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THE 

Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 



KIRKE MECHEM, Editor 

JAMES C. MALIN, Associate Editor 

NYLE H. MILLER, Managing Editor 




Volume VIII 
1939 

(Kansas Historical Collections) 
VOL. xxv 



Published by 

The Kansas State Historical Society 
Topeka, Kansas 



18-1232 



Contents of Volume VIII 



Number 1 February, 1939 

PAQH 

LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT, 1854-1864; Miami County Pioneers, 3 
COWBOY BALLADS Myra E. Hull, 35 

THE ANNUAL MEETING: Containing Reports of the Secretary, Treas- 
urer, Executive' and Nominating Committees; Annual Address of the 
President, William Allen White; Election of Officers; List of Directors 
of the Society; Lloyd Lewis' Address on James H. Lane, "The Man 
the Historians Forgot" Kirke Mechem, Secretary, 61 

BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 104 

KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE PRESS 108 

KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES . 110 



Number 2 May, 1939 

PAGE 

THE FOURTH OF JULY IN EARLY KANSAS Cora Dolbee, 115 

NOTES ON IMPRINTS FROM HIGHLAND : THE SECOND POINT OF PRINTING 

IN KANSAS Lela Barnes, 140 

LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT, 1854-1864; Miami County 

Pioneers Continued 143 

RESEARCH PROJECTS IN KANSAS HISTORY 175 

RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY : 

Compiled by Helen M. McFarland, Librarian, 184 

BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 208 

KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE PRESS 218 

KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 224 

(iii) 



Number 3 August, 1939 



F. H. HODDER'S "STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS" 

Editorial Introduction by James C. Malin, 227 

THE THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS: An Interpretation of J. Butler Chapman's 
History of Kansas and Emigrant's Guide Cora Dolbee, 238 

LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT, 1854-1864 ; Miami County 

Pioneers Continued 279 

BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 311 

KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE PRESS 322 

KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES . . 334 



Number 4 November, 1939 

PAGE 

THE JOHN BROWN LEGEND IN PICTURES : Kissing the Negro Baby, 

James C. Malin, 339 

A LITTLE SATIRE ON EMIGRANT AID: Amasa Soule and the Descandum 
Kansas Improvement Company Russell K. Hickman, 342 

LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT, 1854-1864; Miami County 

Pioneers Concluded 350 

SOME WAGE LEGISLATION IN KANSAS Domenico Gagliardo, 384 

BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 399 

KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE PRESS 407 

KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 415 

ADDENDUM TO VOLUME VIII 418 

INDEX TO VOLUME VIII 419 

(iv) 



THE 

Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 



Volume VIII Number 1 

February, 1939 



PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT 

W. c. AUSTIN. STATE PRINTER 

TOPEKA 1939 

17-6912 



Contributors 

For brief biographical sketches of members of the Everett family see op- 
posite page. 

MYRA E. HULL is a member of the department of English at the University 
of Kansas, Lawrence. 

WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE, publisher of the Emporia Gazette and author of 
more than a score of books, was the 1937-1938 president of the Kansas State 
Historical Society. 

LLOYD LEWIS, biographer and playwright, is dramatic and sports editor of the 
Chicago Daily News. 



Letters of John and Sarah Everett, 
1854-1864 1 

Miami County Pioneers 

I. INTRODUCTION 

TOHN Roberts Everett 2 and his wife, Sarah Maria Colegrove 
J Everett, 3 with their two small sons, 4 migrated to Kansas terri- 
tory from Steuben township, Oneida county, New York, in the spring 
of 1855 and settled in the vicinity of Osawatomie, present Miami 
county. The letters here reproduced were written during the period 
1855-1864, with the exception of two written by John Everett in 
October, 1854, while on a preliminary visit to the territory to select 
a location. They offer an unusual picture of a pioneer family 
struggling against the hazards of the frontier, the vagaries of nature, 
and political turmoil. 

John Everett's interest in reform followed closely that of his 
father, Robert Everett, a Welsh Congregational minister and leader 
among his people in this country. 5 The latter had revised and 
published in 1854 a Welsh translation of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and 
John Everett traveled among the Welsh settlements in New York, 
Ohio and Pennsylvania selling this and other books before his re- 
moval to Kansas. Sarah Everett was likewise interested in the 
Antislavery cause, and she and her husband abandoned a plan to 
migrate to Minnesota in order to lend their aid in making Kansas a 
free state. Their sincerity of purpose is manifest in their letters. 

The letters are addressed mainly to Robert Everett, Sr., and his 
wife. A few are addressed to Robert, their son, and their daughters, 
Mary, Cynthia, Anna, Jane (Jennie) and Sarah. There is also an 
occasional letter from members of the family in New York to John 
and Sarah Everett in Kansas. No changes have been made beyond 
the deletion of certain personal passages. 

1. The Kansas State Historical Society is indebted to the Rev. J. E. Everett, of Brewster, 
N. Y., a son of John and Sarah Everett, for permission to publish these letters. 

2. John R. Everett was born in North Wales, February 24, 1820, and came to this 
country with his parents in the spring of 1823. He was graduated in 1840 from Oneida In- 
stitute, of Whitesboro, N. Y., where he learned the printing trade. He followed this trade in 
his father's printing establishment until a short time before removing to Kansas. 

3. Sarah M. C. Everett, was born January 23, 1830, in Edmeston, N. Y. She attended 
Mount Holyoke seminary for a time and taught school. She and John Everett were married 
July 19, 1852. Her death occurred at Corry, Pa., August 21, 1864. 

4. Frank, aged twenty months; Henry, six months. 

5. Robert Everett's ministerial work in America, was in both English and Welsh churches. 
In 1840 he established a Welsh magazine of religion and reform, Y Cenhadwr Americanaidd 
(The American Messenger), which was pledged to abolition and prohibition. He edited and 
published this paper, with the assistance of members of his family, until his death in 1875. 
His other literary work included the compilation of a Welsh hymn book. See Dictionary of 
American Biography (Charles Scribner's Sons, N. Y., 1931), v. VI, pp. 226-227. 

(3) 



4 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

II. THE LETTERS 

Kansas, 6 Mouth of Kansas river, 

Missouri, Oct. 21, 1854. 
Dear Bro. Robert, 

I have got thus far on my way. I started from Scott Thursday 
week. Arrived in Chicago Saturday. . . . Started from Chicago 
Monday morning, and from St. Louis Tuesday afternoon. We were 
4 days making the trip from there here in the fastest boat on the 
River. Distance 450 miles. The River is very low now. It is a 
broad shallow stream. The water is always very muddy. It was 
the most unpleasant 4 days I ever journeyed. I do not remember 
hearing a man speak on the boat whose conversation I watched at 
all who did not swear. The cabin presented a continual scene of 
card playing from beginning to end. The fare from St. Louis here 
is $12.00. I am stopping now in the hotel of the Mass. Emigrant 
Aid Society. 7 The charge here is $1.25 a day. I was fortunate 
enough to meet Mr. [Orville C.] Brown here. He has been out 
looking up a location for the company he is with. They have found 
and fixed upon a location at the junction of the Osage and Potawota- 
mie Rivers, about 60 miles south of here. He describes it as the 
finest land in the territory. We are going to start out there early 
Monday morning. If I am not suited there I shall look farther. 
From what I hear I judge that a good deal of the choice land has 
been covered with claims. There are about 57 in the company Mr. 
Brown is with. I do not know that I shall have time to write again 
before I start Monday. Please let our folks know you have heard 
from me. I am as well in health as is common with me. 

Your aff. bro. 

John 

P. S. I do not know as I shall be here long enough to get a letter 
from you. If you do write my P. O. address will be Kansas, Mo. 
The county find on the map. 

6. The original plat of present Kansas City, Mo., filed in 1839, designated the settlement 
Town of Kansas. This was generally shortened to Kansas. The name was later changed to 
City of Kansas and finally to Kansas City. 

7. The Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company was incorporated in April, 1854, but or- 
ganization was never completed. Operations were carried on during 1854 under the manage- 
ment of a board of trustees using the title Emigrant Aid Company and a new charter was 
secured in February, 1855, under the title New England Emigrant Aid Company. The hotel 
here referred to was the American House, owned by the latter company. It was a stopping 
place for settlers on their way to Kansas and headquarters for Free- State people. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 5 

[John R. Everett to his wife, Scott, Cortland county, N. Y.] 

Kansas Territory, Oct. 28, 1854. 
My Darling 

I do not know where to date my letter to you. I am about 40 
miles South of Westport at the house of an Indian called Baptist 
Peoria. 8 Baptist they call him. Peoria is the name of his tribe. I 
suppose you would like me to give you my impression of the terri- 
tory. From here to Westport is a most beautiful rolling prairie. 
The face of the country is emphatically beautiful. Hardly a level 
spot but all the way fine sweeps of hill and dale. No high or sharp 
hills but the landscape is all made up of smooth waving lines. There 
are here and there patches of wood and scattering trees. It looks 
like a country that had been finely cultivated, and suddenly every 
habitation and man swept from it. The prairie grass was dead. 
When green it would add very much to the scenery. But there are 
very serious drawbacks to the country. Water is very scarce. There 
is not a tenth, perhaps not a fiftieth enough wood on it. We went 20 
miles without being able to get drink. There are very few springs. 
Nearly all the water courses now are perfectly dry. It looks like a 
country of floods and drouths. The streams that I have seen that 
do not get dry are wooded for from !/4 to % m ile on each bank. 
This is the case with the Osage and Pottowottamie, at the junction 
of which I told you our party were going. That party exploded. 
They did not seem to like the location. Only three or four are left 
together. I think there is some prospect of a place growing up 
there. I do not know how much. Mr. Brown is very sanguine that 
it will be a great place. I confess I am not suited with the farming 
land around it in every respect. I am very much in doubt how you 
would like to live there. The wood there is very good for this coun- 
try, and will be plenty for the first settlers. A gentleman who repre- 
sents a party from Rochester, who are coming out in the spring in- 
tends to establish himself there and build a steam saw mill. There is 
limestone there, clay for brick, timber for the mill, running water for 
cattle. Coal is only 25 or 30 miles distant. And we are there con- 
tiguous to some Indian lands, most beautiful and fertile, that are 
soon to come into market. One on the grounds will be much better 
able to take advantage of choice spots, than a stranger. The climate, 
as far as I have seen and heard, is much more uniform than with 
us. We have had most beautiful weather these last few days, like 

8. For a brief sketch of Baptiste Peoria, see The Kansas Historical Collections, v. XII, 
p. 339, footnote. 



6 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

our finest September weather. I am strongly inclined to risk it 
and take a place there. It may grow up to be as beautiful a village 
as there is in the West. The men who are left are sterling, enter- 
prising, far-seeing men. Mr. [John] Serpel, (whom I mentioned 
above in connection with the steam saw mill) is a man of large 
means, I understand. He will carry through what he undertakes. 
He has men in the territory, of different occupations, whom he ex- 
pects to bring on immediately. His mind was drawn to Kansas by 
the Anti-slavery feeling, as mine was. He is a Quaker. Mr. 
[William] Chestnut, our other man is a genial, warm-hearted, 
sanguine Scotchman; left an orphan very young. So far he has 
depended on himself, and has always been successful. We shall like 
him first rate, if we come out here. Mr. Brown is enterprising, 
tenacious of his purposes, a man to push forward what he under- 
takes. I forgot to tell you that our river water is excellent for 
drinking. Do you think I am acting wisely in securing a place here? 
Perhaps. If you do not want to come it shall all be thrown to the 
winds. You know I am not apt to be over sanguine, and perhaps 
every thing will turn out better than my anticipations. I am quite 
sure if we have a saw mill, grist mill, lime kiln, perhaps a plaster 
mill &c. &c., it will help wonderfully to fill up the country around, 
and to make Osawottamie (!) a central place. 

. . . I have not of course heard a word from you, but shall ex- 
pect to when the gentleman returns, who takes this to the mail. 
Till then I shall hope that you are well and happy. I hope to make 
my business so that I can leave here in two or three weeks. I have 
been very much surprised at seeing so few Indians. I have seen very 
few indeed. Only one in four days, except this family under whose 
roof I am. This is a very nice family here. Baptist is very in- 
telligent. He is one quarter French. He speaks 5 Indian languages, 
besides English and French. He is the interpreter between the In- 
dians and the government. Every statement he makes is implicitly 
relied on, on both sides. They get up meals here nicer and better 
than at any hotel I ever stopped at. At least you think so after 
being in the woods three or four days. I am perfectly satisfied 
after seeing the Eden-like and wide lands that these few Indians 
roamed over, that no injustice has been done them in the treaties by 
which they give it up. Each man, woman and child of the Shawnees, 
for instance, gets 200 acres of land of their own selection, besides 

9. The name Osawatomie was formed by combining portions of the names Osage and 
Pottawatomie. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 7 

$100,000 a year for the tribe for 8 years ; the tribe numbering about 
800 to 1000. 10 And other tribes in pretty much the same proportion. 

[Cynthia Everett to Mary Everett, Saratoga Springs, N. Y.] 

Remsen, Nov. 17, 1854. 

Friday evening. 

Dear Mary, . . . Last night just as we were going to bed John 
and Sarah Maria and their two dear little ones came. They are well, 
and John has brought as a Kansas mark mustaches. I think they 
are quite becoming. He left directions and money to have a log 
house built against Spring. He intends staying in Utica this winter, 
and setting on the Hymn-book. I have not had any time yet to ask 
him any questions about his journey and so cannot tell you 

Yours &c. 
Cynthia 

Columbus [Pa.] March 9, 1855 
Dear Father & Mother 

We arrived here about 10 o'clock Saturday night. We had no 
trouble on the Railroad with the children/ Did not stop in Fredonia. 
We came right through to Westfield without any stop of over ten min- 
utes. From Westfield to Columbus (30 miles) in a stage. The baby 
was very worrisome, but we managed to get through with him. He 
has fretted a great deal after his grandmother. He is getting rec- 
onciled now. He has coughed a good deal, and in fact we have all 
got colds. Baby I think is getting better. We found our friends 
here all well. 

Frank has enjoyed his journey very much. I am feeling a good 
deal better than when we started. Sarah does not seem to be quite 
as well. She has had it quite hard with the baby. 

I do not think we shall stay here over a week longer. I feel 
anxious to get to the end of our journey, to get a settled and steady 
place for the children as soon as possible. 

With much love to all at home 

Your affectionate son and daughter 

John and Sarah 

10. By the terms of the treaty of May 10, 1854, the Shawnees surrendered to the United 
States their reserve of 1,600,000 acres and received back 200,000 acres for distribution among 
members of the tribe. The diminished reserve was almost entirely within Johnson county. 
Each Shawnee was allowed 200 acres, or land was given to groups in undivided quantity. 
By the terms of article 3 of the treaty, the United States agreed to pay to the tribe in con- 
sideration of the cession and sale of lands, the sum of $829,000, of which $40,000 was to be 
invested by the government for educational purposes, $700,000 paid in seven equal annual 
installments and the residue of $89,000 to be paid after the last installment. 



8 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Osawottamie, April 28, 1855. 
Dear Brother Robert 

I should have written to you before now, and intended to have 
done so. But I have not seen much but trouble and discomfort 
since I started from home. The children were both sick on the 
journey, and both had to be held or carried, nearly the whole time 
when they were not asleep. You have doubtless heard how our little 
one gradually grew worse, and finally dropt away. It was a sad 
beginning to our Kansas life. Frank's health has been improving 
since we landed. He is now quite rugged and healthy. Sarah has 
been very healthy since we have been here. I have not felt strength 
to work much since we have been here. I do not think I have done 
more in a week that a good farmer would do in a day. I am getting 
better now, and feel more like working. The climate has been very 
different from my experiences of April weather. I have not had my 
coat on, for warmth, this fortnight. We have long continued and 
hard, almost violent South winds. We have not had rain enough 
to cause the eaves to drip this four weeks we have been here. There 
has been no dew. Still vegetation has started, the grass is green, 
and the trees and shrubs are beginning to leave out. Old settlers in 
Missouri say this is the driest and most backward spring they ever 
knew. 

I was very much disappointed about my claim when we got here. 
As we had no intimation in Kansas City that every thing was not 
right, and as we were particularly anxious to get through with the 
children, we came right on here with all our baggage, to find that 
our claim had been taken by another, and we were houseless. We 
met Mr. Serpell (who was to have built our house) and Mr. Brown, 
and both assured us that our claim could not have been kept; that 
Mr. Serpell would have been in danger of his life if he had tried 
to build it, &c. Our surprise was very great to find on enquiry among 
the neighbors, that Mr. Serpell himself had actually built the house 
for this other man, and that there had been no trouble about the 
house on that claim. There had been trouble about the house on 
the next claim. One set of logs had been burnt by a man who tried 
to hold half a square mile of land; but that quarrel was over, and 
there was no difficulty about the house on my claim. I found more- 
over that these men, Mr. Serpell and Mr. Brown, were trying to hold 
on to 4 or 5 claims each. This was plainly illegal, wrong, and not to 
be tolerated. I looked around for a place as well as I was able with 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 9 

my poor health, but could find none that suited. We then determined 
that we would take one of those illegally held for speculation. Mr. 
Brown had told us we might go into one of his houses. If he had done 
his duty as he promised we would have had a house of our own. 
There is no doubt our claim was taken from us by Mr. Brown's ad- 
vice. (We have no direct proof, but every thing looks like it.) Mr. 
B. had no shadow of legal authority to hold the claim we were on. 
We concluded we would stay on it. This of course does not suit 
Mr. B. very well, but I think he will learn that the preemption law is 
so carefully guarded, for the interests of the actual settlers, as to 
leave no room for speculators. I do not think it my duty to turn out 
of my path for those who are illegally speculating in the public lands. 
This claim was not the one he intended for his family, but one in- 
tended for speculative purposes. Our neighbors, generally, particu- 
larly the more intelligent and manly, say that we are right, and 
should stick to it. 

Mr. Knox takes this East. . . . Mr. Knox does not find things 
here up to his anticipations, and returns. Disappointed faces are 
rather common among emigrants. Kansas is a good country, but 
too much praised. It has its disadvantages. (Sarah yet insists that 
it is paradise here, and would like to see some of the disadvantages.) 
It is surprising how large a proportion of our emigrants are city men 
and mechanics. A regular bred farmer is a rarity. This is a great 
country for cities. Every neighborhood finds some ambitious man 
who must straightway build a city, with broad streets, and wide 
avenues, parks and public squares. The few neighbors straightway 
grow complacent at the idea of their being in the neighborhood of a 
city, perhaps get city lots promised them gratis, and fall to dreaming 
of the rise in city property, which at some future time will make 
them wealthy. I did not get the long letter you wrote me nor the 
coat you sent to Westfield. We lost a bandbox with a good many 
things around it in a bag. Perhaps it has been sent you by express. 
I so directed if they found it. ... Write me all the news, how you 
are getting along, all about home &c. Your brother 

John. 

My direction is Osawatomie, Kansas P. 0. There is a weekly 
stage to Kansas but no P. 0. here. Jane's letter was the first we 
had heard from home in five weeks. 



10 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Home, June 1, 1855. 

Friday eve. 
My dear Sisters ; 

We have just received a letter from John & Sarah with a lock of 
Frank's hair for his part of the letter. They write very cheerfully, 
are feeling much better than when they wrote before. Their letter 
was dated May 21. John says they are having a little trouble about 
their claim, but does not seem to feel discouraged about it, he says 
if they do lose it, "the world is wide, and they can choose elsewhere." 
They had had some rain and consequently the prospect for vegeta- 
tion was brightening. Sarah writes that we "need not worry or feel 
anxious because their house happens to be light enough without 
windows, for they are quite comfortable." Their bedstead is made 
of round poles with the bark on. (Answers instead of carved work, 
Sarah says.) Franky sleeps in Robert's large trunk filled with bed 
clothes, and this with the cover on and a cradle quilt spread over 
makes a fine Ottoman, so in Sarah's opinion they have not only 
what is necessary to comfort, but also some luxuries. 

Sarah's clock adorns one side of the room, my picture another, 
and shelves for books, made of split oak shingles on pegs driven in 
to the logs, a third. The floor is also mostly covered with a carpet. 
They have a cow, which gives all the milk they want to use. John's 
health is much better than when they left home. Sarah's also, and 
Franky grows healthier and more rugged every day. He eats about 
as much as his father. There with a bundle of love, you have a 
pretty good synopsis of the two letters. 

Love 
Mary 

Osawatomie, June 25, '55. 
Dear Father 

We received your and Mary's letter last Thursday evening. We 
received a letter from the girls at Saratoga the same evening. We 
are always very glad to hear from home. We have had a good deal 
of trouble since we have been in the Territory. We have lost our 
second claim. I do not feel like going into particulars. Suffice it to 
say we were the victims of gross falsehood, misrepresentation and 
fraud. We have just got another claim. This we had to pay $62.50 
for. It has a log cabin on it not quite finished. We are going to 
move to it to day. I was out at Lawrence week before last. Stayed 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 11 

with Edward Jones over Sunday. His brother-in-law, Robert 
Hughes, takes the Cenhadwr. 11 Had not had the May number. 
This was the first one that had missed. We got the May Cen. on 
the llth and the June No. on the 14th. The mail here is weekly. 

We have had fine rains here lately. I hear that crops are looking 
finely in Missouri. Here everything had to be planted late because 
the prairie could not be plowed till the grass had got a good start. 
The violent demonstrations of Missourians you read of have not 
disturbed us much here. The Missourians around here are nearly 
all free state I believe, at least strongly opposed to people coming 
here from the State to vote. 

Our health is quite good. I have felt very little comfort yet in 
the Territory. Hope our good days are yet to come. We are in- 
tending to put in a couple of acres of corn yet, and perhaps a few 
other seeds. 

We must have written two or three letters you have not got. 
. . . Those papers that Lewis mailed for me I hope to get in the 
next mail. Newspapers are very acceptable here, I assure you. I 
do not get any paper. Letters continue to come in, now mostly 
overland, from Indiana, Illinois &c. As far as my information goes, 
the slave state settlers are very few. Must close with love to all at 
home. Perhaps I shall feel sometime like writing a long letter. 

Your affectionate son 

John. 

Osawatomie, July 20, 1855 
Dear Sister Mary 

It is now about four weeks since we heard from home. I am afraid 
that my remissness in writing is one reason of our not hearing for 
so long from you. I think you can not have gotten all our letters. 
We have had a good deal of trouble since we have been here. We 
are now settled in a very pretty spot about l 1 ^ miles from the 
Pottawatomie Creek, South; about 21 miles from the Missouri 
frontier. I think I mentioned in my last that I paid $62.50 for 
the claim I am now on. Our cabin is a poor one, but I have seen some 
worse, and we can improve it I hope. We have nearly 2 acres 
planted in corn, and about i/4 acre of beans. A few tomatoes, peas, 
3 kinds of squash, & 3 kinds of pumpkins completes the list of our 
growing crops. We have one cow and a calf. Our pasture is a very 
large one. Our meadow is equally large. It is very unlikely that I 

11. See Footnote No. 5. 



12 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

shall mow it all this season. In fact I have never seen the fences 
that bound it. I think the Pacific Ocean laves its Western limit. 
But enough of our pasture and meadow. This would be a great 
country for some of our Steuben dairymen to make cheese in. I 
have been told that 20 to 25 cts per pound was not an uncommon 
price for cheese. The number of cows a man could keep here would 
only be limited by the number he could pay for and take care of. 

You probably have seen reports in the newspapers of the violence 
of the Missourians in some parts of the Territory. I am happy to 
say that they do not disturb us much here. There is no slave state 
party here. And I think through the Territory, the majority for 
freedom is strong and decided if we are allowed to do our own voting. 
Fort Leavenworth (around which most of the violence has been per- 
petrated) is 80 miles from here. 

Franky is learning to talk slowly. His mother says he knows the 
whole language by heart, but that is a slight exaggeration. He is 
growing more rugged all the time. My health is improving a little. 
Sarah is in usual health. 

Tell Lewis I thank him very much for the newspapers he sent me. 
I do not take any paper, and have only had two papers besides 
those and the Cenhadwr since I have been in Kansas. I believe you 
used to get 2 copies of the Phrenological and Water Cure Journals. 12 
I wish some of you would remail one copy of each to me. I miss 
the Tribune here especially. If you see Robert tell him to mail me 
an occasional [Utica] Herald after he has read it. I have not seen 
one since I have been in Kansas. We have a Postoffice established 
at Osawatomie now, so letters and papers may be directed now, 
"Osawatomie, Kansas Territory," and need not go to Kansas City. 
We live about 2% miles from the P. 0. about half the distance 
through the prairie grass without a path. The mail is weekly. So 
we write this to take down when we go to see if anything has come 
for us. Sarah goes with this, Frank is asleep and I go to the woods 
to get [MS. illegible] berries, and come back & forth to watch 
Franky. 

John. 

P. S. Write often. Send me an occasional St. Louis Chfristian] 
Advocate. I want to see the St Louis prices &c. &c. 

12. The so-called science of phrenology, which claimed a relationship between the facul- 
ties of the mind and the regions of the brain, flourished on this continent during the middle 
of the nineteenth century. The American Phrenological Journal was published by Fowlers & 
Wells of New York. The Water-Cure Journal and Herald of Reforms was another publica- 
tion of this house. Water-cure, or hydropathy, was a method of treating disease by the 
copious use of water, both internally and externally. It was closely allied to other reform 
movements of the period. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 13 

Osawatomie, July 27, 1855. 
Dear Bro Robert 

I write this to request a favor of you, and therefore I commence 
with the request. It is that you would send one dollar to the N. Y. 
Tribune, for their Semiweekly paper for % of a year. I do not feel 
quite safe in sending money in a letter, as I have reason to think 
that some of my letters have been lost. Besides I feel for various 
reasons rather poor at present. I think I can pay you some time. 
I would also like it first rate if you would send me an occasional 
Herald after you have gleaned its contents. I do not take any 
paper, so any thing from the East will be acceptable. And if you 
ever have a number of Harper's that you do not care any thing 
about, / should like very much to see it. A paper that we used to 
see reminds us here on the frontiers that we still live in the world. 

I have not much time to write you any news. I have been very 
busy with my little strength getting out fencing for my corn patch. 
We have been on the claim we are now on about one month. Have 
got 3 acres plowed; over % of it planted in corn, beans, &c. ; but it is 
yet in the open prairie. I have borrowed a yoke of cattle and am 
today getting out my rails. My corn has been out of the ground 
about 3 weeks, and the longest leaves are already over three feet 
long. We have had very fine growing weather since the middle of 
May. Before that time the heavens seemed brass, no dew, no rain. 
Hence the stories of those who went back with unfavorable reports 
of the country. Things looked very discouraging in April. It was 
an extraordinary dry time. There had been no rain of consequence 
for ten months. But everybody here now is satisfied with the coun- 
try as far as I hear opinions given. 

Of political news your information about us I presume is as cor- 
rect as mine, particularly if you read the N. Y. Tribune (judging 
from the few numbers of that paper I have seen.) We in this sec- 
tion are quietly attending each one to his own business here, without 
more trouble, on the whole, than might be expected. We personally 
have had a good deal more than our average share of that trouble, 
but that is over now, and the next time it will be probably some one 
else's turn. We feel now tolerably comfortable (I more than Sarah) 
and happy (both I think) although we are 1% miles from a neigh- 
bor and live in a cabin with a carpet for a door, mowed grass for 
floor, a leaky roof, and no windows at all. But then there are plenty 
of cracks where the light comes in. The thermometer while I write 
stands at 96 in the shade; 90 is quite a common temperature at 



14 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

midday; sometimes it goes up to 98; and about 72 to 80 at sunrise. 
But there is a breeze continually blowing, generally from the south, 
which very sensibly modifies the apparent temperature. When 
this goes down to the mail, we send for our mail, (the mail came in 
last night) .... If I have time, I will write more, if not, good 
bye. . . . John. 

That sterescope I have heard from Mr. Coolledge went to Fari- 
bault, Minnesota: he wrote me from there, and I have enclosed 16 
postage stamps so that he may forward it. You must know that I 
shall be very glad to see it. Have you got that bundle back you 
sent to Westport? I wish I had brought that Universal Atlas with 
me. I have thought some of sending for a small box of things from 
Utica, as goods are so high here. If you see any chance to send 
with anybody as freight I should like to have that Atlas sent. 

Monday Morning Aug. 20, '55. 
Dear Father 

It is now three weeks Saturday since we got your and Sissy's letter. 
I have been intending all along to write you a long letter but have 
not found opportunity and inclination concurring. I will write a 
few lines this morning, rather than let another week pass by without 
a word. Sarah has been sick just three weeks now with the inter- 
mittent fever and ague. 13 She has been confined to her bed all the 
time. The chill and fever only come on every other day, but they 
leave her very weak, so that she feels no strength intervening days. 
We think she is now on the gain. She has taken no medicine. We 
doctor entirely with water. I think the fever might be broken in 
less time with quinine and other medicines, but we are not willing 
to use them, as I think the disease can be cured; much more effectu- 
ally with water. There has been a great deal of this sickness around 
here for the last month. Previous to that time it was quite healthy. 
I do not hear how it is in other parts of the territory. This is a very- 
distressing disease. There have been some deaths. One our next 
neighbor, Angus Rose, who had become dear to us by mutual inter- 
changes of kindness, died after a short illness. He did our plough- 
ing for us, and had been our friend in all our troubles with Brown. 
He came to Kansas two days after he was married to find his 
grave. My health is quite good. Franky is hearty as ever. Last 
week, and the week before, we had a great deal of rain. Now the 

13. Ague, the commonest form of malarial fever, was the enemy of early travelers and 
settlers in the territory. Journals and letters of the period contain frequent references to the 
disease which was marked by paroxysms of chills and fever occurring at intervals. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 15 

weather is quite cool. We got the Cenhadwr for August and the 
Independent for Aug. 2 Saturday. I hope for a letter from home in 
the next mail. A new neighbor, three quarters of a mile from here, 
goes to Kansas City this morning and I will send this with him, 
otherwise I could not send for another week, for it is too far to take 
this through the wet grass to the Postoffice. I hope my sisters will 
not be tired of writing their brother because their letters are not 
answered, for it does me a great deal of good to get their letters. 
Write all of you as often as you can. Your affectionate son 

John. 
Will write you again by next mail, particularly if we are worse. 

Sat. Sep. 1, 1855 
Dear Sister Cynthia 

Our corn is much higher than we can reach it is earing out, our 
pumpkins and squashes are for the most part fruiting well and we 
have one large patch of beans that promise well. Our tomatoes are 
getting on as fast as they can but will not be ripe under a fortnight. 
Those with a few hills of potatoes comprise all our crop this year. 
Our cabin is still in a dilapidated condition our sickness prevent- 
ing us from fixing it up. The rain and sunshine of heaven can both 
alike visit us, but we murmur not at either why should we mur- 
mur at anything that comes from Heaven. The worms are working 
in the logs at the side & over head so that we have a continual dust 
dropping in every part of the cabin. Sometimes it gets an inch 
thick on things that are not moved for two or 3 days, &c. Write to 
us soon and often As ever your Sister 

Sarah 

Sep 15, 1855 
Dear Cynthia 

This is the 5th weekly dispatch from Osawatomie to Remsen 
Dont you think Ague & Fever a good thing to quicken up remiss 
letter writers? 

John is most as well now as I am, but to get so I had to meet him 
half way. He has ague and fever one day, I chill fever the next! 

Very accommodating sort of people you see Our neighbor 
comes once a week now instead of once a day He took the cow 
home with him so I have a nice little airing once a day walking up 
to his house (% of a mile) to get the milk this you know must 
be peculiarly agreeable to me as one day I'm obliged to be confined 



16 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

to my bed nearly the whole of the rest of the day and the next day 
confined to the house to look after John during his confined stage. 
He is evidently gaining some now. 

I suppose that too much exercise with too little treatment has 
brought the fever in a mild form on to me again. But courage now, 
our Quaker neighbors moved in last night, a part of them. One of 
the men called on us to day the most thoroughly intelligent, sensi- 
ble man we've conversed with in the Territory. His Sister-in-law a 
widow woman who is with him has, he told me, six daughters and 
some of them would call soon to help us Heaven preserve the 
Quakers, and send a small colony to every ague and fever district. 

Tomorrow would have been our poor little baby's birthday 
How thankful I've been during this long season of sickness that he 
was where he could know no such thing as neglect and suffering 
Frank is large enough to be turned off all day when we can't take 
care of him, but poor little Henry must have suffered had not our 
ever kind and all-wise Father consigned him to Angel guardianship. 

It is late bed time and I must retire. I have had a chill and fever 
today John I suppose will shake tomorrow His sick spells grow 
lighter now each day We expected a letter from you to day. The 
one written Aug 10 is the last we have received. We have not got 
any Cen. for Sep. yet or Water cure journal. Tribune and Inde- 
pendent come regularly. 

Our love to all. . . . Your shaking Sister 

Sarah 
Sunday near noon 

John has had his ague and fever and feels better than he has after 
any sick spell before. He had a shorter and easier time also than 
on any previous day. I think he'll get along in a short time I 
feel better today than common too Sarah 

Osawatomie Sep 29, 1855 
Dear Brother Robert 

I am sick & have to employ an amanuensis. This is my fifth 
week of ague & fever. I must write short as Sarah has got to take 
this to the mail to-day. We received that beautiful Daguerreotype 
of Father and Mother for which I thank you very much indeed. We 
have had the Tribune ever since Aug. 21 

To come to the substance of this epistle, this is another begging 
letter of a more serious nature than the last. There is no grist 
mill in the place We will have we hope plenty of corn but no way 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 17 

of getting it ground I have seen an advertisement of a patent 
grinder in Fowlers journal the cost of the size I want of which will 
be six dollars I am very anxious to get it, as I might grind 
graham flour and perhaps corn for good profit, beside the advantage 
it would be to ourselves. I want it sent by express or by some very 
quick conveyance. If you can put in a few other articles with it 
without greatly increasing the expense I would like to have you. 
I will enumerate my coats Universal Atlas a few roots from home 
which I will put on a separate piece of paper for Lewis to put up 
a plush cap for me worth $2.00 two or three gooseberry roots from 
Uncle Henry, the top can be mostly cut off to save room, four com- 
mon sized tin pans and two two qt. basins if they can be put in 
without increasing the bulk too much, two peach trees of Cunning- 
ham one serrate early York one George the Fourth, one year from 
the bud, get these if he will sell them for about half price of salable 
trees, if tney are small enough to be packt. You can judge when 
he takes them up whether they can be packed I am not very 
anxious about these as I am doubtful about their living. 

I do not know what your means are and whether I am not asking 
too great a favor. I am exceedingly anxious to get the grinding 
machine Any of the other things you can leave out if not con- 
venient for you to get them to send. 

Knox told us he could get trees sent to St Louis by express for 
three dollars a hundred weight. 

Direct to care of Walker & Chick, Kansas if they want a house 
to direct to in St Louis say Smythe and Gore If you can do this 
or any part of it you will oblige your affectionate brother 

John 
P. S. Do send me 1 or 2 Faber's No 3 lead pencils 

We are going to move to the village to a snug house. We have 
a fair prospect of getting some boarders. I feel this fever will leave 
me better. They are going to build a Steam Saw Mill & some kind 
of Gristmill so if I can work I can get work. I hope I can pay you 
by Spring if you need. I know your affection prompts you to in- 
commode yourself for me. Please send a bill of what you get. We 
need a Thermometer. Ours is damaged and we can get none here. 
I think you better direct care S. & G. St. L., care W. & C. Kansas, 
Mo., J. R. E. Osawatomie (in full as above), as I do not know of 
an Ex. Off. in Kansas. The wind blows cold today. 43 is the 
lowest the thermometer has gone. We shall need quite as warm 

26912 



18 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ordinary clothing here as in Utica this winter I am convinced. . . . 
Please send 6 yds canton flannel (unbleached will do.) Do write 
us & Jenny too. You do not know how much we long for letters I 
want to hear all about both of you. Send me a Herald no matter 
if weeks old. Have seen no Utica paper since I saw you. 

With much love to you and Jenny John 

Osawatomie, Oct 6, 1855 
Dear Bro. Robert 

I take my pen to write you a few lines, for this Ague and Fever 
makes one feel very weak, particularly when one has had it steady 
for 6 weeks. I expect I am about over it now, but do not expect to 
gain strength till it has left me entirely. I hope to enjoy better 
health after this turn of sickness. ... I wrote you one week 
ago to get me some things. If you have not sent the box off, I should 
like to make some additions. 

A handful of Uncle's very early peas, if he can spare them. 

% dozen wooden combs. 

1 long horn comb. 

1 fine comb. 

1 skein blue mixed stocking yarn. 

Ball of shoe thread, (a little shoemaker's wax, & a few bristles if 

convenient) . 
Scraps of leather, calf & morocco for mending Sarah's shoes. 

(There is no shoemaker in the place.) 
4 awls, crooked and straight. 

2 cheap tin candlesticks. (We got some at 'Neils for 6 cents 
apiece.) 

1 or 2 hoes without handles, if you can get them. They ask here 

75c. for such hoes as they sell in Utica for 37%. 
A one-bladed jack knife worth about [MS. illegible]. 
If you can you may get a yard of cotton plush, with trimming for 
a vest. I got some last fall at a clothing store and tailor's shop 
about half way down Genesee St. A cheap sodering iron and 
a little sodder. 

We had a hard frost last night, the first of the season. The ther- 
mometer fell to 22. The steamboats stop running up the Mis- 
souri river the last of November. You can use your own judgment 
in leaving out any thing I have sent for. I am intent on getting the 
Hand Mill, if it is any thing such as I think it. I would not miss 
having it in St. Louis in time to come up this fall. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 19 

Write me a sketch of your trip to the White Mts. and to New- 
hampton. The next pleasure journey you take come out and see me. 
Won't Jenny write us? I have just been reading and crying over the 
letter we got from her last spring. She must remember the troubles 
that have been treading on our heels all summer and weighing down 
our hearts and spirits, and accept that as an excuse for our not an- 
swering her. 

With the warmest love for yourself and Jenny 

Your brother John. 
P. S. Pray that our sickness may be blessed to us spiritually 

[John R. Everett to Sarah A. Everett, Remsen, N. Y.] 

Oct 21, 55. 
Dearest Friends 

I intended to write a few words in answer to each of your affec- 
tionate & sympathising letters. Anna dear, we have moved to the 
village in a much more comfortable house than our miserable cabin. 
We moved last Friday. We feel very feeble indeed after moving, 
as we were obliged to overdo. Franky is better than when we wrote 
last. I not so well I think on account of moving. Sarah is very 
feeble indeed. She has had no chills for 2 days but she cannot sit 
up at all and is failing in strength. Sarah wants the ingredients or 
receipt for Peruvian bark. I wish the solid articles were light enough 
to send in a letter, for I think they have poor drugs here. . . . 
Sarah gave wrong directions as to starting letters Tuesday. It is 
very extraordinary for letters to come so quick. The time you used 
to start them is better. Have you heard any thing about an "Im- 
proved Hand Mill" which I asked Robert to send for for me about 
three weeks ago. I am very anxious indeed to hear from it and get. 
I mention it because it may keep us from starving this winter. Corn 
is 50c, and meal $1.35. If Robert did not get my letter, please 
write to him to send immediately $6.00 to Fowlers and Wells and 
have it sent by express, care Smyth and Gore, St Louis, care 
Walker and Chick, Kansas, John R Everett Osawatomie. . . . 
I cannot write any more. Love, love, love to all. . . . 

John 

P. S. That flour has come from St Louis most beautiful flour. 
Costs on the whole just what we would have to pay here. Thanks 
again to my brothers. John 



20 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Osawatomie Oct 27 1855 
Dear Cynthia 

We received your laughing letter of Oct 10, day before yesterday 
& it set us to laughing too. Now we did get a letter last week but 
none the week before, and we haven't got two any week since. The 
week we did not get one we did not answer it of course. How could 
we? You have asked a great many questions in your former letters 
some of which I will answer. The Quakers did not do as much for 
us as we anticipated, the girls were not naturally strong and then 
most all the family took the "chill fever" after they came in. So 
they had to take care of themselves. There was but one man and 
he had so much to do he could not do much for us still we could 
have a horse there whenever we wanted and the women came in and 
helped me three or four times. Their names I have not learned ex- 
cept the two married ladies and oldest daughter. The mother's 
names are both Sarah and the daughter's name Elizabeth. They 
are real Hoosiers. Sarah the widow expected to make a heap of 
butter to sell from her two cows this winter but her best cow is 
caving around so about her calf that gave out in moving and was 
left behind, that she's afraid she'll all dry up, and she has heaps of 
trouble about her now. Richard the Quaker 14 is about like John 
perhaps a little more of a talker just about such a reader watches 
the mails with about as much anxiety &c. You wanted to know 
what kind of a stove and kettles we have just one of the cutest 
one's you ever saw stove shaped like yours No. 3 with furniture 
almost as large as yours 

To day is the first day in thirteen weeks that we have been free 
from the Chill and Intermittent Fever Last week & week before 
last we all three had it every day. I got so run down that although 
I have not had a chill since a week ago yesterday I have not been 
able to do any thing or sit up much of the time till to day. 

John has not had any in two days but he is very feeble. Frank 
missed his this morning It is utterly impossible for you to under- 
stand anything about what we have suffered here Sometimes both 
sick together unable to wait on each other or little Frank. In a 
house that the meanest hovel you know would be preferable to. It's 
of no use to try to tell you anything about it, you dont want to know 

14. Richard Mendenhall came to Kansas territory from Indiana in 1846 to act as teacher 
for the Society of Friends at their mission in Johnson county for the Shawnee Indians. 
Sarah A. Nixon had come to the mission at the same time as matron. She and Richard 
Mendenhall were married in 1849 and returned to Indiana the following year. They came 
again to the mission in 1854, remaining about a year. In the fall of 1855 they removed to 
a claim about two and one half miles southwest of Osawatomie. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 21 

either. We had got so completely worn out, last Sat., that if I had 
written instead of John I should have told you we were dying. I 
verily thought that life with me had about drawn to a close. I was 
so weak, so worn and exhausted that I could not see how I could 
ever build up again & there were John and Frank looking like 
two shadows standing between this world and the next We were 
all three of us fearfully sick and nobody to take care of us. We had 
been so days together before but never had the dark river sounded 
so near as now. I could feel its icy breezes stealing over my brow 
and hear its ripples as it passed me by 

But I am again gaining strength John and Franky look a little 
better and the dark river with its damp icy breath and dread mys- 
terious sounds seems farther in the distance. 

We moved a week ago yesterday. John had to overdo about it 
and that I think is the reason he is so feeble. One day he had to 
ride two miles & a half in a chill and the day we moved he had to 
work right along through his chill. He has had some very sick spells 
since then but we hope his chills are over with now. 

The man we hired the house of who is going to board with us when 
we are able to take him has fixed wood for us since we moved and 
done our milking or I don't know what would have become of us. 
It is bed time and I am very tired so I will bid you good night 

Your sister Sarah 

Please send me half an ounce of mace in a letter envelope made 
tight Sarah 

Don't forget the Water Cure & Phren. Journals if you still get two. 
The Cen. for 2 mo. is still back 

Do send me a Utica Herald, I want to see one, if its 3 months old 

Osawatomie Nov. 12, 1855 
Dear Father 

I can only write a few lines this morning. My health is still miser- 
able. I feel very little better than when I had chills every day. 
Sarah is better than when we wrote last. She had three chills last 
week, but they left her better and stronger than before. I had a 
chill yesterday and the day before; I hope they will operate the 
same on me. Franky is a little better. He has no chills now. He 
has cut three eye teeth and his gum is swollen for another. I 
suppose you have learnt that we have moved into town. The 
house in which we live is far more comfortable than our poor 
cabin. But it is not finished inside, for lack of lumber. Our 



22 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

frame houses here are very different from your comfortable, plas- 
tered tenements. There has been no sand found here nearer than 
twenty or thirty miles. They ceil up their houses & frame buildings 
with split oak shingles, three feet long. They clapboard with the 
same. We soon found after coming here that our small cook stove 
would not begin to keep us warm in cold or windy weather. We 
have some quite cold weather. The winds, especially the North 
wind, are more piercing than with you. So we were obliged to send 
for a stove that would heat. We sent to St. Louis about 3 weeks ago 
for a box stove, worth $9, and necessary pipe to Mr. Thos. Davies. 
I know this will meet with your approval, although I could not con- 
sult you about it. I cannot write much more at present. Our pros- 
pects, now, are sufficiently discouraging. I have hardly been able 
to work an hour at productive labor since I have been in Kansas. 
But we hope for better times. Please send word to Mary that I got 
her letter dated Oct. 25. She must excuse me for not answering her 
two letters before this. But I felt so miserable the last week I did 
not feel I could write. 

Uncle and Cousin Henry have been very kind indeed in giving us 
the mill. It warms our hearts to them. I must close 

Your affectionate son John 

P. S. I thank you very much for your last kind letter particularly 
the religious advice in it. I hope I shall profit by it. ... 

We have not had the Cen. since August. Is there a hole in Uncle 
Sam's bag. Do you still get 2 Water Cure and Phren. Journals? 

Osawatomie Nov. 26, 1855 
Dear Jennie 

Your letters were both duly received, but we have felt it a sort of 
duty to write home every week, and we have been too miserable to 
do much more than that 

I don't know whether we are in reality gaining much or not. 
Sometimes we feel well and strong and think within ourselves that 
the plague is stayed when suddenly the chills begin to run over us 
and in a few hours we find ourselves prostrated again. Sickness 
sometimes light sometimes severe, has hovered around us now four 
months sometimes all three of us and again only one at a time have 
lain powerless within her grasp. 

During this long tedious period our system of economy has been 
unable to prevent our means from melting away. We raised no 
crop of any account except for fodder We are neither of us able 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 23 

yet to do a good days work, and liable if we attempt to be put clear 
back again. We have only two boarders as yet which of course do 
not pay all the expenses of the family, and we have got to. buy pro- 
visions till we can raise, another year. We have also got to have 
some kind of a shelter to abide under when we again return to our 
claim Yet in this state of health and with these demands upon us 
we have no more than five dollars on which to rely ! 

I have no particular news to write to you except that Brown our 
persecutor and the moral pest of this community has had his con- 
nection with the town suddenly broken off by the agent of the 
"Emigrant Aid Society," whose agent Brown was. 15 He had become 
such a nuisance that Pomeroy (the agent) could not endure him any 
longer. He has borrowed money now and gone to New York or 
starts for there tomorrow morning to try to "raise the wind some- 
how" as one of our old and tried neighbors (Mr. Chestnut) expressed 
it to us this morning. His family are still here. Not a person who 
knows him speaks well of him, himself and family are all thoroughly 
detested I must close, write soon Sarah 

Osawatomie Jan 25 1856 
Dear Cynthia 

We have received weekly dispatches from some of our home 
friends, so far during this month. New Year's day we got five letters 
to compensate us for going without a long time. 

There were no regular mails during the month of Dec. which ac- 
counts for your not having heard from us in so long a time. I think 
too that one of our letters must have been lost, or delayed an un- 
conscionable length of time, for we sent a letter from this place the 
18th of Dec. which was written a week before, stating that we had 
received "the box" all right, and that the delay had been occasioned 
by the carelessness of the commission merchant in Kansas City 
We received this week the note sent to the P. M. (Mr. Samuel Geer, 
should you have further occasion for corresponding with that gentle- 
man) and were very sorry you had felt so much anxiety about us. 
We should have written if we could have got the letters to Kansas 
City short of taking them there ourselves on foot. I think you 
would hardly have wished us to do that, certainly not until we had 

15. Orville C. Brown's connection with Osawatomie actually persisted for several years. 
Brown, with William Ward of New York and Samuel Pomeroy, the latter acting for the 
New England Emigrant Aid Company, was one of the original proprietors of Osawatomie. For 
a brief statement of the difficulties marking the early history of the town, see Russell Hick- 
man, "Speculative Activities of the Emigrant Aid Company," The Kansas Historical Quar- 
terly, v. IV, p. 258. 



24 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

"got shet of the ager" Well just at this present moment in 
which I am writing we are "shet" of it, but have no security that 
we shall s.tay so till the close of the week. 

John suffers considerable with cold spells, the effect of the ague, 
though his health is gradually improving he thinks If we could 
only have warm weather once more 'twould help us all, but our 
house is so cold, and the cold weather seems to hang on just for 
spite. I believe we have not had but one comfortable day since the 
Sat. before Christmas Christmas week was intensely cold, we 
could not keep warm with both stoves, and what was worse John 
was hardly fit to be out at all, and I could not do anything. Wed- 
nesday morning the thermometer stood at 28 deg. below zero. Some 
families had to abandon their houses & go to their neighbors who 
were fortunate in having warmer ones altogether it was one of the 
most "trying" times that I have suffered since we came into the 
Territory A lady who called here yesterday told me that two of 
her daughters during that week froze their feet so that they are 
now unable to walk a step, and said there were large running sores 
two thirds the size of the palm of her hand on them now. Two 
more women told John that they froze their feet sitting right by the 
stove. Such are some of the hardships which Kansas settlers en- 
dure For myself I only had a chill every day. I have not had 
any chills now for two whole days and I feel and act very much like 
a little girl with some new plaything. I am much better than when 
John last wrote, but hardly expect to stay so long I will leave a 
little room for John He is quite busy to day or I should not have 
written at all. . . . No more at present 

[Sarah M. C. Everett] 

P. S. Frank called his mother an "old scamp," this morning 
A remarkable specimen of precociousness ! He is not always so 
saucy as that John 

Friday morning Jan 25. 
Dear Father, 

I have very little to add to what Sarah has written to Cynthia. 
We wrote you last week acknowledging the receipt of the $23.75 
draft, and the week before we mailed a letter acknowledging $20 
from Robert, and $3. & $1. from home. We feel very grateful for 
this help, although I fear the times are hard with you, with the 
diminished Cenhadwr list. The mails will be regular now, and I 
hope our communications more regular. Yesterday I was up to my 
claim to get some corn fodder. To day I am going to look for a cow 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 25 

that has wandered. We have not seen her for 7 weeks. We heard 
yesterday where she was. At this house we have no barn, no fences, 
no yard. Our two cows and two calves all went away when we 
stopped milking. We have got back one cow, and heard from the 
other, and heard where at least one of the calves was within the last 
fortnight. We hope to be better prepared next winter if our health 
and lives are spared, and we remain in the territory. In the sum- 
mer, it is customary here to let the cows run on the prairie, and let 
the calves take half the milk, then the cows will come up to the 
calves. Most winters cattle will live here after a poor fashion with- 
out fodder. "The oldest inhabitants" here, intelligent Indians, 
do not remember any thing like the severity of this winter. One of 
our Quaker neighbors, who has been in the Ter. 5 yrs. (in the Friends 
Mission, I believe) never knew the thermometer more than -8 
below zero, but the sun frequently has risen upon us at -8 & -10 
& -12. Yesterday was a moderate, pleasant day, south wind. 
To day the wind howls at us menacingly from the Northeast. How 
has the winter been with you? You have got the railroad to Remsen 
now. . . 

I suppose you have read in the Tribune about the troubles which 
the "border ruffians" have been causing in Lawrence, Leavenworth, 
Kickapoo &c. We read them with the same spectator interest that 
you do. We do not feel their burden. We are very quiet here. We 
hope soon literally to be sitting under our own vines (Isabellas & 
Catawbas) with no Missourians to molest or make us afraid. In 
one respect the Missouri invasion was not without benefit. They 
have learnt that the Eastern Emigrants are no cowardly beggars 
(as represented to them) but provident, industrious men, ready (if 
dire necessity compel them) to stand up and defend their rights. 
The community here are very nearly united on the free-state ques- 
tion. But the majority would dislike and resent being called aboli- 
tionists. . . . Our community here are mostly Western people, 
some from Slave States. There is a prevailing sentiment against 
admitting negroes into the territory at all, slave or free. The West- 
ern people are far the most numerous in the territory. The country 
is so different from our Eastern country and the character of Eastern 
emigration is such (a majority as far as I have seen village me- 
chanics with ideas enthusiastically excited) that I think one-half 
at least of Eastern people return. Those who stay love the country 
as they get used to it. The Western people find much such a country 
as they left behind them, and settle right down, build their cabins, 



26 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

fence and break up their fields and drop their corn, before you 
hardly know they are here. They have a strong instinct against 
slavery, do not want it about them, but lack the strong moral sense 
of its injustice which we feel. 

We are anxious to stay here another season if we can. We do not 
like to turn back. The country in the main is very pleasant to us. 
We sigh for our home friends, and we miss your tumbling brooks, 
cool wells, frequent streams. Those used to the ague tell us we 
probably shall not be troubled with it longer than till Spring. Can 
a country without swamps be subject to ague, after acclimation? 
If we can enter our claim and preempt it, I think it will be worth 
enough to pay us for coming here and I guess more. 

Your son, John. 

Osawatomie, Feb. 1, 1856. 
Dear Father, 

No mail has arrived without bringing us some welcome news from 
home till this week. Perhaps we will get two next week. I just 
take my pen and paper to let you know how we are, and not to write 
a letter. Sarah has had no chill since we wrote last. She is gaining 
strength a little. Franky is quite well. He is very busy when he 
feels at all well. He is writing a letter now on a chair, beside me, 
as he sees his father writing, but I think the specimen of his chi- 
rography which we sent last week will suffice for a time at least. My 
health continues about the same. I fear I cannot do a great deal 
till the weather moderates. Yesterday was a very pleasant, mild 
day. At the warmest, mercury at 34. Last Monday morning, 
mercury at 17 below zero. Today the wind blows cold from the 
North. Many cattle have died this cold weather. They do not 
make calculations here for such cold weather. The "skyey in- 
fluences" I have noticed here are quite different from those I used to 
observe at home. I have seen what are called "sundogs" thrice, 
and once I noticed the same phenomenon about the moon three 
moons one faint one on each side of their central prototype, with 
rainbow-hued shafts above and below them. I noticed the other 
evening a column of light just after sunset, extending from the 
place of sunsetting the apparent width of the sun, half way up the 
sky. It resembled the tail of a comet except in its uniform width. 
But it was ten times brighter than any comet's tail I have seen. I 
have seen no auroras here. 

You see I have nothing to write. You get the general news of 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 27 

the territory as soon, perhaps sooner, through the Tribune, than we 
get them. Were Missouri a free State, with the railroad facilities 
of Illinois (and why should she have fewer?) you would be nearer 
the news centres of Kansas at 1500 miles distance than we at 50. 
How does it sound to hear the steam horse snort and whistle in 
Remsen? It would be quite an additional inducement to go home to 
think of riding in the cars clear to Remsen. 

If any of you has a receipt to make ink, send it to me, and if the 
more rare materials, such as nutgalls, do not weigh over % or 1 oz. 
send them too. 

Sarah sends love particularly to father and mother, and to all 
the rest. I join. Do not be discouraged in writing to us. 

John 

P. S. I do not remember that I have thanked you for the stamps. 
They were very welcome indeed. We were out, and could not then 
buy any here then. 

If you have more than one key to Uncle Tom, we would be very 
glad if you could send us one. We could do good with it by lending 
it. They need light here on that subject. 

John. 

Mar. 28, 56. 
Dear Father, 

Sissy's of March 4 received this week. We are very busy this 
week, making our cabin habitable, with new roof, a floor, windows, 
a door, &c. Have no time to write. Must be off early in the morn- 
ing, with the carpenter, in a wagon I have borrowed, after the blind 
mare, and come home late evenings. I am in usual health. Sarah 
has had one chill since I wrote last week. Sarah joins me in love to 
all at home. In haste John. 



Osawatomie Apr. 11, 1856 
Dear Father 

We received your letter containing the draft for $40.19 this week, 
for which we are very thankful. We are moving to day. Our house 
we have made pretty comfortable. But it has cost about $40, be- 
sides my own labor for nearly 3 weeks. I owe about $30 of this. We 
borrowed a one-horse harness and wagon to go up and back every 
day. My blind mare is quite servicable. She will trot along on a 
smooth road as well as if she had eyes. I have been getting up a 
club for the Tribune 20 copies on the $20 plan. I do not like to 



28 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

trust the money through the border ruffian mails East of us. A 
letter to the Tribune might be considered subject to detention and 
examination. Besides I will have to be dependent on you for some 
more money if possible. Will you send $20 to Greeley & McElrath 
for 20 Weekly Tribunes to be directed to B. Woodbury, Osawatomie, 
Kansas Ter.? If I can I will try to save out that amount till I hear 
from you, so that if it will be too great an inconvenience for you to 
spare it I will send it. 

I shall not buy a wagon till I see if I can pay for it. The most 
encouraging thing I have to write is that my health is better than 
it has been in the territory or for long before I came here, excepting 
a severe cold I have just now. Sarah's health continues poor, but 
better than it has been. I am concerned to hear that Robert's health 
does not improve faster. I wish I were there, so I might be with 
him now. But I must close with love to all at home. How is your 
Cenhadwr list this year? The weather is quite mild here now. If 
we had your frequent showers grass would be abundant. As it is, 
there is enough for cattle to live on it. Send me a currant slip or 
two in a newspaper. John 

[John R. Everett to His Sister, Cynthia] 

Osawatomie Apr 17, 1856. 
Dear Sissie 

We received yours of March 27 this week. Also the four pretty 
little envelopes in it. Those envelopes are almost too tasty for 
pioneers. We have felt quite satisfied lately, if we could have an 
old envelope to turn and enclose a letter. 16 We are now in our own 
cabin. We find it very comfortable for summer. I shall have to 
fix it as I have time to make it warm for winter. We have a neat 
clapboarded door, a puncheon floor, smoother than common for such 
floors, a pair of stairs where they generally have a ladder, a window 
below, and a half window above. Our house is IS 1 /^ ft. by IS 1 /^ ft. 
inside. 

The weather has got quite mild. The trees are beginning to leave 
out. We would call it very dry, if we were in New York but the soil 
here seems used to dry weather, and remarkably retentive of mois- 
ture. We have plenty of spring water now on our claim on every 
side of us. 

We all call ourselves well now. Sarah's health has improved 

16. Many of the envelopes in which these letters were mailed from Kansas had first en- 
closed letters from members of the family to John and Sarah Everett, and were ingeniously 
made to serve a second time by turning. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 29 

wonderfully for a few days. I hope we are free from the ague now. 
There is less complaining of it now than at any time since last 
August. Franky likes his new home. "This is a pleasant house," 
he says. . . . 

I wrote father last week, acknowledging his letter from Utica, 
with the draft of $40.19. Send me a few currant slips in newspapers. 
Cut off just last years growth. Shorten them from the end so as to 
get them in a paper. Also a Fastolf raspberry root, if you can. I 
believe Lewis or Eddy or Tommy could find a division of a pie plant 
root not weighing over two to four ounces. You could send that in 
a letter, perhaps with a little moss around it. A pint of apple seed 
came to this office in a letter last mail. 

I send a little prairie flower. . . . 

Longwood Place 17 Apr. 28, 1856. 
My Dear Sister Sarah 

The duties of the jarm prevented our writing any letters to anyone 
last week, but I hope our folks, as they know we are in the country 
and consequently inconvenient to the P. 0., will feel no alarm in not 
hearing from us till the arrival of this. 

I am sure they need not scold us for that little neglect as in other 
respects we have been most dutiful children, complying with their 
often repeated desire that we would get well, which I especially 
have done, as has also John to the best of his ability He however 
deemed it advisable to shake once more, which he did yesterday 
in his usual straight-forward manner. He had probably taken 
some cold as we had just had a cold rain that he had been out in 
a little I am as well as I need ever expect to be We are both, 
Little Franky also, very fleshy and should we continue to enlarge 
our fleshly boundaries in the same ratio as we are now doing, you 
will need if it is many years before we visit you, to order new and 
enlarged chairs and bed-stead for our accommodation, But this is 
not what I commenced my letter to tell you about I want to know 
in the first place before I commit myself, how many flowers have 
you gathered this spring? how many kinds have you seen? 

If the Quakeress Sarah Ann, wife of Richard, had not called in 
this afternoon I would have culled a dozen or more choice prairie 
flowers for you a boquet and put them in this letter, perhaps you'll 
get them in another one of these days. Let me name some of the 
flowers I have [seen] within a few days, first the little spring beauties 

17. John and Sarah Everett gave this name to their Kansas farm home. 



30 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

such as have always greeted me in early spring in every land that 
has sheltered me; next, wild sweet Williams. Those two are old 
familiar friends. Then the violets. Three kinds I have already 
seen also four kinds of grass flowers, one a beautiful little yellow 
star-like thing, the others different varieties of white flower grass. 
There is Lambtongue resembling the eastern Adder tongue, the 
flowers white instead of yellow like the addertongue. Indian paint 
is a name given to a little plant with deep yellow flowers, the juice 
of the root paints a bright red and is used by the Indians to paint 
their faces. There is another plant in blossom here which the Indians 
designate Spring because the juice of its pod furnishes them drink 
sometimes when traveling where water can not be obtained. We 
have plenty of Wild Cherry blossoms quite near our house, and a 
little flower peculiarly beautiful, the blossom of wild or sheep sorrel. 
Did you ever see it in Steuben? I never noticed it till I saw it on 
the prairies in Kansas although the leaves are perfectly familiar. 
The flower is a fine purplish pink and altogether quite enchanting. 
That I believe numbers all that I have seen, though I noticed to- 
day a cluster of buds on an Indigo plant that grows by the path 
leading down to our spring, were nearly bursting into bloom I 
think we shall be able to count them among our April flowers yet 
What think you of our flowery home? Come out here and I will 
show you our building spot and if you dont almost swoon with the 
overpowering beauty of the surrounding scenery dont visit Niagara 
on your way back. You couldnt appreciate its sublimity I must 
close for John has come in for his supper and tis after seven so 
I presume his appetite will not relish a long delay 
Yours mid flowers and sunshine 
Sarah M. C. E. 

Osawatomie Monday evening. 

[April 28, 1856] 
Dear Father 

The rainy season has nearly come. This, with our distance now 
from the mail may make the intervals longer between the mails. 
Rain affects the streams here more than with you. We had an 
all-day rain last week, following a rain two days before, and the 
creek, that runs through our wood, that we generally step across, 
and that was sometimes dry last summer, was a rod wide. I was 
just starting to the village, but that stopped me effectually. If I had 
crossed that, I could not have crossed the Pottawatomie, for the 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT: 31 

flood carried away a fallen tree, our foot-bridge across that stream. 
I do not think I shall now try to buy a wagon this summer our 
house has cost so much; perhaps not a harness without I can see 
it perfectly clear for me to do so. Sarah is going to try to make a 
saddle. I feel very anxious about Robert. 

Your affectionate son John. 

P. S. I wrote two weeks ago, requesting you to send twenty dollars 
for twenty copies of the weekly Tribune to this place. I retained 
the money, hoping you could advance it for me. I feel mortified 
every time I think of it to have been obliged to do so. We could 
neither of us do any work of account for seven months, and a part 
of the time could not do the necessary work of the house. But we 
hope brighter days are before us. We expected some chills this 
spring, but so far have been better than we expected John 

Osawatomie may now boast of a printing press. It was in 
Kansas a week ago, and probably is now in town. 18 

Osawatomie, June [MS. illegible] 1856. 19 
Dear Father 

We were disappointed in not getting our usual letter from home 
this week. Hope you are all well, and that our dear brother Robert 
is no worse. We have nothing disastrous to record of ourselves. We 
are in the enjoyment of our usual health. The border ruffians 
have been in our immediate neighborhood, but we did not know 
of it till two days afterward. A week to day the two companies 
of soldiers encamped here left for Lawrence. 20 In the afternoon 
of that day the border ruffians to the number of 150 came into the 
village of Osawatomie. They immediately commenced pillaging, 
stealing horses, &c. They went to the principal boarding house, 
where there were a great many emigrants stopping, who had not yet 
made homes of their own. They broke open all the trunks, took 
all the money they could find and all the firearms they could find in 
the house. They went to all the private houses, and took all their 
arms. They took all the horses they could find around, about 14 
in all. Mrs. Mendenhall, a widow and a Quaker, had two horses at 
the blacksmith's shop that afternoon, but he could not shoe them, 
and she left about fifteen or twenty minutes before the thieves 

18. A small outfit for publishing a paper was brought to Osawatomie in the spring of 
1856 by Oscar V. Dayton and Alexander Gardner. During the border troubles, the materials 
were hidden to save them from demolition. 

19. Contents of the letter indicate that it was written on June 14. 

20. Maj. John Sedgwick, with a company of dragoons, had just left for Fort Leavenworth. 



32 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

came in, and so saved her horses. This was a total surprise to the 
people here, but I was not at all surprised when I heard of it. The 
soldiers came without our request and went away just in the only 
time they were at all wanted. They seem to be only efficient when 
on the side of the Missourians. That is of a piece with the whole 
machinery of justice. Free state men here are treated just as 
negroes are at the South. They are a class devoted to oppression 
and persecution, and when protection is needed that protection is 
at a point where it is not wanted. This same band of marauders 
were at Prairie City (called also Palmyra or Hickory Point) the 
day before. There was a camp of free state men there too, de- 
termined to drive them back. At that crisis Col. Sumner appears. 
He commands both parties to disband. 21 The free state party 
obeys. The other party promise to obey, and go off in the direction 
of Westport in Missouri. But as soon as Col. Sumner is well gone, 
they commenced stealing horses, and turned their course here. 
There is another company of cavalry here now. Their Captain is 
said to be a free State man, but I do not suppose that makes any 
difference; he obeys orders. 

Hope you will not feel alarmed about us. It seems to me if the 
North at all realized our situation, they would with one voice ad- 
minister a rebuke to the present infamous administration, who for 
a short lease on the spoils of office, deliver us over as victims to the 
marauding Missourians, that would be felt and heeded. Look at 
it. Our prominent men are captured and imprisoned or driven out 
of the state, some murdered, others imprisoned without even know- 
ing the crime charged against them, and the worst enemies of the 
actual settlers are furnished by Gov. Shannon with U. S. arms and 
munitions of war. Such are the actual facts. 

We try to "possess our souls in patience," and hope for the best. 
With love to all. John. 

Please send the enclosed $2 to the Tribune for additions to B. 
Woodbury's list at Osawatomie. I sent $4 about 2 weeks ago to 
you for the same. If not received I suppose it will be their loss as I 
enclosed it before the P. M. 

21. Governor Shannon had issued a proclamation on June 4 commanding persons belong- 
ing to military companies unauthorized by law to disperse. Sumner was here enforcing the 
order. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 33 

- T , Remsen, June 11. 1856. 

My dear Son 

Yours and Sarah's and Franky's letter dated May 31st was re- 
ceived last evening very welcome indeed Since the occurrence on 
Pottawattomie Creek which we had seen in the papers we were very 
much alarmed for your safety and we are still so, as I saw last 
evening that about 100 armed men were preparing to come over 
from Westport to ''Scour Southern Kansas of all Abolitionists &c", 
which must include your little spot I fear you will not be safe 
And I do not think Sarah would be safe, as she hints, to remain alone 
to take care of the place! Oh no, if you have to flee, you had better 
all come. But I hope this storm may yet in some way be averted. 
Take your neighbors the Quakers' position of non-resistance calm- 
ness and kindness to your bitterest foes, and in the Lord's hands 

you will be safe. . . 

Your father Robert Everett. 

_ -r, AT. Osawatomie, June 27, 1856. 

Dear Father 

As there is room on this sheet I use it to write a few lines. We 
are in the enjoyment of our usual health, and nothing evil has be- 
fallen us since we last wrote for which we should be thankful. The 
soldiers are still here. Our printing office was not destroyed as re- 
ported I see in the Eastern papers. It was buried in the ground and 
they could not find it. 22 Neither were there any houses burned as 
reported. When Lawrence was sacked, we heard the same account 
as you first got, but the subsequent accounts came correctly. So 
with our place. A great many rumors fly, about the same occurrence. 
And when they come to be printed they seem like accounts of dif- 
ferent events. Thus all the accounts you read of disturbances on 
the Pottawatomie and Osawatomie have their origin in the killing 
of the five pro-slavery men about 8 miles from Osawatomie, 23 and 
the raid upon Osawatomie. That is as far as our immediate neigh- 
borhood is concerned. We hear by every one that comes in from a 
little distance of outrages, robberies and murders. A few days ago 
Mr. [William] Gay the Shawnee Indian agent was shot a little way 

22. See Footnote No. 18. 

23. James P. Doyle and his two sons, William Sherman and Allen Wilkinson, were mur- 
dered on the night of May 24 by a Free-State party led by John Brown. 

36912 



34 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

from Westport by some of Buford's South Carolinians. 24 But it is 
only where the odds are overwhelming and by private assassination 
that the slavery men get the advantage. In every open contest so 
far the free state party have been successful. I believe our friends 
have not the least idea of abandoning the contest. We feel that we 
are right in principle, we have a great majority of actual residents, 
and the heart of the North is with us. I was very sorry to see that 
Fillmore had lent his name to the use of the houseburners, thieves 
and murderers here. 25 I thought even he had too much sense and 
humanity left for that. I pray God he may not have many followers. 
If Northern men could see things as they are here, the Republican 
candidate would receive 99 out of every 100 votes I verily believe. 
I fear we shall see more troublous times yet, unless something effect- 
ual is done for us at the East. Why does not the House of Repre- 
sentatives initiate something bold, decided and effectual and make 
their weight felt as it should be. Remember when you read of our 
place in the papers that we are 2% South of Osawatomie. The centre 
of disturbances is North, and that way the invaders come. They 
might burn the town to the ground, and we not know it till next day, 
unless we saw the smoke over the woods that line the Pottawatomie. 
It is a very great pleasure to hear from home so regularly. Hope 
that ours reach you safe. We have not missed a week in writing for 
a long time. Must close now with love to all from John. 

24. A company of armed Southerners under Maj. Jefferson Buford, of Eufaula, Ala., 
arrived in the territory in the spring of 1856. They participated in the sack of Lawrence, 
and before their gradual departure engaged in various lawless activities. 

25. Millard Fillmore was nominated for President on the ticket of the American or 
"Know-Nothing" party in 1856. The party platform included upholding of the fugitive 
slave law. 

(To be continued in May Quarterly) 



Cowboy Ballads 

MYRA E. HULL 

ALL the cowboy songs in this collection are genuine; that is, they 
have actually been sung by ranchers and cowboys on the range, 
along the trail, in the night herder's lone vigils on the prairie, or in 
the cowboy's moments of relaxation around the campfire and in the 
dance hall in the open cow town at the end of the trail. 

None of the songs here recorded have been borrowed from other 
collections. Some of them I heard as a child, as they were sung by 
my cowboy brothers, by hired hands, or by the cattlemen who fre- 
quently stayed the night at our homestead in Butler county, twenty 
miles from Jesse Chisholm's trading post, on the old Chisholm trail; 
others were set down for me as remembered by old time cowboys of 
the 1870's, such as N. P. Power; several of the most picturesque ones 
were contributed by my nephew, Dr. Hull Alden Cook, as they are 
still sung on the ranches of Colorado, Arizona, and Wyoming. 

I have been inspired by such ballad collectors as N. Howard 
Thorp, Dr. Louise Pound, Miss Margaret Larkin, and John and 
Alan Lomax, as well as the numerous contributors to the Journal of 
American Folk-Lore. But all these collections have been used only 
for purposes of comparison and comment. In every instance, I have 
observed the tradition of folk-ballad collectors in recording songs 
exactly as they were sung, being careful not to yield to the tempta- 
tion to improve upon the text or to synthesize the variants in order 
to produce an attractive composite song. 

Cowboy songs are ballads; that is, they are stories in song. 
Furthermore, many of them are folk ballads, in a very real, if not 
in a technical sense. One of the tests of the Old World folk ballad 
was its anonymity, which was acquired through centuries of oral 
transmission until its origin was lost in antiquity. Cowboy songs 
are comparatively young, so that one might expect the authors to 
be known. Some few of them are, but many of the origins have been 
obscured by word-of-mouth transmission, as they were for the most 
part not written down but were disseminated by the singing cowboys 
as they went up the trail or from one ranch to another. 

Moreover, although the themes of most of the cowboy songs were 
indigenous, the cowboy had the habit of borrowing a song or a poem, 
adapting it to the occasion, and with joyous abandon, adding to it 
endlessly. The most popular of these songs have countless variants, 

(35) 



36 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

many of unconscionable length. Much of this re-creation has com- 
munal aspects, as the examples will illustrate later. 

In composing his song the cowboy might purloin only a line, as in 
the "Come, all ye" pattern of the "Texas Ranger"; sometimes a 
stanza would be lifted bodily; and in at least one instance, "The 
Dying Cowboy," a whole song has been parodied. 

Some of the tunes are likewise borrowed and may be traced to 
German folk songs, Irish airs, English and Scotch ballads, popular 
American songs, or even hymn tunes. Of most of the apparently 
original tunes as well as the words, it is next to impossible to dis- 
cover the composer. 

Whatever their origin, the cowboy has by his singing and his re- 
creations made them his own, and has unconsciously established a 
norm with more or less clearly defined characteristics. The cow- 
boy vernacular, the marked accent and verve of the rhythm, the 
peculiar moods and themes, tend to give the ballads a certain dis- 
tinctive flavor by which the collector learns to test their genuineness. 
And when all allowances have been made for borrowings, there re- 
mains a mass of material that impresses one with its freshness, its 
invigorating atmosphere, its dramatic quality, and its power to re- 
vive a real world in which the cowboy was the dominant figure. 

The importance of the cowboy in the development of the West 
has not been fully appreciated. He appears in the movie and in the 
radio broadcast as a picturesque figure, dashing over the plains in 
pursuit of wild and romantic adventures: a more or less isolated 
phenomenon, dissociated from the serious business of history mak- 
ing and state building. As a matter of fact, the cowboy was the 
central figure not of light comedy and romance but of an enterprise 
so vast as to assume epic proportions. 

According to Joseph Nimmo, a government statistician, between 
five and six million Texas cattle were driven northward during the 
twenty years following the Civil War. 1 In one single year 260,000 
cattle crossed the Red river, going "up the trail." That meant an 
army of 2,600 cowboys, to say nothing of the number required to 
care for the vast herds on the various ranches. 

Not only was the cattle industry a great enterprise in itself, but it 
had very important by-products as well, in the making of trails and 
in establishing along these roads cow towns that became permanent 
cities. 

1. Streeter, Floyd Benjamin, Prairie Trails & Cow Towns (Boston, Chapman and Grimes. 
1936), p. 65. 



HULL: COWBOY BALLADS 37 

The most important of these trails, the Chisholm trail, began as a 
traders' trail, established by Jesse Chisholm, 2 in 1865, in order that 
the Indians of the Southwest might have access to the supplies of 
his store, which was in the vicinity of present Wichita. From this 
trading post the "Traders' trail" ran southward deep into present 
Oklahoma, crossing the Kansas line near Caldwell. Two years later 
the Texas drovers were traveling this trail, on their way to Abilene, 
to which the Kansas Pacific railroad was completed in 1867. 3 

Eventually, the whole cattle trail from the Red River station 
northward through the Indian territory and the Kansas towns of 
Caldwell, Wichita, and Newton to Abilene, a distance of over 600 
miles, was known as the Chisholm trail. As railroads and settlers 
carried the frontier westward, other towns, such as Ellsworth and 
Dodge City, received Texas cattle. 4 

The most original cowboy songs were those about "the long drive 
up the trail," and the most famous of these ballads is "The Old Chis- 
holm Trail." Miss Margaret Larkin rightly calls this the cowboy's 
classic: "Its simple beating tune, ... its extemporaneous yelps, 
whoops, and yips ; its occasional departures from singing into shout- 
ing, are as exciting as the clatter of horses' hooves on the hard 
prairie." 5 

N. Howard Thorp, whose version is the earliest I have found in 
print, says: "The origin of this song is unknown. There are several 
thousand verses. . . . Every puncher knows a few more. . . ." 6 

The song is sung from Mexico to the Canadian line; and if one 
had all the versions reduced to a composite whole, it would furnish 
most of the colorful episodes of the cowboy's strenuous life. 7 

The stampede, the most dreaded event in the cattle drive, is re- 
corded in almost all the versions: 

I popped my foot in the stirrup and gave a little yell, 
The tail cattle broke and the leader went to hell. (Thorp) 
Oh, the wind commenced to blow and the rain began to fall, 
And it looked, by grab, that we was gonna to lose 'em all. (Hull) 

2. Taylor, T. U., The Chisholm Trail and Other Routes (Naylor Cdmpany, San Antonio, 
Tex., 1936). Chapter III has an excellent sketch of the life of Jesse Chisholm. 

3. Rossell, John, "The Chisholm Trail," The Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. V, pp. 6-8; 
Ridings, Sam P., The Chisholm Trail (Co-Operative Publishing Co., Gitfhrie, 1936), p. 29. 

4. Dick, Everett, "The Long Drive," Kansas Historical Collections, v. XVII, p. 68. 

5. Larkin, Margaret, Singing Cowboy (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1931), p. 1. Miss 
Larkin 's beautiful book is the envy of all ballad collectors. I remember Miss Larkin and 
her guitar when she was a student in the University of Kansas. M. E. H. 

6. Thorp, N. Howard, Songs of the Cowboys (New York, Houghton, Mifflin, 1908 and 
1921), p. 109. 

7. Numerous other versions: Lomax, John A., Cowboy Songs (New York, Macmillan, 
1925), pp. 58-63; Lomax, John A. and Lomax, Alan, American Ballads and Folk Songs (New 
York, Macmillan, 1934), pp. 376-379 ; Henry, Stuart, Conquering Our Great American Plains 
(New York, E. P. Dutton, 1930), pp. 73-75, 25 stanzas; Pound, Louise, American Ballads and 
Songs (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1922), p. 167. 



38 



KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 



The song pictures also the long, hard drive, through storm and 
flood, the monotonous fare of bacon and beans, and the unsatis- 
factory pay-off, with hints of wild carousals in the saloons of the 
cow towns. 

Tune "A," given below, was contributed by my brother, 0. J. Hull, 
now of Ontario, Cal. I do not know when he first heard it, but 
probably comparatively early, for he lived near the old Chisholm 
trail as early as 1873, when the treks of the longhorns from Texas 
to Caldwell and Wichita over Chisholm's traders' trail were only 
well begun. The tune of the stanzas is similar to Margaret Larkin's 
second version, but the refrain is entirely different from hers. The 
words of Version "A" are so nearly like those of Version "B" that I 
have recorded them only once. 

Version "B" was contributed by Dr. Hull Alden Cook, now of 
Sidney, Neb., as he heard it in Colorado. He also sings the more 
common tune of the first version, to the accompaniment of his guitar. 

THE OLD CHISHOLM TRAIL 

"A" 




J> J 



]> J^. 



Oh, come a - long, boys, and list- ten to my tale. I'll 



V E E PC I C C J J I 






tell you all my trou - bles on the old Chis - holm trail. 



j-u 



Com -a ti yi you - py, you - py ya, you - py ya. Com - a 

$ r ME P J 1 J' i LL J u 



ti yi you - py, you - py ya. 

"B" 

L Minor tune 



Choru s : 



HULL: COWBOY BALLADS 39 

Oh come along, boys, and listen to my tale, 

I'll tell you all my troubles on the oP Chis'm trail. 

Chorus: 

Come a-ti yi youpy youpy ya youpy yay, 
Come a-ti yi youpy youpy yay. 

On a ten-dollar horse and a forty-dollar saddle, 
I was ridin', and a-punchin' Texas cattle. 

We left ol' Texas October twenty-third, 
Drivin' up trail with a 2 U Herd. 

I'm up in the mornin' afore daylight, 
An' afore I sleep the moon shines bright. 

It's bacon and beans most every day, 
I'd as soon be eatin' prairie hay. 

Old Ben Bolt was a blamed good boss, 

But he'd go to see the girls on a sore-backed hoss. 

Old Ben Bolt was a mighty good man, 

And you'd know there was whisky wherever he'd land. 

I woke up one mornin' on the Chisholm trail, 
With a rope in my hand and a cow by the tail. 

Last night on guard, an' the leader broke the ranks, 

I hit my horse down the shoulders an' spurred him in the flanks. 

Oh it's cloudy in the west, and a-lookin' like rain, 
And my damned ol' slicker's in the wagon again. 

Oh the wind commenced to blow and the rain began to fall, 
An' it looked by grab that we was gonna lose 'em all. 

I jumped in the saddle an' I grabbed a-holt the horn, 
The best damned cowpuncher ever was born. 

I was on my best horse, and a-goin' on the run, 
The quickest-shootin' cowboy that ever pulled a gun. 

No chaps, no slicker, and it's pourin' down rain, 
An' I swear, by God, I'll never nightherd again. 

I herded and I hollered, and I done pretty well, 
Till the boss said, "Boys, just let 'em go to Hell." 

I'm goin' to the ranch to draw my money, 
Goin' into town to see my Honey. 

I went to the boss to draw my roll, 

He figgered me out nine dollars in the hole. 

So I'll sell my outfit as fast as I can, 

And I won't punch cows for no damn man. 

So I sold old Baldy and I hung up my saddle, 
And I bid farewell to the longhorn cattle. 



40 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

"Whoopee Ti-Yi-0," one of the most picturesque songs of the 
trail, traces the drive of the cattle from Texas to their "new home" 
in Wyoming. "Early in springtime," in fact as early as March, the 
ranchers of northern Texas began to round up the cattle that had 
been running on the range. Those not already branded were marked. 8 
Then the horse-herd, the "cavvyard," was brought in by the horse 
wrangler. It consisted of a "string" of six to ten horses for each 
cowboy. A cattle king with 15,000 cattle to drive north would di- 
vide them into herds of 2,500 each, with about twenty-five cowboys 
in attendance, so that 150 horses might be in each "cavvy." 9 

When they were at last ready to "throw the dogies out on the 
long trail," the order of march was usually as follows: The two 
leading cowboys, one on each side, rode at the head, "pointing the 
herd." At regular intervals other cowpunchers rode along the flanks, 
and still others brought up the rear. Usually the chuckwagon fol- 
lowed the herd, and next came the "cavvy." A herd of two thou- 
sand cattle would string out for a mile or two, and might be on the 
road from Texas to northern Idaho from March to August. 

Cattle were driven north to the railway markets, or to feed on the 
lush grass of the high plains, or to furnish "beef for Uncle Sam's 
Injuns" on the reservations of the Northwest. 

"Whoopee Ti-Yi-0" is one of the most interesting of the cowboy 
songs in its picturesque cowboy vernacular and in the weirdness of 
its tune. 

The tune of my version is similar to Owen Wister's, 10 as recorded 
by Lomax, except that mine is further complicated by an additional 
refrain, which makes another peculiar turn in the melody. 

As to the age of the song, Miss Larkin thinks it dates from some- 
where in the 1860's. 11 But so far as I have been able to learn, 
neither the exact date nor the author is known. N. Howard Thorp 
says that he heard it sung by Jim Falls, in Tombstone, Ariz. 12 
Wister's date, 1893, seems to be the earliest thus far noted. 

The version here recorded, as set down by Dr. Hull Alden Cook, 
is still sung on the ranges of Colorado and Wyoming. 

8. The idea of "bobbing off their tails" was evidently a humorous invention of the cowboy 
to gull the tenderfoot. 

9. Dick, Everett, loc. cit., pp. 55-62. 

10. Lomax and Lornax, op. cit., p. 389. Lomax quotes Owen Wister: "It took me about 
half an hour to make sure of the capricious melody." He learned the song from a boy in 
McCulloch county, Texas, in 1893. Mr. Wister's tune is Lomax's second example, pp. 386, 387. 

11. Larkin, op. cit., p. 95. 

12. Thorp, op. cit., p. 70. 



HULL: COWBOY BALLADS 41 

WHOOPEE TI-YI-O, GIT ALONG LITTLE DOGIES 






J'l J' 



I was a walk-in* one morn-ing for pleas-ure, I saw a cow-punch-ar a 



J J> J 



> 



Ji 



rid-in' a-long. His hat was throwed back and his spurs was a Jing-lin; And 



ri^F 


k fH 


^=^ 


~-^=\ 


; 1 J> h K 




Jv-tr^- 


=fFnF 


Jn fa 


_tA\_T 


J' J 1 , 


J J 


J 


I 








4^ 





&3= 


=H= 


P * * 



as he a -pproached he was sing-in' this song. Whoo - peet Ti- yi- o, Git a- 



flfit r r. f; 

H t =P=P=F : 






long lit-tle dog-ies; It's your mis- for- tune. And none of my own, Whoo- 



^ 



j, j, 



peel Ti-yi-o, Git a - long lit-tle dog-ies, For you know that Wy-om-in,?- will 

' 




be your new hone. Whoo - pee: Ti- yi- o, Git a - long li$- tie do?;- ies, 







your mis for - tune and none of my own. Whoo - pee! Ti - y 1 - o. Git a- 



long 'lit.-tle dog-ies, For you know that Wy- om- .ing will be your new home, 

WHOOPEE TI-YI-0 

As I was a-walkin' one morning for pleasure, 

I saw a cow-puncher a-ridin' along. 

His hat was throwed back and his spurs was a-jinglin', 

And as he approached he was singin' this song. 

Chorus (to be sung after each stanza) : 
Whoopee ! Ti-yi-o, git along little dogies ; 
It's your misfortune, and none of my own, 
Whoopee ! Ti-yi-o, git along little dogies, 
For you know that Wyoming will be your new home. 
(Repeat.) 

Oh, early in the springtime we round up the dogies, 
Mark 'em and brand 'em and bob off their tails. 
Then round up the horses, and load the chuckwagon, 
And then throw the dogies out on the long trail. 



42 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Oh, some boys goes up the trail for pleasure, 
But that's where they gets it most awfully wrong. 
For you have no idea the trouble they give us, 
While we go a-driving them all along. 

Oh, your mothers was raised away down in Texas, 
Where the jimpson weed and the sandburs grow. 
Now we'll fill you up on prickly pear and cholla, 
Till you're ready for the trail to Idaho. 

Oh, you will be soup for Uncle Sam's Injuns, 
It's "Beef heap beef" I hear them cry. 
Git along, git along, git along little dogies, 
You'll be beef steers bye and bye. 

Oh, I ain't got no father; I ain't got no mother, 

My friends, they all left me when first I did roam. 

I ain't got no sister; I ain't got no brother, 

I'm a poor lonesome cowboy an' a long ways from home. 13 

"The Texas Ranger," another ballad of the trail, is of the familiar 
"Come, all ye" pattern. It introduces an incident that is a reminder 
of the fact that the cowboys were useful to the on-coming settlers in 
repelling Indian attacks and in pushing the frontier westward. 

The words of this song are recorded by Louise Pound, Mellinger 
Henry, John A. Lomax, and others, but the tunes seem to be rare. 14 

Of the version here recorded, both words and music were con- 
tributed by N. P. Power, Lawrence, February 18, 1938. He set the 
song down from memory as he heard it in 1876, while a cowboy on 
the John Hitson cattle ranch, eighteen miles north of Deer Trail, 
Colo. 15 Mr. Power says that he has never seen the song in print and 
has no knowledge of the author. His version is much the earliest 
that I have found. 

13. The last stanza is given by Lomax and Lomax, op. tit., p. 418, as a part of "Poor 
Lonesome Cowboy." 

14. Lomax, John, Cowboy Songs, pp. 44-46, no tune; Pound, Louise, op. cit., p. 163. no 
tune; Henry, Mellinger E., "More Songs From the Southern Highlands," The Journal of 
American Folk-Lore (hereafter cited JAFL), v. XLIV, pp. 85-87, "Come, all you Tennessee- 
men," 13 stanzas, no tune. 

15. This John Hitson is doubtless the one mentioned by T. U. Taylor (op. cit., p. 70) 
who drove cattle in 1868. Mr. Power thinks that the song here recorded was sung by Frank 
H. Long, whose father owned a ranch in Texas. 



HULL: COWBOY BALLADS 
THE TEXAS RANGER 



43 






pf 



Come, all ye Tex - as ran - gers, where - ev - er you may 



I'll tell ye of some trou - ble that hap - pened un - to me. 



F P E 



P F 



Come, all ye Tex - as ran - gers, I'm sure I wish you well; 



> ' 



! i. 



l.'-y name is noth - ing ex - tra, so that I will hot tell. 

Come, all ye Texas rangers, wherever you may be, 
I'll tell ye of some trouble that happened unto me. 
Come, all ye Texas rangers, I'm sure I wish you well, 
My name is nothing extra, so that I will not tell. 

When at the age of sixteen I joined the jolly band, 
That marched from San Antonio down to the Rio Grande. 
Our Captain he informed us, I suppose he thought it right, 
"Before you reach the station, my boys, you'll have to fight." 

We saw the Indians coming, we heard them give the yell; 
My feelings at that moment, no human tongue can tell. 
We saw the glittering lances, the arrows round me hailed; 
My heart it sank within, my courage almost failed. 

We fought them nine long hours before the strife was o'er, 
And the like of dead and dying I never saw before. 
Twelve of the noblest rangers that ever roamed the West, 
Were buried with their comrades and sank in peace to rest. 

Then I thought of my dear mother, who through tears to me did say, 
"These men to you are strangers; with me you'd better stay." 
But I thought her old and childish, the best she did not know, 
For my mind was bent on rambling and rambling I did go. 

Perhaps you have a mother, perhaps a sister, too ; . 
Likewise you have a sweetheart to weep and moan for you. 
If this be your condition and you're inclined to roam, 
I'll tell you by experience you'd better stay at home. 



44 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The words and music of "Jake and Rome" were sent to me by Dr. 
Hull Alden Cook, with this note of explanation: "This is the song as 
I obtained it from a Navajo girl at Kayenta, Ariz. Her adopted 
name is Betty Wetherill, and she has been adopted into John 
Wetherill's family. She and her sister sang this to me one night in 
June, 1935, at the Wetherill ranch home, in the heart of the desert." 

JAKE AND ROME 



*j. J- J 1 J'l > > J> J I J, j' J* > J 1 



w v v 

Jake and Rome were rid - in' a - long. Jake was sing - in' whatfe 



called a song When up from a gul - ly what should ap - pear but a 



1 



1 



moss - backed 300 - ky and a bald - faced steer. 

Jake and Rome were ridin' along, 

Jake was singin' what he called a song, 
When up from a gully what should appear 

But a mossbacked sooky and a bald-faced steer. 

Jake started after with his hat pulled down, 

He built himself a blocker that would snare a town, 

But the steer he headed for the setting sun, 

And believe me, neighbor, he could hump and run. 

Rome followed up his partner's deal 

Two old waddies that could head and heel 

Both of them a-workin' for the Chicken Coop 
With a red hot iron and a hungry loop. 

The sun was shinin' in old Jake's eyes, 

And he wasn't ready for no great surprise, 

When the steer gave a wiggle like his dress was tight, 

And he busted through a juniper, and dropped from sight. 

Old Jake's pony done a figure 8, 

Jake done his addin' just a mite too late. 
He left the saddle a-seein' red, 

And he landed in the gravel of a river bed. 



HULL: COWBOY BALLADS 45 

Now Rome's horse was a good horse, too, 

But he couldn't figure out just where Jake flew; 
So he humped and he started for the cavvyard, 

And he left Rome sittin' where the ground was hard. 

Jake sat a-holdin' up his swelled up thumb, 

Says he, "I reckon we was goin' some!" 
When Rome he bellered, "Get away from here, 

Or you're goin' to get tangled with that bald-faced steer!" 

Rome dumb a-straddle of a juniper tree, 

"There's no more room up here," says he. 
So Jake he figures for himself to save 

By backin' in the opening of a cutback cave. 

The steer he charged with his head 'way down, 

A-rollin' his eyes and a-pawin' the ground 
Hookin' and a-sniinn' and a-turnin' about, 

Every time he quit old Jake come out! 

Rome said, "You old fool, back out of sight, 

You act like you're hankerin' to make him fight!" 

When Jake he answered sort of fierce and queer: 
"Back, hell, nothin'; there's a bear in here!" 

A favorite theme of cowboy songs is the death of the cowboy on 
"the lone prairie." It is not strange that the thought of such a 
tragic end was uppermost in his mind, for life on the trail was 
hazardous. On this point Everett Dick says that a horse's stepping 
into a prairie dog or badger hole might throw its rider under an on- 
rushing herd, where he would be trampled to death. "In trying to 
turn a herd, it was not uncommon for a cowboy to ride off a cliff or 
into a gully, where his comrades found his mangled form the next 
day. Along the trail another mound was made, which bore mute 
witness to the fact that a cowboy died doing his duty." 16 

The fragment, "Blood on the Saddle," treats of such an episode; 
and though the song is sung in a humorous fashion, its connotation 
was anything but funny to cowboys. I know nothing of the origin 
o~f the song, but I am inclined to agree with Dr. R. W. Gordon, 
formerly of the American Folk-Lore archives of the Library of Con- 
gress, that it does not quite ring true as a genuine cowboy song. 

My niece, Dr. Winifred Hull Salinger, New Haven, Conn., sang 
this song for me in 1930, as Austin Phelps had heard it in Arizona. 

16. Dick, toe. cit., p. 60. 



46 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

BLOOD ON THE SADDLE 



/? 


i 


f _fr _fi Js [ 




iT^f 


. Ji , | | f 


p 

Thei 

| 


e'. 
-f 


3 blood on the : 


ad - die; There's 


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blood 


* 1 * J 
^ ^ ' >-- 

all a - round; 


/ 


F 


'J.. -l. lj ' 


'-^J'JJ'J 




-J-- -J- 



And a. great big pud - die of blood on the ground. 

There's b-lood on the saddle, 
There's b-lood all around. 
And a great big puddle 
Of blood on the ground. 
Oh, pity the cowboy, 
So bloody and red. 
His pony fell on him, 
And mashed in his head. 

"The Dying Cowboy," or "The Lone Prairie," has for its theme 
the cowboy's lonely grave on the prairie. N. Howard Thorp says 
that he first heard this song from Kearn Carico, Norfolk, Neb., in 
1886. The authorship, he says, has been accredited to H. demons, 
Deadwood, Dak. 17 However, as I have mentioned before, the words 
are obviously a parody, stanza for stanza, of "The Ocean Burial," 
a song, according to Phillips Barry, familiar to folk-singers of the 
Eastern states nearly a hundred years ago. 18 Alvin B. Cook, of 

17. Thorp, op. cit., p. 62. 

18. Barry, Phillips, "Some Aspects of Fplk-Sone," JAFL, v. XXV, pp. 278-280. Barry 
spves the complete text of "The Ocean Burial," six eight-line stanzas, each parodied almost 
line for line in "The Dying Cowboy." One stanza of each will indicate how close is the parody. 
"The Ocean Burial" is usually accredited to Capt. W. H. Saunders. 

"THE OCEAN BURIAL" 
" 'Oh, bury me not in the deep, deep sea!' 
These words came faint and mournfully 
From the pallid lips of a youth who lay 
On his cabin couch, where day by day, 
He had wasted and pined, until o'er his brow, 
The death sweats had slowly passed, and now, 
The scenes of his fondly loved home was nigh, 
And they gathered around him to see him die." 

"THE DYING COWBOY" 

" 'Oh, bury me not on the lone prairie'; 
Those words came slow and mournfully 
From the pallid lips of a youth that lay 
On his dying couch at the close of day. 
He had wasted and pined till o'er his brow 
Death's shadows fast were drawing now; 
He had thought of home and the loved ones nigh, 
As the cowboys gathered to see him die." 

Thorp, op. cit., p. 62. 
Compare, also, Lomax, Cowboy Songs, pp. 3-8, and Larkin, op. cit., pp. 21-23. 



HULL: COWBOY BALLADS 47 

Dodge City, remembers hearing his mother sing "The Burial at Sea," 
the same song, in western Kansas some forty years ago. 

Of the many tunes of "The Dying Cowboy," my version "A" is 
the most common. It is similar to the Lomax and the Larkin tune. 
Version "A" was sung by Dr. Leroy W. Cook, Boulder, Colo., as he 
heard it in western Kansas forty years ago. 

Version "B" was sung by Joe M. Hull, now of Bonner's Ferry, 
Idaho, as he heard it in southern Kansas, probably in the early 
1890's. I have never seen this tune in print. 

The complete song as recorded by Thorp and others is six or eight 
stanzas long. 

THE DYING COWBOY 



wm 



=^3= 

Oh, bu - ry me not on the lone prai-ree, Where the wild coy - 



ote 



will howl o'er me, And the rat - tie snake coil - ing there o'er me; 



Oh, bu - ry me not on the lone prai - ree. 

Oh, bury me not on the lone prairie, 
Where the wild coyote will howl o'er me, 
And the rattlesnake coiling there o'er me. 
Oh, bury me not on the lone prairie. 
"Oh, bury me not," and his voice failed there; 
But they listened not to his dying prayer; 
In a narrow grave just six by three 
They laid him there on the lone prairie. 
Where the dewdrops fall and the butterfly rest, 
The wild rose bloom on the prairie's crest; 
Where the coyotes howl and the wind blows free, 
They buried him there on the lone prairie. 



48 



KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 
"B" 



M J 



=p 



Oh, bu - ry me not on the lone prai-ree, Where the wild coy - ote 
will howl o'er me, And the rat - tie snake coil - ing there o'er me- 

i j. i 



Oh, bu - ry me not on the lone prai - ree. 

Another prime favorite with the cowboy was "The Cowboy's 
Lament." N. Howard Thorp says that he heard a version of this 
song in 1886. The authorship, he adds, is accredited to Troy Hale, 
Battle Creek, Neb. 19 But here again there is obviously a borrowing 
at least of the refrain, 

Beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly, 
And play the dead march as they carry me on. 

This, Phillips Barry points out, bears a striking resemblance to 
a passage in the Irish song, "The Unfortunate Rake" (Ireland, 
1790). 20 

But whatever its origin, the cowboy by his re-creations has made 
it his own. There are innumerable versions. 21 Of these, Thorp's is 
the earliest. Lomax has a much longer variant. 

The opening line of Dr. Pound's version is unique: 
As I walked through Tom Sherman's bar-room. 

One of the commonest beginning lines is Thorp's 
As I walked out in the streets of Laredo. 

Miss Larkin's first lines are unusual: 

My home's in Montana, 
I wear a bandana. 

Interesting, too, is Miss Larkin's concluding stanza: 

And take me to Boot Hill 
And cover me with roses, 
I'm just a young cowboy 
And I know I done wrong. 

19. Thorp, op. cit., p. 41. 

20. Barry, loc. cit., p. 276. Barry says that "The Cowboy's Lament" is a remarkable ex- 
ample of communal re-creation. 

21. Also compare Belden, H. M., "Balladry in America," JAFL, v. XXV, p. 16 ; Larkin, 
op. cit., pp. 14, 15; Lomax, op. cit., pp. 74-76, no tune; Pound, op. cit., p. 170, "The Dying 
Cowboy," but the same as "The Cowboy's Lament" of Thorp, with the refrain, "Beat the 
Drum Slowly." 



HULL: COWBOY BALLADS 



49 



Version "A," contributed by Freda Butterfield, was sung by her 
father, Oscar G. Butterfield, as he learned it in western Kansas in 
the late 1880's. Miss Butterfield is in doubt about some of the lines, 
particularly of the first stanzas. 

THE COWBOY'S LAMENT 




ISy friends and re-la-tions they live in the na - tion: They know not 






whith- er their poor boy has roamed, I first took to drink - infc and 



J-J'J- J- E J'lJ KM-J^lj 



Tf 

then to card play- ing, Got shot in the bos- on) and death is my doom. 

Come sit beside me and hear my sad story 

Tell one and the other before they go further 
To stop their wild roaming before it's too late. 

My friends and relations they live in the Nation; 
They know not whither their poor boy has roamed ; 
I first took to drinking and then to card-playing, 
Got shot in the bosom and death is my doom. 

So write me a letter to my gray-haired mother, 
And write me a letter to sister so dear, 
Then there is another who's dearer than my mother 
Who'd weep if she knew I was dying out here. 

Then beat the drums slowly and play the fife lowly 
And play the dead march as you carry me along; 
Take me to the graveyard and lay the sod o'er me, 
For I'm a poor cowboy, and I know I've done wrong. 

Version "B," as sung by Joe M. Hull (about 1890), has a tune 
which I have not seen in print nor heard elsewhere. 



46912 



50 



KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 
"B" 



m J. J ij 






Once in the sad - die I used to go dash - ing, Oh once in the 





feN 




4=4= 










J j j 



sad - die I used to be gay. I first took to drink - ing and 



J - J 



j. 



then to card - play-ing, Got shot in the breast; I am dy - ing to - day. 

Sometimes the cowboy songs are cynical in mood. Such a one is 
"I've Got No Use for the Women/' as sung by Freda Butterfield, 
lola. 22 I know nothing as to the origin of this "gambler and gun- 
man" song. Such terms as "mesquite," "chaparral," and "vaquero" 
indicate that it hails from the Southwest. 

I'VE GOT NO USE FOR THE WOMEN 



- 



I've got no use for the wo - men; A true one may nev - er be found. 



/-:,- 






They'll stand by a man when he's winn-ing, And laugh in his face when he's down 






. . r. ' 

6/ g 

My pal was as straight a young punch-er _ Hon-est and up-right and square. 



rr- ll 



He be - came a gam-bier and gun-man, And a worn - an sent him there, If 



> 



she'd, been the pal that she should have, He might have been rals-in' a son 



In -stead of out there on the prai-ries To fall by the ran^-ger's gun 



22. If any of my readers knows what the origin is of this song or of "Jake and Rome" 
and "Blood on the Saddle," I should be grateful for the information. M. B. H. 



HULL: COWBOY BALLADS 51 

I've got no use for the women; 

A true one may never be found ; 

They'll stand by a man when he's winning, 

And laugh in his face when he's down. 

My pal was a straight young puncher, 

Honest and upright and square ; 

He became a gambler and gunman, 

And a woman sent him there. 

If she'd been the pal that she should have, 

He might have been raisin' a son 

Instead of out there on the prairies 

To fall by the ranger's gun. 



When a vaquero insulted her picture 
He filled him full of lead. 

All the night long they trailed him 
O'er mesquite and gay chaparral; 
And I couldn't help think of that woman 
As I saw him pitch and fall. 
He raised his head on his elbow, 
The blood from his wounds flowed red; 
He looked around at his comrades, 
Whispered to them and said: 

Oh, bury me out on the prairie 

Where the coyotes may howl o'er my grave. 

Bury me out on the prairie, 

Some of my bones to save. 

Wrap me up in my blanket; 

Bury me deep in the ground, 

Then cover me over with boulders 

Of granite huge and round. 

So we buried him out on the prairie, 
Where the coyotes still howl o'er his grave; 
And his soul is now a-resting 
From the unkind touch she gave; 
And many another young puncher 
As he rides by that pile of stones, 
Recalls some similar woman, 
And envies his mould'ring bones. 

Cowboys in their hours of leisure and relaxation in the winter 
evenings on the ranch or in the saloons and dance halls, swapped 



52 



KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 



songs that they had brought with them from the East and South or 
picked up here and there from some settler or chance acquaintance. 23 

23. (a) Sometimes the texts were borrowed from a poem in a Western newspaper. Such 
seems to have been the origin of "Home on the Range," according to John R. Cook in The 
Border and the Buffalo (Crane and Company, Topeka, 1907), pp. 292, 29'3. According to 
Floyd Streeter (op. cit., p. 218): "A recent lawsuit over the authorship of this song has 
brought to light the information that Dr. Brewster Higley, who homesteaded on Beaver creek 
in Smith county, Kansas, in the early 1870 's, wrote a poem entitled 'A Western Home,' in 
1873, which was printed in the Smith County Pioneer the same year. It is claimed that this 
was the original version of the song [Home on the Range]." 

(b) I have obtained from George A. Root of the Kansas State Historical Society a copy 
of a poem which is either a parody on or a forerunner of "Starving to Death on a Govern- 
ment Claim" (Pound, op. cit., p. 178). 

Of this production Mr. Root says: "This was sent in as a contribution to the North Topeka 
Mail, about the year 1889, but was never used. My father, the late Frank A. Root, to- 
gether with my brother and me, was engaged in the publication of the Mail. The poem struck 
me as full of humor and homely philosophy, and I rescued it and stowed it away, intending 
to print it if I could find any excuse for doing so." (The Mail rarely published verse of 
any sort.) 

This curiosity is here printed for the first time and in exactly the form that it was sub- 
mitted, almost fifty years ago: 



"GOVERMENT CLAMES" 



"frank baker is my name 

and a bachler I am 
ime keeping old bach 

just like a man 
you! find me out west 

in the county of ford 
a starving to death 

on a government clame 
hurah for ford county 

tis the land of the free 
the home of the bed bug 

grasshopper and flee 
ile sing loud its prases 

and tell of its fame 
while starving to death 

on my government clame 
my clothes they are ragged 

my language is ruf 
my bread is case hardened 

both solid and tuf 
the do it is scaterd 

all over the room 
the floor it gets scared 

at the site of a broom 
then come to ford county 

thare is a home for you all 
where wind never ceases 

and the rain never falls 
where the sun never sinks 

but always remains 
till it cooks you all up 

on your government clames 
my house it is built 

of the natheril soil 
the walls are erected 

according to hoil 
the roof has no pitch 

tis level and plain 
I always get wet 

when it hapens to rain 



the dishes are scaterd 

all over the bed 
thay are covered with sorgum 

and government bread 
still I have a good time 

and live at my ease 
a whitling sap sorgum 

potatoes and greas 
how happy I feel 

when I crol into bed 
when the rattlesnakes rattle 

a tune at my head 
and the gay little bed bug 

so cheerful and bright 
thay keep me a lafing 

to thirds of the night 
and the gay little flee 

with sharp tax in his toes 
play rattle logketchem 

all over my nose 
hurah for ford county 

hurah for the west 
where the farmers and lofers 

are ever at rest 
fore there is nothing to do 

but s[w]eetly remain 
and starve like a man 

on a government clame 
how happy I feel 

on my government clame 
ive nothing to loze 

and nothing [to] gain 
ive nothing to eat 

ive nothing to ware 
and nothing from nothing 

is honest and fair 
O its here i am 

and here I will stay 
my money all gone 

and I cant get away 



HULL: COWBOY BALLADS 



53 



Such a song is "Springfield Mountain," one of the very few Ameri- 
can ballads based on an actual incident. Its history is discussed in 
exhaustive articles by W. W. Newell and by Phillips Barry, 24 ac- 
cording to whom the original ballad was a serious one, recounting 
the tragic death of "Lieutenant Merrick's only son." (The name 
varies, as Curtis, Carter, etc.) But the song has become debased by 
oral transmission and re-creation until it is a ludicrous comedy. 

The song here set down by Dr. Hull A. Cook as it is still sung 
in Colorado, has a tune different from any that I have seen in print. 

SPRINGFIELD MOUNTAIN 




J 



On Spring-field moun - tain there did dwell A come - ly youth, I 



tj ! J' UJ'J' 11 ' ' J JU i, ' J 



knew him well 



Ti - roo - ri, roo ri, roo - ri - ray; Ti- 







n 




^ 


^* 


Mfc 


i 

=^=$ 



ri, roo - ri, roo - ri ra - 



ay. On roo - ri - ray, 



On Springfield mountain there did dwell 
A comely youth, I knew him we-e-ell. 
Ti-roo-ri roo-ri, roo-ri-ray; 
Ti-roo-ri roo-ri roo-ri ra-a-ay. 

On Monday morning, he did go 
Out in the meadow for to mo-o-ow. 
(Refrain.) 



thare is nothing that makes 

a man more hard and profane 
than a starving to death 

on a goverment clame 
hurah for ford county 

whare blizerds arize 
where the wind is never clenched 

and the fall never dies 
then come join its cores 

and tell of its fame 
you poor hungry men 

that stuc on a clame 

good by you clame holders 
I wish you all well 



just stic to your clames 

and ride them to bad [hell] 
but as for myself 

ile no longer remain 
and starve like a man 

on a goverment clame 
farewell to ford co 

fairwell to the west 
ile travel bac east 

to the girl I love best 
ile stop in mosoura 

and get me a wife 
and live on corn dodger 

the rest of my life" 



24. Newell, William W., "Early American Ballads," 1AFL, v. XIII, p. 107 etseq.; Barry, 
Phillips, JAFL, v. XVIII, pp. 295-302. 



54 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

As he was mowing, he did feel 
A pizen sarpint bite his he-e-el. 
(Refrain.) 

Oh Molly, Molly, come and see 
A pizen sarpint bited me-e-e. 
(Refrain.) 

Then Molly knelt on her knee 
And sucked the pizen out of he-e-e. 
(Refrain.') 

But Molly had a rotten tooth 
And so the pizen killed them bo-o-oth. 
(Refrain.) 

(The song is sung without a break between the refrain and the following 
stanza.) 

Another native ballad that has shown remarkable vitality and 
longevity is "Young Charlotte." Phillips Barry, who says that he 
himself knows thirty versions of this song, accredits its authorship 
to William Carter, "the Bensontown Homer." From Vermont, the 
author seems to have carried his song to Ohio and Illinois and per- 
haps even to Utah with the Mormons. This early trek across the 
continent may account for the song's wide dissemination. After al- 
most a hundred years of "communal re-creation," Mr. Barry be- 
lieves, the song "has earned the right" to be enrolled "in the number 
of the nobility" among ballads. 25 

The song is a "nice long one," and would last out the cowboy's 
evening, the Barry and the Pound versions each having twenty-six 
stanzas. Although the words vary slightly in the different versions, 
the theme is always the same. 

Young Charlotte lived on a mountain side, 
In a wild and lonely spot, 
There was no house for ten miles around, 
Except her father's cot. 

Young Charlotte was fair, but too proud. On a bitterly cold night, 
she went with Charlie, her lover, to a dance a long distance from her 
home. Her mother urged her to wrap up in a blanket for fear she 
would "take her death of cold" during the long sleigh ride to the 
dance. 

"Oh, no, Oh, no," young Charlotte cried, 

And she laughed like a gypsy queen; 

"To ride in blankets muffled up 

I never will be seen." 

25. Barry, Phillips, "William Carter, the Bensontown Homer," JAFL, v. XXV, pp. 156- 
168. 



HULL: COWBOY BALLADS 55 

As the ride progressed, Charlotte complained that she "grew ex- 
ceeding cold"; but later she murmured faintly, "I'm growing warmer 
now." As they drove up to the dance hall door, Charlie discovered 
that his "charming bride" was a "frozen corpse." 

Her parents mourned for their daughter dear, 
And Charles wept o'er the gloom, 
Till at last young Charles too died of grief, 
And they both lie in one tomb. 

The song ends with a moral: 

Young ladies, think of this fair girl 
And always dress aright, 
And never venture thinly clad 
On such a wintry night. 26 

The tune, which I heard Zeke Paris sing more than forty years 
ago, is the same one that my mother used in the well-known Civil 
War song, "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh." 27 

YOUNG CHARLOTTE 

L -"T^=BI 



p 



Young Char-lotte lived on a moan-tain side, in a wild and lone-ly spot. 

&& 






There was no house for ten miles a - round ex - cept her fa- ther's cot. 

Cowboy life was enlivened by racy snatches, such as this one from 
"The Son of a Gamboleer": 

I drink my whisky clear, 
I'm a roving rake of poverty, 
The son of a gamboleer. 

26. Pound, op. cit., p. 103. Zeke Paris' last stanzas may have been slightly different from 
Doctor Pound's. 

27. Henry, Mellinger E., "Still More Ballads and Folk-Songs From the Southern High- 
lands," JAFL, v. XLV, p. 163, gives two stanzas of "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" similar to 
the ones of my mother's version quoted here: 

"On Shiloh's dark and bloody ground 
The dead and wounded lay; 
Among them was the drummer boy, 
Who beat the drum that day. 

"A wounded soldier held him up, 
His drum was by his side; 
He clasped his hands and raised his eyes, 
And prayed before he died." 

(Eliza Sinclair Hull) 

Mr. Henry does not furnish the tune. Of course, the words of "Young Charlotte" are 
older than those that relate an incident of the Civil War; but where the tune originally 
came from is not known. 



56 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

I recall from hired hands' repertoires such choice bits as 

She turned up the box and she poured out the pepper, 
Whack-fal-de-al-de-ay, whack-fal-de-al-de-ay, 
There's whisky in the jar! 
and 

All Fve got is an old iron pot, 

And a fryin' pan to wash the baby in. 

In such a category belongs Lomax's "Cowboys' Gettin'-Up Hol- 
ler/' 28 my version of which runs, 

Wake, Snake, day's a-breakin' ! 

Peas in the pot, and the hoe-cake's a-bakin'! 

This is one of the countless choruses of "Old Dan Tucker," perhaps 
the most nearly ubiquitous of all American fiddle tunes. Other 
dance tunes popular with the cowboy were "Money Musk," "Fisher's 
Hornpipe," "Devil's Dream," "Arkansaw Traveller," "Rosin the 
Bow," "Irish Washerwoman," and "Turkey in the Straw" (sung by 
my mother as "Old Zip Coon"). If the fiddler were absent, the 
caller at the dance would improvise words to many of these tunes. 
"The Girl I Left Behind Me," that favorite of the Civil War, of 
ancient lineage, went through almost as many transformations as 
"Mademoiselle from Armentieres." 

In gentler mood, the cowboy of the 1870's indulged in some of the 
popular sentimental songs, such as "Lorena," "Sweet Evelina," 
"Bonnie Eloise," "Annie Lisle," "Lillie Dale," and "Sweet Eulalie." 
In such a mood, no doubt, the "notorious woman outlaw" of the 
Indian territory, Belle Starr, struck off "My Love Is a Rider." 29 

The words of this song, recorded by Margaret Larkin, are strongly 
reminiscent of the following song, which my mother, Mrs. Eliza 
Sinclair Hull, brought West with her from Ohio, in 1866. 

28. Lomax and Lomax, op. cit. f p. 375. 

29. Larkin, op. cit., pp. 45-47. "My Lover's a Rider" appeared in William B. Bradbury's 
New York Glee and Chorus Book, 1855. Since this was one of the most popular singing school 
books during the 1860's, it might well have been seen by Belle Starr, or the resemblance be- 
tween the two songs may be accidental. The author's name is not given, but it was trans- 
lated by C. M. Cady. (The original language is not mentioned, but the song has all the ear- 
marks of the "tra-la-la" Swiss songs of which William Bradbury was so fond.) 



HULL: COWBOY BALLADS 
MY LOVER'S A RIDER 



57 



.1 J|J J Jll J JU J|J J J 



My lov -er's a ri -der, a ri -der so fine; The steed is his 




la la. 



La la la la la la la la 



la_ la 



la. 



My lover's a rider, a rider so fine ; 

The steed is his sov'reign; the rider is mine. 

La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la, 

La-la -la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la. 

Blue eyes and brown hair, and right noble in mien; 
Oh, charming and fair is my lover, I ween. 

My heart is a castle well-bolted and grim; 
My love is the pass-key; it opens to him. 

My lover's away; he is over the sea; 
I need not be told he is thinking of me. 

If you have a lover so noble and true ; 
I'll finish my song and then listen to you. 

Not uncommon among the songs of the cowboy (sung, sometimes, 
I fear, when he had reached the maudlin stage of inebriation) were 
the sob-songs of mother, home, and the cowboy's heaven. 

Sam Ridings, in The Chisholm Trail, mentions one of these songs, 
which he calls "Two Thousand Miles Away." 30 It is almost exactly 
like the chorus of the following song, which I heard Zeke Paris sing 
when I was a child. I wish it were possible to put into the printed 
song the great fervor and pathos of the singer! 

30. Ridings, Sam, op. cit., p. 294. Mellinger E. Henry records a song, "Dear Mother." 
He refers to a remark of Professor Combs concerning this: "Stanza 7 sounds dangerously like 
the old song a two-line refrain of which runs: 

'For I have a dear old mother 

Ten thousand miles away.'" 

Professor Combs says that he heard his mother sing the song thirty years ago. JAFL, v. 
XLIV (1931), p. 97. 



58 



KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 



TEN THOUSAND MILES AWAY 






m 



P 



On the banks of a lone - ly riv- er, Ten thous- and miles a - way, 



J I J* r r J I J 



FF 



There I've an ag - ed moth - er Whose hair is turn - ing gray, 



^ 







Then blame me not for weep - ing; Oh, blame me not, I pray, 



fe 



H 



For I've an ag - ed moth - er Ten thou - sand miles a - way. 

On the banks of a lonely river, 
Ten thousand miles away, 
There I've an aged mother 
Whose hair is turning gray. 

Chorus: 

Then blame me not for weeping, 
Oh, blame me not, I pray, 
For I've an aged mother, 
Ten thousand miles away. 

Of the numerous songs depicting the cowboy's heaven, perhaps the 
most famous one is "The Cowboy's Dream," beginning 

Last night as I lay on the prairie 
And looked at the stars in the sky, 
I wondered if ever a cowboy 
Would drift to the sweet bye and bye. 

The song, to the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean," is an 
analogy in which heaven, "the trail to the great mystic regions," is 
compared to the long drive up the trail. 

The most picturesque stanza is 

And I'm scared that I'll be a stray yearling, 
A maverick, unbranded on high, 
And get out in the bunch with the "rusties," 
When the Boss of the Riders goes by. 

