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THE 

Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 



KIRKE MECHEM, Editor 

JAMES C. MALIN, Associate Editor 

NYLE H. MILLER, Managing Editor 



Volume X 
1941 

(Kansas Historical Collections) 

VOL. XXVII 



Published by 

The Kansas State Historical Society 

Topeka, Kansas 

19-1043 



Contents of Volume X 



Number 1 February, 1941 



PAGE 

FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS COUNTIES, 1854-1864, G. Raymond Gaeddert, 3 
THE FOURTH OF JULY IN EARLY KANSAS, 1854-1857 Cora Dolbee, 34 

THE ANNUAL MEETING: Containing Reports of the Secretary, Auditor, 
Executive and Nominating Committees; Annual Address of the 
President, BEGINNINGS OF THE KANSAS JUDICIARY, T. M. Lillard; 
Election of Officers ; List of Directors of the Society, 

Kirke Mechem, Secretary, 79 

BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 102 

KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE PRESS 105 

KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES. . . 108 



Number 2 May, 1941 



PAQB 

LETTERS OF HUGH M. MOORE, 1856-1860 115 

FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS COUNTIES (Continued), 1865-1871, 

G. Raymond Gaeddert, 124 

WALT WHITMAN IN KANSAS Robert R. Hubach, 150 

DEVELOPMENT OF COMMON AND EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY LAW IN KANSAS, 

Domenico Gagliardo, 155 

RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY: 

Compiled by Helen M. McFarland, Librarian, 175 

BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 203 

KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE PRESS 212 

KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 219 

(iii) 



Number 3 August, 1941 



PAGE 

BEGINNINGS OF WINTER WHEAT PRODUCTION IN THE UPPER KANSAS AND 
LOWER SMOKY HILL RIVER VALLEYS; A Study in Adaptation to Geo- 
graphical Environment James C. Malin, 227 

THE DIARY OF GEORGE H. HILDT, June to December, 1857 ; Pioneer of John- 
son County Edited by Martha B. Caldwell, 260 

FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS COUNTIES (Continued), 1871-1879, 

G. Raymond Gaeddert, 299 

BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 324 

KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE PRESS 331 

KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES . , . 333 



Number 4 November, 1941 

PAGE 

KANSAS HISTORICAL MARKERS 339 

LETTERS ON THE WAR IN KANSAS IN 1856 Edited by V. E. Gibbens, 369 

FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS COUNTIES (Concluded), 1879-1886, 

G. Raymond Gaeddert, 380 

BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 413 

KANSAS HISTORY AS PUBLISHED IN THE PRESS 419 

KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 427 

ERRATA IN VOLUME X 430 

INDEX TO VOLUME X 431 

(iv) 



THE 

Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 




Volume X Number 1 

February, 1941 



PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT 

w. c. AUSTIN, STATE PRINTER 

TOPEKA 1941 

18-7171 



Contributors 

G. RAYMOND GAEDDERT is curator of newspapers of the Kansas State His- 
torical Society. 

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

T. M. LILLARD, Topeka attorney, was president of the Kansas State Histori- 
cal Society for the year 1939-1940. 



First Newspapers in Kansas Counties 

1854-1864 
G. RAYMOND GAEDDERT 

THIS article is designed to establish proof of the first newspaper 
in each of the one hundred and five counties in the state and 
give a few salient points about it. Before it can be decided which 
paper to list as first it is necessary to consider the question: When 
is a newspaper entitled the honor to be called first in a county? In 
answering, several factors must be considered which have to do with 
the terms editor, printer, publisher, and with the service and patron- 
age of the paper. The meaning of the words editor and printer are 
generally understood. For our purpose an editor is one who edits 
the paper and writes editorials; a printer is one who works at the 
business of printing. The third term, however, is not as commonly 
understood. The words print and publish are often confused. A 
book may be printed without being published. It is published only 
when it is offered for sale or put into general circulation. It is there- 
fore apparent that a newspaper publisher is one who offers his paper 
for sale or puts it into general circulation. 

In considering the question of priority, however, it is also im- 
portant to know what community or county the paper was designed 
to serve and where its patronage was. In many cases, at least, the 
paper could not have existed any length of time without patronage 
from its community. 

For the purpose of this article, therefore, if a newspaper was the 
first published in a county, or in territory later included in the county, 
though it may have been printed elsewhere, it is considered the first 
newspaper in the county. This is because it was the first paper to 
serve the community. It gathered its news locally and distributed 
the finished product to its patrons. Certainly such a paper should 
not be disqualified because the material was printed elsewhere. 
Whenever the information is available it will be stated where the 
paper was printed. In most cases the newspapers failed to give this 
information, although they usually told where the paper was pub- 
lished. That is another reason it would be hazardous in this article 
to base priority on the place of printing. The information simply is 
not available. 

This study deals chiefly with the first newspaper in each of the 
Kansas counties and is not concerned with the pre-territory mission 

(3) 



4 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

presses. A brief discussion of them will be found in Douglas C. Mc- 
Murtrie's article entitled, "Pioneer Printing of Kansas," published 
in volume one of The Kansas Historical Quarterly. 1 

Reference is made frequently to a number of well-known second- 
ary sources on Kansas history, such as A. T. Andreas, History of 
the State of Kansas; First Biennial Report of the State Board of 
Agriculture to the Legislature of the State of Kansas, for the Years 
1877-8; Daniel W. Wilder, The Annals of Kansas. To avoid mo- 
notony of repetition, these citations are abbreviated to Andreas, 
First Biennial Report, and Wilder. 

The presentation of counties follows the chronological order in 
which their newspapers appeared. This is preferable to the alpha- 
betical arrangement because it will help the reader to follow the 
advance of the westward movement of the newspaper press, which 
in most cases corresponded with the movement of population. A 
map showing Kansas counties and the dates of their first newspapers 
will appear with another installment of this article in a later issue of 
the Quarterly. 

LEAVENWORTH COUNTY 

Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, September 15, 1854. 

The Kansas Weekly Herald was the pioneer newspaper and its 
press the pioneer newspaper press in Kansas territory. One hundred 
and eight days after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act, which 
organized this territory, William J. Osborn and William H. Adams 
published the first issue of the Herald. It was Democratic and 
Proslavery in sentiment. During its life the paper changed hands 
several times. The most influential men governing its destiny no 
doubt were William H. Adams and Lucien J. Eastin. The latter 
became editor of the paper when William J. Osborn severed his re- 
lationship with it, announced in the Herald, October 20, 1854. Mr. 
Eastin had formerly been editor of the St. Joseph (Mo.) Gazette 
before he came to Leavenworth. 

The beginning of the Herald was unique even in Kansas history. 
A most fitting and picturesque description of its inception was given 
by Capt. Henry King, one-time editor of the State Record, the 
Commonwealth and the Capital. In his annual message delivered 
before the Editorial and Publishers' Association of Kansas, Leaven- 
worth, June 13, 1877, he spoke in these words: 

The first Kansas newspaper fluttered out from among the scrub oaks and 

1. McMurtrie, Douglas C., "Pioneer Printing of Kansas," Kansas Historical Quarterly, 
v. I, pp. 3-8. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 5 

hazel brush of what was to be the future metropolis of the State. It- was some- 
thing of an anachronism, that first paper west of the Missouri. How a printing 
press chanced to be in such a place at such a time, we have never been told. 
I suppose that human nature needed it, and so it was sent here as a sort of 
special providence, for somehow what human nature needs the God of human 
nature always provides. At any rate, it was the first of our things. It came 
in even before our sins. The town-site folks found it here when they were 
staking off lots and tossing coppers for choice of building spots. It- was under 
an elm tree, down by the river, and the Indian summer sunshine gave a touch 
of gold to the printed sheets, and the absurd tympan swaying to and fro there 
in the open air. There was not a house within thirty miles, not so much as 
a cow-path for a street, not a field of plowed land, near or far in all Kansas. 
. . . The first Kansas Governor had been commissioned on the 29th of June ; 
the first pioneer party of thirty persons from Boston had reached the Wakarusa 
on the 1st of August. But here was a printing press in the very van of affairs, 
standing upon the yet untrodden weeds, and canopied by the leaves and the 
sky, waiting to catch and record the earliest whispers of history in this new 
land of promise ; and on the 15th of September the first number of the Leaven- 
worth Herald went out in search of patronage. . . . 2 

The Herald forged ahead in ardent expectations of the future and 
three months later, December 15, told its own story, exultingly, in 
these words: 

Three months have now elapsed since the Herald was first issued, and from 
that time to the present it has been constantly increasing in circulation. It 
may now be considered on a permanent basis. It was commenced under dis- 
advantageous circumstances, without a house to print in or even a subscription 
list. The first No. was set up under the shade of a large elm tree. The 
materials were then moved into the house we now occupy, which was the first 
building put up in Leavenworth. It is the pioneer press in the Territory. It 
was the first and only paper published in the Territory for about two months. 
It has acquired a character and celebrity all over the Union, of which any 
one might feel proud. . . . We have had to forego many of the pleasures 
and luxuries of life, and submit for a while to the camp life, living and 
printing out of doors, writing editorials on a shingle, and sleeping on the 
ground. But now we are comfortably situated, in a good house, with plenty 
to live on, a respectable sanctum, where our friends may visit us, and find us 
at home. . . . 

While it is generally conceded that the type for the first issue was 
set up under the elm tree, it has been questioned whether the first 
issue was printed there or in the new building. The evidence is not 
convincing. In the first issue the Herald wrote: "Our publication 
office has been removed from the Elm Tree on the Levee to our new 
building on the corner of Levee and Broadway." 3 What the editor 
meant by this statement is not clear, for the publication office is not 

2. The Kansas Editors' Annual for 1877, . . . (Topeka, 1877), pp. 9, 10. 

3. .Kansas Weekly Herald, September 15, 1854. 



6 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

necessarily the same as the printing office. Moreover, on December 
8, 1854, the Herald, in introducing a poem written as a tribute to the 
elm tree, wrote: "To the Elm Tree, at Leavenworth, under the shade 
of which, the first number of the Herald was issued." The poem of 
twenty stanzas, written by "Dique," contained these lines : 

Thy arms were kindly spread above 

The Kansas Herald press, 
No stronger evidence of love 

Could move a human breast. 
And from beneath thy shade was sent 

To every distant clime 
The sheet that first from Kansas went 

To tell the march of time. 

Whether the poem is based on fact or fiction is impossible to de- 
termine. Very likely it was written by Eastin, who was not con- 
nected with the Herald until October 20, 1854. 

The editors of the Herald capitalized on the unique picturesque- 
ness of that office under the elm. In the issue of May 10, 1856, 
Col. Lucien J. Eastin, its fiery Southern editor, announced that the 
Herald had ''just been presented with a beautiful and life-like 
Daguerreotype picture of the Elm Tree, as it stands with the build- 
ings adjoining, taken by Mr. J. W. Hutchison." From time to time 
the editor also faithfully published various tributes to the elm, al- 
though most of it, wrote Herbert Flint, was "atrocious 'poetry.' " 4 

The Kansas Weekly Herald survived until 1861. The Union List 5 
of American newspapers shows that the Library of Congress has 
scattering issues of this paper as late as August 3, 1861. The 
Society has only one issue of this paper in 1860, none in 1861, a 
broken file of 1859, but a good file of the earlier period. 

DOUGLAS COUNTY 

Kansas Pioneer, Lawrence, October 18, 1854, first 

issue published in the county. 
The Kansas Herald oj Freedom, Lawrence, January 3, 

1855, first issue printed in the county. 

The Kansas Pioneer published at Lawrence, October 18, 1854, 
although printed at Medina, Ohio, must be regarded as the first 
newspaper in Douglas county, according to the definition controll- 
ing this article. John Speer, editor of the Medina (Ohio) Gazette, 

4. Flint, Herbert, "Journalism in Territorial Kansas," v. I, p. 28. This is a master's 
thesis written in 1916. Copies of this monograph are in the Watson library, University of 
Kansas, Lawrence, and the Kansas State Historical Society. 

5. Gregory, Winifred (editor), American Newspapers, 1821-19S6, A Union List of Files 
Available in the United States and Canada (New York, 1937), p. 208. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 7 

was the editor and publisher. The first issue of The Kansas Herald 
of Freedom, published by George W. Brown, dated October 21, 1854, 
but printed September 20, 1854, preceded the Kansas Pioneer, but 
it must be disqualified in this race for priority because it was not 
published within the present confines of Douglas county. 

What were the factors that qualified the Kansas Pioneer for the 
first paper in the county and disqualified the Herald of Freedom? 
John Speer came to Kansas territory in the summer of 1854 to 
find a place to establish a newspaper. He went as far west as 
Tecumseh in search of a location, but was refused all privileges 
there by the Proslavery town proprietor, when he discovered that 
Speer's paper would fight the institution of slavery in Kansas. 
Whereupon Speer returned to the present site of Lawrence, late in 
September, 1854. There he wrote the editorials which later were 
published in the Kansas Pioneer. 6 He arranged to have the material 
printed at the office of the Kansas City (Mo.) Enterprise, but when 
Judge Story, its proprietor, discovered Speer's attitude toward slav- 
ery, he refused to fulfill the agreement. The Leavenworth Herald 
accorded him the same treatment, whereupon Speer returned to 
Medina, Ohio, issued the first number there, and hurried it back 
to Lawrence for distribution. 7 Although the author has been unable 
to verify this statement by contemporaneous reports in the Kansas 
Weekly Herald, the only Kansas newspaper published at the time, 
Speer's most bitter rival, George W. Brown, published the following 
statement in the Herald of Freedom March 14, 1857, confirming the 
essential points related above. It reads: 

Mr. John Speer, who published the Medina Gazette, at Medina, Ohio, came 
to Kansas in the fall to start a newspaper. He was here in September and 
wrote editorials which he published in the "Kansas Pioneer," issued from his 
office in Ohio, and dated Lawrence, October 18, 1854. This paper was brought 
to Lawrence and distributed. 

On arriving again in the Territory, Mr. Speer found the Kickapoo Pioneer 
under way, and for that reason concluded to change the name to Kansas 
Tribune, which was issued at Lawrence on the 10th of January, 1855. It ap- 
peared under the editorial care of J. & J. L. Speer. 

George W. Brown, on the other hand, gathered the news for the 
first number of the Herald of Freedom in the East, wrote and 
arranged the material there, printed some 20,000 copies of the first is- 

6. This paper should not be confused with the Kickapoo Pioneer, also announced as Kan- 
fas Pioneer, published by Messrs. Sexton & Hazzard at Kickapoo. It was the second paper 
printed in the territory; announced in the Leavenworth Herald, November 17, 1854. 

7. Flint, Herbert, op. cit., v. I, p. 41 ; Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 328 ; Speer, John, 
"Papers," in "Patriotism and Education in the Methodist Church," and "Douglas," MSS. in 
Kansas State Historical Society. 



8 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

sue at Conneautville, Pa., and distributed them through his agents lo- 
cated in the states of New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. 8 
The Kansas Weekly Herald, in announcing it in the issue of No- 
vember 10, 1854, wrote: This "paper bears a falsehood upon its 
face, in dating its publication at Wakarusa." Years later, Brown 
wrote Mrs. Walker, his divorced wife (the letter was dated at 
Rockford, 111., January 14, 1893), that in the fall of 1854 he had 
expected to get to Kansas in time to get out the second number 
"not to exceed the 1st of November. Instead I did not reach Kan. 
City until about the 14th of November." 9 The writer has no in- 
formation that Brown ever was in Kansas territory before this 
time. The fact that John Speer was in the present confines of 
Douglas county in the fall of 1854, gathering information, arrang- 
ing it for publication, distributing his first issue in the county, en- 
titles the Kansas Pioneer to first place in the county. 

The first paper printed in Douglas county, however, was the 
second issue of the Herald oj Freedom, although the question of 
priority is somewhat complicated. Three prospective Free-State 
newspaper plants had decided to establish offices in Lawrence. The 
third rival, besides Brown and Speer, was the firm of Robert Gas- 
ton Elliott and Josiah Miller of the Kansas Free State. The first 
issues of these three papers printed in Lawrence appeared within a 
week of each other. John Speer lost out in the race because he could 
not find a printer, his own press and type having been stranded at 
Boonville, Mo., since late November or early December, 1854. Elliott 
and Miller finally agreed to print his paper, but it was obvious that 
they would print theirs first. The Miller family cherished a tradi- 
tion that the work on the first issue of the Kansas Free State, dated 
January 3, 1855, was rushed with particular haste in order that the 
paper might be distributed on the third, the wedding anniversary 
of the Josiah Millers. It is reported that Mrs. Miller sat up all 
night on the eve of her anniversary while the paper was successfully 
made up in time to be distributed the next day. 10 George W. Brown, 
writing in March, 1857, states that the Kansas Free State was issued 
on January 10, a week later than it was dated, and that the Kan- 
sas Tribune appeared on the same day. In the same article he states 
that the second number of the Herald of Freedom made its appear- 

8. Herald of Freedom, Wakarusa, October 21, 1854. Brown was not consistent in hia 
figures. Sometimes he said he published 21,000 copies of the first issue, at other times it 
was 20,000. 

9. Brown, George W., "Papers," Kansas State Historical Society. This is a copy of an 
original letter. 

10. Flint, Herbert, op. cit., v. I, pp. 50, 51. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 9 

ance on January 3, 1855, though dated the 6th. 11 Contemporaneous 
newspaper reports substantiate Brown's claim in behalf of his own 
paper. January 20, 1855, the following appeared in the New York 

Daily Tribune: 

Correspondence of the N. Y. Tribune. 
Lawrence, Kansas Territory, January 5, 1855. 

We have already three printing establishments, and early next week three 
newspapers will be sent out to greet the country far and near. One is to be 
called The Kansas Herald of Freedom; the second number was published this 
week in this city; . . . The Kansas Free State is edited by Messrs. Miller 
and Elliott. Mr. Miller is a native of South Carolina Mr. Elliott was formerly 
a resident of Indiana. And The Kansas Tribune, edited by Mr. John 
Speer. . . . 

The Tribune and Free State have not yet made their appearance, but they 
will be out on the first of next week. . . . 

In the "Webb Scrap Books," volume II, pages 148 and 149, is an 
unidentified newspaper clipping with additional information sup- 
porting Brown's contention. It reads: 

Lawrence, K. T., Jan. 4. Messrs. Editors: 

The Herald of Freedom issued the first newspaper, printed in Lawrence, last 
evening. It is a beautiful and an interesting sheet . . . The first number 
of the Free State will be issued the fore part of next- week from this place by 
Messrs. Miller and Elliott. The Kansas Pioneer will be issued from the same 
office soon after, the Messrs. Speer having had their press and materials left 
at Glasgow, on the Missouri river, by the failure of the last boat of the season 
to get up to Kansas, Mo. . . . E. D. L. 

The Kansas State Historical Society has a complete file of the 
Herald of Freedom, an incomplete file of the first year of the Kan- 
sas Free State, including volume one, number one, but only scatter- 
ing issues of the Kansas Tribune. 

ATCHISON COUNTY 
Squatter Sovereign, Atchison, February 3, 1855. 

The Squatter Sovereign is undoubtedly the first newspaper in this 
county. Since the Society has a good file of it, including volume 
one, number one, there is no question about the date of the first 
issue. It was a town company paper, edited and published by 
Robert S. Kelley and Dr. John H. Stringfellow, both prominent 
Proslavery men. The office was located in a "little building fashioned 
from cottonwood logs . . . borne on the shoulders of Mr. Kelley." 
It was "situated on the river bank overlooking George Million's 
Ferry landing," which later became the resident property of Col. 

11. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence. March 14, 1857. 



10 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

John A. Martin, editor of the Champion. 12 The Atchison Town 
Company, September 21, 1854, had voted $400 to Kelley and 
Stringfellow to establish the office. Some time in March or April, 
1857, Kelley and Stringfellow sold the paper to a company com- 
posed of S. C. Pomeroy, Robert McBratney and Franklin G. Adams, 
who converted it into a Free-State paper. On September 12, 1857, 
the Herald of Freedom wrote: "We observe that the entire in- 
terest in the Squatter Sovereign has passed into the hands of Gen. 
S. C. Pomeroy." Soon after, O. F. Short began serving as editor. 
February 11, 1858, Pomeroy and Short sold to John A. Martin for 
$2,000. 13 Martin remained editor and publisher of the paper until 
October, 1889, when he sold out to Philip Krohn. Martin changed 
the name of the paper several times, publishing it as the Freedom's 
Champion, the Weekly Champion and the Weekly Champion and 
Press. 

Herbert Flint characterized the Squatter Sovereign as "the real 
red-blooded, murder-seeking, Abolitionist-hanging, murder-condon- 
ing, bloodthirsty Proslavery paper of all Kansas journalism," which 
soon "made its voice heard even above the shrieking din of all the 
other Proslavery papers of the Territory combined." 14 Feeling of 
great intensity often found expression in this paper. In the issue 
of March 22, 1856, the Herald of Freedom quoted the Squatter 
Sovereign as saying: "If we for a moment thought that a drop of 
Yankee blood ran through our veins, we should let it out, even 
though our life were sacrificed in so doing." 

SHAWNEE COUNTY 
Kansas Freeman, July 4, 1855. 

Edward C. K. Garvey of Milwaukee, Wis., was the editor and 
publisher of this paper. The first issue, wrote Andreas, was "printed 
on the open prairie." 15 The Society has a letter from George W. 
Brown dated October 19, 1901, stating that he "made up the forms 
for the first paper printed in Topeka, the Kansas Freeman" stopping 
there while on his way to attend the first session of the "Bogus Legis- 
lature," convening at Pawnee, July 2, 1855. The Herald of Freedom, 
July 14, 1855, announced the birth of the Kansas Freeman in these 
words: 

12. Andreas, op. cit., p. 378. 

13. See contract of O. F. Short and John A. Martin, dated February 11, 1858, in MSS. 
division, Kansas State Historical Society. 

14. Flint, Herbert, op. cit. t v. I, p. 140. 

15. Andreas, op. cit., p. 540. This statement has been questioned. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 11 

The first number of the Kansas Freeman, published at Topeka, by E. C. K. 
Garvey & Co., has made its appearance in the shape of a half sheet, with an 
apology, stating that- their large press had not arrived, and no intelligence 
could be received from it. It is possible that our Missouri neighbors took the 
initiative and consigned it to the watery element ere it commenced its mission 
in Kansas. That it was forwarded is evidenced from the arrival of several of 
the smaller parts of the press which were in boxes. 

The Society has only three issues of the weekly Kansas Freeman, 
dated November 14, 1855 (Vol. 1, No. 6), January 9 and February 
9, 1856. It was customary to run the date of the advertisements' 
first publication as long as it was carried. It has been observed 
that the oldest advertisements listed in the issue of November 14, 
1855, were dated July 4, 1855, which supports the contention of the 
First Biennial Report and Andreas that it was the date of the first 
issue of the Kansas Freeman. It also goes to prove that the paper 
was not published regularly. 

During the time of the Topeka Constitutional Convention Garvey 
also issued a daily Kansas Freeman, which published the proceedings 
of the convention. The Society has fourteen issues of this paper, 
including volume one, number one. 

The Kansas Freeman had an interesting history. The Topeka 
Town Association had been on the lookout for some time for a news- 
paperman who would publicize their speculative interests through 
the press. They were happily surprised, therefore, according to 
F. W. Giles, 16 when on the afternoon of June 5, 1855, E. C. K. 
Garvey from Milwaukee, Wis., accompanied by the ubiquitous 
George W. Brown, entered Topeka and proposed to some members 
of the town association his intentions to transfer "his family, his 
fortune, his political and business influence, his stores of merchandise 
and his extensive law library immediately to some point in the 
newly-erected Territory of Kansas." He qualified this announce- 
ment "with the expression of decided preference for Topeka, pro- 
vided a satisfactory consideration was offered." And like a skillful 
salesman, Garvey "followed this last broadside discharge upon the 
bewildered Topekans with a casual remark that he had at that very 
hour a powerful steam press in transit up the Missouri river!" With 
these words he departed, to await their decision the next day. It 
seems that Garvey was the better salesman, for on that evening in 
the little log cabin council chamber of the Topeka association 
the following resolutions were adopted: 

16. Giles, F. W., Thirty Years in Topeka^ a Historical Sketch (George W. Crane & Co., 
Publishers, Topeka, 1886), pp. 144-146. 



12 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Resolved, That we will and hereby do donate to E. C. K. Garvey, Esq., of 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, city interests Nos. 57, 58 and 59, and that any rule of 
the association inconsistent with our action in the premises be and hereby is 
suspended, so far as it may apply to our action in the present case, provided 
that Esq. Garvey establish a good and respectable weekly newspaper, without 
unnecessary delay, in Topeka, and reside or exercise his influence and identify 
his interests with us, agreeably to suggestions made by him before the associa- 
tion to-day. 

Resolved, That F. W. Giles, Amos G. Adams and Dr. S. E. Martin be a 
committee to present the foregoing resolutions to E. C. K. Garvey. 17 

Before the contract was closed, however, Garvey had asked that 
he be furnished in addition to the three city interests, "lots 11 and 12, 
in block 57, constituting what are now lots Nos. 146, 148, 150, 152, 
154 and 156 Kansas avenue"; also, that "the association should erect 
for him thereon a publishing house 18 x 24 feet and two stories high, 
for the sum of $400, payable by 200 copies of the forthcoming news- 
paper for one year." The association consented to the conditions 
except that "for the lots named it was to reserve from the lots of 
the city interests given to Mr. Garvey other lots of like value and 
with the further condition that the paper should advocate 'Free 
Kansas.' " 18 

A committee was appointed to solicit subscriptions and raise 
funds for the publishing house. When the building was finished, 
however, it refused to hold the almost "endless variety of mer- 
chandise" and household furniture that Garvey had brought with 
him. For a period of weeks the grounds of Kansas avenue south 
of Fifth street were literally "strewn with furniture, beds, bedding, 
books, carpets, clothing, medicines, boots, and numerous other com- 
modities, half hidden by the tall grass." After the publishing house 
was enlarged it was styled the "Garvey House," and soon helped 
serve other functions. The post office was kept there and for a time 
it constituted the town's political and commercial center, besides 
being the publishing house and hotel. 

DONIPHAN COUNTY 
Kansas Constitutionalist, Doniphan, May, 1856. 

Like so many of the early Kansas newspapers, the Constitutional- 
ist is almost completely buried in the dust of the turbulent past. It 
was started by Thomas J. Key, a member of the Lecompton Consti- 
tutional Convention, to promote the Proslavery cause. The time of 
its establishment is obscure and the exact date is still unknown. 

17. Ibid. 

18. Ibid. 



GAEDDEET: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 13 

The First Biennial Report and Andreas listed it for 1856, Flint 
failed to mention it, McMurtrie came closest when he gave May 3 
as the date of the first issue. 19 Contemporaneous newspapers and 
correspondence have made it possible to determine the approximate 
time when the paper was established. On May 3 the Kansas 
Weekly Herald wrote : 

Kansas Constitutionalist is the title of a paper to be issued in a week or 
two at Doniphan, K. T., by Thomas J. Key, late of Tuscumbia, Alabama. It 
was the intention of the editor to have commenced this paper at Lecompton, 
but hearing a paper was about to be started there in advance of his, he de- 
termined then on going to Doniphan. . . . The editor has conducted for 
several years one of the best papers (Tuscumbia Enquirer) in the state of 
Alabama. . . . 

On May 5, 1856, John W. Forman, of Doniphan, wrote John A. 
Halderman that "Thos. J. Key, late of Tuscumbia, Ala., will issue 
next week the first No. of the Kansas Constitutionalist at this place. 
It will be the same size of the Leavenworth Herald & we are taking 
measures to give it a very large circulation." 20 On May 24 the 
Herald wrote again : 

Kansas Constitutionalist, The first number of this paper is before us. It 
is edited and published by T. J. Key at Doniphan, K. T. It is a large size, 
neatly printed, and its editorials evince a high order of talent. We welcome 
the Constitutionalist as an able auxiliary to the Pro-slavery cause. It is a 
sound, reliable Journal and deserves an extensive patronage. 

The Society has one issue of this paper, dated January 7, 1857, 
listed as volume one, number thirty. Many of the oldest adver- 
tisements in it date back to May 14, 1856. It is possible that this 
was the date of the first issue. It agrees with the contemporaneous 
reports. Had the paper been issued regularly, the first number 
should have appeared the middle of June, unless the above issue was 
numbered incorrectly. 

BOURBON COUNTY 
Southern Kansas, Fort Scott, July, 1856. 

The year of the establishment of this paper has been in doubt 
until this writing, and the exact date of the first issue is still un- 
known. Andreas, the First Biennial Report and Wilder gave the 
time as 1855 and August, 1855. 21 T. F. Robley, in his History of 

19. First Biennial Report of the State Board of Agriculture . . . 1877-1878, p. 184; 
Andreas, op. cit., p. 475; Herbert Flint, op. cit., pp. 513, 515-517; McMurtrie, loc. cit., p. 13. 

20. Halderman, John A., "Papers," letter of John W. Forman to John A. Halderman, 
May 5, 1856, in MSS. division, Kansas State Historical Society. 

21. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1074; First Biennial Report, p. 119; Wilder, Daniel W., Annals 
of Kansas (1886), p. 784. 



14 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Bourbon County, 22 wrote : "The Fort Scott Town Company fell heir 
to the press and material of the 'Southern Kansan,' which was started 
and two numbers issued by Kline, who went to war, and got killed 
in 1856." Herbert Flint, having read Robley, questioned the year 
of publication and gave the time as August, 1855, or August, 1856. 
McMurtrie copied him. 23 The answer to this question and those 
relating to the editor and the name of the paper were found in the 
Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, July 26, 1856. The notice 
reads as follows: 

We have received the first number of the Southern Kansas, published at 
Fort Scott, and edited by A. P. Hickey, Esq. Its typographical appearance is 
excellent, and its articles display much ability. The Southern Kansas is a 
pro-slavery sheet, and will no doubt prove a valuable coadjutor in the advocacy 
of our great cause SLAVERY IN KANSAS. 

This would seem to establish the point that the first issue of the 
Southern Kansas was published in July, 1856, and not August, 1855. 
The Society has no copy of this paper. 

Andreas wrote that the editor of Southern Kansas was one Kelley. 
Robley left the impression it was one Kline. The Leavenworth 
Herald informs us that it was A. P. Hickey. 

The secondary writers also disagreed on the name of the paper. 
Some called it Southern Kansas, others Southern Kansan. Again 
the writer is disposed to accept the statement of the contemporaneous 
newspaper report on this question, the statements of the secondary 
writers to the contrary notwithstanding, and has listed it, Southern 
Kansas. 

WYANDOTTE COUNTY 

The Wyandott City Register, May 2, 1857. 

On May 9, 1857, the Kansas Herald of Freedom announced the 
establishment of the Register as follows: 

New Paper. The Wyandott Register, Mark W. Delahay, proprietor, has 
made its appearance, and is to be published weekly after the 16th of May. 
It is a Free State paper, and is located at an important point in the Territory. 
The editor was the former publisher of the Territorial Register, which is baiting 
cat-fish at Leavenworth City. 

On the same day the Kansas City (Mo.) Enterprise also announced 
that a new paper had been established at Wyandotte called the 
Wyandott City Register, and quoted from it. Andreas merely wrote 
that the first number appeared in May, but added that it "was 

22. Robley, T. F., History of Bourbon County, Kansas, to the Close of 1865 (1895), p. 92. 

23. Flint, Herbert, op. cit., pp. 600, 601 ; McMurtrie, loc. cit., p. 12. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 15 

issued in a tent on the corner of Nebraska avenue and Third 
street." 24 The Society has only one complete issue of the Register, 
dated July 25, 1857, and listed as volume one, number ten. Since 
the paper was not published regularly, the date of the first issue 
cannot be obtained by tracing it back to the first number. The issue 
of July 25, however, gives the clue to the date of the first issue 
through its advertisements, the oldest of which bear the date of 
May 2, 1857. The author has accepted this fact, interpreted in 
the light of contemporaneous newspaper accounts, as proof that the 
first number of the Wyandott City Register was published May 
2, 1857. 

The Quindaro Chindowan, established May 13, 1857, was the sec- 
ond paper in the county. It missed being first by less than two 
weeks. It was the "third paper in Territorial Kansas acquired by 
the Emigrant Aid Company to further its plans," according to Her- 
bert Flint. 25 Charles Robinson, agent of the Aid Company, was its 
chief adviser; although the paper was edited and published by 
J. M. Walden and Edmund Babb. The Society has a good file of 
this paper, including volume one, number one. 

LYON COUNTY 
The Kanzas News, Emporia, June 6, 1857. 

The Kanzas News was one of the pioneer papers of Kansas terri- 
tory, and according to Andreas, it was "twelve years in advance of 
any other paper in Emporia," and was established when there were 
"but three unfinished buildings" in town. 26 Preston B. Plumb was 
the editor and proprietor of the News, at least in name. Years later, 
George W. Brown wrote F. G. Adams, then secretary of the His- 
torical Society, that the "press, type and fixtures [of the News] 
were bought on my credit, and charged to me in account, by the 
Cincinnati Type Foundry, though long after he paid for it." He 
also wrote that "G. W. Brown, G. W. Deitzler, Columbus Homsby 
and Lyman Allen each subscribed for 300 copies of the Emporia 
News, 1,200 copies in all, and paid quarterly in advance for the 
same . . ." 27 These men, including Plumb, were the incorporators 
of the Emporia Town Company. 28 

24. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1234. The First Biennial Report, p. 460, called the first paper 
the Citizen, but is mistaken, for the Register later changed to the Citizen. 

25. Flint, Herbert, op. cit., v. II, p. 434. 

26. Andreas, op. cit., p. 849. 

27. Brown, George W., "Papers." See letter of Brown to F. G. Adams, dated Rockford. 
111., October 8, 1887, in MSS. division, Kansas State Historical Society. 

28. Kansas Territorial Laws, 1857, p. 304. 



16 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Plumb was a political philosopher. In the salutation to the pub- 
lic, printed in the first issue, he wrote that he did not "intend to 
promulgate any particular creed" which he designed " advocating." 
He preferred to remain "free to act independently," according to his 
own "convictions of right and duty." He would "admit of no middle 
ground between right and wrong no compromise with evil"; nor 
would he act with any party that did not have " 'Universal Freedom' 
inscribed on its banner. The struggle now going on between Free- 
dom and Slavery is a death one; one or the other must succumb. 
The agitation of this question will not and should not stop until 
every bondsman is made free, or until every poor man (white or 
black) is made a slave." Believing this, he would never cease the 
warfare with slavery. " 'The Truth loses nothing by agitation/ " 
he continued, "therefore we shall agitate." In his opinion, public 
lands should be made free to actual settlers. He concluded the 
salutation with the following statement: "Having neither personal 
popularity or money, our paper must stand on its own merits ex- 
clusively. All we ask of the public is a fair hearing. With these 
few remarks we submit our sheet to the public." 

A year later, July 31, 1858, with the commencement of the second 
volume of the News, Plumb added the name of Jacob Stotler to the 
firm, and substituted the letter "s" for "z" in Kansas. He still 
contended, however, that his paper was independent in politics. "If 
it has advocated the views of any party, either in whole or in part, 
it was because the objects and principles of that party, for the time 
being, were in accordance with those of the proprietor. We never 
have advocated," Plumb asserted, "and we never intend to advocate 
the views, or labor to promote the success of any party, farther 
than we believe will be in accordance with what is right, and in 
harmony with the public good." And he went further: 

We do not even hold it to be a duty or merit to be consistent with ourselves. 
We hold, as we think every free man should, the opinions of to-day subject to 
the review and consideration of to-morrow, so far, at least, as political action 
is concerned. . . . Temporary combinations of our fellow citizens for the 
accomplishment of certain political ends, are always necessary and proper; 
but permanent- political parties always become corrupt, and are turned into 
engines of evil. 

He admitted, however, that as parties were then organized, he would 
"support the principles of what is known as the Republican party, 
and labor zealously for their success." 

With the issue of January 22, 1859, Plumb severed his connection 
with the Kansas News and the establishment passed into the hands 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 17 

of Jacob Stotler, who continued with the paper for many years. 
The News retained its name until December 26, 1889, when it be- 
came The Weekly News-Democrat. Under this name it sold out to 
C. V. Eskridge of the Emporia Republican, May 1, 1890, and ceased 
its separate existence. The Society has a good file of The Kanzas 
News, including volume one, number one. 

FRANKLIN COUNTY 
Kansas Leader, Centropolis, June, 1857. 

The First Biennial Report and Andreas agree that this paper was 
established "in the fall of 1856," whereas, Flint and McMurtrie gave 
the date of establishment as June 13, 1857. 29 The latter are more 
nearly correct, for thus wrote the Herald of Freedom, June 20, 1857: 

The first and second numbers of the Kansas Leader, published weekly at 
Centropolis, Kansas T., by Austin and Beardsley are on our table. It is a 
neatly printed paper, with the motto "Fearless and Free," indicating that it 
fights on its own hook. We rather like the paper, as it gives evidence of its 
not being the slave of a junto, and will no doubt do much towards helping re- 
lieve the country from its present political thraldom. Success to the Leader. 

Flint wrote that the Leader was "Independent free-state in politics." 
This would fit in with George W. Brown's appraisal of it. According 
to the First Biennial Report and Andreas, it was sold to the Min- 
neola Town Company the following year, moved to Minneola, and 
was named by General Lane the Minneola Statesman. 30 The Society 
has no issue of this paper. 

Centropolis is located about six miles north and four west of Ot- 
tawa, on 8-Mile creek. In 1855 Perry Fuller established a store, the 
first settlement on this townsite. Soon a very large business de- 
veloped, its aggregate sales at one time amounted to $50,000 a year. 
February 20, 1857, the Centropolis Town Company was incorpo- 
rated, with Perry Fuller, Cyrus K. Holliday and J. K. Goodin 
among its prominent members. Like the Minneola project, it was 
a speculative venture. The plan was to make Centropolis not only 
the county seat but the capital of the territory and state. It is re- 
ported that at one time lots sold for $500 each, which years later 
could have been bought at ten cents. 31 Centropolis failed to achieve 
its goal, although some of the speculators may have made a little 

29. First Biennial Report, p. 222; Andreas, op. cit., p. 614; Flint, op. cit., v. II p. 597: 
McMurtrie, loc. cit., p. 13. 

30. Ibid. 

31. Andreas, op. cit., p. 614; Kansas Territorial Laws, 1857, p. 285. 

27171 



18 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

pocket money. The name of the town ceased to be listed in the 
United States Official Postal Guide after July, 1929. 32 

COFFEY COUNTY 
Ottumwa Journal, August 29, 1857. 

Jonathan Lyman was the editor of the Ottumwa Journal, the 
first paper published in Coffey county. Ottumwa is located near 
the Neosho river about eight miles from Burlington, the county seat. 
Definite information as to the date of the first issue of this paper 
was found in the Kanzas News, Emporia, of September 12, 1857. 
The statement announcing the publication reads: 

The Ottumwa Journal is the title of a new paper which has just been started 
at Ottumwa, about 25 miles below Emporia, on the Neosho. The first num- 
ber, bearing the date of August 29, is before us. . . . It is strongly Free 
State in politics. . . . 

On September 12, 1857, the Herald of Freedom extended its wel- 
come to the Journal and quoted from the first issue as follows: 

We have the skeleton of an office, which awaits the hide to cover it. Our 
present office consists of a tenement 18 by 20, made of logs, which affords a 
shelter for an entire printing establishment, and the entire family of the 
printer, consisting of ten persons! Our first issue thus comes forth, and our 
next one will come out, "wind and weather" permitting, as soon as we can get 
it out! 

The secondary authorities, Andreas, Flint and McMurtrie, were mis- 
taken in the date of the first issue of the Journal. It was August 29, 
and not September, or September 15, 1857, as they listed it. 33 

How long the paper operated is not known, although the secondary 
authorities are agreed that only a few issues were published. They 
disagree, however, as to what happened to the press after it dis- 
continued. Flint wrote that it was removed to Burlington in Oc- 
tober, 1857, where it was used to publish the Burlington Free Press. 34 
Andreas contended that "the press on which this paper [Ottumwa 
Journal] was printed was removed to Linn county by Mr. Lyman 
in 1860." 35 The author has not been able to verify either of the 
above statements. The Society has no issue of the Burlington Free 
Press, nor of the Linn County Herald, the paper founded by Jona- 
than Lyman at Mound City in April, 1859, nor of the Ottumwa 
Journal. 

32. The United States Official Postal Guides of July, 1930, 1931 and 1932 no longer 
listed Centropolis among the Kansas post offices. 

33. Andreas, op. cit., p. 660; Flint, op. cit., v. II, p. 610; McMurtrie, loc. cit., p. 14. 
The First Biennial Report, p. 157, failed to mention the Journal. 

34. Flint, op. cit., v. II, p. 610. 

35. Andreas, op. cit., p. 660. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 19 

MIAMI COUNTY 
Southern Kansas Herald, Osawatomie, last week of November, 1857. 

The Southern Kansas Herald apparently was the first newspaper 
published in this county. Charles E. Griffith was the editor and 
publisher. The paper was Free-State in politics and made its ap- 
pearance about the last week in November, 1857. 

There was a newspaper press in Osawatomie as early as the spring 
of 1856, but it has not been established that it ever published a 
paper. John Everett, in a letter to his father dated Osawatomie, 
April 28, 1856, wrote: "Osawatomie may now boast of a printing 
press. It was in Kansas [City] a week ago, and probably is now 
in town." 36 According to Herbert Flint the press was owned by 
Oscar V. Dayton and Alexander Gardner, of New York, who were 
planning to publish the Osawatomie Times. 57 Like so many other 
frontier projects, the Times, it seems, was never published. On 
June 9, 1856, the Lawrence correspondent of the New York Daily 
Tribune, reporting on the sacking of Osawatomie June 6, wrote that 
Proslavery men had destroyed a printing office at Osawatomie, "a 
new establishment, the unoffending types having never yet expressed 
a sentiment in the proscribed cause of Freedom." 38 The corre- 
spondent was in error about the destruction of the office and press. 
John Everett, who had read the statements published in Eastern 
papers, wrote, June 27, 1856: "Our printing office was not destroyed 
as reported I see in the Eastern papers. It was buried in the ground 
and they could not find it." 39 Moreover, James Hughes of Osa- 
watomie, who on June 7, reported the news of the sacking of Osa- 
watomie to Gov. Wilson Shannon, did not mention the destruction 
of the office and press. 40 The fact remains, therefore, that all the 
available evidence indicates that the Osawatomie Times was never 
published. 

Andreas and the First Biennial Report were mistaken on the time 
of the first issue of the Herald. Andreas wrote it was established 
"near the beginning of the year 1857," the First Biennial Report 
wrote: "In the latter part of 1856 or the beginning of 1857, the 
Southern Kansas Herald was established at Osawatomie, by Charles 

36. "Letters of John and Sarah Everett, 1854-1864," Kansas Historical Quarterly. v 
VIII, p. 31. 

37. Flint, op. cit., v. II, p. 610. 

38. New York Daily Tribune, June 17, 1856, p. 6, col. 3. Similar reports also appeared 
in other out-of-state papers. See Webb, Thomas H., "Scrap Books," v. XIII, p. 103. 

39. "Letters of John and Sarah Everett, 1854-1864," loc. cit.. v. VIII, p. 33. See also 
l?lint, op. cit., v. II, p. 610. 

40. Webb, Thomas H., "Scrap Books," v. XIII, p. 123. 



20 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

E. Griffiths." Herbert Flint and McMurtrie gave the time as No- 
vember, 1857. 41 The statements of Flint and McMurtrie are sub- 
stantiated by contemporaneous newspaper accounts. December 12, 
the Kanzas New'S of Emporia announced the Herald as follows: "A 
new paper called the Southern Kansas Herald has been started at 
Osawatomie within a few weeks past. . . ." The Herald of Free- 
dom, December 19, 1857, wrote: 

We notice on our table, among our list of exchanges, the "Southern Kansas 
Herald," published weekly at Osawatomie, by Chas. E. Griffith, Esq., editor 
and publisher. The second number is before us. The paper has six columns 
to a page, is printed on new type, and compares favorably in mechanical ap- 
pearance with any other paper in the Territory. . . . 

This information points to the conclusion that the first issue of the 
Herald was published either during the last week of November or 
the first week in December, 1857. The editor was Charles Griffith, 
not Griffiths as reported in the First Biennial Report. 

The Society has two issues of this paper, one of September, 1864, 
with the date and number clipped, the other of April 7, 1865, listed 
as volume seven, number twenty. 

MARSHALL COUNTY 
Palmetto Kansan, Marysville, December 9 (?), 1857. 

This paper was established by Proslavery men, with J. E. Clardy 
as editor and publisher. The date of publication given by Andreas 
and the First Biennial Report was December 18, 1857. Flint and 
McMurtrie gave November, 1857. 42 On November 12, 1857, the 
National Democrat of Lecompton stated: "We have seen the pro- 
spectus of a new paper, the Palmetto Kansan, to be published at 
Marysville." On November 28, the Kanzas News of Emporia said: 
"A new Pro-slavery paper called the Palmetto Kanzan has been 
established at Marysville in Marshall county, . . . It is printed 
on the materials of the defunct Lecompton Union. The publisher is 
a Mr. Clardy, formerly connected with the Union." The White 
Cloud Kansas Chief of December 3, 1857, stated: 

We have received a Prospectus of a paper, the first number of which is to 
be issued on Saturday, the 9th inst., at Palmetto, (recently Marysville,) 
Marshall County, Kansas, to be called the "Palmetto Kansan." . . . It is to 
be "strictly conservative and constitutional, independent in all things, neutral 
in nothing." . . . Address J. E. Clardy, Palmetto, Marysville P. O., K. T. 

41. Andreas, op. cit., p. 887; First Biennial Report, p. 315; Flint, op. cit., v. II, p. 610; 
McMurtrie, loc. cit., p. 14. 

42. Andreas, op. cit., p. 919 ; First Biennial Report, p. 301 ; Flint, op. cit., v. II, p. 609 ; 
McMurtrie, loc. cit., p. 14. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 21 

While no definite statement can be made as to the date of the first 
issue, the writer is inclined to believe that the Kanzas News based 
its statement on the information gathered from the prospectus of 
the first issue, whereas the White Cloud Chief, located near Marys- 
ville, had more specific information as to the date when the first 
issue was to appear. 

The office, according to Andreas and the First Biennial Report, 
was owned by the "Palmetto Town Company composed of F. J. 
Marshall, James S. Magill and others." Magill no doubt was a 
member of the Palmetto company, but Marshall was a promoter 
of its rival, the Marysville Town Company, and his name has not 
been found connected with the Palmetto Town Company. The 
Society has no copy of this paper. 

JEFFERSON COUNTY 
Grasshopper, Grasshopper Falls, June 5, 1858. 

This is undoubtedly the first newspaper published in Jefferson 
county. The first issue appeared June 5, 1858. J. A. Cody was 
listed as editor and proprietor, and S. Ward Smith, publisher. Smith 
probably was the printer. According to Andreas, Mrs. Cody "did 
most of the editorial work." 43 

J. A. Cody was "an uncle of the famous scout, Buffalo Bill," 44 
whose given name was William Frederick Cody. Isaac Cody, the 
father of William, also had a brother, Elijah, in Weston, Mo., whose 
sympathies, it is believed, were Proslavery. Soon after Kansas 
territory was organized Isaac registered a claim of 160 acres in Salt 
creek valley where he established a home. The story is told that 
one day as he and young William approached Rively's trading post 
they noticed a crowd gathering and stopped to listen. It was a Pro- 
slavery group, expounding the cause of slavery. Some men soon 
clamored for a speech from Isaac. Reluctantly yielding to the re- 
quest, he spoke boldly in defiance of slavery, when Charles Dunn, 
an employee of Elijah Cody, plunged a bowie-knife into his back. 45 
Isaac, although it is believed by members of his family that he later 
died from the wound, soon regained enough strength to leave Salt 
creek valley, where his life was in danger, and fled to Grasshopper 
Falls. Later he went to Ohio and Iowa and used his oratory to win 
colonists for Kansas, especially for Grasshopper Falls, where he was 

43. Andreas, op. cit., p. 507. 

44. Flint, op. cit., v. II, p. 529; Topeka Daily Capital, October 7, 1927. 

45. Walsh, R. J., The Making of Buffalo Bill (Bobbs- Merrill Company, Indianapolis, 
1928), pp. 32-41. 



22 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

operating a sawmill. If the above story is true it is possible that 
Isaac brought his brother, J. A. Cody, to Grasshopper Falls to help 
the Free-State cause with the press. William E. Connelley, former 
secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, contended, how- 
ever, that Isaac Cody "moved about from place to place here in 
Kansas and had no influence on the Free-State cause, took no part 
in it, was not stabbed as has been stated and was never mistreated 
in any way by border ruffians." 46 At the present writing the author 
is unable to introduce new evidence on the point in question. 

The First Biennial Report and Andreas agree that the first issue 
of the Grasshopper was published in May, 1858. Herbert Flint 
wrote, however, that it appeared in June, 1859. 47 Since the Society 
has the first issue of this paper, dated June 5, 1858, the question of 
time is settled. It is a four-page, five-column paper. Under "Pro- 
spectus," the editor wrote: 

It is our design in publishing this paper to advocate the great principles of 
truth and religion, in government and human action. In doing this we shall 
be under the necessity of exposing falsehood, combating error, and subduing 
prejudices, as all these things unhappily exist, and stand in the way of 
truth. . . . 

While at the same time we are disposed to yield to the South, all her con- 
stitutional rights, we solemnly protest against six millions of people controlling 
the action of seventeen millions or, in other words, we are opposed to the 
South's dictation to the North. It is a sound political axiom that the ma- 
jority shall rule. 

The town of Grasshopper Falls, which derived its name from the 
falls in the Grasshopper, now Delaware, river, later changed its name 
to Valley Falls. The Grasshopper soon changed its name to Jeffer- 
son Crescent. The Society has numbers one, three, six and eight of 
the Grasshopper and Jefferson Crescent. 

GEARY COUNTY 
Junction City Sentinel, August, 1858. 

This paper, first in the county, was established by the Junction 
City Town Company, officers of which were J. R. McClure, Robert 
Wilson and P. Z. Taylor. B. H. Keyser was editor of the Sentinel 
and George W. Kingsbury printed the first issue. The First Biennial 
Report, Andreas and D. W. Wilder were mistaken in the date of the 
first issue. The First Biennial Report and Andreas wrote that the 
first number was issued in June, 1858, whereas Wilder gave Decem- 

46. Ibid., footnote, p. 38. 

47. First Biennial Report, p. 244 ; Andreas, op. cit., p. 507 ; Flint, op. cit., v. II, p. 529. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 23 

her 28, 1858. 48 On July 17, 1858, the Herald of Freedom published 
a letter, written July 10, by P. Z. Taylor of Junction City, which 
stated that "the Sentinel will be out in a few days." On August 28, 
the Herald wrote that it had received the first number of the Sentinel 
published at Junction City. The first issue of this paper, therefore, 
was published either the second or third week of August, 1858. 

Years later, George W. Kingsbury, a printer, wrote that Robert 
Wilson, president of the Junction City Town Company, had sent him 
to the town "to get out the first number of the Junction City Sen- 
tinel." Some shrewd dealer in junk, he wrote, "had sold the com- 
pany a ready-made second-hand printing outfit which was minus a 
number of essential features." There was "no platen, no roller and 
nothing to print with." The company was aware of this and had 
sent to St. Louis for the needed parts, but no one knew when they 
would arrive. The editor, Keyser, had prepared his "Salutatory" 
and was anxious to see it in type. Kingsbury explained how he and 
a claim holder from near Ogden, named Lincoln, a typesetter, de- 
vised a "proof press by using the cylinder of an old engine with a 
blanket wrapped around it." With the help of this improvised press 
the salutatory was put in print and the first type-printed errors, 
west of Topeka, were revealed to the editor, among them the word 
"infernal." Kingsbury wrote that after gazing "long and earnestly 
at the printed slip," the editor came to him, his little finger pointing 
at one word of the proof, and said "that he intended that word to be 
supernal and the printer has set it 'infernal.' " Kingsbury admitted 
that "he didn't know there was such a word as supernal." 49 

The Herald of Freedom described the mechanical appearance of 
the Sentinel as "very good," but regretted that the editor had "at- 
tached himself to the Democracy." It was his contention that "the 
true position of our Kansas newspapers is independent, until we are 
a State." He felt that no "conservative man" could "identify him- 
self with the 'Democratic' party, as organized in the past," and con- 
cluded that by its act the Sentinel had very much abridged its "field 
of usefulness." 

48. First Biennial Report, p. 175; Andreas, op. cit., p. 1008; Wilder, op. cit., p. 245. 

49. Geo. W. Kingsbury to Geo. W. Martin, March 17, 1913. Kansas State Historical 
Society. 



24 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

JACKSON COUNTY 
The Cricket, Holton, 1858 or 1859. 

The Jackson County News, Holton, July, 1867, first newspaper 
printed in this county. 

The Cricket represents a "curious effort" in Kansas newspaper 
history. The secondary authorities agree on two things: That it 
was the first newspaper published in Calhoun, now Jackson county, 
and that it was written in pen and ink and embellished with cartoons 
or drawings done with colored pencils. In most everything else said 
about it, however, they disagree. Andreas and the First Biennial 
Report gave the date of the first issue as the "fall of 1858"; Flint 
wrote it was founded about "July or August, 1858"; Elizabeth N. 
Barr, author of Business Directory and History of Jackson County, 50 
merely listed the year, 1858; Martha M. Beck, who wrote an article 
published in the sixtieth anniversary edition of the Holton Recorder, 
March 14, 1935, said that the Cricket appeared in 1859. The sec- 
ondary authorities also disagree on the name of its editor. Andreas 
gave his name as Thomas G. Watters ; Mrs. Beck and the First Bi- 
ennial Report wrote it was Thomas G. Walters ; Herbert Flint had it 
Thomas G. Waters; Miss Barr wrote Thomas W. Watters. Most 
authorities agreed that the Cricket was published weekly for about 
two months, when it folded up. Herbert Flint wrote, however, that 
it lasted but a few issues. The First Biennial Report stated that 
the author "illustrated political events with colored pencils," but 
Flint wrote the paper was "non-political, apparently." 

The Society has no copy of this paper nor has the writer been able 
to find any reference to it in the contemporaneous newspapers. 

The Jackson County News, Holton, was the county's first regular 
newspaper. A. W. Moore published the first issue in July, 1867, ac- 
cording to the Topeka Weekly Leader of July 18, 1867, and not in 
October, as recorded by Andreas and the First Biennial Report. The 
News was a seven-column paper, Republican in politics. The So- 
ciety's first issue of this paper is April 11, 1872 (Vol. V, No. 36). 

JOHNSON COUNTY 
Johnson County Standard, Olathe, March, 1859. 

The Standard has been overlooked by the secondary authorities. 
They held that the Olathe Herald was the first paper in the county. 
The First Biennial Report wrote: "The first newspaper published in 

50. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1342; First Biennial Report, p. 238; Flint, op. cit., v. II, p. 
602; Barr, E. N., Business Directory and History of Jackson County (1907), p. 24. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 25 

the county was the Olathe Herald, established September 8, 1859, by 
John M. Giffen and A. Smith Devinney." 51 It also reported that 
"on the night of September 6, 1861, the office was completely de- 
stroyed by Quantrill." Herbert Flint wrote that the Herald was 
"founded August or September, 1859, by A. S. Devenny and John M. 
Giffin," and "was destroyed by Quantrill in 1863," linking it with the 
raid on Lawrence. 52 Andreas wrote: 

"The Olathe Herald was the first paper published in Johnson County. The 
first issue appeared August 29, 1859. In politics it was democratic. . . . 
Quantrill paid the office a visit September 6, 1862, after which John M. Giffin, 
its editor and proprietor, gathered up its debris and sold it for $306; original 
cost having been $3,500." 53 

The facts in the case, proved by contemporaneous newspaper re- 
ports, are that the Johnson County Standard antedated the Herald at 
least five months. The Emporia News, September 24, 1859, wrote 
that the Olathe Herald "is the title of a new paper just started at 
Olathe, Johnson County, Kansas." This places the first issue of the 
Herald sometime in September, 1859. On the second of April, 1859, 
the Herald of Freedom announced the Johnson County Standard in 
these words: 

The first and second numbers of a new weekly journal, with the name of 
"Johnson County Standard," published at Olathe, Kansas, by Barker & Eddy, 
have found their way to our table. The mechanical execution of the paper is 
good. It is designed as a local newspaper, and the editors seem to labor to 
make it such, by looking after local interests. It is independent in politics, 
and shows a determination on the part of the editors to maintain the right 
and oppose the wrong. We cheerfully extend to it the hand of fellowship, and 
welcome its conductors, with pleasure, to a place among the editorial fraternity 
of the independent press of Kansas. 

This information definitely places the Standard ahead of the 
Herald. The Society has no copy of this paper. 

A further correction should be made as to the date of Quantrill's 
raid on Olathe and the Herald office. The Leavenworth Daily Con- 
servative of Tuesday morning, September 9, 1862, reported on the 
raid as follows: "About one o'clock Sunday morning Quantrile, with 
two hundred and thirty men, dashed into and took possession of 
Olathe, the county seat of Johnson county. . . . The printing 
offices of the Mirror and the Herald were entered and their contents 
demolished." That places the date of the raid early Sunday morning, 
September 7, 1862. 

51. First Biennial Report, p. 256. 

52. Flint, op. cit., v. II, p. 609. 

53. Andreas, op. cit., p. 630. 



26 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

LINN COUNTY 
Linn County Herald, Mound City, April 1 (?), 1859. 

Jonathan Lyman, formerly publisher of the Ottumwa Journal, 
was editor and publisher of this paper. The First Biennial Report 
and Andreas agree that -the Linn County Herald was the first news- 
paper established in this county, that it began publication on April 1, 
1859, that it was edited and published by Jonathan Lyman, and that 
it continued one year when the name was changed to the Mound 
City Report. 54 Contemporaneous newspaper reports, in the main, 
substantiate the above statements. On April 9, 1859, the Kansas 
News, Emporia, wrote: 

We are in receipt of the Linn County Herald, a new paper published at 
Mound City, Linn county, Kansas, by Jonathan Lyman formerly publisher of 
the Ottumwa Journal. The Herald is Republican in politics. . . . 

The Society has no issue of this paper. 

MONTANA COUNTY 

Cherry Creek Pioneer, K. T., April 23, 1859. 
Rocky Mountain News, Cherry Creek, K. T., April 23, 1859. 

These papers are inserted here to remind Kansas readers that its 
territory once included Colorado to the Continental Divide. John L. 
Merrick, editor and publisher of the Pioneer, and William N. Byers 
& Company, editors and publishers of the News, were competing for 
priority. D. W. Working, in "Some Forgotten Pioneer Newspapers," 
published in The Colorado Magazine, told the story in these words : 

Everybody knows that the Rocky Mountain News was the pioneer news- 
paper of the Rocky Mountain region now known as Colorado. Comparatively 
few know that the proprietors of the News were not the first to set up a print- 
ing-press in the pioneer community at the mouth of Cherry Creek ; that honor 
belongs to John L. Merrick, who published the first and only issue of the 
Cherry Creek Pioneer on the day the first number of the News was given to 
the public. Even yet it is not certain that the first copy of the Pioneer was 
not actually off the press nearly half an hour before the News made its ap- 
pearance. However, the question of priority of publication is not here at 
issue. . . , 55 

Years ago, George W. Weed, a roller boy for the single issue of the 
Cherry Creek Pioneer, told George A. Root of the Kansas State His- 
torical Society that the birth of the Pioneer preceded the Rocky 
Mountain News a few hours, and that but one issue of the Pioneer 

54. First Biennial Report, p. 285; Andreas, op. cit., p. 1108. 

55. Working, D. W., "Some Forgotten Pioneer Newspapers," The Colorado Magazine 
(State Historical Society of Colorado, Denver, 1927), v. IV, No. 3, p. 93. 



GAEDDERT: FIKST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 27 

was gotten out. 56 These facts give the Pioneer priority by a few 
hours. However, Lawrence W. Marshall in "Early Denver History 
as Told by Contemporary Newspaper Advertisements," also pub- 
lished in The Colorado Magazine, wrote that the News came out 
first. His statement reads: 

William N. Byers had reached the settlements but two days previously, 
worked feverishly with his partners to set up the press they had brought out 
across the plains and managed to get off the first issue of the Rocky Mountain 
News, a matter of minutes before the initial publication of the Cherry creek 
Pioneer appeared. 57 

The reports therefore are conflicting and definite proof is lacking, 
except the testimony of George W. Weed given many years later. 
Both papers, however, appeared on the same day. 

Cherry Creek was located in what was then known as Montana 
county, K. T., on Cherry creek, now Arapahoe county, Colorado. 

The first issue of the News contains a report of a convention held 
at Auraria, April 15, 1859, where delegates from Fountain City, 
Eldorado and El Paso, Arapahoe, Auraria and Denver City decided 
upon a constitutional convention to be held at Denver City, June 1, 
1859, to frame a constitution for a new state to be known as Jeffer- 
son, limited by the following boundaries: 

... Its northern boundary commencing at 102d meridian of west longi- 
tude from Greenwich, Eng., with the 43d parallel of north latitude, and run- 
ning west on the said parallel to its intersection with the 110th meridian of west 
longitude, thence south to the 37th parallel of north latitude, thence east on 
that parallel to the 102d meridian, and thence north to the beginning. . . . 

The Society has a copy of volume one, number one, of the Rocky 
Mountain News, but none of the Pioneer. 

RILEY COUNTY 
Kansas Express, Manhattan, May 21, 1859. 

This paper was established by Charles F. De Vivaldi, an Italian 
Republican refugee. The First Biennial Report wrote that the first 
issue was published in Riley county on the first Wednesday in May, 
1859. 58 The author is inclined to believe, however, that the first 
issue was published May 21, 1859. This statement is based on in- 
formation found in Thomas C. Wells' letter to his father written 
May 14, 1859, on circumstantial evidence found in the Kansas Ex- 

56. Root, George A., "A Sketch of George W. Weed." MS. in Kansas State Historical 
Society. 

57. Marshall, Lawrence W., "Early Denver History as Told by Contemporary Newspaper 
Advertisements," The Colorado Magazine, September, 1931, v. VIII, No. 5, p. 161. 

58. First Biennial Report, p. 392. 



28 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

press of August 20, 1859, and on contemporaneous newspaper reports. 
On May 14, 1859, Wells wrote: "We are expecting to receive the 
first copy of the 'Manhattan Express' every day now." 59 The first 
issue of the Express in the Society's files is dated August 20, 1859, 
and listed as volume one, number seven. In this issue the oldest ad- 
vertisements are dated May 21, 1859, which might indicate that it 
was the date of the first issue of the Express, for, as has been said, it 
was customary to date the advertisements the day the paper was 
published. Moreover, the Herald of Freedom of May 28, 1859, an- 
nounced the birth of the Express and added : 

The Kansas Express, edited and published by Chas. De Vivaldi, of Man- 
hattan, Kansas, commenced publication last week. Its editor is a good writer, 
and seems to possess the tact and energy requisite for success in a newspaper 
enterprise. He is a Republican, but we should judge, conservative in his senti- 
ments. Mr. De Vivaldi is an Italian, and of course well informed on the 
Italian question. . . . 

On July 30, 1859, the Kansas News of Emporia wrote: "We have 
received the second number of the Kansas Express, published at 
Manhattan, Riley Co. It presents a handsome appearance, and will 
be published regularly hereafter." 

From these sources it seems reasonable to assume that in the be- 
ginning the paper was issued irregularly, that the first issue had not 
been published by May 14, that it appeared the week prior to Satur- 
day, May 28, 1859, and that in all probability it was issued Satur- 
day, May 21, 1859. 

Andreas wrote that "the first number of this paper was printed at 
Wyandotte," and that "the press and appurtenances of the office 
came by steamer on the Kansas River soon after." 60 The statement 
in the Herald of Freedom, quoted above, does not necessarily contra- 
dict Andreas' contention, for all it said is that the Express was 
"edited and published by Chas. De Vivaldi of Manhattan." It does 
not say where the paper was printed. 

The Express was published under different names. ' The first issue 
was called the Kansas Express; beginning with the eleventh issue it 
was called the Manhattan Express; September 22, 1860, the name 
was changed to the Western Kansas Express; and on October 5, 
1861, it was changed back to the Manhattan Express. The Society 
lacks the first six issues, also numbers 8, 9 and 10 of volume one. 

59. Wells, Thomas C., "Letters of a Kansas Pioneer, 1855-1860," Kansas Historical 
Quarterly, v. V, p. 399. 

60. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1307. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 29 

CHASE COUNTY 
Kansas Press, Cottonwood Falls, May 30, 1859. 

The Society has volume one, number one, of this paper, which car- 
ries the date given above. S. N. Wood was the editor and publisher. 
In the salutatory the editor remarked : 

Politically, in Kansas, we shall be Free State ; having spent almost five years 
in the Free State party we feel like fighting the good fight out. . . . 

In National politics, our sympathies and influence will be with the party of 
Freedom, and against the party of Slavery, without regard to name. Our paper 
will be conservative in character opposed to radicalism and will, in a legal 
way only, seek to remedy the evils of society. 

In the issue of August 15, Wood criticised the Wyandotte convention 
for disfranchising whole counties, thought there was too much legis- 
lation in the constitution, but conceded that it would be "to the in- 
terest of the territory to become a state. . . ." He would, 
therefore, "vote for, and advocate the adoption of the Wyandotte 
Constitution." 

The last issue published at Cottonwood Falls appeared August 29, 
1859. It was volume one, number thirteen. Wood removed the 
paper to Council Grove and explained his sudden departure in the 
first issue published there. His reasons appear in the section on 
Morris county, next following. 

MORRIS COUNTY 
The Kansas Press, Council Grove, September 26, 1859. 

It is the consensus of opinion that the Press was the first paper 
published in Morris county. It was started by S. N. Wood at Cot- 
tonwood Falls, Chase county, and the first thirteen issues were pub- 
lished there. Wood abruptly left Cottonwood Falls for reasons ex- 
plained in the first issue at Council Grove. 

We decided very suddenly to remove our Press to Council Grove. . . . 
Our reasons are soon told. We come to Cottonwood Falls last spring, believing 
that a town would spring up at the Falls, and in a few months we should have 
business all around us; but instead, one-half of our town site was jumped by 
a person who dog-in-the-manger-like, would do nothing himself, or allow any- 
one else. Persons came to the Falls to build Mills, but the land was in dispute 
and they left disgusted. Others proposed establishing Stores, but our town site 
being in dispute, they would not venture; and thus scores of men, as well 
as business was driven from us. We were paying out $25 per week to keep 
up our paper, and from Cottonwood Falls were receiving no support because 
there was nothing there. COUNCIL GROVE, on the other hand, is a busi- 
ness place ; doing a larger business than any other town in Southern or Western 



30 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Kansas. . . . The people there wanted a paper, offered us inducements 
which we believe it our duty, as well as interest, to accept. 

Wood listed the first issue published at Council Grove volume one, 
number fourteen, and continued in that way. The Society has an 
incomplete file of the Council Grove Press. 

BROWN COUNTY 
Brown County Union, Hiawatha, May, 1861. 

The First Biennial Report and Andreas agree that the Brown 
County Union was the first paper in this county, and that it "was 
established by Dr. P. G. Parker, in the spring of 1861." 61 The White 
Cloud Chief has helped to establish the approximate date of the first 
issue. On May 16, 1861, it informed its readers that a paper was 
shortly "to be started at Hiawatha, by a gentleman named Parker. 
The material of the late Troy Dispatch has been purchased and re- 
moved to Hiawatha for that purpose." On May 30 the Chief wrote 
again, saying: "We have received the first number of the Brown 
County Union, published at Hiawatha, by P. Gould Parker. It says 
it shall support Lincoln's Administration." This indicates that the 
Union made its appearance sometime during the last two weeks of 
May, 1861. The secondary authorities referred to above wrote that 
this paper had a hard struggle for existence, that in the winter fol- 
lowing its establishment the office was destroyed by fire, and that no 
effort had been made to revive it. The Society has no issue of this 
paper. 

WABAUNSEE COUNTY 

The Wabaunsee Patriot, September 7, 1861. 

H. M. Selden and E. J. Lines, a member of the Beecher Bible and 
Rifle Company, were agents of this paper. The name of the editor 
was omitted, but Lines' name was also listed as local editor. 

The Patriot seems to have escaped the notice of Andreas, the First 
Biennial Report, Herbert Flint, Wilder, and even the Alma Signal. 
On August 27, 1892, this paper, under the caption, "Newspaper His- 
tory," stated: 

The Wabaunsee County Herald was the name of the first newspaper pub- 
lished in Wabaunsee County April 1st, 1869. A. Sellers and Geo. W. Bertram, 
editors and proprietors. . . . 

The Signal was mistaken, for the Patriot preceded the Herald almost 
seven years and seven months. 

61. First Biennial Report, p. 125; Andreas, op. cit., p. 715. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 31 

In the salutation the editor wrote that they were embarking on a 
new enterprise, little expecting at first "to realize an income com- 
mensurate with" their expense in publishing the paper, but "looking 
forward to the time when the encouragement extended will be fully 
adequate, and sufficient to warrant" the permanent establishment of 
the same. 

The Society has the first seven issues of this paper, possibly the 
only numbers that were published. 

OSAGE COUNTY 
Osage County Chronicle, Burlingame, September 26, 1863. 

This paper was claimed as first in the county by the First Biennial 
Report and Andreas. They gave the date of the first issue as Sep- 
tember 26, 1863. 62 The first contemporaneous reference to the Osage 
County Chronicle found by the writer appeared in the Emporia 
News, August 15, 1863, which said: "M. M. Murdock is about to 
start a new paper at Burlingame, in this State. He has purchased 
the Americus Sentinel material." On October 8, 1863, the Fort Scott 
Union Monitor announced the appearance of the first issue in these 
words: "The Osage Chronicle is the title of a neat and spicy little 
sheet published at Burlingame, Osage county, Kansas, by our old 
friend Murdock." The earliest issue of this paper in the Society's 
file is dated October 17, 1868, listed as volume six, number one, 
which is too late to help determine the date of the first issue. The 
author has accepted the date given by the secondary authorities as 
at least approximately correct. 

The editor, Marshall M. Murdock, often called "Marsh," was 
born in the Pierpont settlement, now West Virginia. His grand- 
father had engaged in rebellion against the British government about 
the time of the American Revolution, and came to America a politi- 
cal refugee. Marshall's father, Thomas, grew up in Virginia in a 
settlement of slaveholders and developed a strong abhorrence for the 
institution. He left Virginia and settled in Ironton, Ohio, where 
Marshall began his apprenticeship in the printer's trade. The strug- 
gle for a Free Kansas brought the family to this territory. Marshall 
was employed in one of the Lawrence printing offices when Quantrill 
raided the town and escaped the raiders by concealing himself in a 
well. In 1863 he married Victoria Mayberry of Douglas county, 
purchased the Americus Sentinel press, and moved to Burlingame 
where he started the Chronicle. In 1872 he removed his printing 

62. First Biennial Report, p. 350; Andreas, op. cit., p. 1534. 



32 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

office to Wichita and founded the Eagle, one of the pioneer papers of 
Sedgwick county. 

NEMAHA COUNTY 

Nemaha Courier, Seneca, November 14, 1863. 
Andreas and the First Biennial Report gave the date of the first 
issue of the Nemaha Courier as November 14, 1863, and support the 
contention that it was the first newspaper in this county. 63 The 
White Cloud Chief of November 19, 1863, announced the appearance 
of the first issue as follows : 

We have received the first number of the Nemaha Courier published at 
Seneca, by John P. Cone, formerly of the Sumner Gazette, but more recently 
of the Marys ville Union. 

In 1869 the Nemaha Courier changed its name to the Nemaha Kan- 
sas Courier, and in 1871 it changed to the Seneca Courier. The paper 
was Republican in politics. The earliest issue the Society has of this 
paper is dated October 21, 1869, listed as volume six, number forty- 
four. The regular file, however, does not start until December 3, 
1875. 

ALLEN COUNTY 

Humboldt Herald, November 25 (?), 1864. 

The date of the first issue of the Herald is still uncertain, although 
Andreas, Wilder, and the First Biennial Report all gave it as No- 
vember 16, 1864. 64 The contemporaneous newspapers in this case, as 
in so many others, failed to give full information. The Leavenworth 
Daily Conservative of November 3, 1864, wrote: "The Herald is 
the name of a paper started at Humboldt, by J. H, Young of Law- 
rence." From this statement it is impossible to know whether this 
paper had actually made its appearance or was being established. 
The Kansas Patriot, Burlington, December 10, 1864, was more defi- 
nite. It wrote : 

We have received No. 1, Vol. 1, of the Humboldt Herald, a paper just 
commenced at Humboldt, Allen Co.; Bond & Young, Proprietors Joseph 
Bond, Editor. It is a six-column sheet, and presents a fair typographical ap- 
pearance. In politics it is Republican and anti-Fraud. We like the ring of the 
editorials. They are able, outspoken, sound and correct in sentiment. We 
heartily welcome this valuable accession to the newspaporial fraternity of the 
Neosho Valley. Terms, $2.00 per annum. 

The earliest number in the Society's meager file of this paper is dated 
February 3, 1865, and listed as volume one, number nine. If the 

63. Andreas, op. cit., p. 946 ; First Biennial Report, p. 335. 

64. Andreas, op. cit., p. 672 ; Wilder, op. cit. (1875), p. 392 ; First Biennial Report, p. 95. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 33 

Herald was issued regularly once a week, the first issue should have 
appeared December 8, 1864. However, the first advertisements in 
the issue of February 3 were dated November 25, 1864. The author 
is inclined to believe that the first number of the Herald appeared 
on the date of the oldest advertisements. 

Joseph Bond and John H. Young were the publishers, Joseph Bond 
was editor and John R. Goodin local editor. On March 18, 1926, 
the Humboldt Union stated that the "Herald was started with John 
R. Goodin, a young lawyer, later district judge and in 1874 congress- 
man from this district, who came to Humboldt from Kenton, Ohio, 
to be its editor. . . . The Herald with Major Joseph Bond as 
financial supporter, struggled about a year and discontinued." The 
Union placed the emphasis on its honored citizen. 

(To Be Continued in the May Quarterly) 



37171 



The Fourth of July in Early Kansas 

1854-1857 
CORA DOLBEE 

THE Fourth of July was a day of peculiar significance to early 
Kansas. Following the organization of the territory in 1854, 
Kansas, in both cause and name, became almost as suggestive of 
American independence as was the anniversary of the nation's birth. 
Not only in the territory but in the United States at large citizens 
were annually 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 question 
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.* 

1854 

Freedom's secret would'st thou know? 
Right thou feelest rashly do. 

R. W. Emerson. 

Following the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, May 30, 1854, 
the wave of protest that rolled across the North spent its first force 
upon the Fourth of July, 1854. People everywhere were indignant. 
In word and act and symbol they demonstrated their feeling gener- 
ally. Over a signature of three stars (***) one writer recommended 
devoting the day to the formation of an anti-Nebraska organization, 
the sole object of which should be resistance to the extension of slave 
territory. 1 At Lawrenceville, Pa., from fifteen hundred to two thou- 
sand persons, assembled in an orchard, actually took such a pledge. 
At the end of a three-hour oration by David Wilmot the audience 
resolved to vote for no one except "a tried and well known friend 
of Freedom, who had a heart and a conscience, legs of his own to 
stand on, and a backbone to resist" the Nebraska outrage. 2 

*This is the second of three articles entitled "The Fourth of July in Early Kansas." 
Part I appeared in The Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. VIII, pp. 115-139. Part III will 
appear later. 

1. New York Daily Tribune, June 6, 1854. 

2. Ibid., July 10, 1854. 

(34) 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 35 

From Ontario, Ind., came the proposal to hoist the American flag 
at half mast, draped in black, and under it make "the firm, de- 
termined, unutterable resolve to battle manfully for Freedom." 3 In 
Providence, R. I., the common council directed that the bells of the 
churches be tolled "one hour in the morning, one hour at noon, and 
one hour at sundown, on account of the passage of the Nebraska bill 
and the recent proceedings under the Fugitive Slave act." 4 At 
Painesville, Ohio, a committee of sixteen, that being the number of 
the nominally free states, proclaimed their determined opposition to 
the enemies of liberty. 5 Henry Ward Beecher was the orator. 6 

In New York City where the common council appropriated $3,800 
for fire-works, powder, band music, and bell chiming, 7 Horace 
Greeley reminded his readers that the Revolutionary contest was 
still in progress when he wrote: "Alas that we could not all, on an 
occasion as fit as this, unite in tracing out the essential principles of 
our fathers' Revolutionary struggle, the fundamental ideas which led 
. . . to the magnificent destiny we have inherited." 8 At Pierre- 
pont the citizens resolved "that the bells be tolled and crepe be 
worn on the left arm" and that the people "concert measures to drive 
the dark spirit of Slavery back to the infernal regions from whence 
it came." 9 In Warsaw the bells were tolled "for one hour in solemn 
and sad remembrance of the spirit of freedom" 10 The citizens then 
" gave this banner to the breeze: No more Slave Territory! No more 
Slave States!! No more Slavery!!!" 

Chicago also observed the Fourth as a day of mourning, public 
sentiment against Douglas being so extreme that he canceled his 
proposed visit to the city. 11 Other Western communities also 
condemned the Nebraska iniquity. One was at Decorah, Iowa. 
Another was at St. Anthony, Minnesota territory, where the people 
felt the principle of the bill exposed them also to incursions of 
slavery, and they urged the formation of a "Holy League of Free- 
dom." 12 

3. Ibid., June 30, 1854. 

4. Ibid., June 6, 1854 ; Daily Commonwealth, Boston, June 7, 8, 1854. 

5. New York Daily Tribune, June 13, 1854. 

6. Ibid., June 15, 1854. 

7. Ibid., June 26, 1854. 

8. Ibid., July 1, 1854. 

9. Ibid., June 28, 1854. 

10. Ibid., July 14, 1854. 

11. "Webb Scrap Books," v. I, p. 27, reprint from the New York Courier. In library of 
Kansas State Historical Society. 

12. New York Daily Tribune, July 19, 1854. 



36 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

In Massachusetts Antislavery feeling and concern for the newly 
opened West colored most Independence day events. 13 Boston con- 
sidered humiliation and fasting with minute guns on the Common 
and the tolling of bells; 14 but when the day came, people marked it, 
"not with humiliation for the past," but with joyful hope for the 
actual equality of men. 15 Said the orator, the Rev. A. L. Stone, be- 
fore the city authorities: "Our sons and daughters must settle these 
new territories; there must be no laggards in the race for freedom; 
we must admit no more slave states." 16 At Salem, Anson Burlin- 
game answered his own question, "Can we remove the evil?" by 
quoting Col. James Miller at Lundy's Lane, " 'We can try.' " 17 
Worcester would have every true son of America sign the Declara- 
tion anew. 18 North Woburn erected a new liberty pole and in- 
augurated it at 6 a. m. 19 In Pepperell the people burned effigies of 
President Pierce and Judge E. G. Loring. 20 Montague burned four 
effigies and had a mock slave hunt. 21 William Lloyd Garrison, the 
Abolitionist, won decided approbation at Framingham for burning 
Judge Loring's decision and the Fugitive Slave act itself, but his 
consigning of the Constitution to a similar fate met with disgust, 
indignation, and some hisses. 22 In the same meeting Henry David 
Thoreau took the people of Massachusetts ironically to task for their 
too manifest concern over Kansas and Nebraska. 

I had thought that the house was on fire, and not* the prairie; . . . 
though several of the citizens of Massachusetts are now in prison for attempting 
to rescue a slave from her own clutches, not one . . . expressed regret for 
it. ... It was only the disposition of some wild lands a thousand miles 
off which appeared to concern them. . . . There is not one slave in Ne- 
braska; there are perhaps a million slaves in Massachusetts. . . . What 
should concern Massachusetts is not the Nebraska bill nor the Fugitive Slave 
bill, but her own slaveholding and servility. 23 

While Massachusetts was smarting a little from reproach of her 
own countryman, and the rest of the North was trying to evince its 
sympathy for the Kansas-Nebraska cause, the South was hastening 
on the burial day of its own peculiar institution. Sen. Robert 

13. The Daily Transcript, Worcester, Mass., July 6, 1854. 

14. Daily Commonwealth, Boston, June 7, 8, 1854. 

15. Ibid., July 4, 5, 1854. 

16. Ibid., April 22, July 6, 1854. 

17. Ibid., July 5, 22, 1854. 

18. The Daily Transcript, Worcester, Mass., July 4, 1854. 

19. Daily Commonwealth, Boston, July 12, 1854. 

20. Ibid., July 7, 1854. 

21. The National Era, Washington, D. C., August 24, 1854. 

22. Daily Commonwealth, Boston, June 30, July 5, 1854. 

23. New York Daily Tribune, August 2, 1854. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 37 

Toombs of Georgia announced a sale of 130 negroes for July 4. 24 
E. Marston of Columbus, Ga., wrote Horace Greeley, July 3: "You 
anti-Nebraska men seem to think that you'll kill the Fourth of July 
dead by not celebrating it in Rhode Island ; but we intend to keep it 
up here." 25 Toasts at the Southern celebrations in 1854 seemed 
"excessively stupid" to the Northern press. 26 A correspondent of 
the Boston Commonwealth, therefore, recommended for Southern 
use the sentiment, "The Fourth 'of July The feast of Freedom, 
prepared by slaves,'" 27 At Plattsburg, Mo., a large meeting of 
citizens in the courthouse, July 3, resolved "to countervail the 
machinations of the Northern Abolitionists in Kansas." 28 

In the much discussed, newly organized territories themselves 
several happenings marked the arrival or passing of July 4, 1854. 
Only three of the events, however, were in the nature of social cele- 
brations, and two of those were in what is now Nebraska. The one 
in Kansas, moreover, was under the auspices of the anti-Abolition- 
ists of Missouri. Only the plans for it survive. 

Announced as a general territorial convention at Salt creek valley, 
near the trading post of Mr. Kivaly, 29 the gathering was to hear the 
reading of the Declaration of Independence and an address by 
Charles Grover. 30 An ample public dinner would follow. Although 
the preliminary meeting at Whitehead's on June 24 had referred to 
the people as "settlers of Kansas Territory," the resolutions they 
adopted were Southern in spirit, favoring squatter sovereignty and 
refusing protection to any Abolitionist settler, 31 and the persons in- 
vited were "citizens of Missouri generally." Afterward one Mis- 
souri editor wrote, "The Fourth appears to have been celebrated 
with much spirit in all directions," 32 but he did not mention specifi- 
cally the Salt creek valley observance. Business as well as politics 
and pleasure no doubt marked the day, for the books of the Doni- 
phan county commissioners show that entry number 18 for a claim 

24. A copy of the advertisement of the sale appeared in an editorial in the Daily Com- 
monwealth, Boston, July 14, 1854, and gave the number as between 90 and 100. See, also, 
New York Daily Tribune, July 11, 1854. 

25. New York Daily Tribune, July 11, 1854. 

26. Daily Commonwealth, Boston, July 19, 1854. 

27. Ibid., July 3, 4, 1854. 

28. Kansas Historical Collections, v. XV, p. 382. 

29. Different records spell this name variously, as Kivally and Rively (probably M. Pierce 
Rively). 

30. The Democratic Platform, Liberty, Mo., June 22, July 20, 1854 ; Industrial Luminary, 
Parkville, Mo., June 27, 1854, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. I, p. 42; also New York Daily 
Tribune, July 4, 1854. 

