in 1868 was about 16,000, and in 1870 about
20,000.
After completing his second term as governor he returned to his old-time
business of surveying, and was engaged in a survey of part of western Kansas
when he was called to Topeka, and was elected to fill the vacancy in the United
States senate caused by the resignation of Alexander Caldwell. This was in
1874, his term beginning February 8 of that year, and expiring March 4, 1877,
when he again "went back to his plow and his compass and chain." Between
1881 and 1884 he filled government surveying contracts in New Mexico, Arizona,
Nevada, and Utah.
In 1884, his health being impaired, and hoping to receive benefit from a milder
climate, he, with hie family, removed to Virginia, living three years in Norfolk
and three years in Richmond. In 1890 the family returned to Kansas, to the old
home, where, with the exception of the summer and fall of 1891 spent at govern-
ment surveying in No Man's land, and the winter of 1893 passed in southern
Texas, Governor Harvey lived until his death. He died of Bright's disease, at
his home near Vinton, Riley county, on Sunday evening, April 15, 1894, aged 61
years. It was such an ending as we love to picture for a life well rounded out.
It was like the passing of a glorious sunset into the quiet of a calm summer's
evening. His grave was made in Highland cemetery. Junction City, on one of
the bluffs overlooking the Republican and Kansas river valleys.
But few men have filled so large a place in so many circles — in the family,
the neighborhood, the state, the nation, and in that comradeship born of war-
as he of whom I write. It cannot be said of Governor Harvey that he was a
towering genius in any particular direction, yet it can and must be said of him
that he has filled a place larger, grander and more eminently useful than often
fell to the lot of the most transcendent genius to fill. And the place left vacant
MEMORIAL ON JAMES M. HARVEY. 55
behind him is vaster in proportion than that left by many of the loftiest genius,
and the result of his living is a monument taller and more gigantic than is some-
times built by the sublimest and most colossal intellects.
Take his part from the records of the civil war, from the legislation of the
state and nation, from the executive department of Kansas, from the circle of
friendship, and brilliant pages of our history are gone — much that has elevated
home and manhood and womanhood, that has broadened the foundations of
good government, and that has given prestige and glory to our flag and nation,
will be lost.
A writer who knew Grovernor Harvey and the state of Kansas well, and who
will be recognized as Noble L. Prentis, says :
"The period covered by Governor Harvey's administration may be counted,
perhaps, as the most interesting for the gubernatorial periods. It is inspiring to
see anything grow ; and those were growing days for Kansas. It was not so much
a 'boom' period, as one of genuine increase. The Union Pacific railroad, the*
'Kansas Pacific' of that day, was completed through the state to Denver, the
first road to span Kansas in either direction, and other roads gained a great start.
Everybody wanted railroads, and then, when they were built, wanted more. The
state was also a builder: it was in the first year of Governor Harvey's reign that
the state government removed its ' local habitation ' from the old ' state row ' to
the first completed wing of the capitol, and the executive office from the front
room of a newspaper office to the apartments now [1897] occupied by the governor.
" It was the era of town building. There were some failures, but the greater
number of the towns which were started or which took a fresh start in the years
1869- '73 are still good towns, and some have risen to the dignity of actual cities.
It may be said that of the numerous foundations of many kinds laid in those
years most have proved enduring.
"The great claim, boast and pride of Kansas, in that period, was agriculture ;
and it was an appropriate circumstance that the governor of the state was in
those years a farmer — not a political or play farmer, but an actual owner and
tiller of the soil: a farmer, and, like George Washington in his youth, a land
surveyor. He was called from these pursuits to be a soldier and a governor and
a United States senator, but when released from these labors he went back to
his plow and his compass and chain. It is hard to believe in these days that
there was a time, less than twenty-five years ago, when the governor in his mes-
sages enlarged upon the garden-like productiveness of the state, recounted with
pride the triumphs of the farmer called out to speed the plow, and urged that all
means be used to forward immigration: when, moreover, the railroad companies
not only proclaimed but demonstrated the fertility of their acres by exhibition
in half of the windows of Kansas of great ears of corn and sheaves of wheat
(one of which would have been a fortune to the gleaning Ruth), great red apples,
and everything that goes to fill Ceres' horn of plenty in the pictures. Kansas,
with a farmer governor, was then given bold advertisement as preeminently the
farmers' state, and everybody mocked the old geographers and their story of the
American desert."
Governor Harvey was a man of sturdy frame, fit in youth to cope with any toil,
brave enough to meet any danger: a deliberate, not to say slow, sort of a man,
but capable of being roused to a certain heat and glow as of iron in the fire. He
had dark, solemn eyes which seldom glittered or flashed, but which looked every
man in the face and never quailed. But he was a man quite incapable of making
what the Scriptures call a vain show. This inability to show off followed him in
all he did. Those who knew him as a soldier could readily conceive that he
would stand and die whenever the time came, if those were the orders, but never
that he would shine and corruscate in the dispatches. In a state full of orators,
he, with a full command of facts and ideas, scarcely ever made speeches — never
if he could, with propriety, avoid it. He was a reading man, and especially fond
of poetry by the masters of verse, but it is doubtful if this was known outside of
his immediate circle of acquaintances. He lived his honorable, brave and simple
£6 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
life, and whon he had done serving his state, either as its chief magistrate or its
representative in the senate chamber, he lived apart from the maddening crowd,
on his farm, whieh was miles from any town; traversing weary leagues in New
Mexico with his surveying party, seeking restored health in the oldest of old Vir-
ginia, at last returning to husband his remaining days and die in the Kansas he
loved, which will bear forever on her map his honored name.
On the occasion of the opening of his second campaign for governor, at a mass
meeting in Leavenworth, Governor Harvey was expected to make a speech.
Major Hudson says of the occasion :
" For hours before the meeting he suffered with nervous fear as to the possible
result of his attempting to speak. He endeavored to prepare some heads of sub-
jects for a twentv minutes' speech, and mapped out his points. He was greeted
with friendly ap'plause on his appearance, and delivered his first point without
a break, and'was vociferously cheered. In the second sentence he began to falter,
missed his best points, and used his peroration inside of five minutes, and sat
down. The crowd accepted it as all right, and generously applauded, but the
governor tossed sleeplessly for hours afterward, nervous over what he deemed as
entire failure."
But he was elected by a very large majority, for he was always very close to
the hearts of the farmers, and that made him strong, even invincible.
As United States senator, though his term was short, he held at its close posi-
tions of importance on several committees. He was chairman of the select com-
mittee to examine the several branches of the civil service— a committee that
numbered in its list Conkling, Allison, Boutwell, Merriman, and Eaton. He was
also a member of the committee on public lands and agriculture, on mines and
mining, and of the select committee on the levees of the Mississippi.
"Whether driving oxen in breaking the prairie or moving among his distin-
guished peers in the United States senate chamber, whether offering shelter to
the many early settlers Who called at his home or conferring with the counselors
of state at the capital, he remained a true son of the prairie in mien and mood,
heart and soul, and in republican simplicity."
THE PASSENGERS ON THE "WELCOME."
A paper by E. B. Cowgill, read before the Kansas State Historical Society,
at twenty-first annual meeting, January 19, 1897.
SOME time during the second week in November, 1682, there was landed, at
the head of Delaware bay, a ship load of people who had sailed from Eng-
land with the proprietor of the province of Pennsylvania. This proprietor was
William Penn. These people were members of the religious society of Friends.
The ship was the "Welcome." The entire expedition was called by its projector
"The Holy Experiment."
The passengers of the "Welcome" were said to be "people of consequence,"
"people possessed of property," the servants having come in another vessel.
Their appearance, however, was, in some cases, gruesome. A description says
that many of them had their ears and their lips slit and that they bore other
marks of their experiences in English prisons. Their imprisonment had been in-
flicted on account of their religious heterodoxy. Even the proprietor had suf-
fered imprisonment and had been renounced by his father, an English admiral,
who had relented only when he found that persecution failed to change the
young man's convictions on matters of religion.
These pilgrims, like those of the "Mayflower," who had preceded them by
THE PASSENGERS ON THE "WELCOME. 57
sixty-two years, came to America that they might worship according to the dic-
tates of their own conscience. But the Plymouth colony had already been
founded on this principle, and, unless something more than this were to be tried,
Penn could scarcely have had rxcuse for applying to his colony so pretentious an
appellation as '"The Holy Experiment.''
Before the colony left England the essential features of the experiment were
determined and reduced to writing. The Massachusetts Pilgrims had been perse-
cuted for conscience's sake, and fled to America rather than submit to the exac-
tions of the estai)lished church. In the certaintv^ of conviction that they were
right, they, in their new home, required conformity to their own religious views.
While languishing in their English prisons, Penn and his followers had ample
opportunity tc meditate on the fact that the Plymouth Pilgrims had been perse-
cuted for their V)elief. and had, iu turn, become pcrsi^outors of those who believed
not as they; that the irons from which the Quakers sutfered were inflicted for
beliefs from which the Plymouth people dissented, and for which punishment
was meted out in Massachusetts. It was, therefore, determined to try the un-
heard-of experiment of allowing every one liberty of belief. This was shown bv
the first section of the document prepared before the "Welcome" sailed. It
reads aj loiiows:
"That all persons living iu this province, who confess and acknowledge the
one Almighty God to be the creator, upholder and ruler oi the world, and that
hold themselves obliged ui conscience to live peacably and justly in civil society,
shall in no ways be molested or prejudiced for their religious persuasion cr prac-
tice in matters of faith and worship, nor shall they be compelled at any time to fre-
quent any religious worship, place or ministry whatever."
Thus was laid the foundation of the religious liVjerty which was afterwards
incorporated in the constitution of the United States and has spread throughout
the Protestaut Christian world.
The prevalent methods of acquiring lands from a people having prior posses-
sion had, in all ages, been by conquest of war. The history of the world is
chiefly a record of robbery of the weak by the strong; the spoliation of the sim-
ple by the crafty. When Columbus had discovered America, the nations vied
with each other in their efforts to rob the natives of it. Making a pretense of
propagating Christianity, Cortez wrested Mexico from its possessors by the
sword, taking a few monks along to sanctify his robbery, treachery, and murder.
Historians have sought to find some merit in Cortez's expedition.
The Virginia settlers sought to crowd themselves into the land for the pur-
pose of establishing colonies. The religious pretense was not extensively used
to cloak their violence with the natives. Their motives and their professions, as
well as their practices, were improved over the savagery of the Spanish invasion
of Mexico.
The New England Pilgrims came to gain the privilege of worshiping as they
thought right. They forgot to accord to others the .^ame .'•ight of dissent which
they themselves prized, and they failed of any general recognition of the right of
the possessors of the soil to treatment as owners. They were .soon in the midst
*jf wars of conquest, as had been all nations and peoples heforr* them.
The second es.seutial of "The Holy Experiment'' was the recognition of the
rights uf the Indians to be treated as owners of their lards, a right of which they
cuuld justly be deprived only by voluutary treaty and in consideration of a fair
equivalent.* Penn had, it is true, bought Pennsylvania from King Charles in
* The Indi.-ins with whom Pmm n',a(ie his treaty in 16^2 vt^vp thf> Delaware;! aod representa-
tivf.-i of rh« shdwnees. Th? Del;iv."are.s were <ift<Tvvar(i.s stntieii in Oiiio, ia Mi-<:?(>uri. ,m<i sub-
■"^"lueiitly in aortheastorn Kansas, witli a;i outlft to the Rocky mountaias, aad, tinally, io tho
I
58 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
satisfaction of a claim against the crown inherited from his father for services as
admiral. The conscience of any leader hitherto would have been satisfied, with-
out regarding the rights of the weak people who inhabited it, by saying that,
having bought and paid for it once, he would not pay for it again. It is to be
noted, however, that the example of common honesty— the example of considera-
tion of rights because they were rights, and without regard to the defenseless
character of the possessors — was so contagious that since the organization of tlie
government of the United States and to this day [1897] on but one occasion has
territory been acquired by conquest.
William Penn and the passengers of the "Welcome" tried successfully the
holy experiment of buying property instead of getting it by robbery and murder.
The nation adopted the plan. After having lived in Philadelphia, a Boston boy,
Benjamin Franklin, when he came to mature years, uttered what is now a na-
tional proverb, namely: "Honesty is the best policy."
The descendants of the "Welcome's" passengers have scattered into all parts
of the country. They have been modest in pushing for public preferment. But
it were well for the country, it were well for humanity, if not only the religious
zeal and tolerance, but also the Christian honesty of these passengers, the recog-
nition of and respect for the rights of those who are unable to assert their, rights,
which actuated the course of the pilgrims who came over with Penn could be
substituted for selfish greed: if the simplicity and purity of life practiced by
these Friends could take the place of the opvilent indulgence, the Babylonian
revels, which sap the moral as well as the physical vitality of those who should
be strongest, and cast over the future the only shadow of menace to perpetuity
and advancement.
Nobody knows how many of the descendants of the " Welcome" are living in
Kansas to-day. The adults of the present are the sixth and seventh generations
born in this country. It has been proposed to form a society of these children
of "The Holy Experiment." In these days of high-priced blooded domestic
animals, a lineage to the people whose peculiar principles are now among the
most cherished provisions of our government should be a valued possession.
For the benefit of those interested, there is hereto appended a list of the pas-
sengers of the "Welcome," which is believed to be within three or four names
of complete. It is copied from a "History of fhiladelphia, 1883," in the library
of this society, being in pamphlet form; "Specimen Chapters of the Historv- of
Philadebphia,"' now being prepared by J, Thomas Scharf and Thompson West-
cott. Philadelphia: L. H. Everts ct Co.
NAMES OF PERSONS WHO CAME OVER WITH WILLIAM PENN
IN THE "WELCOME."
John Bakber ami Elizabeth, his wife. He wa^ a "first purchaser" and made his will on
board the " Welcome."
William Bead oed, tirst printer of Philadelphia and earliest government printer of New
York.
William Bcckmas and Maey, his wife, with Saeah and Mari, their chil.lrea. of Billing-
hurst. Sii.-i^x.
John Cabvee and Maet, his wife, of Hertfordshire, a first purch.iser.
Benjamin Chambers, of Koche^ter, Kent; afterwards .--herilT [ifiya], ;ind otherwise i.romi-
nent in public atYiirs,
Thomas CriBoxsr.ALE [Croa.-dale] and Agnes, his wife, with sis childrei;, of YTrkshi,-".
Indian t<>rntory. The Shawne^s were removed to Ohi.j, ami from Ohio to Kausns, pi;.i i rnal
remnant from Ka:isa> to the Iiuiiau territory. The ideas of p.-ace and justice which ft.e Del.i-
waj-^^f'-ceive.! from Peun have b.-ea maintained throutrhont their hi.-tory. I'he Frieu.!^' jh licy
at Fhila.hdphia was thnsa benediction to Kansas 150 to ZUJ VL■a^^ later, anl the bt-Itof wamonm
presented to VVilham Penn under the elm Las not inaptly betn designated as tHe only treaty
not 8wom to and never broken.
THE PASSENGERS ON THE " WEECOME." 59
Ellen Cowgill and family. [Certificate from "Settle monthly meeting of Friends, York-
shire, EtiRlaad." states that she was a widow. Her children's names are believed to
have been Ezektel, Thomas, John, Jane, and Ralph.]
John Dcttox and wife.
John Fishek, Makgaret, his wife, and son John.
Thomas Fitzwaltek, and sons Thomas ami George, of Hamworth, Middlesex. He lost
his wife, Mary, and Josiah and Mary, liis cliiidren, on the voyage. Member of assembly
from Bucks in ltj>3; active citizen and eminent Friend.
Thomas Gillett.
Robert Geee-VAWay, master of the " Welcome.''
Bartholomew Gkeen.
Nathaniel Harrison.
Clthbert Hayhlkst, his wife and family, of Easingtou, Bolland; Yorkshire, a first pur-
chaser.
Thomas Heriott, of Hurst-Pier-Point, Sussex, first purchaser.
John Hey.
Richard Ingelo, clerk of provincial council in 1685.
Isaac Ingram, of Gatton, Surrey.
Thomas Jones.
Giles Knight, Mart, his wife, and son Joseph, of Gloucestershire.
Philip Theodore Lehnman [afterwards spelled Lehman], Penn's private secretary.
William Llshington.
T_, «'.__ „,. ,
ui^.L^vu ill. n 1 i. <-l. L< ^ I o ■
HANNif'H MOGDRIDGE.
JosHCA Morris.
David Ogden [probably from London].
Evan Oliver, with Jean, his wife, and David, Elizabeth, John, Hannah, Maky, Evan,
and Seabop.n, tbeir children, of Radnor, Wales. [The last named ■was a daughter, bora
at sea, within sight of the Delaware capes. October "24, l&v2.]
Pearson, emigrant from Chester, Penn's friend, who renamed Upland, after his native
place. [ His first name probably Robert.]
Dennis Rochfcrd and Mary, his wife [John Heriott's daughter], from Emstorfey, Wexford,
Ireland. Also their two daughters, who died at sea. Rochford was member of the as-
sembly in 16>3.
John Rowland and Priscilla, his wife, of BiUiughiirst, Sussex, first purchaser.
Thomas Rowland, Billinghurst, Sussex, fir^t purchaser.
John Songhcest, of Chiliincton. Sussex, first purchaser. [Some say from Coynhurst, or
Hitchingfield, Sussex.] Devoted to Penn : member of first and subsequent assemblies ;
a writer and preacher of flistinction among Friends,
John Stackhouse and Margery, his wife, of Yorkshire.
William Smith.
George Thompson.
Richard Townsend. of Loudon, wife .\.nna, daughter Hannah, and son James [born on
"Welcome," in Delaware river. 1 First purchaser. A leading Friend and eminent iLin-
ister; miller at Upland and on Schuylkill.
William Wade, of Hankton parish. Sussex.
Thomas Walmsley, his v.ife Elizabeth, and six children, of Yorkshire.
Nicholas Waln, of Yorkshire, first purchaser. Member from Bucks of first assembly;
prominent in early history of province.
Thomas WiNNE, cliirurgeou, of Carwys, Flintshire, north Wales; speaker of first two as-
semblies; magistrate for Sussex county; "a person of note and character." [Chestnut
street, in Philadelphia, was originally named after him. J
John Woodroofe.
Thomas Wrightsworth and wife, of Yorkshire.
There were in all iibout 100 passengers on the " W elcome." About forty ships
came over during the year whose passengers were a part of the great movement,
and assisted in the holy experiment of inaugurating tolerance in religion and
justice in acquiring land. Many of those who became prominent were passengers
on these other rossels. Several of the names are known, but the writer is aware
of no complete lists of them.
I
60 KANS^ts STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
ACCURACY IN HISTORY.
Ad addross by John Speer, delivered before the Kansas State Historical Society,
at twenty-second aunual meeting, January 18, 1898.
THE settlement of Kansas was made in the throes of a political revolution;
and the character of her people and their acts must be gauged by a state of
embryo war, leading up to a war which had no parallel in the civihzed world.
We were but a few years removed from a condition of public sentiment when.
even in the most enlightened portions of the North, the attempt to discuss slavery
at all had been met with tar and feathers, lynching, and many other modes of
torture. Even in enlightened Boston the clamor of the mob of '-men of wealth
and respectability" had hardly passed away, when the very elite of that city had
pursued the poor fugitive Anthony Burns and delivered him up to the slave
power, and the rope had been tied to the neck of William Lloyd Garrison, and ha
had narrov.-ly escaped the scaffold. Up to the passage of t^-^ Kansp^-V^i^'-.-airo
organic act, it was dangerous to express sympathy with the slave anywhere, and
peril of death to do it near the border slave states.
When Kansas was declared subject to settlement, the very best class of citi-'
zeus were ready to harness their teams and pack their baggage for a land which
had been heralded to the world as having scarcely an equal in fertility and pro-
ductive resources. The temptation of homes in Kansas aroused the ambitioti of
the very best elements of civilization, and there was no discount on the heroic
courage of the men and women who dared venture upon the unique pioneer life
now offered to the world. What followed the wildest theorist never predicted.
Settlers from the North had no ambition to enter into war. Arguments were
their weapons; they expected a conflict of reason and of intellect, in which the
ballot was to settle the question of whether the new state was to be free or slave.
They came unarmed and unsuspicious of violence.
On the part of the slave power, it is true, threats had been sent abroad that
abolitionists never should be allowed to enter Kansas. These threats, however,
were regarded as bravado, until the rifle and revolver in the hands of the devotees
of slavery made the welkin ring. The first night I slept upon Kansas soil
( September 26, 18.j4 ), our small party of emigrants from free states were awakened
by demands of where we were from, and threats of expulsion, tarring and
feathering, hanging and drowning, to every abolitionist who dared to enter
Kansas. The second night after reaching Lawrence we were called to defend
the Rev. Thomas J. Ferril, a Methodist minister, w'ho had just arrived with his
bride. No retaliation was attempted. At the first election for members of the
legislature, March .30, IS.'j,'), 1000 armed invaders from Missouri seized the polls
and voted at Lawrence, and similar bodies at Leavenworth, Delaware, Kickapoo,
.and many other places, electing a pro-slavery legislature. That was an all-sutli-
•cient cause for resistance; and the man who would have fired a battery into one
of those camps would have been as heroic a patri-jt as they who defended Lex-
ington and Bunknr Hill: yet the free-state men bided their time in peace, although
eight months of threats, outrage and usurpation had gone by.
Several free-state men's houses were destroyed in the spring and summer of
185.J, but no retaliation. To avoid a conflict of arms, the peace loving free-state
men met at Big Springs, Douglas county, September 8, 18.')."), to consider means
for a peaceful solution of the troubles. They had borne their amictions then for
ACCURACY IN HISTORY. 61
more than a year. On November 21, ISoo, Chas. W. Dow, a peaceable free state
man, was murdered in cold blood by a pro-slavery man. All that was attempted
was to hold a meeting for the expression of sympathy for the friends of the dead
and condemnation of the murderer.
Fifteen months of peaceful acts of the free-state men had passed, and no re-
venge or retaliation. Just then a peaceful old man from Indiana, Jacob Bran-
son, so mild in his manners that, although I knew him pretty well, I never found
out his politics, was arrested without being shown a warrant, tortured by being
placed upon a mule and hurried through woods and over hills and prairies until
he was unable to dismount without help. For his rescue a body of twelve free-
state men was quickly organized.- Meeting a body of the same number having
the free-state prisoner, his release was demanded, and secured without blood-
shed. This brought on the Wakarusa war, so called, a siege of Lawrence, the
erectnon of rifle-pits and all necessary means for defense — not against their neigh-
bors, but against an invasion of 1200 men from Missouri. Every effort for peace
had been exhausted. Sixteen months had passed without a single hand having
been raised against the persons or property of pro-slavery men.
As an eye-witness of the affairs of Kansas in all this period. I solemnly de-
clare, and defy contradiction, and call on any man in this audience to deny, these
facts. It seems almost cowardice to admit them. I am speaking of occurrences
the like of which afflicted all the free-state settlements.
On the approach of winter, a peace-loving people, their wives and their little
ones illy provided for — a winter the severest that has ever occurred in Kansas —
were assailed for sixteen days by armed hordes of foreign enemies to freedom,
because they refused to abandon their homes and their hearths or forswear their
devotion to liberty and the universal rights of man. Thus the armies stood.
In this desperate strait, Dr. Charles Robinson, afterwards Governor Robinson,
as commander-in-chief, and James H. Lane, in active command, ready for the
charge, Grovernor Shannon at length suggested or agreed to a consultation, and
a peace was patched up, and a fearful slaughter, which no man can estimate,
averted. During this threatened conflict a dozen armed pro-slavery men, Geo.
W. Clarke one of the number, rode down three farmers returning to their homes,
and Clarke murdered Thos. W. Barber, of whom more hereafter.*
And yet, with all this record of patient, agonizing suffering, men of the East,
men of learning in colleges, are writing assaulting article.^ upon the early settlers
of Kansas, as natural murderers, assassins, gamblers, thieves — guilty of all the
crimes in the calendar of criminology. And even some of our own teachers in our
schools of learning h^ive been led into like errors. It is time that some words of
protest should be uttered against this style of Kansas history. Let us quote from
a work written by a professor in our state university, intended for the instruction
of youth in our Kansas schools. After reciting the two classes, free-state and
* These notes were not in the speech, but I asked "leave to print" :
May 17, l^'i.'i, William Phillips, of Le-i^euworth, r.a-? captured and taken to Weston, Mo,, his
head shaved, hi- clothe- stripfied off. tarred ami feathered, and sold at aucik)n by a negro. The
cbartre wa- ^!eI!ine a protest atrainst the :jl)th nf March election. I WiMer's Anuals, page lii) He
was aftt-rward-^ murdered iri his own house, his blood spurtitii: upon the t'annents of a bride — a
guest of the fainils i Mrs. Nancy A. Ij. Leibey, of Lawrence,* —as innocent of wrong-<loing as the
babes whom Herod slew,
.lauu.-iry 20, 1h.')6. Ki'.-se P. Brown, for participation in th^ free-state election, was hacked to
Eieces with hat^-hets, carried to his home in a farm wagon, rudely delivered to his wife, where
e told lier he had been cruelly murdered without a cause, and died within two hours.
Mr. Mitchell, a Kentuckian, a free-st.ite man, who had befrie:;i!i'd Hrown, was. early in tbe
next summer, bucked and gatrged and left on th.e prairie to die, b\it was rescued.
June 6, iS'.'i. a peacable Kansas free-state man, Jacob Cautiell, who emigrated from Mis-
souri, was traveling on the highway, with this device on his wagon cover: "Kansas a tree
Istate," He was captured and liung, for '" treason to Missouri."
62 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
pro-slavery, in his book, entitled "Civil Government of Kansas," Prof. F. H.
Hodder describes a third class thus:
"The third class consisted of adventurers of various sorts from both sections:
broken down politicians: restless, lawless men, to whom the restraints of civili-
zation were irksome ; gamblers, ruffians, and fugitives from justice — a class of men
who always drift to now countries. They cared not whether slavery was voted
up or down, but were ready to emV)race any party that promi.?ed them otlice and
jwwer, and welcomed a state of society in which murder, arson and robbery would
go unpunished. It was the presence of this class, ranged as they were on both
sides in the political contest, that accounts largely for the disorder and bloodshed
in the early history of the state."
" This third class the learned author makes so prominent and leading that the
fact of their presence "accounts largely for the disorder and bloodshed in the
early historv- of the state." He so magnifies this class that the great struggle
for principles between the free-state men who were in the right, and the- pro-
slavery men who were in the wrong, sinks into insignificance. This foisting of a
fictitious and imaginary class as an important element in the Kansas struggle
gives a false coloring to the whole conflict. In the estimation of the civilized
world, the question of whether human slavery should be further extended over
the free soil of America, or whether it should be checked in its progress further,
was fought out nobly here on Kansas soil by as brave, enlightened and heroic a
set of men and women as ever in the world's history battled for a just cause.
This mode of treatment is entirely untrue as to the free-state men. and it is
injustice even to the pro-slavery men as a body. Slavery was a barbarity, and
there is no instance in history where the forces fighting for the wrong were the
best and most moral men: but thp South selected the most heroic and best men
of the period among them to lead in the conliict, and raised money for this pur-
pose. Many of these men, on all other questions, were gentlemen.*
I venture to assert (and this can only be opinion, but my opinion ought to be
as good as that of a man from the East who was not born at that time] that there
never was in this country, in the settlement of any territory, so honorable, up-
right, intelligent a body of men as settled Lawrence — the headquarters of the
free-state forces in the first two years of the conflict. Their first act was to
establish prohibition, by the Lawrence Association, with Doctor Robinson as its
president. The charge that "broken-down politicians" were a leading element
is answered in the fact that in the first legislature elected by the free-state voters
there was not a single man in either house who had ever before sat officially in a
legislative body. It would be most interesting to follow their later careers as
soldiers and statesmen, at least two of them leading brigades. Only one in both
bodies was ever known as of intemperate habits.
Another error: Of the Leavenworth constitution Professor Hodder says
( page 22 ) :
" Notwithstanding the veto of Secretary Denver, who was soon after appointed
governor, delegatt^s were elected, and met at .Minneola, whf nee they adjourned to
Leavenworth. Here a free-state constitution was adofited, identical in lurge part
with the Topeka constitution."
It is utterly vmaccountable how, from so able a source, an error like this should
have crept into a book for schools. It implies that a mob, without the semblance
of law, after their own party had almost unanimous contrcU in both branches of
» -♦ ^^'^ '°^*"°«;f> '"'°- •^"<' Sbelby, wl;o su^pi'i.iiecl hi? b;:?iu:^s3 at Loxiu;;tan, Mo., anci with
rorty of his hanils came to Lawroiico and v.it.'<l : aud witii whom I took liitUK^r that (iav at Col.
&am. .V Wooil s lions('. It was the mnnit't'sration of condition^. The atn.Htioui-t wa.s con-
snlf^rcd a uei;ro tbicf. aud the man who intcrfored witli such 'projiprty" w.-is considiTed as
much worse than a hor.-,e thief a.s the slave was rp^arded more valuable chau a horso.
ACCURACY IN HISTORY. 63
the legislature, had assembled and made a constitution, and attempted to force
it upon the people. 1 know this error has been circulated through several sources.
The truth is, Secretary Denver never vetoed that bill. It was passed in all the
regular forms, and taken to his office by the clerk three days, one hour and ten
minutes before the expiration of the forty days which constituted the term; and
the governor had gone to bed and left word with his clerk to receive no more
messages.* It was his duty under the law to either sign and return it, or to re-
tarn it vetoed, within three days : but he " pocketed" it and refused to return it,
attempting thus to defeat it, because the legislative term, as he erroneously as-
serted, had expired — an act of tyranny without an example. This statement
both houses of the legislature unanimously affirmed, and declared the bill passed,
notwithstanding the governor refused to sign it, but withheld it without his ap-
proval, t These facts were attested by the clerk of the house, Mr. Whiting, and
Mr. Caleb S. Pratt, of the council, as well as by Perry Fuller and other private
citizens; and I superintended the preparation and delivery of the bill, and saw it
taken to his room, as I now state.
As specimens of the "usurpers" under the Leavenworth constitution, we may
mention Hon. Henry J. Adams, as governor, in whose honor a golden tablet has
Leeu piaueu iu RepreseutaLue uaii: Hon. Cyrus K. iioinaay, projector of the
A. T. Jc S. F. railroad, as lieutenant-governor; as superintendent of public instruc-
tion, .John Morgan Walden, long a bishop of the M. E. church.
The men whom this statement represents as unlawfully assembled, usurping
the powers of a convention, were as capable and worthy a body as would gener-
ally have been selected at any period of Kansas history. The charge against
that body is an insult to the intelligence of the people who elected them. Three
of them were afterwards generals in the army (.James H. Lane, Thos. Ewing, and
Robert B. Mitchell). Among them were such able lawyers as Chief Justice
Ewing, Senator P. B. Plumb, and Jas. S. Emery: and Hon. T. Dwight Thacher,
also a member, has written a history of the convention, which will be read with
interest in after-times as a refutation of the charge that it was jjossible for such
a body of men to have assumed, ignorantly or wickedly, any such position.
Iff the same work, on page 22, Professor Hodder, after saying that "south-
eastern Kansas was at first almost entirely settled by pro-slavery men from the
Southern States" — in which he was mistaken, at least two-thirds of them being
free- state — mildly adds:
"A few free-state men had come here, however, and in the autum of 1S56 one
Captain Clarke attacked them, destroyed their property, and drove them from
their homes. The free-state men organized for defense under the leadership of
James Montgomery, and, finding guerrilla warfare quite to their liking, continued
to raid and rob pro-slavery men, both in Kansas and Missouri, for a yearor more.
In the spring of 1S-')S, Chas. A. Hamilton, of West I'oint. Mo., raised a band of men
for the purpose of making reprisals. Crossing the Kansas line to Trading Post,
Linn county, on tae 19th day of May, 18.3S, he seized eleven free-state men, and,
taking them to a ravine ne;ir the Marais des Cygnes. shot them down in cold
blood. Five of the men were instantly killed, five were seriously wounded but
afterwards recovered, and one escaped unharmed by feigning death."
"One Captain Clarke," indeed! What mildness is this instating a pretended
historical fact as to the infamous condueL of that mcjst infamous man I The true
history of his conduct ought to read thus :
Capt. Geo. W. Clarke, the murderer of Thos. W. Barber in cold blood in
• See Governor Denver's stataineat in Lawrence lie-piMican, , li.'i'S.
tThe language of the organic act is precisely that of the United States constitution, except
that ""three days " is iu the-former and '"ten days " in tlie latter; and hundreds of bills have be-
tuac lure^? uays is lu cof-ioriner anii teni;a>s lu lue iaiu
come laws jast as this act did — notably the Wilson tariff bill.
I
64 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
1855,* havine Hed the country, again appeared on the unprotected frontier in the
free-state settlements in southeastern Kansas, and renewed his assaults upon
these helpless people. He was the same man who, at a Lawrence town-site meet-
ing in the winter of 185i-'55, attempted to murder Governor Robinson, and
probably would have murdered him, had not one John Speer jumped upon him
from his seat in the audience and partially wrested his revolver from him and
turned it upon his own heart, and held it in such a position that any attempt to
pull the trigger would have killed the assassin, until one Wilson, a Kentuckian,
interfered and secured peace. This was at a meeting at Lawrence in regard to
the town-site rights, in which Clarke had no interest, and where he was brought
as a "killer." Before his attempt on Robinson he knocked Mr. Alphonso .Jones
off the stand while he was speaking. He also had a tilt with J. H. Shimmons
with rifles not long after. On another occasion he had arranged to assassinate
Jones one night as the latter was expected to be returning from an anti-slavery
meeting, and would in all probability have succeeded had not Clarke's slave Judy
got to Mr, Jones's window the night before, and in a shrill whisper said, "Massa
Jones, dey's gwine to kill you as you come from dat abolition meetin' ef you
do n't look out! Min' w'at I say! I'ze otfl" At this meeting, Ed. Chapman,
the man then tioiamg the Jenkms claim near Lawrence, was backing Clarke up:
he was the man who chopped down Robinson's house, for which, among other
merits, he was soon after elected a member of the "bogus" pro-slavery territo-
rial legislature: and, as soon after that as he could spare time from his legislative
duties, he murdered Geo. Wilson, of North Carolina, by a blow from a club,
while Wilson's daughter of sixteen sat by his side in a buggy. Wilson's death
right then was only prevented by that child seizing the whip and reins and driv-
ing to Westport, Mo. (thirty-five miles i, where she appealed to the Odd Fellows,
who ministered to him till his death, and buried him with the honors of the
order: and that murderer. Chapman, afterward went to the penitentiary by the
way of Iowa, and still later to that other place,
"With all his crimes broad blown as flush as May:
And how his audit stands, who knows save Heaven ?
But in our circumstance and course of thought,
'T is heavy with him.''
That is the true history of Clarke and one of his confederates in crime. They
were twin criminals and conspirators, whose history cannot be separated.
I had but slight acquaintance with Capt. James Montgomery,! but I know
he was not a disreputable man, seeking innocent blood, nor stealing property,
and that he had a following of as honorable settlers as ever peopled any country.
I mean no disrespect to the teacher, but I would like to see some bright, inno-
cent little girl in a country schoolhouse hang her head, raise her hand, and say
to Professor Hodder: " Please, master, may I ask some questions ? An old settler
•The report of the congressional comiiiittco on Kansas claims, 1861, paere 17, savs: "Dur-
ing the foray, eitiier Uho. VV. Clark.^ or Mr. Hiirn.'s nuinlen-d Th-.s. W. Barber, while the latter
was in tho hichway on the roa.l from Lawrence to iiis claim. Both fired at him, and it is im-
possible, from the proof, to tell who-e .-hot was fatal." On the same pace the committee savg:
The chief guilt must rest on S<anriJ. Jones He said Major Clarlie and Mr. Buriies
both claimed the credit of killing • that damned abolitionist,' and be did a't know w hich ou^rht
to have it.
tu *,^'*-,^- Smith, one of Montgomery's men, too well known to ueed ccmmendation, savs of
that leader: • H<- was scrupulously honest and conscientiously religious," and I have more than
*L ^^ "!^,"'^r "f *'"^ '^'^-■'t "i^'Q in the community in wiuch Montk'omerv operated wljij wiil rije
tneir atlidavits yenfyim.' this .stateinei-.t.
Maj, E. S, W. Droui^'ht. sui>erinteudeut of construction, Kansas Citv StocK Yards Company.
says of Captain MontAri.mery : "He whs one ,.f rh-^ mildest anrl trenth-st of in«n ne^er nsTjir
language that could not be used in the pre-euce .if ladies and children, and at all time, on the
marcti instructing the othcers and men not to take i.rivate property or -iisturb tlie homes of
women and cliildren. He was much oppo.se.i to the n-e of intoxicatingliqirors. He was a model
otiicer, and the very opposite of a marauder and btjrder rutnan."
ACCURACY IN HISTORY. 65
spoke at our schoolhouse, on the Marmaton. and he told us that Preston B. Plumb,
WUliam A. Phillips, James B. Abbott, Dr. S. B. Prentiss, E. B. Whitman and
several other gentlemen rallied to assist Captain Montgomery to protect us when
the cold weather was coming, and we had nothing but corn bread and rabbit to
eat, and the cabin needed chinking. Were they the broken-down politicians,
gamblers, ruffians and fugitives from justice that you speak about on page 11
of your little book? Did the gamblers want to play poker with papa for the
rabbits? *'
Professor Hodder undoubtedly appreciates precisely the meaning of the word
"reprisals," when he says in the extract we have quoted: "In the spring of
1858 Chas. A. Hamilton, of West Point, Mo., raised a band of men for the pur-
pose of making reprisal's.'" Would that imply that Montgomery had invaded
Missouri and murdered some of her citizens ? We observe here that, in our ex-
tract, he states that two murderers, Clarke and Hamilton, leading their bands,
had invaded Kansas from Missouri. We knew several of the men whom Hamil-
ton stood up in line and murdered and wounded. Asa Hairgrove, one of the lat-
ter, became state auditor of Kansas, and from him I learned much of the character
of the victims of Hamilton. There was not a disreputable man among them. I
Knew nev. >ir. Reed, one of his "reprisals,"* and helped Duci-oi Miuci Jicao his
wounds. " Death loves a shining mark.'' So do devils — for destruction. Ham-
ilton might as well have kept on to Lawrence, and taken as a "reprisal'" and
murdered that distinguished divine whose name is on our program here to-
night, and who has recently celebrated his fortieth anniversary as a minister.
Rev. Dr. Cordley. Perhaps the guerrillas who burned the house of Doctor
Cordley and took two or three shots at him, in the Lawrence massacre, were
merely attempting to make a " reprisal "" of him, and if he had died, some pro-
fessor of literature might have written an apology for Quantrill, as apologies
have been written. It will be noted that all the murders occurred in Kansas,
and all the murderers came from Missouri. Why did all the wounding and all
the murdering occur on the Kansas side of the Missouri line? Kansas stood on
her own side of the line, and stood for peace; and for more than four long years
not one drop of blocd by a Kansas hand ever stained the soil of Missouri: not
one armed foe crossed the "sacred soil" of slaver}-, until it was crossed by troops
under the flag of the union and the call of Lincoln for men to put down the re-
bellion. Hamilton's "reprisal'" of blood was as fiendish as ever disgraced the
annals of crime, and was neither a "reprisal" under the definition of Webster
nor Vattel.
I speak in no spirit of animosity — not in anger, but in sorrow. In that spirit
I have a right to reply even to a professor in a chair of the Kansas State Univer-
sity. I hope I am not intruding my own personality when I say, concerning the
earliest movements towards the founding of the University of Kansas, that I have
no memory of a more satisfactorily spent Xew Year's day than that of 13.35, when
I joined Dr. Chas. Robinson and A. D. Searle, the surveyor of Lawrence, to carry
the chain, surveying a site for a schoolhouse where the "old university" now
stands. If there was a better day spent in my owd history, it was when I joined
that eminent educator. Gen. John Fraser, in efforts to elevate th« embryo uni-
versity, in an appeal to the people of Lawrence for a vote of .3100,000 in its behalf.
In the meeting to consider that proposition, a committee of prudent, economical
business men reported in favor of .3-">0,00U. General Fraser had stood in the ser-
ried ranks of war, but at this time he looked as if he might be "knocked down
with a feather."' I moved to strike out 850,000 and insert 8100,000, and backed
niy proposition up by the best words I could utter, illustrating the importance of
06 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIKTV.
education by my own want of it. Bishop Thomas H. Vail, who was present, fol-
lowed in the most elotjuent appeal I ever heard, and the motion was carried. The
"school" was ended and the university besran: and to-day it stands, the pride
and glory of Kansas —the peer of Vale, Harvard, or Michigan.
It is true — too true — that several books of history on Kansas have been is-
sued in the East equally or more unjust than the work quoted; but such works
should never go into the schools of Kansas, and it is because of my pride in
Kansas that I attempt to refute their falsity.
Within the past two years a convention was held at Houston, Tex., in which
a learned committee consulted on devising a means to correct history by show-
ing that slavery was not the cause of the war, but some indefinable question of
"state rights" was at the bottom of it all; and they suggested that some man
learned in history should be selected to correct the false public sentiment: and,
recently, General Reagan, the last of the Jefferson Davis cabinet, has been
quoted as reiterating that sentiment. Since Balaam rode up the mountain on
the only ass that ever talked good horse sense, for the purpose of cursing Israel,
and rode down again "altogether blessing them," there has been no better trib-
ute to the spirit of freedom which first broke out in Kansas and permeated the
whole union. Not only Kansas, but the South and the \vhule world are ashamed
to be compelled to believe that the institution ever existed. It looks now as if a
premium had been offered to some man to write a book proving that the Gettys-
burg speech was a fable, the emancipation proclamation a fraud, and old Abe
not much of a statesman anyhow, and a lot of Eastern professors were in the
race, neck and neck, to win the prize.
If the war was not made upon Kansas solely to plant slavery here — and, in-
deed, to extend it through the union — why did not Pierce's administration say
so? If that were true, why did not the president, instead of ordering Colonel
Sumner to i)lant a battery near where the Topeka post-office now stands, ready
to fire upon and disperse the legislature under the Topeka constitution, send
some peace officer and tell them to elect their free-state senators, and he would
send a message to congress recommending the state's admission ? If slavery were
not the issue, why did President Buchanan, in 1858, send a special message to
congress, declaring that "slavery existed as much in Kansas as it did in Geor-
gia" ? Why did he, in that message, denounce Kansas as in rebellion, under a
"turbulent and dangerous military leader'"? All the "turbulent and danger-
ous" people of Kansas wanted was a free state, and that was after Buchanan's
own governor, Robert J. Walker, had written to him that Kansas was on the
wrong side of the "isothermal line" for slavery, that the people were opposed to
it, and that the best possible way to do was to make it a democratic free state;
and that then his administration "would go out in a blaze of glory."
Much of the enmity to Kansas has been aroused by Eastern men in their con-
tention as to who did the most to save Kansas. The position they get the nearest
together on is, that in the aggregate they in the East did it all — that Kansas
could n't have been saved without them. Measurably the latter proposition may
be true. Without the sympathy, mat<^rial aid and prayers of the good and great
men all over the country, Kansas could not have been made free: but the brunt
of the battle, the strife and the loss of life and treasure fell upon the heroic men
and women of Kansas. Xor do I depr'-ciate the vast sums of money expended
by the Emigrant .\id Company; nor have I forgotten the national convention at
Buffalo, in IS7)>.], presided over by Governor Reeder, in which I myself was a
Kansas delegate, where Gerrit Smith planked down 61000, and pledged 61000 per
month until Kansas should be made free; but what I do lament is. that so many
ACCURACY IN HISTORY. 67
^'new kings have arisen who know not Joseph" except bv tradition, going back
on the deeds of their fathers, with few sources of information, sizing us up as
sarages, imagining that they are the priests preserving the history of the dark
ages.
Archimedes said he could lift the world with a lever if he had a place to stand
on. He was mistaken. The great men of the East have tested that question.
No fulcrum can be used by which a corner-stone can be laid in Kansas, with the
laboring end of the lever in New York or Boston. A Virginia slave, in describing
the Natural Bridge, said: '* I '11 nevah forgit the day I driv master to see 'em lay
de co'ner-stone of dat bridge! All de fust famblies was dar!" The men who
laid the corner-stone of Kansas in Boston do not know whether that stone was
carved from the everlasting granite of the Sangre de Cristo, or of the kaolin im-
bedded in the same mountains, beautiful to look upon, but crumbling with the
atmosphere and dissolviug with the summer rains.
Some of these men, if they were not so intensely Puritan, would claim that
the Maytiower anchored at mid-sea, put out a lighter, and that the crew sailed
around by the Pacific, put up the Holy Cross in the mountains one Saturday
afternoon before prayers, and passed through to the eastward and discovered
Kansas long otriojo jJou -l/h-j^u cio j. tiitn^oii drv^r^mCj. c ^^z prcvincc c .^uivsr".
I was amazed to read in a magazine article an expression dropped by one of
the most estimable patriots, philanthropists, and divines, as well as among the
most eminent litterateurs of this country, to the effect that he supposed there
never were any slaves in Kansas. It is such utterances from such sources that
hurt. What were we fighting about? The ruffian might bawl himself hoarse
and do no harm. This good divine never was acquainted with Buck Scott, the
good slave who contracted with his master to send him seventy percent, of his
earnings if he would let him live at Lawrence, and fulfilled his contract manfully,
voluntarily returning to slavery. He never knew Tom Bourn, of Washington
creek, whose master brought him and a dozen more slaves from Virginia "to es-
tablish the institution in Kansas,"' who, when the master got scared and wanted
to take them back to "the old Virginia home," replied: "No, no, Massa Bourn;
I com' to 'stablish de institution, an' I'ze gwine to see it froo"; and in less time
than two weeks ran otl' to the North with the whole gang I He never madethe
acquaintance of Bob Skaggs, who, with twenty-seven fellow slaves, made a big clear-
ing in the woods opposite Lecompton, and was run olf to Texas at the sound of the
voice of the " Crusader of Freedom," and came back "after the break up," as the
slaves called it, and made a home on the Verdigris, and brought his " po' ol" massa "
in his poverty to live with him. the ex-Kansas slave. He never sat with your speaker
at the Big Springs hotel warming his toes, while poor Liza, one of eleven slaves
of a Kansas judge, cooked his meal, with her little pickaninny crawling around
her feet on a dirty dirt floor. He was not present when a fugitive from Kansas
slavery on the Marais des Cygnes made her escape to Samuel N. Wood's house in
Lawrence, her back cut in welts. Perhaps the good man was not acquainted
with that amiable Christian woman, now a director of this Society, when the
slave sleuths were in pursuit:, and surely he never heard her sobs and cries,
"O God! what would I do if this were my sister?" when her life depended on
flight. He never knew the three pro-slavery men who took the slave to the
Shawnee Mission to consult the territorial officers, and returned her to slavery!
And surely, surely, the good man never had a warrant issued for him as an "abo-
litionist" by that woman whipper, after he was made a pro--iiavery judge! He
did not even know the pro-slavery divines of Kansas, one of whom, at T^cumseh,
told me the beautiful storv of St. Paul, the slave-driver, sending Onesimus, the
I
68 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
slave, buck to his master; the other at Osawkee, of whom it was said by the
abolitionists that he was a pretty good man, but a little quarrelsome when he was
drunk I
When thn Wakarusa war broke upon us, there were more than half as many
slaves in Kansas as there were able-bodied free-state men who stood up in the
ranks for our defense.
A few weeks ago I called upon the venerable Dr. J. N. O. P. Wood at Wichita,
a well-known opponent of the free-state movement, and compared notes on our
personal knowledge of slaves in Kansas, and we counted over iOO — and quit.
But they said "Shoo!" in Boston, as an old lady frightens chickens from her
flower-beds, and the masters and the slaves tied in terror I
It is pleasant to know that some of these errors have been corrected.
In E. Taylor's History of the United States, the brief but admirably written
histon.- of Kansas by Xoble L. Prentis had two errors, which did great injustice
to the memory of Governor Reeder. One represented him as calling the first
legislature to elect members of the legislature "and county officers." There were
no counties made, and he could not have ordered county officers elected: and one
of the truthful accusations against the legislature was that it denied to the people
the right to elect county offiooro^ p^d elected tLCi^i b^ the legislature, except the
filling of vacancies by the governor (pro-slavery, of course l in their absence,* and
no officers were elected by the people till the free-state men got power, in 18-"iT.
The other error was a statement that "Governor Reeder signalized the begin-
ning of his administration by an abortive attempt to remove the territorial legis-
lature to Pawnee, near Fort Riley." He had no power to reiaove a legislature,
and never attempted any such act. He called the first legislature to meet at that
place, as was his duty by law. To have attempted to remove a legislature would
have been an usurpation unparalleled in American government. I made an ap-
peal to the publishers of that work, backed up by Col. C. K. Holliday. and the
correction was made in both instances, with the ajjproval of the author.
I have no doubt Professor Hodder will also make the proper corrections when
he investigates the subject: but his books have gone out, and imperative duty
demands that the children of the state and all posterity should have these o<3r-
rections as extensively as pos.sible: and the more so "because this bistorj- of Kan-
sas has been made a part of a school history of the United States, and thus goes
to the world with all the authorit}' of a "professor of American history in the
University of Kansas."
In my long newspaper experience I have handled much poetry on the dead,
and one verse of one of these effusions, though fifty years old, has never left my
memory :
"And can it be <
That God should take the best we see,
And leave behind a worthless lot
That we could spare as well as not?"
We cannot call up the dead and exhibit them here as samples of bravery,
honesty, and virtue. We who are left can, as relics of the past, while we hv?,
testify to their general good character, their great accompli.shments. and point
to their works — to the liberal and enlightened constitution which they left to us
for our guidance: to the two preceding constitutions thwarted by tyranny; to
the liberal and just laws, from year to year made more perfect under an instru-
ment which has existed lonsjer than the constitutions of many of the other states
of the union. We cannot call up the martyrs who died for freedom; but we can
•See "Kansas Historical Collections," vol. 3. l>-il, pp. 2S;J, 284, 2}55, etc.. au.l •Bogus' Laws.
ACCURACY IN HISTORY. 69
bring up our children even to thi3 hall, where they have placed the names of
some of them in tablets of gold as mementoes of their patriotism, as the descend-
ants of the Gracchi were for many generations wont to bring their children up to
their temples to look upon their images in emulation of their virtues.
As the good die young, we can, however, still point to a goodly number of the
"worthless lot left behind," whereby those who follow them can conjure up some
imagination of what the men who ''builded better than they knew" have done
for those who come after them. We can now only at random point to a few
around us as samples of the ''• worthless lot left behind," for whose characters we
have no apology: Cyrus K. HoUiday, John Armstrong, Copeland Gordon, Guil-
ford Dudley, F, W. Giles, W. C. Garvey, of Topeka: B, W. Woodward, Jas. G.
Sands, Wesley H. Duncan, Chas. S. Duncan, John G. Haskell, Peter D. Ridenour,
H. W. Baker, Jas. C. Hortou, L. J. Worden. Jeff. Wakefield, Ed. P. Harris, J. H.
Shimmons, O. E. Learnard, S. W. Eldridge, Paul R. Brooks, R. G. Elliott, and
C. W. Smith, of Lawrence; D. R. Anthony, H. Miles Moore, Chas. Currier, E.
N. O. Clough, Henry and Doc. Keller, of Leavenworth,
We have several more of the "worthless lot left behind," but we do not want
to throw them to the front in a skirmish. These men remain, among the honored
uiiizeub of the iliiee leading towns in which the great anti-olaVciy struggle iu
Kansas was fiercest. And I might mention that the veteran secretary of this
State Historical Society was one among those who bore a full part in that strug-
gle in more than one of the towns mentioned. We can show them the institutions
these men inaugurated — the State L^niversity, the State Agricultural College,
Baker University, and our great common-school system, our state-house and its
occupants, most of whom are patterns of our pioneers: and we can go through
the materials of the pioneer history of Kansas in the vast collections of our State
Historical Society, the most complete and valuable possessed by any state, with
possibly one exception.
Let us beg to apologize to our distinguished fellow citizens of the enlightened
East, who have lived for three centuries under the restraints of law, the benefits
of churches and schools, by humbly reminding them that for nearly half the
period of our territorial existence we had no law. "We were a law unto our-
selves." In no other condition does man so exhibit all the bad elements of
humanity. Yet here, It-ft to ourselves, as the citizens of Kansas, unmolested by
invasion, in no place was property safer than here. We paid our debts honestly,
to the best of our ability. When misfortune rendered us unable to pay, the
creditor forgave the debtor. The honor of the man was the only guaranty.
The golden rule was the guiding star of our existence. Some of us may not
have been able to recite it, but all tried to follow it.
"Through all the warring seas of life
One vast current sunward rolls,
And, within ail outward strife.
One eternal right controls —
Right, at whose divine command
Slaves go free and captives fall,
In the might of those who stand
All for one and one for all."
70 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS.
An adilress by Chancellor F. H. Snow, before the Kansas State Historical Society,
at twenty-second annual meeting, January 18, 189^.
THE official be;,'inniDjj of the State University of Kansas must be considered
as occurriner on the 1st day of March, ISGi, when the legislative act of or-
ganization, having been approved and signed by Governor Carney, was made a
law by its official publication. But for more than seven years prior to this date
there existed a period of preliminary beginnings, corresponding with a similar
condition in the earth's history, when the institution was without form and void.
As early as lS.")<j, Mr. Amos A. Lawrence, of Boston, one of the founders of the
New England Emigrant Aid Company, in whose honor the city of Lawrence re-
ceived its name, requested Charles Robinson to spend some money for him in
laying the foundation of a school building on the north piart of Mount Oread.
Mr. Lawrence explained his hopes and plans in a letter to Rev. Ephraim Xuce. of
Lawrence, JuLcJ December 1'3, 1S56. He says: " You shall have a college which
shall be a school of learning and at the same time a monument to perpetuate the
memorj- of those martyrs of liberty who fell during the recent struggles. Be-
neath it their dust shall rest: in it shall burn the light of liberty which shall
never be extinguished until it illumines the whole continent. It shall be called
the 'Free State College,' and all the friends of freedom shall be invited to lend
it a helping hand."
In another letter to the same correspondent, Mr. Lawrence writes in reference
to the proposed site upon the highlands above rhe town: "-Trade will not go up
the hills except to get prospect of a good bargain, and there is no risk in locating
a college or a church on a hill, even in a large city. The Romanists have under-
stood this, and we see in Europe their institutions on the pinnacles over the cities.
This insures a good view and seclusion."
Three days later Mr. Lawrence forwarded to Charles Robinson and S. C.
Pomeroy, as trustees, notes and stock amounting to .^12.6M.14, to be held by said
trustees in trust, the income to be used for the advancement of the religious and
intellectual education of the young in Kansas territory.
In 1S.>S initiatory steps were taken for the establishment of a school of high
grade on Minint Oread, to be under the immediate control of the Presbyterian
church of the United States of America. The Kansas directors of this institu-
tion were: William Richardson, Richard Cordley. Charles Robinson, John M.
Coe, Charles E. Miner, G. W. Hutchinson. James A. Finley. and C. L. Edwards.
Plans were made for the erection of a building tifty feet square and two stories
high. The legislature of 1S.j9 granted a charter to this institution under the
name of "The Lawrenck Univeksity," with the following board of trustees:
C. E. Miner. William Bishop, G. W. Hutchinson, J. M. Coe, A. W. Pit^er, E.
Nute, Charles Robinson, S. C. Pomeroy. C. H. Branscomb, William Wilsou, J.
A. Finley, C. L. Edwards, T. D. Thacher, Charles Reynolds. Rob<-rt Murruw,
James Blood, R. S. Symington, Josiah Miller, Lyman Allen. Thomas Ewing, F.
P. Montfort, and Willi:im Brindle. The prejjaratory department of thi.-, institu-
tion was opened September 19, 1859, in the basement of the Unitarian church,
and was continued for about three months, when its patronage ceased, and it was
given up.
The Congregationalistd next proposed to establish on Mount Oread an institu-
BEGINNINGS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS. 71
tion to be called Monumental College, intended to commemorate the triumph of
liberty over slavery in Kansas, and to serve as a monument to those who assisted
in achieving that victory. The trustees of the Amos Lawrence fund, Messrs
Robinson and Pomerny. with the consent of Mr. Lawrence, agreed to make over
that fund to Monumental College on condition that the Congregationalist.s should
have control of the institution. Donations of land, town lots and money pledges
valued at from 640.000 to 870,000 were obtained in a little over three days from
the people of Lawrence, the paper on which the names of the donors were in-
scribed making a roll some eight feet in length; but the drought of 1860 and the
breaking out of the civil war caused this enterprise to collapse, and when the
Congregationalists ne.xt took up the question of a church college, in 1863, they
located the institution at Topeka under the name of Lincoln College, which con-
tinues to exist up to the present time under the name of Washburn College.
In the meantime the Presbyterians, although their preparatory school had
ceased to exist, pushed forward the work of building the foundations of their
college building. The corner stone of this building was laid on October 18, IS.'iG,
by the Freemasons, and Solon O. Thacher and others delivered speeches appro-
priate to the occasion. Work was pushed on the basement story of this building
J*. ,■» » .,-..1 ^ • m. I 1- .|. f .1
uuLii i_una v>cciiij.<ri v.uiijjjcut-u. lua i^rsoQLiuu. O-iiC liai u. tiiiitra jcokiiiiijg IfOm tn©
drought of 1S60 stopp^'d further work upon the building after the Presbyterians
had invested a total amount of sl62.'i.50 in the so-called Lawrence Cniversity.
In 1861, under the auspices of the Episcopal church, a new institution was
chartered, with a new board of trustees, under the name of "The Lawrence L'^ni-
versity of Kansas."' The trustees named in the charter were; Charles Reynolds,
Charles Robinson. Charles E. Miner, H. J. Canniti. C. W. Babcock, George W.
Deitzler, William H. Hickcox, Geo. W. Smith, J. M. Bodine. Caleb S. Pratt,
Samuel Reynolds, George Ford. James Blood, N. E. Preston, John Foreman, R.
G. Elliott, L. Bullene, and S. A. Riggs. The Presbytei-ians surrendered their
claims to the new Episcopalian board, but the interferpnce of the civil war pre-
vented the accomplishment of the new enterprise. The claims of the Episcopal
church were subsei^uently donated to the state of Kansas, and the preliminary
educational work accomplished on Mount Oread was ultimately transferred to
the St.^te University.
This universitv- had. as yet, no location and no existence, except in the wise
forethought of the founders of the commonwealth of Kansas. The first constitu-
tion of Kansas territory, adoptf^d at Topeka in December, IS.")"), provided as follows ;
"The general assembly may take measures for the establishment of a university,
with guch branches as the public convenience may hereafter demand, for the pro-
motion of literature, the arts, sciences, medical and agricultural instruction." A
year and a half later, the free-state legislature which met at Topnka, June 9,
ISoT, enacted five laws, one of which was "for establisling a State University at
Lawrence." The framers of the Lecompton constitution enacted that "Seventy-
two sections, or two entire townships, shall be designated by the president of the
United States, which shall be reserved for the use of a seminary of learning and
appropriated by the legislature of said state solely to the use of said seminary."
The Leavenworth constitutition, also adopted by the free-state men, in April, 1858,
provides that, "As the means of the state will admit, educational institutions of a
higher grade shall be established by law so as to form a complete system of public
instruction, comprising the primary, normal, preparatory, college and university
departments." Finally, the Wyandotte constitution, under which the government
of the state of Kansas has been administered since its admission into the union,
adopted in July, IS-jO, declares, in the seventh section of the sixth article, that
72 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
" Provision shall be made by law for the establishment, at some eligible and cen-
tral point, of a State University for the promotion of literature and the arts and
sciences, including a normal and agricultural departjaent." By an act of con-
gress approved on the day of the admission of Kansas into the union of states, it
was ordered that "Seventy-two sections of laud shall be set apart and reserved
for the use and support of a State University."
There had been a general feeling that the State University should be located
at Lawrence, and when the state capital was located at Topeka there seemed to
be a tacit understanding that Lawrence should have the university. Mr. Amos
A. Lawrence had expressed a willingness that the Amos Lawrence fund should
be employed as an endowment fund for the university/if its location could be
secured for the city of Lawrence.
But there were other claims for the possession of the coveted prize. The first
attempt to locate the State University, under the constitution, was a proposition,
in 18G1, in favor of Manhattan, where the Methodists already had a school in
operation under the name of Bluemont College. The bill for this location passed
both houses of the legislature, but was vetoed by Governor Robinson. Manhat-
tan, having secured the agricultural college, waived her claims to the university,
arid the citT of Empcria took her place as tut »^Lic' coiupeLnui uf j-iawreuce in
the struggle for the university. C. V. Eskridge, in the legislature of 18G.3, intro-
duced house bill No. 12-2, to establish the State University at Emporia, which
eventually became a law, but not until its text had been radically changed, and
Lawrence substituted for Emporia in the title of the bill. Great feeling was
manifested in this legislative contest. The final vote resulted in a tie. It was
settled in favor of Lawrence by the chairman, Mr. Edward Russell, of Doniphan.
The bill passed the senate on February 11 without contest, and received the ap-
proval of Governor Carney February 20, and so became a law upon its official
publication February 21, 1SG3.
But the locition of the university at Lawrence was made conditional upon a
donation to the state by that city of a suitable site for the buildings. If the city
of Lawrence, within six months, should fail to secure a campus of forty acres
adjacent to the city, and to deposit with the state treasurer an endowment fund
of $15,000, the provisions of the act should be null and void, in which case the
proposition of the city of Emporia to grant an eligible site within or adjacent to
that city should be accepted by the state, and the governor should issue his
proclamation locating the university at Emporia.
Governor Carney appointed three commissioners, S. M. Thorp, Josiah Miller, .
and I. T. GtX)dnow, for the purpose of examining and determining upon suitable
grounds for the location of the university. The city council of Lawrence, at a
special session, accepted the proposition of Charles Robinson to furnish the forty
acres constituting the original university campus, on condition that the city would
deed to him a half block of land lying south of what is now the North college
campus, on the east face of Mount Oread. Governor Robinson subsequently con-
veyed to the city as a free gift ten acres additional land. Nearly one-half of the
original campus was tne property of Mrs. Robinson, who received for her share
about SoOO from the citizens of Lawrence.
The endowment fund of .si5,0<J0 was provided by the generosity of .\mos A.
Lawrence in donating to the university the 610,000 ori<rinaily intended for the
Free State College, and by the l^^ading citizens of Lawrence, who gave, as a sub-
stitute for the interest obligations of the Lawrence University, Wisconsin, a per-
sonal note for 6.">,0(X», wnich was cashed by Governor Carney, of Leavenworth,
just in time to prevent the location of the university at Emporia, according to
BEGINNINGS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS. 73
the terms of the original act. The governor's proclamation declaring the univer-
sity permanently located at Lawrence was issued November 2, 1863. The legis-
lature of 1864 passed a law organizing the university.
The Qharter of the University of Kansas was modeled upon that of the Uni-
versity of Michigan. The government of the institution was vested in a board
•of regents, to consist of a president and twelve members, to be appointed by the
governor, with the state superintendent of public instruction and the secretary
of state as ex officio members. Six departments were named as composing the
university — the department of science, literature, and the arts; the department
of law: the department of medicine; the department of theory and practice of
elementary instruction ; the department of agriculture, and the normal depart-
ment. By an act of the legislature approved March 6, 1873, the board of regents
to be appointed by the governor was reduced from twelve to six, who were em-
powered to elect a chancellor, who should be a member of the board with the full
power of a regent. This organization has continued to the present time.
It is a paradoxical fact of great interest that, although the State University
of Kansas enjoys the proud distinction of being the first of the state universities
to admit young women as students upon terms of exact equality with the young
men, its charter declared that it should consist of two branches, a male and a
female branch. To quote the exact language of this instrument: "The female
branch may be taught exclusively by women, and buildings for that branch
shall be entirely separate from the buildings of the male branch, and to estab-
lish and maintain the said female branch the regents shall annually appropriate
a sufficient amount of the funds of the university." It is humiliating to be
obliged to record that, although the original draft of the charter included a pro-
vision for equal educational privileges for both sexes in the university, this at
that time radical proposition was on the point of defeating the bill, whereupon
the concession was made by the conservative element in the legislature and the
provision for the two branches became a law. However, this provision was not
carried into execution, and the University of Kansas, from the day of its open-
ing, has made no distinction whatever in the educational facilities offered to the
two sexes.
On the day following the final enactment of the act of organization, Governor
Carney appointed the following regents: Charles Robinson, J. S. Liggett, E. J.
Mitchell, Geo. A. Crawford, J. S. Emery, A. H. Horton, C. B. Lines, S. O.
Thacher, Geo. A. Moore, John H. Watson, Samuel A. Kingman, and John A.
Steele. Unsuccessful attempts to convene this board delayed the first meeting
for more than one year, or until March 21, 1865, when the following resolution
was adopted: '^Resolved, That, in the opinion of the regents present, the state
executive, in filling vacancies in the board of regents, should have reference to
the appointment of such persons as will attend the meetings of the board." At
this meeting Rev. R. W. Oliver, rector of the Episcopal church of Lawrence, was
elected chancellor of the university, and it was decided, on motion of State Super-
intendent Goodnow, ex officio member of the board, to open a preparatory de-
partment as soon as the citizens of Lawrence should provide suitable rooms free
of expense to the state. It was considered impracticable to attempt to erect a
building on the forty-acre tract already belonging to the university, at the south
end of Mount Oread, and accordingly an arrangement was made by means of
which the foundation erected by the Presbyterians on the north end of Mount
Oread, with the adjacent grounds belonging to the city of Lawrence, should be-
come the property of the university. James H. Lane increased the gift of the
—5
74 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
city by donating to the state two and three-fourths acres of land necessary to
complete the square of ten acres constituting the North college site.
The first university building, called the North college, was erected upon the
Presbyterian foundation, at a cost of about $20,000. Of this amount, S9000 was
realized from the St. Louis relief fund to enable the citizens of Lawrence to re-
build their buildings and business houses after their destruction by Quantrill,
to which amount was added about $5000 derived from a similar relief fund col-
lected chiefly in the city of Boston, the gift of Amos A. Lawrence and other
friends of the free-state cause. To these amounts the regents added $4720, the
gift of Amos A. Lawrence, which amount Charles Robinson had collected as in-
terest on notes to Mr. Lawrence from Lawrence University, of Appleton, Wis.
It thus appears that no part of the cost of the North college building, nor of
the grounds upon which it is located, was borne by the state of Kansas.
The North college building was brought to completion early in September, 1866,
the carpenters putting the finishing touches to the stairway on the morning of
the day of the opening of the university, on September 12. In the meantime, on
the 19th of July, 1866, the regents met for the purpose of electing the first fac-
ulty. It is to be noted as a significant fact that during the early years of the
university ecclesiastical politics had much to do with the appointment of mem-
bers of the board of instruction. In order to keep the control of the institution
out of the hands of any one church denomination, it was agreed at the outset that
two professors should not be chosen from the same denomination until all th&
leading denominations should have at least one representative in the faculty.
Three professors were elected: Elial J. Rice to the chair of belles-lettres and
mental and moral science, as the representative of the Methodist church : David
H. Robinson to the chair of ancient languages, as the representative of the Baj)-
tist church; and Francis H. Snow to the chair of mathematics and natural
science, as the representative of the Congregational church.
Reliable tradition asserts that the election of the third member of the faculty
was accomplished after a severe struggle between the Presbyterian and Congre-
gational elements of the board of regents, which was not concluded until long
after the hour of midnight. Professor Rice, by reason of his greater age and
experience in school work, was made the acting president of the faculty. The
two junior members of that body, however, constituted a good working majority,
and practically controlled the internal administration of the university.
At the dedication of the North college, on September 12, 1866, Judge Solon O.
Thacher delivered the principal address, and formally dedicated the building " to
the use of impartial, patriotic and Christian education." At the end of the first
academic year Professor Rice resigned his position, and John W. Horner was
elected to fill his place as instructor. No acting president was appointed, and
when Chancellor Oliver resigned his position, in the fall of 1867, the board of
regents combined into one the offices of chancellor and president of the faculty,
passing a resolution that "it is the judgment of the board that under the law
the chancellor of the university is the president of the faculty." On the 4th of
December, 1867, Gen. John Fraser, president of the Agricultural College of
Pennsylvania, was elected chancellor of the university. He did not, however,
enter upon his official duties until the 17th day of June, 1868. The most dis-
tinguished service rendered by General Fraser was the successful execution of
his own plan for the erection of the main building of the university, now denomi-
nated Fraser Hall.
On the 3d of February, 1870, one and a half years after the beginning of his
administration, the citizens of Lawrence, by almost a unanimous vote, author-
BEGINNINGS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS. 75
ized bonds to the amount of 8100,000 for the purpose of erecting this building.
The state legislature of 1872 added 850,000 to the amount realized from the Law-
rence bonds, and on December 2 of the same year the building was first occupied
by university classes.
At the opening of the university, September 12, 1866, forty students presented
themselves for admission. In this number there were twenty-two boys and
eighteen girls. Not one of them was svifficiently advanced to be entitled to ad-
mission to the freshman class. In the first annual catalogue an apology was
made for the elementary character of the students in attendance, and the hope
was expressed that the preparatory department might be entirely abolished at
the end of the second year. As a matter of fact, twenty-five years elapsed before
the worlf of this department was entirely abolished and the work of preparation
for admission to the university was entrusted to the high schools of the state.
Not until that time did the University of Kansas take its proper place as an in-
tegral part of the free public-school system, constituting the twelfth, thirteenth,
fourteenth and fifteenth grades of that system, with as natural and easy a transi-
tion from the high school to the university as that which exists between the
lower grades and the high school.
The forty students enrolled during the first day of the first year were increased
to fifty-five as the total enrollment for that year. The unsettled condition of
society in those times necessitated the withdrawal of more than one-half of this
number before the end of the academic year in order to assist their parents in
agricultural and domestic duties, so that only twenty-two students remained at
the end of the year. Among these students of the first year were : A daughter
of John Speer, the honorable president of this Society; a son of Gen. Jas. H.
Lane; a brother and a daughter (Mrs. Geo. Leis) of Edmund G. Ross; two
sons of the "fighting parson," H. D. Fisher*; a daughter of Jos. Savage (Mrs.
D. S. Alford); two elder brothers and an elder sister of Prof. W. H. Carruth ;.
and a daughter of Dr. Alonzo S. Fuller (Mrs. Jos. E. Riggs).
The course of study leading to the degree of A. B. occupied seven years, in-
cluding three years of preparatory work, so that the first class to graduate from
the University of Kansas was the class of 1873, which consisted of four members :
Ralph Collins, now a Pennsylvania farmer: Murray Harris, a civil engineer;
Flora Richardson, now Mrs. Coleman; and L. D. L. Tosh, an attorney of Kan-
sas City, Kan.
The author of this paper is the only surviving member of the first faculty of
the University of Kansas, and is now in the thirty-first year of his connection
with the institution. During that time the number of students has increased
from 55 to 1155, and the number of the members of the faculty has been en-
larged from three to fifty-six.
The limited time assigned to this paper renders impossible a discussion of the
many important features connected with the beginnings of the university. The
field of higher education in Kansas was entirely uncultivated at the inaugura-
tion of the University of Kansas. The first faculty were largely untrammeled
by ancient tradition in determining the course of study and the methods of ad-
ministration of student afifairs. Coeducation and instruction in the modern
sciences, as an essential part of the regular curriculum, were features unknown
to other institutions of the same class at the time of our beginning, and it is a
source of great satisfaction to the author of this paper that in these, and in many
other respects, the University of Kansas has kept well to the front in its educa-
tional development.
*Dr. C. E. Fisher, located in Chicago, has reached great distinction. He was the youngest
student in the first class, and studied with the Doctors Houston.
76 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
BRONZE BUST OF D. W. WILDER.
A letter from Edgene F. Waee, read before the Kansas State Historical Society,
at twenty-second annual meeting, January 18, 1898.
I DESIRE to place in the custody of the State Historical Society the bronze
portrait bust of my friend, Hon. D. W. Wilder. I retain my proprietary in-
terest in the bust, but leave it in the possession of the Historical Society until it
can be determined whether or not the state will give the Society proper rooms
and necessary facilities in the state-house. If not, I will move the bust else-
where. The wishes of Mr. Wilder have not been consulted in this matter, and,
as he is alive and very modest, little will be at present said of him, but in the
future his life and services will be more at length set forth for preservation by
this Society.
Mr. Wilder was born back in the days of Andrew Jackson, July 15, 1832. He
did not have as much of the gift of prophecy as he should have had, because,
being the seventh son of a seventh son, he started a republican newspaper in St.
Joseph, Mo., before the war and got indicted and lost all his property.
His work in Kansas is a matter of household knowledge, and now is no time
for eulogy. The world will not endure panegyric when applied to the living, and
I will leave that branch of my remarks, after saying that the name of Mr. Wilder
•will be more plainly great in a hundred years than now, because we who now
remember and can relate the facts will be buried, and the "Annals" will be the
surviving witness of the youthful greatness of the state. The century will act
as a lens to make Mr. Wilder's great book more great, while behind it the sena-
tors and congressmen and governors will be massed in a yellowish blur, and all
forgotten, except as found in the "Annals."
As regards this State Historical Society, I wish to be permitted to say a few
words concerning Mr. Wilder's connection with it, for I remember it being talked
of considerably at the time.
On April 7, 1875, the editorial convention of the state met at Manhattan. It
was addressed by my friend Geo. A. Crawford, of the Fort Scott Monitor. At
the meeting of the convention Mr. Wilder offered the following resolution, which
was adopted :
"Whereas, All efforts to establish an active and efficient State Historical
Society have been failures: and
"Whereas, Such an organization is imperatively demanded for the purpose
of saving the present and past records of twenty-one years of eventful history:
therefore,
'■'■Resolved, That this association respectfully requests that F. P. Baker, D.
R. Anthony, John A. Martin, Sol. Miller and G. A. Crawford act as a committee
to organize such a society, and ask of the legislature an appropriation of not less
than §1000 annually to pay for subscriptions and for the binding of every news-
paper published in the state, and for such other historical records as can be se-
cured."
The reason the Historical Society was placed quickly in successful operation
was that such men as F. P. Baker, D. R. Anthony, John A. Martin, Sol. Miller
and Geo. A. Crawford acted as the committee.
On January 1, 187G, Judge Adams was elected to take charge of the Society,
and on May 15, 1877, issued its first report, and to his energy, scholarship and in-
fluence the largest share of the present result is due. I have the honor and the
pleasure to place in charge of Mr. Adams the bust of him who offered the resolu-
tion, and I would like to see the bust of each of the committee and of Judge
Adams beside that of Mr. Wilder.
INVASION OP THE 2700. 77
REMINISCENCES OF SEPTEMBER 14, 1856; INVASION
OF THE 2700.
An address by Beinton W. Woodward, before the Kansas State Historical Society,
at twenty-second annual meeting-, January 18, 1898.
T?ARLY in the afternoon of Sunday, September 14, 1856, a young soldier of the
-*— ' legion — the Kansas free-state legion — lay peacefully reposing in his tent at
Lawrence. This sentence perhaps needs some qualification in the outset. The
military force aforesaid was really no legion whatever — certainly its " name" was
not "legion" in the sense of numbers, consisting really of but a few companies
of half-organized volunteers, who banded themselves together to rally, to march,
and to fight if occasion demanded, but, afterward, mostly dispersed to their homes
when the exigency was past. The tent above referred to was a second-story back
room over a store on Massachusetts street, and the especial volunteer mentioned
boasted himself no warrior indeed, and really was n't much of a soldier in any
event, being, in heredity, the net resultant of some half a dozen generations of
peace-loving Quakers since his ancestors had come over with Penn to leave be-
hind the English persecution of that peculiar people. But he had felt impelled
to cast in his lot with the struggling free-state settlers of Kansas, and he had
early discovered that active and determined resistance to the aggressions of
slavery on this fair soil — aggressions characterized by fraud, violence and outrage
of almost every description — was a sacred and imperative duty.
So, for more than a year now, he had been enrolled, and had done duty in the
various emergencies that had come upon the free-state settlers. The struggle
had been arduous, and sometimes apparently well-nigh hopeless, in view of the
sanction and aid extended to the violent pro-slavery party by the federal admin-
istration.
But lately things had taken a more favorable turn for us. The active re-
sistance and retaliations of the free-state men had convinced their enemies in
Missouri that it was an affair of war, in which there were deadly blows to take
as well as give, while the now thoroughly alarmed democratic administration at
Washington seemed at last aroused to the fact that these pro-slavery outrages in
Kansas were operating strongly against their chances in the approaching presi-
dential election. It was their best policy to excite no further the sympathies of
the North in favor of the downtrodden free-state settlers in Kansas.
So again the experiment should be tried of sending a new governor for the
territory, and this time the choice happily fell on one whose feelings were enlisted
on the side of fairness towards us, and who really took in earnest the declaration
of his party, that the majority of the actual settlers in Kansas should be allowed
to rule. This declaration Governor Geary had taken opportunity to repeat, both
in open speech and in public proclamation, immediately upon his arrival in Kan-
sas. But a few days had elapsed since his advent into the territory, but these
assurances, evidently given in sincerity, that the bona fide settlers should have
fair play and all necessary protection in life and property at the hands of the
general government, had inspired a confidence that was as new as it was welcome.
Meanwhile "Gov." Charles Robinson and the rest of the "prisoners of state"
had been released on bail and returned to us, other free-state citizens wantonly
arrested had been given up, and the blockade of our highway to Leavenworth
had been raised, so that we were again able to receive from that river port pro-
visions and other needed supplies. A large share of our armed forces were dis-
78 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
persing, as men who had fled or been driven from their homes at peril of their
lives now Mt that they might return to their families with some assurance of
safety, and even resume their long forbidden peaceful avocations of life.
Governor Geary had himself visited Lawrence but two days before, accom-
panied by quite a considerable escort of government troops, and attended by a
light battery of four pieces of artillery, and in his speech to the citizens here had
pledged himself that lawless incursions from Missouri, with all their attendant
category of crime and outrage, should cease. So "our bugles sang truce," and
we fondly trusted that better times and an established order were near at hand,
when men might go about their business, proceed to develop the covmtry, and
establish an era of self government — of free government — for a future free state
of Kansas.
To the mind of ardent youth there is apt to be something fascinating and
insjiiring in the excitements and incitements of struggle in a cause like that in
which our free-state settlers had been engaged: a fight for the principles of free-
dom, carried on under such strenuous conditions that we seemed sometimes al-
most upon the very verge of revolution. Yet to one whose normal instincts as well
as hie whole early education and training all inclined to peace, there was now felt
something quite grateful in this lull which seemed the percursor of a return to
normal conditions of life. Peace was coming, and not any too soon. This young
volunteer had already been afforded sufficient opportunity to note some of the
unfavorable aspects and untoward results of civil war, even when pursued in as
righteous a cause as ours. Factions, divisions and demoralizations were already
showing themselves — jealousies between the leaders, a spirit of recklessness
among the men. Peace would restore the equilibrium. It would bring back to
us the restraints of order and the influences of wholesome occupation. Really
our young volunteer had become somewhat weary of this protracted time of tur-
moil wherein every night was full of alarms, and every new day brought further
sickening reports of violence and outrage, some of these happily proving false,
indeed, but far too many of them true. So the mental reaction had come, and
the change was welcome. " Grim-visaged war had smoothed his wrinkled front,"
seeming content to shuffle off the stage, while on the other side fair peace came
smiling in.
Such was his vision that quiet Sunday afternoon, when he rested and slum-
bered peacefully. Suddenly he was harshly aroused by the shout of a comrade :
"Up, Woodward! do n't lie sleeping here. Do n't you know that the enemy are
almost upon us ?" It was a rude awakening. Scarce could he realize or credit the
alarm — the sense of peace and security had impressed him so happily. "Why,
there's a whole army of them coming this time by forced march, straight from
Missouri. They 've got us sure," cried his friend. "They 're already nearing the
Wakarusa at Blue Jacket's: don't you see the flag flying on Blue Mound?"
That was our agreed signal of danger.
I looked across to Blue Mound, some five miles away "as the crow flies," and
on its summit (my eyes being sharper in those days) I thought I detected a little
gleam of color. Another reaction had come now, swift upon the heels of the first.
Bright-winged peace had come and ijassed; the gleam of her departing wings
was in that flutter on the summit of Blue Mound. There was no peace — it was
war — war to the knife, and its point striking uncomfortably towards us.
A little reflection showed us how slight were our chances. Partly owing to
our recent confidence in the situation, but fully as much to the fact that alarms
from other quarters had dissipated our efficient fighting force, Lawrence was now
left almost wholly ungarrisoned. The Wakarusa company had gone southward
INVASION OF THE 27C0. 79
on an alarm, the Topeka company had returned home, and Lane had departed
with an escort of mounted men toward Nebraska. Then, on the road, he had
flung back that message to Harvey, whose event proved so disastrous in long im-
prisonment afterward to 101 of our men intercepted and arrested by the United
States marshal and troops after that futile attack upon Hickory Point, near Val-
ley Falls, and whose further consequence now threatened destruction to Law-
rence thus left so undefended — for Harvey had taken with him about 150 of our
best fighting material, about all the best arms, and our boasted cannon, "Old
Sacramento," with Bickerton as artilleryman. About one-half of this 150 was
the "Stubbs"' company — the sturdy, sinewy, short-legged but long-winded
*'Stubbs," who in "brigade" association with our stalwart "Cabot Guards," in
Harvey's flank movement on Lecompton only ten days before, had proved them-
selves our superiors in marching qualities at least.
Figuring the matter up now, from the best estimate I can make of those who
showed themselves ready to take part in the defense, with weapons ranging from
repeating rifles down to pitchforks, I can scarce compute more than 125 men.
Of course, taking all in all, old men and striplings, armed and unarmed, the
number was somewhat larger — possibly in the vicinity of 200.
The actual number of the enemy was unknown to us, but we had reason to
believe that it was overwhelming in comparison with our depleted remnant.
There has always been some latitude in its estimate — whether 2500 or 2800; but
supplied as they were with the best arms, four pieces of cannon, and officered by
the men of most military experience among our bitter foes, and led by John W.
Reid, ex-colonel of the Mexican war, there were surely enough of them to wipe
us out utterly.
The little inquiry I then made did not elicit very definite information as to
just who the leader might be that was organizing our defense, and I have scarce
been entirely successful even yet in determining that point — whether Major Ab-
bott or Captain Cracklin. My own idea is that in the emergency we were get-
ting together by companies — of which there were very few left — or into the mud
forts without much definite administration of leadership. The three earth forts
or bastions, located near Vermont, Massachusetts and Rhode Island streets, re-
spectively, and bearing east and west from each other in a line coinciding closely
to that of Henry street, were first manned. These quasi forts we had thrown
up and rudely constructed in the previous December, at the time of the "Wa-
karusa war." Colonel Cook, the commander of the United States troops, had
officially reported that he could ride his horse right across any of them.
The "Cabot Guards," to which I belonged, Capt. Joseph Lowe commanding,
had been so named through our desire to " work " the generosity of Doctor Cabot,
of Boston, to such length that he should equip the company with good repeating
rifles. The charm of the name had not worked successfully and we were vari-
ously armed, mostly with rather inefficient weapons. I soon learned that this
company had been assigned to the defense of the fort on Mount Oread, which
had been built that present summer from the rough stone found about its site
on the bluft". I should join them at once! My first thought was to my equip-
ment. Some time before this I had been the fortunate possessor of a Sharp's
repeating rifle, but only lately I had lent it in aid of the cause to one of the boys
who was going out on scout. His memory proved too weak to insure its return,
so I never owned that trusty rifle any more, even upon so urgent an occasion as
this. There had, however, been some partial distribution of arms recently, and in
this shuffle I acquired an old musket. I had received this old musket already
loaded, and it wisely occurred to me then that, before going into this fight, 't would
80 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
be well to find out somethinfj: about its charge, I sought the river bank to dis-
charge it, and the recoil nearly knocked me over. In the fray it might have
proved a dangerous weapon— to me.
Attending to a little preliminary matter of finance, I made up a little packet
of coin, placing it in a tin Seidlitz-powder box, and bestowed it away on the in-
side sill of a back cellar window to our store. In the rather improbable event of
my ever surviving the anticipated destruction of the town, this money would
come in handy some time, and I might find it in this nook without redigging the
cellar. So, with a light purse, if not a light heart, I started to join my company.
It need not be disguised that I felt rather disgusted at the turn affairs had taken.
Reloading my musket, I took my way south on Vermont street. This taking me
close by the little circular earthwork, which was an affair about breast high,
with a trench inside, near the corner of Henry street, and just east of the present
city hall and court-house location, I paused a moment to observe what was going-
on there. Among the few in the little enclosure I observed John 'Brown, whose
eyes seemed peering southward with, I thought, a strained expression, and I felt
sure, from what we knevV of the old man, that there was chance for some fight-
ing in that vicinity, if the border ruffians should come that far into the heart of
the town. I am particular in emphasizing the fact that I saw John Brown on
this occasion, for I may want to write a whole volume of reminiscences of him
some day, and it is fast coming to the point that anybody who ever actually saw
John Brown can be free to write reams of romance thereon. The career of that
prodigy was wonderful enough without adding to it legend and myth; and I ap-
prehend that the more we have of latter-day legend the less we shall know of
the real John Brown.