N. Howard Thorp's version, one of the earliest, he says was given 
him by Walt Roberts, Double Diamond ranch, White Mountains, 



HULL: COWBOY BALLADS 



59 



1898. The authorship is ascribed to the father of Captain Roberts^ 
of the Texas Rangers. 31 

The loveliest cowboy song of the lone night on the prairie is 
"Night Herdin' Song." This version, as it is still sung to quiet the 
restless cattle on the range, was set down for me by Dr. Hull A. 
Cook. I know of only two tunes for this song, the one I record here 
and Margaret Larkin's. 32 

NIGHT HERDIN' SONG 



' > > JM J* JJ- 



Oh, _ move slow, do gies; Quit rov - ing a - round You have 



J' J" J> Js JIJ'J'J. 






wan - dered and tram - pled all o -ver the ground. Oh, graze a - long 



I.Tl J " 



do gies and feed kind - a slow, And don't for - ev - er be 



lit - tie do gies, move slow 




Oh, move slow, dogies; quit roving around, 

You have wandered and trampled all over the ground. 

Oh, graze along, dogies, and feed kinda slow, 
And don't forever be on the go. 

Move slow, little dogies, move slow, 
Hi-o, Hi-o-o-o-o. 

I've circle herded and night herded too, 

But to keep you together ! That's what I can't do. 

My horse is leg weary, and I'm awful tired, 
But if you get away I am sure to get fired. 

Bunch up, little dogies, bunch up, 
Hi-o, Hi-o-o-o-o. 

31. "The Cowboy's Dream," Thorp, op. cit., pp. 40-41. Alice Corbin Henderson's "In- 
troduction" to this volume is a scholarly piece of work. Her comment on the cowboy ver- 
nacular, p. xxii, is particularly illuminating. 

32. Margaret Larkin, op. cit., pp. 9-12, records one of these exceedingly rare tunes which 
make her collection so much more valuable than those without music. I regard the tunes in 
my collection as a more important contribution than the words, because they are, as Alan 
Lomax told me, "scarcer than hen's teeth." 

The words of "Night Herding Song" are attributed to Harry Stephens by Lomax, Cowboy 
Songs, p. 324. 



60 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Oh, lay still, dogies, since you have laid down, 

Stretch away out on the big open ground. 
Snore loud little dogies and drown the wild sounds 

That will all go away when the day rolls around. 
Lay still, little dogies, lay still, 

Hi-o, Hi-o-o-o-o (Repeat) Hi-o, Hi-o-o-o-o. 

There is something singularly moving in this song, as it is sung in 
the dim light of a Western camp fire, to the soft accompaniment of 
the guitar. One who has slept out under the open sky on the barren 
high plains of Wyoming is reminded poignantly of the "wild sounds" 
that haunt the night watcher in that desolate region. 

This picture of the "leg-weary" cowboy talking to his restless 
cattle, pleading with them not to stampede, and finally soothing them 
to sleep with his plaintive lullaby, brings to a fitting close this brief 
survey of the cowboy's life in song. 



The Annual Meeting 

THE sixty-third annual meeting of the Kansas State Historical 
Society and board of directors was held in the rooms of the 
Society on October 18, 1938. 

William Allen White, president of the Society, was unable to at- 
tend the morning meeting and in his absence Thomas A. McNeal 
presided. 

Mr. McNeal called the meeting to order at 10 a. m. The first 
business was the reading of the annual report of the secretary. 

SECRETARY'S REPORT, YEAR ENDING OCTOBER 18, 1938 

Since the meeting last year more history has been made in the world than 
at any time since the close of the World War. Even in the United States it 
has been a period of change and a new consideration of the fundamentals of 
government. The result, as it affects the Historical Society, has been an in- 
creasing interest in the history of the state. Our experience confirms reports 
from other societies that there is a material growth in popular interest in local 
history. Many schools in small towns and rural communities are asking for 
detailed information about their towns and counties. These demands on the 
staff do not leave as much time as we could wish for routine work. The super- 
vision of federal projects also requires continuous attention. The work of 
cataloguing and otherwise organizing our books, relics, documents, pictures and 
newspapers is progressing, however, as will appear in the reports of the various 
departments. 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

Pres. William Allen White reappointed Thomas Amory Lee, Robert C. 
Rankin and Chester Woodward to the executive committee, the members hold- 
ing over being Justice John S. Dawson and T. M. Lillard. At the first meet- 
ing of the committee following the annual meeting Mr. Lee was elected chair- 
man. The death of J. M. Challiss, first vice-president, was a great loss to the 
Society. Mr. Challiss was a member of a pioneer family, and he was an active 
supporter of the work of the Society. 

BUDGET REQUESTS 

Appropriation requests for the next legislature were filed with the budget 
director in September. Four additions to the staff were requested: a research 
director and three cataloguers. Five hundred dollars was asked for microfilm- 
ing, and a $500 increase in the book fund. Also, $1,350 was requested for the 
purchase of new catalogue cases. In the budget for the Old Shawnee Mission 
$25,000 was asked for the restoration of the north building. 

FEDERAL WORK PROJECTS 

Federal work projects operating under the Society's supervision have con- 
tinued without interruption. Mrs. Harrison Parkman and other WPA and 
NYA officials have provided better-than-average workers who have made 
commendable progress in the tasks assigned them. Mention of their work 
programs is incorporated in reports of the departments. 

(61) 



62 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Thirteen to fourteen persons have been regularly employed sixteen days 
a month each under the WPA project. From October 6, 1937, to October 5, 
1938, the federal government contributed $11,771.73 for salaries. The Society's 
expenditure for the same period was approximately $600 for typewriter rentals 
and working materials. During the year the Society's WPA program has 
operated under four project numbers. On July 1 our WPA personnel was 
absorbed by H. C. Sticher's WPA state-wide museum project. Direct control 
of individuals and their work assignments is still retained by the Society. 

The NYA project, employing three to four young persons six or eight days 
a month, has operated continuously throughout the year. In its operation the 
federal government has expended approximately $750 for salaries. Starting in 
September one Washburn student, employed through the college NYA pro- 
gram, was assigned to the Society. 

SUBJECTS FOR RESEARCH 

Inquiries for information come from many sources. In recent months we 
have sent material to both national broadcasting companies, to two trans- 
continental railways, to several of the great newspapers of the country, to one 
of the large bus lines and to two of the leading motion-picture companies. 
Producers of several of the "epic" films have been supplied by us with histori- 
cal data, which, however, is seldom recognizable when the pictures are pro- 
duced. A great deal of what is seen in the pictures about Kansas or is heard 
on the air or printed in books, newspapers and magazines is based on informa- 
tion secured from the Society. There are, of course, innumerable questions 
from individuals that require little research. 

During the year there have been more than the usual number of historians 
doing serious research. Their subjects are grouped here under several 
rather broad headings: Biography: Edgar Watson Howe; David J. Brewer; 
Arthur Capper; Robert Simerwell; Charles Robinson; William A. Johnston; 
Everett family; John Steuart Curry; Bat Masterson; Isaac McCoy; Mother 
Bickerdyke; Andrew H. Reeder; William L. Couch; Daniel Reed Anthony. 
Economics: Kansas sales tax; financial history of Kansas; survey of com- 
modity prices; economic history of Dodge City; investments. Education: 
Permanent school funds of Kansas; sociological factors affecting the develop- 
ment of education in Kansas; history of private normal schools; early high 
schools of Kansas; educational development in Harper county; history of 
education in Pawnee county. Foreign influences: Contribution of the foreign 
element to Barton county; history of the Swedish colony in Allen county; 
Scandinavian immigration to Lincoln county. Journalism: Early newspapers 
in Morton county. Literature and Music: Music festivals; John Brown in 
literature; Kansas literature for 1937. Politics: Colored Farmers' Alliance 
and its relation to the Populist movement; Progressive movement in the 
Republican party, 1902-1917; congressional insurgency, 1909-1913. General: 
Coal mines; influence of Fort Leavenworth on the development of the West; 
history and evolution of the Kansas Corporation Commission; Kansas oratory 
in the territorial period; history of child placing in Kansas; Quantrill raid; 
Kickapoo Indians in Kansas; church histories; court of industrial relations; 
history of McLouth; history of the state penitentiary; Osage removal and 
settlement; history of settlement on Little Osage; Atchison, Topeka & Santa 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 63 

Fe land grants; border trouble in Linn and Bourbon counties; railroads; 
history of Abilene; child labor amendment; organization of Kansas troops in 
the Civil War ; range cattle industry in the Flint Hills. 

LIBRARY 

During the year the library has answered approximately 2,100 requests for 
information about Kansas, 900 about genealogy and 600 about the West, 
Indians and American history. Material from the loan file has been in con- 
tinuous demand from schools and individuals over the state. Much assistance 
and material has been given to persons employed on federal projects. 

This Society is the depository for Kansas of the Library of Congress authors' 
catalogue. Approximately 50,000 cards are filed in this catalogue each year. 
During the past year workers have filed these cards and have revised the 
filing of all cards under state and United States headings. An index to the 
roster of Kansas soldiers in the Civil War has been completed by WPA work- 
ers and is proving very useful. Other workers have begun an index to The 
North Carolina Historical and Genealogical Register, the information in this 
three-volume set being practically lost for want of an index. Current and old 
newspaper clippings are being pasted by WPA workers and these files are being 
revised. 

The first state textbook printed and bound at the State Printing Plant was 
recently presented to the library. W. C. Austin was state printer and Victor 
S. Boutwell was foreman of the bindery when this book was published in 1914, 
and both are occupying these positions today. The book was Anna E. Arnold's 
History of Kansas. 

The Historical Records Survey of the WPA is compiling an inventory of 
Kansas imprints from 1854 to 1876. The majority of entries have come from 
this library. This work, when published, will be of value to all libraries. 

PICTURE COLLECTION 

During the past year 597 pictures have been added to our collection. Six 
oil paintings depicting the early West were the gift of the Adolph Roenigk 
estate. Letters were sent to the Chambers of Commerce of seventy cities for 
which we had no or few pictures in our collection. As a result the Society 
received seventy-five pictures representing seven cities. Other cities have asked 
through their local newspapers for pictures and we hope later to receive more. 

In February a catalogue case was purchased for the picture catalogue and 
we now have a convenient index containing approximately 30,000 cards. 

PRIVATE MANUSCRIPTS 

Sixty-one manuscript volumes and 1,622 individual manuscripts were re- 
ceived during the year. 

Of outstanding importance among these recent accessions are the diaries of 
Isaac T. Goodnow covering the period 1834-1894, in forty-five small volumes. 
They were the gift of his niece, Miss Harriet Parkerson, of Manhattan. Isaac 
Goodnow came to Kansas territory in 1855 and settled near Manhattan. In 
1857, with Joseph Denison, Washington Marlatt and others he established 
Bluemont College, which later became Kansas State College. Goodnow served 
as superintendent of public instruction and was land commissioner for the 
M. K. & T. railway. He was prominent in local and state affairs for nearly 
forty years. 



64 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Fifteen letters by Charles Robinson to his wife, 1857-1862, have been added 
to the Robinson papers. 

An unusual diary is that of George H. Hildt for the year 1857. Hildt, with 
companions from Canal Dover, Ohio, took up land near Olathe, Johnson 
county, early in 1857. William Clarke Quantrill, later guerrilla chief, was 
a friend and neighbor. 

Sixty-four photostat copies of letters and documents on file in the office 
of the U. S. commissioner of Indian affairs, relating to the Shawnee mission and 
the manual labor school, were added to the manuscript materials on those 
historic institutions. They are dated 1838-1865. 

Through the courtesy of Atlanta university photostat copies of 47 letters by 
John Brown to Seth Thompson, 1826-1847, were secured; also copies of 17 
letters by Franklin B. Sanborn, 1857-1858. The Brown letters relate mainly to 
business enterprises in which Brown and Thompson were associated; the San- 
born letters relate to affairs of the territory. 

Generous permission was given the Society by J. E. Everett, of Brewster, 
N. Y., to copy a series of letters written by his parents, John R. and Sarah 
Everett, during the period 1855-1864 while they were residents of Miami 
county. These letters set forth in detail the circumstances of pioneer life and 
the political conditions of the period, and are of such unusual interest that 
the entire series will be published in the Quarterly during 1939. 

Typing of the letters in the letter press books of Thomas Ewing, Jr., and 
the Leavenworth law firm of Sherman, Ewing & McCook, 1857-1861, has been 
completed by a typist on the WPA project. Total number of letters copied 
is 919. Copies have also been made of various documents, including the 
minutes of the Connecticut Kansas colony, records of the Kickapoo town 
company, etc. 

Workers on the NYA project have continued the indexing of the Society's 
correspondence volumes under the supervision of this division. 

Gifts of manuscripts were made by the following during the year: Paul M. 
Angle; Mrs. J. A. Bacon; J. E. Bartholomew; J. W. Berryman; Mrs. Samuel' 
J. Brandenburg; Annie M. P. Bundy estate; Mrs. B. E. Canfield; John Carter; 
J. T. Crawford; Mrs. J. H. Culbertson; Mrs. C. O. DeLap; W. H. Fernald; 
Ellsworth Fuller; R. W. Graham; Mary W. Greene; Myra E. Hull; Schuyler 
Lawrence; Mrs. George T. McDermott; Dr. Karl A. Menninger; Mrs. John 
Moore; H. Norman Niccum; Jennie S. Owen; L. Palenske; Harriet Parker- 
son; Mrs. Dwight H. Platt; Willard Raymond; Harold Root; Mrs. A. B. 
Seelye; Mrs. Ella D. Shaul; Mrs. John Siglinger; Mrs. Manie B. Specht; 
Donald W. Stewart; Oscar K. Swayze; Tecumseh Social Service Club; Mrs. 
K. Myrtle Smith Wheeler; William Allen White; Mrs. Evelyn Whitney. 

STATE ARCHIVES 

The Social Security act has increased the demands made on this Society, 
since applicants for old-age assistance must furnish proof of their ages. In- 
dividuals and welfare boards in nearly every county of the state have turned to 
us for help. In order to verify birth dates prior to 1911 it is necessary to check 
the official census records in our archives department or to make a search 
through the newspapers. During the past nine months we have issued 528 age 
certifications. Only occasionally is the information supplied by the applicant 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 65 

definite enough to enable us to get the facts from the census immediately. 
During this time 2,277 census volumes and hundreds of newspapers have been 
consulted. Often it is necessary to devote hours in the search for a single 
name. This service has been provided without charge, as our contribution to 
social welfare, but it has become a rather serious problem. We also receive 
many requests from aged persons born in Kansas who are applying for as- 
sistance in other states. 

During the year one WPA worker has been employed full time and other 
workers part time on the index of the 1860 census of Kansas begun last year. 
Names indexed to October 5 total 62,568. The names and other essential 
census data are posted on specially printed forms and are filed alphabetically. 

The index of charters issued by the state, being prepared by WPA assistants, 
has been carried from 1855 to 1919. During the year 37,575 cards were added, 
the total now being 154,575. Nine volumes of amendments have been cata- 
logued and the changes noted on original cards of the index. The value of 
this index was explained in the secretary's report last year. 

The archives cataloguer and a WPA typist compiling a list of the "lost" 
towns of Kansas have forms partly filled out on 3,960 places. It is anticipated 
that this record of the towns that have disappeared in Kansas may total 5,000. 
Every phase of Kansas history is reflected in these town names. They come 
from Indians, explorers, businesses, railroads. They recall the strife over 
slavery. Many were brought from the Old World by foreign settlement and 
others have their source in religious cults. Some are descriptive of the flora 
and fauna of their locations and others are descriptive of their geological or 
geographical aspects. The range cattle era named some and the Civil War left 
its impress on many. There is comedy in many freak names and tragedy in 
the names of certain towns involved in county-seat fights. Statesmen and 
military officers were remembered, and many a farmer gave his own name or 
that of a woman of his family to many a lost post office. Frequently, in this 
connection, a change in name or location simply meant removal of the post 
office to another farmer's house. 

NEWSPAPER SECTION 

For several years the Society has considered using microphotography for 
preserving parts of its collections. Since camera equipment and materials for 
photographing newspapers on 35 mm. film cost several thousand dollars we do 
not expect to make photographs until a special appropriation to cover equip- 
ment, labor and materials can be secured from the legislature. Until then 
we expect to use the service offered by film laboratories where newspapers may 
be shipped and filmed at prices not at all unreasonable in comparison with 
other copy methods. A projector has been purchased and we hope to pick up 
for filming, as our funds will permit, rare files of Kansas newspapers heretofore 
not available to the Society's patrons. Filming of the Society's own newspaper 
collections that should be done will have to wait until more money is available. 

In line of this policy we borrowed files of the Abilene Chronicle, 1870-1873, 
from H. W. Wilson, of Abilene, and the Ellsworth Reporter, 1871-1875, from 
Harold and Ned Huycke, of Ellsworth. Two rolls of film now in our film 
library were made from these newspapers by a subsidiary of the Eastman 

56912 



66 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Kodak Co., in Rochester. Both files carry much news of the early cattle busi- 
ness in these towns. Extra files have never come to light and it was gratifying 
to secure copies of them before they were lost to the Society forever. 

For the first time the newspaper division has kept count of the number of 
patrons using its facilities and has noted the extent of newspaper materials re- 
quested. From January 1 to September 30, 3,797 patrons were registered. They 
consulted 5,407 newspaper bound volumes and 10,619 unbound issues. 

The 1938 List of Kansas Newspapers and Periodicals was published in July. 
It shows 735 newspapers and periodicals being received regularly by the Society 
for filing. Of these, 61 are dailies, 14 semiweeklies, 490 weeklies, 27 fort- 
nightlies, 12 semimonthlies, one once-every-three-weeks, 69 monthlies, 10 bi- 
monthlies, 21 quarterlies, 27 occasionals, two semiannuals, and one annual, 
coming from all the 105 Kansas counties. Of the 735 publications, 170 are 
listed Republican, 45 Democratic, 281 independent in politics, 91 school or col- 
lege, 29 religious, and 119 miscellaneous (including six Negro publications). 

On January 1, 1938, the Society's collection contained 45,069 bound volumes 
of Kansas newspapers, in addition to the more than 10,000 bound volumes of 
out-of-state newspapers dated from 1767 to date. Additional steel shelving 
costing $900, authorized by the 1937 legislature, has been installed. The new 
shelves provide storage for out-of-state newspapers which have been stacked 
on boxes and benches for twenty years, and for the first time in decades the 
entire newspaper collection is properly housed. 

A collection of Emporia newspapers received from the office of Ted New- 
comer, county clerk of Lyon county, was the outstanding old newspaper acces- 
sion of the year. Chief among these was a very fine file of The Kansas News, 
published at Emporia from June 6, 1857, to December 20, 1878. Until receipt 
of these papers the Society had only three issues of the News dated before 
December, 1865. Other papers in this collection were The Tidings, April 13- 
December 28, 1894, the Emporia Ledger, January 8-November 19, 1874, and 
the Emporia Weekly Republican, January 26, 1882-December 27, 1894. Other 
gifts included fifteen bound volumes of the New York Times, July, 1914- 
January, 1917, from Dr. Arthur K. Owen, Topeka; miscellaneous newspapers 
and issues of The Southern Kansas Herald, Miami County Argus, and Miami 
County Advertiser, papers published in Paola in the 1860's and the latter two 
not previously represented in the Society's collections, from Ruth Field, Los 
Angeles, Cal.; L'Estafette du Kansas, French newspaper published at Leaven- 
worth, December 25, 1858, from Grace Campdoras, San Diego, Cal., and mis- 
cellaneous newspapers from the State Library, Ralph T. Baker, Mrs. Clem C. 
Maurer, W. C. Epperson, Margaret E. Wallbridge, all of Topeka; Rupert 
Calvo, Columbia, S. C.; Mrs. F. H. Hodder, Lawrence, and Gene Howe, 
Amarillo, Tex. 

MUSEUM 

The attendance in the museum for the year was 33,637, an increase of 1,031 
over the preceding year. 

There were 64 accessions. The most important addition for many years 
was the airplane presented by Robert Billard of Topeka as a memorial to his 
brother, L. Phil Billard, who was killed in line of duty in France in 1918. 
It is a Curtiss type plane which was built in Topeka in 1912 by A. K. 
Longren. Mr. Billard had received requests from several institutions for this 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 67 

plane and was offered $25,000 for it. It is in splendid condition and attracts 
hundreds of visitors. On July 24 it was formally presented to the Society by 
Mr. Billard at a public meeting in Memorial hall. Sen. Arthur Capper, who 
is a director of the Historical Society and a long-time friend of the Billard 
family, made the principal address. 

Another valuable accession was a replica of the first McCormick reaper, 
invented by Cyrus Hall McCormick in 1831. It was donated on behalf of 
the International Harvester Company by Cecil H. Wiley, manager of the 
Topeka branch. 

Two collections of interesting historic objects were bequeathed to the 
Society in the wills of Annie M. P. Bundy and Kate King. 

During the year the walls and ceilings in the museum were repaired and 
painted. All the pictures and exhibits were taken down and cleaned and re- 
paired. The oil paintings were washed according to a formula provided by 
the Metropolitan Museum of Art; many of the frames were restored and new 
labels made. Also all silver and brass objects in the museum were cleaned 
and polished. In all, 619 pictures were restored between the first of March 
and the last of July. 

All the birds in five of the large cases of the Goss collection were cleaned 
and the cases were repaired. 

A project has been approved by the WPA for the construction of six 
dioramas for the museum. These dioramas will be five feet wide and will 
exhibit in three dimensions six outstanding scenes in Kansas history. This 
will be one of the most interesting exhibits in the museum. 

It is impossible to list in this report all the accessions. The names of donors 
were: George A. Root, Annie M. P. Bundy estate, Clarence Messick, Carl 
Teichgraeber, Kate King estate, Woman's Kansas Day Club, A. B. Griggs, 
C. B. Crosby, Cecil H. Wiley, Robert Pierce, Robert Billard, L. C. Oaklund, 
Harry L. Rhodes, all of Topeka; John O'Bennick and daughter Mary Tohee, 
Mayetta; Alice A. Scott, Olathe; Frank Brown, Soldier; Henry Clay Nahgonbe 
(Bear), Mayetta; L. A. Stone, Ottawa; Mrs. Harvey Hiskey, Robinson; Pierce 
R. Hobble, Dodge City; Don DuCharm, Havensville; Lyman Hollis, Chicago, 
111.; Mrs. Anna L. Cook, Huggins, Mo.; J. W. Wallace, Long Beach, Cal. 

ACCESSIONS 

Total accessions to the Society's collections for the year ending June 30, 
1938, were as follows : 

Library : 

Books (volumes) 1,450 

Pamphlets 3,818 

Magazines (bound volumes) none 

Archives : 

Separate manuscripts 12,637 

Manuscript volumes 17 

Private manuscripts: 

Separate manuscripts 1,622 

Volumes 61 

Printed maps, atlases and charts 97 

Newspapers (bound volumes) 762 

Pictures 597 

Museum objects 64 



68 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

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

Books, pamphlets, bound newspapers and magazines 377,761 

Separate manuscripts (archives) 1,069,984 

Manuscript volumes (archives) 27,826 

Manuscript maps (archives) 583 

Printed maps, atlases and charts 11,016 

Pictures 18,341 

Museum objects 32,912 

THE QUARTERLY 

The Kansas Historical Quarterly is now in its seventh year, six volumes 
already having been published. Much of the credit for the high standard the 
magazine has achieved among the state historical magazines of the country 
should go to Dr. James C. Malin, associate editor, who is professor of history 
at Kansas University. Doctor Malin's criticisms of articles submitted is in- 
valuable. Nyle H. Miller, newspaper clerk, deserves credit for his excellent 
work in checking all citations that appear in the magazine and preparing the 
manuscripts for the printer. The Quarterly is widely quoted by the newspapers 
of the state and is used in many schools. 

OLD 8HAWNEE METHODIST MISSION 

Next year will be the one-hundredth anniversary of the erection of the first 
brick building at Shawnee Mission. Plans are now being made for the cele- 
bration of this event. The Daughters of the American Revolution, Colonial 
Dames, Daughters of American Colonists, Daughters of 1812 and the Shawnee 
Mission Indian Historical Society will cooperate with the State Historical 
Society. The building was first ready for use in October, 1839, and tentative 
plans are for the celebration in October of next year. 

In September the Society made application for a PWA project to restore 
the north building. In the budget requests submitted for the 1935 and 1937 
legislatures an appropriation of $25,000 was requested for this restoration. 
These requests were disallowed each time. If the PWA project is approved 
the federal government will assign $13,750, leaving $11,250 to be supplied by 
the state. It is hoped that if the project is approved the legislature will ap- 
propriate the state's quota. This building in many ways is the most interesting 
of the three. Almost all the original floors, partitions, mantels, lath and other 
woodwork are still in good condition. 

To commemorate the one-hundredth anniversary of the mission the Society 
will publish an "Annals of Old Shawnee Mission." For the past six months 
Miss Martha Caldwell, a member of the staff, has been compiling a chrono- 
logical record of the mission and school. In her research she has consulted 
scores of documents and books and has secured important records from the 
archives of the Methodist church, various government departments in Wash- 
ington, and other sources. This manuscript now totals more than 600 pages. 
A selection will be made from this compilation in the form of a year-by-year 
record. Thousands of persons visit the mission each year and many ask if 
such a history is available. 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 69 

FIRST CAPITOL OF KANSAS 

The first capitol building, on Highway 40 in the Fort Riley reservation, con- 
tinues to attract many visitors. During the year ending September 30, 1938, 
13,282 persons stopped to inspect the building, about forty percent being from 
other states. 

MARKING HISTORIC SITES 

The Historical Society, in cooperation with a special committee of the Kan- 
sas Chamber of Commerce and the officials of the state highway department, 
have been working on a plan to mark and map the principal historic sites in 
Kansas. Following several meetings in the past two or three years the His- 
torical Society tentatively selected 100 sites as worthy of marking. This work 
was done by George Root, who spent many hours checking the exact locations 
of the sites and verifying the events that make them historical. This list was 
submitted to the committee of the Kansas Chamber and as a beginning fifty 
will be selected for marking. The highway department has agreed to erect 
suitable signs and maintain them, and WPA officials will assist with material 
and labor. Some assistance will also be expected from local communities. The 
highway department is now working on blueprints of the proposed signs based 
on those being used in Montana, following a suggestion made last year at the 
annual meeting of the Historical Society by Charles H. Browne, of Horton. 
It is hoped that work can be begun on the erection of these signs within the 
next few months. 

THE STAFF OF THE SOCIETY 

This report would be incomplete without mention of the members of the 
staff of the Society. Last summer a member of the faculty of Washington 
University, St. Louis, who has conducted research in many of the large his- 
torical societies and libraries of the country, made the statement that the mem- 
bers of the staff of the Kansas State Historical Society were the most efficient 
and courteous of any he has met. The secretary is pleased to acknowledge his 
indebtedness to them for the accomplishments noted herein. 

Respectfully submitted, 

KIRKE MECHEM, Secretary. 

At the conclusion of the reading of the report of the secretary Mr. 
McNeal stated that it stood approved if there were no objections. 

Mr. McNeal then called for the reading of the report of the 
treasurer, Mrs. Mary Embree, which follows: 

TREASURER'S REPORT 

STATEMENT OF MEMBERSHIP FEE FUND 
From October 19, 1937, to October 18, 1938 

Treasury bonds on hand $3,500.00 

Balance, October 19, 1937 1,771 .05 

Refund of money advanced for postage 310.00 

Annual membership dues 121 .00 

Life membership fees 150.00 

Refund of money advanced to janitor 15.00 

Checks sent in for postage on volume VI of the Quarterly 1 .75 

Interest on treasury bonds 146 . 25 

Check for volume XV, of the Collections 2.00 



Total receipts $6,017.05 



70 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Expenditures: 

Chairs for 1937 annual meeting $4 .00 

Announcements of 1937 annual meeting 18.40 

Photographic work 78 .00 

Money advanced for postage 317 . 00 

Installing airplane 55 . 55 

Christmas checks for janitors 13.50 

Notary commission 2 . 00 

Hauling 7.50 

Money advanced to janitor 15.00 

Repair of Addressograph 2.06 

Flowers 3.39 

Manuscripts 39 . 00 

Money advanced for WPA supplies 59 . 17 

Expenses of Gustave R. Gaeddert conducting the Mormon dele- 
gation across Kansas along the route of the Mormon battalion, 39.80 
Expenses of Nyle H. Miller attending the meeting of the Missis- 
sippi Valley Historical Association 64 .32 

Traveling expenses of secretary and members of staff 298 . 8(J 

Subscriptions 116.00 



Total expenditures $1,133.55 

Balance, October 18, 1938 4,883.50 



$6,017.05 

Balance consists of 

Treasury bonds $3,500.00 

Cash 1,383.50 



$4,883.50 

JONATHAN PECKER BEQUEST FUND 

Principal, treasury bonds $950.00 

Balance, interest, October 19, 1937 $32 .31 

Interest from October 19, 1937, to October 18, 1938 28.95 

Total receipts $61 .26 

Expenditures : 

New Hampshire books bought of Frank J. Wilder 7.60 



Balance, October 18, 1938 $53.66 

JOHN BOOTH BEQUEST FUND 

Principal, treasury bonds $500 . 00 

Balance, interest, October 19, 1937 $54.55 

Interest from October 19, 1937, to October 18, 1938 14.52 



Total receipts and balance October 18, 1938 $69.07 

THOMAS H. BOWLUS FUND 

The interest from this fund of $1,000 is deposited in membership fee fund. 
Respectfully submitted, 

MARY EMBREE, Treasurer. 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 71 

At the conclusion of the reading of the report of the treasurer Mr. 
McNeal stated that it stood approved if there were no objections. 

The report of the executive committee on the treasurer's report 
was read by John S. Dawson, as follows: 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE'S REPORT 

OCTOBER 18, 1938. 
To the Board of Directors, Kansas State Historical Society: 

The executive committee being directed under the bylaws to check the 
accounts of the treasurer, states that the accounts of the treasurer have been 
audited by the state accountant and they are hereby approved. 

JOHN S. DAWSON, Member of the Executive Committee, 

On motion of H. C. Raynesford, seconded by I. B. Morgan, the 
report was approved. 

The report of the nominating committee for officers of the Society 
was read by Thos. Doran in the absence of the chairman, Dr. James 
C. Malin: 

NOMINATING COMMITTEE'S REPORT 

OCTOBER 18, 1938. 
To the Board of Directors, Kansas State Historical Society: 

Your committee on nominations begs leave to submit the following report 
for officers of the Kansas State Historical Society: 

For a one-year term: Robert C. Rankin, Lawrence, president; Thomas M. 
Lillard, Topeka, first vice-president; Dr. James C. Malin, Lawrence, second 
vice-president. 

For a two-year term: Kirke Mechem, Topeka, secretary; Mrs. Mary Em- 
bree, Topeka, treasurer. Respectfully submitted, 

T. A. McNfiAL, Chairman, 
THOMAS F. DORAN, 
MRS. A. M. HARVEY, 
GRACE D. M. WHEELER. 

The report of the nominating committee was accepted and re- 
ferred to the afternoon meeting of the board. 

There being no further business to come before the board of di- 
rectors, the meeting adjourned. 

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY 

The annual meeting of the Kansas State Historical Society con- 
vened at 2 p. m. The members were called to order by the president, 
William Allen White. 

The annual address, by Mr. White, follows: 



Address of the President 

WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE 

WE will be in order, and I believe, according to the printed 
program and the instructions of your secretary, who really is 
my boss, that it will be my job to open the meeting with what is 
commonly known as the "President's Address." And I shall take 
occasion to express to this Society my gratitude and appreciation 
for the distinction which they have given me in electing me their 
president, and I hope during the year I have not been insensible of 
the honor. I trust that I have paid some attention to the job. 

I have tried to make as distinguished a meeting as we could have 
in the way of a program, and this evening, if I may advise our 
hearers, we shall have a dinner at the Jayhawk, of which Mr. Lloyd 
Lewis, one of the really significant biographers in America, whose 
book, Sherman, Fighting Prophet, has been so widely acclaimed, will 
speak to us about the early days of Kansas, up to the death of Jim 
Lane. 

Mr. Lewis, in getting the record of General Sherman, found his 
hero's Kansas connections, and going into the Kansas days of Sher- 
man, he became interested in our border warfare. I believe now Mr. 
Lewis is writing a book, and is making some search in the files 
within this building. His book will be about "Bleeding Kansas" 
a Kansas by the way that is past history, and is passed into beauti- 
ful memories, along with the Indian, the buffalo, the papaw, aboli- 
tionist, and I was about to say the prohibitionist. This book, I 
am sure, and the research for this book, in a manner will be the 
shadow of his talk tonight. 

I thought it might be fitting if your president in his presidential 
address could consider for a few moments the population sources of 
Kansas, and their effect upon the economic and social status of the 
Kansas that we know. 

Each state in this union has its peculiar distinctions. There are 
differences between every two states between even Vermont and 
New Hampshire, between Kansas and Nebraska, between Missouri 
and Arkansas, between any two bordering states that one may 
name. The differences are fundamental. It is difficult to say why 
those differences have been marked through the decades or the gen- 
erations why they persist. They cannot be entirely geographical 
they are not entirely differences of blood. But perhaps the equa- 
tion is blood plus topography and plus the geographical differences 

(72) 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 73 

that make the unique distinctions which separate one common- 
wealth in our union from another. 

Kansas was an organized community even before it was a state, 
and as a state and territory is only a little more than eighty years 
old. Two generations, perhaps three, in these swiftly moving days, 
have seen Kansas rise from the virgin prairies to a commonwealth 
which is of its own kind, a peculiar community, different from any 
neighbor, quite another kind from Oklahoma. Our slight differ- 
ences are obvious in climate and blood. But do these differences 
alone distinguish us from Nebraska, where the geographical fea- 
tures are not deeply different and a slightly different blood strain 
shapes our state's individuality? We are strongly unlike Missouri, 
which has a historical background widely different from Kansas 
another topography, another annual rainfall, another physical in- 
heritance. 

Nearly eighty years ago a young, thin, gaunt man from Massa- 
chusetts, a graduate of Williams College, stood on a ridge near 
Atchison, when that part of Kansas had just been abandoned by 
the aborigines. He gazed up and down the Missouri river with its 
wide and lovely expanse. He looked across the ridge into Missouri 
and back over rolling Kansas hills. He had been here long enough 
to know how the great prairies back of the Missouri river rise in 
an incline four hundred miles westward toward the Rockies. There 
on a lovely autumn day, as he stood on that ridge, he went back in 
imagination nearly 300 years to the time when the first white ex- 
plorer from the East came to Kansas. John J. Ingalls, a youth in 
his twenties, wrote what I think was the high-water mark of his 
genius, an essay entitled "Regis Loisel." You will find it in the 
old Kansas Magazine, describing the Kansas that was the wild 
Kansas, the illimitable virgin prairies, the limpid streams that he 
saw, that held the Narcissan images of the early first explorers from 
the East the French and Spaniards. What they encountered in 
scenery and, indeed, civilization, when they came into our state in 
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Ingalls saw unchanged as he 
stood looking toward the Missouri river there in 1855. The French 
and the Spaniards left along the streams some faint marks of their 
passing. The missionaries followed the voyageurs, founded mis- 
sions in the southeast part of the state, left the names of two or 
three rivers in the interior of Kansas. Perhaps 100 miles eastward 
from the Kansas-Missouri border a few townships and creeks still 
bear French names. The French came without their women often- 



74 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

times they married the Indians, and their blood merged. The Indian 
blood was too strong for the southern European stock. That Med- 
iterranean civilization crumbled and was no more important to 
Kansas today than that of the mound builder and the troubadour 
a phrase I steal from John J. Ingalls. 

When Ingalls came to Kansas in the 1850's only a memory was 
left of this civilization of southern Europe, Spain and France. It had 
touched Kansas as a visitor and left only slight marks of its passing. 
The first real influx of population into this state came to make Kan- 
sas a slave state. It was followed directly by those who would make 
Kansas free. The opposing forces came from the South, clashing 
with settlers from the Middle and New England states. The con- 
test started in the eastern tier of counties. It reached westward 
perhaps fifty and seventy-five miles, and in some cases penetrated 
100 miles from the border, but there it stopped. Manhattan and 
Emporia were Yankee outposts in the fifties. Thousands of set- 
tlers came, and would-be politicians followed, trying to get control 
of this state to make it into a state where slavery was not per- 
mitted a state where slavery would never be allowed. They came 
in the 1850's they founded the towns or blocked out counties in 
the eastern quarter of Kansas. Those from the North brought 
their families; those from the South, in the main, did not. They 
hesitated to bring their families and to settle permanently in a 
country where their slaves might not be permitted to remain bound- 
men. But the Southerners came young men and middle-aged. 
They came for voting purposes. The New England groups brought 
their wives and children, established homes and settled down for 
good or ill. After 1860 New England blood prevailed. 

This morning, downstairs in this building, I was looking on one 
of those tables where Kansas papers are displayed, and I saw there 
a copy of The Kanzas News, published by P. B. Plumb in the middle 
1850's. And on the first page of this paper is a two-column block 
filled with the names of the members of the Lecompton legislature 
the slavery legislature. That block stares across the years. With 
that careful impartiality which characterizes the Kansas newspaper- 
men, Editor Plumb entitled the names there "The Roll of Infamy." 
I was interested in that roll. I looked it over carefully. I'll tell you 
why: 

When I came out of the shell of adolescence and attended my 
first Republican convention in 1888, I met in that gathering many 
men who had been in Kansas in the 1850's. I met in Republican 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 75 

politics and in Kansas politics, active in the 1880's, scores of men 
who were part of the border warfare. But in that long list of mem- 
bers of the Lecompton legislature I looked in vain for the name of 
one man who was active in Kansas in the 1880's. The men on 
Plumb's "roll of infamy" had come to Kansas and gone as if they 
never were. The civilization of the South touched Kansas almost 
as lightly as the civilization of the Spanish and the French. That 
New England group which conquered Kansas, of which John J. 
Ingalls was a fair example, brought here the torch of learning, 
brought here the culture of New England, brought here the political 
institutions from New England and the Middle West. These 
Abolitionists made our constitution a copy of the constitution of 
Ohio and of certain New England states. Our county system 
comes from the Middle states modified from New England in one 
or two generations. This prewar group that adopted the Kansas 
Free-State constitution marked us. For Kansas in 1860 was still 
in embryo, still in the process of gestation. Go through any town 
today in Kansas to the east and north of Emporia, and you will 
see the houses built in the 1870's and the late 1860's that might 
have been set down out of balloons from any New England town. 
You see the architecture, the general set-up of the towns, white 
houses with green blinds, in elm groves and wide green lawns that 
still persist in our Eastern towns, and still show New England in 
the passing. 

After Kansas was made a free state came the war. Those Free- 
State men out of New England and the Middle states of Illinois, 
Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana went to the war almost as one man. 
I believe Kansas had a larger proportion of veterans in the Civil 
War on the Northern side than any other state in the union. 
Which of course does not mean that we had more soldiers there, 
but rather that more Kansans went to war in proportion to our 
population than soldiers from other states. We were intensely 
union and intensely loyal to the union cause. These soldiers, re- 
turning in 1865, brought with them a host of Civil War comrades. 

I suppose one of the economic reasons why we gained Northern 
settlers so largely in proportion to our total population was that 
the Civil War veterans, following the surrender at Appomattox, 
came West looking for free lands to which their war service en- 
titled them. Probably in Kansas we had more bottom land and a 
fairly equable climate more than any other Western states. To 
the north of us Nebraska was a little colder than Kansas. To the 



76 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

south of us was the Indian territory. In the 1860's and 1870's, 
when the great flood of population surged westward after the Civil 
War, the young veterans of that war took up their service claims 
in Kansas. I saw them in their 30's when I was a child. I re- 
member today how like the World War veterans they were. The 
Civil War boys had the same righting young faces, they had the 
same lovely girls at their sides. They spoke then with the same 
Yankee twang either out of New England, Illinois, Ohio or In- 
diana that our Kansas veterans use today. 

These young Civil War veterans who came into Kansas in the 
1860's and 1870's and 1880's brought with them their institutions 
from the Northern states, mostly, I should say, from the Northern 
Middle states, a blood strained out of New England through the 
Ohio valley. The veterans found a fair free land. 

They pushed the settlements in the decades of the 1860's, 1870's 
and even to the early 1890's. They urged a wave of Civil War 
veterans clear across the state, but it stopped, so far as permanent 
settlement was concerned, somewhere about half way across Kan- 
sas. In the seventies a wave of veterans and their young wives 
climbed the great hills from Salina to Hutchinson westward. They 
settled on the high prairies there. They tried to establish on the 
high plains in western Kansas the same methods of farming they 
had learned in Ohio and the northern Mississippi valley. Those 
methods worked in the Kansas east of Salina, in Kansas east of 
Hutchinson. But they failed on the high plains of western Kansas. 

All over Kansas these Middle Western Yankees, these young 
soldiers of the Civil War, set up their own kind of a common- 
wealth, dominated by the political Puritan. They builded town- 
ships, cities and counties upon a belief in the moral government 
of the universe. In their yearnings they fabricated their own 
Utopias. They tried to set up a community that was a reflection 
of their own God's wisdom. So they attempted to establish a 
sort of theocracy. Moreover, they all joined the G. A. R. It 
dominated Kansas politics for 30 years: kept the state a rock- 
ribbed Republican plutocracy for thirty years after Appomattox 
a plutocracy with benevolent aspirations. One of the early mani- 
festations of this desire to establish a moral government in their 
commonwealth was prohibition. The settlers had begun to assail 
the saloon heavily even before prohibition was adopted in 1880. 
Indeed, temperance associations of one sort and of another by 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 77 

that time had made a considerable portion of Kansas dry. We 
were a dry state even before prohibition. 

I detour here a moment to talk about this prohibition amend- 
ment because it had a serious effect on our ethnology and social 
formation. You old men may remember in the 1870's and 1880's 
America was receiving a great influx of Germans, Scandinavians, 
Hollanders coming into Kansas, Wisconsin, Dakotas, in large num- 
bers. But when in 1880 the prohibition amendment was adopted, 
when in 1882 we attempted to enforce it, and when it was a major 
issue during the 1880's we did not get the German who loves his 
beer. There are few German settlements in Kansas; some Scandi- 
navians only a few and so Kansas, from the middle 1880's until 
today, has had a static population a population bred of New 
England blood. 

Kansas has not grown in numbers much. The stagnation was 
the result largely of prohibition, because the people from northern 
Europe did not like the prohibition idea. We got whatever popula- 
tion we had from the Middle states, who were out of New Eng- 
land; directly or indirectly we descended from the Puritans, who 
believed as we did, in a moral government established by the Kan- 
sas legislature. This Puritanical longing for the Kingdom of God 
on earth accounts for what might be called our ethnological dif- 
ference from the rest of the Missouri valley states. Many Bo- 
hemians live in Nebraska; Minnesota is filled with people from 
the Scandinavian even the Lindberghs and others. What we 
did get in the 1880's was the Mennonite, who came into Kansas 
in the middle 1870's a great horde of them, and kept coming 
until the middle 1880's and settled in middle western Kansas 
in comparatively great numbers. They have added distinction to 
the cultural values of our state. But they are also a highly re- 
ligious people. They believed in a moral government of their uni- 
verse and "the Kingdom." They differed from the Puritans only 
in that they spoke German. 

And also like the New England Pilgrims, the Mennonites had 
been wandering over Europe out of Spain to Holland, from Hol- 
land to Russia, where Catherine granted them privileges for 100 
years. But at the end of the 100 years the Russian czars became 
reactionary, so the Mennonites rose like a horde of locusts and 
came to America, and we probably got more than any other West- 
ern state. They have given us the things the Yankees had thrift, 
diligence and a strong tinge of religious feeling. By the middle 



78 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

nineties the great migrations from Europe to middle western Kan- 
sas had been completed. But we had acquired little of that popula- 
tion. We remained as we were in 1850 so far as blood was con- 
cerned excepting a few Scandinavians, a large settlement of Men- 
nonites. We remain essentially New Englanders essentially a 
Puritanical type. We were different in blood and in ideals from 
the Nebraskans, from Missouri, from Colorado. We had a peculiar 
slant at life. We were basically diligent, thrifty, property-minded 
Republicans. We have carried this slant at life through the genera- 
tions. But in 1890 and 1891 the great migrations from Europe 
northern Europe were over. After that, whatever America re- 
ceived was from southern Europe. It made an industrial popula- 
tion, not rural. Those settlers remained in Eastern America and 
the Atlantic seaboard, and Kansas was touched lightly by the in- 
fluence of the southern Europeans. Only three counties, Wyan- 
dotte, Crawford and Cherokee, harbored these Slavic and Mediter- 
ranean people. 

So Kansas remains, so long as it has no great industrial enter- 
prises, pretty much the same kind of state it was in the 1850's, 
1860's and 1880's. 

When the great migrations were over at the turn of the century, 
when all America was builded, when the railroads were finished in 
the 1890's, when all the wires were laid, when all the city streets 
had been blocked out, when all the pipes had been laid under all 
the cities that had been formed in this land of ours, suddenly the up- 
ward spurt of prosperity that had been carried through three decades 
ceased. America ceased to expand. Then came the economic 
shock of the major depression of the middle nineties. That major 
depression found Kansas in debt. We had built our towns, our 
railroads, our whole economic life, on borrowed money. We were 
New Englanders. A natural reaction came. The Kansas Yankee, 
deciding to boss his own household, rose and we went into an eco- 
nomic revolt in the 1890's with the Populists. It was purely agra- 
rian, Puritanical in its enthusiasm not unlike the great anti- 
slavery revolutionary movements that swept through the country 
in the 1840's, 1850's and 1860's. The Populists took Kansas, over- 
turned the political dynasty for four to six years, swept the Re- 
publicans out of office, and for two administrations, at least, gave 
us a Democratic or Populist or whatever-you-will administration. 
But the Populists left almost no constitutional changes. I may be 
wrong, but I think out of that came the eighteen-months redemption 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 79 

law, and I think that was almost all that was left out of that Pop- 
ulist uprising that still remains of the days when Kansas was in a 
left wing Puritanical revolt. Yet that Populist revolt went into 
our blood deeply. It must have immunized us, because since then 
in the first decade of this century the northern Western states of 
Minnesota, the Dakotas have seen agrarian revolutions. But 
Kansas remained steadfast after she returned to her Republican 
political home in 1898; Townley from Dakota came to Kansas 
not a ripple. We have never paid much attention to Townsend. 
The Klan left us cold. I think we got such a bad dose of radicalism 
in 1890 it still remains in our blood. 

The middle 1890's brings on another phase of Kansas economic 
and social growth. Let us briefly review our social history: first, 
the Puritan, who came in the 1860's; second, the settlers who came 
in the 1860's, 1870's and 1880's, and then the third phase began in 
the middle of the 1890's, and we saw another great wave of assault 
going up the hill to the high Kansas plains going up the inclined 
plains west of Wellington, Salina and Hutchinson to the Colorado 
line. Then we discovered wheat winter wheat! With that dis- 
covery a successful attack was made on western Kansas. The set- 
tlement that followed the discovery of winter wheat in western 
Kansas was an entirely different kind of movement from that of 
the group of pioneers who tried to go and maintain homes there in 
the 1860's, 1870's and 1880's. The wheat growers formed a younger 
group. They found there the old nestors on the high plains who 
had gone to remain through droughts and hard times and this 
younger group began to build a civilization on wheat in western 
Kansas. 

Then in the first decade we suddenly realized Kansas was two 
states. Really that is most significant in our politics and in our 
economic organization. The part of Kansas from the Missouri 
line to Hutchinson, Wellington, Salina is different in soil, different 
in climate, in rainfall, and by reason of those differences is entirely 
different in its economic needs and in its social formation from the 
Kansas lying to the west of the 100th meridian to the Colorado 
line. In the eastern half of Kansas is an alluvial soil much like 
the soil of the Mississippi valley, from Salina eastward to the Al- 
leghenies a rich, deep, alluvial soil. It is possible for a man to 
live comfortably on a farm of from 200 to 240 acres. He may be 
fairly self-sufficient, if he will, and in the Kansas of the 1870's, 



80 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

1880's and 1890's he was fairly self-sufficient. But in western Kan- 
sas we have a sandy soil a different soil, a different altitude two or 
three hundred miles west of Newton from 1,500 to 3,300 feet at the 
Colorado line, which means a different rainfall. All these differences 
account for the fact that the settlers who went into western Kan- 
sas after the coming of winter wheat made an entirely different civili- 
zation from the civilization of those who stopped in eastern Kan- 
sas in the last decade of the old century and in the first decade of 
this century. The western Kansas wheat farmers undertook a 
civilization based on farming in larger units. The survival quality 
of a farmer who could run a large farm or large ranch in western 
Kansas were different qualities from those which made men suc- 
cessful in eastern Kansas. The westerners made a civilization of 
bright, clean, vigorous towns up to 3,000 in population and down to 
hamlets of one hundred. This bright western Kansas town was the 
center of the new agricultural order where men grew wheat and 
cattle. Eastern Kansas is an industrial area, an agrarian industry, 
composed of farms of 160 acres or such a matter. Here the farmer 
has a bunch of cattle growing or bought in Kansas City. Farmers 
in eastern Kansas flourish in a small way raising a diversity of 
crops. They live on their farms. They are small farmers. Except 
in the Flint Hills, these eastern Kansans are barn-lot cattlemen, 
self-sufficient farmers. In western Kansas we have another type 
of civilization not that the small farmer does not persist not that 
he cannot, if he will, win if he can take the handicaps. Here in 
eastern Kansas we have a fairly settled population, while in western 
Kansas we have a sort of migratory population which moves to 
other climes when the hot winds rise and the crops are baked 
another kind of state with different institutions and different social 
viewpoints. Yet the two states are living in harmony. Seventy 
percent of the people of Kansas do not realize we are operating 
under a two-state system. 

Occasionally a quarrel between the two states breaks out in the 
state legislature, and, I think, much out of proportion to the im- 
portance of the question and population. But western Kansas runs 
the show for two reasons a single vote in a county in western 
Kansas means vastly more in the Kansas state government than a 
single vote in any county in eastern Kansas. I am represented in 
the house of representatives at Topeka by a man who represents 
14,000 people. If I lived in Morton county I would be one of 3,000 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 81 

who controlled a member of the legislature. So out there they have 
more power more political power than we have in eastern Kan- 
sas, and they use this power with intelligence and I think with 
moderation. 

Each of our two inner states of Kansas enjoys itself. But each 
is a different kind of economic, and to an extent, a different kind of 
social civilization. I think on the whole western Kansas is more 
individual more of the old Puritanical civilization than here in 
the eastern half. But these waves of population settling the two 
topographical parts of Kansas have made Kansas what it is. We 
have learned the art of compromise in Kansas. We have had to 
compromise in and for successful government. Without a sense of 
compromise, without our democratic background, these two states 
long ago would have been up in arms. Instead we have gone on 
peacefully and scarcely known we live in two states two good 
law-abiding states yet they are one political world. Possibly not 
one Kansas citizen in 100 knows the peculiar social and political 
problems that we must meet in Topeka, divergent interests that have 
to be moulded to make public opinion in Kansas. This legislative 
compromise has made for intelligent knowledge of public affairs 
among our Kansas leaders. It has made us perhaps more a state 
of politicians than most of the American states. We have learned 
to live together people with somewhat antagonistic interests. We 
have learned neighborly understanding we have learned many 
necessary things to weld a democratic people in one political unit; 
and we have kept always in mind the fact that each part of Kan- 
sas had its own problems to consider, that all of us had our com- 
mon problems to consider. This has given us a certain reasonable- 
ness and has provided Kansas with a considerable intelligence in 
handling public affairs. So today we are not only first in wheat, 
but first in freedom. I should say we have accomplished much. I 
think we may reasonably say that we are solving our economic 
problems. We have bitter and terrible privation in some sections 
of the state. Some of our farmers have lost their farms and homes. 
Of course we have in our towns and cities thousands on relief. But 
I should say here 75 or 80 percent of the people live on a common 
standard. We wear about the same kind of clothes. We live in 
the same kind of houses and eat the same kind of breakfast food. 
Our social habits are about the same. We go to the common 
schools and attend the same colleges. Do you realize that there 

66912 



82 



KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 



are more college students out of Kansas and Iowa and Nebraska 
in proportion to our population than go from any other three states 
in the union? In higher education we are in a class by ourselves. 
These things indicate a distribution of our wealth and economic 
justice which we have achieved on our Kansas prairies and high 
plains. It is not Utopia, of course. There is much yet to be done, 
but we have undoubtedly achieved much toward the ideal of the 
fathers who founded this state. If your father and my father could 
come back today and see the privileges that our children enjoy, 
whether their children may be rich or poor, if the founding fathers 
could see the towns we have built most of them not overburdened 
with debt, if they could see our state and look at our state institu- 
tions operating with all the imperfections of a democracy if our 
fathers could come back from where they rest and see the Kansas 
we have, it would be very close to their Utopian dreams. We have 
in deed and in truth made the West, as they the East, the home- 
stead of the free. 

At the conclusion of Mr. White's address, Guy L. Whiteford, of 
Salina, gave a talk on the Indian burial pit near Salina and illus- 
trated his talk with a large photograph. 

Fred W. Brinkerhoff made a short talk on marking and mapping 
historic sites. This was followed by a brief discussion of the plan 
and sites to be marked. 

The report of the committee on nominations for directors of the 
Society was then called for: 

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON NOMINATIONS FOR DIRECTORS 

OCTOBER 18, 1938. 
To the Kansas State Historical Society: 

Your committee on nominations begs leave to submit the following report 
and recommendations for directors of the Society for the term of three years 
ending October, 1941 : 



Aitchison, R. T., Wichita. 
Baugher, Charles A., Ellis. 
Capper, Arthur, Topeka. 
Carson, F. L., Wichita. 
Chandler, C. Q., Wichita. 
Dawson, John S., Hill City. 
Doerr, Mrs. Laura P. V., Lamed. 
Doran, Thomas F., Topeka. 
Ellenbecker, John G., Marysville. 
Hobble, Frank A., Dodge City. 
Hogin, John C., Belleville. 
Huggins, Wm. L., Emporia. 
Hunt, Charles L., Concordia. 



Knapp, Dallas W., Coffeyville. 
Lilleston, W. F., Wichita. 
McLean, Milton R., Topeka. 
McNeal, T. A., Topeka. 
Malin, James C., Lawrence. 
Moore, Russell, Wichita. 
Morehouse, Geo. P., Topeka. 
Price, Ralph R., Manhattan. 
Raynesford, H. C., Ellis. 
Russell, W. J., Topeka. 
Smith, Wm. E., Wamego. 
Solander, Mrs. T. T., Osawatomie. 
Somers, John G., Newton. 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 83 

Stevens, Caroline F., Lawrence. Walker, Mrs. Ida M., Norton. 

Stewart, Donald, Independence. White, William Allen, Emporia. 

Thompson, W. F., Topeka. .Wilson, John H., Salina. 

Van Tuyl, Mrs. Effie H., Leavenworth. 

Respectfully submitted, 

T. A. McNEAL, Chairman, 
THOMAS F. DORAN, 
MRS. A. M. HARVEY, 
GRACE D. M. WHEELER. 

On motion of Robert Stone, seconded by Thomas A. Lee, these di- 
rectors were unanimously elected for the term ending October, 1941. 

The reports of representatives of other societies were called for. 

Reports were submitted from the Douglas County Historical So- 
ciety by Mrs. Lena V. Owen, of Lawrence; the Riley County His- 
torical Society by Mrs. Medora H. Flick, of Manhattan; Shawnee 
Mission Indian Historical Society by Mrs. Elizabeth Harder, and 
the Kansas Catholic Historical Society by Father Angelus Lingen- 
felser, of St. Benedict's College, Atchison. 

There being no further business the annual meeting of the Society 
adjourned. 

MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

The afternoon meeting of the board of directors was then called 
to order by Mr. White. He asked for a re-reading of the report of 
the nominating committee for officers of the Society. The following 
were unanimously elected : 

For a one-year term: Robert C. Rankin, Lawrence, president; 
Thomas M. Lillard, Topeka, first vice-president; Dr. James C. 
Malin, Lawrence, second vice-president. 

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

There being no further business the meeting adjourned. 

DIRECTORS OF THE' KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY AS OF 

OCTOBER, 1938 

DIRECTORS FOR YEAR ENDING OCTOBER, 1939 

Beeks, Charles E., Baldwin. Haucke, Frank, Council Grove. 

Beezley, George F., Girard. Kagey, Charles L., Wichita. 

Bonebrake, Fred B., Topeka. Kinkel, John M., Topeka. 

Bowlus, Thomas H., lola. Lee, Thomas Amory, Topeka. 

Browne, Charles H., Horton. McFarland, Helen M., Topeka. 

Embree, Mrs. Mary, Topeka. McFarland, Horace E., 
Gray, John M., Kirwin. Junction City. 

Hamilton, R. L., Beloit. Malone, James, Topeka. 

Harger, Charles M., Abilene. Mechem, Kirke, Topeka. 

Harvey, Mrs. A. M., Topeka. Morrison, T. F., Chanute. 



84 



KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 



Norris, Mrs. George, Arkansas City. 
O'Neil, Ralph T., Topeka. 
Philip, Mrs. W. D., Hays. 
Rankin, Robert C., Lawrence. 
Ruppenthal, J. C., Russell. 
Ryan, Ernest A., Topeka. 
Sayers, Wm. L., Hill City. 



Simons, W. C., Lawrence. 
Skinner, Alton H., Kansas City. 
Stanley, W. E., Wichita. 
Stone, Robert, Topeka. 
Trembly. W. B., Kansas City. 
Walker, B. P., Topeka. 
Woodward, Chester, Topeka. 



DIRECTORS FOR YEAR ENDING OCTOBER, 1940 



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

Council Grove. 
Brock, R. F., Sharon Springs. 
Bumgardner, Edward, Lawrence. 
Correll, Charles M., Manhattan. 
Davis, John W., Hugoton. 
Davis, W. W., Lawrence. 
Denious, Jess C., Dodge City. 
Fay, Mrs. Mamie Axline, Pratt. 
Frizell, E. E., Larned. 
Godsey, Mrs. Flora R., Emporia. 
Hall, Mrs. Carrie A., Leaven worth. 
Hegler, Ben F., Wichita. 
Jones, Horace, Lyons. 
Kelley, E. E., Garden City. 



Lillard, T. M., Topeka. 
Lindsley, H. K., Wichita. 
Morgan, Isaac B., Kansas City. 
Oliver, Hannah P., Lawrence. 
Owen, Mrs. Lena V. M., Lawrence. 
Patrick, Mrs. Mae C., Satanta. 
Payne, Mrs. L. F., Manhattan. 
Reed, Clyde M., Parsons. 
Rupp, Mrs. W. E., Hillsboro. 
Schultz, Floyd B., Clay Center. 
Shirer, H. L., Topeka. 
Uhl, L. C., Jr., Smith Center. 
Van de Mark, M. V. B., Concordia. 
Wark, George H., Caney. 
Wheeler, Mrs. B. R., Topeka. 
Woolard, Sam F., Wichita. 
Wooster, Lorraine E., Salina. 



DIRECTORS FOR YEAR ENDING OCTOBER, 1941 



Aitchison, R. T., Wichita. 
Baugher, Charles A., Ellis. 
Capper, Arthur, Topeka. 
Carson, F. L., Wichita. 
Chandler, C. Q., Wichita. 
Dawson, John S., Hill City. 
Doerr, Mrs. Laura P. V., Larned. 
Doran, Thomas F., Topeka. 
Ellenbecker, John G., Marysville. 
Hobble, Frank A., Dodge City. 
Hogin, John C., Belleville. 
Huggins, Wm. L., Emporia. 
Hunt, Charles L., Concordia. 
Knapp, Dallas W., Coffeyville. 
Lilleston, W. F, Wichita. 
McLean, Milton R., Topeka. 
McNeal, T. A., Topeka. 



Malin, James C., Lawrence. 
Moore, Russell, Wichita. 
Morehouse, George P., Topeka. 
Price, Ralph R., Manhattan. 
Raynesford, H. C., Ellis. 
Russell, W. J., Topeka. 
Smith, Wm. E., Wamego. 
Solander, Mrs. T. T., Osawatomie. 
Somers, John G., Newton. 
Stevens, Caroline F., Lawrence. 
Stewart, Donald, Independence. 
Thompson, W. F., Topeka. 
Van Tuyl, Mrs. Effie H., 

Leaven worth. 

Walker, Mrs. Ida M., Norton. 
White, William Allen, Emporia. 
Wilson, John H., Salina. 



DINNER MEETING 

William Allen White presided at the dinner meeting for 229 mem- 
bers and friends of the Kansas State Historical Society held in the 
Hotel Jayhawk, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Lloyd Lewis, biographer, 
playwright and dramatic editor of the Chicago Daily News, was 
the featured speaker. His address follows: 



The Man the Historians Forgot 

LLOYD LEWIS 

Members of the Kansas State Historical Society: 
1VJOT long ago, at a luncheon in Chicago, your president, William 
* ^ Allen White, and I made the discovery that a certain Kansan, 
who has been dead down among the roots of your grass for more 
than seventy years, was a mutual favorite of our lives and ap- 
parently of nobody else's. 

And Mr. White said that I must come out and tell your Society 
what I had learned about this dead Kansan. I replied that almost 
everything I had found out had come from your own State Historical 
Society, and that this dead Kansan would have been forgotten en- 
tirely if your Society hadn't been the kind of Society it was and is 
one of the best of all historical libraries, in that it has preserved 
not only the writings and memoirs and documents of important 
people, but of the plain people, the masses whom more pontifical 
and less intelligent historical societies ignore. 

The man is your first senator, James H. Lane, who has been 
crowded out of the schoolbooks and the histories of the nation, and 
whom various forces might well have eliminated from Kansas' mem- 
ory, too, if your collections hadn't preserved the record. 

Where a man stands in history depends upon who keeps the record ; 
more than that, it depends upon who lives to keep the record. If you 
are a favorite of the literary men, the history professors, the clergy, 
you have a head start toward a place in history. So much of the 
importance of New England in history is due to its early corner on 
the literary men, the book publishers, the college professors. We 
are not yet free, as a nation, from the historical prejudices of the 
New Englanders. For the sake of objectivity there are still too 
many midland biographers and historians and professors blandly 
adopting the historical viewpoints of New England a natural thing, 
perhaps, for men whose dream it is to be called some day to a full 
professorship at Harvard. 

New England never liked Kansas' most influential citizen of the 
1850's and 1860's. That is one of the reasons there are others 
why the schoolbooks of America either have no mention at all of Jim 
Lane, or merely dismiss him with a few sneering phrases. James H. 
Lane was a Westerner, an Ohio river man ; he chewed tobacco when 
he could borrow it; he was divorced; he didn't pay his debts; he took 

(85) 



86 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the name of his Lord God in vain and in stride, he made no efforts 
to halt the fabulous tales of what his contemporaries described as 
his "worship at the shrine of Venus," and he only laughed when he 
was branded as the father of political corruption west of the Missis- 
sippi river. Such a man was not to be understood by the elegant 
authors of New England the Brahmins who in that day decreed 
what was good taste in literature. 

James Henry Lane came barging into Kansas from Indiana in the 
spring of 1855, when the fate of the new territory was hanging in the 
balance between slavery and freedom. Across in Missouri the power- 
ful political machine of Sen. David Rice Atchison was dictating the 
policy of Kansas, and from Washington the greater power of Pres. 
Franklin Pierce's administration was aiding the proslave forces. 

Pitted against these formidable machines was only one organiza- 
tion in Kansas a little nest of New England Abolitionists in Law- 
rence Emigrant Aid Society colonists, whose very "Yankee" pres- 
ence was enough to drive the border civilization of Missouri to a 
frenzy. At the head of the Lawrence New Englanders was Dr. 
Charles Robinson a physician, not a politician, although he learned 
something of politics a cool, calculating man, but without the train- 
ing to match Atchison and the payrollers of the federal machine in 
politics. 

With him was Old John Brown of Osawatomie, who scorned poli- 
ticians, and dreamed of blood and war, the sword of the Lord and 
Gideon. Brown's experience in swaying other men's minds had been 
limited to a brief career as an unsuccessful wool merchant. He was 
a child in the hands of the slick politicians on the proslave side, and 
did commit, in time, a major blunder, the Pottawatomie massacre. 
Brown, the fanatic, said little and struck hard; Lane, by contrast, 
said much and killed few. Brown offended, Lane persuaded. Brown 
was a great failure in Kansas, Lane a great success. 

Into Kansas were pouring midlanders, farmers from Illinois, Ohio, 
Indiana, Wisconsin, Kentucky men anxious to get land and not 
caring much about slavery except that they didn't want it where 
they were, cutting the price of labor. 

The bulk of this vote was unexcited, unintense, very cool toward 
the evangelistic, coercive, New Englanders. It was a scattered vote, 
with nothing to bind it together to vote effectively for Free Soil. 

In this extremity of the Free-State population, there appeared Jim 
Lane, ex-congressman from Indiana, ex-lieutenant-governor, son of 
the political boss of southern Indiana, wheelhorse of Stephen A. 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 87 

Douglas who was the great politician of the midlands. Lane was a 
trained and veteran politician, and a gifted one a master organizer, 
a highly intelligent man. He came from Indiana where the babies 
to this day cut their teeth on a poll book, and he proceeded to poll 
Kansas. A Democrat he had been and still remained across four 
more years a typical Andy Jackson Democrat of the Ohio river 
regions. But he could count, and he saw that slavery was doomed 
if the votes could be counted. And he was the man to do it and he 
did it and while John Brown comes to the mind when "Bleeding 
Kansas" is mentioned, it was really Lane who did more than any 
other one soul to make Kansas free. He knew the tricks with which 
to overcome Sen. Davy Atchison from Missouri; he knew the ruses 
with which to outlast, outmaneuver the whole administration ma- 
chine from Washington. It took a powerful politician to meet such 
odds, but Lane met them. And largely because his methods weren't 
of the purest, nor his devices of the most admirable variety, the 
idealists among the New England colonists disliked him. Their 
leaders resented the slow craft with which Lane absorbed them 
the real pioneers drew them into the main Free-State party which 
he came to dominate and which was ruled eventually by the mid- 
landers, the Westerners themselves. 

The New Englanders outlived Lane; they had a stronger hold 
on the sources of national publicity, on the educational system, and, 
to a large extent, they wrote Lane out of history, once he was dead 
and he was dead eleven years after his Kansas career began. 

There was a still larger class to want him out of history the well- 
born and the well-fed. Lane was for the masses, the rag tag and 
bob tail, so the conservatives didn't admire him, although they 
frequently couldn't resist him. And when he was dead and his 
tremendous personal charm had vanished with the Pied Piper music 
of his voice. many of those who had followed him tried to fatten 
their own self-esteem by trying to pretend that he had been nothing 
but a trivial joke in their lives and in the life of Kansas an error, 
I assure you. 

Clergymen, as a class, tried to forget him. They had a natural 
resentment against him because he had made a tool, a jest of their 
craft. And the clergy, with their close connection with colleges 
and public education, have been a power in the shaping of history. 

One of his greatest strokes of genius and he was a genius was 
to turn the pulpit into the stump at any time, anywhere. It was a 
thing many men tried to do in that day, but nobody ever did it 



88 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

like Lane. Your Historical Society's collections have word pictures 
of him at such times a strange, magnetic man in his middle 
forties, six feet tall, slender, wiry, nervous, tremendously alive. He 
burst with vitality his voice was hypnotic. His hair was long and 
reckless, and above his ears black locks curled like horns. 

There was always the hint of Mephistopheles about him or of 
Dionysus, the god of revelry, who loved the plain people and spent 
his life with them. His eyes baffled men who tried to describe them 
they were deep-set and dull when he was quiet; black diamonds, 
reporters called them, when he was speaking. The touch of genius 
and its cousin, madness, always there somewhere behind the glaze 
or the flame. 

He had a wide, loose mouth, as mobile as that of a Shakesperian 
"ham" actor. He was, indeed, an actor, an artist perhaps a great 
artist. Astute critics thought him the man of his time who could 
sway crowds most wholly to his will. A curious mesmerism would 
flow out from his gestures, his voice, his thoughts, a magnetic over- 
tone that held crowds laughing, weeping or gritting their teeth, just 
as he willed. His voice could be a bugle call, or a lullaby. 

He had what all great artists have the power to make the thing 
they imagine and conceive pass out from themselves and possess 
other minds. 

Again and again is it recorded that Jim Lane's enemies feared 
to meet him lest they be charmed out of their principles. 

If there were time I could cite you book and verse on the occasions 
when this vivid and electric man rose before hostile audiences and 
slowly, craftily, won them to his cause a Marc Antony oration 
on the plains. He could rise in front of a crowd where Western 
rivermen and horsemen stood fingering their revolvers and vowing 
to kill him, and within thirty minutes he would have them shouting 
"yea" to a resolution endorsing him for President of the United 
States. 

It is no wonder that the circuit-riding preachers of his day thought 
him Satan Satan in coonskin for he never knew what he wore, 
anymore than what he ate. Rags or broadcloth, he didn't care 
which, and sometimes he wore a vast black fur coat all summer 
long and never noticed. 

He never bothered to attract men's eyes, it was their ears he 
wanted. "Give me your ears," was all he asked. He wrote few 
letters, and left no testaments to history always a bad thing to 
forget if you want to live in history. Whenever his political enemies 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 89 

had captured a community with tales of his sins, political or per- 
sonal, there Jim would go and weave his vocal enchantments again. 
A camp-meeting suited him best for these returns from Elba. It 
was his delight to let it be known that he'd be there, then ride up 
in the night, steal into the back of the singing or bowed congrega- 
tion, then go forward, kneel, then arise and make public confession 
of his sins. Slowly the evangelist in charge of the meeting would 
fade out, and there in his place would be Jim, reciting the human 
frailties of his life, recounting the gaudy temptations that beset 
him, picturing the picturesque frailties which struck him down even 
in the high places he had trod, and winding up by begging the farm- 
ers for their forgiveness now and their votes Tuesday. The compli- 
ment was one the voters did not care to resist, and in an incredibly 
short time Jim Lane became the most powerful, influential and I 
suspect the most intelligent political figure in the territory, and 
by the time statehood came, Jim Lane was the political boss of 
Kansas one of the first personal state bosses of a type since fa- 
miliar all over America. 

After Jim Lane was dead many religious people said that he, in 
rejoining the Methodist church so often, had only used the sacred 
institution of conversion to gain political power. But it is not so 
simple and easy as all that, for Lane had a native love of drama; 
the theatrical elements in churches had a powerful natural appeal 
to him. There were no theaters on the frontier, and the camp-meet- 
ing supplied music, lyric oratory; it was filled with suspense while 
the saved wrestled with Satan for the souls of the unsaved. 

In the 1850's and 1860's there was a simple formula for stump 
oratory: Get up, say that somebody had said something about you, 
repeat it twice, and then say "it ain't so." Lane took that common 
formula, made himself the king of Kansas he took that formula 
and went to the United States senate. 

He would get up on a box or endgate of a wagon anywhere on the 
plains, and cry "They say Jim Lane is illiterate," and then disprove 
it by the eloquent and touching statement that his mother had come 
from Connecticut. He would shout, "They say Jim Lane is a mur- 
derer," and then refute it by asking people to remember how he had 
given his only horse to the ladies of Lawrence to start a public li- 
brary. 

He would begin, "They say Jim Lane is a libertine," and demolish 
the charge by saying that he had been 21 years old before he ever 
smoked a cigar, swore an oath or kissed a girl, and that he loved all 



90 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

virtuous ladies, particularly his darling wife. He would croon that 
so gently that his listeners would forget how his darling wife had 
left him and gone home to Indiana. 

Well educated, cultured, born into the distinguished pioneer fam- 
ily of Gen. Arthur St. Clair, Mrs. Lane had borne with this roving 
husband for years. She had seen him rush off to the Mexican war; 
seen him course the state of Indiana making speeches; she had fol- 
lowed him to Kansas, but she had struck at being left in the raw, 
lonely frontier night after night while he rode the border, drumming 
up votes for freedom. 

So she went back to the Southern culture of the Ohio river town 
of Lawrenceburgh, Ind., got a divorce on the grounds of desertion, 
and thought to marry again. But somehow she didn't. And after 
two years of reading of the exploits of her husband back in "Bleed- 
ing Kansas," she saw that Jim was sweeping through Indiana and 
Ohio stumping for the Republican party. And there came a day 
when the door burst open, and what did she do? Just what Kansas 
always did she flew into Jim's arms. 

She knew his faults, and she knew he would never change. She 
knew she was going back with him to a life of loneliness, relieved by 
nothing but the creditors knocking at the door. She knew that she 
and the children would go hungry, but she also knew that always, 
sooner or later, the door would be bursting open and Jim rushing in, 
his hair flying, his eyes blazing, and his tongue cascading those win- 
ning, wooing words again. 

The truth of the matter seems to be that Jim Lane seems to have 
loved life and human beings more than most men are capable of 
doing. Often he would destroy an enemy politically and then get 
him a job. 

He would make preposterous promises, and then when unable to 
fulfill them, would tell the outraged victims that he loved them still, 
and they would forgive him because they had a strong suspicion that 
it was true. 

One of the most dramatic pieces of testimony comes from John 
Brown, Jr., son of Old Brown, who was more rival than friend of 
Jim Lane in "Bleeding Kansas." John Brown, Jr., told how on the 
night before Lane's election as senator by the revolutionary body 
of Free-State men here in Topeka, Jim came to his room in the Gar- 
vey house, asked him to vote for him tomorrow; and when he was 
told that Brown didn't approve, how Lane poured out compelling 
oratory, and finally inducted young Brown then and there into a 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 91 

mysterious secret order, a new kind of lodge Jim was getting up a 
fraternity which would fight the Missouri devils, fire with fire. 

Thirty years later Brown remembered it. He wrote: "Never can 
I forget the weird eloquence of his whisper as he breathed into my 
ear the ritual of the first degree of the order, gave me the sign, the 
password, the grand hailing signal of distress, 'Ho Kansas.' " And 
Brown recalled how the next morning Lane gave him the emblem 
of the order, and, after Brown had duly voted for Lane, sent him 
home to organize his settlements. But that was all. Brown said 
Lane never did anything more and the great secret order died from 
Jim's lack of attention. 

Lane had used Brown, and Brown knew it, yet after a third of a 
century Brown would still say, "But he had my heart and hand 
then; he has them still. I would not be divorced." 

Albert D. Richardson, the famous correspondent of the New York 
Tribune, knew Lane well in Kansas, and summed him up like this, 
"For years he controlled the politics of Kansas even when penniless, 
carrying his measures against the influence, labor and money of his 
united enemies. His personal magnetism was wonderful, and he 
manipulated men like water. He had a sinister face, plain to ugli- 
ness, but he could talk away his face in twenty minutes." 

Which brings us to a point which years ago I hastily rejected 
as impious when it first entered my head while reading about Jim 
Lane: "He could talk away his face in twenty minutes." 

Precisely that same thing was said of another man of that time, 
a man whose career, whose antecedents, whose basic faith was so 
strangely like Jim Lane's. The man is Lincoln. For Jim Lane was 
a mixture of Huey Long and Lincoln, and I don't know but that 
he was more like Lincoln. 

For after you have heard all the topsy-turvy tales about Jim 
Lane, even believed all the half-affectionate, half-scornful anec- 
dotes of his stormy career, even accepted all the stories of his riff- 
raffish, scalawagism as partly true, you cannot laugh him off, or 
brush him aside. Always a figure of titanic accomplishment comes 
striding back through the fog. For when everything has been said 
and done, it was Jim Lane, more than any other man, who made 
Kansas free soil. He was the organizer of victory; he was the 
shrewd, scheming politician who knew what weakling to buy and 
what strong man to inspire. He was the man who called the neigh- 
borhood meetings by the side of the road, the mass meetings in 
churches, the delegate conventions in big halls. When civil war 



92 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

came to Kansas in 1856 and the name "Bleeding Kansas" was on 
the front page of every newspaper and was the great theme for de- 
bates in the United States senate, it was Jim Lane who led the fight- 
ing men, riding the night, directing the raids, the burnings, the strata- 
gems wily as an Indian, dramatic as General Sheridan in the time- 
liness of his arrivals on the field. 

Kansas laughed about him then, we laugh at him now, but just 
the same it was Lane who was the head of the executive committees, 
it was Lane who was chairman in the meeting of that Free-State 
experiment in revolution, it was Lane who was general of the fight- 
ing forces, Lane who wrote the resolutions, Lane who drafted the 
memorials and appeals for statehood, and when the Free-Soil men 
of Kansas territory had something formal to present to congress, 
it was Lane who was sent to do it. 

Lane was a lawyer, but he had no time to practice ; he was work- 
ing for the cause of free soil. He took no time to earn money, 
because he was too busy with the cause of freedom. He might take 
a hasty flyer in real estate, then forget about it altogether. 

Lane did believe in two things perhaps only two in the whole 
realm of life Kansas and freedom. Born in sympathy with slavery, 
he became one of the most effective orators and military planners 
for abolition. Born a Democrat, the son of the Democratic boss 
of southern Indiana, he became a pillar in the Republican party of 
the 1860's. He used every wile and trick in the realm of politics to 
save Kansas for freedom and the union for America. There was, 
I suspect, nothing he would not have done for the union. The same 
may be said of Abraham Lincoln. 

Only the most innocent of people today still believe that Lincoln 
saved the union with beautiful words and tears. It took all the 
cunning the almost Oriental type of cunning in his sharp, deep 
mind to handle the voters so that the great purpose of his life, the 
salvation of the union, might be achieved. 

Many of the Jim Lane men, fresh from the battles with Border 
Ruffians, went to Washington, D. C., in April, 1861, with Jim Lane, 
to gather around Lincoln in the White House and protect him from 
the threats of the Virginia mob. 

Yes, when the dramatic hour came for Lincoln, and he was un- 
armed and practically alone in a Southern city with secession break- 
ing like the surf around the White House, it was nobody but Jim 
Lane and a crowd of his war-hardened Kansas Jayhawkers who 
moved into the executive mansion and sat with their rifles waiting 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 93 

for the Southerners who never came. It is quite likely a tragedy 
for the United States that Jim Lane and the Jayhawkers were not 
still there on an April night four years later. 

Lincoln is martyred and goes into history too noble, too exalted 
to be linked any more with Jim Lane, who committed suicide. Yet, 
when both were living, Lane may be said to have been President 
Lincoln's political viceroy in Kansas, and sometimes, perhaps, in 
the whole regions west of the Mississippi river. 

When Lincoln wanted to name a Democrat, Andrew Johnson, as 
his running mate upon the National Union ticket at the Baltimore 
convention in 1864, it was Lane whom he probably sent to engineer 
the delicate deal. Many men later claimed the honor, but the 
evidence points to Lane. When Lincoln began his campaign for 
renomination, it was Senator Lane whom he sent to open the drive 
in the East and in the West. Lane was the keynoter for Lincoln. 

Lincoln himself once said that Lane was in the White House al- 
most every day asking for favors for Kansas. The two men under- 
stood each other. Why not? Both were born near the Ohio river 
Lincoln in Kentucky, Lane in either Kentucky or the Indiana shore 
no one can be sure, since he would claim either birthplace, depend- 
ing upon whether he was talking to a Southerner or a Northerner. 
Both were poor. Both received rudimentary educations. 

In 1814 Lane's parents left Kentucky for Indiana. Two years 
later Lincoln's did the same. When Lincoln was nineteen he went 
to New Orleans on a flatboat and saw slavery in its auction-pen as- 
pects. Lane was in his early twenties when he went to New Orleans 
on a flatboat, and saw the thing which he later described as having 
turned him against slavery. A friend left the boat and went up to 
a plantation to ask for work as a carpenter. The planter drew him- 
self up and said, "I bought two carpenters this morning." 

Lincoln in the 1830's was clerking in a general store in Illinois, 
Lane was doing the same thing in Indiana. Both went to the legis- 
lature. Both wanted to be senator and both were disappointed in 
their home state. Lincoln went to congress when he was thirty-five, 
Lane when he was thirty-seven. Lincoln was a soldier in the Black- 
hawk war, Lane in the Mexican war. Both studied law over the 
counter in country stores. Both, while young, were favorites of the 
wild boys of the pioneer civilization. Lincoln was popular with 
the uproarious Clary Grove gang. Lane was unpopular with his 
more sedate brothers because he was thick with the wild spirits 
along the Ohio river levee. 



94 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Both were six feet or over wiry, thin, inexhaustible frontier 
types. Lane was energetic, Lincoln was lazy. Both loved to talk, 
and did it well. Both were humorists. Both dominated conversa- 
tions, meetings. Lincoln was slow, Lane was fast; Lincoln dis- 
ciplined his mind, Lane did not. Lincoln was great in many ways, 
Lane can only be said, as his enemies admitted, to have had great- 
ness in him. 

But both were cut to a familiar border pattern. Each repre- 
sented the common change of the Western voter from Andy Jackson 
Democracy to the Andy Jackson Republicanism of 1856 and 1860. 

Each had been retired after one term in congress and had been 
tossed back into what promised to be obscurity, until the Kansas 
issue rose on the political horizon. Lane went to "Bleeding Kan- 
sas" in 1855 and rode the storm to his great ambition, the senate. 
Lincoln bestrode the Kansas issue in 1858 and rode the storm to the 
White House his great ambition. 

Do you wonder then, that Lincoln made Jim Lane one of the 
most significant exceptions in his administration? Lincoln's plan 
of organizing the federal volunteer army was to place the patronage, 
the commissioning of officers in the hands of the various state gov- 
ernors. But when it came to Kansas it was not the governor who 
had the control; it was the senior senator, Jim Lane, and there 
Lincoln held him, despite the roars of protest from Jim's factional 
enemies, and in spite of hints that the injustice would be corrected, 
till the end of the war. 

And it was obviously with the acquiescence, if not secret orders 
of President Lincoln, that the constitution, of the United States 
was strained in behalf of Lane. While still senator, Jim was com- 
missioned a general in the army a thing forbidden by the consti- 
tution. The announcements went forth; Lane didn't resign his 
seat; he took command of the Kansas army on the border, led a 
great raid into Missouri a most effective raid from a military point 
of view and in the face of an angry roar of protest, got away with 
it. Idolatrous biographers of Lincoln don't dig too deeply into it. 
It is all a mystery now. Papers were lost, official proof was miss- 
ing, Jim showed that he had never signed his name as "major- 
general," only as "James H. Lane, commanding brigade" the thing 
was glossed over the constitution still lived and the Missouri 
army had been kept out of Kansas. 

For that is one of the ways nations are saved and wars won. In 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 95 

times of stress and trouble the letter of the law didn't bother Lincoln 
much, nor Lane. There was a union to be saved. 

And there is another strange story of Lincoln and Lane which the 
military men, the keepers of West Point tradition, do not explore 
too deeply. Early in the war, when the federal policy was to deal 
gently with private property in the South, to return all runaway 
slaves and keep the war aims solely that of preserving the union, 
Senator Lane came to Lincoln with a radical plan, not original with 
him in its generality, but specific with him in its concreteness. 

Jim said that the milk-and-water policy of the West Pointers 
the General McClellan school was all wrong. He said the way 
to whip the South was not to jockey along the Mason and Dixon 
line, hoping to overawe the Southern states into a peaceful return 
to the old union as it was. He said it was time somebody got hurt. 
He said "slavery is the sore shin of the confederacy; kick it!" He 
said the way to break secession was to carry the war home to the 
civilian population. Make it feel the pinch, then it would call its 
armies to lay down their guns. 

The President was very busy just then keeping radical generals 
from freeing slaves. He was broadcasting the policy of nonsavagery 
toward our Southern brothers. But he gave his assent to Jim Lane 
to organize a great raiding expedition at Leavenworth and invade 
the South, carry the war home to the people of Arkansas, Louisiana, 
perhaps Texas. Lane went west across Pennsylvania, Ohio and 
Indiana, preaching the new crusade. Every soldier, he said, was to 
ride a horse like a knight-errant and be attended by a negro squire 
both horse and negro being picked up along the way. 

Volunteers came running. Half-organized regiments in Chicago 
broke away to join Lane. John Brown, Jr., led a band of volunteers 
from Ohio to join the man from whom he would not be divorced 
and they brought to Kansas for the first time the new marching 
song "John Brown's Body Lies A-Mouldering In The Grave." All 
over the midlands voices were saying that Lane was the coming 
man the soldier who would win the war. "The Lane policy" was 
debated in the newspapers. The legions began to gather, a Wild 
West army, cowboys, Mexicans, Indians, farmers, mechanics. 

But Jim Lane's invasion was nipped in the bud, not by the con- 
federacy but by the regular U. S. army clique. The West Pointers, 
the professionals, the academicians, hamstrung the venture. They 
bombarded Lincoln and the War Department with the charge that it 
was nothing but "Jim Lane's Great Jay hawking Expedition." 



96 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

And Lincoln let it die. The army as a whole was more important 
than any part. 

And in all the personal memoirs of the regular army men after 
the war, not one ever had the grace nor the insight to mention the 
now-obvious fact that what Lane had proposed doing in the winter 
of 1861-1862 was substantially what William Tecumseh Sherman 
did in the winter of 1864-1865. 

What had been unthinkable when a Kansas politician proposed 
it was a proper and brilliant stroke of strategy when executed by a 
professional soldier three years later. "Jayhawking" became a great 
feat when the regulars performed it. The arming of negroes had 
been a mad idea when Lane had practiced it in 1861, but it was a 
noble measure when the army came to it two years later. 

As a matter of fact, Lane had been an instinctive soldier as an 
Indiana colonel in the Mexican war and as Free-State general in the 
"Bleeding Kansas" revolution. His Kansas campaigns are models 
of how guerrilla warfare can be successful with a minimum loss of 
life. Lane's leadership of the Kansas volunteers in the Civil War 
was far wiser than the regulars ever admitted. You see, none of 
the professional people liked Lane the army men were jealous of 
him, the clergymen had their natural resentment, the professional 
literary folk of New England disdained him, the legal profession 
had scorned him, partly because he ignored the law, and partly 
because he was reckless with such juries as he faced. 

The importance of Jim Lane is not in the law, nor in the estab- 
lishment of your Kansas institutions, although he was among the 
first to give land for your state university, nor in the railroads which 
he helped to bring Kansas and he pulled wires, coaxed, bullied, 
intimidated capitalists till they gave the young and sparsely set- 
tled state its full share of the transcontinental roads then being 
built. 

His national importance lies not in the fact that he loved Kan- 
sas and everything about it, but in the fact that he was among the 
first of all Americans to see the practical way of establishing a 
political party which would halt the extension of slavery. 

Other men saw it too, but Lane was among them, at once more 
visionary and practical than most. 

Lane saw that fusion was the way out of the dilemma which 
convulsed the nation after Stephen A. Douglas' Kansas-Nebraska 
bill shattered the old system of compromises by which the nation 
had been held together, half-slave and half-free. His mind was 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 97 

the main forge in which the repellant metals of Kansas' early popu- 
lation were fused into a powerful political party the one that 
triumphed in the end. To all intents and purposes the campaign 
was over within 18 months after Lane arrived. It could not be 
crowned for five years to come, but Kansas, as I read the record, 
was safe for freedom by the autumn of 1856. 

Lane organized Fusion not as a Republican but as a Democrat. 
He fought to keep Kansas in the control of a party which should 
be merely Free Soil, neither Republican or Democrat. What that 
party should do, where it should go, he left up to old parties back 
East. Whichever would help Kansas the most would get his sanc- 
tion. He took his story to Senator Douglas, the great Northern 
Democrat, and if Douglas had listened to him the history of America 
might have been spared the bloody pages of the Civil War. Lane 
had gone for fusion of Northern interests against the slave South 
by 1856. Douglas could not see as far ahead and turned it down. 

National leader that he was, Douglas had drifted away from 
the common people; he did not know them in that moment as did 
Jim Lane. So he remained in the Democratic party, split it, lost 
the Presidency. If in 1856 he had been as quick as his former 
henchman, Jim Lane, to see that the Northern voters would unite 
in a new party, using Kansas as an issue, he might well have been 
its nominee in 1856 or 1860, or both. In which case Abraham 
Lincoln would have died revered and respected as merely the leader 
of the Illinois bar. 

Stephen A. Douglas did not go for fusion in 1856 he had to 
wait five years for the light. But eventually he fused, in 1861, at 
the gates of Civil War. 

Although Lane still shouted that he was a Democrat, an Anti- 
slavery Democrat, he came out of Kansas in 1856 to stump the 
Middle West and East for the new Republican party. It had re- 
solved to help Kansas ; in fact, its big issue was freedom for Kansas. 
It drew from the remnants of the Whig party, but its great appeal 
was to Antislavery Democrats the old Andy Jackson men, on the 
hard and bony knees of Old Hickory had learned to hate the Seces- 
sionists of the Deep South. 

And as the Republicans of 1936 made much of the Liberty League 
and Al Smith, so did the Republicans of 1856 star Jim Lane with 
better results, however. In the campaign of 1856 Lane stumped 
back and forth across the regions east of the Mississippi, telling the 
tragic story of "Bleeding Kansas" and begging for all who loved 

76912 



98 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the memory of Andy Jackson to vote for Fremont and against 
Buchanan. 

He was sent into Ohio, a pivotal state, to discredit the Demo- 
cratic national convention at Cincinnati and to tell the voters that 
it was now nothing but a creature of the rich, the reactionary, the 
economic royalists and the malefactors of great wealth who had no 
sympathy with the white laborer and farmer. Lane's great meeting 
was scheduled for Chicago on the night of May 31 a Saturday 
night when the workingmen would be free, and the sailors in from 
the lakes and the longshoremen up from the docks, and the farmers 
across from the fields. For, make no mistake about it, the Republi- 
can party was a radical, almost a New Deal party in 1856. It was 
the masses against the classes. 

To this great Chicago rally, which Lane was to headline, came 
many shouting delegates from Bloomington, 111., where two days 
before Abraham Lincoln had crossed the Rubicon, left the Whigs 
and come out for Fusion. 

And to add to the hysteria the telegraph had brought the news 
that the Proslavery Border Ruffians from Missouri had just burned 
the town of Lawrence, and that in Washington, a South Carolinian 
named Brooks had clubbed Senator Sumner of Massachusetts to 
the door of death because Sumner had spoken too violently in his 
philippic "The Crime Against Kansas." 

Something like delirium and revolution was in the air, as the 
crowd, singing the "Marseillaise," saw Jim Lane, the hero of "Bleed- 
ing Kansas," actually appear before them on the platform. 

In the newspapers of the midlands, letters had been appearing from 
Kansans asking, "Where is Jim Lane? Send him back to us. He is 
the only man who can save Kansas." 

There were wild cheers as Lane was introduced there in Douglas' 
home town as the man who had renounced his leader and defied him 
for the cause of human liberty. 

It was the moment for Lane's greatest speech, just as two days 
before in Bloomington it had been the moment for Lincoln's great- 
est speech up to that time. Lincoln had risen to the occasion with 
words so eloquent that reporters forgot to take it down and this, 
his "lost speech" became famous. 

Lane, too, rose to the occasion so thrillingly that nothing but con- 
fused and hysterical reports were kept. The Chicago Tribune said, 
"Language is inadequate to describe the effect of his recital of Kan- 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 99 

sas' tale of woes the flashing eyes, the rigid muscles, the frowning 
brows." 

What people remembered most was how, when the introductions 
were done, and wild cheers rose and crashed and eddied around him, 
"he stood there," as a witness tells us, "mouth firm shut, gazing with 
those wondrous eyes of his into the very heart of the throng. Be- 
fore he spoke the fascinating spell of his personality had seized 
upon the whole vast audience and for over an hour he controlled 
every emotion in that great gathering." 

That night Jim Lane made Chicago see Kansas as a blackened 
and charred land, peopled with widows kneeling to kiss the cold 
white lips of husbands murdered by Proslavery Democrats ; he made 
them see Kansas, which he called "the Italy of America," ravished 
and despoiled by butchers from Democratic Missouri; he made the 
large foreign-born population of Chicago roar with rage as he told 
how the Proslave power had denied the Irish and Germans citizen- 
ship in Kansas. He branded the federal administration as abettors 
of demons and assassins, and he held up that long bony forefinger 
like a tremendous exclamation point and warning light as he cried, 
"Before God and these people, I arraign Pres. Franklin Pierce as a 
murderer." 

As he ended, pandemonium took the scene. Lane had let loose 
havoc and the dogs of war. Gamblers threw their pistols onto the 
stage, begging Lane to take them to Kansas and use them; sailors 
threw their wages onto the platform at Lane's feet; staid business- 
men tossed in their purses; it is said newsboys cast their pennies up, 
women wept, men wept, .the people milled around the platform sing- 
ing, shouting. 

They were the Commune that night, and Jim Lane was Danton, 
and it was all very well for our record as a safe and sane nation that 
the American Tuileries were 800 miles away. 

Nor was it a passing craze of a single night. Next day it was 
found that $15,000 had been pledged to raise aid for the revolution- 
ists in Kansas, and that men were volunteering to go and fight the 
Proslavery armies which were backed by the federal power in the 
bleeding territory. 

And some of the emigrants who did go from Chicago went with 
bayonets. And when the largest body rolled overland through Iowa 
and down into Kansas it was called "Lane's Army of the North." 
Not "settlers," not "'49ers," not "emigrants," but an "army." It was 
the overture to the Civil War, and Lane was waving the baton. He 



100 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

was at the army's head till he neared Kansas, then he spurred on in 
advance, making one of the best rides in the history of the Wild 
West, riding so hard that his companions one of them Old John 
Brown, of Osawatomie fell by the wayside, unable to keep up with 
this strange leader who never seemed to sleep nor eat but to feed 
himself upon eloquence. Lane never took alcohol, they say, and I 
believe them, for, after all, what could it have done for him? 

The story of Jim Lane's return to Kansas is in your records how, 
to spread terror among the Border Ruffians, the enemy, he magni- 
fied the size and number of "Lane's Army of the North"; and how, 
to encourage the all but beaten Free Soilers, who had begged for his 
return, he broadcast the whisper, "Look for Captain Cook on a white 
horse." 

Everybody knew that Captain Cook would be Jim Lane, for whom 
the government held an indictment for high treason, if not a price on 
his head. 

The amazing propaganda that he spread did cow the Proslave 
bands, and it did inspire the Free Staters to a superb burst of activ- 
ity, with men marching through the night to bombard enemy block- 
houses, burn and shoot. And it was a matter for cheering when 
through the darkness the marching men heard, "Here comes Captain 
Cook," and turned to see it was Old Jim, his eyes a-fire. 

This was the campaign which swept the border, and settled the 
fate of Kansas so far as armed force was concerned, and it is known 
elsewhere than in your state. But what is not generally remembered 
is that Jim Lane's most sensational speeches in Chicago, Cleveland 
and other midland cities, a month previous, were one of the most 
vital factors in the national financing of the Republican party. 

Organized wealth and the conservative powers were against the 
young party. Its supporters were poor. But in the money which 
orators like Lane collected for the relief of Kansas, came the sinews 
for the new party. Most of the states organized Kansas committees, 
and these had a central committee in Chicago, which united the 
workmen, since the chief issue of the campaign was, "Kansas shall 
it be free or slave?" it was an easy matter to unite the moral and 
philanthropic cause of Kansas relief with the Republican campaign. 
Every speech made for Free-Soil Kansas was a Republican speech. 

Without Lane's inflammatory speeches in the midlands, would 
this money-raising device have been so effective? Probably not. 

We must have done with this intriguing man. A word will wind 
him up. He went to the senate ; he was a power in the renomination 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 101 

of Lincoln in 1864, in the new Fusion which Lincoln decreed for that 
campaign, the joining of Republicans and war Democrats in the 
National Union party, and when the war was over and reconstruc- 
tion at hand, Jim went with President Johnson for reconciliation 
toward the South. Not so prominently as some, but enough to set 
the Abolitionists and his old factional enemies, the New England 
Black Republicans, calling him a traitor to his party. 

Was he gravitating back toward the Democratic party, as was 
Johnson and so many of the conservatives who had been close to 
Lincoln? Probably so. 

Probably Lincoln himself, at the hour of his death, was gravitat- 
ing away from the Radical Republicanism of New England and 
upper Ohio. We do not know, but it is likely. 

When Senator Lane voted to support President Johnson in the 
fight with the Radical Republican congress, he heard that Kansas 
had risen against him, and that where he had been yesterday boss, 
and king, now nobody would speak to him. He went with the Lin- 
coln program of mercy toward the South and it wasn't popular. 
He also heard himself denounced and investigated by senators on 
the charge of having taken cash bribes from Western contractors. 

He came home to Kansas and shot himself through the head, and 
to his enemies who lived after him and had their hand in the writ- 
ing of history, this was enough to prove him guilty. His friends, 
in the main, were the inarticulate masses, who had nothing to do 
with textbooks. But to the neutral mind which studies Lane's whole 
life, these easy explanations for his death are not convincing. 

The man had lived the last eleven years of his life facing down 
charges as serious as these. Indeed, Jim Lane in 1858 had outfaced 
and lived down the charge that he had murdered his neighbor in a 
fight over a waterhole. He had walked the streets of Lawrence an 
outcast after that catastrophe, yet within three years had come back 
to be elected United States senator and to become king of Kansas. 

He had always thrived on accusations against himself, and had 
climbed by turning them to his own account. Was he devastated 
because Kansas disapproved him politically? Hardly that. He had 
met political midnight many times before, and with a whirlwind 
campaign had turned it once more into dawn. 

His whole life belies the charge of bribery, for he never cared 
for money. It was not his medium of exchange. He had never 
taken time to collect it. It didn't interest him. What could it 
bring him compared to the things his silver tongue could bring? 



102 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

He was a genuine artist, and genuine artists are fools where money 
is concerned. Jim Lane would rather bind fifty farmers in the 
spell of his oratory than win a fat fee arguing a case before twelve 
jurymen. 

The hunger of his own children, the gauntness of his own frame 
are the witnesses against the charge that after a life of ignoring 
money he suddenly sold out for a few thousand dollars. 

No ; as I read the record of his life, Jim Lane shot himself because 
with the end of the Civil War, he saw his whole world gone, his era 
dead, his age vanished. He was the pioneer, the adventurer, the 
restless hunter for new horizons, and the glories of that time had 
vanished. He was a revolutionist, and the revolution had been won 
and was thenceforth to be in the hands of the corporation lawyers. 
He was a fighter, and the war was over. 

After Appomattox America had set its feet in the path of the 
merchant, not the politician; in the way of the advertising agent 
and the realtor, not the spellbinder on the newly cut stump. And 
Jim Lane probably saw it. 

In 1866 he came home and looked at Kansas. Was this fat and 
peaceful land the place where only ten years before he had been 
Captain Cook on the white horse riding in the glare of burning 
barns? Were these quiet business men who were now meeting in 
chambers of commerce the ragged boys who had manned the rifle 
pits upon which he stood firing them to bravery with his oratory? 

He had had a lot of fun, and now he couldn't have it any more. 
He had slept at Lincoln's door in a night of peril with his naked 
sword, literally, across his knees, and now Lincoln was gone. 

His own careless investments in real estate had, through no effort 
of his own, amazingly given his children comfort at last. He hadn't 
been the best father in the world, but he had been tender with his 
children whenever he thought of them, and, after all, few fathers had 
taken their children to see Lincoln as often as he. Kansas didn't 
need him any more; it was free, the negro was free. What was 
there to make speeches about now? 

Jim Lane saw that the rules had changed; as William Allen 
White puts it, "Jim Lane saw the counters were different," and all 
at once he saw that Kansas and America were going to bore him. 

Here was a civilization with which he could not cope. In the 
whole of the United States there was now, henceforth, no fuel for 
the great fires within himself to feed upon. 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 103 

Imagination can picture him, standing there, and remembering 
back, recalling, now, of a place often mentioned in the religious 
litanies of his Calvinistic boyhood, a strange dreaded region in 
which the fuel was promised to be everlasting. This might be the 
place for him now. 

He would go and see. 



Bypaths of Kansas History 

SANTA FE AND THE WEST IN 1841 

From the New-York (Weekly) Tribune, November 13, 1841. 

From the Evansville (la.) Journal. 

We are permitted by a gentleman residing in the neighboring county of 
Gibson to take the following extract from a private letter from a friend, dated 
Santa Fe, July 20, 1841. The writer says: 

"I left Vincennes on the 23d of April for St. Louis, with a view of ascertain- 
ing the object of the visit by the company raising for the Pacific Ocean. When 
I arrived at St. Louis, I found I had to proceed to Independence, the upper 
country on the Missouri river, and adjoining the Indian boundary, four hun- 
dred miles farther. There I found three different caravans busily recruiting. 
The Rev. Bishop Smidth, with a caravan to establish a mission amongst the 
Black-feet Indians, in the valley of the Columbia river, who left with the 
caravan to California, by way of the head waters of the Columbia river, com- 
manded by Col. Bartletson and Richma, composed of about 90 persons, male 
and female. The second to California composed of about 100 men, and about 
30 women and children the yearly caravan composed of merchants to this 
city, Chewawa and Senora, composed of about 80 men, and 40 wagons, loaded 
with merchandize, &c. The caravans all left between the 8th and 10th of 
May. After ascertaining the object of the California caravan, Gov. Boggs and 
myself having understood positively a caravan was to leave from Santa Fe, 
to join the same one by the way of Columbia, raised 10 men and agreed to 
leave in time to overtake the Santa Fe company at or near the Arkansas, but 
the evening previous to our departure, the governor's wife was taken unwell, 
and he was compelled to abandon the adventure. Accordingly on the 19th of 
May, myself with three others, with three little wagons, loaded with provisions 
and arms, and three riding mules, left the line of Missouri for the Far West. 
The Indian country as far as the Council Grove, two hundred miles from the 
line, is perhaps as fine a tract of country as can be found in the world, there 
is rather a scarcity of timber, but in soil and water none superior. The Council 
Grove, as it is called, is the ancient site of a once proud and mighty city. It 
is situated on the main White river, which here forms a crescent or curve of 
about 9 miles in circumference, and contains more than a hundred mounds, 
half of which are more than ten times as large as those near Vincennes those 
in the centre are in the form of a square, many containing a surface of more 
than two acres, some in the form of a triangle, and others perfectly round. 
Here the Pawnee, Arapah[oe], Cumanchee, Loups, and Eutaw Indians, all of 
whom are at war with each other, meet and smoke the pipe of peace once a 
year. Every person and thing are sacred for many miles around the peaceful 
grove. 

This ceremony has been handed down for many centuries to the red men by 
their forefathers, and here their chiefs and great men are brought from hun- 
dreds of miles to be interred, one of whom, but a few weeks before we passed, 
had a proud mound of stones erected to his memory, with a pole painted red 
and a scalp appended thereto, to show that he had been a great brave. The 

(104) 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 105 

numerous camps every where to be seen around here, at once convince the 
traveler that here is the great rendezvous of thousands annually. From thence 
onward for 400 miles, there is nothing to be seen but one eternal desert, with- 
out one even one solitary stick of timber to cheer the eye for thirty days. 
Nothing here is to be had but buffalo dung to cook the food that is used, but 
of this the whole prairies are covered, and it is an excellent substitute. We 
overtook the caravan in sight of the Arkansas, about 400 miles from the line 
of the U. States, and 800 from St. Louis, without trouble by the Indians, and 
attached ourselves thereto for duty in crossing the river which is much larger 
than at the mouth, and always muddy and rolling her quicksands into bars 
almost every hour, so that fords and crossings are dangerous and uncertain. 
From the Arkansas river the scarcity of water commences, and even the little 
that is to be had is so deeply impregnated with salt, sulphur and , that 
stern necessity alone brings the traveler to the use of it. On the Simerone 
river there are one or two good springs, at one of which we met of the Arapahoe 
Indians 500 warriors, who treated us with a proper friendship, elated with their 
success ten days before, when in battle they killed seventy-five Pawnees. We 
gratified them with encamping on the battle-ground, where the unburied bodies 
were yet almost unbroken. The next day we visited their lodge, six miles from 
the battleground, where we had a full view of savage life in a perfect state of 
nature ; among 500 women and children there were but few that had ever be- 
fore seen the dress and equipage of the white man. After leaving these good 
and friendly Indians, we were cheered in eight or ten days with the far-distant 
appearance of the Rocky Mountains. From day to day as we approached 
them, the beauty of the scenery increased, and when within twenty miles the 
reflection of the sun through the melting snow, that eternally crowns their 
highest peaks, is splendid beyond all description. Here the traveler beholds 
a chain of many hundreds, nay, thousands of miles, piled up, as it were, until 
they reach to heaven, with stone, uncovered with shrubbery or verdure of any 
kind; nothing but the white caps of snow, and the rough and terrific precipices 
varied for the eye to behold, until you reach the crossings of Red river, at the 
foot of the mountain, and here the pine and cedar tree again on the mountain 
side and in the valley greets the eye once more ; and here on this plain we had 
to encounter 300 Eutaw warriors, but after repeated skirmishings, they were 
fain to retreat without effecting any damage of consequence. From here to the 
good town of Bogas, we found water, wood and good cheer. 

The caravan arrived in this city on the 2d July, all in good health, in less 
than two months; the quickest trip ever made over the desert. Now for Santa 
Fe or the Holy City. It is situated in a valley 10 miles long, and from 2 to 5 
wide, surrounded by immense mountains covered with pine and cedar trees, 
and affords the most beautiful scene the eye can conceive, or the mind imagine. 
Santa Fe is the seat of government of New Mexico, and is commanded by a 
governor general. It is also a military post, port of entry and depository of 
all the ancient archives of the neighboring states. The houses are built of 
raw bricks, two feet long, six inches deep, and one foot wide, made with straw 
and mud, and dried in the sun, and such is their durability that many houses 
more than two hundred years old are standing and look well; they are only 
one story high, handsomely whitewashed inside, with dirt floor. Even the 
place in which his Excellency resides has no other than a dirt floor, but they 



106 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

are generally covered with carpets; the houses are covered with stones and 
dirt, and are flat-roofed and perfectly weather-proof. The city contains six 
churches, generally richly fitted out. The population is about 8,000 inhabitants, 
all rigid Roman Catholics. It is situated on a small branch of the Rio del 
Norte, and about fourteen miles from the main river, which is near the size 
of the river Wabash at Vincennes. Now for the character &c., of the in- 
habitants: The ladies certainly are far more beautiful in this country than 
those of the same ranks in America; their jetty black hair, piercing black eyes, 
slender and delicate frame, with unusual small ankles and feet, together with 
their gay, winning address, makes you at once easy and happy in their com- 
pany. Perhaps no people on earth love dress and attention more than Spanish 
ladies, and it may be said of a truth that their amorous flirtations with the men 
are matters to boast of among themselves. They work but little ; the Fandango 
and Siesta form the division of time. 

The Fandango is a lascivious dance, partaking in part of a waltz, cotillion 
and many amorous movements, and is certainly handsome and amusing. It 
is the National dance. In this the governor and most humble citizens move 
together, and in this consists all their republican boast. The men are hon- 
est, perhaps more so than those of the same class in the United States, proud 
and vain of their blood, the descendants of the ancient Spaniards of their pure 
blood, those of the Spaniards and Pueblo Indians, the descendants of their 
Great Monarch Montezuma, doubly more so. The pure blood cannot inherit 
office here; the present governor general and all the officers of state are of the 
mixed blood of Montezuma. This has been the case since the year 1836. In 
that revolution fell the most honorable and beloved of all the native Spaniards 
in Mexico, and all his family were banished. In the city there is but one offi- 
cer of justice, the alcalde, and he has nothing to do. The commerce of this 
place is certainly very considerable, and although there is but one gold mine 
worked here now and one copper mine, yet the daily receipts afford about six 
or seven hundred dollars net. Generally from one to two hundred and twenty 
hands are employed at work. The revolution has set every thing back here in 
the mining departments, as they are generally held by natives of old Spain, 
and accounted forfeits to the general government after the revolution. This 
thing will soon be settled, and then the Holy City will appear in all her gaudy 
plumage again. 

I start in two or three days for California; the company consists of about 
two hundred Americans and Spaniards, to co-operate on the 1st of January, 
1842, with the Columbia caravan, at Monterey on the Bay of San Francisco. 
We expect the governor will allow us to settle and concede to us certain 
lands, &c. 



PORTRAIT OF SUSAN 

On or about May 11, 1858, a trunk with contents was allegedly 
lost at the Shawnee House in Leavenworth. Its owner was one 
Susan Stone who promptly took legal action to recover a sum of 
money to satisfy this loss. An inventory of her property has come 
to light after eighty years in the business papers of the lawyer who 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 



107 



represented her. The records divulge nothing further about Susan 
whence she came or why, or the length of her stay in the territory. 
But no one whose possessions have been made a matter of public 
record remains unknown and thus we have a portrait of Susan which 
may be a fairly accurate picture of any young woman of 1858 setting 
out for the frontier. The practical and the aesthetic lay cheek by 
jowl in Susan's trunk. She was prepared for anything that the 
frontier might offer. 
The trunk and contents were listed as follows : 



1 Trunk 2.00 

1 Shawl 8.00 

1 Delaine Dress "Wool" .... 9 . 50 

4 [items not named] 15.00 

1 White Basque 3.50 

5 Night Dresses 6.50 

4 Chemise 6.00 

2 Skirts 2.00 

3 Pr Drawers 4.50 

3 Yds Cotton Cloth 38 

Thread 60 

1 Brush & 2 Combs 1 .50 

1 Accordian 2. 00 

1 Finger Ring 3.00 

1 do do 2.00 

2 Fine Collars . 4.00 



1 Pr Mitts 



.50 



2 Linen Hdkfs 1.00 

1 Veil 1 . 00 

1 Rose Wood Work Box. . . 3.00 

1 Pr Boots 2.50 

1 Bible 75 

Books 2.00 

1 Pr Ear Rings 2.00 

3 Aprons 75 

1 Wool Plaid Dress 8.00 

2 Calico 3.00 

3 Belt Ribbons 1.25 

3 Daguerreotypes 2.50 



$98.73 



AN INDIAN BURIAL 

From the Dodge City Times, October 5, 1878. 

On the Indian trail, five miles west of Cimarron, and two miles north of 
the river, lying within a few hundred yards of the trail, on Saturday last, was 
found the dead body of an aged squaw. The body was discovered by a 
Cimarron party, it being wrapped up in two blankets and covered with a 
buffalo robe, and placed on two poles or two sticks. Such was an Indian 
burial by a roving band striking terror wherever they go. 



Kansas History as Published in the Press 

Selden's golden jubilee was celebrated June 6 and 7, 1938. The 
Selden Advocate from March 31 to September 15, 1938, published 
reminiscences of several northwest Kansas pioneers. Mrs. Orpha 
Comstock, Mrs. Charles Motz, Mrs. Joe Jenkins, Mr. and Mrs. 
H. M. Anthony were contributors. 

The golden jubilee of the founding of Liberal was celebrated April 
21-23, 1938. Highlights in the city's history were printed in a 
thirty-two page "Golden Jubilee Edition" of The Southwest Daily 
Times issued April 17. The first pages of sections B, C and D 
pictured the fifty years of progress and the civic growth and de- 
velopment of Liberal. Included among the pictures of the city 
were: "When Liberal Was Nearly 'Old Enough to Vote/ " "When 
Young," and the "Little Red School House." Among the historical 
articles were the following: "High Praise For Western Kans. Settlers 
Who Came and Stayed"; "Pioneer Youth Had Its Fun, Too"; 
"Newspaper Has Played an Important Role in Liberal's Develop- 
ment"; "Alice Ward Is First Trained Liberal Nurse"; "First Liberal 
Street Lights Used Coal Oil"; "Liberal Woman's Club Starts in 
January, 1902, as an Aid to Town's Cultural Growth"; "[Mrs. R. L. 
Ingham] Recalls Joys and Hardships of Early Days"; "An In- 
voluntary Fast," by Mary Joy Jones; "An Optima Lady Sends 
Program of 'Institute' "; "First Hospital Here Was 5-Room Bldg."; 
"Lady Who Came Here in 1900 Relates Vivid Memories of Town 
Then"; "Hard Times in Early Days of Seward County"; "Liberal 
Got Its Name From the Generosity of Rancher Who Owned First 
Well Here"; "Interesting Incidents Are Reprinted From Early Days 
of Liberal From the News"; "Biscuits and Barbs," by Mrs. S. A. 
Bayersfield; "[The Southwest Daily Times Is] 52 Years Old This 
Week!"; "Local Smoke-Eaters Are Volunteers But Are None the 
Less Serious and Efficient"; "Young Dawson's Outlaw Gang," by 
S. A. Bayersfield; "Seward County Had Its County Seat Fights in 
Southwest's Early Day"; "City Library Serves Entire S. W. Dis- 
trict," and "April 13, 1888, Plat of Liberal Is Opened For $180,000 
Sale of Lots." 

Manhattan's Morning Chronicle and Mercury issued their forty- 
eight page "Kansas State College 75th Anniversary Edition" July 
10, 1938. Included among articles of historical import were: "K. 
S. C. Has Three Objects," "College's Education To Be Liberalized," 
"K. S. C. Has Contributed Much in Science Field," "Alma Mater 

(108) 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 109 

Rather New," "K. S. C. Customs Have Changed With Time," "Dr. 
J. T. Willard Symbolizes Greatness of College," "Early Pioneers 
Realized Need of Higher Education," "They Have Served on Kan- 
sas State College Faculty For Twenty-five Years," "Justin Smith 
Morrill a Great Benefactor," "Enrollment at College From 1863 to 
1938," "Dr. [J. D.] Walters K. S. Veteran," "Presidents Have Done 
Much to Advance College," "A. A. Stewart Served on Kansas State 
Faculty in 1874," "Greek Societies Are Comparatively New," "Riley 
County Towns Grew Up With the College," "Small Land Office 
Served as the First Community School," "[Maj. E. A.] Ogden 
Famous as Commander," "Old Kansas History Tells of Early Day 
Newspapers," "Early Day School Boards Confronted With Many 
Problems," "Tracing the History of Some of the First Churches 
Started in the City," "The First Townsite for Manhattan Was Laid 
Out in 1854," "Ogden Was the First County Seat of Riley County," 
and "A History of Sunset Cemetery." Other sections of the edition 
were devoted to articles on city and county history and college 
athletics. 

The seventieth anniversary of the founding of Scandia by the 
Scandinavian Agricultural Society was observed July 28-30, 1938. 
Included among the historical articles published in a special edition 
of the Scandia Journal, July 21, were: "Colonists Move to New 
Land at the Beginning of New Era," "Crossing the River Was a 
Big Problem in Early Days," "Life of the Early Pioneers Was Real 
and Very Exciting," "Scandia's Commercial Life Established by a 
Saw Mill," "Settlers Suffer Sad Experiences," "Easter Blizzard 
[1873] Was Worst Storm," "Many Storms Are Still Remembered," 
and "Grasshoppers Shadowed the Sun as They Came in 1874." 
School and church histories were reviewed in other stories. 

Bethel College celebrated its golden anniversary on October 12, 
1938. Many persons gathered to pay tribute to the Mennonite 
pioneers and to witness the laying of the cornerstone of Memorial 
hall. Historical articles and detailed accounts of the celebration 
were printed in contemporaneous Newton newspapers. 

A history of Ransom's Methodist Episcopal Church, by the Rev. 
Lester R. Fish, was published in The Ness County News, Ness City, 
December 8, 1938. The church during the week of November 21- 
26, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its establishment in Ransom. 

Ozawkie history was reviewed in detail in an historical edition of 
The Coyote, published by the Ozawkie Rural High School, February 
1, 1939. 



Kansas Historical Notes 

A stone marker honoring the Thirty-second U. S. Volunteer in- 
fantry, a unit participating in the Philippine war, was dedicated at 
Fort Leavenworth, September l'6, 1938. The memorial, inscribed 
with the names of men killed in action, was erected at the old camp 
ground where the unit mobilized and drilled. Col. Louis A. Craig 
was commanding officer. Newly elected officers of the Thirty-second 
Volunteer Infantry Association, sponsors of the memorial, are: 
William P. Murphy, Shawnee, Okla., president; John Jenkins, St. 
Louis, Mo., first vice-president; Karl D. White, Independence, sec- 
ond vice-president; Ernest Richards, Waterville, secretary -treas- 
urer. 

New officers of the Douglas County Historical Society elected at 
its annual meeting in Lawrence, November 14, 1938, are: W. C. 
Simons, president; Irma Spangler, first vice-president; S. S. Learned, 
second vice-president; Ida Lyons, secretary, and Walter Varnum, 
treasurer. Members of the board of directors are: Cora Dolbee, 
Mrs. Guy Bigsby, Agnes Emery, A. E. Huddleston, Fred N. Ray- 
mond, and Hugh Means. 