31. The Democratic Platform, July 20, 1854. Andreas, A. T., History of the State of 
Kansas (Chicago, 1883), pp. 472, 473, says that on June 24 they formed the "Squatter Sov- 
ereign Association." 

32. The Democratic Platform, July 27, 1854. 



38 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

near Whitehead bears the date of July 4, the claimant, Andrew 
J. Branson, having begun his residence there March 28, 1854. 33 July 
4, 1854, was also the day on which Sen. David R. Atchison and a few 
of his Platte county friends chose the site of Atchison and dedicated 
the new town. 34 

For a second time on a Fourth Wm. H. Goode, who was at 
Shawnee mission in 1843, rode into Kansas [City, Mo.] on horse- 
back and crossed to the Kansas side in a skiff, this year to visit 
the Wyandots. Kansas [City] was "now a thriving town driving 
a heavy trade with the plains." At the Wyandot settlement the 
visitor was satisfied to find the Rev. John M. Chivington, regularly 
appointed missionary, in possession of the Methodist mission farm. 
He, therefore, had no leisure to speculate upon the seemingly ominous 
coincidence of his arriving twice successively in Kansas City "on the 
day consecrated to freedom, in connection with the struggle for 
freedom then commencing in that region." 35 

Jotham Meeker, who had been in Kansas for every Fourth of July 
since 1834, 36 set out in his wagon July 3, 1854, for Westport, in 
company with J. Miller. He encamped on the prairie for the night 
of July 3 and arrived at his son-in-law's on July 4, to visit his 
daughters and his grandchildren. 37 

On this same Fourth of July eve a much larger expedition of the 
military encamped on Grasshopper creek, Kansas territory, en route 
from Fort Leavenworth to New Mexico. Under command of Col. 
Thos. F. Fauntleroy the party consisted ;of "regimental head- 
quarters, the band, and companies B and D 1st Dragoons," with 79 
civilians employed as teamsters, drovers, and overseers to care for 
the "400 upwards public horses" of the quartermaster department. 38 
For so large an expedition both the soldiers and band must have 
made some due recognition of the Independence day to dawn on the 
morrow, but both Colonel Fauntleroy and Sgt. P. G. Lowe were too 
concerned over their extensive charge and their inadequate pro- 
vision for its care to note the patriotic significance of the day. 

33. Andreas, op. cit., pp. 472, 473. 

34. Ibid., pp. 369, 370. On July 20, 1854, Dr. J. H. Stringfellow and other friends 
agreed upon the same site. 

35. Goode, Wm. H., Outposts of Zion (Poe and Hitchcock, Cincinnati, 1864), pp. 248, 249. 

36. Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. VIII, pp. 122-138. 

37. Meeker, Jotham, "Journal," v. Ill, p. 144, entries of July 3, 4, 1854, in MSS. division, 
Kansas State Historical Society. 

38. Headquarters of the Army, v. 178, pp. 21, 22; Books of Various Departments, 1817- 
1861, v. 153, pp. 29, 42: General Order No. 3, Headquarters of the Army, April 7, 1854, 
and Special Orders Nos. 27 and 51, Department of the West, April 18 and June 20, 1854. 
Thos. F. Fauntleroy, letter, Grasshopper creek, Indian territory, July 3, 1854, Adjutant Gen- 
eral's Office, Document File 119-F-1854. Notes supplied by P. M. Hamer, National Archives, 
Washington, D. C. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 39 

Sergeant Lowe enumerated besides the troops, many officers, some 
families, a huge supply train, and "600 extra horses led on strings of 
about forty horses each." 39 

Nebraska territory had more conventional Independence day ob- 
servances. At Belleview a delightful repast at Mr. Robinson's 
marked the first Fourth kept in the new settlement. 40 Native and 
cultivated products of Nebraska constituted the meal; among them 
were fresh meat, new potatoes, peas, various kinds of garden sauce, 
wild gooseberries and raspberries, with a "good cup of coffee" and 
"plenty of pure ice-water." Toasts followed the food. 41 

On the site of what is now Omaha a party of lowans celebrated 
the Fourth with a bountiful picnic. 42 They requisitioned a wagon to 
convey their supplies to and from the ferry. The wagon also served 
as speaker's stand for the program. Two blacksmith's anvils were 
used to fire the salute. Just as H. D. Johnson had begun his 
oration, Indians appeared and broke up the gathering, lunch baskets 
and anvils being piled into the wagon and the audience fleeing to- 
ward the ferry. 

1855 

In Freedom's glorious cause we band, 

Nor care to ask where man was born, . . . 

W. L. G 43 

By July 4, 1855, the attitude of the nation toward the Kansas- 
Nebraska question had become largely political. Expressions of 
sympathy in the North were no doubt sincere, but to make their 
utterances efficacious, writers and speakers found it expedient to 
look to the polls. To the editors of the New York Tribune the ques- 
tion confronting the Union was a fortunate trial of its virtues. 
Should the unmeasured territories of the plains be peopled by repre- 
sentatives of Freedom or of Slavery? "We hope and pray . . . 
that every citizen who hears the Declaration of Independence read 
this day, . . . will . . . resolve that the Fourth of July of 
1856 shall find the policy of the Nation restored to the immortal 
principles with which it set out on the Fourth of July, 1776." 44 

39. Lowe, Percival G., Five Years a Dragoon (Franklin Hudson Publishing Co., Kansas 
City, Mo., 1906), p. 158. 

40. New York Daily Tribune, August 30, 1854. 

41. Dick, Everett, The Sod House Frontier (Appleton-Century, N. Y., 1937), p. 75, Foot- 
note 20. 

42. Wakeley, Arthur C., Omaha: The Gate City and Douglas County. Nebraska (S. J. 
Clarke Publishing Co., 1917), v. I, pp. 77, 78. 

43. The Liberator, Boston, July 6, 1855, "Human Brotherhood," by William Lloyd Gar- 
rison. 

44. New York Daily Tribune, July 4, 1855. 



40 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

New York called for a Republican state convention, D. R. An- 
thony being the signer from Monroe county. 45 In the interior of 
the state friends of Freedom and Temperance united to celebrate the 
national holiday "with unwonted spirit." At Ogdensburgh they 
planned to dig the grave of alcohol and to consecrate the altar of 
Freedom anew. 46 In a political address at Bedford, Mass., ex-Gov. 
Edward Kent of Maine asserted his determination to devote his 
power and means to the cause of human freedom, to redress the 
enormous wrong to the North, and to offer himself, if necessary, as 
a victim. 47 R. W. Landis, in a speech at Paterson, N. J., "char- 
acterized the recent Proslavery outrages as they deserved, and gave 
that antique order, the Doughfaces, such a drubbing as they will not 
soon forget." 48 At Cincinnati, Ohio, the Rev. C. B. Boynton, author 
of A Journey Through Kansas; With Sketches of Nebraska,* 9 drew 
editorial condemnation upon himself for a two-hour Independence 
day defense of the Protestant crusade against the Catholics and In- 
fidels, too frankly a plank of the Know-Nothing platform. 50 In 
Painesville, Ohio, Horace Mann used liberty as "his mighty theme" 
for the Fourth of July oration. The local Telegraph wrote that 
"he quietly thrust his Ithuriel spear through those philosophers who 
measure a man's right to the liberties and privileges of manhood 
. . . by the length of his heel-bones, the depression of his nose, 
the kink of his hair, and the color of his rete mucosum." 51 

Already in 1855, the South was divided in its keeping of the day. 
At Berea, Ky., "J. S. D." wrote of "a Liberty celebration of the 
Fourth in a slave state." In an address to a large collation of peo- 
ple Cassius M. Clay "for two hours set forth in bold relief and with 
telling power the disastrous influence of Slavery . . . and the 
responsibilities ... of freemen." 52 Farther South, however, 
in Georgia, a convention was called for July 4 at Milledgeville to 
nominate a candidate for governor; the preliminary meeting at Co- 
lumbus in June was, irrespective of party, to form a Southern party 
"in consideration of the spirit of Abolitionism prevalent at the 
North." 53 

45. Wilder, D. W., Annals of Kansas (T. Dwight Thacher, Kansas Publishing House, 
Topeka, 1886), entry for July 4, 1855, p. 66. 

46. New York Daily Tribune, June 23, 1855. 

47. Ibid., July 9, 1855. 

48. Ibid., July 6, 1855. 

49. This was the second book written on Kansas territory. It was published December 27, 
1854. 

50. Type of the Times, Cincinnati, Ohio, July 14, 1855. 

51. New York Daily Tribune, July 20, 1855. 

52. Ibid., July 17, 1855. 

53. Ibid., June 7, 1855. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 41 

Many events within Kansas territory itself marked July 4, 1855. 
A legislature, in name, was in session at Pawnee from July 2 to 
July 6. The first newspaper in Topeka, a weekly, appeared July 4. 
In Lawrence John Speer instituted a daily that survived for one 
week. 54 Eight different communities made public recognition of 
the day. Three had conventional Fourth-of-July celebrations with 
reading of the Declaration of Independence, patriotic music, oration, 
public dinner, and toasts. One used the day for a Sabbath school 
festival. Another had a ball and barbecue. One tried to banish 
the demon liquor forever from its midst, and another found solace 
in its use. 

The legislature was an anomaly. Two sets of candidates claimed 
to have won seats at the territorial polls. The Proslavery candidates 
who had been elected in March and whose election had been de- 
clared invalid were now in session. They had usurped the places 
of legitimate representatives chosen by the citizens of Kansas ter- 
ritory in a subsequent election when the governor had set aside the 
March election for alleged fraud by Missourians at the ballot 
boxes. 55 On July 4 five ousted members, bearing certificates of elec- 
tion from the governor, appeared in protest: John Hutchinson, 
Erastus D. Ladd, Philip P. Fowler, Augustus Wattles, and William 
Jessee. 56 S. D. Houston also spoke in their behalf. John Hutchin- 
son made lengthy opposition to the majority report of the commit- 
tee on credentials. 57 At the March election he had received 253 
votes; his competitor, 800, but 600 were cast by persons from with- 
out the territory. At the second election the speaker had polled " al- 
most the unanimous vote"; on certificate of that election, he now 
claimed his seat. Though his plea was futile, his speech ended with 
a glowing appeal for the principle of popular sovereignty; a gov- 
ernment that would allow invasion upon the ballot box, he said, 
was not a republican government. W. G. Mathias, Proslavery 
chairman of the committee on credentials, declared the recognized 
legislators would make this Fourth of July illustrious by asserting 
their independence of the authority usurped by the governor. "As 

54. Wilder, op. cit. (1875), p. 52. A case of cholera reported in Pawnee, July 4, was one 
reason given for the removal of the legislature from Pawnee, July 6. Cf. Kansas Historical 
Collections, v. VII, p. 365. 

55. Phillips, W. A., Conquest of Kansas by Missouri and Her Allies (Phillips, Sampson & 
Co., Boston, 1856), p. 100. The Proslavery candidates contended that the Kansas -Nebraska 
bill did not empower the governor to call a special election for alleged fraud. They were about 
to expel M. F. Conwav, Free-Stater, elected in March to the senate, when he resigned. When 
S. D. Houston, of the house, found himself the only Free-State man remaining among the 
invaders, he too resigned. 

56. Wilder, op. cit. (1875), p. 52. 

57. The Kansas Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 14, 1855 ; Kansas Free State, Law- 
rence, July 16, 1859. 



42 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

long as we live," he said, "this never shall be a Free State." 58 The 
Kansas legislature, wrote an Ohio paper thereafter, "seems to be 
little else than an organized mob for the benefit of Missouri slave- 
holders, whether residing in the State or Territory . . . and yet 
President Pierce is as silent as an idiot in regard to the matter." 59 
The Worcester (Mass.) Transcript declared the "infamy is without 
a parallel. . . . It is a 'casus' for a civil war"; yet it believed 
the North would submit. 60 

When the people of Lawrence first proposed to celebrate this 
Fourth of July, 1855, in gala way, George W. Brown wrote in an 
editorial, "About Face," that they were already "an enslaved people, 
perfectly subjugated." Rather than celebrate he thought they had 
better "re-adopt the principles of the declaration of independence 
and . . . extend those principles over Kansas at the sacrifice of 
'our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.' " 61 The next week 
when his paper carried notice of the committee's plans and cordially 
invited all persons to attend the picnic dinner and exercises, he 
urged the people to come, armed in defense, to give the expedition 
from Missouri, rumored as on the way, a warm reception. "Our 
motto is: If we cannot have an honorable peace, let us have an 
honorable war." 62 Seven days later he wrote, under the caption 
"Independence": 

Independence ! If thy name belong to us, let us wear it honorably ; . . . 
And if Kansas is today the political focus of our country, what is expected of 
us ... at such a post? 63 

The celebration itself, however, stirred even editorial enthusiasm. 64 
"A year ago and Lawrence was not." Now, on the morning of the 
Fourth, her streets looked like those of a thronged city. "Con- 
gratulatory musketry" announced the dawn. Visitors who had be- 
gun to arrive the night before gathered in "knots" along Massachu- 
setts street. Families came in from their claims near by. Delaware 
and Shawnee Indians drove in in wagon loads. The Topeka band 
rode down by night to be at the levee for the parade at nine o'clock. 
Franklin sent its representatives in a large covered wagon, from the 
top of which floated the national flag, with the figures '76 among 
the Stars and Stripes. The Blue Mound and Wakarusa neighbor- 

58. Kansas Free State, July 16, 1855, speech quoted in an editorial. 

59. Type of the Times, Cincinnati, Ohio, July 28, 1855. 

60. The Daily Transcript, Worcester, Mass., July 28, 1855. 

61. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, June 16, 1855. 

62. Ibid., June 23, 1855. 

63. Ibid., June 30, 1855. 

64. Ibid., July 7, 14, 28, 1855. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 43 

hoods formed a procession of their own, consisting of men and 
women equestrians in double column, seven double wagons driven 
by seven two-horse teams, and three large ox-wagons fastened to- 
gether and drawn by eleven yoke of oxen. The grouping of the 
oxen demonstrated the proverb, "In Union is strength." The wagons 
were all crowded with seats, chairs, and people who waved aloft 
flags and colored handkerchiefs. Branches of rose trees and flowers 
ornamented the horses and the carriages. 

From the Governor Robinson home on Mt. Oread, Mrs. Robin- 
son watched the groups moving in from all directions. 65 The gar- 
lands of leaves and flowers, she wrote, hid the roughness of the 
vehicles. Dress, distinctive of the place whence they had emigrated, 
characterized the different groups. Some were from the East; some, 
from the far West ; others were from Missouri. 

An assembly of 1,500 to 2,000 participated in the festivities of 
the day. Two organized military companies in uniform led the 
procession through the chief city streets. At eleven o'clock near 
the Union Hotel the ladies of Lawrence presented a rich silk flag to 
the militia. As the procession moved toward the platform and seats 
in Clinton park, Indians ir^ fantastic array fell in line. A trio of 
them had posts of honor on the speaker's stand. The exercises con- 
sisted of music, prayer, reading of the Declaration of Independence, 
speeches, and oration. One of the speeches was an address by Wil- 
liam Hutchinson on "The Dignity of Labor." 66 

In the oration Dr. Charles Robinson alluded to the peculiar cir- 
cumstances surrounding the settlers in this new and strange country. 
They had come there to plant anew the institutions of the United 
States ; but the citizens of Missouri were imposing laws, upon them 
to force slavery upon the territory. 

It is for us to choose . . . what institutions shall bless or curse our 
beautiful Kansas. . . . Every pulsation in Kansas vibrates to the remotest 
artery of the body politic, and I seem to hear the millions of freemen and the 
millions of bondmen in our own land . . . saying to the people of Kansas: 
"Do your duty! "67 

The audience cheered Dr. Robinson heartily. He had made "a most 
excellent oration, . . . adapted to the times." 68 

65. Robinson, Sara T. D., Kansas: Its Interior and Exterior Life (Crosby, Nichols and 
Co., Boston, 1856), pp. 69, 70. 

66. Hutchinson, Wm., "Sketches of Kansas Pioneer Experiences," Kansas Historical Col- 
lections, v. VII, p. 391. 

67. Herald of Freedom, July 7, 1855, Fourth of July "Oration" of Charles Robinson. 

68. Miller, J. C., "Diary," March 13-July 4, 1855, MSS. division, Kansas State His- 
torical Society. Entry for July 4, 1855. 



44 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

When the audience called loudly for Indian speakers, Mr. Fish of 
the Shawnees and Mr. Pechalka of the Delawares responded amid 
"thunders of applause." 69 Chief Pechalka of the Delawares hoped 
that the settlers would make Kansas a free state, for he believed that 
"a set of men who would crush and enslave one class . . . would 
crush and enslave another if they had the power." 70 They were 
both glad to see the Northerners coming into the territory, "not with 
the hatchet and sounds of war," but with the "sweet fruits of peace 
and civilization." 71 

Following the exercises the guests and the officers of the day 
marched between two lines of military and citizen soldiery to a 
sumptuous public dinner in the grove. Among the toasts and senti- 
ments pronounced afterward from the speaker's stand, those on 
territorial themes are of chief interest today. 

Young Kansas The rights of her citizens trodden down for a brief period, 
have but aroused her to an appreciation of freedom, and inspired her sons 
with a spirit and vigor which shall bid defiance to her enemies. 

The Day We Celebrate An epoch in the history of the world, which shall 
be commemorated as long as the spirit of freedom animates the heart of man. 

Lawrence Its course is onward, and its progress as the city of Kansas a 
fixed fact. 

The Pioneers of Kansas May they reap the rewards of their toil and priva- 
tions, by rearing a state which shall be an honor in the galaxy of the American 
confederacy. 

Our Aboriginal Neighbors . . . May we ever "smoke the pipe of 
peace" together. 

The Laborers of Kansas The basis of all we are or hope to be. 

Of the volunteer toasts one was on the legislature and three were on 
the territory itself. 

The Kansas Legislature A body alien to our soil, elected by fraud: we 
are not responsible for their acts, and ask no favors at their hands. 

Kansas [1]. The home of our adoption. . . . [2]. An infant whose 
growth would astonish Barnum. [3]. Its prosperity and progress are dear to 
all the friends of freedom. May its fertile soil never be cursed with slavery. 72 

The day passed quickly, Mrs. Robinson said, but to strengthen more 
the bonds of social feeling, a party of one hundred or thereabouts 
gathered in the largest hall in town at night and enjoyed re- 
freshments of cake and ice cream together. 73 

69. Herald of Freedom, July 14, 1855. 

70. Miller, J. D., "Diary," entry of July 4, 1855. 

71. Robinson, Sara T. D., op. cit., p. 71. 

72. Herald of Freedom, July 7, 1855. 

73. Robinson, Sara T. D., op. cit., p. 71; Andreas, op. cit., p. 318, says there were two 
social parties at night, one at Union Hall and one at Lykins' Hall, and fireworks on Massa- 
chusetts street in the evening. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 45 

Quiet and harmony had been the proud characteristics of the first 
Fourth of July in Lawrence. Although toward evening there was 
some evidence "a distillery could send its foul streams thitherward," 
the day closed without accident or harm. 74 The Kansas Free State 
criticized the celebration for having a wholly Antislavery oration 
for a Union celebration of Antislavery and Proslavery participants. 75 
The Herald of Freedom replied that only two or three Proslavery 
persons could have been present, and it defended the oration for 
consistent sentiments upon popular sovereignty. 76 Mrs. Robinson 
characterized her husband's talk as a collection of opinions of 
Southern men upon the relative value of free and slave labor, that 
made "a most perfect condemnation of the whole system from their 
own mouths." 77 

One Northerner, Charles Stearns, all of whose anticipations in be- 
half of a free Kansas had been blasted, would not unite in the 
celebration of independence, which for the people of Kansas no 
longer existed; instead, he used the leisure the holiday afforded to 
call upon Northern fanatics and agitators to redouble their efforts in 
behalf of Antislavery truth. 78 

Two events marked the first Fourth of July in Topeka. E. C. K. 
Garvey and company began publishing the city's first newspaper, 
The Kansas Freeman, on this day. "The generality of the citizens" 
observed the holiday by wholesale destruction of the products of the 
distillery. Having a great antipathy to "whisky," its sale, its use, 
its existence, they met in the evening on the open prairie and went 
as a "committee of the whole," to demand of the one liquor dealer in 
town his entire stock. He would not give it up, but he would and 
did sell it to them at a stated price. They rolled out the barrels, 
knocked in the heads, and set fire to the fluid. It " 'went up,' not in 
a 'blaze of glory,' . . . but in an inglorious blaze of red, fiery 
rum" The newspaper commented thus : 

Without one dissenting voice let the decree go forth from our midst that 
the demon intemperance shall be forever banished from among us, and . . . 
our city will ... be the place of wealth and influence in Kansas Territory 
founded on a basis firm as the Hill of Hills, old "Bunker Hill," and free as 

74. Herald of Freedom, July 14, 1855. 

75. Type of the Times, Cincinnati, Ohio, July 28, 1855, criticized The Kansas Free State 
(July 9, 1855), saying "there seems to have been but one opinion among them on the Slavery 
question." 

76. Herald of Freedom, July 28, 1855. 

77. Robinson, Sara T. D., op. cit., p. 70. 

78. The Liberator, Boston, Mass., July 27, 1855. In a letter dated July 9, published in The 
Kansas Free State, July 23, 1855, Stearns wrote that to celebrate without alluding to Anti- 
slavery was gross hypocrisy, yet to lug the theme in with Proslavery people participating was 
a breach of faith. 



46 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the winds that; sweep our own beautiful prairies using for our motto the 
words of the immortal Adams: "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and 
inseparable." 79 

Across the river in Indianola, Samuel J. Reader referred to the 
event as a " Whisky Riot." 80 Spending most of his holiday in 
hauling stone and walling up a well, he went in the late afternoon in 
a wagon to take a neighbor's dog home, shot at a wolf, and saw 
"Delawares & Potts at Frenchman's drunk." The Indians, return- 
ing from a hunt, had patronized the liquor dealer freely. The next 
day, Columbra, the dealer, told Reader that the crowd had spilled 
three-fourths of a barrel of whisky for him. "They damn rasks." 

The Pennsylvania Emigrant Association at Washington, K. T., 
invited friends and neighbors to participate in formal ceremonies for 
the Fourth and to partake of a free dinner. "The morning . . . 
opened bright and lovely, and our widespread prairies seemed to 
smile with delight upon the first 'Independence day.' ' : ' A committee 
had procured a liberty pole and a flag. The program included 
music, prayer, reading of the Declaration of Independence, a speech 
by the president on principles of civil and religious liberty, and an 
oration by W. Y. Roberts, asserting the settlers' desire to govern 
themselves. 

We, . . . the bona fide citizens of Kansas, wish no law of Congress to 
protect us from ourselves, nor do we wish the assistance of citizens of any 
other State or Territory, or the "fatherly care" of aid societies, or the force of 
revolvers or Sharps rifles to teach us the principles or practice of self- 
government . . . the people of Kansas will establish a constitution, 
. . . and very soon shall this "bright particular star" of the west loom out 
upon our national banner, . . . 81 

Among the many toasts, both regular and volunteer, that followed 
the public dinner, provided by the Pennsylvania company, this one 
on the town itself seemed noteworthy: "Washington May she be- 
come the capital of Kansas." 

At three-year-old Fort Riley work was under way in all branches 
in erection of new quarters for the cavalry. 82 Manhattan celebrated 
its first Fourth of July with a picnic. Chestina B. Allen, in her 
journal, referred also to "a dinner at Mrs. Dyer's, to which we were 
all invited." 83 The day, she said, passed quietly. Reminiscing 

79. Herald of Freedom, July 28, 1855, excerpts from The Kansas Freeman. 

80. Reader, Samuel J., "Private Journal and Daybook," entries for July 4, 5, 1855, v. Ill, 
p. 62. MSS. division, Kansas State Historical Society. 

81. Herald of Freedom, July 21, 1855. 

82. Lowe, Percival G., "Recollections of Fort Riley," Kansas Historical Collections, v. VII, 
p. 102. 

83. Allen, Mrs. Chestina B., "Sketches and Journal," entry of July 4, 1855. MSS. divi- 
sion, Kansas State Historical Society. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 47 

thirty-three years later, Isaac T. Goodnow recalled that on this 1855 
anniversary his family had pumpkin pies though they had never 
had them so early since. 84 On this day, too, on the town site of 
Manhattan the blue stem was so high that he could tie it over his 
head as he sat on his pony. 

Council City, now Burlingame, held its first Independence day 
festival "in a lovely grove" on Dragoon river, but the seats, tables, 
and speaker's stand had to be inclosed and covered by green 
boughs. 85 The attendance was about seventy-five. In addition to 
music, prayer, reading of Declaration of Independence, and oration, 
the program here had an original poem by M. C. Haven, and an 
original song, "Land of Priceless Liberty/' by Mrs. J. M. Winchell. 86 
The dinner, provided by mutual donation, was cold but abundant 
and excellent. "The toasts were drunk in cold water, not a drop of 
intoxicating liquor being allowed on the ground" Two of the 
toasts seemed particularly appropriate to the place and time : 

Kansas Territory Late the home of the red man . . . the land of our 
choice may she soon add another to the proud constellation of our national 
banner. 

"Council City" A promising infant may she soon be able to "go 
alone . . ." 

No toast proposed Council City for the capital of Kansas, but the 
New York Tribune correspondent believed that the location of the 
community in what must be the center of the state would neces- 
sitate its being the permanent capital. 87 

At Leavenworth City the Sabbath school, composed of "juvenile 
pioneers" and their teachers, celebrated the day "in fine style." At 
ten o'clock a procession of children marched through the principal 
city streets to a grove, where addresses, songs, and a neat repast en- 
tertained the "scholars." An original song, "We Will Join the Cele- 
bration," by J. I. Moore, a lawyer of Leavenworth, proved a felici- 
tous strain for the occasion. 88 "The little girls were neatly and taste- 
fully dressed in white emblematic of purity with a bright display 
of ribbons and wreaths." Their banners bore the inscription, "Our 
Country's Hope." Pleasure and hilarity characterized the proceed- 
ings of the day, "and the little 'Masters' and 'Misses' dispersed hav- 

84. Goodnow, Isaac T., "Personal Reminiscences and Kansas Emigration, 1855," Kansas 
Historical Collections, v. IV, p. 251. 

85. New York Daily Tribune, July 20, 1855 ; Andreas, op. cit., p. 1531. 

86. Copy of this song, as written in 1855 by Mrs. Winchell, with music composed by 
Lillian Forrest in 1933, is now on file in the MSS. division of the Kansas State Historical 
Society. The music used in 1855 is not now known.. 

87. New York Daily Tribune, July 20, 1855. 

88. The Kansas Territorial Register, Leavenworth, July 7, 1855. 



48 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ing drank 'to their heart's content/ of the golden cup of mirth." 
Their toasts, no doubt spoken by their elders, hoped for Kansas, the 
rigid maintenance of the doctrine of non-intervention; and as for 
Leavenworth, "her true destiny is a commercial compeer of Cincin- 
nati, St. Louis, Chicago and Buffalo." 89 Another, on "Sabbath 
schools," asserted that law-abiding citizens were the only salvation 
of Kansas. 

Delaware planned a "fine Ball and Barbecue" for its Fourth of 
July, 1855. 90 In Atchison, "in absence of the customary facilities for 
a due commemoration," the editor of the Squatter Sovereign thought 
"a pleasant pastime . . . would be the hanging of abolitionists." 91 
Proslavery in sympathy, he regarded the Northern attempts at 
organized free settlement as "oppressions sought to be imposed upon 
us." Subject to such "tyrannical and arbitrary rule," he could not 
contemplate the holiday with any emotion of pleasure. Later he 
reported that "On the Fourth there was no observable difference be- 
tween the Maine Law men and their opponents. Both were observed 
very busy in 'putting down liquor.' " 92 

1856 

From the bloody plains of Kansas, 

From the Senate's guilty floor, 
From the smoking wreck of Lawrence, 

From our Sumner's wounds and gore, 
Comes our country's dying call 
Rise for Freedom! or we fall. 

Speak! ye Orators of Freedom, 
Let your thunder shake these plains; 

Write! ye Editors of Freedom, 

Let your lightning rive their chains; 

Up! ye Sons of Pilgrims, rise! 

Strike ! for Freedom, or she dies ! 

From "Song of Freedom." 93 

Unrest characterized the spirit of the American people at the ap- 
proach of July 4, 1856, and Kansas was the immediate occasion of 
the widespread concern. For two years the North and the South had 
been pouring their emigrants into the territory, each in hope of es- 
tablishing its favored form of government there. In each group were 

89. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, July 7, 1855. 

90. Ibid., June 29, 1855. 

91. Squatter Sovereign, Atchison, July 3, 1855, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. IV, p. 254. 

92. Squatter Sovereign, August 14, 1855. 

93. New York Daily Tribune, July 9, 1856, poem "The Song of Freedom" commemorating 
the eightieth year of the Republic. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 49 

willing leaders and loyal followers who welcomed the publicity at- 
tendant upon the cause they represented. Many emigrants, however, 
more interested in the homes they were founding than in the political 
destiny of the region, found themselves, literally, victims of circum- 
stance. Caught on the chosen battlefield of the national issue, they 
not only had to bear indignities of local border strife but they also 
had to endure public sympathy and public censure. Kansans and 
the Kansas cause were now the common theme of the common 
tongue. The press pictured their hardships; editors dwelt on every 
new injustice; sympathetic friends gave personal letters publication; 
philanthropists and church societies tried to replace material losses 
with material gifts; and ever politicians brooded over and talked 
of the ultimate political fate. 

The eightieth anniversary of American Independence, therefore, 
dawned amid circumstances of peculiar solemnity. "It is the crisis 
of our country's existence, the turning point in her history." 94 In- 
dorsement by the federal administration of Missourians' invasion of 
the Kansas ballot boxes and election of a Kansas legislature from 
their own number had at last stirred the nation. In the North 
orators and clergymen doubled their efforts in serious defense of 
freedom. In the South toastmasters and after-dinner speakers 
treated their views more lightly and briefly, but with feeling that 
was not all jest. 

The North took political action at once. On June 20 the Cleveland 
convention of Free-State Kansas committees recommended the for- 
mation of a county committee of Free-State friends of Kansas on 
July 4. 95 The New York State Kansas Committee invited all un- 
organized counties to call meetings at their courthouses on July 4 to 
appoint county Kansas committees to aid in the present territorial 
crisis and to appoint delegates to the adjourned convention to be 
held in Buffalo, July 9. "Prompt, energetic and concerted action 
can alone save our brethren in Kansas from starvation, persecution 
and destruction, and preserve to future generations the immense 
empire consecrated to Freedom by the Missouri Compromise." 

Several counties responded to this call. Eastern towns in Wash- 
ington county, New York, and western towns in Rutland county, 
Vermont, held a mass meeting at Fair Haven and set efficient meas- 
ures "on foot to render substantial aid to Kansas." 96 Ellenville, 

94. New York Daily Tribune, July 4, 1856. 

95. Ibid., June 28, 1856. 

96. Ibid., July 8, 1856. 

47171 



50 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Ulster county, celebrated the day on the platform of "Free Speech, a 
Free Press, and Free Territory." 97 The Onondaga county mass 
meeting was called at Syracuse to "mingle their sympathies with 
their friends and brethren in Kansas who . . . will be com- 
pelled to sit mute and mourn in silence over their Independence 
lost." This group also asked for a large contribution for Kansas 
relief. 98 Five days later, July 9, 1856, in Buffalo, the friends of 
Kansas, sent as delegates from the county gatherings of the Fourth, 
"chose a National Kansas Committee without the Territory, six- 
teen in number, one from each of the Free States, with supple- 
mentary working members from Illinois and Kansas." 99 This com- 
mittee was to act in concert with the Central Kansas Committee of 
thirteen, chosen July 4, 1856, by the Free-State citizens of Kansas 
themselves in convention at Topeka. 100 In a Republican ratifica- 
tion of the nomination of John C. Fremont for President, held in 
Yonkers, July 11, George W. Curtis "asked if, when the merry 
Fourth of July bells were ringing, the people of the North did not 
hear the wails of their suffering-brethren in Kansas, and when every- 
thing betokened peace around them they did not feel that there was 
no peace." 101 

At Paterson, N. J., July 4, A. Oakey Hall of New York, likened 
the present contest for freedom of a new colony in Kansas to the 
Revolutionary contest to free the American colonies. 102 He re- 
viewed recent outrages in the territory, and he disapproved the 
President's being empowered to appoint commissioners to determine 
the fate of Kansas. 

Massachusetts manifested much sympathy in the cause she had 
already generously furthered. As early as June 1, the Rev. Edward 
N. Kirk of Boston proposed keeping the Fourth of July as a day of 
national humiliation and prayer; "for," said he, "surely we shall 
feel more of shame and fear than of pride and hope at the next 
recurrence of that day." 103 Reported observances seem to have 
been of more secular nature than Mr. Kirk recommended. At Spring- 
field the friends of freedom and Fremont celebrated in spirited man- 
ner, 104 although Charles Sumner declined their invitation to give the 

97. Ibid., July 9, 1856. 

98. "Webb Scrap Books," v. XIII, p. 227, unidentified clippings. 

99. New York Daily Tribune, October 11, 1856, letter from Thaddeus Hyatt. 

100. Twelve of these thirteen represented the twelve districts into which Kansas was 
divided; the thirteenth person was from Lawrence. 

101. New York Daily Tribune, July 12, 1856. 

102. Ibid., July 8, 1856. 

103. Ibid., June 24, 1856, excerpt of a sermon delivered June 1, 1856. 

104. Ibid., July 8, 1856. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 51 

address. In Abington G. P. Lowery, private secretary of ex-Gov- 
ernor Reeder, addressed a political convention on the outrages to 
Free-State men in Kansas; John A. Andrew of Boston also spoke on 
the mischief of the Nebraska bill and asked for sympathy and ma- 
terial aid for Kansas. 105 All friends of freedom here were invited to 
join the Plymouth county organization. Citizens of Easthampton 
abandoned their arrangements for a Fourth of July celebration and 
appropriated the money, raised for the occasion, to Kansas; the 
Kansas subscription there reached nearly $1,200. 106 The North 
parish of Greenfield, after hearing its pastor, the Rev. Dr. Chandler, 
make an excellent address on Kansas affairs, contributed $23 "to aid 
the suffering free state emigrants in that territory." 107 

In Vermont the impulses toward Kansas were all generous. The 
"Ladies of Burlington" held a Kansas levee on July 4, at which 
they sold food and flowers all day for the benefit of freedom in 
Kansas. 108 They decorated their Union Hall with wreaths of ever- 
green and mottoes lettered in green cedar; beneath a large spread 
eagle was "Love thy neighbor," "Who is my neighbor?", "Aid for 
Kansas," and "Remember the widow and the fatherless." Ice- 
cream, strawberries, and more substantial viands were the foods 
offered. People flocked in from adjacent towns making the lively 
day a "never-to-be-forgotten Fourth." The sale netted between 
five and six hundred dollars, "a very handsome amount which will 
carry relief and encouragement to many a needy dwelling in Kan- 
sas." At Danby, when the Rev. Jason F. Walker, in his Fourth of 
July discourse, referred to Kansas and urged upon Vermonters their 
duty at the ballot box, the enthusiastic response from the thousand 
sunburnt faces was "a glorious augury for the cause of human 
Liberty." 109 

Sen. William Bigler, speaking in Independence Square, Philadel- 
phia, on the Kansas question and the state of society in Kansas, 
asserted "the difficulties in Kansas were the inevitable consequences 
of the undue officiousness of outsiders. Fanatical abolitionists on 
the one hand and fire-eating Southerners on the other." 110 But 
Pennsylvania had become skeptical of Fourth of July celebrations, 

105. The Atlas, Boston, Mass., July 7, 1856, "Webb Scrap Books," v. XIV, p. 89. 

106. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, July 12, 1856, excerpt from Sprinefield (Mass ) 
Republican. 

107. Springfield (Mass.) Republican, July 9, 1856, "Webb Scrap Books," v. X3V, p. 138. 

108. The Free Press, Burlington, Vt., July 5, 1856; The Atlas, Boston Mass July 9 
1856; Springfield (Mass.) Republican, July 9, 1856, in ibid., pp. 75, 138, and 139. 

109. New York Daily Tribune, July 14, 1856. 

110. Daily Pennsylvanian, Philadelphia, July 9, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XIV, pp. 
143, 144. 



52 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

letting them collapse. The reason, wrote "W. H. F." to the New 
York Tribune, "may be ... that as a people we are not sincere. 
We have lied away our inheritance. When we wrote the Declara- 
tion ... we were not prostituted to Slavery." m At Clark- 
ville, Pa., when a clergyman tried to address a Fourth of July 
gathering of all parties, in "regular abolition, disunion harangue" 
and referred to the President as "a murderous villain," the audience 
simultaneously forced him to sit down. 112 

In Washington, D. C., where the report of the Kansas investigat- 
ing committee had just been published, revealing a state of things 
one hundred-fold worse than was expected, the day was a sad 
Fourth of July. "Instead of liberty," wrote "Daniel" of The Morn- 
ing Star, "slavery surrounds us. ... The Fourth of July, is 
it? ... On this very day our brethren are in prison in Kan- 
sas, for speaking and acting for freedom not for violating any 
law of this land!" 113 

For a third time Painesville, Ohio, heard of the needs of Kan- 
sas on a Fourth of July. On this occasion Gov. Salmon P. Chase 
talked of the wrongs and the remedy. 114 The wrongs to the new 
territory were greater than those to the young nation eighty years 
ago ; the effective remedy now, however, was not revolution, but the 
peaceful use of the ballot. 

Two Wisconsin communities manifested their sympathy July 4. 
The neighborhood of Waupun, Dodge county, raised "over a thou- 
sand dollars" in response to an appeal for Kansas. 115 The editor of 
The Sentinel, wrote: "The heart of the people beats warmly for 
Freedom everywhere." In Burlington, Racine county, a political 
gathering sympathized with "the Freemen of Kansas in their heroic 
struggle to maintain those rights of American citizens," established 
in 1776, by reversing the national flag as a signal of distress and by 
resolving to support through the candidates of the Republican party 
the "sacred rights of Humanity, . . . treacherously betrayed 
on the soil of Kansas by the Sham Democracy of Pierce, Douglas, 
Buchanan, & Co." 116 

In Iowa the State Central Committee for the benefit of Free 
Kansas, July 4, 1856, issued a circular announcing the establishment 

111. New York Daily Tribune, July 9, 1856. 

112. Squatter Sovereign, Atchison, August 12, 1856. 

113. Manchester (N. H.) Democrat, July 23, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XV, pp. 
100-102. 

114. New York Daily Tribune, July 10, 1856. 

116. Fountain City Herald, Fond du Lac, Wis., July 15, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. 
XIV, p. 225. 

116. Daily Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis., July 16, 1856, in ibid., p. 236. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 53 

of the Lane trail through Iowa and Nebraska, an overland route 
planned by James H. Lane and other territorial leaders for safer 
passage of Northern emigrants to Kansas. 117 One of a party of emi- 
grants en route to Kansas that day entered in his diary in Keokuk 
county, "Today . . . men on their road to Kansas are com- 
pelled to carry arms for the preservation of their rights." 118 He was 
Richard J. Hinton, then himself carrying arms supplied through 
Thomas Wentworth Higginson. 

All the Southern sentiment expressed on the Fourth of July, 1856, 
and now preserved, is in the form of toasts following conventional 
celebrations of the day. At Grahamville, S. C., the constitution of 
the United States was "The apple of discord"; the Union was 
"Nominal in form but dissolved in spirit"; and Kansas "May her 
streams become rivers of blood and her forests charnel houses, be- 
fore her soil shall be contaminated and her atmosphere polluted by 
the free soil partisans of the North." 119 

The toasts at Healing Springs, S. C., were not only politically 
Democratic but frankly anti-Republican. 

Massachusetts We have always beaten her in the debates on the Union. 
We have whipped her in Kansas, and we have caned her in the Senate Hall. 

The Hon. P. S. Brooks May the cause of Southern Brooks ever flourish over 
the growth of Northern Free Soil. 

Gen. Atchison Hoping that he may live to see Kansas a Slave State in the 
Union or out of the 1 Union. 

Kansas Strike while the iron is hot 

Strike with men and means; 
And let the Yankees see we've got 
The right to hold the reins. 

The Milwaukee Sentinel commented satirically upon the "sectional" 
character of these sentiments voiced by the "Sham Democracy" 
that called itself the only "national party." 121 

At the Sandy Level Church in the Fairfield district, South Caro- 
lina, Kansas was "The lovely spot where the issue must be de- 
cided. May the South send an enlightened and intelligent emigra- 
tion thither." The Fairfield district gathering also toasted Preston 
S. Brooks as one of Carolina's "'distinguished representatives"; and 
Franklin Pierce, as "the fearless advocate of the Constitution." 122 

117. Connelley, W. E. f "The Lane Trail," Kansas Historical Collections, v. XIII, pp. 268, 
269; Pride, W. F., The History of Fort Riley (1926), p. 119. 

118. Hinton, Richard J., "Journal," entry, July 4, 1856. MSS. division, Kansas State 
Historical Society. 

119. The Atlas, Boston, Mass., July 18, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XV, p. 27. 

120. Daily Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis., July 26, 1856, in ibid., p. 130. 

121. Ibid. 

122. New York Daily Tribune, July 11, 1856. 



54 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Charleston held a spirited celebration. The great struggle going 
on in the Western territory between slavery and Abolitionism was 
the theme of "noble" spokesmen. They alternated praise of Presi- 
dent Pierce and their congressmen with varied sentiments on Kan- 
sas and Kansans. Missouri, "Beset by hordes of Northern Aboli- 
tionists from without, and ingrates and traitors within," was "the 
Banner State of the South." South Carolina herself "Brooks no in- 
sult, and when one is offered . . . resents in a Sumnery man- 
ner." Atchison received gratitude for his faithfulness to the South 
and his kindness to Carolinians. Of the nine toasts on Kansas, 
these seemed to voice the general attitude : 

Kansas The Star in the West; it points the way to the salvation of the 
South. 

Kansas Clouds and darkness attend her dawn. May they not prefigure a 
brilliant meridian when, as a bright particular star, she enters the Southern 
constellation? 

Kansas It has risen like the ghost of Banquo, to sear the eyeballs of 
rampant fanaticism; but ere they clutch it, they must cross many Brooks 
whose Caney growth will resist them. 

Kansas The Marathon of Southern Institutions; when Slavery is extermi- 
nated there by Sharps rifles the South may prepare for the same kind of moral 
suasion for its abolition nearer home. 123 

The last sentiment alone, and it "by the Chair," seemed under- 
standing and prophetic. 

Within Kansas territory itself the citizens awaited the arrival of 
July 4, 1856, with even greater concern than had the sympathetic 
nation. Topeka was the center of interest, for there, at noon, was 
to reassemble the Free-State legislature adjourned March 1. Or 
wasn't it to reassemble? Thereby hung the tale; therein lay the 
common anxiety. 

New border warfare threatened. 124 Proslavery men had arranged 
muster and review drills for Lecompton, Tecumseh, and Atchison 
on July 4. 125 Rumor to the effect that James H. Lane was bringing 
in a large force from the north had agitated the Missouri border to 
try "to march 400 Missourians of baser sort to Topeka." 126 Lieuten- 
ant Mclntosh of Company E, First cavalry, intercepted this plan on 
July 4. 127 Meantime, federal troops from Fort Riley and Fort 

123. Ibid.; Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, August 2, 1856. 

124. Clark, Edward, letter, Lawrence, June 21, 1856, to "Dear Gen'l [C. K. Holliday, To- 
peka]," in MSS. division, Kansas State Historical Society. Lawrence merchants offered to send 
a supply of flour to Topeka for use at the anniversary gathering, provided Topeka could get it 
safely there and could furnish water-tight storage. 

125. New York Daily Tribune, July 2, 1856. 

126. Daily Tribune, Detroit, Mich., July 15, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XIV, p. 
227. 

127. The Atlas, Boston, Mass., July 24, 1856, in ibid., v. XV, p. 131. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 55 

Leavenworth, under command of Col. E. V. Simmer, concentrated 
around Topeka, presumably to maintain "Law and Order" there. 
When Acting Governor Woodson had first conferred with Colonel 
Sumner about the proposed assembly of the legislature, the col- 
onel had advised the presence in Topeka of a justice of the peace 
and a marshal to join Major Sedgwick in drawing writs on all 
the members of the legislature the minute they assembled. Wood- 
son, however, asked Sumner to come with two troops. Accord- 
ingly he concentrated five companies and two pieces of artillery 
there on July 3. 128 

Preliminary to the legislative assembly the Free-State party met 
in convention in Topeka July 2-4, with headquarters in the new 
hotel. 129 On July 2 the delegates met by districts; on July 3-4 
they held a mass convention. 130 Some 800 persons were in attend- 
ance, among them many members of the legislature. Only from 
the settlements near by, however, had people ventured to come in 
numbers. Fear of border depredation in their own communities 
had detained many at home. 131 

The Free-State legislators had come to Topeka resolved to hold 
their legislative meeting in spite of any Border-Ruffian interfer- 
ence. 132 Many of them brought in arms privately, though they 
did not mean to appear with them unless necessary. Some laid 
double floors in wagon bottoms and packed weapons between; 
others hid them under loads of wood, hauled in "for sale." 133 Both 
the legislature and the assembled people, however, now resolved 
to offer no resistance to the government troops. Gov. Charles Robin- 
son, in prison near Lecompton, sent instructions to make no opposi- 
tion unless the troops wantonly fired on the legislature or the people ; 
and, if ordered to disperse, they should disperse. 134 

July 3 and 4 the mass convention carried on its business. It 
passed resolutions indorsing the state movement and the Topeka 
constitution. It elected the Kansas State Central Committee to 
determine, among other things, upon the management and control of 

128. Shindler, Henry, "Manuscript of the History of Fort Leavenworth," pp. 251, 252. 

129. New York Daily Tribune, July 19, 1856. 

130. The Kansas Tribune, Topeka, July 9, 1856; Chapman, J. Butler, letter to "Dear 
Will," written in Kansapolis, K. T., July 6, 1856. Typescript of letters from J. B. Chapman, 
printed in the Northern Indianian (July 31, 1856), supplied by George A. Nye of Warsaw, 
Ind., who owns the file. 

131. New York Daily Tribune, July 10, 1856. In his Conquest of Kansas, p. 393, W. A. 
Phillips says there were fewer than 800 Free-State men, besides the legislators in Topeka. 

132. New York Daily Tribune, July 12, 1856. 

133. The Semi-Weekly Times, New York, July 22, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XV, 
p. 82. 

134. New York Daily Tribune, July 10, 1856. 



56 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the Free-State party. It memorialized congress to admit Kansas 
into the Union. 135 

On the afternoon of July 3 people learned that the military force 
about the town was itself to forbid the assembly of the legislature. 
Both branches of the legislature met on July 3 and resolved to as- 
semble in regular session, agreeable to adjournment, at noon on July 
4 136 The business transacted here secretly, by authority of Acting 
Gov. John Curtis, was to be security for the perpetuation of their 
power lest they be prevented from meeting the next day. 137 

Topeka was full of people both indoors and out. To one young 
man it "look[ed] lively, animated with the tents of volunteers, the 
covered wagons and camp fires scattered all about, and the scores of 
horses picketed in every vacant space near them." 138 Holiday cele- 
bration began on the evening of July 3 when the "ladies of Topeka" 
presented a banner of white silk, lettered in blue, to a military com- 
pany of the city. The men wore uniforms of white pants, blue 
shirts, and Kossuth hats. 

The morning of the Fourth broke cloudily, but fresh prairie breezes 
soon blew the clouds away. 139 "Naturally a more beautiful, polit- 
ically a more important day, never rose in Kansas," wrote James 
Redpath. 140 At sunrise the army artillery fired a cannon thirteen 
times in salute. 141 Flags floated from every public building. 
"Franklin Pierce was found hung in effigy at the back of one of the 
outhouses." 142 Armed, determined men filled the streets. 143 Martial 
music and gruff commands mingled with the tramp of drill and the 
roar of firearms. Half a dozen military companies paraded about. 
Women promenaded with little banners flying from their parasols. 144 
Ladies from Lawrence waved on the tops of their sunshades the 
United States flag embroidered for the occasion and trimmed in 
mourning. 145 

Gaiety and assumed indifference ill concealed the suppressed ex- 
citement with which people awaited the crucial noon hour. The 
convention, gathered around the hotel, however, continued the 

135. The Kansas Tribune, Topeka, July 9, 1856. 

136. Gihon, John H., Geary and Kansas (Chas. C. Rhodes, Philadelphia, 1857), pp. 45, 
46 ; Phillips, op. cit., p. 396. 

137. Chapman, J. B., letter to "Dear Will," Kansapolis, July 5, 1856. 

138. New York Chronicle, July 26, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XV, p. 142. 

139. New York Daily Tribune, July 19, 1856. 

140. Daily Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis., July 17, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XV, p. 2. 

141. New York Daily Times, in ibid., pp. 82, 83. 

142. Semi-Weekly Tribune, New York, July 18, 1856, in ibid., p. 34. 

143. Hartford Courant, July 23, 1856, in ibid., p. 93 ; Chapman, J. B., letter to "Will." 
July 5, 1856. 

144. New York Daily Tribune, July 19, 1856. 

145. Ibid., July 30, 1856. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 57 

semblance of business. About nine o'clock messengers from "the 
Northern States" arrived with word that "the people of the North 
were not prepared to stand by us in resisting the federal govern- 
ment." 146 At ten o'clock Marshal I. B. Donalson and Judge Rush 
Elmore, mistaking the assembly for the legislature, interrupted pro- 
ceedings to read proclamations of the President and the governor for 
dismissal. 147 Learning their error, they retired in chagrin, the lanky, 
jean-clad figure of Donalson with "iron-grey whiskers and imbecile- 
looking eyes" 148 leading the way back to his Proslavery accomplices 
S. D. Lecompte, Judge Sterling G. Cato, and Sec. Daniel Wood- 
son now in the camp of Colonel Sumner. The convention mean- 
time resumed its business. 

The day and the temperature advanced together. Toward twelve 
o'clock the thermometer stood at 100. Crowds milled through the 
streets. The band played. Companies F and G of Topeka marched 
to the legislative hall where the ladies were now to present Com- 
pany G with a banner bearing the inscription, "Our lives for our 
rights." 

Then word came that Colonel Sumner was approaching in full 
military array, with the battle flag flying. 149 Beside him, at the 
head of the procession, was the military band; and close behind 
were three squadrons of dragoons and two loaded brass cannon," 
with their muzzles pointing down the street, the gunners at their 
stations, and the slow matches lighted and burning." The army 
surgeon had his case of instruments open, ready for use. 150 A com- 
mittee from the convention at once waited upon Colonel Sumner to 
inquire whether he meant to disperse the convention or disband the 
local military companies. He replied that he would disperse only 
the legislature. Some one then gave three cheers for Colonel Sum- 
ner; James Redpath proposed three cheers for Governor Robinson; 
and some one else, three cheers for Liberty. Since the camp was 
only 200 yards out of town, the dragoons debouched rapidly into 
Kansas avenue, formed into position, and pressed upon the Topeka 
companies at once, the latter stepping out of rank only far enough 

146. The Daily Transcript, Worcester, Mass., July 24, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. 
XV, pp. 110, 111. 

147. New York Daily Tribune, July 19, 1856. The proclamations read were three: That 
of Pres. Franklin Pierce, February 11, 1856, for preservation of constituted authority in the 
territory of Kansas ; the second, the proclamation of Gov. Wilson Shannon, June 4, 1856 ; and 
the proclamation of Acting-Gov. Daniel Woodson, July 4, 1856. The Woodson proclamation 
is in the New York Daily Tribune, July 17, 1856. 

148. Daily Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis., July 17, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XV, pp. 
2>j o. 

149. New York Daily Tribune, July 19, 1856. 

IQ \ 6 &* T . he ll *-Weekly Times, New York, July 18, 1856, and Burlington Free Press, July 
19, 1856, m Webb Scrap Books," v. XV, pp. 32, 33 and 50. Also, Phillips, op. cit., p. 402. 



58 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

not to be trampled on. The band played; the drummers drummed 
until the drumsticks nearly touched the noses of the advancing 
horses. One little boy beating the kettledrum, rattled it manfully 
without even turning to look at the dragoons. 151 As Colonel Sum- 
ner dismounted and walked toward the legislative hall, Mrs. Gates, 
of Lawrence, said to him, "We have met to present a banner to one 
of these Topeka companies on the day of our would-be-independ- 
ence"; and he replied, 'Madame, I hope you will be independent." 152 

When he entered the hall to dismiss the house, "the rooms were 
crowded by the citizens . . . and some ladies, ... to wit- 
ness the spectacle." To secure a quorum for roll call the sergeant- 
at-arms had to summon absentees. Then Colonel Sumner read his 
order for dismissal. 

Gentlemen : I am called upon this day to perform the most painful duty of 
my whole life. Under the authority of the President's proclamation I am here 
to disperse this Legislature, and therefore inform you that you cannot meet. 
I, therefore, order you to disperse. God knows that I have no party feeling 
in this matter, and will hold none so long as I occupy my present position in 
Kansas. I have just returned from the Borders, where I have been sending 
home companies of Missourians, and now I am ordered here to disperse you. 
Such are my orders, and you must disperse. I now command you to disperse. 
I repeat that this is the most painful duty of my whole life. 153 

All contemporary reports of the occasion indicate that Colonel 
Sumner did his duty in a gentlemanly way. He and members of 
the house exchanged civilities. Judge Philip C. Schuyler asked 
whether they were to understand the legislature was "driven out at 
the point of the bayonet." Colonel Sumner replied, "I shall use 
all the forces in my command to carry out my orders." Then he 
left the hall, mounted his horse, and was about to ride away when 
some one reminded him that he had not dismissed the senate. 

Entering the senate chamber, he found the members had not 
assembled; therefore, when he read the order for dispersion, the 
president, T. G. Thornton, informed him that since they had not 
convened they could not conform. Colonel Sumner replied that 
his orders were to prevent their meeting. Then Marshal Donalson 
brought more ignominy upon himself by threatening every member 
with arrest, should they try again to assemble. Ignoring this "out- 
rageous demand," several senators let Colonel Sumner know they 
would respect his order. J. H. Pillsbury said that since they were 

161. Daily Tribune, Detroit, July 15, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XIV, p. 227. A 
correspondent states that Sumner directed two cannon toward Constitution Hall and four 
toward the principal street. 

152. New York Daily Tribune, July 19, 1856. 

153. Ibid. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 59 

in no condition to resist United States troops, they would of course 
have to disperse. 

As Colonel Sumner came down stairs, he recognized W. A. Phillips 
and nodded to him. 

"Colonel," said Phillips, "you have robbed Oliver Cromwell of his laurels." 

Sumner did not speak, but the expression of his eye clearly indicated what 
he thought. 

He looked startled at first, then serious, angry, and agitated. 

He ... saw at once the full enormity of the orders he had been com- 
pelled to obey. . . .15* 

Outside some one cheered for Sumner to let him know the people 
did not hold him responsible for the order he had just executed. A 
new American flag, with an extra star in the corner but not in the 
Union, was hoisted over Constitution Hall. 155 Three cheers were 
then given for the flag, three for the orphan star Kansas coming 
into the Union three for Fremont, followed by three groans for 
Pierce and the present government. The three groans for Pierce, 
wrote Dr. John H. Gihon, "fairly shook the building and startled 
the horses of the soldiers," 156 making them break out of line. 

The crisis in an historically eventful day had passed. For Kan- 
sas and for the nation it was a unique Fourth of July. What was 
left of the holiday the people of Topeka now settled down to keep 
in a more traditional way. One reporter asserted Colonel Sumner 
was under orders to arrest any gathering of people assembled to 
celebrate the Fourth of July. 157 This report must have been er- 
roneous, for he now proffered use of his cannon and gunners to 
make noise for a boisterous celebration. 158 Some of the boys among 
the rallied Free-State volunteers "begged the officers, with tears 
in their eyes, to be led against the dragoons." 159 Many, in their 
excitement, insulted the soldiers, but no collision ensued. J. S. 
Emery, one of the men just returned that morning from a tour of 
the North, said in an address in the afternoon that no great emi- 
gration would come from the East at present; people were afraid 
to come. The North was blind to its own interest; it might raise 
money, but money without men would now be nearly useless to 
Kansas territory. At night a throng of men and women filled the 

154. Daily Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis., article by James Redpath, in "Webb Scrap Books," 
v. XV, pp. 2, 3. 

155. The Semi-Weekly Times, New York, private letter from Topeka, in ibid., p. 81. 

156. Gihon, op. cit., pp. 46, 47. See, also, clipping from the Chicago Democratic Press, 
in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XV, pp. 32, 33. 

157. New York Daily Tribune, July 12, 1856, excerpt from Chicago Tribune. 

158. Daily Tribune, Detroit, July 15, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XIV, p. 227. 

159. The Daily Transcript, Worcester, Mass., July 24, 1856, letter from J. H. M. in ibid., 
v. XV, pp. 110, 111. 



60 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

lower room of Constitution Hall to hear LeGrand B. Cushman, 
"the renowned vocalist and delineator," of Bloomington, K. T., who 
kept them "in a roar of laughter." 16 

While Topeka kept the day thus variously, some other com- 
munities in the territory held their own Fourth of July celebrations. 
Free-State groups, if near enough, were generally content to share 
in Topeka affairs; Lawrence willingly went there, arduous as was 
the twenty-eight mile trip in the heat of July, 1856. 161 Wabaunsee 
rather reluctantly gave up its first plans for the day when re- 
quested by Topeka to attend the convention, but at the last only 
two representatives were able to go, by saddle horses. The rest of 
the colony then on July 3 hastily and vigorously reconsidered its 
original plan for celebration. A sunrise salute from the Prairie 
Guard and display of the American flag ushered in the Fourth. 
At four o'clock the military escorted a procession of about one 
hundred to tables spread under an awning on the prairie. Eight 
women and fifteen children were in the gathering. There were 
no seats except the grass, but the tools were plentiful, consisting 
of tin plates, cups, and pans, with all the knives and forks in the 
company. The food, got up under great disadvantages by George 
Coe, Esq., consisted of roast and canned beef, cold tongue, baked 
Indian and rice puddings, pear and apple pies, three kinds of cake, 
and lemonade. Songs, numerous toasts, and an address by the 
president, C. B. Lines, constituted the program. At sundown the 
Prairie Guard fired another salute and then "the boys 'cut up' in 
a sort of general dance, after a fiddle played by one of the old 
settlers." 162 Manhattan had its own picnic. 163 In Indianola Samuel 
J. Reader heard the cannon shots morning and noon. He looked 
through a glass at Topeka; he could see two flags; he realized the 
legislature was broken up. "No war. Pshaw! on it all." His 
regret, however, did not deter him from his private pleasures of 
swimming in the river, gathering berries and cucumbers and play- 
ing the fiddle. The next day he wrote, "les wars est passe" and 
noted, as native foods, potatoes, cucumbers, early cherries, and 
gooseberries. 164 

160. Kansas Tribune, Topeka, July 9, 1856. 

161. The Daily Transcript, Worcester, Mass., July 24, 1856, letter from J. H. M. in 
"Webb Scrap Books," v. XV, pp. 110, 111. 

162. Daily Palladium, New Haven, Conn., July 24, 1856, in ibid., p. 109. Also, C. B. 
Lines, "Scrap Book," pp. 84-86. 

163. Allen, Mra. Chestina B., "Sketches and Journal," entry of July 4, 1856. 

164. Reader, Samuel J., "Private Journal and Daybook," v. Ill, p. 86, entries of July 4, 
5, 1856. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 61 

At Lecompton observance began with a discharge of cannon to 
salute the rising sun; a procession, conventional exercises, a free 
barbecue, toasts, and sentiments filled the day, spent in a grove 
where "luxuriant foliage formed grateful protection against the 
warm beams of the meridian sun"; and at night in a hall in the 
Lecompton hotel "our beaux and belles engaged themselves to the 
fullest extent," 165 

Allen county held a celebration just south of Cofachiqui where 
the twenty settlers mashed down the tall bluestem and seated 
themselves a la Indian to hear a young lady read the Declaration 
and Gen. William Barbee of Fort Scott deliver an oration. When 
the orator developed the drunken hiccoughs so badly that he 
could not talk, the people called for "Rice, and more Rice," mean- 
ing Cyrus R. Rice, Methodist missionary to the Indians. At this 
juncture Chief Townmaker with twenty-odd Osage braves rode up 
to "swap." For "flour, hoggie meat and bac" the braves all engaged 
in a war dance to the accompaniment of two tin whistles, a tam- 
bourine, and a long-handled gourd with pebbles in it, each dancer 
flourishing a tomahawk and scalp. When the white women be- 
came so frightened that they wanted to leave, the Indians ended 
the dance with war whoops. Then Townmaker proposed a smoke, 
for which he used his own tomahawk pipe, first taking a puff him- 
self, wiping the stem on his shirt, and then passing it around 
for every one else in the circle, Indian and white, to follow his 
example. 166 

To keep the nation's birthday in Anderson county Free-State 
settlers assembled under a large oak tree at the cabin of W. L. 
Frankenberger, about two miles east of Garnett, where C. E. Dewey 
read the Declaration; H. H. Williams, Capt. Samuel Anderson, and 
Judge James Y. Campbell delivered orations; and the women sang 
patriotic songs. Judge Campbell felt a settled gloom on every one. 
W. A. Johnson likened the people in this "new and wild country" 
to the Pilgrim Fathers and commended their "Christian fortitude" in 
trying to found a free commonwealth. 167 At Osawatomie a fallen 
oak tree served for seats for a celebration on the open prairie. 
Indians of confederated tribes near by dressed in their best attire, 

165. Richmond Whig, July 22, 1856, letter from Lecompton, K. T., in "Webb Scrap 
Books," v. XV, p. 87. 

166. Rice, Cyrus R., "Experiences of a Pioneer Missionary," in Kansas Historical Col- 
lections, v. XIII, pp. 308, 309. 

167. Johnson. W. A., History of Anderson County, Kansas (Kauffman & Her, Garnett 
Plaindealer, 1877), pp. 47, 48; Campbell, James Y., First History of Anderson County (Gar- 
nett Weekly Journal Print, 1876), p. 8 ; Johnson, H., A History of Anderson County, Kansas 
(Garnett Review Co., Garnett, 1986), pp. 4, 8. 



62 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

with as many as six silk handkerchiefs flowing from their shoulders, 
and came riding in on their ponies. The bountiful foods supplied by 
the settlers held their attention. No one had any whisky. A spring 
furnished cool water. 168 In Leavenworth the children of the different 
Sabbath schools, with their teachers and other men and women of 
the city, met at Union Church to hear "a handsome and beautiful 
address, appropriate to the occasion," by Dr. S. A. Marshal. 169 
Delaware City marked the day for itself and the surrounding country 
with a barbecue, the reading of the Declaration of Independence, 
and speeches; "the beauty and chivalry, the gallant beaux, the old 
and the young . . . would do honor to older and more densely 
populated cities." 17 

Merriment and self-righteousness vied for eminence in the ob- 
servances at Kickapoo and Palermo. Kickapoo centered its events 
in Salt creek valley which on July 4, 1856, looked "like a paradise on 
earth," with its waving wheat, its magnificent corn, and its varie- 
gated wild flowers. 171 In this naturally charming setting, the 
festivities were strangely militaristic. The Fourth regiment of Kan- 
sas militia paraded through the valley. Maj. M. P. Kivally, with 
his staff in uniform, the Kickapoo Rangers, and the Union Guards, 
led the march to the barbecue grounds in "real military style." 
The large assembly of men and women at the stand listened to 
formal exercises followed by presentation by the ladies of Kickapoo 
of a flag, of their own workmanship, to the Kickapoo Rangers. 
After the dinner, sentiments and patriotic toasts were read from 
each end of the long table. The day closed with a grand military 
ball at the American Hotel, where "beauty and chivalry of town 
and country were in attendance." Prefacing with opinion the story 
of the holiday in this law-ordered, prosperous squatter area, Leaven- 
worth editors lamented the fearful commotion now abroad in the 
land, the wild fanaticism prevailing in certain quarters, and the ap- 
peal of wily politicians to evil passions in men, but believed the 
nature of the American government would enable it to weather the 
crisis. 172 

The correspondent in Palermo was more blunt, attributing the 
absence of "broil and battle" in his portion of the territory to freedom 
from "the curse of any 'Aid Society' interference." The settlers had 

168. "Miami County Clippings," v I, p. 3, in library division, Kansas State Historical 
Society. Once in the article Mr. Brown refers to the year of this celebration as 1855. 

169. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, Juy 12, 1856. 

170. Ibid. 

171. Ibid. 

172. Ibid. For M. P. Kivally aee Footnote 29. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 63 

come to this region with families, horses, cattle, and plows to im- 
prove the country and themselves. While arson and murder had 
run riot elsewhere, they had quietly engaged in industrial avocations 
and social quiet. Therefore, on July 4, they had been able to invite 
"the multitudes" from Doniphan, Whitehead, Wathena, and the 
intervening country to join with them in harmonious celebration of 
the birthday of the Republic. As a result the day was "an epoch in 
Palermo." A band from St. Joseph caused the hills to echo with 
soul-stirring strains. The Doniphan Blues made "the streets glitter 
with their polished bayonets and dizzy with their intricate revolu- 
tions." At ten o'clock the people congregated "in the shadows of 
some noble elms" for the conventional Independence day exercises. 
At noon they feasted in the spacious dining hall of the new hotel. 
Then they removed the cloth, drank toasts, and exchanged senti- 
ments joyously "until that witching hour that Vesperus woos Terp- 
sichore, when her votaries assembled in a large room above, and in 
the maze of dance and whirl of waltz they sped the night, as if by 
magic, into morning." 173 

The Fourth of July, 1856, was over, but word of its occurrences 
in Kansas had yet to reach the nation. Colonel Sumner wrote, "I 
consider myself very fortunate in having accomplished my object 
without using an angry word or receiving one the slightest degree dis- 
respectful." 174 On July 5, when he passed through Lecompton en 
route to Leavenworth, he called on Governor Robinson at the prison 
camp. The Free-State men, he said, had injured their own cause by 
not dispersing at the reading of the governor's proclamation. Gov- 
ernor Robinson replied that had he been in Topeka they would not 
have dispersed until the colonel fired upon them. 

On July 4, Mrs. Robinson had written ironically in her diary, 
"Was there ever such a glorious country as this, with petty tyrants 
made weak-headed by a little power?" Now, after the call of Colonel 
Sumner, her next entry was without irony: "Another scene in this 
dark and tragic drama of crushing out a free people has been en- 
acted. . . . The people of this mighty nation wear sackcloth 
and mourning. The star-spangled banner ... is draggled through 
the blood of those slain, at the bidding of a merciless administration, 
on Kansas plains." 175 In his Conquest of Kansas W. A. Phillips 
wrote that the territory was now politically prostrate. "But Kan- 

173. The Republican, St. Louis, July 11, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XIV, pp. 

174. Shindler, Henry, "Manuscript of the History of Fort Leavenworth," p 253 letter 
from E. V. Sumner dated August 11, 1856, to adjutant general at Leavenworth. 

175. Robinson, Sara T. D., op. cit,, pp. 309, 310. 



64 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

sas, though conquered by Missouri and her allies, is not yet sub- 
dued ... a liberty-loving people remain." 176 

"For Freedom's battle once begun 
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son 
Though baffled oft is ever won." 

On the Fourth and the days immediately subsequent the letter- 
writers in Kansas began their slow and laborious long-hand task of 
informing the press and the people of the latest territorial happen- 
ings. They wrote from Topeka and they wrote from their home 
towns after their return from the convention. Most of them were 
Northerners whose correspondence both related and interpreted 
events. Some of them, attached to metropolitan dailies, sent short 
messages by telegraph via St. Louis, but the fuller accounts had to 
depend upon the mails for delivery. Through July and half of 
August, 1856, the story of the Fourth in Topeka was current in the 
American press. Letters were printed and reprinted, copied, clipped, 
quoted and cited, until signatures became almost as well known as 
the stories and opinions above them. 

"Driven out at the point of the bayonet," m the stories read, or 
"dispersed at the peril of their lives." Thus had a "legislature of 
the people, legally and lawfully assembled," 178 yielded to Uncle Sam 
in his game of "playing smash"; 179 or, in the more expressive lan- 
guage of Stephen A. Douglas, they had "permitted themselves to be 
'subdued.'" 180 "Popular sovereignty! popular sovereignty!" ex- 
claimed one writer, "where is its realities, as promised by Douglas 
and Co.? " 181 Here, in the contested territory for its trial, had a 
United States marshal with proclamations of the President and two 
governors annulled "the proclamation of the people, dated July 4, 
1776." 182 Four days later the same paper characterized these 
recent proclamations as "flummery and nonsense," and supposed the 
dignitaries who read them at the convention must have felt they had 
come on a fool's errand. 183 On the day of dispersal W. A. Phillips 
in Topeka wrote the New York Tribune that Franklin Pierce had 
today done what had been done only thrice in history: Cromwell 
had forcibly dissolved the Long Parliament ; Napoleon with force of 

176. Phillips, op. cit., pp. 407, 412. 

177. New York Daily Tribune, July 10, 19, 1856. 

178. The Courant, Hartford, July 23, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XV, p. 93. 

179. The Daily Spy, Worcester, July 24, 1856, in ibid., p. 111. 

180. The Daily Sentinel, Milwaukee, July 25, 1856, in ibid., p. 119. 

181. The Republican, Peoria, July 18, 1856, in ibid., p. 22. 

182. The Atlas, Boston, Mass., July 24, in ibid., p. 111. 

183. Ibid., pp. 161, 152. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 65 

arms had dispersed the National Assembly; now Pierce had em- 
ployed the national troops to drive from a legislative hall the rep- 
resentatives of a free people. 184 

One Proslavery eye-witness, using the signature "Raw," wrote 
from Leavenworth county, July 7, in defense of the use of govern- 
ment troops to thwart the "treasonable" attempt of the "bogus legis- 
lature" to reassemble. The local military companies which paraded 
the Topeka streets under pretext of celebrating the Fourth, he said, 
were really there secretly to enable this legislature to enact laws 
and establish a government of its own. The federal interference, he 
believed, had been completely successful, preventing even assembly 
with adjournment. The episode was but "the degrading result of 
the efforts of the Aid Society, and the 'Free-State movement.' " As 
for the delegates to the Topeka convention, they were all "abolition- 
ists." He admitted the general cheers in support of Governor 
Robinson and the groans for President Pierce and Governor Shan- 
non; but he added satirically that "Notwithstanding they groaned 
the President in the morning, still, they in the evening, passed a 
resolution ... to memorialize him." 185 

Editors of Northern sympathy at once used the new outrage in 
their long-continued pleas to evoke aid for ruffian-ridden Kansas. 
The editor of the New York Times compared the dispersal by Pierce 
to the entry of Cromwell into the British Commons; but Cromwell 
was a usurper whereas "Our military dictation ... is per- 
petrated in a Republic, under forms of law and a written Constitu- 
tion, ... an admirable comment upon the 'true intent and 
meaning' of the Nebraska bill." 186 The New York Tribune feared 
that the high-handed acts of tyranny in Kansas, "each more flagi- 
tious" than the last, would in their rapid succession dull rather than 
waken the public sense ; and in comparing the last offense to its only 
parallel in American history the Dorr movement in Rhode Island 
in 1842 found the Free-State men of Kansas who sought to form a 
government where no valid government existed, less reprehensible 
than the Free-Suffrage Rhode Islanders who sought to supplant a 
legally recognized charter. 187 The Detroit Advertiser asserted, in 
an article called "The Point of the Bayonet," that there was "no 

184. New York Daily Tribune, July 19, 1856. W. A. Phillips was the Kansas corre- 
spondent at this time. Sara T. D. Robinson, op. cit., p. 310, in editions of 1856 refers to 
the author as "Mr. P." In the edition of 1899, p. 360, she gives the full name "W. A. 
Phillips." In all editions she quotes his Tribune article of July 19 entire. 

185. The Republican, St. Louis, July 11, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XIV, p. 174. 

186. The Semi-Weekly Times, New York, July 14, 1856, in ibid., p. 223. 

187. New York Daily Tribune, July 10, 1856. 

57171 



66 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

point in geography harder to weather than that, especially for a 
Yankee people"; and that the American people, though slow to 
anger, were now indignant at the unprecedented course of govern- 
ment towards Kansas. 188 The Janesville Gazette felt there was still 
much uncertainty as to the future of this unfortunate territory. 189 
The Kansas Bulletin also asserted that "The end is not yet." 19 The 
editors united in believing Colonel Sumner performed his revolting 
service with reluctance. The Bulletin quoted the New York Eve- 
ning Post, and expressed doubt that he would be allowed a fair 
trial. 191 Another paper saw the characteristic cowardice of the ad- 
ministration in its endeavor to evade the odium of the Topeka affair 
by throwing the whole responsibility upon the military representa- 
tive. 192 The Tribune believed Colonel Sumner had no alternative but 
retirement from the service. 193 The colonel himself, meantime, 
spent a busy month of August, on leave in New York, corresponding 
with the War Department over its criticism of his conduct. 194 

In Kansas territory, meantime, as life settled back into the pre- 
Fourth routine, the people had detached holiday reminders of vary- 
ing worth. At Atchison all Proslavery sympathizers feasted jubi- 
lantly in triumph; at the head of their table was the "blood-red 
flag" with one lone star, the motto of "Southern Rights" on one side 
and "South Carolina" on the other the same flag that first floated 
on the rifle pits of the Abolitionists and on the Free-State Hotel at 
Lawrence. They drank toasts to Kansas, which they would make a 
slave state or die in the attempt; to Atchison, which by the close of 
1857 would be the capital of a Southern republic; to Disunion, 
which was the surest remedy for Southern wrongs; and to the Dis- 
tribution of Public Lands, one hundred and sixty acres of which 
they would assign to every Proslavery settler, and to every Aboli- 
tionist six feet by two. 195 On July 5 near the hour and the place of 
Mrs. Robinson's diary entry about "sack-cloth and mourning . . . 
for a crushed people," three Proslavery men shot a Free-State man 
named Hudson, a Quaker, as, he was returning from the convention 
in Topeka to his home in Lecompton. 196 Two days later Governor 

188. Daily Advertiser, Detroit, July 12, 1856, in "Webb Scrap; Books," v. XIV, p. 200. 

189. Janesville Gazette, July 19, 1858, in ibid., v. XV, p. 42. 

190. Kansas Bulletin, Tecumseh, in ibid., v. XVI, p. 101. 

191. Ibid. 

192. Ibid., p. 55. 

193. New York Daily Tribune, July 10, 1856. 

194. Shindler, Henry, "Manuscript of the History of Fort Leavenworth," pp. 256-259, 
letters of E. V. Sumner to Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, August 11, 31, 1856. 

195. Phillips, op. cit., p. 411. 

196. New York Daily Tribune, July 18, 1856. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 67 

Robinson, still a prisoner in the camp of the United States cavalry 
there, wrote Colonel Sumner a letter exonerating him for carrying 
out the orders of the commander-in-chief before the territorial legis- 
lature July 4. 197 In Topeka, the scene of the momentous occurrence, 
The Kansas Tribune had space to print but brief remarks upon the 
proceedings. 198 It carried someone's advertisement, though, for "a 
green silk crepe shawl," lost at the celebration, and offered a liberal 
reward. The Garvey House politicians and pressmen began to 
speculate upon the political integrity of the lieutenant-governor. 199 
On July 12 Philip C. Schuyler remembered to note that there was 
"not the least intoxication visible" in Topeka on the Fourth. 200 
He also ventured that the Free-State question had now passed its 
most "critical crisis." On July 28, however, The Kansas Tribune, 
describing various robberies and attempted murders, asked the 
whereabouts of four valiant companies of dragoons that had been 
brought up in battle array before Constitution Hall on the Fourth 
of July. "Where are they? Echo answers, where? when they 
are called upon to disband a company of proslavery men" at the 
log fort of Coleman, on Bull creek. 201 Other crises were too ob- 
viously still ahead. On a Missouri river steamboat on August 2 a 
Northern letter-writer learned of one a new "Fourth," the fourth 
of August, now a crucial date in Kansas for all who, according to 
the provisions of the Toombs bill, wanted to qualify as voters on 
November 4 to help decide whether Kansas was to be a free or a 
slave state. 202 Richard J. Hinton foresaw the outcome of that con- 
test when he wrote that "the long drawn patient watching of cen- 
turies, with all its hopes," would not, could not be overthrown. 203 

1857 

Though the hands that guide the nation, 

Tighten every link and band 
Freedom's spirit only slumbers, 

And the time is near at hand. 

F. B. Gage. 

National interest in independence for Kansas had spent its 
strength in 1856. In 1857 while the territory itself bided its time, 



197. The Semi-Weekly Times, New York, July 25, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XV, 
126, 127. This letter has five other Free-State signatures: Geo. W. Smith, Gaius Jenkins, 

n Brown, Jr., Harry H. Williams, and Geo. W. Deitzler. 

198. The Kansas Tribune, Topeka, July 9, 1856. 

199. New York Daily Tribune, July 17, 1856. 

200. Ibid., July 30, 1856. 

201. The Kansas Tribune, Topeka, July 28, 1856. Coleman was the murderer of Dow. 

202. New York Daily Tribune, August 25, 1856. 

203. Hinton, Richard, Jr., "Journal," entry for August 29, 1856. 



68 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the solicitude of the nation slept. The New York Tribune, to be 
sure, recommended the use of the approaching Fourth of July by the 
friends of Freedom in the free states and territories "to renew their 
fealty to old principles, and trace out anew the old landmarks. The 
attempts ... to nationalize Slavery, and sectionalize Freedom 
. . . call loudly for a reassertion of the doctrines. . . . The 
claims of Freedom . . . should everywhere be ... held up 
in contrast with Slavery, its bitter antagonist." 204 The editorial 
evoked little response. 

Only at Berea, Ky., does there seem to have been any Fourth of 
July consideration of Freedom in 1857 as it might affect Kansas. 
Here Cassius M. Clay "enchained the attention of the audience for 
2% hours" by an address upon the practical superiorities of freedom 
over slavery. To show the tyranny of slavery, he cited the rule of 
the slave power in Kansas ; to prove the advantage of free labor over 
slave labor, he used figures of the United States census. As a final 
result of human progress he prophesied universal freedom to all 
men. At the end, he and his audience of 2,000-3,000, "Resolved, 
that the principles of 1776 are again in jeopardy and whether at- 
tacked by a foreign or home foe, will be again defended by all con- 
stitutional means to the death." 205 Down in South Carolina, how- 
ever, the militia, after toasting P. S. Brooks who "Though dead, yet 
liveth in the hearts of the sons of Carolina," and slavery which the 
"wants of society keep in existence" with negroes in the South and 
white slaves in the North, declared "the hemp crops of Kansas 
ought to be applied in a domestic way, to hang Free-State agitators 
in the Territory." 206 

In the territory itself in 1857, the Fourth of July had wide ob- 
servance. Twenty-two communities are known to have kept the 
day more or less formally. The territorial press recommended local 
festivals. Kindly recollections of times gone by, thought one editor, 
might not be without benefit to the people of Kansas. 207 The roar 
of cannon, soul-stirring music, and an oration would "refresh and 
invigorate the inner man," said a second; or a good dinner, the dance, 
or any other convivial party would strengthen feelings of fellow- 
ship. 208 Another liked to hear spoken words of gratitude to the old 
veterans to whom we owe our liberty. 209 To him, moreover, "the 

204. New York Daily Tribune, June 23, 1857. 

206. Ibid., July 23, 1857. 

206. The Wautoma (Wis.) Journal, July 25, 1857. 

207. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, June 27, 1857. 

208. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, June 20, 1857. 

209. Elwood Weekly Advertiser, July 9, 1857. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 69 

bright and beautiful shades of Kansas" seemed especially suitable 
for social gatherings. With "unprejudiced hearts" the people should 
assemble to rejoice over the glorious change that had come over the 
territory within the last twelve months. "From a disturbed and 
almost ruined land," Kansas now seemed to them all prosperous and 
at peace. 210 In that spirit the people of Kansas met on July 4, 1857, 
to enjoy themselves and their blessings. 

Editors of the two newspapers in Lawrence urged the citizens all 
through June, 1857, .to arrange a formal celebration of the Fourth. 211 
They desisted, however, from making plans for the day itself, ap- 
parently because of a political rally at Clinton, eight miles to the 
southwest, that would use talent of Lawrence and no doubt draw on 
her citizenry for attendance. On July 3, however, the young people 
of Lawrence welcomed the approach of the Fourth by an anniversary 
ball at the Central House, which the elite of the town and of the 
country around attended. 212 On the same evening other citizens 
collected at the Morrow House to talk politics and censure persons 
not choosing to see things as they did. 213 On the evening of the 
Fourth itself a party dressed in fantastic costume paraded the 
streets, to the great mirth of the children and to the apparent satis- 
faction of themselves. 214 Since their spirit assumed a harmless form, 
their activity won editorial approval ; not so the intemperance, which 
swept in on flood tide on the evening of July 3, threatening "the fair 
fame of Lawrence." 

The celebration at Clinton was used to vindicate the Topeka con- 
stitution. 215 T. Dwight Thacher, editor of the Lawrence Republican, 
who was himself the orator of the day, wrote colorfully of the oc- 
casion. He rode out in the morning with the Lawrence Cornet Band 
on board a four-horse wagon. Through the valley of the Wakarusa 
he enjoyed "the broad fertile meadows, with the waving grass . . . 
and fine fields of corn." Clinton he found "more ideal than actual." 
The events of the day included a procession of ox-teams, covered 
carriages, and horses, from the store to the adjoining grove, under 
escort of the Lawrence band; formal exercises; and a free dinner 
with toasts around long rustic tables beneath the shade of giant 
trees. Mr. Thacher praised the citizens of Clinton for their enter- 

210. Ibid., July 2, 1857. 

211. Lawrence Republican, June 4, 11, 1857 ; Herald of Freedom, Lawrence. June 27, 
July 4, 11, 1857. 

212. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 4, 1857. 

213. Ibid., July 11, 1857. 

214. Ibid. 

215. Ibid. 



70 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

prise and energy in getting up so spirited a celebration; and he 
congratulated the "Kansas ladies/' who with their babies formed 
half the audience of 1,500. To him the presence of the women and 
children was good indication of the present peace and prosperity of 
the community. 216 One accident marred the day; "premature ex- 
plosion of a cannon blowed off an arm for the person loading, and 
severely injured him in his face." 217 Between sundown and nine 
o'clock the editor-orator and the band tramped wearily home by 
moonlight through the valley of the Wakarusa to the music of "Life 
on the Ocean Wave" and "Rory O'More." 218 

Prairie City, consisting of a dozen houses, a two-story log hotel, 
a half-completed stone hotel, and a foundation for a church and a 
seminary, invited the surrounding country to join in a varied all- 
day observance of the Fourth. Between 500 and 600 people re- 
sponded. Among the visitors were the Lawrence "Stubbs," the 
Ottawa Rangers, the Centropolis Sunday school, in wagons deco- 
rated with flags and banners, and three newspaper men, Wm. A. 
Phillips of the New York Tribune, Norman Allen of the Lawrence 
Republican, and William Austin of the Centropolis Kanzas Leader. 219 
Early in the morning the Sabbath schools assembled at the large 
cloth tent, called the U. B. Church, marched to an arbor near the 
liberty pole with the Stars and Stripes floating on top, and listened to 
addresses "by three Reverends." 22 At noon all the people shared 
in the free dinner; people of Prairie City noted a shortage of table 
furniture and of some foods, but visitors called the repast bountiful. 
In the afternoon S. N. Wood delivered an oration on Kansas politics, 
and Wm. A. Phillips spoke briefly and appropriately. The evening 
brought out fireworks on Liberty hill. Later, one Mr. Winton opened 
his home to a happy company of "lads and lasses" for a dance. 
Both the Kanzas Leader and the Lawrence Republican felt the 
oration too political for the occasion; said the former, "We were 
celebrating the birthday of a Nation and not that of the Northern 
States." 221 

Ohio City held a spirited Fourth of July celebration in 1857. 222 
Making the best of their limited resources, the settlers mounted old 

216. Lawrence Republican, July 2, 9, 1857. 

217. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 11, 1857. 