The fort on Mount Oread had been located and built, under the direction of
Lane, at the point of the bluff coming north, where it drops down to the rather
lower level or ridge on which Governor Robinson's house had stood and where the
first university building (since called North college) was afterward placed. Its
site has scarcely even yet been wholly obliterated by grading, and it was directly
west of where Mr. Frank A. Bailey's residence now stands. It occupied a very
sightly and commanding position. Unfortunately it was not now in a condition
to command. It was of irregular outline, following the curve or point of the
bluff on two sides, with a straight chord subtending on the south. It was laid
up as a loose, dry wall, from the rough stone gathered about, to the height of
from three to four feet, thus making a show of outline fairly exhibited to the
east. The present chronicler owned very little military knowledge, indeed, but it
was quite obvious to his understanding that, with an enemy approaching us from
the south, gaining access to the plateau, and with their cannon planted, say,
where the main university building (Fraser hall) now stands, our citadel, built of
these loose rocks, might become a very dangerous affair indeed — for us. If out
in the open, we might have some little show to escape their shot, but inside, with
their balls impelling every loose stone of our battlement against us, our chances
would be slim indeed. And yet, I am convinced that this little pen of rock
which might, in urgency, have held, perhaps, 100 men, but now enclosed only
some forty, had something to do with saving Lawrence that afternoon. At all
events, its garrison enjoyed the advantage of a fine post of observation. Few
finer landscapes stretch out anywhere before the eye in all this broad land;
and, truth to tell, on this Sunday afternoon, we all united in scanning it closely.
Between the skirts of the two streams— the Kansas and the Wakarusa— our
vision then was quite unobstructed by trees, such as now diversify the scene.
But it was not solely the charming landscape that absorbed our attention; we
INVASION OP THE 2700. 81
were looking for figures in the middle distance and in the foreground ! Of course
we realized that the plain before us, rolling so gently on either hand to its flank-
ing streams, might serve as an admirable open battle-ground, but we felt too
well assured that our own forces were far too few and too feeble to render the en-
counter interesting and agreeable to us.
All this while, however, there was an opposing current of imagination, which
projected itself westward. For the first time in our free-state campaign, we
hoped for help from the direction of Lecompton. We remembered the assurance
so recently given by Governor Geary of help, through him, by the United States
troops, while engaged in any lawful undertaking of defense, such as he must al-
low this to be. He would not, he could not, quietly suffer the destruction of this
little free-state town and the slaughter of its citizens by this overwhelming Mis-
souri horde, even though that invading army falsely claimed to be Kansas terri-
torial militia. In fact, we knew he had already, by proclamation, called upon all
such bodies to disband. So we had hurried messengers to him, or at least a
messenger — Gaius Jenkins, one of the recent treason prisoners — advising our
perilous situation. But would he come promptly and in time? Paraphrasing-
the traditional language of Wellington on the field of Waterloo, we ardently ex-
claimed, "Oh, that night or Geary and his troops would come!"
At length — perhaps about four o'clock, and early enough — we began to see
signs of the enemy, as, leaving the immediate valley of the Wakarusa, hidden in
that direction by the intervening high ground, they came on to Franklin — some
three miles southeast of Lawrence — and the ascending smoke of Stroup's mill,
which they had fired, was an ominous sign that destruction would follow in their
wake. We could not, however, see, what we afterward learned, that three of
their advance guard, pushing ahead of the rest, down on the bottom below Frank-
lin, had been bravely charged upon by the two McGee boys, James and Thomas,
full of courage and spirit — there was no prohibition of the latter in those days —
and in the encounter of attack one Greathouse, of their number, firing closely
at Tom McGee, had scorched the back of his neck. Revolving the barrel of the
pistol with his finger, as it had stuck, Tom had fired at him at close range in re-
turn, laying him dead on the field.
Meanwhile, Colonel Learnard, who had been commanding a little force of
horsemen, left the town with what men he could gather and started down the
south road towards Blanton's bridge. W^ith him, as I am informed, went George
W. Deitzler, afterward Colonel and later Brigadier-general Deitzler in the war
of the rebellion, who learning from Learnard, while at a hasty noon meal together
at the Johnson House, of the purposed reconnoissance had expressed a wish to
accompany, saying that on account of his confinement with Robinson and the
rest of the "treason " prisoners that summer (and from which he had just been
released on bail) no chance had yet come to him that season to have any "fun."
When about two miles from town, finding no enemy in that direction, they turned
eastward, and were intercepting the Franklin road, on the high ground near the
Jordan Neal place, when, noting the advance guard of the Missourians coming in
considerable force, some 300 strong, and apparently tr>-ing to cut them off, they
turned back toward town — their own little force probably not exceeding twenty-
five men. As they strung along the Franklin road on their way homeward, we
watched them intently, and especially were we interested in two lagging horsemen
in their rear, especially the hindmost. " That man's horse is no good — he '11 get
cut ofif, sure," was our exclamation. I am inclined to think, however, that those
were the McGee boys getting out of the way of the enemy after their rencounter.
Somewhat to our surprise and gratification, when the advance of the Mis-
82 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
sourians had reached the vicinity of Robert Miller's present place, they left the
road, approachinj? afterward not much nearer the town, and circled around on
the prairie northward toward the Enos farm and Haskell's. Then we observed
our horsemen under Learnard range themselves about the fence around Hans-
comb's corn-field, and exchange some long-distance shots with them. My immedi-
ate exclamation was, when the enemy began circling off in an even radius: "They
are afraid of this fort; they take it for granted we have our cannon, and they
are keeping, as they suppose, just out of range." This, I afterward learned, was
also Learnard's impression, and that they were probably deterred thereby from
making a dash into town. Afterward, as a part of their force had swung a little
further north to the protection of the timber on the Haskell place, more of our
men, with rifies, under Captain Cracklin's lead, rallied out to the ridge about the
line of Delaware street, and from our elevated perch we could witness their firing
at long range. Some response was made to this, but it was ineffective, as, no
doubt was that of our own boys; but they kept the foe at bay, and as the dusk
of even began to settle down on the scene his force finally concluded, it would
seem, that they had n't sufficient strength to take the town, and, therefore, might
as well draw off, retire upon their main body, and then overwhelm us with their
whole force upon the morrow. Tired as they were with their long march that
day, they were not to be blamed for that conclusion, though thereby they lost
their favorable opportunity.
All this while our little company of about forty had strung themselves along
the wall of our fort, facing the east aijd the enemy, making — when taken in con-
nection with the assumption that we had at least one cannon with us — rather a
formidable appearance. As we moved about, outlined against the sky as a back-
ground, no doubt our numbers were magnified to their apprehension. This was
a case when "distance lent" if not "enchantment" at least illusion to the view.
Had they known how few and poorly armed we really were, they would scarce
have counted us as much of a factor in the problem. All the while my own im-
pression was that it would be merely a question of time until we were surrounded
on all sides by far superior numbers, and that our only chance then would be to
cut our way through their lines.
Now, however, when the enemy had drawn off for the night apparently, ad-
vantage was taken to secure some provender, and by small squads the members
of our company were allowed to go down town and get something for supper. On
my return at dusk a cheerful fire had been built in the fort, but Captain Lowe
detailed James Blood, Samuel Kimball and myself to watch the " California road"
{so called) at the point of the bluff where it began to drop down to the valley, a little
distance southeast of where the new physics building of the state university now
stands. We constituted an outpost, at perhaps one-half mile away from our com-
mand. As the shades of night came down this seemed a trifle lonesome, for our
outpost was quite a long distance from any houses of the little town; but our
duties were light, as nobody appeared to be passing along the road.
At length some noise was heard from down the road, near the locality where
the Judge Thacher residence now stands, and Blood suggested that himself and
Kimball would go down and investigate. They were gone for quite a while, but
on their return reported that they had discovered nothing. In the meantime the
sound of a horseman approaching from the west had come to my ears, and soon
I dimly descried him through the dusk. "Halt ! " I cried, and he halted. Bring-
ing my old musket to a "ready," I sang out, "Who goes there?" "A friend,"
was the reply. "Give an account of yourself, friend; who are you?" "I am
an officer of the United States army with a despatch from Governor Geary to
MEMORIAL ON TIMOTHY DWIGHT THACHER, 83
the Missouri camp below." As the appearance of his clothing and bearing
seemed to warrant his statement that he belonged to the army, I did n't feel jus-
tified in detaining him further. Indeed, I scarce felt sure that he didn't have
as good a right to be on that road as myself, and if he bore the kind of dispatch
that we hoped from Governor Geary, I felt little inclination to delay him — so he
passed on. I have since then felt a little doubtful at times of the exact truth of
this man's story, but at all events it was some one who assured the Missourians
when he got to their camp that they had better keep away from Lawrence.
After the return of my comrades no further incident offered, until at about
ten o'clock came a message from our captain that we might come in, as Governor
Geary and his United States troops had arrived. Once more a crisis had passed,
the tension was relieved, and Lawrence was saved from such sack, burning and
slaughter as was to be her cruel fate some seven years later. As we took our
way in, somewhere on the east line of the blutf, near where the tower of the
water-works now stands, we noted some white tents and a little battery of four
light field-pieces — six-pounders, I think — ranged in a row, with their mouths
turned eastward. I own to some appreciation of the beautiful in nature and in
art, but in all my varied observation I don't know that I have ever seen any-
thing prettier than those four little bulldogs of war, with their throats open and
ready to bark in the direction that Reid's Missouri army would have to take in
attacking Lawrence.
MEMORIAL ON TIMOTHY DWIGHT THACHER.
An address by Rev. Richard Coedley, before the Kansas State Historical Society,
at twenty-second annual meeting, January 18, 1898.
^IMOTHY DWIGHT THACHER was descended from a long line of Puritan
-^ ancestors. He was of the seventh generation from Rev. Thomas Thacher,
who came from England in 16.35, and who was the first pastor of the Old South
Church, Boston, on its formation in 1669. His portrait may be seen with the
pastors of the New "Old South" in Boston, where it hangs among the portraits
of other distinguished men who have filled the pulpit of that historic church.
In the Old South Museum, on Washington' street, may be seen several manu-
script sermons of his in the closely written style of that day. A century later,
another of the same line of descent, Rev. Peter Thacher, was pastor of Brattle
Street Church, in Boston. He was a very eloquent man, and was known as the
"Silver-tongued Thacher." In March, 1776, he delivered an oration before the
American troops at Walertown. In this oration he stated the grievances of the
American colonies against Great Britain, and the list almost exactly corresponds
with that which Thomas Jefferson, a few mouths later, inserted in the declara-
tion of independence.
The father of T. Dwight Thacher was Mowry Thacher. In the early part of
this century, he and his brother Otis removed from New England and settled in
Steuben county, New York. Mowry settled on a farm close to what is now the
•city of Hornellsville. He was a man of sterling integrity and good sense, and by
steady industry accupiulated a modest competence. He was held in high esteem
in that whole region. He was an elder in the Presbyterian church most of his
life, and was entrusted several times with large civil responsibilities.
Timothy Dwight was born October 31, 1831. He attended the district school
in bis youth, and in 1851 entered Alfred Academy, an institution not far away,
under the management of Seventh-day Baptists. The men controlling it seemed
84 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
to be broad men, and they pursued a very liberal policy, and the academy
proved a great blessing to that community. Kansas certainly has reason to re-
joice in the work of that academy. The Thachers, the Wordens, the Aliens,
Chancellor Marvin, and doubtless others about Lawrence, were from that insti-
tution. After three years at Alfred, Mr. Thacher entered Union College, at
Schenectady, as junior, and graduated in 1856. Union College was at that time
in its glory. The famous Dr. Eliphalet Nott was president, Dr. Laurens Hickok
professor of metaphysics, and Dr. Tayler Lewis professor of Greek. They were
all men distinguished in their day for learning and power, and took great interest
in the young men who came to them. Doctor Nott was one of the most distin-
guished educators of the time. He was president of Union College for over fifty
years. He was a great friend of Dwight Thacher, and said that "he was the
most promising student who had graduated during his administration." As 370O
young men graduated during his presidency, this is very high praise. Mr,
Thacher was also a great admirer of Doctor Hickok, who was one of the ablest
metaphysicians of this century.
Mr. Thacher had a fine philosophical mind and delighted in philosophical study.
He had thus far had in view the gospel ministry, and his studies had all pointed
in that direction. When he graduated, in July, 1856, the Fremont campaign was
at its height, and the great questions at issue took hold of the young man's mind
with great power. He had made a number of political speeches before he gradu-
ated. Now he threw himself into the contest with all the fervor of his nature.
He was in great demand at public meetings, and was called for in all directions.
At the close of the campaign in November he went back to Union College to pur-
sue some postgraduate studies in philosophy under Doctor Hickok. While thus en-
gaged he received an invitation from Lyman and Norman Allen to go to Lawrence,
Kan., to take charge of a new free-state paper they proposed to establish. The
Aliens were schoolmates of the Thachers in Alfred, and old friends. Mr. Thacher
had been profoundly stirred by the Kansas question. During the Fremont cam-
paign this had been the leading issue. He felt it was a crisis for him. To accept
the invitation was to change his whole plan of life. He consulted his teachers
♦as to his duty. His favorite teacher, Doctor Hickok, hesitated, but Doctor Nott
was enthusiastic. He said : "Go, my son. You may do more good there in a few
years than you can do here in a lifetime."
In the spring of 1857, therefore, he started for Kansas. On arriving he com-
menced the publication of the Lawrence Bepublican. From the very outset he
made it one of the leading free-state papers of the territory. He was anti-slavery
by heredity, education, and personal conviction. He based his opposition on
radical grounds. He had no apologies to offer, no compromises to make. He
believed slavery was wrong, and for that reason should not be permitted to enter
Kansas. He had no patience with the half-and-half sentiment which wanted a
"free white state." He despised the whole economic argument which opposed
slavery because it would not be profitable. He based his opposition on the
rights of the slaves, and not on the mere advantages of freedom. But in his
paper and on the platform he threw himself into the controversy with all the
force and enthusiasm he possessed. He attended all the free- state conventions,
and everywhere struck right and left for freedom on the grounds of justice. His
presence was like a tonic to the free-state party. The free-state party was com-
posed of two classes — those who would exclude slavery because they believed it
wrong, and those who would exclude it because they deemed it bad policy.
These last wanted neither slavery nor "niggers," as they termed them. Mr.
Ihacher had no patience with this heartless and cold-blooded sentiment. In his
paper and in his speeches he was radical, unsparing, and uncompromising.
MEMORIAL ON TIMOTHY DWIGHT THACHER. 85
The first time I saw Dwight Thacher was the day I entered Lawrence, Decem-
ber 2, 1857. A free-state convention was in session in the old stone Congrega-
tional church. The convention was a very important one, and a very large one.
The Lecompton constitution had just been sent to congress without being sub-
mitted to a vote of the people. There was great danger that congress would ad-
mit Kansas into the union under that constitution, and she be made a slave state
in spite of an overwhelming free-state majority. This convention met to pro-
test against such an outrage. T. Dwight Thacher was chairman of the com-
mittee on resolutions, and the resolutions adopted had the ring
" Of the good old colony times
When we were under the king."
The closing paragraph will give some idea of the tone of the whole set:
"Appealing to the God of justice and humanity, we do solemnly enter into
league and covenant with each other that we will never, under any circumstances,
permit the said constitution, so framed and not submitted, to be the organic law
of the state of Kansas, but do pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred
honor to ceaseless hostility to the same.
))
Three weeks later, December 23, this same convention reassembled, according
to the terms of its adjournment. They now confronted another question in re-
gard to this same Lecompton constitution. An election was to be held January 5,
1858, for state officers under it. A number of the free-state leaders were in favor
of participating in that election, so as to take possession of the constitution in
case congress should accept it. The debate on this question in this convention
was one of the ablest and most stirring debates to which I ever listened. A large
portion of the old leaders of the free-state party were in favor of taking part in
the election for state officers, so soon to occur. Mr. Thacher, without any though t
of such a thing, became the leading spirit of the opposition to that policy. He
gave that day a succession of speeches whose power and brilliancy would have
made the reputation of any man. He was in all the freshness of youth, with the
classic air of college life still upon him. He had been in Kansas long enough to
catch the full import of the situation, and the fire of the great conflict was burn-
ing within him. He brought into the debate the clear-cut, well-defined views of
a born abolitionist, the fervor and enthusiasm of a young man, and the classic
finish of a college training. Against him were arrayed a large portion of the old
free-state leaders, chief among whom was Gov. Charles Robinson, the president
of the convention. Their argument was that they must vote under the Lecomp-
ton constitution in order to get possession of it and destroj' it. They must "stoop
to conquer " ; in the less elegant language used by the speakers, " they must fight
the devil with fire. " Against such a policy and such a defense the soul of Dwight
Thacher boiled with indignation. He denounced any attempt to compromise
with wrong for the sake of success. He said:
"We have all agreed that the old 'bogvis' legislature was a fraud and a usurpa-
tion. We have never consented to the laws it enacted, and never recognized the
officers it imposed upon us. This Lecompton constitution is the offspring of that
legislature, and again and again we have denounced it as a fraud to which we
would never submit. To vote for officers under it is to acknowledge it: then if
we are beaten we have no recourse. Both principle and policy demand that we
treat it in the future as we have treated it in the past, as an outrage and an
imposition to which the people of Kansas will never for a moment submit. To
do otherwise is to stultify ourselves, and throw discredit on all the brave things
we have said and all the heroic things we have done in these two eventful years.
Let us maintain the high ground on which we have stood; then if, in spite of
our protests and in spite of justice, congress insists on imposing this hateful con-
stitution upon us, let us fall back upon the reserved rights of a free people, and
resist it to the bitter end. Let us be true to our word when three weeks ago we
86 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
pledged our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor to ceaseless hostility to this-
same fraudulent instrument."
Notwithstanding the array of great names against him, his eloquence carried
the convention, and the resolution was voted down by a large majority.
The 4th of January following was election day. A vote was to be taken on
the Lecompton constitution itself, as well as for officers under it, and I had de-
termined to cast the first vote in Lawrence against that unspeakable outrage. I
went early to the polls so as to be present at the opening. As I hurried up from
one side, I met Mr. Thacher hurrying up from the other side. We met face to
face right in front of the ballot-box, each with ballot in hand, eager to deal the
first blow by depositing the first ballot against the stupendous fraud. As we-
met in front of the voting window, both instantly saw the situation, and both
smiled. "I yield to you," he said politely, and stepped back and let my ballot
go in first, while his. followed as the second.
Mr. Thacher was largely instrumental in the forming of the republican party
in Kansas. A number of leading men were in favor of keeping up the old free-
state party, but Mr. Thacher had the sagacity to see that that was impossible.
The members of that party were hopelessly divided on nearly everything except
the question of a free state in Kansas. Now that that question was settled, there
was no point of cohesion. The republican party was the rising party of freedom
in the nation at that time. Mr. Thacher believed in being in line with the larger
movements of freedom in the whole country. He was, therefore, one of the prime
movers in calling the convention which met in Osawatomie May 18, 1859, and
formed the republican party in Kansas. He was chosen president of the conven-
tion, and had much to do with shaping its utterances. Horace Greeley was at
this convention and took great interest in the result.
Mr. Thacher was always loyal to his party, but never servile. He fearlessly
criticized the mistakes and denounced the wrongs of his own party, and did
more, perhaps, than any other man in driving out the corruptionists which cursed
it. He was a politician in the best sense, but he had a wholesome contempt for
men who pursued politics as a trade. He never hesitated to oppose and to expose
the men who sought office for mercenary motives or by corrupt means. Since
his death, an intimate friend of his was telling an incident which illustrates this
characteristic. A gentleman whom Mr. Thacher had helped into office was in
company with Mr. Thacher. In talking of political success, this gentleman said :
" I sought this office simply for the money there was in it." Mr. Thacher over-
heard the remark, and turned to the gentleman at once and said: "Do I under-
stand you to say that you wanted this office simply for the salary?" "That is
just what I said," replied the other. "Then I want to say to you," replied Mr.
Thacher, " that if I had known that sooner you never should have had the office."
Another friend was telling an incident to the same effect. Mr. Thacher was pro.
posed for a good position which was very congenial to him, and to which he ardently
aspired, and for which he was admirably fitted. His securing it turned on very
small margin. A gentleman who had the power to turn the scale in his favor
called upon him one day and offered to sustain him on "certain considerations."
Mr. Thacher replied: "If you think I am the man for the place, vote for me:
if not, do not vote for me." He did not secure the place.
With a brief intermission, Mr. Thacher continued to publish the Lawrence
Republican until 1863. In the spring of that year he was persuaded to pur-
chase the Kansas City Journal of Commerce, and removed to that city. He
left his brother, S. M. Thacher, in charge of the paper at Lawrence. In the
Quantrill raid, which occurred August 21 of that year, the Lawrence Repub-
MEMORIAL ON TIMOTHY DWIGHT THACHER. 87
llcan building was the first to be set on fire by raiders, and the whole property
was consumed. Mr. Thacher now gave his whole attention to his Kansas City
paper. It was not an easy thing at that time to publish a thoroughly loyal paper
in a border town like Kansas City. There was a strong rebel sentiment in the
place, and papers and pulpits were timid in their expression. They were be-
tween Scylla and Charybdis — careful not to offend the common sentiment, and
careful also to avoid the watchful eye of the military authorities. Mr. Thacher
regarded neither of these perils, but simply followed his convictions. He pub-
lished a thoroughly loyal paper, fearless and outspoken, and yet did it so wisely
and with so kind a spirit that he won the respect of all classes, and was a power
for the union cause in that important center. At the close of the war, in 1865,
he sold his interests in Kansas City and removed to Philadelphia, where he be-
came the chief editorial writer on the Evening Telegraph.
But he had been too important a figure in Kansas affairs to be contented any-
where else, and in 1868 he returned to Lawrence. In the many newspaper
changes which had occurred since he left, his old paper had disappeared. After
looking the ground over, he decided to reestablish that paper, and he was again
the editor of the Lawrence Republican. After several consolidations and
changes, the paper at last assumed the name of the Lawrence Repuhliean-
Journal, which Mr. Thacher continued to publish until he was elected state
printer, in 1881, when he removed to Topeka, where he afterwards made his
home.
Mr. Thacher was twice married. In 1857 he was married to Miss Catherine
Faulker Angell, who died in Lawrence January 22, 1858. May 18, 1861, he was
married in Philadelphia to Miss Emma Elizabeth Heilman, who made for him a
delightful home which he very much enjoyed. He was a charming man in his
home, as all his friends can testify. Of the eight children born to them, five are
living — two sons and three daughters. The elder son is a lawyer in New York,
the younger son away at school, and the three daughters are with their mother
in Philadelphia.
Mr. Thacher's friends have regretted that he never was chosen to any office
of large responsibility and influence. His name was often mentioned for con-
gress and other high offices of the state, and everybody recognized his eminent
fitness. In congress he would have honored the state and made his mark on
the nation. I once heard Hon. Charles B. Lines say that Dr. Leonard Bacon's
greatest ambition was to be president of Yale College, and everybody recognized
his eminent fitness. But when the time came to choose a president, a violent
opposition sprang up and he was defeated. One paper, in opposing him, gave
the reason: "Doctor Bacon is too great a man to be president of Yale College."
He was never president of Yale College for the same reason that Clay and Web-
ster were never president of the United States. But though Doctor Bacon was
never president, he did more to make Yale College what she became than any
president she ever had.
Mr. Thacher was never governor of Kansas, but he did more to make Kansas
what she is than half the men who have filled the governor's chair. He never
went to congress, as many of his friends wished he might, but in influence he out-
weighed a whole delegation of congressmen. He was an illustration of the fact
that a man does not need office to exert an influence upon the state. The men
who make the state are the men of large capacity and noble spirit, who put their
thought and life into its growth. In my mind's vision, I see an eagle perched upon
the crags 2000 feet above the sea. All at once he poises himself, darts down like
an arrow towards the ocean. But before he reaches the water a little fish-hawk
flies from a bush near the shore and seizes the prize the eagle should have had.
88 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
But the fish-hawk goes back to his bush a fish-hawk still, while the eagle soars
to his mountain home and is still the king of birds. In Kansas politics it has
been (juite common for the fish-hawk to secure the prize, while the eagle remains
on the crags.
As an editor Mr. Thacher was a model. His paper was always clean and
high toned. He never lowered its tone for a larger sale. His editorials were
always able, and often wonderfully brilliant. He fearlessly denounced wrong
always, and wrong-doers everywhere. Yet he never descended to abuse or per-
sonalities, and always treated his opponents with respect. He was always
courteous, even when he was cutting. He was often attacked, sometimes in a
very vicious style, but he always let the "mud slingers" have the field to them-
selves. He delighted in honorable controversy, but he had no taste and no in-
clination for personal vituperation. At one time the paper across the street
became very scurrilous and personal. Every issue was filled with the vilest in-
sinuations and assaults. Truth and decency were utterly ignored. Being in his
oflSce one day, I referred to these shameless attacks on him. " Yes, they are hard
to bear, but to reply would only please them too well. Detraction is their native
air. They are at home in that style of warfare. I shall never notice these at-
tacks in any way whatever." And day by day his paper was as serene as a sum-
mer sky. You would never know from anything he said that that editor across
the street was not his best friend. In time, of course, the cesspool dried up.
But he did not always pursue the policy of silence, as his opponents sometimes
learned to their cost. He knew when forbearance had ceased to be a virtue, and
when he did reach such a conclusion, there were lively times in at least two
newspaper offices. At one time the notorio«s I. S. Kalioch published a rival
paper in the town, and for some reason showed a most malicious enmity towards
Mr. Thacher. He was most persistent and aggravating in his flings and slurs
and insinuations. He was a keen writer, and his attacks were very galling, and
were having their effect on the public mind. For a long time Mr. Thacher made
no reply. Kalloch's reputation was not at all savory, and he was at his lowest
in Kansas. At last Mr. Thacher came out with a column and a half of as keen
and cutting invective as ever appeared in literature. The style was clear-cut
and brilliant, the matter choice and delicate, yet through it shone Kalioch so
clearly that the case was closed, and Kalloch's insinuations ceased.
Noble L. Prentis, who was for years associated with Mr. Thacher in news-
paper work, speaks thus of the temper and spirit of the man : " To Mr. Thacher be-
longs the honor of having, in a rude time, and amid all sorts of trials and terrors,
privations and difficulties, preserved the language, the tastes, the manners and
the feelings of a scholar and a gentleman." Mr. Thacher was trained a Christian,
and in all the provocations and exasperations of the conflict he never forgot what
belonged to a Christian profession. He was brought up in a refined home, and
amid the rough scenes of the frontier he never lost the spirit and manners of a
gentleman. He came from college with its honors upon him, and amid the care-
less methods of Western speech he never lost the style of a scholar.
Mr. Thacher originally intended to enter the gospel ministry, and his studies
in academy and college had that work in view. Though he never entered the
ministry, he never lost his love for the themes with which the ministry concerns
itself. He was never more at home than in the fields of mental science and phi-
losophy. He had a pure theological mind, and not many clergymen are more
familiar than he was with the whole realm of theological thinking. He would
have been an able and influential minister, and would have made his mark in
the iiublic thought. I am inclined to think that he did not abandon the idea of
some time entering the gospel ministry for many years. He had a strong religious
MEMORIAL ON TIMOTHY DWIGHT THACHER, 89
nature, and loved to think and speak on Christian themes. On coming to Law-
rence, he associated himself with Plymouth Church, and was always one of
its strong helpers. He was always present at the services, and was an interested
and sympathetic hearer. He was never critical, but always stimulating and ap-
■preciative. He cooperated with the church in many lines: in fact, was always
ready for any service, from teaching a class in Sunday-school to filling the pulpit
in the absence of the pastor. He was one of a group of six or eight men in Plym-
outh Church, who, in the early seventies, were always ready to fill the pulpit
when desired. This group included Mr. Thacher, his cousin, Solon O. Thacher,
Dudley C. Haskell, and others. During the summer vacation they would fill
the pulpit for weeks together with great satisfaction and with large audiences.
Some of Mr. Thacher's pulpit orations were among the finest addresses he
ever made, and would do honor to any pulpit. In the midweek service, also, he
was always ready to help. That service was one of the marked features of the
church, and he often led the meeting with very happy effect. Being a fine
singer, he was for years a member of the choir. For a long time, when there
was no choir, he acted as precentor in leading the congregation in the service of
song. In this last office he was exceptionally good. He could do this in such a
voice that the whole congregation could readily follow, and yet put on none of
the airs which so often make precentors a "burden grievous to be borne." A
newspaper correspondent who visited the church about this time, in writing an
extended account of the service, spoke with especial commendation of this part
of the service and of Mr. Thacher's work as a precentor.
His last appearance in Plymouth Church was only a few months before his
death. He had been invited by the Young Men's Christian Association to make
the annual address before that body. He gave the address in Plymouth Church
one Sabbath morning. He was very much moved at being once more in the
church where he had wrought so long and standing in the pulpit where he stood
twenty-five years before. He referred with great tenderness to the olden times,
and to the Christian comrades of former years. He spoke with peculiar tender-
ness of the sainted ones who had gone on before. The address was different from
anything I ever heard from him. There was nothing of the positive and ag-
gressive tone that so characterized his ordinary speech. The tender pathos of the
opening thought ran through the whole address and made it almost a reverie —
as if he were thinking aloud. It was all very impressive and very touching. One
passage attracted my special atttention at the time and has since seemed almost
prophetic, in view of what happened soon after. His theme was the powers and
possibilities and privileges of youth. He drew a vivid contrast between the
young man, with his life before him and his work yet to be done, and "those of
us whose life is behind us and whose work, perhaps, is almost finished." As the
news of his sudden death came to me a few weeks after, I could not help recalling
this passage which had impressed me at the time. I could not help wondering
if there had not come over him some shadow of the event that was so near. Was
there some dim intimation as to how nearly true it was that his "life was behind
him" and "his work finished" ?
The passing away of two such men as Timothy Dwight Thacher and his
cousin, Solon Otis Thacher, within so short a time, was an untold loss to the state.
The whole commonwealth is the poorer for their going. They were not alike,
but they were both men of large caliber and high character, par nohile gratum.
They were among the strong men of Kansas, who helped to lay her foundations,
and their life and thought are largely interwoven with her structure.
—6
90 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
THE NEW ENGLAND EMIGRANT AID COMPANY AS AN
INVESTMENT SOCIETY.
An address by William H. Cakruth, before the Kansas State Historical Society, at
twenty-first annual meeting, January 19, 1897.
A LARGE part of this paper appeared in the Neio England Magazine for
March, 1897, and is reprinted here with the consent of the publishers. "It
will be just as well for you not to mention the fact that you are from Boston,"
said a Harvard man of the class of '.36 to a friend of mine who arrived in Law-
rence twenty years ago to take a position as teacher. Maybe there was a bit
of cynicism in the remark, but there was surely much practical wisdom based
on experience. To those who have heard or read only of the large part taken by
New England in the settlement of Kansas, this must seem strange, even incredi-
ble. There is no doubt of the existence of this feeling for some years after the
incident referred to, although I believe it is now quite imperceptible. Some
inquiry touching the source of this suspicion or hostility of Kansas people
towards those of New England, and especially of Boston, has led to the present
paper. Mr. Godkin's recent explanation of it as a general distrust of Western
people toward Eastern. people, due partly to the fact that the latter wear socks
and tailor-made clothes, is not entirely satisfactory. For the sock habit has
spread in Kansas, so that there are some addicted to it in nearly every com-
munity. In large degree, the true explanation is to be sought in the history
and dealings of the New England Emigrant Aid Company.
A complete account of this extraordinary movement is still wanting, despite
Mr. Thayer's own publications in his pamphlet histories and his book, "The
Kansas Crusade." The rough data of the situation to be made by the Kansas-
Nebraska bill were: A fertile territory opened to settlement; the extension of
slavery, or perhaps the beginning of its extinction, to be determined by the set-
tlers themselves; pro-slavery settlers near at hand, but few and naturally slow,
agrarian, and their belongings not easy to move; anti-slavery settlers distant,
but plentiful, aggressive, more mechanics and town dwellers. To winning that
fertile territory and achieving that victory for freedom, the one obstacle seemed
to be the element of distance, for there the opposition had an immense advan-
tage. Pondering these elements in his study at Oread Home, Worcester, and in
his seat in the general court of Massachusetts, Eli Thayer evolved the plan of a
society which should offer to anti-slavery emigrants inducements sufficient to off-
set this advantage held by the other side. Already, nearly ten years before this,
Rev. E. E. Hale had considered the greater fecundity of the Yankee, and had
proposed to locate the surplus of New England population in Texas, teaching
thus "How to conquer Texas before Texas conquers us." But Texas was further
away and quite cut oft" from the free North, and the North was not yet roused
by the discussions of 1852 and 1854.
Mr. Thayer's plan was an epitome of Yankee characteristics — thrift and de-
votion to principle. He did not propose to win Kansas with hirelings, but to
show the natural aggressiveness of the Yankee an outlet for his energy at once
honorable and profitable. And thus, also, the company he proposed was not to
be a charitable labor entirely, as religious missionary societies mostly are; but
he asked: Why is it worse for a company to make money by extending Chris-
tianity, or suppressing slavery, than by making cotton cloth ? The company
which he planned was intended to be an investment company, giving and taking
NEW ENGLAND EMIGRANT AID SOCIETY. 91
advantages with those whom it induced to go to Kansas, and incidentally crippling
slavery. The plan was plausible; it is still so; and, omitting the war for prin-
ciple, is pursued by the railroad and irrigation companies of the West to-day.
April 26, 1854, more than a month before the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska
bill, Mr. Thayer procured a charter for the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Com-
pany,* with a capital limit of 85,000,000. Immediately he set to work holding
public meetings, and advertising what Horace Greeley dubbed " the plan of free-
dom." It caught the attention of the already roused North; it grew into the
lurid image of a last judgment in the suspicious imagination of the South. The
capital stock of §5,000,000 became, to the excited Southerners, a cash corruption
fund whereby to fill Kansas with hireling voters. On July 29, 1854, just after the
Emigrant Aid Company's first party of twenty-nine members had passed through
Kansas City, the Platte County Self-defensive Association, meeting at Weston,
resolved: "That this association will, whenever called upon by any citizens of
Kansas territory, hold itself in readiness to assist and remove any and all emi-
grants who go there under th^ auspices of the Northern emigrant aid societies."
The trustees of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company discovered legal
weaknesses, as they thought, in the charter, and preferred to work as a private
company, until, in the spring of 1855, a new charter was obtained, and the name
changed to the New England Emigrant Aid Company. Meantime Mr. Thayer
was indefatigable. He was writing and speaking constantly and organizing local
leagues. The subscriptions to the stock of the company were liberal and prompt,
amounting to about §100,000 before June, 1856. Among the largest subscribers
were Charles Francis Adams, Amos Lawrence, J. M. S. Williams, W. B. Spooner,
Eli Thayer, and W. M. Evarts. The company advertised its work well. In
July, 1855, a special appeal was made to churches to take shares for their min-
isters. The call was signed by Lyman Beecher, Starr King, Hosea Ballou, Cal-
vin E. Stowe, Leonard Bacon, and Horace Bushnell, among others. It added
less than S2000 to the stock of the company, but it interested 200 ministers in the
cause, which was said to represent not only freedom, but temperance, education,
and religion.
In September, 1855, the company issued an address to the people of Missouri,
some of whom had expressed a desire to hang Mr. Thayer. Like all manifestos
from this source, it was moderate and appealed to reason. In the senate report
of the thirty-fourth congress, Stephen A. Douglas, chairman of the committee on
territories, made a report, in which the Kansas troubles were ascribed largely to
the machinations of the Aid Company. Again the company put forth an "Ad-
dress to the People of the United States," admirable in its tone and content.
"The language of the senate report," it said, "would lead to the inference that
the Kansas-Nebraska act was especially designed for the benefit of those indi-
viduals and societies who seek to render the institutions of Kansas congenial to
those of Missouri. Their action is spoken of as simply defensive, while that of
the Massachusetts society is characterized as aggressive." Another device of
the company for arousing interest in its work was the prize of fifty dollars, offered
in February, 1855, by the secretary. Dr. Thomas H. Webb, for the best poem on the
subject of the emigration. This was won by Lucy Larcom, at that time a teacher
in Wheaton Seminary, at Norton, Mass., over eighty-eight competitors. Before
her authorship of "The Call to Kansas" was publicly announced, she was sur-
prised at being greeted one morning with the presentation of her song by a chorus
of her pupils.
*See notes on page 96.
92 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Whittier's beautiful "Hymn of the Kansas Emigrants " was a gift to the
cause. It appeared in 1855.
But the most powerful literary agency enlisted for the winning of Kansas was
the New York Tribune, Mr. Thayer tells in his book how he labored with
Horace Greeley, and the files of the Tribune from that time on show with what
complete success. Doctor Webb, secretary of the company, in his office at 3 Win-
ter street, Boston, kept the newspaper record of the fight for Kansas, with
which he filled twenty large folio scrap-books — an invaluable collection, now in
possession of the Kansas State Historical Society. The work done by the New
England Aid Emigrant Company toward determining the nature of the institutions
of Kansas was, without doubt, the most weighty factor in making Kansas free.
But much of this result was accomplished indirectly and incidentally. The agi-
tation of the cause and the advertising of the country probably started many
towards Kansas who never heard of the company. Mr. Hale's book, "Kansas
and Nebraska," published in 1854, and Mrs. Dr. Robinson's account of her ex-
periences, " Kansas, its Interior and Exterior Dife," both prompted indirectly
by the company, were powerful agents in accomplishing the final result.
But now we come to, the subject of the company's standing in Kansas, and
the reasons for its financial failure.
The report of the committee on organization, while assuring the company's
stockholders of "that satisfaction, ranked by Lord Bacon among the very high-
est, of becoming founders of states, and, more than this, states which are pros-
perous and free," alluded confidently to "an investment which promises large
returns at no distant day." This hope of dividends flickers up from time to time
even as late as May, 1861, when the executive committee, in a report to the
directors, said: "It must be shown that the free-state system of settling a new
country pays well in money. This we do not absolutely despair of doing, even in
the case of Kansas." But in the following June, Doctor Russell, better informed,
in a meeting of the directors, quenched the hope with a "might-have-been."
Yet this very rational expectation was made a subject of reproach against the
company by some supersensitives who alluded to "money-changers in the temple."
The Aid Company's emigrants were not the first free-state men on the ground.
By the end of 1856 they were not in a majority — if, indeed, they ever were. Of
course the pro-slavery men, from among whom there were, and continued to be,
many bona fide settlers, did not love the Aid Company's people. The free-state
men from the rest of the North brought from home, even then, a bit of prejudice
against the superior refinement and provincial pronunciation of the down-easters,
and to this was now added in many cases a mild jealousy. It was generally be-
lieved that the Aid Company's emigrants had been assisted, and had thus an
unfair advantage over their brethren from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
The Aid Company's agents, Charles Robinson and S. C. Pomeroy, were cautious
and law-abiding, yet firm in the defense of their rights. So there were some set-
tlers who thought the Aid Company had unnecessarily aroused Southern opposi-
tion, and others again who claimed to think that it was timidly conservative.
Furthermore, among the New England emigrants themselves there was more or
less dissatisfaction with the company because they were not aided more than
they were, or because the company did not keep its agreements as they under-
stood them. For instance, the fare from Boston to Kansas City was advertised
as twenty-five dollars — six dollars less than it is to-day. In some cases parties
arriving at St. Louis were charged anew for transportation to Kansas City. Mr.
Pomeroy refunded this double charge to some, but others did not know enough
to demand it, and did not get it. Then, again, with the third and later parties
NEW ENGLAND EMIGRANT AID SOCIETY. 93
were some kid-gloved gentlemen, who had come out expecting to live on the fat
of the land. These, of course, were disappointed and cursed the company. Some
of them returned; others were unable to do so, and stajed.
So it will be seen how many elements there were to supply open or secret ill
will towards the company. That such a feeling existed, and that right early, is
manifested by the passage of the following resolutions by the Lawrence Town
Company, January 16, 1855:
^'■Resolved, That the organization of the Emigrant Aid Society has been of
exceeding great benefit in the transmission of emigrants to the territory, and
their establishing an agency in this city and their investment of capital herein
has been a decided advantage to the place, and we believe their efforts thus far
have been entirely disinterested; we, therefore, most cordially invite them to re-
main and continue their operations among us, assuring them of our sincere
approval of the past, and of our cooperation in the future; that we, as citizens
of Lawrence, particularly approve of the course pursued by the Lawrence Associ-
ation toward the Emigrant Aid Society in extending an invitation to that com-
pany to invest their capital here, and the basis upon which they are allowed to
operate; and we shall duly respect their city rights and support them in all law-
ful and liberal movements."
Clearly these resolutions protest too much. The "basis" referred to was at
first a grant of one-half of all the town lots, which was not too much consider-
ing that Branscomb, the company's agent, paid S500 to purchase one-half of the
original town site. But soon the company's proportion was reduced to one-
fourth, and in the spring of 1855, while Doctor Robinson, the local agent, was
absent in the East, the company was finally assigned eight out of 220 shares into
which the town stock had meanwhile been divided. Of the three free-state
papers in Lawrence, one openly and constantly antagonized the movements and
policy of the Aid Company, while the Herald of Freedom, which was equipped
by money borrowed from the company, considered it policy for a time to deny all
connection with the New England propagandists. In later days the obligation
to New England has been so generously acknowledged in Lawrence that it is
almost forgotten how hard New England had to fight even her own friends.
Here, as everywhere, was felt the combined love and jealousy of foreign capital.
Now consider briefly what the Aid Company actually did, aside from agitating
and advertising. It established a Boston office, where intending settlers could
get information and gather for the start. Here they became acquainted and
learned the watchword which, Mr. Hale says, ought to be the motto of Kansas,
"Together." The character of Mr. Thayer's appeals and the nature of the case
brought together "men of industry and enterprise, who believe in hard work and
are accustomed to it"; men who could not fail to "carry with them a love for the
institutions which recognize the dignity of labor and allow to every man the just
rewards of his toil." While many local auxiliaries openly proclaimed their pur-
pose to aid only free state emigration, the company never questioned those who
purchased tickets through their agent as to their attitude on the slavery question.
In New England that was unnecessary. An amusing result of this policy, how-
ever, narrated in detail in Mr. Speer's account of James H. Lane, was that Gov-
ernor Walker and Secretary Stanton, both of whom denounced the transactions
of the Emigrant Aid Company, came into the territory on the Aid Company's
cheap tickets.
» While the Aid Company must be credited for something of the high tone of
the New England emigrants, it is a common error to suppose that these emigrants
came to Kansas expecting to win martyrs' crowns. I have questioned many of
them as to their motives, and the uniform answer has been : "We went to Kansas
to better our condition, incidentally expecting to make it a free state. We knew
94 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
we took some risks; but if we had foreseen the struggles and hardships we
actually underwent, we never should have gone." This is about what Mr.
Thayer calculated on.
The company then secured its passengers a low rate of transportation — a re-
duction of about ififteen per cent. It erected hotels and sawmills, thus providing
immediate accommodations for the new arrivals, and materials for building
homes. These institutions were calculated to be profitable, and to serve as
nucleuses for towns. Schools and churches were to be encouraged, but not out
of the company's stock funds. The company did not propose to speculate, or to
loan money, though it did so rarely in aid of semi-public enterprises. The com-
pany did not pay the transportation of any but its agents. It did not advance
money to intending emigrants. It " never invested a dollar in any implements of
war." This is the sworn testimony of Mr. Lawrence and of Mr. Conway, the
company's agent, before the Harper's Ferry committee. It is difficult to see why
a plan so wisely made did not succeed better.
What, then, became of the Emigrant Aid Company's money? Let us see.
The journal and ledger for the first two years are not at hand. From May, 1857,
to the close, kept in the beautiful figures of Anson J. Store, the assistant treas-
urer, they are in possession of the Kansas Historical Society, by the gift of Mrs.
Amos A. Lawrence. The stock account shows a total paid in of $136,300, to
which must be added donations of about $9000 — in all, $145,.300. Sales and rents
brought in, all together, $26,918. Thus there is $172,218 to be accounted for.
The total expenses of the Boston office for the eight years of the company'a ac-
tivity in Kansas were $30,465. This leaves us $141,753. In Kansas the company
bad as agents: Charles Robinson, 1854-'56; C. H. Branscomb, 1854-'58; S. C.
Pomeroy, 1854-'62; M. F. Conway, 1858-'62 — all receiving alike $1000 per annum,
expenses, and commission. The last items are not summarized in the ledger,
but some items given seem to warrant an estimate of fifty per cent, for them.
This will make the expenses of the Kansas end of the management $27,000,
and leave $114,753, or more likely under that, as the amount actually invested.
Of course, the treasurer charged up, and very properly, all expenses of manage-
ment to these investments, and his invoice of the company's property, footing up
$126,616.27, may be read clearly in the ledger now in possession of this Society.
A similar invoice, made in March, 1862, makes the total valuation $143,322.98.
But alas! the gap between debit and credit is often wide. On the 27th of Feb-
ruary, 1862, all the company's projjerty in Missouri and Kansas was sold at auc-
tion to John N. Noyes, for Messrs. Adams & Ayling, of Boston, for $16,150 — not
much more than enough to pay outstanding claims. And so, as Mr. Hale said
in 1879, "no subscriber to that fund ever received back one cent."
And still we have to answer the question, Why? While Mr. Thayer himself
declares that the money was contributed "'mainly as a charity, and without hope
of returns," and Mr. Hale says of the stockholders, "some of them did and some
of them didn't" expect dividends, it can easily be shown, in more detail than I
have done, that the management steadily hoped at least to pay back the original
investment; and besides, there is the testimony of various officers and agents
that the company "never gave a cent toward any man's passage," "never hired
a man to go to Kansas, or offered any inducement if he did not mean to go,"
"but we invested capital."
The company's financial agent was S. C. Pomeroy, afterward senator from '
Kan.sas. Mr. Pomeroy was not, however, a financier. Some mild-mannered
Westerner once warned a stranger against trifling with Wild Bill, explaining that
he was "reckless with firearms." Mr. Pomeroy was reckless with drafts. The
NEW ENGLAND EMIGRANT AID SOCIETY. 95
books do not show for what many of these drafts were drawn, but it is fair to
presume that all bargains were construed liberally in behalf of the emigrant.
"We understood the Aid Company to be a benevolent institution," said an old-
timer to me, "and we regarded anything of the company's that came in our way
as a gift." Pomeroy always paid liberally. He was not the man to make a sharp
bargain for the company. Very likely the company would have dismissed him
if he had done so. Three mills, costing in New York $4000, paid in freight $2146,
and an additional $583 foi" storage. The proprietor of the Herald of Freedom
repaid his loan of $2000 in territorial scrip, which was never redeemed. An agent
of the company, in making settlement, turned in ten shares of Quindaro town
stock at $3578, which was then really rated high, but soon became worthless.
The temporary sod and thatch hotels at first erected in Lawrence were soon
superseded, and were thus a loss. The largest single loss to the company was
the destruction by Sheriff Jones of the Free State hotel. A grand jury, deriving
its instructions from a United States district court, found the following indict-
ment: "We are satisfied that the building known as the Free State hotel, in
Lawrence, has been constructed with a view to military occupation and defense,
and regularly parapeted and portholed for the use of cannon and small arms, and
could only be designed as a stronghold for resistance to law, thereby endanger-
ing the public safety and encouraging rebellion and sedition to the country; and
we respectfully recommend that steps be taken whereby this nuisance may be
removed." A United States marshal brought a posse of Missourians to the city,
and then turned them over to the vengeful Jones, who, acting directly on this in-
dictment, without any order from the court, proceeded to destroy the hotel and
other property belonging to the company. When the sale was made, in 1862,
the company reserved its claim against the government of $20,000 for the destruc-
tion of the Free State hotel. The claim has never been allowed, but a juster one
was seldom made.
Resuming my report of the company's capital at the point where the operat-
ing expenses had been deducted, you will recall that we had left $114,753 to
account for. Among the definite items of loss which I have noted are the $20,000
for the Free State hotel, $2000 for the Herald of Freedom, and $3578 in Quin-
daro town stock. At least $1000 worth of other property belonging to the com-
Ijany was destroyed in the sacking of Lawrence May 21, 1856. This makes a
total of $26,578, direct loss, which, deducted from $114,753, leaves $88,175 to be
accounted for. How an investment of $88,000 can shrink to twenty per cent, of
that amount scarcely needs any explanation to those who lived through the
disastrous boom of 1886 to 1890.
Finally came the "collapse of the boom." The year 1857 was a boom year in
Kansas. The sacking of Lawrence and other outrages, in 1856, so increased in-
terest in the Kansas cause that the following year saw an astonishing influx of
settlers and capital. But the bottom went out soon. Investments made that
year could not find a purchaser at twenty per cent, in 1858. Things did not get
much better until, in 1860, they got much worse. Of course the beginning of the
war did not raise Kansas values. So it is not hard, even without any sinister sug-
gestions, to see how the company's $172,000 finally shrunk to $16,000. A careful
manager would have made this result very much more favorable, but it is doubt-
ful whether, under the best management, the stock could have been made to pay
dividends. Of the total, about $100,000 passed through the hands of Pomeroy.
Only $17,000 was handled by Robinson. Yet, without doubt, the latter would
have been a better manager for the company. If his advice had been taken, the
company would have had, for $3000, the site of the union depot in Kansas City,
now worth several millions.
96 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The Yankees of the New England Emigrant Aid Company who expected to
make money by the Kansas venture were disappointed. Those in Kansas who
made money out of the company contributed, naturally enough, to the distrust of
New England and the prejudice against Boston. But it is pleasant to know that
the chief of those who made that investment regarded it still, as did W. M,
Evarts, as "the best I ever made," and that they can say with Rev. E. E. Hale,
"All the same, we received our dividends long ago." They came in Kansas free,
a nation free; in the emancipation of four millions of black men, and in the
virtual abolition of slavery the world over.
EARLY KANSAS AID COMPANIES.
The reader of early Kansas history is apt to confuse the many organizations formed in the
East to assist in the settlement of Kansas.
Or, while recognizing that the number of them was great, it is a common error to suppose
that they were all practically charitable or missionary movements. Let me attempt to enu-
merate and disentangle these organizations.
In the order of their formation, they are :
1. The Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company (April, 1854).
2. The New England Emigrant Aid Company ( successor to the preceding, March, 1855- '62 ).
3. The Emigrant Aid Company of New York and Connecticut ( alHIiated with Massachusetts
Emigrant Aid Company and absorbed into New England Emigrant Aid Company, July 18, 1854).
4a. The Union Emigration Society ( spring of 1854; members mostly members of congress).
46. The Kansas Aid Society ( Goodrich, of Massachusetts, president, Fenton, of New York,
vice-president; just after passage of Kansas-Nebraska bill; probably identical with 4o). Some
subscriptions made — probably absorbed by New England Emigrant Aid Company; issued ap-
peals to emigrate.
5n-z, Kansas Leagues (number indefinite). Organized by Mr. Thayer under auspices of
Massachusetts or New England Emigrant Aid Company, from summer of 1854 to 1856 or 1857;
such as Worcester County Kansas League, its object to promote emigration— talked up Kan-
sas, organized party to go, probably assisted individuals by neighborly acts; the Oberlin Kan-
sas League, etc.
Of these, 2 absorbed 1 and 3 and 4 so far as they represented the investment idea, and it was
and remained the chief organ of the propagandist idea represented partly in 3 and 4, and
wholly in 5.
After the sack of Lawrence, May 21, 1856, there sprang into existence a number of organi-
zations in which the investment idea was unknown, but which were prompted by thq two pur-
poses of relief to the settlers and defense of the free-state cause. These were :
6. The National Kansas Committeee, or the Kansas National Committee, Thaddeus Hyatt,
president; appointed at a mass meeting held at Buffalo, N. Y., May or July, 1856. This com-
mittee is also referred to by some persons as the General National Kansas Aid Committee, to
distinguish it from certain state auxiliaries (Sa-ni).
The National Kansas Committee held but one meeting in New York, in January, 1857, but it
appointed an executive committee of three citizens from Illinois, known as the —
66. National Kansas Executive Committee, who transacted all the business of the greater
body. J. D. Webster, chairman; H. B. Hurd, secretary; Horace White, assistant secretary.
This committee collected and disbursed about $120,000, but never formally dissolved, and
never had a final accounting. Agents in Kansas: W. F. M. Arny, E. B. Whitman, T. B.
Eldridge, et a I.
la. The Boston (Relief) Committee, or Faneuil Hall (Relief) Committee, S. G. Howe, chair-
man ; organized at a meeting in Faneuil Hall, May, 1856; collected considerable money and
clothing; merged into —
76. The Massachusetts State Kansas Committee, G. L. Stearns, president, July, 1856 ; virtually
dissolved in 1858, but never formally. Raised cash, $50,000 ; supplies, $30,000.
8a-»i. State auxiliaries to 6 — working partly through the National Executive Committee,
and in part directly ; such as the Kansas Aid Society of Wisconsin, and Female Aid Society of
Wisconsin, Aug. Wattles, agent.
9. Finally there were Southern Kansas aid societies of pro-slavery men, suggested by Colonel
Buford, of which I have no details.
The name of the first of these organizations. Emigrant Aid Company, is responsible for much
of the confusion between the two groups. It was in fact a company not to aid emigrants, but to
aid emigration.
The confusion was further fostered by the fact that many persons prominent in the first set
of societies were also active in the second group, the relief societies, and that the officers and
machinery of the Emigrant Aid Company were used by the relief organizations of 1856 and 1860.
Finally, further misunderstandings in the matter are due to the fact that leaders in the
Emigrant Aid Company, as well as in the relief societies, acted often on their own responsi-
bility. Amos A. Lawrence gave to leaders in the free-state cause more than the amount of his
stock in the Emigrant Aid Company. George L. Stearns, president of the Massachusetts State
Kansas Committee, gave more on his personal responsibility for the purchase of arms and the
support of John Brown's movements than he contributed through the committee.
As an illustration of this confusion, I call attention to a letter of George W. Deitzler, read
at the quarter-centennial celebration of the settlement of Kansas, and printed without direct
correction on page 123 of Robinson's " Kansas Conflict," in which it is stated that the executive
committee of the New Eugland Emigrant Aid Company gave an order for 100 Sharp's rifles,
which were shipped to Kansas as books.
Now, Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Thayer, Mr. Hale and various other officers of the Emigrant Aid
Company have declared repeatedly, under oath and otherwise, that the Emigrant Aid Company
never spent or appropriated a dollar for arms, or even to pay the expenses of any one save its
agents. This testimony must stand, and the seeming contradiction is explained by the facts I
have cited. Mr. Deitzler and the common impression are wrong. The Emigrant Aid Company
did not give those Sharp's rifles, but they were given by individual subscriptions from Mr. Law-
rence, Mr. Williams, Mr. Thayer, and others.
FIRST PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION OF KANSAS. 97
THE FIRST PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION OF KANSAS.
An address by William E. Connellet, before the Kansas State Historical Society,
at twenty-third annnal meeting, January 17, 1899.
THE WYANDOTS.
ON the burning pages of Parkman we can read the modern history of the
Wyandots.^ They are of that linguistic stock of North American Indians
known as the Iroquoian family. For far-seeing policy, inordinate pride of race,
indomitable courage, the capability of vast organization, for enterprise and am-
bition, the Iroquoian family far surpassed all other North American Indians.
After threading a way which " was pathless and long, by rock and torrent and
the gloom of savage forests," the Jesuits stood, at length, on "the lonely shores
of the great Georgian bay, and before them stretched in savage slumber lay the
forest shores of the Hurons."
Here a number of Iroquoian tribes in close alliance composed what we know
as the Huron Confederacy. Their chief seat was between Lake Simcoe and the
Georgian bay, in what is now the province of Ontario, Canada. One of these
tribes lived to the south and west of the main body, and along the shores of the
Bay of Nottawassaga, spreading even into the fastnesses of the Blue mountains.
These were the Tionnontates, called by the Jesuits Nation de Petun, or Tobacco
nation, from the remarkable fact that they cultivated and raised tobacco in
sufficient quantity to create an extensive commerce in its barter and exchange
with other tribes.
In 1649 the Iroquois attacked their kindred with savage ferocity, and destroyed
forever the confederacy of the Hurons. To escape extermination, the fragments
of the broken tribes of the confederacy fled from the fury of the Five Nations
and took their sad and disconsolate way northward along the great lakes. Of
all the Huron tribes, the Tionnontates alone retained a tribal organization after
this catastrophe. Expatriated and wandering, the broken tribes traversed the
whole length of the upper lakes. No rest was found for their weary feet. Turn-
ing to the southwest, they reached the Mississippi. Here they were soon attacked
by those warlike children of the great American desert, the Sioux, and compelled
to retrace their steps. They settled on Point Saint Esprit, near the Islands of
the Twelve Apostles, at the southwestern extremity of Lake Superior. When
the Tobacco nation had absorbed and assimilated the remnants of the tribes of
the Hurons, and all that remained of the Huron Confederacy were merged and
blended into a single people, with the common name of Wyandot, they began to
slowly descend the great lakes. They stopped at Detroit, and there became
Pontiac's best and bravest warriors.
In the wars between the Americans and the British, they were on the side of
the English until the war of 1812, when a part of them espoused the American
cause. They were the prime movers in the formation of the Northwestern Con-
federacy of Indian Tribes, which opposed so long and so successfully the settle-
ment by Americans of the territory northwest of the Ohio river. They stood at
the head of this confederacy, and were the keepers of the council-fire thereof.
We shall see that their confirmation in this position was a potent factor in the
formation of a territorial government for Kansas. The present city of Upper
Sandusky was the center of the Wyandot lands in Ohio. Here Methodism was
1. Parkman's " The Jesuits in North America."
98 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
intrxMluced amonR them, and civilization made much progress. Families founded
bv whit., captives who had been adopted into the tribe came mto the ascendancy
in ihe HlTairs of the nation. The last full-blood Wyandot died in Canada about
the year 1820, and there was a preponderance of white blood in the tribe before
1H40. ^ , ^, .
The Wvnndots were the last of the tribes to abandon the graves of their
f:ithers and turn their faces to the west. In July, 1843, they set out for their
home beyond the Mississippi.- In the same month they landed at the mouth of
the Kansas river. Thoy had been promised 140,000 acres of land by the govern-
ment, but they were unable to find so large a body of good land unoccupied
st)uth of the Kansas river. As it was necessary that a home be procured before
the commencement of winter, they purchased the country in the fork of the Mis-
souri and Kansas rivers from the Delawares. They purchased thirty-six sections
and were given three sections.''
The Wyandots brought with them from Ohio an organized civil government,
modeled, to some extent, after that of an American state, especially in their
manner of procedure and practice before their council, which was their court.
They brought also a Methodist church, a lodge of Freemasons, and a code of
written laws which provided for an elective council of chiefs, the punishment
of crime, and the maintenance of public order.
In the Wyandot tribe were men of education and ability. The Walker family
can trace their ancestry to the nobility of France.^ The Armstrongs, the Browns,
and many other families were noted for intelligence and force of character,
.\b('l:ird Guthrie was descended from an old Pennsylvania family of north of
Ireland Presbyterians. He was married to Miss Quindaro Nancy Brown, in what
is now Kansas City, Kan., early in 1844. These men took a lively interest in
national atlairs. They watched narrowly the enactment by congress of measures
tending to affect their interests. They readily detected the tendencies of the
2. The Wyandotts left for the far west in July, 1843, and numbered at that time about 700
souls.— Howe's "Historical Collections of Ohio" (Cincinnati, 1847), 549.
3. AKrecment in writing between the Delaware and Wyandott nations, on the 14th of Decem-
IxT, 1H43, for the purchase of certain lands by the latter of the former; confirmed by the senate
July 'i"), 184.S:
"Wheeeas, From a lonK and intimate acquaintance, and the ardent friendship which has
for a (Treat many years existed between the Delawares and Wyandotts, and from a mutual desire
tliat the same feeling shall continue and be more strengthened by becoming near neighbors to
oiich otlier: therefore, the said parties, the Delawares on one side, and the Wyandotts on the
other, in full council assembled, have agreed, and do agree, to the following stipulations, to wit:
"AKTifLE 1. The Delaware nation of Indians, residing between the Missouri and Kansas
rivers, being very anxious to liave their uncles, the Wyandotts, to settle and reside near them,
do hereby donate, grant, and (juitclaim forever, to the Wyandot nation, three sections of land,
containing six imndred and forty acres each, lying and being situated at the point of the junction
of the Missouri and Kansas rivers.
'"Artici-e 2. The Delaware chiefs, for themselves and by tlie unanimous consent of their
Ix'Mple, do hereby cede, grant, iiuit-claim, to the Wyandott nation, and their heirs, forever,
thirty-six sections of land, each containing six hundred and forty acres, situated between the
aforesaid Missouri and Kansas rivers, and adjoining on the west the aforesaid three donated
the Missouri river: tlience down the said river with the meanders to the place of beginning; to
bo surveyed in as near a square form as the rivers and territory ceded will admit of.
• '/^u^'V^'i '^' ^° consideration of the foregoing donation and cession of land, the Wyandott
chiefs bind themselves, successors in ottice, and their people, to pav to the Delaware nation of
Indians forty-six thousand and eighty dollars, as follows, viz: six thousand and eighty dollars
to Ik. paid the year eighteen hundred and forty-four, and four thousand dollars annually there-
after for ten years.
'•Article 4. It is hereby distinctly understood between the contracting parties, that the
aforesaid agreement shall not be binding or obligatory until the president of tne United States
»hall have approved the same, and caused it to be recorded in the war department."
I" Land Laws of the United States of a Local and Temporary Character," vol. 2, p. 849.]
*r ,*.■ ''^i'"' ^^ "','*"'■ family are descended from the Montours, for an accountof whom see William
M. Darlington s edition of the "Journals of Christopher Gist."
FIRST PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION OF KANSAS. 99
times. They read with the comprehension of statesmen the inevitable change
soon to come to the land in which they had so recently made their new home.
FIRST EFFORTS TO ORGANIZE NEBRASKA TERRITORY.
The territory embraced at the present time in the states of Kansas and Ne-
braska, and in addition the territory immediately west of them to the summit of
the Rocky mountains, began to be known as "Nebraska territory" or the "Ne-
braska country " at a period as early as the arrival of the Wyandots at the mouth
of the Kansas river. In his annual report for the year 1844:, the secretary of war
recommended the organization of this territory. In accordance with this recom-
mendation, Mr. Stephen A. Douglas, at that time on the house committee on
territories, gave notice, on December 11, 1844, that he would bring in a bill for
the establishment of the territory of Nebraska. On the 17th of the same month
he introduced the bill, and it was referred to the committee on territories. The
bill was amended in the committee, and on the 7th of January, 1845, reported,
and referred to the committee of the whole, but no further action was had thereon.
In the meantime Mr. Douglas had been elected to the senate. Here he in-
troduced a bill for the organization of Nebraska territory, which was, on the 20th
day of April, 1848, made the order of the day for Monday, April 24, but no
further action was had thereon.
Mr. Douglas gave notice, on December 4, 1848, of another Nebraska bill; on
the 20th of the same month the bill was referred to the committee on territories,
but no further action was had thereon.
After these ineffectual efforts, congress seems to have fallen into indifference
in regard to this matter, for nothing more was heard on the subject for four years.
But it is more than probable that this long silence was the result of a well-defined
policy determined upon by the slave power of the South. The next movement
for the organization of Nebraska territory was by the people themselves, and their
efforts bore fruit, as we shall see.
THE REORGANIZATION OF THE NORTHWESTERN CONFEDERACY,
The movement in congress to organize a territorial government for a territory
which would include or surround their lands deeply interested the emigrant
tribes. Their treaties provided that their lands should not become a part of any
state or territory, and that they should never be made subject to the laws of any
state or territory. The introduction of bills into congress for the establishment
of a territory to be called Nebraska convinced the emigrant tribes that they
would be called upon to surrender their lands to the government at an early date.
Such interest arose, and so great became the concern, that the emigrant tribes
called an Indian congress to discuss this and many other matters. This congress
met at or near Fort Leavenworth, in October, 1848.^ The emigrant tribes, con-
sisting of the Wyandot, Delaware, Chippewa, Ottawa, Pottawatomie, Shawnee,
and Miami, were the original members of the Northwestern Confederacy of Indian
Tribes. The council-fire of the ancient confederacy was rekindled at this con-
gress, and all the functions pertaining to it were reaffirmed and reenacted. Two
other tribes, the Kickapoos and Kansas, were received into the confederacy, as-
sumed its duties and obligations, and agreed to abide its decisions. The Sacs
and Foxes were present. They had been the enemies of the Wyandots for a
century ; peace between them had not been declared.
Such was the awe in which they stood of the Wyandots, that when Governor
Walker rose and displayed the wampum belts — the archives and records of the
5. Governor Walker's journals of that date. See, also, Clark's "Traditional History of the
"Wyandotts," 132.
100 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
confodoracy— the chiefs of these tribes kept their eyes fixed upon him. Gov-
«Tnor Walker was an eloquent man. He was familiar with the language of the
trilirs of the league. These belts had not been explained nor shown in council for
a quarter of a century. Many a young warrior saw them here for the first time
and heard from the official oracle what his father had often repeated to him
about the ancient compact. Grizzled warriors looked upon them and thought
of the glory of long-gone battle-fields where they had met the enemy and gath-
ered many a bloody trophy. At length Governor Walker took up a long belt
upon which was worked a blood-red tomahawk, indicating the declaration of
war upon the Sacs and Foxes by the confederacy at the instigation of the Wyan-
dots. At sight of this belt the chiefs of these tribes sprang to their feet, uttered
a whoop of warning, and fled in terror, followed by their warriors. Messengers
were sent after them, but they could not be induced to return to the congress.
This congress lasted several days, and the ancient and honorable position
held by the Wyaudots since the founding of the league was confirmed anew to
them, and they were continued as the head of the Northwestern Confederacy,
and made keepers of its council-fire.
THK DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA.
Gold in California ! How these words stirred the nation ! The mechanic flung
aside his tools; the minister deserted his pulpit; the student forsook his books
and his school; the physician abandoned his patients; the pale and sickly clerk
put by his yardstick and tore himself from the ribbon counters and dimity shelves;
the lovers embraced their sweethearts and swore by the stars to be true and faith-
ful beyond the Sierras — all these joined in a motley throng and fell into long, ir-
regular lines, moving with all haste over prairie, mountain, burning desert and
scalding alkali plains, animated by the common hope of being able to gather a
portion of the golden harvest of the enchanted streams of California. It was
claimed in speeches delivered in congress that during the years 1849-'50 more
than 100,000 emigrants passed through what is now Kansas and Nebraska, on
their way to the El Dorado by the Golden Gate. No such movement had ever
before been seen in America. The hardships experienced on the plains and in the
mountains were often beyond description.
The construction of a railroad to the Pacific ocean to obviate these sufferings,
and to bring back the golden treasure for which they were borne, was advocated
and discussed. It became the settled conviction that some means aside from the
ox-team must be devised for the connection of the East and the West. Many of
these Argonauts passed through the lands of the emigrant tribes. To them the
purpose to build this road, and the presence of the gold hunters, was another
evidence that they must soon surrender their lands. They came to the con-
clusion that this was inevitable. If they must sell their lands they desired to
obtain as high a price as could be procured. They came to see that the organi-
zation of Nebraska territory would enhance the value of their lands, and from
thenceforth were in favor of the measure.
Benton's oreat national highway to the pacific ocean.
On Monday, December 16, 1850, Thomas H. Benton introduced into the senate
of the United States a bill providing for the construction of a "great national
highway" from St. Louis, Mo., to San Francisco, on the Pacific ocean. In his
he'sS*^"'^^ remarks preceding the introduction of this bill, among other things,
" \^ 's t" be^national in its form and use, not consisting of a single road adapted
U) a smgle kmd of transportation, but a system of roads adapted to all kinds of
ira^eimg, and of all kmds of carrying, free from monopoly, and free from
FIEST PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION OF KANSAS. 101
tolls. It proposes a railroad and a common road, to be begun at once, and the
common road finished next summer; with such other roads, either macadamized,
plank, or additional tracks of railroad; and a margin for lines of magnetic tele-
graphs, running parallel to each other, and at sufficient distance apart to avoid
interference, and yet near enough together to admit of easy transition from one
to the other. This fulfils another requisite of nationality; for a nation must
contain people of all conditions, rich and poor, and of all tastes and tempers,
and addicted to all the modes of traveling. Some, to whom time is every-
thing, and money nothing, and who demand rapidity without regard to cost.
Others to whom money is an object, and time a subordinate consideration, and
who want a cheap conveyance, no matter how slow. Others again who may
choose to carry themselves, going on a horse, or in a vehicle, or on foot. All these
will be accommodated, and without crowding or jostling; a mile wide for the
whole, and an ample track for each, gives room for all."
The road was to be owned by the government, and about one-tenth of the
public demain, as it existed at that time, was set aside as a fund for its construc-
tion; also the excess, over cost of collection, of the customs of California, Oregon,
Utah, and New Mexico.
But Senator Benton was not permitted to push the construction of this en-
terprise to an issue in congress. The growing arrogance and the insolent intoler-
ance of the slave power antagonized him in Missouri. In 1850-'51 he stood for
reelection to the senate, and was defeated. However, St. Louis returned him
to the house of representatives. He was in favor of the organization of Nebraska
territory. Long before, he had insisted that the point where Kansas City now
stands was to become a great commercial center. The defeat of Colonel Benton
was the result of the existence in Missouri of two uncompromising c.nd bitterly
hostile factions in the democratic party of that state. One faction was led by
Senator Benton, Willard P. Hall, Frank P. Blair, jr., and to some extent by the
St. Louis Republican, the principal newspaper of the state. This faction fa-
vored the organization of Nebraska territory, and stood for the rights of slavery
as defined by existing law, and were appalled at the proposal to repeal the Mis-
souri compromise.
The inspiring genius of the other faction was William Cecil Price,^ of Spring-
field. He inaugurated and carried to a successful issue the fight on Senator
Benton, and he did not abate his efforts until Benton had been twice defeated
for senator. He was the trusted and supreme representative in Missouri of the
slave power of the whole South. By birth he is a Virginian, and a direct de-
scendant of Cecil (Lord Baltimore) who settled in Maryland. At the time of
which we write he was in the prime of life, and was a man of rare ability and a
sanguine enthusiast. He was an ideal leader, imperious in manner, aggressive,
fearless, bold, adroit, and fertile in resource. He spurned public office, and it
6. William Cecil Price was born iu Tazewell county, Virginia, and is a descendant of the
Wittens and Cecils of Maryland, two of the most aristocratic families of America. He came
with his parents to Greene county, Missouri, in 1828 ; was prominent in the politics of the state
until the war ; was an able lawyer, and was elected to many places of honor and trust while
a young man, but he never sought office. Later in life he stood high, not only in the councils
of his party in Missouri, but in the democracy of the nation, and could have had what he chose ;
but the routine of office was irksone to him, and it was only when the question of removing the
deposits in the mints from New Orleans was agitated that he consented to accept the office of
treasurer of the United States, under President Buchanan. He was urged to retain this position
by President Lincoln, but refused. He was an advocate of secession and the representative of
the highest councils of the slave power of the South in Missouri. He selected Claiborne Jackson
to be the candidate of the democratic party for governor of Missouri, and organized and carried
to a successful issue the fight on Col. Thomas H. Benton ; but in defeating Benton he divided
the democratic party in Missouri. He joined the confederate army, was captured at Wilson's
Creek, and for a long time was confined in the military prison at Alton, 111. In manner Judge
Price was haughty and imperious, but no gentler or kinder man ever lived. His life has been
absolutely blameless and chaste ; he is an old-school Southern gentleman ; he is simple in
manner and quaint in expression ; he has a keen sense of humor, and at times cannot resist
expressing it. A friend once introduced him to a stranger and remarked, "Judge Price was in
the United States treasury under President Buchanan." "Yes," said the judge, "and in the
penitentiary under President Lincoln." —
102 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
was with dimmltv thnt he was induced to accept the position of treasurer of the
United States under President Buchanan. Senator Atchison was his man of
jiction in western Missouri, and seldom has a leader had a more faithful and ca-
pable lieutenant. His cousin, Sterling Price, was also a reliable subaltern and
faithful follower, and for his fidelity was rewarded with the governorship of the
state. This faction stood for the repeal of the Missouri compromise, and opposed
the organization of the territory of Nebraska unless slavery could be expressly
made one of its fundamental institutions.
THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF NEBRASKA TERRITORY.
But it remained for the emigrant Indian tribes to make the first effective
efforts in the work of securing the organization of Nebraska territory. All the
agitation of the matter in the states produced no tangible result. It, however,
aroused the opposition of the government. Governor Walker says:
"The.se discussions attracted the attention of the interior department, and
drew forth official intimations that the government could not allow any portion
of that territory to be occupied or settled by white people; and that the president
was authorized to employ, if necessary, the military force of the United States in
removing from the Indian country all persons found there contrary to law.
"But, unfortunately for the government, it turned out that it was the
Indians, not the indigenous, but the emigrant Indians themselves, especially the
Wvandots, that warmly favored the occupation by white people of the vacant
lands, and the ultimate organization of the territory."
These people petitioned the first session of the thirty-second congress upon
this subject, and asked for the organization of a territorial government for Ne-
braska territory. These petitions were accorded little or no consideration. They
now decided to adopt a more aggressive course, one less easily passed by with in-
attention. They determined to elect a delegate to the thirty-second congress,
and send him to attend the second session of that body, to be held in the winter
of ]8o2-'53. The chief men in this course were William Walker, Abelard Guth-
rie, Joel Walker, Matthew R. Walker, Isaiah Walker, Francis A. Hicks, George
I. Clark, Charles B. (Jarrett, Russell Garrett, Joel W. Garrett, Silas Armstrong,
Matthew Mudeater, and John W. Greyeyes.
The election was held in the council-house of the Wyandot nation, on October
12, 18r)"2. Governor Walker notes it in his journal, and says: "Attended the elec-
tion for delegate for congress from Nebraska territory. A. Guthrie received the
entire vote polled."
Mr. Guthrie says^ of the difficulties he was forced to face: "One Colonel
Fauntleroy, commanding officer at Fort Leavenworth (and now, I believe, of the
rebel army), threatened to arrest me if I should attempt to hold the election."
And in a communication to the New York Tribune, August 9, 1856: "I met with
many difficulties, and on one occasion was threatened with imprisonment by the
commanding officer of one of the military posts in the territory for my attempt
at ' revolution,' as he called it."
For the purpose of neutralizing any effect this irregular action might have in
congress, the military authorities, at the suggestion of Senator Atchison, de-
cided to hold an election for delegate, also. A Mr. Barrow was put forward as
the candidate to be voted for, but the people were tired of delay and voted for
Guthrie, who defeated Barrow by a vote of fifty-four to sixteen at this second
election.
Mr. (iuthrie left home for Washington November 20. Upon his arrival in
Washington he set to work with his usual enerery to accomplish the purpose for
7. Letter of Abelard Guthrie to Governor Walker, now in my collection.
FIRST PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION OF KANSAS. 103
which he was sent. His efforts bore fruit. On December 13 Willard P. Hall in-
troduced a bill for the organization of the Territory of the Platte, with the fol-
lowing boundaries: On the south, the thirty-sixth degree and thirty minutes;
on the north, the forty-third degree ; on the west, by the summit of the Rocky
Mountains; on the east, by Missouri. Mr. Hall's bill was referred to the com-
mittee on territories but was never reported. In lieu thereof, William A. Rich-
ardson, of Illinois, from the committee, reported a bill, on February 2, 1853,
providing for the organization of Nebraska territory, with boundaries identical
with those in Hall's bill. In the committee of the whole the bill met with strong
opposition from Southern members, and was reported back to the house with a
recommendation that it be rejected, but on February 10, 1853, it passed the
house by a vote of ninety-eight to forty-three. It was sent to the senate on the
following day. Here it was referred to the committee on territories, of which
Stephen A. Douglas was chairman. February 17, Mr. Douglas reported the bill
without amendment. The term of congress would expire by limitation March
4, and Mr. Guthrie was anxious to have the bill taken up as long before that date
as possible. It was not taken up, however, until March 3, when it was laid on
the table by a vote of twenty-three to seventeen.* Mr. Guthrie believed he had
a majority in the senate for the bill, and this was probably true could the vote
have been had at an earlier date. In his letter to the New York Tribune, Mr.
Guthrie says that the bill was not reached in the senate, but this is an error.
While Mr. Guthrie was not admitted to a seat in the hodse, and did not secure
the passage of his bill, he accomplished the purpose sought in his election. He
forced a consideration of the question of the organization of Nebraska territory.
The passage of the bill in the house and the close vote upon it in the senate was
taken by the slave power to indicate the question was certain to be considered at
the coming session of congress.
The Wyandots determined to proceed with the work of securing the organiza-
tion of Nebraska. We have ample evidence of this in the following document,
which was given to me by Hon. Allen Johnson, head chief of the Indian terri-
tory Wyandots.^ It is in the handwriting of Governor Walker, though unsigned.
It is a legal document, and was probably handed to the council of chiefs during
a joint session of the legislative committee and the council. The legislative com-
mittee was the highest tribunal of the Wyandot government. While it is not
dated, it is evident that it was written at the time of which we are speaking:
"The legislative committee previous to adjournment deemed it necessary to
make some formal and official expression of its views upon our Indian relations
as they now exist, and upon our relation with the United States in the present
aspect of affairs.
^^ First, then, it is well known that for the last hundred years a league has ex-
isted between the following tribes, viz.: Wyandott, Delaware, Chippewa, Ottawa,
Pottawatomie, Shawnee, and Miami. This league unanimously elected the Wyan-
dott keeper of the council-fire, where all diplomatic and other important matters
involving the interests of the several tribes composing this league were to be dis-
cussed. Whether in peace or war, this league maintained a unity of mind and
action in all important measures. On the happening of any important event in-
teresting to them, it appears from past history that the keeper of the council-
fire was the member whose duty it was to apprise the members, by a confidential
runner bearing the official wampum, of the nature of the information received.
"In pursuance of this understanding mutually entered into, the tribes com-
posing this confederacy naturally looked to the Wyandott for all official informa-
tion of importance to them. Thus the principles of this compact were kept up
8. For confirmation of these statements, see the Congressional Globe under proper dates.
9. This paper in my collection.
104 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
till, liy action of the United States jrovernment, the tribes composing this con-
foileracy n'moved from the north and east to the west of the Mississippi. This
c-aused'sunie denvn^enient in our intercourse with each other; caused an inter-
ruiition of the usual interchange of friendly messages. Thus matters continued
till the autumn ( October i of 1848, when the members of the league assembled for
the first time in the west and demanded, 'Where is the council fire'? The
kee|H>r promptly responded: 'When I rose from my seat in the east, with my
face to the west, I snatched the only firebrand yet burning in the eouncil-fire
and bnniglit it with me; here, my brethren, I rekindle it in the west. Light the
pipe and scour up my dish and camp-kettle again.'
"At this first session west, all the former arrangements of the league were sol-
emnly renewed, and two other tribes joined us and agreed to incur the responsi-
bilities and abide by the regulations and joint acts of the league, viz., the
Kickapoos and Kansas. It is well known the Sacs and Foxes played an unmanly
|iart on this occasion, and we have had no explanation. The Wyandott being
thus formally reajjpointed the keeper of the council-fire in the west, the obliga-
tion still rests upon him to discharge faithfully those obligations he incurred
when originally invested with this mark of distinction.
''Second, our relations with the United States government. It would seem
from present indications that the present Indian policy is about to undergo an
important and, to us emigrant tribes, vital change. Heretofore the general pol-
icy has been to purchase the domain of the red men little by little, and confining
him to narrower limits, with the view, as the government said, of compelling him,
by the extinction of game, to resort to agricultural and civilized pursuits. This
not working well, or rather it was the excuse, the injurious and demoralizing ef-
fects of being surrounded by a dense white population being so palpable, induced
the government again to change the whole policy to that of colonizing the red
race in a new country west, to be assigned them by the government, and to be
theirs 'as long as grass grows and water runs'; where they could have their
choice of pursuits, either the chase or agriculture, and where they and their de-
.scendants would be free from the trammels of state or territorial laws, and be
governed by their own laws, usages, and customs. And in order to do this the
government threw around the emigrant tribes its strong protecting arm. This
change in its jiolicy took place about twenty-two years ago. The next and pres-
ent apprehended change is that of purchasing of us emigrant tribes the lands
assigned, or rather sold to us, to be our perpetual homes. This presents to us a
new question. If we submissively fall into this new line of policy, what is to be-
come of us? Further west we cannot go — nor indeed to any other point of the
compass, as the government has no more rich-soiled, timbered and watered ter-
ritory on this continent to bestow upon the red man. What are the emigrant
tribes to do? In this exigency the committee would respectfully suggest to the
executive council the propriety of sending the messenger with the wampum to
the tribes composing the confederacy and such other tribes as emigrated from
the east as we may be upon friendly terms with, apprising them of this appre-
hended change, with a view to a consultation upon this propriety of uncovering
the great council-tire, and devising the measures necessary to be adopted in this
new cast."
I have it from Matthias Splitlog and many other old Wyandots, that this
meeting of the tribes was called, but for what purpose I was at a loss to know
until I found this document. This preliminary meeting was held in the Wyandot
council-house some time in May, and that the fixing of the time for the formation
of the provisional government was determined at that time there is little doubt,
although I cannot say that I have found anything positively confirming it. But
that it was resolved to hold a convention for this purpose, in the council-house of
the Wyandots, on the day appointed for the green-corn feast, I have been assured
by a great number of old Wyandots — so many that I have no doubt at all of the
accuracy of their statements in regard to it. I was disappointed in not finding
mention of it in Governer Walker's journal, but he omitted so many important
events that I do not attach importance to his silence on this subject.
In the year isr,:i the green-corn feast was fixed to fall on Tuesday, August 9.
The other emigrant tribes were notified of this intention to form a provisional
FIRST PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION OF KANSAS. 105
government for Nebraska territory on that day, and asked to send delegates;
and all white men then resident in the territory among the emigrant tribes were
requested to be present and participate in the work. Russell Garrett says these
notices were written. Only such white persons as were then in the service of
the government in the capacity of agents, missionaries, agency farmers, agency
blacksmiths, agency carpenters and licensed Indian traders were permitted to
live in the "Indian territory." I have the assurance of a great number of the
first settlers of Wyandotte county, as well as of the older Wyandots, that Colonel
Benton was advised of this conclusion of the Wyandots, and that he approved
it, if, indeed, he had not urged it.
The fixing of the location of the line of the railroad soon to be built to the
Pacific ocean now became a factor in the movement for a provisional government
for Nebraska territory. Iowa wanted the initial point of this road on her
western border. Missouri, without regard to party or faction, supported the route
proposed by Senator Benton, and insisted that the valley of the Kansas river was
the logical, most central and most practicable way. Ever since the enormous and
phenomenal emigration to California, the initial point of this "great national
highway" proposed by Colonel Benton had been a matter of contention between
the people of Iowa and Missouri, and, to a certain extent, of the country at
large. The North, generally, favored Council Bluffs as the starting-point, and
insisted that the valley of the Platte was the route of greatest utility, from a
national standpoint. The South contended that the mouth of the Kansas river
was the better location from which to start. The controversy followed the old
line drawn between the North and South by the question of the extension of
slavery. From the time of the introduction of Colonel Benton's bill this matter
was one of general discussion, and opposing forces were seeking to fix the line of
the road where it would best subserve their interest. ^o
A meeting in the interest of the Missouri or central route was appointed to be
held on July 26, 1853, in that part of the "Indian country" immediately west of
Missouri. The Benton democracy and their adherents in the Indian territory or
"Nebraska," for some reason, unknown as yet, determined to hasten the matter
of organizing the provisional government, and to form it at this meeting in the
interest of the "central route."
The determination to organize the provisional government of Nebraska at the
convention in the interest of the "central route" made it necessary that this
meeting should be held in the council-house of the Wyandots. Abelard Guthrie
was, perhaps, the only Wyandot notified in advance of this change in the pro-
gram. Governor Walker, in his notes, says: "In the summer of 1853 a ter-
ritorial convention was held pursuant to previous notice to be held in Wyandot.
The convention met on the 26th of July ." This statement does not say that
the notice was that the convention should meet on the 26th of July. In Governor
Walker's entry in his journal, describing the convention and its proceedings, he
states that he did not attend this meeting until noon, and then only after he had,
Cincinnatus-like, been sent for. It is more than probable that he did not know
of the change in the order of events until he arrived at the council-house. The
series of resolutions adopted by the convention bears only one resolution in his
handwriting. And, again, it was not his intention to accept any office in the
provisional government. Public office had no attractions for him. He intended
that one of his brothers, Matthew R. Walker or Joel Walker, both splendid busi-
10. See the statement of Hadley D. Johnson, in vol. 2, p. 85, and following, in the "Trans-
actions and Heports of the Nebraska State Historical Society."
—7
lOG KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
ness men and possossinp fine executive ability, and several years younger than
himself, should be selected as the provisional governor.
Among the delegates to the convention were the following persons: William
Walker, Russell Garrett," Silas Armstrong, W. F. Dyer,!^ Isaac Munday,!'' James
Fiudley,'* Grover,'' William Gilpin"' (afterwards governor of Colorado),
Thomas' Johnson, Cieorge I. Clark,'' Joel Walker,"^ Charles B. Garrett,i9 Joel
Walker (iarrett,-"" Matthias Splitlog,^' Tauromee, Abelard Guthrie, Matthew R.