At the annual meeting of the Ness County Historical Society held 
in Ness City, November 19, 1938, the following officers were elected: 
Mrs. Grace Beardslee, president; Mrs. Nina Bondurant, vice-presi- 
dent; Martha Borthwick, treasurer, and Mrs. Nellie Holtom, secre- 
tary. Members of the executive committee and the townships they 
represent are: Luke Pembleton, Center; Mrs. James Cole, Bazine; 
John O'Brien, Highpoint; Lea Maranville, Franklin; Mrs. Roy Roth, 
Johnson; Mrs. Mary Meik, Nevada; Mrs. Bell Unruh, Forrester; 
J. C. M. Anderson, Waring; R. J. Price, Eden; Mrs. Naomi Henry, 
Ohio. 

The annual dinner of the Shawnee County Old Settlers Associa- 
tion was held in Topeka, December 5, 1938. W. J. Rickenbacher 
was elected president of the society, and J. H. Heberling, vice- 
president. Maude Snyder was reflected secretary-treasurer. 

New officers of the Augusta Historical Society elected January 
13, 1939, are: Stella B. Haines, president; Mrs. C. C. Durkee, vice- 
president; K. L. Grimes, secretary, and Clyde Gibson, treasurer. 
The society announces that Augusta's first building, recently oc- 
cupied by a woodwork shop, has been purchased and will be pre- 
served. Miss Haines appointed as a permanent committee to look 

(110) 



KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 111 

after this building: George Smith, C. C. Durkee, John Moyle, 
R. A. Haines, Will Cron and R. A. Cox; and as a permanent com- 
mittee in charge of the historical room in the intermediate grade 
building: Mrs. Clyde Gibson, Mrs. David Feebler, Mrs. C. A. 
Viets, Mrs. Will Cron, Mrs. K. L. Grimes and Mrs. A. N. Taylor. 

Nearly 350 persons attended the second annual dinner meeting 
of the Lyon county chapter of the Kansas State Historical Society 
held in Emporia, January 30, 1939. Officers of the society are: 
William L. Huggins, president; Harry A. AVayman, first vice-presi- 
dent; Frank A. Eckdall, second vice-president; E. C. Ryan, secre- 
tary; John Langley, treasurer. Historians: Mrs. F. L. Gilson, Mrs. 
Fanny Vickery and Lucina Jones. Directors: 0. J. Corbett, Em- 
poria, first ward; J. J. Wingfield, Agnes City township; L. H. Ames, 
Americus township; Richard Langley, Center township; Mrs. R. D. 
Carpenter, Elmendaro township; Park L. Morse, Emporia town- 
ship; Catherine H. Jones, Emporia, second ward; Mrs. Alice E. 
Snyder, Emporia, third ward; William A. White, Emporia, fourth 
ward; Robert D. Lumley, Fremont township; Clarence Paine, Ivy 
township; Mrs. J. C. McKinney, Jackson township; Ben Talbot, 
Pike township ; Tom Price, Reading township ; Mrs. William Sheets, 
Waterloo township. The chapter is encouraging Lyon county high 
schools to form special history study groups. Membership now 
totals 352, including twenty-one life members. 

Gilbert J. Garraghan's three-volume history, The Jesuits of the 
Middle United States (New York, America Press, 1938), reviews 
quite extensively the histories of Kansas' Osage mission in present 
Neosho county and the Pottawatomie mission at St. Mary's. The 
study presents a well-documented and comprehensive record of 
Catholic missionary work conducted through these major missions. 

Ralph Volney Harlow, professor of American history at Syracuse 
University, is author of a new biography Genii Smith Philan- 
thropist and Reformer (New York, Henry Holt and Co., 1939). 
Smith (1797-1874), a leading reformist, among other things labored 
for Sunday observance. He advocated vegetarianism, and opposed 
the use of tobacco and alcoholic beverages. He joined the anti- 
slavery crusade in 1835 and became one of the best known Aboli- 
tionists in the United States. After Kansas was thrown open to 
settlement Smith contributed much time and money toward the 
campaign to "save" Kansas for freedom. He was in sympathy and 
in communication with John Brown, even entertaining him in his 



112 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Peterboro, N. Y., home as late as April, 1859. After Brown's raid 
at Harpers Ferry Smith became temporarily insane. Until his 
death he consistently denied complicity in this plot against federal 
authorities. But, as Mr. Harlow points out, despite Smith's vehe- 
ment denials and libel suits, available evidence bears out con- 
temporaneous newspaper charges that he was an accessory before 
the fact. Two chapters of this book are of especial interest to stu- 
dents of Kansas' territorial history: "Gerrit Smith and the Kan- 
sas Aid Movement" and "Gerrit Smith and John Brown." 



THE 

Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 




Volume VIII Number 2 

May, 1939 



PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT 

W. C. AUSTIN, STATE PRINTER 

TOPEKA 1939 

17-8551 



Contributors 

CORA DOLBEE is a member of the department of English at the University of 
Kansas, Lawrence. 

LELA BARNES is a member of the staff of the Kansas State Historical Society. 

Brief biographical sketches of members of the Everett family were published 
on page 3 (February, 1939, Quarterly) . 



The Fourth of July in Early Kansas 

CORA DOLBEB 

'TVrlE Fourth of July was a day of peculiar significance to early 
JL Kansas. In preterritorial times it marked the approach or the 
arrival of explorers and travelers. It found hunters and trappers and 
traders there in pursuit of pelts; and sometimes it revealed these 
adventurers as themselves the objects of pursuit by hostile Indians. 
Many of these early visitors were foreigners who had no more public 
interest in the birthday of America than did the missionaries, too 
absorbed in their churchly duties even to allude in diary entry to 
the politics of the day. After the Louisiana purchase in 1803, how- 
ever, travelers in the region often kept the national anniversary, by 
firing salutes, raising the flag, and feasting or drinking as exten- 
sively as the uncultivated prairies permitted. 

Following the organization of the territory in 1854 Kansas, in 
both cause and name, became almost as suggestive of American in- 
dependence as was the anniversary of the nation's birth. Not only 
in the territory but in the United States at large citizens were an- 
nually mindful of the cause to be settled there. Either they hoped 
in their Fourth of July observances for Kansas' early sharing in 
their own type of statehood; or they refrained from all celebration 
of their own blessings out of sympathy for the young territory's 
uncertain fate. During the first years orators in the North waxed 
warm over her rights to freedom; and in the South toastmasters 
greeted her as already secured to slavery. Later, when the ques- 
tion of national union superseded the territorial issue of political 
self-determinism, Kansas' seven-year struggle for freedom proved 
but a prologue that had prepared the American mind for the Civil 
War. 

PRETERRITORIAL DAYS IN THE KANSAS REGION 

Hurrah! for the prairie and mountain! 

Hurrah ! for the wilderness grand ! 
The forest, the desert, the fountain 

Hurrah I for our glorious land ! l 

fhe first keeping in the Kansas region of July 4 as a national 
holiday apparently did not occur until 1804, although different per- 
sons are known to have been in the area on earlier anniversaries. 

1. Composed for the 1843 celebration of Sir William Drummond Stewart near the Sweet- 
water and Wind River mountains. Letter of M. C. Field, Fort Platte, La Ramee fork, July 
8, 1843, to "Dear Friends," in New Orleans Weekly Picayune, September 11, 1843. 

(115) 



116 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

In 1792 Pedro Vial, Vicente Villanueva, and Vicente Espinosa were 
prisoners of the Kansas Indians northeast of the Cimarron crossing 
of the Arkansas. 2 In 1802 James Purcell (Pursley) and two com- 
panions maintained their personal independence in a knife and gun 
battle with another Kansas tribe on the Osage river; 3 and in 1803 
and 1804 Purcell was hunting and trading on the headwaters of the 
Arkansas. 4 

Then, in the latter year, as the United States began the explora- 
tion of her recently acquired but little known territory, the ex- 
plorers, Lewis and Clark, made the first holiday observance in Kan- 
sas of a Fourth of July. Six members of the party wrote colorfully 
of the occasion in their journals: William Clark, Meriwether Lewis, 
Charles Floyd, Joseph Whitehouse, John Ordway, and Patrick Gass. 
The diary of Gass, printed in Pittsburgh in 1807, was the first pub- 
lished account of the expedition. Its entry for July 4, 1804, began, 
"we fired a swivel at sunrise in honour of the day, and continued 
our voyage" up the Missouri from Green Point toward what is now 
Atchison. Joseph Whitehouse noted that the day was "mighty hot 
when we went to toe the Sand (s)calded our (feet) Some fled 
from the Rope had to put on Our Mockisons." Clark wrote that 
they dined on corn. They named two streams, Independence creek 
and Fourth of July, 1804, creek, now called White Clay creek. 
Captain Lewis explored the prairies which seemed "butifull" to them 
all. When Jos. Fields got bit by a snake, Lewis quickly applied 
barks to the swollen foot. Floyd named the scene of the episode 
"Fieldes Snake prarie," now the site of Atchison. Ordway described 
the place as "under the hills." At night they encamped on an 
"ellivated Situation" "named Old town de Caugh," a deserted Kan- 
sas Indian village, where they closed the day with another discharge 
from their bow piece and "an extra gill of whiskey." 5 

2. Vial, Pedro, "Journal ... of the Voyage . . . From Santa F6 del Nuevo 
Mexico to San Luis de Ylinneses in the Province of Luisiana," in Southwest on the Turquoise 
Trail, ed. by A. B. Hulbert (Stewart Commission of Colorado College and Denver Public 
Library, 1933), pp. 52, 53. 

3. Pike, Z. M., Exploratory Travels (Lawrence & Co., Denver, 1889), pp. 314-316. Also, 
Expeditions, ed. by Elliott Coues (F. P. Harper, New York, 1895), 3 vpls., v. II, pp. 468, 
756-758. Also, Josiah Gregg, "Commerce of the Prairies," in Thwaites' Early Western 
Travels, 17^8-1846 (Arthur H. Clark, Cleveland, 1905), v. XIX, pp. 173, 174. Thwaites cites 
Chittenden, H. M., The American Fur Trade . . . (Press of the Pioneers, New York, 
1935), 2 vols., v. II, p. 493, and Missouri Intelligencer, April 10, 1824, as giving "Purcell" 
as the correct form of the name. 

4. Chittenden, op. cit., v. II, pp. 487, 488. 

5. Gass, Patrick, A Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps of Discovery Under 
the Command of Capt. Lewis and Capt. Clarke of the Army of the United States, From the 
Mouth of the River Missouri to the Pacific Ocean (Printed for David M'Keehan, 
Pittsburgh, 1807), p. 20. Also, Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 180 J- 
1806, printed from the original manuscripts, edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites (Dodd, Mead, 
& Company, New York, 1904-1905), 7 vols., v. I, pp. 66, 67; v. VI, p. 37; v. VII, pp. 15, 
40. Also, Sgt. John Ordway, "Journal, Kept on the Expedition of Western Exploration, 1803- 
1806," ed. by Milo M. Quaife, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Publications, v. XXII, 
pp. 91, 92. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 117 

Between 1804 and 1819 travelers in the region were more numer- 
ous, but business in hand preoccupied them to the exclusion of 
all thought of Independence day celebration. In 1806 American 
traders were being made captives to Don Facundo Malgares and his 
300 Spanish soldiers, en route to the Pawnee Indian village on the 
Republican ; and Indians threatened or took the lives of white men 
on the Arkansas. 6 In 1807 United States authorities were trying to 
protect the Indians against the trickery of the Spanish trader 
Manuel Lisa. 7 In 1810 John Shaw, Peter Spear, and William Miller 
were hunting beaver on the headwaters of the Arkansas. 8 From 
July 3 to July 5, 1811, George C. Sibley, Indian factor from Fort 
Osage, rested at a U-jet-ta 9 Indian camp south of the Arkansas 
after visiting the salines. 10 A year later Manuel Lisa was keeping 
two groups of traders among the Arapahos, 11 and ten traders from 
Fort Osage were crossing the western portion of the region toward 
Santa Fe. 12 In 1813, Ezekiel Williams, a Missourian who had been 
trapping in the Rockies, was prisoner of the Kansas Indians; 13 free 
in 1814, he was again in the area, this time descending the Arkan- 
sas river where low water compelled him to cache his furs; at the 
same time the Phillebert company of eighteen was cacheing its furs 
in the mountains. 14 In 1816, A. P. Chouteau, returning along the 
Arkansas with the winter's huat of himself and Jules De Mun, had 

6. Pike, Exploratory Travels, pp. 188, 362, 363, 370, 371. Also, Zebulon Pike's Arkansaw 
Journal, ed. by S. H. Hart and A. B. Hulbert (Stewart Commission of Colorado College and 
Denver Public Library, 1932), pp. 78-82. 

7. James, Thomas, Three Years Among the Indians and Mexicans, ed. by Walter B. 
Douglas (Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, 1916), pp. 293, 294. Also, Nathaniel Pryor, 
letter to William Clark, October 16, 1807, in Annals of Iowa, Third series, v. I, pp. 613-620. 

8. Shaw, Col. John, "Personal Narrative," in Wisconsin Historical Society's Collections, 
v. II, pp. 197-232. 

9. "U-jet-ta" was Sibley's spelling of the primitive Indian name of the Little Osage 
nation, recorded in English orthography by Lewis and Clark as "Ood-za-tau." American 
State Papers (Indian Affairs, v. I, pp. 707-709). Another variant is "Utsehta," given by F. W. 
Hodge, Handbook of American Indians, Pt. II, p. 877. 

10. Sibley, George C., agent of Indian trade and Indian affairs. "Notes of an Official 
Excursion from Fort Osage, to the Kansees, Pawnees, Osages, the Grand Saline and Rock 
Saline, in May, June, and July, 1811," in archives of Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis. 
Typescript supplied by Brenda Richard, assistant archivist. Also, "Extract from a journal 
to the Pawnee and Kansas villages, undertaken by an officer [Sibley], of the Factory on the 
Missouri." Written as a letter from Fort Osage, September 4, 1811, to Gen. W. Clark, in 
Louisiana Gazette, St. Louis, May 16 and 23, 1812. Photostats used. 

11. Bolton, Herbert E., "New Light on Manuel Lisa and the Spanish Fur Trade," in 
Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Austin, Tex., v. XVII, pp. 63, 64. Also, Gianini, Charles 
A., "Manuel Lisa, One of the Earliest Traders on the Missouri River," in New Mexico 
Historical Review, Santa Fe, v. II, p. 328. 

12. James, Thomas, op. cit., appendix, pp. 292, 293. Also, Gregg, "Commerce of the 
Prairies," in Thwaites' Early Western Travels, v. XIX, pp. 175, 176. Also, John C. Luttig, 
Journal of a Fur-Trading Expedition on the Upper Missouri, ed. by Stella Drumm (Missouri 
Historical Society, St. Louis, 1920), entry of June 4, 1812. 

13. Sibley, George C., report to Governor Clark from Fort Osage, in Missouri Historical 
Society's Collections, v. IV, pp. 199-206. David H. Coyner in The Lost Trappers (Cin- 
cinnati, 1847), makes the time of Ezekiel Williams' experience 1807-1809, and puts the cache 
on the Platte, but the editor of Collections says Coyner's book is now regarded as "a lie with 
circumstance." 

14. Chittenden, op. cit., v. II, pp. 496, 647. 



118 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

a severe fight with the Pawnees and then encamped on the Little 
Arkansas, whence he sent out young men to hunt. 15 In 1817, 
Chouteau and De Mun were prisoners of the Spanish in Santa Fe, 
as was David Meriwether in 1819. 16 Many of these travelers were 
loyal American citizens, but their days were too precarious for 
holiday keeping of the Fourth. 

On July 4, 1819, however, occurred the second festive observance 
in Kansas of the national birthday. On that day Martin canton- 
ment, Cow island (Isle au Vache), in the Missouri river, used the 
flag in celebration. 17 Maj. Willoughby Morgan, in command, wrote 
Gen. T. A. Smith on the morning of the Fourth: "Our colours are 
flying; and Riley is preparing something to eat We shall have 
a pig with savory 18 tarts to grace the table." Missouri river water 
and metheglin were the drinks. 19 

In 1820, Maj. Stephen H. Long on his Western expedition had 
hoped to reach the Rocky Mountains by July 4; but finding them- 
selves still on the plains between the Platte river and the mountains 
on the day itself, his men determined to refrain from their intended 
rest and push on, letting an extra pint of maize to each mess and a 
small portion of whisky be their only recognition of the national 
anniversary. 20 

Beginning with 1821, when the Spanish dominion terminated in 
New Mexico, travel across the Kansas plains toward the Southwest 
increased. Two parties that set out from Arkansas and Missouri 
for New Mexico in 1821 and traveled much of the way together, 
parted company on the return journey in 1822, but both spent a 
weary, hungry July the Fourth within the confines of the present 

15. Ibid., p. 497. Also, Jules De Mun, "Journal, June 15-August 4, 1816," in Missouri 
Historical Society's Collections, v. V, pp. 323, 324. 

16. American State Papers (Foreign Relations, v. IV, p. 207 ff). Also, Thomas James, 
op. tit., appendix, pp. 294, 295. Also, Chittenden, op. cit., v. II, pp. 498, 499. 

17. This is not the first appearance of the flag in Kansas though it is the first positively 
known use of it in an Independence day celebration. Traders may presumably have brought 
the flag into the region any time after 1777. The first flag in Kansas, however, of which 
there is now record, is the one displayed at the Pawnee village on the Republican, Septem- 
ber 25, 1806, for the reception of Zebulon M. Pike. "On our arrival," Pike wrote the Hon. 
Henry Dearborn, Secretary of War, October 1, 1806 (Exploratory Travels, appendix, pp. 
362, 363), "we found the Spanish and American flags both expanded in the village." This 
flag may have been there as early as July 4, 1806. In 1811 George C. Sibley wrote of United 
States flags in the Indian camps he visited ; vide ante, Footnote 10. 

18. The Wm. B. Napton typewritten copy of Willoughby Morgan's letter, July 4, 1819, 
to Gen. T. A. Smith about this event in Manuscript division, Kansas State Historical Society, 
uses "divers" instead of "savory." 

19. Morgan, W., letter, Martin cantonment, July 4, 1819, to "Dear General" [Gen. T. A. 
Smith, Franklin, Mo.], in Manuscript division, Missouri State Historical Society, Columbia. 
Copy in letter of Floyd Shoemaker, August 9, 1938, to author of this article. George J. 
Remsburg, in Atchison Daily Globe, July 3, 1907, refers to effect of evening fireworks on 
Indians at Cow island celebration, but in letter of June 9, 1938, Porterville, Cal., to George 
A. Root, he says he cannot recall the source of this information. The Morgan-Smith corre- 
spondence does not refer to the episode. 

20. James, Edwin, Account of [Stephen H. Long] Expedition From Pittsburgh to the 
Rocky Mountains, 1819-1820 (H. C. Carey, Philadelphia, 1823), 2 vols., v. I, p. 496. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 119 

state of Kansas. 21 Leaders of the Arkansas party were Hugh Glenn 
and Jacob Fowler. Thomas James and John McKnight were the 
dominating spirits of the Missouri group of nine. On "Thursday 
4th July 1822" Jacob Fowler wrote of trying to locate wagon 
tracks on the burned "Pirarie" between Cedar and Turkey creeks, 
Johnson county. Encamped on July 3 near Olathe, he and his 
friends made only sixteen miles July 4 along the "mesurey or the 
Caw River," to Turkey creek near the state line where they stopped 
for the night. Some of the men who had got lost returned at noon, 
"there feet Sore and mogersons Woren out." Fowler does not say 
of what the anniversary repast consisted. The day before, he did 
write that the party had not much left to eat, but had at night 
killed a fat elk. 22 The party of James and McKnight which had 
come eastward a little more slowly since the middle of June reached 
the Neosho around July 4 where, as James wrote later, "we found 
corn growing; this was just in the silk without any grain on the ear. 
We boiled and ate the cob with a hearty relish." Shortly after, 
Osage Indians from the north hailed them, laughed at their last 
meal, and led them into the village to a feast of hominy, meat, and 
bread, made from flour furnished by George C. Sibley at Fort Osage. 

Three other groups journeying through the Kansas area July 4, 
1822, were the Coopers Benjamin, Braxton and Stephen, the wagon 
party of William Becknell, and the party of one Mr. Heath; none 
of them, seemingly, recorded their keepings of the Fourth. 23 

The Franklin, Mo., party of 81 men, 25 wagons, and 156 horses 
and mules that set out on May 15, 1824, under the leadership of 
Augustus Storrs, with $30,000 worth of merchandise, encamped July 
3 to July 5 on Cimarron creek, then in the New Mexican province 
but now within the limits of Kansas or Colorado. M. M. Mar- 
maduke wrote, in his "Journal" of the expedition, that water was 
remarkably bad and scarce and that the only food for days had 
been meat of buffalo, antelope, and wild horse. Further west, on 
July 8, he found grapes and wild currants. 24 

On July 4, 1826, James 0. Pattie and others were trapping for 
beaver upon the headwaters of the Arkansas, where, on July 5, in 

21. James, Thomas, op. cit., pp. 98-108, 176-189. 

22. Fowler, Jacob, Journal, narrating an adventure from Arkansas to the sources of the 
Rio Grande del Norte, 1821-1822, ed. by Elliott Coues (Francis P. Harper, N. Y., 1898), 
pp. 170, 171. 

23. Chittenden, op. cit., v. II, pp. 501-504. Also, Fowler, op. cit., p. 154. Also, Thomas 
James, op. cit., pp. 167, 175. Also, Gregg, loc. cit., pp. 178-180. 

24. Storrs, Augustus, "Answers ... to Queries ," January 3, 1825 ; 
Richard Graham, "Answers"; M. M. Marmaduke, "Journal," in Southwest on the Turquoise 
Trail, pp. 69, 72, 73, 81-83, 99, 100. Lansing B. Bloom, editor of the New Mexico Historical 
Review, v. IX, p. Ill, doubts that Storrs and Marmaduke were of the same party. 



120 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

an attack by mounted Blackfoot Indians they lost four men and 
killed sixteen Blackfeet. 25 

On July 4, 1827, the United States surveying expedition of the 
Santa Fe trail was completing the correction of its survey of 1825. 
The field notes of Joseph C. Brown, 26 are without dates, but the 
personal diary of one member of the party 27 shows that the portion 
checked on Independence day, 1827, was the stretch between Cara- 
van Grove, near present day Olathe, and the Big Blue ford in Mis- 
souri. At Caravan Grove on July 3 Brown found the camping 
ground excellent and the timber plentiful for shelter and fuel. Flat 
Rock creek, nine miles east, south of present-day Lenexa, had a 
good ford and adequate wood, water, and grass for camping. Nine 
miles south of the mouth of the Kansas, the surveyors passed into 
the state of Missouri and camped at the ford of Big Blue creek on 
the night of July 4. 

Various parties crossed the plains, both to and from New Mexico, 
in 1828. 28 Alphonso Wetmore, a courier on the Santa Fe trail, was 
one, but he made no reference to the significance of the day as he 
entered in his diary for July 4 record of a twenty mile march along 
the left bank of the Arkansas past Anderson's caches to the ford of 
the river where he encamped for the night. 29 This stretch of the 
trail, between Pawnee fork and the Jornada, he described as "the 
finest natural road in the world." Antelope, fish, and buffalo sup- 
plied his meat along the way and he "dressed" his suppers over 
buffalo fuel. 

The next year, 1829, found the caches well bepeopled on July 4, 
for at 6 p. m. a company of seventy traders with thirty-seven wagons 
arrived there under military escort of Maj. Bennett Riley, and four 
companies of the Sixth regiment of the United States infantry. 30 
The troops had left Jefferson barracks, May 5, 1829, for protection 
of the trail and joined the traders in rendezvous at Round (Cara- 

25. Pattie, James O., "Personal Narrative," ed. by Timothy Flint, in Thwaites' Early 
Western Travels, v. XVIII, pp. 142, 143. 

26. Brown, Joseph C., "Field Notes," U. S. surveying expedition of Santa Fe trail, 
Eighteenth Biennial Report of Kansas State Historical Society (1913), pp. 117-125. 

27. Sibley, George C., "Diary" of the resurvey of the Santa Fe road in 1827, in Linden- 
wood collection of Sibley manuscripts. Entry of July 4, 1827. Typescript by Kate L. 
Gregg used. 

28. Chittenden, op. cit., v. II, p. 511. 

29. Wetmore, Alphonso, "Diary of 1828," in Southwest on the Turquoise Trail, pp. 188, 
189. 

30. Izard, Lt. James Farley, adjutant to Maj. Bennett Riley, "Journal," filed in the War 
Department as of Maj. Bennett Riley, ed. by Fred S. Perrine from photostatic copy, New 
Mexico Historical Review, v. Ill, pp. 275-278. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 121 

van) Grove June II. 31 In the group were two celebrated travelers 
of the prairie, William Waldo and P. St. George Cooke, who have 
both written of the experience. Cooke made an impressive picture 
of the 130-mile march in view of the Arkansas, with mile after mile 
of prairie blackened by buffaloes, only here and there a tree on the 
river bank, and the tantalizing mirage ever ahead. At the Pawnee 
fork of the Arkansas on July 1 the troops were put on half rations 
of flour; the fresh meat of buffalo, hunted and killed daily, became 
substitute for the expended salt pork. Buffalo dung, when not wet, 
was the fuel, except for an occasional dead tree. Diarrhoea became 
general among the men. In consequence of these handicaps, their 
celebration of the national anniversary was "slight," in the words of 
Lieutenant Izard, but equal to their means. One gun preceded the 
morning reveille; the troops had an extra ration of whisky, preced- 
ing an eighteen mile march to the caches. There, at dark, an ex- 
press arrived with mail, nine days from Cantonment Leavenworth. 
At 8 a. m. July 5, the detachment moved on toward the upper cross- 
ing of the Arkansas at Chouteau island, where its services as escort 
to the traders were to end. 32 

Annually after 1829 the federal government seems to have pro- 
vided some military escort for protection of Santa Fe trade against 
Indian depredation. 33 Annually, no doubt, too, the Fourth of July 
had some observance along the trail, by soldiers on duty there if not 
by traveling merchants. Full accounts of those escorts, however, 
are not available. 

In 1831, when a number of parties were en route to Santa Fe and 
Jedediah Smith lost his life at the hands of the Comanches on the 
Cimarron in June, the rest of his party of eighty-five arrived at their 
destination in the Mexican capital July 4, before learning of his 
fate. 34 That same year Josiah Gregg, a month behind the Smith 
expedition, had got slightly to the southwest of Kansas by July 4. 

31. Report of John H. Eaton, Secretary of War, to congress, November 30, 1829, and 
letter of Bennett Riley to Brig. -Gen. H. Leavenworth, November 22, in American State Papers 
(Military Affairs, v. IV, pp. 154, 277-280). Also, William Waldo, "Recollections of a Sep- 
tuagenarian," Missouri Historical Society's Publications, Nos. II and III, pp. 1-18. Waldo 
says the caravan consisted of sixty men and thirty -six wagons. 

32. Cooke, P. St. G., Scenes and Adventures in the Army (Lindsay and Blakiston, 
Philadelphia, 1859), pp. 44-46. 

33. American State Papers (Military Affairs, v. IV, p. 219; v. V, p. 31). Also, Iowa 
Historical Record, v. VI, p. 453 ; New Mexico Historical Review, v. XII, pp. 121, 122. Also, 
John Irving, Jr., Indian Sketches Taken During an Expedition to the Pawnee Tribes (Phila- 
delphia, 1835), 2 vols., v. I, p. 29. Also, Josiah Gregg, loc. cit., pp. 187-193. Both Gregg 
and his editor, R. G. Thwaites, are mistaken in their assertion that the government supplied 
protection only in 1829 and 1834. 

34. Dale, H. C., The Ashley-Smith Explorations . . . (Arthur H. Clark Company, 
Cleveland, 1918), pp. 294-299. 



122 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Encamped on McNees creek, in what is now Union county, New 
Mexico, he and his followers began their patriotic demonstration at 
dawn. The roar of artillery and rifle platoons echoed from sur- 
rounding hills, as did the martial music of drum and fife and the 
enthusiastic huzzas of the people. In American wayfarers on 
the remote desert, Gregg observed, the anniversary always stirred 
"heartfelt joy" and "almost pious exultation." 35 Such, however, 
was not the feeling of the Rocky Mountain expedition of which 
Zenas Leonard wrote as being then without provisions or game, on 
the Republican. For days, around July 4, they subsisted chiefly on 
mussels and small fish. Then the captain ordered two of his best 
horses killed and the carcasses distributed to each mess. 36 

In 1832, Isaac McCoy, a Baptist missionary, who had purchased a 
little land about one mile within Indian territory was erecting "log 
dwellings," in a wood for his family. 37 This was not far from the 
site chosen for his mission. In the parties of Nathaniel J. Wyeth 
and William Sublette that had crossed the mountains and South Pass 
about July 1 and spent July 4 in swimming their 150 horses across 
Hoback's river, there was more of melancholy than of joy as they 
drank the health of their friends and home "in good clear water," 
that being the only liquor' they had. 38 

In 1833, the Baptist missionary Isaac McCoy, "in compliance with 
invitation . . . went (accompanied by Mrs. M.) to Independ- 
ence," to deliver an address on July 4 before the Jackson County 
Temperance Society. 39 

Capt. Clifton Wharton, Company A, U. S. dragoons, left the Santa 
Fe caravan of 1834 under the command of Josiah Gregg at Camp 
Livingston on the south bank of the Arkansas on June 27 and turned 
back toward Fort Gibson. Somewhere between Camp Livingston 
and the Osage agency which they reached on July 13, the dragoons 
spent July 4, 1834. 40 This year a second Baptist missionary to Kan- 
sas, Jotham Meeker, was at the McCoy mission July 4, where he 
"engaged in translating an account of the discovery of America &c. 

35. Gregg, loc. cit., pp. 233, 234. 

36. Narrative of the Adventures of Zenas Leonard, ed. by Milo M. Quaife (Lakeside 
Press, Chicago, 1934), pp. 6-8. 

37. McCoy, Isaac, "Journal," entry of June 13, 1832. Manuscript division, Kansas State 
Historical Society. 

38. Wyeth, John B., "Oregon," in Thwaites' Early Western Travels, v. XXI, pp. 60-62. 

39. McCoy, Isaac, "Journal," entry of July 4, 1833. 

40. Wharton, Capt. Clifton, "Report," campaign of 1834 as escort to the Santa Fe 
caravan under command of Josiah Gregg, ed. by Fred S. Perrine, "Military Escorts on the 
Santa Fe Trail," New Mexico Historical Review, v. II, pp. 269-304. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 123 

for the Ottawa first book." 41 The Wyeth party, now two days 
away from the annual mountain rendezvous on Green river, had 
liquor kegs to open and allowed its men an abundance. A renewal 
of the coarse and brutal scenes of the rendezvous ensued. When 
the "happy" ones reeled into line to fire a volley in honor of the day, 
the men who were not "happy" had to lie flat on the ground to avoid 
the bullets careening in every direction. 42 

Events of varying import occurred in the Kansas region in 1835. 
The Hon. Charles Augustus Murray, of England, spent the day at 
Fort Leavenworth. The firing of twenty-four guns and an excellent 
dinner with Madeira and champagne he accepted as "usual com- 
memoration" of the American holiday. Arrival at the post, how- 
ever, of 150 Pawnee Indians and entry into the mess room of twelve 
or fourteen warrior chiefs before the dinner was over, was impressive 
and unusual. Equally surprising was the ease with which the 
unsophisticated visitors sat down to cigars and wine. After the hosts 
engaged in choral song, the red brethren, on invitation, rose all at 
once, tuned mind and lungs to the proper pitch, and let forth a shrill 
cry that sank to monotonous cadence and rose again in "full chorus 
of .mingled yell and howl." At twilight the Englishman jumped on 
his horse "to gallop off the effects of wine, noise, and smoke," only 
to be more startled on his return in the moonlight at seeing amid the 
white army tents eight or ten blazing fires around which almost 
naked savages were roasting huge fragments of a recently killed ox. 
On buffalo skins sat the white men who smoked with them and who 
soon received hunks of the half-roasted meat. Only the Indians ate 
with any relish, they even tearing the meat from the bone with their 
teeth. 43 

Meantime, about twenty-five miles away, at the Baptist mission, 
Isaac McCoy was writing in his diary, July 4, that one Mr. Blanch- 
ard's female cousin, who "had belonged to the Methodist connexion," 
was this day "united with our Baptist church by experience. Mrs. 
Blanchard united with us by letter." The next day, Sunday, McCoy 
rode with his wife to the Shawnee settlement to baptise the young 
woman received yesterday but was disappointed to find the Indians 
so absorbed in council over their government annuity to be re- 

41. Meeker, Jotham, "Journal," 1832-1855, entry of July 4, 1834. Manuscript division, 
Kansas State Historical Society. Entries of July 10, 14, and August 4, indicate Meeker was 
preparing books to teach the children of the Ottawas, to whom he was to be missionary, to 
read. 

42. Townsend, John K., "Narrative of a Journey Across the Rocky Mountains," in 
Thwaites' Early Western Travels, v. XXI, pp. 197, 198. Sir William Drummond Stewart, a 
Scotchman already a year in the mountains, joined the Wyeth party at the rendezvous, July 2. 

43. Murray, Charles Augustus, Travels in North America During the Years 1834, 1895, 
and 1836 (Richard Bentley, London, 1839), 2 vols., v. I, pp. 253-256. 



124 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ceived on Monday, that only "a few women attended the Bap- 
tism." 44 Jotham Meeker had left the McCoy mission July 1 to 
visit the Ottawas, whom he found cultivating crops and hunting. 
They all treated him with great kindness. On July 4 the chief ac- 
companied him to a spring where he selected a place for building 
the Ottawa mission. 45 

On this same day Capt. Lemuel Ford who had set out from Fort 
Leavenworth on May 29, 1835, with Col. Henry Dodge on a Western 
expedition, made two records of the anniversary. Entry for July 
4 in his journal reads: ". . . Though we are in the far west 
. . . & cant join with our families & friends in a land of civil- 
alition in the cellebration of this day, I have not forgotten . . . 
the decleration of American Independence." After a twenty-five 
mile march up the Platte river bottom, in what would now be the 
vicinity of Lincoln county, Nebraska, he bathed in the river which 
was "cool and not more than waste deep." 46 In a second sketch 
"A Summer Upon the Prairie," also in diary form, Captain Ford 
told of shooting a fat buffalo cow in a "heard of buffalo" at evening. 
Officers of the command assembled at the tent of Captain D[un- 
can] to close the fifty-ninth anniversary of American Independence 
in a glass of excellent brandy, and Platte water. "After partaking 
of a soldier's fare each retired to his blanket and bear-skin . . . 
satisfied." 47 

No one is now known to have kept July 4 as a holiday in Kansas 
for the next seven years. Jotham Meeker, still at the Baptist mis- 
sion at Shawnee, spent the day in 1836 hunting horses and attend- 
ing a monthly concert at the mission house. Daily he divided his 
time here between services to the Indians and living problems of 
his own; he was teaching Blackfeather and Bluejacket to write and 
on the Lord's day, July 3, he attended a religious meeting in West- 
port and assisted with exhortation and prayer; between times he 
cut a bee tree and hived the bees. He had neither time nor need 
for patriotic display. 48 

Meeker's program for 1837 was not dissimilar, but he had now 
settled among the Ottawas. His own abode was a rough cabin in- 
tended for a stable. There the Indians visited him. In his fields 

44. McCoy, Isaac, "Journal," entries, July 4, 5, 1835. 

45. Meeker, Jotham, "Journal," entries of July 1-4, 1835. 

46. Ford, Capt. Lemuel, "Journal," recorded on march of Col. Henry Dodge from Fort 
Leavenworth, May 29 to September 16, 1835, edited by Louis Pelzer, in Mississippi Valley 
Historical Review (March, 1926), v. XII, pp. 550-579. 

47. Ford, Capt. Lemuel, "A Summer Upon the Prairie," in Overland to the Pacific, ed. 
by A. B. Hulbert (1934), v. IV, pp. 257-259. 

48. Meeker, Jotham, "Journal," entries of July 1-4, 1836. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 125 

he grew corn, pumpkins, potatoes, melons, peas, and cabbage. He 
had bought a bee tree. On July 4 he plowed the corn, hoed the 
pumpkins and melons, wrote letters, and visited some of the Indians. 
Again his only manifestation of patriotism was cheerful devotion 
to duty. 49 Isaac McCoy at Shawnee was less content. His diary 
entry for the day was a ten-page discourse on his own personal 
disappointments and on Indian troubles: the June number of the 
Baptist magazine, just received with annual report of Baptist mis- 
sions, made no mention of the twenty-year service of himself and 
wife; often he had felt great anxiety to know how he would obtain 
bread for the mouths of his family or raiment for their bodies, but 
in the words he carried with him for comfort he found safety, 
"Trust in the Lord and do good, . . . and verily thou shalt be 
fed." The Indian troubles disturbing McCoy were the dissatisfac- 
tion of the chiefs, at the council of the Shawnees, in the provisions of 
the bill for organizing the Indian territory, and the report of a 
Delaware-Sioux war near the Pawnee villages, the Delawares hav- 
ing brought in the scalps of two Sioux Indians to the Shawnee 
council. 50 

In 1838 McCoy was on July 4 concluding a six weeks' survey of 
the half-breed Indian tracts and adjusting Pottawatomie bound- 
aries. 51 Meeker, who had just completed his school building and 
been interpreting for Doctor Chute who had been vaccinating 
Indians, spent his holiday shelling corn and visiting. 52 

On Independence day, 1839, the "Putawatomie Temperance So- 
ciety" came into being. Following a morning meeting of resolu- 
tions and four addresses, thirty-six Indians of both sexes signed the 
temperance pledge, making a total of ninety-four members, twenty- 
two of whom were Ottawas. Then all of the members partook of a 
dinner prepared by a few. Jotham Meeker, who had ridden over 
the day before with sixteen Ottawas, was one of the speakers. On 
July 5 he celebrated at home by taking "fifty weight of honey from 
two of my hives." 53 At the far west Thomas Jefferson Farnham, a 
lawyer from Illinois, seeking both to recuperate his health in the 
out-of-doors and also to engage in the fur-trade in the Northwest, 
was, on July 4, approaching Bent's fort, which he reached on the 
afternoon of July 5 after fatiguing travel. "Our hearts, relieved 
from the anxieties, . . . leaped for joy as the gates of the fort 

49. Ibid, entries of June 18-July 4, 1837. 

50. McCoy, Isaac, "Journal," entry of July 4, 1837. 

51. Ibid., entries, May 24-July 9, 1838. 

52. Meeker, Jotham, "Journal," entry of July 4, 1838. 

53. Ibid., entries of July 3-5, 1839. 



126 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

were thrown open, and ... the hearty welcome of fellow- 
countrymen in the wild wilderness greeted us. Peace again roofs 
again . . . bread, ah! bread again!" 54 To the north between 
the main chain of the Rockies and the projecting Wind River moun- 
tains, Dr. F. A. Wislizenus was going with a party to the annual 
rendezvous of Indians and whites on Green river, still a day's 
journey ahead. Although he wrote of July 4 as "the great holiday 
of the United States," only humdrum routine marked the occasion 
as the men stretched out around the fires, smoked, and in expecta- 
tion of the morrow's journey, went quietly to sleep. 55 

The year 1840 found sickness so prevalent in the Ottawa mission 
that Jotham Meeker had to divide his care between the physical 
and spiritual needs of his following. After spending the week in 
blistering and bleeding patients, putting drafts on the feet and giv- 
ing calomel, he devoted Saturday, July 4, to visiting the well brethren 
to persuade them to come on the Lord's day, July 5, to "listen" to 
his sermon on the day of judgment. Chebas, an old juggler, dis- 
puted a long time. 56 

In 1841, when the Fourth fell on the Lord's day, the mission held 
an all-day baptismal service for "three sisters," who had the day be- 
fore told their "Christian experiences." At 10 a. m. Isaac McCoy 
preached from the text, "Behold the Lamb of God." After the mis- 
sion gave out a luncheon, the sixty or seventy attendants formed a 
procession and marched to the stream nearby singing, in Ottawa, "0 
for a thousand tongues to sing." McCoy made baptismal remarks; 
Meeker immersed the three Indian women in the name of the 
Trinity. "Perfect order prevailed," wrote the latter. "Tears flowed 
from the eyes of both professors and non-professors." After the 
immersion the two clergymen administered the Lord's Supper. 57 
This same year a Catholic clergyman, P. J. DeSmet, already beyond 
the Kansas plains in his westward journey, wrote of approaching 
Independence Rock, July 4; and, on arrival, July 5, of refraining 
from crying, "Hurra for Independence," out of deference to a 
jealous young Englishman. They all cut their names on the south 
side of the rock "under initials, I. H. S." 58 

54. Farnham, Thomas Jefferson, "Travels," in R. G. Thwaites' Early Western Travels, 
v. XXVIII, p. 107. * 

55. Wislizenus, Frederick Adolphus, M. D., A Journey to the Rocky Mountains in the 
Year 18S9, being a tr. of Ein Ausflug nach den Felsen-Gebirgen im Jahre 1839 (St. Louis, 
1840), made by Frederick A. Wislizenus, and pub. by the Missouri Historical Society (St. 
Louis, 1912), p. 85. 

56. Meeker, Jotham, "Journal," entries of July 1-5, 1840. 

57. Ibid., entries of July 3, 4, 1841. 

58. DeSmet, P. J., "Letters and Sketches," in Thwaites' Early Western Travels, v. 
XXVII, pp. 215, 216. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 127 

July 4, 1842, found Jotham Meeker at Shawnee mission, en route 
to Ottawa from a trip in the East. The entire day he gave to duties 
as treasurer of the institution there. 59 This year, to the north, near 
the point where the north and south forks of the Platte river unite, 
John C. Fremont with an exploring party was spending the first of 
four successive Fourths of July in the Kansas region. With salute 
at daybreak and scanty portions of "red fire-water" served his men, 
Fremont advanced westward through a short day made memorable 
by a huge herd of buffalo, estimated at 11,000, and by a festive 
evening meal of macaroni soup, choice buffalo meat, preserves, fruit 
cake, and coffee, enjoyed in barbaric luxury on the grass. 60 

The national anniversary had wide celebration in and around 
Kansas in 1843. Again Fremont was approaching the Rocky Moun- 
tains on July 4. Arriving with an advance guard at St. Vrain's fort 
at noon, he accepted the invitation of St. Vrain to join in a feast 
already prepared for the anniversary. 61 On the same day Theodore 
Talbot, following in the rear with a detachment of Fremont's men, 
wrote of killing a buffalo at first shot, "a grand triumph for a tyro 
like myself." Then he lent his aid in disposing of another. 62 William 
Gilpin who was traveling west under the protection of Fremont, 
spent the Fourth with one of these divisions. 63 At the same time 
the hunting expedition of Sir William Drummond Stewart, a Scotch- 
man, who had joined in the American celebration of the Fourth with 
the Wyeth party between Green and Bear rivers in 1834, 64 enjoyed a 
"munificient and magnificent jollification" in the neighborhood of 
the Sweetwater and the Wind River mountains. The party was "93 
strong, well-armed and provisioned." At sunrise three volleys of 
thirty rifles and three loud cheers saluted the flag, raised in mid- 
camp. Father De Vos, a Catholic priest traveling with the party to 
the Catholic settlement among the Flatheads, said mass. The for- 
mal exercises included an oration by George W. Christy, an ode by 
M. C. Field, news correspondent of the occasion, and an original 
song. The dinner, d la bras imperial, given by Sir William, the host, 
consisted of roast beef, plum pudding, Rhine wine, milk punch, 

59. Meeker, Jotham, "Journal," entry of July 4, 1842. 

60. Abbott, John S. C., Christopher Carson (Dodd, Mead, New York), pp. 217-220. 
Also, "A Narrative of Adventures and Explorations," in The Daring Adventures of Kit Car- 
son and Fremont (Hurst and Co., New York, c!885), pp. 93, 94, 488. 

61. Ibid., p. 198. 

62. Talbot, Theodore, Journals, 1843 and 1849-1852, ed. by Charles H. Carey (Metro- 
politan Press, Portland, 1931), pp. 13, 17; entry of July 4, 1848. 

63. Bancroft, H. H., Chronicles of the Builders of the Commonwealth (History Company, 
San Francisco, 1891), v. I, pp. 522, 523. 

64. Vide ante, p. 123. 



128 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Minny Warka, corn dodgers, and buffalo. 65 Wm. L. Sublette was 
one of the hunting party. 66 

Following on the trail of Sir William Drummond Stewart were 
Overton Johnson and William H. Winter with twenty emigrants to 
the Far West. On the fourth day of July they effected a six-day 
passage of the South fork of the Platte eighty-five miles above the 
forks. Boats made of green buffalo hides, sewed together and 
stretched over wagon beds tightly, with the flesh side out, to dry in 
the sun, and then covered with tallow and ashes conveyed the goods 
of the company across the stream, here one mile wide. Teams drew 
the empty wagons across farther down where the water was more 
shallow. 67 

Meantime, in the eastern part of the region two missionaries pur- 
sued their callings on this holiday. Jotham Meeker visited around 
among the Indians and held a lengthy religious conversation with 
Pinasukeshikoqua. 68 The Rev. Wm. H. Goode, a Methodist mis- 
sionary of the frontier conference, was paying a visit early in July, 
1843, to the Indian manual-labor school, later known as Shawnee 
mission. On July 3 the superintendent of this mission took "some 
forty of his pupils, male and female, to attend a Sunday school 
celebration at Independence." Well trained in vocal music, these 
Indian pupils were "calculated greatly to highten the interest of 
such an occasion." Mr. Goode himself, suffering from an infected 
tick bite, removed on the Fourth of July to Kansas landing, con- 
sisting then of a single log warehouse and dwelling. Here while he 
waited for a boat to St. Louis, and enjoyed his first taste of buffalo 
meat, he kept a "mid-night vigil," upon the cause of missions and 
the saving of souls. 69 

Far to the southwest, on the north bank of the Arkansas, forty 
miles east of Chouteau's island, Capt. P. St. George Cooke and his 
dragoons saluted the sun this same July 4 with a shell that exploded 
across the river, before the annual Santa Fe caravan began its ten- 
hour crossing into Mexican territory. All day the traders worked 
in a gale, taking across twenty-four American wagons, thirty-two 

65. Field, M. C., letter, Fort Platte, La Ramee fork, July 8, 1843, to "Dear Friends," in 
New Orleans Weekly Picayune, September 11, 1843. Reprinted in Niles' National Register, 
September 30, 1843, v. LXV, p. 71. Also in New York Weekly Tribune, September 23, 1843. 
The letter in the Tribune is dated July 8, 1840. M. C. Field, editor of the New Orleans 
Picayune, traveled to the end of the journey with the Stewart party. Cf. Niles' Register, v. 
LXV; also, H. H. Bancroft's History of Oregon (History Company, San Francisco, 1886), 
v. I, p. 396, Footnote 6. 

66. Johnson, Overton, and Wm. H. Winter, Route Across the Rocky Mountains, reprint 
by Carl Cannon (Princeton, 1932), p. 5. 

67. Ibid., pp. 11, 12. 

68. Meeker, Jotham, "Journal," entry of July 4, 1843. 

69. Goode, Wm. H., Outposts of Zion (Poe and Hitchcock, Cincinnati, 1864), pp. 99, 100. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 129 

Mexican wagons, and some hundred mules and oxen. In the party 
were ten American owners, five Mexican owners, sixty-eight armed 
Americans, and about the same number of armed Mexicans. Flound- 
ering incessantly in the water and dashing with wild yells of en- 
couragement to the mules, the Mexicans sounded like a great water 
fall. The last wagon over, the trading company dispatched a letter 
of appreciation to Captain Cooke for his efficient protection ; and he 
and the dragoons were free on the morrow to turn back toward 
Leavenworth. 70 

Capt. Nathan Boone, who had encamped on the south bank of the 
Arkansas opposite Captain Cooke on June 21 was now at Eagle Chief 
creek, due west of Avard, Woods county, Okla. Here he kept the 
Fourth in "roasting fine buffalo meat" and in curing some, while his 
worn-out teams rested in a grove of elm, hackberry, tallow, and 
chittim trees. 71 

The national anniversary had little to mark it in Kansas in 1844. 
Jotham Meeker, whom the Ottawas had permitted on July 3 to 
select a site for the Ottawa mission, spent the holiday attending a 
prayer meeting and holding religious talks with Chebas, the juggler, 
and his wife. 72 Fremont's expedition on its return eastward, reached 
Bent's fort, July 1, 1844, where they "were saluted with a display of 
the national flag, and repeated discharges from the guns of the fort, 
[and] where we were received by Mr. George Bent with a cordial 
welcome and a friendly hospitality, in the enjoyment of which we 
spent several very agreeable days." On the Fourth itself "Mr. Bent 
gave a dinner in commemoration of the occasion to Fremont and his 
party. Although hundreds of miles separated from their country- 
men, yet they sat down to as sumptuous a repast as could be fur- 
nished in many towns of the States." 73 Wm. Gilpin who had been 
with Fremont in 1843 was now between Fort Hall and Fort Bridger 
at Soda Springs where he and Peg Leg Smith after two days without 
food, celebrated the Fourth by eating antelope and drinking soda 
water. 74 

On July 4, 1845, Fremont was again in Kansas, on the first leg of 

70. Cooke, Capt. P. St. G., "Journal" (ed. by W. E. Connelley) of an expedition of a 
detachment of U. S. dragoons from Fort Leavenworth to protect the annual caravan of 
traders from Missouri to Mexican boundary on road to Santa Fe, May 27 to July 21, 1843, 
in The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, v. XII, pp. 238-241. 

71 Boone, Capt. Nathan, "Journal," Chronicles of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, v. VII, 
p. 92. 

72. Meeker, Jotham, "Journal," entry of July 4, 1844. 

73. Peters, Dewitt C., Kit Carson's Life and Adventures, from facts narrated by himself 
(Dustin, Oilman, and Co., Hartford, Conn., c!874), p. 219. Also, A Narrative of Adventures 
and Explorations, p. 488. 

74. Bancroft, H. H., Chronicles of the Builders of the Commonwealth, v. I, pp. 529, 530. 

98551 



130 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

another Western tour, when he named a second Kansas stream "In- 
dependence creek" in honor of the day. 75 Francois des Montaignes 
of St. Louis, who kept "veracious memoranda, taken during this 
expedition," and called "The Plains," described this stream, crossed 
at evening on July 3 as "a small creek of tolerable water." Camp- 
ing on a hill beyond, where the grass was good and the wood plenti- 
ful, the "patriotic Canadians" at daybreak on July 4 saluted the 
captain's tent a la mode avec fusil et pistolet. The captain himself 
appeared in propria persona and distributed a small quantity of fire- 
water by way of "largesse." Remaining encamped for the day, the 
men concentrated their gun-powder propensities in shooting at a 
mark for brandy and clothes. Night left the camp "in a mixed con- 
dition of gloom, patriotism, pizin, and old clothes." In his diary 
thereafter, Montaignes denominated this camp "Camp Largesse," 
but he did not allude to Fremont's christening of the stream "In- 
dependence." 76 At the Ottawa mission Jotham Meeker directed 
ten or twelve brethren to prepare for the quarterly meeting by erect- 
ing a large shed with seats, killing a beef, and arranging a baptismal 
place. The next day he received five persons in baptism and re- 
jected two. 77 To the northwest in the Black Hills Joel Palmer wrote 
of the beautiful timbered hills with an abundance of red, yellow, and 
black currants, and some gooseberries; elk, buffalo, deer, antelope, 
and bear were the meats nature then offered for Independence day 
choice. 78 On their return from the Far West the detachment of 
Colonel Kearney alternated long marches over glaring sands and 
rocks between South Pass and Fort Laramie with rest periods in 
spots covered with currants, gooseberries, strawberries, and clover. 
At the request of westward bound emigrants to Oregon, encamped 
near the soldiers the night of July 3, Colonel Kearney fired the 
mountain howitzer to announce the Fourth and awakened a glorious 
confusion of echoes from the granite peaks about. The gun, or the 
day's ensuing march, prompted a long satire by P. St. George Cooke 

75. Abert, J. W., "Notes," in W. H. Emory's Notes of a Military Reconnaissance From 
Fort Leavenworth, in Missouri, to San Diego, in California (Washington), pp. 393, 394. 
Colonel Fremont, in Memoirs of My Life (Belford, Clarke, and Co., Chicago, 1887), gives 
but cursory review of this 1845 trip across eastern Kansas. Independence creek according to 
Abert is a little more than a day's journey east of Big John spring. The map made by 
Abert in 1847 to accompany this volume does not show any "Independence" creek. Between 
the camp of July 3, west of Fish creek, and the camp of July 4, 1846, at Big John spring, the 
map shows four streams crossed by the expedition: an unnamed branch of Pool creek, Pool 
creek itself, Bluff creek, and Rock creek, a branch of Bluff. The branch of Pool creek seems 
most likely the one meant. 

76. Mbntaignes, Francois dee, "The Plains," in The Western Journal, St. Louis, New 
series, v. IV, pp. 224-226, 295. 

77. Meeker, Jotham, "Journal," entries of July 4, 5, 1845. 

78. Palmer, Joel, "Journal of Travela Over the Rocky Mountains," in Thwaites' Early 
Western Travels, v. XXX, p. 65. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 131 

on independence and dependence, political, social, and personal. 79 
In the camp of Vasques and Peg Leg Smith on a branch of Green 
river, Overton Johnson and William H. Winter were this day 
entertained by tall tales of all the parties the Sioux had cut to 
pieces thereabouts. 80 

Although Jotham Meeker, arriving again from Boston on July 4, 
kept the holiday in 1846 by attending a prayer-meeting with the 
brethren at the Stockbridge mission and sat up "till after midnight 
conversing &c at Bro. Pratt's," 81 and William Walker, located at 
the mouth of the Kansas river, rejoiced over the news that the bill 
for the improvement appropriation for the Wyandots had passed the 
lower house of congress, 82 most of the demonstration for the Fourth 
in Kansas in 1846 was by the military. The Mexican war was on. 
From the first of June the entire eastern frontier was in commotion. 
Volunteers were organizing and drilling all along the border for the 
Army of the West. 83 For convenience in camping and marching, 
"the different companies, squadrons, commissary trains, traders' 
wagons, et cetera, were strung out many miles" along the Santa Fe 
trail to be concentrated August 1 within cannon shot of Bent's fort 
by Col. Stephen Watts Kearney, in command. 84 Although John T. 
Hughes was the official military biographer of this reconnaissance 
and J. W. Abert, the appointed observer of natural history for W. H. 
Emory, topographical engineer, at least six other persons kept 
elaborate diaries along the way. The writers were at different 
points along the trail on July 4. 

Frank S. Edwards, who traveled from Fish's crossing of the Kaw 
river to Elm Grove 85 on July 4, regarded the Kaw as a beautiful 
stream, "clear as crystal," and the military road from Fort Leaven- 
worth through flower-sprinkled grass high as the backs of horses, as 
much more attractive than the first view of prairie seen from the 
trail. 86 Capt. A. R. Johnston, regimental adjutant, assigned to 
Captain Fischer's company, wrote of a slow, hot journey over the 

79. Cooke, P. St. George, Scenes and Adventures in the Army, pp. 368-372, entry of July 
4, 1845. 

80. Johnson and Winter, op. cit., pp. 148, 149. 

81. Meeker, Jotham, "Journal," entry for July 4, 1846. 

82. Walker, William, "Journals," ed. by Wm. E. Connelley, in Nebraska State Historical 
Society's Proceedings, Second series (Lincoln, 1899), v. Ill, pp. 182, 183, 188. 

83. Ibid., pp. 186, 187. 

84. Elliott, Richard Smith, Notes Taken in Sixty Years (R. P. Studley & Co., St. Louis, 
1883), p. 223. 

85. Fish's crossing was near the mouth of the Wakarusa. Elm Grove, known also as 
Caravan Grove, Round Grove, and Round Tree Grove, was near Olathe. "[Santa F6 trail] 
Field Notes by Joseph C. Brown," Kansas State Historical Society's Eighteenth Biennial Re- 
port, p. 117. 

86. Edwards, Frank S., A Campaign in New Mexico With Colonel Doniphan (Carey and 
Hart, Philadelphia, 1847), pp. 24, 25. 



132 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

same route with the artillery and baggage. Upon arrival at Elm 
Grove, the men of this company "were permitted to buy liquor 
from the sutler to celebrate as best they might the national anniver- 
sary." In order to set out betimes on July 5, the artificers and 
carpenters had on the anniversary evening to repair a caisson and 
wagon tongue and the cooks had to bake bread for an early break- 
fast. Reveille was to be at daylight at 3:30. 87 

George Rutledge Gibson, a Platte, Mo., volunteer, about a day's 
journey in advance, wrote of encamping the night of July 3 at Willow 
Springs, where the only wood for cooking was small willows, and 
where on the morning of the Fourth the company found itself 
devoid of spirits or aught else with which "to pay some respect to 
the day." Pulling up stakes, therefore, the soldiers advanced ten 
miles to Rock creek, where the water was plentiful but indifferent. 
From that point on the march became difficult and exhausting. The 
day was excessively hot. For twenty miles they could find no 
water. Lame, sick, worn out, the men dispersed over the prairie in 
search of relief, unable longer to control themselves and thereby in- 
creasing their fatigue. Then, finally, Capt. Wm. S. Murphy, in 
advance on horseback, discovered water at 110 Mile creek and re- 
turned with several canteens, resuscitating the faint and enabling 
many stragglers to reach camp at 110 Mile crossing. 88 Extra mules 
were sent back for the more feeble. At the end of this thirty -mile 
march, Gibson wrote "coffee and water made us feel better and the 
men were soon wrapped in their blankets," too weary to remember 
the significance of this day they had earlier desired to honor con- 
ventionally. 89 

The party to which Lieutenant Abert was attached encamped 
seven miles beyond Independence creek on the eve of July 4, and 
on the day itself moved on westward to reach some eminent place 
in honor of the national anniversary. At five o'clock they arrived 
at Big John spring where they "luxuriated on the delightful cool 
water" and reclined under the shade of a tall oak, sub-tegmine 
querci. The temperature of the water was 53 but of the air above 
80. Further notes tell of primroses, both yellow and white, seen 

87. Johnston, Abraham Robinson, "Journal, 1846," ed. by Ralph P. Bieber, in Southwest 
Historical Series (Arthur H. Clark Company, Glendale), v. IV. pp. 76-78, entry of July 
4, 1846. 

88. This camp was near the site of present Scranton. 

89. Gibson, George Rutledge, "Journal of a Soldier Under Kearny and Doniphan, 1846- 
1847," ed. by Ralph P. Bieber, in Southwest Historical Series, v. Ill, pp. 133-135, entry of 
July 4, 1846. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 133 

nearby, and list the birds about, as brown thrush, king bird, grouse, 
and quail. 90 

John T. Hughes, described the effect of Independence day upon 
the troops. In the boundless solitude of the prairie, with only the 
heaven above and the solid earth beneath, their bosoms swelled with 
noble impulses and a quenchless love of freedom; "ever and anon 
the enthusiastic shout, the loud huzza, and the animating Yankee 
Doodle were heard." After a twenty-seven mile toilsome march 
across the green plains, in the heat of an almost vertical sun, they 
pitched their tents at evening twelve miles east of Council Grove on 
the banks of Bluff creek where grass and fuel were as abundant as 
the cool spring water. Good humor prevailed throughout the 
camp. 91 

Between the Cottonwood fork and the Little Arkansas, M. B. 
Edwards, a private, attributed the "good spirits" with which his 
company made its twenty-five mile advance "through the hottest 
day that ever shone," to a keg of whisky procured the night before 
from Capt. William Waldo, the trader. "In commemoration of the 
glorious 76," each man had begun the day by drinking his fill. In 
spite of the holiday rejoicing, Edwards wrote that marching across 
the plains was not what it was "cracked up to be." Flies and 
mosquitoes were annoying. Supplies were low. 92 Jacob S. Robin- 
son, who was with the same company, wrote that they had cut their 
rations one-third; "if we cannot overtake the commissary wagons, 
we shall have nothing to eat but our horses." 93 Camping on the 
open prairie at "Good Water" 94 on the night of July 4, the company 
"ate cold provisions." Here they had their first sight of buffalo 
grass, short, curly, and thin but nutritious. To Robinson the dry 
prairie had become monotonous ; but Edwards wrote that the moon, 
shining with the brilliancy of day, made the night beautiful and a 
gentle breeze was a pleasant end to July 4, 1846. 

Still farther west another group had additional trials, recorded in 
the words of a woman, the chief sufferer, as "a disasterous celebra- 

90. Abert, J. W., loc. cit., pp. 393, 394. W. H. Emory, the engineer, p. 10, explains 
that he did not publish his diary of this part of the journey because the way had been so 
commonly traversed. 

91. Hughes, John T., "Doniphan's Expedition," reprinted in W. E. Connelley's Doniphan's 
Expedition (Topeka, 1907), pp. 155, 156. 

92. Edwards, Marcellus Ball, "Journal, 1846-1847," ed. by Ralph P. Bieber, in South- 
west Historical Series, v. IV, pp. 125, 126, entry of July 4, 1846. 

93. Robinson, Jacob S., A Journal of the Santa Fe Expedition Under Coldnel Doniphan, 
a reprint ed. by Carl L. Cannon (Princeton, 1932), p. 9, entry of July 4, 1846. 

94. Ibid., footnote, p. 9, suggests that this camp was probably at Indian creek, a branch 
of Turkey creek. 



134 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

tion." Encamped on the night of July 3 at Pawnee Rock with a 
contingent of soldiers was a merchandise train of seventy-five or 
eighty wagons. With one trader, Samuel Magoffin, was his bride, 
Susan Shelby Magoffin. On the morning of July 4 while her husband 
kept watch for Indians with his gun and pistols, she carved her 
name on Pawnee Rock among the hundreds already inscribed there. 
She did not do the work well, she wrote, because fear of Indians 
made her tremble all over. Since the rest of the caravan had gone 
on its way, the driver for the Magoffins had to hurry to overtake 
the party at Ash creek. Then at the bank when they failed to take 
the usual precaution of dismounting and walking down, their car- 
riage was whirled over the verge of the cliff "in a perfect crash." 
The top and sides were broken to pieces but the passengers were 
almost entirely unhurt. Mrs. Magoffin, who was herself stunned so 
that she had to be carried to a shade tree and have her face and 
hands rubbed with whisky to come to herself, rather rejoiced in the 
opportunity the occasion afforded to test her husband's oversight 
and devotion. The scene, however, she described as "a perfect mess, 
that; of people, books, bottles, . . . guns, pistols, baskets, bags, 
boxes, and the dear knows what else." 95 

This same day, July 4, 1846, Francis Parkman, with three of his 
own men, four trappers, and an Indian family of Morin, traversed 
in sight of the Black Hills "a forlorn and dreary monotony of sun- 
scorched plains, where no living thing appeared, save here and there 
an antelope flying before us like the wind." Weakened by a recent 
recurrent illness Parkman seemed to take no thought of the national 
anniversary, but coming at noon upon a fine growth of spreading 
trees along Horseshoe creek he flung himself down on the rich, tall 
grass beneath, "exhausted . . . scarcely able to move." 96 West 
of Fort Laramie two emigrant parties, one of Edwin Bryant and the 
other of Lillburn Boggs, ex-governor of Missouri, held a conven- 
tional Independence day celebration in a grove. A salute, a pro- 
cession, the reading of the Declaration, a collation "served up by the 
ladies," toasts with a discharge of musketry after each, and patriotic 
songs constituted the program. J. H. Reed, of the Bryant party, had 
preserved wines and liquors, especially for the occasion. 97 

On July 4, 1847, Philip Gooch Ferguson, who had just enlisted, 

95. Magoffin, Susan Shelby, Dovm the Santa Fe Trail and Into Mexico, diary, 1846- 
1847, ed. by Stella M. Dmmm (Yale Press, 1926), pp. 40-42, entry of July 4, 1846. 

96. Parkman, Francis, The Oregon Trail, Sixth edition (Little, Brown, Boston, 1675), 
pp. 162, 163. 

97. Bryant, Edwin, What I Saw in California, (Richard Bentley, London, 1849), pp. 
100, 101. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 135 

was en route from Westport to Fort Leavenworth to report for duty. 
Camping at Gum spring, near Shawnee meeting house, July 3, he 
and several other volunteers had breakfast on the Fourth with "an 
old Frenchman who had an Indian wife and two pretty, half-breed 
daughters, all belonging to the Methodist Episcopal Church." Cross- 
ing the Kansas in flat-bottomed boats belonging to the Delawares 
and Shawnees, the party marched through rough, hilly country to 
a point four or five miles from the fort. The Kaw had seemed "a 
clear beautiful stream" to them, refreshing for bathing. Frequently 
along the road had been squaws with whisky to sell. At night 
thousands of fireflies made the prairie beautiful. 98 At evening, July 
3, another company of the Missouri Mounted Volunteers, going out 
to take the place of the regular troops still in Mexico, had reached 
the crossing of the old California trail with the Walnut, about a 
mile below what is now El Dorado. There, the next day, according 
to Capt. J. J. Clark, "the eagle screamed, and salutes were fired, and 
due honors paid to the warriors of an older day." " Three days' 
journey west of Council Grove this year was a party of traders, too 
engaged in evading the Indians, apparently, even to note the passing 
of the national anniversary. In the train were Solomon Houck, 
R. S. Elliott, Thomas Fitzpatrick, and James Josiah Webb, the latter 
three of whom have left some account of the trip. 100 Although they 
were fortunate enough to escape serious depredation themselves, 
they kept hearing of Indian encounters with the troops advancing 
westward. One was an attack upon Lt. John Love, and another 
upon Col. Alton R. Easton, both en route with detachments from 
Leavenworth to Santa Fe on July 4. 101 

At Wyandot in 1847 William Walker had such a rheumatic afflic- 
tion in the head as to set him almost distracted. 102 At the Ottawa 
mission Jotham Meeker had been undergoing dark days, but follow- 
ing extended church meetings, for which the visitors camped around 
and nearly always supplied their own provisions, his heart was re- 

98. Ferguson, Philip Gooch, "Diary, 1847-1848," ed. by Ralph P. Bieber, in Southwest 
Historical Series, y. IV, pp. 22, 23, 294. Ferguson was editor of Miner's Prospect at Potosi, 
Mo., when he enlisted. 

99. Andreas, A. T., History of the State of Kansas (Chicago, 1883), p. 1481. 

100. Elliott, R. S., op. cit., pp. 216-220, 254, 255. Also, James Josiah Webb, "Ad- 
ventures in the Santa Fe Trade, 1844-1847," ed. by Ralph P. Bieber, in Southwest Historical 
Series, v. I, pp. 31, 298. Even the original account of this trip by J. J. Webb does not 
allude to July 4. The present owner of the manuscript, Paul Webb, New Haven, Conn., a 
grandson, suggests that the men along the trail may not have been able to keep accurate 
track of the days; and that anyway they were probably too busy looking after their scalps 
to pay any attention to the date of the Declaration of Independence. Letter, New Haven, 
Conn., March 24, 1939, to author of this article. 

101. Ibid. Also, Thomas Fitzpatrick, letter from Bent's fort, Arkansas river, September 
18, 1847, to Thomas H. Harvey, St. Louis. Senate Ex. Doc. No. 1, 30 cong., 1 sess., ap- 
pendix. 

102. Walker, William, "Journals," loc. cit., p. 211, entry of July 4, 1847. 



136 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

vived on July 4, the Lord's day, by two requests for reinstatement 
after confession, and one request for baptism. Two sermons indoors 
preceded the address to 100 persons at the water. After the baptism 
Meeker gave the right hand of fellowship to the three Indians just 
received and administered the "holy sacraments" to fifty native 
members. 103 

" 'Independence Day!' Mexico free. 'Glory enough for one 
day!' " wrote William Walker on July 4, 1848. 104 Jotham Meeker 
working in his garden was still devoid of interest in national affairs ; 
threats of some young Ottawas to break their tribal laws, especially 
those of gambling, did concern him, however, and he noted that the 
Ottawa nation was to consult together on the subject. 105 Along the 
Arkansas the volunteers under William Gilpin were still active in 
defense against continued Indian depredation. 106 

The national anniversary in 1849 was wet in Kansas. Although 
at the Ottawa mission it rained nearly all day long, Jotham Meeker 
finished mowing the grass in his dooryard and chicken yard and 
along the fences in his truck patch. 107 At Wyandot rain fell also at 
night. "What a day for a celebration!" wrote William Walker, but 
his is the only allusion to any festive keeping of the occasion in 
Kansas this year. More serious problems weighed on him, however, 
as he noted that cholera had broken out afresh this week in Kansas 
[City]. 108 At Highland, S. M. Irvin, missionary to the Iowa and 
Sac Indians, recorded morning, noon, and night temperatures of 
70, 86, and 77, respectively, with a north wind and clear sky. 109 
To the northwest, in the Platte river valley, R. C. Shaw wrote that 
a California emigrant party ushered in the Fourth by a discharge of 
firearms, which were ready for use again after a thorough cleaning. 110 

At the Iowa and Sac mission at Highland, in 1850, the Fourth of 
July temperature readings were 72, 88, and 78, respectively, for 
morning, noon, and night; a south wind blew and the sky was 
clear. 111 Jotham Meeker spent the week of July 4 in preparation 
for the quarterly meeting at the Ottawa mission ; on July 3 he had 
five bushels of corn ground and he made up a lot of cook pills and 

103. Meeker, Jotham, "Journal," entry of July 4, 1847. 

104. Walker, William "Journals," loc. cit., p. 254, entry of July 4, 1848. 



105. Meeker, Jotham 

106. Bancroft, H. H. 

107. Meeker, Jotham 

108. Walker, William 



"Journal," entry of July 4, 1848. 

Chronicles of the Builders of the Commonwealth, v. I, pp. 544, 545. 

"Journal," entry of July 4, 1849. 

"Journals," loc. cit., p. 292, entry of July 4, 1849. 



109. Irvin, S. M., "Meteorological Observations at Iowa and Sac Mission," Manuscript 
division, Kansas State Historical Society, readings for July 4, 1849. 

110. Shaw, R. C., Across the Plains in Forty-Nine (W. C. West, Farmland, Ind., 1896), 
p. 53. 

111. Irvin, S. M., "Meteorological Observations," reading for July 4, 1850. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 137 

anti-cathartic pills, &c.; on July 4 he held religious talks with two 
persons, attended a prayer meeting, and made further preparations 
for quarterly assembly on July 6. 112 The cholera had become so 
prevalent in the Kansas [City] vicinity now that William Walker 
referred to it daily in the few journal entries he took time to make. 
On both June 28 and July 5 deaths from it occurred; on July 6 
citizens were fleeing from Kansas but "this is folly." 113 The only 
allusions to patriotic significance of the day again were in the diaries 
of travelers already well to the northwest. Franklin Langworthy, 
between Green river and Fort Bridger, spent "this celebrated day" 
on dry and dusty roads across swells of bleak and barren land. 114 
John Steele wrote of an all-day celebration by Western emigrants 
then approaching the Sweetwater and Independence Rock. Shortly 
after midnight, July 3, the boys of the writer's own division brought 
an immense pile of dry sage into the camp and fired it. Volleys with 
rifles and pistols elicited three hearty cheers, echoed by neighboring 
trains. With a national salute at dawn, the party started early 
across the ashy plain, strewn with carcasses of oxen and horses. 
Encamping at 3 p.m. on the Sweetwater, both men and beasts re- 
freshed themselves at the clear, cool rivulet, and relaxed until 10 
p. m., when the camp-fires were replenished and a shout arose roll- 
ing from camp to camp. Then a discharge of fire-arms closed the 
celebration. As the fires waned, only a wolf's plaintive whine broke 
the stillness. 115 Farther west, near Salt Lake, where wild sage and 
dust were "about the only thing in the eye," C. W. Smith, of a party 
rushing to the gold region from Weston, Mo., wrote on July 4, 
"to the travel-worn emigrant in the eternal wilds, this day's re- 
membrances hardly stir the sluggish blood." 116 

The day when the first ground was broken in St. Louis for the 
Pacific railroad, "July 4th, Annus Domini, 1851," wrote R. S. 
Elliott, "was the beginning of a new era of industrial civilization 
between the Mississippi and the Pacific ocean." m People in Kan- 
sas, however, were totally unaware of future advantages therefrom 
awaiting them. Local affairs only concerned them on the holiday. 
For William Walker, now free of care, the day was a "glorious 4th 

112. Meeker, Jotham, "Journal," entries July 3-6, 1850. 

113. Walker, William, "Journals," loc. cit., pp. 311, 312, entries for June 28, July 5 and 
6, 1850. 

114. Langworthy, Franklin, Scenery o/ the Plains, Mountains and Mines, a diary, 1850- 
1853, ed. by Paul C. Phillips (Princeton, 1932), p. 65, entry of July 4, 1850. 

115. Steele, John, Across the Plains in 1850, ed. by Joseph Schafer (Caxton Club, 
Chicago, 1930), pp. 86, 87, entry of July 4, 1850. 

116. Smith, C. W., Journal of a Trip to California, in summer, 1850, ed. by R. W. G. 
Vail (Cadmus Book Shop, New York, 1920), pp. 67, 68, entry of July 4. 

117. Elliott, R. S., op. cit., p. 269. 



138 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

spent in Kansas [City] amongst very good company." 118 Jot-ham 
Meeker was preparing, as usual, for approaching meetings and visit- 
ing the sick. On July 4 the Catholic priest, Deuerinck, and one of 
his servants stopped for the night at the Ottawa mission. 119 

In 1852, William Walker had no thoughts for the Fourth of July, 
but the community had been saddened two days before by the 
arrival of "the corpse of Gov. Calhoun, who died on the road from 
Santa Fe to Kansas." Burial, Walker noted, was to be with Masonic 
honors. 120 The Fourth this year falling on "the Lord's day," the 
Ottawa mission held a long service of five sermons, by missionaries 
and by Indians. A congregation of about 100 gave good attention, 
but the mission had had to drop its midweek prayer meeting for 
want of interest. 121 

In July, 1853, but little was transpiring in Kansas, aside from the 
Pacific railroad survey, that could have foreboded the great activity 
which was to begin in 1854. William Walker had no journal entry 
at all for the Fourth. 122 Jotham Meeker put in the day setting 
"types on some school cards, &c." for the school. 123 Thomas Fitz- 
patrick, Indian agent, who had been at Fort Atkinson since June 1, 
holding "a talk" with the five Indian tribes of that region and in- 
viting them to be present at the treaty of Fort Laramie the follow- 
ing September, was now journeying back toward headquarters in 
the escort of Maj. R. H. Chilton, Co. B., of the First dragoons, but 
no one left any word of their keeping of July 4. 124 Two divisions 
of the party for exploration of a route for the Pacific railroad, also 
traversing Kansas now, did mark the day. Notified by a rifle re- 
port, at daylight, of the arrival of the national anniversary, the 
command of Capt. J. W. Gunnison responded with numerous dis- 
charges of fire-arms, and set out for the Kansas river for the pur- 
pose of crossing to Fort Riley. A pontoon from the fort, placed too 
low for the light vehicle of the troops, upset, midstream, "a small 
incident for the 4th of July." The horses swam across. Captain 
Gunnison was the guest of Capt. C. S. Lovell at the officers' mess at 
the post through a short nooning. A ferry then conveyed the ex- 
plorers' wagon across the Republican, and the party proceeded 7.59 
miles and encamped at a beautiful spring of delicious, cool water 

118. Walker, William, "Journals," loc. cit., p. 327, entry of July 4, 1851. 

119. Meeker, Jotham, "Journal," entries of July 3, 4, 1851. 

120. Walker, William, "Journals," loc. cit., p. 353, entry of July 2, 1852. 

121. Meeker, Jotham, "Journal," entry of July 4, 1852. 

122. Walker, William, "Journals," loc. cit., p. 382. 

123. Meeker, Jotham, "Journal," entry of July 4, 1853. 

124. "Early Military Posts, Missions, and Camps," extract from the New York Tribune, 
June 22, 1854, in Kansas Historical Collections, v. I-II, pp. 263-270. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 139 

near the Smoky Hill. The division under Lieutenant Beckwith, 
pursuing the Santa Fe road, camped from July 3 to July 5 in a 
slightly timbered spot on the Cottonwood fork, seventeen miles 
from Lost spring. The days were oppressively hot with scarcely a 
breeze, the thermometer in the shade of a wagon reaching 100 
Fahrenheit on July 3. Recent rains had made grazing abundant 
but had also left pools of water about for the breeding of mosquitoes. 
Innumerable flies were another annoyance. In spite of the dis- 
comforts of the place, the party remained there for the benefit of 
its animals on July 4; but one of them manifested his own inde- 
pendence by pulling up his picket-pin at the usual hour for march- 
ing, and taking the road to the next camping ground, where he joined 
another train. 125 

Before July 4, 1854, the Kansas area, like the Beckwith mount, 
was itself to take on individuality. On May 30, 1854, it became 
an organized territory with definite boundaries. Emerging from 
the era of un-organization already battle-scarred, as P. G. Lowe 
once wrote, 126 by trial and trouble, the territory might at once 
have been allowed the security and freedom of government; but be- 
fore the next July 4, before May 30 even, actor-settlers were to 
move upon the scene for roles in a political drama the nation was 
setting there. Kansas, separated now by lines of latitude and longi- 
tude, was to find herself controlled again by the power of the area 
from which she had but just parted. For the next seven years most 
of her Independence day acts were result of sectional design or sub- 
ject for national scrutiny. 

125. Beckwith, Lt. E. G., "Report of Exploration of a Route for the Pacific Railroad," 
in Pacific Railroad Explorations and Surveys (Washington, 1855), 3 vols., v. II, pp. 10, 16, 21. 

126. Lowe, Percival G., "Kansas, as Seen in the Indian Territory," in Kansas Historical 
Collections, v. IV, pp. 360-866. 



Notes on Imprints From Highland 

The Second Point of Printing in Kansas 
LELA BARNES 

TWO decades before the organization of Kansas territory the his- 
tory of printing within the borders of what is now the state of 
Kansas had already begun. In February, 1834, the Baptist mis- 
sionary-printer, Jotham Meeker, set up at the Shawnee Baptist mis- 
sion a Smith press on which was printed on March 8 of the same 
year a Shawnee hymn, first item in Kansas imprints. 1 

Nine years later a second press was brought to the territory for 
the use of missionaries at the Iowa, Sac and Fox mission in present 
Doniphan county. This mission was established by the Presbyterian 
church in 1835. 2 Samuel M. Irvin and William Hamilton came to 
the station as missionaries in 1837, and in 1842 3 requested the mis- 
sionary board to supply a press for printing school books and re- 
ligious works in the Iowa language. The board acceded to the re- 
quest and a press was received at the mission in April, 1843. 

The first printing by Irvin and Hamilton was An Elementary 
Book o/ the loway Language. 4 This book, as well as Original 
Hymns in the loway Language, 5 bears the date 1843, and it has been 
quite reasonably assumed that both works appeared in that year. 6 
But a recent examination of the diary of Samuel M. Irvin 7 estab- 
lishes the fact that the Elementary Book was not completed until 
February, 1844; and that the Original Hymns was still in press at 
that time. That the latter work and a "Prayer book" appeared be- 
fore September 30, 1844, may be concluded from the report of that 

1. See Douglas C. McMurtrie, "Pioneer Printing of Kansas," The Kansas Historical 
Quarterly, v. I, p. 4 et seq.; Kirke Mechem, "The Mystery of the Meeker Press," ibid., v. 
IV, pp. 61-73. 

2. History of American Missions (Worcester, 1840), p. 724. 

3. Reports of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., 
May, 1843, p. 6. 

4. English title: An / Elementary Book / of the / loway Language, / with an / English 
Translation. / By / Wm. Hamilton, / and / S. M. Irvin. / Under the direction of the B. F. 
Miss, of the/Presbyterian Church./ J. B. Roy, Interpreter./ loway and Sac Mission Press,/ 
Indian Territory./1843. James Constantine Pilling, Bibliography of the Siouan Languages 
(Washington, 1887), p. 32. 

5. Ibid., pp. 32, 33. English title : Original / Hymns, / in the / loway Language. / By / 
the Missionaries, / to the loway & Sac Indians, / Under the direction of the / Board of Foreign 
Missions of the / Presbyterian Church./ [Two lines quotation.]/ Iowa and Sac Mission 
Press,/ Indian Territory, / 1843. 

6. See statement by McMurtrie and Allen in their A Forgotten Pioneer Press of Kansas 
(Chicago, 1930), p. 16. 

7. The manuscript diary of Samuel M. Irvin for portions of the period 1841-1849 is in 
the possession of the Kansas State Historical Society. 

(140) 



NOTES ON IMPRINTS FROM HIGHLAND 141 

date by the missionaries to Maj. W. P. Richardson, Indian sub- 
agent, Great Nemaha, Mo., in which they state: 

We have printed 

1 Elementary book, of 101 pages 225 copies. 

1 Hymn book, 62 pages 125 copies. 

1 Prayer book, 24 pages 100 copies. 

1 Question book (in press), 30 pages 200 copies. 8 

The diary also established the fact that the "Question book" listed 
above was still in press in January, 1845 ; 9 and that the first printing 
on the "Testament in Iowa" was done on February 14, 1845. 10 The 
diary furnishes no clue as to when either of these works was com- 
pleted. 

Because of the importance of this early press in the history of 
printing in Kansas, and the rarity of the works printed on it, 11 ex- 
tracts from Irvin's diary relating to printing are here reproduced in 
order that the information may be added to the meager knowledge 
about the press. 

EXTRACTS FROM THE DIARY OF SAMUEL M. IRVIN 

[It is unfortunate that the extant diary contains few entries for 1843, the 
year in which the press was sent to the mission. First mention of printing in 
the available records occurs in 1844.] 

1*44 

January 

2 In the offise seting type &c. 

3 Spent the day in the offijse at type seting and study. 

6 Finished seting up one form of pages for the primary Book. . . . 
9 In the printing omse all day. . . . Through the day and last eve- 
ning I have been much affected with my comefortable situation and that 
of my family. We have everything that we could ask, plenty to eat, a 
good bead, our family in health and we know not what it is to suffer 
for any thing, true our house is but a cabin and some would say in our 
situation that they were poor, but we are wonderful well off. I have my 
little room and my family have theirs and I can read and study and print 
and no one to disturbe me. how unworthy these privileges. 
[12] Struck off 160 sheets of 16 pages making 2560 in all. . . . 

8. Reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, l%kk> Doc. No. 2, pp. 358, 359. 

9. McMurtrie and Allen have given this work the date 1844 and have listed it as No. 4 
in their bibliography. They append the statement that its inclusion in the Report of 1844 
indicates that it was printed in the fall of 1844. Op. cit., p. 27. Pilling has dated the work 
1850, but gives no reason for doing so. Op, cit., p. 33. 

10. McMurtrie and Allen list as No. 5 in their bibliography a work containing six chapters 
of the gospel of St. Matthew. They have dated it 1846 or 1847. Op. cit., pp. 27, 28. Pilling 
has dated the same work 1850. Op. cit., p. 33. In their report of September 30, 1847, to 
the Indian Sub-Agent W. E. Rucker, Irvini and Hamilton state: "Portions of the Scripture 
have been translated, and a part of Matthew's gospel printed." Reports of the Commissioner 
of Indian Affairs, 1847, Doc. No. 1, pp. 935, 936. 

11. There is but one item from this press in the collections of the Kansas State Historical 
Society An loway Grammar . . . , printed by Hamilton and Irvin, loway and Sac Mis- 
sion Press, 1848. 



142 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

13 Spent most of the day in the offise distributing type. . . . 

17 In the offise all day and verry tired standing up so much. 

18 In the offise untill sent for by the agent. . . . 

19 ... In the evening and through the day I was much affected with 
my situation. I could not wish it more comefortable and easy. I have 
nothing to do. . . . I mean manual work, but much of study and 
printing. May I improve all to the honour of him who giveth. . . . 

20 Most of the day in the offise. . . . 

[23] Engaged in seting type most of the day except what time I was neces- 
sarily diverted from labour by the Indians. . . . 
[24] In the offise. . . . 

[25] Finished seting up a for[m] of 16 p. for the press. . . . 
[26] Busily engaged in the offise and in the evening struck one side of a 

sheet. . . . 
27 Verry busy in the offise all day and late in the evening finished striking 

off a sheet of the primary Book. 
30 Continued to set type most of the day. . . . 
February 

3 There has been such a constant monotony in this week of work at the 

press and study without any things worth [y] of note that I have not 

wrote down anything here. On Wedensday we reed some Goods and 

Books from New York which was a welcome receipt. . . . 

10 ... My time has been mostly engaged in the offise and I have this 

evening got off another sheet of the Elementary Book. 

17 With much pleasure was able to finish printing the last sheet of our 
primary Book today. It is swelled to 101 pages. We commenced last 
June. We hope that it will be very useful to the school and we hope 
with the blessing of God, an aid in communicating useful instruction to 
the poor Indians. . . . 

21 Still engaged in printing, on Saturday I struck off the last sheet of our 
primary book and was not a little rejoiced at the end of the Book. . . . 
On Monday folded my sheets, and red up the offise. On monday even- 
ing got a letter from the Board but not much encouragement about the 
school. I am now engaged in a hymn Book & wish to get through as 
soon as possible. . . . 

March 

7 ... Still engaged in the offise. ... I am so busy that it seems 
I cannot get time to write here, and yet I seem to get but little 
done. . . . 

1845 
January 
10, 11 Busily engaged in the printing offise printing a question Book and 

striking some forms for the agt. . . . 
16 Did not do much except assist Mr. Hamilton some in the offise in 

geting up some forms &c. 
February 

14 Spent near all the day in the printing offise printing off the first sheet 
of the Testament in loway. We struck off 240 sheets of half a ream and 
having taken some pains in putting type and balls in order we made 
quite a good impression. . . . 



Letters of John and Sarah Everett, 
1854-1864 

Miami County Pioneers 
(Continued) 

Osawatomie July 10, 1856. 

DEAR FATHER 
We received yours of the 20th & 25th ult. this week. We continue 
well and safe. The Legislative Assembly who met at Topeka on 
the 4th, the true Representatives of four fifths of the actual settlers 
of Kansas, were dispersed at the point of the sabre by U. S. troops. 
This is "Squatter Sovereignty" in Kansas. The wild borders of 
Missouri, hangers on and lick spittles of Missouri slaveholders, vote 
for and elect those who rule us, while the People's Representatives 
are hunted down as traitors. We are all traitors to slavery, but if 
we were not loyal to the Union, most loyal, such an insult and in- 
dignity as above recorded, would never have been written. The 
patience of those parts of the territory who have suffered most is 
wearing very thin. Our returned representatives said it was hard 
to keep some of the free state men from firing into the U. S. troops. 
There were some six or seven hundred free state men there well 
armed. Is there a North? Why will she not unite for our deliver- 
ance? I am glad to see the firmness of tone manifested in Congress. 
The plain story about Kansas is this: There is not a proslavery 
man of my acquaintance in Kansas who does liot acknowledge that 
the Bogus Legislature was the result of a gigantic and well planned 
fraud, that the elections were carried by an invading mob from 
Missouri. The free state Legislature was the result of the unbiased 
and free vote of the people. The question is, shall we be ruled by a 
foreign mob or by the resident people expressing their will in a 
peaceable election. 

We hear that the Southerners are in camp three or four miles East 
of Osawatomie on the Osage, and that they talk of making a town 
there, "New Georgia." If they do, we shall have to look to our locks 
and our hen roosts, for the proslavery men about Westport got dis- 
gusted with them they were so thievish. You ask if Whitfield 26 
led the mob who robbed Osawatomie. Some who had seen him 

26. John W. Whitfield was commander in chief of the Missouri forces. 

(143) 



144 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

thought they recognized him, but they were led by a drunken Capt. 
Bell of S. Carolina. 

We have just got some hens for the first time. A few weeks ago, 
we took a hen and chickens to raise on shares. Then we bought two 
hens and a hen and chickens. A hen will set and raise three broods 
of chickens here in a summer. We have a hen setting now for the 
2nd or 3d time. She began laying, when her last brood were three 
weeks old. Our two cows and yearling heifer are doing well. We are 
raising the two calves. Love to all John. 

Longwood July 22, 1856 
Dear Cynthia 

We received Father's of July 9 this morning. Our Quaker friend 
Richard brought it along just before Breakfast The Tribunes did 
not come this week. Twenty seven come now in the mail. Tis the 
first week they have been detained. For some little time (since about 
the 4th) we have had quiet, but some goods that belonged to one of 
our merchants Mr. Saml. Geer was broken open between here and 
Westport within three or four days and all the boxes searched. This 
begins to look like another beginning of the "reign of terror." A 
Mr. [John E.] Stewart who lives on the Wakarusa and was passing 
down to the Neosho called here on his way to get dinner. He says 
that the people there have been prevented in a great measure from 
getting in crops and that many have lost a great deal of private 
property. The only way that they had been able to do anything in 
the way of ploughing and putting in was to go in large companies 
to their fields armed with the invincible Sharpens rifle. Mr. Stewart 
I have since learned is a New England Minister but I gathered 
from his conversation that he thinks that here in the Territory 
"moral suasion" will be a little better for having something like a 
Sharpe's rifle to stand on. He agrees with H. W. B. 27 on that point 
It is very dry. We have had no rain to do much good for over 5 
weeks. If we do not have some soon our crops will present a totally 
ruinous look 

Father inquired about the soldiers; they left the Sabbath before 
the 4th. We sold them a little more than $10 worth of "sundries" 

We are going to have a great many wild plums in our grove this 
year They are very nice too, not at all like the sour plums that 
grow in Steuben I think I shall be able to dry some to sell besides 
what we shall want We found plenty of gooseberries in their sea- 

27. Henry Ward Beecher. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 145' 

son so you see this summer we are likely to fare rather better in 
some respects than we did last We make butter enough to pay 
all our store bills at present We have a few eggs now. We have 
two hens of our own that lay and two of friend Richard's here that 
have begun to lay today. We have 5 of his here which we took to 
see if we could get them to laying. They have sixty or more chickens 
and so little to feed them all that the hens stopped laying 2 months 
ago so a few days ago we borrowed five hens and two of them com- 
menced laying today W T e bought % bushel of corn to feed them 
and are going to pay for it in eggs 15c a doz for eggs and 20c for 
the corn So much of chicken news I must send you a piece of 
Frank's new trousers and apron the "yaller" piece is like the apron 
How do you suppose his little white head looks growing up through 
such a suit as this makes I have cut his hair today for the first 
time and must send you a bunch. It reached clear down to his 
shoulders We have meetings now in our neighborhood could 
have them here if we chose but think it a little nearer the centre of 
the district at friend Mendenhall's and so they are held in his door- 
yard shaded by the forest trees. 

There are six preachers located on claims within 2 miles of us or 
rather their claims are located within that distance. Two of them 
have not yet moved on to their claims 

Good bye for the present 
Sat 28 

July 24. 

It continues very dry. We long for rain. The Cenhadwr for July 
came to hand this week. Also Phrenological & Water Cure Journals. 
. . . The reconsideration and passage of the Kansas Free State 
Bill in the House revived our drooping hopes. The moral effect of 
such a vote is very great. If Douglas's bill 29 should become a law, 
another just such an invasion would take place as have taken place, 
although perhaps more cunningly contrived. We should have thou- 
sands of Missourians among us on sham claims, who would stay just 
long enough to call it a residence; put up a log or a rail pen for a 
shanty, split out a few oak boards to sleep under, and then pass the 
time in fishing hunting and lounging about. Many families here 

28. Family name for Sarah M. C. Everett. 

29. The Toombs bill, reported by Sen. Stephen A. Douglas from the committee on terri- 
tories on July 2, provided for a census of all white males over 21 years of age, bona fide 
residents of the territory. Those counted were to be permitted to vote on November 1 for 
delegates to a constitutional convention. The bill offered precautions against election irregu- 
larities. It passed the senate but failed in the house. 

10-3551 



146 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

live almost entirely out of doors from choice in the Summer par- 
ticularly Missourians. Some houses have a projecting roof in front, 
with three or four shelves for dishes &c, and there the women spend 
most of the summer days. Others have rails laid up just like a rail 
fence roofed slightly, and live in that day times. We hardly ever 
get any rain oftener than once a week except for a few weeks in the 
rainy season. So it would not be much expense to set up a habita- 
tion for the summer. 

Our health continues good. Love to all 

John 

Longwood, Aug 1, 1856 
Dear Cynthia 

Father's last, announcing Jane's arrival was received this week. 
But the only thing that I could fix my mind on was the Fremont 
enthusiasm. In his election is our only rescue ! 

If that proves a failure we are in common with the free North 
"Subdued!" We can no longer speak of our glorious Republic! 
Liberty and Democracy will be utterly overthrown to be raised again 
only by strife and bloodshed! It is a shame that a government- 
commenced as was ours, should now be overthrown by a spirit darker 
and more malignant than that which provoked its origin. We are 
looking forward to the Nov. election with trembling anxiety. 

Can it be possible that any one born and reared in the free north 
blessed with all its privileges, can in their hearts desire that this 
country should be tilled by slaves? If they have not hearts to feel 
for the oppressed, can they yet really desire the introduction of an 
Institution here that shall hinder the development of the country's 
wealth, and render the soil in a few short years worthless and worn 
out? . . . 

We do not hear of any more difficulty in the Territory as yet. 
Have learned from our Eastern papers that Col. P. Smith is now in 
command of the U. S. troops in the Ter. 80 It matters not who has 
that post so long as Frank Pierce is Commander in Chief. I should 
not lose 10 sec. of sleep if I should hear any night at bed time that 
that man or demon or whatever he be had been assassinated! 

The weather here continues very dry and hot! Newcomers are 
mostly getting down sick. An old lady one of our neighbors who 

30. Gen. Persifer F. Smith succeeded Col. E. V. Sumner as head of the territorial forces. 
General Smith's sentiments were Proslavery, but he did not take an active part in territorial 
affairs. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 147 

came in, in the winter where Mr. Rose lived, was buried last week, 
and another young woman in town. 

The old lady was in at our house a few weeks previous talking 
about the troubles in the Territory. She set down the Free State 
party as a mean set and she and I approached somewhat towards a 
quarrel before the talk ended which was only avoided by her very 
adroitly turning the conversation. She had given me reason to infer 
from what things she had said when here once before that she was 
as radical on the slavery question as we, and 'twas this hypocrisy 
that called forth my indignation at this time. 

When she left I remarked to John that I felt as if I never wanted 
to see her face again and I never did, for we did not hear of her 
death till two days after the funeral ! There is no hardness between 
them and us. They are "pro-slavery to the core" and her son has 
threatened to shoot the first abolitionist that steps into the house 
yet he knows we are abolitionists and he is as obliging and good a 
neighbor as we want. 

We are quite well yet John has a sore foot that prevents him from 
working out much so he is digging a little cellar under the house 
Frank looks as "tough as a knot." . . . 

Let me see I must keep you posted up on the chicken news. I 
believe I told you we had borrowed some hens they have all got 
to laying! and as our neighbor wanted some tin ware very badly I 
managed to get two of the hens for a tin pan. I did not like to spare 
the pan but thought I could get more by next summer with eggs! 
Butter is worth 30 cts a Ib. in Kansas City and we have concluded 
to pack down what we make after this week and send it there or 
keep it till winter when twill be worth more than tis now here. I 
have been writing to my brother to send us money to get cows with 
this fall and if we can bring things around right will make cheese 
next summer ! and so get money to pay for our claim. 

I shall have to stop any way for I have covered my sheet. . . . 

Our love to all ... 

Sarah M. C. Everett 

[This Fragment, in the Handwriting of John R. Everett, Bears No 

Date But Contents Place It at This Point in the Series. The Letter 

Describes the Battle of Osawatomie on August 30, 1856] 

arms flashing in the sun. One house seemed to be burning. I staid 
some time there, but could not distinguish any thing more par- 
ticularly. We could hear occasionally the roar of the cannon and 



148 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the shouting of the Missourians. I came down and as I came home 
could see smoke after smoke go up from the devoted town. They 
had finished plundering and had gone to burning in earnest. I found 
more fugitives from town at the house, a son of 0. C. Brown 31 (not 
Capt. John Brown, but a very different man) and a son of Rev. Mr. 
Adair, the Congregational preacher. 32 The latter was a cousin of 
Frederick Brown, Capt. John Brown's son, who was s"hot before any 
alarm was given by a scout of the enemy, a proslavery Baptist 
preacher named Martin White. This was the first sad note of warn- 
ing. Young Adair was sent immediately to alarm the free State 
men under Capt. J. Brown named above. His son shot dastardly, 
unsuspectingly was the word to rouse the brave Captain. Adair was 
cut off from returning by the advance of the eaemy. He made his 
way below the town and over to us. He is a brave boy about 14. In 
the mean time friend Mendenhall had returned to his watch on the 
hill, and stayed there till he saw the Missouri crowd take up the line 
of march and leave. He immediately, with another neighbor Rev. 
James Caruth 33 started to town to render assistance to survivors &c. 
They came past our house and I went with them. We were almost 
the first in town after the burning. The first house we came to was a 
farm house, Mr. Chestnut's, a zealous free State man with a large 
family. This house was in the town limits, but not in the village 
strictly. They had moved their goods nearly all out. The mob 
came there but providentially did not burn up their shelter. The 
next house we came to was smoking but standing. We went in and 
found the floor had been fired from underneath, but was then only 
half burnt. We put out the fire with some wet wash clothes standing 
in a tub and saved that house. Others came in, and we went down 
to the timber to the field of conflict, to look for wounded or dead. 
We found one body on the bank of the river shot through the breast. 
He appeared to have died instantly. No one was killed on the battle 
field of our party. This man was sick, and could not escape. We 
got a couple of poles, laid shingle boards across them, and four of 
us mournfully carried him to an empty house, belonging to a pro- 
slavery man and so marked with a white flag and saved. The next 

31. Two sons of Orville C. Brown were in Osawatomie at this time, Rockwell and Spencer 
Kellogg. The latter, then a boy of 14, describes his participation in the battle in his journal. 
(See George Gardner Smith, Spencer Kellogg Brown, D. Appleton & Co., 1903.) He was 
taken to Missouri as a prisoner for a short time following the battle. In 1861 he enlisted in 
the Union army under General Lyon and held the rank of fourth commander on the gunboat 
Essex. He was captured as a prisoner of war while destroying a rebel ferry boat near Port 
Hudson in August, 1862, and after a year's imprisonment at Richmond, was executed on the 
charge of being a spy. 

32. The Rev. Samuel L. Adair, whose wife was a half sister of John Brown. 

33. James Harrison Carruth, Presbyterian minister, later professor of natural sciences at 
Baker University, Baldwin, and state botanist, 1868-1892. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 149 

day he was buried in a rough box in his clothes as he fell, with two 
others, martyrs to the liberty of Kansas. We looked around a long 
time but found no others. Again the next day we were down search- 
ing. George Cutter was wounded you know before the battle, over 
a mile from town. 34 

And now to answer some more questions. We feel in somewhat 
more danger on account of our nearness to Missouri. But there are 
18 m. Indian territory to the line and twice that to any center of in- 
vasion. My health is not very good for a few days. I feel better 
today. Sarah and Franky are pretty well. ... As for the 
coming winter if they pay us for the care of Mr. Cutter we shall do 
well enough. We have not got any thing yet except part of a bag of 
flour. We hope to get something. I saved the $20 I should have sent 
you for the Tribunes, till I had a chance to get 3 nice pigs for $4% 
dollars of it. This is a good investment of a small sum. They live 
on acorns they find in the woods, and the house refuse. With their 
natural increase I calculate they will be worth $50 besides their 
keeping next fall. The other $15 I have been obliged to break into 
on account of extra expenses for our wounded man. If it had not 
been for business having been broken up and the people driven off by 
our late calamities we should have done well enough. As it is, we 
shall have no trouble if we get our pay. 

Osawatomie, Oct. 29, 1856. 
Dear Father 

We received yours of Oct 14, yesterday, by our weekly mail. This 
mail brought very discouraging news for us by the papers. We see 
that Pennsylvania and Indiana went for the border ruffians at the 
State elections. It will be a very dark day for Kansas if they vote 
the same way next Tuesday. But it is idle now to talk. Before this 
reaches you the great question will have been decided as far as this 
election can decide it. However it may go, those who have thrown 
all their influence for freedom may feel that they have succeeded, 
for blood guiltiness will not be upon their souls. Their record is 
clean. Their consciences are satisfied. And the great Ruler of the 
world can make even the wrath of man to praise Him. It is mys- 
terious how He permits the wicked to flourish like a green bay tree, 
and their plans of gigantic wickedness to succeed. I am sure, I 

34. George Cutter, with Frederick Brown and three others, had come to Osawatomie from 
Lawrence on August 29 with dispatches from General Lane. They spent the night about a 
mile and a half west of the town. Early the next morning the advance party of the border 
ruffian forces approached Osawatomie from the west. Frederick Brown, on his way to the 
home of Samuel Adair, was shot and killed. Cutter was also shot, but not fatally. He 
was removed to the home of John and Sarah Everett and cared for by them until his recovery. 



150 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

would not be in Buchanan's place, or in that of his intelligent sup- 
porters for all "the wealth of Ormus or of Ind." They are trying 
to strangle freedom in an immense territory, and to plant human 
oppression, bloodshed, and the worst tyranny in its stead. To suc- 
ceed in this is as if a man should succeed in murdering his own off- 
spring. 

Last night the prairie around us got afire, and we were out about 
3 hours from 12 to 3 o'clock "fighting fire." It burnt up about % 
of what hay I had saved in spite of us. 

I have been talking the past week quite seriously of going East 
this fall, working there at something through the winter and re- 
turning in the Spring; while Sarah would stay here to take care of 
our claim, stock &c. But now I do not think it advisable to do so. 
If Fremont is our President, I think we should have quiet here this 
winter, probably. But if Buchanan is elected I fear trouble. From 
what I am able to learn, the free State men do not mean to give it 
up in any event. There is still a chance for us to save this territory 
to freedom and virtue. There is still a majority of free State men 
among the actual settlers in the territory. Are the East prepared to 
sustain us here? I hope the host of liberty have girt on their armor 
for the war, and that one reverse will not dishearten them. If the 
government is against us, there is more need that we should be true 
to ourselves and to the great cause. 

Rev. Mr. Finch, the Wesleyan Missionary and one of our neigh- 
bors, went to Lawrence this week. He was going to try to get some 
money to pay us for taking care of Mr. Cutter. He took out 20 or 
25 pounds of butter to sell for us. 

There are a good many families around here who will suffer this 
winter unless they have help. The war has paralyzed industry, and 
prevented employment. One cannot work even for himself in the 
midst of continual alarms. I am glad to see so much interest taken 
in collecting funds for the suffering in Kansas. It will be needed. 

Our health as a family is good. Our wounded man is getting along 
slowly. He has three wounds still open. This is the ninth week he 
has been here. This is a cold windy day. The thermometer at sun- 
rise was 26. 

With much love to all at home Your son 

John 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 151 

Osawatomie Nov. 13, 1856. 
Dear Father 

We received yours of Oct 29, this week Tuesday, with the gold 
dollar for Frank. The little boy is very proud of his present, and 
thanks J. W. Roberts very much. Tell Mr. Roberts that Sarah does 
not despair of making a buffalo cheese yet. I have seen a number 
of cows that are part buffalo. The hunters take out a cow with a 
young calf, they find a calf whose mother has been killed. They kill 
the cow's calf, and the cow takes to the buffalo calf. So tell Mr. 
Roberts to look out for a buffalo cheese some time or other. These 
half or part buffalo cows are generally esteemed better for the cross. 
I saw a man who said he once had a three quarters buffalo cow, the 
best cow he ever had. 

Those currant slips came by this mail 11 white and red. I have 
put them in the ground, and I hope they will live though they are 
somewhat dried. I am very much obliged to whoever took the 
trouble to do them up. 

You ask about religious meetings. We have had none this side of 
the Pottawatomie since the burning and scattering here. At first 
people dare not leave their families and homes all was apprehen- 
sion. Every day or two brought some fresh rumor of impending 
invasion. Now there is a feeling of measured security again for 
how long the future alone can reveal. This added to sickness in 
some families broke up our meetings. . . . 

I am working for a neighbor this week, helping him gather his 
corn. I am tired this evening, and will close with much love. 

Your son 

John 

P. S. Osawatomie was not burnt a second time as reported. The 
steam saw mill was not burnt at all. It is sawing boards again now. 
And alas for the steam grist mill I see reported burnt. There is 
none here. (Vide 0. C. Brown's letter in the Utica Morn. Herald 
of Oct. 30. That man cant tell a straight story.) 

Osawatomie, Nov. 20, 1856. 
Dear Father. 

Yours of Nov 6 was rec'd this week. The election of Buchanan 
was what I had been expecting for the last three weeks, and espe- 
cially for the last week. It has not depressed the feelings of free 
State men here as I thought it would. We are still determined to 
struggle for a free State. If Fremont had been elected that would 



152 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

have been assured, but even now we do not despair of the Territory. 
We have still Justice on our side. Eternal principles are with us. 
The God of the oppressed is for us. The sympathies and prayers of 
hundreds of thousands in the free North are ours still. A great ma- 
jority of the intelligent, upright, thinking Northern public is strongly 
and actively with us. A bare plurality of votes of the ignorant and 
prejudiced, obtained by the grossest misrepresentation and fraud is 
all that our enemies can boast of against us. I confess I think more 
now of the "troops and crowds and clouds of friends" who have 
stood so faithfully by struggling Kansas, and who came so near 
carrying this battle for freedom. And although the battle is lost, 
the cause is not lost. The great principle we may nay must fight for 
still. I am proud to think that your town and county and State did 
so nobly. 

You ask what our Quaker neighbors intend doing? I answer, they 
feel more firm to stay now than before election. One timid woman 
told Sarah yesterday, she was so mad to think her State (Indiana) 
had gone for B-n, that she would not leave now for anything. Most 
think still that this will some way be a free State yet, although the 
danger of its being given up to slavery has been greatly increased. 
But "the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong." 
We hope God will bring good out of evil. 

My health has not been quite as good this week slight chills and 
fever. Sarah has not been very well either for a few days. Frank 
is well, as usual. George is having chills again. A piece of bone 
came out of one of his wounds the other day. He sat up a little to- 
day for the first time in nearly 12 weeks. The weather is mild and 
pleasant the ground not frozen. Sarah wants to know the price 
of sugar, rice, molasses &c with you. Your son 

John 

Osawatomie, Nov. 28, 1856. 
Dear Father, 

It was with feelings of inexpressible sadness that we heard of the 
death of Robert. He was to me more than a brother so kind, so 
warm in sympathy, so generous in feeling, so unselfish and self 
sacrificing. And I never shall see him again on earth! I feel that 
he is not lost. I know that he is in heaven. The first consoling 
thought was that he is now walking the hills of paradise, free from 
the fleshly trials, with Henry. I little thought when we parted in 
Utica, it was to meet no more on earth. I have no recollections of 
Robert, but of kindness of generosity and love. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 153 

I cannot write much. It is too late in the season for us to think 
of going back now. We could not sell our claim and improvements. 
When I talked of going I expected money from Lawrence on 
George's account to travel with. We have not received any, and may 
not at all although we expect to sometime. Navigation on the 
Missouri will soon cease probably. It sometimes stops by the middle 
of November. We feel now a good deal more like striking our roots 
downward and outward in this soil where we are planted now, than 
of uprooting and starting again elsewhere. Our free State men 
here feel much more encouraged now than two months ago. The 
splendid and unexampled vote of Fremont and free thought in N. 
York, Mass., Mich., Northern and Western Pennsylvania, Northern 
Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and indeed through the North, wherever 
there was intelligence enough to reach the conscience. There is no 
doubt that here on the ground for all the harassings and harry ings, 
for all the butcheries, burnings and legal persecutions, we stand 
better numerically now than in July. I must stop here. Perhaps 
Sarah will add some John. 

We are not all feeling quite well John has been helping friend 
Mose gather corn a part of the time this week and gets very tired & 
I have been about sick with a cold for three weeks the first I 
have had in the Territory Frank is well and is growing out of 
his clothes George is gaining some faster now. I think its likely 
he will be able to go home in a few weeks now Two days this 
week I have spent in getting things from the charity fund for him 
and ourselves and neighbors. One of our neighbors went to Alton 
to meet his wife who had been visiting East, and by stating the 
wants of the people of this part was successful in raising 5 large 
boxes of clothing & bedding (second hand) beside two or three 
barrels. These things he has been distributing to such as need es- 
pecially to those who have braved the war and not run from the 
field. 

I got for George socks shirts bedclothes and overcoat for John 
overalls, vest, boots & socks, for myself dress & stockings, for 
Frank stockings aprons a nice little embroidered wadded merino 
sack also a nice red french merino long cloak and worsted trousers, 
and a bundle of soft flannels I got one heavy white woolen bed 
blanket. We have had 50 Ibs. of flour this week from the regular 
relief fund (National) and clothing for George, and the promise of 
whatever we need Sarah 



154 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Osawatomie Dec 4 1856. 
Dear Father. 

Gov. Geary is getting more in favor with free State men. He is 
a vast improvement on Shannon. His removal of Donaldson 35 and 
rebuke of the infamous Judge Lecompte 36 is well received as an 
omen of better times. The troops have been withdrawn from the 
Southern part of the Territory. They made seven arrests while here 
of men who had been in the free State army last summer. They 
had warrants out for a good many more, but the persecuted gen- 
erally got warning and kept out of the way. Now the troops are 
gone there is no more danger for them. I was last summer among 
those who thought "prudence the better part of valor," and not 
having a gun, neither knowing how to use one was not in the fight- 
ing army of freedom. (I must say I am rather ashamed to confess 
it for there never was a more righteous cause than ours, but so it 
was. I will say in palliation that our place is out of the way, not 
exposed to all the evidences of strife, and I was not disposed to go 
counter to your opinions on war, if I could avoid it.) There is no 
danger of our being exposed to legal prosecutions that I am aware 
of, and for Missouri armies such as we saw last summer, as long as 
Geary is Governor they will be kept out. The merchants of Kansas 
City are very tired of the past state of things ; and will do what they 
can undoubtedly for quiet. They were getting a great trade from 
the Territory but war of course cut it off. A great many of the 
turbulent Southerners have gone home. As to the reports you speak 
of respecting disturbances near Osawatomie we have not heard of 
any thing particular. A messenger or other officer of the Congres- 
sional Committee of inquiry, Mr. Arthur, had his house burned and 
stock driven off some four or five weeks ago. Mr. Arthur's claim is 
on Sugar Creek, 25 miles south from here. The letter writers 
sometimes make "Osawatomie" include a district 30 miles West and 
from ten to twenty five miles South. I feel almost as much en- 
couraged to look for the ultimate success of freedom in this territory 
when I consider the splendid success of the Fremont ticket wherever 
there was a thorough and straightforward canvass and an intelli- 

35. It was erroneously reported in the summer of 1856 that Governor Geary had asked 
for the removal of U. S. Marshal Israel B. Donaldson. Reference is possibly to this, or 
possibly to the arrest of Capt. John Donaldson of the territorial militia on order of Governor 
Geary issued November 7, 1856. Captain Donaldson had removed a prisoner from and dis- 
missed the court of R. R. Nelson, a justice of the peace at Lecompton. Donaldson was 
later reinstated. 

36. On September 23, 1856, Governor Geary addressed circulars to Chief Justice Samuel 
Lecompte and to Assoc. Justices Sterling G. Cato and Jeremiah M. Burrell, asking for com- 
plete reports on their activities in office. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 155 

gent vote, as if Fremont had been elected by a meager vote. The 
heart of the North is aroused. The thinking farmers and intelli- 
gent mechanics are with us. The vast majority of the conservators 
of religion are with us. I hope we shall see a large emigration here 
in the spring men moving West who will come here as peaceful 
settlers, ready to stand in the gap for freedom. It is said that the 
larger part of the emigration, what there is, even now is from free 
States. The Yankee race are said proverbially to be remarkably 
tenacious of their purposes; they are not going to give up the 
territory. 

Our health is pretty good now. George is improving some, but is 
having a chill to day. There is some prospect that we shall have a 
speedy remittance from Lawrence on his account. . . . The free 
state people are very much enheartened and helped by the liberal 
donations of their friends in the East. It will save a great deal of 
suffering, besides coming in a time when we specially felt the need 
of evidences of sympathy and help from our brothers at home. 

We were unavoidably hindered from getting our last letter in the 
mail in season, so you will perhaps get two together. 

With much love John. 

[December 4, 1856] 

I am glad that you can so readily supply us with rennet. 37 I have 
bothered myself beyond all telling trying to make it hold out, now I 
shall give myself the satisfaction of using just enough after this and 
hold you responsible for the consequences. 

. . . [John] and Mr. Snow finished ... a very large 
stack of hay to day. 12 tons they calculate! 

You asked in your letter if we did not sometimes long to see such 
things as hills stones and so forth At the south (% of a mile from 
us) we are blessed with the view of a magnificent bluff, "Crescent- 
Hill," that circles around to the eastward forming a fine curve the 
slope of which is mostly wooded, on the west and east the bluffs 
step down into rich wavy rolls and to the North we descend very 
gently to the creek. Stones ! I will show you some when you " settle 
in Kansas" that ten yoke of oxen can hardly stir! 

John says send on that money and he will promise to take good 

37. Rennet is the prepared inner surface of the stomach of a young calf, used for curdling 
milk. The outer skin and superfluous fat are removed from the stomach while fresh and 
it is then placed in salt for a few hours and dried. Small pieces are soaked in water and the 
water added to milk, producing curds which form the basis of cheese. Sarah Everett explains 
hi a later letter that it was difficult to secure rennet in the territory because few calves were 
killed. 



156 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

care of the cow. $14 will get only a heifer. I am not in much of a 
writing mood as you must have already discovered, so perhaps I 
had better stop. . . . Are white linen cuffs and collars fashion- 
able? . . . [Sarah M. C. Everett] 

Osawatomie Dec. 11, 1856. 
Dear Father 

Yours of Nov. 27 we received this week. We thank you and our 
kind friends in Steuben and Pennymynydd very much for your offer 
of help in case we wished to return. We may be glad before very 
long, to avail ourselves of any help we can get. But no present 
danger threatens us. I was talking with the mail contractor the 
other day. He had just returned from Westport. I asked him how 
they seemed to feel there? He said they were very clever now. 
Those who were encouraging the border ruffians last summer now 
spoke of their doings as something awful. "Well," I said, "I suppose 
they feel very confident this will be a slave state now Buchanan is 
elected?" "No," he said, "they talk as if they thought it would be 
a free state." Capt. [Henry T.] Titus, a notorious and very promi- 
nent leader of the Southern bandits, was at Kansas City, with 50 
other Southerners, bound for Gen. Walker's army in Nicaraugua. 
This Titus is reported to have said in passing through Lawrence, 
that he had spent his money and time to make Kansas a slave state, 
but he could not do it, nor any other man under God's heavens. 
There is more confidence here now than at any time since the burn- 
ing of Osawatomie although we do not any of us know what a day 
or a week may bring forth. Another store is starting here this 
week i. e. one that was burnt out starting anew. They have put 
a small pair of stones into their steam mill here so that they grind 
corn now. Some of Mr. Cutter's friends from near Palmyra were 
here a short time ago and said they were very busy making im- 
provements there in their neighborhood. If we could have sufficient 
emigration from the North next spring, this will be a free state yet. 
The next claim West of us was taken this week by a Wesleyan 
minister. He sold his previous claim, a very good one before the 
election for the value of the improvements, to take effect in case 
Buchanan was elected, thinking there would then be no use for us 
to try to do anything. But his confidence has returned, he has hired 
a man to work on his new claim all winter I believe, and he is going 
on to make large improvements. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 157 

There seems still to be a great deal of injustice practiced in the 
territory, but not so openly and with such a high hand as when 
Shannon was Governor. 

We have had some pretty cold weather the last week one morn- 
ing the mercury stood at 2 above zero. There is no snow and the 
ground does not seem to be frozen permanently yet. 

Our health, is pretty good. Geo. Cutter is improving quite slowly, 
he is kept back by frequent chills. We are looking for a remittance 
from Lawrence on his account this week. 

If you feel that we are not acting wisely or doing quite right in 
staying here, when the prospect of our making a permanent home is 
so uncertain, remember that the free state folks feel not only that 
there is an opportunity for bettering their condition if things turn 
favorably, but they feel that they are standing in the breach for 
freedom, and to leave while there is hope is to desert their colors and 
give strength to the enemy. 

Your affectionate son John Everett 

Osawatomie, Dec. 19, '56. 
Dear Father, 

Wednesday was a "white day" for us in Kansas Territory. In the 
first place Rev. Geo. Lewis and J. H. Thomas of Lawrence called to 
see us. Mr Thomas was formerly of Brooklyn; you know him as 
Mr. Thomas the tobacco man. They came this way to look at the 
country. We had an exceedingly pleasant and encouraging inter- 
view with them. Mr Thomas has been in the state (Missouri) 
lately. He says they seem discouraged about making this a slave 
state. He said it was perfectly safe to travel there, and to express 
your sentiments. On the other hand the free state men about 
Lawrence and indeed through the territory are full of hope, and 
sanguine of final success. Mr. Roberts, an intelligent neighbor (a 
Welshman) has been in the state and he got the same impression. 
He says it has cost the people of Western Missouri one million dol- 
lars for their villainous raids on Kansas. They now feel that they 
have been foiled. They calculated to drive us all out as they did the 
Leavenworth people, but found us too hard to drive. 