218. Lawrence Republican, July 9, 1857. 

219. Freemen's Champion, Prairie Oity, July 9, 1857. 

220. Lawrence Republican, July 9, 1857. 

221. Freemen's Champion, Prairie City, July 9, 1857. 

222. Andreas, op. cit., p. 618; Lawrence Republican, July 16, 1857. The Republican 
editor lost the story of the celebration submitted to his paper. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 71 

muskets for salute service, morning, noon, and night. 223 A private 
letter from "Louis" to "Dearest Darling 'Birdie' " presents the full- 
est surviving account of the day. 224 After the formal morning pro- 
gram of Declaration read by W. E. Kibbie and oration delivered by 
the Hon. Dean Andrews, 225 "Louis," who was obviously an official 
of the Ohio City Company, took matters into his own hands. Learn- 
ing that the beautiful flag just presented to the Ohio City company 
had been made by the young ladies of the vicinity, he ordered that 
the dinner already prepared by the company hotel landlord "be 
made free to all present." The flag was then hoisted on a tall liberty 
pole where it floated in the constant Kansas breeze. As further 
compliment to the citizens and especially to the young women flag- 
makers, "Louis" then ordered "the House thrown open and music 
furnished till twelve o'clock and we all joined in and had a regular 
Kansas Dance, the first Ball ever given south of Lawrence in the 
Territory" "Louis's" delight in the "noble-hearted young men and 
women" present was equal to his pleasure in the celebration at which 
there was no drinking except of "cold water and Lemonade." 226 

Anderson county observed the day patriotically in a grove north 
of Greeley. The settlers regarded the occasion, as "a season of re- 
freshment" where they rehearsed the hardships of 1776 and of their 
own days in the territory. The stream of emigration now flowing 
into Kansas from the North had heightened their hopes somewhat. 
The people generally engaged in songs and toasts; C. E. Dewey and 
J. Y. Campbell were among the speakers. 227 

The people of Burlingame had a "glorious time" on the Fourth. 
The gathering was in a wood. Philip C. Schuyler was president. 
James Rogers was the orator. A free dinner preceded the toasts 
arranged by A. J. Parish. 228 

The celebration farthest south in 1857 was that of the surveyors 
of the southern boundary of Kansas territory, encamped on the 
west bank of the Arkansas river near the thirty-seventh parallel. 
The military forces, under command of Lt. Col. Joseph E. Johnston, 

223. Ottawa Republican, July 26, 1877, in "Franklin County Clippings, 1856-1890," v. I, 
pp. 39-59. Kansas State Historical Society. 

224. "Louis" to "Dearest Darling 'Birdie,' " letter dated Ohio City, K. T., July 7, 1857, 
in MSS. division, Kansas State Historical Society. "Louis," who indicates earlier in the letter 
that he was an engineer in the employ of Whitman and Searl, Lawrence, was evidently Louis 
de Steiguer, C. E., who laid out both Ohio City and Prairie City. (C/. letter of L. de 
Steiguer, C. E., July 3, 1912, to R. H. Jenness, attached to correspondence of R. H. Jenness 
with Geo. W. Martin, May 9, through July 6, 1912.) 

225. Andreas gives this title as the "Rev. Mr. Andrews." 

226. "Louis" to "Birdie," letter dated Ohio City, K. T., July 7, 1857, in MSS. division, 
Kansas State Historical Society. 

227. Johnson, W. A., op. cit., pp. 70, 71. 

228. Osage City Free Press, August 18, 1876, in "Osage County Clippings," v. I, p. 57. 



72 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

fired a military salute of thirty-two guns from the howitzers at 
noon. 229 "A grand Fourth of July dinner" followed, at which the 
observatory surveyors from camp one mile north shared honors with 
the military officers. Eugene Bandel wrote in his diary of a parade, 
"a horse race in the cavalry, a few extra tunes of the fifers and 
drummers, and a great deal of lonesomeness." The day he found 
beautiful, being clear and cool. The Arkansas, already high, was 
still rising. The army wagon beds served as boats to ferry the 
surveyors across. 230 While encamped here the soldiers enjoyed fish 
in abundance from the swollen stream. 

Various communities to the northeast also kept Independence 
day, 1857. Indianola had "A horse race. Sorrel beat gray." Samuel 
J. Reader, who told of it, spent his morning making four tenons and 
two mortises at his claim, and his afternoon hoeing his potatoes, 
washing in the creek, writing, and reading the last of Little Dorrit. 
"An awful time it was." 231 

Tecumseh made the Fourth of July memorable by laying the 
cornerstone of the bridge across the Kaw river. It advertised the 
occasion "to be one of brotherhood and friendship, to manifest the 
influence of peace and prosperity, and our fellow citizens of all 
portions of the territory, and from all parts of the Union, are invited 
to meet together at Tecumseh, the 'Neutral Council Ground/ and 
have a glorious time." 232 Delegations from five Indian tribes were 
also invited. Masonic and Odd Fellow fraternities participated in the 
impressive ceremonies. 233 Speakers for the occasion included L. J. 
Eastin, E. 0. Perrin, Walter Oakley, and Dr. Stringfellow. A public 
dinner and a ball in the evening, got up in "hilarious style," pro- 
vided lighter entertainment. To the Topeka editor the general 
sobriety of the occasion was gratifying. 

Wilmington, a town not yet a yearling, at the junction of the 
Leavenworth and Westport branches of the Santa Fe road, saluted 
both the sunrise and the sunset with 31 guns. At ten o'clock the 
neighborhood, numbering more than 100, and its visitors formed a 

229. Johnston, Joseph E., "Journal," edited by Nyle H. Miller, Kansas Historical 
Quarterly, v. I, pp. 115, 11&; Campbell, Hugh, "Journal," edited by Martha B. Caldwell, 
Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. VI, p. 354 ; Bandel, Eugene, Frontier Life in the Army, edited 
by Ralph Bieber (Arthur H. Clark Company, Glendale, Calif., 1932), v. II, pp. 156, 157. 
Miller located the military camp "slightly over five miles east of Chilocco, Okla., and Hugh 
Campbell wrote that the surveyor's camp was one mile north "to be nearer the parallel." 
The Bieber map, accompanying the Bandel diary, makes the line of survey and the parallel 
virtually identical at this point. 

230. Bandel, Eugene, loc. cit. 

231. Reader, Samuel J., "Private Journal and Daybook," v. Ill, p. 120, entry of July 
4, 1857. 

232. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 4, 1857 ; Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, 
July 4, 1857. 

233. Kansas Tribune, Topeka, July 11, 1857. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 73 

procession to a grove where they had arranged seats suitable for 
formal exercises. E. P. Ingersoll delivered the oration. The Wil- 
mington Quartette Club and the Gennania Glee Club of Havana 
City furnished "very fine" music. The collation, a "bountiful supply 
of nice things," was sufficient for 300 people. "The eatables," wrote 
J. E. D., "would have tempted an epicure." The toasts reflected 
general good feeling; the day "passed off very fine," strengthening 
the good will of adjoining neighborhoods for Wilmington. 234 

New and enterprising Burlington, which marked its age only in 
weeks, had an old-fashioned holiday in commemoration of "the day 
that made us free." Its youthful patriotism was at high tide. The 
committee on plans had expected but a scanty gathering. With the 
day, however, came squatters to the number of 300; from twenty 
miles they came. 0. E. Learnard was the president; Wm. B. Par- 
sons was the orator, speaking with "the polish of a scholar and the 
fervor of a patriot." A band of four members supplied music. The 
dinner at two o'clock was "in city order"; abundance and luxury 
were there and enough for all and to spare. Among the toasts was 
one by William Hutchinson of Lawrence, who spoke at length on 
"Kansas The youngest and smartest child in Uncle Sam's family." 
At the merry dance in the evening youth and age were upon an 
equality. "Ladies" were "abundant." One of the most accom- 
plished dancers was a woman of French descent, a mother of thirteen 
children. 235 

Five-months-old Emporia planned its first public meeting for July 
4, 1857. To disseminate good feeling and information it invited 
neighboring towns and communities to participate in addresses and 
a free dinner. Committees were to procure the necessary meat, 
with power to draw on the treasurer to pay for the same. Settlers 
were to bake and bring such provisions as suited their convenience. 
At the last, however, sickness in the neighborhood made public 
celebration inexpedient. 236 

Settlers who had been in El Dorado but three weeks drew on 
nature's storehouses for food for their Independence day feasting. 
One of them caught a buffalo fish in Walnut creek; another shot a 
wild turkey ; and a third brought in a deer. While the meats roasted, 

234. Ibid., July 4, 1857; The Kamas News, Emporia, July 18, 1857. 

235. Lawrence Republican, July 9, 1857 ; Andreas, op. cit., p. 654. In "Sketches of 
Kansas Pioneer Experience," Kansas Historical Collections, v. VII, p. 396, Wm. Hutchinson 
wrote of riding in from cross country 60 miles from his claim at Mapleton to Burlington, July 
3, to take part in a celebration July 4, but he gave the year as 1858. Probably the trip was 
to the 1857 celebration. 

236. The Kamas News, Emporia, June 6, 20, July 4, 1857; Andreas, op. cit., p. 846, 
wrote that the first public meeting at Emporia was the Fourth of July celebration, 1857. 



74 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the settlers with their wagons in a circle to serve as a fort against 
possible Indian attack, listened to an address by Judge John A. 
Wakefield of Lawrence. 237 In the center of the circle they kept "the 
stars and stripes erect." 

Wabaunsee observed the national anniversary with a parade. 
Most of the wagons were drawn by oxen. Garlands hung from the 
yokes and horns. Snowy canopies decorated with floral and ever- 
green designs covered some of the wagons. A canopy of pink 
pleased the children especially. The most attractive "rig" received 
a prize. 238 

The observance in Wyandotte 239 consisted of speaking and an 
unseasonal and extravagant assemblage of foods for free eating. 
George H. Hildt 240 wrote of John DiehPs hearing Governor 
Walker 241 and others speak. Every one received an invitation to 
the dinner, offering such luxuries as oysters, beef, ham, nuts, raisins, 
and ice cream. The affair "went off first rate," according to the 
report. Mr. Hildt, a Kansas pioneer from Canal Dover, Ohio, 
settling in Johnson county, himself "fixed up and went to Olathe" 
on the morning of the Fourth, and in the afternoon "went again 
after cattle" lost on the open range. 

Other towns, bare fact of celebrations in which survives, were 
Delaware, and Moneka. 242 Brownville had a pleasant gathering 
with speeches and singing by the Brownville musical association; 
among the themes for toasts there was a new one "Taxation and 
Representation." 243 From Leroy someone wrote to a friend in 
Lawrence: "The 4th of July was here, and lots of other folks 
had a good time generally." 244 Just beyond Manhattan, 300 
people gathered at a picnic to renew old acquaintances and form 
new ones ; 245 a good dinner, speeches, sentiments, and song con- 
stituted the formal entertainment. 

The gayest and most sophisticated keepings of the Fourth in 
Kansas territory in 1857 were, as in 1855 and 1856, to the north- 
east along the Missouri river, but the settings were in different 

237. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1431. 

238. Semi- Centennial Wabaunsee Congregational Church (Alma Enterprise Print., June 
27, 28, 1907), pp. 6, 47. 

239. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 4, 1857. Mere notice of a celebration appears 
in this paper. 

240. Hildt, George H., "Diary," entry of July, 1857, in MSS. division, Kansas State 
Historical Society. 

241. "Governor Walker" was evidently Gov. William Walker. 

242. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 4, 1857. 

243. Lawrence Republican, July 9, 1857. 

244. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, August 1, 1857. 

245. Allen, Mrs. Chestina B., "Sketches and Journal," entry of July 4, 1857. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 75 

towns. White Cloud announced a lot sale for the day. River 
towns as far east as St. Louis and as far north as Council Bluffs 
responded enthusiastically. 246 One boat on its downward trip sold 
500 tickets. The town company chartered two boats, the Watossa 
and the Morning Star, to bring in the prospective and pleasure- 
seeking buyers. 247 They engaged the St. Joseph brass band to pro- 
vide music for a "grand ball" at night on the Morning Star. They 
brought in a "baby-waker," a 24-pound "field-piece," to provide 
the necessary noise. As the size of the promised crowd increased, 
the committee on foods added to the beeves, sheep, pigs, and fowl 
held in readiness for cooking. They set their tables near a good 
spring of water. The St. Louis (Mo.) Republican said that the 
barbecue would be free, that "lots of champagne would be opened, 
and of course drank," and that "sport, profit, Fourth of July, and 
music" awaited the large party from St. Louis that would spend 
the week en route aboard the Morning Star. 248 The St. Joseph 
(Mo.) Gazette believed there was "no question but what White 
Cloud is the point in the Territory above Leavenworth City." 249 

On the afternoon of July 3 the Morning Star picked up the band 
and 200 passengers at St. Joseph ; more recruits boarded at Elwood, 
among them the senior editor of the Elwood Weekly Advertiser, who 
had received a free excursion ticket. 250 Fifteen miles below White 
Cloud the boat "hauled up at a woodyard and lay by for the night." 
When music was called for, "gay lads led forth their bonnie lasses, 
and 

"Tripped it lightly as we go, 
On the light fantastic toe." 

White Cloud ushered in the Fourth by the firing of cannon. The 
Stars and Stripes were thrown to the breeze. People poured in from 
the adjacent country. About eight o'clock the report of cannon 
down the river announced the approach of the Morning Star. White 
Cloud answered with a national salute from the bluffs. The Watossa 
and a third boat, Emma, arrived with more visitors. 251 "Other 
jubilistic and patriotic demonstrations" occurred on shore. To the 
Elwood editor White Cloud seemed "extensively laid out, but very 
thinly settled." Already a large concourse of people from far and 

246. White Cloud Kansas Chief, June 18, July 2, 1857. 

247. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, June 27, 1857. 

248. White Cloud Kansas Chief, July 2, 1857, quoting the St. Louis (Mo.) Republican of 
June 26, 1857. 

249. Ibid. 

250. Elwood Weekly Advertiser, July 9, 1857. 

251. White Cloud Kansas Chief, July 9, 1857. 



76 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

near thronged the streets. "The rapid tread and cheering shouts 
of the young/' he thought, "gave animation and vigor to the old." 
The weather was propitious. In the holiday air he sensed joy 
mingled with reverence for a great cause and the memory of great 
men. 252 

"Business before pleasure" was the motto of the town company 
for the day. 253 For one and one-half hours they sold lots. Then a 
procession formed, and the band led the way to a grove below the 
sawmill where everyone partook of the barbecue of bread and meat 
plenty of it, in old Kentucky style. In the "exercises of the 
lungs" that followed, James Craig, congressman-elect from the St. 
Joseph district, speaking in behalf of the town company, presented 
two shares of city stock to the Morning Star and one share to the 
Watossa; and Judge S. A. Williams of the territory gave an oration. 
Then the lot sale was resumed for an hour. At night two dances 
completed the program, one on the Morning Star, participated in 
by some of the townsfolk, and another in the room under the office 
of the Kansas Chief, where the dancers "exercised their agility to 
the music of the violin." The boats waited until morning to leave. 

Sol Miller felt the company's expectations were realized. He 
estimated the attendance at 2,000. "The crowd presented a motley 
array of men, women, children, babies, Indians, and niggers," he 
wrote, "all full of patriotism, intent upon celebrating the Fourth, and 
getting their dinner." He did note considerable drunkenness and a 
number of fights. Otherwise "everything passed off finely. So mote 
it always be." 

Doniphan began its celebration also on the eve of the Fourth with 
a dance. 254 Banners and evergreens tastefully decorated the spa- 
cious rooms of the hotel for "the light-hearted and light-footed." 
The junior editor of the Weekly Advertiser, who was there, wrote 
gaily, ". . . Give us border towns forever. No hoops to ob- 
struct the progress of the waltz always a hearty 'yes, sir' when you 
propose a dance." The next day, in a shaded rural retreat, B. 
O'Driscoll read the "immortal Declaration" and J. R. Boyd gave 
the oration. The barbecue tables groaned under the loads of sub- 
stantials and delicacies of the season. The editor was tempted "to 
ask the hand of some of the fair ones," but paying for paper and ink 
from St. Louis interfered too much with his paying for "pork and 
beans." All the celebrators at Doniphan, however, were not so 

252. Elwood Weekly Advertiser, July 9, 1857. 

253. White Cloud Kansas Chief, July 9, 1857. 

254. Elwood Weekly Advertiser, July 9, 1857. 



DOLBEE: JULY FOURTH IN EARLY KANSAS 77 

light-hearted. A Free-State man named Mitchell took issue with the 
orator over his Southern views. 255 "Boyd knocked Mitchell down. 
Mitchell challenged Boyd to a duel." The two were arrested and 
bound over to keep the peace. Meanwhile Col. James H. Lane and 
his men seized upon United States muskets and threatened Pro- 
slavery men, "declaring they could whip them with fists, clubs, 
muskets, pistols, bowie-knives, or anything else." All parties finally 
gave up arms, but Governor Walker was requested to issue a proc- 
lamation. 

Brown county, just west of Doniphan county, kept its first 
Fourth of July in 1857 with a public gathering in the wood of John 
Poe 256 on Mulberry creek. W. C. Foster presided. Daniel Mc- 
Farland delivered the oration. Noah Hanson read the toasts. W. G. 
Sargent and others made appropriate speeches. Settlers to the num- 
ber of 200 to 300 were present. 257 

To chastise the Indians for their depredations on the overland 
routes the War Department had sent Col. E. V. Sumner to Fort 
Kearny and Maj. John Sedgwick along the Santa Fe trail, both en 
route to Fort Laramie. Although in setting out the two detach- 
ments had hoped to meet on July 4, the troops under Major Sedg- 
wick, in camp below Fort St. Vrain, 258 were somewhat startled to 
have their anniversary salute of 32 guns answered by a boom of 32 
guns down the river, recognized as from Colonel Sumner's com- 
mand, and found afterward to be 15 miles below. The next day 
Sedgwick's force moved down the river and the two commands 
established camps side by side. 259 

Two months later in Kansas territory P. B. Plumb, who had tried 
so hard for an Independence day gathering in Emporia to develop 
good will, wrote bitterly: 

The Union is a glorious theme for buncombe Fourth of July orations and 
for Democratic Governors to befog and bewilder a people whom they have 
really come to bedevil and sink lower down into the hell of despotism. We 
in Kanzas know that the Union is to us a huge tyrant that Federal officials 
are our worst and most baneful foes. . . . Ask of the men of Kanzas to 

255. White Cloud Kansas Chief, July 9, 1857. 

256. Harrington spells this name Powe; Andreas, Roe. 

257. Ruley, A. N., History of Brown County (1930), p. 30 ; Harrington, Grant W., Annals 
of Brown County, Kansas (Harrington Printing Co., Hiawatha, 1903), p. 11; Andreas, op. 
cit., p. 711. 

258. Lowe, op. cit., pp. 262, 263 ; Peck, Robert Morris, "Recollections of Early Times in 
Kansas Territory," Kansas Historical Collections, v. VIII, p. 493, wrote that Fort St. Vrain 
was in ruins. 

Riding on the 
was with Major 

, , "Recollections of 

Early Times in Kansas Territory," Kansas Historical Collections, v. VIII, p. 493. 



78 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

love the Union. The remains of the Free State Hotel, and the ruins of our 
printing presses laugh you to scorn. ... Go ask the shades of Barber, 
Brown, Buffum, Hoyt and Hupps 260 for an answer. Turn to the Fourth of 
July, 1856, and to the white prison tents that gleamed on the prairie that 
memorable summer, guarded by the troops of the Union, and you will receive 
your reply. "Love the Union?" Ask not us. ... Come not near us with 
your mockery. 261 

To Mr. Plumb and other Kansans of his ilk the Union as it now 
existed was but a libel on the name. 

260. This is a misspelling of Hoppes. 

261. The Kanzas News, Emporia, August 29, 1857. 



The Annual Meeting 

r TVHE sixty-fifth annual meeting of the Kansas State Historical 
J- Society and board of directors was held in the rooms of the 
Society on October 15, 1940. 

The annual meeting of the board of directors was called to order 
by the president, T. M. Lillard, at 10 a. m. First business was the 
reading of the annual report of the secretary. 

SECRETARY'S REPORT, YEAR ENDING OCTOBER 15, 1940 

This annual meeting ends my tenth year as secretary of the Society, and 
in many respects it has been the busiest of the decade. In addition to routine 
work, the staff has devoted much time to the highway historical sign program, 
to the restoration of the North building at Old Shawnee Mission and to the 
building of a new caretaker's cottage on the First Capitol grounds. During the 
year there was a material increase in the number of persons using the resources 
of the Society, as well as in the organization of our various collections. The 
supervision of federal projects also requires continuous attention. Details of 
these activities will appear in the reports of the various departments. 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

Pres. T. M. Lillard reappointed Thomas Amory Lee, Robert C. Rankin and 
Chester Woodward to the executive committee, the members holding over be- 
ing Justice John S. Dawson and T. M. Lillard. The members of the com- 
mittee have been consulted on all matters of unusual importance, and I wish 
to acknowledge my indebtedness to them for their encouragement and advice. 

BUDGET REQUESTS 

Appropriation requests for the next biennium were filed with the state 
budget director in September. 

For the Historical Society two additional cataloguers were requested. In- 
creases of $500 a year were asked for the book and microfilm funds and $1,500 
was requested for the purchase of new catalogue cases, a book truck and other 
equipment. 

For Old Shawnee Mission: The mission has no fire protection, the only 
water coming from an adjoining golf course through a small pipe. Through 
lack of funds, the furnace in the East building has never been placed in work- 
ing condition. Grass and shrubbery should be planted on the grounds, and a 
power mower is needed. Since it is impossible for one caretaker to show the 
thousands of visitors through the buildings and keep up the property, much 
work has to be done by extra laborers. The contingent fund of $1,000 a year 
is inadequate and an increase of $1,000 a year was asked. 

LIBRARY 

During the year approximately 4,000 persons did research work in the 
library. Of these more than a thousand were helped in genealogical research, 
and more than 200 were served by mail from the loan file on Kansas subjects. 

New sections were added to the Kansas catalogue, the general catalogue 

(79) 



80 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

and the Library of Congress catalogue. This necessitated a reorganization of 
several hundred thousand cards. 

The Society's clipping service is an outstanding feature of the library. It 
is widely used and copied. During the year several institutions sent repre- 
sentatives to study our methods. In this division about 350 clippings are 
mounted each month. They are classified and catalogued and then become a 
part of the permanent library. These clippings cover biographical material 
on prominent men and women of Kansas, including a classified section for 
artists, sculptors, musicians, authors and actors. They also include articles on 
the histories of counties and towns, as well as churches, organizations, schools, 
education, economics, crimes, railroads, science, Indians, wars in which Kan- 
sas has had a part, agriculture, oil industry, aviation, radio and motion 
pictures. These clippings now constitute quite a remarkable library in them- 
selves. 

From our duplicate collection last year a large number of magazines were 
donated to Bethany College at Lindsborg, and many books and magazines 
were given to the Kansas Vocational School. A selection was also made from 
these duplicates to help with the work for the shut-ins, a WPA project 
supervised by the Topeka Public Library. 

The library receives many gifts of genealogies, and of books by Kansas 
authors. The Kansas Daughters of the American Revolution have presented 
typed copies of historical and biographical material gathered by various chap- 
ters. From the Historical Records Survey have come 170 volumes of inven- 
tories of county and town archives, church archives, calendars of manuscript 
collections, census records from all the states, and check lists of imprints from 
several of the states. 

The library is now cooperating with the American Library Association in 
a revision of the Union List of Serials. When completed this list will show all 
publications of a serial nature, such as magazines, publications of societies and 
reports of institutions, including foreign publications, and in what libraries 
they may be found. The files of the Society contain many valuable publica- 
tions which did not appear in the previous edition, some of which probably 
are not available anywhere else in the country. 

PICTURE COLLECTION 

During the year 483 pictures were classified, catalogued and added to the 
picture collection. Through the courtesy of Elsie Evans, librarian of the 
Leavenworth Public Library, the Society was able to purchase at small cost 
copies of 90 pictures of early Leavenworth and Fort Leavenworth which are 
of great interest. Mrs. Will R. Christian of Ulysses lent pictures of Ulysses 
and Mrs. Mildred C. Beason of Gove lent pictures of Sharon Springs and 
Wallace from which copies were made. The Topeka State Journal donated 
120 pictures of individuals and Kansas scenes. 

WORLD WAR POSTERS 

A valuable addition to the Society's World War posters was a collection of 
51 colored lithographs from Mrs. Bennett R. Wheeler. Most of these were 
printed in the United States. 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 81 

STATE ARCHIVES 

Major accessions for the year were eight charter copybooks from the office 
of the Secretary of State and 3,025 booklets containing the statistical rolls 
for 1932 as returned by assessors to the State Board of Agriculture. 

Work was continued on the loose-leaf catalogue of old townsites, discon- 
tinued post offices and railroad stations of Kansas. This list comprises 5,693 
names and fills 26 volumes. 

There are now 189 volumes listing state charters and amendments in this 
division, covering dates from 1863 to 1938. During the year 17,560 index cards 
were made from these records, raising the grand total to 189,685 cards. From 
the 28 volumes of amendments approximately 40,000 entries were made. 

The work of indexing the 1860 census is nearing completion this list num- 
bering close to 140,000 cards. Index slips for the 1875 census now number ap- 
proximately 21,800. 

Requests come almost daily from welfare agencies for age verifications of 
persons seeking aid. 434 certifications were issued from this department dur- 
ing the year. 

PRIVATE MANUSCRIPTS 

Thirty-seven manuscript volumes and 581 individual manuscripts were re- 
ceived during the year in addition to two unorganized collections on which 
figures are not yet available. 

Several hundred letters and documents were received from the estate of 
the late Harriet Parkerson, niece of Isaac T. Goodnow. The letters are mainly 
personal in character; the documents include records of Bluemont College and 
the Kansas State College of Agriculture. 

About fifty items from the papers of Acting Territorial Gov. Daniel Wood- 
son were given by his granddaughter, Mrs. Nelle Woodson Curry. 

A valuable collection of letters from the papers of Oscar E. Learnard was 
received from his son, Tracy Leamard, of San Jose, Calif. O. E. Learnard was 
a leader in the Free-State and Republican parties, a member of the territorial 
council, one of the founders of Burlington, an officer in the Union army and 
holder of several public offices in the state. 

George J. Remsburg, Porterville, Calif., archaeologist and historian, who 
has written extensively on Kansas subjects, sent several hundred letters from 
his correspondence files. 

Judge J. C. Ruppenthal, of Russell, through whose efforts many valuable 
historical records of Russell county have been preserved, presented his private 
docket of the 23d judicial district during his terms as judge, 1907-1919, 1923- 
1930, 24 books in all. 

One volume of typed copies of letters by James R. Mead to members of 
his family, 1859-1910, was given by his son, James L. Mead, Chicago. James 
R. Mead was a prominent early-day figure, famous hunter and trader and as- 
sociate of Jesse Chisholm. 

The four letter-press books from the offices of Thomas Ewing, Jr., and the 
Leavenworth law firm of Sherman, Ewing & McCook, lent to the Society for 
copying by Thomas Ewing, New York, have been presented as gifts. The col- 
lection includes, also, miscellaneous letters and two volumes of financial records. 

67171 



82 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

NEWSPAPERS 

During the year twenty reels of microfilms of old newspapers have been added 
to the Society's collections. These films represent about six years of daily 
and thirty-three years of weekly newspapers. The papers include the Kansas 
City (Mo.) Daily Journal of Commerce from December 17, 1858, to June 30, 
1865, the Kansas City (Mo.) Enterprise from November 10, 1855, to October 
3, 1857, the Weekly Western Journal of Commerce, Kansas City, Mo., from 
October 17, 1857, to June 23, 1866, the Oskaloosa Independent from July 11, 
1860, to August 20, 1870, the Lawrence Republican from May 28, 1857, to 
November 13, 1862, the Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, from September 
15, 1854, to December 26, 1857, the Integral Cooperator of Enterprise and 
parts of the American Nonconformist of Winfield. Most of these papers were 
microfilmed in cooperation with other libraries, which greatly reduced the cost 
to the Society. 

It has been asked how we can continue to find space to store our news- 
paper collections. The microfilm suggests the answer. One reel of film may 
be said to approximate 850 newspaper pages, the equivalent of a two-months' 
volume of the Topeka State Journal of 1940. This means that one small 
Recordak film file with a capacity of 383 reels could hold all the Society's 
files of the Topeka Daily Capital from 1879 to December, 1940, plus our files 
of the Topeka State Journal from 1880 to 1895, a total of seventy-six years of 
daily newspapers. 

In this department several WPA workers are listing all past changes in 
names of newspapers, editors, publishers and owners. About half the Kansas 
weekly newspapers have been completed. 

Use of our newspapers increases each year. Researchers spend weeks and 
months here, compiling historical data. During the year 4,298 patrons were 
registered, coming from a dozen states. In this time they examined 25,390 
bound newspaper volumes and 12,252 unbound issues. 

The 1940 List of Kansas Newspapers and Periodicals was published in July. 
The List shows the issues of 745 newspapers and periodicals being received 
regularly for filing. Of these, 61 are dailies, 13 semiweeklies, 489 weeklies, 25 
fortnightlies, one trimonthly, 17 semimonthlies, 76 monthlies, nine bimonthlies, 
20 quarterlies, 28 occasionals, three semiannual and three annuals, coming 
from all the 105 Kansas counties. Of these 745 publications, 165 are listed 
republican, 45 democratic and 279 independent in politics; 94 are school or 
college, 29 religious, 19 fraternal, 17 local and 97 miscellaneous (including four 
Negro publications). 

On January 1, 1940, the Society's collection contained 46,612 bound volumes 
of Kansas newspapers and more than 10,000 bound volumes of out-of-state 
newspapers. 

Among the year's other accessions are the following: Helen Shirk of To- 
peka contributed a number of issues of her father's monthly publication, The 
School and Home, Abilene, also eight miscellaneous issues of Trench and Camp 
of Camp Doniphan, Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Mrs. Robert Merrick of Topeka 
donated seven issues of the Night Hawk, Washburn College; the Woman's 
Kansas Day Club gave a number of miscellaneous papers to the Society. 
Among the other donors the following should be mentioned : Mr. and Mrs. 
R. L. Barker of Kansas City, Mrs. Fenn Ward of Highland, L. H. Ruppenthal 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 83 

of McPherson, Harry Mangold of Hutchinson, Mrs. Loyal F. Payne of Man- 
hattan, Mary M. Smelzer of the Watson Library, Lawrence, Mrs. Vernon 
McArthur of Hutchinson, Mrs. W. G. Cooper of Blakeman, Everett G. Barber 
of Salina, Mrs. Merebah Clark of Terre Haute, Ind., Mrs. Hattie Wade 
Leisening of Sedalia, Mo., George Remsburg of Porterville, Calif., Mrs. Her- 
bert W. Geer, Jennie Small Owen, Paul Parrish, Ernest F. McNutt and Horace 
G. Black of Topeka. 

MUSEUM 

The attendance in the museum for the year was 31,112. Between April 9 
and May 29, 2,159 students from 36 counties, representing over 100 schools, 
made class pilgrimages to view the exhibits. 

There were 49 accessions. Among the most interesting was a printer's proof 
galley from the Oskaloosa Independent, in constant use for 79 years, donated 
by Mrs. F. H. Roberts through the Woman's Kansas Day Club. John J. 
McKnight, Bailey ville, donated a buggy in which his uncle, Dr. George C. 
McKnight, Hiawatha, had traveled 27,500 miles in the practice of his profession. 

During the year a complete index of the Goss collection of birds was made. 

SUBJECTS FOB RESEARCH 

During the year the following have been subjects for serious research: 
Biography: John James Ingalls; Solomon Miller; Joseph E. Bristow; Charles 
R. Jennison; Theodore Roosevelt; Jesse James; Walt Whitman; John Brown 
in American literature; Joseph Ralph Burton. County and town history: 
Decatur county; Frankfort; early Baxter Springs and its development; Norton 
county; Hamilton county; the Rawlins county-seat fight; community of 
Mullinville; Kansas City. Education: Education in Russell county; common 
school education in Territorial Kansas; Cloud county schools; the University 
of Kansas; the schools of Ford county. Economics: Banking in Bourbon 
county; banking in Cherokee county; unemployment; the manufacturing of 
starch ; meat packing industry ; Kansas Gas and Electric Company ; comparison 
of hog prices at five different markets. General: Mennonites in McPherson, 
Reno and Harvey counties; public assistance in Dickinson county; party 
platforms in Kansas; Osage ceded lands; pioneer life in Kansas as revealed in 
fiction; organization and administration of Kansas troops in the Civil War; 
Kansas Grange, 1870-1890; Wilson's raid in Virginia; sectionalism and local 
color in the plains states; Coronado; Catholic church on the Kansas frontier; 
storm studies; migration of the Negro into early Kansas; settlements in 
northwest Kansas; Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad; campaign and 
patriotic songs; Kansas Day banquet speeches. 

ACCESSIONS 

July 1, 1939, to June 30, 1940 

Library : 

Books (volumes) 1,105 

Pamphlets 3,225 

Magazines (bound volumes) 169 

Archives : 

Separate manuscripts 3,025 

Manuscript volumes none 

Manuscript maps none 



84 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Private manuscripts: 

Separate manuscripts 581 

Volumes 37 

Printed maps, atlases and charts 83 

Newspapers (bound volumes) 858 

Pictures 483 

Museum objects 49 

TOTAL ACCESSIONS, JUNE 30, 1940 

Books, pamphlets, bound newspapers and magazines 390,462 

Separate manuscripts (archives) 1,073,009 

Manuscript volumes (archives) 27,897 

Manuscript maps (archives) 583 

Printed maps, atlases and charts 11,354 

Pictures 19,257 

Museum objects 33,005 

THE QUARTERLY 

The Kansas Historical Quarterly is now in its ninth year, eight volumes 
already having been published. Much of the credit for the high standard the 
magazine has achieved among the state historical magazines of the countiy 
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. The Quarterly is widely quoted by the newspapers of the state and 
is used in many schools. 

FEDERAL WORK PROJECTS 

Thirteen to sixteen persons have been employed four days a week on the 
Society's unit of the state-wide WPA museum project. They are supervised 
by the staff, and mention of their work is made in departmental reports. 
Federal expenditures for the year from October 6, 1939, to October 7, 1940, 
were $12,579.27 for salaries. The Society's expenditures for the same period 
were approximately $230 for materials. 

Much credit for work accomplished is due Robert Beine, WPA supervisor 
assigned to the Society. Mrs. Mary Parkman, head of the Professional and 
Service division of WPA, and Harold J. Henderson, supervisor of the His- 
torical Records and Imprints surveys, have cooperated in these projects. 

Two state-wide work-relief projects have been sponsored by the Society. 

The Kansas section of the American Imprints Inventory, sponsored since 
October 1, 1938, has examined over two million volumes in Kansas libraries. 
Of these, titles of 55,677 have been listed. An inventory was made of 4,057 
volumes. The survey will soon be carried to twenty-three additional city and 
college libraries. On the basis of total holdings of all Kansas depositories it 
is estimated that the imprints inventory is approximately seventy-five percent 
complete. A Check List of Kansas Imprints was published in December, 1939. 
The project employs ten persons. 

The Historical Records Survey sponsored since September 1, 1939, has issued 
nine inventories of county records. The Shawnee county inventory, now being 
mimeographed, is tenth of the series. The project is operating in seventy 
counties, and first listing of records has been completed in sixty-nine. One 
hundred twenty workers are employed on this survey. 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 85 

KANSAS HISTORICAL MARKERS 

Six years ago a committee of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce headed by 
Fred Brinkerhoff, of Pittsburg, Roy Bailey, of Salina, and Samuel Wilson, of 
Topeka, met with the secretary of the Historical Society to discuss plans for 
marking historic sites on state highways. As a starter, the Historical Society 
compiled a list of 100 sites. From these fifty were selected for the first signs. 
Gov. Walter Huxman and the Highway Commission approved the project and 
one marker was constructed before the change in administrations. In July, 
1940, Gov. Payne Ratner and D. J. Fair, director of the new Highway Com- 
mission, resumed the program, and it is now being energetically carried out. 

Texts for the signs are written by the Historical Society after careful re- 
search. Frequently as many as a dozen drafts are made before final approval. 
Highway employees rout and burn these inscriptions in white pine signs, six 
to eight feet long by five or six feet deep. At the sites the markers are 
suspended from logs supported by upright posts placed in concrete. Warning 
signs small ovals with the silhouette of a buffalo are placed on highways a 
quarter of a mile on each side of the signs. 

Twenty of the first fifty inscriptions have been turned over to the Highway 
Commission and fourteen markers have been completed. Half of these have 
been placed on the highways, each with special unveiling ceremonies. 

Public response has been gratifying. Much credit should be given to Mr. 
Fair and his assistants. Their work includes selecting the marker sites, secur- 
ing easement papers when land is not already available, preparing location 
sketches for their construction divisions, and grading the sites for the markers. 

OLD SHAWNEB METHODIST MISSION 

Work on the restoration of the North building at the mission, made possible 
by the appropriation of $15,000 by the 1939 legislature, was begun last winter. 
The state architect, Roy W. Stookey, and his assistant, Charles Marshall, who 
drew up the plans and supervised the work, have taken a keen personal in- 
terest in this unique project. It was necessary to tear down the west end of 
the building and build a new foundation. The old brick, now nearly one 
hundred years old, was cleaned and relaid. All other exterior brick and stone 
have been repaired and pointed up. All beams and supports were reinforced 
and a new roof was laid. Much of the long two-story veranda had to be re- 
placed. The accumulated paints and varnishes of one hundred years were 
scraped off the interior floors and woodwork and the native oak and walnut 
were restored to their natural finish. Replacements of wood and hardware, 
where necessary, have matched the originals as closely as possible. Plastering 
has just been completed. From an architectural standpoint this is the most 
attractive of the three old brick buildings at the mission. When it is re- 
stored and the grounds are landscaped it will be a beautiful addition to the 
historic shrines of Kansas. 

During the year minor repairs have been made on the other buildings. The 
large signs were repainted this fall. Last spring a wide border of native 
shrubbery was planted along the east and south property lines south of the 
road. Drought in recent years has killed much of the bluegrass to which the 
grounds were sown six years ago. Several acres were plowed up and reseeded 
this fall. 



86 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The Society is indebted to the Shawnee Mission Indian Historical Society 
and to the state departments of the Colonial Dames, the Daughters of the 
American Revolution, the Daughters of American Colonists and the Daughters 
of 1812 for their splendid cooperation at the mission. The number of visitors 
increases each year. Harry A. Hardy, caretaker at the mission, and his wife, 
Kate Hardy, deserve special mention for the excellent manner in which the 
buildings and grounds are maintained. 

FIRST CAPITOL OF KANSAS 

The legislature of 1939 appropriated $3,000 for a cottage for the caretaker 
at the First Capitol building on US-40 in the Fort Riley reservation. The 
state architect designed this cottage to conform with the old building, which 
was restored by the Union Pacific railway in 1927. For the past eight years 
the caretaker has been living in an unsightly box car which can now be re- 
moved. Minor repairs have been made on the capitol building and this fall 
the large signs on the highway were repainted. One of the new highway 
markers is to be placed on this site in the near future. 

PIKE-PAWNEE MONUMENT 

Repairs were made this fall on the fence and the flagpole at the Pike- 
Pawnee monument in Republic county. On September 20 a historical marker 
describing the events commemorated by the monument was dedicated at 
Scandia on US-36 eight miles south of the park. 

A TEN-YEARS' SURVEY 

As mentioned at the beginning of this report this annual meeting ends my 
tenth year as secretary. During that period a continuous effort has been 
made to organize, catalogue and repair the vast collections of the Society, so 
that they might be more useful, and to give them more frequent publication. 
A brief statement of some of the accomplishments of the decade will be of 
interest. 

PUBLICATIONS 

The Kansas Historical Collections, published biennially, were discontinued 
and the Quarterly was substituted, of which eight volumes have appeared. 
Nine newspaper lists, showing publications received, and several pamphlets 
have been issued. One book, The Annals of Shawnee Mission and the Indian 
Manual Labor School, was published last year. A general index to both The 
Kansas Historical Collections and The Kansas Historical Quarterly is being 
prepared. 

NEWSPAPERS 

New steel shelves costing $3,600 have been installed, for the first time per- 
mitting a systematic arrangement of newspapers and keeping them from 
deterioration. A record of every paper belonging to the Society was published 
in the Union List of Newspapers. Many valuable accessions were acquired, in- 
cluding 81 volumes of early Leavenworth papers, 90 issues of the Atchison 
Squatter Sovereign, and a large file of the Emporia Kansas News, 1857-1878. 
A microfilm projector and 1,829 feet of newspaper film are recent additions. 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 87 

ARCHIVES 

Correspondence of Governors Reed, Woodring, Landon and Huxman was 
received, as well as large accessions from other state departments. An index of 
corporation charters consisting of 190,000 cards was made. Alphabetical list- 
ings of 168,000 persons in the census records of 1855, 1860 and 1875 were pre- 
pared. A record of 7,000 dead towns is nearing completion. Certificates of age, 
based on the census, were issued to 1,400 persons. 

MUSEUM 

More than 30,000 relics and pictures were cleaned, repaired and relabeled. 
The Billard airplane was acquired, perhaps the most interesting object in the 
museum. 

LIBRARY 

Of exceptional value are the following : A list of legislators from 1855-1939 ; 
an index of the Civil War roster; an index to early volumes of biographical 
clippings; a list of the Society's holdings for publication in the Union List of 
Serials; classification of 45,000 books and pamphlets in the library annex; filing 
of 500,000 Library of Congress cards; assisting in the preparation of the In- 
ventory of Kansas Imprints; classifying and cataloguing the Society's 20,000 
pictures; and cleaning and mounting on muslin 12,000 maps and broadsides. 

PRIVATE MANUSCRIPTS 

Hundreds of valuable papers were cleaned and repaired by methods de- 
veloped at the Library of Congress and the whole department was reorganized. 
Among the accessions were: Seven truck loads of books and papers brought 
from the attic of the old post office when it was razed, probably the largest 
and most valuable single collection ever acquired by the Society; 25,000 papers 
of Charles S. Gleed; 12,000 items from the law department of the Union 
Pacific railroad through the courtesy of T. M. Lillard; 17,000 records of live- 
stock brands, 1855 to 1937, from the state planning board; papers and diaries 
of Isaac Goodnow; papers and diaries of Elam Bartholomew; Thomas Ewing 
letter books; Chas. Robinson papers from Hannah Oliver; Gov. John P. St. 
John letter books; and photostats of John Brown letters, and documents in 
the national archives. 

SHAWNEE MISSION 

Much has been done at Shawnee Mission. Work in the East building in- 
cludes installation of new supporting timbers, removal of partitions on second 
floor, restoration of the original flooring and installation of a club room. A 
frame garage was torn down and replaced by a brick garage and workshop. 
The West building was repaired, renovated and reroofed. Restoration of 
North building, with $15,000 appropriated by the legislature, has been men- 
tioned. The grounds were landscaped and replanted. 

FIRST CAPITOL 

The appropriation of $3,000 for a caretaker's cottage at the First Capitol has 
been mentioned. 

THE STAFF OF THE SOCIETY 

The various accomplishments noted in this report are due to the Society's 
splendid staff of employees. Visitors from all parts of the country almost 
invariably go out of their way to compliment the Society on the spirit of 



88 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

cooperation they find in every department. I gratefully acknowledge my in- 
debtedness to them. At this annual meeting special mention must be made of 
Mrs. Mary Embree, who began a leave of absence the first of September. 
Mrs. Embree joined the staff on February 1, 1911, as accountant and treasurer. 
During these thirty years she made an invaluable contribution to the upbuild- 
ing of the Society. She leaves with the sincere best wishes of every member 
of the staff. Respectfully submitted, 

KIRKB MECHEM, Secretary. 

At the conclusion of the reading of the secretary's report, T. A. 
McNeal moved that it be accepted. Motion was seconded by John 
S. Dawson. 

Mr. Lillard then called for the report of the treasurer. In lieu of 
a report by Mrs. Mary Embree, absent on leave, the audit by the 
state accountant of the Society's funds was presented by Mrs. Lela 
Barnes. 

AUDIT REPORT 

AUGUST 11, 1939, TO AUGUST 31, 1940 
MEMBERSHIP FEE FUND 

Balance, August 11, 1939: 

Cash $1,141.29 

Treasury bonds (par value, $3,500) 3,441 .81 

$4,583.10 

Receipts : 

Life memberships 210.00 

Annual dues 116.00 

Interest on bonds 146.25 

Postage returned 434. 00 

Postage received 1 .00 

Total receipts 907.25 



$5,490.35 

Disbursements : 

Travel expenses 262.86 

Annual meeting 24 . 75 

Postage 316.00 

Dues and subscriptions 233.00 

Shawnee Mission pageant 40 . 00 

Supplies 36. 93 

Drayage 17.50 

Surety bonds 10.00 

Flowers 9 . 53 

Christmas gifts to janitors 8.50 

Plaques 5 . 00 

Safety deposit box 3.30 

Extra typing 3.00 

Notary commission 2 .00 

Total disbursements 972 . 37 

Balance, August 31, 1940: 

Cash 1,076. 17 

Treasury bonds (par value, $3,500) 3,441 .81 

4,517.98 

$5,490.35 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 89 

JONATHAN PECKER BEQUEST 

Balance, August 11, 1939 $68.00 

Treasury bonds 950.00 

$1,018.00 
Interest received : 

Bond interest $27.78 

Interest on bank balance .43 

28.21 



$1,046.21 

Disbursements, books $18 . 21 

Balance, August 31, 1940: 

Cash 78.00 

Treasury bonds 950.00 



$1,046.21 



JOHN BOOTH BEQUEST 



Balance, August 11, 1939 $76.75 

Treasury bonds 500.00 

$576.75 
Interest received : 

Bond interest $13.88 

Interest on bank balance .22 

14.10 



$590.85 

Disbursements, books $77.50 

Balance, August 31, 1940: 

Cash 13 . 35 

Treasury bonds 500.00 



$590.85 

THOMAS H. BOWLUS, DONATION 

This donation is substantiated by a United States treasury bond in the 
amount of $1,000. Interest is credited to the membership fund. 

On motion of Mrs. W. D. Philip, seconded by Mrs. Bennett R. 
Wheeler, the report was accepted. 

The report of the executive committee on the audit by the state 
accountant of the funds of the Society was called for and read by 
the secretary. 

REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

OCTOBER 15, 1940. 
To the Board of Directors, Kansas State Historical Society: 

The executive committee being directed under the bylaws to check the ac- 
counts of the treasurer, states that the state accountant has audited the funds 
of the State Historical Society, the First Capitol of Kansas and the Old 
Shawnee Mission from August 11, 1939, to August 31, 1940, and that they are 
hereby approved. THOMAS AMORY LEE, Chairman. 



90 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Justice Dawson moved that the report be accepted; seconded by 
T. A. McNeal. 

The report of the nominating committee for officers of the Society 
was read by the secretary : 

NOMINATING COMMITTEE'S REPORT 

OCTOBER 15, 1940. 
To the Board of Directors, Kansas State Historical Society: 

Your committee on nominations submits the following report for officers of 
the Kansas State Historical Society : 

For a one-year term: James C. Malin, Lawrence, president; Charles H. 
Browne, Horton, first vice-president; W. E. Stanley, Wichita, second vice- 
president. 

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

Respectfully submitted, 

T. A. McNEAL, Chairman, 

M. R. MCLEAN, 

JOHN S. DAWSON, 

MRS. A. M. HARVEY, 

MRS. BENNETT R. WHEELER. 

The report was referred to the afternoon meeting of the board. 

There was an informal discussion of ways of interesting greater 
numbers of people in the work of the Society. This was followed by 
a short talk by John G. Ellenbecker, of Marysville, on the Oregon 
trail and the increasing need for Western pioneer history to be 
taught in the schools. 

There being no further business the meeting adjourned until the 
annual meeting of the Society at 2 p. m. 

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, 
T. M. Lillard. 

The annual address by Mr. Lillard follows: 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 91 

Address of the President 
BEGINNINGS OF THE KANSAS JUDICIARY 

T. M. LlLLARD 

OHORTLY after the acquisition of the Louisiana territory through 
O purchase from France in the year 1803, Congress enacted a law 
dividing it into two parts, the northern part which included Kansas 
being attached to the territory of Indiana for governmental pur- 
poses. Later, in 1812, a portion of the Louisiana territory, including 
Kansas, was reorganized under a territorial government known as 
the Missouri territory. After the admission of Missouri as a state 
in 1820, Kansas and the remainder of the former Missouri terri- 
tory, which was not included in the state of Missouri, was left with- 
out any territorial government. From 1820 until 1854 this section 
of the country was treated under federal laws simply as Indian land, 
practically the only statutes applicable thereto being those dealing 
with the Indian tribes. There was no organized local government, 
and certainly there were no courts or other judicial bodies function- 
ing in any part of this great expanse of prairie country. 

It was into a land in this almost barbaric condition so far as laws 
and organized government were involved that the earliest settlers 
came as they journeyed out by steamboat and covered wagon to be- 
come citizens of the proposed new state of Kansas, following the 
enactment of the Kansas-Nebraska law in the spring of 1854. Under 
the terms of the enabling act passed by Congress, the governor, who 
was to be appointed by the President, was to call an election at 
which a legislative body would be chosen. The legislature so chosen 
would adopt a body of laws to govern the people in the territory and 
would establish the usual governmental agencies. Some months 
would necessarily elapse before the actual machinery of the terri- 
torial government could be set up, before a set of laws to govern the 
settlers could be enacted, and before courts could be established to 
administer these laws. During that interim the first Kansas set- 
tlers were dwelling in what was quite literally an almost lawless 
country. 

Just when the three judges appointed by President Pierce who 
were to serve in Kansas territory as district judges as well as 
supreme court judges began to hold district courts is not at all 
clear. It is certain that they did not meet as a supreme court until 
July 30, 1855. A few justices of the peace appointed by Governor 



92 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Reeder, shortly after he reached Kansas in the latter part of the 
year 1854, apparently constituted the only judicial officers actually 
functioning in the territory until well along in the year 1855. 

In some sections of the territory, at least, these early settlers 
seemed able to proceed in homely fashion to provide themselves 
with the missing laws and the missing courts. In Connelley's Kan- 
sas and Kansans he quotes a set of resolutions promulgating some 
home-made laws adopted early in 1855 at a joint meeting of the 
"Wakarusa Association," a group of Slave-State advocates from 
Missouri, and the "Actual Settlers' Association," a group of Free- 
State advocates from New England. In these resolutions there were 
embodied a set of rules fixing the method for staking out, settle- 
ment on, proving up of land claims, and for disposing of disputes 
with reference to such claims. 

This documentary record showing how these two rival or even 
hostile groups met amicably, as they did, out on the big ridge that 
separates the Kaw valley and the Wakarusa valley a few miles 
west of Lawrence and there created for themselves a body of laws 
to establish and protect their mutual rights in the things that were 
of most immediate concern to them is startling proof of the fact 
that they had found themselves practically in a state of nature, 
without benefit of any governmental agencies that were actually 
functioning. 

The resolutions thus adopted provided for the following officers: 
One chief justice, one register, one marshal and one treasurer. I 
quote the following provisions establishing the judiciary: 

The duty of the Chief Justice shall be to try and decide all disputes be- 
tween settlers in reference to claims or otherwise, and to try all criminals or 
persons guilty of the violation of the laws of the Territory. The said Chief 
Justice shall always take justice between man and man as his guide ; and upon 
the demand of either party shall summon a jury ... to try all disputes 
or violations of law. . . . 

Further proof of the difficulties that surrounded the early settlers 
by reason of the uncertainty as to the laws that they must live 
under is found in the petition addressed to President Pierce by the 
territorial legislature in the summer of 1855, that Governor Reeder 
be removed from office. One of the recitals in that petition was that 
neither the governor nor the people knew what local laws were in 
force, as some of the justices of the peace were enforcing the code of 
laws from Pennsylvania, others the laws from Ohio, and still others 
the laws from Missouri. 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 93 

But as the year 1855 progressed the governmental machinery of 
the new territory was gradually set up and put to work, many 
difficulties and much bitterness being encountered as each step was 
taken. 

The first Kansas territorial legislative assembly upon call of Gov- 
ernor Reeder convened on July 2, 1855, the meeting place chosen 
by the governor, to the great disgust of the members, being at 
Pawnee (now a part of the Fort Riley Military Reservation). 
Practically all of the members were Proslavery advocates who had 
come from Missouri, their election the previous March having been 
notoriously fraudulent. Desiring to hold their sessions as near as 
possible to the Missouri state line, immediately after organizing the 
first session at Pawnee, the legislators passed a resolution adjourn- 
ing to the Shawnee Methodist Mission, located in what was later to 
become Johnson county. There the legislature began the task of 
enacting a body of laws to govern the people of the territory. 

Governor Reeder refused to sign the first statute enacted by the 
territorial legislature after it had adjourned to Shawnee mission, 
the particular statute involved being one to provide for a public 
ferry across the Missouri river at Kickapoo. The ground for the 
governor's objection was that the legislature had no right to ad- 
journ from Pawnee and hold its sessions at Shawnee mission, and 
that any laws enacted at that location were invalid. 

President Franklin Pierce in June, 1854, had appointed as the 
three judges of the supreme court of the territory, Samuel Lecompte, 
of Maryland, chief justice, and Saunders W. Johnston, of Ohio, and 
Rush Elmore, of Alabama, as associate justices. Upon the request 
of the legislature, the United States district attorney arranged for 
the three territorial judges to assemble as a supreme court at Shaw- 
nee mission on July 30, 1855. He there presented to the judges a 
resolution of the legislature soliciting a decision of the supreme 
court as to the validity of the legislative session then being held at 
Shawnee mission, and of the statutes enacted by the legislature while 
assembled at that place. On the journal of the court it was noted 
that the court, having taken the communication under consideration, 
would rule upon it in view of the great importance of the matters 
involved, but that the ruling would not be made as a court, but 
simply as the individual views of the judges. Chief Justice Le- 
compte and Associate Justice Elmore thereupon, in an opinion that 
is printed in the appendix to the House Journal of the territorial leg- 
islature of 1855, upheld the validity of the legislative session at 



94 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Shawnee mission and of the statutes there enacted. Mr. Justice 
Johnston in a short written opinion which has been preserved dis- 
sented vigorously on the ground that the members of the court had 
no right to render opinions except in cases regularly presented for 
hearing. 

In this rather incongruous fashion, for the first time a supreme 
court of any character functioned in Kansas. The dissenting judge 
apparently had the better of the argument from a purely legal 
standpoint. However, as a practical matter, the territorial legisla- 
ture in reliance upon the informal ruling of the two judges, pro- 
ceeded forthwith to enact a general body of laws to govern the 
territory, something of which there was sore need. 

While the judiciary alone is included in the scope of this paper, 
some passing reference must be made to the legislature which en- 
acted at Shawnee mission the general code of 1855. This legislative 
body was most cordially hated and distrusted by the Free-State 
settlers. It has ever since been contemptuously referred to as the 
"Bogus Legislature." The outrageous frauds perpetrated when its 
members were elected and the high-handed manner in which its 
members disregarded the authority of the executive, Governor 
Reeder, call for vigorous condemnation. The same may be said of 
the lengths to which the "Bogus Legislature" went in establishing 
and protecting slavery in the territory, and of the statutes fixing 
the qualifications of voters so as to practically disfranchise all Free- 
State advocates. 

We think of Kansas as having always been non-slavery territory. 
However, it is doubtful if any state of the Union ever had a set of 
laws establishing and protecting within its limits the institution of 
human slavery with more emphatic vigor than is found in Chapter 
151 of the Laws of 1855 as enacted by the territorial legislature of 
Kansas. Section 12 of this statute reads: 

If any free person, by speaking or by writing, assert or maintain that per- 
sons 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, published or circulated in this territory, any 
book, paper, magazine, pamphlet or circular, containing any denial of the right 
of persons to hold slaves in this territory, such person shall be deemed guilty 
of felony, and punished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term of not less 
than two years. 

When a Free-State legislature finally came into power in Kan- 
sas, it was not satisfied with an immediate repeal of these laws, 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 95 

but ordered a public burning of the volume in which they were con- 
tained. 

Aside from the laws dealing with slavery, the "Bogus Legislature" 
did, however, perform a very creditable job in promptly adopting a 
general body of statutory law. Under these statutes the courts be- 
gan to function, and continued to do so through the territorial 
period, with what may be termed fair success when we consider the 
turbulent conditions that prevailed. 

Under the terms of the act of Congress creating the territory the 
three supreme court judges were also to function as judges of the 
district courts. On February 26, 1855, Governor Reeder had as- 
signed the three judges to district court service as follows: Chief 
Justice Lecompte to preside in the First district, sitting at Leaven- 
worth; Judge Elmore in the Second district, sitting at Tecumseh; 
and Judge Johnston in the Third district, sitting at Pawnee. 

There were frequent changes in the territorial judges new ap- 
pointees sometimes appearing with commissions from the President 
and claiming the positions over the vigorous protests of the former 
judges who had received no previous notice of their displacement. 

Of the territorial judges Samuel D. Lecompte was the only one 
who appears to have left any great impression on the history of those 
times. One cannot read the record of his life and activities without 
being impressed with the fact that he was a man of great force of 
character. In addition to his judicial service, he presided over the 
Lecompton Constitutional Convention. He was bitterly charged 
with having through the powers of his judicial office given undue and 
unfair support to the Proslavery party. 

The judge cannot be charged with ever having run to cover or 
to have shown any symptoms of cowardice. Born and raised in the 
slave-holding state of Maryland, he frankly and openly declared 
his belief in the blessings of slavery as an institution and his desire 
to use all lawful means to establish slavery in Kansas. 

He resided at Leavenworth for many years after the close of the 
Civil War, joined the Republican party, and was elected probate 
judge of the county and served as a member of the legislature. In 
1873 D. R. Anthony published a number of severely condemnatory 
articles in his newspaper, reviewing the activities of Judge Lecompte 
during the territorial period. Upon complaint of Judge Lecompte, 
Anthony was prosecuted for criminal libel, and after trial in the 
criminal court of Leavenworth county, was found guilty and fined 
$500. Lecompte in 1875 published a lengthy and highly rhetorical 



96 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

article in the Troy Chief, defending in great detail his official con- 
duct. Judge Lecompte about this time declined with some bitter- 
ness a request to send his photograph to the Kansas State His- 
torical Society, intimating that he thought the request was made for 
the purpose of preserving his likeness as an enemy rather than as a 
friend of Kansas. The rather stormy career of Judge Lecompte as 
chief justice of the territorial court extended throughout the most 
trying territorial days, and did not terminate until March, 1859, 
when he was replaced through the appointment by President Bu- 
chanan by Honorable John Pettit of Indiana as chief justice of the 
court. 

Honorable James McCahon, a prominent attorney of Leaven- 
worth, in 1870 collected and published in a small volume, known as 
McCahon's Reports, all available decisions of the supreme court of 
Kansas territory. The opinions included in this volume were all 
rendered in the years beginning with 1858, and unfortunately fail to 
throw any light upon the court through the more turbulent period 
from 1855 to 1858. A thumbing through of this small volume dis- 
closes the usual run of controversies over contracts, partnerships, 
land disputes, procedural questions, etc. It is interesting to note, 
however, that the general statutes enacted by the "Bogus Legisla- 
ture" were applied by the court and afforded a workable body of 
statutory law through the territorial period. 

In McCahon's Reports, at page 185, is a record of the proceedings 
in the case of United States v. Lewis L. Weld had in the district 
court of Leavenworth county on April 18, 1860. The subject matter, 
as well as the decision in this case, were extremely interesting to me, 
and I will review them briefly. A negro slave named Peter Fisher 
had escaped to Kansas from Kentucky. The owners of the slave 
were two infant children named Hutchison, who had inherited the 
slave from their father, recently deceased. The guardian of the two 
children came to Kansas with an appropriate order from the Ken- 
tucky authorities issued under the fugitive slave law, and took the 
slave into his custody in Leavenworth county. While about to re- 
turn to Kentucky with him, defendant in the case, Lewis L. Weld, on 
January 24, 1859, as the indictment charged, did with force and 
arms, to-wit, with a club, knife, pistol, and other hurtful weapons, 
knowingly and willfully aid, abet and assist the said Peter Fisher, 
so owing service or labor as aforesaid, to escape. The fugitive slave 
law under which Weld was prosecuted made it a criminal offense for 
any one to aid and assist a fugitive slave in escaping when he had 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 97 

been taken into the custody of his owner, or the owner's "agent or 
attorney." Motion to quash the indictment of Weld having been 
filed, it was argued before Judge Pettit, and sustained; the ground 
of the ruling being that the guardian of the minor owners of the 
slave was not shown to have lawful custody of the slave, because he 
was neither the owner nor the "agent or attorney" of the owners, and 
for this reason the fugitive slave law had not been violated when 
Weld with the use of a club, knife, pistol, and other hurtful weapons 
aided the slave in escaping from the guardian of the infant owners. 

It requires no stretch of the imagination to believe that if this 
case had been tried before Judge Lecompte, instead of Judge Pettit, 
the result would have been very different. Judge Pettit's opinion 
winds up with the following paragraph : 

This opinion has been hastily written in the midst of turmoil, interruption 
and confusion in the absence of a library to consult, and without time to 
correct or pay much attention to legal diction, but I am confident that, in its 
main features, it will stand the test of the most searching and rigid legal and 
judicial criticism. 

If Judge Pettit had had "a library to consult," it is likely that he 
would have had considerable difficulty in finding any authority to 
sustain his conclusion that the relationship of a guardian to his 
infant ward is of lower order than that of agent or attorney. 

However, the decision was undoubtedly popular. When we re- 
member that at the time the case was heard the Free-State people 
were definitely in the majority, we can get a pretty clear picture of 
the conditions referred to by Judge Pettit when he said in his opinion 
that the case was heard "in the midst of turmoil, interruption and 
confusion." A decision, even in Leavenworth in 1860 sending one of 
the Kansas Free-Staters to prison because he had prevented the re- 
turn of a slave from Kansas to Kentucky, would no doubt have re- 
sulted in a pitched battle in the courthouse. 

The work of the territorial court ended upon the admission of 
Kansas into the Union as a state on January 29, 1861. The mem- 
bers of the supreme court elected to serve under the Wyandotte 
Constitution assembled in their first session on October 28, 1861. 
The court as then constituted, consisted of Thomas Ewing, Jr., chief 
justice, Samuel A. Kingman and Lawrence D. Bailey as associate 
justices. The first five district judges were McDowell, Lee, Safford, 
Thacher and Learnard, and David J. Brewer was judge of the 
criminal court of Leavenworth county. These first Kansas judges 

77171 



98 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

were all men of good character and ability. Many of them later 
made outstanding records. 

Thomas Ewing, the first chief justice, served only about a year, 
resigning in October, 1862, to enter military service as colonel of the 
Eleventh Kansas regiment which he had recruited. Ewing was 
shortly thereafter advanced to the rank of brigadier general, and 
his record as a soldier was one of distinction. As commander of the 
army in the District of the Border, he issued the famous Order No. 
11, the effect of which was practically to remove the civilian popula- 
tion from Kansas City and vicinity. After the war, Judge Ewing 
practiced law in Washington, D. C., and in New York City, and 
was at one time a member of congress from the state of Pennsyl- 
vania. He was a gallant soldier and an able lawyer. 

Judge Kingman, a native of Massachusetts, served on the supreme 
court until 1876. An able and distinguished judge, he rendered a 
valuable service to his state through the learning, fairness and in- 
dustry with which he applied himself to the difficult legal problems 
that came before the court while the law of the new commonwealth 
was in a formative period. Prior to his service on the bench, Judge 
Kingman had been one of the leaders in the framing of the Wyan- 
dotte Constitution and is credited with being the father of the 
beneficent homestead provision in the Kansas constitution. In the 
later years of his life Judge Kingman served as secretary of the 
State Historical Society. 

Judge Bailey, a native of New Hampshire, whose home, after he 
came to Kansas, was at Emporia, was a man of outstanding char- 
acter and ability. He served upon the court until January, 1869, 
when he was succeeded by the Hon. Daniel M. Valentine. 

I will not take time to attempt a review of the work of the courts 
even in the early years of statehood. The opinions of the judges of 
the supreme court are preserved in the official reports of the court; 
and these opinions reflect also the work done by the district courts 
whose decisions came up for review. By these early judicial de- 
cisions the law of the new state was settled and determined in ad- 
mirable fashion. 

The members of the Kansas judiciary who assumed their official 
duties in those historic days when the nation was just entering into 
the throes of Civil War did so with a full sense of their responsibili- 
ties. They had each had some part in the struggles of the territorial 
days from which Kansas finally emerged as a free state. When we 
review the difficulties that surrounded the birth of Kansas, we can 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 



99 



better appreciate the significance of the inscription on the official 
seal of our state, "Ad Astra Per Aspera." 

A talk by Paul Jones, chairman of the Kansas Coronado Cuarto 
Centennial Commission, on "Coronado and Quivira" followed the 
address of the president. Mr. Jones spoke interestingly of incidents 
in his research on the life of Coronado and the expedition of 1540- 
1541 ; also of plans for the cuarto centennial celebration in Kansas. 

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

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON NOMINATIONS FOR DIRECTORS 

OCTOBER 15, 1940. 
To the Kansas State Historical Society: 

Your committee on nominations submits the following report and recom- 
mendations for directors of the Society for the term of three years ending 
October, 1943: 



Austin, E. A., Topeka. 
Berryman, Jerome C., Ashland. 
Brigham, Mrs. Lalla M., 

Council Grove. 
Brock, R. F., Sharon Springs. 
Bumgardner, Edward, Lawrence. 
Correll, Charles M., Manhattan. 
Davis, W. W., Lawrence. 
Denious, Jess C., Dodge City. 
Fay, Mrs. Mamie Axline, Pratt. 
Frizell, E. E., Lamed. 
Godsey, Mrs. Flora R., Emporia. 
Hall, Mrs. Carrie A., Leavenworth. 
Hegler, Ben F., Wichita. 
Jones, Horace, Lyons. 
Lillard, T. M., Topeka. 
Lindsley, H. K., Wichita. 



Means, Hugh, Lawrence. 
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. 
Riegle, Wilford, Emporia. 
Rupp, Mrs. W. E., Hillsboro. 
Schultz, Floyd B., Clay Center. 
Sloan, E. R., Topeka. 
Uhl, L. C., Jr., Smith Center. 
Van de Mark, M. V. B., Concordia. 
Wark, George H., Caney. 
Wheeler, Mrs. Bennett R., Topeka. 
Woolard, Sam F., Wichita. 
Wooster, Lorraine E., Salina. 



Respectfully submitted, 

T. A. McNEAL, Chairman, 

M. R. MCLEAN, 

JOHN S. DAWSON, 

MRS. A. M. HARVEY, 

MRS. BENNETT R. WHEELER. 

On unanimous vote of the members of the Society the report of 
the committee was accepted and the members of the board were de- 
clared elected for the term ending October, 1943. 

The reports of representatives of other societies were called for. 
Mrs. J. W. Quarrier, retiring president of the Shawnee Mission 
Indian Historical Society, presented the report of that organization. 
The report of the Douglas County Historical Society was presented 
by Robert C. Rankin. The Rev. Angelus Lingenfelser, secretary of 



100 



KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 



the Kansas Catholic Historical Society, presented the report of that 
society, and Charles M. Correll that of the Riley County Historical 
Society. 

The president called upon the secretary to comment briefly on the 
Coronado expedition. 

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 called to 
order by Mr. Lillard. He asked for a rereading of the report of the 
nominating committee for officers of the Society. On motion of 
Robert C. Rankin, seconded by Chas. M. Correll, the following were 
unanimously elected : 

For a one-year term: James C. Malin, Lawrence, president; 
Charles H. Browne, Horton, first vice-president; W. E. Stanley, 
Wichita, second vice-president. 

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

There being no further business the meeting adjourned. 

DIRECTORS OF THE KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY AS OF 

OCTOBER, 1940 

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. 
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. 
Murdock, Victor, Wichita. 
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., Leavenworth. 
Walker, Mrs. Ida M., Norton. 
White, William Allen, Emporia. 
Wilson, John H., Salina. 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 



101 



DIRECTORS FOR YEAR ENDING OCTOBER, 1942 



Beeks, Charles E., Baldwin. 
Beezley, George F., Girard. 
Bonebrake, Fred B., Topeka. 
Bowlus, Thomas H., lola. 
Brinkerhoff, Fred W., Pittsburg. 
Browne, Charles H., Horton. 
Embree, Mrs. Mary, Topeka. 
Gray, John M., Kirwin. 
Hamilton, R. L., Beloit. 
Harger, Charles M., Abilene. 
Harvey, Mrs. A. M., Topeka. 
Haucke, Frank, Council Grove. 
Kagey, Charles L., Wichita. 
Kinkel, John M., Topeka. 
Lee, Thomas Amory, Topeka. 
McFarland, Helen M., Topeka. 
Malone, James, Topeka. 



Mechem, Kirke, Topeka. 
Morrison, T. F., Chanute. 
Norris, Mrs. George, Arkansas City. 
Philip, Mrs. W. D., Hays. 
Rankin, Robert C., Lawrence. 
Ruppenthal, J. C., Russell. 
Ryan, Ernest A., Topeka. 
Sayers, Wm. L,, Hill City. 
Schulte, Paul C., Leavenworth. 
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. 
Woodring, Harry H., Lecompton. 



DIRECTORS FOR YEAR ENDING OCTOBER, 1943 



Austin, E. A., Topeka. 
Berryman, Jerome C., Ashland. 
Brigham, Mrs. Lalla M., 

Council Grove. 
Brock, R. F., Sharon Springs. 
Bumgardner, Edward, Lawrence. 
Correll, Charles M., Manhattan. 
Davis, W. W., Lawrence. 
Denious, Jess C., Dodge City. 
Fay, Mrs. Mamie Axline, Pratt. 
Frizell, E. E., Lamed. 
Godsey, Mrs. Flora R., Emporia. 
Hall, Mrs. Carrie A., Leavenworth. 
Hegler, Ben F., Wichita. 
Jones, Horace, Lyons. 
Lillard, T. M., Topeka. 
Lindsley, H. K., Wichita. 



Means, Hugh, Lawrence. 
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. 
Riegle, Wilford, Emporia. 
Rupp, Mrs. W. E., Hillsboro. 
Schultz, Floyd B., Clay Center. 
Sloan, E. R., Topeka. 
Uhl, L. C., Jr., Smith Center. 
Van de Mark, M. V. B., Concordia. 
Wark, George H., Caney. 
Wheeler, Mrs. Bennett R., Topeka. 
Woolard, Sam F., Wichita. 
Wooster, Lorraine E., Salina. 



Bypaths of Kansas History 

NEWS FROM MORMON GROVE 

From the New York Daily Tribune, January 24, 1856. 

Mormon Grove, Friday, January 11, 1856. 

The road which leads from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Laramie, runs through 
the prairies to the back of Atchison and Doniphan, at a distance of some six 
or eight miles. Along this road the attention of the traveler is often arrested 
by the graves on the wayside. The frequent occurrence of these is sad evi- 
dence of many a painful story, long deferred perhaps, but sure and sorrowful, 
conveyed to the relatives of those who thus sleep beneath the prairie sod. 
The rumbling of the emigrant wagons or the Government train makes their 
resting-place a busy thoroughfare. A few of these graves have a fence around 
them, but most of them are marked only by the mound and broken sod. Some 
of them had been torn up, and the prairie wolf had made a banquet on the 
poor relics of mortality. 

There is a road leading from Atchison into this military road. This is now 
the route for the Mormon emigration on its way to Salt Lake; and here, at 
the distance of some six or seven miles from Atchison, they have a starting 
station. I was on my way from Doniphan to Ocena, when I came in sight of 
Mormon Grove. It stands on high ground in the prairie, and is of young hick- 
ory trees, which can be seen at a great distance, their feathery outlines giving 
the scene a picturesque effect. I had no intention of stopping, but something 
in the appearance of the place arrested me. There was a large farm, some 
160 acres, neatly fenced with sod. I had often seen sod fence before, but never 
had occasion to admire it, as the hogs and cattle always seemed to honor it 
"more in the breach than in the observance;" but this appeared to be con- 
structed on a more scientific plan, and is, I think, worthy of imitation in a 
prairie country. On the outside there is a ditch some three feet deep by four 
feet wide, sloping to a point at the bottom; from this the materials of the 
dyke have been taken. The sods from the surface form the face of the wall, 
which is only two-and-a-half feet high. The earth from the trench is thrown 
behind these and slopes away very gradually. When well built this will, I 
think, be very durable. The hogs and cattle are prevented from knocking it 
down by the trench, and cannot jump the trench for the wall. I was told that 
a man could put up from three to four rods of this fence per day. 

There are one or two Mormons living at the Grove and its vicinity, but 
as I have stated, this is merely an outfitting station for the Salt Lake trains. 
Whether the polygamy feature of domestic bliss flourishes here, is a problem 
which my observation had not enabled me to solve. The people appear to be 
very quiet, and seem to possess some little intelligence. One elderly lady had 
quite a matronly and dignified appearance, and one girl was rather pretty in 
fact, decidedly good-looking. For the first time in some weeks I have heard 
a "blessing" asked at table, and in the quaint and semi-religious conversation 
of my host I almost forgot the few peculiarities that startled me at Mormon 
Grove. [From Our Special Correspondent.] 

(102) 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 103 

BUFFALO BULLS ON SENTRY DUTY 

From the Walnut Valley Times, El Dorado, July 1, 1870. 

The bulls selected for sentry duty take up their position on all the promi- 
nences of the divide, leaving unoccupied, as we discovered on the day 
referred to, and always afterwards, not a single point from which an approach- 
ing enemy may be commanded. The buffalo, widely different from the 
antelope, depends scarcely at all on his scent; but those great round eyes of 
his, glowing in their earnestness or anger, like balls of fiery asphaltum, possess 
a length of range, and an inevitability of keenness, scarcely surpassed by those 
of any quadruped running wild on our continent. Crouch and crawl where 
you may, you cannot enter the main herd without half a dozen pair of them 
successively, or at a time, focussing full upon you. Instant retreat of their 
owners follows; at first no faster than a majestic walk, but, if your pursuit be 
hot, with increasing graduations of speed up to the heavy cow gallop; and 
then comes the stampede of the late' quietly feeding herd, in a cloud of dust, 
and with a noise of thunder like a general engagement. 

I have said it is impossible to get by the sentries : but there is an exception 
for the case of a hunter, who, disguised in a wolf or antelope skin, is willing 
to crawl slowly, dragging a rifle, for two or three miles; or the' still rarer 
case of one who, lying down completely out of sight in the grass, wriggles 
himself painfully along, like a snake, till he gets within range. 



ANOTHER USE FOR A PRINTING OFFICE 
From the Wichita Vidette, November 24, 1870. 

We have seen printing offices used for almost everything, but never knew 
of one being used for a jail until last night. On said night our office was 
made a place for the safe keeping of three prisoners. As the county is too 
poor to build a jail, and we are wealthy, we shall not present a bill for jail 
fees. 



"AN ENJOYABLE TIME WAS HAD BY ALL" 
From the Kinsley Reporter, November 23, 1876. 

The Lyceum, last night, was except the paper, a stupid affair. A part of 
the disputants stayed at home and the others didn't have anything to say; 
one of the singers had a cold, and consequently there was no music. The 
meetings will hereafter be held on Friday nights instead of Wednesdays. 



DING, DONG, BELL 
From the Kirwin Chief, July 17, 1878. 

Two hogs fell into the well on the Public Square Tuesday evening, but were 
recovered in the morning after a long-suffering community had listened to 
their melody all night. 



104 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

No PLEASURE IN His WORK 
From The Republican, Fordham, Hodgeman county, July 9, 1879. 

A. A. Lord says that going for buffalo chips with a pair of wild steers is not 
as much fun as one might think. 



THE ARKANSAS RIVER RAN DRY IN 1879. 
From the Inland Tribune, Great Bend, September 27, 1879. 

The Arkansas river is te totally dry ; not a drop of water in it ; it would make 
a splendid race course. The question is, what has become of the water? The 
Baptist brothers can't turn a wheel while this thing lasts. 



A CHURCH WITHOUT A MORTGAGE 
From the Lane County Gazette, California, Kan., June 17, 1880. 

The cheapest church in the United States was recently built in Kansas, at 
a cost of $10. Its walls and roof are of sod and the floor of earth. No mort- 



NOT FERDINAND ! 
From the Sherman Center News, March 17, 1887. 

One morning last week F. W. Flowerdew was out on his claim stepping off 
a portion to plow when he noticed a range steer about half a mile distant. 
He went on with the measurement, but presently heard something approach, 
turned and saw the steer coming at him at full speed, head down and about 
20 yards away. Mr. Flowerdew was not armed and his only way to avoid 
being struck by the first charge was to dodge it, which he did. The steer 
turned and came again but with not so much force, and Flowerdew succeeded 
in getting hold of a horn and his right hand into his nostrils. Here the battle 
began between man and beast. To one it meant life or death, to the other it 
made no difference. For an arena they had 200 miles square of level plain 
in the center of which the sky dropped to the earth to form the boundary of 
the scene of action. No Caesar was there to crown the hero and no amphi- 
theater as in ye Roman grandeur, to applaud the victor. It was the best 
place Flowerdew could have got hold of the maddened brute and backward 
and forward they struggled. The steer was three years old and as Flowerdew 
is a tall and powerful man it made a good fight. For over a half an hour 
the struggle continued, all the while Flowerdew was working his way to the 
house where there was some 2x4 pieces of lumber. When he got hold of these 
he had a little better show, and commenced to pound the steer over the nose, 
which he stood and suffered, but the minute the pounding stopped his steer- 
ship charged, and had to be beaten off. After two or three pieces had been 
broken up the animal was so weak from loss of blood that he turned tail and 
left, with his nostrils torn almost out. Flowderdew is not hurt, only his feet 
which were trampled, and being sore in the body and muscles. 



Kansas History as Published in the Press 

A concise review of the origin and laying out of the Chisholm trail, 
written by George Rainey of Enid, Okla., appeared in the October, 
1940, number of The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, published 
at Austin, Tex., by the Texas State Historical Society. This famous 
trail, laid out in 1865 by the Indian trader Jesse Chisholm, ran from 
Wichita to Anadarko in present Oklahoma, a distance of approxi- 
mately two hundred miles, and later was extended farther south to 
Fort Sill. Joseph McCoy's cattle trail, projected in 1867 from 
Abilene to the Red river, followed Chisholm's trail from Wichita to 
a place south of Kingfisher, Okla. This Texas cattle trail came to 
be known as the Chisholm trail even beyond the Red river, though 
most of its distance was an original route and not part of the true 
Chisholm trail. 

On October 3, 1940, the story of Mrs. John Verhoeff, as told to 
Mildred Cass Beason, began in the Gave County Republican- 
Gazette, of Gove City. Mrs. Verhoeff' s grandfather came from Hol- 
land to Pella, Iowa, with Dominic Scholte in the late 1840's. Mrs. 
Verhoeff was born in Pella and lived there until her marriage. In 
1879 she and her husband came to Kansas and settled near Grain- 
field. In January, 1880, a son was born, the first white boy, she 
'believes, to be born in what is now Gove county. The pioneer 
reminiscences of Mrs. Geo. S. Tustin were also recorded by Mrs. 
Beason, the first installment appearing November 21. The Grinnell 
Record-Leader reprinted the articles. 

Historical articles printed recently in the Kansas City (Mo.) 
Times include: "Cattle Rustlers Still Are Active Livestock Men 
Declare a New War," November 1, 1940, and "Dodge City's First 
Bond Issue Gave a Novel Cowboy Twist to Financing," by Paul I. 
Wellman, December 24; "Funston's Life Was an Adventure Story in 
the American Tradition," by E. R. Schauffler, February 7, 1941. 

Among Victor Murdock's historical feature articles appearing in 
the Wichita (Evening) Eagle during the past few months were: 
"Memories of Wichitans of Day [fifty years ago] Much Enlivened 
by a Host of Newcomers," November 2, 1940; "How Primeval 
Prairie Beckoned Pioneer Spirit to Frontier Adventure," November 
7 ; "Looking Into Childhood Through the Vivid Pages of Dr. [Arthur 
E.] Hertzler's New Book [The Doctor and His Patients], 1 ' Novem- 

(105) 



106 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ber 9 ; contribution of Kansas to the world through Barber county's 
"Mine of Pure Gypsum," November 13 and 14; "Memories of Mr. 
Knight, Once Conductor on Line, Attica to Medicine Lodge," No- 
vember 18; "Of Candied Grasshoppers and of a Kansan's [Steve 
Balch's] Ability to Make Most of Misfortune," November 22; "Very 
Earliest of the Origins of the Chisholm Trail, First of the North- 
South Arteries in the Country Between This City and the Gulf," 
November 25; "When City of Wichita Gave Santa Fe Railroad 
Bulk of Cattle Shipment," November 26; "Memorial to Kansans, 
Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Blood, at Arkansas Institution [John Brown 
University at Siloam Springs]," December 7; "Getting the Low- 
down on Buffalo Bone Prices When Market Here Boomed," Decem- 
ber 11; "Old Missouri Document Showing Sale of Slaves Brings 
Back Memories," December 18; "Prairie Stockade Corral That 
Changed in Aspect When It Happened to Rain," December 20; 
"First of Christmases Observed on Prairies Just Ninety Years Ago," 
December 24; "Most Colorful Party Ever Given in Wichita Not a 
Christmas Event [gathering of Indian tribes in fall of 1865]," De- 
cember 28; ". . . an Incident Out of the Past Which Presents 
the Perils of the Early Prairies [Indian battles after the Civil War] ," 
December 30; "One Prairie Business [Trade in Buffalo Bones] That 
Closed Financially in a Big Blaze of Glory," January 3, 1941; "First 
Scheduled Trips Into a Little Wichita Three Times a Week," Janu- 
ary 17 ; "Evidence Now Offered Is That Ton of Buffalo Bone Was 
Carried in a Wagon," February 3; "Prophet From Emporia Over 
Wichita's Cradle Foretold Town's Future," February 4; "Trio of 
Famous Women Who Were Responsible for a Notable Luncheon," 
the guests being Susan B. Anthony, Anna B. Shaw and Carrie Chap- 
man Catt, February 6; "Barter Under July Moon Westward of 
Wichita Put an End to a War [100 years ago between the Co- 
manches and Osages]," February 8; "Spotlight Was Seized by 
Wichita Nationally First Sixty Years Ago," February 21 ; "Some of 
the Air Pilots First to Fly in This City Recalled by Bert L. Jones," 
a few facts relating to the start of aviation in Wichita after the 
arrival of the first army Jenny, February 28. 