Walker,-'- Francis A. Hicks, John W. Greyeyes, Irvin P. Long, H. C. Long,
Captiin Hull head,-' Baptiste Peoria,2nhe Blue-jackets,^' and other Shawnees.
The only written account of the convention and its proceedings which I have
been able to find is that in Governor Walker's journal, and which is as follows:
"Monday, July 25, 1853. Cool and cloudy morning. Resumed cutting my
grass. Warm through the day. Sent Harriet to Kansas for some medicines for
Mr. ('., who has every other day a chill. In the evening three gentlemen rode up
and in.iuirod if W. W. resided here. Upon being assured in the affirmative, they
stated thev wished to stay all night. I sent them to C. B. G.'s. They said they
were delegates to the railroad meeting in Nebraska on the 26th instant. I would
gladly have entertained them, but owning to family sickness I was compelled to
send them where I did.
"Tuesday, July 20, ISo."^. Very cool and clear. Went over to C. B. G's and
got my scythe ground. Warm day.
"On yesterday morning One-hundred- snakes Standing Stone died of mania-
a-potu.
"At noon a messenger was sent for me to attend the railroad convention. I
saddled my horse and rode up to the Wyandot council-house, where I found a,
large collection of the /lahifnns of Nebraska.
"The meeting was called to order, and organized by the appointment of Wm.
P. Birney,-"of Delaware, president, and Wm. Walker secretary. A committee
was then appointed to prepare resolutions expressive of the sense of the meeting.
James Findley, Dyer and Silas Armstrong were appointed.
" In accordance with the resolutions adopted, the following officers were elected
as a i)rovisional government for the territory : For provisional governor, Wm.
Walker: secretary of the territory, G. I. Clark; councilmen, R. C. Miller, Isaac
Munday, and M. R. Walker.
"Resolutions were adopted expressive of the convention's preference of the
'great central railroad route.'
"A. Guthrie, late delegate, was nominated as the candidate for reelection.
Adjourned."
The resolutions adopted by the convention served the provisional government
of Nebraska territory as a constitution. An election was held according to its
provisions. These resolutions are copied from the original document now in my
collection. It was given to me by Mrs. Margaret Pipe, a Wyandot, now living
on the Wyandot reserve in the Indian territory. When in the Indian territory.
Governor Walker spent much of his time at the home of Irvin P, Long. As he
had given up housekeeping and had no permanent home, he carried all his im-
portant papers with him to the Wyandot reserve. He gave Mr, Long this and
many other papers. A short time before his death Governor Walker went to Ohio
to deliver a series of lectures, and took many of his papers with him. He let
some one there have some of them for the purpose of having them copied, but
none of them were ever returned to him. I feel very confident that this person
was a Mr, George W, Hill. Governor Walker died at the home of Mr. Henry
Mrs. Smalley writes me that after his death some one representing a historical
11 to a. See notes, on page 110, et aeq.
26. WiLMAM P. BiRNEY Was an Indian traderat Delaware, in the Delaware reserve, I liave
tx'on able to loarn but littk> of him. He remained in Wyandotte county at least until the com-
mr-ncomcnt of th«> war. He is frequently mentioned in Abelard Guthrie's journals, and on the
11 or January, \m), is mentioned as one of tlie persons owning property in Quindaro City. He
y have lived there at that time, >= ^ f ^ -v
ma
FIRST PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION OF KANSAS. 107
Smalley, in Kansas City, Mo. Mr. Smalley lives now in Springfield, Mo., and
society came and got some of his books and papers. So, to the present time,
these invaluable papers remain scattered abroad.
Mr. H. M. Northrup and Nicholas McAlpine both told me that the mice de-
stroyed many of his papers, including his history of the Wyandots. I searched
for this paper unsuccessfully for many years. I looked through hundreds of re-
ceptacles for old papers in the public offices of Wyandotte county, Kansas, in the
hope of finding it. I continued the search in the Indian territory. Mrs. Pipe
cared for Mr. Long's household during the last years of his life, and her daughter
was adopted by him and made his heir by will. She lives in the old Long home-
stead, where I visited her and secured this paper. She did not know the his-
torical value of these papers, and in house cleaning burned large quantities of
them as useless rubbish, so she said.
This is the first state paper of Kansas and Nebraska, and is as follows:
THE PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS.
"Whereas it appears to be the will of the people of the United States that
the Mississippi Valley and Pacific Ocean shall be connected by rail-road to be
built at the national expense and for the national benefit; it becomes the duty of
the people to make known their will in relation to the location of said road and
the means to be employed in its construction. In selecting a route ' the greatest
good to the greatest number' should be the first consideration and economy in
the construction, and in protecting the road should be the second
In estimating 'the greatest good to the greatest number,' present population
alone should not govern, but the capability of the regions to be traversed by the
road, for sustaining population should be considered
Economy in the construction will be best secured by the cultivation of a pro-
ductive soil, where materials for the road exist, along and contiguous to the line
of road whereby provisions, labor and materials can be obtained at low rates.
Then the farmers with their teeming fields will ever be in advance of the railroad
laborer to furnish him with abundance of wholesome food at prices which free
competition always reduces to a reasonable standard. At the same time they
will be a defense to the work and the workman against savage malice without
the expense of keeping up armies and military posts. These too will be the
surest and safest protectors of the road when finished and without expense to
the Government. But should the road be constructed through barren wastes
and arid mountains and upon the frontier of a foreign and jealous and hostile
people an immense and expensive military power must be erected to protect it—
a power ever dangerous to freedom and desirable only to despots. In view of
these facts therefore be it
Resolved That from personal knowledge of the country and from reliable
information derived from those who have traveled over it we feel entire confidence
in the eligibility of the Central Route as embracing within itself all the ad-
vantages and affording all the facilities necessary to the successful prosecution
of this great enterprise.
Resolved That grants of large bodies of the public lands to corporate com-
panies for the purpose of building railroads, telegraph lines or for any purpose
whatever are detrimental to the public interests, that they prevent settlement,
are oppressive and unjust to the pioneer settler and retard the growth and pros-
perity of the country in which they lie.
Resolved That we cordially approve of the plan for the construction of a
railroad to connect the Mississippi valley and Pacific Ocean recently submitted to
the public by the Hon. Thomas H. Benton whereby the settlement and prosperity
of the vast country between Missouri and California will be promoted and the
construction of that great work be rendered much cheaper, more expeditious,
and more universally useful.
Resolved That it was with profound regret that we heard of the failure of
the bill to organize a government for Nebraska Territory ; that justice and sound
policy alike demand the consummation of this measure and we therefore respect-
fully but earnestly recommend it to the favorable consideration of Congress and
ask for it the earliest jjossible passage.
Resolved That the people of Nebraska cherish a profound sense of obligation
103 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
to lion Thomas H. Benton and to Hon. Willard P. Hall of Missouri for their
conerous and j.atriotic oxortious in support of the rights and interests of our
territory and that we hereby express to them our grateful acknowledgements.
Whkkkah it is a fundamental principle in the theory and practice of our gov-
ornmrnt that there shall be no taxation without representation and the citizens
of Nebra-^ka being subject to the same laws for the collection of revenue for the
supiK'rl "f government as other citizens of the United States it is but right that
they shall be represented in Congress, therefore be it . ,^ .
Brsulvrd That the citizens of Nebraska Territory will meet in their respective
precincts on the second Tuesday of October next and elect one delegate to repre-
sent them in the thirty third Congress. . . , ^
Eesolvrd That this Convention do appoint a provisional Crovernor, a provi-
sional Secretary of State and a Council of three persons, and that all election re-
turns shall be made to the Secretary of State and be by him opened and the votes
counted in the presence of the Governor and Council on the second Tuesday of
November next and that a certificate of election shall be issued by them to the
person having the largest number of votes.
Resolved that while we earnestly desire to see this territory organized, and
become the home of the white man, we as earnestly disclaim all intention or de-
sire to infringe upon the rights of the Indians holding lands within the bounda-
ries of said territory .
Resolved That the people of Nebraska Territory are not unmindful of the serv-
ices rendered by our late delegate in Congress the Hon Abelard Guthrie, and we
hereby tender him our sincere thanks and profound gratitude for the same
Resolved that this Convention nominate a suitable person to represent Ne-
braska Territory in the 33d Congress
Resolved that Editors of Newspapers throughout the country favorable to
the Organization of Nebraska Territory and to the Central Route, to the Pacific
Ocean are requested to publish the proceedings of the Convention
Resolved That the Editors of newspapers throughout the country who are
favorable to the organization of Nebraska Territory and to the Central Route to
the Pacific Ocean are requested to publish the proceedings of this Convention."
Indorsed on the back are these words:
"Preamble and resolutions to be submitted to the Nebraska Convention to
meet on the 26th July 1853"
No boundaries were fixed for the territory for which the provisional govern-
ment was organized, but the language of the resolutions makes it plain that it
was the territory as defined by the Hall and Richardson bills.
Each faction of the Missouri democracy determined to secure the delegate to
be elected in the following October. The Price-Atchison faction had a tre-
mendous advantage in this contest, in that they controlled the patronage of the
Indian bureau of the department of the interior, while Mr. Guthrie, Benton's
representative, could only depend upon his own personal efforts and the personal
efforts of his friends.
Handbills were printed containing the record of the proceedings of the con-
vention. These were distributed, and were copied into the newspapers of Mis-
souri. We find the following entry in Governor Walker's journal:
"Thursday, July 28, 1853. A. Guthrie called upon and dined with us to-day.
Received the printed proceedings of the Nebraska territorial convention. Great
credit is due the proprietors of the Industrial Luminary , in Parkville, for their
promptitude in publishing the proceedings in handbills in so short a time."
Governor Walker mentions the issuance of the proclamation for the election
of a delegate as follows:
"Saturday, July .30, 1853. Well, by action of the convention of Tuesday last
I was elected provisional governor of this territory. The first executive act de-
volving on me is to issue a proclamation ordering an election to be held in the
different precincts of one delegate to the thirty-third congress.
"Monday, August 1, 1853- Issued my proclamation for holding an election in
FIRST PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION OF KANSAS. 109
the different precincts in the territory on the second Tuesday in October, for one
delegate to the thirty-third congress."
This proclamation was printed and distributed throughout the territory, and
in all probability it was printed in most of the newspapers of Missouri. Their
preparation for distribution is mentioned by Grovernor Walker:
"Monday, August 8, 1853. Geo. I. Clark, secretary of the territory, called
this morning and delivered the printed proclamation (200 copies) for circulation."
The provisional government had hoped that no candidate would be put for-
ward to stand for election against the regular nominee of the territorial conven-
tion. While the leaders of the Price-Atchison democracy of Missouri had
opposed the organization of a provisional government, and believed that the
slave power could prevent the admission of Nebraska territory and the recogni-
tion of its provisional government, it still believed it best to participate in the
election for delegate to congress. A strong man in thorough sympathy with the
extremists of the slave power of the South was sought for and found, in the person
of Rev. Thomas Johnson, missionary of the M. E. church south to the Shaw-
nees. Mr. Johnson resided near Westport, Mo., in the Shawnee country. The
Shawnee and Kickapoo tribes are closely related by blood, and Mr. Johnson's
nomination was made in the country of the latter tribe. Governor Walker, says :
"A few days after the adjournment of this convention another, rather informally,
was called at Kickapoo, at which Mr. Johnson was nominated as candidate for
delegate. The latter then yielded to the wishes of his friends and became a can-
date in opposition to the regular nominee."
Having secured a strong candidate, the Price-Atchison democracy brought to
bear every influence at their command to secure his election. The commissioner
of Indian affairs came to the territory, where he remained more than a month to
personally influence the emigrant tribes (and perhaps the other tribes) to vote
for Mr. Johnson. Governor Walker leaves us enough evidence to confirm this :
"Tuesday, September 6, 1853. Mr. Commissioner Manypenny came over in
company with Rev. Thos. Johnson to pay the Wyandots a visit. The council be-
ing in session, I introduced him to the council, to which body he made a short adr
dress.
"Thursday, October 6, 1853. Received a letter from Major Robinson inform-
ing me that Commissioner Manypenny wished to have an interview with the coun-
cil to-morrow.
"Friday, October 7, 1853. Attended a council called by the commissioner of
Indian affairs. Speeches were passed between the parties on the subject of the
territorial organization, [and] selling out to the government.
"Tuesday, October 11, 1853. Attended the election for delegate to congress,
for Wyandott precinct. Fifty-one votes only were polled. A. Guthrie, 33; Tom,
Johnson, 18. The priesthood of the M. E. church made unusual exertions to ob-
tain a majority for their holy brother. Amidst the exertions of their obsequious
tools it was apparent it was an up-hill piece of business in Wyandott.
"Monday, October 31, 1853. I suppose we may safely set down Thomas
Johnson's election for delegate as certain. It is not at all surprising, when we
look at the fearful odds between the opposing candidates. Mr. Guthrie had only
his personal friends to support him with their votes and influence, while the
former had the whole power of the federal government, the presence and active
support of the commissioner of Indian affairs, the military, the Indian agents,
missionaries, Indian traders, etc. — a combined power that is irresistible."
The territorial council canvassed the returns of the election at the Wyandot
council-house November 7, 1853, and issued a certificate of election to Mr. John-
son on November 8. Governor Walker notes these transactions in his journal :
"Monday, November 7, 1853. Attended at the council-house at an early
hour, though in poor health. The territorial council, secretary and governor
110 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
then i)root'pded tx3 ^iien the roturns of the territorial election. After canvassing
tho returns, it appeared that Thomas Johnson had received the highest number
of votes and was declared elected deleerate to the thirty-third congress.
"Tuesday, November 8, 185.3. J. W. Garrett, deputy secretary, attended at
my hou.se, aiid we issiii'd the certificate of election to Thomas Johnston, dele-
gate elect to the thirty-third congress."
The Wyandots felt outraged by the action of the commissioner of Indian
affairs, but as their interests were so largely in his hands they could do nothing
else than submit without protest, and this they all did, except Mr. Guthrie. He
filed a conte.st for the .seat of delegate, and vigorously attacked the commissioner
of Indian affairs in the public prints. He spent a portion of the winter in Wash-
ington, and labored for the organization of Nebraska territory until he was con-
vinced that the slave power would organize two territories and endeavor to make
one slave and permit the other to come in free,
THE RESULTS OF THIS MOVEMENT.
Abelard Guthrie declared that Kansas was the arbiter of the destinies of the
republic. At the time of the adoption of our constitution slavery was not mo-
lested, but was suffered to remain one of the institutions of a government set up
for the liberty and perfect freedom of mankind. But even at that time the
principles and theories of the Puritan and the Cavalier were antagonistic on this
point. Who could have conceived that the spark to ignite the fires destined to
burn away this foul Vmrrier to perfect liberty was to be struck out by a people
who were, at the time of the formation of our government, pagan savages; and
that this should transpire in a land which was at the same time no part of our
common country? Yet such is the potency of our institutions that in less than
three-quarters of a century this remote possibility became a remarkable fact.
He would be rash indeed who declared that this movement was the cause of
the rebellion ; but that the organization of the provisional government for Ne-
braska territory was the immediate cause, the precipitating event, of the passage
of the Kansas-Nebra.ska bill, the repeal of the Missouri compromise, the pro-
slavery and free-state conflict in Kansas, and, finally, the war of the rebellion, I
believe capable of demonstration beyond doubt or question.
The Wyandots, as the head of the Northwestern Confederacy of Indian Tribes,
moved for this provisional government for Nebraska territory. This antagonized
the plans of the slave power for that country. This premonitory movement in-
augurated at the mouth of the Kansas river gathered strength. It raised its
head in Washington, and its voice was heard in the halls of congress. It became
formidable through the circumstances enumerated herein. It forced the con-
flict. The slave power mustered every resource for the final struggle, which it
foresaw must be a desperate one, for its existence. But it foresaw, also, that if it
retained an existence it could thenceforth dominate the nation. Its first aggress-
ive act in opposition to this movement was the introduction of the Kansas-Ne-
braska bill. The second was the repeal of the Missouri compromise. At this
stage the conflict became national; and the little band at the mouth of the Kan-
sas who.se action itrecipitated the struggle had nothing to say in its settlement
until it came to open blows and became a question of the life of the nation.
NOTES.
II. Hlhhkll Oarhktt is tho son of Charles B. Garrett and the nephew of Governor Walker.
Ho liTtiH in Vt-ntura, Cal., and is tiie only delesate to the convention known to be now living.
Ho wrote out Ins recollections of tlie convention for me.
11 **'*■ }\' ^•, .^'^KR " lived and kept a store on Grasshopper river at the military crossing, on
the road loadinR from l-ort Leavenworth to Fort Riley," Russell Garrett writes me. He was
arterwanlHcouuty treasurer of Jefferson county, Kansas. See " Kansas Historical Collections,"
vol. J, p. dub.
FIRST PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION OF KANSAS. Ill
13. Isaac Munday was a blacksmith for the Delawares and lived at the "Delaware Cross-
ing." This was the point where the military road from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Scott crossed
the Kansas river. This was only a very short distance above the point where the southwest cor-
ner of the " Wyandot Purchase" was fixed on the Kansas river. His house is marked on one of
the old maps of the " Wyandot Purchase," although it was on Delaware land. Russell Garrett
says: "I remember Isaac Munday very well. He was a blacksmith for the Delawares. He
iad a shop and lived at what was called, at that time, the military ferry. It crossed the Kan-
sas river on the military road leading from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Scott. He lived in West-
port, Mo., before he was appointed blacksmith for the Delawares. I now remember that he was
a delegate to the convention. I do not remember where he went to when the Delawares got
through with him, if I ever heard."
1-4. James Findley was an Indian trader at that time and lived at the "Delaware Cross-
ing." He traded with the Delaware and Shawnees. I have this information from many persons
yet living in the Indian territory, and from Maj. John G. Pratt. Russell Garrett says: "James
Findley lived at the military ferry. He was an Indian trader. He kept a variety store and
traded with the Delawares. He lived there with his family, as did Munday, the blacksmith."
15. Geovee was the son of a missionary to the Delawares. I do not know certainly his
given name. He was either D. A. N. Grover or Charles H. Grover. These were brothers, sons of
a missionary from some church in Kentucky to the Delawares. They were both in the council
of the legislature of 1855, D. A. N. as a member, and Charles H. as assistant clerk. From the
quotations from their speeches given by Wilder, I should think that Charles H. was with the
Delawares at the time, and if he was, he is the one tbat attended this convention. They were
lawyers. I find this in Russell Garrett's letter to me : " I knew a Mr. Grover, and he was there,
but I do not know where he lived or what he did. But his father was a missionary among the
Indians, and was shifted around from pillar to post, so I cannot tell where he lived at that
time. It may be that his son lived with him. I do not remember where they went to."
16. William Gilpin was at that time editor of some newspaper published at Independ-
ence, Mo., or if not editor, then in some way connected with it. He addressed the convention;
so says Mr. Garrett.
17. George I. Claek was the son of Clark who married Brown, daughter of Adam
Brown, the adopted white man who was chief of the Wyandotts, and who purchased William
Walker, sr., from tUe Delawares. George I. Clark was born .June 10, 1802. He was a man of in-
fluence in the Wyandot nation, and was elected head chief. He was a good man. Abelard
Guthrie says in his journal : "I mourn his loss with tears — the first that have moistened my eyes
for years." He belonged to that faction of his people that favored the old church and opposed
slavery. He and J. M. Armstrong maintained that slavery
was foreign to ancient Wyandot custom and usage. They
said, with entire truth, that any member of the tribe must [Square and compasses.]
necessarily be as free as any other member of it; that the geobge i. claek
tribe in ancient times either killed or adopted all prisoners head chief of the
of war. If adopted, they were entitled to all privileges wyandott nation
of those born into the tribe. He and the wife of Abelard bokn
Outhrie were cousins, and he seems uniformly to hare sup- .june 10 1802
ported Guthrie. He married Catherine . They had three died
children, Richard W., Harriet W., and Mary J. They are jcne 25 18.58
buried in Huron Place cemetery, in Kansas City, Kan. The aged 56 yes
following is copied from the stone at the head of George I. 7 mo 8 Ds.
Olark's grave :
18. Joel Walker was a brother of Governor Walker. He was born in Canada West. The
three dates of his birth which I have found are all diilerent. In the family Bible of his father
the date is July 1", 1813. In Governor Walker's journal the date is February 18, 1813. On his
monument it is February 17,1813. His Indian name was W'a-wahs ( Way-wahs), and means
"lost turtle," or "turtle in a lost place," and was given to commemorate the manner of his
birth, which was on this wise: His mother, Catherine Walker, like all her maternal ancestors,
"was familiar with the languages of many of the tribes of the Northwest, and had very great in-
fluence with them. Her presence was required at many of the councils of consequence.
At one time she was sent for to act as interpreter in an important meeting, which would
determine some question for some tribe relating to the war of 1812. Her period of
maternity was fulfilled, or nearly so, and she objected to the journey to the meeting. But
as the council could not proceed without her, the warriors procured a wagon and team, and,
having bundled her into this rough conveyance, started away in the darkness, over rough roads.
In the black darkness of the cloudy night the horses left the way, and they were soon driving
aimlessly about through the dark woods. The result was as she had feared. She was seized
with parturient pains, and a son was born to her while she was lost in the forest. His name
was to keep this event in memory.
When Wyandott City (now Kansas City, Kan.) was laid out, a street was named Wawas, for
Joel Walker. Some years ago a city council, wholly ignorant of the city's history and the his-
tory of its founders, changed the name of the street to Freeman avenue, because Mr. Winfield
Freeman built a fine residence on it. The old name should be restored.
Joel Walker was married to Mary Ann Ladd (born July 1, 1819, died January 8, 1886) in Frank-
lin county, Ohio, May 19, 1844. Their children were: Florence, born March 20, 1845, died October
6, 1845; Maria W., born June 17, 1847, died February 26, 1891 ; Justin, born April 6, 1849; Ida E.,
born February 22, 1851, died February 16, 1866; Everett, born
August 27, 1853, died March 30, 1888. Only Maria W. was
married. She was married to Nicholas McAlpine (born in in
County Down, Ireland, April 5, 1835) June 21, 1866. Their memoriam
children are: Robert L., born May 8, 1867; Jessie S., born joel walker
July 19, 1874; Mary A., born January 24, 1882; John W., born boen in Canada west
June 30, 1887. fee 17, 1813
On the monument over his grave in the old Huron Place died in wyandott Kansas
cemetery, Kansas City, Kan., is the following: sept 8 1857.
112 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
I
10 RU88KLL B. Garrett sends me the following biographical sketch of his father:
•• siy fathor Chiirlos B. Garrott, was born in Greenbrier county, [now] West Virginia, Octo-
b«r-'S I " 7<.4 His fatli.-r's name was William Garrott. His motlier's name was Winnaford
B^.ui Garr-tt His father was a farmer: all my father's earliest days were spent on a farm.
Ho "c.-iv"l a g..,,,l c.M.nu.n-school education. When he was not more than seventeen years old
ho caught tl... WesU-rn fovcr, and he and several young men of his acquaintance formed a httle
com?, n a. 1 marche.i to Vinconnes and joined Gov. William Honry Harrison, who was at that
t h . gover , r of the northwestern territory, comprising Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Ohio
had boon ma.lo a stat*^ onlv a short time before. The three first named composed what was then
r 1 lo t lo In.iian territory. Harrison was made governor of this latter territory. As governor
1... wa< also appointed Indian agent, with his headquarters at Vincennes.. And it was here t^at.
tlio little baud of bravo and determined 'little boys,' you might say, joined him and marched
with him to the Tocumseh war. Those boys took part in that ever-t^-be-remembered battle of
Tii.pocan.M", in .November, 1811. The following year Governor Harrison was made commander
of all the forces of the Northwest ( in November or September). He at once began preparing to
recapture Detroit, which General Hull had surrendered to the British. , „ . ,
•• Mv father stayed with General Harrison's command, doing good work. He was in where-
ever and whenever there was fighting to do. Ho was neither wounded nor sick while in the
service and there was plenty of hard fighting done. He was with General Harrison when he
embarked on Commodore Perry's ships to cross the lakes to the Canada shore, in pursuit of
(ienoral Proctor and Tecumseh, who had gone to the valley of the Thames. On the 2d of Octo-
ber 1S13 the Americans began their march in pursuit of General Proctor, whom they overtook
in the valley of the Thames river. The battle was brief. The victory of the Americans was
complete. . , T,. . . ^ 1 . i I J
"After the battle of the Thames my father returned to Virginia. On his return he passed
through the beautiful couutrv in eastern Ohio. He was met with open arms by his parents and
friends and made much of. He did not remain very long at home. He became restless and soon
boiran to plan to return to Ohio. About 1816 he, with several families and friends, formed, near
Williamsburg, Greenbrier county, the county. seat, a little colony, and moved to Ross county,
Ohio. 'There father married Miss Kitti(^ Ann White, August 29, 1818. Her father was one of the
pioneers of Ross county, and one of the families who moved from Greenbrier county, Virginia,
to Ohio. He was a captain in the revolutionary army and a brother-in-law of President Mon-
roe, he having married Monroe's sister, and mv father's first wife was a niece of President Mon-
roe. By this marriage there were born three children, Amanda, William, and Wesley. The first
two wero born in Ross county, Ohio, the youngest in Crawford county, Ohio, my father and sev-
eral other families having pushed on farther west, where the prospect of getting more and bet-
ter land was good. His son Wesley was born September 26, 1823. A few days later his wife died
of puerperal fever and was buried in Crawford county, Ohio.
•• The familv record in the Bible says that Charles B. Garrett and Miss Maria R. Walker
were married October 31, A. u. 1826, at Upper Sandusky, Ohio. My mother was the daughter of
William Walker, sr., and Catherine (Raukin) Walker, his wife, and the youngest sister of the
late William Walker, jr. She was born near Detroit August 9, 1807, and being the daughter of
Catherine (Rankin) Walker made her what is called a quarter-blood Wyandot Indian. It was
through my mother that mv father became a Wyandot Indian. After his marriage to her he
was regularly adopted by the Wyandots with all the pomp of ceremony of adoption of those
early days, at Upper Sandusky, Wyandot county, Ohio, then Crawford county, Ohio. From
that day to this he was always recognized as a member of the W.vandot tribe of Indians by all
ac<iuainted with him. All his business and social interests were identified with theirs.
" When the Wyandots sold out their lands in Ohio and came west to settle on their lands at
the mouth of the Kansas river he concluded to move with them, and did so, although he was
doing a good business there in carding and fulling mills and farming, near what is known as
Little Wyandot, in Wyandot county, Ohio. In 1843 the Wyandots landed at what was then
known as Westport Landing, now Kansas City, Mo. They took up their residence at Westport
till they could build their houses in their new homes, he among the rest. He lived but a short
time in Westport, but was interested in what was the Wyandot company store.
" My father built his cabin on Jersey creek, close to where the Northwestern railroad track
crosses Seventh street. Here he spent most of his life, with but little to vary it. However, in 1849
he took a gold fever and formed a company of Wyandots and whites and went overland to Cali-
fornia to dig gold. They were about six months on the way. They found plenty of gold on the
north fork of Feather river, but minin,' did not agree with him. He took what was called
mountain fever and was very sick. I was with him on this trip, and with others of the party
saw that he was a very sick man. We advised and persuaded till we got him to consent to be
t.'ikeii homo. ^ We took him by easy stages to San Francisco, where we embarked on a barque
forborne.^ We camo on the Pacific and Atlantic oceans to New Orleans. We landed in New
Orleans, February 1, 1852, and remained there until the ice melted out of the Mississippi in the
Hpriug of 18.12. With the exception of one move to Westport and back, he spent all the latter
part of his life on the farm on Jersey crook, where his life was quiet and peaceful.
" He died at the age of seventy-three years one month and eleven days, of dropsy, on Decem-
ber 2, 1867, at my house, on corner of Fourth street and Nebraska avenue, in what was then
called Breviilore House. His wife, my mother, died a few years before. She also died at my
house. May 30, 1866, in the fifty-eighth year of her age, from abscess of the liver.
" I am the only child left of both families. Wesley, the son of his first marriage, died at or
near Locompton, on January 6, 1894, of la grippe. His wife, Sarah (Spurlock) Garrett, died of
la grippe December 18, 1893, at Lecompton. They leave three daughters, all married and living
in and around Lecompton, Kan. Amanda Roseberry, his oldest daughter, died at Bucyrus,
Ohio, in IKt.V of blood-poisoning. She leaves four daughters, all married and living in Ohio.
The wife of William Garrett, my half-brother, is still living, or was when I heard from her.
After my brother died she married James Zane and moved to the Indian territory, to the new
purchase under the treaty of 1865."
2«. Joel Walker Garrett was the son of George Garrett, who died February 17,1846,
aged forty-six years. George Garrett was the brother of Charles B. Garrett. He married Nancy
Walker, a sister of Governor Walker. Joel Walker Garrett was their first child. He was born
June IK, ivifi He married Jennie Ayres. Their daughter Nina lives vet in Kansas City, Kan.
bhe married Mr. Charles Trantam. Joel Walker Garrett was appointed deputy secretary of
Btate for Nebraska territory, and seems to have performed most of the labor attached to the
secretary s ollice. He died August 25, 1862.
FIRST PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION OF KANSAS. 113
21. Matthias Splitlog was a Cayuga-Seneca by desceut, his ancestors having been from
each of those tribes. His immediate ancestors married into the Wyandots, and furnished them
some of tlieir bravest warriors and chiefs. He was born in Canada in 1816, he has often told me.
He married Eliza Charloe, a Wyandot, and came west with the Wyandot nation. His home was
in what is now Connelley's addition to. Kansas City, Kan. Here, at an early day, he built a
horse mill for grinding corn, but was of so eccentric disposition that he often refused to grind.
He had a large family of children, and much land was allotted to him for them when the Wyan-
dots accepted their lands in severalty. These lands increased enormously in value and made
him the famous "millionaire Indian." Unprincipled white men swindled him out of much of
his money. He built and equipped a railroad from Neosho, Mo., to the Arkansas state line.
This road is now a part of the Pittsburg & Gulf main line. He was an ingenious man. and could
copy and construct almost any piece of machinery that he had an opportunity to thoroughly ex-
amine. It was by taking advantage of his love for machinery that scoundrels interested him in
schemes for the purpose of robbing him. He made his home in the Seneca country when the
Wyandots moved to the Indian territory. Here he erected a fine church building and a good
dwelling. He died there late in 1896.
22. Matthew R. Walker was a brother of Governor Walker. He was born June 17, 1810.
He belonged to the Big Turtle clan of the Wyandot tribe. His Indian name was Rah-hahn-tah-
seh. It means "twisting the forest," ?. c, as the wind twists the forest, and it refers to the wil-
lows and reeds along the streams as they are swayed by the breezes. He was one of the leading
business men of the Wyandot nation. Before the Wyandots removed from their home at Upper
Sandusky he made a trip from Ohio to the Senecas and to the Delawares and Shawnees, for the
purpose of selecting a home in the West for his tribe. This was in 1841. Governor Walker had
visited the country about the mouth of the Kansas river in 1833 (some say in 1831). On the re-
ports of these and some others of the tribe, the Wyandots came to what is now Wyandotte
county, Kansas, when they removed west. Matthew R. Walker lived on the banks of the Mis-
souri wliere the mansion of George Fowler now stands, in Kansas City, Kan. He married Lydia
B. Ladd. One of their daughters is Mrs. Lillian Walker Hale, the well-known writer, who now
lives in Kansas City, Kan.
The first communication of a Masonic lodge in what is now Kansas was held in Matthew R.
Walker's home, and Mrs. Walker acted as the tyler, there being not enough Masons present to
fill the official places. The meeting was an informal one, and these informal meetings were
continued up to July, 1854, no Masonic labor being performed or attempted in them. In July,
1854, a warrant was obtained from the Grand- Lodge of Missouri authorizing J. M. Chivington,
W. M., M. R. Walker, S. W., and Cyrus Garrett, J. W., to meet and work U. D. V. J. Lane says
the first meeting under this dispensation was held August 11, a. l. 5854, and a lodge of Masons
U. D. was duly organized. The officers of the lodge were installed by Brother Piper, D. G. M. of
Missouri.
In May, A. L. 5855, a charter was granted from the Grand Lodge of Missouri to M. R.Walker,
W. M., Russell Garrett, S. W., and Cyrus Garrett, J. W., authorizing them to meet and work
under the name of Kansas Lodge No. 153, A. F. & A. M. The first meeting under this charter
was held July 27, a. l. 58.55. On the 27th of December, A. l. 5855, a meeting of the lodges of the
territory of Kansas was held in Leavenworth city, at which Wyandotte, Smithton and Leaven-
worth lodges were represented. At this meeting the Grand Lodge of Kansas was organized.
Matthew R. Walker was an officer of the Grand Lodge. In the by-laws of Wyandotte Lodge
No. 3, A. F. & A.M., of Kansas City, Kan. (the oldest lodge in the state), is the following:
WYANDOTTE LODGE NO. 3,
IN MEMORIAM.
MATTHEW R. WALKER, P. M. & P. S. G. W.,
OCT. 15, I860.
Matthew R. Walker was probate judge of Leavenworth county, Kansas, when it included
what is now Wyandotte county. He is buried in the old Huron Place cemetery, in Kansas City,,
Kan. On the monument over his grave is the following inscription :
M. R. WALKER
BORN
JAN 17 1810
DIED
OCT 14 1860
23. Captain Bdll-head belonged to the Porcupine clan of the Wyandot tribe. He had
two names. The first was Ohn-dooh-toh, the meaning of which is lost. The second name was
Stih-yeh-stah, and means "carrying bark," i. e., as the porcupine carries it in his pocket-like
jaws from the top of the hemlock where he has been feeding. Captain Bull-head was the
gurest in blood of any Wyandot who cume west with the nation, but he was not a full-blood, as
as been supposed. The last full-blood Wyandot was Yah-nyah-meh-deh, clan unknown, who
died in Canada about the year 1820. Captain Bull-head was better informed in the legends and
tribal history of the Wyandots than any other member of his tribe, and Governor Walker often
consulted him on these subjects. He was in Proctor's army in the war of 1812, and always car-
ried a large knife in a brass scabbard, which he swung over his right shoulder and under his
left arm by a brass chain. He died in Wyandott county, Kansas, after the year 1860.
24. Baptiste Peoria was the principal man of the Miami tribe.
25. Charles Blde-jacket was the son of a Shawnee chief of the same name. He was born
in what is now the state of Michigan, on the banks of the river Huron, in 1816. His grandfather
was Weh-yah-pih-ehr-sehn-wah, the famous Shawnee chief who was associated with Mih-shih-
kihn-ah-kwah, or the Little Turtle, the chief of the Miamis, in the battle in which General Har-
mer was defeated by the Northwestern Confederacy of Indians, in 1790. In the battle in which
Wayne defeated the confederacy, Weh-yah-pih-ehr-sehn-wah, or Blue-jacket, or Captain Blue-
jacket, as he was called, commanded the allied Indian forces. The ancestors of the Blue-
jackets were war chiefs, but never village or ciyil chiefs until after the removal of the tribe to
the West. When Charles Blue-jacket was a child his parents moved to the Piqua plains in
Ohio. In 1832 they removed to that part of the Shawnee reservation in the West now in Wyan-
dotte county, Kansas. Here Charles Blue-jacket lived with his tribe. He moved to the Indian
I
111 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
HISTOKY OF NORMAL-SCHOOL WORK IN KANSAS.
A paper by Albeet R. Taylor, read before the Kansas State Historical Society,
at twenty-tliird annual meeting, January 17, 1899.
X 182.3 the Rev. S. R. Hall, pastor of a church at Concord, N. H., opened a
l)rivate seminary in that village for the purpose of educating and fitting
teachers to keep school. He also admitted a class of children which served as a
model or practice school. In 1829 his "Lectures on School Keeping," embrac-
ing his talks to his seminary classes, was published and had a wide sale in the
Eastern and Central states. He afterwards established teachers' seminaries at
Andover, in 18."^, and at Plymouth in 18:37. In 1839 the Plymouth seminary had
2.')0 students and was furnishing teachers to nearly all of the towns in that part
of the state. The success of these and similar teachers' schools awakened gen-
eral interest, and many educators and literary men from Maine to South Carolina
assisted in awakening public sentiment to a sense of their value in an educa-
tional system. Edmund D wight offered $10,000 to found a state normal school,
provided Massachusetts would appropriate a like sum. The proposition was
promptly met, and the school was opened in 1839 at Lexington with three pupils,
all women, the regulations providing for admitting women only. In the next
fifteen years less than ten public normal schools were established, but one of
them being west of New York, that of Michigan. Is it any wonder, then, that
when, in 1862, State Superintendent Goodnow suggested that a state normal
school would comfort the people of Emporia, who had failed by one vote to get
the state university, that it is said a prominent legislator wanted to know, in a
blankety blank way, "What is a normal school, anyhow?"
The thrilling incidents accompanying and following the admission of Kansas
into the union delayed but two years the organization of her higher institutions of
learning, and the university system was completed by the establishment of the State
Normal School in the act approved March 3, 1863. The journals of both houses
of the legislature give little information concerning the arguments for and against
the school, though there seems to have been little opposition to any provision of
the act. Representative Eskridge, in the house, and Senator Maxon, in the sen-
ate, easily convinced the members that southern Kansas was entitled to one of
the higher institutions of learning. The university and agricultural-college
grants, from the national government, had been set apart for the endowment of
those institutions. The state had received, under the enabling act of congress,
.seventy-two sections of so called "salt lands," "to be used as the legislature shall
direct." Forty-eight sections of these lands were now " set apart and reserved as
a permanent endowment for the support and maintenance of the Normal School
established and located by this act." The law of 1869 added twelve more sections
to the endowment, and the law of 1886 the remaining twelve sections, making a
total of seventy-two .sections thus sot apart.
The original act provided that all moneys derived from the sale, rent or lease
of these lands should be invested in certain specified stocks or bonds, to consti-
tjTritary in 1871. His lioine was at the town of Blue Jacket, named for him by the Missouri,
Kansas a lexas Kailroad Company. He was chief always after coming to Kansas. He was an
-.skwali-tnh-wiih, and sometimes Ehl-skwah-tah-wah, and was present at his burial in 1836
^ o.l'ioH'T." '"^■.">''"l'' ^Vvaudotte county, Kansas. Mr. Blue-jacket was a Freemason. He was
h 1889 twenty-three children were born to him. His youngest child was born
HISTORY OF NORMAL-SCHOOL WORK IN KANSAS. 115
tute a perpetual fund, the " interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated by
the legislature for the support of the Normal School." It was also provided that
the legislature might modify the act at its pleasure, "but such alteration, amend-
ment or repeal shall not cause a removal of said Normal School, nor operate as a
diversion or diminution of the endowment fund herein provided for."
All of the lands thus granted to the school have been sold, at an average of six
dollars per acre, and the endowment thus provided amounts to about 8270,000.
From it the school has realized as high as $17,000 in interest per annum, though
the low rate of interest has now reduced the income to about §13,000.
The act locating and establishing the school provided for the appointment of
three commissioners to select and approve a site, which the town of Emporia had
agreed to deed to the state. The site was to include a tract of land of not less
than twenty acres. It was not until February, 186J:, that an act was passed pro-
viding for the organization of the school. It placed the management in a board of
nine directors, six to be appointed by the governor, and the governor, secretary of
state, state treasurer and state superintendent of public instruction. That act
provided very fully many interesting details for the government of the board and
the school.
In 1874, however, the legislature enacted a general law providing for the gov-
ernment of each educational institution by a board of seven regents, six of them
to be appointed by the governor, and the seventh to be e.r officio the president
or chancellor. The special law of 1876 limited the number of members in the
board to six, and provided that all should be appointive, and that they should
iold office for four years, half of them being appointed every two years.
Four members of the first board were appointed August 19, 186i, namely: G.
C. Morse, C. V. Eskridge, T. S. Huflfaker, and J. W. Eoberts. David Brockway
and James Rogers were appointed August 19, 1865. There was much urging on
the part of State Superintendent Goodnow and others, but the school was not
opened until February 15, 1865. As no building had been provided by the state,
the city of Emporia offered the use of the upper floor of its handsome new school
building, and there for two years the new institution found a home.
On February 7, 1866, the governor approved the bill appropriating 810,000 for
the erection of a building, with the proviso that it should be regarded as a loan
and shovild be returned to the state treasury from the first sales of land set apart
for the use of the school! A building 40x60, two stories and basement, was
at once erected on the site selected at the head of Commercial street. On Feb-
ruary 19, 1867, another bill was approved, with similar provisions, which set apart
$9000 for finishing and furnishing said building. In February, 1872, the legis-
lature appropriated $50,000 for an additional building, on condition that the city
of Emporia contribute 810,000 toward the erection of the same. This condition
was promptly met, and a handsome new structure was erected a few feet south of
the first building. It was dedicated June 19, 1873, T. Dwight Thacher making
the inaugural address. This beautiful building, along with the other in the rear,
was destroyed by fire, resulting from spontaneous combustion of coal, on October
26, 1878. The city of Emporia again came to the rescue, and at an expense of
$1000 immediately fitted up two buildings for class use. ■
The friends of the school rallied to its support, and in March, 1879, the legis-
lature appropriated $25,000 for a new building, on condition that Emporia and
Lyon county should supplement said appropriation with 820,800 in addition.
Though Emporia had already contributed 812,000 directly to the school, and in
1870 $6000 more to erect Normal School boarding-houses, the heavy requirement
above named, burdensome as it appears, was met by a unanimous vote of both
IIT) KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
the city council and the county commissioners. Thus Emporia and Lyon county
were comi)elied to create a bonded indebtedness of nearly $40,000 that proper
buildings inipht be provided and the school continued. The new building rising
out of the ashes of the old was entered by the school on May 11, 1880, all joining
in singing "Hold the Fort!" the same song whose inspiring strains had cheered
them as they sang it, with tears in their eyes, on the morning after the fire. The
first building on the north was remodeled for a boiler-house.
The increase in the attendance necessitated more room, and the legislature of
1887 appropriated 625,000 for a wing on the west, which was ready for occupancy
in February, 1889. Hardly had the new rooms been assigned until it was evident
that still more liberal provision should be made for the school, and the legisla-
ture of 189.3 appropriated 830,000 for a wing on the east end of the main building.
It was completed and dedicated on September 4, 1894. The entire structure is
nearly 300 feet long, is three stories and basement, and contains eighty rooms- —
all admirably adapted to the purposes of the school. It is fitted up with modern
appliances and in a general way is well equipped for its mission. The assembly-
room is probably the finest college hall in the entire West. The site, buildings
and equipments are estimated as worth about $200,000, making the total value of
the plant, including the endowment, about $470,000.
Before turning to the study of the work of the school, I beg permission ta
speak here of the other normal schools organized by the state.
An agitation for more normal schools began in 1869 and has jjeriodically re-
curred at nearly every session of the legislature. On May 3, 1870, what was
known as the Leavenworth Normal School was established. The city furnished
a building and appropriations were regularly made to it until 1876. It was or-
ganized with John Wherrell as president, and in 1874 had about 100 students.
A law approved March 1, 1872, appropriated $2,500 for the support of a normal
.school for colored people in connection with Quindaro University, at Quindaro.
I do not find that any appropriations for the Quindaro normal have been made
since that time. The school appeared to have attracted few students and inter-
est in it was not sufficient to induce further expenditures.
The Concordia Normal School was established in 1874, under conditions similar
to tho.se under which the Leavenworth school was established. E. F. RobinsoQ
was appointed principal for the first year, and ex-State Supt. H. D. McCarty
president at the opening of the second year. The announcement for 1875 showed
eighty-six students for the year.
The miscellaneous appropriation bill for 1876 contained a few items to meet
some old normal-school accounts at Leavenworth, Concordia, and Emporia, and.
the death-sentence of at least two of them, in the following proviso:
" Provided, that these appropriations to the Leavenworth Normal School, the-
Concordia Normal School and Emporia Normal School shall be received in full
for all claims against the state, and that said schools cease to be maintained at
the expense of the state, and that under no circumstances shall the regents of
said institutions incur any liability or create any debt beyond this appropriation;
and the state shall not be liable for any expense in excess of this appropriation:,
ancl that the Leavenworth and Concordia normal schools cease to be state insti-
tutions. '
At the next session of the legislature a strenuous effort was made to reestab-
lish the Concordia school, but the bill was killed in the committee. In 1887 a.
bill providing for a uniform system of normal schools was introduced in the legis-
lature, but it met the same fate.
Returning again to the State Normal School at Emporia, we take up the ad-
ministrative side of its work.
HISTORY OF NORMAL-SCHOOL WORK IN KANSAS. 117
The two men whose faith in the school showed itself in never-tiring work in
the early years were Rev. G. C. Morse and C. V. Eskridge. Both of them
served seven years on the board of regents, and spared no labor to place the
school on a permanent footing. Many of their suggestions, even concerning
details of administration, were adopted, and still remain as characteristic fea-
tures of the school. The former was sent to Normal, 111., to select a principal.
As a result of such negotiation, Prof. L. B. Kellogg, a graduate of the Illinois
Normal University, was placed at the head of the school, and on February 15,
1865, classes were organized, and the school entered on its mission. Eighteen
pupils were present, and the parable of the sower seemed an appropriate read-
ing. Before the year closed the total enrollment had increased to forty-three.
Prof. H. B. Norton, of Illinois, was called as vice-principal later in the year,
and the school assumed very much the same atmosphere as that of the univer-
sity at Normal, after which it was gradually modeling. Probably no men were
ever more happily adapted as yokefellows to give character and enthusiasm to
an institution of learning than these two. The attendance doubled the second
year, and the enrollment for 1870 was 2i3, or about six times as many as for 1865.
The school "was much visited and talked about" in the newspapers; even the
Indians made frequent visits of inspection. On May 2, 1865, a four days' insti-
tute was organized, and thus was laid the foundation of the great institute sys-
tem of Kansas. Professor Norton, after ten years' service in Kansas, accepted a
chair in the San Jose, Cal., State Normal School, where ten more busy and grow-
ing years rounded out a life of wide-spread usefulness. Principal Kellogg re-
signed in June, 1871, and since then he has devoted himself to the practice of
law, holding many honorable positions at the hands of his fellow citizens, among
them those of state senator and attorney-general. He has never lost interest in
the school and has often been of eminent service to it.
He was succeeded by Dr. George W. Hoss, ex-state superintendent of public
instruction of Indiana, a man of fine general culture and of recognized ability
as an educator. The change reduced the attendance a little, but the new build-
ing erected in 1873 added greatly to the attractiveness of the school. Hardly
had Doctor Hoss become acquainted with the field when an oflfer from Indiana
enticed him back to the Hoosier state.
Dr. C. R. Pomeroy, of Iowa, probably the most learned man who has filled
the position, was elected to the vacancy. These changes in the administration
of the institution were accompanied with more or less friction among the faculty
and students, but the attendance in 1875 ran as high as 375. After the legis-
lature withdrew all support from the school in 1876, the board authorized Presi-
dent Pomeroy and such assistants as might desire to do so to continue the school
and charge fees for their salaries. The attendance dropped to 125 in 1877, and
to ninety in 1879. Intense opposition to President Pomeroy developed in the city,
and, though the board unanimously supported him, the trouble became a matter
of state-wide notoriety. A tornado greatly damaged the main building in April,
1878 ; Agent Bancroft embezzled a large sum of money derived from land sales ;
and internal dissensions also bore heavily upon President Pomeroy. The de-
struction of the building by fire in October, hereinbefore mentioned, with charges
and counter-charges of carelessness, forced him at last to resign, at the end of the
school year, June, 1879. The record of these years of self-sacrifice, of misunder-
standing and of final defeat is pitiful enough for tears.
Supt. R. B. Welch, of Illinois, was called in August to the position. Almost
an entire new faculty was appointed. The endowment derived from sales of lands
had begun to bring a little income to the school, the interest for 1879 amount-
118 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
in^r to lO'.Tri.lT, and in 1880 to over 89000, thus enabling the school to employ a
small faculty, and to anticipate greater things in the near future. Thus the
school survived the crisis in spite of the fact that no appropriations were made
for 18SO-'8-2-'8;?, and but a few hundred dollars all told for the running expenses
of the school for the years 1877-'78-'79-'81.
President Welch gave additional prominence to the strictly professional sub-
jects, basing thoin more directly upon psychological laws, and established the
kindergarten training class. He visited many parts of the state, awakening en-
thusiasm and making friends on all sides. The school seemed to be entering
upon a career of great usefulness when, to the surprise of its friends. President
Welch resigned, in the spring of 1882, that he might enter the practice of law.
The present incumbent was invited to fill the vacancy, and entered upon the duties
of his othce in August, 1882. The impetus given to the attendance by President
Welch and his able associates carried the attendance for 188.3 to 452, and there
has been an average increase of about 100 students in the normal department
every year up to the present time. Last year the attendance in the various de-
partments aggregated the sum total of 1957, ninety-three counties and nineteen
states being represented.
The mileage system for students outside a radius of 100 miles, adopted in
1883, has enabled the school to cover the entire state. About 200 students now
receive mileage each year. In 1884 the legislature had the courage to ignore the
proviso in the law of 1871 which said that no appropriations should ever be made
in the future for the school, and set apart over $5000 for repairs and other inci-
dental expenses. Since that time it has been making more liberal appropriations
for similar purposes each year. The legislature of 1898 made an appropriation for
salaries for each of the years 1898-'99 of $28,950, and instructed the regents to
use the interest and fees for departmental and other current expenses. The total
expenditures for the support of the school, including buildings, apparatus, sal-
aries, and endowment, have been about $1,0.50,000.
The school is organized in accord with the most advanced plans for conduct-
ing such institutions. The normal department provides instruction in all branches
which the teachers in the public schools, including high schools, are required to
teach, as well as liberal courses in psychology, child study, school law, philosophy
of education, history of education, school methods, and school management. The
professional branches of course differentiate the school from other higher in-
stitutions of learning, but all of these academic subjects are taught with the
pedagogical side in view, the work in the common branches being particularly
comprehensive and exhaustive. The model school is organized as a typical graded
school, embracing the work from and including the kindergarten to the high
school. It serves as a pedagogical laboratory to the normal department, and is
as essential to it as a chemical laboratory to the department of chemistry. Here
pedagogical principles are exemplified and tested and the student given practice
in the art of managing and teaching children.
Every candidate for graduation is required to spend one hour per day for one
year, or its e(|uivalent, in this school, observing and teaching. The various grades
are under the care of experienced critic teachers, whose friendly counsel and ad-
vice are of incalculable value to the pupil-teachers. The model school was es-
tablished in 1867 and reorganized in 1880. Though it is maintained and used as a
practice school, and a fee of five dollars per term is charged, it frequently hap-
pens that applicants are denied admission for lack of room, showing its high
standing and popularity in a city noted for the excellence of its schools.
Even if desirable, time would not permit a brief sketch of the origin and de-
HISTORY OP NORMAL-SCHOOL WORK IN KANSAS. 119
velopment of the different departments of the school. Suffice it to say that, as
rapidly as the income would permit, they have been established, until now some
seventeen departments are fairly well equipped for their specific work, several of
them equaling those of the best colleges in scope and variety. Three years ago
child study was added to the curriculum and, combined with the work in ele-
mentary psychology and the kindergarten, furnishes a fine basis for the special
training of primary teachers. The department of drawing was established as
early in 1885 and now occupies two handsome and liberally equipped rooms on the
third floor. Last fall the department of manual training was organized and it
has already become a popular feature of our work. The natural-science depart-
ments have grown to such an extent that they now occupy ten rooms, including
laboratories and museums.
No single feature of the school has grown more rapidly than its library. In
1884 there were scarcely 1000 books in the library, everything having gone with
the fire in 1878. Now there are nearly 1-4,000 volumes on the shelves, the average
increase since then being nearly 1000 volumes per year. The books have been
selected with great care, and as a working library it has few superiors. Four
large and well- lighted rooms accommodate the library, and they are usually
crowded with students.
The department of vocal and instrumental music has grown to an equal promi-
nence with the other departments. In 1882 there was but one piano in the build-
ing; now there are fourteen, including the four pianos belonging to the literary
societies and those in use in the gymnasium, kindergarten, and assembly-room.
There are also several claviers bt longing to the department, some of them, as well
as some of the pianos, being the private property of the professor of music.
The work in physical training, for a score of years a popular feature of the
school, has been made a regular department under an expert teacher.
There are now forty instructors in the faculty, including head professors,
associate professors, and assistants, many of them of high standing in state and
nation.
It is difficult to discover in a definite way what any school has done for its
state. Universities and colleges are usually pleased to point to the number of
high officials in state or nation among their graduates, or to the number of
eminently successful business or professional men, as if these were the only or
even the best tests of their efficiency. If a similar test were to be put on the
State Normal School, it would already, though but a third of a century old, be
found rich in men and women occupying high positions in educational and pro-
fessional fields, and even in the business world, though practical business and
party politics are not included in its curriculum.
A glance at the alumni register shows that four of them are professors in state
colleges ; thirteen professors in state normal schools in six different states and
territories, one of them being the principal; one is professor of pedagogy in a
college of good standing ; and several others are professors in good colleges in this
and other states, one of them being at the head of the Mennonite college in this
state, and one at the head of the Mennonite mission school of Manitoba. Grad-
uates and undergraduates are superintendents of four Indian schools, Haskell
Institute and Chillocco, I. T., the most important schools next to Carlisle, being
among them. Twelve of the graduates are assistant teachers in the State Normal
School of Kansas; twenty-six of them occupy important city superintendencies,
including three of the six really first-class cities of the state — Topeka, Leaven-
worth, and Pittsburg. It is worthy of remark here that no other Kansas college
has a representative in these fitet-class-city superintendencies. About 100 are
120 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
principals of third-class-city schools, and about a dozen of ward schools; twenty
are principals of high schools, and forty-two assistant principals and teachers in
high schools. The principalships of two of the six county high schools are filled
by its students, and graduates are teaching in the remaining four. Two hundred
of its graduates are teaching in the grades in the city schools, and fourteen
former students were elected to county superintendencies in November last.
I?ut when we consider that probably not over one student in six graduates at
the school, it is easily seen that these figures show in a very poor way the num-
ber of graduates and undergraduates at work in the schoolroom and in other
learned professions. They also fail to show much that they have been doing in
the last third of a century.
It is estimated that there have been, all told, about 10,000 different matricu-
lations in the normal department. Of these, 1115 have been graduated. Nine
years since, inquiries brought us the names of over 700 undergraduates, former
students, GOO of whom were teaching. We cannot think that there are less than
2500 State Normal School students actually teaching in the schools of Kansas
to-day. About one-fourth of the members of the State Teachers' Association
are from its ranks. It has furnished two out of every five of the association
presidents for the last fifteen years. Three-fifths of the State Normal School
students are young women and, in the natural order of things, most of them be-
come home-keepers after a few years of service; and what fine mistresses of the
manse does this education make of them! The foregoing showing would be
doubled if all of them remained in the schoolroom; and yet scarce a score of its
graduates can be fifty years of age and most of them are still to earn recognition
in the schools.
But numbers and positions easily mislead, if the inquiry ignores the only true
test of all educational work, wider outlook, healthful growth, greater efficiency.
The Normal School stands for a principle. It maintains that all good teaching
rests upon a scientific basis; that that basis has been fairly well established and
that methods of teaching should be in harmony with it. The Normal School holds
that there is just as much difference between modern scientific teaching and or-
dinary schoolroom instruction as there is between modern methods of treating
ores and the old wasteful methods of smelting, or between the modern scientific
method of lighting buildings and that which relied wholly upon tallow dips.
Far-reaching and brilliant have been the discoveries and advances in medicine
and surgery, but they have not been greater than those of pedagogy. The tri-
umphs of scientific warfare in the late war were not more assured than are
the triumphs of scientific school keeping.
The Normal School, at its founding in Kansas, undertook to demonstrate and
disseminate rational educational principles and to introduce improved methods
of instruction. It soon became the center of a great movement. Its students
went to all parts of the state carrying a new gospel. The members of the faculty,
by lectures and by the public press, aroused a new interest in education. Insti-
tutes were organized and the teachers awakened to a sense of the defects of their
work and of the value of rational method. So industriously and successfully
were these lines pursued through the years, that at last our splendid normal-
institute system was established, and now every teacher in the state is required to
go through the form, at least, of passing an examination in the theory and prac-
tice of teaching.
The Normal School early discovered that a knowledge of elementary psychology,
or of the child mind and its order of growth, is necessary to an intelligent under-
standing of even the simplest problems of instruction, and largely through its
HISTORY OP NORMAL-SCHOOL WORK IN KANSAS. 121
efforts that idea is embodied in every teachers' examination given in Kansas to-
day.
Pardon a personal reference. I came to Kansas nearly seventeen years ago.
At that time, in my tours of inspection, I seldom found a teacher successfully
using laboratory methods in teaching the sciences. As a member of the state
board of education, it fell to my lot to prepare the course in some of them for the
county institutes and to prepare the questions on the same. Both course and
questions met with general protests, even a member of my faculty insisting that
I was asking some impossible things. They were, however, at once worked out
in our laboratories, and gradually the teachers throvighout the state learned three
things: First, that it does not require a university education to make many inter-
esting and instructive experiments in the sciences; second, that a great variety
of them can be made with very simple and inexpensive apparatus; and third, that
the stimulating as well as the educational effect of these experiments lends a new
charm to every subject in which used. Almost at the same time the methods in
teaching geography in the state were revolutionized through the efforts of the
teacher of geography at the State Normal School. Among the first normal schools
in this country to establish a kindergarten was the State Normal School of Kan-
sas. Probably no one will question the statement that in a few years it had, di-
rectly or indirectly, elevated and improved the work of nearly every primary
teacher in the state. I need not speak of the changes brought about in the teach-
ing of arithmetic and grammar and history and drawing and other subjects. The
details, though interesting to us, might not be to you.
In all of these, and in other lines, the school has endeavored to serve the teach-
ers of the state, in season and out of season. It would be unpardonable arro-
gance for me to claim that the Normal School alone has accomplished all that has
been done. No one knows better than I the value of the other forces that have
also been at work. Lack of time forbids enumerating them, but their cooperation
is gladly acknowledged.
These improvements would not have been possible, however, save for the un-
yielding and aggressive stand which the Normal School has ever taken with
reference to two things: (1) Scholarship as a basis for professional preparation;
(2) acquaintance with the theoretical and practical processes of scientific school-
teaching as essential to success in the training of children.
The result of all this is seen in the awakened interest in all lines of professional
study. At this time there are probably 5000 Kansas teachers making a special
study of the child mind under the direction of the teachers' reading circle, a
movement which had its origin at the Normal School. It is seen in the state
course of study for pviblic schools, which is in accord with the most advanced
thought of our times, much of which would have been Greek to nearly every
teacher twenty years ago. It also had its origin at the State Normal School, the
most modern parts in it having been adapted and prepared by members of its
faculty and by its graduates. It is seen also in the awakened conscience of the
teaching profession, in the new dignity which has come into the schoolmaster's
life, in richer experiences, in wider vision, in more satisfactory service.
But what of the future of normal-school work in Kansas ? That must rest in
large measure with the legislature. If the safeguards are maintained and more
liberal provisions are made, the foundation now so well laid will not fail in giving
to the state still higher and higher types of teachers.
122 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
THE KANSAS SOLDIERS' MONUMENT ASSOCIATION.
An address by Col. W. F. Cloud, delivered before the Kansas Historical Society,
at tweuty-tliird annual nieetintj, January 17, 1899.
IT may be truly said that history knows no future; scarcely apprehends the
present: knows only the past. My theme, nevertheless, requires me to refer
to both the present and the future. It might well be divided into two main topics
— Kansas soldiers, and a monument for Kansas soldiers.
The history of this great commonwealth shows that she began to battle for
the principles which were the involvement of the civil war six years before any
other state had raised a regiment. The slavery propaganda— the loversof slavery
more than the union — sowed dragon's teeth on this fair soil, which speedily
sprang up as armed men. The pioneers of liberty in Kansas, having such early
contentions, were prepared and ready for the final and successful battle for
liberty and national unity. In that final contention, Kansas sent more men to
swell the ranks of the federal army, in proportion to population, than any other
state; she had a larger percentage of her soldiers killed or wounded in battle
than any other state.
When the immortal Lincoln called for military aid that he might enforce the
laws and repossess national property, one regiment was required from Kansas,
and two responded. All other requisitions were filled with patriotic alacrity.
Seventeen regiments and three batteries were mustered into the United States
service. It was my privilege to know the field-officers and many of the sub-
alterns and enlisted men of all those commands; to join them in parades and re-
views, and to be with them in camp, on the march, and in the trying realities of
battle. They are the first topic of my theme — "Kansas Soldiers" — they the
subject of review.
I will not say, with a distinguished soldier and orator, "The past rises before
me like a dream," for the recollections of those times and of those men are too
vivid and too real to be classed with the mystic films of which dreams are mostly
composed. Oh, the personnel, the characteristics, the style, the achievements
and the death of those thousands of men, as they pass in retrospection and re-
view ! How they cause varied and commingled emotions to contend for supremacy !
Who can so well concentrate thought and gratify emotions as the poet, when he
sings his "Echoes of the Old Camp Ground"?
Oh, sing for me to-night these brave and merry songs,
When bright and warm the cheerful camp-fire blazed.
At twilight's lonely hour, with comrades gathered 'round,
We gaily sang those oft-repeated lays.
How quickly beats my heart when comes the echoed strain,
I listen now to catch the faintest sound;
Though other songs are sweet, none are so dear to me
As the song we sang upon the old camp-ground:
John Brown^s body lies moldering in the grave.
I hear the bugle pealing forth its brazen notes,
I listen to the rolling of the drum;
The sounding call to arms, the battle's clash and din —
Like mocking echoes with the song they come.
The fire is burning low, the sentry lonely treads
With slow and measured steps his weary round;
All these I seem to see, as I listen to the song —
The song we sang upon the old camp ground:
Yea, we HI rally Wound the flag, boys, rally once again r
KANSAS soldiers' MONUMENT ASSOCIATION. 12S
Where are my comrades now ? Oh, why am I alone ?
Go ask it of the mocking echoes: Why ?
Go stand upon the plains and count their lonely graves,
Where on a hundred battle-fields they lie.
Then wonder not that I should love those simple strains,
Though sadder mem Ties cluster thick around;
Though other songs are sweet, none are so dear to me
As the song we sang upon the old camp ground :
Many are the hear-ts that are weary to-night.
Wishing for the ivar to cease;
Many are the hearts looking for the right.
To see the dawn of peace.
Tenting to-night, tenting to-night,
Tenting on the old camp ground;
Tenting to-night, tenting to-night.
Tenting on the old camp ground.
Those songs, and marches, and alarms, and battles are past forever. The
union soldier achieved and succeeded in all his objects and ambitions. The laws
were sustained and government property recovered to lawful custodians. No
rebel flag floats to the breeze to-day; no foe to national unity, no advocate of
secession, no scheme or desire to reenact slavery. Scarcely a reactionist who
would undo aught of the work so well done by the union soldier — the grand vol-
unteer reinforcement who aided the police force of the nation to suppress a re-
bellion. Never again in the history of this commonwealth will there be a struggle
to exclude human slavery — to defeat the slave propaganda. Never again will
her patriotic citizens and civil officers be arrested, imprisoned, tried and con-
demned because of their devotion to liberty and the cause of a free-state organi-
zation. Never again will the First and Second Kansas campaign with General
Lyon, fight another bloody battle at Wilson's creek, check the march of seces-
sion, and save Missouri to the union. Never again will Deitzler, and Mitchell,
and Blunt, and Wier, and Montgomery, and Ewing, and McCook, and Jennison,
and Judson, and Jewell, and Phillips, and Martin, and 17,000 other soldiers from
Kansas, make a history and reputation for loyalty, skill and courage upon bloody
battle-fields, so as to justify the maxim of her eccentric but daring general and
senator. Lane, in saying, "It has become a proverb: As brave as a Kansas sol-
dier." The true Kansas soldier was never a filibuster; his battles, like those
of America, have been fought upon vital fundamental principles, and, with
victory achieved, the sword has been sheathed, and the cannon's lips have been
allowed to become silent and cold.
So, with the era of peace, the Kansas soldier and his children, and the soldier
from other states and his children, have made rapid conquest of the land, and
against many difficulties, disasters and hardships have made a great common-
wealth, so that the few of a third of a century ago have become the many of
to-day.
What will Kansas be a hundred years from now ? Or what a quarter of a
century from this hour ? Shall patriotism continue to be a marked characteristic
of her eventual millions ? Shall the memory and record of the noble deeds of
her first population be an incentive to love of liberty and of country ? Shall the
deeds of Kansas heroes be appreciated, and thus memories be cherished with
emotions of state pride ? Will citizen and official, drawing inspiration from his-
tory, continue to say, "It is a glorious thing to be a Kansan" ?
Although the majority of Kansas soldiers have been mustered out — death
having given them their final discharge — and the graves of many have been so
neglected or unidentified that they are lost to view and location, it has been
124 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
deemed an act of patriotic duty and of justice to provide for the perpetuation of
their names and deeds by the erection of a suitable monument which will be
equal to any and superior to many erected by other communities. To this end
an association has been incorporated, directors elected, a plan of visitation
adopted, and an agent (myself) appointed to secure needed funds and organize
auxiliary societies throughout the state. In the line of such duties I am here to
make these announcements, and to prepare the public for other efforts in behalf
of the cause: and now, in the name of the directors, I thank this Historical So-
ciety for its recognition of this adjunct to its honorable efforts to preserve names
and events in the history of the state.
It is scarcely too much to say that Kansas owes a duty to her distinguished
officers and private soldiers, who, in the language of a director of the Monument
Association, " helped to make the state what she is to-day, and they should be re-
meml)ered by an enduring monument. Kansas never gave her soldiers anything.
She was poor then. Now she is great and prosperous, and cannot afford to be indif-
ferent to the memory of the men who made her greatness possible." We look up at
the sun, we contemplate the solar system, and stand firmly upon the solid earth.
We know something of the laws of nature: we think all these to be of eternal
duration. But when we think of ourselves and of the citizenship of this state,
we know that we are mortal and must all pass away. Still we would perpetuate
eras and events, and the names and achievements of men and of armies. How ?
When the children of Israel ended their wanderings and crossed the Jordan,
dry shod, they were bidden to take from the stones of that stream the materials
with which they should erect a perpetual memorial of the wonderful event.
It is now proposed that the citizens of Kansas, those who participated in her
early trials and triumphs and those who have become citizens by birth or adop-
tion since those times, shall take of Kansas materials and erect upon Kansas soil
a suitable monument, so that, sometime in the first decade of the twentieth cen-
tury, and from then on forever, the citizen or stranger who passes through the
state upon the great highways of traffic and travel shall, at some suitable place,
look upon a shaft which, piercing the skies, shall testify to the deeds and record
the names of soldiers who made Kansas to stand in the front rank of the immor-
tal patriots who saved the union: and which shall also immortalize the pioneers
of Kansas, who, by successful contention with difficulties, secured for Kansas a
place among the states, justifying her motto, ^^Ad astra per aspera.''''
SOME PUEBLO RUINS IN SCOTT COUNTY, KANSAS.
By S. W. W1LLI8TON and H. T. Martin, of the University of Kansas.
INTKODUCTION BY S. W. WILLISTON.
l^OR the past fifteen years or more the existence of certain remarkable ruins
•*- in Scott county, Kansas, has been known to the people of the vicinity, and
to certain others who have visited the locality, attracted by their fame. The
writer first heard of them while engaged in geological work in the Smoky Hill
valley in 1891, but found it then inconvenient to examine them, though his inter-
eat was much excited. While in their vicinity in the summer of 1898 he seized
the opportunity, in company with a friend, Mr. W. O. Bourne, of Scott City, to
visit the immediate .site of the ruins and make such brief examination of them
as the time would permit.
The ruins are situated in the valley of Beaver creek (wrongly called Ladder
SOME PUEBLO RUINS IN SCOTT COUNTY, KANSAS. 125
creek on the maps), in the northern part of Scott county, twelve miles due north
from Scott City, and about ten miles south of the Smoky Hill river, as shown on
the maps, precisely where the township line touches the most eastern bend of
the creek. At this place the valley of the creek, which here runs nearly north,
is less than a mile wide, surmounted on either side by high bluffs of Tertiary
material. The immediate valley is excavated in the Cretaceous chalk. The re-
sult is that here, as elsewhere in western Kansas where like geological conditions
obtain, the underflow through the porous Tertiary sandstones, over the impervious
chalk floor, comes abundantly into the valley, furnishing a considerable stream
of water. Perhaps no stream in the western part of the state offers more favor-
able conditions for irrigation than does this in its lower part. In the dryest years
there is always an abundance of water in the stream, and in the deep pools along
its course there are always many fish. About a half mile above the site of the
present ruins, the tertiary underflow comes to the surface along the side of a hill
in such perpetual abundance that it is utilized in the irrigation of a considerable
tract of land.
These two facts — easy facilities for unfailing and extensive irrigation, and a
fish- and beaver-producing, perpetually flowing stream — are undoubtedly explana-
tory of the location of the ruins at this place. The ruins are situated near the
middle of the valley, close to the stream, and away from any possibility of am-
bush by hostile savages. They occupy a small knoll of ground, and, as first seen
by us, consisted of a low, rounded heap of soil and stone, perhaps 75 or 100 feet
in diameter, the soil wholly overgrown by buffalo- grass. The rocks are the coarse
sandstone of the neighboring hills. A small excavation had been made near the
middle of this mound by previous explorers, perhaps two feet in depth and of a
dozen square feet in area.
The foregoing, together with a brief account of the results of the short ex-
ploration made by us, and by persons living in the vicinity, and some conjectures
as to the origin of the structure, was read by me at the meeting of the Historical
Society in the autumn of 1898, and was published in the Kansas University Quar-
terly for January, 1899. My object at the time was simply to call attention to
the ruins, which I was satisfied represented the work of either white men or
Pueblo Indians of a time antedating the present century. A newspaper version
of my remarks made me say that I believed the ruins to have been the work of
Coronado's expedition. My only statement concerning Coronado was: "It may
have been Coronado who was here, but that is a conjecture." For this opinion
as published I was taken severely to task by Mr. Jones, of Washington. I do
not now and never did believe that any of the Coronado expedition was responsible
for the construction of the buildings hereinafter described. Nevertheless it is
believed by one who is certainly competent to have an opinion on the subject —
Mr. Joel Moody — that the ruins do date from the time of Coronado. Such an
origin would not be impossible were the ruins of a consistent character, which
they are not. In connection therewith, it is of interest to state that in 1887 an
old Spanish sword, bearing the inscription
"No me saquer san razon
No me embainer sin honor"
was discovered on the Walnut thirty-eight miles southeast of the ruins, and is
now in the possession of Mr. John T. Clark, of Ellis, Kan. Mr. Moody has con-
tended that such relics ought to be found in this region, and the sword goes a
long ways toward substantiating his theory that Coronado's expedition entered at
the western part of the state and not in the southern, as has been generally be-
lieved.
126 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Jlowpver, n\y interest in tho subject being much excited by the letter of Mr,
Jon.'s, ns published in the Mail and Breeze in September of last year, I re-
<lU08t«Hi Mr. H. T. Martin, assistant in the geological museum of the university,
and who had long resided in the vicinity of the ruins, to undertake their explo-
ration. Mr. Miirtin's .skill and intelligence in such work of exploration have had
the most happy results. In the course of about three weeks he thoroughly ex-
cavated the ruins, and made careful collections of all tools, implements and ref-
use material found there: has carefully measured, photographed and described
thoni all. The material collected has been brought to the university museum,
and after careful restoration of the broken objects has been placed for safe-keep-
ing in the university cabinet. I regret that many of the photographs cannot be
rejiroduced in connection with this article.
One fact is established from the explorations — the ruins are of Pueblo origin.
Of this there can be no question. The plan of the structure is only such as the
Pueblo Indians could have devised and carried out. It is not the work of white
men, either Spanish or French, though it is very probable that both the Span-
iards and French may have occupied this and other structures at this locality
at later times, or even contemporaneously with the Pueblos. The finding of an
iron ax, of rude and primitive workmanship, it is true, indicates white men's
skill. It is very evident, also, that other metal instruments were used by the
occupants. Several of the manufactured articles show clearly the imprints of
metal saw teeth.
The origin of the ruins is of course not positively proven, yet I believe that
concerning even this there is scarcely a doubt that they represent the old forti-
fied place known as Cuartelejo, founded about 1650 by a party of Indians who
fled from the oppression of the Spaniards, from Taos, in New Mexico. The only
information concerning this place that I have so far been able to obtain is from
works of Hubert Bancroft, vol. xvii, on Arizona and New Mexico, and the suc-
ceeding quotation, to which Col. H. L. Moore has kindly called my attention.
From the volume cited, it appears that
"about the middle of the century [the seventeenth] there was a backsliding of
certain families of Taos, who went out into the eastern plains, fortified a place
called Cuartelejo, and remained there until the governor sent Juan de Archuleta
to bring them back." ( Page 166.) "Captain Uribarri marched this year out into
the Cibolo plains; and at Jicarilla, thirty-seven leagues northeast of Taos, was
kindly received by the Apaches, who conducted him to Cuartelejo, of which he
took possession, naming the province San Luis and the Indian rancheria Santo
Domingo." (Page 229.)
This was about 1706.
".\ leading event of Valverde's rule was his expedition of 1719, with 105
Spaniards and 30 Indians, being joined on the way by the Apaches, under Cap-
tain C'arlana, against the Yutas and Comanches, who had been committing many
depredations. His route was north, east, southeast, and finally southwest back
to Santa Fe. He thus explored the regions since known as Colorado and Kan-
sas, going farther north, as he believed, than any of his predecessors. He did
not overtake the foe, encountering nothing more formidable than poison oak,
which attacked the odicers as well as the privates of his command. On the Rio
NapoHtle, ai)i)arently the Arkan.sas, Valverde met the Apaches of Cuartelejo and
found men with gunshot wounds received from the French and their allies, the
Pananas and Jumanas. An order came from the viceroy to establish a presidio
there twenty-five men would not suffice." (Page 236.)
One hundred and thirty Spanish leagues, which was measured on such expe-
ditions by pacing, are about 450 miles. This on the map, in a direct line from
SOME PUEBLO RUINS IN SCOTT COUNTY, KANSAS. 127
Santa Fe, -brings the locality of Cuartelejo within a score or two of miles of the
site of the ruins on the Beaver. Cuartelejo, thus being located north of the Ar-
kansas, must necessarily be within a short distance of the present locality. As
there is no other place so well suited for a settlement anywhere within a hundred
miles or more of the Beaver, in Scott county, the conclusion is almost certain
that the present site corresponds to Cuartelejo.
"In 1727 Bustamente notified the viceroy that the French had settled at
Cuartelejo and Chinali, 160 leagues from Santa Fe, proposing an expedition to
find out what was being done, and asking for troops for that purpose; but it was
decided that such an entrada was not necessary, though all possible information
should be obtained from the Indians."
The following quotation is from the narrative of Fray Silvestie Velez de Es-
calante, April 2, 1778, as translated in the Land of Sunshine, vol. xii. No. 5, p.
314; the parentheses are by the translator:
' ' The second of my f reasons ) is that in the middle part of the last century some
families of Christian Indians of the pueblo and tribe (nacion) of Taos uprose,
withdrew to the plains of Cibola ( not Coronado's ' Cibola," but the buffalo plains)
and fortified themselves in a place which afterwards for this (reason) called the
Cuartelejo, and they were in it until Don Juan de Archuleta, by order of the
governor, went withtwenty soldiers and a party of Indian auxiliaries and brought
them back to the pueblo (Taos). He found in the possession of these revolted
(Taos) Indians casques (text, casos, apparently a misprint for cascos) and other
pieces of copper and tin, and when he asked them where they had acquired them
they replied 'from the Quivera pueblos' to which they had journeyed from Cuar-
telejo."
DESCRIPTION OF RUINS BY H. T. MARTIN.
Since the reading of Professor Williston's paper on "An Ancient Sod House
in Western Kansas," before the Historical Society, the writer has, at his request
and under his advice, spent some time in making a thorough examination of the
ruins, with most interesting results. Before giving a detailed description of the
results, the writer wishes to thank, not only Doctor Williston for his assistance and
advice, but also Mr. H. D. Steele, who owns the land upon which the ruins are situ-
ated, for his kindness and assistance, with team, plow, and scraper, gratuitously
given ; and Mr. H. H. Hatheway, for information concerning the probable course
of the old irrigation ditch. For an account of the locality and surrounding region,
the reader is referred to the preceding paper by Doctor Williston.
In the excavation of the chief structure referred to in the cited paper, all pos-
sible care was taken to avoid mutilating the plastering with which the walls were
covered, thus permitting the exact size and shape of each room to be ascertained.
As now excavated, the walls are about two and a half feet in height. The struc-
ture measures fifty by thirty-two feet in size, and stood as nearly due east and
west in its greater measurement as it would be possible to locate it with an or-
dinary compass. The outer walls were of heavy stone, from eighteen inches to
two feet in thickness, and were cemented or grouted together, making the full
measurement of the building about fifty-three by thirty-five feet. The building
site, as has been described by Doctor Williston, was a slightly raised mound,
about seventy-five yards from the bed of Beaver creek, which here affords an
abundance of water for both irrigational and domestic use. By the side of the
building there are two large, hollowed out places, which had probably been used
for the puddling and mixing of the adobe employed in the construction of the
building. The stone used in the building, all of which had been brought from
the surrounding hills, was considerable in amount, and many single pieces are
all that a man can lift.
About 100 yards south of the main edifice there is evidence of several other,
128 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
smaller buildings, all of which must have been constructed of adobe alone, since
no rock remains. These smaller structures, two of which were examined by us,
yielded no utensils or other relics ; nor could their size and shape be made out with
certainty. Both of these buildings, as well as the large one, present evidence of
having been destroyed by fire, whether as the result of some accident or by In-
dian foes one cannot say, of course. From the fact that no human bones were
found anywhere about, the probability of design is lessened. That the larger
structure had been destroyed by fire there can be no doubt, since the adobe is
burnt, and charcoal is thickly scattered everywhere; the stone and bone imple-
ments also all show evidence of fire. Rooms IV and VII, as I have designated
them, show only slight evidenoe of the fire, and it is possible that one or both of
these rooms had never been covered, and hence contained but little subject to
destruction by fire. Room IV had portions of the rotted posts, evidently used
as a ladder, remaining.
Charred corn was found in every room except VII, in some places four or five
inches deep. In room V there had been four or five bushels of this corn in a
slightly hollowed out place at one side.
About twenty-five yards north of the main structure there appear to have
been three or four small structures, each separated a small distance in an east
and west line parallel with the main building. These structures were apparently
circular in outline, and were perhaps tepees.
The most interesting room in the structure is the one I will designate as
room I. Its dimensions were seventeen feet by thirteen feet and nine inches.
It had a raised dais or platform on two sides, about six inches high: that on the
west side five feet and three inches wide; that on the north side two feet. The
wider one was doubtless used for sleeping purposes, and the narrower one as a
bench. Very near the center of the room there is a box-like receptacle, formed
of thin stone set edgewise. Like the others described further on, the bottom of
this one was about six inches below the level of the floor, and its size was eighteen
by twenty-one inches. It had been plastered at the bottom, and contained, when
examined, a quantity of clean wood ashes. The receptacle may have been for
the grinding and mixing of corn. In the southwest corner of the room there is
a peculiar structure three feet nine inches in length by two feet and one inch in
width, inside measurements, built of adobe. Its walls are eighteen inches in
height at the west end and twelve at the east end, the slope gradual from one
end to the other. The walls, five or six inches in thickness, had been nicely
rounded at the top. In the middle, and joined to the west end, is a small plat-
form, about sixteen inches in length by twelve in width, raised about six inches
above the bottom of the grooves which surround it. These grooves, shaped
somewhat like a U, sloped toward the closed end. This part was filled with
ashes, suggesting that the use of the oven was for the baking of pottery. Near
the east end was a large hole, twelve inches in diameter and eighteen inches in
depth, covered with a flat rock. It contained nothing save fine dust.
The walls and floors were nicely plastered. The plastering gave no indications
of finger marks, but seemed to have been smoothed off with some instrument.
Stones that might have answered such uses were found in the rooms. In this
room was found a small pipe, decorated with horizontal markings. Here also
were found a needle or awl for the sewing of hides, several arrow-heads, frag-
ments of pottery, and bone needles. The remains of two posts, about eighteen
inches apart, were found in the northeast corner, evidently for the uprights of a
ladder for ingress and egress. Similar holes in like positions were found in the
other rooms. There were no indications of doors or other openings in any of the
SOME PUEBLO RUINS IN SCOTT COUNTY, KANSAS. 129
rooms. The roof was evidently made of willow poles or brush covered with
adobe, as large quantities of the latter show impressions of twigs.
Room II was sixteen feet and four inches in width by eighteen feet six inches
in length, and had both wall and floor plastered. The fireplace was two feet by
one foot seven inches in size, and close by it was a hole twelve inches in diame-
ter. On the east end there was a bench, as in room I, four feet two inches in
width, and on the north side one two feet in width, while on the other two sides
the width was but twelve inches, but raised to about ten inches in height. Close
to the fireplace was found a grooved stone maul, ribs with marks of a saw upon
them, arrow points, pottery, bone and stone scrapers, and a small pipe. On the
ledge at the east end was found the half of an iron ax or wedge. The iron is of
course much rusted, and the tool appears to have been split longitudinally and
transversely by some mishap. It had a groove near the head, instead of an eye,
for the attachment of the handle, after the manner of the stone axes of the abo-
rigines. This room contained more charred corn than did any of the others.
Room III was fourteen by thirteen feet in size, with plastered walls and floor,
the corners rounded at the east end and square at the west. It had a fireplace
eighteen inches by twenty-four, and a raised bench four feet wide at the west
end. The holes for the posts supporting the roof and for the ladder were as in
the other rooms. The plastering turned up about the posts showed that this
work had been done after the roof had been placed over the structure. This
room furnished grinders and several bone implements — scrapers and fleshers —
made from the shoulder-blade of the buffalo and deer or antelope. The wall posts
were rotted in the ground, and not burnt as in the other rooms, nor were the
bone implements partly burned, as was the case with those in the other rooms.
In this room, also, was found a part of a musical instrument, a flute or flageolet,
made from the wing bone of a large bird; also a bone implement with a serrated
edge.
Room V was the smallest in the building, being only ten by fourteen feet in
size. It had well-plastered walls and floor, a fireplace seventeen by twenty-two
inches in size, a large quantity of corn, arrow-heads, grinders, scrapers, pottery,
etc. Close by the fireplace there was a hole in the floor covered by a fiat stone
that had been undisturbed. At its bottom was found half of a clam shell,
which had been sawed lengthwise by a toothed saw, the tooth marks being very
plainly apparent. In the northwest corner was a small oven, nine inches in
width and sixteen in depth, excavated from the wall of the room and plastered
throughout. It contained three or four inches of wood ashes in the bottom. In
this were also found three oval and one square adobe bricks, about ten by fourteea
inches in size, flattened above and rounded below. They may have been used in
the baking of tortillas.
Room VI was ten feet five inches in width by thirteen feet and eight inches
in length. The level fioor had been plastered, as also the fireplace, which was
eighteen by twenty-six inches in size. There was a narrow partition between
this room and room V, and since no indications of a ladder were found here it is
possible that the two rooms had been connected. Several scrapers, of bone and
flint, together with grinders, etc., were found here.
Room VII, thirteen feet square, differed from all others in having no fireplace
or plastered walls. Numerous bones of bison, deer, antelope, coyote, badger,
etc., were discovered in this room. The only relics were bone and flint scrapers.
Probably the room had been used as a sort of storehouse, and not for human
dwelling.
The pottery found was in part composed of plaster of Paris, possibly obtained
130 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
from tin- crvatals of seleuite scattered over the chalk exposures in the vicinity.
\ numl.er of ribs were found which had been smoothed at one end into a sort of
spatula, and had probably been used in the making of pottery or in the plaster-
ing of the building. Coiled as well as smooth pottery was found, but only a single
piece that showed evidence of decoration. Some of this pottery has been sub-
mitted to Professor Hewitt, of Las Vegas, N. M., who has given much attention
to the work of the Pueblo Indians. He was of the opinion that all this pottery
had been introduced from New Mexico, and had riot been made in the vicinity of
the building or village. Probably this is the furthest east that such pottery has
yet been found.
In one of the rooms were found several squash seeds; some between two pieces
of i>ottery, in good condition, others much decayed.
Mr. H. H. Hatheway informs me that the earliest settlers here utilized what
were undoubtedly the remains of an old irrigating ditch in digging their own
ditches in the vicinity of the present residence of Mr. Steele, and which ditches
he now uses in the irrigation of his garden.
KANSAS IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.
An address by Maj. W. L. Brown, of the Twenty-first Kansas regiment, before the Kansas
Stilt© Historical Society, at twenty-third annual meeting, January 17, 1899.