But the event of the day was the call of Mr. Thaddeus Hyatt of 
New York, President of the National Kansas Committee. He is 
now in the territory for the purpose of visiting every neighborhood 
to see that justice is done to the sufferers His visits are of a "fly- 
ing" character but he transacts business with dispatch We had 



158 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

never received any thing yet from the Lawrence committee on 
George's account but before he had been in the house 10 minutes he 
had settled the matter by having us make out our bill for the whole 
time (16 weeks) and himself writing on it an order for its immediate 
payment He then made a little inquiry about the treatment 
George was having and recommended us to use water, and handed 
out $20 to get better tubs and other appliances for that purpose 
He gave George $10 for an old wallet that contained 75 cts that was 
in his pocket when he was shot and which caught one of the bullets 
that was aimed at him and which saved his hip joint from being 
fractured and undoubtedly saved his life He was very indignant 
that the Lawrence Committee had not paid Mr. Cutter's bill before 
this time. John is going to town this morning to get a bath tub 
made and engage lumber to ceil the house so that it will be warm 
enough for a bath room &c &c. 

. . . Since we wrote before we have received from the fund 50 
Ibs flour 7 Ibs sugar 6 Ibs rice 2 Ibs coffee % Ib tea and an old pelisse 
which I find very comfortable to slip on in this old room or to wear 
when I go out on horseback to do errands We do not expect to 
get any thing more from the fund if they pay us. John com- 
menced but the morning was wearing away and he had wood to 
chop and thought he would hardly have time and so I was obliged 
though reluctantly to spoil his letter. Therefore with many regrets 
I am, Sarah 

O-e, Dec. 26, 1856. 
Dear Father 

Two gentlemen who were in Osawatomie this week, came in 
through Missouri. They reported the border ruffians they met or 
heard of as universally discouraged. One man who was in the army 
that burned Osawatomie said they were promised before they started 
$1.50 a day, and 160 acres of land. "Well, did you get your $1.50 

a day?" "No, by we did not." "Did you get your 160 acres 

of land?" "No, by we didn't." "Are you going there again?" 

"No! Kansas may go to hell!" (That is true border ruffian dialect.) 

We are very thankful to you and the generous donor for the $5 
enclosed in your last. We hope now that another year we may be 
left in peace so may earn our own living, and soon return to other 
needy the help we need and are kindly furnished. This help the 
North is now sending, in my judgment, assures the freedom of 
Kansas. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 159 

We received $60 this week from Lawrence, (from Mr Arny 38 ) on 
George Cutter's account. Our health is usually good as a family. 
. . . Yesterday we had company to a Christmas dinner a 
Methodist (Wes.) preacher, wife and child. A pleasant visit. I 
wish Mother could make a visit to Kansas for a resting spell. We 
have had a cold December. The two last days were very mild. 
Today foggy. This week got Dec. Cen. They get them in Lawrence 
about the 10th or 12th. With much love John. 

Osawatomie Jan 1, 1857. 
Dear Father. 

Do any of the Welsh people talk of coming to Kansas in the 
spring? Any one who could come out with means enough to go 
right to making cheese with 20 to 40 cows could almost make their 
fortune in one season. Cheese retails here at 25 cents a pound. Last 
winter the same. I wish I had means to go into it. The pasture is 
unlimited and most excellent. Milch cows and all stock get as fat 
as butter in the summer. Good cows were worth here last spring 
from $25 to $35. 

Corn is worth here 40 to 50 cts, Flour brings $4.50, Butter, 25 cts ; 
turnips 25 cts ; potatoes, none to sell ; pork 5 cts a pound. 

Our health is good. We expect to take Mr. Cutter to Lawrence as 
soon as we get a few days of mild weather. He gets along slowly 
since cold weather. John 

P. S. 

Look out for mail failures now! The season of snow drifts, and 
swollen creeks approaches. There is three or four inches of snow on 
the ground to day which fell yesterday morning. Every week in 
December brought first rain, then wind, south, west, and north, cold, 
cutting, frosty, then a clear sky, one or two beautiful spring like 
days, the last day wind East, then clouds, then rain would complete 
the circle and begin a new round. 

Osawatomie, Jan 15, '57. 
Dear Father, Evening 

We received yours of Jan 1st this week. (Excuse my pencil 
marks. My ink is frozen & pale.) The $7 came safely. Franky 
and Sarah are very much obliged to the children and mother for 
the donation. Will you please get Sarah a paper of good needles 

38. William F. M. Arny was a representative of the National Kansas Committee organized 
July 9, 1856, to send aid to the settlers of the territory. 



160 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

and send in your next letter, sharps 5 8 -10 s . All her needles bought 
here cut in the eye. You remember those we brought with us were 
lost in the bandbox. . . . 

We are much more comfortable this winter than last. Our house 
is cold, but not nearly so cold as that we were in last winter. We 
are having a cold winter again. I'll give you a statement of how the 
thermometer has stood at sunrise since Jan 2. 



Jan 2 +2 


Jan 6 6 


Jan 10 +14 


Jan 14 -{-14 


3 7 


7 +7 


11 


15 9 


4 +3' 


8 +9 


12 6 


16 +12 


5 3 


9 +14 


13 





The prevailing winds have been westerly. The free State Legis- 
lature met last week according to adjournment. They adjourned 
to June. Some of the members were arrested. I am not surprised 
with this. The Symbols of power are with our adversaries. The 
marshal or deputy told one of our members from this section that 
he had a writ for him, but it was a farce, and he would not execute 
it. (The member had called on business.) But one feels indignant 
that the representatives of nine tenths of the people should be ar- 
rested as if for crime, and that in the abused name of democracy. 

Franky is very healthy, and lively as ever. Sarah and myself are 
in usual health. We get about four quarts of milk a day. I bought 
a good second-hand saddle the other day for $3.50. Before we have 
had to borrow or do without. Mr Cutter is with us yet. We are on 
the whole pretty comfortable, when the thermometer does not stand 
at zero, with a stiff breeze. Our coldest weather is pretty still. 

[John R. Everett] 

Os-e, Jan 21, 1857. 
Dear Father 

Our usual letter failed this week. 

We are in usual health. Nothing particular to write. Therefore 
please excuse brevity. Last Sunday morning the mercury fell to 26 
below zero. Saturday was very cold. The only day yet this winter 
when the mercury remained below zero all day. Wind N. N. W. A 
hurricane of snow blowing all day. The night before the snow 
sifted through our roof like meal from mother's sieve. I had to get 
up and suspend a sheet to keep the snow from our heads and pillows. 
You must be having a severe winter there. It is not as cold nearly 
here as in the N. W. part of the Territory as I see by an account of 
a surveying party's expedition Dec 10 ult. published in The N. Y. 
Tribune Your aff son John 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 161 

Osawatomie, Jan. 28, 1857. 
Dear Father 

We rec'd yours of Jan. 9th yesterday, with $6.00 enclosed. Thank 
Wm Roberts and J. W. Roberts and yourself very kindly for us. 
We hope we will be able some time to return it to some one who 
needs it as much. The prospect before us this summer is brighter 
than it has been yet in Kansas. Our health is better. The look for 
peace and confidence is yet good. The prospects of an overwhelm- 
ing preponderance of free state settlers here are not at all desperate 
but highly encouraging. I hear on all sides noise of anticipated im- 
provements the coming season. There is to be a saw mill and store 
put up 3 or 4 miles west of Osawatomie, the nucleus of a prospective 
town there about the same distance from us as the present village. 
Our claim is in the centre of the township. Who knows but we may 
have a four corners, a store, blacksmith shop, &c here some time? 
There is considerable talk of building in Osawatomie. They have 
recently been getting subscriptions to erect a small building for 
school and meeting purposes nearly enough already subscribed. 
My neighbor Mr Finch and I intend to fence together 20 acres each, 
making a field of 40 acres for corn. There is little fencing timber 
on my claim. Most of the rails I will have to buy. We intend to 
purchase a prairie plow between us and do the plowing mostly our- 
selves. Now do you think you could lend or borrow for me $50 or 
$30 to get fencing with? I can fence the half of a square piece % 
mile on a side with the same rails it would take to fence 10 acres 
separately. The surveyed lines come so that it will be much more 
convenient to make a field so, than to enlarge my old field. Mr 
Finch, you have heard me mention before, is a Wesleyan missionary 
of the Am. Miss. Association. If I can do this fencing and make my 
mare and my labor pay for my part of the plowing of the field, it 
will be a great lift for us and with a fair season bring us in enough 
so that next fall we will be quite independent. Next spring I intend 
to put out a few fruit trees to begin to make an orchard. I will have 
to buy some potatoes for seed. Those currant slips Lewis sent me 
I hope will grow next summer. They have been in the ground all 
winter. I wish some one was coming out here from your part in 
the spring, so that I could get a variety of small fruits &c. . , . 
How many of my apple trees lived through the summer? If you 
have not earthed them up, the first thaw let any one who has time 
tramp the snow around them. This will shut out the mice from 

118551 



162 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

gnawing the bark under the snow. I am sending the Herald of 
Freedom to you once in a while. There is a good deal of gas in this 
paper along with a good deal of substantial truth. I suppose you 
have seen our Gov. Geary's message. 39 It is a strange mixture of 
excellent recommendations with miserable political philosophy. His 
practical suggestions are good, but his political theories are detest- 
able, untrue, and inhuman. I doubt if Gov. Geary does not soon 
find himself, in spite of himself, with the freedom loving people of 
Kansas, and at loggerheads with the border ruffian legislators thereof 
like Reeder, with this difference, then the people were a hand- 
full, now comparatively a multitude, and every month becoming 
stronger. The few grains of common sense hidden under the bushel 
of error in the doctrine of squatter sovereignty will compel this. 
The violent proslavery papers here already berate Geary. They say 
the show of moderation to the free state people before the presi- 
dential election was a political necessity, to carry Pennsylvania and 
Indiana ; but now he should throw off the mask and openly show the 
proslavery colors. But I feel thankful, that it is getting more and 
more impossible for mere politicians to mould the institutions of 
Kansas at their will. The people here are getting too strong. It is 
a curious commentary on the doctrine of squatter sovereignty that 
where it is first applied, in the territory to govern which the doctrine 
and sounding phrase were invented, here the people have actually 
less political power than in any civilized government on earth. Our 
Legislature is elected by the wild and half civilized Missouri bor- 
derers. All our Executive officers from Governor to constable are 
appointed either by the President or by the Legislature; so with all 
the judiciary from Supreme Judge to the most ignorant Squire 
hardly able to write his name; all county officers. But the people 
are awake. 

"Who would be free themselves must strike the blow." And 
sooner or later the people will triumph. They tried to subdue us 
last summer with the whole power of the U. S. Government and 
army on their side. They failed. Now I think they may try gov- 
ernmental forms and formulas. But they will equally fail. The 
people at last will triumph. If any thing were wanting to insure 
this, the munificent donations for Kansas in the free states have 
done it. The South have done nothing comparatively to encourage 
and keep their sons here. 

39. Governor Geary's message to the legislative assembly of Kansas territory, January 12, 
1857. See The Kansas Historical Collections, v. IV, pp. 676-687. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 163 

The weather has softened. We have had three mild days, thawing 
the snow a little. I think the hardest of our winter is over 

With much love Your affectionate Son John. 

Osawatomie Feb 3, '57. 
Dear Father 

We received yours of Jan 19 this morning. I hasten to write a 
few words in reply. The snow is thawing and going off very fast. 
Today is the warmest day since November the thermometer now 
(about 2 P.M.) indicates 60. The past has been a very mild 
pleasant week. My health seems to be better as spring approaches 
than it has been for many years. I am fleshier than I remember 
myself since I was a boy. My clothes that I wore two years ago 
are all too small. . . . Sarah and Franky are both well. We are 
hoping the back of this winter is broken. The Indians think there 
will be no more very cold weather this winter. Friend Mendenhall 
has been on a tour through Lawrence and North of the Kansas river. 
He found people hopeful. There is a good deal of a speculating 
spirit among a great many where he has been. Lots in Lawrence on 
Massachusetts street (the main Street) are rated some of them as 
high as $150 per foot front. Tomorrow the Pottawatomie may 
[be] too high to be fordable so I hasten this brief letter to the office. 
We thank you for the stamps in your last. 

Your affectionate son and daughter 
John & Sarah 

Osawatomie Feb 19, 1857 
Dear Father and Mother 

We received yours and Lewises of Jan 28th this week. This is 
the first mail to come in for two weeks. We had a heavy rain and a 
flood. The Pottawatomie was away over its banks and every other 
stream I suppose. Of course the mail could neither go out or come 
in. The prairie was all frozen so that all the water ran down into 
the natural channels as from the roof of the house into an eaves 
trough. Some lost cattle and hogs. I found our cows up to their 
bellies in water, with the water still rising, a bitter cold day. It 
was one of their usual haunts, when they happen to wander, about 
l 1 /^ miles from home. The water surrounded them, and they had 
not the courage to break for the land, partly I suppose because it 
had turned so cold, and they would have stayed there till they were 
floated off or had been frozen if I had not found them. I went home 



164 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

and got my mare and drove them out. A neighbor below found his 
cattle on a little island of perhaps half an acre. On the island with 
the cattle were frightened representatives of the denizens of the 
forest wolves and rabbits, pigs, deer and turkeys. The cattle were 
driven off, the pigs refused to budge and were left to their fate with 
the wolves deer and rabbits. The weather has been very mild gen- 
erally, this month. A number of days the thermometer has been 
from 60 to 68 at the warmest. For three days now the wind has 
been North with rain and heavy fog blowing down and freezing as 
it falls. Not very cold mercury ranging from 23 to 34. But it 
seems much colder after the mild beautiful weather of the few days 
preceding. We have had no mail from Lawrence for three weeks. 
We hear privately that the Bogus Legislature has repealed the test 
oath law, 40 and part of the statutes infringing liberty of speech. 41 
It is remembered that this Legislature was chosen by the slavehold- 
ing party in Kansas without let or hindrance, and that free state 
men by their convictions and conscience were precluded from voting. 
This is an indication that the substantial victory is ours. By the 
time this reaches you, Buchanan's inaugural will be on your table, 
and the names of his cabinet under your eye. I hope to live to see 
the time when a President of the United States may be chosen who 
believes in the Declaration of Independence and in the free doctrines 
of the Holy Bible, and who will administer the Constitution in the 
spirit of its preamble. Too many of our Democrats (and is not 
Buchanan their chief?) seem to believe in nothing but in flattering 
those who have votes. Buchanan comes in without the moral 
support of the North, and I do not despair of seeing among his 
"glittering generalities" some decided admission or appreciation of 
the fact that there is a North. D. Webster on the 7th of March 
1850 forgot that, and was forgotten in consequence. 

40. Section 11 of the act to regulate elections, passed by the territorial legislature of 1855, 
provided that no one convicted of violation of the fugitive slave law should be entitled to vote 
or hold office in the territory ; further, that if any person offering to vote should be chal- 
lenged and required to take an oath to support the acts of congress pertaining to same, as 
well as the Kansas-Nebraska act, and should refuse, the vote of such person should be re- 
jected. Statutes of the Territory of Kansas, 1855, "An Act to Regulate Elections," Sec- 
tion 11. 

By an act of the legislature of 1857, that part of Section 11 of the act to regulate elec- 
tions, providing that any person challenged as a voter should be required to take an oath to 
sustain the specified acts of congress, was repealed. Laws of the Territory of Kansas, 1857, 
"An Act Prescribing Oaths . . . ," Section 1. 

41. Section 12 of the act to punish offences against slave property, Statutes of 1855, 
provided : "If any free person, by speaking or by writing, assert or maintain that persons have 
not the right to hold slaves in this territory, or shall introduce into this territory, print, 
publish, write, circulate or cause to be introduced into this territory, written, printed, pub- 
lished or circulated in this territory, any book, paper, magazine, pamphlet or circular, con- 
taining any denial of the right of persons to hold slaves in this territory, such persons shall 
be deemed guilty of felony, and punished by imprisonment all hard labor for a term of not 
less than two years." This section of the act was repealed by the legislature of 1857. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 165 

You see I have nothing to write about, and I close. Sarah intends 
to write a few lines to Jenny if she has time before we can send this. 
Do not expect our letters regularly now for a few weeks. To take 
this to mail, I will either have to wade the Pottawotamie or go down 
three miles below and cross in a canoe. The banks are so miry that 
it is not safe for me to try to cross with my blind mare. We have 
3 or 4 hens laying. Do you get any eggs? How many quires do 
you wet now for Cenhadwr? Do you or Lewis or Jenny know of a 
cheap edition of Macaulay's last volumes of the History of England. 
Harper published the two first vols in paper covers for 25 cts per 
vol. If the last two volumes are so published you would do me a 
very great kindness by getting and sending them to me by mail. I 
have not seen a new book since I came here, above an Almanac. If 
you want to get a very interesting and useful little farmers book, 
you will find one in the "Illustrated Annual Register of Rural 
Affairs and Cultivator Almanac" for 1857. It is beautifully printed 
and illustrated, and cannot be read by any one with a square rod 
of ground without profit. 

With much love Your son 

John 

Osawatomie Mar. 5, '57. 
Dear Father 

We are well. Have only had one mail for nearly three weeks, and 
no letter or paper in that. The rivers have been high, and now the 
waters have subsided. The banks are so miry no wagon can pass. 
These are some of the inconveniences of a new country. In a few 
years we hope to have good roads and bridges. Emigration has 
commenced in good earnest. Every boat we hear of comes up 
loaded with emigrants. Several claims have been taken near us 
this week. Mr. R Hughes of Lawrence, whose name is on your 
Cenhadwr book, spent Sabbath with us. He is out here looking at 
the country, with a probability of moving here. I do not see but 
that we are likely to have a Welsh settlement at Osawatomie. At 
least there seems to be a number of Cymry who talk of coming here. 
They all like the country around here well. 

A proslavery man named Sherman, generally known over the 
territory, as "Dutch Henry," was shot Monday evening four miles 
above on the Pottawatomie. He was a violent proslavery man, 
active in the troubles last summer, and this is one of the bad fruits 
of that miserable slavery extending crusade. He had been a resi- 



166 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

dent of the territory for 10 years before the Kansas bill was passed, 
first as hired man to a half breed Indian head man, and then as 
stock raiser having for his pasture the illimitable prairies. Before 
the troubles he had large herds of 200 or 300 cattle, but "when there 
was no king in Israel" guerrilla parties found means to find wings for 
his cattle, and now he is probably dead. This act is greatly regretted 
here, but perhaps not to be wondered at. Today is cold. The 
weather has been spring like. Our pie plants have started. We get 
some eggs. John 

Osawatomie, Mar. 11, '57. 
Dear Father, 

We received yours of Feb 18 this week. It contained a draft of 
$29.55. This will be of great service to us. I am disappointed in the 
way of making my field and plowing as I wrote. The man who took 
the claim West of me proved quite changeable in his plans, gave up 
the claim and bought a timber claim elsewhere. Still I expect to 
make a field of 10 to 15 acres in addition to what I have now under 
cultivation, and think I can do it and get it plowed with this assist- 
ance. I fear it will cramp you to take this from your own means. 
I wish you could have borrowed it. 

George Cutter has left us. He had a chance to go and went the 
beginning of the week. He had got so as to sit up nearly all day, 
and to walk around some. We miss him much. His disposition was 
kind, very peacable, and unrevengeful. One of the last persons who 
would seek a quarrel. The Committee owe us yet $30 for taking care 
of him, which I think we will get in time to be of service for our 
spring expenses. I have besides between $20 & $30 in my pocket. 
We get 7 or 8 eggs a day. Now we are alone we expect to sell most 
of what we get. They are worth 20 cts. a dozen now. We have some 
1st September chickens laying now, and some May and July ones 
not laying. The winters here are much more favorable to poultry 
as indeed to all stock than with you. The difference in latitude be- 
tween us and you makes a more marked difference in temperature 
in Spring than in fall. We shall not need to fodder much more this 
spring. We have had a very cold turn of weather these last few 
days, but the sun has got so high it cannot last long. There has 
been a good deal of discussion about the Convention called by the 
bogus Legislature. The general feeling is in favor of voting if we 
could expect fairness but this bill was so unfair Gov. Geary vetoed 
it, and I think Free State men will not recognize this more than any 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 167 

other law of the bogus Legislature. 42 There is a delegate Conven- 
tion 43 this week at Topeka, to consult and devise a wise plan of 
united action. It was with the delegates from Osawatomie to this 
Convention that George went up to Lawrence. . . . 

From your son 

John 

N. B. Tell any body who knows how to make cheese that they 
cannot miss it in coming to Kansas. Cheese has retailed here this 
winter at 25 cents. Butter, 25 cents. Pasture don't cost any thing. 

Osawatomie, Mar. 18, 1857. 
Dear Father 

We received two letters from home this week one of Feb 10 and 
Feb 23. The latter contained the draft of $21. The draft of $29.55, 
we received last week. We hope to be able to repay you before very 
long. Our great anxiety now about it is, lest you have cramped 
yourself by sparing it out of your own resources. . . . 

. . . We heard that George Cutter arrived safely in Lawrence, 
after leaving us. The last two winters have been the coldest (they 
say) known or remembered in Kansas, by the oldest inhabitants. 
March is still cold. Not much spring for us yet. We do not have 
to feed cows much however. We have one cow that gives us a little 
milk yet. Get 6 to 8 eggs a day. Our pigs that I boasted so much 
of last fall, went one day in the beginning of winter (as all the 
swinish multitude here were wont to do) into the creek timber, and 
never returned ! Some one "pressed" them I suppose. So we suffered, 
because "there was no king in" Kansas. And we are only too happy 
because it was not a thousand times worse with us, as it has been 
with some. We hope never to see such times here again as we saw 
last year. 

I close with much love to all. Your Son 

John 

42. The territorial legislature passed an act on February 19, 1857, providing for the 
election of a convention to frame a state constitution. Delegates to the convention were to 
be apportioned on the basis of a census ordered for April 1. Governor Geary vetoed the bill 
because it failed to make provision to submit the constitution, when framed, to the con- 
sideration of the people for ratification or rejection. The bill was passed over his veto. 

43. A Free-State convention met at Topeka on March 10. 



168 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Longwood, Mar. 26, 1857. 
Dear Father 

We received yours from Utica, (March 5) this week. . . . 
The last few days have been beautiful spring days. Last Sunday 
the mercury rose to 84. To day it is between 70 and 80. This 
week we heard that Gov. Geary is dead. 44 If so, it will be a great 
loss to Kansas. He will be sincerely and truly mourned in many 
a humble log cabin. With all his errors of logic in his messages, in 
his administration he was the true friend of the actual settler. He 
stood between free state men and those who would devour them. 
He restored peace, and maintained it by refusing to employ the 
military in enforcing the barbarous territorial laws. We shall hardly 
get a better Governor, and may easily get a worse. A son of John 
Pierce of Big Rock and one of Thomas Pierce of Aurora, fine young 
men, have taken claims near us. They stopt with us one night. 

. . . I must close in haste. Your son 

John. 

Friday morning. I was interrupted in writing this by a prairie 
fire driving down straight into our timber. We both worked hard 
to keep it back for about 8 hours. Did not get to bed till midnight. 
We finally succeeded. It reminded me of the effort of the slave 
power to spread its devastating flame over our beautiful prairies. We 
had to work hard, watch constantly, when one plan failed to try 
another, and it finally only blackened one little corner of the timber. 
I have a chance to send this, and must close. 

Longwood, Apl 2 1857. 
Dear Father 

Yours of Mar. 10 (from Utica) reed last mail. I thank you for 
sending the heads of your sermon on secret prayer. Hope it may do 
us good. 

Rev. Geo. Lewis and Mr. Thomas of Racine stopped with us last 
Sunday. Had a pleasant interview with them. You will have seen 
'ere this the account of our Topeka Convention. They resolved not 
to vote at the coming constitutional Convention. This vote I think 
was unanimous. There has been a good deal of difference of opinion 
as to the wisdom of such a resolve, and is yet. Many were in favor 
of going to the polls, and if necessary with rifles in their hands. I 

44. Governor Geary left the territory secretly on March 10. He had addressed his resig- 
nation to President Buchanan on March 4, to take effect on March 20. His death did not 
occur until 1873. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 169 

think the wisest course is that adopted by the Convention. We can 
wait and watch. Let them form their slave Constitution. There is 
no provision in the law for a submission to the people. Will Congress 
receive this Constitution formed by a small fraction with such sub- 
mission? I think not. If submitted to the people, we shall be much 
stronger next fall than now and if we could get the control now 
could easily vote them down then. If not presented to the people we 
can send a remonstrance signed by three times as many voters as 
they will be likely to muster to vote for their constitutional can- 
didates without opposition. Our policy is now a "masterly inac- 
tivity." Wait for those who are coming. The advocates of voting 
want to go to the polls and expect they would have to vindicate their 
rights there with blood. But our policy is peace. We wish to do 
nothing to provoke collision, at least till we are strong enough to 
awe and look down all opposition. Even if our state is slave in form 
and name, it will be a slave state with the great majority actively 
hostile to slavery. I predict that when Kansas becomes a state, the 
greater the effort to make it slave in reality, the more determined 
and explosive will be the opposition to slavery in fact. If a slave 
state at all, it will be a slave state without slaves. Mark that. 

This morning was the first frost in a week. The gooseberries in 
the timber are leaving out a little. The prairies are yet brown with 
green patches here and there. Grass grows in the timber and wet 
places, and the buffalo grass and the wild barley make quite a bite 
on the prairies. Yesterday our hens laid 13 eggs. With which in- 
teresting information I close with much love from your grandson, 
daughter and son John. 

Commercial Ink 

10 gallons clean rain water, 2% Ibs Extract Logwood (not the 
chips but a solid, comes in lumps). Boil slightly 15 minutes in a 
clean iron kettle and stir well. 

Then add one half pound bichromate potash, dissolved in a little 
hot water, stir it till a deep black, take off. Let settle, strain or pour 
off. This is a valuable receipt. Friend Mendenhall has been a 
druggist, and paid $10. for the above. This is the ink. Costs, dear 
as drugs are here, 20 cts a gallon. He sold me a pint for 5 cents. If 
you had known it, you would not have sent the powder. It stands 
the test when tried with chemicals better than any other ink. 

Mr. G. Lewis gave us $11.25 from the Welsh Relief Fund, which 
was unexpected but very acceptable. Mr. Adair had a box come 



170 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

lately. He sent word over and Sarah went and got a pair of shirts 
for me, two pair of woolen stockings for herself, a pair of pants, 
apron & mittens for Frank, 12 yards of calico, 1 pair of pillow 
cases. . . . 

Longwood, Apr. 8, 1857. 
Dear Father 

We received two letters from home this week Mar. 16 and 24 with 
. . . that little ball of yarn. Please excuse me writing a letter 
this time, as I am very busy with my spring work. I am splitting 
rails now. My health is better this spring than I remember it since 
I left school. Sarah and Franky are both well. The Spring is quite 
backward. Sunday was a very cold day a regular return of winter. 
Monday morning the mercury fell to 10. How was it with you 
about then? It has stopped freezing nights now except once in a 
while. We were sorry to hear Gov. Geary has resigned. We have 
not heard who is the new appointee. It was a great joy to us to read 
of the triumphant result of the New Hampshire elections. A few 
short years back and N. H. was where Penn. & Ind. are now. The 
world moves and will continue to move. We feel cheerful, and con- 
fident of the final triumph of the right. . . . 

Your affectionate son 

John 

Osawatomie, Apr. 16, 1857. 
Dear Father 

The mail seems to have become rather irregular on the advent of 
a new administration. We got no letter this week. (But now I re- 
member we got two last week.) The Feb. Cenhadwr only came to 
hand last week. We have had no N. Y. Tribune for two weeks now. 
We are having a cold April colder than anything we have seen in 
April before North winds now two days out of three. Some have 
made garden and planted potatoes, but they are doing no good. Last 
years crops were poor, except wheat, and the emigration is large; so 
provisions are quite high. It is a good omen for us that we hear of 
very little Southern emigration. Ask any one just come in, if the 
boat he came on was full? "Crowded," will be the answer. "Were 
there most free state or slave state?" "0, Free State, a great deal," 
or "Nearly all Free State," will be the reply. Still, the most of those 
going on to the Indian lands, or claiming there are Proslavery 
Missourians. It is said there are 2800 names registered on the 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 171 

squatter's claim book in Westport of Missourians who have made 
claims on the Shawnee lands. It is said the Census taker went to 
that Claim Book, and took all those names on his list. If he had 
gone on to the land he could not find a tenth part of them, I pre- 
sume. But this is a part of the fraud that is to be practiced at the 
Bogus election this summer. 

The removal of Gov. Geary is a sad blow to us. Well, Walker 
cannot well be worse than Shannon was. And then we are far 
stronger in the territory, and our enemies far weaker in Missouri 
than last year. If Walker wants to save the Democratic party, he 
will give no occasion for a renewal of strife in Kansas. I must 
close now. Your son 

John 

Osawatomie May 1, '57. 
Dear Father 

Your regular letter came this week. I have been quite busy plant- 
ing and making garden this week. April has been very cold and 
dry. We have now had a few days warm weather. But to day is 
cold again, the wind North. Sarah is well excepting a cold. Frank 
is pretty smart again but complains still of a cold. My health is 
quite good. In haste 

John. 

Longwood May 7, 1857 
Dear Father 

Yours of Apr. 23 came to hand this week John is very busy 
now with his Spring's work and can hardly find time to write He 
is getting on very well has done his own plowing (on the old land) 
and got it mostly planted. Will finish this afternoon all except a 
small patch for a few more garden seeds. 

The spring is so late that there has not been any sod broken yet 
in these parts John has split most of his rails so far this spring 
to fence in his new breaking and expects to be able to finish what 
he will need before his crop will be liable to injury His health is 
better than it has been before since I knew him We are both amply 
repaid for all the privations, persecutions and horrors we have 
suffered in the Territory, by the better health we enjoy and in seeing 
Frank changed into a robust, vigorous stout boy. 

We do not learn that the resignation of Gov. Geary and the ap- 
pointment of Walker affects the emigration into the Ter. or that it 



172 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

depresses the Free State people already here They are pretty 
strongly determined not to submit to the same grievances they did 
last summer and not to recognize the right of their oppressors to 
tax them You will see by the Herald of Freedom John will send 
with this how the Lawrence people met the taxation question when 
acting Gov. Stanton expressed his views on it and that is an echo 
of the whole free state population 45 We have heard this week from 
one of its agents (Genl. Pomeroy) that the Em. Aid Soc. has bought 
out half of the town of Atchison including in their purchase String- 
fellow's paper The Squatter Sovereign, as violent a proslavery sheet 
last summer as could be found, and are going to turn it into a free- 
state paper. 46 Gen. P. says that the proslavery men are "backing 
down" throughout the Ter. It is not believed by any one that 
there is the least probability that the outrages of last summer will 
be re-enacted or even attempted again 

Little Franky went with us to "fight fire" till dark when I took 
him to the house and put him to bed and returned again as one 
alone could accomplish nothing. 

There was nothing particularly dangerous if we were careful 
My dress or any of our clothes might have taken fire if we had not 
had our minds on ourselves as well as on what we wished to burn 
but we escaped unharmed with the exception of extreme weariness 
and severe colds. 

Our nearest neighbor is three fourths of a mile distant. We had 
no time to take Frank there besides children here have to learn 
self reliance and independence as well as their parents That night 
Frank went to bed with his clothes on and without his supper with- 
out crying But he cried for his breakfast before we could hardly 
get our eyes open next morning. 

One thing I should have mentioned in regard to our bogus offi- 
cials which is that they do not attempt to enforce the barbarous 
"laws of Kansas" against opposition as they formerly did, even when 
justice calls for punishment. One striking example of this occurred 
not long since in Osawatomie A young man at a boarding house 

45. A portion of Acting Governor Stanton's speech to the people of Lawrence is quoted in 
an editorial appearing in the Lawrence Herald of Freedom, May 2, 1857. "You wish to know 
my position in regard to the Territorial laws. Congress has recognized them as binding. 
. . . The President has recognized them as valid and they must be received as such. 
(Never! from the multitude.) You must obey them, and pay the taxes. (Never, no never.) 
There is where I am at war with you. (Then let there be war.) It shall be to the knife, 
and knife to the hilt. I say it without excitement, and wish you to receive it as such; the 
taxes must be collected, and it becomes the duty of my administration to see that they are 
collected. (Then you bring the government into collision with the people.)" 

46. See Samuel A. Johnson, "The Emigrant Aid Company in Kansas," Kansas Historical 
Quarterly, v. I, pp. 436, 437 ; and Russell Hickman, "Speculative Activities of the Emigrant 
Aid Co.," ibid., v. IV, p. 253, for statements regarding the interests of the company in 
Atchison. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 173 

in the place ran away one night with a span of horses and wagon 
belonging to another individual $80 in cash belonging to another, 
and a coat, pistols gun &c belonging to others He was pursued, 
taken, and lodged in jail in Lecompton. Not long after, the sheriff 
and a posse of ten I believe brought him down to Osawatomie for 
trial before our bogus justice but no one would testify against him, 
the blacksmith who boarded at the same place with this fellow was 
subpoenaed but he told them if Williams (the Bogus justice) wanted 
him he would have to come where he was Williams talked pretty 
loud about making him testify and others also, but it all ended in 
talk, and we have heard nothing since So it is in other parts as 
well as here The free state party are conscious of superior strength 
and are not moved or daunted as heretofore. 

We are having a very dry spring and have had also a very cold 
one. During April the wind was strong and steady and cold the 
weather here was well described by the Tribune in speaking of the 
weather in N. Y. that it was "unseasonably, unreasonably, uncom- 
fortably and unnecessarily cold." It was that here once more also 
I close with love to all from Your children 

Sarah & John & Franky 

Osawatomie May 14, 1857. 
Dear Father 

Your regular letter received this week. ... I am very busy 
with my work now. I am fencing for my new breaking. Expect to 
get about 10 acres new prairie plowed or perhaps a little over. Will 
have to pay $4.00 an acre at least. Around Lawrence they charge 
$5.00 and $5.50. Have saved $40.00 of the fifty I borrowed of you 
for that. My rails (excepting 250) I split myself. Have got enough 
split to answer till my corn is planted. Yesterday and the day be- 
fore was hauling rails. Have got about half done. Expect to get it 
planted week after next. The spring is very late and cold. Flour is 
$7.00 a hundred. Bacon 15 to 20 cts. Corn for meal and seed $2.00 
a bushel. Butter is 25 cts. Cheese 25 cents a pound. I wish some- 
body would lend me $100 to buy cows. I would willingly pay 10 per 
cent, and could afford to pay 20. It would be the same as rent with 
you. Are there none of your money loving Oneida men who would 
like to get rent for some of the Western prairies? Thousands of tons 
of good prairie grass will be burnt this fall within two miles of our 
house. When I was in Steuben men would pay $12 rent for a cow 
and a place to keep her, when butter was worth no more than 15 to 



174 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

18 cents and cheese 6 to 7. So we go. I have done more work with 
less fatigue this spring than in four times the time last. There is no 
more danger of Kansas being a slave state (except by fraud and in 
mere form) than Iowa. Not half as much as that Pennsylvania will 
revert to slavery. Much more likely that Missouri will become a 
free state. We feel quite safe on that head. Proslavery men are 
backing down and backing out, and free state men marching in by 
thousands to fill their places. Thank God, in this country the Presi- 
dent is not absolute. His power is very limited. The Governmental 
power is in the people by universal theory and general practice. In 
the end, the people here will triumph against the slave power and all 
its hosts, including President, cabinet, and their long tail of office 
holders and seekers. In Europe the sovereignty is with the prince, 
and in the long run he generally succeeds in his objects as against 
the people. Here the sovereignty is universally acknowledged and 
felt to be in the people, and in a contest between President and 
people, the people will come out winners. All that is needed is firm- 
ness, wisdom, and faith. The most significant fact of late is that 
the Squatter Sovereign, the head and front of slavery propagandism 
has become a free state paper. "Is Saul among the prophets?" Has 
persecuting Saul, who sat at the feet of Ananias, and held the clothes 
of those who stoned Stephen, become the Christian Apostle Paul? 
This is like James Buchanan trying to make Kansas a free state, 
or the Washington Union becoming a Black Republican paper. 

I must close. We are all quite well. 

Your affectionate son 

John. 

N. B. The land is now open for pre-emption That is, we can 
pay for our claims as soon as we can get money. Excuse haste and 
blunders. We have no milk yet. 

(To be continued in August Quarterly) 



Research Projects in Kansas History 

/ TVHIS compilation of projects in Kansas history is based for the 
JL most part upon questionnaires submitted to history department 
heads of Kansas colleges granting advanced degrees. Of course the 
list, compiled at the request of historians wishing to be informed 
concerning completed studies or research and writing in progress, 
is not complete. Only a start has been made. If the information 
is of sufficient interest other lists will be published, perhaps an- 
nually. Suggestions and cooperation from graduate students and 
faculties of Kansas colleges are solicited. 

Listing is alphabetical by authors. When known, all studies being 
made in fulfillment of masters' or doctors' degree requirements have 
been so designated. Progress or completion of projects is indicated 
by the following abbreviations: Prog, (in progress), Fin. (finished). 
A definite date of completion replaces "Fin." in many cases. If 
known, information on printing is included. Some faculty projects 
are listed. Names of universities and colleges, with which faculty 
members and graduates are associated, are shortened and printed 
in italics. For more extensive lists of papers in education see the 
Bibliography of Research Studies in Education, prepared annually 
by the Office of Education, United States Department of the Interior. 

ADAMS, LAURA, Kansas Nature in the Twentieth Century Kansas Novel. En- 
glish, Master's, 1931. Kansas. 

ALBRECHT, ABRAHAM, Mennonite Settlements in Kansas. History, Master's, 
1925. Kansas. 

ALLEN, DONALD R., Charles F. Hyde, Colwich Pioneer. Master's, 1933. Wichita. 

ANDERSON, J. EDWIN, History and Description of Building and Loan Asso- 
ciations and Their Operation in Kansas. Economics, Master's, 1925. Kansas. 

AUSTIN, JACKSON J., A Short Educational History of Labette County, Kansas. 
Education, Master's, Fin. Emporia State. 

BAKER, WALLACE F., Criminal Cases in Ellis County, Kansas. Master's, 1938. 
Hays State. 

BALCH, WM. M., History of the Working Classes. Prog. Baker. 

BANKS, IDA GRACE, The Effects of Geographic Influences Upon the Life of the 
People of Kansas. Sociology, Master's, 1913. Kansas. 

BARNARD, BERNARD L., A History of Municipal Ownership of Public Utilities 
in Kansas. Political Science, Master's, 1932. Kansas. 

BARROWS, LELAND J., An Outline of County Government in Kansas. Political 
Science, Master's, 1932. Kansas. 

BASKA, (Sister) M. REGINA, The Benedictine Congregation of Saint Scho- 
lastica. Doctor's, 1935. Catholic University (Washington, D. C.). 

BELL, RUTH ELIZABETH, Some Contributions to the Study of Kansas Vocabu- 
lary. English, Master's, 1929. Kansas. 

(175) 



176 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

BLACKWOOD, , Industrial Survey of Wichita, Kansas. Economics, 

Master's, 1927. Kansas. 
BLOCHER, JOHN G., Retail Credit Associations in Kansas. Economics, Master's, 

1927. Kansas. 
BOHLING, EARL R., The Exportation of Flour, With Special Reference to 

Kansas. Economics, Master's, 1930. Kansas. 
BORDENKIRCHER, MARY ALICE, A Historical Study of the Mission Schools in 

Territory Now Comprising Kansas. Education, Master's, Fin. Emporia 

State. 
BOWMAN, ELAINE, The Social Life of Kansas as Shown in the Kansas Novel. 

English, Master's, 1928. Kansas. 
BRANDENBURG, WILLIAM A., JR., A History of Liquor Prohibition in Crawford 

County, Kansas. Master's, Fin. Pittsburg State. 
BROOKS, CHARLES H., A History of Education in Kansas Since 1914. Master's, 

1933. Hays State. 
BROOKS, FRANCES W., Dr. Fabrique and Early Wichita Medical Practice. 

Master's, 1931. Wichita. 
CALDWELL, MARTHA, The Attitude of Kansas Toward Reconstruction Before 

1875. History, Doctor's, 1933. Kansas. 
CLAPP, ALLEN ELIZABETH, The Medicine Lodge Indian Treaty. Master's, 1934. 

Wichita. 
CLARAHAN, (Sister) M. AUGUSTINE, The Founding and Early Development of 

Pittsburg, Kansas. Master's, Fin. Pittsburg State. 
CLOVER, VERNON T., Trends in Kansas Governmental Revenue Receipts and 

Expenditures, 1880-1934. Master's, 1935. Hays State. 
COBB, MARGARET, Andrew H. Reeder. Prog. Chicago. 
COLES, ELIZABETH E., Aspects of Pre-Civil War Historical Drama. Master's, 

1930. Hays State. 
COWAN, DENNIS W., A History of the Salt Industry in Hutchinson, Kansas. 

Master's, Prog. Pittsburg State. 
COYNE, MARJORIE, David L. Payne, the Father of Oklahoma. Master's, 1930. 

Wichita. 
CRIPPEN, WALDO, The Kansas-Pacific Railroad: A Cross Section of An Age 

of Railroad Building. Doctor's, Prog. Chicago. 
CROCKETT, ALBERT G., The Life of William Mathewson, "The Original Buffalo 

Bill." Master's, 1932. Wichita. 
CROWLEY, BYRON MONROE, The Public Career of Arthur Capper Prior to His 

Senatorial Service. Master's, Fin. Pittsburg State. 
CULVER, ELIZABETH B., A Collection of Writings by Kansas Authors. English, 

Master's, 1937. Kansas. 
CUSHMAN, GEORGE L., Abilene as a Terminal Town of the Cattle Trails. 

Master's, Prog. Pittsburg State. 

DELLINGER, RALPH ALEXANDER, A Study of the Teaching of History in the Pub- 
lic Junior Colleges of Kansas. Master's, Fin. Pittsburg State. 
DENTON, DORIS, Harmony Mission, 1821-1837. History, Master's, 1929. Kansas. 
DILLY, CHARLES A., The Development of the Portland Cement Industry in 

Kansas. Economics, Master's, 1932. Kansas. 
DOLBEE, CORA, A Collection and Study of the Verse of the Kansas-Nebraska 

Movement. English, Prog. Kansas. 



RESEARCH PROJECTS IN KANSAS HISTORY 177 

, A Collection of the Anti-Slavery Verse From 1854-1861, and a Study 

of the Relationship As a Background to the Kansas-Nebraska Movement. 
English, Prog. Kansas. 

, Dr. Thomas H. Webb, and the New England Emigrant Aid Co. En- 
glish, Prog. Kansas. 

, Studies of Books on Kansas in the Territorial Period. English, Prog. 



Two articles of the series already published : "The First Book on Kansas : 
The Story of Edward Everett Bale's Kanzas and Nebraska" (Kansas His- 
torical Quarterly, v. II, May, 1933), and "The Second Book on Kansas: 
An Account of C. B. Boynton and T. B. Mason's A Journey Through Kan- 
sas; With Sketches of Nebraska" (Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. IV, May, 
1935). Kansas. 

, The Fourth of July in Kansas, 1804-1861. English, Prog. Printed in 

part (in this issue of the Quarterly). Kansas. 

DONOHUE, A. T., History of St. Marys Mission. History, Doctor's. Kansas. 

DOOLHY, NELLE, Local Color and Sectionalism as Found in the Short Story of 
the Plains States. Master's, Prog. Hays State. 

DOYLE, ALBERTA, Progressive Movement in Republican Party. History, Master's, 
1939. Kansas. 

DURLAND, JEAN Lois, History of the Quaker Settlements at Lowell and River- 
ton, Kansas. Master's, Fin. Pittsburg State. 

ERBACHER, (Sister) LEO GONZAGA, Four Decades, 1898-1938; History of the 
Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth. Vol. II. St. Mary (Leavenworth). 

ESAU, ANNA, The Educational Development of Reno County. Education, 
Master's, 1931. Kansas. 

EVANS, MARY JANE POTTER, Life of William Allen White. Master's, Prog. 
Pittsburg State. 

FISH, EVERETT D., and KATHRYN KAYSER, An Outline of the History of the 
Kansas State Teachers College of Emporia, 1865-1934 (In two volumes, one 
a Source Book). Education, Master's, Fin. Emporia State. 

FISHER, PAUL M., Flour Milling Industry in Kansas. Prog. Penn. 

FITZGERALD, (Sister) MARY PAUL, The Osage Mission a Factor in the Making 
of Kansas. Fin. St. Mary (Leavenworth). 

FOWLER, OLITA LOUISE, The Historical Background of Coffeyville. Master's, 
Prog. Pittsburg State. 

FRANKS, KEITH, Jerry Simpson, a Populist. History, Master's, Prog. North- 
western. 

FREDERIKSON, EDNA TUTT, John P. St. John the Father of Constitutional Pro- 
hibition. History, Doctor's, Fin. Kansas. 

FREDERIKSON, OTTO F., Prohibition in Kansas to 1881. History, Doctor's, Fin. 
Kansas. 

FUNK, O. MARVIN, Development of the Functions of the Kansas Corporation 
Commission. Political Science, Master's, 1938. Kansas. 

GAEDDERT, GUSTAVE R., A History of the Establishment of the Kansas State 
Government. History, Doctor's, 1937. Kansas. 

GAGLIARDO, DOMENICO, Fatal Accidents in Kansas Coal Mines. Economics. 
Kansas. 

, The Kansas Industrial Court. Economics. Kansas. 

128551 



178 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

, and ROWENA SNYDER, The Cost of Administering Kansas Labor Laws. 

Economics. Kansas. 

GANE, HERBERT, The Kansas Intangible Property Tax Law. Economics, Mas- 
ter's, 1928. Kansas. 

GARFIELD, MARVIN, Defense of the Kansas Frontier Against Indians and Out- 
laws, 1864-1869. History, Master's, 1932. Printed (Kansas Historical Quar- 
terly, v. I, 1931-1932). Kansas. 

GARRISON, CHARLES H., Economic Development of Anderson County, Kansas. 
Master's, Prog. Pittsburg State. 

GILBERT, GRACE M., Indian Missions of Southeastern Kansas. Master's, Fin. 
Pittsburg State. 

GOODMAN, IDA, Regulation of Kansas Public Utilities. Economics, Master's, 

1929. Kansas. 

GREEN, PAUL G., An Annotated Bibliography of the History of Education in 
Kansas. Education, Master's, Fin. Printed (Studies in Education Series) . 
Emporia State. 

GRIBBLE, GERALD, George M. Hoover. History, Master's, Prog. Wichita. 

GUTHRIE, G. L., Commercial Organizations in Kansas. Economics, Master's, 
1925. Kansas. 

HAMMER, RALPH O., The Historical Development of El Dorado, Kansas. Mas- 
ter's, Prog. Pittsburg State. 

HARDY, WILABOUR, A Historical Bibliography of Kansas. Master's, 1931. Hays 
State. 

HARSHBARGER, E. L., Immigrant Contributions of Russian Mennonites (Kan- 
sas Settlements). Fin. Bethel. 

HAWORTH, MILDRED E., United States Relations With the Pawnee Indians. 
Master's, Prog. Wichita. 

HENDERSON, CAROLINE A., The Love of the Soil as a Motivating Force in 
Literature Relating to the Early Development of the Middle West. En- 
glish, Master's, 1935. Kansas. 

HENDRIX, CLARK, An Historical Study of the Development of Public School 
Education in Coffeyville, Kansas. Education, Master's, Fin. Emporia 
State. 

HIRSCHLER, EDWARD E., The Story of a Pioneer Family. Master's, 1937. Hays 
State. 

HISKEY, MARSHALL S., A Brief History of the City of Derby, Kansas, and a 
Survey of the Derby Public School System, 1936-1937. Education, Master's, 
Fin. Emporia State. 

HOOVER, MEARLE, Alien Contributions to the History of Barton County, Kan- 
sas. Master's, Prog. Hays State. 

HOWELL, FREDERICK, Pittsburg, Kansas, and Its Industries. History, Master's, 

1930. Printed (Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. I, May, 1932). Kansas. 
HOWSE, EDNA, David D. Leahy, Kansas Journalist. Master's, Prog. Wichita. 
HUBERT, MARVIN, The Economic Development of Gray County, Kansas. Mas- 
ter's, Prog. Hays State. 

HUEBNER, MAX S., An Analysis of Text-Books in World History in Kansas 

Since 1883. 1932. Emporia State. 
HUFF, CLIFTON BLAIR, An Historical Study of the Industries of Allen County, 

Kansas. Master's, Fin. Pittsburg State. 



RESEARCH PROJECTS IN KANSAS HISTORY 179 

HURKLEY, WM. A., A History of the Kansas State Board of Health. Political 
Science, Master's, 1937. Kansas. 

HURT, VIRGIL E., An Historical Study of a Century of the Growth and Develop- 
ment of Kansas Academies. Education, Master's, Fin. Emporia State. 

INGLEMAN, ANNA A., Indian Place Names in Kansas. English, Master's, 1929. 
Kansas. 

JACKS, HAZEL D., Government Relations With the Comanche Indians. Master's, 

1932. Wichita. 

JAMES, HERBERT, The Relationship of the Building of the Atchison, Topeka 
& Santa Fe Railroad to the Development of Kansas. Master's, Fin. 
Pittsburg State. 

JANZEN, A. E., The Wichita Grain Market. Economics, Master's, 1927. Kansas. 

JANZEN, CORNELIUS CICERO, Americanization of the Russian Mennonites in 
Central Kansas. Sociology, Master's, 1914. Kansas. 

JESTER, MARGUERITE P., The Kindergarten Movement: An Historical Study 
Giving Attention to the Development in Kansas. Education, Master's, Fin. 
Emporia State. 

JOHNS, VERNON O., Development of the Flour Milling Industry in Kansas. 
Economics, Master's, 1926. Kansas. 

JOHNSON, F. EVAN, Railroad Rates in Relation to the Marketing of Kansas 
Salt. Economics, Master's, 1928. Kansas. 

JOHNSON, MARVIN, Property Tax Delinquency, With Special Reference to Kan- 
sas. Economics, Master's, 1933. Kansas. 

JOHNSON, S. A., A Critical Study of the New England Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany. History, Master's, 1928. Kansas. 

KAUFMAN, ED. G., Development of the Missionary and Philanthropic Interest 
Among the Mennonites of North America. Fin. Bethel. 

, Social Problems and Opportunities of the Mennonites of the Western 

District Conference. Fin. Bethel. 

KAUFMAN, Louis, The Life of Henry Wallenstein. Master's, Prog. Wichita. 

KAYSER, KATHRYN, and EVERETT D. FISH, An Outline of the History of the 
Kansas State Teachers College of Emporia, 1865-1934 (In two volumes, one 
a Source Book). Education, Master's, Fin. Emporia State. 

KITCH, KENNETH, The Associated Press in Kansas: Its Background and De- 
velopment. Master's, 1938. Kansas. 

KLEPPER, MADALEINE G., James R. Mead, an Early Pioneer. Master's, 1930. 
Wichita. 

KREHBIEL, JOHN L., The Kansas State Tax Commission. Economics, Master's, 
1938. Kansas. 

LACEY, WESLEY A., The Development of Agriculture in the Great Plains as 
Typified by Its Growth in Kansas. Sociology, Master's, 1911. Kansas. 

LAFFERTY, CHARLES W., Early History of Wilson County. Master's, Prog. 
Pittsburg State. 

LAKE, (Sister) MARY VICTORIA, The History of the Sisters of St. Joseph of 
Wichita, Kansas. Master's, 1937. Wichita. 

LAM AN, MALCOLM, The Career of Charles Robinson in Kansas. History, Doc- 
tor's, Prog. Nebraska. 

LAMBKY, FLORENCE H., The Life of the Kansas Pioneer Women. Master's, 

1933. Wichita. 



180 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

LAMSON, WILLIS ERNEST, The Historical Development of Girard, Kansas, and 
Its Community. Master's, Fin. Pittsburg State. 

LANDWEHR, (Sister) MARCELLA, Evolution of the Office of State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction. Master's, Prog. Hays State. 

LAYDEN, FRANK, A Study of Some of the Problems of Settlement of Crawford 
County, Kansas. Master's, Fin. Pittsburg State. 

LEITCH, HUGH V., An Historical Study of the Educational Growth of Morris 
County, Kansas. Education, Master's, Fin. Emporia State. 

LONG, EARL V., The Wichita Real Estate Boom. Master's, 1931. Wichita. 

LOWE, JESSIE H., Pioneer History of Kingman. Master's, 1933. Wichita. 

LOWRY, GRACE, Life of Eugene Ware. Master's, Fin. Pittsburg State. 

LYONS, EMORY, Isaac McCoy: His Plan of and Work for Indian Coloniza- 
tion. Master's, Prog. Hays State. 

McCLEAVE, DAVID H., A History of the Indian Mission of the Presbyterian 
Church in Kansas. Master's, 1935. Hays State. 

McCLELLEN, 0. D., A History of Radical Political Movements in Kansas. Mas- 
ter's, Fin. Pittsburg State. 

McCoRMACK, Lois E., Settlement and Development of Osage Township, Allen 
County. Master's, Fin. Pittsburg State. 

McCRACKEN, A., Study of Unearned Increments in Lawrence, Kansas. Eco- 
nomics, Master's, 1925. Kansas. 

MclLVAiN, ZELMA, Governor Glick and Prohibition, 1883-1884. History, Mas- 
ter's, 1931. Kansas. 

MclsAAc, ROBERT HUGH, William Greiffenstein and the Founding of Wichita. 
Master's, 1937. Wichita. 

McKowN, EARL E., A Survey of the Historical Development and Growth of 
Schools in Johnson County, Kansas. Education, Master's, Fin. Emporia 
State. 

McLAURiN, JOFFRE C., The Financing and Organization of a Community Center 
for Negroes of Lawrence, Kansas. Economics, Master's, 1937. Kansas. 

MALIN, JAMES C., History of the Kansas Bluestem Pastures. History, Prog. 
Kansas. 

, John Brown and the Legend of Fifty-six. History, Prog. Kansas. 

, John E. Stewart, the Fighting Preacher. History, Prog. Kansas. 

, P. P. Fowler's "The Jayhawker," edited for publication with historical 

introduction. History, Prog. Kansas. 

, Studies in the Agricultural History of Kansas. History, Prog. A con- 
tinuation of studies already published : "The Turnover of Farm Population 
in Kansas" (Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. IV, November, 1935), and 
"The Adaptation of the Agricultural System to Sub-Humid Environment" 
(Agricultural History, Washington, D. C., v. X, July, 1936). Kansas. 

MANN, HENRIETTA E., A History of Elk County, Kansas. Master's, Prog. 
Pittsburg State. 

MARFIELD, G. G., The Primary System in Kansas. Political Science, Master's, 
1923. Kansas. 

MARTIN, RAMONA I., Government Treatment of the Osagea to 1830. Master's, 
1935. Wichita. 

MIDDLETON, KENNETH A., History of Manufacturing in Lawrence, Kansas. 
Economics, Master's, Prog. Kansas. 



RESEARCH PROJECTS IN KANSAS HISTORY 181 

MILLER, CLIFFORD D., Social Conditions in Territorial Kansas. Master's, 1936. 
Hays State. 

MILLEB, EMY K., Corporation Farming in Kansas. Master's, 1933. Wwhita. 

MILLER, GEORGE W., The Little Arkansas Peace Treaty, 1865. Master's, 1933. 
Wichita. 

MILLER, PERCY S., Pioneer History of Medicine Lodge. Master's, 1936. Wichita. 

MILLIGAN, JAMES, The Fiscal Aspects of County Consolidation. Economics, 
Master's, 1934. Kansas. 

MOEDER, (Sister) MONICA, History of St. Benedict's College. Master's, 1931. 
Wichita. 

MOORE, BESSIE, Robert Simerwell. History, Master's, 1939. Kansas. 

MYERS, LLOYD W., Growth and Development of Education in Franklin County, 
Kansas. Education, Master's, Fin. Emporia State. 

NEELAND, MARY A., The History of Elk County, Kansas. Master's, 1933. 
Wichita. 

NELSON, HARVEY F., Economic History of Chanute. History, Master's, Prog. 
Kansas. 

NELSON, R. K., Early History of Abilene. Prog. Nebraska. 

NULL, HORTENSE, The Life of Carry Nation. Master's, 1930. Wichita. 

OLJNGER, B., The Southwest as Treated in a Selected List of American Novels. 
English, Master's, 1930. Kansas. 

OLSON, MARIE A., Landmarks in Kansas History : The Story of Kansas as Re- 
vealed by Historic Places, Events, Struggles. Education, Master's, Fin. 
Emporia State. 

O'MEARA, EDITH, Relief Work in Kansas. History, Master's, 1928. Kansas. 

O'MEARA, MILDRED, The History of Onaga, Kansas. History, Master's, 1929. 
Kansas. 

OPPERMAN, KERMIT, Sen. W. A. Harris. History, Master's, 1939. Kansas. 

OSBORN, CHARLES S., A History of the Juvenile Court System in Kansas Con- 
sidering the Incidents of Delinquency. Master's, Fin. Pittsburg State. 

PARSONS, DAVID, The Removal of the Osage Indians to Oklahoma. Doctor's, 
Prog. Oklahoma. 

PERRINE, FRANCES E., The History of Butler County, Kansas. Master's, 1932. 
Wichita. 

PETERS, HENRY P., History and Development of Education Among the Men- 
nonites in Kansas. Fin. Bethel. 

PBTERSON, KATIE MARIE, History of the Scandinavian Immigration to Lincoln 
County, Kansas. Master's, Prog. Pittsburg State. 

POLLOCK, HARRY R., Juvenile Delinquency of Ellis County, Kansas, 1900-1937. 
Master's, 1938. Hays State. 

PRICE, ELIZABETH BERENICE, History of Strip Mining in Crawford County, Kan- 
sas. Master's, Prog. Pittsburg State. 

RAISCH, MARJORIE G., Victoria, A Story of a Western Kansas Town. Master's, 
1937. Hays State. 

RAPP, GENEVIEVE M., The Founding of Valley Center. Master's, 1931. Wichita. 

RAY, ROBERT JACKSON, The Cooperative Grangers of Johnson County, Kansas. 
Sociology, Master's, 1909. Kansas. 

RBED, ERNEST H., Oratory in the Territorial Period. Master's, Prog. North- 
western. 



182 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

RICH, EVERETT, William Allen White. Prog. Emporia State. 

RICHARDSON, HAYS, Marketing Kaw Valley Potatoes. Economics, Master's, 
1929. Kansas. 

RIGGS, HAZEL, Irrigation Policy, With Special Reference to the Kansas-Colorado 
Area. History, Doctor's, Prog. Kansas. 

ROSSEL, ORVAL J., The Chisholm Trail. Master's, 1931. Printed (Kansas His- 
torical Quarterly, v. V, February, 1936). Wichita. 

ROWLAND, R. W., Labor Decisions of the Kansas Supreme Court. Economics, 
Master's, 1927. Kansas. 

SCHMIDT, MARGARET J., Kansas and the Republican Party. Doctor's. Chicago. 

SCOFIELD, MARGARET, Why Kansas Grows Wheat. Economics, Master's, 1924. 
Kansas. 

SEELE, VIRGINIA D., History of the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad. 
Doctor's, Prog. Washington (St. Louis) . 

SEYMOUR, HARRIETT, The Certification of Teachers in Kansas, 1860-1930. Edu- 
cation, Master's, 1930. Kansas. 

SMITH, IDA L., A History of the National Group Settlements in Republic 
County, Kansas. Master's, 1933. Hays State. 

SMITH, LELAND G., The Early Negroes in Kansas. Master's, 1932. Wichita. 

SNYDER, ROWENA, and DOMENICO GAGLIARDO, The Cost of Administering Kan- 
sas Labor Laws. Economics. Kansas. 

STAATS, ELMER B., State Administrative Supervision and Control of Local Gov- 
ernment in Kansas. Political Science, Master's, 1936. Kansas. 

STANLEY, S. LINDLEY, A History of the Quaker Settlement at Hesper, Kansas. 
Master's, Fin. Pittsburg State. 

STONE, RUTH S., A History of the First Presbyterian Church of Wichita, Kan- 
sas. Master's, 1936. Wichita. 

TAFT, ROBERT, The Construction of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, 1864-1869: A 
Study Based on the Gardner Photographs and Contemporary Newspaper Ac- 
counts. Prog. Printed (Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. Ill, v. VI). 
Kansas. 

, The Frontier in Pictures; An Account of the Artists Who Visited and 

Recorded the Trans-Mississippi Frontier (Especially the Plains and Rocky 
Mountain Regions) Between 1805 and 1885. Prog. Kansas. 

-, Photography and the American Scene. Printed, 1938. Kansas. 



TALLMADGE, (Sister) M. R., Father Weikmann, Missionary of the Kansas 
Frontier. Master's, 1932. Wichita. 

TAYLOR, Burma, A Study of Direct Relief Welfare Cases in Graham County, 
Kansas. Master's, Prog. Hays State. 

TAYLOR, REBECCA W., Some Lost Towns of Western Kansas. Master's, 1935. 
Hays State. 

TAYLOR, TED ROLLEN, A History of Naturalization in Crawford County, Kan- 
sas. Master's, Fin. Pittsburg State. 

THEIS, CECELIA MARGARET, The History of the Development of Music Organiza- 
tions in Kansas. Master's, Prog. Pittsburg State. 

THOMPSON, CHARLES ROY, Origin and Development of the Kansas Benefit 
District Road Law. Political Science, Master's, 1928. Kansas. 

THOMPSON, GEORGE, Bat Masterson : The Dodge City Years. Master's, Prog. 
Hays State. 



RESEARCH PROJECTS IN KANSAS HISTORY 183 

THOMPSON, HENRY W., The Social Development of a Representative Kansas 

Town. Sociology, Master's, 1913. Kansas. 

THOMPSON, LEONARD W., Railroads of Kansas. Prog. Hays State. 
TOMLINSON, HELEN M., Methodist Indian Missions in Kansas, 1830-1864. Mas- 
ter's, Fin. Pittsburg State. 
TROUT, H. A., The History of the Appeal to Reason: A Study of the Radical 

Press. Master's, Fin. Pittsburg State. 
TYLER, CARL E., The History of the Founding and Growth of the Swedish 

Settlements in Allen County. Master's, Fin. Pittsburg State. 
UNDERBILL, HTJRSHEL, The History of Kansas Banking. Economics, Master's, 

1930. Kansas. 
UNRUH, OTTO, Schisms of the Russian Mennonites in Harvey, McPherson and 

Reno Counties, Kansas. Master's, Fin. Bethel. 
VOTH, J. J., Religious Education in the Mennonite Churches Comprising the 

Western District Conference. Fin. Bethel. 

WARD, EARL ROBERT, History of the Private Normal Schools in Kansas. Mas- 
ter's, Prog. Pittsburg State. 
WATERSON, CORWIN E., Operation of the Barnes High-School Law in Kansas. 

Education, Master's, 1929. Kansas. 
WEATHERBY, HERBERT W., Withdrawals From the State Banking System in 

Wyandotte County, Kansas, 1918-1934. Economics, Master's, 1934. Kansas. 
WELCH, G. M., The Border Wars in Southeast Kansas, 1856-1859. History, 

Master's, 1939. Kansas. 
WHEELER, MABEL, The Germanic Element in the Settlement and Development 

of Kansas. Sociology, Master's, 1920. Kansas. 
WHITE, NELLIE R., The History of Education in Wichita to 1900. Master's, 

1933. Wichita. 
WIEBE, DAVID V., Mennonite Institutions of Higher Learning in Kansas, With 

Special Reference to Their Educational Investments and Educational Con- 
tributions. Education, Master's, 1927. Kansas. 
WILHELMINA, (Sister) M., History of the Catholic Church in Kansas City. 

Fin. Creighton. 
WILLIAMS, GOMER, An Outline of the History of Music in Emporia, Kansas. 

Education, Master's, Fin. Emporia State. 
WITTER, JASPER C., A Study of 100 Relief Welfare Cases in Kingman County, 

Kansas. Master's, 1937. Hays State. 

WOODS, B. Z., A History of Fort Lamed, Kansas. Master's, 1932. Hays State. 
YORDY, ALVIN, Development of Compulsory Education in the State of Kansas. 

Education, Master's, 1933. Kansas. 



Recent Additions to the Library 

Compiled by HELEN M. MCFARLAND, Librarian 

IN ORDER that members of the Kansas State Historical Society 
and others interested in historical study may know the class of 
books we are receiving, a list is printed annually of the books acces- 
sioned in our specialized fields. 

These books come to us from three sources, purchase, gift and 
exchange, and fall into the following classes: books by Kansans 
and about Kansas ; books on the West, including explorations, over- 
land journeys and personal narratives; genealogy and local history; 
and books on the Indians of North America, United States history, 
biography and allied subjects which are classified under general. 

We receive regularly the publications of many historical societies 
by exchange, and subscribe to other historical and genealogical pub- 
lications which are needed in reference work. 

The following is a partial list of books which were added to the 
library from October 1, 1937, to September 30, 1938. Government 
and state official publications and some books of a general nature 
are not included. The total number of books accessioned appears 
in the report of the secretary in the February issue of the Quar- 
terly. 

KANSAS 

ASHLEY, GEORGE T., "// I Only Had Money . . ." Hollywood, Cal., Author 
[c!935]. 

BARNARD, AMBROSE, The Emporia City Directory, 1887-8. Emporia, 0. T. Ken- 
dall [pref. 1887]. 

BARROW, PHILIP SHERIDAN, Booklet of the Golden Anniversary of the First 
Baptist Church of Norton, Kansas. [Horton, The Horton Headlight, 1937.] 

BARROWS, HARLAN H., The Need for Conservancy Legislation [Address Before 
the Kansas State Legislature, February 12, 1937]. Topeka, State Planning 
Board, 1937. Mimeographed. 

BARTLING, EDWARD D., John Henry Kagy and the Old Log Cabin Home. 
Nebraska City, Neb. [The Press Printing Company], c!938. 

BASS, N. WOOD, Origin of the Shoestring Sands of Greenwood and Butler Coun- 
ties, Kansas. [Topeka, Kansas State Printing Plant, 1937.] (Kansas Geo- 
logical Survey, Bulletin, No. 23.) 

[BiBY, WILLIAM A.], When the Reliefers Took Rome. [Topeka, Mid- West 
Distributing Company, 1938.] 

BRISTOW, J. T., The Overland Trail, Old Military Road and Pony Express 

(184) 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 185 

Route in Its Relation to Atchison, Brown and Nemaha Counties in the 

60's and 60' s. Horton, Charles H. Browne, 1937. 
BROOKS, STANLEY TRUMAN, Above the Smoke. Philadelphia, Dorrance and 

Company [c!937]. 
BROWN, MRS. MARY MAGDELBNA (HODSON), Snowball, the True Adventures oj 

a Real Cat . . . Atchison, c!937. 
BURNETT, WILLIAM RILEY, The Dark Command, a Kansas Iliad. New York, 

Alfred A. Knopf, 1938. 
CAREY, HENRY L., ed. and pub., The Thrilling Story of Famous Boot Hill and 

Modern Dodge City. Dodge City, Carey, 1937. 
CARL, (Sister) HIDALITA, Kansas History As Seen in the Works of Margaret 

Hill McCarter. Seneca, The Courier-Tribune Press, 1938. 
CARL, (Sister) MARY THARSILLA, A Survey of Kansas Poetry. Seneca, The 

Courier-Tribune Press, 1938. 

CAUTHORN, RALPH M., Ingalls of Kansas. No impr. 
CHERRYVALE, METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, LADIES, eds., Favorite Quotations 

of Cherryvale People. [Cherryvale, Republican Print] n. d. 
CHRYSLER, WALTER PERCY, and BOYDEN SPARKES, Life of an American Work- 
man. Philadelphia, The Curtis Publishing Company, 1938. 
CODY, WILLIAM FREDERICK, The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as 

Buffalo Bill; the Famous Hunter, Scout and Guide; An Autobiography. 

Hartford, Conn., Frank E. Bliss [c!879]. 
[CURRY, MRS. BELLE S.], Parsons, Labette County, Kansas; Years From 1869 

to 1895; Story of "The Benders." [Parsons, Bell Bookcraft Shop] n. d. 
DAUGHTERS OP THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, Kansas, History of the Kansas 

Daughters of the American Revolution, 1894-1938. Published by the Kansas 

Daughters of the American Revolution, 1938. 
, Kansas State Directory, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1938. 

N.p., 1938. 
, Proceedings of the Thirty-Ninth Annual State Conference, Wichita, 

Kansas, March 18, 19 and 20, 1937. No impr. 
DENHAM, ROBERT S., comp., The Emporia City Directory, 1890-91. Emporia, 

Ezra Lamborn [pref. 1890]. 
DICK, EVERETT NEWFON, The Sod-House Frontier, 1854-1890; a Social History 

of the Northern Plains From the Creation of Kansas & Nebraska to the Ad- 
mission of the Dakotas. New York, D. Appleton-Century Company, 1937. 
DICKERSON, JEFFERSON DAVIS, We're All Human at That. No impr. 
D'NovA, Folly's Facets. St. Joseph, Mo., Lawlor Printing Company [c!934]. 
DOAN, EDWARD N., Newspaper Libel in Kansas. Lawrence, University of Kan- 
sas, Department of Journalism, 1936. 
DOLMAN, HELEN, and GEORGE WILLARD FRASIER, The Scientific Living Series. 

Syracuse, The L. W. Singer Company, c!937-c!938. 5 Vols. 
DON-CARLOS, MRS. LOUISA COOKE, Dear Things and Queer Things. Lawrence, 

The World Company, 1934. 
DRISCOLL, CHARLES B., Driscoll's Book oj Pirates. Philadelphia, David McKay 

Company [c!934], 
DWYER, HAROLD, Livestock Lyrics and Other Verse. [Tipton, The Tipton 

Times Press, c!937.] 



186 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

EARHART, AMELIA, Last Flight. New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company 
[c!937L 

ELIAS, MAXIM K., Geology of Rawlins and Decatur Counties With Special Ref- 
erence to Water Resources. [Topeka, Myers and Company] 1937. (Kansas 
Geological Survey, Mineral Resources Circular, No. 7.) Planographed. 

ELLENBECKER, JOHN G., The Indian Raid on the Upper Little Blue in Southern 
Nebraska During the Sixties. [Beatrice, Neb., Beatrice Printing Company, 
1937.] 

, The Jayhawkers of Death Valley. Marysville, 1938. 

EMERSON, LUCIEN WALDO, Cimarron Bend. New York, The Macaulay Com- 
pany [c!936L 

FARNHAM, MRS. MA-FEEL (Hows), Ex-Love. New York, Dodd, Mead & Com- 
pany, 1937. 

FEAR, JOHN CAREY, Recollections of a Country Doctor. Lyndon, 0. J. Rose, 
1938. 

FEHR, JOSEPH ANTHONY, Arlington. [Wichita, The Wichita Eagle Press, 
c!937.] 

FERNALD, MRS. HELEN (CLARK), Smoke Blows West. New York, Longmans, 
Green and Company, 1937. 

FISHER, MRS. DOROTHEA (CANFIELD), Fables for Parents. New York, Harcourt, 
Brace and Company [c!937]. 

FREE MASONS, ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED, Wyandotte Lodge, By-laws of Wyan- 
dotte Lodge No. 3, . . . Adopted by the Lodge, January 2d, A. L., 
6869 . . . Wyandotte, Gazette Book and Job Printing Office, 1859. 

FRENCH, CHAUNCEY DEL, Railroadman. New York, The Macmillan Company, 
1938. 

GANN, WALTER, The Trail Boss. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1937. 

GARRETSON, MARTIN S., The American Bison, the Story of Its Extermination as 
a Wild Species and Its Restoration Under Federal Protection. New York, 
New York Zoological Society [c!938] . 

GATES, FRANK CALEB, Grasses in Kansas. Topeka, Kansas State Printing Plant, 
1937. (Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture for the Quarter 
Ending December, 1936.) 

GILSON, MRS. AMELIA MAELZER, Permanent Peace and True Prosperity; or the 
Cause and Cure for Panic and War. [Leon, Kan., The Leon News Print. 
c!937.] 

GORE, CHALLISS, The Ghost in the Balance Sheet. New York, Scientific Press, 
Inc. [c!935L 

GOWENLOCK, THOMAS RUSSELL, Soldiers of Darkness. Garden City, N. Y., 
Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1937. 

GRAVES, WILLIAM WHITES, History of Neosho County Newspapers, Occasion oj 
the 70th Anniversary of the St. Paul Journal, August 4, 1938. St. Paul, The 
St. Paul Journal, 1938. 

, and others, History of the Kickapoo Mission and Parish, the First Cath- 
olic Church in Kansas. St. Paul, The Journal Press, 1938. (Graves His- 
torical Series, No. 7.) 

, The Legend of Greenbush; the Story of a Pioneer Country Church. St. 

Paul, The Journal Press, c!937. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 187 

GRAY, FANNIE SMITH, Missionary Plays and Pageants. Kansas City, Mo., 
Western Baptist Publishing Company, 1936. 

GRESHAM, HUGH C., The Story of Major David McKee, Founder of the Anti- 
Horse Thief Association, Together With the History of the Anti-Horse Thief 
Association and the Anti-Thief Association. Cheney, Author, 1937. 

GUILD, FREDERICK HOWLAND, The Development of the Legislative Council Idea. 
Topeka, Kansas Legislative Council, 1938. (Publication, No. 71.) 

HALL, MRS. CARRIE A., ... From Hoopskirts to Nudity. Caldwell, Idaho, 
The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1938. 

HARRISON, MRS. MARY (BENNETT), Thine Shall Be the Glory: a Dramatic 
Adaptation From the Story "He Is Here," by Charles M. Sheldon. Boston 
[Walter H. Baker Company, c!937]. 

HASELTINE, MRS. BLANCHE (SAGE), The Poems of Blanche Sage Haseltine. 
Kansas City, Mo., Midwest Poetry Publishers [c!936]. 

HEINZ, GERARD, St. Benedict's Parish, Atchison, Kansas: an Historical Sketch. 
Atchison, Abbey Student Press, St. Benedict's College, 1908. 

HERTZLER, ARTHUR EMANUEL, The Horse and Buggy Doctor. New York, 
Harper and Brothers, 1938. 

HILL, K. ETHEL, Evylena Nunn Miller's Travel Tree; Poems by Beulah May. 
Santa Ana, Cal., Fine Arts Press, 1933. 

HILL, W. A., Rome, the Predecessor of Hays. No impr. 

HOLLAND, Avis, Biography Daniel Read Anthony, the Fearless Knight of Kan- 
sas Journalism . . . Typed. 

HONIG, L. O., comp., Origin of Kansas Place-Names. Typed. 

HOSTERMAN, A. D., and J. N. GARVER, The Emporia City Directory for 1885-86 
. . . Sioux City, Iowa, Tribune Print., 1884. 

HUDSON, BEN SAM, Company E, 137th Infantry, A. E. F., 1917-1919. No impr. 

HUESTON, ETHEL, Calamity Jane of Deadwood Gulch. Indianapolis, The 
Bobbs-Merrill Company [c!937]. 

HUNT, ELVID, History of Fort Leavenworth, 1827-1937. 2d ed. Brought up to 
date by Walter E. Lorence . . . Fort Leavenworth, The Command and 
General Staff School Press, 1937. 

IRVINE, HOUSTON, The Kiowa Trail; Western Story. New York, Chelsea House 
[cl935]. 

JOHNSON, MARTIN, Over African Jungles. New York, Harcourt, Brace and 
Company [c!935]. 

JONES, PAUL A., Coronado and Quivira. [Lyons, The Lyons Publishing Com- 
pany, cl937.] 

KANSAS BANKERS ASSOCIATION, Bank Management Commission, 1938 Report 
. . . Based Upon a Survey of Operating Results of 355 Kansas Banks for 
the Year 1937. No impr. 

KANSAS BOARD OF SOCIAL WELFARE, Division of Public Relations, Pertinent 
Facts Concerning Social Welfare in Kansas . . . 1937. Mimeographed. 

, Division of Research and Statistics, Preliminary Observations on 

Social Welfare Activities; a Report to the Kansas Legislative Council . . . 
(Kansas Legislative Council, Publication, No. 63, November, 1937.) Mimeo- 
graphed. 

KANSAS LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, Research Department, Concentration of State 
Tax Administration; Decentralized System in Kansas and Possibilities of 



188 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Reorganization as Shown by Concentrated Systems in Selected States. 
Preliminary Report. (Publication, No. 72, May, 1938.) Mimeographed. 
Cost oj Government in Kansas: Total and Per Capita Cost State 



and Local, Fiscal Years, 1929-1927. (Publication, No. 64, November, 1937.) 
Mimeographed. 

-, Finances oj State Institutions, Preliminary Summary Tables. Institu- 



tional Survey Report, No. 5. (Publication, No. 62, November, 1937.) 

Mimeographed. 
, Financial Report oj Kansas Social Welfare Activities, April 28 to 

December 31, 1937. (Publication, No. 67, February, 1938.) Mimeographed. 
, Industries at the Kansas State Penitentiary, Fiscal Years 1911-1937. 



Institutional Survey Report, No. 6. (Publication, No. 73, May, 1938.) 
M imeographed . 

, Kansas Retail Sales Tax Fund . . . , (Publication, No. 68, Feb- 
ruary, 1938.) Mimeographed. 

-, Possible Department of Business Regulation for Kansas. Preliminary 



Report. (Publication, No. 79, August, 1938.) Mimeographed. 

, Possible Department of Revenue for Kansas. Preliminary Report. 

(Publication, No. 80, August, 1938.) Mimeographed. 

, Prison Labor Problem in Kansas; a Sur.vey by the Prison Industries 

Reorganization Administration ... a Summary. (Publication, No. 76, 
August 31, 1938.) Mimeographed. 

i, Public Assistance and Relief Bonds in Kansas, January 1, 1938, Through 

December 31, 1937. (Publication, No. 69, February, 1938.) Mimeographed. 
, Public Assistance and Relief Bonds in Kansas, January 1, 1938, Through 



April 30, 1938. (Publication, No. 74, May, 1938.) Mimeographed. 

, Salary Schedules for County Officers in Kansas . . . Preliminary 

Report. (Publication, No. 77, August, 1938.) Mimeographed. 

, Social Welfare Costs in 1938, Prepared in Cooperation With Division 

oj Research and Statistics, State Board of Social Welfare. (Publication, 
No. 70, February, 1938.) Mimeographed. 

, Standardization of High School Tuition Laws. Preliminary Report 

. . . (Publication, No. 61, November, 1937.) Mimeographed. 

-, State Administrative Reorganization; Summary oj Departmental Re- 



organization. Preliminary Report . . . (Publication, No. 65, Novem- 
ber, 1937.) Mimeographed. 

, State Financial Administration in Kansas. Preliminary Report. (Publi- 
cation, No. 81, August, 1938.) Mimeographed. 

, State-Wide Barnes High School Law; Special Report to Council Com- 
mittee on Education. (Publication, No. 75, May 23, 1938.) Mimeographed. 

, Summary History of Kansas Finance . . . Research Report. (Publi- 



cation, No. 60, October, 1937.) Mimeographed. 

, Summary History of Kansas Finance . . . Research Report. (Pub- 
lication, No. 60, October, 1937; Reprint, December, 1937.) Mimeographed. 

Kansas Magazine, 1938. Manhattan, Kansas Magazine Publishing Association, 
c!938. 

KANSAS STATE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, Kansas Year Book, 1937-1938. [Topeka, 
The Capper Printing Company, c!938.] 

KANSAS STATE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND APPLIED SCIENCE, Experiment Sta- 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 189 

tion, and KANSAS STATE PLANNING BOARD, Agricultural Resources of Kansas. 
Manhattan [Kansas State College], 1937. (Bulletin, Vol. 21, No. 10.) 

KANSAS STATE PLANNING BOARD, Water Resources of Kansas. (Kansas Legisla- 
tive Council, Publication, No. 66, November, 1937.) 

KANSAS SUPREME COURT, In Supreme Court of Kansas, October 4, 1987, in 
Memory of William Agnew Johnston. [Topeka, Kansas State Printing Plant, 
1937.] 

KANSAS UNIVERSITY, Memorial Services in Commemoration of Raphael Dorman 
(fLeary, Fraser Theater, University of Kansas, May 3, 1936. No impr. 

LEE, ALFRED McCLUNG, The Daily Newspaper in America; the Evolution of a 
Social Instrument. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1937. 

LERRIGO, CHARLES HENRY, A Son of John Brown. New York, Thomas Nelson 
and Sons, 1937. 

LOMAX, JOHN A., and ALAN LOMAX, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, 
rev. and enl. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1938. 

LYON COUNTY CHAPTER OF THE KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, First Annual 
Meeting, Emporia, Kansas, January 29, 1938 . . . No impr. 

McDowELL, MRS. MARGARET (DEAN), In the Land of Jonah and His Gourd; 
Home Letters of Margaret Dean McDowell. No impr. 

McKERNAN, THOMAS ALOYSIUS, The Poet Priest of Kansas, Father Thomas 
Aloysius McKernan, by W. W. Graves. St. Paul, The Journal Press, c!937 

McPherson County (Kansas) Farm Directory, January, 1931. [Topeka, Mid- 
west Directory Publishing Company.] 

MADDUX, RACHEL, Turnip's Blood (in The Flying Yorkshireman, Novellas). 
New York, Harper and Brothers, 1938 (pp. 175-220). 

MARKHAM, WILLIAM COLFAX, Along the Highway of Life. Washington, D. C., 
Ransdell Inc. [c!934]. 

MAY, BEULAH, Buccaneer's Gold, a Selection From the Poems of Beulah May; 
With Drawings in Printers Ink by the Author. Santa Ana, Cal., The Fine 
Arts Press, 1935. 

, and FILOMINA SHAFER, Cuentos de California. Santa Ana, Cal., Dennis 

Printers, 1937. 

, and others, Daggers in a Star. New York, Henry Harrison [c!930L 

MENNINGER, KARL AUGUSTUS, The Human Mind. 2d ed., corrected, enlarged 
and rewritten. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1937. 

, Man Against Himself. New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company 

[c!938L 

MENNINGER, WILLIAM C., Psychiatric Hospital Therapy Designed to Meet Un- 
conscious Needs. (Reprinted from the American Journal of Psychiatry, 
September, 1936.) 

, Therapeutic Methods in a Psychiatric Hospital. (Reprinted from the 

Journal of the Amencan Medical Association, August 13, 1932.) 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, WOMAN'S FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY, To- 
peka Branch, Report, 1937. No impr. 

MILLS, ENOS ABIJAH, The Story of Scotch. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Com- 
pany [1935]. 

, Waiting in the Wilderness. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1932. 

MOEDER, JOHN M., Early Catholicity in Kansas and History of the Diocese of 
Wichita. Wichita, Diocesan Chancery Office, c!937. 



190 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

MONROE, DAY, and others, Food Buying and Our Markets. New Edition Com- 
pletely Revised and Enlarged. New York, M. Barrows and Company, 1938. 

MOOTZ, HERMAN EDWIN, "Pawnee Bill," a Romance of Oklahoma. Los Angeles-, 
Excelsior Publishing Company [c!928L 

NETTELS, CURTIS PUTNAM, The Roots of American Civilization, a History of 
American Colonial Life. New York, F. S. Crofts and Company, 1938. 

NEWELL, NORMAN D., Late Paleozoic Pelecypods, Pectinacea. [Topeka, Kan- 
sas State Printing Plant, 1937.] (State Geological Survey of Kansas, Vol. 
10.) 

NYSTROM, WENDELL C., The Selection and Provision of Textbooks; With Special 
Reference to Kansas. [Lawrence] Author [c!937]. 

Order for the Consecration of the Reverend Goodrich Robert Fenner as Bishop 
Coadjutor of the Diocese of Kansas in Grace Cathedral, Topeka, Kansas, on 
St. Michael and All Angels Day, Wednesday, September 29th, A. D. 1937. 
No impr. 

OWEN, JENNIE SMALL, The Story of "Ma" Bur dick . . . No impr. 

PARKER, GEORGE MARTIN NATHANIEL, Foot Prints From the City to the Farm. 
Newton, The Kansan Printing Company [c!914]. 

PATTON, MRS. ELLEN ( YOUNG), Mignonette . . . Atchison [Press of Haskell 
and Son], 1883. 

PEARSON, PETER HENRY, Prairie Vikings. East Orange, N. J., Karl J. Olson 
[c!927]. 

PELZEL, HELENE, Nanka of Old Bohemia. Chicago, Albert Whitman and Com- 
pany, 1937. 

PLUMMER, NORMAN, . . . Rock Wool Resources of Kansas, Appendix. 1937. 
(Kansas Geological Survey, Mineral Resources Circular, No. 8.) 

Polk's Arkansas City (Cowley County, Kan.} Directory, 1936. Kansas City, 
Mo., R. L. Polk & Company, c!936. 

Polk's Cofjeyvilk (Montgomery County, Kan.) City Directory, 1936. Kansas 
City, Mo., R. L. Polk & Company, c!935. 

Polk's El Dorado (Butler County, Kan.) City Directory, 19S5. Kansas City, 
Mo., R. L. Polk & Company, c!934. 

Polk's Independence (Montgomery County, Kan.) City Directory, 1985. Kan- 
sas City, Mo., R. L. Polk & Company, c!935. 

Polk's Wichita (Kansas) City Directory, 1936. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk 
& Company, c!936. 

Polk's Wichita (Kansas) City Directory, 1937. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk 
& Company, c!937. 

PORTER, KENNETH WIGGINS, The Jacksons and the Lees: Two Generations of 
Massachusetts Merchants, 1765-1844- Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 
1937. 2Vols. 

, Relations Between Negroes and Indians Within the Present Limits of 

the United States. Washington, D. O., The Association for the Study of 
Negro Life and History, Inc., n. d. 

PROWANT, LEONARD ALLEN, Stanzas for Kansas and Christ Came at Christmas. 
Wichita, Privately Printed, 1937. 

QUAYLE, WILLIAM ALFRED, The Blessed Life, Being a Series of Meditations on 
Manhood and Womanhood in Christ. New York, Hodder and Stoughton 
[cl901]. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 191 

, The Poet's Poet and Other Essays. Cincinnati, Curts & Jennings, 1897. 

RAINEY, GEORGE, No Man's Land; the Historic Story of a Landed Orphan. 
[Guthrie, Okla., Cooperative Publishing Company] c!937. 

REDMOND, JOHN, Rambling Around in Old Mexico, via Oklahoma and Texas, 
With the National Editorial Association . . . Burlington, Kan. [Red- 
mond's Printery], 1924. 

ROGERS, CHARLES ELKINS, Journalistic Vocations . . . 2d ed. New York, D. 
Appleton-Century Company [c!937]. 

SCARBERRY, ALMA Sioux, Thou Shalt Not Love. New York, Grosset & Dunlap, 
Inc. [cl937]. 

SHELDON, CHARLES MONROE, In His Steps To-Day . . . New York, Fleming 
H. Revell Company [c!921]. 

SNELL, MRS. JESSIE KENNEDY, Lore of the Great Plains. [Colby, Kan., Colby 
Free Press-Tribune, 1937.] 

SNOW, FLORENCE LYDIA, Sincerely Yours. Muscatine, Iowa, The Prairie Press, 
1937. 

[SPRAGUB, AMY WEAVER, and others], The Story of a Clan. Privately Printed, 
1938. 

STAACK, J. G., Spirit Leveling in Kansas, 1896-1935. Washington, United States 
Government Printing Office, 1938. (U. S. Geological Survey, Bulletin, No. 
889.) 

STARRETT, PAUL, Changing the Skyline, an Autobiography. New York, Whit- 
tlesey House [c!938]. 

STEWART, DONALD W., The Universal Obligation and Other Addresses. Inde- 
pendence [1928]. 

STILL, ANDREW TAYLOR, Sage Sayings of Still, Selected From the Writings of Dr. 
A. T. Still, Founder of Osteopathy ... Los Angeles, Wetzel Publishing 
Company, Inc. [c!935]. 

STROUD, ALBERT, Ancient Myths, Modern Rhymes, and Other Stories of Other 
Times. Fredonia, Kennedy Printing Company, 1906. 

TAYLOR, THOMAS ULVAN, The Chisholm Trail and Other Routes. San Antonio, 
The Naylor Company, 1936. 

THOMAS, DOROTHY, The Home Place. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1936. 

THORP, N. HOWARD, Songs of the Cowboys. Boston, Hough ton Mifflin Com- 
pany [c!908, 1921]. 

THURMAN, HARRIETT, Forever Yours. Philadelphia, Macrae-Smith Company, 
1938. 

TOPEKA DAILY CAPITAL, 1937-1938 Voluntary Classified Business and Professional 
Directory. [Topeka, The Topeka Daily Capital, 1938.] 

TOPEKA, ST. JOHN'S EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, [Dedication Service] July 
the Twenty-Fourth in the Year of Our Lord Nineteen Hundred and Thirty- 
Eight. No impr. 

TOPEKA, UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, Membership Roll . . . July 1, 1938. 
{Topeka] The United Presbyterian Press [1938]. 

TRUITT, J. W., comp. and pub., General City Directory of Emporia, Kansas, 
1888. Emporia, G. H. Rowland and Company, 1883. 

VAUGHN, MILES WALTER, Covering the Far East. New York, Covici Friede 
[c!936]. 



192 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

VESTAL, STANLEY, Revolt on the Border. Boston, Hough ton Mifflin Company, 

1938. 

WARKENTIN, ABRAHAM, ed., Who's Who Among the Mennonites, 1937. [New- 
ton, Bethel College, 1937.] 
WEAVER, FLAVE J., Six Years in Bondage and Freedom at Last ; a Tale oj Prison 

Jjije. No impr. 
WERLINO, J. W., History oj the Kansas District, Ev. Lutheran Synod oj Missouri, 

Ohio, and Other States . . . Golden Anniversary, 1888-1938. [Newton, 

Herald Publishing Company, 1938.] 

WHITE, HAYS B., "Swinrazzem" and Other Poems. N. p., 1937. 
WHITE, WILLIAM LINDSAY, What People Said. New York, The Viking Press, 

1938. 
WHITTEMORE, MARGARET, Sketchbook of Kansas Landmarks. [2d. ed. revised.] 

Topeka, The College Press [c!937]. 
WISCONSIN UNION, The Wisconsin Union Presents an Exhibition oj Work by 

John Steuart Curry, September 24 to October 17, Madison, Wisconsin. N. 

p., c!937. 
YUST, WILLIAM FREDERICK, Fred Yust, Kansas Pioneer; a Biographical Sketch. 

Winter Park, Florida, The College Press, 1937. 

THE WEST 

BERKELEY, GRANTLEY F., The English Sportsman in the Western Prairies. Lon- 
don, Hurst and Blackett, 1861. 

BIEBER, RALPH P., ed., Southern Trails to California in 1849. Glendale, Cal., 
The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1937. (Southwest Historical Series, Vol. 5.) 

CLARK, WILLIAM, Westward With Dragoons; the Journal of William Clark on 
His Expedition to Establish Fort Osage, August 25 to September 22, 1808 
. . . Fulton, Mo., The Ovid Bell Press, Inc., 1937. 

ELLSWORTH, HENRY LEAVITT, Washington Irving on the Prairie; or a Narrative 
of a Tour of the Southwest in the Year 1832. New York, American Book 
Company, 1937. 

FRAZER, MARIE MILLIGAN, On the Old Trails in Wyoming . . . Laramie, 
Wyoming State School Supply, 1928. 

FURLONG, CHARLES WELLINGTON, Let 'Er Buck, a Story of the Passing of the Old 
West. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1927. 

GARRARD, LEWIS HECTOR, Wah-to-yah and the Taos Trail. Glendale, Cal., The 
Arthur H. Clark Company, 1938. (Southwest Historical Series, Vol. 6.) 

GATES, PAUL WALLACE, The Illinois Central Railroad and Its Colonization Work. 
Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1934. (Harvard Economic Studies, 
Vol. 42.) 

GREER, JAMES K., Bois D'Arc to Barb'd Wire; Ken Gary: Southwestern Fron- 
tier Born. Dallas, Dealey and Lowe, 1936. 

HAFEN, LE ROY R., Fort Laramie and the Pageant of the West, 1834-1890. 
Glendale, Cal., The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1938. 

HALLENBECK, CLEVE, and JUANITA H. WILLIAMS, Legends of the Spanish South- 
west. Glendale, Cal., Arthur H. Clark Company, 1938. 

HILL, MRS. ALICE (POLK), Tales oj the Colorado Pioneers. Denver, Pierson & 
Gardner, 1884. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 193 

HOWE, MAURICE, ed., The Great West: Interviews. (State University of 
Montana, Sources of Northwest History, No. 4.) 

HULBBRT, ARCHER BUTLER, and DOROTHY PRINTUP HULBERT, Marcus Whitman, 
Crusader. Part Two, 1839 to 1843. [Colorado Springs] The Stewart Com- 
mission of Colorado College and [Denver] The Denver Public Library 
[cl938]. 

INGERSOLL, CHESTER, Overland to California in 1847 ; Letters Written En Route 
to California, West From Independence, Missouri, to the Editor of the Joliet 
Signal. Edited, With an Introductory Note by Douglas C. McMurtrie. 
Chicago, Black Cat Press, 1937. 

KYNER, JAMES HENRY, End of Track, as Told to Hawthorne Daniel. Caldwell, 
Idaho, The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1937. 

LEE, JOHN DOYLE, Journals of John D. Lee, 1846-4? and 1859. Edited by 
Charles Kelly. Salt Lake City, Western Printing Company, 1938. 

MEREDITH, MRS. EMILY R., Bannack and Gallatin City in 1862-1863; a Letter 
by Mrs. Emily R. Meredith. Edited by Clyde McLemore. (State Univer- 
sity of Montana, Sources of Northwest History, No. 24.) 

O'KEEFB, RUFE, Cowboy Life . . . San Antonio, The Naylor Company, 
1936. 

OLIPHANT, LAURENCE, Minnesota and the Far West. Edinburgh, William 
Blackwood and Sons, 1855. 

PARTOLL, ALBERT J., ed., Mengarini's Narrative of the Rockies; Memoirs of Old 
Oregon, 1841-1850, and St. Mary's Mission. (State University of Montana, 
Sources of Northwest History, No. 25.) 

PITZER, HENRY LITTLETON, Three Frontiers; Memories, and a Portrait of Henry 
Littleton Pitzer as Recorded by His Son Robert Claiborne Pitzer. Musca- 
tine, Iowa, The Prairie Press, 1938. 

POE, MRS. SOPHIE (ALBERDING), . . . Buckboard Days. Caldwell, Idaho, 
The Caxton Printers, 1936. 

QUIETT, GLENN CHESNEY, Pay Dirt, a Panorama of American Gold-Rushes. 
New York, D. Appleton-Century Company, Inc., 1936. 

SMYTHE, WILLIAM ELLSWORTH, The Conquest of Arid America (New and rev. 
ed.) New York, The Macmillan Company, 1905. 

WAGNER, HENRY RAUP, Henry R. Wagner's the Plains and the Rockies, a Bibli- 
ography of Original Narratives of Travel and Adventure, 1800-1865. Revised 
and Extended by Charles L. Camp. San Francisco, Grabhorn Press, 1937. 

, The Spanish Southwest, 1542-1794, an Annotated Bibliography. Al- 
buquerque, The Quivira Society, 1937. 2 Vols. (Quivira Society, Publica- 
tions, Vol. 7.) 

WALGAMOTT, CHARLES SHIRLEY, A Series of Historical Sketches in Early Days in 
Idaho: Six Decades Back. Illustrated by R. H. Hall. Caldwell, Idaho, The 
Caxton Printers, 1936. 

WINTHER, OSCAR OSBURN, Express and Stagecoach Days in California . \ . 
Stanford University, Stanford University Press [c!936]. 

WISTAR, ISAAC JONES, Autobiography of Isaac Jones Wistar, 1827-1905; Half a 
Century in War and Peace. Philadelphia, The Wistar Institute of Anatomy 
and Biology, 1937. 

138551 



194 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

WURZBACH, EMIL FRIEDRICH, Life and Memoirs of Emit Frederick Wurzbach, 
to Which Is Appended Some Papers of John Meusebach. San Antonio, 
Yanaguana Society, 1937. 

GENEALOGY AND LOCAL HISTORY 

AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, Proceedings at the Annual Meeting Held in 
Worcester, October 21, 1936. Worcester, Society, 1937. 

, Proceedings at the Semi-Annual Meeting Held in Boston April 21, 1937 . 

Worcester, Society, 1937. 

AMERICAN CLAN GREGOR SOCIETY, Year Books Containing the Proceedings of the 
Annual Gatherings 26th, and 28th, 1935, 1937. Richmond, Va., American 
Clan Gregor Society [c!936, c!938L 2 Vols. 

ARMSTRONG, ZELLA, comp., Twenty-jour Hundred Tennessee Pensioners; Revo- 
lution War of 1812. Chattanooga, The Lookout Publishing Company 
[c!937L 

BERKS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, PA., Transactions, Vol. 3, Embracing Papers 
Contributed to the Society, 1910-1916. Reading, Pa., 1923. 

Biographical Review, Vol. 23, Containing Life Sketches of Leading Citizens of 
Hillsboro and Cheshire Counties, New Hampshire. Boston, Biographical Re- 
view Publishing Company, 1897. 

BLISH, JAMES KNOX, Genealogy of the Blish Family in America, 1637-1905. 
Kewanee, 111. [H. L. Throop, Printer], 1905. 

BODDIE, JOHN BENNETT, Seventeenth Century Isle of Wight County, Virginia 
. . . Chicago, Chicago Law Printing Company [c!938]. 

BOSTONIAN SOCIETY, Proceedings and Report of the Annual Meeting, January 
18, 1938. Boston, Published by Order of the Society, 1938. 

BREMEN [Onio] CENTENNIAL COMMISSION, Bremen, 1834-1934- [Bremen, Fair- 
field Printing Company, 1934.] 

Brueggerhoff's Shreveport (Caddo Parish, La.) City Directory, 1936. Dallas, 
Tex., R. L. Polk & Company, c!936. 

BRYAN, WILLIAM SMITH, and ROBERT ROSE, A History of the Pioneer Families 
of Missouri, With Numerous Sketches, Anecdotes, Adventures, etc., Relating 
to Early Days in Missouri ... St. Louis, Bryan, Brand & Company, 
1876. Reprint. 

BUCKS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Papers Read Before the Society, and Other 
Historical Papers. Vol. 7. [Allentown, Pa., Press of Berkemeyer-Keck Com- 
pany, c!937.] 

CATCHINGS, MRS. FERMINE (BAIRD), Baird and Beard Families ; a Genealogical, 
Biographical and Historical Collection of Data. Nashville, Baird-Ward 
[cl918L 

CHAMBERLAYNE, C. G., ed., The Vestry Book and Register of St. Peter's Parish, 
New Kent and James City Counties, Virginia, 1684-1786. Richmond, The 
Library Board, 1937. 

CHERRY, MRS. MARJORIE (LooMis), Blockhouses and Military Posts of the Fire- 
lands. [Shippensburg, Pa.] 1934. 

COLEMAN, MRS. MARY O. DERRICK, Shields Genealogy. No impr. 

COULTRAP, MCKENDREE WHiTEFiELD, comp., Data Concerning the Coultrap- 
Cramblit Lineage, Including Eichors, Randals, Simms and Their Descendants 
... Ann Arbor, Edwards Brothers, Inc., 1938. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 195 

CRAIG, FRANK H., Genealogy of the Fellows-Craig and Allied Families From 
1619 to 1919. Kewanee, 111., Kewanee Printing & Publishing Company, 1919. 

CURRIER, JOHN McNAB, Genealogy of David Annis of Hopkinton, and Bath, 
New Hampshire, His Ancestors and Descendants. Newport, Vt. [W. B. 
Bullock, Printer], 1909. 

DAILEY, MRS. ORVILLE D., comp., The Official Roster of the Soldiers of the_ 
American Revolution Who Lived in the State of Ohio. Vol. 2. Published 
by the State Society, Daughters of the American Revolution of Ohio [1938]. 

DAUGHTERS OP FOUNDERS AND PATRIOTS OF AMERICA, L/ineage Book, Vol. 25, 1937. 
[West Somerville, Mass., Somerville Printing Company, c!937.] 

DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, Lineage Book, Vols. 157-162. Wash- 
ington, D. C. [Press of Judd & Detweiler], 1937-1938. 

DAVIS, MARY F. SMYTH, History of Dunklin County, Mo., 1845-1895 ... St. 
Louis, Nixon-Jones Printing Company, 1896. 

DAVIS, WALTER GOODWIN, The Ancestry of Lieut. Amos Towne, 1737-1793, of 
Arundel (Kennebunkport) Maine. Portland, The Southworth Press, 1927. 

DOANE, GILBERT HARRY, Searching for Your Ancestors; the Why and How of 
Genealogy. New York, Whittlesey House [c!937]. 

DODGE, PRENTISS CUTLER, comp. and ed., Encyclopedia, Vermont Biography; a 
Series of Authentic Biographical Sketches of the Representative Men of 
Vermont and Sons of Vermont in Other States. Burlington, Vt., Ullery 
Publishing Company, 1912. 

ELLIOT, ALMER JUDSON, The Berkshire, Vermont, Chaffees and Their Descend- 
ants, 1801-1911. [Richford, Vt., The Gilpin Printing Company, 1911.] 

FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT, UTAH, Origin of Utah Place Names. Salt Lake City, 
June, 1938. Mimeographed. 

FERGUSON, MRS. ADAH REDDEN, comp., Marriage Records of Callaway County, 
Missouri,, 1821-1871. Fulton, Mo. [c!936L Photoprinted. 

FIELD, DAVID DUDLEY, The Genealogy of the Brainerd Family in the United 
States, With Numerous Sketches of Individuals. New York, John F. Trow, 
1857. 

FITCH, ROSCOE CONKLING, History of the Fitch Family, A. D., 1400-1980 . . . 
Published Privately by the Fitch Family. [Haverhill, Mass., Record Pub- 
lishing Company, 1930.] 2 Vols. 

FLICKINGER, ROBERT ELLIOTT, The Flickinger Family History, Including the 
Flickinger Families in the United States of America . . . Des Moines, 
Success Composition and Printing Company, 1927. 

FOREMAN, GRANT, The Oklahoma Historical Society. No impr. [1938.] 

FORNEY, JOHN KELLER, Sketches and Genealogy of the Forney Family, From 
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Abilene, Kan., the Reflector Printing 
Company, 1926. 

Fort Worth (Texas) City Directory, 1936-37. Dallas, Morrison & Fourmy Di- 
rectory Company, c!937. 

FORTTER, JAMES J. A., ed., General Ziachary Taylor, the Louisiana President of 
the United States of America. [New Orleans, La., T. J. Moran's Sons] 1937. 
(A Publication of the Louisiana State Museum.) 

FULLER, FRANK D., and THOMAS H. S. CURD, comps., The Curd Family in 
America; Genealogy of Some of the Descendants of Edward Curd of Henrico 
County, Virginia, 1704. Rutland, the Tuttle Publishing Company [1938]. 



196 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

FULTON, MAURICE GARLAND, and PAUL HORGAN, eds., New Mexico's Own Chron- 
icle. Dallas, Banks Upshaw and Company [c!937]. 

GAGE, THOMAS, The History of Rowley, Anciently Including Bradford, Boxford, 
and Georgetown, From the Year 1639 to the Present Time. Boston, Ferdi- 
nand Andrews, 1840. 

GARDNER, VIRGINIA ATKINSON, comp., A History of the Massachusetts Society 
of the Colonial Dames of America, 1893-1937. [Boston, Thomas Todd Com- 
pany, n. d.] 

Gould's St. Louis (Missouri) City Directory, 1936. St. Louis, Mo., Polk-Gould 
Directory Company, c!936. 

HAINES, MRS. BLANCHE (MOORE), Ancestry of Sharpless Moore and Rachel 
(Roberts) Moore . . . [Three Rivers, Mich.] 1937. 

HARDEN, SAMUEL, comp., History of Madison County, Indiana, From 1820 to 
1874 . . . Markleville, Ind., 1874. 

HARLLEE, WILLIAM CURRY, Kinjolks, a Genealogical and Biographical Record of 
Thomas and Elizabeth (Stuart) Harllee . . . Their Antecedents, De- 
scendants and Collateral Relatives . . . New Orleans, Searcy & Pfaff, 
Ltd., 1934-1937. 4 Vols. 

HARRIS, ALEXANDER, A Biographical History of Lancaster County [Penna.] : Be- 
ing a History of Early Settlers and Eminent Men of the County . . . 
Lancaster, Elias Barr & Company, 1872. 

HAYDEN, HORACE EDWIN, ed., Genealogical and Family History of the Wyoming 
and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania. New York, The Lewis Publishing 
Company, 1906. 2 Vols. 

HAZZARD, GEORGE, Hazzard's History of Henry County, Indiana, 1822-1906. New 
Castle, Ind., George Hazzard, 1906. 2 Vols. 

HILDRETH, SAMUEL PRESCOTT, Biographical and Historical Memoirs of the Early 
Pioneer Settlers of Ohio, With Narratives of Incidents and Occurrences in 
1775. Cincinnati, H. W. Derby & Company, 1852. 

HINSHAW, WILLIAM WADE, Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy. Vol. 
1. Ann Arbor, Edwards Brothers, Inc., 1936. 

HISTORICAL RECORDS SURVEY, NORTH CAROLINA, The Historical Records of North 
Carolina . . . Prepared by the Historical Records Survey of the Works 
Progress Administration. Vols. 1-2. Raleigh, The North Carolina Historical 
Commission, 1938. 

HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF FRANKFORD, Papers Read Before the Historical Society 
of Frankford. Vol. 3, No. 5. Gettysburg, The Times and News Publishing 
Company, 1937. 

History of La Fayette County, Wisconsin . . . Chicago, Western Historical 
Company, 1881. 

History of Tennessee . . . Together With an Historical and Biographical 
Sketch of Giles, Lincoln, Franklin and Moore Counties . . . Nashville, 
The Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1886. 

HOGAN, JOHN JOSEPH, On the Mission in Missouri, 1857-1868. Kansas City, 
Mo., John A. Heilmann, 1892. 

HOLLEY, FRANCES CHAMBERLAIN, Once Their Home; or Our Legacy From the 
Dahkotahs . . . Chicago, Donohue & Henneberry, 1892. 

Hudspeth Directory Company's Albuquerque City Directory, 1986. El Paso, 
Tex., Hudspeth Directory Company, c!936. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 197 

Hudspeth Directory Company's El PaSo City Directory, 1936. El Paso, Tex., 
Hudspeth Directory Company, c!936. 

HUGUENOT SOCIETY OF SOUTH CAROLINA, Transactions, No. 42. Charleston, S. 
C., Published by Order of the Society, 1937. 

HUNT, EDMUND SOPER, Weymouth Ways and Weymouth People; Reminis- 
cences. Boston, Privately Printed, 1907. 

HUNTING-TON COUNTY, IND., BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, Historical Sketch 
of Huntington County, Indiana. Huntington, Ind., Herald Printing Com- 
pany, 1877. 

ILLINOIS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Transactions for the Year 1986. Printed by 
Authority of the State of Illinois, n. d. 

JENKINS, HOWARD MALCOLM, The Family of William Penn, Founder of Pennsyl- 
vania, Ancestry and Descendants. Philadelphia, Author, 1899. 

JENNESS, JOHN SCRIBNER, The Isles of Shoals, an Historical Sketch. 2d. ed., rev. 
and enl. New York, Kurd and Houghton, 1875. 

JOHNSON, WILLIAM FOREMAN, History of Cooper County, Missouri. Topeka, 
Historical Publishing Company, 1919. 

KELLY, WILLIAM P., comp., The American Ancestors and Descendants of Seth 
Kelly, 1762-1850, of Blackstone, Mass. N. p., 1937. 

KEVE, J. F., History of the Keve Family; Also Short Histories of the Following 
Families, The Coles, the Fullwoods, the Latourettes, the Floreys, the Whip- 
pies, the Longs. No impr. 

KING, CAROLINE HOWARD, When I Lived in Salem, 1822-1866. Brattleboro, 
Stephen Daye Press, 1937. 

KNITTLE, RHEA MANSFIELD, Early Ohio Taverns; Tavern-Sign, Stage-Coach, 
Barge, Banner, Chair and Settee Painters. [Ashland, O., Privately Printed, 
c!937.] 

LANG, WILLIAM, History of Seneca County [Ohio} From the Close of the/ 
Revolutionary War to July, 1880 . . . Springfield, Transcript Printing 
Company, 1880. 

LEACH, A. J., A History of Antelope County, Nebraska, From Its First Settle- 
ment in 1868 to the Close of the Year 1883. [Chicago, The Lakeside Press] 
1909. 

LIGON FAMILY AND KINSMEN ASSOCIATION, Proceedings, Vol. 1, No. 1, October, 
1937. 

LILLY, ELI, Prehistoric Antiquities of Indiana; a Description of the More 
Notable Earthworks, Mounds, Implements and Ceremonial Objects Left in 
Indiana by Our Predecessors . . . Indianapolis, The Indiana Historical 
Society, 1937. 

Living Record of the Olans Johnson Family, Compiled by Children and Grand- 
children of Oley M. Johnson. 1927. Mimeographed. 

LOCKE, JOHN LYMBURNER, Sketches of the History of the Town of Camden, 
Maine; Including Incidental References to the Neighboring Places and Ad- 
jacent Waters. Hallowell, Masters, Smith & Company, 1859. 

LORING, AMASA, History of Piscataquis County, Maine, From Its Earliest Settle- 
ment to 1880. Portland, Hoyt, Fogg & Donham, 1880. 

Las Angeles City Directory, 1937. Los Angeles, Los Angeles Directory 
Company, c!937. 



198 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

LYTLE, MILTON SCOTT, History of Huntingdon County, in the State of Pennsyl- 
vania . . . Lancaster, William H. Roy, 1876. 

MANCHESTER HISTORIC ASSOCIATION, Early Records of the Town of Manchester, 
Formerly Derryfield, N. H., 1817-1828 . . . Manchester, N. H., 1909. 
(Collections, Vol. 11.) 

MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Archives of Maryland, Court Series 6 and 7. 
Baltimore, Maryland Historical Society, 1936-1937. 

MEEK, BASIL, ed. and comp., Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County, 
Ohio, and Representative Citizens. Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Publishing 
Company, 1909. 

MIDDLESEX COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, President's Address, Annual Reports, 
Secretary, Treasurer . . . [Middletown, Conn., Pelton and King, Inc., 
1937.] 

MILLER, GEORGE, Missouri's Memorable Decade, 1860-1870; an Historical Sketch, 
Personal-Political Religious. Columbia, Mo., E. W. Stephens, 1898. 

MILLER, THOMAS, Historical and Genealogical Record of the First Settlers of 
Colchester County, Down to the Present Time. Halifax, N. S., A. & W. 
Mackinlay, 1873. 

MONROE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, The Founding of Monroe County, 18S6- 
1936. Addresses Delivered Be j ore the Monroe County Historical Society 
Meeting to Commemorate the Centennial of the Organization of the Coun- 
ty, January 16, 1936. [Monroe County Historical Society, 1936.] 

MOOAR, GEORGE, The Cummings Memorial, a Genealogical History of the De- 
scendants of Isaac Cummings, an Early Settler of Topsfield, Massachusetts. 
New York, B. F. Cummings, 1903. 

MOODY, CHARLES C. P., Biographical Sketches of the Moody Family ; EmbTac- 
ing Notices of Ten Ministers and Several Laymen From 1633 to 184%. 
Boston, Samuel G. Drake, 1847. 

MOORE, ULYSSES SHERMAN, Chronological History of William and Harriett 
Moore, and Their Relatives and Descendants . . . Lomax, 111., U. S. 
Moore, 1904. 

Morrison & Fourmy's Austin (Texas) City Directory, 1935. Houston, Tex., 
Morrison & Fourmy Directory Company, c!935. 

NEVADA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Papers, 1923-1924. Reno, Nevada State His- 
torical Society, 1924. 

NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK, One Hundred and Thirty- 
First and One Hundred and Thirty-Second Annual Reports for the Years 
1936, 1937. No impr. 2 Vols. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE (PROVINCE), Probate Records of the Province of New Hamp- 
shire, Vol. 6, 1757-1760. Published by the State of New Hampshire, 1938. 
(State Papers Series, Vol. 36.) 

NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, The Arts and Crafts in New York, 1726-1776. 
Advertisements and News Items From New York City Newspapers. New 
York, Printed for the New York Historical Society, 1938. 

NEWBERRY, FLORENCE COOKE, The Family of Elisha Cooke. [Blairstown, N. J., 
The Blairstown Press, c!934.] 

NEWMAN, HARRY WRIGHT, Maryland Revolutionary Records . . . Washing- 
ton, Compiler, 1938. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 199 

NORRIS, HENRY McCoY, Ancestry and Descendants of Lieutendent Jonathan 
and Tamesin (Barker) Norris of Maine. New York, The Grafton Press, 1906. 
OLIN, CHAUNCBY C., A Complete Record of the John Olin Family . . . In- 
dianapolis, Baker-Randolph Company, 1893. 
Panhandle-Plains Historical Review, Vol. 10. Canyon, Tex., Panhandle-Plains 

Historical Society, c!937. 
PAYNE, CHARLES E. } Josiah Bushnell Grinnell. Iowa City, The State Historical 

Society of Iowa, 1938. 

PERKINS, HENRY ESBAN, New Edition of the Records of the Family of Rufus 
Perkins of Rockingham and Chester, Vermont, 1781 to 1803. Troy, N. Y., 
Henry Stowell & Son, 1916. 

PETERBOROUGH, N. H., Inscriptions on Gravestones in the Two Old Cemeteries 
on the East Hill in Peterborough, N. H. [Peterborough, Transcript Printing 
Company, 1908.] 

PETERS, ELEANOR BRADLEY, Bradley of Essex County; Early Records From 1643 
to 1746; With a Few Lines to the Present Day. New York, Knickerbocker 
Press, 1915. 

PHILLIPS, JAMES DUNCAN, Salem in the Seventeenth Century. Boston, Hough- 
ton Mifflin Company [c!933]. 

PIATT, EMMA C., History of Piatt County . . . Together With a Brief His- 
tory of Illinois From the Discovery of the Upper Mississippi to the Present 
Time. [Chicago, Shepard and Johnston, 1883.] 
Folk's Beatrice (Gage County, Neb.) City Directory, 1935. Kansas City, Mo., 

R. L. Polk & Company, c!935. 
Folk's Boulder County (Colorado) Directory, 1936. Salt Lake City, Utah, R. 

L. Polk & Company, c!936. 

Folk's Carthage City Directory, 1927. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk & Com- 
pany, c!927. 
Folk's Colorado Springs, Colorado, City Directory Including Manitou & Pike's 

Peak Region, 1936. Colorado Springs, R. L. Polk & Company, c!936. 
Folk's Council Bluffs (Pottawatomie County, Iowa) City Directory, 1936. De- 
troit, Mich., R. L. Polk & Company, c!936. 
Folk's Des Moines (Polk County, Iowa) City Directory, 1937. Des Moines, la., 

R. L. Polk & Company, c!936. 
Folk's Fort Collins (Larimer County, Colo.) City Directory, 1936. Salt Lake 

City, Utah, R. L. Polk & Company, c!936. 
Folk's Fremont (Dodge County, Nebr.) City Directory, 1935-36. Kansas City, 

Mo., R. L. Polk & Company, c!935. 
Folk's Grand Junction City and Mesa County Directory, 1926. Colorado 

Springs, Colo., R. L. Polk Directory Company, c!928. 
Folk's Hastings (Adams County, Neb.) City Directory, 1935. Kansas City, 

Mo., R. L. Polk & Company, c!935. 
Folk's Hot Springs (Garland County, Ark.) City Directory, 1935. Kansas City, 

Mo., R. L. Polk & Company, c!935. 
Folk's Joplin (Jasper County, Mo.) City Directory, 1935 . . . Kansas City, 

Mo., R. L. Polk & Company, c!935. 

Folk's Kansas City (Missouri) Directory, 1936. Kansas City, Mo., Gate City 
Directory Company, c!936. 



