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THE 

Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 



KIRKE MECHEM, Editor 
JAMES C. MALIN, Associate Editor 



Volume II 

1933 

(Kansas Historical Collections) 

VOL. XIX 



Published by 

The Kansas State Historical Society 
Topeka, Kansas 

16-1070 



Contents of Volume II 



Number 1 February, 1933 

PAOB 

FERRIES IN KANSAS : Part I Missouri River George A. Root, 3 

THE INDIAN QUESTION IN CONGRESS AND IN KANSAS Marvin H. Garfield, 29 

COUNTY SEAT CONTROVERSIES IN SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. .Henry F. Mason, 45 

THE GRASS WIGWAM AT WICHITA Bliss Isely, 66 

THE ANNUAL MEETING: Containing the President's Address; Report of 
the Executive Committee; Report of the Secretary and Treasurer; Elec- 
tion of Officers Kirke Mechem, Secretary, 72 

RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY Compiled by Helen M. McFarland, 90 

KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE STATE PRESS 102 

KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 110 



Number 2 May, 1933 



PAGE 

FERRIES IN KANSAS: Part I Missouri River Continued George A. Root, 115 

THE FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS: The Story of Edward Everett Hale's 
Kanzas and Nebraska Cora Dolbee, 139 

HISTORY OF LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS Genevieve Yost, 182 

KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE STATE PRESS 220 

KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES . 223 



Number 3 August, 1933 



PAGE 

Two MINUTE BOOKS OF KANSAS MISSIONS IN THE FORTIES - 227 

FERRIES IN KANSAS: Part II Kansas River George A. Root, 251 

THE BULL FIGHT AT DODGE Kirke Mechem, 294 

THE ROBINSON RIFLES Gen. Wm. H. Sears, 309 

KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE STATE PRESS 321 

KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 336 

(3) 



Number 4 November, 1933 

PAGE 

THE SHAWNEE SUN : The First Periodical Publication in the United States 
to be Printed Wholly in an Indian Language Douglas C. McMurtrie, 339 

FERRIES IN KANSAS: Part II Kansas River Continued George A. Root, 343 
THE VEGETARIAN AND OCTAGON SETTLEMENT COMPANIES. . .Russell Hickman, 377 

THE JOHN BROWN PIKES Frank Hey wood H odder, 386 

KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE STATE PRESS 391 

KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 400 

ERRATA TO VOLUME II 402 

INDEX TO VOLUME II 403 

(4) 



THE 

Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 




Volume II Number 1 

February, 1933 



PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT 

B. P. WALKER, STATE PRINTER 

TOPEKA 1933 

14-6617 



Contributors 

GEORGE A. ROOT is curator of archives of the Kansas State Historical Society. 

MARVIN H. GARFIELD is instructor of history in Roosevelt Intermediate 
School, Wichita. 

HENRY F. MASON, a former resident of Finney county, was a justice of the 
supreme court of Kansas for twenty-five years. He died in 1927. 

BLISS ISLEY is a well-known Kansas newspaper man of Wichita, Kan. His 
present address is Phoenix, Ariz. 

NOTE. Articles in the Quarterly appear in chronological order without regard 
to their importance. 

(2) 



Ferries in Kansas 

GEORGE A. ROOT 
Part 1 Missouri River 

OETTLEMENT of that portion of present Kansas bordering on 
O the Missouri river at once established the need of communica- 
tion with the outside world. Steamboats were not yet making regu- 
lar trips up the "Big Muddy," so some other method of water trans- 
portation must be made use of. Mackinaw boats 1 and bull boats 2 
used by early trappers and by the military at the time of the 
establishment of Cantonment Martin were pressed into use, and in 
the absence of anything better served their day and age very ac- 
ceptably. When these mackinaw boats were not to be had the 
white man fashioned a dugout from the trunk of some suitable 
tree near enough to water to serve the purpose. Rafts were made 
use of, also. Then followed the primitive ferryboats, formed of 
two or three dugouts with poles laid crosswise and closely together ; 
later the boats were made from sawed lumber, propelled by poles 
at first, then by oars, then by means of ropes or cables stretched 
across the streams, the current often furnishing the propelling force, 
and then "Old Dobbin" was harnessed and pressed into service. 
When immigration set in for Oregon, Utah and California, horse- 
propelled ferries were about the fastest mode of crossing the Mis- 
souri, but these were few. In the latter fifties and early sixties steam 
was adopted by the most enterprising ferrymen. 

With the coming of the missionaries and early settlers arose the 
necessity for permanent roads. These thoroughfares were laid out 
regardless of section lines, and usually followed the divides. When 
a stream had to be crossed a good fording place was sought. When 
this was not convenient or practicable, a ferry solved the problem. 
Up to the time of the signing of the Kansas-Nebraska bill there 
were but few ferries owned or controlled by residents living west of 
the Missouri river these being the ones operating from old Canton- 

1. A flat-bottomed boat with a pointed prow and square stern, using oars or sails, or 
both, used especially on the upper Great Lakes and their tributaries. 

2. The bull boat was in common use on the Missouri and other western rivers between 
1810 and 1830, being especially adapted on account of lightness of draft. They were shaped 
much like a light raft and were from 25 to 30 feet long. This framework was covered with 
buffalo bull hides sewed tightly together. These boats were capable of carrying a cargo of 
5,000 to 6,000 pounds. Kansas Historical Collections, v. 9, p. 271. 

(3) 



4 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ment Martin, Fort Leavenworth, Grinter's, Wyandotte, Papan's, 
Smith's, Ogee's and Marshall's ferry at the Blue. 

With the establishment of the territory came an era of town 
speculation : 

"It was the day of small things but great beginnings. . . . Opportunity 
was knocking at every door. There were schemes of every sort, rational and 
chimerical. The laws of the early legislative sessions furnish abundant ex- 
amples. If charters had been taxed, the revenues would have embarrassed 
the vaults of the treasury. It was a time of tremendous mental and business 
activity. Official sanction was given to operate ferries, toll bridges, and stage 
lines in every direction. Highways were projected to imaginary cities in the 
undisputed prairie grass, where flaming lithographs exploited the sale of town 
lots at fabulous prices before there were any inhabitants except grasshoppers 
and prairie dogs. Mail routes were established in advance of post offices or 
settlements, and contracts awarded and paid for by an indulgent government 
when there was no occasion for any service, and when in fact no service had 
been performed. The Kansas river and many of its insignificant tributaries 
were declared navigable streams, when in some of them the catfish actually 
suffered for water. There were prophets in those days." 3 

Up to the meeting of the so-called "bogus legislature" (the legis- 
lature of 1855) there had been no restrictions hampering anyone 
wishing to start a ferry. Before that body adjourned it had adopted, 
along with many other Missouri laws, the one regarding ferries. This 
act was evidently a satisfactory one, for not until 1862 were any 
changes made in it, and these only regarding amounts of tax to be 
paid to the county, or forfeits for failure to secure licenses before 
engaging in business. 

The earliest ferries touching Kansas were started by residents of 
Missouri. These primitive affairs served their day and purpose, 
enabling residents living on the west side of the Missouri river to 
keep in touch with the East. With the era of railroad and bridge 
building which followed the Civil War, however, the day of the 
ferry gradually passed, until now it is but a memory. With the 
building of the Hannibal bridge at Kansas City in 1869, the Fort 
Leavenworth and Elwood bridges in 1873 and the Atchison bridge 
in 1875, the need for ferries was almost ended one being operated 
at Kansas City as late as 1888, one at Leavenworth the Willie 
Cade until about the last of the eighties, and one at White Cloud, 
which was inaugurated in the fall of 1932, after that town had been 
without ferry privileges for several years. 

The following is an attempt to list Missouri- and Kansas-owned 
ferries which had any intercourse with the territory embraced in 

8. Albert R. Greene, "In Remembrance," Kansas Historical Collections, v. 11, p. 486. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 5 

Kansas. The arrangement is not chronological, but rather, geo- 
graphical, beginning near the mouth of the Kansas river and pro- 
ceeding up the Missouri. Some, created by acts of the territorial 
and early state legislatures, may never have functioned; in all 
probability the charters or licenses were secured by promoters who 
hoped to "unload" at a good price to other parties. In some cases 
these charters, granted for a specified number of years and claiming 
exclusive rights within certain bounds, seemingly overlap. In 
several instances this may be due to the fact that the first parties 
allowed their franchises to lapse. 

This list, by no means complete, is offered by the writer as the 
first attempt to gather data on early ferries on the Missouri river. 
Subsequent chapters will complete the review of ferrying on the 
Missouri river and will cover the history of ferrying on the Kansas, 
Republican, Smoky Hill, Neosho, Arkansas, and other rivers of 
Kansas. 

The first ferry operating at or near the mouth of the Kansas river 
over the Missouri was established in 1825 by Joseph Boggs, a 
resident of Clay County, Missouri. Richard Linville 4 also started 
one the same year. A third ferry, operated by John Thornton, was 
located "at or near the Blue Bank." In May, 1825, a road was laid 
out from Liberty to Thornton's ferry; another ran from Liberty to 
the Missouri river "at the boat landing at the town of Gallatin; still 
another ran from Liberty to the mouth of the Kansas river. From 
the meager records obtainable it is difficult to locate the exact points 
of these ferries and landings owing to changes in the river banks 
and the vagueness in the descriptions of the landing places. When 
the license was isued to Joseph Boggs, in September, 1825, he was 
authorized to keep a ferry across the Missouri river 'from the bank 
where Wyatt Adkins lives.' " He was permitted to charge the fol- 
lowing rates: 

For a loaded wagon and team, $2. 

Empty wagon and team, $1. 

Dearborn and horses, or gig and horses, 62^ cents. 

Man and horse, 37Ms cents. 

Single person, 18% cents. 

Horses, each, 18% cents. 

Sheep, hogs- and cattle, each, 3 cents. 

4. Linville sold out in 1826 to an old Frenchman named Calisse Montarges, commonly 
called "Caleece." He ran the boat until 1830, and it must have been the most popular of 
all the ferries. The old man was one of the eccentric characters known all along the river, 
as there have been many others since that time engaged in the transportation of men, animals 
and chattels from one side of the river to the other. Calisse came to this part of the 
country soon after the War of 1812 as a French trapper and voyageur. Deatherage History 
of Greater Kansas City, p. 188. 



6 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

These charges were regulated by the division of the old Spanish 
dollar into bits. A bit was 12 1/2 cents; a bit and a half was 18% 
cents; 2 bits, 25 cents; 4 bits, 50 cents, and 8 bits a dollar. 5 

Prime's ferry at Independence, Mo., was being operated in 1829, 
according to Frederick Chouteau in his reminiscences published in 
Kansas Historical Collections, v. 8. 

The settlement of the Platte Purchase had an important effect 
upon Kansas City, Mo. Up to that time there had been no ferry 
across the river there other than canoes, but with the opening of 
this new country there was a spasmodic movement into it from the 
south side of the river. To accommodate this immigration Peter 
Roy, son of Louis Roy, who settled at the foot of Grand avenue 
during 1826, established a flatboat ferry, and in order to provide 
better access to it than by the old road he cut a new road through 
the woods from about where Walnut street crosses Fifteenth street, 
past the present junction of Main and Delaware streets, and thence 
down a deep ravine along Delaware street to Sixth, thence across 
by the corner of Main and Fifth streets, diagonally across the public 
square and thence to the river a little east of the present line of 
Grand avenue from Third street down. This road afterward became 
a factor in the concentration of the Santa Fe trade at this place, 
and was the one mainly used by the heavy freighting teams, as it 
afforded a tolerably easy grade to the river, and also provided in 
later years the means of reaching West-port by a short cut. The 
ferry thus established by Mr. Roy, was conducted by him but a short 
time when he sold it to James H. McGee, who then lived on a farm 
south of Sixteenth street. McGee sold the ferry in less than a year 
to Rev. Isaac McCoy, 6 who conducted it until 1843 when he sold 
it to his son, John C. McCoy. 7 Mr. McCoy subsequently sold a half 
interest in it to John Campbell, and in 1854 disposed of the other 
half to Messrs. Northrup and Chick. 8 This ferry was convenient 
to the military road running from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Gibson, 
and was close to the trading posts located on the Kaw near its 

5. Gatewood, History of Clay and Platte Counties, Missouri, p. 113; Deatherage, His- 
tory of Greater Kansas City, pp. 187, 188. 

6. Rev. Isaac McCoy, Baptist missionary, was born in Pennsylvania in 1784, and died 
in Kentucky in 1846. He removed to Missouri in 1829 and later located near the mouth of 
the Kansas river. He and his sons surveyed most of the Indian reservations located in 
Kansas. 

7. John Calvin McCoy was born in Indiana in 1811. He came west and assisted his 
father in surveying in the Indian country. He later settled in Johnson county, Kansas, where 
he lived many years. He died in Kansas City, Mo., in 1889. 

8. History of Kansas City, Mo., pp. 295, 296; Goodspeed's History of Wyandotte 
County, Kansas, p. 468. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 7 

mouth, and also to several missions located among the Shawnees 
along the route of the Santa Fe trail a few miles southwest of 
Westport landing. 

In 1828 another ferry was started by a man named Frost. 9 

Another ferry was operated by one Aaron Overton in May, 1830, 
at the mouth of Rose's branch. 10 

All the above ferries were propelled by oars or sweeps, and it 
was a good half day's work to take a boat over to the south side of 
the river and bring back an emigrant wagon. 11 

In November, 1831, Allen Overton had a ferry at Overton's cross- 
ing. Shrewsbury Williams operated one in 1832, and Samuel Gragg 
established one in 1833. 12 

Col. Shubael Allen established a landing on his plantation about 
1830, and near by William Yates had a ferry in 1831. In the fall 
of that year Colonel Allen obtained the ferry and operated it from 
his warehouse. This ferry was succeeded by Fielding McCoy's 
ferry. 13 

Allen's landing, from 1829 until the death of Colonel Allen in 
1841, was the main point of exit and entrance of nearly all the 
business and travel of northwest Missouri, in its communication with 
the outer world by the river. It was for many years the starting 
point of a large number of the employees of the American Fur 
Company in their expeditions to the plains and the mountains of 
the great Northwest. 14 

Isaac Ellis was granted a license in 1838 or 1839 to operate a 
ferry across the Missouri river, between the Platte county side and 
the west bank, and toll rates were prescribed. 15 

In 1844 William M. Chick started a ferry at Kansas City. The 
first boat was simply a flatboat with two men to pull the oars. 
Later a horse ferryboat was substituted and operated for a year or 
two. While using the horsepower boat a traveling circus came 
through and was ferried across the river. Mr. Chick states that 
there were different kinds of animals to be brought over and that 
they had no trouble with any except the elephant. It at first refused 
to come on board, but after much coaxing, was finally induced to 
do so. The deck creaked but the elephant was finally brought 

9. Deatherage, History of Greater Kansas City, p. 188. 

10. Ibid., p. 188. 

11. Gatewood, History of Clay and Platte Counties, Missouri, p. 101. 

12. Ibid., p. 119. 

13. Ibid., pp. 118, 119. 

14. U. S. Biographical Dictionary, Missouri, p. 313. 

15. Gatewood, History of Clay and Platte Counties, Missouri, p. 572. 



8 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

safely across, though not without considerable damage to the boat, 
which cost $10 to repair. Mr. Chick tried to get the showman to 
pay the $10, but he refused. Then Mr. Chick sued him, and attached 
some of his belongings so he could not leave. The trouble was 
brought before the justice of the peace court in Westport and the 
showman was made to pay the $10. 16 

Early in the 1840's Kansas City, Mo., and Westport became the 
depot for trade with Santa Fe and Mexico, as well as with California, 
Utah and Oregon, and for a number of years following immense 
caravans fitted out there for the long and perilous journeys to the 
far West. Westport had one of the best landings on the Missouri, 
and being most convenient to the Oregon and Santa Fe trails en- 
joyed a monopoly of the business following these transcontinental 
highways. Factories sprang up in the growing city, and about 
everything needed in the transportation business was manufactured 
on the spot. The magnitude of the freighting business starting 
from there is shown in the following figures: In 1840 there were 
five firms or proprietors engaged in the trade, with 60 wagons valued 
at $50,000. The following year there were a dozen firms similarly 
engaged, operating 100 wagons, valued at $150,000. In 1842 there 
were fifteen, with 120 wagons valued at $160,000 and thirty in 1843, 
with 350 wagons worth $450,000. 17 During the period between the 
early 1840's and the latter 1850's this business doubled and trebled, 
for Kansas City's business transactions for the year 1857 amounted 
to over $3,000,000. This business increased materially during the 
next few years, when, owing to raiding parties during the Civil War, 
it practically ceased, the commerce previously enjoyed having moved 
north to Fort Leavenworth, Atchison and Nebraska City, where it 
was practically immune. After the war the immense business going 
west from Kansas City was taken over by the railroads, and the 
long lines of prairie schooners, each wagon drawn by a team of six 
or eight slow-plodding oxen or a like number of sturdy Missouri 
mules and presided over by a picturesque "bullwhacker" or "mule 
skinner," faded out of the picture. 

Wyandotte was the natural distributing point for settlements 
along the Kansas river and points to the south and west, and was 
the radiating point for a number of roads leading in different direc- 
tions. One ran northwest to Quindaro and on to Parkville, Mo.; 
one to Leavenworth; one to old Shawnee Mission, where it joined 

16. Reminiscences of Washington Henry Chick, MS., in the Kansas State Historical 
Society. 

17. Gregg, Commerce of the Prairie, v. 2, p. 144. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 9 

the Old Santa Fe trail; one connected with the road to Fort Scott; 
one to Grinter's ferry, where it crossed the Kaw river and ran up 
the Kaw valley; one crossed the Kansas river and ran to Kansas 
City and Westport. 

There was a plot along the river at Wyandotte, known as "Ferry 
Tract," and here the various ferryboats having ferry privileges 
within the city took on or discharged their cargoes. Ferryboats 
Lizzie, of Kansas City, Mo., in 1855; and S. C. Pomeroy, of Wyan- 
dotte City, the largest ferryboat on the river, put in operation by 
Capt. Otis Webb in 1857, plied back and forth from the two cities 
at the mouth of the Kaw. 18 

Joseph C. Ransom & Co. were authorized by the legislature of 
1857 to maintain a ferry across the Missouri river between Wyan- 
dotte and Kansas City, Mo., 19 

William Walker, 20 Thomas H. Doyle, Cyrus Garrett 21 and Henry 
McMullin were granted authority by the legislature of 1857 to 
run a ferry across the Missouri river, and to have a landing on 
land owned or claimed by the Wyandotte City Company, or others, 
within the town limits. Their ferry privileges were to run for 
twenty-five years. 22 

The legislature of 1858 granted a charter to Silas Armstrong , 23 
W. Y. Roberts, 24 S. W. Eldridge, 25 James McGrew 26 and James D. 
Chestnut, 27 to operate a ferry across the Missouri river under the 
name of the Wyandotte City Ferry Company, the charter to be for 
a period of twenty-one years, and to have exclusive privilege of 
landing at any place on the west side of the river between the point 
where the Missouri state line leaves the same, and_a point one mile 
above the mouth of the Kansas river on the Missouri river, and at 

18. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 1230. 

19. Laws, Kansas, 1857, pp. 157, 185. 

20. William Walker was a native of Michigan, born in 1799, and died in Kansas City in 
1874. He was a leader and counsellor of the Wyandotts, and came to Kansas in 1843 with 
the tribe. He acquired the title of "governor" when he was appointed provisional governor 
of territory embraced in Nebraska and Kansas. 

21. Cyrus Garrett was a Wyandott, born about 1835. 

22. Laws, Kansas, 1857, p. 157. 

23. Silas Armstrong was born at Xenia, Ohio, in 1810. He was president of the Wyan- 
dotte City town company and became wealthy. He died in 1865. 

24. William Y. Roberts was a native of Pennsylvania and born about 1811. He came 
to Kansas in 1855, took an active part in the territorial struggle, and held many positions 
of trust. He died near Lawrence in 1869. 

25. Shalor Winchell Eldridge was born in Massachusetts in 1816. He was a railroad 
contractor and came to Kansas in 1856 and leased the Free State hotel that year, and also 
established a stage line from Kansas City to Lawrence and Topeka. He died at Lawrence in 
1899. 

26. James McGrew was born in Pennsylvania in 1822. In 1859 he settled at Wyandotte, 
and was engaged in various occupations. He died in Kansas City, Kansas, January 19, 1911. 

27. James D. Chestnut was probably one of the directors of a South Carolina company 
that came to Kansas early in 1856. Kansas Historical Collections, v. 15, p. 415. 



10 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

any point on the bank of the Kansas river, one-eighth of a mile from 
its mouth. Nothing was to infringe on the right of the Wyandotte 
ferry to cross the Kansas river. This act was vetoed by the acting 
governor, and was passed by the legislature over his vote. 28 This 
ferry was operated between Wyandotte and Kansas City, Mo., for 
a number of years. 

It is said a steam ferry was in operation at Wyandotte as early 
as 1858, but no details are available. 29 

The city of Wyandotte was granted a charter by the legislature 
of 1860 to operate a ferry across the Missouri river, to ply at any 
point or points between the mouth of the Kansas river and a point 
on the Missouri two miles above the mouth, for a period of twenty 
years. The city of Wyandotte was to run a good and substantial 
steam ferry-boat within six months from the passage of the act, 
which was approved by the governor February 14, 1860. The act 
also provided that the city of Wyandotte should have power to lease 
the ferry right for any term of years not exceeding the term for 
which the charter was granted. 30 

On May 23, 1867, the Kansas and Missouri Ferry Company, of 
Wyandotte, was chartered. J. B. Scroggs, 31 Charles S. Glick, S. V. 
Morse, D. M. Cable, J. A. Berry, 32 Isaiah Walker, Russell Garrett, 33 
H. M. Cook and W. B. Bowman were the incorporators. The capital 
stock of the company was $50,000 and shares $50 each. The new 
ferry was scheduled to operate from the levee at Wyandotte across 
the Missouri river. The charter was filed with the secretary of 
state May 25, 1867. 34 

During the ferrying era the condition of the levee was paramount. 
From time to time repairs were made as occasion demanded. In the 
fall of 1866 the city began to realize the need of better protection 
from the encroachments of the Missouri. A committee was ap- 
pointed by the city council to confer with railroad companies, but 
no decision was reached at that time and no action was taken. The 
Wyandotte Gazette urged that steps be taken at once, whether the 
railroads were ready to cooperate or not, stating that if the levee 

28. Laws, Kansas, 1858, pp. 70, 71. 

29. First Biennial Report, State Board of Agriculture, 1877-78, p. 455. 

30. Laws, Kansas, private, 1860, p. 287. 

31. John B. Scroggs was an Ohioan, born in 1838. He removed to Wyandotte in 1866, 
and later served as county attorney and as mayor of the city. His death occurred June 28, 
1898. 

32. J. A. Berry was a resident of Wyandotte county during the latter fifties, and for a 
year and a half published the Wyandotte Democrat. 

33. Russell Garrett was a Wyandott. 

34. Corporations, v. 1, p. 340, in Archives Department, Kansas State Historical Society. 
Hereafter cited as Corporations. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 11 

was not preserved Wyandotte would soon lose the great advantage 
she then possessed over other river towns, that of ample room for 
the transaction of heavy railroad and river business combined. 
Apparently nothing in the way of permanent protection had been 
accomplished up to the latter part of May, 1868, when renewed 
efforts on the part of the city officials were again made. The 
Gazette of May 30 contained the following: 

"OuR LEVEE. We learn that Mayor Cobb and Mr. Killen have been to 
St. Louis and had a conference with the directors or some officers of the 
Missouri Pacific railroad in regard to the protection of our levee. At the meet- 
ing of the council on Tuesday evening, a resolution was passed, offering, in 
case the voters ratify the proposition, to give the railroad company $5,000 in 
ten-year 7 percent bonds, with right of way and depot grounds, if the company 
will go ahead and thoroughly protect the levee, from the mouth of Jersey 
creek to the mouth of the Kansas river. The company has a gang of men now 
at work throwing in stone, and we presume will accept the proposition. So 
mote it be." 

The ferry business on the Missouri river had no serious opposition 
until the advent of the railroad. The first bridge to span the river 
was that of the Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad, built at Kansas 
City in 1866. Up to this time freight shipments from Kansas and 
the west had found their way in good part to the mouth of the 
Kansas river by way of the various wagon roads and the old Kan- 
sas Pacific railroad, which was put in operation that year. 35 Late 
in 1867 that railroad was considering laying a third rail between 
the state line and the ferry landing to enable the road to handle 
standard-gauge cars. This was for the purpose of transferring 
freight from this road to the Kansas City & Cameron railroad. 36 

Moving up the river from Wyandotte we find the next point at 
which a ferry was operated was Quindaro, about four miles distant. 

Quindaro was started as a free-state town in December, 1856. The 
river at this place had a rocky channel and good banks for landing. 
By May, 1857, the city had a force of workmen grading the ground 
near the wharf and Kansas avenue, the main street running north 
from the river. By July a steam ferryboat 100 feet long, with a 26- 
foot beam, was running between Quindaro and Parkville, a few 
miles up the river. 37 

The legislature of 1858 granted a charter to Otis Webb, 38 Charles 

85. Report, State Board of Agriculture, 1877-78, p. 455. 

36. Wyandotte Gazette, January 4, 1868. 

37. Report, State Board of Agriculture, 1877-'78, p. 455; Andreas, History of Kansas, 
p. 1229. 

88. Capt. Otis Webb was a noted Missouri river steamboat captain, and ran a boat 
named for himself. 



12 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Robinson 39 and Charles H. Chapin 40 to establish another ferry cross 
the Missouri river at Quindaro, with one or more landings for a 
period of twenty-one years. The law provided that no other ferry 
should be established between the intersections of the west bounds 
of sec. 22, T. 10, R. 24 E., and the east bounds of sec. 28, T. 10, R. 
25 E., with the Missouri river. Charges for ferriage were fixed as 
follows: 

Each passenger, 10 cents. 

Two-horse team loaded, $1.25. 

One-horse carriage, 75 cents. 

Each additional horse, mule, ass, ox, cow, calf, 15 cents. 

Each score of sheep or swine, $1. 

Lumber, $1.50 per 1,000 feet. 

All freight, not lumber, not in teams loaded and unloaded by the owner 
thereof, and with a detention not exceeding 15 minutes, 10 cents per 
100 pounds. 41 

This ferry was convenient to a road from Leavenworth to Wyan- 
dotte, was but a few miles below the Parkville landing by the river, 
and was also the northern terminus of a road running in a southerly 
direction through the Delaware and Shawnee lands, and on to the 
vicinity of Paola, Miami county. 42 

Later, George W. Veale, Abelard Guthrie, Fielding Johnson 43 and 
Julius G. Fisk were granted a charter, by the legislature of 1860, to 
maintain a ferry at the present limits of Quindaro for a period of 
ten years. The law provided that no other ferry should be estab- 
lished within two miles of the city, and that the landing should be 
restricted to and confined within the limits of said city. 44 

A Quindaro ferryboat was sunk by Missourians in 1861, but it is 
not known who were the owners. The motive claimed was to pre- 
vent slaves from escaping. 45 

On July 31, 1866, the Quindaro and Parkville Ferry Company was 
chartered, Alfred Gray, Alfred Robinson, David Pearson, Francis 
Kessler and Francis A. Kessler being the incorporators. The com- 
pany proposed to operate a ferry across the Missouri river, steam, 
horse, or man power to be used as the company should prefer. The 

39. Gov. Charles Robinson was a member of the Quindaro Town Company. 

40. Charles Herman Chapin was a native of New York, born in 1822. He came to Kan- 
sas in 1856 and was identified with the free-state movement. Later he was employed in the 
United States engineering service. He died in 1889. 

41. Laws, Kansas, 1858, pp. 68, 69. 

42. Gunn and Mitchell's Map of Kansas, 1862. 

43. Fielding Johnson was born in Indiana in 1810. He served in the Black Hawk War. 
In 1856 he came to Kansas, and settled at Quindaro in 1857. He removed to Topeka in 
1866, where he died in 1872. 

44. Laws, Private, Kansas, 1860, pp. 285, 286. 

45. Kansas Historical Collections, v. 13, p. 190. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 13 

ferry was to run between the dividing line between sec. 29, T. 10, R. 
24 E., extending from the east to the west bank of the river, and em- 
bracing a strip of land 100 feet wide within these limits. The prin- 
cipal office was at Quindaro, and capital stock was $20,000, in shares 
of $100 each. The charter was filed with the secretary of state, 
August 14, 1866. 46 

The most northern ferry in Wyandotte county, as one ascended 
the river, was operated, on the Missouri side, from Parkville. John 
Ryan, Solomon Taylor, N. L. Barnard, C. S. Click and L. F. Hol- 
lingsworth were the incorporators of the Parkville Ferry Company, 
chartered October 3, 1872. The capital stock of the enterprise was 
$10,000, shares $50 each, with privilege of increasing stock to 
$20,000. The principal place of business was given as Wyandotte, 
and the ferry was to cross the Missouri river to a landing at or near 
where the county road from Nearman station on the Union Pacific 
railroad running due north strikes the Missouri river. This charter 
was filed with the secretary of state, October 8, 1872. 47 

The first settlement north of the Wyandotte-Leavenworth county 
boundary line was a German community known as Weimar City, 
which was established about 1857-'58. It was near the site of pres- 
ent Pope station on the Missouri Pacific railroad, about thirteen or 
fourteen miles above Parkville, Missouri, approximately on the 
NE*4 of sec. 33, T. 9, R. 23. This is about one mile below the old 
town of Delaware, and about seven miles below Leavenworth city of 
that time. Opposite this place the Platte Valley Ferry Company 
was established, being incorporated May 15, 1866, with H. T. 
Greene, James E. Ireland, Robert C. Foster, Archibald B. Earle, 
L. B. Wheat and D. Hudson Redman as incorporators. The com- 
pany had a capital stock of $10,000, with shares $100 each. On the 
Kansas side the ferry operated above Weimar City to a point one 
mile below where "Seven Mile creek" empties into the Missouri 
river, and below to the dividing line between Leavenworth and 
Wyandotte counties. The principal office was located at Leaven- 
worth. The charter was filed with the secretary of state, May 26, 
1866. 48 

The next settlement up the river was the town of Delaware, about 
one mile above Weimar City and six miles below Leavenworth. The 
town was platted in July, 1854, and was located on parts of Sees. 

46. Corporations, v. 1, pp. 202, 203. Alfred Gray, an incorporator, was secretary of the 
Kansas State Board of Agriculture 1871-1880. He died at Topeka, January 23, 1880. 

47. Corporations, v. 4, p. 526. 

48. Ibid., v. 1, pp. 162, 163. 



14 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

18, 19, 29, T. 9, R. 23 E. The town was on a wagon road running 
from Fort Leavenworth to Wyandotte, and was close to the junctions 
of roads running south to Grinter's ferry and southwest to Lawrence. 
John Van Vranklin established the first ferry at Delaware, having 
it in operation early in 1855, as evidenced by the following ad- 
vertisement, which ran in a Leavenworth paper: 

"DELAWARE FERRY. The undersigned has established a ferry on the Missouri 
river at the town of Delaware, Kansas territory. He has been for some time 
past and is at this time prepared to cross at a moment's notice, all those 
wishing to cross the Missouri at Delaware. Any one wishing to visit Kansas 
territory from any point below Weston, in Platte county, Missouri, will find 
that this ferry is the nearest and best point at which to cross the river, partic- 
ularly if they wish to go to the Stranger or Grass Hopper country. This also 
will be the case with all persons wishing to go to the Kaw country, or visit 
Calhoun, Lawrence, Council Grove or Fort Riley. He would state, that all 
persons traveling towards Kansas territory, on the Great Stage route, on the 
north side of the Missouri river, leading from St. Louis through Columbia, 
Fayette, Carrollton, Richmond and Liberty and then visiting Kansas, from 
the country bordering on the Mississippi river, will save weary miles by cross- 
ing at this point. His ferry boats are safe and substantial ; his ferrymen hardy 
and experienced; and will at all times be pleased to serve with alacrity, those 
who may wish to cross the Missouri river at his ferry. 
"March 13, '55 6m. JNO. VAN VRANKLIN ."49 

This ferry operated from the center of the townsite and was said 
to be the equal of any on the river. 50 

Another ferry was projected for Delaware in 1855, the territorial 
legislature granting a twenty-year privilege to Messrs. George 
Quimby, William H. Spratt, William D. Brummell and W. Christi- 
son. Their ferry was to be established within the limits of the 
town and have exclusive privileges for one mile up and one mile 
down the river on the Kansas side. The company, by one of the 
provisions of the act, was not required to run a steam ferryboat 
until the first day of April, 1856. 51 Quimby and Spratt were resi- 
dents of Delaware, the latter operating a saloon there for a number 
of years. 52 Christison was a resident of Lexington township, Lexing- 
ton P. 0., Johnson county, in 1860, his name appearing in the printed 
census enumeration for that year. 

While Delaware thus had a good ferry as early as 1855, apparently 
there was a lack of suitable roads leading to the town. This condi- 
tion was being remedied early in 1857 by a Captain Hollingsworth, 

49. Herald, Leavenworth, April 13, 1855. 

50. Ibid., June 1, 1855. 

51. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, p. 790. 

52. Hall and Hand, History of Leavenworth County, p. 144. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 15 

of that place, who was engaged in opening a road from Leavenworth. 
The road started from the steam mill in the south part of Leaven- 
worth, passed directly by the Muncie Mission and thence to Dela- 
ware. 58 

Above Delaware a half mile was the next early-day ferry site. 
On May 2, 1866, the Junction Ferry Company was chartered for the 
purpose of operating a ferry over the Missouri river, being granted 
exclusive privileges and rights at a point where Seven Mile creek 
empties into the Missouri river, and one mile up and one mile 
below the mouth of said creek. The incorporators were Richard 
R. Rees, 54 Martin Howsley, Robert C. Foster, 55 L. B. Wheat, 56 and 
Henry T. Greene. 57 The organization was capitalized at $20,000 
with shares $100 each. The principal office of the company was at 
Leavenworth City. Their charter was filed with the secretary of 
state, May 24, 1866. 58 

Two miles below the original Leavenworth, David H. Mitchell 
and James Davis 59 were granted exclusive ferry privileges by the 
legislature of 1858 to operate a ferry for a period of ten years. 60 

Fort Leavenworth and Leavenworth City were terminal points 
on the Missouri river from which highways radiated in every direc- 
tion. A "Map of the Defence of the Northern and Northwestern 
Frontier," of 1837, showed roads running from Fort Leavenworth to 
the arsenal at Fort Osage and from Fort Leavenworth to Fort 
Calhoun at the Council Bluffs. 61 It was the starting place for the 
road to Fort Scott and Fort Gibson; to the forts along the Santa 
Fe trail; to Fort Kearney on the Platte. Later roads led to Fort 
Riley, to the Big Stranger, to the Grasshopper country, to Topeka, 
Lawrence, Lecompton, Shawnee Mission, and Wyandotte. 

Up to January, 1855, Leavenworth had no Kansas licensed ferry, 
depending for her needs in river transportation on the ferries 
operating from the Missouri side. The Herald of January 19 men- 
tioned that "a large and commodious steam ferry boat is being 

53. Herald, Leavenworth, February 7, 1857. 

54. Richard R. Rees was born in Cincinnati in 1812 and died in Leavenworth in 1875. 
He came to Kansas in 1855 and later served Leavenworth county as probate judge. 

55. Robert Cole Foster was born in Kentucky in 1834. He came to Kansas with his 
parents in 1856. He died at Denison, Tex., in 1910. 

56 L. B. Wheat was an attorney at law, and was listed as a resident of Leavenworth in 
1858- 59. 

57. Henry T. Greene was an attorney at law, born in Hanover Va. He came to Leaven- 
worth county in 1854, and was a practicing attorney after his arrival. He was a staunch 
Democrat. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 444. 

58. Corporations, v. 1, pp. 156, 157. 

59. James Davis is listed in the Leavenworth city directory, 1859. 

60. Laws, Kansas, 1858, p. 63. 

61. American State Papers, Military Affairs, v. 7, opposite p. 781. 



16 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

built expressly for this place, and will be here early in the spring. 
It will carry two hundred head of stock and fifteen wagons at a 
time, and cross the river in five minutes." The Herald pointed out 
that the boat would do a heavy business during the next spring as 
it was expected there would be an immense immigration. The terri- 
torial legislature that year granted ferry privileges to at least one 
Leavenworth ferry company, which up to near the end of July had 
not started operating. The Herald of July 21 predicted that inside 
of a month it would be in operation, and stressed the fact that a 
good ferry would make Leavenworth the great point of entry into 
Kansas territory, and that it would be the "primary city of 
Kansas." 62 

Early in 1855 Leavenworth took steps to improve and protect her 
levee. In March that year the landing had been graded from the 
foot of Cherokee street to the foot of Delaware. The Herald stated 
that the improvements made on the levee would add greatly to the 
appearance of Water street, and when finished would be the best 
landing on the Missouri river. 63 By 1857 the city had decided to 
undertake something in the way of municipal improvements. The 
legislature permitted the city to borrow $100,000 for this purpose. 
The Herald of April 4, that year, said : "We want a good levee. We 
want our streets graded and we want the principal streets McAdam- 
ized." That this was good policy is evidenced by the increase of 
business the following year, the Herald of July 3 stating that the 
levee presented a "busy scene the past week. It has been piled high 
with goods and all kinds of freight from one end to the other. Dry 
goods, groceries, flour, lumber, wagons, sawmills, machinery and 
printing presses, all go to make up the huge pile." Every boat that 
stopped at the levee landed hundreds and hundreds of tons of freight 
upon the landing, prompting the Herald to ask "Why does not some 
enterprising person prepare a report of business statistics of Leaven- 
worth? We believe it would astonish the natives." 

With the passing years Leavenworth's trade territory was ex- 
tended across to the Missouri side, and the ferry company realized 
that its existence depended upon this outside trade, and took steps 
to hold it. Freshets in the river from time to time had cut a channel 
through the low bottoms on the opposite side of the stream, and in 
1867 the landing was at the island opposite the city. The ferry com- 
pany had expended quite a sum of money in building a wagon road 

62. Herald, Leavenworth, January 19, July 21, 1856. 

63. Ibid., March 30, 1855. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 17 

across the slough to the island, which served not only as a public 
highway but also to turn this water back into its proper channel. An 
earth-and-brush dam was started, and the ferry company was satis- 
fied that if this were completed it would be of great advantage to the 
city. The city drew an immense amount of trade from the Platte 
country, and it was manifest that anything which facilitated com- 
munication with that neighborhood would tend to the material in- 
crease of trade. It was the judgment of competent engineers that if 
the volume of water which every spring ran through the slough were 
turned back into the river channel, the sand bars immediately oppo- 
site the city would soon be washed out, affording a straight passage 
to the shore of the island. The ferry people also held to the hope 
that the Platte county railroad would run to and build its depot 
upon the island were this done. If this were not done the depot 
would be built some two miles down the river. The inconvenience 
which this would occasion was pointed out. The ferry company 
justly felt that the city should bear a fair share of the burden. The 
matter was brought before the city council, and the Leavenworth 
Conservative published the following paragraph showing the action 
taken : 

"Harvey Edgerton, from the special committee on the communication from 
W. L. Reyburn, in relation to the embankment on the east side of the river, 
recommended that the city encourage the enterprise by appropriating $2,000 
therefor, provided, that none of said amount be paid until said work is fully 
done according to the dimensions set forth in said communication, and re- 
ported as done by the engineer of the city. After some discussion the report 
was rejected." 

The Conservative characterized the action of the council as nig- 
gardly and, as the Commercial appropriately suggested, "penny wise 
and pound foolish." 64 

By the last of February, 1867, the Platte county road was com- 
pleted to a point opposite Leavenworth, or near the intersection of 
the old Platte City road. The roadbed was also made to the depot 
ground below, but there was not enough iron on hand at that time 
to finish the work. The company was evidently waiting to see if the 
wagon-road dyke then being built across the slough would stand the 
spring rise before extending the line any closer. 65 

The citizens of Leavenworth also had appreciated at an early date 
the importance of good roads and bridges into the interior. As early 

64. Leavenworth Daily Conservative, February 15, 19, 1867. 

65. Ibid., February 28, 1867. 

2-6617 



18 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

as 1858 subscriptions were raised for the purpose of bridging the 
principal streams on roads leading to and from the city, the Herald 
insisting that "No move can add more benefits to our city than 
this." At this time a substantial bridge was being erected across 
Salt creek, on the Fort Riley road, near Rively's store, while others 
were needed over the Stranger at Easton, Russell's Mills, and on the 
Lawrence road. Leavenworth citizens were admonished to "come 
up and subscribe liberally." 66 

Not until April, 1873, was a railroad bridge across the Missouri 
river at Leavenworth completed. This was located on the military 
reservation, a mile or so above the town, and cost between $800,000 
and $1,000,000. Just what effect it had on the ferry business is not 
clear, as ferries operated for years afterward. The bridge was in 
use up to about 1909, when the eastern approach collapsed. In 1913 
the flooring on the Fort Leavenworth end burned. In 1926 the gov- 
ernment rehabilitated the old bridge for use as the only free bridge 
across the Missouri river, furnishing the connecting link for federal 
highway No. 92. 67 

In 1918 Vinton Stillings, of Leavenworth, built a pontoon bridge 
across the Missouri at a point a little north of the present terminal 
bridge. The pontoon was 3,600 feet long, 18 feet in the clear, and 
cost $36,000, being financed entirely by Mr. Stillings. On the east 
side was a drawbridge to allow boats to pass up and down the river. 
Toll charges over the bridge were: Vehicles, 50 cents for round 
trip; foot passengers, 10 cents for round trip. Mr. Stillings has 
said that during the almost four years of its operation, which began 
in July, 1888, its revenue averaged $200 a day. 68 

The terminal bridge was constructed during 1893, and was opened 
for traffic January 2, 1894. It was located a little south of the 
pontoon built by Stillings, and cost, with tracks, terminal buildings, 
freight depot, switches, etc., about $480,000. 69 

A railroad meeting was held at Platte City in January, 1857, to 
discuss the advantages of building a road on the Missouri river 
opposite Leavenworth, to connect with the Hannibal & St. Joseph 
road. The advantage of such a road was self-evident. In fact the 
ultimate success of Leavenworth depended upon the road. Kansas 
City, the only rival Leavenworth had to fear, was already in the 
field, and the Herald emphasized that Leavenworth must not allow 

66. Herald, Leavenworth, August 7, 1858. 

67. Leavenworth Daily Times, March 6, 1932; Kansas City Journal, July 25, 1915; 
Topeka Daily Capital, June 29, 1926; Kansas City Times, January 9, 1918. 

68. Leavenworth Daily Times, March 6, 1932. 

69. Ibid., March 6, 1932. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 19 

her rival to outstrip her by a suicidal apathy on the subject, but 
that it was her duty to keep the project in motion until the work 
was completed, to enable Leavenworth to enter into favorable com- 
petition with others. 70 Railroad talk prevailed, and during the 
spring or early summer a preliminary survey was made for a road to 
connect Leavenworth with Cameron, Mo. 71 A little over a year 
later the Herald, in an able editorial on the subject of railroads, 
contended that Leavenworth could not compete with other cities on 
the Missouri river in the commerce and trade of the great West 
unless she formed means of communication with the East by rail- 
road. Continuing, the Herald said: 

"Kansas City and St. Joseph will have railroads running through them in 
less than eighteen months, and then what position will we occupy, situated 
between two flourishing cities which have the energy as well as the means 
to take our present trade away from us? . . . Unless we establish a rail- 
road connecting . . . with the East ... we will go backward instead 
of forward. . . . The time has come when the people of Leavenworth must 
look to her laurels, and let those who are interested take the subject in 
hand." 72 

While Leavenworth thus early appreciated the importance of a 
railroad bridge, it was not until 1873 that the tracks actually crossed 
the Missouri. For many years, therefore, her citizens depended on 
the various ferries for transportation and communication with the 
east. The first ferry operated from the city proper was owned by 
Thomas C. Shoemaker, 73 Jarret Todd, 74 Samuel D. Pitcher and their 
associates, who were granted a twenty-year charter by the terri- 
torial legislature of 1855 to be restricted to and confined within the 
limits of the city of Leavenworth. The law provided that no other 
ferry should be established within two miles of the limits of the 
town, and also prescribed charges for ferriage, as follows: 

Foot passengers, 10 cents. 

Each horse, mare, mule, or ass, with or without rider, 25 cents. 

Each two-horse team, loaded or unloaded, with driver, 75 cents. 

Each single-horse carriage, 50 cents. 

Each additional cow or ox, 15 cents. 

Each swine or sheep, 5 cents. 

All freight of lumber, merchandise or articles not in teams, at rate of 15 
cents [100 Ibs.] 

70. Herald, Leavenworth, January 31, 1857. 

71. Ibid., July 4, 1857. 

72. Ibid., August 14, 1858. 

73. Thomas C. Shoemaker was the first receiver of public moneys in the territory. Ha 
came to Kansas about the first of May, 1855, and made Leavenworth his home, where he 
lived up to the date of his death, February 5, 1857. 

74. Jarret Todd came to Kansas July 4, 1854, and settled at Leavenworth. His name 
appears in Leavenworth city directory, 1859, and also in a census of Leavenworth, 1859, 
p. 66, in archives department, Kansas State Historical Society. 



20 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Each 1,000 feet of lumber, $1 per 1,000 Ibs. 
All other articles, 5 cents [per 100 Ibs.]. 

The act also provided that anyone crossing at night might be 
charged double fare. 75 

In 1860 the law relating to this ferry was amended as follows: 
"The owners of the ferry privilege granted shall not be required to 
run their ferryboat or boats for any purpose in the night time, nor 
at any time when it shall be unsafe to do so, by reason of ice in the 
river, or other cause." 76 

This charter was again amended in 1861 to provide that the com- 
pany should, on the first Monday in September each year, pay to 
the treasurer of Leavenworth county the sum of $100, "which sum 
shall be in lieu of all taxes and assessments of every kind and char- 
acter, on said ferry privilege; and no additional tax, for any pur- 
pose, shall hereafter be imposed or levied upon said franchise, by the 
legislature or other authority." The amended law also extended the 
franchise fifteen years beyond the limit set by the original act, and 
likewise provided that "the moneys contemplated by this act shall 
go to the road fund of Leavenworth county." 77 This company's 
ferryboat, the Willie Cade, Capt. Al Cade, owner, is also mentioned 
in Leavenworth Board of Trade proceedings for year 1888, p. 253. 78 
This company's charter expired in 1890. 

Other boats operated by this same company prior to 1866 were 
the David Hill and the Ella. In the spring of 1866 the ferry com- 
pany started work on a new ferryboat, the Edgar, which was built 
by Frank Wheeler. This boat was to replace the old Ella, which 
was withdrawn. The new boat, built on the river bank a short dis- 
tance above Carney's pork house, and launched October 13, 1866, 
was a large and staunch craft, which cost about $20,000, and was 
to be used between the city and City Point (East Leavenworth) on 
the opposite side of the river. 79 

Despite the fact that Shoemaker and his associates had received 
an exclusive charter for twenty years, one Simon P. Yocum was 
operating the Leavenworth steam ferry late in November, 1857. 
Whether Yocum was an associate of Shoemaker is not known. The 
Herald of the 28th of that month noted that the boat continued to 
make regular trips, notwithstanding the river was full of floating 

75. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, p. 792. 

76. Laws, Private, Kansas, 1860, p. 284. 

77. Ibid., 1861, pp. 39, 40. 

78. Manuscripts, archives department, Kansas State Historical Society. 

79. Leavenworth Daily Conservative, July 1, August 18, October 14, 1866. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 21 

ice, and was doing a good business. The boat was described as of 
light draft, capable of carrying a great quantity of stock and several 
wagons at a time, and could make the trip in less than five minutes. 
It was also made clear that there was no time lost waiting for the 
boat. An item in the Herald of December 26 stated that the Leav- 
enworth ferryboat was making regular trips, and that it never 
stopped for floating ice, running until ice closed the river. This 
staunch little craft was christened the Leavenworth City, and was 
mentioned by the Herald in its issue of July 3, 1858, which stated 
that the boat still continued to ply between that city and the Mis- 
souri shore, notwithstanding the high water and immense quantities 
of driftwood. The current was reported as very strong, and the boat 
had hard work bucking it, "but never fails to make the ripple." 

Frank M. Gable, of Leavenworth county, tells of one of Yocum's 
ferries : 

"We crossed the Missouri river on a ferry called the Old Horse boat. This 
was run by a Mr. Yoakum [Yocum?] and the motive power was a pair of 
horses that worked on a treadmill. Ice chunks were floating in the river that 
day, making the crossing very dangerous. Leavenworth did not amount to 
much then, and I think there was only one grocery store in the town. This 
was run by a couple of old German bachelors by the name of Ingrum. I 
believe they were called Fred and Fritz, and were located on the corner where 
Martin Donovan's transfer office now stands." 80 

The Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, February 12, 1859, con- 
tained the following: 

"The following telegraphic dispatch was received by the captain of the 
ferryboat at this point, from our city marshal (now in St. Louis), who is one 
of the owners of the boat : 

"To Capt. HilL- "ST. Louis, Feb. 4 

"Rather than cross Gen. Lane, or any one else in Missouri on an 
unlawful expedition, sink the boat. I. G. LOSEE." 

On February 21, 1865, the Leavenworth Ferry Company was in- 
corporated by Isaac G. Losee, Jasper S. Rice, Amien Warner, David 
Hill and J. M. Orr. 81 The organization had a capital stock of $5,000, 
divided into fifty shares. The ferry was to be located between the 
southern line of the military reservation and a point two miles south 
of the southern line of the city of Leavenworth, departing and land- 
ing at any place between the points named. The charter was filed 
with the secretary of state February 23, 1865. 82 

80. Leavenworth Times, January 13, 1907. 

81. Jasper S. Rice was one of the proprietors of the Planter's House; Amien Warner, a 
carpenter of Leavenworth; David Hill, captain of a ferryboat, and James M. Orr, a resident 
of Leavenworth, 1859. 

82. Corporations, v. 1, p. 21. 



22 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

This company probably ran a boat called the David Hill, named 
for its captain, David Hill, one of the owners. 

A rival ferry, apparently, was operating at Leavenworth in 1859, 
W. S. Reyburn on April 4 paying $60 for a license. Just how long 
this ferry was in existence has not been learned. 83 

On July 16, 1866, the Leavenworth and Missouri Bridge and Ferry 
Company was incorporated, John C. Douglass, 84 A. A. Higinbotham, 
D. W. Eaves, Lucien Scott 85 and S. J. Danah being the promoters. 
The charter, granted without time limit, authorized the building of 
a bridge or the operation of one or more steam ferries across the 
Missouri river, at or near Leavenworth, and on the Missouri side 
in the county of Platte, with principal office at Leavenworth. The 
company had a capital stock of $200,000, and the privilege of in- 
creasing it to $1,000,000. Shares were $10 each. The charter was 
filed with the secretary of state July 18, 1866. 86 

Moving up the river to Fort Leavenworth, we come to the earliest 
ferry in present Leavenworth county, which was inaugurated in 
1829 to meet the needs of Cantonment Leavenworth, established 
by the government in 1828. The following year, 1829, a military 
road was cut out from Fort Leavenworth to Barry, in Clay county 
(Missouri), and Zadoc Martin, a farmer of Clay county, was sta- 
tioned on the east bank of Platte river to keep a government ferry. 
Up to that time the men of Fort Leavenworth had used an old 
mackinaw boat for crossing the Missouri, but "in 1829 the ferry 
at the fort . . . was placed in the hands of Zadoc Martin. He 
was a stout, muscular man, and commanded all about him with 
despotic power." The work at Fort Leavenworth required the em- 
ployment of great numbers of laborers, carpenters and masons, and 
Mr. Martin did a large business at his ferries. The boats for the 
ferries were made of hewed gunwales, and boards sawed by hand. 87 

This ferry at Cantonment Leavenworth was mentioned by Rev. 
John Dunbar as early as 1835, when he was missionary to the 
Pawnees. 88 At that time there was a ferryhouse on the banks of 
the Missouri, opposite Fort Leavenworth. 89 

83. Paxton, Annals of Platte County, Missouri, p. 277. 

84. John C. Douglass, one of the pioneer attorneys and early settlers of Leavenworth, was 
born in Greenfield, Ohio, December 13, 1824. He came to Kansas in 1856 to help make 
Kansas a free state, and took part in many exciting engagements. 

85. Lucien Scott was born in Illinois in 1835. He arrived in Kansas about 1857 and 
that year engaged in the banking business, later becoming president of the Leavenworth First 
National Bank. 

86. Corporations, v. 1. pp. 197-199. 

87. History of Clay and Platte Counties, Missouri, p. 912. 

88. Kansas Historical Collections, v. 14, pp. 592, 595. 

89. Ibid., v. 14, p. 692. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 23 

In 1839 William Hague was granted a license to operate a ferry 
at Fort Leavenworth. 90 

The first ferry above Fort Leavenworth probably ran from a 
point on the Missouri, known as Pensineau's Trading House, across 
the Missouri to a landing point about two miles below present 
Weston and originally known as "Pensano's Landing." This loca- 
tion, about 1840, became the town of Rialto. A ferry known as the 
Rialto ferry was in active operation as early as 1854. On October 
9, 1855, large numbers of Missourians made use of it, coming over 
into Kansas territory to participate in the election of John W. Whit- 
field as delegate to congress. This ferry was running as late as 
1862. 91 

Robert Cain, living on Todd's creek, 92 Platte county, Missouri, 
operated a ferry to Fort Leavenworth in 1836. Mr. Cain, a veteran 
of the War of 1812, went to Missouri in 1819, and to Platte in 1836, 
before the Indian title to the lands was secured. He settled at the 
fine spring at the crossing of Todd's creek, kept the ferry at the fort, 
and opened a large prairie farm. He supplied the garrison with 
provisions and stock, taking the contract to furnish supplies for the 
men and animals, and became a great favorite for his honesty, 
candor and generosity. No other name except that of Zadoc Martin 
is so intimately connected with the early settlement of the Platte 
country. He died September 14, 1868, on his farm in Platte county, 
Missouri, and was buried on his farm. 93 

In October, 1840, John Boulware, of Platte City, contracted with 
Platte county, Missouri, to run a free ferry at the foot of Main 
street for twelve months at $250. He was an early resident of the 
county, took charge of the "Issue House" in 1835, and sold goods 
to the Indians and early settlers. He was appointed a major and 
led a battalion to the Mormon War. For years he was a leader in 
civil and military affairs. 94 This ferry, over Platte river, enabled 
residents of that village to reach Fort Leavenworth, which was 
about nine and one-half miles to the west. 

About four miles above Fort Leavenworth by the river was the 
town of Rialto, Mo., about a mile below its rival, Weston. At 
Rialto July 1, 1844, John B. Wells, 95 a resident of Platte county, 

90. Paxton, Annals of Platte County, Missouri. 

91. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 424; Leavenworth Daily Conservative, Feb. 28, 1862; 
History of Clay and Platte Counties, Missouri, p. 560. 

92. Todd creek heads about nine miles east of East Leavenworth or City Point, and flowa 
in a northeasterly direction into Smith's Fork, a tributary of the Platte river. 

93. Paxton, Annals of Platte County, Missouri, pp. 16, 460. 

94. Ibid., pp. 16, 38. 

95. John B. Wells was born in Kentucky, November 16, 1800, and died near Weston, 
February, 1890. He removed to Marion county, Missouri, in 1833, and to Platte in 1837. 
His name is closely connected with the history of Weston. His steam ferry at Rialto was 
the highway of immigration from 1854 to 1865. Paxton, Annals of Platte County. Missouri f 
pp. 172. 913, 914. 



24 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Missouri, was operating a ferry which at that time was one of the 
few that served as a communication with Fort Leavenworth and 
the Kickapoo Indian settlement to the north. Later Maj. John 
Boulware and his son, William L. Boulware, 96 became associated 
with Mr. Wells in establishing the Rialto steam ferry between 
Rialto, Mo., and Fort Leavenworth, which was said to have been 
the main crossing for immigration in that section up to 1865. 97 

Following the death of his son, Maj. John Boulware apparently 
retired from the firm within a year and Mr. Wells formed a partner- 
ship with a man named Washburn, under the firm name of Wells 
& Washburn. This firm carried an advertisement of their ferry 
in the first number of the Kansas Weekly Herald, of Leavenworth, 
September 15, 1854. It was as follows: 

"To Kansas Immigrants. 

"STEAM FERRYBOAT. The undersigned with pleasure announce to all persons 
immigrating to Kansas, California, Oregon and Salt Lake City, that they have 
purchased a new, safe and commodious steam ferryboat, to ply between 
Weston and Fort Leavenworth. All persons who may wish to cross the Mis- 
souri at this point, may rest assured that every exertion will be extended to 
them to insure a speedy and safe transit across the river. Call and try us. 

"WELLS AND WASHBURN." 

Another mention of this ferry appeared in the Herald of June 7, 
1856, as follows: 

"WESTON STEAM FERRYBOAT. Messrs. Wells & Washburn have just brought 
out a new and splendid steam ferryboat, the best on the Missouri river. Its 
crossings will be one mile below Weston, at Rialto. It was built at Pitts- 
burg [hi, and brought round for this and other places three hundred tons of 
freight, mostly lumber. This boat is called the 'Tom Brierly,' after one of the 
most popular and fast steamboat men on the river. It is 126 feet in length, 
has three boilers, an engine eighteen inches in the clear, with a five-foot stroke, 
and wheels that can knock all creation out of the river, and can make its 
landings in from three to five minutes. The boat is large and roomy, and can 
carry any amount of stock and wagons. Messrs Wells & Washburn deserve 
great credit for getting such a magnificent ferryboat. Success to them. 

"A Good Omen. While lying at St. Louis, a swarm of bees settled on the 
jackstaff of the boat, and Mr. Washburn immediately hived them, and they 
are now at work on the bow of the boat, busily engaged in making honey to 
sweeten the weary traveler on his pilgrimage to Kansas. The boat is bound 
to succeed." 

Messrs. Wells and Washburn had their misfortunes the same as 
other ferrymen on the river. On Thursday afternoon, August 19, 

96. William L. Boulware died August 8, 1853. 

97. Paxton, Annals of Platte County, Missouri, pp. 62, 172, 913, 914; George J. Rems- 
burg, letter to author, August, 1932. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 25 

1858, their boat sank at the landing one mile below Weston. Ac- 
cording to the Leavenworth Herald, of August 21, the boat was to be 
raised soon, and another boat substituted while the other was gotten 
into serviceable shape again. 

According to George J. Remsburg, a former resident of Oak Mills, 
Atchison county, and an authority on early historical matters of 
that county, one John Gardiner, in 1844, established a ferry be- 
tween Weston, Missouri, and Fort Leavenworth. How long this 
ferry was in operation is not known. 

In 1861 the legislature granted authority to James Davis to oper- 
ate a ferry across the Missouri at a point on the west bank opposite 
Kickapoo Island. 98 The act included special privileges for one mile 
above and two miles below said point." This ferry was probably 
located about halfway between Fort Leavenworth military reserva- 
tion and the town of Kickapoo, and was for the convenience of 
Weston and Kickapoo. 

Kickapoo City, seven miles above Weston, Missouri, was one of 
the most important of the early settlements in Leavenworth county, 
dating back to the time of the Kickapoo Indian occupancy. The 
site of the town was rough and broken, and an unnatural one for 
a city, and was almost inaccessible from the back country. The 
town flourished from 1854 to 1856, and was a rival of Leavenworth. 
It began to decline during the latter fifties, and by the latter seven- 
ties contained but two or three houses. In early days mails were 
brought over from Weston, and Kickapoo City for some time was 
quite a distributing point for the postal service. 100 

On March 11, 1839, Isaac Ellis procured a license to operate a 
ferry at Kickapoo. This ferry is shown on Hutawa's Map of the 
Platte Country, Missouri, published in 1842, and was located about 
three and one-half miles above Weston, and almost opposite a vil- 
lage of Kickapoo Indians. Isaac Ellis was later associated with 
the Burnes Bros, and John C. Ellis in the ferry business at this 
point. 101 

98. Kickapoo Island probably received its name after the settlement of Kickapoo Indians 
in that immediate vicinity in the early thirties. The island originally was about two and one- 
half miles long east and west and one and one-fourth miles north and south at the widest 
part, near the west end. A map of Leavenworth county in Evarts' Atlas, dated 1886, showed 
the main channel of the Missouri river flowing to the east of the island. Floods since that 
date have changed the course of the channel to the west of the island, and the island proper 
has apparently become a part of the mainland to the east, but still subject to overflow dur- 
ing high water. The island was situated in townships 7 and 8, range 22 east. 

99. Laws, Private, 1861, pp. 38, 39. 

100. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 459; Atlas of Leavenworth County, 1878, p. 7. 

101. Paxton, Annals of Platte County, Missouri, p. 26. Gatewood, History of Clay and 
Platte Counties, Missouri, p. 572. 



26 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

In 1855 the legislature authorized Burnes Bros. & Co., composed 
of Lewis Burnes, 102 Daniel D. Burnes, James N. Burnes, John C. 
Ellis and Isaac Ellis, to maintain a ferry over the Missouri river 
at a point opposite the town of Kickapoo for a term of fifteen 
years. The act specified they should have a landing on the south 
side of the river upon land owned by the United States and occupied 
and claimed, wholly or in part, by John C. Ellis and the Kickapoo 
Town Association. 103 

The following advertisement regarding this ferry is enlightening 
in that it states that at that time it was the only steam ferry on the 
river from Atchison to far below the mouth of the Kaw: 

"CROSSING AT KICKAPOO CITY. 

"Our safe and commodious steam ferry, and the only steam ferry between 
Atchison and Lexington, just from the ways and thoroughly renovated and 
repaired, is making her regular crossings every half hour at Kickapoo. The 
public may rely upon the most strict punctuality and regularity in her crossing. 
The banks on both sides are good and accessible. The roads from Kickapoo 
City to most points westward are now being much improved. With the rare 
inducements now offered at Kickapoo, it has become the general crossing for 
all the settlements on Stranger, Soldier and Grasshopper creeks. 

"April 12, 1856. 31-tf.N* BURNES, BROTHERS & Co." 

Steam was used on this ferry very shortly after it was established, 
and during the county seat election of Leavenworth county, October 
8, 1856, boats returning from Missouri brought many residents of 
that state over to Kansas to vote. The company must have had 
fairly good patronage, for in 1857 their boat crossed every thirty 
minutes. 105 

In 1860 a charter was granted by the legislature to John Baker 106 
to run a ferry across the Missouri river at the town of Kickapoo for 
a period of five years, he to have exclusive privilege for a distance of 
three miles up and down the river from said town of Kickapoo. 107 

At the bend above Kickapoo City a ferry was operated by William 
Thompson, under a charter granted by the legislature of 1855. This 
was close to the Atchison-Leavenworth boundary line and was the 
most northern ferry in Leavenworth county. 108 

102. Lewis Burnes was from Missouri and in 1865 was 60 years of age. He apparently 
was pretty well-to-do for that day, listing real estate valued at $15,000 and personal prop- 
erty at $5,000. Census, Kansas, 1865. 

103. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, p. 786. 

104. Herald, Leavenworth, April 12, 1856. 

105. Kansas Historical Collections, \. 13, p. 379; Atlas of Leavenworth County, p. 7. 

106. John Baker came to Kansas in the year 1857, settling in Kickapoo township, Leaven- 
worth county. He was a farmer and manufacturer of brooms. Andreas, History of Kansas, 
p. 459. 

107. Laws, Private, Kansas, 1860, p. 283. 

108. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, p. 779. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 27 

Lewis' Point was a location about three miles above Kickapoo 
City and, according to George J. Remsburg, was near present Oak 
Mills, Atchison county. Sheffield Ingalls' History of Atchison also 
gives this location. This was about seven miles below the old town 
of Sumner. Capt. Calvin Lewis had operated a crossing at this 
place, known as Lewis' ferry, and in 1855 secured a charter from 
the territorial legislature granting exclusive rights at this point and 
for one mile up and one mile below for a period of ten years. 109 
This was in all probability the first ferry north of the Leavenworth- 
Atchison county boundary line. This ferry served local needs only 
and apparently did not cut much of a figure in the line of trans- 
portation. 

Nimrod Farley, a well-known character who resided in the Mis- 
souri bottoms, was the proprietor of another early-day ferry, a 
little farther north. Farley owned land on the Kansas side near the 
present Oak Mills, and this furnished him a landing place on the 
west side of the river. He was a brother of Josiah Farley, who laid 
out the town of Farley, in Platte county, Mo., in 1850. Nimrod 
Farley was granted a charter by the legislature of 1855 to operate 
a ferry across the river from a point near latan, Mo., (formerly 
known as Dougherty's landing), to the Kansas side, this privilege 
being for a period of ten years. 110 This ferry was one of a number 
operating on the Missouri during the early days of Kansas, which 
made a specialty of, and did a thriving business in, the transportation 
of Missouri voters to Kansas to participate in the early elections. 
The following advertisement of this ferry appeared in the Western 
Argus, Wyandotte, of March 10, 1855: 

"Election in Kansas The Ferry That Never Stops. A report having gotten 
out that one of our boats had been carried off by the ice, we take the liberty 
of contradicting it. Ours is the only ferry that never stops. We keep two good 
boats, and when one can't run the other can. All who wish to be in Kansas in 
time to vote, go to latan, and you will not be disappointed, for old Nim is 
always ready. (Signed) NIMROD FARLEY and J. G. M. BROWN." 

Farley finally sold out to George McAdow, who continued the 
business until the boat was destroyed by Jayhawkers early in the 
Civil War. 

Charles W. Rust, Atchison county pioneer and a former county 
clerk of that county, now living at San Jose, Cal., in a letter dated 
October 25, 1926, to George J. Remsburg, says: 

"I remember old Nimrod well. He was a neighbor of ours in Missouri and 

109. Ibid., p. 797. 

110. Ibid., p. 776. 



28 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

was known as a doctor. He was about the hardest old sinner the latan 
neighborhood turned out, and did a big business on election day in 1855, when 
the Missourians polled 1,500 in favor of the proslavery candidate at Kickapoo 
precinct." 

In a letter of November 3, 1926, he writes: 

"Old Nimrod was a great old joker. I remember one of his pull-offs was, 
when he met a friend, the first question he would ask was, 'Have you got a 
chew of tobacco?' No matter whether the reply was yes or no, old Nim 
would yank a six-inch plug out of his pocket and say : 'Have a chaw.' " 

(To be Continued in May Quarterly.) 



The Indian Question in Congress 
and in Kansas 

MARVIN H. GARFIELD 

FROM 1864 to 1870 few greater problems confronted congress and 
the executive department than the complex Indian question. 
Both departments of government were torn by conflicting forces, 
one of which demanded that the Indian problem be settled by 
peaceful methods, while the other could see no solution except by 
the use of force. In the executive department the conflict raged be- 
tween two subsidiary divisions, the Department of the Interior and 
the War Department. Administration of Indian affairs was in the 
hands of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Interior Department, 
which had supervision over all Indian superintendents and agents, 
including authority to distribute annuities. Whenever Indian hos- 
tilities broke out, however, the War Department was compelled to 
intervene until they could be put down. As a consequence, the au- 
thority of the two departments overlapped and, therefore, clashed. 
Military programs were constantly interfered with by the Indian 
Bureau with disastrous results both to the military and to the 
frontier settlements. On the other hand, the military people un- 
doubtedly contributed to many unnecessary Indian wars. The War 
Department desired to regain the control over Indian affairs which 
it had exercised prior to 1841. The Indian Bureau, for various 
reasons, both selfish and otherwise, refused to be transferred. 

This interdepartmental war spread into congress where pressure 
was brought to bear by friends of the War Department to bring 
about the proposed transfer. Congress divided on the question. 
Both senate and house hotly debated the proposition at intervals 
over a period of several years, finally allowing the Interior Depart- 
ment to retain the Indian Bureau. In general, the senate favored 
the status quo, while the house constantly passed bills providing for 
changing the location of the bureau. 

Public opinion entered the contest, the East as a rule upholding 
the policy of the Indian Bureau, while the West denounced it in the 
strongest terms. Congressional legislation varied in accordance with 
changing situations, but on the whole it was tempered more by the 
peace party than by the war party. In pursuance of its policy to 
make peace with the Indians, congress in 1867 created a peace com- 
mission which attempted to settle the Indian problem on the plains. 

(29) 



30 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

No serious resistance, however, was offered to the War Department 
when, in 1868-1869, it launched a decisive military campaign against 
the Indians. 

The Indian Bureau in 1865 had attempted to establish harmony 
with the War Department by a division of authority. Comm. D. N. 
Cooley issued a circular to all superintendents and agents announc- 
ing that, in its relation with hostile Indians, the Interior Depart- 
ment would subordinate its actions to the War Department. Agents, 
however, were instructed to perform their regular official duties in 
governing friendly Indians. 1 Had this policy been carried out as 
planned, much trouble might have been avoided. 

The difficulty was that hostile Indians could seldom be distin- 
guished from friendly Indians, due to the fact that the red men 
were alternately warlike and peaceful. Thus in the Hancock war 
of 1867 the military authorities assumed that the Indians were 
hostile, whereas the Indian agents were positive of their friend- 
liness. And Indian Bureau officials were quite critical of Gen. 
W. S. Hancock and branded as a mistake his whole course of action. 
Supt. Thomas Murphy, of the central superintendency, at the time 
expressed a very decided wish that the military authorities would 
leave the management of Indian affairs to the Indian agents. 2 

Again in 1868 trouble arose between the rival departments over 
the distribution of arms and ammunition to the Indians. Interior 
Department officials had authorized Col. W. H. Wyncoop to issue 
the guns and bullets to the eager braves on that fateful August day 
at Fort Larned. 3 Soldiers hired by the War Department were then 
forced to face the Interior Department's guns in the Indian cam- 
paigns which ensued as a result of the Saline-Solomon raids in 
Kansas. 

After years of discord the War and Interior Departments finally 
worked out a cooperative Indian policy. The Commissioner of 
Indian Affairs in 1869 announced that a perfect accord had been 
reached. The Indian policy for the future, as defined in the report, 
provided for the location of Indians upon reservations. Reserva- 
tion Indians were to be entirely under the supervision of the bureau 
of Indian affairs. On the other hand, all Indian bands which re- 
fused to come into their reservations should be subject to control of 
the military authorities and treated as either friendly or hostile 

1. Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1865, p. iv. 

2. Ibid., 1867, p. 292. 

3. Ibid., 1868, p. 68. 



GABFIELD: THE INDIAN QUESTION 31 

according to the situation. 4 Since this policy provided a definite 
basis for dividing the jurisdiction of the rival departments, it did 
much to clarify the situation. 

Congress, in attempting to analyze the Indian problem, created 
in 1865 the Joint Special Committee on the Condition of the Indian 
Tribes. The purpose of the act, as explained by its proponents 
when first introduced as Senate Resolution 89, was to investigate the 
alleged corruption of Indian agents and the alleged causing of un- 
necessary Indian wars by military authorities. 5 The Joint Special 
Committee was authorized to sit during recess of congress and to 
report its findings to congress at its next session. The complete 
report of the committee was published in 1867. Its main decisions 
were: (1) The Indians were rapidly decreasing in numbers, due 
to disease, wars, cruel treatment by the whites, unwise governmental 
policy and steady westward advance of the white man. (2) In a 
large majority of cases Indian wars are caused by aggressions of 
lawless white men. (3) Loss of hunting grounds and destruction of 
game is a big cause for decay. (4) The Indian Bureau should 
remain in the Department of the Interior. (5) In order that 
abuses of Indian administration may be corrected the Indian lands 
should be divided into five inspection districts with a board of in- 
spection in each district. The board would be empowered to check 
up on all questions of Indian administration and report at stated 
intervals to congress. 6 

In order to put the ideas of the committee into legislation, Sen. 
J. R. Doolittle, of Wisconsin, chairman of both the Joint Special 
Committee and the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, intro- 
duced Senate Bill 204, which provided for the annual inspection of 
Indian affairs by five inspection boards, as heretofore mentioned. 
After long debate the bill passed the senate on March 19, 1866, by 
a vote of nineteen to sixteen. 7 The house failed to take action on 
the bill until the following session, when it amended by striking out 
the entire contents of the senate bill and substituting the provision 
that the Indian Bureau should be transferred to the War Depart- 
ment. When the house amendment was returned to the senate for 
concurrence it was decisively defeated. 8 A deadlock ensued, for the 
breaking of which conference committees were appointed from both 

4. Ibid., 1869, p. 5. 

5. Senate debate, 1865, Congressional Globe, 38 Cong., 2 sess., p. 327. 

6. Senate Reports, 39 Cong., 2 sess., No. 156, pp. 1-10. 

7. Senate debate, 1866, Congressional Globe, 39 Cong., 1 sess., p. 1492. 

8. Ibid., 1867, 39 Cong., 2 sess., p. 1720. 



32 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

houses. The joint committee met but failed to agree, so asked to 
be discharged from further consideration of the bill. 9 

The senate attitude throughout this contest was hostile to the 
proposal to transfer the Indian Bureau. During debate on the 
house amendment Senator Doolittle stated that the committee on 
Indian affairs of both senate and house and the Joint Special 
Committee on the Condition of the Indian Tribes were all unanimous 
in their desire to support the original bill, but were all unanimous 
in their desire to defeat the house amendment. 10 

Congress' next attempt to carry out recommendations of the Joint 
Special Committee took place in the special session of the fortieth 
congress in the summer of 1867. The seriousness of the Indian 
situation on the plains at the time was one of the reasons for the 
calling of the special session. With the peace party dominant in 
both houses, legislation was rushed through providing for the cre- 
ation of a peace commission to make treaties with all the hostile 
tribes between the Mississippi and the Rockies. The functions of 
the peace commission, as stated in the act of July 20, 1867, were 
as follows: (1) To restore peace upon the plains. (2) To secure 
as far as possible the frontier settlements and the unimpeded right 
of way for the Pacific railroads. (3) To recommend a permanent 
Indian policy. 

The commission accordingly went to the plains in the autumn of 
1867 and concluded agreements with both the northern and southern 
plains tribes. 11 In its report to congress on January 7, 1868, the 
peace commission recommended the following changes in Indian 
policy: (1) Revision of laws governing relations of the two races. 
(2) Indian affairs should not be transferred to the War Depart- 
ment. A temporary transfer to the War Department of jurisdiction 
over hostiles, however, was suggested. (3) Congress should get 
rid of incompetent Indian officials. (4) A new department of In- 
dian affairs should be created. (5) Territorial governors should 
treat the Indians more fairly. (6) No governor or legislature in 
either state or territory should be permitted to call out and equip 
troops for the purpose of carrying on war with the Indians. (7) 
Traders should all be required to receive permits from Indian 
Bureau officers in order to enter the Indian trade. (8) New pro- 
visions should be made which positively direct the military authori- 

9. Ibid., p. 1923. 

10. Ibid., p. 1712. 

11 For detailed account of these treaties see Marvin H. Garfield, "Defense of the Kansas 
Frontier, 1866-1867," Kansas Historical Quarterly, August, 1932. 



GARFIELD: THE INDIAN QUESTION 33 

ties to remove white persons who persist in trespassing on Indian 
reservations. 12 

Efforts by the enemies of the peace commission to dissolve it 
failed. On the day that congress passed the act creating the com- 
mission, a bill was introduced into the senate for its dissolution. 
The senate killed the bill by referring it to the committee on In- 
dian affairs. 13 Apparently congress was in sympathy with the work 
of the peace commission, because a bill appropriating $150,000 to 
enable it to carry on its work passed in July, 1868, with little op- 
position in either house. 14 

Numerous attempts were made to put through legislation which 
would bring about the transfer of the Indian Bureau to the War De- 
partment. One of the first of these arose in the senate on May 16, 

1866, when Sen. W. M. Stewart, of Nevada, introduced a bill for 
that purpose. It was referred to the committee on Indian affairs 
and promptly lost. 15 Again, in the same year, the proposition was 
submitted to the senate, this time as an amendment to the annual 
Indian appropriation bill by Sen. John Sherman, of Ohio, chairman 
of the senate finance committee and brother of Gen. W. T. Sherman. 
A great debate took place between Sherman and Stewart on the one 
side and Doolittle on the other. In the end Doolittle won out, and 
the Indian Bureau for the time was saved from the transfer. The 
senate rejected Sherman's amendment by a 21 to 12 vote. 16 The 
third and strongest attempt to bring about the transfer occurred in 

1867, when the house of representatives amended Senate Bill 204 
by inserting the well-known provision. 17 This effort was also de- 
feated by friends of the Indian Bureau in the senate. 

Not to be discouraged by reverses the house, in December, 1868, 
made another determined attempt to put across the transfer of the 
bureau. James A. Garfield, of Ohio, chairman of the house mili- 
tary committee, introduced a bill, H. R. 1482, for that purpose. Al- 
though Windom, of Minnesota, a member of the house committee 
on Indian affairs, made a valiant fight against the bill, he was out- 
voted 116 to 33. 18 When, however, the bill reached the senate it 
was killed in the committee on Indian affairs. 19 A final attempt 

12. "Report of the Indian Peace Commission," January 7, 1868, in Report of the Com- 
missioner of Indian Affairs, 1868, pp. 26-50. 

13. Senate debate, 1868, Congressional Globe, 40 Cong., 2 sess., p. 1461. 

14. Ibid., 40 Cone., 2 sess., pp. 3100, 3174, 3175, 3183, 3249, 3271, 3279, 3299, 3731. 

15. Ibid., 1866, 39 Cong., 1 sess., p. 2613. 

16. Ibid., pp. 3506, 3507, 3552-3559. 

17. See previous reference to the house amendment. 

18. House proceedings, 1868, Congressional Globe, 40 Cong., 3 sess., pp. 17-21. 

19. Ibid., Senate debates, 1868-1869, 40 Cong., 3 sess., pp. 40-43, 663. 

36617 



34 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

failed in the house in January, 1869, when Gar-field's effort to amend 
an appropriation bill by adding a section transferring the Indian 
Bureau to the War Department, was ruled out of order. 20 When 
the appropriation bill was sent to the senate for approval, Senator 
Stewart, of Nevada, amended it by adding a clause identical to that 
offered by Garfield in the house. Stewart's amendment was lost by 
a 36 to 9 vote, chiefly because it was regarded as inappropriate at the 
time. 21 

This ended the efforts of the friends of the War Department. It 
is clearly apparent by the debates and votes on these various bills 
that the senate consistently maintained its defense of the Indian 
Bureau. Both houses desired an improvement in Indian relations, 
bureau. Both houses desired an improvement in Indian relations, 
but could not become convinced that the removal of the Indian Bu- 
reau from one department to another would appreciably improve 
the situation. 

From beginning to end of the great contest over Indian policy, 
Kansas remained in the war party. Governor, state legislature, 
press and public opinion united solidly in demanding a change in 
Indian administration. The Kansas delegation in congress, there- 
fore, was compelled to enter the fight on the side of its state. Kan- 
sas was represented in the house during the period by Sidney Clarke, 
of Lawrence, while Sens. S. C. Pomeroy and E. G. Ross were in the 
upper chamber. Sen. J. H. Lane's death in 1866 occurred early in 
the struggle; consequently the chief interest lies in the actions and 
opinions of the other men mentioned. 

Pomeroy, senior senator from Kansas, was the sole member of the 
Kansas delegation who did not share the general views of his state 
on the Indian question. In 1866, when the senate was debating the 
house proposal to amend Senate Bill 204 by transferring the Indian 
Bureau to the War Department, Pomeroy was decidedly opposed to 
the transfer. 22 In the course of his speech on the amendment he 
stated that he was not prepared to turn out the army to exterminate 
the Indians; furthermore he believed that white men precipitated 
most Indian wars. 23 When the house amendment came up for final 
decision, Pomeroy voted against it. 24 

20. Ibid., House proceedings, 1869, 40 Cong., 3 sess., p. 880. 

21. Ibid., Senate debate, 1869, 40 Cong., 3 sess., p. 1378. 

22. See footnote No. 17. 

23. Congressional Globe, Senate debate, 1867, 39 Cong., 2 sess., p. 1624. 

24. Ibid., p. 1720. 



GARFIELD: THE INDIAN QUESTION 35 

In the special session of 1867, when congress was considering Sen- 
ate Bill 136 for the organization of the peace commission, Pomeroy 
again ran counter to public opinion in his own state by favoring the 
creation of the commission. While he believed it to be only a tem- 
porary measure, he thought it was to the interest of the western 
country to secure peace. 25 The following season saw Pomeroy in- 
troducing a bill to transfer the Indian Bureau to the War Depart- 
ment by allowing the Freedman's Bureau to assume the duties of 
the Indian Bureau. 26 It is evident that Pomeroy had either changed 
his mind on the Indian question or that he was trying to please his 
constituency. The latter idea seems to be more plausible. This is 
further carried out by the fact that the Kansas senator in 1869 
voted against Senator Stewart's proposition to transfer the Indian 
Bureau, 27 and earlier in the session introduced a bill to provide for 
the creation of a separate department of Indian affairs. 28 It is most 
probable that Pomeroy's personal opinion was unfavorable to the 
war party, but that his position as a senator from Kansas required 
him constantly to change his stand on the question. 

The attitude of Senator Ross is not so difficult to define. Ross 
was a personal friend of Gov. S. J. Crawford, received his ap- 
pointment to the senate from Crawford, and maintained a fairly 
consistent position as ardent advocate of frontier defense and enemy 
of the Indian Bureau. Ross introduced numerous resolutions of 
the Kansas state legislature into the senate. 29 It was Ross to whom 
Governor Crawford turned on June 29, 1867, after Gen. W. T. Sher- 
man had rejected his offer of volunteer cavalry. 30 Crawford poured 
out his bitter story in its entirety and appealed to Ross to convince 
congress that "there is no such thing as peace with the Indians ex- 
cept by war." 31 In response to this appeal Senator Ross amended 
the peace commission bill by a provision that the army should ac- 
cept the services of mounted volunteers from states and territories 
of the West in order to suppress Indian hostilities. 32 

In defense of his amendment Senator Ross argued that the peace 

25. Ibid., 40 Cong., 1 sess., pp. 708, 709. 

26. Ibid., 1868, 40 Cong., 2 sess., p. 3275. 

27. Ibid., 1869, 40 Cong., 3 sess., p. 1378. 

28. Ibid., 1868, p. 61. 

29. A prominent example was the resolution urging congress to establish a military post 
in northern Kansas between Fort Harker and Fort Kearney, Neb. 

30. Garfield, op. cit. 

31. "Indian Depredations" (Clippings), v. II, pp. 183-186, Kansas State Historical 
Society. 

32. See "Defense of the Kansas Frontier, 1864-1865," in Kansas Historical Quarterly, 
February, 1932, p. 146. 



36 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

commission bill made no provision for frontier defense, that Indian 
depredations were increasing, that Kansas sought merely permission 
to protect herself, that the first duty of the nation was to protect 
the white race, and that war was the only method of bringing about 
peace with the Indian. Ross condemned both the Easterner's view 
of the Indian as a hero and the Westerner's idea that the Indian 
was a devil incarnate. The conflict, he said, was one between civil- 
ization and barbarism and that civilization must win. 33 

Senator Ross assumed a somewhat different position in a speech 
at Lawrence, Kan., on November 5, 1867. Although condemning 
the treaty system in general and the Medicine Lodge treaty in 
particular, he did not advocate making peace by means of war. 
Instead he suggested that the best possible solution for the Indian 
problem was the gradual localization of Indians upon reservations. 
To accomplish this end, the senator stated the government must 
make a reasonable show of force. Military posts, he believed, 
should be increased both in number and size of garrison. In con- 
clusion, he said: 

"After all, it is not so much the manner in which the peace of the plains 
is to be secured, as the fact itself, in which the people of Kansas are most 
interested. What we all most ardently desire is the immunity of our frontiers 
from the disturbances and devastations which have so effectually retarded the 
settlement and development of the West." 34 

Again in 1869 Senator Ross aided in the frontier defense of his 
state. In the autumn of that year Indian depredations were renewed 
in northwestern Kansas. Since the militia had been mustered out, 
Gov. J. M. Harvey became apprehensive for the safety of the set- 
tlers. Senator Ross accordingly was appealed to and secured the 
promise of Sherman that United States troops would be sent to the 
region. 35 

Of the entire Kansas delegation in congress, Representative 
Clarke maintained the most consistent attitude. He never changed 
his position of antagonism toward the peace party. When an Indian 
appropriation bill was before the house, in 1868, Clarke opposed it 
on the grounds that it provided for making appropriations to hostile 
tribes. 36 On March 3, 1868, he introduced a bill, H. R. 854, for the 

33. Speech of the Hon. E. G. Ross in the senate, July 18, 1867, in "Kansas Collected 
Speeches and Pamphlets," v. IX (compiled by the Kansas State Historical Society). 

34. Kansas State Record, Topeka, November 6, 1867. 

35. Senator Ross to Governor Harvey, including letter of Ross to Gen. J. M. Schofield 
dated December 30, 1869, Adjutant General's Correspondence, 1869 (Kansas). 

86. Congressional Globe, House proceedings, 1868, 40 Cong., 2 sess., p. 1424. 



GARFIELD: THE INDIAN QUESTION 37 

dissolution of the peace commission. The bill was referred to the 
committee on Indian affairs but was never acted upon. 37 

In 1869 Clarke agreed heartily with Garfield's efforts to get the 
Indian Bureau into the War Department. He stated in debate that 
public opinion in the West was almost unanimous in favor of the 
proposed transfer. 38 In a lengthy speech in support of Garfield's 
measure Clarke expressed his views plainly. The Indian question, 
he argued, was not a question of philanthropy, nor of laying the 
blame for aggression upon either whites or Indians. It was, how- 
ever, he stated, a question of practical administration, that civiliza- 
tion had come in contact with the Indian, but that civilization would 
march forward in spite of opposition. He, therefore, wanted civil- 
ization aided instead of being hindered by congress. 39 

Although the votes and speeches of the Kansas delegation in con- 
gress are a good indication of the Kansas attitude toward the Indian 
question, a more thorough analysis can be obtained by turning to 
the state itself. Executive and legislative acts, press comments, and 
individual opinions best reflect what Kansas actually thought. 

Previous chapters in this monograph have disclosed the attitude 
of the governors of Kansas toward the entire Indian problem. Gov- 
ernor Crawford, who held the post of chief executive from 1865 to 
1868, inclusive, had very decided opinions, which may be summar- 
ized as follows: (1) Every effort should be expended in defending 
the state from Indians. (2) Indian uprisings should be put down by 
the use of military force. (3) The wild tribes of Indians should be 
conquered and driven from the state. (4) Reservation Indians in 
eastern Kansas should be removed to Indian territory. (5) The 
Indian Bureau should be transferred from the Interior Department 
to the War Department. (6) Indian traders and agents should not 
be allowed to sell arms and ammunition to the Indians. 

Crawford's successor, Governor Harvey, entertained similar ideas. 
In his message to the legislature in 1869 Harvey advocated: The 
transfer of the Indian Bureau to the War Department; that congress 
be urged to indemnify frontier settlers out of Indian annuities ; that 
provision be made for the organization of two regiments of volunteer 
militia for frontier defense. 

The Kansas legislature gave both governors able support in their 
efforts to obtain frontier protection and removal of the Indians. In 

37. Ibid., p. 1631. 

38. Ibid., House procesdings, 1869, 40 Cong., 3 sess., pp. 881, 882. 

39. Ibid., 1868, p. 18. 



38 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

January, 1865, a joint resolution passed both houses requesting the 
War Department to place a sufficient military force in the hands of 
Gen. S. R. Curtis to enable him to give ample protection to the 
Kansas frontier and the Overland and Santa Fe routes. The reso- 
lution also ordered the secretary of state to forward a copy of it 
to the legislatures of the states of Missouri, Iowa, Nevada, and 
California, and to the territories of Nebraska, Colorado, Montana, 
Washington and Utah with the view of inducing the legislatures of 
those states and territories to take similar action. 40 

In February, 1865, the legislature adopted House Concurrent 
Resolution No. 20 which provided that congress be urged immedi- 
ately to order the construction of a telegraph line from Fort Leav- 
enworth to Fort Lyon via Forts Riley, Zarah and Lamed. The 
purpose of the proposed line was to enable United States troops and 
Kansas militia more easily to locate and punish Indian hostiles. 
The resolution further provided that the governor forward copies 
to the President of the United States, the Secretary of War, the 
Secretary of the Interior, and each senator and representative in 
congress. 41 The proposed line was not built. 

In 1867 the Kansas state legislature sent several concurrent reso- 
lutions to congress in an effort to obtain greater frontier security. 
The most prominent of these was a resolution requesting the Kansas 
delegation in congress to urge upon the government the necessity 
of promptly establishing a military post or permanent camp be- 
tween Fort Kearney and Fort Harker. This resolution was tabled 
in the senate on February 15, 1867, thus practically killing it. 42 

Col. J. H. Leavenworth, Indian agent for the Comanche and 
Kiowa tribes, was especially unpopular with the Kansas legisla- 
tors; consequently they petitioned congress for his removal. The 
complete text of the resolution adopted on February 8, 1867, will 
best convey the opinion the legislature held concerning Mr. Leav- 
enworth. 

"WHEREAS, It has come to the knowledge of the legislature of the State of 
Kansas that Col. J. H. Leavenworth, present agent of certain hostile tribes 
of Indians on the western and southwestern frontier of the State of Kansas, 
is wholly incompetent to perform the duties thereof; and whereas the settlers 
on said frontier are in imminent peril of their lives and property through 
said incompetency ; and whereas, unless some competent person be appointed 
in his stead friendly to the whites, with nerve to meet our present wants 

40. House Journal, Kansas state legislature, 1865, p. 105. 

41. Ibid., pp. 338, 339. 

42. Senate Miscellaneous Documents, No. 26, 39 Cong., 2 seas. 



GARFIELD: THE INDIAN QUESTION 39 

and emergency, our citizens will be butchered, as heretofore in detail; 
Therefore, 

Resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring, That the 
said Congress, and especially our delegation therein, be earnestly requested to 
see that said Leavenworth be removed, and a man substituted in his stead 
who will use his best and honest endeavors, while protecting the interests of 
the Indians, to save our citizens from slaughter." 43 

Congress failed to heed this petition, also, so Mr. Leavenworth 
continued in office. 

The legislative session of 1869 not only sent many appeals to 
congress for frontier protection, but passed a large number of state 
laws on the subject. The Kansas delegation in congress was in- 
structed to use its efforts to secure the passage through congress of 
an act to enable the adjustment and payment by the United States 
of claims of Kansas citizens. The claims in question were for 
damages inflicted by Arapahoe, Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Comanche 
Indians in 1864. 44 Another resolution urged congress and the gen- 
eral government to make a speedy appropriation for the relief of 
Kansas citizens who had been victims of Indian depredations from 
1861 to 1866. 45 Both of these resolutions were referred to the com- 
mittee on Indian affairs in the senate but failed to emerge. Congress 
was also memorialized to transfer the Indian Bureau to the War 
Department, Mr. Clarke, of Kansas, presenting to the house of 
representatives the concurrent resolution of the state legislature. 46 

Legislative measures for frontier protection passed during the 
1869 session dealt chiefly with the financing of military expedi- 
tions of 1868. An act was passed providing for the issuance and 
sale of $14,000 in state bonds to defray the expenses incurred by 
the raising of the Nineteenth Kansas cavalry. 47 Another act of 
similar nature provided for the issuance of $75,000 in state bonds 
for payment of all other military indebtedness of 1868. Especial- 
ly did this apply to the expenses of raising and maintaining the 
First frontier battalion. 48 For future protection of the frontier 
the legislature ordered that $100,000 of state bonds be issued and 
sold to provide a state military fund. 49 . 

In the session of 1870 the legislature again sent a memorial to 
congress, the main points of which were an appeal to the govern- 

43. Ibid., No. 34, 39 Cong., 2 sesa. 

44. Ibid., No. 32, 40 Cong., 3 sess. 

45. Ibid., No. 48, 40 Cong., 3 sess. 

46. Congressional Globe, House proceedings, 1869, 40 Cong., 3 *ess., p. 681. 

47. Laws of Kansas, 1869, pp. 46-48. 

48. Ibid., pp. 38-41. 

49. Ibid., pp. 42-44. 



40 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ment to prevent repetition of the Indian outrages on Kansas set- 
tlers and a protest against any reduction of the United States 
army. 50 

In reading through the files of Kansas newspapers for the pe- 
riod one is impressed by the unmistakable attitude of antagonism 
which the press maintained toward the Indian, the Indian traders 
and agents, and the Indian policy of the United States govern- 
ment. Several representative articles chosen from a variety of 
newspapers will indicate what the Kansas papers thought on the 
Indian question. One editor during the Civil War demanded the 
complete extermination of the plains Indians. 51 Others approved 
heartily of Col. John M. Chivington's method of dealing with 
them. 52 In 1866, when Maj. Gen. W. F. Cloud was contemplat- 
ing a campaign against the Indians with Kansas militia, the Junc- 
tion City Union commented in the following way: 

"If the general has any compunctions of conscience in regard to 'playing 
Sand Creek' upon them he had better not start. It is unfortunate for the 
settlements that so many asses have existed as to make such a tremendous 
howl, in the interests of thieving agents, because of Sand Creek whipping. 
Had the effect of that not been spoiled, Indians would have been effectually 
subdued for years." 53 

Following some sarcastic comments about Indians indulging in 
their "little innocent pastime of scalping," another editor made a 
caustic reference to the United States military posts. The posts, 
he declared, were of no protection whatever to travelers or settlers 
and he stated that "the only purpose subserved by these orna- 
mental appendages to the government seems to be the consump- 
tion of poor commissary whiskey." 54 

Epithets applied to the Indians by newspapers were numerous. 
They varied from the slightly sarcastic references to "the noble red 
man" and "Lo, the Poor Indian" to the more emphatic appellations 
of "red devils," "hell hounds," and "sons of the Devil." Even the 
reservation Indians in the eastern part of the state were not ex- 
empt. An amusing yet contemptuous opinion of the Kaw Indians 
is reproduced below: 

"We have not seen the dusky forms of the noble red man of the Kaw 
persuasion about our streets in the last two or three days. Doubtless those 

50. Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 23, Senate Journal, Kansas state legislature, 1870, 
pp. 122-124, 259. 

51. Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, August 25, 1864. 

52. Ibid., December 21, 1865, a reprint from the Denver Rocky Mountain News. 

53. Editorial of August 4, 1866. 

54. Daily Kansas State Record, Topeka, July 23, 1868. 



GARFIELD: THE INDIAN QUESTION 41 

sweet-scented ones that were encamped near here have gone back to their 
reservation. When we consider how efficient they were in 'gobbling up' the 
putrescent animal and vegetable matter about the city, we almost regret 
their departure. 

"Now that these scavengers are gone, our city fathers should look to it 
that some other means be employed to guard the health of our people." 55 

Occasionally a Kansas paper took the part of the Indian. The 
Kansas State Record in 1868 deplored the fact that people persisted 
in getting up rumors of an Indian war when there was no occasion 
for it. The editor admitted that more than half of the Indian out- 
rages were caused in the first place by wrongs done to the Indian 
by the white man. 56 The same editor later in the year denied that 
the majority of Indian wars were caused by the whites. 57 A few 
days subsequent to this, after riding on a train in the company of 
Col. E. W. Wyncoop, Indian agent at Fort Larned, the editor pub- 
lished an article in which he coincided with Wyncoop's views. Wyn- 
coop had said that the military never punished the guilty Indians 
but wreak their vengeance on the innocent; also that every treaty 
made by the United States with the Indians was first broken by 
the whites. 58 

Indian agents received their share of abuse at the hands of the 
press. Colonel Leavenworth, of course, was the principal target at 
which these literary shafts were aimed. A newspaper correspondent 
writing from Fort Harker on July 10, 1867, handed the following 
bouquet to the colonel : 

"... the Indians evidently having either gone North, or to the vicinity 
of Colonel Leavenworth 's headquarters, there to receive those presents that 
tender-hearted functionary has recently obtained from the government for 
distribution among the Lo family. It is the earnest wish of every person in 
this section, so far as I can ascertain, that the Indians immediately after re- 
ceiving their presents from Leavenworth will return the compliment by lift- 
ing his hair." 59 

The Junction City Union in speaking of John Smith, an Indian 
trader, was almost incoherent with rage because the said Smith 
hobnobbed with congressional committees, professed horror at any 
proposal to punish the Indians, yet grew rich by stealing from both 
the government and Indians. The article advised the government 

55. Ibid., June 25, 1868. 

56. Ibid., June 3, 1868. 

57. Ibid., November 22, 1868. 

58. Ibid., November 28, 1868. 

59. Leavenworth Daily Conservative^ July 12, 1867. 



42 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

to get rid of its thieving agents, interpreters and hangers-on if it 
intended to solve the Indian question. 60 

Kansas editors especially resented the attitude of the eastern press 
toward the people of their state. A common accusation of eastern 
newspapers was that the people of Kansas desired an Indian war 
for the sake of the contracts and profits which would accrue to the 
locality in which military expeditions were organized and outfitted. 
This was constantly denied with vehemence by the Kansas press. 61 
When a St. Louis paper, the Missouri Republican, quoted General 
Sherman as saying that parties in Kansas wanted an Indian war, 
the Leavenworth Conservative immediately published a statement 
which not only denied the truth of the accusation but doubted that 
Sherman ever said it. 62 Following the Saline-Solomon raids of 1868 
a Topeka journal expressed the views of Kansas in these words: 

"We hope that Easterners will learn that Kansas citizens are not thieves, 
constantly striving for an Indian war for the purpose of speculation; but that 
the frontier settlers are constantly in the presence of a great danger so long as 
the Indians are permitted to remain in or come into the state." 63 

Kansas in general ridiculed the Easterner's ideas on the Indian 
question. "Maudlin sentimentalists," "Eastern philanthropists," 
"Indian worshippers," and other similar epithets were hurled back 
at those people in the East who advanced solutions for the great 
racial problem. An eastern proposal to withdraw troops from the 
plains in the fall of 1865 was regarded as absurd. 64 Horace Greeley's 
plan for putting the Indian to work raising cattle and sheep on the 
plains was hailed with glee by a quick-witted Kansas editor who 
observed that it was about as practical as going to the moon in a 
balloon. 65 

Whenever the Indian Bureau received mention in a Kansas paper 
it was only in the most scathing terms. The Leavenworth Daily 
Conservative at one time described the "Indian Office" as being 
nothing but a great buying and selling agency which paid tribute to 
barbarism to compensate for damages done to civilization. 66 The 
same paper again alluded to the bureau as a reproach and a disgrace 
to the nation and stated that the country looked upon it as a den of 
robbers. 67 The Conservative had previously adhered to the belief 

60. Issue of August 19, 1865. 

61. Editorial, Leavenworth Daily Conservative, July 27, 1867. 

62. Ibid., May 23, 1867. 

63. Daily Kansas State Record, Topeka, August 23, 1868. 

64. Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, October 20, 1865. 

65. Leavenworth Daily Conservative, February 19, 1867. 

66. Ibid., July 11, 1867. 

67. Ibid., February 13, 1867. 



GARFIELD: THE INDIAN QUESTION 43 

that the Indian Bureau should be transferred to the War Depart- 
ment, but in 1867, when a suggestion had been made in Washington 
to make the bureau an independent department, the Leavenworth 
paper approved. Especially did the Conservative welcome that part 
of the new plan which proposed consigning the wild Indians to the 
War Department while the Indian Department supervised the civil- 
ized tribes. "By all odds let the War Department have the uncivil- 
ized Indians," it shouted. 68 

When the Indian Bureau in 1868 declared that Kansans were 
greatly exaggerating reports of Indian raids the Kansas State 
Record rose in anger and wrathfully retorted: 

"The Indian Bureau will believe nothing till they obtain, through miles of 
red tape a month later, an official report. We only hope that Governor Craw- 
ford will put himself at the head of a band of our western men, follow the 
Indians to their homes, and do his work a la Chivington. If he does he must 
be sure to keep out of the way of United States officials; or, if necessary, fight 
them." 69 

Upon hearing of the senate confirmation of L. V. Bogy as com- 
missioner of Indian affairs the Junction City Union vented its 
opinion of the man. Among other things he was referred to as "one 
of the most skulking and cowardly rebels of all wretches of the class 
who ever cursed Missouri with the evil of their wicked lives." 70 

The Kansas press was especially belligerent toward the peace 
party in congress, who endeavored to settle the Indian troubles by 
treaty instead of by force. The Kansas Daily Tribune advocated 
a short residence upon the plains with the loss of a scalp as a sure 
cure for the romantic ideas which the United States senators and 
congressmen had formed in regard to "the dirty red devils." 71 The 
White Cloud Chief, in reference to Gen. P. E. Connor's destruction 
of an Arapahoe village, feared that Connor would "go overboard" 
since a "sniffling congressional investigating committee will shortly 
be after him to examine into and report upon this fiendish piece of 
barbarism." 72 

While a special session of congress in the summer of 1867 debated 
the question of sending a peace commission to the plains, the news- 
papers in Kansas were ridiculing its efforts. The way to make 
peace, according to one editor, was by notifying the Indians that no 
more treaties would be made and then removing the red men to res- 

68. Ibid., October 15, 1867. 

69. Issue of August 21, 1868. 

70. Issue of March 16, 1867. 

71. Issue of January 26, 1865. 

72. Reprinted in the .Kansas Daily Tribune, October 4, 1865. 



44 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ervations. 73 Throughout the period spent by the peace commission 
in Kansas in 1867, the Leavenworth Conservative printed sarcastic 
articles, most of which applied the term "Full Moon Exercises" to 
the treaty of Medicine Lodge. 

Miscellaneous remarks of Kansas papers are worthy of note. The 
report of the Joint Congressional Committee on the Condition of 
the Indian Tribes was met by a storm of protest. The Atchison 
Daily Free Press thought the report would "wonderfully please the 
worshippers of the noble red man in the East/' but doubted if it 
would find favor with the frontier people who were acquainted with 
the facts in the case. 74 The Junction City Union once went so far 
as to declare that all treaty makers should be killed by Indians. 75 

To sum up the attitude of the newspapers of Kansas toward the 
Indian a representative selection is quoted from one of the leading 
journals: 

"With our routes of travel closed; with our borders beleaguered by thou- 
sands of these merciless devils whose natures are compounded of every essen- 
tial diabolism of hell .... we present to the civilized world a picture of weak- 
ness and vacillation, deliberately sacrificing men and women, one of whose 
lives is worth more than the existence of all the Indians in America." 76 

Lest it be thought that a few newspaper editors were dictating the 
thinking of the people of Kansas, it is well to cite opinions of the 
frontiersmen themselves. Citizens of Marion county first circulated 
a petition for the removal of Colonel Leavenworth. The petition 
was then indorsed by Governor Crawford and sent to the Secretary 
of the Interior. 77 Opinions expressed by the frontiersmen concern- 
ing the Indians and Indian policy, while less polished, were just as 
forceful as those of newspaper editors. The majority of the letters 
sent by frontiersmen to the Kansas governors expressed hatred and 
fear of the Indians, horror at the Indian Bureau's policy of arming 
the red men, and disgust at the peace-treaty making, present-giving 
system employed by the government. 

Another expression of the people's attitude was the resolution 
adopted by the Republican state convention at Topeka on Septem- 
ber 9, 1868: "We demand in the name of our frontier settlers, that 
the uncivilized Indians be driven from the state, and the civilized 
tribes be speedily removed to the Indian country." 78 

73. Leavenworth Daily Conservative, July 19, 1867. 

74. Issue of January 7, 1868. 

75. Issue of August 4, 1866. 

76. Leavenworth Daily Conservative, August 11, 1867. 

77. Correspondence of Kansas Governors, Crawford (Copy Book), p. 45, Archives, Kansas 
State Historical Society. (Petition indorsed on January 31, 1867.) 

78. Wilder, Annalt of Kansat, pp. 483-486. 



County Seat Controversies in 
Southwestern Kansas 

HENRY F. MASON 1 

THE county seat struggles in the southwestern counties of Kansas 
during the later eighties were but a particular phase of the gen- 
eral town-building boom of that period. The peculiar features of 
that singular phenomenon were perhaps more strikingly presented 
in that longitude than farther east. The disproportion between 
anticipation and realization was greater there than elsewhere, not 
because speculative values rose higher, but because they fell fur- 
ther. In other parts of the state the situation was the familiar 
one of an era of abnormal activity, followed by one of correspond- 
ing depression. While improvements were made and public ex- 
penses incurred far in advance of existing needs, the movement 
was, generally speaking, only premature. Conditions were present 
which required only time to justify, perhaps, the wildest predic- 
tions of the most enthusiastic optimist. But in the western end 
of the state the fact was sadly otherwise. The vast tide of im- 
migration which started in 1885 and overflowed the short-grass 
prairies clear to the Colorado border and beyond was the result 
of a belief that every quarter section represented a farm 160 acres 
of as good agricultural land as the sun ever shone upon, sufficiently 
watered by nature's beneficence to produce crops year after year 
with only such an occasional failure as might be looked for even 
in the most favored region. This belief prevailed, notwithstand- 
ing that earlier unsuccessful attempts at settlement seemed to 
teach the contrary in unmistakable terms. It was urged that 
drought was no more to be feared then than it had been a few 
years before in eastern Kansas. It was said that the climate had 
changed, that cultivation of the soil had favored the retention 
of moisture and thereby increased evaporation, which in turn pro- 
moted further precipitation. The expressive epigram of the time 

1. Justice Henry Freeman Mason was born in Racine, Wis., February 17, 1860. He was 
graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1881. In 1886 he came to Kansas and 
opened a law office in Garden City. After serving two years as city attorney he was elected 
county attorney of Finney county in 1889 and served four years. He represented the county 
in the legislatures of 1899 and 1901, serving as chairman of the judiciary committee in the 
latter year. In 1902 he was elected to the supreme court of Kansas and remained in that 
body until his death on May 4, 1927. In 1919 he was awarded the degree of doctor of 
laws by Washburn college. Twenty-sixth Biennial Report. Kansas State Historical Society, 
p. 63. 

[The paper printed here was read a number of years ago by Justice Mason before the 
Saturday Night Club of Topeka, without any thought of publication. It is published 
through the courtesy of Mrs. Henry F. Mason, of Topeka.] 

(45) 



46 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

was "the rain follows the plow." The theory that the general 
enlargement of the crop area in the longitude of eastern Kansas 
had tended gradually to push the eastern boundary of the semi- 
arid belt farther west was at least entitled to serious considera- 
tion. But it was soberly argued that the amount of sod newly 
turned had within a twelve-month produced a revolution of physi- 
cal conditions. This vast plain, that had dried and baked in the 
winds and suns of centuries, had been here and there scratched 
with the plow of the settler, and the idea was not too grotesque 
for general acceptance that this infinitesimal disturbance of its 
surface had worked a miracle worthy of omnipotence. The few 
cattlemen who scoffed at the proposition were discredited as hav- 
ing a manifest interest in discouraging immigration, in order that 
they might continue to range their herds at will over this wide 
expanse of priceless pasture. Schemes for irrigation were frowned 
upon because it was thought that they would tend to frighten 
timid investors by advertising a distrust of the sufficiency of the 
natural rainfall to insure the rewards of husbandry. 

This was the state of public opinion when occasion arose for 
the organization of new counties carved out of the territory to 
which these remarks apply. In a few of them there were towns 
of such size and situation that opposition to their being made 
county seats was so evidently hopeless that their designation as 
such was acquiesced in by common consent. But in most cases 
there was no one town having any apparent advantage in that 
regard over others then existing or that might be established. In 
a considerable number of instances there were no towns what- 
ever, and the field was open to any handful of speculators to 
acquire a site and enter the campaign with a reasonable prospect 
of success. In such circumstances it was natural that there should 
be many and vigorous controversies over the selection of county 
seats, and that the value of the prizes at issue should be greatly 
overestimated. As an illustration of this I recall that C. J. Jones, 
who delighted in the sobriquet of "Buffalo Jones," on being re- 
monstrated with for his recklessness in becoming involved in some 
six or eight of these affairs, justified his course by saying that he 
could afford to lose in all of them but one; that if in any single 
instance the town which he was backing became the county seat 
he and his associates would not only from their profits be able to 
recoup their losses in all their unsuccessful efforts, but would have 
enough left to make them independent for life. 



MASON: COUNTY SEAT CONTROVERSIES 47 

A problem that has received considerable attention and has 
never been satisfactorily solved, is why the men who were engaged 
in these contests, most of whom were of at least average standing 
as citizens, and many of whom in all the ordinary relations of 
life social, political and commercial were of exemplary con- 
duct, were willing to lay aside every conscientious scruple and 
to countenance, if not to indulge in, bribery, intimidation, ballot- 
box stuffing, subornation of perjury, and kindred offenses in sup- 
port of the prospects of the town of their choice. One reason, no 
doubt, was that the belief that large financial interests were in- 
volved tended to soothe the pricks of conscience. Another was 
the development of a spirit of partisanship more violent than that 
engendered by any but the bitterest of political struggles. Another 
was a variation of the adage that the end justifies the means, ex- 
pressed in the aphorism that it is necessary to fight the devil with 
fire, it being said, and doubtless believed, that every villainy re- 
sorted to was merely an offset to the unconscionable devices of 
the opposition. 

There was little in the means adopted to assist nature in secur- 
ing results in these contests that had sufficient novelty to merit 
special attention. The prevalent methods included the importa- 
tion of illegal voters, direct and indirect bribery, stuffing of ballot 
boxes, forging of election returns, and coercion of electors by ac- 
tual or implied threats of violence into voting against their wishes 
or remaining away from the polls. Quasi legal colonization schemes 
were nearly universal. Additions to town sites were platted and 
lots given to so-called actual settlers who would use them as the 
bases of claims of residence until after the election. To provide 
for the immediate needs of these pampered pioneers various de- 
vices were employed. Public improvements, such as the building 
of bridges and roads, were undertaken by county and township 
boards, bonds were issued for such purposes, and the proceeds 
were turned over to the campaign committee for use for the good 
of the cause. A simpler device available to the faction having 
control of the existing county government was to utilize it as a 
warrant factory turning out warrants nominally for legitimate 
claims, such as the employment of attorneys, but really to swell 
the corruption fund. These warrants, illegal and void in them- 
selves, were later transmuted by the alchemy of refunding into 
valid obligations of the municipalities issuing them. To these 
practices is due the fact that many of the southwestern communi- 



48 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ties are burdened with vast indebtedness but have no public build- 
ings, roads, bridges or property of any kind to show for it. 

In Gray county the candidacy of the town of Ingalls for the 
county seat was due to the ambition of A. T. Soule, 2 who had been 
made a millionaire by the advertisement and sale of "Hop Bit- 
ters," to have a county seat of his own as a sort of toy to beguile 
his idle moments. As an aid to his project he built a railroad 
from Dodge City to Montezuma which, for want of anything to 
carry, was afterwards torn up, and the Eureka Irrigating Canal, 
which was a great work of engineering and lacked only one thing 
to make it a glittering success, namely, water. His efforts added 
greatly to the circulating medium and raised the local per capita 
distribution to an abnormal figure. 

In Grant county the Ulysses people established a thoroughly 
business-like system, by which voters were paid at the rate of ten 
dollars apiece as they cast their ballots, the rights of each party to 
the transaction being protected by appropriate checks and counter 
checks. It seemed a perfectly fair method, for under it every one 
received just what he bargained for, but it failed to meet the ap- 
proval of the supreme court and the election was set aside on ac- 
count of it. 

In the mere matter of adding names to the voting lists and putting 
corresponding ballots in the box no great amount of originality 
was ordinarily shown. The election officers usually lacked even 
imagination enough to invent fictitious names, but had recourse to 
old city directories and to the pages of ancient and modern history. 
In one instance, however, a degree of ingenuity in this regard was 
exhibited that is perhaps worthy of mention. The election officers 
carefully prepared a list of all the persons who had at some time 
lived in the vicinity, but had moved away. They wrote their names 
on the poll books as having voted, but in each instance made some 
slight variation, such as the change of an initial. The beauty of 
this method was that if in a contest it was claimed that a given 
name was fictitious, evidence could be produced that its bearer 
was known in the community. If, however, conclusive proof were 
made that the particular person indicated did not vote, then at- 
tention could be called to the fact that the name was not the same. 

A great amount of litigation resulted from these controversies, 
much of it being settled in the supreme court. The disputed ques- 

2. Asa T. Soule of Rochester, N. Y., manufacturer and financier, was brought to Kansas 
by J. W. and G. G. Gilbert. He died in 1893. 



MASON: COUNTY SEAT CONTROVERSIES 49 

tions were for the most part those of fact rather than of law, and 
their decision contributed little to the development of our system 
of jurisprudence. However, in Martin v. Ingham and State v. Mar- 
tin, 38 Kan. 641, growing out of the contests in Grant and Hamilton 
counties, the supreme court for the first time considered the doubt- 
ful, difficult and interesting question of how far the judicial depart- 
ment of the state government might interfere with the executive 
branch, and held that the court had the power in certain cases to 
control the action of the governor, either by mandamus or by in- 
junction, although in particular instances it declined to do so. An- 
other decision by which the literature of the law was enriched was 
that rendered in State v. Commissioners of Seward County, 36 Kan. 
236, where it was held with becoming caution that a secret canvass 
of the vote cast at a county-seat election, made by two members of 
the board of commissioners without notice to the third, or to anyone 
else, held on the open prairie at three o'clock in the morning by 
the light of the moon, without poll books, ballots or tally sheets, 
and without any record being made at the time, was "not only ir- 
regular, but invalid." 

The most picturesque, if not the most effective, of the repre- 
hensible campaign practices referred to was the employment of mer- 
cenaries technically known as "killers." These were the real and 
imitation "bad men" who frequented Dodge City. The purpose in 
enlisting their services was in part, wherever practicable, to overawe 
opposition by the mere terror inspired by their fearsome reputation, 
and in part to have them in readiness for the carrying out of any 
desperate project that might require physical courage and the utter 
disregard of all restraints of the law. They formed a recognized 
part of the machinery of the ordinary county seat fight. They 
commanded good pay, were treated with the greatest deference, and 
fairly lived in clover while the wars lasted. Their presumed value 
was graduated by the nearness of their approach to the conventional 
type of frontier ruffian the "Alkali Ike" of the funny papers. 
While they were all thugs, toughs, and sure-thing gamblers, only a 
few of them had in fact done anything to earn the right to be con- 
sidered dangerous characters. The rest were vain pretenders. Their 
presence was believed to be, and doubtless was, a menace to the 
peace of society, but in fact they did little to earn their wage and, 
generally speaking, their part in the drama was confined to the 
moral effect of their presence the immoral effect, perhaps I should 
say. It is true that one of them, while awaiting orders for active 

46617 



50 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

service, did shoot and kill an inoffensive citizen, and upon the ear- 
lier reports of the affair it was assumed that the tragedy was the 
outcome of an election fight, but it turned out that the killing 
was entirely accidental an unlooked-for and unpreventable casu- 
alty, such as continually occur, which, however regrettable, afforded 
no just ground for impugning the motives of the unfortunate in- 
strument the involuntary agent of an inscrutable Providence. It 
seems that it had been his purpose, animated by a mere exuberance 
of animal spirits, as a matter of pleasantry, to shoot a hole through 
the hat of a bystander a form of practical joke of high repute in 
the cow-boy days. But through no fault of his own probably by 
reason of unsteadiness of nerve occasioned by an inferior quality 
or an excessive quantity of liquor the bullet ranged low and per- 
forated the brain as well as the hat of the victim. In justice to 
the survivor it must be said that he appreciated to the full' -his 
error, regretted its distressing consequences, and made every repara- 
tion in his power by tendering most ample apologies to the friends 
and relatives of the dead man. Of course, this closed the incident. 
What more could William Tell have done had his arrow been 
similarly deflected? 