TO write the part that Kansas took in the Spanish- American war would neces-
sarily take a close inspection of the records of the war department. While
it is easy to speak of our Twentieth, Twenty-first, Twenty-second, and Twenty-
third, this does not include the boys from the Sunflower state engaged in all
branches of the service. They were with Dewey at Manila bay ; with Sampson
and Schley on their fleets, manning the guns that sunk the pride of Spain; they
were in the charge at San Juan hill — in fact, wherever on land or sea battle was
given, Kansas was representated by her brave sons, who never disgraced their
uniforms or the state, all fighting to relieve an oppressed people from the hellish
acts of Spain and her tyranny, and to allow Cuban people and their generations
yet to come the blessing of breathing the health-giving air of liberty.
When President McKinley, in compliance with the resolution declaring war,
issued his call for troops, there was no state in the union responded more quickly
than Kansas, and the reason why this is so needs but little explanation. Our
characteristic painted stronger than all else is justice and patriotism. In the
dark days of '60 and '6.5 Kansas furnished more troops according to her popu-
lation than any state in the union. At the close of that war thousands, yea,
tens of thousands, of men who wore the blue crossed
" . . the prairie as of old
Our fathers crossed the sea.
To make the West, as they the East,
The homestead of the free."
Their influence on the generation that took part in the conflict cannot be
measured. Patriotism has been taught from the schoolhouse, from the pulpit,
from the rostrum, and the beacon lights of the G. A. R. hall. The great soldier
state of Kansas was ready for the fray, and had the call been tenfold in number
that it was, they would have been equipped and sent to 'the front with the same
energy that sent those three regiments under the first call. Perhaps I could find
no words that would describe the condition better than the copy of the telegram
KANSAS IN THE SPANISN-AMERICAN WAR. 131
sent by our chief executive at that time, in reply to one from the secretary of
war in regard to stating the number we should have under the second call:
"ToPEKA, May 28, 1898.
*^ Hon. Russell A. Alger, Secretary of War:
"In reply to your telegram saying it will require 990 men to fill the organiza-
tion of Kansas troops already in the field to maximum, will say that the three
regiments from Kansas left the state with ranks filled to the maximum according
to your instructions. Three thousand men signed the roll, and not one made his
mark. If you will give us two regiments under this call, we will fill them with
the same kind of men, and any subsequent call will be met promptly, and no
■draft will ever be needed in Kansas, and if more men are needed in the regiments
already organized they will be promptly furnished.
(Signed) J. W. Leedy,
Governor of Kansas.''''
The statement made by the governor in regard to any man belonging to the
three regiments, which I had the honor to help recruit, is absolutely true, and is
attributed to the educational intelligence of our people, and stands unparalleled
in the history of the war and the quota from the different states.
I had the honor of being the first officer sworn in the service of the govern-
ment under this call, and was assigned the recruiting to be done in the seventh
district, and raised six companies in that number of days. Whoever says that
the boys of the seventh district, and for that matter I can safely say of the state,
enlisted for the financial consideration that they would receive, is a prevaricator
beyond hope of redemption. I have seen strong men who failed to pass the phys-
ical examination sit down and sob like children, and many of the applicants
who failed to pass begged for another trial. I can name a score of cases where
men gave up jobs that were paying them 8100 per month, or better, and enlisted
as private soldiers, and the question was never asked, "What am I to receive?"
It was patriotism, pure and unadulterated — the patriotism that would give up
life if necessary to uphold our flag and national greatness.
There had been differences between the National Guard and the governor,
which in some cases hindered members of the guard from enlisting. There were
plenty of men ready and anxious to go. Among the oflflcers of the Twenty-first
Kansas, fifty per cent, of them were members of the guard, and a large per cent,
of the privates had seen duty in that organization.
As to their calling in life, about fifty per cent, were farmers, twenty-five per
cent, laborers, and the other twenty-five per cent, represented different profes-
sions. It is a boast of our regiment that we had men representing every vocation
in life: the doctor, the preacher, the lawyer, the clerk, the student, the telegra-
pher, the photographer, the jeweler, druggist, printer — in fact, everything, even
to the aeronaut who canceled his dates to enlist, as well as the sail-maker who at
one time bathed his feet in Massachussetts bay and eked out a livelihood fishing
for cod. This was a matter of much comment among army officers. Other re-
markable facts were that we were the only state in the union who had nine officers
commissioned by the governor who had seen service in the war of the rebellion.
There were differences of opinion between the war department and the executive
of the state in regard to the right to commission veterans of the civil war. But
the governor's idea prevailed, and their presence and experience added materially
to the efficiency of the Kansas troops.
Another fact, remarkable as it may seem, held good in the Twenty-first, and
I believe in other regiments, that out of the 1300 men of the regiment 800 were
Kansans, born and bred. It is needless for me to describe the Kansas soldier as
he appeared ; you all saw them on Dewey day as they marched through the
132 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
strt't'ts of Topeka — not like they were later on, when military training had given
them the bearing of soldiers, but the raw material from which soldiers are made.
No state in the union had soldiers with better developed forms and hardier
ponstitutions. On tho historic battle-field of Chickamauga, at one time, were
campt'd tX.),(.KX) men, and the difference in stature, soldierly bearing and hardihood
gave our men the sobriquet, "iron men from the wild and woolly West." When
with the long hours of drill came the regimental brigade and division corps re-
views beneath the burning sun of the southern clime, the Kansas boys would
return to camp singing and jollying, while the fellows from New York and the
New England states would fall with fatigue by the wayside, fanning themselves,
beneath the shade-trees.
While it is- true the Kansas volunteers did not all see actual service, yet it is
also true that in the line of duty they gained the plaudits of all those with whom
they came in contact. At Chickamauga our well-drilled companies, lines straight
as an arrow, evoked applause when on review. At the rifle range they led the
division by a large per cent. In the words of the commanding general, speak-
ing of the troops under his command: "When I want something done, and am
not particular about it, I call on Massachusetts : when there is something to be
done that does not matter much whether it is done or not, I call on Ne^v York;
but when there is something I want done and done right, I call on Kansas." To
my memory comes the great review at Chickamauga, where 40,000 wearers of the
blue passed in review before General Breckenridge, who had just been assigned
to the command of the First army corps. I have seen the time when I was
proud to be a citizen of Kansas, when the great wheat crop dotted the prairies,
when our magnificent live-stock resources were exploited, and when we out-
stripped in the race on certain lines at the great expositions, in competition with
the world, but never was I as proud of our own Kansas as when I witnessed
10,000 people who had remained like statues for an hour watching the different
troops march past without approval or disapproval go wild with applause when
Kansas came, headed by the flag given us by the noble women of our state, a
tribute to our soldiers in the state of Kansas more eloquent than I can paint in
a pen picture.
At Lexington, Kansas was designated to act as the escort of the corps com-
mander. The Twenty-first Kansas was again made the guard of honor on the
arrival of the secretary of war during his visit to Lexington on a tour of inspec-
tion, and after review, at the request of the commanding officer, he revoked the
muster-out order that we were then under.
History records the deeds done by the Twentieth, and every citizen is proud
of the record they made. The Twenty-second was an honor to the state, and
the Twenty-third did its part. Kansas has no apologies to make for her part in
the Spanish-American war. Every battle-field was wet with the blood of her
sons. While her citizens may disagree on politics, and differ in religious views,
yet when the call to arms comes they are always ready, and always will be. "To
the stars through difficrulties" we are making our way, but far in advance of any-
other idea is jjatriotism, love of country and flag.
THE TWENTIETH KANSAS REGIMENT. 133
THE TWENTIETH KANSAS REGIMENT IN THE
PHILIPPINES.
An address by Col. Wildee S. Metcalf, before the Kansas State Historical Society,
at twenty-fonrth annual meeting, January 16, 1900,
'' I^HIS paper is not in any sense a history. It does not pretend to be anything
-'- more than a few remarks about the service of the Twentieth Kansas
infantry.
At the commencement of the war with Spain, there were in the state of Kan-
sas two National Guard regiments, partially uniformed and partially armed and
equipped. Many of the men were doubtless unable to pass the required physical
examination preliminary to muster into the service of the United States. How-
ever, there were a number of officers and men in the two regiments who had
taken a lively interest in military affairs and who were fairly proficient in drill,
and who had acquired at least the rudiments of discipline. There were a few
who, in a quiet but none the less earnest and intelligent way, were real students
of military science.
On the call for three infantry regiments by the governor of the state, in re-
sponse to the call of the president for 125,000 volunteers, the existing military
force in the state was ignored entirely — perhaps wisely — and recruiting stations
were named and dates for enrolment fixed.
In nearly every company as enrolled, there were, however, a few men, and in
several companies officers, who had received, either in the National Guard or in
the regular army, some military training. It is quite probable that the influence
and example of these officers and men, and their knowledge and experience as
well, aided largely in bringing the Twentieth regiment to its eventual high state
of discipline and efficiency. The influence of the presence of these officers and
men upon the molding of the mass was, perhaps, almost unnoticed, but it did its
work nevertheless.
The enrolment began on April 29, and the first company camped at the
designated rendevouz on April 30. From that date companies were constantly
arriving and being physically examined and mustered into the service. On May
11 the companies to compose the Twentieth were announced, and on May 13 the
entire regiment was formally mustered into the service of the United States.
Of the thirty-six original company officers, twenty-five had had more or less
military experience, and in only one of the companies had none of the three
officers received military training; and I must say here that by reason of a very
high order of intelligence in both officers and men, and by the unremitting appli-
cation of its officers to the study of their duties, this company became eventually
one of the best in the regiment.
Without waiting for equipment or clothing, the regiment left on May 16 for
San Francisco, arriving on May 20. The regiment was in a pitiable condition as
to clothing and shoes and blankets, owing to the fact that most of the men left
home with their poorest clothes and oldest hats and shoes, expecting to be at
once supplied by the government. Under these circumstances, and after over
two weeks of camp in rain and mud at Topeka and five days on railroad trains
en route to San Francisco, the appearance of the regiment can be as easily im-
agined as described.
While there was much newspaper chaff and many a readable reporter's story
at the expense of the regiment, among the men themselves there seemed to be
134 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
no complaints what.'vor. Anything and everj'thing, no matter how disagreeable
or uncumfortal.le, was accepted and endured with the same really surprising de-
gree of good temper. The terrible rain and mud at Topeka, the crowded railroad
coaches, the cold fogs and the drifting sands of Camp Merritt, the jibes and
abuse of the San Francisco press, were all accepted as a part of the business and
endured with the same good-natured equanimity.
Day after day, in strict military cadence and with unwavering zeal, the com-
panies' marched the streets near the camp and tramped the beautiful drives in
Golden Gate park. Day after day the regiment made its daily pilgrimage to the
Presidio hills, a mile away, for battalion and regimental drills.
Clothing and equipment came finally to be abundant and uniform. Day by
day the regiment took on a more and more soldierly appearance. While the Kan-
sas regiment was very properly excused from participation in the Decoration Day
parade, while it was inspected by General Hughes on June 7 and found wanting,
while it received 300 recruits on June 19 and 20, still, by July 4, it was fully
the equal of any volunteer regiment in San Francisco in military appearance
and discipline. On July 30 it even credited for a few hours a rumor that it was
to sail for the Philippines on the Tartar.
On August i it gave a public drill in a large pavilion in the city of San
Francisco, which drill was admittedly superior in exactness and general merit to
any of the many that had been given by the various other volunteer regiments.
Continued disappointments about sailing for Manila caused much dissatis-
faction and some clamor to be mustered out and sent home; but the order finally
came and the regiment sailed at last, two battalions on October 27, the other on
November 9.
Meantime, what had these five months and more of incessant drill done for
the Twentieth Kansas ? It had changed the heterogeneous mass of recruits into
a well-dressed, well-drilled, well-disciplined regiment of soldiers — so well dressed
and drilled and disciplined that the Kansas regiment was well-nigh universally
recognized, before it left the United States, as one of the very best volunteer
regiments, in every particular, that the country ever produced — so well thought
of by those who knew its history that every brigade commander then on duty in
the Eighth army corps wanted the regiment in his brigade, and at least three
of them applied for it, and at least one of the three applied many times for the
regiment without avail. The regiment was assigned to the First brigade of the
Second division of the Eighth army corps, and there it remained until ordered
back to Manila from San Fernando, June 25 and 26, 1899.
I wish to say a word about military discipline and the necessity for it. Why
not put dependence on numbers and personal pluck? Because history says that
pluck with discipline has always defeated numbers without it. Are you aware
that no dictionary in existence to-day gives a full and satisfactory definition of
military discipline. This shows that it is either misunderstood by, or unknown
to, the ordinary man. Military discipline is a tyrant: it is despotic; it is pecul-
iar, and often misunderstood. It cannot be learned from books; its methods
are repugnant to democracy. Many people believe it should have for its founda-
tion a majority vote. But the men who know it, and who have it, know its value
and importance. Some acquire it with difficulty. It usually percolates slowly
and silently into the very soul of a man; he receives it by practice and by ab-
sorption, and is usually unconscious of its arrival. He thinks he is learning his
drill, but he is at the same time unconsciously acquiring military discipline.
Discipline is the process by which a man is transformed into a soldier, and this
process must be applied to the officer as well as to the enlisted man. Until the
THE TWENTIETH KANSAS REGIMENT. 135
officer acquires discipline, he is unable and unfit, and unable to assist or compel
his men to acquire it. To many, the continual drill, going over and over again
the same exercises after they have once been learned, seems absurd. Parades
seem a senseless ceremony or an ostentatious display. But parade and drill
are training in discipline. Every exercise in which subordinates are required to
promptly execute the orders of a superior is training in discipline. Discipline is
simply obedience — unthinking, instinctive, prompt and cheerful obedience; it
never thinks of dangers or consequences; it never hesitates.
The greatest ingredients of success in war are discipline in the ranks and cour-
age in the commander. The Twentieth Kansas regiment acquired, in five months'
of hard work, a high degree of discipline, and when it landed at Manila, on De-
cember 9 and 11, there was not in the Eighth army corps an organization more
fit to fight for the glory of a great state or the honor of a great nation. I think
this undoubted fact was very largely due to superior education and civilization
in the homes of the state of Kansas. Is it no advantage to live in the state where
there is the least illiteracy of any state in the union ? Is it no advantage to be
brought up, trained and educated by the most intelligent and refined fathers and
mothers in the land ? There was hardly a private soldier in the Twentieth Kan-
sas regiment who did not receive and read the principal papers'and periodicals of
the United States during all his service. There was hardly a man in the regi-
ment who had not clear and intelligent ideas about the Philippine islands and
their people, and the relations and duties of the United States toward them.
More worthy of mention still is the fact that hardly a man in the regiment
but could express his ideas clearly and forcibly and entertainingly either on paper
or by word of mouth. Not a man in the regiment but could write his own name.
"Wonderful!" many have said. The great majority of them could write a vig-
orous and entertaining — yes, a thrillingly interesting — story of scenes visited or
experiences undergone.
When men like these submit themselves voluntarily to discipline and enlist
themselves in the service of their country — not for livelihood, not for glory, but
for love of country, to fight for a principle — shall these fail to give good account
of themselves ? Well, no ! At any rate, not if they come from Kansas.
Kansas was conceived amidst the rumblings and first blows of an approach-
ing mighty conflict. She was born in the heat of battle. Her first sons were all
soldiers; at least, so many of them that no other state of the union equaled her
in the lavish gift of her sons to the country's service. Is it any wonder that the
sons of these men were ready to fight when the country called again ?
I know that the ears of Kansas boys have been filled for years and their
hearts fired by the stories told by their sires, who
"Tell of valor, and recount with praise
Stories of Kansas."
"Than in our state
No illustration apter
Is seen or found of faith and hope and will.
Take up her story.
Every leaf and chapter
Contains a record that conveys a thrill."
Dozens of times have I heard our boys say to each other, after some interest-
ing or thrilling experience: "Now, won't 1 have a story to tell the old man! He
won't be in it with me at all."
Out of an aggregate enrollment of 1322 in the Twentieth Kansas regiment,
more than 1250 were actual citizens of the state of Kansas. I believe that a
136 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
liirpp majority of these were Kansas born. I believe that more than half, and
probably fully three-fourths of them, were the sons of veterans of the civil war.
The Twentieth Kansas fought well because it was a magnificent body of un-
usually intelligent men: because the men were well drilled and disciplined; and
because thev were built that way.
On the evening of the 4th of February, when hostilities began at Manila and
the regiments were called upon to reinforce the outposts at ten o'clock on a dark
night, this regiment, not more than four or five of whom had ever been under
fire before in their lives, rose up as one man and marched quietly and cheerfully
out into deadly peril. The sick got up from their beds to go along ; those ordered
to stay in barracks to guard and protect the government property begged and
implored to be sent out to the front.
And in all the hard, continuous fighting, when for five long months hardly six
consecutive hours were passed without the regiment being under fire, when every
sense was on the alert, when every nerve was held at high tension for every mo-
ment of the day and night, until the muscles and nerves began to give way under
the severe and constant strain — in it all and through it all the regiment devel-
oped but two or three cowards, two or three pairs of weak knees — two or three
pairs of "cold feet," as the soldiers expressively term the complaint. Only four
men were dishonorably discharged from the regiment. Only three deserted, and
they before the regiment left San Francisco. As I think of this scant dozen of
cowards, criminals and deserters among 1322 men, I can remember that almost
all of them were non-residents of the state of Kansas; some of them I know had
never lived in or even seen Kansas. And thus the Twentieth Kansas regiment
acquitted itself.
Intelligently, steadily, earnestly, cheerfully, promptly, bravely, even bril-
liantly, the private soldier from the state of Kansas did his duty, winning fame
for himself, glory for his state, and honor for his country.
Only a few days before the regiment sailed from Manila, an old regular army
ot!icer of high rank, who had seen the regiment in the city of Manila and who
had been frequently in and about the barracks, said to me: "The Twentieth
Kansas is the finest looking and best disciplined volunteer regiment I ever saw;
I do n't wonder at its reputation, and I believe it deserves it all."
The regiment on its voyage home stopped eight days in the large and wonder-
fully interesting city of Hongkong. Every officer and man in the regiment had
in his pockets two months' pay in good United States gold. The entire regiment
was given almost perfect freedom during the eight days. To the great wonder of
the city, not a man got into the slightest trouble or controversy. The Hongkong
papers commented freely on this, to them, wonderful circumstance. It was said
frequently that the same number of soldiers from any other land would have
painted the city in all the hues of the spectrum.
Gpneral Shafter and many other officers, and many citizens of San Francisco,
remarked that the Twentieth Kansas presented the finest appearance in review
of any of the returning volunteer regiments.
Kansas did well to be proud of her Twentieth regiment, simply and solely be-
cause it showed to the country cf what sort of stuff her young men are made.
But Kansas has more and greater reason to congratulate herself ; for who doubts
for an instant that, if given the opportunity, the Twenty-first, or the Twenty-
second, or the Twenty-third, if you please, would have done just as well, would
have acquitted itself just as nobly, would have honored the state just as much ?
And furthermore, I know, and you know, and our country knows, that, were there
need of them, there are thousands more of the same kind of young men in the
THE TWENTY-SECOND KANSAS REGIMENT. 137
state of Kansas to-day who would quickly and gladly form many regiments, each
as good, as brave and as intelligent in its composition as the Twentieth. We are
thankful that the Twentieth had its opportunity. The opportunity was all that
was needed ; the young men of Kaasas took care of the rest.
I want to say that, although these remarks are made about the Twentieth
Kansas regiment, I believe fully that in large measure the same things might be
said of almost any of the volunteer organizations which entered the country's serv-
ice. The Twentieth was fortunate in having many opportunities; it was grand
in promptly and magnificently accepting every one of them.
Where are now those who once composed the Twentieth Kansas ? Between
100 and 200 reenlisted and are still serving their country in the Philippines. We
hope to welcome them home in safety when their services are no longer needed.
Thirty-three died of disease before the regiment was mustered out, and at least
three have succumbed to wounds or disease since reaching home. Several more
are at this moment hovering between life and death. Thirty-four officers and
men were killed in battle. They, men and soldiers, bravely met death, and to
their stricken families we offer to-day, and always, heartfelt sympathy and sup-
port.
"Nor shall your glory be forgot
While fame her record keeps,
Or honor points the hallowed spot
Where valor proudly sleeps."
The others have returned to the public schools or the state institutions of
learning; returned to their clerkships in the stores and offices of the state; re-
turned to their shops or their farms — returned quietly and unassumingly to the
imths of peace.
" Each has his work and way,
Each has his part to play,
Each has his task to do.
They are both good and true.
Whether they 're grave or gay
You '11 find them brave and true."
The same intelligent application to duty, the same intelligent obedience to law
and obligation, the same energy and courage which made these young men good
soldiers, will make, is making them, good citizens. Our state will be richer and
better for their fearlessness, for their energy, for their truth, for all their manly
qualities.
THE TWENTY-SECOND KANSAS REGIMENT.
An address by Maj. A. M. Harvey, before the Kansas State Historical Society,
at twenty-fourth annual meeting, .January 16, 1900.
TOURING the months of April and May, 1898, the various companies that
-'-^ afterwards composed the Twenty-second Kansas regiment of volunteer in-
fantry were recruited by the order of his excellency. Gov. John W. Leedy, pur-
suant to the call of ihe president. The call was made by reason of the war with
Spain, and the service was to continue for two years, or during the war.
Locality. — The governor proposed to make the Kansas regiments representa-
tive of the different ijarts of the state, and to that end established recruiting
stations convenient to the various counties. Thus it came about that the com-
panies constituting the Twenty-second Kansas were recruited from localities as
follows:
A company, from Neosho and Labette counties.
—9
138 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
15 comimny, from Cloud and Republic counties.
V company, from Mitchell and Jewell counties.
D company, from Jackson and Jefferson counties. •»
E company, from Lyon county and the city of Emporia.
F company, from Cherokee county.
G company, from Norton, Decatur, Rawlins, and Cheyenne counties.
H company, from the various colleges and schools of the state, including the
state university, the state agricultural college, the state normal school, and
other colleges and high schools.
I company, from Clay and Washington counties.
K company, from Brown and Nemaha counties.
L company, from Atchison county and the city of Atchison.
M company, from Marshall and Riley counties, and the city of Manhattan.
Regimental officers were selected without regard to locality, and were ap-
{lointed by the governor. The line officers were elected by popular vote of the
enlisted men of each company.
Political Complexion. — Following his determination to organize the Kansas
regiments without the exercise of political favoritism, the governor commissioned
as colonels of the three regiments organized under the first call representative
men from the three political parties at that time most prominent in the state.
Col. H. C. Lindsey, who was selected as colonel of the Twenty-second regiment,
was a member of the political organization known as the people's party. Among
the other officers, as well as among the enlisted men, were representatives of the
various party organizations within the state. However, a partizan or political
controversy was unknown within the regiment during its history, and partizan
discussions were so rare that a stranger might have visited within the camp for
weeks and, unless he made direct inquiry, would not have learned the political
affiliation of a man or an officer.
General Education and Habits. — Every member of the regiment could read
and write. It contained about 150 teachers and professional men, and at least
.300 students, who had laid aside their books for the service. With few exceptions
they were men of cleanliness, industry, and sobriety. Bootleggers had few cus-
tomers, and no canteen ever thrived for any length of time upon the patronaj^e
of the camp. The enlisted men vied with the officers in being gentlemen. A
lady was as safe from insult in walking about camp as she would have been in
her own home and among friends.
Mustering in. — All of the companies having been mustered in, the entire
regiment was assembled on an open field in the southern part of Camp Leedy,
near the center of the fair grounds, on the 17th day of May, 1898, at about the
hour of twelve o'clock noon, and was then and there mustered in as a regiment.
First Camp.— Colonel Lindsey at once took command and ordered a camp to
be laid out in the northeast corner of Camp Leedy, and all of the companies took
up their quarters there.
Prkvious Service. — Colonel Lindsey, Lieutenant Colonel Graham, Major
Surgf^on Stewart, Captain Hazzard of A company, Captain Charlesworth of C
company, Captain Farrell of F company and Captain Ross of I company had seen
service either in the volunteer or regular armies. Maj. Chase Doster had received
training at West Point and was a finished soldier. A number of the officers had
served in the National Guard or had received training in military schools, and
there yet remained a large proportion of the officers who, like the writer, had re-
cfived no military training whatever. A small percentage of the enlisted men
had served in the National Guard or regular army.
THE TWENTY-SECOND KANSAS REGIMENT. 139
Equipment. — Enlisted men had come into camp in their oldest and most
worthless clothes, expecting to be provided with uniforms at an early date, at
which time they would throw away the clothes brought from home. This brought
about a popular demand that equipment be issued at once, and, immediately after
mustering in, the officers of the regiment, aided and assisted by Governor Leedy,
commenced an energetic effort to secure at an early date a full equipment, or at
least an issue of uniforms and clothing. After repeated application, they were
informed that the government had determined on equipping the regiments in the
mobilization camps, and that no equipment could be issued to the regiment until
it reached Camp Alger, to which it had been ordered. The state had no equip-
ment on hand, and no appropriation with which to purchase it, and, even if an
appropriation had been available, the state could have purchased no uniforms
and have secured an immediate delivery, for the reason that all the furnishing
houses were working night and day to fill the governmental orders, which were
given the preference. This was a sore disappointment to men and officers, yet it
was borne in good part, ever}- one conceding that, in the interest of economy, the
government had acted wisely and well, and that the state was powerless to change
the situation. After arriving at the mobilization camp the work of equipment
commenced, and in due time everything needed was supplied. The rifles fur-
nished were Springfields.
Off for Duty. — Within a few days after being mustered in. Colonel Lindsey
received orders to proceed by rail to Camp Alger, near Falls Church, Va., and
preparations were made to commence the journey on May 25. The general
call was sounded at twelve o'clock, noon, on the day appointed, and the march
to the train was taken up at two o'clock p. m. The regiment was accompanied
by an escort of Grand Army men, and the citizens of Topeka turned out and
crowding the line of march, gave expression to their good will and sympathy.
Many who previously had soldiered with Colonel Lindsey came with their greet-
ing, fitly expressed by Hon. G. G. Gage as he held Colonel Lindsey by the hand,
and with tears running down his cheeks said : "Hank, God bless you ; how I wish
I could go with you."
The Missouri Pacific Railway Company furnished the transportation from To-
peka, and landed the regiment in St. Louis on the morning of the 26th. From
there the route lay over the Baltimore & Ohio railroad to the city of Washing-
ton, which was reached on the 28th of May at about the hour of noon. The
train was then run over the Southern railroad to the station of Dunn Loring,
about five miles from Falls Church, in the state of Virginia, and about eleven
miles from the city of Washington. Considerable delay was experienced in the
trip from Washington to Dunn Loring by reason of the track being surren-
dered to the president's train, which on that day conveyed President McKinley
and Secretary Alger to Falls Church. On that day all of the soldiers then irk
Camp Alger were reviewed by the president and General Alger.
During the morning of the last day of the journey. Harper's Ferry, Va., had
been reached, and notwithstanding the fact that the trainmen were in a hurry
and had not provided in their schedule for stops at Harper's Ferry, the soldiers
of each section of the train insisted on stopping there that they might march
round the John Brown monument and with music and song give expression to
their love and veneration for the greatest Kansas hero.
Arriving at Dunn Loring at four o'clock in the afternoon of the 28th, the regi-
ment proceeded at once to unload and march to that part of Camp Alger desig-
nated for its camp. The regimental camp was laid out and established on the
evening of the same day, in the southwestern part of Camp Alger, and this camp
110 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
was niaintainod until tho :W day of August; and, in point of work accomplished,
was (ht> most important camp in the regiment's history.
The regiment was at once brigaded with the One Hundred and Fifty-ninth In-
diana and tho Third New York, both of which regiments were old National
(Juard organizations and had received a great deal of drill and discipline. Col.
John T. Harnett, of the One Hundred and Fifty-ninth Indiana, by reason of his
rank, was the first brigade commander. This brigade was the first brigade of
the Second division of the Second army corps, and was afterwards commanded by
Hrigadier General Sheafe. The division was under the command of Brigadier
(Jeueral Davis, now military governor of Porto Rico, and the corps was com-
manded by Major General Graham, now retired. The Twenty-second Kansas re-
tained its place in this organization until orders were received to proceed to
I^eavenworth to muster out.
On being established at Camp Alger, the work of equipping, drilling and dis-
ciplining commenced. Procuring and distributing equipment, officers' schools,
drill of five hours per day, together with other duties of soldier life, made hard
work for oflicers and men. By persistent application on the part of Colonel Liud-
sey and Quartermaster Lamb, equipment was provided rapidly, and much in ad-
vance of many regiments of longer residence in the mobilization camp. During
the month of June Colonel Lindsey, with a detail of officers and men, proceeded,
under orders, to Kansas, and recruited a sufficient number of men to raise the en-
rolment of the companies to the maximum. This caused the absence of Colonel
Lindsey for a period of two weeks, during which time the command devolved
upon Lieutenant Colonel Graham. Colonel Graham's experience and ability
made it possible for the regiment to do splendid work during this time, notwith-
standing the absence of the colonel.
Camp Alger. — Camp Russell A. Alger extended along the Southern railroad,
from Falls Church to Dunn Loriug, a distance of five miles, and from the rail-
road south in the direction of Fairfax Court House about four miles. This same
territory had been used for an army and refugee camp during the civil war. It
lies about nine miles from the Potomac river and is supplied with water only by
wells and springs.
Typhoid. — During the month of July a typhoid-fever epidemic became gen-
eral in Camp Alger. In the Twenty-second Kansas, Private Park, of E company,
and Cai)tain Sherman, of E company, were among the first to be attacked. The
regiment suffered less from the disease than any other regiment in Camp Alger,
with the exception of the Seventh Illinois, and yet lost two commissioned officers
and thirteen enlisted men. Captain Sherman died at Fort Myer hospital, and
Quartermaster Lamb at Providence hospital, in the city of Washington. The
epidemic became so serious that the authorities determined upon moving some of
the troops from the camp, and to that end issued an order, on the 2d day of
August, for the Second division of the Second army cori:)s to proceed, at six
o'clock A. M. of August 3, and march in the direction of Manassas.
Mauchino Ordkks.— The order was received at the headquarters of the
Twenty-second Kan.sas at six o'clock p. m. on August 2. It brought much re-
joicing to men and officers, who were tiring of the monotonous drill and discipline
of camj). A detachment of 100 men, under the command of Captain Hazzard,
remained in camp, and the regiment marched away at the appointed time. The
men carried ordnance, shelter tents, blankets, ponchos, and part of their cloth-
ing. The wagon train carried part of the government property belonging to the
regiment, and a large portion was left with the detachment.
The first day's march was a trial to the enlisted men. The route lay along a
THE TWENTY-SECOND KANSAS REGIMENT. 141
narrow road, with high timber on either side, directly toward the sun, under a
high temperature, not the slightest breeze, and the air heavy with moisture.
The Twenty-second Kansas marched in the rear of the column, and its march
soon lay between hundreds of stragglers. Before evening the One Hundred and
Fifty-ninth Indiana, marching directly ahead of the Kansans, became completely
demoralized, and went into camp with less than 100 men. The Kansas regiment
fared better, and, despite the fatigue of the march and the demoralizing effect of
passing so many stragglers, went into camp at the close of the day with only 100
men missing, and the majority of these came into camp within a few hours. This
camp was at Burke station, a point on the main line of the Southern railway,
south and west from Camp Alger.
August 1 was spent in camp. During the evening of that day Colonel Lind-
sey received orders to march at five o'clock a. ji. on the day following, and that
his regiment would head the column. Accordingly, on the morning of August
5, the regiment again took up the march, and proceeded so rapidly that the day's
march was completed and tents pitched before ten o'clock a.m., and this was
done without any straggling whatever. The camp was near Clifton station, on
the east bank of Bull Run river, and occupied part of the ground fought over in
the battles of Bull Run. Here the regiment remained until the morning of
August 7.
It then marched westward, crossing the Bull Run river. The day was Sun-
day. The route lay directly through the city of Manassas.* Although years had
intervened since the city's history had been made, and the evidences of industry
and peace were everywhere, it was not hard for one to read in the faces of the
townsfolk a dread and dislike of the army. This was further suggested by the
next issue of the local paper, containing lines throughout its editorial page like
the following: "Federal troops marched through town on Sunday," "The
country is full of bluecoats," etc. While riding through Manassas a telegram
was delivered to the writer announcing the critical illness and probable death of
Captain Sherman. After leaving Manassas, the line of march lay near the large
red-stone monument erected by the citizens of that locality in honor of the con-
federate dead. After one o'clock p. m. the division went into camp near Bristow
station, throe miles west of Manassas, on the right bank of Broad Run. At this
camp a number of typhoid- and malaria-fever cases developed among the men, and
it became necessary to establish a division field hospital. Private Throckmorton,
of F company, was one of the Kansans left in this hospital. He never rejoined
the regiment, but died some days later, on the same day that his brother, of the
same company, was seized with a fatal attack of typhoid.
Further orders having been received, the division left the camp at Bristow on
August 9, and marched to Thoroughfare Gap. It was an all day's march, the
last five hours in a drenching rain. Tents were pitched within sight of the Bull
Run mountains and of Thoroughfare Gap. The location of the Kansas regiment
proved to be unsatisfactory, and within a few pays it was changed. Here word
was received of the death of Captain Sherman and Quartermaster Lamb.
The Duncan Court-martial. — While encamped at Bristow station, Capt.
L. C. Duncan, assistant surgeon of the Twenty-second Kansas, was arrested by
order of General Davis, charged with desecrating certain graves on the Bull
Run battle-field on the 6th day of August. On the day charged, the grave of
Maj. J. T. Duke, of the Fifth Alabama Cahaba Rifles, was opened and desecrated,
as was also the grave of one Humphrey. These graves had been marked with
rude tombstones, and were located in an unfenced and unprotected wood. The
142 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
desecration naturally aroused the indignation of the citizens of that community
and of the officers in command. The parties causing the arrest of Captain Dun-
can made such enijihatic and definite charges against him that General Davis
considered it his duty to not only arrest him but to put him under guard. On
arriving at Thoroughfare Gap a general court-martial was ordered to convene, and
Captain Duncan was brought before it. Brig. Gen. Nelson Cole was the rank-
ing officer of the court-martial, and the other members were detailed from among
the highest ranking officers of the division. Lieutenant Colonel Dudley, of the
judge-advocate general's staff, and Major Stringfellow, of the Fourth Missouri,
were assigned to duty as judge-advocates. Arthur B. Shaflfer, first lieutenant of
D company of the Twenty-.second Kansas, and the writer were permitted to ap-
pear for the accused.
The war department and the general officers of the Second army corps took a
great deal of interest in the progress of the trial, and the Washington Post sent
a special correspondent to attend the sittings of the court. A grand jury was
called in Fairfax county, and it found a true bill against Captain Duncan with-
out delay. Indignation meetings were held in and about Manassas. The sheriff
of Fairfax county demanded of General Davis the surrender of Captain Duncan,
and, being refused, lingered about the court-martial during the first two days of
the trial. Captain Duncan was served with a copy of the charges and specifica-
tions against him at ten o'clock p. m. on the 12th day of August, and was put on
trial the next day at eleven o'clock. By special order, the court-martiai sat re-
gardless of hours. The trial lasted fourteen days, and about forty witnesses on
either side were examined. After this most exhaustive hearing, Captain Duncan
was declared to be innocent of the crime charged, but was fined §100 for neglect-
ing to exercise his authority as an officer and arresting certain enlisted men who
had been guilty of the desecration. This sentence was set aside and Captain
Duncan restored to duty by order of General Davis. It was also shown that the
graves had been desecrated by soldiers not belonging to the Kansas regiment,
whose zeal as relic hunters on the old battle-field had led them into the commis-
sion of the crime.
On the 27th day of August the regiment proceeded by rail from the camp near
Thoroughfare Gap to Camp Meade, Pa., and there joined the detachment left at
Camp Alger on August 3.
Camp Meade. — Camp George G. Meade was situated on the left bank of the
Susquehanna river, near Middletown, Pa., and lying between that city and Har-
risburg. The landscape is high and rolling and water is good and plentiful.
While at Camp Meade the Twenty-second Kansas was ordered to be mustered
out. The order was received with satisfaction by men and officers. All had
taken pleasure in the service as long as the war continued or there seemed to be
a prospect of service outside of the United States, but under the conditions then
existing the general desire was to be mustered out.
Part of the work of mustering out was done at Camp Meade, after which the
regiment proceeded by rail to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., under orders to complete
the mustering out there. The journey home commenced on the 9th day of Sep-
tember and Fort Leavenworth was reached on the 1.3th day of the same month.
Camp Lindsey was then established, within the military reservation north of the
main wagon road running from the post to the city of Leavenworth, and directly
east of the wooded tract. The Twenty-second regiment was the first of the
Kansas regiments to return home. The citizens of the city of Leavenworth and
the friends and relatives of its members gave the regiment a hearty welcome.
THE TWENTY-THIRD KANSAS REGIMENT. 143
A furlough of one month was given to all the men and officers, excepting a de-
tachment of about 100 men and two commissioned officers, who were left in
camp to guard and protect the government property.
On the lith day of October, the furloughs having expired, the soldiers re-
turned to camp and the work of mustering out was again taken up. This was
completed in due time, and on the 3d of November, 1898, the regiment was mus-
tered out and ceased to exist.
It had seen less than six months of service, yet had become well drilled, har-
dened, and disciplined. It had been favored by being composed of strong, vigor-
ous and intelligent men, and by a spirit of generosity, harmony and desire for
cooperation among the officers. Without having sighted an enemy and without
having fired a hostile gun, its record was made, and is finished.
ORGANIZATION AND SERVICE OF THE TWENTY-THIRD
KANSAS REGIMENT.
An address by Lieut. Col. James Beck, read before the State Historical Society,
at twenty-fourth annual meeting, January 16, 1900.
T SUPPOSE what you want along this line is facts that do not appear of record
-■- in the war department or the adjutant general's office. To commence with,
I rather think that the idea to raise colored troops for the Spanish-American
war originated with me. They did, so far as I know, I having called on the gov-
ernor and talked the matter over with him, and made certain requests of him
long before I ever heard any one else speak anything of this matter. I talked to
several colored men in the state, just after the blowing up of the Maine, and told
them that I believed that we was going to have a war with Spain, and ought to
have some colored troops, as it would not be practical to mix the colored and
white boys in the same regiment. They seemed to think well of the proposition,
but, because of the political faith of the then governor of the state, they feared
that their influence would not have much effect, so I was unable to interest them,
to any extent. So I went at it alone. I interested such men as Hon. H. S. Lan-
dis, Judge Doster, of the supreme court, the Hon. David Overmyer, and others.
All of these and many others agreed that it was no more than just and right that
the colored boys should have a chance to show their patriotism, if they wanted
to, and so, after a good deal of talking, persuasion and argument jy^'O and con,
the governor decided, under the second call, to give the colored boys a show, and
right here comes in one remarkable fact about the raising of this regiment.
I was appointed major on the 22d of June, 1898, and authorized to raise
troops. I commenced recruiting on the 27th, and by the lith day of July had
been appointed lieutenant colonel to command these two battalions; so you will
see by this that with the small colored population in the state of Kansas to re-
cruit from that these troops recruited faster and were turned over to the gov-
ernment quicker than any of the other Kansas regiments. The fact is that every
negro republican politician, with one or two exceptions, and every republican
paper in the state of Kansas did everything they could to make it a failure, and
one of these exceptions, that I want to refer to, was that of the Hon. Corvine
Patterson, of Wyandotte covinty, and the only Nick Chiles, of Topeka, Kan.
These two exceptions pulled of their coats and did everything they could do to help
me recruit this regiment, and get them ready for the service. Now then I want
to give you some unwritten history and will endeavor to give you the truth, the
whole truth and nothing but the truth.
114 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Soon after this regiment was formed the armistice was declared between our
(rovernment and the Spanish government, and, so far as fighting was concerned,
the war was over, and it looked as if our troops was to be mustered out in Camp
Leedy without ever leaving the state, because of a certain difference between
Governor Leedy and General Alger, the then secretary of war. I have every rea-
son to believe that it had been decided, on the part of the secretary of war, not
to allow any Kansas troops to leave the country, and, to bear me out in this state-
ment, you will' remember, that all the papers in the state had criticisms of all the
men and officers of the Twentieth Kansas then in camp at the Presidio in Cali-
fornia, and you will only have to refer to the back numbers of the Topeka Capi-
tal, and the other Topeka papers to verify this statement. So I called my officers
together and told them that in my opinion there would have to be something
done, and we would have to do some wire pulling, or we would never see any serv-
ice outside of the state. At this meeting all the line officers were present, I think,
and can verify everything stated and done at this meeting. I told them that if
they consented and authorized me, I thought I could arrange to get the troops
out of the country, either to the Philippines or Cuba. The majority of them
wanted to go to Cuba, so they all with one voice said, "Do the best you can, and
we will back you both financially and morally."
I then went to certain influential parties and told them what I thought the
situation was, and that if the matter was carried directly to the president and
properly presented to him that we could be sent out of the country ; and, to show
you how well I succeeded, I had an order in my pocket four days later to report
with my command to General Lawton, then at Santiago. I got my troops ready
and we embarked from Topeka on the 22d day of August, 1898, arriving in San-
tiago on the 1st day of September following.
Now, to show the state of discipline that we had perfected with these men in
the short space of time elapsing since the 27th of June to the 22d day of August,
we carried every man through from Topeka to Santiago without losing a single
man in any way. When our roll was called for muster on the 1st day of Septem-
ber in the harbor of Santiago, every man that left Topeka answered to the roll-
call. This beats the record of any other regiment, so far as I know, that left the
country. During the Spanish-American war some of the regiments that left for
service in Cuba lost fifteen or twenty of their men en route; some of them did
not reach their command for two months, and some never came, having deserted.
So you can see how surprised we were when we got the first news in the Topeka
paper, after we arrived in Santiago, stating that when we got the order to leave
Topeka our men deserted us, running in every direction to escape the trip, and
so on.
One of the facts that we wish to show is the long mooted question as to whether
or not the colored men were capable of disciplining and commanding their own
people, and we can show this by the organization and service of this regiment.
I think this Twenty-third regiment was the best disciplined regiment that went
to the Spanish-American war, without any exceptions, having went across the
United States from home, clear across the continent to the seaboard, and then
back again, without any trouble with any one. This, I believe, no other regi-
ment of volunteer soldiers ever did. Out of nine regiments of colored troops,
four of whom were part of the regular army, I think the Twenty-third was the
only one that did not have some kind of governmental investigation. The
Twenty-third had less court-martials, and a smaller death rate, than any other
regmienlal service that was in Cuba, having lost only eleven men during the six
months that we staid there, and reported a larger list for daily duty than the
THE TWENTY-THIRD KANSAS REGIMENT. 145
regiments that were camped in the United States were reporting, and this can be
verified by the reports in adjutant general of the army's office.
Now, this regiment was the first regiment from Kansas to leave the country,
and I honestly believe that if it had not gone to Cuba, the Twentieth never would
have gone to Manila, because, I think, the fact, as I stated before, had been de-
cided by the secretary of war because of the controversy between him and the
then governor of the state, Leedy, to allow no Kansas troops to leave the country,
and after the Twenty-third succeeded in getting away, I am satisfied that some
of the same influences that was used by us was adopted by the friends of the Twen-
tieth, although General Funston might not have been aware of this fact; so you
see that I have an entirely different idea of the influence of those politicians than
General Funston has. I know that we never would have seen Cuba if it had not
been for the influence of some of these politicians that he refers to, and if he ex-
pects very much in the future, he will have to change some of the sayings that
the public press ascribe to him.
While we were in Cuba we performed all kinds of garrison duties as would
naturally be demanded of troops in that country at that stage of the war, and
how well we succeeded in pleasing our commanders, I herewith hand you exact
copies of two letters given me when we were ready to leave Cuba, one from Briga-
dier General Ewers, and one from Major General Wood, under whom we served
nearly all the time we was there, as General Lawton was succeeded by Wood a very
short time after our arrival.
Headquarters Military District of Mayari,
San Luis, Cuba, February 9, 1899.
Lieut. Col. Jameii Beck, Twenty-third Kan. Vol. Inf.: Dear Sir — I take
pleasure in stating that while you have been under my command I have found
you willing and anxious to obey and execute all orders. You have always seemed
to take a deep interest in the welfare of your regiment and, so far as I know, no
one has any just cause for complaint. The papers and reports pertaining to
your regiment have been rendered more promptly and correctly than any of the
other three regiments under my command. Very respectfully,
E. P. EwERS,
Brigadier General U. S. V., Commanding.
Headquarters Department of Santiago,
Adjutant General's Office, Santiago de Cuba, February 26, 1899.
Lieut. Col. James Beck, Twenty-third Kan. Vol. Inf.: Sir — As your regi-
ment is about to leave this department to return to the United States for muster
out, I take this opportunity of expressing to you my appreciation of the good and
faithful service you have rendered. The officers of your regiment have taken
great interest in all military matters, and particularly in the comfort and general
welfare of the men, and as a result the men have been contented and the disci-
pline good. On leaving for your homes you may feel assured that you carry with
you the good wishes of the department commander, and of the troops that have
served with you in Cuba. Very respectfully, Leonard Wood,
Major General, Adjutant Department .
I want to say, in conclusion of this little sketch, that I honestly believe
that no finer body of men was ever recruited for soldiers in the United
States, and I lay this largely to the fact that seventy-five per cent, of the men
that composed this regiment of colored boys were raised and educated in the
public schools of Kansas, and they were a very much higher type of soldiers than
any of those that served with them in Cuba. We were brigaded with three other
regiments two of which were colored, one the Eighth Illinois and one known as
the Ninth Immunes.
14G KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
A FILIPINO BATTLE FLAG.
Au nrtdross by LiEUT. J. R. Whisner, of company B, Twentieth Kansas regiment, presenting a
captured Filipino battle flag to the Kansas Statt^ Historical Society, at twenty-fourth annual
meeting, January 16, 1900.
A\" HEX hostilities were precipitated, on the night of February 4, 1899, by the
' ' Filipinos on the outskirts of Manila, company B, of which I had the
honor of being a member, was placed upon guard duty in the Tondo district. All
Ihat night and up to the morning of the 7th we lay upon our arms, awaiting
patiently for order to go upon the firing line. Upon the morning of the 7th,
Lieutenant Alford (the only commissioned officer then with the company) asked
Colonel Funston to' send us to the front. He promised to do so, and, upon the
afternoon of the 7th, our hopes were realized, when we received orders to move
out upon the line. Up to that time we had not fired a shot.
Shortly after our arrival at the front, companies B, C and I were ordered to
clear a bamboo thicket some 300 yards in front of our main line, from which the
Filipino sharpshooters had been annoying us to a considerable extent by their
fire. A skirmish line was formed; company B was placed in the center, with C
and I on either side; the order was given to advance, and we had advanced but
a few yards when they opened up on us with a terrific fire. It was our baptism
of fire, yet I am proud to say the boys conducted themselves like trained veterans
and advanced without a waver. Scarcely had the fire commenced when Lieuten-
ant Alford was hit under the eye by a Remington bullet and fell mortally
wounded, dying before he could be taken to the rear. John W. Gillihan, Dan.
S. Hewett, and Chas. A. Kelson, of our company, received wounds in this en-
gagement, none of which, however, proved fatal.
The order was given to charge, and being then in command of the company,
I repeated the command and we advanced rapidly, falling to fire, rising and
charging ten or fifteen paces, then falling again to fire another volley. It did
not take us long to reach the thicket, where a hand-to-hand encounter was en-
gaged in. While thus engaged we discovered a stand of Filipino colors. It is
useless to say that a charge was made for it; such a charge I will venture to say
as had never before been experienced by the enemy. It was a desperate struggle
for supremacy for a short time; bayonet thrusts were made, guns were clubbed,
and volleys fired at such close range that the powder from the guns burned the
Vjodies and faces of opposing forces. At last we reached the stand of colors and
found scattered around it the bodies of twenty-nine dead insurgents who had
fought gallantly, and given their lives in its defense. The commander, doubt-
less inspired by an almost divine sense of patriotism, had wrapped the flag around
his body and died a hero's death. Tenderly and almost reverently Corporal
Willing and Private Baker unwound that blood-stained, bullet-pierced flag from
his liody.
We cleared the thicket in a short time and were ordered back to our line.
Need I say how proudly we bore back the fruits of our victory ? Even now I
can hear the cheers that greeted us upon our return, as we marched back bearing
that captured stand of colors ; but mingled with our pride over our victory was an
overwhelming sense of .sorrow for the loss of our brave lieutenant, and as we
crossed our line under our own flag we doffed our hats in respect to one of its
brave defenders who had died but a short time before, leading his company to
battle in its defense. This was the only stand of colors that had been captured
up to the time the Twentieth left the island.
THE NEUTRAL LANDS. 147
And now, on behalf of company B of the Twentieth Kansas regiment, United
States volunteer infantry, I desire to present to the Kansas State Historical
Society this flag captured upon a bloody battle-field in a foreign land — a land
that has been stained by the blood of American soldiers — that it may be safely
preserved through the years to come, and stand as a monument to the patriotism
of those who helped to make the name of Kansas and its Twentieth regiment
famous.
THE NEUTRAL LANDS.
An address by Eugene F. Ware, before the Kansas State Historical Society,
at twenty-fourth annual meeting, January 16, 1900.
I. — THE CHEROKEE NEUTRAL LANDS.
THE Cherokee Neutral Lands, or, as they were originally called, the Osage
Neutral Lands, is a tract of land fifty miles long from north to south and
twenty-five miles wide, the eastern boundary of which coincides with the eastern
boundary of Kansas, and the southern boundary of which is about two and a
quarter miles north of the southern line of the state.
The Neutral Land tract includes all of the territory in the present county of
Cherokee, nearly all of Crawford county, and a strip about six miles wide nearly
across the southern part of Bourbon county; approximately 800,000 acres — to be
exact, 799,615.18 acres.
II. — LOUISIANA PURCHASE.
The territory included in the Neutral Lands was a part of the Louisiana pur-
chase, made in 1803. At that time it was occupied by the Great and Little Osage
Indian tribes, which also occupied territory in northern Arkansas and southern
Missouri and the territory west thereof. They hunted thence east to the Missis-
sippi river and up to within twenty miles of St. Louis, in 1803.
In 1801 the northern part of the Louisiana purchase, including the territory
now known as the Neutral Lands, was organized as the district of Louisiana,
and all laws then in force were continued in force until altered or repealed.
(2 Stat, at Large, 283-287.) The governor of Indiana territory was given juris-
diction over the district, and the judges of that territory were required to hold
annually two terms of court in the district.
The district of Louisiana extended down to about 150 miles south of where
Memphis now is. Below that the territory was called the territory of Orleans.
This northern territory, called the district of Louisiana, was annexed to the
territory of Indiana for governmental and judicial purposes.
The capital of Indiana territory was then located at a town called by the
French Vincennes, and by the English St. Vincent. It now goes by the former
name and is a well-known city. Indiana Territory had been organized May 7,
1800. (2 Stat, at Large, 58.)
St. Louis, in 1801, was a place of less than 200 houses, occupied mostly by
Europeans and mixed races. There were very few American families. It was
established in 1765 and was called "The Northern Capital."
In 1812 the district of Louisiana was organized as the territory of Missouri,
which was the first year that steamboats were introduced on the Mississippi
river. The first steamboat was begun at Pittsburgh, in 1811.
In 1820 Missouri became a state, at which time there were sixty-three steam-
boats on the river. Of these steamboats, the United States was the largest, 500
tons. Next was the Columbus, 100 tons, next the Ohio and the Alabama, 300 tons
14S KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
each. Over half the number were under *200 tons, and the smallest were of forty
tons each. The averajre was about 150, making? th^ whole tonnage of the Missis-
sippi basin under 10,(K)0 tons — about equal to 500 freight-cars. Vet the emigra-
tion was so tremendous that in that year the amount of money paid for carrying
passengers and freight was at the time computed at two and a half million dollars.
III. — OSAGE TREATY, 1825.
By a treaty made in 1825 between the United States'and the Osage Indians,
the latter ceded all of their lands in Arkansas and Missouri and all of their lands
between Texas and the Kansas river, except a strip fifty miles wide, and run-
ning as far west as the Osages had formerly claimed. And between this strip
fifty miles wide, north and south, and the state of Missouri, there was laid out a
"buffer" district, fifty miles north and south and twenty-five miles east and
west. It was afterwards called the "Neutral Lands," and in the treaty was de-
scribed as follows :
"Beginning at a point due east of White Hair's village, and twenty-five miles
west of the western boundary line of the state of Missouri, fronting on a north
and south line, so as to leave ten miles north and forty miles south of the point
of said beginning, and extending west with the width of fifty miles to the western
boundary of the lands hereby ceded." (7 Stat, at Large, 210.)
The Neutral Lands are the lands between the strip of land so reserved by the
Osages (which afterwards became known as the Osage ceded lands, Osage trust
lands, and Osage diminished reserve) and the western line of Missouri. The
Indian name for White Hair was Pahusca. Towns have since been named after
him.
Neither Indians nor white settlers were allowed to remain on the land. It
was intended to be a barrier between the Osages and the settlers in Missouri.
This gave it its name.
The title to the land so remained for ten years.
The Osages, although very numerous and occupying a vast territory, were not
a great or warlike Indian nation. They were a thieving, pestiferous set, and
yielded readily to the impact of civilization.
The site of White Hair's village was near where Oswego, Kan,, now stands.
IV. — CHEROKEE TREATY, 1835.
InlS.T)a treaty (7 Stat, at Large, 478) was concluded between the United States
and the Cherokee Indians at New Echoto, Ga., by which the Cherokees ceded to
the United States all lands held by them east of the Mississippi. In return the
United States granted to the Cherokees 7,000,000 acres of land west of Arkansas,
and "a perpetual outlet west, and a free and unmolested use of all the country
west of the western boundary of said 7,000,000 acres, as far west as the sover-
eignty of the United States and their right of soil extend."
In addition to the above, the Cherokees were granted the Neutral Lands, the
clause of the treaty by which this was done being as follows:
"And whereas, it is apprehended by the Cherokees that in the above cession
there is not contained a sufficient quantity of land for the accommodation of the
whole nation on their removal west of the Mississippi, the United States, in con-
sideration of the sum of $500,000 therefor, hereby covenant and agree to convey
to the said Indians and their descendants, by patent, in fee simple, the following
additional tract of land, situated between the west line of the state of Missouri
and the Osage reservation: Beginning at the southeast corner of the same and
runs north along the east line of the Osage lands fifty miles, to the northeast
corner thereof; and thence east to the west line of the state of Missouri; thence
with said line south fifty miles: thence west to the place of beginning — estimated
to contain 800,000 acres of land; but it is expressly understood that if any of the
lands assigned the Quapaws shall fall within the aforesaid bounds, the same
THE NEUTRAL LANDS. 149
shall be reserved and excepted out of the lands above granted, and a pro rata
reduction shall be made in the price to be allowed to the United States for the
same by the Cherokees."
The third article of the treaty of 1835, by which the Neutral Lands were ceded
to the Cherokees, provided as follows:
"The United States also agree that the lands above ceded by the treaty of
February 14, 1833, including the outlet and those ceded by this treaty [Neutral
Lands], shall all be included in one patent executed to the Cherokee nation of
Indians by the president of the United States, according to the provisions of the
act of May 28, 1830."
V. — EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
In 1820 a Presbyterian mission was established a few miles northeast of the
Neutral Lands, on the Marais des Cygnes, and another a few miles south, on the
Neosho.
In 1812 a site was selected for a fort on Spring river by United States troops,
but as the half-breed claimant of the site wanted $4000 for it and the troops were
authorized to pay out but $1000 it was abandoned, and the troops were stationed
at Camp Scott (now Fort Scott), nearly fifty miles to the north.
The tradition is that the Indians objected to any government fort being built
on the Neutral Land. Half-breed Cherokees and whites who had married into
the Cherokee tribe selected places on the Neutral Land, picking out a few of the
best places, and settled there years prior to the war. But the settlements were
not many, and were confined to the southeast and northeast corners, called re-
spectively "Spring river" and "Drywood," [the Indian names].
In 1847 the Catholic Osage mission was established in what is now Neosho
county, a few miles west of the Neutral Land. The site became the city of
Osage Mission, and afterwards the county-seat of Neosho county. The name
of the town was afterwards changed to St. Paul and the county-seat removed to
Erie.
The priest who did a great work there among the Osage Indians was named
Poncilleoni. I saw him during the civil war and saw his mission house before
the whites settled in the Osage country. The girls made their own clothing, and
very tasteful artificial flowers with which to decorate the chapel. The priest told
me his name meant " the bill of a bee." He was an Italian.
VI. — m'gee county.
From 1835 the "buffer" tract was called the " Cherokee Neutral Land."
When Kansas was organized as a territory, the tract was called McGee
county, the name being given in honor of one M. W. McGee, a man who was
elected by fraudulent Missouri votes in the fifth district. He was admitted,
after a contest, to the first session of the "bogus" legislature, 1855, which sat
at Pawnee.
He was a great pro-slavery man, and submitted the majority report in the
session of 1855 upon "House bill No. 79, exempting slaves from execution." In
the report he makes a stump speech. (H. Jour. 1855, appendix, p. 19.)
"Is it 'fraud' to prevent the household servants of the young bride from be-
ing sold to pay the debts of her profligate husband ? . . .
"The design of the bill is wo/" to compromise with Northern fanaticism. . . .
How long will they continue to abuse our patience? Is there not room enough
for them in Liberia, Jamaica, and the Danish islands ? .
"Let the wild heresies of the East succeed in Kansas, and who shall arrest
the career of Goths and Vandals and knightly pilgrims of the North, led by some
modern Attila, Alaric, or Peter the Hermit ?
"They look upon Kansas as a mere resting point, where their exhausted forces
may regale themselves and prepare for future rapine. Let them succeed, and the
150 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
proud columns of our national fabric will crumble into ruins. The minstrels of
th.' South will drop tho Ivre and grasp the harp of woe, and wake the mountain
echot's with its wail. Ke'spectfully submitted."
This was a bad start for the Neutral Lands, and misfortune followed it for
twenty years.
The name of MoGee county was afterwards changed to Cherokee, and after-
wards the tract was divided and became Cherokee, Crawford, and part of Bour-
bon. ( Laws 18G7, eh. 32, p. 50.)
VII. — ENCROACHMENTS BEFORE CIVIL WAR.
The settlement in the Neutral Lands was not satisfactory to the Osages. R
deprived them of their protection from encroachment. In 1858 a few whites be-
gan to move in and make settlements in the Neutral Lands. In 1859, at the so-
licitation of the Cherokee Indian agent, and by direction of President Buchanan,
these settlers were driven off by United States troops under Captain Sturgis, and
their houses burned. The object and intention was to clear the land. This was
demanded by both Cherokees and Osages. Fort Scott, with a military garrison,
was situated five miles north of the Neutral Land, and Captain Sturgis was
there stationed.
This is the Sturgis who, from Kansas, joined General Lyon in the Springfield
campaign in the summer of 1861, and afterwards became a major general. He
was a very efficient officer when xiot too full of whisky.
After the war, I had a talk with a soldier who was engaged in 1859 in putting
the settlers off the Neutral Land. He said they took a big wagon train, and
made trips down into the Neutral Land, and when they came to a house they
carried all the household property out and put it into a wagon, and then burned
the house, and hauled all the stuff and all the people who wanted to be hauled
with it to Fort Scott, and dumped them down at a camp ground near the fort.
But those who were expelled went back again, and the population, when the
ciril war broke out, was said to be, men, women, and children, 1500, but this is
doubtful.
VIII. — NEUTRAL LAND, CIVIL WAR.
During the war the Neutral Land was raided from end to end. Down on
Spring river, in the southeast corner, a government post was planted, called
Baxter Springs. This was after the Pea Ridge battle and the conquest of north-
west Arkansas. But southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas were swarm-
ing with guerrillas, bushwhackers, and outlaws, and what one did not take the
others did. The Neutral Land was campaigned over by both sides during the
civil war, Vjut no important engagement took place thereon. But raids were in-
cessant from the Indian territory, Arkansas, and Missouri.
The so-called civilized tribes of Indians down in the territory had disagreed
among themselves. Some of them joined the confederacy and some of them
were loyal to the government, but the greater part were with the confederacy,
because the confederacy had been long planned, and the assistance of the Indians
against the government had been looked after at a very early date. In fact, as
soon as the civil war was under way the Confederate States made an offensive
and defensive treaty with the national council of the Cherokees, which treaty
was, after the occupation of Arkansas and much fighting on the border, repealed
in 18(;.T by the Cherokee council. It is stated that Col. Elias Boudinot, a Chero-
kee, was chairman of the Arkansas convention of secession.
IX. — CIVIL WAR — BAXTER SPRINGS.
The most serious of the many raids upon the Neutral Land was that which
resulted in the battle and massacre at Baxter Springs on October 6, 1863. The
THE NEUTRAL LANDS. 151
following is the account of this massacre, as given in Greeley's Conflict, vol, 2,
page 452:
"General Blunt, having been on business to Kansas, was returning with a
small cavalry escort to Fort Smith, when he was struck, near Baxter Springs,
Cherokee nation, by Quantrill, with 600 guerrillas, and most of his small escort
killed or disabled. Among the eighty killed — nearly all after they had been
captured — were Maj. H. Z. Curtis, son of Maj. Gen. S. R. Curtis, and several
civilians. [General Curtis named Fort Zarah for this son.] General Blunt,
rallying some fifteen of his guard, escaped capture and death by great coolness
and courage; their persistency in boldly fighting creating a belief that they were
the van of a heavy force. A considerable train that accompanied them was
sacked and burned. The attack was made very near the little post known as
Fort Blair, which was next assailed; but its defenders, though few, were brave,
and well led by Lieutenant Pond, Third Wisconsin cavalry, who beat the enemy
oflf, inflicting a loss of eleven killed and many more wounded. General Blunt
and his remnant of escort kept the prairie till night, then made their way to the
post. They had not ventured thither before, apprehending that it had been
taken."
A longer and more detailed account, by Dr. W. H. Warner, of Girard, is to be
found in the History of Kansas, A. F. Andreas & Co., Chicago, 1883.
X, — NEUTRAL LAND IN 1865.
I first went over the Neutral Land, the whole length from north to south,
while in the army, in 1865. We passed the settlements on Drywood creek, but
in the whole Neutral Land I saw no habited house, but saw several standing
chimneys. The Neutral Land, in the beginning of 1865, was entirely an unset-
tled country. There was a road through it leading from Fort Scott down past
Baxter Springs to Fort Gibson and to Fort Smith.
We camped at one place, now in Crawford county, where there were holes in
the prairie which appeared very strange, and an examination showed that there
was a large coal bank close to the surface, and that prairie fires had burned out
the coal bank, which was from four to six feet thick, and that these holes had
filled up with water and retained it on the surface of the prairie. The "holes in
the prairie" were well known camping places. The grass was exceedingly tall
and rank, which was explained by the fact that it had never been plowed or cul-
tivated, and that very few cattle had grazed on it. During the war it would have
been impossible to have held any cattle within that territoiy without a military
guard. Deer, prairie-chickens, quails and other game were very abundant, and
continvially in sight.
In the southern portion of the tract the forests of Spring river and the Neosho
were very dense and heavy. I remember in many places where aged black wal-
nut trees had grown vip, and in their maturity had fallen over, and their trunks,
four and five feet in thickness, were lying on the ground. We camped on both
the Neosho and Spring rivers, and there seemed to be a vast amount of the sea-
soned black walnuts lying there, apparently indestructible.
I made up my mind that when the war was over I was going to the Neutral
Land and enter up some land, which I afterwards did. It seems that many
other soldiers with like experience came to a like conclusion.
Late in 1865 settlement began again, hostilities having ended during the
summer.
The year 1866 was a devasting-grasshopper year, and there was but little emi-
gration to the Neutral Land.
XI. — NEUTRAL LAND IN 1867.
In 1867 I started from Iowa for Kansas. There being no railroads nearer than
Kansas City, the trip had to be made in wagons. With a party in emigrant
152 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
wagons from Iowa, which party I had joined in Missouri, I entered the Neutral
Land from the east about June 1, 18G7, coming from a point near where Carthage,
Mo., had stood. Southwestern Missouri had no appearances of civihzation except
L.laok.'ii.-d chimneys. Carthage had disappeared, except as to some ruins, but as
we came through there were two or three native lumber buildings going up, a
little sawmill having been brought into the country. But we could not lay in
supplies there, and the party with which I was traveling determined first to go
in and select land and then go and get supplies afterwards. The first "store"
we found in the Neutral Land was on the road leading west to Cow creek. The
store had been established bilt a very short time, and a blacksmith shop made
out of native lumber was being built. It was called Neutral City, and was situ-
ated, as near as I can now judge, in the northeast part of Cherokee county — I
would .say about section 3, township 32, range 25.
Tht>re were quite a lot of covered wagons at the store when we arrived, one
bright, beautiful morning, after a heavy rain. Everybody carried from one to
two revolvers strapped on, and every man wore some part of a government uni-
form—cap, blouse, or pants. We traveled south toward Shawnee creek and
camped near a house. I went up to the house to get some directions in regard
to travel, and found it belonged to Doctor McDowell, with whom I got acquainted
at that time. He subsequently became a very important personage in the affairs
of the Neutral Land. The old Neutral City, which afterward became a village
and post-office, must not be confounded with the station of "Neutral," on the
Gulf road, between Columbus and Baxter Springs. They are two entirely differ-
ent places. From Doctor McDowell's we crossed to the west side of the county
over territory entirely uninhabited. At a place called Millersburg, in the forks
of Cherry creek, there was a little log cabin recently erected, and a garden, and a
shanty with the sign "store" on it. A person who was working in the garden
came up and unlocked a padlock and opened the store. We wanted some
matches. An inventory of the store would have shown about $150 worth of
goods. When we got our matches, the man locked the store up with his padlock
and went off to his work. His name was Whitcraft.
We camped west of where Hallowell is now located. There were a few new
settlers on Cherry creek. Over on the Neosho there were some farms. After
taking up our "claims," of which there was ample opportunity to satisfy any
one, and bacon being fifty cents a pound, corn-meal six cents a pound, and
flour fifteen cents a pound, we determined to go over to Missouri and buy a wagon-
load of provisions. It was a very long trip. Southwestern Missouri was a deso-
lated area, and southeastern Kansas had been eaten up by grasshoppers the year
Itefore. We had to go up on the Osage river, and succeeded in buying and hav-
ing corn-meal ground for a dollar a bushel, and buying bacon for twenty-five
cents a pound; other things in proportion.
There was at that time some discussion in regard to the Neutral Land ques-
tion, and as to whether it would soon "come in" ; that is, be open to homestead
settlement.
I had .scarcely returned with my party of four from the Missouri trip after
provisions, when one of my new acquaintances came to me and toid me that a
j)reacher named Buckmaster, down towards the Neosho, was going to get up a
iws.se to come up and lynch me. He said that I was a " reb." and a guerrilla in
Missouri, and that he had shot at me by moonlight when I was trying to steal
his horses, and that they did not want any horse thieves and rebels in Kansas.
The feeling was exceedingly bitter in regard to Missouri bushwhacking and
guerrillas, and, as the emigrants were almost all soldiers, and everybody wore a
THE NEUTRAL LANDS. _ 153
revolver, it was a dangerous thing to be considered a Missouri bushwhacker. I
concluded that the best thing for me to do was to hunt Mr. Buckmaster up im-
mediately. So, getting onto a horse, I started. When nearing Mr. Buckmaster's
I saw a man putting some clapboards on a log-cabin stable. As he seemed to be
an old settler, probably having been there a year, and, supposing he would know
the old settlers of the neighborhood, I rode up to him and asked him whether there
were any Iowa soldiers around anywhere. He looked at me for a short time, and
then said: "No, I do not know any Iowa soldiers, but I know you." I asked
him whom he thought I was, and he said: "You were an officer on Gen. Bob.
Mitchell's staflf, and I saw you at 'such and such a place.'" I said to him:
" You are right, and I was there"; and he said: "When I see a man I never for-
get him." So I took his name, and went down to see Mr. Buckmaster, told him
who I was, and referred him to this man ; took supper with Mr. Buckmaster — paid
him twenty-five cents for it — and he said I had a narrow escape. This Buck-
master turned out to be one of the most furious, flaming, ranting preachers of
the period. He was a great frontier expounder, exhorter, and hunter. He was
sfjiritually minded like a goat.
The country rapidly filled up; almost every man a soldier. The official his-
tory of the Neutral Land, which gives clews to some of the events which took
place, is as follows:
XII. — OFFICIAL HISTORY — ACT OF 1830.
Returning now to the official history of the Neutral Land, we find that the
act of May 28, 1830 i -4 Stat, at Large, ■411), provided that the president of the
United States might cause so much of the territory west of the Mississippi river not
included in any state or organized territory, and to which Indian title had been
extinguished, as he might judge necessary, to be divided into a suitable number
of districts for the reception of such tribes as might choose to exchange for such
districts the lands then occupied thereon.
Section 3 of this act is as follows:
'^And be it further enacted, That, in the making of any such exchange or
exchanges, it shall and may be lawful for the president solemnly to assure the
tribe or nation with which the exchange is made that the United States will
forever secure and guarantee to them and their heirs or successors the country
so exchanged with them; and if they prefer it, that the United States will cause
a patent or grant to be made and executed to them for the same; provided, al-
ways, that such lands shall revert to the United States if the Indians become
extinct or abandon the same."
The patent provided for in this section was executed by President Van Buren
December 31, 1838. It followed substantially the provisions of the treaty of 1835.
A copy of the patent may be found at page 44 in the congressional report, bound
in a volume in the Kansas State Historical Society entitled "Cherokee Neutral
Laws" (Lands), which book and report I will hereafter quote as "C. N. L."
XIII. — CHEROKEE TREATY OF 1866.
By the treaty of July 19, 1866, the Cherokees ceded "the Neutral Lands" to
the United States in trust, the language of the section of the treaty by which
the land was granted being as follows:
"The Cherokee nation hereby cedes, in trust, to the United States the tract of
land in the state of Kansas which was sold to the Cherokees by the United
States under the provisions of the second article of the treaty of 18.35, and also
that strip of land ceded to the nation by the fourth article of said treaty, which
is included in the state of Kansas: and the Cherokees consent that said lands
may be included in the limits and jurisdiction of the said state.
"The lands herein ceded shall be surveyed as the public lands of the United
—10
154 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
States are surveyed, under the direction of the commissioner of the general land
otVice and shall l.o appraised by two disinterested persons, one to be designated
bv the Cherokee national council and one by the secretary of the interior, and,
in ease of a disagreement, bv a third person, to be mutually selected by the
aforesaid appraisers: the appraisement to be not less than an average of $1.2o
per acre, exclusive of improvements. . , ,. ,
" \nd the secretary of the interior shall, from time to time, as such surveys
and aiM-raisements are approved by him, after due advertisements for sealed
bids sell such lands to the highest bidders for cash, in parcels not exceeding 160
acres and at not less than the appraised value; provided, that whenever there
are improvements of the value of fifty dollars made on the lands, not being
mineral, and owned and personally occupied by any person for agricultural pur-
poses at the date of the signing hereof, such persons so owning and in person
H'siding on such improvements shall, after due proof, made under such regulations
as the secretary of the interior may prescribe, be entitled to buy, at the appraised
value, the smallest quantitv of land, in legal subdivisions which will include his
improvements, not exceeding in the aggregate 160 acres; the expenses of survey
and appraisement to be paid by the secretary out of the proceeds of sale of said
land: provided, that nothing in this article shall prevent the secretary of the
interior from selling the whole of said Neutral Lands in a body to any responsible
party, for cash, for a sum not less than §800,000." (11 Stat, at Large, 115-120.)
By amendment, the last proviso of this section was changed so as to read as
follows:
"Amendment 2. Strike out the last proviso in article 17, and insert, in lieu
thereof, the follovi^ing: Provided, that nothing in this article shall prevent the
secretary of the interior from selling the whole of said lands not occupied by
actual settlers at the date of the ratification of this treaty, not exceeding 160
acres to each person entitled to preemption under the preemption laws of the
United States, in a body, to any responsible party, for cash, for a sum not less
than one dollar per acre." ( 123.)
XIV. — AMERICAN EMIGRANT COMPANY.
On August 30, 1866, James Harlan, then secretary of the interior, sold the
Neutral Lands to the American Emigrant Company. This was a Connecticut
corporation, incorporated in 1863, with an authorized capital of $1,000,000, by An-
drew G. Hammond, Francis Gillette, John Hooker, Franklin Chamberlin, and
Henry K. W. Welch, of Hartford, Conn.; Samuel P. Lyman, of New York; and
Ferdinand C. D. McKay, James C. Savery, and Tallmadge E. Brown, of Des
Moines, Iowa. At the time of the attempted purchase of the Neutral Lands the
directors of the company were Harris, Chamberlin, Williams, Savery, and Hooker.
It was a great and dishonest act. It was done by Secretary Harlan just as he
was aV)out to retire from office, and the newspapers were full of complaint against
it as being a dishonest, corrupt, boodling transaction, and it, among other things,
assisted in retiring Mr. Harlan from the United States senate, and raising a great
outcry against him as a dishonest man. There were some who stated that he
did it at the instigation of Mr. Pomeroy, the United States senator from Kansas.
Such charge was probably true. Pomeroy and Harlan enjoyed, in the newspa-
pers of that time, a similar notoriety. Both of them were intentionally devout.
Both of them worked under ministerial influence to the fullest extent, and both
of them were charged with bribe taking and bribe giving, and both of them went
out of office under the same kind of a cloud.
A copy of the Harlan contract will be found in the book above cited, C. N.
L. , page 47. It was a sale on credit, before the land was surveyed, and provided
for only §25,000 down.
It was openly charged at the time that the Harlan contract was made under
strained circumstances. The story goes that Mr. Harlan was to go out of office
at twelve midnight, September 1, 1866, and that his successor, Mr. Browning,
THE NEUTRAL LANDS. 155
was waiting patiently in the anteroom to take possession. (He had been ap-
pointed July 27.) The political situation was very squally. Mr. Harlan had all
of his clerks up at night, and he was finishing up business at a furiovis rate.
After midnight, it is claimed, Mr. Harlan signed the Neutral Land contract,
dating it two days back, and sent it out for record in the department. Mr.
Browning did not get the surrender of the portfolio until about one a. m., and
the first thing he did was to intervene, hold up the contract, and ask a ruling of
the attorney-general thereon.
XV. — OVERTHROW OF THE HARLAN SALE.
On October i, 1866, Atty.-Gen. Henry Stanbery rendered an opinion (12 Op.
Attys.-Gen., 57) on this sale, to the effect that it was void because made on time
and not for cash, while the treaty with the Cherokees provided that the sale of
the land should be made for cash. Acting on this opinion. Secretary Browning,
Harlan's successor, set aside the sale, although $25,000 of the purchase-price had
been paid.
This was the condition of things when I entered the Neutral Land. Every-
body supposed the land would be government land: it had been deeded to the
United States. The Osages had sold to the United States that portion of Kan-
sas adjoining the Neutral Land (and running thirty miles west), by treaty made
September 21, 1866, proclaimed January 21, 1867. (11 Stat, at Large.)
At the date of the promulgation of the treaty of August 11, 1866, there were
on the Neutral Land 1031 families. At the fall election there were 322 votes,
which shows that most of the settlers had not been on the land long enough to
vote.
XVI. — Johnson's new cabinet.
When O. H. Browning got in as secretary of the interior, the settlers de-
manded of Senator Pomeroy and Congressman Sidney Clarke that they be on
the alert and not let the land be sold again. The promises were made and re-
peated, and the newspapers of the state, as a rule, sided with the settlers. Both
Pomeroy and Clarke were unreliable, and worked together. One was the senior
senator. The other was the only congressman. Either one of them was able to
prevent a sale. Either one would talk business with the lobby. I knew them
both personally. Congressman "Sid." Clarke made a speech in Fort Scott in
the summer of 1867, at which time he sent for people to come up from the Neu-
tral Land to hear him. I came up and heard him. He promised the settlers
their land for $1.25 per acre, and was much applauded by his audience. He put
in the balance of his time defending President "Andy" Johnson, who had then,
started to develop "my policy," that was to bring about his impeachment.
The soldier settlers of the Neutral Land were all opposed to President John-
son's policy ; they feared it would reopen the civil war, and they suspicioned
Clarke.
The president had fixed up a new cabinet in July, 1866, but its members did
not all get to work soon. Kansas was not with the president, and, politically, the'
people of the Neutral Land were opposed to Browning, the new secretary of the in-
terior, and well they might be. Stanbery came in with Browning, on President
Johnson's new deal, as attorney-general, and the administration stood together,
and when the term closed none of them were ever heard of afterward.
XVII, — BROWNING, SECRJITARY OP THE INTERIOR.
In a congressional report (C. N. L., p. 9), we find the following comments on
the new secretary of the interior:
"There are many other as cogent reasons why the [Harlan] sale was void, which
were not submitted to the attorney -general, and hence never passed upon.
l^^Q KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
'• How long Secrotary Browning retained this opinion does not appear of rec-
ord and c-nnnot be deduced from the facts, but on the 9th day of October, 1867,
something over eleven months after he declared the safe by Harlan void, he un-
dertook to Tuake one ( sale] of the same lands to James F. Joy, of Detroit, Mich.
Hut he too violated the provisions of the treaty of 1866. He gave no official or
'due advcrtipemont' of an intention to sell. He did not sell 'all of said lands in
!i body,' as the Cherokee strip was not included. He did not sell under 'sealed
bids, ""as the treaty contemplates. The best explanation of what he did do may
be ascertained from the othcial statement that he himself made to the house
(see Ex. Doc. No. 85, XLth Cong., 2d ses.), as follows:
" 'I sugRested aurt iir^jcd at tlie last session of congress that the United States should be-
come the purchaser at one dollar por acre and issue bonds in payment thereof. Such a propo-
sition was, I believe, subniitt<'d to congress but not accepted.
" '.Vfter till' adjournnieut of congress, I authorized an unofficial statement to be made in
newspapers that the proposals for the purchase of said lands in a body would be received at the
department until the 1st of October.
" 'Karly iu Octol)er, Mr. .James F. Joy, of Detroit, Mich., proposed to take the lands in a
body at one dollar per acre, aiui pay the cash for them.
" ' No other oiler was made. I accepted Mr. Joy's, and concluded a contract with him, from
which ail lands occupied by actual settlers at the date of the ratification of the treaty were
excluded. A copy of the contract is herewith furnished.'
"There were no bids under this 'unofficial statement in newspapers.' . . .
"There was no attetiipt by either Harlan or Browning to sell in parcels to set-
tlers or purchase under sealed bids, as provided by the treaty, or official notice
for competition in bids for the whole in a body."
XVIII. — PRESIDENTIAL PROMISES.
The iniquity of the Joy sale was increased by the fact that it was openly and
generally charged that Browning and Joy were brothers-in-law. The last sale
was more villainous than the first. The population had increased to over 5,000,
and their rights were being taken away.
Pomeroy and Clarke were hand in glove with the "Joy purchase," and were
being flageliated by the newspapers. "Browning and his brother-in-law" was
the text of many Western editorials, and nobody believed but that the whole
transaction would be set aside. It was also claimed that Kansas men who had
called in Washington upon the president had been assured that the settlers
would get the land. And letters were claimed to have been written by the presi-
dent containing the same statement to settlers on the Neutral Land who had
formerly been otHcers of the army, and who knew Andy Johnson during the war,
at Nashville, while he was military governor of Tennessee.
The Leavenworth Times, under charge of Col. D. R. Anthony, was very fear-
less in its criticisms of both Pomeroy and Clarke.
XIX. — BROWNING SALE TO JOY.
The contract between Browning and his brother-in-law, Joy, was dated Octo-
ber 9, 1867. The fact did not get into the public prints as soon as it should, but
in the meantime the land had been officially surveyed. A more inaccurate or
dishonest job of surveying was probably never done before that time in the pub-
lic surveys. The survey took place hastily between the two sales.
I remember coming onto a township corner in 1867. It was a green cotton-
wood stick about one inch in diameter and five feet long, stuck into the ground.
The stick was whittled fiat on one side, and the boundaries marked on with a lead-
Iiencil. My companion said: " We must select our landquiclrly, before the bound-
aries get away."
A copy of the contract of sale to Joy will be found in C. N. L. page 10.
Question as to the validity of the Joy title was raised everywhere, and Pome-
roy and Clarke said that the sale was void, and they tried to explain how it could
liave taken place without their know-ledge.
On June G, 1868, the American Emigrant Company transferred to Joy all of
THE NEUTRAL LANDS. 157
its rights under the Harlan sale. (A copy of this transfer, together with a copy
of the charter of the company, will be found in C. N. L. pp. 47, iS, 4:9.)
Settlers on the Osage lands, on the west, were having trouble with their lands >
and a Fourth of July ( 1868 was arranged at which Pomeroy and Clarke were or-
dered to be present, but they did not come.
XX. — FOURTH or JULY, 1868.
But a Fourth of July episode did occur at Baxter Springs. A town had arisen
near the old government post. It was a "wide open," lawless town. It was the
toughest town then on earth. It was near "Battle Corners," as Noble Prentis
called that territory near which Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and the Indian ter-
ritory cornered. The guerrillas and outlaws of the civil war were then alive and
in their prime. Baxter Springs had become an outlet for Texas cattle.
James F. Joy went down to see the people of Baxter Springs, and made them
the same speech that he had made at Fort Scott and other places on the line.
He told them of the immense capital that was back of him, and how he was
going to build a railroad that would make them all rich. He depicted to the lot-
owners how property would rise, and what a metropolis Baxter Springs would
become.
The owners of town lots had no sympathy with settlers on public lands, and
they espoused the cause of Mr. Joy.
The Baxter Springs Herald of July 1, 1868, gives an account of a visit to
the town of Mr. Joy and Congressman Grinnell, of Iowa, and of a meeting at
which the following resolutions were adopted:
"Whereas, The citizens of Baxter Springs have had the pleasure of meeting
Mr. Joy and Mr. Grinnell — Mr. Joy being the purchaser of the Cherokee Neutral
Lands: therefore, be it
"Besoived, That we are fully satisfied with the plan marked out by him by
which the settlers on said lands are to be dealt with, and we deem said plan to be
just and liberal in the highest degree, and will finally result more beneficially to
the settlers than any other heretofore proposed plan.
"^e it further resolved, That we are in favor of the early completion of the
proposed railroad, and will give him our united support in favoring the great en-
terprise."
So Baxter Springs placed itself in antagonism to the settlers. It wanted to
be the county-seat, but the settlers voted for a piece of high prairie, where Co-
lumbus now stands. I was one who went with a party to pile up stone to mark
the site where the county-seat should be. The antagonism between Baxter
Springs and the settlers was bitter and enduring. It lasted until Baxter Springs
was dead and a reminiscence. It disappeared like an exhalation ; and years after-
wards was refounded by other men, under other circumstances, and under better
auspices.
Armed men rode into Baxter Springs and took what public records there
were and moved them to the new town of Columbus, the county-seat, and more
than once the former town was in danger of invasion and destruction. Those in
Baxter Springs who favored the settlers left Baxter Springs, and either moved to
Columbus or out of the county.
But Baxter Springs was very prosperous for awhile. People with money in-
vested there, and they also invested in Fort Scott, on the strength of Mr. Joy's
speeches. A man then, who afterward became a client of mine, invested 630,000
in Baxter Springs lots. Years afterward, as his agent, I sold the whole business,
with three deserted dwellings and one large store building, for S126. The store
building absolutely rotted down, and was not even used as fire-wood, so great
was the desolation that overwhelmed Baxter Springs.
158 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Messra. Joy and Grinnell, after so visiting Baxter Springs, had to return to
Kansas City, Mo., by horse power, there being no railroad.
I was breaking' prairie thf> next forenoon with some very ill-tempered mules,
whieh took up almo.st my entire attention. I heard a voice, and, looking around,
I found two men in a buggy, with a large, strong span of horses close behind me.
I immediately recognized one of them as Mr. Grinnell. He had been my father's
guest in Iowa. I knew him well. He did not recognize me, and I did not want
to be recognized. I noticed Mr. Joy carefully, and knew who he was by a
picture I had seen in a large print. They were driving across a trackless piece
of prairie through the high grass, and were trying to find a road running to the
northwest.
Two or three hours afterwards a detachment of horsemen came along trying
to find and overtake them. It was the arrangement of an impromptu party to
capture them, but it did not succeed. The party had watched another road too
long.
XXI. — THE SUPPLEMENTAL TREATY.
Although the American Emigrant Company did not transfer its interest to Joy
until June 6, 18G8, a supplemental treaty was made by the United States with
the Cherokees, ratifying the Harlan sale and ratifying the transfer of the emi-
grant company under the Harlan sale to James F. Joy, and this loas done on
April 27, lSi>S, which shows that the government of the United States knew on
April 27. 18G8, that a transfer was to be made June 6, 1868, and, considering it
was made, ratified it.
And then, upon June 6, 1868, the United States senate ratified the treaty con-
taining the said provisions; and on June 10, 1868, the treaty was proclaimed by
the president.
Said so-called "treaty" sets aside the Joy sale, but specifically gives Joy full
rights to all of the land under the Harlan sale. This was necessary so as to
scoop in the land occupied in the meantime by about 3000 people under the pub-
lic-land law. The law gave a homestead on five years' occupation, but service in
the army was counted in, and the soldier who had served three years got title in
two years, but with the right to buy the land at SI. 25 per acre.