200 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Folk's Kearney (Buffalo County, Neb.) City Directory, 1933. Kansas City, 

Mo., R. L. Polk & Company, c!933. 
Folk's Lincoln (Lancaster County, Nebr.) City Directory, 1936. Kansas City, 

Mo., R. L. Polk & Company, c!936. 
Folk's Little Rock (Arkansas) City Directory, 1928 . . . Kansas City, Mo., 

R. L. Polk & Company, c!928. 
Folk's McAlester City Directory Including Alderson and Krebs, 1925. Sioux 

City, R. L. Polk & Company, c!925. 
Folk's Muskogee (Muskogee County, Okla.) City Directory, 1936. Kansas 

City, Mo., R. L. Polk & Company, c!936. 
Folk's Nashville (Davidson County, Tenn.) City Directory, 1937. N. p., R. L. 

Polk & Company, c!937. 

Folk's Oklahoma City (Oklahoma County, Okla.) Directory, 1936, 1937. Kan- 
sas City, Mo., R. L. Polk and Company, c!936; c!937. 2 Vols. 
Folk's Omaha (Douglas County, Neb.) City Directory, 1936 . . . Detroit, 

R. L. Polk & Company, c!936. 
Folk's St. Paul (Ramsey County, Minn.) City Directory, 1936. St. Paul, 

Minn., R. L. Polk & Company, c!936. 
Folk's Salt Lake City (Salt Lake County, Utah) City Directory, 1936. Salt 

Lake City, Utah, R. L. Polk & Company, c!936. 
Folk's Shawnee (Pottawatomie County, Okla.) City Directory, 1935 . . . 

Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk & Company, c!935. 
Folk's Shenandoah (Iowa) City Directory, 1930. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk 

& Company, c!930. 
Folk's Springfield (Green County, Mo.) City Directory, 1936. Kansas City, 

Mo., R. L. Polk & Company, c!936. 
Folk's Tulsa (Tulsa County, Okla.) City Directory, 1937. Kansas City, Mo., 

R. L. Polk & Company, c!937. 
PORTER, JOSEPH WHITCOMB, A Genealogy of the Descendants of Richard Porter, 

Who Settled at Weymouth, Mass., 1635, and Allied Families . . . 

Bangor, Burr & Robinson, 1878. 
PORTER, WILLIAM ARTHUR, The Descendants of Peter Porter, an Emigrant of 

1621. Minneapolis, Argus Publishing Company, 1937. 
Portrait and Biographical Album of Champaign County, III. . . . Chicago, 

Chapman Brothers, 1887. 

Portrait and Biographical Record of Macoupin County, Illinois . . . Chi- 
cago, Biographical Publishing Company, 1891. 
REED, JONAS, A History of Rutland, Worcester County, Massachusetts, From 

Its Earliest Settlement, With a Biography of Its First Settlers. Worcester, 

Mirick & Bartlett, 1836. 
ROCHESTER, VT., History of the Town of Rochester, Vermont. Published by 

Order of the Town. Montpelier, Vt., Eli Ballou, 1869. 
ROWLEY, MASS., The Early Records of the Town of Rowley, Massachusetts, 

1639-1672. Vol. 1. Rowley, Mass., 1894. 
Sherman (Grayson County, Tex.) City Directory, 1935. Dallas, J. F. Worley 

Directory Company, c!935. 

SONS OF THE REVOLUTION IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Reports and Proceedings, 
July 1, 1936, to June 30, 1937. No impr. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 201 

STARKEY, MARION LENA, The First Plantation; a History of Hampton and 
Elizabeth City County, Virginia, 1607-1887. [Hampton, Va., Houston Print- 
ing and Publishing House] c!936. 

STRASSBURGER, RALPH BEAVER, Pennsylvania German Pioneers, a Publication of 
the Original Lists of Arrivals in the Port of Philadelphia From 1727 to 1808. 
Norristown, Pennsylvania German Society, 1934. 3 Vols. 

Told by the Pioneers; Tales of Frontier Life as Told by Those Who Remem- 
ber the Days of the Territory and Early Statehood of Washington. Vols. 
1-3. No impr. 

TRACY, SHERMAN WELD, The Tracy Genealogy, Being Some of the Descendants 
of Stephen Tracy of Plymouth Colony, 1623 . . . Rutland, The Tuttle 
Publishing Company, Inc. [c!936]. 

VAIL, WILLIAM PENN, Genealogy of Some of the Vail Family Descended From 
Thomas Vail at Salem, Massachusetts, 1640, Together With Collateral Lines. 
[Charleston, S. C., Presses of Walker, Evans & Cogswell Company] 1937. 

VIRKUS, FREDERICK ADAMS, ed., The Compendium of American Genealogy, the 
Standard Genealogical Encyclopedia of the First Families of America. Vol. 
6. Chicago, The Institute of American Genealogy, 1937. 

WELLS, EMMA HELM (MIDDLETON), The History of Roane County, Tennessee, 
1801-1870. Chattanooga, The Lookout Publishing Company [c!927]. 

WELLS, HENRY, The American Express in Its Relation to Buffalo; a Paper Pre- 
pared in 1863 at the Request of the Buffalo Historical Society. Buffalo, N. 
Y., The Buffalo Historical Society, 1938. 

WEST VIRGINIA, STATE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY, Biennial Report 
for the Period Ending June 30, 1936, and to January 1, 1937. No impr. 

WINCHELL, NEWTON HORACE, and others, History of the Upper Mississippi 
Valley . . . Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, by the Rev. Edward D. 
Neill; Outlines of the History of Minnesota, by J. Fletcher Williams, and 
State Education, by Charles S. Bryant. Minneapolis, Minnesota Historical 
Company, 1881. 

WORCESTER HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Publications, New Series, Vol. 2, No. 2, Sep- 
tember, 1937. Worcester, The Worcester Historical Society [1937]. 

Worley's Dallas (Texas) City Directory, 1936. Dallas, Tex., J. F. Worley 
Directory Company, c!936. 

Worley's San Antonio (Texas) City Directory, 1934-35 . . . San Antonio, 
John F. Worley Directory Company, c!935. 

Worley's Wichita Falls (Wichita County, Tex.) City Directory, 1936. Dallas, 
Tex., John F. Worley Directory Company, c!936. 

WYOMING COMMEMORATIVE ASSOCIATION, Proceedings, 1937. No impr. 

WYOMING HISTORICAL AND GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, Proceedings and Collections for 
the Years 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935 and 1936. Vol. 22. Wilkes- 
Barre, Pa., 1938. 

YOWELL, CLARK SAMUEL, comp., Yowell, a Genealogical Collection. Somerville, 
N. J., 1931. 

GENERAL 

ABERNETHY, THOMAS PERKINS, Western Lands and the American Revolution. 

New York, D. Appleton-Century Company, 1937. 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN ASSOCIATION, Lincoln's Springfield; a Guide Book and Brief 

History. [Springfield, 111., The Abraham Lincoln Association, c!938.] 



202 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

, Papers Delivered Before the Members of the Abraham Lincoln Associa- 
tion . . . at Springfield, Illinois, on February 12, 1987 . Springfield, Abra- 
ham Lincoln Association, 1938. 

ALFORD, THOMAS WILDCAT, Civilization, as Told to Florence Drake. Norman, 
University of Oklahoma Press, 1936. 

AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, A Guide to the Resources of the American 
Antiquarian Society, a National Library of American History. Worcester, 
Mass. [The Davis Press], 1937. 

AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, Annual Report for the Year 1936. Vol. 1. 
Proceedings for 1936. Washington, United States Government Printing 
Office, 1938. 

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, A Catalogue of Manuscript and Printed 
Documents . . . Selected From the Archives and Manuscript Collections 
. . . and Placed Upon Exhibition in the Library of the Society, December 
28-31, 1937 . . . Philadelphia, The American Philosophical Society, 1937. 

, . . . Year Book, 1937. Philadelphia, The American Philosophical 

Society, 1938. 

ANDREWS, CHARLES McLEAN, The Colonial Period of American History; the 
Settlements, Vol. 3. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1937. 

BANDELIER, ADOLPH F., and EDGAR L. HEWETT, Indians of the Rio Grande Valley. 
[Albuquerque] University of New Mexico Press [c!937L (Handbooks of 
Archaeological History.) 

BEERS, HENRY PUTNEY, Bibliographies in American History. New York, The 
H. W. Wilson Company, 1938. 

BENSON, HENRY CLARK, Life Among the Choctaw Indians, and Sketches of the 
South-West. Cincinnati, L. Swormstedt & A. Poe, 1860. 

BERGSOE, PAUL, The Gilding Process and the Metallurgy of Copper and Lead 
Among the Pre-Columbian Indians. Copenhagen, Danmarks Naturviden- 
skabelige Samfund, 1938. 

BLASHFIELD, EDWIN HOWLAND, The Works of Edwin Rowland Blash field, With 
an Introduction by Royal Cortissoz. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 
1937. 

BLOOM, SOL, The Story of the Constitution. Washington, United States Con- 
stitution Sesquicentennial Commission, c!937. 

BOAK, ARTHUR EDWARD ROMILLY, ed., University of Michigan Historical Essays. 
Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1937. 

BODLEY, TEMPLE, Our First Great West, in Revolutionary War, Diplomacy and 
Politics . . . Louisville, Ky., John P. Morton & Company, 1938. (The 
Filson Club Publications, No. 36.) 

BOTKIN, BENJAMIN ALBERT, The American Play-Party Song; With a Collection 
of Oklahoma Texts and Tunes. [Lincoln, The University, 1937.] (Univer- 
sity of Nebraska, Studies, Vol. 37.) 

BRADBURY, R. W., and CLINT HYATT, The Water-Borne Commerce of New 
Orleans. University, Louisiana State University Press, 1937. (Louisiana 
Business Bulletin, Vol. 1, No. 2, September, 1937.) 

BRUCE, EDWARD C., The Century: Its Fruits and Its Festival, Being a History 
and Description of the Centennial Exhibition . . . Philadelphia, J. B. 
Lippincott & Company, 1877. 

CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE, Division of Intercourse and 



RBCENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 203 

Education, International Conciliation, Documents for the Year 19S7. New 
York, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, n. d. 

CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE, Year Books, 1937, 19S8. 
Washington, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1937-1938. 2 Vols. 

COLE, CYRENUS, I Am a Man; the Indian Black Hawk . . . Marking the 
One Hundredth Anniversary of the Passing of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia- 
Kiak. Iowa City, The State Historical Society of Iowa, 1938. 

COLLINGS, ELLSWORTH, and ALMA MILLER ENGLAND, The 101 Ranch. Norman, 
University of Oklahoma Press, 1937. 

COLONIAL COVERLET GUILD OF AMERICA, Chicago [Year-Book, 1986-1937]. No 
impr. 

CORBETT, PERCY ELLWOOD, The Settlement of Canadian- American Disputes; a 
Critical Study of Methods and Results. New Haven, Yale University Press, 
1937. (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of Economics 
and History.) 

COULTER, ELLIS MERTON, William G. Brownlow, Fighting Parson of the South- 
ern Highlands. Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 1937. 

DEFENBACH, BYRON, Red Heroines of the Northwest. Caldwell, Idaho, The 
Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1935. 

DEUTSCH, HAROLD CHARLES, The Genesis of Napoleonic Imperialism. Cam- 
bridge, Harvard University Press, 1938. (Harvard Historical Studies, Vol. 
41.) 

Dictionary of American Biography. Index, Vols. 1-20. New York, Charles 
Scribner's Sons, 1937. 

DEXON, JAMES, Personal Narrative of a Tour Through a Part of the United 
States and Canada, With Notices of the History and Institutions of Metho- 
dism in America. New York, Lane & Scott, 1849. 

DRURY, CLIFFORD MERRILL, Marcus Whitman, M. D., Pioneer and Martyr. Cald- 
well, Idaho, The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1937. 

DURBROW, MRS. JUUA (STIMERS), pub., The Monitor and Alban C. Stimers. Or- 
lando, Fla., The Ferris Printing Company, 1936. 

ECKENRODE, HAMILTON JAMES, and BRYAN CONRAD, James Longstreet, Lee's 
War Horse. Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 1936. 

ELLIOTT, CHARLES WINSLOW, Winfield Scott, the Soldier and the Man. New 
York, The Macmillan Company, 1937. 

Encyclopedia of American Biography, New Series. Vol. 8. New York, The 
American Historical Society, Inc., 1938. 

EVANS, JOHN HENRY, Charles Coulson Rich, Pioneer Builder of the West. New 
York, The Macmillan Company, 1936. 

FORD, Gus L., ed., Texas Cattle Brands, a Catalog of the Texas Centennial Ex- 
position Exhibit, 1936. Dallas, Clyde C. Cockrell Company [c!936]. 

FOREMAN, GRANT, Sequoyah. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1938. 

GABLE, J. HARRIS, Manual of Serials Work. Chicago, American Library Asso- 
ciation, 1937. 

GREENMAN, EMERSON F., The Younge Site, an Archaeological Record From 
Michigan. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1937. (Occasional Con- 
tributions From the Museum of Anthropology of the University of Michi- 
gan, No. 6.) 



204 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

GRIFFIN, GRACE GARDNER, and others, Writings on American History, 1933; a 
Bibliography of Books and Articles on United States and Canadian History 
Published During the Year 1933 . . . Washington, United States Gov- 
ernment Printing Office, 1937. 

HANS, FREDERIC MALON, The Great Sioux Nation, a Complete History of Indian 
Life and Warfare in America. Chicago, M. A. Donohue and Company 
[cl907L 

HARGRAVE, JAMES, The Har grave Correspondence, 1821-1843. Toronto, The 
Champlain Society, 1938. (The Publications of the Champlain Society, 24.) 

HERNDON, WILLIAM HENRY, The Hidden Lincoln, From the Letters and Papers 
of William H, Herndon. Edited by Emanuel Hertz. New York, The Vik- 
ing Press, 1938. 

HERRICK, JOHN P., Founding a Country Newspaper Fifty Years Ago. Olean, 
N. Y., 1938. 

HESSELTINE, WILLIAM BEST, A History of the South, 1607-1936. New York, 
Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1936. 

HEWETT, EDGAR LEE, The Chaco Canyon and Its Monuments. [Albuquerque] 
University of New Mexico Press [c!936L (Handbooks of Archaeological 
History.) 

HODGE, FREDERICK WEBB, History of Hawikuh, New Mexico; One of the So- 
C ailed Cities of Cibola. Los Angeles [The Southwest Museum], 1937. 

HOWARD, OLIVER OTIS, Autobiography of Oliver Otis Howard, Major-General, 
United States Army. New York, The Baker & Taylor Company, 1908. 
2 Vols. 

HOWELLS, WILLIAM DEAN, Life of Abraham Lincoln. Springfield, Abraham 
Lincoln Association, 1938. 

HUDSON, MANLEY OTTMER, ed., International Legislation; a Collection of the 
Texts of Multipartite International Instruments of General Interest . . . 
Washington, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1932-1934. (Pub- 
lications of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of 
International Law. Vol. 6, Nos. 304-401.) 

HYDE, GEORGE E., Red Cloud's Folk; a History of the Oglala Sioux Indians. 
Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1937. 

JENKS, ALBERT ERNEST, Minnesota's Browns Valley Man and Associated Burial 
Artifacts. Menasha, Wis., American Anthropological Association, 1937. 
(Memoirs, No. 49.) 

KEY, THOMAS JEFFERSON, and ROBERT J. CAMPBELL, Two Soldiers, the Cam- 
paign Diaries of Thomas J. Key, C. S. A., December 7, 1863, to May 17, 
1866, and Robert J. Campbell, U. S. A., January 1, 1864, to July 21, 1864- 
Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 1938. 

LE CONTE, JOSEPH, 'Ware Sherman, a Journal of Three Months' Personal Ex- 
perience in the Last Days of the Confederacy. Berkeley, University of Cal- 
ifornia Press, 1937. 

LEWIS, T. M. N., Annotations Pertaining to Prehistoric Research in Tennessee. 
Knoxville, The University of Tennessee Press, 1937. 

LOCKWOOD, FRANCIS CUMMINS, The Apache Indians. New York, The Mac- 
millan Company, 1938. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 205 

MCCARTY, RICHARD JUSTIN, Work and Play: an Autobiography; the Ancestry 
and Experience of Richard Justin McCarty. [Kansas City, Mo., Empire 
Printing Company, c!925, pref. 1934.] 

MCKNIGHT, CHARLES, Our Western Border; Its Life, Forays, Scouts, Combats, 
. . . One Hundred Years Ago . . . Philadelphia, J. C. McCurdy & 
Company, 1876. 

MCLAUGHLIN, JAMES, My Friend the Indian. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Com- 
pany, 1910. 

, My Friend the Indian; or Three Heretofore Unpublished Chapters of 

the Book Published Under the Title of My Friend the Indian. Baltimore, 
The Proof Press, 1936. 

McMuRTRiE, DOUGLAS CRAWFORD, Notes on Early Printing in Utah Outside of 
Salt Lake City. Los Angeles, Press of the Frank Wiggins Trade School, 1938. 

MANNING, WILLIAM ROY, Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States: 
Inter-American Affairs, 1831-1860. Vol. 9 Mexico. Washington, Carnegie 
Endowment for International Peace, 1937. 

MARCY, RANDOLPH BARNES, and G. B. MCCLELLAN, Adventure on Red River: 
Report on the Exploration of the Headwaters of the Red River . . . 
Edited and Annotated by Grant Foreman. Norman, University of Okla- 
homa Press, 1937. 

MARSHALL, HELEN E., Dorothea Dix, Forgotten Samaritan. Chapel Hill, The 
University of North Carolina Press, 1937. 

MARSHALL, HERBERT, and others, Canadian- American Industry; a Study in In- 
ternational Investment . . . New Haven, Yale University Press, 1936. 
(For the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of Eco- 
nomics and History.) 

MARTIN, MAMIE R., American Imprints Inventory, No. 2. Check List of Min- 
nesota Imprints, 1849-1865. Chicago, The Historical Records Survey, 1938. 

MASSACHUSETTS, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, 
and Marines in the Civil War; Index to Army Records. Boston, Wright 
and Potter Printing Company, 1937. 

MATHEWS, JOHN JOSEPH, Sundown. London, Longmans, Green and Com- 
pany, 1934. 

MOUNT VERNON LADIES' ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION, Annual Reports, 1937, 1938. 
Mount Vernon, 1937-1938. 2 Vols. 

National Cyclopaedia of American Biography . . . Vol. 26. New York, 
James T. White & Company, 1937. 

New York Times Index; 1913-1918, Vols. 1-6. New York, The New York 
Times, 1913-1918. 

New York Times Index; Annual Cumulative Volume, Year 1937. New York, 
The New York Times Company [c!938]. 

NYE, WILBUR STURTEVANT, Carbine and Lance ; the Story of Old Fort Sill. Nor- 
man, University of Oklahoma Press, 1937. 

PATTERSON, JOHN THOMAS, Boat-Shaped Artifacts of the Gulf Southwest States. 
Austin, The University of Texas, 1937. (The University of Texas Bulletin, 
August 22, 1937. Anthropological Papers, Vol. 1, No. 2.) 

Patterson's American Educational Directory, Vol. 35. Chicago, American Edu- 
cational Company, 1938. 



206 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

PITCAIRN, RAYMOND, Making Our Constitution; a Week-by-Week Story of the 
Federal Convention of 1787. Washington, Sentinels of the Republic, 1938. 

POTTER, PITMAN B., The Wai Wai Arbitration. Washington, Carnegie Endow- 
ment for International Peace, 1938. (Monograph Series of the Carnegie 
Endowment for International Peace, Division of International Law, No. 3.) 

RITCHIE, H., The "Navicert" System During the World War. Washington, 
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1938. (Monograph Series of 
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of International 
Law, No. 2.) 

SCHMECKEBIER, LAURENCE F., Government Publications and Their Use. Wash- 
ington, The Brookings Institution, 1936. 

Schoolmate, a Monthly Reader for School and Home Instruction of Youth. 
Vol. 3, 1853. New York, A. R. Phippen [1853]. 

SLOVAK COUNCIL, Shall Millions Die for "This Czechoslovakia . . ."? Mem- 
orandum of the Slovak Council, London, June, 1938. [London, Hazell, 
Watson & Viney, Ltd., 1938.] 

SPECK, FRANK GOULDSMITH, Montagnais Art in Birchbark, a Circumpolar Trait. 
New York, Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, 1937. 
(Indian Notes and Monographs, Vol. XI, No. 2.) 

STANLEY, REVA, A Biography of Parley P. Pratt, the Archer of Paradise. Cald- 
well, Idaho, The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1937. 

STEINEL, ALVIN THEODORE, History of Agriculture in Colorado . . . 1858 to 
1926. Fort Collins, The State Agricultural College, 1926. 

TROWBRIDGE, C. C., Meearmeear Traditions. Ann Arbor, University of Michi- 
gan Press, 1938. (Occasional Contributions From the Museum of Anthro- 
pology of the University of Michigan, No. 7.) 

TURNEY-HIGH, HARRY HOLBERT, The Flathead Indians of Montana. Menasha, 
Wis., American Anthropological Association, 1937. (Memoirs, No. 48.) 

UHLENDORF, BERNARD A., ed. and tr., The Siege of Charleston, With an Ac- 
count of the Province of South Carolina: Diaries and Letters of Hessian 
Officers From the von Jungkenn Papers in the William L. Clements Library. 
Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1938. (University of Michigan 
Publications, History and Political Science, Vol. 12.) 

UNDERBILL, RUTH MURRAY, Singing for Power; the Song Magic of the Papago 
Indians of Southern Arizona. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1938. 

UNITED STATES, BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Washington, Jefferson, 
Lincoln and Agriculture. [Washington, D. C.] 1937. 

, DEPARTMENT OF STATE, The Territorial Papers of the United States, Vol. 

5. The Territory of Mississippi, 1798-1817. Washington, United States Gov- 
ernment Printing Office, 1937. 

, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY, Naval Documents Related to the Quasi-War 

Between the United States and France. Naval Operations From January, 
1800, to May, 1800. Washington, United States Government Printing Office, 
1937. 

WABDELL, MORRIS L., A Political History of the Cherokee Nation, 1838-1907. 
Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1938. 

WARFEL, HARRY REDCAY, ed., The American Mind; Selections From the Liter- 
ature of the United States. New York, American Book Company [c!937]. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 207 

WELD, ISAAC, JR., Travels Through the States of North America, and the Prov- 
inces of Upper and Longer Canada, During the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797. 
4th ed. London, Printed for John Stockdale, 1800. 

WHIFFLE, HENRY BENJAMIN, Bishop Whipple's Southern Diary, 1843-1844. 
Minneapolis, The University of Minnesota Press [c!937]. 

White's Conspectus oj American Biography; a Tabulated Record of American 
History and Biography. 2d ed. New York, James T. White and Company, 
1937. 

WILBUR, RAY LYMAN, and ARTHUR MASTICK HYDE, The Hoover Policies. New 
York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1937. 

WILGUS, WILLIAM JOHN, The Railway Interrelations of the United States and 
Canada. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1937. (For the Carnegie 
Endowment for International Peace, Division of Economics and History.) 

WRIGHT, PURD B., Historical Sketch of the Kansas City Public Library, 1911- 
1936, With Extracts From Annual Reports oj Librarian, 1911-1920. Kansas 
City, Mo. [The Lowell Press], 1937. 

WYMAN, LELAND C., and CLYDE KLUCKHOHN, Navaho Classification of Their 
Song Ceremonials. Menasha, Wis., American Anthropological Association, 
1938. (Memoirs, No. 50.) 



Bypaths of Kansas History 

CATHOLIC FIRST THINGS IN KANSAS 

The following paragraphs are from an article, "Catholic First 
Things in the United States," by Gilbert J. Garraghan in the April, 

1939, number of Mid-America, historical magazine of Loyola Uni- 
versity, Chicago. Mr. Garraghan is a leading American Catholic 
historian and has recently published a three-volume history, The 
Jesuits of the Middle United States. 

FIRST PRIEST. Whether or not Fray Juan de Padilla, O. F. M., who is gen- 
erally supposed to have accompanied Coronado's famous expedition of 1541 to 
Quivira, was the first priest in Kansas depends on the location of that region. 
(A. F. Bandelier, outstanding authority on the Coronado problem, held it, not 
as certain, but only as "probable" [558] or "not unlikely" [562] that Padilla 
was with Coronado in the Quivira expedition of 1541. But all authorities agree 
that the missionary was in Quivira at least the following year, 1542, and lost 
his life there. See Bandelier 's excellent study, "Fray Juan de Padilla, First 
Catholic Missionary and Martyr in Eastern Kansas" in American Catholic 
Quarterly Review, XVI, 551 ff.) If Quivira was within the limits of what is 
now Kansas, as maintained by most students of the problem, including Win- 
ship, Hodge, Bandelier, and Bolton, then the distinction of being Kansas' first 
priest goes to Fray de Padilla (G. P. Winship, The Coronado Expedition, 1540- 
1542, 397; F. W. Hodge, ed., "The Narrative of the Expedition of Coronado 
by Pedro de Castaiieda" in Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, 
337, 364). If Quivira lay within the limits of Texas, in the Panhandle region, 
as maintained by the Texas scholars, David Donoghue and Carlos E. Casterieda, 
then the claim made for Father Fray de Padilla that he was the first priest in 
Kansas falls to the ground. (See David Donoghue "The Route of the Coronado 
Expedition in Texas," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XXXIII, 181 ft.; Id., 
"Coronado, Onate, Quivira," Mid-America, XVIII, 88-95; Castaneda, Our 
Catholic Heritage, I, 105 f.) It may be noted here that the weight of scholarly 
opinion on the subject at the present moment is decidedly in favor of the 
Kansas route. The committee in charge of the Coronado Quarto Centennial, 

1940, has accepted the Kansas route after taking account of the testimony of 
fifty historical experts on the point at issue. The latest church historian to 
touch on the subject claims de Padilla for Kansas. "His [Padilla's] presence 
as a missionary in the territory which is now Kansas can hardly be questioned" 
(Moeder, Early Catholicity in Kansas and History of the Diocese of Wichita, 
1). The late Msgr. Michael Shine, of the Lincoln diocese, student of the 
Coronado route, also brought the expedition into Kansas, but only to bring 
it farther, into Nebraska. "Nebraska's fertile plains were baptized with the 
life blood of America's first Christian martyr" (Catholic Historical Review, II 
[1916], 18). L. Houck (History of Missouri, I, 132 ft.) places Quivira in south- 
western Missouri, while the recently published scholarly study, Father Pich- 

(208) 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 209 

ardo's Treatise on the Limits of Louisiana and Texas (tr. and ed. by Charles 
W. Hackett, Austin, Tex., 1934, II) places it in east Texas, between the Trinity 
and Sabine rivers. 

The same interpretation which locates Quivira, not in Kansas, but in the 
Texas Panhandle, also excludes from the former state Fray Francisco de 
Velasco, O. F. M., of Onate's Quivira expedition of 1601 (Castaneda, I, 194). 
It would therefore appear, in view of divided scholarly opinion on the location 
of Quivira, that no priest can be definitely traced in Kansas during the Spanish 
period, though the case for Fray de Padilla's presence there is solidly probable 
and, if preponderating weight of expert opinion is to decide the issue, almost 
certain. Villasur's expedition of 1720 into Nebraska, which had an accom- 
panying chaplain, the Franciscan, Minguez, does not seem to have passed 
through Kansas, while Bourgmont, commandant at Fort Orleans on the Mis- 
souri, who led an expedition, 1724, across the Kansas prairies in search of the 
Padoucas, had no priest with him, the chaplain at the fort, Father Mercier, 
having remained behind. The possibility that Father Marque tte may have 
been in Kansas (Moeder, op. tit., 1) must be ruled out as in flat contradiction 
with the documents. 

The first priest to reach Kansas during the American period was Father 
Charles De La Croix, pastor at Florissant, Missouri, who in August of 1822 
visited the Osage of Neosho (G. J. Garraghan, S. J., St. Ferdinand de Floris- 
sant, 182; Id., Catholic Beginnings in Kansas City, Missouri, 26). In view of 
the conflicting interpretations of the Coronado and Onate routes no priest can 
be definitely said to have set foot in Kansas before Father De La Croix. First 
resident priest was Father Joseph Anthony Lutz, of the St. Louis diocese, who 
in 1828 began a short-lived mission among the Kaw Indians on the north bank 
of the Kansas river not far from the site of Lawrence (J. Rothensteiner, His- 
tory of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, I, 452-460). 

FIRST MASS. If Fray de Padilla (1541), and later Fray de Velasco (1601) 
reached Kansas they may be presumed to have said mass there (supra, first 
priest). The first verifiable mass in Kansas was said by Father Charles F. Van 
Quickenborne, S. J., August 25, 1827, on or near the site of St. Paul in Neosho 
county. "On the feast of St. Louis, August 25, I had the happiness of saying 
the first mass ever said in this country" (Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, 
III, 513). 

FIRST RECORDED BAPTISM. It is at least likely that baptisms were adminis- 
tered during the Spanish period, but no record of them survives. The follow- 
ing is the first certified baptism: "A neosho chez Mr. Ligueste Chouteau," 
August 27, 1827, Father Charles F. Van Quickenborne baptized Henri Mon- 
grain, "son of Noel pere and of Tonpapai, age two years, sponsor Mr. Ligueste 
P. Chouteau" (baptismal register, St. Ferdinand's church, Florissant, Missouri. 
There is no evidence that Father De La Croix baptized on his visit to Kansas 
in 1822). 



148551 



210 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

HAZARDS OF STAGE-COACH TRAVELING 

From the White Cloud Kansas Chief, January 19, 1860. 

FUNNY ACCIDENT. Our young friend, Morris Fraley, recently started on a 
visit to his friends in New York, whom he had not seen for four or five years. 
But by some accident he got in the wrong coach, and found himself in the 
vicinity of Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he chanced to meet a young female 
acquaintance, Miss Jenny Mewhinney, formerly of this place. While enjoying 
a good time in her company, a certain preacher up there, with "malice pre- 
pense," took occasion to call in, and before they knew what he was up to, 
he had them married! Here was a predicament; but like a true philosopher, 
Morris determined to make the best of it. To-day he arrived in town with 
his bride, and we learn they intend to let it stay so, "bein' as how" it has 
gone so far. We certainly wish them abundant happiness, even if it was an 
accident ! 

From The Big Blue Union, Marysville, July 18, 1863. 

CUTE. One of our citizens, a passenger on the stage coach to Atchison one 
day last week, relates that on board was a couple from California who kept 
the "machine a-goin" by pouring on to the brake of the coach, at the top of 
every hill which it was about to descend, melted butter, a can of which they 
had along with them. The driver would put on the brake but the wheels 
would slip on the rubber, and the coach go with a rush to the bottom of the 
hill, much to the astonishment of driver and the amusement of the passengers. 
The party was anxious to make time to connect with a certain train of cars 
at Atchison, hence this "cute" arrangement to hurry up things all of which 
was but anticipating a pleasant ride on the Pacific R. R. Under full head of 
horse-power breaks are up it's not enough ! How fast the people are getting ! 



FIRST TRIAL OF AN INDIAN IN MARSHALL COUNTY COURTS 

From The Big Blue Union, Marysville, October 18, 1862. 

On Monday last a novel trial came off before His Honor, Judge Newell, 
upon a writ of habeas^ corpus, issued by His Honor, in the case of the State 
vs. Medicine Horse, an Otoe Indian chief, charged with being an accessory 
of Moses Betine, for the shooting of V. C. Poor. It appeared that the Big 
Chief was arrested on suspicion, and lodged in jail without any warrant of 
commitment, and was brought before Judge Newell for a hearing. There was 
no evidence to connect him with the shooting affair, or that he was present at 
the time, and was therefore released. After the argument of the council, 
Magill for the state, Brumbaugh and Thompson for the prisoner, the court 
announced the decision, informing Medicine Horse he was free. The Big 
Chief, thinking it was his time to address the court, made a short speech in 
his native tongue, which was anything but intelligible to the court, lawyers 
and bystanders; the meaning of which, was that he had alwaj^s been friendly 
to the whites and was thankful to the court for his discharge. After his re- 
lease there was a delegation of Otoes in town to receive him, where there was 
a general hand-shaking. Thus ended the first trial of an Indian in Marshall 
county, before our courts. 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 211 

LUCY STONE AND HUSBAND 

A resolution which would strike out the word "male" from "male 
citizens" in the Kansas constitution was adopted by the legislature 
in 1867. Under the leadership of S. N. Wood, of Chase county, a 
woman suffrage convention was held in Topeka on April 2, and for 
several months following speakers for and against the amendment 
canvassed the state before it was defeated in the fall election. 
Among these were Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell, her hus- 
band. That the woman suffragist traveled in a hostile world is 
evident from a sampling of suffrage papers at the Historical Society. 

Following is a brief note addressed by Mr. Wood to Jacob Stotler, 
editor of the Emporia News, and Stotler's reply scribbled on the 
same paper: 

[Cottonwood] Falls Apr. 11 [1867] 
Jake [Stotler] 

I am provoked almost to death, about those notices I ordered. Why did 
they not come today So I could send them out? S. N. Wood. 

Sam: 

We pied a whole page of type and could not stop to print bills for Lucy 
Stone "or any other man." We have been busy day and night for the past 
week cleaning up the "pi" resetting the ads. and getting out the paper. 

Jake. 

Planning Miss Stone's itinerary, Mr. Wood asked S. M. Strickler 
to co-sponsor her lecture in Junction City but Mr. Strickler an- 
swered: 

Junction City, Kans., Apr. 7, 1867. 
Hon. S. N. Wood 

Dr. Sir 

I have yours of the 5th Inst addressed to myself & Capt Stover, advising 
us that Lucy Stone and her "poodle" will be at this place on the 20th Inst 
and enlighten our "benighted denizens" on the beauties and advantages of 
"Female Suffrage," and imploring us to give her a cordial reception and to 
bear particularly in mind that she "must be at no expense &e. &c." 

I am not authorized to speak for Capt Stover, but as for myself will say 
that I fear you are not obeying the sensible injunction of your wife: "Sam, 
dont make a fool of yourself &c." 

I have no sympathy whatever in your foolish and impractical proposition 
and can not in any way carry out your wishes. If Mrs. Lucy Stone visits our 
town I shall most certainly hear her lecture, but shall not in any way "give 
her further aid and comfort." 
I am very Respectfully 

Your Obt. Sevt. S. M. Strickler. 



212 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Lucy Stone kept her engagement at Junction City, and the Junc- 
tion City Weekly Union's account of the meeting was published 
April 27, 1867. 

LUCY STONE. This distinguished lady lectured in this place on Saturday 
evening, on the subject of impartial suffrage, followed by her husband, Doctor 
Blackwell. While we are exceedingly indifferent on the subject of woman 
suffrage, we are by no means disposed to criticise Lucy's labors among us from 
the standpoint of her personal oddities and vagaries. That she possesses many 
of these we cannot dispute; most unfounded and pernicious of all which are 
her views and practice of marriage. And while it may be true that the char- 
acter and practices of the champions of a particular faith operate against their 
efforts in almost any direction, yet we consider the subject of female suffrage 
before the people of Kansas in so grave a shape as to warrant the candid 
consideration of what may be said, pro or con, stripped of the prejudices en- 
gendered by the character from whom it emanates. 

From the strong-minded character which preceded Lucy, her appearance 
disappointed many. Instead of bloomers and a stove-pipe hat, all witnessed 
a plain, modestly dressed woman without one of those lice-breeding chignons 
tacked on to the back of her head her style indicating more sense than the 
generality of women done up in milliner shops. It is from this fact doubtless 
originates the idea prevalent among the opposers of female suffrage, that 
women are not fit to vote an admission in their favor which Lucy neglected 
to make. 

The lecture abounded with much unanswerable logic, telling sarcasm and 
ridicule, all of which was spoken in a pleasant, lady-like manner. Her points 
were mainly the inequality of woman before the law in the control of prop- 
erty and of her own children. It is not generally known that laws so iniquitous 
and unjust regarding women prevailed over a greater portion of the country, 
as was recited by her. Kansas is further in advance than any other state, on 
the question of the civil rights of women. The objection urged that women 
would be contaminated by going to the polls was richly answered by the query 
of how many of our drunkard's wives are contaminated by living continually 
in such associations. We have in every neighborhood men who in character 
and language are not much above the brutes, living with respectable women, 
who seem not to be affected by it personally, or their standing in society, 
either. We regard the question of labor as the weightiest argument in behalf 
of the proposition to extend suffrage. The untold suffering and misery of 
women resulting from the senseless inequality of wages has always been a 
matter of concern to us, and however lightly parties may treat the ballot, or 
deride its extension to women, there is a power behind it, which, if properly 
used, will speedily redress all grievances. 

The prevailing objection to female suffrage seems to be its effect on home 
affairs. Upon this there can be nothing but speculation. Lucy made some 
good points on this view of the matter, but they were not so convincing as 
others. There exists plenty of time, however between now and election to 
consider this matter in all its various aspects. 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 213 

A NIGHT AND DAY IN ABILENE 

From the Topeka Kansas State Record, August 5, 1871. 

If you take the "noon train" west from Topeka, and no accident befalls 
said train, you will reach Abilene shortly after six o'clock, in time for supper, 
either at the "Drover's Cottage," where the bland and childlike Gross is the 
"Secretary," or at the Gulf House, whereof Messrs. Putnam & Stevens are the 
"head men." 

Before dark you will have an opportunity to notice that Abilene is divided 
by the railroad into two sections, very different in appearance. The north 
side is literary, religious and commercial, and possesses our friend Wilson's 
Chronicle, the churches, the banks, and several large stores of various descrip- 
tion; the south side of the road is the Abilene of "story and song," and 
possesses the large hotels, the saloons, and the places where the "dealers in 
card board, bone and ivory" most do congregate. When you are on the north 
side of the track you are in Kansas, and hear sober and profitable conversation 
on the subject of the weather, the price of land and the crops; when you cross 
to the south side you are in Texas, and talk about cattle, varied by occasional 
remarks on "beeves" and "stock." Nine out of ten men you meet are directly 
or indirectly interested in the cattle trade; five at least out of every ten, are 
Texans. As at Newton, Texas names are prominent on the fronts of saloons 
and other "business houses," mingled with sign board allusions to the cattle 
business. A clothing dealer implores you to buy your "outfit" at the sign 
of the "Long Horns"; the leading gambling house is of course the "Alamo," 
and "Lone Stars" shine in every direction. 

At night everything is "full up." The "Alamo" especially being a center of 
attraction. Here, in a well lighted room opening on the street, the "boys" 
gather in crowds round the tables, to play or to watch others; a bartender, 
with a countenance like a youthful divinity student, fabricates wonderful 
drinks, while the music of a piano and a violin from a raised recess, enlivens 
the scene, and "soothes the savage breasts" of those who retire torn and 
lacerated from an unfortunate combat with the "tiger." The games most 
affected are faro and monte, the latter being greatly patronized by the Mexi- 
cans of Abilene, who sit with perfectly unmoved countenances and play for 
hours at a stretch, for your Mexican loses with entire indifference two things 
somewhat valued by other men, viz: his money and his life. 

The observer who believes that, after all, a man is about the most interest- 
ing study in this world can find much to interest him by standing in any 
frequented place in Abilene. Barring the bow legs produced by incessant 
horseback riding, it is impossible to find finer forms than those of many of the 
"herders," and it is said that a partial compensation for the injury done the 
legs, is partially atoned by the reduced size of the feet. The reader of Bret 
Harte's stories and John Hays' poems, can see plenty of faces that might 
have been used as studies by B. H. and J. H. We saw "Jim Bludsoe" who 
had somehow come up from the drowned wreck of the "Prairie Belle," and en- 
countered "Tennessee" and his "Partner" frequently. We saw "Little Breeches," 
at the "Novelty" Abilene's only theatre he was "peart and chipper and 
sassy," sat on a front bench with his arm around his "girl's" neck, and in reply 



214 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

to a tap on the shoulder from a neighbor remarked, "Look a yer. You'd better 
lemme alone. I've eat up more men than ever Wild Bill did." 

It may be inferred from the foregoing that the Texan cattle driver is some- 
what prone to "run free" as far as morals are concerned, but on the contrary, 
vice in one of its forms, is sternly driven forth from the city limits for the 
space of at least a quarter of a mile, where its "local habitation" is courteously 
and modestly, but rather indefinitely designated as the "Beer Garden." Here 
all that class of females who "went through" the Prodigal Son, and eventually 
drove that young gentleman into the hog business, are compelled to reside. 
In the amusements we have referred to does the "jolly drover" while the 
night away in Abilene. 

Day in Abilene is very different. The town seems quite deserted, the 
"herders" go out to their herd or disappear in some direction, and thus the 
town relapses into the ordinary appearance of towns in general. It is during 
the day, that, seated on the piazzas of the hotels, may be seen a class of men 
peculiar to Texas and possessing many marked traits of character. We allude 
to the stock raisers and owners, who count their acres by thousands and their 
cattle by tens of thousands. It was the good fortune of the writer to meet 
several of these gentlemen, and it has rarely been his fortune to meet men 
more unassuming and more willing to communicate information. 

As the life and experience of one large stock raiser is much like that of an- 
other, the history of Col. Thomas O'Conner will perhaps present as favorable 
an illustration as another. 

Col. O'Conner is an Irishman by birth, and came to Texas when a boy 
of fifteen. He took part in the war for Texas independence, and was present 
at the battle of San Jacinto, where being the only boy in an army of men, 
he became known to everybody. His fortune at the close of the war consisted 
of a horse and a Spanish quarter dollar, of which the "pillars" were nearly 
obliterated. He "turned his hand" to various avocations and "got a start" 
in cattle by doing some work for the government and receiving $3 per day, 
taking his pay in cattle at $10 per head. By the natural increase of his cattle 
he is now the owner of 30,000 head, though of course this is a mere estimate, 
the Texas cattle raiser being literally so rich that he does not know how much 
he is worth. Col. O'Conner is of the opinion, and his own experience seems 
to verify its truth, that a young man possessing no capital save industry and 
honesty can do better in Texas than elsewhere on earth. The life of a stock 
man as described by Col. O'Conner is anything but a life of ease. It is lit- 
erally "working the stock." To prosecute the business successfully requires 
a small army of men and horses. The work of collecting and branding the 
cattle demands incessant travel nearly all the year, and of course much ex- 
posure to the weather and hard fare, yet the business has a fascination about 
it which leads a man who engages in it to follow it the remainder of his life. 
One of the pleasant features of the business is the feeling of friendship pre- 
vailing among stock men of the same section, and their occasional meetings 
at the "branding pens" break agreeably into a life otherwise monotonous. In 
their dealings these men rely solely on each other's honesty, and Col. O'Conner 
remarked, with evident pride, on the rarity of a dishonest action among them. 

The growth of the cattle trade in Texas is far more recent than most people 
imagine. When Col. O'Conner went to Texas there were comparatively few 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 215 

cattle on the prairies, although there were thousands of wild horses. The 
large herds belonging to the early missions had been destroyed by the Indians 
or otherwise scattered, and all the cattle now in Texas descended from the 
stock taken into the state by settlers or purchased subsequent to the revolu- 
tion in Mexico. With this fact the increase is truly wonderful. In spite of 
the enormous exportation and the fact that many thousands of them have 
been killed for their hides alone, the amount of cattle now in Texas and owned 
by single individuals, is enormous. Capt. R. King, now at Abilene, owns the 
Gertrudios ranch, fifty miles from Corpus Christi, and owns 50,000 head of 
cattle, besides being largely engaged in raising mules, having this year im- 
ported thirty thoroughbred jacks from Kentucky. Capt. Kennedy owns a 
ranche twenty-five miles from Corpus Christi, and has enclosed 150,000 acres. 
This enclosure is formed by building a single "string" of fence thirty-six miles 
long across a peninsula. The fence is said to have cost $36,000. All of the 
"heavy men" we have mentioned drive to Abilene, but the cattle driven north 
do not represent the extent of the cattle trade in Texas. V. P. Poole and 
S. W. Allen, of Galveston, ship largely to New Orleans, and own sixty or 
seventy thousand head. 

These figures give a faint idea of the magnitude of the Texas cattle trade, 
and it may well be imagined that to carry it on requires rare business quali- 
fications and much special knowledge. To drive the cattle, as some of them 
are driven, eleven hundred miles to Abilene, is a great undertaking. The 
force required is about one man to each one hundred and fifty head, and each 
man must have at least three head of horses. Great care has to be taken in 
the management of the cattle, and stormy nights the cattle driver must re- 
main in the saddle all the time. Often in bad weather the drover does not 
dismount, except to mount a fresh horse, in forty-eight hours. Occasionally 
the cattle stampede and on one occasion during the present season sixteen 
thousand head ran together on the Upper Canadian and many days labor 
were required to separate the different herds. The element of danger also 
enters into this pursuit; should the drover's horse fall with him in one of 
these rushes of frightened cattle, horse and rider would be trampled to frag- 
ments. The life of a drover resembles very strongly that of a cavalry soldier, 
and in fact most of the quiet middle-aged men who sit so placidly on the 
hotel steps in Abilene have in their day seen service in the front of battle; 
several that we met had held high rank in the confederate service, and yet 
we suppose that political and military discussions are nowhere rarer than at 
Abilene. 

In this long digression we have said more about Texas than Abilene, and 
must return to the latter locality. Abilene, then, is still the great cattle mar- 
ket of this country. It is a great distributing depot from which cattle are sent 
in every direction. Colonel Myers recently sent a large drove to Salt Lake 
City; thousands are taken to Portland, Ore., fourteen months being expected 
to elapse before the cattle reach their destination. More cattle than ever 
before are being bought by ranchmen to be wintered in Kansas; other thou- 
sands are being shipped east over the Kansas Pacific railroad, which last named 
road has completely outgeneraled the Union Pacific, in its efforts to divert the 
business. It is impossible to estimate the number of cattle in the vicinity 
of Abilene, from the fact owing to the settlement of the country, cattle do 



216 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

not approach as near as formerly. The buyers and sellers, however, are to be 
found and here the transfers are made. The man who would get hold of the 
ins and outs of the cattle trade cannot get around Abilene. 

What the future of the trade may be it is impossible to state. The Kansas 
Pacific railroad will for a long time be a means of transport along a greater 
or less portion of its length, as it offers every needed facility at every point. 
With the completion of the railroad system of Texas and the settlement of 
the country, it is possible that an entire change of system may take place 
there, but at present we are not making prophecies. All we have to say now 
is, that if a man wishes to see how a vast and important business is conducted ; 
if he wishes to see the men who transact that business, and wishes in addition 
to see something entirely unique in the line of human beings, his best plan 
is to spend a night and day in Abilene. 



HAY FOR FUEL 

From the Kinsley Graphic, September 27, 1879. 

Wednesday morning we visited the Anchor mills, to witness the first steam 
gotten up with hay for fuel. The mills along the valley from Newton west, 
have nearly all adopted the use of hay for fuel, and we are glad that Mr. 
Fulton this early not only benefits himself financially, but assists the farmers 
by using hay in his mill. It is the general impression that great preparations 
first have to be made before hay can take the place of coal or wood, to get 
up steam. This is a mistake. The only preparation or expense is of two sheet 
iron receivers, made to fit up close to the furnace doors. They are about 
three feet long, and considerably larger at the opening than the furnace doors. 
In these are sheet-iron doors that raise as the hay is pushed through them, 
and fall closed as soon as the hay passes. Firing with hay requires more 
labor and closer attention, but the saving in the expense well repays for addi- 
tional help. The Anchor mills in busy times use from sixty to seventy dollars 
worth of coal a month. They can run the same length of time with the 
same power for thirty dollars by using hay. In using coal the money is sent 
out of the county; by using hay it is kept at home, and furnishes employ- 
ment to home industry. 



THE SANTA FE RAILROAD IN ITS INFANCY 
From the Atchison Daily Champion, April 29, 1880. 

It is rather interesting, in view of the present colossal proportions of the 
Santa Fe road, to sit down and talk with M. L. Sargent, now of the Central 
Branch and Missouri Pacific, and speak of the days when he> first came west 
and joined Col. T. J. Peter, at Topeka, in the administration of the A., T. & 
S. F. At the time of the arrival of Mr. Sargent the only furniture in the 
"general offices" was a pine table and two splint-bottom chairs; there were no 
books except a section boss' time book, and Mr. Sargent brought with him 
the first regular set of books kept for the company. The financial manage- 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 217 

ment was, however, very easy for a long time. The road never had any in- 
come till it reached Carbondale, when it commenced to haul coal at $10 a 
car. Mr. Sargent, by stepping to the door and counting the coal cars brought 
in by the road's only daily train, could tell what were the total receipts of the 
company for the day. 



IMMUNITY OF THE PRESS 

From the Wellsford Register, August 1, 1885. 

We have often been tempted to hint to a few of our dear old dames in this 
vicinity that when their husbands come home to them with a breath smelling 
of beer and whisky strong enough to drive a dog out of a tan yard, that they 
don't get their perfumery at this office, and we want it distinctly understood 
that we keep no whisky or beer ranch, and neither are we a Croesus, that 
would enable us to buy the vile stuff for our neighbors, and don't forget to put 
it down in your Auto that we are no "bar fly," either, and when your drunken 
husbands come home to you and endeavor to convince you that they are not 
(hie) drunk, that they had just ran across the "editor" and he had urged them 
to take a little beer (which, by the way, ladies, costs forty cents per bottle, 
unless they "sign up" for a whole case at one time), you may safely hazard 
your last hair pin that they lie like sheol ; and the first piece of calico that dare 
crook its finger in this direction we will sue for slander, and state that it can't 
be settled for no "two hundred dollars," either, and another thing you want to 
impress upon your minds is this: the first married man that is prone to drink 
who attempts to cross our threshold, without a written permit from his wife, 
is liable to be handled roughly 1 



"NOT ON YOUR TINTYPE!" 
From the Grant County Register, Ulysses, August 18, 1885. 

A young Indian chief was so delighted by a tintype of himself taken by a 
wandering artist at the agency that he wanted a picture of his squaw, who was 
placed in position before the camera. Just as everything was ready the chief 
wanted to see how his better half would look. He put his head under the 
cloth, and, to his horror, saw she was standing on her head. He instantly 
jerked his head out from under the curtain, but saw her standing on her feet. 
Thinking he might have been mistaken, the Indian took another peep and 
she was again standing on her head. He remonstrated with her, saying she 
could not expect a picture to look like her if she persisted in standing on her 
head. The squaw denied such acrobatic performance. Upon taking one more 
look Mr. Indian flew into a rage, grabbed his squaw by the shoulders, shook 
her violently, and dragged her out of the place, saying she was bewitched and 
should not have a picture until she learned to stand on her feet. 



Kansas History as Published in the Press 

Articles on Ellsworth county history printed in the county's news- 
papers in past months include: "A Glimpse of Ellsworth in the 
Days of Dirt Streets, Board Walks, Frame Shacks and Little Red 
School House," Ellsworth Messenger, January 9, 1936; "History of 
the Excelsior Evangelical English Lutheran Church," by Mrs. 
Charles R. Bowers, Wilson World, November 11; "A Cow Town 
Theatre," by F. B. Streeter, Ellsworth Reporter, January 14, 1937; 
"The Indian Raid of 1869 Some Sidelights," by J. C. Ruppenthal, 
World, June 16; "The History of M. Schwarz," by Michael Schwarz, 
World, July 28-September 1; "History of Fort Harker," compiled 
by Mrs. Raymond Shoaf, Reporter, January 27-February 24, 1938; 
"Ellsworth's Early History," Messenger, June 2; sketch of St. Paul's 
Evangelical Lutheran congregation, compiled by the Rev. A. H. 
Schroeder, Messenger and Reporter, September 22; "Wild Bill 
Hickok, Colorful Figure of Pioneer Days, Once Resident Here," 
Reporter, November 17; "Advance-Guards of Civilization, a Story 
of the Establishment of Fort Ellsworth and Fort Harker the Out- 
posts for the Protection of the Pioneers of West-Central Kansas," 
by Alice Hummel, Messenger, December 29, 1938-January 12, 
1939; "Early Day Stories," reminiscences of Vit Dolecek, World, 
February 8-March 8; "Mother Bickerdyke's Life Story Reads Like 
a Novel," World, March 1; "A Chapter in Ellsworth's History 
[1867-1879] ," Reporter, March 23 ; "City Officials of Holyrood From 
Time of Incorporation in 1901 to 1939," Holyrood Gazette, May 10. 

Under the title Early Northwest Kansas History, the Selden Ad- 
vocate recently issued a 38-page pamphlet featuring its collection 
of pioneer reminiscences published from time to time in regular 
editions of the Advocate. 

A series of weekly stories, under the title "Some Vagrant Mem- 
ories," was contributed by David D. Leahy in the Wichita Sunday 
Eagle beginning April 3, 1938. 

"History of Old Quindaro Recalled as School Plans Eightieth 
Anniversary Fete," was the title of a feature article in the Kansas 
City Kansan, May 8, 1938. The town, now a part of Kansas City, 
was named for Mrs. Quindaro Guthrie, a Wyandot Indian. 

A history of the Towanda Western Butler County Times, which 
celebrated its tenth anniversary in June, 1938, was printed in the 
June 2 issue. 

(218) 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 219 

Historical articles featured in recent issues of the Wichita Sunday 
Eagle include: "Wichitan [Ed. A. Calvert] Tells of Adventure 
With Capt. David L. Payne," by Lovina Lindberg, July 3, 1938; 
"[Thomas Masterson] Wichita Brother Tells of Colorful Life of 
Bat Masterson," by Arch O'Bryant, July 24; "Legal History of Oil 
and Gas Conservation Statutes in Kansas," by Innis D. Harris, 
July 31, August 7, 14, 21; "Dodge City to Celebrate Academy's 
Silver Jubilee," by David Leahy, "Mennonite College [Bethel] 
Completes Fifty Years of Service," by Lovina Lindberg, August 14; 
" [J. D. Simmons] Pioneer Recalls Walk of 250 Miles to File on 
Claim," by Lovina Lindberg, August 28; "Wichita Celebrated at 
Friends U. Opening 40 Years Ago," by G. H. Wood, "Eagle Files 
Give Vivid Picture of Strip Opening," by Lovina Lindberg, Septem- 
ber 4; "Wichita's Church of the Brethren to Observe [Sixtieth] An- 
niversary," by Lester F. Kimmel, "Wichita Business Men Recall 
Old Street Car Company," by Lovina Lindberg, "Old Letter Tells 
Little Known Facts About Early Kansas," by David D. Leahy, 
September 18; "Why the Quakers Came to Kansas to Make Their 
Homes," by Dr. Henry C. Fellows, October 9; "Rare Old Photo- 
graphs Show Beauty of Wichita 49 Years Ago," by Arch M. 
O'Bryant, October 23; "Education in Wichita Makes Great Strides 
in 25 Years," by F. S. Vassar, November 6; "[Arthur E. Hertzler] 
Halstead Physician Becomes Kansas' Outstanding Author," by 
Lester F. Kimmel, December 11, and "Oil Industry of Kansas Con- 
tinues to Advance During 1938," by Kenneth F. Sauer, December 25. 

Articles of Kansas historical interest in issues of the Kansas City 
(Mo.) Star during the last half of 1938 include: "A Tense 4th of 
July in Kansas [1856] When Free-State Legislature Met," by Cecil 
Howes, July 4, 1938 ; "Reds Change Policy and Manner Under Earl 
Browder of Kansas," by Paul I. Wellman, July 19; "How Kansas 
Treated Pardee Butler, Free-Soil Preacher From Illinois," by Cecil 
Howes, July 21; "A Pioneer [H. B. (Ham) Bell] Retires to His 
Memories of Sixty-four Years of Dodge City," by Cecil Howes, 
August 18 ; "Cattle Country History Preserved in 280-Page Edition 
of Newspaper [Gene Howe's Amarillo (Tex.) Globe-News]," August 
20 ; "Kansans Again Take Sides in Row Over Name of One of Their 
Rivers [Marais des Cygnes]," by Cecil Howes, August 27; "A Kan- 
sas Editor, Oscar S. Stauffer, Puts the Chain System to Work," 
September 6 ; "Spellbinding Now Is Too Refined For an Old Popu- 
list of Kansas," by Cecil Howes, November 7; "When Kansas 
Watched Progress of Its 'Fighting Twentieth/ " November 8 ; sim- 



220 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

plified system of reading used in Kansas 105 years ago by Dr. 
Johnston Lykins and Jotham Meeker at the Shawnee Baptist mis- 
sion is now forgotten, wrote Paul I. Wellman, November 12, and 
"U. S. Owes Thanks to a Scientist From Kansas [David Fairchild, 
Plant Specialist] for a Richer Harvest," by Dwight Pennington, 
November 22. 

Included among the articles of historical interest recently pub- 
lished in the Kansas City (Mo) Times were the following: "One 
Debate With 'Sockless Jerry' [Simpson] Was One Too Many for 
'Prince Hal' [James R. Hallowell]," by Cecil Howes, July 8, 1938; 
"The Battle of Wilson's Creek Kept Missouri Out of the Con- 
federacy," July 22 ; "A Visit to Victoria, Community of 637 Persons, 
Is Like Stepping Into a Bavarian Village Life Centers About the 
Large Catholic Church and Schools Founded by German Settlers 
Who Had Failed to Find Freedom and Peace in Russia," July 25; 
"Historic Lane Trail to Kansas Carried Fighters for Freedom," by 
Cecil Howes, July 28; "Ed Howe's Ice Cream and Singing Won a 
Friend Who Never Forgot," August 1; "Professor [R. D.] O'Leary's 
Name Will Live in Books He Read to K. U. Students," August 5; 
"The Kansas System in Lawmaking Becomes a Model for Legisla- 
tures," by Cecil Howes, August 30; "Kansas Oil Was Used by 
Pioneers Long Before Wells Were Drilled," by Cecil Howes, Octo- 
ber 13; "Historic Old Fort Laramie to Be Rebuilt as a National 
Monument," by Paul I. Wellman, October 18; "[Robert Taft] A 
University of Kansas Professor Surveys History of Photography," 
October 19; "K. U.'s Birth 75 Years Ago Ended Long Run of Fail- 
ures and Fights," by Theodore Morgan O'Leary, November 2; 
"Kansas Did Its Bit to Satisfy Sentiment for All Kinds of Law," 
by Cecil Howes, December 2, and "Topeka's Founders Lost Their 
Way on Townsite Eighty-four Years Ago," December 5. 

Victor Murdock's articles of historical interest in his front-page 
column in the Wichita (Evening) Eagle include: "Bringing Natural 
Gas to the Wichita Area Was Opening of An Era," August 2, 1938 ; 
"Facts of Jesse Chisholm Are Few But Most of Them Are Well- 
Established," August 12 ; "Where Matter of Inches in Measurement 
of Land Proved of No Great Concern," August 19; "[1889] Year of 
the Record Yield for Corn in This Region and Excitement It 
Caused," August 22 ; "Corn Production Contrast Between Yesterday 
and Today As Seen Around Wichita," August 24; "Part Taken by 
Wichitans in the Opening of Outlet Now Forty-five Years Ago," 
September 15; "Killing of Mr. John R. Hill in the Cherokee Outlet 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 221 

Run Forty-five Years Ago Today," September 16; "Connection of 
Kansas With the War of 1812 and Blackhawk Campaign," Septem- 
ber 20; "Memory of Atchison Bridge Still Vivid to Wichitan [Mrs. 
Curtis Hunger] . . .," September 22; "One Night in a Kansas 
Home When Chance Guests Were Jesse James and Frank James," 
September 28; "Maize Academy Memories Are Among the Treas- 
ures of Many Pioneers Here," October 12; "Some Who Were 
Present When John R. Hill, Runner at the Opening, Was Killed," 
October 29; "Will Ayres' Recollection of Members of Faculty of 
Garfield University [Predecessor of Friends]," November 3; "Wich- 
ita Seventy Years Ago With the Echo of a Tragedy From the 
Prairies Southwest," November 10; "Tragedy of Young Doctor 
[Squire] Who Gave Life for Others on the Kansas Prairies," victim 
of cholera, November 11 ; "Discovery of Skeleton Brought Back the 
Story of Cholera Scourge Here," November 15; "Evidence of Popu- 
lations Living Here in Deep Past Cited by [J. R. Mead] Wichita 
Pioneer," November 16; "Last of the Scalpings Carried Out by 
Indians in the Wichita Region," November 17 ; "Some Old Thanks- 
givings as Observed in Wichita in Three Ten-Year Periods," No- 
vember 24; "Carrying Comfort and Cure to Suffering Pioneers of 
Prairie Countryside," Dr. Luther Ames' recollections of early medi- 
cal practice, November 30; "Before Petroleum Appeared Over in 
Butler County and After It Had Arrived," December 9; "Earlier 
Ghosts of Kansas Which Walk On Occasion at Old Shawnee Mis- 
sion," December 12, and "Part the French Played in the Early 
Development of This Prairie State," December 16. 

St. Francis held a three-day jubilee August 18, 19 and 20, 1938, 
celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the city. 
Phases of the city's early history were recalled in articles in the 
St. Francis Herald, August 11 and 18. 

"Alf Landon's Own Story of His Fight for Presidency" appeared 
in the Kansas City (Mo.) Star, and other newspapers, August 21-24, 
1938. 

Kansas is believed to have been the first state to set aside the 
first Monday in September for the observance of Labor day, wrote 
Cecil Howes in the Kansas City (Mo.) Star, September 4, 1938. 
The proclamation was issued by Gov. Lyman U. Humphrey on 
August 13, 1890. Moreover, the late R. W. Price of Weir City, a 
coal miner, is credited with giving the day its name. The occasion 
was a labor demonstration in New York. Price, who attended, was 
escorted into the receiving stand to witness the parade. He is re- 



222 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ported to have climbed upon a chair and shouted: "This is a great 
day to show the strength and power of labor. I proclaim it Labor 
day." 

A history of Mariadahl's Swedish Lutheran Church, founded 
October 14, 1863, was reviewed in the Topeka Daily Capital, Octo- 
ber 9, 1938. 

On December 11, 1938, Topeka's Central Congregational Church 
celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its founding. Dr. Charles M. 
Sheldon, first minister, was the featured speaker. Brief histories 
of the church were published contemporaneously by the Topeka 
Capital and State Journal. "Dr. Sheldon and Topeka Mark Half 
a Century In His Steps" was the title of an article by Cecil Howes 
in the Kansas City (Mo.) Times, December 12. In 1888 Doctor 
Sheldon was selected to head the new Central Congregational 
Church, comprising fifty-seven charter members. Today, fifty years 
later, it has a membership of more than 1,500. Doctor Sheldon 
retired from the pastorate some years ago to devote his time to 
writing. His book, In His Steps, made him world renown. More 
than twenty-five million copies have been published. Doctor Shel- 
don has thirty-two separate translations of the book. 

A thirty-eight page seventy-fifth anniversary edition of The 
Courier-Tribune, Seneca, appeared December 15, 1938. The Nemaha 
County Courier was first issued by John P. Cone on November 14, 
1863. Histories of Seneca and its churches, schools, railroads, news- 
papers and clubs were printed. Other pages contain Nemaha county 
history, pictures and biographical sketches of many of the county's 
pioneers, and brief historical sketches of communities adjoining 
Seneca. Feature articles include: "He [Green Campbell] Was 
Nemaha County's First and Last Millionaire," and "Red Riflemen," 
by John T. Bristow; "Civil War Veterans Waited 17 Years Before 
Organizing"; "George Graham Won Honor Both in War and in 
Peace"; "A Roster of Graduates of Seneca High School"; "Walt 
[Mason] Spins a Tale of the Long, Long Ago," and "W. F. Thomp- 
son Tells Story of Buried Gold at Richmond." 

Early Kansas history received mention in The Platte County 
Gazette's special historical edition of December 16, 1938, marking 
the centennial of Parkville, Mo. Parkville, on the Missouri river, 
was founded by Col. George S. Park. 

The National Bank of Topeka recently observed the seventieth 
anniversary of its founding. Its history was reviewed in the Topeka 
State Journal, December 30, 1938. 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 223 

Wichita Magazine, publication of the Wichita Chamber of Com- 
merce, issued its 1938 Yearbook recently. The magazine, of eighty- 
four pages, provides a splendid pictorial record of business, educa- 
tional and industrial life in Kansas' second city. 

A special historical issue of the University Life, student publica- 
tion of Friends University, Wichita, was printed March 3, 1939. 
The Life is now in its fortieth year. Blanche Longstreth was the 
first editor. 

Ira H. Clark, of Great Bend, who founded the Hoisington Dis- 
patch March 7, 1889, was guest editor of the fiftieth anniversary 
edition issued March 9, 1939. Several pages of pictures and his- 
torical feature articles were prepared for the edition by Mr. Clark 
and Roy Cornelius, present editor. Great Bend vicinity in 1877 
was briefly discussed by C. J. Mackenroth in a letter written June 
17, 1877, and published in the Dispatch, March 30. 

William A. Carter's experiences while en route from Atchison to 
Fort Bridger (Wyoming) with Col. Albert Sidney Johnston's forces 
in 1857, were printed in diary form in the Annals of Wyoming, 
Cheyenne, April, 1939. 

Old Oklahoma was opened for white settlement April 22, 1889. 
Sooner and Plains history was featured in several Oklahoma news- 
papers in fiftieth anniversary editions celebrating the event. Largest 
issue received by the Kansas State Historical Society for filing was 
the 292-page Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman dated April 23, 1939. 

St. Ann's Catholic Church at Olmitz observed the golden an- 
niversary of its founding, May 9, 1939. A history of the parish was 
briefly sketched in the Hoisington Dispatch, May 4. 

Tribute to Mary Day Brown, wife of John Brown, was paid by 
Jennie Small Owen in an article in the Topeka State Journal, May 
11, 1939. While much has been written concerning her famous 
husband, very little has been recorded of Mrs. Brown's courage and 
sacrifice that "the cause" might live, wrote Miss Owen. 

A history of the Troy Kansas Chief, now entering its eighty-third 
year of continuous publication, was printed in the Topeka Daily 
Capital, May 14, 1939. 

The history of Topeka cemetery, "oldest organized cemetery in 
Kansas," was reviewed in the Topeka State Journal, May 29, 1939. 
The cemetery association was chartered by the territorial legislature 
on February 2, 1859. 



Kansas Historical Notes 

Organization of a Hays historical society was discussed at a 
meeting of a chamber of commerce committee April 3, 1939. Dr. 
Claire Wilson was elected permanent chairman and W. D. Philip, 
secretary. Others on the committee are: Roy Miller, George Philip, 
Frank Motz, Dr. C. D. Blake and R. S. Markwell. 

The Kansas History Teachers Association met in rooms of the 
Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, April 15, 1939, for its 
thirteenth annual meeting. Papers presented at the morning session 
were: "The Spirit of Canadian-American Relations," by Harold 
E. Conrad, Ottawa University, and "The Lima Conference," by 
Rob Roy MacGregor, Southwestern College. On the afternoon 
program, problems of state government were discussed by F. H. 
Guild, director of the research bureau of the legislative council. 
Kirke Mechem followed with an outline of the resources of the 
Kansas State Historical Society. He was assisted by Helen M. 
McFarland, for the library, and Nyle H. Miller, for the newspaper 
division. Newly elected officers of the association are: Harold E. 
Conrad, Ottawa University, president; Raymond L. Welty, Fort 
Hays Kansas State College, vice-president, and Delia A. Warden, 
Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia, secretary-treasurer. 
Others on the executive committee besides the above-named officers 
are: James C. Malin, of the University of Kansas, retiring presi- 
dent; Arley Riggs, Parsons Junior College; Robena Pringle, Topeka 
High School, and Iden Reese, Kansas City Junior College. 

Portraits and records of John C. Mack, Newton, Harold T. Chase, 
Topeka, and Thomas E. Thompson, Howard, who, during their 
lifetimes, were outstanding Kansas newspapermen, were added re- 
cently to the Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame in the University of 
Kansas journalism building at Lawrence. 

A marker commemorating Ben Blanchard's discovery of Hutchin- 
son's salt vein in 1887 was unveiled on Kansas highway 17, south of 
South Hutchinson, May 6, 1939, by Uvedale chapter of the Daugh- 
ters of the American Revolution. 

(224) 



PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT 

W. C. AUSTIN. STATE PRINTER 

TOPEKA 1939 

17-8551 



THE 

Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 




Volume VIII Number 3 

August, 1939 



PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT 

W. C. AUSTIN. STATE PRINTER 

TOPEKA 1939 

17-9292 



Contributors 

FRANK H. HODDER, 1860-1935, was head of the department of history at the 
University of Kansas, Lawrence, from 1908 to 1935. At the time of his death 
he was also president of the Ka-nsas State Historical Society. 

CORA DOLBEE is a member of the department of English at the University of 
Kansas. 

Brief biographical sketches of members of the Everett family were pub- 
lished on page 3 (February, 1939, Quarterly). 



F. H.Hodder's "Stephen A. Douglas" 

Editorial Introduction by JAMES C. MALIN 
I. INTRODUCTION 

'T^HREE years ago when an article by the writer in memory of 
-* Frank Hey wood Hodder 1 appeared in The Kansas Historical 
Quarterly, the work of necessity was done in greater haste than 
would have been wished, and, as no bibliography of his historical 
writings had been compiled, one important item was overlooked. As 
the most significant phase of Hodder's contribution as a historian 
centered on the career of the "Little Giant," senator from Illinois, 
it is particularly important to have included in its proper sequence 
his first formal article on Stephen A. Douglas. 2 

In this article Douglas was identified with the railroad question 
as a major focus of his interest and it was pointed out that securing 
the land grant for the Illinois Central railroad would have estab- 
lished his claim to remembrance if he had done nothing more. Hod- 
der credited Douglas with the compromise of 1850, pointing out that 
he was the author of three of the bills and that the bills which con- 
stituted the compromise finally passed singly after Clay's attempt 
at combining them had failed. Organization of the Western terri- 
tories was designated as the controlling interest in Douglas' career, 
and the Kansas-Nebraska act was the outgrowth of long-standing 
attempts to organize the territory west of the Missouri river as "an 
indispensable necessity to the development of the country." It was 
the hope of Douglas that it could be done without reviving the 
slavery question, but that unhappy issue was injected into the situa- 
tion by others. 

There are two points essential to Hodder's later development of 
the Douglas theme that are not explicitly stated in this article of 
1899, otherwise it contains the kernel of all the rest of his thirty-five 
years of work on that subject. He did not show how Douglas 
identified himself with the city of Chicago by making it not only his 
residence, but by investing in Chicago real estate, thereby tying his 
personal fortunes with the rise of that city as the commercial and 

1. The Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. V (May, 1936), pp. 115-121. 

2. F. H. Hodder, "Stephen A. Douglas," The Chautauquan, v. XXIX (August, 1899), pp. 
432-437. The article was reprinted in a pamphlet (N. p., n. d.) with an additional paragraph 
by way of introduction and with a few verbal changes. It is reproduced here in the revised 
form. 

(227) 



228 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

transportation center of the West. Secondly, Hodder had not yet 
shown how Douglas conceived the plan of making Chicago the 
eastern terminus of the Pacific railroad, how he was preparing the 
way for that great enterprise by his attempts after 1845 to organize 
the territory which later became known as Kansas and Nebraska, 
and how he was endeavoring, without alienating the South, to check- 
mate its sectional program for a Pacific railroad by a Southern route 
with a Southern city as its eastern terminus. 

II. THE REVISED HODDER REPRINT 

Mr. Lecky advises students of history, in order to arrive at an 
impartial judgment of any great question, to place themselves by 
an effort of the imagination alternately upon each side of the con- 
troversy, to try to realize the point of view of the leaders upon each 
side, and finally to draw up on paper the strongest possible state- 
ment of the arguments of each. The adoption of this advice would 
revolutionize the reading and writing of history. Most people study 
history to support preconceived opinions in regard to particular men 
or particular parties. Their spirit is that of the German justice of 
the peace who settled a suit saying: "You owe the man money. He 
is my friend and you pay him right away. Nobody wants to hear 
the other side." 

After the lapse of more than a century historians are for the first 
time treating our American revolution with some degree of im- 
partiality. It is perhaps too early to expect them to extend the same 
degree of impartiality to the struggle that preceded and culminated 
in our great Civil War. Most of the books about it are the work of 
participants on one side or the other who seek to vindicate them- 
selves. A few attempts have been made to set forth impartially the 
point of view of each side, but there is still little charity for the men 
of either side who sympathized in any degree with the other, for the 
Northern men with Southern principles or the Southern men with 
Northern principles. Both are summarily disposed of as selfishly 
seeking their own political advantage at the expense of their own 
sections. 

Of the great leaders during the period preceding the Civil War, 
no one has fallen from such a height as Stephen A. Douglas. No 
reputation has suffered so total an eclipse as his. His name is 
naturally associated with that of his great opponent. Lincoln's fame, 
comparatively slight in his own day, has grown steadily brighter and 
brighter since his death, while Douglas' name, powerful during his 



MALIN : HODDER'S "STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS" 229 

life, has dwindled almost to nothingness. "Stephen Arnold Douglas, 
with the accent on the Arnold," writes von Hoist, the great German 
authority upon our history, and his judgment is accepted as final by 
a large number of American readers. Is it fair, is it just? that is 
the question. 

Let us first briefly review the principal events of Douglas' life. 
He was born in 1813 at Brandon, Rutland county, Vermont. The 
death of his father threw the boy upon his own resources. His early 
years were spent on a farm. At fifteen he was apprenticed to a 
cabinet-maker and worked two years at that trade. After this he 
spent four years in study in the old time academy, first in his native 
town and later at Canandaigua, N. Y., the latter part of this time 
reading law in a local office. According to accounts he was a bril- 
liant student and early developed a talent for public speaking and 
political controversy. In the summer of 1833, when just past twenty, 
Douglas decided to seek his fortune in the West. A serious illness 
at Cleveland nearly exhausted his resources. Leaving Cleveland, he 
made his way to Jacksonville, 111., where he arrived with thirty- 
seven cents in his pocket. Fortunately securing a three months' 
school at Winchester, sixteen miles distant, he was able to support 
himself until he could finish his preparation for the bar. Returning 
to Jacksonville in March, 1834, Douglas was admitted to the prac- 
tice of law and opened an office, being then not quite twenty-one 
years of age. 

Douglas certainly went up like a rocket, however, his reputation 
may have come down like a stick. Devoting himself to politics, he 
gained instant prominence as the champion of Jackson and his 
policy. In less than a year after his admission to the bar, he was 
elected to the legislature, and in 1837 he was appointed register of 
the land office at Springfield. Immediately thereafter Douglas was 
nominated for congress, though not yet of the required age. In the 
election that followed he was defeated in a vote of 36,000 by a ma- 
jority of only fourteen, on account, it is claimed, of the illegal re- 
jection of ballots because of mistakes in writing his name. In Jan- 
uary, 1841, he was appointed secretary of state, and a month later 
was elected by the legislature a judge of the supreme court. In 1843 
he was elected to congress, and was reelected in 1844 and 1846. Be- 
fore taking his seat for a third term in the house, Douglas was 
chosen United States senator by the legislature, was reelected in 
1853, and again in 1859. Thus from February, 1835, until his death 
in June of 1861, a period of over twenty-six years, Douglas was con- 



230 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

stantly in public life. Eighteen of these years were spent in con- 
gress, four in the house and fourteen in the senate. During the same 
period Lincoln served three terms in the state legislature and one in 
congress. 

The issue of internal improvements was an important one at the 
time that Douglas entered public life. In the West especially it 
amounted almost to a mania, and the advocacy of extravagant un- 
dertakings was an easy way to popular favor. The session of the 
state legislature of which Douglas was a member adopted an elab- 
orate system of improvements which completely failed and hope- 
lessly involved the state in debt. After the collapse of the system, 
attention was directed toward congress. From the time Douglas 
entered that body an attempt was made to secure a land grant to a 
private corporation in aid of the construction of the Illinois Central 
railroad. A bill for that purpose was introduced at every session 
and as often failed of passage. Douglas opposed it upon the ground 
that the land grant ought to be made directly to the state. Soon 
after his transfer to the senate, he introduced a bill for that purpose, 
and in spite of strong opposition secured its passage in 1850. Doug- 
las afterward said: "If ever a man passed a bill, I did that one. I 
did the whole work and was devoted to it for two entire years." 
This was the first railroad act that bore actual fruit, and it initiated 
the system of land grants for railroads that prevailed until the 
Pacific railway legislation of 1862. Under this act the state of 
Illinois incorporated the Illinois Central Railroad Company and 
transferred to it the lands ceded to the state in return for an annual 
payment of seven percent of the gross receipts of the company. This 
has ever since proved an important source of income to the state. 
The amount paid by the company during the last fiscal year (ending 
October 31, 1899), was $664,625 and in all the state has received 
over seventeen and a half million dollars. If Douglas had done 
nothing else, this act alone would entitle him to the grateful remem- 
brance of the people of Illinois. 

In foreign politics Douglas was aggressively American, or what 
.in modern political phrase would be termed "jingo." He warmly 
supported the annexation of Texas, the Mexican war, and the claim 
to all of Oregon, and at a later day defended attacks upon Cuba and 
aggressions in Central America. As early as 1848 a campaign 
caricature represented him as exclaiming, "Young America wants 
progress. I am for the annexation of Cuba, Canada, Mexico and 
Japan." It is unfair to say, as the Whigs did then and Whig his- 



MALIN : HODDEB'S "STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS" 231 

torians do now, that territorial expansion was exclusively the result 
of a desire for extension of slavery. This was undoubtedly a prime 
motive, but other considerations moved large numbers of people. 
And even though we may not approve the mode and the motive of 
some of our territorial acquisitions, we must admit that our splendid 
territory and unprecedented national development are the result of 
the policy of which Douglas was the ardent supporter. We cannot 
accept the doctrine that evil may be done that good may come, but 
candor compels us to recognize the fact that good has come. 

The acquisition of foreign territory precipitated the controversy 
over slavery. The first territory acquired by the United States was 
Louisiana. The status of slavery in that territory was settled in 
1820 by the Missouri compromise. By the terms of the compro- 
mise, slavery was prohibited in all of Louisiana north of the parallel 
of 36 30', except Missouri, and was permitted in Missouri and by 
implication in that part of the territory south of Missouri. The next 
acquisition of territory was Texas. In that case the slavery ques- 
tion was settled by an extension of the line of the Missouri compro- 
mise. The Mexican war resulted in another increase of territory, 
which again raised the question of slavery. Northern men generally 
desired to prohibit slavery in all of the newly acquired territory and 
attempted to do so by the Wilmot proviso. Southern men desired to 
allow slavery in all of the territory or at least to divide it by an ex- 
tension of the Missouri line. The rapid settlement of California and 
its organization as a free state presented an obstacle to the adoption 
of the latter policy. 

Douglas was chairman of the committee on territories almost 
from the time that he entered congress. In that position it became 
his duty to frame and report the bills for the organization of the new 
territory. He therefore introduced in the senate bills for the organi- 
zation of Utah and New Mexico. These bills provided for the ad- 
mission of California as a free state and for the organization of Utah 
and New Mexico without any provision as to slavery, leaving it to 
the people of each territory to admit or exclude it as they should see 
fit. Clay now proposed a comprehensive plan for adjusting all ques- 
tions relating to slavery that were disturbing the peace of the union, 
by a series of measures. Douglas' bills were referred to his com- 
mittee and by him reported with slight changes to the senate. These 
changes were subsequently struck out and the bills were passed in 
the exact form in which they were originally proposed. Douglas 
may therefore be properly regarded as the author of all that part of 



232 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the great compromise of 1850 that related to the organization of the 
new territory. It was based upon what he considered the great 
principle of allowing the people of a territory to regulate their own 
affairs in their own way. It had the additional advantage of quiet- 
ing the country by removing the settlement of the slavery question 
from congress. 

"The issues of all human action are uncertain. No man can un- 
dertake to predict positively that even virtue will meet with its full 
reward in this world; but this much may be said with entire cer- 
tainty that he who succeeds in marrying his name to a great princi- 
ple achieves a fame as imperishable as truth itself." With these 
words in eulogy of Douglas, Senator Hunter closed his speech upon 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill. What could more strikingly illustrate 
the fallibility of human judgment. The service which Douglas un- 
doubtedly expected would win for him the highest prize in the gift 
of the people and a permanent place in the galaxy of American 
statesmen has cast the shadow that obscures his reputation. From 
the time that he entered congress, Douglas annually introduced bills 
for the organization of some part of the vast tract of territory be- 
tween Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, which was then known 
as "the Indian country." The admission of California rendered the 
organization of this territory both more important and more difficult. 
It was more important because it was necessary to connect the new 
state with the remainder of the country; it was more difficult be- 
cause in California the North gained an extra state. The South was 
at a loss for a slave state with which to restore the equilibrium. 
Slavery would not flourish upon the barren soil of Utah and New 
Mexico. The North would not permit the organization of a slave 
territory in that part of the Louisiana purchase consecrated to free- 
dom by the compromise of 1820. The South would not permit the 
organization of a free territory there, as it would develop into a free 
state and still further increase the advantage of the North. Still the 
organization of this territory was an indispensable necessity to the 
development of the country. 

Douglas sought to cut the Gordian knot by applying the principle 
of the compromise of 1850, which had apparently brought peace to 
a distracted people. The act for the organization of Kansas and 
Nebraska provided in the exact words of the Utah and New Mexico 
acts, that these territories should be admitted into the union as 
states, with or without slavery, as their constitutions at the time of 
their admission should prescribe. Thus Douglas hoped to organize 



MALIN: HODDER'S "STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS" 233 

the territories and at the same time maintain the peace of the union 
by excluding the question of slavery from congress. It was an appli- 
cation of the principle that the people of every community have a 
right to govern themselves the principle upon which the revolution 
was fought and won the principle which Douglas now christened 
"popular sovereignty." The idea was not original with him, but he 
made it his own by his championship. 

The adoption of the principle of popular sovereignty involved the 
repeal of the Missouri compromise and brought down a storm of 
reproach upon its author. Douglas said that he could ride from 
Boston to Chicago by the light of his burning effigy by night and in 
sight of his hanging effigy by day. For the first time in his life he 
was unable to pacify the mob that greeted him upon his return to 
Chicago. He was confronted by three principal charges: first, that 
he had wantonly destroyed the peace that the compromise of 1850 
had brought; second, that the repeal of the Missouri compromise 
was a violation of a solemn compact between the sections and a gross 
breach of faith; and third, that his object was to secure the support 
of the South and by means of it win for himself the presidency. 
Douglas replied that the organization of the territories was a neces- 
sity and that the only means of effecting it was to refer the question 
of slavery to the people of the territories, that the Missouri com- 
promise was subject to repeal like any other act of congress, and 
that the North had violated its letter by resisting the admission of 
Missouri in 1821 and had repudiated its spirit by refusing to extend 
the compromise line to the Pacific. 

That Douglas expected his measure to win favor in the South is 
probable, but it was legitimate to create the issue, if he honestly be- 
lieved it to be right. A man's motive is his secret and it is presumed 
to be innocent until proved to be guilty. There is not a particle of 
evidence to show that Douglas did not himself believe that the ap- 
plication of the principle of popular sovereignty to the territories was 
for the best interest of the country. It was entirely possible to be- 
lieve that the experiment would succeed as it had apparently suc- 
ceeded in 1850. Lincoln and Seward created the issue that "this 
government could not permanently endure half slave and half free," 
"that the United States must sooner or later become entirely a slave- 
holding or entirely a free-labor nation." This issue was not less 
likely than Douglas' to provoke sectional strife. It proved to be 
right and its authors are lauded as statesmen. Douglas proved to be 
wrong and is denounced as a demagogue. 



234 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

In the heat of political controversy, each side charges the other 
with insincerity. A later generation finds that one was right and the 
other wrong, or more often that each was partly right and partly 
wrong, but that both were equally sincere. Hamilton and Jefferson 
furnish a good illustration. Each distrusted the other and each be- 
lieved that the other's influence threatened the very existence of the 
government. We now see that both were sincere, that in some re- 
spects both were mistaken, but that both contributed elements es- 
sential to the development of the republic. May not a later genera- 
tion find that Lincoln and Douglas were at least equally sincere? 

The parallel between Webster and Douglas is a striking one. Most 
men who profoundly influence their times are dominated by single 
ideas. The keynote of Webster's career, from his reply to Hayne to 
his 7th of March speech, was devotion to the constitution and the 
union. When he supported the Fugitive Slave bill he supported a 
right that no one ever denied that the constitution guaranteed to the 
South. He was immediately denounced as a traitor to his section, 
charged with seeking by corrupt means to secure the presidency, and 
overwhelmed with abuse that embittered his life and still dims his 
memory. Only within a few years are historians beginning to see 
that his course was consistent with his record. Douglas' career was 
controlled by faith in the right of the people to govern themselves 
and by devotion to the interests of the West. Both ideas determined 
his course in the Kansas-Nebraska controversy. If they bore evil 
fruit, they also bore good fruit. The West would not be what it is 
today, had he not opened it to settlement. The act that enabled the 
South to carry slavery into Kansas, enabled the North to save her to 
freedom. What the result of leaving California permanently severed 
from the union would have been cannot be told. 

Douglas' course, like Webster's, was consistent with his record. 
Both men were behind the best thought of their day on the subject 
of slavery. In the pursuit of certain great purposes they neglected 
others. That they did so was unfortunate, but it does not condemn 
them to infamy. Political progress in this country has resulted from 
the efforts of a succession of statesmen, each striving for particular 
ends. Washington and Hamilton stood for the establishment of 
efficient government, Jefferson and Douglas stood for democracy and 
territorial development, Webster and Clay stood for the constitution 
and the preservation of the union, Lincoln and Seward stood for the 
restriction of slavery by every constitutional means. Let all receive 
credit for what they did or tried to do. Let us not disparage any. 



MALIN : HODDER'S "STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS" 235 

The Kansas-Nebraska act was a turning point in the life of Doug- 
las and in the history of the United States. It brought on the Kan- 
sas struggle ; that issue enabled the Republican party to secure con- 
trol of the government, and that event precipitated the war. The 
first stage of the Kansas conflict consisted of the struggle to secure 
control of the territorial government, the second stage was marked 
by the attempt to compel the adoption of a pro-slavery constitution. 
As soon as the administration tried to force upon Kansas a constitu- 
tion to which the majority of her people were opposed, Douglas 
courageously revolted. Buchanan warned him that "no Democrat 
had ever opposed his party without being crushed," but Douglas was 
undaunted. He had pledged his honor to allow the people of Kansas 
to regulate their domestic affairs in their own way and he kept his 
promise. His course secured the applause of the Republicans, but 
divided his own party, leaving him at the head of the Northern wing. 

Douglas' name was coupled with the presidency almost from the 
beginning of his political career. As early as 1848 he was recom- 
mended for that office by the Democracy of Illinois. In 1852 the 
contest lay between Cass, Buchanan, Marcy and Douglas. Cass, 
Buchanan and Marcy were "old war horses" and Douglas was put 
forward in opposition to them as the candidate of " Young America." 
The convention, being unable to agree upon any of the prominent 
leaders of the party, nominated a "dark horse" in the person of 
General Pierce. In 1856 the contest narrowed down to Buchanan 
and Douglas. Buchanan was considered by the politicians the more 
available candidate as he had been absent from the country and was 
therefore not involved in the exciting controversies that had recently 
taken place. On the sixteenth ballot the vote stood 168 for Bu- 
chanan to 122 for Douglas. Buchanan having received a majority, 
Douglas patriotically withdrew in order to give him the necessary 
two-thirds vote and the nomination. The Illinois state campaign 
of 1858 was the prelude to the national campaign of 1860. Lincoln, 
nominated by the Republicans to contest Douglas' reelection to the 
senate, challenged him to a series of joint debates. Douglas ac- 
cepted the challenge with reluctance. He was himself the most con- 
spicuous man in public life, while Lincoln was comparatively un- 
known. He had nothing to gain by meeting Lincoln and everything 
to lose, while Lincoln had everything to gain and nothing to lose. 
The contest was the most remarkable one of the kind that has ever 
taken place. Both sides claimed the victory. The logic of events 
has given it to Lincoln. Douglas won the immediate prize, while 



236 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

two years later Lincoln secured the Republican nomination for the 
presidency as the result of his canvass. 

Of Douglas' loyalty to the union there was never any question. 
During the presidential campaign he boldly told the people of the 
South that they had no right to secede. At Lincoln's inauguration 
he occupied a prominent place on the platform near the president. 
Immediately after the attack on Sumter he called on Lincoln and 
pledged his support of any measures necessary for the defense of 
the government. No appeal made in that great crisis was finer than 
the address he delivered a few days later before the legislature of 
Illinois. 

Whenever our government is assailed, when hostile armies are marching un- 
der rude and odious banners against the government of our country, the short- 
est way to peace is the most stupendous and unanimous preparation for war. 
The greater the unanimity the less blood will be shed. The more prompt and 
energetic the movement and the more important it is in numbers, the shorter 
will be the struggle. 

In his last public speech, made on the first of May in Chicago, 
Douglas said: "There are only two sides to this question. Every 
man must be for the United States or against it. There can be no 
neutrals in this war; only patriots and traitors." 

Worn out by labor and disappointment of the campaign, Douglas 
sank rapidly under the attack of an acute disease and died on the 
third of June, 1861, when but little past his forty-eighth year. His 
last words framed a message to his absent sons. "Tell them," he 
said, "to obey the laws and to support the constitution of the United 
States." Everywhere in the North his death was regarded as a na- 
tional calamity. Had he lived he might have kept his party from 
wavering in the crisis of the war. 

All in all, Douglas must be accorded an important place in our 
history. In the controversies preceding the Civil War he played a 
larger part than any other statesman. That he was a politician can- 
not be denied. Every man who has gained prominence in American 
politics has done so by dint of able political management. The ideal 
state of society in which the office seeks the man rather than the man 
the office has never yet been realized. That he attained the highest 
rank of statesmanship cannot be claimed. He was too much given to 
shrewd management and sharp parliamentary practice. Winning 
in person and powerful in debate, he was the idol of friends and the 
terror of enemies. His ability has never been questioned, his honesty 
and patriotism have never been disproved. The history of today is 



MALIN: HODDER'S "STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS" 237 

too much colored by the partisan invective of yesterday. The gen- 
eration that has given to Abraham Lincoln, so little appreciated 
during his life, the full measure of praise that is so justly his due, 
has underrated the honesty, the ability and the patriotism of Stephen 
A. Douglas. 



The Third Book on Kansas 

An Interpretation of J. Butler Chapman's "History of Kansas 
and Emigrant's Guide" 

CORA DOLBEB 

THE third book on Kansas was the offering of J. Butler Chap- 
man, from Indiana. It bore the two-fold title, History oj Kan- 
sas and Emigrant's Guide. An elaborate subtitle added component 
elements of geographical and political appeal: 

A Description Geographical and Topographical Also, Climate, Soil, Produc- 
tions and Comparative Value With Other States and Territories, Including Its 
Political History, Officers Candidates Emigrant Colonies Election, Aboli- 
tion, Squatter and Pro-Slavery Contentions and Inquisitions, With the Pros- 
pects of the Territory for Freedom or Slavery. All Compiled From a Three 
Month's Travel Through the Territory in 1854. By ... a Resident Since 
Its Settlement. Vol. I. With a Map Drawn From Observation and Official 
Sources. (Map and Book Sold Separately or Together.) 

Copyrighted in 1854, 1 the book was published in Akron, Ohio, Janu- 
ary 31, 1855. 2 Teesdale, Elkins & Co. were the printers. The title- 
page names no publisher. Exactly which months constituted the 
"Three Month's Travel" the author does not say. Reference in the 
text to the California road west of Lawrence as a "thronged 
thoroughfare of wagons, human beings, and stock" from June 1, 
1854, to December 15, 3 indicates he had been in the territory for at 
least six months. In the summer he passed along the Kaw, noting 
its shallow channel without a canoe upon it. 4 Other records than 
his own tell definitely of his presence in the territory from the mid- 
dle of October through November. 

For this study the writer has found but one copy of the book. It 
is in the library of the Kansas State Historical Society at Topeka. 
The book was a gift to the Society from Eugene M. Cole, of In- 
dianola, whose name in long-hand appears across pages 1 and 5. 5 
Descendants of the author appear to have no copy of the book. 6 

1. Chapman, J. Butler, History of Kansas and Emigrant's Guide (Teesdale, Elkins, & Co., 
Akron, Ohio, 1855). 

2. Wilder, D. W., Annals of Kansas (Geo. W. Martin, Kansas Publishing House, 1875), 
p. 43. 

3. Chapman, op. cit., p. 38. 

4. Ibid., pp. 72-73. 

5. D. W. Wilder in his Annals, p. 43, alludes evidently to this copy when he says, "Mr. 
Eugene M. Cole, of Indianola, Shawnee county, a very intelligent printer, owns a well-worn 
copy of this peculiar book." 

6. Chapman, John W., letter, December 14, 1935, and card, January 31, 1936, from 
North Manchester, Ind., to writer of this article. John W. Chapman is a grandson of J. 
Butler Chapman. 

(238) 



DOLBEE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 239 

The Library of Congress has no record of the publication. 7 Sabin 
does not list it. 8 A rare book dealer, unable to find a copy to offer 
for sale, describes it, nevertheless, as a four hundred dollar item. 

Only for its scarcity, however, does the thin little 116-page Volume 
I, on age-browned, frail newsprint, have especial monetary value. 
Apparently no Volume II was ever written ; one allusion in the text 
to "the next volume" which is to include "a reliable history of the 
prairies" as soon as the author can obtain it from "their former own- 
ers" 9 the Kansas tribe of Indians is the only reference to a second 
volume. The one copy of Volume I is now in board covers, but they 
are an additional protection of some caretaker to the original paper 
back. The map described on the title page is not preserved in this 
copy. 

For the student of the early literature on Kansas, J. Butler Chap- 
man's book has two interests: It is a good reflection of the author's 
own character and fitful participation in territorial affairs; and it 
presents with professed and fairly apparent sincerity both Pro- 
slavery and Antislavery prospects, the author's own sympathies be- 
ing primarily "Free Soil." The title of the book, History oj Kansas 
and Emigrant's G^ide, is really a misnomer. It is not a history at 
all ; what of it is narrative is the story of the author's observation of 
settlement and his own participation in it. Record of his travels in 
the territory and assertion of his prophecies for its future are, with 
the exception of eight pages, about all the directions he gives to 
guide emigrants. 

"Like author, like book," describes J. Butler Chapman and this 
third book on Kansas well. Widely traveled, variously occupied, 
addicted to politics and petty quarreling, and prejudiced in favor of 
town-founding, Mr. Chapman was quite in his element in Kansas 
territory. Born in Harrison county, Virginia, December 24, 1797, 10 
he was an experienced person before emigrating to Kansas. As a 
youth he had had little education. At fifteen he began working in 
his father's fulling, oil, and grist mills in Clarksburg. When 
eighteen he was a hotel clerk in Winchester and Baltimore. In 1816 
his father gave him a horse and clothing and advice to "go west." 
The nineteen-year-old youth, known then as John B. Chapman, 
traveled through southern Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. At Vin- 

7. Memorandum, Library of Congress, June 14, 1935, supplied by Jessica L. Farnum, 
secretary. 

8. Joseph Sabin, Dictionary of Books Relating to America (N. Y., 1867). 

9. Chapman, op. cit., p. 113. 

10. Historical Atlas of Kosciusko County (Kingman Brothers, 1879). Typewritten copy 
used. 



240 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

cennes he engaged as pilot to take a boat up the Red river into 
Texas. In 1817 he returned to Virginia, where for two years he read 
medicine with practicing physicians. His father then gave him an 
outfit of books and medicine and sent him to Tyler county to prac- 
tice. He followed the profession of medicine in Sistersville, Va., 
Burlington, Iowa, and Guyandotte, Va., until 1827. Then having 
read law as an apprentice and received a license to practice, he lo- 
cated in Crawfordsville, Ind. Here, in 1829, he took up fruit-farming 
as an additional occupation. In 1831 he moved to Logansport. 11 
In 1832 he preempted a claim on Turkey creek prairie near Lees- 
burg. 12 Here he farmed, practiced his two professions, medicine 
and law, and became actively interested in politics. 

Office-holding and town-founding soon grew into definite avoca- 
tions, if not actual additional occupations, for John B. Chapman. 
In 1834 the Turkey Creek post office was established in Mr. Chap- 
man's cabin and he was the first postmaster. President Van Buren 
appointed him local agent of the Indian reservations. 13 Next he be- 
came prosecuting attorney for the northern circuit of Indiana and 
representative in the Indiana legislature. In the latter capacity he 
secured the establishment of Kosciusko county, and himself chose 
the names both for the county and for the county seat, Warsaw. 
As representative he also secured the charter for the railroad through 
Elkhart county to Goshen. 14 Mr. Chapman had part in the founding 
of three Indiana towns; in Leesburg, 1835, he was one of the first 
twelve settlers; 15 of Liverpool, 1836, he was one of three proprie- 
tors; 16 in October, 1836, he "transferred his fealty to Warsaw," 17 
becoming one of its founders. 

His public activities led John B. Chapman into many personal 
difficulties. His biographers call him a "persistent meddler in poli- 
tics." 18 He was a Jackson Democrat who had voted first for "Old 
Hickory" in 1823. He knew Jackson and Van Buren personally; 
politically he emulated their ways. Of uneasy disposition and quick 

11. Royse, L. W., A Standard History of Kosciusko County, Indiana (Lewis Publishing 
Company, Chicago, 1919), v. I, pp. 86-87. Typewritten copy used. 

12. Biographical and Historical Record of Kosciusko County, Indiana (Lewis Publishing 
Co., Chicago, 1887), pp. 644-645. 

13. Royse, op. cit., pp. 86-87. 

14. Chapman, J. B., letter to Will, August 2, 1856, in Northern Indianian, Warsaw, Ind., 
August 28, 1856. Type-script of letters from J. B. Chapman, printed in the Northern 
Indianian, supplied by George A. Nye, of Warsaw, Ind., who owns the file. 

15. Biographical and Historical Record of Kosciusko County, Indiana, p. 644. 

16. Ball, Rev. T. H., Lake County, Indiana, From 18S4 to 1872 (J. W. Goodspeed. 
printer and publisher, Chicago, 1872), p. 284. 

17. Ibid., p. 156. Also, Biographical and Historical Record of Kosciusko County, Indiana, 
p. 689. 

18. Royse, op. cit., pp. 86-87. Also, Historical Atlas of Kosciusko County. 



DOLBEE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 241 

temper, he was himself "an all-around eccentric" who craved con- 
tinuous action and change. Withal he was determined and usually 
accomplished his purpose, though to do so he had sometimes to carry 
his case to the higher powers in Washington. This he did to sub- 
stantiate the title to his land on Little Turkey creek prairie. 19 
Patent to the Indian float for Liverpool he procured in his own 
name. 20 When he obtained the charter for the Goshen railroad with- 
out a petition and without any support of his constituency, he ap- 
pointed commissioners and "made them meet whether or no, and 
organize the company, and hold the right of way through Indiana." 21 

When in 1849 "partial deafness compelled him to relinquish prac- 
tice" 22 of law, John B. Chapman joined the gold rush to California. 
"He wanted to sell all of the world) that he could." 23 Thereafter he 
made "flying trips to California, Washington, Oregon and Alaska, 
when to reach the Pacific slope meant many discomforts and not a 
few actual hardships." 24 He laid out three towns on the Pacific 
coast. 25 He lived in Oregon for three years. 26 Knowledge of the 
Western states and territories gained in these travels and sojourns 
served the author variously in writing his book upon Kansas in 
1854. Particularly did he draw upon his long acquaintance with 
Kansas territory itself. 27 

"Poverty and the fate of circumstances brought" Mr. Chapman 
to Kansas as a pioneer emigrant. 28 He had been in Washington, 
D. C., when the Kansas-Nebraska question came before congress. 
Through the intervention of friends in Indiana he had been promised 
political appointment in Washington territory, now denied him by 
Gov. I. I. Stevens because he admitted he was "decidedly in favor 
of free territories." 29 In company with his wife Mr. Chapman had 
taken his grievance to President Pierce, the two of them resolving 

19. Ibid. 

20. Ball, op. cit., p. 284. 

21. Chapman, J. B., letter to Will, August 2, 1856. 

22. Biographical and Historical Record of Kosciusko County, Indiana, p. 672. 

23. Historical Atlas of Kosciusko County. 

24. Royse, op. cit., pp. 86-87. 

25. Chapman, J. B., letter to editor of Northern Indianian, August 12, 1856, in Northern 
Indianian, September 4, 1856. (The writer of this article has been unable to learn the 
location of these towns.) 

26. Chapman, op. cit., pp. 76-77. 

27. Ibid., pp. 11, 51-53, 76-77. 

28. Chapman, J. B., letter to Will, August 2, 1856, in Northern Indianian, August 28, 
1856. 

29. Isaac Ingalls Stevens, a retired army officer and conspicuous Democrat, was appointed 
governor of Washington territory in 1853 by President Pierce. He served until 1857. 
Joseph Schafer, in his biographical sketch, in the Dictionary of American Biography (Scribner, 
1935), v. XVII, pp. 612-614, says Stevens called himself a "Democratic Abolitionist." For 
probable explanation of J. B. Chapman's disfavor in his eyes, see p. 266 of this study. 

169292 



242 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

openly on the way that they would not renounce Antislavery prin- 
ciples for the best office he had to give. The visit resulted in nothing 
but ill will for Pierce, to be nourished by subsequent events in Kan- 
sas. In "setting his stakes in this territory," however, Mr. Chapman 
determined to identify himself with the people and "labor to promote 
their interest." 30 

The varied background of John B. Chapman colors the whole 
History of Kansas and Emigrant's Guide, though here it is J. Butler 
Chapman who writes the book. Use of the new signature even is in 
keeping with the owner's restless love of change. He lists every con- 
ceivable town and settlement in the new territory; he names the 
proprietors, where known. He criticizes the hospitality proffered in 
public places. He revives old friendships begun in other states of 
earlier residence. Everywhere he notes political sympathies; un- 
hesitatingly he prophesies. He scents quarrels and he participates 
in them. He runs for office. He founds a town, to which all roads 
lead and to describe which critics accuse him of having written his 
book. He secures railroads, and favorably, usually favorably, he 
compares the new territory with all the other states and territories 
he has seen. 

The introduction to History of Kansas and Emigrant's Guide re- 
peats the declared purpose of the subtitle. Twice the author asserts 
his account will be impartial. To guard the emigrant against false 
allurements, he will picture the territory as he sees it, not as the 
"paradise" most writers here described it. 31 In chapter X he explains 
again his motive of enabling pioneers "to traverse the country 
knowingly," and "not stop and return home as thousands have done" 
before. 32 Twice in chapter XIX he says he has written merely to 
record the truth. 33 By learning what has been done in the first 
election, the reader may know what can be done. 34 He opens his 
discussion in chapter I with regret that "the excitement in the 
congress of the United States, in 1854, gave greater consequence to 
the territories of Kansas and Nebraska than they deserved." 35 Po- 
litically, he admits, they have been and are of great importance; 
"but as to their capacity to confer a great amount of human happi- 
ness, they have no advantages greatly superior, and have some great 

30. Report of address of J. B. Chapman, Leavenworth, November 10, 1854, in Karuai 
Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, November 10, 1854. 

31. Chapman, op. cit., p. 3. 

32. Ibid., p. 45. 

33. Ibid., pp. 104, 105. 

34. Ibid., p. 103. 

35. Ibid., p. 5. C/., also, pp. 15, 112-113. 



DOLBEE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 243 

disadvantages to many other states and territories, as will be shown 
in this work." In his writing Mr. Chapman often forgets this de- 
termination to be factual and himself indulges in such exaggeration 
as he here condemns. 

The general plan of the book is more logical than its develop- 
ment. Nineteen chapters and an appendix constitute Volume I. 
Chapter I bounds Kansas territory Nebraska territory appears 
only in occasional allusion and lists desirable road and river entries 
to the different sections of Kansas. Chapters II to XIII sketch the 
preeminent geographical features of some of the regions visited by 
Mr. Chapman. Chapter XIV discusses climate, soil, water supply, 
timber, resources, adaptability to farming, and desirable crops and 
stock raising. Chapter XV consists of reprints of published infor- 
mation for settlers. Chapters XVI to XIX are records of outstand- 
ing territorial happenings in the autumn of 1854. The appendix 
presents "the prospects of Kansas for freedom or slavery," from 
Mr. Chapman's viewpoint. Each of these six general sections treats 
of its chosen theme, but it also treats of more. Anywhere, the author 
talks of subjects of personal interest to himself. These added topics, 
too, are likely to appear more than once with the same or with new 
treatment. The effect is of considerable overlapping. In the be- 
ginning, moreover, Mr. Chapman asserts that the political relations 
of the territories have been so much discussed that he has nothing 
new to submit on that subject, 36 yet virtually every chapter is full 
of political bias peculiarly his own. 

Usual access to Kansas territory, the writer points out, is from 
the east side ; the principal avenue of approach is the Missouri river. 
According to the emigrant's intended destination he will choose his 
crossing at Kansas City, Leavenworth, Weston, Williamsport, Atchi- 
son, Doniphan City, St. Joseph, James R. Whitehead's ferry, Smith- 
field, or Iowa Point. 37 Desirable roads leading from the river towns 
toward the interior of the territory are the Parkersville road, the 
California and Oregon trail, the Santa Fe road, and the fort to fort 
road between Leavenworth and Riley. 38 

Although Mr. Chapman gives Kansas the recognized boundaries of 
1854, he limits his sketch of geographical features to the eastern 
portion. He fixes "the terminus of the territory proper," two hun- 
dred miles west of the eastern line. The inhabitable part of Kansas, 
he says, is "from latitude 37d. 30m. north, to 40d. 10m.; longitude 

36. Ibid., p. 5. 

37. Ibid., pp. 6, 9-11. 

38. Ibid., pp. 7, 8, 11, 13. 



244 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

west from Missouri state line 94d. 30m.; 97d. longitude west from 
Washington making a square of two hundred miles east and west, 
and two hundred and forty north and south." 39 

Chapters II-VI and XI -XII record, in scattered way, the author's 
impressions of the portion of this "square" north of the Kaw river. 
Passing back and forth across the region at least twice, he seems to 
have jotted down ideas about it as they occurred and not assembled 
them for orderly, unified portrayal. From widely separated entries, 
however, the reader learns of the changing soil, the lowering timber 
line, and the decreasing development of the region from east to west. 

The first journey follows the Kansas river westward. The best 
land is near the confluence of the Grasshopper with the Kaw. 40 
"One of the most central and commanding situations in the terri- 
tory," is the site of Whitfield City, on the Conda river. 41 Along the 
California road, west of the Vermillion crossing, is rolling prairie. 
Coal and timber in the ravines are inducements to settlement along 
Ten Mile creek. 42 Fort Riley has a beautiful setting. On the 
frontier beyond, good locations are few and all endangered by In- 
dian depredation. 43 

Varying in soil and vegetation, the section has made different ap- 
peal to settlers. The Delaware trust land, though legally closed to 
emigrants, is nearly all occupied by substantial farmers. 44 Else- 
where settlements are sparse. On the Grasshopper the author lo- 
cates "Osankee," laid out by Indian traders named "Dyres." 45 On 
the Pottawatomie land he finds the Catholic mission and a lodging 
kept by "Mrs. Bertrands, an old acquaintance from Michigan." 46 
Germantown on the Vermillion is a promising locality. 47 At Marys- 
ville is an Indian trading post. 48 

The settlement of settlements in this region north of the Kaw is, 
for J. Butler Chapman, his own town, Whitfield City. In three 
chapters he elaborates upon its superiorities. To it and from it, 

39. Ibid., p. 27. 

40. Ibid., p. 21. 

41. Ibid. 

42. Ibid., p. 29. 

43. Ibid., pp. 26-29. 

44. Ibid., p. 20. 

45. This town is Osawkie, laid out by W. F. and G. M. Dyer in 1854. A. T. Andreas, 
History of the State of Kansas (1883), v. I, p. 523. 

46. "Mrs. Bertrands" was probably Mrs. Bertrand at St. Mary's mission twenty-five 
miles above Topeka, on the north side of the Kansas river. "She has fine stables, sets an 
excellent table, and is in every way qualified for entertaining the travelling public." Herald 
of Freedom, March 1, 1856. 

47. Chapman, op. cit., p. 26. 

48. Ibid., p. 29. 



DOLBEE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 245 

literally, all roads lead, both wagon and rail. 49 The site is one of the 
most commanding and valuable in the territory. 50 Surrounded by 
large forests, rich lands, and a stone quarry, it itself has beautiful 
groves of young trees, large limpid springs, an excellent coal bank, 
and unusual mill power. 51 Shooting off to the northwest winds the 
serpentine Conda river "like the great hydra for which it was 
named." 52 

The great advantages of setting and resources make Whitfield 
suitable for business, for the seat of government, and for public 
institutions of learning. 53 Mr. Chapman and his "partners in the 
location," Jas. A. Gray and F. Swice, have laid out the town at 
right angles, with public squares for schools and churches. They 
have immediately set about the erection of a schoolhouse, Mr. Chap- 
man returning "to the states to procure teachers, designing at the 
earliest possible period to establish a protestant institution of learn- 
ing." 54 In the appendix the author also describes a manual labor 
college, "about being established at Whitfield City," 55 to be open to 
Indians and white folk; "neither race nor sex will be debarred from 
its advantages." 

The second exploration north of the Kaw extends from Fort 
Leavenworth along the Missouri river to 40d. latitude. This is the 
portion of Kansas territory Mr. Chapman has known longest, having 
crossed it first in 1849. To him it is most attractive, both in 
natural features and in qualities for development. He notes settle- 
ments along the way; he rejoices especially in acorn-fed turkey and 
venison of Wallace B. Moore, "sportsman-proprietor of Arbana." 56 
His pictures of lowland and highland are graphic. The bottoms of 
the Missouri are "all alluvial and as mutable as the falling snow." 57 
The bluffs around Doniphan and Atchison are brushy, inaccessible, 
and forbidding. 58 The high open prairie beyond Smithfield, "the 

49. Ibid., pp. 17, 21-24. 

50. Ibid., pp. 21-23. An article entitled "A Relic of the '50's," in the twenty-fifth anni- 
versary edition of the Topeka Mail and Kansas Breeze, May 22, 1896, locates Whitfield City 
on "the southeast quarter of section 7, township 11, range 16," Soldier township, Shawnee 
county. 

51. Chapman, op. cit., pp. 21-24. 

52. Ibid., pp. 23-24. 

53. Ibid., pp. 22-24. 

54. Ibid., p. 23. 

55. Ibid., pp. 113-114. The New York Daily Tribune, March 31 and April 4, 1855, an- 
nounced that "an association under the title of 'The Indiana Kansas Industrial and Literary 
Association' has been formed at Dublin, Ind.," to secure, among other desirable features for 
its emigrants, "a manual labor school, acceptable to all, where students can pay their expenses 
by their daily labor." Five hundred emigrants were expected to remove to Kansas territory 
under auspices of this company at an early date. 

56. Chapman, op. cit., pp. 58-59. 

57. Ibid., p. 50. 

58. Ibid., p. 49. 



246 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

most uneven and knobby land in Kansas ... is like a 
meadow set full of haystacks." 59 Though the country is luxuriant, 
two hindrances make it undesirable for preemption: adjacency to 
Missouri has made Easterners avoid it unless they have some pre- 
dilection for politics; 60 absence of an election district has been an 
obstacle to pioneers wanting representation in the territorial gov- 
ernment. 61 

In two other separated sections, chapters VII-X and chapter 
XIII, Mr. Chapman crosses to south of the Kaw, proposing to give 
"a full statement of all the important localities, towns and cities, 
prospective and in essee, describing only the tributaries of the Kan- 
sas." 62 Here, too, he appears to have traveled twice through the 
section. In accounts of both journeys, however, he gives little heed 
to natural features of the region, but lists the settlements along his 
routes and notes the relative advantages of the lands set aside for 
the different Indian tribes. 

On the first trip he passes through the Shawnee reserve, the land of 
the Pottawatomies, and the land of the Kaws around Council 
Grove. 63 He visits the five missions maintained in these lands by 
three religious denominations two Methodist, two Baptist, and one 
Quaker and writes somewhat critically of their intents. 64 The 
towns along the Kaw, the Wakarusa, and Rock creek he twice as- 
serts are dense or thick. 65 The ones he names, however, are rel- 
atively few, often insignificant, and usually far apart. The places 
include the public house of Blue Jacket at the Wakarusa crossing 
of the same name; 66 Franklin, laid out by old acquaintances of the 
author, L. B. Wallace of Indiana and Jerry Church of Virginia; 67 
Bloomington, with hundreds of selections of rich, well-timbered, 
well-watered land still available; 68 Lawrence city, deserving "a page 
in history," from "the notoriety of the founders," but here receiving 
four pages for its twenty to thirty mile view from Capitol Hill, called 
"hog back ridge," and for its rude habitations tents, log cabins, 
hay roofs, and sod houses; 69 Douglas city, surpassing in location, but 

59. Ibid., p. 54. 

60. Ibid., p. 52. 

61. Ibid., p. 59. 

62. Ibid., p. 30. 

63. Ibid., pp. 44-45. 

64. Ibid., pp. 32-34, 44. 

65. Ibid., pp. 35-37. 

66. Ibid., p. 35. 

67. Ibid., pp. 35-36. 

68. Ibid., p. 37. 

69. Ibid., pp. 38-41. 



DOLBEE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 247 

inaccessible for business ; 70 Tecumseh, in want of timber and popula- 
tion but possessed of the hospitality of Mrs. Thomas Stinson who 
cooks better victuals than anyone the author knows in Chicago or 
New York ; 71 and Uniontown, a trading post conducted uneconomic- 
ally on Pottawatomie land. 72 

The second journey on the south side of the Kaw covers a region 
still farther south and extends farther west. From the Missouri 
border westward along the Santa Fe road the author describes the 
lands of the different tribes, their extent, the tribal reserves accord- 
ing to the treaty of Washington, 1854, and the terms for settlement 
by whites. Proximity to the Osage river or its headwaters de- 
termines his ranking of the lands. He notes few settlements. Along 
the Santa Fe trail he finds good situations principally claimed by 
Missourians, preparatory to election. 73 

Chapter XIV, entitled "Climate," embraces information about 
soil, water supplies, natural growths, and native animal life. It 
describes the earth as hard, smooth clay, the hardness being easily 
removed by irrigation. The water supply is variable. 74 Traveled 
roads are "smooth in dry weather, never dusty, ... of the con- 
sistency of hard soap"; rains, however, turn those on slopes into gul- 
leys, and new tracks have to be made. The soil, a black loam, will 
produce every variety of vegetable, cotton, hemp, corn, sweet pota- 
toes, "every luxury . . . desired for culinary purposes." The 
whole face of the country is a meadow. 

Resources include stone, wood, native fruits, and game. A sub- 
stratum of limestone underlies the whole country. Wood, or timber, 
is good and splits well, but is short-bodied. 75 In overflowed low- 
lands is cottonwood; farther away from streams are white oak, elm, 
walnut, cherry, white ash, hickory, honey locust, sycamore, and 
blackberry. 76 Among the native products are walnuts, hickory 
nuts, hazel nuts, pecans, acorns, crab apples, plums, strawberries, 
raspberries, blackberries, grapes, and wild honey. 77 Wild game in- 
cludes turkeys, prairie chickens, quail, and gray squirrels; deer is 
scarce; bears are rare. Of the destructive animals wolves, of all 
colors and sizes, are most common; raccoons appear frequently. 

70. Ibid. pp. 41-42. 

71. Ibid. p. 43. 

72. Ibid. p. 44. 

73. Ibid. p. 61. In the text "Missourians" is "Missionaries," evidently a misprint. 

74. Ibid. pp. 74-75. 

75. Ibid. pp. 72-74. 

76. "Blackberry" would seem to be a misprinting of "hackberry." 

77. Chapman, op. cit. f p. 74. 



248 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Occasionally one sees a badger, a beautiful dapple-grey, but slow 
and stupid. 

Comparing Kansas territory with all other territories and states 
known to him, Mr. Chapman believes none excel it in soil; only in 
fertility, however, is the soil superior. 78 With this exception Cali- 
fornia and Missouri surpass Kansas in everything. Oregon, Wash- 
ington, Utah, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio all fall be- 
hind in one or many ways. In climate, the Kansas winters are 
colder and the summers wanner than in other states in the same 
latitude. 79 The air seems more serene and placid than in the East; 
objects are discernible at greater distances. "Heavy winds prevail, 
. . . constant, . . . dense almost as water, and seemingly 
sufficient to tear a common piece of sheeting to tatters." Thunder- 
storms are common and appear more severe than in the states, 
owing possibly to the openness of the country. 