There were undoubtedly times in the history of each one of these 
controversies when conditions were ripe for physical encounters of 
the most desperate character when a slight disturbance might 
have precipitated a general slaughter. There were times when 
frightful consequences were narrowly averted. Looking back, even 
after the few years that have passed, it is difficult to realize the 
serious character of situations which in retrospect suggest comic 
opera rather than tradgedy. One concrete instance may serve to 
illustrate this. In Grant county the contending towns were Ulysses 
and Appomattox. The former had the advantage of the earlier 
start, the better location and the more abundant "sinews of war." 
As the day of test drew near the confidence of its partisans increased 
and the spirit of doubt was more manifest in the opposing camp. In 
this situation a day or two before the election two of the leading 
supporters of the claims of Appomattox members of the town 
company conferred with the Ulysses managers and entered into a 
written contract by the terms of which it was agreed, among other 
things, first, that neither side should resort to bribery or any other 
wrongful method to influence the result; and second, that upon 
whichever banner victory might perch, the successful town com- 
pany should reimburse its defeated rival for the expenses incurred 



MASON: COUNTY SEAT CONTROVERSIES 51 

in the attempt to build up an opposition town, which should there- 
upon be abandoned, all interests then to unite in the upbuilding of 
the place selected as the county seat. 

Upon its face this agreement was perfectly mutual and entirely 
commendable. Its provisions were not intentionally made public 
by the parties to it, perhaps through fear of misconstruction. But 
in some way knowledge of its substance leaked out at Appomattox 
shortly before the polls closed. In an atmosphere of suspicion and 
distrust which was the usual accompaniment of such controversies, 
it was not strange that the transaction should have been looked 
upon as a selling out of the interests of the town a giving up of 
the fight by the managers in consideration of being themselves pro- 
tected from loss. At all events that was the interpretation that was 
placed upon it by many of the Appomattox boomers. A crowd col- 
lected and the men accused of treachery were taken into custody 
and placed under guard. It soon developed that upon the face of 
the returns Ulysses had received a large majority of the votes cast 
in the county. This intensified the ill feeling already existing. The 
rougher element of the town's population, inflamed alike by the con- 
templation of their real or imagined wrongs and by the indulgence in 
frequent potations, clamored for summary vengeance and proposed 
that the prisoners pay the penalty of their offending with their 
lives. It required the utmost diplomacy on the part of the cooler 
heads to prevent the immediate carrying out of this plan. A variety 
of ingenious expedients were resorted to by them to give rise to 
discussion and so gain delay. Matters remained in this condition 
for over twenty-four hours, during every moment of which the lives 
of the imprisoned men were in imminent peril. As the excitement 
gradually subsided it became possible to consider proposals for ap- 
peasing the wrath of the leaders of the mob. It was finally agreed 
that the captives should be freed upon their making provision for 
the repayment to their captors of the amounts the latter were said to 
have expended in behalf of Appomattox in the course of the cam- 
paign. A schedule of such amounts was accordingly prepared and 
the prisoners, glad of relief upon any terms, drew checks upon their 
home bank for their payment. Money was advanced upon a part of 
the checks by the local bank, the funds were distributed and the 
imprisonment ended. None of the checks were ever paid, but the 
Appomattox bankers recovered judgment for such of them as they 
had cashed. This episode doesn't sound very thrilling in the telling. 
Perhaps this is due to a lack of graphic talent in the narrator. The 



52 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

average reader of the newspaper refuses to become excited over the 
familiar statement accompanying the report of some revolting 
crime that "it is rumored that the perpetrator will be lynched if 
caught." And it may be that in the case mentioned the danger of 
violence was not so great as it seemed. Still, no doubt on this point 
was ever entertained by those who were most directly concerned. 

It was a noticeable feature of the turbulent times under con- 
sideration that the expected catastrophe seldom or never hap- 
pened. In spite of the constant preparation for battle, perhaps 
because of it, the opposing forces seldom or never met in physical 
strife. If human life was ever intentionally taken in the course of 
a struggle for a point directly involved in any effort for the loca- 
tion of a county seat, I do not know of it. The fight at Coronado 
on February 27, 1887, in which three Leoti people were killed and 
several others badly wounded, is usually accounted such a case, 
but I think improperly so. While it was in a sense an outgrowth 
of the ill feeling generated by the rivalry between the opposing 
towns, it bore no direct relation to the issue between them. The 
participants were not struggling to gain any advantage for their 
locality. Of course there are two versions of the affair, and they 
are so absolutely conflicting that it is a hopeless task for one 
having no personal knowledge of its details to form a satisfactory 
judgment as to the real facts. This much is obvious and undis- 
puted at a time when Coronado and Leoti were engaged in a 
campaign preceding the selection of a county seat, and while the 
excitement incident to such a situation was at fever heat, a party 
of the adherents of Leoti went to Coronado, where a battle ensued 
in which three of the visitors were killed outright and others were 
badly wounded. This is the story as told by the Coronado people: 
The Leoti party came to their town for the express purpose of 
causing trouble; they were drunk, quarrelsome and abusive; they 
visited upon inoffensive citizens all manner of indignities; they 
forced them to dance for their amusement, promoting activity in 
the exercise by firing bullets from their revolvers through the floor 
near the feet of the performers. This conduct was borne by the 
residents until endurance was no longer possible, when an effort 
to stop it brought on a general engagement. The record of at 
least one of the men killed Jack Coulter was such as to lend 
plausibility to this tale. He was a cowboy who delighted to be 
known as a desperate character and strove to live up to that repu- 
tation. The local tradition is that his trigger finger continued to 
twitch for half an hour after his death. 



MASON: COUNTY SEAT CONTROVERSIES 53 

Of course, the essential features of the Coronado version were 
denied, but this important fact is beyond dispute if the Leoti 
folk came upon any legitimate errand whatever, it was not one 
having any relation to the county seat matter. Whether the homi- 
cides were felonious, justifiable or excusable, they were not com- 
mitted in any effort to make Coronado the county seat, and were 
only indirectly attributable to the rivalry between the towns. A 
number of arrests were at once made, the militia being called out 
to keep the peace. The defendants waived preliminary examina- 
tion and were placed in charge of the sheriff of Finney county to 
await trial. After a few days their restraint was only nominal. 
In a short time they applied to the supreme court to be let to bail, 
alleging that their waiver of examination had been due to fear of 
violence. Upon a hearing in which the merits of the case were 
pretty thoroughly gone into they were released upon bond. The 
final disposition of the case was somewhat singular. The defend- 
ants asked for a change of venue, upon the ground that a fair trial 
could not be had in Wichita county. Over their protest the case 
was transferred, not to another county of the judicial district, but 
to a county situated in a different district. There they raised an 
objection to being tried outside of the district where the homicide 
was committed, which was held good by the district court and also 
by the supreme court on appeal. This ended that prosecution, and 
the whole matter having then become an old story no further ar- 
rests were made. 

A fatal shooting in Gray county would form an exception to the 
statement made, but for the fact that it was said to be, and prob- 
ably was, entirely accidental, in the sense that the person who fired 
the shot had no purpose to injure the one who was killed. This was 
the only occasion upon which the "Hessians" were called upon to 
perform the peculiar services for which they were supposed to be 
especially employed. The county seat was temporarily at Cimar- 
ron. An Ingalls man had been elected county clerk. It was con- 
ceived to be a brilliant stroke of strategy for him to proceed to Cim- 
arron with sufficient assistance, take forcible possession of the rec- 
ords of his office, and remove them to Ingalls. An expedition was 
organized with this in view. A dray guarded by a select band of 
ruffians was driven into Cimarron and up to the door of the court 
house, where the work of loading up the archives was at once begun. 
Perhaps if any considerable degree of tact had been employed no 
physical resistance would have been made. The hireling assistants 



54 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

had been sworn in as deputy sheriffs and were nominally acting in 
that capacity. Had this pretense of legal procedure been kept up 
it is possible that there would have been an effort to meet it only 
by recourse to the machinery of the law. But the haste and lack 
of ceremony with which the invasion was conducted stamped it as 
a forcible ravishment rather than the peaceful assertion of a lawful 
right. Before the spoliation of the office could be completed the 
citizens of Cimarron had resorted to arms and opened up a lively 
fire upon such of the invaders as were outside of the building, with 
the result that, without stopping even to rescue two members of the 
party who remained inside, the driver whipped up and made a quick 
retreat back to Ingalls. The two thus abandoned took refuge in the 
second story of the court house, where they remained at bay, re- 
sponding by a desultory fire to the fusilade that continued for some 
time from the street. It was in the course of this more or less aim- 
less shooting that a peaceable resident of Cimarron, who was stand- 
ing perhaps a hundred feet from the building, was killed. The two 
prisoners were held in captivity until the next day, their captors in 
the meantime, so it is said, making every effort to compass their 
destruction. Their friends in Dodge City, learning of their desper- 
ate plight, began preparations for a rescue party. But wiser coun- 
sels prevailed and, chiefly through the intervention of residents ol 
Ford county who had the confidence of the leaders of each faction, 
peace was restored. In course of time, after the passions aroused 
by the unfortunate occurrence had measurably subsided, the mem- 
bers of the Ingalls party were brought to trial upon the charge of 
murder, the attorney general conducting the prosecution. The re- 
sult was an acquittal. While, of course, this was unsatisfactory to 
the Cimarron element, it was recognized everywhere that the trial 
had been a fair one, and the result was accepted as final and ac- 
quiesced in with better grace than might reasonably have been ex- 
pected. 

But, although no lives were lost in the collision of the opposing 
forces upon the direct issue of the location of any county seat of 
southwest Kansas, there grew out of the Stevens county contest a 
series of assassinations worthy of a Kentucky feud or a Sicilian 
vendetta. In 1885 practically the first settlement in that county was 
made at Hugoton, and plans were at once formed to make that place 
the county seat. In the preliminary steps that were taken for the 
speedy organization of the county with this in view, there is no 
room for doubt that the grossest fraud was practiced. This, how- 



MASON: COUNTY SEAT CONTROVERSIES 55 

ever, would probably have passed unchallenged but for the arrival 
upon the scene of Sam Wood. 3 He, with his friends, started the 
rival town of Woodsdale, and in its interest began legal proceedings 
to prevent the premature organization of the county. The Hugoton 
people regarded him as an interloper, maliciously seeking to inter- 
fere with what they considered their firmly established vested rights. 

The first sensational incident, which was to be followed by a long 
line of tragedies, was the kidnapping of Wood. To get rid of him 
for the time being, until the pending efforts for effecting a temporary 
county organization could be carried out, the Hugoton supporters 
caused him, in August, 1886, to be arrested upon a warrant charging 
him with libel. Bail was refused and he was placed in the charge 
of several guards and taken out of the state and into what is now 
Beaver county, Oklahoma. To account for his absence it was given 
out that he had been induced by the payment of a sum of money to 
abandon his fight and had gone into the territory on a hunting trip. 
This report was not for a moment credited by his friends. A party 
was organized to search for him. On their way south they found a 
note secretly penciled by Wood and thrown upon the trail. Thus 
assured that they were upon the right track, they increased their 
speed and shortly overtook and surrounded Wood's captors, who 
yielded to superior numbers and surrendered. The tables thus being 
turned Wood organized a triumphal march to Garden City, meta- 
phorically dragging his kidnappers at his chariot wheels. Civil and 
criminal proceedings were begun against the Hugoton leaders upon 
charges of conspiracy but were permitted to slumber and were 
finally dismissed without trial. 

The proceedings brought to prevent the organization of Stevens 
county would probably have been successful but for a counter move- 
ment. In the legislative session of 1887 an act was passed legalizing 
the steps already taken, and the effect of the pending litigation was 
thus evaded. The fight for the county seat then proceeded, Hugoton 
being temporarily successful. The next disturbance grew out of an 
election to vote bonds for a railroad which Woodsdale favored and 
Hugoton opposed. In a meeting held in May, 1888, at a neutral 
point Voorhees for the discussion of this issue, a minor alterca- 
tion took place, in which Sam Robinson, the marshal of Hugoton, 

3. Samuel Newitt Wood was born at Mount Gilead, Ohio, December 30, 1825, and re- 
moved to Kansas in July, 1854. He settled on a claim near Lawrence and immediately be- 
came an acknowledged leader of the free-state party. In 1859 Mr. Wood went to Chase 
county, and was sent to the territorial legislature from there in 1860-1861. In 1861 he was 
a member of the first state senate, and was four times a member of the state legislature. 
Mr. Wood established the first newspapers at Cottonwood Falls and Council Grove, and two 
newspapers in Woodsdale. He was killed on June 23, 1891. 



56 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

assuming to act as a peace officer, struck the under sheriff with his 
revolver. Nothing more serious took place at the time, but within 
a few days a warrant was issued against Robinson, charging him 
with assault and battery, and placed in the hands of Ed Short, the 
marshal of Woodsdale, and a constable as well. Short proceeded to 
Hugoton where he seems to have attempted to arrest Robinson. At 
any rate, the two men engaged in a gun fight in which each emptied 
his revolver without injury to either. 

The railroad bond election had in the meantime been held, but the 
vote had not been canvassed. There was a dispute as to the regu- 
larity of the returns in one precinct, and it was felt that a conflict 
could hardly be averted at the time of the canvass unless protection 
should be afforded from the outside. The sheriff wired Gov. John A. 
Martin asking that militia be sent to preserve the peace. Brig. Gen. 
Murray Myers was at once sent to the scene of hostilities to examine 
and report. He found each town a fortified camp, the inhabitants 
fully aroused and ready and willing for a general engagement. Be- 
lieving that bloodshed was imminent he brought on two companies 
of militia and disarmed the belligerent forces. The canvass of the 
election returns having been completed, the excitement having sub- 
sided, and the intended arrest and prosecution of Robinson having 
apparently been abandoned, the militia was withdrawn, having been 
in camp from June 19 to June 24. In writing to Sam Wood as 
mayor of Woodsdale, General Myers took occasion to comment upon 
the unwisdom of the placing of the warrant for Robinson in the 
hands of Short. 

A month passed by without fresh incident and it might well have 
been supposed that there was no danger of further trouble. But on 
July 22 Short was at Voorhees and there learned that Robinson was 
with a picnic party in the neutral strip. Returning to W T oodsdale he 
procured the assistance of several friends and started in pursuit of 
him. The two parties came together, but Robinson mounted a race 
horse and made a temporary escape. Short and his companions 
followed and succeeded in surrounding Robinson, but feeling the 
need of more help in effecting his capture sent to Woodsdale for 
reinforcements. [John M.] Cross, the sheriff, with four others, re- 
sponded to the call and started in search of Short but, not finding 
him, stopped for the night at a haymaker's camp near W T ild Horse 
Lake, a depression in the prairie in which storm waters gathered. 
In the meantime, Robinson's friends had reached Hugoton, organ- 
ized a rescue party, and returned to the strip in quest of him. He, 



MASON: COUNTY SEAT CONTROVERSIES 57 

having escaped the vigilance of Short, met and joined the rescuers. 
Shortly afterwards they came upon the camp where Sheriff Cross 
and his men were asleep. Then ensued what came to be known as 
the Haymeadow Massacre, in which four of the Cross party were 
killed and the fifth wounded and left for dead. According to the 
Hugoton account, this was the result of a running fight, but by the 
report of Herbert Tonney, the one member of the Woodsdale party 
who survived, which was corroborated by the haymakers and seem- 
ingly by all the known circumstances, the victims were taken by 
surprise, captured, and shot down in cold blood. Nothing can be 
said in extenuation of the act, yet it is but fair to add that the mur- 
dered men were not clean handed. The encounter was primarily of 
their own seeking, and in that sense they were the aggressors. They 
had followed Robinson into the neutral strip with the unlawful 
purpose of kidnapping him, for obviously the warrant in the hands 
of Short conferred no authority to make an arrest outside of the 
state. Moreover, apart from any technical consideration, the effort 
to follow up the prosecution of Robinson lacked the appearance of 
good faith, for if the interests of society were thought to require it, 
the time to have undertaken it was while the militia were still on 
the ground and the power of the state could have been had in sup- 
port of any laudable endeavor to enforce the law. 

The militia was again called out and the community practically 
placed under martial law. Arrests were made and then the re- 
markable fact was developed that apparently no court had juris- 
diction of the crime. The territory within which it was committed, 
popularly known as "No Man's Land," had seemingly been over- 
looked in providing for the administration of justice in the federal 
courts. Colonel Wood charged himself with the duty of bringing 
the assassins of his associates to trial. He devised a reasonable 
theory for finding jurisdiction in one of the federal courts of Texas. 
It was not necessary to test that theory, for congress by new leg- 
islation placed the jurisdiction there. In time a trial was had, 
ending in a conviction. This result was due in a large degree to 
the persistence and energy of Wood, acting as a voluntary as- 
sistant to the prosecuting office. Upon review the jurisdiction of 
the trial court was upheld, but a reversal was ordered by reason 
of a manifest error which can only be accounted for by supposing 
that the judgment of the attorneys in charge of the prosecution 
was clouded by their zeal. At the time of the homicide the then 



58 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

attorney general of the state, S. B. Bradford, 4 made a personal 
investigation of its circumstances, visiting for that purpose Stevens 
county and the haymeadow camp, and getting all the information 
possible at first hand. He made a written report of his conclusions 
to the governor in which he expressed the unqualified opinion that 
the killing was a deliberate murder. Mr. Bradford's term of of- 
fice having expired, he was retained to assist in the defense. He 
was not called as a witness by the defendants, having indeed no 
such personal knowledge of the facts as to make him competent 
to testify. But the prosecution called him for the government and 
asked him if he had not made such an investigation and report as 
those just described. He replied that he had, but that the report 
was based upon hearsay evidence which he later discredited. Upon 
this obviously insufficient foundation the prosecution introduced 
in evidence the report to the governor made by Bradford as at- 
torney general. Upon the hearing in the supreme court it was con- 
fessed that this proceeding was error requiring a reversal and a 
new trial was ordered. The attorney general of the United States 
became convinced that the district attorney had at least lacked 
discretion in the conduct of the case that he had given too much 
leeway to Colonel Wood in its management, and he was on that 
account removed. Energetic and finally successful efforts were 
then made to have the prosecution discontinued, and so far as 
the courts were concerned the matter ended there. 

The next personage to become involved in the imbroglio was 
Theodosius Botkin. 5 In 1889 six counties in the southwest corner 
of the state, into only one of which a railroad ran, were erected into 
a judicial district. Gov. [Lyman U.] Humphrey appointed Botkin 
judge on the score of old personal friendship, in spite of protests 
made on the ground of his well-known tendency to over indulgence 
in drink. His election followed in the same year, Sam Wood being 
one of his supporters. Botkin had been concerned in the county- 
seat contest in the neighboring county of Seward, but was not di- 
rectly involved in the Stevens county trouble. His unpleasant re- 

4. Simeon Briggs Bradford was long prominent in Kansas politics. In 1875 he repre- 
sented Osage county in the legislature and in 1880 was elected county attorney of Osage 
county. He was elected attorney-general of the state in 1884 and was reflected in 1886. In 
1898 he became a United States commissioner in the Indian territory. He died at Ardmore, 
I. T., April 2, 1902. 

5. Theodosius Botkin was born in Clarke county, Ohio, June 25, 1846. In 1865 he came 
to Kansas, settling in Linn county. He was admitted to the bar in 1875 and served as 
probate judge of the county and police judge of Mound City. He was appointed judge of 
the thirty-second district in March, 1889, and removed to Stevens county. He resigned this 
judgeship October 11, 1892, and settled in Hutchinson. Reno county elected him to the state 
legislature in 1896. In 1901 he moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. He was serving as U. S. 
consul at Campbellton, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, when he died, May 27, 1918. 



MASON: COUNTY SEAT CONTROVERSIES 59 

lations with Wood began in 1890, either through Botkin's candidacy 
for congress or through a disagreement in court, or through both of 
these matters. Botkin was intolerant of opposition. Wood was, in 
a way, rather easy-going but would fight and fight hard in self de- 
fense. The character of the men was such that it was inevitable 
that the feeling between them should become intensely bitter. Bot- 
kin was a man of much native ability and good education. He was 
a lawyer of no little strength. He understood legal principles and 
knew how to apply them. Granting that he was not corrupt, and 
even leaving out of account the fact that he was a drunkard and a 
gambler, his administration of the judicial office was foredoomed to 
failure. He was by temperament a partisan. He could scarcely 
witness a dog fight without taking sides. He could not hear the 
most ordinary law suit, even if disinterested at the start, without 
becoming biased upon one side or the other. And as in each of the 
counties composing his district the county seat controversies had 
left bitter animosities, he straightway become involved in factional 
quarrels. 

Next to his instinct of partisanship Botkin's most unfortunate 
characteristic was the extent to which he carried the doctrine of 
judicial notice. The accepted formula is that courts will take 
cognizance without proof of whatever is a matter of common knowl- 
edge. Judge Botkin did not stop at this. He took notice not only 
of all that was publicly known but of much that was only privately 
suspected. If he failed to take official cognizance of everything that 
occurred in his district the omission was more than compensated for 
his taking judicial notice of much that never did occur. He was 
continually making orders based upon what he himself stated to 
be vague rumors. Upon such information he would order the 
county attorney to institute prosecutions, arraign offenders before 
himself to answer as for contempt, disbar attorneys, and imprison 
citizens for what amounted to lese majesty. The newspaper man 
who ventured any criticism of his conduct, on or off the bench, was 
likely to be haled before him to answer for his temerity in a sum- 
mary proceeding peculiar to that jurisdiction a curious blend of 
court martial, examination for contempt, and prosecution for crim- 
inal libel. The lawyer who with reasonable vigor tried a case be- 
fore him for a client with whom the judge was out of sympathy 
was deemed to have achieved a triumph of forensic skill and diplo- 
macy if he escaped being committed to the county jail. 

Naturally enough Botkin soon reduced his district, already suf- 



60 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ficiently distracted by the tumultuous confusions of local war, to a 
state of anarchy. Yet, strange to say, he attracted adherents even 
among some of the most respectable residents. In every community 
there was a sharp division into factions. But this division was no 
longer along county seat lines. It was into Botkin and anti-Botkin 
parties. Sam Wood gradually came to be regarded as the anti- 
Botkin leader, and against him were directed all the influences con- 
trolled by Botkin. Attempts were made to arrest him at Topeka 
upon charges lacking in any reasonable pretense of good faith but, 
as Wood no doubt conscientiously and not unreasonably believed, 
for the purpose of taking him among his enemies with a view to his 
assassination. Then came the session of the legislature of 1891, 
Wood being officially clerk of the judiciary committee of the house 
and actually the ruling spirit of that body, the majority of which 
were populists, as he was. Botkin was impeached, and the impeach- 
ment was tried by a senate all members of which, save two, were 
Republicans. Although a majority voted for conviction, the require- 
ment of a two-thirds vote to convict caused a failure of the prosecu- 
tion. Botkin was acquitted but not vindicated. 

Aside from the general accusations of drunkenness and petty 
tyranny, the principal charge against him was based upon his con- 
duct with reference to the finances of the city of Springfield. Bonds 
of that municipality had been issued for the construction of water 
works. The bonds had been sold and the proceeds partially ex- 
pended for that purpose. Disputes arose with reference to the 
validity of a part of the proceedings in relation to the matter. In 
March, 1890, Judge Botkin made a written order reciting that com- 
plaints of the conduct of the city council had come to his notice, 
and that it had been represented to him that the county attorney 
had refused to institute proceedings against them and requiring 
that officer to do so at once or to show cause why his office should 
not be declared vacant and he himself be attached for contempt. 
Shortly after this the county attorney began an action to enjoin the 
city officers from recognizing in any way the validity of the bonds 
referred to. A temporary injunction was allowed. The city at the 
time had on hand cash to the amount of about $7,500. According 
to his own statement, Judge Botkin, having heard street talk to the 
effect that his injunction might be disregarded, feared that this sum 
would be improperly expended if vigorous measures were not taken 
to prevent. He, therefore, upon his own motion made an order in 
the pending action appointing a receiver to take charge of this fund. 



MASON: COUNTY SEAT CONTROVERSIES 61 

A few weeks later the action was dismissed, "with prejudice," and 
the receiver was discharged, having in the meantime paid out with 
the approval of the court over $5,250 for attorneys' fees for which 
no visible services had been rendered either to the city or to the re- 
ceiver. Such a transaction was obviously incapable of palliation or 
excuse, but a number of senators justified their votes against con- 
viction by attributing it to bad judgment, free from any wrongful 
motive. Comment would be superfluous. 

During the session of the legislature Wood had been arrested upon 
a charge of bribery and had given bond for his appearance at the 
term of court in Stevens county, which began June 23, 1891. About 
the middle of the forenoon of that day Wood, accompanied by his 
wife and a Mrs. Carpenter, drove into Hugoton and to the door of a 
church where Judge Botkin was holding court. An adjournment was 
taken until two o'clock just before Wood reached the building. 
Wood entered it for the purpose of examining some records. While 
he was inside the judge and most of the court attendants left. Jim 
Brennan walked out at the front door and stood waiting until Wood 
came out, when he pulled a revolver and shot him in the back. 
Wood started to run around the corner of the building. Brennan 
followed him and shot him again in the back. All this was in the 
presence of Mrs. Wood and Mrs. Carpenter. A crowd gathered 
quickly. Wood was carried into the church, where he died in a short 
time. Brennan had been a witness for the defendants in the trial 
of the haymeadow murderers, and his evidence had been sharply 
criticised by Wood in his argument to the jury in that case. This 
was given out as the occasion for the assassination. Personal en- 
mity doubtless had a place in inspiring this atrocious murder, but 
there were many circumstances that tended to lend probability to 
the theory, which was generally accepted by Wood's friends, that it 
was the result of a wide-spread conspiracy to which Botkin was 
actively or passively a party. Brennan was taken into custody, but 
only a half-hearted attempt was made to prosecute him. It was 
realized that it was impossible to find a sufficient number of qualified 
jurymen for the trial of the case in Stevens county. Only a few 
hundred men were eligible for jury service there and these, almost 
without exception, had been identified with one or the other of the 
contending factions. But had the fact been otherwise, had the 
county had a dense population of disinterested and dispassionate 
citizens, the very publicity of the butchery would still, under the 
curious application sometimes made of the law in this state, have 



62 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

disqualified all of them that had sufficient intelligence to form an 
opinion. After one or two futile attempts at a trial Brennan was 
discharged. 

In 1911 another effort was made to bring him to trial, the increase 
in the population of Stevens county by immigration seeming to justify 
a belief that a qualified jury could be obtained there. He was 
arrested upon extradition papers in Oklahoma, but was released on 
habeas corpus upon the ground that having submitted himself to 
the process of the Kansas courts and been discharged he was not a 
fugitive from justice. The soundness of the decision is open to 
question, but it is not without support in the authorities. 

The miscarriage of justice resulting from a failure to procure a 
jury naturally added to the popular distrust of the machinery of 
the law. It was believed by a large proportion, if not by the ma- 
jority, of the people of the six counties composing the district that 
the judge was capable of every crime in the calendar and guilty of 
most of them, and that he was supported in his iniquity by the state 
administration. It had been seen that murder could be done in his 
district, almost in his presence, with impunity if not with judicial 
sanction. A reign of terror followed. No man felt his life or his 
property to be safe. No man dared appeal to the law for the 
protection of either. Just what plots and counter-plots were formed 
will probably be left to a later generation to discover. Rumors 
were rife of oath-bound bands leagued for the destruction of Bot- 
kin. In December, 1891, word was brought to him of a definite plan 
to kill him while on his way to hold court at Springfield in the fol- 
lowing month. It came through one who professed to have taken 
part in the deliberation of the plotters. It received scant cre- 
dence, partly because many similar reports had proved unfounded, 
partly because of the emotional character of the informer. Never- 
theless, it undoubtedly resulted in saving Botkin's life. On the 5th 
of January, 1892, court was to be opened at Springfield. The judge 
lived some three miles south of the town. By reason of the warn- 
ing mentioned the sheriff with a posse was sent to reconnoiter the 
route thither just about daybreak. From a ravine lying near the 
road the party was fired upon and Sheriff [Sam] Dunn was killed. 
The killing was not through mistake. Although it is beyond doubt 
that Botkin was the victim primarily sought, Dunn himself was ex- 
tremely obnoxious to the anti-Botkin element and was unquestion- 
ably slain on that account. Other members of the party could 
easily have been killed or captured, but were permitted to escape. 



MASON: COUNTY SEAT CONTROVERSIES 63 

Botkin immediately turned his residence into a military camp. 
Pickets were thrown out, arms accumulated and a state of siege 
was established. All persons approaching were halted, examined 
and, if it was thought advisable, searched. None was permitted 
to pass the outposts except after giving a satisfactory account of 
himself and his errand. Botkin wired the governor for assistance. 
Militia was promptly sent to his relief. He cursed the authorities 
for sending him soldiers instead of merely furnishing him with guns. 
His conduct for a few days led those who saw him to entertain the 
gravest doubts of his sanity. His words and actions were hysterical. 
Yet there was method in his madness. After the presence of the 
militia had apparently restored peace and removed the fear of fur- 
ther violence, the officer in command suggested that as he was 
there for the purpose of protecting the court, and as the protection 
offered was ample, there was no reason why the business of the 
term should not be proceeded with. But Botkin stubbornly refused 
to open court and as stubbornly declined to give any reason for 
delay. The reason which he afterwards assigned was this a con- 
test was pending for the office of sheriff; the candidate favored by 
Botkin was the contestor, his opponent having received the certifi- 
cate of election; but it was understood that a decision was shortly 
to be rendered and that it would be in his favor. Judge Botkin's 
purpose in postponing from day to day the opening of court, as ex- 
pressed to his friends, was in order to give his candidate time to 
get from the contest court a certificate of election in order that he 
might be in a situation to proclaim the opening of the district court 
and thereby obtain the benefit incident to being recognized as the 
de facto sheriff. 

Arrests were made of men supposed to have taken part in the 
killing of Dunn, but the impossibility of obtaining a jury led to the 
discontinuance of the proceedings. There are men still living in the 
vicinity who avow personal knowledge that the purpose of the 
ambuscade was to take the life of Botkin, who justify such purpose, 
and are at little pains to deny their own participation in it. Botkin 
came to Topeka shortly after the new homicide and, realizing that 
he was generally felt to be in a large degree responsible for this and 
other recent troubles, issued a formal statement justifying his acts, 
which bore a distinct family resemblance to the traditional defense 
made by Jim Lane to the charge of the murder of Jenkins. The 
statement in type occupied two newspaper columns and was little 



64 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

more than a labored attempt to prove that the widow of Sam Wood 
was with the party that killed Dunn. 

Whether through fear of a more successful attempt upon his life, 
or by reason of pressure brought by his friends, Botkin concluded 
to resign, delaying only until thirty days before election, in order 
that his successor might hold for a year by appointment instead of 
only until the next general election. He removed to Hutchinson and 
was a member of the Kansas house of representatives in the session 
of 1897. He seems to have been regarded by his colleagues in that 
body as an elderly gentleman of mild manners and inoffensive dis- 
position. How far the continuance of the condition of strife, dis- 
order and crime throughout the district, which originated in the 
county seat quarrels, was due to his personal influence can be judged 
from this from the hour of his retirement there has been no more 
peaceable and law-abiding community in the state of Kansas or out 
of it, than that of the old thirty-second district. There and in the 
neighboring counties the passions excited in those troublous times 
have passed away. There may still linger here and there traces of 
the suspicion and hatred then engendered, but they are not obtruded. 
The effect of the debauchery of the public conscience then accom- 
plished may not have wholly disappeared, but its display is rare. 

The era of turbulent strife ended as suddenly as it began. Where 
the subsidence of the struggle found the county seat located other- 
wise than in its natural place a change was later effected practically 
without opposition. In Hamilton county at one time Coolidge, 
Kendall and Syracuse each claimed to be the county seat, and each 
maintained a full set of county officers and assumed to transact the 
county business. One who wished to pay taxes, or to begin a law 
suit, had to guess at his peril which was the de jure or the de facto 
government. Syracuse, the central town, was obviously the only 
place where the public would have been satisfied to have the county 
seat permanently established, and there it was finally placed. In 
Kearny county while the fever was raging Hartland succeeded in 
winning the coveted prize from Lakin; but after conditions had 
reverted to the normal a change was made by an overwhelming vote. 
In Gray county Soule's money ravished the county seat for Ingalls. 
In their haste to get it back the Cimarron people proceeded without 
a strict regard for the legal requirements and omitted some of the 
conditions precedent to a valid election. Nevertheless an election 
was held and the records and offices were transferred in accordance 
with the vote cast. The Ingalls contingent carried the matter to the 



MASON: COUNTY SEAT CONTROVERSIES 65 

district court but were denied relief. On appeal the decision was 
reversed, but in the meantime interest in the matter had become so 
lax that no one ever undertook to follow it up, and Cimarron has 
ever since remained the de facto county seat by mere common con- 
sent, although de jure the title is doubtless still in Ingalls. In Seward 
county Springfield won in the bitter fight there waged, but when 
Liberal, from its position on the railroad, became the business center 
of the county it was soon naturally and inevitably made the center 
of government as well. 

It is said that assassination never changed the course of history. 
It did not do so in this case. Probably no single county seat in any 
of the counties in the region referred to is now in a different place 
from what it would have been had there been no boom, no frenzy 
of town building, no controversy, no bribery, no frauds, no murder. 
The losses of life and property incurred in the effort to influence 
such locations were net. No tangible beneficial results to any one 
remain to be placed against them. The outrages upon humanity 
and decency were ineffectual, and this is fortunate, for it makes it 
easier to regard the whole disgraceful episode as the hideous night- 
mare that it was and to speed it on its way to oblivion. 



56617 



The Grass Wigwam at Wichita 

BLISS ISELT 

ON AN inaccessible island in the Little Arkansas river at Wichita 
stands a conical, grass-thatched wigwam which, if situated in 
a state that knows the value of advertising its points of historical 
interest would attract many Kansans every year. Think of the 
thousands upon thousands of picture post-cards which Kansas 
visitors to other states send back home of such scenes as Plymouth 
Rock, Molly Pitcher's Spring, Indian dwellings in New Mexico, 
Arizona or California. 

The Indian wigwam in Wichita is no less interesting than are 
those of Utah and, situated as it is on an island with trees, could 
be made very attractive. Historically it is of value because in such 
a lodge dwelt the farmers of the Arkansas valley before the first 
Spaniard or Frenchman came to the plains. Since no Indians other 
than the Wichitas built exactly that type of lodge it is a rare 
structure, there being only four or five remaining on the Wichita 
lands near Anadarko, Okla. 

The manner in which the Indians constructed the wigwam in 
Wichita and their reason for building it show evidence of a deep 
religious feeling and of a natural generosity little known. 

The lodge came into existence as the result of a visit to the Indians 
in June, 1924, by a group of Wichita citizens consisting of Col. 
S. S. Carter, president of the Wichita Booster Club; William C. 
Peacock, an old-time plainsman and scout who is adept in the 
Indian sign language; Glen Douglas, one of F. W. Hockaday's 
highway sign men; and myself. I was then a reporter for the 
Wichita Beacon. At the suggestion of Peacock, who knew Indian 
character well, we obtained a commission from Mayor Frank L. 
Dunn, appointing us as ambassadors from the white city of Wichita 
to the red brothers living on the banks of the Washita. 

When this letter was read and translated to an assemblage of 
Indians on the agency grounds near Anadarko, the old men, who 
remembered Wichita as a village of grass houses, took us to their 
homes, where they inquired about the town as it now appears. 
Everything was done to show their appreciation of our friendly 
visit. The aged chief Kiowa, who won his name in a war when he 
single-handed brought in a captive Kiowa chief, took us inside his 
grass lodge, where we were allowed to sit and look around while 

(66) 



ISELY: GRASS WIGWAM AT WICHITA 67 

he visited a long time with Peacock in the sign language. He and 
Peacock had been scouts together in the Indian campaign of 1874, 
at which time the Wichitas fought on the side of the whites. Their 
visit over, I chanced to remark to Peacock my surprise at the excel- 
lence of the construction of Chief Kiowa's wigwam, which had been 
standing for almost sixty years and appeared to be good for sixty 
years more. Peacock repeated my remarks in sign talk. Where- 
upon the old chief answered: "If you like it, you shall have one." 

Several weeks later Mayor Dunn received a letter from the 
Wichita Indian council, offering to come to Wichita and construct 
a lodge. Mayor Dunn appointed Colonel Carter as chairman of a 
committee to make arrangements. I was secretary. We soon 
learned that we would have to pay the expense of the building, 
not because the Wichitas wanted to make a profit, but because they 
were too poor to buy the materials, pay for transportation of them- 
selves and material to Wichita, and feed themselves during the ten 
days necessary for the construction. In the first place, they speci- 
fied that the piers of the lodge would have to be of cedar, and they 
no longer had cedar on their lands. It had to be specially selected 
cedar. Nothing shoddy was to go into the construction. 

The committee obtained consent from the park board for con- 
struction of the lodge on Mead island, an undeveloped wooded 
tract of three acres belonging to the Wichita park system. It was 
Colonel Carter's plan to surround the lodge with an Indian garden, 
and he adopted a suggestion of Elmer T. Peterson, then editor of 
the Beacon, now editor of Better Homes and Gardens, that the 
lodge be roofed over with a glass house to insure its preservation 
for posterity, when it would become more valuable than ever. 
Colonel Carter also planned an Indian museum, where the curios 
of the plains tribes might be preserved. 

Unfortunately Colonel Carter died before the lodge was built, 
and it would not have been completed had it not been for Mrs. 
Fern Mead Jordan, widow of the pioneer for whom Mead island 
is named. When the lodge was completed and a deficit remained, 
she paid it out of her own pocket. 

The Indians arrived late in May, 1927, headed by Sooka, a 
woman, who, as a girl, had swung in the grape vines in what is 
now Riverside Park, not far from where the lodge now stands. 

Among the Wichitas, as among most Indians, the home belongs 
to the woman. In case of divorce she throws the man's things out of 
the lodge and she remains. Consequently, the women are the build- 



68 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ers. Men accompanied the women as escorts and as assistants in 
building, for among the modern Wichitas men work on the farms 
and in house building after the manner of white men. 

House building among the ancient Wichitas was a sacred thing, 
for in a house children are born and grow to manhood and woman- 
hood. For that reason when the first cedar pier was set, Sooka 
bowed her head and in the Wichita tongue prayed to the Great 
Spirit. It might be well to say that the majority of the modern 
Wichitas are Christians, being members of the Baptist Church. I 
do not know whether the Christianized Wichitas pray in building 
their houses or not, but Sooka prayed after the custom of her 
mothers. 

Other cedar piers were set in a circle of twenty feet diameter. 
Each pier had a crotched top, and across the crotches were laid 
transverse beams on which rested long cedar saplings, reaching from 
the ground upward, where they were gathered together at the top 
of the cone-like house and lashed together. Over the framework was 
laced a wattle work of willow, which was covered with a thatch of 
long grass, laid in tiers, overlapping like shingles. 

At the apex of the lodge was set the most important thing of all. 
It was a five-pointed device, symbolical of the five fingers of the 
hand, and consisting of pointed rods. The central rod was pointed 
straight up to Man-Never-Known-on-Earth. The other four rods 
were inclined toward the four winds of Heaven. This device en- 
ables the four winds and Man-Never-Known-on-Earth to enter the 
lodge and bestow their blesings on the people. 

The lodge has two doors, one at the east, where the sun can peep in 
in the morning to give his blessing, and one in the west where he can 
look in before night to see that all is well. There also is an opening 
at the south to serve as a window, where the sun can look in at noon. 
Just east of the apex is a smoke hole. Under the smoke hole is a 
circular excavation on the floor of the lodge, which is a fireplace. 1 

The construction over, Sooka struck a fire, and two meals were 
cooked over the fireplace. The Indians spent one night in the lodge 
so that is could be said that real Indians had slept there. The 
lighting of the first fire was accompanied by prayer, so the Indians 
later reported, but no white men were allowed to be present, al- 
though Mrs. Jordan, being a woman and the widow of James R. 

1. A picture of the lodge in Wichita, with the five-pointed device plainly showing, can 
be seen on the frontispiece of Early Days in Kansas, by Bliss Isely, Wichita Board of Edu- 
cation (Wichita Eagle Press, 1927). There is also a picture of Kiowa's wigwam on page 8. 
See, also, Kansas Historical Collections, v. XVII, p. 520, for a brief story and picture. 



ISELY: GRASS WIGWAM AT WICHITA 69 

Mead, the old-time friend of the Wichitas, was welcome at any time. 

Early travelers on the prairies were always glad to come to the 
village of the Wichitas, for, unlike the teepee dwellers, the grass- 
house dwellers were farmers, and in a grass lodge corn, beans and 
pumpkins were served to the visitors, who welcomed a change from 
a diet of nothing but buffalo meat. 

Kiowa told me that visitors were always welcome at his mother's 
lodge, and they were welcome to dip food out of the pot without in- 
vitation. There was always food in the pot, and during green-corn 
time there were roasting ears, protected by husks, baking in the 
ashes. At harvest time pumpkins were cut round and round in a 
long string and dried for winter use. They were hung from the un- 
derside of the roof of the lodge by one end of the string. Corn also 
was suspended from the roof by the husks, until the whole underside 
of the roof was gaily festooned with corn, pumpkins and other pro- 
visions. 

Women took care of the crops, not because the men were lazy 
but, as Kiowa explained, because reproduction is woman's work and 
in the old days crops would not grow if men interfered. It was 
man's place to bring home the meat, defend the village, break horses, 
make saddles and shields and bows and arrows. Any one who scoffs 
at Kiowa's theory that the men were not lazy had first better try- 
to make a bow and arrow and fit the arrow with an arrow head. 
While women did the field work, their house work was light. They 
cooked but one meal a day and left the loaded pot near the fire 
where anybody could help himself all day long if hungry. They 
washed no dishes, laundered no clothes, sprinkled water on the floor 
of the wigwam to settle the dust, and made no beds. 

Night was the time for parties in which women danced with the 
men. Kiowa said he never could recall when his mother worked 
after dark, but his daughters, who now walk the white woman's 
road, often work by lamplight. 

What some authorities consider to be the earliest visit to the 
Wichitas by white men was that of the Coronado expedition in 1541. 
Pedro de Castaneda, historian of the expedition, wrote: "The 
houses are round, without a wall, and they have one story like a 
loft, under the roof, where they sleep and keep their belongings. 
The roofs are of straw." 72 

In 1601 Juan de Onate, first governor of New Mexico, visited the 

2. George Parker Winship's translation of Castaneda's narrative, Fourteenth Annual Re- 
port of the Bureau of Ethnology, v. 1, p. 528. 



70 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Arkansas, presumably at the mouth of Cow creek or the Little Ar- 
kansas. The people he found there are supposed to be the Wichitas, 
from the description of their houses. He wrote : 

"We came to a settlement containing more than twelve hundred houses, all 
established along the bank of another good-sized river, which flowed into a 
large one. They were all round, built of forked poles and bound with rods, 
and on the outside covered to the ground with grass." 3 

Continuing his description of their fields he wrote: 
"We remained here for one day in this pleasant spot surrounded on all sides 
by fields of maize and crops of the Indians. The stalks of the maize were as 
high as that of New Spain and in many places higher. The land was so rich 
that, having harvested the maize, a new growth of a span in height had sprung 
up over a large portion of the same ground without any cultivation or labor 
other than the removal of the weeds and the making of holes where they 
planted the maize. There were many beans, some gourds, and between the 
field some plum trees." 4 

Later the French left records of visits to the Wichitas, whom they 
called the Pani Piques; Pani, because they were related to the Paw- 
nees, and Piques, because they tattooed themselves like the Picts 
of ancient Scotland. 5 Wars with the Osages, who were supplied 
with firearms by the French traders of St. Louis, forced the Pani 
Piques south. This fact was recorded by Meriwether Lewis, the ex- 
plorer, who obtained the information from his French guides. In 
his discussion of the various branches of the Pawnees, he wrote in 
his journal concerning the Pani Piques: "The fourth band originally 
resided on the Kanzas and Arkansaw, but in their wars with the 
Osages they were so often defeated that they at last retired to their 
present position on Red river, where they form a tribe of four hun- 
dred men." 6 

The Wichitas were visited on Red river by the Dodge military ex- 
pedition in 1835. George Catlin, the artist, who accompanied the 
expedition, called them Pawnee Picts, and his description of them 
is much like that by Onate 234 years previous. Says Catlin : 

"To our very great surprise we have found these people cultivating quite 
extensive fields of corn, pumpkins, melons, beans and squashes. So with 
these aids and an abundant supply of buffalo meat they may be said to be 
living well. 

"We found here a very numerous village containing some five or six hun- 
dred wigwams, all made of long prairie grass thatched over poles which are 

3. H. E. Bolton (ed.) Juan de Onate's Expedition to the Arkansas, in Spanish Explora- 
tion in the Southwest (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1916), p. 260. 

4. Ibid., p. 261. 

5. Frederick Webb Hodge, Handbook of American Indians, v. II, pp. 947, 948. 

6. Meriwether Lewis, History of the Expeditions of Captains Lewis and Clark, reprinted 
from edition of 1814 (A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, 1903), p. 36. 



ISELY: GRASS WIGWAM AT WICHITA 71 

fastened in the ground and bent in at the tip, giving to them, in distance, the 
appearance of straw bee hives." 7 

In 1863, because they sided with the Union, the Wichita village 
was destroyed by the Confederates and the fugitives returned to 
their ancient habitat in Kansas, where James R. Mead first met 
them on the site of Wichita, and where they promptly built a grass 
village and surrounded it with gardens of corn, beans, squash and 
melons. 8 

The government removed them to their present seat on the Wash- 
ita in 1867, and the Wichita pioneers used the straw of their houses 
for horse bedding and the cedar piers for fence posts. 

For sixty years the grass lodges were unknown on the Arkansas, 
until Sooka and her women rebuilt the one on Mead island. It is 
to be hoped that Wichita will some day bring their historical treas- 
ure out of hiding and put a bridge to Mead island so that her own 
boys and girls and the visitors to the city can see the wigwam that 
was erected by such reverent hands. 

7. George Catlin, The North American Indiana (Leary, Stuart & Co., Philadelphia, 1913), 
v. II, p. 79. 

8. James R. Mead in Kansas Historical Collections, v. X, p. 10. 



The Annual Meeting 

THE fifty-seventh annual meeting of the Kansas State Historical 
Society and the board of directors was held in the rooms of the 
Society on October 18, 1932. 

The meeting of the board of directors was called to order at 10 
a. m., by the president, Justice John S. Dawson. The first business 
was the reading of the annual report of the secretary. 

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY, YEAR ENDING OCTOBER 18, 1932. 

The past year has been one of continued growth and progress in all de- 
partments of the Society. Accessions of manuscripts, documents, books and 
relics have been large and of unusual interest and value. Especially note- 
worthy is the marked increase in the number of persons who have used the 
Society's collections. This may be because of unemployment or, as has been 
suggested, because of the stimulated interest in public affairs which accom- 
panies a national political campaign. During the year, however, there was a 
material increase in the extent of newspaper publicity the Society's activities 
received, both locally and throughout the state, and this doubtless attracted 
many new patrons. 

The secretary has been greatly assisted in the work of the year by the 
president of the Society, Justice John S. Dawson, and by the executive com- 
mittee. The executive committee has met regularly once a month, and all 
matters of importance have been referred to it. 

LIBRARY. 

The library received over two thousand inquiries for information, mostly 
regarding Kansas subjects or genealogy. These requests come from all parts 
of the United States and are answered by letter or by the loan of duplicate 
books or material compiled specifically for loan use. Many are from school 
teachers and students. Some can be answered in a few minutes while others 
often require hours of research. Writers of theses have used the library, the 
newspaper section, and the manuscripts and archives departments for the 
following subjects during the year: New England Emigrant Aid Company; 
government regulation of business; survey of Portland cement industry in 
Kansas; history of education in Rush county; history of education in Sumner 
county; Kansas state documents; Kansas state constitution; library legislation 
in Kansas; bank taxation; Mennonites; landmarks in Kansas; high-school 
courses of study; development of Kansas government; history of school lands 
in Kansas; history of municipal ownership of public utilities in Kansas; 
history of the Robinson administration; the Progressive party in Kansas. 

In addition, much use was made of the library by newspaper writers and 
historians. 

The constantly increasing demand for information and assistance often 
makes it impossible for the library staff to handle the routine of library work 
and cataloguing. Two additional catalogue clerks are needed to do the work 

(72) 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 73 

efficiently. The Society possesses 15,000 pictures which should be sorted, 
catalogued and filed. At present there is no workable index to this valuable 
collection. 

Accessions to the library proper and to the archives and newspaper sections 
for the year ending June 30, 1932, were as follows: 

Library : 

Books (volumes) 841 

Pamphlets 2,607 

Newspapers and magazines (volumes) 932 

Archives : 

Separate manuscripts 64,582 

Manuscript volumes 112 

Maps 2 

Maps, atlases and charts 94 

Pictures 547 

These accessions bring the totals in the possession of the Society, including 
the museum, to the following figures: 

Library, including books, pamphlets, bound newspapers and magazines, 340,627 

Archives, separate manuscripts 912,281 

Archives, manuscript volumes 26,653 

Archives, maps 416 

Maps, atlases and charts 10,145 

Pictures 14,639 

Museum relics and objects 32,529 

Through the courtesy of the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company the 
Society is now receiving current telephone directories from all the company's 
exchanges in Kansas. Next to the newspapers, these directories are the most 
important contemporary record of each community. Efforts are also being 
made to secure directories from the independent exchanges. 

ARCHIVES AND MANUSCRIPTS. 

Accessions of private manuscripts and documents have been among the 
most important since the organization of the Society. The largest in point of 
numbers is a collection of the letters and papers of the late Charles S. Gleed, 
donated by his family. Mr. Gleed was president of the Southwestern Bell 
Telephone Co., a director of the Santa Fe Railroad Co., and a leader in Kansas 
affairs. This collection is an invaluable source record comprising over 25,000 
pieces. 

Another unique and valuable accession is a collection of the manuscripts, 
maps and documents of Adolph Hunnius, donated by his son, Carl Hunnius, 
of Leavenworth. Adolph Hunnius served in the Civil War and was employed 
by the government as a map maker. He visited many sections of Kansas in an 
early day. This collection contains numerous manuscript maps, some of which 
have already thrown new light on early forts and trails. There are several 
thousand pieces in this collection. 

Gen. Wilder S. Metcalf, a director of the Society, gave a valuable collec- 
tion of letters, manuscripts, pictures, books and relics. The three volumes 
of correspondence include two on the Spanish-American war and one on the 
European war. There are several albums of pictures showing American troops 
in the Philippines, especially the Twentieth Kansas, of which General Metcalf 
was colonel. There are hundreds of newspaper clippings in this collection. 



74 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Recently General Metcalf also gave to the Society a fine library of books 
on army manuals, tactics, etc. The relics include a Moro shield and spear, 
two rifles and two saddles. One of the saddles was used by General Metcalf 
during his service in the Philippines and the other is one which he owned and 
which was used by General Funston. 

Mrs. L. C. Schnacke, daughter of John Davis, former congressman and 
editor at Junction City, donated fourteen volumes of indexed scrap books 
which had been prepared by her father. 

Walter E. Thiele, of Lawrence, gave a most interesting collection of 
military records of the Nineteenth Kansas cavalry which had belonged to 
Capt. John Q. A. Norton, of Company D. These include official documents 
and correspondence. 

During the year the Society has acquired several new John Brown letters. 
The most interesting is an original letter which was written by John Brown 
to his father in 1849. It is one of the earliest records of Brown's interest 
in the negro question. Three photostatic copies of new John Brown letters, 
written in the 50 's, were purchased. A photostatic copy of a bill of sale for 
a horse which John Brown sold to the father of Sen. H. K. Lindsley, of 
Wichita, was given to the Society by Mr. Lindsley. 

These collections are the outstanding accessions, but are only a part of 
those received this year. 

Excellent progress has been made in the work of repairing and calendaring 
manuscripts. Naturally but little headway can be made by two clerks on 
the vast collections owned by the Society. It had been hoped that additional 
clerks might be requested from the next session of the legislature, but in 
view of the economic situation it was the opinion of the executive committee 
and the secretary that it would not be good policy to request them at this 
time and they were not included in the budget. 

In the death of Esther Clark Hill the Society lost an invaluable assistant. 
Mrs. Hill was not only a capable worker; she brought to her task a knowledge 
and an intense love of Kansas which were a great asset to the department. 

The largest accession to the archives came from the insurance department. 
This was a collection of 62,000 manuscripts and 106 manuscript volumes of 
annual statements. Five hundred manuscripts came from a former board of 
managers of the state soldier's home and the Mother Bickerdyke home. The 
most important accession during the year, in the archives department, was 
the manuscript collection of Wm. I. R. Blackman, who came to Lawrence in 
1854. It was given by his son, Maulsby W. Blackman, of Syracuse, N. Y. 
This collection was received by the Society in 1930, but was not transferred 
from the vault to the archives until 1932. The most valuable document in 
this collection is the complete journal in original form of the Leaven worth 
Constitutional Convention which met at Minneola March 23, 1858, and ad- 
journed next day to convene at Leavenworth. 

Second in importance is a corrected draft of the Wakarusa Treaty of Peace, 
made December 8, 1855, by Gov. Wilson Shannon, Charles Robinson and 
J. H. Lane. Three drafts of treaties had been made, the one by the free-state 
men being accepted with slight changes. 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 75 

NEWSPAPER SECTION. 

Readers in the newspaper section have noticeably increased in numbers 
during the year. The demand for current issues especially has been greater. 
Old files have been consulted by about the usual number of readers and 
students of history. 

The issues of 757 newspapers and periodicals, 89 being school and college 
publications, were being received regularly on October 1. Of these 57 were 
dailies, one triweekly, 13 semiweeklies, 520 weeklies, 19 fortnightlies, three 
once every three weeks, 12 semimonthlies, 81 monthlies, 11 bimonthlies, 26 
quarterlies, 11 occasionals, and three semiannuals. In the list were included 
458 weekly community newspapers. On January 1 the Kansas newspaper 
collection totaled 40,419 bound volumes. 

Valuable out-of-state newspapers included in our files are still stacked on 
benches in the basement awaiting shelving facilities. Territorial newspapers of 
Oklahoma, and Boston newspapers contemporary with the New England 
Emigrant Aid Company, are included in this collection. An appropriation is 
being asked of the next legislature to care for these. 

The 1932 annual List of Kansas Newspapers and Periodicals received by the 
Kansas State Historical Society was published in June. The edition listed the 
editors and publishers of 755 publications. 

At the consolidation of the Chanute Daily Timesett with the Chanute 
Tribune January 9, 1932, fifteen unbound volumes of the Timesett were 
presented to the Society by John P. Harris and Charles F. Jones, editors of 
the reorganized Tribune. A file of the Manhattan Kansas Farm Bureau 
Bulletin from 1922 to 1928 was given the Society by R. C. Obrecht, of Topeka. 

MUSEUM. 

While the museum continues to be our most popular department with the 
general public, the attendance for the year fell to 27,316, due to the fact that 
it was closed for two months during the winter for repairs. The walls and 
ceilings were repaired and painted and all exhibits, including over 600 portraits 
and paintings, excepting only the Goss collection of birds, were taken down 
and thoroughly cleaned. During the week of the fair the museum attracted 
2,733 visitors. 

The number of relics and museum objects accessioned during the year was 
ninety-nine. 

One of the most valuable accessions was the collection received from the 
estate of lone D. Eastman, widow of the late Phil Eastman, of Topeka. This 
bequest of colonial furniture included a grandfather clock, two Windsor chairs, 
a wall cabinet, a mahogany dresser, a mahogany drop-leaf sewing table, a 
mahogany writing desk, a marble-top walnut shaving stand, a brass door 
knocker, an Austrian vase, and a large Wedgewood platter. 

A wooden Indian was donated by Hedwig Wulke. A hand-written arithme- 
tic begun in 1792 was donated by the daughter of Dr. G. H. Fitzgerald, Kelly, 
Kan., and Mr. E. T. Fay, of Harris, Kan., added twenty-two specimens to the 
collection of Indian artifacts previously donated by him. 

Last winter the local newspapers announced that the Society was planning 
to build a sod house in the museum. This story, which was picked up by 
press associations and printed all over the country, invited old-timers to write 



76 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

to the Society and describe methods of construction. Over two hundred 
letters were received. 

KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY. 

Four numbers of the new Quarterly have been issued and the fifth will be 
ready when the index to the volume is completed. The first volume will con- 
sist of the first five numbers, including the November, 1932, issue which will 
contain the index. This was done so that a new volume will not begin in the 
middle of the year; subsequent volumes will contain four numbers each. 

The Quarterly has been successful beyond expectations. It has proved 
popular with the members and has resulted in much favorable newspaper 
publicity. Articles from each number have been reprinted, condensed or 
commented upon by newspapers in all parts of the state. Much of the credit 
for the high standard of the articles is due to Dr. James C. Malin, associate 
professor of history at the University of Kansas and associate editor of the 
Quarterly. 

LOCAL AND COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETIES. 

Since the last annual meeting two county historical societies have affiliated 
themselves with the state Society by taking out life memberships. In addi- 
tion, the Society has given assistance to the organizers of several other county 
historical societies not yet affiliated. A special invitation to attend this annual 
meeting was extended by the secretary to the officers of local and county so- 
cieties. Several of these associate societies are doing excellent work in gath- 
ering historical data and relics. The encouragement of these local societies is 
an important part of the work of the state Society. It is obviously impossible 
for the Society with its limited staff to secure and preserve the historical rec- 
ords of the 105 counties. Only through active local societies can this be done. 

SHAWNEE MISSION. 

The old Methodist Shawnee Mission near Kansas City is the outstanding 
historic site in Kansas and one of the finest in the Middle West. At the pres- 
ent time only two of the large brick buildings are open to the public, and only 
one of these is in a presentable condition. Eventually all three of these build- 
ings should be restored as nearly as possible to their original condition. The 
state architect estimates that it would require in the neighborhood of $25,000 
to restore the north building, which is in the worst condition. The most in- 
teresting of these buildings is the one known as the east building, and it is 
now attracting hundreds of visitors. Last fall permission was given the Shaw- 
nee Mission Indian Historical Society, a newly organized group in Johnson 
county, to install a museum in the large downstairs room in this building. 
The results rhave been surprising and most gratifying. Hundreds of relics 
and museum objects, illustrative of the early life of the mission are now at- 
tractively displayed. At a meeting attended by several hundred persons 
which was held there on June 27, the museum was formally turned over to 
the state Society. This museum has received much publicity in the Kansas 
City and nearby papers and as a result thousands of readers have been told 
of the importance of this early-day outpost of civilization in the history of 
Kansas and the west. 

Another local organization which has shown much interest in the mission 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 77 

is the Shawnee Mission Floral Club. This club at its own expense installed a 
lily pool and rock garden. On April 3 this gift was formally presented to the 
state. A Washington elm which was planted at the time was accepted on be- 
half of the state by Gov. Harry H. Woodring, and the rock garden and lily 
pool were accepted by the secretary of the Historical Society. 

FIRST CAPITOL OF KANSAS. 

The First Capitol building, on highway 40 near Fort Riley, continues to at- 
tract many visitors. Despite the greatly decreased volume of tourist travel 
the number of visitors has increased. For the year ending October 1, 1932, 
there were 13,216 visitors as compared with 12,552 the preceding year. 

GIREAU TRADING POST. 

The untimely death on May 28, 1932, of John A. Hall, of Pleasanton, a di- 
rector of the Society, delayed plans for the erection of a marker on the site of 
the old Gireau Trading Post at the town of Trading Post, which he had 
donated to the Society. This site marks the spot where Gireau traded with the 
Indians in 1834; where General Scott erected defense barracks in 1842; and 
where John Brown dated his famous Parallels, written in January, 1859. Last 
month the secretary visited Mrs. Hall and Mr. Hall's two brothers and made 
arrangements for the erection of a granite marker and the maintainence of the 
site. This marker will be erected this month. 

MARKING HISTORIC SITES. 

This month the Historical Society and the Kansas Chamber of Commerce 
are beginning a cooperative effort to compile a complete list of historic spots 
in the state which are marked by tablet, statue, or otherwise. The only lists 
now available are far from complete. The work of securing these lists from 
local communities will be done by American Legion posts and Legion Auxiliary 
Units, through the cooperation of the state department. 
Respectfully submitted, 

KIRKE MECHEM, Secretary. 

Upon the conclusion of the reading of the report of the secretary 
the president asked what disposition the board of directors wished 
to make of it. On motion of Thomas A. Lee, seconded by Mrs. Grace 
D. M. Wheeler, the report was approved and accepted. 

The president then called for the reading of the report of the 
treasurer of the Society, Mrs. Mary Embree, which follows: 

REPORT OF THE TREASURER. 
MEMBERSHIP FEE FUND. 

Balance September 21, 1931, cash $1,173.90 

Membership dues 235.67 

Interest on liberty bonds 297 .50 

Refund of money advanced for postage and expense money 122.50 

Liberty bonds, at cost 5,911 .63 



Total amount on hand. . $7,741 .20 



78 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

EXPENDITURES TO AUGUST 17, 1932. 

Traveling expenses $343.42 

Subscriptions 97 . 45 

Rent of safe deposit box 3.00 

Printing and paper 29.23 

Rental of chairs for annual meeting 4 . 00 

Hussey Insurance Co., premium on bonds 10.00 

Old letters of John Brown, picture, etc 110.00 

Christmas gifts to janitors 13.50 

Extra clerk hire 105.80 

Filing record and registering deed 3 . 10 

Repairs 7.20 

Hauling mail 2.00 

Flowers 10.50 

Maps 7.00 

Dues in Topeka Chamber of Commerce 25. 00 

Office files 28.00 

Refund on membership dues .50 

Tax on checks .12 

Money advanced for postage, etc 110.00 



Total expenses $909 .82 

Balance August 17, 1932 6,831.38 



$7,741.20 

Liberty bonds $5,911.63 

Cash . 919.75 



$6,831.38 

JONATHAN PECKER BEQUEST FUND. 

September 21, 1931 : 

Balance $79.86 

Interest 40.38 



Total amount on hand $120.24 

Expenditures : 

Frank J. Wilder, New Hampshire books $89.60 

August 17, 1932, balance 30.64 

$120.24 

JOHN BOOTH BEQUEST. 

September 21, 1931 : 

Balance $72.85 

Interest 21.25 



Balance $94.10 

No expenditures. 

THOMAS H. BOWLUS FUND. 

$1,000, in form of liberty bond; the interest from which is deposited with 
membership fee fund. Respectfully submitted, 

MARY EMBREE, Treasurer. 

On motion of John S. Dean, seconded by W. W. Denison, the 
treasurer's report was approved. 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 79 

The report of the committee appointed by the executive commit- 
tee to audit the books of the treasurer was read, as follows: 

REPORT OP EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 

The committee appointed by the executive committee of the Historical 
Society having examined the books of the treasurer and compared it with the 
state accountant's audit report for the preceding fiscal year find that the same 
agree in all respects and we therefore approve the above and foregoing treas- 
urer's report as correct. EDWIN A. AUSTIN, 

THOMAS AMORY LEE, 

Committee. 

On motion of Col. Sam F. Woolard, seconded by H. K. Lindsley, 
the auditing committee's report was approved. 

Mrs. Eliza E. Goodrich, secretary of the Wyandotte County His- 
torical Society, asked permission to speak a few words on the work 
of her society. She exhibited a photostatic copy of the Shawnee 
Sun of 1841 and portraits of early settlers of Wyandotte county. 

The report of the nominating committee was called for and was 
read by Mrs. Henry F. Mason: 

REPORT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE. 
To the Board of Directors, Kansas State Historical Society : 

Your committee on nomination beg leave to submit the following report 
for officers of the Kansas State Historical Society for the following year: 
For president, Thomas Amory Lee, Topeka. 
For first vice president, H. K. Lindsley, Wichita. 
For second vice president, Thomas F. Doran, Topeka. 
For secretary, Kirke Mechem, Topeka. 
For treasurer, Mrs. Mary Embree, Topeka. 

Respectfully submitted, MRS. HENRY F. MASON, 

ISABELLE C. HARVEY, 
E. E. KELLEY, 
JAMES C. MALIN, 
E. A. RYAN, 

Committee. 

Mrs. Flora R. Godsey, of Emporia, spoke of the secretary's pro- 
posal to build a sod house in the museum and suggested that a log 
cabin be erected to represent the eastern part of Kansas. 

There being no further business for the Board of Directors, the 
meeting adjourned. 



80 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY. 

The annual meeting of the Kansas State Historical Society con- 
vened at two o'clock p. m: The meeting was called to order by 
President Dawson. 

The secretary read telegrams and letters from members who were 
unable to be present. 

President Dawson asked Thomas A. Lee to introduce Mr. Boyd 
B. Stutler, of West Virginia. In presenting him Mr. Lee stated 
that Mr. Stutler possessed probably the largest collection of John 
Brown material in the country. Mr. Stutler said that having been 
born not far from Harper's Ferry he had from boyhood been inter- 
ested in John Brown, despite the local antipathy toward him, and 
had begun at an early day to make a collection of material relating 
to him. His collection comprises books, pamphlets, posters, por- 
traits and other items. A bibliography containing over a thousand 
titles which he has compiled will be printed by the New York City 
public library. Upon the completion of Mr. Stutler's talk President 
Dawson suggested that if he were in doubt where to place his 
collection when he passed on, the Kansas State Historical Society 
would be glad to act as its custodian. 

President Dawson read a letter which had been written to him 
by Judge C. E. Cory, of Fort Scott, a director of the Society, who 
is at present living in Lake Charles, La., and requested the secre- 
tary to write him expressing the regret of the members at his 
absence. 

The president then read his annual address: 
PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 

If Herodotus was the Father of History, I presume I should greet you 
representatives of the Kansas State Historical Society as the Sons and 
Daughters of Herodotus. And this, with my very best bow, I now do. 

History is an authentic record of what man has done. Arnold of Rugby 
denned it as the biography of the commonwealth. Napoleon said that history 
is a fable that people have agreed upon; but that satirical remark was clearly 
erroneous, since what is not true is not history. 

As a state historical society we are primarily concerned with the chronicles 
of our own commonwealth, with the collection and preservation of data and 
materials by which the story of its development can be set down in available 
and enduring form. There is no more lasting public service a group of 
scholarly men and women can render than that of preserving a state's history 
for the instruction and future guidance of its citizens. Like the Scripture, a 
state's history is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc- 
tion in civic righteousness. No part of this state's educational program is more 
worthy of public support than the activities of the Kansas State Historical 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 81 

Society. Kansas history is not confined to its mere provincial aspects. For 
the greater part of one heroic generation Kansas supplied the stage and theme 
for an all-engrossing national political drama whose acts and scenes were laid 
hereabout the rush from North and South to capture and hold this territory 
for freedom or slavery; the border warfare which opened the "Irrepressible 
Conflict"; the influx of the soldier settlers who staked out their homesteads 
on the Kansas plains; the epic of the prairie trails to Santa Fe, to Oregon and 
Pike's Peak; the building of the railroads, and the boom towns which sprang 
up in their wake. Such dramatic incidents largely shaped our state's history 
from the passage of the Squatter Sovereignty act of 1854 until the later 
eighties, and their repercussions deeply affected the entire nation. 

The moods and tenses of the people of Kansas should be interpreted in the 
light of their colorful and dramatic background, having in mind what our 
pioneer forbears strove for and endured and accomplished. And the Kansas 
of to-morrow will be the product of all our yesterdays. Our state consciousness, 
our temperamental, social and political attitudes, are our composite reaction to 
the tribulations through which the Sunflower State has cleaved its way not to 
the stars, but in their direction Ad astro, per aspera ! 

Yet the true historian has other obligations than that of formulating pleas- 
ing encomiums to flatter our state pride. Lord Acton, a historian of the last 
century, declared that in all the years he had devoted to historical research 
and historical writing he had constantly striven to suppress the poet, the 
patriot, the religious and political partisan, to sustain no cause, to write noth- 
ing to gratify his own feelings or disclose his personal convictions. His stead- 
fast attitude towards his work was to scrutinize, dissect his materials, and set 
down the result. Nothing more. But such an attitude of neutrality is hardly 
attainable by the average student of history; and possibly the voluminous 
product of Lord Acton's pen is an accumulation of highly valuable materials 
for the writing of history rather than history itself. 

I think it not improper that historians should be partisans honest, in- 
formed partisans but our partisan mood should follow and not precede our 
research work. There is likely to be more vitality, more sustained interest, in 
the literary work of an honest, informed partisan than in the colorless writing 
of one whose entire attitude is that of studied detachment. The true student 
of history pursues his researches in the scientific spirit. His work must be 
systematized. The discovery, classification and preservation of historical data 
constitute one important aspect of his work. Appraising the due weight and 
significance to be given to such data is another great responsibility. Both 
services are invaluable. History cannot be predicated on memory, folk lore 
or tradition. It must rest on material proof. Documentary evidence is the 
best and makes the largest contribution. Statutes, decisions of courts, files 
of court proceedings, official reports, governors' messages, newspapers, busi- 
ness records and personal correspondence of the long ago all these supply 
invaluable material when subjected to the appraising scrutiny of the trained 
analyst. Biography, and especially autobiography, are highly serviceable 
source books for the compilation of history. It has been truly said that the 
life of every person contains the materials for an excellent story, if he has had 
the good fortune to have a biographer. Poetry, the popular songs of past gen- 

6-6617 



82 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

erations, even the crude doggerel of the common people, contain much gold 
of historic truth which the trained student can readily uncover. Ancient ruins, 
coins, weapons, relics of all sorts yield a rich treasure of evidentiary data. In 
the Field Museum in Chicago is a marvelous collection of dentists' tools, un- 
earthed in Pompeii, which reveals what remarkable progress the dental art 
had made in Italy before A. D. 79, when that city was destroyed. Many au- 
thentic contributions to the history of other arts of surprising proportions have 
been gleaned from similar sources. The antiquarian and archeologist bring to 
light evidentiary materials for the composition of ancient and medieval his- 
tory; and that history in turn teaches us to interpret the present and to fore- 
cast the future. If and when we accumulate sufficient data concerning the na- 
tions of antiquity to diagnose the causes of their decline and fall we shall 
have progressed a long way towards the discovery of an antidote for the eco- 
nomic and social diseases which produce the mortality of states and of peoples. 

Whenever the evidentiary facts of history have been made available, its 
composition will follow in due course. And of all who bear a hand in gathering 
the evidentiary facts and materials for the writing of history, as well as of 
those who do write it, and those who study it when written, it can justly be 
said that they are of a royal and privileged race. Whereas the years of a man 
are three score and ten, the years of the student of history are lengthened to 
include all the authentic ages of the past ; and from the vantage point of such 
disciplined breadth of view he acquires something of a philosopher's attitude 
towards the present and a prophet's vision to anticipate the future. 

The research worker and writer in the field of history must have aptitude 
and industry and unqualified devotion to his subject. A man who finds history 
tedious or uninteresting would better let it alone. Otherwise he is apt to 
conclude that history is what Henry Ford swore it was, in his million-dollar 
lawsuit with Aaron Shapiro. 

Not only is a natural aptitude for the work of the historian necessary, but 
the successful worker must be trained to it, either self-taught or school- 
taught trained in analysis of facts and their value, in the selection of the 
relevant and elimination of the inconsequential, and in the matter of drawing 
proper deductions from the systematized mass. 

Within the half century which covers the period of my memory and ex- 
perience, the student's approach to history has been greatly altered. The 
value of its substantive matter has shifted completely. In my boyhood we 
studied dates, battles, dynasties 

"First William the Norman, 
Then William his son, 
Henry, Stephen and Henry, 
Then Richard and John. . ." 

Of the people who supported those autocrats and of contemporary social 
conditions we were taught very little. To this day I must admit I know a 
good deal more about the half-mythical Siege of Troy and the "wrath of 
Achilles" than I do about how common humanity lived and died during many 
centuries prior to and succeeding the incidents embalmed in Homer's song. 
In my youth school boys read much about Mirabeau and Danton, Robespierre 
and Napoleon. But somehow our histories made no impression upon our 
minds as to the causes of the sanguinary events which brought these personages 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 83 

into public view the protracted growth of French absolutism, the hopeless 
wretchedness of the French people. Of the reformers, philosophers and 
writers who groped their way to the world-shaking climax of 1789, the hiitories 
of fifty years ago placed before a college lad told next to nothing. 

The modern historian has a far better sense of historic values. His chief 
concern with the climaxes and cataclysms of history is to trace them to their 
remote sources, to detect and reveal the causes which produce such conse- 
quences. The past, its errors and successes, are lessons for guidance hi the 
future. By such service as the painstaking historian alone can give, enlightened 
citizenship and patriotic statesmanship can direct the course of history away 
from the mistakes of the past into wiser channels, and thereby counteract 
history's fateful tendency to repeat itself. In times of social unrest, when 
economic and industrial conditions are abnormal, the lessons of history are 
invaluable. Those lessons supply two prime services, at least: First, the 
assurance that we always have won through such troublesome periods to better 
conditions and easier times; and second, a guideboard showing how our 
economic and industrial tribulations have been surmounted heretofore. History 
is freighted with the experiences of peoples who have followed blind political 
trails and espoused fallacious doctrines to their sorrow and misfortune. Stu- 
dents of history cannot stress too strongly how wise and profitable it is for 
people to be historically minded; how greatly the state can profit by the 
lessons of experience. It is the historian's bounden obligation never to become 
weary of well-doing ; he must patiently and steadfastly teach with tongue and 
pen how imprudent it is to espouse proposed doctrines and policies without 
consulting historic records to learn whether these have been tried before and 
with what result of success or failure. 

It is a curious social phenomenon that it is only on matters of public con- 
cern that the lessons of experience are ignored. On any important legal 
question the average man will engage the services of a lawyer who will make 
an exhaustive examination of the pertinent decisions of the highest courts 
before he will venture to advise his client or put his legal rights to the hazard 
of a lawsuit. In any case of dangerous illness the course of treatment pre- 
scribed by a consicentious physician is always the one which a studious exami- 
nation of similar recorded cases suggests as most likely to effect a cure. But 
in matters of economics, politics and government, inquiry is seldom made 
whether a proposed expedient has ever been tried before. Even if it is a mere 
commonplace fact of history that a suggested measure had been repeatedly 
tried and had invariably failed it will be plausibly championed as if it were 
the acme of political wisdom. 

Why should not the great political parties establish research bureaus to 
study proposed economic and political measures, and to have reports thereon 
made at off seasons when no political compaigns are impending. If this coun- 
try is to continue to be governed through the expediency of political parties 
something of this kind will have to be undertaken. We cannot go on indefi- 
nitely as we have been doing in recent years. It is absurd to suppose that the 
grave and important economic and political problems of our national democ- 
racy or of a single American commonwealth can be wisely solved by a plat- 
form committee who are informally convened for a brief session in a hotel 
bedroom on the night before a political convention. 



84 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

When the American pioneers came over the Alleghanies into the woods and 
prairies of the Middle West, governmental concerns and activities were at a 
minimum. To the frontiersman who did not violate the sixth, seventh, and 
eighth commandments, the government was a vague, impalpable thing with 
which he had little or nothing to do except in time of war. That remote re- 
lation of the common man to his government continued until so recent a time 
that many of our citizens of middle life and older are still bewildered at 
what has happened to the America of their youth. Now government is con- 
cerned with a multitude of matters which were regarded as clearly outside 
its legitimate scope a few decades ago. It is the plain duty of the historian 
to interpret this disquieting growth of governmental activity. Much expansion 
of government has been required to make our country as comfortable a place 
for 125 million people to live in as it was for twenty, or forty, or sixty million 
people, and while patriotic anxiety over our constantly expanding government 
ought to slow down the enactment of more laws and police regulations, the 
research student of history must confess that the tendency to curtail the peo- 
ple's liberties and to increase the burdens of their government has never been 
effectively and permanently checked among the nations and states of bygone 
times. Whether it can be done without halting or crippling the progress of 
civilization is a problem worthy of the most earnest solicitude of patriotic 
men and women. As dutiful historians like Clio, with her stylus we will 
faithfully record every worthwhile attempt at its solution. 

Perhaps the most profound lesson which history has to teach is that noth- 
ing in government or in the structure of society has happened by mere chance. 
Our national and state constitutions were devised in travail of brain and pa- 
triotism. The institutions of this fair state its cities, churches, schools, and 
business establishments did not just grow like Topsy. They came about be- 
cause two generations of men who preceded us labored unceasingly and pur- 
posely to bring them into existence not for themselves alone, nor for us their 
children, but for many generations yet to come. A great and enduring com- 
monwealth is not founded upon lands and goods but on the faith of its people 
and in the genius of its institutions. Faith is the substance of things hoped 
for. And a people can achieve only what they aspire to and work for and 
pray for. 

Kansas history should occupy a larger place in our system of education. 
More local history needs to be written and preserved. There is an instruc- 
tive lesson in the chronicles of every county, in every worth-while town, in 
every worth-while public achievement. There are many Kansans still living 
who were here in our day of small things. Almost every one of them has a 
story which should be preserved. Not all of these stories need be printed. 
Set down in typewriting and filed in the archives of this Society, they will 
not be lost; and their value will be justly appraised by our research students 
aa the years go by. 

As members of the Kansas State Historical Society we have nothing to do 
with mere boasting of our state's greatness. Like other patriotic folk we 
have a just pride in its history; but none will more readily admit than we 
that there are limitless stretches of social culture and of political progress yet 
to be achieved by forward-looking men before our beloved Kansas accom- 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 85 

plishes its destiny, before it fulfills its motto, "To the Stars Through Diffi- 
culties." 

"Look backward, how much has been won; 

Look forward, how much is yet to win. 
The watches of the night are done; 

The watches of the day begin." 

Following the reading of his address the president called for the 
report of the committee on nominations for directors of the Society, 
which was read by the secretary as follows: 

October 18, 1932. 
To the Kansas State Historical Society: 

Your committee on nominations make leave to submit the following report 
and recommendations for directors of the Society for the year ending Oc- 
tober, 1935: 

Aitchison, R. T., Wichita. Knapp, Dallas W., Coffeyville. 

Bowman, Noah L., Garnett. McLean, Milton R., Topeka. 

Capper, Arthur, Topeka. McNeal, T. A., Topeka. 

Cory, C. E., Fort Scott. Malin, James C., Lawrence. 

Crosby, E. H., Topeka. Mason, Mrs. Henry F., Topeka. 

Dawson, John S., Hill City. Morehouse, George P., Topeka. 

Denison, W. W., Topeka. Plumb, George, Emporia. 

Doerr, Mrs. Laura P. V., Larned. Raynesford, H. C., Ellis. 

Doran, Thomas F., Topeka. Russell, W. J., Topeka. 

Ellenbecker, John G., Marysville. Smith, Win. E., Wamego. 

Harvey, Mrs. Sally, Topeka. Spratt, 0. M., Baxter Springs. 

Hobble, Frank A., Dodge City. Stevens, Caroline F., Lawrence. 

Hodder, F. H., Lawrence. Thompson, W. F., Topeka. 

Hogin, John C., Belleville. Van Tuyl, Mrs. Effie H., Leavenworth. 

Huggins, Wm. L., Emporia. Walker, Mrs. Ida M., Norton. 

Humphrey, H. L., Abilene. Wilson, John H., Salina. 

Johnston, Mrs. W. A., Topeka. 

Respectfully submitted, 

MBS. HENRY F. MASON, 
ISABELLB C. HARVEY, 
E. E. KELLEY, 
JAMES C. MALIN, 
E. A. RYAN, 

Committee. 

On motion of Colonel Woolard, seconded by General Metcalf , these 
directors were unanimously elected for the term ending Oc- 
tober, 1935. 

The president called on Mrs. Frank Hardesty, president of the 
Shawnee Mission Indian Historical Society, to read the annual 
report of the work of her organization. In closing she read a poem 
by Bernice G. Fraser on the Old Shawnee Mission. Mrs. Hardesty 
then introduced Mrs. Edna Anderson, of Kansas City, Mo., who was 



86 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

born at the mission and who is a daughter of Rev. Thomas John- 
son, its founder. Mrs. Anderson expressed her appreciation for 
the work of the State Society and the cooperation of the Shawnee 
Mission Indian Historical Society. 

Miss Edna Nyquist, secretary of the McPherson County Histori- 
cal Society, was called upon and spoke briefly about the work being 
done in that county. 

Judge Dawson introduced the two members of the Grand Army 
of the Republic who were present, J. W. Priddy, department adju- 
tant, and Col. W. W. Denison, prefacing his introduction by calling 
attention to the debt the Historical Society owes the G. A. R. for 
the beautiful Memorial Building in which it is housed. Mr. Priddy 
and Colonel Denison both responded with short talks. 

President Dawson told of the work being done by the Society in 
the preservation of old manuscripts and documents, and called upon 
the secretary to explain the processes used. Mr. Mechem explained 
that the repair work is based on the methods in use at the Library 
of Congress and exhibited samples of old manuscripts in various 
stages of repair. 

H. C. Raynesford, of Ellis, a director of the Society, was asked 
by the president to explain the work he has done in tracing the 
Butterfield Overland Despatch road through Ellis and Trego coun- 
ties, which was first surveyed by the government in the 1850's as 
a mail line between Missouri and the Rocky Mountains. Mr. 
Raynesford told how he had been assisted in this undertaking by 
Mr. Charles A. Baugher, who was present at the meeting. He dis- 
played a number of sections of detailed survey maps to illustrate 
his talk, and explained some of the difficulties which arise due to 
the fact that the old trails and station sites have been almost oblit- 
erated. Mr. Raynesford stated that they expected to complete the 
surveys to the western boundary of the state. 

Gen. Wilder S. Metcalf called attention to the fact that the route 
of the old Oregon trail can be seen in six places on highway number 
40 between Topeka and Lawrence, and stated that more markings 
should be erected on the old trail. 

No further business being presented, the meeting adjourned. 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 87 

MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS. 

The afternoon meeting of the board of directors was called to 
order by the president. The secretary read the names of life, hon- 
orary and annual members to be elected by the board, as follows: 

LIFE MEMBERS. 

William A. Bailey, Kansas City, Kan. Frank T. Sullivan, Lawrence. 

Dr. Loyal Davis, Chicago, 111. McPherson County Historical Society, 
Jasper Younkin, Kansas City, Kan. McPherson. 

Dr. Margaret Bostic, Topeka. Coburn Library, Colorado College, 
Miss Kate Stephens, New York, N. Y. Colorado Springs. 

Julius M. Liepman, Fort Scott. Kiowa County Historical Society, 
Clarence Mershon, Oakley. Mullinville. 

O. D. Sartin, Cedarvale. 

ANNUAL MEMBERS. 

Lucile Lukens, Lenora. Agnes Emery, Lawrence. 

Mrs. Martha O. Colvin, Neosho, Mo. Salina Memorial Art Co., Salina. 

HONORARY MEMBER. 
Mrs. John A. Hall, Pleasanton. 

On motion of Col. Sam F. Woolard, seconded by Thomas Amory 
Lee, they were unanimously elected to membership. 

The president called for a rereading of the report of the nominat- 
ing committee for officers of the Society. On motion of Colonel 
Woolard, seconded by Colonel Denison, the following officers were 
elected : 

For a one-year term: Thomas Amory Lee, president; H. K. Lindsley, first 
vice president; T. F. Doran, second vice president; 

For a two-year term: Kirke Mechem, secretary; Mrs. Mary Embree, 
treasurer. 

President Dawson called upon the newly elected president, Mr. 
Thomas Amory Lee, who thanked the board and made a brief talk. 

Sen. H. K. Lindsley, of Wichita, inquired if it is necessary for 
newly elected members to wait for the annual meeting to ratify their 
election before certificates of membership can be issued to them. 
It was pointed out that the by-laws adopted the year previously 
gave the power to ratify memberships and issue certificates to the 
executive committee. 

No further business being brought before the board the meeting 
adjourned. KIRKE MECHEM, Secretary. 



88 



THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 



DIRECTORS FOR YEAR 
Beeks, Charles E., Baldwin. 
Beezley, George F., Girard. 
Bonebrake, Fred B., Topeka. 
Bowlus, Thomas H., Tola. 
Browne, Charles H., Horton. 
Dean, John S., Topeka. 
Embree, Mrs. Mary, Topeka. 
Gray, John M., Kirwin. 
Harger, Charles M., Abilene. 
Harvey, Mrs. Isabelle C., Topeka. 
Haucke, Frank, Council Grove. 
Kagey, Charles L., Beloit. 
Kinkel, John M., Topeka. 
Lee, Thomas Amory, Topeka. 
McFarland, Helen M., Topeka. 
Malone, James, Topeka. 
Mechem, Kirke, Topeka. 

DIRECTORS FOR YEAR 
Austin, E. A., Topeka. 
Berryman, J. W., Ashland. 
Brigham, Mrs. Lalla M., 

Council Grove. 
Brooks, H. K., Topeka. 
Bumgardner, Dr. Edward, Lawrence. 
Curtis, Charles, Topeka. 
Davis, John W., Dodge City. 
Denious, Jess C., Dodge City. 
Frizell, E. E., Larned. 
Godsey, Mrs. Flora L, Emporia. 
Hall, Mrs. Carrie A., Leavenworth. 
Hamilton, Clad, Topeka. 
Haskin, S. B., Olathe. 
Hegler, Ben F., Wichita. 
Jones, Horace, Lyons. 
Kelley, E. E., Topeka. 
Lillard, T. M., Topeka. 

DIRECTORS FOR YEAR 
Aitchison, R. T., Wichita. 
Bowman, Noah L., Garnett. 
Capper, Arthur, Topeka. 
Cory, C. E., Fort Scott. 
Crosby, E. H., Topeka. 
Dawson, John S., Hill City. 
Denison, W. W., Topeka. 
Doerr, Mrs. Laura P. V., Larned. 
Doran, Thomas F., Topeka. 



ENDING OCTOBER, 1933. 
Metcalf, Wilder S., Lawrence. 
Morrison, T. F., Chanute. 
Norris, Mrs. George, Arkansas City. 
O'Neil, Ralph, Topeka. 
Philip, Mrs. W. D., Hays. 
Rankin, Robert C., Lawrence. 
Ruppenthal, J. C., Russell. 
Ryan, Ernest A., Topeka. 
Sawtell, James H., Topeka. 
Simons, W. C., Lawrence. 
Soller, August, Washington. 
Stanley, W. E., Wichita. 
Stone, Robert, Topeka. 
Trembly, W. B., Kansas City, Kan. 
Walker, B. P., Osborne. 
Woodward, Chester, Topeka. 

ENDING OCTOBER, 1934. 
Lindsley, H. K., Wichita. 
McCarter, Mrs. Margaret Hill, 

Topeka. 

Mercer, J. H., Topeka. 
Oliver, Hannah P., Lawrence. 
Patrick, Mrs. Mae C., Satanta. 
Reed, Clyde M., Parsons. 
Rupp, Mrs. W. E., Hillsboro. 
Scott, Charles F., lola. 
Schultz, Floyd, Clay Center. 
Shirer, H. L., Topeka. 
Van De Mark, M. V. B., Concordia. 
Van Petten, A. E., Topeka. 
Wark, George H., Kansas City, Kan. 
Wheeler, Mrs. B. R., Topeka. 
Woolard, Sam F., Wichita. 
Wooster, Lorraine E., Salina. 

ENDING OCTOBER, 1935. 
Knapp, Dallas W., Coffeyville. 
Ellenbecker, John G., Marysville. 
Harvey, Mrs. Sally, Topeka. 
Hobble, Frank A., Dodge City. 
Hodder, F. H., Lawrence. 
Hogin, John C., Belleville. 
Huggins, Wm. L., Emporia. 
Humphrey, H. L., Abilene. 
Johnston, Mrs. W. A., Topeka. 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 89 

McLean, Milton R., Topeka. Smith, Wm. E., Wamego. 

McNeal, T. A., Topeka. Spratt, O. M., Baxter Springs. 

Malin, James C., Lawrence. Stevens, Caroline F., Lawrence. 

Mason, Mrs. Henry F., Topeka. Thompson, W. F., Topeka. 

Morehouse, George P., Topeka. Van Tuyl, Mrs. Effie H., 
Plumb, George, Emporia. Leavenworth. 

Raynesford, H. C., Ellis. Walker, Mrs. Ida M., Norton. 

Russell, W. J., Topeka. Wilson, John H., Salina. 



Recent Additions to the Library 

Compiled by HELEN M. MCFARLAND, Librarian 

OINCE the library is specialized, books which are purchased or re- 
O ceived by gift generally fall into the following classes: the 
Kansas library, including books by Kansans and books about Kan- 
sas; the western section, covering explorations, overland journeys, 
and tales of the early West; genealogy and local history, including 
family histories, vital records, Revolutionary records, publications of 
patriotic and hereditary societies, and state, county and town his- 
tories; and books on the Indians of North America, United States 
history and biography. 

We are always interested in obtaining information about Kansas 
authors and their work and shall consider it a great favor if our 
readers will send us any information that will put us in touch with 
local authors. 

The following books have been added to the library from October 
1, 1931, to October 1, 1932: 

KANSAS. 

BATES, GLEN CORA, Glowing Embers. Rifle, Colo., Press of the Rifle Telegram 
[c. 1931]. 

BEEBE, CHARLES P., Kansas Facts. Vol. 3. Topeka, Beebe [c. 1931]. 

BELL, ARCH L., Who's Who in the Kansas Legislature; Session 1931. Great 
Bend, Howell Printing Company, 1931. 

BLANCHARD, LEOLA H., Conquest of Southwest Kansas. Wichita, Kan., Wichita 
Eagle Press [c. 1931]. 

CLAYTON, CHARLES LINCOLN, God, Evolution and Mind Healing. Wellington, 
Kan., The American School of Science and Religion, 1923. 

COUNTS, GEORGE SYLVESTER, Dare the School Build a New Social Order? New 
York, John Day [c. 1932]. 

Soviet Challenge to America. New York, John Day [c. 1931]. 

COUNTS, GEORGE SYLVESTER, tr., New Russia's Primer, by M. Ilin. The Story 
of the Five Year Plan. Boston, Houghton [c. 1931]. 

COWAN, MRS. EDWINA EUNICE (ABBOTT), and Avis D. CARLSON, Bringing Up 
Your Child; a Practical Manual. New York, Duffield & Company [c. 1930]. 

COWAN, MRS. EDWINA EUNICE (ABBOTT), and LAURA THORNBOROUGH, pseud., 
The Psychologist Keeps House. Minneapolis, Midwest Company, 1930. 

CURROR, D., Scotch Enterprise in America. Mr. George Grant's Great Prop- 
erty; Victoria in Kansas ... an Explanation to an Enquiring Scotch- 
man Who Contemplated Emigration. Edinburgh, Colston, 1873. 

DAVIDSON, CHARLES LOCK, Dilson's Key, by the Commodore. Wichita, Kan., 
The Goldsmith-Woolard Publishing Company, 1916. 

DENTZER, PHYLLIS, Story of Abilene High School, 1880-1932. no impr. 

DONEGHY, DAGMAR, The Border; a Missouri Saga. New York, W. Morrow & 
Company, 1931. 

(90) 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 91 

DRISCOLL, CHARLES BENEDICT, Treasure Aboard. New York, Farrar and Rine- 

hart [c. 1931]. 

EBLE, JESSIE G., The Red Trail. New York, H. Harrison [c. 1931]. 
EISELE, WILBERT EDWIN, The Real Wild Bill Hickock. Denver, Colo., W. H. 

Andre, 1931. 
ELLENBECKER, JOHN G., Oak Grove Massacre (Oak Grove, Nebraska) ; Indian 

Raids on the Little Blue River in 1864' Marysville, Advocate-Democrat 

[1926?]. 
ELLIOTT, R. S., Kansas Pacific Railway; Experiments in Cultivation on the 

Western Plains. St. Louis, Levison & Blythe, 1872. 

English Enterprise in America; Notes Addressed to Investors and Settlers Con- 
cerning the Estate of Victoria (Ellis County, Kansas, U. /S.) Property of Mr. 

George Grant. Edinburgh, John Lindsay, 1874. 
FISHER, HUGH T., Communism in Soviet Russia; Its Challenge to Thinking 

Americans. [Topeka, Kan.] Capper Printing Company [c. 1932]. 
FREDERICKSON, OTTO FROVIN, Liquor Question Among the Indian Tribes in 

Kansas, 1804-1881. Lawrence, Kansas University, 1932. 
FRENCH, LAURA MARGARET, History of Emporia and Lyon County. Emporia, 

Kan., Emporia Gazette Print, 1929. 
GERMAN, JOHN LUKE, The Ceaseless Circle; a Series of Sermons. New York, 

Fleming H. Revell Company [c. 1931]. 

GRAY, GEORGE M., Fifty Years in Practice of Medicine, no impr. 
HARRIS, DWIGHT THACHER, and CLIFFORD V. SOUDERS, Fifty Years of History; 

Topeka Typographical Union No. 121. Topeka, Kan., Capper [c. 1932]. 
History of Southwest Kansas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 

Vol. 1, 1869-1931. n. p., Published by the Conference, n. d. 
HOYT, CHARLES B., Story; History of Field Hospital 139 of Topeka, Kansas, 

in the Great War, 1917-1918-1919. [Topeka, Jones & Birch, n. d.] 
HUGHES, LANGSTON, Negro Mother, and Other Dramatic Recitations. New 

York, Golden Stair Press [c. 1931]. 
INDEPENDENCE, FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH, Brief Historical Statement of the 

Founding, Establishment and Accomplishments of Independence, Kansas, 

and the First Christian Church. Independence, n. p., 1931. 
ISELY, CHARLES C., Cast Out the Demon Depression. Dodge City, Kan., 

Wheat Belt Intelligence [c. 1932]. 

JACQUART, ROLLAND, Prairie Lore. Sublette, Kan., Sublette Monitor, 1931. 
JENNINGS, P. J., Celestial Trails, a Story Written Exclusively for the Amateur 

Astronomer and Those Who Love the Starry Nights. Kansas City, Mo., 

Burton Publishing Company [c. 1931]. 

KANSAS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, Organization Handbook; Tax Study in Thir- 
teen Lessons, n. p. [c. 1932]. 
KANSAS STATE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, Fifty Years of History; 

Kansas State Y. M. C. A., 1882-1932. no impr. 
KARSNER, DAVID, Silver Dollar; the Story of the Tabors. New York, Covici, 

Friede [c. 1932]. 
KESTING, CARMEA L., Repression, Plowing Time and Other Stones. Kansas 

City, Mo., Burton Publishing Company [c. 1930]. 
LAKE, STUART N., Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal. Boston, Houghton Mifflin 

Company, 1931. 
LARKIN, MARGARET, Singing Cowboy, a Book of Western Songs. New York, 

A. A. Knopf, 1931. 

LONG, SIDNEY, The Cry of the Newsboy. Kansas City, Mo., Burton Publish- 
ing Company [c. 1928]. 



92 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

MALIN, JAMES CLAUDE, The Background of the First Bills to Establish a Bu- 
reau of Markets, 1911-12. no impr. 

Colonel Harvey and His Forty Thieves, no impr. 

The United States After the World War. [Boston] Ginn & Company 

[c. 1930]. 

MARCY, JAMES HORACE, Kansas Ballads. Kansas City, Mo., Burton Publishing 
Company [c. 1927]. 

MONROE, DAY, Chicago Families; a Study of Unpublished Census Data. Chi- 
cago, University of Chicago Press [c. 1932]. 

MOSHER, ORVILLE W., JR., Louis XI; King of France, as He Appears in History 
and in Literature. Toulouse, Imprimerie et Librarie Edouard Privat, 1925. 

NATION, MRS. CARRIE AMELIA (MOORE), Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. 
Nation. Topeka, Kan., Steves, 1909. 

New and Attractive Field for Emigrants; Important Information Concerning 
the Best and Cheapest Farming Grazing Lands in Kansas, the Central State 
of the U. S., viz., Victoria, no impr. 

ORTON, ORPORIO L., Out Here in Kansas. Lawrence, Kan., The World Com- 
pany, 1931. 

Sunny Spots in the Sunny State. Lawrence, Kan., The World Com- 
pany, 1932. 

PICKRELL, ESTEL MARIE, The History of Van Huss District. Leon, Kan., Wil- 
liam A. Sears, 1931. 

PINET, FRANK L., A Sheaf of Tares, no impr. 

PROCTER, ADDISON G., Lincoln and the Convention of 1860. Chicago, Chicago 
Historical Society, 1918. 

RANDOLPH, VANCE, The Ozarks; an American Survival of Primitive Society. 
New York, The Vanguard Press [c. 1931]. 

ROBINSON, MAY GRIFFEE, Immortal Dream Dust, a Story of Pioneer Life on a 
Kansas Homestead. Kansas City, Mo., Burton Publishing Company [c. 
1931]. 

ROE, HERBERT N., and WILLIAM E. LANDERS, Ginger. Kansas City, Mo., Bur- 
ton Publishing Company [c. 1927]. 

ST. MARYS, CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. Historical Sketch Com- 
memorating the Golden Jubilee of the Third Parish Church Dedicated to 
the Immaculate Conception, 1848, 1874, 1881, 1931. St. Marys, n. p., n. d. 

SHELDON, CHARLES MONROE, He is Here. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1931. 

SIMPSON, WILLIAM H., and CHARLES SUMNER GLEED, Expert in Friendliness; 
an Appreciation. Chicago, n. p., 1931. 

SLANE, C. P., Flashlights and Territorial Reminiscences of Kansas; in Verse. 
Cincinnati, Editor Publishing Company, 1900. 

SMITH, GEORGE T., Critique on Higher Criticism. Winfield, Kan., Industrial 
Free Press, 1900. 

SMITH, J. WESLEY, Life Story of J. Wesley Smith of Ottawa, Kansas, Written 
in His Eighty-Ninth Year. Decatur, 111., Decatur Printing Company [c. 
1930]. 

SMITH, LLOYD, The Paper Route; a Training for Any Business or Profession. 
Kansas City, Mo., Burton Publishing Company [c. 1929]. 

SOUTHWESTERN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY [Directories of Various Kansas 
Towns] . 

THOMPSON, WALLACE, Greater America; an Interpretation of Latin America 
in Relation to Anglo-Saxon America. New York, E. P. Dutton & Company 
[c. 1932]. 

THORPE, MERLE, Organized Business Leadership. New York, Harper & Broth- 
ers, 1931. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 93 

TOPEKA HIGH SCHOOL, PUBLICATIONS DEPARTMENT, Sixty-two Years of History 
in the Topeka High School, 1870-1932. Topeka, Kan., College Press, 1932. 

WARD, MAT WILLIAMS, In Double Rhythm, Poems and Block Prints, n. p., 
1929. 

That Perfect Figure; a Farce in Three Short Acts. Hutchinson, Kan., 

Prism Publishing Company, n. d. 

WELLS, CARVETH, Kansas. Ponca City, Okla., Continental Oil Company [c. 

1932.] 
WHITE CHURCH COMMUNITY CHURCH, Centennial Celebration of the White 

Church Mission at White Church, Kansas, May 29, 1932. no impr. 
WINCH, FRANK, Thrilling Lives of Buffalo Bill, Colonel William F. Cody, 

Last of the Great Scouts; and Pawnee Bill, Major Gordon W. Lillie, White 

Chief of the Pawnees. New York, S. L. Parsons & Company [c. 1911]. 
WINROD, J. W., Redeeming the Years the Locust Hath Eaten. Wichita, Kan., 

Defender Publishing Company [c. 1932]. 
WOODMAN, HANNAH REA, General Marion's Company Dinner. Lockport, 111., 

Old Tower Press [c. 1932]. 

The Noahs Afloat; an Historical Romance. New York, Neale Publish- 
ing Company, 1905. 

The Open Road; a Book of Outcast Verse. Poughkeepsie, Priv. print 

by the author, 1910. 

Tumbleweed Poems. Poughkeepsie, N. Y., A. V. Haight Company 

[c. 1909]. 

THE WEST. 

AMBLER, CHARLES HENRY, History of Transportation in the Ohio Valley. 

Glendale, Calif., The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1932. 
BABB, THEODORE ADOLPHUS, In the Bosom of the Comanches. [Dallas] Press 

of John F. Worley Printing Company [c. 1912]. 
BANDEL, EUGENE, Frontier Life in the Army, 1854-1861. Glendale, Calif., The 

Arthur H. Clark Company, 1932. 
BARKER, RUTH LAUGHLIN, Caballeros. New York, D. Appleton & Company, 

1931. 
BARNETT, JOEL, A Long Trip in a Prairie Schooner. Glendale, Calif., The 

Arthur H. Clark Company [1928]. 
BOYNTON, PERCY HOLMES, Rediscovery of the Frontier. Chicago, University 

of Chicago Press [c. 1931], 
BRYCE, GEORGE, The Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company. 

London, S. Low, Marston & Company, 1900. 
CAMPBELL, MALCOLM, Malcolm Campbell, Sheriff. Casper, Wyoming, Wyom- 

ingana Inc. [c. 1932]. 
CHAPMAN, ARTHUR, Pony Express; the Record of a Romantic Adventure in 

Business. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1932. 

COOLIDGE, DANE, Fighting Men of the West. New York, E. P. Dutton & Com- 
pany, Inc. [c. 1932]. 
DOBIE, JAMES FRANK, Coronado's Children. Dallas, The Southwest Press 

[c. 1930]. 

On the Open Range. Dallas, The Southwest Press [c. 1931]. 

DODGE, GRENVILLE MELLEN, Paper Read Before the Society of the Army of the 

Tennessee. . . . [Romantic Realities] New York, Styles & Cash, printers 

1888. 
GHENT, WILLIAM JAMES, The Early Far West; a Narrative Outline. New 

York, Longmans, Green & Company, 1931. 
HORN, HOSEA B., Horn's Overland Guide. New York, Published by J. H. 

Colton, 1853. 



94 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

HULBERT, ARCHER BUTLER, Forty-Niners. Boston, Little, Brown & Company, 
1931. 

JOHNSON, OVERTON, Route Across the Rocky Mountains. Reprinted from the 
edition of 1846. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1932. 

LAUT, AGNES CHRISTINA, Pilgrims of the Santa Fe. New York, Frederick A. 
Stokes Company, 1931. 

LEEPER, DAVID ROHRBR, The Argonauts of Forty-Nine. South Bend, Ind., J. 
B. Stoll & Company, 1894. 

LITTLE, JAMES A., From Kirkland to Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City, James 
A. Little, Publisher, 1890. 

MARQUIS, THOMAS BAILEY, A Warrior Who Fought Ouster. Minneapolis, The 
Midwest Company, 1931. 

MERKLEY, CHRISTOPHER, Biography of Christopher Merkley, Written by Him- 
self. Salt Lake City, Parry, 1887. 

NELSON, JOHN YOUNG, Fifty Years on the Trail, a True Story of Western Life, 
by Harrington O'Reilly. New York, Warne & Company, 1889. 

PARRISH, PHILIP H., Before the Covered Wagon. Portland, Oregon, Metropoli- 
tan Press, 1931. 

PETERS, DEWrrr CLINTON, Kit Carson's Life and Adventures. Hartford, 
Conn., Dustin, Oilman & Company, 1874. 

ROBINSON, JACOB S., Journal of the Santa Fe Expedition Under Colonel Doni- 
phan. Reprinted from the edition of 1848. Princeton, Princeton University 
Press, 1932. 

SABIN, EDWIN LEGRAND, Building the Pacific Railway. Philadelphia, J. B. Lip- 
pincott Company, 1919. 

TALBOT, THEODORE, Journals of Theodore Talbot, 1848 and 1849-62. Portland, 
Oregon, Metropolitan Press, 1931. 

VILLARD, HENRY, The Past and Present of Pike's Peak Gold Regions. Re- 
printed from the edition of 1860. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 
1932. 

WARE, JOSEPH E., The Emigrants' Guide to California. Reprinted from the 
1849 edition. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1932. 

WEBB, WALTER PRESCOTT, The Great Plains. [Boston] Ginn & Company 
[c. 1931]. 

GENEALOGY AND LOCAL HISTORY. 

ABERNETHY, THOMAS PERKINS, From Frontier to Plantation in Tennessee. 
Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1932. 

ALDRICH, LEWIS CASS, ed., History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania. Syra- 
cuse, New York, D. Mason & Company, 1887. 

AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC., New York, Epperson and Allied Families ; 
Genealogical and Biographical. New York, American Historical Society, 
1931. 

ANDERSON, JOHN, Historical and Genealogical Memoirs of the House of Ham- 
ilton; with Genealogical Memoirs of the Several Branches of the Family. 
Edinburgh, Anderson, n. d. 

ANTRIM, JOSHUA, History of Champaign and Logan Counties, From Their 
First Settlement. Bellefontaine, O., Press Printing Company, 1872. 

Archives of Maryland. Vols. 48-49. Baltimore, Maryland Historical Society, 
1931-1932. 

ARMSTRONG, ZELLA, History of Hamilton County and Chattanooga, Tennessee. 
Chattanooga, Tenn., The Lookout Publishing Company [c. 1931]. 

BARNEY, ELVIRA STEVENS, Stevens Genealogy, Embracing Branches of the Fam- 
ily Descended from Puritan Ancestry. Salt Lake City, Skeleton Publishing 
Company, 1907. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 95 

BELL, CHARLES HENRY, History of the Town of Exeter, New Hampshire. 
Exeter [Press of J. E. Farwell & Company, Boston], 1888. 

The Exeter Quarter-Millennial. Exeter, News Letter Press, 1888. 

BENEDICT, WILLIAM H., New Brunswick in History. New Brunswick, N. J., 

The Author, 1925. 
BEST, FRANK EUGENE, comp., John Keep of Longmeadow, Massachusetts, 1660- 

1676, and His Descendants. Chicago, Frank E. Best, 1899. 
BINGHAM, ROBERT W., The Cradle of the Queen City; a History of Buffalo to 
the Incorporation of the City. Buffalo, Buffalo Historical Society, 1931. 
[Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society, Vol. 31.] 
Blair Magazine ; Official Bulletin of the Blair Society for Genealogical Research. 

Vol. 1, Nos. 1-10. Erie, Pa., Society, 1925-1930. 

BLAKE, FRANCIS EVERETT, Increase Blake of Boston, His Ancestors and De- 
scendants. Boston [Press of David Clapp & Son] 1898. 

BOSCAWEN, N. H., 150th Anniversary of the Settlement of Boscawen and Web- 
ster, August 16, 1883. Concord, N. H., Printed by the Republican Press 
Association, 1884. 
BOUGHTON, JAMES, Bouton-Boughton Family; Descendants of John Bouton. 

Albany, Munsell, 1890. 
BOUTON, NATHANIEL, History of Concord from . . . 1725 to . . . 1853. 

Concord, N. H., B. W. Sanborn, 1856. 
BOYLESTON, EDWARD DUDLEY, comp., Historical Sketch of the Hillsborough 

County Congresses. Amherst, N. H., Farmers' Cabinet Press, 1884. 
BROOKHAVEN, N. Y., Records of the Town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, 
New York. Patchogue, N. Y., printed at the office of the Advance, 1880- 
1893. 

BULLARD, EDGAR JOHN, Bennett and Allied Families; Addenda to Bullard and 
Allied Families. Detroit, E. J. Bullard, 1931. 

Bullard and Allied Families. Detroit, E. J. Bullard, 1930. 

Other Bullards, A Genealogy Supplementary to Bullard and Allied 

Families. Port Austin^ Mich., E. J. Bullard, 1928. 
BURKE, ARTHUR MEREDITH, The Prominent Families in the United States of 

America. Vol. 1. London, Sackville Press, 1908. 
BURNHAM, E. J., Some Early Chapters in Epsom's History. Manchester, N. 

H., Gould, n. d. 

BURNS, ANNIE WALKER, Kentucky Vital Records. [Record of Marriages in 
Bourbon, Fayette, Franklin and Woodford Counties, Kentucky, to 1851.'] 
4 vols. no impr. 

CANTRELL, MRS. EMMA MARIA HARRELL, comp., Annals of Christ Church Parish 
of Little Rock, Arkansas, from A.D. 1839 to A.D. 1899. Little Rock, Arkan- 
sas Democrat Company, 1900. 

CHAMBERLAYNE, C. G., The Vestry Book of Stratton Major Parish, King and 
Queen County, Virginia, 1729-1783. Richmond, Division of Purchase and 
Printing, 1931. 
CLARK, EDWARD STEPHENS, The Stephens Family with Collateral Branches. 

San Francisco, Jos. Winterburn Company, 1892. 
CLARKE, MAURICE D., Manchester: Brief Record of Its Past and a Picture of 

Its Present. Manchester, N. H., J. B. Clark, 1875. 

CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE. CITY HISTORICAL COMMISSION. History of Con- 
cord, New Hampshire, From Original Grant in 1725 to the Opening of the 
Twentieth Century. [Concord, N. H., Rumford Press, 1903.] 
CONNECTICUT HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Collections. Vol. 24. Hartford, Conn., pub- 
lished by the Society, 1932. 



96 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

County Court Note Book. Index, Vols. 7-9. no impr. 

CURTIS, JONATHAN, Topographical and Historical Sketch of Epsom, New 

Hampshire. Pittsfield, N. H., Analecta Publishing House, 1885. 
DANIELS, GEORGE FISHER, Notes on a Franklin Branch of Daniell or Daniels 

Family. Oxford, Mass., n. p., 1897. 
DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, Lineage Books. Vols. 121-126. 

Washington, D. C., 1931. 
DAVIS, GEORGE LUCIEN, comp., Samuel Davis of Oxford, Massachusetts, and 

Joseph Davis of Dudley, Massachusetts, and Their Descendants. North 

Andover, Mass., Geo. L. Davis, 1884. 
DENNY, CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, comp., Genealogy of the Denny Family in 

England and America. Leicester, Mass. [Worcester, Press of C. Hamilton] 

1886. 
DENSMORE, LYMAN WILLARD, Handbook of Hartwell Genealogy, 1636-1887*. 

Boston, Geo. E. Crosby & Company, 1887. 
DERBY, SAMUEL CARROLL, Early Dublin; a List of Revolutionary Soldiers of 

Dublin, New Hampshire. Columbus, O. [Press of Spahr & Glenn] 1901. 
DODGE, JACOB RICHARDS, Hillsborough County Records; a Glimpse of Business 

and Resources of Thirty-one Towns. Nashua, N. H., Dodge & Noyes, 1853. 
ELLIS, FRANKLIN, ed., History of Columbia County, New York. Philadelphia, 

Everts & Ensign, 1878. 
History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, L. H. Everts 

& Company, 1882. 
FAXON, FREDERICK WINTHROP, ed., Annual Magazine Subject-Index, 1930. 

Boston, F. W. Faxon Company, 1931. 
FELTON, CYRUS, A Genealogical History of the Felton Family. Marlborough, 

Mass., Pratt Brothers, 1886. 
FITTS, JAMES HILL, Historical Discourse Delivered at Centennial Anniversary 

of the Congregational Church, Candia, New Hampshire, April 6, 1871. 

Exeter, N. H., The News-Letter Press, 1903. 
FULHAM, VOLNEY SEW ALL, The Fulham Genealogy with Index of Names and 

Blanks for Records. Burlington [Vt.] Free Press Printing Company, 1910. 
GARDNER, LILLIAN MAY (STICKNEY), and CHARLES MORRIS GARDNER, Gardner 

History and Genealogy. Erie, Pa., Erie Printing Company [c. 1907], 
GEROULD, SAMUEL L., The New England Meeting House with a History of the 

Congregational Meeting Houses in Hollis, New Hampshire. Nashua, N. H., 

Telegraph Publishing Company, 1904. 

HALL, JOHN, and SAMUEL CLARKSON, Memoirs of Matthew Clarkson of Phila- 
delphia, 1735-1800 . . . and of His Brother, Gerardus Clarkson, 1737- 

1790 . . . [Philadelphia, Thomson Printing Company] 1890. 
Handbook of American Genealogy; edited by Frederick Adams Virkus. Vol. 1, 

1932. n.p., Institute of American Genealogy [c. 1932]. 
HILL, JOHN BOYNTON, Proceedings of the Centennial Celebration of the 160th 

Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town of Mason, New Hampshire. 

Boston, Elliott, Thomes & Talbot, 1870. 

History of Coles County, Illinois. Chicago, W. LeBaron, Jr., & Company, 1879. 
History of Hancock County, Ohio. Chicago, Warner, Beers & Company, 1886. 
HOPEWELL, N. J., Town Records of Hopewell, New Jersey. New York, Printed 

by Little & Ives Company, 1931. 
HUNT, JOHN EDDY, comp., The Pound and Kester Families. Chicago, Regan 

Printing House, 1904. 

HUNTING-TON, N. Y., FIRST CHURCH, Records of the First Church in Hunting- 
ton, Long Island, 1723-1779. Huntington, N. Y., Printed for Moses L. 

Scudder, 1899. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 97 

ILLINOIS STATE HISTORICAL LIBRARY, Publication Thirty-Eight; Transactions of 
the Illinois State Historical Society for the Year 1931. Printed by authority 
of the State of Illinois [1932]. 
JACOBUS, DONALD LINES, Index to Genealogical Periodicals. New Haven, Conn., 

D. L. Jacobus, 1932. 
JONES, LEWIS HAMPTON, Captain Roger Jones of London and Virginia. Albany, 

N. Y., J. Munsell's Sons, 1891. 
JONES, NELSON E., Squirrel Hunters of Ohio; or Glimpses of Pioneer Life. 

Cincinnati, The R. Clarke Company [c. 1897]. 
LANCASTER, N. H., 150th Anniversary of Lancaster, New Hampshire, 1764-1914. 

[Lancaster, N. H.] The Committee [1914]. 

LANE, HANNAH ELIZABETH FERBIER, Thomas Ferrier and Some of His De- 
scendants. Elkhorn, Wis., The Independent, 1906. 

LAWRENCE, R. F., New Hampshire Churches; Comprising Histories of Congre- 
gational and Presbyterian Churches in the State. Claremont, N. H., Power 
Press, 1856. 

LITTLE, HENRY OILMAN, HoUis [New Hampshire] Seventy Years Ago; Per- 
sonal Recollections. Grinell, la., Ray & MacDonald, 1894. 
LITTLETON, N. H., Chiswick, 1764. Apthorp, 1770. Littleton, 1784. Exercises 
at the Centennial Celebration of the Incorporation of the Town of Littleton, 
July 4th, 1884. Concord, N. H., New Hampshire Democratic Press Com- 
pany, 1887. 
LIVERMORE, ARTHUR, Seventy Years Ago; Reminiscences of Haverill Corner. 

Woodsville, N. H., News Print, 1902. 

LIVINGSTON, W. W., Historical Discourse Delivered in the Congregational 

Church, Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Peterboro, N. H., Transcript Office, 1896. 

McCALL, ETTIE TIDWELL, comp., McCall-Tidwell and Allied Families. Atlanta, 

Ga., The Author, 1931. 

MCLEAN, ANGUS WILTON, Public Papers and Letters of Angus Wilton McLean, 
Governor of North Carolina, 1925-1929. [Raleigh, Presses of Edwards & 
Broughton Company] 1931. 

MANCHESTER, N. H., Semi-Centennial of the City of Manchester, New Hamp- 
shire, September 6, 7, 8, 9, 1896. Manchester, N. H., The John B. Clarke 
Company, 1897. 

MARSH, Lucius BOLLES, and HARRIET F. PARKER, Bronsdon and Box Families; 
Robert Bronsdon, Merchant . . . and John Box, Ropemaker. Lynn, 
Mass., The Nichols Press, 1902. 
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Proceedings. Vol. 63. Boston, Society, 

1931. 

MAYER, FRANK BLACKWELL, With Pen and Pencil on the Frontier in 1851 ; the 
Diary and Sketches of Frank Blackwell Mayer. St. Paul, Minnesota His- 
torical Society, 1932. 
MELLISH, J. H., Historical Address on the 160th Anniversary of Kindgston. 

Providence, Providence Press, 1876. 

MISSOURI VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, World War Soldier Dead; Memorial. 
Kansas City, Mo., Kellogg-Baxter Printing Company, 1926. (Annals of 
Kansas City, Mo., Vol. 2, No. 1.) 
MOIR, ALEXANDER L., Moir Genealogy and Collateral Lines with Historical 

Notes. [Lowell, Mass., The Author, c. 1913.] 

MORRIS, TYLER SEYMOUR, Ephraim and Pamela (Converse) Morris, Their An- 
cestors and Descendants. Chicago, n. p., 1894. 

MORRISON, LEONARD ALLISON, Supplement to History of Windham in New 
Hampshire. Boston, Damrell & Upham, 1892. 



7-6617 



98 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

MUNSELL, JOEL, Annals of Albany. 10 vols. Albany, N. Y., Joel Munsell, 

1850-59. 