The "treaty" ratified by the senate cut off these rights from all settlers
coming in after July 19, 1866. This precious document is found in 16 Statutes
at Large, page 727.
In 1871, being in Washington on some business, I met a public man whom I
well knew, who told me that that act went through the United States senate
when but three persons were present, that it was done at a night session, that
there was no formal report, and that the subject was never examined by a com-
mittee in the United States senate, nor did the United States senate know any-
thing about the matter as a proposition, nor take any action in a legitimate way,
but the matter was run through by Mr. Harlan and Mr. Pomeroy, who man-
aged it.
XXII.— CONGRESSIONAL ACTION.
While those matters were taking place, and while the Kansas representatives
were silent and getting their pay, a Mr. Julian, from Indiana, caused to be passed
a house re.solution, as follows:
''lie it resolved by the Senate and Hou.w of Representatives of the United
tSfafrs of America, in Conaress assembled:
u I'lTv!^'"^-* ^^^ president of the United States be and he is hereby directed to with-
hold tlif iHHumg of patents to the purchasers of lands heretofore sold, or which may
Hereafter h.f .so Id, und^r and by virtue of the treaty between the United States
and the Cherokee Indians concluded on the nineteenth day of July, in the year
THE NEUTRAL LANDS. 159
eighteen hundred and sixty-six, and the treaty between the Unitpd States and the
Great and Little Osage Indians, concluded on the twenty-ninth day of Septem-
ber, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-five, or under any Indian treaty which
may hereafter be concluded, until otherwise provided for by law.
"Passed the house of representatives June 3, 1868.
"Attest: Edward McPherson, Clerks
Three days after the efforts of the Indiana congressman, the Kansas
member succeeded in getting Mr. Joy through the senate as above set forth.
Thereupon a joint resolution was passed by congress (house of representatives)
June 13, 1868, demanding that all persons settling in the Neutral Lands prior to
June 10, 1868, should have their lands for S1.2o per acre. (A copy of the resolu-
tion is found in C. N. L., page 21.) The president paid no attention to these
matters. He persistently ignored all suggestions from the house of representa-
tives. They were in the way. They were against "my policy." He placed him-
self defiantly against them. He was making reasons why he should be impeached.
He was wholly reckless, was impeached, and was saved by one vote, and it was
the vote of a new Kansas senator (Ross). Why should it be strange that the
nemesis of fate should pursue that Kansas senator. He as well as Pomeroy and
Clarke were exiled from" the state by the imperial decree of public opinion.
XXIII. — MR. joy's excuse.
James F. Joy was at that time the president of the Michigan Central railroad.
In an argument before the committee of the house on Indian affairs, he made the
following statement regarding his connection with the transaction:
"I will give a short history of my connection with these Cherokee Neixtral
Lands. I am engaged, as some of you know, as the agent of gentlemen in the
eastern section of the union, who are engaged in building railroads in the West.
I commenced with them in Michigan, and in the progress of events these opera-
tions extended till they reached Illinois and Missouri and Kansas City. At that
point it was my design to stop and never proceed any further. Having suc-
ceeded in bridging the Missouri and completing roads so that we could reach the
road in Kansas, it was my design to stop. But when we reached that point there
were other interests found beyond, and I was importuned, on behalf of gentle-
men in Kansas, to take up the border-tier road in Kansas, which runs through
the Neutral Lands, and thence down through the Indian country, so as to make
a great route for an outlet for the productions of the country to the Gulf. Kansas
is some 800 miles nearer the tide-waters by this route to the Gulf than in any
other direction, and the interest of that section requires this outlet. My friends
importuned me to take up that road and build it. It was the natural direction
for a road: and, although it was not my purpose to take it up, yet in the progress
of the discussion and in portraying the advantages from building it, they brought
to my mind this tract of land called the Neutral Lands. It is fifty miles long and
twenty-five miles wide. It was represented to me, and by some gentlemen now on
this committee, that there were few settlers there; that it was almost entirely
destitute of population, but a good country; and that there might be a sufficient
inducement for capitalists to take hold of it, because the lands might be of such
value that they would make it best to build the road. They thought they would,
however, build the road if they could get the lands, and they thought that if I
would allow them to use my name in the proposition for that land to the depart-
ment at Washington they could purchase it.
" I said to them, after great hesitation, they might do so ; and Colonel Coates,
of Kansas City, the president of that railroad company, visited Washington dur-
ing the last administration, and made a proposition to Mr. Browning to purchase
this land. That was in the month of June, 1867, I think. Mr. Browning said to
him: 'I will not accept the proposition now, but I will publish an informal notice
in the newspapers that they are still in the market, as, on account of some in-
formality in the treaty, the former contract was declared invalid.' He said that
propositions would be received for them until the 1st of October following, and
then he said: 'If you come to Washington and make a proposition that I
think I can accept, I will do it.' Mr. Coates went home, and he made a propo-
sition for the lands in my name, and Mr. Browning accepted that proposition.
ItiO KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
An informal contract was prepared. I did not then intend to have these lands,
nor to take up this road, but the parties were exceedingly anxious to have the
road, and I so far permitted them to use my name.
"In the meantime these lands had been sold to what was called the American
Emi^jrant C'om|)any. When the contract was made with me in behalf of this rail-
road comjiany, that emigrant company rose into life and published all over the
world that they owned these lands, and they should contest the sale.
" I wrote immediately to Mr. Urowning, stating the nature of the contest,
which 1 did not want to be involved in, and requesting him to cancel the contract
with me. I had never dreamed of any controversy with the settlers in these
lands. Mr. Browning wrote back that he thought he had done the best thing
for the Indians, as they would lose the lands if they were not sold, and he held
me to the contract; and the result was a controversy between the emigrant com-
pany and myself.
"My contract was with the department, and they were made powerless by the
emigrant company disregarding their title. Nothing could be done. So it re-
mained till June, 18G8, when the emigrant company, some of them, came to me
and requested that a compromise should be made, and that we should pay them
something. 1 declined squarely. I said there was no money made out of it, and
if there was to be a controversy we were not to be involved in it. This led to a
good deal of discussion and negotiation. The contract made in my name was
for cash, and money was worth eight or ten per cent. Their scrip was taken at
five per cent, annually. They sent to me a proposition and said: ' You can afford
to pay something as the difference between your contract and ours. If you take
our contract and have it sanctioned by the Cherokees there is the difference
between seven and five per cent. Figure that out and we will go to the Chero-
kees and have a new treaty; and if the government sanctions it, we will have
the lands transferred to you.' In the position in which we were it was for my
interest to have it accepted, and, after considering the question and consultation
with my friends in Boston and New York, I concluded to accept the proposition.
They came here and consulted with the Cherokee delegation. They were glad to
have the difficulty settled, so that they could receive the interest for their money,
and the result was a new treaty, embodied in this document."
XXIV, — W. R. LAUGHLIP}.
One day in 1868 a report was circulated that there would be a meeting in a
log .schoolhouse which had recently been put up near the mouth of Cherry creek.
I rode on horseback eight miles to attend the meeting, and met several of my old-
soldier friends there. Mr. W. R. Laughlin was sitting in a chair, and on an ex-
temporized coarse table, made out of a packing box, there burned two tallow
candles. The room contained the heads of nearly all the families for several
miles around. Mr. Laughlin got up and said that he lived over near Neutral
City, and that a couple of weeks before he and his neighbors were penning some
Texas steers that had been driven in, and that it had been very tiresome work,
and that they had sat around on the top of the rail pen and had got to discussing
this Joy matter, and had come to the conclusion that something ought to be done,
and that they had delegated him to come around and talk in the various settle-
ments in the Neutral Land and tell them how it was understood to be.
Then he made a little talk in regard to what the homestead laws were and the
acts of congress which gave to every soldier a homestead or a right to purchase
for 8L25 per acre, and he said that the people of the Neutral Lands were all sol-
diers, and each one was entitled to a homestead, and that they must resist the
giving away of the land to speculators, and that they ought to organize and appoint
committees for the various localities, so as to be able to get up meetings and act
together, and he said that this was the first meeting that he had called. Mr.
Laughlin spoke about half an hour. He was very plainly dressed, rough bearded,
coarse, awkward as a dromedary — hesitating, confused. He could not get him-
self together. He was talking, and spitting all over the floor, kept his hands in
his pockets, and when he pulled them out he pulled out a jack-knife and played
THE NEUTRAL LANDS. 161
with it in his hands while he talked. -The light in the room was very dim. He
snuffed the candle with his fingers and rubbed it on his pants, which were stuffed
into his boots, on which were a big pair of Texas spurs, his boots being very
coarse and about up to his knees.
In the discussion which grew up around I took no part. I had seen so many
good speakers that it was painful for me to listen to Mr. Laughlin, who was so
rude and ignorant and boorish. I came away with a man who had become a
great friend of mine. He was a captain in Birge's sharpshooters, one of the cel-
ebrated regiments of the civil war — a very capable and intelligent man. As we
rode away we both agreed that no movement would come to anything that would
have such an ignoramus to head it as Laughlin, and we discussed the propriety
of getting up an organization and getting some lawyer from Fort Scott or Kan-
sas City. Strange as it may appear, Mr. Laughlin organized the Neutral Land
well and put matters into good working order.
I would not have stated this episode were it not for the fact that he after-
wards went to Washington and made speeches, and for the further fact that he
came back and made speeches through southeastern Kansas, and one particu-
larly that I went to hear, which was as fine an effort as any man need aspire to.
I listened to him with absolute surprise. In three years he had become a pol-
ished orator, and he swayed a large crowd with an eloquence and adroitness that
perfectly captivated me. I never made such a speech in my life as he made, and
never could; and if I had to wish, I would only wish to be able to make as great
a speech and as effective a speech as he made.
After the cause of the Neutral Land was lost in the courts, I had the honor
of supporting Mr. Laughlin as a nominee for congress. Shortly after his nomi-
nation he was taken with a violent sickness in the form of typhoid, and during
his whole candidacy he remained hanging to life by a thread. He never was
able to leave his house during the whole campaign, and was beaten. Shortly
after, having occasion to visit his part of the country, I inquired near his house
whether he was still living there, for I wished to visit him. The person of whom
I inquired said that Mr. Laughlin had left the country. I asked him where he
went to. The man, pointing to a distant hill, said: "All any of us know is that
he went up over that hill, going west. He did not have any money, and he got
everything ho had into a covered wagon, and one of the whippletrees needed a
ferrule, and he said that he was going to go until he left Kansas, and that he was
not going to spend a cent fixing anything until he got outside of the state." That
is the last I ever heard or saw of Mr. Laughlin,
XXV. ^ AMOS SANFORD.
But during the term in which Laughlin became a leader there grew up an op-
position leader by the name of Amos Sanford. His gift of oratory was not acquired
nor built up by hand work. He had a natural gift. He could arise upon all occa-
sions and talk upon all subjects. He could not say anything, as far as ideas went,
or give anything new, but he had a wonderful flow of talk. Speech-making came
as easy to him as breathing. He always desired to be talking. He never was
satisfied unless he was talking. He called himself "the Patrick Henry of Kan-
sas"; billed himself as such in speeches. Afterwards he went to the legislature.
He was the bitter opponent of Mr. Laughlin, and tried in every way to break him
down and dispose of him. There were very many who believed that Mr. Sanford
was sincere, and Mr. Sanford succeeded in making a great many people believe
that Mr. Laughlin was insincere. Cruel and mendacious stories were circulated
about Mr. Laughlin having been "fixed" by the railroad company, and having
been "fixed" by Mr. Joy. I took the side of Mr. Laughlin, because I saw that
162 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
he was iniproviiif,' and believed him to be an honest man and considered Mr. San-.
fi>ra unsound. In fact, my idea of Mr. Sanford was that he was a blatherskite,
and, at a private meetinpr between us which lasted a couple of hours, he endeav-
ored to persuade me to join his forces.
I had been present at the founding of the county-seat at Columbus; had
written the first will written in the county; had sat on the first jury, and was
acquainted with a great many people in the county. His idea of binding me to
him was that I should hold some county office, but this I did not care to do,
and told him that if the fight came to a finish between him and Laughlin I
should do my best to overthrow him, and support Laughlin. About four weeks
after that, while absent from my shanty on the prairie, for it was only a shanty,
where I was "keejjing bach," I came back and found a piece of jjaper stuck up
on my door ordering me to leave the county within forty-eight hours, and signed
"Vigilance Committee." I thought it was some neighbor who was perpetrating
a joke, but a couple of days after that a person who lived a couple of miles from
me said: "What were all those people doing over to your house?" and then
told me that he had seen a body of about sixty horsemen ride up to my house,
and ride around it. I immediately struck out to find what was the matter, and,
after riding about four miles in the direction which they were said to have gone,
I came onto the fact that this body had been around notifying several Laughlin
men to leave the county ; and it seems as if that sort of a i^lan had been devised
as a sort of a scare, for nothing came of it.
In 1870, while matters were very much perplexed, I was sent as a delegate to
a county convention from the township in which I lived. Mr. Sanford ran the
county convention. When the committee on credentials reported the names of
the delegates, my name was omitted. I arose to demand why my name was not on
the list, and was told that a Mr. So and So had been recognized as the delegate.
Thereupon I told them that I knew Mr. So and So, and that he was not a resi-
dent of my township. Thereupon another man arose, and said that he knew that
was so, too, but that this man had come in from the other township with, a load
of wood to sell, had been asked to take my place, and that I was being taken off
the list, the same as he was. The Sanford scheme went through all right, and I
was excluded from my seat, as were others. Mr. Sanford afterward left the state
and went to preaching, and afterwards, I am told, went into an insane asylum.
XXVI. — THE LEAGUE.
The league soon became an important factor and dominated the entire Neutral
Land. Mr. Laughlin was sent to Washington with money raised from public
subscription. Baxter Springs continued to fight. Men were hired to come into
the Neutral Land to talk and fight for "the Joy side." Newspapers were at-
tempted to be established for that purpose, and much money was spent by " the
Joy side," as it was called, to manufacture public opinion. Factions grew up in
the league, but did not disturb its purpose. It dominated everything in politics
and affairs of its territory, but no organized resistance to the rights of Mr. Joy
and the railroad company was made until an attempt was made to take possession
of and construct a road through the lands.
Late in the year 18(58 John T. Cox, who had been one of the appraisers named
to appraise the value of the improvements of the Cherokee Indians under the
treaty of 186(5, was put in charge of the land-office of the railroad company.
On December 18, 18G8, notice was given to all persons who had settled and
continued to live on the lands between August 11, 1866, and June 10, 1868, that
they might make entry of the lauds before a certain time, and thus prevent the
THE NEUTRAL LANDS. 163
sale of the lands to other purchasers. All other lands except those settled upon
prior to August 11, 1866, were to be open to preemption.
The survey of the road was made early in 1869, and with the beginning of the
survey the actual trouble began. The organization known at first as "The Land
League" and afterwards as "The Neutral Land Home-protecting Corps," was
at first a peaceable and good-tempered organization, whose object was to keep a
delegate in Washington to look after the interests of the settlers in congress, and
to raise money to fight the railroad company in the courts. Many acts of violence
were, however, done in the name of, or were at least ascribed to, the league. I
never belonged to either organization, although I always subscribed money when
needed. There was much opposition to the building of the road. On April 30,
1869, an engineers' party was attacked, their instruments destroyed and their
wagons burned, and the engineers themselves whipped and warned to leave the
country.
Late in June, 1869, about 400 ties belonging to the railroad company were
burned, and early in x\ugust of the same year about IGOO more were burned.
Township assessors were warned not to assess the land of the railroad com-
pany for taxation, and in some cases the returns of such lands by the county
clerks were taken away from them.
In April, 1869, J. W. Davis established a land-office for the railroad company
at Columbus, but was notified to leave town, and did so.
In February, 1869, the land-offlce at Baxter Springs was raided.
In April, 1869, State Senator Voss, of Fort Scott, was driven from a public
meeting in Columbus.
XXVII. — FOURTH OF JULY, 1869.
On July 4, 1869, a grand rally was called at Jacksonville, which was a town
where four counties cornered. The settlers on the Osage lands were having
trouble with "land-grabbers." A grand convention and national holiday cele-
bration was organized. Pomeroy and Clarke were requested to come and make
speeches. The Leavenworth Times had said: " What was Pomeroy doing when
one of his warmest political and personal friends was selling to a company of for-
eign speculators 800,000 acres of the choicest lands in Kansas?" Sid. Clarke
had been reelected in November, 1868, but it was for the last time. A public
print of the day published his picture, labeled : "The essence of pure bribery and
corruption."
Sid. Clarke came to the Jacksonville Fourth of July celebration. Three or
four thousand people were there in wagons, camping. Clarke came in a covered
farm wagon. I saw him get out. It is said he made a speech; I did not hear
him. I was told he made a short one full of promises, and left instanter. I re-
member speakers occupying the platform and denouncing him violently. One of
the best speeches made was by a young lawyer from Crawford county, C. Dana
Say res. In the evening a strange bonfire took place on an open square — an ef-
figy of Pomeroy covered over with bean vines was publicly burned. Pomeroy
went by the name of "Old Beans," owing to some of his early transactions while
acting as agent for supplies during the Kansas famine. He was ostentatiously
devout, and did not like the name of " Old Beans."
After the 4th of July, 1869, the "Joy purchase" was the prevailing question.
XXVIII. — THE UNITED STATES SOLDIERS.
The acts of violence and the growing disorder were the cause of a request by
Governor Harvey that United States troops be sent to the lands to preserve or-
der. His reasons for asking for federal troops instead of calling out the militia
164 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
were staU-d by him to an investigating committee appointed by the senate of
Kansas in 1870, as follows:
•• It loallinir out state militia] would have involved the state in a great ex-
pense, and ini-ht have led to very unpleasant complications, for the_reason that
the contrc.v.Tsv involved the question of title to a large tract of lands both the
mrties claiming to have title from different departments of the United States
government: the .juestion being susceptible of settlement only by the^ United
States authorities, I deemed it proper to ask that the military representative of
the government be sent there for the preservation of the peace and the protec-
tion of the persons and property until the question at issue could be settled by
the proper authority."
At the time when Governor Harvey requested that the trooyjs be sent, he
requested, to quote him again, "that instructions be given to take no part in
the controversy as to title, but to assist the civil authorities to maintain the
peace and protect persons and property." These instructions seem to have been
given, and about the 1st of July, 1869, a compaty of infantry was sent to the
lands, which was followed by other troops, until there were four companies of
infantry and one of cavalry stationed on the lands, all in command of Maj. James
P. Roy, of the regular army.
While it was claimed that the action of the governor in asking for the troops
was irregular, it must be admitted that their presence went far to preserve order
and prevent bloodshed on the lands. The railroad was built through the Neutral
Land under military protection. The troops were there about four years. It
cost the United States a million dollars to carry out the sale to Mr. Joy.
The government could have bought the land, given it to the settlers, and
still saved money. As it was, the settlers were robbed and the government was
robbed.
XXIX. — CONGRESSIONAL ACTION, 1869.
In 1869 a bill to "dispose of the Cherokee Neutral Lands in Kansas to actual
settlers only" was introduced in the national house of representatives, and re-
ferred to the committee on Indian affairs. After hearing argument by Mr. Joy
and Gen. James Craig, on behalf of the railroad company, and by W. R. Laugh-
lin for the settlers, the majority of the committee reported to the committee on
public lands their conclusions against the bill, and in favor of the railroad's title,
as follows:
"1. That the title to that portion of the 'Neutral Lands' conveyed by the
United States by the several patents hereinbefore referred to, under the contract
of James F. -Joy, is valid and indefeasible.
"2. That the 'settlers' who entered upon the Neutral Lands after the ratifi-
cation of the treaty of 1866 are trespassers who have no title which they can
maintain against the patents issued pursuant to the contract with said James F.
Joy."
But the minority made a report in favor of the settlers. It is too long to copy
here, but it will be found in full in C. N. L., page 39.
This report brought up a "conflict," as it was called, "between the law-mak-
ing power and the treaty-making power," and declared, "there was not only no
authority, but there was no excuse for the sale. Its only purpose seems to have
been to capitalize this land in the hands of speculators. It was done without
authority and without necessity, and is void."
In the house, the minority report prevailed, in spite of the secret work of
Sid. Clarke to defeat it.
The house, on April .5, 1869, passed a joint resolution annulling the various
sales and transfers, and directing the land to be sold to actual settlers for $1.25
per acre.
THE NEUTRAL LANDS. 165
Mr. Pomeroy attended to the suppression of the joint resolution in the senate.
A copy of the said minority report and joint resolution can be found in C. N. L.,
pages 2-2, 39.
The president took no notice of the acts of the house. He claimed they were
attacking "the treaty-making power," and he entrenched himself behind "pre-
rogative."
The settlers sent one delegation after another to Washington, but could ac-
complish nothing. Everything seemed barred against them.
XXX. — MR. joy's letter.
June 12, 1869, Governor Harvey wrote James F. Joy, stating that the settlers
on the Neutral Lands "were willing and anxious to go into the United States
courts for the settlement of the controversy concerning the title to the lands
there," and expressing an opinion that the institution of legal proceedings would
allay excitement. Mr. Joy replied in a letter which shows what a cold-blooded
proposition the whole matter was to him. After stating that the land would be
worth eight to fifteen or twenty dollars per acre, he says:
"Why should we, ivho shall have opened the country, given it the advan-
tages of railroad accommodations, and given it this value, . . . sell it to the
men who have been our enemies and given us all this trouble for a quarter of the
price which others will be glad to pay us."
In other words, Mr. Joy got 88,000,000 worth of land, to be paid for with
$800,000 &nd the building of the railroad, which cost through the Neutral Land
$500,000, and when the railroad was built he owned the railroad.
Mr. Joy's letter is worth reading. It is found on page 132, report of Kansas
house committee. Public Documents, 1870. It is the argument of a pirate.
Exactly thirty years (to a day) after I had seen Mr. Joy when I was breaking
prairie, I saw him at the club-house on St. Clair Flats, near Detroit. I was
there as a guest. He was sitting off by himself, gazing steadfastly into the
water. I did not disturb him; he looked like a sick vulture.
XXXI. — LOCAL POLITICS.
The dissent of the settlers was not evidenced by physical resistance alone.
The dispute between the settlers and the railroad company became one of local
political importance.
At the Cherokee county convention held September 25, 1869, the following
platform was adopted:
" Whereas, The settlers of Cherokee county, Kansas, acting upon the sugges-
tion contained in the settlers' resolutions of July 29, 1869, adopted at the Jack-
sonville mass meeting, have formed a 'settlers' union' in each township in this
county for the purpose of uniting together, without regard to existing party re-
lations, in opposition to land monopolies, corruption in office, and wrong and op-
pression of every form : and
"Whereas, This convention was called for the purpose of nominating candi-
dates for county officers: therefore, be it
'■'■ Resolved, That we, the delegates to this settlers' union convention, repre-
senting the views and sentiments of the people of the several townships, are in
favor of the principles contained in the immortal declaration of independence : of
equal and exact justice to all, special privileges to none; of the developments of
the country and its resources ; of the same protection to productive industry that
is given to non-producing capital; of the building of railroads in any legitimate
way; and in favor of giving (not selling) the public lands of the United States to
actual settlers only, in limited quantities.
^'Resolved, That we are opposed to monopolies, imperialism, aristocracy, and
any combination of power that tends to subvert the 'will of the people,' which is
or should be ' the law of the land.'
''Resolved, That we will not submit to* the demands of the Missouri River,
160 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Fort Scott A- (nilf Railroad Company for a mortgage upon our labor for years to
come: and that our refusal to purchase our homes from said company is based
uiwntht' lit'iiff that the sale of the Neutral Lands to James F. Joy is void; that
anv patents issued to him are void: that the said railroad company have derived
no'title to the Cherokee Neutral Lands by the conveyance from the said Joy; and
that purchasers from said comj)any can acquire no valid title,
" /irs(>lrr<l, That we are willing to submit the questions involved in the Neu-
tral Land controversy to the courts, and that the assertion that we are a band of
lawless men who would not submit to the decision of the courts is an insult to
the intelligence of our people.
" R( solved, That in our opinion it is the duty of congress to pass an act an-
nulling the pretended sale of said lands to Joy, and opening the same to settle-
ment and entry under the homestead and preemption laws of the United States.
'' Bcsolrrd, That it would have been better policy for the United States to
have purchased the above-mentioned lands from the Indians at one dollar per
acre and given them to actual settlers than to put the country to the expense of
furnishing troops to aid railroad companies for the purpose of oppressing the
people and intimidating them into submission to the demands of a landed mo-
nopoly.
'^ Jlesolved, That the sending of troops upon the Neutral Lands is an out-
rage upon our citizens and an insult to the American people, and that the cer-
tificate of one Wm. G. Seright, a resident of Linn county, claiming to be sheriff
of this county, of the 17th of May last, upon which the governor's application
for troops was based, is false, scandalous, and malicious.
'' Besolvcff, That we tender our thanks to the working men of the United
States for their expression of sympathy, by resolutions passed at the late session
of the National Labor Congress.
" Resolved, That we require of every county officer in our county in the future
a strict observance of the duties imposed upon him by law, and the exercise of
strict economy, so that taxation may be as light as possible upon our citizens.
"■ Iicsolred, That all officers of our government are but the servants of the
people. The rightful sovereigns should hold them responsible for violations of
their trust, and that none but honest, capable and temperate men should be
elected to fill any position of honor or profit in the future."
Similar resolutions and platforms were adopted at other conventions. Petf-
tions were filed in all quarters. In 1870 a petition signed by about 1000 settlers
was presented to the secretary of the interior asking him to review the action of
his predecessor, Mr. Browning. Petitions were filed in the state legislature and
in congress.
Everything was done that could be done, but the Kansas delegation in con-
gress was not with us. The combination of brains and money was too great to
be overcome. The president could have saved us; any member of the Kansas
delegation could have saved us ; none of them tried.
XXXII, — LEGISLATIVE ACTION.
February 4, 1870, the house of representatives of Kansas adopted a resolution
appointing a committee consisting of John T. Burris, E. H. Le Due, John K.
Wright, Amos Sanford and J, H. Snead "to investigate the matter of sending
United States troops there and to ascertain whether or not there ever existed any
necessity for the aid of the military arm of the government on said lands, and if
so, whether or not that necessity still exists."
The majority report of the committee sustained the action of the governor in
having the troops sent to the lands, and recomniended that they be retained
there. Sanford and Snead made minority reports. Mr. Sanford had been elected
to the state legislature from Cherokee county, but he was an unfortunate selec-
tion. His personal vanity and his unfortunate make-up deprived him of the
power to make friends and carry things through. His calling himself "the
Patrick Henry of Kansas" ruined his efforts.
THE NEUTRAL LANDS. 167
XXXIII. — MANIFESTO AND PETITION.
In 1870 there were estimated to be 3500 families claiming title to the lands on
which they had settled under the preemption laws of the United States. Three-
fourths of the men were estimated to be ex-union soldiers. In a "manifesto," is-
sued by them about the year 1870, they made the following representations, among
others, as to why they settled upon the lands :
"During the rebellion, the Neutral Land was held alternately by both parties,
the settlers not being able to remain safely at their homes.
"Thousands of union soldiers campaigned back and forth over these lands,
and when the war was over thousands of them brought their families here to
make homes.
"In March, 1866, President Johnson wrote to us: 'Go on and settle it up, and
make a country of it, and you shall be protected in the homestead and preemp-
tion right.' Senators Lane, Pomeroy, and Ross, by many letters, some of which
are yet preserved, stimulated our occupation of the country, and assured the set-
tlers of their safety under the land policy and laws of the nation."
In a petition to congress, signed by 1700 settlers, they made the following
representations:
" We, the undersigned, residents of the 'Cherokee Neutral Lands,' in the
state of Kansas, would respectfully represent that the settlement of these lands
has been made under assurances from President Buchanan before the war,
and President Johnson since the war, that the Indian title would be extin-
guished by the United States, and that we would get titles to our homes from
the government, under the laws of congress; that our own senators have always
written to us in such a manner as to encourage the settlement of this country,
and to assure us of titles from the government at government rates ; that the
Cherokees had ever since the war earnestly encouraged settlers to locate here,
and that the general government has exercised complete jurisdiction here ever
since the war, and the state of Kansas since the treaty with the Cherokees of
August 11, 1866. And further, that there are now about 8500 families who have
located here, expecting to make permanent homes for themselves; that most of
us have expended all of our means in necessary expenses for living and in im-
proving our claims; that two-thirds of us have been soldiers in the union army;
that our settlement of the Neutral Land has been made under unusual difficul-
ties, which we have borne, trusting the government to protect us in the rights
accorded to settlers of the new parts of our country by the preemption and home-
stead laws.
"And further, that the title to this tract has never in any instance passed
from the United States by any act of congress.
"We, therefore, respectfully petition the congress of the United States to
declare by law that all assumed sales or conveyances of this tract, purporting to
have been made by virtue of any treaty or treaties, are null and void, and to de-
clare the ' Cherokee Neutral Land' public land of the United States, to be opened
to settlement under preemption and homestead laws."
XXXI v.- — SUITS IN THE FEDERAL COURTS.
In the winter of 1869-'70 two suits — Joy v. Holden and Joy v. Warner — ^were
commenced in the United States circuit court for the district of Kansas with the
understanding that the title of the Neutral Lands should be settled by the deci-
sion in these cases. On May 27, 1870, they were decided in favor of the railroad
company and appealed to the United States supreme court. Here they were
elaborately argued by W'illiam Lawrence and by Gen. Benjamin F. Butler for the
settlers, and B. R. Curtis and W. P. Hale for the railroad company. In an
unanimous opinion delivered by Mr. Justice Clifford, in November, 1872, the de-
cision of the circuit court was affirmed.
The suit against Holden was the main suit. The suit against Warner was a
suit against a "Joy man," Mr. Warner having been employed by the railroad to
live in Girard and edit a paper there. His paper was the Press. He is the one
referred to in section viii hereof.
1G8 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The law firm of McComas & McKeighan, of Fort Scott, did the most of the
work. The brief of Mr. Lawrence said all that there was to say on the subject.
It was a volume of 1.V2 pages, octavo, and a copy may be found in congressional
librarv, chapter 18, No. 2.
The case was decided in favor of "the treaty-making power." The grand
scheme had been planned and consummated in a strictly legal form. There has
never been a time since then, in the history of the United States, when it could
be done again. The decision is found in 17 Wallace, 211. Public honesty has
greatly improved in the United States since the '60s.
XXXV. — CONSTRUCTION OF THE RAILROAD.
During all the time after the soldiers came, the construction of the railroad
and the sale of the lands, although delayed by the opposition of the settlers, was
being pushed forward. The railroad was opened to Fort Scott on December 6,
1SG9, and to Baxter Springs on May 2, 1870. The report of the directors of the
the railroad company, made in June, 1871, states that at that time 283,000 acres
of the Neutral Lands had been sold for a sum aggregating more than $1,700,000.
It so happened that, about the time of the Joy purchase, a right arose, by act
of congress and treaty, to the first railroad that should reach the Indian terri-
tory. Such railroad should be given a right of way through the Indian territory
to Texas. Two railroad companies competed for this right — the Kansas City,
Fort Scott A- Gulf, and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railroad. The former road
had the start and the advantage. The settlers upon the Neutral Lands annoyed
and bothered "the Joy railroad," as it was called, so that it could not make
progress, which enabled the Missouri, Kansas & Texas to build rapidly and to
get within striking distance within the time required. Then a mistake on the
part of the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf railroad gave the other road an ad-
vantage and it reached the Indian territory first, although by an exceedingly
roundabout way, and the result was that the former road lost its right of way
through the territory and was defeated, and the settlers on the Neutral Land
burned bonfires and felt happy, and the incident was closed.
XXXVI. — THE END CAME.
During the period between 1869 and 1872 the presence of United States troops
seems to have prevented, to a certain extent, a recurrence of the lawlessness
which prevailed during the first half of the year 1869. On July 15, 1871, how-
ever, the office of the Girard Press, at Girard, Kan., was burned by the anti-Joy
men. This seems to have been the last act of violence of any account.
The Neutral Land legal question became a very prominent one, and became a
matter of general discussion over the United States, and here began the general
dissent which resulted in limiting the diversion of the public lands of the United
States. The question entered into the political debates of conventions, and a
sentiment grt'W up all over the United States against further "land-grabbing"
and against "subsidies." While slow to get into power, the sentiment finally
became a prominent question in the United States. No part of Kansas since its
organization was in a longer or greater turmoil than the Neutral Land.
But these (juestions have long since vanished. Its beautiful, well-watered
territory supports a dense population. Its coal-banks and its mines make it the
richest and most prosperous part of the state, and so perhaps will it always be.
I do not care to go into the bitterness of the past and recall what took place in
the Neutral Lands during its bitter period. But there was great violence, great
dissension, some bloodshed. There was the presence of the United States troops.
There was the example of fraud successfully carried out. The fraud debauched
MEMORIAL ON FRANKLIN G. ADAMS. 169
public sentiment. Thousands of the best men left the Neutral Land who had
come to make a home. But finally emigration and wealth poured in ; the past was
relegated to the past ; the new comers had no grievances ; they took things as they
found them, and bought of the railroad company. Titles became fixed and set-
tled. New questions came up. All the public men who betrayed the people met
their doom.
Finally the matter became history and the great fraud became outlawed, and
now all is buried beneath an overshadowing prosperity.
In closing, I wish to express my gratitude for the assistance I have received
from a bright young Kansas lawyer, J. L. Hunt, Esq., of Topeka, who is better
informed upon the minutite of the official history of the Neutral Land than any
man in Kansas.
MEMORIAL ON FRANKLIN G. ADAMS.
Report of committee, read at the twenty-fourth annual meeting of the Historical Society,
January 16, 1900.
TT is a remarkable fact that two organizations connected with the state and
-^ supported by the state, although utterly divorced from political influence,
neither of them depending for officers on appointments by the governor and con-
firmations by the senate, are inseparably connected with the life of Franklin G.
Adams. I allude to the State Agricultural Society and the State Historical So-
ciety, the two strongest and most useful institutions that we have. The agri-
cultural society was founded by Judge Adams, and he was its secretary three
years — years of poverty, but years of power. That society kept Alfred Gray in
office as long as he lived. It will keep F. D. Coburn in office as long as he con-
sents to serve. The idea of founding the Historical Society and basing it upon
newspaper influence did not originate with Judge Adams. The first secretary,
Floyd P. Baker, reluctantly held office for a brief period, when Judge Adams
consented to assume the position. Mr. Baker and the founders of the Society
gladly and unanimously elected him. Samuel A. Kingman was the first president.
From that day until the present meeting. Judge Adams has always been unani-
mously elected by a board containing men and women and every shade of political
belief. It was Adams who built the Historical Society, who collected these
hundred thousand volumes, who made the institution the pride of this state and
of all other states; an institution more complete than most of the old states have
to-day; an institution that the new states have copied and are copying; an insti-
tution imperishable. It is not possible to conceive of a time when the people of
Kansas, composed of the best races of Europe, will cease to do brave and honor-
able deeds, or fail to be proud to have the record of them preserved. If our day
of decay comes, the race that conquers us will glorify the record of the Kansas
pioneers, even as we to-day write the biographies of Columbus and the histories
of the Spanish islands.
Franklin G. Adams was born in Jefferson county. New York, May 13, 1824.
His father was a native of New Hampshire and served as a soldier in the war of
1812. While a young man our friend removed to Cincinnati, taught school there,
studied law, and was there admitted to the bar in the year 1852. In March,
1855, he settled in the present Riley county, before any county in the territory
had been defined or named. Early in 1856 he removed to Leavenworth, where
his brother, Henry J. Adams, was so prominent an anti-slavery man that he was
next year elected mayor of that city.
—11
170 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
In 18o(), while the freedom of the territory was in great doubt, Adams served
as a free-state soldier with Capt. John Wright, with Col. James A. Harvey, and,
later in the year, with Maj. James B. Abbott and Capt. John Brown, at Law-
rence. In IS.')? Adams removed to Atchison county, and was one of the men of
influence who took that county out of the pro-slavery ranks. In 18.58 he was
elected probate judge of that county, those officers having been given large civil
and criminal jurisdiction by our first free-state legislature for the purpose of al-
lowing free-state men to have courts not controlled by the pro-slavery national
government at Washington.
The details of his life are given below as supplementary to the report of your
committee.
The editors of Kansas are his biographers and eulogists. They have paid
thousands of tributes to him from every county and every village in Kansas,
and they come from men of every variety of political opinion. They pay tribute
to his unfailing courtesy, his amazing industry, his love for the entire people —
men, women, and children, black and white, of all creeds and of no creed. It
was Adams who was the first of men anywhere to collect and preserve every
newspaper and periodical published in a state. The eulogies of these editors,
now in the archives of the Society, show that Franklin G. Adams was fully
known by his contemporaries. During all his work here in preserving the his-
tory of the state and the lives of its worthy people, he never had it in his power
to collect for any other person such a multitudinous mass of encomium and ap-
preciation as has covered his own grave with garlands during the past six weeks.
They call him "the grand old man> beloved by all who came in contact with
him."
In his "Fable for Critics," published in 18i8, Lowell says of Theodore
Parker:
"For he "s seized the idea (by his martyrdom fired)
That all men (not orthodox) matj he inspired."
At that time Adams was a free-soiler and a land reformer. When Cincinnati
became the headquarters of phonography and pjhonotypy, Adams lived there
and " took in " those reforms. One of the very few who studied phonography at
that date, Adams continued to practice it through life, and wrote a neat and
beautiful hand. You will see his curves and hooks in unobtrusive notes and
comments on half the books of the library. His espousal of the cause of com-
plete political rights for women must also date from half a century ago.
Such a young man could not be kept out of Kansas, or kept from having a
mind hospitable to new causes as they came along. As an Indian agent, he
treated the red men as he did white and black. He was long a member and an
officer of the Kansas State Grange, and took a special interest in the education
of the children of farmers. Judge Adams inaugurated kindergarten work in
Topeka. Sociology — a new name for an old study — had attractions for our
open minded and sympathetic friend. Free from bonds himself, he wanted to
see the bodies and minds of all humankind also free.
As an editor, author, and publisher. Judge Adams had the opportunity to
make his thoughts known and to influence public opinion. His interest and
activity in politics and in these questions brought him into contact with nearly
all the pioneers of Kansas, and this intercourse, relationship and friendship
became of immense value to Judge Adams during his long career as secretary
of the State Historical Society; a value and worth now the possession forever of
the whole people.
Chief Justice Kingman, who knew Judge Adams so well, calls him, as our
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP FRANKLIN G. ADAMS. 17 L
secretary, "a great gatherer in." This library could not have been started, this
collection gathered, except by one who knew the whole people and who was
honored and esteemed by the whole people. It is the flower, the development,
the embodiment, of a precious life. And those who have the power to gather in
for others cannot gather for themselves — nothing but character.
The library is now the resort of county, state and national students of history.
The history of the civil war cannot be written withovit the examination of the
manuscripts, papers, and books, the sources gathered in by Franklin G. Adams.
It may be asked in other times and in other places : "Did his contemporaries
appreciate this founder ? " The reply is : As well as such men are ever appre-
ciated; better than they have usually been appreciated. We kept him poor and
worried; but when he died there was not one voice raised save in honor and
.love. Daniel W. Wilder,
Samuel A. Kingman,
Floyd P. Baker,
Co'inniittee.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF FRANKLIN G. ADAMS.
[Supplementary to the report of the memorial committee.]
Franklin George Adams was of New England parentage, being a descend-
ant of Henry Adams, of Devonshire, England, who settled with his eight sons
in what is now Braintree, Mass., in 163i. His grandfather, Samuel Adams, born
in Braintree in 1753, a shoemaker by trade, left his native village at his majority
and settled in the neighboring town of Dedham, where he joined the First
Church. In April, 1775, he answered the Lexington alarm, and later volun-
teered in a Massachusetts regiment. During the war of the revolution he re-
moved with his young wife, Sarah Felt, to Packersfield, N. H., now called Nelson.
Here he again became a soldier, and on his muster out, in April, 1783, had served
his country three years. His son Joseph, born at Nelson, married there Miss
Azuba Henry, July 7, 1811. The next year he served three months in the war of
1812, and in 1815 removed to a farm in Jeiferson county. New York. Here, in
the town of Rodman, Franklin George Adams was born, May 13, 1824, the eighth
of ten children. His mother died in 1832, after a long illness, through which she
valiantly endeavored to sustain her part as mother and wife. Of her, the child's
most vivid remembrance was her insistence on his attending school. On the
second marriage of his father, the family removed to a farm in Penfield, Monroe
county. New York, where Franklin attended the short terms of district school. He
arranged and systematized his farm chores so as to secure time for reading. The
family regularly attended the Congregational church, of which the father was a
member, and Franklin often mentioned his father's habit of occupying the intervals
of rest in the field in relating Old Testament stories. William Lloyd Garrison's
Liberator was read by the family, and excited a lively sympathy for the black,
leading Franklin to uphold the rights of a colored schoolmate. He early became
an advocate of temperance through the knowledge of the misery brought upon a
neighboring family by drink.
In September, 18'43, he followed his brother, Henry J. Adams, to Cincin-
nati, his father having relinquished the hope of interesting him in farm life.
Here he was thrown among cultured people, his social life and surroundings con-
trasting greatly with his previous life on the farm. It was a school which he al-
ways regarded as having been very useful to him. He secured from Dr. Joseph
Ray a school certificate, and taught in the schools of Hamilton county and Cin-
172 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
cinniiti until 18;V2. During this time, by private study and public lectures, he
continued to increase his store of knowledge. Following the bent of his early
training, he became a member of the Cincinnati liberty club, of which his
brother was seoretary. Salmon P. Chase, Dr. Gamaliel Bailey, Dr. W. H. Bris-
bani', Samuel Lewis, Thomas Morris, and others, were active members, and in-
stilled into the mind of the young man the political principles to which he adhered
through life, and which made him eventually a republican. Although not a
church member, he regularly attended the services of Kev. Dr. Lyman Beecher.
In 1847 he mastered Pitman's phonography, and ever after gave it daily use. He
also espoused the cause of phonetics, becoming chairman of the committee on
phonetics of the Ohio State Teachers' Association. While interested in these
studies he prepared a "Key to the Pronunciation of Geographic Names," and a
little volume on "The Lives of the Presidents," which were printed in phonetic
type. He took a partial course in medicine, but finally, in 1852, graduated from
the law department of the Cincinnati college, being admitted to practice at the
Ohio bar the same year. Shortly after he undertook a collection in Nicaragua,
Central America, for Elias Longley, which gave him some experience, but ended
in a severe attack of Panama fever, which so reduced his savings that he was
obliged to resume the old vocation of teaching for the next two years.
During this time the agitation in congress over the Kansas-Nebraska bill
greatly interested the young man , and determined him to settle in Kansas. To this
end he joined an organization known as the Kentucky colony, and reached Kan-
sas in March, 1855. Their settlement was called Ashland, and was situated in
what is now Riley county. But the extreme dryness of the season lessened his
ardor for husbandry, and after hauling some flooring from the Missouri river for
the territorial capital at Pawnee, he returned to Cincinnati, and taught another
term of school. Here, September 29, 1855, he married Miss Harriet Elizabeth
Clark, a native of Cincinnati, born May 18, 1837, the daughter of John Hawtcins
Clark and his wife Margaret Allen, who had emigrated during childhood with
their parents from New Jersey to Hamilton county, Ohio. Miss Clark had been
thoroughly educated in the private and public schools of Cincinnati, finishing
with a term in the Wesleyan Female Institute. Though but a mere girl at
the time of her marriage, she bravely bore the privations and hardships of a
pioneer life with her husband. Energetic, conscientious, cheerful, and indus-
trious, a loving wife and wise mother, she always lent a willing hand to further
the literary enterprises of her husband. She died at Topeka, December 1.3, 1886.
In April, 1856, Mr. Adams returned to Kansas and settled on a farm near
Pilot Knob, Leavenworth county. His father, Joseph Adams, joined him in
Kansas, and remained a member of his family until his death, at Kennekuk, May
2, 1867.
The year 1856 was one of great excitement throughout the territory, and par-
ticularly so in the border county of Leavenworth. Here the pro-slavery element
dominated everything, making it impossible for the free-state settler to remain
peaceably on his farm or engage in any lucrative employment. Immediately
after the Leavenworth city election of September 1, when all free-state sympa-
thizers were driven out of town, Mr. Adams fled by night with other fugitives to
Lawrence. Here the free-state men had gathered from all parts of the territory.
They were organized into three regiments. Mr. Adams attached himself to a
Tjeavenworth company belonging to the regiment of Col. James A. Harvey,
which, after capturing some stores at Easton, and Captain Palmer's Alabama
company, at Slough creek, were in turn taken prisoners by order of Governor
Geary, after the battle of Hickory Point, and lodged in prison at Lecompton.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF FRANKLIN G. ADAMS. 173
Mr. Adams fortunately had returned to Lawrence after the Slough Creek affair
and escaped arrest. There he found that Governor Geary's proclamation had
led most of the free-state men to disband and return thankfully to their homes.
However, before returning to Leavenworth he witnessed the arrival at Lawrence
of the 2700 Missourians, took part in their reception, and rejoiced at their dis-
persal.
During his sojourn at Lawrence he first came in contact with two of the
prominent free-state leaders. Gen. James H. Lane and Capt. John Brown.
In the fall of 1856 the settlers of Leavenworth county laid aside their polit-
ical differences and joined in an effort which enabled them to secure titles to their
farms on the Delaware trust lands. The eighty acres of land then secured by
Mr. Adams and his brother were sold later in the season for seven times the
original cost. The money thus obtained, with other capital, was used in open-
ing the City Bank of Leavenworth, H. J. Adams, president; A. C. Swift, cash-
ier, and F. G. Adams the company, under the firm name of Adams, Swift & Co.
During the financial crisis of 1857 the bank was closed, with serious losses to the
partners.
In the early months of 1857 the Adams brothers invested, with three other
gentlemen, in real estate in the (until then) pro-slavery town of Atchison. The
company purchased the Squatter Sovereign from Robert S. Kelly and Dr. John
Stringfellow, Robert McBratney being associated in the publication with F. G.
Adams, and changed the tone of the paper from a fierce pro-slavery advocate to
a moderate free-state organ, whose highest aim was to encourage the building
up of the town and the opening of schools and churches. Later in the year the
paper was sold to S. C. Pomeroy. Mr. Adams joined with the other free-state
men iu forming a party organization, and afterwards became chairman of the
county central committee.
Although it was tacitly understood that the town was open to free-state set-
tlement, the more rabid pro slavery citizens were unwilling to yield to the new
element the right to maintain a political organization, going so far as to forbid
the holding of free-state meetings in Atchison. In defiance of this mandate,
the county committee called a meeting and invited Gen. James H. Lane to
speak, and secured the attendance of a number of free-state men from Leav-
enworth. This roused the ire of the pro-slavery citizens. They patrolled
the streets in warlike attitude, and prevented the holding of the meeting.
Mr. Caleb A. Woodworth, sr., and Mr. Adams were attacked. The pacific atti-
tude of the free-state men alone prevented a serious disturbance. It was on this
occasion that Mrs. Adams came to the rescue of her husband, as related with
some inaccuracies on page ii of the little volume entitled " Reminiscences of
Pioneer Life in Kansas," by Rev. James Shaw. General Lane did not speak,
but some weeks later addressed a large audience in the country, on the farm of
Archibald Elliott.
At the spring election of 1858 Mr. Adams was elected probate judge of Atchi-
son county. This office at that period was also endowed with the duties of the
district court. At the time of this election he was also chosen a delegate to the
Leavenworth constitutional convention, in which he served, and under the pro-
visions of which his brother Henry was elected governor. Mr, Adams was always
proud of the fact that he took the initial step for the organization of public schools
in Atchison. In August, 1859, Mr. Adams and Chas. M. Leland formed a part-
nership for the practice of law. Later, John J. Ingalls joined them, and the firm
became Adams, Leland & Ingalls. They continued together until the spring of
1861. At this time Mr. Adams was appointed register of the land-office at Lecomp-
ton and retained the position until the spring of 1864. In September, 1861, he
174 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
ri'inovod tho oflioe to Topeka. He was active in the formation of the State Agri-
cultural Soci<'ty ami became its first secretary, in the spring of 1862, serving until
18G4. In May, 18G3, he began editing the Kannas Farmer, the monthly organ of
the society. Uy resolution of the legislature, Mr. Adams prepared the marginal
notes and index to the Compiled Laws of 1862, and arranged the chapters for the
printer. In .\ugust, 1862, he became part owner, with S. D. MacDonald, of To-
peka, in the Kaunas State Record. In February, 1863, he sold his interest to
F. P. Haker. In September, 1863, he was appointed clerk of the United States
district court, under Judge Delahay.
In the spring of 1864 he gave up his various enterprises at Topeka and re-
turned to Atchison. Here he established, in May, the Daily Free Press, and, in
the following spring, associated with him Frank A. Root, his brother-in-law, a
practical printer. The same spring he was appointed United States agent of the
Kickapoos, and removed his family to the agency at Kennekuk, in the northwest
corner of Atchison county. He retained this office until 1869. During this
time he continued his editorial work for the Free Press, until, in August, 1868,
the paper was consolidated with the Atchison Champion. In the fall of 1870 he
removed to Waterville, Marshall county, and edited the Waterville Telegraph
from January, 1871, until August, 1872. The following winter he published
"The Homestead Guide," a volume of 312 pages, giving the history and resources
of northwest Kansas.
In the spring of 1875 Mr. Adams returned to Topeka, becoming a clerk in the
treasurer's office under Samuel Lappin and his successor, Hon. John Francis.
The following February, the directors of the newly formed State Historical
Society chose Mr. Adams for secretary, Mr. F. P. Baker having resigned that
office for want of time to give it needed attention. He at once set about the
work of organization. Believing that there was need of such a society, he pur-
sued with steady effort every avenue which he thought capable of adding to its
growth and usefulness. He edited the first five volumes of its transactions and
the first to eleventh biennial reports, besides some minor publications. The day
of the annual meeting, January 16, 1899, he was attacked with the grippe, and
was unable for the first time to attend the annual sessions of the Society. Re-
covering somewhat, in February he returned to his work, and remained until
after the close of the legislative session. He then made a short visit to Battle
Creek, Mich., but, finding no encouragement, returned home early in April, de-
siring to be with his family, and from that time slowly faded away, dying at his
home, in Topeka, surrounded by his family, December 2, 1899.
From 1875 to 1891 he was chairman of the educational committee of the Kan-
sas State Grange, and published reports advocating industrial training and the
study of the sciences in the public schools.
In 1877 he assisted in the passage through the legislature of the act creating
county normal institutes.
He was an earnest supporter of high license during the early temperance agi-
tation in the state, and later an ardent believer in prohibition. In 1867 he
assisted in many ways in the woman's suffrage campaign, and always held in
liigh esteem the friends then made — Miss Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Henry
H. Blackwell, Mrs. C. I. H. Nichols, and others. He was as heartily in sympathy
with the later movements led by Mrs. Laura M. Johns for municipal sulfrage, in
1887, and the second attempt for full suffrage, in 1894. In 1888 he issued, with
Prof. W. II. Carruth, of Lawrence, a pamphlet of 112 pages, containing the vote
of Kan.sas women at the municipal elections of 1887 and 1888, with press com-
ments.
Mr. Adams took the initiative steps for the formation of the Kansas Society
THE NATIONALIZATION OF FREEDOM. 175
of the Sons of the American Revolution, which was organized in March, 1892,
serving as secretary, and later as registrar.
His religious faith was simple — the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of
man, and the forgiveness of sins. Creeds were distasteful to him. Although
from childhood a churchgoer, he never united with a church until May, 1890,
when he joined the Central Congregational Church of Topeka, during the second
year of Rev. C. M. Sheldon's pastorate. The new experience was a very helpful
one to him, and made his last years the happiest of his life.
In 1892, through his efforts, the Tennesseetown kindergarten for colored
children was organized. He was a charter member of the Topeka Kindergarten
Association, and urged before the legislature the adoption of that method of
primary education into the common-school system of the state.
He liked to teach. His early mode of livelihood crystallized into a principle
of life as he matured. He taught his children at home. He encouraged the
clerks at the office to learn. He used what influence he possessed in trying to
widen and deepen the means of education for the children of his beloved state.
One who knew him well wrote: "He was absolutely free from faults and bad
habits. He never in his life uttered an oath nor said a vulgar word. He never
listened to scandal or criticized the failings of any one. In his long life he never
defrauded a human being. He lived up to the tenets of the golden rule, and
obeyed the ten commandments literally."
THE NATIONALIZATION OF FREEDOM, AND THE
HISTORICAL PLACE -OF KANSAS THEREIN.
An address by Col. Richard J. Hixtox, of Brooklyn, N. Y., before the Kansas State Historical
Society, at twenty-fourth annual meeting, January 16, 1900.
FT was Leon Gambetta, molder and maker of the third French republic, who,
-■- during a memorable speech in its earlier days, said: "Take down the grand
old violin (history), and strike once more its master note — liberty!" With what
a mighty sweep did he draw the bow of his superb eloquence across the vibrant
strings, as he set thrilling over again the story of revolutionary France. The
thrones that toppled were all there. . The heads that fell were once more ghastly.
The smoke of burning chateaux obscured the vision. The Bastile walls were rent
in twain. The marching people shook Europe with their tread. The "right di-
vine" of kings tumbled to the dust, as stable-boys and troopers leaped from
soldiers' saddles to chairs of state. What matters the errors they made ? What
matters even the crimes they committed? These must be counted against those
who had first used them as wild beasts, and so turned them by oppression into
raving furies. But they changed the map of Europe and made civilization a
possibility. Henri Martin, French historian, has shown that more lives were
lost each year in Paris during the twenty years that preceded the fall of the Bas-
tile, from preventable causes, such as hunger, pestilence, and exposure, than
were taken by the maddened people during the whole reign of terror. And it
was the lust, waste and corruption of court and government that thus enraged
the people.
We, too, are playing on the violin of history in these days. Nothing is plainer
than the increasing interest Americans are taking in the past of their own
country. Let its loudest and most vibrant notes always be those of liberty. Let
them always be drawn forth as a reminder of both past service and present duty.
176 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
I ask yovir attention, then, while I seek to evoke some memories from the
Rreat past wherein this state has taken so large a place. I ask it as one who can
claim a modest share in your glory— who gave freely of his services, and still is
glad thereof —
As the dust-drawn valves of memory dim
Swings slowly unto the rhythm of that hymn
Which time is chanting now ! I see the dawn
That, when freedom's low notes were piping slim,
With all the future still in doubtful pawn,
Made rugged men but gird their loins more grim.
Until thro' the night's gray shades so forlorn
We heard the breathing of the growing corn.
I see the fields so fair that toil hath won ;
I hear glad voices that grow with western sun ;
I know the wilderness in blood made quick,
And roads that human feet are thronging thick;
So here I feel the youthful service sweet,
And learn such gifts their rip'ning fruits shall greet.
The true struggle for the nationalization of freedom did not begin in reality
with the gun that woke the echoes at Concord bridge, for the nation had to be
created! It began when, in 1787, the congress of the confederation passed the
Northwest ordinance, and so declared that the territory which the treaty, then
fresh from the hands of Great Britain and our own negotiators, should be for-
ever free. The demand of the colonies, the several bills of rights for the new
states, the grand declaration of independence, with the superb preamble to the
American constitution, stand as supreme evidence with this act to show the
faith and the sentiment of the American people. Civilization has ever been
molded by sentiment and built by faith into institutions. Compromises that
hinder come with the making of laws and through the administration that fol-
lowed. Mr. Seward said truly, in the great debate that opened this territory:
"The equilibrium between freedom and slavery, as a force to control the federal
republic, was destroyed by the Northwest ordinance."
From 180i until the admission of the territory of Kansas into the union and
the subse<iuent firing of the first gun at Sumter, the struggle between the forces
which should control the American continent — those of slavery or those of free-
dom, those of chattel and those of free labor — was fiercely carried on. Two men
whose action as political leaders had great and molding force in the progress of
this struggle were born but five years before the Northwest ordinance passed —
one was John Caldwell Calhoun and the other was Thomas Hart Benton. I have
selected these two names as individuals around which to make a rapid review of
the struggles that culminated in Kansas and triumphed at Appomattox. Ben-
ton was the older by six days, but he died ten years later than Calhoun. Ben-
ton was born an aristocrat — that is, as the term is now accepted. He was a
slaveholder Ijy inheritance as well as by accumulation, while he traversed a long
life of brilliant and audacious political action. Calhoun was of that wondrous
Irish-Scotch blood that has dominated the whole Appalachian range from New
Hampshire to the lower part of South Carolina : that gave us Jackson, and Abra-
ham Lincoln — whose name is thrice blessed. Calhoun was born of parents who
were of the poorer class — farmers rather than planters — owners probably of but
a few slaves. They represented most vividly the prejudices of race, and that of
its cowardice, too, which demands law to protect the "superior" white from the
"inferior" colored.
THE NATIONALIZATION OF FREEDOM, 177
By the force of his logical brain and the idealism of a perverted intellect, Cal-
houn readily became the master mind of the slave power. An upright person-
ality aided him. The Jefferson administration purchased Louisiana; territory
from which we now have garnered twelve states, and which some day will bring
to our flag at least two more; territory of which Kansas once formed a part; ter-
ritory which, as I believe, under the treaty and the proper interpretation thereof,
should never lawfully have had a slave within its borders. France had abolished
all chattel slavery in her colonies and possessions. When in the United States
senate we ratified that treaty, we ratified also the laws of France not in conflict
with our own. About the time that treaty was made the cotton-gin was invented.
A few years after the period set for the extinction of the slave trade came around.
More power was obtained through the conflicts of the Georgia planters with
Creeks and Seminoles over the return of fugitive slaves the latter had sheltered.
Its first effect was the seizure of the Florida peninsula; its second, the unjust
Seminole war. Then came the enforced removal westward of the five civilized
Indian communities, to be followed immediately by Creek raids on the Seminoles
and their marooned allies. The flight of Osceola to Mexico with a number of
those people forms a dramatic historical episode which sheds no credit on our
name or fame. Till quite recently it has seemed likely to be repeated by another
forced Indian migration to our republic. And the effects of all these transac-
tions are strangely seen in the growth of a new commonwealth wherein the In-
dians as landowners are wrestling with the presence in their midst of 300,000
whites who are practically landless.
When Calhoun took his place in public life he was a whig, a protectionist, and a
conservative — a nationalist in the largest sense of that day. But within ten years
thereafter he declared for nullification and state sovereignty ; he assumed the fed-
eral government to be but a mere agent for the states, and asserted, also, as to
slavery, that it was a normal condition of human life that belonged by right to the
superior race, and that chattel slavery was a measure of civilization for all the
so-called inferior ones. "I take the ground," he said in congress, "that there has
never yet existed a wealthy and civilized society in which one portion of the com-
munity did not in point of fact live upon the labor of the other; and I assert that
this forms the most solid and endurable foundation upon which to rear free and
stable political institutions." Quite recently we hear, in the roar of slaughter-
ing guns, the same monstrous declaration.
Among the most instructive things for a political student, either one begin-
ning to learn, or one looking back over the history of this great land, is the
record of this remarkable statesman, political idealist, and economic philosopher.
However mistaken he was in affairs, he stands as one who was perfectly upright
in private life, kind and agreeable to his associates, yet cold, stern, and unaltera-
ble in his contempt for all forces that make a genuine free people. At last, too,
he was willing to face the destruction of the American union in order that he
might increase the export of cotton and the market value of slave labor.
Through nearly the whole of his public life, you will find Calhoun declaring
against the right of petition ; affirming that the states had a constitutional veto
upon the action of the federal government and its legislation; asserting the
rights of the states to regulate the mails and to decide what postal matter should
be distributed. You will find him, as the public lands are being sold, demand-
ing a division of the proceeds thereof among the states, while opposing by every
process the settlement by a free people of these land areas. You will find him
deliberately creating the causes of war, that more slave territory could thereby
be brought into the union. You will find him demanding more and more, as
178 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Miohit,'nn, Iowa and Oregon oanip into tho union, that southwestern territory
be admitted with slavery, as a balance against their free votes. In every sense,
in every form, under all circumstances, he was the servant of a narrow and
provincial agricultural community. He was always the originator and embodi-
ment of the forces that we met and overcame upon the prairies of Kansas.
Benton, on the other hand, while declaring the right to own chattel slaves,
was also found holding, with Jefferson and others of the older patriots, that slav-
ery itself was an evil; that its extension was an error; that its enforced entrance
into the i)ub)ic territories would be a crime. Nearly all the things which Cal-
houn approved, Thomas Hart Benton, during his more than thirty years of serv-
ice in the United States senate and the house of representatives, always opposed.
He was a continental nationalist from the sole of his foot to the crown of his
head. When the Louisiana purchase was weighed in the larger policies of the
land, he declared that the Mississippi, from all its sources to its mouth, should be
under the sovereignty of the United States; that the statesman who should sur-
render one drop of water or one inch of soil would Vje forever destroyed. He de-
manded later, as Abraham Lincoln did, that — "The father of waters should run
unvexed to the sea." When you come to put aside the prejudices of party and
again examine, and judicially, the details of history, you will put Benton on a
lofty pedestal as one of the saviors of the American union, as one of the leaders
of free thought, as one of the bravest defenders of the average ( which is the true)
idea of the American republic.
I bring these two names together, then, also because both of them were men
who deemed it their right to plot. Calhoun plotted for the defense of slavery ;
Benton plotted for the freedom of the continental republic. Oregon and Califor-
nia first, and Kansas next and greatest, were the high rewards he obtained.
Those that followed are green leaves in the laurel wreath of his fame. When
Calhoun wrote the famous "South Carolina exposition," in 1828, affirming the
doctrine of state sovereignty, of federal subordination, and practically of the right
of secession, there grew into existence a conspiracy, which, from that time on
until it culminated at Fort Sumter, marked and controlled the larger part of
our current history. It wrote into the text-books of men educated at West
Point the doctrines that Calhoun had set forth. It put into Southern university
and college its own agents. It filled the faculties thereof with its teachers.
It placed its chiefs in power at Washington. It put into all minor departmental
offices the men who were its servants. From 1830 until the first blow struck in
Kansas began to be heard around this continent, there was barely a man em-
ployed in the Indian service but who was of Southern birth and opinion. I have
traced Vjut one Northern-born man as an agent, and he was among the earliest
victims of the free-state struggle in Kansas. I refer to Mr. Gay, then the agent
of the Shawnee Indians. Go over the long roll of the Indian bureau, and you
will find that even teachers, blacksmiths, farmers, so employed — in fact, all of
the persons \ised in that service — were advocates of or subservient to the extreme
Calhoun i)arty and conspiracy. You will find that the great freighting trade of
our mid-plains was mainly in the hands of their agents also. All army and
Indian contractors were of the same stripe. You will find that army officers
detailed to Western service, not in Kansas alone, but clear across the continent,
were chosen for their fidelity and adaptability to the purposes of the great con-
spiracy; that when Oregon was made a territory it was openly declared that the
property of the slaveholder should go under the protection of the flag into every
acre of the national territory. For years I have been looking up departmental
and administrative history on these and other points of a convincing character.
THE NATIONALIZATION OF FREEDOM. 179
Thomas Hart Benton said in 1843. in the senate, that payment for Indian
lands, unnecessarily made in the interests of slavery, but mainly, for their re-
moval from the Southern states and to place them across the central portion of this
continent as a bar to the movement of free emigration, had amounted, between
1800 and 1843, to no less than S86,000,000. The Louisiana purchase, first and
last, used in those years almost wholly for the advancement of slavery, amounted
in all to $26,000,000. The purchase of Florida from Spain cost $18,000,000. The
payment for other lands — a part of Texas and that which is now the territories
of New Mexico and Arizona — cost more than $18,000,000. At the time, this ex-
penditure was designed only to advance slavery. The eleven states that were
made out of the early Northwest territory did not, in this sense, cost one dollar
to the American treasury. That region was ceded to the former colonies of Great
Britain, and passed, by the action of the original thirteen states, into the pos-
session of the general government. Whatever money they have cost was spent
for their administration only.
All Indian tribes, during the thirty years of Calhoun's rule and conspiracy,
that had lived in the South or the central portion of the West, were removed by
force or equivalent intrigue, until over the western two-fifths of the American
continent, of which you are the eastern avant garde, where but comparatively
few Indians were theretofore found, there was, when Kansas was opened, not less
than four-fifths of all the Indian race. Nearly 200,000 were moved or concen-
trated, first and last, into this mid- western regioh. We have forgotten these things.
It is very convenient to do this in the rush of material success. We are too apt
to forget that encroachments upon liberty and attacks upon free institutions gen-
erally arise from the administration of careless or corrupt men in power, and out
of the industry and profits handled by governments are the means found to make
these attacks a source of serious danger. They are not merely the result of the
mob politics; not the passions only of clashing opinion ; but rather, effects of the
corruption or carelessness of men who were interested in and profiting by institu-
tionalism. Sometimes unconscious cerebration, by what it feeds upon, becomes
conscious treason, as it did with Calhounism.
The admission of Missouri was the first definite point in the great struggle.
There is no need here in Kansas and in this presence to go into details thereof.
But, it is well to recall that the result was a distinct compromise, by which all
territory north of a certain latitude was to be forever free. It is well to recall,
also, that that compromise did not say that the territories south of the latitude
thereof should forever or at any time be slave. It is well to recall that the men
■who made that compromise within sixteen years violated it by the Platte ( Indian )
purchase. It is well to recall that within eight years the admission of Iowa, not
embraced at all in the compromise, was resisted by the slave power. It is well,
rJso, to remember that the admission of Michigan was made by Calhoun the
basis for the boldest declaration of state sovereignty that had been uttered — that
is, that the recognition by congress of Michigan as a state made her such,
■whether she entered the union or not. It was the dispute over a boundary line
■which brought forth that declaration. It was one of those things which, in the
progress of the anti-slavery agitation, almost made some of the free states seces-
sionists also. In Michigan and Wisconsin we once came very near adopting the
doctrine of state sovereignty in defense of the personal rights of fugitive slaves.
The personal-liberty laws of the Northern states were liberty's echoes to the
forging of Southern chains.
We came along, step by step, to the borders of Kansas. Events were happen-
ing in the four years or so preceding the passage of the organic act which had.
180 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
also, a n\om.>ntous effeot upon the results of our struggle. In 1842 a young South
Carolinian , who horf a name that we have charmed with — John Charles Fremont —
entered this continental wilderness on the first of his great exploring expeditions.
Before that, a Presbyterian missionary by the name of Whitman had carried a
thousand memhors of his denomination across the bleak and desolate mountain
wilderness until he had landed them in Oregon and along the foot-hills and the
western slope of the northwestern Rockies. By so doing he barred the road of
both Great Britian and Russia to the possible capture of California, Oregon, and
Washington — possibilities which hung then trembling in the balances of time.
Fremont became Senator Benton's son-in-law, and his widow still lives in the
"City of Angels," in southern California.
I can never forget my first meeting with Fremont. I was on my road to
Kansas, one of a party of seventy-two young men. A former free soil democrat,
he had just been nominated as the first candidate of the republican party for
president of the United States. He was temporarily residing, I believe, in the
same house on Fifth avenue. New York, in which many years afterward he died
alone, unattended, and almost a stranger. I shall not delay what further I have to
.say by describing our call, but I do want to tell you how as a people we so easily
learn to forget. I stood behind the speaker's chair in the republican convention,
at Chicago, that nominated Benjamin Harrison as its candidate for president.
By my side, and accidentally, there stood Frederick Douglass. While we chatted^
John Charles Fremont came up. He was a broken man ; the fire of those beau-
tiful eyes — the genuine eagle eyes — was almost quenched. He was almost un-
noticed, even unknown, in that body. After General Harrison was inaugurated
president, I was in New York again, and a large public procession was in prog-
ress there. A stand had been erected in Madison square. Ex-President Cleve-
land and President Harrison were both present. Looking down from that stand,
at a place in the rear of the crowd, I saw a man worn in face and appearance, as
the marching procession went by and the shouting multitude gave forth their
loud acclaims for embodied power and prosperity. I saw then, I say, the still
erect form of Gen. John Charles Fremont, and could not resist the temptation
to interruj)t the flamboyant proceedings with a cry to " invite the first candidate
of the republican party up to the platform." The men who managed knew that
he was there, but they had not asked him to come on the platform. When the
people heard, however, they brought him to the front. Some months later he
died suddenly, unattended and alone, in a New York dwelling unoccupied dur-
ing the summer time.
John Charles Fremont early became, because he knew from the inside the move-
ments of nullifiers and secessionists, the agent through whom Benton acted to
.save the western portion of this continent. In 1846 Fremont went on his last
exploration— a private one. The end thereof was — California! Evidence has
come out within a few years which shows how, before he started, George Bancroft,
then .secretary of the navy, and Senator Benton had held a conference. When
Fremont left the Missouri river, he did so with the understanding that at a prob-
able time and under certain circumstances he would receive a private dispatch
from Washington, and that he was then to seize upon the Mexican territory of
California. There was another movement on foot among senators and others
that were close to Calhoun. That movement had already prepared, through
chosen military and naval officers — probably unconscious directly of what they
were to do — to also seize upon the Pacific region in aid of a movement to make
one or more new slave states. The balance of votes in the United States senate
was swinging again in favor of freedom. Fremont, however, got ahead of these
THE NATIONALIZATION OP FREEDOM. 181
agencies. Lieutenant Gillespie, of the United States navy, met him in north-
ern California. The instructions that he brought have never been known as to
their letter, but their spirit, and the fact that he brought such instructions, is suf-
ficiently made clear and plain to be now asserted. We all know the subsequent
story. We know how California became free. We know, as a result of the
struggle between the slave power and the anti-slavery forces, that Fremont be-
came senator after he had been, because of his service, dismissed by nullifiers
from the army of the United States.
There are many things to talk about. I recall, as I pass, the story of Na-
thaniel Lyon. Early in his life, there is evidence to show that Lyon, a young
army officer, recognized as able, was devoted (and his devotion was returned) to
a lady belonging to the Custis Lee family. He never married. He was refused
the hand of the woman he loved, barred in his profession, and long kept below
the rank that he should have properly received, because he was known to be dis-
tinctly in favor of the political success of the free states, and against the exten-
sion or expansion of slavery. Expansion is a word to conjure by, but ghosts as
well as soul may come at its bidding. We, in Kansas, should ever, and do, bear
his name in grateful memory. Among a few possessions of mine which will some
,day be in the collections of this Historical Society, I have two memorandum
books of Nathaniel Lyon — one containing an essay on slavery: the other, part
of a military diary and also an account of his campaign in Mexico.
From the clews these documents gave, and from what I have since learned,
I have found reasons to assert that, in the progress of this conspiracy, most army
officers of Northern birth and blood who did not surrender to the slave idea or
to the Southern social fascination were marked and ostracized men. If those
who can remember the days before Sumter will cany their memories back, they
will recall that nearly every regular army officer who afterwards became promi-
nent on the union side had, years before the rebellion, abandoned and resigned
from the United States army. You can count them by the score — names that we
now bow to, honor and reverence as those of fighting saviors of the American
union. They were practically driven out, consciously or unconsciously, by the
conspiracy which had possession for slavery of the American government. The
wealth, the education, the power, as it then stood in this country, was, directly
or indirectly, upon the side of the South. It is at first too often found upon the
wrong side of freedom's ledger. "Eternal vigilance" always must remain "the
price of liberty."
Agitation for and against slavery, as an institution, began with the declara-
tion of the colony of Massachusetts against its existence in their midst. It was
bat a shadow there when that declaration was made. It began before Concord,
and it has followed steadily all down our history until it culminated in emancipa-
tion.
When the Missouri compromise was passed and the state was admitted to the
union, there came into manhood a man whose name, not perhaps in power of in-
tellect, must, in character and in earnestness of purpose, be regarded as the op-
posite of Calhoun. It is that of a man whose single act officially shivered
the walls of slavery, so that the citadel parted from rampart to foundation,
and the marching hosts of the North went through. It was John Brown, born in
Torrington, Conn., but hero of Kansas and Harper's Ferry! I take John Brown
to represent as faithfully the real Northern idea as John Caldwell Calhoun did
that of the slaveocracy and its expansionists. There are many curious bits of
testimony in regard to these matters. Among these worth noting, I find that
in 1853 Webster wrote to a close friend, one Mr. Perry, declaring that "on De-
1S2 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
cember 28, 1828, I became convinced that the plan for a Southern confederacy-
had been rocoived with favor by a great many of the political men of the South."
1 have called your attention to the peculiar manner in which the army and
Indian services were handled— matters then of the gravest regional importance.
These were alway.s in the hands of the slave power. Three months before con-
gress mot to decide upon the Douglas-Richardson-Squatter-Sovereignty-Nebraska
bill, the administration negotiated secretly with the Indian tribes along the border
of Missouri and the valley of the Missouri now lying within the area of Kansas,
The subsequent Indian trust sales, which older men here remember, were one re-
sult. The men who managed these alfairs were the followers of Atchison and
the enemies of Benton, as six years later V7as destined to prove they were enemies
of their state, also, and of the whole land. Missouri demonstrated, by her great
army of union volunteers, that the people therein were, when aroused, faithful to
the principles of Benton.
The story of the Missouri compromise is long. The fight over California was
most severe. That over Oregon had been carried successfully, and without over-
much internal disturbance, because of the trouble with Great Britain. But the
struggle over the admission of California was so vital that it came near bringing
about an armed conflict. Every effort was made to make it a slave state. Fail-,
ing in that, they tried to divide the territory by the mountains that divide the
southern section and the San Joaquin valley. They tried to bring Utah, Nevada
and this portion of California in as a state, hoping thereby to make a counter-
balance to the freedom of the other portion. There came also from California,
with the discovery of gold, a potential force that has changed the world's civili-
zation. We should not be here to day in the force and power we are but for that
discovery. No one of the battles and wars that have arisen since 1849 would have
probably occurred but for that gold discovery. The union itself might not have
been successfully defended. There would doubtless have been other wars, but
they would have been wars like those of the latter part of the last century ; con-
flicts for the overthrow of old governments, not for the building of a new force,
a new form of life. The gold of California has remade civilization, for good or
for ill, and we have only just begun to perceive something of the character and
nature of that change.
What followed, then, the opening of Kansas to the advance of emigration is of
sufficient power and majesty to give the name of this state a place unparalleled
and incomparable in the history of our American union. No other state, not even
the old colonial ones, filled with refugees from the religious and state tyranny in
Europe, can equal it. Kansas stands as the Plymouth Rock state of the conti-
nent— a molder, maker and organizer of freedom. She stands as the jeweled
crown upon the brow of the commonalty; of Abraham Lincoln's "plain people."
The fight made here was made by the mechanics and farmers of the free North
and by the farmers and laborers of the border states. For there was brought
into it, the free-state democrats of Kentucky and from Missouri, just as we
brought the anti-slavery politicians of New England and the representatives of
labor and trade from New York and Pennsylvania. It was truly the fight of the
common people. In the world's greatest civic struggles, the uncommon results
have been all won by the common people. As a rule, too, they produce their
own leaders. John Brown and Abraham Lincoln are in proof thereof, Luther
was of the yeomanry: Erasmus was not.
This country stands alone in the history of the world so far, for its greatest
struggles have been struggles of labor, of enterprise — not those merely of priest-
hood, statecraft, or dynasty. Nearly every mistake made, if any have been made,
THE NATIONALIZATION OF FREEDOM. 183
began in right motives and purposes. Each issue — every movement that we
have so far made — has, in some shape or form, grown out of conflict for the ad-
vancement of free labor and the destruction of hindrances to its progress. Hu-
man history, so far, knows no other land whereof that can be unqualifiedly said,
except this — the splendid, majestic, continental republic, which has 65,000,000
of educated persons within its borders, and within whose days of resplendent
history the world has marched from four millions or less of people in privileged
schools to 100,000,000 or more of scholars in public and common schools, as is
now seen throughout the earth. We have moved from ignorance to knowledge.
We have marched over institutions that destroyed the masses unto institutions
that, at least, make material progress.
In Kansas — this state which made final triumjjh of political freedom an
American certainty — the people have borne and worn an honorable, persistent
and consistent record. I was greatly tempted to-day, meeting old associates and
thinking over old times, to throw aside this topic and indulge in the crowded
reminiscences of my young manhood; but I resisted, and here I am. I deter-
mined not to spend your time or my own upon a review of the direct history of
Kansas, or of the men that were engaged in it. But they were great folks, who
suffered and never faltered; they endured and they won! Think, then, of your
record, Kansans ! There were lOOO Missourians or thereabouts within the borders
of this territory before congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska act. Five days be-
fore it passed the house the first emigrant aid society was established — not in
Massachusetts but in the city of Charleston, S. C. A few days after the presi-
dent signed that measure, Eli Thayer and his associates formed and put into
operation the Massachusetts or New England Emigrant Aid Company. Our great,
massive and national migration across the center of this continent had bars to
meet at the Mississippi river. Missouri as a slave state, with the fear of Indians
beyond, had theretofore practically closed the path. Minnesota, Michigan, and
Wisconsin, in their northern and somewhat inhospitable conditions, climatically
speaking, had been occupied in advance of what might otherwise have been the
case. But the men of the North came at the call of their public men — came at
the call of duty. They soon showed the metal of which they were made. Rob-
inson was here then, a conservative but sagacious leader and business adminis-
trator. Later came General Lane — brilliant politician, fiery orator, and untamed
demagogue, if you will. But remember there are two forces connected with and
two characters involved in the use of that term. The demagogue may be the
leader of a people, and whether he is or not he must take his lesson and his cue
from those whom he wishes to serve or command. And no man led more closely
or served more truly during the most perilous period of our early Kansas life
than James Henry Lane. He deserves honor, not vilification, therefor.
Think, then, of what you have won! I do not propose to burden or weary
you with statistics, but to a man who, during forty years past, has been con-
stantly moving backward and forward across this continent, knowing of the
progress made, who remembers when there were less than 400 miles of railroad
west of the Mississippi river, when there was not 1000 miles of telegraph, when
there was barely a town, when the entire white population was numbered by less
than 200,000, inclusive of California, it is something, indeed, to recall and to
bring to your mind now that there are 90,000 miles of railroads within this two-
fifths of our American continent that the fighting Kansans saved to free institu-
tions; that our telegraph wires number over 150,000 miles, and our telephone
wires are nearly as extensive; that the electric street-railways alone of this
region are treble the mileage of both rail and wire that existed in 1854. It is
184 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
somethinR to romind you of, then, that our trans-Missouri population must now
bi> nearly 9,lXX),0(X). and that it was but 178,818 in 1850, and 763,865 in 1860; that
at the last census it was six million and some odd thousands. It is well to re-
member that there are in this vast region at least 550,000 farms, embracing 123,-
000,0tX) acres in cultivation or pasture. Yet I recall the fact that Jefferson
Davis signed a report i)repared by George B. McClellan, prefacing fourteen huge
volumes of Pacific railroad explorations, which contained the statement that,
in all the country west of Fort Riley and east of the foot-hills of the California
Sierras, there was not 400,000 acres of available arable land. To-day there are
9,00t),000 of acres of land under cultivation by irrigation alone, and the dry farm-
ing in wheat or other food and forage crops must exceed in area over 40,000,000
acres.
Kansas to-day stands among the foremost in fields of farm and pastoral life,
just as she stood first in the fight for freedom. Better than the farm and field,
however, is the fact that the schools of Kansas are also foremost. There are
nineteen collegiate institutions within this state, out of seventy-odd within the
continental area under consideration. Devotion to free institutions has set the
seal of liberty upon Kansas. She has a larger proportion of pupils enrolled and in
attendance upon her public schools than any other state in the union. It has as
large a proportion of teachers also. The whole body amounts to quite a respect-
ble army of over 50,000 persons, and it pays them, on an average, better than any
other community in the United States. These are your jewels! These make
true your renown. All of it came from that great fight out of which this state
was born. They are the evidences of the folly of men who fought against liberty,
and are proofs of the grandeur and sagacity of those who stood by freedom!
What matters, I say again, if they made mistakes? Let us take John Brown.
I am conscious of the things that are said pro and con ; but what of them ? What,
indeed, shall I say of this Puritan idealist, who believed in God, while others only
talked about Him ? What more than what your president, Ironquill, the poet of
Kansas, has so fittingly said —
"John Brown, of Kansas:
He dared begin ;
He lost,
But, losing, won."
What more than, that few people consider Erasmus when liberty of conscience
is named; but all who know aught thereof glow and burn before the mighty
figure of Martin Luther nailing his theses against the church door ! Liberty
won, whether he lost or not. We see his great deed. Do not rake the gutters
for mire to pelt him with. Do we think of a statesman who was behind William
Tell when he threatened to shoot Gessler ? Do we think of a general as com-
manding the Swiss army when Winkleried drew, as though they were but
.sheaves of grain, the pikes of the enemy into his breast, making a gap for his
fellow soldiers to pass through and win the liberty of Switzerland ? Do we recall
the names of the men of Holland who put the beggar's bowl and wallet upon
their flag and upon their sleeve as a symbol of fight against Spanish oppression
and religious intolerance? No! We remember the rude beggars of the sea who
broke down the dykes, deluged their own property, and thus raised the siege of
.\ntwerp, while destroying the savage rule of Spain! Do we recall, as we read,
the names of generals who have ordered forlorn hopes ? No ! It is the volunteers
of death that remain in sacred archives! And so, when men talk of our strug-
gles, when men who write complain and criticize the rudeness of the free-state
settlers, when they sneer at the known or the unnamed hero, when they deride
THE NATIONALIZATION OF FREEDOM. 185
John Brown, let us ask whether they won or whether John Brown won ; whether
it was the man who sneered or the man who fought that has carried the freedom
of Kansas down the "sounding galleries of time." Even the sagacious ex-
governor who failed to get a senatorship, that it might have been as well he
should have won, had no right to bear a jaundiced brain and turn the history of a
great state into a spittoon for his disappointed ambitions. Do n't forget your
work! Don't forget what it means! Don't forget the men who made it!
Do n't forget liberty !
Wave-like your prairies roll. Billowed as the ocean are the great plains, yet
fixed as are the mountains. The scant green has become the golden grain, the
tasseled corn, the blossoming clover and alfalfa. Ride over these ocean-like
stretches. Beneath the wind's breath they seem in ceaseless motion. But, while
the winds blow and the surface changes, the land is fixed and forever immuta-
ble! So must it ever be with a free state! Beneath the clash of party, and the
conflict of opinion freedom must stand — unchanging, immutable, impartial!
My task is done. This sketch, however incomplete, must remain. It is at
least an echo from the old violin of liberty that Kansas played upon so power-
fully. The nationalization of political freedom on this continent was, I repeat,
the People's work. It came through the road hewed by industry and enterprise.
It is the crown of our common effort. In the world's largest strife, it is always
the common struggle that produces the uncommon result. And it is equally as
true that those who benefit most by the sacrifices made, breed also the arrogance
of power which tries to subserve the triumph to class and personal advancement.
Your past has, indeed, been wonderful. It has been crowned in freedom. It is
armed with education It is to be girt with economic security. The light is on
the path and victory is sure, however rough the road and dangerous, too, with
pitfalls !
Macaulay, the English historian, said that democracy carried no romance
with it. We point to the story of free Kansas as an all-sufficient reply. We give
the history of our continental union as a refutation of that piece of class
arrogance. No warriors clad in pot iron ever bore themselves with more of
chivalry than did the ragged settlers of Kansas. No men in gilded suits of chain
mail ever showed more devotion or heroism than the volunteers from forge and
plow who saved the union or have otherwise defended the land. What more
masterly or majestic presence has ever stood within the mighty portals of history
than the armed and educated democracy we bring to crown the life of the age ?
What holier victory can come than "government of the people, by the people,
for the people" ? That "trade follows the flag," is the English boast. Let ours
forever be, that freedom and justice shall prevail where our stars shine, and that
our radiant bars make luminous the skies alike of dawn or night! If we do this,
we may face unflinchingly a loftier and vaster future than has yet marched on the
kibes of a victorious nationhood. Our fruits will not then be as those of Sodom,
dead ashes on the lips; but sweeter than the apples of Hesperides and more mel-
low than the honey of Hymetus. If we answer that future and its demands, we
shall not fail.
We must learn truthfully and think righteously. Privilege is a plotter.
Caste is a breeder of treason. Scorn of the people is the road to anarchy and op-
pression. Liberty is threatened wherever injustice prevails. Freedom is under-
mined where social inequity is buttressed by law and class control is accepted
as a normal condition. A republic must be color-blind and caste free. A democ-
racy is true only to its own genesis when the "better class" is that alone which
gives public service and protects the poorest from inequity. The slaveholders'
—12
186 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
chivnln- — one which phindered the cradle and sold a woman's joy to pay its gam"
bling debts - is a hideous falsehood. The spirit of greed which assails a mother's
womb, so that the unborn child is mortgaged to toil before training, health and
knowledge have come, is no better, though its approach is more indirect. Let us
"Give to all men justice and forgive —
License must die that liberty may live.
Let love shine through the fabric of the state —
Love, deathless love, whose other name is fate."
When we stand absolute upon the equal human right,
"We cannot fail —
The vision will prevail.
Truth is the oath of God, and sure and fast,
Though death and hell hold onward to the last."