Two pages of practical advice to emigrants conclude this chapter. 
Three or four farmers should invest in four or five yoke of oxen and 
a large prairie plow together. From 10 to 20 acres of prairie, costing 
about $3 per acre for breaking, should support a family of five for 
the first season. 80 For economy and efficiency neighbors should join 
fences. Three types of fences are in use; the timber fence, made of 
stakes 4-5 feet long, and two inches square, "drove in the ground 
8 inches, and a slat nailed on to keep them steady"; the Osage 
orange hedge with a ditch on the outside to serve as a barrier while 
the orange, sowed the first year, is maturing; and the fence of rock, 
a sufficient supply of which nearly every farm has for at least its 
main fences. One further page of directions in the appendix supple- 
ments this advice. 81 Emigrants should bring all kinds of seed, espe- 
cially Osage orange seed. One gallon will grow plants enough to en- 
close eighty acres ; methods of planting in a nursery and of resetting 
in echelons "about the new moon in March" follow. For home 
market farmers should grow corn, oats, rye, potatoes, and various 
esculents; for foreign market they should produce horses, cattle, 
hogs, sheep, flour, hemp, and cotton. 82 

In five pages chapter XV reviews the official directions to emi- 
grants. Reprint of an abstract of the preemption laws, by R. R. 
Andrews, Esq., of Fort Leavenworth, published in a Kansas City 
paper, tells of the lands subject to preemption, of the amount, not 



78. Ibid. 

79. Ibid. 

80. Ibid. 

81. Ibid. 

82. Ibid. 



pp. 75-77. 
p. 71. 
pp. 77-78. 
pp. 115-116. 
p. 74. 



DOLBEE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 249 

exceeding 160 acres, to a person, of the qualifications of the pre- 
emptor, and of ways to protect the right. 83 This is but an abridge- 
ment of the preemption law of September 4, 1841. 84 A letter from 
the commissioner of the land office, October 13, 1854, gives informa- 
tion for settlers. 85 Rules of a local squatter association for adjust- 
ment of discrepancies between claims and the lines of the govern- 
ment survey close the directions. 86 

The only portion of the History of Kansas and Emigrant's Guide 
that presumes to be history, in the technical sense of being a record 
of public events, is what composes chapters XVI-XIX; and that is 
really an ill-ordered journalistic account from the politically-preju- 
diced pen of an active participant in the events themselves. The in- 
terpretations are as lengthy as the narratives. Chapter XVI ex- 
plains the "notoriety" of Lawrence, by the story of its founding. 87 

When the Yankees arrived August 1, 1854, they found all the good 
land on the river already taken by "the Missourians." For one 
quarter section on the river, or the good will of the settlers, the 
Easterners agreed to give $1,000. Not getting the good will of one 
Baldwin, who had a most eligible claim adjoining this quarter on the 
east, they planned to get possession of it under the provisions of the 
preemption law, which says, "No man shall preempt any town or 
incorporated city." Their construction of the act was that if they 
could lay out a town upon any settler's claim, "it would prevent him 
from holding a preemption." To reassure themselves in interpreta- 
tion of this act they sent an agent, Mr. Blood, to Washington "to 
ascertain from the commissioner of the land office, the legal effect 
of the preemption law." 88 

Meanwhile, Mr. Baldwin, still residing upon his claim, formed a 
company with three other settlers to lay out the "City of Excelsior" 
on his land before the Eastern association commenced its town. A 
Yankee then pitched his tent on a portion, an act "looked upon by 
the Excelsior company with some suspicion of a 'Grecian horse.' " 89 

83. Ibid., pp. 79-81. 

84. This law appears in v. V, U. S. Statutes at Large, pp. 453-458. 

85. Chapman, op. cit., pp. 81-82. 

86. Ibid., pp. 82-83. 

87. Ibid., pp. 84-89. 

88. Ibid., p. 84. This was James Blood who in the fall of 1854 went to Washington, 
D. C., at the request of Amos A. Lawrence, "to study up about Kansas land matters." 
Biographical sketch of James Blood, by Ida Blood Hasselman. Also letter of introduction of 
Col. James Blood to I. S. Mason, commissioner of patents, Washington, D. C., written in 
Kansas, Mo., September 13, 1854, by Edman Chapman. Also letter of Thos. H. Webb, 
Boston, Mass., November 6, 1854, to Dr. Chas. Robinson, Lawrence, in "Letter Book No. 1" 
in papers of New England Emigrant Aid Company. All in manuscript division of Kansas 
State Historical Society, Topeka. 

89. Chapman, op. cit., p. 85. 



250 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

When Baldwin undertook to remove the intruder, "the whole Yankee 
corps assembled under the direction of their chief, Doctor Robinson, 
armed to the teeth with fusees, revolvers, and dirks, to resist the re- 
moval of the tent." The quarrel continued, through a series of epi- 
sodes, for several days. The Excelsior company rallied 25 settlers 
to try to oppose force by force; when the Yankees paraded to the 
number of 125, took shelter in a log cabin, and declined a challenge 
to a fair fight, the Excelsior company sent runners to Missouri to 
procure aid in maintenance of its legal rights. 90 It set October 14 
as the day for relieving the Baldwin claim of the Yankee tent. Each 
side prepared for a severe contest. 

The Chapman account then state's that both parties attempted to 
settle their differences by word instead of by force, inviting J. B. 
Chapman to address them. He assented, provided they would come 
to the ground unarmed. They accepted his condition and he ad- 
dressed a large assembly "on the political interest of Kansas, and the 
necessity of peace and harmony." His own comment, they "all ap- 
peared well pleased that the matter at issue was disposed of so 
quietly," 91 implies that he settled the matter. Later, however, he 
writes that the Yankees would no doubt have fought had the 
Missourians not failed to respond to the call of the settlers. 92 The 
runners had exaggerated "frightful stories of the Yankee weapons" 
and the approaching battle, and the stories proved "a damper upon 
the spirits of the ally." About this time Mr. Blood brought word 
from Washington that the Emigrant Aid Society might take what 
land it desired for its city; immediately the Easterners spread out 
their town of Lawrence over the site of Excelsior. 93 "Might" had 
given them "right." 94 

Mr. Chapman's purpose in lengthy relation of this story appears 
to have been exposure of the Easterners' unfair treatment of Mr. 
Baldwin and other surrounding settlers in taking into the site of 
Lawrence the site of Excelsior City. 95 The account itself seems an 
unbiased one, treating both sides fairly. He uses it, nevertheless, 
as evidence of the "prescriptive spirit of some members, but more 
particularly of the leaders" of the Emigrant Aid Society that drove 
from the Antislavery ranks great numbers of noncommittal citi- 

90. Ibid., pp. 84-86. 

91. Ibid., p. 86. 

92. Ibid., pp. 88-89. 

93. Ibid., p. 85. 

94. Articles in the Herald of Freedom, in the spring of 1855, show that the townsita 
quarrel continued with other participants. 

95. Chapman, op. cit., p. 84. 



DOLBEE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 251 

zens. 96 Two other episodes of Yankee outlawry he also cites to 
support this contention. 97 Then, to balance the charge, he reviews 
again the impudence of Missourians at the border in inquiring into 
the political proclivities of indifferent emigrants and so prejudicing 
them against slavery, before they set foot on Kansas soil. 98 

More colorful than the townsite quarrel in Lawrence is the story 
of the arrival of Gov. Andrew H. Reeder and his tour through Kan- 
sas territory. To it the author devotes chapter XVII. Throughout 
the book he has made continual critical, or satirical, remarks about 
Governor Reeder's land speculation; comment in that vein shares 
treatment here with doubt of the governor's political sincerity. 99 

Pomp and pageantry marked the reception of the governor at 
Fort Leavenworth 100 "about October 6." 101 In the territory "a 
sycophantic adulation was paid him, which misled both governor 
and subjects." 102 In Leavenworth city, however, his immediate 
investment in lots opened the eyes of his devotees somewhat. 103 So 
did his confusion of executive and judiciary powers in settling a 
squatter fight for a claim of land. 104 

About October 24, Governor Reeder set out on his tour of the 
territory, preparatory to its organization. 105 A procession more than 
a mile long accompanied him. It included governor, suite, attaches, 
public officers of the territory, numerous carriages, horsemen, and 
attendants. The author likens it to a funeral procession, but at 
Franklin, when the parade halted, symptoms of intoxication made 
a less solemn impression upon the residents. 

Arrival of "the cavalcade" at Lawrence city gives Mr. Chapman 
occasion to impugn once more "the Yankee town," which he now 
says consisted of "one cabin, . . . two long hay-rick tents, and 
a dozen camp tents." 106 "The grand reception" of the people was 

96. Ibid., p. 87. 

97. Ibid., p. 88. 

98. Ibid., pp. 9-10, 88-89. 

99. Ibid., pp. 17, 21, 41-42, 47, 90-95. Governor Reeder drew much adverse criticism 
upon himself for his land investments. He also had some approval. The Herald of Freedom, 
July 21, 1855, published a defense, citing the opinion of the New York Evening Post : "There 
is no law preventing any territorial governor from purchasing lands, and Governor Reeder has 
violated no law." Why should he be made an exception to the whole class of actual residents? 
All governors and other officers in newly organized territories have done the same thing. 

100. Chapman, op. cit., p. 90. 

101. A. H. Reeder received his commission as governor of Kansas territory June 29, 1854, 
and arrived at Fort Leavenworth October 7, 1854. Roy F. Nichols, in Franklin Pierce (Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1931), pp. 407-408. 

102. Chapman, op. cit., p. 91. 

103. Ibid., pp. 90-92. 

104. Ibid., p. 91. 

105. Ibid., pp. 92-95. 

106. Ibid., p. 93. 



252 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

but a deep-laid scheme of the two major political parties, each 
acting for underground speculation. S. C. Pomeroy, who delivered 
the address of welcome "made to order a week previous," 107 hoped 
to procure the seat of government and the capital ; and the replying 
governor, before whose eyes floated visions of Indian lands, parried 
remarks with him upon free institutions and free schools. 

In the suite of "his Excellency" was a rival candidate for dele- 
gate to congress. This was Robert P. Flenniken, "a Nebraska 
Democrat," who was to remain "neutral and mum on politics," and 
who in Lawrence did not utter "a sentiment in public on any topic 
whatever." 108 Both this candidacy and the secrecy of it annoyed 
Mr. Chapman, for he was himself openly a candidate for delegate 
to congress, as was also Judge John A. Wakefield of this district. 
That Flenniken on this visit to Lawrence met neither of them "on 
the stump," irked Chapman especially. 

From Lawrence the governor journeyed westward to Council 
Grove. To atone for the Abolitionism just displayed he took a 
town share in Douglas City at $250, though he would no doubt "as 
soon think of building a city on a crocodile's back." 109 The third 
day out he bought one section of Kansas half-breed land. The 
fourth day, at Council Grove, he purchased five or six sections from 
the Kansas Indians. About November 10 the governor returned 
to Leavenworth, where without proclamation of territorial organi- 
zation, and without taking a census, he now ordered an election for 
delegate to congress. 110 

The next two chapters are a confused record of that election. 
Events do not have chronological account. Opinion constantly 
supplements statement of fact. Repetitions lack consistency. The 
composition, however, is vivid. From the disorder the reader can 
easily re-create the colorful picture. 

With the November 10 proclamation for the election on Novem- 
ber 29, Governor Reeder announced the places for polls 111 and issued 
specific instructions to the judges of election. 112 His public mes- 



107. Ibid. 

108. Ibid. 

109. Ibid. 

110. Ibid. 

111. Ibid. 

112. Ibid. 



pp. 93-95. 
p. 94. 

p. 95. 
p. 94. 
pp. 104, 106-109. 



DOLBEE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 253 

sengers also carried along "the tickets of Fleneken, and imposing 
handbills setting forth who he was." 113 

The other candidates already in the field were without official 
favor. Judge John A. Wakefield, representing the Yankees at 
Lawrence, was an Abolitionist. 114 J. Butler Chapman had an- 
nounced his own candidacy in addressing the rival city founders in 
Lawrence, October 13. 115 In his book, he now describes himself as 
"a Democrat from Indiana, who, although in favor of a free state, 
sustained the institution 116 where the law and the constitution fixed 
it, ... was strongly opposed to Abolitionism, and was sup- 
ported in his pretensions as a candidate by the Proslavery men and 
the Free-Soilers." m During his campaign Mr. Chapman advanced 
a plan of his own for limited preemption of land; 118 he proposed that 
to each actual settler a quarter section be donated, and that to him 
alone be granted the privilege of buying forty acres of first-rate 
timber. In discussion in his book of the ruinous effect of selling the 
public domain in a new country, he says that to bona fide or actual 
settlers on quarter sections of prairie land, and to them only, forty 
acres of timber land should be allowed gratis. 119 The appendix, 
written after the campaign was over, repeats the idea that not a 
foot of land should be sold except to bona fide residents and to no 
one more than a quarter section, making the chance equal for poor 
and rich ; and it commends the new treaty with the Delawares pro- 
viding for the settlement of their territory by preemption. 120 By 

113. Ibid., pp. 99-100. The contemporary press dwelt upon the former public services 
of Robert P. Flenniken as minister plenipotentiary to Denmark and wealthy lawyer of Penn- 
sylvania. The Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, from November 10 through November 
24, 1854, printed the following advertisement: "We are authorized to announce Hon. Robert 
P. Flenniken, of the sixteenth election district (embracing Leavenworth and Salt Creek) as a 
candidate for delegate to congress for Kansas territory, at the approaching election on the 
29th inst." 

114. Chapman, op. cit., p. 97. 

115. Vide ante, p. 250. Also, correspondence from "T.," October 23, 1854, to "My dear 
Cousin" and printed in the Philadelphia Sun, November 10, 1854, says "each one desirous of 
going to Washington as a delegate must appoint himself and mount the stump." On October 
13, when speaking to the rival city founders in Lawrence, J. Butler Chapman announced his 
candidacy. Boston Atlas, November 1, 3, 8, 1854 ; Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, November 4, 
1854; Philadelphia Sun, November 10, 1854; Springfield Republican, November 18, 1854; 
Boston Courier, November 25, 1854; Keene (N. H.) Sentinel, December 15, 1854. In "Webb 
Scrap Books," v. II, pp. 10, 1, 2, 7, 4, 10, 15, 22, and 4 respectively. The Kansas Weekly 
Herald, Leavenworth, from October 20 through November 17, 1854, printed the following 
advertisement: "We are authorized to announce J. B. Chapman as a candidate for delegate 
in congress from Kansas territory." 

116. "The institution" is, of course, slavery. 

117. Chapman, op. cit., p. 97. 

118. Ibid., p. 57. 

119. Ibid., p. 48. 

120. Ibid., p. 110. This treaty was ratified July 11, 1854, and proclaimed by Franklin 
Pierce, July 17, 1854. It provided for sale of surveyed lands at public sales; lands not so 
sold to be subject to private entry; after three years of such offering to private entry, they 
may by act of congress be graduated and reduced in price until all lands are sold. Revision 
of Indian Treaties, A Compilation of All the Treaties Between the United States and the Indian 
Tribes (Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1873), pp. 340-345. 



254 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

such apportionment, the author contends, "a large amount of the 
prairies could have been occupied." 121 

On November 10, the day of the governor's proclamation, J. But- 
ler Chapman was in Leavenworth where he addressed "a respectable 
number of the sovereigns." He said there that he was in favor of 
the homestead bill, of the giving to every actual settler of 160 acres 
of land, of a liberal policy of internal improvements, of slack water 
navigation on the Kansas river, of railroads through the territory, 
both north and south, and east and west, of letting the people settle 
the slavery question, of advocating the principles of the Kansas bill, 
of preserving the union at all hazards, of supporting the constitu- 
tion, of maintaining inviolate the laws of the country, and of pro- 
tecting every man in his property including slaves. 122 

The governor, Mr. Chapman believes, expected to carry the terri- 
tory for his favorite by the patronage of his office. "By political dis- 
tinguishment" on his recent tour he had paid court to every slave- 
holder in the territory. Official announcement now of the candidacy 
of Flenniken stirred the rumor that the governor had formed an 
intrigue with the Abolition faction at Lawrence for 1,000 Yankee 
votes. The report "ran over the country like wildfire." 123 To off- 
set such coalition the Proslavery men now looked about for an 
opponent to represent their interests. 

The day of the governor's proclamation a call of unknown origin 
was raised in Leavenworth city for a mass meeting November 12 to 
"nominate" a candidate for delegate. 124 Because of the short notice 
the handbills could not circulate over the territory. Mr. Chapman 
believes they were never intended to go beyond Leavenworth fort 
and town and were meant for "a gull upon the people." Five hun- 
dred Missourians responded to the call, but the convention did not 
organize. 125 Gen. John W. Whitfield, once a resident of the terri- 

121. Chapman, op. cit., p. 57. 

122. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, November 10, 1854. 

123. Chapman, op. cit., pp. 97-98. This charge against Flenniken had publicity in a 
circular on Whitfield, says The Kansas Pioneer, Kickapoo, K. T., quoted in an editorial, 
"From Kansas The Struggle," in the New York Daily Tribune, December 4, 1854. 

124. Chapman, op. cit., pp. 98-99. The Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, November 
10, 1854, says, "A convention has been called by somebody, we don't know who, to be held 
at this place on Wednesday next, to nominate a candidate for delegate to congress. We would 
like to see a concentration made upon some good and reliable man, but this call comes in a 
very suspicious way, and we apprehend, it will be 'Love's labor lost.' " 

125. The Herald, November 17, 1854, says the convention proved to be as predicted, 
" 'Love's labor lost,' an abortion no one being willing to father the call, or acknowledge 
having anything to do with it." The meeting resolved that the call for the convention was 
premature, and adjourned without nominating a candidate. "The day of the convention was 

. big with the fate of many an aspirant for congressional honors several of whom gave 
way for another. What the result will be no one now can tell. General Whitfield, Judge 
Flenniken, and J. B. Chapman are the most prominent, one of whom, will doubtless be 
elected." 



DOLBEE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 255 

tory, but now an Indian agent at Fort Laramie, was present, 
mounted the rostrum, and made a speeech. Mr. Chapman says the 
Proslavery men sought out Whitfield "as the most efficient candidate 
to meet the emergency and beat the governor's man," but the 
Leavenworth Herald reported Whitfield as saying he became a 
candidate "upon his own hook." 12G Flenniken refused to address 
the meeting. As a result of the call, however, he and Whitfield be- 
came the leading rival candidates. Proslavery folk maneuvered to 
keep Wakefield on the track so as to dwindle Abolition votes. Chap- 
man, in his own words, "from the necessity of the occasion, had to 
decline." 127 He did not, however, withdraw his name. 128 

All candidates and their constituencies played politics. Distribu- 
tion of the polls was the first reflection of it. Lawrence and Douglas, 
but eight miles apart, were chosen to avoid party criticism. 129 
Marysville, the seat of the eleventh district, contained but five 
votes. 130 The Sacs Indian agency, appointed polls for the region of 
the Nemaha, was wholly inaccessible, being eighty miles away. 131 
Only at Lawrence did the governor take counsel in choice of election 
judges, and there his appointments were "ultra Antislavery." 132 At 
Leavenworth he named Abolition men, too, but in both places "they 
were as helpless as children." At every other poll officials were 
"ultra Proslavery men." For not a single appointment did the gov- 
ernor consult a Free-Soil candidate or friend. 133 

To lure voters two or three Proslavery towns set lot sales one 
week before election. Political talks accompanied the sales. At 
Douglas City both Mr. Chapman and General Whitfield spoke on 
the patron of the town. 134 As election day drew near strange in- 
dividuals floated over the country without even land hunting for 
excuse. On being asked whether they would vote, they would reply, 

126. The Herald, November 17, 1854, reported that General Whitfield addressed "quite 
a large assemblage . . . from the stump. . . . [He] said in becoming a candidate he 
[had] done so upon his own hook, without the urgent solicitation of friends, or the aid and 
authority of a convention. ... He said he was a free man, and should submit only to 
the will of the majority of the people as expressed at the ballot box. He declared himself 
the firm and unwavering friend of the squatter, and in favor of extending to every settler 
on the public lands, a preemption. ... He was before the sovereigns." He admitted 
having encouraged settlers to go on the Delaware lands; said he was "a railroad man" but 
did not hope to secure a road for Kansas territory at the short session of congress ; pro- 
fessed to believe the people alone should settle the question of slavery; and disclaimed all 
knowledge of the mysterious call for the convention. 

127. Chapman, op. cit., p. 98. 

128. Vide post, Footnote 137. 

129. Chapman, op. cit., p. 94. 

130. Ibid., p. 95. 

131. Ibid., pp. 57, 95, 100. This agency of the Sacs, Foxes, and lowas was thirty miles 
from St. Joseph, "quite out of the way for settlers" around the Nemaha. 

132. Ibid., p. 103. 

133. Ibid. 

134. Ibid., p. 99, footnote. 



256 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

"0, certainly." For the openness of their intent Mr. Chapman 
praises them. "It was no fraud, ... for there was no pretence 
of right held out." At some of the polls elections were peaceable; 
at others voters threatened judges with revolvers and dirks. At 
some polls the inhabitants and the foreigners all voted the same 
way; at others residents were denied the vote and "Missourians" 
from various states allowed it. "At Fort Leavenworth, where the 
military ought to have interfered to protect the sanctity of the 
ballot box, they were with impunity the most obtrusive and reck- 
less." 135 At the Nemaha polls, where there could be no election by 
the residents, 400 Proslavery votes were cast by the Missourians. 136 
Many a Free-Soiler unable to brave the insults and to endure the 
after-revenge left the territory that day rather than vote. 

The election returns Mr. Chapman quotes do not include the votes 
cast for himself. The complete report, taken from the affidavits of 
the judges of the election, reveals that John B. Chapman received a 
total of sixteen votes. The table below shows the districts registering 
his name with the number of votes cast for him. The nine district? 
not included here did not even list him as a candidate. 

District John B. Chapman 

1 9 votes 

2 votes 

3 1 votes 

4 votes 

11 5 votes 

12 .. 1 votes 



Total 16 votes 137 

185. Ibid., pp. 101-103. 

186. Ibid.,, p. 100. The affidavits of election for District 14, embracing Doniphan, 
Nemaha, and Brown, show 153 votes. 

137. Affidavits of Judges of Election, in Archives division, Kansas State Historical Society, 
Topeka. The report of this election in Wilder's Annals of Kansas (Topeka, 1875), p. 41, 
names only Whitfield, Wakefield, and Flenniken as candidates, and accounts for all votes 
cast for other persons under the heading "Scattering." Among the contemporary records the 
St. Louis Republican of November 30, and the Boston Atlas of December 5, said the contest 
had narrowed down to Whitfield and Flenniken. In citing returns, however, the St. Louis 
Republican, December 1, the New York Tribune, the Boston Evening Telegraph, and the 
Boston Daily Advertiser, December 6, 1854, gave the votes cast for Whitfield, Flenniken, and 
Wakefield. The New York Tribune, December 11 and 12, and the Boston Evening Telegraph, 
December 13, listed the votes cast in Lawrence for a Mr. Chapman, a Proslavery candidate. 
The Worcester Daily Spy, December 14 and 20, the New York Tribune, December 14, and the 
West Chester (Pa.) Register and Examiner, December 16, did the same but referred to J. B. 
Chapman as "Dr. Chapman," an election judge with whom the candidate was confused. 
The National Era, December 21, credited Chapman with but ten votes. The Boston Atlas, 
December 27, the New York Tribune, January 2, 1855, and the Worcester Spy, January 3, 
credited him with sixteen, the two latter papers adding full accounts of the election. The 
Detroit Evening Tribune, December 29, credited John B. Chapman with sixteen votes. The In- 
dianapolis Daily Journal, December 30, and The Commercial, Wilmington, N. C., December 
20, carried long editorials with quotations from the Baltimore Sun on fraudulent election 
methods used in Kansas. In a communication to The Sentinel, a Southern publication (place 
not given), B. F. Stringfellow gave election returns for Whitfield, Flenniken, and Wakefield, 
only, with items to interest people of the South. "Webb Scrap Books," v. II, pp. 29, 31, 33, 
34, 36-38, 43, 53, 56, 62, 80, 94, 110, 125-127, 132, 133, 143-144. 



DOLBEE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 257 

District 1, which gave him nine votes, included Lawrence. Dis- 
trict 12, embracing Whitfield City, had forty-one voters and forty- 
one votes, one of which was for John B. Chapman. Evidently Mr. 
Chapman did not vote in this election himself; his name, at least, 
is not among the forty-one voting in his district, nor do any of the 
other fourteen affidavits include it. The records were, of course, 
immediately recognized as fraudulent, and may misrepresent him. 
The reader wonders, however, whether he may not himself have 
left the territory that day along with the Free-Soil voters he says 
feared "to deposite" votes because of the probable after-revenge. 138 
The "Executive Minutes," recorded December 4, 1854, in the gov- 
ernor's office during the administration of Andrew H. Reeder, also 
accord John B. Chapman sixteen votes in the election returns by dis- 
tricts. 139 On December 5, the governor declared Whitfield elected. 140 

Mr. Chapman regards the election returns as just rebuke to the 
governor for his land speculation. Had he not stooped to low 
means, the Missourians would not have crossed the border in such 
numbers to vote. 141 The governor's instructions to the judges of 
elections were specific. 142 Everywhere, however, they received Pro- 
slavery interpretation to fit the Proslavery needs of the hour. 143 
The election proclamation had outlined principles for disputing the 
election ; when put to the test they failed of every requisite to meet 
the exigency of the occasion. 144 Certainty of Flenniken's success 
had thrown the governor off guard. On the fifth day after the 
election two or three polls contested the results, but futilely. Wake- 
field and Flenniken both appeared before the governor in protest. 
Flenniken discovered the mistake; but Wakefield supposed that if 
one poll was found corrupt, it would invalidate the election. Whit- 
field received so great a majority at all polls that the governor could 

138. Vide ante, pp. 255-256. 

139. Kansas Historical Collections (1881-1884), v. Ill, p. 240. 

140. Wilder, Annals of Kansas, p. 41. 

141. Chapman, op. cii., pp. 98, 100. 

142. Ibid., pp. 106-109. These instructions as quoted by Mr. Chapman vary from the 
original in ways that are probably only typographical. His copy in line 4 omits "true" and 
in the first sentence of the third paragraph from the end substitutes "it" for "of." Other 
variations are in the use of capital letters. Copy of the original of these instructions, in the 
"Executive Minutes," recorded in the governor's office during the administration of Gov. 
Andrew Reeder, in Kansas Historical Collections, v. Ill, pp. 234-235. 

143. The Herald of Freedom, January 6, 1855, called the election an outrage, the can- 
didate having been elected by Missourians. "Governor Reeder did all in his power to secure 
us from this outrage." He provided an oath to be administered to voters not known to 
judges, but judges were bound by force of circumstances; in some districts they were perhaps 
favorable to proceedings. 

144. Chapman, op. cit., p. 105. 

17 9292 



258 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

not successfully enter a caveat at any. "His Excellency was caught 
in his own net." 145 

J. Butler Chapman's account of political events in Kansas terri- 
tory no doubt reflects his own somewhat changing political out- 
look. In the text proper he says there were two organized parties 
in the territory in 1854, the Proslavery and the Abolition. 146 They 
were equally intolerant, but his preference was for the former be- 
cause of the agreeable hospitality of slaveholders as neighbors. 
Both Proslavery and Antislavery leaders had, by their prescriptive 
spirit, however, prejudiced many independent freemen against both 
parties. These individuals constituted a third class that regarded 
"the oligarchy of abolitionism quite as oppressive and repulsive 
. . . as the oligarchy of slaveholders." 147 Emanating from the 
widely separated regions of New England, Illinois, Ohio, and 
Indiana, these settlers had as yet no organization and no name. 148 
In identifying them in spirit with the Free-Soilers and in saying 
that they might "yet rally under the independent standard of 
American liberty," 149 Mr. Chapman named two other parties, 
already represented in the territory. "The American party," he 
even says, "may yet decide the fate of Kansas." 15 A fifth party, 
the Free State, under banner of which he had offered himself as 
candidate for delegate to congress, he merely alludes to in dis- 
cussion of possible new alignments. 151 The hospitable nature of 
the Southerners would normally lead the Free-State party to unite 
with the slaveholders; but election disappointments, leading un- 
successful parties to join against the successful, may bring Free- 
Soilers into line with the Abolitionists. 152 The Free-Soilers he 
admires exceedingly as fine "stalwart fellows, who think and act for 
themselves"; very tenacious of their politics, "the old line they do 
not regard." 153 

In the appendix, written presumably later than the text, the 
author says there were three parties in Kansas, the Proslavery, the 

145. Ibid., p. 106. Filed with the affidavit of election in the third district, held at 
Stinson's house at Tecumseh, is a petition to set aside this election, presented by men of 
Lawrence and Topeka. It bears 77 signatures. 

146. Chapman, op. cit., p. 105. 

147. Ibid. p. 87. 

148. Ibid. p. 89. 

149. Ibid. p. 87. 

150. Ibid. p. 105. 

151. Ibid. p. 104. 

152. Ibid. p. 105. In an article entitled "Dead-Dead," quoted from the Atchison 
Squatter Sovereign, the Herald of Freedom, September 29, 1855, said there had been a com- 
plete fusion of the Free-Soilers and the Abolitionists in Kansas territory. 

153. Chapman, op. cit., pp. 58-59. 



DOLBEE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 259 

Abolition, and the Free State; 154 and then, in subsequent discussion, 
as in the text, he alludes to the Free Soil and the American, or Know 
Nothing, as also there. 155 In distinguishing the first three, he says 
the Proslavery party looked upon every man who would not vote 
for slavery as an enemy; the Abolition party advocated "universal 
emancipation and equality of the African race"; the Free-State 
party was "for leaving the slaves where the Constitution found them, 
and a government free of foreign officers and of slavery." The Free- 
Soil party was most numerous in the territory, but the election ex- 
perience had shown that not one half of them had "either the free- 
dom or the independence to vote according to their convictions." 
They had come to regard the slave power as an infringement upon 
the rights of free men, yet the Abolitionists had as little sympathy 
for them as Proslavery men had for Free-State men. With which 
group the Know Nothings were affiliated no one could tell; their 
creed forbade their uniting with either the fanatic Abolitionist or 
the slavery propagandist, but the Abolitionists might unite with the 
Know Nothings. "Should the American cause once raise its standard 
in Kansas, a new era will commence there." 156 

The appendix notes three other informative items of significance. 
A college was contemplated for Lawrence city. 157 Lawrence already 
had two printing presses; a press was also preparing for Whitfield 
City. 158 Under the caption of "Rail Roads" the author tells only of 
his own road to Whitfield City, "for which he has had a bill to pass 
congress, by the energy and perseverance of Gen. Whitfield, to pro- 
cure the right of way from the Indians through their several terri- 
tories." The road will run from the Missouri along the north side 
of the Kaw to Pawnee town ; beyond that point the route will prob- 
ably follow the valley of the Big Blue. As soon as the company is 
incorporated, work will begin. It will give employment to one or 
two thousand laborers. The recent privileges granted by congress 
render the investment safe for capitalists and the prosecution of the 
work certain. 159 

154. Ibid., p. 111. 

155. Ibid., pp. 111-112. 

156. Ibid., p. 112. 

157. This college was the proposed university. 

158. Chapman, op. cit., p. 114. 

159. Ibid., p. 115. Entries in the Congressional Globe, Second Session of the Thirty- 
third Congress (John C. Rives, Washington, 1855), v. XXIV, pp. 130, 367, 933-934, and 944, 
show that on December 26, 1854, Mr. Whitfield introduced a bill to aid the territory of 
Kansas in the construction of a railroad in said territory, and January 23, 1855, another bill 
"granting the right of way to the Wyandot and Pawnee railroad through the public lands in 
Kansas territory," both of which were read a first and second time and referred to the com- 
mittee on public lands ; and that on February 24 the latter bill was again considered and 
returned to the committee for printing and on February 26, passed the house. The Herald 
of Freedom, January 20, 1855, observed that "General Whitfield introduced a bill in con- 
gress, on the 26th ult., to aid in the construction of a railroad in Kansas." 



260 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Study of J. Butler Chapman's History of Kansas and Emigrant's 
Guide leaves mixed impressions. The idea of illiteracy, suggested 
at once to the eye by uncertain spellings, 160 odd word usages, 161 
and occasional faulty sentences, becomes insignificant to the mind 
in consideration of content. The actual errors are largely typo- 
graphical, attributable as much to a careless printer no doubt as to 
the unlettered author. Although Mr. Chapman kept up an extensive 
correspondence 162 and planned to be a newspaper editor, 163 he was 
obviously not an accustomed professional writer. Points of rhetoric 
were probably beyond his ken; but from his long and varied ex- 
perience he had gained fair enough mastery of colloquial English to 
express himself effectively. Often, too, he wrote with strength, 
especially on matters political. Here and there, naive constructions 
befit new, individual concepts aptly. A bluff, for instance, is 
"studded over with copse of young timber"; 164 or in the Miami tract 
the Osage river "passes angling through to the north"; 165 or the 
Santa Fe road is "a great and ancient thoroughfare" leading through 
the "beautiful . . . wilderness prairie of Kansas territory." 166 
The pertinence of phrasing makes more lasting appeal than any 
wrong word form. 

Erroneous statements are few. The Kansas river, the writer says, 
has "its source in the Black Hills of the Rocky Mountains," 167 
longitude 104, latitude 44, whereas its westernmost branches really 
arise around longitude 101 and latitude 39. Rock creek, he be- 
lieves, "heads up with the Osage and Neosho," 168 but its tributaries 
have actual origin in the region of the Osage only. The Emigrant 
Aid Company of Massachusetts he refers to as "the Emigrant As- 
sociation of the Aid Society, of Boston." 169 He overstates by one 
third or one half the number of city lots in Lawrence pledged each 

160. These uncertain spellings are not only of proper names, of both persons and places, 
but also common words like "equiped," "enhansing," "oppinion," "disasterous," "beligerent," 
and "renouned." Chapman, op. cit., pp. 85, 115, 68, 48, 40, and 90. 

161. Wrong usages are such as of "lay" for "lie" and "setting" for "sitting"; and of 
wrong word forms as of "adaptedness" for "adaptability," and "handsome" for "hand- 
somely." Ibid., pp. 51, 47, 64, and 45. 

162. Chapman, J. B., letter to "Dear Will," August 28, 1856, in Northern Indianian, 
Warsaw, August 28, 1856, refors to "my numerous letters of some twenty a week." 

163. Prospectus for the Kansas Intelligencer, in the Kansas Freeman, Topeka, November 
21, 28, 1855, and January 26, 1856. Also Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, December 1, 1855. 

164. Chapman, op. cit., p. 42. 

165. Ibid. pp. 61-62. 



166. Ibid. 

167. Ibid. 

168. Ibid. 

169. Ibid. 



pp. 11-14. 



pp. 39-40. 



DOLBBE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 261 

member of the company. 170 He criticises C. B. Boynton's location 
of setting for the Indian legend, "Young Eagle and Wolf/' m in 
Kansas instead of in the Rocky Mountains, 172 himself forgetting 
that the actual boundaries of Kansas territory embraced a goodly 
portion of the Rocky Mountain range. Roads in Kansas territory 
he describes as "the finest imaginable, rendering carriage traveling 
the most delightful in the world." 173 Much used roads he finds 
"smooth in dry weather" and "never dusty." 174 Across the great 
plains "the hum and din of civilization now prevails." 175 Most 
of the misstatements are exaggerations. 

The effects of the book upon the reader are otherwise diverse. 
Sketchy pictures of the territory vie for remembrance with vivid 
accounts of momentous happenings. Little that is, except Whitfield 
City, has the author's unqualified approval. Fact and opinion 
intermingle. Nice observation ends often in fancy or extravagance. 
Intended impartiality gives way to prejudice; or partiality turns 
to pertinacity. Long association with infectious politics has pre- 
disposed every outlook; but adherence to different platforms has 
left an odd inheritance of like and contrary principles. In conse- 
quence the casual reader cannot be sure whether he is perusing a 
defense or a denial of even so crucial a question as slavery. If the 
author meant sincerely to make the book a consideration, not a 
negation, of the issue, he let his own sympathies and criticisms, 
notwithstanding, contradict his avowals and acts so often that any- 
thing short of analysis leaves even the studious reader confused. 

Politically J. Butler Chapman is a medley. Only once in the book 
does he positively declare any party affiliation. Then he calls him- 
self a Democrat, who, although in favor of a free state, sustains 
slavery, opposes Abolitionism, and expects support of Proslavery 

170. He says the number pledged to each member is 60. Correspondence from residents 
of Lawrence, printed in Northern and Eastern papers at the time, indicated that one fourth 
of the 9,000 city lots would be given to persons that would build upon them within the year 
but differed in the numbers designated for individual members. S. F. Tappan, in The Atlas, 
Boston, November 1, 1854, said that members of the first two parties would receive "about 
30 lots"; of the third party, "2 lots." A nameless correspondent, in the same paper, No- 
vember 3, said that each member of the first two parties would receive "about 40 lots each 
to speculate upon." E. D. Ladd, in the Milwaukee Sentinel, November 6, 1854, wrote that 
every alternate lot would be drawn by members of the association. "Webb Scrap Books," v. 
II, pp. 1-4. Cf., also, Andreas, History of the State of Kansas, p. 315. 

171. Boynton, C. B., and T. B. Mason, A Journey Through Kansas, With Sketches of 
Nebraska (Moore, Wilstach, Keys & Co., Cincinnati, 1855), pp. 165-173. Also, The Kansas 
Historical Quarterly, v. IV, No. 2, p. 134. 

172. Chapman, op. cit., p. 113. 

173. Ibid., p. 22. 

174. Ibid., p. 72. 

175. Ibid., p. 15. 



262 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

men and Free-Soilers. 176 He does not once call himself a Free- 
Soiler, but consistently he approves or condones all Free-Soil atti- 
tudes and acts. He claims to want freedom for Kansas territory, 
but until November, 1854, he seems to want office more. Freedom 
for him, however, at this time means not a state devoid of slavery, 
but a state in which the citizens are free to make their own choice 
of institution in which they have the right of popular sovereignty ; 
this definition explains somewhat his expectation of Free-Soil and 
Proslavery support; it accounts, too, in part for the hatred for 
Abolitionists who wanted the territory kept free by federal power. 
After his failure of election he continues to favor the Free-Soiler 
and to hate the Abolitionist; and the Proslavery man who deserted 
him at the polls he justifies in motive but condemns in act. 177 
Here his own motive baffles the reader somewhat. Is he still court- 
ing Proslavery favor? If so, why? If not, why these startling 
assertions: "a thousand times better for Kansas had congress 
declared it slave territory"; 178 at the time of writing, the pronounce- 
ment would be for slavery ; 179 and "it will be a more difficult matter 
for Proslavery men to keep it slavery hereafter than to make it 
slavery now." 18 Are these presentments of fact, or opinion? or, 
are they simulation? The possible implications suggest unpleasant 
criticism. One paper, in election returns, listed him as "on both 
sides." 181 Another, after the campaign, referred to him as "Polli- 
wog (anything, nothing)." 182 

Chronological review of the political career of J. Butler Chapman 
and of the party platforms to which he had adhered explains some 
of his apparent inconsistencies and noncompliances politically in 
Kansas territory. Directly or indirectly, too, it accounts for some 
of the other insistent prejudices recorded in History of Kansas and 
Emigrant's Guide. 

In contrasting himself in 1856, with Buchanan, who "has no opin- 
ions of his own," Mr. Chapman writes that "all my political opinions 
and dogmas are original with myself." 183 They were his, no doubt, 
in combination; but individually they had origin outside himself. 
As a Jackson Democrat who had voted for Old Hickory first in 

176. Ibid., p. 97. 

177. Ibid., pp. 101-105. 

178. Ibid., p. 103. 

179. Ibid., p. 109. 

180. Ibid., p. 110. 

181. New York Tribune, December 12, 1854. 

182. Detroit Evening Tribune, December 29, 1854, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. II, p. 125. 

183. Chapman, J. B., letter to "Mr. Editor," August 12, 1856, in Northern Indianian, 
September 4, 1856. 



DOLBEE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 263 

1823, 184 he had early been imbued with the idea that to the victor 
belong the spoils. 185 To John B. Chapman, however, had come few 
spoils. In 1834 President Jackson did appoint him local agent of 
Indian reserves in northern Indiana. Unnamed pretexts took him 
frequently to Washington where he personally "became acquainted 
with the potentates of the nation," Jackson and Van Buren, 186 and 
"had access to their inner chambers." 187 Once at least he was 
Van Buren's dinner guest. Van Buren 's reputed "adroitness in 
maintaining a noncommittal attitude until it was practically cer- 
tain which side was to win," 18S had emulation in J. Butler Chap- 
man's attitude toward slavery in Kansas territory in 1854. The 
Democratic convention in Baltimore, May 5, 1840, adopted the 
resolution "that Congress has no power under the Constitution, to 
interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several 
States, . . . that all efforts of the Abolitionists or others, made 
to induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, . . . 
are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous conse- 
quences, . . . and endanger the stability and permanency of 
the Union"; 189 this stand against federal interference with slavery, 
readopted by Democratic conventions of May 29, 1844, 190 May 26, 
1848, 191 and June 6, 1852, 192 was a consistent political profession 
of Mr. Chapman in the territory in 1854. 

From the platform of the Free-Soil Democrats of 1848, who had 
withdrawn in discontent as "Barnburners" from the general Balti- 
more convention in May and held their own convention in Buffalo, 
August 9, Mr. Chapman drew the principle "That the free grant to 
actual settlers ... of reasonable portions of the public lands, 
under suitable limitations, is a wise and just measure of public 
policy." 193 From this platform, too, he derived the ideas, and the 
phrases for expounding them, of the maintenance of "the rights of 
free labor against the aggressions of the slave power" and of the 
securing of "free soil for a free people." In his own territorial cam- 
paign for delegate to congress, in 1854, Mr. Chapman made modified 

184. Vide ante, p. 240. 

185. Stanwood, Edward, A History of the Presidency (Houghton. Boston, 1898), pp. 
160-151. 

186. Historical Atlas of Kosciusko County, 1879. 

187. Royse, op. cit., p. 87. 

188. Stanwood, op. cit., p. 190. 

189. Ibid., p. 200. 

190. Ibid., p. 218. 

191. Ibid., p. 234. 

192. Ibid., p. 249. 

193. Ibid., pp. 239-241. 



264 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

use of this principle along with that of Resolution 12 of the 1852 
platform, "that public lands of the United States belong to the 
people, and should not be sold, . . . but should be held as a 
sacred trust for the benefit of the people, and should be granted in 
limited quantities, free of cost, to landless settlers." 194 After hie 
failure of election and his fuller, more open account of political 
parties in Kansas territory, 195 he endorsed in spirit, if not in ver- 
batim phrase, their Resolution 11 "that all men have a natural right 
to a portion of the soil. . . ." 

From the 1848 platform of the "Barnburners" and from the 1853 
platform of the Free-Soilers, he also, no doubt, derived his opinion 
of the desirability of "the election by the people of all civil officers 
in the service of the government"; 196 and he, therefore, pauses in 
his book to criticise all military officers now in such posts. 197 

From still another party Mr. Chapman drew still other tenets. 
This party bore different names, Native American, American, and 
Know Nothing. With its principle that Americans must rule Amer- 
ica, he coincided first in establishing a Protestant institution of 
learning in Whitfield City, 198 and second in supporting the Free- 
State advocacy of a government free of foreign officers; after the 
"Missourian" voting at the territorial polls, November 29, 1854, he 
added to his insistence upon noninterference by congress in individ- 
ual state affairs, "nonintervention by each State with the affairs of 
any other State," and "the recognition of the right of native-born 
and naturalized citizens of the United States, permanently residing 
in any territory thereof, to frame their constitution and laws." 199 
His public utterances also showed his sympathy with Resolution 
13 of that platform, opposing "the reckless and unwise policy of the 
present administration [that of Franklin Pierce] in the general 
management of our national affairs ... as shown in re-opening 
sectional agitation, by the repeal of the Missouri compromise; as 
shown in granting to unnaturalized foreigners the right of suffrage in 
Kansas and Nebraska; as shown in the vacillating course on the 
Kansas and Nebraska question." 

His doubtful position on the slavery question was probably a re- 

194. Ibid., pp. 253-256. Vide ante, p. 253. 
196. Vide ante, p. 258. 

196. Stanwood, op. cit., pp. 241, 255. 

197. Chapman, op. cit., pp. 14, 26-29, 46-47, 49. 

198. Ibid., p. 24; vide ante, p. 245. This anti-Catholic feeling probably explains his in- 
ability to learn anything about the Catholic mission at St. Mary's, merely mentioned in hi 
tour of this region. Chapman, op. cit., p. 25. 

199. Stanwood, op. cit., pp. 261-263. These Native American or Know-Nothing principle* 
had expression in the platform of the party, formulated February 19-22, 1856, in Philadelphia. 



DOLBEE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 268 

flection of a movement within the American party in the fall of 1854, 
after elections were over, to "nationalize" it, "which, in the par- 
lance of the times, was but another name for placing it in the 
attitude of hostility to freedom, and its demands, or at best making 
it neutral thereto." Southern members and some Northern members, 
without antislavery convictions, assumed that "fidelity to the Union 
. . . required that they should strive to arrest Antislavery move- 
ments, defeat Antislavery action, and proscribe Antislavery men." 200 
This may well have been the Chapman 1854 interpretation of the 
1840, 1844, 1848, and 1852 Democratic declaration against Aboli- 
tionists. In the country at large the Union degree of the Know 
Nothings, adopted at the Cincinnati convention in November, 1854, 
"'was construed to mean that the North should keep quiet on the 
subject of slavery." Like the Know-Nothing membership at large, 
Mr. Chapman did not then sense that the whole "political being of 
the North depended on unceasing agitation"; 201 the pitiful returns 
in his favor in the election of 1854 opened his eyes somewhat. 

One other rabid prejudice in the Chapman book was probably 
also political as early as 1854, his opposition to polygamy, but not 
until the formulation of the Republican platform in 1856 did the 
prohibition of it become an item in a party platform. 202 At the end 
of his first chapter J. Butler Chapman records a moral fear for the 
future of Kansas because of her joining Utah on the West. 203 

In the campaign he was avowedly a Democrat, seeking office on 
a Free-State ticket, and expecting Free-Soil and Proslavery support. 
He liked Southerners and slaveholders for their warm hospitality; 
he disliked Northerners for their cold and designing ways. In 1854 
Free-Soilers drew from both sectional groups; nevertheless, he 
seemed to suppose that they all believed in popular sovereignty and 
were indifferent as to whether Kansas was slave or free. Many 
settlers, he claimed, who had come to the territory to make homes 
rather than to engage in politics, held the same views. Up to No- 
vember 10, 1854, Mr. Chapman seemed to presume that through this 
bond of indifference between Free-Soilers and nonparty settlers, and 
through the popular sovereignty profession of Free-Soilers and 
Southerners, he would easily win his seat in congress. He forgot, or 
ignored, the pledges of the Free-Soil conventions of 1848 and 1852 

200. Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America (James 
R. Osgood and Company, Boston, 1875), v. II, pp. 420-422. 

201. Rhodes, James Ford, History of the United States From the Compromise of 1859 
(Harper, New York, 1893), v. II, pp. 87-88. 

202. Ibid., p. 184. Also Stanwood, op. cit., p. 272. 

203. Chapman, op. cit., pp. 14-16. 



266 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

to freedom and their resolutions against slavery; 204 and he did not 
inscribe upon his banner "Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and 
Free Men." His profession was a compromise apparently to carry 
Southern votes. Free-State settlers were said to have taken "little 
interest in this election, as they did not consider that the question of 
free institutions was in any way involved in it." 205 From Novem- 
ber 10 through November 29, the Free-State candidate and his luke- 
warm constituency discovered, however, that not only their right of 
franchise was at stake, but also their right to territorial self-govern- 
ment. They came to suspect Governor Reeder, his policies, and his 
motives, and they found the pleasing hospitality of the "Missourians" 
untrustworthy. 

Secretive allusion, during the campaign and after it, to the Ameri- 
can party, has no explanation in this acknowledged plan. Three 
times in the book the author named the party, and hinted darkly at 
its presence and its prospects in the territory. 206 It was, he said, 
the most powerful party in the United States. 207 May the American 
cause not already have carried its standard to Kansas in the non- 
committal "Free-State" candidate for delegate to congress? And 
may not the "Free-State" caption, in his case at least, have been but 
a "Know-Nothing" veil? The middle neutral course he tried to 
steer, the advocacy of government free of foreign officers, the non- 
intervention of states in affairs of other states, and the arraignment 
of the federal administration were all insistences of the American 
party. In the breaking up of old line parties new party lines over- 
lapped. Free-Soilers were first "barn-burning" Democrats; Native 
Americans were Democrats, Free-Soilers, or Whigs before they be- 
came Know Nothings and later blended with Republicans. 208 

Not at all odd, with this political inheritance, is the uncertainty 
of J. Butler Chapman's party membership in 1854-1855. As he 
wrote, his professed "political opinions and dogmas" were his own. 
They changed with his needs and hopes. He countenanced slavery 
when he was relying upon Proslavery support. When that support 
failed him, he condemned the institution. Not until 1856, however, 
did he foresee its downfall, even if it cost the severance of the 
union. 209 Freedom was at last worth that price. Marshaled for 

204. Stanwood, op. cit., pp. 239-241, 253-25C. 

205. Rhodes, op. cit., p. 80. Also "Howard Report," 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 8. 

206. Chapman, op. cit., pp. 84, 105, 111-112. 

207. Ibid., p. 112. 

208. Stanwood, op. cit., pp. 238-239, 261. 

209. Chapman, J. B., letters to Will, June 12, July 5, 1856, in Northern Indianian, July 
10, July 31, respectively. 



DOLBEE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 267 

the conflict then were two political parties, "one for the liberty of 
the people," and the other "for the disfranchisement and subjuga- 
tion of the people." Respectively, these parties were the Republican 
and the Democratic. Mr. Chapman's sympathies were now with the 
former. The position was an evolution, resulting from his later ex- 
periences in Kansas territory. 

The poor organization of Mr. Chapman's book makes its preju- 
dices obvious. With every repeated presentation of subject matter 
is repeated record of the author's biased mind. Even the discussions 
of opposing points of view, designed to show both fairly, reveal un- 
mistakably his own preference. His criticisms are no doubt often 
sincere expressions of honest observation. His use of them, however, 
makes his motive sometimes seem less open. In most of his com- 
ments upon public institutions and policies, for instance, he is di- 
rectly or indirectly maligning the federal administration and its 
chief officer. In some he is vindicating personal wrong. 210 The 
worth of his opinion is, in consequence, hard to evaluate. Just as 
anything military stirs adverse comment, and the very name of 
Governor Reeder is anathema, so everything in the Indian policy is 
at fault. 

His book is full of thrusts at the government, 211 at the Indian 
agents, 212 and at the Christian missions for their inadequate pro- 
visions for Indians. 213 He would lead the Indians to adopt habits of 
civilized life through precept and example of colonies of white folk 
placed in each tribe by the government to teach agricultural and 
mechanical arts; when educated they may better investigate the 
claims of the Christian religion. In the Rev. Thomas Johnson's 
having taken his slaves to a territory, then free, Mr. Chapman sees 
strange comment on the present practice of the Christian mis- 
sions. 214 His remarks wax warmest over the Kansas Indians who 
once owned the whole territory of Kansas "from the Arrow rock to 
the Nebraska river" but who would now be forgotten except for the 
territory and the river that perpetuate the name. 215 

210. Both the Boston Atlas., November 1, 1854, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. II, p. 1, and 
the Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, November 10, 1854, note the same conduct in the 
campaign for congress. 

211. Chapman, op. cit., pp. 41-47, 56. 

212. Ibid., pp. 26, 29, 34, 44, 55. 

213. Ibid., pp. 32-33, 57. 

214. Ibid., p. 33. As delegate to congress before the territory was organized Doctor 
Johnson, according to Chapman, had used "the plenitude of his power" to have all school 
funds from the Indian department appropriated to his establishment. He had been nomi- 
nated at Kickapoo, September 20, 1853, and declared elected November 8. P. Orman Ray, 
The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise (Arthur H. Clark Company, Cleveland, 1909), p. 
148. Also, Wm. E. Connelley, The Provisional Government of Nebraska Territory and the 
Journals of William Walker (Lincoln, Neb., 1899), p. 38. 

215. Chapman, op. cit., pp. 64-66. 



868 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Twice in his book the author pauses to comment upon the custdm 
of paying for political patronage in place names. 216 To hold him- 
self above reproach Mr. Chapman first named his own town, laid 
out in August, 1854, "Delaware City." 217 In petitioning for a post 
office, he found a "Delaware" post office already existed. He then 
selected for his town "Whitfield City, a name of ancient remem- 
brance among all Christian denominations." 218 Evidently he meant 
to refer to George Whitefield, 1714-1770, the English preacher and 
founder of Calvinistic Methodists, who had traveled widely in 
America. His spelling of the name, however, makes the reader 
wonder whether he was not rather paying tribute to J. W. Whit- 
field, the successful Proslavery candidate for delegate to congress, 
who, when elected, got immediate congressional action on the rail- 
road projected by Mr. Chapman, but named by Mr. Chapman, 
"Kansas and Whitfield railroad." The Kansas Weekly Herald did 
announce that the proprietors named Whitfield City "after the 
Squatter's friend, Gen. Whitfield, delegate elect." 219 Whatever the 
significance of "Whitfield," the Chapman town changed its name 
twice again. In 1856 it was "Kansapolis," spelled also by its pro- 
prietor "Kansaspolis" and "Kansasapolis." 22 Soon the town was 
known, too, as "Rochester." 221 

Sometime after the publication of his book Mr. Chapman returned 
to Kansas. He attended the Big Springs convention, October 5, 
1855, and witnessed the organization of the Free-State party 
there. 222 Later in the fall he issued the prospectus of a new paper 
to be located in Whitfield. 223 The press which his book had an- 
nounced was "preparing for Whitfield City" 224 had evidently be- 

216. Ibid., pp. 50, 63-64. 

217. Andreas, A. T., History of the State of Kansas, v. I, p. 534. 

218. Chapman, op. cit., p. 23. 

219. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, December 8, 1854. 

220. Chapman, J. B., letters to Will, June 12, July 5, August 2, 1856, in Northern In- 
dianian, July 10, July 31, and August 28, respectively. An article signed "D" in the Topeka 
Daily Capital, May 3, 1881, says that Indianola, "her more fortunate but dissolute sister," 
killed Kansapolis. As Rochester, however, the community still prided herself on her "culchah." 

221. Andreas. History of the State of Kansas, v. I, p. 534. Also J. H. Bennet, "J. 
Butler Chapman," in Oskaloosa Independent, June 1, 1878. Also, "A Relic of the Fifties," 
in twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the Topeka Mail and Kansas Breeze, May 22, 1896. 
The Topeka State Journal, December 5, 1929, says the community was widely advertised as 
"Rochester" in 1855. Augustus Wattles, in his "History of Kansas," in the Herald oj Free- 
dom, April 11, 1857, refers to it as "Kansasopolis," having then about fifteen inhabitants. 

222. Chapman, J. B., letter to editor Herald of Freedom, written in Warsaw, January 25, 
1857, in Herald of Freedom, February 21, 1857. Reports of proceedings of the political 
conventions in Kansas territory in the fall of 1855 make no mention of J. B. Chapman's 
participation in them. The Squatter Sovereign quoted in the Herald of Freedom, September 
29, 1855, stated that the "Free-Soil element of the late National Democratic party of Kan- 
sas territory, and the Abolitionists almost to a man, the originators of that scheme, have 
gone over to Reeder the sound Proslavery men . . . [turning to] Whitfield." 

223. Herald of Freedom, December 1, 1855. 

224. Vide ante, p. 259. 



DOLBEE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 269 

come a reality. The Herald of Freedom now referred to him as 
"J. B. Chapman, Esq.," and seemed in sympathy with his paper to 
be called the Kansas Intelligencer. "It is to advocate an im- 
mediate organization of a state government and will be decidedly 
Anti-Slavery in tone." 226 Four issues of the Kansas Freeman in 
Topeka published the "Prospectus" in its advertising columns. 227 
Clarinda P. Chapman was to report meetings of the constitutional 
convention in session in Topeka in October, 1855, for the Kansas 
Intelligencer. 228 At least one issue of this paper, now frankly 
labeled "Free Soil," must have appeared, for on June 12, 1856, Mr. 
Chapman wrote his son, Will, that it had been threatened as soon 
as issued and he had taken it "75 miles off in the wilderness." 229 

Mr. Chapman now divided his interest between the development 
of his town and the organization of territorial politics. To both 
enterprises border warfare was an active hindrance. 230 The town 
company of Kansapolis numbered about thirty all Abolitionists 
and Republicans. Buildings included a saw mill and several frame 
houses. In the election of January 15, 1856, the Chapman house 
was the appointed place of voting for the Whitfield precinct. 231 

In June Mr. Chapman became involved in a quarrel with his 
fellow townsmen over boundary lines and the appropriation of part 
of one piece of property for a public road and bridge. Probate court 
proceedings of the county of Calhoun, 232 deposed and recorded in 
June, and filed October 16 and 17, relate the story. The portrayal 
is colorful in language and in event. The offender tears down 
fences and tries to bully the owner off his claim. Failing in this 
attempt he threatens to drive him off or pull his neck. Then, on 
June 13 John B. Chapman and others receive recognizance to pay, 
of their goods and chattels, to the territory of Kansas, $550, and to 

225. The Kansas State Historical Society has no other record of this paper than the 
Herald of Freedom and the Kansas Freeman notices. Herbert Flint, in his master's thesis 
(unpublished), "Journalism in Territorial Kansas," Pt. I, p. 123, does not include the Kansas 
Intelligencer in his list of Kansas papers for 1854-1856. 

226. Herald of Freedom, December 1, 1855. 

227. Kansas Freeman, Topeka, November 21, December 19, 1855; January 26, February 
9, 1856. 

228. Daily Kansas Freeman, Topeka, October 30, 1855. 

229. Northern Indianian, July 10, 1856. 

230. Ibid. 

231. Election proclamation of J. H. Lane, chairman of the executive committee of Kan- 
sas territory, in the Kansas Freeman, Topeka, December 19, 1855 ; also in Herald of Free- 
dom, January 12, 1856. 

232. Calhoun county, established by the first territorial legislature held in 1855, embraced 
the region north of the Kansas river with Riley on the west, Nemaha and Brown on the 
north, and Jefferson and Atchison on the east. It included Whitfield City. It comprised 
what is now Jackson county, the eastern part of Pottawatomie and what of Shawnee is north 
of the Kansas river. Statutes of the Territory of Kansas, 1855, pp. 205-211; Laws, 1857, 
pp. 37-46; General Laws, 1860, pp. 83-87. Also Helen G. Gill, "The Establishment of 
Counties in Kansas," in Kansas Historical Collections (1903-1904), v. VIII, pp. 449-472. 



270 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

keep the peace toward the people of the territory. 233 The quarrel 
seems to have been a typical Chapman quarrel. Misunderstanding, 
impulsiveness, and persistence were at the bottom of it. 

Affairs of wider significance were more disturbing to Kansapolis 
and its proprietor through the spring and summer of 1856. Border 
war prevailed over the whole territory. The town was in an exposed 
position without means of defense. Continual threats of plunder 
and robbery hindered business. 234 Mr. Chapman himself lost a good 
riding horse, "an elegant racker," that had cost him $150. South- 
erners robbed wagon loads of provisions en route from Kansas City. 
On June 11 Kansapolis lost its post office to Indianola, its rival 
Proslavery neighbor. 235 In August "fifty" of its men were called to 
Nemaha to aid a band of 250 emigrants detained there by "guerillas 
of the South." Once the Free-State sympathizers talked of sending 
J. Butler Chapman "to the states to try to get some arms through 
by Iowa." 

Both openly and secretly, now he gave allegiance to the Free-State 
cause whatever the name and the duty. Affiliations he formerly 
evaded or denied, he defended frankly; Free Soil, Free State, Anti- 
slavery, Abolition, and Republican were all admitted groupings now. 
In the same spirit and terms that he had condemned Abolitionists 
during his campaign for delegate to congress in 1854, he now damned 
the Proslavery men whose favor he then courted. Know Nothings 
were the only political party of which he now said nothing. 

The J. B. Chapman of the private letters in 1856 was as busy 
politically as had been the J. Butler Chapman of congressional can- 
didacy in 1854. Here, however, he was but a private citizen with 
only his own suffrage to control; yet as commentator upon affairs, 
he hoped to mold opinion. In June he believed the United States 
troops marching all around Kansapolis were endeavoring to stop 
the war, but actually they only made it worse. 236 After the con- 
gressional committee 237 had come to Kansas, the Free-Soilers ceased 
to defend themselves and the Proslavery party took advantage to 
prosecute the war the harder. 

On July 5 he wrote at length of the failure of the Free-State legis- 

233. "Territory of Kansas vs. John B. Chapman," filed October 16-17, 1856, in Archives 
division, Kansas State Historical Society. 

234. Chapman, J. B., letters to Will, June 12 and August 2, 1856, in Northern Indianian, 
July 10 and August 28, 1856, respectively. 

235. In the early spring of 1856, both Whitfield and Indianola had postoffices. Herald 
of Freedom, January 12 and February 16, 1856. Vide ante, Footnotes 220 and 221. 

236. Chapman, J. B., letter to Will, June 12, 1856, in Northern Indianian, July 10, 1856. 

237. Investigating committee of the house of representatives sent to Kansas territory in 
April, 1856. Spring, L. W., Kansas (Houghton, Mifflin, Boston, 1885), p. 108. 



DOLBEE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 271 

lature to meet in Topeka July 4. 238 He was himself a district dele- 
gate to the convention meeting July 2 and July 3, to determine a 
course of action; 239 and he supported the resolution that the legis- 
lature should not be deterred from making its code of laws "at any 
sacrifice less than loss of life." He also claimed that the Free-State 
organization in Kansas had been got up entirely at his suggestion. 
Evidently he referred to the professed principles of his own candi- 
dacy on the Free-State ticket in 1854. 240 He had then had some 
faith in the Democratic declarations, but events of July 4, 1856, in 
Topeka, led naturally in his letters to defamation of the President. 
"Thus it is for the first time in the annals of American history that 
the military, the tool of tyrants and despots, has been used for the 
subjugation and oppression of free-born Americans. ... In the 
Democratic administration of Franklin Nero is the first despotic 
abuse of that power." 

Other correspondence of J. B. Chapman through the summer and 
fall continued this old habit of abuse. In long half pages of deroga- 
tory epithets he inveighed editors for "severe strictures" upon him- 
self; 241 and he berated anew their "tyrant-master, Franklin Pierce," 
"for the woes and miseries he had caused in Kansas." The writer 
claimed he had no other motive "than the liberty of my country and 
the freedom of my posterity" ; but as guarantee of the immunity he 
sought he continued to pay political tribute. Disunion which he 
now advocated was his own recommendation; but vituperation of 
Pierce and support of Fremont could have reflected Know-Nothing 
or Republican fealty here, for both parties damned Pierce and both 
nominated John C. Fremont in 1856. 242 

In the early fall of 1856 Mr. Chapman was taken "prisoner of 
war ... by the Georgia rangers from Tecumseh," carried like 
livestock, under the flag of Fort Leavenworth, to Leavenworth city, 
and there thrown into the dungeon. 243 After Gov. J. W. Geary, 
speaking from the landing nearby, "thought fifteen of us were not 

238. Chapman, J. B., letter to Will, July 5, 1856, in Northern Indianian, July 31, 1856. 

239. The Kansas Tribune, Topeka, July 9, 1856, lists J. B. Chapman as one of the 
members of the committee on organization of the mass convention. 

240. Vide ante, pp. 252-255. Perhaps he also referred to his support of "an immediate 
organization of a state government" in the prospectus of the Kansas Intelligencer. Vide 
ante, p. 269. 

241. Editors of Goshen Democrat and Democratic Platform, Indianapolis, in letter to Will, 
August 2, 1856, in Northern Indianian, August 28, 1856, and in letter to "Mr. Editor," 
August 12, 1856, ibid., September 4, 1856. 

242. Stanwood, op. cit., pp. 261-264, 269-273. 

243. Chapman, J. B., correspondence to the N. Y. Tribune, written in Guilford, Medina 
Co., Ohio, October 27, 1856, in New York Daily Tribune, November 3, 1856. 



272 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

worth taking out," 244 Mr. Chapman was removed to the Proslavery 
barracks where, he said, 200 United States troops came to the succor 
of the slave troops. Although he despaired of his life, because of the 
hostility of Missourians to his book, Mr. Chapman finally received 
a discharge from Col. J. T. Clarkson, but was ordered to leave the 
territory on the steamer Tatman. 

Returning to Indiana he made public addresses on Kansas from 
the stump. Later, in Ohio, he spoke in public meetings on his recent 
imprisonment. By January, 1857, he was back in Warsaw, writing 
critically of the "anti-Republican" government of Kansas, and of its 
corrupt officials; 245 Reeder, Geary, Roberts, and Robinson had all 
been derelicts. 246 He himself was to return to Kansas in a few days 
with "about one hundred substantial farmers . . . from Indiana 
and Illinois." 

In April he was again in the territory, writing now to the Leaven- 
worth Times about misrepresentations in the Herald oj Freedom of 
the settlement of the Delaware trust lands; and G. W. Brown, 
in editorial reply, "An Error," accused him of misstatement and 
blunder. 247 When he gave up residence in the town of his founding 
is not on record; in August, land agents of Topeka and Doniphan 
advertised Kansapolis shares for sale. 248 By fall he was living in 
Leavenworth city, 249 where the press now referred to him as "Dr. 
John B. Chapman." 

In December he became active in organization of a company to 
construct the Leavenworth, Lawrence, and Fort Gibson railroad. 250 
This was not the projected road to Whitfield City, a route later 
followed by the Union Pacific, but a new road, crossing the territory 
in a southerly direction and extending eventually to Galveston, 
Tex. 251 The territorial press tells of his intermittent service as presi- 
dent of the company from December 8, 1857, into the summer of 

244. Chapman, J. B., letter to editor, Herald of Freedom, written in Warsaw, January 
25, 1857, in Herald of Freedom, February 21, 1857. 

245. Ibid. 

246. He includes Gov. Charles Robinson for his resignation in favor of Territorial Gov- 
ernor Geary in the attempted compromise to get into the union. Cf.. L. W. Spring, Kansas. 
p. 204. 

247. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, April 25, 1857. 

248. Advertisement of Allen and Stratton, Lawrence Republican, August 13, 1857. 
248. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, March 20, 1858. 

250. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, December 19, 1857. Also Leavenworth Weekly 
Journal, January 29, 1858. Also Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, February 6, 1858. 

251. Fourth Biennial Report of the Attorney General of the State of Kansas (Kansas 
Publishing House, Topeka, July 1, 1884). Legislative act of February 24, 1866, changed 
the name to "Leavenworth, Lawrence^ and Galveston Railroad." The original charter was 
granted February 12, 1858. 



DOLBEE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 273 

1859. 252 Twice he was representative of the company in securing 
right of way through Indian lands, once going to Washington to 
lobby in congress for necessary support. 253 The offices of the com- 
pany were in Prairie City, 254 but "Dr. Chapman" lived successively 
in Leavenworth, Mandovi, and Garnett. 255 

In the winter of 1857-1858 Mr. Chapman had fallen into poor 
personal repute in Kansas territory. Being enamored of "a beauti- 
ful and accomplished young lady," Miss E. Flora Little, whom he 
importuned "greatly to join him in the holy bonds of wedlock," 256 
he transferred to her, in checks and notes, about $9,000. She had 
required the "bonus on the promise of marriage," because of the 
great discrepancy in their years; he was 61 257 and she, 24. 258 On 
March 1, 1858, she failed to meet him in St. Louis, the appointed 
place of marriage. On March 2 she wrote him from St. Charles, 
111., that her father thought her too young to marry and was taking 
her to Canada. 259 By the middle of March, however, when J. B. 
Chapman brought suit in the recorder's court in Leavenworth to re- 
cover his property, she pleaded she had learned since his courtship 
that he was a married man. He had reported in Leavenworth that 
his wife was dead. 260 The case had a second hearing the first week 
in April. The decision was against J. B. Chapman. A month later 
his wife, who had all the while been residing in Ohio, wrote a friend 
in Lawrence "a hard story on the Doctor," who had refused to pro- 
vide for herself and her year-and-one-half old child. 261 Most of the 

252. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, December 19, 1857. Also Leavenworth Weekly 
Journal, January 29, 1858. Also Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, February 6, 1858. 
Also Freemen's Champion, Prairie City, August 12, 1858; Lawrence Republican, May 6, 18, 
20 and 27, June 6, and October 28, 1858; The Kanzas News, Emporia, August 28, 1858, June 
18 and August 20, 1859. Also, James Y. Campbell, History of Anderson County . . . 
(Garnett Weekly Journal Print), pp. 38-39. Also, W. A. Johnson, History of Anderson 
County, Kansas (Kauffman and Her, Garnett, 1877), pp. 140-142. Report of Directors of 
Leavenworth, Lawrence, and Galveston Railroad Company, presented to the stockholders at 
the annual meeting, June 5, 1871, and printed by Rounds and Kane, Chicago, does not tell 
of J. B. Chapman's connection with the company. The Fourth Biennial Report of the Attorney 
General of the State of Kansas does not note the date of termination of his service. 

253. Leavenworth Weekly Journal, January 29, 1858. Also Weekly Kansas Herald, 
Leavenworth, January 29, 1859. Also Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, June 4, 1859. 

254. Lawrence Republican, October 28, 1858. 

255. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, December 11, 1858, and June 4, 1859. The New 
York Daily Tribune, November 6, 1858, and July 28, 1859, also records progress in the build- 
ing of the road. 

256. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, March 20, 1858. 

257. Vide ante, p. 239. Kansas Weekly Herald, March 20, 1858, gave his age as "near 60." 
The same paper on April 3 gave it as 56. The Kansas Settler, Tecumseh, April 7, 1858, gave 
his age as 58 and hers as 23. It also called him "Dr. J. Bird Chapman," of "Kansasopolis 
and everywhere else." 

258. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, May 1, 1858. 

259. Little, E. F., letter to "Dear Friend," St. Charles, March 2, 1858, in Kansas Weekly 
Herald, Leavenworth, April 3, 1858. 

260. "The Wife Still Living," in Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, May 1, 1858. 

261. Ibid. 

1&-9292 



274 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

territorial press treated the case lightly, but the editor of the Herald 
of Freedom now concluded critically that Miss Little, who "diddled 
. . . the scamp" out of his $9,000, did well to let him shirk for 
himself, and that it was no fault of Chapman's own that he was not 
guilty of bigamy. "Wonder if the Doctor is a Mormon." The fear, 
expressed by J. Butler Chapman in his book, of the contiguity of 
Kansas territory with Utah and her "people charged with doubtful 
morality," 262 must have had personal as well as political motivation. 

After June, 1859, John Butler Chapman does not seem to figure 
in Kansas events at all. His immediate destination, however, is 
not known. Both he and his friends wrote of his poverty. 263 At 
last, though, came spoils, long delayed, for a life of political service 
in the form of a clerkship in the treasury department in Washing- 
ton, which he held until "his advanced age incapacitated him for 
the labors of that office and he returned to Warsaw, where he died 
October 20, 1877." 264 Sight of Warsaw, one of the results of his 
early pioneering, ever gratified him, for it enabled him "to look 
back and see that my time and life was not idly spent in God's 
heritage. ... I may have done much in vain, but I was never 
idle in the vineyard." 265 

Little is known of the published book of J. Butler Chapman. But 
one contemporary review has come to light now. It appeared in the 
form of an editorial in the Herald of Freedom, May 19, 1855, almost 
four months after the issuing of the book. It bore the caption, "A 
Worthless Publication." 

We have just received a work published by J. Butler Chapman, Esq., which 
claims to be a "History of Kansas and Emigrants' Guide," but every page, as 
far as we have perused it, abounds with material errors. Its great object seems 
to have been to give notoriety to "Whitfield City," which is often alluded to in 
the course of the publication, and made prominent on the map, being repre- 
sented with a railroad running through it, while towns five times as populous 
are not mentioned in the book or referred to on the map. We consider the 
work a poor apology as a "History of Kansas," and hope those desiring reliable 
information about the territory, will not be gulled into its purchase. 

The book appears to have been got up in Ohio, by the advocates of slavery, 
to counteract the influence of .truthful statements with which the press abounds, 
in regard to Kansas. 

Obviously the writer of that review had not read all of the Chap- 
man book. Its inadequacy as either a history or a guide and its 

262. Vide ante, p. 265. 

263. Chapman, J. B., letter to "Mr. Editor," August 12, 1856, in Northern Indianian, 
September 4, 1856. Also Bennet, J. H., "J. Butler Chapman," in Oskaloosa Independent, 
June 1, 1878. 

264. Royse, op. cit., p. 87. 

265. Northern Indianian, September 4, 1856. 



DOLBEE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 275 

"material errors" are readily apparent. The hastiest sort of survey, 
however, should have betrayed some profession of impartiality or 
shown some intolerance of Antislavery and Proslavery men. Every 
discussion is shot through with assertion of both. The book could 
not have had the consistent advocacy of the South. The review 
itself is a "poor apology" for a review. 

The editor of the Herald of Freedom was himself, of course, a 
prejudiced reviewer. Probably no one in Lawrence in 1855 could 
have looked at the Chapman book open-mindedly. 266 Abolitionists 
and Antislavery folk alike there felt both their cause and their 
practices above reproach; and the persons who had been active in 
the laying out of Lawrence city believed their success merited only 
commendation. J. Butler Chapman does not commend their triumph. 
On the other hand he does not condemn it. He represents himself 
at the time as a mediator between the projectors of Excelsior and 
Lawrence and always as a writer without bias; but throughout his 
account of the occurrences, and thereafter in frequent allusion to 
the outcome, he betrays his sympathy with the defeated protagonists 
of Excelsior city. 

Early manifestation of this attitude probably prevented the re- 
viewer's full perusal of the book. Anyway he frankly admits he 
had not read it all. Though Whitfield City does receive too great 
prominence, what facts the author records about it are truthful 
enough ; only his enthusiasm for it is too unbounded. The informa- 
tion he gives about other places appears now to be as reliable, too, 
as the "truthful statements with which," according to the Lawrence 
editor, "the press abounds." Mr. Chapman does say in his introduc- 
tion that most writers have made Kansas falsely alluring, and in 
both his book and his letters about it later, he falls into the same 
trap himself in making the parts he likes a near paradise. Dis- 
counting his exaggerations, however, and weighing his records with 
facts now known about the items he treats, the student of Kansas 
history must accord him as much dependability as other chance 
writers of the time. 

His intentions seem sincere. His disposition was unfortunate. 
The tendency to erratic thought and interest manifested early and 
to petty quarreling noted in his sojourn in Indiana, trailed him 

266. On March 10, 1855, this same Herald of Freedom, under the caption, "Be on Your 
Guard," had warned readers to "Look out for Proslavery men, who pretend to be Free Sellers, 
for the purpose of drawing out information to be made use of at the ensuing election. We 
have positive assurances that there are 'wolves among us in sheep's clothing.' Be cautious 
that they do no harm." 



276 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

into Kansas and there found reflection in his book. His political 
outlook would have annoyed any partisan contemporary of any 
political party. 

That it did has abundant evidence in "the truthful statements" 
of the contemporary press. Correspondence from Lawrence in 
October, 1854, to Northern papers shows utter lack of sympathy, 
especially among Lawrence people, for J. Butler Chapman. S. F. 
Tappen, writing to the Boston Atlas, October 14, called him a "self- 
appointed candidate/' who in his "political harangue in Oread 
Hall" 267 murdered the English language cruelly, saying "nothing 
but words ; no ideas." 268 Another nameless writer referred to him 
as making a fool of himself. 269 E. D. Ladd, in the Milwaukee 
Sentinel, gave somewhat different details of the tent episode and 
talk from J. Butler Chapman's own, adding that in him "we have 
no confidence whatever." 270 "T," in the Philadelphia Sun, called 
the address "a political harangue by an Indiana politician," after 
which S. C. Pomeroy, "who could and did make a speech," put 
"hard hits on the would-be elected delegate. He at once took 
offense, and said to Washington as a delegate he would go in spite 
of our crowd." 271 

These Lawrence correspondents were all out of sympathy with J. 
Butler Chapman. Governor Reeder's territorial tour and reception 
in Lawrence had different interpretations, too, from their pens. 272 
Their accounts, all doubtless known to the editor of the Herald of 
Freedom in Lawrence, probably seemed to him "truthful state- 
ments." They were opinionated, nevertheless, quite as much as 
J. Butler Chapman's own in his History of Kansas and Emigrant's 
Guide. 

That the South doubted him, too, is evident from his own story of 
being "mobbed in Missouri for having written and circulated a book 
which they said was dangerous to slavery, because it professed to 
give a true history on both sides." 273 This episode led both J. B. 

J67. "In Oread Hall" is probably a misprint for "on Oread hill." 

268. Boston Atlas, November 1, 3, 1854, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. II, pp. 1-2. 

269. Boston Atlas, November 8, 1854, in ibid., p. 7. 

270. Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, November 4, 1854. Ibid., p. 8. 

271. The Sun, Philadelphia, November 10, 1854, in ibid., p. 10. A. T. Andreas, in 
History of the State of Kansas, p. 315, also doubts the Chapman claim of restoring peace to 
the troubled town of Lawrence. 

272. Milwaukee Sentinel, November 6, 1854; Boston Traveller, November 9, 1854; Boston 
Journal, November 16, 1854; New York Independent, November 16, 1854, in "Webb Scrap 
Books," v. II, pp. 3-4, 9, 12. Also New York Tribune. Also Kansas Weekly Herald, Leaven- 
worth, October 20, 27, and November 3, 10, 1854. Also Andreas, History of the State of 
Kansas, pp. 315-316. 

273. New York Daily Tribune, November 3, 1856. This account does not record the date 
of the mobbing. 



DOLBEE: THIRD BOOK ON KANSAS 277 

Chapman and his fellow prisoners in Leavenworth in 1856 to believe 
he had no chance for his life. 

In a letter of August 2, 1856, to his son Will, Mr. Chapman made 
another allusion to his book. Once when he was "extremely dry and 
hungry," he had sent to T. L. Graves, a former political friend in 
Indiana, "a bundle of maps and my little history of Kansas, which 
I had written at much expense, to sell for me. . . . And the book 
and maps I never heard of." 274 

On August 12, in reviewing his own achievements for the editor 
of the Northern Indianian, Mr. Chapman says he has written two 
books; 275 one was no doubt his History of Kansas and Emigrant's 
Guide. The second is entirely unknown in Kansas. 276 

Surveying the early literature on Kansas, in their Handbook to 
Kansas Territory in 1859, James Redpath and Richard J. Hinton 
listed the Chapman history as the second book on Kansas. They 
criticized the omnipresence of Whitfield in the volume as a strata- 
gem characteristic of the land speculators. The town was still only 
a log-hut. Its 1859 appellation of Kansasopolis they called Rufus- 
Chotean. 277 

In 1875 D. W. Wilder, in his Annals of Kansas, characterized the 
little volume as a "peculiar book," and said its author was known 
in the state, "where he spent a few months, as John B. Chapman." 278 
J. H. Bennet, writing of him for his "Early Recollections of Kansas," 
1878, said "J. Butler Chapman . . . was his name. 279 It must 
not be allowed to go down to oblivion without being read once 
more by the old settlers of Jefferson county." Then he launched into 
a five-page memory picture of the man and the book. He para- 
phrased Chapman's own extravagant picture of Whitfield City. 
Politically, he called him a "Democrat with Know-Nothing pro- 
clivities or else he was a Know Nothing with Democrat proclivities." 
The book itself Mr. Bennet characterized as "funny" for its proph- 
ecies. The description of the "Nimehaw" he regarded as "the dullest 
portion of his book, and . . . not the less true on that account." 

274. Northern Indianian, August 28, 1856. 

275. Letter of J. B. Chapman to "Mr. Editor," August 12, 1856, in ibid., September 4, 
1856. 

276. A letter from John W. Chapman, North Manchester, Ind., December 14, 1935, 
refers to an autobiography of John Butler Chapman treating of his life to the time of hia 
emigration to Indiana. The manuscript of this autobiography was once in the possession of 
a son, Charles W. Chapman; upon the son's death family effects were disposed of. Thia 
manuscript, according to the grandson, John W. Chapman, is said now to be "in the posses- 
sion of a lady in Warsaw." 

277. Redpath, James, and Richard J. Hinton, Handbook to Kansas Territory and the 
Rocky Mountains' Gold Region (J. H. Colton, New York, 1859), p. 36. 

278. Wilder, Annals of Kansas, p. 43. 

279. Bennet, J. H., "J. Butler Chapman" in Oskaloosa Independent, June 1, 1878. 



278 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The account of Jefferson county itself was too meager, in spite of 
the assertion that its high prairie looks "all over creation and the 
rest of Kansas territory." 2SO In 1921 George J. Remsburg reviewed 
J. Butler Chapman's 1854 observations of Doniphan county, 281 and 
in 1924 criticized his calling the bluffs around Doniphan and Geary 
City "poor knobs," for they "have always been very productive, 
despite their sallow complexion." 282 

Newspaper writers across the years, in stories of Whitfield City, 
referred to more often as Kansapolis or Rochester, allude to J. B. 
Chapman as the founder, quote at length from his extravagant pic- 
ture of the townsite, dwell upon the educational facilities designed 
for the community, and emphasize quite as much as did he its con- 
venient location on public roads. 283 Some of them quote from 
"Pioneer Life in Kansas," written by Fannie E. Cole, in 1900, for 
the Shawnee County Old Settlers' Association. In company with 
her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Cole, she had come to Kansas in the 
winter of 1855 and settled near Indianola, where she had since lived. 

Somewhere during our journey to Kansas a pamphlet written by one J. 
Butler Chapman had fallen into my father's hands. This pamphlet described 
at great length and in glowing language the manifold advantages and the 
phenomenal growth of a city called Whitfield. In this city, besides the many 
elegant residences, were banks, schoolhouses, and other public buildings, and 
plans for a great college or university were under way. 

My father decided that he would settle as near this town as possible, and 
for this reason had declined to remain at Lawrence. Whitfield was described 
as being situated on the banks of the "Conda river." . . . Upon reaching 
the site of this wonderful city, my father's disgust can be more easily imagined 
than described when he found that it was a city of stakes only; not a single 
house or even a tent to break the monotony of bare hills and wide, rolling 
prairie. ... It was not then, and never has been, a town, but is a pleasant 
country neighborhood of fine farms, some of them small, and pretty homes. 
The "Conda river" is well known under the more prosaic appellation of 
Soldier creek.284 

The "pamphlet" that lured the Coles to Whitfield City was of 
course a History of Kansas and Emigrant's Guide, the very same 
copy perhaps, now in board covers in the library of the Kansas State 
Historical Society, for Eugene M. Cole, who was its donor, was a 
brother of Fannie E. Cole. Historic itself, then, becomes this one 
known copy of the Chapman book. 

280. Cf., Chapman, op. cit., p. 21. 

281. Remsburg, George J., "Doniphan County in 1854," in The Kansas Chief, Troy, 
April 28, 1921. 

282. Remsburg, "The Yellow Banks," in ibid., December 18, 1924. 

283. Topeka Daily Capital, May 3, 1881; Topeka State Journal, November 11, 1922, 
and December 5, 1929. 

284. Kansas Historical Collections (1911-1912), v. XII, pp. 353-358. 



Letters of John and Sarah Everett, 
1854-1864 

Miami County Pioneers 
(Continued) 

Longwood, Osawatomie May 28 '57. 

DEAR FATHER 
Yours of May 12 reed this week. I think we must have missed 
one letter ; perhaps we will get it next week. You ask if anything has 
been done more as to the territorial Convention. Nothing that I 
am aware of. We have seen no territorial papers for two weeks. 
You also ask, if there is any hope for Kansas? Kansas is now 
governed partly by a military despotism, partly by an outside oli- 
garchy, under the form of the most unlimited democracy. This gov- 
ernment is carried on by a party whose national strength consists in 
their professions of devotion to the broad principle of the sovereignty 
of the actual settler. This unnatural state of things cannot exist 
long. What the exact solution will be no one can tell. But the 
principle of democratic rule or the government of a majority of the 
people will at last triumph. The glaring inconsistency between the 
principle and practice of our rulers is becoming too ridiculous and 
absurd, too annoying and humiliating to last long. This suggests 
the reason why no territorial taxes are collected. The collection 
would have to be forced in nine cases out of ten. That would be too 
odious too Austrian for any part of America. The Assessor was 
about here over a year ago. Scarce any one would give him the least 
information. They denied his authority and defied him. That was 
the last we have heard here of assessors or taxes. Perhaps they will 
try it again this summer. But it will [be] a very hazardous experi- 
ment for them. Any one who will hold any office here under the 
bogus legislature, is socially ostracized and despised as a traitor to 
the people. But we think more of crops now than politics. The 
spring has been so late that corn is very late in getting planted and 
work is backward. What corn is planted is not doing a great deal. 
Our corn was three weeks in coming up, and I heard of corn that was 
five and six weeks in coming up. Potatoes are doing well. There 
was not one-tenth planted that there would have been if seed had 
been plenty. Many planted none. We have got in about 8 bushels. 
We cut them and so planted nearly one acre and a half. A man 

(279) 



280 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

offered to contract with our next neighbor who has five or six acres 
of potatoes planted for all the potatoes he would deliver between 
August and November next at $1.00 a bushel. We bought our seed 
early at $1.25 cents. They have been worth now since so many came 
in four dollars, and very hard to get at that. 

I wish you could get me some rutabaga seed and send them by 
mail. I want to sow an acre with rutabagas and turnips. I would 
like to get a % pound of rutabaga seed, and about the same of 
White Stone Turnip. Warner and Ray used to keep such seed in 
V4 Ib. papers for 75 cts a pound. Such seed are frequently received 
here in the mail. They might be sewed in a little cotton sack. If 
you can get these without too much trouble I would be glad. 

We have got up, potatoes and corn, mustard and melons, onions, 
beets, carrots, turnips, cabbage, kale, spinach, summer savory, 
parsley, sage, peas and beans. We have five currant slips growing 
of those you sent us last fall. We feel thankful to you every time 
we look at them. Currant bushes are a rarity here and in the 
neighboring counties of Missouri. 

A man is here doing our "breaking" today, and we are busy plant- 
ing corn. There is a great deal more doing this spring than last. 
Now we feel secure, then we were in the midst of war. All well & 
join in love John 

Osawatomie, June 3, 1857. 
Dear Father 

We failed in getting a letter from home this week. We shall get 
our field all plowed and mainly planted tomorrow. Our health con- 
tinues excellent. The weather continues cold for the season, with 
occasional very light showers and heavy dews. Potatoes are growing 
finely. Rather too dry for garden seeds. We have 28 young year- 
old peach trees which are growing very thriftily. Corn backward. 

Your son 

John. 

June 8, 1857. 
Dear Father 

The night after writing the accompanying note, it rained all night, 
raised the river, so we could not get it to mail. Yesterday we had 
a terrible storm of wind. Three of the best houses in town were 
blown down and utterly destroyed. A log house a half mile South 
of us not occupied was blown down. We had half a mile of fence 
blown down. We feared for our house and lives, but mercifully 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 281 

were spared. Two houses on Middle Creek were leveled to the 
ground. All our neighbors have had their fences blown over, and 
a great deal of timber. We have not heard of any lives being lost. 

We have had two calves come the last week, one from a heifer of 
our own raising. 

You probably will not hear regularly from us now for a few weeks, 
as what they call here "the June fresh" seems to have come, and the 
mails will consequently be uncertain. 

Your son John 

Osawatomie June 23, 1857 
Dear Mother, 

We have got another boy. He was born last Saturday a little 
after noon. . . . Both mother and babe are doing very well, 
particularly the mother. She is getting along so far better than 
either time before. I think her general health a great deal better. 
She sits up some to day. Franky is very much pleased with his 
little baby. We are going to call him Robert Colegrove Everett. 
We feel to thank God that every thing is as well with us as it is, 
and that his hand has been stretched over us in mercy and not in 
affliction. We fortunately have obtained a very good woman to 
stay with us since Sarah has been sick, which is much better than 
we might have expected, as such help is scarce, often very poor, and 
sometimes impossible to get at all. 

We received Father's of June 10th this morning. The Cenhadwr 
we got last week, the sermon the week before. The bogus election, 
as far as we have heard was a very slim affair. In this county there 
were 64 votes polled This in a voting population of 1000 or 1500 
at least (now.) There were 400 and odd voters according to the in- 
complete bogus census in March and I have no doubt there are over 
three times as many now. You cannot shame a man more who 
voted then than by asking him if he was one of the noble 64. In 
Franklin County, joining us West a populous Free State County, 
no census was taken. In Anderson County, Southwest of us, 34 
votes were polled. The Convention will be a farce if it ever meets. 

I close now so as to be ready to send to the mail by the first 
chance. We are so busy now that I can hardly take time to go to 
town on purpose to carry a letter. Our crops are growing well, al- 
though it is getting pretty dry. With much love to all at home 

Your son John 



282 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Osawatomie July 3, 1857. 
Dear Father. 

Yours of June 17 (with the turnip seed) and June 8 reed this 
week. Thank you for getting the seed for me. This week we got 
a check from father Colegrove of $100 towards paying for our claim. 
A few weeks ago one of father Colegrove's neighbors brought us $25 
from him. Have little time to write. Sarah has got quite well 
again. The baby eats and sleeps most all the time. Our crops are 
looking well. We have got three heifer calves which we are raising, 
and now milk three cows. Your son John. 

July 9 1857. 
Dear Father 

Yours received containing the rutabaga seed. We are prospering 
moderately and are in usual health. The weather is very warm and 
dry. Sarah is quite smart and the baby is well. 

Your son John 

July 24, 1857. 
Dear Father 

We received a letter from home this week. We are all well. I am 
digging a well. The weather continues very dry. In haste 

Your son John 

Longwood Aug 14, 1857 
Dear Father 

John wanted me to write about four lines to tell you that we are 
well enough to work days and sleep nights and consequently have 
no time to write letters. 

He is working about two miles from home on a well helping a 
man blast this week who helped him last week in our well. We 
have not come to water only a little in some seams in the rock, 
which supplies us with drinking water. 

We have had some refreshing rains within the last two weeks 
which have brightened up the crops in this section and shortened 
the countenances of the settlers very considerably. We have no 
very special news One of our neighbors Friend Mendenhall told 
me as he called to leave our mail this week that he had just received 
the very agreeable news that there was a warrant for treason out 
against him that had been issued at Lecompton also warrants for 
two or three more. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 283 

Their offense was, taking part in a tax meeting so called, at which 
the people pledged themselves to resist payment of bogus taxes 
At that meeting Mendenhall was asked if he would fight in case an 
attempt was made to enforce the payment of taxes and he replied 
that he didn't expect to fight, but that he would suffer himself to be 
hanged before he would pay taxes. Such treason does not sound so 
particularly dangerous, unless to the one uttering it I am sure that 
it need [not] be raked up fifteen or sixteen months afterward. 
Any thing to keep bogus law makers busy I doubt some if any 
officer be found courageous enough to serve a warrant in these parts. 

Baby grows fast and cries a great deal. He weighs fifteen Ibs. I 
can hardly get time to do my housework he keeps me so busy. Frank 
helps me considerably and takes a great deal of credit to himself on 
account of it. He often tells his Father when he comes to his meals 
that Mother wouldn't have been able to have got one bit of supper 
if it hadn't been for her good little helper boy He wants me to 
stop and let him write a long letter to his Grandfather He has 
learned those two verses his Grandmother sent to him, and repeats 
them very often. Your children 

John & Sarah 

[Longwood, September 4, 1857.] 
Dear Father 

I have delayed writing, hoping to get time to write a full letter. 
But the time has not come. We are very anxious about Franky, 
though we still hope for the best. 

The free state convention at Grasshopper Falls resolved to go in 
to the October Election. If the Missourians keep out we can carry 
every thing. If they attempt to control the polls there will be 
trouble. The governor has pledged himself to keep out all outsiders. 
But the people have lost confidence in Walker. With all his fair 
promises, he is playing into the hands of the Slave Democracy as 
far as he dares. His recent movement against Lawrence was with- 
out the least necessity. 47 Indeed people at first believed his bom- 
bastic proclamation against that peaceful city to have been a hoax. 
But the movement was entirely and perfectly theatrical. The audi- 
ence for whom he played was the fire-eaters of the South. Here 
the only effect was to give the people about Lawrence a market for 
their extra milk and butter. The people of Lawrence paid no atten- 

47. Lawrence held a city election on July 13. Governor Walker issued a proclamation 
declaring the action rebellious and sent U. S. troops. 



284 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

tion to Walker. They elected their municipal officers those officers 
took the required oath entered on their respective duties, and 
passed ordinances just as if he was not there. Gov. Walker stands 
much lower with the people on account of that absurd movement 
than he did. 

I have not much heart nor time to write and I close, hoping we 
can soon send better news about little Franky. 

Your son John 

Osawatomie Sept, 18, 1857. 
Dear Father 

I was in at the Constitutional Convention (the bogus affair) in 
Lecompton. They adjourned to the third Monday in October two 
weeks after the election without forming a Constitution. There 
were two parties in the Convention. Ultra proslavery and Con- 
servative proslavery. The former party very decidedly in the ma- 
jority. The Conservatives are in favor of submitting the Constitu- 
tion to the people, while the other party are opposed. But they did 
not dare to frame a Constitution before the Election and not sub- 
mit it to the people. So they adjourned till after Election. They 
were a very ordinary looking set of men some regular types of the 
border ruffian. Meantime the free state men all over the territory 
are forming military companies, and preparing to defend the polls 
if invaded. Probably the resolute attitude of the free state men 
will go far to prevent invasion. The troops have been withdrawn 
from Lawrence, and are said to be ordered to Utah. Gov. Walker 
has gone to Jefferson City to tender his resignation unless he is to 
be supported by the troops. He has pledged his honor to keep out 
all outsiders at the Election. The grossest injustice was practiced 
in making out the apportionment for the Legislature. Thus 14 
counties in the Southern part of the territory with almost half the 
population of the territory were only allowed 3 out of 39 members. 48 
The reason was that most of these counties were so entirely free 
state that no census was taken in them by the bogus authorities. 
But with this unjust and wicked apportionment, nothing but the 
most open fraud can prevent a complete free state triumph. 

It is two years since I was in Lawrence before. The change is 
most marked. Then I travelled a whole day, without seeing but 

48. The census ordered by the legislature (see Footnote No. 42) was taken in but fifteen 
out of thirty-four counties. The remaining nineteen were known as disfranchised counties. 
They were largely settled by Free-State men and were too remote from the border for con- 
venient control of ballot boxes. Returns were made in every county bordering on Missouri 
and in every Proslavery county. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 285 

two or three settlers cabins. Now there is not one claim on the 
whole road on government land that is not taken, and a house on it. 
Lawrence is improving very fast, and seems full of business. Prairie 
City and Palmyra, two free state towns, have grown up out of 
nothing, while Benicia and Douglas, proslavery towns, have grown 
to nothing. The only proslavery town in Kansas that flourishes is 
Lecompton, and that is built up entirely by the patronage of Uncle 
kSam. The only business places besides one or two stores are 
lawyers' shops and grogshops and the United States Land Office. 
I have a chance to send this, and I close, with love 

Your affectionate son John 

Monday night 

Oct. 5, 1857. 
Dear Sister Cynthia 

I take a few moments to reply to yours of Sept 21, just received 
five minutes ago. I have taken a job of carrying the mail from 
Osawatomie to Neosho. Tomorrow is my day to go. It is nearly 
60 miles. It takes me three days to go and return. I have been 
two weeks. It keeps me very busy as I have my own farm work 
to do besides, and, just now it is almost impossible to hire help. 
Franky has got pretty smart again. The baby had a bad spell of 
diarrhea for two or three weeks and lost some flesh. He has got well 
now. 

Today was our election day. I was down to town about noon 
and voted. Up to that time none but free state votes had been 
offered. There was a general turn out. The election at this 
precinct was perfectly peaceable. There are three other precincts 
in Lykins county. It was not generally thought that there would 
be much if any Missouri border ruffian vote in this county. But 
we shall now hear in a few days. . . . 

Crops are a great deal better than they promised two months 
ago. June and July were intensely dry and hot. August and 
September have been showery, good growing weather. We have had 
no frost yet. With much love 

In haste Your brother John 

In town Oct 6 1857. 
Dear Father 

Yesterday was Election day. In Osawatomie Precinct the free 
state vote was 240, not 1 Proslavery. In Stanton, 7 miles West 
59 free state and one Proslavery 



286 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

F. S. P. S. 

Osawatomie 240 

Stanton 59 1 

Miami 23 5 

Paoli 30 65 

Total Lykins county 49 352 71 

The vote would have been twice as heavy and the free state 
proportion much greater if this summer's emigration could have 
voted. For about all this season's emigration is free state. I am 
starting to Neosho with the mail and must close. We are pretty 
well at home John 

Osawatomie Oct. 26 1857. 
Dear Father 

I am very sorry we have been obliged to neglect our weekly letters 
so much lately. My trips to the Neosho take up three days every 
week, and I am very busy the rest of the time. I have been now 
five times ; tomorrow is my day to go out again. 

We feel especially indebted to you at this time, now that I am 
cutting up the corn. We ha've no reason to complain of our crops. 
I have got the best sod corn that I have seen any where this year 
with the exception of one piece. A gentleman who stopped with us 
night before last said it was the best sod corn he had seen in the 
territory. He had been in the territory looking around about a 
month from Tennessee, but opposed to slavery. For this we are 
indebted to you, for I could not have got the field in and got 
it plowed, if it had not been for the help I got from home. I think 
I shall have 200 bushels of potatoes when they are dug, and plenty 
of turnips, beets, pumpkins, squashes, &c. We have had a great 
abundance of melons for two months, and now many will rot we 
cannot use. We have had a very long, mild, beautiful fall, with 
moderate rains, making very [good] growing weather. The first of 
September there was scarcely any promise of potatoes now one hill 
makes us two meals. . 

Now about the election. There never has been any doubt but that 
the free state men polled a large majority of votes. But the pro 
slavery party tried to get the majority in the Legislature by false 
and manufactured returns. Douglas and Johnson Counties were 
joined in one District, to elect three members of the Council and 
eight of the house. Douglas County contains Lawrence and is over- 

49. The official count for Lykins county gave a total of 407 votes cast, of which 348 
were Free State and 59 Democrat. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 287 

whelmingly free state. Even Lecompton, the capital of the territory 
and the focus of proslavery influence, gave a majority of 190 for 
freedom. The free state vote in that county was 1683; the pro- 
slavery 187. It so happened, as the entire Council consists of 13, 
and the House of 39, that the vote of this district would turn the 
scale in the Legislature. It was known the same night how Douglas 
County had gone, so they opened the polls the second day at a little 
precinct called Oxford City in Johnson County under the pretense 
that all had not voted, and added about 1500 names to the return. 
When this return began to be first talked of it was laughed at as a 
joke, but when the 45 feet of names came to the Secretary's Office at 
Lecompton, with a certificate that these votes had been veritably 
cast, it caused intense excitement and indignation, that the rights of 
the entire people should thus be wiped out by a mere scribbling of 
the pen. But the returns were so plainly fraudulent, that Secretary 
Stanton and Governor Walker determined to investigate their truth. 
So they went in search of this great Oxford City which professedly 
contained a population nearly equal to the whole of Douglas 
County, and found a little village of six houses. This place is 
separated from the Missouri village of Little Santa Fe only by a 
street, and they found the people there as much astonished as any 
one at the magnitude of the return and treated the whole affair with 
derision or indignation. So the governor and Secretary issued a 
proclamation detailing the circumstances, and declaring that these 
returns would be thrown out. This is greatly to their honor, for 
although it was no more than their duty still it is something in these 
degenerate times for men to do their duty. The notorious Sheriff 
Jones 50 was one of the candidates who expected to be benefitted by 
this mean and wicked piece of trickery, and went to Secretary 
Stanton demanding his certificate of election, and upon Stanton's 
refusing it, drew his bowie knife on him. It is said that Stanton now 
goes armed for his own protection. When this affair had been thus 
disposed of, and it was thought all was smooth sailing, in came 
another return from McGee County of 1202 pro-slavery and 24 free 
state. This County is on Cherokee Indian land in the extreme South 
East of the territory and contains a white population of perhaps 
fifty or a hundred. It was a remarkable circumstance, showing the 
effrontery of the tricksters, that these returns were in the same hand 
writing as the fraudulent Oxford returns, were tied up with the same 

50. Samuel J. Jones, Proslavery adherent, was the first sheriff of Douglas county and 
leader of the armed Proslavery force that practically destroyed Lawrence on May 21, 1856. 



288 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

kind of red ribbon, and when some curious person put the ends of 
these pieces of ribbon together it was found that they just matched, 
showing them to have been cut from the same piece. Of course on 
the principles of Walker's proclamation these returns must be 
thrown out. 

I have not time to write about the Missourians voting in Leaven- 
worth County the soldiers voting at Kickapoo &c, but if we get 
a majority holding certificates in the Legislature the minor frauds 
can be looked into, and the people have their rights. If all illegal 
votes were thrown out the proslavery party would be in a very 
small minority, if there would be any of them left in the Legislature. 

Sarah is having a light attack of chills. We hope it will not be 
serious. The rest of us are well. . . . 

With love to all John. 

Tues. Evening Oct. 27 [1857] 
Dear Cynthia 

If the baby will remain quiet long enough I will answer the ques- 
tions in your last letter 

. . . John got back from Lecompton Tuesday, as we may 
have written in some previous letter. We both came through the 
trial unscathed by either the "winds or the wolves." And now 
what do you think of me, I have to stay alone two nights every 
week, and not only that but have three cows to milk besides pigs to 
feed and chickens to take care of and crying babies to look after. 
And just now as if all these were too little, the chills have set in, so 
with all the rest of my duties I am compelled to shake every other 
day Tomorrow is my day to be sick and I am preparing for it 
to day getting in from the field and boiling sufficient pumpkin to 
last the pigs keeping the cows up so that I may be able to milk 
early before my chills come on fixing food for Franky to help him- 
self to &c. Baby will have the hardest time and I dont know just 
how he can be managed Hope this state of things wont last a 
great while. 

We have no very dangerous wild beasts that I know of. Prairie 
wolves are not dangerous and those are the ones that howl around 
our lone cabins. We are not so very far from neighbors only M> a 
mile and we have far more companions among tame beasts than 
wild ones and as to hardships Kansas has less of them than many 
older countries That however depends in a great measure on the 
way we look at things Things that would have been to me unen- 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 289 

durable hardships in Steuben are only a little disagreeable here 
simply because I like Kansas and didn't like Steuben and I am sure 
you would find few hardships were you to come here also but if 
mother can't bear to hear you speak of coming she would suffer grave 
hardships for you should you once get here. I suppose the ague is a 
great lion in the way, in all your feelings and it is indescribable when 
you are getting acclimated but then you are sure to enjoy far better 
health, after it, and its future visits are not so bad as your Steuben 
colds are. Then another thing this climate affords permanent relief 
to dyspeptics, and consumptives when not too far gone. Do you 
suppose that John could have ever had more enjoyment in Steuben 
continually dyspeptic as he was there than he has been here with 
less luxuries and a healthy stomach? . . . Love to all I 
must get to bed Yours sleepily 

Sarah 

Longwood Nov. 23, 1857. 
Dear Father and Mother 

I take a few moments this morning to let you know that we are 
all well. Yours of Nov 5th we received day before yesterday. 
. . . I get about $100 a quarter for carrying the mail. I am 
back every week in three days. I expect to have to be gone 4 days 
some times in the winter. We have meetings every other Sabbath 
in a private house a mile from here. Quite a good neighborhood 
gathering. Mr. Adair, congregational, and a missionary of the 
American Missionary Association preaches. He is very much re- 
spected as a good man and a good citizen. 

You have seen that the bogus Constitution is not to be submitted 
to the people. Gov. Walker by pledges many times repeated is 
pledged to join the people in opposing it. There is to be a free state 
delegate Convention Dec 2nd to take action concerning it. It is 
thought that Gov. W. will call an extra session of the Legislature 
just chosen, and that they will order an election, so that the people 
may have an opportunity of expressing an opinion upon this Con- 
stitution. The Gov. has done a good deal to redeem his character 
among free state men by his rejection of the Oxford & McGee Co. 
returns. It is said that the Oxford list was taken bodily from an old 
Cincinnati directory in alphabetical order! The free state men are 
united in their indignation and determined opposition to this last 
attempt to force a slave Constitution upon them. There is a differ- 
ence of opinion about the most effectual way of opposing it, but 

199292 



290 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

whatever course is recommended by the Convention of Dec. 2nd 
will have a united support. That Constitution can never be peace- 
ably submitted to by the people of Kansas. If enforced upon us at 
all, it will be as the bogus laws have been at the point of the bayonet 
and by dragoon law. 

We have had a very cold November so far. Today the wind blows 
cold from the North. There was only a little over two weeks after 
the first killing frost before we had a cold storm followed by frost 
that froze the ground up. Consequently a great many potatoes are 
frozen. We have a great many bushels yet in the ground. 

Franky has got quite smart. His mother is very proud of little 
Bobby. He is a great fat healthy-looking good natured child the 
admiration and wonder (for is he not brought up on a bottle?) of 
all who like babies. He gives us very little trouble nights. Could 
you send us two or three more mouth pieces? He uses up nearly one 
a month, and we are now using the last one. We took little Robert 
to meeting with us yesterday. He was awake all meeting time, and 
did not cry at all. He paid some attention to the minister, but 
looked around more than would be becoming in a larger boy. He 
was in ecstasies at the singing. I have bought a second hand wagon 
for $25. So all the family rode up to meeting yesterday. Mother 
used to ride horseback on old Polly, with Frank behind and Bobby 
before, and father trudging along by the side ! We find the wagon 
an improvement. I must close with love to all 

Your affectionate son 

John 
P. S. My ink has frozen. 

Longwood Dec. 14, 1857 
Dear Cynthia, 

We are all well but have no time to say much else The weather 
here this month is delightful the mercury ranging from 48 to 60 
in the day time, and from 32 to 40 in the night But it can't un- 
freeze our potatoes The people in the Territory as you see by the 
eastern prints are undergoing another political crisis as soon as 
anything of importance is known to us John will find time to tell 
you "Bleeding Kansas" will free herself from her persecutors now 
or "die in the last ditch." There will be no more holding on to the 
skirts of the north or of Congress no more waiting to see "what will 
turn up" but some decisive action will be taken here that will at 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 291 

once and forever settle the vexed question within her harassed 
borders And this is as it should be Murder and arson and 
Tyranny have stalked over this wronged and outraged people till 
forbearance on the part of their victims is no longer a virtue, but a 
crime, and now with one mind and heart the people are determined to 
rise up in their might and break the jaws of the wicked and strike 
from their midst the foe of oppression God speed them in their 
righteous purpose. 

John's route is 60 miles and back making near 120 miles He 
and Polly both go it in three days and come back very little if any 
"worse for the wear"- - We have a man here now helping about the 
farm work so I am not left alone Little Bobby grows and flour- 
ishes like a green bay-tree. We all rode to town in the new wagon 
last friday. I stepped on to the scales with Bobby and found he 
increased my weight 24 Ibs. ! Can you come that in Steuben? He 
is the best natured baby I ever saw some days he sits in the rock- 
ing chair all day and is not tended so much as a half hour except at 
meal time when he comes to the table and eats potato and turnip 
and pumpkin pie like the rest of us. He is very playful, and will 
talk and laugh with his bottle or toes or fingers for any length of 
time when nothing more sociable presents itself That is all I have 
got time to say now Supposing you see if you cant say a little 
more soon and enclose it to your sister & Brother 

John & Sarah 

Osawatomie, Feb 16 1858. 
Dear Father 

I do not know when I wrote home last. Am afraid it is a good 
many weeks since. We all continue well. The people of Kansas are 
a good deal excited now at the prospect of the Lecompton Constitu- 
tion passing Congress. I would not be surprised if terrible vengeance 
will be taken on some traitors to the people, if this Lecompton 
scheme succeeds in Congress. Perhaps this will be the culminating 
point of the Democratic party. They have gone here the farthest 
possible from the Democratic principle. 

Little Robert continues very healthy and good. Will try not to be 
so long again without writing Your son 

John 



292 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Osawatomie, Mar. 8, 1858. 
Dear Father and Mother 

Yours of Feb. 25 we received last Tuesday morning. . . . 

You inquire about my journeys to the Neosho. I have had very 
few unpleasant trips. We have had no very severe weather this 
winter such as we had last winter and the winter before. The rain 
and snow generally come, if there is any, when I am at home. We 
have had only 4 inches of snow at any time. The ground is entirely 
bare now, and has been for weeks, and very little frost in the ground, 
and none in the streams. I do not know whether I mentioned that 
I have a prairie of 20 miles to cross without a house. There was a 
poor cabin about half way with a family in it in the fall. I expect 
they will return soon, and I will again make a stopping place there, 
avoiding the fatigue of my last days travel, which is now about fifty 
miles. I believe I have told you that I have been selling milk in 
town this winter three times a week. I have sold about $30 worth 
in seven weeks, from three cows. I expect to give it up in a week or 
two longer as new milch cows come in. We have now three cows, 
one two year old heifer, and three yearling heifers. I wish very much 
every spring I could manage to get a few more cows. There is 
immense waste of the raw material of milk, butter, and cheese 
around me here every year. Thousands of tons of hay (uncut) are 
burnt right under our nose, as you may say, every year. All that is 
wanting to make this valuable is cows to eat it and turn it into 
milk. Thomas D. Lewis of Utica wrote to me a week or two ago, 
in respect of investing a few hundred dollars in Kansas in real estate, 
or lending it on landed security on good interest. I wish that I 
could borrow two or three hundred dollars to get cows with. If I 
could give Cousin Thomas the required security I should try to get 
it of him. But I have not yet pre-empted my claim. Would you 
like to try to get this amount for me of him or some one else and 
join with me in a note for it? Say for three to five years at ten or 
twelve percent. Or I could repay $200 in one year at twenty per 
cent. I have nearly $200 coming to me yet of mail money, one half 
in May, and the rest in August. I have another horse on trial, which 
I think I will buy, and drive two horses when emigration begins to 
come in, and carry passengers. Butter has been selling this winter 
from 30 to 35 cts; cheese 25 cts a pound; milk 30 cts a gallon. So 
you see dairy products keep a good price yet. 

[John R. Everett] 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 293 

Osawatomie Apr. 24, 1858. 
Dear Father 

. . . We have read with much interest the accounts of the 
revival in the East in your letters as well as in the papers. There 
is no special interest here. One great hindrance to the cause of re- 
ligion here is that the most prominent of those who profess religion 
are hardly as much esteemed for probity and character as some who 
make no profession. Rev Mr. Adair the Congregational minister is 
a very good man, and universally esteemed as a man and Christian. 
But his prominent church members are very poor stuff intelligent 
and able, but tricky and mean in every day life. It is a great mor- 
tification to have to feel so about men who should be the light of 
the world the practical expounders and verifiers of what religion 
is. Mr. Adair continues to hold meetings near us every other week. 
The meetings are very well attended. 

But this is not what I sat down to write. I am getting in a new 
field of between 50 and 60 acres this spring. I intended it for a 
pasture this summer, and had some hopes that I should some way be 
able to stock it. The custom here is to let calves suck the cows all 
summer, to get the cows to come up. Hardly any have pastures. 
In the day time the cows run and graze on the prairies and in the 
timber patches, and the calves are yarded up. In the night the cows 
are yarded up and the calves are turned out to graze. It is not as 
profitable as if one had a pasture and could wean the calves. Which 
would be the most profitable, and which would be considered the 
most economical and thrifty, if a man had 160 acres of land in 
Steuben, all paid for except $200, and only three or four cows, to 
burn his grass every year, and wait till the natural increase from 
his few cows should stock the farm or boldly run in debt for enough 
to stock his place? I think there is a wide difference between 
running in debt for the means of living or for speculating in real 
estate (there is a great deal of that in the West) and running in 
debt for stock which will be immediately paying for itself. There 
are no cattle to be sold here on credit. You don't see auction notices 
here closing with "Terms. Nine months credit, with good ap- 
proved notes on interest." The great want here is capital to do 
business with. A man say in Steuben buys 50 acres of land for 
$2000 dollars. He pays $1500 down. He is in debt $500 for his 
land. Does he think of letting his farm lie idle till he can earn 
money enough by day labor to stock it? No, he goes and buys cows 
at nine to 12 months time. He can't afford to do otherwise. If I had 
not lost so much health and strength in the printing office I should 



294 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

not be forced now to borrow money to carry on my farm with. But 
cows are as good an investment here as in Steuben. What I want 
to borrow is credit to get them. 

But there is another matter that presses harder now. The land 
sales in this district commence the 5th of July. All land that is not 
paid for before that time is forfeited. This announcement took the 
settlers perfectly by surprise. We had been led by the President's 
message to think that the land sales would be put off till the land 
was all in the hands of actual settlers. This is another part of the 
Lecompton scheme. It is the hardest blow struck at the people of 
Kansas yet. The object undoubtedly is to punish the people for 
wishing to make their own laws. The great majority cannot pay 
now without ruinous sacrifices or more ruinous interest. We are 
just feeling the effect of the money crisis. It is harder times for 
money than it has been since we have been in the territory. Money 
on mortgage will be worth here from 50 to 100 per cent between 
now and July. Can you borrow money for me at a less rate than 
that on the security of my land? The improvements on my claim 
are worth from $250 to $300. The land will be worth at a low valua- 
tion from $800 to $1000 when preempted. It cannot be mortgaged 
till it is paid for. I shall want $200 to pay for my claim. I had 
$100 last fall that should have gone towards my land, but I could not 
get the other hundred, so I put that into my business. I have some- 
thing to show for every dollar of it, but nothing that I can now turn 
into money. I am you know within two miles of Osawatomie (the 
town has grown towards us), a place that seems now to be very 
thriving about 80 or 100 houses with three or four new houses going 
up every week. I have between 65 and 75 acres enclosed about 14 
broke. Please let me know immediately whether you can help me, 
so that if not I may throw myself into the hands of the land sharks 
before they get gorged. There can not be the least doubt about the 
security after I have pre-empted. 

We are all well Your affectionate son 

John 

Longwood, May 4, 1858. 
Dear Sarah 

I have but a few minutes to write and perhaps it is as good for my 
purpose as a longer time as I have nothing in the wide world to say 
My teeth are aching and have been all night It's a damp dark 
cold dismal time, come on I should judge on purpose, to give folks the 
toothache and ague, and to rot corn in the hill, and give children the 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 295 

croup if m y judgment is right it accomplishes its purposes much 
better than we poor mortals seem to carry out our plans for in our 
case as I stated before I've got the toothache, Mr. Show who is 
stopping with us has got the ague and Frank has got the croup. 

John is gone to day with the mail and Robert is clinging on to 
my dress crying We have not planted any thing yet but potatoes 
which will do well enough this weather but those who have put in 
corn will I'm afraid have to replant it. Last week I took out the 
mail so as to give John a chance to work at home fearing our crop 
would come out rather late by the three days delay, but this week it 
is not weather to plow drag or plant so he goes with it himself. I 
shall probably have to go again next week 

I have hardly got rested from my last trip I had to do a large 
washing and some ironing some cleaning, and cooking enough for 
him at home and myself, the day before I started then the 40 miles 
a day on horseback for three days then that night about midnight 
after I got home some emigrants got in that stopped with us and for 
whom supper and two beds on the floor had to be prepared which 
broke up that nights rest and the next day it was afternoon before 
they got started on so that I had my hands full till quite night getting 
cleared out after them. 

The first night on my way out to Neosho I traveled till nearly 
midnight It was very cold part of the time I was gone especially 
that night, and unusually windy all the time except the last after- 
noon On the high prairie I had great difficulty in keeping from 
being blown off from my horse, an inexperienced horse woman must 
inevitably have been borne off by the wind But I believe I may 
well boast a little of my skill in riding. I have rode down and up 
ravines steeper than your house roof bare backed with Frank in my 
lap when the banks were so slippery that the horse didn't pretend in 
going down 20 or 30 ft. to raise her feet more than once or twice and 
when in going up she would have to jump and plunge in the most 
violent manner to keep from slipping down again into the water 
Such lessons were learned in the days of Ruffian notoriety when it 
was necessary to know the latest tidings and when 'twas safer for a 
woman to be seen out than a man But in our part such lessons no 
longer have to be studied, though murders and outrages are rife only 
a few miles from us on the Little Osage towards Fort Scott. 

I think though that the arms of vengeance will be raised ere long 
in that unhappy neighborhood and ruffianism be driven out from the 
only corner in which it has any resting place. 