NATIONAL SOCIETY OF COLONIAL DAMES OF AMERICA, NEW HAMPSHIRE, Grave- 
stone Inscriptions. Cambridge, Riverside Press, 1913. 
New Hampshire Annual Register and United States Calendar, 1823, 1827, 1849, 

1853,1889. Concord [1823-1889]. [Publisher varies.] 
New Jersey Archives, First Series, Vol. 34. Abstract of Wills, 1771-1780, Vol. 5, 

Trenton, N. J., MacCrellish & Quigley Company, 1931. 
PALMER, LEWIS, A Genealogical Record of the Descendants of John and Mary 

Palmer, of Concord, Chester (Now Delaware) County, Pennsylvania. Phila- 
delphia, J. B. Lippincott & Company, 1875. 
PARKER, FRANCIS J., Genealogy of the Ainsworth Families in America. Boston, 

Printed for the Compiler, 1894. 
PERRIN, WILLIAM HENRY, ed., History of Effingham County, Illinois. Chicago, 

O. L. Baskin & Company, 1883. 
PLEASANT, HAZEN HAYES, History of Crawford County, Indiana. Glendale, 

Calif., The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1926. 
PRICE, EBENEZER, A Chronological Register of Boscawen, in the County of 

Merrimack and State of New Hampshire, from the First Settlement of the 

Town to 1820. Concord, Printed by J. B. Moore, 1823. 
PRINGLE, JAMES ROBERT, History of the Town and City of Gloucester, Cape 

Ann, Massachusetts. Gloucester, Mass., The Author, 1892. 
READ, BENJAMSIN, History of Swanzey, New Hampshire, from 1734-1890. 

Salem, Mass., The Salem Press, 1892. 
REID, WILLIAM MAXWELL, The Mohawk Valley, Its Legends and Its History. 

New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1901. 
REMICK, OLIVER PHILBRICK, A Record of the Services of the Commissioned 

Officers and Enlisted Men of Kittery and Elliot, Maine. Boston, A. Mudge 

&Son [1901]. 
RICE, FRANKLIN PIERCE, New Hampshire Lake Region Inscriptions. Worcester, 

Mass., F. P. Rice, 1900. 
ROADS, SAMUEL, JR., History and Traditions of Marblehead, Massachusetts. 

Boston, Houghton, Osgood & Company, 1880. 
ROBINSON, C. E., A Concise History of the United Society of Believers Called 

the Shakers. East Canterbury, N. H., n. p. [c. 1893]. 
SCHAEFER, JOSEPH, The Wisconsin Lead Region. Madison, State Historical 

Society of Wisconsin, 1932. 
SHOTWELL, RANDOLPH ABBOTT, The Papers of R. A. Shotwell. Vol. 2. Raleigh, 

North Carolina Historical Commission, 1931. 
SNOW, EDWIN HORTON, The William Snow Family. Providence, Snow & Farn- 

ham, 1908. 
SOCIETY OF MAYFLOWER DESCENDANTS, Mayflower Index, compiled and edited 

for the General Society of Mayflower Descendants by William Alexander 

McAustan, Historian General. 2 vols. [Boston] The General Society of 

Mayflower Descendants, 1932. 
SPOFFORD, CHARLES BYRON, comp., Inscriptions from the Ancient Gravestones 

of Acworth, New Hampshire. [Claremont, N. H., Priv. print., 1908.] 
SULLIVAN, JOHN, Letters and Papers. 2 vols. Concord, N. H., New Hampshire 

Historical Society, 1930-1931. 
THOMPSON, MARY PICKERING, Landmarks in Ancient Dover, New Hampshire. 

Durham, N. H. [Concord Republican Press Association] 1892. 
TORRENCE CLAYTON, comp., Virginia Wills and Administrations, 1632-1800. 

Richmond, Va., The William Byrd Press, Inc. [1931]. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 99 

TOWER, CHARLEMAGNE, Tower Genealogy, an Account of the Descendants of 
John Tower, of Hingham, Massachusetts. Cambridge, J. Wilson & Son, 
1891. 

TREADWAY, OSWELL GARLAND, Edward Treadway and His Descendants, 1784- 
1859. Chicago, n. p., 1931. 

VANDERSLJCE, HOWARD, and HOWARD NORMAN MONNETT, comp., Vanderslice and 
Allied Families. [Los Angeles, Printed by Neuner Corporation, c. 1931.] 

VAUGHAN, CHARLES WOODWARD, The Illustrated Laconian. [Laconia, N. H.] 
L. B. Martin, 1899. 

VIRGINIA. COUNCIL OF STATE, Journals of the Council of the State of Virginia. 
2 vols. Richmond, Division of Purchase and Printing, 1931-1932. 

WATTE, Ons FREDERICK REED, History of the Town of Claremont, New Hamp- 
shire. Manchester, N. H., Printed by the John B. Clarke Company, 1895. 

WATLAND, JOHN WALKER, The German Element of the Shenandoah Valley of 
Virginia. Charlottesville, Va., The Author, 1907. 

WEAVER, GUSTINE COURSON, Welch and Allied Families. Cincinnati, Powell & 
White [c. 1932]. 

WHEELER, EDMUND, Croyden, New Hampshire, 1866. Proceedings at the Cen- 
tennial Celebration, June 13, 1866. Claremont, N. H., The Claremont Manu- 
facturing Company, 1867. 

WHITCHER, WILLIAM FREDERICK, Some Things About Coventry-Benton, New 
Hampshire. Woodsville, N. H., News Print, 1905. 

WHITON, JOHN MILTON, History of the Town of Antrim, New Hampshire, for 
a period of One Century; from 1744-1&44- Concord, N. H., Press of Mc- 
Farland & Jenks [1852]. 

WHITTEMORE, HENRY, comp., Our Colonial Ancestors and their Descendants. 
Watertown, N. Y., Printed by the Hungerford-Holbrook Company, 1902. 

WINSLOW, ELLEN GOODE, History of Perquimans County [North Carolina]. 
Raleigh, N. C., Edwards & Broughton, 1931. 

GENERAL. 

ADAMS, JAMES TRUSLOW, Epic of America. Boston, Little, Brown & Company, 

1931. 
ALLEN, FREDERICK LEWIS, Only Yesterday; an Informal History of the Nine- 

teen-Twenties. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1931. 
ALLSOPP, FREDERICK WILLIAM, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas. [New York] 

The Grolier Society, 1931. 
Americana Annual; an Encyclopedia of Current Events, 1932. New York, 

Americana Corporation, 1932. 
AYER, N. W., Directory of Newspapers and Periodicals. Philadelphia, N. W. 

Ayer & Son, Inc., 1932. 
BLACK ELK, Ogalala Indian, Black Elk Speaks; Being the Life Story of a Holy 

Man of the Ogalala Sioux as Told to John G. Neihardt. . . . New York, 

W. Morrow & Company, 1932. 
BLACK HAWK, Sauk Chief, Life of Black Hawk, Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak. 

Reprint. Iowa City, State Historical Society of Iowa, 1932. 
BLEGEN, THEODORE C., Norwegian Migration to America, 1825-1860. Norfield, 

Minn., Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1931. 
CALIFORNIA HISTORICAL SURVEY COMMISSION, California County Boundaries. 

Berkeley, California Historical Survey Commission, 1923. 
CAREY, FRED, Mayor Jim. Omaha, Omaha Printing Company, 1930. 
CHAMPLAIN, SAMUEL DE, Works of Samuel de Champlain. Vol. 4. Toronto, 

Champlain Society, 1932. [Publications of the Champlain Society]. 
Dictionary of American Biography. Vols. 8 and 9. New York, Scribner's, 1932. 



100 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ELLIOT, CHARLES, Indian Missionary Reminiscences, Principally of the Wyan- 
dot Nation. New York, Published by Lane and Scott, 1850. 

Freeport's Lincoln. Exercises Attendant upon the Unveiling of a Statue of 
Abraham Lincoln; Freeport, Illinois, August 27, 1929. Freeport, 111., W. T. 
Rawleigh, 1930. 

George Henry Backer; a Biographical Sketch. New York, American Historical 
Society, Inc., 1931. 

Guide to Historical Literature. New York, Macmillan, 1931. 

HACKER, Louis M., The United States Since 1865. New York, F. S. Crofts & 
Company, 1932. 

HAGEDORN, HERMANN, Leonard Wood, a Biography. 2 vols. New York, Har- 
per & Brothers, 1931. 

HERGESHEIMER, JOSEPH, Sheridan; a Military Narrative. Boston, Houghton 

Mifflin Company, 1931. 

HERTZ, EMANUEL, Abraham Lincoln; a New Portrait. New York, H. Live- 
right Company [c. 1931]. 
HICKS, JOHN DONALD, Populist Revolt; a History of the Farmers' Alliance 

and the People's Party. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press 

[c. 1931]. 
HUGHES, RUPERT, George Washington, the Rebel and the Patriot, 1762-1777. 

New York, Morrow, 1927. 
George Washington, the Savior of the States, 1777-1781. New York, 

Morrow, 1930. 
JAMES, MARQUIS, The Raven; a Biography of Sam Houston. Indianapolis, 

Bobbs-Merrill Company [c. 1929]. 
JAMESON, J. FRANKLIN, Dictionary of United States History. Philadelphia, 

Historical Publishing Company, 1931. 

LORD, RUSSELL, Men of Earth. London, Longmans, Green & Company, 1931. 
MOORE, WILLIAM EMMETT, United States Official Pictures of the World War. 

4 vols. Washington, D. C., Army & Navy Union, n. d. 
National Cyclopedia of American Biography. Vol. 21. New York, James T. 

White & Company, 1931. 
The New Century Dictionary of the English Language, edited by HULBERT G. 

EMERY and KATHERINE G. BREWSTER. 2 vols. New York, Century Company 

[c. 1931]. 
The New International Year Book; a Compendium of the World's Progress for 

the Year 1931. New York, Funk & Wagnalls, 1932. 
New York Times Index, a Master Key to the News; Annual Cumulative 

Volume, Year 1931. New York, New York Times Company [1932]. 
NICHOLS, ROY FRANKLIN, Franklin Pierce; Young Hickory of the Granite 

Hills. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1931. 
PALMER, FREDERICK, Newton D. Baker; America at War. New York, Dodd, 

Mead & Company, 1931. 
PERSHING, JOHN JOSEPH, My Experiences in the World War. New York, 

Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1931. 
SEARS, Louis MARTIN, George Washington. New York, Thomas Y. Crowell 

Company [c. 1932]. 

SIMPSON, SIR GEORGE, Fur Trade and Empire; George Simpson's Journal; Re- 
marks Connected with the Fur Trade in the Course of a Voyage From 

York Factory to Fort George and Back to York Factory, 1824-1825. . . . 

Cambridge. Harvard University Press, 1931. [Harvard Historical Studies, 

Vol.31]. 
STECK, FRANCIS BORGIA, The Jolliet-Marquette Expedition, 1673. Glendale, 

Calif., The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1928. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 101 

TARAVAL, SIGISMUNDO, The Indian Uprising in Lower California, 17S4-17S7. 
Los Angeles, Quivira Society, 1931. [Quivira Society Publications, Vol. 2]. 

THORSMARK, THORA, George Washington. Chicago, Scott, Foresman & Com- 
pany [c. 1931]. 

TURNBULL, ARCHIBALD DOUGLAS, Commodore David Porter, 1780-1843. New 
York, Century Company [c. 1929]. 

WHITELOCK, WILLIAM, The Life and Times of John Jay. New York, Dodd, 
Mead & Company, 1887. 

Who's Who Among North American Authors. Vol. 5, 1931-1932. Los Angeles, 
Golden Syndicate Publishing Company [c. 1931]. 

WISE, JENNINGS CROPPER, The Red Man in the New World Drama. Wash- 
ington, D. C., W. F. Roberts Company [c. 1931]. 

World Almanac and Book of Facts for 1982. New York, New York World- 
Telegram, 1932. 



Kansas History as Published in the State Press 

"Memories of Early Days," by H. P. Tripp, has been published 
in the Waldo Advocate in its issues of January 18, February 29, 
April 11 and December 5, 1932. 

The pioneering experiences of a pastor of the Swedish Lutheran 
church at Mariadahl were recounted in a letter from the minister, 
Dr. J. Seleen, published in the Rooks County Record, Stockton, 
August 18, 1932. The article was reprinted from the Mariadahl 
Messenger, Cleburne. 

"Scott County Historical Society Notes," a column appearing in 
The Scott County Record and The News Chronicle, Scott City, fea- 
tured "The Smoky Hill Cattle Pool," August 25; "Dull Knife's 
Raid in 1878," by George W. Brown, a scout, September 15- 
October 20; "A Page Prom the Notebook of a Buffalo Hunter," by 
Rosa B. Dickhut, and biographical sketches of Mr. and Mrs. E. E. 
Coffin, in November, and a letter from a buffalo hunter which told 
of the naming of White Woman creek, December 8. 

Names of 140 Gove county persons over seventy years of age 
were published by the Republican-Gazette, Gove City, September 
8, 1932. 

"Echoes of the Old Dewey Trial," was a feature of the Norton 
Champion, September 15, 1932. The article gave the story of the 
Chauncey E. Dewey and Alpheus Berry feud famous in early north- 
west Kansas history. 

The history of Barclay, Osage county, was briefly reviewed in 
The Osage County Journal, Osage City, September 21, 1932. John 
M. Wetherall, of Philadelphia, was the first settler. 

Names of old settlers registering at Oakley's forty-seventh birth- 
day anniversary celebration and historical notes taken at the gath- 
ering were published in the Oakley Graphic, September 23, 1932. 

Dave D. Leahy's "Random Recollections of Other Days" column 
appearing in the Wichita Sunday Eagle included articles on the 
following subjects: The organization of the Twentieth Kansas 
regiment, from an interview with John Quick, September 25, 1932; 
"Chalk" Beeson and the buffalo -hunt of Grand Duke Alexis, Oc- 

(102) 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS 103 

tober 2; Eugene Ware, October 9, and memories of a corner grocery 
store in Caldwell, October 23. 

"Sixty Years of Life at Logan, Kansas" was the title of a feature 
story published in the Logan Republican in its issue of September 

29, October 20, November 10 and 24, 1932. 

Two meteors which fell in Washington county in 1890 were re- 
called by the Washington County Register, Washington, September 

30, 1932. The larger stone weighed 188 pounds. Names of the 
Civil War veterans attending an 1888 reunion in the Washington 
armory building were listed in this issue. 

An article entitled "Kansas the Nation's Bread Basket," by 
Larry Freeman, was published in The Highway Traveler (Cleve- 
land, Ohio), in its issue of October-November, 1932. The story of 
Kansas wheat was briefly reviewed. 

A brief history of the Bluff City Methodist Episcopal church, by 
E. E. Elliott, was published in the Anthony Times, October 4, 1932, 
and the Anthony Republican, October 6. The church was organized 
in 1891 by Rev. Charles Brown, of Freeport. 

On the fortieth anniversary of the famous Dalton raid on Coffey- 
ville the Daily Journal, of October 5, 1932, published a two-page 
illustrated review of the event. The eye-witness account of Ida 
Gibbs-Jones, as written forty years afterward, was an added fea- 
ture. 

"Medicine Lodge Looks Back Sixty-five Years to the Ending of 
the Indian Wars," was the title of an illustrated article in the Kan- 
sas City (Mo.) Times, October 5, 1932. 

The Pioneer Kansan Club of Morris county held its fourth annual 
meeting in Council Grove, October 6, 1932. Thomas F. Doran, 
Topeka, a former resident, was a speaker. Names of members pres- 
ent were published in the Council Grove Press, October 6, and the 
White City Register, October 13. 

Settlement of a New Haven colony in Smith county was described 
by A. T. Gledhill, of Los Angeles, Calif., in the Smith County Pio- 
neer, Smith Center, October 6, 1932. Mr. Gledhill was a member of 
the company settling in Kansas in 1871. "Sod Shanty Days," as 
reviewed by Roy Clough, was another feature of the same issue. 

The fiftieth anniversary of Charles F. Scott's editorship of the 



104 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

lola Daily Register was observed October 6, 1932, with a special his- 
torical edition prepared by the Register's staff. 

An 1886 map of Lincoln county inspired The Lincoln County 
News, Lincoln, to reminisce in its issue of October 6, 1932. The 
county at that time had one railroad and four more had been sur- 
veyed. 

Early Wallace county history as prepared by R. F. Brock has 
been headlined in The Western Times, Sharon Springs, as follows: 
"Some Facts and History of Pioneer Days in Wallace County," 
October 6; "Fort Wallace and Other Historical Events of Inter- 
est," October 13 and 27; "Interesting Facts of Early Days in Wal- 
lace County," November 10; "Moving of the County Seat to Sharon 
Springs from Wallace," November 17; "George M. DeTilla writes 
of His Early-day Experiences," November 24, and "How Cheyenne 
Wells Received Its Name Early Newspapers," December 15. 

Old trails of Pratt county were discussed by the Pratt Daily 
Tribune, October 7, 1932. It was thought by the Tribune that the 
Medicine Lodge peace treaty commissioners passed close to Pratt 
in going to the treaty grounds in 1867. The article was reprinted 
in The Barber County Index, Medicine Lodge, on October 13. 

A Grant County Historical Day was observed October 8 in 
Ulysses. Names of registered old settlers were published in the 
Grant County Republican, October 13, and the Grant County New 
Era, October 14. 

"Ghosts Haunt Wichita's First Jail," by Mary Moore, was the 
title of an illustrated feature article appearing in the Wichita 
Beacon, October 9, 1932. 

A brief resume of Indian activities in Kansas leading up to the 
Medicine Lodge treaty of 1867 was written by Paul I. Wellman for 
the Wichita Sunday Eagle, October 9, 1932. 

"Prairie schooner" days were recalled by Mrs. James Allen 
Throop for the Washington County Register, Washington, October 
14, 1932. Mrs. Throop and her husband homesteaded a farm in 
Coleman township near where the Throop church, schoolhouse and 
store now stand. 

Old records revealing the early history of Lowman Memorial 
Methodist Episcopal church, Topeka, were reviewed recently in 
preparation for the forty-seventh anniversary of the church which 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS 105 

was held during the week starting October 16, 1932. A brief his- 
torical sketch was published in the Topeka Daily Capital, October 
15, 1932. Rev. J. D. Foresman was the first minister of the church. 

"Savage Altars," a historical novel of Indian strife and adventure 
in 1840, by Paul I. and Manly Wade Wellman, began as a weekly 
serial in the Wichita Sunday Eagle with its issue of October 16, 1932. 

"The Story of Kansas," by Milton Tabor, is a regular Monday 
feature of the Topeka Daily Capital. The series, which it was an- 
nounced will cover Kansas history from the beginning, started with 
the issue of October 17, 1932. 

A brief chronology of the Larned Tiller and Toiler was published 
in its issue of October 20, 1932. The newspaper was established 
under its present name in Larned in 1891, having been moved there 
from Bluff ton, Ind. 

A two-column "History of Chisholm Trail," by Sam P. Ridings, 
of Medford, Okla., was published in the Caldwell Daily Messenger, 
October 21, 1932. 

Wichita's first telephone exchange and a newspaper history of 
the city were features of the 24-page fiftieth anniversary edition of 
the Wichita Democrat, issued October 22, 1932. 

Indian Hill, three miles southeast of Hartford, is said to be the 
site of a bloody encounter between the Pawnee and Osage Indians, 
which occurred in the early 40's. The prevalence of this belief led 
the Emporia Gazette, October 22, 1932, to review the story. 

The reminiscences of Charles Isaacson as written and read by a 
daughter, Mrs. Joseph Johnson, for a meeting of the Scandia Parent 
Teachers' Association, was published in the Scandia Journal, Oc- 
tober 27, 1932. Mr. Isaacson homesteaded in Republic county. 

Everest newspaper history was reviewed by E. J. Patch of Wash- 
ington, D. C., in the Everest Enterprise, October 27, 1932. Mr. 
Patch edited the Everest Reflector in 1884. 

The seventieth anniversary of the Irving First Presbyterian 
church was observed October 23, 1932. Rev. Charles Parker was 
the first pastor. Historical notes of the gathering were published 
by the Irving Leader in its issues of October 28 and November 4. 

A brief history of the Wichita Indians, from whom the city of 
Wichita derived its name, was written by Victor Murdock for the 
Wichita Evening Eagle, November 1, 1932. 



106 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The three-year Hamilton county seat fight between Kendall and 
Syracuse was described in the Dodge City Daily Globe, November 
3, 1932. The article was republished in the Syracuse Journal, No- 
vember 11. 

An eight-page illustrated Cheyenne county historical supplement 
was published by the Bird City Times, November 3, 1932. Past and 
present Bird City, a history of the Evergreen United Brethren 
church, the first wedding and the christening of the World War 
ship Bird City, were recalled. Sketches and experiences of pioneers 
included the following names: W. W. Shahan, Mrs. E. J. Sheldon, 
Ida Howell Henry, Maggie Howell Ramsey, R. S. Thompson, Fred 
D. Cram, Henry H. Eads, Rollie M. Eads, J. Oliver, Irving Ander- 
son, H. B. Bear, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Stanley, Charles E. Curry, 
Mrs. Alma (Slifer) Kilmer, Carrie E. Johnson, Mrs. Ida L. Taylor, 
Pat McCloskey, Dr. and Mrs. G. R. Pegg, Dore Lockard and Lou 
M. Benson. 

Sixty-three years of Washington Presbyterian church history 
were reviewed by the Washington County Register, November 4, 
1932. The church was established October 31, 1869, by Rev. Ed- 
ward Cooper and Rev. W. G. Thomas with fifteen members en- 
rolled. 

The fiftieth anniversary of the Walnut Baptist church was cele- 
brated October 30, 1932. A history of the organization was pub- 
lished in the Walnut Eagle in its issue of November 4 and 11. 

Brief historical sketches of the first church building, first mill and 
first bank in Seneca were published in a ''Here and There" column 
in the Seneca Courier-Tribune, November 7, 1932. 

Tribute to the Grinnell family, publishers of the Americus Greet- 
ing which recently celebrated its forty-second birthday, was given 
by the Emporia Times, in its issue of November 10, 1932. The 
Grinnells have owned the newspaper thirty-seven years. 

Wichita's first social event was recorded by Victor Murdock in 
the Wichita Evening Eagle, November 14, 1932, after an interview 
with Syl. Dunkin, who walked to Wichita from Emporia in March, 
1871. On arriving in the new city Mr. Dunkin was given food 
which had been left over from a quilting party held the day before 
and that party was Wichita's first society news, wrote Mr. Mur- 
dock. 

The sixtieth anniversary of the Winfield First Christian church 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS 107 

was observed November 16-20, 1932. It was organized September 
22, 1872, under the direction of the Rev. James Irvin. Historical 
notes of the church were published in the Winfield Independent- 
Record and Courier. 

W. V. Jackson, pioneer homesteader of Comanche county, wrote 
of a journey forty-three years ago over the southwest prairies in a 
covered wagon, for the Hutchinson Herald, November 17, 1932. 

Pres. U. S. Grant was among a group of notables registering in 
1871 at the Ames Hotel in Wamego, according to the Times of 
November 17, 1932. The yellowed pages of the hotel register also 
revealed the names of Henry Ward Beecher, Frank P. Arbuckle, 
the coffee merchant, and John Jacob Astor. 

Wichita's first ferry and bridge across the Arkansas river were de- 
scribed by Victor Murdock in the Wichita Evening Eagle, Novem- 
ber 17, 1932. The ferry went into operation in May, 1871, and 
was supplanted by the bridge a year later. 

The early history of the Fredonia Christian church, prepared by 
0. B. Griffin, was published in the Daily Herald, November 19, 
1932, as a feature of the anniversary services of the church. The 
church was organized in the summer of 1871. 

A column sketch of Gov. James M. Harvey, who settled in Riley 
county in 1859, was published by the Manhattan Mercury, Novem- 
ber 23, and the Manhattan Republic, December 1. The sketch was 
prepared and read by Emma Harvey, a daughter, at a recent meet- 
ing of the Riley County Historical Society. 

John R. Bowersox, pioneer Republic county resident, told of his 
Civil War experiences in the Scandia Journal, November 24, 1932. 
Mr. Bowersox took part in the siege of Corinth. 

A two-column history of the Russell city library, as given by 
J. C. Ruppenthal at a Rotary Club luncheon, was published in 
The Russell County News, Russell, November 24, 1932. 

The life story of Capt. W. S. Tough, famous Union raider, was 
reviewed by Manly Wade Wellman in the Wichita Sunday Eagle, 
November 27, 1932. Captain Tough was with General Blunt at the 
battles of Cane Hill, Ark., and Baxter Springs, where Blunt's body- 
guard was massacred by Quantrill. The reminiscences of A. H. 
McCormick, early resident of Augusta, as told to Helen Haines, was 
another historical feature of this issue of the Eagle. 



108 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

A brief history of the Billard mill, later known as the Central 
mill, Topeka, was published in the Daily Capital, November 27, 
1932. Jules B. Billard, owner of the mill, was formerly mayor of 
Topeka. 

The Harmony Presbyterian church, west of Wichita, celebrated 
its fiftieth anniversary November 27, 1932. A brief history of the 
organization was published in the Wichita Morning Eagle, Novem- 
ber 29, 1932. 

A four-page historical supplement devoted to Wakeeney and 
Trego county was published by the Hays Daily News, November 
30, 1932. The organization of the county and its school system, 
the origin of the name Wakeeney and a condensed history of the 
county by A. S. Peacock, were features of the edition. 

The seventy-fifth birthday anniversary of the Burlingame Baptist 
church was celebrated November 24-27, 1932. The church was 
established August 6, 1857, at the home of Miss Helen Tisdale. A 
history of the organization was reviewed in the Enterprise-Chronicle, 
December 1, 1932, and on December 8 a history prepared and read 
by Mrs. E. M. Deming at the golden anniversary was republished. 

A brief newspaper history of Protection was published by the 
Post, December 1, 1932, commemorating its twenty-fifth birthday. 
The Post was first published by J. A. and Claude Wood in Decem- 
ber, 1907. 

The fiftieth charter anniversary of the First Christian church, 
Sedan, was observed November 27, 1932. A brief history of the 
organization was published in the Sedan Times-Star, December 1. 
The congregation was informally organized in 1876, but was not 
chartered until 1882. 

A short history of the St. John Auxiliary of the Woman's Home 
Missionary Society, by Mrs. Ruth Oden, was published in the St. 
John Weekly News, December 1, 1932. 

Frazer hall, University of Kansas, was the subject of a historical 
sketch appearing in the University Daily Kansan, Lawrence, De- 
cember 2, 1932. The "New University" building or Frazer hall, 
was first used sixty years ago. 

Two other Kansas towns have had the name of Pittsburg, ac- 
cording to an article appearing in the Pittsburg Headlight, Decem- 
ber 7, 1932. One, now extinct, was in Pottawatomie county opposite 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS 109 

Manhattan, and the other was in Mitchell county, the latter being 
renamed Tipton. An illustrated history of the Pottawatomie county 
Pittsburg was published in the Westmoreland Recorder, Decem- 
ber 1. 

The Alton Methodist church observed its fiftieth anniversary, 
December 1-4, 1932. The church was organized in 1882 by Rev. 
W. A. Saville. Names of other pastors were included in a brief his- 
tory of the organization published in the Alton Empire, December 8. 

Justice W. W. Harvey, of the Kansas supreme court, was the 
principal speaker at the annual dinner of the Shawnee County Old 
Settlers' Association held in Topeka, December 10, 1932. A list of 
persons present at the reunion was published in the State Journal, 
December 10. 

"Frontier Cheer Distinguished First Wichita Yuletide," was the 
title of a feature article published in the Wichita Sunday Eagle, 
December 11, 1932. A cottonwood was used as a Christmas tree, 
and gifts were simple homemade articles. Meat for the feast con- 
sisted of buffalo, prairie chickens, quail and venison. 

Present-day employment of prominent State House reporters of 
yesteryear were reviewed by Burt Brown in a Topeka State Journal 
feature published December 14, 1932. 

"Early Christmas Celebrations in Northwest Butler County," 
was the title of a half-page feature article published in the Potwin 
Ledger, December 15, 1932. J. M. Worley, the contributor, was 
Potwin's first editor. He arrived in the city in November, 1887, 
and founded the Messenger, January 1, 1888. 

"Two Legislators of Old Top' Days Still Are Active," was the 
title of an Associated Press news story appearing in the Topeka 
Daily Capital, December 19, 1932. Reps. W. H. Ryan, Girard, 
and James F. Malin, Lewis, are veterans of the nineties reflected 
to the 1933 legislature. 



Kansas Historical Notes 

Salina will celebrate its seventy-fifth birthday anniversary in 
March, 1932. The Saline County Native Daughters have voted 
to erect a marker to the pioneers, and will also publish a history of 
the Salina schools, written by the late Jennie V. Bartlett, pioneer 
teacher. 

Celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the 
Friends Kansas yearly meeting and of the building of the old 
Quaker meeting house in Lawrence was observed October 6, 1932, 
in conjunction with a meeting of the 1932 Friends yearly meeting. 

The annual meeting of the Dickinson County Historical Society 
was held at Abilene, October 11, 1932. Kirke Mechem, secretary 
of the Kansas State Historical Society, discussed the work of the 
state organization. 

Dr. W. A. Sharp, a Topeka Baptist minister, delivered the dedi- 
catory address for the boulder marking the site of the old Potta- 
watomie Indian mission school on the Wanamaker school grounds 
west of Topeka, October 21, 1932. Thomas Amory Lee, president 
of the Kansas State Historical Society, Kirke Mechem, secretary 
of the society, and Dave Wallace, gave short talks. The monument 
was erected by the Topeka chapter, Daughters of the American 
Revolution. 

A pioneer monument was unveiled in Denison circle, Manhattan, 
by the Riley County Historical Society, November 12, 1932. A 
tribute to Dr. Joseph Denison, first president of Bluemont college 
(now Kansas State College) , and to other pioneers was paid by Dr. 
J. T. Willard, vice president of the college, at the dedicatory serv- 
ices. 

The National Old Trails Road Association has asked cities and 
counties along the route of the Santa Fe trail in northeast Kansas 
to assist it in marking the trail on U. S. Highway No. 50, which 
follows in the general direction of the famous road. 

A new Pawnee Indian house location was reported discovered 
near Scandia, recently. Scrapers, flints and pottery have been un- 
covered. 

Rush county old settlers met at Rush Center, October 19, 1932; 

(110) 



KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 111 

Dickinson county old settlers convened in Enterprise, October 20, 
and Clark county pioneers met at Ashland, November 17, for an- 
nual reunions. 



14-6617 



THE 

Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 




Volume II Number 2 

May, 1933 



PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT 

B. P. WALKER. STATt PRINTER 

TOPEKA 1933 

14-7572 



Contributors 

GEORGE A. ROOT is curator of archives of the Kansas State Historical 
Society. 

CORA DOLBEE is a member of the department of English at the Uni- 
versity of Kansas, Lawrence. 

GENEVIEVE YOST is a member of the staff of the Kansas State His- 
torical Society. 

NOTE. Articles in the Quarterly appear in chronological order 
without regard to their importance. 



Ferries in Kansas 

Part 1 Missouri Rivei Continued 
GEORGE A. ROOT 

TJORT WILLIAMS was the next settlement above latan. The 
Jl town was incorporated by the legislature of 1855, 111 and was lo- 
cated about two miles northwest of present Oak Mills and about 
eight miles below Atchison, at a big bend in the river, 112 which has 
since disappeared. A hand ferry had been established to this point 
from the Missouri side about 1854, by Jake Yunt, who did quite a 
thriving business. This primitive mode of transportation soon gave 
way to steam in order to keep up with the rush of settlers. The town 
never attained any great size, but was quite well known over the 
country, its ferry no doubt being accountable for this. It "had its 
town bullies, and fights were of frequent occurrence. ... It was 
common for farmers to go to Port Williams every Saturday after- 
noon to witness the fights and drunks." 113 According to W. J. 
Bailey, the place was probably named for William Johnson, owner 
of the claim and cabin called "Fort Williams," and called Port 
Williams after steam boats and ferryboats began to land. 

In all probability the earliest ferrying carried on in territory em- 
braced in present Kansas, of which there is written or printed record, 
was begun in the fall of 1818. In October of that year the first 
United States military post west of the mouth of the Kaw river was 
established on an island in the Missouri river a few miles below 
present Atchison. This island was given the name "Isle au Vache" 
by the French and was known to Americans and traders as "Cow 
Island." The following year the Long Expedition spent some time 
on this island. Keel boats, first brought up the Missouri river with 
supplies for the new outpost known as "Cantonment Martin," were 
the crafts made use of by the garrison stationed there for the better 
part of a year. The post was located on the upper part of the island 
about opposite latan, Mo., and probably on the west side of the 

111. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, p. 823. 

112. A map of Atchison county, published in the First Biennial Report of the State 
Board of Agriculture, 1877-'78, p. 100, shows the large bend of the Missouri. Before 1908 
the river had cut through on the Kansas side, almost eliminating the bend and bringing the 
channel of the river through the southeastern part of the county. Ogle, Atlas of Atchison 
County, 1908. 

118. Ingalls, History of Atchison County, pp. 100, 101. 

(115) 



116 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

island, that site being selected on account of the abundance of large 
timber close by. 114 

Sumner, about five miles up the river from Port Williams, had 
the next ferry. This town, not far from Cow Island, was located at 
a point on the river known as the "Grand Detour" to the French 
trappers, and was laid out by free-state men, becoming a rival of 
Atchison. During its palmy days Sumner had a daily newspaper 
and a number of commodious buildings. John J. Ingalls, of Atchi- 
son, was numbered among its residents during its infancy. During 
the early sixties the town began to decline, its population drifted 
away, and many years ago the last vestige of the town disappeared. 
Prior to 1858 Sumner depended on the ferries of neighboring towns, 
but that year Messrs. J. W. Morris, Cyrus F. Currier and Samuel 
Harsh were granted a twenty-year license for a ferry across the 
Missouri at this point. The act also prescribed that no other ferry 
should be established within two miles of the present limits of the 
city. The following rates were made a part of the law: 

Each foot passenger, 10 cents. 

Each horse, mare, gelding, mule or ass, with or without rider, 25 cents. 

Each two-horse team, or one yoke of oxen, loaded or unloaded, with 
driver, 75 cents. 

Each additional horse or ox, 10 cents. 

Each single horse and carriage, 50 cents. 

Cattle, except those attached to wagons or sleds, 15 cents. 

Swine or sheep, 5 cents. 115 

This ferryboat plied between Sumner, Atchison and the Missouri 
side, enjoyed a good patronage during the first few years, and prob- 
ably lasted about as long as the town. 

Atchison, three miles above Sumner, was a natural trade terminal. 
Roads radiated from there to the north, west and south. One led 
to Doniphan, one to Hiawatha, one to Leavenworth. Others led to 
Monrovia, Grasshopper Falls, Pardee, Indianola, Tonganoxie, Law- 
rence, Lecompton, and Superior, in Weller (now Osage) county. It- 
was the starting point for the Pony Express during most of the 
time of its existence. The Holladay Overland Stage line and the 
Butterfield Overland Despatch had headquarters here and ran their 
stage lines from this place. During the latter fifties and the early 
sixties an immense freighting business was carried on from this 
point, and the ferries did their full share in bringing outfits and 
freight across the river for transportation to the far West. Some 

114. Letters of John O'Fallen to Gen. T. A. Smith, dated October 18, 1818, January 8, 
and July 7, 1819, from copies of original MSS. in Missouri State Historical Society, Columbia. 

115. Laws, Kansas, 1858, pp. 67, 68. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 117 

idea of this freighting business, the firms engaged, numbers of men 
and stock employed and pounds of merchandise transported, may be 
gleaned from the following in the Atchison Union of July 23, 1859: 
"D. W. Adams & Co., 709 wagons, 900 men, 6,429 oxen, 41 horses, 
627 mules, 3,019,950 Ibs. merchandise. A. S. Parker & Co., 245 
wagons, 268 men, 2,806 oxen, 1,000,140 Ibs. merchandise." 

The ferries had no opposition in local river trade until 1875, when 
the bridge across the Missouri was opened for traffic. 

George M. Million started a ferry opposite Atchison about 1850. 
He was of German descent, and had formerly lived in Cole county, 
Missouri. As early as 1841 he had occupied the present site of East 
Atchison as a farm, in the vicinity of Rushville. At that time the 
bottom land east of Atchison was covered with tall rushes and was 
known as Rush Bottom. During winter Million cut wood which he 
hauled to the river bank and sold to steamboats in summer. Two 
miles above Million's place was "Manley's landing," where freight 
for Rushville was loaded. Million accumulated money and in the 
late forties operated a store, trading with the Indians for furs. Dur- 
ing the California gold rush his ferry did a thriving business with 
the emigrants. In May, 1854, when the Kansas-Nebraska bill 
passed, and Kansas was thrown open for settlement, Million 
"squatted" on the present townsite of Atchison, building a log 
shanty. Later he sold his squatter right to the Atchison Town 
Company. Million's flatboat ferry was followed by Port Lamb's 
horsepower ferry. 116 

George M. Million, Lewis Burnes, Daniel D. Burnes, James N. 
Burnes, 117 and Calvin Burnes were granted a charter by the legis- 
lature of 1855 to maintain a ferry at Atchison over the Missouri 
river, and have exclusive privileges for a period of twenty-five 
years. 118 The landing place on the Kansas side was at the foot of 
Atchison street. After obtaining their charter the company executed 
a bond for $1,000 for the faithful performance of duties. Rates of 
ferriage adopted were: 

Two-horse wagon, or wagon and one yoke of oxen (loaded), $1. 
Same, empty, 75 cents. 

116. Atchison Daily Globe, July 16, 1894. 

117. The Burnes family was one of the prominent and wealthy families of Missouri. 
James Nelson Burnes, one of the incorporators of the Atchison ferry, was a native of Marion 
county, Indiana, where he was born August 22, 1827. He was a lawyer, capitalist and a 
Democrat. He was a "booster" in his community. He financed and built the Chicago & 
Northwestern railway from Eldon, Iowa, to Leavenworth and Atchison in 1870-71, and dur- 
ing the same years he started construction of railroad bridges across the Missouri river at 
both places. In 1873 he removed to St. Joseph. He was elected to congress in 1882, and 
while serving his fourth term, while on the floor of the house, was stricken with paralysis, 
his death occurring January 25, 1889. 

118. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 376. 



118 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

One additional pair of horses, or oxen, 25 cents. 

Loose cattle or oxen, 10 cents per head. 

Sheep and hogs, 5 cents per head. 

Foot passengers, 10 cents. 

One horse and buggy or other vehicle, 50 cents. 

Two-horse carriage or buggy, 75 cents. 

A man named Alcorn was operating a horse ferryboat on the Mis- 
souri at Atchison in 1856, and the Challisses, who were operating a 
rival ferry and boat called the Red Rover at this date, purchased 
a three-fourths interest of Alcorn, paying $1,600 for his franchise, 
and took over the business. 119 In 1857 William L. Challiss, Luther 
C. Challiss and William E. Gaylord took over the franchise and 
license of the Atchison steam ferry. The following advertisement of 
the new ferry firm appeared in the Atchison Champion early in June : 

"To KANSAS EMIGRANTS: The Atchison Steam Ferry is now in full oper- 
ation. Having received our new commodious boat, we are fully prepared to 
cross wagons, horses, cattle, footmen, etc., at any time without delay. 

"Atchison being situated in Kansas on the great western bend of the Mis- 
souri river opposite Bloomington, Buchanan county, Missouri, is the best 
crossing, the nearest and most convenient point to all the territory north of 
the Kansas river. Persons going to the southern part of the territory will 
also find it the best place to cross the Missouri. 

"The country surrounding cannot be surpassed, and the outlets leading to 
and from Atchison to any point in the territory, are better and nearer than 
from any other point. It is due west of Hannibal, on the parallel line running 
through the center of Kansas, bordering on the Missouri river, and is the 
most adjacent point to the fertile country on the Stranger, Grasshopper, 
Vermillion, Big Blue, and Kansas rivers. It is the best starting point for all 
emigrants, to California, Oregon and Salt Lake; the great government road 
from Fort Leavenworth running only four miles west of the town. 

"The boat being new, and built after the most approved model, capable of 
carrying 150 head of cattle at a crossing, together with our determination to 
give it strict attention, persons may depend on being accommodated at all 
times. 

"Atchison, June 1, 1857. W. L. CHALLISS & Co., Proprietors." 

There appear to have been some complaints against the original 
proprietors of this ferry, and the county commissioners attempted to 
pass a resolution forfeiting their license. The proprietors objected 
on the ground that as they had received their charter from the 
legislature it was not at all probable that the court of commissioners 
could take it away. The ferry under different management con- 
tinued in operation until the magnificent railroad bridge was built 
across the Missouri in 1875, when the old gave way to the new order 

119. Atchison Daily Globe, July 16, 1894. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 119 

of things. This ferry had been in operation before Atchison was 
laid out. 120 

The following regarding the Atchison ferry is condensed from an 
account in the Atchison Daily Globe of July 16, 1894: 

"In the fall of 1856 Doctor Challiss went to Evansville, Ind., and contracted 
for the building of a steam ferryboat. This was completed in November and 
started for Atchison. In December it was frozen up in the Missouri river at 
Carrollton, Mo., and left in charge of a watchman. The crew was made up of 
old acquaintances of Doctor Challiss in New Jersey, and these he brought to 
Atchison in two stage coaches hired for the purpose. 

"On February 7 of the following year Doctor Challiss started down the 
river on horseback after his boat, accompanied by George M. Million, Granville 
Morrow and John Cafferty. There had been a thaw, and a rise in the river, 
and when the men reached the vicinity of Carrollton they learned that the 
boat had gone adrift. They followed it down the river, hearing of it oc- 
casionally, and finally came up with it in sight of Arrow Rock. The boat had 
grounded on a bar, and a man was in possession claiming salvage. Doctor 
Challiss caught the man off the boat, took possession, and settled with him for 
$25. A story was circulated that there had been smallpox on the boat, and 
it narrowly escaped burning at the hands of people living in the vicinity. 

"Doctor Challiss went on down the river, and met his family at St. Louis. 
When the steamer on which they were passengers reached Arrow Rock, the 
captain was induced to pull the ferry boat off the sand bar, and within four 
days it arrived in Atchison. This boat was named The Ida, for Doctor 
Challiss' oldest daughter, who became the wife of John A. Martin, editor of 
the Atchison Champion, colonel of the Eighth Kansas regiment, and governor 
of the state for two terms. The Ida was brought up the river by George 
Million and Granville Morrow, pilots, and John Cafferty, engineer. 

"Granville Morrow was the captain when it began making regular trips as 
a ferry, receiving $50 a month. During the last years of his service he received 
$125 a month. The ferry business was very profitable; a hundred dollars a 
day was no unusual income. 

"In 1860 Doctor Challiss built a larger ferry at Brownsville, Pa., and called 
it the J. G. Morrow. When it arrived at Atchison the government pressed it 
into service and sent it to Yankton with Indian supplies. "Bill" Reed was 
pilot and Doctor Challiss captain. A quick trip was made to within seventy 
miles of Yankton, where the pilot ran the boat into a snag, and sunk it. The 
boat cost $25,000, and nothing was saved but the machinery. This was after- 
wards placed in the ferry S. C. Pomeroy, which was operated there until the 
bridge was completed. . . . After this the S. C. Pomeroy was taken to 
Kansas City, where it sank during a storm." 

Samuel C. Pomeroy owned a one-quarter interest in the J. G. 
Morrow and S. C. Pomeroy and the wreck of the Morrow cost him 
$5,000. 

The ferryboat Ida hauled the locomotive "Albany" across the 

120. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 876. 



120 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Missouri river in April, 1860. This engine was to be used on the 
Marysville or Palmetto & Roseport railroad, the first railroad to be 
built west of the Missouri river. On May 23, 1861, the Ida was 
reported to have arrived at Leavenworth, bringing the Atchison 
military company, "All Hazard," which immediately went into 
encampment at that place. During the early days of the Civil 
War a close watch was kept on those leaving Atchison on ferryboats. 
Those departing without permission were arrested. The Ida was 
taken to Leavenworth on completion of the Atchison bridge, and was 
in service there many years. 121 

The steamboat William Osborn, used for a ferryboat at Atchison 
in 1866, was built at Brownsville, Pa., and reached Atchison May 
9, 1866, with 150 tons of rails for the Atchison & Pike's Peak 
railroad. It took forty-four days to make the trip from Brownsville 
to Atchison. 122 

Henry J. Adams, son of Franklin G. Adams, a resident of early 
Atchison, recalls the ferry operating there during his early boyhood 
days. In a statement written at request of the author, he says: 

"I well remember the old steamboat ferry at Atchison in the late sixties. 
My young mother, Harriet Elizabeth Adams, usually did her morning shop- 
ping at the wagon market on the south side of Commercial street, about where 
the Byram hotel stands. If the ferryboat was about to land, we children used 
to clamor to be taken down to the 'levee,' or boat landing, to witness the 
wagon teams, horsemen and live stock scramble down the gang plank from 
the boat to the sloping stone coping which continued up from the water's 
edge to the Commercial street level. Then it was an exciting performance to 
see the transfer mule and his heavily loaded dray scramble up this incline. 
If the mule made a slip everyone was in luck if the load in going back 
landed against the boat railing. If the dray did not so land, the poor mule 
was likely to provide a feast for the big river catfish. 

"My recollection is that the usual ferryboat was nearly all deck and built 
a little wider in proportion than the usual river boat, and surrounded with 
a stout railing, tall enough to hold a horse and tight enough to keep in a 
bunch of shoats. Towards the middle, extending back, was the engine house 
and office, with room on the deck in front for three teams to stand side by 
side crosswise of the deck, with room for cattle and horses, or a wagon or 
two, in the space along the side of the engine room. The Missourians supplied 
our village market with much of the fruit and vegetables. They drove up 
from an early boat to the market and backed their wagons against the street 
side, made their teams comfortable, and were ready to wait on the trade 
with anything from live chickens to sweet potatoes, apples or pawpaws." 

The next ferry up the river was at Doniphan, about three miles 

121. Atchison Daily Globe, July 16, 1894; Kansas Historical Collections, v. 12, p. 38; 
v. 14, p. 140. 

122. Kansas Historical Collection*, v. 9, p. 512. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 121 

above Atchison. The town was organized in 1854 and located on 
the site of an ancient Kansas Indian village, where Bourgmont, the 
French explorer, established his headquarters in 1724. A trading 
post on the opposite side of the river had been established some 
years earlier by Joseph Utt, and this may have influenced him in 
selecting this point for a town. During its palmy days Doniphan 
had a population of about 1,000, had a weekly newspaper, and was 
quite an important political center, being midway between the 
mouth of the Kansas river and the Kansas-Nebraska boundary line. 
The Leavenworth Herald of March 13, 1858, in speaking of Doni- 
phan and its surroundings said: "Smith's bar lies one mile above 
the town and extends completely across the river, which makes 
Doniphan the head of navigation for heavy-draught steamers. There 
are four natural roads leading out into the surrounding country. 
.-.- . . A steam ferry has been provided for." The territorial legis- 
lature of 1855 passed an act providing for the location of a road 
from Doniphan to Kelly's ferry, in the northeast part of the 
county. 123 

For some time in the 1850's John Landis 124 operated a ferry be- 
tween Doniphan and Rushville, Mo. In 1855 he was granted a 
charter by the territorial legislature to operate a ferry on the Mis- 
souri with a landing place on the west side at the town of Doni- 
phan. The charter granted exclusive privileges within the limits 
of the town as far as the claim of said lands extended. 125 This 
ferry, according to the Leavenworth Herald, March 3, 1855, "had 
a good ferryboat." 

Landis' ferry operated between Doniphan and Rushville, Mo., 
before the above charter was granted, and according to one of the 
territorial papers, had a good ferryboat. 126 

Palermo is about five miles above Geary City and fifteen miles 
above Doniphan, at the mouth of Wolf creek. The town was estab- 
lished in 1854-1855, and boasted one early-day paper the Palermo 
Leader, founded in 1858. 

Two ferries for the new town were authorized by the legislature 
of 1855. One charter was granted to Loren S. Meeker, Richard 

123. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, p. 976. 

124. John Landis was a native of Kentucky, born in 1827. He moved to the Platte 
Purchase in Missouri in 1842, and in 1854 to Doniphan county. Later he removed to Norton 
county, where he was shot and mortally wounded by one of a band of regulars and died 
two days later. Lockard, History of Norton County, Kansas, pp. 87-41. 

125. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, p. 789; George J. Remsburg, letter to author. 

126. Herald, Leavenworth, March 16, 1855 ; George J. Remsburg, letter to author. 



122 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Hubble and John W. Mockbee for a term of fifteen years, 127 and the 
other charter to John Stearwalt, his heirs or assigns, to keep a ferry 
across the Missouri river opposite Palermo for a period of twenty 
years. 128 The above ferries were to be regulated by Doniphan 
county, were for local needs only, and may not have lasted long. 

Two years later the legislature of 1857 authorized F. M. Mahan 
and Job V. Kimber to operate a ferry across the Missouri river from 
Palermo for the term of fifteen years. Ferry charges were fixed 
by the county court of Doniphan county, and any charge made or 
extorted more than the rates fixed by the court was to create a for- 
feiture of all their privileges under the act. 129 

The next year Barney H. York, George K. Sabin and Frederick 
W. Emery, members of the Palermo City Company, were given 
authority by the legislature of 1858 to operate a ferry across the 
Missouri river at the city of Palermo for twenty years. Their 
charter provided that no other company should establish a ferry 
within two miles of the present limits of the city of Palermo, and 
also listed rates of ferriage as follows: 

Single passengers, 10 cents. 

Each horseman, 25 cents. 

Two-horse or ox team loaded, $1.25. 

Two-horse team or ox team, unloaded, $1. 

One-horse carriage or buggy, 50 cents. 

Each additional horse, mule, ass, ox, cow or calf, 15 cents. 

Each score of sheep or swine, $1. 

Lumber, $1.50 per 1,000 feet. 

All other articles 10 cents per 100 Ibs. 

Persons crossing at night may be charged double fare. 130 

St. Joseph was about eight miles above Palermo by the river. As 
early as 1826 Joseph Robidoux, of the infant village, of St. Joseph, 
had a flatboat ferry in operation, for the convenience of his em- 
ployees as well as for the Indians who wished to visit his trading 
house to swap pelts and robes for various commodities kept by the 
trader. "The landing on his (east) side was about where Francis 
street struck the river, and the road led from there southwest to 
the agency ford of the Platte river, where it forked, one branch 
leading to Liberty, Clay county, and the other to the Grand-river 
country." 131 

127. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, p. 780. 

128. Ibid., p. 781. 

129. Laws, Kansas, 1857, p. 160. 

130. Ibid., 1858, pp. 65, 66. 

131. History of Buchanan County and St. Joseph, Mo., (Cris L. Rutt, compiler), p. 79. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 123 

St. Joseph was one of the most convenient towns on the Missouri 
river for the departure of overland emigration and traffic, and for 
a number of years following the discovery of gold in California the 
city and ferries did a big business. Beginning with the spring of 
1849 the rush for California began. There was one continuous line 
of wagons from east to west, as far as the eye could reach, moving 
steadily forward. Some wagons were drawn by cows; other gold 
seekers were afoot, taking their worldly goods in handcarts. There 
were two ferries at St. Joseph at this time, and they must have been 
kept busy. This rush continued unabated until about the first of 
June, 1850, when it eased up a little, although belated gold hunters 
passed through for months afterward. St. Joseph offered advantages 
to the emigrant and adventurer which no other river town possessed. 
Prices were a trifle lower than charged at Independence at the time 
and this must have had its influence in deciding whether to start 
westward from St. Joseph or Independence. 

"During two and one-half months, from April 1 to June 15, 1849, the num- 
ber of wagons that crossed there was 1,508, and averaging four men to a wagon 
would make 6,032. At Duncan's ferry, four miles above St. Joseph, 685 wagons 
crossed; at Bontown, Savannah and the ferries as far as the Bluffs, 2,000. 
This is a total of 4,193 wagons. About 10,000 crossed at Independence, making 
a total of 27,000 persons. There were about eight mules or oxen to each 
wagon, giving a total of 37,544 head of stock." 132 

A California-bound emigrant in 1852 describes crossing the Mis- 
souri at St. Joseph during early May. He had arrived at that 
point the evening before. 

". . . We soon unloaded our goods and camped upon the plain just below 
the town. The whole neighborhood for miles around was full of emigrants, 
tents here and tents there, the white covers of wagons and tents looked as 
though they had been prepared for a grand army. And indeed they had 
been, for here were armies of men, with a goodly sprinkle of women and chil- 
dren. The city of St. Joe is much the gainer by the emigration. Thousands 
of dollars are spent here annually by those who cross the plains, it being one 
of the principal points where the emigration leaves the river. We here bought 
one yoke of oxen, a span of mules, and many other 'fixins/ and made prepa- 
ration for starting over the plains. There were hundreds of wagons waiting 
their turn for crossing the Missouri, and there were several boats busy, and 
among them a steam ferryboat. But their capacity for carrying all the custom 
that presented itself was too small, and as a consequence there were many 
teams ahead of us in their turn. 

"We supposed ourselves now ready for the trip and did not wish to remain 
any longer than possible ; were in quite a hurry to get off. After casting about 

182. Ibid., p. 87; History of Buchanan County, Missouri, pp. 202, 208, 208. 



124 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

endeavoring to see what was best, by accident came across a small flat [boat] 
which the owner was willing to hire, as he said, on reasonable terms. We got 
the boat, and now commenced the tug of war. 'Twas not Greek meets Greek, 
but the strife lay between the Saxon and the mule, for as fast as we got one 
devilish brute on board and our attention drawn towards another, the first 
would jump overboard and swim ashore, to the great delight of the many who 
were looking on. After several turns of the kind, and finding that we ad- 
vanced but slowly in our endeavors to freight the boat by the single addition, 
we concluded to drive them all in together 'pell-mell.' In this we succeeded 
admirably, for in they went, and we put up the bars to keep them there. A 
shout of victory followed the putting up of the railing. A victory was gained 
over the stubborn mule, and the order given to cast off, but before the order 
could be executed, the fiends in mule shape took it into their heads to all 
look over the same side of the boat, and at the same time, and the result was 
the careening of the boat so much to one side that it scared the little devils 
themselves, and they all, as with a common consent, leaped overboard again. 
Three times three cheers were given by the crowd. So much fun could not 
pass unnoticed, or without applause. Finally the mules were got on board and 
secured in proper places, the lines cast off, and the riffle made. This was our 
first trip. The next the oxen were to be ferried. We had had so much trouble 
with the mules that it was but reasonable to expect a quiet time with our 
cattle. In this, however, we were disappointed, for the oxen seemed to have 
caught the disaffection from the mule, and were, if possible, more stubborn 
than the sulkiest of them all. How, or what length of time it took us to get 
the horned tribe on board my memory does not now serve me. Suffice it to 
say that we got them all on board and landed them safely in the Indian terri- 
tory of Nebraska. The balance of our party was soon got over and we en- 
camped for the day to 'fix up things' for here is a general camping ground 
for emigrants and as it is upon the verge of civilization, anything forgotten 
can be obtained by recrossing the river, which privilege we availed ourselves 
of until we supposed everything that was in anyway necessary to our journey 
was got."* 33 

Julius C. Robidoux had the first licensed ferry in Buchanan 
county, 134 Missouri, across the Missouri river at Rattlesnake Hills, 
in or near present St. Joseph of to-day. This license, issued May 7, 
1839, cost eight dollars, one-half being for state purposes and the 
balance to the county. The county court fixed ferriage charges as 
follows : 

For each fourwheeled carriage drawn by four horses, oxen or other ani- 

mals, SI. 50. 
For each two-wheeled carriage drawn by two horses, oxen or other ani- 

mals, $1. 

For each man and horse, or mule, 25 cents. 
For each footman, 12% cents. 



133. Copy of manuscript of John H. Clark, in possession of author. 

134. History of Buchanan County, Missouri, p. 167. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 125 

For each led horse, mule, or ass, 12% cents. 

For each head of cattle, 10 cents. 

For each head of hogs or sheep, 3 cents. 

Ebenezer Blackiston established a ferry at St. Joseph in the early 
1850's, but as the history of his enterprise is so closely interwoven 
with that of the town of Elwood it is given later on. Other ferries 
no doubt operated from St. Joseph, but data concerning them have 
not been located by the writer. 

The Wathena Reporter, August 15, 1867, contained the following: 

"The St. Joseph and Elwood Ferry Company have received from the city 

council of St. Joseph, the exclusive enjoyment, for three years, of the right 

to transport passengers, vehicles, &c., across the river to Elwood in Kansas. 

The following is the tariff to be charged by the company : 

Foot passengers, 5 cents. 

Man and horse, 20 cents. 

Led horse and stock, same as now established. 

Other horses and vehicles, 50 cents. 

Hucksters, 50 cents. 

Other two-horse vehicles, 75 cents. 

Four-horse vehicles, $1." 

St. Joseph and Elwood were the greatest terminal points in their 
section, and their ferries did an immense volume of business up to 
the time of the completion of the railroad bridge across the river 
from Elwood. This bridge was started in July, 1871, and opened 
for traffic May 20, 1873. 

Elwood, the first town above St. Joseph, and distant about one 
mile by river, was laid out as Roseport in 1856, the name being 
changed to Elwood the next year in compliment to John B. Elwood. 
The site of the town had long been the landing place of ferries 
operated from St. Joseph. The town at one time threatened to be- 
come a rival of St. Joseph, and had a population of about 2,000. 
It was a good outfitting point for traders and trappers, and was the 
starting point in Kansas of the east end of the California road, and 
the first station of the Pony Express on the west side of the Missouri 
river. It was the most natural terminal point in northeast Kansas, 
and roads radiated from there to the principal towns in that section. 
The St. Joseph, Atchison & Lecompton stage line passed through 
the town and reached Wathena, Palermo, Geary City, Doniphan, 
Atchison, Winchester, Hickory Point and Lecompton, connecting at 
Lecompton with lines to Topeka, Grasshopper Falls, Fort Riley, 
Lawrence, Kansas City, and at St. Joseph with the railroad for the 
east. 135 St. Joseph men had faith in the future of Elwood and 

135. Elwood Free Press, July 30, 1857. 



126 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

organized a company to build a railroad to connect Elwood with 
Marysville. Work started in 1859, and ten or a dozen miles were 
graded. Six miles of track was laid, and the first locomotive "The 
Albany," used from Boston to the Missouri, was landed at the 
Elwood ferry on April 23, 1860, by the ferryboat Ida, and was pulled 
up the bank by enthusiastic citizens. The next day a half dozen 
flat cars were brought across the river and the opening of the first 
section of the first railroad in Kansas was celebrated. 136 

In the fall of 1852 Henry Thompson established a trading post 
on the west bank of the Missouri, opposite St. Joseph, operating a 
ferry for his own convenience, and profit in addition. In 1855 the 
territorial legislature granted a fifteen-year charter for his ferry. In 
1856 the Roseport Town Company, consisting of Richard Rose and 
a few St. Joseph capitalists, bought 160 acres of land of Thompson 
for about $10,000 and laid out the town of Roseport. How long 
Thompson operated his ferry has not been learned by the writer. 137 

Capt. Ebenezer Blackiston, of St. Joseph, also ran one of the 
earliest ferries to this point, operating a large flatboat which was 
worked by hand. In 1852 a steam ferryboat called the Tidy Adala 
was substituted for the old primitive affair. This boat is mentioned 
a number of times in the Elwood papers between 1857 and 1861. 

By 1855 Blackiston had formed a partnership with one Robert 
Jessee, a prominent resident of Buchanan county, who had served 
as one of the county judges from 1850-1852. With the meeting of 
the first territorial legislature Messrs. Jessee and Blackiston applied 
for a charter for a ferry and were granted privileges for a landing on 
the Kansas side on land owned by Blackiston, and to employ the use 
of a steamboat or flatboats. 188 

In 1857 Blackiston contracted for the building of a new ferry- 
boat to take the place of the Tidy (as it was called for short), in 
order to accommodate the demands of the public as his ferry was 
then said to be crossing more than all other ferries put together. 139 
In 1858 the Pike's Peak travel was at its height and the ferry did a 
rushing business, carrying hundreds of wagons across. This year 
Blackiston advertised that his new steam ferryboat would carry 
twelve or fifteen wagons at a load, and loose cattle in proportion; 
that it was capable of making the trip in two minutes. The landing 

136. Kansas Historical Collections, v. 12, p. 88. 

137. Cray's Doniphan County History, p. 23; General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, pp. 
787-789. 

188. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, p. 798. 
139. Elwood Free Press, November 5, 1857. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 127 

was at the foot of Francis street. 140 By the last of June, 1859, the 
rush was over, Blackiston reporting about forty teams a day, with 
an average of five persons to a team crossing at that time, this 
making 200 arrivals daily. 141 

Blackiston was the leading spirit in the ferry business out of St. 
Joseph and to Elwood, and in 1859 he and his associates were 
granted a new charter by the legislature for the Elwood ferry. The 
following year that body amended his charter as follows: 

"That Ebenezer Blackiston, his successors or assigns, shall not be compelled 
to land their boats at any point above Second street, of said city of Elwood, and 
they shall not, at any time during running hours, which shall be from sunrise 
till dark, tie longer at said landing than ten minutes, unless necessarily de- 
tained in receiving or discharging freight or passengers, or from unavoidable 
causes.""* 

The Tidy was now getting old and out of date, and about the 
middle of the year was retired from regular service. The Free Press 
of July 30 stated that the little craft was fairly engaged in the wood 
and lumber trade. "This week she cleared on the first trip, con- 
suming only a single day, $90. She will be a great assistance to the 
river trade in this vicinity. Success to the Tidy." Just how long 
the boat ran we are unable to say. The next mention of the Tidy 
is the following from the Free Press, of September 29, 1860: 

"Eight years ago the Tidy Adala steam ferryboat of 'ever so many' horse- 
power, puffed majestically up the Missouri river, and took its place in the 
great transit route between St. Joseph and the east end of the California 
road, Capt. Ebenezer Blackiston commanding. Old inhabitants say that the 
citizens of St. Joseph were frantic with joy at her arrival, and smiled with 
grim content on the old flatboat which had 'chassezed' across the Big Muddy 
to the entire satisfaction and the profit of Ebenezer for years before. But 
every dog must have its day, and the principle applies equally to ferryboats. 
For years the Tidy stood up to its 'regular' work, and puffed and blowed like 
a land speculator, crossing and recrossing our raging waters. She was well 
stoked, carefully piloted and had a good horseshoe nailed on her stubby bow. 
But, though horseshoes can beat witches, they stand scarcely the slightest 
show against the snaggy perils of our river navigation. The Tidy got rusty 
and old, and old-fashioned for the fastidious tastes of later days, and was a 
year since relieved from service by a large craft, with a big engine and two 
smokestacks, rejoicing in the name of Ebenezer. Since then the Tidy has 
been rather a loose character, engaging in all manner of desultory service. 
She grew old and decrepit, and a week since while being hauled on a dry 
dock obstinately broke her cables, slipped back into her muddy element, and 
rolled over, a poor, miserable, wrecked one-horse ferryboat. We are sorry for 

140. Ibid., June 5, 1858. 

141. Ibid., June 25, 1859. 

142. Laws, Private, Kansas, 1860, pp. 279, 280. 



128 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the Tidy. She had done good service, and much. She bore on her decks the 
explorers God 'Em (the reader will fill in) who first found the site of 
our city, and founded its present greatness, and she has been too closely 
identified with us to escape with a less obituary. May she rest in peace." 

No doubt there were other ferries operating from St. Joseph to 
the Kansas shore at this time close enough to afford lively competi- 
tion for his ferry, for Blackiston advertised in a local paper that the 
St. Joseph and Elwood ferry had reduced ferriage rates to half price 
as follows: 

Footmen, 5 cents. 

One horse or mule, 15 cents. 

One yoke of oxen, 15 cents. 

One yoke of oxen and wagon, 40 cents. 

Loose cattle, each 7* cents. 

He also called attention to the fact that this was the largest and 
best boat ever in use on the Missouri river for ferry purposes, and 
made trips once in fifteen minutes from sunrise to sunset. 143 

In 1859 the Elwood city authorities became alarmed at the in- 
roads the Missouri was making on the city's water front and took 
steps to curb this erosion. Two large piers or jetties were built 
out into the river to deflect the current away from the bank, which 
was thought sufficient to prevent further trouble. This year Elwood 
received quite an addition to its population, many of the wage- 
earning classes living in St. Joseph removed to Elwood, attracted 
by cheaper rents and lower taxes. The Free Press of October 8 
said: 

"If the ferry ran earlier in the morning and later in the evening, a majority 
of the mechanics of St. Joseph would live on this side of the river. Enough 
have already come to occupy every dwelling that could be obtained. Of the 
fifty dwellings put up this year, not one is now vacant. Several more are 
going up, but not enough to begin to meet the demand." 

The wisdom of requiring the ferry to remedy the hours of arrival 
and departure finally roused the city council to action, and an 
ordinance was passed, late in October, regulating the ferry, and 
"provided that the ferryboat shall leave for its first trip at G 1 /^ 
o'clock in the morning and leaving St. Joseph on its last return trip 
at 7 o'clock in the evening . . ." Whether the ferry proprietors 
eventually complied with the provisions of the ordinance we have 
no knowledge, but the following in the Free Press of November 12 
indicated it was not very rigidly observed: "The 'time table' con- 
tained in the ordinance we published last week suited the owner of 

143. Elwood Free Press, June 29, 1859. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 129 

the ferry and a majority of the council. The people might be still 
better suited if the ferry left the river bank at the time indicated." 
This ferry had the distinction of crossing one visitor in 1859 who 
later became a world-wide figure Abraham Lincoln, then on a visit 
to Kansas during his first campaign for the presidency. Hon. D. 
W. Wilder, in a letter to the secretary of the Kansas State Historical 
Society, dated December 3, 1902, stated that Abraham Lincoln, 
Mark W. Delahay and he, who were in St. Joseph at the time, "all 
sat in the dirt waiting for the ferryboat." They crossed the river 
and that evening Mr. Lincoln spoke to an audience packed in the 
dining room of the hotel at Elwood and spent the night in the town. 
In 1860 from fifteen to twenty teams a day crossed the river at 
this ferry during June. About 400 Mormons arrived in St. Joseph 
the latter part of the month, on their way to Salt Lake City, all 
having to be ferried across the river. 144 There was much immigra- 
tion to Pike's Peak and the regions farther west. This was the 
year of the great drought and the ferry crossed many large droves 
of stock which were being rushed to market daily owing to a scarcity 
of feed, prompting a local paper to remark: "At this rate there 
will be corn enough to feed all we have left." The same authority 
stated that "A herd of 500 cattle crossed the ferry on Thursday, 
going east. One got his leg fast in the apron of the boat, fell over- 
board and could not be extricated. The ferrymen were finally 
obliged to cut off his leg with an ax, and the poor ox paddled ashore 
and was soon made beef." 145 

The winter of 1860-'61 closed leaving the ferryboat in rather a 
dangerous position. As the ice cracked up in February a sudden 
rise lifted the boat out into deep water, broke its moorings and 
carried it down stream to a point below the wreck of the Gaines. 
Mr. Blackiston, after some effort and trouble, got it back to its 
place in safety. 146 The boat was somewhat damaged and required 
about a couple of weeks of repairing before it was got into running 
order. During this interim the primitive flatboat was made use of. 
The Free Press of March 2 no doubt voiced the sentiment of the 
people when it said: "We doubt not that everyone will be rejoiced 
at bidding adieu to the old flatboat and skiff. A number one ferry- 
boat is a little ahead of an old scow, or even the ancient Tidy Adala 
peace to its ashes." 

144. Ibid., June 80, 1860. 

145. Ibid., October 27, 1860. 

146. Ibid., February 16, 1861. 

97572 



130 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Early in the spring that year the streets teemed with emigrants 
and freighters, some of whom were bound for the interior of the 
territory and others for Pike's Peak. Freighting to Denver in- 
creased, the streets being filled with ''prairie schooners, all heavily 
laden, and destined for Colorado. Emigration, however, was not 
as heavy as the previous year." 147 

In the latter part of July, following, there was a change in owner- 
ship in this ferry. A poster announced that it would henceforth be 
under the superintendence and direction of Wilson & Co. A mention 
of the change in proprietorship in a local paper stated that the 
"Wilson is of the A. Beattie & Co. banking house, and the company, 
we presume, is the old proprietor. May it benefit by the change." 

In 1862 the Ebenezer was taken over by the military authorities 
and converted into a gunboat. 148 

Lack of data regarding subsequent ownership of this ferry pre- 
vents giving a complete history. A St. Joseph paper in August, 
1866, stated that 

"Capt. William Ellsworth, of the St. Joseph and Elwood ferry, carried across 
the river on Thursday afternoon 863 head of cattle, and reports that there is 
still a large herd, in number over 850, in the corral awaiting transportation 
across. The business of this line has been very large during the past four 
weeks about 5,000 cattle being transported across the river at that point." 149 

Records of the Elwood Ferry showed that 8,000 head of cattle 
were ferried across the Missouri river in about sixty days during 
June, July and August, 186.6. 150 

Just how late the St. Joseph & Elwood ferry operated we have 
not discovered, but probably it ran up to the time of the bridging 
of the Missouri. The following from the Wathena Reporter of 
August 15, 1867, is the last mention we have found of this notable 
ferry: 

"The St. Joseph & Elwood Ferry Company have received from the city 
council of St. Joseph the exclusive enjoyment, for three years, of the right 
to transport passengers, vehicles, etc., across the river to Elwood, in Kansas. 
The following is the tariff to be charged by the company: 
Foot passengers, 5 cents. 
Man and horse, 20 cents. 

Led horse and stock, same as now established. 
Other horses and vehicles, 50 cents. 

147. Ibid., April 13, 27, 1861. 

148. Kansas Historical Collections, v. 9, p. 301. 

149. Leavenworth Daily Conservative, August 19, 1866, citing the St. Joseph Herald. 

150. Ibid., August 24, 1866. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 131 

Hucksters, 50 cents. 

Other two-horse vehicles, 75 cents. 

Four-horse vehicles, $1." 

Elwood possibly had two ferries that operated in 1858. That 
year D. S. Lusk, the Elwood Town Company, and their associates, 
were authorized to operate a ferry at the city of Elwood and oppo- 
site or nearly opposite the city of St. Joseph, Mo., for a period of 
twenty years. No other ferry was to be permitted within one mile 
of the city limits of Elwood. As no further mention has been found 
of this enterprise, it is more than likely it was not a very long-lived 
concern. 151 

Wathena landing, approximately three miles above Elwood, prob- 
ably was the location of the next ferry to the north, though 
definite information is lacking. On January 26, 1867, William H. 
Smallwood, 152 W. B. Craig, William P. Black, G. W. Barr, W. M. 
Ferguson and William H. Bush were granted a charter for the 
Wathena & St. Joseph Ferry Company. According to the charter 
it was proposed to run a ferry on the Missouri river commencing at 
the northwest limits of the franchise or charter granted to Ebenezer 
Blackiston by the legislature of 1859, and amended in 1860, which 
granted privileges between Elwood and St. Joseph. The new fran- 
chise was to extend up the river to the north line of fractional 
sec. 15, T. 3, R. 22, in Doniphan county, and the company was to 
run a ferry across the river starting at a point between said bounds 
and landing at or near St. Joseph. The company was capitalized 
at $20,000, shares $100 each ; the principal office being at Wathena. 
This charter was filed with the secretary of state January 31, 1867. 153 

The Troy Reporter early in February, 1867, stated: "We under- 
stand a ferry is to be established the coming season from Wathena 
landing to St. Joseph." This ferry, according to Frank G. Drenning, 
a Topekan and former resident of Wathena, was in operation during 
the early nineties. 

According to the History of Buchanan County, Missouri, Dun- 
can's ferry was located about four miles above St. Joseph. No fur- 
ther mention of this ferry has been located by the writer. 

Whitehead, about two miles north of Wathena landing, had the 
next ferry. James R. Whitehead had been a trader at that point 

151. Laws, Kansas, 1858, p. 60. 

152. William H. Smallwood was born in Kentucky in 1841 and came to Kansas in 1854. 
He was secretary of state from 1871-1875. He removed to Duluth, Minn., where he died 
in 1919. 

153. Corporations, v. 1, pp. 282, 283; v. 2, p. 12. 



132 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

before the settlement of the territory. Later a town sprang up, 
named for Mr. Whitehead, which was incorporated in 1855. That 
year the legislature granted him a license to operate a ferry with 
landing at the town and exclusive rights for a mile above and a 
mile below the town. 154 In 1859 the name of the town was changed 
to Bellemont, though there was some talk of giving it the name of 
Oxford. 155 The town has long since disappeared, and a map of that 
locality thirty years later marks the location as "Belmont Bend." 

On July 2, 1855, the Kansas Free State, Lawrence, published a list 
of post routes recently established in the territory, one of which 
ran from Whitehead to Highland, Iowa Point and on to Story's 
Landing on the Missouri river, a distance of forty miles. 

Just how long Mr. Whitehead operated the boat we are unable 
to state. Joseph Penney, a young man, became a subsequent owner 
of the ferry and business. Early in March, 1860, he had the mis- 
fortune to lose his boat while on a trip up the river. The Elwood 
Free Press of March 17, that year, gives the following account of 
the accident: 

"Bellemont Ferryboat. About a week since the St. Joseph and Bellemont 
ferryboat struck a snag in the bend of the river above Bellemont. Her speed 
forced her high on the snag and so firmly that all efforts to float her were in 
vain. Since that time the river has fallen considerably, and though well 
sparred, she hogs badly and it is thought will be a total loss. She is partly 
insured. The boat is, we learn, now owned by Joseph Penney, Esq., an enter- 
prising man and a gentleman, to whom the loss will prove a severe one." 

Whether Mr. Penney salvaged the boat or not we have not dis- 
covered. At any rate, he was operating a boat during the following 
fall. 

Misfortune seemed to pursue the proprietor, for the following year 
he met with another accident. The Free Press of August 10, 1861, 
printed the following: 

"The ferryboat recently plying between St. Joseph and Bellemont was lost 
on Monday last. She had not been running since last fall, and was lying 
at our levee for repairs. While the boat hands were at dinner some person 
entered her hold and tore away the copper cylinder of her well hole, allowing 
a large body of water immediately to rush in. When the crew returned she 
had so far settled that water was pouring in through her dry seams. The 
Elwood ferryboat attempted to drag out and drop her on a bar in shoal 
water, but when she reached the current of the stream she became unmanage- 
able and soon sank. She now lies in about fifty feet of water, in the middle 

154. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, p. 778. 

155. Elwood Free Press , June 25, 1859. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 133 

of the current. The boat will be a total loss no insurance. She was owned 
by Joseph Penney, Esq., and valued at ten thousand dollars." 

The Belmont Kansas Steam Ferry Company was granted au- 
thority by the legislature of 1868 to run a ferry from Bellemont to 
Frenchville, Buchanan county, Mo., for a period of twenty years. 
This company was capitalized at $5,000 with fifty shares of $100 
each. Francis Lajoie, Louis Weiscamp, A. J. Haskell, Constant 
Fourier and John Gerardy were the incorporators. 156 A second 
charter was granted the above company February 10, 1870, by 
the secretary of state. 157 Whether this ferry operated continuously 
during the succeeding years we are unable to state, no further 
mention having been located. 

Early in February, 1881, the Bellemont Ferry and Transfer Com- 
pany was granted a 21-year charter by the secretary of state to 
maintain a ferry and railroad transfer across the Missouri river 
at Bellemont, for the purpose of transferring railroad cars and 
engines, wagons, teams, stock, footmen and general merchandise. 
The limits and boundaries of their grant commenced where the 
line north of sec. 15, T. 3, R. 22 E., in Doniphan county, intersects 
the Missouri river, and thence down the right or west bank of the 
river for four miles. The principal office was to be at Bellemont. 
The lands and property owned by the company was listed as worth 
$25,000, with capital stock at $25,000, in fifty shares of $500 each. 
Robert Tracy, D. C. Sinclair, S. N. Johnson, Joseph Hayton, all 
of Troy, Kan., and Obe Craig, St. Joseph, Mo., were the incorpo- 
rators. Their charter was signed February 7, 1881, and filed with 
the secretary of state, February 8, 1881. 

The next town on the Missouri above Bellemont was Boston, 
Mo. 158 At this point Peter S. Roberts was authorized by the legis- 
lature of 1855 to keep a ferry opposite the town of Boston for a term 
of fifteen years. 159 This location was about ten or eleven miles 
above Whitehead (Bellemont) and near present Amazonia, Mo. 

Another ferry was started on the Kansas side of the river in 1867 
in this vicinity, which is in the northeast corner of Burr Oak town- 
ship, Doniphan county. On February 11, that year, J. W. Young, 

156. General Revised Statutes, Kansas, 1868, chapter 23. 

157. Corporations, v. 2, p. 292. 

158. "The town of Boston was located in Andrew county, Missouri, in Lincoln township, 
and was first laid out in 1842 on the Missouri river by William Caples and his brother. 
The town was platted in 1849 under the name of Nodaway City. In 1851 the name of 
Nodaway City was officially changed to Boston, to correspond to the name of the post office 
which had been established some time previous under that name." History of Andrew and 
De Kalb Counties, Missouri, 1888, pp. 171-174. 

159. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, p. 784. 



134 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

John Hutchinson, 16 Thomas B. Ree, F. Garner, and H. Lyday 
formed a corporation known as the Columbus 161 & Amazonia 162 
Ferry Company, for the purpose of operating a ferry on the Mis- 
souri river, commencing at the boat landing opposite the town of 
Columbus and extending down the Missouri river to the lower end 
of Sand Slue Island, their ferry to run across the river starting at a 
point within said bounds and to have a landing at or near the town 
of Amazonia in Missouri. The capital stock of the company was 
$5,000, divided into five shares, and the principal office of the com- 
pany was to be at Columbus, Doniphan county. This charter was 
filed with the secretary of state, March 29, 1867. 163 Mrs. Mary M. 
Holston, of Burr Oak township, wrote of her experiences in Doni- 
phan county for the Troy Chiej, in 1916, stating that her father on 
March 1, 1855, crossed the Missouri river at Amazonia on a flatboat 
steered with oars. 

Kelley's ferry was probably the next crossing point above Colum- 
bus, and, according to Geo. J. Remsburg, was operating in the fifties. 
This ferry was located at the upper end of Burr Oak bottom, in the 
northwest corner of Burr Oak township, about ten miles northeast 
of Troy and seven miles west of Amazonia. A territorial road was 
established from the town of Doniphan to this point in 1855. 164 

Iowa Point, about fourteen miles up the river from Amazonia, 
was the next point of crossing. In 1855 John S. Pemberton and 
Harvey W. Foreman 165 were authorized by the territorial legisla- 
ture to keep a ferry across the Missouri river and have a landing 
on the west side on land reserved and secured to the board of foreign 
missions of the Presbyterian Church by a treaty with the Iowa In- 
dians. This reservation had been purchased by John S. Pemberton 
and Harvey W. Foreman, and they laid off the town of Iowa Point. 
Their ferry was to have exclusive privileges on the river for a dis- 
tance of one mile up and one mile down from the town of Iowa 
Point. 166 

160. John Hutchinson was a native of Vermont, born in 1830. He came to Kansas in 
1854, and later was appointed secretary of Dakota territory. He removed to Chicago, and 
died in 1887. 

161. Columbus City, Doniphan county, incorporated 1858, by Thomas McCulloch, Henry 
Wilson, Robert Hays and nine others. Named for Columbus McCulloch, son of Thos. 
McCulloch. This site was on sees. 20, 21, T. 2, R. 22, Burr Oak township, twelve miles north 
of Troy, and once boasted a population of 300. Laws, Kansas, 1858, p. 325 ; Andreas, His- 
tory of Kansas, p. 473; Holland, Directory of Kansas, 1866. 

162. Amazonia, Mo., was laid out in 1857, adjoining Nodaway City on the east, the two 
eventually becoming one town. 

163. Corporations, v. 1, p. 813. 

164. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, p. 976. 

165. Harvey W. Foreman was employed in the Indian Service as farmer for the Sac and 
Fox Indians on their reserve during the 1850's and 1860's. 

166. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, p. 782. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 135 

In 1858 a ferry company was organized at Iowa Point, with H. 
Foreman as president, and a steam ferry was put in operation 
on the Missouri river. At this time Iowa Point was the second 
largest city in the territory and led its rival, Leavenworth, in a 
business point of view. Several wholesale houses were in operation, 
and their sales extended to points more than one hundred miles 
away, a long distance in those days. The town built up rapidly. 
A brickyard was started by Joseph Selecman, and brick was substi- 
tuted for wood in almost all buildings erected from that time on. 
With the breaking out of the war and the starting of towns farther 
back from the river, the town began to decline, and when in 1862 
the great fire destroyed the best part of the town, its fate was 
sealed. 167 

Another ferry was projected for Iowa Point in 1858, the legisla- 
ture that year authorizing W. D. Beeler, C. M. Williams, 168 William 
B. Barr and R. M. Williams 169 to operate a ferry across the Mis- 
souri river at the town for a term of fifteen years, and with privilege 
of an exclusive landing place for one mile up and one mile down the 
river. 17 The company operated under the name of the Iowa Point 
Steam Ferry Company and in 1860 had its charter amended by the 
legislature by striking out the word "steamboat" and inserting the 
words "steam or flatboats" so as to read as follows: "The said com- 
pany shall have power to purchase and run steam or flatboats, at 
Iowa Point," etc. m Further history of this enterprise has not been 
located. 

The next ferry above Iowa Point was on Rush Island, about three 
miles up the river. The legislature of 1860 authorized John H. Utt 
and W. D. Beeler 172 to keep a ferry across the Missouri river, at 
a point on Rush Island, opposite Forest City, Mo., with the privilege 
of landing on the main shore above said island, in Doniphan county. 

167. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 490. 

168. C. M. Williams came to Kansas in 1855 when he was nineteen, settling at Leaven- 
worth. He worked for a time on a ferry on the Missouri, running from Weston, Mo. 

169. R. M. Williams was a native of Ohio, born in 1829. He removed to Kansas in 
1854, settling at White Cloud. He served several times in the legislature. 

170. Laws, Kansas, 1858, p. 62. 

171. Laws, Private, Kansas, 1860, pp. 280, 281 ; Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 490. 

172. Wm. D. Beeler was one of the earliest settlers in Kansas. He was born in Ohio, 
but was reared in Indiana. He removed to Missouri when but a young man, locating at 
Greene City, near Springfield, where he married. He once held the office of sheriff of Holt 
county. Early in 1855 he went to Iowa Point, where in connection with C. M. and R. M. 
Williams he established a store under the firm name of W. D. Beeler & Co. In the fall of 
1858 they closed their store at Iowa Point and removed to White Cloud. Mr. Beeler was a 
member of the Leavenworth constitutional convention in 1858, and in 1861 served one term 
as sheriff of Doniphan county. He then returned to his farm, and later was engaged in the 
sawmill business in White Cloud. He died March 14, 1870. 



136 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

No other ferry was to be established within one mile of the above- 
named points. Rates of ferriage as established by the act were: 

Two-horse or ox team loaded, $1. 

Same, unloaded, 75 cents. 

One-horse buggy or carriage, 50 cents. 

Each additional horse, mule, ass, ox, cow, or calf, 15 cents. 

Each score of swine or sheep, $1. 

Each sheep or swine less than one score, 10 cents each. 

Freight merchandise or lumber, not in teams, loaded and unloaded by 
the owner thereof, at the following rates; lumber, $1.50 per 1,000 feet. 
All other articles, 10 cents per 100 Ibs. 

Persons crossing at night may be charged double fare. 173 

No further mention of this ferry has been found. 

By the provisions of a treaty concluded at Fort Leavenworth, 
September 17, 1836, between the United States and the lowas, Sacs 
and Foxes, and other allied tribes, the Sacs and Foxes and lowas 
were settled on their new reservation west of the Missouri river in 
what is now Doniphan county, Kansas. Among other items promised 
these Indians, the government agreed "to furnish them with one 
ferryboat." 174 As those Indians were settled on their new reserva- 
tion within the next twelve months, it is likely their ferryboat was 
put in operation during the year 1837. 

White Cloud, about seven miles up the river from Iowa Point, 
boasted one of the few steam ferryboats on the Missouri in Kansas, 
and one of the best of its class along the river. On April 18, 1858, 
Joshua Taylor purchased a small side-wheel steamer and started 
from Wellsville, Ohio, with the intention of establishing a ferry at 
White Cloud. His arrival at that point on June 3 was greeted by 
the firing of anvils by an enthusiastic crowd and a reception on the 
levee. Mr. Taylor shortly formed a partnership with J. W. Moore, 
naming their ferry the White Cloud Steam Ferry and their boat 
the White Cloud. During the immigration to Pike's Peak and the 
far West their ferry enjoyed a good business. Following the drouth 
of 1860 this patronage must have fallen off considerably, for during 
August, 1861, the proprietors made a special effort to encourage 
passage over their ferry, offering to cross all teams going from 
Kansas to Missouri to mill and returning, at a considerable re- 
duction from usual rates, if paid in cash ; or, they offered to receive 
flour in payment at the regular ferriage rates, figuring the farmers 
would be the gainers by availing themselves of this chance. Messrs. 
Taylor and Moore operated the boat until the spring of 1862, when 

173. Laws, Private, Kansas, 1860, pp. 280, 281. 

174. Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, v. 2, pp. 468, 469. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 137 

they sold it to Ozias Bailey, 175 who ran it until 1867, when it met 
with an accident common to all Missouri river boats, and was so 
badly wrecked as to render it unfit for further service. Mr. Bailey 
had formed a partnership with C. W. Noyes, and in May, 1868, 
Messrs. Bailey and Noyes built a new boat, giving it the same name 
as its predecessor. 176 

Another reorganization of the ferry must have taken place early 
in 1870, when the White Cloud Steam Ferry Company was granted 
a charter, M. L. Noble, C. W. Noyes, J. W. Moore, George L. Moore 
and D. M. Emerson being incorporators. The company was capital- 
ized at $20,000, shares numbering twenty in all. The corporation 
was to exist for twenty years, with principal office at White Cloud. 
Steam was to be the motive power of the new ferry, which was to 
operate between the city of White Cloud and the opposite shore or 
bank of the Missouri river, in Holt county, Mo. This charter 
was filed with the secretary of state, February 3, 1870. 177 Some 
time in May, 1871, John H. Lynds 178 bought a one-fourth interest 
in the ferry and took charge of it. In 1874 a new company wag 
organized. On January 30 that year C. W. Noyes, J. W. Moore, 
John H. Lynds, D. M. Emerson and Daniel Todd became incorpo- 
rators of the White Cloud City Ferry Company. The new com- 
pany was capitalized at $10,000, divided into ten shares. Steam 
was to be used, and the charter was to run for twenty years. This 
charter was filed with the secretary of state February 2, 1874. 179 
In the fall of 1878 Mr. Lynds sold a one-half interest he having 
previously bought from time to time the remaining interests to 
David Bailey. In 1881 Mr. Lynds bought back his one-half in- 
terest, thus making him sole owner. In all Mr. Lynds was con- 
nected with the White Cloud ferry for forty-one years, retiring 

175. Ozias Bailey was born in Salem, N. H., in 1810. He came to Kansas in 1856 and 
settled at White Cloud in 1857, and was elected president of the White Cloud Trust Land 
Company. For several years he was engaged in the mercantile business. Mr. Bailey was 
one of the public-spirited citizens of the town. Weekly Kansas Chief, Troy, April 6, 1916. 

176. Weekly Kansas Chief, Troy, May 5, 1932. 

177. Corporations, v. 2, p. 257. 

178. John H. Lynds was born in 1844, in Illinois, and came to Kansas in 1857, locat- 
ing at White Cloud. In 1862 he went to St. Louis and engaged in steamboating, chiefly on 
the lower river. He gradually worked his way up to a good position on the boat. On a 
voyage down the river, between St. Louis and Cairo, the steamer caught fire and burned to 
the water's edge, many lives being lost. He saved himself by clinging to a floating wheel- 
barrow, by which he reached shore. He is probably the only man on record who wheeled 
himself from the middle of the Mississippi river on a wheelbarrow. He soon after abandoned 
the river, and returned to White Cloud, where he engaged in the livery business. In 1871 
he bought from Noyes & Moore a one -fourth interest in their White Cloud ferryboat, and 
their entire interest later. In 1887 he built a ferryboat at Jeffersonville, Ind., called the 
Roy Lynds, and after running it for two years sold it to parties at Lexington, Mo., and 
then built at White Cloud, the Harry Lynds, which is the ferryboat now running. Kanaas 
Weekly Chief, Troy, November 23, 1893. 

179. Corporations, v. 5, p. 527. 



138 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

from the business in 1912, when his boat, the Harry Lynds, struck 
a snag and went to the bottom. This ferry has had a long and 
interesting history and this sketch no doubt has failed to note all 
the changes in ownership up to the time the last boat operated from 
White Cloud. The following-named boats (perhaps others) saw 
active service during the life of this ferry: The White Cloud, Roy 
Lynds, Winona, Harry Lynds, White Cloud Belle, Jewell, Nancy 
Lee. 180 

A flatboat ferry was operated at White Cloud for a number of 
years by a Tennesseean named Stonecyphers. 181 

A letter from Firth Dodd, editor of the White Cloud Globe, of 
July 23, 1932, regarding ferries of White Cloud, says: 

"The last ferryboat to be operated here is now piled up on the river bank, 
where it was pushed out of the water by an unusually heavy run of big ice 
when the river broke up in the spring, three or four years ago. It was the 
Nancy Lee, owned and operated by Joe Gormley, and brought here from Rulo, 
Neb. It is now a wreck, with the engine and everything taken off. Before that 
Gormley operated the Jewell, a boat rebuilt by George Nuzum and operated by 
him until his death. The first Jewell came down the river owned by a man 
named Lemon. He operated it here during the World War. 

"The reason there is no boat here now is because of a drainage ditch across 
the river in the Missouri bottom. This ditch empties into the river a mile 
or two below here. When it rains the lower end of the ditch overflows, flood- 
ing the bottom land opposite this town. Roads become impassable and this 
has put the ferry business 'on the bum' as far as we are concerned. There are 
no roads on the other side passable in wet weather. This traffic now goes to 
Rulo, Neb., which is near the head of the drainage ditch and consequently 
does not come in the flooded district. The farmers on the lower ends of this 
ditch suffer greatly. Respectfully, FIRTH DODD." 

"P. S. Gormley lives here now." 

Since receiving the above letter, White Cloud has secured a new 
ferry. The new enterprise was projected about the middle of Octo- 
ber, 1932, by Henry L. Olson. The boat, called the Betty L, was 
built in Omaha last June. It is 24 feet wide, 65 feet long, and pow- 
ered by a modern gasoline motor. It carries seven cars at a time. 
A new gravel road leads to the river, and the landing at White 
Cloud is at the stockyards landing. The landing on the opposite 
side of the river, which had to be constructed, is but one mile from 
the highway. The Globe-Tribune, of October 20, says this is the 
best ferry White Cloud ever had. 

This is the last ferry location on the Missouri river before reach- 
ing the Nebraska-Kansas boundary line. 

180. Weekly Kansas Chief, Troy, illustrated Doniphan County, April 16, 1915, p. 112. 

181. Gray's Doniphan County History, p. 37. 



The First Book on Kansas 

The Story of Edward Everett Hale's "Kanzas and Nebraska" 
CORA DOLBEB 

OF THE numerous publications occasioned by the Kansas-Ne- 
braska act, and the westward movement it instigated, the first, 
the most authoritative, and the longest was the 256-page study, 
Kanzas and Nebraska, by Edward Everett Hale, compiled in the 
summer of 1854, and published September 28, 1854, by Phillips, 
Sampson & Co., Boston. 1 The first extant allusion to the book 
occurs in an advertisement in the Boston Evening Transcript, July 
11, 1854: 

KANSAS AND NEBRASKA 



In Press 

THE 
HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 

OP 
THE TERRITORIES OF KANSAS AND NEBRASKA 

WITH AN ACCOUNT OF 

THE NATIVE TRIBES 

AND 

The Emigration now in progress thither 
with a map 



Prepared with the assistance of the officers of 

The Emigrant Aid Society, 

From unpublished documents, and from the travels 
of the French voyagers Lewis and Clarke, Pike, Long, 
Bonneville, Fremont, Emory, Abert, Stevens and others. 



BY EDWARD S. HALE* 



To be comprised in one volume, duodecimo, and 
published under the sanction of the Emigrant Aid 
Society. 

The work will be issued in August. 
Price, in muslin, 75 cents; in paper covers, 56 cts. 

Orders from the Trade respectfully solicited. 



PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & Co. 
Publishers. 

1. Daily Tribune, New York, September 26, 1854. Adv. 

2. Edward S. Hale is a misprint, of course, for Edward E. Hale. 

(139) 



140 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

On the following day, July 12, M. D. Phillips, 3 of Messrs. Phillips, 
Sampson & Co., wrote Mr. Hale of the business arrangement, in 
reply to an earlier offer by him. 4 
11 Rev. E. E.Hale: 

"DEAR SIR We'll do the Nebraska. The illness of our Mr. Sampson & the 
financial storm now passing over the country has compelled some delay in 
replying to you. You speak of a specific sum for the M. S. map & copy- 
right or of a 15 per cent on the retail price of the work. 

"This we infer is optional with us. Before making our election, we shall of 
course want your terms i. e., the price for the outright purchase. When you 
give us this we'll advise you of our decision at once. 

"We announced it in the Ev'g Transcript today & shall tomorrow do the 
same all over the Northern creation. It must be in two kinds of binding- 
cloth & paper. Cloth for the thoughtful house reader & paper for those 
residing in cars. (Without any joking, though what myriads of 'young 
America' literally live in these fair carriages.) These are the emigrating men, 
and the men at any rate to help swell the great aggregate of emigrating en- 
thusiasm, and the boys must run through all the cars with them. 

"It can be stereotyped in 10 or 15 days if you will always be at home & 
read the proof in the ev'g & let me return it in the morning They can do 
about 25 pp. a day f& this would do it in 10 days. 

"We agree with you that it sh'd be out at once, and we ought to have 
the map Lithographing now. Truly yours, PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & Co." 

The extent of the "northern creation," as far as we have evidence 
in Kansas to-day, did not reach beyond New York and Washington. 
The advertisement, just as it appeared in the Boston Transcript, 
was published in the Boston Commonwealth, July 18-20, 22, 24, 25, 
27 and 28; in the New York Daily Tribune, July 15, 22 and 29; and 
in the National Era, Washington, D. C., July 27, August 3, 10, 17 
and 24. In all contemporary newspapers and magazines Messrs. 
Phillips, Sampson & Co. advertised their publications extensively, 
but the issues of the papers named are the only places in which the 
writer has found notice of Kanzas and Nebraska in the summer of 
1854. 

The immediate occasion of Mr. Rale's undertaking the book is 
not a matter of available record. The question of slavery had long 
interested him. A northerner in fact and in sympathy, he had been 
in Washington during the winter of 1844-1845, as minister of the 

3. The letter of July 12 bears the company signature, "Phillips, Sampson & Co." only; 
but it is in the handwriting of the letter of August 21, 1855, bearing the personal signa- 
ture of M. D. Phillips. 

4. Correspondence of Edward Everett Hale in Archives Department, Kansas State His- 
torical Society, Topeka. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 141 

Unitarian Church, 5 and witnessed the procedure of congress for the 
annexation of Texas by joint resolution. In anger he had gone 
back to Boston on March 3, 1845, to carry out what he believed 
to be the true policy of the Northern states. 6 He gave his first days 
there to the writing of "an eager appeal for the immediate settle- 
ment of Texas from the Northern states," calling the sixteen-page 
pamphlet How to Conquer Texas before Texas Conquers Us. Al- 
though no one outside the circle of his immediate friends and the 
proof readers ever read the pamphlet, published at his own cost, 
and no man went or proposed to go to Texas as a result of his effort, 
Mr. Hale was convinced of the wisdom of his proposed solution for 
the social condition of the time. 

A sermon, Christian Duty to Emigrants, delivered by Mr. Hale 
before the Boston Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, May 9, 
1852, also emphasized the need for some agency to care for and 
place properly the foreign emigrants as they reached the shores of 
the United States. 7 

"We do not ask alms for them. God has provided the western prairie, 
white with the harvest, waiting for them to reap it. He has reared the forest 
which will build their cheerful cabins; it waits for them to fell it. If only 
from the shore where they landed, to the earth begging them to subdue it; 
or to the wheels which will rust, if they do not attend them; or to the waters 
which fall idly, if they do not labor with them; if only between that supply 
and this demand, you will come in between to lead the laborer to the har- 
vest! . . . We ask you to treat them as accessions, to an amount incal- 
culable, to the country's wealth . . . while these strangers bring to the 
country all their manly strength, of which other nations have taken the 
cost of maturing." 

In 1852, the sermon stated, the annual emigration numbered about 
400. In New York there was only a labor exchange or an intelli- 
gence office to care for the emigrants; in Boston the business was 
handled by the city and the state administrations. Although the 
sermon was addressed to a society for the prevention of pauperism, 
the speaker believed the direct danger of undirected emigration was 
not so much of pauperism as of enlarging too fast the body of mere 
muscular laborers in the United States, and he showed, by specific 

5. Mr. Hale ministered to this church from October 1, 1844, to March 8, 1845. He was 
invited to remain there as permanent minister, but "I knew perfectly well that there was to 
be a gulf of fire between the North and the South before things went much further; and I 
really distrusted my own capacity at the age of twenty-three to build a bridge which should 
take us over." He left the day before Mr. Folk's inauguration, "too angry to be willing to 
stay." E. E. Hale, Memories of a Hundred Years, v. II, pp. 142, 145. 

6. Ibid., pp. 151, 153. 

7. Sermon in files of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Copy used here. 



142 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

illustration, how through guidance skilled labor could be supplied 
to existent need. 

Not only on the question of slavery, then, but on the question of 
emigration, too, Mr. Hale had already entertained definite ideas 
for nine years, when, in the spring of 1854, people of the North be- 
came widely interested in colonizing the new territories with free 
men, 8 and Eli Thayer, founder of Mt. Oread Institute for Young 
Ladies and a member of the legislature for the city of Worcester, 
called upon the legislature of Massachusetts in March to organize 
the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company. 9 

"It was a plan which proposed to meet the South on its own terms, 
familiarly known as 'squatter sovereignty/ It authorized a capital of five 
million dollars in establishing settlements at the West. The charter was 
rushed through both houses of the legislature at once, and was signed by 
Governor Washburn on the 26th day of April, 1854. ... On the 4th of 
May the petitioners accepted the charter. . . . 

"Mr. Eli Thayer was a near neighbor of mine in Worcester, and as soon 
as I knew of his prompt and wise movement I went over to see him, showed 
him my Texas pamphlet, and told him I was ready to take hold anywhere. 
He was very glad to have a man Friday so near at hand. There was enough 
for all of us to do. We called meetings in all available places, and went to 
speak or sent speakers wherever we were called for." 

That is Mr. Kale's own story of his first association with the Emi- 
grant Aid Movement, as he published it in 1902. A letter from 
Mr. Thayer to Mr. Hale, written from Oread, May 3, 1854, de- 
scribes his first assigned duty. 10 

"There is an Emigrant Convention in the city to-day at which I expected 
to be present for the purpose of unfolding (by request) the purposes of the 
Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company. My health is such that I do not 
dare to venture out in such weather and therefore wish that you would appear 
for me. If you can do so, I will inform you of what it was my purpose to 
speak. The explanation requisite must not occupy more than fifteen minutes." 

To this letter, in Mr. Thayer's own illegible handwriting, is at- 
tached a note in Mr. Bale's plain script, January 8, 1889. 

"This letter . . . relates to the first meeting of emigrants for Kansas in 
the spring of 1854. I went and gave them their encouragement and instruction. 
It was in the town hall of Worcester. There were perhaps a hundred people 
all or mostly over." 

The Daily Spy carried an account, a column and a quarter in 
length, of the meeting, attended by delegations from numerous 

8. The Daily Spy, Worcester, Mass., March 13, 27, 1854. Photoatatic copy used. 

9. Hale, Edward Everett, Memories of a Hundred Years, v. II, pp. 154, 155. 

10. Correspondence of Edward Everett Hale. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 143 

towns, within a radius of one hundred miles. 11 Approximately half 
of the report reviewed Mr. Kale's exposition of the proposed plans 
of operation of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, to be 
organized on the morrow, and the delegates' satisfaction in the plans. 
The meeting, however, was not the first meeting of emigrants in the 
spring of 1854, as Mr. Kale's note of January 8, 1889, states. 12 The 
convention of May 3 was but an adjourned meeting of an earlier 
convention called in March for April 18 and held on that day in the 
police court room in Worcester with forty or fifty delegates in 
attendance, representing twenty towns in Massachusetts, Rhode 
Island, and Connecticut. 13 At least one preliminary meeting had 
preceded the meeting of April 18. 14 Mr. Thayer's letter of May 3 
is, nevertheless, the earliest record preserved, among the official 
papers of the Emigrant Aid Companies, of the work of the company 
with emigrants. The convention of April 18 had passed resolutions 
rejoicing in the proposed incorporation of an "Emigrant's Aid 
Society" and agreeing to encourage every feasible plan "for the 
establishment of the institutions of freedom and the prohibition of 
slavery in the national domain." 15 

Mr. Thayer, in writing in 1889 of the formation of the company, 
noted the same enthusiasm in Mr. Hale that Mr. Kale's own state- 
ments show. 16 

"Indeed the very first man to express confidence in its success and his own 
readiness to work for it with all his might, was Rev. Edward Everett Hale, 
one of the signers of the protest [of the clergy to congress]. True to his 
pledge, he immediately began to write a book minutely describing the terri- 
tories of Kansas and Nebraska, showing their many attractions, the way to 
reach them, and enumerating the Emigrant Aid Companies already formed." 

The protest of the clergy to congress, March 1, 1854, against re- 
peal of the compromise, had been signed by three thousand clergy- 
men of New England, of whom Mr. Hale had been one. If, as Mr. 
Thayer suggested, Mr. Hale in his book was following out his pledge 
made there the protest had ended ". . . and your protestants, 
as in duty bound, will ever pray," his affiliation with the move- 
ment began two months before the Emigrant Aid Company was 
chartered, and the immediate occasion of the book, Kanzas and 
Nebraska, was the fulfillment of that pledge. 

11. The Daily Spy, Worcester, Mass., May 4, 1854. 

12. A later article will develop the background of this movement more fully. 

13. The Daily Spy, Worcester, Mass., March 21, April 19, 1854. 

14. Ibid., March 24, 1854. 

15. Ibid., April 19, 1854. 

16. Thayer, Eli, A History of the Kansas Crusade (Harper, 1889), pp. 124, 125. 



144 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Other evidences of his interest in the political situation of the 
territories and in the emigration thither were continual in his cor- 
respondence of the spring. To his brother Nathan he wrote on 
March 17 of being "much riled at Douglas's language regarding me 
among others"; on March 22 and 25 to his father and his brother 
Charles, of a "stereotyped map of Nebraska, etc.," in the New York 
Independent, he would like his father to print in the Boston Ad- 
vertiser; on April 5, to his father, of an article on emigration to 
Kansas, with quotations from John M. Forbes, for publication in 
the Advertiser; on May 11, again to his father, urging the father's 
attendance at the meeting of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany on the morrow at Revere House to arrange subscriptions to 
stock, outlining some of the proposed policies of the company, and 
concluding, "I think I have never had anything so much at heart 
before." 17 In June he was the recipient of letters about the same 
general question from Edward Everett, who was friendly to the 
cause but reluctant to enter actively into its support because of 
his years; 18 and from Charles W. Elliott in New York three letters 
about the charter in New York and Connecticut and meetings for 
Mr. Thayer to address in Hartford, New Haven, and Springfield. 19 
His mind had no rest from thought of emigration westward and its 
importance; no time to make record of the exact origin of concep- 
tion and plan for his extensive study of the newly organized terri- 
tories that was to constitute his book. 

Although the different publications of the advertisement, from 
July 11 to August 24, stated the book was "in press," remarks in 
the text itself indicate Mr. Hale did most, if not all, of the actual 
writing in August. On two widely separated pages, namely pages 
18 and 129, he says he is writing on August 1, 1854. 20 The manu- 
script shows that the pages of this portion were prepared con- 
secutively in the numbered order. 21 Since the physical feat alone 
of putting one hundred and eleven pages of this book on paper in 

17. Hale, Edward E., Jr., The Life and Letters of Edward Everett Hale (Little, Brown 
& Co., 1917), v. I, pp. 250-254. 

18. Ibid., pp. 251, 252. 

19. Correspondence of Edward Everett Hale. 

20. Hale, Edward Everett, Kanzas and Nebraska (Phillips, Sampson A Co., Boston, 
1854), pp. 18, 129. 

21. The manuscript of Kanzas and Nebraska, almost in entirety, was in the collection of 
Massachusetts and New England Emigrant Aid Company papers sent to the Kansas State 
Historical Society at Topeka by the family of Edward Everett Hale, and is now on file there. 
The manuscript of chapters I-VII is complete with the exception of pp. 230-232, being in 
the book pp. 147, 148. The manuscript paging for chapter IX follows a different order, being 
numbered b9-b!8, which corresponds to pp. 219-232 of the book. Page blO is gone, but for 
it is substituted a 10-page report of "Eli Thayer for the committee," covering pp. 220-229 
of the book. For the first 3^4 pages and the last fourteen of the book there is no manuscript 
at all. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 145 

a single day would have been impossible, the reader concludes that 
"August 1" is not an exact date in the second entry, but an approxi- 
mate date chosen for general reference. The date of the preface, 
written apparently after the book itself was complete, was August 
21, allowing twenty days for the composition of the book. Accord- 
ing to Mr. Rale's own computation, in a letter to his brother Charles, 
August 10, 1854, he spent far fewer than twenty days at the task: 
"I have not written to Boston this week because I was writing 
Kanzas at the rate of forty-three pages a day and dreaded the sight 
of pen and ink." 22 

Edward E. Hale, Jr., in editing this letter, added the explanation 
that "Kanzas at the rate of forty-three pages a day" meant the 
book Kanzas and Nebraska. In the manuscript of Kanzas and 
Nebraska there were altogether 335 pages ; all of chapter VIII, with 
the exception of the headings given to the different sections, was a 
printed copy of the Kansas and Nebraska bill. In a few other places 
clippings furnished the copy of quoted passages. Most of the manu- 
script, however, is in Mr. Hale's own handwriting. At his own 
declared rate he should have completed the book before August 10, 
if the "forty-three page" days were successive days. 

But what is Kanzas and Nebraska that its author could have 
compiled it so fast? The printed title page explains in part: 

KANZAS AND NEBRASKA: 
THE 

HISTORY, GEOGRAPHICAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS, 
AND POLITICAL POSITION OF THOSE TERRITORIES; 

AN ACCOUNT OF THE 

EMIGRANT AID COMPANIES 

AND 

DIRECTIONS TO EMIGRANTS 

BY 

EDWARD E. HALE 

WITH AN 

ORIGINAL MAP FROM THE LATEST AUTHORITIES. 

This title page apparently evolved with the book from a plan 
that itself took shape as the author assembled his material. The 

22. Hale, Edward E., Jr., Life and Letters of Edward Everett Hale, v. I, p. 255. 

107572 



146 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

first draft, as it was preserved in the manuscript, described the 
book thus: 

KANSAS AND NEBRASKA 

The History, & Geography of These territories; 
with some account of the native tribes, cli- 
mate and natural production. 

From original documents in possession of the 

EMIGRANT AID COMPANY 

and from the travels of the French Voyagers, Lewis & Clarke, 
Pike, Long, Fremont, Emery, Abert & Bonneville, Abert, 
Fremont, Emory, Abert and Others. [Names set in italics 
were marked out in original manuscript.] 

Mr. Kale's idea at first of the inclusions of his study was as un- 
certain as the order of the names of his authorities. Here he would 
draw from the documents in possession of the Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany, presumably of Massachusetts, but at the time he did not plan 
to give an account of its work. In another draft of the page, also 
with the manuscript, he planned an account of the "emigration 
now in progress" to the territories, to be "prepared with the assist- 
ance of the officers of the Emigrant Aid Company." 

The history, the geography, and the map were common to all three 
versions. Although the Emigrant Aid movement had recognition 
in each, it was not until the printed version appeared that the 
nature and purpose of that recognition were evident. First the Emi- 
grant Aid Company, evidently of Massachusetts, was to allow the 
author use of its original documents on the territories; second, its 
officers were to assist; but third and finally, the author was himself 
to give an account, not of one company, but of the companies, and 
also to include directions to emigrants. The "Emigrant Aid Com- 
panies" of this last draft included, besides the company of Massa- 
chusetts, the Emigrant Aid Company of New York and Connecticut, 
referred to in the letters of Chas. W. Elliott to Mr. Hale, June 5 
and 27 and July 5, 1854, 23 and organized July 18, 1854, 24 and to 
the Union Emigration Society of Washington, D. C., organized "by 
such members of congress and citizens generally as were opposed to 
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and to the opening of 
Nebraska and Kanzas to the introduction of slavery." 25 One of 
the author's last additions to his plan was presentation of the 
political position of the territories; and as his book progressed he 

23. Vide ante footnote 19. 

24. Hale, E. E., Kansas and Nebraska, p. 230. 

25. Ibid., p. 231. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 147 

no doubt found that he had consulted too many sources to give 
credit to all on the title page, and therefore transferred to the 
preface such assembled acknowledgments of authorities as he chose 
to make. The last form of the page omitted all mention of the 
native tribes, given prominent position among the first topics to 
be treated, yet the book itself gave ample space to their history and 
political position in the territories. 

Although the book consists of nine chapters, the subjects it dis- 
cusses group themselves under five headings: history, geography, 
development, political position, and emigration. In a sense the 
whole book is but a history of the section opened as the territories 
of Kansas and Nebraska on May 30, 1854 ; but the first two chapters 
treat particularly of the earliest explorations and of the tribes of 
Indians dwelling there, both those called "native" and those known 
to have been immigrants. 

In a seven-page chapter Mr. Hale first traces briefly the dis- 
covery of the regions now under discussion; he cites the reports of 
Father Marquette and Father Dablon of the expedition of 1670- 
1673, as it appears in Shea's History of the Mississippi. The expe- 
dition of La Salle in 1681 and 1682 he reviews in the words of 
Father Membre and the continuation of the journey to the Cana- 
dian frontier after 1687 by six of La Salle's party, in the words of 
Father Douay, both also quoted in Shea's history. He analyzes 
the claims of La Hontan in 1689 to his discoveries along the Mis- 
souri. To the French scheme of 1717 for emigration and explora- 
tion he attributes the discovery of Kansas. From the time the 
French officer, M. Dutisne, reached the Osage villages, in 1719, he 
"was exploring the territory of Kanzas." 26 Mr. Hale fails to cite 
the special sources used in his account of the French expedition. 

The forty-three page discussion of the Indian tribes that had 
occupied the territories since the region was known to man gives 
bare facts of name, origin, history, language, habits and state of 
civilization. It elaborates a little more in reviewing the smaller 
tribes removed thither by governmental treaties. It then launches 
into somewhat detailed accounts of the characteristics of the tribes 
whose position at the time offered anything of special interest, be- 
ginning with those in the northern part of Nebraska and speaking 
in succession of those farther south. It gives a summary, "anything 
but agreeable," of their long and indolent careers of poverty and 
misery, and remarks that the only success of the Indian agencies 

26. Ibid., p. 16. 



148 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

has been in breaking up the tribe system entirely and substituting 
the labor and responsibilities of civilized men. It includes general 
estimates of the population of the tribes, and ends with a statement 
of the Indian lands recently opened for settlement by treaties just 
made with the Omahas, Ottoes and Missourias, Sacs and Foxes of 
the Missouri, Kickapoos, lowas, Delawares, Weas, and Pianka- 
shaws. 27 In his preface Mr. Hale stated that the sources of this 
sketch of the Indian tribes were the treatise of Mr. Gallatin, the 
spirited sketches of Mr. Catlin, the journal of Mr. Parkman, and the 
notices of travelers. 28 Most of the text is a paraphrase or summary 
of the subject without exact references to special sources. Once, in 
the middle of the chapter, a three-and-one-half-page quotation of 
a visit to the "Ogillalah" lodges is attributed to Mr. Parkman. The 
long account of the Mandans, he says, is mostly digested from Mr. 
Catlin's narrative; 29 and he supports the contention of their possible 
Welsh origin by citation of Southey's preface to his poem Madoc. 80 
Mr. Gallatin is his chief authority on language; 31 but on the vo- 
cabulary of the Dacotahs he cites the study of the Rev. S. R. 
Riggs. 32 He refers to the reports of the superintendents of the 
missions, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Meeker, and he alludes to the 
opinion of three agents by name, Mr. Vaughn, Mr. Robinson, and 
Mr. Manypenny. 

Chapters III and IV discuss the geographical and physical char- 
acteristics of the two territories, the one being devoted theoretically, 
as the titles would indicate, to Nebraska and the other to Kansas. 
As matter of fact most of the first chapter does describe Nebraska, 
there being but one or two parts of the account that include Kansas 
or a part of it; but the second chapter, two and one-half times as 
long as the first, treats as frequently of some part of Nebraska 
as of Kansas and often considers the two together. Mr. Hale had 
never visited the region. 33 He was therefore dependent for his in- 
formation upon the writings of the travelers and explorers who 
had; and their accounts had been made before the vast region was 
divided into two territories. 34 They had treated the territories as 

27. Ibid., pp. 59, 60. 

28. Ibid., p. V. 

29. Ibid., p. 48. 

80. Ibid., pp. 81, 48. 

81. Ibid., p. 81. 

82. Ibid., p. 48. 

83. Twenty-five years later Mr. Hale visited Kansas. The Life and Letters of Edward 
Everett Hale, by Edward E. Hale, Jr., vol. II, p. 283, includes a letter by Mr. Hale to Mrs. 
Hale, written from Lawrence, Kan., September 12, 1879. 

84. For the boundaries of the two territories as divided by the congressional act of May 
30, 1854, see the map used by Mr. Hale in Kanzas and Nebraska. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 149 

one, and he, in citing and quoting them as authorities, travels back 
and forth with them constantly from one territory to the other. 
The section of Nebraska that he treats of along with Kansas is 
for the most part, moreover, the section lying south of the Platte 
river, a section many of the features of which are similar to the 
features of northern Kansas. The courses of their rivers, the divides 
between them, the valleys along them, the elevations and the de- 
pressions, the soil and its geological formation, the vegetation and 
the crops, the native animals and the chances for domestic suste- 
nance are all matters the numerous explorers had noted, and Mr. 
Hale uses some one's observations on every point once or several 
times in the course of the two chapters. In each he is lavish with 
quotations and almost always here he is careful to cite his authori- 
ties. 

In the chapter on Nebraska he gives credit to Lewis and Clark, 
Governor Stevens, Captain Bonneville as edited by Irving, Major 
Cross, Colonel Fremont, a nameless but "intelligent writer in the 
New York Tribune" of no date, the Reverend Mr. Parker, who in 
1835 described the Nebraska prairie, and a nameless explorer and 
writer of a private letter noting the firs and pines of the upper 
Platte. With one exception the authorities for all borrowed material 
of this chapter are evident to the reader, though three of them are 
nameless, and the reference source of only one is cited; the excep- 
tion is the umnentioned author of a one-and-three-quarter-page 
description of a journey into Nebraska from Council Bluffs. 85 
From the paper and type of the clipping attached to the manuscript 
copy of the chapter the reader suspects it, too, came from the New 
York Tribune in which the article of the "intelligent writer" above 
appeared, but he cannot be positive. 