The Clark County Clipper, of Ashland, is continuing its Clark 
County Historical Society notes started in July, 1939. Articles 
which have been printed since November 1, 1940, include the story of 
Sam Kyger, for whom Kyger creek was named, November 7; a 
history of the Englewood Methodist Church, which was organized 
in 1885, November 14; a history of the Methodist Church at 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 107 

iMmneola, organized in December, 1886, November 21; "Fred 
Tainter," the story of a pioneer cattleman by the late M. W. 
Anshutz, November 28 ; a history of the Ashland Methodist Church, 
December 5 ; "A Brief Family History of Gamaliel Rogers as Com- 
piled by Tena Rogers-Schwoerke," contributed by Ida Bare, De- 
cember 12 ; "Merit Morton Cosby," by Ida Bare, in two installments, 
December 19 and 26. Editors of the Clark County Historical 
Society notes are Mrs. Jesse C. Harper, secretary of the society and 
Mrs. R. V. Shrewder, chairman of the historical committee. 

An account of "Startling Changes In the Small Town Scene Since 
Sinclair Lewis Wrote of It . . . Kansas Communities Cited as 
Examples," appeared in the Kansas City (Mo.) Star, November 7, 
1940. Other articles of historical interest to Kansans include: "Tide 
of Civil War Carried Kansas Into Federal Union 80 Years Ago," 
January 29, 1941, and "Kansas Legend Is Hard to Down in Dispute 
Over the Flag Pledge," by Cecil Howes, February 8. 

In observance of the fiftieth anniversary of the Bison Methodist 
Church, William Crotinger reviewed the history of Methodism in 
Rush county from the first religious service on May 18, 1873. His 
paper, which was read November 3, 1940, during the anniversary 
meetings, was published in the La Crosse Republican, November 14. 

Nearly forty corporations, not including oil and railroad com- 
panies, have been chartered in Russell county during its history, 
J. C. Ruppenthal recalled in the Russell Record, November 14, 1940. 
One charter, which was issued June 15, 1871, before the county was 
organized, authorized the Russell County Live Stock Company to 
engage in buying, selling and herding livestock. 

"A Pioneer Story of Early Days," by Mrs. Naoma Seymour- 
Prather, was printed in the Leon News, November 15, 1940. Mrs. 
Prather came to Kansas in 1883 from Iowa and remembers many 
incidents of pioneer life on the frontier. 

Frankfort's First Presbyterian Church observed its seventieth an- 
niversary November 16, 1940, reported the Frankfort Daily Index of 
the same date in an article which included a brief history of the 
church from its organization. 

A note on the first services for Methodists in Wilson and vicinity, 
prepared from original church records by the Rev. Joseph A. Mc- 
Clellan, was published in the Wilson World, November 20, 1940. 



Kansas Historical Notes 

This is Coronado year in Kansas. Spanish colors, yellow and red, 
on automobile license plates everywhere remind Kansas citizens and 
tourists of the journey to this area, four hundred years ago, of Fran- 
cisco Vasquez de Coronado and thirty picked horsemen. The party 
remained in Quivira (now Kansas) for a month during the summer 
of 1541, and it is the anniversary of this visit, the first made by 
white men, that Kansas is celebrating. 

Gov. Payne H. Ratner in 1939 appointed a Kansas Coronado 
Cuarto Centennial Commission to plan for the observance. Paul 
Jones of Lyons, a Coronado historian, was named to head the com- 
mittee. Other members are: Roy Bailey, Salina; Robert K. Linds- 
ley, Wichita; Kirke Mechem, Topeka; Jess Denious, Dodge City; 
A. W. Relihan, Smith Center, and Mrs. R. H. Turner, Independence. 
The commission believes the celebration should be statewide, with 
all communities participating and benefiting. Every village, town 
and city has been encouraged to provide something of interest for 
tourists during the summer of 1941. An appropriation from the 1941 
legislature enables the commission to print and distribute advertising 
folders and historical information on Kansas. Copies of these pub- 
lications may be secured by writing commission offices at Lyons. 
The Kansas State Highway Commission and the Industrial Develop- 
ment Commission have also printed attractive folders and maps tell- 
ing the story of Kansas to the nation. The State Historical Society 
is cooperating with these organizations and others at all times. The 
program to mark historic sites of Kansas along the state's major 
highways, planned several years ago and mentioned in previous 
issues of this magazine, is proceeding at a rapid pace. By summer 
fifty markers will have been erected. The State Chamber of Com- 
merce is assisting the Highway Commission and the Historical So- 
ciety with this work. 

The Oregon trail marker, erected at St. Marys by the Department 
of Kansas, United Spanish War Veterans, was dedicated September 
15, 1940. The monument, of Silverdale limestone, stands at the 
east edge of the city near US-40. Another of a series of historical 
markers being placed by the U. S. W. V. was the plaque for the 
Memorial building at Topeka to Spanish-American War veterans 
who offered their lives in Cuba in 1900 to eradicate yellow fever. 
Dedication ceremonies were held April 21, 1940. 

(108) 



KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 109 

An oil men's reunion was held in El Dorado September 26, 1940, 
to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the discovery of oil in 
the El Dorado field. As a highlight of the convention a marker was 
unveiled at the site of Stapleton No. 1, dedicated as the discovery 
well of the pool. J. B. McKay, of Wichita, was master of cere- 
monies. Principal addresses were made by William G. Skelly, of 
Tulsa, Okla., president of the Skelly Oil Company, and Herbert R. 
Straight, of Bartlesville, Okla., president of the Cities Service Oil 
Company. Mr. Straight presented the marker and easement to the 
Kansas State Historical Society through H. K. Lindsley, of Wichita, 
director and past president of the Society, who accepted for the 
state. The granite monument bears this inscription: "Site of 
Stapleton No. 1, Discovery Well of El Dorado Field October 5, 1915. 
Dedicated September 26, 1940." 

On November 23, 1940, the Douglas County Historical Society met 
at Lawrence for its eighth annual meeting. Sen. Robert C. Rankin, 
the president, discussed the need for permanent housing of the so- 
ciety's collections and suggested that an annual display of historical 
materials be sponsored in order to encourage their preservation by 
private owners. W. L. Hastie, chairman of the committee to pre- 
serve records of rural cemeteries, reported on progress made during 
the year. Dr. Edward Bumgardner gave the principal address, his 
subject being "Abraham Lincoln and Kansas." The officers, all of 
whom were reflected, are: Sen. Robert C. Rankin, president; Miss 
Irma Spangler, first vice-president; John Akers, second vice-presi- 
dent; Miss Ida G. Lyons, secretary, and Walter H. Varnum, treas- 
urer. Dr. A. R. Kennedy was elected to a one-year term as director, 
and Miss Cora Dolbee, Mrs. George Barker, Otto Fischer, Elmer E. 
Brown and L. M. Walters were chosen directors for three-year terms. 

The Shawnee County Early Settlers Association held its annual 
meeting at Topeka, December 5, 1940. Seventy-three members 
assembled to hear an address by T. A. McNeal, editor of the Topeka 
Daily Capital, and to elect the following officers to serve during the 
ensuing year: Oscar Swayze, president; Roy Boast, vice-president, 
and Florence Eckert, secretary-treasurer. 

On December 11, 1940, at Pittsburg, the Crawford County His- 
torical Society held its first meeting since its formation in Septem- 
ber. The principal speaker, Kirke Mechem, secretary of the Kan- 
sas State Historical Society, reviewed the history of the state organi- 
zation and mentioned the work done by local groups in Kansas 



110 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

counties interested in studying and preserving Kansas history. Dr. 
Ralph H. Smith, president of the county society, presided. The re- 
port of the committee to nominate a board of directors was received, 
and the following directors were elected: for three-year terms, 
George F. Beezley of Girard, G. H. Dyer of McCune and J. T. 
Fowler of Arcadia; for two-year terms, H. W. Shideler of Girard, 
Mrs. L. H. Dunton of Arcadia and Mrs. J. U. Massey of Pittsburg; 
and for one-year terms, J. H. Tharp of Cherokee, Miss Ellen David- 
son of Mulberry and F. W. Brinkerhoff of Pittsburg. 

The Chase County Historical Society issued its first book early in 
1941 under the title Chase County Historical Sketches. It is Vol- 
ume I of what the association intends to be the first of a series of 
historical studies concerning the county. The preface was written 
by William Allen White, who said: "I suppose I had my origins in 
Chase county." He went on to explain that his mother taught school 
in Cottonwood Falls, and his father was a storekeeper there. ". . . 
So I was born into this world in Emporia, but it all started in Cotton- 
wood Falls." The book contains a variety of interesting and val- 
uable information about the county. Included among the contribu- 
tors were: Howel H. Jones, Henry Rogler, George A. Root, C. W. 
Hawkins, G. W. Starkey, Herman Allen, Mrs. Frank C. Mont- 
gomery, Helen Proeger Austin, Albert Rogler, Carrie Breese Chand- 
ler, Mrs. Annie S. Frey, Clara Brandley Hildebrand, Inez M. Brick- 
ell, Charles A. Sayre, John Madden, Mrs. Oscar Altemus, Laura J. 
Wells, Mrs. Frank Calvert, Harry McCandless, Mildred Mosier 
Burch, Col. Court Crouch, Lee M. Swope and F. W. Schneider. Of 
particular note is a list with drawings of 598 registered Chase county 
brands and earmarks. More than 300 of the book's 448 pages are 
devoted to biographical sketches of Chase county families. A map 
showing old trails and the county's rivers and creeks was featured. 
The book is indexed. 

The Belleville Telescope absorbed the Republic Advertiser in 
January, 1941. The name and subscription list were purchased from 
R. R. Furse of Clay Center, Neb. This marks the twelfth consolida- 
tion of the Telescope with other Republic county papers over a 
period of 71 years. A. Q. Miller is publisher. 

At the annual meeting of the Augusta Historical Society January 
7, 1941, Miss Stella B. Haines was reflected president. Other officers 
include Mrs. W. W. Cron, vice-president, Mrs. Clyde Gibson, treas- 
urer, and Dr. Glenn T. Gough, secretary. At the meeting Mrs. K. L. 



KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 111 

Grimes reviewed the book Coronado and Quivira by Paul Jones. 
The society is engaged in restoring the first log building erected in 
Augusta. This building, located in the third block on State street, 
housed a general store in the early days and the upper floor was 
used for the first school and for various other purposes as the town 
grew. 

The annual meeting of the Lyon County Historical Society was 
held at the society's museum in the civic auditorium at Emporia, 
January 31, 1941. The following officers were elected: W. L. Hug- 
gins, president, H. A. Wayman, first vice-president, Geo. R. R. 
Pflaum, second vice-president, E. C. Ryan, secretary, J. S. Langley, 
treasurer; directors, Clarence Paine, Robert D. Lumley, Mrs. J. C. 
McKinney, Richard Langley, Alice Evans Snyder and Miss Margaret 
Lowe; historians, Mrs. Fanny Randolph Vickery, Miss Lucinda 
Jones, Mrs. Lulu Purdy Gilson. Two hundred seventy-nine per- 
sons attended the society's annual dinner program which was held 
at the Broadview Hotel the same evening. Dr. S. D. Mock, pro- 
fessor of history at the Kansas State Teachers College, spoke on 
the importance, purpose and work of a historical society. 

A meeting of the Riley County Historical Society was held at 
the parish house of St. Paul's Episcopal Church February 1, 1941. 
Featured speaker was Jay M. Lee, of Kansas City, who recalled 
his early life in Manhattan and the life of his parents, the Rev. and 
Mrs. James Hervey Lee who came to Manhattan in 1866 from 
Ohio. The program followed a dinner at noon. 

Several Wilson county residents met at the courthouse in Fre- 
donia, February 1, 1941, to encourage the formation of a Wilson 
County Historical Society. W. H. Edmundson presided. A com- 
mittee of five was appointed to act as a planning group. They are : 
J. T. Cooper, W. H. Edmundson and Mrs. Harry Smith of Fredonia, 
and 0. L. Hayes and Mrs. Frank Pingrey of Neodesha. 

The Ness County News, of Ness City, February 6, 1941, an- 
nounced the regular meeting of the Ness County Historical Society 
to be held February 8. Mrs. Bess Barrows was scheduled to address 
the group on "Some Stamps and Their Stories." 

An analysis and application of the cultural approach to history 
was the theme of the December, 1939, meeting of the American 
Historical Association held in Washington, D. C. A selection from 
the papers presented before the association was recently published 



112 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

in a 359-page volume by the Columbia University Press, of New 
York, under the title The Cultural Approach to History. "Local 
Historical Studies and Population Problems," as discussed by Dr. 
James C. Malin, of the University of Kansas, appeared on pages 
300-307. One of the points brought out from the study of Kansas 
census records is that population movements did not conform to 
the generalizations drawn from the Turner "frontier interpretation 
of American history, by which individuals are represented as fol- 
lowing successive frontiers, each new frontier being peopled by the 
last adjacent frontier." It is shown that "at the peak, direct migra- 
tion [from the state of birth] constituted 46 percent to 60 percent 
of the native migration . . . and direct migration from non- 
contiguous states accounted for approximately half of the native 
migration at the highest point of its flow." Another conclusion 
emphasizes the stability rather than mobility of the Kansas farm 
population since the World War and even during the decade of 
the depression; a conclusion that runs contrary to the popular con- 
ception of mass migration. 

A Guide to Hillsboro Kansas, compiled by workers of the Writers' 
program of the Work Projects Administration in Kansas and spon- 
sored by the Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce appeared early in 
1941. The 91-page Guide relates the history of the Mennonite 
settlement in Marion county. It covers points of historical interest 
and gives up-to-date information concerning schools, churches, busi- 
ness establishments and life in general in Hillsboro. Biographical 
sketches and photographs of some of Hillsboro's prominent citizens, 
past and present, were included. The history of Fort Scott and its 
places of interest were discussed in A Guide to Fort Scott, Kansas, 
also compiled under the Writers' program. The sixteen-page booklet 
was sponsored by the Fort Scott Chamber of Commerce and was 
issued in February, 1941. Herington history and points of interest 
were discussed in a small illustrated folder recently published by 
the Herington Chamber of Commerce, with editorial assistance from 
the Writers' program. 



THE 



Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 



Volume X 



Number 2 



May, 1941 



PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT 

w. C. AUSTIN, STATE PRINTER 

TOPEKA 1941 

18-8801 



Contributors 

Biographical mention of HUGH M. MOORE will be found on the opposite 
page. 

G. RAYMOND GAEDDEKT is curator of newspapers at the Kansas State His- 
torical Society. 

ROBERT R. HUBACH is an assistant instructor in the Department of English 
at Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind. 

DOMENICO GAGLIARDO is professor of economics at the University of Kansas. 
Lawrence. 



Letters of Hugh M. Moore, 1856-1860 

I. INTRODUCTION 

HUGH M. MOORE and his brother, J. Frank Moore, of Juniata 
county, Pennsylvania, settled in Topeka in 1857. The brothers 
formed a partnership with a Mr. Hill and engaged in the sale of real 
estate. The Topeka city directory, published in the Topeka Tribune, 
October 6, 1860, listed Hugh as a speculator. He was one of the pro- 
moters of the first bridge over the Kansas river at Topeka. 

Although a Free-State adherent in principle, Moore apparently 
could not give whole-hearted support to the Republican party. He 
seemed unable to reconcile himself to prevailing party trends and 
yearned for the resurrection of the Whig party, the only one ''that 
ever breathed true national patriotism." For this reason his political 
views may be considered less biased than those of the average par- 
ticipant in the Kansas struggle. 

In May, 1861, Moore enlisted in the Second Kansas Volunteer in- 
fantry and was mustered out October 31, 1861. His name again ap- 
pears as having enlisted in the Fourteenth Kansas Volunteer cavalry 
August 28, 1863, serving this time until June 25, 1865. After the 
war Moore probably left Topeka, for no other mention of him was 
found. This Hugh Moore is not to be confused with a Hugh M. 
Moore who was a resident of Leavenworth during the same years. 
The Leavenworth Moore was active in Democratic affairs and was 
a delegate to the Lecompton constitutional convention in 1857. 

The following letters, except one by the brother, were written by 
Hugh M. Moore, of Topeka. Because of their interest to Kansans, 
Glenn D. Bradley of the University of Toledo, sent them to the Kan- 
sas State Historical Society for copying. The originals are in the 
possession of Moore relatives in New Bloomfield, Pa. 

II. THE LETTERS 

Nebraska City October 2nd 56 
Dear uncle 

I have never written to you since I left home I have now A 
moment of Leisure time & I will im Prove it By writing to you as 
I deem you one of my most cincere friends & I think I am not mis- 
taken. I think of you dayly but have neglected to write so I hope 
you will excuse for the Past I will Promice better for the future. 
Let this Suffice for A Pology well uncle to give you A short history 
of my western Life I must commence at the Beginning we came on 

(115) 



116 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the cars to Iowa City then bought A Pair of Match gray 4 year old 
Horses for 250 A Light wagon for 40 dollars A pair of harness 
for 30 dollars making in all 320 dollars thus being ready to start 
we stole A dog & started in 4 days Reached Ft des moin City 
Stayed there 4 days saw Mr Lease & dr Gustine who gave me all the 
instruction they could we then started South west Canvassed all 
the vacant Land & found none to suit us So we stoped at Indianola 
warren co. 18 miles south of Fort des moines I then started to 
trade my team of [f] for Property I traded for 160 Akers of Land 
and have since been offered 6 dollars per Aker which would be 960 
dollars thats what I got for my team. I then bought 80 akers of 
Land for 2.87 cts Per aker which I have refuse [d] 8 dollars per Aker 
for I bought A house & Lot in Indianola for 425 dollars and held 
it 4 days & Sold it for 700 dollars. I bought some 20 lots in different 
towns which is bringing me from 50 to 100 per cent I bought & 
Sold Several Horses & have done well on them. I have now A Pair 
of match Sorrel Horses that I have Refused 500 dollars for But I 
will keep them for my own use they are hard to beat I tell you. 

I started for Kansas About 5 weeks ago with 4 as good men as my 
Self we Crossed the Missouri River at Council Bluffs & went 
through nebraska which is A beautiful Country but Rather Cold, 
it was with great difficulty we got through at the Kansas Line we 
met general Lane & his company of 400 men 1 we camped with him 
that night he thought it was A great Risk to go through Alone so 
he gave us Each A Sharps Rifle & sent General Cutler with us to 
Escort us through to Lawrence we ha[d] not gone more than 10 
miles when we was accosted by 10 georgians who came within A mile 
of us & fired but with out doing any hurt we returned the fire 
Killed one horse & shot A man in the Hip the ballance of the 
Ruffians Retreated at the Speed of the antelope So we went on our 
way Regoice after travelling some 15 miles we was again stopped 
by A party of 23 Missourians who sent A man to talk to us he en- 
vited us to give up our arms which we of Course Refused to do we 
Showed him all our arms & told him we would give them 10 minutes 
to disperse or we would shoot every damd one of them they got to 
gether & Left. So we had no more trouble, we landed at Lorrence 
[Lawrence] saw all the Ruins, 2 went to Franklin 3 Saw the Ruins 
there we then went to Leavenworth City & to Lecompton Saw 

1. Lane's "Army of the North" reached the northern border of Kansas territory early in 
August. It opened what was known as the Iowa route. Andreas, A. T., History of the State 
of Kansas (Chicago, 1883), p. 141. 

2. The first sacking of Lawrence occurred May 21, 1856. 

3. Free-State men attacked Franklin August 12, 1856. 



LETTERS OF HUGH M. MOORE 117 

the Governor [Geary] had A chat with him he is A proslavery 
man we Likewise saw 15 hundred government troops all in uni- 
form we then went to Topeka City which is but small but it is the 
best Location for A City I ever saw Topeka is on the South bank 
of the Kansas River here we found Governor Robinson the free 
state Governor in Constitutional Hall. 4 miles south of this city is 
Websters Peak 4 as beautiful a sight as I ever saw the bottom 
Covers some 4 Akers then running to a peak some 230 feet high on 
the shape of a sugar Loaf & what is more remarkable it is all covered 
with grass from 1 to 3 feet high & not A Stick of would About it 

I bought an interest in topeka 2 weeks Ago for 300 dollars & re- 
fused 1,000 dollars this morning for it. if Kansas is A free state it 
will make me A fortune if not I wont Lose anything there is some 
50 Lots in one share the Kansas Prarie is by far the best I ever 
saw the Prarie is gently Rolling with plenty of timber & A fine 
wattered Country there is Plenty of stone Principally Lime stone 
& grannet 

I must now close, we are now on our way home to Iowa 

Please write soon, give me all the news 

Direct to Indianola, Warren Co. I own give my Love to all the 
friends 

do write soon, yours in hast H. M. Moore 

I see dave Lukens often but have not saw him for over A month he 

is in Fort des moin George irvin is there too keeping hotell and 

doing well 

I occasionally see Miss Gustine who is at Fort des moines 

Nothing more of importance 

John & Bob why dont you write 

[From J. Frank Moore to William Moore] 

Topeka Kansas May 22 /57 

Dear and most respected uncle 

I received your kind letter yesterday I was much pleased to 
know that you had not forgot that you had two nephews in the great 
West I was much pleased to hear that you were all well 

Hugh is not at home now He started to (Iowa) about three 
weeks ago. I have not heard from him since He is going to travel 
through part of Nebraska teritory before he returns he will proba- 
bly be away til the 20th of June we are in the land Agency Busi- 
ness in company with Mr. Hill of Penna we are doin a very good 

4. Now called Burnett's mound. See Topeka Daily Capital, August 14, 1927. 



118 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

business charge five percent for selling matters are all quiet now 
in the teritory, but no telling how long they may remain so. the 
free state legislature meets here on the 9th of June and the Bogus 
governor says that he will have them Disbursed by bringing on his 
troops now we want to see the lick he does it with we have got 
two 24 pounders besides three thousand Sharps rifles and we have 
got the boys that are ready to use them, so we think they had 
better not bother our legislature Speculation is raging in the free 
state towns while the pro-slavery towns are doing nothing in the way 
of improvement no person goes near them to buy property flower 
is selling here at $7.00 per hundred corn at $2.00 per bu potatoes 
$4.00 per bu. Pork from 18 to 20 cts per pound Oxen sell at $100 
to 150 per yoke, horses from $150 to 300 a head. Indian Ponies 
75 to 100 

Boarding from five to seven per week the Spring has been very 
backward and cold it is at least six weeks later than usual for this 
country My pen is so bad I will come to close and write in a few 
days again I will send you some newspapers in this male 

Give my love to all 

Aunt in particular 

Yours most affectionately 

J. Frank Moore. 
Wm. Moore 

there has been several of the Juniata Boys here this spring Latimer 
Wilson & Jim North of Patterson North has went home Wilson 
is in the teritory yet they bought property which has payed them 
well their property has ris fifty per cent since they bought 
Dave Myers is here now Sam Leonard was here but is gon to Iowa 
now one of the Shelenbargers was here he has gon to Nebraska 
excuse bad pen and hast 
A Mr. John Lytle after 

best respects 

Topeka Kansas Ty 
Sept 28th 1857 

Dear uncle A Long time has Elapsed Since I wrote to you or 
heard from you only by A Line that was dropped to me by Cousin 
Harriet while she was paying you A visit 

Well uncle I am at A Loss to know what to write that would in- 
terest you. the Kansas Stories I presume you hear every day 
though I may profisy something 



LETTERS OF HUGH M. MOORE 119 

Our election Comes of[f] the 5th of October Trouble is antisi- 
pated at that time by the most of the Free State men though I think 
we shall not be invaded any more the Free State men are all Regu- 
larly Organized in Military Companies throughout the Territory 
and there motto is Give me Free access to the ballot Box & its pro- 
tection or Give me Death. 

this is the motto of the entire Free state Party and they mean 
it all. 

We have 4 military Companies in Topeka Numbering 60 men 
Each well drilled and well armed Standing Ready to move when 
Called on 

Business has been verry dull for the Last month the excitement 
had Kept out Emigration though we expect A heavy fall Emigration 
yet 

I just Returned from A trip to the South part of the territory was 
gone 2 weeks Found A Beautiful Country Layed out one Town & 
found another Location that we will attend too this Fall I had 9 
shakes with the Ague while Away one Chill every day after I took 
the first untill I got home I feel pretty well now though very weak 

Frank has been Pining Away all Summer untill he started home 
he reached home safely & is Rather Better I Learn I hope he will 
take Care of him self & get well so he can Return in the Spring I 
am Rather Lonesome without him I hope you are all Enjoying 
good health & all the Comforts of Life 

I must say that I am not Enjoying quite all the Comforts of Life 
for I have not had A Single meals victuals for the Last month that 
was fit for Pa Dog to eat it seems hard but we have to grin & bear 
the Damd yankies dont know how to do any thing Right 

Well I suppose you will get tired Reading Before you get this far 

Give my Love to all who may upon it call that will be few I 
can assure you 

Write Soon & tell the Boys & girls to write often 

Yours most Respectfully 
Uncle H. M. Moore. 



120 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Topeka Kansas ty 

Dec 8th 1857 
Dr uncle 

A Long time has Elapsed since I have had any Communication 
with you or your family though I occasionally heard from you By 
our folks at home the case of the decease of my Brother has been 
A great Bearing upon me and in fact all most more than I was able 
to stand we had been together all our Lives & Little did I think 
of his case being so desperate A one when he left topeka 

although he had been ill for some time before he Left I thought 
A change of Climate would be beneficial to him though it Proved 
not to be so 

I am only Sorry now that I did not go home with him & stay with 
him untill he died But I did not get the word untill it was too Late 
to get home & see him A Live I intended to go home this winter 
But find now that it is all most impossible the journey is A Long 
one & it is an Expensive one But that would not stop me my 
time is worth money & more than money at this preasant time 

I am aspiring to something in the Course of time may Prove worth 
Considerable to me & that money wont buy 

We are now Building A bridge Across the Kansas River the Con- 
tract is Let at 14,000 dollars & I have the Superintending & inspect- 
ing of all the work and material at A Salery of from 800 to 1,000 
dollars 5 I devote about one hour of my time every day to the work 
the Bridge will be Completed the 1st of May next 

in Regard to the politics of Kansas the Free state men are carry- 
ing the day the Legislature meets tomorrow I think the great 
question that has so long agitated the Public mind is now settled & 
Kansas will come in A free state 

the Fall has been verry Pleasant the thermomiter stands at 60 
and at no time has the ground been frozen over one inch the cattle 
are still Living on the Praries & are in fine case you will Excuse 
Bad writing &c 

Write soon for I am verry Lonesome tell the Boys to write give 
my Love to all 

Yours most Respectfully 
Write soon uncle H. M. Moore 

5. The Topeka Bridge Company was organized September 3, 1857, with the following 
officers: President John Ritchie; Secretary F. W. Giles; Directors C. K. Holliday, H. M. 
Moore, F. L. Crane, S. E. Martin, J. F. Hill, W. W. Ross, H. B. Burgess, and S. T. Walkley. 
Kansas Tribune, Topeka, September 5, 1857. 

On March 13, 1858, the Tribune noted: "Our bridge is progressing steadily. The middle 
pier, on which the turn table is to be placed, is nearly completed, and as the frame work is all 
ready to be put together a very few days will make a great difference in the appearance of the 
work." 

The bridge was opened for travel May 1, 1858, but a flood swept it away the following 
July. Root, George A., "Ferries in Kansas," The Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. II, p. 369. 



LETTERS OF HUGH M. MOORE 121 

Topeka K T. 
January 9th 60 
Wm Moore Esq 

Newbloomfield Perry Co. Pa. 
Dear Uncle 

Your very kind letter of Dec 28th came to hand this morning I 
was truly glad to hear from you but Sorry to hear of your tenacious 
views in Regard to politics. There must be a new era in the political 
world in Pa 

1st you ask whether I have gone over to the Democracy I an- 
swer, no. I stand firm on the Stern principals Laid down by our 
forefathers Clay, Webster, & Adams &c 

the Republican party of the present day in my opinion is Equally 
as corrupt as the Democratic party So I take but Little Stock in 
either party but Look forward to the time when the old national 
Whig party shall be Reserected the only party that ever Breathed 
true national patriotism 

2nd you Refer to the Harper's Ferry insurection & May I under- 
stand by your Language that you approve of John Browns course in 
the invasion of Virginia. I hope not. I trust not While I am per- 
sonally acquainted with old John Brown & Caji [Kagi], Stevens, 
Coppy [Coppoc], & Cook. Knowing there Course in Kansas I of 
course am better able to judge of there motives than one who knew 
nothing of them Brown was a peculiar man & a blood thirsty 
villin he was the Cause of a great deal of Blood shead in Kansas 
he was a murderer & hanging was too good for him in my opinion 
He Mr Brown Boasted in Kansas that he had a deadly Enmity 
against all proslavery men & that he him self had killed 13 men in 
cool blood, was he the Leader of the Republican party or is that 
the class of men we Sons of Penna shall be led by 

I answer for one, no, it is truly disgusting to me & as for the ad- 
ministration party I take no part at all in it, there must be a 3rd 
party organised for the union Loveing conservatives, for the honest 
part of the community who can Calmly look at both sides of the 
question dispassionately & who are not so likely to A Rive at hasty 

conclusions and has the good of our common Country at hart 

the North is allways harping about Slavery and adjutating the 
South, interfering with there Rights, and they in Return are Crying 
dissolution of the union & thus we are kept in a perfect uproar all 
the time 



122 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

You in the states do not feel it as we do in Kansas our people 
have got tired of the question of Slavery That question has been 
happily settled in our Territory & to the satisfaction of the majority 

Enough on that subject for the present 

Our Legislature convened the 2nd at Lecompton but as yet have 
done but Little the House stands Rep 26 to Dem 13 Council or 
Senate 9 to 5 Dem A motion before the house to adjourn to Lawrence 
to hold the session was entertained & past both houses sent to the 
governor & was vetoed taken up again & past by a % majority 
so the Republicans went to Lawrence and the Democrats Remained 
at Lecompton there will be no good done in our Legislature this 
winter. 

Our great hope now is to get in to the union this winter if we are 
not admitted this winter it will be a death blow to us Every effort 
is being made for a state organising with the Expectation of being 
admitted The President in his message never speaks of Kansas at 
all but treats us with silent Contempt My own opinion is that 
Congress will not admit us this winter & if that be the case we shall 
have to dance to the tune of old hundred for another year 

There is nothing to pay on your Topeka Tribune I had to take a 
certain number of copies to keep the paper up so I had one copy sent 
to you it was not intended as an insult at all but the most kindly 
feeling but for fear of future difficulty I will have it discontinued 

that all of importance 

Write often & give me the news I am most happy to hear from 
you at all times & will answer punctually 

Give my Love to all Respectfully 

H. M. Moore 

Topeka Kas Jan. 9th 60 
Wm Moore Esq 

Dr uncle 

I suppose I have written Enough of politics So I will give you 
the general news 

Times have been verry hard in deed there is but Little money in 
Circulation The Summer & fall has been verry fine indeed Crops 
have been verry fine & are yielding well corn is worth 20 cts po- 
tatoes 30 wheat 100 butter 20c pork 6 to 8 beef 5 to 7 cts 

Horses are worth from $50 to 200 mules 300 dolls per pair those 
are about the prices current 



LETTERS OF HUGH M. MOORE 123 

the general health of the neighborhood has been verry good for 
the Last year. 

I took a trip this last fall to the indian ty & Texas was away 
some 6 weeks had a verry pleasant time, past through the buffalo 
country saw millions of Buffalo and killed a great many Texas 
is a fine Country if I ever Leave this place I shall go to Texas or 
California but the probability is that I shall Live & die here 

I expected to have been home before now, but on account of the 
hardness of the times I may not go East this winter you speak of 
not Receiving any letter from me this summer at all I wrote to you 
the same time I wrote to Wm Mcmeen but presume you did not get 
it I should be glad to Corrispond with you all the time, there is no 
harm in Exchanging views I presume you will be put too to Read 
this Letter for I have written it in ahurry You will Excuse it 

you will please give my Love to all the friends 

Respectfully 

H. M. Moore 
P.S. 

I am Single yet but dont know how soon I may adopt Southern 
blood in my family 6 

6. On May 5, 1860, the Topeka Tribune reported that Mr. Moore had commenced the 
erection of a first-class dwelling on Monroe street. 

The work was again mentioned by the Tribune July 14 : "We have been anxiously looking 
for that immense quantity of stone and brick which has so long been accumulating at a point 
below Monroe, on Sixth Street, to come to some kind of a head. It belongs to Hugh Moore, 
Esq., and according to rumor is soon to be transformed into a large and costly residence. 
Here's to the health of its mistress." 



First Newspapers in Kansas Counties 

(Continued) 
1865-1871 

G. RAYMOND GAEDDERT 

ANDERSON COUNTY 

Garnett Plaindealer , March, 1865. 

THE Plaindealer probably made its appearance sometime during 
the last two weeks in March, 1865. This statement is based on 
newspaper reports found in the Leavenworth Daily Conservative 
and the Lawrence Kansas Daily Tribune of 1865. On April 5 the 
Conservative wrote: "Plaindealer is the name of a paper just started 
at Garnett, Anderson county, Kansas. The first number presents a 
creditable appearance." The following day the Tribune stated: "I. 
E. Olney, who last year published the Hampden Expositor, has taken 
his printing materials to Garnett, Anderson county, and has com- 
menced the publication of the Garnett Plaindealer." The Emporia 
News did not announce the Plaindealer until May 13. It wrote that 
the paper "commences under favorable auspices, with all the prestige 
and character of the Hampden Expositor. It is being published on 
the same type and edited by the same editor." Andreas, the First 
Biennial Report and the author of History of Anderson County all 
stated that the Plaindealer was established in January, 1865. * They 
may have had in mind the establishment of the newspaper plant 
rather than the date of the first publication. 

I. E. Olney, who formerly published the Hampden Expositor, was 
editor and publisher of the Plaindealer until his death in the fall of 
1866, after which Mrs. Olney carried on until 1870, when the office 
was purchased by Leslie J. Perry. The regular issues of the Society's 
file of this paper do not start until January 7, 1876. 

SALINE COUNTY 

The Salina Herald, February, 1867. 

The year 1867 was eventful for Salina. In February B. J. F. 
Hanna gave the town and county its first newspaper, the Salina 
Herald, and in April the Union Pacific railroad reached the town. 2 

1. Andreas, A. T., History of the State of Kansas (Chicago, 1883), p. 1327 ; First Bien- 
nial Report of the State Board of Agriculture to the Legislature of the State of Kansas, for 
the Year 1877-8 (Topeka, 1878), p. 99; Johnson, Wm. A., History of Anderson County (Gar- 
nett, 1877), p. 188. 

2. Wilder, D. W., The Annals of Kansas (Topeka, 1875), p. 461, had the following entry 
for April 8: "The locomotive within five miles of Salina." For April 29 he wrote: "Trains 
run to Salina." 

(124) 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 125 

Andreas wrote that the Herald, "the oldest newspaper in the county, 
. . . was established at Salina in 1866." This statement may 
have been based on an account which appeared in the Herald March 
16, 1878: "The oldest established newspaper is the Herald, which 
is now approaching its thirteenth year." If regularly issued this 
would mean the first number appeared in 1866. The Herald must 
be mistaken. The Society has an early issue dated December 18, 
1869, listed as volume III, number 45. Retracing its issues, if 
regularly published, would make the first number February 13, 1867. 
The First Biennial Report gives this as the date of the first issue. 3 
Moreover, the Junction City Weekly Union of February 9, 1867, 
wrote: "We understand the Salina paper will come out this week. 
We are anxious to see that which has advanced beyond us westward." 
On February 23 the same paper wrote again: "The Salina Herald 
has failed to come to hand. We, however, have seen a copy. It is 
a sprightly sheet, full of interest and earnestly devoted to the 'ma- 
terial interest' of Saline county." In the same issue the Union 
quoted from the Salina Herald. On March 1, 1867, the Emporia 
News described the first issue of the Herald as follows : 

We have received No. 1 of the Salina Herald, a new paper printed at the 
thriving town of Salina, Kansas. It is one of the best looking and ablest coun- 
try papers in the State, and if the first number is a specimen of what the paper 
is to be, it will be of great benefit to western Kansas. Mr. Hannahs is the editor 
and publisher. . . . 

While the exact date is still unknown, it is likely that the first 
issue of the Herald appeared sometime during the second or third 
week in February, 1867. 

A recent publication in a colorful but erroneous description as- 
serted that Hanna established the paper after the Union Pacific 
railroad reached the town. The statement reads: 

It was a great day in Salina history [when the railroad reached Salina] and 
marked the beginning of a new era. Before long settlers began to arrive by 
rail and one of these newcomers, F. B. J. Hanna, brought type and a printing 
press and began to publish the Herald, Salina's first newspaper. 4 

It has already been pointed out that the railroad did not reach 
Salina until sometime in April, 1867. By this time the Herald office 
had published its paper for more than a month. 

3. First Biennial Report, p. 408. 

4. A Guide to Salina, Kansas, Federal Writers' Project (August, 1939), pp. 25, 26. The 
name is B. J. F. Hanna. 



126 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY 

Pottawatomie Gazette, Louisville, July 17, 1867. 

The Pottawatomie Gazette, established ten years after the county 
was organized, is considered the first paper in the county. 5 A. Sel- 
lers, Jr., and R. S. Hick were the editors and A. Sellers, Jr., the pro- 
prietor. After September 16, 1870, it became the Kansas Reporter. 
In the meantime the paper had changed owners and editors. 

Under the caption "Our Position," the Gazette wrote that it "will 
be independently radical, supporting such measures as we believe it 
to be right, and condemning those that we deem to be wrong." It 
promised to chronicle local events and favored "universal suffrage 
in its broadest sense the giving of the ballot to all alike, whether 
male or female, black or white," provided they met the usual qualifi- 
cations. On the question of reconstruction the Gazette wrote, July 
17,1867: 

It will sustain the present reconstruction policy of Congress, and such other 
measures as in its wisdom shall be deemed necessary for the protection of the 
loyal people of the South, whether black or white ; and we trust that Congress, 
through its commanders of departments, Johnson and Stanberry to the contrary 
notwithstanding, will hold a firm grip until the same respect is shown for law 
and order as in the northern States; until they relinquish their pastime amuse- 
ment of shooting negroes, and getting up New Orleans massacres, and Mobile 
and Memphis riots. . . . 

The Society has a good file of the Pottawatomie Gazette, including 
Vol. I, No. 1. 

CHEROKEE COUNTY 

Baxter Springs Herald, October, 1867. 

This paper may have made its appearance the first week in Oc- 
tober, 1867. On October 9, 1867, the Fort Scott Monitor announced 
the Herald in these words: 

Baxter Springs Herald. This is the title of a new six-column paper in 
Cherokee county. It is Republican in politics, and constitutes and appoints 
itself "the especial advocate, without fee or reward, of the claims of every good, 
honest settler upon the Cherokee Neutral Lands, to his home, and promise to 
do all in our power to secure his title for him." Henry T. Sumner is the editor, 
and B. R. Evans publisher. It is a neat and spicy sheet, and will materially 
benefit the settlers. Success to the enterprise. 

The paper was suspended the following summer. 8 The Society has 
only three issues of the Herald, the earliest dated February 8, 1868. 

5. Andreas, op. cit., p. 976; First Biennial Report, p. 370. 

6. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1162; First Biennial Report, p. 144. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 127 

and listed as volume I, number 18. If issued regularly the date of 
the first number should have been October 12, 1867. However, by 
October 9 the Fort Scott Monitor had already received the first issue. 
A rival paper had been contemplated by P. A. Russell, formerly 
of the Paola Free Press. On August 14, 1867, the Monitor wrote: 
"A weekly journal is soon to be started in the above named county, 
by P. A. J. Russell, formerly of the Paola Free Press." In the next 
issue, however, the Monitor spoke of the failure of this project: 

Mr. Russell says the arrangement between himself and D. C. Finn of Chero- 
kee county, relative to publishing a paper at Pleasant View, is "busted" the 
latter failing to "come down with the stamps." Mr. Finn called on us yester- 
day, and said his part of the contract was for and in behalf [of] the Pleasant 
View Town Company. He thinks the Crawfordville people will try and secure 
Mr. RusselFs press. 

This gave the Baxter Springs Herald undisputed claim as the first 
paper in the county. 

ELLIS COUNTY 
Hays City Railway Advance, November 9, 1867. 

Floyd B. Streeter, librarian at Fort Hays Kansas State College, 
who has a framed copy of the first issue of the Advance, the only 
known copy of this number in existence, wrote that the date of the 
first issue is November 9, 1867. 7 The secondary authorities, except 
Wilder, were uncertain about it, listing merely the year. Wilder 
gave the date of the first issue as November 5, 1867. 8 The Junction 
City Union announced the first issue on November 16. The an- 
nouncement read: 

The Hays City Railway Advance is the name of a tri-weekly paper which 
has made its appearance at the terminus of the road, and published by Joseph 
Clark, W. H. Bisbee and Willis Emery, all of Leavenworth. The thing looks 
like a huge joke, considering all things. They advertise for a boy to learn the 
business and add "one from the country preferred, of course." They evidently 
mean that they want a young Cheyenne. 

The paper expired the following year. 9 The Society has one issue of 
the Advance, dated June 23, 1868, and listed as Vol. I, No. 66. At 
that time the paper appeared twice a week. 

The Topeka State Journal, March 13, 1941, had an interesting 
article on the Railway Advance with quotations from the first issue. 
Among the statements made was one which needs further explana- 

7. Streeter, Floyd B., to G. R. Gaeddert, May 2, 1941, Kansas State Historical Society. 

8. Wilder, op. cit. (1886), p. 468 ; Andreas, op. cit., p. 1292 ; First Biennial Report, p. 209. 

9. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1292 ; First Biennial Report, p. 209. 



128 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

tion, viz. : "Thus began the first newspaper in Kansas west of Junc- 
tion City." The writer of the article no doubt had forgotten about 
the Salina Herald which made its appearance sometime in February, 
1867, making the Railway Advance the second paper west of Junc- 
tion City. Hays City, at the end of the Union Pacific, Eastern di- 
vision, was only three months old when the Advance appeared. 

ELLSWORTH COUNTY 
Ellsworth Advocate, March, 1868. 

The First Biennial Report stated that "In April, 1868, P. H. Hub- 
bell started the Ellsworth Advocate, which existed for six months." 10 
Andreas, who gave quite a detailed account of the history of Ells- 
worth, made no mention of this paper. The Junction City Weekly 
Union on March 14, 1868, reported: 

The Ellsworth Advocate is the name of a new weekly paper just started at 
Ellsworth, with Mr. P. H. Hubbell as publisher. The Advocate presents a fine 
appearance, and it is in every respect a "live journal." It is neutral in politics 
and its columns are devoted to morals, education, art, science, literature, and 
the general interests of the county and State it represents. 

The First Biennial Report apparently was in error as to the month 
the Advocate appeared. While the exact date is still unknown, it is 
likely that the first issue appeared sometime during the first or sec- 
ond week in March, 1868. The Society has no copy of this paper. 

NEOSHO COUNTY 

Neosho Valley Eagle, Jacksonville, May 2, 1868. 

This paper enjoyed the unusual reputation of having been claimed 
by three counties: Labette, Crawford and Neosho. It was published 
at Jacksonville, located where the counties joined. The corporation 
records show that the town was located on parts of sections 34 and 
35, T. 30 S., R. 21 E., and on part of section 3, T. 31 S., R. 21 E. Sec- 
tion 34 is in Neosho county, 35 in Crawford county, and 3 in Labette 
county. 11 The U. S. Register of 1871, however, located the postoffice 
of Jacksonville in Neosho county, and according to W. W. Graves, 
who has written a History of Neosho County Newspapers, the Eagle 
was published in that county. 12 The Kansas Daily Tribune, Law- 
rence, May 7, 1868, announced the paper and substantiated Graves' 
statement. It reads : 

10. First Biennial Report, p. 212. 

11. "Corporation Records," v. I, pp. 425, 446, 447. Kansas State Historical Society. 

12 Graves, W. W., History of Neosho County Newspapers (St. Paul Journal, St. Paul, 
1938), pp. 4, 5. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 129 

The Neosho Valley Eagle is the title of a new weekly paper issued at Jack- 
sonville, Neosho county, the first number of which we have received. B. K. 
Land, Esq., is editor and proprietor. 

The only known file of this paper is preserved in the vault of the 
Erie Record. 

The history of this paper reveals many changes, typical of frontier 
newspapers. Graves, who has examined the issues of the Neosho 
Valley Eagle, wrote that "Land was one of those fighting editors who 
did not feel good unless he was shooting broadsides at the Osage 
Mission Journal, so much so that his paper contained almost no local 
news." 13 Land claimed that the citizens of Jacksonville had made 
guarantees which they neglected to keep. He brought suit against 
those who had failed him and moved the paper to Erie. He pub- 
lished the first issue of the Neosho Valley Eagle in Erie on October 
24, 1868. He continued the paper until May 11, 1869, when he sold 
it to E. E. Kimball and C. G. Burton, a law firm. The Eagle con- 
tinued under the old name until May 25, 1869, when it was changed 
to the Neosho County Dispatch. On December 9, 1870, the Dis- 
patch passed into the hands of J. A. Trenchard who converted it into 
an anti-monopolist paper, with the cry of "down with Land Monop- 
olies and up with Settler's Rights." The paper continued to change 
hands and titles. In 1871, J. A. Wells published it as the Erie Ish- 
maelite. Wells sold it to J. H. Scott and H. T. Perry, who moved 
the plant to Osage Mission in 1871, and used it "in reviving the 
[Osage Mission] Journal which had been asleep for a month." 14 

The town of Jacksonville is no longer on the map. It was over- 
taken by adversity in the midst of prosperity. Neighboring railroad 
towns played havoc with it, so that by 1883 Andreas could write 
that "today nothing remains to mark the site where it stood, except- 
ing a postoffice, in a lonely farmhouse." 15 

LABETTB COUNTY 
The Oswego Register, May or June, 1868. 

Three newspapers have contended for first place in this county: 
The Chetopa Advance, the Neosho Valley Eagle, Jacksonville, and 
the Oswego Register. Daniel W. Wilder, in the Annals of Kansas 
for February 18, 1880, referred to A. S. Corey as having "started the 
Chetopa Advance in 1867." 16 That he was mistaken is gathered 

13. Ibid., p. 4. 

14. Ibid., pp. 4, 5. 

15. Andreas, op. cit., p. 842. 

16. Wilder, op. cit. (1886), p. 866. 

28801 



130 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

from a statement found in the Emporia News, January 15, 1869, 
which reads: "We have received the first number of the Chetopa 
Advance, a very creditable looking six-column, Republican paper, 
just started at Chetopa, Labette county." This statement, substan- 
tiated by the First Biennial Report, eliminates the Advance as a 
contender. 17 

The First Biennial Report listed the Neosho Valley Eagle as the 
first paper in the county. Its statement reads: "The first newspaper 
published in Labette county was the Eagle, published at Jackson- 
ville in April, 1868, by B. K. Land." 18 The Eagle ante-dated the 
Oswego Register, but in this case another factor must be considered, 
namely, the location of the place of publication. The Eagle of Jack- 
sonville was claimed by three counties because the town was located 
on parts of Neosho, Labette and Crawford counties. This question, 
considered in the article on Neosho county, was decided in favor of 
that county. The author accepted the statements of Graves and the 
Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, that the office of publication of 
the Eagle was in Neosho county, thus eliminating it for first place in 
Labette county. 

The Oswego Register, therefore, is considered first in the county. 
The date of the first issue, however, remains undetermined. The 
secondary authorities agreed that the Register was established in 
1868, and was the first newspaper published in Oswego, but failed 
to give the day or month of the first issue. 19 A part of this informa- 
tion was found in a contemporaneous newspaper published in Frank- 
lin county. On June 11, 1868, the Western Home Journal, Ottawa, 
announced the Register in these words: 

The Oswego Register is the name of a new paper that has come to us, pub- 
lished at Oswego, Labette county, Kansas, and edited by E. R. Trask. It is 
neatly gotten up, and no doubt will be liberally patronized in their flourishing 
county of Labette. The names of Grant and Colfax at its masthead, show that 
it is the right stripe. . . . 

It is safe to say that the Oswego Register made its appearance either 
during the latter part of May or the first days in June, 1868. The 
Society has only four issues. The first is dated July 30, 1869, and 
listed as Vol. II, No. 3. 

17. First Biennial Report, p. 263. 

18. Ibid. 

19. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1467 ; First Biennial Report, p. 263. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 131 

GREENWOOD COUNTY 
The Eureka Herald, July 10, 1868. 

The Herald was the first journalistic venture in the county, al- 
though secondary writers disagree on the date of the first issue. 
Andreas wrote that "Its first issue bears date August, 1866, and has 
the motto 'Be sure you're right then go ahead.' ' The First Bien- 
nial Report stated that the first number "was issued July 4th, 1868." 
whereas Wilder's entry for July, 1868 is: "S. G. Mead starts the 
Eureka Herald" 20 George G. Wood, the present editor and pub- 
lisher of the Eureka Herald and owner of its early files including 
Vol. I, No. 1, writes that the first issue is dated July 10, 1868. 21 

The Fort Scott Weekly Monitor of July 22, 1868, announced the 
paper in these words : "New Paper The Eureka Herald is the name 
of a new paper published at Eureka, Greenwood county, by S. G. 
Mead. It presents a neat appearance, and it gives us pleasure to 
place it on our exchange list." 

The Society's regular file of the Herald does not start until Jan- 
uary 27, 1876, but it has three earlier issues, the first listed as Vol I, 
No. 16, and bearing the date October 30, 1868. The Society is now 
arranging to have film copies made of the Herald's early volumes. 

WOODSON COUNTY 
Frontier Democrat, Neosho Falls, October, 1868. 

This paper no doubt made its appearance in October, 1868, al- 
though the secondary authorities give the date as October, I860. 22 
This statement is based on the announcement of publication found 
in the Kansas Weekly Tribune, Lawrence, October 29, 1868. It 
reads as follows: 

The Frontier Democrat is the title of a new paper published by I. B. Boyle, 
at Neosho Falls. It is intensely Democratic in politics, and makes a fierce on- 
slaught on the Republican state nominees, by giving copious extracts from one 
of our city contemporaries. The outside is printed at Chicago, and the inside 
at Neosho Falls. 

The paper changed to the Neosho Falls Advertiser "about January, 
1870," according to the Society's History of Kansas Newspapers, 23 

20. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1200; First Biennial Report, p. 228; Wilder, op. cit., p. 480. 

21. Geo. G. Wood to G. R. Gaeddert, May 27, 1941, K. S. H. S. 

22. Andreas, op. cit., p 1194; First Biennial Report, p. 451; History of Kansas News- 
papers (Topeka, 1916), p. 316. 

23. History of Kaunas Neu-spapers, p. 316. 



132 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

and became the Woodson County Post in 1873. It is still published, 
but at Yates Center. Harry L. and Cranston M. Covert are the 
present editors and owners. 

The Frontier Democrat was printed on a Washington press, ac- 
cording to Paul I. Wellman, feature writer of the Kansas City (Mo.) 
Star. His statement reads as follows: 

The Washington press upon which it [the Neosho Falls Post] was first 
printed was originally brought to Leavenworth, Kan., for free state service in 
the John Brown days, taken to Lawrence for a similar purpose, and thence to 
Burlington when the Patriot was founded there. Afterwards it went to Le Roy, 
and finally to Neosho Falls, when I. B. Boyle founded the Frontier Democrat. 
The following year W. H. Sains purchased the Democrat and changed its name 
to the Neosho Falls Advertiser. It became the Woodson County Post subse- 
quently, and after the removal of the county seat was once more renamed the 
Neosho Falls Post by a new owner, Nathan Powell. 24 

The writer has not checked sufficiently on the statement regarding 
the historic Washington press mentioned above to be in a position to 
affirm or challenge it. It may be that its history is shrouded in mys- 
tery like that of the Meeker press. There must have been a number 
of Washington hand presses in Kansas at that time. They were 
manufactured by Robert Hoe and Company. 25 The significance of 
the name lies in the make of press. It obtained its power from the 
straightening of a toggle joint, the knee-joint being pressed in. 

The Society has no issues of the Frontier Democrat or of the Ad- 
vertiser, but it has a file of the Post beginning September 24, 1873. 

WASHINGTON COUNTY 
The Western Observer, Washington, March 25, 1869. 

"Be Just, and Fear Not," was the maxim of M. J. Kelley, editor 
of The Western Observer, Washington county's first newspaper. In 
the first number, dated March 25, 1869, he professed to be "a live, 
wide awake, Radical Republican," ever ready to battle "for liberty, 
freedom to all, regardless of race or color; and also, favoring uni- 
versal, or in other words, Female Suffrage." 26 That he had the 
courage of his convictions is evidenced by the fact, that on at least 
one occasion he refused to publish "a communication from Water- 
ville," on account of its personalities. He warned that those sending 
him communications should please remember "that we will not pub- 

24. Kansas City (Mo.) Star, October 17, 1937. 

25. Mechem, Kirke, "The Mystery of the Meeker Press," The Kansas Historical Quarterly, 
v. IV, p. 70. 

26. The Western Observer, Washington, March 25, 1869. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 133 

lish abusive letters. . . . We do not propose to allow one or the 
other to be abused through these columns." 27 

The Observer was a small, four-column, four-page, paper. Kelley 
wrote that it was started on a small scale "for one of the best reasons 
in the world that is, we had not the money to make it larger." He 
hoped that the paper would be well received so that he might en- 
large it in the near future. 

Commenting on the rapid growth in population, he wrote: 
Three years ago we passed through the western part of this and Republic 
county. In passing through Washington county we saw but four houses on the 
road, the entire length of the county. Now, passing over the same road, we 
see near one hundred neat little farms opened and appearance of plenty. In 
Republic county we did not see a house, and now on the same road we count 
upward of fifty. . . , 28 

Andreas credited the Observer with having drawn to Washington 
"some of her most influential citizens." 29 

Kelley also published other papers. On August 21, 1869, he started 
The Little Blue, at Jenkins Mills, Nebr., and October 19, 1870, he 
published the first issue of the Washington Kansas Daily Republican. 
The Society has a good file of these three papers including the first 
issue of each. 

CRAWFORD COUNTY 

Crawford County Times, Girard, April 16, 1869 (?). 
Girard Press, November 11 (?), 1869. 

No positive statement can be made about the first paper in this 
county. Most secondary authorities regard the Crawford County 
Times as first, listing the date of the first and only issife as April 16, 
1868, and April 16, 1869. 30 This paper was published by John H. 
Scott, editor and publisher of the Osage Mission Journal and C. E. 
Cole of Girard. They moved the Journal office to Girard, published 
one issue there, then moved it back again because the object of its 
issue was thereby accomplished, namely, "the bringing of the Osage 
Mission people to time." 31 The Society has no copy of this paper, 
nor has the writer found sufficient evidence to prove that the paper 

27. Ibid. 

28. Ibid. 

29. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1057. 

30. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1121, and A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record 
of Crawford County, Kansas, by Home Authors (Chicago, 1905), p. 130, had it April 16, 1869; 
First Biennial Report, p. 169, and Blackmar, F. W., Kansas, v. I, p. 473, gave the date as 
April 16, 1868. 

31. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1121. 



134 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

was ever published. In the Fort Scott Monitor of April 7, 1869, ap- 
peared the following statement: 

Paper in Crawford County. We received a call from Mr. Cole, of Girard, 
last week, who informs us that he contemplates, in connection with J. H. Scott, 
of the Mission Journal, starting a paper at Girard. They have not yet decided 
upon a name, although Mr. Cole says they may call it "The Tender," as it will 
be after Maj. Cox's Locomotive. . . . 

If this statement foreshadowed the Times, it would indicate that the 
paper started in 1869 rather than 1868. 

Years later this same C. E. Cole wrote an article published in the 
Wichita Daily Eagle, February 3, 1907, which leaves the question in 
confusion. He wrote it in answer to an article in an unnamed east- 
ern paper which he called "a very incorrect account of the early days 
in Girard and Crawford County." He said he was on the scene "in 
the stirring events of those days" and would give "some inside his- 
tory yet unpublished." Referring to the county-seat contest, he 
wrote : 

At that time Crawfordsville, a little town then the seat of government, lay 
three miles to the eastward along the banks of Cow Creek. During the winter 
a court order was issued calling an election to be held the last of April, to de- 
cide which should be the county seat: Crawfordsville or Girard. In the con- 
test the latter town was chosen by a small majority. 

He then proceeded to explain why Girard won the election: 
. . . I saw there was one thing lacking, and very much needed for our 
success, and that deficiency was a newspaper. Our rival had such a small sheet 
called the Crawfordsville Times. I made our wants known to Mr. Hull and 
others. The matter was left to me. In the meantime I had learned there was 
a second-hand Washington hand-press and a few fonts of type for sale or trade 
at the town o Osage Mission. I borrowed a horse and struck out for the 
coveted prize. In due time I arrived at my destination, and soon made a bar- 
gain with Mr. Oliver, the owner, for a half interest. 

Two days later found us unloading and setting up our printing outfit in a 
modest board house, 12 x 16 feet, in the rear of Senet and Vickers's store. My 
partner, Mr. Oliver, took charge of the labor and mechanical end of the busi- 
ness, and your humble servant assumed the roll of editor and manager. Every- 
thing being in readiness on the 10th day of April, 1869, the Girard News, 
fresh from a Washington hand-press, went forth dressed in its spring garb of 
mechanical and editorial beauty to the waiting throng on the outside as the 
first paper published in Girard, and was considered by all a masterpiece of 
mechanical and editorial beauty; this five-column 12 x 16 sheet! 

This article, although full of errors, raises the question whether 
Crawfordsville ever published a newspaper, and if so, when? On 
August 21, 1867, probably the first contemporaneous statement per- 
taining to a Crawfordsville paper appeared in the Fort Scott Mom- 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 135 

tor. It stated that D. C. Finn of Cherokee county had been in Fort 
Scott and remarked that the Crawfordsville people "will try and 
secure Mr. Russell's press." 32 No information has been found, how- 
ever, to show whether they succeeded. On November 18, 1868, the 
Fort Scott Weekly Monitor again referred to a proposed newspaper. 
The statement reads: "Col. Daniels informs us that a Radical paper 
is soon to be started at Crawfordville." But again, apparently 
nothing came of it. The Pittsburg Daily Headlight, May 19, 1926, 
under the caption: "Old Cottonwood and Town Well Mark Place 
Where Crawfordsville Thrived," described one newspaper venture in 
this town as follows: 

The late E. A. Wasser was a citizen of Crawfordsville for a time against his 
will. Mr. Eddy tells the story: [This has reference to William L. Eddy, a 
merchant there.] 

"Wasser came to Crawfordsville with the intention of starting a paper. A 
fellow with him was to get the money from friends or relatives. The money 
seemed slow coming and Wasser's partner borrowed a pony from me to ride to 
some point over in Missouri. He wanted to hurry the funds along. Several 
weeks later nothing had been heard from him or the money. One day the pony 
was brought back to me more dead than alive. The fellow never appeared. 

"Wasser stayed. He couldn't leave. One day Jones came to me and asked 
if I had any money to spare. He said that Wasser had a chance to go to Fort 
Scott and get into the newspaper business but that he had no money with 
which to pay his board bill and Dr. D. W. Grouse, with whom he boarded, 
wouldn't let him leave town without paying the bill. I advanced the money 
and Wasser got out of town." 33 

Cole's memoiy apparently failed him on several major points. 
The election on the county-seat question was held in December, 
1868, and not in April. Moreover, Cole refers to the Girard News 
"as the first paper published in Girard." There was a Crawford 
County News published at Girard but it did not make its appearance 
until August 6, 1875, published by T. P. Fulton and C. C. Covell. 
The Girard News was not established until December 13, 1878. 
Cole's statement therefore does not fit into the picture unless we 
overlook a number of important factors. 

The Girard Press, established by W. H. Warner and E. A. Wasser, 
was the first paper to succeed the Times, and undoubtedly the first 
paper regularly published in the county. It made its appearance in 
November, 1869. The Fort Scott Monitor, November 24, 1869, 
wrote that it had received the first issue of the Press. The Society 

32. The Russell press referred to is that bargained for by P. A. Russell and D. C. Finn of 
Cherokee county, spoken of in connection with the Cherokee county paper. 

33. "Crawford County Clippings." v. III. p. 114. in library of Kansas State Historical 
Society. The Society does not have the Pittsburg Daily Headlight before May 14, 1928. 



136 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

in its Newspaper History has it that this paper was "a continuation 
of the Fort Scott Press, a Democratic paper published in the late 
'60s in Fort Scott." In 1869 Warner and Wasser moved it to Girard, 
changed the name to the Girard Press and established it "as an inde- 
pendent paper politically." The Society has several issues of the 
Press prior to May 28, 1874, when its regular file of this paper be- 
gins. The earliest is dated January 6, 1870, and is listed as Vol. I, 
No. 9, for Girard, and Vol. IV, No. 46, for Fort Scott and Girard, in- 
clusive. 

MONTGOMERY COUNTY 

Independence Pioneer, about September 11, 1869. 

The first effort at journalism in this county was made by E. R. 
Trask in the publication of the Independence Pioneer. The paper 
was Republican in politics. The Fort Scott Monitor, September 29, 
1869, announced its appearance as follows: 

We are in receipt of number two, of the Independent Pioneer, published at 
Independence, Montgomery county. It is edited by E. R. Trask, who is also 
the editor of the Oswego Register, and the former is probably an offshoot of 
the latter paper. May they both meet with success. 

According to Andreas, the Pioneer was printed at Oswego until 
March, 1870, after that in Independence "with David Steel as edi- 
tor." 34 Several other papers followed closely in the wake of the 
Pioneer, the Westralia Vidette, started at Westralia, by McConnell 
and Mclntyre in the spring of 1870, and the Parker Record, by 
G. D. Baker, at Parker, June, 1870. 35 The Society has no issues of 
the Vidette or Record, but it has two of the Pioneer. The first is 
dated November 13, 1869 (Vol. 1, No. 10), and the other, January 
1, 1870. If published regularly the Pioneer should have made its 
appearance September 11, 1869. The First Biennial Report gave 
the date of the first issue as September 4. 36 The paper made its 
appearance, no doubt, sometime during the first two weeks of Sep- 
tember, 1869. 

Independence, in 1869, was still very much in the pioneering stage, 
but it was a growing town. On January 1, 1870, the Pioneer wrote: 

Independence is growing. Forty frame buildings have been erected in as 
many days. Since our saw mills have been turning out lumber, the work of 
building has went on right merrily, and substantial frame buildings have taken 
the place of booths, tents and hay houses, that a few weeks ago were scattered 

34. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1567. 

35. First Biennial Report, p. 326. 

36. Ibid. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 137 

promiscuously over our beautiful town site. Four months ago, the tall prairie 
grass waved where to-day are rows of buildings and the scenes of busy life. 
. . . Since the first of September last, more than one hundred families have 
settled in this place, and every day witnesses new arrivals. . . . 

In the issue of November 13, 1869 (the inside of which bears the 
date of November 27), the editor told about an interesting incident 
that happened to a resident of Montgomery county the previous 
week. The story reads as follows: 

In the night he [the resident] was awakened from his slumbers by the cries 
of his first-born, and upon feeling found that it was not in bed. He struck a 
light, and continued his search, but failed to find it in the house. Upon the 
suggestion of his wife, he looked out doors, and found it upon the ground, 
where it had fell, having rolled off the bed between the logs of the house. Since 
the above occurrence, the woman of the house says the old man must stay at 
home now and chink and daub the cracks of his house instead of fooling around 
about the county seat. 

Those were the "good old" frontier days. 

WILSON COUNTY 
The Wilson County Courier, Fredonia, January 20, 1870. 

The secondary authorities agree that the Courier was the first 
newspaper in the county. John R. Jennings was the editor and pub- 
lisher. The paper was Republican in politics. 37 On January 28, 
1870, the Kansas Daily Commonwealth announced The Wilson 
County Courier as a new paper, and thereby confirmed the state- 
ments of the secondary authorities that it made its appearance in 
January, 1870. The Commonwealth referred to the Courier as pre- 
senting "a creditable appearance, barring its ill-proportioned length." 
It advised "Brother Jennings to cut off about four inches from the 
bottom." 

The History of Kansas Newspapers contended that the Courier 
was first published at Le Roy by William J. Kent and William Hig- 
gins during the years 1866 to 1868, when it was suspended; that on 
October 30, 1869, the second Le Roy Courier was established by 
John R. Jennings, ''who used the old stereotyped heading of the first 
Courier, which he found in the town and appropriated to his use for 
economy's sake. This paper was continued until January, 1870, 
when it was discontinued and the office moved to Fredonia, where it 
passed into the hands of Messrs. Peffer and Wellman." 38 The Com- 

37. Neodesha Citizen, March 3, 1871; Andreas, op. cit., p. 902; First Biennial Report 
p. 446. 

38. History of Kansas Newspapers, p. 314. 



138 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

monwealth, however, spoke of Mr. Jennings as editor of the first 
issue, subsequently it may have passed into the hands of Messrs. 
Peffer and Wellman, as the History said it did. The First Biennial 
Report stated that Jennings moved the material from Le Roy "where 
he had been using it in the publication of the Le Roy Pioneer" 39 
The writer is not in a position to determine whether the Le Roy pa- 
per was known as the Pioneer or Courier. The Society does not have 
this paper nor The Wilson County Courier. 

DICKINSON COUNTY 
The Western News, Detroit, January 20 or 21, 1870. 

This was the first newspaper published in Dickinson county, An- 
dreas' statement to the contrary notwithstanding. 40 The Society has 
a photostatic copy of volume one, number two, dated January 28, 
1870. In several advertisements of this issue appeared the date 
"Jan. 20-tf." Since the paper was published every Friday, as listed 
in the masthead of the second issue, the first number should have 
made its appearance January 21, 1870, although the date on the ad- 
vertisements would place it on the 20th. The First Biennial Report 
stated that The Western News and the Abilene Chronicle both made 
their appearance in February, 1870. 41 The Society has volume one, 
number two, of the Chronicle, dated March 3, 1870. If regularly 
issued this would place the first number on February 24, 1870, which 
is also the date given by Wilder. 42 It follows, therefore, that The 
Western News was established about a month earlier than the Abi- 
lene Chronicle. In addition to the photostatic copy of The Western 
News, the Society also has the issues of February 11 and July 5, 
1870. 

The News was started by A. W. Robinson during the last county- 
seat fight in Dickinson county. The paper was full of the contest. 
Among the remarks noticed in the issues were the following: 
"COUNTY SEAT or BUST," "ABILENE is DEAD, will be BUR- 
IED next TUESDAY NIGHT." Shortly after the election, how- 
ever, it was the News that gave up the ghost. 

39. First Biennial Report, p. 446. 

40. Andreas, op. cit., p. 687, wrote that the Chronicle published at Abilene was first in 
the county. 

41. First Biennial Report, p. 180. 

42. Wilder, op. cit. (1886), p. 516. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 139 

BUTLER COUNTY 

Walnut Valley Times, El Dorado, March, 1870. 

Andreas and the First Biennial Report agree that the first number 
of the Times was dated March 4, 1870. The First Biennial Report 
regarded it as the first paper published in the county. 43 The earliest 
contemporaneous information appears in the Emporia Netvs, January 
21, 1870. It stated that "T. B. Murdock has returned, and says their 
printing establishment for Eldorado ought to be here this week, if 
it is not delayed on the route. The paper, we learn, will be called 
Walnut Valley Times." On February 11, the News reported again: 
"The printing material for the Walnut Valley Times passed through 
town, on Wednesday, en route to Eldorado. We will look for the 
new paper in about three weeks." On March 18, the same paper 
announced the new paper: "The second number of the Walnut Val- 
ley Times reached us yesterday. It is the liveliest and best printed 
paper in the country. Bent and Dan are a newspaper team." The 
News had reference to T. B. Murdock and one Danford as the editors 
and publishers. The first issue the Society has of this paper carries 
the date of July 1, 1870, listed as volume one, number eighteen. If 
it was issued regularly this would place the first number on March 
4, 1870, which agrees with the date given by the secondary author- 
ities. The information points to the conclusion that the Walnut 
Valley Times appeared during the first or second week of March, 
1870. The Times was published until April, 1918, although Murdock 
severed his connection with it in March, 1881. 

CLOUD COUNTY 
Republican Valley Empire, Clyde, May 31, 1870. 

This newspaper, now known as the Concordia Blade-Empire, was 
established by Henry Buckingham at Clyde, May 31, 1870. It was 
Republican in politics. Andreas and the First Biennial Report 
merely gave the year 1870, and regarded the Empire as the first 
newspaper published in Clyde. 44 Years later Henry Buckingham 
wrote that it was "the first paper established in that region," but 
failed to qualify the word "region." 4r> Unless further information 
disproves the statements of the above authorities, the Republican 
Valley Empire must be regarded as the first newspaper in Cloud 

43. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1434; First Biennial Report, p. 130. 

44. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1017; First Biennial Report, p. 153. 

45. Hollibaugh, Mrs. E. F., Biographical History of Cloud County, Kansas . . 
(1903), p. 170. The article was written July 12, 1894. 



140 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

county. Twenty-three issues were published at Clyde, when the 
paper was moved to Concordia, which meanwhile had become the 
county seat. The Empire has been published there ever since, al- 
though under different names. The last issue published at Clyde 
was dated November 1, 1870, the first published at Concordia was 
dated December 24, 1870. 

In the first issue, now in the files of the Society, the editor de- 
scribed the site of Clyde as "a beautiful one," located "on the great 
highway to points in the far west." Clyde was featured as a natural 
center of trade. It boasted three hotels, three stores, a drug and 
hardware store, two blacksmith shops, a tin shop, a fine steam saw 
and grist mill. A large kiln of brick was being put up. The town 
company offered to give "a lot 65 by 150 feet" to any person who 
would "put up a building worth $150." Into this thriving little 
town Buckingham brought his press and material. They were hauled 
from Manhattan by Messrs. E. Kennedy, E. Kline and Charles 
Davis. Buckingham placed the press in a log cabin built by the 
Heller brothers, a building about twenty feet square, the first erected 
in Clyde. It had been used as "a dwelling, post office, hotel, store 
and court house." 46 

The editor of the Empire was a liberal Republican. In the edi- 
torial of the first issue he wrote: 

We are in favor of: 1. Universal suffrage; 2. Universal education; 3. Uni- 
versal emancipation; 4. Universal temperance. We had seriously thought of 
adding universal salvation, but when we think of the rascally thieves in our 
State, who have stolen thousands "in the name of liberty," and not one of them 
has returned a dollar of "conscience money," (a custom which is getting popu- 
lar,) we do not think it would be doing justice to the rest of mankind to add 
the plank to our platform. 

The Society has a good file of the Republican Valley-Empire from 
May 31, 1870 (Vol. 1, No. 1), to November 23, 1872, but lacks the 
issues from November, 1872, to January, 1876. 

SEDGWICK COUNTY 
The Wichita Vidette, August 13, 1870. 

On August 13, 1870, the Wichita Vidette unfurled its banner to the 
breeze. W. B. Hutchison and Fred A. Sowers were the editors and 
publishers. The paper was Republican in politics. Since the So- 
ciety has a file of the Vidette, including volume one, number one, 
there is no question about the date of its appearance, although An- 

46. Ibid., pp. 169, 170. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 141 

dreas and the Wichita Eagle gave the date of the first issue as Au- 
gust 15 and 18, 1870, respectively. 47 

The project for a Wichita paper was started by the Wichita town 
company. They offered Joe Clarke of Leavenworth, editor of the 
Leavenworth Daily Call, a bonus if he would start a newspaper. 
Clarke, who had a similar offer from Parsons, referred the proposi- 
tions to Fred A. Sowers, formerly his co-worker on the Daily Times. 
They reached an agreement by which Clarke would furnish the ma- 
terial and receive the bonus money. They selected Wichita and 
Sowers took charge of the office. "The material of the Vidette was 
hauled by one of Wm. Griffenstein's teams from Fort Hays. Mr. 
Wm. B. Hutchison, after the contract had been made between 
Messrs. Clarke and Sowers, was selected by Mr. Sowers and given 
a half interest in the office as publisher, he being a practical printer." 
Together they issued the Vidette for six months when Sowers sold 
out to Hutchison and returned to Leavenworth. In May, 1872, 
Hutchison sold the paper to one Rev. Perkins, who died in the fall 
of the same year. "The Vidette was then sold to parties in Welling- 
ton where it was taken and issued for a short time under the name 
of the Wellington Banner." 48 

The word Vidette is French, but spelled Vedette. It has been de- 
fined as "an outpost, or picket," or rather "sentinel on horseback." 
The editors were conscious of the fact that they had changed the 
spelling of the word and asked the critics to be reasonable. They 
regarded their paper as "the sentinel or picket of journalism in 
Southwestern Kansas," and assumed the right to spell the word as 
they saw proper. 49 

The Vidette reflected the life and spirit of the time. Many farm- 
ers in Sedgwick county were contemplating planting cotton and 
hoped to harvest a bale to the acre. Red Turkey wheat was still 
unknown in Kansas, and farmers were experimenting with crops. 
The Texas cattle trade was in its glory. The Vidette reported that 
three thousand head of cattle had passed "over the trail on Friday 
morning. A large herd came in this morning." The paper also spoke 
of the great need of "a daily mail, every interest demands it; and as 
we have two stages running daily between this place and Emporia, 
it can be obtained if the proper efforts are made." 50 In another col- 
umn the editors recounted a highly successful fishing trip: 

47. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1392, and the Wichita Sunday Eagle, July 28, 1940, gave the 
date as August 18, but the Eagle of May 6, 1875, gives it as August 15. 

48. The Wichita Eagle, May 6, 1875. 

49. The Wichita Vidette, August 13, 1870. 

50. Ibid. 



142 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Last week, we in company with J. C. Burke and Captain Payne, "went 
fishing" in the Little Arkansas about a mile and a quarter above town. We had 
Mr. Burke's net and fish-rack. This rack consists of narrow plank framed to- 
gether, and when a haul is made the fish is taken from the net and placed in 
the rack, which is floated after the net. We made five hauls and took out about 
500 pounds of fish, the largest cat-fish weighing fifty-two pounds gross. We like 
fishing when we can do as well as we did this time. . . . 51 

In a later issue the editors admonished their patrons to trade at 
home, writing: "Those who are compelled to go to Emporia to pur- 
chase goods, will do well to examine our advertising columns before 
starting. They will find the names of some firms among them it will 
pay to call upon." 52 

Among the firms advertising in the Vidette were the following: 
R. C. Hay wood & Co., wholesale and retail dealers in common, parlor 
and chamber furniture; Matsell & Hubbard, dealers in general mer- 
chandise, dry goods, groceries, hardware, tin ware, saddlery, &c.; 
J. B. Albaugh, wagon, carriage and blacksmith shop, and many 
others. The Society has twenty-two issues of the Vidette, including 
the first eighteen. 

COWLEY COUNTY 

Cowley County Censor, Winfield, August 13, 1870. 

The First Biennial Report, Andreas and Wilder gave the date of 
the first issue of the Censor as August 13, 1870. 53 The Cowley 
County Telegram, Winfield, of May 14. 1879, substantiated the 
above statement. This no doubt is correct, for the Emporia News, 
August 19, 1870, wrote: 

The Cowley County Censor is the name of a paper published at Winfield, in 
this State, the first number of which appeared last week. It is a vivacious little 
sheet, and in every respect a credit to the lively town of Winfield. 

A. J. Patrick was the editor and proprietor. The paper was Re- 
publican in politics. The First Biennial Report stated that the first 
two numbers were "struck off at Augusta, Butler county, the type 
having been set up at Winfield and sent in galleys to the former 
town." The Cowley County Telegram stated that the third number 
was printed at Winfield on the historic Meeker press, 54 which is in- 
correct. 55 The fact that the paper was published in Cowley county, 

51. Ibid. 

52. Ibid., September 1, 1870. 

53. First Biennial Report, p. 163; Andreas, op. cit., p. 1590; Wilder, op. cit. (1886), 
p. 517. 

54. Cowley County Telegram, Winfield, May 14, 1879. 

55. For a detailed study of the history of the Meeker press, see, Kirke Mechem. "The 
Mystery of the Meeker Press," The Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. IV, pp. 61-73. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 143 

although printed in Butler county, entitles it to first place in Cow- 
ley. The Telegram gave the following history of the Censor: 

On the third day of June, 1871, L. J. Webb succeeded Patrick as its editor, 
and on the 5th of August following Webb and Doud bought out Patrick, and 
continued the publication of the paper until the 26th of the same month, when 
E. G. Nichols succeeded Doud, and the firm became Webb & Nichols. Janu- 
ary 6th 1872, Webb & Nichols sold to W. H. Kearns, and the Censor ceased to 
exist. 56 

The Society has no copy of this paper. 

The Arkansas City Traveler should be mentioned as a very close 
second. It probably made its appearance the last week in August, 
1870, for the Emporia News reported, September 2, 1870, that it had 
received the first number of the Traveler. The earliest number the 
Society has of this paper bears the date of January 26, 1876. 

OTTAWA COUNTY 
The Solomon Valley Pioneer, Lindsey, September, 1870. 

The first newspaper published in this county was The Solomon 
Valley Pioneer, which must have appeared about- the second week in 
September, 1870. Little is known about it except what can be 
gathered from secondary authorities and contemporaneous news- 
papers. Andreas failed to mention it, but the First Biennial Report 
wrote that it was the "first paper published in Ottawa county, was 
issued at Lindsey, in September, 1870, and continued until May, 
1873." 57 

On September 17, 1870, the Junction City Weekly Union described 
the first issue as follows: 

We have received the first number of the Solomon Valley Pioneer, published 
at Lindsay, Ottawa county, "Westward the Star of Empire," &c. A handfull of 
people get together in this country, and the first thing they want is a newspaper, 
which is correct, provided they pay for it. But the people of the Solomon 
Valley are liberal, and we predict for the Pioneer a comfortable time. 

Lindsey at one time was the county seat of Ottawa county, but 
lost it to Markley's Mill, now Minneapolis. At present it is all but 
extinct. A map based on the 1940 census gives its population as 15. 

The Minneapolis Independent made its appearance October 25, 
1870, and was a close second to the Pioneer. George MacKenzie was 
the editor and publisher. The Society has the first issue of the In- 
dependent but has no copy of The Solomon Valley Pioneer. 

56. Cowley County Telegram, Winfield, May 14, 1879. 

57. First Biennial Report, p. 357. 



144 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

MARION COUNTY 
The Western News, Marion, September, 1870. 

In 1875 The Marion County Record, of Marion Centre, published 
a history of the Marion county press. In it appeared the following 
statement : 

In July or August, 1869, an organization was effected in Marion Centre, 
county-seat, for the purpose of securing a paper for the county. The organiza- 
tion consisted of the following named gentlemen: J. N. Rogers, J. H. Costello, 
A. E. Case, Levi Billings, W. H. Billings and A. A. Moore. 

Arrangements were soon effected with A. W. Robinson to remove his office 
from Detroit, Dickinson county, to Marion Centre, which he did in the fall of 
1869 ; receiving a small bonus and in September, 1869, the first paper in Marion 
county was born, and christened The Western News. 

In 1871 the name of the paper was changed to The Western Giant 
and later it became The Marion County Record. 58 

According to contemporaneous newspapers the Record was mis- 
taken in the date of birth of The Western News. On September 23, 
1870, the Emporia News announced the first issue as follows: 

We have before us the first number of the Western News, printed at Marion 
Center, in Marion County. We hope this paper will prove a valuable aid to 
the development of that excellent county. 

On September 21, 1870, the Daily Kansas State Record of Topeka 
wrote: "Mr. A. W. Robinson has removed his Western News to 
Marion Centre, Marion county." The First Biennial Report, no 
doubt, had taken its information from The Marion County Record, 
for it also gave the date of the first issue as September, 1869. 59 

The Western News was small enough to be designated a "Hand- 
kerchief Sheet/' and was printed on an inferior jobber. These early 
papers had their financial difficulties. As late as 1875 The Marion 
County Record, successor of The Western News and Giant, wrote: 
"If our employees were cannibals we'd feed 'em awhile on delinquent 
subscribers," This drew from the Southern Kansas Gazette, Au- 
gusta, the remark: "Ugh! tough eating." 60 

The Society has no issues of The Western News nor of The West- 
ern Giant. Its first issue of The Marion County Record is of July 
23, 1875, listed as Vol. IV, No. 35. 



58. Marion County Record, Marion Centre, December 31, 1875. 

59. First Biennial Report, p. 294; Andreas, op. cit,, p. 1257, w 
ne to Marion in September, 1869, and started the News. 

60. Marion County Record, Marion Centre, December 31, 1875. 



59. First Biennial Report, p. 294; Andreas, op. cit., p. 1257, wrote that A. W. Robinson 
came to Marion in September, 1869, and started the News. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 145 

REPUBLIC COUNTY 
The Bell[e]ville Telescope, September 30, 1870. 

The first issue of this paper made its appearance September 30, 
1870, rather than September 20, as recorded in Andreas and the 
First Biennial Report. 61 This assertion is based on information re- 
ceived from A. Q. Miller, present publisher of the Telescope. James 
C. Humphrey was the editor. Mark J. Kelley announced the first 
issue in his paper, the Kansas Washington Republican, Washington, 
October 6, 1870, as follows: 

We have got a Telescope', that is to say when the mail came in from the 
West on Tuesday we received No. 1 Vol. 1 of the Bellville Telescope, published 
at Bellville, Republic county, by J. C. Humphrey. It is published on the same 
press and type with which we published the Western Observer in this city nearly 
two years ago and is the same size of the old Observer. From its columns we 
get a Telescopic view of Bellville and surrounding county. Its local columns are 
well filled with local matters, while in his editorials, Mr. Humphrey, displays 
rare ability. He is one of the best practical printers in Northern Kansas, and 
we hope to ere long see him sending forth from that remote region, a sheet 
equal in size to the Republican. We heartily wish Humphrey and his Telescope 
success. 

On June 28, 1901, Humphrey sold his paper to A. J. Basye, and in 
his "Farewell" he wrote: "Thirty-one years ago the thirtieth day 
of the coming September we established the Telescope, and with but 
two short intervals have published it ever since." 

J. C. Humphrey's newspaper maxim for the first years was, "Hew 
to the Line, Let the Chips Fall Where They May." By April 6, 
1876, however, he had abandoned it. In the "Farewell" mentioned 
above, he wrote: 

Of course we have made enemies, but we have no apologies to make, for 
when we gave any one a swat we generally got one in return; nor are we going 
to say that if we have made mistakes they were "mistakes of the head and not 
of the heart," for we have always endeavored to track head and heart in the 
same class. . . . 

We have no sore spots to heal as a result of our newspaper career, and we 
know of no wounds we have inflicted that require special treatment at our 
hands, hence we step down and out with the kindest of feeling toward all. 

The Telescope is still one of the prominent newspapers in Kansas. 

At first Belleville was spelled with only two "e's" (Bellville) . The 
Society has several issues of the Telescope of the years 1870, 1871 
and 1872, which omitted the middle "e." The issue of April 6, 1876, 

61. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1033 ; First Biennial Report, p. 380. 

38801 



146 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

also in the Society's file, conforms to the present spelling. The So- 
ciety's continuous file of the Telescope starts April 6, 1876, except 
for a gap of twenty-five issues between October 12, 1876, and April 
5, 1877. 

ELK COUNTY 

Elk Falls Examiner, before February 17, 1871. 

The First Biennial Report stated that the Elk Falls Examiner was 
established by C. L. Goodrich in the fall of 1870. Andreas wrote 
that Goodrich began his publication "in the spring of 1872." 62 The 
Daily Kansas State Record, Topeka, September 13, 1870, stated: 
"A newspaper is being 'talked up' for Elk Falls, Howard county." 
On September 21 the same paper wrote again: ''Mr. Meade, of the 
Eureka Herald is to issue a new paper at Union Centre, Howard 
county." Nothing further was found in the contemporaneous papers, 
however, until February 17, 1871, when the Neodesha Citizen re- 
ported: 

We are in receipt of the first number of the Elk Falls Examiner, a neatly 
gotten up paper of 24 columns, published at the young but promising town of 
Elk Falls, in Howard county, by C. L. Goodrich & Co. . . . 