296 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

I had an opportunity to take a school in Leroy while I was outi, 
but the day I started John had sent out to a man about 15 miles from 
here who owns 50 cows to see if we could hire 20 of them for the 
summer But they were such a poor lot of animals been so badly 
wintered old and never milked except by the calves so wild too 
that our messenger thought they were not worth taking as a gift 
So hoping that we might go to dairying I made no effort to secure the 
school as I should otherwise have done 

I have sent by John this week to see if he can get the school for 
me. We want and will at some rate or other, stock our farm 
Green cheese not 3 weeks out of the press sells here for 20 cents a Ib. 
Any man could afford to pay 50 per cent on money to buy cows with 
here. A cow will twice pay for herself here during the summer in 
cheese, and since we have failed to get a few this spring I shall get 
a school if I can this summer and raise the money to get them in that 
way. The baby I can get taken care of by Mrs Sears our nearest 
neighbor and Frank can board with me I am afraid I shall miss 
of getting the school as it is getting late in the season and they were 
anxious to have their school commence I do not know of any other 
vacant school now It is getting to be dinner time and I must stop. 
I have strung my letter out to an unconscionable length after all and 
havent said a word yet or even thought till now of that little new 
baby, but if you saw as many babies as I see you wouldn't hardly 
think to tell of it Babies are as thick here as blossoms in a clover 
field Well I am glad its them and not us that have got to be kept 
awake with it Very willing they should have all the babies in 
future Yours as ever Sarah 

[John R. Everett to Jane and Anna Everett, Galesburg, 111.] 

May 20, 1858. 
Dear Sisters 

I can write but few lines now. . . . 

In relation to the expense of coming out here. From Chicago to 
St. Louis, the fare used to be $8.00. On the Missouri River from St. 
Louis to Kansas City, (where you would have to land) the fare 
varies from $7.00 to $12.00 and sometimes higher, depending some- 
what on the stage of water in the river when the water is high the 
fares are low and vice versa. From Kansas City to Osawatomie 
the traveling is by stage fare $5.00. There is another route take 
the Pacific Railroad at St. Louis to a place called California, about 
25 miles West of Jefferson City, Mo., and from there by stage 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 297 

(Moore & Walker's line) to Osawatomie via Pleasant Hill. The 
stage fare from California to Osawatomie is $10 through in two 
days. They run a daily line to Pleasant Hill and triweekly from 
there to Osawatomie; but I learn that in a week or two, they will 
run daily through to Osawatomie. So you see the expense from 
Chicago will not come much short of $20 to $25.00, and might be a 
little over including detentions and expenses in St Louis & Kansas 
City. We would be very glad to see you out here, although the ex- 
pense seems pretty formidable, if you should both come. We have 
seen a good deal of hard times since we have been here and have 
learned to be pretty stingy of money. The administration have 
ordered the land sales in two of the three districts in Kansas to come 
off in July Since the passage of the Lecompton contrivance, 51 
the settlers are told by the land officers that if they vote for the 
Lecompton Constitution, and pass it, the land sales will be put off, 
This is a very tempting bribe, as thousands can not now pay up 
without ruinous sacrifices, and some not at all. But I have no doubt 
the people will vote Lecompton down. You have no idea how that 
instrument is detested by the people. If Buchanan should offer to 
give every settler 160 acres of land if they would endorse his hated 
pet, even then I really think he would be doomed to a mortifying 
defeat. 

Our little Robert is nearly 11 months old, and is a very hearty 
and strong child, creeps all over, and walks by chairs &c. Frank is 
nearly five years, makes little yokes to yoke up his cob oxen, gen- 
erally has two yoke of oxen about, goes to Kansas City and back 
frequently for a load of provisions ; has got a little wagon that he is 
all the time tinkering with, making new axeltrees, or something, and 
on the whole is a very busy child has no idea of reading or books, 
but can fetch up the cows or go a mile on an errand, as a Kansas 
boy should. 

I must go to work. Write soon. Let us know if you conclude to 
come and I can write you more particulars about the journey. 

Your affectionate brother 

John R. Everett. 

We have not yet paid for our land. Have written to father to see 
if he can help us. This land sale is purposely to annoy the settlers, 

51. The English bill, passed by congress April 30 and signed by the President May 4, 
providing for the submission of the Lecompton constitution to the vote of the people of the 
territory. As an inducement for votes in favor of the constitution, the bill provided for large 
land grants to be set apart to the future state. See Frank Heywood Hodder, "Some Aspects 
of the English Bill for the Admission of Kansas," Kansas Historical Collections, v. X, pp. 
224-232. 



298 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

in keeping with all Buchanan's acts to us. It is directly contrary 
to his implied pledges in his message. And no doubt now if we 
would surrender to Buchanan, and go for a slave state all would be 
reversed, and the land sales be put off indefinitely. 

Osawatomie, May 28, 1858. 
Dear Mother, Brothers & Sisters 

I received father's letter of May 14 last evening. Feel glad and 
grateful to hear that he succeeded in borrowing $100 for me and that 
there was some prospect of getting the other $100. The approaching 
land sales are being used as a screw to force the poor settlers to vote 
for the Lecompton Constitution. We are told if we vote for that pet 
measure of the President, the land sales will be postponed two or 
three years to enable the state to select the lands to which it will be 
entitled. But if we vote against the President's desire, the settlers 
deserve no favors from the President, and the land sales will go on, 
and those who cannot pay will lose their lands, their improvements; 
their hardships and sacrifices for the past year or years in pioneer- 
ing in a new country will go for nothing. This is the hardest time 
for money we have seen in the territory the hard times did not get 
here till this spring. There is not the least doubt that the land sales 
were ordered for the express purpose of being able to exert the power 
of the creditor which the President possesses to force the poor debtor 
to vote according to his will. A new illustration of popular sov- 
ereignty truly ! But I have little fear that the people can be bribed 
or driven. They will lose their lands before they will sacrifice their 
independence. The feeling of opposition to Lecompton is deeptoned 
and defiant. I have not seen or heard of one free state man in three 
counties in which my travel lies who can be bought or driven to vote 
for Lecompton. The people hate it with a personal hatred. And 
yet in these three counties not one third probably have paid for their 
lands. I suppose you have heard of the renewed troubles South of 
us. A party of Missourians, one day last week, went to a little town 
called Choteaus' Trading Post, or Montgomery, forty or fifty miles, 
I think South of us, near the Missouri line, and in the day time went 
around to the houses, and took twelve unoffending unarmed free 
state men, took them out on the prairie, and deliberately shot them. 52 
Five were killed, six wounded and one escaped by pretending to be 
killed. One of the murdered had a sister living in Osawatomie, the 
wife of one of our merchants. This has of course occasioned a great 

52. Choteau's Trading Post was actually about twenty miles southeast of Osawatomie. 
The episode referred to is known as the Marais des Cygnes massacre. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 299 

deal of excitement, and will give rise to a great many absurd rumors 
in the papers. There are men on the border who would like to get 
up another general invasion of the territory, but they can not 
compass it. Such cowardly assassinations will not help their cause, 
and will surely not go unpunished. We are from 35 to 50 miles 
from the scene of strife here; when I go with the mail, I am going 
farther and farther from it. 

There was a report in the papers that the land sales were put off, 
but it is probably not true. 

We are all well. The baby gets up alone in the middle of the 
floor, and stands alone quite a little time, but does not walk except 
by chairs. . . . 

Must close now with love. Please write some of you. 

John. 

June 22. [1858] 
Dear Father and Mother 

. . . The land sales have been put off till November 1st, which 
is very lucky for us, as well as thousands of others in the territory, 
for I do not know where I should raise the other $100. We are all 
well. Robert was a year old, day before yesterday. He can walk 
across the room. Our crops are looking well. We have had plenty 
of rain. I have the contract for a short mail route, 15 miles and 
back, both ways the same day, for next year, at $99 a year. 

Must close with love 

John R Everett 

P. S. No disturbances here. We are too thickly settled for such 
small bodies of Missourians as can now be mustered to attempt to 
do any thing. But there is a sad state of things South and South 
East of us. It is over 60 miles from here to Fort Scott, and on my 
mail trips I am going from the disturbances. If you read in the 
papers that 300 or 200 men are coming into the territory to commit 
outrages, you may generally safely divide that number by 4 or from 
that to 10. 

Osawatomie Aug. 12, '58. 
Dear Father and Mother 

It is a long time since we have heard from home. Every time I 
go to the post office I am expecting a letter from home, and come 
away disappointed. It is very hard times here for money now. 
Nothing is to be had at the stores except for money. At the same 
time if one has any thing to spare to neighbors it is a chance if he 



500 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

gets money for it. It seems as if all the money had gone to the 
land office. It is impossible to borrow money except at ruinous 
rates. I do not know any chance of borrowing money on bond and 
mortgage at less than 5 per cent per month and at that rate you 
would be obliged to let it run for a year. On other security money 
has been loaned in Lawrence as high as 15 & 20 percent per month. 
There is $187.50 due me for carrying the mail the 6 months ending 
with July 1st. Mine was a sub-contract from a man in Pike Co. 
Missouri. The first quarter of this was due about three months ago. 
But as the government was very backward in paying other con- 
tractors around here, I did not feel uneasy till they were paid, 
which was about three weeks ago. We cannot hear from the man 
from whom our money is to come or get any answer from letters. 
I am afraid he is going to try to cheat us out of it. Have you any 
correspondent in Pike Co. Mo. His name is James M Gatewood 
& Co. Bowling Green Pike Co. This Co. is on the Mississippi 
river, 2 or 3 counties North of St Louis. This failure puts us in 
great distress, as I counted undoubtingly on getting the first half 
long ere this. I have not pre-empted. Have been hoping to get 
my money. Although I owe a part of it for a horse and for work, 
still I would have had enough to have carried me through. But now 
if I sue for that money I could not get it in season to do me any 
good. There is no resource for me but to try to borrow. Would it 
be possible for you to borrow for me $100 or $120? I have some 
$300 worth of improvement on my claim a house, well, stable, 
nearly two miles of fence, besides my breaking. The bare claim 
without the improvements is worth at least $500, being within 2% 
miles of perhaps the most flourishing town in Southern Kansas. 
All this would be lost if I cannot raise enough money to finish pre- 
empting. 

I have a mail contract this year direct from government, which 
will bring me about $100. It takes me one day from home. Crops 
look remarkably well. I have about 14 acres planted, which promises 
as well as anybody's. 

Our health is tolerable. The baby is teething. I have not felt 
quite as well as common for two or three weeks had a little fever 
for a week and have not felt as well since. There is a good deal of 
sickness about, especially among new-comers. . . . 

Our election was a week last Monday. In Osawatomie the vote 
was 226 against Lecompton junior to 3 for. In Anderson County 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 301 

where I carry the mail there were only three votes for the proposi- 
tion in the entire county 53 one of these was by a P. M. another by 
his clerk, and the third was cast by mistake. Excuse the looks of 
this sheet, as I got up, restless, in the night, and wrote it. Good 
bye now. Your son 

John R Everett. 

Osawatomie, Aug. 19, 1858. 
Dear Father 

Can you send the accompanying letter to Thaddeus Hyatt Esq. 
formerly President of the National Kansas Aid Committee. 54 I 
want to be sure it gets to him, and not knowing his address thought 
you could send it through some of your friends in New York, who 
would take the trouble to look him up through the directory or 
otherwise. We are in distress for money owing to my not getting 
my mail money, and the extreme stringency of the times. I think 
Mr Hyatt lives on Morton Street. Jane's letter, with the price of 
rennet we got yesterday. We are much obliged to her. The baby 
has been sick with fever, but is getting better now we hope. My 
health is not very good now for a few weeks, but so that I am 
around all the time, and think I am mending. The successful lay- 
ing of the Atlantic Tel. wires (if indeed the success is complete) 
is wonderful. Your son 

John. 

Osawatomie Jan. 29 1859. 
Dear Father and Mother 

I write you a few lines to let you know that we are all well. 
Robert and Frank are much obliged to their Grandfather and Grand- 
mother for their little nice gold presents. Frank has got a slate 
and is going to have a knife and hat from his. Frank got his 
"Child's Papers" last week, that you sent him. We do not get it 
so it was very acceptable to him. 

The accounts we get from the seat of the troubles in the South of 
Kansas are generally so distorted and so little reliable that I have 
not written much to you about them. We have frequently during 
the summer and fall been excited by hearing of families who were 
obliged to flee from their homes for safety, from the Missourians. 

53. The official count of the board of election commissioners gave Anderson county 4 
votes for and 313 against the Lecompton constitution. 

54. See Kansas Historical Collections, y. VII, p. 407, for a brief statement of the relief ac- 
tivities of Thaddeus Hyatt in Kansas during the territorial period. 



302 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

We are in hopes that the fire there is nearly burnt out. The free 
state party is completely in the ascendant. The violent proslavery 
men are all driven out, except perhaps a very few in Fort Scott who 
promise to be peaceable. All the trouble now is from invasions 
and counter invasions over the border. We hear that the new 
marshall has patched up another treaty. We look for more quiet 
times down there now. But for myself I think the sooner all the 
responsibility of government is thrown upon the people of Kansas, 
the sooner we will have settled quiet. 55 The last trouble there 
arose from attempted arrests of free state men for acts committed 
while in arms for self defense which they are not willing to be 
tried for before proslavery judges Affectionately 

John R Everett 

, . . Has Jane got those 150 rennets saved? Sarah thinks 
she is going to want them this summer. 

[March 16, 1859] 
Dear Jennie 

I wrote to you a few days ago and have only a word to say now 
Father said in his last letter that there could be plenty of wet 
rennets procured of Uncle Henry but how to send them that is the 
question. 

If you could get a dozen or so of good calf's rennets that have 
not been washed till they are spoiled, and salt them inside and 
outside thoroughly, and dry them (by stretching on a crotched or 
bent branch) and send them by mail I will remit to you the price 
of the rennets and the postage. Perhaps you can send them with 
only newspaper postage. If you can so much the better, if not I 
can better afford to pay 96 cts a Ib postage than not to have them. 
It's very mortifying to be always bothering one's friends so much 
as we have been obliged to do but if you can bear with us a little 
longer we hope to be able to do better Indeed our condition 
looks more hopeful this spring than ever before. 

If we succeed in our dairying this summer as we are pretty likely 
to do if we can only get the rennets and do not get down sick, we 
shall be getting in a way not only to pay our debts but to live more 
comfortably than heretofore Spring is breathing on us again 
awaking with her soft whispers the buds and blossoms. 

55. At this time, Bourbon county militia companies were acting with the marshal as a 
posse in arresting offenders and enforcing the law. In February, 1859, an amnesty act was 
passed by the legislature and the border troubles gradually came to an end. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 303 

"Our man" is out ploughing in the garden which should have been 
done a fortnight sooner but for the rains which have kept it too wet. 

[S. M. C. E.] 

Osawatomie April 5, 1859. 
Dear Father 

I am sorry I have only time to write a few lines. The Cenhadwr 
came to Osawatomie the llth. But there had been a flood which 
hindered the mails getting in for about a week. I got my Missouri 
money $182.00 a few days ago. I have just borrowed $200.00 of 
cousin Thos D. Lewis for 10 per cent. This is very low interest for 
this country. I now intend to finish preempting, buy seven or eight 
cows, and go to making cheese this summer, if we can get the ren- 
nets. We do not want to kill calves if we can help it. But Sarah 
has written about that. Two Genesee Farmers, The Rural Annual, 
and some children's papers for Frank, we have to thank you for since 
I wrote last. 

I think of buying a few acres of timber as there is no rail timber 
or good saw logs on mine. Good timber is worth $15.00 per acre. 

We hope soon to be in condition to begin to pay our debts, at least 
the interest on them. The last speck of war apparently has died out. 
Freedom is triumphant everwhere in Kansas and we hope to go on 
now as a truly free state should. The Gold seekers are beginning 
to come up the river. Accounts from the mines are encouraging and 
continue so. But there is no doubt while some may make fortunes 
the majority would have been wiser if they had stayed at home. 

In haste Your affectionate son 

John. 

Osawatomie April 5, 1859. 

Tues. 
Dear Father 

We received your letter of March 21 Sat. evening. John returned 
that day from Lecompton having been up to pre-empt It was a 
cold windy time and he was unwell with a cold when he started, 
and though he appeared better when he got home than when he went 
away yet the next day he was attacked with the Pleurisy I did 
not know what ailed him but I succeeded in reducing the pain in his 
side considerably with fomentations, but as he continued to suffer 



304 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

a good deal I sent up in the afternoon to Friend Mendenhall to come 
down and see him and tell me what ailed him. Mr. Mendenhall (one 
of our most worthy Quaker neighbors) is not a practicing physician 
but is conversant with disease, and keeps always a stock of simple 
medicines on hand. He said what I had done was the best thing 
possible and recommended water treatment to be applied according 
as his symptoms should indicate John is better to day and will I 
think soon be up again. This cannot be called a severe attack of 
pleurisy, as that disease commonly works, and has not as yet re- 
duced him very much. The rest of us have got colds but are not sick 
with them only a little dull. 

This winter has been sickly beyond any other time that I ever 
knew. It leaves almost every one worse than it found them, and 
yet we have escaped with but very little sickness, and our little 
Robbie that last summer I hardly thought would live till winter, 
has come up again stout and bright as ever. 

We hope to hear from you now very often S. M. C. E. 

Osawatomie Apr. 9, 1859. 
Dear Father 

. . . I had written and sent to the P. 0. a letter the same day 
that yours was received telling you of John's sickness. His disease 
proves to be the Lung-Fever, which is I have learned accompanied 
by the Pleurisy or has been in these parts this winter. 

. . . He is much better now his disease seeming to culminate 
on Thursday, since then he has been gaining and will I hope continue 
to do so. ... 

It is very warm here today But we have just had a cold spell 
that I suppose has killed all the peaches in this vicinity. We have 
about a dozen 3 yr old peach trees in blossom. If it had not been 
for a few cold stormy days the first of this month we should have 
had a good many peaches this summer. We have over fifty peach 
trees that will all be old enough to bear next year. We have put out 
36 apple trees this spring and 2 cherries some currants Pie plants 
Gooseberries Raspberries black-berries & wild plums. 

. . . I shall write again in a few days unless John gets able to 
write for himself S. M. C. Everett 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 305 

Osawatomie Apr. 12, 1859. 
Dear Father and Mother 

I am glad to be able to take my pen in hand to tell you I am 
getting better. I had quite a severe attack of lung fever, but owing 
to the not unskillful use of water remedies, and the very faithful 
nursing of my dear wife, I think I have come out exceedingly well. 
This disease has been very fatal around here this winter, and I feel 
reason to be thankful to God that it has been with me no worse. I 
feel considerable weak as I have not been able to eat scarcely any 
till within a- day or two. My appetite is gaining now. . . . Ex- 
cuse errors as I am tired. Your affectionate son 

John 

Osawatomie, April 18, 1859. 
Dear Father and Mother 

Having an opportunity to send to mail I drop you a few lines. I 
do not seem to be improving very fast. My cough is quite loose. I 
have a little fever every day which seems to keep me back. The 
baby is sick with a cold and Frank has quite a hard cold. I send a 
couple of dollars in this. I would like some of you to see if you can 
get some rennets, and send them in letter form and put on stamps 
enough to pay the postage. Very few calves are killed in this 
country, as pasture costs nothing and everybody is anxious to in- 
crease their stock. I suppose last years rennets would be drier and 
weigh less if they could be obtained. If some of you at home will 
attend to this soon you will do us a great favor. We are intending 
to milk 15 to 18 cows and heifers this summer. Butter has been 
worth 30 cts in town all winter. But we can't pack down butter and 
keep it here as you can there. I would like if you would send a copy 
of a note to Mr Jones for that money I borrowed last spring (the 
14th of May, I believe.) Or else make that note right I sent last 
summer. Does he want that money this summer? I will try to 
send at least the interest in due time. My sickness will put me 
back a good deal coming just in seed time. But I hope the Lord 
will order it to our good. I have saved having any doctor's bills. 
They (the doctors) are generally worldly, harsh in their remedies, 
unreliable, and make very heavy bills. There is some emigration 
to Pike's Peak from these parts but not nearly as much gold fever 
as there was in the winter. Those who go from here go generally in 
companies of four, with a team of from two to four yoke of cattle 
and provisions for six months. [John R. Everett] 

20-9292 



306 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Osawatomie, May 5, 1859. 
Dear Father and Mother 

My health is getting quite good again, and I am getting strength 
fast. Frank had a slighter attack of the same disease as I had, and 
was quite sick a few days, but he is now well again. This disease, 
Lung Fever or Pneumonia, has been quite fatal around here this 
winter. In one family a mother and two children died in less than 
two weeks. I think there has been a great deal of bad doctoring. 
Calomel is a universal medicine with doctors here. One of our 
neighboring women was taken with child-bed fever, a doctor was 
sent for, he gave her immediately a heavy dose of blue pill and 
dover's powders, and of course she died. It is calomel or blue mass 
(as they call it) for every thing. I sent into Missouri for cows 
while I was sick. They found cows pretty scarce and badly wintered, 
so that a great many had died from weakness, and rather higher 
than we expected, but got ten pretty good cows for about an average 
of $21.00 a piece. This makes us 16 cows. We have 13 calves we 
are raising with one more cow to come in. We have three two-year- 
old and one three-year-old heifer of our own raising with their first 
calf this spring. Butter sells readily for twenty-five cents in town 
now. We probably shall make butter as long as it continues so 
high, but will be likely to begin to make cheese in at least two or 
three weeks. We are very much obliged for the rennet you sent and 
hope (if it is not too much trouble) some of you can send us what 
we want this summer. We think calves too valuable to kill here, 
while the disproportion between pasture and stock is so great. Sarah 
says if Jane has this Spring's basque pattern she would be glad if 
she would send it to her. She would like to know what kind of 
trimmings are worn, and all about the latest fashions ! ! ! The great 
emigration to Pike's Peak Gold Mines is the feature of Territorial 
news. None of it comes through Osawatomie, and so we hear of it 
only through the Newspapers. I think not one in four have gone 
from this section who made up their mind to go at first. The reports 
and letters outside of the newspapers have not been sufficiently 
favorable. . . . With much love, 

Your aff. son John. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 307 

Longwood June 20, 1859 

Robbie's birthday. 
Dear Jennie 

IVe been looking now every mail for five weeks for some of those 
tri-weekly billets, that were to come freighted with rennet, and good 
tidings and home gossip, and as none, no not one of them have ever 
arrived, I necessarily conclude that they have "gone up" I have 
just one rennet left and that will make from sixteen to twenty-one 
cheeses, and possibly I can borrow enough to make a half dozen 
more, and by that time perhaps you can send me some more. Can 
you? Our cheese is getting old enough now to market according to 
the western notions. And it stands so far A. No. 1 which I know 
you will be glad to hear. We have sold five and a half at 12% cts 
a Ib. We took two to town over a week ago and the merchant that 
bought of us said afterwards that he had tried a great deal of Kansas 
cheese and had made up his mind that it didn't pay, but that was 
good and he would like more of it so we sent him another Sat. Morn, 
and in the evening Mr. Snow was in there and asked them if they 
had tried the cheese yet. "Yes cut it and its all gone" Mrs. Parrish 
said. Mr Snow came back and told me the people in town were 
great hogs they had eaten my cheese all up and cried for more. Now 
I have got my name up I shall have a ready home market. 

I presume you think me very childish to feel so much elated simply 
because folks like my cheese, but you cant realize the reasons that 
make me feel so Supposing you had been living on the plainest 
possible food for only a few years say jonny-cake & skimmed milk 
for weeks together. Supposing you had turned your clothes inside 
out and bottom side up and then been obliged to wear tatters at 
that Suppose your toes had touched the floor till the 27. of Dec. 
and your crops had been shortened by drought and cut off by frost, 
and you had even with all the economy you could muster kept not 
only continually sinking in debt but taxing also the charity of your 
friends. Supposing all this and a great deal more too tedious to 
enumerate I say dont you think you would grow a little childish 
over the first faint gleamings of a better time coming? 

Another thing which makes our success more gratifying is the 
fact that failure has been so deeply ingrafted on the minds of all 
our friends. To be sure they haven't told us "Oh nonsense ! What's 
the use?" . . . But they have always tried to dissuade us in 
very kind tones from making any such effort. They would help us 
along so we shouldn't starve, and any farther than that they were 



308 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

sure would be a damage. . . . And so on and so on. I know 
you would like me to stop that and so I will. Dont forget to tell 
me about the fashions when you write for I begin to think just now 
of having at least a new every day dress so I shall not be put to so 
much haste and inconvenience when I wash the one I have. 

It's quite late in the evening and I am tired. It's John's night 
away and I had to milk six cows. He has only one more night to 
spend out on mail business and then his mail carrying will be done 
for all time I hope. It's too hard for him. I dont think he's quite 
strong yet from the effects of his spring's sickness. He expects to get 
in thirty acres of winter wheat this fall then we will have fairly 
commenced farming. No more from your Weary sleepy 

Sister S. M. C. E. 

[Sarah M. C. Everett to Jennie Everett] 

July 12 [1859] 

... We received yours of July 2 with some pieces of rennet. 
Osawatomie celebrated the 4th, with a sham fight representing the 
terrible 30. of Aug. 1856, in the fore noon; and in the afternoon a 
select picnic. The party was the pleasantest I have ever been at in 
Osawatomie. The fore noon exercises seemed to me surprisingly 
inappropriate for the day. 

. . . I must tell you how to make cheese without a hoop when 
you have only a little curd. Mrs. Mendenhall and I have fre- 
quently done so, and had good cheese. Fold a piece of thin cloth 
like the enclosed paper and sew a seam so as to make a pointed bag, 
then prepare your curd as for the hoop and put it in the bag crowd- 
ing it in as hard as you can, then confine it by tying it down tightly 
with a strong cord, and hang it in a cool shady place to drip. In 
a few days you have a tolerable fair specimen of new cheese. You 
will need a new cloth for every cheese, until your first cheeses be- 
come sufficiently cured to take out, which will be a week or more. 
Is Mother an old cheese maker? That is did she use to make 
cheese in Wales? I think there are a great many things I intended 
to write but have forgotten them The Breakers are running two 
plows in our pasture cutting broad furrows 70 rods long, and my 
imagination already pictures the waving grain, and the click of the 
reaper. I believe I wrote you before that we wished or intended 
to put in 30 acres of wheat, but getting disappointed in having the 
ground broke as at first agreed on, we will only be able to get 20 
acres prepared in season. We had 1 acre of spring wheat which our 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 309 

folks stacked Sat. and today they are sowing the ground with Buck- 
wheat. We have a trade for 4 more extra cows under consultation. 
Dont know yet whether we shall succeed in getting them or not. 
We have sold about fifty dollars worth of butter and cheese from our 
cows and have on hand about $60 worth of cheese which we can sell 
as fast as it gets old enough. We have made up to this time about 
$2.25 worth of cheese per day on the average, but the milk is on the 
decrease now. 

Longwood Aug 8, 1859 
Dear Jennie 

We received your letter with the rennet from Mrs. Griffiths on 
Tues. (the 2nd) and commenced using it this morn. After I have 
soaked out all the strength I can I dry the rennets and soak them 
over again. In this way I have got along sometimes when I should 
other wise have had to suspend my cheesemaking for three or four 
days. I shall save this years rennets for next year although I sup- 
pose 3 or 4 will be worth no more than one that had not been used. 
I am much obliged to you for the trouble of sending fashion news. 
Shall be very glad to get a cape pattern. 

You inquired what ailed Frank. I dont know hardly, he is a very 
nervous "young'un" and his body gets all worn out with his ex- 
citability which keeps him for the most part as poor as a herring. 

I wish I could send him out to his Grandfathers for a year or two 
and see if they couldn't fat him up and quiet his nerves a little. We 
had men here breaking for us and he must needs go down into the 
field and learn how, and he couldn't learn unless he could just take 
hold of the plow and go around the field once. The consequence was 
a short run of fever after it. Robbie has been sick a few days since 
we wrote before but he and Franky are both as well as any one can 
be this hot weather. John and Mr Snow are both pretty near sick. 
Yesterday I had a chill come on just at dinner time, which laid me 
up the rest of the day and this morning I am very weak. Probably 
I shall not have any more. John has bought two cows which makes 
only 14 that we milk now. Two of the cows he drove in from 
Missouri I may or may not have told you lost their bags with garget, 
another soon dried up that is, as quick as we weaned her calf and 
now another that will come in this fall has dried up so that we cant 
seem to get only just so many after all. One of those that lost her 
bag he has traded off towards a wagon the other we shall beef for our 



310 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

own eating this winter and the one that dried up after weaning her 
calf we shall sell for beef to the butcher likely. 

I have not time to write any more as I must go to my cheese, 

S. M. C. E. 



(To be concluded in the November Quarterly) 



Bypaths of Kansas History 

SQUAW TROUBLE 

Francis Parkman, who passed through part of present Kansas in 
1846 "on a tour of curiosity and amusement to the Rocky Moun- 
tains," visited an Indian camp in the mountain regions. He wrote in 
his The Oregon Trail (Boston, Little, Brown, and Company, 1875), 
pp. 161-162: 

. . We were entertained with an episode of Indian domestic life. A 
vicious-looking squaw, beside herself with rage, was berating her spouse, who, 
with a look of total unconcern, sat cross-legged in the middle of his lodge, 
smoking his pipe in silence. At length, maddened by his coolness, she made a 
rush at the lodge, seized the poles which supported it, and tugged at them, one 
after the other, till she brought down the whole structure, poles, hides, and 
all, clattering on his head, burying him in the wreck of his habitation. He 
pushed aside the hides with his hand, and presently his head emerged, like a 
turtle's from its shell. Still he sat smoking sedately as before, a wicked glitter 
in his eyes alone betraying the pent-up storm within. The squaw, scolding all 
the while, proceeded to saddle her horse, bestride him, and canter out of the 
camp, intending, as it seemed, to return to her father's lodge, wherever that 
might be. The warrior, who had not deigned even to look at her, now coolly 
arose, disengaged himself from the ruins, tied a cord of hair by way of bridle 
round the jaw of his buffalo-horse, broke a stout cudgel about four feet long, 
from the butt-end of a lodge-pole, mounted, and galloped majestically over the 
prairie to discipline his offending helpmeet. 



A HOME IN KANSAS IN 1856 

Extracts from a private Kansas letter printed in The Republican 
Gazette, Providence, R. I., March 20, 1856. 

We have been permitted to peruse a very interesting letter from a gentle- 
man in Kansas, to his friends in this city, one or two extracts from which, we 
doubt not, will be of interest to our readers. The writer has been in Kansas 
about a year, and writes under date of February 4th : 

"Our cabin is 16 feet square, and is eight logs high, or as the carpenters 
say, about 10 feet between jints, with a window on the north, and doors on 
the east and west sides, with chimney on the south; it is built up on the out- 
side, of logs, and on account of the saw mill not getting into operation, we 
have had no floor as yet. The roof is covered with split clapboards, which 
makes it tight against rain, but not of snow; the high winds which we con- 
tinually have here, blows the snow through the smallest crevice. The logs, 
which are laid one upon the other, are chunked between, and over this chunk- 
ing, plaster or mud is laid, which we call daubing; upon the whole, I consider 
our cabin about as tight as the end of a wood pile. Our table and chairs are 

(311) 



312 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

of my own make, but I would not own this were I anywhere else. Our bed- 
stead is made in back woodman's style; it is formed by driving sticks with 
crotches at the end, into the ground, and laying poles length and crosswise into 
these crotches, and then boards are placed across to hold up the bed, which is 
stuffed with hay and husks. Our cooking utensils consist of an old fashioned 

cake pan, frying pan, and an iron kettle. In this old cake pan, J makes 

the best of johnny cakes, corn dodgers, white bread, butter milk biscuit, 
&c. We cook by an open fire-place, having no stove. Our nearest neighbors 
are Dr. Kerr and Mr. Barnes, both from New York, the latter, however, lived 
in Providence a few years since. 

"We have the fever and ague, and are taken with a chill all over, pain in 
the bones, gape and swallow, after which comes the shake itself, which almost 
tears us to pieces. A hot fever follows, with sweats, headache and weakness, 
together with night sweats, which wets every thread we have on. In the fever 
and ague we take quinine or Peruvian bark, the first is taken from the latter. 
Of quinine, we take ten grains, of bark, half an oz., either one if taken be- 
tween one shake and the time for the next, will break up the fever for two or 
three weeks. The longest time we let them run without breaking them, was 
three weeks, one each day. That was when we could get no quinine here or at 
Kansas [City]. During most of the time since we have had the fever, we have 
just been able to move about, and, although this be the fact, we have almost 
ungovernable appetites, and gain flesh. I killed our fatted calf about the first 
of January, salted one-half and the other half remains fresh; this, together 
with potatoes, beans, hulled corn and milk, corn dodgers, &c., we succeed to 
meet the demands of hunger. 

"I have been thinking, for some time past, of coming east, that is, as far as 
Providence, for it is probable that we shall suffer with fever and ague, more or 
less, for the next two or three years, and besides J thinks the climate does 
not agree with her, she feels the want of a more active life, with more society 
than she has here. I sometimes agree with her, and think we are a little too 
jar out of town, and would like to be in Providence again, but in coming now 
I shall sacrifice not a little, as claims are rising every day. Notwithstanding 
the fine claim I hold, I suppose that a home in Providence, surrounded by 
friends, will incline me thither the coming spring." 



REPUBLICAN SOL MILLER WINS AN ELECTION IN 1859 

From the White Cloud Kansas Chief, December 22, 1859. 

DIED. At its late residence, in Lecompton, on Tuesday, the 6th inst., of 
internal mortification, Kansas Democracy, at a tender age. 

Kansas Democracy was an illegitimate child the result of an illicit inter- 
course between one Democratic Ad. Ministration and Miss Souri. Drs. Pierce, 
Douglas, and other distinguished physicians, assisted at the birth; while 
Granny Atchison, Stringfellow, Clay-Pate, and others, acted in the capacity of 
wet and dry nurses. The parents for a long time experienced much difficulty 
in fixing upon a suitable name for the newcomer, and several were selected, 
but afterwards dropped. It was successively called Border Ruffian, Law and 
Order, and Proslavery. Finally, some three years since, the name Democracy 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 313 

was bestowed upon it, and more than six months afterwards, it was christened 
in the Democratic cathedral, at Lecompton, Father John Calhoun officiating, 
and Jack Henderson standing as god father. 

The child never was healthy, but was subject to fits, caused by the wicked 
machinations of one Free-State party, alias Republican. This villainous fellow 
threw the child into frequent convulsions, the most dangerous of which were 
on the following dates: October 5th, 1857; January 4th, 1858; August 2d, 
1858; October 4th, 1858; March 28th, 1859; June 4th, 1859; October 4th, 1859; 
November 8th, 1859. The last and fatal spasm occurred December 6th, 1859, 
and that day ended its sufferings. Its system had become too debilitated to 
withstand these shocks, and it had to yield. It strove hard to overcome them, 
but in vain. It had become a living mass of corruption, and was exceedingly 
offensive. Drs. Buchanan, Bigler, English, and all the most celebrated Demo- 
cratic doctors in the country, had been consulted, and did all in their power 
to save it ; but it was beyond the reach of mortal power. 

The funeral ceremonies were of the most imposing description. The pro- 
cession embraced several military companies, the numerous friends and mourn- 
ers, and a large concourse of citizens. 

ORDER OF PROCESSION. 
Band of Music, Playing on Horns of 
Whisky. 

Kickapoo Rangers, Oxford Ballot-Box 
Stuff ers, and Delaware Crossing Guards. 

Corpse. 

Late Candidates on State Ticket, as 
Chief Mourners. 

A Barrel of Whisky on a Wheelbarrow. 
Legislative and Minor Candidates. 
Border Ruffians and Proslavery Men. 
Free-State Democrats and Free-White 

State Men. 

Democrats Because Their Daddies Were. 
Democrats Who Always Voted for Jack- 
son, and Always Intend To. 

Herald of Freedom, Topeka Tribune, and 
C. K. Holliday, on a Log-Sled. 

Old Line Whigs. 

The committee of arrangements, with appropriate and praiseworthy con- 
siderateness, assigned to the Old Line Whigs the same position in the pro- 
cession that they occupied in the Democratic party at the tail end ! 

The remains were deposited in the silent tomb, and while the grave was 
being filled, the congregation sang the beautiful, touching and mournful song' 
of "Bob Ridley." Then the procession repaired to the cathedral, where an im- 



314 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

pressive and eloquent funeral discourse was pronounced by John, Archbishop 
Pettit. The text was: 

"Who hath woe? He that seeketh mixed drinks?" 

The speaker proceeded, at some length, to caution his hearers against mixed 
drink; and he especially warned them against mixing it with water. Mixed 
drink, he said, was probably one great cause of the shattered constitution of 
the deceased. As an illustration of the benefits of abstaining from mixed 
drinks, he alluded to himself. Here he was, strong, fat and hearty the result, 
he verily believed, of always taking the pure stuff itself, without mixing it 
even with sugar or water. The wise man from whom he had selected his text, 
had also, in the same connection, asked the question, "Who hath red eyes?" 
Red-eye was a figurative expression, and had reference to a certain liquor 
which was in great favor with the ancients. It was the favorite beverage of 
the speaker himself. Every Democrat should make it a duty to ask the 
question, whenever asked to take a drink: "Who hath red-eye?" And where 
the red-eye was, there was the place to drink; but above all things, if they 
would shun woe, they should not mix their drink. 

While the speaker dwelt upon this subject, tears were seen to gush in 
streams from the eyes of his hearers, and run down into their boots; and when 
they arose, it was found that they had even been sitting in puddles of water 
undoubtedly all tears, from the fact that it was salty ! 

After the last solemn rites were performed over the remains of the deceased, 
the surviving friends retired to their respective homes, there to mourn in 
silence over their blasted hopes, and seek consolation in drink, which they took 
care not to mix. They should remember that what is their loss, is the country's 
eternal gain. 



"FENCING IN" KANSAS 

From the Rocky Mountain News, Auraria and Denver, March 7, 
1860. 

A letter was received at the metal warehouse of Thos. S. Dickerson, No. 
45 Wabash avenue, also largely in the trade in fence wire, to the following 
effect : 

"Dear Sir: Send me your terms for fence wire. I am thinking of fencing 
in Kansas. Yours, &c." 

The book-keeper into whose hands the letter fell, startled at the proposed 
territorial movement, fell into a brown study, and made a series of calculations, 
and relying upon the resources of the house in the line indicated, replied as 
follows : 

"Dear Sir: Have consulted the best authorities, and made an approximate 
calculation of the amount of wire it will take to 'fence in' Kansas. We find 
that we have just enough if you order at once. Yours, &c." 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 315 

MANHATTAN AND KANSAS STATE COLLEGE IN 1863 

From the Big Blue Union, Marysville, August 8, 1863. 

In our recent trip to Manhattan we met several friends and acquaintances 
and were also pleased with the general appearance of the place. Manhattan 
has quite a pleasant and advantageous situation, being on the west side of the 
Big Blue at its junction with the Kansas river, the former of which is bridged 
opposite the place. A large portion of the town site is very level and well 
calculated to the easy construction of buildings and the making of streets. 
It already has a population of some four hundred inhabitants; four fine stone 
churches and a large school house; several stores, a good hotel, two flouring 
mills one in successful operation, and the other in which the machinery was 
just being erected. This latter is particularly a fine one, being a large three- 
story stone 60 x 44 feet. The machinery is to be driven by a forty-horse power 
engine, and will probably be the finest mill in the state. Many of the private 
residences are also built of limestone, which gives the town a decidedly sub- 
stantial as well as neat appearance. 

In Manhattan we met James Humphrey, Esq., formerly editor of the old 
Express, and now in the practice of law there. Also Mr. Josiah Pillsbury, who 
had just issued the first number of a good looking paper entitled the Man- 
hattan Independent. Mr. P. is an earnest worker and his paper will always be 
found on the side of right. And among others we met Rev. J. Dennison and 
our state superintendent of schools, Prof. I. T. Goodnow, both of which gentle- 
men have for quite a period been actively engaged in the educational interests 
of the state, and who are two of the principal founders of the agricultural 
college. The latter gentleman showed us through the college building, and we 
are frank to say that it is a most noble institution. It is built of white lime- 
stone, with good finish and architecture; its dimensions are three stories high, 
and 50 x 44 feet base. It is situated a little northwest of the principal part of 
town on the highest point of a gently rising bluff or slope facing the east, to 
which the front of the building also corresponds. A neat cupola crowns the 
top. On the second story of the front is cut in the form of a half circle the 
words, "Blue Mont Central College," and just below (also facing the east) is 
a star in a ground work of sky blue, which, as well as the words, is inlaid with 
gold leaf. The name is derived from a high, steep bluff in the northeastern 
part of the city called Blue Mont. The lower and second stories of the build- 
ing are divided into four rooms each, embracing recitation rooms, library, etc., 
etc. The third is a hall, full size, and one of the finest for public assemblies we 
have seen in the west. It is intended as the place for holding lectures, etc., 
connected with the school. The whole institution cost probably not less than 
$20,000. The library, consisting of over 2,000 volumes, is estimated at $2,000. 
The bell, in the cupola, a very sweet toned one (Menelly's make), bears the 
dedication and address of its donor, "Joseph Ingalls, Swampscott, Mass." Its 
cost was $250. The donor is a wealthy gentleman besides being an old bachelor 
of seventy-nine years. He had for a long time withstood the charms of the 
New England belles and at last lavished a fitting souvenir on the bell of 
Manhattan. 

The view from the belfry can hardly be surpassed in the West. We looked 
down the Kansas valley the distance of twenty miles or more, and then up 



316 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the same stream to near Fort Riley, and northward up the valley of the Big 
Blue, and from the vallies on to the bluff tops and prairies, dressed in nature's 
liveliest colors sparkling in the sunshine. 

The institution now belongs to the state with 90,000 acres of land devoted to 
state agricultural colleges by act of congress. Its transfer to the state was 
formally made on the 2nd of July last, the anniversary of the passage of the 
act by congress, and at which time a grand celebration was held in the hall of 
the building. There are to be four departments in the sciences, viz: agricul- 
ture mechanic arts military science and tactics literature and science. It 
is purposed, we believe, to commence the school about the first of September 
next. We bespeak for the Kansas State Agricultural College a proud future. 



LINCOLN'S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS 

President Lincoln's Gettysburg address as reported in the Leaven- 
worth Daily Conservative, November 25, 1863. 

On the 19th inst., the Soldier's cemetery on the battle-field of Gettysburgh 
was consecrated. The address was delivered by Edward Everett. 

President Lincoln spoke briefly as follows : 

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers established upon this continent 
a government consecrated in liberty and dedicated to the fundamental prin- 
ciples that all men are created equal by a good God. [Applause.] Now we 
are engaged in a great contest the question whether this nation, any nation, 
so consecrated, so educated, can long remain. We are met on a great battle 
field of the war; we are met here to dedicate a portion of that field as the final 
resting place of those who have given their lives that the nation might live. 
It is all right, befitting and proper that we should do this, but in a larger sense 
we cannot dedicate; we cannot consecrate; we cannot hallow this ground. 
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far 
above our power to add to or detract. [Great Applause.] The dead will little 
heed. Let us long remember what we have, but not forget what they did here. 
[Immense applause.] It is for us, rather the living to be dedicated here to 
the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried forward. ["Good," 
and great applause.] It is better for us to be dedicated to the great task re- 
maining before us ; for us to renew our devotion to that cause for which they 
gave the full measure of their devotion. Here let us resolve that what they 
have done shall not have been done in vain; that the nation shall, under 
God, have a new birth; that the Government of the people, founded by the 
people, shall not perish." 



"END OF TRACK" ON THE KANSAS PACIFIC RAILROAD 

Sheridan (Wallace county), near the eastern boundary of Colo- 
rado, was the terminus of the Kansas Pacific railroad (now the 
Union Pacific) in 1869. A correspondent of the Kansas Daily Com- 
monwealth, Topeka, who visited the place in July, reported as fol- 
lows in the August 1 issue : 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 317 

SHERIDAN, July 28, 1869. 

The "end of the track" is a gay village with fine wide streets and a general 
air of thrift. One is soon impressed with the feeling that the people of this 
town are determined to succeed in life. A stranger accustomed to certain 
business portions of New York city, will visit Sheridan and swear he sees the 
same faces he left in New York. Similarity of tastes and pursuits make men 
resemble each other; ditto women. This is true of the women one sees at 
Hays City and Sheridan. I presume none of them will take any offense at 
this remark which is not meant in its most offensive sense. Gayety seems to 
be the principal occupation of a large majority of the denizens of Phil Sheridan. 
Most of them dance a good deal. I observed several "dance halls," so called, 
where the "light fantastic toe" was considerably exercised. A "dance hall" 
means various things. It means faro, monte, and whisky, together with some 
revolver and a large amount of knife. A man is always safe here in attending 
strictly to his private concerns. Delicate inquiries into matters which belong 
to your neighbor are not healthy. They provoke a degree of unpleasantness 
which would vastly amaze the good old bones who "gather in" at New England 
tea parties to "hear the news." If your neighbor has a dog, let him alone. 
In order that no misimpression may be gathered from that remark, I will add, 
let both alone. If your neighbor has anything else, let it alone. This is the 
law in Sheridan, and it is backed by a rod or two of trestle-work which is 
said to afford constant occupation to a number of expert hangers-on. 

There are saloons here. They are tolerably well supported. I have not 
heard of a single failure in the saloon line. The cause is obvious. The alkali 
water will not do to drink, whisky is preferable. A great many drink a good 
deal of whisky in preference to this abominable water. The saloons at Phil 
Sheridan favorably compare with any in Leavenworth. They are well fur- 
nished. I got as good a lemonade iced as I ever drank in my life, that is say- 
ing much for the saloon. Upon inquiry, I ascertained that there was an ice- 
house near at hand plentifully supplied from the adjacent "streams." Think 
of iced drinks on the Great American desert, 405 miles west of the Missouri 
river. 

Sheridan is an oasis. It is not a green one though. If anybody comes here 
thinking so, he is likely to get a radical change of mind before his departure. 
The green comes in, however that delightful shade which so rests the eye in 
the strong glare of gas or benzine. Especially is this true for him who is 
prodigal of the "midnight oil" and "stakes" his money at little games of 
chance. Of this class of philanthropists, there are some in Phil Sheridan. 
They are not singular men here. On the contrary, they are very plural. You 
will not make a mistake in proposing that "little game" with most any one. 
The man is "on it," if he gets a chance. Most men are here. Cheerfulness is 
plenty. I was struck with the air of genuine pleasure with which a prominent 
citizen of Sheridan referred to the manner in which his public-spirited fellow 
citizens started a graveyard. You need not be startled to note that the most 
melancholy themes are discoursed upon in a spirit worthy of the resigned and 
chastened citizen of Lawrence. This is in a large measure attributable to the 
good nature which abounds here. It will not do to be ill-natured a great 
while at a time. A great many persons object to it forcibly. I have not seen 
but one brokenhearted being since I landed. His heart was broken in a dance 



318 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

house. It was done with a knife. I believe he was also in love. It is the 
worst way to get into, in Sheridan. It means so much more here than in 
many other places. Cupid does not play with darts at this point. He uses 
sterner weapons, and is a good shot. A man in love here may be said to be 
considerably "struck." I leave next week. If I do not, my remains will. I 
shall return and permanently locate with this whole-souled, large hearted, 
hospitable people. Truly do they love their neighbors as themselves. I have 
been much loved here. Yea, in the words of Rienzi to the Romans: "I go, 
but I return." GREENE. 

From the Commonwealth, editorial, August 4, 1869. 

By reports from Sheridan, the present western terminus of the Kansas 
Pacific railway, we should judge that the town should at once be placed 
under martial law for the protection of well disposed people who may wish to 
tarry at that questionable portion of God's bountiful heritage. Human life 
is there at a discount. The scum of creation have there congregated and 
assumed control of municipal and social affairs. Gamblers, pickpockets, 
thieves, prostitutes and representatives of every other class of the world's 
people, who are ranked among the vicious, have taken possession of the town 
and reign supreme. The attempted executors of the civil authorities are 
laughed at and disregarded, and crimes are rampant and predominant. We 
have heard it suggested that the only remedy for the glaring evils that there 
exist is the declaring of martial law by General Schofield. Government troops 
should be sent there to protect the innocent and respectable who dwell there, 
and to render life safe and living tolerable to strangers who wish to tarry or 
locate among them. "Let us have peace." 



WHEN A DROUGHT SAVED MONEY 

From the Girard Press, November 26, 1874. 

They have a good bridge across the Arkansas river at Wichita, but the gate 
keeper is praying for rain, as the river is so low that teamsters ford it, and 
save paying toll. 

MORE ON WESTERN KANSAS MIRAGES 

From Lamed Chronoscope items reprinted in the Kinsley Graphic, 
March 8, 1879. 

The mirage these beautiful mornings plays its weird and strange pranks 
with the landscape. Mr. Jenkins tells us that Monday the whole country for 
seven or eight miles beyond Kinsley, with its houses and farms could be 
distinctly seen from his house on Sentinel hill. 

From the Lane County Republican, Dighton, January 23, 1889. 

Tuesday morning a beautiful scene could be observed from the city. In the 
north and northeast, White Rock township spread out like a panorama before 
the eye. Among other places could be seen that of Judge Wheatcroft. The 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 319 

stone buildings were as natural as life. The stock could be seen in the yards 
and the boys moving about doing their morning work. The judge's place is 
nearly twenty miles distant, yet the magnifying quality of the air was such 
that all these could be plainly observed in detail. 



WESTERN KANSAS WILD HORSES 

From the Lane County Gazette, California. 

Mr. W. G. Smith and his boys caught a wild horse yesterday. It was run- 
ning around by his horses and they made a corral with their wagons and after 
running it in succeeded in getting a rope on it. Mr. Smith came down to tell 
us about it and while here the rain came up which made him feel so good he 
immediately pulled out a $1.50 and paid for the Gazette one year. May 20, 
1880. 

Messrs. Bell, Broderick and Thompson brought in six wild horses last 
Friday. They have a few more at their camp and are now after another herd 
which they will probably bring in before long. The horses they brought in 
are as fine specimens of horseflesh as one would wish to see. The herder of 
the gang is a fine black stallion of good size, with magnificent tail and mane. 
A brown stallion in the lot attracts the attention of every one owing to the 
fact that he is a square-built pacer. Probably the best horse of the herd is a 
large three-year-old roan stallion. A roan mare and a pair of matched 
yearlings are also included in the lot brought in. The horses are not in good 
flesh at present, but when fed up and broke they will make valuable animals. 
As a general thing it is not a very lucrative business catching these horses, 
but if anyone can make a success of it Mr. Bell and his assistants are the ones 
to do it. It requires time, perseverance, patience and considerable "sand" to 
capture and break a wild horse. 

Mr. Bell says he expects to catch fifty wild horses this season. May 27, 1880. 

E. J. Bell has traded off nearly all his wild horses for cattle. He expects to 
bring in another herd in a few days which he will sell cheap for cash or trade 
for cattle. June 10, 1880. 

Numberless herds of wild horses range the prairies of western Kansas in all 
their native freedom. They usually go in herds of from two to twenty-five. 
Each herd has its leader who watches and protects his herd with great self 
abnegation and intelligence. At this time of the year they fall an easy prey 
to the experienced hunter, and are being caught in great numbers. June 17, 
1880. 

E. J. Bell & Co., the wild horse hunters, came in from the range this week 
with something over thirty head of ponies, and the most of them are fine look- 
ing animals. Messrs. Bell, Broderick and Thompson have thus far this season 
corralled about sixty head of horses but about one third this number have 
escaped or died. Bell and Thompson will start east with their horses next 
week. August 26, 1880. 

The boys who have been out running wild horses came in Tuesday evening, 
having run out of provisions. They have not had very much success. October 
14, 1880. 



320 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

E. J. Bell, Esq., proprietor of our handsome little city, returned from Rice 
county last Friday, whither he has been with a lot of wild horses. Mr. D. 
Wilman, a young attorney of that county, came along with him and will 
probably make up his mind to locate in this county. November 4, 1880. 

From the Frisco (Morton county) Pioneer, June 16, 1886. 

Frank Kerr, a pedagogue from Lawrence county, Ohio, but lately from 
Sumner county, this state, who has a claim twelve miles northeast of here, 
one day last week caught a nice bay mare out of a herd of wild horses. She 
is getting quite tame and is learning to eat grain and lick salt. Frank rode 
her the second day she was in his possession and is a proud boy over his new 
found treasure. He thinks perhaps he may take her east on exhibition. 



SOME NOTES ON MORTON COUNTY'S EARLY HISTORY 

From the Frisco (Morton county) Pioneer, April 28, 1886. 

The first parties who came to Morton county with a view of locating, 
arrived about one year ago. On the 4th of March, 1885, J. B. Fosher, the 
company's agent, with J. W. Soules, George Bowman, Dill Chapman and Bill 
Barney, left Cherryvale, Montgomery county, Kansas, with a view of locating 
in what is now Morton county, but was at that time Seward county, though 
better known as Kansas county, that being the original name of this portion 
of the state. The party came on west through the southern tier of counties 
and at West Plains, were joined by J. H. Haines, Charles Haines and M. M. 
Durkee. They pursued their western course until the 16th of March, when 
they entered this county and after exploring over the different parts, stopped 
on the 27th, three miles east of the present site of Frisco, where afterwards 
the town of Sunset City was located. Here they stopped and sent back for 
their families and other parties to come out. 

On the 24th of April, in the afternoon about four o'clock; the snow being 
about four inches deep, the following parties arrived, with wagons, teams, 
farming utensils, provisions, etc., H. C. Helton and family, W. W. Anderson 
and family, Lewis Darraugh and family, Mass Gibbons and family and the 
families of J. W. Soules and George Bowman and at once a permanent settle- 
ment was decided on, which was the first one. Work was begun and the first 
house built was by George Bowman, which was of sod, as well as the rest, and 
the second by W. W. Anderson, third by H. C. Helton, fourth by J. W. 
Soules and the fifth by J. H. Haines. As other parties came in, dugouts and 
sod houses were built, breaking and planting was done and other improvements 
made. The first Sunday School was organized in the company building of 
Sunset City, about the first of June. 

The first prayer meeting was organized at W. W. Anderson's in November. 
Since the arrival of Mr. J. B. Fosher and his party in this beautiful territory 
a little over thirteen months ago and the permanent settlement was decided 
on just one year ago, Saturday, many wonderful changes have taken place. 
Now there is not one one-fourth section of land out of ten but what there is 
some sort of claim on it. The entire county is dotted with dugouts, sod and 
frame houses. Farms have been broken out, and others are in progress, while 
towns have sprung up and are flourishing. 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 321 



JOHN J. INGALLS SPEAKS AT THE GRAVE OF A FAITHFUL 
FAMILY SERVANT 

From the Atchison Daily Champion. 

On Sunday last at Oak Hill cemetery, beside the open grave of an obscure 
colored citizen, was witnessed a scene without a parallel in the history of thia 
or any other country. Senator Ingalls, president of the senate of the United 
States, standing with uncovered head delivering a beautiful tribute to the 
character and worth of his old and faithful family servant, Tarleton Pendleton. 
The speaker spoke as one who speaks of a departed and cherished friend, and, 
for the time being, the senator lost sight of everything but his old servant, the 
trusty domestic whose labors were at an end, and whose rare fidelity inspired 
the choice utterances of the hour. The uniqueness of the occasion will never 
be forgotten by those who were present, and it seems to illustrate the fact that 
this is a land where the highest may stoop to bear tribute to the virtues of the 
obscurest, and to gain and not lose prestige by the graceful condescension. 
March 23, 1887. 

A MERITED TRIBUTE. The following is a brief synopsis of Senator Ingalls' 
remarks at the grave of his faithful servant Tarleton Pendleton, published at 
the request of many who desire to give it wider publicity : 

"Tarleton Pendleton was born on the 18th of July, 1822, near Charleston, 
in the Shenandoah valley, West Virginia. He was a slave, and removed with 
his owners to Kentucky, and from thence to St. Joseph, Mo. He emancipated 
himself early in the war and escaped to Atchison, where he has since resided. 
For more than twenty years he has been in the service of my family. During 
this long period he has always manifested the same interest in my affairs as if 
they had been his own. I never knew him to do a dishonest act nor to speak 
an untruthful word. He was faithful, upright and loyal in all the relations of 
life. 

"At the open grave all men are equal. In the democracy of death the rich 
man is as poor as the poorest, and the poor man is as rich as the richest. Here 
the wealthy man leaves his possessions, the proud man surrenders his honors 
and dignities, the worldly man relinquishes his pleasures, and nothing remains 
but those moral qualities which define our relation to our fellow-creatures and 
to God. 

"Pendleton could neither read nor write. His long life of humble toil is 
ended. His name will be heard no more among men. But he leaves the 
memory of virtues which the highest may imitate with advantage, and an 
example which all may follow with profit and safety. It was such as he that 
were in the mind of the Divine Teacher on the Mountain of Judea when he 
declared that the lowly in spirit should possess the Kingdom of Heaven; that 
the meek should inherit the earth; and that the pure in heart should see God. 
Here we leave him. He is at rest. May his soul abide in peace and felicity 
till the last great day, when the Lord shall come to judge the quick and the 
dead." March 26, 1887. 

219292 



Kansas History as Published in the Press 

The history of School District No. 28 (Little River) was sketched 
by Hale Stephenson and George Root in a two-column article in the 
Little River Monitor, January 20, 1938. A. G. Wolfe taught the 
first school which was started November 17, 1879. 

Early-day experiences on the Kansas plains of Decatur Stout 
(Dick) Rees, trapper, Indian scout and pioneer settler of Ottawa 
county, were published in the Minneapolis Better Way, February 10 
and 17, 1938. 

"Winchester as She Was," a story of early events by Mrs. Althea 
Curry, was printed in the Winchester Star, February 18, 1938. The 
Leavenworth Times also included a historical sketch of the town 
by George Remsburg in its issue of June 8, 1939. 

The founding of Harper in 1877 and several historical events of 
the years following were mentioned by Louis Walton in the Harper 
Advocate, February 24 and March 3, 1938. 

Historical notes and reminiscences, under the title "History of 
Kincaid," were published in the Kincaid Dispatch each week from 
March 3 to April 14, 1938. Similar material was also recorded in 
the Dispatch in its issue of June 30, which marked the paper's fifty- 
first anniversary. 

Peter Robidoux, pioneer storekeeper, rancher and land baron of 
Wallace, was the subject of an illustrated article appearing in the 
Salina Journal, March 7, 1938. It was reprinted in the Junction City 
Union, March 14, and The Western Times, of Sharon Springs, 
March 17. The Western Times on August 25 issued a special illus- 
trated historical edition featuring articles on Robidoux, Sharon 
Springs, Wallace, Fort Wallace and the Smoky basin cave-in. 

Early efforts at irrigation in western Kansas were discussed in a 
two-column article in The Sherman County Herald, Goodland, 
March 10, 1938. 

Reminiscences of life in Junction City since 1879, by Mrs. L. N. 
Carr, appeared in the Junction City Union, March 28, 1938. 

The history of the Republic county courthouse was briefly out- 
lined in the Scandia Journal, April 7, 1938. 

A scrapbook of articles contributed to the Pittsburgh Gazette by 
Josiah Copley in 1867 is owned by the Saline County Historical So- 

(322) 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 323 

ciety. The articles, bearing the title "Kansas and the Country Be- 
yond," were written by Copley while he was a guest on the Kansas 
Pacific railroad'a special excursion 'train from the East. Mr. 
Copley's articles were discussed by the Salina Journal in its issue of 
April 21, 1938. 

Mrs. Mable Mahin recalled early events in Kensington in the 
Kensington Mirror, April 21, 1938. A brief biography of one of the 
first settlers, Dr. A. E. Lapham, was contributed to the same issue 
by a granddaughter, Mrs. Carl Molzahn. 

The history of the Marion post office since 1860 was reviewed by 
Mrs. William Burkholder in the Marion Review, April 27 and May 
4, 1938. 

Alfred E. Gledhill, of Gaylord, outlined some early newspaper 
history of Portis in the Portis Independent, May 26, 1938. 

McPherson celebrated its sixty-sixth birthday on May 28, 1938. 
The McPherson Daily Republican of May 27 printed a story of the 
organization of the McPherson Town Company and the coming of 
the first settlers. 

Recollections of New Chicago, now a part of Chanute, and its 
rival settlement, Tioga, were published in the Chanute Tribune, 
June 16, 1938. The late Mrs. Charles T. Beatty, who came to New 
Chicago in 1870 soon after its settlement, was interviewed by 
Fletcher Maclary for the Tribune, which had also recorded an in- 
terview with her on May 27. 

Pioneer days in Bern, Nemaha county, as described by Mrs. F. 
W. Lehman and first printed in the Bern Gazette, June 4, 1931, were 
republished in the Sabetha Herald on June 1, 1938. 

The Humboldt Union of June 2, 1938, announced the publication 
of a historical booklet in connection with the seventy-fifth anni- 
versary of the founding of the Humboldt Lutheran church. 

Personal recollections and historical notes of Kiowa county, 
written by J. L. Coates for The Kiowa County Signal, of Greens- 
burg, appeared during July, August and September, 1938. 

The Robinson Index in its issues of August 11 to September 1, 
1938, published historical material relating to the town as taken from 
its files, and particularly from its Kansas day edition of 1900. 

Al J. Smith, of Halstead, possesses an unusually fine collection of 
old firearms and early Kansas relics, the Halstead Independent, of 
August 12, 1938, reported. 



324 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The history of Wolcott (Wyandotte county), formerly called 
Conner, was outlined in the Leavenworth Times, August 15, 1938. 

A history of Bison was prepared for the town's fiftieth anniversary 
celebration by William Crotinger and appeared in the Otis Reporter 
and the La Crosse Chieftain on August 18, 25 and September 1, and 
in the La Crosse Republican on August 25 and September 1, 1938. 

The seventy-fifth anniversary of QuantrilPs raid on Lawrence was 
the occasion for a historical review of the incident in the Lawrence 
Daily Journal-World, August 20, 1938. 

The Spring Hill New Era on August 25, 1938, announced that the 
Ohio Society of Spring Hill was sponsoring a movement to preserve 
the city's historic hotel. 

September 25, 1938, marked the fiftieth anniversary of the forma- 
tion of the Kansas district of the Lutheran church. The White City 
Register of September 8 reported that the district was organized in 
Leavenworth with 30 pastors and 27 congregations, and now num- 
bers 132 pastors and 30,000 members. 

Historical notes and recollections of Cherokee county and the 
city of Columbus by Ed C. Williams, a former resident, were 
printed in the Columbus Daily Advocate, September 24, 30 and 
October 3, 1938. 

A historical sketch of Nemaha county, including the establish- 
ment of towns and townships, appeared in the Sabetha Herald, Oc- 
tober 19, 1938. The facts were obtained from a progress report 
issued by the Nemaha County Planning Board. 

The history of the Hanston Baptist church, organized on Feb- 
ruary 8, 1911, was reviewed in the Jetmore Republican, October 20, 
1938. 

A four-column article entitled "A Sketch of Early Days and Set- 
tlers of the White City Vicinity," by Nellie Wallace, was published 
in the White City Register, October 20, 1938. The Register re- 
ported that Miss Wallace has for several years been collecting ma- 
terial for a history of White City and the surrounding region. 

The reminiscences of Mrs. E. Rasmussen, of Stafford, a pioneer 
school teacher of Turon, were printed in the Turon Press, October 
20, 1938. 

A historical sketch of the military post of Fort Scott by H. T. 
Wilson, a sutler, which appeared in the Fort Scott Pioneer for July 
5, 1877, was quoted in the daily Fort Scott Tribune of October 29, 
1938, and in the weekly Tribune of November 3. 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 325 

"Earliest Beginnings in Pawnee County," an article by Isabel 
Worrell Ball, was printed in the Lamed Chronoscope, November 3, 
1938. In the same and the succeeding issue, Jessie Bright Grove, 
secretary of the Pawnee County Historical Society, reviewed the 
early settlement and organization of the county. 

Life in Kinsley in the latter 1870's was described in the Kinsley 
Mercury, November 3, 1938, by Mrs. Walter Robley, a former 
resident. 

Historical articles of interest to Kansans featured in recent issues 
of the Kansas City (Mo.) Times include: "Rich Material for 
Moviemakers in the Story of Old Dodge City," by Paul I. Wellman, 
January 3, 1939 ; "The Beginning of a Famous Novel in Edna Fer- 
ber's Visit to Kansas," January 24; "Notable Generation in G. 0. 
P. Arrived With Kansas Day Club" in 1892 (the founders quickly 
rose to places of power after their historic protest against party rule 
of "The Bills"), January 27; "New Markers Prepared For Chain 
of Historical Sites in Kansas," by Cecil Howes, March 30; "For- 
gotten Pathfinder [Jedediah Strong Smith] of the West Started Last 
Adventure at Westport," by J. P. G., March 31; "Border Trouble 
and Indian Wars Could Not Stop This Cattle Drive [of Nelson 
Story, an adventurer, who in 1866 drove a herd of longhorns from 
Texas north into Kansas, then northwest through Nebraska and 
Wyoming to the Gallatin valley of Montana]," by Paul I. Well- 
man, April 13; "Spring Comes Again to Shawnee Mission," (a 
poem) by Dorothy Brown Thompson, and "Methodists Introduced 
New Crafts to Shawnee Indians [at Shawnee mission] a Century 
Ago," April 27; "Last Indian Massacre in Kansas [Sappa creek 
neighborhood] Recalled Vividly by [Mrs. Emmett Martin, of Eagle- 
ville, Mo.] a Witness," by Paul I. Wellman, May 8; "Leader's [Col. 
H. L. Moore] Diary of Heroic March of the Kansas 19th in 1868- 
1869 [organized to rescue whites kidnaped by Cheyenne Indians] ," 
May 31; "Catholic Church Here [Kansas City, Mo.] Was Founded 
by French More Than Century Ago," June 5; "Old Cattlemen Still 
Laugh About the Range's Great 'Legal Rustle' " in which John 
Chisum (owner of the famous Long Rail and Jingle Bob brand in 
New Mexico, the man who started the Lincoln county cattle war in 
which "Billy the Kid" rode to fame) sold a herd of 20,000 to Robert 
D. Hunter of the Hunter and Evans Commission Co. of Kansas City, 
Mo., and was paid in some of his own unredeemed and all but for- 
gotten notes, June 9, and "Fights and Disasters Attended Arrival of 
Barbed Wire in West," by Paul I. Wellman, June 16. 



326 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Among the articles of historical interest written by Victor Mur- 
dock and published in the Wichita (Evening) Eagle in recent months 
were: "Fashioning State's Fabric By Trekkers Who Came Here in 
the Covered Wagons/' January 3, 1939 ; "Wagon Trains From Kan- 
sas That Carried Homeseekers Into the State of Texas," January 9 ; 
"Case of Over-production in the Supply of Meat Here With Steak 
at Record Low," in 1872-1873, when the destruction of the buffalo 
for the profit from its hide left no market for the flesh, January 11; 
"Evidence Is Authentic That Lumber Was Rafted Down the Ar- 
kansas Here," January 13; "Favorite Stomping Ground of the Big 
Game of the Prairies Was Located Down in Barber County, Kan- 
sas," February 8; "What Whisky in Earliest Day Cost First Settlers 
Here by Drink, Quart and Gallon," February 10; "Of Frederic 
Remington And of the Halt He Made on Prairies of Kansas," Feb- 
ruary 16; "Equipment of a Tavern That Was Built of Logs in the 
Earliest Wichita," February 20; "Of Albert Lewellen, Five, First 
White Child Here to be Buried on the Hill," February 23; "Kan- 
san's Place of Birth Proved a Life Preserver in Bloody Quantrill 
Raid," February 25 ; "Figuring Out the Reasons W T hy Cattle Trail 
Terminals Shifted West From Wichita," February 27; "Luxury 
Came to Wichita for the First Time in 1870 With Flood of New 
Settlers," March 3; "When the Reverend Mr. Dotson Was Spread- 
ing the Gospel to People of Prairie Town," March 4; "Of Trails 
Without Terminals Stretching Before Vision of the Prairie Pioneers," 
March 7; "That Indian Legend of Gold in the Wichita Mountains 
Not as Good as Memories," March 13; "Barter Born in Wichita 
With the Early 1870 Flood of Settlers to Reach Here," March 17; 
"Growth in Use of Metal Which Is Making Wichita the Prairie Steel 
Center," March 30; "Replacing the Trees on the Kansas Prairies 
Killed by the 1935 Drought," April 6; "Enmity Motor-Cars Met in 
Some Quarters Here When They First Came," April 11 ; "First Legal 
Sensation to Excite Wichitans Failed in Prosecution," April 14; 
"What, in Twinkling of Eye, Horace Prescott, Wichita, Saw Happen 
to Oklahoma," April 19; "Fifty Years of Oklahoma, the Vision of 
Dave Payne, and Some Early Wichitans," April 21 ; "He [L. R. De- 
laney] Discharged a Duty and Performed a Service in Hour of Great 
Need" in Guthrie, Okla., April 22; "Adventures of Wichitan, Ed. 
Moore, in Early Days as an Oklahoma Pioneer," April 24; "Early 
Prairie Physician and What His Charge Was for Day and for Night 
Visits," April 28; "Early Glimpse of [Wilbur Lee] O'Daniel Lone 
Star State Chief on the Streets of Kingman," May 10; "Youthful 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 327 

Mine Experience of Vic Tanner of Wichita in the Coal Corner of 
Kansas," May 11; "When Rosalyn Lowe, Now Mrs. C. M. Sawtelle 
of Peabody, Came to Kansas Overland From Wisconsin Sixty-Five 
Years Ago," May 13; "When Southwest of Wichita [1868] the Men 
at Camp Starvation [expedition of the Nineteenth Kansas cavalry 
sent to rescue women kidnaped by Indians] Were Unable to Go 
Farther," May 16; "One Old Chest of Walnut in Wichita Came to 
Kansas [unloaded at Westport landing in 1857] Some Eighty-Two 
Years Ago," May 19; "Of Frederick H. Beecher [who went down 
fighting in the dramatic set-to with the Indians on the island in the 
Arickaree] Whose Name Was Once Given to This Point on the 
Map," May 26; " 'Loose Him' Cried Capt. [David L.] Payne With 
His Eyes Flashing Fire and His Order Was Obeyed," May 30; 
"Bride [Mrs. Dow Wemple] at Pioneer Wedding in Sedgwick 
County Who Made Her Own Cake," May 31; "How Six Hard Bis- 
cuits Bought for a Pioneer the Bible He Had Missed," June 2; 
"Saved Cattle Movement From Texas Up This Way by Building a 
Railroad," June 3; "Firms Which Did Business in the Rival Me- 
tropolis [Park City] Wichita Wiped Off the Map," June 7; "When 
Food Finally Came to Starving on Prairies Self-Denial Was Man- 
datory," June 9; "One Plant Wichita Lost Introduced Steel Posts to 
World Thirty Years Ago," June 13; "When Two Ragged Women 
[Sarah White and Anna Belle Morgan] Rescued From Captivity 
Returned to Civilization," June 16. 

Included among the historical feature articles printed in the 
Kansas City (Mo.) Star, were: "Keeping Up With Kansas Farm- 
ing a 50-Year Job for Jake Mohler," by Cecil Howes, January 11, 
1939; "John Brown's Hideout in Iowa," a drawing, February 5; 
"Trails Offered Action and Wealth Before the Old West Was Fenced 
In," by Paul I. Wellman, February 9; "East and West Hear More 
About Versatile Kirke Mechem of Kansas," by Paul I. Wellman, 
February 17; "Rich Benefits to Farmers of Kansas in a Half Cen- 
tury of Experiments," by Cecil Howes, February 20; "Doc Barton 
Revisits Dodge City, Recalls Heyday of Cow Capital," by C. C. 
Isely, March 29; "Another Great 'Red Necktie Day' for Dr. [W. 
L.] Burdick and Mt. Oread," by Cecil Howes, April 17; "The Blue 
Grass Turns Green Again in the Kansas of John J. Ingalls," by 
Cecil Howes, April 19 ; "Walter Huxman Justifies Pride of the Pretty 
Prairie People," by Cecil Howes, May 18; "Challenge of the New 
Frontier Is Read by William Allen White," in addressing the gradu- 
ating class of Indiana University, June 6; "Nebraska and Kansas 



328 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Staged a Hilarious Show for the Gay Grand Duke Alexis of Russia 
Sixty-seven Years Ago/' by H. V. B., June 8. 

During February and March, 1939, the Natoma Independent pub- 
lished several articles dealing with the community's history. Stories 
of Natoma by Twila Hoskins and Ruth Pfortmiller, high school 
students, appeared in the issues of February 2 and 16. An article 
on a journey of the Hammonds from Wisconsin to Kansas in 1878 
was printed in the Independent, February 23. It was a reprint from 
the issue of July 17, 1930. Pioneer reminiscences of M. C. Brown 
originally published in the Independent, March 5, 1911, was re- 
printed in the issue of March 2, 1939, and also in the Paradise 
Farmer, March 6. 

Articles of historical interest relating to Kansas appearing in re- 
cent months in the Magazine Section of the Wichita Sunday Eagle 
were: " 'Horse and Buggy Doctor' Creates Stir in Medical World," 
by Harold Streeter, February 5, 1939; "Kansas Woman Recalls 
Tragedy of Lincoln's Assassination," by Harry Peebles, February 
12; "Wichitan Recalls Lucas' Famous Ride Warning of Indian 
Paid," by Arch O'Bryant, March 19; "Dodge City to Again Become 
Cow Town for Movie Premiere," by Francis Heacock, March 26; 
"Harper County Tour Shows Farmers Turning to Livestock," by 
Bruce Behymer, March 26. 

Fred Redmond and Herbert Leiker, workers on the Works Prog- 
ress Administration's Historical Records Survey, compiled a brief 
history of Gove county which was printed in the Grinnell Record- 
Leader, February 16, 1939. 

Featuring the "World Premiere" of the motion picture "Dodge 
City" April 1, the Dodge City Daily Globe issued a special thirty 
page edition March 29, 1939. Included among the articles of his- 
torical interest published in this issue were: "Stage Routes Raided 
Early"; "Soule Ditch Caused Stir"; "An Art to Hit Buffalo"; 
"Caches Lure Gold Hunters"; "No Myth in Dodge Claims," by 
F. A. Etrick; "[Dodge City's] Four Eras of History"; "Round Up 
to 20,000"; "Politics Not a Pink Tea"; "Kinsley Woman [Mrs. M. 
J. C. Rhoads] Saw Sacking of Lawrence"; "Dodge City History 
Linked to the Santa Fe Trail," by Jay B. Baugh; "'Doc Barton/ 
the Last of the Cattle Kings," by C. C. Isely; "This Baton [a re- 
volver] Got Results" and "Cowboy Preacher Found Junction City 
Tough." 

Reminiscences of A. J. Bieber, of Bazine, who went to Rush 
county in 1879, were recorded under the heading "Pioneer Days in 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 329 

Kansas," in the La Crosse Chieftain and the Otis Reporter in their 
issues of March 30, 1939. 

The Kingman Journal celebrated its fiftieth birthday anniversary 
by issuing a twenty-four page historical edition March 31, 1939. Of 
special interest is the front-page article, "The Kingman Journal Has 
50th Birthday Anniversary," in which the writer traces the history 
of the Journal through its hardships and vicissitudes. Special 
articles were devoted to the development of Kingman's industries, 
and histories of the county and the city's business institutions were 
featured. 

A special edition entitled, "Wichita's 68th Anniversary Dedicated 
to Industry and Commerce," was issued by the Wichita Sunday 
Eagle, April 16, 1939. 

A historical sketch of Great Bend, one of a series of articles fea- 
turing the ten towns and cities in the United States with the word 
"Bend" in their titles, was printed in the Great Bend Tribune, May 
3, 1939. 

Early experiences in northwest Kansas were recalled by Mr. and 
Mrs. Henry M. Anthony in the Selden Advocate in issues from May 
4 to June 3, 1939. 

The Junction City Republic for May 11, 1939, includes a souvenir 
section describing the early years of the Union Pacific railroad in 
Kansas. 

A brief history of the Kansas Avenue Methodist church was fea- 
tured in the Topeka State Journal, May 20, 1939. The church was 
chartered May 25, 1869. 

"Progress Marks Lindley's Term," was the caption of the seventy- 
fifth anniversary edition of the University Daily Kansan, of Law- 
rence, issued May 28, 1939. The "Anniversary Index" of the thirty- 
four page edition lists four sections. "Section A," in addition to the 
regular campus news, contains special articles by William A. White, 
Raymond Clapper, Harry H. Woodring, Theodore C. Alford and 
Alfred M. Landon. "Section B" is devoted to the history of the 
schools and departments. "Section C" presents the social life at the 
university as seen through its many activities and organizations. 
"Section D" features athletics, rating James Aloysius Bausch, "Jarr- 
ing Jim," as the greatest athlete graduated from the University of 
Kansas, Glenn Cunningham trailing him as a close second. James 
A. Naismith and F. C. Allen were rated as "Two Doctors . . . 
Famous in Kansas Sports." The picture section showed, among 



330 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

other things, pictures of seven of the eight men who served as chan- 
cellor of the university. 

The early history of Ellis, from 1873 to 1883, was recalled by 
Mrs. Jessie Bell Ormerod, a pioneer settler, in the Ellis Review, 
June 1 to 22, and July 6 and 13, 1939. 

"Pioneer Rural Route Days," relating the experiences of Warren 
Zimmerman as a rural mail carrier at Portis, was the title of an 
article in the Portis Independent, June 8, 15 and 22, 1939. 

The story of Silkville, a town organized on a communal plan in 
the I870's by Ernest Valeton de Boissiere, a French philanthropist, 
was told by Jennie Small Owen in the Topeka State Journal, June 
19, 1939. The land on which the town was located is now a Franklin 
county farm. 

Celebrating its sixtieth birthday the Oberlin Herald published a 
fifty-six page anniversary edition June 29, 1939. Included in the 
/seven sections of the paper were historical sketches of Decatur 
county by Glenn Rogers and Mrs. Sarah J. Harvie, histories of its 
schools, churches and industries, sketches of the towns of Jennings 
and Norcatur, and stories of Oberlin's civic organizations, fraternal 
and social groups, and other phases of community activity. A his- 
tory of the newspaper was outlined. The Herald also printed a list 
of county officers from the organization of the county, and the min- 
utes of the first meeting of the board of county commissioners. 
More than 500 pictures were featured. 

The Clark County Clipper of Ashland, June 29, 1939, printed an 
article by Mrs. Dorothy Berryman Shrewder, historian for the Clark 
county Council of Women's Clubs, on the establishment of the Bene- 
dictine monastery "Bueffel Au" on Mount Cassino, north of present 
Ashland, in 1876. The article was prepared from papers of the Rev. 
Gerard Heinz, 0. S. B., who was told the story by one of the found- 
ing party, Brother Andrew Allermann. A drawing made from mem- 
ory by Father Boniface Verheyen, 0. S. B., which shows the group of 
buildings that comprised the monastery, accompanied the article. 
Both story and cut were republished in the Wichita Evening Eagle, 
July 7. 

Early Santa Fe trail history was discussed in the New Mexico 
Historical Review, of Santa Fe, in the July, 1939, issue. The "Re- 
port of the Commissioners on the Road From Missouri to New 
Mexico, October, 1827," edited by Buford Rowland, described topo- 
graphical features of the region, relations with Indians, and the work 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 331 

of surveying the route. This report, which was for many years for- 
gotten in the files of the secretary of the senate of the United States, 
is now in the National Archives. The field notes of Joseph C. 
Brown, the surveyor who accompanied the expedition, were printed 
in the Eighteenth Biennial Report of the Kansas State Historical 
Society (1913), pp. 117-125. 

An article by Allan E. Paris in the Leavenworth Times of July 2, 
1939, related the story of Mrs. Lizzie Allen, a 100-year-old ex-slave, 
who has lived in Leavenworth since 1859. 

Raiding of a Mound City saloon in 1861, in the manner made 
famous many years later by Carrie Nation, was described by Theo- 
dore W. Morse in the Mound City Republic, July 6, 1939. 

A two-column story of an early negro settlement near Burlington, 
by Dan M. Hatch, was published in the Gridley Light, July 13, 1939. 

The Topeka Daily Capital issued a 172-page sixtieth anniversary 
edition July 16, 1939. Page one of "Section A" presents an artistic 
arrangement of cover pictures of the Capper family's ten publica- 
tions with their 4,263,292 subscribers. Leading articles of this sec- 
tion included such titles as: "Senator Capper's Personal Career," 
"Capital's Genealogy Started With First Free-State Paper," "Capi- 
tal Carries on Through 60 Years," "General Manager [H. S. Blake] 
the Hub," "Glimpse Behind the Scenes in Capital's Editorial Room 
Where All News Is Handled," "Big Circulation Department Keeps 
Capper Publications Going to Millions of Readers," "Through Sixty 
Years Capital's Advertising Dept. Plays Big Roll in Kansas 'Way 
of Life,' " "Capper Advertising Agency Among Best in United States; 
Branches in All Big Cities," "WIBW Grew With Big Radio Indus- 
try." Other articles related to the nine other Capper publications, 
Capper's Weekly, Kansas City Kansan, Household Magazine, Mis- 
souri Ruralist, Ohio Farmer, Capper's Farmer, Kansas Farmer, 
Pennsylvania Farmer, and Michigan Farmer. "Section B" featured 
banking, building and loan and insurance companies. Among the 
leading articles of this section were: "Banks Flourished Along With 
State," "Kansas Insurance Companies Contribute Materially to In- 
dustry and Agriculture," "Building and Loan Is Firm," "Kansas 
Bank Laws Have Kept Pace With Progress of State, Today's In- 
stitutions Strong." "Section C" told of the history and growth of 
Topeka's industries and public utilities. Some of its leading articles 
were : "Industrial Development Law to Promote Economic Growth 
Launches New Era for Kansas," "Topeka's Industrial Growth Ful- 



332 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

filled Dreams of Founders . . .," "Mother Nature Very Lib- 
eral in Distribution of Resources . . .," and "Phones to Kansas 
in 1879." "Section D" presented the automotive industry and high- 
ways. Included among its outstanding articles were: "Automobile 
Industry Changes American Way of Life in Brief Span of Forty 
Years," "Kansas Highway Department Organized to Keep 10,000 
Miles of Roads in Shipshape," "Transportation in Process of Evolu- 
tion Since Advent of Motorcar, Better Highways," and "Railroads 
Help Tame Great American Desert." "Section E" dealt with the 
farm, college and church. Its leading articles included: "Kansas a 
Leading Farm State Since Pioneers Broke Plains and Tamed the 
Wilderness," "Civilizations Rise or Fall Upon Condition of Nearby 
Soil, Say Conservationists," "Washburn College Has Long Served 
People of Kansas," "University of Kansas 75 Years Old," "A Brief 
History of Organized Religion in Topeka." "Section F," devoted 
to retail and wholesale, contained such articles as: "From an 
Humble Beginning, Topeka Forged Ahead Until It Now Has 75,000 
Population," "Businessmen Founded Topeka Made It Into One of 
Best Cities of Its Size in Country," "Topeka C. of C. Dates Back 
Sixty Years," "Old Santa Fe Trail Paved Way for a Great Rail- 
road." "Section G," a "Retail Historical" feature, presented 
articles on, "Topeka's Fine Park System Best in Whole Middle 
West, Constantly Growing Better," "State Historical Society's Col- 
lection of Kansas Annals Dates Back to Pioneer Times," "Shawnee 
County Has Cared for Needy, Aged and Blind During the Long De- 
pression." Important historical articles were interspersed here and 
there with such titles as: "Congress Opened Kansas," "Bogus Legis- 
lature Chose Lecompton for Capital," "Youngsters Wrote Kansas 
Constitution," "Southerners Felt Kansas Worth Taking," "Horse 
Thieves Were Hanged in Early Days," "Jayhawkers Were Rough 
on Missourians," "Heavily-Armed Southerners a Menace," "First 
Governor Was Impeached," "Kansas Negro Citizens Keep Pace 
With State and Nation," "Mennonites Brought Winter Wheat,' 1 
"Populists Had Short, Merry Existence," "Y. M. C. A. Celebrates 
Sixtieth Anniversary With Capital . . . ," "Topeka Y. W. C. A. 
52 Years Old . . . ," "Droughts, Storms, Locusts, Good Crops, 
Failures, Panics, Made Kansans Courageous," "War Claims Used to 
Erect Memorial Hall," and "Third Kansas Generation Treks Back 
on Trail Over Which Their Pioneer Ancestors Came." Other articles 
dealt with Sheriff S. J. Jones, John Brown, Republican party in 
1856, Horace Greeley, John C. Fremont, Marais des Cygnes mas- 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 333 

sacre, Topeka vigilantes, buffalo herds, goldfields of west Kansas, 
Kansas colleges, Kansas pioneer towns, cooperative! marketing, 
WPA and PWA projects, 4-H club, girls' and boys' scout work. 

An account of some pioneer Caldwell history by Grant Harris, an 
early-day printer on the Caldwell Post, appeared in the Caldwell 
Daily Messenger, July 24, 1939. Originally printed in the Wagoner 
(Okla.) Tribune, the story told how the "toughest town on the 
border had been tamed." 

"The Life of Ann Lynch McPhillips," by Kathleen Grennan, was 
published in the Jamestown Optimist, July 27, 1939. Mrs. Mc- 
Phillips came to Kansas in 1870, and in 1871 settled with her hus- 
band and children near Jamestown. 

Experiences as a member of a freighting crew working between 
Palermo, Kan., and Fort Kearney, Neb., in 1865 were recalled by 
A. A. Campbell in The Kiowa County Signal, Greensburg, August 
3, 1939. 



Kansas Historical Notes 

The Clark County Historical Society was organized at Ashland 
July 1, 1939, at a meeting sponsored by the Fort Supply Trail chap- 
ter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Over fifty Clark 
county residents were in attendance. Officers of the society are: 
Mrs. Lois McCasland Martin, president; Willis H. Shattuck, first 
vice president; F. C. Price, second vice president; J. W. Berryman, 
third vice president; Mrs. (J. C.) Melville Campbell Harper, secre- 
tary; S. E. Grimes, treasurer; Lena E. Smith, corresponding secre- 
tary, and Mrs. Dorothy Berryman Shrewder, historian. A column, 
"Clark County Historical Society Notes," under the supervision of 
the secretary, Mrs. J. C. Harper, is to be a regular feature of Clark 
county newspapers. Members of the board of directors, represent- 
ing Clark county townships, include: Evaline Crouch, Appleton; 
Mrs. George Abell, Brown; M. G. Stevenson, Center; Mrs. Bentley 
Randall, Cimarron; Mrs. Ruth Harvey McMillon, Edwards; A. L. 
Roberts, Englewood; J. E. Stephens, Lexington; Mrs. Will Jackson, 
Sitka, and Mrs. Ruth Clark Mull, Vesta. M. G. Stevenson will 
serve as chairman of the board of directors. Standing committee 
chairmen are: Mrs. Dorothy Berryman Shrewder, historical; Mrs. 
Barth Gabbert, museum; Walter Ray, publicity; Kate Hensley, 
membership, and Mrs. Gay Hughes, entertainment. 

Eight directors of the Franklin County Historical Society were 
elected at a meeting held in Ottawa, June 30, 1939. They are: 
one-year term Grace Meeker, Anna Melluish and W. S. Jenks; 
two-year term Hiram Allen, Williamsburg, Asa Converse, Wells- 
ville, and Mrs. J. W. McCracken, Ottawa; three-year term, B. M. 
Ottaway, Pomona, and A. P. Elder, Ottawa. Dana Needham, Lane, 
has one more year to serve before the three-year term expires. The 
directors will select new officers who will be installed in September 
at the society's annual meeting. 

Greensburg's hand-dug water well, 32 feet in diameter and 109 feet 
deep, may now be viewed through a recently installed steel and glass 
hood. The well has been floodlighted and a canopy has been erected. 
Dug in 1888 for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway, it was 
used by the city until 1932. Iron stairs, placed in 1915, are still 
usable. The chamber of commerce advertises the well as "more 
than just another hole in the ground," and tourists have been at- 

(334) 



KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 335 

tracted. The Kiowa County Historical Society cooperated with the 
city in the dedication of the well at the society's annual old settlers* 
reunion held July 26, 1939. 

A History of the First Presbyterian Church of Herington, Kansas, 
by the Rev. George Wilbur Nelson, pastor, was published in observ- 
ance of the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the church on 
July 1, 1939. The eighty -two page booklet includes a review of 
early Presbyterianism in Kansas from the founding of the first 
mission, the creation of the Synod of Kansas and the Presbytery 
of Solomon, the history of the Herington church, and biographical 
sketches and photographs of ministers who served the church. 

A Guide to Salina, Kansas, a fifty-five page illustrated booklet 
compiled and written by the Federal Writers' project of the Works 
Progress Administration, came from the press in August, 1939. Pro- 
duced under the sponsorship of the Salina Public Library Association 
and printed by the Advertiser-Sun of Salina, it contains historical 
information relating to the city, biographical sketches of the 
founders, a description of "Salina Today," "The Story of Flour Mill- 
ing in Salina," and three "tours" to places of interest in Salina and 
Saline county. This is the second publication of the Kansas 
writers' project in the American Guide Series, the first being the 
Larned City Guide (October, 1938) which was mentioned in the 
Quarterly for November, 1938. Harold C. Evans is state supervisor 
of the project. 

Four volumes in the Inventory of the County Archives of Kansas 
series have been published since this project was last mentioned in 
The Kansas Historical Quarterly in November, 1938. The Historical 
Records Survey of Kansas, a project of the Works Progress Admin- 
istration, has been compiling bibliographies of county records 
throughout the state and has now published seven books. Those for 
Johnson, Greenwood and Montgomery counties were issued in 1938. 
During 1939 volumes for Seward, Graham, Franklin and Gray 
counties were completed, one for Cherokee county is now in process 
of production, copy for Bourbon and Cowley counties has been ap- 
proved by the national editor, and the Shawnee county book is 
undergoing final editing. Harold J. Henderson is state director 
and Walter M. Markley is editor-in-chief of the Kansas project. 



D 



THE 

Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 



Volume VIII Number 4 

November, 1939 



PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT 

w. c. AUSTIN. STATE PRINTER 

TOPEKA 1939 

18-1232 



Contributors 

JAMES C. MALIN, associate editor of The Kansas Historical Quarterly, is 
professor of history at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. 

RUSSELL K. HICKMAN, a teacher and a former member of the Kansas 
State Historical Society staff, lives at La Porte, Ind. 

Brief biographical sketches of members of the Everett family were pub- 
lished on page 3 (February, 1939, Quarterly}. 

DOMENICO GAGLIARDO is professor of economics at the University of Kansas, 
Lawrence. 



The John Brown Legend in Pictures 

Kissing the Negro Baby 
JAMES C. MALIN 

mRO-WORSHIP fulfills a popular need among all peoples, and 
_3W would question the place of Washington and Lincoln among 
the heroes of the American people. The status of John Brown pre- 
sents a different problem, because around few personalities has 
more bitter controversy been waged, yet to a large portion of the 
nation he is the Old Hero, and no more specific label is necessary. 
Regardless of the disputes relative to his merits, the student of 
national folklore is interested particularly in examining the proc- 
esses by which so dubious a character came to be accepted as 
heroic. Well known are the arguments of the biographers and con- 
troversialists, and the story of how the John Brown song became 
the marching song of the union armies. Effective, but scarcely rec- 
ognized in the process of popularization, is the function of pictures. 

At the time of the execution of John Brown at Charlestown, 
Va., December 2, 1859, the Quaker poet Whittier wrote the lines 
which gave widest currency to the story that inspired the three pic- 
tures reproduced here John Brown kissing the negro baby. Prior 
to 1857 Nathaniel Currier published lithographs over his own name, 
but thereafter the firm was known as Currier and Ives. Altogether 
more than six thousand titles of their prints are known. The sub- 
jects were selected from scenes and incidents of everyday life. 
Authorities on art insist that they have little or no artistic value; 
that the coloring was violent and crude ; but the student of American 
life esteems them highly, because they represent so fully the tastes 
and interests of the common man of the third quarter of the nine- 
teenth century. If they are deficient in those qualities which the art 
critic deems essential, that fact merely reflects the cultural tastes of 
the class of people who liked and bought them. 

In 1863 Currier and Ives published a colored lithograph entitled 
simply "John Brown," and subtitled "Meeting the slave-mother and 
her child on the steps of Charlestown jail on his way to execution." 
The publishers seem to have felt the necessity of explaining the 
picture even more fully by the statement at the bottom of the sheet 
that "The artist has represented Capt. Brown regarding with a look 
of compassion a slave-mother and child who obstructed the pass- 

(339) 



340 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

age on his way to the scaffold. Capt. Brown stooped and kissed 
the child then met his fate. From the original painting by Louis 
Ransom." x It should be noted that a number of symbolical features 
are incorporated into the picture: the Virginia flag with the motto 
"Sic Semper Tyrannis"] a figure representing "The Spirit of 76"; 
and at the lower left-hand corner a statue of justice blindfolded, 
arm broken off, the fragments and the scales lying at her feet. In 
1870 the print was reissued, having been redrawn in simplified 
form omitting all extraneous matter just the resplendent mili- 
tary officer, the mother and child, and over all, John Brown. During 
the seven years intervening between the first and second prints the 
"John Brown Legend" had been growing apace, and the title was 
elaborated to read "John Brown The Martyr." 

The third of the pictures is an oil painting by Thomas Hovenden 
(1840-1895), a European-trained artist who belongs to the school 
of photographic realism in American art. 2 It was painted in 1881 
for Robbins Battell and given by his daughter, Mrs. Carl Stoeckel, 
to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1897. A replica 
owned by Albert Rosenthal was shown at the National Academy 
of Design in 1925. 3 In composition the Hovenden painting is quite 
different from the others of the series, avoiding the symbolism of 
the first, and the posed tableau effect of both. In the spirit of real- 
ism, it reproduced a supposed historic scene with a fidelity ap- 
proaching a news camera, but notwithstanding the number of per- 
sons present, John Brown dominates. The appeal is direct and 
simple, and required no explanation he is shown in the act of kiss- 
ing the negro baby. 

If it were possible the historian would wish the poem and the 
pictures to stand as history, but truth does not permit. On the day 
of Brown's execution soldiers were drawn up in lines on either side 
of the road to the scaffold. Rumors were afloat of plans for a rescue. 
No chances were taken. The public was excluded from any possible 
direct contact with the prisoner. The baby-kissing episode appeared 
in the New York Tribune, December 5, 1859, with a Harper's Feriy 
date line of December 3. Whittier's poem was printed in the New 
York Independent, December 22, and was reprinted widely. Had 
he been in a critical frame of mind at the time he would have rec- 
ognized the impossibility of the story, as descriptions of the execu- 

1. No biographical data on Louis Ransom have been found. 

2. Walter Pach, "Thomas Hovenden," in Dictionary of American Biography. 

3. Letter from the secretary's office, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, to the author, 
July 26, 1939. 



BROWN OF OSAWATOMIE 

By JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER 

John Brown of Osawatomie spake on his dying day: 
"I will not have to shrive my soul a priest in Slavery's pay. 
But let some poor slave-mother whom I have striven to free, 
With her children, from the gallows-stair put up a prayer for me!" 

John Brown of Osawatomie, they led him out to die; 

And lo ! a poor slave-mother with her little child pressed nigh. 

Then the bold, blue eye grew tender, and the old, harsh face grew 

mild, 
As he stooped between the jeering ranks and kissed the negro's 

child! 

The shadows of his stormy life that moment fell apart; 
And they who blamed the bloody hand forgave the loving heart. 
That kiss from all its guilty means redeemed the good intent, 
And round the grisly fighter's hair the martyr's aureole bent! 



The portion of the poem printed here is from the revised version as it 
appears in the Cambridge and Riverside editions of Whittier's poems. The 
original version drew severe criticism from William Lloyd Garrison in his 
Liberator, January 13, 1860, where it was reprinted. The second line of the 
third stanza read: "Without the rash and bloody hand, within the loving 
heart." Whether the change came from Garrison's criticism or not, the later 
reading was a decided improvement and softened the language as well. 




"JOHN BROWN" 

A reproduction of a Currier & Ives lithograph (1863) from the collections 
of the Library of Congress. 




"JOHN BROWN THE MARTYR" 



A reproduction of another Currier 
collections of the Library of Congress. 



& Ives lithograph (1870) from the 




"LAST MOMENTS OF JOHN BROWN" 

A reproduction of the Hovenden painting (1881) in the Metropolitan 
Museum of Art, New York. 



MALIN: JOHN BROWN LEGEND 341 

tion had explained the stationing of the troops. But Whittier was a 
poet, the story was ideally suited to the purpose, and to be true to 
type, the kind of Abolition hero-martyr being created by the 
"Legend" makers probably should have taken his leave in this 
manner. James Redpath used the baby-kissing episode in his 
biography of John Brown issued early in January, 1860. In later 
years two different newspaper men, telling conflicting stories, con- 
fessed to having participated in the hoax as printed in the Tribune. 4 
The effectiveness of the propaganda is registered nevertheless in the 
fact that it is the fable rather than the truth which became a per- 
manent part of the popular national heritage. 

4. William Sloane Kennedy, John G. Whittier, The Poet of Freedom (New York, Funk 
& Wagnalls Co., 1892), pp. 240-243. This book should not be confused with an earlier 
biography by the same author, issued in a revised edition (New York, Derby and Miller) in 
1892. A list of citations to the newspaper controversy over the baby-kissing episode is to be 
found in T. F. Currier, A Bibliography of John Greenleaf Whittier (Cambridge, Harvard Uni- 
versity Press, 1937). 



A Little Satire on Emigrant Aid 

Amasa Soule and the Descandum Kansas Improvement 

Company 
RUSSELL K. HICKMAN 

'TVHE debate of 1854 over the Kansas-Nebraska measure aroused 
A a furore throughout the country, and nowhere was the storm 
more violent than in New England. Extreme exasperation in that 
section with the "violation of a sacred pledge" in the Missouri com- 
promise was a major factor in the launching, in the spring of the 
year, of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, and later of 
its successor, the New England Emigrant Aid Company. It was 
followed by a great host of organizations along similar lines, all with 
the immediate objective of "doing something" to put a quick stop 
to the onward march of the "slave power." Horace Greeley did his 
part in the New York Tribune to broadcast information concerning 
the new movement, while Henry Ward Beecher called upon all good 
men to resist the spread of the monster slavery. Ministers of the 
gospel in large numbers throughout the New England states received 
the Emigrant Aid Company as a promising means toward the goal 
of freedom, and used their pulpits to promote the cause. 

In July and August, 1854, when the first emigrant groups left for 
Kansas, under the auspices of the Aid Company, a great fanfare in 
the public press marked their progress toward the frontier. It was 
often stated that the company would be able to greatly help its emi- 
grants in winning the soil of Kansas for the cause of freedom, as it 
was reputed to be a powerful organization of great resources. When 
the emigrant parties arrived on the border, however, they found 
things to be pretty much in a state of nature, and many were often 
greatly disappointed. This was particularly true of those who ar- 
rived in considerable numbers in the fall of the year, with high ex- 
pectations concerning the preparations for their comfort by the com- 
pany. That organization had made notable efforts toward this end, 
but was handicapped by a lack of time. Unfortunately its agents, 
in their eagerness to obtain emigrants, had enlisted many New 
Englanders or Easterners who were either fundamentally unfitted 
or unwilling to undergo the hard life of the frontier. When such 
persons arrived on the Kansas border, and realized that they must 
carve out their own homesteads by the "sweat of their brow," they 
often beat a hasty retreat to their more hospitable homeland. A 

(342) 



HICK.MAN: SATIRE ON EMIGRANT AID 343 

crescendo of unfriendly criticism then arose in New England and the 
East against the Emigrant Aid Company. 1 

With its mixture of climax and anticlimax, it was quite natural 
that 1854 should witness a burlesque upon the Kansas mania then 
prevalent. Of such a nature was the Descandum 2 Kansas Improve- 
ment Company, which was founded early in November, at a meeting 
at Chelsea, Mass. The chief purpose of this organization was to 
enable its treasurer and chaplain, the "Reverend" Amasa Soule, 3 to 
visit "Kansas and other places," in order to "civilize and otherwise 
astonish the inhabitants" by the "use of words, as stupendous and 
vast as the immensity of the country where they reside." 4 The 
members of the organization advanced $100 toward his expenses, 
with the hope that he would overawe all whom he met "with the 
largest words known to lexicography or otherwise." The constitu- 
tion which was adopted at this time provided that the annual meet- 
ing was to be held just before the treasurer left for Kansas, and made 
Soule perpetual treasurer. 5 

Amasa Soule left Boston November 7, 1854, apparently with 
Jerome B. Taft's company under Emigrant Aid auspices. 6 After a 
slow trip up the treacherous Missouri, the party traveled overland 
from Kansas City to Lawrence, where they arrived November 22. 
Soule found this place to be a collection of "some fifty huts of 
different sizes," 7 offering poor accommodations for new arrivals, 

1. Such complaints were particularly numerous in the early winter of 1854-1865, due to 
the number that returned to the East. In all justice to the Emigrant Aid Company, however, 
it should be pointed out that no other organization did as much to smooth the way for the 
settler. In the years after 1854 it was better prepared to receive settlers. The plan of artifi- 
cially promoting emigration from the North had pronounced effects on the Missouri border. 
The emigration of large, organized groups led to the circulation of wild rumors that the aid 
companies were transporting the off-scourings of Eastern cities to Kansas, probably to vote in 
the territorial elections, and the return of the "dupes" seemed to corroborate the worst fears 
of the frontiersmen. The staking of claims in advance of the "Abolition horde," and par- 
ticipation in the Kansas elections were then regarded as natural measures of self-defense by the 
citizens of western Missouri. 

2. The term Descandum is probably a corruption of the word descant, which may be de- 
fined as meaning to discourse fully and at large. As a cure-all for the Kansas troubles, talk 
was perhaps the thing least needed, which makes the burlesque all the more appropriate. 

3. The term "Reverend" is probably used here in a humorous sense. Proceedings of the 
first annual meeting at Chelsea, November 1, 1854, Chelsea (Mass.) Telegraph and Pioneer, 
November 4, in the "Thomas H. Webb Scrap Books" (library of Kansas State Historical 
Society), v. II, p. 7. The family biographies of Amasa Soule, and his son, Silas Stillman, make 
no mention of the elder Soule as a minister of the gospel. Amasa Soule was born at Wool- 
wich, Maine, in 1804. Due to the death of his father, he became a cooper's apprentice while 
still very young, and attended evening school at the same time. Soule moved to Bath, Maine, 
where in 1831 he married Sophia Lowe. He later moved to Freeport, Maine, and about 1850 
to Chelsea, Mass. (Manuscript biography, probably written by a daughter, Emily N. Soule, 
or Annie J. Prentis.) 

4. Quoting from the proceedings, which are given on p. 845. The Descandum docu- 
ments may be intended primarily as a take-off upon Soule, rather than the Kansas mania. 

5. Document entitled "Descandum Kansas Improvement Company Constitution." See 
p. 346.) 

6. Letter of Soule, dated Lawrence, November 25, 1854, in the Chelsea Telegraph and 
Pioneer, clipped in "Webb Scrap Books," v. II, p. 61. (See pp. 346-349.) 

7. Ibid. 



344 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

particularly in inclement weather, and he blamed the Emigrant Aid 
Company for promoting a false impression as to the new settlement. 
Soule arrived at a time when the dispute concerning the Lawrence 
townsite was at its height, with a scramble in progress for good 
claims in the vicinity. He was much impressed by the prevalence of 
the "grab game," and the "jumping" of claims, and drifted south- 
ward some eight miles to the cabin of Stephen Ogden, an early 
emigrant from Massachusetts, near Coal creek. Soule took a claim 
here and built a log cabin in the timber near the creek, where he 
was joined in the fall of 1855 by his wife and children. In 1856 the 
entire family suffered from chills and fever, and Soule's wife and 
daughters returned to Maine, where they remained three years. 8 

In 1855 Soule became a member of the Palmyra town company, 
which later granted land for the founding of Baker University. 9 
He was an -ardent Abolitionist and admirer of William Lloyd Gar- 
rison, and likewise a strong advocate of temperance and reform in 
general. 10 He supported the Free-State cause and later became 
a member of the Republican party, serving as a delegate from Doug- 
las county to the Leavenworth constitutional convention of 1858. 11 
In December, 1859, he was elected from the eighth district (Douglas 
and Johnson counties) to the legislature of the new state govern- 
ment to be organized under the Wyandotte constitution. 12 Un- 
fortunately, Soule never lived to see the actual admission of Kansas 
into the union. He died in September, 1860, and the state legislature 
to which he had been elected did not convene until March, 1861. 13 

The sending of Soule to Kansas appears to have been the only 
activity of the Descandum Kansas Improvement Company. Moti- 

8. Manuscript biography of Silas Stillman Soule, probably written by a woman member 
of the family. 

9. A. T. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 365. 

10. Manuscript biography of Amasa Soule. 

11. Andreas, op. cit., p. 168. 

12. D. W. Wilder, Annals of Kansas 1886, p. 289. 

13. A son, Silas Stillman Soule, distinguished himself for his part in the rescue of Dr. 
John Doy, and for a similar attempt to rescue John Brown's associates from the prison at 
Harper's Ferry. Silas Soule took an active part in the struggles in Kansas, and kept the camp 
in the best of humor with song and story, and his unusual power of imitation of Irish and 
German characters. In 1860 he joined the rush to Pikes Peak, and later he was an officer in 
a Colorado regiment. While in this position he refused to obey the order of Colonel Chiving- 
ton to join in the massacre of a band of Arapahoe and Cheyenne Indians at Sand creek in 
November, 1864. Early in 1865 he became acting provost marshal of Colorado. Soon after 
this Soule was killed, perhaps because of his refusal to cooperate with the military authorities. 
MS. biography, written by the Soule family. (See the biography of Edward Wanshear 
Wynkpop, Kansas Historical Collections, v. XIII, pp. 76-77.) 

William L. G. Soule, another son of Amasa, was city marshal of Lawrence at the time of 
the Quantrill raid. For a description of his part in that tragic affair, along with that of his 
sister and mother, see O. W. McAllaster, "My Experience in the Lawrence Raid," Kansas 
Historical Collections, v. XII, pp. 401-404. 

For the Soule biographies, and other generous aid, the writer wishes to thank George A. 
Root, curator of archives of the Kansas State Historical Society. 



HICKMAN: SATIRE ON EMIGRANT AID 345 

vated by humor and satire, the organization thus played a unique 
role in ridiculing the Kansas aid movement. 

The following documents are the chief sources of information 
concerning the Descandum company and illustrate the jocular 
nature of its organizers. The third document, the letter of Amasa 
Soule from Lawrence, is a penetrating account of what he found 
there in 1854, as viewed by an Easterner. 

FIRST ANNUAL MEETING OF THE DESCANDUM KANSAS IMPROVEMENT 

COMPANY 

The meeting was held in Chelsea, Mass., on November 1, 1854. E. 
W. Arnold served as president of the gathering, T. P. Cheever, W. 
0. Haskell and T. H. Carruth acted as vice-presidents, and W. E. P. 
Haskell served as secretary. 

A constitution was adopted, and a subscription of money received. 
The sum of $100 was given to the chaplain, Mr. Soule, who was 
scheduled to leave for Kansas November 7. 

Resolved That as members of the Descandum Kansas Improvement Com- 
pany, and at its first annual meeting, we congratulate mankind, that the im- 
mense region of territory known as "Kansas and other places," is soon to be 
visited by the Rev. Mr. Soule, and that the vocabulary of that infant state is 
at once to be amplified and expanded with the largest words known to 
lexicography or otherwise. 

Resolved That the treasurer of this association, whether we regard his 
personal beauty, his ministerial dignity, his universal experience of human na- 
ture generally, and his equally subtle and magnificent spread of expression, 
possesses qualifications for this missionary enterprise, which would diffuse a 
paleness over the cheek of the Great American Traveler, and agitate into 
hysterical admiration the editor of the Habeas Corpus. 

Resolved That as the sense of the stockholders of this company residing 
in Chelsea, the chaplain of Old No. 1 be requested to address the virgin in- 
habitants of the unsophisticated soil of "Kansas and other places," . . . 
that he particularly inculcate to them, as provided in our constitution, the use 
of words, as stupendous and vast as the immensity of the country where they 
reside. . . . 

Resolved That the appearance of Amasa Soule in the fields of "Kansas 
and other places," will be extremely cautionary to anti-negro sympathizers, 
sovreignties, unabolitionists, wild cats, catamounts, etc., and that to all such 
persons his roll of words must inevitably be annihilation, devastation, de- 
termination, depopulation, expurgation, extermination, and abomination ! ! ! 

Resolved finally That the idea of A. R. Soule "putting" off on this tour, 
without "heading" back again shortly or before, is not to be mentioned even to 
the "chaste stars." 14 

14. Proceedings in Chelsea Telegraph and Pioneer, November 4, 1854, clipped in the 
"Webb Scrap Books," v. II, p. 7. 



346 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

DESCANDUM KANSAS IMPROVEMENT COMPANY CONSTITUTION 



Art. 2. The object shall be to raise funds to enable the chaplain of Old No. 
1 to visit Kansas and other places, for the purpose of civilizing and otherwise 
enlightening them, and he, the said chaplain, shall be perpetual treasurer. 

Art. 4. The treasurer shall receive all the cash paid in, and dispose of it 
about right, and when a sufficient amount shall be raised, he shall put, with all 
comfortable speed, for Kansas and other places, and commence forthwith to 
civilize and otherwise astonish the inhabitants. 

Art. 5. Any person of fair reputation, and decent wealth may become a 
member by taking one or more shares (not exceeding fifteen hundred) and 
paying therefor one dollar per share, and shall receive an equal and just 
dividend . . . , and in addition to which, each member shall have his 
name engraved with the largest kind of jack-knife upon the largest tree in all 
Kansas. 

Annual meeting shall be just before the treasurer shall head for Kansas. 

A. SOULE, Treasurer of the Descandum 

Kansas Imp. Co. 15 

KANSAS LETTER OF AMASA SOULE, HEADED "DESCANDUM" 

LAWRENCE (Kansas Territory), Nov. 25, 1854. 

I am now upon the soil of Kansas, where I arrived two days since after a 
travel of fifteen days, and at a distance of more than eighteen hundred miles 
from Chelsea. . . . We left Boston, as you recollect, on Tuesday, the 7th 
inst., and on Saturday following, we arrived at St. Louis, where we went im- 
mediately on board a steamer. . . . When we started from St. Louis, we 
began to think we were near the end of our journey; but the most tedious 
business that I ever engaged in was that same passage up the Missouri that 
river of mud, crooks and shoals. The water being very low, we were sub- 
jected, some days, almost hourly, to being grounded upon the sand bars, that 
are continually shifting, so that no pilot can clear them. We were until Sun- 
day following reaching Kansas City, a distance of 450 miles. This is a place of 
some importance in the estimation of the people about it. But in New 
England it would not make much of a show. . . . We found accommoda- 
tions at a hotel, where we fared as well, probably, as we should at any place 
on the route, after leaving Michigan. The manner of living at the West being 
of that kind not suited to my taste, especially in Missouri. We left Kansas 
on Monday noon for the territory. . . . We hired two teams to haul our 
luggage about fifty miles, for which we paid one cent per pound, we traveling 
on foot. 16 We could have procured special conveyance at one dollar and 

15. Document of the Kansas State Historical Society. 

16. The Thomas H. Webb handbooks for emigrants to Kansas, 1855, list the cost of trans- 
portation, for adults to Kansas City, as $40, with a slight reduction in summer. Meals to 
St. Louis were extra. More than one disgruntled emigrant who went to Kansas late in 
1854 or early in 1855 wrote back that he could have done so cheaper and better on his own 
"hook" than under the auspices of the Emigrant Aid Company. Some blamed this upon the 
inability or inexperience of the agents who led the parties. If we admit the truth of this 
allegation, it is still probable that a lack of familiarity with frontier life was an important 
factor in the complaints. 



HICKMAN: SATIRE ON EMIGRANT AID 347 

fifty cents each, but we should have been nearly as long on the road as we 
were on foot. We were two nights upon the road, both of which we camped 
out, which gave the most of us the first taste of pioneer life. . . . We 
arrived in what is called Lawrence about noon of Wednesday, this being called 
a city. . . . Sumcient to say, there are some two hundred people located 
here, doing about nothing. 17 They have some fifty huts of different sizes, 
some built of logs, some of turf, and others of poles, covered with grass, the 
most of them uncomfortable, except in pleasant weather. They have one large 
camp, which they call a boarding house, where they feed some fifty or sixty 
human beings at two fifty per week, and in another camp some eighty feet 
long, they allow them to sleep, provided they can get any sleep. They lie 
upon the ground covered with such bedding as they may happen to have; 
those who have none go without, and when the weather is cold they are any- 
thing but comfortable. The principal food at this hotel is bread and molasses, 
with fresh beef fixed up (not cooked) in a manner that I shall not describe. 
The most who come seem to meet with sad disappointment, having got the 
impression from the Boston agents that everything needed is prepared for 
their reception on their arrival. I think the New England Aid Company have 
incurred a tremendous responsibility, in encouraging families to migrate hither 
at this season of the year. 18 Women and children arrive here exhausted by 
travel. . . . You can imagine their condition on their arrival, with no 
other accommodations than those described. 

The next question that suggests itself is, "what to do after they arrive?" 
Well, the first thing is to look out for a claim, . . . and here comes the 
tug of war. Every claim within a day's travel of Lawrence is taken up, and, 
upon the rivers and streams, as far as can be heard from, not a vacant claim 
is to be found; for bear in mind that no timber, of any description, is to be 
found anywhere else, and but very little on the streams, and that of an 
ordinary quality. The soil, I think, is equal to any that the world can boast 
of, and the beauty of the country, as nature has left it, is unsurpassed. It is 
what is termed rolling prairie, . . . every acre of which is level enough for 
cultivation, and the soil seemingly of uniform richness. But how a settler, 
without means, can commence operations upon a claim from ten to twenty 
miles distant from materials for building and fencing, is what I cannot com- 
prehend. Any person coming here to succeed, even tolerably well, must come 
with means to procure food until he can realize a crop, and also to furnish a 
team sufficient to haul timber for building, and breaking up of the soil, the 

17. For a good description of Lawrence at this time, see the letter of Mrs. C. I. H. 
Nichols of Vermont, who went to Kansas with the fourth Emigrant Aid party. Andreas, 
op. cit., p. 316. 

18. Compare the following account by a member of the first spring party, which left 
Boston March 13, 1855, under the leadership of Charles Robinson. Zion's Herald & Wesleyan 
Journal, dated April 6, in "Kansas Territorial Clippings," v, I, p. 104 et seq. 

"In consequence of the exaggerated reports circulated in the East, by those who have most 
emphatically proved themselves to be either fools or knaves, hundreds are flocking to the 
country unapprised and unprepared to meet the privations to which they are exposed ; the 
consequence is, that many fine families in comfortable circumstances will be ruined beggared." 

The writer continues that not one in a thousand came prepared to build a stone house. 
All depended upon timber, but the masses could do little, for lack of mills. The Aid Company 
had two mills, operating at exhorbitant rates, but their output, for months ahead, was spoken 
for by previous settlers. Hence many were forced to build sod houses. The mechanic had 
been told, that here was a paradise, but when he arrived, frequently could find no employment. 
The land not being surveyed, claims were less valuable than supposed, and many were con- 
sequently discouraged from making improvements. Provisions of all kinds were high in price, 
and scarce in quantity. 



348 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

first ploughing of which is exceeding [ly] hard. After all this is accomplished, 
I think he may be considered independent, according to my idea of inde- 
pendence. 

There are two or three obstacles in the way of settlers locating here, one of 
which is the monopoly claimed by what is called the first and second New 
England Cos. They have selected a site and laid out a prospective city two 
miles square, and each member claiming, in addition to his city lots, one 
hundred and sixty acres, which, with the city site, includes all the timber for 
many miles. One fourth of the city property is granted to the "New England 
Emigrant Aid Company," in consideration of erecting a mill here, which may 
possibly account for the interest they take in inducing emigrants to locate in 
this vicinity. 19 One other obstacle is, the location of what is called the 
"Indian reserves," which includes the best of the territory that I have yet 
seen. The Shawnee reserve ... is generally well wooded, and the most 
inviting tract of country, in my opinion, that can be imagined. 20 Upon the 
opposite side of the river is the "Delaware reserve," . . . said to be of 
equal quality. ... As far as can be seen from this side, it is heavily 
timbered, and indeed possesses all, or nearly all, the valuable timber that I 
have seen or heard of in the territory. But Yankee avarice has its eye upon 
it, and unblushingly declares that the Delawares shall be dispossessed of it for 
the benefit of Christian civilization . 21 I, in my verdancy, imagined that in a 
journey of nearly two thousand miles, I could out-travel the selfishness of my 
race; but that spirit I found was more than a match for steam engines, as far 
as speed is concerned. Instead of forming a brotherhood, where the good of 
the whole is the great object of each, I find the grab game to be the recognized 
system. I hear daily the complaints of claims being "jumped," . . . and 
then re jumped and re jumped, if you will allow the term, until the jumping of 
claims would seem almost to be reduced to a system. 22 . . . From the time 

19. In the spring of 1855 the property stake of the Emigrant Aid Company in Lawrence 
was reduced to ten of the 220 shares of town stock, of which two shares were held in trust 
for a university. In 1857 the company owned real estate, hotels, mills, or other valuable 
property in Kansas City, Lawrence, Topeka, Manhattan, Osawatomie, Quindaro, Wabaunsee, 
Burlington, and Atchison, and later invested in Claflin and Batcheller. The Aid Company 
hoped ultimately to realize a profit on this investment in the cause of freedom. 