So, in the beginning of the next chapter, when Mr. Hale refers 
vaguely to "the writer already quoted," the reader finds himself 
asking "but which writer?" For the most part, however, Mr. Hale 
gives authority for all his material here, yet he seldom cites the ex- 
act source where he found it. Colonel Fremont is his most constant 
reference, and he quotes him again and again in passages from one 
to four pages long; of the forty-eight pages in the chapter, virtually 
twenty-four consist of scattered accounts from Colonel Fremont's 
official reports. Parkman's travels contribute a sketch of the Ar- 
kansas, near Pueblo, and a description of the basin of the Kansas. 
Colonel Emory is another reference on the Arkansas and on trees 

35. Hale, E. E., Kamas and Nebraska, pp. 70, 71; MS., p. 125%. 



150 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

in eastern Kansas. As authorities on geology Colonels Fremont and 
Emory share honors with a Professor James, a Prof. James Hall, 
Captain Stansbury, Jessup's MS. Report, and Long's Expedition, 
vol. I, pp. 137-139. Private letters contribute fascinating pictures, 
especially of the valley of the Kansas no one called the river "the 
Kaw" then. Among these writers were Father Duerinck, 36 super- 
intendent of the Catholic Mission among the Pottawatomies ; a 
nameless person from Indiana; another nameless person, "a gentle- 
man" who had written his impressions on July 6, 1854, and who 
was probably Dr. Charles Robinson; and again a nameless person, 
"a most intelligent gentleman who has traveled over all parts of 
America," who quotes entries from his diary of 1849 enroute to 
California, and who, from this description and from the more tell- 
tale evidence of the back of the printed clipping of his letter at- 
tached to the manuscript copy of the book, was most likely Dr. 
Robinson also. 87 

Chapters III and IV that thus describe the natural features of 
Nebraska and Kansas are the most readable chapters in the book. 
They make the most complete pictures. They seem, as one lays the 
book aside, to have been the best written. Yet in them is little 
original composition, no original observation, and only the original 
thought necessary to link together nicely recorded impressions of 
other persons who have been and seen for themselves. In selection 
at least the author has been the artist here. 

Although on August 1, 1854, the proffered date of composition of 
Kanzas and Nebraska, Mr. Hale asserts there was nothing deserving 
the name of a town in either state, he devotes a short chapter, 
chapter V, to stations, military, trading, and missionary posts, and 
the projected cities in Nebraska and Kansas. He locates each place, 
gives its history, and tells something of its known purpose and use. 
The statements are meager but informative. Colonel Fremont is his 
acknowledged authority on Fort Kearney, supplemented by "the 
return of last autumn," the return evidently being a government 
report. A letter of the spring, of no given authorship, furnishes a 
page and one-half of quoted description of Fort Leavenworth. A 
government report of the winter before provides a page quotation 

36. Father Duerinck, S. J. Mr. Hale refers to him as "Mr. Duerinck." 

37. Hale, E. E., Kanzas and Nebraska. Back of MS. page 197; the back of the news- 
paper clipping bearing this letter on the front, says: "The following letters . . . copied 
from the Worcester Spy, are said to be from the pen of Dr. Charles Robinson, of Fitchburg, 
who visited the territories in 1849." It seems quite probable, though of course not certain, 
that the letter quoted is one of this group. In the spring and early summer of 1854, Doctor 
Robinson was in Kansas in the interests of the Emigrant Aid Company and in 1849 he had 
crossed the region on his way to California. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 151 

on the development of Fort Riley. The author cites no sources for 
his knowledge of the other forts, the post offices, the stations (or 
stopping places), and the missions. Obviously they have been the 
letters and the reports of explorers, however, that he has had oppor- 
tunity to read. 

Chapter VI is a general survey of routes of travel through the 
region. It is both a history and an exposition of recommendations. 
It reviews all the courses of all the known explorers, compares them 
as to nature and use, and evaluates their importance. Regarding 
"the territory of Kanzas, from its position," as "the great geo- 
graphical center of the internal commerce of the United States," 38 
Mr. Hale pronounces the emigrant track along the valley of the 
Nebraska and through the "South Pass" to Oregon and California 
and the Santa Fe trail to New Mexico the greatest; and he indicates 
that "it is by some modification of the one or the other that almost 
all the projects for a Pacific railroad propose to cross the conti- 
nent." 39 He tells with care just where each route touches Kansas 
and suggests different approaches in each territory to the emigrant 
route along the Nebraska. The sources of his information are again 
numerous, including Gregg in his Commerce of the Prairies, Colonel 
Fremont, Lieutenant Emory, Captain Stansbury, and the Secretary 
of War. Virtually half the chapter consists of quotations, three and 
one-half pages being taken from the last report of the Secretary of 
War, the same from Lieutenant Emory, and two pages from Lieu- 
tenant Fremont and Captain Stansbury, each. Though the sources 
are several, Mr. Hale admits their insufficiency to help him do more 
than "hazard a guess" as to the greater feasibility of one course or 
a part of a course over another. 

Chapter VII, which reviews the political history of the region 
now to be organized as territories, is the most spirited portion of the 
book. The opening statements suggest the vein of the author's treat- 
ment. 40 

"Up to the summer of 1854, Kanzas and Nebraska have had no civilized 
residents, except the soldiers sent to keep the Indian tribes in order, the mis- 
sionaries sent to convert them, the traders who bought furs of them, and those 
of the natives who may be considered to have attained some measure of civili- 
zation from their connection with the whites. For a region that has had so 
little practical connection with the political arrangements of civilized states, 
this immense territory has had a political history singularly varied." 

88. Hale, E. E., Kanzas and Nebraska, p. 139. 

39. Ibid., p. 141. 

40. Ibid., p. 162. 



152 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Mr. Hale passes over the early political history in rapid survey, 
devoting brief paragraphs to the sovereignty of France, of Spain, of 
France in turn. Purchase by the United States and subsequent 
division and organization occupy two more paragraphs. The expe- 
ditions of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806, of Lieutenant Pike in 1806, 
and of Major Long in 1820, crowd another half page. At the be- 
ginning of the fourth page Missouri is seeking admission to the 
Union and Mr. Hale's creative hour is come. Visiting the copious 
contemporary files in the library of the Antiquarian Society for 
materials upon "the great Missouri debate," he steeped himself in 
the political lore and enthusiasm of 1818-1820, and returned to his 
manuscript to revive the period in spirit and in fact. He tells one 
story of Southern pride, another of Northern hardness. He repro- 
duces Mr. Otis' wit. He laments the failure to preserve all speeches, 
especially of Clay. He cites arguments; he quotes clever addresses 
and equally clever replies. Seventeen pages in all he devotes to the 
"misery debate." The account is very readable and marks the cli- 
max of the chapter in interest. 

Mr. Hale's purpose, as he says twice, is to show how alike were 
the times, the questions at issue, and the arguments of 1818-1820 
and 1853-1854. In his own time it has so often been said that the 
excitement on the question regarding slavery in Nebraska and Kan- 
sas is unparalleled; it is his purpose to show "how precisely appro- 
priate the various speeches preserved are to the recent discussion." 41 
Then and now the same type of "incidents occurred every day which 
showed the deep-seated excitement and irritation of the public mind 
at the North and at the South." 42 He sees only two important differ- 
ences between the principles advocated then and those so recently 
upheld. First, no Southern statesman then attempted the defense 
of slavery as a permanent institution. Second, opponents of the 
extension of slavery then interpreted article I, section 9, of the con- 
stitution, to oppose emigration of slaves from state to state. 43 His 
review closes with quotation of the Missouri Compromise, provision 
for settlement of the territory north of 36 30' in the Louisiana pur- 
chase, not included in the state of Missouri. 

The chapter notes the terms of the boundary treaty with Spain, 
saying that inspection of the map will show that some parts of 
Kansas have since been added under the arrangements by which 

41. Ibid., p. 170. 

42. Ibid., p. 166. 

43. Ibid., pp. 170, 171. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 153 

the United States acquired Texas and New Mexico (if his allusion 
here is to his own accompanying map, the parts referred to are in- 
cluded but not indicated). He regards as remarkable the act of 
June 7, 1836, by which the triangle between the Missouri and the 
west line of the state of Missouri was ceded to that state, the act 
passing congress without any opposition, though it was a distinct 
violation and the first violation of the compromise. He makes 
rapid survey of government removal of Indians east of the Missis- 
sippi to the land west, supplementing the long account of the Indian 
tribes in chapter II. In the last seven and one-half pages he relates 
compactly the later history of the Nebraska bill, summarizing mo- 
tions and dates from its introduction in the senate December 14, 
1853, to its passage in the modified form of the Kansas and Ne- 
braska bill May 25, 1854, and its signature by the President May 
30. His own statement best explains his cursory treatment of the 
bill: 

"Its general character and many of its details are too familiar to readers of 
the present day to need repetition now, and a proper account of it for the 
pages of history would require more space, and a closer analysis of the motives 
and actions of living men, than can properly be given to such matters in this 
work."** 

Why he fails to trace the evolution of the bill is not suggested; 
he must have known of the proposals for territorial disposal of 
slavery that had occupied congress at intervals since 1820, and he 
probably knew of the earlier bills for organization of Nebraska that 
had been before congress from 1844 to February 2-March 3 of 1854. 
Nor was he unaware of the plans for building a railway to the 
Pacific in chapter VI he had reviewed proposed routes and in 
comment elsewhere 45 he indicated he realized the commercial ad- 
vantages of such enterprise, even using it as argument for the settle- 
ment of lands in Kansas contiguous to the route. 46 Like many 
others of his contemporaries he apparently did not recognize "the 
commanding influence of the railway plan over the establishment 
of territorial government." 47 It seems a little odd now that to one 
of Mr. Hale's discernment the political significance of this move- 
ment was not at once evident; in congress it was a dominant mo- 
tive, 48 although it was, of course, kept out of the discussion and so 

44. Ibid., p. 185. 

45. Hale, Edward E., Memories of a Hundred Years, v. II, pp. 115, 116. 

46. Hale, Edward E., Kanzat and Nebraska, p. 237. 

47. Beveridge, Albert J., Abraham Lincoln (Houghton, 1928), v. II, pp. 168-171. 

48. Hodder, Frank Heywood, "The Railroad Background of the Kansas -Nebraska Act," 
Mississippi Valley Historical Review, v. XII, No. 1 (June, 1925). 



154 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

out of common public attention. The press, however, in the East 
and the Middle West, made emphatic note of it from time to time. 
Mr. Hale was quite as concerned in providing for emigrants west- 
ward as in securing to freedom the land they should there occupy, 
and he recognized the importance of railroads in the development 
of their new communities, but neither in 1854 nor in any other year 
of his long life did he allude to the railway issue as a political factor 
in the organization of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. 

Chapter VIII consists of an "accurate copy" of the bill itself, 
published here because "so few have read 'the Nebraska act' of 
which so many have talked." 49 The source of the accurate copy is 
not clear in the manuscript, where we find a printed version of the 
bill, exclusive of sections 19-36. In the manuscript of Kanzas and 
Nebraska the bill is cut apart by sections and pasted to sheets of 
letter paper. Apparently Mr. Hale had some trouble in procuring 
the bill, for on August 10 he wrote to Nathan as follows: 50 

"I cannot get the Nebraska Act, but have a clue to that National Era which 
I am to have to-day. I am sick of the whole thing, and it really seems as if 
my hand quailed at writing." 

The "whole thing" of which he is "sick" is his task of rapid 
composition, evidently, and not the bill. All he wrote in this 
chapter were the headings he supplied for the different sections, 
each being labeled by the topic it treated. Sections 19-36, in- 
clusive, treating of the organization of the territory of Kansas, 
were omitted, "being word for word the same as sections two to 
seventeen," which outlined the organization of Nebraska. The 
source of the printed copy of the bill in the manuscript is not 
available now. The print and the paper are not the print and the 
paper used by the National Era of 1854. The copy evidently was 
furnished by Nathan and is so alluded to among chapter divisions 
and paging notes of the manuscript, including the substitute sections 
of the bill quoted in chapter VII. 

In his preface Mr. Hale suggests that he included chapter IX 
on emigration to give such hints to emigrants as would aid them 
in the immediate settlement of Kanzas. 51 The chapter does give 
such hints, but to the later student of Kansas history it furnishes 
more significant matter in its review of emigration and its exposition 
of motive and plan of the emigrant aid companies. The belief 

49. Hale, Edward E., Kanzas and Nebraska, p. IV. 

60. Hale, Edward E., Jr., Life and Letters of Edward Everett Hale, v. 1, p. 255. 

51. Hale, Edward E., Kanzas and Nebraska, p. IV. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 155 

commonly held almost from the first seems to have been that the 
companies operating in Kansas had but one or possibly two pur- 
poses. The one, that of keeping Kansas free, was popularly repeated 
and generally supposed to be the primary purpose. The other, 
that of money making, has been the suggestion of students quick to 
question altruism, and the implication has always been that such 
motive of gain was neither admitted nor legitimate. Mr. Hale's 
treatment does not disavow either motive but presents each in a 
new light in relation to the general cause of emigration with which, 
as he understands, the very idea of slavery is incompatible. 

Occasioned equally by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and 
by the need of organization of western emigration, his discussion 
emphasizes the advantages of Kansas as an emigrant center. He 
points out the natural attractions of the territory, the fertility of its 
soil, the nature and the value of its crops, its natural resources, its 
water power, its contiguity to all overland routes, and its con- 
sequent ready market; all these are greatly in its favor, but most 
of all is the situation that will draw across its boundaries whatever 
roads are built westward. Along through routes of travel emigrants 
ever settle and make their homes. 

Reasons for organizing emigration to this favored central terri- 
tory, he says, have been two: first, to secure to Kansas a fair 
proportion of western emigration, to secure for the principle of 
"squatter sovereignty" a fair trial, and to make sure that the 
institutions of both territories be digested by settlers of every 
class; second, the need "on pure grounds of humanity" to provide 
for the immense pilgrimage from Europe, hitherto uncared for. Both 
considerations, Mr. Hale asserts, guided Mr. Thayer to seek a 
charter for the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company. The report 
of the committee submitted by Mr. Thayer and printed in the 
midst of this discussion by Mr. Hale indicates that in return for its 
service to emigrants, the company would have two rewards the 
one in the high satisfaction of having become founders of a state; 
the other in sharing in "an investment which promises large returns 
at no distant day." 52 Since time has revealed that the investment 

52. Although this report bears the signature, "Eli Thayer, for the committee," it was the 
work of Mr. Hale. In a letter to his father, May 11, 1854, he says: "Mr. Bullock, Mr. 
Thayer, and I were requested to draw up the Corporator's address to the public, which I 
have just now been putting in form." In the Life and Letters of Edward Everett Hale, by 
Edward E. Hale^ Jr., v. I, p. 253. In 1897, Mr. Hale said again: "This report of the Erni- 
grant Aid Company was drawn by myself. I had the advantage of the fullest conference with 
Mr. Thayer, and it is evident that I used his brief above in the preparation of the report." 
Edward Everett Hale, in New England in the Colonization of Kansas, a reprint of Chap- 
ter XI of The New England States, p. 84. (The "brief" by Mr. Thayer was some hastily- 
thrown -together suggestions. The committee to make the report consisted of Eli Thayer, 
Alexander H. Bullock, E. E. Hale of Worcester, Richard Hildreth and Otis Clapp of Boston. 
Kamas and Nebraska, p. 220.) 



156 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

yielded no returns in kind, and present-day scholarship has been 
inclined to discredit the claim of the emigrant aid companies to a 
rank of importance in the founding of the state, it is interesting 
now to have these original avowals of purpose and frank admissions 
of anticipated rewards. 

Although both Mr. Hale and the committee name the securing 
of a fair trial for freedom in Kansas as their first motive, and place 
their trust in the character of Northern and of foreign emigration 
as their last assurance of success, each gives equal consideration to 
the commercial advantages, for both the emigrants and the company. 
Each presentation recognizes the particular needs of the great foreign 
emigration that neither the United States government nor any other 
established agency is prepared to meet. In proposing to provide for 
it, both Mr. Hale and the committee are guided by altruistic and 
business motives. Each has long desired to protect the European 
immigrant after his arrival, and if in the proposed plan the company 
makes capital of the recognized need, it is at the same time financing 
the undertaking itself in a way that to each seems both legitimate 
and praiseworthy. The material aid the companies would be able 
to render both northern and foreign immigrants makes up the bulk 
of the discussion, and the service they may incidentally render the 
cause of freedom in Kansas slips into secondary consideration. 

The motives had evidently borne about the same relationship to 
each other in Mr. Hale's mind from the first. On May 11, 1854, 
in writing to his father to ask him to attend the meeting of the 
corporators of the company on the morrow, to arrange subscriptions 
to stock, he had indicated his attitude. 53 

"It is no mere charity scheme, but one in which business men, I think, will 
interest themselves. . . . They want to secure your hearty cooperation if 
the scheme pleases for an examination, and I think would be glad to make you 
President of the Company. 

"You know how it has interested me as the means of helping these Irish 
and German people west without suffering. 

"There are two hundred thousand of them and others going west this sum- 
mer. If twenty thousand only of them go into Kansas, that is made a free 
state forever. . . . 

"I think I have never had anything so much at heart, and I only wish I 
were a business man that I might move in it openly." 

As noted before, Mr. Hale's first hope of insuring political free- 
dom to western territories through northern immigration dated back 
to 1845. His proposal then for the more southern territory was not 

53. Hale, Edward E., Jr., Life and Letter* of Edward Everett Hale, v. I, pp. 252-258. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 157 

essentially different from the later plan for Kansas. The motive 
and the means were the same; the emphasis, in 1845, however, was 
upon the motive and in 1854 upon the means. The earlier study 
evolved a theory; the later offered a practicable, working plan. fi4 

As chapter IV is the most readable and chapter VII, in part, the 
most spirited, chapter IX is the most original, being entirely Mr. 
Rale's own composition. Even the ten-page report, submitted by 
"Eli Thayer, for the Committee," was Mr. Kale's own work. 55 The 
only "hints" to emigrants the chapter includes are the directions of 
this report. 56 A brief account of the work of the company as finally 
organized under private articles of corporation follows. 57 Plans for 
the Emigrant Aid Company of New York and Connecticut, with 
Eli Thayer as president, were said to be similar. The chapter 
outlines the work of the numerous "leagues" auxiliary to the com- 
panies, describes the nature of the service of the Union Emigration 
Society of Washington, and tells of the rapid and extensive emigra- 
tion into the territory independent of any organization. It inter- 
prets the congressional act of 1854 to establish "the offices of sur- 
veyor-general of New Mexico, Kanzas and Nebraska." It indi- 
cates the variety of occupations people may hope to find in the 
territories, recommends the westward route through Alton or St. 
Louis, and suggests the nature of educational and religious institu- 
tions to be established by the emigrants themselves. The last sec- 
tion is a kind of glorification of the opportunity Kansas offers to 
the emigrant, both native and foreign, to work, and so is a glorifica- 
tion of the cause of freedom he has opportunity there to serve, end- 
ing with prophecy of victory. It is a dignified and coherent exposi- 
tion of the eastern plan for settlement of the territory of Kansas. 

The frontispiece of the book is a "map of Kanzas and Nebraska 
from the original surveys, drawn and engraved for Hale's History. 
Boston. Published by Phillips, Sampson & Company, 1854." The 
first extant correspondence about Kanzas and Nebraska alluded 

64. Writing long afterward of his interest in the annexation of Texas, Mr. Hale still 
had faith in the desirable effect of his theory, could it have been tried: "How certain it is 
that if the wave of free emigration could have been turned into Texas then, evils untold 
of would have been prevented. On the other hand, I am afraid it is as certain that human 
slavery would not have been abolished in the older states for another generation." Hale, 
Edward Everett, Memories of a Hundred Years, v. II, p. 152. 

65. Vide ante, footnote 52. 

66. Appendix A, pp. 249-250 of Kanzas and Nebraska, consists of a copy of the con- 
stitution of the Worcester county Kansas league which supplements these directions. 

57. Hale, Edward Everett, Kanzas and Nebraska, p. 229. Since the provisions of the 
charter did not satisfy all parties interested, the company organized under private articles of 
association, June 13, 1854, and functioned ao until March, 1855, when the New England 
Emigrant Aid Company received its charter and absorbed the private company The Wor- 
cester Spy, June 14, 1854, described the association as "a private company" organized "under 
joint articles," the property of the company to be "vested in three trustees who shall hold 
the same as joint tenants, subject to all the trusts and provisions of these articles " 



158 THE KANSAS HISTOEICAL QUARTERLY 

to the map; "we ought to have the map lithographing now," Mr. 
Phillips wrote Mr. Hale on July 12. 58 On August 4 the publishers 
addressed the author again, saying, "with this you will receive 2d 
proof of map." 59 The title page described the map as "an original 
map from the latest authorities." In the preface Mr. Hale vouched 
once more for its authenticity: "The map is accurate as far as 
may be with our present knowledge of the country. It is compiled 
from more than twenty of the recent surveys made by govern- 
ment." 60 There is no available record now as to who drew the map. 
Neither the original sketch from which the engraving was made 
and which is now preserved with the manuscript of the book, nor 
the reproduction in the front of the book bears any identifying 
mark of the artist. W. C. Sharp, of Boston, was the lithographer. 

Mr. Hale had been interested in the geography of the region 
prior to the compilation of the book about it. On March 22 and 
March 25 he had written his father and his brother Charles re- 
spectively of a good stereotyped "map of Nebraska, etc.," which had 
appeared in the Independent and of which the management would 
sell the block for two dollars. He then commissioned his brother 
to buy the block for his father to use in the Boston Advertiser 
along "with an article which I am to write on the present position 
of the question." 61 He had no doubt the map was accurate. 

The map in The Independent was a "map of the states and terri- 
tories in their relation to slavery." 62 It was drawn by George 
Colton. It showed in white the states in which slavery was pro- 
hibited by fundamental law; in black lines, the states in which 
slavery was fully recognized; in shaded lines, the territories where 
the question of slavery or free soil was yet an open one. The map 
made a most effective visual appeal. It revealed the extent of the 
question more graphically than any description in words; yet the 
accompanying legend defining the boundaries of the territory as 
outlined in Douglas' second bill also made colorful portrayal of the 
country involved, emphasized its important geographic relation to 
the rest of the states, and compared the anticipated dangers of the 
introduction of slavery into these newly organized territories with 
the effects of the institution in the states where it had become fully 
recognized. Although the map was of general nature, it was accurate, 

58. Vide ante, p. 140. 

59. Letter of Phillips, Sampson & Co. to Edward Everett Hale, in the correspondence of 
Edward Everett Hale. 

60. Hale, E. E., Kanzas and Nebraska, p. V. 

61. Hale, Edward E., Jr., Life and Letters of Edward Everett Hale, v. I, pp. 250, 251. 

62. The Independent, New York, March 16, 1854. Photostatic copy used. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 159 

as the legend asserted, with the exception that the southern boundary 
of Kansas was placed at 36 30', whereas the second Douglas bill 
had fixed the line at latitude 37. 

Just what the sources were for Mr. Hale's own map is now some- 
thing of a puzzle. He preserved no record of the "more than twenty 
recent surveys by government." Interpretation of his phrase would 
seem at first to depend upon the qualifying "recent." The surveys 
that were most deserving of the attribute, however, those authorized 
by congress in the amendment to the army appropriation bill for 
1853-1854 as additional sections 10 and II, 63 were not begun until 
the spring of 1853, and were not fully reported upon and officially 
published until 1855. 64 First instructions to the leaders of each of 
the four expeditions conducting these surveys called for reports to 
be laid before congress the first Monday of February, 1854. Com- 
plete reports of all four surveys were delayed, but Gov. 1. 1. Stevens, 
exploring the route near the forty-seventh and forty-ninth parallels, 
Capt. A. W. Whipple, the route near the thirty-fifth parallel, and 
Lieut. R. S. Williamson, the route near the Sierra Nevada and Coast 
range, all made preliminary reports that were published in house 
document 129, 33d congress, first session. These copies of the pre- 
liminary reports, however, issued in 1854, probably appeared too 
late for Mr. Hale's topographer to have used them in published 
form. 65 They must have been available to him, 66 nevertheless, else 
he could not have included in his map, as he does, the entire line of 
the Stevens survey for a Pacific railroad route, 1853. The Secretary 
of War, Jefferson Davis, had himself made a review of the under- 
takings in a senate document, December 1, 1853 ; 67 but his account 
was brief and general, giving a sketch of the country to be explored, 
evaluating information already obtained to determine the routes to 
follow, and noting the instructions to each officer in charge of an 
expedition. It gave none of the results, though, of the surveys, but 

63. Congressional Globe, 32 Cong., 2 sess., 1852-1853, pp. 798, 799. 

64. Pacific Railroad Reports, Senate Exec. Docs., 33 Cong., 2 sess., No. 78, vols. I -XII. 

65. The title page of the four volumes of this document bears the publication date of 

1854. In the text of volume I, however, appears a letter bearing the date of February 27, 

1855, indicating the volumes were not ready for circulation until 1855, too late to have been 
used for the Hale book. 

66. The National Intelligencer for Monday, February 6, 1854, noted in the senate pro- 
ceedings of the day that "the president of the senate laid before the body a communication 
from the Secretary of War transmitting copies of all reports of engineers and other persona 
employed ... to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from 
the Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean, which was ordered to be printed and referred to a 
select committee." In brackets there followed an explanation, evidently from the communica- 
tion itself, of the incomplete and partial nature of the reports and the consequent impossibility 
of judging the relative merits of the different routes. This form of the report may have been 
accessible to Mr. Hale and his topographer. 

67. Senate Documents, 33 Cong., 1 sess., pt. II, pp. 16-28. 



160 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

with it Mr. Hale was familiar, for in his text he quotes verbatim two 
passages of the report 68 and elsewhere notes the order of the Sec- 
retary of War to Captain Gunnison to explore the region of Colonel 
Fremont's expedition of 1848-1849. 69 In April of 1854 Governor 
Stevens was in Washington to make his report in person to the Sec- 
retary of War. 70 The information of that report Mr. Kale's topog- 
rapher must have seen, but how is not now clear. 

If the adjective "recent" be given loose interpretation, and if the 
topographer had access to the official government files in Washing- 
ton, he could have consulted "more than twenty surveys" in making 
the map for Kanzas and Nebraska. In the period the territory had 
been known to white men, there had been a few more than twenty 
official surveys. In a Memoir to accompany the map of the territory 
of the United States from the Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean, 
Lieut. Gouverneur K. Warren, of the Corps of Topographical En- 
gineers, U. S. A., in 1859, made "a brief account of each of the ex- 
ploring expeditions since A. D. .1800," with a description of accom- 
panying maps when maps were made. 71 Study of the memoir 
reveals the possible sources used. Since from the first of these 
explorers Mr. Hale draws subject matter for his discussion, it seems 
not at all unlikely that his topographer drew from them, too, or at 
least consulted them, in making the map. Indeed he must needs 
have seen not only the first map but well-nigh all the other maps 
between it and his own to have had a total of "more than twenty" 
government surveys for authority. 

The Memoir compiled by Lieutenant Warren was not published 
until 1859. On March 1, 1858, however, in the preface, the author 
tells that his "work has been in progress during the past four years," 
so that it is possible the maker of the Hale map had the benefit of 
some of Lieutenant Warren's criticisms of the different maps. In his 
preface Lieutenant Warren pointed out that "the maps used in the 
compilation have been mostly made from reconnaissances, and but 
few possess very great accuracy. The geographical positions are 
therefore rarely determined absolutely, or even relatively, with 
certainty, and new surveys are constantly making slight changes 

68. Pages 17-18 of Secretary Davis' report, Senate Documents, 83 Cong., 1 sess., part II, 
appears in Mr. Bale's Kanzas and Nebraska as pp. 142-145. 

69. Cf. Secretary Davis' report above, p. 20, and Mr. Hale's Kanzas and Nebraska, 
p. 151. 

70. Albright, George Leslie, Official Explorations for Pacific Railroad, 1853-1855 (Uni- 
versity of California Press, Berkeley, 1921), p. 78. 

71. Warren, Lieut. Gouverneur K., Memoir, to accompany the map of the territory of 
the United States from the Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean, to accompany the reports 
of explorations and surveys for a railroad route, War Department, 1859. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 161 

necessary." 72 In the text he pointed out the mistaken trends of 
mountain ranges and river sources in the map of Lewis and Clark; 
the elementary but basic principles of topography and hydrography 
of Humboldt's map of Spain; incorrect river sources and singular 
representations of mountains in Rector's and Roberdeau's map, 
described, nevertheless, as "the most correct map of the country 
now extant"; the confusion of the Canadian and the Red river and 
the first right representation of the Black Hills of Nebraska as a 
north and south range by Major Long; the elaborateness but lack of 
topographical skill in the work of J. C. Brown; the correct repre- 
sentation of the hydrography of the region west of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, although the geographical positions are not accurate, in the 
maps of Captain Bonneville; the wrong location of the union of the 
Cimarron river with the Arkansas near Fort Atkinson, in the map 
of Lieutenant Steen; the representation of New Orleans and St. 
Louis as both being in longitude 90 25', in the topographical bureau 
map by W. Hood; the value of the survey of C. Dimmick between 
Old Fort Scott and Fort Smith, never replaced to date ; the erroneous 
listing of the Bitter Root as a source of the Salmon river, in the 
map of Captain Hood; the use of the barometer to determine the 
elevation of interior country by Mr. Nicollet, making his map "one 
of the greatest contributions ... to American geography" ; the 
usefulness of the map in Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies; the value 
to travelers in spite of its inaccurate geographical positions, of the 
map by Charles Preuss in 1846 of the Fremont route from Missouri 
to Oregon, 1843-1844; the tracing in the map of Captain Pope of a 
tributary of the Arkansas, probably the Big Sandy, to the source 
formerly attributed to the Smoky Hill Fork; the similarity of the 
routes of Messrs. Beale and Heap, Captain Gunnison, and Colonel 
Fremont (1853-1854) ; and the availability to J. R. Bartlett of the 
observations of the United States and Mexican Boundary Commis- 
sion in the making of his map of 1850-1853. 

Any or all of this criticism may have been available to the maker 
of the Hale map; the points of it, at least, for the most part the 
maker heeded. The Black Hills in the map are a north and south 
range; the Big Sandy is a tributary of the Arkansas, and the Cimar- 
ron joins the Arkansas east and south of Fort Atkinson. Although 
the map shows only the Fremont route for a Pacific railroad, the 
text discusses the mountain passes explored by Colonel Fremont 

72. Ibid., preface. 
117572 



162 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

and Captain Gunnison and describes the recommendation of each. 73 
The portion of southwestern Kansas bounded on the east by 100 
west longitude, on the south by 37 north latitude to the 103d 
meridian, thence west to the Rocky Mountain range by about 38 
north latitude, on the west by the Rocky Mountain range, and on 
the north by the south bank of the Arkansas, the Hale map places 
within the boundary of Kansas in accordance with the findings of 
the United States and Mexican boundary commission and the terms 
of acquisition of Texas and New Mexico. 

The reason for the inclusion of the Fremont route for a Pacific 
railroad instead of the Gunnison and for labeling it the Fremont 
route was probably the availability of some accounts of the Fremont 
expedition. On June 13, 1854, Colonel Fremont wrote a letter to 
the editors of The National Intelligencer "communicating some gen- 
eral results of his recent winter expedition across the Rocky Moun- 
tains for the survey of a route for a railroad to the Pacific." 74 This 
report he offered in anticipation of a fuller report with maps and 
illustrations which it would necessarily require some months to pre- 
pare. The eastern part of this route extended from the mouth of 
the Kansas river on the Missouri frontier to the valley of Parowan 
at the foot of the Wahsatch mountains, between latitudes 38 and 
39. Having been over this route from Sierra Blanca to the Mis- 
souri frontier four times before, he summarized the features and 
connected the expedition with the route explored in 1848-1849 from 
the mouth of the Kansas river to the valley of San Luis. From the 
Sierra Blanca to the Grand river the routes of Colonel Fremont and 
Captain Gunnison were nearly identical ; from the latter point Col- 
onel Fremont, in 1853 and 1854, continued farther south. 75 The map 
of the official explorations for Pacific railroads by George Leslie Al- 
bright shows that the Fremont route from Fort Riley to the Fremont 
route pass, south and a little west of Pueblo, was almost the same as 
that of Gunnison in 1853, from Fort Riley, through Bent's Fort to 
Fort Massachusetts. 76 Mr. Albright also traces the history of Colonel 
Fremont's different explorations of the railroad route. 77 The third 
Fremont expedition, he says, was, according to Thwaites in his Rocky 

73. Hale, Edward Everett, Kanzas and Nebraska, pp. 151, 152. The findings of Cap- 
tain Gunnison were evidently known in detail to Mr. Hale, although he notes the fact that 
Lieutenant Beckwith's report of the expedition had not been published. 

74. This letter was reprinted as Miscellaneous House Document, No. 8, 83 Cong., 2 sess. 
(1855.) 

75. Warren, Lieut. Gouverneur K., Memoir, p. 75. 

76. Albright, George Leslie, Official Explorations for Pacific Railroads. 

77. Ibid., p. 39, footnote. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 163 

Mountain Explorations, page 239, for the purpose of finding the 
shortest and best route for a railroad to San Francisco Bay ; if it was 
for such purpose, Mr. Albright adds, it was under the private instruc- 
tions of his father-in-law, Senator Benton. His fourth expedition, 
1848-1849, primarily for the exploration of a central route, and also 
without government support, had failed in the San Juan mountains 
in Colorado. After the government surveys were ordered in 1853, 
Fremont in August, with funds of his own and Senator Benton's, 
planned a fifth expedition to complete the objects of the former. 
Mrs. Fremont, in her Memoir XV, says it had been intended her 
husband should lead one of the government surveys of 1853, but as 
no name appeared in the bill, the Secretary of War appointed Gun- 
nison. Some of the Fremont reports were given government publi- 
cation. 78 On the fifth expedition F. W. Egloffstein was the topog- 
rapher as far as the Mormon settlement. 79 Because of this govern- 
ment aid and government recognition given the Fremont explora- 
tions, they no doubt seemed themselves to be official, and were so 
regarded by Mr. Hale and his topographer. 

In spite of its dependence upon the numerous authoritative 
sources, the Hale map, which is itself merely an outline map, has 
many inaccuracies, owing in part at least to the inaccuracies of 
the sources. The most conspicuous are the courses of the mountain 
ranges. From 45 north latitude the entire Rocky range follows a 
slightly northeastern course; only the chief range is indicated, and 
it is confined to 112-111 longitude instead of being shown from 
118-110 as it should be. Fremont's Peak, located almost rightly 
near parallel 43 and meridian 110, is placed in the main range 
instead of in the Wind River mountains where it belongs, the main 
range here being given too northwesterly a line; and the Wind River 
mountains, which are a northwesterly range parallel with the main 
range between latitudes 42-44 in longitude 109-110, are on this 
map a west and east to northeasterly range between latitudes 43 
and 44 in longitude 104-109, being confused apparently with the 
Sweetwater range. Although the Black Hills follow a north and 
south line, they extend from about latitude 44 to 54, whereas they 
are a short range reaching from about latitude 44 to 45 30'. The 

78. The expedition of 1842 appeared as Senate Document, No. 243, 27 Cong., 8 sess. ; the 
second, as Senate Document, No. 174, 28 Cong., 2 sess. ; the third, as Miscellaneous Senate 
Document, No. 148, 30 Cong., 1 sess. ; the map of Charles Preuss, 1846, of this third 
Fremont expedition from Missouri to Oregon, as House Committee Report, No. 145, 80 Cong., 
2 Bess. ; the fifth as represented in footnote 74, and the fourth was connected with the fifth. 

79. Mr. Egloffstein joined Lieutenant Beckwith in 1854 to aid in his explorations alone 
latitude 41. 



164 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

topography of the rest of this northwestern region that in 1854 was 
a part of the Nebraska territory, is even more uncertain. No others 
of the numerous mountain ranges are represented on the map at all. 

The rivers follow curious courses. The Big Horn, which is given 
approximately correct headwaters in the Wind River mountains, is 
made the chief source of the Yellowstone river on the map; and the 
Wind river, which is now known to flow in a southeasterly course 
into the Big Horn, follows, on the map, a northeasterly course into 
the Little Big Horn. The headwaters of the Missouri are in north 
latitude 44 and 45, longitude 109 to 112, instead of latitude 
45 and 46, longitude 111 to 114; and Great Falls is in latitude 
48 and longitude 110, whereas it belongs in latitude 47 30' and 
longitude 111 30'. The union, however, of the Yellowstone and the 
Milk river with the Missouri is approximately right. The Bitter 
Root river is not named on the Hale map and perhaps not shown, but 
the Salmon river to the west of the mountain range is made to abut 
the range on the west directly west of an unnamed river abutting it 
on the east so that it seems probable the Hale map followed here 
the erroneous idea of Captain Hood that the Bitter Root was a 
source of the Salmon. 

In southeastern Nebraska and in Kansas geographical positions 
are much more accurate on the Hale map. Rivers and forts are 
about the only markings. The more important rivers have about 
the same headwaters and the same courses as in modern maps. A 
few exceptions are noticeable. The Little Nemaha, which follows a 
course markedly southeasterly, and the Great Nemaha, which after 
the union of its two forks is also southeasterly, follow on the Hale 
map courses almost due east. Although in the text, in a passage 
quoted from an unnamed source, 80 "the Republican and the Smoky 
Hill forks are said to take their rise in the Rocky Mountains and 
unite to form the Kanzas river in almost latitude 39 and longitude 
96," the map reveals the rise of each in the plains east of the moun- 
tain range and the union in latitude 39 and longitude 97. The 
Arkansas, which crosses the southern line of the state just east of 
longitude 97 crosses on the Hale Map, at a point just west of 96. 
The Cimarron, which unites with the Arkansas in latitude 36, lon- 
gitude 96 15', unites, on the Hale map, in latitude 38, longitude 97 
30'. This point, although 200 miles east of Fort Atkinson, may be 
the union marked in the map of Lieutenant Steen and noted by 

80. Hale, Edward Everett, Kanzas and Nebraska, p. 86. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 165 

Lieutenant Warren as wrong. The right location of the union is 
more nearly 300 miles southeast of the fort. 

Mr. Hale was probably more aware of the meagerness of his map 
than of its inaccuracies. In interpreting the rights of settlers he 
alluded to the law providing for the survey of Kansas and Nebraska 
that had passed congress late in the session of 1854 but which would 
"scarcely begin before late in the fall of 1854." 81 That survey, had 
it already been made and its results been available, would have 
enabled him to locate on his map some of the places and streams he 
talked about but did not represent Elm Grove, Council Grove, 
Walnut Creek post office, Big Timbers, Great Bend, Wolf river, the 
Little Blue, Grand Island, Bijou, the Vermillion, and the various 
Indian missions. One other provision of the map, that of leaving 
five inches of blank paper on the end bound in the book, making the 
entire map visible when open, no matter at what page the book 
itself may be open, is the most convenient feature of the map. 

A point of relatively small importance but of considerable in- 
terest to Mr. Hale in the publication of his book was his chosen 
spelling of Kanzas. The first allusion to it occurs in a letter to his 
brother Charles, without exact date, but belonging to the early sum- 
mer of 1854 : 82 

"We have canvassed that and still spell it with a 'z.' I think you will find 
that the territory of Arkansas was organized under that spelling, but the 
public changed the matter before it was a State." 

On August 18 Mr. Hale wrote his brother Charles on the matter 
a second time. 83 

"I will write an article explaining why I spell Kanzas with a z. Will you 
print it and give a general order to spell so. I will make the Register, and I 
think the Tribune ; my book will spell so, and, I hope the Emigrant Company. 
I hope it is not too- late to change it, or rather to settle it." 

In the preface to Kanzas and Nebraska Mr. Hale explains his choice 
as a matter of accuracy. 84 

"In that view I have held to the spelling of Kanzas, of most of the travelers 
and of the Indians department, in preference to Kansas, the more fashionable 
spelling of a few weeks past. There is no doubt that the z best expresses the 
sound, that it has been almost universally used till lately, and that it is 
still used by those most familiar with the tribe and the river which have, 
time immemorial, borne this name. Kanzas, too, will soon be a state. Its 
name then will, at best, too much resemble the name of Arkansas, which was, 

81. Ibid., pp. 235, 236. 

82. Hale, Edward E., Jr., Life and Letters of Edward Everett Hale, v. I, p. 264. 

83. Ibid., p. 260. 

84. Hale, Edward Everett, Kanzas and Nebraska, p. V. 



166 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

in fact, derived from it. 85 To keep them by one letter more apart is to gain 
something." 

In the text, discussing the Indians in the territory, Mr. Hale 
tells more of the origin of the different forms of the name. 86 

"Around the fork3 of the Kanzas river, is the hunting ground of the Kanzas 
tribe, from whom this river and territory have their names. This name ia 
spelled by different writers in many different ways. Cansas, Conzas, Konsas, 
Kansas, and Kanzas, are the most frequent." 

Mr. Hale's reasoning was sound enough, but the public did not 
accept and follow his chosen spelling at all generally. By late 
autumn he felt it necessary to secure aid if he would establish his 
chosen way as custom. To G. W. Brown he wrote both of the 
tendency of the day and in fuller explanation of his own usage: 87 

"I hope I am not too late to beg you to turn a cold shoulder on the care- 
less fashion of spelling Kanzas with an s after the n, which I see is coming 
into vogue. It is all wrong. A Boston paper to-day says that Kanzas is an 
abbreviation of Arkansas. This is preposterous. Let us take for our new 
state high ground from the very beginning, as it is the true ground. The 
Arkansas Indians broke off from the Kanzas Indians but a few years before 
the French first explored the valley of the Mississippi. They enlarged our 
name. We never took theirs nor the fag end of it. Kanzas has an antiquity 
and may as well claim it. 

"The earliest history of Louisiana, in French, spells the name Canchez 
giving the sound in question the very hardest sound of which the French 
language is capable." 

Before Mr. Brown published the letter in the Herald of Freedom, 
January 6, 1855, he had written "Friend Hale" on December 27, 
1854, of the already accepted western spelling with the s. 88 

"I regret that I had not received your letter in time for publication, 89 but 
it now is quite unseasonable. 

"The spelling of Kansas seems to have become almost established by 
usage, and I think it would be impossible in the West to change it now. All 
the papers in the territory, with the many along the border to which my at- 
tention has been called, are in the habit of spelling it with an s. Congress 
sent out the bill in the same form, and for me to attempt a change although 
convinced of the force of your argument would seem wholly impracticable. 
I shall give the public the benefit of your ideas on this matter." 

When on January 6, in the first issue of his paper thereafter, Mr. 
Brown did give the public opportunity to read Mr. Hale's views, 
he added his own editorial comment. 

85. Ibid., p. 67: "The Arkansaw Indians, an offshoot from the Kanzaa, struck the 
French as such fine men, that they called them 'les Beaux Hommes,' supposing that to be 
the meaning of their name." 

86. Ibid., p. 52. 

87. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, January 6, 1855. 

88. In correspondence of Edward Everett Hale among the official papers of the Emigrant 
Aid Company. 

89. In an earlier issue of the Herald of Freedom. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 167 

"The argument of our friend sustains his position as to the spelling of 
Kansas; and yet the popular will has charge of the matter so fully that it 
appears to be beyond the power of the literati to change the result. Congress 
in the enrollment of our territorial bill, set an example which has been fol- 
lowed by the different heads of departments, and the newspaper press with 
very rare exceptions in all parts of the country. The five presses in the 
territory are also with the majority, and the orthography of Kansas at this 
time seems as firmly established as that of any state in the Union." 

So apparently it was, although a few eastern publications con- 
tinued to spell the name with a z into 1856. The Quarterly Journal 
of the American Unitarian Association abandoned it after the an- 
nual report of the treasurer, May 27, 1856. The Boston Transcript 
and the Daily Chronicle used it into the summer and the Springfield 
Republican continued it into the fall. Many of the contemporary 
publishers, even when writing of Kanzas and Nebraska, referred to 
it always as Kansas and Nebraska. Mr. Hale himself had some 
difficulty in remembering to use his preferred spelling in the book, 
as the manuscript reveals. Frequently he had to change the s to 
a z ; the first two drafts of the title page even read Kansas and Ne- 
braska. To the modern casual reader the spelling of the name is 
the most noticeable and most memorable feature of the book. 

Such in summary-review is Kanzas and Nebraska that its author 
compiled at the rate of forty-three pages a day. His son described 
it, in 1917, as "little more than a compilation;" 90 and to the modern 
reader so indeed it seems and is; a compilation, moreover, in which 
some of the signs of haste are obvious. Attached to the book, for 
instance, in a separate Appendix B, is a six-page description of the 
valleys of Smoky Hill and the Kansas rivers in the form of a letter 
from George S. Park, published by the Emigrant Aid Company too 
late to be given a place in the text. Its full subject matter would 
have been an addition to the text, chapter IV, on the geography of 
Kansas, but it would have been somewhat out of proportion even to 
the other long quotations already incorporated in the text. More 
deliberate preparation of the manuscript would have permitted a di- 
gest or summary treatment of the substance. All the way through 
the text as it stands there is too continuous dependence upon quota- 
tion as it is, too little of the author's own explanation in proportion. 

Comparison of the printed pages with the manuscript reveals more 
evidences of haste. Written for the most part in Mr. Hale's own 
clear and meticulous script, on letter paper of two sizes, it was, 
nevertheless, clean, easily read copy for the printers to follow. Evi- 

90. Hale, Edward K, Jr., The Life and Letters of Edward Everett Hale, p. 258. 



168 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

dently, though, it was his first copy and the changes he had found 
necessary were made on the manuscript there. Pages 17 and 18, for 
instance, of the manuscript, page 17 of the book, were crossed out, 
and rewritten as they now appear in the printed text. All of page 14 
of the manuscript, page 11 of the book, was scratched out and re- 
written on the back of the same sheet. Now and then additional 
passages or whole paragraphs were written on the backs of sheets 
and marked for insertion in the text; such passages are found in the 
manuscript, page 241, and in the book as the last paragraph of page 
152 ; in the manuscript, page 288, and in the book the middle para- 
graph of page 183. Sometimes longer extra insertions were marked 
by half numbers, as 114y 2 , 123y 2 , 125%, 126%, 185%, and 220%, to 
care for additional material ; corresponding to these numbers in order 
are the following book pages where they belong: 60, 66-67, 70-71, 
72, 117-118, and 180. Manuscript page 178 carried an insertion of 
six pages numbered Al to A6, covering pages 106-109 of the book. 
The manuscript is written on one side of the sheet only, with three 
exceptions : page 274 of the manuscript is found on the back of page 
273, 279 on the back of 278, and 283 on the back of 282. These 
passages, appearing in the printed book, from page 174 through 
180, belong in the chapter on political history and consist of quota- 
tions and Mr. Bale's own summaries of political happenings. 

Extensive changes in the printed book from the manuscript read- 
ings are few. The chief occurs toward the end of chapter II, where 
in the manuscript in a different handwriting, with the initials "N. 
H. Jr." attached, three footnotes are supplied. In the manuscript 
these appear on pages 96, 108, and 114%-115, corresponding to 
pages 50, 56, and 60 of the book respectively. The initials are evi- 
dently those of Nathan Hale, an older brother of Edward Everett 
Hale, who probably read proof and who procured for his brother the 
copy of the Kansas-Nebraska bill used in chapter VIII. The book 
retains only the footnote of "N. H. Jr." on page 56 "as this book 
is passing through the press, it is understood that these treaties have 
been ratified" but it omits his personal notation, "Here I inserted 
footnote. N. H. Jr." Page 115 of the manuscript ends, "It is prob- 
able that these treaties will be ratified before this book is published." 
Attached is a footnote by Mr. Hale himself which reads, "Here I 
said, in text, 'it is understood that these treaties were ratified by the 
senate at the close of the session just finished, although the official 
promulgation had not been made when this sheet was prepared for 
publication.' " This note, in different-colored ink, was probably 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 



169 



added to the manuscript long after the book was printed, for on page 
60, where the passage occurs, there is no footnote in either Mr. 
Kale's or his brother's writing. Incorporated in the printed text, 
however, without any explanation at all, is all of the sentence above 
beginning with "It is understood. . . ." The statement, thus 
couched as the proof was read, became the new conclusion of chap- 
ter II. 

Occasionally there were changes in sentence construction. In the 
manuscript of the preface, sentence 2 of paragraph 5 embraced by use 
of participial phrases what now appears in three sentences. In the 
manuscript, page 90, there was a penciled insertion of "Missouri" at 
the end of a sentence which in the book, page 51, line 5, became "and 
west of the Missouri." A sentence on manuscript pages 126-126% 
reading, "The French name La Platte was given it to designate its 
French name, La Platte, from its great width," was corrected and 
shortened in the book, page 72, line 6, to "The French name La 
Platte designates its great width." The clause, "so immense is the 
extent of the prairie country," of the manuscript, page 128, became 
in the book, page 73, "so immense is the prairie country." 

Usually the differences between the manuscript and the book 
readings were briefer and less troublesome, but they were sufficient 
in number to have added to the bill for author's corrections : 
MANUSCRIPT READINGS. 
Page. 

Preface state 
81681 and 2 



69150 feet 
68 connexions 
852250 souls 

120 North East 

138 Kansas 

148 Vol. I, pp. 137. 8. 9 

160 smoky Hill . . . Kansas 

165 Eastern Spurs 

185 Desert 

228 Lt. Fremont 

241 traders route 

265-Mr. King's speech. ... It 

contains . . . 
b 11 Mr. Mons. H. Grinnell 



BOOK READINGS. 
Page. 
IV states 

111681 and 1682 

37 one hundred and fifty 

37 connections 

44 two thousand two hundred 
and fifty souls 

64 north-east 

80 Kanzas 

90-Vol. I, pp. 137-139 

9&-moky Hill . . . Kanzas 

99 eastern spurs 
112 desert 
146 Lieut. Fremont 
152 traders' route 
16&-Mr. King's speeches. . . . 

They contain . . . 
229-Mr. J. M. S. Williams 

50] 

51 1 

91 f and 

99J 



170 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Besides these lesser changes were a few of mechanical nature such 
as the insertion of quotation marks on page 92 of the book, omitted 
from page 153 of the manuscript ; and the making of new paragraph 
divisions, as on page 72 of the book which printed as two paragraphs 
what appeared in the manuscript, page 126% as one; or as on page 
163 of the book, which did the same for material placed in one 
paragraph in the manuscript, page 256; or as on page 81 of the 
book, which united in one paragraph what constituted two in the 
manuscript, page 139. For the omission of quotation marks in the 
book from page 139, paragraph 2, through page 138 and from page 
140, paragraph 2, around material which in the manuscript, pages 
218 and 220% respectively, is obviously taken bodily from a news- 
paper, there is no explanation in either manuscript or book. 

Although Kanzas and Nebraska is "little more than a compila- 
tion," the compilation was itself no small feat for two summer 
months. Begun some time after the publisher's agreement of July 
12, the book was in press by September 20 91 and was published on 
September 28. Collection of materials from the many different 
sources was itself something of a task; selection and arrangement 
of them required care; and the copying of virtually all of them in 
longhand was a nervous as well as a physical strain. Though Mr. 
Hale may have "written" at the rate of forty-three pages a day, 
he could not have kept up the speed many consecutive days unless, 
of course, he had selected and arranged all his material in advance, 
but that he could hardly have done. The presentation does not 
suggest such foresight. His letters and manuscript notes, moreover, 
record some of his difficulties in procuring materials. The small 
letter sheets he used for much of the manuscript permitted a greater 
output for those parts than for others of the 335 pages. Cessation 
in August of most of the advertisements of the book, begun so 
prematurely by Phillips, Sampson & Company on July 11, suggests 
unexpected delay. 

Not until late September was the advertising revived. Then on 
September 26 the New York Daily Tribune carried again the ad- 
vertisement of July, with the additional line, "Published This Day, 
Sept. 28," and with the price of the paper-bound copy given as 50 
instead of 56 cents. On September 27 the Boston Evening Telegraph 
repeated the form of the Commonwealth advertisement of July. On 
September 30 and October 2, G. S. Wells, a bookseller of New York, 

91. Evening Transcript, Boston, September 20, 1854. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 171 

advertised Kansas and Nebraska in the New York Tribune, and on 
October 12, 19 and 26 in the National Era in Washington. In 
Worcester the review of the book in The Daily Spy, September 26, 
said the book was for sale at William Allen's bookstore, but it was 
not advertised then or later among Allen's new books. On September 
27 John Keith & Company, also of Worcester, however, listed it in 
their Bulletin of New Books in The Daily Spy, and from September 
29 through November 28 they carried the title among their regularly 
advertised books in the same paper. Although in July the publishers 
spoke of announcing the book "all over the northern creation," their 
advertising of September, when the book was ready for circulation, 
seems to have been considerably curtailed. The only elaborate ad- 
vertisement the writer has found was that of the Boston Evening 
Telegraph, October 7 and 14, 1854. Four and three-quarters inches 
long, in heavy black type, somewhat exclamatory in form, and 
markedly antislavery in tone, it was conspicuous among book an- 
nouncements of the day. 

WHICH SHALL WIN 

The intense interest felt throughout 

the country with regard to the settlement of 

our youngest territories 

KANSAS 

AND NEBRASKA! 

Has already begun to be manifest in the tide 
of emigration settling westward. The fair, virgin 
soil is free to all, and the hardy pioneers are 
to bear on their shoulders the destinies of those 
embryo states. Throughout the 

NORTHERN HIVE 

Which is again to swarm with thousands 
of gold gleaning bees, there is already the 
bustle of preparation. 

To meet the universal demand for reliable 
information respecting the geography, climate, 
soil, and probable productions of the new 
territories, a volume has been prepared by 

REV. EDWARD E. HALE, 

containing all that is desirable to be known. 

It is accompanied by an accurate and comprehensive 

Map of the Territories. 
This work, so opportune, so complete, has 
been received with uncommon favor. 



172 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The whole of the first edition was 

exhausted on the very day of the publication, without 
supplying all the advance orders received. 
New edition nearly ready. 
Price in muslin 75 cents; in paper 50 cents. 

The sponsor of this propaganda-colored venture is unknown, for 
it did not bear the name of publisher or dealer or friend. It is of 
interest, though, as indicating that the advance advertisements of 
the book had brought the desired sales. Statement of Charles Hale 
in a letter to his sister Susan, September 24, 1854, substantiates this 
suggestion: 92 "I suppose you know Edward's book is published, and 
the whole first edition sold at once with good promise of continued 
demand." 

One other advertisement of the book followed, that of November 
4, evidently in the Boston Journal, just after the new edition was 
published. Matter-of-fact in nature and modest in tone, it, too, 
appeared without the name of the sponsor, who, nevertheless, de- 
scribed the book as invaluable to persons desiring the latest infor- 
mation upon Kansas derived especially from "the correspondence 
of the Emigrant Aid Society" and having an accurate map. 

The first review of Kanzas and Nebraska seems to have appeared 
in the Daily Advertiser, managed and edited by the Hale family. 93 
Who wrote the review, copied by the Evening Transcript, September 
20, 1854, the papers do not reveal. 94 

"It appears to us well adapted to that object [of giving authentic in- 
formation on the territories] by combining in a narrow compass, and in a 
tangible shape, a great amount of information scattered through many, many 
volumes of travels and documents, and placing it before the reader in a 
methodical form." 

In a letter from Edward Everett Hale to his brother Charles, 
September 20, 1854, the day of the Transcript reprint, responsibility 
for the review is placed upon the brother: 95 "I am heartily obliged 
for the notice of Kanzas; whether I ever see the book itself seems 
more doubtful." The book itself did not appear officially for eight 
more days. 96 

92. Letter from "Charlie" to "Susie" September 24, 1854, in correspondence of Edward 
Everett Hale. 

93. The Daily Advertiser, Boston, published by Nathan Hale, Sr., had in the late spring 
of 1854 been taken over by two of his sons, Charles and Edward Everett. Charles became 
the managing editor and Edward Everett helped on the editorial page. Cf. Life and Letters 
of Edward Everett Hale, by Edward E. Hale, Jr., v. I, p. 254. 

94. Evening Transcript, Boston, September 20, 1854. 

95. Hale, Edward E., Jr., Life and Letters of Edward Everett Hale, v. I, p. 260. 

96. Vide footnote 92. The letter from Charlie to Susie, September 24, said the "book is 
published." The word "published" here appears to have been a mistake for "printed." Since 
the New York Tribune of September 26 gave the date of publication as September 28, the 
writer of this article supposes the publishers did not release the book for circulation until 
the latter date. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 173 

On September 26 and 27, respectively, the editors of The Daily 
Spy and the editor of The Daily Transcript of Worcester, Edward 
Everett Bale's home town, had seen advance copies of the book. 
The Daily Spy reviewed the contents and said that the book ad- 
mirably supplied the need of a complete history of the territories. 
It also commended the author. 97 

"Mr. Hale is a clear, judicious, and practical writer, and is admirably fitted, 
by his experience and the constitution of his mind, to write just the book 
needed by those who intend to settle in the territories. We heartily com- 
mend his book to the public." 

The editor of The Daily Transcript singled out the instructions 
to emigrants as the best that had yet appeared. 98 

"It reflects great credit upon the author, by the patient and thorough in- 
vestigation which marks the various researches, and the authentic sources, from 
which he has drawn such abundant material, render the work of double inter- 
est and of more especial value." 

The New York Tribune analyzed the method more. 99 

"Mr. Hale, whose taste and ability for statistical and historical research are 
well known to the community in which he resides, has made an assiduous 
study of everything relating to the history, geographical and physical charac- 
teristics, and political position of Kansas and Nebraska, and has here set forth 
the fruits of his labors in a compact and readable form." 

The Atlas wo and The Congregationalist, 101 like the other papers, 
noted the seasonableness of the book and emphasized its value to 
emigrants to the new territories. Putnam's Monthly said it was 
"not a political tract but a practical work on the geography, his- 
tory, and resources of the new Canaans of our confederacy . . . 
full and reliable." 102 The Quarterly Journal of the American Uni- 
tarian Association considered the singular nature of the task of 
writing such a work. 103 

"It is no small service to a good cause to supply, at a few weeks' notice, a 
valuable book, which exactly meets a pressing exigency; and it is a proof of 
no small courage, industry, and command of resources, to be able to render 
that service with promptitude and ability. Great credit is due, on both 
accounts, to the author of this book, who has done much to give immediate 
impetus to a noble cause of philanthropy." 

Northern reviewers were all in praise, in a moderate but sincere tone. 

97. The Daily Spy, Worcester, Mass., September 26, 1854. Copy used. 

98. The Daily Transcript, Worcester, September 27, 1854. 

99. The Daily Tribune, New York, October 8, 1854. 

100. The Atlas, Boston, October 17, 1854. 

101. The Congregationalist, Boston, October 27, 1854. 

102. Putnam's Monthly (November, 1854), v. IV, p. 564. 

103. Quarterly Journal, American Unitarian Association (January 1, 1855), v. II, pp. 



174 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

From Washington came critical comment in lighter vein, playing 
upon the commonly heard names of Kansas and Nebraska. 104 

"If there be any faith due to the proverb that 'a hair of the same dog cures 
his bite,' those who have had their nervous excitabilities worn down and their 
sense of hearing deadened by the daily repetition of those names for almost 
a year soft and sweet and euphonious though they be will find a pleasant 
recuperative remedy by taking up this volume. In it they will see these twin 
sisters of the West with new faces, with features not so harsh and repulsive 
as they appeared in the paintings exhibited at the Capitol during the last 
session by the rough speechifying limners of that ilk. Here the coloring is 
drawn from nature, not from distorted imagination. Their prairie oceans, their 
beautiful streams, their shady forests, and savage denizens, and wild herds 
are all fairly depicted. Nor is the darker side of the picture hidden from 
view. The arid plains, where neither tree, nor shrub, nor blade of grass for 
hundreds of acres, can find soil enough to sustain a root; where no water 
bubbles up to greet the eye of the thirsty emigrant; where no fuel can be 
found to light the fire by which to prepare his daily food; where neither rock 
nor hillside shade invites him to repose his wearied limbs; all these, too, are 
delineated with the pencil of truth. 

"Mr. Hale has honestly compiled his history from the most reliable sources 
extant. Indeed we believe he has not failed to consult every traveler who 
has ever written a line upon the subject of that extensive region of our 
country. . . . 

"With all his predilections for that particular ism to which he confesses 
himself attached, Mr. Hale has managed to make this chapter on political his- 
tory of the new territories extremely interesting. He has hunted up many 
anecdotes from the molding documents of a past generation, which revive in 
our memories many agreeable and some unpleasant incidents, but has fairly 
stated the sayings and doings of the most conspicuous actors and speakers 
on both sides of the vexed question, the 'misery debate/ as the wags called 
it, of 1820." 

Weary of endless ill-judged comment that as propaganda had un- 
derestimated or overestimated the features of the territories, the 
reviewer of the National Intelligencer wrote appreciatively of Mr. 
Kale's study. Of the reviews discovered his is the only one that 
seems to have been deliberately designed for Southern as well as 
Northern readers. 

In Kansas there was no recognition of the book until the spring 
of 1855. On February 10, under a column heading "General In- 
telligence," excerpts were made in the Herald of Freedom "from 
'Kansas and Nebraska' by E. D. Hale." The source, of course, was 
Kanzas and Nebraska by E. E. Hale. The parts copied were taken 
from chapter VI, "Routes of Travel . . . The Pacific Railroad 

104. National Intelligencer, Washington, December 20, 1854. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 175 

. . . Navigable Rivers." 105 On April 21, quite as though the 
copy of the book had just arrived, the editor of this same paper, 
under the title, "History of Kansas," acknowledged receipt of "the 
nicely bound volume" of Kanzas and Nebraska with which, "through 
the politeness of Rev. E. E. Hale, of Worcester, Mass., we are 
favored." 106 

"As the pioneer history of the great West, abounding with a vast amount 
of matter which is very difficult to procure through any other channel, it will 
be a standard work, and invaluable to the future historian of Kansas. The 
volume contains many inaccuracies, of course, as is the case with all new 
publications of a similar character; but these will be readily corrected by the 
intelligent reader, and a revised volume will add many important incidents 
which have transpired subsequent to its original preparation. The map, which 
at present is a mere outline, will be dotted with towns, villages, and cities. 
We hope friend Hale will pay Kansas a visit during the present season, and 
prepare a new volume for publication. Another work of the kind is much 
needed." 

The criticism in this review is the most adverse published com- 
ment upon the book by contemporary writers the author of this 
article has found. In Kansas, in proximity to the contemporary 
facts, inaccuracies were apparent, but the editor did not take the 
trouble to note them. What interested him more was having the 
history of Kansas, subsequent to its organization as a territory, in- 
cluded in a new edition of this first "history" of the prospective 
state. Of so little impress was the criticism, however, that the New 
Haven Daily Palladium, in noting the review, said, "The Herald 
certifies to the merits of Rev. E. E. Hale's . . . Kanzas and 
Nebraska;" 107 Kansas was too remote from Connecticut for errors 
to be visible. 

One other contemporary article, that of The Methodist Quarterly 
Review, said that the information was general rather than special, 
but added that "a minute knowledge of the country has yet to be 
acquired." 108 This review also frankly hoped that the book might 
"contribute its share to nullify the plan of the present American 
government to spread slavery over the vast territory, covered by 
what is known as the 'Nebraska Bill.' " 

105. The passages copied were from pp. 139-141, 145, 146, 148, 149, 151-153, and 
156-161. 

106. Herald of Freedom, April 21, 1855. Attempts had been made to get the book to 
Kansas before. G. W. Brown had ordered a copy from Boston in the fall but it was stolen 
en route.- Mr. Hale had evidently announced he was sending a copy, for on December 27 
Mr. Brown wrote him, "The Desc. of Kansas and Nebraska has not been received. Should 
have been glad to acknowledge receipt of copy." Letter of G. W. Brown to E. E. Hale, De- 
cember 27, 1854, in correspondence of Edward Everett Hale. 

107. Daily Palladium, New Haven, Conn., May 7, 1855. 

108. Methodist Quarterly Review, 4th series (January, 1855), v. VII, p. 135. 



176 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The only specific adverse criticism of Mr. Hale's work that sur- 
vives occurred in a letter of Charles H. Branscombe, one of the 
Kansas agents for the Emigrant Aid Company, to Mr. Hale, Feb- 
ruary 2, 1855. 109 A long twenty-five-page article on the significance 
of the Emigrant Aid Movement, written by Charles Wentworth 
Upham and published in the North American Review, January, 
1855, had praised Kanzas and Nebraska as a source book for the 
emigrant and attributed credit for conception of the whole emigra- 
tion enterprise to Mr. Hale. 110 

"It is natural that Mr. Hale should have had his attention specially called 
to this subject. The Kanzas and Nebraska emigration movement is the ful- 
fillment and realization of one of his early and cherished visions. He tried 
to save Texas to freedom by the same instrumentality, and urged an organ- 
ized emigration to that region in a pamphlet entitled, A Tract for the Day: 
How to Conquer Texas, before Texas Conquers Us published in 1845." 

The Upham article in the Review then praised Mr. Thayer for his 
part in the movement, making use, partly in paraphrase and partly 
in quotation, of an account in the London Times and of other ma- 
terial from another unnamed source. The sketch gave a colorful 
picture of Mr. Thayer "to whose energy, enthusiasm, and powers 
this emigration movement is mainly owing, and by whom it is in 
great measure superintended and conducted." 

This division of credit between the two men is the point to which 
Mr. Branscombe takes exception in his letter. 

"I have been much surprised in reading your work on Kansas and Nebraska, 
and also in reading Mr. Upham 's review of it, that neither has awarded to Mr. 
Thayer the honor of having originated the plan of organized emigration 
which is efficiently used by the Emigrant Aid Company. 

"Your book seems to make Mr. Thayer secondary and subordinate to a 
general public sentiment, and Mr. Upham makes him secondary and subor- 
dinate to yourself in this movement. 

"Now in relation to the first position, that of the book. I know it to be 
incorrect, for I know that it has been a gigantic work on the part of Mr. 
Thayer to arouse public sentiment and to guide it into the line of practical 
action. . . . Mr. Thayer has been and now is the caput acque princeps of 
all efficient action in the premises. 

"Now in relation to the other point. Will you be so kind as to inform me, 
whether you as the review claims, are the originator of this plan of organized 
emigration or of any plan. I am aware you wrote a tract advocating emigra- 
tion to Texas, but did you originate and develop any plan? Are you the 
author of the Stock Co.? of the Leagues? of the officer of Master of Emigra- 

109. Letter of Charles H. Branscombe to Edward Everett Hale, February 2, 1855, in 
correspondence of Edward Everett Hale. 

110. North American Review (January, 1855), v. 80, pp. 91-116. The article as printed 
is unsigned, but a letter from Virginia Barney, assistant editor of the North American Re- 
view, to the writer of this review, May 21, 1932, states that the author was Mr. Upham. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 177 

tion? of one or all of these or of none of them? If you are rightfully in the 
position, which works of an enduring character assign to you, then Mr. Thayer 
does you an injustice by not disclaiming the honor given him in the daily and 
weekly papers and the conversation of the people. . . . 

"Your reviewer denies Mr. Thayer the honor emphatically but gives him 
credit for energy and perseverance as a subaltern. In this extract from the 
London Times he omits the part which makes Mr. Thayer the leader of the 
movement." 

Mr. Branscombe wrote his letter from Boston, where he then was 
in the interests of the Emigrant Aid Company. Mr. Hale's reply 
to him is not extant. On the following day, February 3, however, 
Mr. Hale, in Worcester, addressed a communication to the editor 
of the North American Review, disclaiming all credit for originating 
the movement. The letter was published later as a "note to article 
VI of the January number." m 

"DEAR SIR The honor for originating the plan for emigration to the West, 
with the view of saving Kanzas and the new Western states from the worst 
of evils, is one which will yet be regarded as among the most distinguished 
honors of this time. As your pages will be resorted to as history, I am anxious 
to put on record there the title of Mr. Eli Thayer to all this honor. He con- 
ceived the scheme, he arranged the working details of it, and by his compre- 
hension and ingenious combinations so adjusted it, in the beginning, that to 
practical men it has always seemed an eminently practical affair. 

"This statement is due from me, because, in your kind notice of my book 
on Kanzas, there is an expression from which a careless reader might suppose 
that Mr. Thayer was working out suggestions of mine. Every one who knows 
the facts would ridicule this idea. I published in 1845 a pamphlet on Emigra- 
tion to Texas, which no one read, and I could not induce any one to consider 
the idea. It contained no plan of operation. Although I never abandoned the 
fundamental idea of that pamphlet, I made no suggestion for carrying it out 
last year. Nor had I any plan to propose. Mr. Thayer had never seen nor 
heard of my pamphlet when he originated what I have no claim to the 
comprehensive scheme, only now beginning to be realized, for organizing 
Western emigration." 

Mr. Thayer may or may not have been disturbed himself by the 
implied division of credit for the plan; no positive statement of 
either attitude has come into the writer's hands. In 1889, in a 
History of the Kansas Crusade, when Mr. Thayer praised Mr. Hale 
for his early confidence in the undertaking and his willingness to 
work for it, he of course was indirectly assigning Mr. Hale a 
secondary place in the development of the plan. 112 At the same time, 
Mr. Hale, in his introduction to the book, surrendered again all 

111. North American Review (April, 1855), v. 80, p. 548. 

112. Vide ante, p. 143. 

127572 



178 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

credit to Mr. Thayer: 113 "I should be sorry not to say, on all 
occasions, that to him the work owed its success and the nation 
owes all that grew from that success." 

The success of Kanzas and Nebraska was measured in two ways 
by contemporaries. For the publishers it was a financial failure; 
for the emigrant aid companies it was a practical help. The cor- 
respondence extant does not indicate the size of either printing of 
the book, but it does reveal the effects of the sale. In July, 1854, 
Mr. Hale had offered to sell the manuscript outright for $300 or to 
take a fifteen per cent royalty on the retail price of the work. 114 
Phillips, Sampson & Company would have accepted the first terms 
save for the recommendation of Mr. Phillips. 115 

"My sole reason for resisting it was not for us but because I really thought 
that there hung around it one of those chances that I did not want to see you 
throw away for so small a sum. ... I did not make this ruling until Mr. 
Sampson told me he was satisfied we sh'd sell anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 
copies." 

That the sale fell far short of even the lower figure of the estimate 
is evident in the $218 royalties the company paid Mr. Hale in 
August, 1855. The letters between Mr. Phillips and Mr. Hale at 
the time indicate the sum was figured on the basis of ten per cent 
instead of fifteen per cent. 

Both the author and the publishers had overestimated "the public 
interest in that new world." Neither had considered the cost of ex- 
tensive advertising. Issuing the book shortly after two far more 
popular titles, 116 the firm found itself under the high pressure of ad- 
vertising from Maine to Kansas. Although Mr. Sampson had early 
begun to say, "If we advertise this so, we can't pay over 10 per cent," 
Mr. Phillips had asserted Mr. Hale would be reasonable about the 
matter and procrastinated in telling him "under the notion that the 
sale would come out strong enough to justify such an after con- 
sideration. But the sequel is as it is and it can't be any tizzer." Mr. 
Phillips assumed all blame, even for the small sale, but Mr. Hale 
was disappointed, saying he would not have put the time and work 
into the book for the $218 had he foreseen the slight interest in the 
new territories. Under a false impression about the amount of the 

113. Hale, Edward Everett, introduction to A History of the Kansas Crusade, by Eli 
Thayer, p. XI. 

114. Letters from M. D. Phillips to Edward Everett Hale, July 12, 1854; August 21, 
1855, in correspondence of Edward Everett Hale. 

115. Ibid. Letter of August 21, 1855. 

116. These titles were Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands, by Harriet Beecher Stowe; and 
History of Cuba, by Maturin M. Ballou. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 179 

loss on the book, Mr. Hale took the $108 117 difference between ten 
and fifteen per cent philosophically, volunteering to share the loss 
equally with the publishers. Afterwards Mr. Phillips went over the 
books again and found the loss of the company to be more than 
$300, which the company, however, assumed without complaint as a 
risk of trade. 118 

Although within the year the promulgators recognized Kanzas and 
Nebraska as a commercial failure, they regarded it from the be- 
ginning as first authority on both the territories and the Emigrant 
Aid Company. It was at once a history and a geography and a book 
of directions for Kansas and prospective Kansans. Mr. Thayer 
wrote that "the several hundred of the different kinds of societies, 
leagues, committees, and companies in the free states" kept it as "an 
invaluable handbook for emigrants. ... It was of great service 
in our efforts to arouse the public to the importance of organized 
emigration." 119 The day after the official publication, September 28, 
1854, Doctor Webb submitted to the publishers an order from the 
German Kansas Settlers Association of Cincinnati, Ohio, for several 
copies. 120 Records of publishers and booksellers are not available 
to show the number of copies sold. Comments in advertisements 
and early reviews to the effect that the first edition was exhausted 
were probably references to printings rather than editions. There 
could hardly have been need of a second edition. The only person 
who wrote of the possibility was G. W. Brown, editor of the Herald 
of Freedom, of Lawrence. To western readers, with the scene of its 
setting at their doorsteps, Kanzas and Nebraska had shortcomings 
not obvious elsewhere. Although the publishers boasted of announc- 
ing it "all over the northern creation," the book probably found its 
greatest number of readers in the East, where interest in the emigra- 
tion movement was most manifest. There people talked about it 
and its subject matter; there reviewers wrote of it; there its author 
was known. Those who had already come West found the terri- 
tories themselves all around them a more urgent and more authentic 
source of information and thought. The last of the business corre- 

117. The figure, $108, is evidently a mistake for $109, which would have been the 
exact amount of the extra five per cent royalty of the original plan. 

118. The Herald of Freedom, October 15, 1859, noted Phillips, Sampson & Company had 
recently failed with an indebtedness of $240,000. 

119. Thayer, Eli, A History of the Kansas Crusade, Its Friends and Its Foes, pp. 124, 
125. Because of this official use of the book by the Emigrant Aid Company, it subsequently 
came to be regarded as a publication of the company; cf. Albert J. Beveridge's Abraham 
Lincoln, v. II, p. 300, footnote. 

120. Webb, Thos. H., Letter of September 29, 1854, to Albert Oestreicher, in Letters 
(Letter Press copies) of Emigrant Aid Company. 



180 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

spondence preserved was Mr. Phillips' letter of August 21, but not 
until December 18, 1855, did Mr. Hale find himself free of matters 
relative to the book. On that day he wrote to his brother Charles, 
"I have swept Kanzas off my table completely." 121 

Copies of the book are easily available to-day. Second-hand book 
dealers list them at nominal prices. Only last year a friend picked 
up a copy in Bridgeport, Conn., for 10 cents. In Kansas now the 
book seems to be known little more than in the year of publication. 
Only a few of the older libraries have it, and frequently the older of 
the old settlers say they have never heard of it. Kanzas and Ne- 
braska was, nevertheless, the first and the most authoritative of the 
numerous books upon the new territory. 

In 1917 Edward E. Hale, Jr., suggested the manner of his father's 
gathering of the material for Kanzas and Nebraska. 122 

"He read for it, or remembered, not only the account of Father Marquette 
and La Salle, but accounts much more recent and full of the charm of current 
interest. . . . Even nowadays Kanzas and Nebraska is an interesting 
book, because it is so full of the intense feeling of the day." 

The latter chapters of the book do reflect the feeling of the day ; 
but they and all the others in the hastily prepared composition pre- 
sent more the subject matter that provoked the thought and stirred 
the feeling of the day. To anyone examining the book now Mr. Hale 
appears to have read for it and quoted far more than he drew from 
memory and paraphrased. His method, however, was in part that of 
the historian, in part that of the writer of popular appeal. He sought 
authority and usually gave due credit where he could; yet in his 
selection of materials, he seems to have chosen more to appeal to 
the reader than to treat his subject thoroughly. The copy for 
Kanzas and Nebraska was prepared so quickly that Mr. Hale prob- 
ably gave little thought to the method he pursued, yet it illustrates 
well two contradictory inclinations, that his son relates, guided him 
most of his life. 

"He sometimes thought that he was meant to be an historical student 
rather than anything else . . . and he always had some sort of historical 
work on his hands. . . . The two historical principles which appear to 
have been most important in guiding his work seem, if not contradictory, at 
least hard to combine. One was . . . the importance of studying the 
original sources. The other . . . was the importance of being interesting 
to all sorts of people. This was most natural. We can hardly imagine such 

121. Hale, Edward E., Jr., Life and Letters of Edward Everett Hale, v. I, p. 265. 

122. Ibid., p. 258. 



DOLBEE: FIRST BOOK ON KANSAS 181 

a man studying the original sources without regard to people's getting the 
advantage of his studies. ... A history had to be founded on the original 
sources, he held; but then, also, it had to be interesting, or it might as well 
not be at all." 

In his numerous direct quotations in Kanzas and Nebraska, Mr. 
Hale brought his sources to his very reader, but he also chose those 
quotations to interest as well as inform his reader. 



History of Lynchings in Kansas 

GENEVIEVB YOST 

ON April 18, 1932, Kansas was shocked by the lynching of Robert 
Read, in Rawlins county. Not since April 19, 1920, twelve 
years before, when Albert Evans was hanged at Mulberry, Craw- 
ford county, had there been a lynching in Kansas. 

The newspapers, in reporting the story, desired a list of previous 
lynchings in the state, and a record of about fifty was very hur- 
riedly compiled in the library of the Kansas State Historical Society. 
This list, when published, aroused the interest of papers and in- 
dividuals and brought in additional items. The Russell Record 
headed a front-page story in the following issue of its paper with 
the line, "Hey! Russell had a lynching, too." * Interest grew until 
it was decided to prepare a list of lynchings in Kansas which should 
be as complete as possible. Such a list is valuable, not merely for 
its numbers and dates, but, as this paper shows, because it reflects 
certain phases of the economic, social, and industrial development 
and growth of the state. 

This list has been compiled through histories, newspapers, recol- 
lections of early settlers, and associations interested in the subject, 
including the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, 
the National Association of Advancement for Colored People, the 
Tuskegee Institute, and the Southern Commission on the Study of 
Lynching. While these institutions are interested mainly from the 
standpoint of race prejudice, they have contributed valuable as- 
sistance. All accounts, whenever possible, have been checked by 
contemporary newspapers as a final authority. 

While this list is presented as being complete as possible, there 
probably occurred some not mentioned. Rumors and vague ac- 
counts of about two dozen not listed were found, but the informa- 
tion of time or place was indefinite. There is no reason to doubt 
that most of them did take place, but not enough data is available 
at present to warrant their inclusion in this list. 

The lynch law, popularly spoken of as Judge Lynch, is the name 
for irregular punishment, especially capital, inflicted by private 
individuals independently of legal authorities. The working defi- 
nition which compilers of lynching records have generally used is 

1. Russell Record, April 21, 1932. 

(182) 



YOST: LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS 183 

that "lynching has to do with individuals supplanting the law and 
acting in defiance of the law." 2 On this basis the general practice 
of compilers of lynching records has been not to include in such 
records persons put to death in what are commonly designated as 
riots. In a riot there occurs promiscuous killing of individuals, and 
in a lynching particular individuals are seized and put to death for 
alleged specified offenses. By the laws of some states a minimum 
of three persons may constitute a mob; by others, five. 

The Kansas statutes have several definitions of a mob. Three 
persons may constitute an unlawful assembly. "If three or more 
persons shall assemble together with intent to do any unlawful act 
with force and violence against the person or property of an- 
other. . ." 3 

It requires five persons to constitute a mob for whose actions a 
city may be held legally responsible. Since 1868 cities have been 
liable for damages in consequence of the action of mobs within 
their corporate limits. In 1923 the legislature added a clause de- 
fining this mob: "Provided, however, that the number of persons 
that shall constitute a mob under this act shall be five or more." 4 

In the section which defines lynchings the number is not stated. 
"That any collection of individuals assembled for an unlawful 
purpose, intending to injure any person by violence, and without 
authority of law, shall for the purpose of this act be regarded as 
a mob." 5 

The origin of the use of the word lynching to denote summary 
justice at the hands of a mob or an improvised tribunal is obscure. 
By some it is said to be from James Lynch Fitz-Stephen, warden 
of Galway, Ireland, who, about 1526, sentenced his son to death 
for murder, and to prevent a rescue by a mob executed him with his 
own hands without due process of law. By others the term is said 
to have had its origin in Virginia, where a farmer named Charles 
Lynch took his own way of obtaining redress for a theft by catch- 
ing the culprit, tying him to a tree and flogging him. The popular 
conception of lynching and the method most often chosen is hanging, 
called in the vernacular a "necktie party," but it is not so limited. 
Offenders have been shot, beaten to death and burned at the stake 
with the same intention and the same result. 

2. F. C. C. C. A., Law and the Mob (1925), p. 5. 

3. General Statutes, Kansas, 1868, ch. 31, sec. 268. 

4. Laws,. Kansas, 1923, ch. 79, sec. 1. 
6. Laws, Kansas, 1923, ch. 221, sec. 1. 



184 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The history of lynchings in the early days of Kansas must neces- 
sarily remain incomplete. We may suppose that it was as common, 
if not more so, in the first periods of the territory and state as 
later, and unfortunately complete records of these times are lack- 
ing. We look to the newspapers for such things, and while we find 
early papers in the eastern section of Kansas, they did not follow 
the people quite so rapidly to the western part of the state. Even 
the papers which existed could not collect news from so large an 
area as we of to-day expect. Communication was slow and uncer- 
tain, and many lynchings were not heard of three or four counties 
away. Sometimes rumors drifted over and we find a statement like 
this: "A gentleman from Franklin county said eleven horses were 
stolen, six men arrested, two shot, two hung and two dismissed." 6 
One might be reasonably certain that a lynching of some sort had 
occurred. Many an article in a good county history and many a 
reminiscence by a pioneer starts thus: "Back in the 70's . . ." 

This vagueness is due partly to inability to get the facts, and is 
partly because a lynching did not cause so much consternation then 
as it does now. Lynchings were more common, the people accepted 
them as necessary punishments, and they were not impressed so 
forcibly on the mind and conscience as to-day. It is quite probable 
that many a person forfeited his life to a self -detailed jury, if not 
to a frenzied mob, whose death was never in any way recorded. 

In some instances the criminal himself preferred that he go un- 
named. One thief, when shot and dying, refused to give any infor- 
mation about himself, saying he came from a good family and 
preferred not to have the name degraded. 7 In Johnson county 
"one unlucky thief lies two feet below the surface on Tommy hawk 
creek, whose name, place of residence and all else concerning him 
are unknown unless he gave such particulars to his executioners and, 
if so, they never told. As nothing concerning him was divulged for 
several years, the poor rascal's friends, if he had any, must have 
wondered not a little as to what had become of him. Another un- 
lucky soul disappeared in the same vicinity in similar style, but 
his executioners were so reticent that no particulars could ever be 
obtained." 8 Concerning the first man mentioned, the Olathe Mirror 
says: "It is rumored in town last Saturday that a horse thief had 
been caught and hung out on Tommyhawk creek. We can gather 

6. Lawrence Tribune, June 18, 1864. 

7. Horse thief shot in Wabaunsee county, Dec. 15, 1862. Kansas State Journal, Law- 
rence, December 25, 1862. 

8. Heisler & Smith, Johnson County Atlas (1874), p. 34. 



YOST: LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS 185 

nothing definite about the matter." 9 It was not always possible 
for the newspapers to give full information concerning a lynching, 
even though they desired to do so. 

It is sometimes difficult to tell when a lynching is a lynching. 
Often a "neck-tie party" was accompanied by an impromptu court 
which considered itself, and was considered by the community, 
legal. In Coffey county "a mob held trial and asked those in favor 
of death to pass to the right of the building and those against to 
the left. Nine-tenths went to the right." 10 In Atchison in April, 
1863, a mob took possession of the jail and courthouse for a week; 
they held court and tried each prisoner, with four or five lynchings 
as the result. 11 The people banded themselves into vigilance com- 
mittees for the protection of themselves and their property, and 
death punishment by these committees was seldom considered il- 
legal. In those days the squatters' courts were as much respected 
and as effective as the government courts. 

In the days of the 1860's the slavery agitation made the difference 
between a lynching and a legal hanging quite often a matter of per- 
sonal opinion and party affiliation. The Civil War in Kansas was 
characterized by guerrilla and bushwhacker warfare, and a hanging 
considered legal by one side was lynching by the other; accounts 
of this time depend upon which record or newspaper one reads. 
According to the accepted definition many of the massacres and 
murders perpetrated on the border of the state might be called 
lynchings. When a group of proslavery men massacred a free-state 
man they acted in accord with the sentiment of at least part of the 
town, who might call it supplanting the law, while the free-state 
men considered it acting in defiance of the law. John Brown's 
massacre of the Doyle family on June 24, 1856, fulfills the techni- 
cal requirements of a lynching; it consisted of more than five people, 
and he considered it punishment for the sacking of Lawrence on 
May 21 by the proslavery element. But it would be difficult for 
any nonpartisan person now to consider any act of John Brown's 
a lynching. The Marais des Cygnes massacre on May 19, 1858, 
when five men near Trading Post, Linn county, were taken to a 
ravine and murdered is in the same class of border warfare. Neither 
side could be said to represent the sentiment of the community as 

9. Olathe Mirror, May 81, 1866. 

10. Burlington Republican, December 14, 1908. 

11. Kansas City Journal, March, 1902; "Atchison County Clippings" (compiled by Kan- 
sas State Historical Society), v. 4, p. 50. 



186 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

a whole, and both sides were inflamed by the hatred of the Border 
war. 

An incident which illustrates the difficulty of distinguishing be- 
tween lynchings and murder was the hanging on November 12, 1860, 
of Russell Hinds, a farmer living near Pleasanton, Linn county, who 
returned a runaway slave to his master in Missouri. Dr. C. R. 
Jennison, heading a party of free-state men, arrested him, quickly 
convened a court, sentenced and hanged him for this offense. It 
would be difficult to convince any southerner that this was a lynch- 
ing and not a murder. 12 

On July 10, 1860, L. D. Moore was one of a party who lynched 
Hugh Carlin, a horse thief. On November 16, 1860, Jennison, with 
twenty-five men entered Moore's house and shot him in retaliation. 13 
This incident satisfies the definition of lynching, but it probably 
savors more of guerrilla warfare. 

A recent account of an event of the war would call the following 
a lynching: "Col. C. R. Jennison, later in command of the fifteenth 
Kansas, captured Samuel Scott, one of the most notorious pro- 
slavery ruffians. Scott was hanged without ceremony, and his fate 
met with the approval of free-state leaders." 14 While the free- 
state leaders considered it a lynching, very probably the proslavery 
faction called it murder or, at least, border warfare. 

This doubtful status of lynchings during the Civil War period is 
shown very plainly by the contrasting opinions in a letter written 
at the time of a hanging and those in later accounts of the same 
event. On February 5, 1860, John R. Guthrie was hanged at Maple- 
ton, Bourbon county. In the manuscript collection of the Kansas 
State Historical Society is a letter written by Alpheus H. Tanner 
which gives an interesting account of the affair. 15 

"Mapleton, K. T., Feb. 12, 1860. 

"My DEAR PARENTS: . . . Last Sunday night about 1 o'clock a man named 
John R. Guthrie was hanged about a mile and a half from here on the top 
of what is known as Tigret Mound. He was left suspended until Monday 
eve. His corpse was in plain sight from here as he hung. The proslavery's 
hung him for an alleged crime of horse stealing. They arrested him without 
authority or shadow of law and never gave him even a mock trial, as has 

12. Tabor, "This Day in Kansas History" (volume bound by Kansas State Historical 
Society), p. 132; Leavenworth Times, February 12, 1928, in "Crimes and Criminals Clip- 
pings" (Kansas State Historical Society), v. 2, pp. 295, 296. 

13. Andreas, History of Kansas (1883), p. 1070. 

14. Tabor, "This Day in Kansas History," p. 132. 

15. Alpheus Hiram Tanner was born in Ruggles, Ohio, July 28, 1836. He came to Kan- 
sas in 1857, living first in Pleasanton. In 1918 he lived on a farm in Bourbon county on the 
Osage river, near Mapleton. 



YOST: LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS 187 

generally been the case. The country is again in commotion. I know not what 
will be the result, the probability is that unless Montgomery takes the field 
again it will soon blow over and give them a chance to hang the next ones 
that gets in their way. . . A. H. T." 

An account of this same event, as written in 1932 by C. E. Cory 
to the Historical Society, describes him as a horse thief: 

"I know a story I think worth preserving of a Bourbon county execution 
without benefit of clergy, but it was not a lynching. I have had the story from 
a lot of people, including two eyewitnesses not participants, of course. (?) 
Away back in the later territorial days, when Bourbon county was in the 
'region beyant the law/ a young man named Guthrie was caught up near 
Mapleton riding somebody else's horse. Everybody knows that at that time 
in those parts, horse stealing and nigger chasing and homicide were offenses 
in a class by themselves. The hard-headed and hard-fisted farmers there- 
abouts gathered in a hurry. But there were no courts that they respected 
or had reason to respect. What to do? 

"Just across the river south of Mapleton in the Little Osage bottom is a 
little round hill about three hundred feet high shaped almost exactly like 
an overturned soup bowl. They adjourned to the top of that hill. There 
they elected a judge and a sheriff and a prosecuting attorney. They selected 
a jury and tried their man, who admitted his guilt. After the verdict and 
the proper sentence, the sheriff had no place to keep the man, so he executed 
the sentence at once by hanging him to the limb of a jack oak tree nearby. 
His body was buried where it was cut down. It is there yet. 

"From what I have been told I am quite satisfied that that trial was quite 
as regular and formal as many cases in the regular courts of that day, though 
not sanctioned by the law. 

"By the way, that hill is the same 'pretty little hill' where Lieut. Zebulon 
M. Pike ate the fried venison steak that September morning in 1806, as he 
notes in his journal. It is still called Guthrie mountain, and is one of the 
real beauty spots of old Bourbon." 16 

With such conflicting accounts, who, seventy-two years after the 
event, shall dare to say whether this lynching was the justifiable 
punishment of a horse thief or the fate of a victim of border war- 
fare? 

While it is difficult to decide whether some of the events are lynch- 
ings or murders, there are a few which may be classed as lynchings 
and charged to border warfare. In Lawrence on August 22, 1863, 
the day after the Quantrill raid, Thomas Corlew was tried by a 
lynch court on the charge of having been a spy and hanged in a 

16. Letter from C. E. Cory, June 31, 1932. Extract from Expeditions of Zebulon M, 
Pike (1895), v. 2, p. 396: "In about five miles we struck a beautiful hill, which bears south 
on the prairie; its elevation I suppose to be 100 feet. From its summit the view is sublime 
to the east and southeast. We waited on this hill to breakfast and had to send two miles for 
water. Killed a deer on the rise, which was soon roasting: before the fire . . ." A footnote 
to this edition says, "Camp is in Bourbon county, somewhere in the vicinity of Xenia, Zenia, 
or Hay, a small place near a branch of the Little Osage." 



188 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

barn near the City Hotel at the north end of Massachusetts street. 
Mr. James C. Horton 17 wrote concerning the event: 

"I was there during the whole proceeding and went to one or two parties 
whom I thought might stop it, but to no avail. My recollection is that the 
jury did not find any evidence against him and so reported. His hanging 
was perhaps a natural outcome of the excited state of public feeling at that 
time, as Corlew was a Missourian and was said to have been acting with the 
proslavery men in 1856, but I think that many people in Lawrence regretted 
the occurrence and in ordinary, quiet times no such termination of a trial, 
even by a lyn-ch court, would have been permitted." 18 

Since it is difficult to classify the massacres and murders of this 
period in a nonpartisan manner, most of them have been omitted 
from this list. The few which are given here as accepted lynchings 
are recorded as being caused by border warfare. 

The guerrilla style of warfare of some of the authorized regi- 
ments on the border gave rise to groups of robbers and bushwhack- 
ers who carried on private enterprise under the anonymity em- 
ployed by armies of both sides. The "Red Legs," organized by a 
group of men who did not wish to submit to the routine of the regu- 
lar army, were employed in scouting, dispatch carrying and guiding 
and wore, as a distinguishing mark, leggings of red morocco. The 
desperadoes of the country soon learned to wear red leggings so that 
the blame for their depredations might be avoided. Owing to re- 
peated complaints of this nature the organization was soon dissolved. 
Whenever possible distinction has been made between the legitimate 
forces of warfare and the thieves and bushwhackers operating under 
their name. Killing of disguised desperadoes has been considered 
lynching. 

While extrajudicial punishment has been common in all countries 
and states, it has features which are sectional. This border war- 
fare constituted a feature peculiar to Kansas and a few other states, 
since not every state was divided into factions with such intensive 
fighting within its borders. Because our states did not pass through 
the stages of their development at the same time, it is impossible to 
compare them by years. When Judge Lynch held court in Cali- 
fornia, in the stirring days of 1849, the eastern section of the coun- 
try had passed through its formative period and was well organized. 

But lynching was practically unheard of in New England at any 

17. James Clark Horton was born at Ballston Spa, New York, May 15, 1837; came to 
Kansas and settled at Lawrence in March, 1857. He served in the house of representatives in 
1874 and in the senate in 1875 and 1876. In 1878 he moved to Kansas City, where he died 
May 14, 1907. 

18. James C. Horton, Kansas City, to Hon. George W. Martin, Kansas State Historical 
Society, May 22, 1905. Letter, in MSS. of Kansas State Historical Society. 



YOST: LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS 189 

time in its history, so far as its records show. The Chicago Tribune 
of April 6, 1931, makes this assertion: "States which have never 
had a recorded lynching include Connecticut, Massachusetts, New 
Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont." The Federal Council of 
Churches of Christ in America limits it further: "There are only 
four Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont 
where such an atrocity has not been recorded for any community 
in the commonwealth. In four others Connecticut, Maine, New 
Jersey and Utah there has been no recorded lynching since 1889." 19 
Walter White, secretary of the National Association for Advance- 
ment of Colored People, also says: "Only four states of the Union 
have never been stained by a lynching Massachusetts, Rhode Is- 
land, New Hampshire and Vermont." 20 Thus the escutcheon of 
two-thirds of New England, and New England only, is entirely 
clear. The Lawrence Western Home Journal of 1882 reprints a 
comment of the Chicago Inter-Ocean on an article on mob law 
written by Professor David Swing: "The slightest regard of crime 
throughout this country is alarming, and the professor's conclusion 
that in a few more years lynching will probably be the fashion in 
all the states west of New England rings like a prophecy." 21 Evi- 
dently, even in 1882, New England was considered immune from 
the epidemic. 

Such a record must have a reason, and we find possible causes 
in several conditions. New England had few reasons for lynchings. 
Of the three main causes murder, rape and robbery two scarcely 
existed in New England as known in other sections. Rape by the 
negroes of the South and horse stealing in the West were two prob- 
lems that New England did not have to deal with, so there remains 
only murder. The lives of the people in New England were plain 
and simple and ordered by rule and regulation. The settlements 
were close together, agriculture demanded only small farms and the 
people, recently come from a thickly-settled old country, desired 
contact with neighbors both for company and for protection. Many 
of the early settlements were made by well-organized companies 
under leaders and officers who, in many cases, supervised personal 
conduct to a minute detail. Few criminals escaped legal punish- 
ment. Justice was more surely pronounced and administered, and 
the people looked to the officials for punishment, having faith that 

19. Mob Murder in America (1923), pamphlet, p. 5. 

20. White, Rope and Faggot (1919), p. 230. 

21. Lawrence Western Home Journal, May 25, 1882. 



190 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

it would be forthcoming. Religion played its part, for the church 
was a strong influence in civil government, in making laws and in 
meting out punishment. 

A large percentage of the New England settlers had come from 
England where lynchings occurred very seldom. At the time of a 
lynching in Leavenworth in 1902, this comparison was part of an 
editorial in the Review of Reviews: "But if the Leavenworth lynch- 
ing had occurred in England, the ringleaders would certainly have 
been hanged and probably a hundred others put in prison for life, 
while the authorities who failed to take due precautions to guard 
their prisoner would not have escaped lightly." 22 

The attitude of England toward lynchings is again expressed by 
a letter signed "R. H.," written from England and published in the 
Junction City Union in 1867: 

"In the most recent of the papers you have sent me, I have seen with pain 
the account of the application of lynch law to colored persons who were in 
prison. The only pleasant part of the matter is the shame and indignation that 
you and others in your state have for the violation of law. In our country, I 
am sorry to say, that any accounts of this kind from America are hailed with 
delight by a section of our people, as if they indicated essential feebleness and 
failure of republican institutions." 23 

In the apprehension, prosecution, and punishment of criminals 
these early New Englanders found their chief source of diversion 
and amusement. They did not believe in lonely captivity but in 
public obloquy for criminals. The most exciting and stirring emo- 
tions in their lives came through these public exhibitions. 24 Sen- 
tences of whipping were usually to be carried out "on the next 
lecture day" when the crowd gathered. Such an attitude produced 
the stocks, pillories, whipping posts and ducking stools. The quick, 
effective lynching provided none of the exhibition of punishment 
as this section of the country wanted it. 

The Southern states, of course, bear the unenviable record for 
lynchings, in the past and present alike, due to racial conflict. After 
the abolition of slavery it became an unwritten law in the South 
to punish by mob rule negroes charged with rape or assault or with 
the murder of a white person, and the custom is hard to forget. The 
study of lynchings in the United States to-day is chiefly concerned 
with the Southern states. 

22. Review of Reviews, v. 23 (March, 1901), p. 263. 

23. "R. H." letter headed Wigan, England, July 22, 1867, published in Junction City 
Union, August 17, 1867. R. H. is probably Richard J. Hinton, a free-state pioneer of Kansas 
and friend of John Brown. According to a biography by W. E. Connelley, in Kansas His- 
torical Collections, v. 7, p. 491, "some years after the close of the war he went on extensive 
travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa . . . commissioner of emigration in Europe, 1867." 

24. Earle, Stage Coach and Tavern Days (1900), p. 214. 



YOST: LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS 191 

Aside from the South, it was in the West that lynchings flourished, 
and Kansas was of the early West. This West had a reputation for 
lawlessness that was, at least in part, deserved. This was partly 
because of the social conditions which prevailed during the period 
of development, and partly because many of the laws were not 
made for the existing geographical conditions and were unsuitable 
for them. 

The nature of the country made settlements few and far between. 
In the early period the restraint of law could not make itself felt in 
the rarefied population. Territory extended faster than did effective 
government organization for the punishment of offenders, and men 
learned to mete it out themselves. Each man had to make his own 
law because there was no other to make it. It was but a step to 
individual enforcement of laws and punishment of offenders. The 
population had a high percentage of criminals who had fled from 
justice in other sections. Two lynched in Kansas for horse steal- 
ing were identified as sons of an ex-governor of Illinois, according 
to a Kansas City newspaper of 1910. 25 

Perhaps the fact that human life was not considered very valu- 
able made it hard to convict a man for murder, while at the same 
time it made the taking of life in punishment more casual. Men 
went armed and moved over vast areas with other armed men, and 
among them the six-shooter was the final decision in an argument. 
While the tales of "shoothV Dodge" and the rip-roaring cowboys 
who fired on any provocation doubtless exaggerate the number of 
men who lie on various Boot Hills, there can be no question that 
the continuous dangerous existence developed callousness to the 
taking of life. Under such conditions homicide did not entail the 
stigma that more thickly settled regions associated with it. Men 
were equal and each was his own defender. His survival imposed 
upon him certain obligations which, if he were a man, he would ac- 
cept. Murder was too harsh a word for the final settling of an 
argument by gun play, but lynching was not too severe for offend- 
ers against the code of laws the men of the West respected. 

Added to the lawlessness of the criminal code which grew out of 
the social conditions in the early days was a general disregard for 
civil laws which were wholly inapplicable and unsuited to the West. 
Congress passed laws which the settlers could not enforce in the 
prairie country, such as the water law, prohibiting all diversion of 

25. Clipping, marked only "Kansas City, Oct. 1910," in "Sumner County Clippings" 
(compiled by Kansas State Historical Society), v. 1, p. 287. 



192 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

water from a stream, making irrigation impossible; and the timber 
act, granting land free on condition that the grantee grow forests 
on it. When men could not abide by a civil law they came to lose 
respect for it, and this disrespect influenced their attitude toward 
other restraining factors, such as criminal and social laws. 

The West was turbulent in the early days because there was no 
law. It was lawless in the later period because the laws were un- 
suited to the needs and conditions of the country. 26 

The following study of the records of lynchings in Kansas from 
1856 to 1932 reveals some interesting facts concerning prevalence 
and causes. These figures as here tabulated show the greatest 
number in 1860-1870, the period of the opening and early develop- 
ment of the state. In the decade of 1850 much of Kansas was still 
unsettled country, and in the fringe of settlements on the eastern 
border was a pioneer life of which we have now only a few con- 
temporary records. In proportion to the population there was prob- 
ably as much summary punishment of criminals as in later periods. 
The decade of 1860 saw the beginning of statehood with its civil 
laws and increased population. Emigrants from the north and south 
brought the Civil War, which produced the border warfare respon- 
sible for much of the lawlessness. More newspapers were printed 
and saved to give us a record of the time. From 1870 there was 
a steady decline in the number of lynchings for each ten-year pe- 
riod until 1900, when it remains at one for each decade after that, 
if we may suppose that the allotted lynching for 1930-1940 has 
already been produced in 1932. The number was still large in 1870, 
and would probably be larger if all of the records had been pre- 
served, for that was the period of the cattleman in Kansas, and 
horses and cattle were favorite plunder for thieves and desperadoes. 
This was also the period in which men were hanged, but not always 
lynched, by the vigilantes, as will be discussed later. The gradual 
decline was due to a change in social conditions and the incoming 
civilization. 



Decade starting .... 


. . . 1850 


I860 1870 


1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 


1930 Total 


Horse stealing 


13 


54 26 




93 


Cattle stealing 


. . . 1 


1 .... 




2 


Murder 


2 


23 13 


21 14 3 1 


77 


Rape 




7 


3 2 1 1 


1 15 


Robbery 


2 


7 


4 


13 


Border warfare 





2 




2 


Misc. & unknown 


1 


2 


1 


4 



Total 19 9 6 39 29 16 4 l 

26. Webb, Great Plains (1931), pp. 498-500. 



YOST: LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS 193 

As we see, the crime in the West and in Kansas which most 
often brought lynching as a swift retribution was horse stealing. 
What the negro problem was to the South as a cause for lynching, 
horse stealing was to the West. One almost receives the impres- 
sion that it was the principal industry of some communities. Prob- 
ably it was a southern sympathizer who said that if the pedigrees 
of the horses on the eastern line could be given, most of them would 
say "out of Missouri by Jennison." Concerning Johnson county it 
was written: "In the line of farmers bordering on Indian creek it 
was estimated that no less than sixty horses, besides many head of 
cattle, were stolen one summer, and the proportion was nearly the 
same throughout the county." 27 An account of the breaking up 
of horse thieves in eastern Kansas says: "The line of operations 
extended from Kansas City to Omaha and perhaps beyond, with 
the stations in between for concealing horses." 28 Organizations 
were formed for protection, such as the Wild Cat Horse Guards, 
organized April 21, 1877, in Nemaha county. The members were 
owners of horses and mules, who had their animals appraised and 
enrolled, and if stolen received two-thirds of the appraised value 
from the company. 

The National Anti-Horse-Thief Association, organized in Mis- 
souri in 1854, had more need of activity in Kansas than any other 
state. In 1911 over half of its 40,000 membership was in Kansas, 
the other half being divided among seven other states. At least 
three Kansans have been national presidents, and the News, a paper 
authorized by the Kansas division in 1901 and published at St. 
Paul, by W. W. Graves, was made the organ of the national society 
in 1902. 

The situation occupied even the attention of the executive office, 
and in 1863 this message was issued by Gov. Thomas Carney: 

"State of Kansas, Exec. Dept., 

"Topeka, July 29, 1863. 

"The condition of Kansas, in one respect, is to be deplored. I mean the 
prevalence of robberies, and the too great disregard of law. This condition 
results, as I believe, not from, any want of power to enforce the civil law, 
but from a want of what I may term central sources of information and 
[from] disconcerted action. 

"... The stealing of horses and other stock, though not so universally 
prevalent as formerly, is, I regret to say, still common in nearly all parts of 

27. Heisler & Smith, Johnson County Atlas (1874), p. 20. 

28. Junction City Union, August 15, 1868. 

ia-7572 



194 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the state; and what is more unfortunate, the difficulty of detecting the rob- 
beries and arresting or subjecting the thieves to punishment is equally common. 

"This may be accounted for, in part, by the fact that, in sparsely settled 
communities, horse thieves may perpetrate what would seem the most daring 
acts and enjoy comparative immunity from punishment, because they have 
concert among themselves, while the losers and local authorities have no 
such concert. . . . 

"Every county has its sheriff. Suppose it were made the duty of such 
sheriff to furnish detailed information of the robbery so made (that is, of 
horses, their size, color, etc., and so of cattle and other property) to the 
sheriffs and local authorities of the central points, by the most speedy means 
of conveyance, mail or otherwise. ... A concert of action like this on the 
part of the sheriffs of the different counties, aided by those who suffer, would 
go far, in my judgment, towards correcting the evil under which Kansas now 
suffers. . . . 

"Were the legislature in session I should most earnestly recommend to that 
body the passage of a law making it the duty of the sheriffs of the different 
counties to furnish such information, with a suitable reward for such service. 
The effect of this would be to secure what we now so much need concert 
of action against thieves and robbers. As it is, I would earnestly urge the 
sheriffs and the people of the several counties to adopt and enforce this policy 
as alike essential to private interests and the public good. 

"THOMAS CARNEY/' 29 

That there was an effort made to punish theft of live stock by 
legal proceedings is shown in the first territorial statutes of 1855: 
"Persons convicted of grand larceny shall be punished in the follow- 
ing cases, as follows: First, for stealing a horse, mare, gelding, colt, 
filly, mule or ass, by confinement and hard labor, not exceeding 
seven years." 30 This was enacted again as a part of the criminal 
code by the session of 1859. 31 In 1870 this law was rewritten to in- 
clude "neat cattle," an indication of the growth of the cattle in- 
dustry on the plains. 32 An amendment in 1920 shoved horses to 
second place and introduced a new clause in first place providing 
for "the stealing of any automobile, not less than five years and 
not more than fifteen years," 33 indicating that the horse was no 
longer supreme. 

While some horse thieves were brought to justice, many were not 
treated so kindly. For a horse thief there were seldom any extenu- 
ating circumstances and little time for explanation or prayer. Per- 
haps there were more attempts to steal a man's horse than there 

29. Kansas State Journal, Lawrence, July 30, 1863. 

80. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, ch. 49, sec. 31. 

81. Laws, Kansas, 1859, ch. 28, sec. 73. 
32. Laws, Kansas, 1870, ch. 62, sec. 1. 
83. Laws, Kansas, 1920, ch. 38, sec. 2. 



YOST: LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS 195 

were to steal his property or his life, for the cowboy and the pioneer 
valued their horses as they did their lives. Often, indeed, a man's 
horse meant his life. To the settler the horse was communication, 
transportation, and escape from danger, as well as his means of 
livelihood. When the horse and man first became associated to- 
gether in Europe years ago there arose two traditions of horseman- 
ship or horse culture the one, that of a settled people with whom 
horses were but one of the incidents of life; and the other, the tra- 
dition of the nomadic people to whom horses were vital. Both 
traditions found their way to America and each its appropriate en- 
vironment. The "civilized" culture came through Europe to England 
and found lodgment in the English colonies of the Atlantic coast; 
the nomadic horse culture came from the Asiatic steppes to Arabia, 
across northern Africa to Spain, and with the Spaniards to the pam- 
pas of South America and up to the plains of the United States. 34 

Kansas, though settled in great part by people from New England, 
was so influenced by her location in the great plains that her use of 
the horse was of the second class. In the pioneer days settlements 
were few and distances between them were great. The telephone 
was not invented until 1876, wireless telegraphy and the radio were 
undreamed of; the horse was the primary means of communication 
and as such was glorified in the dashing Pony Express. Transpor- 
tation was by horseback or by open or covered wagons drawn by 
horses. While automobiles have now replaced the horse to a great- 
extent in all phases of work and pleasure and even pushed it from 
first place in the laws, no thief yet is recorded as being lynched for 
stealing the family Ford, or even the Rolls Royce, although in 1915 
the Anti-Horse-Thief Association extended its protection to owners 
of automobiles as well as of horses. 

On April 28, 1860, the first railroad touched Kansas soil 35 at 
Elwood, but not for many years could it take the place of the horse 
in transportation over the whole state. For both short and long dis- 
tances, work and pleasure, the horse was supreme. In addition to 
being communication and transportation the horse also meant pro- 
tection. The plains Indians were mounted, and to combat them the 
pioneer must be as well mounted. It is interesting that these were 
the only mounted Indians in the whole history of the moving Ameri- 
can frontier, whether English or Spanish. The records of the wood- 
land region do not reveal that the Indians who fired the cabins and 

34. Webb, Great American Plains (1931), p. 56. 

35. Elwood and Marysville railroad. 



196 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

scalped the settlers were horse Indians. In the forest region the 
Indian went on foot, protected by the forests and the thick under- 
brush. In the West the open country and the horse gave the Indian 
the ability to strike suddenly and get away quickly, and either to 
follow and fight, or to flee, the settler must needs be mounted also. 
Thus was brought into being a new method of warfare known as 
"Indian fighting." 36 

The horse was more important as a means of livelihood in Kansas 
than it was in the East. The great extent of level surface, the 
treeless land, and the subhumid climate changed the agriculture of 
small farms of the East to large stock-grazing and extensive wheat 
ranches of the West, and for these industries the horse was indis- 
pensable. Wheat was cultivated by horses, not by tractor. Cattle 
drives, round-ups, and herding all parts of the cattle business to 
which horses were as essential as cattle are well-known and popu- 
lar subjects of fact and fiction to-day. A cowboy's pride, and often 
his wealth, was centered in his horse, and the attachment between 
the two was great. Considering the value of the horse to the early 
settler it is not surprising that men flared to anger quicker and 
dealt punishment more unhesitatingly and harshly to a thief of 
horses than to a thief of life or property. 

Horses and cattle were the property of which the westerner 
could most easily be robbed. It is rather curious that the number 
of lynchings for cattle stealing is so small, for we know that cattle 
rustlers were a menace in the West. Only four lynchings for such 
robbery are recorded in this list, and two of those were men hanged 
in 1866 for cattle stealing and murder combined. 37 In April, 1863, 
thirty-four cattle were stolen in Butler county and driven 150 
miles to Lawrence. Even the Indians hired to track them lost 
the trail at various places. When caught, the thief was put in 
jail. 38 Yet a man might be lynched for stealing only one horse. 
A cow thief was not nearly so bad in public estimation, for where 
a horse was life itself to the plainsman, a cow was merely prop- 
erty. And in cattle ownership the code of the West made a 
strange distinction between a cow and a maverick which the East 
could never understand. A branded cow was the private property 
of the man whose brand it bore; a maverick was public property 
and belonged to the man who could brand it first. The fact that 

36. Webb, Great American Plains (1931), p. 58. 

37. Joe and Sam Tippe, cattle robbery of Ralph Warner and murder of John L. Shannon, 
on April 29, 1866. 

38. Kansas State Journal, Lawrence, April 23, 1863. 



YOST: LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS 197 

the maverick was the calf of the branded cow did not affect the 
situation very much, especially in the early days. There were few 
cattlemen who did not brand mavericks, but no cattleman considered 
himself a thief for having done so. Perhaps the distinction also 
made it hard to determine and prove a man a cattle thief. 39 

Nevertheless, many organized bands of cattle thieves were pun- 
ished, and many were instances in which the hanging was not con- 
sidered a lynching. When rustling of both cattle and horses began 
seriously to threaten the profits of the cattle business, and when 
men discovered that the law was unable to cope with the situation, 
the vigilantes of the range appeared. These were bands of citizens 
organized to prevent the commission of crime, or to deal summary 
punishment in instances where the civil and lawfully constituted 
authorities seemed powerless to enforce the law. These alert, swift- 
riding posses gave a first offender a sharp warning to quit the coun- 
try; on the second offense they hanged him to the nearest tree or 
shot him down if he pulled his gun. 

These vigilance committees were bold with their punishment, 
and even issued warnings of their intentions in the newspapers: 
"Hunters may fire the grass on the Cherokee Strip, on the Kansas 
line, if they choose, but the cattlemen intend to hang all who do 
so." 40 During the Butler county war, which was a specific drive 
against horse thieves in Butler county, in 1870, the writer of a 
Butler county history recollects that an article appeared in the 
Walnut Valley Times, El Dorado, stating that: ". . . the horse 
thieves then infesting that country, and their friends, must go. 
That they had killed four on November 4th, and four on December 
4th, and that they proposed to kill four on the 4th of every month 
thereafter until all were gone, and that any attempt to prosecute 
them therefor, meant death." 41 This was signed, "798 Vigilantes." 

These protective associations of cattlemen and of other groups 
were not authorized by the statute books, but so dependent were 
the citizens upon them that many death punishments they inflicted 
were hardly considered lynchings and so often escaped the records 
as such. 

The vigilantes of 1860 have their present-day parallel in the 
county vigilance committees maintained primarily for bank robbery. 
They spring from the same causes as those of old the inadequacy 
of the protective law and officers. The sheriff's authority is limited 

39. Webb, Great American Plains (1931), p. 498. 

40. Breeder's Gazette, Chicago, December 22, 1881, p. 82. 

41. V. P. Mooney, History of Butler County (1916), p. 258. 



198 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

to his own county; his facilities of men, money and time are often 
inadequate, and he has had to call upon private citizens to aid him 
in detection, pursuit and capture of criminals. Out of this situa- 
tion has grown the vigilance committees of the present, which were 
planned at a meeting of fourteen state bank associations of the 
central states, including Kansas. They are organized and managed 
locally according to varied local conditions, but sponsored by the 
protective department of the Kansas State Bankers Association ac- 
cording to one central plan. In Kansas the number has grown from 
one in 1925 to ninety-five in 1932. They existed at one time in 
103 of the 105 counties, with a total state membership of 3,900. 
Each consists of from fifteen to one hundred men, with an average 
of thirty in a county and are selected by the sheriff and bank officials 
and appointed by the sheriff for his term of office. The expenses, 
arms, ammunition, training and operation are financed by the banks ; 
the men receive no salary. They are issued commissions as special 
deputy sheriffs. While the law recognizes only one kind of deputy 
sheriff and these are given the regular commission, they have an 
oral agreement that they are to act only in case of a major crime 
and are considered "special" deputies. They have the full authority 
of any deputy under the law. In pursuing a criminal the sheriff 
shoots only as a last resort and then at his own discretion and on 
his own responsibility. These special deputies have the same re- 
sponsibility in bringing in a prisoner. They are bonded to the ex- 
tent of $7,500 against damages ordered by a court incurred in pur- 
suit of their duty. 

Any killing of a criminal by these committees could not be con- 
sidered lynching. They differ from their earlier counterpart in two 
ways: they are entirely legal and nonsecretive. Although they are 
committees of citizens banded together for protection, as were the 
others, their legal authority and sanction come in the clause which 
permits a sheriff to commission deputies to aid him. While the 
status of the old vigilantes might vary, some being more legally 
organized than others, the status of these is the same over the state, 
since they are under one central plan. The former were often secret 
organizations; the latter are not, desiring all the publicity possible. 
They hold annual shoots in September at Fort Riley when they 
meet for practice and discussion. They are the old vigilantes with 
the veneer of legality necessitated by the advance of civilization. 42 

42. Information supplied by W. W. Bowman, president, Kansas State Bankers Associa- 
tion, and Neill Rahn, formerly chief of the protective division and head of the state vigilance 
organization. 



YOST: LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS 199 

When conditions of the country eliminated horse stealing, as it 
did very definitely about 1877, murder was left as the main cause 
for lynching, and it holds first place continuously thereafter. 
Throughout the time from 1877 on, murder has produced over twice 
as many lynchings as other causes combined. Several cases which 
have been listed here under murder also include other crimes. Many 
cases have been accompanied by robbery, rape or torture, and the 
combination particularly incensed the people. They have been 
classed here with murder, as being the most hideous of the crimes. 

Rape, which holds third place in Kansas as a cause for lynching, 
brings in the race problem, as here the ratio of negroes to whites 
is four to one. Again we find the number highest in the period 
of 1860, with only one less in the 1870's. In 1860-1870 five negroes 
and one white man were lynched for rape; in 1870-1880 one negro 
and five whites, the latter committing robbery and attempting 
murder. The seven men from 1880-1930 lynched for rape have been 
negroes, but in 1932 the victim again was a white man. 