This mighty present we achieved alone upon the plane and by the forces of
democracy. The massive reward of our republican endeavors is the mighty con-
tinental union. Let the vaster issues that crowd upon us be met in the spirit of
those who fought the fight of Kansas. Ragged, unkempt — fit, as a learned sneerer
has writ, for "wolf meat" — poverty worn, hunger racked, fever stricken, as they
often were, they never faltered or wavered, climbing to the luminous end, through
blood and smoke, unto the stars. Let us emulate them ! Man is one, though men
may differ. Liberty is always single, full- orbed and planet-swung, though poli-
cies are, as always, diverse. Forever and forever let the republic live, and grow by
its living! The story of Kansas must be forged as a flaming sword — a weapon
with which to slay the foes of freedom ! It must be a light upon the paths of the
oppressed for all the days to come! So shall it be said that "the multitude that
fight Ariel, even all that fight against her and her stronghold, and that distress
her, shall be as a dream, a vision of the night."
As such were the Calhounites. What, now, is left of their vain imaginings,
their weird plottings, their bald treason, their racial cruelties ? "Lest we forget,"
however, the high gods and the solemn truths they teach, we must forever re-
member how we made it possible to sing that,
"Henceforth to the sunset, unchecked on her way,
Shall liberty follow the march of the day."
BIOGRAPHY THE BASIS OF HISTORY.
CHAKLES ROBINSON.
Prepared by Prof. F. W. Blackmak, of the University of Kansas, for the Kansas
State Historical Society.
'X'O be well born is a fortunate circumstance in the foundation of a great char-
*- acter. It is a vantage-ground in a life struggle where the fittest, who are
the best, survive. To be well educated to meet the conditions of one's own
generation is an essential means for the completion of character building.
Charles Robinson was blessed with both of these conditions. He was of old
New England blood of pure stream that lost none of its vigor in its onward flow-
ing. His father, Jonathan Robinson, was a farmer and zealous anti-slavery man
of decided religious views, whose ancestry is traced back to the John Robinson
of Plymouth Rock fame. The social atmosphere of New England in early days
was a character builder. The frugal home life, with its discipline, its religious
fervor, and sweet companionship, ever appealing to self-sacrifice, furnished an
excellent training. Perhaps the home life in New England, with its frugality,
discipline, earnestness, and close sympathy, was the best quality of the education
of the times. It has been the saving quality of the New England life, and as
well of that larger life which has moved westward and filled the valleys and
plains and enveloped the mountains of the continent. Perennial and sweet, the
hallowed influence of the homes of the olden time comes to us in retrospective
fancy, ever prominent in the philosophy of nation building!
His mother's name was Huldah Woodward. Of these parents were born ten
children, six boys and four girls, to whom they desired to give as good an educa-
tion as the country afforded. The mother of the family looked carefully after
the Sunday-school lesson, and every Saturday night the flock of children gathered
around the table to learn all the lesson could teach of morals and religion. There-
the mother, with the great old Bible in her lap, was filled with the blessed spirit
of the Christ, as she pointed out the beauties of its vivid style and the moral and
religious teachings fitted for daily life.
Charles Robinson was a strong character in the old New England home; he
was a pleasant companion, a lover of music and books, and a lover of man and
nature. His philosophy began early, as he roamed alone over the fields, through
the forests, or by the brookside, or followed the instruction of the country schools
of his time. Born at the quiet town of Hardwick, Mass., on July 21, 1818, when
school privileges and books were more rare than at present, he had ample oppor-
tunity for thought, which, to the observing, thinking man, is education. At the
age of seventeen it was necessary for him to strike out for himself, and from that
time on he bore at least a large part of the expenses of his education. Acade-
mies and seminaries were the great blessings of New England youth in those days.
They made Amherst, Yale, Harvard, Williams and Dartmouth possible to thou-
sands of young men. He entered Hadley academy, where he remained a year,
after which he entered Amherst academy, and there he again exercised the privi-
(187)
1S8 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
lege of self-support. The authorities gave him the privilege of making new desks
and st'ats for the academy; therefore in the basement of the building he estab-
lished a workshop, where he wrought at carpentry to pay for his tuition, and
where at intervals he pondered over the principles of philosophy.
It was but a step from Amherst academy to Amherst College, although he
had remained but a year at the academy. After remaining a year and a half at
the college his eyesight gave out, and he found it necessary to walk forty miles
to Keene, N. H., to apply to Dr. Amos Twitchell for aid. Always on the lookout
for opportunities, as every active youth must be, he decided to accept an op-
portunity to study medicine under Doctor Twitchell. Possibly it would have
been better for him to have remained at the academy and subsequently at the
college before entering upon his medical studies. However, he did what many
another person has done, who, lacking the proper direction of others, sought his
own course in his own way.
After remaining with Doctor Twitchell six months, he attended medical
lectures at Pittsfield, Mass. Doctor Childs, who afterwards became lieutenant-
governor of Massachusetts, was then president of the institute. After the course
of lectures was completed at Pittsfield, he studied for a time with Dr. Isaac Grid-
ley, at Amherst, and subsequently attended lectures at Woodstock, Vt. Dr. Rush
Palmer, much celebrated in his day as an eminent physician and lecturer, was
at the head of the Woodstock institution. Robinson finally returned to Doctor
Gridley, and remained with him until his medical education was completed. His
educational career would be considered rather an erratic course for a medical
student of the present day, but it served to give a full medical education of his
time. His peripatetic education, as far as possible, furnished what the youth of
to-day finds concentrated in the modern medical college with hospital attached.
It appears, at least, thr^t his education was considered thorough and sufficient
for practice in his time.
In 18-13 Doctor Robinson commenced the practice of medicine at Belchertown,
Mass., a town of the old New England type, covering a large area, being fourteen
miles long and ten miles wide. Doctor Robinson's practice was very large, and,
as the town was situated in the hill district in Hampshire county, his numerous
visits required excessive labor. Once settled in Belchertown, Doctor Robinson
took his place as an active citizen of the town. He was enthusiastic, not only
in administering to the ailments of the people, but also in advocating the prac-
tice of proper sanitation. He would not join the medical society, because he did
not wish to be bound down to its cast-iron rules, and because he thought he
could learn something from the practitioner of any school.
On Thanksgiving Day, 1843, he was married to Miss Sarah Adams, of West
Brookfield, and after a brief trip to Boston he returned to his duties in Belcher-
town. Doctor Robinson was interested in schools and served on school committees.
He frequently attended the Sunday-school teachers' meeting; was a constant
worker for temperance. When the Perfectionists, under John W. Noyes, were
preaching a new salvation from sin they met with severe opposition ; law and or-
der meetings were called and an antagonistic spirit aroused. While Robinson
did not adhere to the teachings of Noyes, his sympathies were with him and his
followers, and he was glad when they were relieved from persecution.
Doctor Robinson threw his whole zeal and energy into his work, which proved
to be a great strain upon his not overrugged constitution. Consequently, in the
spring of 1845 he went to Springfield, Mass., and there opened a hospital for prac-
tice. In conducting this hospital he was associated with Dr. J. G. Holland, a
well read physician, and subsequently widely known on account of his literary
CHARLES ROBINSON. 189
career. He was a native of Belchertown and was a former roommate of Robinson
at Pittsfield, where the two became well acquainted.
Doctor Robinson found it impossible to confine his work to hospital practice,
and so his visits soon extended far and wide in Springfield and surrounding towns
within a radius of twenty miles. While at Springfield there came upon him a
great disaster which was lasting in its effects, and which seems to have changed
the entire course of his life. On the 17th of January, 1846, his wife passed from
this earth. Failing in health on account of his severe practice, and broken in
spirit by his severe loss, he was induced to leave Springfield and go to Fitchburg,
where his brother Cyrus was located. This he did in the spring of 1846. But he
did not escape work by the change, for he was again soon worn out by the ex-
cessive duties of his profession. While he was casting about what to do for his
health, thoughts of a trip to California were prominent in his mind,
CALIFORNIA ADVENTURES.
In this peculiar way Charles Robinson became interested in the emigration to
California. The whole country was aroused in 1818 by the discovery in Califor-
nia of this new El Dorado. Men everywhere caught the fever and were hurrying
westward in the vain endeavor to be first in locating their mining claims. Not
only the venturesome West but the staid East was stirred with unbounded enthu-
siasm, and thousands from every part of the union took up the long journey over-
land to the Pacific slope, or, by boat, paused by way of the isthmus on to San
Francisco.
In the winter of 1819 a party composed of men of all classes and professions
was formed in and around Boston for the purpose of making the journey over-
land. This company was organized on a military basis, and selected Charles
Robinson as the physician of the company, upon whom devolved the responsibility
of the care of the sick. This small party left Boston the 19th of March, 1819, and,
passing by railroad and canal to Pittsburg, thence by steamer to Cincinnati and
St. Louis, finally reached Kansas City, or what was then known as Westport
Landing. The whole journey was without striking event, except the usual expe-
riences of a company traveling through a new country, which brings a new inter-
est from day to day — the sights and scenes of the winding route through forests,
hills, valleys, and plains. Soon after the party left St. Louis the cholera broke
out among the ship's company, and the physician found an arduous task before
him to stay the disease, not so well known in those days as at present. This he
did quite effectually, there and also at Westport Landing.
The company finally arrived at Sacramento. Here were exciting conditions,
which were made to test Doctor Robinson's character. The great contest be-
tween the squatters and the large landholders was in progress at Sacramento,
and Doctor Robinson took a vigorous interest in the matter. As Doctor Cord-
ley says, in the " History of Lawrence " i
"In 1819 he went to California with the gold-seekers, and was a prominent
actor in the stirring scenes which characterized the early history of that state.
In those turbulent times he had been severely wounded, and had been put un-
der arrest and kept in prison for several months; but he and his associates
finally won the day, and California was finally saved from the rule of the thieves.
He was just the man wanted for the emergency. He was cool of counsel and
brave of heart, and knew the conditions he had to meet,"
The difficulty in California existed in the fact that the old Spanish grants of
land, which were to be guaranteed, according to the treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo, of February 2, 1848, had secured all land titles and property of every
kind belonging to the citizens within the territory. The grants made by the
190 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
government of Mexico prior to the accession of land by the United States were
to be secured by the latter government. Two difficulties arose. Just before the
cession, and immediately after, a large number of land-grabbers sought to obtain
titles to land in various parts of California, and many titles granted prior to the
cession were imperfect on account of indefinite location of boundaries.
The trouble at Sacramento was precipitated, first, by the fact that the people
who came in from the East were accustomed to free land, and did not understand
why they did not have squatters' rights on these large land grants as well as on
other territories of the United States: and then, in addition, the disposition of
the laud-agents to grab everything in sight, and to exclude persons from the ter-
ritory, enraged the squatters. Furthermore, the particular land title of Sutter,
which was claimed to cover the territory in and around Sacramento, virtually
did not extend that far.
Sutter was a man from Switzerland who had settled in 1837 on the Sacra-
mento river at the junction of the American. Here he built a fort and estab-
lished a colony, his possessions reaching many miles far and wide, up and down
the Sacramento, American and Feather rivers. He lived like a feudal lord of
the olden times on his domains, served by his many helpers, and with an army
drilled for defense. In 1841 he received from the Mexican government a grant
of eleven square leagues of land. In 1847 sixty houses clustered around the fort,
and six mills and one tannery were located in the immediate vicinity. Thousands
of bushels of wheat were raised annually in the fertile valleys, and thousands of
cattle, mules, horses and sheep grazed in the valleys and on the hills. The
white population at this time numbered 289 souls, while a large number of In-
dians, half-breeds and Hawaiians were located near.
In 1846 Sutter laid out the town of Sutterville, three miles below the fort, on
the Sacramento river. Subsequently the town of Sacramento was laid out
between Sutterville and the fort. So far as rights accruing from possession were
concerned, Sutter was the owner of this vast tract of land. So far as the intent
of the grants from the Mexican government in 1841 were concerned, he had a
clear title to the land. Unfortunately, when the boundary was fixed for this
territory, the grant was made to cover twenty-six square leagues of land, and the
southern boundary was placed some twenty miles north, at the junction of the
Feather and Sacramento rivers, which, if strictly construed, would exclude the
fort, Sutterville and the surrounding territory from the terms of the grant. With-
out doubt it was the intention of the grant that Sutter should locate, by proper
surveys, land to the amount of eleven square leagues within the immense bound-
aries described, and the remainder revert to the government as national property.
It could not be considered otherwise from a reasonable position but that it was
the intention of the governor of California to give Sutter a title to the fort and
this surrounding territory, while in fact they were excluded entirely by the state-
ments included in the articles of the grant. To make matters worse, Sutter, not
knowing the boundaries of his own land or his own wealth, granted to land-
agents right and left parcels of land, giving them the only title that could be
obtained at that time, and the squatters who came upon this land were forcibly
ejected. In the winter of 1849 many settlers flocked into the state, and occupied
vacant lands with tents and shanties and cabins in and around Sacramento.
The attempt to eject these from the lands of the supposed owners precipitated a
riot between the squatters and the land-agents.
Doctor Robinson, true to his characteristics, took up with the man who had
the worst side of the battle. Right or wrong, legal or illegal, he saw what was
justice in the matter, and stood up for the weak and the oppressed. At a public
CHARLES ROBINSON. 191
meeting called by the squatters, and which was taken possession of by land
speculators, Doctor Robinson offered the following resolution in opposition to the
claims of the land agents:
"Whereas, The land in California is presumed to be public land: therefore,
^'■Resolved , That we will protect any settlers in the possession of land to the
extent of one lot in the city and 160 acres in the country until a valid title shall
be shown for it."
It is not possible here to follow the details of his venturesome life in Sacra-
mento during the next few months. In the struggle which ensued Doctor
Robinson was the leader of the squatter forces. Here he was shot, captured,
and thrown into the prison ship on the Sacramento river. Subsequently, he was
released on bail ; he was elected to the first legislature that convened in the state,
at San Jose, while still in the prison ship, and afterwards was acquitted of the
charges against him and went forth a free man. Later, he sailed from San
Francisco south on his way home, was wrecked on the Mexican coast, and finally
returned to Massachusetts by the way of Panama.
The character of Doctor Robinson comes out clearly through this whole
struggle. He was convinced that he was right, had justice on his side, and was
ready, even with his life, to defend the oppressed and those deprived of their
rights. In the whole history of his life and career he never appeared to better
advantage than when attempting to defend the helpless, or when fighting single-
handed against open forms of injustice or oppression. In this movement he was
clear-headed, conscientious, alert, and skilful, as evinced by the manner in
which he routed the forces of adventurers and landholders, who had all the ad-
vantages in their favor. His subsequent history in California is little less than
marvelous, for one can hardly realize the critical condition which he occupied
before the law. In the state of social affairs in California it might easily have
turned out entirely otherwise.
With four true bills of indictment against him by the grand jury, one for mur-
der, one for conspiracy, and two for assault with intent to kill, Doctor Robinson
was elected to the legislature. Soon after election he was admitted to bail, and
spent the time prior to the convening of the legislature in editing a new paper,
called The Settlern'' and Miners^ Tribune. But a change of venue referred the
squatter cases of Sacramento to Benicia, and after the close of the session of the
legislature the prisoners were discharged on account of non-prosecution. By a
unanimous vote of the legislature, he was declared released from the custody of
the courts.
During his term in the legislature Doctor Robinson showed that he was a
strong anti-slavery man. While he was in the prison ship one of the attorneys,
a Mr. Tweed, appointed to defend the squatters, came to him in the interest of
politics. Mr. Tweed advocated the division of California into two states, one
portion to be slave and the other free. Doctor Robinson strongly opposed the
scheme. On knowing the opinion of his client, Tweed advised him not to run
for the legislature. Doctor Robinson replied that if the people chose to vote for
him he would not interfere, and if the courts decided to hang him because the
people voted for him they could do so.
When the slavery question came up in the legislature, Doctor Robinson fa-
vored Fremont, who was opposed to the extension of slavery. He did this to the
detriment of his popularity with the squatters, as Fremont held the title to a
large land grant. But this had no influence in determining his action in respect
to slavery, as it was a matter of inbred principle. It was, so far as is known, his
first opportunity to publicly record his opposition to slavery. This he did, re-
192 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
gardless of what effect it might have on his subsequent career. The opposition
to Fremont favored the division of California, with the idea of extending slavery
over the southern half. The democrats favored Judge Hayden, of Alabama, and
the whigs T. Butler King, of Georgia, nominated in place of Fremont. Robinson,
with a few followers, held the balance of power and defeated the election. At
the next session the anti-slavery element had become sufficiently strong to elect Mr.
Weller, from Ohio, which resulted in the final settlement of the question against
division.
THE KANSAS CONFLICT.
On September 9, 1851, Doctor Robinson returned from California much im-
proved in health. The variety of positions which he had held while away, phy-
sician, editor, restaurant keeper, leader of the squatter rebellion, and member of
the California legislature, seemed to iadicate that in the future he would have a
wider sphere than that of practicing medicine in a country town.
After his return from California, his friends, among whom was Mr. Benjamin
Snow, father of Chancellor Snow, so well known in Kansas as a lecturer, scien-
tist, and head of the Kansas university, urged him to edit a paper. At Snow's
urgent request, Robinson took charge of the Fitchburg Neics, which he con-
ducted with great vigor for a period of two years. On the other hand, his suc-
cess as a practicing physician led other friends to urge him not to abandon his
practice. The result was that in the attempt to carry on both businesses he
soon had an extended practice and was editing a paper at the same time, an
injudicious thing for a man who had felt it necessary to go to California for his
health.
One of the chief events of Doctor Robinson's life while at Fitchburg was his
marriage to the educated daughter — the later gifted writer — of Myron Law-
rence, Miss Sara T. D. Lawrence, on October 30, 1851. She proved a worthy
companion for him, especially in the Kansas struggle, for her excellent judgment
and ready pen did valiant service for the cause of freedom. Chief among her writ-
ings is "Kansas, its Interior and Exterior Life," a vivid and exact pen-picture
of the early times, from 1854 to 1856. No other work written has given such a
true representation of the beginnings of the struggle.
It was at this juncture the slavery agitation attracted considerable attention
throughout the North, and especially in New England. The Kansas-Nebraska
bill threw the territory of Kansas open to settlement. The North and South
vied with each other in sending men into the new territory, for occupation under
the Kansas-Nebraska law. The Emigrant Aid Company was formed, and meet-
ings were held at different places to agitate the question, collect money, and to
enlist recruits for settlement in Kansas.
One day, at one of the Chapman hall meetings, addressed by Eli Thayer, the
speaker at the close of the meeting asked if any present would be willing to go
to Kansas, whereupon Charles Robinson walked up and signed his name to the
paper. After the meeting, Mr. Thayer, who had noticed his quiet though self-
reliant bearing, asked him if he was the Charles Robinson who went to California.
His reply being in the affirmative, Mr. Thayer asked if he would be willing to go
to Kansas to live. " Ves," was the reply. "Would your wife be willing to go?"
"I have no doubt of it," replied Robinson. "Well, then," continued Thayer,
" will you come down to Boston to-morrow and meet the directors of the Emigrant
Aid Company?" The early morning train brought Doctor Robinson to Boston.
The result of the conference was that Doctor Robinson agreed to leave Boston
on the 28th of June to make his future home in Kansas. Hurried preparations
were made to close out his practice and arrange his business, that he might enter
CHARLES ROBINSON. 193
upon the new life. Subsequently he took charge of the affairs of the Emigrant
Aid Company, in connection with Charles H. Branscomb, of Holyoke, Mass., and
Samuel C. Pomeroy, of Southampton, Mass., financial agent.
As agent for the Emigrant Aid Company, Doctor Robinson now became identi-
fied with one of the greatest movements of his time. His work consisted of man-
aging the interests of the company for the purpose of securing and perpetuating
human freedom. Doctor Robinson was sent out June 28, ISoi, with Mr. Charles
Branscomb, to explore the territory of Kansas and secure a site for a town.
While this exploration was going on, the first party of emigrants under the direc-
tion of the Emigrant Aid Company started from Massachusetts, arriving at their
destination July 31, and proceeded to settle near the present site of Lawrence.
In the meantime Doctor Robinson had gone to St. Louis to meet and conduct
the second party of emigrants, which left Boston the last of August. These two
parties joined, and, uniting their plans, laid out the town of Lawrence.
They were pioneers in a new country, who were to lay the foundation of a new
commonwealth and build up their structure upon it. The character of these
people was of the New England quality. While they were anxious to plant the
institutions of New England in the new soil of the West, they were not wanting
in that thrift which ever characterizes the New Englander. Truly, they sought
to establish civil and religious liberty in Kansas, and at the same time to gain
possession of the promised land. The process was to establish homes and de-
velop resources of the country, that free institutions might flourish. While
united for their own welfare, they sought the freedom of others.
Col. S. N. Wood, in an address before the quarter-centennial celebration of
the settlement of the state, at Topeka, said: "The pioneers who became trusted
leaders among the free-state hosts were men who could not rest in their old
homes when the demon of slavery was clutching at freedom's rightful heritage."
Many of them were the sons of the old freemen who had learned to love freedom
and claim it as the right of all nations. In this struggle strong leaders were
needed, who could counsel the people through the difficulties of the settlement
of the soil and the rearrangement of social and political affairs. Strong leaders
were needed to battle for the right ; to carry the people through the great consti-
tutional struggle — the greatest since the creation and establishment of the fed-
eral constitution of the United States. Doctor Robinson proved himself capable
of such leadership.
The first incident that decided his strength arose from a neighborhood quar-
rel, which finally took on a political coloring. The strife over claims became very
bitter at times. A certain company led by John Baldwin, made up mostly of
Missourians, endeavored to lay out a new town covering part of the territory of
Lawrence, and endeavored to drive the free-state men from the place. They be-
gan to assemble about four o'clock around the tent which had been set up. The
managers of the town company, led by Doctor Robinson, desired to leave the set-
tlement of the question to the courts. This John Baldwin refused to do, and
sent Robinson the following note :
^^ Doctor- Robinson : Yourself and friends are hereby notified that you will
have one-half hour to move the tent you have on my undisputed claim, and from
this day desist from further survey on the same. If the tent is not moved by the
end of the time I will take the trouble to move it myself.
John Baldwin and friends."
The following pointed answer was returned:
" To John Baldivin and Friends : If you molest our property you do it at
your peril. C. Robinson and friends."
194 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
After the notice had been sent, a consultation was held between Doctor Rob-
inson and a delegate from the enemy's post. Doctor Robinson proposed to leave
the case to the settleniciit of disinterested, unbiased men, or to the settlement
of the squatter courts then existing, or even to the United States courts, but
the delegate from the IJaldwin party insisted that at the end of the half hour
they would attempt to remove the tent, and if they failed, 3000 Missourians, or,
if necessary, :$0,000, would be raised in Missouri to sweep the settlers from the
earth: but the half hour passed and no demonstration was made. While sus-
pended operations lasted, John Hutchinson asked Doctor Robinson what he
would do. "Would he fire to hit them, or would he fire over them?" Doctor
Koliiusou promptly replied that he would be ashamed to fire at a man and not
hit him.
This little incident showed clearly the temper of the free-state men and the
courage, coolness and conviction of their leader. The struggle over the land
question continued, chiefly between the Lawrence association on the one side and
the other settlers on the other. Finally a meeting was called to discuss the
question, and Doctor Robinson, after hearing both sides, made a short speech,
reviewing the charges made against him. He counseled the people to beware of
quarrels among themselves, and impressed upon them the necessity for union,
that they, with voice and hand, might defend the country from the curse of
human bondage and the chains of slavery.
When the first election was held, and dominated by Missourians who came
across the border and cast a majority vote for slavery, Doctor Robinson was
among the first to counsel the people to entirely ignore the election as illegal and
one which they were not bound to follow. Doctor Robinson was prominent at
the various conventions that were held at Lawrence and elsewhere for the crys-
tallization of sentiment in favor of the foundation of a republic. He was ever
prominent in the councils of the people, holding now to a wise conservatism, and
again bold in the denunciation of the course of the people of Missouri or the
national government, which was not in sympathy with the free-state settlers of
Kansas.
In his Fourth of July oration of 1855, he carefully reviews the condition of
slavery and the condition of the country in general, and at the close gives an im-
passioned plea to the people to throw off the shackles of pro-slavery, and stand
forth for freedom. Says he:
" What are we ? Subjects, slaves of Missouri. We come to the celebration of
this anniversary with our chains clanking upon our limbs. We lift to heaven our
manacled arms in supplication. Proscribed, denounced, we cannot so much as
speak the name of liberty, except with prison walls and halters looking us in the
face. We must not only see black slavery, a blight and curse to any people,
planted in our midst and against our wishes, but we must become slaves our-
selves."
In closing, he said:
"Fellow citizens, in conclusion, it is for us to choose for ourselves, and for
tho.-e who shall come after us, what institutions shall bless or curse our beautiful
Kansas. Shall we have freedom for all our people, and consequent prosperity, or
8la,very for a part, with the blight and mildew inseparable from it ? Choose ye
this day which ye will serve, slavery or freedom, and then be true to your choice.
If slavery is best for Kansas, then choose it; but if liberty, then choose that,
"Let every man stand in his place, and acquit himself like a man who knows
his rights, and knowing, dares maintain them. Let us repudiate all laws enacted
by foreign legislative bodies, or dictated by Judge Lynch over the way. Tyrants
are tyrants, and tyranny is tyranny, whether under the garb of law or in opposition
to it. So thought and so acted our ancestors, and so let us think and act. We
are not alone in this contest. The entire nation is agitated upon the question of
CHARLES ROBINSON. 195
our rights; the spirit of '76 is breathing upon some, the handwriting upon the
wall is being deciphered by others, while the remainder the gods are evidently
preparing to destroy.
"Every pulsation in Kansas vibrates to the remotest artery of a body politic;
and I seem to hear the millions of free men and the millions of bondmen in our
land, the millions of oppressed in other lands, the patriots and philanthropists
of all countries, the spirits of the revolutionary heroes and the voice of God,
all saying to the people of Kansas, ' Do your duty.' "
In the management of the affairs of the company, he seemed to show a wise
conservatism. Mr. Eli Thayer, who was the founder and promoter of the Emi-
grant Aid Company, pays Doctor Robinson this glowing tribute:
"A wiser and more sagacious man for this work could not have been found
within the borders of the nation. By nature and by training he was perfectly
equipped for the arduous work before him. A true democrat and a lover of the
rights of man, he had risked his life in California while defending the poor
and weak against the cruel oppression of the rich and powerful. He was willing
at any time, if there were need, to die for his principles. In addition to such
brave devotion to his duty, he had the clearest foresight and the coolest, calmest
judgment in determining a course of action best adapted to secure the rights of
the free-state settlers. No one in Kansas was so much as he the man for the
place and time. He was a deeper thinker than Atchison and triumphed over the
border ruffians and the more annoying and more dangerous of the self-seekers of
his own party. The man who 'paints the lily and gilds refined gold' is just the
one to tell us how Charles Robinson might have been better qualified for his
Kansas work: but his character, so clearly defined in freedom's greatest struggle,
superior to the help or harm of criticism, reveals these salient points of excel-
lence : majesty of mind and humility of heart, stern justice and tender sympathy,
heroic will and sensitive conscience, masculine strength and maidenly modesty,
leonine courage and womanly gentleness, with power to govern based on self-
restraint, and love of freedom deeper than love of life."
It appears that, whether in the management of the Emigrant Aid Company
work in the local political affaire of the town of Lawrence, or in directing the
affairs of the territory. Doctor Robinson showed a rare genius. He knew when
to be firm, cool, and calculating; he knew when to be bold, independent and
vigorous in opposing his enemies. Another high tribute to him, by Amos A.
Lawrence, a strong supporter of the cause of freedom in Kansas, must not be
passed by :
"He was cool, judicious, and entirely devoid of fear, and in every respect
. worthy of the confidence imposed in him by the settlers and the society. He was
obliged to submit to great hardships and injustice, chiefly through the imbecility
of the United States government's agent. He was imprisoned, his house was
burned, and his life was often threatened. Yet he never bore arms, or omitted to
do whatever he thought to be his duty. He sternly held the people to loyalty to
the government, against the arguments and examples of the 'higher-law' men,
who were always armed and were not real settlers, and who were combined in
bringing about the border war, which they hoped would extend to the other
states. The policy of the New England society, carried out by Robinson and
those who acted with him in Kansas, was finally successful and triumphant."
In the Wakarusa war, Doctor Robinson was placed in charge of affairs as
commander-in-chief, and by adroit management he succeeded in obtaining a
bloodless victory for the free-state people. In this successful management he
was aided by the intrepid Lane. He took the position that the people of Law-
rence had the right to defend themselves and their property against the illegal
territorial government, which was in collusion with the Missourians, but he held
strictly to the principle that it was not only improper but bad policy to defy the
United States authorities. He knew that as soon as this was done the case of
the free-state men was lost. He was ever ready to recognize a legally constituted
government like that of the United States, but would not recognize a government
19G KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
pstaMishcd by usurpation of the rifjhts of American citizens. In the prepara-
tion to defend themselves apainst the armed Missourians, who threatened the de-
struction of Lawrence, he was wise in counsel, bold in defense, and just to all
his fellow laborers. When the free-state men were finally recognized by the gov-
ernor of Kansas as having some rights, Governor Shannon placed Charles Robin-
son and J. H. Lane in authority, by the following note:
"7'o C/inr/ea Jiohinson and J. II. Lane: You are hereby authorized and
directed to take such measures and use the enrolled force under your conmiand
in such a manner for the preservation of peace and protection of the persons and
propertv of the people of Lawrence and vicinity as in your judgment shall best
secure that end. Wilson Shannon.
"Lawrenc E, December 9, 1855."
Charles Robinson knew how to be just to his fellow workers and colaborers.
At the close of the Wakarusa war he addressed the volunteer companies, review-
ing the cause of the war and its consequences. He said, in part:
"Selected as your commander, it becomes my cheerful duty to tender to you,
fellow soldiers, the meed of praise so justly your due. Never did true men unite
in a holier cause, and never did true bravery appear more conspicuous than in
the ranks of our little army. Death before dishonor was visible in every counte-
nance and filled up every heart. Bloodless though the contest has been, there
are not wanting instances of heroism worthy of a more chivalric age.
"To the e.xi)erience, skill and perseverance of gallant General Lane all credit
is due for the thorough discipline of our forces and the complete and extensive
preparations for defense. His services cannot be overrated, and long may he
live to wear the laurels so bravely won. Others are worthy of special praise for
distinguished services, and all, both officers and privates, are entitled to the
deepest gratitude of the people."
I remember once hearing Doctor Robinson, in an address delivered before the
historical students of the University of Kansas, speaking of the heroes and lead-
ers of the Kansas struggle, say :
"Who saved Kansas? Not one man nor any group of men claiming to be
leaders. It was the rank and file of the common citizens who saved the state to
freedom. It was the union of the people in a common cause that saved the
state."
General Lane also showed that he could place credit where credit was due, as
he said in his address to the soldiers :
"From Major General Robinson I received that counsel and advice which
characterizes him as a clear-headed, cool and trustworthy commander, who is
entitled to your confidence and esteem."
Doubtless it was to this advice and clear-headedness that we may attribute
the bloodless victory of the Wakarusa war. It was a pity that these two men
should have become estranged in the Kansas struggle for freedom. With a union
of the cool counsel of Doctor Robinson and the impetuosity of General Lane, the
Kansas struggle would have been made easier, and the history of it more rational
and just to the rank and file who supported the move. Strange it is that in these
days the personal element of history should predominate. For while each one
seeks to set up his hero, we know that the history will finally and justly be
written by those who were not engaged in the struggle, but who wisely and im-
partially sift the historical records, with no guide but the desire to treat all men
fairly, and to record the truth regarding the early struggles of the state.
Governor Robinson received the proper tribute of the free-state people by
being elected their governor after the organization of a party and the formation
of a constitution in opposition to the territorial government of the state.
Convention after convention was held by the free-state men, who, by resolution
CHARLES ROBINSON. 197
and action, created public sentiment against bad government and for the freedom
of Kansas. In nearly every one Doctor Robinson appeared as an active partici-
pant or as counselor or adviser. These conventions culminated in a constitu-
tional convention, held at Topeka, October 3, 1855. At this convention the
so-called Topeka constitution was framed and set up, in opposition to the Le-
compton constitution and the "bogus government." Under this constitution
a new government was organized, seeking recognition from the federal govern-
ment. Doctor Robinson was chosen governor. He was strong in his opposition
to the unjust government of the territory, and yet wisely and judiciously urged
prompt obedience to the federal authority when it was imperative. It was hoped
by this act of repudiation that it would be possible to organize a territory under
the free-state banner and eventually to admit Kansas into the union as a free state.
It is not possible to go into recital of this constitutional struggle in Kansas,
as no less than a volume could give an adequate presentation of its intricate and
important details. The Topeka constitution served as a rallying point for the
free-state men. It was a perpetual protest against the "bogus government"
in Kansas, instituted by the democratic party in the federal government in co-
operation with the ruffians of Missouri.
The organization of a government with a full complement of officers that pro-
posed not to recognize the "bogus" territorial government was considered revolu-
tionary by the federal authorities, and hence the indictment of the leaders.
Governor Robinson was arrested at Lexington, Mo., while on his way east. He
was returned by way of Leavenworth, where a plot to murder him was revealed,
and avoided. He bore his confinement with uncomplaining fortitude, believing
that justice would eventually prevail, and that all would be acquitted and re-
leased. What would have happened had not the free-state cause advanced no
one knows, but the fact records acquittal, and a grand triumph over the spurious
court that indicted the brave leader of the great conflict. Those indicted with
Robinson were Judge G. W. Smith, Geo. W. Deitzler, who afterwards served
gallantly in the civil war, Geo. W. Brown, editor of the Herald of Freedom,
and Gains Jenkins, who devoted his time and fortune to the cause. Twice, while
imprisoned at Lecompton, his friends offered to rescue Robinson, but this he
would not allow, knowing well that it would be disastrous to the cause of free-
dom to thus oppose the federal government.
FIRST GOVERNOR OF KANSAS.
As the first chief executive of Kansas, Governor Robinson managed wisely
and well the difficult affairs attending the organization of a new state. Every-
thing was in a new and untried condition, and much skill was required for the
right conduct of public affairs. Moreover, the civil war had begun, which added
new complications in the affairs of the young state. Troops had to be mustered
and officered for the national as well as the state defense. Governor Robin-
son was a strong supporter of the war. He believed in sacrifice for freedom. In
his inaugural address he said:
"While it is the duty of each loyal state to see that equal and exact justice
be done to the citizens of every other state, it is equally its duty to sustain the
chief executive of the nation in defending the government from foes, whether
from within or from without, and Kansas, though last and least of the states of
the union, will ever be ready to answer the call of her country."
And these were prophetic words, for Kansas furnished more soldiers in pro-
portion to the inhabitants in putting down the rebellion than any other state.
One of the great difficulties in connection with the gubernatorial chair was
occasioned from the fact that General Lane, who had been elected to the United
198 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
States senate, worked at cross-purposes to the governor of Kansas. Lane had
great power with President Lincoln, and having unbounded ambition to become
niiHtJiry leader or dictator in Kansas, he worked against Robinson in many
ways, thus rendering the position of the governor more difficult thereby. And
this subject is here touched upon with no desire to bring up any unpleasant con-
troversy, nor to accuse some and to praise others, for history alone will at last
reveal the truth, but merely to mention that in all this trying period Robinson
bore himself with courage, fortitude, and dignity, such as becomes a man and
chief executive of the state, and the subject must be dismissed with the moral
comment that it is to be deplored that, in the struggle for liberty and justice in
the world, personal jealousies, ambitions and prejudices of men should some-
times overshadow their better qualities; for there is nothing so disheartening to
posterity as the personal quarrels of great men who are struggling for the
rights of humanity.
The life of Governor Robinson, after his term of office had expired, was a
quiet one. After his home in Lawrence was bvirned, he made no attempt to re-
build, but lived in a home standing where now is the beautiful residence of B. W.
Woodward. Subsequently he retired to his farm at " Oakridge," nearly five miles
from the town, where he spent the remainder of his days in agricultural pursuits,
ever taking a deep interest in the affairs of the people of the state and nation, and
lending his aid to the cause of humanity in general. He was always interested
in the affairs of the community in which he lived, and especially in the young
people of the neighborhood. He took part in the frequent evening entertain-
ments at the schoolhouse near his home, and superintended the Sunday-school
in the afternoon of each Sabbath. As an instance of his kindly interest in the
young, he was known to come from Topeka, during his term as state senator, to
attend a gathering at the schoolhouse, returning to Topeka the same night to be
on hand the next day for senatorial duty. He was interested in the Grange and
the Ciood Templars, both of which held frequent meetings at the schoolhouse.
Thus did he fulfil the simple duty of an American citizen by taking part in local
affairs.
Governor Robinson was intensely interested in the social, economic and polit-
ical tojjics of the times, and wielded a virile pen with power and skill in news-
paper, magazine and book in behalf of historical truth and wise public policy.
He was a pungent writer, with a direct and convincing style in the presentation
of his subject, adroit and skilful in argumentation. He never took up his pen
unless he had .something important to say to the public. He could make a strong
case for his side of the question, and, although seemingly fair, gave little quarter
to his literary opponents. While he was vigorou.s in declaring the truth, he was
willing to acknowledge that he was frequently wrong in judgment, and he pur-
sued the other side with equal vigor. When once he learned the real facts of the
conduct of John Brown on the Pottawatomie, he could not defend Brown's course
there, while he might acknowledge his services in a general way to the cause of
freedom. His most extended work, "The Kansas Conflict," is loaded with facts
and is full of pungent writing respecting the early scenes of Kansas, in which
he was an important actor. The book adds much to the historical literature of
Kansas, and will be of great service to the coming historian of Kansas who shall
write a history of the great struggle from a universal rather than a personal
standpoint.
Governor Robinson's pen was ever active in the service of historical truth and
justice to humanity^. It fell heaviest on certain pseudo-historians who attempt
to gloss over Kansas history, which they attempt to write from the stand-
^ CHARLES ROBINSON. 199
point of inner consciousness rather than from the real facts, which they are too
indolent to ascertain or too uncompromising to acknowledge. The real history
of Kansas, while it will recognize the true merit of all who were engaged in the
early struggle, will break many a cherished idol.
Governor Robinson's agricultural life caused him to identify himself with the
Grange movement, which, starting as a non-partizan organization, finally became
a great political ehgine. He believed in equalizing government for the benefit of
the great rural populations, as against the wealth of the trading, manufacturing
and transporting classes. He believed in a popular money for the people, which
could not be cornered by speculators nor would be subject to the rise and fall in
value determined by economic laws of supply and demand. With these and other
extreme democratic tendencies, he found himself not a close adherent to the re-
publican party after the war. Hence, his political career was not prominent nor
regular. In 1874 he was elected to the state senate, and in 1876 to a second term.
In 1888 he was a candidate for congress in the second district, but fell short of
election. In 1890 he ran for governor, supported by the democrats and green-
backers. In 1888 he was appointed superintendent of Haskell Institute, which
he managed with vigor, despite his failing health, until his successor was ap-
pointed.
These are the principal items respecting his later political career, which, with
his regency of the university, were sufficient to identify him with public affairs.
At the time of his death he was working with the demo-populist party, though
not in full sympathy with it. It suited him better than did the republican party
as organized in the state.
PROMOTER OF EDUCATION.
Doctor Robinson was identified with the early educational interests of the
territory of Kansas. He was chiefly instrumental in organizing the first school
in Lawrence, which was the first school for white children in the territory, mis-
sion schools having been established earlier. It was taught in the back part of
the building occupied by the Emigrant Aid Company, in January, 1855, by E.
P. Fitch. Miss Kate Kellogg, who accompanied Doctor Robinson to Kansas as
one of his family in the spring of 1855, came to teach the summer-autumn school,
which she did quite successfully, the expenses of the school being borne by Doc-
tor Robinson. Misses Mary and Caroline Chapin came to Lawrence in Septem-
ber after the raid, which occurred in August, 1863, and opened a school early in
the following winter. Governor Robinson and George W. Deitzler paid the tui-
tion of a number of the pupils. C. L. Edwards, now in business at Lawrence,
for several years conducted with success the Quincy high school. These schools
were at first supported by subscription.
In 1856 Mr. Amos A. Lawrence requested Doctor Robinson to spend money
for him to lay the foundation of a school building on the north part of Mount
Oread, which is now the site of North college. In explaining his plans to Rev.
E. Nute, of Lawrence, in a letter dated December 16, 1856, Mr. Lawrence stated:
"You shall have a college which shall be a school of learning, and at the same
time a monument to perpetuate the memory of those martyrs who fell during the
recent struggle. Beneath it their dust shall rest: in it shall burn the light of
liberty, which shall never be extinguished until it illumines the whole continent."
As a foundation of this Free-state College Mr. Lawrence gave the sum of $10,000,
in the form of two notes. Work was soon begun on the building, but was soon
suspended on account of the title of the land being imperfect.
Later, on February 14, 1857, Mr. Lawrence constituted Charles Robinson and
S. C. Pomeroy trustees of funds amounting to $12,696.14, for the purpose of ad-
200 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
vancinp education and religion in the territory. The plans for the Free-state
College wore not carried into execution at once, but the people, ever active for
the foundation of a university, planned, under the auspices of the Presbyterian
church of America, a college. Among the directors of this college were Charles
Robinson and many other and vi'ell-known and honorable settlers of Lawrence.
Appropriate committees were appointed, and plans were mad^ for the erection
of a building, which was to cost 850,000. This university was regularly sanc-
tioned by the legislature in 1859. Subsequently the trustees proceeded to or-
ganize a university. Under the plan of that institution, an attempt was made
to carry it on by the Congregationalists. During all this time Doctor Robinson
was active in his support of the various phases of this early education, but it was
not until the state came to the rescue that the enterprise finally succeeded.
The constitution adopted by the state provided for the foundation of a uni-
versity, which was finally located at Lawrence. A bill in 1861 favored the loca-
tion of this institution at Manhattan, but the bill was vetoed by Governor
Robinson, who thought the movement premature. It having finally been deter-
mined to locate the university at Lawrence, commissioners were appointed to fix
the site. Doctor Robinson came forward with a proposition to furnish forty acres
of land above the city, on condition that the council would deed him a half block
of land lying south of the school foundation on Mount Oread. Twenty-one acres
of this land belonged to Mrs. Robinson, which was bought from J. F. Morgan,
lying south of the claim Doctor Robinson preempted.
In the organization of the State University, Charles Robinson was among the
first regents. In the early details of the institution, Robinson gave the institu-
tion of learning his earnest support. He served on the building committee when
the main building, Fraser hall, was erected, and for many years was a representa-
tive member of the board of regents. In 1889, in recognition of his eminent serv-
ices and on account of his scholarly ability, the board of regents conferred on
him the degree of doctor of laws.
In 1895 the legislature passed a law appropriating $1000 for a marble bust of
ex-Governor Robinson, to be placed in university chapel. The committee for the
selection of an artist and the approval of his work consisted of Mrs. Sara T. D.
Robinson, B. W. Woodward, and Charles Chadwick. In the unveiling of this
bust appropriate ceremonies were had in the university. Addresses were made
by Governor Leedy, B. W. Woodward, and Hon. Chas. F. Scott. On this occa-
sion Hon. Chas. F. Scott paid a glowing tribute to the life and character of ex-
Governor Robinson, from which the following quotation is given:
"As nearly as any man I ever knew, Charles Robinson deserved the tribute
which the laureate paid to the Iron Duke when he said of him that he 'stood
four-square to all the winds that blew.' He came as near standing by himself,
balanced by his own judgment, requiring no strengthening support from other
men, either as individuals or as aggregated into parties or churches or societies
of any kind. At various times of his life he worked with various political par-
ties, but when the particular object of the work was accomplished he put the
party aside, apparently with as little concern as he would lay down a tool that he
was done with. The fear of being called inconsistent never troubled him. In
fact, no fear of any kind, either moral or physical, ever troubled him. He said
what he thought ought to be said with as small regard to consequences as he did
what he thought ought to be done. And if the words of to-day contradicted
those of yesterday, that did not concern him, for the words of both yesterday
and to-day were honest words. He did not know what the word ' policy' meant,
so far as the word might be applied to his own fortunes. He knew, doubtless, as
well as everybody else knew, that he sacrificed all the political honors which a
grateful and admiring people would have been proud to bestow when he severed
his connection with the dominant party. But the thought, if it occurred to him,
never bade him a moment's pause."
CHARLES ROBINSON. 201
In the latter years of the life of Governor Robinson he was again appointed
regent of the university, and held that position until the time of his death. As
a crowning act of his long support of educational life, he left the larger part of
his estate as a gift to the university which he had nourished in infancy, sup-
ported with vigor in its early youth, and cherished in his own declining years.
LIFE AND CHARACTER.
In concluding this memorial, it is perhaps fitting to add a few words respect-
ing the life and character of Governor Robinson, gathered from his actual serv-
ice to humanity and gleaned from the opinions of those who knew him best.
As one belonging to another generation from those who endured the hardships of
the early struggle for freedom in Kansas, I approach the life of one who was an
actor in these stirring scenes with becoming reverence. It is at best but a small
tribute that this generation can pay to the preceding, but it is best shown in rev-
erence and honor to those who fought the early battles, who endured the early
struggles, that we of this day may enjoy the blessings of the results of such
sturdy warfare and may thus have weapons with which to fight successfully the
battles of truth in our own day and generation.
In a general estimate of his life, there must first be recorded the evidence of a
strong individual character, a bold, hardy spirit, able to give and take blows for
what he deemed the right. In consequence of this, he frequently has been mis-
understood by both his friends and enemies. This quality made it difficult for
him to follow with zeal any party or creed. It was sufficient for him to ask his
own consciousness what was right in the matter, and to act accordingly. Parties
might change or hold to old doctrines; Robinson followed the iron course of
conviction. If he hurt the party or made enemies, it was small matter to him.
What was right, what was justice in the case, were his criterions for action.
Possibly he could have made his life easier, possibly there were times when he could
have accomplished more by being more flexible and more politic, but he would
not have been true to his conviction, and that was law to him.
Yet Robinson had a kindly heart and nature. He was ever ready and willing
to help the needy, and very many owe their preservation or advancement to the
helping hand of Governor Robinson. There came from him a heartfelt sympathy
for all who were oppressed, and there was aroused a fighting capacity at once
against the oppressor. He had a religion all his own, which was of pure nature,
of a practical sort. He believed little in creeds, ceremonies, churches or minis-
ters as saving functions, but he believed in a Creator and Father, who answered
the call from the depths of his nature, as a soul crying out for strength in its
loneliness. If he supported not vigorously the outward forms of Christianity, he
practiced his best life in standing for truth, justice, and right living. There is
hardly a church in Lawrence for which he did not contribute money or material.
He believed that there was good in all, and that each was especially good for
some people.
From his earliest life he was a strong temperance man and temperance advo-
cate, but in his later years he bitterly opposed the prohibitory law in Kansas
because he believed it to be non-effective. Once settled in his own mind that it
was a sham, he could not tolerate it, for he hated all shams. It seemed, too,
to oppose freedom, or liberty of action, and he loved freedom, for he was able to
stand upright and alone on the right. While the writer may not agree with his
judgment in the question, his motives were pure. He held, quite properly, that,
as an ideal, temperance is a greater virtue than total abstinence. Many men of
excellent judgment and sterling character, while they deplored the conclusion,
—13
202 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
likewise considered the prohibitory law a sham and demoralizer to society. It is
still an unsettled question, for men will continue to diflfer as to the best methods
that may be employed in waging a perpetual warfare against the evils of intem-
perance.
Governor Robinson was generous in helping any good cause. No deserving
man ever went to him in distress without receiving aid. Believing that every
man should have a chance for his life and prosperity in the industrial struggle,
many were given quiet personal aid, and afterwards lived to call him blessed. As
hero after hero of those who stood shoulder to shoulder in the great struggle to
build a commonwealth in Kansas pass away, leaving the burdens of civilization
to be borne by others, leaving others to enjoy the advantages of previous struggles
and to accept with them the responsibilities that accompany them, we who are
left behind look into the places whence they departed, marveling at their lives,
or stand gazing to heaven, crying, "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel
and the horsemen thereof ! " wondering at the mystery of the providence of God.
At the age of seventy-six years, on Friday, August 17, 1894, at 3 : 15 a. m., just as
the shadow of the night heralded the approach of day, Governor Robinson passed
into the unknown. On Sunday, August 19, four ex-governors of the state, and
prominent men and officials, came to pay their last tribute with old-time friends
and neighbors to him who, so powerful in life, now lay helpless in death. The
funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. C. (i. Howland, a venerable and lova-
ble man, since gone to his rest, who closed with thsee fitting words:
"Much of Governor Robinson's life was tempestuous, but the close was as
gentle as the fading light of day. With a tender but speechless touch of a dear
hand, and without the slightest concern, he went out to meet what the future
hath of marvel or surprise."
GEORGE T. ANTHONY.
Prepared by P. I. Bonebrake, of Topeka, for tlio Kansas State Historical Society,
January 18, 1898.
^ ■"'HE Kansas State Historical Society has assigned to me the pleasant duty of
■*- saying something in memory of the life and character of the late George T.
Anthony. I wi.sh the duty had been imposed upon some one more able to do
justice to the subject than myself.
George T. Anthony was born at Mayfield, Fulton county. New York, June 9,
1324. He died at Topeka, Kan., Wednesday night, August 5, 1896, aged seventy-
three years. His disease was diabetes, with which he had been afflicted for sev-
eral years.
When the chronicler of passing events penned the above lines, he noted the
passing away of one of the most distinguished men Kansas has produced. When
I say "Kansas has produced," I mean to say that the greater usefulness of Gov-
ernor Anthony's life was largely during the period he lived in Kansas. The
prime of his life was spent here.
Like Lincoln, Garfield, and Grant, he was born on a farm.
His father v^nd mother, Benjamin and Anna Anthony, were orthodox Quakers
and active members of that society. It is needless to say that they were strongly
anti-slavery in their sentiments, and many poor fugitives from bondage had
active assistance in escaping to a land of freedom. The son, therefore, inherited
the intense hostility to slavery made prominent in his life.
The father died when George was but five years of age. He was the youngest
GEORGE T. ANTHONY. 203
of five children. But small means were left for the mother to support so large a
family, but, with the help of the older children, she managed to keep the family
together for a time. When George was nine years old the family moved to
Greenfield, N. Y., where he attended school in the winter and worked for farmers
in the vicinity in summer.
At the age of sixteen years he went to Union Springs, N. Y., where he entered
the service of his uncle as an apprentice in the tinner's trade. After he had
learned his trade, he opened a small hardware store in Medina, N. Y. He was
his own salesman, bookkeeper, and tinner, working from fourteen to sixteen
hours a day.
The habits of. industry acquired in boyhood and young manhood remained
with him during his entire life; an indefatigable worker, whether in business,
politics, or official life.
His self-reliance, which was sometimes misinterpreted, was acquired in his
early days, when working for the support of his mother and in making a start in
life, when he had nothing but his own brain and hands to rely upon.
He was married to Rosa Lyon, in Park Church, Syracuse, N. Y., December
14, 1852. Mrs. Anthony is still living at her home in Ottawa, Kan. One son
survives him: George H. Anthony, now in service of the Wisconsin Central rail-
road; also, two granddaughters, Anita and Alma Anthony.
His married life was a very happy one, and the bond between husband and
wife, son and grandchildren was of the most affectionate kind.
MILITARY HISTORY.
The opening of the war found him engaged in the commission business in
New York. When the call of July 2, 1862, was made for 300,000 more troops, the
governor of New York organized the state and placed the subdivisions in the
charge of committees. Governor Anthony, ex-Governor Church and Noah Da-
vis, jr., were the committees of Orleans, Niagara and Genesee counties.. Gov-
ernor Anthony organized the Seventeenth New York independent battery of light
artillery, and at once became its captain and placed in active duty. W^hen Gen-
eral Grant organized his last campaign, in June, 1861, he placed Captain Anthony
in command of the fortifications at Alexandria, Va.
This assignment did not suit the captain nor his men. They wanted active
service and were soon assigned to the army of the Potomac. This battery was
selected for two consecutive years and ordered into Washington to fire the na-
tional salute on July 4: also sent to fire the national salute on the renomination
of Abraham Lincoln. These honors were due to the fine appearance and discip-
line of the company. The battery continued in service until June 12, 1865.
Captain Anthony was brevetted major United States volunteers for his gallant
and meritorious services. His military history I quote from the records of the
Loyal Legion, as follows:
"Reported at Camp Barry, Washington, D. C, September, 1862: assigned to
the army for the defense of Washington December, 1862; attached to King's
division at Centerville in summer of 1863: later attached to Second corps; on
July 4, 1864, reported to General Grant at City Point, and assigned to Eighteenth
army corps of the James. Later assigned to Twenty-fourth army corps and took
part in Appomattox campaign. Participated in assault and capture of Peters-
burg, thence to Appomattox, remaining until after surrender. Returned to Rich-
mond April 29, 1865.
"In 1879 Governor Anthony joined Center Post No. 6, Leavenworth, Kan,
He was a charter member of the Kansas Commandery of the Loyal Legion';
member of council of Kansas Commandery, 1887 and 1888; commander of Kan-
sas Commandery, 1893 and 1894.
"His military record was admirable in all respects. He was strict in follow-
204 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
inc his duty. IIo oarly doveloped all the executive ability which he used to such
advantage in political and public life."
Such arc the words of praise given him by his soldier comrades.
In all the years of his life in Kansas his voice was heard at the camp-fires and
on the rostrum in behalf of the survivors of the war.
His idea of the services of the union soldier is best illustrated by an extract
from his address delivered at Mound City, Kan., on Decoration Day, May 30,
1877. He said: "It is not that Christ lived, suffered and died that Christians
bow at the foot of the cross and worship Him. It is because He lived and suffered
and died for them that the cross upon which He died will be forever cherished
as the idol of the heart — the emblem of salvation — to the la^t. So, also, it is
not that these men lived, suffered and died that we cherish their memories. It
is because they suffered and died to save for us the boon of civil and religious
liberty that we revere them, cherishing their graves as the emblem of hope to
the oppressed and downtrodden of earth, covering them with flowers, the sweetest
of affection's offering. I am here to say this is right, for, ' even as Christ died to
save men's souls, these men died to make men free.' "
PUBLIC LIFE.
Governor Anthony became a resident of Kansas in November, 1865, locating
at Leavenworth. From that date to the date of his death his career was closely
identified with the public interests of his adopted state. He was editor of the
Leavenworth Daily Bulletin and the Leavenworth Daily Conservative two
years and a half, and editor and publisher of the Kansas Farmer for six years.
He was appointed assistant assessor. United States internal revenue, in Decem-
ber, 1867, and collector of internal revenue July 11, 1868. He was president of
the state board of agriculture for three years, and of the board of Centennial man-
agers for two years, holding the three last-named positions at the time of his elec-
tion to the office of governor, November, 1876.
At the close of his term he was a candidate for reelection, but was defeated in
the convention. Seventeen ballots were taken, the votes being distributed be-
tween Governor Anthony, John A. Martin, and John P. St. John.
In 1831 ex-Governor Anthony was appointed general superintendent of the
Mexican Central railway, a position which he held two years.
In 1885 he represented Leavenworth county in the lower house of the legisla-
ture.
In 1889 the executive council chose him as a member of the board of railroad
•commissioners, and he was reelected in 1892, serving until the populists came
into power the following year.
On May 5, 1892, ex-Governor Anthony was nominated by the republicans for
congressman at large, but was defeated at the polls in November by W. A. Harris.
In 1895 the ex-governor was appointed superintendent of insurance by Gov-
ernor Morrill, an office which he was holding at his death.
A combination of honors so varied, so responsible, held within a period of
thirty years, is without precedent in the history of the state, or perhaps in the
history of the country.
George T. Anthony's greatest usefulness to his adopted state was his work
while editor of the Kansas Farmer and as president of the board of Centennial
managers. The pioneer farmers of Kansas were negligent in the management of
farm affairs. Corn was about the only crop produced, and at the end of the sea-
son the plow was left in the furrow, and the mowing-machine was left in the
fence corner, while the live stock were left to shift for themselves. The Kansas
Farmer taught diversified farming, economy in management, improvement in
GEORGE T. ANTHONY. 205
live stock, and higher regard for home and social life. The Centennial exhibit
made a grand advertisement of Kansas. It attracted the attention of people
even beyond the limits of our own country. She took higher rank among her
sister states than ever before, and began that marvelous growth and development
which is so tersely described by Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, in a speech
in the United States senate. He said:
"There is no other instance on the face of the earth, unless it be some neigh-
boring state, where a territory has grown up in forty-two years containing such
a population, such wealth, such value of agricultural lands, such vast agricul-
tural products. I do not know if there is another instance of such prosperity."
Governor Anthony was criticized more than any other of the prominent men
of the state, except perhaps Lane and Robinson; yet, in all that period of thirty
years in responsible positions, not a word was said touching his honor or his in-
tegrity. In each of the many public positions he held he filled the full measure
of the requirements of its duties and responsibilities.
POLITICS.
From his antecedents and his service in the army he could not be anything
but a republican, and from the date of his coming to Kansas until the day of his
death his voice and pen were used in behalf of that party. Not a single cam-
paign passed without his participation therein. He was a very positive man,
strong in his convictions, intense in what he believed was right, and very ear-
nestly opposed to what he thought was wrong. His intensity and plainness of
speech made him enemies. As said before, his educational advantages in boy-
hood were limited. Yet in that broader education which comes from contact
with men, by reading and thinking, he was the equal of our most distinguished
men. In debate and in strong, logical argument he had not his peer in the state.
He was not an orator in the sense of using beautiful language or imagery; but in
the use of sound argument, clear logic that reached and convinced the minds of
his auditors, he was an orator of the first class. There was one trait shown in all
his speeches or addresses: he was an American ; whether in political speeches,
addresses to colleges. Christian associations, or temperance meetings, he taught
loyalty.
It was the pleasure of the writer to attend the trans-Mississippi convention at
New Orleans as a fellow delegate of Governor Anthony. After an elaborate ad-
dress by a distinguished gentleman from Colorado, Governor Anthony was called
upon to reply. In closing, he spoke as follows, in language that will be appro-
priate for all time :
" I entreat you, I beseech you, not to give ear to like efforts that are made to
array class against class, one portion of our common people against another por-
tion, the debtor against the creditor. There are no classes in this country, Mr.
President. This is one country, where classes are unknown; where every man
and every woman stand upon their own merits, and are measured by their indi-
vidual worth. In an audience of 10,000 men you may ask the debtors to rise and
be counted, and every man will rise; you may ask in that same audience the
creditors to rise and be counted, and every man will rise. And why, sir ? Be-
cause every American who has brains and business sense enough in him worthy
of being an American citizen is both a debtor and a creditor all the time.
"Then let each pursue his calling with patriotism, with love of justice among
men, and reason and right among states. Let us cease these efforts to prejudice
one against another, remembering always that we are American citizens, and
that he who puts a blot upon the fair fame of our nation, or upon that repre-
sentative body of statesmen who make our laws, disgraces and dishonors himself,
because it is the man that makes the nation."
It will be borne in mind that this was said before an immense audience, a
206 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
larjjo i)ortion of whom had been lately in rebellion against the country, yet at the
close of the address it was followed by round after round of applause.
That this power and ability as a public speaker was appreciated is illustrated
by the foliowiiif,' incident. The year following the centennial, the governors of
thirty states visited New York. At a banquet given there, the most prominent
of the governors present made speeches. Governor Anthony's address was most
applauded by the audience and most complimented by the public press.
.\s by his reijuest, his funeral was a simple one. The remains were taken to
Representative hall at nine o'clock, August 8, where they lay in state until 1:30
1". M. A prayer service was read by Doctor McCabe, at the conclusion of which
the remains were taken to the Topeka cemetery, where Doctor Fisher read the
ritualistic service of the Grand Army of the Republic. The body was then
placed in the grave, there to await the summons of the angel of the resurrection.
He is gone. To him was allotted more than three score years and ten. To
him was given more than usual the duties, responsibilities and honors of life;
and when the asperities which grow out of public duties and political life have
passed away, he will be accorded a place in Kansas history second only to John
Brown, General Lane, and Governor Robinson.
" Why weep ye then for him who having run
The bound of man's appointed years, at last.
Life's blessings all enjoyed, life's labors done.
Serenely to his final rest has passed.
While the soft memory of his virtues yet
Lingers, like twilight hues when the bright sun is set?"
SOLON O. THACHER.
Prepared by Stuart Heney, of Lawrence, for the Kansas State Historical Society.
''piIE invocation of the destinies that may appear visionally to preside in me-
^ moriam over the intricate souvenirs of a modern man who has done with
life through rich fulness must summon origins, motives, experiences, cults, so
remote, so labyrinthine, that the faltering commemorator would fain yield at once
by helplessly seeking recourse to the magic of the universal solvent Mystery, and
cease with tracing the word itself across a marble slab of Memory.
It seems rare in our new West that there has moved through events one whose
career disproved many maxims of sages of our century. For, in recalling this
career, what may be thought of the perspicacity of those latter-day Montaignes
who have declared that life is the art of being well deceived: that there is nothing
in common between merit and modesty but the initial letter ; that it is as difficult
for the wise to acquire riches as it is for the rich to acquire wisdom ? One would
not expect the ability to analyze the elusive faculties and capacities of him who
was tender though a judge ; a successful business man though a lawyer ; a farmer
though a student of books; a devout church Christian though mentally as liberal
as hope — in whom, in a word, the sense of the practical and the sense of the
sjiiritual were amply interfused.
To Judge Thacher's mind, opposites and contrarieties formed careers. He
felt that unity means uniformity which is the cast of death; and that he who
.seeks the unification of things seeks unwittingly the paralytic state of an
oriental. He realized that the Occident has led civilization now these many
centuries because it possesses, to the opiate surprise of the orientals, so little
harmony and repose. He recognized that the friction of the irreconcilable makes
SOLON O. THACHER. 207
up its history and hope; and that, consequently, in searching to unite and ac-
cord the traits and phases of an occidental personality one would dehumanize
it and deify it, and therefore destroy its human interest and inspiration. Self-
confident the memorialist who would not embrace such credenda, and attempt
more than the indication of certain of the incongruities in Judge Thacher's life,
leaving to Mystery the mystery of these dissidences harmonizing in an exemplary
issue and career.
A Roman aphorism he often noticed was from Ovid: "Studies pass into char-
acter"; a saying which perhaps most nearly interprets and furnishes the word
that perhaps best designates the involved nature of Judge Thacher's influence
and accomplishments-— character. There follows at once into mind the inevi-
table "character is destiny," of Novalis. Judge Thacher believed that herein
lay distilled the essence of the Lord's life and teaching: character rather than
deeds; being rather than doing. The Cains do, the Abels are; opposed to the
gesta of Ca?sar is the character of Christ. Judge Thacher thought that if the
march of progress had developed on the Abel and Christ model our earth would
have been to-day a vast, innocent and noble pasture field: for the spectacle of
the world's material advancement is due to Cain, the destroyer, in his desire of
vengeance, and to his own descendants. Christianity seems, indeed, somewhat
unlike other religions in that its historic origins are associated with crime. There
was the murder of Abel, and the expulsion of Cain into hate and revenge; and
there was the crucifixion of Jesus, and resultant retaliatory spirit which the Holy
Church exhibited when it reached power and opportunity. The nature of his-
toric Christianity appears dual, being composed of meekness and militancy — of
meekness and might. Hence arise. Judge Thacher observed, the difficulties
encountered by the church if it claim to adopt and incorporate into its body,
spiritual and Galilean, the material impulses and wonders of our new Roman
civilization, which glories in its giant cities, armies, fleets, and iron trade and
commerce, all born of the hot sweat and profanation of our Cain-the-builder rest-
lessness.
This concept and practice of progress were innately repugnant to him. He
preferred meekness to militancy; meekness to might. He felt that meekness
was the Christ expression of character; and that Christ's triumph down the
centuries is peculiarly personal, inasmuch as the human idea of Jesus has re-
mained essentially one and the same, while the idea of religion, of God, of the
Bible, has changed often and profoundly.
Judge Thacher, in seeking to build up character; in admiring it whenever
and wherever he found it described, whether in the majestic pages of Macaulay
or in the local paragraphs of the Lawrence Journal; in abhorring the Napoleons
and the Bismarcks — those modern monsters (as he called them) who made
history more rapidly than historians could write it; in adoring the Burkes, the
Lincolns, the Gladstones, the Sewards; in loving serenity and spirituality — in
all this Judge Thacher exemplified his conceptions of Christian living. He
agreed with those who attack socialism because they believe it would not tend to
elevate character, though he recognixed that the world's greatest institution —
the Catholic church — is socialistic, with the express aim in view of fortifying
the sense of mortal destiny. His preference to shine by quiet manifestation of
character, rather than by display of deed, defines his certain indifference to what
is commonly termed ambition : and explains how he succeeded where, according
to secular wisdom, he should have failed, and succeeded though perhaps, to
boldly ambitious eyes, apparently failing.
Thus, he was a pure man from principle. His moral rectitude, womanly in its
208 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
emphasis, may have been the source of his unusual clemency and lenience for
which those nearest him loved him best. Without kinship to the susceptibilities
of such as the hard-fancying Symonds, whose skies are lapis lazuli and whose
seas are turquoise, Judge Thacher's temperament and imagination were sufFusive,
and he was infinitely gentle and tender.
Abeunt studia in moren. Like Rufus Choate, he had the habit of retiring
from the strife and suffocation of the court-room, and finding solace in his library
chair at home, with the exclamation, "There is no immortality but a book ! " The
many great books, the many good books, that were his daily companions, re-
flected his aspirations toward a high inner purpose. His books passed into his
character. Their influence seasoned and sweetened his life, and prevented him
from becoming desiccated like a lawyer, or contracted like a banker, or hardened
like a business man ; yet he was identified with all three of these varieties of
career. An optimist, he cared to know little of the Leopardis and the Schopen-
hauers. Nor did he wish for the frail and ailing geniuses of literature — the Poes,
the Heines, the Amiels. Though he, too, was highly sensitive, his Christian
optimism saved his own sensoria from the diseased enchantments and suffering
delights that haunt brilliantly incurable minds and imaginations. At the same
time, he disliked what is usually termed realism in letters. Works of the virile
Gogols and Zolas he called nauseating; and, for kindred reasons, he loathed
the tainted and painted authors. He held the traditional belief that belles-
lettres should be a purifying font of relaxation. Scott and Irving were his ideals
among creators of fiction. He never wearied of re-reading the Waverly dreams
of romantic ideality, for he appreciated the feelings of that famous person of last
century who was always wishing to escape out of civilization into romance. His
friends marveled that he could epitomize, offhand, innumerable novels and legal
decisions with intermingling ease and completeness.
In his more serious hours of diversion, Macaulay and De Quincey were of those
whom he communed with most. xVnd among all the statesmen and literary politi-
cists his model was Edmund Burke, with his Nltor in adversii?n, of whom he
cherished an intimate and comprehensive knowledge. In fact, the literature of
England, because of its grander distances and altitudes, seemed more to Judge
Thacher than our young American extension, whose only admitted wonder is
its Poe. Judge Thacher subscribed to the Eclectic Magazine during his thirty-
seven years in Kansas, and it was almost the last thing he held in his hand.
This American periodical served to keep him abreast of the latest English thought
on every theme, and broadened his intellectual sympathies beyond our own ex-
tensive national confines, contributing, in this manner, its share to the develop-
ment of that universality of view which characterized his judgments and opinions.
In the French realm of letters and life, he appeared only interested in the
titanic Hugo, because of his colossal republicanism and imagination, and in Re-
nan, whose withdrawal from Catholicism and quests in the domains of biblical
literature and Israelitish history are universal sources of delicate enthusiasm.
The fascinating agnosticism of Renan apparently harmonized with his own schol-
arly Christianity. No volume had he studied so deeply as the Bible. A leader
in Sabbath-school and in his church, he pored over Geikie, Driver, Drummond,
with the devoutness of a clergyman; as a result, when he traveled in Palestine
he was equipped to relocate and to erect in vision its patriarchal and Nazarene
past, and to wonder at its present plight and disillusion.
.Vlthough a Christian in principle and attempt, and although the Christian
religion is romantic and the genesis of medieval and modern romanticism, he
was fond of the classic. He relished the English classics of the eighteenth cen-
SOLON O. THACHER. 209
tury. Addison, Goldsmith, Gibbon, were on his tongue's end. When at Athens,
he joined instinctively in Kenan's prayer on the Acropolis, and accepted Kenan's
remark that Athens is the surpassing miracle of history — save (one involuntarily
adds) the personality of Christ. The sublime Christian reaches and heights of
the interior of Amiens did not awaken in him greater satisfaction than the dainty
majesty of a Panathena?an procession on a Grecian frieze.
But the origin of his appreciation of the classic was probably the Latin. The
English and the Latin might be regarded his favorites of profane literatures;
and many of his addresses and letters were so copiously adorned with their quo-
tations and recondite allusions, abounding in names unfamiliar to the ordinary
ear, that they bewilder our ignorance. The sententious, worldly knowledge of
the short, thick-set, round-headed Romans gave him a gratification partly ex-
plained perhaps by their eminence in jurisprudence. Then, too, the literary
Roman dwelt, observed and indited out-of-doors; there were sunlight, fresh air,
the fragrance of a tilled Campagna, the noise of Rome, over his scrolls. The
"Pastorals" and "Georgics" of Virgil, with their bucolic elegance of health
and ease, offered a rare attraction to him. Tityrus, under his beachen boughs,
personified, in a measure, Judge Thacher's own taste for culture and agriculture.
And of the informal pursuit of that duality was his real inner life composed.
He came by this naturally, for his father conned Latin text-books, and used to
say that a farmer could plow a furrow better after reading a paragraph of Latin,
A book and a farm made up Judge Thacher's innermost informal life; the law
was his formal occupation, amply pursued ; all things else — politics, office-holding,
accumulating a fortune — were to him as duties.
If agriculture is indeed to be regarded a narrowing occupation, there can be
no question as to its broadening influence on mind and character when followed
together with book studies. Books alone may generate miasms of brain and
body; agriculture alone may thicken the wit and callous the sensibilities; but, to-
gether, they lead to an ideal existence. During his last twenty years Judge
Thacher was one of the largest farmers in Kansas. He owned many hundred
acres of the best Kaw valley land, and many pastures in Douglas county. He
produced all varieties of crops, and year after year fattened stock for the Kansas
Citv' markets. He experimented with the latest devices in farm machinery, wrote
dissertations on the cultivation of the grape, understood the value of moisture ar-
tificially applied to soils — the science usually known as irrigation. He addressed
innumerable gatherings of farmers at state and county fairs, at agricultural so-
cieties, and at meetings in country churches and schoolhouses. And his usual
text on such occasions was the remark Mr. Seward once made to Judge Usher:
" The happiest lot I can imagine for my boys is to be owners of good farms,
well stocked, in a good community, out of debt, and to know nobody more than
ten miles from home."
Judge Thacher believed the lot of the successful farmer the best. "The far-
mer out of debt is a happy man," was one of his sayings. He always thought of
Webster on the farm rather than in the senate. He loved the black "cheeks"
of Kansas soil, and the "chubby, brown-eyed children" (to use his expressions)
whom he met along the country roadsides in his almost daily rides. He loved to
draw in deep, full breaths of fresh air and to feel the wind blow on his face. His
habit was to rise early, go out to the stable, look over the stock, plan the day's
work for the men, pump and quaff a draught of water at the well before break-
fast. His countless drives to his farms were unwearying pleasures to him. No
one esteemed more than he the significant beauty of ripening grain or of mere
meadow land. When in a corn-field he would exclaim, "This is clean money!"
210 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
meaning that the corn was growing into coin earned without taint, subterfuge,
or extortion, and that came forth direct from the hands of nature. The lines of
Longfellow were ever in his mouth:
"O, what a glory doth this world put on
For him who, with fervent heart, goes forth.
Under the bright and glorious sky, and looks
On duties well performed, and days well spent!
For him the wind, aye, and the yellow leaves.
Shall have a voice and give him eloquent teachings."
While from his culture came his universality of view, there came from his
knowledge of agriculture, united as it was to his legal efficiency, that wholesome
maturity — that well-rounded ripeness of mind, disposition, and experience —
which distinguished him among his associates, and distinguished him in Kansas.
His father was a county judge in Steuben county. New York. Solon Otis,
born August .31, 1830, attended as a youth Alfred Academy. He graduated from
the classical department of Union College under the venerable Doctor Nott, who,
more than any noted person, shaped his early manhood, and whom he considered,
taken all in all, the foremost citizen New York state has produced. He received
a diploma at the Albany law school, and went to the New York legislature when
twenty-six years of age, after having been a member of the first convention called
to organize the republican party in that commonwealth. He married, Septem-
ber 11, 1856, Sarah Mary Gilmore, of York, Livingston county. New York, who
survives him; and of their union were born two daughters, Mary H., now Mrs.
Peter E. Emery, of Lawrence, and Nellie G., who died in 1891, not many months
after her marriage to Stuart Henry. Judge Thacher began as a yorng man to
read the weekly New York Tribune ; his name always remained on its subscrip-
tion lists; and Greeley, Phillips, Sumner, Beecher, Seward, were those he fol-
lowed as leaders in the national crisis then impending. As a result, the conflict
in Kansas attracted him; and he finally settled in Lawrence in July, 1858. It
was in Kansas that he bruised his knees against the threshold of his real career.
He became one of the proprietors and editors of the Lawrence Journal. An
early Kansas hero has written:
"Wherever a political meeting was held, Thacher was present; whatever new
move was contemplated, he was consulted; wherever there was a contest pending
between freedom and slavery, his voice was heard — always in terms easily under-
stood."
He ranked as a conspicuous figure in the Wyandotte convention : and the con-
stitution of Kansas, as then and there adopted, was, for the most part, his own
handiwork. The memoirs of those times say :
"The great speech of that convention was delivered by Solon O. Thacher, in
opposition to a resolution offered by Mr. McCune, of Leavenworth county, asking
that 'free negroes' be excluded from a residence in this state. That speech set-
tied the (juestion in favor of the absolute freedom of the Kansas soil to all colors
and conditions in life."
Whenever ex-Governor Martin wished to i)lu.strate the lofty spirit which per-
vaded that memorable convention, he quoted this sentence of Judge Thacher's
address :
"This constitution will commend itself to the true and good everywhere, be-
cause through every line and syllable there glows thegenerous sunshine of liberty."
In 1861 he became judge of the fourth judicial district, which comprised eight
counties: Allen, Anderson, Bourbon, Douglas, Franklin, Johnson, Linn, and Ly-
kins (now Miami). The first entry in journal "A" of the court records of that
SOLON O. THACHER. 211
district is signed "S. O. Thacher, judge." As there were no railroads, he went
in wagon or on horseback from one county-seat and court to another. For four
years, or during all the desperate period of the war, he traveled constantly back
and forth, holding court in the particular territory whose passion made Kansas
into history. He rounded the circuit flanked by his pistols, leaving his family in
dread lest word might come at any moment that he had met the abrupt fate
which so many of his Lawrence friends and neighbors had confronted. On Sat-
urday afternoons, when he found he could reach home, however late that night,
he ventured on the trip back to Lawrence, alone if necessary, and in spite of
weather, regiments, or assassins. He courted this hebdomadal danger in order
that he might pass the Sabbath with his family, although he knew that he must
risk the return trip to open court the following Monday morning. Happily he
never suffered physical harm; and, indeed, his home — " the old home," where he
lived his first fifteen years in Kansas, the house that looked across the way to the
Free State hotel, and that Quantrill's men visited — still stands intact on its
southern bluff of the Kaw, and in the midst of a large, pleasant grass plot senti-
neled by trees.
The inevitable political contest in Kansas between refined enlightenment and
f rontierism ( to put it crudely ) came off in 186i, when Thacher and Ingalls were
the candidates on the republican union ticket for governor and lieutenant-gov-
ernor against the representatives of the Lane-republican party. Men like Gen-
eral Lane and Judge Thacher could not be expected to affiliate with each other
any more than culture could be expected to exist together with pioneerism, how-
ever heroic or magnetic. The one leader represented what had been, the other
represented what was to be, in this commonwealth. And from about the time of
this campaign Kansas ceased making history, and began cultivating a peaceful
welfare, wherein, to follow the law of the Greek Solon, civic happiness is reached
by having each citizen feel that the injuries of others are like his own.
From 1865 until 1880 there was an interim in Judge Thacher's public life.
During this period he neither held office nor gave noteworthy heed to politics.
But it was then that he achieved his reputation as a lawyer, and also amassed
one of the largest fortunes in the state. It was then that he became an expe-
rienced counselor and advocate, farmer, stock-feeder, business man, banker, and
a highly read man.
In the first years after the war Lawrence uninterruptedly aspired to be the
important city in Kansas. It sought then to take advantage of the finest water
power within our borders, of a location near coal-fields, and of a fame in na-
tional history of the only federal commonwealth that possessed a marked accent
of statehood — the South Carolina of the North. '•'■Fervei opus,^' was its motto.
Kansas trade converged to and diverged from Lawrence. The name traveled as
a familiar part of the title of Kansas railway corporations. General railway of-
fices, the pension office and the Indian agency were on Massachusetts street.
Lawrence grew rapidly in riches and in charm. It adorned itself with shade-trees
and rosebushes when Kansas City yet seemed a hopeless attempt at compromise
between mud bank and bluff, and while Topeka appeared scarcely more than a
political accident. True to her New England instincts and traditions, Lawrence
put churches and schools to the fore in her development. Plymouth Church
flourished then, as now, under the excellent pastorate of Reverend Doctor Cordley,
of whom Judge Thacher was ever a faithful follower. Our state university threw
open its doors on the heights of Mount Oread. Judge Thacher was, from the
first, one of its local fathers and several times a regent. He was always called
into the councils of its friends. His occasional lectures in its chapel never failed,
212 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
for three decades, to draw the faculty and students. In his last years, of com-
parative leisure, he filled the chair of equity jurisprudence in its law school. It
WHS also durinp the intermediate period of his life that he and a few friends
formed the genial "Old and New" of Lawrence, a club which deserves felicitous
notice in any social history of our state.
In that era of the brisk prosperity of Lawrence he had the leading law prac-
tice in the city, and probably the most remunerative clientage in the state.
Upon his chosen profession of the law he bestowed the best of his determined
efforts for nearly forty years. A sage counselor, one who persuasively presented
before judge and jury the weight of broad legal acumen, supported by lofty char-
acter and a large experience, he easily deserved to be reckoned among the fore-
most of Western attorneys. He believed, as a lawyer, in the constant study of
law books, and would say of any indolent student in his office: "I fear he will
not do much at the bar: I do not see him at his books." Judge Thacher made
fidelity to client his chief legal motto; not merely fidelity in point of honor, but
fidelity as to details. He was proud to win a case through the carelessness of
opix)sing counsel as to minor matters — a date overlooked, an indifferent motion
unheeded. While not a criminal attorney, his exceptional ability to do very
different things well enabled him to conduct, single-handed, for a prosecuted cli-
ent one of the first sensational cases in Kansas after the war — State vs. Medli-
cott. A murder had been committed in Lawrence. The press and public pounced
upon Doctor Medlicott as the culprit. For months Judge Thacher held at bay
almost the whole community. The testimony in court was voluminous, and much.
of it expert, involved, and contradictory. The prosecution was capable and daunt-
less. The strain became so intense and prolonged that he scarcely ate or slept
for weeks; but at the long-deferred close of the trial the victory was his.
He seemed what is sometimes called the modern type of a lawyer, in that he
was practical in business affairs and a thrifty accumulator. It was during the
season of rapid expansion in Lawrence that he put his fees into broad acres, and
assumed duties as an agriculturist. It was at this time that he took possession
of the home so familiar to his friends — a residence towering up at the foot of
Universit}' hill. It is a noble retreat, embellished with books, paintings, and
sculptures; and where, from the windows of his lofty chamber, the valley ap-
pears decked at noon in a gauze of haze recalling that of the Oise or of Lucca;
and where, at summer eve, the dusk falls like fine, black lace over the shoulders
of Mount Oread. Along the upper edges of the homestead still remain the breast-
works erected by the heroic defenders of Lawrence; and a few rods back, looms
the great gray cranium of young Kansas.
The commercial future of Lawrence changed from its auspicious course. The
year 187.3 came; the "boom" died away; values shrank like sensitive-plants.
Kansas City and Topeka sapped by degrees the growths of their rival in trade.
Its railway offices and wholesale houses preferred to take new root elsewhere.
And Lawrence gradually consented to become the Boston of Kansas. Out of it
all Judge Thacher emerged financially unharmed, by reason of his business
ability. He continued to prosper with a prudence unsurpassed among our pio-
neers. If he had been "ambitious," he would have located at this time in To-
peka, Kansas City, or Chicago.
But civic ambition was indeed a trial to him — a kind of duty that so often
falls to the lot of an able attorney. Conscientious, introspective, he analyzed
himself, sifted motives, weighed principles, doubted precedents, magnified the
merits of emulators, so that he usually hesitated until too late, and thus gratified
a certain indifference. His extensive reading of biography contributed to his
SOLON O. THACHER. ^ 213
attitude in this respect; for who may become familiar with the lives of men like
Webster, Cobden, Seward, and not prefer quiet pursuits to the abasements of
Procrustean politics and the ingratitude of a coquettish public ? A politician,
we are told, is assumed to be a bold compound of assurance and ignorance.
Judge Thacher was, by contrast, of the pattern of a circumspect politicist or
statesman who adopts ideas, not through assumption, but through considerate
study and experience, and who advocates principles rather than policies. This
was the result of his culture, for he accepted the Matthew Arnold conception of
culture as the following of right reason to perfection.
Possessing, in active life, a temperament practical and unpale, he realized
that force, brutal though it is, rules the secular workings of our universe. He
wrote :
" When a man trusts the chemistry of the sun, the alchemy of the clouds,
the solvents of frost and gravitation, he places his faith in immutable laws and
forces."
And he frequently quoted Van Ihring's dictum: "All law is attained through
struggle and is the product of force." Hence, Judge Thacher felt that, for in-
stance, the reign of democracy must not be looked upon as a necessary evil; for
if the government in our land of liberty were of only the higher class they would
so subdivide and separate that there would be no dynamic concensus to guide
the state. It requires the force of our less enlightened masses to weld, solidify
and give momentum to public principles and policies ; and it is from this great
impact of the coarser citizenship that political and sociological rejuvenations pro-
ceed, just as, in nature, new growths spring from compost. Judge Thacher be-
lieved fully in the future of democracy, and that each discovery or development
in science is a germ of power placed in the hands of the people.
His recognition of the reign of force caused his caution and prudence in busi-
ness matters, and led him usually to advocate a conservative thesis like that of
his address (which many of us may remember) at the state university in 1878 on
"Hard Times":
"No man has a right to assume a burden so great that the least adversity will
overwhelm him. There is something far better than money. We have the com-
forts; what we have lost is the fever of display."
And yet, his recognition of the reign of force also caused him to realize so ex-
emplarily that energy must be met with energy, and that man must be actively
and healthfully industrious. As a consequence, his life was not overhung with
any shadows of that lethargy which he commented upon whenever he repeated
the refrain of Bayard Taylor:
"We walk among the currents of actions left undone.
The germs of deeds that wither before they see the sun.
For every sentence uttered a million more are dumb ;
Men's lives are chains of chances and history their sum."
Judge Thacher preferred to remain in his town and home rather than follow
the selfish promises of a high-strung ambition. The theme is almost proverbial
that the town tends to project one's subjectivity along narrow parallels, and that
the city tends to flatten out one's personality. For many reasons, existence
seems more trying in a town than in a city or desert. In a commonwealth like
Kansas, whose only cities are towns, urbanity is made up for by a morality whose
comparative merit and value Kansans do not appraise too highly. The dispens-
ing of any especial admiration for the memories of the early saints and pious
hermits in their isolation — those stationary tramps of old — appears idle, since it
was less difficult for them to inhabit the deserts than the towns. Judge Thacher
214 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
lived in tho same town for thirty-seven years, and was longest its foremost re-
spected citizen, active in its counsels and charities, a leader in its generous im-
I)ulses for progress, a constant factor in its equations of things accomplished,
the shining mark and bearer (as often as he consented ) of its good will and public
confidence. Had he succeeded in nothing else than this his life would have been
a triumph.
In 1880, after fifteen years, he resumed his political career and became state
senator. A conspicuous figure from the first in the revolution of prohibition, he
was. in 1882, a candidate for governor against St. John. His moderate and
compensatory views on the application of this panacea were openly accepted by
a large class of the intellectual and responsible men of the state, until there
came the overwhelming verdicts at the polls. The legislative climax in the cause
of Kansas prohibition was reached in the senatorial discussion between Senator
Everest and Judge Thacher. It is believed that there has never been in our
senate a debate so able, scholarly, and effective in results. Judge Thacher's re-
ply to Senator Everest, on January 29, 1883, was replete with logic, rhetorical re-
tort, eloquent appeal, and literary adornment, and was accepted at the time as the
ultimate legislative argument of practical prohibition before its political and
social opponents.
About the close of his first term in the senate, he received from President
Arthur the appointment as one of the three national commissioners to visit the
states of Central and South America, "for the purpose of ascertaining the best
modes of promoting more intimate international and commercial relations between
those countries and our own." Judge Thacher was de facto the commission.