20. In 1854 the Shawnee Indians, by treaty with the United States, greatly reduced their 
large reservation south of the Kansas river, thereby throwing open to settlement that portion 
west of their new reserve. The new line of their reserve fell a few miles east of Lawrence. 
Soule apparently refers to their diminished reserve, which was then not open to settlement, but 
which was illegally squatted upon by a few settlers. 

21. In 1854 the Delawares also greatly diminished their reserve, the ceded portion to be 
held in trust by the United States, until offered at public sale. These trust lands near Fort 
Leavenworth were not open to settlement in 1854, but this was disregarded by the settlers, 
who speedily occupied them. The commissioner of Indian affairs, Manypenny, made a fight 
to the finish against this occupation, but failed. The staking off of these lands encouraged 
settlers to occupy or encroach upon other holdings of the Indians throughout Kansas, even 
though not ceded by the treaties of 1854, and particularly the nearby Delaware reserve. 
Charles Robinson became interested in these lands as a promising speculation, and as early as 
1854 bought logs for the Emigrant Aid Company from the Delawares. Like Governor Reeder, 
Robinson also interested himself in the valuable Kansas half-breed lands along the Kansas 
river. Concerning the speculations of Robinson, see the article by Paul Wallace Gates, entitled 
"A Fragment of Kansas Land History," The Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. VI (August, 
1937), pp. 227-240. 

22. This comment may be a trifle strong for 1854, but claim troubles became very common 
by 1855 and 1856. The settlers organized claim clubs to obviate such difficulties, until the 
arrival of the surveys and law and order, but these organizations apparently did not include 
all the settlers, and functioned imperfectly, particularly in partially settled areas. It was 
also difficult for new settlers to tell what land was already claimed, especially when the claimant 
did not reside on his claim, or had not properly improved it. In this claim technique the 
Easterners, being less familiar with frontier customs, were more likely to become involved in 
disputes with previous claimants. 



HICKMAN: SATIRE ON EMIGRANT AID 349 

I landed at the City of Kansas, I have been so ill as to almost unfit me for 
anything like exertion. . . . [Soule here states at some length that the 
continued exposure has brought no improvement.] I am now at the cabin 
of your citizen, S. Ogden, who has taken a claim some eight miles from 
Lawrence, and has erected a comfortable cabin. ... I have found this 
the most comfortable lodgement since I arrived in the territory. . . , 

[Soule states he will try to be present at Lawrence at the election of Nov- 
ember 29, 1854, and vote.] But what the qualifications for electors are, I am 
not informed; at any rate, there will be strenuous exertions made by the 
people from Missouri to carry it to suit their feelings. Numbers have already 
arrived here for that purpose, assuming to have claims which, if valid, will 
probably allow them to vote. I think the indications are strong that a pro- 
slavery man will be returned. 23 . . . 

In conclusion, allow me to say, that among the last that I forget, shall be 
my friends in Chelsea. DESCANDUM. 24 

23. John W. Whitfield, the Proslavery candidate, was elected territorial delegate to con- 
gress. 

24. Letter printed in Chelsea Telegraph and Pioneer, December 16, 1854, in "Webb Scrap 
Books," v. II, p. 61. 



Letters of John and Sarah Everett, 
1854-1864 

Miami County Pioneers 
(Concluded) 

Longwood, Sep. 1, 1859. 

DEAR JENNIE: 
We got the last rennet in mother's and your letter last week. I 
am afraid you are bothered a great deal with u# and with getting 
rennets We sent a few weeks ago to Pittsfield Mass, for a pack- 
age, and hoped they would have been here before this time, but I 
begin to fear they will not be here in season for this summer. 

I have had a great deal of trouble because I couldn't get what 
rennet I wanted. Half the time for the last six weeks I have not 
had enough to bring the cheese in any reasonable length of time, and 
then 'twould be dragging around till noon so that the cheese would 
of course get sour these awful hot days, and besides it kept my work 
behind all the time so I could hardly get around with it. I wish 
you would try to engage a parcel for us this summer for next. 

I dont think what you have sent lately were near so good as those 
in the early part of the season Two go no farther than one did 
then. The reason we dont kill the calves is because all it costs to 
keep one here is the fodder in the winter which is a mere trifle, and 
when they are three or four years old they are worth from forty to 
a hundred dollars a yoke. We can better pay $1.00 for every rennet 
we use and the postage besides than kill the calves. We have now 
two stacks of prairie hay (25 tons) and one stack (4 tons) of hun- 
garian, which with our nine or ten acres of corn fodder will be 
ample for our stock of about 35 head great and small, and our 
horses. 

We shall thresh what little wheat we have with flails so soon as 
John can get lumber for a floor. Our hand-mill answered a very 
good turn the first winter but it got broke. Those mills are pretty 
much of a humbug. There is a mill building in Osawatomie which 
is intended to be ready for flouring in a short time, and another up 
above town about the same distance from us that has been in op- 
eration a year. It is not worth while to send the salt on the rennet. 
Shake them as clear as possible from it and save the postage. 

(350) 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 351 

Our folks are now working on their wheat ground. They get their 
seed for $1.00 a bushel. Tuesday we were over again to Paola with 
cheese sold $19.60 worth, $17.00 in cash. We can now get cash for 
all that we make by carrying a part of it to Paola. We have sold 
just $132.80 cts worth of cheese and have all of Aug. cheese yet on 
hand except three, so I presume we shall have full as much more for 
market. 

We have had a very favorable summer for vegetation. The corn 
crop (the main crop here) is as good as I ever saw. I wish you 
could find rennet enough so that you could send us half a dozen at 
a time. Sarah's cheese has been set two hours now (9 o'clock) and 
is hardly ready to cut up yet. I am afraid you have a good deal of 
trouble in getting enough rennet to supply us. If Uncle Henry does 
not have dry rennets, there must, I should think, be some butcher in 
Utica who does. Perhaps Uncle Henry would know of some. Sarah 
has had great discouragements in making cheese this summer, what 
with hot weather, poor arrangements, flies, mice, &c &c. We try to 
conquer all as best we can, and do not feel at all doleful about our 
success; but a scarcity of rennet makes us think of the Israelites who 
were compelled to make brick without straw. Our ambition is to 
make as good cheese as can be made in Kansas. If it is a possible 
thing, we want twenty or thirty rennets to start on next spring. Do 
you think there is that number for sale in Oneida County, New 
York? and that they could reach Kansas by any means, by, say, 
the last day of March, 1860? (I seriously doubt whether there were 
twenty calves killed in Kansas this year.) I send a gold dollar in 
this. 

The health around us is quite good for the season of the year. 
This you know is the sickly season, but I have never known as little 
complaint since we have been here at this time of year. 

I want to try to raise funds to get five to ten more cows next 
summer. I want to build a stable 70 or 80 feet long this fall. What 
is the size of the long pieces at the top where the stanchels play, and 
of the pieces at the bottom how thick & wide? Is three feet the 
standing room for a cow? Must close. We are all well, for which 
we desire to be thankful. Wish some of you could come out and 
see us. But I fear we will have to wait for that. 

John & Sarah 



352 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Osawatomie Sept 30. 1859 
Dear Jennie 

Your letter of the 16, we got today with two rennets also we had 
one last Sat. which I have not ans. You said in your letter we got 
Sat. how disappointed you were at not getting a letter the Sat eve. 
before you were writing (the rainy eve.) "Poor girl" John said "if 
she only knew what a scolding she will get when that letter comes 
she would sit down very cheerfully without it." Your budgets had 
not got to coming weekly when we sent that letter and we were using 
the only borrowed rennet we could get in the whole Territory so far 
as we knew, the weather was so warm that mornings milk would 
sour in 12 hrs and nights milk by noon so we could do nothing to 
speak of butter making. So you see as our case seemed desperate 
we felt constrained to try a desperate remedy hence the wildcat 
nature of that communication The 4 rennets you speak of will be 
sufficient for this year. I cannot tell just how late I shall continue 
to make cheese through Oct. I guess I have set my head on 
selling $250. worth of cheese but if I can make more at butter 
making when the weather gets cooler shall not be particular about 
the precise amount of either. We have sold $145 of cheese and 
have on hand at least $85 worth more. 

My last letter I believe was sent unfinished owing to my being 
sick I had a severe attack of intermittent fever but am well now, 
only not so strong According to your letter you will be in N. Y. 
City while I am writing this. I have been trying to make John think 
he can afford to go out to Steuben this fall and stay through the 
winter but I cant convince him I'd be willing to get along 'most 
any shape if he could I can fairly feel the pleasure it would be to 
him and his folks if he could be there. 

I send this as it is. We are going to Paola to day with cheese 
(Oct 3.) Pray forgive my bluntness in my other letter. I am 
obliged to return the $10. bill. Perhaps it is good. But our currency 
here is mostly gold and silver, and as we are so far from Bill makers 
people are shy of bills at all doubtful. Bills go undoubted with 
you, are generally good here. We are all in tolerable health now. 
With much love in haste Sarah and John 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 353 

Osawatomie Dec 14, 1859. 
Dear Father, 

I believe we have let a longer interval elapse than we should 
without a letter to let you know how we are. Sarah's health is a 
good deal better than common at this time of year. The children 
and myself are as well as common. We have had unusually cold 
weather this month. A week yesterday (Election day) was very 
cold, mercury in thermometer 9 below zero. It is also very dry. 
These two causes operating together make winter wheat look badly. 
The weather is however very pleasant cool nights, bright days a 
bracing air. Yesterday morning we saw a brilliant aurora borealis 
rainbow-red pillars shooting half way to the zenith the second 
appearance this winter and I think the third I have seen in Kansas. 
We got a paper from Jane yesterday containing a pair of gloves and 
belt buckle both very nice & just the thing. Also a letter last week 
with bonnet lining and ribbon. Sarah says she is going to write to 
Jane as soon as she gets time. I returned a $10 bill I got from Jane, 
which was doubtful and would not pass here as much as two months 
ago and have never heard from it. Was it received safe? I must 
close now With much love 

Your son John. 

There was a "nigger hunt" (as they call it) in this neighborhood 
a few days ago in which the hounds changed places with the hare. 
The black man had his free papers stolen from him in Missouri and 
a kidnapping attempted. He got away and came to this neighbor- 
hood (where there is a station of the Underground railroad.) He 
worked and staid here a few weeks. Last week three men came up 
from Missouri to take the ''nigger." One of them pretended to be 
the owner. They stopped a few miles back a little before night at 
the house of a man who pretended to be pro-slavery. They told 
him they were after a runaway slave. As soon as they left his house 
he posted to the house of a neighbor who was stanch antislavery and 
told him what was going on. This man immediately gets on a horse 
and follows these men, goes to the station and gives the alarm. 
Then one boy hurries to find the negro and get him where his friends 
were thick. Another gets a pony and rides to town to rouse the sons 
of liberty. Twas not long before enough got together for all prac- 
tical purposes and then ensued a search for the kidnappers. They 
searched the cornfields and woods but nothing could be found of 
them or their horses. They then bethought them of a proslavery 

231232 



354 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

man about two miles off, who was suspected of harboring such 
vermin. One of the party went to his house pretending to have lost 
his way, and found they were there. The result was, the three men 
were roused up and compelled to turn out again. They were taken 
to where the negro was. A hemp rope was found with them. One 
of them the negro recognized as the one who stole his free papers. 
They gave the negro one of the men's horses and overcoat and $50 in 
money, and a revolver. He also changed hats with one of the men 
as he remarked their hats were the best. So the kidnappers were 
turned back minus their three horses and their overcoats and re- 
volvers and were followed some way to see they took the straight 
road to Missouri. They returned probably wiser certainly sadder 
men than they came. Kidnapping or reclaiming fugitives has never 
been profitable in these parts, and if justice is not administered with 
due respect to the forms of law, remember that federal law is law 
here, the law that pursues such as John Brown mistaken and erring 
but noble in his objects with most deadly and unrelenting hatred, 
but never has punished a kidnapper never has punished one of those 
traitors who tried to steal the liberties of the whole people of Kan- 
sas. One of the leaders against the kidnappers was attempted to be 
killed at the Choteau's Trading Post tragedy. 

Longwood Dec 31, 1859 
Dear Jennie 

Your letter with the undersleeves and belt came to hand Wed. 
night the things are all very nice the gloves, buckle & lining, came 
a good while ago, and the boys books came Monday night (26.) 
Everything is very nice. It was two or three weeks before I could 
make up my mind to wear any thing so gay as that lining and those 
strings I am a very old woman ... my face is thin sunken and 
wrinkled, my hands bony withered and hard I shall look strangely 
I fear with your nice undersleeves with the coquettish cherry bows 
I shall however wear them up to Friend Richards to a New Year's 
party Monday if it is warm enough though I fear it will not be. 

The Mercury stood this morning -7. We are having a hard 
winter for Kansas, but no snow. I really fear that winter wheat will 
all be killed out in these parts It looks as dead and dry now as 
the prairie grass. 

Tho' we have been told of wheat in the west dying down in this 
way and afterward making a good crop it looks pretty dubious now. 
Two of our peach trees have split open from the ground to the limbs 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 355 

with the cold You are enquiring what is the feeling in regard to 
John Brown's surprise party in Virginia. 

It has caused a good deal of feeling here I should not think that 
excitement is exactly the word to characterize the feeling here 
Brown was intimately known in these parts and greatly loved by the 
Free state men here. Mr. Adair his Brother-in-law, lives just above 
Osawatomie. He is an abolitionist as the term goes here and is re- 
spected by all who know him. He sympathised in Brown's move- 
ments here and in reply to a question from a new comer who had 
heard a great deal of evil of Brown as to what sort of a man this 
John Brown was, Mr. Adair said he was a man that had always been 
from his childhood impressed with the idea that God had raised him 
up on purpose to break the jaws of the wicked. Perhaps I have 
mentioned before that Mr Adair is the Congregational Miss. Min- 
ister of this place a most worthy man I must defer this letter till 
perhaps next year as our folks have come to supper, and this was 
written while waiting for them and wouldn't have been written at 
all only I have such a cold I can not work but a part of the time so 
I get time to write. 

Jan. 18, 1860 

I have done up my supper work browned & ground coffee for 
breakfast and popped some corn for the children and now (7 o'clock) 
I do not know as I can do any better than finish this last year's 
letter. John has gone to Olathe about thirty miles distant to attend 
to some business for T. D. Lewis of Utica, will not return till to- 
morrow. You enquired once something about our house. We have 
one south window, a west door; and a north door leading into our 
little orchard & garden thro' a shed 6 ft wide, the ends of which are 
boarded up and 6 ft of the north side making our cheese-room the 
west side of which was exposed to dogs and "varmint" generally. 
Opposite the window is the well about 14 ft from the south side of 
the house. Our peach trees on the north side of the house already 
form a beautiful grove being 10 or 12 ft high and 10 ft in diameter 
in the tops. 

I have been trying out some lard and tallow today. I have fin- 
ished up all I have till our folks finish butchering the rest of the 
hogs. We have killed two beeves beside the cow John sold in the 
summer for beef. We have killed 3 hogs and have 3 more to kill. 
You enquired once if they came to as much in beef as they cost us. 
We paid $20, for the one we sold alive, and sold her for the same 
keeping her calf which is a nice heifer. The other two cost $45, the 



356 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

first one we killed we sold of beef tallow and Hide $19, and had 14 
Ibs of tallow & 150 Ibs of beef for our own use, have also her calf 
the poorest one in the lot, this last one. We shall not have over 13 
or 14 dollars worth to spare and have not kept more than 100 Ibs 
of beef for our own use. She was very light but we have a nice 
heifer calf of hers which will be worth $8 in the spring. There I 
have given you a very elaborate answer to both your questions, and 
now let me say another word in regard to "Old John Brown." I 
dont like to hear him stigmatized as misguided. It would not grate 
more harshly on my feelings to hear Moses called misguided, be- 
cause he failed to enter into the promised land. It's of no use for 
Christians to pray that the bondsman's chains be loosed unless they 
are determined to arise in the strength of the Lord and undo them 
and let the oppressed go free. God works by human instrumentali- 
ties, and, it is by these that he is going to break every yoke if ever 
they are broken. John Brown remembered them that were in bonds 
as bound with them, and undertook to be a doer of Gods word as well 
as a hearer of it 

How in the name of common sense do Christians propose to do 
away with this enormous sin if not with John Brown's method; 
you know very well and every body knows that southern slavehold- 
ers will not allow any kind of Christian teaching in all their borders 
only the Christianity of devils and how is the great southern heart 
to be reached but by God's ministers of vengeance. If any body 
knows of another way let them attempt it and when they shall have 
succeeded I will submit to hear the epithet misguided applied to that 
glorified hero. And now if I had room I would give you a synopsis 
of Mr Adair's sermon last Sabbath. It was from the text (I cannot 
repeat it just as it is in the bible) If a man smite his servant with a 
rod and he die, he shall surely be punished, nevertheless if the servant 
live a day or two he shall not be punished for he is his money. Now 
you know what passage I mean though my quotation is sadly 
murdered. He preached an excellent anti-slavery discourse 

Yours as ever Sarah 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 357 

Osawatomie Feb. 27, 1860. 
Dear Father 

Your & Jennie's letter of Feb. 14 was received day before yester- 
day. We were truly glad to get them as it seems a long time since 
we had heard from home. . . . We are sorry to hear of cousin 
Letitia's sickness. Consumption is almost an unknown disease here 
unless the lungs are very bad when they come here. Franky got the 
two first numbers of his paper the morning he took his letter to the 
mail. 

You ask "Should I succeed in borrowing $100 for you shall you 
need it or not?" I answer we would. It would be just the time to 
lay it out for cows. We have to keep a hired man and ought to 
keep a girl during the summer months and could as well keep a few 
more cows as not. It would be a very great advantage to us if we 
were able to get them. I would like to get it for two years. I am 
very anxious to get on, so as to get a comfortable place to live in 
and especially to pay our debts. We are all well, except that Frank 
has a bad cold. From your affectionate son 

John R Everett 



Longwood Feb. 28, 1860 
Dear Jennie 

I began to think we should never hear any thing more from 
Steuben so was greatly and agreeably disappointed last Sat. when 
John came home from town, at seeing once more the well known 
post-mark of that place. Frank and I have come to the conclusion 
that if we could get "a boit" of those cakes and biscuits we could 
make a "right smart" lessening among them I hope you wont 
have to make yourselves sick to eat them all We dont get a 
great many such things here. I haven't seen any biscuits or wheat 
bread at home since Christmas week I suspect if ever our big 
wheat crop "comes off" we shall have "heaps" of biscuits here. 

John is going to try to break twenty or twenty-five acres this 
spring himself which if he accomplishes and gets a good crop of 
wheat and our cows do well and one or two other ifs of a kindred 
nature turn out favorably, I think we may next fall make a com- 
mencement for a house, but shall not be any wise disappointed if we 
do not, and since you have waited so long I hope you will not come 
to Kansas till we can make you comfortable, which we certainly 



358 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

never can nor could have done in the house we are in. Our condi- 
tion is getting every way improved with the exception of our house 
We are growing almost everything we need for the table and when 
once another harvest comes, do not see why we need to lack any 
necessary. 

It is a dark lowery day. We have been having a good deal of 
rain the last two or three weeks all the winter and fall since Sep. 
had been unusually dry till now it seems trying to make up lost 
time. 

One night last week we had a cow get hooked into a small creek 
which runs through the pasture, and in the morning when our folks 
found her she was quite unable to help herself, with struggling and 
the chill she got from lying stuck in the mud and water, and had to 
be drawn out. We did what we could for her but she never got up 
again. She had the horn-ail, but would have lived I think if it had 
not been for the accident and even then if it had been a dry warm 
time but it came on cold and rainy, so it made it impossible to Dr. 
her properly. 

Franky & Robbie want to send word to Aunt Jennie that their 
black cat has got eight little black kittens!! and want to know if 
she wouldn't call that a stack of black cats and beside that they 
have some little chickens. ... I should like to have you get me 
some ribbon to trim my bonnet with this summer. Such ribbon as 
used to be 12% cts when I came from there cost here about thirty 
cts. [Sarah M. C. Everett] 

Longwood June 5, 1860 
Dear Jennie 

Your last two letters came duly to hand, freighted with rennets. 
I am very glad to get them in time and hope soon to get more of the 
same sort We are milking 18 cows now and in a few weeks will 
have two more giving milk I am making cheeses now that weigh 
about 30 Ibs or more We have already sold over $20. worth of 
the stuff at the same price as last summer We are in passable 
health at present though a little dull because of the hot weather 

You cannot think how oddly it sounded to hear that you were just 
turning your cows out to grass on the 8. of May Cattle here to 
be sure run out all winter but many an one's I guess got only what 
they picked up in the commons two months before that date I 
have just got my cheese in to the press and am too tired to write 
much. Mr Snow is cutting the wheat. We shall not have much of 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 359 

a yield. We have had not rain enough to bring up the corn in these 
parts and farmers are growing quite discouraged. It looks now very 
uncertain about raising enough to supply the home demand. A 
great many have not yet made garden. How is it with you? 

Do you read H. W. B.'s 56 sermons in the Independent? I believe 
if it were not for reading now and then some things in his sermons 
that I should tire to death of this life and give it up I dont read 
them all I perfectly abhor a printed sermon. But sometimes 
when every thing else grows so tiresome and weary and the vexations 
and cares of life seem like a multitude of thorns piercing me on all 
sides I get hold of one of his sermons and it always contrives to turn 
the sharp points and make a pathway through them Verily they 
are like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. 

Wed. 6. 

While I was milking this morning I was seized with a sudden 
desire to record the names of our cows, for your special edification. 
"These are they" 

Dow, big Line, little Line, Queen, Pinky, Minky, Blaze, Red, Nig, 
Snip, Pied, Bim, Lil, Cherry, Star, Black, Beauty, "Remmy," Cali- 
fornia, Leopard & Rose You see I have nothing to say and will 
be happy to see the close How many rennets have you on hand 
ready I wish we could send for a box (by express) with a 
hundred in it. The freight would be less than the postage. We 
could send on the money one of these days I guess. I've been getting 
the boys some pants. [Sarah M. C. Everett] 

Saturday June 9 [1860] 
Dear Father 

Yesterday morning just before day a hurricane passed over these 
parts. It blew down the house, a new frame building of our next 
neighbor, Mr Holaday, and killed his wife. He tried to get her to 
come out as the wind suddenly raised, and they heard the roaring 
of the coming tempest, but could not persuade her. When the crash 
came he stood by the door and reached to draw her out, but some 
thing came between, he sprung through the door and was knocked 
down by the falling house but fortunately away from it. He asked 
his wife if she was killed. She said she was afraid she was. He 
asked her if she could hold out till he went to Everett's for help, 
but the poor woman spoke not again. Mrs. H. was a Quaker and 

56. Henry Ward Beecher. 



360 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

much esteemed by a large circle of relatives and acquaintances. 
Another house was unroofed in our immediate neighborhood, but no 
one hurt. Three lives were lost in Stanton, 7 or 8 miles from here. 
This event as is natural creates a very solemn feeling in the neigh- 
borhood. We have heard of many houses that were unroofed or 
blown down. Much of our fence was blown down. We feel especial 
reason to be thankful that our house was not injured, and that our 
lives are spared. I send in this a draft of $8.25 for the interest to 
David Jones and the rest towards the rennets. In haste 

John. 

Longwood Sep. 6, 1860 

We had sent a letter yesterday to the P. 0. to Father and Jennie 
and this morning we got Mother, Mary & Jennie's. We have been 
greatly troubled at not hearing from you for so many weeks. Last 
spring or early in the summer we sent a draft of $8.25 to pay in- 
terest to Jones and have never heard whether you received it or 
not Did you? 

The story of our returning or intending to return is all humbug 
We have never thought of the thing. 

In the summer, as early as June or July before it was supposed 
that crops were going entirely to fail, I tried to persuade John that 
if he kept a hired man this winter he could leave home well enough, 
to go back for a visit and stay all winter The only thing at all 
in the way, was lack of money to pay for his journey & that quite 
upset the charming project A little later when the drouth shut 
out all hope of anything but a scanty crop of potatoes and sugar 
cane and I was taken down with fever, we seriously ruminated on 
my going back to spend the winter and the way I was to raise 
passage money was in this wise A great many families were leav- 
ing for Iowa, Ind. and 111. with their teams. If I could find some 
one with so little load that they could carry me and cheese enough 
which I was to peddle on the way to pay my expenses after I left 
them, why I could go One of our neighbors offered to undertake 
it but I doubted the ability of his team A wise doubt in the right 
place ! you will probably exclaim, / think so now myself 

About the things I spoke of some weeks since. We can stay with- 
out them, we cannot raise money to pay for them, and shall go with- 
out them We dont want any assistance this winter We are 
going to do on our own resources, unless we are all taken down help- 
lessly sick, and our cattle all die off with the blackleg or starvation. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 361 

We are doing what we can to provide against the latter. It is far 
gloomier to contemplate the coming winter than it was the winter of 
'56 & '57 This is an old settled neighborhood and the people just 
here are better prepared to withstand the fearful calamity that has 
fallen upon the Territory than those of the more newly settled por- 
tions I suppose Mr. Hyatts statements reveal the actual truth. 57 
And yet the real suffering has not commenced Our next door 
neighbors on two or three sides, here in this old settled neighbor- 
hood will be obliged to get aid from some quarter. 

Our dairy business has turned out badly but will enable us to 
live along somehow or other till another year. The weather here 
was so warm all through July that a great deal of our cheese rotted 
down and all of it was more or less injured by the warm weather. 
Then I was taken sick and John had the cheese to make & take care 
of till finally we gave up the cheese and went to making butter 
So every thing you see went wrong for Kansas and now the cattle 
are going with the black-leg We have lost 5 head as John wrote 
to you yesterday and there is another we have not seen for several 
days. I suppose that too is gone. Others besides us have lost stock 
with the same disease Now our principal pinch is paying our 
hired hand We hope to be able to turn some cows some way so 
as to partly pay that and perhaps a little wheat. He will not crowd 
but we know how badly he needs it and it worries us. 

I am glad you have commenced writing to us again. I hope you 
will not wait two months again till there is a little brighter times 
here to take up our thoughts We haven't written to B'r Butler's 
in a year as I know of the truth is there are too many things in 
this country to absorb one's time and thoughts. There are a great 
many poor & sick around you and every thing is awkward and un- 
handy. When provisions are getting low with you, you can step to 
the store and get a bbl. of flour at a time we get 10 to 12 Ibs. just 
what we can pay for It takes quite a part of one day to search 
up the team and take a bushel of corn to mill and a part of another 
to get it again, and so on too tedious to mention but I must close. 
Dont feel sorry for us some of our neighbors say, if we had your 
chance we could get along but that ragged coat and those ragged 
pants one woman said to me yesterday is all that William (meaning 
her husband) has got for the winter and this dress a slitted out old 
calico my only outside garment and not corn enough for bread no 

57. Thaddeus Hyatt wrote extensively for the Eastern press during the drouth years of 
1860-1861, describing conditions in Kansas and urging contributions to relief funds. 



362 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

potatoes nor any other eatable except meat which they were to have 
enough for themselves and a little to spare and not fodder enough 
for their stock and her husband not a sock for winter. I think we 
shall in all probability have plenty of corn bread meat and milk 
and if you were in the midst of such suffering as will surround us 
you would not want anything much better, as for clothes I candidly 
think we shall go awful "shabby" & in so doing will form no in- 
vidious contrasts to others around us So dont worry about us 
till you hear that we are getting worser and dont offer us any more 
money, it is us now that should be sending money to you rather 
than you to us. As I said a page back I must close Sarah 

Osawatomie Dec. 10 1860. 
Dear Father 

Yours containing draft of $32.05 rec'd to day. I write this in 
town, and can but just acknowledge receipt, and say how grateful I 
am to you and my dear friends for remembering us so kindly. This 
help will come very seasonably although we hoped to be able to 
pinch through. I have sent for the box to day by the Kansas City 
and Fort Scott Express, which runs through this place and has an 
office here. 0. J. Owen has written me that he had directed a barrel 
of flour to me at Atchison. Kansas City (or Leavenworth) is our 
river point. Kansas City is 45 miles, Leavenworth 60, Atchison be- 
tween 80 and 90 miles distant. But I hope to be able to send to 
Atchison by some team that will be going for relief grain. We are 
all well. The winter is very favorable for stock. I am foddering 
only my milch cows and horses. To day 3 or 4 inches of snow the 
first. In haste With many thanks 

Your affectionate son 
John 



Longwood Dec. 31. 1860 
Dear Jennie and all at home 

I am not in much of a mood for writing my thanks . . . how- 
ever much I may feel them. You can have little idea how much 
happiness your box brought into our homely cabin. In the first 
place it came from the loved ones at home and was welcomed as a 
messenger of love from them. Then the things were so apropos to 
our wants The blankets as we shiveringly nestle beneath are a 
nightly benediction and the boots and shoes not less so My 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 363 

feet were cramped into a pair that I wore in the summer which 
though large enough then were quite too small with woolen stock- 
ings and the soreness that has been occasioned by getting chilled 
These are one number larger than I usually wear, but fit my feet 
as they are this winter admirably. 

The stockings too just the thing. Robbie and I had on the 
only ones we had and they needed washing and mine mending 
Auntie got a very happy fit on those little socks The children 
think their mother's knitting is quite thrown in the shade by those 
socks Franky is sorry he cannot write a letter himself to say 
how nice they fit. ... [Robbie's] clothes fit him pretty well 
The coat would be better if it was broader in the chest and between 
the shoulders but he can wear it this winter well enough and per- 
haps next winter too for he is such a chub that he will naturally 
grow slimmer. The waist & pants couldn't be bettered Frank's 
waist & pant bands have to be enlarged otherwise all right The 
smaller of the two caps just fits both boys The little boots are 
nicely fitted Franks will suit him another winter after this but 
Robbies will be rather tight after this winter. 

He had been teasing for some little boots and a knife for a long 
time, and when he heard that there was "a whole big box of things 
coming to us" he had a full and complete faith that the boots and 
knife and a little clock would come for him 

Mary hoped I could find some use for the dress she sent. I found 
so much use for the skirt of it as to wear it to a wedding at Mr 
Chestnut's Christmas Eve also your nice undersleeves hood and 
skeleton Sarah's shawl, Annies collar & mittens, whose shoes 
comb and gloves and pocket handkerchief I know not but hope you 
will inform me Frank went to the wedding in his new suit and 
John had the benefit of his new cap, gloves cravat handkerchief 
(Fathers) boots socks & a pair of the pants for the occasion. Rob- 
bie we left at Mr Snow's house, which was as great a treat to him, 
as the wedding to us. 

Mr Snow has rented a farm for next season and is living on it 
keeping bach this winter just now a man and his wife whose house 
and all in it were burned a few weeks ago are stopping with him 
till they can put up another cabin. Mr. Snow was very pleased with 
his things. He seems to think your way of mittening a fellow an 
improvement on the old fashion and wishes us to say he feels obliged 
for the handkerchief and mittens both. I gave him a pair of socks 
also from the box He always comes in once a week every Sun- 



364 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

day just as any body goes home. It was quite lonesome here at 
first without him. 

That nice de laine I shall keep over till next fall when you must 
be sure to tell me the jashion to make it by Whose gifts are the 
little flannel sack (a capital thing in windy weather) and the 
heavy piece of pant cloth? Mother's presents came into requisition 
immediately I put on one that night, John the next day You 
can judge how much they were needed Frank has got one of 
his aprons made and Robbie will soon have one to match it It's 
a marvel to us now how we got along before the box came That 
great shawl I have been needing. I think now I couldnt get along 
without it. The apron too came the right day, the last one I had 
went to pieces very much after the manner of the ''Deacon's One 
Hoss Shay" a short time before John came home with the box. We 
should like to know the price of such de laine collar and pants 
cloth as you sent also of the apron checks and boots and gloves I 
have been asked 500 times more or less the price of that ribbon belt 
and buckle you sent me last New Year's. My paper is used up and 
I am very tired I was almost laid with a cold a good deal of last 
week and am not at all well yet. John is coming down with a cold. 
The children are quite bright Yours as ever 

Sarah 

There are a great many other things I meant to have spoken of 
but have got too tired. 

We gave Mr. Adair his gloves Christmas Eve at the wedding. He 
had them on up at meeting yesterday. 

Longwood, Jan 21, 1861 
Dear Jennie 

We have had two letters from you since we have written. Mary's 
and yours written Christmas and your last dated Jan 8. 

It is very cold here, and the ground is covered with snow We 
have all had hard colds this winter, but John, but are getting some 
better from them. I dont know but he is just coming down with 
his I have had a cold now for two months, and it was worse last 
week than any time since I was first taken with it I have had a 
very hard cough for the last ten days more than all I've coughed 
before in Kansas. The children too have coughed a good deal. 

Mrs. Chestnut you've heard us speak of them before died a 
week ago today. She had been sick only one week and there was 
nothing alarming in her sickness till about twenty four hours before 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 365 

she died when she sunk into a state of unconsciousness in which she 
remained till she died. John was acquainted with them before I 
came out and we have always been on intimate terms, and her death 
somehow seems to loosen my attachment for Kansas strangely. She 
was one of the most amiable and lovely women that it has ever been 
my lot to meet. There is no other one here that can in any measure 
fill her place. 

You made mention in your last before this, of a willingness to aid 
any in our neighborhood that might be suffering. 

I do not know of any that think you ought to assist. I think so 
far as my acquaintance goes, those that really need assistance more 
than they can get from the general fund have friends back that 
would assist them if they made known to them their necessities. 
There are but a few but show a very laudable zeal in trying to help 
themselves and such might starve before I'd ask a friend of mine to 
help them I expect the suffering in the southern part of the Ter- 
ritory is very great owing to the bad state of the roads which ren- 
ders it impossible to get provision there as fast as it is needed the 
reports from that quarter are painful to hear. 

Jan. 22. We are feeling rather poorly to day with cold and a 
little fever, and will close this letter without writing any more as 
we have a chance to send to the mail. Our Eastern mails have been 
irregular for a few days on account of heavy drifts to the North. 
There is a solid coat of sleet and snow on the ground now. This is 
the first that cattle have had to depend wholly on feeding. Till now 
cattle have got at least half their living on the prairie In haste 

John & Sarah. 

Feb 21, 1861 
Dear Jennie 

Frank has been writing to you, and has very kindly offered me a 
chance to put in a slip of paper with his letter, so I take the oppor- 
tunity to send you a line in answer to your last which was received 
two days ago In answer to the seed question, you could not possi- 
bly get seed wheat through in season to be available this spring 
and the cost of sending small parcels from 111. or Wis. would make 
it somewhat impracticable we fear to send seed-corn tho' that 
would undoubtedly come thro' in season, otherwise we should be 
very glad to accept your kind offer. We have a small piece of 
winter wheat self sown at the time of the tornado which in conse- 



366 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

quence of the dry weather did not come up till it ought to, that may 
supply us with bread if it has not winter-killed. We cannot tell yet 
whether it will be worth anything or not. We have corn that will 
answer for seed, but not nearly as much as we ought to have for our 
horses and milk cows. John has just come home with a load of corn 
for which he has paid .85 cts a bushel on the cob for old corn and 40 
cts a bushel for last summers growth. 

We are greatly obliged to you for all your kind offers of assist- 
ance. About the money, if we borrow at all it will be only a small 
sum to build with and we can not say at this time whether we shall 
want that We are sorely in need of a better house and our plan 
if we can execute it, is to build a hewed log house but we have al- 
ready so much team-work on our farm, that I do not know that we 
can undertake anything more In speaking of seeds I should have 
mentioned that we have plenty of seed-potatoes but of small garden 
seed we are out I wrote to you two weeks ago Tues. that we had 
sent that day for the bbl. of flour. Last Tues. it had not arrived. 
John is going to town with the wagon this afternoon to see if it has 
come in yet We live a hundred miles from Atchison and I do not 
know of any teams that have been able to make the trip there this 
winter in less than two weeks, so bad has been the going. If John 
gets the flour to day he will put a pencil mark across his name on 
the corner of the envelope Sarah 

All pretty well 

Longwood, March 4 1861 
Dear Jennie 

Last week we had soft mild balmy breezes and warm bright sun- 
shiny weather but this morning such a black sky and cold bluster- 
ing snow squall as broke upon us! It made me think of the mad 
turbulent outbreak of rebellious South Carolina and her sister seces- 
sion states. 

Wonder if Old Abe's accession to the Presidential chair had any- 
thing to do with this bluster in Kansas I rather think it was the 
sympathy of nature with human passions for at the hour of noon 
when democratic rule retired from power the sky lightened up, the 
air grew warmer and the snow ceased its furious driving and came 
straggling noiselessly and quietly down dissolving so soon as it 
touched the earth So I think mad rebellion and blustering seces- 
sion will subside and melt away under the more genial influence of 
Republican rule. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 367 

But this was not what I begun to talk about or rather not what 
I sat down to talk about I thought as I do not feel like doing 
anything to day I would say a little about those rennets As I 
wrote before we do not need them till probably the first of July 
but since you spoke of sending some seeds I have been thinking that 
if it is just as convenient for you to send them earlier, you might 
accommodate us also in another way by sending some peas and 
beans &c. . . . It is five o'clock and I must write in haste what 
I have to say Have you any of the regular real snap beans, what 
we used to call string beans? I should like a pint or so if I could 
get hold of them also a pint each of two or three different kinds of 
peas as marrowfat and a smaller kind very productive that farmers 
usually sow in the field. I do not know any name for them ; and the 
early June I wish also that we could get a few of your raspberry 
bushes and strawberry vines and would like to try once more a few 
currants and one or two rhubarb roots And I am homesick for 
some old-fashioned double pink roses Can you send me a rooted 
bush if you send that package early enough? There are a number 
of such things I should like to get but I do not feel that I ought to 
trouble you with such things. 

That tight sleeve pattern that you have told me two or three 
times of you have never sent, or at least I have never rec'd tuck 
it in to the rennet bundle some where and if you have a summer cape 
pattern late style put that in with it also Tell me also what kind 
of border or face trimming is worn in summer bonnets I got a 
cheap plain straw bonnet last fall as I only wanted to wear it a 
few times & felt very poor I did not get any face trimming at all 
I got one y'd of plaid green and white ribbon for strings and made 
a cape & put folds on the bonnet of green barege. This summer 
I propose to change it a little but am not certain that I shall do 
more than put in face trimming It looks far better on the out- 
side than you would suppose Oh I want you to put in some bone- 
set &c some worm-wood. . . . 

Friday 8 I have laid aside my begging letter for a few days 
considering whether it would not be ridiculous to trouble you with 
all of these things and "others too numerous to mention" but my 
desires have got the better of prudence & so I have commenced 
again Can you get in that country a patent wheel-head I 
want one if you can Also a box of genuine cheese annatto 
There is an old Herkimer county cheese maker in this place that 
says it helps to guard against cheese flies and there never was a 



368 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

country so pestered with cheese flies as this I don't know as 
there is anything else unless you put in a few cuttings off your lilac 
bushes and another piece of that remarkable sticking salve John 
most always has sore hands if the skin gets broken it remains raw 
or else makes a large sore especially in the fall & winter and that 
salve will stick tight and keep the air out so much better than any- 
thing else we have found that he would like to feel that he had 
enough to last him through the season The weather is mild and 
beautiful again and farmers are going along with their spring's work 
as fast as their lean teams are able. John has been hauling out barn 
yard litter on to his field for a week past is going to mill today and 
intends to commence plowing to morrow. We have 5 young calves 
so our dairy work is commencing a little you see Expect before 
the month is out to be milking 14 or 15 cows. I have no help yet 
but mean to try to get a girl next week that can milk as I can do 
but little of that for some time yet. Have you kept an account of 
what you have expended for rennets for us We would like to 
know when you send these how much we are owing both for rennets 
and the postage & freight on them also the cost of these things we 
send for now There's no telling when we can pay for them but 
I think we shall surprise you some day by paying up our debts! 
We have heard again from that bbl. of Flour. It has been sent to a 
warehouse in Leavenworth City and we are now endeavoring to get 
a chance to send for it The freight on it is $3.40 If we find 
an opportunity to send for it by a team it will not cost over .75 or 
.80 a hundred to get it from there. I must not write more for I 
have not done up my work this morning and I am trying to braid 
a straw hat for Robbie the poor boy has gone bare-headed all the 
spring and I want to finish his hat this week, so good bye till the 
next time. Write as soon as you can. John will write some day 
when he finds time S. M. C. E. 

Longwood, March 15, 1861. 
Dear Jennie 

Your letter of Mar. 2. came to hand yesterday I have sent you 
two or three notes I believe since you had written before. In my 
last I spoke of some seeds and other things being sent but of course 
we do not want you to put yourselves out to send the rennets earlier 
than is convenient, for the sake of sending those things. We shall be 
able to get seeds here, so that we shall not have to go without garden 
stuff We are having our plowing done now John hires a man 
(Mr Kinter) to come by the day at 40 cts to do it for him 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 369 

When there is a day that the man cannot come he plows a part of 
the day himself but he has so many chores to do that he cant do 
a great deal else He is not strong enough for farm work any 
way this dairy business is just the thing for him He can stand 
it to take care of his stock and then he can hire the harder work 
done. He does not calculate to hire a hand steady but only by 
day's work this summer which will be the best course I think Mr 
Kinter has a family and we can pay him along in butter and cheese 
and meat and anything we have to turn off and we do not feel the 
pay so much I have one of his daughters helping me now, came 
this week. She is very lady like and companionable and I should be 
glad to keep her all summer but I am afraid I cannot Her 
mother put it into my head to get her for a few weeks this spring 
and hinted at the possibility of her staying till fall The trouble 
is she is engaged to be married and when her lord that is to be calls 
for her she is bound to go. The family are N. Yorkers and are smart 
and intelligent Came in from Mich, a year ago last fall. Lost 
their furniture and a great many of their clothes on the way and 
have of course lost all their farm labor by drought like every one 
else and so they are willing to work out. That's the way I am able 
to get one of the girls Mary the one that is with me now taught 
our school last summer, one of her brothers the winter before 
0. C. Brown's letter contains more truth in it than is apt to come 
from him He has put the population of our town down I believe 
a good deal higher than the census man if I remember rightly He 
speaks of "one thousand souls" I am sure the bodies counted less 
by a few hundreds but I may be mistaken otherwise he is not so 
much out of the way perhaps if you proportion other things down 
A great many get help that dont need it, and a great many need 
help that might have helped themselves last fall if they would but 
they looked for help from "the East" and so neglected their plain 
duty Such ought to suffer some I have no sympathy for them 
and I wish "the East" (whatever that may be) would inform Kan- 
sas that this is the last time she is to be helped from that source 
and see if some of the beggarly spirits wont try in future to take 
care of themselves instead of waiting for strangers to support them 
and then grumbling because they are not better provided for. Those 
that should have most will many of them get the least. . . . 

. . . You wished one of us would write a letter about Kansas 
to be published I dont think either of us know any thing to 
write we are such a domestic family that we dont know any thing 

241232 



370 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

only what pertains to ourselves and our particular quarter section 
It is simply "Us four and no more" with us 

It is very dry yet this spring and unless rain comes soon spring 
wheat will do nothing though the whole country seems crazy to 
sow it because it is charity wheat Mr Kinter is going to sow 
some on our place on shares he finds the wheat and does the 
work John finds team and gives the land & then they divide 
the threshed wheat some way, I dont know exactly how I guess 
the piles will both be small if this dry weather lasts a couple of 
weeks longer. I must close Write soon and often It is 
very lonesome this spring it is so dry and windy, and no one feels 
in good spirits on account of the hard times and people's disposi- 
tions have got soured by suffering and misfortunes and when we 
meet we gossip one about another In short one more drought 
would corrupt utterly the morals of the country So write often 
and try to keep me at least from having nothing to do but gossip 

Sarah 

I perceive on reading over my letter that I am blaming or seem- 
ing to blame the noble spirits that have so generously contributed 
their means to relieve the sufferings of the starving many of Kan- 
sas and I should hardly do right did I not make some explanation 
of what I have written I was thinking of a few cases of mis- 
applied charity and wrote what I did with those only before my 
mind. I did not then remember the little hungry children and their 
grief worn parents that but for the noble benefactions of "the East" 
would have gone down to their graves long before this time nor of 
the barefooted and half clad teamsters toiling beside their half- 
starved teams thro' the snow for days together with the food sent 
from "the East" that was to gladden the hearts of those destitute 
ones at home Every dweller in Kansas owes a lasting debt of 
gratitude to "the East" for what she has done for the suffering here 

Sarah 

Osawatomie Apr. 12 1861. 
Dear Sister Jennie 

Yours of April 3 was received yesterday. We had been getting 
rather impatient to get a letter, for it was about a month since we 
had heard from you, and I do not know but you will have the same 
feeling to get ours. Sarah has been very sick since I wrote last. 
She was smart as usual for a few days. . . . Then she was taken 
with fever. . . . She continued to grow worse till a week ago 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 371 

Wednesday which seemed her worst day and the crisis of her dis- 
order. Thursday morning she woke feeling better, and since has 
been slowly gaining. Is still confined entirely to her bed. The 
weather has been the worst for invalids I hardly ever knew in Kan- 
sas. 

It has set in to rain, and now it rains every day a little damp 
and cold consequently. This has brightened farmers up not a little 
you may be sure, but it is unfavorable weather for the sick. I am 
hoping that when it clears up and gets a little warmer she will gain 
fast. The baby has had some boils on one of her little arms. 
Otherwise she is well and very good. We feel thankful that we are 
all alive and so well. Sarah says she cant call the baby all those 
names you sent. In fact we have had very little time to think of 
names. I tell her she must give the baby whatever name it gets. 

We feel very much encouraged at the turn the weather has taken. 
Winter wheat which had been nearly given up has revived wonder- 
fully. This weather is just the thing for wheat winter and spring. 
Write soon, and we will try to do the same. We are obliged for the 
mouth piece Your brother 

John 

Osawatomie May 7 1861. 
Dear Folks at home, 

Excuse a short letter. Sarah is getting pretty well though still 
weak. The rest of us are well. I help with the cheese. That and 
planting keeps me quite busy. Milking 18 cows. Raising 14 calves. 
Making cheese weighing fresh from the press about 35 Ibs. Making 
more cheese than we expected consequently using up rennet faster. 
We would like to have those rennets sent as soon as anyways con- 
venient. Direct by express to Osawatomie. Leave off "Via Leaven- 
worth" if not already sent. The sentiment in Kansas is very 
strongly patriotic. I hope we may have quiet to raise our bread 
this year. I think there is little apprehension of home trouble since 
we heard the glad news of the uprising of the North. 

We are having a cold and somewhat backward spring with sea- 
sonable showers however The weather is very favorable for wheat 
of which almost every farmer has sown more or less. 

There will also be a better prospect for fruit in consequence of the 
backwardness of the season. We have now a fair show for a large 
crop of peaches. Our orchard contains about 60 trees most of which 



372 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

hang full. Our wheat too (8 acres self sown by the Tornado) 
promises now a fine yield 

. . . I would get little Robbie's likeness taken for you if there 
was any good operator in these parts he is the fattest roundest 
faced blackest eyed reddest cheeked boy you ever saw and the most 
mischievous one too I guess. 

The new comer, who seems to cause more rejoicing among her 
distant relatives than those at home, we think of calling Clara 
Elizabeth though I like Irene Colegrove much better It isn't 
of much consequence however seeing it's nothing but a girl any- 
way I must close to help him a little about the cheese I have 
not got stout enough to do much yet but am gaining slowly all the 
time. I have to hire my work done, and we are getting wofully 
shabby for the want of a little sewing. I wish I could get to your 
machine for a few hours Write a little oftener if you can get 
time John & Sarah 

Longwood, Sep. 4, 1861. 
Dear Cynthia & Jennie two times over 

(I believe that is the order in which we owe,) it is such a dull 
rainy day that I cannot set myself to work so I am going to inflict 
a dull muddy letter on your patience. We have had no rain to do 
any good for a month, till night before last there came up a thorough 
thunder storm. John and Frank were caught out in the hardest of 
it while searching for the cows and had to come home without them. 

After midnight the rain set in again and continued in fierce 
showers till morning this morning again a drizzling rain com- 
menced before sunrise and still continues, (now 9 o'clock) We 
have a haystack not topped out! 

Clara has been sick with Fever since Friday I cannot find out 
whether it arises from teething (she has one little tooth) or whether 
she is attacked with chills Whatever it is it makes her exceed- 
ingly worrisome so I can hardly get along with her. Last night she 
was awake two or three times an hour. John and I are doing alone 
(except haying) and we cannot get time to write much I gen- 
erally milk 11 cows in the morning and 10 at night that is about 
three good hours work in a day then it takes 4 hours more to work 
the cheese off and the rest of the time I have to do the family work 
How many letters a month could you mail and do all the work in- 
cluding sewing for a family of five, and do 7 hours hard work in 
a day extra? I am very glad Uncle Henry sent rennets enough so 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 373 

that we need have no thought about them, for I am just in the con- 
dition of the camel we read of, before that last feather was added to 
his load. I have not seemed to have much strength this summer, 
and have felt very little interest in anything about me, business is 
dull, we have over ninety cheeses We cannot just now sell cheese 
to get bandage cloth. 

I am obliged to do without help because we cannot pay We 
have turned a cow for haying. 

You seem to feel a great deal of enthusiasm in regard to the war 
I dont get very much excited except at the miserable guilty tardi- 
ness, (or what looks like that to me,) of the administration in ac- 
cepting troops and forwarding them to such points as require them 
Lyon might have been shot if the administration had done its 
duty, but the chances would have been far less if he had been prop- 
erly re-enforced And it's no justification of the powers that be, 
to say that men could not be spared without rendering other points 
liable to attack, so long as every body knows that there were thou- 
sands of volunteers that were anxious to serve their country, but 
were refused the privilege of doing so. Something seems to have 
awakened up the dull-heads at Washington and it is to be hoped 
something will be accomplished yet before it is too late. Hitherto 
their acts as seen by the public have been such as to excite in the 
minds of true loyal and earnest people, little more than doubt and 
shame. We will hope now however to see some of the great things 
done that have been for months past promised that wonderful pol- 
icy carried out that was to satisfy the most earnest supporters of 
anti-rebellion I must stop soon on account of the baby. I hope 
you will write soon and as often as you can without neglecting any 
other known duty. If you who have so many pleasant surroundings 
find it pleasant to hear from us, much more you must remember 
will it be to us, to hear from you to us, who are struggling on with 
debts, poverty and all the inconveniences of a pioneer life over- 
burdened with strange work & surrounded with uncongenial associa- 
tions. Your letters filled with kind remembrances are as great beams 
of sunlight among the shady places in our pathway. 

Yours wearily Sarah M. C. E. 

Sep 10 

Clara is very low with bilious intermittent fever aggravated by 
teething S. M. C. E. 



374 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Sep. 18, 1861 
Dear Jennie 

I got your last yesterday, while returning from the grave-yard, 
where we have laid our sweet little Clara She brought a great 
deal of sunshine into our homely cabin this summer, and when she 
was carried out of it, it certainly seemed very dark to me 

She died Monday morning about eight o'clock, (little Henry's 
birthday) . Mr Adair preached her funeral sermon yesterday at two 
o'clock from Job 1, 21. 

Robbie & Frank are well, John & I considerably worn with watch- 
ing I did not undress the last week Clara lived as she needed 
constant attention. Our neighbors were very kind, doing much more 
than is commonly done on such occasions but we were alone till 
Saturday. 

There is sickness in a number of families near us. It is indeed the 
sickly season and it has been more sickly than it usually is I 
shall leave the rest of this for John to fill out for it seems useless 
for me to try to say anything I feel so utterly prostrated, not so 
much in strength as in spirit Sarah 

It was very hard to part with our little darling, but she is gone, 
and the Lord's will be done. She seemed a greater comfort to us 
than either of the other children at her age, she was always so good 
a child. Her disposition was very amiable, and she was easily 
pleased. She was quite restless for several nights but slept well the 
last night. In the morning when we spoke to her she answered in 
her little pretty talk, the first time for several days. When she 
went it was without a struggle, a few gasps, and she was gone. May 
the Lord prepare us all to meet in a better world. [John] 

Osawatomie Aug. 15, 1862 
Dear Jennie 

I wrote a letter to you a month ago, or more enclosing two dollars 
for rennets Did you get the letter? . . . 

I wish you would find out the address of the rennet vender in 
Philadelphia you once mentioned to me in one of your letters, where 
Jane's Uncle gets rennets five years old, and send it to me. We 
would send there for our next years supply and not bother you any 
more. 

If you could ascertain the directions for us so as to let us know 
by New Years it would answer our turn. I have not made cheese 
for several days. I have been out of rennet, and sick or half sick 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 375 

rather besides, and probably should have stopt a week to rest if I 
had had the rennets. It has been very hot and we have been un- 
fortunate with cheese losing quite a number. Our crops do not 
promise much this year; the early drought nearly ruined them. I 
hope though that we shall raise enough to get through with. We 
have had some fine rains recently. John sent twenty dollars to you 
three weeks ago. Have you received it? We are back one year's in- 
terest on Jones' note. Hope we can pay it soon. We are anxious to 
build a room this fall. Our old cabin is very unsafe in windy 
weather besides it is very cold and has settled so much that John 
can hardly stand upright under the joists. I believe it has settled 
ten or twelve inches in a year and a half. 

I have nothing special to say today our school closed. I went 
up to see it end and am consequently tired out. Write as soon as 
you can Yours wearily 

Sarah M C Everett 

Osawatomie, Oct. 30, 1862. 
Dear Jennie 

I have received a number of packages of rennet so many I have 
really forgotten the number. But I know I concluded that they 
all except the last package contained two whole rennets, and that 
that contained nearly another. Is that a correct estimate of the 
quantity sent? I do not need any more this fall I commenced 
using to day from the last bundle and it contained more than I shall 
probably use. We are having one of the most favorable, mild spells 
of weather that can be and this accounts for my making cheese so 
late in the season. Any day we are liable to have a sudden turn- 
about to the coldest weather and that will "dry up" cheesemaking 
in a hurry Last week we had one of those sudden changes, Thurs- 
day was a warm day that night the wind wheeled about into the 
north, and in a few hours (minutes if I should say 'twould be no 
exaggeration) we had a spell of winter. Sat. morning at 9 o'clock 
the thermometer was at 18 You can imagine there was small 
chance of making cheese that day in an open shed with a north-side 
view, even if the cows would give milk sufficient [in] such weather, 
which they would not I believe the cheese then in the press froze 
by its appearance. So much for the cheese question. Can you send 
me a "little bit" more of annatto; a very small piece will do. I sent 
by Frank to the drug store for some today and they sent me madder 



376 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

instead, and that too after being told that I wanted it to color 
cheese. 

There has been an unusual amount of wild fruit in the woods here 
this season We had gooseberries two months. I canned about 
14 qts after they were picked over beside having them constantly 
while they lasted, then plums came on and lasted till the frost came, 
then there were summer and frost grapes all through the woods in 
every direction, in some places there were a great many blackberries 
and also mulberries the most insipid fruit that grows, there are in 
places, too, "heaps" of paw-paws, a large green sickish fruit that 
some people are very fond of, and persimmons that before they have 
been ripened by several severe frosts will pucker ones mouth up so 
that they cant find their tongue for a week after But which when 
fairly frost ripened are very nice. Some people sprinkle sugar on 
them and dry them and call them raisins but they aint. I dried 
a flour sack two thirds full of plums after they were stewed and the 
pits taken out have besides now about 4 gallons of plum sauce 
Peaches were generally almost a failure. We were quite favored 
however we had all we wanted to use in every way during the 
season and sold and gave away about ten bushels. I pickled two 
thirds of a bushel and made seven or eight gallons of sauce for 
winter and dried perhaps 7 Ibs. I dried only such as fell off faster 
than I could otherwise dispose of them. We had tomatoes a plenty 
late but very few early ones. I made about a bushel up into catsup, 
and a bushel more into a kind of sauce but did not get it very nice 
Molasses we failed on this year the cane getting injured by frost or 
rather by remaining too long unworked after the frost Our other 
crops are all light vegetables. We have none of any such except 
potatoes (I forgot pumpkins of which I have dried 15 and we are 
eating them in pies every meal) and they are turning out poorer 
than we hoped (John and a colored gentleman began to dig them 
today) We all have fair health John remarkably good for him. 
He has worked steady all through haying and harvesting. 

I believe I have written all that relates to our current family 
affairs unless it be about the chickens and soap topics never left 
out when certain of us neighbors get together for a visit, but those 
items are perhaps too important to place on the last page so I will 
defer them sine die. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 377 

Nov 4 

It's election day here. There is greater excitement about political 
affairs in Kansas this fall than there has been before in several 
years And the funny of it is there is no ostensible issue 

I have never mentioned the receipt of those Histories. We have 
received three volumes. Our fine weather still continues but I 
dont like the feel of today. I think we shall have a squall soon 
Is there anything new in the way of fashions? If its not too much 
trouble I wish you would send me a cloak or cape (or whatever it 
may chance to be) pattern. 

John says he would like to know what you paid for the Histories 
and he will send you the money. I will send also the money for 
those rennets at the same time Yours as ever 

S. M. C. E. 
P. S. Will the war ever end? 

Wanted. 

By the subscriber, twenty-five or thirty good, old, home-cured 
veal rennets. For which the highest market price will be paid by 
my sister Miss Jane Everett, at Steuben, New York. 

John R. Everett 

Osawatomie, Miami Co., Kansas, Jan. 16, 1863. 
Dear Jenny, 

I do not know but you will laugh when you read the above as 
heartily as Sarah when I read it over to her, but, perhaps, (pardon 
the coarseness,) on the other side of the mouth. How would it 
answer to put the above on the Cenhadwr cover. I do not know 
what we shall do for rennets, unless you can help us. We have been 
so much indebted to you for rennets, we are emboldened to try again. 
I am satisfied, rennets in pickle will not keep well in our hot sum- 
mer weather, at least in wooden casks. Probably, (as we did not 
immediately dry them,) for that reason, we did not have good luck 
with the cask of rennets Uncle Henry kindly sent us. The home- 
cured rennets you have sent us have generally been good, and have 
worked well. We thought if you could get 20 or 30, they could be 
sent in a bundle by express, and if so, perhaps we will send for one or 
two other things with them. Please let us know whether you think 
you can do anything in this way without too much inconvenience. 

It is over three months since we have heard from you. It makes 
us unhappy to be so long without hearing from home. We get the 



378 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Cenhadwr regularly, and so hope nothing serious is the matter. We 
too have been very remiss in writing. It seems to be harder work to 
write now than it used to, and you know I never was much of a 
letter writer. I have done a good deal more of my work myself this 
year than usual and, so, have not had much time to write. I am 
wintering this season, about 50 head of cattle and four horses, or 
(as they say here, in hoosier language,) 50 cow brutes, and four 
horse beasts. We have had two or three little snow storms, that 
have whitened the ground for a day or two each time and that is 
all the winter we have had yet. Most of the winter so far has been 
mild October weather. But yesterday and to day have been sharp, 
cold winter days. 

We have all enjoyed first rate health, since we last wrote. Our 
two children go to school. We have the best school this winter we 
ever had here. Our teacher Rev. J. H. Carruth, is a college and 
Seminary bred Presbyterian minister, not preaching, an old settler 
in our district. Do you know any thing about a "Pilgrims Progress," 
I used to have, marked on the back Evangelical Library, I believe 
I would like to get it. 

Saturday. Do as you like about the advertisement. Change it, 
or do not publish it. I enclose $3.00 in this. Will send more after 
hearing from you. Have no more Eastern money or would send 
more now. What are custom house demand notes (U. S. Treasury) 
worth with you? Have some of them. They only have heretofore 
offered 10 per cent for them here. No time to write any more. Let 
us hear from you soon. Your brother 

John 

Osawatomie, Mar. 7. 1863. 
Dear Aunt Jennie 

We have got a new baby two days old. And it is a regular Welsh- 
man. And it is very fat. And it is the prettiest thing that I ever 
did see. You never saw such a pretty thing as it is. 
Mother isn't very well. Write soon as you can. 

Frank R. Everett. 

If you ever got a letter from John containing three dollars towards 
getting rennets for this summer, we should like to know it. S 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 379 

Osawatomie Mar. 17, 1863. 
Dear Sister Jennie 

Yours was received two or three days ago. We thank you for the 
trouble you have taken in inquiring about rennets. Please to get 
$5.00 worth of dry rennets, and send them by the cheapest convey- 
ance, which will probably be by express. There was a movement 
made in the H. of Rep. at Washington to have all packages of 
limited weight carried in the mails for 1 ct. an ounce, but I do not 
know as it ever became a law. We would like to have a box of 
annatto sent with the rennets. Sarah had thought of sending for a 
patent wheel head for a spinning wheel but we have succeeded in 
finding one here. If you would let us know what the annatto costs 
we would be obliged. If you could put in a root or two of the rasp- 
berries I set out west of the barn, and a rooted sprout of the . . . 
plum that was in the corner of my old orchard, I would be glad. 
Cut off most of the top. If inconvenient let them go, for they might 
not live. Wrap in moss, or old oiled silk perhaps would do. Cur- 
rants are of no account here. We cant make them live. Once in a 
great while, on some peculiar soil they grow in Kansas, but in gen- 
eral they will not thrive here. 

We are all pretty well. Sarah seems quite well, but not very 
strong. . . . We call the baby John Edward. Our school is 
over now. Both of the children went most of the time, Robert stay- 
ing at home the coldest days. We have had four warm days now 
and we are in hopes spring has set in. Give my love to Aunt Sarah 
if she is there yet. I sometimes wonder if father and mother are 
looking much older than when I left. It is eight years now a long 
time. I long to see you all but it may not be. 

Affectionately your brother 

John 

Osawatomie May 2, 1863. 
Dear Jenny 

I have very little time to write today. The rennets have not come 
yet, nor have we heard from them, and we are in distress for want 
of them. Will you please find out if they have been sent, and if 
not have them started immediately. And if you have one in the 
house you can spare send it by mail. We have no rennet on hand 
except some pig rennets, and they are not fit to use alone. We are 
all well. ... I have been able to do more work this spring than 
any spring I have been in Kansas Your brother 

John 



380 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Osawatomie Nov. 14, '63. 
Dear Father & Mother and all at home, 

I have been waiting some time now for time and opportunity for 
writing a long letter. But they do not seem to have come yet. I 
feel guilty for neglecting to write so long. I lamed my right shoulder 
about four weeks ago so that I could not use that arm for writing or 
any thing else for some time. I have had less help about my work 
this summer than any year before in Kansas. Sarah also has had 
a very busy summer and fall. Her hired help in a great measure 
failed this fall, and she has undertaken double labor. She has had 
40 pounds of wool to work, the product of a small flock of sheep we 
are keeping on shares. Cloth from the store has become so decep- 
tive and shoddyish Sarah thought she would go back to the primi- 
tive spinning wheel and loom. We had to send our wool 60 miles 
to be carded. We have had a good deal of trouble in getting things 
together, so that we have all been more than commonly busy this 
summer and fall. This week Sarah has been making clothes for the 
boys, and next week intends to make for me out of this home made 
cloth. 

Our general health is better this fall than common. The baby is 
fat, and healthy and good. He has the whooping cough yet, but it 
don't seem to trouble him except when he coughs. The boys help 
me a good deal about my work. . . . Hoping that this apology 
for a letter will be better than longer waiting, and that you at home 
will not delay writing for our neglect, I remain as ever 

Your affectionate but not punctual 
And too often tardy son John. 

[Contents Place This Letter Late in 1863. First Portion 
Is Missing] 

Sabbath when returning from church, we pass by the P. O. and 
usually look in to see if any thing came in the evening before. 

It had been mis-sent and that was the reason of its being nearly 
three weeks on its journey. You have had the letter John sent you 
about the same time yours was written I hope and so have been re- 
lieved from any further anxiety. 

A N. Y. City man was taking an excursion in N. Hampshire & 
stopped to ask a back woods man the distance to some town he 
wished to visit. The Countryman asked the gentleman "what parts" 
he was from, and on learning he was from N. Y. asked him in 
sympathising tones if he didn't hate to live so far off. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 381 

I couldn't help wondering when reading your letter so full of 
anxiety if you didn't hate to live so far off. 

I have not had any heart for writing this summer (I fear the same 
is the case with some of my friends in the East) . I have been more 
than usually harassed with my home matters. I dont think I 
ever endured such a hateful (I cant think of any other word any 
nearer the meaning) summer in my life. It makes me shiver every 
time I think of it. Besides my household vexations, I had some 
deeper afflictions to suffer as you will see by the enclosed letters. 58 
Thus my mind has been under a cloud and I have seen only that 
nor hardly made an effort to see beyond it. 

As regards danger from Rebel or more properly Guerrilla raids we 
that is John and I never feel any We realize that plundering 
bands may visit Osawatomie the same as they have some other 
points in Kansas but cant feel it. We are never afraid altho' the 
community gets its scare occasionally The border is now 
thoroughly protected, besides there is hardly inducement enough at 
present. 

The two stores might pay. There is nothing else but an old 
grudge against the town to entice them, but you would hardly need 
feel any uneasiness for us if Osawatomie should be destroyed. We 
are not on any road to any place in particular and when a band of 
robbers make an onslaught on any place in Kansas they must neces- 
sarily do it with the utmost speed or else get caught hence they 
have small opportunity to murder or pillage among the farmers not 
on their immediate route. 

I wish I could send you one of my cheeses to compare with the 
factory cheese We have had the best luck this summer we have 
ever had. I think I can make cheese at last that will keep in this 
hot climate with out spoiling. We have not lost any with hot 
weather this summer and have made excellent cheese too. We get 
now 121/2 cts a Ib. I have yet over 50 on hand. We went over to 
Paola last week to get our likenesses taken to send home but did not 
succeed. We thought when we started we could get photographs 
but were mistaken, only Ambrotypes being at present procurable. 
The artist intends to get a photographer and perhaps we shall wait 
till we can get photographs now. It is a great task for us to get 
ready and go so far (10 miles) with all we have to do in the morn- 

68. Reference is to the death of her father on July 31, 1863. 



382 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ing. We cannot get back till after dark and it's mean work doing 
up the chores in the evening when one is cold & tired. . . . 

Tell me something about "the fashions." 

. . . You saw the acc't did you not of Spencer Brown's execu- 
tion in Richmond. 59 He was O. C. Browns son. He has another 
son in the army now in Arkansas I believe. 

Our children are all very well. Eddie since he got over the whoop- 
ing cough has been very healthy and has grown very fast and is a 
great marvel among babies on acc't of his size. He weighed 26% 
Ibs when he was 7% mo. old, and has been growing ever since. I 
would tell you that he is the prettiest baby in the world if I was not 
intending to send you his likeness, but then you will have a chance 
to see it for yourself so I wont say any thing about it. I expect this 
week to get his homemade clothes wove, my paper is out and I must 
stop. Your Aff. Sister 

S. M. C. E. 

St. Josephs, Missouri, June 7 1864. 
Dear Father, 

I started from home last Friday to take Sarah to Leavenworth on 
her way to her brother in Columbus, Warren Co. Pa. . . . When 
I got to Leavenworth I thought best to come this far with her. We 
came to Leavenworth with my own team and a neighbor's carriage 
and from there here by the public conveyances. (Steamboat and 
cars.) She started this morning for her brother's by the Hannibal 
and St Joseph Railroad. She has company as far as Indianapolis, 
one of our neighbor's Mr. Barnard's son. The baby is with her. It 
is with a good deal of trembling and apprehension, I saw her start, 
as she is hardly fit for so long a journey and I ought to have gone 
through with her. But the expense was too great. I can only en- 
trust her to the keeping of the Lord, as I trust he has kept her here- 
tofore. There is a colored woman taking care of the house and the 
children while I am absent. I received a few lines from father dated 
May 25 as I came through town last Friday. Sarah will write you 
as soon as she feels able after arriving in Columbus. 

I crossed a railroad on the Kansas River coming to Leavenworth. 
It is the commencement of the great Pacific Railroad, is completed 
about 24 miles and is being pushed on. Pray for Sarah, that she 
may recover if it is the Lord's will. Your son 

John 

69. See Footnote No. 31. 



LETTERS OF JOHN AND SARAH EVERETT 383 

[Sarah Everett's condition became increasingly serious after her 
arrival in Pennsylvania, and John Everett joined her there early in 
July of 1864, remaining with her until her death on August 21 of 
that year. He later returned to Kansas to dispose of his cattle, then 
went to the family home at Remsen and resumed work at the print- 
ing plant. In the spring of 1866 he came again to Kansas and 
settled once more on his farm where he lived until his death on 
August 8, 1896.] 



Some Wage Legislation in Kansas 

DOMENKO GAGLIARDO 

LEGISLATION concerning wages assumes many forms. Pro- 
grams for social insurance comprise one category and are de- 
signed to provide cash payments during sickness, invalidity, old age, 
unemployment, and dependency resulting from the death of the 
family supporter, and may be thought of as deferred or emergency 
wages. Another form includes attempts to regulate directly the 
size of the income and is represented by minimum wage laws, and 
by family wage laws which provide supplementary payments based 
on the number of dependents. A third form is designed to secure 
the earnings of workers against certain contingencies by extending 
to them preferences and safeguards. This study is limited to the 
third of these, describing the development of Kansas legislation for 
the establishment of preferences and for regulating the time, basis, 
and medium of payment. 

Legislative efforts to safeguard the earnings of workers have been 
directed along two different lines; mechanics' lien laws and wage 
preference laws. Perhaps a somewhat different type is represented 
by a Kansas law of 1872 which provided that any railroad contract- 
ing out the construction of its road must take a bond from the con- 
tractor adequate to insure the payment of wages, materials and pro- 
visions. 1 The mechanic's lien gives one person a hold or claim upon 
the property of another, as security for a debt. 2 The debt may be 
for labor or materials. Such laws have generally been passed by 
American states early in their history. One was adopted by the first 
Kansas territorial legislature of 1855. 3 Modifications have been 
made from time to time. 4 But these are only in part labor laws. 
Nothing more will be said about them here except to point out that 
an amendment to the Kansas lien law allowing the worker a reason- 
able attorney's fee, if successful in a civil action, was held uncon- 
stitutional on the ground that it violated the equal protection clause 
of the federal constitution. 5 

1. Laws, Kansas, 1872, ch. 136, p. 286; Commons and Andrews, Principles of Labor 
Legislation (1927), pp. 60, 61. A still different type is represented by the Wisconsin law 
which makes stockholders in certain designated corporations liable for wages. Wisconsin 
Statutes, 1925, sec. 182.23, referred to in Commons and Andrews, op. cit., p. 61. 

2. Mendenhall v. Burnette, 58 Kan. 355. 

3. Statutes of Kansas Territory, 1855, ch. 109, pp. 490-493. 

4. Revised Statutes, Kansas, 1923, sec. 60-1401, pp. 847, 848. 

5. Laws, Kansas, 1889, ch. 168, sec. 9; Atkinson v. Woodmansee, 68 Kan. 71. This 
section had previously been interpreted as applying only to attorney's fees in trial courts 
and not to those in the state supreme court. West v. Lumber Co., 56 Kan. 287. 

(384) 



GAGLIARDO: WAGE LEGISLATION IN KANSAS 385 

Wage preference laws, although coming later than lien laws, are 
also quite common. There are two different types. One is based 
on the "danger-flag" theory "that if a debtor allow the law to take 
hold of some of his property by any kind of process, it is a sign of 
financial distress, and laborers may immediately come in and secure 
their wages." 6 The other type applies only "to general receiver- 
ships in cases of insolvency, and not to supervenient receiverships 
for limited or special purposes only." 7 The Kansas act is of the 
second type. 8 It provides that in case of insolvency, wages due em- 
ployees other than officers accruing within six months immediately 
preceding the appointment of a receiver or the assignment of prop- 
erty shall be paid from the first moneys coming into the hands of 
the receiver or assignee. The act has involved some litigation, but 
its constitutionality has never been questioned. 9 

The usual law of garnishment prevails in Kansas. But wages for 
a period of three months preceding an order cannot be garnisheed 
if they are necessary for the use of the debtor's family, except in 
the amount of ten percent plus court costs not to exceed four dol- 
lars; and if any debtor is prevented from working for more than 
two weeks because of illness of himself or of a member of his family, 
none of his wages may be attached for two months after recovery. 10 
No earnings of a debtor who is not the head of a family dependent 
wholly or in part upon him for support are exempt. If a debt is 
assigned or given for collection to an agency, then neither the as- 
signor nor the assignee has the benefit of this act. Wages earned 
and payable outside the state are exempt from attachment or gar- 
nishment in all cases where the cause of action arises out of the 
state, unless the debtor is personally served with process. 11 

SMALL DEBTORS' COURTS 

The cost of employing an attorney is an effective barrier to the 
collection of unpaid wages and of most small debts by legal action. 
It was to solve this problem that Kansas enacted in 1913 a small 
debtors' court law. 12 Under the provisions of that law, county or 

6. Acme Foundry & Machine Co. v. Wampler, 124 Kan. 486, 489, 490. 

7. Ibid., p. 491. 

8. Laws, Kansas, 1901, ch. 229; Acme Foundry & Machine Co. v. Wampler, 124 
Kan. 486. 

9. Geppelt v. Stone Co., 90 Kan. 639; Acme Foundry & Machine Co. v. Wampler, 
124 Kan. 486. 

10. Laws, Kansas, 1886, ch. Ill; ibid., 1889, ch. 268; ibid.. 1909, ch. 182, p. 
ibid., 1918, ch. 232. 

11. Ibid., 1905, ch. 628. 

12. Ibid., 1918, ch. 170. 

251232 



386 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

city authorities are empowered to establish small debtors' courts 
to collect sums for wages, work or labor, and other debts, not ex- 
ceeding twenty dollars in amount. Any court so organized is under 
the jurisdiction of a judge, who serves without pay for a term of 
office not to exceed four years. Only those who prove themselves 
financially unable to employ an attorney are authorized to use these 
courts. Indeed, lawyers are not permitted to "intermeddle in any 
manner whatsoever" with litigation of this sort. No costs are as- 
sessed or charged to either party. It is not necessary to summon 
witnesses, but the judge may informally consult witnesses and other- 
wise investigate the controversy. Judgment is conclusive upon the 
plaintiff; the defendant may appeal to the district court. 

The Kansas small debtors' court law was one of the first of its 
kind in the United States, being preceded only by that of Cleveland, 
Ohio. 13 It was, however, developed quite independently of the 
Cleveland act. Kansas therefore ranks as a pioneer in the develop- 
ment of this form of legislation. And in this connection a miscon- 
ception regarding the nature of the courts set up under the Kansas 
law should be corrected. The two authors of the most compre- 
hensive work on American labor legislation say that Kansas debtors' 
courts are "nothing more than conciliation" bodies. 14 That is not 
true. Small debtors may sue in such courts and if the judgment is 
against the defendant the latter must pay or appeal to the district 
court. Judgment against the plaintiff, as said above, however, is 
conclusive. 

There would seem to be no doubt that small debtors' courts can 
perform a useful function in the judicial system, especially in the 
industrial sections of the state. Unfortunately very few of our 
communities have availed themselves of the provisions of the law. 
The commissioner of labor reported in 1930 that only a few of the 
courts existed, and that the effectiveness of these was diminished by 
the $20 limit. 15 Consequently many requests for assistance in col- 
lecting wages continue to be made to the labor commissioner, who, 
although without legal authority, by using his good offices continues 
to render valuable assistance. 16 

13. Commons and Andrews, op. cit., p. 95. 

14. Ibid. 

15. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor and Industry (Labor Department), 
1950, p. 26. 

16. In 1929, fifty-five claims were submitted to the commissioner and twenty-three 
settled. A total of $513.44 was collected, or an average of $22.32 per claim. In 1930, 
seventy-eight claims were submitted and $922.82 collected. Ibid., 1929, p. 13; ibid., 
1930, p. 26. 



GAGLIARDO: WAGE LEGISLATION IN KANSAS 387 

TIME OF PAYMENT 

It has been said that for many years one of the most persistent 
demands made by the workingmen of this state was "for the en- 
actment of a law requiring corporations to pay their employees 
weekly." 17 Weekly payment of wages was not uncommon at the 
time the demand was most persistently voiced. In an investigation 
covering more than 21,000 wage earners it was found that as early 
as 1888 over seventy percent of the employees in manufacturing 
and industrial establishments, over sixty-five percent of the pack- 
ing house workers, and many of the stove foundry and machine 
shop workers were being paid weekly. 18 Railroad and mine workers, 
however, were generally paid but once monthly the wages earned 
in one month would be paid on the fifteenth or twentieth of the 
month following. That entailed hardship upon a large number of 
workers. 19 

After considerable agitation and repeated attempts, 20 an act was 
finally passed in 1893 which required all private corporations ex- 
cept steam surface railways and corporations producing farm and 
dairy products to pay not later than Friday of each week all wages 
earned during the preceding week. 21 In case of violation, the worker 
was allowed to recover his wages plus damages equal to five per- 
cent per month of the wages due for not to exceed six months. The 
provisions of the act could not legally be waived by the worker. A 
corporation contracting out its work was made responsible as pro- 
vided by the law for the payment of wages to the contractor's em- 
ployees. Workers entering or maintaining a lawsuit for recovery of 
wages, if successful, were entitled to a reasonable attorney's fee. 
Another act, passed in 1915, required all private corporations to 
pay wages as often as semimonthly. 22 That act was designed to 
apply to steam surface railways and farm and dairy corporations, 
which were not included in the act of 1893. When the general 
statutes were revised in 1923, the two acts were combined. The 
law of 1915 was repealed and the original law of 1893 was changed 

17. Kansas Bureau of Labor, Third Annual Report, 1887, p. 320. 

18. Ibid., Fourth Annual Report, 1888, p. 17. 

19. "The worst curse we have is this pay by the month. Pay-day is on the 20th of 
each month, for work done in the preceding month, thus keeping back twenty days' pay." 
Miner's comment, in ibid., First Annual Report, 1885, p. 135. 

20. For example, a bill requiring corporations to pay weekly in lawful money, making 
all earnings due and payable immediately on discharge, and providing penalties, but not to 
apply to workers receiving an average per diem exceeding $1.50, except miners, was introduced 
in the 1887 legislature. It passed the house by a substantial majority, but the senate did 
not get to it. Ibid., Third Annual Report, pp. 322, 323. 

21. Laws, Kansas, 1893, ch. 187. 

22. Ibid., 1915, ch. 165. 



388 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

to read that steam surface railway and farm and dairy corporations 
must pay wages at least semimonthly, while all other private cor- 
porations must pay weekly. 23 

The problem of requiring payment in full, on dismissal, of all 
wages earned has also been dealt with. The weekly pay law of 
1893 provided that the wages of discharged employees of all private 
corporations were payable under the same conditions as laid down 
in that act for the regular payment of wages. Nothing further was 
done until 1911, when a separate and independent act was passed 
which required all corporations to pay, within ten days from the 
termination of his services, the wages of any employee who quit 
or who was discharged. 24 Payment was to be made at the place of 
discharge or at any of the corporation's offices in the state desig- 
nated by the worker. In case of violation, the worker was allowed 
to recover as damages wages at the same rate until complete settle- 
ment for a maximum of sixty days unless action for recovery had 
been commenced within that time. A further step was taken in 
1919 when the discharge provision of the act of 1893 was amended 
in detail. 25 Wages of a discharged employee were made payable on 
the day of discharge, and for failure to pay within twenty-four hours 
after a written demand the employer was penalized by giving the 
worker a right to collect by court procedure his regular wages until 
full payment of the original wages due was made. It should be 
noted that the penalty was in addition to the original one of five 
percent per month for six months. 

The act of 1893 requiring weekly payment of wages was declared 
void. An attack was first made upon the section allowing an at- 
torney's fee, and the section was declared unconstitutional on the 
ground that the exception of steam and surface railways and farm 
and dairy corporations constituted discriminatory classification and 
consequently violated the equal protection clause of the federal con- 
stitution. 26 That decision foreshadowed the ultimate fate of the 
act. A broadside attack on the law was made in the Livingston 
case in 1923. 27 In that case it was held that the entire act violated 
the federal constitution by excepting steam railroads, farm and 
dairy corporations. We have already noted that the law of 1915 
which required all private corporations to pay wages at least semi- 

28. Ibid., 1923, ch. 144; Revised Statutes, Kansas, 1923, sec. 44-301, p. 687. 

24. Laws, Kansas, 1911, ch. 219. 

25. Ibid., 1919, ch. 221. 

26. Anderson v. Oil Co., 106 Kan. 483. 

27. Livingston v. Oil Co., 118 Kan. 702. 



GAGLIARDO: WAGE LEGISLATION IN KANSAS 

monthly was repealed when the general statutes were revised in 
1923. The Livingston decision therefore left Kansas without any 
law regulating time of payment. The deficiency was remedied in 
1931 when a law requiring all private corporations to pay at least 
twice monthly was enacted. 28 

The discharge provision of the law of 1893, as amended in 1919, 
was also declared unconstitutional on the ground of discriminatory 
classification. 29 Furthermore, the additional penalty of daily wages 
until settlement, was held by the court to be not punitive damages, 
but a fine, and as such had, according to the state constitution, to 
go into the school fund and not to the worker. 30 Again, the court 
found that the amended act applied to any "firm or person," but 
that its title did not indicate the fact and the act therefore violated 
the provision of the state constitution requiring the title of an act 
to indicate every subject therein. 

The state supreme court found the act of 1911, which requires all 
private corporations to pay employees leaving their services within 
ten days, constitutional. 31 The penalty provided in that act daily 
wages until settlement, but not to exceed sixty days unless action 
for recovery has started was considered to be essentially compen- 
satory. In justification of its decision upholding the discharge pro- 
vision of this act, the court said: 

It is a private wrong to turn off a workman without his pay. It is partic- 
ularly a grievous thing for a corporation to do so. A corporation is an in- 
tangible entity, with many officials and functionaries. A laborer is oft-timee 
mystified in attempting to deal with its numerous responsible heads. He may 
go from superintendent to manager and from manager to president, if these 
can be reached, only to be put off or sent on tedious or fruitless journeys to 
see other functionaries of the corporation before he can get his pay. With an 
individual employer, the ordinary case is different. The latter, with whom 
the contract of employment was made, is the individual who discharges the 
employee, and so is ordinarily at hand or readily accessible to pay when the 
employee is discharged, and if the laborer's wages are not forthcoming with 
his discharge, the employee knows at once that he must invoke the aid of the 
law to collect his due. 32 

2. Laws, Kansas, 1931, ch. 215. 

29. Livingston v. Oil Co., 118 Kan. 702. 

30. State constitution, Art. 6, sec. 6. 

31. Laws, Kansas, 1911, ch. 219; Livingston v. Oil Co., 113 Ron. 702. 

32. Livingston v. Oil Co., 113 Kan. 702, 707. Interest at the rate of six percent per 
annum is made payable by law for "monthly employees, from and after the end of each 
month, unless the same shall be paid within fifteen days thereafter." Laws, Kansas, 1889, 
ch. 164, sec. 1. The rate had been seven percent. General Statutes, Kansas, 1868, ch. 51. 



390 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

BASIS OF PAYMENT 

The two basic units used in computing wage payments are piece 
rates and time rates. Legislation affecting the use of both has been 
enacted in Kansas. The regulation of wages by the industrial 
court is too extensive to be discussed in this study, and the law re- 
quiring the "prevailing" rate of wages on public work is more prop- 
erly discussed in connection with legislation regulating hours of 
labor. However, it is possible to discuss here the Kansas laws af- 
fecting piece rates. 

One of the most persistent demands made by the coal miners of 
Kansas was for a law requiring that coal be weighed before being 
screened. 33 In the 1880's dissatisfaction with the practice of screen- 
ing coal before weighing it was so widespread and the discussion 
and agitation so considerable that a joint meeting of the miners 
and operators of Cherokee and Crawford counties the principal 
coal mining counties of the state was held. At that meeting it 
was agreed that a uniform screen in two possible sizes, with an area 
not to exceed eighty-four superficial feet and with openings not to 
exceed seven-eighths of an inch would be used in screening coal 
before weighing it. 34 This quieted matters for some time. It is said, 
however, that the operators did not adhere to their agreement, and 
dissatisfaction again developed. 35 Numerous complaints were made 
that some operators were crushing the coal before it was screened, 
that others were using screens of larger dimensions than those agreed 
upon, and that still others were using larger screen openings. In the 
early 1890's the demand for an antiscreen law was practically unan- 
imous on the part of the miners. Many meetings, conventions and 
demonstrations were held, and many petitions sent to the legisla- 
ture. 36 Indeed, for years every legislative representative elected 
from the mining districts was instructed to try to secure a mine-run 
law, and miners kept paid lobbyists in Topeka to further their 
cause. 37 It was not unusual, however, for successful candidates to 
make absolutely no attempt to secure the enactment of this legis- 
lation. 

33. Kansas Bureau of Labor, Third Annual Report, p. 320. The advantages claimed 
for a law of this kind were that it would eliminate much of the friction caused by badly 
regulated and dilapidated screens, and would benefit the miners financially. As one miner 
put it: "If we had our coal weighed before it is screened, it would be a large item in our 
pockets." Ibid., First Annual Report, p. 136. 

34. Inspector of Coal Mines, Kansas, Twelfth Annual Report, 1899, p. 142. 

35. Ibid. 

36. Ibid., p. 143. 

37. Ibid., 1893, p. 119. 



GAGLIARDO: WAGE LEGISLATION IN KANSAS 391 

Finally, in 1893, a screen law was enacted. 38 It was made un- 
lawful to screen any valuable part of the coal of miners employed 
at quantity rates before weighing it and crediting this weight to the 
employees concerned. 39 Miners were empowered to employ at their 
own expense a check weighman, who was to have the same rights 
of weighing coal as the regular weighman, who was to take the same 
oath "to do justice between employer and employee" and to be 
subject to the same penalty for its violation. Penalties were pro- 
vided for using fraudulent scales or fraudulent devices. Any agree- 
ment to waive, modify or annul the provisions of the act was de- 
clared to be null and void. 40 

At first the operators opposed the bill. Later they offered an 
amendment to make it effective three months before the date set in 
the act. After its passage, they posted prices for mine-run coal, 
effective four months before the law became effective. The summer 
price was to be forty-seven cents and the winter price fifty-three 
cents per ton. 41 The miners claimed that the prices were too low, 
and would reduce their earnings. A general meeting of miners was 
called, and it was agreed that if the rates were enforced a strike 
would be called. That led to a meeting of miners' and operators' 
representatives, but no agreement was reached. The rates were en- 
forced, and the strike of 1893 was precipitated. A compromise was 
effected shortly afterwards, resulting in a settlement. But a demand 
was made that the workers sign "yellow-dog" contracts. That caused 
further trouble, until the operators finally withdrew their demand. 42 

Many operators completely ignored the law. Injunctions and 
prosecutions finally placed the act before district courts. In some 
it was declared to be unconstitutional on the ground that it deprived 
citizens of the freedom of contract. 43 The district court judge of 

38. Laws, Kansas, 1893, ch. 188. 

39. It should be noted that contracts for the payment of wages based on the quantity 
of screened coal produced were not prohibited. See State v. Wilson, 61 Kan. 32. 

40. A bill, identical in language with this act, except that the section providing penalties 
for fraudulent scales and weighing included the words, "proceedings to be instituted in any 
court of competent jurisdiction," was introduced in the 1887 legislature House bill 351. This 
bill, followed rather closely the Missouri law, and was prepared by the labor committee 
of the house. It passed the house, sixty-six to twenty-three, with thirty-six absent or not 
voting. The senate committee recommended its reference to the committee of the whole and 
suggested that it be passed. A petition signed by 196 citizens of Cherokee county was pre- 
sented in the senate. An attempt was made to have the bill advanced on the calendar to 
third reading, but this failed and the bill was not reached on the regular calendar. Kansas 
Bureau of Labor, Third Annual Report, p. 320. 

41. Mine inspector, Twelfth Annual Report, 1899, p. 144. 

42. Ibid., Sixth Annual Report, 1893, pp. 121-127. 

43. The State y. A. B. Kirkwood, in the district court of Crawford county; The State 
v. David Mackie, in the district court of Cherokee county. The opinion in the latter case 
will be found in the mine inspector's Report for 1895, pp. 139-149. The former case was 
appealed to the state supreme court, but was never argued. 



392 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Crawford county, W. L. Simons, however, upheld the law as a valid 
exercise of the police power. That case was carried to the Kansas 
court of appeals. There it was argued that the act violated section 
one of the Kansas Bill of Rights, which states that "all men are 
possessed of equal and inalienable natural rights, among which are 
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," and that it violated the 
due process and equal protection clauses of the federal constitu- 
tion. 44 But the act was upheld as a valid exercise of the police 
power. 

Appeal was taken to the state supreme court. 45 The arguments 
advanced against the validity of the act were the same as in the 
lower court. The supreme court also upheld the act as a valid ex- 
ercise of the police power. The act, it held, did not interfere at all 
with the right of contract, even to contracting for payment of wages 
on the basis of screened coal. And the court found it useful in sev- 
eral ways: both miners and operators would have information as 
a basis for bargaining; deception and fraud would be rendered im- 
possible; and data on the coal production of the state would be use- 
ful to the public. One justice dissented, holding that the act was 
intended by the legislature to regulate the wages of miners, and 
as such was unconstitutional. 

It was nevertheless some time after this decision before all mining 
companies weighed coal before screening it. The mine inspector 
was forced to take drastic action to compel some operators to in- 
stall scales for this purpose. Some companies continued for a while 
to pay on a screen basis. 46 By the end of 1900, however, the mine- 
run basis of payment had been universally accepted. 47 

Two other related matters should be taken up at this point. The 
first concerns the testing of scales. There has always been a strong 
feeling among miners that the scales will, whenever possible, be 
"doctored" in favor of the operator. To guard against any tamper- 
ing with the scales, the miners long sought to have the mine in- 
spector made an official scale inspector and tester. A bill was in- 
troduced in the legislature of 1899 to make the mine inspector ex- 
officio inspector of weights and measures, but it failed of passage. 
In 1903, the mine inspector was made ex-officio inspector of weights, 
measures and scales used at coal mines, and was required to test 

44. Mine inspector, Report, 1899, pp. 144, 149 ff; State v. Wilson, 7 K. A. 428. 

46. State v. Wilson, 61 Kan. 32. 

46. Mine inspector, Report, 1899, p. 147. 

47. Ibid., 1900, pp. 66-69. 



GAGLIARDO: WAGE LEGISLATION IN KANSAS 393 

scales once every six months, and authorized to do so oftener. 48 The 
other matter relates to the numbers placed by miners on the cars 
they load with coal as a means of identification. It is unlawful to 
"change, exchange, substitute, alter or remove" any such "check 
number" with the intent to cheat or defraud, or to place any number 
upon any other miner's loaded car with the same intent. 49 

The industrial welfare commission never established piece rates. 
Two special provisions inserted in the factory and laundry decrees 
of 1922 by the industrial court, however, should be noted here. It 
was provided in the factory decree that the earnings of workers on 
piece rates were to be not less than the minimum weekly wage es- 
tablished for that class of workers, and in the laundry decree that 
workers not employed full time should be paid the full minimum 
wage, provided in each case that the worker accepted all work or 
time offered and was subject to the employer's call at least five days 
each week. 

MEDIUM OF PAYMENT 

Several attempts to regulate the medium of wage payment were 
made by the Kansas legislature. The demand for such legislation 
came largely from the coal mining regions, where many of the 
miners were at one time compelled to trade at so-called "pluck 
me" company stores. A special investigator sent into mining 
communities in 1886 by the state labor commissioner reported that 
the system of paying wages in scrip during the interval between 
pay days had grown to such proportions in Cherokee and Crawford 
counties "that a large majority of the population, business and 
working men alike in fact nearly every person, except those di- 
rectly benefited demand that some means be taken to abolish the 
evil." 50 

Miners, it was said, received in cash somewhat more than half 
of their earnings, the remainder being drawn in the form of scrip 
and generally spent in the company store. 51 Some reports place 

48. Laws, Kansas, 1903, ch. 544. The following complaint is illuminating : Scale testing 
"is one of the most onerous and distasteful of the duties of the mine inspection department. 
No less than four hundred sets of scales have been tested by the inspectors during the past 
year. In only a very few instances have any of these scales been found incorrect. Hauling 
test weights from one mine to another, sometimes under very unfavorable road conditions, 
and then to find the scales absolutely correct when you test them, and later on to be called 
back to the same mine within ten days, and in some instances sooner, to make another test, 
and again to find the scales weighing correctly; in short, to be hounded from post to pillar 
by everyone concerned in the scales, at all the different mines, is among the joys of this 
particular end of the mine inspector's duties in this state." Mine inspector, Report, 1913- 
1914, pp. 10, 11. 

49. Laws, Kansas, 1905, ch. 214. 

50. Kansas Bureau of Labor, Second Annual Report, 1886, p. 200. Two facsimiles of 
scrip are reproduced on page 204 of this report. 

51. For a detailed but limited analysis of this, see ibid., 1892, pp. 31-67. 



394 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the percentage of wages paid in scrip as high as 72. 52 An example 
of one method of compelling miners to "draw" scrip was given by 
an ex-mine foreman. "The first of each month the mine foreman 
is given a list of employees classed into groups, 'good/ 'fair/ and 
'bad/ with regard to their custom of drawing scrip during the month, 
and if he is a wise foreman he sees to it that the miner marked 
'bad/ and drawing the smallest amount of scrip during the month, 
is punished for his negligence . . ." 53 Perhaps that example 
was not typical of conditions as they existed in Kansas coal mining 
camps at that time, but it does reveal a kind of pressure that was 
not infrequently brought to bear in many primitive mining com- 
munities. 54 

When scrip was used to purchase goods in the company store, it 
passed at face value. Frequently, however, the miner wanted cash 
for other purposes. To secure this cash before the regular pay day, 
it was customary to draw scrip and to sell it at a discount to any- 
one willing to purchase it. The camp saloon keeper usually per- 
formed the service, and that constituted another serious evil of the 
system. Estimates of the discount on scrip vary from five to thirty- 
five percent. 55 Complaint was universally made that the practice 
appreciably increased the miner's cost of living, the argument being 
that miners were compelled to pay higher prices at the company 
store or take a heavy discount on their scrip. 

Legislation designed to remedy the situation was soon adopted. 
An act of 1887 made it unlawful to give in payment of wages, di- 
rectly or indirectly, any scrip, token, check, draft, order, or other 
evidence of indebtedness, payable otherwise than at the date of issue 
and in lawful money. 56 The prohibition extended also to advances 
of wages earned but not yet due. To check the abuses involved in 
compulsory trading at company stores, it was made unlawful for 
employers to compel their employees to trade at any particular 
place of business. Violation was punishable by fine or imprison- 
ment. Apparently the legislature was not willing to uproot com- 
pletely the entire system, for it provided that any person could, at 

52. Ibid., 1897, p. 318. 

53. Ibid., p. 317. 

54. A recent case is reported from Harlan county, Kentucky. A coal operator there re- 
ported that the practice of issuing scrip is widespread. "Asked whether there was any com- 
pulsion to make the miners trade at his stores, Mr. Bradley said : 'Well, I just told my 
miners, "Now boys, if you don't want to trade with me you can move along." ' When 
asked about the prices charged in his stores as compared with ordinary stores, he is said 
to have replied: "Of course my prices are a little higher." J. C. Byars, Jr., "Harlan 
County: Act of God?" in The Nation, v. 134, No. 3493 (June 15, 1932), p. 673. 

55. Kansas Bureau of Labor, Thirteenth Annual Report, 1897, p. 318. 

56. Laws, Kansas, 1887, ch. 171. 



GAGLIAEDO: WAGE LEGISLATION IN KANSAS 395 

the solicitation of an employee, give orders on any business house, 
provided he himself was not directly or indirectly interested in the 
business. And contracts between farmers and their employees were 
excepted from the provisions of the act. Ten years later this act 
was amended. It was made to apply only to corporations or trusts 
that employed ten or more persons. 57 The provision allowing em- 
ployers to give orders on a business house in which they were not 
interested, at the employee's request, and that excepting contracts 
between farmers and their workers were dropped. 

Almost immediately the constitutionality of the amended act was 
challenged. A mining company was convicted in the district court 
for giving a "punch-check" for wages earned but not yet due and 
payable. 58 The case was taken to the court of appeals, and there 
the constitutionality of the act was affirmed. 59 It was held by the 
court of appeals that the act applied only to corporations, and the 
decision holding the act constitutional was made to rest on the right 
of the legislature to amend corporate charters. The section regard- 
ing coercing employees to trade at particular stores, however, was 
held invalid on the ground that it was not within the scope of the 
act as indicated by its title. One judge dissented, holding that the 
title of the act was narrower than the text and that therefore the 
entire act was in violation of the state constitution. 

An appeal was taken to the state supreme court. There the de- 
cision of the court of appeals was reversed, and the entire act was 
declared unconstitutional. 60 Many defects in the act were found by 
the state supreme court. The title contained not even a hint that 
corporate charters were affected, and that was required by the state 
constitution. The act applied not only to corporations, but also to 
trusts, and a trust might be composed of persons or firms associated 
together and might or might not be incorporated. Thus the main 
contention of the lower court was rejected. Furthermore, the court 
did not hesitate to say that the act violated the fourteenth amend- 
ment to the federal constitution, for the provision limiting the act 
to corporations or trusts that employ ten or more workers was dis- 
criminatory classification and thus denied the equal protection of 

57. Ibid., 1897, ch. 145. 

58. The following copy of this "punch-check" is taken from State v. Haun, 61 Kan. 
146, 148: 

$2.00 Fuller, Kansas, 9-22-1897 

Kansas Commercial Coal Company: Please accept this as an order for 
store merchandise to the amount of two dollars, and charge the same to my 
account. Not transferable. E. P. GRAVES. 

59. State v. Haun, 7 K. A. 509. 

60. State v. Haun, 61 Kan. 146. 



396 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the laws. It was " class legislation of the most pronounced char- 
acter." 61 The act was regarded not only as bad law, but also as 
bad economics. Such legislation 

treats the laborer as a ward of the government, and discourages the employ- 
ment of those talents which lead to success in the fields of commercial enter- 
prise. . . . Those who seek to put a protector over labor reflect upon the 
dignity and independence of the wage-earner, and deceive him by the promise 
that legislation can cure all the ills of which he may complain. Such legis- 
lation suggests the handiwork of the politician, rather than of the political 
economist. 62 

The chief justice dissented. It was his contention that the act 
amended corporate charters, and that its title need not state the 
fact in so many words. "The doctrine of the majority of the court 
reduced to a finality," he said, "is that . . . corporations are 
not required to take notice of the general body of the statute 
law. . . ." 63 And admitting for the sake of argument that the 
legislature did not have the right to impose the regulations on in- 
dividuals, partnerships and trusts, it had the right as to corpora- 
tions, and that part of the act could be segregated from the rest. 
Furthermore, the chief justice held that limiting the act to corpora- 
tions or trusts employing ten or more persons was not discrimina- 
tory classification. 64 

Thus the first attempt to compel the payment of wages in lawful 
money proved to be unsuccessful. A second attempt was made in 
1899. 65 The new act extended not only to corporations and trusts, 
but also to any person or firm, and required that time-checks, due 
bills, orders, etc., issued in payment of wages, be payable in lawful 
money, not at the date of issue as did the previous law, but fifteen 
days after date, and then only at the option of the holder. Punitive 
damages of double the amount involved plus a reasonable attorney's 
fee were made recoverable by the worker. This act was superseded 
by one of 1917, which makes undated due bills, scrip, etc., payable 
at the holder's option in lawful money, and dated due bills payable 
not more than fifteen days after date of issue. 66 Punitive dam- 
ages and attorney's fee are no longer recoverable. 

The constitutionality of the act of 1899, and the modification of 
1917, has not been questioned in the courts. The decision which in- 

61. Ibid., pp. 154, 155. 

62. Ibid., p. 159. 

63. Ibid., pp. 164-170. 

64. Ibid., pp. 170-178. 

65. Laws, Kansas, 1899, ch. 152. 

66. Ibid., 1917, ch. 229. 



GAGLIARDO: WAGE LEGISLATION IN KANSAS 397 

validated the previous act was one of the last cases of the century 
in this country in which antiscrip legislation was held to be in vio- 
lation of the principle of freedom of contract. In Kansas the con- 
stitutional philosophy of the judges of the supreme court, insofar 
as labor legislation is concerned, appears to have changed consider- 
ably in the past thirty years. Indeed, since the date of the decision 
discussed above, the U. S. supreme court has upheld the constitu- 
tionality of an antiscrip law. 67 It would therefore appear that the 
constitutionality of the Kansas act would be upheld by the courts. 
The abuses against which the legislation was directed have disap- 
peared. 

It may be well to take up at this point a related problem. In the 
coal mining regions of southeast Kansas regular pay days come 
twice monthly. It has long been customary, however, for miners 
to draw on their earnings between pay days. For this privilege 
the companies have as a rule discounted the cash drawn by ten per- 
cent. Assuming that the average length of time for which these 
earnings were advanced was one week, the discount amounted to 
520 percent per annum. 

The court of industrial relations discovered this practice in an 
investigation of the coal industry made in 1920 and 1921. Recog- 
nizing that some expense was involved in extending the privilege, 
still the court thought the discount too high. It therefore ordered 
the following practice. A minimum charge of twenty-five cents was 
allowed, to cover the expense of making and recording the payments. 
Where sums drawn exceeded a nominal amount, "like ten or fifteen 
dollars," a maximum of two percent could be added to the minimum 
charge. Expressed in terms of rates, the maximum was raised from 
570 to 1,700 percent, and the minimum lowered from 570 to ap- 
proximately 150 percent on large advances. The court realized 
that this arrangement involved a high discount, but thought it 
would tend to have a beneficial effect in discouraging workers "from 
drawing between pay days," which it considered as being "not a 
frugal, prudent way to do," but necessary in certain circum- 
stances. 68 Since it was customary for miners to draw small sums 
for odd purposes, the practical effect of the order was to deprive 
them of the privilege by making the cost prohibitive. Some com- 
panies altogether discontinued the practice of making advances in 
cash after the order. 

67. Knoxville Iron Co. v. Harbison, 183 U. S. 18. 

68. "Orders of Court of Industrial Relations," Docket No. (3253) 1, pp. 1A and IB, MS. 



398 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

CONCLUSION 

The problems of time, basis and medium of wage payments have 
been solved reasonably satisfactorily in Kansas. Improvements in 
detail could, of course, be made, and some of the detail is important. 
For example, wage preference laws are of little use when a bank- 
rupt employer's assets are negligible. The principal wage problems 
now confronting Kansas are different in character and more com- 
plex than those herein discussed. But legislation extending pref- 
erences and safeguards to wages will continue to be of basic im- 
portance. 



Bypaths of Kansas History 

STEAMBOATING DOWN THE KANSAS RIVER 

From The Kansas Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, June 2, 1855. 

Having a day of leisure, and finding the Emma Harmon at our Levee last 
Monday morning advertised for Kansas City, Mo., we jumped on board as 
she was leaving her moorings at eight o'clock in the morning, and in a mo- 
ment after found ourself, with several friends, gliding at a rapid rate down 
the Kansas river. Immediately after leaving Lawrence we found both banks 
of the river densely wooded, presenting a lovely appearance, such as the 
mind naturally infers to be peculiar to rivers of the tropics. 

The banks of the river we found to be high, and the bed of the same uni- 
form width the entire distance. One peculiarity of the tributaries was, that 
at their confluence with the Kansas their mouths were very narrow, and said 
to be quite deep. Not a foot of low, marshy ground is seen along the river. 
The current sweeps on at the rate of five or six miles an hour, and presents 
a darkish mud color, contrasting quite forcibly with the clayey appearance of 
the Missouri. This difference in the shade of colors between the two rivers 
is so great that on passing out of the mouth of the Kansas into the Missouri 
it seems as if a bed of clay was spread out before us, and we observed that 
this distinguishing difference was preserved in the Missouri down to Kansas 
City; the waters of Kansas river retaining the southern shore, and preserving 
its darkish hue the entire distance, it being near two miles. 

The steamer rounded to about eight miles below Lawrence, and tied up to 
the tree, while the crew loaded on from the shore some ten cords of wood, 
which the Delaware Indians had cut and piled up there for sale. We were 
happy to observe that the vices of the whites had not corrupted them in one 
respect, and that in relation to measure. They had marked off by stakes the 
number of cords they claimed, and in every instance had given more than 
full measure. Capt. Wing concluded that the Delawares were strictly honest, 
and hence took the whole pile. Casting loose again after a detention of one 
and a half hours we passed the mouth of the Wakarusa on our right, and 
immediately below it a beautiful town site, with a high bluff, and a rocky 
shore, so straight and nicely formed it seemed as if art had been there with 
her implements and trimmed the whole to her taste. As soon as the lands at 
this point are in a position that titles can be acquired they will be selected 
for a town site by some enterprising capitalist. 

A few miles farther on, probably fifteen below Lawrence, on the north 
side, there is another lovely prospect for a town ; we believe the most enchant- 
ing we ever saw. The bank is about fifty feet high, gradually sloping back 
to an altitude of some seventy-five feet. The shore, like the point at Waka- 
rusa, is straight and resembles a well built wharf in many of the prosperous 
places on the Eastern canals, with the exception that the elevation above the 
rocky shore is more precipitous, and better adapted for a town site. The 
earth was decked with a luxuriant garb of wild grass, and a grove of native 
trees decorated the landscape, and made the whole truly enchanting. If the 

(399) 



400 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

river shall remain navigable until the fourth of July next, we propose a picnic 
party to this lovely place, now the property of the Delawares, and the future 
site of the most important point between Lawrence and the mouth of the 
Kansas river. 

Some forty miles below here, on the south side of the river, is an Indian 
village, known as Delaware. It is also a commanding position, and when 
Yankee enterprise shall be able to gain a foothold, and commence improve- 
ments we may expect to see it more frequently alluded to in our public jour- 
nals. 

Wyandot is on the north side of the river, and located at its mouth. Since 
the title to the soil has been conveyed to the occupants in severalty by gov- 
ernment we have no doubt but enterprise will get possession, and we apprehend 
Kansas City will find in her a powerful rival. 

The Emma Harmon arrived at her landing in Kansas City at a few minutes 
past three o'clock P. M., making the trip, aside from the time consumed in 
wooding, in less than six hours. The scenery, along the river, the smiling faces, 
kind expressions, and warm hearts of the officers and crew, and the entire 
freedom from coarse and vulgar language on board the boat made this, our 
first trip down the Kansas river, one never to be forgotten. It was the first 
trip down the river this season. 

On Tuesday Captain Wing took on board about fifty passengers, and some- 
thing over a hundred tons of freight and on Wednesday evening tied up at 
our wharf, having made rather slow progress on account of the rapid current, 
and the loss of her rudder from having run into a snag the night previous. 

We take this occasion to express to the captain, clerk, and in fact the en- 
tire officers and crew, our thanks for the uniform courtesy exhibited by them 
to us, as well as all on board on both our downward and upward passage. By 
an advertisement in another place it will be seen that the Emma Harmon is 
advertised as a regular semiweekly packet between this point and Kansas 
City. We trust she will be liberally sustained, and that the proprietors will 
never have occasion to regret their acquaintance with the Kansas river. 

KANSAS AND LAWRENCE SEMIWEEKLY 

Packet Steamer Emma Harmon, J. W. Wing, Master, will leave 
Kansas City every Monday and Thursday; returning will leave Law- 
rence every Wednesday and Saturday. The public may depend upon 
this steamer being prompt and regular, also that she will continue in 
the trade for the season. Every effort will be made to give satisfac- 
tion. In consideration we solicit the patronage of shippers and pas- 
sengers. For freight or passage apply on board, or to 
June 2, 1855. 6m. HUTCHINSON, HARLOW & Co., Agt's. 



THE IOWA INDIANS Pur ON THE DOG 

From the White Cloud Kansas Chief, March 25, 1858. 

GREAT TIME AMONG THE INDIANS HEAP DOG! A grand Dog Feast came 
off among the lowas, on last Sunday. Although the Indians do not fancy dog 
meat much, yet when they wish to have an extra occasion, they feast on a 
dog. The circumstances which brought about this "love feast" were about 
as follows: 



BYPATHS OP KANSAS HISTORY 401 

On the first of the present month, the lowas made a law among them- 
selves, that if any member of the tribe drank whisky or got drunk before their 
crops were all in the ground, he should be whipped. [Mem. We would recom- 
mend this law to many of the whites. Perhaps provisions would be cheaper 
and times easier, in that event.] Now, Elisha Dorian, their interpreter, or 
'Lish, as he is commonly called, has about as good a head for whisky as any 
of his neighbors, and he thought to come a sly touch over his brethren. He 
and another red-skin took a private snifter together; but somehow their gauge 
had been set in the wrong notch, and they got too much "whisk" into them, 
and became glorious "big Injins." The tribe decided that they must be 
whipped; but 'Lish thought to come old Buck over them, and bribe them off. 
He came to town, bought a big dog, a number of sacks of flour, some sugar, 
and lots of good things, and offered the tribe a grand feast. But they refused 
to partake of his feast, and, to escape the whipping, he crossed to the other 
side of the river. But alas! the Indians are becoming almost as corrupt as 
congressmen. Negotiations commenced, the Indians agreed to accept the feast, 
and 'Lish returned from his banishment. On Sunday the feast came off, and 
'Lish's back remained sound. 

Tuesday seemed to be a grand holiday among the lowas. The whole tribe 
men, women, children, horses and dogs, were in town, and they carried home 
a very large quantity of flour. We have heard that they also obtained this 
through the bounty of 'Lish, but cannot say as to whether it was or not. But 
the occasion was an extra one, for most of the Indians (even including the 
women) had on clean clothes! A majority of the women had pappooses, 
which they carried at their backs, in their blankets, with their bare heads 
sticking out above, exposed to the hot rays of the sun. And we noticed that 
those women who had no pappooses, carried young pups at their backs, with 
their heads sticking out, in the same manner that they carry their children! 
They had quite a large number of these pups along; but what they meant by 
it, is beyond our comprehension as old Leather-Stocking would say, "the 
Indian's gifts are not our gifts." One effect of their temperance arrangement 
was plainly observable they attended to their business in short order, and 
then went home, without hanging for a whole day about the whisky shops. 

Wednesday was another flour day with the Indians, and they carried off 
"dead loads" of it. We have learned that they obtained it through the bounty 
of Mr. Roy, at the rate of four or five dollars per sack, when they get the 
money. We saw a wagon drawn by oxen, containing about half a load, and 
just behind the wagon was an old squaw, some fifty or sixty years of age, 
toddling along with a large sack of flour strapped to her back! We saw a 
number of squaws carrying sacks on their backs, while the braves rode home 
on horseback! 



BEAR HUNTING IN EASTERN KANSAS 

From the Emporia News. 

Mr. John J. Greenhalgh, of Madison Center, on the Verdigris river, about 

twenty miles south of this place, saw two young bears while on his way from 

that place to Emporia on Tuesday morning last with the mail. This is the 

first instance we have ever heard of bears anywhere in this region of country. 

261232 



402 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Mr. G. pursued the animals for some distance, but being entirely unarmed 
he was unable to capture either of them. Several times he came within five 
or six feet of the bears, when they would stop, turn on him, and throwing 
themselves upon their hind feet, evincing a desire to give him a "hug" which 
he would not soon forget. Mr. G. tried to give the people of Emporia a sur- 
prise by killing one of them and bringing it to town. He drove them half a 
mile or more in this direction, but they finally made their escape through the 
tall grass. July 13, 1861. 

We learn that Messrs. Fisher, Jonathan Wood and other citizens of Chase 
county killed a large black bear, a few days ago, on the Cottonwood, just this 
side of Cottonwood Falls. The bear was wandering through the country alone, 
and no one could tell where it came from. Some suppose it to have been an 
escaped pet from somewhere up the Cottonwood. It was first discovered 
near Mr. Fisher's residence. He got his gun and snapped the last cap at him 
he had about the premises, without getting his gun to "go off." Mr. Wood 
and other neighbors were informed, when "bruin" was soon brought down. 
October 20, 1866. 

FINIS FOR A HORSE THIEF 

From The Big Blue Union, Marysville, August 1, 1863. 

"LEFT HERE. A young man who has been stopping here for some days, 
left this place Thursday night, in the dark. A saddle and bridle, belonging 
to a soldier, left at the same time. Singular coincidence." 

This "coincidence," as mentioned in last week's Union, was the first in- 
timation the people had here that a horse thief was among them, and not 
until the Sunday following was it ascertained that a horse was stolen from 
this vicinity, at which time it was found that Judge Brumbaugh, of this place, 
was the sufferer. Knowing that the valley of the Big Blue had been the 
ground of past operations of the suspected thief, immediate preparation was 
made for pursuit, and hitching a span of horses to his buggy, the judge invited 
us to accompany him to Manhattan. The exigency demanded speed, and we 
(not editorially and singularly "we" alone, but the "we" constituting the 
judge and ourself) set sail on our Sunday mission immediately. 

THE BLUE VALLEY 

The first night was passed at John Wells', on the Vermillion, where we 
found comfortable fare and accommodations, and early Monday morning 
found us on our way down the Big Blue valley, forty-five miles of which still 
lay between us and Manhattan. The day was delightful. The aroma from 
the red cedars and wild flowers was wafted to our senses by a gentle breeze. 
The defiles of "dumpling"-shaped hills, rearing themselves like sturdy senti- 
nels each side of the Blue, ribbed and crowned at their tops by splendid speci- 
mens of limestone, as neatly arranged and divided into blocks as if done by 
the stone-cutter's hand; the ravines and abrupt cannons penetrating the bluffs, 
skirted by shrubbery and scattering forest trees; the tall cottonwood and ma- 
jestic oak watching the shining waters; the bottom lands waving with lux- 
uriant grass, improved and interspersed here and there by an opened farm 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 403 

the wheat field nicely shaven and the corn tassels waving in the wind; the 
whole spread out before us like a panorama scene, enlarging as we descended 
the stream to its mouth. The few farms which we passed were promising a 
most abundant crop. The Indian lands or "floats" are a great hindrance to 
this one of the finest valleys in the West. Every acre is capable of cultiva- 
tion, and on a trip through one frequently finds himself revolving the idea of 
what a vast population the valley is capable of sustaining when it shall have 
been improved and the "hum of busy industry" is heard its entire length. 

THE THIEF NABBED TRIAL, ETC. 

At the house of Mr. Pierce, about twelve miles north of Manhattan, and 
where we obtained our dinner, we were informed of the arrest of a notorious 
horse thief and that his examination and trial was progressing at the latter 
place. We hurried on and found the person arraigned in a citizens' court and 
before a jury of twelve, the thief sought for. His eye dropped as we entered 
the court room, and after being sworn and giving our testimony in the case 
the fellow hardly raised his head again. The case was a clear one and was 
soon decided by the jury bringing in a verdict of guilty on all of the charges. 
He was then remanded to jail to await further action, after which, at his re- 
quest, a committee was appointed to hear his confession, which consisted in 
not only acknowledging the theft in the present case but of all his operations 
extending through more than two years' time and embracing various degrees 
of crime and theft. He also implicated other parties. After the confession 
the meeting was called together according to previous adjournment, a com- 
mittee appointed to fix the sentence and when and where it should be exe- 
cuted. The committee reported hanging, and after a short time allowed the 
culprit he was taken the same night across the bridge of the Blue into Potta- 
watomie county, a short distance east from town, and there publicly executed. 

THE GALLOWS 

Consisted of a wagon drawn under a leaning willow tree from which was sus- 
pended the rope. The cord adjusted around the victim's neck, he was asked 
if he had anything he wished to say. His reply was simply "No"; and a 
little further time being occupied in the preparation, he continued, "Go 
ahead; G-d" whether the last word was the commencement of an oath or 
the imploring for mercy we could not determine, tho we thought it an ex- 
pression of impatience to be out of his misery, from which he was evidently 
suffering intensely. But the final drop came at last and the soul of Monroe 
Scranton passed from time to eternity. The night was black with dark, 
heavy clouds, the elms and willows bowed beneath a strong wind and large 
drops of rain fell, as if Heaven was closing the scene by weeping over the 
crimes of man. 

THE PROCEEDINGS 

Throughout were of the most orderly nature. The people were calm, but de- 
termined, and when Mr. Brumbaugh made a request that the thief might be 
brought back to this county to be dealt with by the people here, they replied 
that his past operations in Riley and Pottawatomie counties were sufficient 
to condemn him, and that they must make him an example before their com- 
munity. 



404 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The circumstances of the capture of the thief, the regaining of the stolen 
property and incidents connected therewith all seemed providentially ordered. 

COMING HOME 

The horse recovered, the thief hung, and all accomplished within four days 
from the time of the perpetration of the crime, we started on our way home 
rejoicing. We ret