Of the entire number of lynchings only thirty-eight have been of 
negroes, with the ratio increasing in the later years. In the early 
days, when horse stealing caused most of the punishment, the negro 
population was not very great, and those who were here owned or 
could own very little property. The negro exodus from the South 
into Kansas from 1878 to 1882 increased the percentage in popula- 
tion, and their recognition as citizens established also their right to 
break the criminal and civil laws. In 1899 a negro mob lynched 
one of their own race for murder, when Charles Williams, a negro, 
was lynched by his people in Galena, April 27, 1899. The records 
also include a Mexican and an Indian. But the negroes form such a 
small percentage of the total lynched, a ratio of one negro to four 
and one-half whites, that the race problem cannot be considered an 
especially important factor in the state. 

The statistics for the United States show that women have been 
lynched, but none has been found for Kansas. The White Pine Cone 
of Colorado, for January 25, 1884, contained this item: "Not many 
years ago a man and woman were arrested for murder in Lawrence 
and hanged from the Kansas river bridge. The woman showed more 
courage and shoved the man off and then jumped herself." No more 
information about this was found, and "not many years ago" was 
considered too indefinite for inclusion here, so Kansas as yet has no 
recorded lynching of women to her discredit. 

Robbery holds fourth place, and there are comparatively few 



200 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

cases where a man was lynched for robbery alone. Many of the 
cases have been accompanied by attempted murder, attempted rape, 
or torture, or were the culmination of a series of crimes which incited 
the wrath of the community. The most recent lynching for robbery 
occurred in 1884, when four men were killed following a bank rob- 
bery in Medicine Lodge. In addition to this crime these men had 
the reputations and records of desperadoes, although one Henry 
Brown after a career with Billy the Kid, was marshal at Caldwell, 
and another Ben Wheeler was his assistant. 

One of the most prevalent crimes of to-day has as yet caused no 
lynchings. It is due more to our changing ideas of punishment and 
advance in civilization that we have not lynched bank robbers than 
it is to any scarcity of them. In numbers they seem to have taken 
the place of the horse thieves of the 1860 ? s ; and as has been stated, 
these are the two major crimes which have necessitated vigilance 
committees. The vigilantes disbanded after the cattle days were 
over and were remembered only in legend and fiction until called 
into being recently for this other crime which promises to become as 
serious as horse stealing was. While bank robbery is so extensive, 
we have not yet dealt with the bandits by lynching, so as a source 
of crime it does not appear in this list. 

These four are practically the only causes which have evoked 
lynchings in Kansas. Two deaths during the Civil War times have 
been recorded here as lynchings and attributed to border warfare. 
Three have had to be listed with reason unknown. The only avail- 
able account of the lynchings of two negroes in Wyandotte in 1866 
gave no reason but simply stated that they were taken "from the 
calaboose and shot." 43 

Doubtlessly, men were sometimes hanged when their guilt was 
not clearly established one of the greatest dangers of, and argu- 
ments against, lynching. Mob action is usually inspired by emo- 
tional frenzy rather than calm reason and does not stop to weigh 
the evidence. A negro shot a Mr. Cox in Atchison in 1870, and a 
mob headed by Mike Clare hanged him. "Cox recovered and some 
believe the shooting was accidental. Clare left town and never 
came back." 44 

There are also cases in which foul play has been disguised by 
the appearance of a lynching. Thomas Reynolds was found hanged 
in Geary county in August, 1868, with this note pinned to his cloth- 

43. Andreas, History of Kansas (1883), p. 1232. 

44. Atchison Daily Globe, July 11, 1929. 



YOST: LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS 201 

ing, "Beware, horse thieves, we know you now." He was not con- 
sidered a suspicious character by his community and at the time of 
his death was known to have had money with him, so it was thought 
possible that he was robbed and murdered. 45 In December, 1885, 
in Caldwell, Sumner county, Frank Noyes, white, was found hanged, 
with a note in his pocket which accused him of house burning. It 
was known that he had several hundred dollars and public opinion 
was that he had been robbed and hanged as a blind. The jury gave 
a verdict of "hanged by unknown parties." 46 

But in most instances there was no doubt that the right person 
was hanged, and in two cases the lynched man's victim even came 
to life to accuse him. Teahan shot Conklin while both were riding 
from Wyandotte to Kansas City, Mo. "Conklin put spurs to his 
horse and reached Kansas City without further harm and was cared 
for at the Gilliss Hotel." He returned to accuse Teahan, who was 
hanged. 47 In Leavenworth, in 1857, "Baize and Squarles slugged 
him (Stephens) , robbed him and then threw him into the river for 
dead, but he came to, swam ashore, reported the incident to the po- 
lice and had the men arrested, so there was no doubt as to their 
guilt." 48 The narrator of this lynching continues: "A funny little 
incident happened in connection with this affair. An Irishman was 
put in jail for getting drunk, and when the mob gathered and broke 
into the jail the Irishman became frightened and began to cry out, 
'Faith, men! I am not the monP and kept on repeating it. Judge 
Samuel D. Lecompte made a speech trying to disperse the mob, but 
to no avail." 49 

There have been a few instances where a criminal was strung up 
to be hanged and then released, though usually a determined and 
infuriated mob brooked no interference. In Lyon county a crowd 
met the sheriff at Rock Creek and took from him his German 
prisoner charged with murder of an Irishman. They were hanging 
him when the limb of the tree broke, letting him fall to the ground. 
The sheriff plead his case so well that the mob released the prisoner 
and the sheriff continued with him on his way to jail. 50 

What did the people of the state as a whole think of the practice 
of lynching? If we may believe the newspapers as reflecting the at- 

45. Junction City Union, August 29, 1863. 

46. Freeman, Incidental History of Southern Kansas and the Indian Territory (1892), 
p. 384. 

47. Wyandotte Gazette, December 23, 1865. 

48. Frank M. Gable, Leavenworth Times, February 9, 1919. 

49. Ibid. 

50. Kansas State (Journal, Lawrence, May 15, 1862. 



202 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

titude of the people we receive the impression that, while they de- 
plored lynching as an evil, they considered it a necessary evil. One 
of the earliest contemporary accounts is the article concerning 
Squarles and Baize in which the Elwood Advertiser says: "Though 
summary justice was meted out to the wretches, yet public opinion 
sanctions it as a necessity, and will effectually strike terror into the 
hearts of the many similar gangs who infest that city." 51 In 1865 
the Wyandotte Gazette parries the responsibility: "It is only when 
the laws of the land utterly fail to protect life and property that the 
people can be justified in taking the punishment of criminals into 
their own hands. Whether that time has arrived in Wyandotte is 
a question the people must decide for themselves." 52 

"We have no censure to make in this particular case, but trust 
nothing of the like will become common." 53 

"We deplore mob law under all circumstances, but if there ever 
was a case that was justifiable this is one of them." 54 

"While the mob spirit, therefore, is to be condemned in unstinted 
terms, the lesson which its prevalence prevails is that the laws on 
our statute books must be more rigorously, more certainly, more 
severely executed." 55 

We find such statements in the early years. They condemn the 
method, but hope for some good as a result. 

How different is the comment of the Olathe Mirror in 1916. 
"Johnson county and Olathe feels its shame. It will take decades 
and decades maybe never to erase the blot put upon us by the 
exhibition of mob violence . . . Johnson county sorrows to-day and 
will for years to come over the shadow cast on her fair name." 56 

In 1920 the Mulberry News is not quite so penitent. "The 
majority of the people of Mulberry do not approve of what hap- 
pened here Monday. . . . Yes, it is regrettable . . . but surely it 
was justifiable." 57 

In 1932 we have this attitude: "While the offense committed was 
a most dastardly crime, mob lynching cannot be countenanced, and 
every effort will be made to discover and prosecute the members 
of the mob. For a mob to take the punishment out of the hands 

51. Elwood Advertiser, August 5, 1857. 

52. Wyandotte Gazette, December 23, 1865. 

53. Seneca Mirror, April 6, 1877. 

54. Lawrence Western Home Journal, June 15, 1882. 

55. Wellingtonian, Wellington, September 18, 1884. 

56. Olathe Mirror, September 28, 1916. 

57. Mulberry News, April 23, 1920. 



YOST: LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS 203 

of the constituted authorities results in a breakdown of govern- 
ment, and it cannot and will not be permitted to go unpunished in 
Kansas." 58 

In these statements is shown the changing attitude of the people. 
The social conditions which produced lynchings produced also a 
tolerance for them, and both vanished together. The extension of 
civil authority into the territory provided punishment of criminals, 
and its enforcement gave the people confidence to rely upon it. We 
like to think, also, that an advancing civilization yielded some in- 
fluence against the practice. To a state which does not sanction 
capital punishment, death penalty by an extrajudicial method 
should be especially abhorrent. That which should not be done 
by legal action of a jury is worse when due to the frenzy of a mob. 

Often there was at least a coroner's verdict, if not a jury's ver- 
dict, though some, we may believe, had not the formality of either. 
Usually the coroner reported that the victim "came to his death at 
the hands of unknown parties." One even went so far as to say, 
with what could hardly have been unconscious humor, "came to 
his death by strangulation, through his own exertions and assistance 
of parties unknown." 59 The coroner gave a verdict of suicide for 
the death of Newton Walters, in Columbus, in 1895, but he was 
thought to have been lynched for murder. 60 In 1866, in Nemaha 
county, one horse thief was shot while attempting to escape, and 
another was caught and hanged. The newspapers reported "both 
lost their lives by accident." 61 Quite often there was no action 
against the crowd. The community, if not actually approving of 
individuals who took retribution into their own hands, at least de- 
clined to interfere. 

When there was disapproval against the action, punishment of 
the mob usually went no farther than the verdict of the coroner 
or the jury. Rarely was there conviction or punishment of persons 
who participated in lynchings, owing largely to the sympathy of 
the jurors for their action. The vigilance committees, who con- 
cealed neither their actions nor their membership, acted with the 
backing of public opinion if not legal sanction. The members of 
a mob were seldom known or admitted, and no one wanted to know. 
Quite often the majority of the people of a community participated. 

58. Atwood Citizen-Patriot, April 29, 1932. 

59. Ellsworth Reporter, January 5, 1882. 

60. Topeka Capital, April 4, 1895. 

61. Atchison Free Press, March 24, 1866. 



204 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

In the lynching of Bob Scrugg for murder, at Oak Mills in 1877, 
the "justice of the peace was one of the posse." 62 At the lynching 
of a gang of five who attempted robbery, murder and rape in Ladore, 
1870, it was said that "three hundred of the best citizens par- 
ticipated." 63 

It is not surprising that citizens seemed to find immediate lynch- 
ing more effective than court trial. Of four of the Netawaka gang 
of horse thieves operating in Nemaha county in 1877, the Seneca 
Courier says: "Manley was hung; Rourke plead guilty; Brown ran 
away, and Harl stood trial and is cleared." 64 Harl was tried in 
Atchison and acquitted. "The verdict seemed to give universal 
satisfaction and it is the general opinion that certainly the citizens 
of Nemaha county can have no reasons to find any fault with the 
verdict of the jury or the decision of the court." 65 But the citizens 
of Nemaha county did seem to find fault with the verdict. On 
March 29, the same paper remarked: "Since Harl was cleared 
we are ready to believe anything in the O'Brien horse-stealing 
case." 66 And on May 17: ". . . the horse-stealing case went 
wrong-end to." 67 

"Within the last eight years there have been something like 
twenty murders committed in this county, and in no case has the 
guilty party been punished by due process of law." 68 This editorial 
concerning Wyandotte county in 1866 does not indicate confidence 
in punishment by court procedure. 

Lack of respect for the courts and the juries is not even thinly 
disguised by the Junction City Union in 1868, in reporting the in- 
vestigation of the lynching of Thomas Reynolds, which was re- 
ported at first in only a six-inch space. There was some indica- 
tion of foul play in his lynching, and the coroner's jury dragged 
through several months. 

"One man arrested for lynching Reynolds dismissed without provocation." 69 
"Coroner's jury met last Monday to inquire into the death of Reynolds who, 
it appears, died some time in the history of Davis county. We understand 
it adjourned to meet again. We would suggest to the commissioners that 
they employ this outfit by the year." 70 "The inquisition met last Thursday. 

62. Atchison Daily Globe, August 21, 1917. 

63. Andreas, History of Kansas (1883), p. 826. 

64. Seneca Courier, May 17, 1878. 

65. Atchison Patriot, quoted in Seneca Courier, March 15, 1878. 

66. Seneca Courier, March 29, 1878. 

67. Ibid., May 17, 1878. 

68. Wyandotte Commercial Gazette, April 21, 1866. 

69. Junction City Union, September 19, 1868. 
70. Ibid.., October 3, 1868. 



YOST: LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS 205 

We could not find out what they done [sic] but learn they made no verdict. 
We would suggest that these owls (we allude to their wisdom) be employed 
to find out what became of our Democrat party . . ." 71 "The long agony 
is over. The mountain labored and brought forth a small sized rat. We 
publish below the verdict of the coroner's jury in case of Thomas Reynolds, 
deceased. The coroner's bill of costs came before the county commissioners 
on Thursday. It charges for seventeen days of actual service. A stupendous 
bundle of manuscript accompanied the verdict. This was the testimony and 
as it was taken in secret a great curiosity was evinced to see it. Portions of 
it are rich and entirely street gossip in its character. The question which 
bothered the commissioners was whether the bills should be paid, or how 
much of them. The final decision of the jury was that he was found suspended 
to the limb of a tree by part of his bridle rein, by some person or persons 
unknown to the jury." 72 

One would not believe that the Junction City Union had much 
respect for the coroner's jury. 

Growing public sentiment against lynching was evidenced by acts 
of the legislature of 1903. Before this time there had been no legis- 
lation concerning lynching. Prompted, perhaps, by the lynching in 
Leavenworth in 1901 and by one in Pittsburg in 1902, the legislature 
of 1903 passed the following laws, as measures to prevent further 
occurrences: 

"MoB AND LYNCHING DEFINED: AIDING OR ABETTING LYNCHING. That any 
collection of individuals assembled for an unlawful purpose, intending to injure 
any person by violence, and without authority of law, shall for the purpose of 
this act be regarded as a mob, and any act of violence exercised by such mob 
upon the body of any person shall constitute the crime of lynching, when such 
act or acts of violence result in death; and any person who participates in or 
aids or abets such lynching, upon conviction thereof shall be imprisoned in the 
state prison for not more than five years or during life, in the discretion of 
the jury. 

"ACCESSORIES AFTER THE FACT IN LYNCHING. Every person who shall, after 
the commission of the crime of lynching, harbor, conceal or assist any member 
of such mob who participates in or who aids or abets such crime, with the 
intent that he shall escape detention, arrest, capture, or punishment, shall be 
deemed to be and shall be an accessory after the fact, and may be charged, 
tried and convicted and punished though such member be neither charged, 
tried nor convicted, and upon conviction thereof shall be imprisoned in the 
state prison not more than twenty-one years nor less than two years. 

"PROSECUTION OF LYNCHING OFFENDERS. Any person accused of the crime 
of lynching or as an accessory after the fact may be prosecuted in the courts 
of this state by information filed and signed by the prosecuting attorney or 
attorney-general, based upon the affidavit of some competent and reputable 
person. 

71. Ibid., November 7, 1868. 

72. Ibid., January 9, 1869. 



206 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

"JURISDICTION OF COURTS IN LYNCHING CASES. In case any persons shall 
come together in any county in this state for the purpose of proceeding to 
another county of the state with the view of lynching any person, or in any 
case any person or persons shall purchase or procure any rope, weapon, or 
other instrument in one county for the purpose of being used in lynching any 
person in another county, such crime of lynching, if committed, shall be and 
constitute a continuous offense from the time of its original inception as afore- 
said ; and the courts of any county in which such overt act has been committed 
shall have jurisdiction over the person of any member of the mob committing 
such overt act, and such person may be prosecuted in such county and pun- 
ished for murder the same as if the lynching had occurred therein. 

"LIABILITY OF SHERIFF WHEN PRISONER TAKEN AND LYNCHED. If any person 
shall be taken from the hands of a sheriff or his deputy having such person in 
custody and shall be lynched, it shall be evidence of failure on the part of such 
sheriff to do his duty, and his office shall thereby and thereat immediately be 
vacated, and the coroner shall immediately succeed to and perform the duties 
of sheriff until the successor of such sheriff shall have been duly appointed, 
pursuant to existing law providing for the filling of vacancies in such office, 
and such sheriff shall not thereafter be eligible to either election or reappoint- 
ment to the office of sheriff: Provided, however, That such former sheriff may, 
within ten days after such lynching occurs, file with the governor his petition 
for reinstatement to the office of sheriff, and shall give ten days' notice of the 
filing of such petition to the prosecuting attorney of the county in which such 
lynching occurred and also to the attorney-general. If the governor, upon 
hearing the evidence and argument, if any, presented, shall find that such 
sheriff used reasonable effort to protect the life of such prisoner and performed 
the duties required of him by existing laws respecting the protection of pris- 
oners, then such governor shall reinstate such sheriff in his office and shall issue 
to him a certificate of reinstatement, the same to be effective on the day of 
such order of reinstatement, and the decision of such governor shall be final." 73 

Other sections of this article provide for assistance of the sheriff 
by bystanders; the removal of the prisoner to state prison or re- 
formatory; and the aid of the militia. 

Since the legislature seemed to realize that the sheriff and his 
deputies usually were powerless before a mob, it made the second 
clause of section 1007 a loophole providing for his reinstatement 
by the governor, if justified after an examination, and in the lynch- 
ings which have occurred since then the sheriff has been returned 
to office immediately. In a case in 1916 "friends got busy in his be- 
half and after four days had elapsed he was reinstated." 74 In 
1932 he "filed his petition and after a secret court behind closed 
doors the governor reinstated him." 75 

Several states have enacted laws designed to suppress lynchings. 

73. Revised Statutes, Kansas, 1923, ch. 21, art. 10, sees. 1003-1007. 

74. Olathe Mirror, September 28, 1916. 

75. Atwood Citizen-Patriot, April 21, 1932. 



YOST: LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS 207 

In Kentucky "the penalty for lynching shall be confinement or life 
imprisonment. The penalty for attempted lynching shall be con- 
finement in the penitentiary for not less than two years nor more 
than twenty-one years." It also provides for the removal of a 
culpable officer, as do Indiana and Florida. North Carolina permits 
the judge of the court issuing the indictment to transfer trial of the 
case to another court without preliminary appearance of the de- 
fendant before him, which allows the accused to be taken into an- 
other court for safe-keeping and to be tried there without danger of 
being mobbed. Minnesota and Ohio have drastic penalties for 
lynchers and to prevent lynchings. West Virginia and South Caro- 
lina give representatives of the person put to death the right to sue 
in the courts for damages against the county in which the lynching 
took place, the maximum amount in West Virginia being $5,000. 

As administration of the criminal law is in the hands of the 
several states the federal government cannot deal with the partici- 
pators of a lynching unless it occurs on government reservations. 
Efforts to secure enactment of federal legislation upon the subject 
resulted in the passage by the house of representatives on January 
26, 1922, by a vote of 230 to 119, a bill that was known as the Dyer 
antilynching bill, introduced by the republican representative, 
Leonidas Carstarphen Dyer, from Missouri. This provided that 
culpable state officers and members of lynching mobs should be tried 
in federal courts upon the failure of state courts to act, with sen- 
tences of fines or imprisonment; it forbade and penalized any inter- 
ference with an officer protecting a prisoner from lynching ; it penal- 
ized an official who failed to do his duty in preventing a lynching; 
and it penalized a county or counties which failed to use all rea- 
sonable effort to protect citizens against mob violence, to the ex- 
tent of $10,000 recoverable in a federal court. There was much dis- 
sension over the constitutionality of the bill, on the point of usurpa- 
tion of state rights by the federal government, but the supreme 
court was never called upon to decide. A debate before the com- 
mittee on the judiciary, house of representatives, gave both argu- 
ments : 

"There can be no question that the denial to persons of a class of the 
equal protection of the laws by officers of or under the state, charged with 
their equal enforcement, is the act of the state, and that the failure of the 
state through its officers to give the equal protection of its laws to a class 
must justify the intervention of the United States under the fourteenth amend- 
ment to carry out its guaranty of equal protection. . . . We hold it to be 
incontrovertible principle that the government of the United States may by 



208 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

means of physical force, exercised through its official agents, execute on every 
foot of American- soil the powers and functions that belong to it." 

The minority report set forth the unconstitutionality of the law: 

"This proposed intervention of the federal government directed against 
local power, supplanting and superseding the sovereignty of the states, would 
tend to destroy that sense of local responsibility for the protection of person 
and property and the administration of justice, from which sense of local 
responsibility alone protection and governmental efficiency can be secured 
among free peoples. ... As a precedent, this bill, establishing the principles 
which it embodies and the congressional powers which it assumes to obtain, 
would strip the states of every element of sovereign power, control, and final 
responsibility for the personal and property protection of its citizens, and 
would all but complete the reduction of the states to a condition of govern- 
mental vassalage awaiting only the full exercise of the congressional powers 
established."* 

Thus the growing attitude against lynching in Kansas was part 
of the trend over the whole country. While the newspapers re- 
vealed it in their editorial opinions, they also reflected it in their 
treatment and presentation in the news columns. In the territorial 
days and even in 1870 a lynching might be told in four or five inches 
on the back page of the paper. When Johnson and Craig were 
lynched in Ellsworth in 1867, the nearest newspaper, the Junction 
City Union, in Davis (Geary) county, told the story in five lines. 77 
The same paper in 1868 gave six inches without headlines, on an in- 
side page, to the lynching of Thomas Reynolds in its own county. 78 
In April, 1869, the Leavenworth Times and Conservative, a four- 
page daily, related the lynching of George Thompson, in its own 
city, in twelve inches on the back page. In 1874 the Wellington 
Press, a weekly, told the story of the lynching of four men in 
six inches, though devoting two columns to the chase and arrest of 
the same and another gang of horse thieves. 79 By 1916 a lynching 
had reached the front page, with the Olathe Mirror giving two col- 
umns to a news article and editorial. 80 Two and a half columns on 
the front page were given to a lynching by the Mulberry News on 
April 23, 1920. By 1932 the event was blazoned in a full-page head- 
line used by the Atwood Citizen-Patriot to start a front-page 
double-column story which was continued in one and a half columns 
on the fourth page. From five lines in the local news in 1867 the 

76. M. N. Work, Law vs. The Mob, 1925, pp. 4, 5. 

77. Junction City Union, October 5, 1867. 

78. Ibid., August 29, 1868. 

79. Wellington Press, July 30, 1874. 

80. Olathe Mirror, September 28, 1916. 



YOST: LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS 209 

newspaper space-value of a lynching has grown to a full front-page 
headline and double column in 1932. 

Why were lynchings in the early days dismissed with a sentence 
or two? We find this especially true in the papers of the 1860's 
when men were hanged for horse stealing. Hanging a horse thief 
seemed to be a rather matter-of-fact incident, a punishment which 
a man should expect if he were caught in that vocation. They were 
often desperadoes with other crimes on their records, and the coun- 
try as a whole desired to be rid of them, even by drastic measures. 
Often, too, they were men who had come to the West alone and did 
not leave families to create sympathy. When horse stealing dis- 
appeared in the Ws, with it went an attitude toward lynching 
which had approached nonchalance. In the following decades when 
a greater percentage of lynchings were for murder, the murder plus 
the hanging aroused stronger sentiment. The growing civilization 
which made lynchings less common at the same time gave them 
more news value. 

It is also in great part due to the changing styles of journalism 
that a lynching now is given in many more words and details. The 
early newspapers contained very little local news, most of the space 
being filled with advertisements, "telegraphic" national news, and 
clipped matter. An issue of the Leavenworth Daily Conservative 
for June 10, 1862, contained sixteen columns of advertisements, 
four and one-half on the front page; six and one-half columns of 
national and telegraphic news; and one and a half columns of local 
news a percentage of six and one-fourth for local news. While 
the early papers might have Associated Press facilities, organized 
in 1865, to give them national news, communication among their 
neighboring counties was slower and less certain, and the "local 
items" and "personal news" which fill our town weeklies and even 
city dailies were not the fashion in newspaper circles. They filled 
the front page with plate or advertisements and put local news on 
the inside or back page. Practically nothing rated headlines, be- 
cause headlines were not used. The papers of the middle and late 
1800's were dignified in appearance. The papers of to-day reflect 
the era which produces them. These "ballyhoo years," as Frederick 
L. Allen calls them in his Only Yesterday, have produced the 
publicity agents with their knack of associating their cause or 
product with whatever happens to be in the public mind at the time, 
and of concentrating upon one tune at a time. 

147572 



210 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

"They discovered the successful tabloids were daily teaching them that 
the public tended to become excited about one thing at a time. Newspaper 
owners and editors found that where a Dayton trial or a Vestris disaster took 
place they sold more papers if they gave it all they had their star reporters, 
their front-page display, and the bulk of their space. They took full advan- 
tage of this discovery. . . Syndicate managers and writers, advertisers, 
press agents, radio broadcasters, all were aware that mention of the leading 
event of the day, whatever it might be, was the key to public interest. The 
result was that when something happened which promised to appeal to the 
popular mind, one had it hurled at one in huge headlines, waded through 
page after page of syndicated discussion . . . was reminded of it again 
and again in the outpouring of publicity-seeking orators and preachers, saw 
pictures of it in the Sunday papers and in the movies, and (unless one was 
a perverse individualist) enjoyed the sensation of vibrating to the same chord 
which thrilled a vast populace." 81 

While Allen was writing of the large dailies, the small-town 
weeklies have been influenced in proportion by this trend toward 
sensationalism, and have tended to play up an important event in 
headlines and details. The decline of lynchings and a growing intol- 
erance for them, together with a different journalistic style, are 
responsible for the changed attitude and presentation by the news- 
papers. 

Figures on lynchings in the United States for the years 1882-1927 
show that Kansas ranked 18th of all states, with fifty-five to her 
discredit. 82 Chronological tables in the appendix say fifty-one 
occurred before 1904, four from 1904 to 1908, one from 1909 to 1913, 
one from 1914 to 1918 and two from 1919 to 1923. 83 The Southern 
Commission on the Study of Lynching in their pamphlet, Lynch- 
ings and What They Mean (1931), indicate on a map that eight 
lynchings occurred in Kansas from 1900 to 1931 two in Bourbon 
county, two in Crawford county, one each in Johnson, Leavenworth, 
Shawnee and Stafford counties. That they have not given names 
and dates in each case makes it more difficult to check. 

Some of those given by other associations have been omitted 
from this list as incorrect, since no accounts of them were found in 
contemporary local newspapers. As an example, the Tuskegee 
Institute lists a Doctor Herman, negro, lynched in Topeka on 
May 13, 1901, for "race prejudice." The Topeka Capital for that 
week indicates that Doctor Herman left town but was not lynched. 
They also list an unnamed white man lynched in Stafford, Stafford 
county, on May 8, 1919, which the local newspapers fail to record. 

81. F. L. Allen, Only Yesterday (1931), pp. 189, 190. 

82. White, Rope and Faggot (1929), p. 239. 

83. Ibid., p. 255. 



YOST: LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS 211 

Three, giving information of date and name, but with place un- 
known, have been omitted. So these figures will differ from those 
compiled for the state by other associations, perhaps being fewer, 
but with the hope of being accurate and authentic. 

Several associations, mainly in the South, are making active 
campaigns against lynching, stressing additional legislation for the 
protection of prisoners, more certain punishment of criminals, 
methods of preventing and dispersing mobs, efforts to secure court 
trials and convictions of participants in mobs, and the growth of 
public opinion against lynchings through churches, educational in- 
stitutions and the press. 

There has been a notable decrease, with occasional exceptions, 
in the number of persons lynched since the turn of the century. 
While the number is declining in the United States as a whole, it 
is doing so more rapidly in some states, including Kansas, than in 
others. Northern and Western states have almost completely aban- 
doned lynching since the passing of frontier conditions. Only the 
Southern states more or less regularly resort to the practice. Per- 
haps if data for later years only were considered, Kansas would 
rank better than eighteenth among the states. 

LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS, 1850-1932. 

(Giving date, name, place and alleged crime.) 
1850-1859 

1. In 1850's Six horse thieves. Rising Sun, Douglas county. 

Horse stealing. 

2. Dec., 1856 Partridge ; unknown man. On Pottawatomie 

creek, southeastern Kansas. Robbery. 

3. Aug. 1, 1857 Baize; Squarles. Leavenworth, Leavenworth 

county. Murder. 

4. 1858 Shaw; Johnson. Island in Marais des Cygnes 

river (Franklin county). Horse stealing. 

5. Spring, 1858 Theodore Royer. Shannon, Anderson county. 

Horse stealing. 

6. Apr., 1858 Clay well. Burlington, Coffee county. Horse 

stealing. 

7. Aug. 5, 1859 John Squires. Leavenworth, Leavenworth county. 

Horse stealing. 

8. Aug. 12, 1859 Wilson. Atchison, Atchison county. Horse steal- 

ing. 

Moore, Ely, Jr., "Story of Lecompton" in Kansas Historical Collections, v. 11, p. 478. 

Leavenworth Herald, December 6, 1856. 

Elwood Weekly Advertiser, August 6, 1857. 

Andreas, History of Kansas (1883), p. 605. 

Johnson, W. A., History of Anderson County (1877), pp. 114, 115. 

Burlington Republican, December 14, 1908. 

Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, August 6, 1859. 

Ibid., August 13, 1859. 



212 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

1860-1869 

Sa. Nov., 1859 William Hugh. Emporia, Lyon county. Cause 

unknown. 

86. Nov., 1859 Price. Hulls Grove, Jefferson county. Cattle steal- 
ing. 

8c. Dec. 27, 1859 A. F. Bishop. 110, Osage county. Horse stealing. 

1860 

9. Feb. 5, 1860 John R. Guthrie. Mapleton, Bourbon county 

Horse stealing. 

9a. June 9, 1860 John Johnson. Black Jack, Douglas county. 

Horse stealing. 

10. July 10, 1860 Hugh Carlin. Bourbon county. Horse stealing. 

10a. July 28, 1860 Joseph Gilliford. Council Grove, Morris county. 

Horse stealing. 
1861 

11. Mar. 27, 1861 Isaac Edwards. Topeka, Shawnee county. Mur- 

der of an Indian. 



12. May, 1862 Mexican. Lyon county. Horse stealing. 

13. June 9, 1862 Two soldiers: 2d Ohio cavalry and 10th Kansas. 

Marmaton, Bourbon county. Rape. 

14. Oct. 1, 1862 Jack Dixon; Stephen Branch. Manhattan, Riley 

county. Horse stealing. 

15. Dec. 15, 1862 C. Mincer edicts Charles Spencer; unknown horse 

thief. Wabaunsee county. Horse stealing. 
186$ 

16. May 18-23, 1863 Alexander Brewer; William Sterling; Porter Ster- 

ling; Daniel Mooney; Henry (Pony) Mc- 
Cartney; Edward Gilbert. Atchison, Atchi- 
son county. Robbery and torture. 

17. June 3, 1863 James Melvin; William Cannon. Highland, Don- 

iphan county. Horse stealing. 

18. July 26, 1863 Scranton. Manhattan, Riley county. Horse steal- 

ing. 

19. Aug. 22, 1863 Thomas Corlew. Lawrence, Douglas county. 

Border warfare. 

8c. Topeka State Record, Nov. 5, 1859. 
86. Ibid., Nov. 12, 1859. 
8c. Ibid., Jan. 7, 1860. 

9. A. H. T. [Tanner], letter to parents, February 12, 1860, from Mapleton, K T. 
(Manuscript in Kansas State Historical Society vault.) 

9a. Topeka State Record, June 9, 1860. 

10. Andreas, History of Kansas (1883), p. 1070. 
10a. Topeka State Record, July 28, 1860. 

11. Kansas State Journal, Lawrence, March 28, 1861. 

12. Ibid., July 10, 1862. 

13. Leavenworth Conservative, June 12, 1862 ; Junction City Union, June 1, 1862. 

14. Manhattan Express, October 4, 1862. 

16. Kansas State Journal, Lawrence, December 25, 1862. 

16. Atchison Daily Champion, May 23, 1863. 

17. Kansas Chief, White Cloud, June 4, 1863. 

18. Topeka State Record, August 5, 1863. 

19. James C. Horton, letter written May 22, 1905, in Kansas City, Mo., to G. W. 
Martin. (MS. in Kansas State Historical Society.) 



YOST: LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS 213 

1864 

20. 1864 Warren, negro. Garnett, Anderson county. Mur- 

der. 

21. Feb., 1864 Stevens; Stevens' son. Stanton, Miami county. 

Horse stealing. 

22. Feb., 1864 Stevens' son. Ohio City, Franklin county. Horse 

stealing. 

23. Feb., 1864 Five horse thieves. Jefferson county. Horse 

stealing. 

24. May, 1864 E. H. Wetherell. Riley county. Cattle stealing. 

25. June 16, 1864 James Stevenson; Charles Wilson. Stanton, Mi- 

ami county. Horse stealing. 

26. June, 1864 Two horse thieves. Franklin county. Horse steal- 

ing. 

27. Aug. 14, 1864 George D. Bennett. Wathena, Doniphan county. 

Horse stealing. 

28. Oct. 8, 1864 Goisney. Marysville, Marshall county. Murder. 

1865 

29. Feb. 27, 1865 Miles N. Carter. Seneca, Nemaha county. Mur- 

der, 

30. April, 1865 William Bledsoe; Jacob Bledsoe. Greenwood 

county. Horse stealing. 

31. Dec., 1865 Walker. Oketo, Marshall county. Robbery. 

32. Dec. 18, 1865 John Tehan Bartholomew. Wyandotte, Wyan- 

dotte county. Murder. 

33. Dec. 26, 1865 Carl Eden. Holton, Jackson county. Border 

warfare. 
1866 

34. 1865-1866 Two negroes. Wyandotte, Wyandotte county. 

Unknown. 

35. Jan. 16, 1866 Thomas McElroy. Marysville, Marshall county. 

Murder. 

36. Mar., 1866 Two horse thieves. Nemaha county. Horse 

stealing. 

37. Mar., 1866 Howard; Howard. Spring river (county un- 

known). Horse stealing. 

20. Johnson, History of Anderson County (1877), p. 120. 

21. Andreas, History of Kansas (1883), p. 606. 

22. Ibid. 

23. Ibid. 

24. Junction City Union, May 14, 1864; Manhattan Independent, May 23, 1864. 

25. Lawrence Tribune, June 17, 1864. 

26. Ibid., June 18, 1864. 

27. "Illustrated Doniphan County," supplement to Weekly Kansas Chief, Troy, April 6, 
1916, p. 233. 

28. Andreas, History of Kansas (1883), p. 918; Forter, History of Marshall County 
(1917), p. 435. 

29. Andreas, History of Kansas (1883), p. 945. 

30. Ibid., p. 1119. 

31. Atchison Daily Free Press, January 8, 1866. 
82. Wyandotte Gazette, December 23, 1865. 

33. Atchison Free Press, February 3, 1866. 

34. Andreas, History of Kansas (1883), p. 1232; Wyandotte Gazette, April 21, 1866. 

35. Atchison Free Press, January 22, 1866. 
86. Ibid, March 24, 1866. 

37. Wyandotte Gazette, March 24, 1866. 



214 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

1866 

38. Mar. 7, 1866 Strong; horse thief. Ft. Scott, Bourbon county. 

Horse stealing. 

39. Apr., 1866 Two horse thieves. Humboldt, Allen county. 

Horse stealing. 

40. Apr. 13, 1866 Newt Morrison. Wyandotte, Wyandotte county. 

Murder. 

41. Apr. 29, 1866 Joe Tippie; Sam Tippie. Monmouth, Crawford 

county. Murder. 

42. May, 1866 Gulp. On Verdigris river, Wilson county. Horse 

stealing. 

43. May 1, 1866 Charles Quinn. Leaven worth, Leavenworth coun- 

ty. Murder. 

44. May 13, 1866 Peter Baysinger. Monticello, Johnson county. 

Horse stealing. 

45. May 26, 1866 Horse thief. Tomahawk creek, Johnson county. 

Horse stealing. 

46. June, 1866 John House; H. Long; Billy Jones. Pleasant 

Grove, Greenwood county. Horse stealing. 

47. Summer, 1866 Elias Foster. Mound City, Linn county. Murder. 

1867 

48. Feb., 1867 Wm. P. Myers; James Myers; George Myers; 

Edwards; Gillett. Baxter Springs, Cherokee 
county. Horse stealing. 

49. Feb. 3, 1867 Jack McDowell. Morris county. Horse stealing. 

50. Mar. 21, 1867 Eli Mackey, negro; Jackson Mackey, negro; 

Harry Van, negro. Ft. Scott, Bourbon county. 
Murder and robbery. 

51. May 29, 1867 John Moran, negro; Daniel Moran, negro; John 

McGorman, negro. Bartlett's mill, Geary 
county. Rape. 

52. June 13, 1867 Daniel Webster, negro; Tom Van Buren, negro. 

Wyandotte, Wyandotte county. Murder. 

53. June 13, 1867 Negro. Shawneetown, Johnson county. Rape. 

54. Oct. 3, 1867 Charlie Johnson; Charlie Craig. Ellsworth, Ells- 

worth county. Horse stealing. 

38. Atchison Free Press, March 10, 1866. 

39. Atchison Weekly Free Press, May 12, 1866. 

40. Wyandotte Gazette, April 21, 1866. 

41. Andreas, History of Kansas (1883), p. 1119. 

42. Atchison Weekly Free Press, May 19, 1866. 

43. Leavenworth Conservative, May 2, 1866. 

44. Olathe Mirror, May 17, 1866. 

45. Ibid., May 31, 1866; Heisler & Smith, Johnson County Atlas (1874), p. 34. 

46. Leavenworth Conservative, June 8, 1866. 

47. Mitchell, History of Linn County (1928), p. 327. 

48. Junction City Union, February 16, 1867. 

49. Leavenworth Conservative, February 7, 1867. 

50. Wyandotte Gazette, March 30, 1867. 

51. Junction City Union, June 1, 1867. 

52. Wyandotte Gazette, June 22, 1867. 

53. Ibid., June 22, 1867 ; Olathe Mirror, June 20, 1867. 

54. Junction City Union, October 5, 1867. 



YOST: LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS 215 

1868 

55. "Latter part of 1868".. Indian half-breed. Chetopa, Labette county. 

Murder. 

66. Aug. 22, 1868 Thomas Reynolds. Geary county. Horse steal- 

ing. 

67. Dec. 14, 1868.." Negro. Ellsworth, Ellsworth county. Rape. 

1869 

58. 1869 Three negroes, 38th infantry. Ft. Hays, Ellis 

county. Murder. 

59. Apr. 29, 1869 George Thompson. Leavenworth, Leavenworth 

county. Murder. 

60. May 5, 1869 Enoch Reynolds. Sheridan, Sheridan county. 

Murder. 

61. May 12, 1869 Fitzpatrick. Ellsworth, Ellsworth county. Mur- 

der. 

62. June, 1869 Tesse; Clark Odell. Shawnee, Johnson county. 

Horse stealing. 

63. June 7, 1869 C. H. Houston. Wyandotte county. Horse steal- 

ing. 

64. June 26, 1869 William Beagle. Shawnee, Johnson county. Horse 

stealing. 
1870 

65. 1870 John Pierce. Jacksonville, Neosho county. Mur- 

der. 

65a. Jan. 4, 1870 George Johnson, negro. Atchison, Atchison 

county. Murder. 

66. May 11, 1870 William Ryan; Patrick Starr; Patsey Riley; 

Richard Pitkin; Alexander Matthews. Ladore, 
Neosho county. Murder and rape. 

67. May 19, 1870 Two horse thieves. Sedgwick county. Horse 

stealing. 

68. June 27^ 1870 E. G. Dalson. lola, Allen county. Murder. 

69. Aug. 6, 1870 John Sanderson. Junction City, Geary county. 

Horse stealing. 

70. Nov. 9, 1870 George Booth; James Smith; Jack Corbin; Lewis 

Booth. Douglas, Butler county. Horse steal- 
ing. 

55. Case, History of Labette County (1901), p. 68. 

56. Junction City Union, August 29, 1868. 

57. Ibid., December 19, 1868. 

58. Andreas, History of Kansas (1883), p. 1292. 

59. Leavenworth Times and Conservative, April 30, 1869. 

60. Junction City Union, May 8, 1869. 

61. Ibid., May 15, 1869. 

62. Heisler & Smith, Johnson County Atlas (1874), p. 34. 

63. Wyandotte Gazette, June 12, 1869. 

64. Wyandotte Gazette, July 3, 1869. 

65. Case, History of Labette County (1901), p. 68. 
65a. Atchison Champion and Press, January 8, 1870. 

66. Andreas, History of Kansas (1883), p. 826. 

67. Junction City Union, May 21, 1870. 

68. Andreas, History of Kansas (1883), p. 670. 

69. Junction City Union, August 13, 1870. 

70. Andreas, History of Kansas (1883), p. 1431; Wabaunsee County Herald, Alma, 
December 8, 1870. 



216 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 



71. Dec. 1, 1870 .......... Mike Dray; Dr. Morris; Dr. Morris' son; Wil- 

liam Quimby. Douglass, Butler county. Horse 
stealing. 
1871 

72. 1871 ................. Jake Hanes; Guy Whitmore. Salem, Jewell 

county. Horse stealing. 
1872 

73. Apr. 11, 1872 .......... McCarty. Sumner county. Murder. 

74. Aug. 15, 1872 .......... B. W. Harwood. Labette county. Murder. 

1873 

75. May-June, 1873 ...... Cross. Norton county. Horse stealing. 

75a. Aug. 23, 1873 .......... Three negroes. Elgin, Chautauqua county. Horse 

stealing. 

76. Sept. 1873 ............ John Keller. LaCygne, Linn county. Murder. 

76a. Nov., 1873 ........... Unknown. Fort Scott, Bourbon county. Horse 

stealing. 
1874 

77. July 28, 1874 .......... Tom Smith. Wellington, Sumner county. Horse 

stealing. 

78. July 29, 1874 .......... Bill Brooks; Chas. (L. B.) Hasbrook; Charlie 

Smith. Wellington, Sumner county. Horse 
stealing. 

79. Aug. 19, 1874 .......... L. L. Oliver. Caldwell, Sumner county. Murder. 

1876 

80. June 5, 1876 .......... Number unknown. Rossville, Shawnee county. 

Horse stealing. 
1877 

81. Mar. 31, 1877 ......... Charley Manley. Granada, Nemaha county. 

Horse stealing. 

82. Aug. 20, 1877 .......... Bob Scruggs. Oak Mills, Atchison county. Mur- 

der. 

83. Nov., 1877 ........... Horse thief. On Osage creek, Bourbon county. 

Horse stealing. 
1882 

84. Jan. 2, 1882 ........... W. E. Graham. Ellsworth, Ellsworth county. 

Murder. 

71. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 1431. 

72. Ibid., p. 967. 

73. Ibid., p. 1495. 

74. Case, History of Labette County (1901), p. 69. 

75. Andreas, History of Kansas (1883), p. 1063. 
75o. Junction City Union, August 30, 1873. 

76. Border Sentinel, Mound City, September 19, 1873. 
76a. Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, November 16, 1873. 

77. Wellington Press, July 30, 1874. 

78. Ibid. 

79. Ibid., September 3, 1874. 

80. Topeka Commonwealth, June 14, 1876. 

81. Seneca Mirror, April 6, 1877. 

82. Atchison Daily Champion, August 21, 1877. 

83. Fort Scott Weekly Monitor, November 8, 1877. 

84. Ellsworth Reporter, January 6, 1882. 



YOST: LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS 217 

1882 

85. Apr. 13, 1882 Thomas Wooton. Wakeeney, Trego county. 

Murder. 

86. June 14, 1882 Isaac Kind, negro; Pete Vinegar, negro; Geo. 

Robertson, negro. Lawrence-, Douglas county. 
Murder. 
1883 

87. Feb. 1, 1883 Charles Cobb. Winfield, Cowley county. Mur- 

der. 

88. Feb. 9, 1883 Henry Smith, negro. Paola, Miami county. 

Rape. 
1884 

89. Mar. 21, 1884 Samuel Frayer. Marysville, Marshall county. 

Murder. 

90. May 1, 1884 Henry Brown; Billie Smith; John Wesley; Ben 

Wheeler. Medicine Lodge, Barber county. 
Robbery. 

91. Sept. 14, 1884 Frank Jones. Wellington, Sumner county. Mur- 

der. 
1885 

92. Mar. 19, 1885 Frank Bonham. Independence, Montgomery 

county. Murder. 

93. Apr. 30, 1885 George Mack. Great Bend, Barton county. Mur- 

der. 

94. July 6, 1885 John Lawrence, negro. Girard, Crawford county. 

Rape. 

95. Dec. 8, 1885 Frank Noyes. Caldwell, Sumner county. House 

burning. 
1886 

96. Apr. 23, 1886 Henry Weaver; Oliver Weaver; Philip Weaver. 

Anthony, Harper county. Murder. 

97. May 10, 1886 Francis Lyle. Prescott, Linn county. Murder. 

98. Nov. 9, 1886 Samuel Purple. Jetmore, Hodgman county. Mur- 

der. 
1887 

99. Jan. 30, 1887 Richard Wood, negro. Leaven worth, Leaven- 

worth county. Rape. 
1888 

100. June 27, 1888 John Rigsby, negro; Wiley Lee, negro. Chetopa, 

Labette county. Murder. 

85. Wakeeney World, April 15, 1882. 

86. Kansas Weekly Tribune, Lawrence, June 14, 1882. 

87. Cowley County Telegram, Winfield, February 8, 1883. 

88. Ibid., February 15, 1883. 

89. Marshall County News, MarysvUle, March 28, 1884. 

90. Medicine Lodge Cresset, May 1, 1884. 

91. Wellingtonian, Wellington, September 18, 1884. 

92. Independence Star and Kansan, March 20, 1885. 

93. Great Bend Register, May 7, 1885. 

94. Girard Press, July 9, 1885. 

95. Freeman, History of Southern Kansas (1892), p. 381. 

96. Harper Sentinel, April 24, 1886. 

97. Linn County Clarion, Mound City, May 14, 1886. 

98. Jetmore Reveille, November 10, 1886. 

99. Leavenworth Times f January 30, 1887. 

100. Chetopa Democrat , June 29, 1888. 



218 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

1888 

101. June 27, 1888 Wallace Mitchell. Syracuse, Hamilton county. 

Murder. 

102. June 28, 1888 Chubb McCarthy. Minneapolis, Ottawa county. 

Murder. 
1889 

103. June 4, 1889 Pat Cleary. Lincoln, Lincoln county. Murder. 

104. June 4, 1889 Nat Oliphant. Topeka, Shawnee county. Mur- 

der. 



105. Sept. 14, 1892 Hugh Henry, negro. Lamed, Pawnee county. 

Rape. 

106. Nov. 29, 1892 Commodore True, negro. Hiawatha, Brown coun- 

ty. Murder. 
1893 

107. Apr. 20, 1893 Dana Adams, negro. Salina, Saline county. Mur- 

der. 

108. Aug. 20, 1893 Silas Wilson, negro. Millwood, Leavenworth 

county. Rape. 
1894 

109. Jan. 14, 1894 J. Green Burton; John Gay; William Gay. Rus- 

sell, Russell county. Murder. 

110. Apr. 23, 1894 Jeff Tuggle, negro. Cherokee, Crawford county. 

Murder. 

111. May 8, 1894 Lewis McKindley; W. McKindley. Sharon 

Springs, Wallace county. Murder. 

112. May 12, 1894 George Rose. Cottonwood Falls, Chase county. 

Murder. 
1895 

113. Apr. 3, 1895 Newton Walters. Columbus, Cherokee county. 

Murder. 
1898 

114. June 13, 1898 John Becker. Great Bend, Barton county. Mur- 

der. 
1899 

115. Mar. 28, 1899 Henry Sanderson. Holton, Jackson county. Mur- 

der. 

116. Apr. 27, 1899 Charles Williams, negro. Galena, Cherokee 

county. Murder. 

117. Nov. 2, 1899 Wells, negro. Columbus, Cherokee county. Mur- 

der. 

101. Syracuse Democrat Principle, June 28, 1888. 

102. Chetopa Democrat, July 6, 1888. 

103. Kansas City Times, June 5, 1889. 

104. Ibid. 

105. Lamed Weekly Chronoscope, September 16, 1892. 

106. Ruley, History of Brown County, (n. d.), p. 234. 

107. Salina Herald, April 21, 1893. 

108. Leavenworth Times, August 22, 1893. 

109. Russell Record, April 21, 1932. 

110. Weir Journal, April 27, 1894. 

111. Peoples Voice, Wellington, May 11, 1894. 

112. Chase County Leader, Cottonwood Falls, May 17, 1894. 

113. Topeka Capital, April 4, 1895. 

114. Barton County Democrat, Great Bend, June 16, 1898. 

115. Holton Recorder, March 30, 1899. 

116. Columbus Advocate, April 27, 1894. 

117. Ibid., November 2, 1899. 



YOST: LYNCHINGS IN KANSAS 219 

1900 

118. Jan. 20, 1900 Ed Meeks; George Meeks. Ft. Scott, Bourbon 

county. Murder. 
1901 

119. Jan. 15, 1901 Fred Alexander, negro. Leavenworth, Leaven- 

worth county. Rape. 
1902 

120. Dec. 25, 1902 Mont Godley, negro. Pittsburg, Crawford coun- 

ty. Murder. 
1916 

121. Sept. 21, 1916 Bert Dudley. Olathe, Johnson county. Murder. 

1920 

122. Apr. 19, 1920 Albert Evans, negro. Mulberry, Crawford county. 

Rape. 
1932 
123* Apr. 19, 1932 Richard Read. Atwood, Rawlins county. Rape. 

118. Fort Scott Weekly Tribune, January 25, 1899. 

119. Topeka Capital, January 25, 1901. 

120. Pittsburg Headlight, December 26, 1902. 

121. Topeka Journal, September 21, 1916. 

122. Mulberry News, April 23, 1920. 

123. Topeka Capital, April 18, 1932. 

* These figures are footnote numbers and not total lynchings. See page 192 
for totals. 



Kansas History as Published 
in the State Press 

Fifty-years-ago items published regularly in the Osborne County 
Farmer, Osborne, under the heading "Ancient History in Osborne," 
are annotated by the editor and related with present-day facts. 

The "History of White Cloud/' by Mrs. M. E. Zimmerman, was 
published weekly in the White Cloud Globe-Tribune, commencing 
with its issue of January 30, 1931. The series ran, with a few omis- 
sions, until the middle of 1932. 

A brief historical sketch of Wabaunsee and a cut of the old stone 
church which was built in 1861 were published in the August, 1932, 
issue of the Wabaunsee County Truth, Wabaunsee. Succeeding is- 
sues printed biographical sketches of pioneers and located points of 
interest on a city map of 1872. 

Letters and interviews relating the experiences of old settlers of 
Cheyenne county have provided the Bird City Times with news 
items for a regular weekly feature under the heading, "Old Timer's 
Column." The series started with the issue of December 15, 1932. 

The story of three pioneers who settled in Crawford county in 
1868 was told by two descendants in the Pittsburg Headlight, De- 
cember 20, 1932. The men, John Waggoner, Stephen Alberty and 
E. B. Holden, journeyed overland from Holla, Mo., and took up 
their claims near the present town of Chicopee. 

Butler county in 1869 was described by W. F. McGinnis, Sr., a 
pioneer, in a two-column article in The Butler County News, El 
Dorado, December 23, 1932. Other reminiscences of Mr. McGinnis 
were continued in succeeding issues. 

The forty-fifth anniversary of the Padonia Methodist church was 
celebrated January 1, 1933. A history of the church appeared in 
the Hiawatha Daily World, January 4, 1933. 

"Early Days of Baldwin Territory Are Recounted by Old Set- 
tler," was the title of a front-page feature article published in the 
Baldwin Ledger, January 5, 1933. Joseph Dexter, of Oak Valley, 
was the narrator. He came to Kansas from Illinois in June, 1855, 
and witnessed the burning of Lawrence in 1856 and in 1863. His 
father was a captain under Jim Lane. 

(220) 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE KANSAS PRESS 221 

A history of Sedgwick county, by Asa F. Rankin, is being pub- 
lished in the Clearwater News. The chapters and dates of publica- 
tion are "Explorers," in the issue of January 5, 1933 ; "How Wichita 
Was Named," January 19, and "Old Boom Days Exciting Era," 
February 9. 

"Scott County Historical Society Notes," regularly printed in 
The News Chronicle, Scott City, featured the first schools in Scott 
county, January 5, 1933; "District No. 9, the Old Friend School," 
by Matilda Freed, January 12 and 19; "The Texas Cattle Trails of 
Western Kansas," by J. W. Chaffin, January 26 ; the first deaths in 
Scott City, February 2; "Saddle-Days Souvenirs," from the narra- 
tive of Frank Murphy, who herded cattle over the Chisholm and 
Texas trails, a reprint from Touring Topics (Calif.), February 9 
and 23; Pueblo Indian ruins in Scott county, March 2; "Kansas 
Prairie Fires," by J. W. Chaffin, March 9 and 16; Henry Hubbell, 
famous artist, who was an early-day sign painter in Scott City, 
March 23. Another article of historical interest published in The 
Scott County Record, Scott City, February 16, and not included in 
the News Chronicle series, is "Notes Concerning Early Days in 
Scott County by the Render Family." 

The Southwest Historical Society of Dodge City recently com- 
piled a resume of sixteen Indian battles that were fought in western 
Kansas and vicinity during its early history. The list was pub- 
lished in the Dodge City Daily Globe, January 6, 1933. 

Historical places of interest in Kansas were reviewed in three 
articles published in the Wichita Sunday Eagle, January 8, 15 and 
22, 1933. Brief paragraphs describing the famous Kansas land- 
marks were printed. 

Christ's Lutheran church, four miles north of Gaylord, observed 
its fiftieth anniversary January 15, 1933. A history of the organiza- 
tion was published in the Athol-Gay lord-Cedar Review, January 11. 
Rev. F. Schedtler was the first pastor. 

Franklin Playter, 91, for many years a resident of Crawford 
county, at Girard and Pittsburg, died at his home southwest of 
Galena on January 11, 1933. The Pittsburg Sun of January 12 con- 
tained an obituary of Mr. Playter and stated that he platted and 
named Pittsburg and erected the first business building on the town- 
site. 



222 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Some of the early business enterprises of Summerfield were named 
in the fifty-sixth anniversary edition of the Summerfield Sun, Janu- 
ary 12, 1933. 

Frank L. Randolph's experiences in early-day Potwin were re- 
lated in the Potwin Ledger, January 12, 1933. Mr. Randolph, who 
now resides in California, lived in Potwin from 1881 to 1888. 

The sixtieth anniversary of the Winfield Daily Courier was ob- 
served January 13, 1933, with the issuance of a 24-page illustrated 
historical edition. Notes on the founding and incorporation of 
Winfield, history of the city's newspapers, a review of the first 
churches, first marriage, etc., the organization of a grange in the 
South Bend area, and a reproduction of a page of the first issue of 
the Courier which was dated January 11, 1873, were high-lights of 
the edition. 

Official records of Hamilton county provide C. W. Noell, register 
of deeds, with source material for a series of historical articles 
which are being published in the Syracuse Journal. Mr. Noell wrote 
of the organization of the county in the issue of January 13, 1933; 
early towns of the county were located and described, January 27, 
and the county seat war was discussed, February 24 and March 17. 

The Baker Orange, student publication of Baker University, 
Baldwin, is publishing historical articles in observance of the sev- 
enty-fifth anniversary of the granting of the charter to the univer- 
sity. The series started with the issue of January 16, 1933. 

Judge J. C. Ruppenthal, in his "Rustlings" column which has 
been published weekly in several western Kansas newspapers for 
the past few years, has contributed historical notes of considerable 
value to the state. In his column of January 18, 1933, he inquired 
for more information about a Mr. Matthews who was reputed to be 
the first permanent settler on Coal creek, Russell county, in 1869. 
He was answered in the Wilson World, January 25, by William 
Gaines, who recalled E. W. Matthews and the operation of his lime 
kilns in 1870. 

Historical notes published in the Seneca Courier-Tribune include 
the origin of the name "Turkey" creek, by Joe Rilinger, January 19, 
1933, and the location of the old townsite of Pacific City, by J. L. 
Firkins, February 20. 



Kansas Historical Notes 

Newly elected officers of the Kansas History Teachers' Associa- 
tion which met at the Pittsburg Kansas State Teachers College 
March 25, 1933, are: F. H. Hodder, Kansas University, president; 
S. A. Johnson, Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia, vice presi- 
dent; Fred L. Parrish, Kansas State College, Manhattan, secretary- 
treasurer, and Edwin McRaynolds, Coffeyville Junior College, mem- 
ber of the executive committee. Hodder succeeds 0. F. Grubbs of 
the Pittsburg college as president. 

At the December, 1932, election of the Cowley County Historical 
Society the following officers were reflected: Mrs. J. P. Baden, 
president; A. M. Rehwinkel, vice president; Mrs. Alfred Diescher, 
treasurer, and E. A. Wolfram, secretary and curator. The society 
was organized October 26, 1931, and reported thirty members en- 
rolled at the close of 1932. A list of the year's accessions was pub- 
lished in the Winfield Daily Courier, December 13. 

The Kiowa County Historical Society has 236 members enrolled 
on its scroll of charter members. The organization has placed a 
show case in the lobby of the courthouse at Greensburg for museum 
pieces. 

Edna Nyquist, secretary of the McPherson County Historical and 
Archeological Society, has compiled a 184-page book entitled Pio- 
neer Life and Lore of McPherson County, Kansas. The Democrat- 
Opinion Press, McPherson, was the publisher. 

A Douglas County Historical Society was organized at Lawrence 
in March, 1933. 

The Kansas Magazine was revived for the third time on January 
29, 1933, with a notable array of Kansas authors, poets and artists 
contributing. R. I. Thackrey, editor, hopes to publish it annually. 
The magazine was established in January, 1872, under the editor- 
ship of Capt. Henry King and James W. Steele, with subsequent 
revivals in 1886, 1909 and again in 1933. 

A testimonial dinner was given March 1, 1933, at Douglass, in 
honor of J. M. Satterthwaite, publisher of the Douglass Tribune. 
Mr. Satterthwaite, who was a member of the Kansas legislature 
for sixteen years, has just completed a half century as editor of the 

(223) 



224 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Tribune. Prominent Kansas editors and state leaders were in at- 
tendance. 

Kirke Mechem, secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, 
addressed the Women's Civic Center Club of Hutchinson, January 
27, 1933, on the work of the Society. 

The fourth annual Kansas Day reunion of the Cheyenne County 
Pioneers of Kansas was held at Bird City, January 29, 1933. 

Markers were erected in Council Grove and Dodge City February 
22, 1933, locating the National Old Trails route which follows the 
general direction of the Santa Fe trail through Kansas. The route 
runs as U. S. highway 50 and 50N from Kansas City to Larned, as 
Kansas highway 37 from Larned to Kinsley, as U. S. highway 50S 
from Kinsley through Dodge City to Garden City, and as U. S. 
highway 50 to La Junta, Colo. 

The Bethany College museum has been reassembled on the first 
floor of the Main building in Lindsborg. Formerly the collection 
was scattered in various buildings over the campus. Indian relics 
and fossils, representative of western Kansas "finds," are among 
the collections on display. Dr. J. A. Udden was the founder of the 
museum. 

A private collection of southwestern historical relics is being 
brought together by Merritt and Otero Beeson at the Merritt Beeson 
home in Dodge City. 

The road leading to the summit of Coronado Heights, three miles 
northwest of Lindsborg, has been improved this winter. The Linds- 
borg Historical Society is the lease-holder of this historic site 
thought to have been visited by Coronado. 



14-7572 



THE 

Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 



Volume II Number 3 

August, 1933 



PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT 

W. C. AUSTIN, STATE PRINTER 

TOPEKA 1933 

14-8677 



Contributors 

GEORGE A. ROOT is curator of archives of the Kansas State Historical Society. 

KIRKE MECHEM is editor of the Kansas Historical Quarterly and secretary of 
the Kansas State Historical Society. 

WILLIAM HENRY SEARS was appointed brigadier general of the Kansas Na- 
tional Guard by Gov. L. D. Lewelling in 1893. He lives in Lawrence, Kan. 

NOTE. Articles in the Quarterly appear in chronological order without re- 
gard to their importance. 



Two Minute Books of Kansas Missions 
in the Forties 

I. INTRODUCTION 

IF the church records here reproduced have no other significance 
they prove that keeping the red man in the straight and narrow 
path was a most arduous task in Kansas a hundred years ago. In 
the continuous effort of the mission fathers to fit an almost puri- 
tanical shoe to those restless feet there is something of pathos; and 
in the naivete of their accounts of the attempt there is, let it be 
said respectfully, also something of unintentional humor. 

When, for example, a solemn entry reads, "Enquiry was then 
made as to the general appearance of religion in Mr. Towsey and a 
general expression was that he was a disgrace to the church," there 
certainly can be no irreverence in a smile. Or when a committee is 
"appointed to labor with Jonas Littleman, and Sally Konkapot, it 
being understood that their conduct had been unbecoming a pro- 
fession of godliness" ; or when "Bro T Hendric and H Skeekett re- 
fuse to be reconsiled with the church unless the missionaries cease 
to visit it," the decorum of religion surely may unbend for the 
moment in the presence of a more human emotion. 

Although there are lighter moments for the readers of these 
minutes, the workers who penned them were painstakingly serious. 
The first set was recorded in one of the lined blank books of the 
period, 7% by 12 inches, bound in heavy paper, now brown and 
brittle with age; the second consists of eight leaves which have been 
torn from a ruled account book of approximately the same size. 
Both were written carefully in ink. It will at once be apparent 
that these church clerks were sometimes stronger in faith than 
orthography, for the originals, now preserved in the archives of the 
Kansas State Historical Society, have been copied exactly and are 
here presented without correction in either spelling or punctuation. 

The date of the first entry in the earlier book is April 5, 1841, 
This is ten years after the establishment of the first Baptist mission 
to the Shawanoe Indians in Kansas, which the records of the 
American Baptist Board of Foreign Missions show was in 1831. 1 
The mission was located "three miles west of Missouri and about 
eight south of the Missouri river" in a tract of land granted to the 

1. Baptist Missionary Magazine, v. XVI, p. 50. 

(227) 



228 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Shawanoes, or Shawnees, by the terms of a treaty made at St. Louis, 
November 7, 1825. To this remote outpost came a small band of 
workers under the leadership of Johnston Lykins and his wife. In 
1833 activities were extended, and a mission station was established 
for the Delawares 2 "north of the Kansas river near its junction with 
the Missouri." 3 Ira D. Blanchard, who had some knowledge of the 
Delaware language, was employed as a teacher, and in 1835 was 
appointed a missionary to the tribe. 

In January, 1840, Blanchard reported to the Baptist Board of 
Foreign Missions, "Our mission affairs were never so prosperous 
before. Our meetings are full. Last Sabbath all could not find 
seats. . . . Our school is full, so that we have been obliged to 
refuse many applications the last four weeks. Our present number 
is 16." 4 In March of 1841 he writes that the Delaware chiefs oppose 
the gospel so that few or none attend religious worship, except those 
who are pious. "There is, nevertheless," he says, "the fullest evi- 
dence that the Lord is owning our unworthy efforts. Four are now 
waiting an opportunity of publicly avowing their faith in Christ 
and we have reason to hope that several more are not far from the 
kingdom of God." 5 

Records indicate that until this time, 1841, religious work among 
the Delawares had been carried on under the direction of the mission 
at Shawanoe. It is somewhat difficult, after nearly a hundred years, 
to follow the lines of demarcation between group activities, especially 
in view of the rather loose application of terms. Study of the records 
leads to the conclusion that a group numbering twenty-six, including 
Blanchard and his wife and Sylvia Case, a teacher, originally 
organized as the Delaware branch of the Shawanoe mission, desired 
to form a separate church. A letter from F. Barker, preacher at 
Shawanoe, to the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions, dated at 

2. The Annual Register of Indian Affairs Within the Indian (or Western) Territory, pub- 
lished, by Isaac McCoy, January 1, 1835, states that the Baptist mission for the Delawares 
was commenced in 1832. A Baptist missionary, Charles E. Wilson, spent a few weeks among 
them in the autumn of that year. However, entries in McCoy's private journal, owned by 
the Kansas State Historical Society, indicate that work among the Delawares was not in- 
stituted until 1833. McCoy writes, on February 12, 1833 : "I have recently conferred with 
Mr. Lykins, and we have agreed, the Lord willing, to institute preaching and a school among 
the Delawares. A Mr. Blanchard has spent nearly a year and a half among them on his own 
resources, in the study of their language. . . . Mr. Lykins and he expect to visit those 
Indians in the course of a few days in order to a commencement of operations." On Feb. 26, 
1833, he writes: "On Saturday, Sunday and Monday last Mr. Lykins and Mr. French made 
a visit to the Delawares, some 13 miles from the Shawanoe mission House, with a view of in- 
stituting preaching among them and the establishing of a school among them. They report 
the prospect as favorable, and Mr. Lykins has written the Board, proposing to hire a school 
teacher. . . ." 

3. Baptist Missionary Magazine, v. XVIII, p. 139. 

4. Ibid., v. XX, p. 127. 

5. Ibid., v. XXI, p. 173. 



MINUTE BOOKS OF KANSAS MISSIONS 229 

Shawanoe, Indian territory, July 9, 1841, contains the following 
item: 

"April 5. I have just returned from the Delaware station, (br. Blanchard's,) 
where I assisted in organizing a church, according to previous arrangement. It 
was a solemn service; in one sense painful, to have our brethren separated 
from us; in another sense pleasing, as we hope it will be for the advancement 
of the cause, and for our mutual good ; and we know that in every important 
sense we yet are one. After service we proceeded to the water side. Three 
were baptized; two of them members of br. Blanchard's school." 6 

In the journal of Jotham Meeker 7 appear entries for June 3 and 4 
as follows: 

"3. The church met for business. Two of Br. Blanchard's scholars, Stock- 
bridges, related their Christian experiences, and were received by the church for 
baptism. Br. Pratt 8 was appointed ch. Clerk, who wrote a letter of dismission 
for the members residing north of the Kanzas. One brother made a good deal 
of difficulty. May the Lord forgive him. 4. Lord's day. The brethren and 
Sisters who were yesterday dismissed were organized into a separate church. 
Br. Barker preached the sermon, and I gave the charge and prayer. A Dela- 
ware man then related his Christian experience. I preached from 'The Lord's 
portion is his people.' Br. Barker then baptized the three candidates in the 
Kanzas river, I gave the right hand of fellowship; after which Br. B. and I 
administered the Lord's supper." 

Thus the new church got under way. The following records of 
the organization show that faith was weak at times, and temptation 
strong, but zeal burned like a bright white flame. 

6. Ibid., v. XXI, p. 283. 

7. Jotham Meeker, missionary-printer, came to the Shawanoe Mission in 1833, bringing a 
printing press on which were printed, subsequently, many small books containing hymns, selec- 
tions from the Scriptures, and religious works, translated into Indian languages by Meeker 
and other missionaries. He removed to the country of the Ottawas in 1837 and founded a 
mission on the Marais des Cygnes river where the town of Ottawa now stands. His journal, 
owned by the Historical Society, covers a period of twenty-three years, 1832-1855. 

8. John Gill Pratt was employed by the Baptist Missionary Society for work in the 
Indian territory immediately upon his graduation from Andover in 1836. In March, 1837, he 
married Olivia Evans, and two weeks later the couple left Boston for the territory, where 
they were to labor among the Shawanoes at the Shawanoe Baptist mission. They arrived 
May 11. Pratt had learned the trade of printing at the University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 
and on his arrival at Shawanoe took charge of the printing office. Pratt went to the Stock - 
bridge Indians in 1844 and in 1848 took charge of the Delaware Baptist mission. He later 
acted as United States Indian agent to the Delawares. 



230 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

II. CHURCH BOOK 

Church Book 

or 
Book of records for the 

Baptist Church 

Constituted at the Delaware Bap. Mission 
April 5th 1841 

Breathren being presant from abroad on Saturday the third of 
April 1841 the subject of our separate organization was brought 
before us unitedly After much consultation it seemed that no rea- 
sonable objection could be presented against our proceeding in the 
matter without further delay The following letter of dismission be- 
ing received was laid before the whole for further consideration 

Delaware Bap Mission April 4 1841 

At a meeting of the Potawatomie Baptist mission church held at 
the Ottawa Baptist mission Breathren & Sister Thomas T Hendrick 
Robert Konkaput Cornelius Charles Jonas Konkaput Henry Skeikett 
Cornelius Hendrick John W. Newcum, Hannah Konkaput Susan 
Hendrick, Dolly Doxtator, Cathorine Konkaput Phebe Skeikett 
Mary Hendrick, Sally Konkaput Mary Charles Mary Ann Doxtator 
Timoty Towsey Elisabeth Towsy Ira D. Blanchard Mary W Blanch- 
ard Sylvia Case, Hopehelase, Charles Joneycake, Rahpateetanksee, 
Betsy Hill Kliskoqha Betsy Zeigleer, Esther Fergusson asked to 
be dismissed for the purpose of forming themselves into a church 
of the same faith & order And whereas the church granted this 
request this is to certify that when such organization shall take 
place they will be no longer considered as members with us 

In behalf of the Church 

J. G. Pratt Clk 

Also Brother Blanchard, Newcum, and Skeikett Having been 
apointed for that purpose reported the follow preamble constitution 
and covenent 

Declaration 
Of our views of Divine truth. 

1st We believe 

The Bible is true, that it contains the whole of God's revealed will, 
that it was written by men divinely inspired, that it is a perfect 
rule of faith and practice, and that it is the only guide through 



MINUTE BOOKS OF KANSAS MISSIONS 231 

this world of sorrow to the right hand of God where there are 
pleasures forever-more. 

2nd We believe 

in the existence of but one God, that He is the Creator and preserver 
of the universe, that all things are and were created for the glory 
of his name, that He only is worthy of adoration or worship, that 
he is revealed under the personal and relative distinction of Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost, equel in every divine perfection but perform- 
ing distinct yet harmonious offices in the glorious work of man's 
redemption. 

3d We believe 

that man was created Holy, that he fell from that state by willful 
transgression of a Law of his maker; that in consequence of which 
all mankind are sinners; not by constraint, but willingly, being by 
nature destitute of all good and inclined to all evil; therefore justly 
under the curse of the Law for sin, subject of death, and all other 
miseries, spiritual, temporal and eternal. 

4th We believe 

that to redeem man from this curse, was the errand upon which the 
son of God appeared in our lower world, that for our sakes he 
became a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief, that he tasted 
death for every man, and thereby made an atonement for the sins 
of the whole world; that repentence, faith and obedience are the 
terms of his salvation. 

5th We believe 

that a congregation of baptized believers, who are associated by 
covenant, living in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing 
its ordinances, governed by its rules and exercising the gifts, rights 
and privileges invested in them by Christ, to be a Christian Church. 

6th We believe 

Christian baptism to be the immersion of a believer in water in the 
name of the Father the Son, and the Holy Ghost that it is pre- 
requisit to the privileges of a Church relation, and the Lord's supper. 
And that it is the imperative duty of all believers to be baptized. 

7th We believe 

that none ever have been or will be made partakers of the benefits 
of Christ's Spiritual kingdom, but those who are chosen in him unto 
salvation through the sanctification of the spirit and belief of the 
truth. 



232 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

8th We believe 

that nothing can separate real believers from the love of God, that 
a persevering attachment to Christ is the grand mark which dis- 
tinguishes them from superficial professors, that a special providence 
watches over them, and that they are and will be kept by the power 
of God through faith unto salvation. 

9th We believe 

that the end of all things is at hand, that Christ is again to appear 
upon earth, that he is to be the Judge of the quick and the dead, 
and that an awful separation will then take place, a sentence of 
eternal condemnation will be awarded [?] to all whose robes are 
not washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb While they 
who have made Christ their Savior and friend by repentence, faith 
and obedience will be welcomed to all the Joys of Heaven, from 
whence they shall no more go out forever. Even so come Lord. 
Jesus Come quickly Amen. 

Covenant 

In the presence of God Angels and one another we do sollemnly 
Covenant in the strength of our divine Master that we will exercise 
a mutual care, as members one of another, to promote the growth of 
the whole body in Christian knowledge, holiness and comfort; to 
the end that we may stand perfect and complete in all the will of 
God That to promote and secure this object, we will uphold the 
public worship of God and the ordinance of his house; and hold 
constant communion with each other therein, that we will cheer- 
fully contribute of our property for the support of the poor and do 
all that lies conveniently in our power, for the encouragement of a 
faithful ministry among us. 

That we will not omit closet and family religion at home, nor 
allow ourselves in the too common neglect of the great duty of 
religiously training our children and those under our care, with 
a view to the service of Christ and the enjoyment of Heaven. That 
we will walk circumspectly before the world, in no way upholding 
or giving countenance to any of these things named by the Apostle 
in Gal. 5: 19-21. That we will conscienciously abstain from the 
use of all intoxicating liquors as a beverage, endeavoring so to 
recommend the religion of Christ by our lives as to win souls to 
him, remembering that God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but 
the power of love and of a sound mind; that we are the light of the 
world, the salt of the earth, a city set on a hill that can not be hid 



MINUTE BOOKS OF KANSAS MISSIONS 233 

That we will frequently exhort, and if occasion shall require, admon- 
ish one another according to Matt. 18 in the spirit of meekness, 
considering ourselves lest we also be tempted remembering that as 
in baptism we have been buried with Christ & raised again in his 
likeness, there is henceforth a special obligation in us to walk in 
newness of life. 

At our first Church and Covenant meeting after our organization 
as a separate body of believers in Christ from the Potawatomie 
Baptist Mission Church, held on the 24th of April 1841, at the 
house of Brother Thomas T. Hendrick in the Mohekunnuk Settle- 
ment Ind. Ter. Brother Blanchard opened the meeting by prayer, 
and other usual exercises that are generally required under such 
circumstances. 

Proposition was brought forward, and laid before the brethren 
and sisters, for their consideration, which was that this Church 
ought to bear some certain name, under which it might be known 
and distinguished, the brethren unanimously voted that it should 
ever hereafter be called Deleware and Mohegan Baptist Mission 
Church 

The next thing that was done at the said meeting, the said Church 
nominated and appointed Brothers Jonas Konkapot and brother 
Charles Jonycake to wait upon brother Towsey, to exhort and 
admonish him, for disorderly walk as a Christian ; and for neglecting 
his duty generally, in not attending to the ordinances of the Church 
of Christ, particularly in the branch to which he professes to be- 
long, and that they shall be called upon to report at our next 
Church meeting. 

The Brethren of this Church further agreed that they would 
patiently wait a little longer upon brother Pah-pa-ta-tauk-thy, be- 
fore they would conclude to excommunicate him from this Church. 

Resolution was taken by the brethren and sisters of this Church, 
that for the future, their church meetings should be held on Saturday 
previous to the last Sunday of each month. 

Another resolution was taken by this Church, that no members 
of other denominations, should be received without giving a previous 
notice to the Church, to which they belong. 

J. M. Newcom. (Church Clerk) 

At a Church and Covenant meeting held at Brother Blanchard's 
house this 29th of May 1841, by the brethren & sisters of the said 
Mohegan and Deleware Baptist Mission Church, agreed unani- 



234 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

mously by the brethren of this church, that Pau-pa-ta-tauk-tha be 
excommunicated from the Fellowship of this Church, and that he 
shall be notified of this dismission and that it is for his disorderly 

behaviour as a Christian and member of this church The 

Committee brother Jonas Konkapot and brother Charles Joney 
Cake, having heretofore been duly appointed by this Church to go 
and labour with brother Timothy Towsey, brought report to the 
Church at this meeting and stated that the said Timothy Towsey 
complained and found fault which was that a certain brother who 
had brought complaint before the Church against him had not taken 
the legal step agreeable to the gospel, and that in consequence of 
this failure, he declared to the said Committee that all their labour 
should be in vain and that his standing in the Church as a member 
should still remain as good and permanent as ever and that all their 

labour should be in vain further resolution was taken by this 

Church, that the said Committee shall continue to stand as Com- 
mittee in this case till the next Church meeting, and brother Blanch- 
ard was appointed additionaly to be one of the said Committee and 
to perform the duty that was required of them by the said Church 
and to make a report to the Church at the next Church meeting. 

The constitution having been approved and adopted Bro Barker 
on Lord's day morning delivered an appropriate address to us from 
Ex The Lord said unto Moses why cryest thou unto me say 

unto the children of Israel that they go forward after which 

Bro Meeker gave to us the charge and right hand of fellowship 

Bro John W Newcom was then unanomosly chosen to make record 
of the for going and to act as Clk of the Church while we shall sit 
in church capacity 

Bro J Meeker was invited to sit as moderator Oportunity be- 
ing given James Jack came before us requesting baptism and mem- 
bership. We heard from him the reason of the hope that was in 
him and voted that he be received by us 

Bro Blanchard moved & Bro Skeekett seconed that the church 
meet at Bro Thomas Hendricks on Saturday before the last Lords 
day in the presant Month 

The congregation having again collected bro Meeker addressed 
us upon the care of God over his people 

We then repaired to the Kanzas and waited upon the candidates 
for baptism viz James Jack George W Hendrick Nancy Anthony the 
two latter having been received by us before organization while 
siting in capacity of P. B. M. Church right hand of fellowship 
was given them in behalf of the church by Bro. Meeker 



MINUTE BOOKS OF KANSAS MISSIONS 235 

This being done we came round the table of our crusified but 
risen Lord 

By candle light held a special church prayer meeting in 

which we trust the Lord was truly with us 

At a Church meeting held at the House of Brother Charles Joney 
Cake by the brethren and sisters of the Deleware and Mohegan 
Baptist Mission this 27th day of June 1841, enquiries were made, 
concerning the labour of the sd. Committee, and they reported that 
the said Towsey had reconciled his brother, and had settled the 
difficulty which had heretofore existed [between] them. The report 
was accepted by the Church as a satisfactory report. 

Church Meeting 
June 27 1841 

Meeting opened with prayer by br Barker The committee ap- 
pointed to labor with br Towsey reported that br Newcom & br 
Towsey had come to an understandin betwean themselves and the 
committee were discharged 

No other business being before the church oportunity was given 
for any one to tell us of their desire to follow the Savior. Jane 
wife of our Br Charles Joney Cake presented a letter of recomenda- 
tion from the Delaware methodest class & related to us the ground 
of her hope in Christ, we were all satisfyed of her interest in his 
atonement and voted that she be received for baptism Lords day. 
28th After religios exursize repared to the water Intimation being 
there given that others were present who wished to follow in all the 
Lords appointed ways The Church waited to hear from them. John 
Connor & his wife presented themselves for Baptism Their relation 
being satisfacory the vote was unanimos for their reception The 
three candidates were then baptised by Br Barker We then as- 
sembled round the table of our Lord and commemorated his dying 
love 

Church Meeting 
July 23 1841 
at Mohegan 

Meeting opened with singing and prayer Resolved that a com- 
mittee of reconsilation be apointed to endeavor to harmonize any 
feelings of differance that may have grown out of a late neighbor- 
hood disturbanc occasioned by a vicious young man belonging to 
this place and that the committee consist of the following brethren 
Blanchard Newcom & Joney Cake & Corneleus Hendrick And Sisters 
Zeegler Towsey Ferguson & Mary Hendrick 



236 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Opertunity being given four related to us their love to christ 
and wish to be Baptised (Viz) Weh-hen-che-skondase Luttia-hing 
(Jones) John Hendrick & wife 

No administrator being presant meeting adjourned to meett at the 
Mission 2 weeks from to morrow 

Adjourned Meeting 
Aug 8 1841 
at the Mission 

The case of Brethern Cornelius Charles & Jonas Konkaput was 
brought before us Both had been guilty of intoxication the former 
was presant & made confession to us but it was thought that the 
honor of the cause required their suspension the latter to be re- 
quested to appear at our next meeting Both were suspended from 
communion and all other church privaleges Three of the candi- 
dates for baptism only were presant (Jones being detained by 
sickness) they were waited upon by br Barker After which the 
Lords Supper was administered to us The season was rendered 
peculiarly sollem by the recent death of Br Robert Konkaput 

Church Meeting 
Aug 28 1841 
at the Mission 

But few of the brethren being present it was proposed that attend 
to our church business tomorrow 

Lords day after religious worship a door was opened for reception 
of members Sally Jonney Cake came befor us we herd her tell of 
her love to the Savior Resolved unanimosly that she be redemed 

Jonas Konkaput came before us and made his humble confession. 

Church meeting 
Oct 1841 
at Stock 

The committee appointed July 23 reported that the matter for 
which they were appointed were settled and were discharged 

Communion dispensed with no administrator being present 

Church Meeting 

Nov 1841 

at bro Charles, 

The weather exceeding inclemont and but few of the breathren 
present Solomon Journey cake appeared before the church preying 
for baptism No administrator being present no action was taken 
on the subject. Communion also dispensed with for the same reason 



MINUTE BOOKS OF KANSAS MISSIONS 237 

Church Meeting 
Dec 25 1841 
at Mohegan 

Meeting as usual opened by singing and prayer, bro Jonas 
Konkaputs case again came before us after again hearing from him 
It was unanimously agreed that he be restored to church privalages. 
The church being informed that br When-ge-skon-dase had been 
guilty of intoxication he was suspended from church privaleges and 
brothers Charles Journey Cake and Newcom were apointed to wait 
on him previous to our next meeting Communion again dispensed 
with because no administrator was present 

Church Meeting 
May 28 1842 
at Mohegan 

Meeting as usual opened with singing and prayer Breathren and 
Sister from abroad were invited to a full participation in the priva- 
leges and duties of the meeting. 

The case of brother Cornelius Charles who was suspended at the 
August meeting for intoxication was again brought before us. After 
again hearing from him on the subject and his deep repentance being 
manifest uppon the motion of bro Newcom seconed by bro Konkaput 
it was unanimously agreed that he be restored to his former stand- 
ing in the church 

Br Newcom asked leave to call the attention of the church to an 
affair that was settled at the church meeting June 27 1841 and gave 
briefly his reason for so doing which were satisfactory. Br Blanch- 
ard requested that before the church proceede to examine the case 
br Pratt be requested to fill his place as moderator which was 
granted, Br Pratt in the chair the case proceeded Br Blanchard 
stated that he had been with three others of the breathren to see 
br Towsey and that he had refused to hear anything from them and 
that he had cited him to appear at the meeting to answer to charges 
that would there be brought against him to which he returned 
nothing but raling. Br Newcom was then asked for proof of the 
statements he had made br Cornelius Hendrick stated that Mr 
Towsey had told him previous to the settlement that br Newcom 
had made conffession and that was the way the difficulty was now 
being disposed His wife Sister Mary H. stated that she was 
present and heard Mr Towsey make the fore going statements 
Sister Betsey Zeeglear stated that Mr Towsey said in her presence 



238 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

that Mr Newcom had written to br Blanchard and had carryed his 
own communication to him and got the matter hushed because he 
was affraid to have it go any farther. All this was at utter variance 
with the facts known to the committee Enquiry was then made 
as to the general appearance of religion in Mr Towsey, a general 
expression was that he was a disgrace [to the] church, that he was 
in constant habbit of lying and that he is and has been a sower of 
discord Br Henry Skeekett motioned that the matter be postponed, 
got no second, br Jonas Konkakaput motioned that he be excluded 
without delay aleging as his reason that the church had already 
tolerated the case to its disgrace Br Cornelius Hendrick seconded 
the motion br H. Skeekett stated that the matter had got to a high 
pitch and that he should now be compled to come to the point said 
that things were charged upon Mr Towsey that were false that he 
had sought out one certain thing and it was not true Not saying 
what it was he was asked if the thing to which he alluded had been 
spoken of in the trial, He replied, "it has not The vote was then 
taken shall Timothy Towsey be excluded Afirmative eleven Nega- 
tive five three of the five afterwards expressed approbation of this 
decision 
Meeting adjourned by prayer 

June 25 1842 

Church met at 
the Mission 

Opened by singing and prayer. No business being before the 
church spent the evening in conferance singing and prayer 

July 30 1842 
Church Meeting 
at br Charleses 

Church met at bro Charleses according to appointment No busi- 
ness transacted much sympathetic feeling manifested in our con- 
ferance 

Aug 27 1842 
at Stockbridge 

The church met at the time appointed a division seems to be 
forming in our ranks which threatens much injury to the church 
After prayer it was agreed to spend a season in humileation and 
prayer before God in view of our condition 



MINUTE BOOKS OF KANSAS MISSIONS 239 

Sept 24 1842 
Church meeting 
at the Mission 

Meeting opened as usual with singing and prayer Few of the 
breathren presant Peter Hopehelase & John Jonney Cake pre- 
sented themselves for membership the former was received and Bapt 

Oct Meeting and 
Nov " Passed 
our bro Blanch ard 
being absent 

Dec 24 1842 
Church met 
at the Mission 

Had a precious season of conferance and prayer. Those breath- 
eren who have not been carried away by our trials seem to be much 
humbled and well prepared for spiritual food Communion on Lords 
day 

Jany 28 1843 
at bro Charleses 
Church Meeting 

No business being before us spent the time in devotional exersize 

Communion on Lords day 

Feb 25 1843 
Church Met 
at Stockbridge 

Opened by singing and prayer. The subject of our division came 
before the church. Breathren Barker & Pratt being present they 
were invited to a full participation in the meeting. 

After much consultation Breathren Blanchard Barker & Pratt were 
appointed to look after these difficulties and to report to morrow 

Lords day 26 

The committee of yesterday made the follow [ing] report as the 
result of their efforts 

They have succeeded in reconsiling Cathorin Lyttleman and Mary 
Chemawkun to each other the former expressing herself satisfied 
with the confessions of the latter 

Bro T Hendric and H Skeekett refuse to be reconsiled with the 
church unless the missionaries cease to visit it These terms were 



240 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

unanimously rejected by the Stockbridge breathren Br Cornelius 
Charles motioned that these two breathren be suspended and also 
the wife of the former she occupying the same ground The motion 
prevaled and the three were suspended. 

The committee were not discharged but requested to continue 
labor 

March 28 
Church Met 
at the Mission 

Opened as usual by singing and prayer 

The committee appointed at our last meeting beged further 
oportunity which was granted 

No other business being before us spent the evening in devotional 
exercise Communion on Lords day 

Apl 29 1843 

Church Meetin 

at the Mission 

by consent of the members 

Singing and prayers The committee still asked indulgence which 
was granted 

Oportunity being given Isaac Skeekett and George Washington 
presented themselves for membership Being satisfied with their 
relation both were received and baptised 

Communion on Lords day 

May 28 1843 
Church Meeting 
at Stockbridge 

The committee reported that they had continued their efforts 
without success No action of the church was taken 

Bro Jonas Konkaput made confession of his having again been 
over come by intemperance He was requested keep back from 
the communion till the church should be more entirely satisfyed of 
his repentance 

June 24 1843 
Church Meeting 
at the Mission 



MINUTE BOOKS OF KANSAS MISSIONS 241 

Church meeting 
at the Mission 
Nov 18 1843 

Meeting opened with singing and prayer. The breatheren from 
aboroad invited to full participation in the meeting Referance. 

The committee appointed Feb. 25, 1843 were called upon for a 
final repor[t] Br Pratt from the committee stated the result of 
their protracted labors. 

The church called for any information that any of the breathren 
or sister might be in possession of in the case, all the individual 
statements were corroberative of report of the committee That no 
hope remained of reclaiming the suspended members Br. Jonas 
Konkaput moved, "that the three suspended members (viz) Thomas 
Hendrick and wife and Henry Skeekett be excluded" Seconded by 
Br. Newcomb 

Unanumously voted that they be excluded. Br Newcomb mo- 
tioned that a committee be appointed to search out any breathren 
or sisters that may have become alienated from us Seconded by 
Br Cornelius Chemawkun unanumously voted in the affirmative 
Committee to consist of sisters Mary Chemawkun Sylvia Case and 
[illegible] Breathren Blanchard Pratt and Barker 

Adjourned till evening 

Evening meeting opened, singing prayer Br Cornelius Charles 
came before the church with confession for drunkenness. Subject 
waved till candlelight. 

At candle light church resumed the case of br Charles confession. 
Motion by br Newcomb seconded by br Jamas Konkaput that the 
church forgive br Charles and accept his confession Vote carried 
unanumous 

Br. Blanchard moved that br James Jack be suspended from the 
privaleges of the church seconded by br Newcomb voted unanumous 
A committee to wait upon him to consist of brothrs Blanchard & 

Joneycake and Newcomb Br Barker presented the subject 

of Br Blanchards ordaination which was unanimously approved 
Covanant was read, and some remarks, and the meeting closed with 
devotional exursises singing prayer itc 
Lords day 19 

Br's Pratt and Blanchard were ordained 

Sermon by br Barker prayer and charge by Br Meeker Right- 
hand-of-fellowship by Br Barker. 

Communion at the close of the exursises 
168677 



242 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Church Meeting 
At Stockbridge 
Dec 30 1843 

Meeting opened by singing and prayer Report of [ committee 1 
called for Committee appointed to labor with br. Jim Jack were 
not ready to report Continued till next meeting 

Br Pratt from the committee of enquiry reported labor with 
Washington Hendrick Without any satisfaction Motion by Br 
Cornelius Chemawkun to exclude seconded by br. G. Konkaput 
Vote in the affirmative unanimously prevailed Sister Case from the 
committee reported having vis[it]ed Sisters Doxtater & Catherine 
Kankaput & Skeekett Church were satisfied with the intelegence 
from Sister Doxtater so far as it extended but the committee were 
requested to continue labor Motion Made by br. J. W- Newcomb 
that Phebe Skeekett [sentence unfinished] Seconded by br Cornelius 
Chemawkun. Affirmative unanimously prevailed and she is excluded 

The case of Sister Catharine Konkaput was considered as satis- 
factory after hearing from her in person, None of the Committees 
were discharged Sister Blanchard added to the committee of sisters 

Saturday 28 1844 
Church Meeting 
At the Mission 

Meeting opened as usual by singing and prayer. Brother Cornelius 
Chemaukun presented a petition from six of the breathren and 
Sisters at Stockbridge praying for a dismis[sion] for the purpose of 
organising into a distinct church of the same faith and order viz 
Jonas Konkaput Cornelius Chemawkun, Hannah Kunkaput Sally 
Konkaput, Katharine Konkaput Mary A Chemawkun Request 
unanimously granted. 

No further business being before us spent the evening in devo- 
tional exersize 

III. INTRODUCTION 

First mention of the Stockbridge Indians in the territory west of 
the Mississippi appears in reports of the Baptist Board of Foreign 
Missions in the Baptist Missionary Magazine for the year 1840. The 
item is as follows: 

"On the 6th of December [1839] a party of Stockbridge Indians from Winne- 
bago Lake (Wisconsin territory,) arrived, with the design of making the Dela- 
ware country their future home. The Dela wares have acceeded to the propo- 
sition, and have located them below Fort Leavenworth. From eight to ten of 
these, including the principal chief, are expected to join the Delaware church, 



MINUTE BOOKS OF KANSAS MISSIONS 243 

two of whom have not before made a profession of faith in Christ. The native 
assistant is to labor among this tribe." 

In the report for 1843 appears the statement that Mr. and Mrs. 
J. G. Pratt have been authorized to remove to Stockbridge, at the 
earnest and repeated solicitation of the Indians of that place. "He 
[Pratt] has," reads the report, "for some time, regularly ministered 
to them every alternate Sabbath. He will take the press with him; 
the Stockbridges gladly engaging to aid in the erection of a printing- 
office, school-house, etc., to the utmost of their ability." Some 
difficulties for the Stockbridges arose over the "singular alienation 
of the Delaware chiefs" and Mr. Pratt was prevented from locating 
among them for a time, but troubles were adjusted and mission 
buildings were commenced in the autumn of 1844. The following 
records, copied verbatim, show activities of the Stockbridge Baptist 
Mission Church constituted April 13th, 1845 : 

IV. CHURCH BOOK 
RECORDS 

The Stockbridge Baptist Mission Church, was organized, April 
13th 1845. Present at the time, Brethren Jotham Meeker, Francis 
Barker, & Ira D. Blanchard. 

At a meeting of members for organization previous to organiza- 
tion it was voted to adopt as ours the "Declaration of Faith," and 
"Covenant," as prepared by the Committee of the New Hampshire 
Baptist Convention. 

At a meeting of the Church June 8, it was voted that the Church 
meet for Conference and Business on the 2d Saturday of each month. 

Voted also to adopt the following Resolutions Resolved That 
we consider the habit of using intoxicating liquors, as a drink, to 
be sinful; and leads to fearful consequences, as the scriptures de- 
clare, no "drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of Heaven." We will 
abstain from the use of any, & all intoxicating drinks; and con- 
sider those under censure of the Church, who use, or become 
intoxicated in the use of them. 

Resolved That we consider Marriage an ordinance of Heaven, 
and require all persons (members of the Church,) expecting to enter 
that relation, to be publicly united, according to the usual manner 
of performing that ceremony among professed Christians. 

In consequence of sickness, and the absence of most of the mem- 
bers, no meeting of the Church occurred after the above date until 



244 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

January 25th, 46 when a meeting was held at the House of Bro 
Jonas Konkapot at which time Bro. Cornelius Charles from the 
Delaware Baptist Church, John G. Pratt, and Mrs. Olivia E. Pratt 
from the Putawatomie Baptist Church, presented Letters, and were 
received as members of this Church. J. G. Pratt Pastor 

February 7th Church met at the House of Sister Hannah Konka- 
pot, at which time Levi Konkapot and Jacob Littleman related their 
religious exercises, and requested admission to the Church. Voted 
to meet Feb 14th to decide on their Reception. Adjourned 

February 14th Church met according to adjournment at the 
house of Pastor. After further hearing the above named individuals, 
and also listening to Mrs Josephine Littleman It was voted, 
unanimously that they be received as candidates for Baptis[m| 
and membership. After prayer Adjournment 

Sabbath Afternoon Feb 15th these persons were all baptized, in 
presence of a solemn and interested congregation. 

March 7, 1846 Church met at the House of J. G. Pratt Door 
being opened for the reception of member [s] Mr. Joseph Henry 
Killbuck, and his wife; Eli Hendrick and his wife; and the widow 
Lydia Konkapot, related their religious exercises and were received 
as Candidates for Baptism and Membership. Mr. Thomas T. 
Hendrick, made formal confession of error, asked the privilege of 
a union with us. Church requested him to wait until another meet- 
ing to which he consented Adjourned 

Sabbath morning March 8 the individuals received above were all 
Baptized; and in the evening, received the right hand of fellowship 
After which Church Commemorated the Suffering of our Savior, 
enjoying much of his presence, and much rejoicing in his favor. 

April Church met at the House of Bro. Jonas Konkapot. After 
religious exercises voted to appoint second Sabbath in May as a 
season of religious worship, and to invite the Christian friends from 
Shawanoe and Delaware to be present 

Also voted that at our meeting for business next week we will 
elect a brother to act for us as our Deacon. 

Adjourned by prayer 

J. G. Pratt 

Pastor 



MINUTE BOOKS OF KANSAS MISSIONS 245 

April 

At an adjourned meeting held at the house of Bro. Thomas 
Hendrick, it was unanimously voted that Bro. Eli Hendrick be 
appointed to fill the office of Deacon of this Church 

Adjourned 

J. G. Pratt, Pastor 
May 

Church met at Meeting House. No Business time spent in 
Religious exercises. 

Adjourned 

J. G. Pratt, Pastor 
June 

Church met at Meeting House 

Business Bro. Cornelius Chemaukun, having been reported to 
have violated the rule of Christian conduct was, after having been 
labored with suspended from Church privileges He however ac- 
knowledging his impropriety and hoping before long to be again 
restored to fellowship 

Religious exercises followed 
Adjourned 

J. G. Pratt, Pastor 
July 

Church met at Jonas Konkapot's 

Business Voted to appoint Bro. Jacob Littleman Interpreter. 
Religious exercises followed 

Adjourned 

J. G. Pratt, Pastor- 
Church Meeting March 14, 1846 

The services being opened by prayer and Singing The case of 
Mr Thomas T. Hendrick was taken up, and he was received. 
Church Spent remainder of the evening in devotional exercises 

Adjourned 

J. G. Pratt, Pastor 
August 22 

Church Met at Meeting House 

Business of the meeting to receive such persons as might be pre- 
pared, and were desirous of joining. After prayer door being 
opened for such to speak, four individuals, manifested their wish 
to become members of the Church viz 
Jonas Littleman, Abigail H. Killbuck 



246 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The Church after careful examination voted unanimously to re- 
ceive them 

The day following, being Sabbath, the above mentioned in- 
dividuals were all Baptized, in presence of a numerous and solemn 
congregation. In the evening, the Lords Supper was administered, 
during which all seemed to enjoy a large measure of the Spirit's 
influence. There had been with us for several days, many dear 
brethren & Sisters from other Churches whose presence and exhorta- 
tion had greatly encouraged and strengthened us The evening 
closed the Series of meeting [s] and it was indeed a precious and 
refreshing season, spent with evident toke[n] of divine favor, and 
presence of his Holy Spirit and will not soon be forgotte[n] 

Adjourned 

J. G. Pratt 
Pastor 
Church Meeting Sept. 12, 1846 

At this meeting Mrs Lucy Konkapot related to the Church her 
religious exercises; and requested the privilege of becoming a mem- 
ber of it After proper consideration Church voted to receive her as 
a candidate for baptism and membership Mrs Phebe Skigget was 
also received. On the following morning, Prudence Quinney, mani- 
fested to the Church while met for public worship a desire to unite, 
she was received; after which the ordinance of Baptism was ad- 
ministered to the two candidates 

Adjourned J. G. Pratt 

Pastor 
Church Meeting Oct 9, 1846. 

At this meeting, Church voted to remove the censure resting upon 
Bro. Cornelius Chemaukun, and restore him again to all the privi- 
leges of the Church. 

After the evening had been spent in religious exercises, Mrs. 
Abigail Hendrick, with much feeling stated her convictions of duty 
to unite with the Church if thought worthy she was received as a 
candidate for Baptism & membership. 

Adjourned 

J. G. Pratt 

Pastor 



MINUTE BOOKS OF KANSAS MISSIONS 247 

Nov. 7, 1846 

Church meeting at meeting house. 

At this meeting two persons were dropped from fellowship, on 
account of improper conduct. Other business was introduced but 
deferred until a future meeting. The names of the two persons 
dropped were 

J. G. Pratt 

Pastor 
Church Meeting Dec. 12, 1846 

Meeting opened as usual by prayer. The time was spent in con- 
versation on several points of business, none in shape to be recorded 
was attended to Spent a season in religious conference having ref- 
erence to the sacrament to be administered to-morrow (sabbath) 

Adjourned J. G. Pratt 

Pastor 
Church Meeting Jan. 9 1847 

Meeting opened by prayer. It was resolved at this meeting that 
it was inexpedient to bear longer with Brethren Jonas Konkapot, 
and Cornelius Charles, and that the hand of fellowship be con- 
sidered as withdrawn from them in consequence of improper con- 
du[ct]. 

A Committee consisting of Brethren Jacob Littleman, & Levi 
Konkapot be appointed to labor with Jonas Littleman, and Sally 
Konkapot, it being understood that their conduct had been un- 
becoming a profession of Godliness. 

Miss Jemima Dockstater related to the Church her religious 
feelings, and expressed confidence in Christ, and asked for ad- 
mission to the privileges of membership; which, after careful ex- 
amination was voted, in her behalf after she shall have been 
baptized 

Adjourned 

J. G. Pratt 

Pastor 
Church Meeting, Feb. 24, 1846 

Meeting opened, as usual by prayer After which, business being 
introduced, Bro. Jacob Littlemen from a committee reported that 
three persons with whom they had labored were obstinate in wicked 
ways and requested to be released from their connection with the 
Church The hand of fellowship was by unanimous vote accord- 
ingly withdrawn from Jonas Littleman Sally Konkapot, and 
Lydia Konkapot. 



248 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Mr. Benjamin Towsy expressed to the Church an interest in 
religious truth, an intention [to] forsake sinful ways an interest 
in a Saviour, and a desire to become a member with us of the 
Church of Christ After careful examination he was unanimously 
received, as a candidate for Baptism & Membership. 

J. G. Pratt 
Pastor 

Note On the following Sabbath Feb 28, Miss Doxstater, & Mr. 
Towsy were Baptised and in the evening of the same day 
Church celebrated the communion of the Lord's Supper 

J. G. P. 
Church Meeting, March 13, 1847 

At this meeting Church voted to withdraw the hand of fellow- 
ship from Cornelius Chemaukun, and to suspend from Church 
privileges his wife Mary C. for alleged improper conduct, 

Meeting adjourned, 

J. G. Pratt 
Pastor. 
Church Meeting April 10, 1847 

Time spent wholly in religious conference, there being no busi- 
ness. 

J. G. Pratt 
Pastor. 
Church Meeting May 8, 1847 

Church meeting at the house of Hannah Konkapot At this 
meeting the church voted unanimously to Withdraw fellowship 
from all persons previously suspended for immoral conduct. They 
are therefore no longer regarded as under the watch care and 
countenance of the Church Religious Conference followed 

Adjourned 

J. G. Pratt 
Pastor 
Church Meeting June 12, 1847 

At the house of Sister Hannah Konkapot Church voted to ex- 
clude Prudence Quinney for grossly immoral conduct Spent re- 
mainder of the evening in religious Conference. 

Adjourned J. G. Pratt 

Pastor 



MINUTE BOOKS OF KANSAS MISSIONS 249 

Church Meeting July 1849 

At the house of Hannah Konkapot Time spent in Devotional 
exercises 

Adjourned J. G. Pratt 

Pastor 
Church Meeting August 1847 

At the house of the Pastor This meeting being on Sabbath 
evening was preparative for the Lords Supper which was imme- 
diately after administered 

J. G. Pratt 
Pastor 
Church Meeting Sept 1847 

At the house of the Pastor At this meeting Benjamin Towsy 
and Phoebe skigget were excluded, for the sin of drunkenness De- 
votional exercises followed. J. G. Pratt 

Pastor 
Church Meeting Oct. 1847 

At the house of Hannah Konkapot. No business time spent 
in religious exercises 

J. G. Pratt 
Pastor 
Nov. & Dec Meetings omitted. 

Church meeting, Jan. 1848 

At this meeting Cornelius Charles, was restored to the fellowship 
of the Church. Mrs. Susan Charles was also restored, (formerly 
member of Delaware Baptist Church.) 

Adjourned 

John G. Pratt 

Pastor 
Feb 1848 

At this meeting no special business was transacted. Time spent 
in devotional exercises preparatory to the administration of the 
Lord's Supper on the Sabbath immediately following. 

Adjourned. 

J. G. Pratt 
Pastor 

No meeting was held at Stockbridge, until August 1, when the 
Church voted to disband & become merged in the Mission Church 
at Delaware; which was accordingly done at a meeting held at 
Delaware, Aug. 12; 13; 1848. 

J. G. Pratt. 



250 



THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 



This church having met with a severe visitation, 9 and parted 
with its former Pastor, was re-organized on the 12th of Aug. 1848. 
In doing this it was found necessary to enroll such names only as 
were known to be in good standing in this and the disbanded 
Church at Stockbridge. This step became the more important as 
the book containing record of the Delaware Church, appeared either 
to have been mutilated or intentionally neglected, as no entries ap- 
peared to have been made for several years. The list of members 
immediately following contains only such names of persons as are 
known to be in good standing in both Churches at time of re- 
organization. 



List of Church Members 
As revised August 12th, 1848 



1848 
August 29 



John G. Pratt Pastor 
Olivia E. Pratt^- 
Charles Johnycake Deceas'd 

Sally Johnycake 

Jane Johnycake Deceas'd 

Betsy Zeigler Deceased 

Francis Pokelas 
Ar-nark-tun-dut 
Excluded Wul-lun-da-nat-o'kwa 

Eunice Eaton Ex. 

Hannah Konkapot 
Susan Charles 
Cornelius Charles 
Eli Hendrick 

Sally Hendrick 1849 

f Joseph Killbuck August 1 

His wife 
Abigail Killbuck 



Deceased 
Deceas'd 



Dropped 



William Kaleb 
Jenny Kaleb 
James Rain 
Susan Killbuck 
Jacob Littleman 
Hipelas 

Hannah Hipelas 
Macharch 

Hipelas 

Nancy Konkapot 
Louisa Littleman 
Mrs. Job Skicket 
Cousin of Charles 

Johnycake 
E. S. Morse 



9. The nature of this visitation is not disclosed by the church records. 



Ferries in Kansas 

Part II Kansas River 
GEORGE A. ROOT 

THE Kansas river, the principal stream originating within the 
state, has a history dating back considerably more than 200 
years. The river derives its name from the Kanza or Kaw Indians 
who resided near its mouth and along its course from time immemo- 
rial. It is formed by the junction of the Republican and Smoky Hill 
rivers, which unite at a point near Junction City. From there it 
flows in an easterly direction for about 240 miles to mingle its murky 
waters with that of the "Great Muddy," or Missouri. 

This stream has been given various names by explorers and early 
map makers. One of the earliest references to the river was by 
Antonio de Herrary Tordesilla, historiographer to the King of Spain. 
Marquette mentions the Kanza in 1673. John Senex's map of Lou- 
isiana and of the Mississippi river, in 1719, calls it the "Great River 
of Cansez." D'Anville's map of 1732 calls it the River des Padoucas 
and Kansas. DuPratz's map of Louisiana, 1757, calls it the River 
of the Cansez, while a map of British and French settlements in 
North America, published in 1758, gives the stream the name of 
Padoucas river. 1 

There is much fiction in early accounts of the river, one authority 
recording that it had been ascended for a distance of 900 miles, while 
an equally unreliable historian asserted that it was navigable for a 
like distance. 

The valley of the Kansas had long been a highway to the buffalo 
hunting grounds on the great plains and to the mountains beyond. 
The Chouteaus and other early traders among the Indians had posts 
along the stream, and trappers and hunters used its waters to raft 
their pelts to markets on the Missouri river. 

Thomas Say, of Long's expedition, Lieut. J. W. Abert, Col. John 
C. Fremont and others started up the Kaw valley on exploring ex- 
peditions to the far West. The earliest and perhaps the greatest tide 
of emigration to Oregon and California passed up the Kaw valley 
on the first leg of the journey. The river was only fordable during 
periods when there was a scarcity of rain, and for this reason ferries 
were a necessity and were established at an early date along its 

1. Names from old maps and volumes in Kansas State Historical Society. 

(251) 



252 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

course. Being located at easily accessible points on the river, they 
became deciding factors in the location of territorial and state roads 
which were established by early legislatures. 

The earliest Kansas law regarding ferries was passed by the legis- 
lature of 1855, and was designated as chapter 71. This act provided 
that no person should keep a ferry without a license, and that the 
county clerk should issue licenses, etc. 2 

Ferrying on the Kansas river dates back something over 100 years. 
Beginning with a ferry established within the limits of present Wy- 
andotte county, the first ferry encountered above the mouth of 
the river was the one inaugurated by the Wyandott Nation, and 
was known as the Wyandott National Ferry. These Indians in 
1843 purchased lands on the north side of the Kansas river, ex- 
tending westward from its confluence with the Missouri, from their 
relatives the Delawares. Being hedged in, so to speak, by the two 
rivers, a ferry was put into operation, for their convenience, just 
above the mouth of the Kaw. Here a flatboat, operated by a cable 
and capable of transporting one wagon and team at a time, was the 
equipment first used by this ferry, while a small cabin was erected on 
the bank of the river as a shelter for the ferryman. The exact date 
when this enterprise went into operation and the name of the ferry- 
man who first had charge of the boat have not been learned. How- 
ever, the journals of Gov. William Walker throw considerable light 
on early ferry matters, there being numerous references to the sub- 
ject. The following are extracts from the journal* entries: 

"Jan. 27, 1846. Attended Council to-day but done very little of important 
business. Agreed to employ Tall Charles another year to keep the ferry. 

"Feb. 10, 1846. Paid Tall Charles, ferryman, $45, leaving him a balance due 
him for 1845 of $55.00. 

"July 7, 1846. C. G. G. and Peter Buck arraigned for violently taking the 
ferry boat from her moorings in the absence of the ferryman ; the former fined 
$5 and latter $2.50. 

"May 8, 1847. Attended the sale at the council room of the goods, chattels 
and effects of Nofat, deceased. Bought nothing. The company then proceeded 
to the ferry, hauled out and turned upside down the old boat for repairs. G. A. 
and myself assorted our lumber. 

"Dec. 27, 1847. . . . Went to H. Jaquis's and spent a part of the day, the 
election of a ferryman being the principal topic of conversation, the candidates 
are D. Young, Tall Charles, Charles Split-The-Logs. 

"Dec. 28, 1847. Council met at James Washington's. Proceeded to the 
election of a ferryman, and resulted in the election of D. Young. 

2. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, pp. 362-364. 

* Nebraska State Historical Society Collections, 2d Ser., v. 8. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 253 

"Jan. 17, 1848. No ferrying, the river being frozen over. 

"May 3, 1848. . . . Settled with M. Goodyear for lumber got for the 
use of the ferry by the council, $27.50. 

"June 4, 1848. Mrs. Wtalker] and Sophia state that on their return from 
K[ansas City] they found at the ferry a dozen or more people waiting to cross, 
and among them was John Charloe, very drunk, and had been severely beat. 

"Dec. 12, 1848. At 2 o'clock the joint meeting proceeded to ballot for a 
ferryman. After several ballots all the candidates were dropped except D. 
Young and Tall Charles and the final ballots on these two stood thus: D. 
Young, 16; Tall Charles, 7. Majority, 9 votes. Adjourned. 

"July 28, 1849. . . . Attended a special election of ferryman, vice D. 
Young resigned ; and George Steel was elected. 

"Nov. 17, 1850. To-day the council and legislative committee met in joint 
session to elect ferryman for the year 1851 . . . when Isaac Brown was 
duly elected. 

"Feb. 18, 1851. The Kansas river has about run dry; there not being water 
enough to float the ferry boat, and consequently no ferrying. 

"In the evening learned that the ferry was now passable. 

"Dec. 14, 1852. . . . Attended the joint meeting of the council and legis- 
lative committee and elected Nicholas Cotter ferryman for 1853. 

"Mch. 9, 1853. Sent Dudley to Ktansas City], who shortly afterwards re- 
turned and reported that the ice above the ferry had broken loose and stove in 
the ferry boat and carried her off down the river, with a negro on board. 

"May 26, 1853. Diable. Those drunken vagabondish ferrymen have lost the 
ferry boat. They say some one or two broke the lock last night and took the 
boat, no one knows where. This is provoking. The rascals have been drunk 
and lost the boat themselves. Now we have another embargo. 

"May 29, 1853. Our ferry boat was found and recovered near Randolph. 

"Dec. 20, 1853. Harriet and Baptiste set out for Kansas, but on arriving at 
the ferry found the floating ice so thick and running so rapidly the ferry boat 
could not cross. So they gave it up and came home. Mr. Dofflemeyer then 
proposed to Harriet that if she would go back with him, as he wanted to go 
ver, he would venture with the ferry boat, and make the attempt to cross. 
They went and succeeded in crossing. 

"June 5, 1854. Lost our ferry boat again. 

"June 17, 1854. Heard of the recovery of the ferry boat. 

"June 21, 1854. We have had no mail for nearly two weeks for the want of 
a boat to cross the river. Although the boat was caught at Richfield, about 
forty miles from here, yet our worthless council and still more worthless ferry- 
man take no steps towards getting it bro't up again. A pretty set of fellows 
to want to maintain a separate government." 

The above is the last entry in the Walker journals regarding the 
Wyandotte ferry. The record book of the Wyandotte Indian coun- 
cil, 1855 to 1871, contains several mentions of the ferry, concluding 
with its sale in 1856. There is a hiatus of a little more than a year 



254 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

between the last ferry item date in Walker's journal and the first 
similar one in the Wyandotte records, which follows: 

"Nov. 9, 1855. The council paid Adam Brown one hundred and eighty dol- 
lars for acting as ferryman for nine months. 

"Nov. 13 to 22, 1855. Ferry expenses to Joel Walker, $79.00. Ferry expenses 
to Northrup & Chick, $22.15. John D. Brown for repairs on ferry house, $35.00. 

"Nov. 3, 1856. Silas Armstrong hire of flat boat, paid $61.50. Thomas Smart 
for crying of ferry sale (paid) Silas Armstrong, $5.00. National ferryman, J. H. 
Cotter, paid, $199.54. 

"Wyandott Council 1st Sept. 
"Wyandott Council. 1856. 

"Convened this day, present Geo. I. Clark, Silas Armstrong, John D. Brown, 
John Hicks & Peter D. Clark. 

"The commissioners met the council this day and the chiefs and commis- 
sioners ordered the four acres of ground attached to the ferry 3 to be surveyed 
and to be sold to the highest bidder on Monday the fifteenth (15th) day of 
the present month according to treaty of 31st January, 1856. 

"Amount of Sam Parsons (surveying) account $586.68. 

"R. ROBITAILLE, Clerk. GEO. I. CLABK, Principal Chief." 

"Wyandott Council, 15 September, 1856. 

"The Wyandotts council convened this day according to adjournment, full 
board of chiefs present, Geo. I. Clark presiding. In accordance with an article 
in the treaty between the U. S. government and Wyandott Indians in date of 
31st January, 1855, and according to advertisements affixed in three public 
places in Wyandott, was sold the four acres of land attached to the Wyandott 
ferry, this day and adjudged to Isaiah Walker, the highest bidder, for the sum 
of seven thousand dollars, payable one-half, say three thousand five hundred 
($3,500) dollars, payable on the thirty-first of next October, and the other half, 
say three thousand five hundred ($3,500) dollars, payable one year from said 
31st October next without interest, and Charles B. Garrett becomes his security 
for the full fillment of the conditions of the sale. A plat of said lot of land has 
been made by Lot Coffman, Esq., one of the commissioners. 

"There being no further business the Council have adjourned to the October 
next. GEO. I. CLARK, Principal Chief. 4 

"R. ROBITAILLE, Clerk." 

Another early mention of this ferry dating back to 1846 is the fol- 
lowing by Louis H. Gerrard, in his Wa-to-yah, page 2: 

"The Wyandotte is the nearest Indian tribe to Kansas [City]; and, one 
afternoon, Mr. Drinker and myself visited the agent, Doctor Hewitt. A walk 
of a mile, through woods on the river bank, brought us to the mouth of the 
Kansas, or Kaw, river, a stream ferried by a tall, good specimen of a full- 
blood Wyandotte, who received the toll with a look as if to say, 'Your money's 

3. Kansas Historical Collections, v. 15, map facing p. 158. 

4. Wyandotte Indian Council Records, 1855-1871, MSS., pp. 41, 42. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 255 

no account, and I've a mind to toss you in the river for offering it'; our at- 
tempts at conversation failed." 

In 1857 the ferry crossed the Kaw at a point near the cable line 
bridge of later date. It is said that toll charges for this year 
amounted to $7,000 for crossing, and that charges were not exhor- 
bitant, but reasonable. This ferry continued to be used until 1863. 
when a pontoon bridge was built across the river near its mouth. 5 

A Kansan who used this ferry many years ago, wrote: 

"We crossed the Kaw at Wyandotte. In those days there were no bridges, 
so we had to ferry over on one of those flat-bottomed scows such as are in 
use to-day for carrying sand from the steam dredges in the Missouri and Kan- 
sas rivers. A heavy cable was stretched across the river on which ran two 
pulleys from which ropes were attached to each end of the boat. When the 
ferryman was ready to start he wound the rear rope so as to head the boat 
up stream and the current would propel the boat to the opposite shore. This 
was a slow process, as only one team at a time could be carried, but was the 
best we could do in the Far West of fifty years ago." 6 

Just what disposition Isaiah Walker made of his ferry has not 
been learned. However, an advertisement in the Western Argus, of 
Wyandotte, April 7, 1860, stated that the ferry was running, Isaiah 
Walker & Co. being proprietors. 

Mr. K. L. Browne, of Kansas City, Kan., in a letter to the author, 
dated July 12, 1932, stated that "Jack Beaton was the recognized 
operator of the ferry. He was not an Indian. Afterwards he went 
west with Tom Parks, who was killed by the Indians during the 
building of the Union Pacific railroad." 