This would indicate that Andreas and the First Biennial Report were 
mistaken in the date of the first issue. The Society has no copy of 
the Examiner. 

A close second to the Elk Falls Examiner was the Howard County 
Ledger, published at Longton. The first issue must have appeared 
between the dates of March 25 and April 24, 1871. Adrian Reynolds 
was the editor. Andreas claimed the Ledger as the "first newspaper 
printed in Howard county." He wrote that Reynolds began pub- 
lishing it "in the spring of 1871." 63 He was mistaken about the 
Examiner but correct in the time of the Ledger. The First Biennial 
Report wrote that the Ledger was established in September, 1870. 64 
This statement is not substantiated by contemporaneous accounts. 
On February 18, 1871, the New Chicago Transcript wrote: "A. 
Reynolds, formerly of the Garnett Plaindealer, intends to start a 
paper at Longton, Howard county, soon." On March 25 the Tran- 
script wrote again: "A new paper, called the Ledger, is to be started 
at Longton, Howard county, by A. Reynolds who represented How- 
ard county in the last Legislature." On April 24, 1871, the Daily 

62. First Biennial Report, p. 203; Andreas, op. cit., p. 1179. 

63. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1173. 

64. First Biennial Report, p. 203 ; History of Kansas Newspapers, p. 184, merely gave the 
year, 1870. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 147 

Kansas State Record, Topeka, quoted the Ledger. While the exact 
date of the establishment of this newspaper remains undetermined, 
sufficient information has been found to discount Andreas' claim that 
it was the first newspaper printed in Howard, now Elk county. The 
credit goes to the Elk Falls Examiner. The Society has no copy of 
the Ledger. 

MITCHELL COUNTY 

Mitchell County Mirror, Beloit, April, 1871. 

The first newspaper in Mitchell county was the Mitchell County 
Mirror. Its initial number appeared sometime during the first or 
second week in April, 1871. Andreas and the First Biennial Report 
gave the date of the first issue as April 5, 1871. 65 The Society has 
two issues of the Mirror, the earliest is dated May 17, 1871, and 
listed as volume one, number six. If regularly issued this would 
place the first number on April 12. The Republican Valley Empire 
of Concordia, on April 15, 1871, announced the first issue of the 
Mirror. The exact date of the first number, therefore, is still un- 
known. A. B. Cornell was the editor and publisher. The paper ap- 
peared irregularly. In 1879, the Beloit Gazette characterized it as 
"issued somewhat irregularly and 'semi-occasionally' for several 
months and then died from exhaustion." 66 

The pioneer settlers of this county braved great hardships. In 
1879 the Beloit Gazette gave a vivid description of the Indian 
troubles. 

There was neither poetry nor romance in living in Mitchell county nine years 
ago, for many reasons; the noble red man was entirely too familiar, and showed 
neither the slightest hesitancy nor the smallest compunctions of conscience in 
incontinentally letting the life-blood out of every pale face he met, and many a 
true and worthy citizen sleeps beneath the sod of the prairie, cut off in the 
prime of life by the unerring bullet of the unseen, stealthy, treacherously 
savage foe. 

Into this environment Cornell brought the Mirror. Here less than 
a year earlier, on May 9, 1870, the savage Cheyennes had killed 
W. P. Kenyon and Solomon Meisser, pioneer settlers of western 
Mitchell county, and in the same month, May 29, another band of 
Indians "drove off the largest part of the horses in that part of the 
county." 67 

65. Andreas, op. tit., p. 1023; First Biennial Report, p. 321. 

66. Beloit Gazette, December 27, 1879, Gazette Holliday Supplement. 

67. Ibid. 



148 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

SUMNER COUNTY 
Oxford Times, June 22, 1871. 

The first paper in this county evidently was the Oxford Times, 
edited and published by W. H. Mugford and E. S. Hughes. The 
first issue is said to have appeared June 22, 1871. In 1883 John P. 
Edwards published a brief description of the Times in the Historical 
Atlas of Sumner County, Kansas, here quoted in part: 

The first newspaper issued in Sumner county was the Oxford Times, the 
initial number of which appeared at Oxford, then a village of less than a dozen 
houses, on the 22nd day of June, 1871. The Times was a seven column folio 
and presented a very neat appearance. ... It was edited and published by 
W. H. Mugford and Em. S. Hughes, both excellent printers and writers. The 
material was a conglomeration of several of the first newspaper offices brought 
into the Territory of Kansas, among which were the heads of the Wyandotte 
Democrat and The Herald of Freedom. The Washington hand press belonging 
to the office had been thrown into the Mississippi river twice and as often re- 
covered, and again used in disseminating free state doctrines. It was after- 
wards captured by Gen. Price, in 1864 and used for a time in the interest of 
the rebellion. Finally it settled down at Pleasanton, in Linn county, where it 
rested until purchased by Mugford & Hughes about June 1, 1871. . . , 68 

Andreas and the First Biennial Report wrote that the Times was 
started in June, 1871. 69 The Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, of 
June 30, 1871, wrote that it had received the first number of the 
Oxford Times. It described it as a twenty-eight column sheet, "filled 
with select reading and local news." The Society has no copy of 
this paper but the Wellington City library has a good file. 

CLAY COUNTY 
Clay County Independent, Clay Center, August 31 (?), 1871. 

The First Biennial Report listed the Independent as the first paper 
in the county, and its statement appears correct. 70 On February 18, 
1871, the Republican Valley Empire, of Concordia, stated that it 
had received the prospectus of "a paper to be issued at Clay Center 
on or about March 23, to be called the Clay County Courier, by 
M. C. Davis. It is to be Republican in politics." On July 29 the 
same paper reported that for some reason the project of the Courier 
had miscarried. The same issue also stated that "a press and type 
have been shipped to Clay Center," and that "in a few weeks a 
paper will be issued." It was not until September 2, 1871, that the 

68. Edwards, John P., Historical Atlas of Sumner County, Kansas (1883), p. 9. 

69. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1507; First Biennial Report, p. 433. 

70. First Biennial Report, p. 149. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 149 

Republican Valley Empire announced "the first number of the Clay 
County Independent, published at Clay Center by Messrs. [E. P.] 
Huston & [David] Downer." The paper was independent in politics. 
The secondary authorities give the date of the first issue as August 
20, 1871. 71 The Clay Center Times, January 5, 1882, also stated: 
"Ten years have come and gone since the first paper of these files 
was published Aug. 20th, 1871, E. P. Huston and David Downer, 
publishers. . . ." The Historical Society has one issue of this 
paper, dated October 12, 1871, listed as volume I, number 7. If 
issued regularly the first number should be dated August 31, 1871, 
rather than August 20, as reported by the secondary authorities. 
As the writer has no way of telling whether the paper was issued 
regularly, the date of the first issue remains undetermined. 

71. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1314; First Biennial Report, p. 149. 

(To Be Continued in the August Quarterly) 



W 



Walt Whitman in Kansas 

ROBERT R. HUBACH 

ALT WHITMAN, like John Greenleaf Whittier, was deeply 
interested in the Antislavery cause; his unbounded faith in 
democracy and freedom is evident in many pages of Leaves of Grass. 
As early as 1872, Whitman had contributed two poems, "The Mystic 
Trumpeter" and "Virginia the West," the latter of which dealt with 
the Secession, to the first issue of The Kansas Magazine. 1 In 1879, 
Whitman had accepted the invitation of Col. John W. Forney and 
the Old Settlers of Kansas committee to be present at the quarter- 
centennial celebration of the settlement of Kansas at Bismarck 
Grove, near Lawrence, on September 15 and 16 of that year. The 
gathering proved to be one of the largest political meetings in the 
history of the state up to that time; one newspaper correspondent 
estimated that between 25,000 and 30,000 people were in attendance. 2 
Among the speakers were Edward Everett Hale, John Forney, S. N. 
Wood, George Julian, George A. Crawford, D. R. Anthony, ex-Gov. 
Charles Robinson, and Gov. John P. St. John of Kansas. One of 
the chief subjects of declamation, of course, was John Brown and 
the winning of Kansas for the forces of freedom after the passage of 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill. 3 

Whitman minutely describes his long trip West in Specimen 
Days. 4 " He left Philadelphia by train with Colonel Forney on 
September 10, 1879, 5 staying with his brother and family in St. 
Louis on the night of September 12. A St. Louis reporter, inter- 
viewing the poet at this time, asked his purpose in going West: 

"On your way to the Kansas celebration, are you not?" 

"Yes, Col. Forney asked me to accompany him, and I embraced the op- 
portunity of briefly visiting my brother [Water Commissioner Thos. J. Whit- 
man] and his family here. Go to Kansas on conditions, however," and Mr. 
Whitman smiled quaintly. 

1. The Kansas Magazine (The Kansas Magazine Publishing Co., Topeka, 1872), pp. 113, 
114 and 219 (January-June, 1872). 

2. Kansas City (Mo.) Mail, September 16, 1879. 

3. For a full account of the old settlers' reunion, see Chas. S. Gleed (ed.), The Kansas 
Memorial, A Report of the Old Settlers' Meeting . . . Bismarck Grove, Kansas, Septem- 
ber 15th and 16th, 1879 (Ramsey, Millett & Hudson, Kansas City, Mo., 1880). The Kansas 
and Missouri newspapers also contain many informative notices. 

4. Richard M. Bucke, Thomas B. Harned, and Horace L. Traubel (eds.), Complete Writ- 
ings of Walt Whitman (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, 1902), "Prose," v. I, 
pp. 252-254. 

5. Rollo G. Silver, "Walt Whitman Interviews Himself," American Literature, v. X, p. 87 
(March, 1938). This article contains Whitman's own account of his experiences in the West 
and his impressions of Denver. 

(150) 



HUBACH: WALT WHITMAN IN KANSAS 151 

"And those conditions were?" 

"I agreed to go, provided I was not asked to speak nor eat any public din- 
ners. I am only to show myself. I call myself a half paralytic, and yet I am 
not so feeble after all, nor so old as I look, for that matter. I was born in 1819. 
After the Kansas celebration, if I feel as well as now, I shall go out to Denver 
before I return to pay my brother a more extended visit." 

"What do you expect to do in Kansas?" 

"As I told you, I shall not make speeches or eat public dinners, but the 
people will have an opportunity to see this big, saucy red rooster, whom they 
might otherwise think would speak." 6 

At Kansas City, which Whitman reached on the evening of 
September 13, a specially appointed committee of four men met him 
and Forney to accompany them by train to Lawrence. 7 Both Whit- 
man and Forney resided in Lawrence at 1425 Tennessee street, the 
home of Judge John P. Usher, Secretary of the Interior under 
Lincoln and mayor of Lawrence at the time of their visit. The poet 
signed the Usher family autograph album on his first day at 
Lawrence: 

Walt Whitman 

visiting Kansas 
Sept. 14, 1879 

Whitman sat on the speaker's platform during the first session of 
the old settlers' meeting. Charles Gleed, editor of The Kansas 
Memorial, erroneously attributed H. C. Work's "The Song of a 
Thousand Years/' sung by the Lamed quartet for the occasion, to 
Whitman ; 8 but the poet took no part in the program. Perhaps the 
best newspaper account of Whitman as he appeared at the time of 
the celebration was in the Topeka Daily Capital: 
Walt Whitman is a man well advanced in years and his snow-white hair 
and the long white beard which grows upon a large portion of his face give 
him a decidedly venerable appearance. He wore a gray traveling suit and his 
shirt-bosom was left open at the neck, something after the fashion of the 
Goddess of Liberty as shown on a fifty-cent piece. He walks with a cane, 
using considerable care, as he has not fully recovered from a paralytic stroke. 9 

On the second day of the reunion, Whitman had been erroneously 
billed to read a poem. Linton Usher, whom Whitman affectionately 
mentioned along with a brother, John Usher, Jr., in Specimen Days, 10 
and who is now living near Pomona, Kan., has told me that Whit- 
man suffered from the heat and was in poor health while in Law- 

6. St. Louis (Mo.) Globe- Democrat, September 13, 1879. 

7. Lawrence Daily Journal, September 14, 1879. 

8. See p. 15. 

9. Topeka Daily Capital, September 16, 1879. 

10. Bucke, et al. (eds.), op. tit., p. 254. 



152 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

rence. 11 The poet did not attend the celebration on September 16, 
but rested at the Usher home, where he enjoyed hearing the mayor's 
sons tell of their experiences in the West. Mr. Linton Usher, who 
was only a boy in his teens when Whitman visited his father, says 
that Whitman was fascinated by his descriptions of ranch life in 
Texas, from which state the youth had just returned. He recalls 
that Whitman sat talking with friends in the west parlor and on the 
front porch of his father's house. The poet and Judge Usher doubt- 
less reminisced about Lincoln, during whose administration they 
were together in the Interior Department. Hon. T. Dwight Thacher, 
Lawrence publisher, who was /to have introduced Whitman at 
Bismarck Grove, was surprised to find him not present to read his 
poem; he excused Whitman's absence, however, on the grounds of 
the poet's poor health and his fatigues of travel. 12 In Specimen 
Days, Whitman wrote that he visited the University of Kansas on 
Oread Hill and took pleasant drives around the city. He found Law- 
rence and Topeka, "large, bustling, half-rural handsome cities." 13 
Before he left for Topeka, Whitman again signed the Usher auto- 
graph book: 

Walt Whitman 

accompanying Col. Forney as above 
Sept. 16, 79 

Whitman spent September 17 in Topeka. He and Colonel Forney 
and party resided at the Tefft House, where, according to the 
Topeka Commonwealth, the poet passed most of his time conversing 
with men in the lobby. 14 The same paper reported that he also 
visited the state house. 15 Since he at one time was employed by the 
Interior Department and was interested in Indian affairs, Whitman 
accompanied a group of officials to see some Indian prisoners at To- 
peka, who refused to recognize any of the government men, but who 
extended their hands to the poet and greeted him with "How." 10 
That evening Whitman was expected to be present at a lecture given 
by Colonel Forney on "Some of the Men of America I Have 
Known," but newspapers the next day did not report that he at- 
tended. 

11. Colin O. Alexander has printed a post card which Whitman sent to John Usher, Jr., 
on January 14, 1880. See "A Note on Walt Whitman," American Literature, v. IX. pp. 242, 
243 (May, 1937). 

12. Gleed (ed.), op. cit., p. 153. See, also, Lawrence Tribune, September 17, 1879. 
18. Bucke, et al. (eds.), op. cit., pp. 255, 256. 

14. The Commonwealth, Topeka, September 18, 1879. 

15. Ibid. 

16. Emory Holloway, Whitman, An Interpretation in Narrative (Alfred A. Knopf, New 
York and London, 1926), p. 223. 



HUBACH: WALT WHITMAN IN KANSAS 153 

On September 18, Whitman and Colonel Forney were honor guests 
at a dinner at the Palace Hotel. 17 Following the meal, the poet's 
party left for Denver. 18 

Before leaving Kansas, Whitman visited Atchison and Wallace. 
Linton Usher believes that poor health forced the poet to stop at 
the latter town. It was here at Wallace, an army post near the 
Colorado border, on September 19, that Whitman, inspired by the 
Kansas celebration and yet probably not physically able to write 
anything new, recollected and sent back to Lawrence a few ap- 
propriate lines from his early poem "Resurgemus," first printed in 
the New York Daily Tribune of June 21, 1850. 19 Whitman later 
recast this youthful piece of work, lengthening the lines and calling it 
"Europe the 72d and 73d Years of These States." 20 It is curious 
that the poet should have quoted the earlier, short-line version of 
the poem: 

Not a grave of the murdered for Freedom 

But grows seeds of a wider Freedom, 

Which the winds carry afar and sow, 

And the snows and the rains nourish. 21 

Whitman arrived in Denver by the Kansas Pacific railroad on 
September 20 and stayed in Colorado for four days. On his return 
east he visited his old friend, "E. L.," at Sterling, for the day and 
night of September 24, where, he said in a letter to Peter Doyle, 
"I had hard work to get away from him he wanted me to stay all 
winter." 22 The Rice County Gazette, of Sterling, and the Sterling 
Weekly Bulletin both published short notices of his presence in the 
town. The former paper's article is the more adequate : 

Walt Whitman, the poet, of Philadelphia, . . . visited Sterling on yester- 
day. . . . The old poet says that much as the grandeur of the mountains 
impressed him, the impression of the plains will remain longest with him. We 
hope Mr. Whitman will embody these impressions in some of his elegant 
poetry. 23 

Whitman returned by way of the Santa Fe railroad to Kansas 
City, and from there went back to St. Louis, where he spent almost 
three months with his brother. 

The impression which the prairies made upon Whitman is remark - 

17. Topeka Daily Blade, September 18, 1879. 

18. The Commonwealth, Topeka, September 19, 1879. 

19. Emory Holloway (ed.), The Uncollected Poetry and Prose of Walt Whitman (Double- 
day, Page, New York, 1921), v. I, p. 29. 

20. Bucke, et al. (eds.), "Poetry," op. cit., v. II, p. 29. 

21. Gleed (ed.), op. cit., p. 4. 

22. Bucke, et al. (eds.), "Prose," op. cit., p. 270. For the letter to Peter Doyle, pee 
Bucke, op. cit., v. V, pp. 163-166. 

23. Rice County Gazette, Sterling, September 25, 1879. 



154 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

able. The Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas country were to Whitman, 
"America's Characteristic Landscape." He saw that in the Mis- 
sissippi valley region, more than even in the majestic Rocky 
Mountains, lay the future of American culture. 24 In a short speech 
which he had planned to deliver at the Bismarck Grove meeting, he 
exhorted the people of Kansas to pattern their creative efforts after 
"that vast Something" peculiar to the "interminable and stately 
prairies." 25 Whitman repeated time and again in Leaves of Grass 
the fact that he saw in the West the coming fruition of what would 
someday be a truly American contribution to the arts something 
uninfluenced by foreign conventions or models and as boundless and 
free as the plains themselves. 28 Particularly in his poem "The 
Prairie States," written in 1880 after his trip to the West, did he 
look with prophetic vision to the Great Plains as they are today, 
and saw that to them the entire past had been working: 
A newer garden of creation, no primal solitude, 
Dense, joyous, modern, populous millions, cities and farms, 
With iron interlaced, composite, tied, many in one, 
By all the world contributed freedom's and law's and thrift's society, 
The crown and teeming paradise, so far, of time's- accumulations, 
To justify the past. 27 

24. Bucke, et al. (eds.), op. cit., v. I, pp. 275-277. 

25. Ibid., pp. 255, 256. 

26. Newton Arvin, Whitman (Macmillan, New York, 1938), pp. 99-101, feels, however, 
that Whitman's joy in the apparent prosperity of the West and his immense optimism indi- 
cated a lack of consciousness on the poet's part of the American farmer's poverty-stricken 
condition at the time. 

27. Bucke, et al. (eds.), "Poetry," op. cit., v. II, p. 177. 



Development of Common and Employers' 
Liability Law in Kansas 

DOMENICO GAGLIARDO 

TWO fundamentally different systems of legal relationships re- 
garding liability for compensating industrial injuries prevail in 
Kansas: the common law and the modern system of workmen's 
compensation. The unmodified common law was the basis for 
settling all damage suits for only a few years, as statutory modifica- 
tions were soon introduced in the form of employers' liability laws. 
The workmen's compensation act of 1911 established a radically 
different set of principles and procedures, adoption of which was 
made optional. But in employment not covered by workmen's com- 
pensation, the common law alone, or the common law as modified by 
employers' liability acts, is still the basis for determining liability. 
Furthermore, in the occupations covered by the compensation law, 
employers electing to pay benefits as provided in that act may in 
some cases plead the common-law defenses against workers electing 
not to accept, but these defenses are not available to employers re- 
jecting the compensation law if their employees accept. Thus the 
common law, employers' liability acts and workmen's compensation 
are all integral parts of our labor code today. It is the object of 
this article to describe the development in Kansas of the common 
law and its modification by statutes. 

THE COMMON LAW 

The legal relationships between employer and employee in Kansas 
regarding compensation for injuries were at first determined by the 
common-law doctrines of reasonable care, assumption of risk, con- 
tributory negligence and coservice. 1 

DUTIES OF THE EMPLOYER 

According to the doctrine of reasonable care, it is the master's 
duty to exercise reasonable care and diligence in providing a safe 
place in which to work, safe machinery, tools and materials, suitable 

1. Another rule limiting recovery was the general maxim that actio personalia cum per- 
sona moritur. That rule was abolished by the wrongful death statute of 1868, which gave 
personal representatives of fatally injured persons any right that the deceased might have had 
to sue for damages. The General Statutes of the State of Kansas . . . 18fi8, ch. 80, 
sec. 422, Article XVIII of the Code of Civil Procedure. A supplemental act conferring the 
same right, under special circumstances, to oth-ir than personal representatives, was adopted 
in 1889. Laws, Kansas, 1889, ch. 131, upheld in Berry v. K. C. Ft. S. & M. Rid. Co., 52 
Kan. 759. Principles to guide in the assessment of damages were laid down by the supreme 
court. See Union Pacific Rly. Co. v. Milliken, 8 Kan. 647 ; A. T. & S. F. Rid. Co. v. Brown. 
Adm'r., 26 Kan. 443. 

(155) 



156 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

and competent fellow workmen, and to warn of hidden or unusual 
dangers known to him but not to the servant. 2 For an injury re- 
sulting from failure or neglect to perform any part of this duty, the 
master is liable for damages, whether the failure or neglect is his own 
or that of one to whom the performance of this duty has been dele- 
gated. 3 But the master's negligence is never presumed ; it must be 
proved by the plaintiff. 

ASSUMPTION OF RISK 

The servant assumes all the ordinary risks and hazards incident 
to or attendant upon his employment; that is, all those risks and 
hazards which are purely fortuitous or open to common observation 
and are as fully known to him as to his master, or which he is, or 
may reasonably be expected to be, capable of knowing and measur- 
ing. 4 And even though it is the employer's duty to furnish a reason- 
ably safe workplace, machinery, tools and materials, yet if any of 
these are deficient or defective and the employee knows or should 
know of the deficiency or defect, and appreciates or should appre- 
ciate the consequent danger, and continues in the employment with- 
out any promise on the part of his employer that it will be remedied, 
or continues for more than a reasonable time with that promise, he 
is deemed as a matter of law to have assumed the risk of injury 
from such deficiency or defect. 5 Extraordinary risks are assumed 
only if known to and appreciated by the employee. 6 

Two reasons are offered in justification of this doctrine: first that, 
knowing he will be exposed to these risks, the servant in effect con- 
tracts to bear them ; second that it best promotes the public interest 
by making injuries less liable to occur to the servant himself and to 
third persons. 7 Floyd R. Mechem says the real reason is that a loss 
must rest where it falls unless it can be attributed to the fault of 

2. Allen v. Shell Petroleum Corp., 146 Kan. 67 ; West v. Packing Co., 86 Kan. 890. In a 
place where conditions and hazards are constantly changing as the work progresses, the haz- 
ards incident to the work are assumed by the worker. McCoy v. A. T. & S. F. Rly. Co., 129 
Kan. 781. 

8. Dow v. Kansas Pacific Rly. Co., 8 Kan. 642 ; A. T. & S. F. Rid. Co. v. Moore, 29 Kan. 
632, 646; Brice-Nash v. Barton Salt Co., 79 Kan. 110; Tuttle v. Detroit, etc. Rly., 122 U. S. 
189. 

4. Brown, Adm'r. v. A. T. & S. F. Rid. Co., 31 Kan. 1; Fritchman v. Chitwood Battery 
Co., 134 Kan. 727. "The maxim volenti non fit injuria is a terse expression of the individ- 
ualistic tendency of the common law, which, proceeding from the people and asserting their 
liberties, naturally regards the freedom of individual actions as the keystone of the whole 
structure." Francis H. Bohlen, Studies in the Law of Torts (Bobbs- Merrill Co., Indianapolis, 
1926), p. 441. 

6. Morbach v. Mining Co., 53 Kan. 731; Tschreppel v. Missouri-Kan. -Texas Rid. Co., 
134 Kan. 251. 

6. A. T. & S. F. Rid. Co. v. Schroeder, 47 Kan. 315; Rly. Co. v. Johnson, 69 Kan. 721; 
Lively v. Railway Co., 115 Kan. 784; Monteith v. Litchenburger, 144 Kan. 70. 

7. Dow v. Kansas Pacific Rly. Co., 8 Kan. 642. 



GAGLIARDO: LIABILITY LAW IN KANSAS 157 

some one else, and the risks here concerned cannot be attributed to 
the fault of the master. 8 

CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE 

It is a general rule of the common law that where the plaintiff's 
negligence in conjunction with that of the defendant contributes to 
his injury, the plaintiff cannot recover. In Kansas, three degrees of 
negligence were at one time recognized: slight, ordinary and gross. 
Slight negligence did not bar recovery, 9 but ordinary negligence did, 
even though the worker's negligence was less than that of the em- 
ployer, unless of course the employer's was willful or wanton. 10 A 
worker who at the express command of the master incurs a danger 
not so inevitable or imminent that an ordinarily prudent man would 
refuse to incur it and is as a result injured, is not guilty of con- 
tributory negligence. n This "academic" classification of negligence 
into three degrees came to be ignored, and was definitely eliminated 
from the body of law by the supreme court in 1908, and the rule now 
is merely that there is negligence when "the care, diligence or skill 
demanded by the peculiar circumstances of the particular case" has 
not been exercised. 12 Kansas courts have consistently held that 
contributory negligence is an affirmative defense and must be pleaded 
and proved by the employer. Where no evidence is introduced on 
this point it is assumed as a matter of law that there was no con- 
tributory negligence. 13 

COMPARATIVE NEGLIGENCE AND "THE LAST CLEAR CHANCE" 

The doctrine of comparative negligence, which is, briefly, that 
where both employer and employee are guilty of negligence con- 
tributing to an employee's injury the worker may recover propor- 
tionate damages, provided his negligence is less than that of his 
employer, has never prevailed in Kansas aside from statutory enact- 
ment. 14 But the doctrine of the "last clear chance" is accepted. 



; i, mo,imf L f Agency ' ' (Callaghan and Co " 

9. Union Pacific Rly. Co. v. Rollins, 5 Kan. 167; Sawyer v. Sauer, 10 Kan. 466, 472- 
Gibson v. Wyandotte, 20 Kan. 156 (1878) ; Union Pacific Rly. Co. v. Adams, 33 Kan. 429. 

10. Union Pacific Rly. Co. v. Young, 19 Kan. 488. Justice Valentine said in this case- 
Ihere are we suppose a few exceptions where a person who has himself not exercised ordinary 

care may recover, but these exceptions are very few." p. 496. 

11. St. Louis, etc., Rly. Co. v. Morris, 76 Kan. 836. 

12. Railway Co. v. Walters, 78 Kan. 39, 41. 

13. Kansas Pacific Rly. Co. v. Pointer, 14 Kan. 37, 50 ; Central Branch Union Pacific Rly 
Co. v. Walters, 24 Kan. 504. 

14. Laws, Kansas, 1911, ch. 239, sec. 2; Kansas Pacific Rly. Co. v. Pointer, 14 Kan. 37; 
Railway Co. v. Walters, 78 Kan. 39. Rly. Co. v. Davis, 37 Kan. 743, does seem to lend 
countenance to the doctrine, but later cases positively repudiate it. 



158 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

According to this rule, the test of wrongful conduct is that if just at 
the very moment when an accident occurred or became inevitable 
only one party had power to prevent it and neglected to do so, then 
the legal responsibility was his alone. But if each had power to 
prevent it and each neglected to use that power, then neither can 
recover from the other. 15 

FELLOW SERVANT 

The widest common-law principle governing liability is that every 
person shall be liable to others only when he is at fault. The rule of 
respondeat superior, which holds that the master is vicariously liable 
to a stranger for the misconduct of his servants, i. e., railways to their 
passengers for the misconduct of their servants, is an exception to 
this wider principle. The suggestion that respondeat superior might 
be interpreted to make the master liable to one servant for injuries 
caused by the negligence of a fellow servant was first made in Eng- 
land in 1837 by counsel for plaintiff in Priestly v. Fowler, but was 
not accepted. 16 In Murray v. South Carolina Railway Company, 
an American case decided in 1841, it was held that respondeat 
superior did not apply in cases of this kind, but the decision was 
divided, did not become well known, and did not settle the ques- 
tion. 17 The question first received mature consideration in Farwell 
v. Boston and Wooster Railway Corporation, 1842. 18 There it was 
decided that the rule did not apply ; and the fellow-servant rule, that 
employers are not liable for injuries caused by the negligence of 
fellow servants, was firmly established. 

The fellow servant rule was introduced into Kansas by the su- 
preme court in 1871, in its first decision disposing of a damage suit 
arising out of an industrial accident to an employee. 19 Dow, a 
brakeman, was injured while coupling freight cars, allegedly because 
the conductor carelessly, negligently and unskillfully conducted the 
train, and he sued for damages. He alleged everything necessary to 
recover except that he carefully avoided alleging that the railroad 
was negligent in employing or retaining the conductor who caused 
the injury. An elaborate and able brief was prepared by the de- 
fense. The action was apparently brought for the mere purpose of 
getting the fellow-servant rule established in Kansas. The court 

15. Dyerson v. Railroad Co., 74 Kan. 528. See, also, Himmelwright v. Baker, 82 Kan. 
569, and Whately v. Chicago G. W. Rid. Co., 123 Kan. 187. 

16. 3 M. & W. 1 (1837). 

17. 1 McMull, L. S. Car. 385, 36 Am. Dec. 268 (1841). 

18. 4 Mete. 49, 38 Am. Dec. 339. 

19. Dow v. Kansas Pacific Rly. Co., 8 Kan. 642, following the Farwell case. 



GAGLIARDO: LIABILITY LAW IN KANSAS 159 

specifically noted that more solicitude was entertained concerning 
the question involved and in the precedent to be established than 
concerning the case itself, and implied that the defense was respon- 
sible even for the presentation of the plaintiff's case. 

In an exceedingly brief opinion, considering the importance of the 
question involved, the court held for the company. "It is probable," 
said the court, "that both authority and reason are with the de- 
fendant." Why so? Because it is the "policy of the law to make it 
to the interest of every servant or agent of the railroad company to 
see that every other servant or agent of the company is competent 
and trustworthy." Workers are in the best position to know who is 
incompetent and careless, and either they should inform the com- 
pany "of every act of any other employee showing a want of skill, 
care or competency," or quit. If an employee is willing to work with 
an incompetent or untrustworthy fellow worker without informing 
the company, "let him bear the consequences." And if he is willing 
thus to endanger the lives of other human beings, "he deserves 
punishment." This reasoning showed but little understanding on 
the court's part of modern industry and the position occupied in it 
by the worker. 

For the negligence of a mere fellow servant the master is liable 
only if he employs the servant without due inquiry as to his fitness ; 
or employs him with notice of unfitness ; or, having notice of unfit- 
ness, continues him in his service ; or where the servant's unfitness is 
so gross and notorious that for the master not to know it constitutes 
negligence. 20 

"SUPERIOR SERVANT" RULE 

Because in modern industry there are many grades of labor, it was 
inevitable that in applying the fellow-servant doctrine it would fre- 
quently be difficult to determine who are fellow servants. The su- 
perior-servant rule was developed as a solution of these difficulties. 
Two theories underlie the cases involving the rule. The first is that 
the doctrine of common employment is sometimes not applicable 
because the negligent servant was of a higher grade than the injured 
servant, the second that it does not apply because the negligent em- 
ployee was at the time performing some task which it was the 
master's absolute duty to perform with reasonable care. Consider- 
able confusion resulted. 

That this confusion is reflected in the Kansas decisions is not sur- 
prising. As between co-employees, the Dow case seemed to establish 

20. Railroad Company v. Doyle, 18 Kan. 58. 



160 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

that only higher officers were representative of a company and that 
the company was responsible only for the negligence of these higher 
officers, but that case did not clearly establish a foundation for the 
superior-servant doctrine. The distinction between superior and in- 
ferior servants was apparently made to lie in the fact that it is the 
duty of the former to hire and discharge the latter. 21 In later cases, 
however, the master's liability was clearly based upon the nondelega- 
bility of certain duties irrespective of the rank involved. The rule 
was stated clearly by Mr. Justice Valentine, in words quoted as 
authoritative in many states and by the U. S. supreme court, as 
follows : 

And at common law, whenever the master delegates to any officer, servant, 
agent or employe, high or low, the performance of any of the duties above men- 
tioned, which really devolve upon the master himself, then such officer, servant, 
agent or employe stands in the place of the master and becomes a substitute 
for the master, a vice-principal, and the master is liable for his acts or his negli- 
gence to the same extent as though the master himself had performed the acts 
or was guilty of the negligence. 22 

But the clearness of this principle was dimmed in subsequent de- 
cisions. In a case involving injury to an engineer caused by the 
negligence of a section foreman, the reasoning of the court is con- 
fused, but the conclusion was finally in line with previous deci- 
sions. 23 In 1898, in a case involving injury to a brakeman because 
of a conductor's negligence, the court held that the doctrine of com- 
mon employment was not applicable simply because the negligent 
servant was of a higher grade than the injured servant. 24 This de- 
cision was based directly on the United States supreme court deci- 
sion in the Ross case, 25 already branded as "extreme" by the Kansas 
court, 26 from which the United States supreme court had already 
receded 27 and which it expressly repudiated in 1899. 28 It was later 
cited as authority for other decisions. 29 The theory was soon repu- 
diated, however, and the court readopted the theory that the master's 
liability is based on the nondelegability of certain duties, irrespective 
of the rank involved. 30 

21. But see Bridge Co. v. Miller, 71 Kan. 13, 26. 

22. A. T. & S. F. Rid. Co. v. Moore, 29 Kan. 632, 644. 

23. St. L. & S. F. Ely. Co. v. Weaver, 35 Kan. 412. See, also, Mo. Pac. Rly. Co. v. 
Peregoy, Adm'x., 36 Kan. 424. 

24. Walker v. Gillett, 59 Kan. 214. 

25. Chicago, M. & St. P. Rly. Co. v. Ross, 122 U. S. 377. 

26. St. L. & S. F. Rly. Co. v. Weaver, 35 Kan. 412. 

27. B. & O. Rid. Co. v. Baugh, 149 U. S. 368. 

28. New England Rid. Co. v. Conroy, 175 U. S. 323. 

29. Foundry Co. v. Secrist, 59 Kan. 778; Refining Co. v. Peterson, 8 K. A. 316; Mirick 
et al., v. Morton, 64 Pac. 609. 

30. Bridge Co. v. Miller, 71 Kan. 13. 



GAGLIARDO: LIABILITY LAW IN KANSAS 161 

It has been said that Kansas "is probably one of the states in which 
an employer is not absolved on the ground that the negligence of the 
vice-principal was committed in doing work usually done by a 
servant." 31 But that is not and has never been true. As early as 
1905 it was held that "A foreman under whom workmen are em- 
ployed is a fellow servant with the workmen when engaged with 
them in accomplishing the common task or object." 32 Four years 
later, two laborers were pushing a loaded truck which became stalled, 
and the foreman jerked one of the wheels. The sudden turning of 
the shafts which resulted injured a worker. The court ruled that 
this was the negligence of a fellow servant. 33 Again it was held 
that a city park superintendent driving a team and wagon was per- 
forming an act of a workman and that the city was not liable for his 
negligent driving. 34 Still later it was held that a foreman assisting 
others move a stove is a fellow servant. 35 

CONSOCIATION AND DEPARTMENTAL RULES 

Kansas has also been cited as a state where the rule of association 
or consociation prevails. That rule limits application of the coserv- 
ice principle to those servants employed by the same master who are 
cooperating in the particular work being done, or who are in habitual 
association or in such relations that each can exercise some influence 
promotive of proper caution over the conduct of the others and in 
this way provide to some extent for their own security. Although 
discussed at different times by the court, this rule was not used as a 
basis upon which to rest decisions involving fellow servants. 36 Nor 
did the Kansas supreme court follow the "departmental" rule, which 
limits the doctrine of coservice to those servants working in the same 
general department. The rule in Kansas has always been that "all 
employees of the same master, engaged in the same general business, 
whose efforts tend to promote the same general purpose and accom- 
plish the same general end, are fellow servants." 37 It was held, 
however, that if different departments are so far disconnected that 
each one may be regarded as a separate undertaking, then the rule 

31. Labatt, C. B., Commentaries on the Law of Master and Servant . . . (Lawyers 
Cooperative Pub. Co., Rochester, N. Y., 1913), 2d ed., v. IV, p. 4364, citing Refining Co v. 
Peterson, 8 K. A. 316, 55 Pac. 673. See, also, Clark, Lindley D., The Law of the Employ- 
ment of Labor (The Macmillan Company, New York, N. Y., 1911), p. 162. 

32. Crist v. Light Co., 72 Kan. 135, Syl. 3. 

33. Lunn v. Morris, 81 Kan. 94. See, also, Henry v. Boiler Works, 87 Kan. 571, 574. 

34. Nelson v. City of Salina, 123 Kan. 522 (1927). 

35. Barnaby v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 132 Kan. 447. 

36. See St. L. & S. F. Rly. Co. v. Weaver, 35 Kan. 412. 

37. Bridge Co. v. Miller, 71 Kan. 13 ; Burroughs v. Michel, 142 Kan. 814. 

48801 



162 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

of coservice is not applicable. 38 Both the consociation and depart- 
mental rules are offshoots of one of the reasons advanced for the 
rule adopted in the Farwell case; namely, that fellow servants, be- 
cause of their association in employment, were so situated that each 
could observe and influence the conduct of others, could inform the 
master of any misconduct, incapacity or negligence of any other 
servant, and in these ways secure their own safety. 

MODIFICATIONS OF THE COMMON-LAW RULES 

Thus, under the common law, three elements are essential to the 
existence of actionable negligence on the part of the employer: (1) 
a duty on the employer's part to protect the worker from the injury 
he received, which implies knowledge of the danger and power to 
prevent harm, and realization that the employee did not or was not 
likely to realize the danger; (2) a failure of the employer to perform 
that duty; and (3) an injury caused by that failure. All three ele- 
ments must be proved by the injured worker, and the absence of any 
one of them bars recovery. The employer has the three powerful 
affirmative defenses of assumption or risk, contributory negligence, 
and coservice. That framework of law was too narrow and rigid for 
an expanding and changing economy and statutory changes became 
necessary. Modifications of the common-law rules in certain em- 
ployments began early in Kansas. 

RAILROAD LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES TO PERSONS OR PROPERTY 

In 1870, railroads in the state were made liable "for all damages 
done to persons and property, when done in consequence of any neg- 
lect on the part of the railroad companies." 39 The language of the 
act is sufficiently vague to admit of almost any interpretation. Was 
it the legislature's intention to wipe out the contributory negligence 
and fellow-servant rules? The supreme court interpreted the law to 
mean that a railroad company would be liable for damages to an in- 
jured servant only when it was negligent "as a company," but not 
for the negligence of a fellow servant. 40 Nor did the act abolish 
the doctrine of contributory negligence. 41 According to these inter- 
pretations, the act made no change in the common-law liability of 
railroads to their workers, except that by confirming a right to dam- 
ages already existing put it on a firmer basis and in the class of 

38. Bridge Co. v. Miller, 71 Kan. 13. 

39. Laws, Kansas, 1870, ch. 93. 

40. Kansas Pacific Rly. Co. v. Salmon, Adm'x., 11 Kan. 83, 91, 93. 

41. K. C. Ft. S. & G. Rid. Co. v. McHenry, 24 Kan. 601. 



GAGLIARDO : LIABILITY LAW IN KANSAS 163 

rights which, as a matter of public policy, may not be contracted 
away. 42 

The exact purpose of this law was never clear to the Kansas su- 
preme court, for its wording was exceedingly general and therefore 
vague. 43 The chief justice believed that it was intended to abolish 
the doctrine of contributory negligence, which in his opinion would 
have made the act unconstitutional. 44 A study of its legislative his- 
tory reveals the interesting fact that the law was never intended as a 
labor law at all. It began its career as a bill "to compel railroads to 
fence their roads, or pay for stock injured," and was amended to 
make railroads liable for all damages, but without any idea that its 
purpose was thereby being changed. 45 

RAILROAD FELLOW-SERVANT LAW OF 1874 

A second attack on the common law was made in 1874, when every 
railroad company organized or doing business in the state was made 
liable for all damages done to any person, including its own em- 
ployees, in consequence of any negligence of its agents, or by any 
mismanagement of its engineers or other employees. 46 Although 
liability was stated in general terms, the act was intended to, and 
did, abolish the fellow-servant doctrine. When first enacted, the 
law was practically identical with the Iowa statute of 1862 on the 
same subject. 47 The Iowa supreme court had interpreted the law as 
applying only to those engaged in such work of operating railroads 
as is hazardous. 48 Since this interpretation preceded the Kansas 
act, our supreme court followed the general rule applicable in such 

42. Sewell v. Rly. Co., 78 Kan. 1, 16, 24. 

43. Kansas Pacific Rly. Co. v. Salmon, Adm'x., 11 Kan. 83; St. Jos. & D. C. Rid. Co. v. 
Grover, 11 Kan. 302, 307 ; Sewell v. Rly. Co., 78 Kan. 1, 16, 21. 

44. K. C. Ft. S. & G. Rid. Co. v. McHenry, 24 Kan. 501, 504. 

45. Senate Bill No. 13, session of 1870; Senate Journal, p. 455; Kansas Daily Common- 
wealth, Topeka, March 3, 1870; Kansas State Record, Topeka, March 9, 1870. 

46. Laws, Kansas, 1874, ch. 93, sec. 1, effective March 4, 1874; General Statutes, Kansas, 
1876, ch. 84, sec. 29. It should be observed that the liability established was not merely to 
an injured employee, but to any one injured. Furthermore, there was no intention to make a 
distinction between agents and engineers and other employees, or between negligence and mis- 
management. Missouri K. & T. Rid. Co. v. Kellerman, 39 Tex. Civ. App. 274 ; 87 S. W. 401. 

47. Laws, Iowa, 1862, ch. 169, sec. 7. Upheld as constitutional in McAunich v. the M. & 
M. Rly. Co., 20 Iowa 338. The Kansas law was amended in 1903, to provide that notice of 
injury, stating time and place, must be given within ninety days after its occurrence. Laws, 
Kansas, 1903, ch. 393. This time limit was extended to eight months in 1905, and for injured 
workers in hospitals or under charge of the company or unable to give notice because of in- 
juries, the time limit does not begin to run until after discharge from the hospital or from the 
care of the company. Such notice may be served upon any person designated by the railroad 
company, upon certain specified persons, or by leaving a copy at any of the company's 
depots, in the county in which the action is brought, with the ticket agent, or the person in 
charge. It need not state whether or not the worker intends to bring suit. Laws, Kansas, 
1905, ch. 341, sees. 1, 2. In 1907 it was provided that notice was unnecessary where an action 
was commenced within eight months after injury, or when the injured employee died within 
that time as a result of his injuries. Laws, Kansas, 1907, ch. 281, sec. 1. 

48. In Deppe v. The Chicago R. I. & P. Rid. Co., 38 Iowa 592, 595, it was held that 
unless limited to those engaged in the hazardous work of operating railroads, the act would be 
manifestly unconstitutional as class legislation. 



164 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

cases and adopted the Iowa interpretation as to its scope. 49 Fur- 
thermore, if an employee knew that a fellow servant was incom- 
petent or habitually negligent, and, without protest and without 
inducement on the company's part that a change would be made, 
continued to work with that servant, he assumed the risk of such 
negligence and could not recover despite the law. 50 Judges have 
generally interpreted such situations as being within the rule of as- 
sumption of risk, and the law did not specifically abrogate that 
rule. 51 Contributory negligence also barred recovery. 52 The act 
applied only to railroad corporations. Individuals, partnerships and 
firms having servants or employees engaged in hazardous work upon 
roads or trains of railroad corporations were not included. 53 

The constitutionality of the act was duly challenged, and upheld 
almost without argument. 54 It was challenged again in 1885 on the 
grounds that railroads were deprived of property without due process 
of law, and denied the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by 
the federal constitution. Again the Kansas supreme court upheld 
the act. 55 An appeal was then taken to the United States supreme 
court. 56 

The company there contended that the law of 1874 imposed a lia- 
bility without any wrong or negligence on its part for injuries caused 
by the negligence or incompetency of a fellow servant, a liability 
which previously did not exist and in the enforcement of which 
property could be taken, and that therefore the law authorized the 
taking of property without due process. In answer, the federal 
supreme court pointed out that a state may prescribe the future lia- 
bilities of corporations organized under its laws unless its power in 
this respect is limited by the terms of its charters. The law was 
held merely to extend to employees the liability of railroad com- 
panies for damages suffered by passengers through the negligence or 
incompetence of its servants. If hardship or injustice exists in the 
one case it exists in the other, and relief lies with the legislature. 
Railroad operations involve sufficiently peculiar hazards to warrant 

49. Union Trust Co. v. Thomason, 25 Kan. 1. 

50. McQueen v. C. B. U. P. R. C., 30 Kan. 689; Jackson v. K. C. L. & S. K. Rid. Co., 
31 Kan. 761 ; Kansas Pacific Rly. Co. v. Peavy, 29 Kan. 169 ; Railway Co. v. Green, 75 Kan. 
504, 513. 

51. Railway Co. v. Sledge, 68 Kan. 321 ; Brinkmeier v. Railway Co., 69 Kan. 738. 

62. Union Pacific Rly. Co. v. Young, 19 Kan. 488. ". . . the plaintiff must have 
exercised ordinary care, and not have been guilty of ordinary negligence, or he cannot recover." 
p. 496. See, also, Mo. Pac. Rly. Co. v. Mackey, 33 Kan. 298. 

53. Beeson v. Busenbark, 44 Kan. 669. 

54. Mo. Pac. Rly. Co. v. Haley, Adm'r., etc., 25 Kan. 35. 

55. Mo. Pac. Rly. Co. v. Mackey, 33 Kan. 298. 

56. Missouri Rly. Co. v. Mackey, 127 U. S. 205. Meanwhile the act had again been 
upheld by the Kansas court in A. T. & S. F. Rid. Co. v. Koehler, 37 Kan. 463. 



GAGLIARDO: LIABILITY LAW IN KANSAS 165 

special legislation for the protection of employees and the public. 
The law was held not to violate either the due process or the equal 
protection clauses. 

The question of constitutionality was again brought before the 
United States supreme court. The Kansas supreme court had ruled 
that a bridge carpenter injured while unloading timbers was covered 
by the act. 57 The railroad contended that bridge carpenters were 
not exposed to peculiar hazards incident to the use and operation of 
railroads, and that if they were included within the scope of the law 
of 1874, then the law violated the equal protection clause of the 
federal constitution. The United States supreme court insisted that 
although the worker concerned was a bridge carpenter by trade, yet 
when injured he was performing work which was directly connected 
with the operation of the railroad, and held against the company. 58 
Thus the constitutionality of the law was definitely established. 

An interesting situation arose in 1908 involving the fellow-servant 
act of 1874. A railroad and an express company had a contract 
whereby the express company assumed the risk of all costs and dam- 
ages for injury to its employees and agreed to hold the railroad com- 
pany harmless from them. The express company in turn contracted 
with its employees that neither the railroad nor the express company 
should under any circumstances be liable to them for damages for 
any injury received while at work on the railroad's trains. An ex- 
press messenger was killed in a railroad wreck and his widow sued 
the railroad company for damages on the ground of negligence. 

The trial court held the contract binding as between the railroad 
company and the worker and gave judgment accordingly. The Kan- 
sas supreme court upheld the judgment, on the ground that although 
the railroad as a common carrier generally does not deal on an equal 
footing with its customers and consequently a contract waiving lia- 
bility will generally be regarded as having been secured by extortion, 
yet in the carriage of express matter a railroad company does not 
act as in ordinary cases, since the services performed are of a private 
and not of a public nature. Therefore the contract as between the 
two companies was considered valid ; and the express company could 
transfer this risk back to its employees as a part of the employment 
agreement. 

Three justices dissented from this position. Shortly after the 
opinion was filed, Mr. Justice Greene, who had voted with the ma- 

57. C. K. & W. Rid. Co. v. Pontius, 52 Kan. 264. A stonemason employed on a depot 
was held not covered. Railway Co. v. Medaris, 60 Kan. 151. 

58. Chicago, etc., Rid. Co. v. Pontius, 157 C7. S, 209. 



166 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

jority, died and was replaced by Mr. Justice Benson. On a rehear- 
ing of the case, Mr. Justice Benson voted with the three justices 
previously dissenting, and the judgment of the court was reversed 
with direction to enter judgment for the widow. The contract in 
question was declared void because the statute of 1870 making rail- 
roads liable for all damages to persons or property in consequence 
of any negligence on its part put the right to damages in the class of 
rights that cannot be contracted away, and because of the law of 
1874 abrogated the fellow-servant rule. 59 It was conceded by the 
court that at common law the contract would have been valid. 

THE RAILROAD LIABILITY ACT OF 1911 

In 1911 the Kansas legislature adopted what is a virtual copy of 
the federal employer's liability act. 60 The object was to stop the 
practice by railroads of taking cases to the state or federal court 
depending upon which body of law was the more favorable to 
them. 61 Railroads were made liable in damages for injury or death 
to workers resulting in whole or in part from the employer's negli- 
gence, or from insufficiency in the clearance of obstructions, strength 
of roadbed, tracks, machinery, equipment, lights, signals, rules and 
regulations, number of employees, or from any defect in any equip- 
ment due to the negligence of the employer. The employer was de- 
prived of the defense of contributory negligence, but the doctrine of 
comparative negligence was introduced and it was provided that 
damages should be reduced in proportion to the employee's negli- 
gence. However, in cases where violation by any railroad official 
or any of the road's employees of any federal or state railroad safety 
act contributes to the injury or death, the defenses of assumption of 
risk and contributory negligence are not available to the employer. 62 
Contracts, rules, regulations or any other devices designed to ex- 
empt railroads from the liability imposed by this law are void. 63 

69. Sewell v. Railway Co., 78 Kan. 16; Kansas Pacific Rly. Co. v. Peavy, 29 Kan. 169; 
Railway Co. v. Fronk, 74 Kan. 519. The railroad company carried this case to the United 
States supreme court, but it was dismissed with costs on motion of the railroad company's 
counsel. 215 U. S. 612. 

60. Laws, Kansas, 1911, ch. 239. 

61. Topeka Daily Capital, February 25, 1911. 

62. Defenbaugh v. Railroad Co., 102 Kan. 569. There have been very few Kansas acts 
prescribing detailed requirements for the safety of railroad employees. Frogs, switches and 
guardrails on tracks must be filled, blocked and guarded in a proper manner. Laws, Kansas, 
1909, ch. 188. Sheds must be erected over tracks used exclusively to build or repair railroad 
equipment at division points where shops are located, to protect all men permanently em- 
ployed. Laws, Kansas, 1907, ch. 283. Detailed regulations are laid down regarding the con- 
struction of way cars or cabooses. Revised Statutes, Kansas, 1923, sees. 66-220. Attempts 
to enact full-crew and train-limit bills failed. House Journal. Kansas, 1913, H. B. 286 and 
908. 

63. The legislature made no attempt to fit the act into the scheme of laws already existing, 
but left that difficult task to the state supreme court. An analysis of the problem will be 
found in Fuller v. A. T. & S. F. Rly. Co., 124 Kan. 66. Other important cases in which the 
act was applied are: Palomino v. Railway Co., 91 Kan. 556; Hisle v. Railway Co., 91 Kan. 
572 ; Rockhold v Railway Co., 97 Kan. 715 ; Harwood v. Railway Co., 101 Kan. 215 ; Defen- 
baugh v. Railroad Co., 102 Kan. 569. 



GAGLIARDO : LIABILITY LAW IN KANSAS 167 

The same rules of law control under both the state and federal 
acts. 64 Since almost the entire railroad industry in Kansas is inter- 
state in character, the law applicable is practically all federal and 
will not be discussed here. 

COAL MINING ACT OF 1883 

A series of mine disasters led, in 1883, to the enactment of a law 
regulating the conduct of the coal mining industry. 65 Miners and 
operators were consulted in drafting the bill, and there was no op- 
position. 66 The act provided that a map or plan of every coal mine 
should be made, prescribed detailed regulations for safeguarding 
openings, workplaces, ventilation, escapement shafts and hoisting 
and signaling apparatus, established the office of mine inspector, and 
made compulsory the employment of an inside "mining boss" to 
oversee the ventilating apparatus, airways, traveling-ways, pumps 
and drainage, and to secure loose coal, slate and rock from falling 
upon the traveling-ways, and the appointment of a "competent per- 
son" to inspect gaseous mines. A right of action was allowed for 
any injury or death occasioned by violation of the law. 

In construing the law in 1902, the state supreme court refused to 
hold that because it prescribed the appointment of a "fire-boss" and 
his duties, it therefore superseded the common-law duty of the mine 
operator to furnish a safe place in which to work, nor that it made 
the "fire-boss" a fellow servant of other mine workers. But it held 
on the contrary that the master was liable for the negligence of the 
"fire-boss" in failing to perform the duties imposed upon him by 
law. 67 Again, in 1914, it was held that a mining company was liable 
for damages to a miner for an injury which resulted because a mule 
driver neglected to deliver props needed to support the roof. 68 

As interpreted by the southern department of the Kansas Court 
of Appeals in 1896, the law was held not to abolish the defenses of 
assumption of risk and contributory negligence. 69 Later, however, 
it was held that these defenses were abolished. In 1908 the state 
supreme court held that "A miner, in performing the work assigned 
to him, although bound to exercise due care for his own safety, may 
assume, in the absence of notice to the contrary, that the owner and 

64. Kasper v. Railway Co., Ill Kan. 267; Koshka v. Railroad Co., 114' Kan. 126. 

65. Laws, Kansas, 1883, ch. 117. 

66. Topeka Daily Capital, February 23 and 24, 1883. 

67. Schmalstieg v. Coal Co., 65 Kan. 753; see, also, Cheek v. Rly. Co., 89 Kan. 247, 267. 
Relatively few cases have been brought under the mining act, and these for the most part not 
until after 1900. 

68. LeRoy v. Rly. Co., 91 Kan. 548. 

69. Cherokee & P. Coal & Mining Co. v. Britton, 3 K. A. 292 ; 45 Pac. 100. 



168 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the overseer have performed their duty. . . ." 70 And later, that 
the law "in effect debars the defense of contributory negligence," 
that it "entirely shifts the risks of the employment from the laborer 
to the employer. Care for his own safety may impel a miner to 
watch for treacherous mine roofs, but he is not legally required to 
do so. . . ." 71 That the law abolished the defense of assumption 
of risk was definitely settled in 1913. 72 

ROAD AND BRIDGE LAW 

A road and bridge law of 1887 which gave to anyone who without 
contributory negligence on his part sustained damages by reason of 
defective bridges, culverts or highways a right to recover such dam- 
ages, under certain conditions, from a county or township, was de- 
signed for the benefit of travelers. 73 Yet it was held to apply to 
workers as well as to travelers. 74 A law enacted in 1931 made 
state and local public corporations except boards of education, fire or 
police departments, jointly and severally, liable with their motor 
operators or chauffeurs for damages caused by the latter's negligence 
while driving on highways in the course of their employment. 75 
That law was held to abrogate the fellow-servant rule. 76 

THE FACTORY ACT 

In 1903 a factory act was passed which requires that elevators, 
hoisting shafts and well-holes be secured, that stairways be equipped 
with handrails and secured at the sides and ends, that certain doors 
open outward and be kept unlocked, requires fire escapes, and pro- 
vides for the guarding of dangerous machinery and appliances where 
practicable. A right of action for damages is given in case of injury, 
and in order to recover damages it is only necessary to prove in the 
first instance that the accident resulted from or was directly con- 
tributed to by the failure to provide the safeguards required by law. 77 

70. Barrett v. Dessy, 78 Kan. 642, Syl. 4. 

71. Baisdrenghein v. Rly. Co., 91 Kan. 730. 

72. Cheek v. Rly. Co., 89 Kan. 247, 267, 268, following the line of reasoning previously 
applied to the factory act, for which see below. 

73. Laws, Kansas, 1887, ch. 237 ; General Statutes, Kansas, 1897, ch. 42, sec. 48. 

74. Vickers v. Cloud County, 59 Kan. 86; Cloud County v. Vickers, 62 Kan. 25; Hoi- 
linger v. Dickinson County, 115 Kan. 92. 

75. Laws, Kansas, 1931, ch. 80, sec. 23. 

76. Cashin v. State Highway Comm., 136 Kan. 659, Mr. Justice Burch dissenting. 

77. Laws, Kansas, 1903, ch. 356. None of its sections was borrowed from any other state, 
and this left the supreme court free to follow its own ideas in interpreting it. Two years later 
an act for the protection of building workers was passed. Any workman noticing dangerous or 
defective scaffolding, staging or other supporting appliances, elevator, derrick or hoist, or 
missing or improper safeguards on construction, repairing or painting jobs, may report the same 
to the state factory inspector, who is required to make an inspection and notify the proper 
person of any defects that should be remedied. The person in charge must then remove the 
danger, and failure or refusal to do so is made a misdemeanor punishable by a heavy fine. 
Laws, Kansas, 1905, ch. 527. 



GAGLIARDO: LIABILITY LAW IN KANSAS 169 

Just what modifications this act made in the common law did not 
appear for some time. As early as 1906, the Kansas supreme court, 
following what it considered to be well-settled law, held that the 
factory act did not exclude the defense of contributory negligence. 78 
At that time the question of assumed risk was not involved, and so, 
although mentioned and discussed, was not decided. Some lower 
courts, however, proceeded on the theory that the common law of 
assumed risk was in no way affected. 79 

In 1907 the question of whether the factory act did or did not 
abolish assumption of risk was squarely before the supreme court. 80 
An exhaustive inquiry was made and great difference of judicial 
opinion noted. In the leading federal case holding that such acts 
do abolish the rule, Judge Taft had argued that since assumption of 
risk is a term of the employment contract, to allow it where a safety 
act exists is essentially to waive the benefits of the statute, and that 
considerations of public policy will not permit such a waiver to be 
given effect. 81 The state supreme court had already accepted these 
general propositions, 82 but it had never before had occasion to apply 
them. It now held that in Kansas assumption of risk could not be 
pleaded in cases involving a violation of the factory act. 83 

Three years after it had interpreted away the assumption of risk 
defense, the court again considered the question of contributory 
negligence. At that time the general rule was that factory acts did 
not abolish this defense, and in conformity with that rule the de- 
fense had previously been held available. 84 But judicial opinion 
throughout the country was undergoing a change, though that had 
not as yet proceeded very far. 85 The Kansas court was by this time 
satisfied of the injustice of the general principle, and aligned itself 
with the new trend by reversing itself and holding the defense no 
longer available. 86 The court saw clearly the inadequacy of the 
common-law doctrines as applied to modern industry. These doc- 
trines, it said, "took their rise at a time when shoes were made at 

78. Madison v. Clippinger, 74 Kan. 700. 

79. Ibid.; also Manufacturing Co. v. Daniels, 72 Kan. 418. 

80. Manufacturing Co. v. Bloom, 76 Kan. 127. 

81. Narramnre v. Cleveland, C. C. & St. L. Ely. Co., 96 Fed. 298. 

82. The first in Railway Co. v. Bancord, 66 Kan. 81; the second in Kansas Pacific Rlv 
Co. v. Peavey, 29 Kan. 170. 

83. Manufacturing Co. v. Blocm, 76 Kan. 127. 

84. Madison v. Clippinger, supra. 

85. Labatt, op. cit., v. V, p. 5047. 

.r 86 ' Cas P ar v - Lewin, 82 Kan. G04. Just three months before the court had remarked that 
The statute . . . fairly admits of a construction which would exclude contributory neg- 
ligence as a defense as well as assumed risk, but does not do so expressly, and the courts have 
presumed that such was not the intent and have permitted the commonlaw defense. "Lewis v 
Salt Company, 82 Kan. 163, 167. 



170 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the bench, the weaver had an apprentice or two, and the blacksmith 
a helper." 87 But "common experience everywhere, registered in 
tables of gruesome statistics, affords fresh demonstration every day 
of the inadequacy of the common-law doctrine of reasonable care to 
provide places and instrumentalities reasonably safe against fore- 
seeable occurrences to meet the situation of men, women and children 
who must manipulate, and must work in the midst of, the mechanical 
products of modern inventive genius." 88 The court held that "the 
factory act cuts squarely across the common-law doctrine of rea- 
sonable prudence and supplies that foresight in reference to the 
places, structures and appliances which it specifies." It further 
stated that "to submit to a jury the question of prudence and fore- 
sight where the law has been ignored [by the employer] would be 
to reopen a subject which the legislature has closed by a final de- 
cision." 89 It is interesting to note that the original bill contained a 
provision, eliminated by amendment, excusing an employer guilty of 
gross negligence if he could prove equal negligence on the part of the 
injured worker. 90 

The court went far in liberally interpreting the scope of the factory 
act, which was held to apply to any worker regardless of his rank 
or grade, to any duty of a worker, whether ordinary and general or 
exceptional and occasional, and to any accident caused by the ab- 
sence of a prescribed safeguard even though such accident could not 
have been anticipated with reasonable prudence by the employer. 
And the court went so far as to hold that if an injury is caused or 
directly contributed to by the absence of safeguards, then the 
plaintiff need not prove the practicability of such safeguards, but 
that the burden of proving safeguards impracticable is on the em- 
ployer. 91 The act does not, however, add to the common-law rights 
of the father of a minor son to sue for the loss of services resulting 

87. Caspar v. Lewin, 82 Kan. 631, 632. Three years later the court said: "The doctrines 
of assumption of risk and contributory negligence are not the creatures of any constitution or 
of any legislative enactment. They are court-made rules, invented to meet certain ideals of 
justice respecting certain social and economic conditions and relations. Should the conditions 
and relations be completely changed, and those ideals wholly fail of realization, the reason for 
the rules, which is the life of all rules of the common law, would then be wanting, and the 
court which would go on enforcing them would be a conscious minister of injustice and not of 
justice." Burgin v. Railway Co., 90 Kan. 194, 198 (1913). 

88. Caspar v. Lewin, 82 Kan. 624. 

89. Ibid., p. 625. 

90. Senate Bills, Kansas Legislature, 1903, Bill No. 4. 

91. Caspar v. Lewin, 82 Kan. 604, overruling part of Henschell v. Rly. Co., 78 Kan. 411. 
To this two justices dissented, holding that the plaintiff would still have to prove safeguards 
practicable. See, also, Gambill v. Bowen, 82 Kan. 840, and Slater v. Rly. Co., 91 Kan. 226, 
237. It has been held that an employee injured while at rest under the direction of the em- 
ployer is engaged in the performance of duty and included within the act. Brick Co. v. 
Fisher, 79 Kan. 576. The court refused to limit the scope of the act by interpreting that 
section requiring belt shifters or safe mechanical contrivances for throwing on or off belts or 
pulleys as applying only to workmen engaged in shifting belts, but interpreted it to apply 
also to workers operating the machine. Rank v. Packing Box Co., 92 Kan. 917. 



GAGLIARDO: LIABILITY LAW IN KANSAS 171 

from an injury by reason of a violation of the act. Only the minor 
can recover. 92 Because the act is chiefly remedial in nature and in- 
tent, rather than penal, it is controlled by the two-year statute of 
limitation. 93 

The constitutionality of the factory act was upheld by the state 
supreme court in Caspar v. Lewin as a legitimate exercise of the 
state's police power. The remedy prescribed for its enforcement was 
held not obnoxious to either the state or the federal constitution. 
An appeal from this decision was taken to the federal supreme court, 
but it was dismissed without consideration, per stipulation of 
counsel. 94 The constitutionality of the act was later passed upon 
and upheld by the United States supreme court. A superintendent 
of the Lawrence Paper Manufacturing Company, whose duty it was, 
among other things, to provide safeguards for the machinery, was 
crushed and killed by unguarded rolls. His widow sued for damages 
under the factory act. The main contention of the company was 
that the superintendent's control of safety details removed him from 
the class of employees protected by the factory act. But the Kansas 
supreme court ruled that the act was intended to protect all em- 
ployees regardless of employment, rank or grade. 95 From this de- 
cision the company appealed. It contended that the interpretation 
put upon the act by the Kansas court was repugnant to the federal 
due process clause, because the superintendent's employment con- 
tract provided that he himself was to see to the safeguarding of the 
machinery. The United States supreme court held it strictly consti- 
tutional to impose an absolute duty to provide safeguards of which 
no employer may relieve himself by any form of contract. 96 The 
company also contended that the law violated the equal protection 
clause of the federal constitution, because corporations can only 
carry out the duty of safeguarding machinery by contracting with 
agents and employees, while individual employers may perform this 
duty themselves. The supreme court pointed out the obscurity of 
this reasoning, and suggested that it rested upon a misconception, 
for the law imposed an absolute duty binding upon corporations and 
individuals alike. 

92. Gibson v. Packing Box Co., 85 Kan. 346. 

93. Slater v. Railway Co., 91 Kan. 226. 

94. Lewin v. Caspar, 223 U. S. 736. 

95. Smith v. Bowersock, 95 Kan. 96, following Caspar v. Lewin. 

96. Bowersock v. Smith, 243 U. S. 29. 



172 



KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 



RECOVERIES 

No investigation has ever been made of the amounts recovered by 
Kansas workers or their dependents under the common-law princi- 
ples of liability. The data are not available. No doubt only a few 
cases arose where the unmodified common law was applicable, for 
legislative modifications were made early in Kansas history. But 
the experience of other states suggests that the percentage of re- 
coveries and the amounts involved were probably not great. The 
common-law defenses of the employer were almost invulnerable. 
Nor has any study been made of the recoveries under the common 
law as modified by employer's liability acts. Here, too, it seems rea- 
sonable to infer that the experience of other states has been repeated 
in Kansas. The percentage of recoveries was certainly greater after 
employer's liability acts than before them. 

Table I combines the recoveries in fatal cases investigated in three 
states prior to 1911. The percentage of fatal cases in which no com- 
pensation was received is high, amounting to almost a third of the 
total. In almost half of the cases the amount received did not ex- 
ceed $500. Compensation exceeding $1,000 was received in very few 
cases. In some of these, the figures were well above $5,000. 

TABLE I. Recoveries in 604 fatal cases under employers' liability laws in three 

states prior to 1911* 



AMOUNT RECEIVED. 


N. Y. 


Pa. 


Minn. 


Totals. 


Percent. 


No compensation 


93 


80 


14 


196 


32 5 


Less than $100 


23 


113 


7 


143 


23.7 


$100 to $500 


72 


61 


13 


146 


24 1 


$500 to $1,000 


16 


41 


6 


63 


10.4 


Over $1,000 


23 


19 


14 


56 


9 3 















* 227 cases by the New York State Liability Commission; 323 cases from Pennsylvania by 
Crystal Eastman; and 54 cases from Minnesota. This material is taken from Rubinow, I. M., 
Social Insurance. . . . (Henry Holt & Co., New York, N. Y., 1913), pp. 93-95. 

Some idea of the small number of recoveries in cases of nonfatal 
accident may be obtained from the following figures for Wisconsin. 97 

Percent 

23.5 
32.4 

4.9 
29.7 

9.5 



Received nothing from employer 72 

Received amount of doctor bill only 99 

Received amount of part of doctor bill only 15 

Received something in addition to doctor bill 91 

Received something but not doctor bills 29 



97. Taken from James H. Boyd, Workmen's Compensation and Insurance (1912), v. I, 
p. 61. 



GAGLIARDO: LIABILITY LAW IN KANSAS 173 

The following figures on recoveries in Kansas are not adequate, 
but are offered for what they are worth. From 1871 to 1911, when 
Kansas enacted its first workmen's compensation law, there were 
fifty-nine suits settled by the state supreme court in which workers 
were awarded damages for injury. The average amount of compen- 
sation received was $4,320. This appears to be a higher average 
than is usually reported, and it is no doubt very much higher than 
the average recovered in all cases, including those settled out of court. 
For undoubtedly most accidents were either not settled for at all, or 
were settled for out of court; and it is usually the cases involving 
large sums that are carried to the state supreme court. The highest 
award was $15,000, which was paid by a railroad company to an in- 
dividual for the loss of both legs. 98 The average compensation 
awarded for nineteen fatal accidents was $5,135, only slightly more 
than the average award for injury. This also appears to be larger 
than the amount usually reported. The largest amount received for 
a fatal accident was $10,000; the lowest, $500. 

Supreme court records for the years 1871-1911 show that contested 
cases were seldom disposed of in less than three years after the acci- 
dent occurred. The average time was four years, both for injury and 
death. In many cases there was a delay of five, six and seven years. 
Three cases were in the courts for more than nine years, and one for 
more than ten years. Following is a distribution of sixty-six cases 
definitely disposed of by the state supreme court during the years 
1871-1911, inclusive, on the basis of time involved. 

Less than one year 

One year but less than two 6 

Two years but less than three 18 

Three years but less than four 13 

Four years but less than five 9 

Five years but less than six 7 

Six years but less than seven 7 

Seven years but less than eight 1 

Eight years but less than nine 1 

Nine years but less than ten 3 

Ten years and over 1 

The doctrines of assumption of risk and contributory negligence 
account for almost all the failures to recover up to 1902. After the 
defenses of contributory negligence and assumption of risk were no 
longer available under the various acts designed to protect workers, 

98. Dowell v. Railway Co., 83 Kan. 562. This is a striking example of the wide discrepancy 
that is often found in the amounts awarded for injuries by juries. In not a single case of 
death in Kansas, so far as the data available to the writer go, did the award exceed $10,000; 
and injuries more serious than the one sustained in this case, and under circumstances as bad 
or worse, were awarded much less. The next highest amount of compensation awarded for 
injuries was $12,000. See Railway Co. v. Lloyd, 68 Kan. 369. 



174 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

recoveries became more numerous. This probably helps to explain 
the willingness of many employers to adopt workmen's compensa- 
tion laws. Recoveries were based in about equal numbers on the 
grounds of failure of the employer to furnish safe tools or equipment, 
unsafe workplaces, and the negligent acts of an agent or vice- 
principal. 



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 ac- 
cessioned 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, local history and 
out-of-state directories ; and books on the Indians of North America, 
United States history, biography and allied subjects which are clas- 
sified as 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, 1939, to September 30, 1940. Government 
and state official publications and some books of a general nature 
are not included. The total number of books accessioned appeared 
in the report of the secretary in the February issue of the Quarterly. 

KANSAS 

ABILENE, FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, Seventieth Anniversary: Historical, 
1869-1939. Comp. by C. C. Wyandt. [Abilene, Shadinger Printing Com- 
pany, 1939.] 

Air Mail Collector. Vol. 1, No. 1-Vol. 4, No. 11; November, 1928-September, 
1932. Holton, The Gossip Printery, 1928-1932. 4 Vols. 

ALLEN, PAUL, Kansas Mammals. Topeka, Kansas State Printing Plant, 1940. 
(Kansas State Teachers College of Emporia, Studies in Education, Nine- 
teenth of the Series.) 

ANDERSON, MRS. BERNICE (GOUDY), Indian Sleep Man Tales. Caldwell, Idaho, 
The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1940. 

ARNOLD, OREN, and JOHN P. HALE, Hot Irons; Heraldry of the Range. New 
York, The Macmillan Company, 1940. 

BEARDSLEE, MRS- ETTA (ALDRICH), Lebanon's Golden Jubilee: Fifty Years of 
Living in a Little Kansas Toivn, 1887-1937. [Lebanon, Lebanon Times'] n.d. 

BEATTY, JEROME, Americans All Over. New York, The John Day Company 
[c!940L 

BETZ, BERT READ, comp., Souvenir of the Betz-Diehl Reunion; a Brief of the 
Organization, Constitution and By-laws With a List of Officers, Members 
and Other Information. N. p., 1940. 

(175) 



176 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

BLACKMAR, FRANK WILSON, Justifiable Individualism. New York, Thomas Y. 
Crowell Company [c!922]. 

BLAIR, ED, Random Rhymes. Spring Hill, New Era Publishing Company 
[c!939J. 

BROWNE, CHARLES HERBERT, A History of the 137th Infantry; an All-Kansas 
Regiment. Horton, The Headlight Printehop, 1940. 

BURDICK, WILLIAM LIVESEY, The Bench and Bar of Other Lands. Brooklyn, 
N. Y., Metropolitan Law Book Company, Inc. [c!939L 

CALLAWAY, ASA BERTON, With Packs and Rifles; a Story of the World War. 
Boston, Meador Publishing Company, 1939. 

CHUBBIC, P. G., and H. R. CHUBBIC, comps. and pubs., A Directory of Mitchell 
County, Kansas. . . . Beloit, P. G. and H. R. Chubbic, 1907. 

CLAY CENTER, FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, Rededication, First Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, Sunday, December 18, 1933, Clay Center, Kansas. 
No impr. 

CLUGSTON, WILLIAM GEORGE, Rascals in Democracy. New York, Richard R. 
Smith, 1940. 

CODY, WILLIAM FREDERICK, True Tales of the Plains. New York, Cupples and 
Leon Company, 1908. 

COLIN, GALEN C., Battling Buckaroos. New York, Phoenix Press [c!940] . 

COONS, MRS. MATTIE MAILS, Pioneer Days in Kansas; Dedicated to Father and 
Mother John and Martha Mails. Manhattan, 1939. 

CUMMINGS, W. H., School Days at Rose, 1871-1938. No impr. Mimeographed. 

DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, KANSAS, Proceedings of the Forty- 
Second Annual State Conference, Topeka, Kansas, March 18, 19, 20, 1940. 
No impr. 

DILLON, JOHN A., Doc: Facts, Fables and Foibles. Boston, Richard G. Badger 
[c!926L 

DONALD, JAY, Outlaws of the Border; A Complete and Authentic History of the 
Lives of Frank and Jesse James, the Younger Brothers, and Their Robber 
Companions, Including Quantrell and His Noted Guerillas. Chicago, Coburn 
& Newman Publishing Company, 1882. 

EDSON, CHARLES LEROY, Dulcinea's Diary. Charleston, S. C., Southern Printing 
and Publishing Company, 1924. 

, Lips of Almond Bloom; a Romance of Yankee Love. . . . Charles- 
ton, S. C., Southern Printing and Publishing Company, 1924. 

, Prairie Fire, an Epic Poem in Flashes of Rhyme. . . . Charleston, 

S. C., Southern Printing and Publishing Company, 1924. 

, Rhymes & Circuses. Charleston, S. C., Southern Printing and Publish- 
ing Company, 1924. 

, Whale Meat; a Shocking Portrayal of Our Tribal Belief in Free Food 

From the North Pole. Charleston, S. C., Southern Printing and Publishing 
Company, 1924. 

EDWARDS, A. D., Influence of Drought and Depression on a Rural Community; 
a Case Study in Haskell County, Kansas. Washington, D. C., 1939. (U. S. 
Department of Agriculture, Farm Security Administration and the Bureau 
of Agricultural Economics . . . Social Research Report, No. VII.) 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 177 

EDWARDS, JOHN BEACH, Early Days in Abilene. Printed in the Abilene Chroni- 
cle, 1896; Reprinted in the Abilene Daily Chronicle, 1938, With Added Ma- 
terial From the Papers of J. B. Edwards. [Abilene, 1940.] 

EMERSON, CLARENCE 0., Homely Poems. [Topeka, The Hall Lithographing 
Company, 1940.] 

FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT, KANSAS, Kansas; a Guide to the Sunflower State. 
Compiled and Written by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Proj- 
ects Administration for the State of Kansas. New York, The Viking Press, 
1939. 

[FENN, ALVA LEON, comp.], "Napoleon and the Red Leg." [Hutchinson] c!939. 

FIELD, WILLIAM D., Studies in Kansas Insects; a Treatise Descriptive of the 
More Common Species. Contents: A Manual of the Butterflies and Skip- 
pers of Kansas. Topeka, Kansas State Printing Plant, 1939. (University 
of Kansas, Department of Entomology, Bulletin, No. 12.) 

FITZGERALD, MARY PAUL, SISTER, Beacon on the Plains. Leavenworth, The Saint 
Mary College, 1939. 

FOLMER, HENRI, The Mallet Expedition of 1739 Through Nebraska, Kansas and 
Colorado to Santa Fe. (Reprinted From The Colorado Magazine, Vol. 16, 
No. 5, Sept., 1939.) 

FREDERICK, JAMES VINCENT, Ben Holladay the Stagecoach King; a Chapter in 
the Development of Transcontinental Transportation. Glendale, The Arthur 
H. Clark Company, 1940. 

FREEMASONS, ANCIENT FREE AND ACCEPTED, HORTON LODGE No. 326, A 50-year 
History of Horton Lodge No. 326 A. F. & A. M. Norton, Kansas, 1890-1940. 
Compiled for the Golden Anniversary, February 19, 1940. [Horton, The 
Headlight Printshop, 1940.] 

GAEDDERT, GUSTAVE RAYMOND, The Birth of Kansas. Topeka, Kansas State 
Printing Plant, 1940. (University of Kansas Publications; Social Science 
Studies, 1940, No. 1.) 

GATES, FRANK CALEB, Annotated List of the Plants of Kansas: Ferns and 
Flower Plants, With Maps Showing Distribution of Species. Topeka, Kan- 
sas State Printing Plant, 1940. (Kansas State College, Department of 
Botany, Contribution, No. 391.) 

GLEDHILL, ALFRED ERNEST, Among We Sens (Being Lancashire, England, 
Dialect, Meaning, "Among Ourselves"). Lamar, Colo., The Lamar Register 
Press, 1939. 

GOENNER, W. G., comp., The History of Zenda. No impr. 

GORDON, JONATHAN WESLEY, An Argument Designed to Show the Origin of the 
Troubles in Kansas, and the Remedy Therefor; Delivered in Masonic Hall, 
Indianapolis, September 29th, 1856. Indianapolis, Indiana State Journal 
Steam Press Print, 1856. 

GRIFFIN, CHARLES ELDRIDGE, Four Years in Europe With Buffalo Bill, a De- 
scriptive Narrative of the Big American Show's Successful Tour . . 
Albia, Iowa, Stage Publishing Company, 1908. 

HAMMOND, GEORGE PETER, Coronado's Seven Cities. Albuquerque, United 
States Coronado Exposition Commission, 1940. 

HAMMOND, GEORGE PETER, and EDGAR F. GOAD, The Adventure of Don Francisco 
Vdsquez de Coronado. [Albuquerque, The University of New Mexico Press, 
c!938.] 

5 S801 



178 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

HARBORD, JAMES GUTHRIE, Address at Stratford Hall, May 7, 1939. No impr. 
, Address at the Graduation Exercises, V . S. Military Academy, June 10, 

1932. No impr. 
, Address Delivered at the Dedication of the Monument at Hill 204, 

Near Chateau-Thierry, France, Erected in Memory of the American Soldiers 

Who Died in the Aisne-Marne Salient During the World War, October 7, 

1937. No impr. 
, Again We Dream While Clouds Gather; Address Delivered in the 

Civic Forum Series at the Town Hall, New York City, January 3, 1935. 

No impr. 

-, A Chief of Staff in the Theater of Operations; an Address . . . at 



the Army War College, Washington, D. C ., April 6, 1939. No impr. 

The Colonial Spirit in a Changing World; an Address to the New York 



Society of the Order of the Founders and Patriots of America . . . New 
York City, January 15, 1937. No impr. 
, The Decentralization of Relief . . . an Address Delivered at the 



University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, April 17, 1940. No impr. 

Electrical Knowledge and Its Future Relationship to Mass Communi- 



cation; Address Before the Open Forum of the Institute of Public Affairs 
of the University of Virginia, July 16, 1936. No impr. 

-, Extra-Constitutional Government; an Address Before the Springfield 



Chamber of Commerce, Springfield, Mass., April 8, 1929. No impr. 

-, History in the Making and the Writing ; an Address Before the Mem- 



bers of the Catholic Writers Guild of America, at De La Salle Institute 
. . . New York, January 28, 1938 . . . No impr. 
, Isolation as a Substitute for Preparedness; an Address Before the 



Henrietta Wells Livermore School of Politics . . . New York, N. Y ., 
February 15, 1937. No impr. 

, Memories of Three Great Generals of France, Foch, Joffre, Petain; 

Address . . . to the Alumni Association of Wesleyan University, Bloom- 
ington, Illinois, June 6, 1933. No impr. 

National Defense; a Radio Address to the Veterans of the Second 



Division Association, A. E. F. . . . St. Louis, Missouri, July 20, 1940. 
No impr. 

-, Personalities and Personal Relationships in the American Expedition- 



ary Forces; Address at the Army War College, Washington, D. C., April 
1933. Washington, D. C., United States Government Printing Office, 1933. 
-, Practical Democracy in New York City; an Address Delivered Over 



Radio Station WEAF . . . September Eighth, Nineteen Hundred and 
Thirty. No impr. 

, The Promise of Radio; an Address . . . World Radio Conference, 

Sydney, N. S. W., April 5, 1938. No impr. 

, Radio and the Americas; an Address Delivered Before the Eighth 

American Scientific Congress, Washington, D. C., May 15, 1940. No impr. 
-, Radio as a Phase of Industrial Preparedness; an Address Before the 



Army Ordnance Association . . . Washington, D. C., May 12, 1037. 
No impr. 

, Radio as a Social Force; an Address Given Before . . . the New 

York Junior League Club, December 1, 1936 . . . No impr. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 179 

, Radio in Education; an Address Delivered on April 17, 1936, at the 

University of Chattanooga . . . No impr. 

-, Radio in the World War and the Organization of an American-Owned 



Transoceanic Radio Service; an Address Before . . . the Harvard Busi- 
ness School, April 23, 1928. No impr. 

, The Relative Position of the Individual Under Democratic and Total- 
itarian States; an Address Delivered at . . . the Institute of Public 
Affairs of the University of Virginia, July 11, 1939. No impr. 

, The Services of Supply From July, 1918, to May, 1919; Lecture . . . 

at the Army War College . . . Washington, United States Government 
Printing Office, 1930. 

-, Some Observations Around the Pacific; a Series of Three Addresses, 



Broadcast Over a National Broadcasting Company Network on August 30, 
September 6 and 13, 1938. No impr. 

, The World War; Address Delivered at the Army War College . . . 

on Certain Historical Phases of the World War . . . Washington, United 
States Government Printing Office, 1932. 

, World Wireless; the Engineer's Place in Radio Communication; an 

Address . . . Before Princeton University on November 12, 1925 . . . 
The Guild of Brackett Lectures [Princeton University], 1936. 
, The Years Between; an Address . . . Before the Union League 



Club of Chicago, on November 10, 1938 . . . No impr. 
HARRIS, JOHN PETER, Busman's Holiday. [Hutehinson, 1939.] 
HARRISON, MARY BENNETT, Shining Windows. Los Angeles, Harrison and 

Hathaway [c!925L 
HISTORICAL RECORDS SURVEY, KANSAS, American Imprints Inventory, No. 10; 

Check List of Kansas Imprints, 1854-1876. Topeka, The WPA Historical 

Records Survey Project, 1939. Mimeographed. 
, Inventory of Federal Archives in the States . . . Series II ; The 

Federal Courts, No. 15, Kansas. Topeka, The Historical Records Survey, 

1938. Mimeographed. 

-, Inventory of Federal Archives in the States . . . Series III ; The 



Department of the Treasury, No. 15, Kansas. Topeka, The Historical Rec- 
ords Survey, 1938. Mimeographed. 

-, Inventory of Federal Archives in the States . . . Series V ; The 



Department of Justice, No. 15, Kansas. Topeka, The Historical Records 
Survey, 1939. Mimeographed. 