His voyage extended over a period of seven months, and covered 3j:,000 miles,
not without peril. He nearly perished in a storm in the straits of Magellan, and
was finally shipwrecked oflf Brazil. A British steamer rescued him and carried
him to England, whence he arrived home in safety. He bore greetings from
our government to nearly all the countries south of our boundary, met nearly all
their rulers and statesmen, and enjoyed in the various capitals the honors and
dignities of his position. His reports to congress were exhaustive, and led to his
being called before the subcommittee on foreign relations in the senate to ex-
pound his ideas of reciprocity. He was a Blaine protectionist in the reciprocity
sense before Blaine had really developed his theories. Judge Thacher's South
American tour, in adding more than a continent to the domains of his obser-
vation, broadened and deepened the scope of his information. It was the crown-
ing experience and honor of his life.
In after-years he returned to the state senate, and was senator at the time of
his death, in August, 1895. His colleagues generally admitted that he stood as the
central pillar and chief resource of the senate by reason of his age, long service,
legal qualifications, and identification with the various interests for which the
word Kansas is almost synonymous. When he spoke in the upper house, he re-
fracted and reflected so much of material importance, that he was perhaps
unique among the prominent Kansas legislators. At the time of his death he
was president of the Kansas State Historical Society.
In any summing up of his career of deed and outward rank, his leadership in
the senate should be taken into account, as well as the fact that he was the only
general minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary whom Kansas has yet
furnished the nation. In saying, also, that the law and laws of our state, from
the date of its constitution down to the legislative session of 1895, were his crea-
tion more than any other Kansan's, one may recall the remark of a famous dipio-
SOLON O. THACHER. 215
mat, that the thoughts of the best men of a commonwealth become its public
opinion at the last.
Yet this record of practical and more or less prosaic success did not constitute
the expression of his innate self. Judge Thacher was an idealist.
In our lustrum, idealism appears to be vaguely defined as a taste for that
which passes beyond the facts — a taste for an over-science which neither our
senses reach nor our convictions prove. We know something of its mundane ap-
proaches and abutments, and little of its suspension into the azure unknown.
Yet this aerial realm of transcendental ideality Judge Thacher ever aspired after;
and, softened with the mists of emotion, he bowed before and worshiped its mys-
tery which encompasses us. He adopted, in a manner, the "God-intoxicated"
Spinoza's belief, that body is not terminated by thinking nor thinking by body.
Judge Thacher held that truth and justice, for instance, are not fixed and abso-
lute; that they are not to be regarded as jeweled perfections, somewhere and
somehow crv'stallized. He looked upon such conceptions as archaic and inhu-
man, since he was assured that the world is recognizing more warmth in truth,
more tenderness in justice, and that both assume shifting, indistinct guises.
The charm of mystery, that limitless and appealing envelope of our planet, pos-
sessed his soul. To him it was God-given, sensuous; the mother of hope, the sire
of imagination. While accrediting to science its full due as a torch-bearer of
civilization, he remarked that its limitations are immense, and that, as hitherto
largely developed, it might almost be defined as the stumbling onto discoveries
while en route for something it does not attain. He found his chief reliance and
comfort in mystery as conceived substantially in the Christian spirit. Pascal
may perhaps be considered a prototype — Pascal, who first supplied logic to Chris-
tianity; in whom the fibers of mentality and impressibility were so evenly and
beautifully keyed up that he keenly thought and as keenly felt: and whose whole
stretch of life quavered, as if a delicate scale of chromatic sensibilities.
Judge Thacher was a sentimentalist. The world appeared to him as suffusing
in colors and dissolving in vistas. And his idealism, his love of mystery, his re-
ligious dreams, went further. They accepted, in his last years, the abracada-
braic cult of the mystic and the supernatural. He wished to visit India, that he
might receive the impression of its pearl white mosques and of its obscurantism.
In all this he was identified with our end of the century in its essentially
Christian reaction from the realistic shudder of the generation before.
He was, therefore, of a poetic nature. Its manifestation is found in his writ-
ings. He exhibited, when the theme bid, a refulgence of imagination and an
opulence of style which at times seemed to equal the gifts of our great prose im-
passionists, and suggested De Quincey, the texture of whose Utopian language
is traditionally described as so rich that it can stand up alone. Here and there
in his lectures and contributions are beheld strangely vivid and grandiose illumi-
nations, like this coruscation from his commencement address, "The Fanatic,"
at Washburn College in 188i :
"Knowledge is a bleak, dark shadow, looming against the upper air, until there
rises above its crest the fiery column of the glowing lava and the flame-lit vapors
of intense emotion."
Without the author's consciousness of the fact, this is the purest Victor Hugo.
We are reminded that volumes of combat were once waged about such literary
imagery as this, for it was a part of the shifting of literature from the classic
molds into the romantic. "Knowledge is light" is associated with the Greek;
"knowledge is a shadow" is held to be characteristic of the romantic — of Rosi-
crucian Christianity. Such a sentence would flare forth only from an imagina-
216 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
tive brain directly open to the mysterious beyond — the beyond which is so closely
allied to thf within.
And, in other moods, he struck the chords of sentiment like this:
"The fidelities never grow old. Change touches the theories of science ; state-
ments of philosophy and creed gather mildew and rust; but no moth burrows in
the shining robe of gratitude. In deepest reverence and love we lay garlands on
the altars of sincerity, candor, and truth. While a perennial fragrance lingers
around these qualities, the unfolding years interweave them with new forms and
new hopes."
One of the most familiar ideas here vibrates in a cadence that attunes our
feelings. These fabrics of fancy were to him almost heedless, as are the creations
of any truly lyrical soul. When the epic entered into his paragraphs, he loved,
like Macaulay, to marvel at the panoramas of history from the roof of things; to
gaze across the checkered lights and shadows down the corridors of time; to
wander in self-communion in the somber aisles of vaulting thought. On the
Janiculum at sunset or the violet-tinged hills of Athens, or among the fountains
of the Alhambra or the ruins of Baalbec, or the peaks of the Andes, he was
quick to revel in immense visions of the world and limn with language the glories
of the past. For such an imaginative and varied sensuousness were needed, in
turn, his noble expanses of syntax, reclusive depth of phrase, his Petrarchian
felicity in mixing roses with words.
And yet there was no pedantry in his culture nor tension in his efforts. He
conveyed a sense of reserve and resource; he never appeared to be doing his best.
He thus kept fresh to his friends and neighbors; and his audiences in Lawrence
were always large, representative, and appreciative. He was a fine speaker ; or he
might have been called an orator, if the public did not generally accept in our
day Froude's declaration that oratory is brilliant in the inverse ratio of the truth
contained in it. But momentary notice might be drawn to Judge Thacher's
prayers at church and at home, for no more beautiful petitions may one have
heard from the mouth of Brooks or Farrar, or from the triple-powered lips of Leo.
He was not burdened with the cult of the ego. On the contrary, he was
jjrone to let the selfishness of other people expand into his own aura. Though
Lord Bacon was one whom he avoided in the forum of books, he believed the
Verulam saying that "it is a poor center of a man's actions, himself." He was
fond of quoting these lines of Meredith :'
" The man is great, and he alone.
Who serves a greatness not his own.
For neither praise nor self;
Content to know and be vmknown;
Whole in himself."
There was a noiselessness about Judge Thacher and what he did that sug-
gests Poor Richard's comment on the worst wheel in the wagon. One of the
prominent lawyers of our state has said that in all his intercourse with Judge
Thacher he never heard him refer to his public services or his success at the bar.
This trait of modesty was illustrated in his little volume of travels, " What I
Saw in Europe," and in his long series of letters to the Lawrence Journal and
the Kansas City Journal on his South American tour, and on his trip with Mrs.
Thacher across Palestine and the ancient dominions of Saint Paul and Nik6
Apteros. The.se South American and Palestine letters deserve book form, for
every reason. They should be fittingly preserved among the archives of Kansas.
He was a rare observer, because he knew so much about many varieties of human
activity in various parts of the world, and also because he had the gift of impart-
ing—of lending interest to things casual and occasional. His letters of travel
I
SOLON O. THACHER. 217
do travel : the reader proceeds in them from one place to the next. This is con-
sidered, apparently, the first essential feature of voyage literature. It gives to
such travel memories as those of Albert Brisbane their fascination. Yet Judge
Thacher's articles were unlike the Brisbane memoir in the matter of freedom
from the ego — from evident liking of self; they keep our thoughts on the sights
he saw and on the facts and observations he assembled.
Consonant with his freedom from the ego was his tolerance. He construed
history into one long lesson of tolerance; it was to him inevitable and final in
the interpretation of earthly affairs. He approved the averment of Junius,
"What yesterday was fact to-day is doctrine," and wrote:
"Thirty years ago men who spoke of a law higher than the constitution were
scorned as fanatics. To-day builds marble cenotaphs over their sunken graves
and writes their words among the noblest thoughts of this great age. Now, as
ever, the children of those who stoned the prophets garnish the sepulchres of
those their fathers put to death. Yesterday's doubt is the belief of to-day."
Still, with his cult of mystery and of tolerance, and while he believed that
"in order to be able rightly to learn a truth, you need also to have combated it,"
one must waive the impression that he was anchorless and adrift. He seemed
quite the opposite, indeed, when it is borne in mind that he always remained a
republican and a protectionist; that he always belonged, in Kansas, to one par-
ticular church, and, it might almost be added, followed but one local pastor.
He ever contributed an unflagging zeal to the development and propagation of
these organizations and beliefs.
And, finally, to approach a summation of his traits and characteristics which
have been so imperfectly and incompletely indicated in the foregoing pages, there
was, in Judge Thacher, the profound example of a man who had lived West
nearly forty years, who was identified and contented with it, who prided himself
on being a Kansan; and yet, though he did not realize the fact, he was never
Western. He was an Eastern man. He had a symmetry in his culture, a certain
opulence in his personality, that signalized him among typical Kansans. Were
one to illustrate by a geometrical figure the traditional type of a Kansan, the
symbol would be somewhat angular or tangential. It would be, for instance, a
scalene. By contrast, there was, in Judge Thacher, more regularity and balance
of outline, more well-ordered ponderousness. He was developed in many direc-
tions. He exemplified the traditions of the East, with its wealth and ancestral
refinement, which our new West naturally does not yet possess. And he thus
gave a thoughtful and refined poise to the young ship of Kansas destiny, and
ballast to its heroic course and careenings.
If our patriotism could be thrown aside for a moment, the distinction might
be pushed further, and it be recognized that he was substantially of an English
type. He would have been surprised at this estimation, realizing that our dis-
like of the race whence we sprang is one of our national entailments. Yet Judge
Thacher had concluded in his almost world-wide travels, whether along the con-
fines of Persia or the coasts of Patagonia, that we should go to the semicivilized
and the barbarians for exhibitions of the purest patriotic zeal. From the stand-
point of high Christian enlightenment, in comparison, he thought that the desire
of a people should be to love other races and nations. Widely traveled, widely
thought, blessed with robust health and large vigor, embracing broad, practical
views on secular things, he resembled the best English pattern rather than our
more acute American model. Of his unconscious Anglicanism, the most elabo-
rate picture of Kansas that he ever drew in a sentence is an example. It may
be found in his commencement oration at Manhattan in 1880:
"Fancy these prairie swells, these undulating plains, covered, here and there,
—14
218 KANSAS STATB HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
to at least one-tenth of their surfaces, with well-chosen forest-trees, belts of wal-
nut, maple, with other deciduous trees, freely relieved and interspersed with the
various evergreens, encircling farm after farm, holding the winds in check, pro-
tecting the secret storehouse of spring and creek from withering heats, furnishing
a grateful covert for insect-consuming birds, filling the senses with transports of
delight, as the beauty of the landscape touches the vision, the melody of birds en-
raptures the ear, and the myriad perfumes of opening bud, blossom and leaf are
given to the air."
There is a depth of sensuousness, a fullness of rich, unheard sound, a harvest
of provincial splendor, about this scene that identify it as English. Eliminating
one or two casual incidents, it is a landscape in Bucks or Surrey, and not in Kan-
sas; for in Kansas the charm of country is lighter, less suffusing, and, for that
matter, naturally not complicated by the mellowness of decay which Ruskin con-
siders indispensable to the picturesque. It may be noted, also, that this sentence
was written three years before Judge Thacher visited Great Britain.
And, indeed, his ancestors came from Salisbury, England, near where is still
to be seen the tomb of the exalted Peter Thacher of Elizabeth's time, with the
inscription, in a Shakespearian strain, across its marble brow: "Let no man move
his bones." Yet the English descent of his progenitors did not for a moment
stay their revolutionary fury a hundred years ago. The annals of New England
are filled with names of conspicuous and patriotic Tbachers. Thacher's island
off Cape Ann is a sad reminder that the family were of one of the first groups of
ocean-faring Puritans, for the island was named after Anthony Thacher, whose
children shipwrecked there in 1635. During nearly three centuries. Judge
Thacher's forefathers were Puritans and Congregationalists. One of them —
Thomas Thacher — sailed for America at the age of fifteen because he disliked
the requirements of the established church. In 1669 he became the first pastor
of Old South Church, and was long known in Massachusetts as one of its notable
citizens. Another illustrious member of the family was Rev. Peter Thacher, of
the Brattle Street Church in Boston, who, like his father, Oxenbridge, bitterly
antagonized the British crown. On March 5, 1776, he delivered, before the
American troops near Boston, an oration which completely foreshadowed the
declaration of independence. He exclaimed : " With transports, my countrymen,
let us look forward to the bright day which shall hail us a free and independent
state! . . . And when the earthly scene shall be closing, let us expire with
this prayer upon our quivering lips, 'O God, let America be free!'" In this
oration were enumerated the various wrongs inflicted upon her children by Great
Britain. These grievances were almost word for word recapitulated in the dec-
laration of independence. The address passed through three editions, and Jef-
ferson, no doubt, had it before him when he wrote that world-renowned document.
The above may the genealogist read in a portion of the early history of the
Thachers in America. It was probably because of Judge Thacher's trans-racial
nature — a natural and unconscious reversion to his cis-Atlantic and trans-Atlan-
tic ancestry — that he was so ready to interest himself in God's creatures and
creations, though they might belong beyond our political borders. He was fond
of letting his imagination wing along the parallels of latitude that belt our planet;
he loved the elsewhere. His patriotism was innately of the whole earth that God
made and that Christ bled for. In this, and, in a manner, in his acceptation of
Aristotle's dictum, that there is no science but of the general, Judge Thacher was
a philosopher- a philosopher in the sense that philosophy (as defined by a great
German thinker) is "a homesickness; a desire to be everywhere at home." Ex-
istence for him seemed, inwardly, one long, profitable and pleasant Wanderjahr.
He was delighted to set forth across both hemispheres, and just as delighted to
WM. H. H. KELLEY. 219
reach his own town again. He would always say, on returning to his state: "Kan-
sas is, all in all, as good a place as there is, and Lawrence is right down here in
the center of it." And he frequently qvioted, as a part of his creed, Mr. Seward's
stirring words spoken at Lawrence in the '60s:
"If ever my love of country grows cold, and my heart wearies in its love of
liberty, I will come to Kansas to revivify that love, and at her altar renew my
devotion to the cause of human freedom."
It was forth from Judge Thacher's enlightened admiration for this world and
his commonwealth, as well as from his complex impulses of opposites and con-
trarieties, that sprang his tolerance — the consciousness of "the higher law,"
as he called it — which a profound moralist might designate, in the last analysis,
as the chief lesson and expression of his life.
Be that as it may, the benediction of the destinies that may be guiding him on
in a new course across fresher skies and more brilliant spheres shall brighten
his name as time removes him larger from our microcosm ; and shall teach the
love and adoration of the universal Mystery which he loved and adored as such,
and whose glory he chanted in his favorite poems, "Sandalphon," and the ode
of Addison, "The Spacious Firmanent on High."
Followed by an imposing concourse of his friends, both humble citizens and
distinguished men, his reliquice were laid in their final resting-place on that cher-
ished oak knoll east of Lawrence, among the monuments to its pioneers and
martyrs whose hearts and hands have passed into history, and whose souls have
passed toward God.
And perhaps more than one of those friends, on that mortuary August day,
traced in visional epita^jh, across the white tablet of his memory, the most mortal
of words: " Humanity is composed more of the dead than of the living." Optimi
Gonsiliarii mortul.
WM. H. H. KELLEY.
T\;riLLIAM HENRY HARRISON KELLEY was born in Montgomery to wn-
* ^ ship. Wood county, Ohio, on May 12, 183G. His father, John A. Kelley,
was born in Virginia, but emigrated to Richland (now Ashland) county, Ohio,
when very young. He settled in Wood county in 1832, where he lived on the
same farm for twenty-seven years, and where he died in 1859. During most of
this period he was justice of the peace; also serving as county commissioner sev-
eral terms, and as probate judge one term. The mother of the subject of this
sketch was Rachel Shawhan, a native of Maryland, but who moved with her
parents to Ohio when a child, and settled in Richland county. Here she grew
to womanhood and married John A. Kelley, and moved with him to Wood county,
where she died in 1840, leaving eight children.
Harrison, the youngest, a boy four years of age, grew up and thrived amid the
privations and early civilization of the black swamp of Northern Ohio. He re-
ceived such education as the common schools of that time afforded, supplemented
by two terms at the Perrysburg high school and one term at the Fostoria
academy, Fostoria, Seneca county, Ohio. He was also a pedagogue for four
terms in Wood county. His choice of occupation was farming. He emigrated
to Kansas territory early in 1858, drawn there principally by the exciting events
then transpiring in the contest between liberty and slavery. He settled at
Ottumwa, in Coffey county, on the Neosho river, and here he lived until 1888,
when he purchased his son's (Harry E. Kelley) residence near Burlington, and
220 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
moved into it, hoping to recruit his failing health. He engaged in farming and
stock-raising, meeting with reasonable success.
Harrison Kelley enlisted as a private soldier in the Fifth Kansas volunteer
cavalry Octolier 1, 18(51, and was mustered out June 5, 1865. He served
through all the grades to captain, when he was commissioned as such, and for
the remaining two and one-half years of his service was captain of company B of
the same regiment. Ho was in active service during the entire period, in Mis-
souri, Arkansas, and Mississippi, and participated in all the engagements and
skirmishes in which his regiment was engaged, including Helena, Little Rock,
Pine Bluff, Mount Elba, Cauley's Ridge, Saline River, etc. At the close of the
war, in ISGf), he returned to his home in Coffey county.
General Kelley was appointed brigadier general of the state militia in 1865,
and in 18G8 was made a director of the state penitentiary, serving in the latter
position for five years. During this year, 1868, he was a member of the state
legislature. In 1870 he became assistant assessor of internal reven«e, retaining
the office until its abolishment. In 1878 he was appointed receiver of the United
States land-office at Topeka. He was elected state senator in 1880. He also held
the offices of chairman of the live-stock sanitary commission of the state and
treasurer of the state board of charities, and was twice appointed regent of the
agricultural college, at Manhattan, being president of the board of regents at the
time of his death. He was a member of the State Historical Society for many
years, and when he died was its president. General Kelley was elected to the
fifty-first congress as a republican, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation
of Hon. Thomas Ryan, receiving 10,500 votes, against 2010 scattering.
In religion General Kelley was a freethinker and an agnostic, governing his
life according to the practical precepts of Christ, which he believed had never
been improved upon, while rejecting theological pretensions and inventions. In
June, 1897, he accepted Christian Science. Politically he was an abolitionist
until the republican party came into power, since which time he had always
voted that ticket until 1891, when he identified himself with the people's party.
He was married to Tabitha McCombs, of Wood county, Ohio, on October 4,
1855, his wife dying in Kansas on November 16, 1859. He was again married,
June 25, 1861, to Caroline E. DeWitt, of McCutchinville, Seneca county, Ohio.
Four children blessed their union: Harry E. Kelley, residing at Fort Smith,
Ark.; Herma T. Kelley, living at Burlington, Kan. ; Artie K. Palmer, of Cripple
Creek, Colo. ; and Fannie K. Armour, of Fort Smith, Ark. H. Leigh Kelley, of
Fort Smith, is the only grandchild, and in him his grandfather took great pride
and interest.
During his extended public career General Harrison Kelley exhibited to an
exceptional degree the qualities of inflexible courage, stern honesty, and lofty and
self-sacrificing devotion to duty. He was never a seeker after office, and all the
official honors he received came to him unsolicited, and often against his earnest
protest. Yet his intense interest in public affairs, his anxious concern for free-
dom, e(iuality and good government and his constant striving to alleviate the sor-
rows of the poor and oppressed urged him forward in political conflicts. He was
a natural leader of men. His wisdom, experience and firm integrity of purpose in-
spired confidence ; his vigor and enthusiasm encouraged, stimulated, and cheered ;
his authority compelled obedience; and his commanding abilities secured ad-
miration and esteem.
General Kelley was ever a radical in the best sense of the term. He looked
to the future, not the past. He was broad in mind, judicial in temper, catholic
in charity. His chiefest concern and unremitting labor were for the betterment
EDWARD RUSSELL, 221
of his fellow men, and in the attainment of this end no barrier was suflBciently
great, no tie sufficiently strong, to restrain him. Yet, despite his long and ardu-
ous public service, the intensity of political strife, and the animosities which it
of necessity engendered. General Kelley ever remained singularly free from per-
sonal enmities. His candor, sincerity and courtesy won for him comrades even
amongst his foes, and his bitterest political opponents were often his warmest
personal friends.
The heartfelt philanthropy which distinguished his whole life was particu-
larly displayed toward the colored race, the laboring masses, and the unemployed.
His sturdy democracy recognized no classes, no prestige of wealth, no social dis-
tinctions. He was a patriot of the most perfect type, always enthusiastic for his
country and no less so for his adopted state. The educational interests of the
state were amongst his most cherished cares, and much of his best energy and
thought were given to their furtherance.
The life of General Kelley was of a sort to attract, inspire, and ennoble, to be-
get reverent admiration, to demonstrate the best in human nature, and to fur-
nish a matchless example for those who should come after him. In his death,
his family and friends, his state and nation, endured a deep and irreparable be-
reavement and deprivation.
EDWARD RUSSELL.
A FTER an illness of several weeks, during which time he was not able to
-^-^ leave his home, Edward Russell died, Sunday afternoon, August 14, 1898, at
four o'clock. For some years Mr. Russell's health had been poor, and several
times he had been confined to his house for weeks, but recovered so as to be able
to attend to his business as usual. His failing strength was unable to withstand
the last sickness, and death came.
Edward Russell was one of the early settlers of Kansas, and, as such, took an
active part in the struggles of the state in its slavery and anti-slavery issues, be-
coming a partizan on the free-state side as soon as he came to Kansas. He was
led to this through a study of the questions at stake and by travel in the South,
where he saw the condition of things under slavery and their need of readjust-
ment, and by the further fact that he was of Northern birth and education.
In 1856 Mr. Russell came to Kansas, and soon determined upon a location at
Elwood, in Doniphan county. He had been there but a short time when he as-
sumed control of a paper, and openly espoused the free-state side of the great
question that was agitating the whole West. In 1858 he stumped his county,
which was tolerably evenly divided, for the free-state cause and against the Le-
compton constitution. The following year he became associated with D. W.
Wilder and others in the founding of a free-state paper, which they conducted
for a couple of years. In 1861 he moved to his farm a mile west of Wathena.
Mr. Russell continued to take an active part in politics, and in 1862 was elected
to the lower house of the legislature from Doniphan county. He was made chair-
man of the ways and means committee of the house, and worked with Plumb to
place the state on a sounder financial basis. The next fall he became actively
associated with the anti-Lane movement, and was again in the legislature in 1863,
and was a second time chairman of the ways and means committee; he went to
the legislature again in 1865. In 1863 Mr. Russell was appointed quartermaster
general of the state, with the rank of brigadier general, which position he held
222 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
till he resigned. In 1864 he was chairman of the state central committee of the
anti-L;ine forces.
Mr. Russell moved to Leavenworth in 1865, in April, where he went into the
real estate and conveyancing business, continuing at it until 1874. He was one
of the projectors of the Leavenworth Coal Company, and in 1872 was auditor of
Leavenworth county. In 1873 he was appointed state superintendent of insur-
ance, which place he held until he resigned the office. In 1876 he moved to Law-
rence. He honored the State Historical Society as the president for the year
1888.
Mr. Russell at once entered into an active business career again at Lawrence,
and, while he was not able to take the active part in politics that had always
fallen to his lot, he showed an interest in every campaign, and many times took
the stump for issues that he believed in and which he thought were vital to
the state. His loan and real estate business in Lawrence was conducted under
the firm name of Russell & Metcalf . During the last few years Mr. Russell trans-
acted a large volume of business as one of the receivers for the Western Farm
Mortgage Trust Company, and had been engaged in other enterprises.
In his early career in the state Mr. Russell had the usual number of narrow
escapes, and passed through many trjing ordeals because of his advocacy of free-
state ideas, and the older settlers relate numerous incidents in which he was a
participant in the helping of slaves to escape, and in the releasing of free-state
men who had been wrongly imprisoned by their enemies.
Mr. Russell was an active member of the Presbyterian church, both at Leav-
enworth and after he came to Lawrence, and was a member of the official church
board in both cities. He rarely failed to attend all the church meetings when he
was able to go, took an active interest in all church enterprises, and was espe-
cially ardent in his devotion to the Sunday-school work of his church an.d of the
other churches in the community.
Mr. Russell was married in Doniphan county in September, 1859, to Miss
Ionia Blackstone, and his wife and four children survive him. The children are
Percy Blackstone Russell, now located in Mississippi; Mrs. C. A. Peabody, of
Kansas City, and E. Flint Russell and Miss Ella Russell, of Lawrence.
Mr. Russell was born February 9, 1833, at Plymouth, N. H. When but a
child his parents moved to Gainesville, Ala., where he received his early educa-
tion. Afterward he attended the Kimball Union Academy, at Meriden, N. H.,
went to Yale when he was but seventeen, and, after remaining there a year, went
to Williams College, where he was compelled to give up his work after two years
on account of failing eyesight. He then traveled in the South for a couple of
years before coming to Kansas. His parents were David Moor Russell and
Mary Flint Russell, and came from an old Middlesex, Mass., family, and were of
Puritan stock.
A large circle of friends, not only in Lawrence, but in the eastern part of the
state, will hear of Mr. Russell's death with sorrow, and will recall many of the
early incidents in the history of the state in which all were common participants.
JAMES S. EMERY. 223
JAMES S. EMERY.
''PHE death of Judge James S. Emery, June 8, 1899, removes another of that
remarkable body of men who laid the foundation of this commonwealth of
Kansas. For nearly half a century he has been a prominent figure in our history.
He was president of the Kansas State Historical Society for the year 1891. He
was born in Industry, Me., July 3, 1826. He was educated in the schools of his
native state, graduating at Colby University at the age of twenty-five. He then
studied law in Troy and New York, and was admitted to the bar in January, 1853.
A few months after he attended a meeting in Boston to protest against the effort
to make Kansas a slave state. He at once threw himself into the movement to
prevent such a consummation. In the summer of 1851 he joined a company of
Kansas emigrants under Charles Robinson, and arrived in Lawrence September
14. He participated in every effort to thwart the schemes of the Missouri bush-
whackers, and to secure freedom for Kansas. In the council and in the camp, in
the legislature and in the conventions, he gave his voice and his strength to make
sure the thing to which they had all pledged their lives. He was a member of
the Topeka and Leavenworth constitutional conventions, and of other bodies
which gave shape to the social and political structure of our state. In 1856 he
attended the convention at Bloomington, 111., where Lincoln made the famous
speech which brought him into national prominence. After Mr. Lincoln's speech,
Mr. Emery was asked to follow him on the issues of the day. In 1863 Judge
Emery was appointed by President Lincoln as United States district attorney for
Kansas, an office which he held till he resigned in 1867.
Judge Emery was one of that body of strong and unique men who figured so
prominently in our early history. The Kansas struggle for freedom drew to it a
large number of marked characters. Each one of them had a stamp of his own,
and stood out by himself like a feature of the landscape. It would be possible
to name a score of men among these early founders, all coming under the same
impulse, yet each as distinct as men can be in their personality and characteris-
tics. There was an individuality about these men which set each one of them in
a' class by himself. Judge Emery worked with his comrades heartily for the
deliverance and building up of Kansas, yet he was one of those unique individu-
alities which when once seen can never be forgotten, nor confounded with any
other. He was strong and intense and untiring, yet always working in his own
way and following his own thought. If you once knew him you would recognize
him by step or voice or wave of hand. His oratory was impressive, but em-
phatically his own. It could not be described or imitated, but it was always felt.
Every tone and gesture bore the marks of his originality. He bore a very
prominent part in the pioneer history of Kansas, and was a living force in all
that stirring time. He held many offices of trust, but his own personality so
overshadowed the offices he held that the offices are seldom thought of in connec-
tion with him. He was himself greater than any office he ever held, and is re-
membered for himself when the office is forgotten.
While interested in the political shaping of our commonwealth, he was always
interested especially in her educational development. The subject of education
was a favorite study with him and he never tired of talking of the educational
men he had known. He was a member of state legislature when the question of
locating the state university was decided. The lines were closely drawn, and
224 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Judge Emory threw his whole strength in f<avor of Lawrence. He was appointed
a member of the first board of regents and was continued on that board for a
number of years. He gave a great deal of time and thought to the early shaping
of that institution, and what it is to-day is largely due to his thoughtful activity.
He was always a lover of books, and never fell behind in his knowledge of litera-
ture and of the literary movements and men of the day. He was often called
upon to give addresses before colleges and schools, before the State Historical
Society, and other bodies. During the later years of his life Judge Emery gave
himself largely to the study and advocacy of irrigation. Perhaps no man in the
country was better informed than he as to the need and methods and value of
irrigation on our semiarid plains. He used to say that our public lands were
about exhausted, and the only outlet for our surplus population was to make our
semiarid lands habitable. The soil of these plains, he said, was exhaustlessly rich
and only needed water to make the desert blossom like the rose; there was
abundance of water a few feet below the surface, and if it could be brought up
and spread over the fields that country would sustain a dense population. He
became very enthusiastic in advocating his idea, and the results of his works will
appear in after-years.
Judge Emery had a deep religious nature. He was alive to all the movements
of the religious world, and was awake to all phases of theological discussion.
His interest took a very wide range, from the latest phase of biblical criticism to
the movements of the Salvation Army. He followed all the discussions of science
and criticism with the eagerest interest, and at the same time he was a firm friend
of Booth Tucker, and wrought with him in his scheme for colonizing the refuse
of the slums on the wild lands of the West. He was very fond of hearing the
advocates of extreme views and the teachers of new and universal systems of re-
ligious speculation. He caught these views so clearly and set them forth so fairly
that it sometimes seemed as if he were inclined to adopt them. But when you
knew his habits of mind you soon saw that he looked into these theories and
systems as objects of study. He stood outside of them and held them up to ex-
amine them, as one might examine a specimen in natural history. At one time
he became much interested in Buddhism. To hear him speak of it a stranger
might think he was leaning that way. But he was simply trying to look at it in
the most favorable light and to see the good there was in it. He studied it as a
phase of religious development. While he believed in the largest liberty and the
most liberal interpretation of the doctrines of scripture, he clung with great firm-
ness to the essentials of the Christian faith, and found great comfort in the trust
he reposed in the mercy of God and the salvation of Christ.
In his personal religious experience he was very simple and childlike. While
his views were enlarged, the faith of his early days remained with him as an
anchor and a stay. In the prayer-meeting, his voice was always low and sympa-
thetic, and his words tender and touching. He was unique in this as in every-
thing else. When in his best moods he would rise slowly, throw his head a little
back, and, with half-closed eyes, would talk in a dreamy sort of way^ — in a kind
of revery — almost as if thinking aloud. In that manner he would often talk for
several minutes in a most delightful way. The last time he attended a prayer-
meeting was only a short time before his final sickness. He had been away at
Washington for some time, and had been sick there. He had just returned home.
It was a cold night and a winter storm was on. He came in a little late, with his
overcoat drawn close about him. He came in with a slow, weary step and took a
seat in the rear of the room. The subject of the meeting pertained to the near-
ness of God to His people. Toward the close he rose and talked in his most
JAMES B. ABBOTT. 225
tender mood of the needs of the soul and their supply in God. As we learned
of his serious illness later on, we could not help remembering the peculiar apt-
ness and beauty of these last words. And, when we think of him as having
passed over to the immortals, we can but remember with what unction and ear-
nestness he was wont to repeat the words, "I believe in the resurrection of the
dead."
T
JAMES B. ABBOTT.
Prepared by L. F. Green for the Kansas State Historical Society, January 18, 1898.
HE dust that was once the strong, well-formed body of James Burnett Ab-
bott now mingles with the soil of Kansas in the beautiful cemetery near De
Soto. He is seen among us no longer, but we can trace the impress of his coura-
geous spirit in every page of Kansas history, wheresoever he worked, walked
and was for forty-two years. His distinguished public life and services in Kan-
sas, through war and peace, sunshine and shadow, are already recorded in the
annals of the great state he helped to build up. We would have the men, women
and children yet to be know the true, brave man as we know him; but, we ask
in despair, who can transmit that working, earnest, every-day, eventful life to the
cold pages of history? We would have others walk, toil and talk with him and
look into that rugged, smiling face and know the worth of the good neighbor,
friend and brother gone from earth forever.
Few Kansas pioneers were more earnest in the free-state cause, or more
valiant in its defense, than James B. Abbott, who was born in Hampton, Wind-
ham county, Connecticut, December 3, 1818, and came to Kansas in 1854. Mr.
Abbott died at De Soto, Johnson county, March 2, 1897. The Abbotts were of
English descent, emigrated to America in the Mayflower, and trace their gene-
alogy direct to three brothers. The Burnetts were of Scotch descent. Asa
Abbott, grandfather of James Burnett Abbott, was a cripple, and so unable to
take part in the war of the American revolution, but he employed a substitute,
to whom he paid ten dollars a month during the seven years of that eventful
struggle, and thus manifested his patriotism. His wife was Mrs. Sarah Fuller,
whose first husband was murdered by the Indians in the Wyoming massacre. She
hunted up the body of her husband, buried him, and, accompanied by another
Spartan mother, effected her escape on horseback, each with a babe in her arms,
and so made the entire journey to Connecticut.
James, son of Asa Abbott and widow Fuller, was a captain in the war of 1812,
a man of good education, a teacher by profession, and a skilful musician. He
was a person of superior moral character, and quite liberal in his religious views.
He married Asenath, daughter of James Burnett, a soldier of the American
revolution, who served during the entire period of that protracted conflict under
General Putnam. Mrs. Abbott was a woman of great energy of character, a
strict, yet kind-hearted Puritan, and a most devoted wife and mother. She died
in 1876, aged seventy-six years.
James Burnett Abbott, their son, was educated in the common schools of
Connecticut, and finished his studies at the academies of Potsdam and Gouver-
neur, in the state of New York. After leaving the academy he taught school
two winters. At eighteen years of age he had the misfortune to break his leg,
which compelled him to resort to lighter labor than his accustomed farm work.
He accordingly learned the shoemaker's trade, and afterwards worked in a tin
shop until he was able to resume his usual labors.
226 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
At the ape of tweuty-oue he married Amanda Atwood, at Gouverneur, N. Y.;
returned to Connecticut soon afterwards, and entered into mechanical business.
From 1840 to 1854 he was engaged in various manual industries, making pencil
cases, spoons, forks, and spectacles; electroplating and electrotyping; manufac-
turing boots and shoes in Connecticut, gold pens in Cincinnati, and acting as
inspector for the Rogers mammoth plated-ware establishment at Hartford. He
was among the first electroplaters, and at that time England sent much of her
ware to America to be plated.
At Hartford, in 1S51, he lost his wife, Amanda Atwood, whom he had married
in Gouverneur, and the year following was married to Elizabeth Watrous, a Hart-
ford lady.
In 1854, in company with the third party of New England emigrants, he
camo to Kansas, arriving at Lawrence, October 10, in which place he fixed his
residence, although his claim was taken on the Wakarusa. He built Blanton's
bridge, indicted in border-ruffian times as a nuisance, simply because it accom-
modated more free-state men than pro-slavery men. At the election of March
30, 1855, he was appointed one of the judges of election by Governor Reeder, Vjut,
on the majority of the board deciding that the Missourians had a right to vote, he
protested against their action and withdrew from the board. He shortly after-
wards joined a militia company for the defense of free-state men and their inter-
ests, of which he was made lieutenant and Henry Saunders captain. Lieutenant
Abbott was then sent to Boston to procure arms for the company, and returned
to Kansas with 117 Sharp's rifles and one twelve-pound howitzer. He was watched
at every turn from St. Louis to Kansas, and passed under the name of J. Burnett,
playing eucher and singing songs with the very men who were set as spies upon
his trail. One of these spies was deputy under Sheriff Jones at the attempted
arrest of S. N. Wood, and there recognized Abbott as the man who had outwitted
him on the boat. The arms were shipped on a different steamer, and arrived
safely, having been taken apart, packed in as short boxes as possible, and con-
signed to Harlow, Hutchinson & Co., merchants at Lawrence, as hardware. The
howitzer was shipped in boxes from New York, but did not arrive until November.
In November, 1855, the murder of Dow, a free-state man, by Coleman, pro-
duced an intense excitement. A meeting was held at the place of the murder,
and, on returning home. Lieutenant Abbott and others were informed that Sam-
uel J. Jones, acting as sheriff, had arrested Jacob Branson. They immediately
resolved on a rescue, and a company of about the same number as the sheriff's
I>osse marched under cover of night to intercept him. Upon Jones's approach,
Abbott filed his company across the road, and, with every gun leveled, demanded
the release of Branson. Jones threatened to shoot Branson if he moved. Ab-
bott replied that any attempt to harm Branson would be their death-warrant,
and ordered his men to fire at once if a single gun was raised by one of Jones's
party. Branson rode out from among his captors, and, on arriving at Abbott's,
Mrs. Abbott came out of the house and helped him to dismount. As he was an
old man, quite heavy, and had ridden several miles without any saddle on a sharp-
backed mule, he was unable to walk alone, and was thus assisted into the house.
This action of Lieutenant Abbott was the result of several meetings of the free-
state men, in which they pledged themselves to mutual protection against border
ruffians and their officers. This rescue brought on the Wakarusa war, and,
under the directions of the free-state safety company, the parties who released
Branson left their homes for the time being.
During the troubles which followed the rescue of Branson, in the spring of
1856, Lieutenant Abbott was in charge of a company, and took part in the first
JAMES B. ABBOTT. 227
fight at Franklin. He afterwards commanded the Third regiment, and acted as
officer of the day at Lawrence. He was at the battle of Black Jack, when Henry-
Clay Pate surrendered to John Brown, and was in command at Lawrence when
2700 Missourians menaced the town. He was a member of the first house of
representatives under the Topeka constitution, and afterward a senator; was
also a member of the first state legislature, and in 1866 was elected state senator.
In 1859 Dr. John Doy was arrested near Lawrence, carried to St. Joseph, Mo.,
tried there upon the charge of abducting slaves from that state, convicted, and
sentenced to the penitentiary for five years. It was well known that the charges
were false, and that Doctor Doy had not been in Missouri for some time before
the escape of those slaves. At the earnest request of Doctor Doy's friends. Major
Abbott organized a party of ten men to rescue the doctor from the St. Joseph
jail. The exploit was one of the most daring and chivalrous of all the exploits
of the free-state men. The pro-slavery papers, while condemning the action,
spoke of its execution as most skilfully accomplished, and characterized the
deed as one of wonderful daring.
The party consisted of James B. Abbott, Silas Soule, Joseph Gardner, Joshua
A. Pike, S. J. Willis, John E. Stewart, Thomas Simmons, Charles Doy, Lennox,
and Hays. They were organized at Lawrence, were to disperse and quietly to as-
semble at Elwood, opposite St. Joseph, there to consult and arrange a plan of
action. They were entire strangers in Elwood and St. Joseph, and were com-
pelled to proceed with great caution. The only person consulted in St. Joseph
was Doctor Grant, the editor of the free-state paper there, who rendered them
valuable assistance and proved a friend indeed. In their conversations with citi-
zens they variously represented themselves, some as miners, others as Eastern
men on their way to their mines. Sometimes they met as strangers, in some res-
taurants, and attempted to drive sharp bargains for teams and mining outfits
with one another. One plan discussed was to take a prisoner to the jail upon a
charge of horse stealing, and thus effect an entrance, but learning that such per-
sons were usually confined in the calaboose of the city, the plan seemed impracti-
cable, and was abandoned.
They next determined to break into the jail by main force, and Silas Soule
was sent into the prison to communicate with the prisoner. Representing him-
self as coming from Doy's wife, he was admitted, and proceeded to deliver his
message of consolation, in which the prisoner was urged to bear his misfortunes
like a man, and expressing the hope that he would soon be pardoned. Soule
had with him a note, wrapped in a small piece of twine, bearing these words:
"To-night, at twelve o'clock," and it was with great difficulty that it was deliv-
ered; the jailer standing, during the entire conversation, between the outer and
inner doors of the cell, and never removing his eagle eye from the visitor for a
single instant. On leaving the cell, Soule turned his back to the prisoner and
remarked to the jailer that he had a wonderfully strong building, at the same
time casting his eyes around. The jailer's eyes naturally followed, and Soule*
threw the twine behind him into the cell. A small stone attached to this twine,
hanging over the stone wall, soon apprised Major Abbott that Doy was ready.
Soule, however, reported adversely to the plan of a forcible entry, declaring that
it would take at least three hours to break in, and that the project was imprac-
ticable. The same evening they learned that prisoners from outside the city
were not always taken to the calaboose, and determined upon the original plan
of the horse-thief strategy. It was a bold, desperate undertaking, but it must
be accomplished.
The day was one of driving rain. The new excavations in the streets rendered
228 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
thorn not only fearfully muddy but unsafe for rapid travel by strangers in the
darkness. They walked backward and forward to familiarize themselves with
the route to the river, until past ten o'clock. Two boats had been previously se-
cured, without consultation with the owners. The jail was in the very heart of
the city of 11,000 inhabitants, suspicious of free-state men, and revengeful;
where no man accounted an abolitionist could hope for a fair trial, provided he
escaped the vengeance of the mob. A sentinel made his weary rounds about the
jail. The night was so dark that the party, not daring to speak, were obliged to
clasp hands in order to keep together, and thus, in perfect silence, they ap-
proached the jail, passing up a narrow pathway through a high bank as they left
the street.
Major Abbott assigned each man his position and acquainted him with his
duty, no man knowing what would be required of him until the orders were
givers Simmons was to be the "thief." Heavy thongs of buffalo hide en-
twined his wrists and apparently confined his hands, but in the hollow of his
right hand, attached to the thong, he held a leaden egg — it had been cast in the
shell of a hen's egg — and was a dangerous weapon in the hands of such a man,
sturdy, powerful, and as desperate as the circumstances in which he was placed.
Gardner, a man of prodigious power, six feet four inches high, and Willis, almost
equally as strong, led the "thief" to the jail door and rapped. The jailer in-
quired, "What's wanting?" Willis replied: "We have a desperate horse-thief
here; we have pursued him in the rain all day and are worn out; we want him
put into a cell." The response was: "Wait; I'll be down," and down he came.
"Are you ofFicers? Have you any warrants ? " "No, we are only citizens; this
man was in the employ of one of our neighbors. Last night they had some dif-
ficulty in the settlement, and this morning the horse and man were missing; so,
wnthout waiting for the issue of any papers, we and three neighbors started out
in pursuit, struck his trail, and followed him to within about four miles of the
city, where we found him under shelter from the rain in a hovel with the horse.
There is no doubt of his being a thief." "Gentlemen," said the jailer, "I dis-
like to take a man into jail without a warrant, as I would lay myself and my
bondsmen liable to damages should he prove himself innocent." "There is no
mistake," they replied; "we know him well and know the horse." Turning to
Simmons, the jailer said, "Are you willing to admit that you stole the horse ?"
"No," said Simmons with an oath, "I want a trial." To which the jailer re-
plied, "You look like a thief, and I will risk putting you in."
In went Simmons, Gardner, and Willis, with the jailer, the rest of the party
standing to their posts. Abbott then stepped into the lower room to hear what
followed and be ready to render assistance. The jailer unlocked the door of the
cell, and directed Simmons to pass in. He refused, declaring, "I won't go in
there among niggers." This was the signal that they were in the right direction
for Doy's cell. The jailer replied : "The niggers are below ; this floor is for white
"men," and immediately opened the door of the room in which Doy was confined,
ordering Simmons to walk in. Doctor Doy had drawn the skeleton of a man upon
the white wall in charcoal, which looked so hideous in the glare of the light that
it seemed to terrify Simmons, and he refused, with an oath, to enter such a place.
The jailer told him that was nothing but a charcoal sketch, and entered the cell
to assure him. At this Gardner stepped to the door and carelessly inquired,
"What has become of that old nigger thief, Doy, or Day, or some such name?"
The jailer said, "I presume you refer to Doctor Doy, and if that is so, here he is."
(Gardner quickly replied: "That's the man we want; we propose to take him
home to his family."
JAMES B. ABBOTT. 229
The situation seemed to flash upon the jailer in an instant, and he sprang to
close the door. At that moment Gardner and Willis drew knives and revolvers:
told him they were there with a sufficient force to take Doy at all hazards, and
that his life depended upon his making no resistance, at the same time assuring
him that they had no desire to harm him ; that they appreciated his general good
treatment of the prisoner, and that Doctor Doy must come out instantly. The
jailer represented, on behalf of D©y, that if he was carried off in this way he
would always be liable to seizure, while if he remained he would doubtless get
a new trial and be liberated. They replied they were not there to force Doy
against his will, but if he desired to leave he must go. Doy quickly said, "I
will go with my friends," and came forward with his little bundle of effects
ready to depart.
Other prisoners sought to avail themselves of this opportunity, and had to be
driven back with revolvers in the hands of the rescuing party, who said "they
did not come to release thieves and murderers, but to rescue an innocent man,
and that Doy alone should come out." The party passed down into the recep-
tion room, and the jailer was introduced to Major Abbott, as the captain of the
party, to whom he said: "Captain, this will be very •embarrassing to me, and
exceedingly difficult to explain to the public so as to escape the accusation of be-
ing a party to the transaction." Major Abbott replied : "You can publish a state-
ment in your papers just as this appears to you; when we return we will publish
the facts jvist as they have occurred. This young gentleman," referring to a
young man who slept in the room, "will confirm whatever you say, and we will
exonerate you from all complicity in the matter. We will leave a strong guard
around your building, and, as soon as we pass out of the house, you will put out
your lights and keep perfectly quiet until daylight; any attempt to leave the
building, by yourself or any one else, or to raise any alarm, will be done at the
peril of life."
The major then shook hands with the jailer, and, bidding him good night,
walked backward to the door — partly out of politeness, and partly as a precau-
tion — bowed himself out, and departed for the boats. By this time the moon had
risen, and, although obscured by clouds, afforded sufficient light to see and be
seen. The audiences of two little theaters were just departing from the halls,
and with these they mingled, according to previous arrangements, in order to
escape remark from the watchman and the police, who would be attracted by the
appearance of svich a party alone upon the streets at that hour. They passed
along the streets in this manner, singing snatches of songs and spouting Shakes-
peare, till in the vicinity of the river. Here they divided, in order to reach the
boats which they had selected, but dare not move in daylight. Doy's party was
followed by two policemen, who stood with their lanterns watching them while
they baled out their boats with their hats. Quietly shoving out into the stream,
they crossed the Missouri, secured the boats on the other side, laughingly
thanked the owners, were met by friends with good teams and a guide, and were
soon on their way to Lawrence.
Resting over night at Grasshopper Falls, they continued their journey, and,
on the afternoon of the second day, reached home, amid the plaudits of friends,
who had received the news through the St. Joseph papers but did not know who
had accomplished the heroic deed. A posse followed them all one day, on their
return, but did not dare to approach. A spy overtook them, and they compelled
him to mount their wagon and travel with them until night, when they dismissed
him with the admonition not to be seen again in their presence. From Oskaloosa
a guard of thirty riflemen escorted them to within two or three miles of Lawrence.
230 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The rescuo was boldly and successfully accomplished, and the entire party ac-
quitted tlieniselves with cool, determined bravery and remarkable self-possession.
For several years Major Abbott was agent of the Shawnee Indians, and in
all his transactions with them evinced his usual integrity, good judgment, and
capacity.
If two questions which a discerning future will ask can be answered here and
now — rightly answered— the future may know something of the man and hold
him in the same high esteem as do all who knew him here. How did he get his
living? He wrought with his own hands. He was an every-day working man;
he was a self-helping man; could build cabins, dug-outs, make "shakes," tables,
shoes, bedsteads, culverts, and bridges. He was a competent man whenever and
wherever tried; a good, judicious worker on legislative or political committees;
he was as much at home in doing business at the various government offices at
Washington as he was at Lawrence, Olathe, or the capitol at Topeka. He was
in close counsel and hearty cooperation with the great makers and leaders of
anti-slavery opinion of his time'. While earnest, and even enthusiastic, yet he
was not fiery, flashy, noisy, or fanatical, but cool, deliberate, and calculating.
When a dangerous duty confronted him he was iron, ice, and fire.
When Kansas was free and slavery was dead, he lost no time tramping the
ground down hard over the dead enemy. He moved on against intemperance, in-
tolerance and ignorance with the same persistent, uncomfjromising opposition
which he waged so successfully against chattel slavery. He never sat down and
wept by the waters of Babylon or of the Wakarusa; he never hung his harp on
the willows while the fight was on, nor shouldered his crutch to tell you how it
was won when it was over. He planned and executed some of the most daring-
feats in the record of the bravest pioneers of this or any other age. The rescue
of the Cuban girl, Cisneros, was a tame affair, in plan or execution, by the side
of the "Doy deliverance" from the St. Joseph prison. He was a self-evolving
sort of man ; his mental activities were more active in the advanced years of life
than in his prime. He was growing all the time. A generous enthusiasm for
the good of all about him kept him young in mind and spirit. There came no
winter to him, but a rich, mellow autumn at life's close. "What did he do for
himself, his family, his neighborhood, his state, and nation ? " is another question
the future will ask. This answer should be written with the iron pen of history,
and "lead in the rock forever." He made the ivorld within his reach better
arid happier. His grand nature clung fondly to home loves and friendships of
dear old friends and neighbors.
The place above all others we would have the world see this man of Kansas i&
in his pleasant home at De Soto. It is just such a spot a man of his nature
would select for a pleasant, quiet, home; an enchanting view of river, prairie,
timber, and sky.
He should be seen in the shop he built and worked in, among the many curi-
ous tools he used, many of which he not only made but invented, and the many
useful things he made and mended for his neighbors; there in that home of his
own planning, its fair, quiet chambers open to summer and songs of the birds.
There in the library room is a choice collection of the best books in the world.
Major Abbott was no studious recluse, yet he was a great reader. There are col-
lections of rare things of art and nature in that house. But the crowning glory of
that home is the noble woman, wife, and companion in all the dangers, trials
and hardships of the great struggle for free Kansas. Only two such people could
make such a home; a peace dearer, a sweetness sweeter, pervades that home for
the trials, joys and sorrows they so long shared together. Never to that grand
L. R. ELLIOTT, 231
young state came two truer, braver, better hearts. The true history of Kansas
cannot be written without recording their good deeds in the political, moral and
social regeneration of the territory and state of Kansas.
I would convey a glimpse of the deep spiritual nature of this man, but when
I try to fathom that part of him the words of "a woman of Samaria" at a way-
side well rebuke me: "(S'«*, thou has nothing to draiu with, and the ivell is
deep.''''
Major Abbott never seemed absolutely certain just how the world was to be
saved. He was not self-asserting in his views of the great question of man's ex-
istence here and hereafter. He was always unloading the useless lumber of
ritual and creed when it no longer served the present. He possessed that quiet,
resolute spiritual and mental independence which lead through the forms of re-
ligion to the reality, the truth. He would follow the truth as he saw it, if it led
him over Niagara. The fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, was his
creed. He belonged to no particular church; he would permit any and all to
join him in making the world better. To him, doing good was worship, "each
smile a hymn, each kindly act a prayer." He grew more deeply spiritual in his
nature as years increased; he looked cheerfully into the future for an infinitely
enlarged existence beyond this life.
He seemed to feel the sweep of unseen wings and hear the sound of waves
breaking on another shore. His soul seemed hungering for more than man can
teach; so, with increasing tenderness and love for all about him, he peacefully
went from us to meet "what the future hath of marvel or surprise."
D
L. R. ELLIOTT.
Prepared by Frank A. Root, for the Kansas State Historical Society.
URING the past year the Historical Society has lost another of its honored
members. Mr. L. R. Elliott, for a number of years one of its directors,
died at his home in Manhattan, Riley county, on May 27, 1899, after an illness of
several months; age, sixty-four years, six months, and six days.
Mr. Elliott was the third son of John J. and Jane (Blake) Elliott. His father
came from Scotland, his mother from England. They settled in Chenango
county, New York, where the deceased was born, November 21, 1835. His edu-
cation was obtained chiefly in the common schools of his native state, where, for
a few terms, before he was out of his teens, he taught in the country schools.
After this, in the fall of 1854, he entered the Chenango News printing-office, at
Greene, beginning his apprenticeship as a roller boy.
He served nearly three years at the printing business. On account of impaired
health, he quit the office and purchased a farm in the adjoining county of Broome,
New York, which he cultivated for two years; then engaged as a commercial
traveler for about eight years, his field being confined mostly to southern New
York and the northern and central districts of Pennsylvania. A considerable
portion of his leisure hours during this time he was corresponding editor of the
Binghamton (New York) Standard. He contributed hundreds of columns
under the heading, "Notes by the Way." For a few months in the early part of
1866 he was in Michigan, engaged in the crockery and house-furnishing business.
Besides, he was editorially connected with the Daily Enterprise at East Saginaw.
In the summer of 1866, having a strong desire to see more of the West, he
drifted to Kansas, and located at Atchison, He was employed for a time as city
232 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
editor on the Daily Free Press. After serving in that capacity for a few
months, ho purchased the interest of Judge F. G. Adams in the office, and took
editorial charge. During his two years' connection with the old Free Press the
writer was almost constantly associated with him. He was an untiring worker,
and did excellent service in his journalistic labors, standing up manfully for law
and order, temperance and morality.
He moved to Manhattan in the summer of 1868, after disposing of his interest
in the Free Press to the man from whom he purchased. He bought the two
Manhattan papers — the Indei^endent and Radical — and consolidated them
under the name of Manhattan Standard ; published it until December, 1870,
when, having decided to engage exclusively in real estate, he disposed of the
Standard to Hon. Albert Griffin. In connection with his new business, Mr.
Elliott began the publication of a monthly real-estate paper — the Manhattan
Homestead — which was issued continuously until his death, when he was suc-
ceeded by his eldest son, Fred B. Elliott.
Mr. Elliott was one of the oldest real-estate men in Kansas, having, for nearly
a quarter of a century, been almost exclusively engaged in it. His reputation as
a wide-awake, energetic dealer became known throughout the entire state. His
field of operations was largely confined to northern and central Kansas. At the
organization of the National Board of Real-estate Agents, at Cleveland, Ohio, in
1870, he was chosen vice-president of the organization.
For many years he had charge of the endowment of lands given by congress
to the Kansas State Agricultural College, and represented several railroad com-
panies that had land for sale in Riley county. He was president and, later, also
receiver of the Manhattan & Northwestern Railroad Company, the first corpora-
tion that began the preliminary work of constructing a railroad up the Blue val-
ley. The first " pass" issued by Mr. Elliott, while president of that road, was to
the writer, in the early '70s, who shortly afterwards made a trip to Manhattan,
and from there went over the road three miles with the " president," both tvalk-
ing the entire distance on the ties, no rolling-stock having yet been placed on
the road-bed.
Mr. Elliott was a self-educated man. He was possessed of a great fund of.
valuable information. No one could talk with him without becoming wiser for
so doing. He was also a great traveler, and no one appeared to enjoy it more.
Being at home one day, perhaps the next forty-eight hours he would be a thou-
sand miles away. It .seemed that he was almost continuously on the go. He
had been in nearly every state and territory of the union, through a great portion
of old Mexico, British North America, and the Canadas. He had contemplated
some day making the trip around the world. In 1886 he made an extended tour
through Europe; took in the most northern town in the world, Hammerfest,
northern Norway, and north cape in the "land of the midnight sun." He also
visited Sweden, London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Warsaw, Moscow, and St. Peters-
burg, and many other interesting and noted places on the continent. While
stopping for a few days in Moscow, he felt proud of the fact that he was one
American permitted to shake hands with the czar and czarina of Russia, who
were at that time on a visit to the quaint old city.
He had long been a gatherer of curios. His collection, embracing thousands
of articles, picked up in all parts of the globe, is probably one of the most unique
in Kansas.
He had represented his city in the council, in the board of education, in
scores of a.ssociations; and many times had taken part and been chosen a dele-
gate in city, county, district, state and national conventions.
STEPHEN m'lALLIN. 233
For fully half a century Mr. Elliott was an earnest member of the Methodist
church, and for a long time had been one of its faithful laborers. He had also
been a great worker in the Sunday-school, being many years its superintendent.
In his death each organization has lost a substantial friend and zealous sup-
porter.
During the last few years of his life his health had become so much impaired
that it was apparent that his work was about done — that his busy life was surely
drawing to a close. With an intimate acquaintance of nearly forty-five years,
the writer deeply regrets that he did not see him in the last days of his illness.
Mr. Elliott was married at Greene, N. Y., December 27, 1859, to Emeline F.
Bowen, who survives him. Three children were born, a daughter and two sons,
all of whom are living.
STEPHEN McLALLIN.
Prepared by Mrs. Annie L. Diggs for the Kansas State Historical Society.
O TEPHEN McLALLIN was born June 22, 1837, in Conneaut township, Craw-
^ ford county, Pennsylvania. His parents were James and Lydia McLallin.
He attended the common schools and the academy at Meadville, Pa. He resided
for some time at Elk City, Pa.; later at Meriden, Jefferson county, Kansas. In
1890 he removed to Topeka, Kan., where he resided until his death, which oc-
curred March 4, 1897.
Doctor McLallin was married to Maria Holman November 23, 1858. There
are living three children, Mrs. Ellen L. Miller, of Butler, Pa.; Lenore McLallin
and Grace McLallin, living with their mother and the doctor's aged father at
Topeka. A son of four years died many years ago in Pennsylvania.
Doctor McLallin enlisted in the army in 1861, from New York state — company
D, First regiment, Berdan's sharpshooters — and served till the end of the war.
He studied medicine, and was graduated from the Albany medical school, Albany,
N. Y., in December, 1868, and was a practicing physician for seventeen years in
New York, Pennsylvania, and Kansas. In 1888 he gave up the practice of his
profession to take editorial charge of the Meriden Tribune. In 1889 the Tribune
was merged into the Advocate, which was moved to Topeka, and in a few short
months became the oflBcial organ of the Kansas Farmers' Alliance, and later the
leading people's party paper of the state, with a phenomenal circulation and
commanding influence.
Doctor McLallin was one of the founders of the National Reform Press Asso-
ciation, and was for a time its president. He was also president of the Kansas
Reform Press Association. He was a delegate to the convention at St. Louis,
which organized the national people's party, and was also chairman of the Kan-
sas delegation to the first national convention of the people's party at Omaha.
Doctor McLallin was a director of the State Historical Society, of which he
was a warm friend, maintaining to the day of his death a deep interest in the
work of the Society.
There are few men of stronger characteristics than Doctor McLallin. He was
essentially a student and a philosopher. His love of books and his desire to study
were the abiding passion of his life. His library was his Mecca and his haven of
rest, to which he swiftly betook himself when his day's work was over. Legisla-
tures might come and go, politicians might perspire and plot ; they were dismissed
from memory so soon as the doctor found himself among his beloved books. He
had small patience with slovenness of expression or half knowledge of facts. His
—15
234 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
newspaper work was characterized by the utmost painstaking? and carefulness to
cover points of statement. He would withhold a cherished editorial and institute
a search for proof of some minor point, rather than send forth a statement upon
which he entertained the slightest doubt; and this not so much that he disliked
or even considered the possibility of a challenge, but simply to satisfy his own
nature, which imjieratively demanded truth and accuracy. It was this quality
in his writing which won for him high distinction among the readers of the Ad-
vocate.
In the early days of populism in Kansas, when distracting events and conflict-
ing rumors abounded, men in all parts of the state would say: "We do not know
what we think of this or that; we will wait until the Advocate comes. Doctor
McLallin will give us the truth." Without question, no one man in Kansas w^as
a larger factor in shaping the political events of 1890 than Doctor McLallin. Of
the strictest personal integrity and honesty, the doctor had little tolerance for
weakness or dishonesty. He was merciless with such offenders, and ever refused
to reinstate one who betrayed a trust. Yet stern and severe as he was in his
judgments of men, he was gentle and pitiful towards suffering and sorrow. To
see little children deprived of their birthright of happiness moved him even to
tears. Doctor McLallin was a compound of a Greek philosopher, of the austere,
undemonstrative Scotchman, and the modern socialist. He would have best been
pleased to be spoken of before this Historical Society as one who strove to aid in
bringing about a state of social and industrial order which would admit of a fair
chance in the race of life for every man and woman in the nation and in the
world.
MATTHEW WEIGHTMAN.
VfATTHEW WEIGHTMAN was a native of Wark, in north England, born
-^'A to William Weightman and his wife, Alice Elliott, November 5, 1831. His
parents both dying during his infancy, he was cared for by his maternal aunt,
Mrs. Sharpe, who, besides supplying his material wants as only a true mother
could, cultivated in him the reverence for religion so prominent in his character,
and which led him in childhood to become a member of the Methodist church.
His education was that usually received by English children of the middle class.
From the age of ten he practically supported himself by his own exertions, first
at home and later in the employment of a railroad company at Newcastle, where,
rising through the different grades of shop work, he became an engineer on a road
running from Newcastle to York.
In ISM he came to America, applying for work as an engineer in Cincinnati.
He secured employment on a tunnel at Walnut Hills. This was the period of the
Kansas agitation. Our cause enlisted his sympathy, and led him to join a com-
pany of young men preparing to emigrate to Kansas. Early in March, 1855, he
and three others were dispatched as forerunners to occupy and hold the colony
site, Ashland, which was situated south of the Kansas river, near the present
town of Ogden, in Riley county. Judge Franklin G. Adams, a member of the
colony, once remarked: ^'I still remember the rugged, energetic, earnest young
Englishman Weightman then was. He was ready to take hold of anything to-
ward planting our colony." However, there had been a six-months' drought in
that locality, and Mr. Weightman, with other members of the party, changed
their plans and engaged in other pursuits. For a short time he drove a freight-
MATTHEW WEIGHTMAN. 235
ing team between Leavenworth and Fort Riley. Then, going to Leavenworth, he
opened a news-stand, finally buying out Rose's bookstore.
In January, 1861, at the solicitation of D. W. Wilder, he became interested in
the Leavenworth Conservative as business manager — bought the paper, hired the
printers, secured the advertisements, and took charge of the circulation. When
D, R. Anthony, one of the proprietors, was made lieutenant colonel of the Seventh
regiment, Mr. Weightman became one of the partners. When they sold out, in
the fall of 1864, Mr. Weightman bought a farm in Leavenworth county, about
eight miles from the city, and for several years was a successful farmer, his only
previous knowledge of the work having been acquired in the carefully tilled
garden of the old English home.
On Christmas eve, 1862, Mr. Weightman was married to Miss Anna M. Wal-
lace, the daughter of Dr. James L. Wallace, of Leavenworth county. Mrs.
Weightman has ever been a most faithful and efficient helpmate, and survives
him, with their three children, John W. Weightman, of North Enid, Okla., Mrs.
Lillie Weightman-Stevenson, and Matthew Weightman, jr., of Topeka.
When D. W. Wilder was elected auditor of state he asked Mr. Weightman
to go into that ofiice as a clerk. He entered the oSice in January, 1874, and re-
mained there fourteen years, doing great service for the state. One of his duties
was to take charge of the school-land accounts. He brought order out of chaos.
After leaving the auditor's ofiice he became secretary and manager of the Capital
City Vitrified Brick Company, of Topeka, remaining in its employ until within a
few months of his death. He died at his home in Topeka, April 19, 1897, from a
second attack of pneumonia.
Mr. Weightman was a careful, thoughtful and considerate man among men.
In business he was conservative, and possessed the old-fashioned ideas of exact-
ness and punctuality. He was a Mason, and had been a member of the board of
directors of the Kansas State Historical Society. He was a patriot and a re-
publican, performing conscientiously every duty required as a citizen during his
forty years of residence in the state. His friends universally bore testimony to
his goodness. He was plain of speech and strictly just, but quick to lend his
aid to those who were striving to redeem themselves. He was a true man in his
family, in his church, to which he was devotedly attached, as a personal friend,
and in all business relations. While he will be remembered as a modest man,
preferring that others should lead, he thought for himself and was thoroughly
independent and outspoken on all public and political questions. His Method-
ism was a part of his character. He enjoyed his religion. To him death was a
victory, and the beginning of the life everlasting.
The following remarks were made by his pastor. Rev. Dr. A. S. Embree, at
the funeral service of Mr. Weightman :
"Here lie the ashes of one who in his life did much to exemplify the meaning
of the word Christian; to write a definition of that term, not in theological form,
but in the daily order and character of his life; to enable the preacher to turn,
as he so often desires to do, from the old examples of virtuous living to some-
thing newer, fresher — something wrought out in the presence of those whom he
would win to better things.
"He was what we call an orthodox believer. That is to say, he accepted the
ideas of the fatherhood of God, the sonship and mediation of Jesus Christ, and the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit. When we say he was a believer in these, we mean
that he relied upon God as an interested presence in all human affairs, upon
Christ as priest, savior, and example, and upon the Spirit as a quickener of the
moral impulses, sanctifier of the affections, and teacher of the truth.
230 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
"He was a fjood man; one of the very best of men: modest in the extreme
his goodness being of that quality NVhich made its deepest impression upon those
wlio know him the most intimately — his wife and children: his oldest and most
intimate acquaintances in business and social life.
" Others of us have been more ready to shout our faith and defend it in a cer-
tain measure who fell below him in practice. Here and there, some man not a
believer may have reached with him an equally blameless outer life, but this
man lying here was the superior. A faith which does not secure action and no
faith are poor things.
" Life is more than meat or raiment, more than prayer making and psalm
singing, more than gentility of manner, honesty in business life, and the exercise
of influence, though these be important matters; and that person gets the most
out of Ufe whose mark is highest, who cultivates the loftiest outer relations, sees
in himself the raw material from which is to be evolved a being who can claim
childhood with God and brotherhood with the Lord Jesus on the score of family
characteristics; and, to reach the mark, submits to the fire which melts the nat-
ural dross and leaves nothing behind but the pure gold.
"A man may be an excellent soldier, so far as obedience to military orders are
concerned, standing fast in the day of battle. A certain carelessness about living
or insensibility to danger, with a low order of intelligence, have been dominant
qualities in more than one of the world's armies who moved from victory to vic-
tory. But the soldier to whom we lift our hats, who commands our highest re-
spect, who may be relied upon to do not only what he is told, but to supplement
what he does with mental and moral force, is always that one who looks upon
himself as the incarnation of a great cause; who wars for liberty and is linked by
unseen bonds to the heroes of all time — the Grants, the Lincolns, the Washing-
tons, the Greeks, who battled gloriously in days gone by, and for whose success-
ful battling now we pray God speed them.
"And so this man's life was the better for his faith, for the altitude of his pur-
poses, for the hungering and thirsting after the righteousness of God. His Bible
was marked all through with passages which were bread to his soul, and the pen-
ciling in his hymn-book shows of what he sang, though no audible note came
from his lips.
"Of his home life I cannot dare to speak. I might say something of the
waters that rise out of the spring, clear as crystal, pure and refreshing; of the
sun pouring his splendor out upon the earth and nature rejoicing in its bath of
life and light; of days of storm when the shelter is all the more sweet; for he
was water and sunshine and shelter to this home, and his memory will cling
about it like the fragrance of sweet flowers so long as there are minds to remem-
ber him.
"Of his early days in Kansas you will read in the public prints. An English-
man who came to this new state with a great heart, and helped to fight our
battles; one who rounded out his life after a most excellent pattern, full of years
of honorable service; who died as courageously as he had lived, and has gone to
that city of whose inhabitants it is said, ' Blessed are the dead who die in the
Lord; yea from henceforth, for they rest from their labors and their works do
follow them,'"
GEORGE A. CRAWFORD. 237
GEORGE A. CRAWFORD.
G~1 EORGE ADDISON CRAWFORD, chairman of the committee which or-
^ ganized the Kansas State Historical Society, and second president of the
Society, in 1877, was born in Pine Creek township, Clinton (then a part of
Lycoming) county, Pennsylvania, July 27, 1827. On the father's side his ances-
try were Scotch-Irish (Presbyterians), and on the mother's German. His great-
grandfather, James Crawford, born in Hanover township, Lancaster (now a part
of Dauphin) county, Pennsylvania, was a major in the revolutionary war, a
son of John Crawford, who emigrated from the north of Ireland prior to the revo-
lution. James had sisters and brothers, one of whom, Richard, died in North-
umberland county, Pennsylvania, at a great age. Maj. James Crawford took an
active part in organizing the people of Lancaster county for the revolution.
June 10, 1776, he was colonel of a battalion of "associators," who passed resolu-
tions favoring the continental congress as against the crown. He was a delegate
from Northumberland county to the first constitutional convention, which met
in Philadelphia, July 15, 1776, of which Benjamin Franklin was president. Oc-
tober 4, 1776, Pres. John Hancock reported to the Pennsylvania council of
safety his appointment by the continental congress as major in Col. William
Cook's Twelfth regiment (or battalion) of regulars. He fought under Washing-
ton in several battles, and was twice wounded, once in the foot and once in the
shoulder, the ball which struck his foot killing his horse. He only escaped by
killing his pursuer, a British officer. Sick and disabled, he finally resigned, and
in 1779 was elected sheriff of Northumberland county, serving three years, and
residing in or near the town of Northumberland. From there he removed to
Pine Creek township, Lycoming (now Clinton) county, where his descendants
still reside. He was elected county commissioner for three years, and was town-
ship auditor and acting justice of the peace until his death. His first wife was
Rosanna Allison: his second, Agnes McDonald, whose brother was a captain in
the army led by General Montgomery a'gainst Quebec. He was a large man, with
a heavy voice and Scotch-Irish accent. He died about 1812, aged seventy-five
years, and was buried in the Pine Creek burying-ground, above Jersey Shore,
Pa. His second son, Robert, who died about 1836, aged seventy-six, was father
of George, and grandfather of George A.
The great-grandfather of George A. on the mother's side was Capt. John
Weitzel, of Sunbury, son of Paul and Charlotte Weitzel, of Lancaster, Pa. His
first wife was Tabitha Morris, daughter of John and Rose Morris, of Philadelphia ;
his second, Elizabeth Susanna Lebo, of Reading. He represented Northumber-
land county in the provincial conference which met in Philadelphia June 18,
1775, to resist the crown. He was the colleague of Maj. James Crawford in the
first constitutional convention, by which he was elected, July 23, 1776, a member
of the council of safety, to which the affairs of the new state were entrusted,
David Rittenhouse being its first chairman. He served in the council during the
years 1776 and 1777. On September 12, 1776, this convention elected him commis-
sioner of Northumberland county. In 1780 he was a commissary of subsistence in
the continental service ; in 1789, judge of the common pleas, and in 1777 and 1789
was justice of the peace in Sunbury, at which place he is buried. His brother
Casper was a captain and major of rifles, and distinguished himself in the battle
of Long Island. Writing to his brother John from camp near Kings Bridge,
238 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
sixteen miles above New York, September 6, 1776, he says: "New York is like a
mouse-trap — it is easy to get in but hard to get out. You no doubt have before
now heard of the drubbing we Pennsylvanians and the Delaware and Maryland
battalions got on Long Island on the 27th August last," etc. Previously he had
been a member of the assembly of March 9, 1776, which, by resolutions, precipi-
tated the declaration of independence. Capt. John Weitzel's eldest daughter,
Charlotte, married James White, and became the mother of Elizabeth Weitzel
White, mother of George A. Crawford.
Judge George Crawford, father of George A., was born in Wayne township,
now Clinton county, Pennsylvania, November 7, 1794. His mother was Miss
Elizabeth Quigley, of German descent. He was married January 29, 1822, to
Elizabeth Weitzel White, widow of James White, jr. She was born December
10, 1800, and died March 19, 1863. Her oldest son, Allison White, was elected to
congress from the Lock Haven district in 1856. Her other son (by her first mar-
riage), Col. James White, died in Lock Haven March 5, 1855. Judge Crawford
represented the counties of Lycoming, Potter and McKean in the legislature in
1831-'33, and was a colleague of Thaddeus Stevens and Chief Justices James
Thompson and Ellis Lewis. From April 1, 1831, to April 1, 1835, he was general
superintendent of the Pennsylvania canals of the north and west branches of the
Susquehanna river, from Farrandsville via Northumberland to twelve miles above
Wilkesbarre — over 120 miles — adjusting damages arising from the construction
of the canals, and disbursing the funds required in their operation. His office,
with its great labor and responsibility, required his absence from his family, in
consequence of which he resigned. He was county commissioner of Lycoming,
and after the organization of Clinton county served two terms as associate judge
of the district court — one with Hon. Thomas Burnsides and one with Hon. Geo.
W. Woodward — after which he refused all overtures to be drawn.into public life.
He was a farmer and the owner of mills. In politics he was a democrat, taking
sides with Senator Douglas and his son George A., against President Buchanan
and his stepson. Congressman White, on the Kansas question. For a long time
he was an elder in the Presbyterian church. He died at Chatham's Run, June
18, 1876, in sight of the place of his birth, surrounded by all his surviving chil-
dren, and was buried June 20 at Lock Haven, by the side of his departed wife.
The Lock Haven Republican said of him: "He belonged to that class of sturdy
characters — the men of sterling worth — who have given to the past century that
full measure of glory over which we now rejoice, and who leave us wondering to
ourselves whether we shall ever see their like again."
George A. Crawford received his higher education at Clinton academy, on
Pine creek, of which his father was president, at the Lock Haven academy, and at
Jefferson college. Sent home for a term on account of ill health, he kept up with
his classes, and graduated in June, 1817, under the presidency of Dr. Robert J.
Breckenridge. Representing the Philo society in contest, he took the honors of
the college in an oration, "The Unity of Nature." He was proficient in Latin
and rhetoric, and stood among the first in all his studies in a class of sixty-seven.
After graduating he went with other students to the South, and taught school at
Salem, Clarke county, Kentucky, among the relatives of Pres. Zachary Taylor.
In the fall of 1847 he joined his roommate Col. Samuel Simmons, in the manage-
ment of a select school at Canton, Miss. In the spring of 1848 he returned to
Pennsylvania, and entered upon the study of the law in the oflBce of Messrs. Al-
lison White and James W. Quigley.
In 1850, still pursuing his law studies, he became editor and proprietor of the
Clinton Democrat, the party organ of that county. He took an active part, in
GEORGE A. CRAWFORD. 239
1851, in bringing out Col. William Bigler, then partner of his half-brother, Alli-
son White, as a candidate for governor. In behalf of the ladies of Lock Haven,
he presented to Colonel Bigler, in the court-house, a copy of the "Compromise
Measures," reporting Colonel Bigler's speech to Colonel Forney, of the Perm syl-
vanicLn. In that campaign he was selected as the champion of his party in a
joint discussion with Judge Linn, of Bellefonte, one of the oldest advocates of the
Whig cause, since eminent as a law-writer. In 1853 he accepted a clerkship ten-
dered him by Judge James Campbell, postmaster-general, and from that time
till May, 1857, most of his time was spent in Washington city. While in Wash-
ington, he was a correspondent of the Pittsburg Daily Union and other papers.
In the political contests of 1854 and 1855 he took an active part as a public
speaker against the "Know Nothings" in Pennsylvania and in Washington city,
addressing the Germans of Washington by'invitation, and sometimes speaking
twice a night. Upon the final triumph in the election of Henry A. Wise as gov-
ernor of Virginia, he was the principal speaker at the ratification meeting in that
city.
In 1855 he was a delegate to the democratic state convention of Pennsylvania
from the counties of Lycoming and Clinton, and was instrumental, in conjunc-
tion with Judge Ludlow, of Philadelphia, in harmonizing the two contending
elements, one led by Hon. Hendricks B. Wright, and the other by Col. Samuel
Black, of Pittsburg, by securing the adoption of an amendment indorsing the
doctrine of popular sovereignty, for which service he received the personal thanks
of President Pierce. He was elected to this position during his tenure of office
at Washington, and without consulting him, as a compliment alike to his ability
as a public speaker and his devotion to the principles of his party. In the hotly
contested campaign of 1854:, in which Governor Bigler was defeated by the
Know Nothings for reelection, he was offered by his party the editorship of the
leading daily paper of the state, the Pennsylvanian, established by Col. J. W.
Porney, which he declined, preferring to do active service on the stump through
Pennsylvania, speaking also in Illinois and Iowa. For his usefulness in this
campaign, he received, September 16, 1856, a highly complimentary letter of
thanks from President Buchanan, of which the following is an extract:
"You are doubtless aware that the republicans of New England, with money
in abundance, are now concentrating their efforts on our good old state. Their
last and only hope is to carry Pennsylvania at the October election, and, through
the moral influence of our own and other states, secure the election of Fremont.
We are, indeed, the keystone of the arch, and, should this be broken, God save the
constitution and the union. The fifteen Southern states outlawed by the Phila-
delphia convention are witnessing the contest in Pennsylvania with intense
anxiety but with calm determination. Should the Northern states confirm the
outlawry, and thus divide the union into two hostile geographical sections, I
entertain serious apprehensions of the immediate result ; but should Pennsylvania
triumph over all the 'isms' at the October election, as I trust and believe she
will, our happy union will be safe for many a year. I shall always be happy to
hear from you."
In the fall of 1856 Mr. Crawford commenced a campaign for the nomination
of Col. William F. Packer for governor, his own county (Clinton) being the
first to lead off in instructions to its delegates to support Packer. He attended
the convention in March, 1857, and did much toward his nomination. He was a
member of the firm of Dillon (Sidney, afterwards president of the Union Pacific),
Jackman & Co., to construct a railroad from Superior City to Hudson, Wis., the
company cutting sixty miles through the woods in the deep snows of 1856.
In the spring of 1857 he determined upon a visit to Kansas. As he was about
to leave, he was accompanied by Colonel Packer (then the nominee for governor)
240 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
to the depot, nncl arranged to accompany him in his canvas of the state. De-
termining afterward to remain in Kansas, he was released from his obligation.
Grovernor Packer tendered him the position of secretary of state, if he would re-
turn to Pennsylvania. He expected to have been accompanied on his journey by
Governor Bigler, but they did not meet until the land sales at Paola, in June of
that year. He arrived in Kansas by steamboat, on the Missouri river, landing at
Leavenworth, whence he was accompanied to Lawrence by Dr. Norman Eddy,
United States commissioner for the sale of the Delaware and other Indian lands.
While at Lawrence, on their route to Lecompton, they encountered a party going
to Fort Scott to secure the town site, and at once accepted an offer of passage by
the mule team, and partnership in the town project. Fort Scott was then an
abandoned military post, whose buildings were occupied by pioneers. Messrs.
Crawford, Eddy and their associates purchased claims to 520 acres of land and
organized the Fort Scott Town Company, of which Mr. Crawford was elected
president, in which capacity he served for nearly twenty years, during much of
that period having control of the business of the company. He ordered a survey
and plat, named the streets after his friends, Bigler, Hendricks, and others, and
procured a lithograph of the town site. On that plat he marked two prospective
lines of railroad, and it would seem like a dream, if it were not a fact, to say
that two leading railroads of the state now occupy almost the very lines marked
on the original plat of Fort Scott. The deed to every lot in the original town
bears his name. He organized a hotel company, purchasing a pro-slavery and
making it a Free-state hotel, by which name it was known far and wide.
In July, 1857, he returned with Governor Bigler as far east as St. Louis, and
joined him in a letter to President Buchanan, strongly sustaining the pacific
policy of Governor Walker and his protection of the free-state men in the right
to vote. He bought a sawmill, associating with him Alexander McDonald, since
United States senator from Arkansas, and E. S. Bowen, afterward chief engi-
neer of the New York & Erie railroad, both of whom came to Fort Scott with
him in December, 1857; Mr. Benjamin P. McDonald, then a minor, and for many
years president of the First National Bank of Fort Scott, having come out with
him in August.
When the fraudulent returns from Oxford and McGee were received, elect-
ing a democratic and pro-slavery majority to the legislature of 1857, he was
taken into council by Governor Walker and Secretary Stanton, and advised the
throwing out of the returns and giving the certificates to the free-state candi-
dates, as they were called. When it became apparent that the Lecompton con-
stitutional convention was not going to fairly submit the constitution to a vote
of the people, Mr. Crawford made a special visit to his friend, Senator Stephen
A. Douglas, of Chicago, to urge his opposition to its reception by congress. He
entered into correspondence with Col. John W. Forney, Governor Packer, and
Governor Wise, protesting that the constitution did not represent the will of the
people. It is gratifying to know that both these governors, in their messages,
took ground against admission under that constitution. He was one of the party
to whom we owe the exposure of the celebrated candle box containing the re-
turns of the fraudulent election under the Lecompton constitution, and ten years
later revealed the story to the public for the first time in a paper before the
Kansas State Historical Society. It was the exposure of these fraudulent re-
turns found in the candle box under the wood-pile which made the Lecompton
constitution most odious and did most to secure its rejection by congress. How
strange it seems, that after twenty-one years that veritable candle box returns to
the Kansas State Historical Society with the "Webb collection" from Boston.
GEORGE A. CRAWFORD. 241
During the years 1857, 1858, 1859 and 1860 the violence and anarchy which had
previously characterized the more northern portions of the territory were trans-
ferred to the regions of Fort Scott. The notorious George W. Clarke, the mur-
derer of Thomas W. Barber, had gone there from Lecompton to take charge of
the office of register of the United States land office, and was accompanied by
Dr. George P. Hamilton, W. B. Brockett, and other notorious border ruffians.
Arrayed against these were John Brown, James Montgomery, and other free-state
leaders, commanding bands of men known as "jayhawkers." Perpetual raids
were carried on between these opposing parties. Assassinations were frequent
throughout the country. Several times United States troops under command of
General Harney, General (then Captain) Lyon, General Wood, General Sedgwick,
General Sturgis, and other officers, since distinguished in the war, were ordered
there to preserve peace. Fort Scott was in constant danger of destruction dur-
ing these troubles. The border counties of Missouri were greatly agitated, and,
at one time, her governor sent a large military force under General Frost to pro-
tect her people. Mr. Crawford was opposed to the agitation kept up by these con-
tending parties. Under the benign influence of Governor Walker, the free-state
men had again participated in the elections. They were in the majority in the
legislature and could make the laws to suit themselves. They were in the ma-
jority in the counties of Bourbon and Linn and controlled the offices. Mr. Craw-
ford invoked peace and desired to settle all questions of the past by securing
immigration.
The pro-slavery men who were being driven out took refuge in Fort Scott.
They formed a society called the "Bloody Reds," which extended into the border
counties of Missouri, and of which Dr. George P. Hamilton was president. Mr.
Crawford's opposition to the plans of the pro-slavery men provoked a long series
of attempted assassinations. Failing in those, they gave him the following
written notice to leave, accompanied with the verbal declaration that if he did
not leave by twelve o'clock at night he should be killed:
" To George A. Cratvford, William OaUaher, and Charles Dhnon:
Gentlemen — You are very respectfully invited to leave town in twenty-four
hours. George P. Hamilton."
"Friday afternoon, April 27, 1858."
Mr. Crawford's answer was: "I do n't exchange messages with horse- thieves."
His friends armed for defense, and the border- ruffian gang themselves fled
from the town and joined the band under Capt. Charles Hamilton, a few days
later, in their raid upon the settlers at Trading Post, taking eleven free-state
men into a lonely ravine and shooting them down, killing five and wounding six.
This was known as the "Marais des Cygnes massacre," immortalized in verse
by Whittier. These victims received the very bullets loaded for the assassina-
tion of Geo. A. Crawford. Although threatened with assassination if he should
succeed, Mr. Crawford at last, upon charges, procured the removal of Clarke
(or Doak, in whose name he held office) from the land-office, going to Washing-
ton for the purpose, and from there accompanying Judge Douglas to Phila-
delphia, after his triumphant defeat of the Lecompton constitution and his
redemption of promises made to Mr. Crawford in Chicago.
Mr. Crawford was in the room with John H. Little, ex-deputy United States
marshal, when, on December 16, 1858, a raid was made upon Fort Scott by the
forces of John Brown and James Montgomery, in rescue of Benjamin Rice, who
was held as a prisoner by Deputy United States Marshal Campbell, Little receiv-
ing a shot through the head from a Sharp's rifle in the hands of one of Mont-
gomery's men, killing him almost instantly. For three hours Mr. Crawford
242 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
remained in prison with his ghastly and dying friend, rifle balls at intervals
coming through the windows, and a cannon standing within a few feet in readi-
ness to be lired into the building at any instant. As the command was given to
fire, a woman's voice was heard outside calling for a truce, and exclaiming,
"There are women and children in the house." During the parley, Mr. Craw-
ford walked into the then open door, into the face of about one hundred
Sharp's rifles, all cocked upon him. He was liable to be taken for Little by
those outside, who were not aware of his (Little's) death. One rifle was snapped
upon him by Hazlett, afterwards killed at Harper's Ferry. As soon as Colonel
Montgomery learned that Mr. Crawford was in the building he sent orders for
his protection ; but Mr. Crawford was already safe. In the house were six kegs
of powder, and the torches had been lighted to fire the building.