The following items relating to Wyandotte county ferry matters 
are extracts from the minute book of the city fathers of the City of 
Wyandotte : 

"Oct. 12, 1856: Mr. Glick, on behalf of Mr. Steavens, made application for 
the payment by the town of the amount due him for services performed as 
ferryman on the free ferry across the Kansas river, he being unable to collect 
the same from the citizens by whom it was agreed to be paid. Petition laid 
on the table. 

"July 14, 1859 : Petition of L. Meyer and other merchants and business men 
of the city requesting the board to levy a tax on the steam ferry boat "Lizzie," 
or any other ferry boat running regularly between this city and Kansas City. 
Tabled. 

"November 15, 1859: Resolved that Messrs. Walker, Judd and His Honor 
the Mayor, be appointed a committee to confer with Wm. H. Irwin & Co. with 
a view of establishing a ferry across the Missouri river. 

5. Godspeed's History of Wyandotte County, pp. 359, 361. 

6. Charles Raber, "Personal Recollections," in Kansas Historical Collections, v. 16, p. 316. 



256 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

"November 19, 1859: The committee appointed to confer with Wm. H. 
Irwin & Co. with regard to the ferry across the Missouri river reported that 
they had submitted the proposition of the board to Mr. Irwin which was that 
Wm. H. Irwin & Co. was to establish the ferry within thirty days after the 
18th day of January, A.D. 1860 and to pay to the city ten per cent of the 
profits of said ferry and that Wm. H. Irwin & Co. accepted said proposition. 
On motion of Mr. White the report was received and the committee discharged. 
Whereupon it was on motion, 

"Resolved, That the mayor be instructed to complete the contract between 
Wm. H. Irwin & Co. and the city with regard to the ferry across the Missouri 
river and submit the same to a vote of the people at an election to be held 
for that purpose on the 6th day of December, 1859. 

[No record of an election in the minute book.] 

"November 24, 1859: An article of agreement between the city of Wyan- 
dotte and Wm. H. Irwin & Co. was presented and ordered placed on file. 

"November 24, 1859: A petition signed by Silas Armstrong, David E. James 
and William Wear, his attorney, for ferry privileges across the Kansas river was 
presented and read, whereupon on motion of Mr. Overton it was 

"Resolved, That we hereby grant unto the Kansas River Ferry Company 
the privilege of moving their present rope ferry to or near the mouth of the 
Kansas river and grant unto them the privilege of landing at said point with a 
flat boat for the term of three years from the present time. Said ferry to be 
moved within twenty days from the present time. 

"November 25, 1859: The mayor stated that the object of calling the meet- 
ing to be his veto of a bill passed on the previous day granting the privilege 
to the Kansas River Ferry Company the right to land on the Wyandott side 
at the foot of Minnesota avenue for the period of three years, and gave as his 
reasons for vetoing the same that from information he had derived since that 
the city had no rights themselves to a landing at that point and that they were 
giving away private property which they had no right to do and as the resolu- 
tion now stood he could not approve it. 

"November 29, 1859: Petition of J. M. Funk and others for certain ferry 
privileges to be granted to the Kansas River Ferry Company was brought be- 
fore the meeting. Whereupon Mr. Overton moved that the company be al- 
lowed the privilege of landing on the levee on the Kansas river belonging to 
the city for the term of three years. Motion lost a majority of the whole 
board needed to carry over the mayor's veto. 

"February 28, 1860: Petition of R. W. Clark, J. M. Funk, et al for ferry 
landing at the mouth of the Kansas river. On motion the above petition was 
referred to committee on ordinances with instructions to report at next meet- 
ing an ordinance in compliance with said petition. 

"March 6, 1860: Committee on ordinances reported ordinance 20 relating 
to ferry landing on Kansas river. Upon the final passage was passed unani- 
mously. 

[Ordinance cannot be found.] 

"April 10, 1860: Petition of Wm. H. Irwin for extension of time on ferry 
contract presented. On motion the time on said contract was extended from 
May 1, 1860, until May first, 1875. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 257 

"April 17, 1860: On motion Gen. W. H. Irwin was granted until the first 
of June, A. D., 1860, to procure ferry boat." 

The Wyandotte City Ferry Company, operated by Silas Arm- 
strong and associates, was granted a charter by the legislature of 
1858 to operate a ferry across the Missouri river, with privilege of 
landing on either bank of the Kansas river within one-eighth of a 
mile above its mouth. 7 Two years later this company was granted 
additional rights and privileges when the city council passed the 
following: 

"ORDINANCE No. 37. 

"An ordinance granting Silas Armstrong, or his assigns, the privilege of landing 
a ferry boat on Kansas river. 

"Be it Ordained by the mayor and aldermen of the city of Wyandotte, 
to- wit : 

"Section 1. That Silas Armstrong or his heirs and assigns, if they have the 
lawful right to keep a public ferry across the Kansas river, at or near its 
mouth, shall have all the right this city has to grant, to a landing of their 
ferry boat at any place where any of the streets or avenues of this city, now 
made open, by any ordinance of this city, or resolution or motion, strikes or 
extends to the said river, for a period of three years from this date, unless the 
said place where said boat shall be located shall be wanted before that time 
for the purpose of constructing a bridge over said river at that point. 

"Approved, Dec. 5, 1860. GEO. RUSSELL, Mayor. 

"Attest: THOMAS J. DARLING, City Clerk." 8 

Willie Willis was granted a charter by the board of county com- 
missioners of Johnson county, at a called meeting April 10, 1858, for 
a ferry on the Kansas river near the mouth of the stream and oppo- 
site the city of Wyandotte for the term of twelve months. This li- 
cense cost Mr. Willis $75, and he was authorized to collect the fol- 
lowing rates of ferriage: Each footman, 10 cents; man and horse, 
15 cents ; loose horses, 10 cents ; cattle, 10 cents each ; buggy and one 
horse, 25 cents; two-horse wagon and horses, 50 cents; each addi- 
tional horse, 10 cents. 9 

The next ferry upstream was about three miles from Wyandotte. 
This was known as the Santa Fe road ferry and was started in 1857 
by Wyandotte interests in an effort to attract trade to that city from 
territory south of the Kansas river. In order to do this it was 
necessary to establish a free ferry and open a road from Wyandotte 
to the river. The point selected for the ferry was on the SE% of 
S. 20, T. 11, R. 25, the road crossing the river a few rods below 

7. Laws, Kansas, 1858, pp. 70, 71. 

8. Wyandotte Commercial Gazette, December 8, 1860. 

9. Johnson county, Commissioners Proceedings, 1858, p. 12. 

178677 / 



258 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the Argentine bridge of the 1930's, and continuing on to Shawnee, 
in Johnson county, where it connected with the old Santa Fe trail. 
This road did not receive official recognition until October 27, 1859, 
when it was regularly laid out and designated on the official plat as 
the "Santa Fe road." It reached the Kaw where Nineteenth street, 
Kansas City, now meets the river. 10 This ferry soon gave way to a 
toll bridge. 

At the 1858 session of the territorial legislature a company desig- 
nated as the Wyandotte Bridge Company applied for a charter for a 
bridge across the Kansas river at a point not closer than two, nor 
more than six, miles from the mouth of that stream. One section of 
the act authorized and empowered the company to establish and 
maintain a free ferry across the river at or near the point selected 
for the erection of the bridge, 11 which was built that year. 

Wyandotte was a natural center for roads from all directions. A 
road to the west from Wyandotte connected with the Fort Leaven- 
worth-Fort Gibson road ; one to the south connected with the Santa 
Fe road ; another to the west intersected the Fort Leavenworth-Fort 
Riley road. These were the more important ones. Another, estab- 
lished in 1855, which ran from the Wyandotte ferry across the Kan- 
sas river, passing Joel Walker's, Charles Garrett's and Noah Zaines' 
claims and on to the Parkville ferry, was made a territorial road ; 12 
another, established the same time, ran from Wyandotte, via Jack- 
sonville, to Ozawkie, the act requiring the commissioners who laid 
out the road to erect "finger boards" along the route where neces- 
sary. 13 Another ran to Quindaro, Leavenworth and Atchison; 14 
another to Mound City, via the Wyandotte bridge, Aubrey, New 
Lancaster and Ballard's ford, 15 and still another from Wyandotte, 
via Shawneetown, New Lancaster, Trading Post, Potosi and Barnes- 
ville, to Fort Scott, following the old military road as nearly as prac- 
ticable. 16 

Up to 1858 the ferries took care of the commerce and traffic over 
these routes. By that time those of vision could see that bridges 
must supplant the ferries. That year a charter was secured from the 
legislature by the Wyandotte Bridge Company for a bridge over the 

10. County clerk, Wyandotte county, Road Record A, p. 4. 

11. Private Laws, Kansas, 1858, pp. 48-50. 

12. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, p. 972. 

13. Ibid., pp. 978-979. 

14. Laws, Kansas, I860, p. 588. 

15. Ibid., 1861, p. 249. 

16. Ibid., 1865, p. 144. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 259 

Kaw river, to be located within one mile from the mouth and which 
should not impede free navigation of the river. 17 During the Civil 
War period there was not much bridge construction, and the toll 
bridges and ferries had things pretty much their own way. 

After the close of the War the era of bridge building in Wyandotte 
commenced. On August 1, 1865, the Wyandotte Bridge and Ferry 
Company applied for a charter, which was issued, granting them the 
right of constructing and establishing one or more bridges or ferries, 
or both, over the Kansas river between the mouth of the river and 
the western boundary of the county, and also of operating a ferry 
or bridge in the Missouri river and opposite to and across the mouth 
of the Kansas river. This charter was filed with the secretary of 
state, September 29, 1865. 18 

In 1866, 1867 and 1872 bridges were built at Wyandotte, and also 
a number constructed later, no less than a dozen having been erected 
across the Kaw river up to the 1930's. 19 

Above Armstrong's another ferry was started by Quindaro in- 
terests and was known as the Eureka ferry, located on the SE^, 
S. 18, T. 11, R. 25. This ferry was inaugurated in an effort to share 
in the trade Wyandotte city was drawing from territory to the south 
of the Kaw river. Both towns surveyed and opened up roads 
through the Shawnee reservation. Committees were appointed by 
the two towns to confer and fix upon a point where a joint ferry for 
both could be established. The location suggested by Wyandotte 
was rejected by Quindaro as being too far east, and the location 
designated by Quindaro was rejected as being too far west. These 
locations were about a mile apart, and compromise was wrong in 
principle. This resulted in free ferries for both. 20 Exact date of 
starting the Eureka ferry has not been learned. On March 30, 1857, 
Aaron W. Merrill and Abelard Guthrie entered. into the following 
written agreement: 

"This agreement the 30th day of March A. D. 1857, between Aaron W. 
Merrill of the one part and Abelard Guthrey in behalf of the Quindaro Com- 
pany of the other part, witnesseth: That the said Merrill in consideration of 
the covenants hereinafter contained, covenants and agrees to and with the 
said Guthrey for said Guthrey for said company, that he will keep the said 
company's ferry, called "Eureka" ferry, lately established on the Kansas river 
about four miles below Delaware ferry, and tow the said company's flat boat 

17. Private Laws, Kansas, 1858, pp. 51-58. 

18. Corporations, v. 1, pp. 44, 45, in Archives division, Kansas State Historical Society. 

19. Ibid., pp. 67, 68; Wyandotte Gazette, 1866, 1867, 1868. 

20. Kansas City Journal, February 17, 1882. 



260 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

across and ferry over all the teams and wagons, horses, cattle and mules and 
ferry across all persons coming to said ferry, and do all such ferrying free of 
charge to the persons coming and requiring to be ferryed across said river. 
And that he will at all times provide sufficient help to do such fenying of 
persons, horses, cattle, mules, teams and wagons and goods in expeditious and 
skillful manner, and that he will keep and protect the said companies boats 
and keep them in good repair at his own expense, except extraordinary repairs 
occasioned without his fault. 

"And in consideration of the premices the said Guthrey promises and agrees 
that the company will pay to said Merrill for such services as aforesaid the 
sum of one hundred dollars per month so long as the said Merrill shall continue 
to do such ferrying, and bestow the care on said companys boats and keeping 
them in repair as aforesaid. The said Guthrey further agrees that the said 
company will furnish the said Merrill the said boats, namely a flat boat and 
a skiff in good repair. Also 2 picks and 2 shovels for the use of said ferry to 
be kept and used by said Merrill and to be returned to said company when he 
shall leave said ferry. The payments aforesaid to be made in cash every month. 

"The said Merrill also agrees to cut out the road on the south side of the 
river and make it good and convenient for teams to pass up and down from 
the river to the bluff and bridge the stream in the ravine, and also on the north 
side up to where the ravine crosses the road and to make a bridge over the 
stream if needed. 

"Either party to have the privilege to rescind this contract and agreement 
at the end of month by giving one week's previous notice to the other party 
of the intention to rescind said agreement. 

"In witness whereof the parties have hereunto set their hands and seals the 
day and year first aforesaid in presence of 

"ABELARD GUTHREY 
"A. W. MERRILL." 

On April 14, 1859, Merrill brought suit in the district court of the 
third judicial district in and for the Territory of Kansas, Wyandotte 
county, against Charles Robinson, Abelard Guthrie and Samuel N. 
Simpson under the name of the Quindaro Company, setting up this 
contract, alleging that he worked seven months thereunder and that 
he was paid but $348.20, leaving a balance due him of $357.80. The 
case is No. 24 on the Wyandotte county dockets. 

The defendants answered claiming nonperformance on the part 
of Merrill and alleging that he neglected the business, failed to have 
sufficient help, did not cut out the roads, and that he charged, col- 
lected and pocketed monies from those who used the ferry, for all 
of which they asked damages of Merrill. 

It took six years to bring the case to trial, but on October 2, 1865, 
a jury trial was had, seven witnesses were sworn, and the plaintiff 
was given a judgment against Guthrie of $630.24. Guthrie appealed 
to the supreme court, where the case was reversed and sent back for 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 261 

a new trial. 21 October 8, 1867, the case was dismissed without 
prejudice and an execution issued against Merrill for costs. 

In the spring and summer of 1857 the people of Quindaro built a 
road to Lawrence, laid out one to Osawatomie, and established a 
free ferry at what is now John H. Matton's place, with a view of 
competing for the wholesale trade of the territory ; 22 another ran to 
Salina, via Lawrence and Topeka ; 23 another was laid out in 1860 
and ran to Shawnee, 24 and another was laid out leading from Quin- 
daro across Wyandotte county to the Kansas river. This was known 
as the Madison Corvett road, and the road plat on file in the Wyan- 
dotte county clerk's office shows it crossing the Kansas river in the 
SE^ of S. 18, T. 11, R. 25, at a point designated on the map as 
"the old ferry." This would be the location of the Eureka ferry, 
out of which grew the lawsuit with Abelard Guthrie for wages. 

The Quindaro and Shawnee Bridge and Road Company was 
granted a charter by the legislature of 1860 to construct a bridge 
across the Kansas river at or near the crossing of the territorial road, 
located, or to be located, under an act to establish certain territorial 
roads, approved February 7, 1859; also to open and improve said 
territorial road by planking, macadamizing or turnpiking the same. 
Capital stock of the company was placed at $70,000, with shares 
$25 each. Construction work on the bridge was to begin within two 
years, and completion of the bridge was limited to five years. The 
company was authorized to establish and maintain a ferry across 
the Kansas river at or near the point selected for the erection of 
the bridge, and for that purpose was authorized to receive gifts, 
grants and donations from individuals or corporations. The act 
also provided that, upon the application of twenty persons living 
along the line of the territorial road, the commissioners should cause 
a strip of land to be laid off, not exceeding five miles in width, the 
road running as near as possible through the center of this strip. 
The commissioners were also instructed to have the proposition sub- 
mitted to a vote of the taxpayers who resided on said strip, to as- 
certain their stand on the proposed subscription to the capital stock 
of the company, those living on the north side of the Kaw voting at 
Quindaro, while those to the south of the river voted at Shawnee- 
town. If a majority of taxpayers voted in favor of the subscription, 

21. Abelard Guthrie vs. Aaron W. Merrill, 4 Kansas 159. 

22. Wyandotte Herald, July 6, 1876. 

23. Laws, Kansas, 1860, p. 585. 

24. Ibid., 1860, p. 588. 



262 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the board was authorized to levy a tax and issue bonds payable in 
ten years, bearing interest not to exceed ten per cent yearly. The 
last section of the act provided that when the bonds should be is- 
sued by the commissioners, the owners of the said real property so 
taxed should be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of a 
stockholder, for every twenty-five dollars so levied; and as fast as 
any taxpayer should pay the sum of twenty-five dollars he should 
have issued to him a certificate of a share in the company. 25 It 
would be interesting to know the result of this road building project. 
Wyandotte newspapers in the Historical Society's collection for this 
period are not complete, and no mention of this election has been 
found. 

The next ferry up stream was the Chouteau ferry. Just when this 
enterprise was started and its exact location have not been learned. 
In 1820 Francis and Cyprian Chouteau built a trading house near 
present Bonner Springs, known as the "four houses." Some years 
later, about 1825, they built new trading posts farther down the 
river for the purpose of trading with the Delawares and Shawnees. 
This new location was said by various authorities to be from four 
to ten miles from the mouth of the Kansas, these extremes of dis- 
tance being reckoned by following the river or taking the most 
direct route by land. This site, however, was near and opposite the 
Indian village of Secondine, and present town of Muncie, but was on 
the south side of the river 26 and, according to Grant W. Harrington, 
has been "definitely located on S. 13, T. 11, R. 24, directly north of 
the town of Turner. John C. Fremont outfitted here in 1842 for his 
first exploring trip to the west." Franklin G. Adams, first secretary 
of the Kansas State Historical Society, in 1880 had an interview with 
Frederick Chouteau, who said that the trading houses were on the 
north side of the river. 27 Another authority, John C. McCoy, an old 
resident of Johnson county, Kansas, and later of Jackson county, 
Missouri, who, with his father, the Rev. Isaac McCoy, and other 
members of the McCoy family, surveyed many of the Indian reser- 
vations in Kansas and Oklahoma, places the trading houses on the 
south side of the river. Mr. McCoy in 1830 surveyed the western 
boundary of the Delaware reservation, stating that the survey was 

25. Private Laws, Kansas, 1860, pp. 25-29. "County Clerk's record of Wyandotte county 
for this period not preserved. No record of an election. Road plat book fails to show any 
such road. Think it fell by the wayside." Note of Grant W. Harrington to author, May 
26, 1933. 

26. R. I. Holcombe, History of Vernon County, Mo., p. 164 ; Andreas, History of Kansas, 
p. 1254. 

27. Kansas Historical Collections, v. 8, p. 425. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 263 

begun on September 6 and completed late that year. He wrote: 
"Our party started from Fayette, Mo. ... We passed up to 
Chouteau's trading house on the south side of the Kansas river and, 
crossing there, passed on to Fort Leavenworth." 28 

Grant W. Harrington, of Kansas City, states that Charles Carpen- 
ter, an old resident of Wyandotte county, related to him that his 
parents in 1857 started from Wyandotte to Lawrence by boat, and 
that their boat grounded at Chouteau's ferry. Passengers were then 
obliged to leave the boat and complete their journey overland. 

Unfortunately the history of this ferry has not been preserved. 
Aside from an occasional mention nothing else has been found. It 
is likely the ferry was operated at or near this trading house, and 
for that reason it is included here. In 1862 several members of the 
Chouteau family obtained a charter for a ferry to be located in the 
neighborhood of present Bonner Springs, the history of which will 
be found in its proper place in this article. In view of this new 
Chouteau ferry location it is likely the ferry near Muncie was aban- 
doned. 

In 1867 another ferry was established in this immediate vicinity, 
being located somewhere between the mouth of Muncie creek and a 
point due east from the town of Muncie. On June 8 of that year 
John Smith, William Rutledge, William Rawson, William J. Gault, 
Jeremiah H. Materson and Charles S. Glick were granted a charter 
under the name of the Muncie Ferry Company. This ferry was de- 
scribed as being on the "land of John Smith on the Kansas river, 
opposite sections 14 and 15, T. 11, R. 25 east." [Error as to range; 
should be 24.] Capital stock of the company was placed at $500, 
with shares $25 each. The principal office of the company was to be 
at the town of Muncie. This charter was filed with the secretary of 
state June 12, 1867. 29 No further mention of this enterprise has 
been located. 

According to Grant W. Harrington old settlers recall that a rock 
landing was made for this ferry, and that the road leading down 
to it was known as the "Ferry road." Old residents of Wyandotte 
county say that the north and south road between sections 14 and 
15, T. 11, R. 24, which now stops at highway 32, formerly extended 
south between sections 22 and 23 to the Kansas river to a ferry 
where the Shawnee Indians crossed, and that it was known as the 
"Shawnee ferry." This would bring it into the NW% of S. 23, T. 

28. Ibid., v. 5, p. 802. 

29. Corporations, v. 1, p. 350. 



264 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

11, R. 24. Nothing has been found in print or on the maps to verify 
this. 30 

The Grinter ferry, about eight and one-half miles west of the 
Kansas-Missouri boundary, was the next above Muncie. This was 
the earliest ferry established on the Kansas river. Moses Grinter, 
according to an account of a Grinter reunion, 31 came to Kansas 
in 1828, and served for a time in the regular army at Cantonment 
Leavenworth. He was then appointed to operate a ferryboat across 
the Kansas river to provide a crossing for a military road to run 
from Cantonment Leavenworth to Fort Gibson. He arrived at his 
destination, the Indian village of Secondine, in January, 1831, se- 
lected a suitable location and started a rope ferry on the NW^ S. 
28, T. 11, R. 24, near the eastern edge of the Delaware reservation as 
established after the coming of the Wyandottes. No complete scale 
of ferry charges has been located for this crossing. However, Mary 
Walton Blanchard, wife of Ira D. Blanchard, in charge of the Dela- 
ware Baptist mission, under date of December 11, 1836, wrote: "We 
are 16 miles from Shawnee and the Kaw is % mile wide between us 
and the feriage for a single person 50 cents and for a wagon 2 
dollars." 32 

In a letter of Rev. Isaac McCoy, in the Kansas State Historical 
Society archives, dated at Shawnee, Jackson county, Missouri, 
July 22, 1833, and addressed to Rev. Dr. Bolles, corresponding 
secretary and treasurer of the Baptist mission board, at Boston, 
is mention of a ferry of the Delawares, as follows: 

"... A week ago yesterday I had expected to Baptize a Delaware at 
the Delaware Settlements, but I previously sickened and have been two weeks 
confined to my bed. After I was attacked with sickness we designed that Bro 
Burch should administer baptism, but the landing near us of a S. boat with 
Cholera on it so alarmed the Delawares, that they removed their ferry boat 
to prevent travellers from crossing to them. . . ." 

The above item probably refers either to Grinter 's or Toley's 
ferry. 

The first location of the Shawnee Methodist mission was about 
three miles to the east, while the Delaware council house and 
Delaware mission were about one and one-half miles to the north. 
Grinter built a log cabin on the bank of the river, having cultivated 
lands in sections 20 and 21, a few rods to the north of the ferry. 
A few years later he married Ann Marshall, a Delaware woman. 

30. Grant W. Harrington, statement, February, 1933. 

31. Kansas City Times, September 26, 1932. 

32. Pratt MSS., Kansas State Historical Society. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 265 

They raised a family of ten children, all of whom were born in this 
home. Moses Grinter was a native of Ohio, born about 1805, 
coming to this country from Kentucky when about 23 years 
of age. 33 He died June 12, 1878, and is buried at Grinter chapel, 
about three miles north of the ferry. 

Delaware crossing was a noted one in preterritorial and territorial 
times, and was known under various names, such as Grinter's ferry, 
Military ferry, Delaware crossing, Secondine crossing, etc. Early 
military expeditions from Fort Leavenworth to Forts Gibson and 
Scott crossed the Kaw at this place, as did countless others along 
the old Santa Fe trail from Leavenworth to military posts and to 
points in the mountains. 34 A post office had been established at 
this point in 1849, with James Findley as postmaster. He was 
still in charge in 1854. There were two or three trading posts there 
at this time, also a government blacksmith shop for the Indians. 
Isaac Munday was in charge of this work, having been employed 
as blacksmith for the Indians as early as 1843, first at the Fort 
Leavenworth agency and later at the Kansas agency. 35 

Up to 1842 the ferry was reached by Indian trails from both sides 
of the river, but that year a military road was laid out from Fort 
Leavenworth to the newly established Fort Scott. The road leading 
to the old Grinter ferry site is now known as the Defries road, and 
the old crossing can be reached by following highway 32 about a 
mile west of Muncie to its junction with the Defries road. Up the 
hill about one-fourth of a mile and on the west side of the Defries 
road is the old brick home of the Grinters. Mrs. H. C. Kirby, last 
surviving member of the Grinter family, definitely located the old 
ferry site. "The landing was right down there," she said, pointing 
to the right of the intersection of the Defries road with highway 
32. "The blacksmith shop and the stores were on this side of the 
ravine. On the other side of the ravine was the Indian village of 
Secondine." 36 

A plat of Shawnee lands of T. 11, R. 24, shows a road running 
from Grinter's ferry to the southwest across S. 29, crossing the NW 
corner of S. 32, the NE corner of S. 31, and connecting in that 
corner with a road reaching Toley's ferry. 

In 1855 the territorial legislature established a road from West- 

33. Census, Wyandotte county, 1860, p. 48, in Archives division, Kansas State Historical 
Society, lists Moses Grinter as 55 years of age, born in Ohio. 

34. Kansas Historical Collections, v. 7, pp. 203, 559, 573. 

35. New York Tribune, June 28, 1854; Kansas Historical Collections, v. 1-2, p. 253, v. 16, 
pp. 728, 829, 831, 832. 

36. Interview with Mrs. H. C. Kirby by Grant W. Harrington. 



266 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

port, Mo., via Captain Joseph Parks', 37 and the Shawnee manual 
labor school, to intersect the Fort Leavenworth road north of and 
near the Quaker mission farm by way of James Findley's to the 
Grinter crossing. 38 

Percival G. Lowe, in his Five Years a Dragoon, relates many in- 
teresting incidents in connection with this old ferry. 

Toley's ferry was the next one above Grinter's and about two 
miles distant. Just when this ferry started has not been learned, 
but it must have been soon after the arrival of the Delawares. 
Troops for the Mexican war crossed there in 1846. The ferry in 
1854 was located on the SE% S. 31, T. 11, R. 24, as shown on a 
plat of Shawnee Indian lands. The landing on the south side of 
the river was on land owned by the Toley family, while the landing 
on the opposite side of the river was on the same quarter section. 
Toley, 39 who operated the ferry, was a Shawnee Indian, and said to 
be quite intelligent. He was a leader in his neighborhood and was 
a member of Pascal Fish's church. Other members of the Toley 
family owned land about twenty-five miles farther west, in present 
Jefferson county. Henry Tiblow owned land less than three-fourths 
of a mile north of the ferry, and a north and south road running 
directly east of his farm led directly to the ferry. 40 

The following, written by a member of Doniphan's expedition, 
1846, probably refers to this ferry: 

"The Shawnee and Delaware tribes of Indians have settled here. The 
Shawnees have fine farms, and are quite civilized people; the Delawares are a 
little behind them. Both tribes speak the English language more or less. 
They keep a ferry boat here, in which we crossed the river. The keeper of the 
boat said he had made four hundred dollars this season by the crossing of 
emigrants bound to Oregon. We purchased a beef steer of them for four 
dollars, paying for it ourselves, for Uncle Sam finds us no beef." 41 

A later mention of this ferry is found in the diary of Hugh 
Campbell, 42 for 1857, who was a member of Col. Joseph E. John- 
ston's staff in surveying the southern boundary of Kansas, which 
relates having crossed the river on Toley's ferry. 

37. Chief Joseph Parks was a member of the Shawnee tribe. He was once a resident 
of Michigan and is said to have enjoyed the confidence of Gen. Lewis Cass. In 1854 he owned 
land in the Shawnee reservation, described as the north half and the southeast quarter of 
S. 27, T. 11, R. 25. His name is included in a list of voters of Johnson county for 1857. His 
death occurred early in 1860, according to the Topeka State Record, February 25, of that year. 

38. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, pp. 973, 974. 

39. This name is spelled variously, as Tola, Tula, Toola, Tooley, Toley, Tuley, etc. 

40. Kansas Historical Collections, v. 8, pp. 251, 255, 259; Shawnee Indian Reservation 
Lands in Kansas, Treaty of 1854, Plat of T. 11, R. 24. 

41. Jacob S. Robinson, A Journal of the Santa Fe Expedition under Colonel Doniphan, 
p. 3. 

42. Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. 1, p. 108. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 267 

The following advertisement appeared in the Kansas Weekly 
Herald, Leavenworth, early in May, 1857, and ran for several 
months : 

"TOOLEY'S FERRY 
On the Kansas River, 
And nearest route from Leavenworth to 
Westport, and to the Shawnee Lands 

On Cedar and Mill Creeks 

"There is now in operation a good ferry boat at Tooley's, on the Kansas 
river, with attentive hands to cross persons with safety and promptness. A 
good boat will always be kept and no pains spared to accommodate the public. 
All persons crossing the Kansas river to or from the Shawnee lands, or from 
Westport and Kansas City to Leavenworth City and the northern portions of 
Kansas, will find this ferry the very best and nearest route. 
"May 2, 1857." 

Johnson county granted a license to this ferry in 1858, charging 
$60 a year for the privilege. 43 

In 1859 Charles Toley received from the legislature a charter 
for a ferry at or near the east line of S. 32, T. 11, R. 24, with 
privileges for a mile on each side of section 32, for a period of twenty 
years. A plat of Shawnee reservation lands of 1854 shows Toley's 
ferry location in the SE% S. 31, T. 11, R. 24, the south landing 
being on land of Martha Toley. This site is about two and one- 
third miles above Grinter's. Mr. Toley in 1854 owned land in the 
NWi/i of S. 32, bordering the river on the south, and William 
Toley had land in the NE quarter of same section. The nearest 
point to the river from the east line of this section is fully a third 
of a mile. Toley apparently, was seeking a new location by 1859 
and must have moved his boats something over a mile down stream. 

Theodore Garrett and forty others petitioned for a county road 
from Silas Armstrong's to a point near Delaware ferry, and thence 
by the nearest and best route to Toley 's ferry. This petition was 
approved by the county commissioners, viewers were appointed 
and the road laid out. The field notes of this survey give distances 
by poles and claims, and this would indicate that at this time the 
"Toley" ferry was not over three-fourths of a mile above the Dela- 
ware or Grinter ferry. 44 No further history of this ferry has been 
located. 

Keeler's ferry, about three-fourths of a mile above the location 
of Toley's ferry in 1854, was the next crossing on the river. In 
1860 the legislature granted Charles G. Keeler authority to main- 

43. Johnson County, Commissioners Proceedings, 1858, p. 28. 

44. Road Records, Wyandotte county. 



268 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

tain a ferry on the Kaw river where the range line divides ranges 
23 and 24. This location is about one and one-half miles southeast 
of present Edwardsville, in Johnson county, and immediately north 
of the junction of the Southern Kansas branch and the main line 
of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad. This act granted 
special privileges for one mile up and one mile down the river at 
this point for a period of ten years. 45 No further history located. 
In 1858 I. May and fifty-five others presented a petition to the 
county commissioners of Johnson county asking that a license be 
granted to William Chouteau to run a ferry boat on the Kaw river, 
at or near the place known as Chouteau's ferry, and also asking 
that a road be opened from Olathe to the ferry, via Monticello, and 
that the road be continued on to Leavenworth city. Another peti- 
tion was presented at this time by Jonathan Gore and thirty-seven 
others, asking that a license be granted to W. W. Cook to establish 
a ferry at the same point. After hearing the evidence it was moved 
that Mr. Chouteau and Mr. Cook should each choose a representa- 
tive, these two to choose a third person, all three to examine the 
case and, if necessary, call to their assistance a surveyor, providing 
the interested parties agree to pay all costs, the said three parties 
to report to the board at its next regular term. It was moved that 
Mr. Chouteau be requested to get a license to run his ferry for 
three months, conditioned that if the case be decided against him 
that Cook shall refund to Chouteau a sum equivalent to what he 
paid for the remaining part of the term for which he procured a 
license. This Mr. Chouteau did, his license for the three months 
costing him $12.50. 46 Under date of September 2, following, the 
committee to whom was referred the petitions of W. W. Cook and 
Francis Chouteau, asking for ferry licenses, made through Mr. 
Holmes the following report: 

"Your committee appointed by the board of county supervisors of Johnson 
county, K. T., at Shawnee, on the 1st and 2nd days of July, 1858, on two 
separate petitions of Wm. W. Cook and Francis Chouteau, each asking for a 
license to keep a ferry on the Kaw river at the same place. 

"Report that after an examination of the lines of the lands of each of the 
aforesaid parties to the ferry landing on the south side of the river that in their 
judgment Francis Chouteau has decidedly the better right to the ferry privilege 
at said point. Signed this 2nd day of Sept. 1858. 

"WM. HOLMES, 

"R. H. WILLIAMS, 

"J. D. ALLEN, per WM. HOLMES. "** 

45. Private Laws, Kansas, 1860, p. 272. 

46. Johnson County, Commissioners Proceedings, 1858, pp. 25, 27, 28. 

47. Ibid., p. 47. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 269 

Mr. Cook evidently was persistent, for in February, 1859, a peti- 
tion signed by A. Williams and fifty -two others was presented to 
the county commissioners asking that a license be granted to W. 
W. Cook to keep a ferry on the Kansas river on sections 34 and 35, 
T. 11, R. 23. This petition being considered by the board, the same 
was granted, the fee for a license put at $50 per annum by the 
board, and a license was granted Mr. Cook for three months from 
the 22nd of February, 1859. 48 

On March 15, following, R. H. Williams presented a petition 
from John Toler, asking that the license granted to W. W. Cook 
to run a ferry on the Kansas river, at or near sections 34 and 35, 
T. 11, R. 23, which license was granted on the 21st of February 
last, may be rescinded and the license granted to him. A petition 
was also presented by W. W. Cook asking that the license granted 
him might be continued. The bond of said Cook was also pre- 
sented and approved by the board, and the petitions having been 
considered by the board were, on motion of Mr. Storrs, laid on the 
table. 49 

On April 26, 1859, Francis Chouteau petitioned for a license to 
operate a ferry across the Kansas river north of Monticello. His 
petition was considered by the board, and on motion of Mr. Ma- 
haffie it was ordered that the board appoint a committee to investi- 
gate the right of the ferry privilege, the committee to consist of 
three persons. This committee was authorized to employ the county 
surveyor and to meet on the ground on the 25th day of May, 1859, 
and be sworn in before entering upon their duties. 50 The report of 
the committee was spread upon the record. 

To ascertain to whom a certain ferry known as Chouteau's ferry 
belonged, in short, whose land the road intersects the Kansas river 
at that place, the Committee set out its survey and then found 
that the road beaten from Olathe via Monticello to this ferry was 
three roads on the southwest quarter of S. 35 that lays on the river 
and so found for Chouteau. The board approved the report and 
granted to Chouteau a license to run a ferry on the said ferry 
privilege, and that he pay back to Cook the rate for the unexpired 
term of his license. 51 

The Chouteaus apparently sold or leased their ferry late in 1860, 
for on November 1 Stephen S. Stuart was granted a license for a 

48. Ibid., p. 102. 

49. Ibid., p. 116. 

50. Ibid., p. 138. 

51. Ibid., p. 147. 



270 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ferry at this crossing for twelve months dating from that time. 52 
Stuart was in charge at this place in 1863, and in his application the 
ferriage rates established were as follows: For each footman, 20 
cents; man and horse, 50 cents; 1 horse wagon or buggy, 80 cents; 2 
horses and wagon, $1 ; 3 horses and wagon, $1.30; 2 yoke of oxen and 
wagon, $1.50; each additional span of horses or oxen, 50 cents; 
mules or cattle per head, 20 cents; sheep or swine per head, 10 
cents. 53 

This ferry was in operation in 1864, for which year they paid a 
$40 license fee to Johnson county. 54 

On December 23, 1862, Frederick Chouteau, 55 William Chouteau, 
Benjamin I. Chouteau, Francis Chouteau and John M. Owens 56 
formed a corporation known as the Chouteau Ferry Company. The 
company was capitalized at $1,000, with shares at $20 each. The 
act stated that the ferry was to be located on the state road leading 
from Leavenworth to Fort Scott, where the same crossed the river 
at the NE*4 of S. 35, T. 11, R. 23, of Johnson county, and is shown 
in Heisler & Smith's Atlas, page 8. This point is about three and 
one-half miles north of Monticello, and about one-half mile south 
of present Edwardsville, at what was called the Chouteau ferry. 
The south landing was on land owned in fee simple by Frederick 
Chouteau, and the landing on the opposite side of the river was on 
Delaware land. This charter was filed with the secretary of state 
January 8, 1863. 57 On May 15, 1863, the company filed with the 
state an amended charter, identical with the first, with the addition 
of Talbert Kelley as one of the incorporators. 58 

An advertisement of this company appeared in the Leavenworth 
Daily Conservative, May 14, 1863, and mentioned that "the boat 
at Chouteau's ferry is now in good order and ready at all times 
to attend promptly to the wants of the traveling public." Just 
how long the Chouteau ferry operated has not been learned, but it is 
probable it ceased operations or was sold to other parties before the 
spring of 1867. 

Frank L. Chouteau, resident of Monticello township, Monticello 

52. Ibid., p. 225. 

53. Ibid., Book B, p. 30. 

54. Ibid., p. 108. 

55. F. Chouteau, age 55, farmer, owner of real estate valued at $59,000, personal prop- 
erty, $8,000, born in Missouri, is listed in the census of Johnson county, Kansas, 1865, p. 130. 

56. John Owens was a white man who married a Delaware wife, and was adopted into 
the tribe. "Wild Bill" Hickok made his home with the Owens. Heisler & Smith, Atlas of 
Johnson County, Kansas, p. 10. 

57. Corporations, v. 1, pp. 204, 205. 

58. Ibid., v. 1, p. 5. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 271 

post office, Johnson county, is listed in the census of 1865, Johnson 
county, page 76, as a ferry proprietor. He was 24 years of age, 
listed as Indian by adoption, owned real estate valued at $350 and 
personal property worth $400. He was a native of Kansas, was 
married and had one child, one year of age. 

"Road Record A," page 216, county clerk's office, Wyandotte 
county, gives a plat of the "Kouns road," which runs into Edwards- 
ville from the north and extends south a half mile to the Kansas 
river at a point marked "Ferry." This is in the NE% of 35-11-23. 
Later the "G. W. Galloway road" was laid out. It starts at the 
same point which it designates as the "Chouteau Ferry." In the 
petition asking for this road it is asked to have it start from "the 
Shoto ferry" on the Kansas river. 59 

On March 25, 1867, the Campbell Ferry Company was chartered, 
D. G. Campbell, J. H. Gamble, L. S. Coney, A. J. Campbell and 
Jonathan Gore being incorporators. The principal office of the 
company was at Monticello, Johnson county, and the ferry was 
to operate across the Kansas river at a place known as Chouteau's 
ferry, being at a point where the public highway leading from 
Monticello to Leavenworth City crosses the river, the exact location 
being described as the NE 1 ^ of SW%, S. 35, T. 11, R. 23E. The 
capital stock was $500, in five shares of $100 each. This location 
on the north side of the river is less than one-fourth of a mile south 
of present Edwardsville. 60 

Less than a mile upstream was the site of the next ferry. As 
early as 1859 an effort was made to secure a ferry opposite Monti- 
cello. That year R. W. Catherson and ninety others petitioned the 
legislature for a ferry across the Kansas river. 61 Apparently no 
ferry was established at that time. On January 19, 1863, a charter 
was secured by the Monticello Ferry Company, the incorporators 
being Stephen S. Stuart, Jacob Trembly, 62 Sam Garrett, 63 Uriah 
Garrett and Elias Garrett. Capital stock of the company was 
$5,000, divided into fifty shares. The company proposed to estab- 
lish a ferry at S. 34, T. 11, R. 23E., for the town of Monticello. This 
charter was filed with the secretary of state January 24, 1863. 64 

59. Wyandotte county clerk, Road Records, v. B, p. 62; v. C, p. 89. 

60. Corporations, v. 1, pp. 314, 815. 

61. House Journal, Kansas, 1859, p. 150. 

62. Jacob Trembly, in 1874, owned land in S. 83, T. 11, R. 22, in Leavenworth county. 

63. Sam Garrett, of Monticello township, was a white man, proslavery in sentiment, 
who married a Shawnee wife and was adopted into the tribe. Heisler & Smith, Atlcu of 
Johnson County, pp. 13, 44. 

64. Corporations, v. 1, p. 2. 



272 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The corporation was reorganized late in 1864, to operate "as where 
the first franchise stated." Uriah and Elias Garrett, of the first 
organization, were succeeded by A. B. Bartlett and John K. Hale. 
Capital stock was reduced to $1,200, with shares $20 each. The 
new charter was filed with the secretary of state, December 24, 
1864. 65 February 2, 1866 this company filed with the secretary of 
state a copy of resolutions of the company, defining boundaries of 
operation and giving the location of their ferry as being at or near 
the center of S. 32, T. 11, R. 23E., and claiming privileges one mile 
each way from center of section 32. It was signed by John K. Hale, 
secretary of Monticello Ferry Company. 66 

A state road was established in 1865 from Olathe, following the 
county road to Monticello, thence on said road to the Kansas river, 
and crossing at or near the center of S. 32, T. 11, R. 23E.; thence 
following as near as practicable what is known as Waite's survey, 
to the city of Leavenworth. 67 

Henry Tiblow operated a ferry at a point opposite the station of 
Tiblow, being on S. 32, T. 11, R. 23. 68 Perl W. Morgan, in his 
History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, page 320, in speaking of 
the village of Tiblow, now Bonner Springs, says: "For many years 
a ferry was operated by Henry Tiblow, a club-footed Indian and 
official interpreter for the United States. He lived in a log cabin 
which still stands on the west side of the city." 

On September 5, 1863, Jacob Trembly and Stephen S. Stuart were 
issued a license, good for three months, for a ferry at this location, 
they paying for the privilege at the rate of $40 a year. They were 
operating in 1866. Their scale of ferriage charges for 1864 were as 
follows: Man and horse, 25 cents; 1 horse wagon or buggy, 40 
cents; 2 horse wagon or yoke of oxen and wagon, 50 cents; 4 horse 
wagon or two yoke of oxen and wagon, 75 cents; Additional yoke 
of cattle or span of horses, 25 cents ; 3 horse wagon, 65 cents ; Loose 
horses, mules or cattle, per head, 10 cents ; Sheep or swine per head, 
5 cents. Each footman, 10 cents. 69 

In 1869 Thomas Dunfree and W. B. White were granted a license 
to operate the ferry at Tiblow station, where the Olathe and Leaven- 
worth road crosses the river, paying $10 for the privilege. Mr. 

65. Ibid., v. 1, pp. 90, 91. 

66. Ibid., v. 1, pp. 90, 91. 

67. Laws, Kansas, 1865, p. 143. 

68. Heisler & Smith's Atlas of Johnson County, p. 8, shows this ferry. 

69. Johnson County, Commissioners Proceedings, Book B, pp. 62, 84, 228. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 273 

White apparently was in charge of the ferry from 1870 on, his last 
license being paid up to April 9, 1874. 70 

Journal C, "Commissioners Proceedings of Wyandotte County," 
page 12, date of March 7, 1870, recites: "The board granted a ferry 
license to Wm. B. White to run a ferry across the Kansas river at 
Tiblow station, said White having given a sufficient bond to the 
state of Kansas, for one year from Feb. 1, 1870, which was filed." 

Again on, page 89, under date of March 8, 1871, the following 
appears: "W. B. White was granted a ferry license to run a ferry 
at Tiblow station for one year from March 6, A. D., 1871, said White 
having given a good and sufficient bond to the county for the faith- 
ful discharge of his duties as ferryman." 

The above two entries are the only records that can be found of 
the granting of ferry licenses over the Kansas river by Wyandotte 
county. Evidently 1871 saw the last of the public ferries across 
that stream in this county. 71 

As Leavenworth county embraced all territory included in present 
Wyandotte county up to the year 1859, it is likely other licenses 
for Kansas river ferries were issued by Leavenworth for Wyandotte 
county enterprises. 

A member of the Tiblow family owned land in S. 31, T. 11, R. 24. 
His land is shown on a map of the Leavenworth, Pawnee & Western 
railroad and its connections in the Delaware reserve, which also 
shows a wagon road connecting with Leavenworth and Wyandotte. 
The Wyandotte Gazette of May 30, 1873, mentions that the ferry 
at Tiblow was still in operation. 

Isaac Parrish, 72 who owned land on the opposite side of the river 
and a short distance upstream from present Bonner Springs, was 
granted authority by the legislature of 1857 to establish a ferry 
across the Kansas river, at the crossing of the territorial road from 
Leavenworth to Peoria, in Franklin county. Steam was proposed 

70. Ibid., Book B, pp. 401, 489; Book C, p. 306. 

71. Letter of Grant W. Harrington to author, Feb. 10, 1933; Kansas Historical Collec- 
tions, v. 7, p. 476. 

72. Isaac Parrish was a proslavery resident of Monticello township, Johnson county. He 
was born in Virginia, and lived in Ohio and Missouri before coming West. After coming to 
the Indian country he was employed at the Shawnee Methodist mission for a number of years. 
He married a Shawnee woman and was adopted into the tribe. The census of Johnson county, 
1865, lists him as 45 years of age, Indian by adoption, farmer, owner of real estate listed 
at $11,520, and personal property worth $2,845. His wife was named Virginia, aged 32, 
Indian, born in Kansas, and their family consisted of five children. The plat of Shawnee 
reservation land for T. 12, R. 23, shows land owned by Isaac and Asenath Parrish in the 
N% of S. 5. The Parrish ferry was located about one-half mile north. The "Telegraph 
road" from Fort Scott to Fort Leavenworth was about one mile east of Monticello, crossed 
the east % of S. 5 and ran on to the river. When the Shawnees removed to Indian territory, 
Isaac Parrish with his family removed and made their home with the tribe. Heisler & Smith's 
Atlas of Johnson County, p. 11; census, Johnson county, 1865, p. 78; Plat of Shawnee reser- 
vation lands in Kansas. 

188677 



274 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

as the propelling power, but the act provided that a flat boat might 
be substituted when the business did not justify the use of steam. 
This crossing was near the center of S. 32, T. 11, R. 23E. 73 

On December 29, 1863, the Parrish Ferry Company 74 was in- 
corporated, its projectors being Henry D. Smith, 75 Henry Tiblow, 
Isaac Parrish, Charles B. Garrett and Sam. Parsons. They were 
authorized to establish a ferry across the Kansas river, commencing 
at a point six chains above the center of S. 32, T. 11, R. 23. The 
landing on the south side of the river was on land owned by the 
incorporators, who had written consent of owners for landing on the 
north side. This location is in present Bonner Springs, on highway 
7, and close to where the Leavenworth & Northwestern railroad 
crosses the river. 

On January 5, 1866, Isaac Parrish, president of the Parrish Ferry 
Company, petitioned for a ferry license, which was not granted, it 
being within the bounds of an established ferry. 76 

The next ferry above the Parrish ferry was at the town of De Soto, 
about six and one-half miles distant. At this point a twenty-year 
license for a ferry was granted by the legislature of 1858 to G. W. 
Hutchison, J. A. Finley, Brinton W. Woodward, D. W. Weir, A. D. 
Searl, James F. Legate, Henry Campbell, E. S. Lowman and Warren 
Kimball. Rates of ferriage prescribed by the act were as follows: 
Man and horse, 50 cents; one horse and carriage or wagon, 75 cents; 
two horses and carriage or wagon, $1.00; four horses and carriage or 
wagon, $1.25. Provided, the company may by by-laws, provide an 
addition to the above rates of not to exceed 50 per cent. 77 

In 1858 the operator of the ferry at De Soto, for some reason or 
other, refused to take out a license. The sheriff of Johnson county 
was sent by the county commisioners to collect the fee, threatening 
to take legal steps to collect in case of refusal, yet promising to 
forgive all if the ferry owner took out his license and paid for such 
expense as the county had already been put to. 78 Evidently the 
operator refused to comply with the instructions of the commis- 
sioners, for Mr. R. Potter was instructed to make complaint and 
start an action against him in the name of the board. 79 

73. Laws, Kansas, 1857, p. 165. 

74. Corporations, v. 1, p. 10 ; Shawnee Indian reservation lands in Kansas, treaty of 1854, 
plat of T. 11, R. 23E., in archives of Kansas State Historical Society. 

75. Henry Smith was born in Madison county, Kentucky, in March, 1819. He settled on 
Mill creek, present Johnson county, April 20, 1842. He was a resident of Lawrence in 1879. 

76. Johnson County, Commissioners Proceedings, Book B, p. 185. 

77. Laws, Kansas, 1858, pp. 54, 55. 

78. Johnson County, Commissioners Proceedings, 1858, p. 36. 

79. Ibid., p. 49. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 275 

A Mr. R. Potter, of Lexington, owned a ferry, which must have 
been at De Soto, as Lexington was several miles from the river. He 
applied to the commissioners of Johnson county for a ferry license, 
which was issued, costing him at the rate of $20 yearly. The com- 
missioners fixed the rates of ferriage to be charged by all ferries 
operating in the county after July 1, 1858, as follows: Each foot- 
man, 10 cents; man and horse, 25 cents; loose oxen, cows, mules 
and horses, each 10 cents; loose swine and sheep, 5 cents; horse and 
buggy, 35 cents; two horses or ox wagon, 50 cents; and for each 
additional horse or ox attached to the team, 10 cents. For govern- 
ment trains drawn by six mules, $1.30 each. 80 

R. Potter's name does not appear in the early census returns of 
Lexington township. 

Two years later the legislature of 1860 granted another ferry 
charter for De Soto, the incorporators including six of the nine 
incorporators of 1858, with the addition of J. A. Triley and Paul R. 
Brooks. 81 Rates of ferriage prescribed by the new act were identical 
with those of the act of 1858. 82 Whether the second company ever 
functioned we have no knowledge, but there seems to be a shadow 
of doubt, for the legislature of 1861 granted a fifteen-year franchise 
for a ferry at this town to Warren Kimball and George W. Fraim, 83 
with exclusive rights for two miles up and two miles down the river. 84 
This firm probably made a "go" of it this time. Two years later, 
in 1863, troops of a Kansas company under Capt. William Larimer 
crossed the river here while on their way to Camp Williams, near 
Fort Scott, and other camps, a rope ferry being in operation at 
this time. 85 

On January 2, 1863, the De Soto Bridge Company was chartered 
for the purpose of bridging the Kaw at that point, but no bridge 
was built at that time. The next effort to obtain a bridge was made 
in 1867 by a joint stock company, known as the Leavenworth, 
De Soto and Fort Scott Bridge Company, which eventually built a 
Howe truss structure. 86 

On November 19, 1858, a petition signed by W. Christison and 

80. Ibid., pp. 28, 29. 

81. Brooks was for many years a prominent resident of Lawrence. 

82. Private Laws, Kansas, 1860, pp. 267, 269. 

83. Geo. W. Fraim, is listed as ferryman, he being 26, native of Michigan, and owning 
real estate worth $250 and personal property worth $600. Census, Johnson county, 1860, 
p. 21. 

84. Laws, Kansas, 1861, p. 33. 

85. Biography of William Larimer, p. 211. 

86. Corporations, v. 1, p. 3; Leavenworth Daily Conservative, Jan. 1, 1867; Olathe 
Mirror, Sept. 1, 1867. 



276 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

twenty-six others was presented to the Johnson county board asking 
that a license be granted to Galatia Sprague, William Brown and 
Jesse Hodges to keep a ferry across the Kansas river at or near 
where the range line between Ranges 21 and 22 crosses the river. 
This petition was considered by the board and allowed. 87 This 
ferry location is about three miles upstream from De Soto. No 
further history located. 

Pascal Fish's ferry was the next beyond De Soto, about nine miles 
by the Kansas river and seven by land. This was one of the early 
ferries on the river, being in operation when the Mexican War broke 
out. In 1846 a portion of Doniphan's expedition to Mexico crossed 
the river over this ferry. Lieut. J. W. Abert, that year, set out from 
Fort Leavenworth for a reconnaissance to San Diego and made his 
"Camp 4" at the ferry. Under date of June 29, 1846 he wrote: 

"In the river we found two large flatboats or scows, manned by Shawnee 
Indians, dressed in bright colored shirts, with shawls around their heads. The 
current of the river was very rapid, so that it required the greatest exertions on 
the part of our ferrymen to prevent the boats from being swept far downstream. 
We landed just at the mouth of the Wakaroosa creek. Here there is no per- 
ceptible current; the creek is fourteen feet deep, while the river does not aver- 
age more than 5 feet; and in some places is quite shoal. 

"It was nearly 10 o'clock before all our company had crossed and was so 
dark that we could scarcely see to arrange our camp; so we lay down on the 
river bank and sent our horses out on the prairies to grass. We finished our 
supper at 12 o'clock and lay down again to sleep; but, worn out as we were, 
the mosquitoes showed us no compassion, and large hooting owls (bubo vir- 
gimanus), as if to condole with us, commenced a serenade. 

"The pure cold water of the Wakaroosa looked so inviting that some of us 
could not refrain from plunging beneath its crystal surface ; one of the flatboats 
forming a convenient place from which to spring. . . ." 88 

Fish was a cousin to Tecumseh and the Prophet. He lived about 
a mile south of the river, on a road leading to Westport, Mo., and 
kept a tavern, located near the center of S. 8, T. 13, R. 23. 89 

In 1856 an association of Germans was organized at Chicago, 
under the name of the Neuer Ansiediungs Verein, for the purpose 
of making a settlement in the great west. In March, 1857, a loca- 
tion committee selected the site of Eudora. A tract of 800 acres 
was secured from the Shawnees, through Pascal Fish, their chief, 
who was to receive every alternate lot. The townsite laid off was 

87. Johnson County, Commissioners Proceedings, 1858, p. 88. 

88. Emory, Notes of a Military Reconnaissance from Fort Leavenworth in Missouri to 
San Diego in California, pp. 389, 390. 

89. Connelley, Doniphan's Expedition, p. 142; J. Cooper Stuck's map of Douglas county, 
Kansas Territory, 1857. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 277 

named Eudora, in honor of the chief's daughter. The first house on 
the townsite was built by Mr. Fish, who ran a hotel known as the 
"Fish house". Eudora became an incorporated town February 8, 
1859. 90 

This ferry was in operation at Eudora during the fifties and 
sixties. Two ferrymen were employed, one named George Brown. 
The other, whose name has not been learned, kept a liquor shop 
and was indicted by federal authorities for selling liquor to Shawnee 
Indians in violation of United States laws. 91 

The Fish family must have continued the ferry business, for in 
1860 Charles Fish was granted a five-year license by the legislature 
to operate a ferry which was to be located at or near the mouth of 
the Wakarusa, with exclusive privileges for a distance of one mile 
up and one mile down the river. 92 The precise location of the ferry 
was on S. 4, T. 13, R. 21 E, at or very close to present Eudora. In 
1864 a state road was established from Eudora, running in a 
northerly direction so as to intersect the road leading from Law- 
rence to Leavenworth at the nearest and most practicable point 
on the road; and, also, a road from Eudora, running south to in- 
tersect the Santa Fe road at Black Jack. 93 Another road was laid 
out from Eudora running south to the Santa Fe trail at or near 
Black Jack; another ran north from the Eudora ferry landing on 
the north side of the river, to intersect the Pacific railroad at the 
nearest and most practicable point, 94 and another road started from 
the Santa Fe road, near Black Jack, thence north through Eudora, 
crossing the river at Eudora ferry, thence north to the Lawrence 
and Leavenworth road, on the most practicable route. 95 

A bridge across the Wakarusa, finished early in May, 1861, 
diverted much travel and traffic to the Fish ferry, where it crossed 
the river. This bridge, about 160 feet in length, was said to be the 
best and only really substantial bridge in the county at the time. 

A charter was granted the Nevada City Town Company 96 by the 
legislature of 1858 to operate a ferry across the Kansas river, with 
special privileges for a period of ten years. Nevada was a post office 
early in 1856, P. H. McGee being postmaster. Beers' Atlas of 

90. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 353. 

91. Original documents, Archives division, Kansas State Historical Society. 

92. Private Laws, Kansas, 1860, p. 276. 

93. General Laws, Kansas, 1861, p. 31. 

94. Laws, Kansas, 1864, p. 204; Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 353. 

95. Laws, Kansas, 1866, p. 226. 

96. Ibid., 1858, p. 57. 



278 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Douglas County, 1873, shows one J. McGhee owned lands bordering 
on the Kansas river in the SE*4 of S. 31, T. 12, R. 21. The 
census of Douglas county, 1859, lists three members of the McGhee 
family as settling in that locality in May, 1855, there being a total 
of twelve in family of J. McGhee, five being minors. These Mc- 
Ghees were from Pennsylvania and Illinois, J. McGee being listed 
as 64 and native of Ireland. His real estate was listed for $5,000, 
and personal property at $300. 97 The ferry site was on the McGhee 
land, and the embryo town of Nevada, which never was more than 
a post office, was located at the same place. It was an intermediate 
point on a post route running from Leavenworth to the Sac and 
Fox Agency. 98 

In 1855 the legislature passed an act naming commissioners to 
view, locate, and establish a territorial road from Leavenworth, by 
way of Franklin, to Bernard's store. 99 Bernard kept a store in 
Franklin county and traded with the Sacs and Foxes and other 
Indians in that neighborhood. A town sprang up at that location, 
called St. Bernard, which was at or near the site of Centropolis of 
later date. 

Two years later the legislature of 1857 granted John M. Wallace 
a fifteen year privilege to operate a ferry on the Kansas river at 
the point where the above-named road crossed. The ferry was to 
be located within a mile of the crossing above mentioned, and 
ferriage rates were prescribed as follows: Foot passengers, 10 cents 
each; horse, mule, mare, gelding, ass, without a rider, 10 cents; 
with rider, 25 cents; two-horse team, loaded or unloaded, 75 cents; 
single horse carriage, 50 cents; each additional cow or ox, 15 cents; 
each swine or sheep, 5 cents ; for all freight of lumber, merchandise, 
or other articles, not in teams, at the following rates: For each 1,000 
feet of lumber, $1 per 1,000 feet; for all other articles 5 cents [per 
100 Ibs.] 

The act provided that the above rates should be amended by any 
succeeding legislature. 100 Exact location of this ferry has not been 
learned, but in all probability it crossed the river at a point about 
north of old town of Franklin, or slightly east. Franklin was laid 
out in 1855 or 1856 and was located on S. 10, T. 13, R. 20, about 
three miles southeast of Lawrence of that day and slightly north of 

97. Census, Douglas county, 1859, MSS., 1860, pp. 48, 52. 

98. Laws, Kansas, 1857, p. 58; Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, Feb. 16, 1856. 

99. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, p. 965. 

100. Laws, Kansas, 1857, pp. 162, 163. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 279 

the Wakarusa. A territorial fight, known as the "Battle of Frank- 
lin," occurred in this locality on the night of June 3, 1856. 101 

The next ferry up the river was "at or near the east line of Lot 
2, S. 24, T. 12, R. 20 E." In 1858 William Burtzer received a 
charter from the legislature to operate a ferry at this point, with 
special privileges within one-half mile on each side for a period of 
twenty years. 102 This location is not over one mile from the south- 
west corner of Leavenworth county, about two miles from Lawrence 
of that day, and approximately six or seven miles above Eudora. 
Perhaps this ferry site may be the location of the crossing for the 
road which ran from Leavenworth to Bernard's store, via Franklin. 

Lawrence, distant about two miles from Burtzer's location, had the 
next ferry. John Baldwin in 1855 was granted authority by the leg- 
islature to maintain a ferry within the city, with exclusive rights for 
two miles from the town, for a period of fifteen years. 103 This was 
one of the noted ferries on the river, and during the time it ran did 
a thriving business. John J. Ingalls, of Atchison, who had occasion 
to cross the river at Lawrence while it was in use, has described it 
as a "swing ferry." 

The following advertisement, the first of this ferry, appeared in 
the Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, June 2, 1855: 

"JOHN BALDWIN, FERRYMAN, 

Has just completed his new ferryboat and holds himself in readiness to take 
passengers and teams over the Kansas river, opposite Lawrence, at all hours, 
on application, at the usual prices." 

Another advertisement of this ferry appeared in a rival paper: 

"BALDWIN'S FERRY 

"Crossing the Kansas River at Lawrence 

"The undersigned, having built a good and substantial ferryboat, would 
inform the traveling public, that they are prepared to carry over all passengers 
and teams who may desire to cross at this point. Travelers wishing to visit 
Lawrence from Leavenworth, Parkville or any other point on the Missouri 
river, need not be under the inconvenience as heretofore, of going out of the 
way, to cross at the Tecumseh, or Delaware ferries. We will always be at our 
post and ready to wait on all who may need our services. 

"WM. N. and JOHN BALDWIN." 104 

A notice of this ferry given on the editorial page of the same issue 
of the Free State, says: 

"Messrs. Baldwins have spared no pains to make their boat a substantial 

101. Kansas Historical Collection*, v. 8, p. 313. 

102. Laws, Kansas, 1858, pp. 59, 60. 

103. General Statutes, Kansas, 1865, p. 778. 

104. Kansas Free State, Lawrence, June 4, 1855. 



280 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

and safe one. It is what has been greatly needed, as persons desiring to cross 
the river at this place with teams, have been compelled, until now, to go 20 
miles above or 30 miles below. As Leavenworth on the Missouri and Lawrence 
in the interior, are the most noted towns in the territory, it is highly important, 
for the interest of both, and the convenience of the traveling public, that there 
should be a direct communication between them. The ferry at this place is one 
important step towards this, and we hope that the next one will be to make 
a better and more direct road to Leavenworth." 

During 1855 C. W. Babcock entered into partnership with Bald- 
win, this arrangement lasting about two years. The management 
of the ferry, however, was left to Baldwin. 105 

Robert Morris Peck, "Recollections of Early Times in Kansas 
Territory," in Kansas Historical Collections, v. 8, p. 506, says: 

"We crossed the Kaw river at Lawrence on Baldwin's ferry, a rickety flat- 
boat, without guard or railing, capable of holding only one six-mule team, and 
pulled back and forth by means of a rope stretched between trees on opposite 
banks. The soldier men facetiously called it Baldwin's 'steam' ferry. The 
ferryman carried his 'steam' in a gallon jug; and our fellows 'did not do a 
thing' to that jug but drink all the whiskey and refill the jug with muddy Kaw 
river water while the old man was busy pulling the leaky old tub across. I 
expect Baldwin made some pious remarks about 'soger men' the next time he 
hooked his bill over the muzzle of that jug to take another 'snort,' but we 
didn't stay to hear his discourse." 

Col. P. G. Lowe, of Leavenworth, in his Five Years a Dragoon, 
describes the Baldwin ferry as a flatboat run by pulleys on a rope 
stretched across the river and fastened to a tree on either side and 
propelled by the force of the current. He wrote: 

"The boat was not large enough to hold a wagon and six mules, so the 
leaders were detached from the team and led around to a shallow ford higher 
up the stream where one might cross on horseback or with loose animals, but 
could not cross wagons. A Frenchman, married to a Delaware woman and 
living with the Delaware Indians on the north side of the river, built a boat 
and stretched a rope; and when I came along one day he met me two miles 
north of the ferry and wanted me to cross some of my wagons on his boat. I 
galloped on and found that he had made a good road and had a good boat 
that would carry a wagon and six-mule team, with room to spare ; so I divided 
the train, going to the new ferry, about 40 rods below the old one myself with 
Mr. Lanter, an assistant wagonmaster, while Mr. Beery went to the old ferry. 
Just as the first wagon got on the ferry, I noticed that the old boat was on the 
south side and Beery was calling the ferryman. As we were about shoving 
off, the man who ran the old ferry called to me not to attempt to cross wagons 
on that [the new] ferry, if I did, he would cut the rope and send me down 
the river; and suiting the action to the word, he caught up an axe and started 
at a run for the big cottonwood tree where the rope was fastened. We were 
now in the stream and rapidly nearing the south bank. Standing on the front 

105. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 326. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 281 

of the boat with pistol ready, I warned him to stop, and if he attempted to 
cut the rope, I would surely kill him. The boat landed and he stopped within 
10 feet of the tree. I ordered him back to his boat, at the same time asking 
him what he meant. He declared that the Frenchman had no charter to run 
a boat, hence no right, while he had a charter from the territorial legislature 
for fifteen years. On the other hand, the Frenchman claimed that the Dela- 
wares owned the land on the north side, and had just as much right to land 
on the south side without any charter as the other fellow had to land on the 
Delaware reservation, over which he claimed the legislature had no jurisdiction. 
I ended the controversy by telling the Frenchman to cross all the wagons he 
could, and that I would protect him. I told the old ferryman to get his boat in 
motion quickly or I would run it with my own men, and that the ferry which 
crossed the most wagons would get the most money. ... I had the 
teamster of the first wagon drive close to the tree and told him to shoot anyone 
attempting to approach it. ... Then I got aboard the old ferry and gave 
the ferryman one more chance to run his own boat, and just as I was about 
to let go, he and his man jumped on. He was sulky and threatened to report 
me to Colonel Cooke at Lecompton. I cut him off short with the answer that 

I did not care a what he did, so that he lost no time with the ferry; 

and I told Beery to push things with the new ferry, while I stayed with the 
old one. All worked with a will, but the old ferry lost two trips to start with, 
and in the end the new ferry had six wagons the most. All, more than 70 
wagons, were crossed in time to camp south of town before dark; whereas, 
without the new ferry half of them would have camped in the bottom north 
of the river. ... I crossed many times afterwards, and each ferry worked 
its best for the most money. The Frenchman generally captured the best of 
it by two or three wagons. The Frenchman kept the approach to his ferry in 
perfect shape so that there would be no delays, and the old ferryman kept up 
the competition result, a great saving in time and talk." 

The following, found among the papers of the Kansas State 
Central Committee, a free state organization, and turned over to 
the Kansas State Historical Society by James Blood, probably is a 
bill of the Lawrence ferry for services. It was included in a bundle 
of accounts marked "not allowed": 

Lawrence, August 26th, 1856. 
War Department Dr. J. DeWitt 

Aug. 26th To horseman at 20cts $8 .40 

Aug. 28 Horseman 88 at 20 cts 17.60 

Aug. 29 and 30 and 31 162 horseman 32.40 

Sept. 2 and 3th 200 footman at 10 cts 20.00 

Sept. 5 and 6th 300 footman at 10 cts 30.00 

Sept. 8th 52 horseman 10.40 

Sept. 8th 4 wagons at 50 cts 02.00 

Sept. 9th 19 footman at 5 cts 00.95 

Sept. 9th 1 waggon at 50 cts 00.50 

Sept. 10th 8 waggons at 50 cts 04.00 

Sept. 10th 19 horseman at 20 cts 03.80 



282 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Sept. llth 94 horseman at 20 cte 18.80 

Sept. 12th 72 horseman at 20 cte 14.40 

Sept. 12th 11 waggons at 50 cte 05.50 

Sept. 13th 10 waggons at 50 cte 05.00 

Sept. 13th 12 horseman at 20 cts 02 .40 

Sept. 14th 11 horseman at 20 cte 02 . 20 

Sept. 15th 1 waggon 9 horseman 02.30 

Sept. 16th 19 horseman at 20 cte 03.80 

Sept. 17th 27 horseman at 20 cte 05.40 

Sept. 18th 1 waggon and 8 footman 00.90 



$191.95 

Lawrence was an important road center, and numerous state and 
territorial highways either had their start from there or made the 
town an intermediate point. The old Oregon and California road 
passed through the county and city. The legislature of 1855 created 
a territorial road which started from Leavenworth, via Lawrence 
and on to Salem; 106 another, authorized in 1857, ran from Lawrence, 
via the Sac and Fox agency, to Burlington; 107 another, established 
in 1860, ran from Lawrence to Emporia via Clinton, Twin Mound 
and Superior. 108 Six roads were established by the legislature of 
1861, as follows: one from Lawrence to Osawatomie; one from Law- 
rence to Paola; one from Lawrence to Wyandotte, by way of Eu- 
dora, DeSoto, Monticello and Shawnee; another from Lawrence 
to the state line near West-port, Mo., via Franklin, Hesper and 
Olathe; and another from Lawrence to Osage City, Garnett, lola 
and Humboldt; and one from Lawrence to Hiawatha, 109 this latter 
road, however, not being located until 1863, when the commissioners 
in charge of the work specified it was to run by way of Grasshopper 
Falls, Muscotah, Oskaloosa and Kennekuk. 110 A road from Law- 
rence to Paola was made a state road in 1862. 111 A number of 
new roads were provided for in 1864 ; one from Lawrence to the north 
line of Bourbon county, in direction of Fort Lincoln, Osawatomie and 
Davis' Gap, near the Armstrong ford of Big Sugar creek and Mound 
City; another from Lawrence, by way of Baldwin City, Ohio 
City in Franklin county, to Garnett; another from Lawrence, via 
Eudora and Olathe to the east line of Johnson county, opposite 
Westport, Mo.; one from Lawrence to the north line of Bourbon 

106. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, p. 975. 

107. Laws, Kansas, 1857, p. 168. 

108. Ibid., 1860, p. 585. 

109. Ibid., 1861, pp. 247-249. 

110. Ibid., 1863, p. 88. 

111. General Laws, Kansas, 1862, p. 798. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 

county by way of Ottawa Jones' and Dutch Henry's crossing; one 
from Atchison, by Springdale, to Lawrence. The law specified that 
these roads should be not less than 60 nor more than 100 feet in 
width. 112 In 1865 three more were established, one running from 
Lawrence to Hiawatha; another from Lawrence to Neosho Rapids; 
and the next one from Lawrence to Fort Scott, via the new bridge 
on the Wakarusa, thence to New Haven, and crossing the Santa 
Fe road on the east line of the farm of W. P. Ramsey, thence on 
the east side of Ottawa creek, via Tomberlain's and Sower's, or as 
near as practicable, and crossing Ottawa creek at Copple's ford, 
thence on as straight a line as practicable to Ottawa, thence to 
Garnett, thence to Mapleton and Fort Scott. 113 In 1866 a road was 
established from Lawrence, by way of Lecompton, to Tecumseh, 
while another ran from Leavenworth, by way of Big Stranger bridge, 
Berry's store on Tonganoxie creek and Nine Mile house on Ten 
Mile creek, to Lawrence. 114 This was practically the last of the 
state roads laid out affecting Lawrence. There were many county 
roads laid out from time to time, but space prevents mention of 
them. 

John C. Fremont passed through the site of Lawrence in the early 
1840's. Capt. J. W. Gunnison also passed through on his ill-fated 
expedition in 1853. Horace Greeley was also an early visitor, when 
he came up the Kaw valley in 1859 on his westward journey. Albert 
D. Richardson, a visitor in the territory in 1859, crossed the river 
on the Baldwin ferry and gave an account of the crossing and an 
illustration of the ferry, on page 35 of his book, Beyond the Mis- 
sissippi. 

Early in April, 1861, streams of emigrant wagons wended their 
way through the city. They were usually loaded with the house- 
hold goods of the family, sacks and boxes of grain and seed, and live 
stock. As soon as spring had fairly arrived, from 30 to 100 teams 
daily crossed at this ferry, many of them belonging to persons from 
southern Kansas counties who were on their way to or from Leaven- 
worth and, according to a local paper, this travel gave some idea 
of the want of a bridge. 115 

While much trade reached Lawrence from surrounding territory 
via Baldwin's ferry and roads much of the travel did not stop in 
that city. An item from a Leavenworth paper copied into the 

112. Laws, Kansas, 1864, pp. 204-209. 

113. Ibid., 1865, pp. 140, 142, 148. 

114. Ibid., 1866, pp. 224, 225, 227. 

115. Kansas State Journal, Lawrence, April 11, May 9, 1861. 



284 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Journal, of December 11, 1862, says: "The travel between here 
and Lawrence was never so large as now. The receipts of the ferry 
at that place sometimes reached seventy-five dollars a day. A 
bridge there would add thousands upon thousands to our trade." 

When ice broke up on the river each year that was an additional 
hazard to be reckoned with. On February 15, 1862, ice went out 
rather unexpectedly, and the ferry boat had a narrow escape from 
sudden destruction. A wagon that had been partly run aboard was 
destroyed by the rush of ice. 116 

The drouth of 1860 had its effect on the ferry business on the 
Kansas river. The "June rise," which river men talked about, had 
not manifested itself. During the early summer Indians who lived 
along the river said that the river had never been lower than it 
then was. Teams daily forded it a few rods above the ferry. The 
following winter moving ice for a time suspended operations of the 
ferry, much to the inconvenience of great numbers of teams en- 
camped on the banks of the river. However, by hitching cattle to 
the boat on each side of the river, crossing was resumed. The 
operators of the ferry were frequently obliged to spend large sums 
and much labor in opening a way through the ice. Early in 1861 a 
local paper, in commenting on the situation, stated that few men 
have any idea of the amount of travel over the ferry at that place. 117 

James Baldwin, son of the original owner of the ferry, became 
one of the owners in the early Ws. 118 

Another ferry was projected for Lawrence early in 1861 when 
Caleb S. Pratt and Horace L. Enos obtained a charter from the 
legislature that year for the Lawrence Ferry Company. This act 
granted charter rights for fourteen years for a ferry site and for 
exclusive privileges for one mile up and one mile down the river. 
They were also granted the right to construct as many roads or ways 
to the ferry as was deemed necessary. 119 No further history of this 
ferry has been located. 

The levee was a popular and convenient site and served the needs 
of the community in other ways than strictly as a ferry landing. 
The Journal, of June 12, 1862, contained the following: "Last 
Sunday evening quite a number of our citizens assembled on the 
levee to witness the immersion of a couple of colored persons. The 
ceremony was well conducted and novel to many present." 

116. Ibid., Feb. 19, 1862. 

117. Ibid., 1861. 

118. Ibid., May 7, 1863. 

119. Laws, Kansas, 1861, pp. 36, 37 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 285 

The first move for a bridge at Lawrence over the Kansas river 
was in 1857, when the legislature granted a charter to the Lawrence 
Bridge Company. 120 No bridge was begun under this act. A new 
charter was obtained in 1858, which was amended in 1859, but 
nothing was done until 1863, when work started, and the bridge was 
finished late that year. 121 

By the early 1870's there developed a strong sentiment for a free 
bridge at Lawrence. The officers of the bridge company were asked 
to sell but apparently turned a deaf ear to the proposition. The 
income from tolls was evidently satisfactory to the bridge officials. 

Dissatisfaction with the toll bridge grew as time passed, and in 
1871 a steam ferry was put into operation to relieve the situation. 
This boat went into service about June, 1871, and almost revolu- 
tionized the transportation business at this point. Dr. Edward 
Bumgardner, of Lawrence, in an article on Lawrence ferries pub- 
lished in the Journal-World of May 30, 1933, has this to say of the 
steam ferry: 

"Dissatisfaction became so great [with the toll bridge] that the city em- 
ployed James C. Wilson to operate a ferry in competition. 

"Mr. Wilson had the first portable steam threshing-machine engine that had 
been brought to this part of the state, and this was used to operate the ferry. 
Two great cast iron wheels were made at the Kimball Bros. Iron Foundry. 
These wheels, placed on opposite sides of the river, acted as pulleys to carry a 
continuous wire cable to which the ferryboat was attached. The toll in the 
ferry was fixed at 25 cents for a round trip, while the bridge company charged 
25 cents each way. This ferry was satisfactory for a time, though Mr. Wilson 
had a serious accident in operating it. 

"Once, in 1871, the wheel on the south side of the river became loose on its 
axle by the displacement of the key by which it was attached so that the cable 
would not run. Mr. Wilson rearranged the wheel and drove the key to place so 
as to make the wheel tight on the axle. At that moment his helper started the 
engine and Mr. Wilson's right hand was instantly cut off by being caught be- 
tween the wheel and the cable." 

The two items following not only give additional information but 
also furnish a graphic description of the new enterprise: 

"The city of Lawrence has lately established a steam ferry which carries 
passengers and freight free. The engine which drives the boat is stationary. 
We do not understand the arrangements, but have been informed that the 
power is applied by means of an endless chain. The Lawrence experiment is a 
success. It has crossed six hundred teams in a single day. It carries six loaded 
teams and any number of footmen at a trip, and makes the trip in two 
minutes. This is much less time than it takes a team to walk across the bridge. 

120. Ibid., 1857, p. 148. 

121. Private Laws, Kansas, 1858, pp. 41, 42; 1859, p. 23; Kansas State Journal. Law- 
rence, April 30, 1863. 



286 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The cost of this ferry, exclusive of the franchise, was five thousand dollars." 
Alma Union, June 15, 1871. 

"A small frame building on the left bank of the river containing a ten-horse 
power portable engine, from the driving wheel of which runs a band which 
passes over another wheel attached to a frame work. To this is also attached 
a grooved wheel, five feet in diameter, over which passes an endless wire cable, 
1,370 feet in length. This passes also through three upright standards of heavy 
timber, at each end and in the middle, respectively, of the boat, on one side, 
thence over a grooved wheel in a frame upon the opposite bank, similar to 
that in the engine room. Upon a raised and covered platform on the boat 
sits the pilot, with his hand upon a brake, with which, alternately, he firmly 
holds the upper and lower strands of the wire cable, according to which side of 
the river the boat is to be drawn ; this is the point of attachment of the mov- 
ing force. A wave of the pilot's hand and the engineer turns on the steam, the 
driving wheel of the engine, together with the cable upon the grooved wheels 
on either bank, revolve and the boat shoots across the river in one minute, by 
the watch, much faster than a team would ordinarily trot across the rival 
bridge, if allowed to. The ferry will carry six heavy-loaded teams at a trip, 
besides several foot passengers. It has carried 728 teams and 3,200 foot pas- 
sengers during one day's operation. It has crossed the river in the short space 
of forty seconds, although from one to one and one-half minutes is generally 
consumed at a trip. It makes from 250 to 300 trips per day. The expense of 
operating it, including the hire of three men, etc., is $12 per day. Kimball Bros., 
of this city, who are the inventors of this improved ferry, have applied for a 
patent. . . ." Lawrence Republican Journal, June 16, 1871. 

This free ferry was cutting into the profits of the toll bridge 
company and something had to be done about it. In 1872 the 
bridge company obtained an injunction against the ferry, on the 
ground that it was a "floating bridge." The bridge company in the 
meantime had been obliged to reduce tolls to a minimum while the 
ferry was in operation, but as soon as the injunction had been 
obtained toll rates went back to former prices. The injunction suit 
was finally tried and resulted in favor of the ferry. All this time 
the campaign for a free bridge went steadily if not merrily on. 
It became a political issue in the spring election of 1873. A local 
paper, speaking of the toll bridge, said: 

"It is an incubus that should have been removed years ago, and could have 
been, and would have been, had it not been for the fact that the bridge com- 
pany had too many advocates in the city council, and county boards. . . . 
Public sentiment has been in favor of a free bridge for the past ten years, but 
the bridge company have so manipulated those in authority that this sentiment 
has not availed anything. . . . This monopoly ... is taking from 
twenty to thirty thousand dollars out of our city every year, a good part of 
which is invested in Chicago real estate." 122 

122. Daily Kansas Tribune, Lawrence, April 4, 1873. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 287 

This same authority exhorted the farmers and others who had 
occasion to cross the river with teams to patronize the ferry, because 
the charges were the same, and the ferry could not be run unless it 
was better patronized. The ferry's prices had been met by the 
bridge company, and it was presumed that in case the ferry was 
discontinued the toll rates would be raised to the old figure. 123 

The steam ferry was doing a thriving business in the spring of 
1873. A Mr. Morton had the contract for running it, and the follow- 
ing rates charged by him for crossing were certainly attractive to 
those having occasion to visit the opposite side of the river: 1 horse, 
2% cents; 1 horse and vehicle, 5 cents; 2 horses and vehicle, 5 
cents; 4 horses and vehicle, 7% cents. Foot passengers free. The 
fact that the bridge company was obliged to meet this rate in order 
to get any patronage 124 prompted a Marysville paper to remark 
that the ferry was "playing smash with the bridge company." 123 
Another item from the same source was to the effect that "Lawrence 
is hot about her bridge affairs. She has a toll bridge that don't give 
satisfaction, and therefore a ferry has been established to connect 
her with the railroad on the north side of the Kaw." 126 

The campaign of the Tribune for a free bridge brought on about 
the hottest fight staged in that city up to that time, and a mayor 
and council who, during the campaign, professed to be favorable 
to the free bridge proposition had been elected. Their apparent 
reluctance in taking action in the bridge controversy caused the 
Lawrence people to regard them as more favorable to the bridge 
company than to her own citizens. The Tribune asked why the 
city attorney had not done his full duty in regard to the injunction 
that had been obtained against the ferry, and added: 

"It is a matter of surprise to us that any court could ever put on glasses with 
magnifying power enough to magnify a ferry boat into a floating bridge. . . . 
That floating-bridge dodge was pretty thin; but thick enough to put about 
$20,000 of the people's money into the pockets of Babcock & Co. They can 
well afford to pay damages, and the city should make them to do it." 12T 

Within the next thirty days the Tribune suggested that the city 
council should appoint a committee to examine the bridge, and if it 
was found unsafe to have it condemned and abated as a common 

123. Ibid 

124. Ibid., March 22, 1873. 

125. Marshall County News, Marysville, March 29, 1873. 

126. Ibid., April 25, 1873. 

127. Daily Kansas Tribune, Lawrence, April 9, 1873. 



288 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

nuisance or have the approaches to it closed up so as to protect the 
lives and property of the unsuspecting crossers. 128 

In the meantime the bridge company made an offer to sell the 
structure to the city, but at a price which the Tribune thought be- 
yond its physical value, and this provoked a charge that the com- 
pany was trying to sell the city a "rotten old structure" for three 
or four times what it was worth. 129 

Late in May, 1873, the ferry was put out of commission by flood 
wood that came down the river as the result of a heavy rain on the 
night of May 20. Driftwood in such quantity lodged against the 
ferry cable that it was broken, and that route "closed for repairs, 
leaving no choice but to hazard crossing over on that rotten old 
bridge and pay the old prices for the risk incurred." 18 

Acting on the Tribune's suggestion, a committee had been ap- 
pointed to investigate the condition of the bridge, and at a special 
meeting of the council it reported that the bridge was unsafe. 131 
A few days later the council notified the bridge company of the 
findings of the committee. Notices were at once posted at each end 
of the bridge, warning the public of its condition, but as the ferry 
had been temporarily put out of commission, traffic across the bridge 
went ahead unabated. 132 

Meetings were held to check the bridge situation up to the people, 
and at one of these the bridge company wanted the council to take 
the ferry off the river. This could not be done as the county com- 
missioners had jurisdiction over that matter. Resolutions were 
passed at this meeting against making any arrangements with the 
bridge company by which tolls were to be collected ; and it was voted 
that in case the company erected a new toll bridge and attempted 
to collect tolls the mayor and councilmen should immediately make 
the ferry free and run it until a free bridge could be had. This 
meeting placed the valuation of the bridge at not to exceed 
$15,000. 133 

The bridge company late in June issued a statement signed by 
C. W. Babcock, secretary and treasurer of the Lawrence Bridge 
Company, in which it was proposed to make the bridge free for foot 
travel, free for all city business, free for all public occasions, and 

128. Ibid., May 8, 1873. 

129. Ibid., May 29, 1873. 

130. Ibid., May 22, 1873. 
181. Ibid., May 23, 1873. 

132. Ibid., May 28, 1873. 

133. Ibid., June 20, 1873. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 289 

all public processions. Tolls on all wagons and buggy travel were 
to be reduced to 10 cents. Tolls were to remain at that figure until 
a final decision was rendered in the case then pending, (unless the 
county attorney should unnecessarily delay), or until the city 
should express a willingness to purchase the property at a fair 
price. 134 

Desirous of quieting the public mind in regard to the condition of 
the bridge, the company called in two engineers, one a Mr. Sneed, 
of the Union Pacific railway, who made a thorough examination 
of the structure, and pronounced it unsafe. 135 

During the summer, among other items printed about the old 
bridge, were the following: 

"Condemned the Second Time. The elephant attached to Robinson's circus 
could not be induced to cross the bridge. His keepers urged and scolded him, 
but in spite of all their efforts he refused to trust himself on Babcock's bridge, 
but went on the ferry readily. Mr. Robinson stated to some gentlemen in front 
of the Eldridge House that it was the first time in ten years that the elephant 
had refused to cross a bridge." Daily Kansas Tribune, Lawrence, August 2, 
1873. 

"A flock of woodpeckers made a raid on the old Babcock bridge yesterday, 
but after punching the timbers in all the ways they could, they gave it up in 
disgust. They could not find what they were looking after live grubs, the 
timber was too rotten to afford life to them." Daily Kansas Tribune, Law- 
rence, August 29, 1873. 

Early in September the company tacitly admitted the true con- 
dition of the bridge, and set to work making substantial repairs. 
A temporary bridge pontoons was constructed to serve travel 
while repairs were being made. About this time the Tribune was 
selected as the official city paper and, strange to say, the fight on 
the old bridge company suddenly ceased, though the paper did 
modestly claim the credit for having gotten the city the new struc- 
ture. 136 This temporary bridge was quite well patronized, and the 
people were crossing nearly all the time. 137 

The bridge controversy came to an end in 1879, the supreme court 
holding that the bridge company's charter had already expired and 
that they had no further control over the bridge or highway. This 
decision gave Lawrence the free bridge she had been wanting for 
years. 138 

134. Ibid., June 28, 1873. 

135. Ibid., June 29, 1873. 
186. Ibid., October 1, 1873. 

137. Ibid., October 30, 1873. 

138. 22 Kansas Reports, pp. 438-443. 

198677 



290 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The following abridged account of Lawrence's last ferry is taken 
from a story written by Dr. Edward Bumgardner of that city, and 
published in the Lawrence Journal-World, May 30, 1933 : 

"The last ferry across the river at Lawrence was an emergency service op- 
erated by Gustave A. Graeber at the time of the 1903 flood, just thirty years 
ago. In the latter part of May, 1903, the heavy rains all over the Kaw water- 
shed had so swollen the tributary streams that the river reached the flood stage 
about the 20th of the month and began overflowing the rich farm lands of the 
Kaw valley. 

"On May 30, Decoration Day, it seemed that the highest possible level of 
water had been reached. The house of Will Parsons, a mail carrier, a quarter 
of a mile up stream, had floated down the current, struck the bridge, carried 
away a section, and interrupted communication between North Lawrence and 
the main part of the city south of the river. A small building with a sign 
announcing that it was the 'Salina Bakery' was stranded a short distance below 
the dam. The Bowersock mill had collapsed and disappeared down stream 
after sending up a great cloud of flour that covered with white a thousand 
spectators who were standing near the south end of the wrecked bridge. 

"Gustave A. Graeber had made that day in a row boat what he thought was 
his last round trip to North Lawrence, and had gone home exhausted. No one 
else in Lawrence was as familiar with the Kaw, and no one had watched the 
development of this flood with more concern than 'Dolly' Graeber. He lived 
at that time, as he still does, on the bank of the river at the north end of 
Ohio street. The bank is rather high there, and Mr. Graeber's house stands 
some 15 feet above the grade of the Santa Fe railroad track which runs along 
the river between it and the Graeber home. 

"To the astonishment of all and the dismay of many Lawrence people, the 
river rose four feet more that Saturday night. Through the night rockets were 
seen rising from an island in North Lawrence, the only spot not covered with 
water, where an undetermined number of the population were assembled. On 
Sunday morning above the roar of the raging waters the North Lawrence 
church bells could be heard, not calling the people to worship, but tolling a 
prolonged appeal for relief. Early in the morning 'Dolly' Graeber was be- 
sieged by excited citizens urging him to do something for the marooned people 
in North Lawrence. For awhile he demurred. . . . But, knowing that many 
human lives were at stake, he could not resist continued appeals. 

"He got into his little boat and pushed out into the water. . . . After a 
hard struggle he reached the opposite shore and sized up the situation there. 
Hundreds of homeless people were huddled together, frantic in their desire 
to escape from their crowded and terrifying situation. So long as this was 
impossible, food and clothing were in urgent demand, and everybody had a 
message for some , relative or friend on the south side. After an hour's survey 
of the situation, Mr. Graeber worked his boat up stream a short distance and 
braved the foaming waters for the return trip, which he accomplished suc- 
cessfully, landing near the Santa Fe depot, and reported to Mayor A. L. Selig 
and other anxious citizens. 

"Mr. Graeber's task was now only outlined. The people in North Lawrence 
must be rescued as soon as possible, and in the meantime they must be pro- 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 291 

vided with the necessities of life. It was before the days of electric and gaso- 
line launches, but he thought of fixing up an antiquated launch which he owned 
and which was provided with a one-cylinder steam engine. The engine had 
never worked properly, but he determined to make it work now. As he was 
starting on his first trip a poppet valve went bad, and the engine was useless. 
A repair man, C. L. Rutter, quickly made a new valve and the engine began 
to function. 

"Accompanied by L. L. Phillips, Mr. Graeber now made a trip with a cargo 
of food, wraps and medicines. This was the beginning of a service that he 
rendered for six weeks, until the waters had subsided and other means of 
crossing had been provided. A problem that had to be solved immediately was 
the preservation of order in the flooded district and the protection of such 
property as had not been destroyed by water. 

"At the request of Mayor Selig, Company H of the First Kansas national 
guards was ordered out by Governor Bailey, and Capt. F. B. Dodds and 48 
men of this company were transported by Graeber to the north side where 
they remained on duty for fifteen days. 

"Government officials had been notified when the bridge went out, and a 
company of army engineers at Fort Leavenworth was ordered across the 
country with materials for constructing a pontoon bridge. They found it im- 
possible to cross Mud creek for several days, so that they did not reach North 
Lawrence until the 10th of June. One platoon made camp on the north side 
of the river, while the remainder of the company were brought across in 
Graeber 's launch and camped on the south side. On the third day after their 
arrival they completed a swinging ferry which was operated daily from five 
in the morning until one at night for about two months, until a Union Pacific 
construction gang had made such temporary repairs on the bridge as to make 
it passable. 

"For full six weeks Mr. Graeber ran his launch as a ferry boat back and forth 
every hour of the day. For two weeks he received nothing but the grateful 
thanks of the people he served. During the additional four weeks he made a 
charge of fifteen cents for each passenger that he carried. He kept count of 
the passengers transported until the number exceeded 20,000, when he lost 
count, but he says he is confident that he hauled at least 25,000 in the six 
weeks; and during all that time he had no serious mishap. Several times there 
were accidents impending that would have been fatal, but no passenger of his 
was ever thrown into the water. 

"On one occasion a sharp snag punctured the bottom of the boat, but it 
broke off in such a way as to partially close the rent and keep the boat from 
sinking immediately, and he reached shore with the boat nearly full of water. 
Now, at the age of 79, Mr. Graeber looks back with satisfaction to the record 
that he made thirty years ago without the loss of any passenger whose life was 
placed in his hands." 

Hugh Cameron had the next ferry above Lawrence. The legis- 
lature of 1857 granted him a charter for a ferry across the Kansas 
river opposite fractional E. % S. 14, T. 12, R. 19, with a ten-year 
privilege of landing on the north side of the river on the Delaware 



292 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

reserve. 139 This ferry is shown on a map of Douglas county, Kan- 
sas, by J. Cooper Stuck, for 1857, and was approximately two and 
one-half miles up river from Lawrence. Cameron was a resident 
of Douglas county for many years, and was known locally as "The 
Kansas Hermit," this nickname having been given him for his 
solitary mode of living. He was in the federal army during the 
Civil War and had been brevetted brigadier general. He was a 
strong advocate of prohibition and equal suffrage, and wrote some 
of his views in verse. In his later life he was known for his many 
eccentricities, one of which was having his sleeping quarters in a 
long box which he had erected in the forks of a tree near his cabin. 

The next ferry above Cameron's was John Harris', about five 
miles above Lawrence. Harris was granted a charter for a ferry by 
the legislature of 1860, the crossing to be located near the west line 
of S. 2, T. 12, R. 19 E., in Jefferson county. This act granted ex- 
clusive privileges for a distance of two miles on each side of S. 2 
for a period of twenty years. 140 The landing on the south side of 
the river was a point slightly north and east of Horseshoe lake. 
This lake was formerly a part of the main channel of the Kansas 
river, which here made a big turn to the south and doubled back 
to the north, forming the lake when high water in an early day 
cut a new channel directly across the narrowest part of the loop, 
leaving the old bed cut off. This body of water was given the name 
of Lake View in modern times, and now belongs to a private club 
which has made it one of the pleasure and fishing spots of eastern 
Kansas. This ferry was located near another historic spot. The 
Kaw Indian agency in 1827 was located on the north side of the 
river opposite Horseshoe lake, near the village of Williamstown of 
present day. Daniel Morgan Boone, farmer for the Kaw Indians, 
had his farm close by. 141 

Douglas, two or three miles up the river, was the next point to 
have a ferry. The town was incorporated by act of the territorial 
legislature of 1855, John W. Reid, George W. Clarke, Chas. E. 
Kearney, Edward C. McCarty, Paris Ellison and M. W. McGee 
being its projectors. 142 

These men were also granted a twenty-year charter for a ferry 
by the same legislature, with exclusive privileges for one mile up 
from the town and down the river to the eastern line of the town of 
Douglas. 143 

139. Laws, Kansas, 1857, p. 162. 140. Ibid., 1860, pp. 269, 270. 

141. Kansas Historical Collections, v. 4, p. 302 ; v. 9, p. 321. 

142. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, p. 854. 143. Ibid., p. 778. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 293 

This ferry, if operated at all, must have been discontinued within 
a couple of years, for in 1858 Paris Ellison 144 was granted a charter 
at this location for a ten-year period. 

The charter members of the first ferry company, in all probability, 
were proslavery men. M. W. McGee was a member of an early 
family of Westport, Mo., and was a member of the first territorial 
legislature. Geo. W. Clarke was an Indian agent, purser in the navy, 
register of the Fort Scott land ofiice, and will be remembered by 
Linn county citizens as the leader of a band which raided that 
county. J. W. Reid was a proslavery man and was at the head of 
the 400 Missourians at the Battle of Osawatomie. He was also 
one of the generals in command of territorial militia when Lawrence 
was threatened by the 2,700 Missourians in 1856. 145 

Douglas was about opposite the mouth of Grasshopper (Delaware) 
river. A post ofiice had been established in March, 1855, which 
also served Lecompton, Andrew McDonald being the first post- 
master. In September the post office was removed to Lecompton, 
its rival. A steam saw mill had been established by Messrs. Johns- 
ton, McDonald and White at Douglas early in January, and ad- 
vertised good native lumber, one-inch thick, at $3 per hundred. The 
firm pointed out that this lumber could be rafted down the Kansas 
river at nearly all seasons, and that they would run the mill day 
and night, if necessary, to accommodate the public. 146 Douglas re- 
ceived two votes for territorial capital when the members of the 
legislature were called on to make a selection. It received the votes 
of Messrs. O. H. Brown and G. W. Ward. Brown was from Mary- 
land, aged 34, single and proslavery in politics, while Ward was a 
Kentuckian, aged 55, farmer, married, and also "sound on the 
goose." 147 The legislature this year ordered a territorial road laid 
out from One Hundred and Ten to the town of Douglas, via Glen- 
dale, and thence by the most practicable route to the most desirable 
point on the road leading from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Riley. 148 

Douglas was one of three towns located between Horseshoe lake 
and Lecompton, the others being Benicia and East Douglas, the 
townsites almost adjoining. All three towns are shown on Whitman 
& SearPs map of Kansas, 1856, but have long since disappeared. 

(To be Continued in November Quarterly.) 

144. Laws, Kansas, 1858, pp. 55, 56. 

145. Kansas Historical Collections, v. 4, pp. 532, 533, 537. 

146. Kansas Free State, Lawrence, June 4, 1855; Andreas, History of Kansas, pp. 309, 
310; Colton's Kansas and Nebraska, p. 75; Kansas Historical Collections, v. 3, p. 897; v. 
7, p. 443. 

147. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, July 28, 1855. 

148. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, pp. 972, 973. 



The Bull Fight at Dodge 

KIRKE MECHEM 

THE first and with perhaps one exception the only real bull fight 
ever held in the United States was staged at Dodge City on the 
fourth and fifth of July, 1884. 1 It was a genuine Spanish importa- 
tion, via Mexico, featuring expert Mexican bull fighters and actual 
swording of the bulls. In defiance of the nation-wide protest which 
arose against this "barbarous celebration of our national holiday" 
the Cowboy Capital, as was its habit in those days, presented the 
spectacle as advertised and thumbed its nose at the clamor. 

To A. B. Webster, a former mayor of Dodge City, goes credit for 
the town's unique sporting venture. It was while struggling on the 
horns of a dilemma presented by the necessity for concocting some- 
thing new in the way of Fourth of July entertainment, that Webster 
was prodded by his inspiration. After a moment's consideration 
of the feasibility of the idea he made a hasty calculation of the 
expense involved and with characteristic frontier promptitude set 
out to sell his proposition to the town. Within an hour Dodge's 
business men had subscribed and paid in over $3,000. By the end 
of the following day the estimated budget of $10,000 had been 
raised. 2 

1. Under Spanish rule there were many bullfights, bull-and-bear fights, and similar spec- 
tacles in the Southwest. There are vague references to fights along the Texas and Louisiana 
borders at a later period. Despite the opposition of humane societies there have since been 
numerous attempts to introduce bull fighting in the United States. On July 31, 1880, a 
Spaniard held a steer baiting in New York City, "when," according to the New York Semi- 
Weekly Tribune, August 3, "Texas steers showed their docility and good breeding." Rubber 
caps were fitted on the horns and the matadors were not permitted to harm the animals. 
Henry Bergh, Jr., president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 
attended and stopped further exhibitions. In 1895 managers of an exposition at Atlanta, Ga., 
sold a Mexican village concession in the knowledge that bull fighting would be the principal at- 
traction. Protests brought about a cancellation, although, according to the New York Tribune, 
October 9, 1895, bull fighters, bulls and horses were on their way from Mexico. Cripple Creek, 
Colo., shares honors with Dodge City for the only fights where bulls were actually sworded, 
so far as the writer has been able to discover. On August 24 and 25, 1895, three bulls were 
killed in the ring in a particularly brutal manner, in the presence of excursion crowds from 
Colorado Springs and Denver. Contrary to the procedure at Dodge City, no attempt, ap- 
parently, was made to secure animals that would fight. Docile Hereford bulls were cut to 
pieces trying to escape. (Denver Republican, August 26, 1895.) The Humane Society, much 
criticised, later stopped a fight one of the same promoters attempted to hold in Denver. 
At Omaha, Neb., on July 9, 1901, according to the New York Tribune of July 10, seven 
thousand attended a bull fight, attracted by the goring of a matador the preceding day, 
which, the Mexican fighters said, could have been prevented if they had not been prohibited 
from harming the bulls. On November 27, 1902, unarmed Mexican matadors gave a "pleas- 
ing" demonstration in Kansas City, Mo., following many protests. Kansas City Star articles 
of that week indicate that these same fighters had appeared in Wichita, St.^Louis and other 
cities. There are many references in more recent years to "mild," "modified," "mock," "bur- 
lesque" and "bloodless" fights. (See New York Times: February 22, 1922; May 26, June 
24, 29, August 17, 24, 1923; August 18, 19 and 20, 1924; February 24, 1925; January 4, 
1926; and February 5, 1927.) In 1930 Sidney Franklin, famous American bull fighter, pro- 
posed to stage a fight in Newark. Because of his prominence the proposal drew criticism 
from all over the country and he was forced to give up the project. (New York Times, 
November 21 to 25, 1930.) 

2 Kansas Cowboy, Dodge City, July 12, 1884. In this issue the Cowboy reprinted 
articles from the New York Herald and the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, both papers having 
sent special correspondents to report the fight. 

(294) 



MECHEM: THE BULL FIGHT AT DODGE 

Webster and his associates in the project of course had no motive 
other than a desire to make money. Certainly they would have 
scouted the imputation that any Spanish innovation was necessary 
to maintain Dodge City's notoriety as a two-gun metropolis. Yet, 
whether they realized it or not, Dodge in 1884 stood in need of just 
the sort of lurid publicity it immediately received when the bull 
fight was announced. The days of its lusty youth were slipping 
away, and the town was drifting perilously close to the shores of 
respectability. True, it was still the home of Bat Masterson, then 
advertised as the killer of thirty-two men, but the outside world 
was gaining the impression that it had turned pacifistic. 3 In spite 
of its past reputation and the fact that it was still only a fringe on 
the outskirts of civilization men were hinting openly that Dodge 
wasn't as bad as it once had been. Mostly this was innuendo, but 
a few Eastern correspondents were making copy of the gossip. In- 
deed, in June of that year one of them boldly wrote : 

"People in the East have formed the idea that Dodge is still the embodi- 
ment of all the wickedness in the Southwest, and that it is dangerous for a 
stranger to come into the town unless he has a strong bodyguard with him. 
The impression, however, is a false one. Dodge is a rough frontier town, and 
it is populated largely by rough people, but they are not at all vicious. They 
are open-hearted and generous. I would have less fear of molestation in this 
wild, western town than I would have on the side streets of Kansas City or 
Chicago late in the evening. 

"Dodge is a typical frontier town. Cowboys and cattle dealers constitute 
the bulk of the population. Incidental to these are hosts of gamblers and 
saloonists. The yearly 'round-up' has not yet been completed. In May the 
cattlemen begin to drive in their cattle for the round-up, which lasts nearly 
a month. The drive this year probably numbered 450,000 cattle. Of these 
doubtless 100,000 will be shipped from here, the balance being driven on 
further. Dodge is a lively business town. The amount of freight received 
here over the railway is enormous, as this is the base of supplies for the im- 
mense country of which this is the centre." 4 

This was the sort of publicity that had begun to undermine the 
town's reputation. It was insidious, all this talk of cow hands and 
round-ups in terms of big business. The glamour of the ranges was 
fading, to be replaced by statistics. There were Kansas writers, 
even, who used similar language. The Independent, of a town as 
far west as McPherson, could say: 

"Dodge City is not the town it used to be. A few years ago at early candle- 
light nearly every saloon was turned into a public gambling or dance house. 

3. In February, 1933, H. B. Bell, of Dodge City, and D. W. Barton, of Ingalls, who 
knew Masterson well while he lived in Dodge City, both stated to the writer that Masterson 
may have killed three men, but neither was certain of more than one. 

4. Kansas Cowboy, July 12, 1884. 



296 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The 'girls' came out from almost every nook and comer and solicited custom 
with as much effrontery as the waiter girls do for their counters at a church 
festival. It was trying on a man's virtue in those days. The cowboys, with a 
revolver strapped upon each hip, swung these wicked beauties all night and 
made the sleeping hours hideous with their profanity and vulgarity. This has 
been stopped. No cowboy is allowed to carry weapons, few dance halls are al- 
lowed to run, and gambling is only carried on in private quarters. The saloons 
are yet running in defiance of law, but prosecutions are pending against all 
of them." 5 

No doubt this newspaper man believed he was doing the town a 
service in thus calling attention to its conversion. As a matter of 
fact he was unduly optimistic about these ordinances which the city 
had recently acquired. Dodge had not reformed ; it was merely be- 
coming conscious, occasionally, of its sins. The conservative 
Eastern papers, for the most part, were under no illusions as to its 
sanctity, and when the bull-fight story was released they lost no 
opportunity to point a righteous finger at its iniquities. 

The Cincinnati Enquirer, calling attention to the fact that Dodge 
was distinguishing itself by introducing the Mexican "sport" to 
American soil, stated that the town "was previously known to fame. 
It is only a few weeks," it commented, "since the gamblers held 
the place in a state of siege for a week. Some two years since 
the town marshal was threatened with death. He telegraphed his 
brother at Tombstone, 1,000 miles away, who rushed to his aid 
by the first train. The two barricaded themselves on the public 
square, and with Winchester rifles deliberately picked off their 
enemies whenever they appeared. When the Santa Fe railroad was 
first built through the place the festive sports used to amuse them- 
selves by putting bullet holes through the tall hats of passengers 
on the trains ; and even yet the depot platforms are decorated with 
recumbent forms of dozens of frisky cowboys, sleeping off the effects 
of the last night's debauch, each with his huge revolver and full 
cartridge belt strapped around him. When the prohibition law 
went into effect in other parts of the state, Dodge City defied the 
authorities and the saloon keepers made up a purse and sent it to 
the mayor with the legend: 'To be given to the widow of the first 
man who informs against a saloon keeper.' That interesting town 
might have sat for the original of John Phoenix's touching rural 
picture : 

5. The McPherson Independent, July 9, 1884. The Independent, however, held no brief 
for Dodge City, for in its issue of July 2, 1884, it had reported: "At Dodge City last week 
an employee of the Santa Fe road entered complaint against the saloon keepers. As a con- 
sequence he got badly pounded, had one eye punched out, was arrested and fined $50 for 
disturbing the peace, and while looking for a bondsman he was rotten egged. Dodge City is 
the banner antiprohibition city of Kansas." 



MECHEM: THE BULL FIGHT AT DODGE 297 

" 'All night long in this sweet little village, 
You can hear the soft note of the pistol, 
And the pleasant shriek of the victim.' " 

No matter what might be said to the contrary, this, after all, was 
Dodge of the Boot Hill as it still existed in popular imagination 
and as it was pictured by most Eastern news writers at the time of 
the bull fight. With some of the highlights toned down it was a 
passably good portrait. Nevertheless, the very fact that Dodge 
City's business men were willing to employ the spotlight in their 
effort to capitalize the town's gaudy atmosphere indicates that the 
"first fine, careless rapture" was passing. The Wild West show and 
the rodeo, glorifying the American cowboy and commercializing 
his exploits, were coming into their own. 

That they were thus helping to officiate at the death of one era 
and the birth of another Webster and his fellow promoters, how- 
ever, were wholly unaware. With matadors to engage, bulls to 
secure, and an arena to build there was no leisure for historical 
speculation. In order to handle the business affairs of the venture 
they organized the Dodge City Driving Park and Fair Association. 
H. B. (Ham) Bell was elected president; D. M. Cockey, vice presi- 
dent; J. S. Welch, secretary; and A. J. Anthony, treasurer. Web- 
ster was made general manager. 

The first and most important job of the association was to engage 
"the genuine Spanish bull-fighters" who were to be the main feature 
and principal drawing card. This Webster was fortunate enough 
to do through a Scottish lawyer of Paso del Norte, one W. K. 
Moore, of the firm of Moore & Sierra. Moore not only engaged 
the troupe, but he came with them as their manager. Also he served 
as press agent. In this capacity he apparently came in immediate 
contact with the antagonism the fight had engendered, and one of 
his first tasks was to pour oil on the troubled waters. 

A perusal of some of the advance publicity Moore prepared in- 
dicates how cannily he undertook to discredit charges that the fight 
would be a cruel and brutal exhibition. An interesting example 
is found in an interview which he gave to the Dodge City Kansas 
Cowboy, wherein he compares bull-fighting favorably with prize- 
fighting. 

"Mr. Moore," said the Cowboy, "is a native of Scotland and has 
lived in Paso del Norte ten years. He is a professor in one of the 
Mexican colleges. He wishes to disabuse the prevailing opinion 
in the minds of the American people as to the nature of a bull 



298 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

fight. He says that fight is not the proper word; that athletic 
exhibition would be more suitable. There is nothing barbarous 
in the proceeding. The bulls are not tortured, the only weapons 
of offense used by the men being small darts. The excitement and 
interest in the 'sport' (as termed by the Mexicans) consist princi- 
pally in witnessing the skill and dexterity of the men in evading 
the assaults of the bull. Mr. Moore says it is an error to classify 
it with pugilistic contests. The governor of Chihuahua is a bull- 
fighter and can handle the lasso with as much skill as the most 
accomplished cowboy." 6 

Apparently, however, Moore was not always consulted by the 
reporters. Contrasted with his assurance that the fight would be 
a gentlemanly and harmless "athletic exhibition" is another news- 
paper story stating that it was not unlikely that the fights of the 
4th and 5th would result fatally to some of the matadors. This 
was ballyhoo of the most modern and approved style. The man- 
agers had advertised a blood-letting, and they knew what the 
crowds expected. But they felt they must make some effort to dis- 
credit the storm of disapproval their advertising had aroused else- 
where. Reports were being circulated that Governor Glick intended 
to stop the fight. This threatened to make serious inroads on the 
crowds expected from the East. The management knew that Glick 
proposed nothing of the sort, despite the pressure that was being 
brought to bear on him. Glick had friends in Dodge, and they 
reported the governor had said that if the fight could be held 
at another time he would attend. But they were afraid that 
promises of too much gore might prove to be a boomerang. There 
was, of course, in addition the unverified rumor that the mayor 
had received a telegram from the United States attorney's office 
saying that bull fighting was against the law in the United States, 
to which the mayor was said to have made the classic answer, 
"Hell! Dodge City ain't in the United States!" But this, too, if 
it occurred at all, was taken no more seriously than the Glick 
rumors. 

While it is doubtless true that there was no danger of Glick's 
stopping the fight, he was subject to considerable criticism. Among 
those who protested most volubly was Henry Bergh, Jr., of New 
York. Bergh was president of the American Society for the Pre- 
vention of Cruelty to Animals, and had had experience of bull 
fights before. In August, 1880, he had succeeded in stopping a 

6. Kansas Cowboy, July 12, 1884. 



MECHEM: THE BULL FIGHT AT DODGE 299 

bull baiting exhibition in New York City promoted by one Angel 
Fernandez. 7 

On the Fourth of July Bergh sent Glick the following telegram: 

"In the name of humanity I appeal to you to prevent the con- 
templated bull fight at Dodge City this day. Let not American 
soil be polluted by such atrocities." 8 

On July 7 Bergh followed this up with a long letter of protest to 
the Governor: 

"Sin: While civilization is striving to extend its peaceful and benign in- 
fluences over our prosperous and happy country, a spot within the boundries 
of your state suddenly invites notice, where humanity and public decency have 
been trampled under feet and the blood-red flag of barbarisim substituted in 
their stead. 

"Millions of our countrymen, learning through the Press that the birthday 
of the nation, for the first time in its history, has been stained and disgraced 
by a Spanish bullfight at Dodge City in the state of Kansas, will be reluctant 
to believe the report. While the banner of our nation was being elevated in 
every state, town and village in the land, amidst the thundering of artillery and 
the shouts of a prosperous and patriotic people, Dodge City alone stands up 
and announces to the world that henceforth the tastes and habits of the heathen 
and the savage shall be inaugurated upon its soil. 

"It requires no great stretch of fancy to imagine the solemn protest which 
the founders of this great nation would offer could their voices, now silent in 
death, be heard again. Perhaps it would resemble the following, in all respects, 
except the feebleness of the language I employ: 

" 'Fellow countrymen, after years of toil and suffering we acheieved national 
independence for you and yours, along with an almost boundless domain 
which seems to be the special abode of everything which a bounteous Provi- 
dence can bestow upon its children. To-day, one hundred and eight years ago, 
a government was declared whose principles are based on patriotism, humanity 
and progress. Up to the present time no act of that government has, by its 
own election, tarnished or subverted these heaven-born precepts. 

" 'In face of all these blessings, and upon a day consecrated to freedom and 
to progress, a portion of the young state of Kansas, ignoring all these benefits, 
elects to cast its lot among those few ignorant and effete states remaining in 
the world where a majority of the people still cling to the cruel and uncivilized 
pastime which you have to-day transplanted to your own soil.' 

"Such, I say, might be the remonstrance of those noble founders of the 
republic who, dying, constituted yourselves and others the heirs of a nation, 
whose resources are boundless, whose people are educated, and to whom the 
ignorant and oppressed of the earth are looking for example and encourage- 
ment. 

"The same telegram which sends this humiliating announcement into every 
home and schoolhouse in the land is intensified by the report, which it is sin- 

7. See Footnote 1. 

8. Telegram from Henry Bergh, Jr., New York City, to Gov. George W. Glick, July 4, 
1884. "Correspondence of Kansas Governors," Archives division, Kansas State Historical 
Society. 



300 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

cerely hoped is false, that your excellency has extended your official sanction 
to this deed of retrogression, which strives to set back the hands of time to 
that period of the past when human government was content to stand still 
or move on only in the direction of cruelty, tyranny and superstition. 

"That the rumor is as false as it is humiliating, is shared by every re- 
spectable man and woman in the land, I am certain. 

"Americans, like all other people, seek diversion and amusement, but they 
are not willing to give over their country to the bloody and demoralizing 
scenes of the bull ring, a pastime which has, more than any other cause, cor- 
rupted and wasted the minds and energies of the Spanish race, until national 
stagnation and degeneracy are recognized in their shrunken territory, and 
loss of political influence in the councils of their sister states. 

"In response to the universal sentiment of the people of thirty-eight states 
of our beloved country, laws have been enacted within them, and Kansas 
among the number, making cruelty to every living creature, however humble, 
a crime. As an evidence of the sincerity of this sentiment, your excellency may 
possibly remember the audacious attempt made a few years ago in this, the 
greatest city of the republic, to establish the degrading spectacles to which I 
refer, and how sternly and effectually it was rebuked and its authors sent back 
to their foreign homes, fully assured that America is not the soil where so 
foul and unhealthy a plant can flourish. 

"The publication of the laws of Kansas, which I venture to here transcribe, 
along with an expression of your excellency's condemnation to this stupendous 
insult to your people and to every citizen of our country, would do honor to 
the high position you occupy and perhaps serve to recall the people of Dodge 
City back to that career of prosperity and power from which they have 
thoughtlessly suffered themselves to be diverted. 

"'Laws of Kansas, 1879, chapter 81, section 264: Every person who shall 
maliciously or cruelly maim, beat or torture any horse, ox, or other cattle, 
whether belonging to himself or another, shall on conviction be adjudged guilty 
of a misdemeanor, and fined not exceeding fifty dollars.' 

"I have the honor to be your excellency's most obedient servant, 

"HENRY BEBGH, 

"President of the American Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Animals." 

Governor Glick did not acknowledge this until a week later, and 
then he put an exceedingly soft pedal on the affair: 

"My Dear Sir: 

"Your letter of July 7th is at hand. The bull fight to which you refer was 
rather a tame and insignificant affair, and while advertisements gave it some 
importance it had little or no importance at Dodge City or any place else. 
Your telegram in relation to the matter dated July 4th was received but not 
until after the performance had taken place. 

"I am, my dear sir, 

"Your obedient servant." 10 

9. Letter from Henry Bergh, Jr., New York City, to Gov. George W. Glick, July 7, 
1884. Ibid. 

10. Letter from Gov. George W. Glick, July 14, 1884. Ibid. 



MECHEM: THE BULL FIGHT AT DODGE 301 

While Click seemingly was unmoved by these and other protests 
and made no move to interfere, local opposition was not so easy to 
ignore. In Dodge City itself there were many who did not relish 
this new accession to the town's already lurid reputation. The 
minister of one of the churches publicly prayed that Dodge City 
might be relieved from this "stench in the nostrils of civilization." 
Nor was criticism confined within the church; some business men, 
even, while expecting to make money from the crowds, deplored 
the notoriety which they felt would hinder the future growth of the 
city. 

However, neither Eastern sensibilities nor local delicacy weighed 
heavily upon the conscience of the Cowboy Capital. For the most 
part Dodge was enjoying the limelight without qualm or misgiving. 
It gloried in its sanguine past and was in no hurry to succumb 
to the soft amenities of civilization. It was getting a lot of fun 
out of this bull fight. It talked much and loudly about what was 
going to transpire, even though certain of its remarks were made 
with tongue in cheek. In the matter of the bulls, especially, Dodge 
injected a spirit of levity into the proceedings that would have been 
incomprehensible to any Spanish community on the eve of a serious 
bull fight. 

These bulls the management had decided to secure locally. D. 
W. (Doc) Barton, said to be the first man to drive a herd of cattle 
from Texas to Dodge City, was given the contract. The grazing 
grounds were full of Texas herds containing bulls about whose 
fighting abilities and proclivities there was no question, and Barton's 
instructions were to choose them for their ferocity without fear or 
favor. Accordingly he combed the ranges with but one idea in 
mind, and that was to round up the most agile and pugnacious 
bovines the cattle country could produce. In the last week in June 
he delivered the twelve of his selection at the arena corral. 