, Inventory of Federal Archives in the States . . . Series VII; The 

Department of the Navy, No. 15, Kansas. Topeka, The Historical Records 
Survey, 1939. Mimeographed. 

-, Inventory of Federal Archives in the States . . . Series VIII ; The 



Department of the Interior, No. 15, Kansas. Topeka, The Kansas Historical 
Records Survey Project, 1940. Mimeographed. 

, Inventory of Federal Archives in the States . . . Series IX ; The 

Department of Agriculture, No. 15, Kansas. Topeka, The Historical Records 
Survey, 1939. Mimeographed. 

-, Inventory of Federal Archives in the States . . . Series X; The 



Department of Commerce, No. 15, Kansas. Topeka, The Kansas Historical 
Records Survey Project, 1940. Mimeographed. 



180 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

, Inventory oj the County Archives of Kansas . . . No. 11, Cherokee 

County (Columbus). Topeka, The Kansas Historical Records Survey Proj- 
ect, 1940. Mimeographed. 

-, Inventory of the County Archives of Kansas . . . No. 30, Franklin 



County (Ottawa). Topeka, The Historical Records Survey, 1939. Mimeo- 
graphed. 
, Inventory oj the County Archives oj Kansas . . . No. 33, Graham 



County (Hill City). Topeka, The Historical Records Survey, April, 1938. 
Typed. 
, Inventory of the County Archives of Kansas . . . No. 33, Graham 



County (Hill City). Topeka, The Historical Records Survey, December, 
1938. Mimeographed. 

, Inventory of the County Archives of Kansas . . . No. 35, Gray 

County (Cimarron). Topeka, The Historical Records Survey, 1939. Mimeo- 
graphed. 

, Inventory of the County Archives of Kansas . . . No. 37, Green- 
wood County (Eureka). Topeka, The Historical Records Survey, 1938. 
Mimeographed. 

, Inventory of the County Archives of Kansas . . . No. 46, Johnson 



County (Olathe). Topeka, The Historical Records Survey, 1937. Mimeo- 
graphed. 

-, Inventory of the County Archives of Kansas . . . No. 63, Mont- 



gomery County (Independence). Topeka, The Historical Records Survey, 
January, 1938. Typed. 
, Inventory of the County Archives of Kansas . . . No. 63, Mont- 



gomery County (Independence). Topeka, The Historical Records Survey, 
September, 1938. Mimeographed. 

, Inventory of the County Archives of Kansas . . . No. 88, Seward 

County (Liberal). Topeka, The Historical Records Survey, 1938. Mimeo- 
graphed. 

History of the Scott County Free Public Library, the First County Free Pub- 
lic Library in the State of Kansas, Created by Statute. December 1, 1939. 
Mimeographed. 

HOWE, EDGAR WATSON, The Blessing of Business. Topeka, Crane and Com- 
pany, 1918. 

HUMBOLDT, ST. PETER'S EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, Seventy-Fifth An- 
niversary . . . June 12, 1938. No impr. 

HUNT, FRAZIER, The Long Trail From Texas; the Story of Ad Spaugh, Cattle- 
man. New York, Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc., 1940. 

JOHNSON, MRS. OSA (LEIGHTY), / Married Adventure; the Lives and Ad- 
ventures of Martin and Osa Johnson. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Com- 
pany [c!940]. 

KANSAS INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION, Superior Kansas; an Analysis. 
Topeka [1940]. Mimeographed. 

KANSAS LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, RESEARCH DEPARTMENT, Assessment of Real 
Estate in Kansas . . . [Topeka, 1940.1 (Publication, No. 99, July, 1940.) 
Mimeographed. 

, Personal Property Taxation in Kansas; Part 2, The Collection Problem. 

(Publication, No. 101, July, 1940.) Mimeographed. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 181 

- , Personal Property Taxation in Kansas; Part 3, Motor Vehicles. 
(Publication, No. 102, July, 1940.) Mimeographed. 

- , The Problem of Special (Fee) Funds in Kansas . . . Preliminary 
Report. (Publication, No. 98, March, 1940.) Mimeographed. 

- , Regulation of State Travel Expenses . . . (Publication, No. 97, 
March, 1940.) Mimeographed. 

- , A Survey of State Market Agencies; Legislation and Experience of 
Other States As a Basis For Consideration of a Possible Division of Markets 
in the Kansas State Board of Agriculture; Prepared for Committee on Agri- 
culture and Livestock. (Publication, No. 96, March, 1940.) Mimeographed. 

Kansas Magazine, 1940. Manhattan, Kansas State College Press, c!940. 
Kansas Magazine Supplement, 1939. [Manhattan, Kansas State College Press] 

c!939. 
KANSAS STATE PLANNING BOARD, Farm Real Estate Values in Kansas From 

1933-1937, Inclusive. Topeka, 1940. Mimeographed. 

- , Miscellaneous Political Subdivisions in Kansas, 1925-1937 , Inclusive. 
Topeka, December, 1939. Mimeographed. 

- , Property Taxation in McPherson County, Kansas, 1925-1936. Topeka, 
Kansas State Planning Board, 1935. 

KANSAS WRITERS' PROJECT, WPA, A Guide to Leavenworth, Kansas. Leaven- 

worth, The Leavenworth Chronicle, 1940. 
KUHLMAN, CHARLES, Gen. George A. Custer; a Lost Trail and the Gall Saga 

. . . Billings, Mont., The Author, 1940. 

Little Kansas Magazine, 1940. [Manhattan] The Kansas Magazine, 1940. 
McCAusLAND, ELIZABETH, Changing New York. Photographs by Berenice 

Abbott, Text by Elizabeth McCausland. New York, E. P. Button and 

Company, Inc., 1939. 
McCoy, JOSEPH GEATING, Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade of the West 

and Southwest. Edited by Ralph P. Bieber. Glendale, Calif., The Arthur 

H. Clark Company, 1940. 
McDoNOUGH, MARIAN MC!NTYRE, Caravans to Santa Fe. Philadelphia, The 

Penn Publishing Company [c!940]. 
McLiNTOCK, MINDA A., Daddy Damm's Kin-Folks ... St. Louis, Mo. 

[c!915]. 
[MANLEY, CHARLES H., JR.], My Dear Bena [Being the Letters of a Sick 

Grandfather, C. H. Manley, Jr., of Junction City, Kansas, to His Grand- 

daughter, Robina Helen Cortelyou . . . 1938.] N. p. [1938]. 
MASON, WALT, Business Prose-Poems. Chicago, George Matthew Adams 



MEACHAM, LUCY HELEN, and BLISS ISELY, Kansas, Our Own State. Wichita, 

The McCormick-Mathers Publishing Company, c!939. 
MECHEM, KIRKE, John Brown ; a Play in Three Acts. Manhattan, The Kansas 

Magazine [c!939]. 
MENNINGER, MRS. FLORA VESTAL (KNISELY), Days of My Life; Memories of a 

Kansas Mother and Teacher. New York, Richard R. Smith, 1939. 
MENNINGER, WILLIAM CLAIRE, Handbook for Skippers. New York, Boy Scouts 

of America [c!939]. 
MILLER, MRS. FLORENCE WOODBURY, Thoughts in Verse. N. p., 1923. 



182 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Muster Roll and Equipment of the Expedition of Francisco Vazquez De Coro- 
nado, Now Translated Into English for the First Time. . . . Ann Arbor, 
The William L. Clements Library, 1939. 

NEFF, FRANK AMANDUS, Steps in Economic Progress. Wichita, McGuin Pub- 
lishing Company, 1939. 

NELSON, HARVEY F., An Economic History of Chanute, Kansas, Submitted to 
the Department of History and the Faculty of the Graduate School of the 
University of Kansas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the De- 
gree of Master of Arts. August, 1939. Typed. 

NEWMAN, JESSIE MONTGOMERY, Law on the Forced Loan of July 20, 1922, as 
Translated From the German. N. p. [c!926]. 

OGDEN, GEORGE WASHINGTON, There Were No Heroes; a Personal Record of a 
Alan's Beginning. New York, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1940. 

OGLE, GEORGE A., AND COMPANY, pub., Standard Atlas of Dickinson County, 
Kansas. . . . Chicago, Geo. A. Ogle and Company, 1901. 

OLDROYD, MRS. ALICE WILSON, It Was His Birthday. Decoration by Marjorie 
Howe Dixon. Chicago, The Bookfellows, 1924. 

PAYTON, WILLIAM, The Last Man Over the Trail. [Kinsley, c!939.] 

Folk's Kansas City (Wyandotte County, Kansas) City Directory, 1938. Kan- 
sas City, Mo., R. L. Polk and Company, c!938. 

Folk's Topeka (Shawnee County, Kans.} City Directory, 1940, Including Shaw- 
nee County Taxpayers . . . Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk and Com- 
pany, c!940. 

Folk's Wichita (Kansas) City Directory, 1939. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk 
and Company, c!939. 

POTTER, JACK MYERS, Cattle Trails of the Old West. Edited and Compiled by 
Laura R. Krehbiel. Clayton, N. M., Laura R. Krehbiel [cl939L 

QUAYLE, WILLIAM ALFRED, A Hero and Some Other Folk. 7th ed. Cincinnati, 
O., Jennings and Graham [c!900] . 

RANDOLPH, VANCE, ed., An Ozark Anthology. Caldwell, Idaho, The Caxton 
Printers, Ltd., 1940. 

RICHARDS, RALPH, Yeter day-Today-Tomorrow. [Fort Scott, Joseph R. Rich- 
ards, Jr., and R. J. Richards, c!940.] 

ROGLER, CHARLES C., Comeno; a Study of a Puerto Rican Town. Lawrence, 
University of Kansas, 1940. (University of Kansas Publications; Social 
Science Studies, 1940, No. 2.) 

RUNYON, DAMON, The Best of Damon Runyon. E. C. Bentley Selected These 
Stories; Nicolas Bentley drew the Pictures. [New York, Pocket Books, 
Inc., c!940.] 

, My Old Man. New York, Stackpole Sons [c!938, c!939]. 
, My Wife Ethel. Philadelphia, David McKay Company [c!939, 1940]. 

SANBORN MAP COMPANY, Insurance Maps of Topeka, Kansas. New York, The 
Sanborn Map Company, c!913. 

SHAFFER, MRS. SALLIE, Kansas; the State and Its Government. Boston, Allyn 
& Bacon [c!939]. 

SHANNON, FRED ALBERT, Critiques of Research in the Social Sciences: HI. An 
Appraisal of Walter Prescott Webb's The Great Plains; a Study in Institu- 
tions and Environment. New York, Social Science Research Council [1940]. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 183 

SHELDON, CHARLES MONROE, All the World. New York, George H. Doran 
Company [c!918, c!919], 

, The Heart of the World; a Story of Christian Socialism. New York, 

Fleming H. Revell Company [c!905]. 

, Modern Pagans. New York, The Methodist Book Concern [c!917]. 

, Who Killed Joe's Baby? 3d ed. Chicago, Advance Publishing Com- 
pany, 1901. 

SMITLEY, MRS. FRANCES, A Book of Poems. [Greenleaf, Sentinel Print] 1925. 

SPEER, HOLLO CLAYTON, A Speer Pioneer Comes to Kansas; Sketching the Life 
of Austin G. Speer, Veteran Mexican War, Veteran Civil War, Co. G, 50th 
Regt. Ind. Inf. Vols., Diary of Trip to Kansas . . . Citizen of Wood- 
son Co., Kansas . . . Typed. 

SQUIRE, LORENE, Wild fowling With a Camera. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott 
Company [c!938]. 

STONE, ROBERT, Remarks at the Unveiling of the Munn Memorial [Dec. 5, 
19391 . No impr. 

STRICKLAND, FRANK P., JR., The Transactions of Kaw Lodge No. 272, A. F. & 
A. M. of Kansas City, Kansas. N. p. [1927]. 

SUTTON, GEORGE SYLVESTER, The Seventy Years, the First Presbyterian Church, 
Hiawatha, Kansas, April 10, 1870-April 10, 1940. [Hiawatha, Hiawatha 
World Print, 1940.] 

SVOBIDA, LAWRENCE, An Empire of Dust. Caldwell, Idaho, The Caxton Printers, 
Ltd., 1940. 

SWEET, WILLIIAM WARREN, Religion on the American Frontier, 1883-1850. Vol. 
8, The Congregationalists. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press 
[c!939]. 

THOMPSON, MRS. HARRIET (STERLING), and MRS. ALBERT THOMPSON, Long, 
Long Ago. Foundation of the Work of Woman's Foreign Missionary 
Society in the Southwest Kansas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. [Hutchinson, The Wholesaler Printing Company] 1939. 

TINKCOM, HARRY MARLIN, John White Geary, Soldier-Statesman, 1819-1873. 
Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1940. 

TOPEKA BAR ASSOCIATION, Memorial for Thomas Francis Doran, Adopted by 
the Topeka Bar Association at Its Annual Meeting, February 10, 1940. No 
impr. 

U. S. NATIONAL YOUTH ADMINISTRATION, KANSAS, Milling in Kansas; Industrial 
Study, No. 1. January 1, 1940. Mimeographed. 

VAN NICE, CHARLES RAY, Tact and the Teacher. Lawrence, Plainview Publica- 
tions [c!929]. 

, Teacher Teamwork With a Problem Public. Topeka, School Activities 

Publishing Company, 1940. 

WALSH, JAMES MARTYN, and ANNA KATHLEEN WALSH, Plain English Hand- 
book, New Edition; A Complete Guide to Correctness. Wichita, The Mc- 
Cormick-Mathers Company [c!939]. 

WARE, E. R., and LLOYD F. SMITH, Woodlands of Kansas. Topeka, Kansas 
State Printing Plant, 1939. (Kansas State College of Agriculture and 
Applied Science, Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin 285.) 

WARE, EUGENE FITCH, The Rhymes of Ironquill. [15th ed.] New York, G. P. 
Putnam's Sons, 1939. 



184 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

WASHBUBN COLLEGE, TOPEKA, Catalogue of the Permanent Collection of Paint- 
ings, Prints, Drawings, and Sculptures and the Free Public Library Loan 
Collection of Casts in Mulvane Art Museum and Other Buildings, Wash- 
burn College. Comp. by Wallace S. Baldinger. Topeka, 1940. 

WATERS, LAWRENCE LESLIE, Use Taxes and Their Legal and Economic Back- 
ground. Lawrence, University of Kansas, School of Business, 1940. (Kan~ 
sas Studies in Business, No. 19.) 

WELLMAN, PAUL ISELIN, The Trampling Herd, the Story of the Cattle Range 
in America. New York, Carrick and Evans, Inc. [c!939]. 

WHITE, WILLIAM ALLEN, The Changing West; an Economic Theory About 
Our Golden Age. New York, the Macmillan Company, 1939. 

WILLARD, JULIUS TERRASS, History of the Kansas State College of Agriculture 
and Applied Science. Manhattan, Kansas State College Press, 1940. 

THE WITAN, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, Lady Lore; a Swingtime Handbook of 
Etiquette for Girls . . . Lawrence [The World Company], 1939. 

WOODWARD, CHESTER, Lanterns Alight; Journeys to Far Places. Chicago, 
Nonnandie House, 1940. 

THE WEST 

BARROWS, JOHN R., Ubet. Caldwell, Idaho, The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1936. 

BECHDOLT, FREDERICK RITCHIE, Giants of the Old West. New York, The Cen- 
tury Company [c!930]. 

BLEDSOE, ANTHONY JENNINGS, Indian Wars of the Northwest; A California 
Sketch. San Francisco, Bacon and Company, 1885. 

BRILL, CHARLES J., Conquest of the Southern Plains: Uncensored Narrative of 
the Battle of the Washita and Cutter's Southern Campaign. Oklahoma City, 
Golden Saga Publishers, c!938. 

BROWN, JAMES STEPHENS, Life of a Pioneer; Being the Autobiography of James 
S. Brown. Salt Lake City, George Q. Cannon & Sons Company, 1900. 

BUDD, RALPH, Railway Routes Across the Rocky Mountains; Excerpt Transac- 
tions of the Newcomen Society, Vol. 18, 1937-1938. 

CAIRO, JAMES, Prairie Farming in America, With Notes by the Way on Canada 
and the United States. London, Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & 
Roberts, 1859. 

CLARK, THOMAS DIONYSIUS, The Rampaging Frontier; Manners and Humors 
of Pioneer Days in the South and the Middle West. Indianapolis, The 
Bobbs-Merrill Company [c!939L 

CURTISS, DANIEL S., Western Portraiture, and Emigrant's Guide : a Description 
of Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa; With Remarks on Minnesota, and Other 
Territories. New York, J. H. Colton, 1852. 

DAVIS, CLYDE BRION, The Arkansas. New York, Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. 
[c!940]. 

FERGUSSON, ERNA, Our Southwest. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1940. 

FERRIS, WARREN ANGUS, Life in the Rocky Mountains; a Diary of Wanderings 
on the Sources of the Rivers Missouri, Columbia, and Colorado From Feb- 
ruary, 1830, to November, 1835. Edited ... by Paul C. Phillips. Den- 
ver, The Old West Publishing Company, 1940. 

FISHER, JOHN STIRLING, A Builder of the West; the Life of General William 
Jackson Palmer. Caldwell, Idaho, The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1939. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 185 

FOUGERA, MRS. KATHERINE (GIBSON), With Ouster's Cavalry, From the Mem- 
oirs of the Late Katherine Gibson, Widow of Captain Francis M. Gibson of 
the Seventh Cavalry, U. S. A. (Retired). Caldwell, Idaho, The Caxton 
Printers, Ltd., 1940. 

GOODYKOONTZ, COLIN BRUMMIE, Home Missions on the American Frontier. 
Caldwell, Idaho, The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1939. 

JACKSON, WILLIAM HENRY, Time Exposure; the Autobiography of William 
Henry Jackson. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons [c!940]. 

KELLY, CHARLES, and MAURICE L. HOWE, Miles Goodyear, First Citizen of Utah, 
Trapper, Trader and California Pioneer. Salt Lake City, Western Printing 
Company, 1937. 

MCGLASHAN, CHARLES FAYETTE, History of the Donner Party; a Tragedy of the 
Sierra, With Foreword, Notes and a Bibliography by George H. Hinkle and 
Bliss McGlashan Hinkle. Stanford University, Calif., Stanford University 
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McKENNEY, THOMAS LORRAINE, Sketches of a Tour to the Lakes, of the Char- 
acter and Customs of the Chippeway Indians, and of Incidents Connected 
With the Treaty of Fond Du Lac . . . Baltimore, Fielding Lucas, 
Junior, 1827. 

MCREYNOLDS, ROBERT, Thirty Years on the Frontier. Colorado Springs, Colo., 
El Paso Publishing Company, 1906. 

OTERO, MIGUEL ANTONIO, My Life on the Frontier, 1882-1897 ; Death Knell of 
a Territory and Birth of a State, Vol. 2. Albuquerque, The University of 
New Mexico Press, 1939. 

RAINE, WILLIAM MACLEOD, Guns of the Frontier; the Story of How Law Came 
to the West. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1940. 

RANKIN, M. WILSON, Reminiscences of Frontier Days; Including an Authentic 
Account of the Thornburg and Meeker Massacre. Denver, Smith-Brooks 
[c!938]. 

RICHARDSON, MARVIN M., The Whitman Mission, the Third Station on the Old 
Oregon Trail. Walla Walla, Wash., Whitman Publishing Company [c!940]. 

RISTER, CARL COKE, Border Captives; the Traffic in Prisoners by Southern 
Plains Indians, 1835-1875. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1940. 

TIXIER, VICTOR, Travels on the Osage Prairies. Edited by John Francis Mc- 
Dermott, translated from the French by Albert J. Salvan. Norman, Uni- 
versity of Oklahoma Press, 1940. 

TUCKER, MARY, Books of the Southwest, a General Bibliography. New York 
City, J. J. Augustin [19371. 

VIVIAN, ARTHUR PENDARVES, Wanderings in the Western Land. 2d ed. London, 
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WOESTEMEYER, INA FAYE, ed., The Westward Movement; a Book of Readings 
on Our Changing Frontiers. New York, D. Appleton-Century Company 
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WOODWARD, MARY DODGE, The Checkered Years [Excerpts From the Diary of 
Mary Dodge Woodward Written While Living on a Bonanza Farm m 
Dakota Territory During the Years 1884 to 1889]. Caldwell, Idaho, The 
Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1937. 



186 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

GENEALOGY AND LOCAL HISTORY 

ALLEN, WILLIAM CICERO, The Annals of Hay wood County, North Carolina; 
Historical, Sociological, Biographical, and Genealogical. N. p., 1935. 

, History of Halifax County [North Carolina']. Boston, The Cornhill 

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AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, Proceedings at the Annual Meeting Held in 
Worcester, October 19, 1938. Worcester, Mass., The Society, 1939. 

, Proceedings at the Semi-Annual Meeting Held in Boston, April 19, 1939. 

Worcester, Mass., The Society, 1940. 

AMERICAN CLAN GREGOR SOCIETY, Year Book Containing the Proceedings of the 
Twenty-ninth Annual Gathering. Richmond [Cressons, May and Company, 
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ANDERSON, JOSEPH, ed., The Town and City of Waterbury, Connecticut, From 
the Aboriginal Period to the Year Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-five. New 
Haven, The Price and Lee Company, 1896. 3 Vols. 

ANDERSON, SARAH TRAVERS LEWIS (Scorr), Lewises, Meriwethers and Their Kin. 
. . . Richmond, Va., The Dietz Press, 1938. 

ANDERSON, WILLIAM POPE, Anderson Family Records. [Cincinnati, W. F. 
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, The Early Descendants of Wm. Overton and Elizabeth Waters of 

Virginia, and Allied Families. [Cincinnati, O., 1938.] 

BALDWIN, THOMAS WILLIAMS, Patten Genealogy; William Patten of Cambridge, 
1635, and His Descendants. Boston, Thomas W. Baldwin, 1908. 

BARLOW, GEORGE, comp. and ed., Family Genealogy Comprising the Ancestry 
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BENT, CHARLES, ed., History of Whiteside County, Illinois, From Its First 
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BIGELOW, WALTER J., History of Stowe, Vermont (From 1763 to 1934}. [Hart- 
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BOSTONIAN SOCIETY, Proceedings of the Bostonian Society and Report of the 
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BOTSFORD, ELI HERBERT, ed., Botsford Family Genealogy; the Line of Joseph, 
1.1. 12. Youngest Son of Elnathan, 1.1. Grandson of Henry, L Ten Genera- 
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BOUCHER, JOHN N., Old and New Westmoreland. New York, The American 
Historical Society, Inc., 1918. 4 Vols. 

BRAINTREE, MASS., TERCENTENARY COMMITTEE, A Brief History of the Town of 
Braintree, Prepared for the Observance of the Tercentenary Celebration of 
Its Founding, 1640-1940. [Boston, Press of Thomas Todd Company, c!940.] 

BRENT, CHESTER HORTON, The Descendants of Hugh Brent, Immigrant to Isle of 
Wight County, Virginia, 1642 . . . [Rutland, Vt,, The Tuttle Publish- 
ing Company, Inc., 1936.] 

BROWN, ALEXANDER, The Cabells and Their Kin; a Memorial Volume of His- 
tory, Biography and Genealogy. Richmond, Garrett and Massie, Inc., 1939. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 187 

BROWN, WILLIAM R., and MITCHELL Y. JACKSON, Minnesota Farmers' Diaries, 

William R. Brown, 181,5-46; Mitchell Y. Jackson, 1852-63. Saint Paul, The 

Minnesota Historical Society, 1939. 
BUCKS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Papers Read Before the Society and Other 

Historical Papers. Vol. 8. Doylestown, Pa., The Bucks County Historical 

Society, 1940. 
BURKE, SIR JOHN BERNARD, Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the 

Landed Gentry, Including American Families With British Ancestry . . . 

London, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., 1939. 
BURRELL, ABRAM BOGART, Reminiscences of George La Bar, the Centenarian of 

Monroe County, Pa. . . . Philadelphia, Claxton, Remsen and Haffel- 

finger, 1870. 
CARVER, CLIFFORD NICKELS, comp., The Carver Family of New England; Robert 

Carver of Marshfield and His Descendants. Privately Printed. [Rutland, 

The Tuttle Publishing Company, Inc.] 1935. 
CHAPMAN, JACOB, and JAMES H. FITTS, Lane Genealogies, Vol. 1. William Lane 

of Boston, Mass., 1648, Including the Records of Edmund J . Lane and James 

P. Lane. Exeter, N. H., The News-Letter Press, 1891. 
CLEMENT, JOHN, Sketches of the First Emigrant Settlers in Newton Township, 

Old Gloucester County, West New Jersey. Camden, N. J., Sinnickson Chew, 

1877. 
COCHRANE, HARRY HAYMAN, History of Monmouth and Wales. East Winthrop 

[Me.], farmer Company, 1894. 2 Vols. 
COCKE, WILLIAM RONALD, comp., Hanover County Chancery Wills and Notes; 

a Compendium of Genealogical, Biographical and Historical Material as 

Contained in Cases of the Chancery Suits of Hanover County, Virginia. 

Columbia, Va., Cocke, III, 1940. 
COLE, CYRENUS, Iowa Through the Years. Iowa City, The State Historical 

Society of Iowa, 1940. 
COPE, GILBERT, Genealogy of the Button Family of Pennsylvania . . . West 

Chester, Pa., F. S. Hickman, 1871. 
COPELAND, WARREN TURNER, The Copeland Family, a Copeland Genealogy. 

Rutland, Vt., The Tuttle Publishing Company, Inc., 1937. 
CUDWORTH, ADDISON EDWARD, The History With Genealogical Sketches of 

Londonderry. Montpelier, The Vermont Historical Society, 1936. 
CUMMINS, GEORGE WYCKOFF, History of Warren County, New Jersey. New 

York, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1911. 

CURRIER, HARVEY LEAR, Genealogy of Richard Currier of Salisbury and Ames- 
bury, Massachusetts, (1616 1686-7) and Many of His Descendants . . . 

Issued Under the Auspices of the Orleans County Historical Society. New- 
port, Vt., 1910. 
DANIELS, WYLIE JOHNSTON, The Village at the End of the Road, a Chapter in 

Early Indiana Railroad History. Indianapolis, Indiana Historical Society, 

1938. 

DAUGHTERS OF FOUNDERS AND PATRIOTS OF AMERICA, Lineage Book of the Na- 
tional Society . . . Vol. 6, 1916 ; rev. 1939. [West Somerville, Mass., 

Somerville Printing Company, c!939.] 



188 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, Index of the Rolls of Honor (An- 
cestors' Index) in the Lineage Books of the National Society . . . Vols. 
121-160. Washington, D. C., Press of Judd and Detweiler, Inc., 1940. 

DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, MARTHA 
WASHINGTON CHAPTER, New Kent County, Virginia. U. S. Census for 1810 
and U. S. Census for 1850 and Abstracts of the Application Papers of Revo- 
lutionary War Pensioners. Vol. 1. [Washington, D. C.], 1938. 

DAVIDSON, HAROLD ANSLEY, "Our Ansley Family" . . . [Jenkintown, Pa., 
c!933.] 

DAVIDSON, VICTOR, History of Wilkinson County [Georgia]. Macon, Ga., The 
J. W. Burke Company [c!930]. 

DAVIESS, MRS. MARIA T., History of Mercer and Boyle Counties. Vol. 1. 
Harrodsburg, Ky., The Harrodsburg Herald, 1924. 

DAVIS, HARRY ALEXANDER, The Billingsley Family (Billingsly-Billingslea) in 
America. [Rutland, Vt., The Tuttle Publishing Company, Inc.] 1936. 

DAVIS, WILLIAM WATTS HART, The History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 
From the Discovery of the Delaware to the Present Time. Doylestown, Pa., 
Democrat Book and Job Office Print, 1876. 

DEVELIN, JOSEPH CHUBB, The O'Develins of Tyrone, the Story of an Irish 
Sept Now Represented by the Families of Devlin, Develin, Develyn, 
Develon and Devellen. Rutland, Vt., The Tuttle Publishing Company, Inc. 
[c!938]. 

DILLENBECK, ANDREW LUTHER, and KARL M. DALLENBACH, eds., The Dallenbachs 
in America, 1710-1935. St. Johnsville, N. Y., The Enterprise and News, 1935. 

DONAGHEY, GEORGE W., Building a State Capitol. Little Rock, Ark., Parke- 
Harper Company, 1937. 

DUNN, MRS. EMMA ELISABETH (TEALL), Teall Genealogical Records in England 
and America. Los Angeles, Calif., Gem Publishing Company, 1926. 

ELDRIDGE, WILLIAM HENRY, Henry Genealogy: The Descendants of Samuel 
Henry of Hadley and Amherst, Mass., 1734-1790, and Lurana (Cady) Henry, 
His Wife . . . Boston, T. R. Marvin & Son, 1915. 

ELLIS, F., History of Northampton County, Pennsylvania . . . Philadelphia, 
Peter Fritts, 1877. 

FIELD, RUTH MARIE, [Hubbell Genealogy]. Typed. 

, Short Genealogies of the Field Bixby Chandler Pierce and a Few 

Allied Families As Collected From Research of Three Years, Including Bible 
Records, Old Letters, Correspondence and Published Books on the Names 
and Towns. Typed. 1940. 

FITTS, JAMES HILL, comp., Lane Genealogies, Vol. 2; William Lane, Dorchester, 
Mass., 1635. Exeter, N. H., The News-Letter Press, 1897. 

, Lane Genealogies, Vol. 3; English Family . . . Exeter, N. H., The 

News-Letter Press, 1902. 

FLINT, CLARENCE ELLIS, The Flint Family, Robert Flint, (the Pioneer) and His 
Descendants. Reprinted from The Enterprise and News. St. Johnsville, 
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FOLMSBEE, STANLEY JOHN, Sectionalism and Internal Improvements in Tennes- 
see, 1796-1845. Philadelphia, 1939. 

FRANKLIN, CONN., CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, Records . . . 1718-1860, and 
a Record of Deaths in Norwich Eighth Society, 1763, 1778, 1782, 1784-1802. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 189 

Hartford, Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of Connecticut and 
Society of the Founders of Norwich, 1938. 

GAY, FRANK B., comp., The Descendants of John Drake of Windsor, Connect^ 
cut. Rutland, Vt., The Tuttle Company, 1933. 

General History of Macon County, Missouri. Chicago, Henry Taylor and Com- 
pany, 1910. 

General History of Shelby County, Missouri. Chicago, Henry Taylor and Com- 
pany, 1911. 

GEORGIA, DBPT. OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY, Georgia's Roster of the Revolution 
. . . comp. by Lucian Lamar Knight. Atlanta, Index Printing Company, 
1920. 

GILROY, MARION, comp., Loyalists and Land Settlement in Nova Scotia . . . 
Published by Authority of the Board of Trustees of the Public Archives of 
Nova Scotia. Halifax, 1937. (Nova Scotia, Public Archives, Publication, 
No. 4.) 

GIPSON, LAWRENCE HENRY, Lewis Evans; to Which is Added Evans' A Brief 
Account of Pennsylvania . . . Philadelphia, The Historical Society of 
Pennsylvania, 1939. 

GREATER KANSAS CITY FEDERAL BUSINESS ASSOCIATION, The Federal Govern- 
ment in Greater Kansas City; History of the Federal Government in Greater 
Kansas City and Directory of Federal Officials and Agencies, May 20, 1939. 
Pub. by the Greater Kansas City Federal Business Association. [Leaven- 
worth, Kan., Federal Prison Industries, Inc., Press, 1939.] 

GREGORY, MRS. CORA (GARBER), comp. and ed., Genealogy of the Ludwig Mohler 
Family in America, Covering a Period From April 4, 1696, to June 15, 1921. 
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GRISWOLD, GLENN E., comp., The Griswold Family; England- America. [Rut- 
land, Vt., The Tuttle Publishing Company, Inc., 1935.] 

HATFIELD, ABRAHAM, comp., The Hatfields of Westchester; A Genealogy of the 
Descendants of Thomas Hatfield . . . [New York] New York Genea- 
logical and Biographical Society, 1935. 

[HAVERHILL TERCENTENARY COMMITTEE], Official Pictorial Magazine of the 
Haverhill Tercentenary Celebration, 1640-1940. [Haverhill, The Record 
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HAZARD, THOMAS ROBINSON, Recollections of Olden Times; Rowland Robinson 
of Narragansett and His Unfortunate Daughter, With Genealogies of the 
Robinson, Hazard and Sweet Families of Rhode Island . . . Newport, 
R. I., John P. Sanborn, 1879. 

HEINEMANN, CHARLES BRUNK, and GAIUS MARCUS BRUMBAUGH, "First Census" 
of Kentucky, 1790 . . . Washington, D. C., G. M. Brumbaugh, c!940. 

HEYWOOD, WILLIAM SWEETZER, History of Westminister, Massachusetts . . . 
From the Date of the Original Grant of the Township to the Present Time, 
1728-1863; With a Biographic-Genealogical Register of Its Principal Families. 
Lowell, Mass., S. W. Huse and Company, 1893. 

HIBNER, ALDIS EVERARD, A Genealogy of the Descendants of Joseph Bartlett of 
Newton, Mass., for Seven Generations. Rutland, Vt., The Tuttle Company, 
1934. 

HINSHAW, WILLIAM WADE, Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Vol. 
3. . . . Ann Arbor, Edwards Brothers, Inc., 1940. 



190 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF OHIO, Annual Report for the Year 
Ending December, 1939. Cincinnati, The Ruter Press, 1939. 

HISTORICAL RECORDS SURVEY, WPA, [Records of Churches, Counties, Towns, 
Manuscript Collections, Landgrants, etc., of the Various States] 1937-1940. 
348Vols. 73Pams. 

History of Franklin and Pickaway Counties, Ohio, With Illustrations and Bio- 
graphical Sketches of Some of the Prominent Men and Pioneers. [Cleve- 
land, Ohio] Williams Brothers, 1880. 

History of the Ohio Falls Cities and Their Counties, With Illustrations and 
Biographical Sketches. Cleveland, Ohio, L. A. Williams and Company, 1882. 

2 Vols. (Kentucky and Indiana) . 

History of Will County, Illinois . . . Chicago, Wm. Le Baron, Jr., and 
Company, 1878. 

History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, Embracing a Comprehensive His- 
tory of the County . . . With a History and Description of Its Cities 
and Towns. Boston, C. F. Jewett and Company, 1879. 2 Vols. 

HONEYMAN, ABRAHAM VAN DOREN, ed., History of Union County, New Jersey, 
1664-1923. New York, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1923. 

3 Vols. 

HUGUENOT SOCIETY OF SOUTH CAROLINA, Transactions, No. 44. Charleston, S. C., 

Published by Order of the Society, 1939. 
HUNSICKER, CLIFTON SWENK, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania; a History. 

New York, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1923. 3 Vols. 
IRWIN, PENNSYLVANIA, The Diamond; Official Publication Commemorating 

Irwin's 75th Anniversary Celebration, 1864-1939. [Pittsburgh, Philadelphia 

Bindery, Inc., Pittsburgh Branch, 1939.] 

JOHNSON, JACK T., Peter Anthony Dey. Iowa City, The State Historical So- 
ciety of Iowa, 1939. (Iowa Biographical Series.) 
JONES, ELIAS, History of Dorchester County, Maryland. Baltimore. Williams 

and Wilkins Company Press, 1902. 
KENYON, HOWARD NATHANIEL, American Kenyons . . . Rutland, Vt., The 

Tuttle Company, 1935. 
KING, JUNIE ESTELLE STEWART, comp., Wills, Administrations and Marriages, 

Fauquier County, Virginia, 1759-1800. Beverly Hills, Calif., 1939. 
KIRBY, RICHARD SHELTON, Inventors and Engineers of Old New Haven; a 

Series of Six Lectures Given in 1938 Under the Auspices of the School of 

Engineering, Yale University. New Haven, New Haven Colony Historical 

Society, 1939. 
THE LIGON FAMILY AND KINSMEN ASSOCIATION, Proceedings, Vol. 2, September, 

1939. New York, The Ligon Family and Kinsmen Association, 1939. 
LOWELL, MRS. HARRIET (DAVIS), The Stroud Family History, Descendants of 

Captain Richard Stroud of New London, Connecticut. Rutland, Vt., The 

Tuttle Company, 1934. 
McCoY, WILLIAM H., Notes on the McCoy Family. Edited by Elizabeth 

Hayward. Rutland, Vt., The Tuttle Publishing Company, Inc., 1939. 
MCDANIEL, MRS. ETHEL HITTLE, The Contribution of the Society of Friends to 

Education in Indiana. Indianapolis, Indiana Historical Society, 1939. 
MCPHERSON, MRS. ELIZABETH WEIR, [A Histoi-y of Gaston, Harvey, Reid, 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 191 

Simonton and Tomlinson Families']. Washington, D. C., 1939. Mimeo- 
graphed. 
MACWETHY, Lou D., comp., The Book of Names Especially Relating to the 

Early Palatines and the First Settlers in the Mohawk Valley. St. Johns- 

ville, N. Y., The Enterprise and News, 1933. 
MARYLAND, GENERAL ASSEMBLY, Proceedings and Acts, 1758-1761. Baltimore, 

Maryland Historical Society, 1939. (Archives of Maryland, Vol. 56.) 
MIDDLESEX COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, President's Address, Annual Reports, 

Secretary, Treasurer . . . [Middletown, Conn., Pelton and King, Inc., 

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MONTGOMERY, M. W., History of Jay County, Indiana. Chicago, Church, 

Goodman and Gushing [Pref. 1864]. 
MUNROE, JAMES PHINNEY, A Sketch of the Munro Clan . . . Boston, 

George B. Ellis, 1900. 
NEW HAMPSHIRE (PROVINCE), Probate Records, Vol. 7, 1760-1763. Published 

by the State of New Hampshire, 1939. (State Papers Series, Vol. 37.) 
NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Documents Relating to the Colonial, Revo- 
lutionary and Post-Revolutionary History of the State of New Jersey; 

Calendar of New Jersey Wills, Administrations, etc., Vol. 6, 1781-1785. 

Trenton, N. J., MacCrellish and Quigley Company, 1939. (Archives of the 

State of New Jersey, First Series, Vol. 35.) 
NEW YORK, REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH, Marriages From 1639 to 1801 in the 

Reformed Dutch Church, New Amsterdam, New York City. New York, 

1940. (Collections of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 

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NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Annual Report and List of Members for the 

Year 1939. New York, 1940. 
NEWELL, CLARA L., and others, comps., A History of Wallingford, 1669-1935; 

Compiled for the Connecticut Tercentenary Celebration, 1635-1935 . . . 

Wallingford, Conn., 1935. 
NEWSOME, ALBERT RAY, The Presidential Election of 1824 in North Carolina. 

Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 1939. 
NICHOLS, NATHAN ROUND, ed., Nichols Genealogy; Ancestry and Descendants 

of Thomas Nichols of East Greenwich, Rhode Island and Danby, Vermont. 

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Notable Southern Families: Hixson of Tennessee. Chattanooga, Tenn., The 

Lookout Publishing Company, n. d. 
O'DALY, EDMUND EMMET, comp., History of the O'Dalys, the Story of the 

Ancient Irish Sept, the Race of Dalach of Corca Adaimh. New Haven, The 

Tuttle, Morehouse and Taylor Company, 1937. 

Panhandle-Plains Historical Review, Vol. 12, 1939. Canyon, Tex., Panhandle- 
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PARKER, GEORGE FREDERICK, Iowa Pioneer Foundations. Iowa City, The State 

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PEASE, THEODORE CALVIN, ed., Illinois on the Eve of the Seven Years' War, 1747- 

1755. Springfield, The Trustees of the Illinois State Historical Library 

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French Series, Vol. 3.) 



192 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Peru, Illinois, Centennial, May 25, 26, 1935; Commemorating One Hundred 

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PHELPS, NOAH AMHERTS, History of Simsbury, Granby and Canton, From 1642 

to 1845. Hartford, Case, Tiffany and Burnham, 1845. 

PIERCE, FREDERICK CLIFTON, Foster Genealogy, Being the Record of the Pos- 
terity of Reginald Foster, an Early Inhabitant of Ipswich. . . . Chicago, 
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PINTARD, JOHN, Letters From John Pintard to His Daughter, Eliza Noel Pintard 
Davidson, 1816-1833. New York, New York Historical Society, 1940. Vols. 
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POORE, ALFRED, A Memoir and Genealogy of John Poore; Ten Generations: 

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Portrait and Biographical Record of the State of Colorado. Chicago, Chapman 

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RANN, WILLIAM S., History of Chittenden County, Vermont. Syracuse, N. Y., 

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REVILL, JANIE, comp., A Compilation of the Original Lists of Protestant Immi- 
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RISLEY, EDWIN HILL, The Risley Family History, Including Records of Some 

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ROWLEY, MASS., Tercentenary Celebration . . . August 24, 25, 26 and 27, 

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SCHARF, JOHN THOMAS, History of Western Maryland; Being a History of 
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SHEARER, CHARLES RAYMOND, comp., Genealogical Record of the Shearer and 
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SHINN, MRS. HATTIE (WILSON), comp., A Tribute to Our Ancestors; Bio- 
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SIMMONDS, FRANK WILLIAM, comp., John & Susan Simmonds and Some of 
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SKINKER, THOMAS KEITH, Samuel Skinker and His Descendants . . . N. p., 

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SMITH, MRS. MELLCENE (THURMAN), and JESSYMIN THURMAN LEWIS, comps., 
History and Lineage Book, National Society Daughters of the American 
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pany, 1936. 

SOCIETY OF COLONIAL WARS, MARYLAND, Genealogies of the Members and Rec- 
ords of Services of Ancestors; Vol. 2. Baltimore, The Williams & Wilkins 
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SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI, Roster, 1938. [Washington, D. C.] The Society, 

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SPEER, ROLLO CLAYTON, The Speer (Spier) Family Migration From Scotland- 
Ireland to Holland, Thence in 1659 From Amsterdam to America on the 
Good Ship "Faith." [Pocatello, Id., 1939.] Typed. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 193 

, Who is This Man Bullitt? A Study in the Lineage of William Chris- 
tian Bullitt, U. S. Ambassador to France, 1940 . . . Pocatello, Id., 1940. 

Typed. 
SPRAGUE, WARREN VINCENT, Sprague Families in America^ Rutland, Vt., The 

Tuttle Company, 1913. 
STAPLES, CHARLES RICHARD, The History of Pioneer Lexington (Kentucky}, 

1779-1806. Lexington, Transylvania Press, 1939. 
STEPHENS, DAN VOORHEES, ed., Peter Stephens and Some of His Descendants, 

1690-1935. Fremont, Neb., Hammond and Stephens Company, 1936. 
STOCKARD, SALLIE WALKER, The History of Guilford County, North Carolina. 

Knoxville, Tenn., Grant-Ogden Company, 1902. 

SULLIVAN, JOHN, Letters and Papers of Major-General John Sullivan, Con- 
tinental Army; Vol. 3. Concord, N. H., New Hampshire Historical Society, 

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TAYLOR, MARY SNYDER, Annals of a Bucks County Family of Old Taylorsville, 

Pennsylvania. [Bogota, N. J., Dancey Printing Company, c!940.] 
TEMPLE, JOSIAH HOWARD, History of Framingham, Massachusetts, Early Known 

as Danforth's Farms, 1640-1880; With a Genealogical Register. Framingham, 

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TEMPLE, MRS. SARAH ELIZABETH (KELLUM), Our Campbell Ancestors, 174^-1937. 

Traditions and History of the Family of Five Campbell Brothers and 

Sisters; John, James Douglas, Hester, Mary and Samuel . . . Burbank, 

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THOMPSON, CHARLES NEBEKER, Sons of the Wilderness, John and William 

Conner. Indianapolis, Indiana Historical Society, 1937. 
TREADWAY, OSWELL GARLAND, Edward Treadway and His Descendants; News 

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pelier, Vermont Historical Society, 1938. 
UTAH FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT, A Partial Bibliography of Source Material 

on Weber County and Ogden City, Utah. Ogden, The Ogden Historical 

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UTAH WRITERS' PROJECT, WPA., Origins of Utah Place Names. 3d ed. Salt 

Lake City, 1940. Mimeographed. 
VINELAND HISTORICAL AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, Annual Report for the Year 

Ending October 2nd, 1938; October 2nd, 1939. Vineland, N. J., n. p. 2 Vols. 
WALLACE, GEORGE SELDEN, Cabell County Annals and Families. Richmond, 

Garrett and Massie, 1935. 
WARD, HARRY PARKER, The Follett-Dewey Fassett-Safford Ancestry of Captain 

Martin Dewey Follett (1765-1831) and His Wife Persis Fassett (1767-1849) 

. . . [Columbus, Ohio, Champlin Printing Company] 1896. 
WARE, MRS. JOSEPHINE GROZIER (SANDFORD), Robert Sandford and His Wife 

Ann Adams Sandford, With Some of Their Descendants, 1615-1930 . . . 

Rutland, Vt., The Tuttle Company [1930?]. 
WARNER, RUFUS S., Record of Deaths in the Town of Ludlow, Vermont, From 

1790 to 1901, Inclusive. Ludlow, Vt., R. S. Warner, 1902. 
WEST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, Year Book, Vol. 11, November, 1935. 

Abilene, West Texas Historical Association, 1935. 

68801 



194 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

WIGHT, DANFORTH PHIPPS, The Wight Family; Memoir of Thomas Wight, of 
Dedham, Mass., With Genealogical Notices of His Descendants, From 1637 
to 1840. Boston, T. R. Marvin, 1848. 

WINGFIELD, MARSHALL, Marriage Bonds of Franklin County, Virginia, 1786- 
1858 . . . Memphis, West Tennessee Historical Society [1939]. 

WOLFE, JOHN HAROLD, Jeffersonian Democracy in South Carolina. Chapel Hill, 
The University of North Carolina Press, 1940. 

WOOD, LELAND N., Wood Genealogy and Other Family Sketches; Genealogical 
Memoranda of a Branch of the Wood Family in England and America; 
Also Sketches of Related Families . . . Rutland, Vt., The Tuttle Pub- 
lishing Company, Inc., 1937. 

WOOD, SIMEON, A History of Hauppauge, Long Island, N. Y., Together With 
Genealogies . . . New York, Charles J. Werner, 1920. 

WOODWARD, PERCY EMMONS, Some Descendants of Nathaniel Woodward, 
Mathematician. Newtonville, Mass., 1940. 

WORCESTER HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Publications, New Series, Vol. 2, No. 4, Sep- 
tember, 1989. Worcester, The Worcester Historical Society [1939]. 

WORKERS OF THE WRITERS' PROGRAM, NEBRASKA, WPA., The Negroes of Ne- 
braska. Lincoln, Woodruff Printing Company, 1940. 

, SOUTH DAKOTA, WPA., South Dakota Place-Names; Part 1, State, 

County and Town Names; Part 3, River and Creek Names. Vermillion, 
University of South Dakota, 1940. 2 Vols. 

WRIGHT, WILLIAM HENRY, and GERTRUDE WRIGHT KETCHAM, History of the 
Wright Family Who Are Descendants of Samuel Wright (1722-1789) of 
Lenox, Mass., With Lineage Back to Thomas Wright (1610-1670) of Wethers- 
field, Conn. . . . and Showing a Direct Line to John Wright, Lord of 
Kelvedon Hall, Essex, England. Denver, Williamson-Haffner Company 
[cl913L 

WYOMING COMMEMORATIVE ASSOCIATION, Proceedings, 1939. No impr. 

DIRECTORIES 

Abilene [Texas] City Directory, 1924. Dallas, John F. Worley Directory Com- 
pany, c!924. 

Alexandria (Virginia') City Directory, 1924. Richmond, Va., Hill Directory 
Company, Inc., c!924. 

Ann Arbor City Directory, 1925. Detroit, Mich., R. L. Polk and Company, 
c!925. 

Ashland [Wisconsin] City Directory, 1924. St. Paul, Minn., R. L. Polk and 
Company, c!924. 

Beatrice (Gage County, Nebr.) City Directory, 1937, Including Gage County 
Taxpayers. Omaha, R. L. Polk and Company, c!937. 

Beaumont (Jefferson County, Tex.) City Directory, 1988-39, Including Neder- 
land and Port Neches. Houston, Tex., Morrison & Fourmy Directory Com- 
pany, c!939. 

Benton Harbor and St. Joseph Directory, 1925. Detroit, Mich., R. L. Polk and 
Company, c!925. 

Boulder (Boulder County, Colo.) City Directory, 1938, Including Longmont. 
Salt Lake City, Utah, R. L. Polk and Company, c!938. 

Bridgeport City Directory, Including Stratford, Fairfield and Southport, 1924- 
New Haven, Conn., The Price & Lee Company, c!924. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 195 

Bristol, Va.-Tenn., City Directory, 1925. Richmond, Va., Hill Directory Com- 
pany, Inc., c!925. 

Brownwood [Texas] City Directory, 1923. Dallas, John F. Worley Directory 
Company, c!923. 

Butte City Directory for the Year Commencing April, 1914- Helena, Mont. 
R. L. Polk and Company, c!914. 

Charleston, South Carolina, City Directory, 1925-1926. Charleston, S. C., 
Southern Printing and Publishing Company [1926]. 

Charlottesville, Va., City Directory, Including a List of Albemarle County 
Farmers, 1924- Richmond, Va., Hill Directory Company, Inc., c!924. 

Cincinnati Directory . . . 1927-28. Cincinnati, Ohio, The Williams Direc- 
tory Company, c!927. 

Colorado Springs, Colorado, City Directory, Including Afanitou & Pikes Peak 
Region, 1909. Salt Lake City, Utah, R. L. Polk and Company, c!939. 

Council Bluffs (Pottawattomie County, Iowa} City Directory, 1939. Omaha, 
Nebr., R. L. Polk and Company, c!939. 

Dallas (Texas) City Directory, 1938. Dallas, Tex., John F. Worley Directory 
Company, c!938. 

Denison (Grayson County, Texas} City Directory, 1938. Dallas, Tex., John F. 
Worley Directory Company, c!938. 

Duluth Directory, 1925. Duluth, Minn., Duluth Directory Company, c!925. 

Durham, N. C., City Directory, 1924. Richmond, Va., Hill Directory Company, 
Inc., c!924. 

El Paso City Directory, 1939. El Paso, Tex., Hudspeth Directory Company, 
C1939. 

Elkhart [Ind.] City Directory, 1924. Detroit, Mich., R. L. Polk and Company, 
cl924. 

Elmira, Elmira Heights, and Horseheads (New York} Directory for the Year 
Beginning June, 1924- Schenectady, N. Y., H. A. Manning Company, c!924. 

Fayetteville, N. C., City Directory, 1924. Richmond, Va., Hill Directory Com- 
pany, Inc., c!924. 

Florida State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1925. Jacksonville, Fla., R. L. 
Polk and Company, c!925. 

Ft. Madison, la., City Directory, 1925-26. Chicago, 111., Leshnick Directory 
Company, c!925. 

Goldsboro, N. C., City Directory, 1925. Richmond, Va., Hill Directory Com- 
pany, Inc., c!925. 

Grand Junction (Mesa County, Colo.} City Directory, 1937, Including Mesa 
County. Salt Lake City, Utah, R. L. Polk and Company, c!937. 

Greensboro (N. C.) City Directory, 1924. Richmond, Va., Hill Directory Com- 
pany, Inc., c!924. 

Hattiesburg [Miss.] City Directory, 1923. Memphis, Tenn., R. L. Polk and 
Company, c!923. 

Houston (Texas} City Directory, 1939. Houston, Tex., Morrison & Fourmy 
Directory Company, c!939. 

Huntington City and County Directory, 1924. Detroit and Indianapolis, R. L. 
Polk and Company, c!92B 



196 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Independence (Jackson County, Mo.) City Directory, 1938. Kansas City, Mo., 
Gate City Directory Company, c!938. 

Iowa State Gazetteer and Business Directory (With Latest Map of the State), 
1918-1919. Des Moines, R. L. Polk and Company, c!918. 

Jersey City, Hoboken and Bayonne Directories, 1922-23. New York City, R. L. 
Polk and Company, c!922. 

Kalispell and White fish Cities; and Flathead and Lincoln Counties [Mont.'] 
Directory, 1922-23. Helena, Mont., R. L. Polk and Company, c!922. 

Lewistown City and Fergus and Judith Basin Counties Directory, 1922-23. 
Helena, Mont., R. L. Polk and Company, c!922. 

Lincoln (Lancaster County, Nebr.) City Directory, 1938, Including Burnham 
and West Lincoln. Omaha, Nebr., R. L. Polk and Company, c!938. 

Logansport City and Cass County Directory, 1924- Indianapolis, Ind., R. L. 
Polk and Company, c!924. 

Lufkin [Tex.] City Directory, 1925. Dallas, John F. Worley Directory Com- 
pany, c!925. 

Lynchburg, Va., City Directory, 1924. Richmond, Va., Hill Directory Com- 
pany, Inc., c!924. 

Maiden [Mass.] Directory, 1925 . . . Boston, Mass., Sampson & Murdock 
Company, c!925. 

Mankato City and Blue Earth County [Minn.] Directory . . . 1924-25. 
St. Paul, Minn., R. L. Polk and Company, c!924. 

Memphis (Shelby County, Term.) City Directory, 1938. [Memphis] R. L. 
Polk and Company, c!938. 

Menomince [Mich.] City Directory, 1924- Detroit, Mich., R. L. Polk and 
Company, c!924. 

Mineral Wells [Tex.~\ Directory, 1924. St. Paul, Minn., R. L. Polk and Com- 
pany, c!924. 

Minot City and Ward County Directory, 1924-1925. St. Paul, Minn., R. L. 
Polk and Company, c!924. 

Missoula City and Missoula County [Mont.] Directory, 1922-1923. Helena, 
Mont., R. L. Polk and Company, c!922. 

Mobile City Directory, 1924. Birmingham, Ala., R. L. Polk and Company, 
c!924. 

Monrovia, Arcadia and Duarte [Calif.] Directory, 1925. Los Angeles, Calif., 
Los Angeles Directory Company, c!925. 

Muskogee (Muskogee County, Okla.) City Directory, 1938, Including Muskogee 
County. Kansas City, Mo., R. L, Polk and Company, c!938. 

Natchez [Miss.] City Directory, 1925. Detroit, Mich., R. L. Polk and Com- 
pany, c!925. 

Nevada State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1907-1908. Salt Lake City, 
R. L. Polk and Company, 1907. 

New Orleans (Orleans Parish, La.) City Directory, 1938. [New Orleans] R. L. 

Polk and Company, c!938. 

Newport News, Kecoughtan, Hampton, Phoebus and Old Point, Va., City Di- 
rectory, 1925. Richmond, Va., Hill Directory Company, Inc., c!925. 
Norfolk and Portsmouth (Virginia) City Directory, Including South Norfolk, 
1925. Richmond, Va., Hill Directory Company, Inc., c!925. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 197 

North Adams (Massachusetts) Directory, 1924. Schenectady, N. Y., H. A. 

Manning Company, n. d. 
Oklahoma City (Oklahoma County, Okla.) Directory, 1939. Kansas City, Mo., 

R. L. Polk and Company, c!939. 
Omaha (Douglas County, Nebr.) City Directory, 1989, Including Carter Lake, 

East Omaha and Sarpy County. Omaha, R. L. Polk and Company, c!939. 
Owosso City and Shiawassee County Directory, 1924- Detroit, Mich., R. L. 

Polk and Company, c!924. 
Pan's and Lamar County [Tex.] Directory, 1924. Dallas, John F. Worley 

Directory Company, c!924. 
Pawhuska City and Osage County Farmers Directory, 1925. Sioux City, Iowa, 

R. L. Polk and Company, c!925. 

Petersburg, Va., City Directory, 1924- Richmond, Va., Hill Directory Com- 
pany, c!924. 
Folk's Real Estate Register and Directory of the United States and Canada. 

5th ed., 1911-1912. Detroit, R. L. Polk and Company, c!911. 
Pueblo (Colorado] City Directory, 1939. Salt Lake City, Utah, R. L. Polk and 

Company, c!939. 
Raleigh, N. C. } City Directory, 1925. Richmond, Va., Hill Directory Company, 

Inc., c!925. 
Roanoke, Salem and Vintqn (Virginia) City Directory, 1925. Richmond, Va., 

Hill Directory Company, Inc., c!925. 
Rocky Mount, N. C., City Directory, 1925. Richmond, Va., Hill Directory 

Company, Inc., c!925. 

Saginaw Directory, 1925. Detroit, Mich., R. L. Polk and Company, c!925. 
St. Joseph (Missouri) City Directory, 1938-39, Including Buchanan County 

Taxpayers. Kansas City, Mo., R. L. Polk and Company, c!938. 
St. Louis (Missouri) City Directory, 1939. St. Louis, Mo., Polk-Gould Di- 
rectory Company, c!939. 
St. Paul (Ramsey County, Minn.) City Directory, 1938. St. Paul, Minn., R. L. 

Polk and Company, c!938. 
Salt Lake City (Salt Lake County, Utah), 1938. Salt Lake City, Utah, R. L. 

Polk and Company, c!938. 
San Angela City Directory, 1925. Dallas, John F. Worley Directory Company, 

Inc., c!925. 
San Francisco City Directory, 1938. San Francisco, Calif., R. L. Polk and 

Company, c!938. 
Sault Sainte Marie City Directory, 1924-1925. Detroit, Mich., R. L. Polk and 

Company, c!924. 
Schenectady and Scotia Directory, 1924. Schenectady, N. Y., H. A. Manning 

Company, c!924. 
Sherman (Gray son County, Tex.) City Directory, 1938. Dallas, Tex., John F. 

Worley Directory Company, c!938. 
Shreveport (Caddo Parish, La.), 1938. Dallas, Tex., R. L. Polk and Company, 

c!938. 
Sioux Falls City Directory, 1924. Sioux City, Iowa, R. L. Polk and Company, 

c!924. 
Springfield (Green County, Mo.) City Directory, 1938. Kansas City, Mo., R. 

L. Polk and Company, c!938. 



198 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Staunton, Va., City Directory, Including List of Augusta County Tax Payers, 
1924. Richmond, Va., Hill Directory Company, Inc., c!924. 

Superior City Directory, 1925. Superior, Wis., R. L. Polk and Company, c!925. 

Trinidad City and Las Animas County Directory, 1924-1925. Colorado Springs, 
Colo., R. L. Polk Directory Company, c!924. 

Utica (Oneida County, New York) City Directory, 1924. Utica, N. Y., Utica 
Directory Publishing Company, c!924. 

Vincennes [Ind.1 Directory, 1924. Indianapolis, Ind., R. L. Polk and Com- 
pany, c!924. 

Waco (Texas) City Directory, 1938. Dallas, Tex., Morrison & Fourmy Di- 
rectory Company, c!938. 

Wheeling City Directory, 1924. Wheeling, W. Va., R. L. Polk and Company, 
c!924. 

Wichita Falls (Wichita County, Tex.) City Directory, 1939. Dallas, Tex., 
John F. Worley Directory Company, c!939. 

Wilmington, N. C., City Directory, 1924- Richmond, Va., Hill Directory Com- 
pany, Inc., c!924. 

Wilson, N. C., City Directory, 1925. Richmond, Va., Hill Directory Company, 
Inc., c!925. 

Winona City and Winona County [Minn.} Directory, 1925. Winona, Minn., 
Winona Directory Company, c!925. 

Yankton [South Dak.] City and County Directory, 1925, Including Cedar and 
Knox Counties, Nebr. Detroit, Mich., R. L. Polk and Company, c!925. 

GENERAL 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN ASSOCIATION, Papers Delivered Before the Members at 
Springfield, Illinois, on February 11, 12, 1989. Springfield, Abraham Lincoln 
Association, 1940. 

ADAMS, JAMES TRUSLOW, ed., Dictionary of American History, Vols. 1-5. New 
York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940. 

ALEXANDER, HARTLEY BURR, Sioux Indian Painting. Part 1, Paintings of the 
Sioux and Other Tribes of the Great Plains; Part 2, The Art of Amos Bad 
Heart Buffalo. Nice, France, C. Szwedzicki [c!938]. 

ALLEN, FREDERICK LEWIS, Since Yesterday; the Nineteen-Thirties in America, 
September 3, 1929-September 3, 1939. New York, Harper and Brothers 
[c!939]. 

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, Year Book, 1939. Philadelphia, The Ameri- 
can Philosophical Society, 1940. 

ARNOLD, R. Ross, Indian Wars of Idaho. Caldwell, Idaho, The Caxton Printers, 
Ltd., 1932. 

BAKELESS, JOHN, . . . Daniel Boone. New York, William Morrow and 
Company, 1939. 

BARBEE, DAVID R., and MILLEDGE L. BONHAM, JR., eds., The Montgomery Ad- 
dress of Stephen A. Douglas. (Reprinted from the Journal of Southern His~ 
tory, Vol. 5, No. 4, Nov., 1939.) 

BEVERIDGE, ALBERT JEREMIAH, and DAVID RAN KIN BARBEE, An Excursion in 
Southern History Briefly Set Forth in the Correspondence Between Senator 
A. J. Beveridge and David Rankin Barbee . . . Richmond, Republished 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 199 

by Langbourne M. Williams, 1928. [Ashville, N. C., Service Printing Com- 
pany, 1928.] 

BOWEN, HOWARD, English Grants-in-aid ; a Study in the Finance of Local Gov- 
ernment. Iowa City, The University, 1939. 

BRECKENRIDGE, JAMES MALCOLM, William Clark Breckenridge, Historical Re- 
search Writer and Bibliographer of Missouriana. St. Louis, The Author, 
1932. 

BRIMLOW, GEORGE FRANCIS, The Bannock Indian War of 1878. Caldwell, The 
Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1938. 

BROOKS, PHILIP COOLIDGE, Diplomacy and the Borderlands; the Adams-Onis 
Treaty of 1819. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1939. (University 
of California Publications in History, Vol. 24.) 

BURNS, EDWARD McNALL, James Madison, Philosopher of the Constitution. 
New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1938. 

CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE, Year Book, 1940. Washing- 
ton, D. C., The Endowment, 1940. 

CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE, DIVISION OF INTERCOURSE AND 
EDUCATION, International Conciliation, Documents for the Year 1939. New 
York, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of Intercourse 
and Education, n. d. 

CHILDS, ST. JULIEN RAVENEL, Malaria and Colonization in the Carolina Low 
Country, 1526-1696. Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1940. (The Johns 
Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, Series 58, 
No. 1.) 

CLARK, S. D., The Canadian Manufacturers' Association; a Study in Collective 
Bargaining and Political Pressure. Toronto, The University of Toronto 
Press, 1939. (University of Toronto Studies, History and Economics Series, 
Vol. 7.) 

COLVERT, CLYDE C., The Public Junior College Curriculum, an Analysis. Uni- 
versity, La., Louisiana State University Press, 1939. (Louisiana State Uni- 
versity Studies, No. 38.) 

Comacrib Directory of China, 1926. Combined Chinese-Foreign Commercial 
and Classified Directory of China and Hongkong, Including a Who's Who of 
Residents . . . Vol. 2. Shanghai, China, Commercial & Credit Informa- 
tion Bureau [1926]. 

CORRELL, ERNST, President Grant and the Mennonite Immigration From Russia. 
(Reprint From The Mennonite Quarterly Review, Vol. 9, No. 3, July, 1935.) 

CRUCHET, RENE, France et Louisiana; Medecine et Litterature ; Montaigne et 
Montesquieu at Home. University, La., Louisiana State University Press, 
1939. (Louisiana State University, Romance Language Series, No. 2.) 

Cumulative Book Index; World List of Books in the English Language 

January, 1938-December, 1939. New York, The H. W. Wilson Company, 
1940. 

Custom House Guide and United States Customs Tariff. Edition 1925 
New York, Custom House Guide [c!925]. 

DALE, EDWARD EVERETT, and GASTON LITTON, Cherokee Cavaliers; Forty Years 
of Cherokee History as Told in the Correspondence of the Ridge-Watie- 
Boudinot Family. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1939. 



200 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

DONNAN, ELIZABETH, Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade 
to America. Washington, D. C., Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1930- 
1935. 4 Vols. 

EDWARDS, EVERETT E., A Guide for Courses in the History of American Agri- 
culture. Washington, D. C., 1939. Mimeographed. (United States De- 
partment of Agriculture, Library, Bibliographical Contributions, No. 35.) 
FREMONT, MRS. JESSIE (BENTON), Souvenirs of My Time. Boston, D. Lothrop 

and Company [c!887]. 

HANNA, A. J., A Bibliography of the Writings of Irving Bacheller. Winter 
Park, Fla., Rollins College [1939]. (Rollins College Bulletin, Vol. 35, No. 1, 
September, 1939.) 
HARPER, GEORGE W., ed., Antique Collector's Guide and Reference Handbook. 

New York, George W. Harper, c!939. 

HOEBEL, E. ADAMSON, The Political Organization and Law-Ways of the Co- 
manche Indians. Menasha, Wis., American Anthropological Association, 
1940. (Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association, No. 54.) 
HOWITT, EMANUEL, Selections From Letters Written During a Tour Through 
the United States, in the Summer and Autumn of 1819; Illustrative of the 
Character of the Native Indians . . . Nottingham, J. Dunn [1820]. 
IMLAH, ALBERT HENRY, Lord Ellenborough ; a Biography of Edward Law, Earl 
of Ellenborough, Governor-General of India. Cambridge, Harvard Uni- 
versity Press, 1939. (Harvard Historical Studies, Vol. 43.) 
IRWIN, LEONARD BERTRAM, Pacific Railways and Nationalism in the Canadian- 
American Northwest, 1845-1873 . . . Philadelphia, 1939. (Thesis, Ph. D., 
University of Pennsylvania, 1939.) 

JOHNSON, RICHARD W., A Soldier's Reminiscences in Peace and War. Phila- 
delphia, J. B. Lippincott Company, 1886. 
JOYNER, FRED BUN YON, David Ames Wells, Champion of Free Trade. Cedar 

Rapids, Iowa, The Torch Press [c!939]. 
KIDDER, A. V., The Excavations at Pecos in 1925. Santa Fe, N. M., 1926. 

(Papers of the School of American Research, New Series Paper, No. 14.) 
KIRBY, THOMAS A., Chaucer's Troilus; a Study in Courtly Love. University, 
La., Louisiana State University Press, 1940. (Louisiana State University 
Studies, No. 39.) 
LA FARGE, OLIVER, As Long as the Grass Shall Grow. Photographs by Helen 

M. Post. New York, Alliance Book Corporation [c!940]. 

LATHROP, ELISE L., Early American Inns and Taverns. New York, Tudor Pub- 
lishing Company, 1936. 

MABRY, WILLIAM ALEXANDER, The Negro in North Carolina Politics Since Re- 
construction. Durham, N. C., Duke University Press, 1940. (Trinity Col- 
lege Historical Society, Historical Papers, Series 23.) 

McMuRTRiE, DOUGLAS CRAWFORD, Some Facts Concerning the Invention of 
Printing, the Five-hundredth Anniversary of Which Will Be Celebrated 
Internationally in 1940. Chicago, Chicago Club of Printing House Crafts- 
men, 1939. 

MADARIAGA, SALVADOR DE, Christopher Columbus; Being the Life of the Very 
Magnificent Lord Don Cristobal Colon. New York, The Macmillan Com- 
pany, 1940. 

MANNING, WILLIAM RAY, ed., Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States; 
Inter-American Affairs, 1831-1860. Vol. XI. Spain. Documents 6033-5678. 



RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY 201 

Vol. XII. Texas and Venezuela. Documents 5679-6174. Washington, D. C., 
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1939. (Publications of the 
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of International Law, 
Washington.) 

MEXICAN CENTRAL RAILWAY COMPANY LIMITED, Annual Reports of the Board 
of Directors to the Stockholders for the Years Ending December 81, 1880- 
1900. 

MICHIGAN, CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, 1835, The Michigan Constitutional 
Conventions of 1835-86 ; Debates and Proceedings. Ann Arbor, The Univer- 
sity of Michigan Press, 1940. 

MOSK, SANFORD A., A Railroad to Utopia. (Reprinted from The Southwestern 
Social Science Quarterly, December, 1939.) 

MOUNT VERNON LADIES' ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION, Annual Report, 1939. 
Mount Vernon [c!939] . 

MULLER, SAMUEL, and others, Manual for the Arrangement and Description of 
Archives . . . New York, The H. W. Wilson Company, 1940. 

National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Being the History of the United 
States. Vol. 27. New York, James T. White and Company, 1939. 

NEW YORK, MUSEUM, Annual Report of the Trustees, 1989. New York, 1940. 

PARSONS, ELSIE WORTHINGTON (CLEWS), Pueblo Indian Religion. Chicago, 
The University of Chicago Press [c!9391. 2 Vols. 

Patterson's American Educational Directory, Vol. 87. Chicago, American Edu- 
cational Company, 1940. 

PAXSON, FREDERIC LOGAN, American Democracy and the World War, Vol. 2; 
America at War, 1917-1918. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1939. 

PRATT, HARRY EDWARD, Lincoln, 1 840-1846 ; Being the Day-by-Day Activities of 
Abraham Lincoln, From January 1, 1840, to December 81, 1846. Springfield, 
111., The Abraham Lincoln Association [c!939]. 

ROBERTSON, COLIN, Colin Robertson's Correspondence Book, September, 18 17, to 
September, 1822. Toronto, The Champlain Society, 1939. 

ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, [Annual Report} ... a Review for 1939, by 
Raymond B. Fosdick. New York, 1940. 

SCHULTE, PAUL CLARENCE, The Catholic Heritage of Saint Louis: A History of 
the Old Cathedral Parish, St. Louis, Mo. St. Louis, Mo. [The Catholic 
Herald}, 1934. 

SCRAMUZZA, VINCENT MARY, The Emperor Claudius. Cambridge, Harvard Uni- 
versity Press, 1940. (Harvard Historical Studies, Vol. 44.) 

SHIPPEB, LESTER BURRELL, Canadian- American Relations, 1849-1874. New 
Haven, Yale University Press, 1939. 

SINGLETON, ESTHER, ed., Historic Landmarks of America as Seen and Described 
by Famous Writers. New York, Dodd, Mead and Company, 1909. 

SOUTHERN REGIONAL CONFERENCE AND LOUISIANA STATE CONFERENCE ON FAMILY 
RELATIONS, Proceedings of the First . . . February 24-25, 1939. Univer- 
sity, La., Louisiana State University, 1939. 

STANDARD OIL COMPANY, Present Status of the Mexican Oil "Expropriations" 
1940. New York, Standard Oil Company (N. J.), n. d. 

STONG, PHILLIP DUFFIELD, Horses and Americans. New York, Frederick A. 
Stokes Company, 1939. 



202 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

TEXAS FOLK-LORE SOCIETY, In the Shadow of History. Austin, Texas Folk-Lore 
Society, 1939. (Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society, No. 15.) 

THOMASON, JOHN WILLIAM, JR., Jeb Stuart. New York, Charles Scribner's 
Sons, 1934. 

VAN LOON, HENDRIK WILLEM, and GRACE CASTAGNETTA, The Songs America 
Sings. New York, Simon and Schuster [cl939]. 

VERNON, ARTHUR, The History and Romance of the Horse. Boston, Waverly 
House [cl939]. 

WAGNER, GLENDOLIN DAMON, and WILLIAM A. ALLEN, Blankets and Moccasins, 
Plenty Coups and His People, the Crows. Caldwell, Idaho, The Caxton 
Printers, Ltd., 1936. 

WALLACE, WILLARD MOSHER, Sir Edwin Sandys and the First Parliament of 
James I. Philadelphia, 1940. (Thesis, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 
1940.) 

WEBB, WILLIAM S., and others, Ricketts Site Revisited; Site 8, Montgomery 
County, Kentucky. Lexington, University of Kentucky, 1940. (Publications 
of the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, Vol. 4, No. 6.) 

WEBB, WILLIAM S., and WILLIAM G. HAAG, Cypress Creek Villages, Sites 11 and 
12, McLean County, Kentucky. Lexington, University of Kentucky, 1940. 
(Publications of the Department of Anthropology and Archaeologj', Vol. 4, 
No. 2.) 

WHITE, LESLIE A., Pioneers in American Anthropology ; the Bandelier-M organ 
Letters, 1873-1883. Albuquerque, The University of New Mexico Press, 1940. 
2 Vols. 

Who's Who in America. Vol. 21, 1940-1941. Chicago, The A. N. Marquis Com- 
pany, 1940. 

WISSLER, CLARK, Indian Cavalcade; or, Life on the Old-time Indian Reserva- 
tions. New York, Sheridan House [cl938L 

, Indians of the United States; Four Centuries of Their History and Cul- 
ture. New York, Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc., 1940. 

World Almanac and Book of Facts for 1940. New York, The New York World- 
Telegram, c!940. 



Bypaths of Kansas History 

NEWS FROM FORT LEAVENWORTH 
From the Daily Missouri Republican, St. Louis, June 15, 1853. 

FORT LEAVENWORTH. Below we give some items of interest- which we gathered 
at Fort Leavenworth, a few days since. We learn that Gen. Garland has been 
ordered to Santa Fe. He is daily expected up on the St. Paul, with about two 
hundred troops. He goes out to relieve Col. Sumner, in command at that post. 

The court martial which has been in session at- Fort Leavenworth for several 
days past, has not closed its labors. They now have under consideration the 
charges preferred against Maj. How, while in New Mexico. A large number of 
officers from abroad are in attendance; among them we notice Brev. Lt. Colonel 
Bragg, of "a little more grape, Capt. Bragg," memory. Also, Gen. Clark, and 
others of high rank in the army. 

The spectacle of the fine looking officers, with their shining epaulettes and 
glittering swords, reminded us of like scenes we had witnessed on the plains of 
Mexico, "in the days when we went fighting, a long time ago." 

On the 28th a train with quartermaster and commissary stores, left for the 
new post on the Kansas river. 

The Mail (Express) arrived at Fort Leavenworth on Tuesday last, from the 
new post [Fort Riley] at the mouth of Republican Fork, on the Kansas river. 
The place is reported to be in good health, and officers stationed there are 
busily employed in making preparations for putting up the necessary buildings, 
&c. 

Major Chilton, with Company B, 1st Dragoons, left Fort Leavenworth on 
yesterday, en route for the new post to be established at the mouth of Walnut 
creek, on the Arkansas river Fort Atkinson having been ordered to be broken 
up and abandoned, and Company D, 6th Infantry, now stationed there, to be 
removed and stationed at the post at the mouth of Walnut creek. Weston 
Reporter. 



ARMS FOR KANSAS 

From the Kansas City (Mo.) Enterprise, October 25, 1856. 

We noticed yesterday, at the freight depot of the Burlington and Missouri 
River Railroad, a new U. S. six pounder and seven boxes of U. S. muskets. 
They are consigned to T. B. Eldridge, at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, who is recruiting 
at that point for the "Free State Army" in Kansas. These are the kind of 
Agricultural Implements that the peaceable "Free State settlers are taking into 
Kansas." We have seen an account going the rounds of the papers, for the 
past few days, that there was recently stolen from Xenia, Ohio, a brass six 
pounder, and a lot of U. S. muskets. Wonder if these are the same? Gov. 
Geary will please take notice. Burlington Gazette. 

(203) 



204 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

THIS ONE WASN'T ON THE INDIANS 
The Independent, Oskaloosa, September 3, 1864. 

There was a big scare on the bottom on Monday afternoon and night. A 
report got out that 200 Pottawatomie Indians were at work burning, killing and 
scalping at a horrible rate; and some of the settlers began to flee before the 
supposed danger. Capt. McCain, and some of his neighbors started for the 
scene of devastation, leaving ever3'thing ready for a hast}' flight if necessary, 
to this place. As they went towards Rising Sun the story grew larger and 
larger, and there was a terrible scare. But arrived at the spot, the facts were 
about these. A couple of Indians had been in Rising Sun and two white men 
wanted to trade ponies wit-h them, but the Indians would not trade. The whites 
were drunk, and when the Indians left followed them some distance threatening 
to shoot them if they did not trade ; and while flourishing their revolvers about 
their heads, one of them went- off and shot the fellow who held it through the 
leg, the ball going through the saddle and into the horse upon which he sat. 
They then returned and reported that the Indians had fired upon them and 
done the mischief. Some Indians had been encamped near the place pre- 
viously which gave a show of plausibility to the big stories that grew out of 
this small affair. Whisky does a great deal of mischief, and might have led to 
something serious in this case, but for the accident which happened to the 
chaps in question. 



HUNTING BUFFALO VIA THE UNION PACIFIC IN 1868 

From Sheridan's Troopers on the Borders: A Winter Campaign 
on the Plains, by De B. Randolph Keim (Philadelphia, 1870), pp. 
37-41. 

The "end of the track" was one of those indefinite expressions in plains 
parlance, having reference to the terminus of the railroad, somewhere in the 
wilderness of waste, far to the westward. In times of active construction on 
the road the expression was particularly applicable, for the last traveler would 
find himself penetrating regions which his itinerary predecessor of but a few 
days before had never thought of and probably no white man before, except 
the surveying party, had ever visited. The "end of the track," therefore, 
meant precisely where the locomotive stopped running. 

At eleven o'clock on the morning of the second of October, the train for 
the west arrived at Hays City. I was one of a party of about half a dozen 
persons who had been awaiting its arrival for two long and monotonous hours. 

My fellow passengers altogether numbered about twenty persons. . . . 
The conductor of the train was a man of sense and good address. He had 
much experience in life on the plains and was the man for the position he held. 
He always had his rifle by his side and pistols, either about his waist, or where 
he could conveniently put his hands upon them. He was an excellent shot, 
and had several bullet scars as mementoes of early conflicts. 

We had hardly proceeded fifteen miles on our journey when we came in 
sight of several large herds of buffaloes, each numbering not less than two 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 205 

thousand animals. We were promised a "wonderful sight" of the beast by the 
conductor of the train. Indeed, so marvelous were his stories that he was 
listened to with evident incredulity. 

As we increased the distance from the last settlement, buffaloes rapidly 
grew in numbers. Thirty miles on the way the country was literally overrun. 
The main herds lay on the northern side of the track and as far as the eye 
could reach, not less than a distance of ten to fifteen miles, the plain was 
perfectly black with them. The herds nearest the track, alarmed at the 
strange sounds issuing from the locomotive, set off at a rapid lope, heading 
towards the north, in turn setting in motion the herds before them. The huge 
animals raised such a dust that for some minutes it was impossible to see 
more than a long line of hind-quarters and elevated tails. A number of 
isolated smaller herds which had crossed to the south upon the approach of 
the train, invariably raised their heads, looked at us for an instant, and then 
with heads down and tails up galloped towards the track making extraordinary 
exertions to get across ahead of the locomotive. In trying this strategic feat 
one specimen found himself forcibly lifted into the air and thrown into the 
ditch, where he lay upon his back, his cloven feet flourishing madly. 

Several animals had been shot from the cars out of this herd. The train 
now stopped to afford time to bring in a few "rumps." While this operation 
was going on, a party of six or eight of us started down the track to dispatch 
the buffalo, still kicking and bellowing with a mixture of suspense and rage, 
displaying certain serpentine and spasmodic motions of the dorsal column, 
which indicated an effort to get on his feet. When our party got within fifty 
yards a shot was fired at the animal which seemed to have a peculiarly 
vitalizing effect. At all events it called the buffalo to a sense of his ludicrous 
and unnatural position. With one desperate effort the old beast regained his 
feet. Several more shots were instantly fired, but none seemed to take effect. 
Instead of retreating the irate quadruped made for our party, coming at a 
"full jump," head down, tongue out, bleeding and frothing at the mouth, eyes 
flashing, and to cap the climax of his terrible exhibitions of infuriation, roared 
fearfully. As there was no time to lose, and to fire at him "head on" would 
be but a waste of ammunition, the party scattered in all directions. For my 
own part, I took occasion to make a few long and rapid strides across the 
track into the ditch on the other side. The rest of the party imitated this 
dexterous movement without many moments of reflection. Losing sight of 
us, the enraged animal, smarting under the blow he had received from the 
locomotive, and the tickling he had sustained from our rifles, wreaked his 
anger upon the opposite side of the embankment of the railroad by rending 
great furrows in the earth, stamping on the ground, raising a great dust, and 
making a terrible noise. It was very certain there was no time to waste. 
Should his lordship of the plains spy any of us he would doubtless renew the 
offensive. Raising up so as to get a partial sight of his carcass, not over 
thirty feet off, three of our party fired, the rest holding in reserve. Every ball 
seemed to take effect. Almost instantly the animal fell upon his knees. The 
rest then fired, when the animal rolled completely over. His tenacity of life 
was perfectly wonderful. By this time he must have had a dozen bullets in 
his body. Notwithstanding all this he struggled and swayed to and fro until 
he again brought himself to his feet. But all power to harm had fled. Plant- 



206 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ing himself firmly, moving his head to the right and left, his eye still full of 
fire, the noble beast looked even more defiant. From his nostrils ran streams 
of blood. 

To put the animal out of misery was the first sense of recovery from our 
stampede. Repeated shots were fired into his body. Thug, thug, the bullets 
could be heard penetrating his thick hide. As each ball entered, a slight turn 
of the head and switch of the tail were the only external indications of the 
effect of the bullet. At length after having been literally "peppered" with 
lead, a sudden quiver passed over the animal's entire frame, he staggered and 
fell. One deep gasp, a convulsive motion of the jaws, one sudden flash of 
the eye, a quantity of dark clotted blood ejected from the nostrils, and the 
buffalo was dead. 

Never before had I seen such an exhibition of tenacious rage and vitality. 
Had the animal been less injured by the locomotive, it would be difficult 
to say what would have been the result of his charge upon our party. It is 
a question, however, whether a buffalo would attack from the mere impulse 
of destruction. I have found the buffalo, compared with his remarkable 
physical strength, rather disposed to be timid. Several horsemen could ride 
into the midst of a herd of ten thousand with comparative safety, select their 
game and dispatch it; but when wounded the whole nature of the animal 
seems changed. He turns upon his pursuers, and death it is to him who ever 
ifalls into his power. Not satisfied with goring his victim until he is a 
mangled mass, he frequently plunges upon the remains until mashed into a 
perfect jelly. The vital spot in a buffalo is immediately under the shoulder, 
penetrating the heart or the lungs. On the forehead the bullet of the most 
powerful rifle has no effect whatever, the force being entirely expended on the 
immense mat or "mop" of hair, eight or ten inches in length, between the eyes. 

After our somewhat exciting battle, taking a last look, and I must say I 
felt a pang of shame as I left the inanimate carcass a useless waste, we 
hastened back to the train which was ready to move on and had been, 
signaling us for some minutes. 

For sixty miles the same great multitudes of buffaloes appeared in eight 
without signs of diminution in numbers. Beyond this, as we approached Sheri- 
dan station, the herds grew less in size and more isolated until they dis- 
appeared from view. I computed, during the entire day there were in sight 
from the train, not less than two hundred thousand animals of all ages. 

At six o'clock in the afternoon we reached the end of steam travel on the 
Kansas Pacific railwa3'. The end of the track presented all the appearance of 
work very abruptly terminated. At the very extreme point was a plain 
wooden mile-post painted white, with the characters "405 to S. L.," 405 miles 
to the State Line, that is of Kansas, at Kansas City. The objective point of 
the road, contemplated in the law, is the Pacific ocean, with a branch to 
Denver. The Pacific is to be reached by a more southerly route passing 
through Albuquerque, N. Mex., Southern Arizona, into Southern California. 
The length of the road from its initial point will be over two thousand miles. 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 207 

THE VELOCIPEDE ARRIVES IN KANSAS 
From the Fort Scott Monitor, February 24, 1869. 