On the breaking out of the war, Mr. Crawford followed the lead of his per-
sonal and political friend, Stephen A. Douglas, in support of the administration
of Abraham Lincoln and his war policy. He assisted in the organization of the
Second Kansas regiment, taking a leading part in the caucus of officers which
selected its colonel, lieutenant colonel, and major. From his two stores at Fort
Scott and Trading Post he equipped many of the men of the different regiments
before the government made any arrangement for the payment of expenses, and
indorsed for sutlers to help them procure goods for the troops.
Owing to irregularities incident to the first organization of troops, and to the
many deaths of soldiers at Wilson's Creek, that battle cost him several thousand
dollars, Mr. C. preferring that the money should go to the families of the dead
rather than enforce collection. When the First and Second Kansas regiments
marched into Missouri, leaving the border counties exposed, Mr. Crawford re-
ceived instructions from General Lyon to raise troops for their protection. In
this connection, and as a part of the history of the times, the following extract
from a letter of General Lyon, written on a Missouri river steamer, en route with
his command to Lexington and thence to Wilson's Creek, will be interesting:
"Missouri River, June 13, 1861.
'■'■Oeorc/e A. Crawford, Esq.: Dear Sir— ... I am aware of the un-
protected condition of your region. . . . Indeed, my dear sir, in these times,
while the government is so absorbed in the immediately impending dangers, we
must not depend so much on its formal instructions as to execute what we know
to be its purposes and duties. ... Do this, and you will be sustained.
Yours truly, N. Lyon."
From Springfield, Mo., on the eve of battle, he sent to Mr. Crawford, by Capt.
George J. Clark, a verbal order for the raising of troops. This order, written out
at Fort Scott by Mr. Clark, was recognized by Captain Prince, of Fort Leaven-
worth, as that of General Lyon, and out of it grew the Sixth Kansas regiment.
Passing down the border after the First and Second regiments had left
for Springfield, Mr. Crawford found Colonel Montgomery and Lieut. Col. J.
G. Blunt organizing a regiment at Mound City. Colonel Montgomery disclosed
his purpose to enter Missouri; Mr. Crawford tried to dissuade him, and passed
on to Fort Scott. Then came the news of the raid of the rebel armies down the
border under command of General Rains, accompanied by Gov. Claib. Jackson
and the Missouri legislature, burning bridges and threatening Fort Scott. On
the south, about Carthage, rebel forces were pursuing Sigel. The people of
southern Kansas were fleeing in consternation. Mr. Crawford called a public
meeting, organized a "committee of safety" and was placed at its head, clothed
with the absolute power of martial law. He placed himself in immediate com-
munication with Colonel Montgomery's command, and found it counter-march-
ing from Missouri; found General Sturgis on his march to Springfield to meet
GEORGE A. CRAWFORD. 243
General Lyon, whilst General Sigel was making his victorious retreat. He kept
advised of the march of General Rains, and for these purposes impressed horses,
giving receipts and becoming responsible therefor, and commanded the service
of whoever was needed. As chairman of this committee of safety, he organized
the entire militia of the county in a day, had reports from the several companies,
and held them in readiness to march at an hour's warning to repel the threatened
invasion of Rains. This was the condition of affairs in that part of the state un-
til troops came, under command of Colonel Weer, succeeded by the Lane brigade.
Mr. Crawford conducted this campaign of martial law as a private citizen and at
his own expense. It saved southern Kansas for the time.
Services such as these inspired the confidence of the people. A question had
arisen as to the terms of office of the state officers, the legislature, supreme
■court, and other officials, under the constitution. Section 1 of that instrument
says of the state officers that they "shall be chosen by the electors of the state
at the time and place of voting for members of the legislature, and shall hold
their offices for the term of two years from the second Monday in January next
after election, and until their successors are elected and qualified." The first
■election under the constitution was held on the "first Tuesday in December (the
6th) 1859," and, ordinarily, the terms of the state officers would be held to have
begun "on the second Monday in January next" (January, 1860), and to have
•ended in two years thereafter, viz., "on the second Monday in January," 1862.
This construction involved the necessity for the election of their successors at the
general election of 1861, in order that they might be duly qualified at the expira-
tion of the terms of the incumbents, on the second Monday in January, 1862. But
Xansas was not admitted until January 29, 1861, nearly thirteen months after
the terms of the state officers had commenced to run.
The question then arose. Shall their term run literally with the letter of the
constitution, or shall they have two years from the admission of the state, or shall
they be permitted to exceed their term by holding over under that clause which
says they shall ' ' hold until their successors are elected and qualified ' ' ? The leg-
islature, the terms of one body of which (the house) had, under the first con-
struction, already expired, undertook to remedy the difficulty by providing for
the election of state officers in 1862. This solution was not acceptable to a ma-
jority of the newspapers, attorneys, and people of the state. Accordingly, peti-
tions were largely circulated and signed, asking the republican state central
committee to nominate a state ticket for the election of 1861, thereby saving ex-
pense of a general convention. Early in October, the committee, A. Carter
Wilder, chairman, met in Topeka, and in consultation with leading "war demo-
crats," nominated a full state ticket, with Geo. A. Crawford for governor. Their
platform was as follows:
Resolved, That the vigorous prosecution of the present war, the earnest and
hearty support of the administration in its efforts to crush out the rebellion, the
maintenance of the constitution, the enforcement of the laws and the preserva-
tion of the union are the issues upon which these nominations are made.
The papers and people adhering to the construction adopted by the state
officers and the legislature opposed the election and refused to vote, but voted
to fill a vacancy in the offices of attorney-general and state treasurer, and for the
location of the capital. In some counties and precincts the election officers re-
fused to receive the votes; in others they refused to count and return them. But
Mr. Crawford had in the returns a clear majority of all the votes cast, and it was
estimated that his vote, returned and unreturned, was about two-thirds of the
entire vote. In his own county of Bourbon, and in such as Coflfey and Wyan-
dotte, it was nearly unanimous, comparing it with the vote on the capital.
244 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The state canvassers refused to canvass the vote, and Mr. Crawford applied
to the supreme court for mandamus, and the court decided his election illegal
(State of Kansas, ex rel. Crawford, v. Robinson, 1 Kan. 17), and no attempt was
made to carry it before the legislature or the supreme court of the United States.
The court held that it is the province of the legislature to determine the time for
the election of a legislature, and, therefore, also the election of state officers,
holding that this time shall be, not when members of the house are elected, but
members both of the house and senate. By an amendment of the constitution,
senators are elected only once in four years. It would follow, unless this decision
against Mr. Crawford were reversed, that state officers are now entitled to hold
for four years.
During the summer of 1861 all the country south of Fort Scott, now the coun-
ties of Crawford and Cherokee, was abandoned. General Lane had it in contem-
plation to make Fort Lincoln (or Mound City) the military post, giving up the
county of Bourbon, including Fort Scott, to depopulation. By the active exer-
tion of Mr. Crawford and his colleagues, the military post was established at
Fort Scbtt and the county was saved from predatory warfare.
In 18G2 the friends of Mr. Crawford, and especially the people of the border
counties, determined that the previously expressed wish of the people should be
vindicated by his nomination for governor by the state convention. But General
Lane, who was then recruiting commissioner for Kansas, Nebraska, and Colo-
rado, had made an alliance with Thomas Carney for that position, and used his
great influence and patronage in his behalf. The newspapers of the state were
nearly all for Mr. Crawford. In some votes upon preliminary questions, Septem-
ber 17, 18G2, some of Mr. Crawford's delegates did not vote as he had expected,
and he declined to risk his name before the convention. (See Wilder's Annals,
p. 322.) He was nominated unanimously, however, for secretary of state. He
informed the committee that, inasmuch as attacks had been made upon him on
the ground of his not having been a republican, he could only accept on condi-
tion that the convention would perpetuate its organization as a union organiza-
tion and on a union platform. The committee strangely reported his unconditional
acceptance, and the convention made no concession as to the name of the organi-
zation. Alarmed with its work (it failed to indorse the preliminary proclamation
of emancipation of President Lincoln, which had just been received), Mr. Craw-
ford declined the nomination of secretary of state. The state central committee,
in posters for meetings, as in calls for conventions for years after, incorporated
the word "union," and Mr. Crawford then went upon the stump in support of
the ticket, but he refused all overtures looking to his appointment to the place.
In 18(5:3 Mr. Crawford visited Nashville, Tenn., then in possession of the union
armies, and commanded by Gen. Robert B. Mitchell, of Kansas. On February
22, at a union meeting held in the capitol, in and around which were about 20,000
union soldiers, the post of honor was accorded to him, and he spoke to the toast
"George Washington." The police regulation of the meeting was in charge of
Col. John A. Martin and the Eighth Kansas, who were there with their band.
Mr. Crawford was followed by Governor Brownlow, Gen. Green Clay Smith,
General Stokes, and others. Procuring from Generals Rosecrans, Thomas, Sheri-
dan, Crittenden and McCook recommendations for the promotion of General
Mitchell to a major generalship, he visited Washington to that end. President
Lincoln made the nomination, but the confirmation was defeated by General
Lane.
July 4, 18r.4, Mr. Crawford delivered an oration at Mount Pleasant, Atchison
county, which had some reputation. It was reprinted in Pennsylvania and Indi-
ana as a recruiting document.
GEORGE A. CRAWFORD. 245
In 1.864: Mr. Crawford again permitted the use of his name for nomination for
governor. By this time General Lane was no longer the political friend of
Governor Carney, and was willing to make a new alliance. Mr. Crawford did
not regard it as part of the duty of a governor to interfere with the legislature
in the election of United States senator, and would make no promises. General
L/ane announced a canvass for President Lincoln in midsummer, taking with him
rival candidates for governor, and encouraging others in other parts of the state.
When the convention met, September 8, IBTi, a large delegation, claiming to rep-
resent the army at Fort Smith, asked to be admitted. They had not been in-
vited to the hall but were admitted to seats. This and the concentration of the
votes of other candidates gave the nomination to Col. Samuel J. Crawford, al-
though their relative vote stood at first: George A. Crawford, twenty-three;
Samuel J. Crawford, sixteen.
In 1866 he made a canvass of the state with Hon. Sidney Clarke, a candidate
for congress, and Col. Geo. H. Hoyt, candidate for attorney-general.
February 12, 1867, the anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, he de-
livered the eulogy, by invitation of the legislature — the most studied effort of his
life. It may be found in the journals. The legislature made the day henceforth
a legal holiday.
The legislature of that year having refused to make an appropriation for im-
migration purposes, Mr. Crawford accepted an appointment as commissioner of
immigration under an old law, and served for about two years, assisted by Gov.
S. J. Crawford and Judge L. D. Bailey. He regarded this as the crowning work
of his life. Kansas was prostrate under the effects of the war and the raid of
the grasshoppers. Gov. S. J. Crawford contributed $100 from his contingent
fund, and with this exception the work was carried on by George A. Crawford at
his own expense. In consultation with his colleagues, "immigration letter
paper" and circulars were introduced, in German as well as English; county so-
cieties were organized; newspapers were induced to keep standing a column de-
scription of their town and county, documents were sent to every post-office,
newspaper and county clerk in the United States, and a page known as the "im-
migration column" made its regular appearance in the Kansas Farmer. The
result of this and other similar efforts in this field appears in the census, the
population in 1865 being 135,807, with but little increase for 1866, and in 1870
364,339. Mr. Crawford remained on the Kansas Farmer as associate editor
for about a year and a half. Whilst acting in that capacity and as commis-
sioner of immigration, he inaugurated that system of exhibiting Kansas prod-
ucts which has gained us so much reputation in other states. He exhibited
Kansas fruits at the state fair at Quincy, 111., in 1867, and also at the St. Louis
fair, with such success that it was followed by an appropriation by the legisla-
ture to the horticultural society the next year, resulting in our triumph at
Philadelphia.
January 18, 1867, he and his associates laid out the city of Osage Mission, and
he had the practical management of the affairs of the town company for years.
In 1867, with Judges Kingman, Bailey, and others, he helped organize a His-
torical Society, and was secretary for two years. On February 4, 1868, he read
before it his history of "The Candle Box under the Wood-pile," revealing to the
public the long-hidden secret of an event so important in the defeat of the Le-
compton constitution and the overthrow of slavery in Kansas.
In 1868 he became again a candidate for the nomination for governor. The con-
test between him and Governor Carney was very spirited and absorbing. Their
relative strength on first ballot was : Crawford, 35; Carney, 23. In this contest,
James M. Harvey became a compromise candidate. On the fifth ballot Governor
246 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Carney withdrew in favor of Mr. Harvey, throwing every one of his votes to him
and noniinatinfr him. Mr. Crawford then took the stump for Governor Harvey.
In ISG'J he establi.shed the Daily Monitor and a free reading-room and museum,
at Fort Scott, maintaining the same until 1873, when he sold the paper.
In 1870 he was instrumental in securing the Missouri, Kansas k Texas
railway to Fort Scott and Osage Mission, in a contract made with with R, S.
Stevens, manager, at Nevada, Mo. He was a second time regent of the state
university. He presented the name of Judge D. P. Lowe for congress in his
Monitor, and went as his delegate to the state convention, abating no effort
until his nomination and election were secured. This was the first and last
political convention in Kansas of which he had been a member. Having suffered
at the hands of the secret ballot, his first motion was that voting should be viva
voce, and his motion prevailed.
On November 1 of that year his flouring-mill and woolen-mill were burned,
filled with great supplies of wheat, flour, wool, cloths, and yarn. His loss was
$80,000, and no insurance. These were pioneer mills, and were in advance of the
times. The woolen-mills were the first in the state, and their manufactures
took first premiums at state fairs.
He was elected in 1871 one of the executive committee of the State Agricul-
tural Society, having the year before, at the state fair at Fort Scott, interfered
to prevent his own election as president of that society. We may say, in this
connection, that for a number of years during the war he was president of the
Bourbon County Agricultural Society, which held several fairs.
In 1871, on the nomination of Governor Harvey, without solicitation, he was
appointed by President Grant an alternate United States commissioner for the
centennial exposition. He and his colleague. Col. John A. Martin, took steps to
enlist the state in a state display. Mr. Crawford spent the entire winter of
1873-'7-i at Topeka procuring the passage of a bill providing for a state board
and a state display. The bill only passed by one majority in committee of the
whole in the house. The board having been appointed, he spent part of the
next winter and all of the winter of 187.5-''76 in Topeka procuring appropriations.
During the winters of 1876-'77 and 1877-'78 he was occupied assisting Sec.
Alfred Gray in closing up the work; also in writing a report of the centennial
managers. As United States commissioner he attended nearly all the meetings
of the national commission at Philadelphia for the general exposition, from 1871
till the close of 1876; was secretary of the committee on manufactures, member
of the committee on ceremonies, was one of a subcommittee of three who ar-
ranged the program for the celebration of the Fourth of July in 1876 in Inde-
pendence square. He declined the nomination for the vice-presidency of the
United States commission, presided over the commission in its later sessions of
1876, during the absence of President Hawley on his campaign for congress, and,,
at the close, was a member of the committee to draft a constitution for the per-
manent organization of the Society of the United States Centennial Commission.
He was elected secretary and acting treasurer of this society. He spent seven
and a half months in Philadelphia in 1876 in centennial work.
May 6, 1877, he visited the newly discovered lead regions of Short creek^
Cherokee county, and became secretary and business manager of the Empire City
Town Company. On May 2.3, they commenced a survey of the town site in the
woods, and in less than a month had a city of the third class, and in less than twa
months a city of the second class, with over 2300 inhabitants. This was very rapid
town building, and makes the third city of Kansas of which Mr. Crawford had
been a founder and the business manager. But Mr. Crawford's efforts were di-
GEORGE A. CRAWFORD. 247
rected mainly to making a city of his first love, Fort Scott. For twenty years he
devoted himself to that work, giving it sawmills, flouring-mills, woolen-mills,
foundry and machine-shops, store, hotel, daily paper, free reading-room, rail-
roads, and taking all the hazardous risks of running machinery in a new country.
Perhaps no man in the state has carried so large and varied business. But the
fire left him in debt. High rates of interest, and taxes ranging from $3000 to
$5000 a year, with fifty-per-cent. penalties, swept away a large fortune. He se-
cured his creditors with mortgages, and retired from business in 1875; and when
he did his centennial work at Philadelphia he was no longer the possessor of
even his lot in the cemetery at Fort Scott. What work he had done was as a
private citizen mainly; and it may be said of him, as perhaps of no other of equal
prominence, that, with the exception of the clerkship that came unsought in
Washington, and which he resigned, his services to friends, to clients and to the
public have been entirely voluntary, disinterested, and free from the considera-
tion of any compensation whatever.
Ill health and the force of circumstances compelled Mr. Crawford to lead a
business life, whilst his tastes and inclinations invited him to literary pursuits.
He had accustomed himself to extemporaneous speaking, and but few of his
addresses have been preserved. Of those which have gone into print we may
mention his college oration ; his eulogy of Abraham Lincoln ; his Fourth of July
oration at Mount Pleasant; his address on "The Press and the Centennial," at
Manhattan, before the editorial state convention of 1875; his speech before the
senate in presentation to the lieutenant-governor of a gavel made from the floor
of Independence hall, and his speech before the legislature in reception of the
legislature of Nebraska, both in 1877. Twice he met Hon. M. J. Parrott in de-
bate, and they became fast friends. In 1859, when Mr. Parrott was running
against Judge Saunders W. Johnson, also an old free-state man, for congress, he
(Mr. Parrott) had met Judges Johnson, Perkins and McDowell in debate. He
brought with him to Fort Scott their request that Mr. Crawford would reply to
him. Mr. Crawford was not in politics, and consented reluctantly. Col. R. J.
Hinton, then reporting for Mr. Parrott, gave an account in the Leavenworth
Times, in which he said:
"This was the warmest and ablest discussion of the trip. Mr. Crawford is a
keen debater, a man of considerable intellectual force, and a pleasant speaker,
well versed in the art of tickling the dear people. The proceedings were re-
markable for violent denunciation on the part of the democratic speaker of the
president and his policy. No republican could use harsher words or more bitter
invectives than did Mr. Crawford. He declared that presidents were not the
party or its principles; that James Buchanan was dead, and would not again be
taken up," etc.
On the editorial excursion to Galveston, in 1875, he made impromptu speeches
at Galveston, Houston, and Dallas, all of which drew tears. Of the Houston
speech, the Daily Telegraph said: "It was too brilliant to be lost to history."
After developing Empire City into a town of 2300 inhabitants, which has since
expanded into the city of Galena, with 16,000 population, and the center of a
mining camp as rich as any in the world, in the year 1881 Mr. Crawford con-
cluded to move westward. The records of the Historical Society show that he
made his second visit to Colorado on the 31st of October, 1881. At the junction
of two rivers, the Grand and the Gunnison, he located the town of Grand Junc-
tion, and to the day of his death he was the same steadfast, liberal, progressive
and energetic friend to Colorado interests he had been to every feature of devel-
opment in Kansas. The first year he organized a company to build a ditch to
supply the town with water, erected cabins for the accommodation of those com-
248 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
ing into the valley, and constructed a hotel. The next year he planted shade-
trees in front of all public property and all lots owned by the company. He
establi.shed a company for the manufacture of pressed brick, and supplied the
railroad company with all the brick it wanted in the city and for some distance
out. He built many cottages, and advertised the town from Maine to California.
He established the Grand Junction Star. December 9, 1881, he wrote Judge
Adams: "I would like to look in upon the Kansas State Historical Society once
more. After twenty-five years I am at my old trade of starting a town, and this
one to distance my first. Fort Scott. So much for the whirligig of time." He
remitted regularly each year his annual dues to the Historical Society, and to the
day of his death considered it his best friend.
Mr. Crawford died from a lingering illness of three months at Grand Junction,
at 4: 15 p. m., January 26, 1891, after ten years' residence in Colorado. But little
is known by his Kansas friends of his life in that state beyond the fact that he
left a great material and industrial monument in the fourth town of his building.
Grand Junction is the ninth town in size in Colorado, with a population of 4500,
three railroads, a beet-sugar mill, other manufacturing plants, and the center of
a very productive agricultural and fruit region, all developed in consequence of
Mr. Crawford's foresight and energy. During the year, 1899 2800 car-loads of
fruit were shipped from trees of Governor Crawford's planting. The following
testimony by the Grand Junction Daily Star shows that his many excellent
qualities continued to the end:
"The brave little governor is gone. A life struggle with death is ended, and
one of the grand, heroic souls that men love in life and venerate in death has
gone to the great beyond. Death has never claimed a more determined oppo-
nent, and life never possessed a more useful and active servant. An invalid from
infancy, the life of George A. Crawford, of over sixty years, was spent in a con-
tinued battle with sickness and disease, sustained only by a will power remark-
able in intensity, and an intellect wonderful in extent. To most men the life
bestowed upon Governor Crawford would have been a burden to self and friends;
but through his wonderful will, his genius for leadership, his quick intelligence
and bright, kindly disposition, life was made a grand success and a blessing to
self and fellow men. He was never discouraged; he never gave up; and he never
was aught but a true, kindly gentleman. Those who knew him as he stood on
the banks of the Grand and looked across on the wild sage-brush country, in
which he then proposed to found a city, cannot forget the bright prophecies then
so clearly foretold. Those who struggled with him in the desperate adversities
that followed for seven long years will never forget the cheering smile and ring-
ing words of encouragement that caused adversity to become prosperity, and not
one will ever forget that on all occasions the little governor was always a gentle-
man. Much as all had admired him in the past, the heroic struggle made during
the last three months with death has but increased that admiration. In this
struggle there was no fear of death, but a wish, a true, unselfish wish, to behold
the city he had founded and did so much to build become what it is surely des-
tined to become— a grand and glorious city. Grand Junction is the crowning
work of Governor Crawford's life, and many a citizen, not only in Mesa county,
but in the entire state, will grieve that his dream could not have become with
him a reality. And yet while we grieve, it is with a deep pride of true citizenship
that we feel and know that he belonged to Mesa county and western Colorado.
Successful in youth in his native state, a distinguished and respected citizen in
the state of Kansas, honored and respected throughout the entire nation, he
came, with all the honors that state and nation could bestow, to create in the
then wilds of western Colorado a city which would become the crowning work
and triumph of his life. He well succeeded, but his success, as many such tri-
umphs, has been crowned with death. Many will mourn ; many a tear will be shed
o'er the grave of the brave little man whose life, filled as it was with adversity
and affliction, yet became, through a magnificent will and genius, the most ear-
nest and useful that we have ever known."
SAMUEL WALKER. 249
SAMUEL WALKER.
Written for the Kansas State Historical Society by Charles S. Gleed.
T ITERARY merit must not be looked for in this sketch. The story, as told,
-■-^ is a simple series of historical fragments strung together on the thread of a
single life, like beads and buttons threaded for children at play. Samuel Walker
is not one about whom a writer can consistently presume to be extravagant in
any direction. He is now, as he always has been, an unpretentious citizen, mak-
ing himself useful exclusively in the ordinary walks of life, except when the exi-
gencies of curi-ent events call into action his power to think and act quickly and
with utter disregard of personal physical danger. He is a Lawrence liverj-man,
with but little leisure to talk of old times, and even less inclination than leisure.
He tells his story at the point of the interviewer's bayonet, and tells it with such
seeming indifference to his own participancy that the pronoun "I" almost takes
itself out of the first person into the third.
With regard to the form of presenting the sketch, the only two questions con-
sidered have been, first, what will best keep up the interest of the narrative?
and, second, what will be most convenient for the writer? The entire sketch,
whether given as quoted or not, is substantially a repetition from Walker's words.
The names of persons and the dates will, with perhaps a few exceptions, be seen
to correspond with those given in Wilder's Annals of Kansas. Those who are
familiar with Kansas history will perceive that the events here described are
included in a very well-defined epoch. Walker's Annals, of course, extend clear
through the troublesome days; but, until some future time, the record after
1856 cannot be published. Nothing remains to be said now except a few words
as to the philosophy of this history. This cannot be more briefly or more clearly
stated than by quoting the words of Hon. Eli Thayer. He writes:
"There were three methods, and only three, by which the slave-state advocates
in Kansas and elsewhere could contend against us: First, by competing in the
emigration to Kansas; second, by murder and outrages against our settlers: and
third, by inciting a rebellion on our jjart against the United States government.
For the success of the first method there was no chance whatever. Our ma-
chinery for securing emigration to Kansas was in perfect order and we could
put into the territory ten actual settlers where they could put in one. The sec-
ond method would be still further from success, for the reason that, however
much the Northern states would tolerate the aggressions of the slave power
made according to law, they were determined that no aggressions contrary to the
law should be successful. Hence, every outrage of the border ruffians in Kansas
only stimulated emigration and made more firm the determination that Kansas
should be free. There never was a free-state martyr in Kansas whose death was
not good for at least 100 new free-state settlers. Both of these methods, then,
gave no hope. The only remaining one was to excite a Northern rebellion against
the government. In this method there was real danger to our cause and to our
country, for its success would have given the slaveholders absolute power for a
long time, perhaps for centuries.
This theory of the case, it is believed, will be found to accord with Walker's
facts. The reader may judge for himself.
PRE-KANSAS DAYS.
Col. Samuel Walker was born of Presbyterian parents, on the 22d day of
October, 1822, near the village of Loudon, Franklin county, Pennsylvania. His
father was a well-to-do farmer and distiller. His grandfather, Samuel Walker,
—16
250 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
emigrated from the north of Ireland before the revolutionary war, and pre-
empted the piece of land upon which Colonel Walker was born, near old Fort
Loudon. This fort, it will be remembered, was built by Braddock as the extreme
eastern outpost of the settlement. Colonel Walker's grandfather served in the
war of the revolution as a private, and his father served in the war of 1812 as a
private in one of the Maryland regiments. His mother was a Rankin, of Scotch-
Irish descent, a Presbyterian, and a Christian in every sense of the word. He
had seven sisters, all of whom joined the Presbyterian church at an early age,
though he himself has never been a church member. At one year of age he was
stricken with hip disease, and until he reached his fourteenth year was a cripple,
and able to do but little for his parents in the way of work. The three months
of district school held every winter in his district was two miles away, and by
reason of his lameness he was prevented from ever entering a schoolroom as a
student. His first fifteen years were passed on the farm, a constant sufferer,
with no hope of recovery. A fugitive remedy, however, was finally found, which
brought the leg to its normal length, though there has always been more or less
pain. His father quit the stilling business when Colonel Walker was nine years
of age, and died when the boy was fourteen years of age, leaving the mother with
a crop to harvest and some debts to pay. It had always been the custom to fur-
nish harvesters with all the whisky they could drink, but when Mrs. W^alker
came to hire her men the young son prevailed upon her to give no whisky, but to
make a slight increase of wages instead. The neighboring farmers predicted
that Mrs. Walker wovild not be able to get her crop cut; but, as a matter of fact,
it was cut quicker, better and cheaper than ever before. The next year another
farmer adopted the Same plan, and in a few years not a drop of harvest whisky
was used in that part of the country.
At fifteen years of age Walker was bound out to learn the cabinet-maker's
trade, the conditions being that he should work three years for his board and
washing, his mother to furnish him clothing. This new experience was more of
a hardship than it otherwise would have been, because it made it necessary to
go at least fifteen miles away from home. In nine months, however, the cabinet-
maker died, and until another could be found Walker worked for a farmer.
Thus the years of the young man's apprenticeship passed in the ordinary way,
as also the first few years of his experience as a journeyman.
At twenty-one years of age Walker married his present wife. Miss Marion E.
Lowe, a native of Loudon, Pa. By this happy union came nine children — five
girls and four boys; names and order of birth as follows: Elizabeth E., James
Lowe, Mary R., Harriet R., Fannie, Minnie Bell, Oliver B., Charles, and George.
Upon the breaking out of the Mexican war Walker and a companion named
James Myers enlisted under Captain Campbell, of Campbellstown, Pa., who had
authority to raise a company. But by the time the company was full the gov-
ernment had all the men it could use, and so Campbell and his company were
never mustered in.
In the spring of 18i9 Walker removed to New Paris, Preble county, Ohio.
The Dayton & Indianajjolis railroad was just surveyed to that place, and prop-
erty of all kinds was held (or rather sold) at high figures. A little later it came
to be held at low figures, Walker finding himself with property which he had
purchased for 83,000 and which he could not sell for more than $400. The rail-
road had come and gone, taking the town with it.
Soon after Walker's settlement at New Paris the cholera broke out, and there,
as in many other parts of Ohio, the mortality was terrible. Speaking of his ex-
perience in this awful time, Walker says: "My wife was the first victim of the
SAMUEL WALKER. 251
plague in our town. What a panic it created! In less than two days every one
who could possibly do so had left. The town was nearly deserted. Not people
enough had remained to care for the sick. Parents would fly from their children,
children from their parents. Brandy was used by the barrel as a preventive.
I was then in the undertaking business, and many a corpse I was compelled to
place in its coffin without assistance. I think many brought on the disease by
fright and the use of brandy. I was contantly engaged waiting on the sick and
burying the dead; and I owe my escape, I always thought, to my refusal to use
stimulants of any kind and my exemption from fright." It may not be out of
place to remark just here that this scrap of history furnishes an epitome of
Colonel Walker's most prominent characteristics.
WESTWARD WANDERINGS.
In the winter of 1854, Major Woods, who had been stationed at Fort Leaven-
worth, came to New Paris and gave such glowing accounts of Kansas that a
number of families who were " holding" property as before described determined
to make Kansas their home as soon as the government would treat with the In-
dians. Walker was one of the first to make this determination, and accordingly
in the following spring he made his first trip to Kansas, in company with Oliver
Barber, Thomas Barber (afterward killed in 1855 by the border ruffians), and
Thomas Pierson. The party took a steamboat at Cincinnati for St. Louis, as at
that time there were no railroads west of Indianapolis. At St. Louis the party
was transferred to another boat, by which they reached Kansas City, at that
time only a small landing-place for Westport. It had, in the way of buildings,
only a small hotel, a warehouse, and a few small dwelling-houses. Westport, on
the contrary, was one of the liveliest places the party had seen in all their trip.
Arriving at Westport on the 1st day of May, 1854, Walker and his companions
went directly to a livery-stable kept by Samuel Jones, afterward the notorious
Sheritf Jones, of Kansas. Jones asked where the members of the party were
from, and, on being told, he remarked that " no d — d abolitionist could get a team
from him." He added to this emphatic remark the advice that Walker and the
rest had better turn about and go where they came from. If the Indians ( then
in Washington ) ceded the country to the United States the South was going to
have it, and "no d — d northern nigger stealers should settle it." The party
went to several other stables and met with a similar reception. None would
render them the least assistance toward getting into Kansas. Finally, however,,
a merchant of Westport, named Colonel Boone, offered to find a Shawnee Indian
who would help the travelers on their way. The Indian was found, and agreed
to do as requested if the party would help him plant his corn. The corn was
soon planted. Once more on the move, the party all along the way met with such
encouragement as had been given them by Jones at Westport. The unvarying
sentiment among the many who were going to the territory from all parts of the
South was one of pronounced hostility to the North and all its influences.
Reaching the present site of Lawrence, the party took a look at the country
from where the new university now stands, and made up their minds at once that
it wa's "God's country." This was on the 10th day of May, 1854. The next
place to attract particular attention was the present site of Topeka, and the next
was where the town of Easton was subsequently located. From Easton the
party returned to Weston, Mo. The Indians had just reached home from
Washington, having concluded the treaty which opened the territory. On the
same boat with the returning Indians came David R. Atchison, Walker, and
perhaps others of the party, heard Atchison say to a crowd in the barroom of
the hotel that the treaty was made, and that if the South was coward enough to
252 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
let the damned Yankees come in and settle the territory it (the South) did not
deserve to be free. Walker says: "Everything which could be thought of was
said to insult us, and it was hard, many times, not to retaliate. But we knew
that discretion was the better part of valor, and so we 'kept our mouths shut.'
1 am satisfied that had it not been for the landlord we should have been roughly
treated." The party retraced their steps to New Paris, having a pleasant though
uneventful journey.
On the strength of their recommendation, about forty families in New Paris
and vicinity prepared to leave at once for Kansas, but by reason of various un-
foreseen delays all were compelled to remain until spring. Accordingly, on the
1st of March, 1885, the children of New Paris, headed by those who had already
been to spy out the land, set out for their new homes in the West. Of this
Walker says:
" Bidding all our friends an affectionate farewell, we left by rail for Cincinnati.
There we found a boat loading for Kansas City, on which we easily secured pas-
sage. Everything went well until we reached St. Louis. Here we were informed
that the boat was too large to go up the Missouri river, and we were compelled
to take passage on another boat, called the 'Chambers.' This boat afterward
blew up, with all on board, just as I wished it would. We found on the ' Cham-
bers' a number of Southern families with their slaves going to Platte county,
Missouri. W^e had paid cabin fare, but we were not allowed to go to the first
table with the Southern 'ladies' and 'gentlemen.' The election of the 31st of
March was coming on, and we were charged with being a lot abolitionists coming
to Kansas to vote. All kinds of insults were heaped upon us. At every landing
a crowd of roughs would come aboard 'to see the damned Yankees.' On our
arrival at Boonville a delegation of citizens came on board and held a consulta-
tion with the captain. What the delegation had to say may best be judged from
the fact that the captain soon came to us and stated that his boat could not
carry us any further up the river, as the water was low. We demanded some of
our passage money but could get none, of course. The captain said if we would
wait there until the river rose he would take us to our destination; but the mo-
ment we got ashore he backed off and headed up stream with the exultant
Southerners all on board.
" That night I attended a meeting in Boonville. It had been called to raise re-
cruits to go over to Kansas to vote. Handbills were posted all over town oflt'ering
'three dollars per day, and grub and whisky,' for recruits. At the meeting flam-
ing speeches were made denouncing the North and advising those about to go
into Kansas to shoot down the first Yankee who might oflfer to vote at the ensu.
ing territorial election. One man walked up to the speaker's desk and slapped
down 81000 and said he would give that as his share, adding that the money was
secured by the sale of a 'damned nigger.' The next morning 150 of these men
started for Kansas, well armed and with flags flying. Of course they were
supplied with whisky, three barrels and sundry smaller receptables filled with
this infallible Yankee exterminator having been loaded into the wagons.
"Our party was obliged to lay over, and either secure teams with which to
finish their journey into Kansas, remain where they were in Missouri, or get back
to Ohio as best they could. I had money enough to buy one yoke of oxen ; Ross
Hazeltine bought a yoke, and Thomas Barber lent us a wagon. The others se-
cured vehicles as best they could; and, thus outfitted, our party left Boonville,
composed of the following persons: Thomas Barber (afterward killed by the bor-
der ruffians), with his family, Robert Barber and family, William Hazeltine, sou,
and family, William Hazeltine, jr., and family, Ross Hazeltine and family, Eras-
SAMUEL WALKER. 253
tus Hazeltine and family, Robert Hazeltine, Thomas Pierson and family, George
Costley and family, Harvey Costley and family, Mr. Kinzey and family, William
Meairs and family, Lewis Duflfee and wife. Doctor Borton and family, myself and
family, and a number of young men, among whom were Doctor Miller, Bloom
Swaine, Alex. Meairs, and George Hay.
"None of our party had any money, except the Barber brothers, Mr. Pierson,
and Doctor Borton. The third day after we started we began to meet the border
ruffians from Kansas. We received all kinds of insult and abuse from them. They
would come into our camp at night and tell our women that they had just been
up into Kansas and killed a thousand abolitionists, and that when our party got
fairly settled they were coming again, kill off the men, and take them (the
women) for wives. We had to stand it, as our numbers and the character of
our party would not permit of any serious retaliation. One day, however, the
program was slightly changed. We had encountered a large delegation of
Missourians, who were all drunk and very noisy. I was driving the foremost
team. Just as the party came up one fellow jumped down from the wagon
where he was riding, ran up to me, snatched off my hat, and started away with
it. Before I thought what I was about I whirled my ox gad in my hand and
brought him a whack on the head that laid him out. Our people were all
alarmed, fearing the blow would be avenged: but, fortunately for us, the fellow's
companions cheered me loudly, and said I had served him right.
"We could not buy anything from the farmers because we were Yankees — or
at least Northerners. At night the slaves would bring us in eggs, butter, oats,
corn, potatoes, and such other articles as we needed. In this way, with what we
could pick up along the road, we were enabled to live.
"As we were going down the hill near the crossing of the Big Blue it was sleet-
ing and very slippery. One of my little girls jumped from the wagon, slipped,
fell under the wagon, and one wheel passed over her leg, breaking it in two places.
The nearest house to be found was the residence of a Baptist minister. I asked
him to allow me to bring the child into his house. He refused, giving as his
reason for objection that we were from the North and opposed to slavery. This
lovely man of God was kind enough, however, to lend me a plank upon which to
Jay the little girl while the broken leg was being set. From this time until we
reached the Shawnee nation I could not get leave to take the suffering child into
a house at night, though the weather was very cold for that time of year. Of
such was the hospitality accorded us by the natives.
"Arriving in Lawrence, we found a small collection of mud huts, dugouts,
etc. Our party had expected to settle as a community, but we could not find
any single body of land such as we wanted, and so every man started for himself.
We all started in what is now known as Kanwaka township, Douglas county,
Kansas. I selected my farm on the California road, seven miles west of Law-
rence. There were then no cabins west of me nearer than Big Springs, where
several families had settled. Several more families from Illinois had settled fur-
ther north, where Lecompton now stands. A man named Burgson had a cabin
on the present site of Clinton, and another man named William Jessie had a
cabin on the present site of Bloomington. Judge Wakefield was the only man
living in what is now Kanwaka township, Douglas county, when I pitched my
tent, on the 12th day of April, 1855. Not a sign of civilization was to be seen, but
in a week's time I counted twenty dugouts, tents, and cabins. In thus begin-
ning life over again, my worldly wealth consisted of a wife and five children (two
of the latter sick), one yoke of oxen, one sack of flour, 100 pounds of bacon, eight
dollars in money, and the tent which sheltered us> With this we commenced to
254 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
make a farm. In a few days I got a job making rails near where Lecompton now
is. 1 was not a success at rail making, as I could only earn fifty cents per day.
"About si.\ weeks after we made our beginning, I was at work one day on my
cabin, when a body of about 150 mounted men came in sight. I at first supposed
them to be United States troops, but as they came nearer I saw that they were
border ruffians. The leader advanced near me, and I saw at once that it was the
same Jones who had given us such a doubtful blessing one year before at his
stable in Westport. Jones first wanted to know where in h — 1 I was from. I
told him I came from Ohio. 'G — d d— n you,' was his rejoinder; 'you had bet-
ter go back there quick; we are going over to the river (meaning Lecompton) to
clean out a lot of damned abolitionists.' They went away, and in about two
hours I could see the smoke from the burning cabins. In a short time Jones and
his party came back. He stopped and said he would give me two weeks to get
out, as ho was coming up at the expiration of that time to drive all the damned
nigger stealers from the territory.
"As soon as the Missourians were out of sight, I dropped my ax and started
around the settlement to let my friends know what was up. I traveled all night
afoot, and the next day eighty-six men met at my cabin. We organized our-
selves into a military company, calling it the Bloomington guards, and choosing
for it the following officers: Captain, Mr. Read; first lieutenant, Mr. Vermilya:
second lieutenant. Doctor Miller, and myself first sergeant. This was the first
company organized in Kansas. None of us knew anything about drill, but Judge
Wakefield, who was a very fleshy man^ said he had served in the Black Hawk
war and could teach us the tactics. Accordingly, the judge was duly installed
as drill master of the Bloomington guards. This position he continued to hold
creditably to himself and to the advantage of the company until one day he or-
dered us to charge. This was the rock that wrecked us. The judge, fat as he
was, led off at a good, smart pace, and his troops came thundering at his heels.
The judge struck his foot against a snag, and over he rolled, a half-dozen or
more of the guards tumbling on top of him. The judge resigned. Having no
arms, the guards made a levy of two dollars each and sent Captain Read to Mas-
sachusetts after Sharp's rifles. The captain never came back, but, just before
the invasion of Lawrence, in December, 1855, eighty Sharp's rifles came .to my
charge from Boston. As soon as I received the rifles I notified the company to
meet me at night on the Wakarusa. This was done, and that night we returned
to Lawrence a well-equipped army of eighty men.
" While the distril)ution of rifles was going on the border ruffians at Lecomp-
ton somehow heard what I had received, and so came down to search my prem-
ises. They found no arms, of course; but to make assurance doubly sure they
set fire to my haystacks, corn, and other crops, and destroyed everything we had.
Winter was at hand. No work was to be obtained. We had no floor or loft in
the cabin, and nothing but a small cook-stove to keep us warm. I made up my
mind that, from that day forward, until either the border ruffians or ourselves
were driven from Kansas, I would live at their expense; 1 kept my resolution.
Sometimes we had plenty to eat; sometimes we had nothing to eat; but through
it all we managed to live."
BORDER HURDEXS.
During the summer of 1855 the life led by Walker and his family was by no
means an adventureless one, notwithstanding the fact that the border ruffians
caused them no inconvenience. Indeed, the new settlers of today, who come in
on railways and secure farms within reach of all those things most essential to
civilization, may consider themselves in clover as compared with the people here
SAMUEL WALKER. 255
described. For instance, when and where Walker settled there were no wells
and very few springs. The best water to be found was in holes on the prairie.
The cattle drank from these holes, and the water, before it could be used, had
to be carefully boiled. One day Mrs. Walker left the clothes lying in the tubs
where she had been washing, a short distance from the cabin, and went to dinner.
Keturning a half-hour later, she found that a drove of wild hogs had overturned
the tubs and devoured the entire contents. The family had no underclothing
left. During this time Mr. Walker supported his family largely on wild game,
deer, and wolves. When the time came for planting he was compelled to travel
as far as Westport in order to secure the various kinds of seed necessary. He
paid five dollars a bushel for potatoes, and could of course afford none for family
use.
In June, 1855, a party of emigrants came along hunting claims, and hired
Walker, at five dollars a day, as a guide. The second day out they discharged
him. It was then about three o'clock in the afternoon, and he struck out for
home, thinking that he could reach it by nine o'clock. A terrible storm over-
took him, however, and, to begin with, he was drenched to the skin. It grew
dark early, and he found himself alone on the prairie with no weapons about him,
the prairie-wolves howling on all sides, and not a light in the sky to guide him
on his way. Trudging along through the tall grass, suddently he lost his foot-
ing and rolled down and down, hundreds of feet, as it seemed to him. He had
fallen from a high, steep bluff overhanging Deer creek, and landed in the midst
of the remains of a dead and fast decaying Texas steer. He says :
"The steer softened my fall, but left me in a decidedly odorous condition. I
was terribly frightened, and tramped on my level best. At last I realized that I
was lost, and I returned to wait for daylight. The wolves kept up a continual
din, and although I hardly thought they would dare to attack me I feared to lie
down. I finally secured a tolerably comfortable lean agaidst a scrub oak and
dozed there until sunrise. Judge of my surprise when in the morning I dis-
covered that my cabin was not over 100 yards away. I have been lost on the
prairie a number of times, but never passed such another frightful night."
When the bogus legislature met at Shawnee Mission, Walker, who was mak-
ing a trip thither, lost a valuable yoke of oxen, They were Missouri born and
bred, and Walker concluded that they had abandoned their free-state bed and
board and pulled out to visit their sisters and their cousins and their aunts in
the place of their nativity. He went to Westport but could find nothing of them.
Continuing his search, the shades of night overtook him a few miles south of
Westport. He was afraid to approach any human habitation, and accordingly
he lariated his horse and lay down on the grass, with no covermg but the starry
mantle of night and a thin summer coat.
"A terrible rain came on and I felt like a drowned rat. I determined to ven-
ture into some Indian cabin, and tried several, but failed to find a lodging. At
last I found a house more pretentious than the rest, and asked a boy if I could stay
all night. He said 'Nol By and by bad Indians come, bring whisky, make hell
of a row, chopee head off damn quick.' I determined to risk bad Indians rather
than wild woods. The woman of the house got me some supper and made me a
bed in her own room. About nine o'clock I was aroused by a series of the most
unearthly yells it was ever my privilege to enjoy. I feel certain that the border
ruffians secured that perfection of elocution for which they were noted from
these same Shawnee Indians. About thirty men and women rode up to the
house and dismounted. They had a ten-gallon keg of whisky with them. They
all entered the house, arranged themselves around the keg, and proceeded to ar-
256 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
ranpp themsolvos around its contents. They dipped it out and handed it around,
all the time singing, laughing, and yelling. Two big fellows stood apart and
never tasted a drop.
"I remember that their wrists were painted blue, and am inclined to think
they originated the blue-ribbon movement. Every now and then some one would
get up, come over and look at me, and give me a shake. I lay still and let on to
be asleep. When any two of the revelers got into a quarrel the two sober ones
would lay them out in short order, and when a man got thoroughly soaked the
same two would drag him off and put him to bed. They kept it up all night, and
in the morning those who were still able to kick got on their ponies and rode
off. When I got ujj I counted six squaws and nine bucks lying promiscuously
in a heap, all dead drunk. I have seen many sprees, but never another like
that."
In August, 1855, Governor Shannon made his appearance in the territory. He
went to Lecompton (which consisted then of a few shaky shanties), rolling in a
fine coach, drawn by six Mexican plugs. He was attended by about 100 border
ruffians.
"As he was from our state," says Walker, "several of us went over to hear
what he had to say. When he got out of the carriage he could hardly stand.
He made a speech to the crowd, stating that he was from the North, but had no
sympathy with the so-called free-state party; that that party consisted of a lot
of damned abolitionists, whom he hated; that the laws of the bogus legislature
should be enforced, and that he had the whole power of the general government
to back him. There were several free-state men standing together, whom he
evidently recognized. He kept looking at them, and, pointing at them, said: "I
have no sympathy with negro stealers." We finally left, completely disgusted,
and well satisfied that we had nothing to 'expect from him, and he did not give
us cause to change our views during his whole administration."
FIRST FURROWS OF WAR.
Things were quiet in the territory until November; at that time Dow was
killed, and the invasion of Lawrence followed. When Walker and party arrived
in Lawrence they were ordered to report to Colonel Holliday, of Topeka. He
set them to throwing up earthworks on Henry, between Massachusetts and
Kentucky streets. It was warm weather when the party began work, but on the
second night one of those terrible Kansas "northers" swept down on them and
caused a good deal of suffering. Lane would allow no fires to be built, although
many of the men had nothing but summer clothing.
"At about twelve o'clock midnight," says Walker, " I received an order from
Colonel Holliday to take ten mounted men and ride out to Franklin and find out
what the enemy were at. Picking up the best squad I could find, I proceeded to
obey the order. We discovered nothing of the border ruffians until we reached
Franklin. There the pickets were all gathered around the fire. We rode around
their camp and came in upon them from the southeast. They suspected nothing-
and talked with us freely. Their purpose was to enter the town about day-
break, raze it to the ground, and drive the inhabitants out of the territory. They
were clad as thinly as we were. We finally discovered ourselves to them, and at
length succeeded in compromising the matter and getting them to go back home.
The cold weather had more to do with it than anything else.
"Our company fared well in Lawrence. We had plenty of frozen vegetables,
poor beef, and corn bread. It was the beet the town afforded, however, and we
were satisfied to get plenty of that. When we were discharged I started straight
for home. A disheartening sight awaited me there; my hay, corn, stable and
SAMUEL WALKER. 257
implements were gone. No shelter of any kind was left for my stock, and mighty
little stock was left for my stable, if I had one. The hardest winter I have ever
seen in Kansas set in. Oh, it was cold, wet, and dismal. My wife, however, was
cheerful, calm, and serene, never complaining at any hardship. Many a day that
winter we didn't know where our next meal was coming from, but somehow or
other it always came.
"Things were generally quiet during the winter of '55 and '56, nothing occur-
ring except the killing of Mr. Brown, near Easton. Word came to Lawrence
that Mr. Manard and his friends were surrounded in their house at Eaton by 500
Kickapoo rangers. At ten o'clock p. m., January fi, I received an order from
General Lane, instructing me to proceed with ten mounted men to Lawrence,
where I was to join 200 others. It was a cold and stormy night ; the wind howled
dismally through the tree-tops and the wolves made night hideous with their
incessant wailing. The snow fell in blinding clouds, and, piled by the winds in
huge drifts, rendered the roads well-nigh impassable. Presently the sky cleared,
and the aurora borealis, gleaming in the far distant north, lit up the landscape
far and wide. By its brilliant light I was able to discover in the hollow near by
at least fifty deer, sheltering themselves from the wind, which was still blowing-
keenly. Attracted by the sound of my horses' feet, as I rode away to notify the
men, they approached within fifty yards and followed for a considerable distance,
I fired my pistol at them but they were not in the least alarmed. You can imag-
ine my feelings during that ride.
"Early the next morning, accompanied by twenty men armed to the teeth, I
started for Lawrence. Arrived there, I found that no one else had yet responded.
We were the only ones ready to go to the rescue of our suffering comrades at
Easton. Colonel Dickey, of Topeka, one of the bravest of free-state men, was to
lead the expedition. We reported to him, and, having secured two days' ra-
tions, crossed the river at once, and, without waiting for reinforcements, made
for the scene of action. It was storming again and five of the horses gave out.
The snow was over three feet deep, even where there were no drifts, but Colonel
Dickey determined to push on, and at nine o'clock at night we reached a suitable
camping place, near where Tonganoxie now is. Our packhorse, disgusted with
the prospect, broke loose and went back to Lawrence, but there were cooked ra-
tions enough left among the party for supper and breakfast, and, kindling a fire,
we succeeded in making ourselves tolerably comfortable for the night.
"In the morning a Mr. Wright came along and urged us for God's sake not
to make an attack with so small a force, but to wait for reenforcements from
Lawrence. Colonel Dickey called us together and said that he did not desire to
lead us where the odds were so heavy against us unless we were willing and
anxious to go. Every man in the party scoffed at the idea of turning back, and
we were soon under way again. Arrived at Wright's house, five miles from Eas-
ton, we halted for the night, and by the next morning sixty free-state men from
the surrounding country had been notified to join us in the attack, but when we
were ready to start not a man had reported. We decided to push on, however,
and were joined on the road by Mr. Sparks and his two sons. Just as we reached
the timber adjoining the town of Easton, a man ran out of a cabin, and, address-
ing our new recruits, said: 'For God's sake, Mr. Sparks, don't go into that
town. There are 500 rangers there, and they will murder both you and your
sons.' Colonel Dickey turned to the party and said: 'Is there a man here that
wishes to turn back?' 'No, no!' was the unanimous reply. 'We won't leave a
ranger in this town ! ' 'All right,' said the colonel, 'follow me': and into the town
we went, pell-mell, shouting at the top of our voices, our horses on a keen jump,.
258 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
and our arms all in readiness. Imagine our feelings of relief in finding the street
entirely deserted. Not a ranger was to be seen: they had left three days before.
" Manard had about twenty men with him in a large log house. He had been
attacked by about fifty rangers, but when only a few shots had been fired the
storm came on and drove the ruffians home. The dread of the ruffians was so
great that not a soul had dared to venture out of the house to learn the true
state of affairs. We stated that we were the advance guard of a column 1000
strong, and in a few hours everything was at our disposal."
Soon afterward Captain Graver dashed into the village at the head of a squad
of fifty men, thus confirming the impression created by Captain Manard. The
news flew like the wind. At Kickapoo it was rumored that Lane was coming,
and the inhabitants immediately crossed the river to Weston, on the Missouri
side. They were so alarmed that if the small force had advanced Kickapoo could
have been captured easily. When the boys returned to Lawrence, at twelve
o'clock at night, the whole town turned out to receive them, bells were rung,
cannon fired, rockets exploded, and, better than all, a splendid supper was pre-
pared for them by the ladies of Lawrence.
The old settlers will never forget that winter. The mercury went down lower
and lower, until it registered twenty degrees below zero, and remained at that
point for several weeks. No one was prepared for it; provisions had run low ; no
money was to be had, neither any employment. Mr. Walker was driven to such
an extremity that he went to Lawrence, searched for work all day, and, being
unsuccessful, went to Lane's house in the evening, stating that his family was
starving and that he would do anything — chop wood, make rails, or anything
else. Lane informed him that he could give him no work, but that he could have
an order on the store for eleven dollars, which amount he could pay back when
able. Mr. Walker bought flour and bacon and sugar and coffee with it, and
started home through the deep snow. He says: "My wife got up, made some
batter cakes, fried some bacon, and made some coffee. Such a meal 1 had never
enjoyed in my life."
The early settlers used wild sorrel for pies and wild peas for soup. Wild plums
and gooseberries were also very plentiful that year. In the spring of 1856 emi-
grants jjassed into the state very rapidly, the road leading into the territory be-
ing crowded with them. As a consequence of this emigration, the small stock of
corn in the territory sold for fabulous prices, at one time selling as high as $2.50
per bushel, with all other necessaries of life in x^roportion.
In March, 1856, Walker went to Topeka as a member of the legislature from
Clinton. Mr. Walker's name, and also that of Mr. Tooton, does not appear in
"The Annals of Kansas" as members of that legislature, although the former
served one term and the latter two.
On the 1st of April, 1856, Colonels Buford and Titus arrived in the territory
with a force of 1000 men, recruited in the South, and made their headquarters at
a distance of three miles from Walker's house, building a very strong blockhouse
one mile from Lecompton, and also one on Washington creek, at the same time
throwing up earthworks and garrisoning them strongly. At Franklin they sta-
tioned 1.50 men, with a brass six-pounder. Their first overt act was an attack on
Mr. Nicholas, by which they sought to drive him from his claim on Washington
creek; but Nicholas rallied some of his neighbors, sent to Lawrence for aid, and
eight men, headed by Walker, started to his rescue. One of the men, named
Luke Allen, had a red shirt, similar to that worn by the Georgians. When about
five miles southwest of Lawrence, an officer was observed riding down the Waka-
rusa. He was mounted on a splendid horse, had a fine sword at his side, and
SAMUEL WALKER. 259
pistols and bowie-knives in his belt. Behind him were three heavy-laden wagons,
drawn by two yoke of oxen, both teams being strongly guarded by a detachment
of men. They were conveying supplies from Lecompton to Franklin.
The captain, seeing Luke Allen, and supposing him to be a border ruffian, in-
quired the way to Franklin, saying that he had come in that direction in order to
avoid Lawrence and also to wipe out an abolitionist who had jumped the claim
of a friend of his near by. Hearing that Nicholas was strongly fortified, he said
that he would wipe him out upon his return. Before the words were scarcely
out of his mouth the rebel leader became painfully aware of a displeasingly large
number of carbines at his head, and he was told that he had got among the
wrong men. Being at some distance from his followers, he was forced to" dis-
mount, which he did with ill grace, as he was a brave fellow. In the meantime
Walker and Allen climbed up the bank and awaited the approach of the train.
As the weather was very warm, the rebels had put their rifles into the wagon
■cases, and, having seen the captain talking with Allen did not apprehend any
danger. They rode up and inquired as to the whereabouts of the captain. They
were told that he was down in the ravine just a little way ahead. As they passed
by. Walker and Allen leveled their rifles and ordered the entire party to surren-
der, which they did. Not a shot was a fired. Among the articles captured were
one bay horse, six yoke of oxen, three good wagons, loaded with flour, bacon,
sugar, coffee, salt, canned fruit, five kegs of powder and a large quantity of lead.
One drum and fife, one barrel of whisky, nineteen rifles, twenty revolvers and
bowie-knives and one gold-mounted sword completed the list. The captain
begged piteously for his horse and sword, saying the ladies of Mobile had given
them to him, and that he would prefer death to their loss. Walker, to whom
the sword and horse had been given, returned them to him.
SHANNON SHOWS HIS HAND.
About the first of June, 1856, General Whitfield led a party of 250 men
into Kansas, to avenge the capture of Pate by Shores and Brown. The border
ruffians had a cannon at Franklin, and a number of men, of whom Walker was
one, determined to capture it. They secured a guide, who professed to be able
to lead them to the exact spot where the cannon was located. The cannon, it
may be remarked, was guarded by 150 men in a strong blockhouse near by. Un-
der command of Captain Cutler, the little band of fifteen started. It was a dark
and dismal night, yet they kept up good spirits, until, upon their arrival at
Franklin, their guide deserted them, thus leaving them in a strange place, where
they could not see a yard ahead in the darkness. Suddenly they were startled
by the challenge of a sentry. Lying down, with their faces to the ground, they
saw a man apply a torch to the cannon, and immediately a discharge was heard
and a ball passed over the spot where, but a few seconds before, they had been
standing. The rebels opened fire from the blockhouse. It was returned, and a
constant battle of musketry was kept up until daybreak, when, knowing the su-
perior numbers of the enemy and fearing that the United States troops would
come up, the detachment was about to withdraw, when, to their surprise, they
saw by the dim morning light that the cannon and the blockhouse were de-
serted.
The rebels, it seems, went back to Westport, spreading the news that Lane
was after them with 500 men. Had this been known in time the cannon could
have been captured. Already the firing had awakened the United States troops,
but they were afraid to move until daylight. Not one of the brave settlers re-
ceived a scratch, the balls all going over their heads. Walker says:
"In the morning we proceeded to Major Abbott's and got something to eat.
260 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Here wo found about seventy-five men assembled, all anxious to meet Whitfield,
who was said to be at Baldwin City. At Hickory Point we found eighty more
who wanted to join us, and I was elected to the command. Brown and Shores
were camped about two miles to the southwest of him. In the morning we
marched out to attack Whitfield. He seemed to have hard work to get his men
into line. Just then Colonel Sumner, with a force of United States troops, came
upon the field, got in between us, sent Whitfield back to Missouri, and brought
us back to Lawrence. He spoiled a pretty little battle. The border ruffians out-
numbered us, but we were better armed than they, and were fighting for our
homes and they were not; yet, after all, we were glad that Sumner came. I
could not stay at home, as Colonel Titus had out a reward on my head; my house
also being near his headquarters and on the public road, it was unsafe for me.
"Early in May 600 border ruffians came and camped on my claim, some 500-
or GOO yards from our cabin, where they stationed a picket, and made every
passer-by give an account of himself. If it was not satisfactory he was taken
to head(]uarters. A number were arrested in the presence of my wife. They
told her that she would never be disturbed, but that if they ever caught her
husband they would string him up. My wife would bring something to eat to
where I was concealed, in the Wakarusa timber, about four miles away, at th&
same time giving me all the information she could get. Many of the settlers
were very badly treated, especially by Titus's troops. There was a very bitter
feeling against him. Everybody's horses were taken away, and over 400 cattle
were driven off to Missouri. Very little corn was raised that year."
At last the imminent destruction of Lawrence led to the assembling of 700
men, Walker among them. They could have defended it easily had it not been
for the actions of General Pomeroy, Roberts, and a few others, who insisted that
they should lay down their arms and submit to the United States marshal. At
that time Robinson was a prisoner. Lane was gone, and there were no men left
who could be looked to as leaders. Several appeals were made to Governor
Shannon for protection, but all in vain. The day before they came in, the com-
mittee of safety, with Gen. C. W. Babcock at the head, determined to make one
more effort. A letter was drawn up, addressed to Governor Shannon, asking for
his protection, but no one wovild venture to carry it. General Babcock, chair-
man of the committee of safety, requested Walker to carry it, offering him a
horse and a red shirt, thinking that if he was attired in that manner he could
pass through safely. Mr. Walker shall tell the story in his own words:
"My road led me past the camp of the border ruffians and past my own
house. Not seeing any pickets, I supposed that they had gone into the camp on
account of the rain. I went into my cabin to get my overcoat, leaving my pistols
in my holster and my old musket at the door. Imagine my surprise on entering
to find the guard all in the cabin, a sergeant and six men. As good luck would
have it the children were all asleep except the two oldest, who were posted about
me. I said nothing, and my wife said nothing. The sergeant asked me where I
was going and where I was from. I informed him that I lived on Washington
creek, a settlement of pro-slavery people, that I was a member of the grand jury
then in session at Lecompton, and that I was not well. I suppose my looks
showed that. I asked for an overcoat. My wife said she had one that belonged
to her husband, and that I could have it if I would promise to return it. I took
the overcoat and left. When I reached the door two men from Missouri came up.
They were both heavily armed and well mounted. I told them the same story,
and as they were going to Lecompton and believing me to be all right, they told
me what was going to be done; that the United States marshal would take his
SAMUEL WALKER. 261
posse into Lawrence, make his arrests, and then disband them and clean out the
town; that they would burn and sack it, and then drive out every abolitionist in
Kansas and appropriate their improvements. I sided with them ; told them that
if they went back South this time to say that the Yankees were getting very sassy.
"When we got near Lecompton we met a man who knew me — Mr. James
Curlien. He asked me where I was going. One of the men spoke up and said
that I was a member of the grand jury. ' The hell he is,' was all the reply I heard,
for I left them just then, not wishing to argue with them on the subject. In a
few moments the men came thundering along. I knew that I should have trouble.
Dropping my old musket, I drew my revolvers and got ready. When they came
up, one of them said: 'Now, damn you, tell me what you are going to Lecompton
for.' 'To carry a message to the governor,' I replied. 'They want protection
down there.' Putting spur to their horses, they dashed into Lecompton before
me. When I reached the town, a man named Corbet, who lived five miles
southwest of Lecompton and, though a pro-slavery man, was bound to me by
personal favors done him, stopped me on the road and told me that I must not
enter the town ; that a party was forming to take and hang me. He told me to
give him the letter to the governor and light out for his home, where he would
bring me the answer. Looking up the road, I saw five mounted men riding like
mad towards me, and yelling at the top of their voices. I threw Corbet the let-
ter, and, turning, put my horse on the run. It was soon evident that my i)ur-
suers were better mounted than I, and the balls began to whistle around me
uncomfortably close. I made for a ravine, and was soon out of sight in the
timber. Giving up the chase, the four men went back to town and reported that
they had killed the damned Yankee and left him lying in the road.
"That evening Corbet brought me the governor's reply, setting forth, in sub-
stance, that the citizens of Lawrence were all traitors, and could, therefore, ex-
pect no protection from him. Corbet said that there were several parties looking
for me, and that if I wanted to get back to Lawrence I must go south and cross
the Wakarusa near Clinton, then east till the border-ruffians' pickets were passed,
then north into town. The night was pitch dark and the Wakarusa very high.
I missed the crossing, and my horse went down the stream and was drowned.
I succeeded in getting out, and, by careful maneuvering, reached Lawrence about
•daylight, with the governor's letter. The committee advised us to hide our arms,
saying that no barm would be done when it was found that the parties sought
were not in the city. Captain Abbott, Stone, McWhinney, Saunders, Wright,
Leonard, Umbarger and myself determined to take our company and leave.
The Stubbs company hid their weapons, and were captured almost to a man.
The captain's rifle was taken by a Missouri captain. I afterward had the good
fortune to recapture it for him.
"That evening we waylaid a provision train returning from Lawrence, and
■captured several wagons laden with plunder. Leaving the men camped on the
Wakarusa, Henry McClellan and I went to Topeka, and were the first to convey
the news of the sacking of Lawrence to Colonels Holliday and Ritchie. The peo-
ple of Topeka were fortifying and expecting the raiders any day. Setting out in
return at twelve at night, we lost ourselves on the prairie, between the town and
the W^akarusa, and wandered for several hours. There was not a house then be-
tween Topeka and the Wakarusa. In those days no one dared to take a direct
route from Topeka to Lawrence. The usual way was to go south to the Wakarusa,
then east on the south side of that stream, and then north, crossing at the place
where the poor-farm is now. We wandered about till daylight, and then found
262 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
ourselves about two miles out of Topeka. We had circled around, hour after
hour.
"At that time the prospects for the free state party looked worse than ever
before or since. Our leaders were either prisoners in the hands of the United
States troops, or were away, back East, looking for aid and succor there. There
were but four free-state companies with anything like a complete organization.
After the sacking of Lawrence, Captains Abbott, Shores, John Brown, sr., and
John Brown, jr., had a few men with them, while Captain Mitchell, of Wabaun-
see, and Captain Saunders, had a few more. Two companies at Topeka and my
own company were about the only ones that kept up their drill. Our forces did
not amount, all together, to more than 400."
WALKER vs. SHANNON.
About this time Walker received notice at his rendezvous on the Wakarusa
that Captain McDonald was about to raid Walker's cabin and burn everything
belonging to him or any of his connections. Walker picked ten men at once,
went directly to his house, sent his family away, cut port-holes for his guns, ap-
pointed lookouts, and retired late at night to catch a few minutes' rest. At two
o'clock the lookout reported a troop of horsemen approaching from the northeast.
In a moment every man was at his post. It was one of those magnificent moon-
light nights for which Kansas is famous. The whole landscape was clearly and
completely lighted up, and the maneuvers of the assaulting party could be as
well distinguished as if it were day. There were about thirty of them, and they
rode leisurely up to the house, not expecting any resistance. McDonald's orders
were distinctly audible to the ten men peering from the port-holes. "Left, front,
into line! Prepare to dismount ! Dismount!" They all fastened their horses
to the fence and filed into the yard without any particular orders. Not till the
last man was inside the fence was there any demonstration from the house, and
then out spake ten Sharp's rifles, and four men lay wounded on the ground.
The rest scattered in an instant. One man left his coat tail and a bottle of whisky
hanging on the picket fence, and several even put off afoot, leaving their horses
for the "damned nigger stealers" to care for. Two men were captured, and four
horses, John Shannon, son of the old governor, was in the party, but escaped
unhurt. One of those taken was a notorious desperado named Wauffle. This
man had lived next to Walker for some time, and, when sick and deserted by
friends, Mrs. Walker had cared for him in the kindest manner. This fact was
generally known, and it was with difficulty that the good lady restrained her
husband's fellows from stringing the villain up then and there. When day broke
Walker ordered his men to scatter, and retired himself to the house of a friend to
sleep.
Governor Shannon, as soon as he heard of this occurrence, called out several
companies of militia and about three companies of United States soldiers, under
Captain Sturges, an old friend and playmate of Walker's. The governor's son
had not yet got back to Lecompton, and was reported killed. The old man de-
termined to avenge John's death, and rode in company with his troops to Walk-
er's cabin. Walker says:
"The governor swore he would have my scalp before night. He asked my
wife where I was. She said I had gone and taken all the spoils of last night's
fight with me. Shannon grew very angry and attempted to ride into my cabin.
Captain Sturges, however, caught his bridle and held him back, at the same
time ordering a couple of soldiers to guard the door. Shannon then ordered the
men to scatter, and take all the horses they could find, to pay for those they had
lost the night before. Some of the party went to the house of Captain Thomas,
SAMUEL WALKER. 268
and while there let fall the remark, ' I believe Walker can be found over at Rob-
ert Barber's.' Mrs. Thomas immediately dispatched her little daughter Dolly to
inform me of the state of affairs, and asked the men to stay and dine with her.
The little girl was presently missed, and suspecting what had been done the men
jumped on their horses and rode straight to Barber's cabin. In the meantime
Dolly had arrived and told her story. I was on the alert at once and retired to
the back yard, there to meditate in the tall grass and weeds. When Shannon's
men got to the house and inquired for me, Mrs. Barber told them that she knew
nothing about me. They then asked whose horse that was picketed out in front.
Little Dolly spoke up directly and said it was her's, and that she had just come
after it. That satisfied them, and as Dolly mounted my pony to ride home the
men mounted theirs and continued their investigations.
"As soon as the coast was clear I left for the Wakarusa and waited thereuntil
evening, believing that my cabin was burned and my family homeless. A poor
man's cabin, be it ever so small and humble, is as dear to him as the finest man-
sion to the rich. When evening came I started for town. Reaching the claim of
Captain Barber, and while trudging along lost in thought I was suddenly startled
by the tramp of horses, and looking ahead of me beheld coming along the road
Governor Shannon, Colonel Titus, Captain Sturges with about fifty soldiers, and
young Spicer, whose father's property I had often, as guide, saved from the rav-
ages of our troops. They were coming single file, Spicer first, Titus next, then
Shannon, and then Sturges followed by the men. I jumped into a clump of
bushes not ten feet from the path and cocked my rifle, determined to kill the
governor at least, if I was discovered. But God willed it otherwise. The first
three of the party happened to be examining some object off at one side of the
road, and did not see me. Captain Sturges and men all noticed and recognized
me, some smiling, some nodding, and some giving the military salute. The gov-
ornor went into the house of William Hazeltiue, whom I had been with the night
before. He found Hazeltine at home and, after abusing him and his wife soundly,
arrested him and kept him a prisoner for four months. He captured several
more of my friends, but never succeeding in proving anything against them.
"I went on my way after the governor and posse had passed, and soon met
Captain Bickerton, who informed me that my family was safe. It seems that
about two hours after Shannon left my house Colonel Titus came along and per-
emptorily ordered my wife to clear out, giving her two hours to move our furni-
ture. Through all her hardships in Kansas my wife had never shed a tear until
now. She spent little time in idle weeping, however. With the assistance of the
children she soon got all the household goods into the road, and, in the evening,
Thompson Wakefield came along and took her to his father's house to stay over
night. Bickerton told me, besides all this, that the country was full of parties
in search of me, and that I must lie down in his corn-field and sleep an hour or
so while he stood guard over me. At midnight he woke me up, and, pointing in
the direction of the California road, bent his head to listen. We heard distinctly
the tramp of horses' hoofs and some one calling my name. I readily recognized
the voice as that of a Mr. Hoyt, a friend of mine who was afterwards killed at
Fort Saunders. He brought welcome news. Captain Cutler, hearing of my
situation, had come up to Wakefield's with thirty men to escort me to Law-
rence. They had met a small party of the enemy and fired on them, but
nothing serious had resulted. I was soon with them, and Hoyt insisted on my
riding his horse home. The rest all walked. I was very thankful to Cutler and
his men, for it was no agreeable task to march twelve miles and back again in the
264 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
nifjht-time. Those were strange days. The free-state men were bound together
like brothers, and would do anything for each other.
"We were under arms, in constant readiness, for several days after that.
Finally, 1 got anxious and insisted on reconnoitering my neighborhood once
more. ' Near the United States camp, west of Lecompton, I met a solitary horse-
man. He was well armed with shot-gun and pistols. His horse was a good one
and he started to run. I ordered him to halt, which order, backed by a couple
of bullets, soon had the desired effect. I took his gun and revolvers and made
him ride ahead. Pushing south we soon struck the Wakarusa timber, and then
I tied my man to a tree and rode into Clinton. Findint,' Alfred Curtis, I told him
I had a pet lariated out in the woods. When Curtis and I got to the place my
*pet' thought that his time was come and begged like a good fellow, promis-
ing, if let otf , to go straight home to Alabama and not say a word to anybody.
We stripped off everything valuable he had, and that night I escorted him to
South Lawrence and let him go. He started in the direction of Westport but
the moment I was out of sight he turned and put for Lecompton. Arrived there,
he had Curtis and me indicted for highway robbery. A day or two after the boys
from Lawrence and Captain Abbott's company attacked the fellow's store in
Franklin and cleaned him out of everything. He left there, and did, I think, go
home to Alabama.
"When the legislature met at Topeka a large number of free-state men
gathered there, with no fixed object in view but just to be on hand if anything
should turn up. As I said before, our leaders were either away East or in the
hands of the enemy. Colonel Sumner was at this time camped near Topeka
with about GOO men. The evening before the opening of the legislature
Colonel Sumner sent me a note, saying he wished to see me at his camp on im-
portant business. I went, and found the colonel surrounded by United States
marshals and deputies and a large party of distinguished pro-slavery men, among
them Governor Woodson, General Stringfellow, General Strickler, Judge Cato,
Judge Elmore, and others that I did not know. My surroundings didn't suit
me exactly. I felt uneasy. Colonel Sumner said to me : 'The marshal and the
governor both say that if I attempt to disperse the legislature to-morrow you
fellows will resist; that Lane is on the other side of the river with 400 men, and
that you can command a thousand more on this side.' 'That 's all nonsense,' said
I. 'There are not 400 men in Topeka. Lane is out of the territory, and no one
will think of hindering either you or the marshal in the discharge of your duties. '
The marshal jumped up and commenced pacing up and down. 'Do you pretend
to say,' he demanded, 'that the governor and I would misrepresent the facts in
the case to Colonel Sumner? If he should go into Topeka and attempt to read
the governor's proclamation he would be shot down at the end of the first line''
'Bah!' said I, 'no such thing. I am not armed, but I '11 go with the colonel and
stand before him till he reads all the messages in Kansas, if you say so. There
will Vje no resistance.'
"On that a Texan named Perkins, an officer in the regular army, sprang up
and handed me his pistols, with, 'By God, as good a fellow as you sha' n't be
without arms, if I can help it.' The governor stared at the marshal, and the
marshal stared at the governor. Th«y began to lose confidence in the troops,
and well they might. Many a night, after being hounded all day by the United
States soldiers under the marshal or governor, I have walked into their camp
and received the treatment of a prince — food and ammunition, more than I could
carry away. Colonel Sumner called me to one side and said: 'Walker, I do n't
want to hurt any one; you are all right, and have my sympathies; but the gov-
SAMUEL WALKER. 265
ernment is against you, and I must obey the government. If the members will
disperse quietly, there need be no trouble.' He then dismissed me, and I went
back into Topeka. Many of the number had publicly proclaimed that they
would not leave the hall alive; that they would resist to the death. I did not
tell any of them what Sumner had said, for I wanted to see how many of the
brave legislators were ready to die.
"Morning came, and all was excitement and bustle. The legislature was out
in full force, soothed and sustained by the plaudit of the ladies and the muskets
and uniforms of the 'Topeka guards.' Fiery speeches were made and grand
resolutions passed. They would willingly die on the altar of freedom, but would
Bever retreat or surrender. One fine speaker was especially eloquent and brave.
He soared aloft like the eagle, and in words of burning patriotism exclaimed :
* The eyes of the world are upon us. We represent a great cause, and must be
true to it. I know not what others may do, but as for me, I will never leave this
hall except at the point' of the bayonet.' Just at that moment Colonel Sumner
clashed into sight. The artillery wheeled into position and let fly a blank dis-
charge. Colonel Sumner, with his bodyguard, rode up to the door of the state-
house, and the 'Topeka guards' melted away like dew before the morning sun.
The legislature was ordered in stentorian tones to disperse, but it was not there
to hear the order. It was gone, all gone — pretty legislators and pretty guards.
And the orators, where were they ? Ask of the corn-fields and hazel brush that
for miles around concealed their quivering forms. The ladies were the only ones
to stay quietly in their places. Alf. Curtis and I were all that stayed to represent
the 'grand cause'; he, because he really had a brave, true heart; I, because my
country was dear to me, and — I knew the colonel would n't shoot. A few ladies
returned presently, and, seizing Sumner the moment he dismounted, literally
•carried him into the hall and up to the speaker's chair. He refused to accept so
■distinguished a position, however, and, freeing himself, began reconnoitering the
premises. The member who had been speaking when Sumner came up made his
■exit through a back window, jumping fifteen feet to the ground, and through
the dust of his exodus could dimly be seen in Ihe far distance a flying coat tail
and a pair of heels punishing the ground forty-five strokes a second.
"A. D. Richardson, correspondent of the New York Tribune, and one of the
best and bravest fellows I ever met, accompanied me that night to Lawrence on
loot. We took a long circuit, and stopped at my cabin about daybreak for break-
iast. Colonel Sumner came along and I had considerable conversation with him.
He said, among other things, that I must go home and stay there ; that ours was
the right side, but the government was against us, and we could not hold out
against that. Colonel Sumner was soon after removed and General Smith put
in his place; Col. P. St. George Cooke, however, to direct command. He was a
Southern man, but a friend to the free-state people, as was also Lieutenant
Colonel Johnson, afterward general in the confederate army.
"About that time I received a note from Governor Robinson, then a prisoner
in the United States encampment, asking me to visit him. Accompanying the
note was a pass from Major Sedgwick. I concluded to go, and, taking a cir-
cuitous route, succeeded in getting within a half a mile of Lecompton without
meeting a soul. Just as I was congratulating myself on my safe journey I ran
into a deputy United States marshal and two men that I had met before. One
of them was the fellow who left his coat tail and whisky bottle on my picket
fence. I afterward learned that the deputy had a warrant for my arrest."
The marshal had taken that roundabout way to get to Walker's house, expect-
ing to find him at home unprepared for visitors. The marshal asked to be
—17
266 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
directed to his residence, saying that they had lost their way. He was informed
that he could be directed to the house, but when he asked whether the cai)tain
was at home, Walker said "no," that he was the man himself. The three men
then came toward him, holding out their hands as if in welcome. Walker told
them to keep away, as it was his rule not to shake hands with any man unless
he knew his business: that if they would give their word of honor that they had
no writs for him and would not molest him, he would let them come nearer.
They pledged themselves, and said that their only desire was peace; that they
had been sent out in order to take him to Lecompton in order to see if an
arrangement could not be effected that would put an end to so much bloodshed.
The whole party then shook hands, sat down, and a conversation ensued. Doctor
Brooks being their spokesman. He boasted of their strength and that of the
South, saying that they had always had a contempt for the Yankees, but that
they had changed their minds since they had fought against them. The marshal
told Walker that if he would go to. Lecompton the nexl day a buggy would be
sent for him, but Walker begged to be excused, first thanking him for his kind
intentions.
Upon arriving at the United States camp. Walker found Governor Robinson,
Judge Smith, the two Browns, Williams, and other prisoners, all enjoying them-
selves as nicely as they could when surrounded by 600 troops. The governor in-
formed Walker that General Lane was coming from the states with 400 men, and
that General Richardson had passed over from Missouri with 500 men to intercept
him: that Lane was camped near Nebraska City, and that no communication
could be effected with him. He asked Walker to return to Lawrence, select fif-
teen men, and be back at the camp some time that night, in order to start from
Topeka and find a route to Nebraska City. He also wished Walker to ascertain
Richardson's jjositioQ, if possible, without coming in conflict with him, saying
that he had sent Doctor Root on the same errand a short time since, but that he
could hear nothing from him. W^alker was furnished $200 for his expenses. At
that time there were no white inhabitants north of Topeka until the Nemaha
was reached, in Nebraska. The country all belonged to the Indians, and there
were no roads except Indian trails, and no fords across the streams. Walker
was given an order for a fine saddle-horse belonging to Governor Robinson, and
a pass from the major to enter the camp.
That night Walker returned to Lawrence, selected the men, and was back to
his cabin by seven o'clock that evening, accompanied by fifteen brave men.
They were thoroughly armed and well mounted. At the cabin he found a man
named Buck Scott, then a slave of one Bishop, at Lecompton. This Scott always
kept Walker informed as to the movements of the border ruffians. Many times
he would ride into Lawrence at midnight, tell Walker what was contemplated,
and return to his post before morning. They could not make a move without its
being known in this manner. Poor Scott would not have lived a day had they
known what he was doing. Many times in recent years articles have appeared,
written by different persons, claiming to have given information that was con-
veyed by Scott alone. He trusted no one but W^alker. This negro informed the
latter that Judge Wood expected that the marshal would capture Walker, and
that when the marshal returned Wood called him a d d coward, saying that
he would take him himself, upon which the writs were given him. Scott further
informed him that a party was coming out that night, commanded by Wood, to
capture him. Walker deferred his trip for that night, and, sending the horses tO'
the timber, awaited the coming of the posse. Walker says :
" They did not come; but if they had w,e would have given them a fine recep-
SAMUEL WALKER. 267
tion. In the morning I sent the boys to await us at Big Springs, keeping George
Earle with me. I went to the United States camp to get our money, and found
orders from Governor Eobinson. He was uneasy at my delay, but being informed
of the cause appeared satisfied. I received the money and his final orders to get
the party through as fast as possible, as the border ruffians were overrunning
everything. Just as we came out of the prisoners' tent we met the same deputy
and the same two men of the day before. I asked him the time of day, but he
did not seem to wish to talk. He rode away to Captain Sackett's tent, spoke to
the captain, and then galloped away to Major Sedgwick's headquarters. As
soon as his back was turned, Sackett said: 'Get out of this as soon as God will
let you. The marshal has a warrant for you, and is after a posse to take you.'
We saw him talking to the major and pointing toward us. We mounted our
horses and got a mile away before ' boots and saddles ' sounded. At Big Springs
the marshal gave up the chase.
"Arrived at Topeka, we found that Doctor Root had returned. Captain
Frost was there also with thirty men, and the report being confirmed that Rich-
ardson was waiting to fight the immigrants, he concluded to join us. Our party
only numbered forty-eight, but we thought we could 'clean out' Richardson for
all that. We pushed on and reached the Nemaha falls at about o'clock.
There we met a Kickapoo Indian, who informed us that Richardson was en-
camped at Marysville with a large force, and that a detachment was camped
about two miles from there, up the stream. We decided to investigate the de-
tachment at once, but on arrival at the point designated found, instead of bor-
der ruffians, old Captain Brown, his son and son-in-law, and ten others. They
were making their way out of the territory by the way of Nebraska. Cutting
loose from the Topeka company, who were on foot, we pushed on with Brown to
Nebraska City, where we heard that the Dane party was encamped. . Riding all
night, we reached our friends about daybreak.
" We found a splendid body of men, .350 in number, well armed and equipped.
Many of them are now the foremost men in the state. Mr. Howe, of Boston,
Colonel Eldridge and Colonel Dickey seemed to be in command. Lane was
away in Iowa, keeping out of the hands of the United States marshal, who was
after him for bringing armed men into the territory. I told Mr. Howe that if he
would push on in our trail he could pass Richardson and join the Topeka com-
pany at the Nemaha falls. It was decided that Lane must not accompany the
party, as his name might cause trouble with Richardson. A letter was prepared
and directed to Lane stating the decision, and I, as a well-known friend of Lane,
was appointed to deliver it. Geo. Earle and I left our men at Nebraska City and
crossed over to Civil Bend, where Lane was. We found him at Doctor Blanch-
ard's and gave him the letter. After reading it he sat for a long time with his head
bowed and the tears running down his cheeks. Finally he looked up and said:
'Walker, if you say the people of Kansas don't want me, it 's all right, and I '11
blow my brains out. I can never go back to the states and look the people in the
face and tell them that as soon as I had got these Kansas friends of mine fairly
into danger I had to abandon them. I can't do it. No matter what I say in my
own defense no one will believe it. I '11 blow my brains out and end the thing
right here.' ' General,' said I, 'the people of Kansas would rather have you than
all the party at Nebraska City. I have got fifteen good boys that are my own.
If you will put yourself under my orders I '11 take you through all right.' He
assented, and Doctor Blanchard set to work to disguise him. Mrs. Blanchard
brought out some old clothes, but Lane looked more like himself in those than
in the new ones. The doctor undertook to use nitrate of silver on the grizzly old
268 KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
veteran, but it did n't seem to have any effect. We agreed that I should go back
to Nebraska City, and get my men, while Doctor Blanchard pulled Lane across
the river in a canoe.
"Lane and my little company reached the place appointed for meeting at
about the same time. He was readily recognized, and the boys, who did n't
know he was coming, nearly went wild over him. We found some emigrants
twelve miles south of the city, and camped near by them. Here I received
a message from Lawrence urging me to return as soon as possible. I told Lane
the news, and he said we must get down there by the next night. The streams
were full and no fords. Lawrence was I.jO miles away. Lane rode that distance
in thirty hours; the rest of us had to give it up.
"Our party now consisted of about thirty persons, we having been joined by
old Captain Brown and his men. The captain left his wounded in a place of
safety, and determined to go back with us. Accordingly we struck out for Law-
rence, Lane leading. All that night he pushed on, halting a little just before
morning to let the horses graze. The boys threw themselves upon the grass,
and were soon fast asleep. Brown himself went some distance from the camp,
sat down with his back to a tree and his rifle across his knees, and also went to
sleep. When Lane got ready to go ahead he directed me to go and awaken
Brown. I found the old man asleep, leaning against a tree, as described, and
not thinking of danger, I put my hand on his shoulder. Quick as lightning he
was on his feet, with his rifle at my breast. I struck up the muzzle of his gun
not a second too soon, as the charge passed over my shoulder, burning the cloth
of my coat. Thereafter I never approached Brown when he was sleeping, as
that seemed to be his most wakeful time.
"At about ten o'clock that night we reached the Kansas river, opposite To-
peka, our jjarty having been, reduced to six, the others giving out, one by one.
We could not cross the river by ferry, as the ferryman lived up in Topeka. The
only chance left was to ford. My horse was the only one able to swim across
with its rider. The others refused to swim and one was mired in the quicksand.
Lane and Charlie Stratton swam over. Going into town we three got something
to eat, the first we had had since leaving Nebraska City. Lane and Stratton got
fresh horses and we started for Lawrence, though it was raining as hard as it
could. Before I reached my home I fell off my horse three times from the effects
of hunger and fatigue. Each of the three times Lane helped me to my saddle
again. On reaching home I could go no further. Stratton continued two miles
before he gave up; and Lane went into Lawrence alone, reaching there at. three
o'clock in the morning.
"When Lane left me at my house he ordered me to go in the morning
to Bloomington, collect as many men as I could, establish a camp at Doc-
tor Macey's, on Washington creek, and stay there until I got orders from
him to move, no matter what should happen. By night I had collected six 