The public excitement aroused by the arrival of the bulls was 
exceeded only when the matadors put in their appearance a few days 
later. The citizens of Dodge were livestock connoisseurs, and after 
due inspection they were of unanimous opinion that these bulls 
were decidedly ugly customers. "By nature," stated one observer, 
"a Texas bull is all the time as mad as he can get." The mere 
presence of onlookers "was enough to bring them pawing and plung- 
ing against the corral fence till the boards bent like paper and the 
braces creaked with the strain." 

Describing these bulls the Ford County Globe said: "As some 



302 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

of them are liable to be numbered with the dead before our next 
issue, we deem it proper to give a short sketch of these noted ani- 
mals, together with their pedigrees. These pedigrees are kindly 
furnished by the famous bull raiser and breeder, Brother Barton, 
of the great Arkansas river." 11 

Number 1 on the Globe's list was "Ringtailed Snorter, the oldest 
and most noted of the twelve. He has been in twenty-seven differ- 
ent fights, and always came off victor. Pedigree: Calved February 
29, 1883; sire, Long-Horns; dam, All Fire, first of Great Fire, who 
won big money in a freeze-out at Supply in 1882." 

Iron Gall, Number 3, was "a famous catch-as-catch-can fighter, 
and very bad when stirred up." Pedigree: Calved March 25, 
1880; sire, Too-Much Gall; dam, Gall, by Gaily. 

Of Klu Klux, Number 7, the Globe said, "He is a four year old, 
and next to Ringtail Snorter is the oldest noted fighter that will 
come to the front on next Friday. It is this animal that the bull 
fighters most fear, having laid out his man in Old Mexico, while 
playing 'four you see and one you don't/ Pedigree: Got by Frank, 
out of Healy-Boy, who was given a commission in 1878 in the 
Neutral Strip." 

Number 8 was "Sheriff, an animal that was never tamed or 
branded but showed good points in his past go-as-you-please fights 
on the plains, and since then has captured several prizes in different 
parts of the country." 

Numbers 10, 11 and 12, were Rustler, Loco Jim, and Eat-Em-Up- 
Richard, all two-year olds. "Boyce has been training Loco Jim for 
the past month," the Globe reported, "and he will likely get away 
with his man. These animals are all sired by Ringtail Snorter 
and are the coming heroes of the day." The other entries were 
Cowboy Killer, Lone Star, Long Branch, Opera, and Doc. It was 
said of the latter, owned by and named for Doc Barton, that he was 
"a splendid formed gentleman, with well-developed muscles, and 
there is no doubt but that he will do good work." 

This published list of the names and pedigrees of the bulls, con- 
taining allusions to persons and incidents familiar to everyone in 
the range country, was typical of the cow town's semihumorous 
attitude toward its Spanish-Mexican entertainment. The cow hands 
had respect for their bulls, and it tickled their fancy thus to dignify 
them with proper names. There was considerable betting as to the 
havoc the bulls would make among the matadors. Public sympathy 

11. Ford County Globe, Dodge City, July 1, 1884. 



MECHEM: THE BULL FIGHT AT DODGE 303 

was not wholly on the side of the bullfighters. While the cattlemen 
had a certain admiration for anyone with the nerve to engage a 
maddened bull on foot, they felt that their four-footed entries were 
about to do battle for the honor of the cattle country and were en- 
titled to proper recognition and support. 

On the Sunday preceding the Fourth Manager Moore and the 
matadors arrived in Dodge. Their appearance raised the town's 
interest and excitement to a fever pitch. The skeptics were silenced ; 
the promoters redoubled their optimistic preparations. 

There were five of these bullfighters, all native Mexicans. 12 The 
chief matador was Capt. Gregorio Gallardo, a merchant tailor of 
Chihuahua. Gallardo was billed as the most noted of all the noted 
bullfighters of Old Mexico. Several Dodge City citizens remem- 
bered his having killed bulls in a ring at Paso del Norte some years 
before. He carried two swords, "used for dispatching purposes," 
with straight two-edged blades three feet in length. These, so 
Moore said, were made at Toledo, Spain. One of them, he claimed, 
was 150 years old and had been owned and used by Captain 
Gallardo's great-grandfather, once a professional matador of high 
degree in Spain. 

The other members of the band were Evaristo A. Rivas, picador, 
inspector of public works in the state of Chihuahua ; his son, Rodrigo 
Rivas, an artist by profession ; Marco Moya, a professional musician 
from Huejuequillo; and Juan Herrerra, a musician from Aldama. 

The newspapers, especially, waxed enthusiastic over the arrival 
of "the matadors. They were described in phrases worthy the 
ingenuity of the most up-to-date sports propagandist. "They are a 
fierce lot," exclaimed one writer, "and fear is an unknown sensation 
to them. They have followed this avocation from boyhood. They 
have had many narrow escapes from death and have been seriously 
wounded at times. They understand that the people want an excit- 
ing and dangerous fight, and they are ready to satisfy them. 
Some day, they all feel, they will come to their death in the bull 
pit, but they like the life and would not be satisfied to leave it. 
Yet they are as intelligent a party of men as any person would 
wish to meet. Their all-redeeming trait is that they cannot be 
forced to drink a drop of strong liquor." 

This last touch may have been inspired by Manager Moore. In 
his efforts to give a tone of respectability to an affair which its 
critics stigmatized as a return to barbarism, Moore continued to 

12. Kansas Cowboy, July 12, 1884. 



304 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

lay as much emphasis on the reputations his charges bore as ex- 
emplary citizens as he did on their records in the bull ring. Possibly 
he still questioned the reception Dodge would accord after so much 
talk of gore. 

On the morning of the Fourth, however, any fears Moore may 
have had were set at rest. Before ten o'clock it was evident that 
the fight would be a financial success. As the town filled up it 
made a bizarre and colorful spectacle. Cowboys from every section 
of the Southwest were on hand, armed and spurred, and tanned by 
the prairie sun and wind, prepared to crowd enough excitement into 
the two days to last through the next six months of monotony. 
They had money to spend, and they had no difficulty in finding 
places to spend it. Dance halls filled with girls and gaming places 
sprinkled with gamblers were running full blast. The saloons were 
doing a capacity business. In the Opera House, the Congress Hall, 
the Long Branch, the Lone Star, and the Oasis, milling throngs of 
cowmen rubbed elbows with the hundreds of visitors brought in by 
the Santa Fe from the East. Correspondents for metropolitan news- 
papers in search of atmosphere made the rounds and, if one may 
judge from their stories, found no lack of copy. 

By noon Dodge was jammed by eager crowds awaiting the ap- 
pearance of the grand parade which was to mark the beginning of 
festivities. Cow ponies lined the hitching racks along the streets 
and were picketed in every available vacant lot. Shortly before 
two o'clock Former Mayor and Manager Webster, with Manager 
Moore of the matadors, led the procession to the fair grounds. 
Behind them came the town dignitaries, followed by the famous 
cowboy band. Then, to the delight of the spectators, the bull- 
fighters passed in review. In their red jackets, blue tunics, white 
stockings and small dainty slippers, they seemed, in the words of 
a contemporary writer, "the perfection of litheness and quickness, 
and were heartily applauded as their dark handsome faces looked 
on the crowd gathered along the streets." 

The arena, toward which all faces were turned after the parade, 
lay on a tract of forty acres between the town and the Arkansas 
river, which had been purchased and fenced by the association. 
Facing a half-mile track, an amphitheater with a seating capacity 
of four thousand had been erected. In front of the grandstand an 
eight-foot fence enclosed the arena proper, which was one hundred 
feet in diameter. At intervals along the fence eight light board 
screens, or escapes, were provided, where the bull-fighters could 



MECHEM: THE BULL FIGHT AT DODGE 305 

take refuge when too closely pressed. West of the arena was the 
bull corral, connected with the main enclosure by a chute. Parallel 
with this chute was a wider passage through which the bodies of 
the victims would make their exit. 

Before two o'clock the spectators began filing into the amphithea- 
ter. 18 At least a third of the crowd, estimated at 4,000, were women 
and children. Since some of the ladies of the town were not re- 
markable for their sanctity a deputy sheriff had been detailed to 
draw a dividing line which should separate the demi monde from 
their more respectable sisters. The name of the frontier St. Peter 
assigned to this delicate task is lost to posterity, as are the social 
reverberations which must have accompanied some of his decisions. 
Immediately over the entrance gate the reporters and the band were 
seated, and at both sides sections were reserved for Dodge's leading 
citizens and their families. Opposite sat the cowboys and their 
ladies. The ambition of every cowpuncher, one writer reported, 
seemed to be to get a big fat girl and a high seat at the same time. 
"The wait before the appearance of the first bull," he wrote, "was 
filled with chaffing and calling of the usual kind, variegated with 
music by the cowboy band." 

At half past two the work of driving the bulls from the corral 
into the pens opening on the arena was begun by Mr. Chappell, 
track horseman and tournament rider. He was assisted by bull- 
fighter Juan Herrerra, who wielded a red mantle when the animals 
proved unusually refractory. When the bulls were safely penned 
the tips of their horns were sawed off and the ends rasped smooth. 

At 3:40 a bugle sounded the signal for the grand entry. Amid 
the enthusiastic cheers of the multitude the matadors and picadors, 
four afoot and one mounted, came into the arena. They had 
changed into their fighting costumes and their parade had all the 
color of a pageant. Gallardo was magnificent in a scarlet tunic 
and knee breeches, with a green sash and sable trimmings. Rivas 
was attired in a yellow tunic trimmed with red, yellow knee 
breeches, and a white cap surmounted by a pair of horns. The 
other two matadors were dressed in red and blue. The picador 
wore ordinary cowboy clothes. They circled the arena, made their 
obeisance to the officials, and awaited the appearance of the first 
bull. 

13. The description here given is a composite of contemporaneous newspaper accounts. 
The reporters did not see the action in the ring with the same eyes, any more than do our 
modern sports broadcasters. Newspapers used were: Kansas Cowboy, July 12, 1884, in 
which the New York Herald and the St. Louis Globe- Democrat stories were reprinted; the 
Dodge City Democrat, July 6, 1884 ; and the Ford County Globe, July 8, 1884. 

20-8677 



306 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The bugle sounded again and the first bull bounded into view of 
the crowd. He was a red, fierce-looking brute, and full of fight. 
As he passed through the door two decorated barbs were thrown 
into his neck, just below each horn. Infuriated by the darts, he 
charged madly at his tormentors. Gallardo attracted his attention 
and began to play him. Again and again, encouraged by the roars 
of the crowd, he drew the charges of the bull and deftly swerved him 
from his course with his mantle, escaping the rake of the horns by 
inches. After several of these preliminary passes Gallardo took 
refuge behind one of the escapes. The bull made a complete circle 
of the enclosure, then halted defiantly in the center of the ring and 
pawed the ground, covering himself with clouds of dust. 

The other fighters now approached to display their skill. As they 
closed in the bull rushed, but the savage thrust of his horns met only 
thin air, and another festooned dart hung from his shoulders. Time 
and again he wheeled and charged, until his back and sides were 
decorated with a floating sea of colored streamers that reached 
from his horns to the end of his tail. The cow punchers forgot their 
girls and even the best citizens stood and applauded. The matadors 
were in their glory. Here was an animal worthy of their mettle; 
one that gave them an opportunity to exhibit all the tricks of their 
profession. 

This bull was played for thirty minutes before he tired. Then 
Mr. Chappell was called on to lasso the bull and take him out. 
When the animal had been roped, the cow hands, anxious for a dis- 
play of their own technique, set up a cry for Chappell to throw the 
brute. This he attempted to do, but the bull was too strong for him, 
and it was all he could do to pull the maddened animal into the 
chute. Here the bull made a desperate rush at Chappell, grazing 
his horse, and broke loose. Finally he was tied and restored to 
the pen, furious but unharmed. 

When the second bull was released the spectators anticipated 
another display of brute ferocity and human agility. But they 
were disappointed; this bull proved to be a coward and ran from 
his assailants, and was soon driven out. The third was little better, 
merely providing some exercise for the fighters after they had 
covered his sides with darts. The fourth also had to be dismissed. 
The fifth had even fewer fighting qualities than his predecessors. 
He became entangled in one of the escapes and was whipped out 
by a cowboy who sat in the first row of seats, to the derisive 
laughter of the onlookers. 



MECHEM: THE BULL FIGHT AT DODGE 307 

By this time the crowd wanted more action and began demanding 
that the first bull be returned. It had been announced that the 
last bull of the day would be put to the sword by Gallardo, and 
the cowboys wanted to see this highly advertised maneuver executed 
on an animal worthy of the swordsman's skill. Accordingly, the 
fighting red bull was lassoed and pulled back into the arena. 

When Gallardo reentered the enclosure and the spectators saw 
him take the Toledo sword which was passed down by Manager 
Moore they understood that the most exciting episode of the drama 
was at hand. They were aware that Gallardo must repeatedly 
attract the rushes of the bull until the precise opening for the death 
thrust presented itself. This lightning thrust, as they knew, must 
be accomplished by one stroke made from directly in front of the 
animal as it charged, and must result in a clean-cut and instant 
death. 

When the bull caught sight of the matador, therefore, a hush of 
anticipation fell upon the noisy crowd. As if it appreciated its 
perilous situation the brute charged at once and with redoubled 
fury. With a graceful sweep of his cape Gallardo deflected the 
animal's first rush safely past his side. The bull wheeled and flung 
himself again at the matador. Once more his horns found nothing 
more substantial than the elusive cape. Repeatedly he returned 
to the attack and Gallardo 's escapes grew narrower and narrower. 
Then, suddenly, the crowd gasped in dismay and jumped to its feet. 
Gallardo was down. For an instant it seemed the fight was about 
to end in tragedy. But fortunately the accident had occurred at the 
entrance to one of the established escapes. At the moment when 
it appeared to the crowd that Gallardo was caught between the 
bull's horns and the high board fence he threw himself lengthwise 
on the ground at the animal's feet and crawled to safety behind the 
guard. The bull charged on the light boarding of the screen and 
almost tore it down; then, meeting no active resistance, backed 
angrily away. 

Although Gallardo had received a slight bruise on his left thigh 
he immediately stepped into the open to renew the encounter. Bow- 
ing gracefully to acknowledge the plaudits of the spectators he 
signaled the band to resume the music for the swording. Then, 
with a pardonable touch of bravado, he slowly began walking 
directly toward the bull. Through bloodshot eyes and with lowered 
head the brute watched him approach. When the matador was 
almost upon him the bull charged. Poised, and with sword balanced 



308 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

for the thrust, Gallardo waited, but at the last possible instant, not 
finding the opening he desired, was forced to deflect the bull's rush 
with his sweeping cape. Twice more he parried the furious on- 
slaughts. But at the fourth attack came the opportunity he sought. 
Swiftly the blade struck home, bent, and then penetrated to the 
vital spot. The bull staggered a pace or two, stumbled to his 
knees, and then sank to the ground. 

"Thus," reported the Ford County Globe, "ended the first day's 
bull fight in Dodge City, and for all we know the first fight on Amer- 
ican soil. The second day's fighting, with the exception of the 
killing of the last animal in the ring, was more interesting than the 
first. . . . The matadors showed to the people of America what 
bull fighting really was. No one could see it and go away saying 
that it was not a genuine bull fight. It was not that tortuous or 
inhuman punishment inflicted upon wild animals as the term 'bull 
fighting' would seem to imply, save and except the single animal 
that was killed. The punishment, tortures or cruelty was even less 
than that inflicted upon animals in the branding pen." 

In the face of strictures by an unsympathetic press, both in 
Kansas and the East, the Globe's statement expresses the reaction 
of Dodge City's citizens to their first and only bull fight. What the 
more inarticulate cowboys thought of this Spanish entertainment 
can only be a matter of conjecture. That they enjoyed themselves 
may be surmised from a news item which appeared in the Lamed 
Optic a few days after the fight : 

"Quite a number of our boys visited Dodge last week to see the 
bull fight. Some of them returned looking as though they had had 
a personal encounter with the animals." 14 

14. The Lamed Optic, July 11, 1884. 



The Robinson Rifles 

GEN. WM. H. SEARS 

IN 1887-1890 I was one of the instructors at the Lawrence Business 
College; also a part owner of the school. I organized a military 
department and had a large company of uniformed men, all students 
of the school. Taking advantage of a provision of the Kansas mili- 
tary law, I induced the governor to commission me as captain of 
the company as an independent company of the Kansas reserve 
militia and named the company "The Robinson Rifles," in honor 
of Ex-Governor Charles Robinson. When formally notified of this 
Governor Robinson presented the company with a beautiful silk 
banner; on one side being the flag of the United States and on the 
other the great seal of Kansas with the name of the company on it. 
This flag cost $165, and the governor presented it to the company 
with appropriate ceremonies and speeches. This company became 
the best military organization in the state of Kansas. I secured 
arms from the state for the company, and we were regularly in- 
spected with the regular national guard companies. We secured 
the use of the armory used by the Usher Guards, or Company H 
of the National Guard, and drilled there regularly every afternoon 
at 4 o'clock. 

On one occasion the company marched from Lawrence to the home 
of Ex-Governor Charles Robinson, five miles northeast of Lawrence, 
followed by all the girl students in the Business College in express 
wagons, and there on the governor's farm we had target shooting and 
a picnic dinner. After the dinner we engaged in a sham battle on 
the lawn while the governor and his wife sat on the porch of their 
home and witnessed it. 

When the legislature met in 1893 the Populist party, in combina- 
tion with the Democrats, controlled the state senate, and the newly 
elected governor was a Populist L. D. Lewelling, of Wichita. 1 The 
house was claimed by both the Republicans and the Populists; but 
the Republican secretary of state certified that the Republicans had 
a majority of ten, while the Populists proclaimed they had a ma- 
jority of ten. When the new legislature met two rival houses were 
organized in the hall of the house of representatives. Douglas, of 
Wichita, was elected speaker of the Republican house, and Duns- 

1. See, also, J. Ware Butterfield's "The Legislative War of 1893; Inside, Outside, and 
Back Again," in Kansas Historical Collections, v. VII, pp. 453-458, and W. P. Harrington's 
"The Populist Party in Kansas," ibid., v. XVI, pp. 403-450. 

(309) 



310 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

more, of Thayer, was elected speaker by the Populists. For two 
weeks these rival houses conducted legislation, each ignoring the 
other; the two speakers sitting side by side at the speaker's stand. 
Finally the Populists took possession of the house and barred the 
doors so the Republicans could not get in. Then on the morning of 
February 15, 1893, the Republican house, headed by their speaker, 
Mr. Douglas, and their sergeants at arms, broke down the door of 
the hall of the house of representatives with a sledge hammer and 
rushing in they forcibly ejected all the Populists. Immediately 
Governor Lewelling ordered the National Guard to come to Topeka 
and declared martial law. National guardsmen were placed at every 
entrance to the capitol and no one was permitted to enter without a 
pass signed by the adjutant general, Col. H. H. Artz, who, of course, 
was a Populist. 

When the news came to Lawrence that the Governor had called 
for troops and declared martial law, I sent him the following tele- 
gram: "I am competent to handle a company of troops or a larger 
body of men and I would be glad to organize a company and come 
to Topeka to help you uphold the constitution and the laws and to 
preserve order." In anticipation of a favorable reply, I assembled 
in my law office a few of my friends. At nine o'clock that night I 
received the following telegram from Topeka: "Come up with the 
boys in the morning. L. D. Lewelling, Governor." 

I immediately sent my friends out all over town to solicit recruits 
for my company, and by 11 o'clock I had 61 men enlisted. These 
were assembled in Jeffersonian Hall, on Eighth street on the south 
side near New Hampshire, the next morning at eight o'clock. There 
I lined up my company and asked all who had seen military service 
to take one step to the front. More than half of the men stepped 
forward. Then I formed the company in sets of fours; numbers 1 
and 4 being the well-drilled men, and numbers 2 and 3, the undrilled 
men. I soon learned that the Santa Fe train for Topeka was two 
hours late; therefore, I had about three hours to train the men in 
the most important movements. 

In the meantime the news got out in town that I was organizing a 
company to go to Topeka. Men who were opposed to my movement 
went to the Santa Fe ticket agent and asked him to refuse to sell me 
and my company tickets for Topeka. He at once declined and said 
that it was his duty to sell to everybody; then this self-appointed 
committee went to Bud Hindman, the sheriff of Douglas county, and 
asked him to organize a force of deputy sheriffs and put me and my 



SEARS: THE ROBINSON RIFLES 311 

company under arrest and confine us in the Douglas county jail. 
The sheriff declined to act. Then this committee telephoned to Geo. 
T. Nicholson, general passenger agent for the Santa Fe railroad at 
Topeka and asked him to instruct the Santa Fe agent at Lawrence 
not to sell us tickets. Again a refusal was made. Then this com- 
mittee telephoned to Mr. Douglas, speaker of the Republican house, 
with the result that he ordered 300 of his 600 armed sergeants at 
arms to proceed to the Santa Fe depot in Topeka and arrest my 
company when it arrived, and put it in the Shawnee county jail. 

About nine o'clock, while drilling my company, Governor Lewel- 
ling called me on the long-distance telephone and asked me if I 
had organized a company and if I would bring it to Topeka. I 
told him my company was organized and I was drilling it, and 
would come to Topeka on the train which was two hours late. 
I said that his telegram, under the constitution and laws of Kansas, 
was equivalent to a commission and that he had full power to 
authorize me to organize a company, but that I wanted him to 
have a commission made out for me dated February 15, and de- 
livered to me when I arrived in Topeka. I also asked him to in- 
struct his ordnance sergeant to have uniforms, arms, and belts 
filled with cartridges laid out for me in the arsenal ready for my 
company when it arrived. All this the governor promised to at- 
tend to promptly. 

I resumed drilling my company until about 10 o'clock, when 
again Governor Lewelling called me on the telephone. This time 
he told me that his spies had reported that the Douglas house had 
sent 300 armed deputies to the Santa Fe station in Topeka to arrest 
the members of my company and put them in the Shawnee county 
jail, and asked me, "How are you going to get here?" I told the 
governor not to worry, that I would be there. 

After this conversation with the governor I continued to drill 
my company until it was time to go to the train. We marched to 
the Santa Fe depot and there I purchased tickets for Topeka for 
all my men. After boarding the train I called my officers around 
me: George 0. Foster, now registrar at the University of Kansas, 
first lieutenant; my brother, Clarence H. Sears, second lieutenant; 
Frank 0. Hellstrom, orderly sergeant; J. E. Miles, of Atchison, 
second sergeant; Percy Daniels, Girard (son of the Populist lieu- 
tenant governor of Kansas, Col. Percy Daniels, of the Seventh 
Rhode Island artillery in the Civil War), third sergeant; Otis S. 
Allen, fourth sergeant, and Wm. T. Dias, of Jefferson county, whose 



312 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

father was one of Stonewall Jackson's foot cavalry, fifth sergeant. 
I repeated to these men what the governor had told me over the 
telephone. I assigned to each of these officers a proportionate 
number of the company, then I went through the train and in- 
structed each man to obey his immediate officer until further orders. 

As the train was approaching Topeka, I had the officers assemble 
their squads on the steps of the long train on both sides of it, and 
when they were about a quarter of a mile from the station in 
Topeka they jumped off the train. Each officer took his squad 
by a different street and they walked in scattered formation, like 
civilians, and all assembled, at the same moment, at the west end 
of the city library building, which stood in the northeast corner 
of the capitol grounds. When the train arrived in Topeka, the 
platform was packed with armed deputy sergeants at arms. I 
went out of the front door of the smoker on the left side of the 
train, ran around the engine and took a hack for the capitol. For 
a fee of one dollar the hackman drove his team at a gallop all the 
way. On arriving at the National Guard line that surrounded the 
capitol, I was admitted by the officer of the day on my commission 
signed by Gov. Lyman U. Humphrey, as captain of the Robinson 
Rifles, and still good under the constitution and laws of the state 
for eighteen months. I immediately reported to the governor in 
his office, informing him that my company would be ready for duty 
in thirty minutes. I then went into the adjutant general's office, put 
on my uniform, sword and revolver and ran to the city library build- 
ing. There my company was just forming. We crossed the capitol 
grounds from the library building to the arsenal at double time. In 
less than thirty minutes we were uniformed, rifles loaded and bayo- 
nets fixed, and immediately marched to the governor's office. I 
formed my company in the hall in front of the executive offices and 
there Governor Lewelling received it and complimented the men 
upon their loyalty to duty and to the state, and said that he would 
have quarters assigned to us in the building in a few minutes. 

While waiting to be assigned to quarters, a young man approached 
me wearing a red badge and inquired if this was the Lawrence com- 
pany. I replied in the affirmative. He then said, "Come this way 
with your company." I believed he was a messenger from the 
governor. The executive offices, at that time, were in the east 
wing of the capitol. I followed the messenger with my company 
through the corridor and the rotunda until we reached the great 
stairway going up to the hall of the house of representatives. At 



SEAKS: THE ROBINSON RIFLES 313 

that time I really did not know where I was, as I had not visited 
the capitol for several years. We found the stairway barricaded 
with great telephone poles, the ends of the two lower ones separated 
from the wall on the stairs by about three feet. Our guide passed 
through this opening and we followed him in single file. Suddenly 
we found ourselves in front of the door of the lobby leading into 
the hall of the house of representatives. There I was confronted by 
Col. D. R. Anthony, of Leavenworth, Speaker pro tern. Hoch, after- 
wards governor, and Commissioner Green of the supreme court. 
Colonel Anthony said to me, "What company is this?" "This is the 
Robinson Rifles, independent company of the Kansas Reserve 
militia/' I replied. Colonel Anthony then asked, "By what au- 
thority do you come here?" I replied, "By the authority of L. D. 
Lewelling, governor of Kansas." At this statement, the men con- 
fronting me and others who had assembled with them, seemed to 
be much excited. At that moment my orderly sergeant, Frank 0. 
Hellstrom, whispered in my ear: "Captain Sears, this is the Douglas 
house, for God's sake let's get out of here!" Immediately I gave 
the order, "Company, about face! Forward, march!" The com- 
pany, in reverse order, went rapidly down the stairs in single file 
and in a few minutes we were again lined up in front of the gover- 
nor's office. The members of my company felt that this was a very 
narrow escape from capture by the 600 armed deputies of the 
Douglas house. 

Very soon after this incident my company was assigned quarters 
in the corridor below the executive offices, the supreme court being 
on the south side and the state library on the north. Here I formed 
my company in line of masses four deep with the lieutenants in the 
rear, and addressed the men in these words: "If any members of 
this company feel that they have joined it under a misapprehension 
and would like to be released, I say to you now that you can step 
out of the ranks, go to the arsenal and leave your uniforms and 
arms there and go home. I guarantee no member of this company 
will ever criticize you for thus resigning, and not one of us will ever 
call you a coward. I await your decision." The men stood tense 
and silent for more than a minute. Not one of the company left 
the ranks; then my brother, Clarence, the second lieutenant, said 
in a deep voice: "Not a damn man!" This sententious, and slightly 
profane, statement brought a storm of cheers from the men and all 
pounded the floor with the butts of their rifles. Indeed, the cheering 



314 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

and pounding of rifles made so much noise that the governor sent 
messengers to find out what was the matter. 

At this point I must explain that five of my company of sixty-one 
men failed to appear for muster in Jeffersonian hall that morning. 
I never saw them to know them afterwards. Of the remaining 
fifty-six men, six were Prohibitionists, twenty-four were Repub- 
licans, and twenty-six were Democrats. 

After the cheering subsided, I said, "I am proud of this company, 
and I shall now administer to you the most solemn oath ever ad- 
ministered to man, and that is the military oath." Every man 
raised his right hand and I read the oath to them and they all 
assented to it. Then I said to them: "I received an order from 
Governor Lewelling to bring this company to Topeka to assist him 
in upholding the constitution and laws of this state and in preserving 
order. He has given me a commission as captain of this company, 
dated yesterday; therefore, my authority is complete, under the 
constitution and laws of this state. I shall obey every lawful order 
given me by the governor, and I expect this company to obey my 
orders. You are now soldiers, and it is not for you to question the 
reason for orders; as Tennyson said in his famous poem, The Charge 
of the Light Brigade/ 

" 'Theirs' not to make reply, 
Theirs' not to reason why, 
Theirs' but to do and die.' " 

Following this brief address, the first platoon of my company, 
under Lieut. George 0. Foster, remained in quarters; the second 
platoon, under Second Lieut. Clarence H. Sears, was assigned to 
protect the arsenal. On arriving at the arsenal Lieutenant Sears 
brought out the Gatling gun, which was a machine gun, and put an 
old sergeant of the regular army, who was in his platoon, in charge 
of it. I instructed Lieutenant Sears that if the great mob assembled 
in the streets, made an attack, he should turn this Gatling gun on 
the mob and instruct his men to act as sharp shooters and shoot 
only the men who had guns in their hands and were firing. My 
instructions were that not a shot must be fired by my men unless 
they were fired upon first. 

The morning of the 17th I was made officer of the day and was 
in charge of the guard line. Early in the forenoon I was standing 
on the east steps of the capitol when a rush was made on the guard 
line. One of the guards was Coryell Faulkner. His father was a 
Civil War veteran, and at this time was superintendent of the 



SEARS: THE ROBINSON RIFLES 315 

soldiers' orphans' home at Atchison. When the rush came, Faulkner 
ordered "halt" three times, but the attackers refused to obey and 
Faulkner leveled his rifle at them and pulled the trigger. The 
cartridge failed to explode. Afterwards I took the rifle from Faulk- 
ner's hands, a breech-loading Springfield, threw up the breech block 
and ejected the cartridge. An examination showed that the firing 
pin was bent so it did not hit the cap, and therefore the cartridge 
failed to explode. I said to Faulkner, "Did you attempt to fire on 
that mob?" Faulkner replied; "I was graduated from the military 
school at Mexico, Mo., and I was taught to order halt three times 
and if the order was not obeyed, to fire. I ordered halt three times 
and the mob failed to stop, so I pulled the trigger." I was deeply 
moved and shocked by Faulkner's statement, for I realized that if 
one shot was fired into that mob, which was composed of thousands 
of people crowding the streets near the capitol, a great battle would 
have been precipitated and no doubt hundreds would have been 
killed and wounded. 

A few days after the "Topeka War" was over, I sat at a marble 
table in the parlor of the old Button house, in Topeka. Around 
this table sat Walter Costigan, editor of the Ottawa Journal; State 
Senators Baldwin and John W. Leedy, afterwards governor, and the 
famous Populist orator, Mrs. Mary Ellen Lease. I told the story 
of the rush on the guard line and exhibited the cartridge. All of 
them examined it. As Mrs. Lease held it in her hands, she said, 
"Because of this courageous, soldierly act of Coryell Faulkner, his 
father shall remain as superintendent of the soldiers' orphans' home 
at Atchison." That night there was a conference of prominent 
state leaders with Governor Lewelling in the parlor of the l^hroop 
hotel in Topeka. I came in a little late and the governor called 
me to him and gave me a seat beside him on a sofa. He im- 
mediately turned and put his hand on my knee and said, "Here is 
a young man that saved me from humiliation and disgrace, and 
possible assassination." For the second time I exhibited the cart- 
ridge that failed to explode, and after all had examined it I presented 
it to the governor. He accepted it and said, "I shall preserve this 
cartridge as the most important exhibit of the 'Topeka War.' " I 
have never seen this cartridge since. 

To go back to the rush on the guard line, I must explain that I 
ran to the quarters of the first platoon of my company, Lieutenant 
Foster in command, and ordered him to move on a run with his men 



316 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

with bayonets fixed and rifles loaded, to the first stairway west of 
the governor's offices and head off the mob which was headed for 
the hall of the house of representatives, every man loaded with 
provisions to feed the starving members of the Douglas house and 
the 600 deputy sergeants at arms. I accompanied Lieutenant Foster 
and we succeeded in cutting off about half of the mob before they 
got into the rotunda and pushed them back down the corridor past 
the governor's offices and down the steps at the point of the bayonet 
and on out into the street. All the time the line of bayonets was 
pushing them back, this mob was shouting and swearing, with 
white faces, but not one of them fired, though they were all armed 
with revolvers and guns. They knew that one shot fired at my 
company would release a storm of Springfield rifle bullets, and no 
man had the nerve to fire. 

The only person injured in the rush of the mob on the guard 
lines was Doctor Pattee, who appeared to be near the guard line 
when the rush came and was struck over the head with a revolver 
and blood ran down his face. I witnessed this incident myself. 
Doctor Pattee was then living in Topeka. He now lives in Lawrence, 
and is the owner of the Pattee Theater building. I think he must 
have been an innocent bystander at that time. 

By this time the feeling had become so intense at Topeka, and 
the partisan feeling and party lines were so tightly drawn, that the 
leaders on both sides realized that a violent outbreak was imminent. 
It was learned that many excursion trains were arriving in Topeka 
loaded with armed Populists and Democrats. All available arms 
and ammunition in every town in the state had been purchased by 
the rival parties and it looked as though we might have civil war 
at any moment. President Harrison wired the troops at Fort 
Leavenworth and Fort Riley to be prepared to move on Topeka at 
any moment. At this critical juncture, Col. 0. E. Learnard, of 
Lawrence, then owner and publisher of the Lawrence Journal, now 
the Journal-World, urged the leaders of both parties to send for Ex- 
Governor Charles Robinson, the first governor of Kansas, then 
living on his great farm five miles northeast of Lawrence. This was 
done, and when the governor arrived a conference composed of the 
leaders of both parties was held in the old Copeland hotel, one block 
east of the capitol grounds. At this conference Governor Robinson 
pointed out that the only way to prevent civil war and bloodshed, 
which would be a lasting blight on the fair name of the state, was 
for the rival parties to come to some agreement; in other words, 



SEARS: THE ROBINSON RIFLES 317 

make a treaty of peace. The governor suggested that both sides to 
the conflict agree to submit the whole controversy that had divided 
the house of representatives into two bodies to the supreme court 
for decision, and that both sides must agree to abide by this decision, 
whatever it might be. Governor Robinson's suggestion was adopted, 
and immediately the governor's order declaring martial law was 
recalled, and all the troops assembled were ordered home. 

The adjutant general's office furnished me a transportation order, 
and I returned to Lawrence with my company, after a four-days' 
absence. When our train drew into the station at Lawrence I was 
surprised to find an enormous crowd assembled there. I formed my 
company in a hollow square on the platform and there we were 
welcomed home by appropriate speeches. A large push truck was 
used for a platform, and Jesse J. Dunn, of Garden City, a student 
in the university, presided. Some years later Dunn was elected chief 
justice of the supreme court of Oklahoma. Mr. Dunn introduced 
Ex-Governor Charles Robinson and he made the principal speech 
of welcome. He said, "Captain Sears, I charge you to preserve the 
muster roll of this company, for it is a roll of honor. This com- 
pany responded to a call of duty and assisted the governor of the 
state in upholding the constitution and the laws and preserving order 
at Topeka." In responding to the address of welcome by Governor 
Robinson, I said, "I named this company the 'Robinson Rifles' in 
honor of Charles Robinson, the first governor of Kansas. As meas- 
ured by his achievements, he is the greatest man this state has pro- 
duced. We feel signally honored to have the governor present at 
our homecoming and are delighted with his words of welcome and 
commendation. 

"I hold in my hand a printed circular showing that last Friday 
night a mass meeting was held at the armory in Lawrence, called 
for the purpose of showing disapprobation of my action in enlisting 
'irresponsible men and boys under the name of the "Robinson Rifles" 
and taking them to Topeka to assist Governor Lewelling to trample 
constitutional liberty under foot.' 'Irresponsible men and boys!' 
Why, my friends, the best blood in the state flows in the veins of 
the members of this company. I see before me George 0. Foster, 
of the University; Otis S. Allen, whose father is one of the justices 
of our supreme court; F. Percy Daniels, whose father was colonel 
of the Seventh Rhode Island artillery during the Civil War and is 
now lieutenant governor of Kansas; Fred A. Clarke, whose father 
is a distinguished citizen of Kansas and served a term as sheriff of 



318 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Douglas county; Charles Henry Lease, whose mother, Mary Ellen 
Lease, is a famous orator and now president of the Kansas State 
Board of Charities; and many other fine young men compose this 
company. No partisan consideration marked the action of the 
members of this company in joining it, because six members are 
Prohibitionists; twenty-four are Republicans; and twenty-six are 
Democrats. Good citizenship always rises above party considera- 
tions or factions. I am proud of the loyalty and good discipline ex- 
hibited by the members of this company, and I wish to say to Gov- 
ernor Robinson that we will preserve this muster roll as a roll of 
honor." 

Headed by a band, I marched my company up town from the 
station, followed by a vast procession of citizens from Douglas, 
Jefferson, Leavenworth and Johnson counties. The sidewalks were 
packed with people and many were on the roof tops and at the 
windows. We marched into Jeffersonian Hall, and there I dismissed 
the company. 

While we were absent from the city I was subject to abusive state- 
ments in the daily papers of the town, and for a time I suffered a 
social and business boycott. To counteract this I wrote a brief 
story in which I set forth the constitution and the military laws of 
the state; the telegraphic order from the governor to organize the 
company, and the commission I received from the governor as 
captain. The law and the facts were with me, absolutely, and when 
this story was published in the Lawrence Journal my old friends 
began to come back to me, and many of them apologized for re- 
fusing to recognize me or speak to me on the streets. 

In recognition of my conduct in the Topeka legislative war, 
Governor Lewelling appointed me brigadier general of the Kansas 
National Guard, and before my term of service ended I was pro- 
moted to senior brigadier in command of the National Guard of the 
state. 

I had grown up in the National Guard, had commanded two school 
companies and the "Robinson Rifles" in the Business College, and 
was also drill master of the Indian regiment at Haskell Institute 
for two years. While in command of the National Guard I was 
given a free hand by Governor Lewelling and put into effect the 
following reforms: 

1. I established a system of target practice; provided the non- 
commissioned officers with target manuals and the commissioned 
officers with copies of "Blunt's Target Practice." A great quantity 



SEARS: THE ROBINSON RIFLES 319 

of fixed ammunition had accumulated in the arsenal at Topeka, and 
I shipped most of this out to the companies. Sharpshooter and 
marksman badges were distributed to the men for efficiency at the 
rifle ranges. 

2. When I took command there were four regiments of infantry 
in the state. I disbanded half of the companies and reorganized the 
balance into two regiments. The allotment of military supplies from 
the federal government was then sufficient to provide these two 
regiments with everything they needed, including overcoats, blankets 
and tents. 

3. I organized a troop of cavalry, one platoon being at Lawrence, 
and the other at Baldwin, and they met for drill, part of the time 
at Lawrence, and part of the time at Baldwin, and when the weather 
was good and the ground fit, the two platoons met at Vinland for 
drill. The men furnished their own horses, for which a small 
allowance was made to them. 

4. I established engineer, hospital and signal corps, and when 
these organizations were perfected the National Guard of Kansas 
was a complete, independent military force, comprising all arms of 
the service; for we had a battery of artillery with machine guns, 
one section being at Wichita, and the other section at Topeka. 

5. I organized a school for the officers, numbering 125 men, and 
sent them to Fort Leavenworth with their tentage, blankets, fatigue 
uniforms and arms, and there they were drilled by regular army 
officers in the daytime and attended lectures given by army officers, 
in Old Sherman Hall, at night. Seven army officers, who were 
instructors in the post-graduate school at Fort Leavenworth, were 
our instructors. We found at this school the largest military library 
in the world, and we considered our instructors the best in the world. 
Before we left this school, through the solicitation of army officers, 
nearly every National Guard officer had subscribed to some military 
magazine and had purchased important books on military science. 
Some years later, while private secretary to Glara Barton, of the 
Red Cross, and at that time a member of her family, it came to me 
to entertain Lieut. Gen. Nelson A. Miles, and during our nearly two 
hours conversation I told him about the school for National Guard 
officers I had organized at Fort Leavenworth; whereupon General 
Miles said, "General Sears, I didn't know you were the man that 
organized that officer's school ; but I made the details of the officers 
for your instructors. The regular army had been holding its right 
hand out to the National Guard for many years in vain, and you 



320 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

were the first one to start a movement to bring us together." The 
Army and Navy Journal gave us a long story about the organiza- 
tion of this school, and immediately I received letters from nearly 
every adjutant general of the United States asking me for details 
about the school, with the result that in a short time there were 
National Guard officer schools organized in every state of the Union, 
except Nevada. 

6. There had been no encampments of the National Guard in 
Kansas for seven years. The legislature had refused to appropriate 
money for camps. But I found the money and reestablished them. 
Each of the thirty-two companies in the National Guard were re- 
ceiving annually $300 for contingent company expenses. The com- 
pany at Hill City paid only one dollar per month for an armory, and 
the captain had accumulated over $600 in the bank, which he later 
returned to the state military fund. Other companies, that paid 
little for armory rent, blew in the surplus on balls and parties. I 
issued an order providing that each company would be paid the 
actual cost for armories and other necessary expenses. In a short 
time there was saved about $6,000, and to this was added some 
$3,000 more from a military fund, and these funds were used for 
reestablishing encampments. The officers and men served without 
pay at the encampments, and the city that secured an encampment 
furnished the wood for campfires, straw for the tents and, in one 
case, the bread and beef also. 

In recognition of my work for the National Guard I have been 
accorded the honor of invitations to West Point commencements 
ever since 1926 and have attended five of them. 

The officer's school that I organized at Fort Leavenworth was 
continued for four years prior to the war with Spain, with the result 
that the Twentieth Kansas, in the Spanish American War, which 
was composed largely of the officers and men of the two regiments 
of the National Guard of Kansas, made a fine record in the Philip- 
pines under the leadership of Gen. Wilder S. Metcalf and Gen. 
Frederick Funston. 



Kansas History as Published 
in the State Press 

Biographical sketches of Salina citizens have been published from 
time to time in the Salina Journal under the heading, "Why I came 
to Salina." 

A Mennonite immigration in 1876 and the settlement established 
in Harvey county were described by C. C. Regier in an article en- 
titled, "An Immigrant Family of 1876," which appeared in Social 
Science, Winfield, for July, 1932. 

Short paragraphs on historical events of local and world-wide in- 
terest are prepared by Dr. Edward Bumgardner, of Lawrence, for 
regular publication in several newspapers of the Midwest under the 
heading, "Homeopathic Doses of History." The Lawrence Daily 
Journal-World, lola Daily Register, Holton Recorder and the Valley 
Falls Vindicator are among the Kansas newspapers publishing the 
series which started August 1, 1932. 

A story of the pioneers of Lookout valley was published serially 
in the Cedar Vale Messenger from November 8, 1932, to February 
17, 1933. Pioneer reminiscences in this series were edited by 0. D. 
Sartin. 

Harvey county historical manuscripts, preserved by John C. 
Nicholson, have been published from time to time in the Harvey 
County News, Newton. Stories included in this series and their 
authors, if known, are: "Early History of the Formation of the 
County and Difficulties Encountered," Judge R. W. P. Muse, Janu- 
ary 5, 1933; "Farming in the Early Seventies," John C. Johnston, 
January 12; "Early Days of Harvey County and Newton," Febru- 
ary 2; "Burrton Township," W. L. D. Daily, February 9, and "Tak- 
ing Claims, Improving Land and Other Happenings in Highland 
Township History," John C. Johnston, March 2. 

"Wheat the Crop of Early Centuries Its Part in the County 
and State Development," by Mary H. Wires, was published in the 
Harvey County News, Newton, January 12, 1933. 

A story of the founding of Victoria, Ellis county, and the intro- 
duction of black Angus cattle into this country, written by Alvin 
H. Sander, former editor of the Breeder's Gazette, was printed in 
the Russell Record, January 19 and 26, 1933. 

218677 

(321) 



322 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Mrs. Margaret Steig, pioneer of Marshall county, was inter- 
viewed by Byron E. Guise for the Marshall County News, Marys- 
ville, January 20, 1933. Mrs. Steig came to Kansas in 1866 and 
settled northeast of Oketo. Other articles of Kansas historical in- 
terest appearing in this newspaper include a brief history of Blue 
Rapids, March 10 ; the experiences of William Campbell, a pony ex- 
press rider, March 17 ; a history of the Marietta Grain Co., reputed 
to be the oldest cooperative grain organization in the state, March 
24; the experiences of Hiram Lillibridge, Waterville pioneer, April 
14; an interview with Mrs. A. J. Travelute, who has lived in Marys- 
ville since 1860, April 28 ; the experiences of Ed Lally, June 2, and a 
picture of the county sixty-six years ago as recalled by Mrs. Fred 
Brucker, June 16. 

A "History of Waldo M. E. Church," by Mary A. Jain, was pub- 
lished in the Waldo Advocate, January 23 to February 6, 1933. 
S. P. Lantz was superintendent of the first Sunday school. 

The story of the naming of Wagon Bed Springs was related by 
India H. Simmons in the Dodge City Daily Globe, January 25, 1933. 
"When the Rails Pushed West," naming many early-day characters 
and places figuring in the history of the Dodge City area, was an- 
other of Mrs. Simmons' contributions to the Globe. It was pub- 
lished in the issues of January 26 to 30. 

Pioneers of Trego county were guests of the Wakeeney Locust 
club at a Kansas Day program January 20, 1933. Names of a few 
of these early-day settlers were published in the Western Kansas 
World, January 26. Brief biographical sketches of pioneers who 
still live in Trego county were printed in the issues of February 2 
to March 9, and on February 23 over two columns were devoted to 
the experiences of 0. A. Cortright. 

The reminiscences of Mrs. E. 0. Brooks (Sarah White) , telling of 
her capture by Indians in 1868, were published in The Kansas Op- 
timist, Jamestown, January 26, 1933. The article was written by 
Mrs. Carl Flitch, a daughter of Mrs. E. 0. Brooks, and was read at 
a Jamestown Kansas Day program. 

"Abram Brantley Holt, Nearly 86, Is Oldest Living Resident of 
Leon," was the title of a feature article appearing in the Leon 
News, January 27, 1933. Mr. Holt settled on Hickory creek in 
1870. 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE KANSAS PRESS 323 

"Kansas Day, 1861-1933," was the subject of A. H. Harris' recol- 
lections published in the Yates Center News, January 27, 1933. 

Early-day experiences of B. S. Head were recounted in the Cedar 
Vale Messenger, January 27, 1933. Mr. Head's father settled in 
northeastern Kansas in the spring of 1855. 

Cunningham's tornado of 1900 was described in the Cunningham 
Clipper, in a special article appearing in its issues of January 27 to 
February 17, 1933. 

"Through the Years With Site of Old Wyandotte County Court- 
house," was the title of an illustrated historical article featured in 
the "Yearly Progress Edition" of the Kansas City Kansan, January 
29, 1933. 

Riley county in retrospect was the keynote of a pageant presented 
as part of the Riley County Historical Society's Kansas Day pro- 
gram, January 28, 1933. A list of the early settlers attending the 
meeting was published in the Manhattan Morning Chronicle, Jan- 
uary 29, and the Manhattan Republic, February 2. 

A brief historical sketch of Omio, once a busy Jewell county city, 
was published in the Topeka Daily Capital, January 30, 1933. 
Omio was situated three miles south of Formoso. 

The battle of Black Jack, which was described by Milton Tabor 
in his "The Story of Kansas," printed in the Topeka Daily Capital, 
January 30, 1933, led Asa F. Converse, in the Wellsville Globe, 
February 23, to publish eye-witness accounts by Robert Pearson 
and G. W. E. Griffith, participants in the battle. 

John Starr Barnum, one of the three men who named Wichita, 
died in California January 29, 1933. According to the Wichita 
Eagle of January 31, Barnum, David Munger, the first postmaster, 
and a harness maker by the name of Vigus, gave the city its name. 

Biographical sketches of Wilson county pioneers are being pub- 
lished from time to time in the Wilson County Citizen, Fredonia. 
The articles, which have been prepared by Mrs. Belle C. Lyon, 
mention the following citizens: Luther E. Greathouse, January 31, 
1933; L. C. Collins, March 14; J. E. Daniel, April 4; J. W. Koonce, 
April 14, and Mrs. Annie Barrett, May 19. 

Horse thieves operating in southern Kansas and the Indian terri- 
tory over a half century ago were recalled by Judge T. J. Dyer in 



324 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the Alva (Okla.) Daily Record, January 31, February 1 and 2, 1933. 
Judge Dyer with his family settled near Elgin in April, 1870. 

A brief history of the Santa Fe railroad was published in The 
Tiller and Toiler, Lamed, February 2, 1933. The city's early-day 
fires were briefly reviewed also in this issue. 

Sedgwick Congregational Church history was briefly sketched in 
the Sedgwick Pantagraph, February 2, 1933. 

"Kansas," an address by J. H. Andrews, given at a meeting of 
the Humboldt Rotary Club, January 30, 1933, was published in the 
Humboldt Union, February 2. Mr. Andrews, who came to Allen 
county in 1867, related many of his early-day experiences. 

"George Hunger Writes of Original Survey of Topeka and South- 
western," was the title of a front-page feature printed in the Esk- 
ridge Independent, February 2, 1933. Two surveys for the railroad 
from Topeka to Council Grove were made. 

Names of old settlers of Kansas, and particularly of Reno county, 
who registered at the fourth annual Farm and Home Week held in 
Hutchinson February 1 to 4, 1933, were published in the Hutchin- 
son News and Herald in their issues of February 2, 3 and 4. The 
four days of festivities are regularly sponsored by the Hutchinson 
daily newspapers. 

"Col. Asa Kinney and the Wisconsin Colony," by Margaret East- 
land-Ruppenthal, was published in The Russell County News, Rus- 
sell, February 2, 9 and 23, 1933. 

Pioneer days along White Rock creek were described by Mrs. 
Ellen M. Warren, of Courtland, in a series of articles printed in the 
Belleville Telescope, February 2 and 23, March 9 and 23, 1933. 
Andrew Glenn, a pioneer and member of the Excelsior colony, re- 
viewed the history of that settlement for the Telescope, February 
9 and 16. 

A sixteen-page "Booster Edition" of the Leon News was edited by 
the Leon Methodist Episcopal Church, February 3, 1933. Histories 
of the various inter-societies of the church and letters from former 
pastors and pioneers were featured. 

A copy of the first issue of the Kansas Free State, which was pub- 
lished in Lawrence in January, 1855, led a reporter to reminisce of 
early-day Lawrence in the Daily Journal-World, February 4, 1933. 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE KANSAS PRESS 325 

Names of the known former students of Central Normal College, 
which flourished at Great Bend until 1902, were listed in the Hois- 
ington Dispatch, February 9, 1933. Preceding a reunion of these 
former students, which was held at Great Bend June 10, a history of 
the college, by Rev. W. A. Sharp, of Topeka, was published in the 
Great Bend Tribune. 

A letter from Wendell P. Hogue to Judge J. T. Cooper, of Fre- 
donia, relating how the city looked to the writer in 1887 and 1888, 
was published in the Wilson County Citizen, February 10, 1933. 

The robbery of the Medicine Lodge bank, May 1, 1884, and the 
part played by Caldwell "peace" officers were described in the Cald- 
well Daily Messenger, February 16, 1933. 

A letter from Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Brown to Mr. and Mrs. R. D. 
Black of Summerfield, on the occasion of the Blacks' fiftieth wed- 
ding anniversary, was published in the Summerfield Sun, February 
16, 1933. The letter revealed many names and places of historical 
interest in Marshall county. 

Two members of the student body of eighteen which met for the 
opening assembly exercises of the Emporia Kansas State Teachers 
College (Kansas State Normal School) sixty-eight years ago are 
still living, according to information brought out at the Founders' 
day dinner, February 15, 1933. The Emporia Gazette of February 
16, and the college Bulletin of February 17, printed historical notes 
on the college brought out at the dinner. 

Reminiscences of pioneer Washington county residents who at- 
tended the courthouse corner-stone laying in 1886 appeared in the 
Washington County Register, Washington, in its issues of February 
24 to March 17, 1933, in conjunction with ceremonies held when the 
corner stone for the new courthouse was laid March 11. 

Panhandle cattle trails and their relation to Dodge City were dis- 
cussed in two articles by A. W. Thompson, of Denver, Colo., pub- 
lished in the Dodge City Daily Globe, February 25 and 27, by 
courtesy of The Cattleman (Texas) and the Clayton (N. M.) News. 
A map showing cattle ranches on the old Tascosa trail accompanied 
the article. 

"He helped to Haul the Guns to Defend Woodsdale From Attack," 
is the title of an article in the Hutchinson Herald of February 26, 
1933, describing the activities of Arthur B. Campbell, of near Mos- 
cow, in the Stevens county seat warfare. 



326 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

"Some Personal Glimpses of Early Kansas Editors," by William 
Allen White, was a feature of the March, 1933, issue of The Kansas 
Editor, published by the department of journalism of the University 
of Kansas, at Lawrence. 

French settlers were the first to locate in the vicinity of present- 
day Burrton, according to historical records left by the late Judge 
W. L. Daily, of Burrton. He found that a French colony of ten 
families located on Turkey creek, in Alta township, in 1869. The 
Hutchinson Herald printed a brief account of this settlement in its 
issue of March 1, 1933. 

"Pioneer Scraps," a column depicting the history of the founding 
of Wichita, appeared serially in the Wichita (evening) Eagle from 
March 1, to May 6, 1933. Mrs. George Whitney was the contributor. 

Under the column heading "Early Day Recollections of Smith 
County Pioneers," the Athol-Gaylord-Cedar Review commenced a 
series of historical articles in its issue of March 1, 1933. Among the 
pioneers contributing were: C. E. Walker, in the issues of March 1, 
15, 29, April 19, May 24; C. A. Cowan, March 8, 22, April 26; J. S. 
McDonald, April 5; Mrs. M. A. Gregg, May 10, and George L. Burr, 
Sr., May 17. 

Philip Budenbender's experiences as one of the earliest residents 
of Spring Creek township, Pottawatomie county, were told in the 
Westmoreland Recorder, March 2, 1933. 

Cawker City newspaper history was reviewed by the Cawker City 
Ledger, March 2, 1933. The Sentinel, founded in March, 1872, was 
the city's first newspaper. 

Early-day life in the Greenleaf community was described by 
Anton Peterson in the Greenleaf Sentinel, March 2 to 16, 1933. Mr. 
Peterson settled in Washington county in 1869. 

The sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the Christian Church 
in Jewell was observed February 26, 1933. A brief history of the 
church, which was read at the meeting by Mrs. Mary Rowe, a 
charter member, was published in The Jewell County Republican, 
March 3. 

An interview with Judge W. P. Campbell, pioneer Wichitan, was 
published in the Wichita Beacon, March 5, 1933. Judge Campbell, 
who came to Kansas in 1869, compared the hardships of yesteryear 
with those of to-day. 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE KANSAS PRESS 327 

"Comanche County Was Organized in a Fraud," was the title of 
a story appearing in the Dodge City Daily Globe, March 7, 1933. 
The article was inspired by an interview with F. A. Hobble. 

A six-column history of Independence was featured in the sixty- 
second anniversary edition of the South Kansas Tribune, Inde- 
pendence, issued March 8, 1933. Walter Krone, W T . S. Sickels, Ly- 
man U. Humphrey, W. R. Pratt, and Samuel Broughton, were among 
the pioneers who contributed reminiscent letters commemorating the 
occasion. 

Newspaper history of Almena was reviewed by the Almena 
Plaindealer, March 9, 1933, commemorating its forty-sixth birthday. 

Filings of declaratory statements of intention to claim govern- 
ment land for homesteads near Russell were discussed by Judge 
J. C. Ruppenthal in The Russell County News, Russell, March 9, 
23 and 30, 1933. The first filing recorded near Russell was made in 
what is now Grant township in May, 1871. 

Reminiscences of Sarah L. Jent as told to H. C. Jent were pub- 
lished in the Cedar Vale Messenger, March 10, 1933. Mrs. Jent 
settled near Elgin in 1878. 

An old school-district treasurer's book for district 59, Washing- 
ton county, formed the basis for a historical review in the Linn- 
Palmer Record, March 10, 1933. Names of former officers, teachers, 
and builders of school buildings were listed in the twenty-eight 
year record. The first entry was that of February 24, 1872. 

The history of McPherson county's oil and gas fields was pub- 
lished by the McPherson Daily Republican in a special oil and gas 
edition March 13, 1933. The discovery well was brought in Sep- 
tember 9, 1926. A brief historical sketch of the county was also 
featured in the edition. 

"A Story of the Bender Tragedy," as written years ago by Charles 
Yoe, was published in the South Kansas Tribune, Independence, 
March 15, 1933. 

Francis Henry Roberts' "Early Days in Oskaloosa" column in the 
Oskaloosa Independent recalled the city's first remembered earth- 
quake, in the issue of March 16, 1933. No special damage was done 
except to chimneys. 

Sketches of the lives of Republic county pioneers, events in the 
early history of Republic City and county, history of the city's 



328 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

newspapers with letters from former editors, and write-ups of the 
churches and schools, were features of the sixteen-page fiftieth anni- 
versary edition of the Republic City News, March 16, 1933. The 
News was founded in March, 1883, by Charles H. Wolfe. 

The establishment of Lawndale, southwest of the present town of 
Cunningham, and an Indian scare of 1885, were described by Ed 
Stone in the Cunningham Clipper through the issues of March 17 
to April 21, 1933. 

A history of the First Presbyterian church of Fairport was re- 
viewed in the Paradise Farmer, March 20, 1933. The church edifice, 
which was destroyed by lightning July 9, 1932, has been rebuilt, and 
the new building was dedicated March 12. Rev. S. S. Wallen or- 
ganized the church September 18, 1887. 

Biographical sketches of Mr. and Mrs. David Greep, Kansas pio- 
neers, were published in the Longford Leader, March 23, 1933. 

"Some Early History About Tribune and Its First Church Or- 
ganization," by Mrs. Sidney Simpson, was printed in the Greeley 
County Republican, Tribune, March 23, 1933. Also, in its issues of 
April 20 and 27, the Republican continued the church history of the 
county with a detailed account written by T. P. Tucker, a pioneer. 

A history of the Soldier Christian Church as read at the fiftieth 
anniversary meeting March 26, 1933, was published in the Soldier 
Clipper, March 29. The church was organized March 28, 1883, with 
fourteen charter members. 

History of the clock in Topeka's old post-office tower, by Dwight 
Thacher Harris, appeared in the Topeka State Journal, March 27, 
1933. It was installed February 28, 1884. 

A column review of the activities of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in Kansas territory was published in the Lawrence Daily 
Journal-World, March 29, 1933. Rev. William A. Goode preached 
the first sermon to the white settlers of the territory at Hickory 
Point July 9, 1854, according to Dr. Edward Bumgardner, the con- 
tributor. 

The fifty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Ash Rock Con- 
gregational Church, Woodston, was observed March 26, 1933. The 
Woodston Argus of March 30, printed a history of the organization. 

Names of Pawnee county cattlemen who have registered cattle 
brands with the county clerk were published in The Tiller and 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE KANSAS PRESS 329 

Toiler, Lamed, March 30, 1933. V. F. Wyman registered the first 
brand in the county, October 29, 1873. 

The death of Mrs. Mary Durfey, widow of Jeff Durfey, March 
23, 1933, was recorded by the Osborne County Farmer, Osborne, 
March 30. The Durfeys, according to the Farmer, were the first 
persons to be married in Osborne county. 

"A Gawdy Picture Painted of Arkansas City in 1889," by D. F. 
MacMartin, was the title of an article published in the Arkansas 
City Daily Traveler, March 30, 1933. Mr. MacMartin made the 
run into Old Oklahoma from Arkansas City in April, 1889. 

The reminiscences of Charles H. Barber, as told to Charles Rose, 
have appeared from time to time in the Almena Plaindealer. Mr. 
Barber, who was a former government Indian scout, told of a buffalo 
hunt with European nobility, in the issue of March 30, 1933 ; of an 
Indian ambush near present Atwood in which he was wounded by an 
arrow, in the April 20 number, and of the Pawnee Indian massacre 
near present Trenton, Neb., in the June 22 issue. 

"Some History of Early Jewell City Cemeteries," by Lillian For- 
rest, was published in The Jewell County Republican, Jewell, March 
31, 1933. 

"Santa Fe's Early History a Story of Development," was the title 
of an address given by W. E. Greene, chief clerk of the railroad's 
Western division office, at Dodge City, recently. The address, which 
was printed in the Dodge City Daily Globe, April 1, 1933, told of 
the hurried construction through southwest Kansas to fulfill the land 
grant stipulation and the later development to California and to 
Chicago. 

A history of the Grand Centre school, District No. 67, Osborne 
county, from 1878 to 1888, by H. P. Tripp, was published in the 
Waldo Advocate, April 3, 1933, and the Luray Herald, April 6. The 
school district was organized in May, 1878. Ida Calkins was the 
first teacher. The building of the log schoolhouse in this district was 
described by Mr. Tripp in the Advocate, May 15, and the Herald, 
May 18. 

Topeka's oldest business firms were named by G. D. McClaskey 
in the Topeka Daily Capital, April 4, 1933. 

Early Clay county history was briefly reviewed in The Economist, 
Clay Center, April 5, 1933. 



330 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Biographies of Tom Lovewell, government scout, and E. D. Haney, 
by Ella Morlan Warren, were published in the Belleville Telescope, 
recently. The sketch of Mr. Lovewell appeared April 6 and 13, 
1933, and that of Mr. Haney, May 4. Other pioneer sketches printed 
in the Telescope, author not known, include: Sam Fisher, May 18, 
and the Family of William Osborne, June 15. 

Historical sketches of Glen Elder and Mitchell county in the early 
1870's have been published in the Glen Elder Sentinel during the 
past few months. The series of articles, written by Alonzo Pruitt, 
appeared under the following titles: "Ancient Glen Elder History," 
April 6, 1933; "Glen Elder's Early Schools," April 20; "Early Day 
Doctors in This Community," April 27; "Our Churches," May 18 
and 25 ; "Personal Recollections of My Early Neighbors," May 25 ; 
"When Kansas Was Young," June 1 and "Cereals and Fruits," June 
15. 

A historical sketch of Harmony Church, by Mrs. Marion Bolin, 
was printed in the Leon News, April 7, 1933. 

The history of the Kingman Journal was reviewed by the Journal 
April 7, 1933, commemorating the start of its forty-fourth year. The 
first issue appeared in April, 1890, with John A. Maxey as editor. 

A brief history of the Methodist Southwest Kansas conference, by 
Rev. S. M. Van Cleve, was published in the Wichita Sunday Eagle, 
April 9, 1933. Biographies of C. E. Williams, W. R. Rolingson, 
Francis M. Romine, Samuel McKibben and Dudley D. Akin, five 
pastors who were members of the conference at its inception and who 
are still living, were included in this resume. 

Maplehill's history was reviewed in the Kansas City (Mo.) Star, 
April 9, 1933. The townsite was opened for settlement by George 
A. Fowler in 1887. 

Cowley county history was sketched by L. A. Millspaugh before a 
meeting of the Cowley County Historical Society April 10, 1933. A 
resume of his speech was published in the Winfield Daily Courier, 
April 11. 

A biography of "Mother" Bickerdyke, for whom the state insti- 
tution at Ellsworth was named, was printed in the Ellsworth Mes- 
senger, April 13, 1933. The Hays Daily News reprinted the article 
in its April 21 issue. 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE KANSAS PRESS 331 

John H. DeVault, a pioneer Kansan, was the subject of a bio- 
graphical sketch in The Scott County Record, Scott City, April 13 
and 20, 1933. Martha Brock was the contributor. 

"Back Trailing With Our Pioneer Women" was the title of a two- 
column story appearing in the Cedar Vale Messenger, April 14, 1933, 
in which the experiences of several Chautauqua county settlers were 
recounted. 

"Rolla Will Celebrate Town's Twentieth Anniversary This Year," 
was the title of a brief historical sketch of the city published in The 
Morton County Farmer, Rolla, April 14, 1933. 

A. P. Elder, a resident of Franklin county for seventy-five years, 
was interviewed by W. E. Gilliland for the Ottawa Herald, April 15, 
1933. In the Kansas City (Mo.) Star, of April 16, Mr. Elder re- 
called Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, in 1863, which he witnessed 
from a nearby hill. 

A triple lynching in Anthony forty-seven years ago was recalled 
by the Anthony Times, April 18, 1933. 

A history of the Ladies Reading Club of Girard, by Mrs. Nora 
Vincent, was published in the Girard Press, April 20, 1933. The 
club was organized April 21, 1883. Mrs. Anna M. Leonard was the 
founder. 

The reminiscences of E. W. Voorhis, of Columbia, Mo., and J. L. 
C. Wilson, of Washington, D. C., two Russell county pioneers, are 
appearing serially in the Russell Record. Mr. Voorhis' sketches en- 
titled "Those Golden Days When Russell Was Made," began with 
the issue of April 20, 1933. "Way Back When," by Mr. Wilson, 
commenced June 22. 

Biographical sketches of Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Sheeran, as told by 
a relative, were published in the Chapman Advertiser, April 20, 1933. 

The genealogy of the Gove family, a member of which was Capt. 
Grenville L. Gove for whom Gove county was named, was reviewed 
in the Republican-Gazette, Gove City, April 20, 1933. 

"Still Register Cattle Brands in Ford County," the Dodge City 
Daily Globe headlined in its issue of April 21, 1933. There are 455 
different brands on record to date, says the Globe, with the first 
registered in 1878 by Fulton and Stevens. 



332 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

A discussion of the Hamilton county-seat troubles was continued 
by C. W. Noell in the Syracuse Journal in its issues of April 21 and 
June 23, 1933. Special significance was placed on the Coomes pre- 
cinct election fraud in the issue of April 21. 

'The story of a Real Pioneer of Southern Kansas/' was the title 
of an article by Rev. Wm. Schaefers relating the reminiscences of 
William Mies in the Wichita Sunday Eagle, April 23, 1933. Mr. 
Mies came to Kansas in 1874, settling near Wichita. 

Elkhart history was briefly reviewed in the Elkhart Tri-State 
News, April 27, 1933. Elkhart was founded in the spring of 1913. 

School history of Leon was traced in a twenty-page edition of the 
Leon News published April 28, 1933. The newspaper was edited by 
a high-school English class. 

"The Story of the Old Home Town, Jewell City, Kansas/' a de- 
tailed history compiled by Everett Palmer, is running serially in 
The Jewell County Republican, starting with the issue of April 28, 
1933. The Jewell City Town Co. was organized May 28, 1870. 

"Carrying Old Glory to Kansas," a column relating the life of 
Gen. Philip St. George Cooke, is appearing serially in the Wichita 
(evening) Eagle, commencing with the issue of May 1, 1933. 

"A Little History of the Early Days of Kansas," by J. L. Garrett, 
of Dorrance, was printed in the Grainfield Cap Sheaf, May 5, 1933. 
Mr. Garrett's family settled west of Wilson in 1872. 

Dedicatory services for Walnut's new Methodist Episcopal church 
building were held April 30, 1933. A history of the organization was 
sketched in the Walnut Eagle, May 5, commemorating the event. 

Early Toronto history was told in a letter from J. T. Cooper pub- 
lished in the Toronto Republican, May 11, 1933. Mr. Cooper was 
principal of the city's schools in 1892. 

Dedicatory services for the rebuilt Presbyterian church in Lincoln 
was held May 7, 1933. Both the Lincoln Sentinel-Republican and 
The Lincoln County News, in their issues of May 11, printed his- 
tories of the church in commemoration of the event. The Lincoln 
congregation was organized in 1873. 

"Kansas History and Horses," was the title of an article appearing 
in the Beloit Gazette, May 17, 1933, extolling Kansas equines famous 
in turf history. 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE KANSAS PRESS 333 

Historical facts about Norcatur were printed in the Norcatur Dis- 
patch, May 18, 1933. The city was incorporated in October, 1901. 

The sixtieth anniversary of the First Presbyterian Church of Hays 
was observed May 27, 1933. The church was organized by Rev. 
Timothy Hill and the first building was erected in 1879. Ministers 
who have served the church since its founding were named in the 
Hays Daily News, May 23. 

A biographical sketch of Henry Sides, Civil War veteran and pio- 
neer of Almena, was published in the Almena Plaindealer, May 25, 
1933. 

"Harvey County Pioneer Tells of Visit by the Notorious Jesse 
James in Early Days," was the title of an article relating the ex- 
periences of Nellie M. Young, of Halstead, printed in the Harvey 
County News, Newton, May 25, 1933. The visit to the home of the 
Youngs occurred in August, 1875. 

Ferries operating across the Kansas river at Lawrence were dis- 
cussed by Dr. Edward Bumgardner in the Lawrence Daily Journal- 
World, May 30, 1933. Gustave A. Graeber operated the latest ferry 
in the city as an emergency service during the flood of 1903. 

Special historical articles commemorating the sixty-fifth anniver- 
sary of the organization of Girard Town Co. by Dr. C. H. Strong 
appeared in the Girard Press, June 1, 1933. Brief biographical 
sketches of Dr. Strong, J. H. McCoy, W. S. Hitch, W. C. Veatch, 
Dr. L. P. Adamson and Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Eldridge were features 
of the edition. 

Russell Congregational Church history was reviewed by Mrs. 
Frances Dawson for a recent state church meeting and was pub- 
lished in the Russell Record, June 1, 1933. 

The Lewis High School commencement address delivered by Dr. 
James C. Malin, May 24, 1933, ran serially in the Lewis Press, in its 
issues of June 1 to July 6, inclusive. Dr. Malin's subject was "The 
Evolution of a Rural Community an Introduction to the History 
of Wayne Township, Edwards County." 

Early day postmasters in Mitchell county were named by A. B. 
Adamson in the Beloit Daily Call, June 2, 1933. 

A brief history of Iowa Point, important Kansas town during ter- 
ritorial days, was published in the Kansas City (Mo.) Times, June 
7, 1933. 



334 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

"Newspaper Files Reveal Interesting Story of Burlingame High 
School Graduates," was the title of a feature article by Mrs. W. 
G. Beale, appearing in The Enterprise-Chronicle, Burlingame, June 
8, 1933. The first class was graduated in 1887. 

"Early Wallace County, General Custer, and the Seventh Cav- 
alry," from the reminiscences of Lewis C. Gandy, was the title of an 
article published in The Western Times, Sharon Springs, June 8, 
July 6 and 13, 1933. 

"Local Man Bore Custer From Field at Little Big Horn," writes 
The Tiller and Toiler, Lamed, June 8, 1933, in a feature story re- 
lating the experiences of Charles W. Guernsey, who visited the Cus- 
ter battlefield the morning after the fight. 

"Missouri River Really the Kaw From Kansas City to St. Louis," 
was the report of a Kansas City (Mo.) Star representative after 
interviewing U. S. army engineers. The story, which appeared June 
9, 1933, stated that the Kaw is "the true river between Kansas City 
and the Mississippi," and that "the Missouri, from a point in North 
Dakota to Kansas City, probably is the 'newest' river in the United 
States." 

A brief illustrated history of St. John's Military Academy, of 
Salina, was printed in the Wichita Sunday Eagle, June 11, 1933. 
The academy was founded in 1887, largely through the efforts of 
Bishop E. S. Thomas. 

The sixtieth anniversary of the settlement of Sellens creek, near 
Russell, was observed June 14, 1933. A brief description of the 
caravan which left Kankakee, 111., in three wagons sixty years ago. 
was published in the Russell Record, June 15, 1933. 

A few of the pioneers settling in the vicinity of Geuda Springs 
were named by George M. Bigger in his reminiscences published in 
the Geuda Springs News, June 15, 1933. 

The recent visit of J. J. Johnson to the Beloit Gazette's office led 
the Gazette to reminisce on its early history in the issue of June 21, 
1933. Mr. Johnson with A. B. Chaffee founded the Gazette in 1872. 

A short history of Ionia, oldest God-child of Ionia, Mich., was 
published in the Ionia Booster, June 23, 1933. The article was a 
reprint from the Ionia (Mich.) Sentinel. 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE KANSAS PRESS 335 

A column history of the Walnut Christian Church appeared in the 
Walnut Eagle, June 23, 1933. The church was organized in 1882 
by J. Hennesy. 

"Recall 1893 Rain Experiment," was the title of a brief article dis- 
cussing the simultaneous firing-off of gunpowder in May, 1893, in 
several southern Kansas cities in an effort to break the drouth, which 
was published in the Wichita Sunday Eagle, June 25, 1933. Rain 
came within a few hours, but meteorologists scoffed at the gun- 
powder theory. Similar attempts at rainmaking in Pawnee county 
were related by E. E. Frizell in The Tiller and Toiler, Lamed, 
April 6. 

To Rev. Isaac McCoy, early Baptist missionary, goes the credit 
of launching and making a success of the movement that resulted in 
the segregation of the Indians west of Missouri and Arkansas, ac- 
cording to Maj. William W. Harris, writing in the Kansas City 
(Mo.) Star, June 25, 1933. The movement resulted in the congres- 
sional "Act of May 26, 1830," establishing what at that time was 
believed to be the future, permanent abode of all North American 
Indians then residing within our national boundaries. 

Burial grounds near Waldo were described by H. P. Tripp in the 
Waldo Advocate, June 26, 1933. 



Kansas Historical Notes 

A memorial tablet to Rev. Thomas Johnson, founder of the 
Methodist Shawnee mission, was unveiled April 16, 1933, in Thomas 
Johnson hall at the mission. Mrs. Edna Anderson, daughter of Rev. 
Johnson, gave the tablet, and Thomas Amory Lee, president of the 
Kansas State Historical Society, represented the state. The meet- 
ing was conducted by the Shawnee Mission Indian Historical So- 
ciety. 

"The Relation of the Local Historical Society to the State His- 
torical Society," was discussed by Kirke Mechem, secretary of the 
Kansas State Historical Society, at a meeting of the Wyandotte 
County Historical Society held at Kansas City, April 20, 1933. 
Grant W. Harrington, of Kansas City, another speaker, read a 
paper entitled "Before the Bridges Came," in which the evolution 
of river crossing in Wyandotte county was reviewed. 

Dudley T. Horton has compiled and published a booklet entitled 
A History of Hopewell School (1932). Hopewell school is District 
No. 114, Plevna, in Reno county. 

The seventy-fifth anniversary of Highland University was ob- 
served this year. Trustees were appointed and a charter was secured 
from the territorial legislature of 1857-1858. Chief White Cloud, a 
student of the Highland mission school from 1854 to 1857, was a 
featured speaker during special commencement festivities com- 
memorating the event. 

Pioneer History of Kansas, 365 pages with illustrations, was re- 
cently published by its author, Adolph Roenigk, of Lincoln. Much 
of the book is concerned with the settlements along the Smoky, Solo- 
mon, Saline and Republican rivers. The history was begun by John 
C. Baird in 1908, who collected data for the first hundred pages, but 
died before the work could be concluded. Mr. Roenigk, who had 
contributed to Mr. Baird's researches, continued and finished the 
book. W. K. Cone, Dr. N. C. Fancher, Theophilus Little, J. W. 
Hopkins, Guy W. Von Shriltz, D. B. Long, Luther R. Johnson, Mar- 
tin Hendrickson, Hercules H. Price, Ferdinand Erhardt, Clarence 
Reckmeyer and Henry Benien were among the narrators. 

The diary of Mark S. Davis, who made an overland journey from 
Wabash, Ind., to Missouri and Kansas in 1868, was published in the 
Indiana Magazine of History for March, 1933. Land claims were 
located in Cherokee county by members of the party. 

14-8677 



THE 

Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 



Volume II Number 4 

November, 1933 



PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT 

W. C. AUSTIN. STATE PRINTER 

TOPEKA 1933 

15-1070 



Contributors 

DOUGLAS C. McMuBTRiE, of Chicago, is an authority on typography and the 
history of printing. 

GEORGE A. ROOT is curator of archives of the Kansas State Historical Society. 
RUSSELL HICKMAN, a teacher, lives at La Porte, Ind. 

FRANK HEYWOOD HODDER is head of the History Department at the Uni- 
versity of Kansas, Lawrence. 

NOTE. Articles in the Quarterly appear in chronological order without re- 
gard to their importance. 



Kesttowi. 

I I'A1,AKO \V AllOS'J'OTA iVAKOTE K I :<tBO. WISICLUJI, 1*11. 
J. LVKINS KIHTOK. NOVEMBER, isn. im-risr MINSK. \ PHI ss 

SimviNMu KAKWA IVokiiMUttjf'Sakitncki " malikwa jak>we hoce hclipimilu' Manila 
Ipalw qnvibakrare Kck<-U>uuqpi.*.<O\vano- bdeoe; pfea&wi honmothvibceamimito- 
>kt rteketft&bitolapa. kwakwekcaphe kra- ' rfiakoce W4bajx> laniwawelecc. 

lio\\a> la{)\vij\vi nnxvnkwa noko \%i!a- Klatu- casr-laniwawcce ruhowa^-lajwi 
r kcata. Skid ki'iiUalainiit.l -ipwi lio\vas<> h- liakoct''J'{}palauiuJikna \vis Iiuwasc niul- 
a. clu iia iian\\- iam\va\\'ua. iv&fatniakotfQ niafalainakuc*' otilalaniili'. 

ICitivNeki-ati. Iliwokifiwr i Umc |>occ!akho skota, fljt;- 



IJinakoif rukittmiioke c-ipainba. ciiona 
F ~ miti cinapoHo? 

Siwimvikt^sukimeki laui^Hl palako kilakocc w vil<- ulupHtv<% koknaiiabi kt- 
>earc Hisa1jkc\ hoaoHokr miu. Mosiiixvi- cc \\;t\\< ^i'li'c mitt cjbibicikvbt'. 
i!>aiakociko Dvaco laniwawt'kc. lf<ni|>c- TT^.ior.i-t Uv\>%ii nahihvikj ocJcilikounl^, 

k' inilakho llowtisv naw*kliiid -alMO- ^pttok \\ S% ^ii f n s ti ok\vHM'ni. 'uutiiicela- 

\va\vtco Hlowaeilc. >kiii < ifik' uicikoii- > ^vvilr liokralc. 

kV- niOisi nakou- \vo|H>ntni\vi. l''a\v kif.t- Sikcatatiki pa 

ko piese kili ncthvikc rono \M ior> u- kcalRinite obicil 
i motake wu'ac* nuiftkwitoke. (.'u-ik^ p i- Ni^i^w akiiilct kolikv laiiiwu\ve\va 

oipotiikke coini cawrkiuikc upauake<*ike ,tanjilM'\\ 

pipainimkc. Kvkihik-ak<- itntiflk wise - Halalniikt < 

liikwalamikwa TajKilaa'aiikua r?ieiAAvi- maro ^.Hait^nco'auti hotitiikiu. 
, tt iticnbnvbnke kfiifsctahawaiiaui. Ta- Wanitaljeti hocick'tkito*! of 
' i>alaiualrk\va h< ui : ili\valaai s*laniwa1?e I waki lapwiweiancs OIK 

waiiakisroko kokwalikwiauwalaniwaWck* ; 

Skiti iaiaiiiuowila. Smtmvike w^sekito- ^ i;t ir\ri:w\. 

\v<\vn, fhetta inaii\volaiitwa\v6wofi wch* I -"Eiiawajilv^ Tapalaiualikwa 
uitiiianini j-awckitako, Pakctikke paJo- ! mfthe wwocS hshite, chfefia nakoH' nah 
cehc \vatnitiweabak'hi \vckf. hkwale. Chencf Tnpalamaiikw a oinolil- 

Ivieiwckenii. [elawto m?le hkwale; wchwewece. Tn 
pa mifi n-faJa 



. . ,. 

Oi>4Ki:Kii.iH>:M \ !,vrwtwir.\\: ' wvnwliicc li< -him In-. Tupulninaiikua 
Sakim>ick^ ^Im^bsnwa kuikuk>a>kr , ht>\vi clauo aokt: likuuwi \\i^h !iimabik- 
r*tkowawa; pi^fk\vi !iik\v%* ki^wewa ! vvaluia'kote^anwo \veiwhe; wise .btbioi- 
\\iopaski woiko\va\v. "|keik<Mn^k\^ Waki inakvnhwaiic nace- 

Ilvvsk* sako 'I'ajiaiainaiikua mdU^ckcu f^ahe wcpipwalecc wewivveikibkilelecc 
aiua inacike clu-ua \vawa?iki\ i^pab-iotalafamihe; ksikca initi ociciiikotucke 

" * ~ 



THE SHAWXEE SUN 

The first newspaper published exclusively in an Indian language in the present 
boundaries of the United States. 



The Shawnee Sun 

The First Indian-language Periodical Published in the United States 
DOUGLAS C. McMuwraiB 

AFTER Jotham Meeker had set up his press at the Shawanoe 
Baptist mission in 1834, one of the most interesting things he 
undertook to print was a small "newspaper" in the language of the 
Shawnee Indians. This Shawnee Sun, to name it by the translation 
of its Indian title, was the first periodical publication to be printed 
in what is now Kansas, and the first in all the land to be printed 
wholly in an Indian language. 1 

In his journal, which is preserved in the valuable collections of 
the Kansas State Historical Society, Meeker recorded that he began 
"setting types on the 1st No. of the Shawanoe Sun" on February 18, 
1835. 2 Composition continued on the two days following and was 
finished on the 21st, when the pages were made up and proofs taken. 
On the 23d the proof was read and the corrections made, and on the 
24th the type was put in the press and printed. Thus we know 
exactly the date of the erection of this rather interesting typographic 
landmark. 

This little paper began with monthly issues, the first being for 
March, 1835. Meeker's journal records the issues of April, May 
and June, after which there was a pause until October. Thereafter 
the issues were rather irregular until April, 1837, which is the last 
of which Meeker makes mention. 3 In the summer of 1837, Meeker 
moved from the Shawanoe mission to his new mission for the Ottawa 
Indians, near the present city of Ottawa, Kan. The printing office 
at Shawanoe was then turned over to John G. Pratt, who was 
sent out from Massachusetts to continue the Shawanoe printing. 

Pratt continued the Shawnee Sun, probably at irregular intervals. 
However, it was suspended entirely for a little over a year in 1839- 
1840, while Pratt was absent from Shawanoe on sick leave. It was 
resumed again by 1841 (Pratt returned to the mission in November, 
1840) , and the Baptist Missionary Magazine, organ of the Board of 
Foreign Missions, mentions its continued publication up to 1844. 

1. Isaac McCoy, History of Baptist Indian Missions (Washington, New York, and Utica, 
1840), p. 486, says: "This was the first newspaper ever published exclusively in an Indian 
language." The Cherokee Phoenix, begun at New Echota, Ga., in February, 1828, was partly 
in Cherokee and partly in English. 

2. Douglas C. McMurtrie and Albert H. Allen, Jotham Meeker, Pioneer Printer of Kansas 
(Chicago, 1930), p. 59; and see, also, under "Siwinowe Kesibwi," on p. 140. 

8. The Meeker journal records issues of the Sun (in addition to those mentioned) for 
December, 1835, January, February, July, August and November, 1836, January, February 
and April, 1837. In view of the care with which Meeker made a note of almost everything 
he did, it is hardly possible that there were also other issues not mentioned in the journal. 

(339) 



340 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The editor of the Shawnee Sun throughout its life was Johnston 
Lykins, another of the Baptist missionaries at Shawanoe, whose 
special field of labor was with the Shawnees. Lykins, however, was 
absent on sick leave in 1836 and did not return to duty until May, 
1837 , 4 and during this interval it would appear that Meeker was the 
editor as well as the printer of the little sheet. In fact, Meeker made 
numerous entries in his journal which show that he devoted con- 
siderable time to writing or translating articles for the Sun, either 
alone, or with the help of Joseph Deshane, an interpreter, or with an 
Indian named Blackfeather, who, on at least two occasions, is men- 
tioned as a contributor to the paper. But Meeker was not only the 
editor and the printer he was also the inventor of a method by 
which the sounds of the Shawnee language (and of several other 
Indian languages) might be represented by the letters of the English 
alphabet. 

As a creator of orthographies for the languages of the natives, 
Meeker was diligent and ingenious. He simply took the letters for 
sounds that did not occur in the given Indian tongue and arbitrarily 
assigned to them sounds that needed to be expressed. 5 Thus, for 
the Shawnee, he gave to b the sound of th in thin, and to i the sound 
of a in far. As printed, the Indian title of the Shawnee Sun read 
Siwinowe Kesibwi, which Isaac McCoy, in his account of the paper, 
transliterated Shau-wau-nowe Kesauthwau an approximation to 
the sounds of the words. Crude as this system of "writing Indian" 
may seem, it was practical, as the Indians, even adults, learned to 
read by it, and even in some individual instances to write by it in 
their own language. 

The Shawnee Sun "circulated" among the Indians at and near the 
mission settlement. On January 11, 1837, Meeker noted in his 
journal that he had "distributed 100 copies of the Shawanoe Sun 
among the Shawanoes." Presumably, copies were sent to the Baptist 
Board of Foreign Missions, at Boston, 6 and presumably copies were 
given to the local Indian agent for forwarding to the Commissioner 
of Indian Affairs, at Washington. But the little paper must have 
been printed in a quite limited edition, possibly not more than one 
hundred and fifty or two hundred copies to an issue. 

4. McCoy, op. cit., p. 504. 

5. For a more extended account of the Meeker orthographies, see McMurtrie and Allen, 
op. cit., pp. 25-30, and McCoy, op. cit., pp. 471-476. 

6. By 1837 the Board of Foreign Missions had adopted a rule that at least one copy of 
everything printed at any of its missionary stations should be sent to the Board (Baptist 
Missionary Magazine, v. 21, 1841, pp. 208-209). But the Board seems to have made no 
provision that the material thus collected should be preserved. 



McMuRTRiE: THE SHAWNEE SUN 341 

It is easy to understand why copies of the Shawnee Sun have dis- 
appeared. Indians in the days of the Shawanoe mission did not 
preserve files of newspapers. If copies were sent to the Board of 
Foreign Missions or to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, no im- 
portance was attached to them; at least, no record of such copies 
can now be found. Meeker himself made up two partial files; an 
entry in his journal on December 12, 1836, reads "Examine all the 
old Nos. of the Sun and bind two volumes of it." By that date, the 
journal had recorded the printing of eleven issues of the paper. But 
these two files seem not to have survived the vicissitudes of flood 
and storm to which Meeker 's few earthly possessions were subjected. 
We do not even know how many issues appeared. Meeker mentions 
fourteen up to April, 1837, the last which he printed, and in a memo- 
randum book kept by Johnston Lykins 7 there is mention of an issue 
in May, 1842. Of all the copies that were printed, one single, sol- 
itary copy is known to have survived, and even that copy is not yet 
securely rescued from oblivion. 

The surviving copy of the Shawnee Sun is one of the issue for 
November, 1841. At the time of the publication of our book on 
Jotham Meeker, in the spring of 1930, Mr. Allen and I had tried in 
vain to locate this copy. A reproduction of the first page had been 
printed in the Kansas City (Kansas) Sun of Friday, February 18, 
1898; the original had then just been presented to Mr. Emanuel F. 
Heisler by Charles Bluejacket, a Shawnee chief then living in the 
Indian territory. After that, the original vanished so far as avail- 
able knowledge of it was concerned. The search was continued, 
with the invaluable assistance of Mr. Purd B. Wright, librarian of 
the public library of Kansas City, Mo., who finally found the long- 
sought copy in March, 1930. This was unfortunately too late for in- 
cluding a reproduction of it in the Meeker book, which was then 
printed and in the bindery. But as no reproduction of this elusive 
rarity has been published since thirty-five years ago, and as the 
newspaper reproduction of it in 1898 is practically inaccessible, 8 
it seems quite in order to present it again, in order that the record 
of this strange little paper may be preserved for at least another 
generation. 

The original of the copy, dated November, 1841, is now in the 
possession of a member of the Heisler family, in Kansas City, Kan. 
It consists of but two pages (one leaf) , but a divided word at the 

7. Preserved in the collections of the Kansas State Historical Society. 

8. The Kansas State Historical Society has two clippings of the newspaper reproduction, 
but they are yellowing and becoming frail with age. 



342 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

end of the second page makes it seem likely that there were four 
pages in the paper as printed. The pages were numbered, the second 
page of the existing copy being page 70. If this issue originally con- 
sisted of four pages, it ran to page 72. If the pages were numbered 
consecutively from the beginning of publication in 1836, and if each 
issue consisted of four pages, the issue of November, 1841, would 
have been the eighteenth issue. There is no volume number or 
serial number on this issue. 

The only English words in the two pages of the existing copy are 
in the combined date line and imprint, which reads: "J. Lykins, 
Editor. November, 1841. Baptist Mission Press." Not being 
familiar with the Shawnee language, I am unable to give any ac- 
count of the subject matter of the four principal articles on the two 
pages, but my guess is that much of it consisted of didactic Baptist 
theology. The page measures about 6% by 10% inches, with the 
text in two 8%-inch columns containing 52 lines of pica type to the 
full column. The printer, whose name does not appear, was un- 
doubtedly John G. Pratt. 

Attached to the unique copy of the Shawnee Sun here described is 
a printed note which may be presented, by way of conclusion, be- 
cause of its testimony to the difficulties under which the Baptist 
Mission Press was conducted. It reads: "In the year 1838 there 
were shipped from Boston via New Orleans to the Shawnee Baptist 
mission in Kansas (about five miles west of Westport, Mo.) several 
boxes of paper and printing material. These goods were addressed 
to Westport Landing, which had not yet appeared upon the maps, 
and as the forwarding agent at New Orleans did not know where 
Westport Landing was located, he sent the goods to Fort Gibson, on 
the Arkansas, in the Indian territory. The goods were returned to 
New Orleans, and then sent up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, 
being more than a year on the way before Mr. Pratt received them. 
This certificate is printed upon a part of the paper then and there 
received. The paper is a coarse book paper, and was used in print- 
ing books in eight [?] different dialects, for the Indians, viz., the 
Otoe, Kaw, Potawatomie, Ottawa, Shawnee, Delaware and Miami 
languages. A newspaper was also printed, the Sau-wa-noe Ke-saw- 
thwa, 'the Shawnee Sun/ (the first paper ever printed in the terri- 
tory . . . printed here from 1836 to 1842)." With this note is 
attached a certificate, dated in June, 1897, signed by John G. Pratt, 
to the effect that certificates of membership for the Wyandotte 
County Historical Society were printed on sheets from that ship- 
ment of paper made in 1838. 



Ferries in Kansas 
PART II KANSAS RIVER Continued 

GEORGE A. ROOT 

'TVHE next ferry up river was at a point called "Bald Eagle," 
* opposite present Lecompton and about two miles distant from 
Douglas. At this point William K. Simmons, an old frontiersman 
who had crossed the plains in 1852, returned and took up a claim 
and started a ferry. His location had been named "Bald Eagle" on 
account of a number of bald eagles which nested in the tall syca- 
mores that grew on either side of the river at this point. He was 
the first settler in the vicinity and made a living by fishing and 
operating his ferry. 149 This was the second ferry in operation within 
the limits of present Douglas county. 

Ely Moore, for many years a resident of Lecompton, in "The 
Story of Lecompton," describes this early ferry. Arriving in that 
vicinity in the early fifties and wishing to cross the river, he ap- 
proached a wagon and made his wants known. 

"The wagon boss pointed to a huge sycamore log some twenty feet long, 
five feet in diameter with an excavation in the center five feet in length, three 
feet wide and two feet deep, with a 4 x 6-inch scantling for a keel, remarking, 
'Thar's the ferry and hyars the ferryman.' As I looked my doubts about cross- 
ing on that log, he answered my looks by saying: 'Don't feel skeery, mister, 
for she's as dry as a Missourian's throat and as safe as the American flag.' " 

Simmons was a member of Lane's regiment in the Mexican War, 
and had two honorable wounds in that struggle. Mr. Moore pays 
him this tribute: "In many respects he was a remarkable man. 
Even in the babyhood days of this city [Lecompton] when water- 
and-milk was an expensive luxury and whiskey subject to call, he 
refrained from its use, and no man ever heard him utter a profane 
word. Poor Bill may be dead, but if he is, many a worse man is 
living." 150 

Just how long Simmons operated his ferry at Bald Eagle has not 
been learned. However, it probably was not later than 1857. The 
following reference is from the Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, 
August 9, 1856. It was written by a member of the "twenty-seven 
hundred" who came over from Missouri to assist in wiping out 
Lawrence and is part of one of a series of articles describing his 

149. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 851. 

160. Kansas Historical Collections, v. 11, pp. 466, 467. 

(343) 



344 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

experiences on the expedition. In "Notes to and from the Siege of 
Lawrence," under date of May 18, 1856, this writer says: 

"To-day we are to cross the Kaw river, and to get to Lecompton. An enor- 
mous flatboat, seemingly large enough for another Noah's Ark, receives us on 
board, bag and baggage. The baggage being packed on board upon our shoul- 
ders, we are further convinced, to use rather a stale phrase, that 'Jordan is a 
hard road to travel.' To get to the other side is now the difficulty. We all 
work our passage, hauling ourselves along by an old rope and making about 
half mile per hour. After keeping up this process until we are far above the 
capitol, we strike out, and at the imminent risk of several of our men, strike 
terra firma." 

In 1857 Joseph Haddox laid out a town called Rising Sun, which 
was located close to the ferry landing on Simmons' claim. This was 
directly opposite Lecompton, the territorial capital. At the new 
town, in 1857, Jerome Kunkel 151 established a ferry. 152 He received 
a charter for his ferry in 1858 and also became a member of the 
town company the same year. Rising Sun grew into a lively little 
village and was the business point for the township for several 
years. Upon the building of the Union Pacific Railroad up the 
Kaw valley in 1865 and the establishment of Medina, a short dis- 
tance away, its business was soon taken away by the new town. 
Decline was slow but steady, and by 1883 every vestige of Rising 
Sun had disappeared, and the site is now a cultivated field. 153 

In 1861 a state road was established from Rising Sun to Grass- 
hopper Falls, on the west side of Grasshopper (now Delaware) 
river. In 1863 this road was changed from a point where the road 
crossed what was known as Spring branch, thence in a northwesterly 
direction past the east line of Ephraim Bainter's land, thence north- 
westerly and north, running through the center of sections 24 and 25, 
T. 9, R. 17, to intersect the original survey at Tillotson's ford. 154 

Lecompton was located opposite Simmons' claim and was platted 
in 1855, being named for Judge Samuel D. Lecompte, territorial 
chief justice and president of the town company. Other members 
of the Lecompton town company were: John A. Halderman, secre- 
tary; Daniel Woodson, territorial secretary and several times acting 
governor of the territory, who was treasurer; George W. Clarke, 
Chauncey B. Donaldson and William K. Simmons. 155 In 1855 

151. The census of Jefferson county, Kentucky township, 1870, p. 12, lists Jerome Kunkel, 
43, farmer, native of Pennsylvania, owner of real estate worth $3,000, personal property, 
$1,000; wife Christina, born Pennsylvania, and three children, 9, 7, and an infant, all born 
in Kansas. 

152. Private Laws, Kansas, 1858, pp. 56, 57. 

153. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 521. Personal interview with J. A. Brown, of Le- 
compton, a resident of the town in 1857, and residing within the county most of the time 
since. 

154. Laws, Kansas, 1863, p. 87. 155. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 351. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 345 

William K. Simmons, Wesley Garrett and Evan Todhunter were 
granted a charter by the legislature to operate a ferry at the new 
town of Lecompton. The act granted exclusive privileges up and 
down the river for a mile each side of the landing, for a five year 
period, but was in no wise to affect the rights and privileges granted 
the Lecompton Bridge Company. 156 This company never built a 
bridge at Lecompton, but a bridge was built at this point by the 
county during the nineties. 

By 1860 Lecompton was without ferry accommodations. That 
year Robert C. Bishop was authorized by the legislature to operate 
a ferry across the Kansas river and have exclusive rights of landing 
within the corporate limits of the city, and for one mile below the 
eastern limit of the city on the south bank of the river and one mile 
from and below the west bank of the Grasshopper river on the 
north bank of the Kansas river. 157 No further history of this ferry 
has been located. 

Owen Baughman is said to have operated a ferry at Lecompton 
for a time shortly before the building of the bridge in the late 1890's. 

J. A. Brown, of Lecompton, in an interview in May, 1932, said: 

"Lecompton never had more than one ferry running at a time, from the time 
of my arrival there in 1857. Jerome Kunkel was operating it at that date. 
The next year his cousin, Charles Kunkel, was in charge. Jerome Kunkel had 
been a captain in the army. William McKinney operated the ferry for Kunkel 
for several years. A. K. Lowe and boys also had charge for awhile. The first 
ferry was a rope ferry. Later a wire cable was stretched across the river. A 
wheel ran on this cable, and the boat was so attached to the wheel that the 
current of the river propelled the boat from one side of the river to the other, 
with little or no effort on the part of the ferryman. The landing place on the 
north side of the river was at a point just below the present wagon bridge 
across the Kaw. On that side of the river, riprapping and other means had 
been employed to confine the river channel, and there was a network of sunken 
logs, brush, stone, etc., that limited the channel the ferryboat could operate in. 
When the ferryboat reached that obstruction it was made fast and the cargo 
discharged." 

Kunkle's ferry operated until about 1876. 

According to E. J. Hill, long a resident of Lecompton, William 
M. McKinney operated the Lecompton ferry from about 1868 to 
1870. About 1870 a company built a pontoon bridge to take the 
place of the ferry. This pontoon was not a success, on account of 
the swift current of the river, and in less than a year was dis- 
continued. 

156. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, pp. 780, 879. 

157. Private Laws, Kansas, 1860, p. 267. 



346 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The late Albert R. Greene, a former resident of Lecompton, 
operated the ferry there for about a year during the early 1890's. 
The Greene home in Lecompton was about half a mile from the 
river. A wire was strung from the ferry to the house, and when a 
patron on the opposite side of the river wished to call the boat, 
the wire was pulled, ringing a bell at the other end and summoning 
the ferryman. Mr. Greene employed a man to run the ferry, who 
operated the boat during the day, but was averse to running it after 
dark, there being practically no business after dark. On several 
occasions, however, Mr. Greene was routed out of bed along about 
midnight to take the boat to the opposite side of the river to bring 
back some belated individual. This happened once or twice too 
often, so Mr. Greene retired from the ferrying business. 158 

Lecompton, probably because it was made the territorial seat 
of government, was the starting point or terminus of more roads 
than any other town in Kansas of its size. Two were authorized 
by the legislature of 1855, one starting from a point above the town 
of Franklin, on the California road, via the (Horseshoe) lake and 
the shore of the Kansas river to Lecompton ; the other started from 
Atchison, via Mount Pleasant and Hickory Point, to a point opposite 
Lecompton. 159 The legislature of 1857 was lavish authorizing no 
less than ten roads, as follows: One from Lecompton to St. 
Bernard, thence to the county seat of Franklin county, thence to 
Pierce in Anderson county, thence to Cofachique, Allen county. 160 
Another ran from Wyandotte, by way of Secondine to Lecomp- 
ton ; 161 another ran from Kickapoo to Lecompton ; 162 another ran 
from Lecompton to Roseport, Doniphan county; 163 another ran 
from Leavenworth to Lecompton, with a branch to Lawrence; 164 
another from Atchison, via Mount Pleasant, to a point on the Kan- 
sas river opposite Lecompton ; 165 another started from Lecompton, 
via Paola, Paris and Miami to Barnesville on the Little Osage to 
intersect the Fort Leavenworth-Fort Scott military road ; 166 an- 
other ran from Atchison, via Wigglesworth's ford on Stranger creek, 
to Lecompton ; 167 another ran from Prairie City to Lecompton, 168 

158. Statement of Mrs. Lucy Greene (Henry F.) Mason. 

159. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, pp. 952, 953, 962. 

160. Laws, Kansas, 1857, p. 172. 

161. Ibid., p. 176. 162. Ibid., p. 178. 

163. Ibid., p. 181. 164. Ibid., pp. 181, 182. 

165. Ibid., p. 182. 166. Ibid., p. 183. 

167. Ibid., pp. 184, 185. 168. Ibid., pp. 185, 186. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 347 

and another started from Lecompton, crossing the Kansas river, 
running west to Calhoun and there forking, the left hand branch 
running a west course and intersecting the military road from 
Leavenworth to Fort Riley on the west of Indianola, and the right 
hand fork running a northwest direction by way of Elk City to 
Richmond, the county seat of Nemaha county. 169 

According to John McBee, of Topeka, who lived near Kaw City, a 
few miles north of Grantville, in the late fifties, the settlers in that 
vicinity traded at Lecompton, crossing the river on KunkeFs ferry. 
After the building of the Union Pacific up the Kaw valley and the 
starting of Medina, this trade went to Medina, which was some 
miles closer. McBee says a ferry was also operated at Grantville 
for a time during the sixties. This point is about 10 miles west of 
old Bald Eagle or Rising Sun, as the town opposite Lecompton was 
called. 

Two attempts at securing a bridge for Lecompton were made dur- 
ing the year 1865. On January 11, that year, the Lecompton Bridge 
Company, composed of William Morrow, D. S. Mclntosh, L. Mc- 
Arthur, F. F. Benner (?), William M. Nace, Wilson Shannon, Jr., 
and A. D. Graves (?), was granted a charter to build a bridge to 
connect Lecompton and Rising Sun. Capital stock of the company 
was placed at $100,000, with shares at $100 each. This charter was 
filed with the secretary of state on January 12, 1865. 170 Evidently 
nothing was done by this company, and on August 14, the same year, 
a new company, under the same name, was organized by L. Mc- 
Arthur, D. S. Mclntosh, Allen Parish, A. W. Chenoweth, S. Weaver, 
William M. Nace and William Weaver. Capital stock of the new 
organization was reduced to $60,000, shares being $100 each. This 
charter was not filed with the secretary of state until February 27, 
1866, m and no bridge was built by the new company. 

The next ferry site up the river was at Medina. On January 14, 
1869, the county commissioners of Jefferson county issued a license 
to Jerome Kunkel and Wales Saunders, on payment of a $10 fee. 172 

This ferry, designated as Saunder's ferry, on the Kansas river, one- 
half mile southwest of Medina, is mentioned in connection with a 
road to this point established about July 7, 1869. 173 

169. Ibid., pp. 187, 188. 

170. Corporations, v. 1, p. 18. 

171. Ibid., p. 70. 

172. Jefferson County, Commissioners' Minute Book, 1863-69, p. 643. 

173. County Clerk, Jefferson county, Journal B, p. 101. 



348 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

In Book B, Proceedings Jefferson County Commissioners, pp. 176, 
177, under date of December 6, 1869, is the following: 

"Newman Ferry. And now comes John Bouyer [?], Wales Saunders and 
others of Kentucky township and present their written petition for the estab- 
lishment of a ferry across the Kansas river one and a half miles above Medina 
on the road from Newman to Big Springs which said petition is ordered filed 
and the prayer of the said petitioner after having been duly considered by the 
board and the board being fully satisfied thereof is granted, and it is ordered 
by the board that the license for said ferry issue to the said John Bouyer and 
Wales Saunders. And it is further ordered by the board that the said John 
Bouyer & Wales Saunders pay . . . $10.00 for privilege . . . each year." 

Ferry charges established by the board were: One two-horse 
team, 25 cents; one horse and buggy, 20 cents; one man and horse, 
15 cents ; one footman, 10 cents ; cattle per head, 05 cents ; sheep and 
hogs, per head, 03 cents. 

The next ferry on the river was at Tecumseh, about five miles 
distant. In 1854 Thomas N. Stinson and J. K. Waysman estab- 
lished a ferry at that point on the section line between Ranges 16 
and 17 East. Stinson had been a trader at Uniontown, near the 
western limit of present Shawnee county on the south side of the 
Kansas river, since 1848, and when the territory was opened for 
settlement had located a claim on the river about twenty miles 
below on which he laid out the townsite of Tecumseh and started 
a ferry. Stinson's house was located on an eminence overlooking 
Calhoun Bluffs to the north of the river. A good road was con- 
structed to the ferry landing and the enterprise was considered an 
important one, the ferry being the principal crossing for the route 
from Leavenworth to the Sac and Fox and other southern agencies. 174 
In 1855 Stinson was granted a twenty-year charter to maintain a 
ferry at the new town, the law providing that if the county tribunal 
failed to fix rates of ferriage the rates prevailing the previous year 
should remain in force until changed by the county. 175 

The following advertisement of this ferry appeared in a Topeka 
paper, and ran for months, this being copied from the Kansas 
Tribune, Topeka, April 14, 1856: 

"TECUMSEH FERRY KANSAS RIVER 

"The nearest and best route from Fort Leavenworth to Council Grove. 

"This ferry is now open, and ready to cross teams, passengers and freight 

at any hour. The ferryboat is large, entirely new, and built for this ferry. 

The landings on both sides are excellent at all stages of water, and for 

swimming cattle across is the best and safest place on the river. Emigrants 

174. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 533. 

175. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, p. 776. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 349 

and traders passing on the route between Fort Leavenworth and Council 
Grove, will find this the shortest and easiest road; Tecumseh being on a direct 
air line from Fort Leavenworth to Council Grove. It is nine miles from 
the ferry to the intersection of the Great Military Road, on the north side of 
the river. Teams leave the Military Road at Rock creek crossing, and thence 
across the old Parkville crossing of Muddy creek. Distance from Rock creek 
crossing to Muddy creek crossing, 7 miles; thence to the ferry 2 miles. 
Tecumseh is on the direct road from Westport to California. Total distance 
from Leavenworth to Tecumseh, 50 miles; thence to Council Grove, 65 miles; 
excellent grazing near each landing place free of expense. 

"Tecumseh, K. T., March 6, '55. "T. N. STINSON, 

"J. K. WAYSMAN." 

Ferry charges in force at this crossing in 1856 were: One wagon, 
two horses, $1 ; each additional span of horses or yoke of cattle, 25 
cents; loose cattle or horses, per head, 10 cents; one horse and 
wagon, 75 cents; man and horse, 25 cents; foot passengers, 10 cents; 
sheep and hogs, 5 cents each. 176 

James K. Waysman lived about two miles east of Tecumseh, 
settling there in May, 1854. He rented the ferry owned by T. N. 
Stinson and operated it. In 1856 the citizens of Tecumseh agreed 
among themselves that they wouldn't take any sides in the terri- 
torial troubles. Once when Mr. Waysman was absent from home, 
one Donaldson came and took his ferryboat as far as Lecompton. 
On his return Waysman followed down the river and found his 
boat still at Lecompton, and brought it home at his own expense. 
Sometime after Donaldson had taken the boat to Lecompton Mr. 
Stinson went to Waysman and reported that some men had come 
to him and asked if they might borrow the boat. Waysman told 
him they could not have it. These men then went to Waysman 
and asked to borrow it to take down stream, promising to protect 
him from the incursions of Free State men if he would do so. Ways- 
man declined, telling them they could not have the boat until they 
put him out of the way, and further that he did not want their 
protection. 177 

The Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, of August 4, 1855, had 
a good write-up of the new town and its ferry. Among other things 
it said: 

". . . The channel runs on the south side of the bed, and the banks 
and bottom of the river, along here, are rock; consequently free from all 
danger of the bluffs ever washing off any. There are two good and easy slopes 
down to the river, besides an excellent road cut and graded down to the ferry 

176. Topeka State Journal, December 14, 1901. 

177. Statement of James K. Waysman, dated Topeka, February, 1883. MS. in Kansas 
State Historical Society. 



350 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

landing. The ferry is arranged with ropes and buoys, and is probably the best 
and most certain on the river. The ferry boat is large, new, and capable of 
crossing three teams and wagons at each trip. The steamboat landing is also 
a good one, easily approached and perfectly safe from sand bar obstructions." 

In 1858 and 1859 Achilles M. Jordan operated the Stinson ferry, 
but whether as proprietor or for Stinson, we are unable to state. 
Jordan was a native of Indiana, born in 1824. He came to Kansas 
in 1855 and settled at Tecumseh. During the Civil War he was 
employed by the government to purchase live stock for the Union 
army. His death occurred at Fort Scott, October 9, 1864. 178 The 
census of 1860 lists him as a ferryman, 36 years of age, born, 
Indiana; wife, Celia, 27, born, Kentucky; two children, born, Kan- 
sas. 179 

Just how long Stinson operated his ferry we have been unable to 
learn, for records of Shawnee county commissioners, prior to 1862, 
cannot be located in the office of the county cjerk. However, in 
1862 he signed as surety on a $500 bond with Remi H. Lecompte, 180 
who had secured a license for a ferry in that neighborhood. 

Remi H. Lecompte's ferry, in all probability, succeeded Stinson's, 
and operated from that location. On July 7, 1862, he received a 
license to operate a ferry across the Kansas river with landing 
privileges on lot 8 of the Kaw half breed lands on the north side of 
the river, and on the road running from Topeka to Leavenworth. 
Thomas N. Stinson was surety on his $500 bond required, which 
was accepted by the county, July 12, 1862. 181 

Aside from the following complimentary notice of this ferry from 
a Topeka paper, no mention other than those found in official 
records has been found: 

"Lecompte's ferry over the Kansas river, four miles below Topeka, is in 
good running order, and is said by travelers to shorten the distance several 
miles. Mr. Lecompte is an accommodating, gentlemanly man, and we are 
glad to know that he is receiving a good share of the traveling custom." 
Topeka Weekly State Record, December 17, 1862. 

The next year Mr. Lecompte was granted a license for a ferry, 
the application having recited that the ferry was where the one 
formerly owned by Updegraff and Brown was established, and 
about one and one-half miles below the State Road ferry, owned 

178. Information furnished by Vernon W. Wilson, Topeka, a relative. 

179. Census, Shawnee county, 1860, pp. 65, 66. 

180. Original bond in office of county clerk, Shawnee county, Kansas. 

181. Ferry bonds, office Shawnee county clerk; Commissioners' Proceedings, Book A, p. 19. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 351 

and run by A. H. Lafon. His license was for one year, dating from 
October 1, 1863, and was granted without a tax. 182 

In 1864 Lecompte had taken a partner in the ferry business, and 
the two were granted a license. Following is a copy of the bond they 
filed: 

"Know all men by these presents: That we, L. McArthur, A. H. Case, E.L. 
Wheeler, Derrick Updegraff as sureties for Remi H. Lecompte and James V. 
Summers, do acknowledge ourselves to owe and be indebted to the state of 
Kansas, in the sum of five hundred dollars, upon the following conditions 
to wit: 

"Whereas, Said Remi H. Lecompte and James V. Summers, are about to 
start and run a ferry across the Kansas river between Shawnee and Jefferson 
counties, at the place formerly known as the Updegraff ferry, and one and one- 
half miles below the State Road ferry, kept by Harvey Lafon. 

"Now, If said Remi H. Lecompte and James V. Summers shall faithfully 
perform all duties required by law at such ferry, then this bond shall be void, 
else remain hi full force . . . 

"Given under our hands and seals this 29th day of August, A. D. 1864. 

"L. McARTHUB (Seal) 

"U. S. A. H. CASE (Seal) 

25^ DERRICK UPDEGRAFF (Seal) 

Rev. E. L. WHEELER (Seal) 

Stmp. D. S. MUNGER (Seal) 

"Approved August 29, 1864 

"HmAM MCARTHUR, Co. Clerk" 

By 1865 Tecumseh was probably without ferry accommodations. 
Early in the spring the following petition was presented to the 
Shawnee county officials: 

"We, the undersigned petitioners of Tecumseh and vicinity, do pray the 
county commissioners of Shawnee county Kansas to grant license to Ellie 
Quiett and Hiram Chapman to have and to run a ferry across the Kansas 
river at Tecumseh. 

"Tecumseh, April 3, 1865. 

"Signers' names: 

"B. A. Murphy Ben Holzle 

J. H. Murphy John N. Schmidt 

Lewis Dearing P. D. Davis 

J. C. Copeland G. B. McLee 

Carl Casper H. H. Frizell 

V. Martin Wm. M. Jordan"*** 
J. M. Reed 

182. Shawnee county, Commissioners' Proceedings, Book A, p. 77. 

183. Original petition in office of county clerk, Shawnee county, Kansas. 



352 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

This license was granted, and on May 18, following, Ellie Quiett 184 
and Hiram Chapman, principals, and Wm. M. Jordan and Wesley 
Gregg, sureties, signed a bond for $1,000 to run a ferry at the town 
of Tecumseh until the January, A. D., 1866, term of the board of 
county commissioners. 185 

The next mention of this ferry is for the year 1871, at which time 
Susan Quiett 186 made application to the board of county commis- 
sioners of Jefferson county for a ferry license, which was granted 
by the board. A bond of $100 was required and the license issued 
upon payment of the clerk's fees. 187 Shawnee county, however, 
required a bond of $1,000, which was signed April 28, 1871, by 
Susan Quiett as principal and J. P. Campbell as surety, for the 
operation of this ferry for the year 1871, north of the town of 
Tecumseh, and granting privileges for one-half a mile up and same 
distance down from said point. Approved May 11, 1871, by P. I. 
Bonebrake, county clerk. 188 

Ferry charges for the years 1872 and 1873 were identical and 
were: two horses and wagon, 35 cents; one horse and wagon or 
buggy, 25 cents; horse and rider, 15 cents; loose horses and cattle, 
10 cents; sheep or hogs, 5 cents each. 189 

Susan Quiett operated the ferry at least until the close of 1873, 
according to records in the Shawnee county clerk's office. 190 After- 
wards, Tecumseh, apparently, was once more without ferry facilities. 
On April 12, 1876, H. E. Goodell and others, of Tecumseh, presented 
a petition to the county commissioners, asking that T. F. Quiett be 
allowed to maintain a ferry without paying the legal license fee. 
The petition was rejected. 191 

"Ed" Taylor, aged 73, of Ozawkie, Jefferson county, has stated 
that he crossed the Tecumseh ferry many times years ago when he 
brought vegetables to Topeka to sell. This was about the year 
1885. 192 This would indicate that this ferry had been operated 
more or less continuously for a period of over thirty years. Beer's 
Atlas of Shawnee County, published in 1873, marks the ferry. 

184. Census, Jefferson county, 1870, p. 7, lists E. Quiett, male, 61; real estate, $3,500; 
personal property, $1,200; native of North Carolina. 

185. Commissioners' Proceedings, Book A, p. 139; original bond in office county clerk, 
Shawnee county, Kansas. 

186. Census, Jefferson county, 1870, p. 7, lists Susan Quiett as being 54 years of age; 
born, Tennessee; five children, between the ages of 23 and 11 years. 

187 Jefferson county, Proceedings Board of County Commissioners, February 7, 1871, 

Book C, p. 227. 

188. Original bond in office of county clerk, Shawnee county, Kansas. 

189. County Commissioners' Proceedings, Book D, p. 55, 199. 

190. County Commissioners' Minute Book, B-C, p. 363 ; original bonds in same office. 

191. Commissioners' Proceedings, Book E, p. 26. 

192. Interview by Norman Niccum, of Ozawkie, April 29, 1933. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 353 

The legislature which authorized the Tecumseh ferry also estab- 
lished several territorial roads, one from Iowa Point to Eujatah to 
run by way of Tecumseh, One Hundred and Ten, and Columbia; 
another from Atchison, by way of Kickapoo, Leavenworth and 
Hickory Point, to Tecumseh and on to the old Santa Fe road near 
110 creek; another from Shawnee mission by way of William 
Donaldson's, near Mill creek, by Blue Jacket's ferry on the Waka- 
rusa, Big Springs to Tecumseh; and another from Willow Springs, 
via Glendale, crossing Elk fork of Wakarusa, between claims of 
Henry W. Frick, and Allen Pearson to the Kansas river at a point 
above or at Tecumseh. 193 In 1866 a state road was established from 
Tecumseh, running south as near as practicable on the township 
line between ranges 16 and 17, and connecting with the state road 
leading to the Sac and Fox agency. William M. Jordan, Thomas 
Maguire and John Ridgeway were commissioners appointed to lay 
out and establish this road. 194 

A charter for a bridge at Tecumseh was passed by the legislature 
of 1855 and approved August 30 that year, giving special privileges 
to the Kansas River Bridge Company. Apparently little was done 
until 1857, when the company began soliciting subscriptions for the 
construction of a bridge. Advertisements of the enterprise named 
E. Hoogland, of Tecumseh, as being a trustee of the company. On 
commencement of work it was thought practicable to have teams 
cross on a temporary bridge inside of sixty days. Early in July that 
year the corner stone was laid. An iron bridge had been contracted 
for at Cincinnati, and it was expected the new structure would be 
completed with little delay. A territorial paper commenting on the 
new enterprise said: "The Tecumseh bridge is expected to be com- 
pleted by January 1, 1858. As it is the only bridge across the 
Kansas river, its stock must prove a profitable investment." 195 
After completion of one pier work on the bridge was suspended. In 
1862 another effort was made to revive the bridge project. The 
legislature granted a three-year extension of time beginning with 
May 1, 1862, for the completion of the bridge, 196 but it was never 
built. 