Fort Scott, as usual, is ahead of the rest of the Kansas towns, by building 
the first velocipede in the state, if not west of the Mississippi river. Quite a 
number of our citizens have been to Scott avenue during the past week to see 
this stranger travel. A good many tried to ride it but failed. Our friend Bailey 
says he could easily "ride the wheelipede if the darned thing would only stand 
up." It was built by G. Endicott, and is similar to the two-wheeled ones used 
in the East. It will not be long before they will come into general use in 
Kansas, as our good natural roads seem to have been designed for the use of 
these wheeled bipeds. 



WANTED FOR MARRIAGE 

From the Walnut Valley Times, El Dorado, July 1, 1870. 
WANTED. Fifty young ladies to make husbands from fifty well-to-do 
bachelors residing in and about El Dorado. While our population is increasing 
very rapidly there is yet half the material here to further comply with the 
governor's request, if we only had the other half. 

From the Wichita Vidette, September 9, 1870. 

GIRLS ATTENTION ! We are authorized to state that the first good, respect- 
able young lady who settles on Slate creek [Sumner county], will receive a 
present of a fine saddle horse, saddle and bridle, and a husband if she wants 
one. Here girls, is a chance for you. We will guarantee that the parties 
making the offer will carry out the part of his bargain in good faith, provided 
the young lady in question accepts the proposition. 



PAY DAY FOR THE POTTAWATOMIES 

From the Daily Kansas State Record, Topeka, October 30, 1870. 
[Note: The Indian agency building described in this article still 
stands at the east edge of St. Marys near US-40.] 

The payment of the Pottawattamies, to which so many persons of both the 
white and colored "persuasion" have looked forward with anxious interest, has 
been in progress since Thursday, and yesterday the whole "arrangement" was 
"interviewed" by our reporter. 

Indian payments are an old story in Kansas, and there are few, if any, of 
the old settlers of the state who have not at one time or another witnessed 
one. To a newcomer, however, the scene of one of these periodical "settle- 
ments" of the government with its interesting "wards" generally possesses the 
charm of novelty, and even a written description may be of interest to those 
whose misfortune it is to live outside the limits of this state, and who have 
never seen the Indian even in his naturalized and domesticated condition. 

The scene at St. Mary's mission on Saturday, the 29th of October, 1870, was 



208 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

probably one of the most utterly forlorn, dismal and miserable spectacles which 
this "mundane sphere" has ever witnessed. It had been raining since Friday, 
as it only can rain in what some fool or other has called this "drouthy country," 
and the one long street of St. Mary's, which is as yet innocent of sidewalks, 
was a swamp, trodden into black, slimy stickiness and nastiness by the feet of 
men and horses. 

The place of payment was the old government agency, near the Catholic 
mission buildings. The building is a one-story edifice, built of stone, and once 
made some pretensions to comfort and taste; it undoubtedly cost our benevo- 
lent Uncle Sam money enough to possess both, but the picket fence has been 
broken down, the fancy cornice is destitute of paint, and the premises generally 
bear an air of decay. The two low, dirty, smoky rooms were devoted to the 
business of payment. In one of them Mr. Williamson, of the Interior Depart- 
ment, the paymaster, had his station. The other was occupied by the pay- 
master's clerk; the interpreter, Joseph Napoleon Bourassa, and Lieut. Hippie, 
of the 3d artillery, in command of the guard of ten men from Ft. Riley; the 
rest of the space was occupied by white men, traders, and others, having de- 
mands against the Indians, and Agent Morris. Louis Vieux, familiarly called 
"Uncle Louis Vieux," stood in the doorway acting in the capacity of marshal, 
crier and sentry. 

The method of payment is similar to that adopted in the army, and, indeed, 
the presence of the young lieutenant in his smart uniform, and of the "boys in 
blue" standing about, served to keep up the resemblance. The name of the 
person to be paid was read from the various rolls by various persons, till it 
finally reached Mr. Vieux, who sang it out from the door with a "long, loud 
and exceedingly bitter cry," and with fearful emphasis on the last syllable; 
after which the person called for, if present and sober, appeared and received 
his or her money. Generally some question arose about the administration of 
estates and other legal matters, which occasioned a dialogue in French, English 
and Pottawattamie, until everybody was satisfied. The party to be paid gen- 
erally "stuck out" the controversy without betraying the slightest interest as 
to its termination. 

While this was going on, the "wards" male and female, stood, sat and 
lounged around in the partially inclosed mud-hole formerly the agency yard. 
The women squatted around the fence in the mud, with their shawls and 
blankets over their ears, and the pappooses submitted to the pitiless rain with 
Indian silence and fortitude, instead of manifesting their feelings by kicks and 
screams like white babies. 

Among those in attendance was Maj. W. W. Ross, who has been for years 
more or less connected with the Pottawattamies in their business with the 
government. From him we learned that the sums paid to each person on the 
pay-roll was $688.43, in the aggregate about $500,000. 

The amount paid to some families reaches, it is said, as high as $5,000. Of 
course much of this money passed immediately into the hands of traders and 
others having accounts against the Indians, but Maj . Ross gave it as his opinion 
that the Indians carried away more money for themselves than is generally 
believed. All present having unsettled accounts against the Pottawattamies 
gave them the credit of being faithful to their obligations. One gentleman, 
having $5,000 "out" among the tribe, said he had never in a single instance 
been refused payment. 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 209 

Getting tired of the rain and the mud, and the squaws and the ponies and 
the pappooses, our reporter left the tumble-down agency and went over to the 
mission proper, where he saw Father Ward, who is at the head of the institu- 
tion. The good Father, with the intelligence and politeness which everywhere 
characterizes the Jesuits, answered every inquiry, and gave some interesting 
particulars concerning the past history and future plans of the mission. Of 
these we may speak more fully at a future time. Unlike the Catholic mission- 
aries among the Osages, Father Ward expressed the belief that there is such 
a being as an adult Christian Indian. Many of the Pottawattamies he con- 
sidered excellent Catholics, devoted to their religious duties and exemplary in 
their conduct. The Indian youth, he said, were as capable of acquiring knowl- 
edge as white children, and many of them evinced remarkable capacity. 

Leaving the gardens and neat buildings of the mission, which had an air 
of comfort even in this miserable weather, and going up the main street of the 
town was a trying process, and one rather calculated to try one's belief in 
Father Ward's hopeful view of things. Numerous Indians contrived to get 
possession of whisky, and were consequently miserably drunk. Unlike his 
white brother, the Indian never gets "happy." Whisky only makes him 
melancholy and "cursed," and if ever a pitiable object presented itself to 
human gaze, it was these "sons of nature," plunging and wallowing in the 
fathomless mire, cursing and swearing after a beastly fashion, known only to 
themselves. Some of them lost their recently acquired money in the mud, 
and in one instance a $100 bill was fished out of the middle of the street. 

The town was full of traders in every description of merchandise, Topeka 
being liberally represented. The "gay gamboliers" were also present in force, 
and horsemen were on hand in readiness to make their pile on the con- 
templated Sunday races, but the rain had driven everybody except the 
Indians indoors, and spoiled the race course. At six o'clock p. m. on Saturday 
the prospects for sport in St. Mary's were dubious. 

The ride home was accomplished in a dimly-lighted caboose attached to a 
freight train of interminable length, and the night was rendered cheerful by 
the incessant glare of lightning, and the sound of the falling sheets of rain. 
The walk from the Kansas Pacific depot was also enlivened by the plunge of 
two gentlemen, representing law and literature, into the pond at the end of 
the depot platform, and as they rose to the surface, there was heard a succes- 
sion of remarks, which were understood to invoke curses on the head of the 
man who invented Indian payments. 



No CONTEMPT IN THIS HAYS COURT 
From the Junction City Union, August 31, 1872. 

The Democratic (Hollidaysburg, Pa.) Standard gives an account of a court 
scene at Hays City, and requests us to corroborate the story. The incident oc- 
curred as related, and we would add, that the trial was by a jury of six men, 
before Chief Justice Dalton, of Hays City. The animal in dispute was a two 
and a half year old heifer, was white as chalk, and as fine an animal as ever 
ate grass on the plains of Kansas. Mr. Polly claimed that he purchased her 
when a young calf, and missed her from his herd about the first of March ; saw 

78801 



210 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

her about the middle of July and took her home; had brands on her and ear 
marks. These says Mr. Treat, who purchased her from a Missourian, were 
older than the first of March, and hence the necessity of bringing the animal to 
the court house for inspection. When the jury were requested to go out and 
examine these marks, they said it was too hot, and told the sheriff to bring 
"him" in. The sheriff obeyed the animal the next moment stood in the 
middle of the room facing the jury the crowd smiled one gentleman de- 
sired to be next the door, and passed in too close proximity to the heifer's 
rear. She gave him a violent kick, at which the crowd roared. The sheriff 
gave the tail a twist, this was too much, and the heifer roared and pitched over 
chairs and benches, and the crowd made a hasty retreat towards the door and 
windows; the judge, jury, lawyers and suiters made a lunge for the rear 
windows and the animal in dispute was master of the situation. Fortunately 
she espied the door, and after demolishing several chairs and school desks, 
made her escape, and hurt no one. 

But the richest scene that ever disgraced a Kansas court room, occurred be- 
fore the same justice last week. Jack Wright was shot and killed by one 
McClilland, and he was taken before Justice Dalton for a hearing. Tom Drum, 
in whose saloon the shooting took place, was the principal witness and was 
first called on the stand. He looked about the room at the crowd assembled, 
and remarked to the "court" that things looked d d dry, and suggested that 
a little whisky would 'liven things up. His "honor" made no objection, and in 
a few minutes a decanter well filled with "benzine" was set upon the table 
just in front of the judge. The court, the witness, lawyers and prisoners drank 
"all round." As each witness was called to the stand, he would step to the 
table, pour out his whisky and nodding to the "court" the usual "how," drink 
then hold up his right hand and after being sworn take his seat and give in 
his testimony. 

The prisoner was committed in default $1,500 bail. That night the friends 
of the deceased visited the jail with the intention of shooting McClilland. The 
jail is a cellar under the court room. They commenced at random through 
the iron bars, and instead of killing McClilland, they shot and killed Poirr 
Donovan, a noted horse thief, who was in jail awaiting his trial. McClilland 
is now under guard at the post. 



ANTELOPE AT KINSLEY 
From the Edwards County Leader, Kinsley, May 31, 1877. 

Last Sunday our quiet town was thrown into a flurry of excitement by the 
visitation of a herd of antelope. They crossed the railroad track and came 
into town just west of the Honorable Taylor Flick's residence, and leisurely 
wended their way towards Coon creek. They would have remained with us 
and become domesticated had not the larger portion of our good citizens be- 
come so excited, and frightened them away by opening up a little 4th of July 
over their advent into town. One of our prominent M.D.'s became so excited 
that he chased them into the creek and came very near swimming that stream 
in hopes of catching one for a pet. The race between the antelope and the 
Dr. was nip and tuck, nip winning the race by jumping the stream. 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 211 

INDIANS ATTEND A CIRCUS AT LAWRENCE 
From The Western Home Journal, Lawrence, July 31, 1879. 

The six Cheyenne warriors, Wild Hog, Old Man, Blacksmith, Left Hand, 
Run Fast, and Meheha, awaiting trial for their participation in the late Indian 
massacre [Dull Knife's raid of September, 1878, when forty Kansas settlers were 
killed], were taken to see the London circus yesterday. In some way they had 
heard of its coming and expressed a strong desire to see it. Messrs. Cooper, 
Bailey & Co., kindly extended the freedom of the exhibition to them and the 
officers who attended. It was the first thing of the kind they had seen, and 
t-hey appeared to enjoy it thoroughly. About half-past two o'clock they 
marched into the menagerie in single file, and were shown one wild animal after 
another. The herd of elephants puzzled them very much, but they looked 
quietly and gravely at them, expressing no thought by word or gesture. The 
Bengal tigers and the lions, as they jumped and snarled behind the iron bars 
brought a peculiar gleam to the eyes of the red men. They seemed to recognize 
a nature akin to their own. The American lion, the red deer, the brown bear, 
all drew forth signs from two of the braves, who pointed westward and indi- 
cated by their motions that they had met these animals before. The camels 
were carefully scanned and passed for the herd of ponies upon which they 
looked with an eye that appreciated the beauty of the tiny things. 

Proceeding into the circus, they were seated by themselves, an officer at 
each end of them. The story of the cruel butcheries by the Cheyenne band 
was too fresh in the minds of the people to allow of their being seated without 
attracting attention. Every eye was soon turned upon t-hem, and many a 
mother grasped her child as she heard the words, "There are the Indians." Two 
women rushed out of the tent with a child in each arm, nor could they be in- 
duced to return. When the people learned that the sheriff and his deputies 
were with them quietness was restored. At first the Indians assumed a grave 
look as their eyes roamed over the sea of humanity about them; but, as act 
after act went- by, they gradually relaxed. Wild Hog said "heap" when any- 
thing especially pleased him, the others testifying their approval by grunts. 
When Frank Melville rode his splendid act they became excited, and seemed 
to appreciate the full performance. It was the same when Billy Button went 
flying about the ring upon his horse, they again expressed their delight. The 
four-horse act of Madame Cordona, and the champion act of Charles Fish 
caused them to look in astonishment. 

When the clowns appeared they smiled approval of their antics, and when 
the lean clown flung the fat clown over the ring bank and then threw a colored 
boy upon him, Blacksmith laughed until he cried, while his companions shook 
their sides. Fans were given them and they kept up as vigorous a fanning as 
any lady. They were provided with lemonade, and each one got away with 
two glasses, and when the third was offered they simply pressed their abdomen 
and used the only English word they knew "heap." They enjoyed the per- 
formance thoroughly, and seemed disappointed when it was over. They were 
taken back to the jail after the show was over. 



Kansas History as Published in the Press 

Articles of historical significance in recent issues of the Wichita 
Sunday Eagle include : "Landmark of Old West Wichita And Friends 
U. Is Being Razed/' November 24, 1940; "Early-Day Aerial Suc- 
cesses of Wrights Are Recorded in Pages of Wichita Eagle," Feb- 
ruary 2, 1941 ; "Development of Wichita Is Traced by 17 Historical 
Markers," and "Two Plucky Girls Started First Rural Route," 
March 2; "Garfield University Started on Borrowed $75 (began in 
1887; remaining building now houses Friends University), April 27. 

Reminiscences of pioneer days in Graham county by Mrs. Amanda 
Brown Gustafson, Mrs. Jim (Bessie) Baird and Mrs. Matt Findley 
were printed in the Hill City Times, November 28, 1940. Mrs. 
Gustafson was born in the county in 1881, Mrs. Baird emigrated 
with her family from Maryland in the late 1870's and Mrs. Findley 
came to Graham county with her parents from Osage county in 1878. 
On January 16, 1941, the Hill City Times published the pioneer 
reminiscences of F. D. De Shon (arranged by Mildred Cass Beason) , 
who came to Graham county in 1872. 

The experiences of J. D. (Josh) Wheatcroft have been featured in 
a series of articles entitled "A True Story of How Life in the West 
Began for Me in 1880," which appeared in the Utica Star-Courier 
beginning with the issue of December 12, 1940. Mr. Wheatcroft 
came to Kansas from Iowa in a covered wagon with his family when 
he was thirteen years old. The final installment was printed Feb- 
ruary 6, 1941. 

A series of articles concerning the history of the Independent 
Holiness Movement by the late A. M. Kiergan published in the old 
Banner, are being reprinted in The Church Advocate and Good Way, 
Fort Scott, beginning with the issue of December 12, 1940. This 
movement, of which Kiergan was one of the founders, started in the 
1860's as an offshoot of Methodism in Missouri and Kansas. 

Charles Arnold, 87 years old, reporter for 62 years on the lola 
Register, resigned in December, 1940. The Register of December 
23, in reviewing his work, believed that he was perhaps the oldest 
newspaper reporter in point of service for one paper in the United 
States. 

An account of an Indian battle which took place behind "Indian 
Rock" on Glenifer hill east of Salina in 1857 was published in the 

(212) 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 213 

Salina Journal, December 26, 1940. In this battle the savage 
Cheyennes, Arapahoes and Sioux were driven back by the Kaws, 
Delawares and Pottawatomies, and as an indirect result of this war 
the white settlement on the site of Salina was made possible. A 
marker commemorating the event was erected by the Saline County 
Historical Society in 1922. 

The history of Grand Center Baptist Church was discussed by 
H. L. Tripp in the Waldo Advocate, December 30, 1940. 

An autobiography of the Rev. Father Bononcini is being printed in 
installments in the St. Paul Journal, beginning January 2, 1941. 
Father Bononcini was a prominent pioneer priest in Kansas. He was 
a teacher in the Seminary in Topeka during its brief career, and 
built churches in Fort Scott, Scammon, Pittsburg, Girard, Weir City, 
Arcadia and other places. 

Mrs. Julia Mills, one of the seven passengers on the first "pas- 
senger train" that pulled into Hutchinson on the night of June 30, 
1872, related her experiences in a feature article in the Hutchinson 
News, January 5, 1941. 

The Lyons Daily News of January 15, 1941, carried the story of 
the death of Mrs. Mickey (Frenchy) McCormick, 88, at Channing, 
Tex. Mrs. McCormick, once a Creole dance hall girl, was called by 
the cowboys of the West the "Belle of Old Tascosa." Native of 
Baton Rouge, La., she went to Dodge City, end of the railroad, in 
its hell-roaring days and then traveled by ox-cart to Old Tascosa 
about 1880. 

Judge Houston Whiteside, co-founder and editor of the Hutchin- 
son News in 1872, died at the age of 93 in Hutchinson, January 23, 
1941, according to the News of January 24. Judge Whiteside went 
to Hutchinson when the city was a year old and lived there all his 
life. 

On January 26, 1941, the Joplin (Mo.) Globe issued a "1941 
Progress Edition" of 112 pages featuring the industrial development 
of the tri-state area. 

A Santa Fe edition of the Arkansas City Daily Traveler was is- 
sued January 28, 1941, in observance of the beginning of the sixty- 
second year of Santa Fe railroad service to Arkansas City. 

Biographical information on C. N. James as compiled by Stella 
B. Haines, president of the Augusta Historical Society, was printed 



214 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

in the Augusta Daily Gazette, January 28, 1941. Mr. James was 
one of the founders of Augusta and named the town for his wife, 
Augusta James. 

The reminiscences of Mrs. W. H. Sears were recorded in the 
Lawrence Daily Journal-World, February 15, 1941. Mrs. Sears 
came to Kansas with her parents in 1857 and was living in Law- 
rence during Quantrill's raid. 

An account of the annual exodus of the River Brethren to the 
conference of this sect in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, published 
in the Philadelphia (Pa.) Press, April 26, 1903, was found in a 
family Bible by Sam D. Zook, of Abilene. The article was reprinted 
in the Abilene Daily Chronicle, February 18, 1941. 

The old Chisholm trail from Wichita south to the Kansas- 
Oklahoma line was discussed by Dick Long in the Wichita (Eve- 
ning) Eagle, February 25, 1941, after an interview with Warren L. 
Matthews, of Wichita. Mr. Matthews spent years tracing the route, 
mile by mile, through Kansas. A map showing the trail and present- 
day towns was printed with the article. 

The annual farm edition of the Atchison Daily Globe was issued 
February 25, 1941. Articles by Sen. Arthur Capper, Claude R. 
Wlckard, U. S. Secretary of Agriculture, and J. C. Mohler, secretary 
of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, were printed. 

During the spring of 1941 many of the state's daily and weekly 
newspapers featured the special supplement, "Coronado Rides Again 
in Kansas," prepared as part of the advance publicity for Kansas' 
celebration of Coronado's visit four hundred years ago. 

A special seventieth anniversary edition of the Chase County 
Leader, of Cottonwood Falls, was issued March 5, 1941. The first 
number was published March 4, 1871. A facsimile of the front page 
of the first issue was part of the anniversary number. 

The following articles of special historical interest by Victor Mur- 
dock appeared in recent issues of the Wichita (Evening) Eagle: 
"Glimpse of This County at First Settlement Given in an Old 
Diary," March 5, .1941; "Last Big Buffalo Hunt as Recorded in 
Detail by A. S. Hendry of McPherson," March 6; "Wounded Buffalo 
Charges Added Real Excitement to the Last Big Hunt," March 7 ; 
"Veteran Buffalo Hunter Who Put Up Ten Dollars for the Chance 
of a Shot," March 8; "Romance Is Hidden Away in Many a Com- 
munity in Rural Regions Here," concerning the River Brethren, 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 215 

March 10; "Graveyard on Prairies That Survived Community 
Carrying Name of Ivanhoe," March 11; "As Wichita Has Grown 
Traces of Topography Once Familiar Vanish," March 12; "Keeping 
Up the Cupboard Was a Point With Pioneers on Prairies and Be- 
yond," March 21 ; "Exodus of an Old Chieftain May Have Added 
Something to Wichita's Population," March 22; "Prices Which Ob- 
tained When Kansas Was Young Back Seventy Years Ago," March 
26 ; "Today Ever Memorable in Wichita History Through Oklahoma 
Opening," April 22; "How Napoleon the Third Happens to Show 
Up Here in the Early Day Records," April 23; "Kindness of Chis- 
holm, First Wichita Settler, Toward Indians' Captives," April 24. 

Included among the articles of historical interest in the "Clark 
County Historical Society Notes" in recent issues of The Clark 
County Clipper, of Ashland, were: "History of the Van Laningham 
Family," March 6, 1941; "The Shattucks in Massachusetts" (con- 
tributed by Ethel Luther Shattuck) , March 27 and April 3 ; "Coro- 
nado," April 10 and 17 ; "Lexington, Church, Town and Community" 
(contributed by Gertie Hughs and Lizzie Moore), April 24; "His- 
tory of Lexington Cemetery" and "Coronado in Clark County 400 
Years Ago," May 1 ; "The Passing of the Apple Brand and the Half 
Circle P. Brand," by Lon Ford, May 8. 

On March 7, 1941, "Your Scrapbook of Kansas Catholic History" 
began in the Eastern Kansas Register, printed at Denver, Colo. 
This historical sketch, in weekly installments, traces the beginning 
and development of Catholicism in Kansas. 

An article by Edith M. Burt in the Alma Enterprise, March 14 
and 21, 1941, tells of the old stone Congregational church located on 
Highway K-29 at Wabaunsee. In 1856, under the leadership of Col. 
C. B. Lines, the Beecher Bible and Rifle Company started to Kansas 
and settled in Wabaunsee in April. The stone church which now 
stands was completed in 1862. 

Kansas-born Raymond Clapper, Washington columnist, was the 
subject of a feature article in the Kansas City (Mo.) Star, March 
18, 1941, headed "Serious Raymond Clapper Cares for Little Except 
His Column." 

A letter from W. J. Baker of Yellow Springs, Ohio, whose father 
was at one time a resident of Pratt county, appeared in the Pratt 
Union, March 20, 1941, under the title "Early Kansas History." It 
related experiences of George Baker, the father, who went to Em- 
poria in the late 1850's. 



216 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Some passages from the diary of Lewis H. Garrard who traveled 
the Santa Fe trail in 1846 and 1847 were discussed by Henry L. 
Carey, of Dodge City, in the Hutchinson News-Herald, March 23, 
1941. The article described the building of old Fort Mann. The 
fort, of logs and adobe, was named for the wagonmaster who built 
it. Mr. Carey locates the post on the site of the J. P. McCollom 
ranch, three miles west of present Dodge City. 

The story of how Col. John Ritchie shot and killed a United States 
marshal and was duly tried in a court of law and found guilty, then 
acquitted and released, appeared as a feature article by Jim Bell in 
the Topeka Daily Capital, March 23, 1941. 

The Kansas City (Mo.) Star, March 23, 1941, printed recollec- 
tions of Mrs. Cora Skinner Ream in Smith county in the 1870's. 
She recalled foods common on pioneer tables and some of the substi- 
tutes used for delicacies. 

Reminiscences of Mrs. Eliza Williams Johnson, who came to Kan- 
sas with her family in 1860 when she was ten years old, appeared in 
the Clay Center Times, March 27, 1941. Mrs. Johnson was one of 
the earliest pioneers in the vicinity of Industry. 

The much-disputed boundary line between Kansas and Missouri 
in the 125-mile stretch along the shifting course of the Missouri river 
was discussed in a feature article in the Kansas City (Mo.) Times, 
March 28, 1941. 

On April 3, 1941, the Atchison Daily Globe published the first of 
a series of reports to the Atchison planning board by Harland Bar- 
tholomew, city planner. It was devoted to the "historical and eco- 
nomic background of Atchison." 

Articles describing the organization, functions and aims of the 
Lyon County Historical Society appeared in the Emporia Gazette, 
April 3, 7 and 11, 1941. The Lyon county chapter of the Kansas 
State Historical Society is in its fourth year and during that time 
has acquired and furnished a museum room in the new city audito- 
rium at Emporia. Plans are now in progress to enlarge the collection 
of relics and historical objects. 

Historical articles by Paul I. Wellman in recent issues of the 
Kansas City (Mo.) Times, include: "Tall Tales of Early Day 
Patriot Misled Coronado on Kansas Plains," April 9, 1941, and 
"Henry Routt Twice Risked His Neck and Started Civil War in 
Missouri," April 17. 



KANSAS HISTORY IN THE PRESS 217 

A short article entitled "Why Kansas Is Called the Soldier State," 
by T. A. McNeal, appeared in the Topeka Daily Capital, April 10, 
1941. Nearly half the counties of Kansas are named for soldiers. 
These were listed by Mr. McNeal. 

On April 10, 1941, the Ulysses News issued its fiftieth anniversary 
edition. It contained forty-two pages of news, pictures and articles 
of historical interest pertaining to Ulysses and Grant county. 
Among the features was a reprint of part of the front page of the 
first issue of the Grant County Republican, now the Ulysses News, 
dated April 30, 1892. 

"A Saga of Ye Olden Days," was the title of an article by Jim 
McKeever of McAllen, Tex., published serially in the Valley Falls 
Vindicator beginning April 16, 1941. Mr. McKeever pioneered in 

Kansas. 

Cawker City's library history was briefly sketched by Adele 
Jennings, city librarian, in the Cawker City Ledger, April 17, 1941. 
In 1874 sixteen men organized the Hesperian Western Literary club. 
Each paid $5 for the purchase of periodicals, books and newspapers. 
In 1877 the library had sixty books and the next year the member- 
ship fee was reduced to one dollar. In 1883 the women took charge 
and a building was erected. Today the Cawker City library, one of 
the oldest in the state, houses over 5,000 volumes. 

The Marshall County News, of Marysville, April 17, 1941, carried 
the picture and history of the old Cottonwood ranch Pony Express 
station, just eighty years after the last rider of the Pony Express 
galloped away. It was written by John G. Ellenbecker, of Marys- 
ville. The old frame building is thought to be the first house built 
in Washington county. 

An article on a cattle trail from Texas through present Douglass 
appeared in the Douglass Tribune, April 18, 1941. 

The Hutchinson News-Herald issued a special edition April 20, 
1941, celebrating the seventieth anniversary of the founding of 
Hutchinson. Several feature articles of historical interest by Whit- 
ley Austin and Stuart Awbrey of the News-Herald staff, including 
stories of the newspaper and salt industries, were printed in this 
issue. Also included are interesting old photographs and a facsimile 
of the first issue of Hutchinson's first newspaper, dated July 4, 1872. 

On April 22, 1941, the Rocky Point school, Lincoln county, held 
a reunion. The Barnard Bee on May 1 gave a short history of the 



218 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

school, which started in the 1880's. Classes were first held in a 
dugout until the present frame building was erected in 1886. 

The story of the ghost town of Ravanna is told in a feature article 
by Wayne Campbell in the Hutchinson Herald, April 23, 1941. 

A history of the Yates Center News was included in an article 
announcing a change of management printed April 24, 1941. R. H. 
Trueblood, Jr., publisher of the paper since 1936, sold it to W. C. 
Coates, of Blue Rapids, former publisher of the Blue Rapids Times. 
The Yates Center News was established in 1877 and passed into the 
hands of R. H. Trueblood in 1885. 

The first installment of the "Pioneer Reminiscences of Mrs. J. F. 
Blickenstaff," by Mildred Cass Beason, appeared in the Gove County 
Republican-Gazette, of Gove City, April 24, 1941. Mrs. Blicken- 
staff came to Quinter with her family as a young girl in 1886. 

On April 27, 1941, the Leavenworth Times carried a feature story 
of the famous overland transportation company, Russell, Majors 
and Waddell. In 1855 the firm established headquarters in Leaven- 
worth, and until 1862, when it was sold to Ben Holladay, the com- 
pany operated thousands of oxen-pulled wagons over the Oregon 
trail, the California trail, the Salt Lake trail and one of the main 
branches of the Santa Fe trail. 

The story of how Wellington became the county seat of Sumner 
county was told in the Wellington Daily News, April 29, 1941. The 
article related that Wellington changed the course of the Chisholm 
trail and detoured settlers and tradesmen to the town. The local 
boosters went south with their plows to where the trail crossed the 
state line and plowed a curving furrow over the prairie, swinging 
away from the rival town of Sumner City. When the furrow had 
passed through Wellington it curved back to the original trail at 
Clearwater. Guides at the state line told the herdsmen and team- 
sters to follow the furrow. Wellington became the county seat in 
1872. 



Kansas Historical Notes 

Three more historic sites are to be acquired by the state under the 
provisions of acts passed by the 1941 Kansas legislature. Title to 
the properties will be vested in the state ; separate boards or associa- 
tions will manage them. 

Senate bill No. 193 provides for the purchase of the site, restora- 
tion and repair of the old Iowa, Sauk and Fox mission building lo- 
cated about one and one-half miles east of Highland, Doniphan 
county. The Iowa, Sauk and Fox Indians of Missouri were removed 
by treaty to present Doniphan county in 1837. Samuel M. and Eliza 
Irvin, Presbyterian missionaries, accompanied them to establish a 
mission and school. In 1843 Irvin and William Hamilton, an asso- 
ciate, set up a press (the second in Kansas) to print school books 
and religious works in the Iowa language. A three-story stone and 
brick building of thirty-two rooms was completed in 1846. The 
state now plans to repair and reroof the remaining portion of this 
building. In addition, about fifteen acres of land will be set aside 
as a public park. An appropriation of $10,000 was allowed for the 
purchase of the property and the restoration of the building. Mrs. 
C. C. Webb, president of the Northeast Kansas Historical Society 
of Highland, is chairman of the seven-member board of trustees 
which is to manage the property. 

House joint resolution No. 6 provides for the acceptance by the 
state of a sixty-acre tract of land in eastern Linn county which was 
the site of the Marais des Cygnes massacre, May 19, 1858. Charles 
Hamelton, who had been driven from Kansas territory by Free- 
State men, retaliated by invading Linn county with about thirty 
Missourians. Capturing eleven Free-State men he marched them to 
a ravine and lined them up before a firing squad. Five were killed, 
five were wounded and one escaped by feigning death. This mass 
killing inflamed the North and John Greenleaf Whittier paid tribute 
to the victims in one of his poems. The Pleasanton post of the Vet- 
erans of Foreign Wars recently purchased the site of the massacre 
and adjoining land, occupied for a time by John Brown, which will 
be deeded to the state. The legislature appropriated $1,000 to im- 
prove the property, henceforth to be known as the Marais des Cygnes 
Massacre Memorial Park. Management is vested in a board of 
trustees of five members. 

(219) 



220 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Senate bill No. 358 provides for the purchase and restoration of 
the ranch house built by G. H. Hollenberg on the old Oregon trail in 
1857. Beginning in 1860 it was a station on the Pony Express which 
operated for eighteen months like a giant relay race between the 
Missouri river and the Pacific coast. The state will buy the house 
and seven and one-half acres of land, a little over a mile northeast 
of Hanover, Washington county. The remainder of the appropria- 
tion of $3,000 will be used for landscaping and for the restoration of 
the old ranch house, sometimes known as Cottonwood station. The 
Washington County Oregon Trail Memorial Association, of Han- 
over, will manage the property through Leo E. Dicker, its president. 

Other Kansas Historical Markers have been located on the state's 
major highways in addition to those announced on page 416 of the 
November, 1940, Kansas Historical Quarterly. Titles of these, their 
location and date of placing are: Fort Zarah, in roadside park on 
US-50N, three miles east of Great Bend, Barton county, October 13, 
1940; Last Indian Raid in Kansas, at the junction of US-36 and 
US-183 at the northern city limits of Oberlin, Decatur county, De- 
cember; Medicine Lodge Peace Treaties, in peace treaty grounds on 
US-160, about one mile east of Medicine Lodge, Barber county, De- 
cember 11 ; First Capitol of Kansas, in the First Capitol grounds on 
US-40, near Fort Riley, Geary county, about January 1, 1941; Paw- 
nee Rock, on US-50N at west city limits of Pawnee Rock, Barton 
county, March 16 ; Fort Lamed, on US-SON six miles west of Larned, 
Pawnee county, April 6; Oregon and Santa Fe Trails, on US-50 
1,000 feet west of Gardner, Johnson county, April 24; Capital of 
Kansas, on US-75 one-fourth mile north of Topeka, Shawnee county, 
May 2; Atchison, on US-59 at southwestern city limits of Atchison, 
Atchison county, May 5; Marysville, on US-36 one mile east of 
Marysville, Marshall county, May 11; Kansas Indian Treaty, on 
US-81 near Elyria, McPherson county, May 14. More than fifty 
markers are expected to be in place by the end of summer. 

The Oregon Trail Memorial Association, at its annual convention 
in Wyoming in August, 1940, authorized the organization of state 
councils or affiliates to the parent association. The Kansas council, 
called The American Pioneer Trails Association of Kansas, was or- 
ganized at Marysville, September 30, 1940. John G. Ellenbecker, of 
Marysville, who for years has been actively interested in the preser- 
vation of the trail's history, was elected president; W. R. Honnell, 
of Kansas City, vice-president; C. E. Hedrix, Marysville, secretary, 



KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 221 

and Charles J. D. Koester, Marysville, treasurer. George A. Root, 
curator of archives of the Kansas State Historical Society, was 
named chairman of the committee on historic points in Kansas. 
Each of the 105 counties of the state is to have a representative on 
the committee to assist the council in its program of marking his- 
toric sites and old trails of Kansas. The 1941 annual convention of 
the Oregon Trail Memorial Association, founded in 1922 by Ezra 
Meeker, is to be held in Marysville in August, 1941. Dr. Howard 
R. Driggs, of New York City, is president of the association. 

Native Sons and Native Daughters of Kansas held their annual 
dinner meeting in Topeka, January 28, 1941. Judge Homer Hoch, 
of the Kansas supreme court, was the principal speaker. "Our 
Kansas Birthright," was his subject. At the business meeting the 
following were elected officers of the two organizations for the en- 
suing year: Native Sons Bert E. Mitchner, Hutchinson, president; 
Glenn Archer, Norton, vice-president; Richard Allen, Topeka, secre- 
tary; W. M. Richards, Emporia, treasurer. Native Daughters 
Mrs. H. M. Richardson, Pratt, president; Mrs. Charles H. Benson, 
Topeka, vice-president; Mrs. George L. McClenny, Topeka, secre- 
tary ; Mrs. F. S. Hawes, Russell, treasurer. 

The Washington County Oregon Trail Memorial Association was 
organized at Hanover, March 10, 1941. It succeeds the temporary 
organization known as the Washington County Historical Society 
formed at Hanover July 22, 1940. The new organization will man- 
age the historic Hollenberg ranch house soon to be acquired by the 
state. Officers of the association are: Leo E. Dicker, president; 
Dr. F. H. Rhoades, vice-president; Ed J. Flaherty, secretary; John 
Merk, Jr., treasurer. E. H. Miller, Dugald Spence and Fred Brock- 
meyer are members of the board of trustees. 

The Dickinson County Historical Society held its spring meeting 
at Elmo, March 13, 1941. The origin of churches and schools, tales 
of the Wild West, stories of antelope, prairie fires and other sagas of 
the old days were told. The Rev. W. J. Becker gave a history of the 
Swiss people who settled on Turkey creek in 1860 and of the Ger- 
mans who came a few years later. The Rev. Ben Fadenrecht and 
the Rev. John Breeder gave synopses of the North German and 
South German Baptist churches which were organized in 1865. Jean 
Bonfield told of the organization of the St. Columba church in Elmo 
in 1872. 



222 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

A program and reception in honor of William W. Nixon, of Jewell, 
the first Kansan to hold the office of commander-in-chief of the 
Grand Army of the Republic, was held at the Memorial building in 
Topeka, April 5, 1941. Martin L. Phillips, commander of Capitol 
Post No. 1, of the American Legion, was master of ceremonies and 
Al F. Williams was speaker of the evening. Mrs. Grace M. Wanner, 
secretary of the Kansas G. A. R. and president of the Woman's Re- 
lief Corps, had charge of arrangements. 

Rex Singleton of Benedict was elected president of the Wilson 
County Historical Society at a meeting in Fredonia, April 5, 1941. 
Other officers are: Mrs. Vella Smith, Fredonia, vice-president; Mrs. 
Bernice Ludwick, Buffalo, secretary ; Mrs. C. 0. Pingrey, Neodesha, 
treasurer, and Mrs. W. H. Edmundson, Fredonia, historian. These 
officers and a representative from each township in Wilson county 
make up the board of directors. Township directors, elected May 3, 
are: W. W. Stover, Duck Creek; O. L. Hayes, Neodesha; Albert 
Stroud, Talleyrand; Charles H. Mitchell, Newark; Mrs. C. E. Hall, 
Fall River; John Perry, Pleasant Valley; Fred Dodd, Cedar; George 
Robertson, Verdigris; Mrs. Frank Cantrall, Center; Virginia Canty, 
Clifton; Gus Larson, Coif ax; M. T. Roney, Guilford; Frank Ridlon. 
Webster; W. H. Cranor, Chetopa, and Martin Youngstrom, Prairie. 
Featured on the May 3 program were papers by Mrs. C. 0. Pingrey, 
of Neodesha, on the founding of the First Presbyterian Church in 
Neodesha, February 12, 1871, and by Roy Caven on "Pioneer 
Settlers of Coyville." The latter was read by W. H. Edmundson. 

On April 6, 1941, dedication ceremonies for a Chisholm trail 
marker were held in Wichita. The marker, erected by Calvin P. 
Titus Camp No. 5 and Auxiliary No. 33, United Spanish War Vet- 
erans, has been placed just west of the Douglas avenue bridge. Ac- 
cording to Warren L. Matthews, who traced the original trail through 
Kansas, the marker is near the northern terminal of the famous 
trading trail blazed by Jesse Chisholm to the vicinity of present 
Anadarko, Okla., in the 1860's. At the dedication W. H. Bradley 
was master of ceremonies, Judge Ross McCormick gave an address, 
Ezra E. Beard presented the marker, and City Manager Alfred Mac- 
Donald accepted for the city. 

The fifteenth annual meeting of the Kansas History Teachers As- 
sociation was held at the Memorial building in Topeka, April 19, 
1941. At the morning meeting three papers were read: "Recent- 
United States-Latin American Relations," by A. Bower Sagaser, 



KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 223 

Kansas State College; "A Survey of College Students' Reading 
Habits in the Field of Current History," by S. D. Mock, Emporia 
State Teachers College; "Canada's War Effort," by Harold E. Con- 
rad, Ottawa University. In the afternoon a panel discussion was 
held on "The Status of History and the Social Studies in Kansas 
High Schools," based on a report by James C. Malm, Kansas Uni- 
versity, and Annabelle Pringle, Topeka High School. Jessica Smith, 
Wichita High School North, presented "The High School View," and 
J. D. Bright, Washburn College, "The College View." An open dis- 
cussion followed. At the business meeting it was decided to desig- 
nate the Memorial building as the permanent meeting place for the 
association, and the following officers were elected: Ernest Mahan, 
Pittsburg State Teachers College, president; Iden Reese, Kansas 
City Junior College, vice-president ; Delia A. Warden, Emporia State 
Teachers College, secretary-treasurer. Additional executive com- 
mittee members include: Robena Pringle, Topeka High School; Dr. 

C. S. Boertman, Emporia State Teachers College; Raymond L. 
Welty, Fort Hays Kansas State College, and Bertram Maxwell, 
Washburn College. 

Several Lane county citizens interested in preserving the history 
of the county and organizing a historical society met at the court- 
house in Dighton, on April 26, 1941. Mrs. William Charles was 
chairman of the meeting. The following officers were elected: Mrs. 

D. G. Egbert, president; Mrs. W. A. Charles, vice-president; Mrs. 
Cathryn Mull, treasurer, and Mrs. W. V. Young, secretary. 

The Shawnee Mission Indian Historical Society met at the resi- 
dence of Mrs. George Fickle on April 28, 1941. The guest speaker 
was Miss Louisa P. Johnson who told of her great grandfather 
Alexander Majors of the firm of Russell, Majors and Waddell. 

Clark county's chapter of the Kansas State Historical Society has 
published an attractive 84-page booklet, entitled Notes on Early 
Clark County, Kansas. The publication contains the "Clark County 
Historical Society Notes" printed in The Clark County Clipper, of 
Ashland, from July, 1939, to August, 1940. Mrs. Dorothy Berryman 
Shrewder and Mrs. Melville Campbell Harper are editors of the 
booklet. This is the first of the proposed series of historical collec- 
tions for Clark county. 



224 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The Kaw, the Heart of a Nation, by Floyd Benjamin Streeter, 
is the twelfth book to be published by Farrar and Rinehart in The 
Rivers of America series. The history of the Kansas river is the 
history of the state and its prairies. The trails of the hunters and 
trappers who came in the early days followed the banks of the Kaw 
and its tributaries. The same trails were used by traders and set- 
tlers and later by the railroads. Mr. Streeter tells of the days when 
the cattle industry was at its height and thousands of Texas long- 
horns were driven along the beef trails to Abilene and Dodge City, 
famous among the cow towns. Then the prairie was broken by the 
plow and fields were fenced and there began what was to become 
one of Kansas' greatest industries, the cultivation of wheat. Mr. 
Streeter relates the story of the Mennonites and the part they 
played in the agricultural development of the central part of the 
state. 

The Longhorns (Little, Brown and Company) , by J. Frank Dobie, 
professor of English literature at the University of Texas, was pub- 
lished in March, 1941. The book is a history and a collection of 
tales and folklore of the longhorn breed which once ranged the plains 
of the Southwest. "The Texas longhorn made more history than any 
other breed of cattle the civilized world has known," wrote Dobie. 
"As an animal in the realm of natural history, he was the peer of 
bison or grizzly bear. As a social factor, his influence on men was 
extraordinary. . . . However supplanted or however disparaged 
by evolving standards and generations, he will remain the bedrock 
on which the history of the cow country of America is founded." 



THE 

Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 




Volume X Number 3 

August, 1941 



PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT 

W. C. AUSTIN. STATE PRINTER 

TOPEKA J941 

19-30 



Contributors 

JAMES C. MALIN is professor of history at the University of Kansas, Law- 
rence. He is also president of the Kansas State Historical Society and asso- 
ciate editor of The Kansas Historical Quarterly. 

MARTHA B. CALDWELL is a member of the staff of the Kansas State Historical 
Society. 

G. RAYMOND GAEDDERT is curator of newspapers at the Kansas State His- 
torical Society. 



Beginnings of Winter Wheat Production in the 

Upper Kansas and Lower Smoky 

Hill River Valleys 

A Study in Adaptation to Geographical Environment 1 
JAMES C. MALIN 

PRIOR to the opening of Kansas and Nebraska, the idea was 
prevalent that the geography and climate of the country west of 
Missouri and Iowa differed from the east, but with few exceptions 
there was little exact information and less understanding of the 
nature and extent of the variations of soil, or of rainfall, tempera- 
ture, wind, or other climatic characteristics, or appreciation of the 
distances involved. As a result a multitude of free and easy gen- 
eralizations were presented, based upon assumptions of similarity of 
conditions, but applying to points hundreds or even over a thousand 
miles apart, and soil and climatic factors fully as divergent. Be- 
cause artesian wells were found in southern New Mexico, some con- 
cluded that the water problem of any of the Great Plains territories 
might be solved by the same means. 2 In some of the newspaper dis- 
cussion the assumption was made that the climate could be modified 
by tree planting, and a Kansas correspondent of The National Era, 
Washington, D. C., anticipated the timber- culture acts of twenty 
years later by recommending that congress give a quarter-section 
of land to any person who would plant trees. 3 

Few notable exceptions are found among these preliminary ob- 
servers. An unidentified writer in the Louisville (Ky.) Journal, 
March 15, 1856, divided the United States into five natural areas: 

(1) from the Atlantic to the Mississippi river north of 33 parallel; 

(2) from the Mississippi river to the Great Plains; (3) from the 
eastern edge of the Plains to the Sierra Nevada mountains ; (4) from 
the Sierra Nevada mountains to the Pacific ocean; (5) south of the 
33 parallel, the cotton area with supplementary crops of sugar and 
rice. The author maintained that the first and second were the na- 

1. This is a part of a larger research project, "The Adaptation of Population and Agri- 
culture to Prairie -Plains Environment," for which the author has received financial assistance 
from the Social Science Research Council, New York, and from the Graduate Research Fund 
of the University of Kansas. 

2. Kansas Free State, Lawrence, January 7, 1856, from the St. Louis (Mo.) Republican; 
New York Daily Tribune, October 22, 1856, from the New Orleans (La.) Picayune. 

3. The National Era, Washington, D. C., April 23, 1857. For other discussions of trees 
and climate see the New York Daily Tribune, October 13, 1856, and "Trees" by "W. T.," in 
The Smoky Hill and Republican Union, Junction City, March 13, 1862. (The name of this 
newspaper was changed in the course of years to the Junction City Union, and hereafter in 
this article it is cited by the short title.) 

(227) 



228 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

tion's great cereal areas and the third the livestock area. This assign- 
ment was significant in limiting the cotton area by the 33 parallel 
and dedicating the country west of the Mississippi river, including 
Missouri, to grain and livestock, with the edge of the Plains as the 
dividing line between the two Western industries. The account of 
another observer traveling in the trans-Mississippi West, published 
in the Louisville (Ky.) Courier, July 22, 1856, also recognized even 
more explicitly these natural areas ; limited the cotton-sugar area to 
the Lower South and recognized the movement of settlement across 
the eastern line of Kansas and Nebraska as breaking the Indian 
frontier, and that after fifty years the pioneer was overcoming "the 
artificial barriers heaped up in his path." This timberless, tall-grass 
country west of Missouri was designated as the nation's producer of 
breadstuffs, while the short-grass, or buffalo grass, Plains would be 
the great grazing section. He argued explicitly that "no such 
country . . . exists in Europe, nor on the continent from the 
Atlantic seaboard to the Missouri frontier," and "to render these 
views clear we must seek the causes of this novel order of industry 
in the topography of the country, and in the laws which affect the 
climate, soil and vegetation." The gradual diminution of rainfall 
from Missouri westward was recognized as characteristic of the re- 
gion, and he attributed the dry climate to natural causes of conti- 
nental scope whereby the moisture-laden air mass moving northwest- 
ward from the Gulf of Mexico was driven eastward by the dry 
Pacific air mass moving across the Rocky Mountains, having de- 
posited its moisture in transit as snow and rain in the high altitudes 
of the mountain ranges. The driest belt lay in the High Plains just 
east of the Rocky Mountains, the rainfall increasing gradually east- 
ward as the dry Pacific air mass exerted a diminished influence on 
the northward drift of the moist Gulf air mass. 

It was only after occupation of the country was actually under 
way that these more exceptional views became generally accepted 
and a clearer view of realities emerged and even then only slowly. 
The Lawrence Republican took the ground in 1857 that "to a large 
proportion of our farmers, this soil and climate are so different from 
what they have been accustomed to, that for some time they will 
be obliged to work comparatively in the dark." Appealing to those 
who could contribute information based upon experience in agricul- 
ture in Kansas, the editor emphasized the advantages to be derived 
from interchange of views. 4 The particular object of inquiry was 

4. Lawrence Republican, December 17, 1857. 



MALIN: BEGINNINGS OF WINTER WHEAT 229 

"the raising of fall or winter wheat" and the fact that "some . . . 
entertain [ed] doubts of this being a good wheat country. . . ." 
Richard Mendenhall, who had come to Kansas in 1846 as a Quaker 
missionary to the Indians, wrote from near Osawatomie: 

My attention is at present particularly turned to the subject of Winter 
Wheat. I have labored assiduously to dispel the fears of the people, relative 
to the adaptation of our soil and climate to the culture of wheat ... I 
have never known a failure in the wheat crop of Kansas, and I have never 
known a crop that was not a tolerably fair one. Though I have never seen 
better corn anywhere than I have seen raised in Kansas, yet I consider wheat 
a surer crop than corn, for our winters are generally dry and moderate, so that 
wheat is not killed out by either freezing or drowning; and in the spring it 
comes to perfection before the drought sets in. 5 

This statement presented evidence that Mendenhall had acquired 
a reasonably clear idea of the relation of Kansas climate to crops; 
the danger to the fall-planted crops of winter-killing; the hot, dry 
summers, with the consequent importance of bringing crops to early 
maturity ahead of the severe summer weather. Winter wheat met 
this climatic formula better than corn, and he realized this basic 
fact, although many of his fellow farmers did not. He minimized 
the dangers to the winter wheat crop, but experience was to demon- 
strate that many years were to pass before the major hazards could 
be overcome. Furthermore, other factors than the single one of 
climate were to influence the cropping program of farmers in the 
relatively humid eastern part of Kansas. There were two possible 
points of view in dealing with the development of this new country ; 
one, the mere matter of newness and the problems attending the 
bringing of it into full production; the other, the matter of funda- 
mental difference in physical environment. MendenhalFs views fall 
into the latter category because he was not thinking of this as just 
another frontier like others farther east, but rather in terms of a 
different environment. 

In the advance of the frontier westward from the seaboard to the 
Missouri river, corn had been the first food crop, but in combination 
with livestock and some small grains wheat, buckwheat, oats, rye 
and barley. The settler on the Kansas frontier had come primarily 
from the corn regions of the middle East, and tended to follow the 
natural course that of planting the accustomed staples until local 
conditions of climate, soil and marketing directed otherwise. In the 
northernmost parts of the United States, when wheat was planted 

5. Letter dated December 20, 1857, in ibid., January 7, 1858, and reprinted in The Kanzas 
News, Emporia, January 23, 1858. 



230 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the varieties were of the soft spring types until the eighteen sixties 
and seventies, when the hard spring varieties slowly took the lead in 
Minnesota and the Dakotas. In the more temperate middle region, 
both the soft spring and soft winter wheats were sown, and if winter 
wheat did not survive, spring wheat or some other spring crop might 
take its place, with the obvious advantage of two rather than only 
one trial for a crop on the same land. 

The nearer to the frontier the more definitely were the agricul- 
tural practices of an extensive rather than an intensive character. 
The farmer was limited not only by the newness of the environment, 
but among other things, by insufficient capital to finance adequate 
equipment and tillage operations. The principal point, whatever the 
causes, is that near the frontier the system of agriculture was more 
than ordinarily inefficient and under these circumstances crop fail- 
ures were frequent, and not because of any fault of the soil, the 
climate or the crops. 6 Partly as cause, and partly as effect of the 
uncertainty of crops, the farm population was highly unstable and 
as a local newspaper correspondent reported of his four-year-old 
community, "Like most new places, we have had many comers and 
goers." 7 

Prior to the coming of white settlers to Kansas, the Shawnee 
Methodist Mission included winter wheat in its crop program, by the 
fall of 1839 sowing as much as one hundred acres, and increasing 
substantially its acreage as the years passed until in 1847 or 1848 as 
much as one hundred seventy-five acres were harvested. 8 With the 
opening of Kansas to settlers, winter wheat was raised, but it was 
subordinate to the corn crop. Several factors entered into the con- 
tinued predominance of corn. It could be ground by simple grist 
mills into meal, made into grits or hominy, or fed to hogs and cattle 
for meat. Not only did the habits of the people favor corn in a pre- 
dominately subsistence economy, but absence of cheap water trans- 
portation on the scanty streams flowing out of the subhumid plains 
operated against the small grains, also the expense of costly flouring 
mills. Under these circumstances, surplus corn could be driven to 

6. Junction City Union, December 3, 1870 : " 'A Kansas farmer recently got up in his 
sleep and plowed two acres of ground before he woke up and then he stopped plowing.' We 
find the above joke going the rounds of the papers. It must be a drive at the scratching, 
which many of our Kansas farmers palm off for plowing." 

7. Ibid., October 17, 1861, "Letter from Madura," fifteen miles northwest of Junction 
City. For a historical study of the instability of farm population see J. C. Malin, "The 
Turnover of Farm Population in Kansas," The Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. IV (November, 
1935), pp. 339-372. 

8. Martha Caldwell, Annals of Shawnee Methodist Mission, . . . (1939), p. 31. For 
the harvest of 1847 or 1848 see the Richard Mendenhall article, Lawrence Republican, January 
7, 1858. 



MALIN: BEGINNINGS OF WINTER WHEAT 231 

market as livestock, or be disposed of in the concentrated form of 
corn whisky. 9 

The hazards of winter wheat production were more serious also 
than Mendenhall had been willing to admit in his winter wheat 
letter. Optimism and pessimism concerning its part in the Kansas 
crop program fluctuated with the vicissitudes of the seasons. As the 
Lawrence Republican put it August 27, 1857, "although wheat is, 
next to corn, the most important crop raised in our country (except- 
ing the grass crop), it is the most uncertain of all our staples. " The 
hazards enumerated were winter-killing, insects, rust, and rain dam- 
age to grain in the shock, but with a good yield and prices, the paper 
maintained that wheat was the most profitable crop Kansas could 
raise. The wheat crop just harvested when this was written in 1857 
was the one planted during the civil war of 1856 and therefore there 
might be good reason to point out that the greatest hazard of all was 
probably inadequate and unseasonable preparation of the soil and 
seeding. Two years later, and after a favorable season, the same 
paper boasted of the excellent wheat prospects and of the large 
acreage sown in the fall of 1858, and rejoiced in its estimate that the 
cash drain of $100,000 for flour out of Kansas the preceding year 
would cease with the harvest of 1859. 10 

The principal focus of this study is the upper Kansas river, the 
area where the several streams converge the streams flowing out 
of the Great Plains which form the main river called the Kansas. 
Going upstream, they are the Blue, the Republican, the Solomon, the 
Saline and the Smoky Hill. This country lies west of the first four 
tiers of counties, the up-river counties from east to west being Riley, 
Geary, 11 Dickinson, and Saline. Their respective county seats and 
principal towns are Manhattan, Junction City, Abilene and Salina. 
In longitude these counties range from 96 30' to 98 west, the transi- 
tional belt between the relatively humid prairie of eastern Kansas 
and the definitely subhumid edge of the Great Plains. The next four 
counties to the west are Ellsworth, Russell, Ellis and Trego, which 
lead up to the 100th meridian and the High Plains proper. 

The first wheat reported planted in Geary county was two acres 
in 1856 on Humboldt creek. This statement is based upon reminis- 
cence rather than contemporary record and no identification was 

9. "Letter From a Farmer," ibid., November 3, 1859, and editorial, December 15, 1859; 
"What Crops Shall We Raise?," ibid., April 5, 1860; "The Farming Interest," ibid., May 17, 
1860; Doctor Buck, Jefferson county, before the Kansas State Agricultural Society, 1864, in 
Report of the State Board of Agriculture . . . 1873 (Topeka, 1874), pp. 31, 32. 

10. Lawrence Republican, June 16, 1859. 

11. The original name was Davis. 



232 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

made whether it was winter or spring wheat. The man who planted 
the crop sold it before harvest, but the narrator said that "it was 
some years before the example set ... was followed to any 
extent." 12 In Dickinson county winter wheat was planted in 1858, 
but the planter did not harvest, a second man having bought the 
claim "with a few acres of wheat for $25. . . . The corn crop 
was good, but the winter wheat was very poor." The drought year 
of 1860 yielded no crop, "the harvesting of winter wheat was done 
with butcher knives, each man carrying a sack to put the heads in." 13 
These examples are significant in illustrating the instability of 
frontier farm population and the resulting uncertainty of agricul- 
tural methods as well as the fact of early attempts at wheat pro- 
duction. These farmers did not remain long enough in one place to 
learn anything of the peculiarities of either soil or climate, and as 
certainly could contribute little accumulated knowledge to those who 
succeeded them. 

The wheat crop failure of 1860 was particularly gloomy for the 
territory because, as a result of an extraordinarily heavy corn crop 
in 1859, an unusually large acreage of winter wheat was planted. 
If an ordinary harvest had been realized in 1860 it was said that it 
would not only have breaded the people of Kansas, but there would 
have been a surplus for market. 14 Representing the Cottonwood and 
Neosho valleys, somewhat to the southeast of Junction City, the 
Emporia News, May 5, 1860, sought to explain the disaster of 1860, 
saying that 

The failure of the fall wheat is mainly owing, doubtless, to the excessive 
drouth . . . ; though some of the causes may be found in the manner 
and time of sowing. . . . [Although there was a diversity of opinion on 
the latter point there was] a determination to study more thoroughly than ever 
heretofore the relations of soil and climate, and from the experience of the past 
deduce those principles which, when properly applied, shall give comparative 
immunity to the wheat crop from the damaging effects of even such extraordi- 
nary drouths as that which is now upon us. 

The failure [of] the present season has not diminished the faith of our best 
farmers acquired by the favorable results of many previous years' experience 
that Kansas is peculiarly adapted to the growth of wheat, of both fall and 
spring variety. 

A few weeks later, the same paper, June 9, 1860, indicated ex- 
tensive preparations for fall wheat, saying that although seed would 
be scarce, some were sending to Missouri, Indiana and Illinois for it. 

12. Junction City Union, August 16, 1873. 

13. A. D. Blanchett, "History of Lyon's Creek," The Dickinson County Chronicle, Abilene, 
October 13, 1876. (The name of this newspaper was first the Abilene Chronicle, and hereafter 
in this article is cited by the short title, Abilene Chronicle.) 

14. Lawrence Republican, May 17, 1860. 



MALIN: BEGINNINGS OF WINTER WHEAT 233 

We have not conversed with a single farmer in the Neosho or Cottonwood 
valleys who has not now, as firm as ever, the opinion that Kansas soil and 
climate are well adapted to the successful cultivation of the wheat crop, of 
both fall and spring variety. That there has been one failure in four years 
argues nothing. . . . We do not know certainly that the effects of the 
drouth could have been even partially provided against, but in common with 
some of our most intelligent farmers, we believe that it could. But suppose 
that it could not, and that once in five years there should be an almost total 
failure of the wheat crop. It is not more than is experienced in the Western 
states generally . . . and as yet there has been no failure of the corn, bean, 
potato and buckwheat crop. . . . Kansas soil and climate, though some- 
what akin to those of Iowa and Illinois, are yet radically different in many 
points, and of course much more so from states further east. These differences, 
perhaps, have not been sufficiently counted on heretofore; but hereafter the 
case will be different. Missouri soil and climate more nearly resembles that of 
Kansas, and we are informed . . . that the Missourians . . . raise bet- 
ter corn than the settlers from any other state. . . . If it be true, it is 
worthy of attention. 

The oldest residents of Kansas were called upon to testify con- 
cerning the great drought of 1860, the general trend of responses 
being well represented by an interpreter who had been a resident for 
thirty-seven years, during which time he had not seen a drought like 
1860. He admitted that about every five years there was only about 
half a crop, but that the Indians never failed to raise enough for 
their own consumption. 15 In evidence that the failure of 1860 did 
not discourage further attempts in the Manhattan area, twenty times 
the acreage was reported for the harvest of 1861 and it was said that 
finer wheat had never been seen before. This prospect of a big 
wheat crop raised the issue of flour mills to grind the grain at home. 16 
The crop was good, and the planting of the fall of 1861 was large 
and was done under favorable weather conditions. Through the 
growing season the bright prospects were noted in the local papers, 
and the harvest reports were favorable for winter wheat, but not 
for spring wheat. 17 The editor of the Union commented that "many 
people were doubtful of the success of fall wheat in this section of 
country, but . . . it is now plainly shown to be one of the 
best grain-producing regions in the entire West." He recommended 
emphatically the sowing of more winter and less spring wheat for the 

15. Junction City Union, February 20, 1862, from the Leavenworth Conservative. The 
tatement of the interpreter was not correct, however, as the records of St. Mary's mission 
show destitution among the Pottawatomies during the winter of 1854-1855. "The Annals of 
St. Mary's Mission," The Dial, St. Marys, v. Ill, p. 153. 

16. Western Kansas Express, Manhattan, April 20, 1861. 

17. Junction City Union, November 21, 1861, April 17, May 29, July 3, 1862. 



234 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

next harvest. 18 The mill question was again an issue as the nearest 
mills were Manhattan and Council Grove, and one correspondent 
advocated turning the distillery into a mill because, "it is pretty 
well understood that, because of frequent droughts, corn is a doubt- 
ful crop; whereas winter wheat bids fair to do well." The proximity 
of Junction City to Fort Riley, an outfitting point for government 
posts in the West, as well as its relation to the Santa Fe and moun- 
tain trade would provide a large flour trade for a mill with a "large 
wheat producing country surrounding it." The editor pointed out 
that "it is already a well attested fact, that our section is unsurpassed 
in the quality and quantity of its winter wheat. While all other 
crops have failed, winter wheat has yielded abundantly, and to the 
satisfaction of all." 19 

These discussions of the wheat problem brought out incidental ref- 
erences to the idea that the climate of that area was basically dif- 
ferent from the humid East. This matter was more formally dis- 
cussed by correspondent "W. T.," who urged farmers to subscribe for 
Eastern agricultural papers although they had no "special applica- 
tion to Kansas." 

Our soil and climate are somewhat peculiar, and hence we must learn more 
from experience than from observation. Every farmer should consider himself 
an experimenter. He should endeavor to add something to the common stock 
of agricultural knowledge. He has a very fair opportunity of displaying all 
his skill in bringing out the resources of the soil. . . . 

In this State, we have two things specially to guard against drought and 
wind. 

Our climate is a very dry one; the fact is undeniable however we may ac- 
count for it. We probably shall not often suffer from this cause as we did a 
year ago, the past summer. We know, too, that the soil will endure without 
serious injury to the crops, such a drought as would nearly destroy vegetation 
in the Eastern States. Still we may expect to suffer more or less from the want 
of rain. Hence it is wisdom, so far as we can, to adopt such a course of hus- 
bandry as will not be materially affected by drought. In this connection, the 
question arises, is deep or shallow plowing the most advantageous? And fur- 
ther, what kinds of grain will suffer the least from drought, and at what time 
it is advisable to plant the various kinds of grain that are cultivated? . . . 

The winds of Kansas are too well known to need any description. Both 
man and beast need to be protected against them. . . . [With respect to 
fruit trees] we must allow them to grow very much as nature directs, . . . 
In this land of winds everything should carefully maintain a lowly condition. 20 

18. Ibid., May 29, 1862. The Kansas State Journal, Lawrence, recommended doubling the 
winter wheat acreage in the crop year 1862-1863. Reprinted in Junction City Union, July 26, 
1862. 

19. Ibid., November 15, 1862, and "W. T.," ibid., November 29, 1862. 

20. Ibid., February 13, 1862. 



MALIN: BEGINNINGS OF WINTER WHEAT 235 

The same text provided the editor of The Kansas Farmer with a 
justification for his existence: 

We know that our soil and climate, the methods of culture and the crops 
raised, are so different from those of other states, that we need a special organ, 
a Kansas paper. . . . 21 

A farmer who had been in Kansas since 1856 had put it a little 
differently in saying "that the old routine of farming we learned in 
other states, often fails here, when some other course proves highly 
satisfactory." 22 

The winter wheat crop of 1862-1863 suffered somewhat from a fall 
freeze, and from wind and drought during the spring and if the "rest- 
lessness" of the air continued for another week, it was predicted that 
"this section, . . . will be blowed away." The fears of a dis- 
astrous drought was "all a want of confidence engendered by the 
year of famine. It will rain in due season." 23 The rains did come 
just after the middle of April and continued well through the sum- 
mer when the local paper insisted that "it rains twice a day regu- 
larly." With the rains came damage from rust. Many men left for 
army service during the harvest season and hundreds of bushels of 
wheat were said to have been lost because of a lack of harvest labor 
during the heavy rains. 24 This was one season when spring wheat 
did better than winter wheat, because it escaped more generally from 
the rust. 25 The demand for flour mills resulted in three being pro- 
jected during the summer to serve the Riley-Dickinson county area, 
and thus by opening a market for the grain raised, larger crops 
would be encouraged. Late that fall the Junction City mill, com- 
pleted, was operated to capacity. 26 

The crop year 1863-1864 did open unfavorably with fall drought 
which affecte'd the eastern part of the state generally, leading into a 
severe winter, followed by a dry spring. 27 In spite of all these haz- 
ards, however, the earlier wheat was said to have greatly recovered 
and the harvest was better than expected. 28 After summarizing crop 
reports from various counties the Kansas Daily Tribune, July 15, 
1864, declared "no one need further doubt that wheat can be raised 

21. The Kansas Farmer, Lawrence, August, 1865, p. 120. J. S. Brown was the editor. 

22. Ibid., p. 116. A. B. W., Bachelder, July 12, 1865. 

23. Emporia News, July 25, 1863; Junction City Union, April 11, 1863. 

24. Ibid., July 25, August 22, 1863 ; Emporia News, July 25, 1863. 

25. Junction City Union, August 1, 1863, in Humboldt creek news. 

26. Ibid., July 4, August 22, September 5, November 28, 1863. 

27. Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, August 9, 1864, from The Kansas State Journal; 
Kansas State Journal, Lawrence, March 10, 3864; Kansas Daily Tribune, June 17, July 15, 
August 2, 9, 1864. 

28. Ibid., June 24, July 15, August 9, 1864; The Kansas State Journal, Lawrence, July 28, 
1864, exchanges from Emporia News, Baldwin City Observer; ibid., August 11, 1864, from 
White Cloud Chief. 



236 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

to advantage in Kansas," and August 12 recommended the crops in 
the order in which they should receive attention; wheat, corn, grass 
and hay. This view was probably influenced in part by the severe 
summer drought which ruined the corn crop to such a point that it 
was being cut for fodder by the second week in August, and prices 
quoted in Leavenworth which had reached four dollars per bushel 
for white potatoes, fifteen for sweet potatoes, and twenty dollars per 
ton for hay. 29 

The fall rains came early in September, breaking the prolonged 
summer drought, but ground was not prepared in season. Farmers 
were advised to plant all they could. The rains continued and by 
October 1 the wheat was said to be getting really good. 30 The 
spring of 1865 was said to have been the wettest since 1858. Chinch 
bugs and grasshoppers were reported in western Kansas, but the ex- 
tent of damage cannot be determined from the limited newspaper 
files available for that year. Most crop reports from the lower Kan- 
sas valley indicated a large wheat crop. 31 

The fall of 1865 was "one of the best for sowing fall wheat" in the 
upper Kansas valley and a rise in price was predicted for the coming 
two years with a corresponding drop in corn after the 1865 crop. 
The neglect of wheat was attributed to the recent high price of corn 
with the result that for the next twenty months a large proportion of 
flour would have to be freighted from Leavenworth. In part, this 
view was dictated by the coming of the railroad to Junction City in 
the near future. 32 Snow and mud were the fare for the winter 
months, 33 and then came a brief dry period when fears were raised: 
In this connection we wish folks would stop to think how ridiculous it is to 
whine about drouth every time it goes a day longer than they think it ought 
to without rain. Let Kansas get over that old misfortune, by not keeping it 
alive forever. . . , 34 

The rains came, however, and the winter wheat crop season closed 
with the refrain that the crop was magnificent. 35 The weather record 
for the crop year 1866-1867 was largely a repetition of what had 
gone before, except that there was a severe grasshopper visitation in 
the fall of 1866 and further damage in the early summer of 1867. 
The wheat deteriorated during June when early in the month it was 

29. Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, August 12, 13, 1864. 

30. Ibid., September 7, October 1, 1864; Junction City Union, October 1, 1864. 

31. Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, February 16, 24, March 2, 24, April 6, 1865; Junc- 
tion City Union, June 10, 1865 ; Kansas Weekly Tribune, Lawrence, June 8, 15, 22, July 13, 
1865. 

32. Junction City Union, August 26, 1865. 

33. Ibid., December 16, 23, 1865, January 6, 13, 1866. 

34. Ibid., April 28, 1866. 

35. Ibid., May 26, June 30, 1866; Kansas Radical, Manhattan, July 14, 1866. 



MALIN: BEGINNINGS OF WINTER WHEAT 237 

reported that all the world is a frog pond, including "dry Kansas," 
and later that the floods were "more riotous than ever before." 36 

After the floods came a late summer drought which injured the 
corn crop, and then the grasshoppers made their second annual raid 
from the air. 37 The few western newspapers available had little to 
say about the prospects for the crop year 1867-1868. The general 
trend is indicated by the issue of whether winter-sown wheat would 
make a crop. 38 Apparently a fair crop was harvested, because the 
comment was made in connection with the severe summer drought 
of 1868, world wide in scope, that fortunately the wheat and oats 
were out of the way before the dry weather. The failure of the corn 
crop was pictured as not being disastrous, however, because there 
was a large stock of old corn in the country, and early corn as far 
up the Kansas valley as St. Mary's mission promised a crop. 39 An 
unusual corn exhibit, two stalks fourteen feet high with two and 
three ears respectively, was featured at Manhattan as doing "pretty 
well for an unusually dry season." 40 

Not ordinarily farm-conscious, this lesson of the drought and the 
third annual air raid by grasshoppers appears to have moved Editor 
G. W. Martin, of the Junction City Union, to feature wheat articles 
during the fall of 1868. 41 Wet winter months led to a prediction of 
abundant crops for 1869. 42 Later Junction City launched a first 
class boom, which was primarily urban in its point of view, but the 
year saw an unusually heavy immigration of farm settlers. The 
farmer element in the Republican valley north of the river in Geary 
county followed up the Pottawatomie county meeting of the previous 
fall and warned Texas cattle drovers to keep out. 43 

The Union called upon farmers to report harvest yields in the 
summer of 1869, but the object seemed to be for boom purposes 
rather than for light upon agricultural improvement and adaptation. 
The acreage of winter wheat was reported as five times that of the 
previous year and yields were estimated at thirty to forty-five 
bushels per acre. 44 Disastrous floods occurred in the watershed of 

36. Ibid., September 8, 1866, February 2, 1867; Manhattan Independent, June 1, 15, 
22, 29, August 3, 1867 ; Junction City Union, September 1, November 17, 1866, February 23, 
April 13, 1867. 

37. The Manhattan Independent, September 7, 21, 1867. 

38. Ibid., December 28, 1867, Lorenzo Westover letter. 

39. Junction City Union, August 15, 1868, from the Lawrence Republican. 

40. The Manhattan Independent, August 8, 1868. 

41. Junction City Union, August 1, 22, September 26, 1868. 

42. Ibid., January 2, 1869. 

43. For Pottawatomie county meeting, see the Manhattan Independent, September 12, 
1868; Geary (Davis) county meeting, Junction City Union, June 12, 1869. 

44. Ibid., June 26, August 14, September 11, 1869. 



238 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the whole area on June 25, just before harvest, and again in July, 
just after harvest. 45 Serious damage resulted, but the papers were 
evasive regarding its extent. 

The press reports on the crop year 1869-1870 are contradictory. 
First there was a debate over whether there was a dry winter, the 
Fort Riley weather station providing the Union with rainfall sum- 
maries which were used to prove that it was wet. 46 However that 
may have been, the same paper had reported dust storms only the 
previous week: 

A great deal of Kansas is not located w[h]ere it used to be. Some of it we 
have no doubt is located in South America, while some covers the British pos- 
sessions. 

In another place in the same issue the editor said that in a dry 
spring like this, the farmer "must be up and doing . . . take 
time by the forelock . . . sow and plant early [and then] leave 
the arranging of the winds and waterworks to your Maker." 47 

In May it was reported that "we have had weather during the 
past week which the oldest inhabitant could in no way explain, or 
prophesy the result." Wednesday the wind blew from the south, 
Thursday and Friday the hurricane continued from the north and as 
the paper went to press Saturday morning it still blew, mixed with 
a little rain. Later in the month the editor complained of "a certain 
class in this country that do little else than to croak from morning 
till night about 'droughty Kansas.' They prophesy a failure of crops 
whenever it is dry for a 'straight' week. . . . The continual 
whinings of these croakers has become ... a bore in the ears of 
the community. . . ." 48 At harvest time, still a little boom 
drunk, the editor insisted the prospect was promising and, although 
not so good as the year before, was better than anticipated. In one 
issue the winter wheat damage was attributed to the dry weather 
scare in the spring and in another to a late frost. Yields in Lyon's 
creek valley were reported as twenty to twenty-five bushels. 49 Little 
credence probably can be given to specific figures, but the inference 
can be drawn that possibly the crop was only somewhat more than 
half that of the former year. 50 

The two counties to the west, Dickinson and Saline, received 

June 26, July 3, 10, 24, 1869. 
February 26, 1870. 
February 19, 1870. 
May 7, 21, 1870. 
June 18, 25, 1870. 



46. Ibid. 

47. Ibid. 

48. Ibid. 

49. Ibid. 



50. The frontier counties suffered crop failures so serious that the legislature of 1871 ap- 
propriated $6,000 to provide spring seed wheat and corn. Distribution was made March 20 
and 22, respectively, at Waterville and Ellsworth. Ibid.. March 18. 1871. 



MALIN: BEGINNINGS OF WINTEK WHEAT 239 

little news space in the Manhattan and Junction City press, but 
early in 1870 the Abilene Chronicle was established and a fairly 
complete file has been preserved. The earliest files of the Salina 
Herald are not available. In 1865 a Saline county subscriber chal- 
lenged the Union's intimation that crops could not be grown there 
and insisted that settlers had been there eight years, had never had 
less than two-thirds of a crop, and that it was as good a grain 
country as any in western Kansas. The specific products listed were 
corn, hay, butter, cheese. The next year, 1866, a correspondent re- 
ported that by the spring of 1865 all the timber land had been taken, 
after which prairie claims were occupied. It was a great stock coun- 
try, the article continued, the spring wheat yield was magnificent, 
thirty-three bushels, but there was not much acreage, and early 
corn was good. 51 

In the boom column of one of the first issues of the Abilene 
Chronicle the claim was made that, "In 35 years there has been but 
one general drouth 1860 and even that year the upland prairies 
produced as much as 15 bushels of winter wheat to the acre. The 
wheat crop never fails here, while all varieties of grain and vegeta- 
bles yield abundantly." In all probability this claim was an exag- 
geration of boomer enthusiasm. But by 1870 Abilene already had 
a flour mill. 52 Most of the wheat produced, however, was shipped 
east, a large part at least, to the Shawnee mills at Topeka. A large 
quantity of the winter wheat crop harvested in 1870 was supposed 
to be still in the farmers' hands in January, 1871 ; some farmers were 
credited with shipping a car load at a time, and the local grain deal- 
ers were paying eighty cents per bushel. The Chronicle admonished 
farmers "to keep a good supply on hand for newcomers, who will 
flock into Dickinson county in the spring as thick as bees." 53 The 
local flour dealers advertised winter wheat flour, a distinction which 
was significant, not only for flour, but which was a mile post in the 
approaching ascendency of winter wheat production in the upper 
Kansas valley. 54 In Junction City, a new flour mill opened for the 
1870 season, the local paper taking up the cry of patronizing home 
industry; giving the farmer a home market, adding wealth and 
several families to the town, and keeping money at home. 55 

51. Ibid., July 8, 1865, May 19, August 18, 1866. 

52. Abilene Chronicle, March 3, 1870. 

53. Ibid., January 12, 1871. 

54. Ibid., November 17, 1870, et seq. In 1866 Lorenzo Westover had pointed the price 
premium of winter over spring wheat. Kansas Radical, Manhattan, September 8, 1866. This 
was just prior to the coming of the railroad to Junction City and Abilene, which was available 
by the time the wheat then being planted was ready for market. 

55. Junction City Union, August 27, 1870. 



240 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Heavy rains were reported for the fall of 1870 and accordingly 
the Union predicted a wet winter and a bountiful crop the next year: 
"Our mathematician is already at work on his rain tables. He 
thinks it will take less wear and tear of conscience than last spring. 
. . ." 56 In Riley county the prediction was that the winter wheat 
acreage would be doubled, while in Dickinson county it would be 
larger "than ever before, and from what we can learn, the agricul- 
tural resources of the county will develop faster during the year to 
come than for ten years past." 57 During January the heaviest snow 
in years was reported and although early April gave 95 weather, 
rains followed, "the wind blew so hard the houses became restless," 
in fact "Old Boreas has howled incessantly all the week," then came 
a freeze, but at the end of April the "crops are looking splendid, and 
everything is lovely. We haven't seen a croaker this season." 58 

The fall and winter of 1871-1872 was dry and less winter wheat 
was sown in the upper Kansas valley counties than the previous year. 
The drought was reported as general over the Northern Hemi- 
sphere. 59 There was a heavy loss from winter-killing, especially in 
wheat fields that were not well prepared and drilled. 60 Spring wheat 
was reported fine, if only the chinch bugs would leave it alone. The 
final reports on the harvest, however, were not enthusiastic; the 
winter wheat was admitted to have been mostly killed, and the 
spring wheat "very fair." 61 

There was no consistency in Kansas weather and as a bumper 
corn crop had been raised in 1872 accompanied by low prices a favor- 
able fall resulted in a great increase in the winter wheat acreage, 
Geary county reporting ten times that ever sown before. 62 The 
harvest of 1873 was reported greater than in several years, but as 
prices were unsatisfactory the rising tide of farmer discontent led to 
organized attempts to maintain locally the St. Louis price plus the 
freight. 63 

The first and most important hazard to winter wheat production 

56. Ibid., August 20, October 1, 1870. 

57. Abilene Chronicle, September 1, from the Manhattan Standard; ibid., September 15, 
1870. 

58. Junction City Union, January 21, April 8, 15, 22, 29, 1871 ; Abilene Chronicle, March 
9, 23, May 25, 1871; The Nationalist, Manhattan, April 14, 1871. 

59. Abilene Chronicle, September 14, 1871; The Nationalist, Manhattan, October 13, 
November 10, 17. 1871. 

60. Abilene Chronicle, April 11, 1872, from Neodesha Citizen; Wichita Eagle, April 26, 
1872, several Kansas exchanges; The Nationalist, Manhattan, March 22, 1872. 

61. Abilene Chronicle, July 11, 1872; report of A. Sheldon, Saline County Agricultural 
and Mechanical Society, Transactions of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture . . . 1872, 
p. 239. 

62. Junction City Union, October 26, 1872; The Nationalist, Manhattan, September, 1872; 
Abilene Chronicle, September 19, 1872. 

63. Junction City Union, July 12, August 16, 1873. 



MALIN: BEGINNINGS OF WINTER WHEAT 241 

was winter-killing, but it was recognized that several factors entered 
into this problem : the time of planting, soil tillage, method of plant- 
ing, relation of wind, and the time when moisture was necessary in 
order to insure a crop, as well as the variety of wheat grown. In 
the lower Kansas valley the harvest of 1857 was not satisfactory, the 
political difficulties of late 1856 being in part an excuse for not sow- 
ing in the proper season and for sowing in bad condition with the re- 
sult that as "the winter was so open, windy, and severely cold" the 
wheat winter-killed. Early planting for the fall of 1857 was urged 
as essential, insisting that nature sows at the proper season when 
the grain of the ripened crop shatters from the head, sowing for the 
next season. It was stated that four-fifths of the farmers paid for 
habitual late sowing by a 20 percent to 50 percent loss on each 
crop. 64 During the drought winter of 1859-1860 it was pointed out 
that the late-sown wheat fared worst. 65 Again in 1863 in the upper 
Neosho valley winter wheat was extensive, some fields were reported 
completely killed and many others were badly injured. An experi- 
enced grower insisted that if the seed had been sown two weeks 
earlier and made a stronger early growth it would have been beyond 
danger. 66 In the account of the dry fall of 1864 one commentator 
remarked that unless rain came before November it was useless to 
sow wheat. 67 Two years later September was wet and farmers were 
urged to sow early because then "the root penetrates deep, and the 
luxuriant growth of tops spread protection, before the severity of 
winter approaches." The argument was advanced that "the soil of 
Kansas is especially adapted to the successful growth of winter 
wheat. (1) in the absence of clay it never 'heaves' to lift the roots 
asunder from the subsoil. (2) its chemical composition is adverse 
to the production of large straw." This was too broad and opti- 
mistic a generalization even for the Manhattan region and over the 
state soil differed widely. The same writer argued also another 
doubtful point, that whether early sown seed germinated or not "it 
undergoes the . . . process required by nature, whether rooted 
and growing before the ground closes by frost, or whether the grain 
lies in the ground till spring before it germinates." 68 Along the 
same line of argument the author advocated as an alternative that 
if wheat was not sown early, then it should not be sown until very 

64. Lawrence Republican, August 20, 1857. 

65. Ibid., January 23, 1860. 

66. Emporia News, February 14, 1863. 

67. Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, August 10, 1864. 

68. Lorenzo Westover in the Kansas Radical, Manhattan, September 8, 1866. He re- 
peated his argument the next year. The Manhattan Independent, December 28, 1867. 

230 



242 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

late, December to February, thereby undergoing the wintering proc- 
ess without germinating until favorable spring growing weather. 

As the years passed the issue of early planting continued. The 
Abilene Chronicle pointed out that many farmers did not plant until 
October, although early planting "is one of the most important points 
connected with growing winter wheat, and one that is also greatly 
overlooked." The reason urged was that only by sowing early could 
the wheat plant become well rooted and form top growth to protect 
the roots from freezing and from the sun. 69 

Closely allied were the problems associated with handling the soil 
and the method of planting and their relations to the wind. There 
was little specific discussion of plowing beyond the general insistence 
upon putting the soil in good condition and there was no mention of 
alternative types of plows. Harrowing and rolling entered the dis- 
cussions, but the most important issue was the method of sowing 
wheat, the drill being the focus of the farm implement problem. 
Not more than two crops out of three could be expected, according 
to one estimate, when seed was broadcast and harrowed in, the 
method prevailing in eastern Kansas in 1857, because "our winters 
are too open, cold and windy"; 

The best' way is to put the seed in deep with the seed drill ; and this will be 
found the least expensive way, when the wild sod has been exhausted and suf- 
ficient seed shall be sown to make it pay the expense of the seed drill. At first 
some half dozen farmers should unite in buying one for joint use. The drill 
leaves the ground in furrows, the wheat comes up in the furrows, and as the 
frosts of winter throw out the roots, the winds, rains, etc., level down the 
ridges, thus recovering and protecting it. Plowing in grain answers nearly the 
same purpose, and as but few grain drills have yet been brought to Kansas, our 
farmers will have to make use of the plow in their stead. 

The same author warned against planting winter wheat on newly 
turned sod, "wide strips of sole-leather," if it was not sufficiently 
rotted for the harrow to break it up. Rather it would be better to 
leave it until the next season for spring crops. 70 

Some three years later, in another drill article the same paper 
argued that "the success of this crop depends, in a great measure, 
upon the manner in which it is put into the ground," but before sow- 
ing the ground should be plowed, and plowed deep. The depth to 
which the drill should plant the seed was at least two and a half 
inches. Thus far the procedure was not different from the earlier 
article, but now the use of a heavy roller was recommended: 

69. Abilene Chronicle, October 3, 1872. 

70. Lawrence Republican, August 20, 1857. 



MALIN: BEGINNINGS OF WINTEK WHEAT 243 

This will pack the surface so as to prevent the rapid evaporation of the 
moisture from the soil. It will also prevent the wind from uncovering the roots 
and exposing them to the frosts of winter. If wheat thus put in fails to make 
a crop, it will be no fault of the farmer. 71 

The use of the roller as indicated was diametrically opposed to 
the objective indicated in the earlier article which emphasized that 
the drill formed furrows as resistance against wind, the blowing of 
the soil from the ridges covering rather than exposing the roots. 