GoodelFs ferry, 197 about a mile upstream, was the next one. This 

193. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, pp. 945, 947, 954, 969. 

194. Laws, Kansas, 1866, p. 224. 

195. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, p 833 ; .Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, March 
28; September 26, October 3, 1857. 

196. General Laws, Kansas, 1862, p. 116. 

197. Beers' Atlas of Shawnee County, 1873, p. 54, shows a ferry at this point. 

2&-1070 



354 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

was probably the successor to the Topeka and Perryville Ferry 
Company, and was located at a point where the Goodell road 
reached the river this being between S. 25 and 36, T. 11, R. 16. 
A license was granted to E. A. Goodell to operate a ferry at this 
point from March 4, 1872, to March 4, 1873, on the payment of $10. 
Ferriage charges authorized by the county were: two horses and 
wagon, 25 cents; one horse and buggy, 25 cents; man and horse, 
15 cents; footman, 10 cents; loose horses, mules and cattle, 10 cents 
each ; hogs and sheep, 5 cents each. 198 

The Topeka and Perryville Ferry Company had a crossing on the 
river less than one mile above Tecumseh. The company was 
chartered March 18, 1871, E. A. Goodell, William P. Douthitt, C. C. 
Howard, H. C. Beard and William H. Weymouth being the in- 
corporators. The company was capitalized at $2,000, with shares 
$100 each. This ferry was located at a point where the section 
line between S. 25 and 36, in T. 11, R. 16, strikes the river in 
Shawnee county, landing in Jefferson county opposite. Special 
privileges were granted by the charter for one-half mile above and 
one-half mile below said point. This charter was filed with the 
secretary of state, March 20, 1871. 199 The landing on the Shawnee 
county side was on land owned by Goodell. 

At a point two miles above Tecumseh, Derrick Updegraff was 
granted authority by the legislature of 1860 to maintain a ferry 
for a period of ten years, the act including special rights for one 
mile up and one mile down the river. 200 This ferry was on S. 23, 
T. 11, R. 16, and is shown in Beers' Atlas of Shawnee County, 1873, 
p. 54. Updegraff was one of the early settlers, locating at Tecumseh 
in 1854. 

Another ferry was started at the above location some years later. 
On February 28, 1870, a charter was issued to the Topeka and 
Grantville Ferry Company. Robert C. Love, John F. Center 
(Carter?), John W. Norton, Harrison M. Knapp and J. B. Whittaker 
were the incorporators. The principal office of the company had 
not been decided on at the time the charter was issued, but probably 
was at Topeka. The company was capitalized at $2,500, with 
shares at $500 each. The company proposed to operate a ferry 
over the Kansas river, the south landing to be in S. 23, T. 11, R. 16, 
in Shawnee county, and on the north side of the river in S. 24, T. 11, 
R. 16, in Jefferson county. Three directors were chosen for the 

198. Shawnee county, Commissioners' Proceedings, Book D, p. 47. 

199. Corporations, v. 3, p. 214. 

200. Laws, Kansas, 1860, p. 273. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 355 

first year, including R. C. Love, John F. Carter and J. B. Whit- 
taker. 201 Two years later another charter was granted to the above- 
named company, September 23, 1872. The new incorporators were 
A. W. Knowles, William P. Douthitt, C. 0. Knowles, J. B. Whittaker 
and Michael Voorhis. The capital stock of the new organization 
was reduced to $2,000, with shares $100 each. The principal office 
of the company was at the ferry crossing, which was at the point 
where the state road from Leavenworth crossed the Kansas river. 202 

The above incorporators were Topeka and Shawnee county men 
and prominent in early business circles. Whittaker was a civil 
engineer and prepared an early plat of the city of Topeka. 

The next ferry upstream was the State Road ferry, also known as 
Lafon's ferry, having been established in 1862 by Alexander Harvey 
Lafon, 203 a resident of Jefferson county. This ferry crossed the 
Kansas river at about S. 23, 24, T. 11, R. 16E. The following, 
found among a packet of ferry bonds in the office of the Shawnee 
county clerk, appears to be the earliest record of this ferry: 

"To the Honorable County Board of Shawnee county, Kansas. 

"The undersigned your petitioner would respectfully represent to your Hon. 
body that the Leavenworth and Topeka road is now nearly ready for travel 
from Leavenworth to the north bank of the Kansas river and will be com- 
pleted at an early date. That the said road crosses the said river at a point 
where there was not an established ferry. That your petitioner obtained a 
license from the county board of Jefferson at Jts April 1862 term to open a 
ferry at the said crossing, which ferry is now nearly ready for use, and as 
the river at the said point forms the boundary line between the countys of 
Shawnee and Jefferson it may be necessary for him to obtain a license from 
each of the said counties. 

"He therefore asks your Honors to grant him a ferry license for the said 
point for the term of nine months from the issue thereof, and also as the 
ferry may not be profitable he asks that he may be exempt from paying the 
tax thereon until the amt. of crossing will justify. 

"Respectfully submitted, A. H. LAFON." 

"July 7th, 1862." 

A second application for a license, bearing no date, but which 
must have been for 1862, was presented to the county board, of 
which the following is a copy: 

"To the Board of County Commissioners in and for Shawnee County. 

"Whereas Harvey La Fawn [Lafon] of Jefferson county Kansas has obtained 
a license from said county of Jefferson to keep and maintain a ferry where the 
state road from Leavenworth to Topeka crosses the Kaw or Kansas river and 

201. Corporations, v. 2, p. 295. 

202. Ibid., v. 4, p. 501. 

203. Alexander Harvey Lafon was county surveyor of Jefferson county, 1868-1870. 



356 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

whereas said Harvey LaFawn has a ferry in operation on the Kansas river 
where said road crosses therefore the said Harvey LaFawn now makes appli- 
cation to the Board of County Commissioners of Shawnee county Kansas for 
a license to run and maintain a ferry in Shawnee county where the said state 
road crosses the Kansas river for the space of one year. 

"A. H. LAPON. 

"Received since the establishment of said ferry in cash 35.15. in accounts 
38.10." 

Lafon was given a license the first year without the usual tax, 
but was required to give a $1,000 bond, which was approved by the 
county. This ferry existed for several years and was known as 
the State Road ferry. Ferriage rates for 1864 were: Government 
freight wagon, $1.25; 2 horses and wagon, 40 cents; 1 yoke oxen and 
wagon, 40 cents; 1 horse and buggy, 35 cents; 2 horses and buggy, 
50 cents; 4 horse stage, 40 cents; 2 horse stage, 25 cents; man and 
horse, 25 cents; loose horses and cattle, each 10 cents; sheep and 
hogs, each 5 cents; footman, 10 cents; each extra team, 15 cents. 204 

Ferriage rates for 1865 showed a slight change, as shown by this 
schedule: Government and freight wagons, $1.25; 2 horse wagon 
or buggy, 50 cents; 1 yoke of cattle and wagon, 50 cents; every 
extra span of horses or yoke of cattle, 25 cents ; 1 horse and buggy, 
35 cents ; 4 horse stage, 37 cents ; 2 horse stage, 25 cents ; loose cattle 
and horses, each, and footman, 10 cents; sheep and hogs, each, 5 
cents; for all crossing over and back the same day, half price; 
ministers and priests when going to appointments, half price. 205 

Lafon's ferry, licensed till the first Monday in January, 1866, 
apparently went out of business sometime in 1865, as no further 
mention of its operation has been located. 

A. C. Kurd's ferry succeeded the above, and was located at the 
same place. He was born near Scipio, Alleghany county, N. Y., 
January 14, 1839. He came to Kansas in 1857, and for a few years 
worked in a grist mill at Indianola. In August, 1862, he enlisted in 
Company L, Fifth Kansas cavalry. After being mustered out of 
service he returned to Shawnee county and bought the ferry across 
the river on the Jefferson-Shawnee county line. He was connected 
with the ferry for the next seven years, making his home in Jeffer- 
son county and farming on the side in the meantime. 206 Ferry 
charges for the year 1867 were as follows: "Two horses and wagon, 
25 cents ; for each additional team, 15 cents ; for horseman, 15 cents ; 

204. Shawnee county, Commissioners' Records, Book A, pp. 83-84. 

205. Ibid., Book A, p. 139. 

206. Chapman Bros., Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson, Jefferson and Potta- 
watomie counties, pp. 769-771; Corporations, v. 2, p. 327. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 357 

freight wagon, $1.25; one horse and bug, 20 cents; loose horses and 
cattel, per head, 10 cents; loose hogs and sheep, per head, 5 cents; 
footman, 10 cents. But no more than the above fees as filed in the 
foregoing," the commissioners cautioned in the records. 207 

In 1867 Jesse Enochs, a brother-in-law, appeared to have become 
a partner, and bonds were filed for the years 1867 and 1868, men- 
tioning Fitzsimmons Kurd and A. C. Kurd as proprietors. License 
fees for these years were $10 each. 208 

The Hurds took out a license for 1869, but evidently there was 
a change in proprietorship early that year, for A. C. Kurd and 
Jesse Enochs filed a bond as principals with Shawnee county. A 
$500 bond for the year 1870 was filed on January 1, A. D. Craigue 
and E. P. Kellam being sureties. 209 Their license this year was is- 
sued on April 7. 210 

There was a reorganization of the business in the spring of 1870, 
and Kurd incorporated his ferry under the name of the Leaven- 
worth and Topeka State Road Ferry Company. The charter was 
filed with the secretary of state April 5, 1870, naming A. C. Kurd, 
Jesse Enochs, Jacob R. Bowes, John Enochs and James E. Greer as 
incorporators. Capital stock was placed at $2,000, with shares $200 
each. The ferry was to be located at a point known as Kurd's 
ferry, in S. 24, T. 11, R. 16E., in Tecumseh township, with the 
principal office of the company at the place where the ferry was 
located. 211 

On April 7, 1870, Hurd and Company applied to Jefferson county 
for their license, which cost $10, and specified that ferriage rates 
were to remain the same as charged heretofore and fixed by the 
county board. 212 

For some reason or other Mr. Hurd and Jesse Enochs, his brother- 
in-law, applied to the legislature of 1871 for right to operate a ferry 
across the Kansas river. This was House Bill No. 326, of that 
session. The bill was referred to the committee on corporations, 
which, after amending the measure, recommended its passage. It 
failed to pass, dying on the calendar. 213 

The same year Hurd applied to Jefferson county for a license, and 
the county board ordered the county clerk to issue it. 214 The f ollow- 

207. Jefferson county, Commissioners' Proceedings (first book), pp. 425, 426. 

208. Shawnee county, Commissioners' Proceedings, Book A, p. 866; Book B-C, p. 211. 

209. Original bonds in office of county clerk, Shawnee county. 

210. Jefferson county, Commissioners' Proceedings, April 7, 1870, Book C, p. 82. 

211. Corporations, v. 2, p. 327. 

212. Jefferson county, Commissioners' Proceedings, April 7, 1870, Book C, p. 82. 

213. House Journal, Kansas, 1871. 

214. Jefferson county, Commissioners' Proceedings, July 3, 1871, Book C, p. 825. 



358 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ing year, 1872, Speer and Blanchard obtained a license to operate a 
ferry at this location, stating that their ferry was "where the Kansas 
river was crossed by the Leavenworth and Topeka state road, at 
the same point where Hurd and Enochs ran a ferry during the year 
1871." Their bond was filed with the clerk of Shawnee county. 
Rates of ferriage were as follows: Two horses and wagon, 35 cents; 
one horse, and wagon, 25 cents; horse and rider, 15 cents; loose 
horses or cattle, 10 cents each; sheep or hogs, 5 cents each; footman, 
10 cents. 215 

The following order was issued by the Shawnee county commis- 
sioners in 1872: "Robert McCoy, ferry license at old Hurd ferry, 
on Leavenworth and Topeka state road, $10, he to be allowed to 
charge the same rates of ferriage as was granted to Hurd and 
Blanchard. The order granting license to Speer and Blanchard is 
hereby revoked. Done November 8, 1872." 216 

The next spring Jesse Enochs, of Kaw township, Jefferson county, 
obtained a ferry license dated April 8, 1873, for this same location, 
giving a $1,000 bond. His ferriage rates were the same as prevailed 
during the year 1871. 217 

Apparently the ferry business was abandoned at this point for 
several years, the next permit being granted by Shawnee county in 
1878, to Enochs and Jackson. They filed a bond for $400, which 
was approved August 6, 1878. 218 This probably was the last ferry- 
ing done at this location. 

The next ferry above was at the old town of Calhoun, about one 
mile distant, the landing on the north side being on tract No. 7, 
Kaw half breed lands, and on the south being on S. 23, T. 11, R. 16. 
In 1857 James Kuykendall was authorized to maintain a ferry at 
this town, with special privileges for one mile up and one mile down, 
for a period of twenty years. 219 Kuykendall must have retired 
from the business within the next two years, as the ferry went into 
other hands. James Kuykendall was a pioneer in county business in 
old Calhoun county. He had held the office of sheriff of Platte 
county, Missouri, for four years, had been probate judge for a 
decade, and a public man generally. In Calhoun he was probate 
judge, chairman of the board of county commissioners, register of 
deeds, county clerk and prosecuting attorney. 220 

215. Original document in office of county clerk, Shawnee county. 

216. Shawnee county, Commissioners' Proceedings, Book D, p. 130. 

217. Jefferson county, Commissioners' Proceedings, Book D, p. 319. 

218. Shawnee county, Commissioners' Proceedings, Book E, pp. 375, 376. 

219. Laws, Kansas, 1857, pp. 161, 162. 

220. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 1339. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 359 

Kuykendall may have been looking forward to patronage for his 
ferry, for in 1855 he, together with James Wilson 221 and William 
Christison, were commissioned to lay out a road from Delaware on 
the Missouri river to Calhoun on the Kansas river. This road had 
two branches, one terminating at Topeka, on the south side of the 
river, the other continuing up the Kaw valley and intersecting the 
military road from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Riley, near the 
Soldier-creek crossing, at Indianola. 222 With all its advantages, 
the Calhoun ferry landing on the south side of the river terminated 
in an expanse of heavy river sand 223 which must have been some- 
what of a drawback. 

Kuykendall retired from the ferry business probably late in 1858, 
for the Topeka Tribune of April 28, 1859, stated that there were 
several ferries in operation on the river to accommodate the travel 
to the gold mines, one being at Calhoun Bluffs, and operated by 
Robert Walker. The same issue contained the following "puff" of 
this ferry: "Calhoun Ferry We publish an advertisement for the 
ferry. The proprietor, Mr. Walker, has fitted up a new boat and 
promises to cross teams, etc., with safety and despatch. He will do 
a good business as he understands the benefits arising from Printer's 
Ink." 

The advertisement referred to above follows : 

"CALHOTTN FERRY 
"ROBERT WALKER. 

"The proprietor of the above named ferry takes this method to inform the 
traveling public, that having built a new, large class boat, and gone to great 
expense in grading down the landings, he is prepared to cross teams, droves 
and travelers, &c. with greatest safety and dispatch, and at the lowest cus- 
tomary rates. 

"This ferry is situated on the shortest, best and most direct route from 
Leavenworth, via Topeka, Council Grove to Santa Fe or the Pike's Peak gold 
mines, and most of this travel is now crossing here. Persons teaming between 
Leavenworth and Topeka will find this route five miles nearer, with better 
road and accommodations than by way of Indianola, besides avoiding the 
Soldier creek ford. 

"Calhoun, April 21st, 185$ 42m3. ROBERT WALKRR." 

The following year found Mr. Walker getting ready for travel. 
A local Topeka paper said: "Robert Walker gives notice that he 
has refitted his ferry at Calhoun, five miles east of Topeka, and 
that teamsters to the river will save time and travel by going to 
his ferry to cross. He has opened a house of entertainment, near 

221. Wilson was an early sheriff of Calhoun county. 

222. General Statutes, Kansas, 1855, pp. 962, 963. 

223. Green, Report Smoky Hill Expedition, p. 8. 



360 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

by, where he will rest the weary and feed the hungry. Try him. He 
will do as he agrees." 224 

The following advertisement appeared at the same time: 

"Calhoun Ferry Robert Walker would remind the traveling public that 
he has refitted the above ferry in a most substantial manner, making it an 
expeditious and safe crossing. The road to Leavenworth by this ferry is 
shorter by several miles than any other, as well as better. 

"I have also opened a house of entertainment on the north bank of the 
river, known as the Calhoun House, where belated travelers can find every 
accommodation and comfort which a Western hotel affords. 

"Service prompt and charges moderate." 225 

The Calhoun ferry location apparently was not a profitable one, 
and was probably abandoned by Mr. Walker after the season of 
1862, as no further mention of it has been located other than this 
bond, filed that year: 

"Know all men by these presents that we G. P. Clark as principal and 
Robert Walker as security are held and firmly bound unto the state of Kansas 
in the sum of One Thousand Dollars lawful money of the United States to be 
paid to the state of Kansas, for which payment well and truly to be made we 
hereby bind ourselves our heirs executors and administrators firmly by these 
presents. Sealed with our seals dated the 10th day of May, A. D., 1862. The 
condition of the above obligation is such that whereas the county clerk, 
and clerk of the board of county commissioners of the county of Shawnee, 
in vacation has granted to the said G. P. Clark a license 'to keep a ferry on 
the Kansas river, at the crossing of the same near the town of Calhoun, in 
Calhoun [now Shawnee] county' and state of Kansas, until the end of the 
next term of said board of county commissioners. Now if the said G. P. 
Clark shall faithfully perform the duties required by law at such ferry then 
this obligation to be void, otherwise to be and remain in full force and virtue. 

"G. P. CLARK, (Seal) 
"ROBERT WALKER (Seal)" 

[Endorsed on back] "Approved this 10 day of May A. D., 1862 HIRAM Mc- 
ARTHUR County Clerk." 226 

In 1861 Robert Walker evidently was seeking a new location for 
his ferry. That year he applied to the legislature for a charter for 
a ferry to be located at or close to the mouth of Soldier creek, 
over the Kansas river. This act granted special privileges for one 
mile up and one mile down the river; was vetoed by the governor, 
and was passed over his veto by both houses. 221 This location is 
near the "three bridges" over Soldier creek, two of which are rail- 
road bridges, and just on the outskirts of North Topeka. 

224. Kansas State Record, Topeka, April 7, 1860. 

225. Ibid. 

226. Original bond in office of county clerk, Shawnee county. 

227. Private Laws, Kansas, 1861, pp. 35, 36. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 361 

Following the granting of this charter, Walker made application 
for a ferry license, his bond having been signed by Daniel Handley: 

"To the Hon. Board of County Commissioners of the County of Shawnee : 

"The petition of Robert Walker a resident of the county of Shawnee and 
state of Kansas respectfully shows that the interests of the traveling public 
require that a ferry should be kept at or near the mouth of Soldier creek across 
the Kansas river and to the end that the public convenience may be sub- 
served by the keeping of such ferry your petitioner prays your Honorable body 
to grant him a license to keep a ferry for one year at the place aforesaid or 
within one mile above or below the mouth of said Soldier creek. 

"Topeka, July 23d, 1861. ROBERT WALKER." 228 

On the granting of his application, Walker posted the following 
rates of ferriage for the year beginning July 23, 1861: "Govern- 
ment and freight wagons, $1.25; two-horse wagon or buggy, 50 cents; 
one yoke of cattle and wagon, 50 cents; every extra span of horses 
or yoke of cattle, 25 cents; one horse and buggy, 35 cents; four- 
horse stages, 37 cents; two-horse stages, 25 cents; man and horse, 
25 cents; loose cattle and horses, each, 10 cents; sheep and hogs, 
each, 5 cents; footmen, 10 cents." 229 

By 1862 the Walker ferry had passed into the control of Joseph 
Middaugh and Oren A. Curtis. 

About the time the ferrying season of 1862 was approaching, the 
ferry proprietors of Topeka and vicinity of Soldier creek must have 
inspired the following petition which was presented to the county 
board: 

'To The Honorable The Board of County Commissioners of Shawnee County. 
"The undersigned respectfully petition your honorable board that the rates 
of ferriage for the coming year to be collected at the ferries across the Kansas 
river near the mouth of Soldier creek and at the city of Topeka may be fixed 
at the following rates to wit: 

Government and Freight Wagons. $1 .25 

Two Horse wagon or Buggy 50 

One Yoke of Cattle & Wagon 50 

Every extra span of horses or yoke of cattle 25 

One Horse and Buggy 35 

Four horse Stages 37 

Two Horse Stages 25 

Man & Horse 25 

Loose Cattle & Horses, each & footman 10 

Sheep and Hogs each 05 

Ministers and Priests when going to appointment half price 

"Your petitioners respectfully ask that this petition may receive at your 
hands a favorable consideration. 

228. Original document in office of county clerk, Shawnee county. 

229. Ibid. 



362 



THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 



"And your petitioners will 
"David Brockway 

C. C. Whiting 
J. M. Hamilton 
W. S. Nichols 
Jno. Martin 
W. K. Elliott 

D. H. Home 
A. H. Case 
John A. Ward 
S. H. Fletcher 
T. Gullett 
John T. Morton 
W. R. Brown 

E. W. King 
John T. Marrat 
E. C. K. Garvey 
H. M. Kitchen 
J. A. Hickey 

C. G. Cleland 
W. McElheny 
W. Young 
Charles Engstrom 
George Doane 
Wm. Boyd 



ever pray &c. 

J. F. Cummings 
Geo. B. Holmes 
M. K. Smith 
Joshua Knowles 
Justus Brockway 
John W. Farnsworth 
John Ritchie 
Nate Swan 
G. G. Gage 
J. B. Whitaker 
Geo. O. Wilmarth 
Geo. F. Boyd 
Ross Burns 
August Roberti 
Morris Pickett 
James R. Parker 
J. F. Jenner 
A. D. Craigue 
H. H. Wilcox 
R.M.Lowe [?] 
John Young 
Michael Green 
Elijah Osterhout 
Lorenz Pauly 



A. L. Williams 
M. G. Farnham 
C. K. Gilchrist 
W. B. Flanders 
Jacob Smith 
J. H. Defouri 

C. H. Gibson 
Paul R. Hubbard 
F. Billings 

D. N. Buffum 
F. Durbin [?] 
John J. Boyd 
James A. Hunter 
James Conwell 
A. F. Neely 

J. M. Kuykendall 
Geo. W. Anderson 

E. G. Moon 
S. Hartman 
Nelson Young 
I. T. Vaughan 
Geo. Ludington 
S. E. Chure"230 



The petition must have been successful, for the following order 
was issued: 

"It is hereby ordered by the board of county commissioners in and for 
Shawnee County and state of Kansas that J. Middaugh and O. A. Curtice are 
hereby granted a licence for a ferey at Topeka on the payment to the county 
clerk the sum of fifteen dollars and they are hereby authorized to collect the 
folowing charges for crosing : 

Government freight wagon $1 .25 

Two hoss Wagon 40 Buggy, .50 



One yoke of oxen and wagon 

One hoss Buggy 

Fore hoss Stage 

two hoss Stage 

man and hors 

Loose bosses and Cattle 
Sheep and hogs 



.40 Each extra team, .15 
.35 
.40 
.25 
.25 
.10 
.05 
footman 10 

"And the same license for the lower ferry comonly known as Walker's ferry 
and also the same rates of ferrage for the said lower ferry for the space of 
one year and no longer. 

[Endorsed on back] "Approved Jan. 6, A.D. 1862, SAMUEL KOSIER, 

Ch. Co. Bo." 231 

280. Ibid. 
231. Ibid. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 363 

Little is known of the operation of this ferry, and aside from the 
following complaint and the record of licenses and bonds, nothing 
else has been located: 

"County of Shawnee | "To the Hon. board of County Commissioners of 

"State of Kansas j the above named county of Shawnee. 

"Your petitioners would respectfully ask of your Hon. Court that the pro- 
prietors and grantees of the ferry on the Topeka to Leavenworth road known 
as the Curtis & Middaugh ferry crossing the Kaw river about 2Vz miles below 
the city of Topeka be compelled to put the same in a fit and proper condition 
for travel. 

"And would further state that the landings of said ferry are in an almost 
impassable condition to the great detriment of travellers teamsters & the 
public generally and to the manifest injury of the interests of Shawnee co. 
all of which we most respectfully submit. 
"Oct. 5th '63. 

"John Armstrong Wm. Bivins Edward Bradshaw 

Stephen Battey S. P. Thompson A. B. Gordon 

J. N. Young James Fletcher James R. Palmer 

Nate Swan J. C. Disney G. Billings 

Chris Haynes H. A. Gale W. [?] S. Nichols" 2 ^ 

Joseph Middaugh and 0. A. Curtis operated this ferry up to 
1864. 233 Beginning with 1865, William Curtis and Mr. Middaugh 
became business associates in this ferry, applying for a license and 
filing a bond for $1,000 for operating at this point. 234 

The next ferry up the river was located at the foot of Kansas 
avenue, Topeka. Just when it was located at this point has not 
been definitely ascertained, but it must have been close to the year 
1860, which year 0. A. Curtis, father of former Vice President 
Charles Curtis, was in charge. Mr. Curtis had previously been em- 
ployed by the Papans to run their ferryboat. At this time there 
was a large island in the center of the river on a line with Kansas 
avenue. The ferry crossed just above this island. Later a pontoon 
bridge succeeded the ferry, being anchored to trees on this island. 

About one-half mile west of Kansas avenue was the original 
location of the Papan ferry, variously stated to have been located 
at the foot of Western avenue, or at the foot of Polk or Tyler streets. 
However, there is evidence that some sort of a roadway ran to 
the river close to the foot of Tyler, just immediately below the 
present Rock Island Railway bridge, as the remains of an old 
corduroy road show (1933) at this point in at least three separate 
places. This old roadway was accidentally uncovered while excavat- 

232. Ibid. 

233. Shawnee county, Commissioners' Proceedings, Book A, pp. 49, 83. 

234. Original bond in office of county clerk, Shawnee county. 



364 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ing for a large storm sewer which empties into the river at this point. 
The old road had been covered with silt to a depth of several feet 
in places, portions of it apparently having been destroyed by flood 
or having been removed by other agencies. The Papans came into 
present Soldier township in 1840, and in 1842 established a ferry, 
the south landing of which was within the boundaries of the city 
streets named above. At this time there was some travel between 
Fort Leavenworth and Mexico and the Southwest soldiers, trap- 
pers, traders, surveyors, explorers, government officers and others 
enough to justify them in starting a ferry. They built a log house 
on the river bank adjacent to their ferry and here they made their 
home. The first boats operated by these pioneers were primitive 
affairs, being fashioned from logs, hollowed out and known as "dug 
outs," and propelled by long poles or oars. 

One of the earliest mentions of this ferry is the following, written 
in May, 1843, by one of a party of emigrants on the way to Oregon : 

". . . We came to the edge of the Caw river. The river was considerably 
swollen on account of recent rains. There were no boats and of course no 
bridges then, but a Frenchman in the neighborhood had three dugouts made 
of logs. These my father secured the next morning and with them made a 
platform, fastening the dugouts about four feet apart, and on this very 
primitive craft the wagons were one by one ferried across. The better part 
of two days was spent in crossing the river . . . We rested a day at the 
Caw river because the rains were so heavy, and about Friday we started on 
again. . . . There were one hundred and twenty-seven wagons in our 
company and something over four hundred and fifty souls." 235 

Another with this expedition says: "We learn from Burnett, who 
kept a brief journal of the trip, that his division 'on the 24th 
[May] reached the Walcalusia [Wakarusa] river,' where he says: 
'We let our wagons down the steep banks by ropes.' They reached 
the Kansas river on the 26th and finished crossing it five days 
later." 236 

The year 1844 has gone down in history as the year of the big 
flood in Kansas. That year the Kaw river valley for weeks was a 
seething torrent. The river extended from bluff to bluff. Where 
North Topeka now stands flood waters twenty feet deep or more 
covered the land and swept the valley as far as eye could reach. 
United States army engineers gathering data during 1933 for the 
Kiro dam project have estimated that the flood of 1903 lacked 
eight feet of attaining the height during the flood of 1844. State- 
ment of V. R. Parkhurst, Topeka civil engineer, to the author, 

235. E. H. Lennox, Overland to Oregon, pp. 17, 18, 21. 

236. Wm. A. Mowiy, Marcus Whitman and the Early Days of Oregon, p. 201. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 365 

August 29, 1933. During the height of the flood, Major Cummings, 
paymaster for the United States army, wishing to cross from the 
south to the north side of the river, was rowed by an Indian from a 
point about the corner of Topeka avenue and Second street, Topeka, 
to the bluffs a mile or more beyond Soldier creek. One of the 
Papans lived in a house just above the Kansas avenue bridge of 
to-day. This house withstood the flood until the waters came under 
the eaves, when it floated away. The river at this time cut a new 
channel, making an island of the land on which the house stood. 
During the flood their ferry outfit was swept away. The Papans 
returned to their old home in Kansas City, where they remained 
about two years, when they returned and reestablished their ferry. 237 

"The ferry was not always in one place. Year by year, as the river changed, 
it would move up or down; wherever the banks made the best landing they 
would move their boat, but always within a few rods of their homes. They 
served the travelers who were going north and south on their way west, and 
it was a good business, for they were usually in a hurry and were willing to 
pay good prices to cross the yellow torrent. In those days the river was 
larger than it is now and it was a hard and dangerous task to ford it any place. 
Their boat was a crude affair, made of hand-hewn logs, with a guide rope to 
keep it in place. The current helped it across, but most of the power was 
furnished by sweeps and poles in the hands of the ferrymen and passengers, 
who usually had to work, as well as pay their way across." 238 

Joseph H. Ware, in The Emigrant's Guide to California, published 
in 1849, says: "At the Kansas crossing, distance 100 miles, you will 
find a ferry owned by two Indians (French Kaws). The charge for 
crossing is one dollar for a wagon; horses or loose stock you can 
swim across. About ten miles above there is a mission station by 
the M. E. [Baptist?] Church where any blacksmith work can be 
done, which accidents have made necessary." 

From 1847 to 1853 the Papans did a flourishing business, as the 
Orgeon and California travel was very heavy about this time. A 
log house built by them in 1848 was standing, northwest of North 
Topeka, during the middle 1870's. 239 The Papans also operated a 
toll bridge across Shunganunga creek, about three-fourths of a mile 
east of the present Topeka Santa Fe depot. A large percentage of 
the overland California traffic crossed over their bridge and ferry. 240 

In 1853 Papan's ferry was operating about a mile below the Kaw 
Indian village of Fool Chief, which at that time was located in the 
Kaw valley, between the river and Soldier creek, on the S. E. % of 

237. W. W. Cone, Historical Sketch of Shawnee County, Kansas, p. 7. 

238. Topeka State Journal, August 29, 1929. 

239. W. W. Cone, Historical Sketch of Shawnee County, Kansas, p. 7. 

240. Topeka State Journal, December 3, 1893. 



366 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

S. 16, T. 11, R. 15, a little over four miles west of the mouth of 
Soldier creek. 241 

John E. Rastall, an old-time Kansan, crossed the Kaw on this 
ferry during 1856, and described the incident in the old Kansas 
Magazine, of Topeka, in its issue of January, 1873, as follows: 

"The crossing of the Kaw (Kansas) river was infinitely quicker, safer and 
more pleasant than that of the Missouri. The foresight of the citizens had 
provided a long and strong wire cable which was stretched across, its south 
end being fastened near what is now the foot of Polk street, in Topeka. 
Attached to this wire was a flatboat, sufficiently large to carry a wagon and 
two yoke of oxen, and similar in build to the one before mentioned. By 
an ingenious contrivance, the boat, though without wheels, oars, or motive 
power within itself, was self propelling. Upon the cable were two wheels, or 
pulleys, through which were passed lines fastened to the boat. The line at 
the bow, connecting it with the wheel on the cable, was somewhat shorter 
than on the stern, so that the craft lay at an angle of forty-five degrees with 
the rapid current of the stream. This current striking the side diagonally, 
and passing around the stern, gave a forward motion to the boat, and the 
wheels upon the cable acting freely, we soon slipped across to our destination, 
Topeka what there was of it." 

Max Greene, in his The Kansas Region, published in the year 
1856, describing ferries, had this to say of this early-day enterprise: 

"Next is Pappan's ferry; with Pappan's house on the right, peeping cosily 
out from its environment of trees. On the other side, an open plain uplifts 
its garlands braided in the tall, rank grass that sways to the combing breeze. 
Here is the eastern limit of the Pottawatomies, one hundred and fifteen miles 
from the mouth of the river. Passing onward, broad wings of timber fold in 
on both sides; with the southern bluffs looming up a hundred feet. The Great 
Crossing is then reached, where there are three ferries. On the south bank is 
a Pottawatomie village, with stores, a Baptist Mission and school. In this 
field of labor, the agents of the church have been more successful than or- 
dinary, and there are some children of the wild who have reason to bless their 
efforts." 

Just how late the Papans operated their ferry has not been 
learned, but it must have been into the middle 1850's. They may 
have operated more than one ferry, as contemporary accounts 
mention them in widely separated places several miles west of 
Topeka, and also on the Anthony Ward farm adjoining Topeka, at 
about the foot of Western avenue. This last location was a little 
over one and a half miles south of the Indianola crossing of Soldier 
creek on the Fort Leavenworth military road. 242 

Peter De Shattio, descendant of an old St. Louis family, who 

241. Statement of Frederick Chouteau, in Kansas Historical Collections, v. 1-2, p. 287; 
v. 8, p. 425. Statement of Fannie E. Cole, ibid., v. 9, p. 573. 

242. Topeka State Journal, December 3, 1893. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 367 

married Ann Davis, a free negro woman, at Uniontown, about 1848, 
moved to the vicinity of present Topeka and took a claim lying 
alongside the Kansas river. While living there De Shattio operated 
the Papan ferry for a year or more. He later relinquished his claim 
and took another to the southwest of the Topeka townsite, thinking 
the city would be built there. 

In 1885 Messrs. Martin and Coville 243 were owners and operators 
of the old ferry. On August 13, 1856, a wagon train of about 60 
wagons, and followed by about 500 persons, arrived at the north 
landing and were brought across. This train had started from 
Milwaukee, Wis., on May 20, and continual accessions to it were 
made in the territory through which it passed, until it became a 
small-size army in itself. 244 This was commonly known as "Lane's 
Army of the North." Ferry charges as fixed by the commissioners 
of Shawnee county for that year were: Two horses and one wagon, 
$1 ; each additional span of horses or yoke of cattle, 25 cents ; loose 
cattle or horses, per head, 10 cents; one horse and wagon, 75 cents; 
man and horse, 25 cents ; foot passengers, 10 cents ; sheep and hogs, 
per head, 5 cents. 

By April, 1857, the ferry appears to have been in new hands. An 
item in the Topeka Tribune, of April 13, stated that "Messrs. 
Howard & Co. would start their ferry again for the season of 1857 
near the place occupied last year." 

P. I. Bonebrake, a resident of Shawnee county and for many years 
a resident of Topeka, crossed the ferry in June, 1859. He and his 
wife had arrived opposite Topeka, in what later became the town of 
Eugene (now North Topeka). It was then a forest, inhabited by 
French-Kaw half-breed Indians. The river was crossed by a rope 
ferry operated by the Papans. At this time Topeka had about 
600 people. The town was not inviting. A steamboat had just 
passed up the river, laden with merchandise, and in going up had 
severed the cable on which the ferry operated. As a consequence 
he and Mrs. Bonebrake had to go into camp for three days to allow 
the proprietor to procure another cable from Leavenworth. In the 
meantime many teams and immigrants gathered in the bottom near 
the river Pike's Peak government trains, Kaw Indians, dogs, etc., 
all waiting to be crossed. 245 

243. H. C. Coville located in Mission township in December, 1854, settling on the S. E % 
S. 27, T. 11, R. 15. He was killed during the Price raid, in 1864. Cone, Historical Sketch 
of Shawnee County, Kansas, p. 10. 

244. Kansas Tribune, Topeka, August 18, 1856; Kansas Historical Collections, v. 15, 
p. 592. 

245. Condensed from a MS. in possession of Fred B. Bonebrake, Topeka. 



368 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

There is some conflicting opinion as to the location of the Papan 
ferry landing on the south side of the river. Their house was built 
on the river bank in 1842 and it was swept away during the flood of 
1844, leaving a large island in the river where the cabin stood. 
Beers' Atlas of Shawnee County, 1873, shows this island as extend- 
ing from Jackson westward to near Polk street nearly five city 
blocks in length. While some authorities give the Papan landing as 
far west as Western avenue, there is a possibility it was located at 
one time several blocks down stream. Former Vice President Curtis, 
whose father took over the old Papan ferry, has written the follow- 
ing regarding the location : 

"WASHINGTON, D. C, September 16th, 1933. 

"My Dear Root I have your letter and was glad to hear from you. I 
remember the old ferry boat quite well. We lived on Harrison street just a 
block from the river and the landing on the North side was between Harrison 
street and Topeka avenue. For years after the old pontoon bridge was built 
the old ferry boat was on a little sand bar on the North side of the river. 
I do not know what year the boat was first established, but Harvey [Henry?] 
Worral made a painting of the ferry boat, the Pappan ferry, as it appeared 
in 1854, entitled 'Where traffic between the East and the West crossed the 
Kaw river in pioneer days.' I would not be surprised if you found this 
painting in the Historical Society. 

"After Grandfather Pappan gave up the ferry boat the charter or grant 
was taken over by my father and Joseph Middaugh, and I understand Father 
and Middaugh were operating the ferry boat when the pontoon bridge was 
built. 

"Sorry I cannot give you more information. 

"With kindest regards, I am, 

"Very truly yours, CHARLES CURTIS. 

"George A. Root, Esq., 

"324 Lindenwood Avenue, 

"Topeka, Kansas. 

"P. S. I think Mr. W., son and daughter still live in Topeka." 

Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, was a dis- 
tinguished visitor who crossed the ferry May 24, 1859, while on his 
way west. He arrived in Topeka that day, made a speech, and 
returned next morning to Indianola, to catch the stage running 
west. 246 

Eighteen hundred and sixty will be remembered as the year of 
the "drouth." According to the Topeka Tribune of May 5, "the 
river at this place is extremely low, and it is with some difficulty 
that the ferry boats make their regular trips." The same authority, 
in issue of September 1 following, stated: "The river at Topeka is 

246. Greeley, An Overland Journey, pp. 52, 54, 55. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 369 

now extremely low lower than it has been since the season of 1843, 
according to Mr. Papan." At this time the ferry was operated from a 
point near the foot of Western avenue, about one-half mile west of 
Kansas avenue, Topeka. 

A movement for a bridge at Topeka was started in 1856, and 
on February 14, 1857, a charter for a structure across the Kaw was 
obtained from the legislature. This was a pile bridge and opened 
for travel on May 1, 1858. It was a great help to traffic while it 
lasted, but its days were numbered. The month of July, 1858, was 
a damp one in territory drained by the Kaw, and a rise in the river 
said to be unequalled since the flood of 1844, followed. On the 
morning of July 17, following, just about two and one-half months 
after the opening of the bridge, it floated away, leaving four regi- 
ments of United States soldiers, with a large baggage train, bound 
for Fort Union, and several trains of Russell, Majors & Waddell, 
stranded at the river, waiting to cross. 247 

Apparently nothing was done about rebuilding or repairing the 
pile bridge built in 1858 until the following winter, when the officers 
of the bridge company made an attempt to get the bridge in work- 
ing order. The Topeka Tribune in January, 1859, printed the fol- 
lowing, which depicted the situation at that time: 

"THE TOPEKA BRIDGE 

"Efforts are now being made to have this crossing of the Kansas river com- 
pleted in two months from the present time. Mr. Gordon, the president of 
the company, informed us that this could be done by building the bridge 
from the island to the opposite side of the river, and running a ferry on this 
side of the island until the whole length could be completed, which can be 
done in about four months, with the present efficient corps of workers. 
The timbers have been contracted for and men are busily engaged preparing 
them for use. But a few months and we can again cross the river at Topeka 
on a bridge." Topeka Tribune, copied in Kansas Press, Wathena, January 29, 
1859. 

This bridge was located at the foot of Kansas avenue and was 
never rebuilt, 248 so the old ferry, located on the island about one 
block west, again came into its own. 

The Topeka Tribune of September 30, following, stated there was 
a good ferry at this place, but no bridge, but the rebuilding of one 
was discussed. A new bridge appears to have been started late in 
the fall. In the latter part of January, 1859, a local paper stated 
that work on the new bridge was progressing at a good rate, and that 

247. Giles, Thirty Years in Topeka, pp. 88-94. 

248. Ibid., p. 96. 

241070 



370 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

it was thought it would be completed in about four months. Mean- 
time the ferries were worked feverishly. The Pike's Peak excite- 
ment was at its height and travel through Topeka was increasing 
daily. The Topeka Tribune, of April 7, 1859, stated that it was 
estimated a thousand persons passed through the city for the gold 
mines this date. A week later, it mentioned that "the ferries at 
this place are kept running constantly to enable traders to get to 
Leavenworth to obtain goods for the Pike's Peak trade." 

Work was started on a pontoon bridge across the river at Topeka 
late in the fall of 1859, which was ready for service early in January, 
I860. 249 

Oren A. Curtis had worked for Papans on their ferry as early 
as 1858, and the next year formed a partnership with S. L. Munger. 
The following application was filed with the Shawnee County Com- 
missioners : 

"To the Hon. The County Supervisors of Shawnee County 

"The undersigned Salmon L. Munger a citizen of the county of Shawnee 
and O. A. Curtis a citizen of the county of Jackson, would respectfully petition 
your honorable body to grant them a license to keep and run a ferry across 
the Kaw river at the city of Topeka in said county of Shawnee for the term 
of one year, & your petitioners will every pray &c. 

"August 1, 1859. S. L. MUNGER & 0. A. CURTIS." 

This partnership, apparently, did not last very long, for the 
Topeka Tribune of December 17, following, stated that the ferry 
was again in the hands of Mr. Curtis. It was said to be in good 
order and that two boats were maintained. 

The following advertisement appeared in the Topeka Tribune as 
early as January 14, 1860, and ran for several weeks: 

"TOPEKA FERRY! 

"This first class ferry across the Kansas river, is again in the hands of the 
subscriber, who is making quick trips with the greatest of safety. My boats 
are good, and hands experienced. This is certainly the best and most reliable 
ferry on the river. 0. A. CURTIS, Proprietor." 

Later in 1860 Curtis formed a partnership with Joseph Middaugh 
and they secured a charter from the territorial legislature granting 
them authority to maintain a ferry for a period of five years. In 
case the river should be bridged before five years, the charter was 
to terminate when the bridge was built. No other ferry was to be 
established or set up within two miles of the city. The company 
was privileged to use steam, horse or flat boats as the wants of the 

249. Topeka Tribune, November 5, 12, 1859; January, 1860. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 371 

public demanded. 250 The State Record of February 4, 1860, said 
they had one boat running at that time. 

The Topeka Tribune, of March 24, following, stated that "0. A. 
Curtis is now in charge of the Topeka ferry. It is on the route from 
Leavenworth to Topeka, Santa Fe and the gold mines." In the 
issue of May 5, following, the Tribune pays Mr. Curtis the compli- 
ment of saying that he "makes the best time of any ferryman upon 
the river. Two boats are kept in use. They can put a government 
train across in three hours' time." The same authority, in issue of 
September 1, printed this item: "Ferry Topeka. Mr. Curtis in- 
forms us that he is bridging the river at this point, and if the dry 
weather continues during the fall, the entire river will be bridged 
excepting that part on which his ferry lies. The distance is very 
short now on which he runs a boat. Curtis knows how to run a 
ferry." 

No record of their application for a license has been located, but 
the following bond was filed with the county clerk: 

"Know all men by these presents that I, Owen [Oren] A. Curtice [Curtis], of 
Jackson, territory of Kansas, and Joseph Middaugh of Topeka, Shawnee 
county, in said territory, both as principals, and Milton C. Dickey and H. G. 
Young of said Topeka as sureties, are holden and stand firmly bound unto 
any person who may become entitled thereto, & in the sum which the said 
Curtice and Middaugh may become liable to pay according to the conditions 
of these presents as follows, to wit: Whereas the said Curtice and Middaugh 
have been authorized by act of the territorial legislature of the territory of 
Kansas for the year A. D. 1860, to wit, an act entitled an 'Act to establish a ferry 
at the city of Topeka' to establish and maintain a public ferry across the 
Kansas river at the city of Topeka, now if the said Curtice and Middaugh 
shall fully comply with and observe all the provisions of said act, then this 
obligation shall be void, otherwise to remain in full force and effect. 

"Witness our hands and seals this 18th day of February A. D. 1860. 

"Signed sealed and "OREN A. CURTIS (Seal) 

Del'd in presence of JOSEPH MIDDAUGH (Seal) 

Ed P. Kellam MILTON C. DICKEY (Seal) 

J. Fin Hill H. A. YOUNG (Seal) 

"Territory of Kansas, Shawnee County, ss. 

"We the undersigned members of the board of supervisors of the aforesaid 
county do hereby certify that the within bond signed by A. Curtice and 
Joseph Middaugh as principal and M. C. Dickey and H. G. Young as sureties 
is hereby approved and accepted. Witness our hands and seals the 20th day 
of Feby., 1860. 

"Attest G. W. SAPP, Clerk "A. H. HALE (Seal) 

"By L. FARNSWORTH, Deputy H. M. MOORE (Seal) 

S. R. CANNIFF (Seal) 

"By C. D. BUSBY." 

250. Private Laws, Kansas, 1860, pp. 273, 274. 



372 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

No ferriage rates for 1860 have been located, but a printed schedule 
for the next year is reproduced: 

RATES 



OF 



FERRIACE 

FOE THE TEAR 1861, 



Government & Freight Wagons 

Two-horse Wagon or Buggy, ,50 

One yoke of Cattle & Wagon, ,5O 

Every extra span of horses or yoke of cattle, ,25 

One Horse & Buggy, ,35 

Four-horse Stages, ,37 

Two-horse Stages, ,25 

Man & Horse, ,25 

Loose Cattle & Horses, eaeh, ,1O 

Sheep and Hogs, 5 

Footmen, ,1O 

J. MIDDAUGH. 

O. A. CUBTIS. 
H. C. Co veil, Chairman Co* Board. 



-STATS KtCVKD' 



Fac-simile of handbill (reduced about one-half from the original) advertising the Curtis- 
Middaugh ferry at Topeka. O. A. Curtis was the father of former Vice President Charles 
Curtis. 

Rates for the next year were practically the same, a reduction of 
ten cents for extra team being the only change in existing rates, but 
"ministers one-half price when going to appointments" being added. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 373 

Evidently some dissatisfaction regarding the bridge and ferry 
situation in Topeka developed that fall and winter. The Tribune 
of January 19, 1861, contained the following: "Ferry Meeting. 
We are requested to state that a meeting will be held in Museum 
Hall, this evening, to take into consideration the state of the ferry 
across the Kansas river at this place. Citizens are requested to 
attend." 

It would be interesting to know whether or not this called meet- 
ing was held, and just what action, if any, was taken. As the 
Tribune for the next several weeks contained no further mention of 
the matter, the meeting apparently was a "fizzle." 

On February 23, following, the Tribune had another mention of 
the situation: 

"A SHAME. It is a shame upon our town that those persons who come 
through here, from southern Kansas, for these relief goods, have to give away 
one-fourth their load to pay the ferriage across the Kansas river; when it is a 
fact that there are several hundred dollars in the hands of committeemen and 
agents belonging by rights to the county living in our city, and which 
means could not be better appropriated than by paying the ferry here for 
those who have not the means. Some complain of Mr. Middaugh, the ferry- 
man, because he will not take less than the regular fees. He should have a 
fair price for his labor, and the money sent here from the East should go to 
pay such bills. 

"Since writing the above we understand that the Topeka relief committee 
have generously undertaken to pay the ferriage of all teams sent for relief. 
This is right. Now we know where a part of the money goes." 

Middaugh and Curtis, in addition to operating the Topeka ferry, 
also ran the old Walker ferry, as has been stated. These they 
operated until 1864, their annual license for each costing $15, in 
addition to a bond of $1,000. Ferriage charges had been changed 
slightly by 1864; the cost of a horse and buggy ferried costing 30 
cents, instead of 35 cents; a four-horse stage costing 60 cents, com- 
pared to 40 cents; a two-horse stage costing 30 cents instead of 25 
cents, and footmen 15 cents instead of 10 cents. 251 

On June 19, 1863, another effort was made to secure a bridge at 
Topeka, and O. A. Curtis was one among the eleven who secured 
a charter for the Shawnee Bridge Company. 252 This company ac- 
complished nothing. On July 30, 1864, another company, known as 
the Topeka Bridge Company, received a charter from the state. 253 
This company met with no better success than its predecessor, and 
on January 5, 1865, it applied for a new charter, 254 which was 
granted, and completed a pontoon bridge by October 18, following. 

251. Shawnee county, Commissioners' Proceedings, Book A, p. 83. 

252. Corporations, v. 1, p. 6. 253. Ibid., p. 12. 254. Ibid., p. 16. 



374 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

"This bridge rested upon thirteen flat boats, each 15 x 25 feet, and 
placed about fifty feet apart. The boats were held in place by a 
wire cable stretched across the river. The pontoon occupied the 
same place where the bridge of 1858 stood." 255 

The Kaw river apparently continued in a normal condition for 
a number of years following the flood of 1858. The next mention 
of flood waters in the stream at Topeka was the following in the 
State Record of August 12, 1863: "The Kansas river has not been 
so high for a great while as during the past week. There must have 
been high raises on the Blue and Republican, as well as along the 
Kaw valley to have caused such a rise. The mail due here Saturday 
night did not get in till 2 p. m., Sunday, owing to ferrying on account 
of high water." 

High waters in the Kaw river were a menace early in the year 
1867. The river then was higher than at any time since 1858, when 
the pile bridge was swept away. The toll house, located on the 
island to the west of Kansas avenue, was in danger. About the 
eighth or ninth of February that section of the pontoon bridge to 
the south of the island was swept away by the waters, a few of the 
boats drifting as far as Lawrence, the remainder being caught and 
secured at Lecompton. Following this mishap the bridge company 
installed ferry boats which operated from the south shore to the end 
of the pontoon bridge on the island, these being operated by Capt. 
Daniel H. Home and his assistant, Tim Felton. In the meantime 
Capt. 0. A. Curtis again began operating his ferry boat from his 
location a few blocks above Kansas avenue. 256 These boats made 
trips across the raging waters when but few people had the hardi- 
hood to undertake it. The bridge company had been doing a lucra- 
tive business up to this time, and they lost no time in repairing the 
damage, which was estimated at about $5,000. 257 The missing boats 
were eventually brought back and again put into service. In spite 
of this handicap in the matter of transportation, the hotels of the 
capital city did well. 258 The Topeka Leader of March 14, 1867, 
printed the following, which summed up the local situation pretty 
accurately : 

"The raging Kaw still continues master of the situation; apparently not 
content with the victory gained over our pontoons, he summoned the aid of 
the Northern King, and now carries on his ruffled bosom, huge masses of ice, 
by which last piece of strategy he has completely circumvented the wiseacres 

255. Giles, Thirty Years in Topeka, p. 98. 

256. Topeka Tribune, February 15, 22, March 1, 1867. 

257. Giles, Thirty Years in Topeka, p. 98. 

258. Topeka Tribune, March 15, 1867. 



ROOT: FERRIES IN KANSAS 375 

who control the skiffs and attend to the mails, leaving the poor Topekaites to 
realize the disadvantage under which they labor cut off, as they are, from the 
outer world. 

"Vive La Kaw." 

The inconvenience of being without the pontoon bridge prompted 
a correspondent of the Tribune to ask: "Will the boat of bridges 
never come back over the stormy water?" 

Old residents of Topeka have said the pontoons would go out with 
about every freshet in the river. This appeared to be the case early 
in June, 1867, when a large excursion party arrived over the Kansas 
Pacific Railroad for a visit to the capital city. The visitors landed 
at Eugene (present North Topeka) on the 4th, but owing to a 
break in the bridge, only a few of the party braved the angry 
waters and crossed over to the city to spend the night. 259 

Operating the ferry or the bridge was not always a humdrum job. 
Once in a while something unexpected happened to break the mo- 
notony. The following, from the Topeka Leader, October 17, 1867, 
is an illustration: 

"Seventy-five Indians in the calaboose, in North Topeka, on Monday last. 
They had been indulging in fire water pretty freely, and took charge of the 
pontoon, allowing no one to cross. They were away up high on the war path; 
one of them striking at the deputy marshal with a long knife, cut through his 
coat, grazing the flesh. Each one of these copper-colored gentlemen was pro- 
vided with a pocket pistol, holding from a half-pint to a quart each." 

Early in March, 1866, those interested in the pontoon bridge or- 
ganized a new company known as the Capital Bridge Company, 
composed of Dr. D. W. Stormont, Joshua Knowles, S. D. Mac- 
Donald, F. L. Crane, E. A. Goodell, William E. Bowker, Josiah M. 
Cole, and John G. Otis. The purpose of this organization was to 
build and operate bridges and ferries across the river at a point 
where the section line between S. 29 and 30, T. 11, R. 16, strikes 
the south bank of the Kansas river, or at any point on the river 
within two miles above or below that point. This company was 
capitalized at $60,000, with shares at $100 each. The charter was 
filed with the secretary of state, March 8, 1866. 260 This company 
never built any bridge under this authority and may not have 
operated a ferry at that point. 

In 1869 the bridge company began work on a permanent structure 
which was opened for traffic in the spring of 1870, after which the 
Topeka ferries went out of business. 

259. Topeka Leader, June 13, 1867. 

260. Corporations, v. 1, pp. 76, 77. 



376 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Topeka became an important road center after it had been chosen 
as the future state capital. Even before that it was an important 
location, being close to the old Oregon and California road on the 
south side of the river which crossed on Papan's and Smith's ferries, 
and being but a few miles from the old Fort Leavenworth to Fort 
Riley military road. Beginning with 1860, the legislature of that 
year laid out two roads that affected Topeka, one running from 
Leavenworth, crossing Big Stranger below the mouth of Fall creek, 
and on to Topeka 261 ; another ran from Atchison to Superior, in 
Osage county, via Valley Falls and Topeka. 262 Five established 
in 1861 ran from Topeka to Council Grove; from Topeka to the 
Nebraska line, in direction of Salem, by way of Holton, Eureka, 
Grenada and Capioma; from Topeka to Chelsea, via Auburn, Wil- 
mington, Americus, Toledo and Cottonwood Falls; from Topeka to 
Minneola, via Twin Mound; and from Leavenworth to Topeka, by 
way of Oskaloosa. 263 In 1862 one was laid out between Topeka 
and Lecompton. 264 In 1863 the state road from Topeka to Council 
Grove was changed. 265 Five were established in 1865, one running 
from Topeka to Centropolis and thence to Ottawa ; one from Topeka, 
on the line between ranges 15 and 16, as near as practicable, to 
Henry Mitchell's farm on South Cedar creek, thence to Holton and 
Wathena; one from Topeka to the Sac and Fox agency; one from 
Topeka crossing the California road, as near as practicable to the 
farm known as the Shields farm, and on to Clinton, Douglas county; 
and one from the south side of Sixth avenue, west, in city of Topeka, 
via Wabaunsee county and connecting with the Topeka and Council 
Grove road. 266 Others were established in 1866, one of which ran 
from Topeka to One Hundred and Ten; another from a point near 
the crossing of Buck creek, via the Union Pacific Railroad, in Jeffer- 
son county, at or near the line between the townships of Kentucky 
and Kaw, connecting with the state road running from the city of 
Leavenworth, via Oskaloosa, to Topeka; another from the north 
end of the bridge across the Kansas river at Topeka and intersecting 
the state road from Topeka to Leavenworth, at or near the place 
where said road crosses the Big Muddy. Oren A. Curtis, Joseph 
Middaugh and J. M. Kuykendall were commissioners appointed to 
establish this last named road. 267 This was about the last of the 
early state roads that affected Topeka. 

(To be Continued in February Quarterly.) 

261. Laws, Kansas, 1860, pp. 592, 593. 262. Ibid., pp. 584, 585. 

263. Ibid., 1861, pp. 247, 248. 264. General Laws, Kansas, 1862, pp. 798, 799. 

265. Laws, Kansas, 1863, pp. 84, 85. 266. Ibid., 1865, pp. 144-147. 

267. Ibid., 1866, pp. 224, 226. 



The Vegetarian and Octagon 
Settlement Companies 

RUSSELL HICKMAN 

'TVHE American frontier has always been a fertile field for experi- 
JL ment in social reform. From the time the "otherwise-minded" 
enrolled under the standard of Roger Williams in Rhode Island until 
the disappearance of the frontier toward the close of the nineteenth 
century, the vacant lands to the westward gave new hopes to those 
who wished to found a new society. Cheap land was a great boon to 
those unemployed or not financially prosperous in the East, while 
those who were merely discontented could always try a "new deal" 
in the West. In a period of incubation of varicolored social theories 
the frontier served both as a safety-valve for the East and as a con- 
venient laboratory to put theory into actual practice, qualities which 
a more established and crystallized society would have lacked. 1 

Vegetarianism dates back as far as the ancient religion of Hindu- 
stan, and was advocated by Plato, Plutarch and other writers of 
classical times. In Great Britain George Cheyne (1671-1743) was 
one of the earliest pioneers of the movement, publishing his Essay on 
Regimen in 1740. In 1811 appeared J. F. Newton's Return to Na- 
ture, or Defense of Vegetable Regimen, and in 1847 the Vegetarian 
Society was founded at Manchester. Eduard Baltzer (1818-1887) 
was an early German pioneer, forming a vegetarian society at Nord- 
hausen in 1868. Sylvester Graham (1794-1851), Charles Lane and 
Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888) were leaders of the early move- 
ment in the United States. In 1889 the Vegetarian Federal Union 
was formed, an international federation of vegetarian organizations. 2 

Vegetarianism in the United States was one of the many changes 
proposed in the reform movement of the thirties. Numerous co- 
operative communities sprang up, inspired largely by a hatred 
of industrialism, and a determination to return to more simple modes 
of life. 3 In the movement for reform of the American diet, opposing 
its over-emphasis on meat and heavy foods, Sylvester Graham was 
a leader. In 1830 he was named general agent of the Pennsylvania 
Temperance Society. He studied human physiology, diet, and 

1. Arthur Meier Schlesinger, in his New Viewpoints in American History (New York, 1926). 
p. 215, appropriately quotes Lowell's essay on Thoreau, "Every possible form of intellectual 
and physical dyspepsia brought forth its gospel." Even bran had its prophets, and hooks and 
eyes their champions as a substitute for buttons. 

2. Encyclopedia Americana, v. 27 (New York, Chicago, 1923), p. 720. 

3. Dictionary of American Biography, v. I (New York, 1928), p. 139. 

(377) 



378 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

regimen during a period of lecturing, and in 1830-1831 delivered 
lectures on these subjects in Philadelphia and New York, and later 
up and down the Atlantic coast, Graham advocated the use of 
bread at least twelve hours old, baked from whole wheat unbolted 
and coarsely ground. He also proposed hard mattresses, open bed- 
room windows, cold shower baths, vegetables, fresh fruits, rough 
cereals, pure drinking water, and cheerfulness at meals. Graham 
believed that all meats are less wholesome for humans than fruits, 
grain and vegetables, that all condiments except salt should be 
avoided, and that tea and coffee, as well as alcohol, deserve to be 
shunned. Emerson dubbed him the "poet of bran bread and pump- 
kins." 4 Yet despite all opposition, Graham flour appeared every- 
where, and Graham boarding houses and restaurants sprang up. A 
few years later, the famous transcendentalist and educational re- 
former, Amos Bronson Alcott, proposed a cooperative vegetarian 
colony. Alcott was a reformer par excellence, and was constantly in 
attendance at reform meetings anti-slavery, vegetarian, and tem- 
perance. During the winter of 1843-1844 Alcott, with the cooper- 
ation of Henry Wright, Charles Lane and his son William, worked 
out a plan for Fruitlands, a cooperative vegeterian community. 
Lane invested his entire savings in a tract near the village of 
Harvard, Mass., and in June, 1844, the party moved to this location. 5 
Their organization was based on strictly vegetarian principles no 
flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, milk, cheese or butter. The experiment was 
so radical that even the labor of horses was dispensed with, and only 
the "aspiring" vegetables (those growing above ground) were eaten. 
Unfortunately the crops were carelessly planted, and at harvest time 
the men left to attend reform meetings. Mrs. Alcott and daughters 
salvaged what was possible, but by winter the Lanes and Alcotts 
were the sole remaining members of the community and were on 
the verge of starvation. In January of the next year the experiment 
was abandoned. 6 In the later movement in this country Henry S. 
Clubb (1827-19 ?) was a leader. Clubb gave his philosophy a 
wide currency in his later years, as president of the Vegetarian 
Society of America (late 19th and early 20th centuries). He re- 
garded vegetarianism as based upon Scriptural authority; the early 

4. Ibid., v. 7 (New York, 1931), pp. 479-80. Also the Philadelphia Bulletin, quoted in 
The Vegetarian and Our Fellow Creatures, September, 1902. The Graham Journal of Health 
and Longevity appeared in the late thirties (David Campbell, editor), and in 1839 Graham 
published his most ambitious work, Lectures on the Science of Human Life (2 vols., 1858). 
Horace Greeley was a follower of Graham. 

6. Lane wrote A Brief Practical Essay on the Vegetable Diet (1847). 

6. Dictionary of American Biography, v. I, pp. 139-140. There is a very good account 
here of Alcott's many reform theories. Fruitlands never numbered over eleven individuals. 



HICKMAN : SETTLEMENT COMPANIES 379 

Christian church he believed to have been vegetarian, but con- 
sidered it corrupted by Constantine. 7 Clubb, in particular, favored 
suburban gardens and the colonization of vegetarians, as well as 
undenominational schools and colleges, "away from the contamina- 
tion of flesh, alcohol, and social vices. , . ." 8 

The Vegetarian Kansas Emigration Company was projected by 
Henry S. Clubb in 1855, to establish a permanent home for vege- 
tarians. It was hoped to bring together vegetarians of common 
interests and aims; otherwise they, "solitary and alone in their 
vegetarian practice, might sink into flesh-eating habits." 9 The first 
meeting of the company was held in New York on May 16, 1855. 
The joint-stock principle was adopted, with the aim of thereby ob- 
taining the advantages of civilization for the settlers, including 
agricultural implements and mills. Charles H. DeWolfe, of Phila- 
delphia, gentleman, was made president. At the first meeting forty- 
seven signed an agreement to emigrate, and twenty-six more in- 
dicated that they would probably go, along with relatives and 
friends. Their individual capital varied, it was reported, from $50 
to $10,000. 10 Dr. John McLauren was sent to Kansas to make a 
favorable location for the colony, and appeared before the company 
in January, 1856, advocating an octagon settlement near Fort Scott, 
on the Neosho river. The organization of the company was then 
completed by the adoption of a constitution, the preamble of which 
provided : 

"WHEREAS, The practice of vegetarian diet is best adapted to the develop- 
ment of the highest and noblest principles of human nature, and the use of 
the flesh of animals for food tends to the physical, moral, and intellectual 
injury of mankind, and it is desirable that those person who believe in the 
vegetarian principle should have every opportunity to live in accordance 
therewith, and should unite in the formation of a company for the permanent 
establishment, in some portion of this country, of a home where the slaughter 
of animals for food shall be prohibited, and where the principle of the vege- 
tarian diet can be fairly and fully tested, so as to demonstrate its ad- 
vantages, . . ."ii 

7. The Vegetarian Magazine, November, 1897. Other leaders of the movement, near the 
turn of the century, include Dr. J. H. Kellogg, of Battle Creek, the elder La Follette, and 
Clarence Darrow of Chicago. The Seventh Day Adventists have espoused vegetarianism. 

8. Ibid., February, 1900, p. 12. Concerning colonization, see below. 

9. Henry S. Clubb, in Water-Cure Journal, clipped in the Lawrence Herald of Freedom, 
April 28, 1855. 

10. Life Illustrated of June 2, 1855. Quoted in Herald of Freedom of August 11. In 
September of that year it was reported that 4,000 shares had been sold. To encourage sales, 
the first payment was put as low as ten cents, and persons with no capital were advised they 
could pay for their shares with labor. 

11. Frank W. Blackmar, Kansas, A Cyclopedia of State History (two vols., Chicago, 1912), 
v. 2, p. 842. 



380 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

By establishing a permanent home for vegetarians, it was believed 
that a program of concerted action could be followed, with a system 
of direct healing, as well as permitting the practice of the vegetarian 
principle. Members were required to be of good moral character, 
not slaveholders, and applications had to be approved by the board 
of directors. 

The officials of the company immediately levied an assessment of 
ten per cent (50 cents a share) , to provide a fund with which to erect 
a saw mill and gristmill, purchase a stock of provisions, seed grain, 
tents, utensils, etc. Each member was called on to pay $10 to this 
fund of the company, the headquarters of which were at No. 308 
Broadway, New York. 12 Clubb announced that persons who be- 
came members before the end of the month (January, 1856) would 
be called founders, and would participate in the drawing of lots. 13 
The New York Tribune announced that the company then consisted 
of about fifty families, with capital stock aggregating about $75,000. 
The shareholders were one-third practical farmers, and two-thirds 
mechanics and professional men not a very promising proportion 
for life on the frontier. 14 

The Vegetarian Kansas Emigration Company was the first to 
adopt the Octagon plan of settlement, a scheme also formulated by 
Henry S. Clubb. 15 Membership in the company was limited to 
vegetarians, and as a result their settlements would be of a re- 
stricted nature. No doubt the promoters received applications from 
many would-be settlers in Kansas who did not agree with this limi- 
tation, but who were otherwise in sympathy with the objects of the 
founders opposition to slavery, 16 and advocacy of a moral life. 
Thus it would appear that by founding several settlements, vege- 
tarian and nonvegetarian, the chance of success of the colonies and 
of financial returns to the promoters would be considerably im- 
proved. 

Whatever their motives, Clubb and his colleagues decided to 
organize a second company as a complement to the vegetarian or- 

12. Ibid., p. 848. 

13. Life Illustrated, clipped in Herald of Freedom, January 19, 1856. 

14. New York Daily Tribune, January 21, 1856. A pertinent criticism leveled at Eastern 
emigrants, including those of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, was their lack of 
preparation for frontier life, in contrast to those from the Middle West. 

15. See below for a description of this plan. 

16. There was a large emigration to Kansas from the free states in 1856, despite the period 
of "troubles," although the movement was far greater in 1857. A number of the groups 
which came in the spring of 1856 were semimilitary in character, some even being hired to 
fight for the cause of the South, others the North, as occasion might arise. The writer has 
found no reason for believing that the two companies here discussed were in this category. 



HICKMAN: SETTLEMENT COMPANIES 381 

ganization, to be known as the Octagon Settlement Company. 17 
This company was to avoid the vegetarian limitation, but other- 
wise was to greatly resemble its sister company. The Octagon com- 
pany opened its books for subscriptions in February, 1856, and by 
the end of the month had enough members to start one octagon 
village of four miles square. It was hoped to form a city equal in 
size to that of the Vegetarian company, on the Neosho, opposite its 
predecessor. 18 The officers of the vegetarian organization were also 
to serve in the Octagon company, Charles H. DeWolfe being named 
president, Dr. John McLauren, treasurer and pioneer in Kansas, 
and Henry S. Clubb, secretary. An agent was named for Great 
Britain (Robert T. Clubb), and another for New York City. 19 The 
constitution of the company declared the following objects: 

"1. To form a union of persons of strict temperance principles, who, in 
the admission of members, shall have a guaranty that they will be associated 
with good society, and that their children will be educated under the most 
favorable circumstances, and trained under good example. 

"2. To commence a settlement in Kansas territory, for the pursuit of agri- 
culture and such mechanic arts as may be advantageously introduced. 

"3. To promote the enactment of good and righteous laws in that territory, 
to uphold freedom, and to oppose slavery and oppression in every form." 20 

The promoters planned for their model community a "hydropathic 
establishment, an agricultural college, a scientific institute, a mu- 
seum of curiosities and mechanic arts, and common schools." 21 The 
"hydropathic establishment," or water-cure project, occupied a 
prominent place in the plans of the founders, several of whom be- 
longed to the medical profession. Water-cure societies were then 
being established in many places; one was organized at Lawrence 
in March, 1855. They emphasized a "return to nature," with the 
avoidance of drugs and patent medicines then so much advertised. 
The constitution of the Lawrence society provided in its preamble, 
"that hydropathy, including the hygienic agencies of water, air, 
light, food, temperature, exercise, sleep, clothing, and the passions 
in their various modifications, comprises a whole and ample Materia 

17. The Vegetarian and Octagon Settlement Companies have a history so closely con- 
nected, that it is at times difficult to distinguish between them. There are other examples of 
parallel and interlocking companies in the territorial period ; the American Settlement Com- 
pany and the New York Kanzas League is a case in point. 

18. Document, The Octagon Settlement Company, Kanzas (N. Y., 1856), p. 8. 

19. Ibid., p. 2. 

20. Blackmar, Kansas, v. 2, p. 380. 

21. Document, The Octagon Settlement Company, Kanzas, p. 4. Each member agreed to 
abstain from intoxicating liquor. "Maine Law" men were prominent among the Eastern emi- 
grants to Kansas territory. 



382 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Medica, capable of producing all the really remedial effects possible 
in all diseases . . ." 22 

The octagon plan of settlement, adopted by both the Vegetarian 
and Octagon companies, was a unique feature of the projects. Each 
octagon-shaped settlement was to be of four square miles, or 2,560 
acres. Upon this square a full-sized octagon was to be imposed, 
whose eight segments were each to be divided into two farms of 102 
acres each. Each of the sixteen farms would front upon the central 
octagon of 208 acres, which was to be used for a common pasture or 
park, and to be held by the trustees for the equal benefit of the 
settlers. A communal life would be attained by placing each farm 
house facing the central octagon, at whose central point an octagon 
public building would be constructed, to serve as store, meeting- 
house, school, and church. Of the four miles originally taken up, 
the four corners still remaining outside the octagon settlement would 
be used for woodland or grassland. It was planned to make four 
of these octagon villages into a "city" of sixteen square miles, with 
a square of 584 acres in the center, to be devoted to an agricultural 
college and model farm. 23 

The octagon plan of settlement aimed to give the western settler 
some of the advantages of the East, with the hope of avoiding the 
hated isolation of the frontier. Each settler would live in a village, 
enjoy the aid and protection of his comrades, and attain social and 
educational advantages not otherwise possible. The literature of 
the project stressed in particular the increase in property values 
which would result from this form of settlement. In the hope that 
the octagon village would become the center of a city, a detailed 
plan was worked out to subdivide the farms into lots ; each was to be 
divided into eight squares, of twenty lots each, varying in size from 
the center. 24 Each purchaser of a share in the company would pay 
a dollar entrance fee, and an initial installment of ten cents upon 
the five-dollar share, and could take not less than twenty nor 
more than 240 shares. 25 He was entitled to as many city lots as 
he took shares. The company would pay $1.25 an acre to the gov- 
ernment for its land, and all that it received above this would be 

22. Constitution of Lawrence Hydropathic Hygienic Society, Herald of Freedom, March 
31, 1855. A water-cure building was to be constructed upon a conveniently situated hill in 
"Octagon City." 

23. Document, The Octagon Settlement Company, Kanzas, pp. 5, 6. The frontispiece has 
an elaborate illustration. 

24. Ibid., p. 6. 

25. Actual practice varied from the original plan, a fact which must be borne in mind in 
considering the later history of the colonies. The technique of townsite promotion on the 
Western frontier was an art hi itself, open to all possessed of a "gift of gab" and a native 
shrewdness. Capital was not an initial necessity, as it would follow as a matter of course. 



HICKMAN: SETTLEMENT COMPANIES 383 

used for provisions, construction of streets, public schools, mills, 
and stores. Profits from the mills would be divided among the 
shareholders. The company would also obtain implements and 
teams for every shareholder, and issue scrip for the use of its 
settlers. 26 

In emigrating to the Kansas frontier, the Vegetarian and Octagon 
Settlement Companies acted very much in unison. Doctor Mc- 
Lauren, sent out by the Vegetarian company in the fall of 1855, 
had already reported a favorable location on the Neosho. He now 
also acted as treasurer and pioneer of the Octagon company with 
headquarters at "Octagon City, via Fort Scott." A definite plan 
of emigration was worked out, the octagon plan of settlement neces- 
sitating the arrival of settlers in groups of sixteen, or multiples 
thereof. Each group was to have a leader and a definite time and 
place of departure, and a membership properly distributed among 
the various professions. Both DeWolfe and Clubb were to serve 
as heads of companies. 27 The Vegetarian (or Octagon) company 
was given rather wide publicity during the early months of 1856. 
Late in March of that year a pioneer group, composed of members 
of both companies, proceeded up the Missouri river, with two more 
such parties to follow in April. 28 

On the first of May (1856) Clubb reported at length upon the 
progress of the colony. The site selected was on the western bank 
of the Neosho river, west of Fort Scott, and six miles south of the 
present site of Humboldt. A tract of thirty-two square miles had 
been obtained (eight octagons), including bottom land, prairie and 
timber. A building was then being erected as a store and company 
headquarters. From this eight avenues were then being laid out, 
according to the octagon plan. The eight octagons were then being 
surveyed. According to Clubb, the emigrants numbered nearly a 
hundred persons, with twenty head of oxen, five or six horses, and 
a grist mill. Vegetarian blacksmiths, farmers, and carpenters were 
on the grounds. 29 After the town of "Neosho City" was laid out, 

26. Document, The Octagon Settlement Company, Kanzas, p. 6. The plan of the New 
England Emigrant Aid Company was somewhat similar. They also hoped to plant centers 
of Eastern culture in the wilderness and to profit by a rise in the value of their land holdings, 
particularly town lots. 

27. Ibid., p. 10. A detailed list of emigrants for the first company is given, classified ac- 
cording to profession. 

28. Daily Missouri Democrat, March 26, 1856. Clipped in "Webb Scrap Books" (Thomas 
H. Webb, compiler), v. 10, p. 185. This collection contains a vast number of newspaper clip- 
pings from all over the country, concerning the first years of Territorial Kansas, and is now in 
the library of the Kansas State Historical Society. 

29. Correspondence of Clubb, Herald of Freedom, May 3, 1856. Announcements of new 
towns were frequent in the territorial papers, and were often highly laudatory, as a means of 
advertisement. As a matter of fact, lack of capital prevented the settlement from being es- 
tablished on the grand plan proposed. 



384 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

it appears to have enjoyed a transitory boom. Lots bought early 
in May at premiums amounting to $40 were sold a few days later 
at premiums amounting to $197.50. Emigrants were then arriving 
from all directions; a majority came during April, May, and June. 80 

The project thus brilliantly begun ended in complete failure. It 
appears certain that in order to gain settlers the promoters made 
rash promises which could not be fulfilled. There was but one plow 
in the whole establishment, although the officials had promised 
implements and teams for every shareholder (i. e., settler) . Their 
promise to construct a saw- and grist-mill also did not materialize. 
One writer blames the promoters for "gross mismanagement," if not 
something worse. 31 The location of the colony was beset by mos- 
quitoes, and chills and fever attacked the settlers. 32 The "inexhaust- 
ible" springs dried up, and the crops that were planted were raided 
by neighboring Indians. 33 Bitter disappointment and much suffering 
resulted. As winter neared, all who could leave did so. There was 
a heavy mortality among the children and older people. By the 
following spring (1857) hardly a trace of the settlement remained, 
although the stream along which the companies located is still known 
as Vegetarian creek. 34 

Among the factors leading to the failure of the colony, the "high- 
pressure salesmanship" tactics of the promoters appears to rank 
first. Too many promises of paternalistic aid were made to the 
settlers. The size of the farms (only 102 acres) may have dis- 
couraged the emigrants, 35 but most disappointing of all was the 
failure to construct mills, and other promised features. The mem- 
bership numbered many Easterners, who were not prepared for life 
on the frontier, a significant fact accounting for the abandonment 
of the colony. The charges, made by many of the settlers, of the 
dishonesty of the promoters cannot be entirely proved. It appears, 

30. Neosho City correspondence of May 12, of the Daily Missouri Republican, May 23, 
1856. The St. Louis papers carried much news of the Kansas border. The above appears to 
be a typical "boom" notice. 

31. L. Wallace Duncan, History of Neosho and Wilson Counties, Kansas (Fort Scott, 
1902), pp. 37-38. Clubb appears to have abandoned the Kansas experiment precipitately. 
Yet, after leaving Kansas, he became acknowledged as the leader of vegetarianism in America. 
He was quite young at the time of the Kansas venture. 

32. Mrs. Miriam D. Colt, Went to Kansas, (Watertown, 1862), p. 88. June 26th entry: 
"Several members of our company have suddenly been taken with the chills and fever." 

33. Duncan, op. cit., p. 38. The colony was located near the boundary of the New York 
Indian Reserve and the Osage reservation. Nominally it was not open for settlement. As far 
as law and order went, this was somewhat of a "no man's land" at this time. The immedi- 
ate locality was not surveyed until 1857 and 1858. Claim troubles were frequent, and "jay- 
hawking" flourished. 

34. Ibid., p. 38. Andreas, in his History of Kansas (Chicago, 1883), comments on page 
668 that four settlers remained permanently Charles Baland, Z. J. Wizner, and Watson and 
S. J. Stewart. The same author has a brief biography of Samuel J. Stewart on page 675. 
He served in the Free-State legislature of 1857, and took an active part in the Civil War. 

35. Andreas remarks (p. 668) that the two Stewarts were so dissatisfied with the ar- 
rangements that they located claims elsewhere. 



HICKMAN: SETTLEMENT COMPANIES 385 

however, that money was collected for the purpose of properly start- 
ing the colony, which was not so used. 86 Those who resorted to 
Clubb for help were disappointed, as he had no money to refund. 87 
The later history of vegetarianism was more successful from the 
standpoint of colonization. In 1890 Henry S. Clubb, then presi- 
dent of the Vegetarian Society of America, became the editor of 
Food, Home, and Garden, which in 1900 was united with the 
Vegetarian Magazine, published by the Vegetarian company at 
Chicago. 38 Clubb was then very active in promoting vegetarian 
colonies throughout the country and made personal tours to locate 
favorable sites. The Vegetarian Magazine and its successor, The 
Vegetarian and Our Fellow Creatures, published many accounts of 
such colonies during the first quarter of the twentieth century. In 
1920 the place of publication of this magazine itself was moved to 
one of these colonies, in Idaho. 89 

86. Blackmar, Kansas, v. 2, p. 842. 

37. August llth entry, Colt, Went to Kansas, p. 128: "My husband has been anxious to 
see Mr. Clubb at his present abiding place, up on Stone creek . . . to see if he would re- 
fund any of the money that he put into his hands. . . . Mr. Clubb had no money to 
refund, but let us have some cornstarch, farina, a few dates, and a little pearled barley. 
. < . . It is rumored that H. S. Clubb has resorted to his present abode, that he may make 
his way quietly out of the territory. We can take advantage of no law to regain our money 
paid to him for the company." 

38. The Vegetarian Magazine, January, 1900, p. 12. Reverend Clubb was then also pastor 
of the Bible Christian Church, Philadelphia. Besides promoting the vegetarian faith, the 
Vegetarian comnany also sold various vegetarian products at that time: peanut butter, Kungh- 
phy (a substitute for coffee), Vegetarian soap, Ko Nut (a butter made from cocoanut oil), 
Graham flour, etc. Compare the Kellogg and other trade products of to-day. Vegetarianism 
thus became highly capitalized. 

89. Information from various numbers of The Vegetarian Magazine and its successors. 
Vegetarianism in America was always closely allied with prohibition. Clubb was the author 
in 1856 of The Maine Liquor Law (New York, 1856), a history of prohibition and its leading 
advocate, Neal Dow. Clubb also wrote a serial "History of Vegetarianism," 1907. A like- 
ness of Clubb appears in the frontispiece of the Vegetarian Magazine for February, 1900. 
The John Crerar Library of Chicago has an incomplete file of the Vegetarian Magazine and 
its successors. The Kansas State Historical Society has documents and other information 
illustrative of the Kansas venture. 



251070 



The John Brown Pikes 

FRANK HEYWOOD HODDER 

THE most interesting of the John Brown relics are the pikes that 
he intended to put in the hands of slaves. A pike consisted 
of a two-edged blade, ten inches long, made from steel; a guard 
five inches wide, made of malleable iron, attached by a ferrule, 
also of malleable iron, to a handle six feet in length, made of ash. 
They were obtained from Charles Blair, of Collinsville, Conn. When 
the United States Senate appointed a committee, known from its 
chairman, Sen. James M. Mason of Virginia, as the Mason Com- 
mittee, to investigate the Harper's Ferry Invasion, Blair was sum- 
moned to Washington and in his testimony gave a full account of 
the making of the pikes. 1 There is some account of the pikes in 
the biographies of Brown by Sanborn 2 and Villard 3 and additional 
data are contained in the letters of Blair to Brown in the archives 
of the Kansas State Historical Society. 

About the first of March, 1857, Brown spoke in Collinsville on the 
subject of conditions in Kansas. The next morning he exhibited in 
a local drug store some weapons that he had taken from Pate's band 
at Black Jack. In showing a dirk he remarked that, if mounted on a 
long handle, it would make a capital weapon with which the settlers 
of Kansas could defend themselves against sudden attack. It was 
Blair's recollection, three years after the event, that Brown then 
turned to him, knowing he was a blacksmith, and asked what it 
would cost to make five hundred or a thousand of them, and that he 
replied that he would make five hundred for a dollar and a quarter 
apiece, and a thousand for a dollar apiece. Sanborn represents that 
the remark was made to H. N. Rust, with whom Brown was negotiat- 
ing for the repair of some pistols sent from Kansas, and that Rust 
later took up the matter with Blair. Some color is given to San- 
born's version of the incident by the fact that two of Brown's later 
communications to Blair were made through Rust. 

Brown returned to Collinsville March 11 and arranged with Blair 
to make a dozen sample pikes and send them to him at Springfield, 
Mass. March 20 Blair wrote Brown that he would send the samples 
on the following day. The ferrules, he wrote, were made of sheet 

1. Senate Report, No. 278, 36th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 121-129. Serial No. 1040. Cited 
hereafter as Mason Report. 

2. F. B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown (Boston, 1885), pp. 375-378. 

3. Oswald Garrison Villard, John Brown, A Biography Fifty Years After (Boston, 1910), 
pp. 283-285, 400-401. 

(386) 



HODDER: THE JOHN BROWN PIKES 387 

iron and were not satisfactory, but that it would cost more to make 
them of malleable iron; that he would meet Brown in Hartford the 
following week and settle upon the price. In a postscript Blair added 
that if Brown wanted more, he could put the samples in with the 
rest; if not, he could pay twelve dollars for them. Brown endorsed 
the letter as answered March 23, probably writing that he would 
come to Collinsville. 

March 30 the contract for the pikes was signed at Collinsville. 
Blair testified before the Mason Committee that it was drawn by 
Brown, but the copy in the archives of the Kansas State Historical 
Society is in Blair's handwriting. 4 Brown may have made a rough 
draft from which Blair made a copy. The contract provided that 
Blair would furnish one thousand "spears" at one dollar apiece. 
The spears were to be like the samples, except that the ferrules were 
to be of malleable iron instead of sheet iron, and attached to the 
handles by screws instead of being riveted, so that they could be 
shipped separately. Brown paid $50 down and was to pay $500 
within ten days and the remaining $450 within thirty days there- 
after. The spears were to be finished by the first of July. 

Brown paid the $50 down and a total of $350 within ten days, but 
April 2 wrote Blair that he had been unable to make the further 
payments required by the contract. Blair replied on the 15th that 
he had not taken any further measures than to ascertain where he 
could get the handles, ferrules, etc., and if Brown did not find it 
convenient to raise the money for the thousand he would make 
five hundred at the same rate. In his testimony before the Mason 
Committee Blair thought that he had already bought the steel for 
the blades and begun working on them, but from his contemporary 
letter that appears not to have been the case. April 16 Brown sent 
word through Rust that he hoped to have the money soon, and April 
25 he sent Rust $200 for Blair with the message that "he need not 
hurry out but five hundred of the articles" until he should hear from 
him again. 5 Blair acknowledged receipt of the $200 on the 27th 
and said that he could "take along 500 of the articles" if desired, 
but that he had ordered the handles for the whole number, and that 
it was more convenient to get all the guards, ferrules and screws at 
one time but that if it were not convenient for Brown to remit the 
balance of the money before the first of July it would be just as 
well if he would allow a corresponding length of time in which to 
complete the contract. 

4. Contract printed in Sanborn, p. 377. 

5. Letters to Rust in Sanborn, p. 376. 



388 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

May 7 Blair wrote Brown that he must wait three weeks for the 
ferrules and some four weeks before the handles would be seasoned 
sufficiently to set the ferrules ; that if the ferrules were put on before 
the timber was properly seasoned they would be likely to work 
loose; that the blades would be forged, tempered and ground, so 
that it would take little time to finish them when the lumber was 
right, and that he thought that they would be ready by the first of 
July, but not as soon as first talked of. He added that he intended 
to go to Iowa for a few weeks, but that the business would be at- 
tended to in his absence by his son. He closed the letter to Brown 
by "wishing him success in his enterprise," the only time he made 
any comment in his letters upon the use to which the pikes were to 
be put. To both letters Brown replied May 14 from Canastota to 
the effect that Blair need not hurry the first five hundred until the 
handles were properly seasoned or the remainder until he should 
hear from him again. 

Blair did not receive this letter until his return from Iowa. 
August 27 he wrote Brown that he had commenced the whole 
number of articles, that he had all the handles well seasoned, the 
ferrules, guards, etc., but that not having heard anything further 
from him, had let them rest. "I did not know," he wrote, "but 
that things would take such a turn in Kansas that they would not 
he needed." He added that he did not blame Brown, as he well 
knew that "when a man is depending on the public for money he is 
very likely to be disappointed," and that he need not give himself 
any uneasiness about the affair, for if I go no further with them, 
"I shall lose nothing, or but little." 6 September 11, and again 
February 10 and March 11, 1858, Brown wrote explaining his 
inability to make the payments called for by the contract. February 
10, Blair had written Brown that he could not go on with the spears 
unless assured of his money ; that he would let Brown have them if 
he could get them finished elsewhere, but that he would prefer to 
go on with them if some responsible parties would guarantee pay- 
ment within three or four months. 

Nothing more was done about the pikes for nearly fifteen 
months. June 3, 1859, Brown unexpectedly appeared in Collinsville 
and wanted the pikes finished. Blair protested that he regarded the 
contract as forfeited, that he was busy with other things and could 
not bother with them, and that as Kansas matters were settled they 
would now be of no use. Brown replied that they might be of some 
use, if they were finished up, that he could dispose of them in some 

6. Printed in Sanborn, p. 378. 



HODDER: THE JOHN BROWN PIKES 389 

way, but, as they were, they were good for nothing. Blair finally 
agreed that if Brown would pay the balance due he would get some- 
one to finish the "goods." The next morning Brown paid $150, $50 in 
bills and a check of Gerrit Smith's for $100, and three days later sent 
a draft from Troy for the remaining $300. Blair secured a man by 
the name of Hart to finish the pikes. The last of August he re- 
ceived letters from Chambersburg, Pa., signed "I. Smith & Sons," 7 
instructing him to send the "freight" to them at that place in care 
of Oakes & Cauffman. At that time the railroads did no freight 
business themselves, but that business was done by forwarding 
companies owning private freight cars. Oakes & Cauffman was a 
forwarding company. The blades, guards and ferrules were packed 
in boxes and the handles were tied in bundles of twenty or twenty- 
five and marked "fork handles." Blair testified that 954 were sent, 
presumably in addition to the twelve samples originally made. He 
also testified that he did not know where Chambersburg was, but 
supposed that it was on the way to the West. A letter dated at 
Chambersburg, September 15, also signed "I, Smith & Sons," ac- 
knowledged their receipt. From Chambersburg they were trans- 
ported in wagons to the Kennedy farm. Some of the pikes were 
taken to Harper's Ferry October 16, the night of the raid. The 
next morning all the material remaining at the farm was taken by 
Cook, Tidd and Owen Brown to a country school house three miles 
from Harper's Ferry on the Maryland side. When this was seized 
483 pikes and 175 broken handles for pikes were found. 8 The re- 
maining pikes are supposed to have been distributed to slaves. 

There is no means of ascertaining how many of the pikes have been 
preserved, but probably a considerable number are still in existence. 
There is one in the National Museum in Washington. There are 
two in the museum of the Kansas State Historical Society, one with 
the original handle and the other without a handle. They were pur- 
chased in 1881 from J. Shaw Gallaher, of Charles Town, West Va., 
for $15 apiece, and were the first relics bought by the Society. 
There is one in the historical collections of the University of Kansas. 
It originally belonged to John S. Cunningham, a pay director in the 
navy. 9 By him it was given in 1885 to George Alfred Townsend, 

7. Printed "J. Smith & Sons" in the Mason Report. The "J" should be "I." Brown 
had assumed the name Isaac Smith. 

8. Mason Report, pp. 51, 54-59. James Redpath, The Public Life of Capt. John Brown 
(Boston, 1860), p. 269. Redpath gives the number of broken handles as 150, but the in- 
ventory in the Mason Report gives 175. 

9. John S. Cunningham was made purser in the navy in 1857, pay director in 1871, re- 
tired in 1883, and died in 1894. He wrote Townsend in 1885 that he witnessed the execution 
of John Brown, but the records of the Navy Department do not show that he was present in 
an official capacity. 



390 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

a noted journalist of that day. At Townsend's death in 1914 his 
effects were sent to Boston for sale at auction, and this pike was 
among the articles purchased by Charles L. Cooney, a local anti- 
quarian dealer, by whom it was presented to the University of Kan- 
sas in 1923. For the original handle a shorter one of oak had been 
substituted. 

A relic is of very little value unless it has some significance. The 
pikes are important because the order for them is the first indica- 
tion of Brown's intention to abandon the Kansas field and to revert 
to his earlier plan of starting a slave insurrection in the South. The 
civil war in Kansas in the summer of 1856 resulted in the victory of 
the Free State men and amply proved their ability to defend them- 
selves. Governor Geary arrived in Kansas in the fall of 1856, sup- 
pressed the roving bands upon both sides, and established peace in 
the territory. Brown went east in January of 1857 ostensibly to 
raise funds for the defense of Kansas but really with other plans in 
mind. He planned to bring his band together in the fall of 1857 
at Tabor, in southwestern Iowa, where he had stored two hundred 
Sharps rifles intended for Kansas, and he engaged an English ad- 
venturer by the name of Forbes to give the men military instruction. 
Toward the end of February, 1858, he communicated his plans 
to Gerrit Smith and F. B. Sanborn at Gerrit Smith's home in Peter- 
boro, N. Y., possibly omitting mention of Harper's Ferry as the 
intended point of attack, and received from them their hearty ap- 
proval. 10 Soon afterward Brown and Forbes quarreled. Forbes 
went east and betrayed Brown's plans to Seward, Henry Wilson, 
Horace Greeley and others. May 24, Brown's backers Gerrit 
Smith, Howe, Parker, Stearns, Higginson and Sanborn met in 
Boston, decided that the execution of the attack must be postponed 
in view of Forbes' disclosures and sent Brown to Kansas to divert 
suspicion. It is scarcely possible that Brown, in spite of his pro- 
fessions, ever intended to send the pikes to Kansas. They were not 
suited to the kind of warfare waged in the territory, and pitchforks 
would have afforded equally good protection to the lonely women 
on the farms. On the other hand, they exactly suited his plan for 
a slave insurrection. They could be had in large quantities for little 
money, they required neither ammunition nor special skill in their 
use and would be effective in hand-to-hand combat. In view of 
their special importance in the development of Brown's plans, it is 
perhaps worth while to have told their story in detail. 

10. Ralph Volney Harlow, "Gerrit Smith and the John Brown Raid," in The American 
Historical Review for October, 1932, v. 38, pp. 39-42. 



Kansas History as Published 
in the State Press 

The diary of William Robinson, union soldier and an Ottawa 
county pioneer, is being published serially in the Tescott News, 
starting with its issue of June 9, 1932. The diary is the property 
of a son, John Robinson, of Tescott. 

Some of the interesting subjects discussed by W. F. McGinnis, Sr., 
in The Butler County News, El Dorado, during the past few months 
were: "Horse Thieves and How They Worked in the Sixties," 
March 3 and 10, 1933; "Some of Butler County's Old Time Offi- 
cers," March 17; "How We Got Our Freight Before We Had a 
Railroad," April 7; "How We Got Our First Railroad," April 14; 
"A Real Buffalo Hunt in Kansas in 1871," April 21 ; "Opening of 
the Cherokee Strip, America's Greatest Horse Race," August 18; 
"This is the Forty-fourth Anniversary of Butler County's First and 
Last Kidnaping," September 8 to 29. 

"Potter Memories," a column written by an early resident, is ap- 
pearing from time to time in the Potter Kansan. The series started 
with the issue of May 18, 1933. 

"The History of Solomon," by Harriet Woolley, ran serially in 
the Solomon Tribune from May 25 through the issue of June 15, 
1933. The town company was platted in 1866 by Henry Whitley, 
John Williamson and Luther Hall. 

The history of the Prairie Vale Missionary Union was briefly 
sketched in The Western Star, Coldwater, May 26, 1933. 

A biographical sketch of the late Roy L. Bone, southern Kansas 
cowboy who became a banker, was published in the Kansas City 
(Mo.) Star, June 11, 1933. 

Buffalo hunts in the 1870's were described recently by James 
Smith, a southern Kansas pioneer, for a Chandler (Okla.) news- 
paper. The story was condensed and reprinted in the Howard 
Courant, June 15, 1933. 

A list of the pioneer settlers buried in Crown Hill cemetery, near 
Coldwater, was compiled for The Western Star, Coldwater, and was 
published in its issue of June 16, 1933. 

(391) 



392 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

St. Paul Lutheran Church of Clay Center celebrated the twenty- 
fifth anniversary of the dedication of its present church edifice, 
June 25, 1933. Histories of the organization were published in the 
Clay Center Economist, June 21, 1933, and the Clay Center Times, 
June 22. 

George A. Linn, Mrs. B. T. Frost and Mrs. Sarah E. Dooty 
Strange, three pioneer Kansans, reminisced in the Neodesha Register 
recently. Mr. Linn was interviewed for the June 22, 1933, issue; 
Mrs. Frost wrote for the June 29 issue, and Mrs. Strange for the 
issue of August 3. 

An excursion to Leavenworth by a narrow gauge railroad was 
briefly described by Mrs. Ella Fulton in the Winchester Star, June 
30, 1933. A short history of Winchester was also included in this 
issue. 

"A Few Reminiscenses," a column conducted by H. V. Butcher, 
ran serially in The Western Star, Coldwater, during July and 
August, 1933. 

"Strange Were the Happenings in Kansas When Polygamy Was 
the Fad," was the title of a story depicting the life of an old Indian 
chief Al-le-ga-wa-ho, which appeared in the Kansas City (Mo.) 
Journal-Post, July 2, 1933. 

"Historic Sites, Scenery, Found Throughout State," by Hugh 
Amick, was the title of an article published in the "Vacation Num- 
ber" of the Wichita Sunday Eagle, July 2, 1933. 

Early-day Lawrence printers were named in a letter from W. J. 
Flintom, of San Diego, Cal., which was printed in the Lawrence 
Daily Journal-World, July 4, 1933. Mr. Flintom came to Kansas 
from Vermont in 1869. 

A history of the site of the Scott county state park, which was 
given in an address to a recent bar association meeting in Scott 
City, by R. D. Armstrong, Scott City attorney, was published in 
the Dodge City Daily Globe, July 10, 1933. 

Two letters recalling the visit of President R. B. Hayes to Neosho 
Falls in 1879 were printed in the Neosho Falls Post, July 13, 1933. 
Frank S. Denney and E. B. Moore were the contributors. 

Former pastors and friends of the First Presbyterian Church of 
Clay Center contributed special historical articles to the Clay 
Center Times, July 13, 1933, recalling their connections with the 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS 393 

church. The occasion was the dedication of a new church building, 
July 16. The Presbyterians first organized in Clay Center April 1, 
1871. 

The sixty-first anniversary of the Wichita Eagle was observed 
July 16, 1933, with the issuance of a special illustrated historical 
edition. 

Early Irish settlers near Solomon were discussed in an article 
printed in the Salina Journal, July 18, 1933. The story was based 
on historical sketches of a similar nature appearing in the Salina 
Rustler, April 13, 1895. 

A jubilee commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the organiza- 
tion of the Mission Covenant Church of Stotler was held July 16, 
1933. A brief history of the church was published in The Journal- 
Free Press, Osage City, July 19, and in the Topeka Daily Capital, 
July 20. 

Numerous fossil discoveries have been announced from northern 
and western Kansas in recent years. An area of about seventy 
square feet, containing over sixty tracks of four different species 
of prehistoric animals, was recently found on the George Hrabik 
farm near Sylvan Grove, according to the Sylvan Grove News, July 
20, 1933. A Mr. Brandhorst and Dr. H. H. Lane, of Kansas Uni- 
versity, are collaborating on the interpretation and description of 
these tracks. 

A brief sketch of the John W. Harding family, as prepared by 
Mabel Harding, of San Diego, Calif., was printed in The Western 
Star, Coldwater, July 21, 1933. Miss Harding also contributed a 
column of reminiscences to the Star in -the August 18 issue. 

A column entitled "Territorial Days in Oskaloosa," by Francis 
Henry Roberts, started in the Oskaloosa Independent, July 27, 1933. 
Mr. Roberts' recollections in a former column, "Early Days in Oska- 
loosa," dated from the summer of 1862. 

J. A. Comstock, early-day hotel clerk in Dodge City, wrote of his 
experiences in that frontier town in the Dodge City Daily Globe, 
July 28 and 29, 1933. Mr. Comstock, now of New York, came to 
Dodge City in 1881. 

An address, "A Half Century of Kansas Journalism," by Gomer 
T. Davies, editor of the Concordia Kansan, was delivered at a 
meeting of the Kansas Editorial Association in Topeka, June 10, 



394 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

1933, and was published in the Topeka Pink Rag in its issues of 
July 28 and August 4. 

A brief biography of Col. S. S. Prouty, early Kansas newspaper- 
man, was sketched in the Dodge City Daily Globe, August 1, 1933. 

Some reminiscences of A. Canning, Kansas pioneer, were printed 
in the Salina Journal, August 2, 1933. Mr. Canning's family came 
to Kansas in 1859 and settled near Council Grove. 

The killing of the last buffalo in Mitchell county was discussed 
by Alonzo Pruitt in the Glen Elder Sentinel, August 3, 1933. 

"Who's Who in Lucas," a series of articles relating the history 
of the town's business concerns, is being published serially in the 
Lucas Independent, commencing with the issue of August 9, 1933. 

The Cloud county Indian raid in 1868, in which Sarah White was 
kidnaped, was recalled by Victor Murdock in the Wichita (evening) 
Eagle, August 14, 1933. Mr. Murdock interviewed William Elvin 
White, a brother of the kidnaped girl, for the story. 

Clifton High School's history was published in the Clifton News 
in its issues of August 17, 24, and 31, 1933. The first school building 
was erected prior to 1868, with George D. Seabury as the first 
teacher. 

"Minutes Disclose that 'Good Old Days' in the Schools Were 
Anything But That," was the title of a brief presentation of the 
problems of School District No. 4, of which Concordia is a large 
part, in the 1870's. The article was printed in the Concordia 
Blade-Empire, August 23, 1933. 

The final installment of T. P. Tucker's "Early Day Church 
History of Greeley County," was published in the Greeley County 
Republican Tribune, August 24, 1933. Other installments were an- 
nounced in the August issue of the Quarterly. 

"Looking Backward a History of Cuba From Old Newspaper 
Files," compiled by Mr. and Mrs. L. Carpenter, appears from time 
to time in the Cuba Tribune. The series started with the issue of 
August 24, 1933. 

The Anthony-Atwood battles were a spectacular part of Leaven- 
worth county's early days, the Tonganoxie Mirror reported in its 
issue of August 24, 1933. An account of the Douglass-Anthony suit, 
in which John H. Atwood and D. R. Anthony, bitter political op- 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS 395 

ponents, were in the unique position of lawyer and client, was re- 
printed from the Kansas City Star of December 8, 1915. 

"Frontier Surveying During an Indian War," by E. C. Rice, was 
the title of an article published in the Wichita Sunday Eagle, 
August 27, 1933. Mr. Rice accompanied J. B. Wilcox, of Muscotah, 
in the survey of some thirty townships on the Kansas-Colorado line. 

Pioneers of Cherokee county having sixty years or more of resi- 
dence in that county were named in the Columbus Daily Advocate, 
August 30, 1933. Mrs. Sallie Crane compiled the list. 

"A Tribute to the Pioneer Mothers of Central Kansas," by Will 
Goodman, of Glendale, Calif., was published in The County Capital, 
St. John, August 31, 1933. 

Mulvane's first train was described in a three-column illus- 
trated story appearing in the old settlers' edition of the Mulvane 
News, August 31, 1933. The railroad line connected Wichita and 
Winfield, and the official opening excursion train went through 
Mulvane September 29, 1879. 

"Early History of Mt. Ayr Friends Church," 1872-1933, by C. 
E. Williams, was published in the Osborne County Farmer, Osborne, 
August 31, 1933. 

Special historical editions of the Olathe newspapers were issued 
August 31, 1933, announcing the program for the thirty-sixth annual 
reunion of Johnson county old settlers, held in Olathe, September 2. 
Biographies of Harry King, Sr., Mrs. Louisa Keys, Mrs. Blanche 
Jefferson, W. H. Harrison, and William Crandall; a history of De 
Soto; and accounts of early explorers, the grasshopper invasion, 
the organization of the county, Harmony school, and the Shawnee 
mission, were contained in the August 31 issue of The Johnson 
County Democrat. The following week both The Democrat and the 
Olathe Mirror printed notes on the meeting and lists of the old 
settlers who registered. 

"Crossings and Fords Blue Bridge Forerunners," an article by 
Byron E. Guise, portraying the evolution in river crossing at Marys- 
ville, was published in the Marshall County News, September 1, 
1933. Marysville's first bridge was completed in 1864. 

Reminiscences of early-day Kansas, by J. L. Garrett, were pub- 
lished in the Bunkerhill Advertiser, September 7, 1933. 

"Early Wallace County, General Custer, and the Seventh Cav- 
alry," from the reminiscences of Lewis C. Gandy, was continued in 



396 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The Western Times, Sharon Springs, September 7 and 21, 1933. 
Other installments were mentioned in the August issue of the 
Quarterly. 

A story entitled "Cattle Money," by McKinley W. Kreigh, 
former overland stage mail carrier, of Syracuse, was published in 
the Syracuse Journal, September 8, 1933. The article was reprinted 
from the October Blue Book Magazine. 

"Sockless" Jerry Simpson's visits to Dodge City in the 1890's were 
recalled by Heinie Schmidt in a feature article printed in the Dodge 
City Daily Globe, September 13, 1933. 

Old settler editions of the Marion Review and Record appeared 
recently, announcing the annual old settlers' picnic for Marion. The 
Review of September 13, 1933, published articles entitled: "How Ed 
Miller Died"; "History of the Florence Catholic Church," by Mrs. 
E. H. Robison; "The Last Cheyenne Raid," by A. E. Case; "Some 
Early Day History," by Mrs. Will Rupp, and "Reminiscences," by 
R. C. Coble. The Record, on September 14, continued with "Jacob 
Linn Brought First Load of Pine Lumber to Marion Centre," by 
Mrs. L. E. Riggs; "Recounting Early Pioneers of the Oursler Neigh- 
borhood," by Mrs. Chas. Locklin; "There Were Plenty of Thrills 
for This Pioneer Marion Family," by Mrs. Frank Knode ; "A Hand- 
shake That Was Friendly," by Al Nienstedt, and "There Was an 
Early Day Postoffice at Oursler Station," by Mrs. N. J. Oursler. 

A history of the Anthony Methodist Episcopal Church, which 
celebrated its fiftieth anniversary September 17, 1933, was pub- 
lished in the Anthony Republican, September 14. The first M. E. 
church edifice built on the site of the present building was dedicated 
on December 23, 1882, by Elder Cline. 

St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church of Chepstow celebrated 
the fiftieth anniversary of its organization, September 17, 1933. A 
history of the church was printed in the Barnes Chief, September 14. 

The Leavenworth Chronicle issued its annual "Fort Leavenworth 
Edition," September 14, 1933. Notes on the founding of the fort 
and the perils encountered by the early freighters, the founding of 
the General Service School by Gen. W. T. Sherman in 1881, and a 
roster of officers now attending the school, were features. 

A log cabin which belonged to Henry McKenzie, who came to 
Kansas in 1854, was believed by the late Gen. W. H. Sears to be the 
oldest now in existence in Douglas county. A brief history of the 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS 397 

cabin was published in the Lawrence Daily Journal-World, Sep- 
tember 14, 1933. 

"Battle of Beecher Island Is Thrilling Story of Indian War," was 
a Goodland Daily News headline for a feature article printed in its 
issue of September 15, 1933. The story appeared on the anniver- 
sary of its fight, which is annually commemorated with appropriate 
ceremonies by the Beecher Island Memorial Association, on the 
battleground, now a Colorado state park. 

The history of Atlanta, Rice county, was briefly reviewed in the 
Hutchinson Herald, September 15, 1933. The site of this one-time 
county seat of Rice county is now a cornfield, the Herald reports. 

"Dodge's First Dentist Was a Pistoleer," a two-column biography 
of Dr. John H. Holliday, was printed in the Dodge City Daily 
Globe, September 15, 1933. The story, which was written by Dr. 
Frank A. Dunn, was a reprint from Oral Hygiene. 

The lynching of Frank Jones in Wellington, September 14, 1884, 
was recalled in the reminiscences of E. B. Roser appearing in the 
Wellington Daily News, September 16, 1933. 

The fortieth anniversary of the opening of the Cherokee outlet 
led several Kansas pioneers to reminisce in their local newspapers 
on their adventures in 1893. W. H. Nelson, Asa Dean and Joe 
Harper were among those interviewed by the Arkansas City Daily 
Traveler in its issue of September 16, 1933. The Caldwell Daily 
Messenger of the same date devoted a column story to the run. An 
illustrated feature story, "Fighting For a Claim in the Old Cherokee 
Strip," by F. M. Gillett, was published in the Wichita Sunday Eagle, 
September 17, and notes on the run by Victor Murdock appeared 
in the Wichita (evening) Eagle, September 18. 

Burlingame was named in honor of Anson Burlingame, an Ameri- 
can, who was the first Chinese minister to the United States, the 
Topeka Daily Capital recalled in its issue of September 17, 1933. 
Burlingame was formerly known as Council City. 

Cooking recipes used by Sara Robinson, wife of Charles Robin- 
son, Kansas' first governor, were discussed by Sue Carmody Jones 
in an article printed in the Kansas City Star, September 20, 1933. 

An account of the founding of Fowler, contained in a letter from 
Perry J. Wilden, of San Diego, Cal., was published in the Fowler 
News, September 21, 1933. 



398 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Mrs. Grace Bedell Billings, the woman who as a girl asked Abra- 
ham Lincoln to wear whiskers, now lives at Delphos, the Hays Daily 
News reported in its issue of September 21, 1933. Mrs. Kathryn 
O'Loughlin McCarthy, who related the story to the News, has copies 
of the letters written by Mrs. Billings and Lincoln. 

A history of the Bethlehem Lutheran church and school, of Sylvan 
Grove, was published in the Sylvan Grove News, September 21, 
1933. The first religious service was held February 9, 1879. 

Five Kansas officials were impeached during the first seventy 
years of statehood, according to an Associated Press dispatch writ- 
ten by Calvin Manon and released to its member newspapers Sep- 
tember 22, 1933. 

St. Mark's Lutheran Church, of Atchison, celebrated its sixty- 
fifth birthday anniversary, September 24, 1933. A history of the 
organization was published in the Atchison Daily Globe, Septem- 
ber 22. 

"How Two Eminent Kansans Were Elected to U. S. Senate," by 
the late Gen. W. H. Sears, of Lawrence, was the title of an article 
printed in the Topeka Daily Capital, September 24, 1933, concern- 
ing the elections of John J. Ingalls and William A. Harris. 

"Random Recollections of Other Days," by D. D. Leahy, pub- 
lished in the Wichita Sunday Eagle, September 24, 1933, related 
incidents in the lives of the late A. C. Jordan, former sergeant at 
arms of the House of Representatives, and Mrs. Jerry Simpson. 

A twenty-page special illustrated historical edition of the Coffey- 
ville Daily Journal was issued September 25, 1933, announcing the 
pioneer celebration to be held in Coffeyville, September 27. A de- 
tailed account of the history of the city from the organization of 
the town company by Col. John A. Coffey and others in August, 
1869, to the present day; a brief history of Montgomery county, 
and biographies of Daniel Wells, Capt. D. S. Elliott, Harry Lang, 
Billie Breit, Jules Gillet, Chas. T. Carpenter, Hazzard W. Sear, Sr., 
and Owen T. Romig, Montgomery county pioneers, were features 
of the edition. 

Early Wilson county history was reviewed by Judge J. T. Cooper 
before the Neodesha Rotary club, September 26, 1933. A summary 
of the speech, together with a letter written by Gov. Samuel J. 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE STATE PRESS 399 

Crawford in 1902 concerning Wilson county events, were published 
in the Neodesha Register, September 28. 

Gove county history was reviewed at an old settlers' meeting 
held in Grainfield, September 20, 1933. The early history of Buf- 
falo Park and the organization of the Smoky Hill Cattle Pool were 
discussed in a write-up of the meeting printed in the Gove City 
Republican-Gazette, September 28. 

The twenty-fifth anniversary of the organization of the present 
Jetmore United Presbyterian Church was observed September 24, 
1933. The Jetmore Republican of September 28 published a three- 
column history of the church. 

Spring Branch District School's history was sketched by Mrs. 
Bessie Buchele in the Cedar Vale Messenger, September 29, 1933. 
The first school house was built in 1876. 

The reminiscences of Mrs. John Durfee, a member of the Syra- 
cuse, N. Y., colony which settled in Kansas in March, 1873, were 
published recently in the Syracuse (N. Y.) Times and were repub- 
lished in the Syracuse (Kan.) Journal, September 29, 1933. 

"Southern Negroes Once Sought 'Mecca' in Kansas," an illustrated 
feature article on the colored settlements in Graham county, was 
printed in the Wichita Beacon, October 1, 1933. 

A brief history of the Christian Church in Kansas was sketched 
in the Arkansas City Daily Traveler, October 2, 1933. Mt. Pleasant 
church in Atchison county was the first Christian church in the 
present boundaries of the state. It was organized in 1855. 

The First Baptist church of Atchison celebrated its seventy-fifth 
anniversary, October 4 to 8, 1933. A three-column history of the 
church from April 24, 1858, the date of the first sermon preached 
by a Baptist minister in Atchison, to the present day, was published 
in the Atchison Daily Globe, October 3, 1933. 

A history of the Topeka branch of the Women's Foreign Mis- 
sionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, from its or- 
ganization in 1883 until the present time, was printed and distributed 
at the fiftieth anniversay celebration of the organization held in 
Topeka, October 5 to 8, 1933. Mrs. George W. Isham, of Evanston, 
111., was the author. 



Kansas Historical Notes 

Kansas newspaper personalities, past and present, have been a 
weekly broadcast feature of radio station KSAC, Manhattan, for 
several months. Dr. C. E. Rogers, professor and head of the depart- 
ment of journalism of Kansas State College, prepared and delivered 
the series. 

At a meeting of the McPherson County Historical Society, July 
10, 1933, the following officers were elected for the ensuing year: 
J. A. Spillman, of Roxbury, president; Alfred Bergin, Lindsborg, 
first vice president; Warren Knaus, McPherson, second vice presi- 
dent; Edna Nyquist, McPherson, secretary and treasurer; P. P. 
Wedel, C. E. Lindell, J. J. Yoder, Carl Lindholm, Emil 0. Deere and 
Mrs. F. J. Ehman, members of the board of directors. 

White Rock community historical articles, written by Ella Morlan 
Warren and published in the Belleville Telescope during the past 
year, were recently collected and republished as a 45-page booklet 
entitled White Rock Sketches. 

At an old settlers' picnic conducted by the Kiowa County His- 
torical Society August 18, 1933, the following officers were elected 
for the coming year: J. A. Sherer, president, Mullinville; W. A. 
Woodard, first vice president, Haviland; W. L. Fleener, Sr., second 
vice president, Greensburg; B. Frank McQuey, third vice president, 
Belvidere; Mrs. Benjamin 0. Weaver, secretary, Mullinville, and 
Mrs. Charles T. Johnson, treasurer, Greensburg. 

The memorial monument and tablet honoring Frederick Brown, 
who was killed August 30, 1856, in the battle of Osawatomie, were 
unveiled at the place of his death August 30, 1933. The tablet was 
a bequest of Mrs. Charles S. Adair. 

A monument dedicated to pioneer women was unveiled at the 
Mt. Hope cemetery, Ellis, September 10, 1933. The memorial was 
a gift of the Pioneer Woman's Association of Ellis. 

The nineteenth annual reunion of the surviving members of the 
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Kansas Volunteer cavalry was held in 
Topeka September 13, 1933. Officers of the organization are: 
Frank M. Stahl, Burlingame, president; F. C. Munson, Savannah, 
Mo., first vice president; H. L. Burgess, Olathe, second vice presi- 
dent, and Mrs. Ella D. Shaul, Topeka, secretary-treasurer. 

(400) 



KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 401 

Dedication services were held at the Vermillion river crossing 
near Barrett, September 24, 1933, for an Oregon-trail marker erected 
by the Arthur Barrett chapter of the Daughters of the American 
Revolution. R. M. Montgomery, Marysville, made the dedicatory 
address. 

Plans for enlarging and improving the Pike-Pawnee Indian vil- 
lage site into a national park were presented to representatives of 
the federal government at ceremonies held in the park September 
29, 1933. Speakers of state and national note participated in the 
varied program commemorating the lowering of the Spanish flag 
and the raising of the United States flag by Lieut. Zebulon Mont- 
gomery Pike in 1806. 

A Sherman County Historical Association was organized recently 
with the election of Jesse L. Teeters as president, and Dillman W. 
Blackburn, as secretary-treasurer. 

Numerous community picnics and old settlers' reunions have been 
held in various parts of the state in recent months. Newspapers in 
some of these localities issued special historical editions in conjunc- 
tion with these meetings which warranted mention elsewhere in 
these notes. Limited space, however, does not permit separate en- 
tries for the majority; a list of communities sponsoring meetings, 
and the dates, are appended for reference: Hazelton, June 2; Wich- 
ita, June 3; Kinsley, June 8, 9; Manhattan, July 1; Green, July 
27-29; Baldwin, August 3; Arcadia, August 3-5; Dighton, August 
5; Topeka, August 5, September 11; Halstead, August 9, 10; 
Lebanon, August 10-12; Jewell City, August 11, 12; Bunkerhill, 
August 14-16; Leoti, August 15; Haskell-Finney counties, August 

16, 17; Clyde, August 17; Deerfield, August 17; Nickerson, August 

17, 18; Brookwood Park, Decatur county, August 18; Belvidere, 
August 18; Mantey, August 19; Ottawa, August 20; Geuda Springs, 
August 20; McPherson, August 23; Dispatch, August 23; Bucklin, 
August 25; Sparks, August 25, 26; Oskaloosa, August 25, 26; Wa- 
baunsee, August 27; Holton, August 30; Benedict, August 30, 31; 
White Rock, August 31; Mulvane, August 31; Meade, August 31; 
Howard, August 31; Columbus, September 1; Macksville, Septem- 
ber 1; Ford, September 1; Olathe, September 2; Uniontown, Sep- 
tember 2; Drury, September 4; Hanover, September 6, 7; Ashland, 
September 7; Cherokee, September 7-9; Marion, September 14; 
Lawrence, September 14; Enterprise, September 14; Stockton