One of the relatively few comments upon plowing was elicited 
by the great drought of 1859-1860, when it was said that the big 
lesson of the wheat failure was the importance of better preparation 
of the ground. Two farms, lying side by side, were cited. On one 
deep plowing saved the crop from the total loss suffered in the other 
field. The author advocated plowing to a depth of six inches. 72 

The scarcity of drills resulted in continued resort to plowing-in 
wheat, and the severe winter of 1862-1863 seemed to confirm the 
wisdom of the practice as "that which was plowed in was alone se- 
cure." 73 Similar discussions were under way in the near-by Lyon 
County Farmers' Club, where one group broadcast wheat, advocating 
harrowing-in east and west to leave tooth marks or furrows cross- 
wise to the prevailing south and north winds, which would blow the 
dirt upon the roots, not away from them. The discussion leader of 
another group advocated the drill for planting wheat in Kansas, 
because the seed would be placed deeper in the soil. He thought 
that under proper management wheat yields which varied from 
twenty to forty bushels per acre could be leveled up to a thirty-five 
bushel average. Although it does seem contradictory, both discus- 
sion leaders advocated rolling. The first after the harrow and the 
latter after the drill, a practice which would compact the soil, but 
would smooth the surface rather than leave it furrowed against the 
wind. 74 

In 1864 the argument was made that in spite of the dry fall of 
1863 when only about half of the seed germinated, the crop would 
have been doubled had the seed been drilled instead of sown broad- 
cast. The extra yield on ten acres alone would have paid for a drill, 
because, it was argued, the drill put the seed deep enough that dry 
spells did not affect it. Implement dealers were advised to bring in 
a lot of drills for fall use. Another argument for labor-saving 

71. Ibid., September 13, 1860. 

72. Ibid., May 17, 1860. 

73. Junction City Union, December 6, 1862. 

74. The Emporia News, June 13, 1863. 



244 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

machinery was that "as the army is taking away so many of our 
farm hands, let us supplant their places by drills, labor-saving ma- 
chinery especially just now with wheat drills." Boys and women 
could drive a drill ; a woman could raise wheat while her man fought. 
Six to ten farmers could club together to buy a drill, if necessary, or 
one buy the machine and drill for the neighbors ; "so let the cry be 
'wheat, more wheat, and better wheat.' " 75 The editor of the Trib- 
une followed up this article with an editorial advocating the roller 
after the drill; 

But put in with a drill, the seed is buried well down in the earth, out of the 
reach of birds, and out of the way of the wind; for as is well known to all old 
Kansans, in autumn we generally have severe winds. 76 

The statement was made in 1865 that drilling instead of sowing 
was being practiced in the vicinity of Junction City. 77 A year later 
in the Manhattan area drills were sufficiently scarce to call forth 
comment that "it is a favorable omen to Kansas that Drills are 
being introduced," and farmers were advised to "drill in the grain 
deep. If the ground is loose, roll thoroughly." 78 

Apparently the use of drills had not been extensive as far west 
as Junction City by 1868, because the editor of the Union wrote 
August 1 of overhearing a farmers' conversation relative to drills 
"and the necessity for their use in this country." 

They both held that drills would render fall wheat a complete success. The 
time will shortly be here again for sowing fall wheat, and we would like to have 
farmers discuss this question in our columns. If they will be of advantage in 
increasing the certainty of the crop, and from all we can learn there is no doubt 
of it, steps should be taken to introduce them. 79 

It would seem that possibly the editor was insufficiently ac- 
quainted with his farming community except that a subscriber re- 
sponded to the invitation asserting that "there is no excuse whatever 
for not raising the most excellent quality of Fall wheat in Kansas." 
If the farmer could be sure of a snow cover during winter it would 
make no difference, he continued, but the drill "will hide his grain 
deep in the ground and free from the disturbing element [the Kansas 
wind]." 

Let the grain drill be introduced; give it a thorough trial; let the result be 

75. Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, August 9, 1864, from the Kansas State Journal, 
Lawrence. 

76. Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, August 10, 1864. 

77. Junction City Union, May 20, 1865. 

78. Kansas Radical, Manhattan, September 8, 1866. 

79. Junction City Union, August 1, 1868. 



MALIN: BEGINNINGS OF WINTEB WHEAT 245 

made known, and in two or three years thereafter every farmer in Kansas will 
have one of these implements, . . . 80 

Following through along the same line late in September, the 
editor wrote : 

We have said much recently on the subject of the Wheat Drill, with a view 
of inducing, if possible, their use the present season in putting in fall wheat. 
Those who know assure us that no part of America is better adapted for fall 
wheat than Kansas, if some pains be taken to provide against certain peculiari- 
ties of the climate. Wheat, drilled in, will remain where it is put and not be 
blown about by the storms of winter. . . . 

In addition to this comment on blowing, the editor cited a report 
of the federal department of agriculture which stated that drilled 
wheat was not injured by freezing. 81 In this editorial there was no 
direct admission that there had been little if any results from his 
agitation of the drill question, but there seems to be little reason to 
conclude otherwise. The files of the paper confirm this, as there 
was not a single drill advertisement published during the fall season, 
and not until the spring of 1871 did drills appear in advertisements 
of implement dealers and even then only incidentally. 

There seemed to be no such thing as winning a decisive victory 
in securing the general adoption of new practices. Successful 
plowed-in wheat was reported in 1872 in Pottawatomie county, just 
east of Manhattan. 82 The Abilene Chronicle printed a drill article 
the same spring repeating the old contention that 

It seems to be a well established fact that all fall wheat, put in the ground 
early last fall with a drill, is coming out all right this spring, while that sown 
late and harrowed in is pretty much a failure. This should teach farmers the 
necessity of using the drill. 83 

In view of the fact that only during the decade of the nineteen- 
twenties were exact experiments completed demonstrating the rela- 
tion between soil moisture and the prospect of a winter wheat crop, 
it is not at all remarkable that there was little explicit discussion 
of this problem during the decade of the eighteen-sixties. In ex- 
plaining the disastrous crop failure of 1860, however, an observer 
commented that "had the ground been full of water from copious 
winter rains, the crops would have matured in spite of the dry 
weather afterward." 84 Four years later in connection with the fall 
drought of 1864, the comment was made that unless there was rain 

80. Ibid., August 22, 1868. 

81. Ibid., September 26, 1868. 

82. The Nationalist, Manhattan, March 22, 1872. 

83. Abilene Chronicle, April 11, 1872, from the Neodesha Citizen. 

84. Lawrence Republican, December 20, 1860. 



246 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

before November it was useless to sow winter wheat. 85 In connec- 
tion with the big crop of 1871 it was pointed out in April that there 
had been heavy rains in the fall, winter snows, and abundant showers 
in the spring which should insure a good harvest. 86 The summer of 
1874 was notorious for its drought but when comparisons were made 
between 1874 and 1860 declaring that it was worse than 1860 the 
editor of The Nationalist replied that although the summer months 
themselves were drier, to mid-June there had been abundant rain, 
while in 1860 the preceding winter had been dry. 87 

The insect hazard added to the uncertainty of crops, especially 
the chinch bugs in a late wet spring like 1864, 88 and three successive 
grasshopper visitations during the summers of 1866, 1867 and 1868. 89 
These affected both winter and spring wheat, the other small grains 
and corn. A more consistent menace was wheat rust which struck 
frequently during wet summers. 90 The repeated admonition to plant 
crops early was directed not only toward avoidance of the summer 
drought and heat, but also grasshoppers and rust damage. 91 

In this study the emphasis is upon winter wheat, but the fact 
should not be overlooked that spring wheat was raised in greater 
acreage during early years than winter wheat. As the limited sta- 
tistics collected for the early census periods did not distinguish be- 
tween the two types there is no way of knowing specifically the rela- 
tive amounts. As has been indicated when winter wheat failed to 
survive the winter, spring wheat was widely substituted. 92 As late 
as 1870 the discussion leader of the State Farmers' Institute at Man- 
hattan recommended spring in preference to fall wheat. 93 As time 

85. Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, August 10, 1864. 

86. The Nationalist, Manhattan, April 14, 1871. 

87. Ibid., August 14, 1874. 

88. Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, May 26, 1864 ; The Nationalist, Manhattan, April 
26, 1872. 

89. Junction City Union, September 1, 1866, August 15, 29, 1868, February 27, 1SG9; 
Manhattan Independent, September 7, 1867, August 8, 22, 1868. 

90. Lawrence Republican, July 21, 1859; Junction City Union, July 18, August 1, 1863; 
Emporia News, June 13, July 25, 1863. 

91. Lawrence Republican, July 21, 1859; Emporia News, June 13, 1863; The Kansas 
Farmer, Lawrence, October, 1865, p. 149; Junction City Union, February 27, 1869. 

92. Lawrence Republican, January 23, December 27, 1860; Junction City Union, June 18, 
1864, May 19, 1866. 

The U. S. Census of 1870 was the first to list winter and spring wheat separately, but 
the statistics are of little value, beyond the general indication of larger production of the 
latter. The census takers began collecting data before the crop of 1870 was matured, there- 
fore, the production in bushels was for the crop harvested in 1869. Some of the returns were 
not made until after the harvest of 1870 was gathered and figures for 1870 were given. Be- 
cause of dissatisfaction in Geary county the first census returns were thrown out and a new 
enumeration began at the end of November, 1870. Ninth Census of the United States, v. Ill, 
pp. 71-73. See, also, Junction City Union, November 26, 1870. 

The federal census did not give crop acreages, only production, until 1880, but again no 
distinction was made between the spring and winter types, and there is no means of knowing 
which fall years' acreage found its way into the data, 1878 or 1879. 

93. Western Home Journal, Lawrence, January 27, 1870. 



MALIN: BEGINNINGS OF WINTER WHEAT 247 

passed, however, farming methods improved and experience gradually 
shifted the trend to winter wheat which matured earlier and was 
therefore less subject to damage by drought, summer hot winds, 
chinch bugs, and grasshoppers. 

Although some attention was given to varieties and their relative 
adaptability to soil and climate, they were not made an issue. 
Among the winter varieties named in the press were: Michigan 
White, Mediterranean Red, White Bluestem, Red Amber, Red Lan- 
caster, and Red or Little May, all soft winter wheats. 94 Of these the 
May received the widest endorsement, but all were standard varie- 
ties in the Eastern states. Probably the other factors in wheat cul- 
ture were considered of more importance in determining success or 
failure of the wheat crop. 

The resourcefulness and ingenuity of the Western farmer in the 
face of climatic hazards is one of the most remarkable features of 
the process of adaptation to prairie-plains environment. Injury to 
crops or even disaster only stimulated efforts at new experimenta- 
tion. Cotton was grown as far west as Geary county during the 
early sixties, and was listed in 1864 among the proven drought re- 
sistant crops. 95 Tobacco took its turn in experimentation, but only 
for a short time. 90 Gipsy rice corn was offered as a never failing 
crop, making a big yield and superior to buckwheat for bread. 97 
It did not make the success claimed and dropped out of crop plan- 
ning. Sweet sorghum was more successful and was an important 
crop because of the syrup made from it irrespective of its forage 
value for livestock. Planted almost from the beginning of occupa- 
tion of the territory it was listed during the disastrous season of 1864 
as a proven resistant crop. 98 Hungarian grass and millet received 
a following for tame hay. 99 Although not grown in large quantity, 
buckwheat was one of the most important staple crops in the eastern 
counties, but was not widely raised in the upper Kansas. In drought 
years it became more conspicuous than otherwise, because after most 
all other crops had failed it could be planted in mid-summer and 

94. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, September 19, 1857; Lawrence Republican December 
27, 1860; Emporia News, June 13, 1863; Kansas Radical, Manhattan, September 8, 1866; 
Abilene Chronicle, October 3, 1872; The Nationalist, Manhattan, August 29, 1873; Doctor 
Buck, Jefferson county, before Kansas State Agricultural Society, 1864, Report of the State 
Board of Agriculture . . . 1873, pp. 81, 32. 

95. Junction City Union, October 24, 1861 ; Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, August 2, 
1864. 

96. Junction City Union, December 19, 1861, February 20, 1862. 

97. Ibid., February 13, 1862. 

98. Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, August 2, 13, 1864. 

99. Kansas Weekly Tribune, Lawrence, June 1, 1865; Manhattan Independent, August 10 
1867; Junction City Union, August 20, 1870. 



248 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

with a favorable late summer and fall still make a crop. Buckwheat 
planting was recommended in 1864 as late as the fourth week in 
August. 100 Flax was tried in Geary county and recommended in 
1862 for further experiment. The market agreement was urged 
particularly on the proposition that it could stand transportation 
costs, or still better, the linseed oil could be extracted as a home in- 
dustry. 101 Under a subsistence era of farming the vegetable crops 
occupied an important role in operations and entered into planning 
calculations. White potatoes were a staple, the prospects of early 
and late plantings or varieties being reported almost as consistently 
as corn and wheat. Sweet potatoes were considered drought resist- 
ant. 102 Fall turnips figured in late planting in any year, but con- 
spicuously when most early summer crops had failed. 103 

The relative merits of timbered bottom lands and treeless upland 
was a problem debated persistently from the opening of the territory. 
In part the timbered land tradition was just that, a tradition which 
had become an integral part of the cultural pattern of a people al- 
ways accustomed to humid environment. On the other hand, how- 
ever, there were current practical considerations which seemed to 
give the tradition the authority of necessity. As the rank and file 
of the pioneers were without money, the timber on the land could be 
utilized, without transportation and price except hard work, for 
most all the necessities of frontier existence: house, furniture, fuel, 
fence, implements. The upland farm meant the paying out of cash 
for most or all of these things, and transportation from their source 
to the place of use. But in this period the prairie-plains country had 
neither cash nor cheap transportation. Closely allied with these 
reasons and possibly a part of the process of rationalizing virtues 
out of necessities, the idea became firmly fixed that land that would 
not grow trees would not produce crops. From the first settlement 
of Kansas, the upland had its partisans but they were in the minor- 
ity. A conspicuous example or two may be used to illustrate the 
problem as seen by contemporaries: 

We have said more than once, that those who come to Kansas and settle 
down upon prairie claims . . . will be in far better circumstances five years 
hence, than those . . . who settle upon timbered lands, or part- timber and 
part prairie, [and also they would escape the diseases associated with the low- 
lands] ... It is those only who have from one to two thousand dollars 
ready money to expend, who can settle upon prairie claims with the certainty 

100. Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, August 23, 1864. 

101. Junction City Union, March 13, 1862 ; Manhattan Independent, June 29, 1867. 

102. Kansas Daily Tribune, Lawrence, August 2, 1864. 

103. Ibid., August 23, 1864. 



MALIN: BEGINNINGS OF WINTER WHEAT 249 

of immediate fortunes. Those without money, or with a very limited amount, 
must be content to get along a slower way, else settle on timber claims. 

That there was no "grubbing" or "logging" to be done, was a 
telling argument; it was only necessary to plow the broad expanse of 
upland and plant the seed. Such timber as was essential could be 
bought of those who had it and needed cash. Substitutes were 
available for many timber uses, wire (smooth, not barbed until the 
1870's) for an immediate fence with Osage orange hedge planted 
alongside to make a permanent live fence by the time the fence posts 
decayed. Wood for fuel could be bought, and often it was pointed 
out that coal was widely distributed throughout Kansas. Instead 
of streams and springs for water supply, wells could be had at less 
than fifty-foot depths in most places. 104 

It is one thing to demonstrate the problem on paper, but quite 
another to overcome custom and practical difficulties. As late as 
1866 and as far west as Salina the predominant tradition still held 
sway, the commentator pointing out that by 1865 the timber claims 
were all taken and only then were prairie lands occupied: 

Settlers taking prairie claims depend upon those who have timber claims 
and on ditching and on the Osage Orange for fencing, and the railroad to bring 
cheap lumber. Speaking of lumber, one of the greatest wants of the county 
is more saw mills. . . . The want of lumber keeps a great many from 



In 1870 a successful Dickinson county farmer, James Bell, de- 
clared that "he would rather go out on the open prairie, without 
capital, and make a good farm, than to undertake to do so in a 
timber country." When he came to the county six years earlier his 
only capital had been a team. 106 Another upland advocate insisted 
that "our uplands for farming purposes, are superior to bottom 
land," and enumerated health and fruit growing as advantages as 
well as field crops made certain by deep plowing to overcome ex- 
cesses of either rain or drought. 107 

To overcome the traditional handicaps of the upland, stone was 
used extensively for houses, barns and fences. 108 Drive or tube wells, 

104. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, April 11, 1857 ; Topeka Tribune, November 12, 1859 ; 
Junction City Union, January 1, 1870, "Farms on the Upland. . . . How to Make a 
Wire Fence." 

105. Ibid., May 19, 1866, Saline county news. 

106. Abilene Chronicle, May 12, 1870. 

107. S. J. Willes, "Farms on the Upland. . . . How to Make a Wire Fence," in 
Junction City Union, January 1, 1870. 

108. Ibid., November 14, 1868, August 28, 1869; Manhattan Independent, August 10, 
1867. 



250 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

with pumps, met the water problem. 109 Windmills as power for such 
wells were represented as providing the means of occupying the up- 
land ridges for both livestock and farming purposes. The success of 
the railroad windmill at Junction City was cited, estimates of the 
cost of a mill and well was set at $565, and concerning the Kansas 
wind the people were told that "if Kansas . . . does not utilize 
this wealth, it is entirely the fault of its own stupidity." no 

Farmers planted their own fences with Osage Orange seed, bought 
plants already started by nurserymen, or engaged an Osage Orange 
hedge contractor who took the full responsibility. 111 Wood con- 
tinued to serve as fuel although increasing scarcity led some to ad- 
vocate conservation, among other things, by using stone for buildings 
and fences, 112 coal for fuel as well as systematic planting and pro- 
tection of new timber for future needs. The extensive army wood 
contracts for Fort Riley aroused the Union to protest that "if gov- 
ernment would spend one-half the money expended on these wood 
contracts in sinking a shaft for coal, it would prove profitable." 
Three years later, however, the editor switched to the other side of 
the fuel-timber question. 113 A few used coal after the railroad pro- 
vided transportation, but coal burning did not become general until 
the late seventies. 114 At Abilene, T. C. Henry, advocated the use 
of coal even if a farmer had timber for fuel, because the time neces- 
sary to cut wood could be more profitably employed in more efficient 
and extensive farming operations. 115 This position is significant 
also as a recognition that subsistence farming was not adaptable to 
a high degree of efficiency in agriculture, especially in a subhumid 
region, and that a more specialized commercial agriculture was 
necessary. 

The process of adaptation to environment through experimentation 
was necessarily slow, several factors outside the farm tended to con- 
fuse the problem, and many of the tools essential to possible adjust- 
ments yet awaited development : cheap windmills, barbed wire, till- 
age and harvesting implements, mechanical power, new crops from 

109. For early tube or drive well advertisements and rivalries, see ibid., March 30, et seq. ; 
ibid., July 20, 1867, "Caution," also a rival advertisement. 

110. Junction City Union, February 27, 1869. 

111. Abilene Chronicle, March 3, April 21, May 19, 1870. 

112. Junction City Union, May 20, 1865, December 12, 1868, January 2, February 6, 
1869. 

113. Ibid., July 22, 1865, December 12, 1868. 

114. Abilene Chronicle, December 7, 1877. The Solomon news column reported "Coal is 
coming into very general use this winter." The editor of the Chronicle had been asking, 
during this winter, "Wood wanted on subscription." On December 7, he added, "We don't 
want 'kraut' on subscription." 

115. Ibid., November 10, 1870. 



MALIN: BEGINNINGS OF WINTER WHEAT 251 

Asia and Africa and new varieties of the accepted staples. The 
close of the Civil War marked a turning point. In the absence of 
natural water transportation and of railroads, the requirements of 
Great Plains commerce and of army supply prior to that date had 
created a seller's market. Corn, hay and livestock dominated the 
scene at artificial prices. These were produced by a depleted man- 
power under the handicaps of a frontier stage of development, war- 
time scarcities and high prices. Stolen horses and Cherokee cattle 
were sold cheap and contributed to the stocking of many a Kansas 
farm. Corn was raised regardless of its adaptability to climate. 

During the Civil War the Pacific railroad had been authorized, 
and the line, which Kansas hoped would become the main line, was 
opened to Lawrence late in 1864. The end of the war and the pros- 
pect of the coming of the railroad to the upper Kansas valley were 
momentous factors in the economic outlook of 1865. G. W. Martin, 
editor of the Junction City Union, reviewed the situation in edi- 
torials and related matter in his issue of August 26, 1865. The news 
item that seems to have inspired him to the first of these, "The Be- 
ginning of the End," was a post-office order that Santa Fe mail start 
from Lawrence, the head of the railroad, instead of Kansas City: 

The moment the railroad passes Topeka westward, that moment will the 
great Santa Fe road play out. . . . The opening of the Smoky Hill Route, 
together with the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad westward, will 
bring this way a monopoly of all the freight and travel now going over the 
Platte and Santa Fe. . . . 

On the line of this new route of travel is the richest agricultural and pastoral 
region of the continent. The beneficence of the Homestead Act, inducing 
settlers, will add to its natural advantages. 

The second editorial was "Fall Wheat," favorable planting condi- 
tions and the prospects of the coming two years. "The recent high 
price of corn has given to the raising of that staple an impetus to 
the neglect of wheat," but the price of corn "most likely, will be 
low after the exhaustion of the present crop." He was predicting 
twenty-five cent corn. On the other hand, "wheat will command 
$2 at least," on account of the great emigration and the necessity 
of bringing flour from the Missouri river. Calculating the wheat 
yield at twenty-five bushels and corn at forty bushels per acre, he 
predicted that one acre of wheat would be worth five of corn. 116 

116. The Fort Riley price of corn in 1864 cannot be determined from materials available. 
The Leavenworth market price was quoted at the end of August at $1.20 while winter wheat 
was $2.00 to $2.25 and spring wheat $1.50. To the price of corn at the Missouri river must 
be added freight and handling charges by wagon train to Fort Riley or other interior army 
posts. The Emporia price of corn was $1.25. Leavenworth Daily Conservative, August 31, 
September 27, 1864. The Fort Zarah (near Great Bend) contracts for 15,000 bushels of corn 



252 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The third article was a success story reprinted from the Topeka 
Record. A woman with five children had settled thirty-five miles 
west of Junction City, near the mouth of the Solomon river in 1860. 
Her capital was $400, two yoke of oxen and a wagon, and in 1865 
they owned 1,200 acres of land, 200 head of cattle, and had sold dur- 
ing the year 1,200 bushels of corn at $2.50 per bushel, twenty-two 
head of steers at $75 each, and 900 pounds of butter at seventy-five 
cents per pound. The article concluded "We think the story that 
western Kansas is a desert must be about 'played out.' n 

The following year the ambitions of Junction City as a trading 
point were reviewed. Because of the controversy over the location 
of the railroad route to the westward, the coming of the railroad was 
expected to make the city a terminus for a longer period than towns 
usually enjoyed that distinction. As a permanent advantage, the 
railroad would make tributary all the country to the south in the 
direction of Council Grove and to the northwest, up the Republican 
valley and two wagon roads were laid out to exploit those advan- 
tages. On July 2 the Santa Fe mail did start from Junction City. 117 

During these years large numbers of native cattle and sheep were 
driven in from the east and Cherokee cattle from the south. 118 The 
volume of these livestock movements prior to 1867 has been obscured 
by the exaggerated emphasis that has been given to the Texas cattle 
trade through Abilene and other Western points beginning in 1867. 
For years the farmers had been obliged to herd their growing crops 
against depredations of livestock. James Bell related in the spring 
of 1870 how he had herded his crops for the first four years near 
Abilene, 1864-1868, but by 1870 he had completed the enclosure of 
his whole farm of 240 acres with a post and board fence at a cost of 
$1,200. 119 That was farming under adversity, but the Texas herds 
from 1867 to 1872 made the life of the unfenced farmer a burden. 
The business men of the towns who benefited from the Texas trade 
allied themselves with the cattle interests to the serious detriment of 

were let at prices ranging from $4.00 to $4.93 delivered at the fort. Junction City Union, Sep- 
tember 10, 1864. Bids for 35,000 bushels more were rejected at the same time because the 
prices were too high. Wheat raised in the upper valley would have had to stand freight to 
mill and back, plus handling costs. 

In 1865, corn from the new crop was bought at $1.19 delivered at Fort Riley, Ibid., 
November 4, 11, 1865. By the following summer the price had declined on the crop of 1865 
so that July contracts were let in 1866 at 67 to 93 cents delivered at Fort Riley. Ibid., 
July 7, 1866. November contracts were let at 86 and 88 cents. Ibid. f November 24, 1866. 

117. Ibid., April 28, June 30, 1866. 

118. Spanish fever outbreak brought in by southern cattle. Kansas Daily Tribune, Law- 
rence, August 24, 1864 ; Breaking up of Cherokee cattle theft activities. Kansas Weekly 
Tribune, Lawrence, August 3, 17, 1865; Native cattle and sheep driven west and other data. 
Junction City Union, April 22, June 3, November 18, December 16, 1865. An estimate was 
made that in 1863 some half million Eastern native cattle, mostly from Missouri, were driven 
over the overland route through northern Kansas for the Western territories. 

119. Abilene Chronicle, May 12, 1870. 



MALIN: BEGINNINGS OF WINTER WHEAT 253 

the small farmer, and the trade thrived in defiance of the legislative 
enactments of 1867 and later. 

Even before the completion of the Kansas Pacific railroad to Den- 
ver in September, 1870, the pendulum started to swing back to the 
small farmer. The railroad undertook an aggressive immigration 
campaign as a means of disposing of its land grant. The tide of 
settlers began to flow in increasing numbers in 1868 and by 1869 
assumed the proportions of a boom. The Junction City Union 
launched a town building campaign in the approved sensational boom 
style with its issue of February 13, 1869, and continued the booster 
activities through the year on the subjects of immigration, cleaning 
up the hotel and vice rackets, promoting buildings, home industries, 
exploiting crop reports and freight volume, following the building of 
the Southern Branch through Council Grove to Emporia and the 
south line and promoting a railroad project up the Solomon. The 
first reduction in freight and passenger rates as a result of the com- 
pletion of the Southern Branch came in June, 1870. 120 

Two highly significant editorials appeared in the Junction City 
Union, September 11, 1869. The first analyzed the relation of land 
prices to cattle and cereal production, tracing the center of cattle 
production across the continent from the vicinity of the Philadelphia 
market to Kansas cereals continuously displacing cattle, as soon as 
the price of land rose beyond the profit margin for cattle. He gave 
the cattle industry of the upper Kansas valley less than ten years of 
predominance on $25 per acre land before grain would take the 
ascendency. 

The second editorial was directed "To Immigrants" and was de- 
signed to dispel doubts concerning water supply and markets for 
grain, two things which Martin admitted both amused and provoked 
him. With respect to water he pointed to inexhaustible supplies in 
wells thirty-five to fifty feet deep, costing $30 to $150 according to 
construction, and windmills costing $500 that pump water and cut 
feed for 500 cattle. The markets were for the most part at the 
farmer's door, surplus corn and hay could be shipped west, flour 
would be made at home as soon as mills were improved and three 
of every four pounds of butter consumed was shipped in. He used 
Clay Center, off the railroad, to illustrate what he meant by a mar- 
ket at home. In spite of a big crop, wheat was selling on the farms 
there at a higher price than at the Junction City market: 

For five years to come, every man who cultivates a farm can safely calculate 

120. Junction City Union, July 2, 1870. 



254 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

on the fact that the new and neighboring settlers will gladly purchase his crop, 
and not even trouble him to hitch up his team. 

The rising influence of the small farmer and stockman made itself 
evident as the years passed. In Pottawatomie county a meeting was 
held in September, 1868, to prevent the driving of Texas cattle 
through that region. 121 Resolutions were adopted June 5, 1869, by 
the citizens of the Republican valley above Junction City citing the 
act of the legislature of 1867 against Texas cattle and warning that 
it would be enforced by the citizens of the valley. 122 Some stock- 
men were on the other side of the question, however, one letter of 
protest being printed at the same time as the resolutions, the editor 
endorsing the letter. The argument was that farmers should buy up 
young Texas cattle and calves, winter them, which freed them from 
the Texas fever, and use them as foundation herds for crossing with 
Durham bulls. He minimized the Texas fever, insisting he had ar- 
rived at this conclusion from experience after first opposing admis- 
sion of Texas stock. The interest in cattle was emphasized soon 
after by the comment that investment within the year had tripled 
in Geary county. 123 Other ground for opposition to Texas cattle 
was their poor quality, slow response to feed which made them ex- 
pensive and price discrimination against them when fat. 124 In Dick- 
inson county, after a long campaign a compromise agreement was 
negotiated May 15, 1871, between the Farmers' Protective Associa- 
tion and citizens of Abilene by which a definite herding ground and 
a prescribed cattle trail was specified, and a fund was collected to 
pay damages that might occur. The association reserved the right 
to prohibit the trade altogether the following year. 125 This alterna- 
tive was exercised, the circular to the Texas cattle trade being pub- 
lished in the Chronicle February 22, 1872. 

Paralleling closely the campaign against Texas cattle was the 
campaign for the herd law; that instead of farmers fencing livestock 
out of their fields under the fence law of 1868, the stockmen must 
fence the animals in or herd them, becoming liable for all damage 
done to fields irrespective of fences. The herd law of 1871 was ap- 
plicable only to enumerated counties, of which Dickinson was one, 
but only upon a vote of the citizens. The herd law of 1872 vested 

121. Manhattan Independent, September 12, 1868. 

122. Junction City Union, June 12, 1869. 

123. Ibid., July 24, 1869. 

124. The Nationalist, Manhattan, June 9, 1871. 

125. Abilene Chronicle, January 12, 19, 26, February 2, 1871, covers the preliminary 
campaign. A summary of the agreement was published in ibid., May 18, and the text, June 
8, 1871. 



MALIN: BEGINNINGS OF WINTER WHEAT 255 

the power in the board of county commissioners. Saline and Dickin- 
son counties acted immediately, the provisions of the law becoming 
effective April 8 and 12 respectively. 126 In Geary county the law 
was not called into operation until February 19, 1876. 127 

A new standard of stabilization of the cattle industry resulted 
from the elimination of the Texas cattle and fencing of pastures. A 
few blooded cattle had been brought in prior to 1870, but under the 
new regime frequent notices appeared in the newspapers of such im- 
portations, mostly Shorthorns. 128 Sheep had many followers also. 
A bumper corn crop in 1872, with ruinously low prices, not only 
stirred the farmers of Kansas to organized agitation and eventual 
revolt under the banner of the Grange, but gave emphasis to live- 
stock production on a larger scale, and to diversification in which 
winter wheat became the leading beneficiary. The Dickinson county 
fair of 1870, the first, offered among its various premiums, one for 
wheat, making no distinction between the spring and the winter 
varieties. The second and third fairs, however, gave separate recog- 
nition. 129 Diversification became a panacea among the more ex- 
treme promoters and the growing of wool, flax, sorghum, hogs, beef 
and dairy cattle were coupled with woolen mills, flax machinery and 
oil mills, molasses and sugar factories, packing plants, and butter 
and cheese factories. It was said that "Our people must come down 
to first principles"; manufacture their own produce. 130 

These years of rapid change in the upper Kansas valley aroused 
anew an interpretative analysis of crops and prairie-plains environ- 
ment. In this connection the views of T. C. Henry, of Abilene, are 
of more than ordinary importance. Born in New York state, he had 
gone south after the war but gave up cotton planting and came to 
Kansas in 1867, going into the real estate business and local politics 
in Abilene and soon gained control of both. In 1870 at twenty-nine 
years of age he was a leading citizen and delivered the principal ad- 
dress at the first Dickinson county fair. In the course of his re- 
marks he described his ideal of a model farm, eighty to 160 acres 
selected "with the view to rearing stock" ; starting with young Texas 
cattle and improving them by breeding. They must be provided 
with shelter and feed, and if necessary dam a draw to provide water, 
growing "only so much grain as I needed for consumption upon my 

126. Ibid., March 14, April 11, 1872. 

127. The Salina Herald, February 26, 1876. 

128. Junction City Union, October 7, 1871 ; Abilene Chronicle, July 11. 1872, January 2, 
1873, 

129. Ibid., September 22, 1870, September 28, 1871, August 1, 1872. 

130. Ibid., January 16, 1873. 



256 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

own farm" and if "I found myself with a surplus, I should retain it 
for provision against a possible scarcity in the future. I should sow 
winter wheat, but do so early and in season. . . ." He would 
sow rye and oats for stock feed to provide against a more or less 
complete corn failure once in every three or four years. He em- 
phasized especially the importance of deep plowing to conserve 
moisture and the hazard of planting corn after a dry winter and 
spring. 

The most significant portion of the address was his views on 
adaptation to environment, a candid admission of the deficiencies of 
climate and a challenge to capitalize on the fact that Kansas is dif- 
ferent. He disavowed any attempt to present anything new, only 
to call 

a greater attention to the advantages that peculiarly belong to our section and 
locality, so that a system of agriculture distinct and apart as our necessities 
are distinct and apart, may be created, and which shall secure to our farmers a 
success commensurate with their unrivalled . . . opportunities. 

There were on the globe three great rainless areas, the deserts of 
Sahara and Central Asia, a small region in South America, and the 
American Southwest, but Kansas lay in the transition belt between 
humid Leavenworth and arid Denver. He emphasized that 

This important fact necessarily creates a continuity of atmospherical con- 
ditions that compel our agricultural operations to conform to them if we would 
attain the highest success. I repeat, that we discover an arrangement of the 
laws of nature here, unlike those to a considerable extent that we have been 
accustomed to in the Eastern States and I am persuaded that the methods 
and practices in farming that are suitable to those states, are in very many re- 
spects out of place and not adapted to the peculiarities of this locality and this 
climate. The sooner we recognize and acquaint ourselves with these differences 
and place ourselves in harmony with them, the sooner may we avail ourselves 
of the unequaled and exclusive opportunities our country affords. . . . 

We must take it for granted that the average yearly rainfall here, is less than 
in the States we are most familiar with, and we must farm accordingly. It 
does not follow because we have this peculiarity that our advantages are in- 
ferior. What should we think of one accustomed to the swamps of Carolina, 
and coming here commence a clamor against the country because it is not 
adapted to raising rice. So of the man that is accustomed to the corn growing 
advantages of Illinois what right has he to set up a standard of superiority, 
when as a wheat growing state it is scarcely to be considered in comparison 
with our own. 

No, we have advantages as well as disadvantages, but I insist that while we 
avail ourselves of the one, we must remedy the other, and in so doing create 
our own Kansas farming. . . . 

It behooves him [the farmer] then to study the nature, condition and quality 
of his lands; observe closely the great laws about him that have shaped the 



MALIN: BEGINNINGS OF WINTER WHEAT 257 

local and climatic peculiarities of his geographical position, and by his knowl- 
edge, experience and judgment, be enabled to adapt the crop to the soil, or to 
prepare the soil for the crop. He must read and reflect, experiment and dis- 
cover new methods of overcoming the obstacles and hindrances that arise about 
him. In this great work we want for leaders men whose examples and precepts 
will excite the enthusiasm, and secure the confidence of their fellow laborers in 
this field of agriculture. . . . 

As Henry was placing his greatest reliance at this time on live- 
stock and diversified agriculture, his views on livestock and environ- 
ment require emphasis. The disadvantages of the humid and 
forested East had imposed upon the pioneer the burden of clearing 
off the trees that light might penetrate to the earth and of digging 
ditches to drain off the water "in order that the earth may bring 
forth grass. . . . The best and greater part of many a brave- 
hearted man's life has been consumed before he could possess him- 
self of a meadow" comparable to the natural prairie pastures of 
Kansas. And the Eastern farmer found it necessary to incur the 
expense and labor of a continual "renewal of his grass field." Kan- 
sas did not have forests nor heavy rainfall, but in that Kansas was 
fortunate in his estimate, "let us admit these facts and turn our at- 
tention to our own exclusive advantages." These were "our dry, 
healthy winters, so admirably adapted to the comfort of our stock"; 
also "these prairies, abounding in an unnumbered variety of rich 
and nutritious grasses" and "if we can't raise corn as well, we can 
wheat, rye and oats better." 

The culture and growth of grass insures a diversity of agricultural employ- 
ment and occupation that otherwise cannot exist. . . . Then the greatest 
means of fertilizing and recuperating the soil is withheld and instead of the 
beautiful system of rotating crops . . . the entire attention is directed to 
the simple cultivation of some one or two staples. 131 

The general interpretation of agriculture and environment which 
Henry presented became a permanent part of his thinking, but his 
livestock theme is in sharp contrast with his reputation only five 
years later as the wheat King of the Golden Belt. His views on 
livestock were more or less typical, however, of the time and circum- 
stances. 

Another interpretation of "Kansas the stock state" set forth other 
aspects of disadvantages and advantages, pointing out that rapid 
railroad construction had made money easy but that was past and 
now, 1872, Kansas was getting down to bedrock. 

Money is scarce, farm produce is low, taxes are high, debts are numerous, 

131. Ibid., November 10, 1870. 

330 



258 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

mortgages are becoming due, and the wolf is unpleasantly near too many doors. 
What shape, then, shall our industries and economies take in order to make 
the most of our State and its resources? These resources are unbounded. 
There are no richer soils or sweeter skies than ours. But we are destitute of 
the adventitious advantages out of which many peoples suddenly and easily 
acquire wealth. We have no exhaustless mines of gold and silver, no lordly 
rivers upon whose broad, elastic backs the broods of commerce ride, no inland 
lakes and seas, no forests resounding to the strokes of the woodman's axe, and 
not even any present prospect of a great city, a commercial emporium, within 
our borders, where the more adventurous and speculative might gather for 
quick returns and hazardous ventures. We have our unsurpassed soil and 
climate, and that is all. 

Now what shall we make of it? . . . We think we have answered our 
question in the heading of this article. We must raise stock. . . , 132 

The extent of the author's ambition was to excel Kentucky, and 
like that state make such a reputation for excellence that people 
would come from all parts of the United States to buy, and like the 
Kentuckian, the Kansan would not need to hunt for customers ; they 
would hunt for him; "now then, all we want is the same STOCK 
SPIRIT, the same ambition to have the best ... in order to 
equal and finally excel them. . . ." 

Reporting for the Saline County Agricultural and Mechanical So- 
ciety in 1872, the secretary, A. Sheldon, presented effectively the 
problem of settlers derived from different environments reeducating 
themselves in terms of Plains agriculture: 

Our community is composed of farmers from all sections of the United 
States, and although educated to some theory in agriculture, and combined 
with large experience in practical farming in the sections from whence they 
come, owing to the difference in the chemical properties of soil, water and 
atmosphere, it has been and probably will be for some years to come, neces- 
sary to resort to experimental farming before perfect success is fully attained. 
We are improving steadily in acquiring knowledge of the best kinds of seed 
and the best mode of tillage in this section of the State. Much attention has 
been given to the planting of fruit and forest trees as well as the growing of 
the Osage orange. All of which, when properly cared for, thrive remarkably 
well.133 

The year 1872 seems to close a period in the development of the 
upper Kansas valley, with soft winter wheat a proven crop, but only 
one of three leaders, the others being corn and cattle. The winter 
wheat boom and the fame of the "Golden Belt" lay in the future. 

132. The Kansas Spirit, Lawrence, April 6, 1872. 

133. Transactions of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture , . . 1812, p. 239. 



MALIN: BEGINNINGS OF WINTER WHEAT 259 

POSTSCRIPT 

An attractive human-interest story, once in circulation, has a way 
of becoming an accepted tradition. That the story is contrary to 
all canons of reasonableness as well as to historical facts seems to 
make little difference once repetition has accomplished its acceptance. 
Already Kansas has acquired a number of winter-wheat legends, 
one of which has its focus in Dickinson county and is associated 
with the name of T. C. Henry of Abilene. Stuart Henry told the 
story, in praise of his elder brother, that he was inspired by the 
market leadership of the comparatively new Minnesota winter [sic] 
wheat and determined to save his Dickinson county from "impend- 
ing bankruptcy" by experimenting with winter wheat in Kansas. To 
avoid the ridicule of the "town cynics," he pledged his family to keep 
the secret of a five-acre field of winter wheat sown in the fall of 
1870 on river bottom land. The wheat was a success and "it proved 
to be the epochal event for the Plains." Henry planted several hun- 
dred acres of valley land in the fall of 1871, according to the story, 
began to advertise "the news of his discovery," and was invited to 
speak before a convention where he was "nearly booed ... off 
his feet," because he had aroused the opposition of the stockmen 
and even the farming element feared his activities would react un- 
favorably against "sensible endeavor." 134 

In the light of the historical narrative of the development of winter 
wheat growing in the upper Kansas valley, the Stuart Henry story 
breaks down of its own weight. Winter wheat had been raised on 
both bottom lands and uplands for years prior to T. C. Henry's 
activities which, according to his own story prepared for the Kansas 
State Historical Society in 1904, 135 began in 1873, and he secured 
his seed from James Bell who had grown it on his farm adjoining 
Abilene on the south. The ridicule by Plains people of experimenta- 
tion, stressed by Stuart Henry, was conspicuously out of character 
and the numerous examples of recognition of fundamental differ- 
ences in environment and the necessity of making adaptations upon 
the basis of experiment amply demonstrate that author's fallacy. 



Co.' Inc. fS]^'m^ 



Field," ** Kansas His- 



The Diary of George H. Hildt 

June to December, 1857 

Pioneer of Johnson County 

Edited by MARTHA B. CALDWELL 

I. INTRODUCTION 



H. HILDT, John Diehl and Charles Wood arrived in 
vJT Kansas territory from their home in Canal Dover, Ohio, about 
the first of June, 1857. After spending several days looking over the 
land and visiting friends who had preceded them, they selected ad- 
joining claims in southern Johnson county, naming their settlement 
Tuscarora. 1 Other Ohio friends 2 took claims near them, and in the 
fall William C. Quantrill, 3 who later became the notorious guerrilla 
leader, came up from Franklin county to join his schoolmates. 
Quantrill filed on a claim near Hildt's. The claims were a part of 
the Shawnee Indian lands opened for purchase and preemption on 
November 19, 1857. 4 Two weeks later Hildt filed declarations of 
intention at the Lecompton land office for himself and several of his 
neighbors. About the first of January, 1858, he left for St. Louis, 
where he worked for a short time before returning to his home in 
Ohio. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in an Ohio 
regiment, and presumably did not again live in Kansas. 5 

Hildt's "chief object in Kansas," as he wrote in the journal, was 
"to keep a record of what I do & hear of others doing." This record, 

1. The claims were located in T. 14, R. 23, in the northwest corner of Spring Hill town- 
ship. E. F. Heisler and D. M. Smith, Atlas Map of Johnson County, Kansas (Wyandotte, 
1874), p. 46. Hildt failed to record the legal description of his land in the diary. Probably 
it was the NW^ sec. 34. 

2. John Bair, Alexander McCartney and his brother. 

3. William Clarke Quantrill came to Kansas from- Canal Dover, Ohio, in March, 1857, with 
H. V. Beeson nnd Col. Henry (or Harry) Torrey. Beeson nnd Tnrrey r>urcha.=pd relinquishments 
on claims in the eastern part of Franklin county near the present village of Rantoul. Torrey 
also bought a relinquishment in Quantrill 's name (See Footnote 18). It was illegal of course 
for Quantrill, who was not quite twenty, to take a claim. Such irregularities, however, were 
common on the frontier. For further information on Quantrill's early life in Kansas see 
William K Connelley, Quantrill and the Border Wars (The Torch Press, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 
1910), pp. 55-74, and a compilation of articles in The Kansas Historical Collections (1902), 
v. VII, pp. 212-229. 

4. Wilder, Annals of Kansas (Topeka, 1886), p. 198. 

5. Letters of Mrs. J. E. Hildt to Historical Society, June 14, 1938, and July 18, 1941. 
George H. Hildt was born in Baltimore, Md., in 1835. On April 20, 1861, he volunteered in 
Co. F, Sixteenth Ohio infantry, and four months later joined the Thirtieth Ohio Volunteer 
infantry. By November, 1862, he was lieutenant colonel. He served until September, 1864, 
and participated in several engagements, including the battle of Antietam, and the sieges of 
Vicksburg and Atlanta. After the war he returned to Dover, Ohio, and married Angeline 
Switzer in the early 1870's. Two sons were born the couple: John E., deceased, and Fred T., 
now of Tulsa, Okla. George H. died at his home in Dover in 1913. Ibid., and Official Roster 
of the soldiers of the State of Ohio . . . , v. I (Akron, 1893), p. 334: v. Ill (Cincinnati, 
1886), pp. 394, 395. 

(260) 



CALDWELL: THE DIARY OF GEORGE H. HILDT 261 

in diary form, covers the period from June to December, 1857. It 
was written in pencil in a small leather-bound volume, and was in- 
tended for his family and friends in Ohio. The diary provides an 
interesting day-by-day account of life on the Kansas frontier, and 
gives important sidelights on the politics of the time. It came into 
the possession of the Kansas State Historical Society through Mrs. 
J. E. Hildt, a daughter-in-law of the author. It is reproduced here 
without change except for an occasional word necessary to clarify 
the text. 

II. THE DIARY 

Shaw says Qwindare [Quindaro] 6 never will be much of a town 
the Delaware reservation running back about forty miles and no 
squatters allowed to settle yet on the land. 7 Levenworth City 35 
miles from Lawrence splendid road and Coach fare 3.00. 

Camden a little town on the Missouri above Lexington with no 
Steamboat Landing, the channels of the river having changed since 
the town was located a usual occurence on this river where the 
channel is constantly changing at every rise of water. Gambling on 
board last night for money. One man lost 260 all the money he 
possessed and won by a professional black leg. He then offered to 
stake his note with the captain or check for security on a game of 
poker for 200 dollars, which was accepted. The game was played 
and won by the unfortunate loser and he rose from the table minus 
only 60 dollars instead of 460 had he lost. 

One of these lottery jewelers on board yesterday picking up stray 
dimes. He had his prizes arranged on numbers on the table and by 
throwing dice the number which turned up took the prize answering 
to the number. He had the valueable prizes arranged on low and 
high numbers or all 3s or all sixes of something of that sort the 
numbers which turned up most frequent were from 20 to 30 and upon 
these numbers small prizes were arranged. 1.00 a throw at first and 
next 50 cts One luck[y] man thru forty four, and won a gold watch 
which the lottery man offered him $35 for. All other who engaged 
in the game appeared to lose some ten fifteen and 20 dollars and 
many from 2 to 5 dolls I invested 50 cts and drew a comb & brush 
worth about that amt John did the same and drew a blank. . . . 

6. Quindaro was founded in 1856 as a Free-State gateway into Kansas territory. It is 
now extinct and its townsite is a part of present Kansas City, Kan. 

7. The Delaware diminished reserve established by the treaty of 1854 was ten miles in 
width and extended forty miles west from the western boundary of the Wyandot lands. 
A Compilation of All the Treaties Between the United States and the Indian Tribes (Wash- 
ington, 1873), pp. 340-345. 



262 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Harris House 8 

Westport [Mo.] 

Judge McCowen. 

Leavenworth City situated on the Missouri a very nice site for a 
town not any grading of any acct required to make it just as it 
should be John & I strolled out this morning saw 2 Surveyors 
Offices and one drug store just the place for a new business of almost 
any kind. The Hotel very much crowded so much so that five of 
[us] roomed together last night in three beds I had John of course 
for my bedfellow A meeting of the unterrified this afternoon [3 
o'clock, June 6] and one of the free state men to night. Will be on 
hand and try and report proceedings Hotel fare two dollars a day 
or five dollars a week without Lodging Not quite as bad as I ex- 
pected fare from Leavenworth to Kansas City by Boat 2.00 The 
Hotel keeper seemed to have a preference for Ohio men or we should 
not have had a room. Mechanics of all descriptions appear to be on 
demand. The Ladies are here as well as in the states. At Kansas 
City [Mo.] went to the post Office first thing and meet two young 
girls of that place with hoops black silk Joseph and Nun bonnets 
Here have saw about a dozen ladies but some of them common 
dressed of course but the generality of them very fine looking women. 

Democratic Meeting at Leavenworth City. Easton 9 about fifty 
present though seemed to be coming during the speech He was 
aware that another ticket was gotten up & he could call them noth- 
ing else but disorganizers as they did [not] act in accordance with 
the convention held at Lecompt[on] of which they were members 10 
Had the D met openly and nominated their ticket [but?] they met 
in secret conclave and have had some half dozen tickets the ticket 
today may not be the one elected A mongrel ticket got [up] com- 
posed of free state men & other Democ &c related the anecdote of 
the boy &c eating the said party will eat until dead A voice in the 
crowd [said] dont say anything against free state men Maj Moore 
then made a speech in which he said not that the disorganizers in- 
tended to be such but that they had been misled and that he hoped 

8. Mrs. Nellie McCoy Harris wrote of the Harris Hotel : "The fame of that incomparable 
inn, conducted by Mr. and Mrs. Jack Harris, . . . reached far and wide. To think of a 
village tavern with a large patronage, serving hot waffles, buck-wheat cakes, chicken pie, fried 
chicken, turkeys, broiled venison, prairie-chicken, buffalo steak, and such other toothsome 
viands! These were supplied at all times at the Harris Inn, good and plenty." "Memories 
of Old Westport," by Mrs. Nellie McCoy Harris, in The Annals of Kansas City (Missouri 
Valley Historical Society, Kansas City, Mo., October, 1924), pp. 470, 471. 

9. This may refer to Gen. Lucian J. Eastin as being the speaker. 

10. On January 12, 1857, a Proslavery convention was held at Lecompton "when the Law 
and Order party rechristened itself," and was "henceforth to be known as the National De- 
mocracy of Kansas." A. T. Andreas, History of the State of Kansas (Chicago, 1883), p. 156. 



CALDWELL: THE DIARY OF GEORGE H. HILDT 263 

that they would suffer themselves to be deceived no longer He was 
followed by Anderson [John Henderson] of the [Leavenworth] Jour- 
nal who denounced the whole mongrel ticket and every man on it- 
Looked upon them all as abolisionists and would as soon shoot an 
abolishoner down on the plain as a dog was very vindictive the 
meeting then adjourned. 11 Sheriff Jones [of Douglas Co.] was there 
and the hard[est] countenance of any man I believe I ever saw he 
carried he was neatly dressed however and the phiz presented a 
strange contrast to his clothing From Leavenworth we came down 
to Wyandott Ci[ty] where Bill McMass 12 is at work and making as 
he says lots of money. Wyandot quite an embryo town. 13 Houses 
cost a great deal of money and rents are very high. Several he 
pointed out to us which cost in the states about 100 rent here for 
from 30 to 50 dolls per month according to location. 

Boarding 6.00 per week. He owned a share in the town and had 
sold a few lot[s] from it Leaving the rest at a very low figure 

Leaving Wyandot we started to Quindaro and were overtaken by 
a storm which for violence exceeded anything I ever witnessed 
Trees fell in every direction dust blinded us and we were brought 
up standing by seeing a tree fall directly over our path rails rattled 
around us and we concluded to stop at the next house which proved 
to be an Indian one Old Mises Hicks 14 claimed to be proprietor a 
Wyandot Indian She conversed before us to an old Indian sqaw in 
her native tongue though she spoke English as well as any of us In 
the front room or the room in which we were was a pianer a calash 
top Baby wagon with springs and silver plated hubs pictures 
lounges and all of the best material She had horses cattle wagons 
a very nice garden and orchard. I think Marion Bear would not 
have ever thought of Indians if she had been there and I dont think 
that she would have thought her an Indian if she had not conversed 
in that tongue. That was the first apprehension I had of her Indian 
Blood. 

After the storm we trudged on towards Quindaro carrying our 

11. Political meetings were held throughout Leavenworth county prior to the election of 
delegates to the Lecompton constitutional convention. On June 6 a meeting was held at 
Leavenworth City. Two tickets were in the field, the Regular ticket whose candidates were 
chosen through a county convention, and the Independent ticket, formed by those who were 
dissatisfied with the work of the convention. This ticket included the names of a few Free- 
State men, hence it was called the mongrel ticket. Lucian J. Eastin and John Henderson were 
candidates on the Regular ticket. The Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, June 6, 13, 20, 
1857. 

12. Possibly William McMath, a justice of the peace in Wyandotte. Andreas, op. cit., 
p. 1231. 

13. Wyandotte was founded early in 1857 on the site of a Wyandot Indian village. Ibid. 

14. Possibly the widow of Francis A. Hicks, a Wyandot chief, who died in 1855. Ibid.. 
p. 1229. 



264 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

carpet sacks and enjoying the cooling breeze after the refreshing 
shower. Quindaro laid out quite extensively and a great deal of 
money expended in grading the streets Quite a bluff bank in ascend- 
ing from the river though it contains rock which reduces the price of 
grading to the Co : a very rough site for a village though the Steam- 
boat Landing is said to be the best on the river We got a team here 
and started for Ola-the, the Shawnee Indian word for Beautiful 
John [Diehl] Charlie [Wood] & Myself and two gentlemen from 
Quindaro accompa[ny]ing us. We traveled some distance until we 
reached the prairie and just at the edge a fine cultivated Indian farm 
was before us Choteau's it is called and looked like an old Tus- 
carawas farm or one farmed by a neat farmer 15 My Ideas was set 
up at once. The prairie looked beautiful covered with flowers of 
all shades and colors and kept growing more and more beautiful 
until we reached Olathe. I think the town very appropriately 
named. 

The laid out plat contains 320 acres of land and the houses I 
should think number about 20 altogether. John D is putting up one 
for $200 Houses of all kinds are contracting to be put up and I 
think that Olathe next spring will not be the little town which it is 
now. Saw the New Ham [p] shire girl next morning think her toler- 
able handsome and judging by the appearance of the table I should 
thinkJier a tolerable cook also two very essential points you know. 

Bright and early on the 9th of June we started for Stanton 16 
Charlie having bought a mule team and wagon here he took us 
down We called to see a few claims which were offered for sale on 
our way down Halted at noon at a shanty and bought % gall of 
milk and carried it over to the boys in a large tin pan. As the sun 
was hot we got under the wagon and all headed round to the milk 
pan and had a fine laugh over the thought of our Dover friends tak- 
ing a peep at us in that situation Our % gall of milk disappeared as 
well as some of our biscuits and snaps they did not taste a bit stale. 
We traveled on until within about six miles of stanton one mule 
gave signs of giving out and we took it more moderate and at last 
concluded to camp on the prairie about 4 miles from Stanton We 
unharnessed the mules and turned them out to graze while we took 
supper Our supper was the same as our dinner with the exception 
of the milk water supplied its place After supper we made our 
sleeping arrangements which consisted of removeing everything out 

15. Probably Frederick Chouteau's farm in the northern part of Johnson county. Heisler 
& Smith, op. cit., p. 45. 

16. A town in the western part of Miami county. 



CALDWELL: THE DIARY OF GEORGE H. HILDT 265 

of the wagon and laying down two comforts on the bottom of the 
box which Charlie had brought from Quindaro Upon these we laid 
covering up with John['s] Blanket John D['s] shawl and another 
comfort We laid two and two with our feet together in the middle 
and 2 of us heading to the tail board and the other two the front We 
took nothing off but our hats & boots, but felt very comfortable with 
the exception of one thing and that was that whenever we looked up 
we saw stars, and at every side prairie and sky met our view We 
would have been much pleased to have had some of the Dover boys 
see us in that situation we must of looked quite cosy though we 
were packed very tight. We were afraid it would rain as it lightened 
in the south but did not come up our way. A heavy dew fell how- 
ever which saturated our blanket completely, though underneath we 
were as dry as a chip. I was awake at 12. 3. & heard John Bear 
calling to the mules at 5. when we all got up, harnessed up the 
mules and started for Stanton feeling quite refreshed after our first 
camp on the prairie. We reached there sometime after breakfast 
though we had none we made out of our carpet sacks. Saw Torry 
first going in and out of his cabin as if he was washing dishes and 
cleaning up He appeared quite glad to see us and had a great many 
questions to ask about the Furnace &c Beeson & Bill Q[uantrill] 
were out after the cattle, they are breaking prairie with three yoke, 
they all appeared glad to [see] us and were much pleased that we 
intended to stay with them until tomorrow. They live in a cabin 
about 14 ft square filled up with trunks meal bags bedding pots pans 
buckets guns tin ware side meat &c. For dinner we had pan cakes 
molasses, wild goose berries & side meat and it tasted right good I 
tell you Wild strawberries grow here in abundance we had quite a 
feast today minus the cream Beeson has a prairie claim I think 
about as good as any that I have seen Torry owns one of timber as 
a small portion of prairie 17 Bill Q[uantrill] ownfs] one entirely of 
timber. 18 We remained all night here and slept all over the cabin 
the floor was covered with beds and sleepers. Left in the morning 

17. Claims of Beeson and Torrey comprised the north % sec. 34, T. 17 S., R. 21 E. 

18. Torrey also owned this claim bought in the name of Quantrill. It was the NE% sec. 
21, T. 17 S., R. 21 E. "Kansas Volume 24," p. 157, filed in the General Land Office in 
Washington, showed sale of the quarter to William C. Quantrill on June 29, 1857. William 
Brindle, receiver, made out Receipt No. 325 to Quantrill on that date for $360 in full pay- 
ment for this quarter section of Kaskaskia, Peoria, Piankeshaw and Wea trust lands. On the 
same day Quantrill assigned the quarter to Harry Torrey. These transactions were recorded 
April 19, 1859, in Franklin county's "Deed Record A," p. 380. Less than a year after the 
purchase Torrey transferred 90 acres of the quarter in two parcels by warranty deeds to Joab 
Torrey and E. Hicks. Patent on the land was issued to Harry Torrey, October 1, 1858, on 
assignment (Franklin county, "Deed Record 55," p. 393). It was recorded July 7, 1887. 
Information furnished by James C. Malin from records in Washington and in the Franklin 
county courthouse at Ottawa. 



266 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

for Lawrence and passed through Palmyra and prairie City 19 at 
the latter we found a nice young man who offered to show us claims 
and John B[air] thought it just the thing. But on examination of 
our maps we found it about 45 miles from the Missouri and about 15 
from Lawrence, and [we] would rather have claims down about 
Olathe where it is only from 16 to 20 miles from there to K[ansas] 
City Came into Lawrence about 4 O'clock looked around at the 
city until about 6 and drove out a mile to camp. 

Slept in our wagon had not yet procured a tent and during the 
night we were aroused by quite a smart shower beating in upon us 
As John & I slept in the wagon we were the greatest sufferers 
Charlie & John slept under on the ground We were soon under upon 
the boys w[h]ere a council was hastily held and we concluded to 
decamp, and procure the nearest shelter I was safely lodged in a 
privy near at hand & the rest took themselves to a carr[i]age which 
stood near Again the old expression was what would our Dover 
friends say to see us in that situation Or what would Marion say to 
see John with his blue blanket pacing rather hurriedly to an old 
carriage for shelter. It did not rain as much as we expected how- 
ever and we were soon again at the wagon making vain attempts to 
sleep One of our mules which had been lame all through the trip 
from Olathe was so badly crippled that we could not go out of a 
walk We concluded to wait until after dinner on him and look round 
at Lawrence 

Lawrence is not near as large a place as Leavenworth but has a 
much more pleasing site. Business of all kinds very brisk and a 
great many strangers in town inquiring and prying into everything. 
One Jewelry & Drug store looked as well as anything of the kind I 
have saw in the States Ladies appear on the streets in full dress 
Hoops flounces and nun bonnets appear to be the rage Every thing 
you ask the price of is ten cts i e of small those which you bye in 
the states for 5 and you cannot get a copper off your hands without 
giving it away 3 cts is the lowest coin they know in business 

Charlie procured a tent here a thing which we very much needed 
as we had found sleeping in an open wagon in a thunderstorm was 
not very agreeable. We made as far as Wakarusa Creek and 
camped as our mule was getting worse. Here we put up our tent 
and felt again as if we had a home or at least a kind of a protection 
against the weather We all slept soundly and we intended to make 
an early start and reach Olathe before night but we found our mule 

19. Free-State towns in the southern part of Douglas county. Palmyra is now the north- 
east part of Baldwin. 



CALDWELL: THE DIARY OF GEORGE H. HILDT 267 

so lame that we could not use him. We concluded however to hitch 
the other alone to the wagon and two of us walk at a time and in 
that way we possibly might reach Olathe. We got within 12 miles 
of it and camped at a little town called McCamish 20 This morning 
Sunday we made Olathe about 11 O'Clock pitched our tent and made 
ourselves comfortable Quite a dull day nothing doing The 
shops all kept open however for loungers. We had supper to night 
cooked by our Quindaro cook Charlie and his slapjacks were very 
good under the circumstances as they were cooked in the smoke of a 
fire built on the ground as the wind was very high and would have 
been poor cooking in a stove in a house, let alone cooking out in the 
open air. The wind kept up high all night and this morning no 
better. Our tent went down one of them and we concluded not to 
put it up for we had two Charlie got one at Fish's Hotel This 
prairie country is noted for its high winds even the hottest day does 
not appear more than pleasant as gentle breezes blow continually. 

Monday June 15. Election day in Kansas. 21 Great excitement 
One Tennessean floored five men in about two minutes bowie knives 
& revolvers were drawn but were not used fighting swearing and 
rowing kept up until sundown or until the citizen of Missouri re- 
turned to Westport when no further disturbance was made I did not 
expect to see such a crowd in Kansas Scarcely a man could be seen 
who had no arms and they appeared to want to show them. One 
man I noticed looked as if he had no shirt on at least he had none as 
far as I could see yet he carried a large size Colts revolver strapped 
to his waist For supper we had excellent slapjacks very good fried 
shoulder tea sugar & thats all Perhaps you would all like to know 
what I call a slapjack. I can tell you very easily how they are made 
and if you want to try and see how they taste you here have the 
receipt. We make a batter of flour and water and at the first baking 
put in some soda cream tartar & salt. After the first baking we try 
and have from a pint to a quart of batter left which gets sour from 
one meal to another to this we add a little soda & flour & water and 
bake them in a pan similar to your small thin frying pan which does 
not belong to your stove. They are as light as a fether and with the 
addition of a little shoulder gravy for butter is thirty cts per pound, 
and sugar they suit my taste exactly. John Bear agreed to cook for 
us and he does it first rate takes as much pains to make it good as 
you could. Went this morning to see a claim belonging to Doct 

20. In southwest Johnson county on the Santa Fe road, now extinct. 

21. Election of delegates to the Lecompton constitutional convention. 



268 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Barton 22 which he offered me for 250, 100 down and the residue in 
2 months that kind of pay does not suit me exactly and further 
admonition is continually ringing in my ears "dont go in debt" 
There is a good cabin 10 x 12 a running stream of water a thing very 
desirable in this country, and the land lays very nicely from one 
point about the center you can view the entire farm 

Charlie bought a yoke of oxen here of a man from Iowa and we 
moved out on to a claim which he had picked out I have taken one 
adjoining which has a beautiful lake upon [it] in which fish abound 
to some extent. The first night we had some bacon in our wagon and 
I suppose the wolves must have got the scent for soon after dark they 
howled around the tent at a great rate The[y] are the small prairie 
wolf and are perfectly harmless 

To day June 19 Bill Welty made his appearance he 'came from 
Stanton the day before and remained all night at Olathe and come 
out to see us this morning He had the same opinion of Prairie City 
that we had that it was the nicest part of the Territory, the distance 
from market he appeared not to care a great deal about Our claims 
are about five miles from Olathe the intended county seat though a 
little Free State Town called Princeton 23 also is contending about 
three miles from here We are only about 1% miles from timber and 
on the adjoining ^4 section coal is found which resembles cannel i[n] 
its appearance We are having an acre broke apiece Charlie and 
myself and intend putting it out in corn and perhaps we may put 
out some turnips and buckwheat This afternoon Bill Welty John 
B[air] Charlie & J D[iehl] all went to Olathe leaving me in charge 
of the tent. Bill Welty went on to Leavenworth. John Bear re- 
mained in Olathe and Charlie and John D went to a saw mill about 
12 miles with the ox team for lumber for our cabins We intend 
building 10 x 12 and board them straight up and down and put a 
shed roof upon them. We can buy timber from the Indians at 25 
dolls per acre which will fence in perhaps the whole 14 section in the 
manner in which fences are put up here You would call it in Ohio 
a good for nothing post and rail but here it is quite a substantial 
fence. Posts are set in the ground about ten feet apart and two 
rails are nailed on to these at such a distance apart so that a mule 

22. Dr. John T. Barton was formerly surgeon for the Shawnee Indians. He selected the 
Olathe town site and organized the "Olatbe Town Company." In 1857 he and Edwin S. Nash 
were partners in showing claims subject to preemption. Having purchased the field notes from 
the government surveyor of the Shawnee lands, they secured the description of the land 
selected by the Shawnees from their chiefs, and had the advantage of knowing the land sub- 
ject to preemption long before it was made known to the public. Dr. Barton was the first 
postmaster and the first mayor of Olathe. Ed Blair, History of Johnson County, Kansas 
(Lawrence, 1915), pp. 86-89. 

23. In Johnson county two miles southwest of Olathe, now extinct. 



CALDWELL: THE DIARY OF GEORGE H. HILDT 269 

cannot walk under or jump through Hogs are a nuisance and are 
shot whenever found running at large. On the adjoining claim to 
me a man from Washington Twp lives by name of [Anson] Berk- 
shire he has a large family of children. Almost too large for this 
country now when everything is so high. We get our washing done 
there at least took a shirt down yesterday and have not yet had it 
returned and cannot say what kind of washers they are. It was very 
cold here last Wednesday and I was very uneasy about the wheat 
crop. I walked all day with my overcoat on and did not feel un- 
comfortable and that kind of weather for Kansas in this month has 
never been known before I hope you fared better in the states. 
Charlie & John came back from the mill late last evening and only 
brought about % of a load all scantling enough however of them to 
build both cabins. 

Sunday a very dull hot day a good deal of traveling on the road 
a great many going to Paoli when the land sale goes off this week 24 
Sunday evening we all felt in the humor for singing and Old hun- 
dred Boylstin for a thousand tongues to sing Alass and did my 
savior Bleed, &c went forth on the prairie w[h]ere no such sounds 
were ever before uttered. The ox goad and Haw Buck the braying 
of mules cattle bells &c are much more common We sang just as we 
felt and I need not tell that we all thought of home we all con- 
jecture where we would pass the time were we in Dover & how much 
rather we would be here with our present prospects than there loung- 
ing round with nothing to make us exert ourselves 

Monday I planted my acre of corn in the sod sod corn it is called. 
We plant quite different than you did in the states. I planted mine 
with an ax in every third furrow by chopping in the sod at a suitable 
distance apart and putting in three or four grains of corn and stamp- 
ing it under with your foot or axe. It requires no further attention 
the first year as weeds do not bother you The Indians raise fifty or 
sixty Bu to the acre the way they farm and I have no doubt that 100 
Bus can be very easily raised with proper care and attention We 
will plant about 2 or 3 acres in beans if we can get the seed, and I 
think they may do well John B [air] will plant 2 acres too in beans. 

Tuesday helped Charlie W. plant his corn while he and a hired 
man went about four miles to Bull Creek for timber to build our 
cabins they found a very nice tree and paid ten dollars for it. It 
is a red oak about 4 feet across the stump and forty feet without a 

24. Land sale at Paola took place June 24, 1857. Wilder, Annals of Kansas, p. 170. 



270 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

limb knot or woodpecker hole as sound as a dollar we can get 
enough stuff to build our two cabins and have enough to sell to pay 
for both cabins and hired help, so our cabins I think will not cost us 
a great deal. 

Wednesday went over and helped cut down the tree and saw off 
the but[t] cut enough in that one cut to build % a cabin To day 
Charlie went to Quindaro & Kansas city to bye a stove and some 
provisions cabin utensils and [etc.?] Charlie & I and I think John 
Diehl will live together and see to our claims 

Thursday afternoon was splitting some shakes for my cabin when 
who should make their appearance but John Bear & McCartney He 
was the last man I expected to see out here They had walked on in 
advance of their wagon & when it came up I was introduce [d] to his 
brother who was traveling with him hunting claims. They had been 
from home about 10 weeks and had been all through Indiana Illinois 
Iowa Nebraska & are now here and McCartney says that Nebraska 
is not near as well timbered as this Territory or he says there is not 
J /4 as much timber in it as there is here and the land and appearance 
of the country bears about the same proportion. His brother 
[Alexander] took a claim adjoining Charlie and myself and they 
commenced unpacking their goods and such a lot of stuff I have not 
seen for a long time Every old fashioned thing which you were 
forced to use at crooked run they had and all very serviceable here 
I assure you He had 2 yoke of cattle, wagon and one horse and 
Charlie's yoke of cattle and his span of mules are now in sight and 
make us feel as if we did live here sure. We [are] intending buying 
a cow yet and perhaps I may buy a yoke of cattle and then our live 
stock list will be complete. We took supper tonight together as we 
have done since and had coffee, brown bread bakers bread slapjacks 
molassess and meat Our slapjacks appeared to be as much of a 
rarity to them as their coffee did to us as we had none since we have 
been camping 

Friday. Went to the timber today for more shakes for my cabin 
Took all the cattle and brought a big load Charlie had got back 
from Quindaro when [we] got back with the quite a lot of service- 
ables among which are a stove coffee sugar molass check shirts over- 
hauls, nails glass sash plates cups & saucers &c &c Our stove is a 
very nice No 3 with a very large baking oven for that size and cost 
us $8 with all the rigging belonging to it I think I [t] could not have 
been bought much cheaper of John Rex. 

John Bear and McCartney are our cooks and McCartney baked 



CALDWELL: THE DIARY OF GEORGE H. HILDT 271 

2 very nice loaves of bread in our new stove. We have named the 
lake on my claim Tuscarora lake and the town which our shanties 
will make when completed the same name "Tuscarora" We did 
think of naming it Dover for some time but finally agreed that Tus- 
carora would sound more romantic for the lake and the town of 
course should bear the same name. All together tonight until quite 
late giving accounts of our trips to each other and Charlie brought 
John B some letters and papers from Dover and one paper for me 
sent to Wyandot, came from Danny I suppose. 

Saturday plowed some prairie to day for the McCartneys and 
run round our claims with the compass to find corners. Think seri- 
ously of laying out a town and making a blow but I think the time 
is not yet. To night we had one of the thunderstorms at least so 
much of one that it rained right through our tent and we were forced 
to get in to McCartneys wagon w[h]ere they slept to keep dry. It 
did not do a great deal of injury however as we kept our bedding 
dry my cabin will be finished in a day or two now and we will not 
be in such a fix again. 

Sunday morning went down to "Tuscarora lake" to bathe and 
aroused a very large turtle who made into the lake with all possible 
speed. It is an excellent place to bathe being about five ft deep with 
a very smooth rock bottom and the water as clear as crystal, fish 
dart about in every direction We have not tried to catch any and I 
think they would not be good at any rate as it is too hot Sunfish 
appear to be much abundant. Charlie tried to lasso an Indian pony 
with one of his mules this morning as a drove of about twenty were 
teasing McCartneys horse but as everything was wet and the rope 
full of kinks he failed but gave them a fine race which we viewed 
from our tent with great satisfaction. Put on a check shirt to day 
and a pair of overhauls and tried to look as much like a Kansas man 
as possible. This afternoon wrote home along with Charlie John D 
McCartney & myself & John Bear all around one table I hope you 
will get the letter in due time for it is a long one. Sunday evening, 
sang hyms and Charlie gave us some Music on his guitar which he 
bought at Chicago 

Monday rode about 25 miles after cattle they had strayed off in 
the night and were nowhere in the morning. Found them about four 
O'clock only about 2% miles from the camp or I must say "Tus- 
carora" Ploughed a few hours this evening and picketed the cattle 
so as to have an early start in the morning This morning started 
early and ploughed about an acre was quite tired 



272 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Wednesday ploughed until noon after dinner helped Charlie 
with his cabin and at dinner there was nothing done except a few 
shakes split and to night the cabin is up and three sides closed and 
ready for roofing Kansas a fast state I can tell to morrow noon it 
will be finished and tomorrow night we will sleep in it. My cabin 
was finished last night with the exception of the floor & door they 
are lacking. There is one window [in] it and one door and we in- 
tend to make it the cook room in Charlie ['s] we intend to have our 
beds and McCartneys I suppose we will find some use for yet. To 
day I got a job of surveying I think a ten dollar job will go and 
do it on Friday morning only about 1% [miles?] from here. Mc- 
Cartney will go along with me he bought a cow and calf to night 
for 25 dollars a very nice young cow & the prettiest heifer calf you 
ever saw we will live now with butter & good milk slapjacks & 
molasses will go down slick Talking about eating I must tell you a 
good joke. One of our neighbors bought a sheep last Sunday of a 
drover and came to us and we told him [we would] take a quarter 
Next morning one of [them] came to tell us that the sheep had been 
stolen that the rope was there that it had been tied with but no 
sheep was to be found they hunted all that day and the next and 
found nothing A few days afterwards they found some bones and 
some wool and [the] result was that the wolves had taken it off. We 
had set our mouths mutton fashion and were very much disappointed 
and bacon was still our old stand bye 

Thursday Rode all day after the cattle they had wandered off 
in the night inquired of every one I met but found none answering 
to that description 

Friday morn started with McCartney to do my first job as sur- 
veyor in Kansas or I might say or anywhere else. We got along 
fine started about 7 clock and got through about 5 charged him 
6.00 3.00 went into my pocket and the same amt to McCartney we 
heard of more jobs on our return and I think it likely I may make 
the old compass pay. 

Saturday 4 of July fixed up and went to Olathe and in the after- 
noon went again after cattle as they had not yet been found 

Sunday Rode after the cattle again and so did Charlie and Mc- 
Cartney's brother came home to night but had heard nothing of 
them I fear they are gone for good The McCartneys had two yoke 
and Charlie one. 

Opened my trunk today and took notice to some little pieces of 
news papers stuck in the top of my trunk lid found some very good 



CALDWELL: THE DIARY OF GEORGE H. HILDT 273 

advice and instructions I need not ask who put them in. Charlie 
Wood is playing on his guitar and though the music is not very fine 
as he is only a beginer yet it has the same affect that music has any- 
where and everywhere. 

Monday put some of the roof on Charlie's cabin and went to the 
timber and procured some poles for A McCartneys cabin. John D 
here when we returned had been at the celebration on the 4th at 
Wyandot and heard Gov Walker 25 & some others speak The citi- 
zens got up a free dinner and all were invited, and John says it went 
off first rate ice cream oysters beef ham nuts raisins &c. Com- 
menced a letter to Mary to night will try & send it by John B hear 
that he is going home next week. 

Tuesday finished Charlies cabin and put up our home spun bed 
steads and arrived at A McCartneys Thomas Mc[Cartney] put his 
up on the 4th of July, it is smaller than the rest only 8 x 12 Tried 
to plow with the horse and the mules but found it no go. the ground 
too dry and they did not work together well. Heard nothing of the 
oxen yet I think they have gone for good loss about $300 Charlie's 
about 75 the rest to McCartneys Our stove bakes very nicely 
Charlie made some soda biscuit to night which are excellent We 
decided to night to kill our calf and not raise it as we intended as it 
makes rather a large draw on our allowance of milk. Could support 
two cows reasonably well 

Today 8th of July finished another cabin for A McCartney have 
now three in Tuscarora An Indian called to day and wanted to 
know what we called this town. Charlie took a man to Paola this 
morning who had two sons there wondered when I saw [him] 
w[h] ether father would come out here this fall or uncle Kuhn or Joe 
or any of the Dover people to see me. 

Thursday helped McCartney to make a tongue for a plough, and 
in the after noon found some of our corners with the compass and 
laid out a patch to break about 5 acres. Found some very nice build- 
ing stone on about % of an acre of my claim They are not exactly 
flag stone but a kind of flat limestone not shalely however but very 
suitable for building they are used extensively at Lawrence and at 
Leavenworth they have our regular flinty limestone. Went survey- 
ing, for an Indiana man [H. H.] Wilcox set his open corner and run 
off some Indian land and found out that there was about 70 acres of 
very fine timber not taken up yet in the hands of Uncle Sam. 

25. Robert J. Walker was territorial governor of Kansas from May 9 to November 16, 
1857. 

430 



274 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Saturday layed out a land of prairie to break in partnership with 
McCartney across our claims near % of a mile long made eight 
rounds and went 2 miles for oxen and took them home. 

Sunday wrote to father, took a bath in Tuscarora lake and put on 
a clean check shirt wore the last one one week For supper had 
stewed cherries dried apples slapjacks corn bread soda biscuits mo- 
lasses McCartney is going home tomorrow to bring out Phebe Bee- 
son 26 will be back in a few weeks at least 6. 

Monday July 13 Went to Quindaro with Charlie J B & Mac for 
a mower, got in about 5 Oclock No mowers on hand sent with 
[McCartney] to St Louis Mac & John Left for Dover about an 
hour after we got in Bought part of a bill of Goods and went to bed 
about 11 clock but not to sleep our old cabin is altogether prefer- 
able to the hot suffocating air of a hotel room. 

Tuesday July 14 Finished buying and started for home about 11 
clock got as far as within 2 miles of the Sante fee Road We had 
some mackerel in our wagon and the cattle belonging to the Indians 
smelling the salt troubled us exceedingly so much so that we were 
forced to harness up and move off until within a half mile of the 
Sante fee We camped a second time 

Wednesday July 15 Started at 3 clock for home very cool & 
pleasant driving & reached Olathe just as people were getting up. 
Got out to our claims at breakfast time. Helped A Mac to put a 
door on my cabin & wrote to Mary Slingluff. 

Thursday July 16. Commenced mowing prairie hay before break- 
fast. A new thing for me but I learned to do it up as I thought 
brown before I quit. Put up all I cut about four Oclock. Could 
have mowed until noon and put it all up before night 

There is such a hot dry wind sweeping over these prairies now 
that grass turns while you are cutting it Charlie went into Missouri 
with some posters we had struck at Quindaro for our cattle did 
[not] think he would be home until Saturday night A Mac & 
John D went to the timber for a tree for John['s] house leaving me 
alone. After I got through mowing I dug out the spring and fixed 
our three legged stools by driving in the feet more tightly We had 
made them out of green wood and the dry we[a]ther affected them 
so that when wanted for use they were frequently minus a leg. Had 
supper ready when the tired boys came home about 8 clock and 
soon went to bed. 

26. Phoebe Beeson was the daughter of Harmon V. Beeson. The families of Beeson and 
Tprrey did not come to Kansas until August, 1857. For some reason Phoebe did not return 
with McCartney. Instead she came with her family and later married G. A. Colton. Con- 
nelley, op. cit. } p. 64. 



CALDWELL: THE DIARY OP GEORGE H. HILDT 275 

Friday July 17. Boys went to the timber again to day taking the 
team with them and a strange looking team it was. Charlie had 
rode one of the mules and they put Elicks [Alexander McCartney's] 
large horse in his place which made a very odd looking rig I mowed 
some and when it got too hot put up a cupboard in my cabin to hold 
dishes and eatables. It is made out of shoe box has three apart- 
ments and a[n]swers the purpose admirably. I had quite an acci- 
dent happen to day or some thing might have been one A snipe 
came up to the cabin and was feeding round for some time and at 
last I resolved to shoot it and see how they tasted as I had heard of 
their eating very well. I loaded up one of Elick [V| pistols and fired 
at it. It was sitting near a wagon wheel and the ball instead of 
hitting the snipe as I intended hit the wagon tire and glanced and 
came back almost in a straight line hitting me in the stomach but 
with little or no force and fell at my feet very much flattened 

Saturday July 18 Had some fried mutton for breakfast this morn- 
ing quite a treat made a good deal of gravy and the consequence 
was that the molasses was not touched. Went to work to day to 
make a patent horse rake running on wheels the rest of the boys 
were making hay ladders. We intend taking a load down to Quin- 
daro when we go for the Mower. Hay there is $1.50 a hundred, here 
and scarcely any grass to make it out of what it will be next spring 
is hard to tell. 

Sunday July 19 Had a very good breakfast this morning warm 
soda biscuit & fried mutton & gravy. We only cook twice a day this 
hot weather breakfast & supper for dinner we take a piece For 
supper we will have mutton soup & dumplings. 

Monday July 20 Started out this morning before breakfast to 
mow hay along with John D Charlie went over to an Indian to get 
him to hunt his cattle Elick made shakes for Johns cabin Mowed 
about a half acre to day and put up the hay in cocks. It made a 
great change in the looks of the prairie to see a dozen hay cocks 
sccattre over an acre and the grass very neatly cut & well dried. 

Tuesday loaded up a load of hay and started with Charlie about 
4 Oclock for Quindaro We had taken a great deal of pains to load 
it carefully and to keep it very nice and square and to boom it just 
right. Elick pronounced it when he finished to be a No 1 load of 
prairie hay. We got along with it very well until we got to Indian 
creek the worst crossing on the Santa fee road. 27 It was then about 

27. Indian creek crossing on the Santa Fe road was northeast of Olathe. 



276 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

nine Oclock and very dark It was almost impossible to see the road 
The lead horse struck out of the main track in the direction of a 
light and we soon ascertained by the motion of the wagon that we 
were not in the track Charlie got off to reconnoitre and found the 
track without much difficulty. But in the attempt to get back into 
it the wheel on the lower side run into a rut and my humble self 
landed out on the dusty Sante fee very unceremoniously. I expected 
the hay to be on top of me but for a moment but I had landed so far 
out that four loads of hay could have scattered between myself and 
it. We had prepared ourselves for camping out and had our mess 
box well stored with provisions and one of the proprietors of the 
Olathe Hotel had brough[t] along some eggs to boil which we in- 
tended to cook that night You can imagine the scene which pre- 
sented itself when a light was struck and we viewed our situation by 
candle-light. There were the eggs all broken soda biscuit scattered 
in the dust tin plates, spoons molasses bottle broken and a jug 
which the Hotel man had brought for Molas or rather the pieces of a 
jug Our tent cloth coats blankets and boom pole were all under- 
neath The load had not scattered at all there it all lay just as it 
was loaded, except what was top then was now bottom. We gathered 
up the rem[n]ants of our supper and our eggs had stepped out and 
soda biscuits were very well peppe[re]d with dust the molassess 
bottle had cov[er]ed our plates and spoons had appropriated a part 
of Kansas soil for their own benefit and to sum it all up we had no 
appetite as the excitement of the upset had completely done away 
with everything of that kind. But if the view of the scattered lunch 
was pleasing the idea of having the wagon to right & the hay to re- 
load was infinitely more so. But what could we do in the night, it 
was as much as we could do to load hay to haul 20 miles over bad 
roads in the light of day, and as the case now stood we had no light 
not even a single star deigned to look out upon our forlorn and 
almost helpless condition. Our wagon was all right not a thing even 
twisted out of its place. We concluded to load up that night as much 
as possible in order not to obstruct the road any more than necessary 
and set to work in right good earnest to carry out our purposes. We 
had not worked long before we found that we could not accomplish 
much and as we were very well fatigued we lay down in the hay & 
slept until daylight. 

Wednesday July 22 Commenced loading about at daylight and 
at sun up started off with the rem[n]ant of our provisions and I 
might say with a determination very well fixed in our minds never 



CALDWELL: THE DIARY OF GEORGE H. HILDT 277 

to attempt to haul hay on a dark night after nine Oclock. We made 
Kansas river about noon and stuck in the sand on the bank Charlie 
went across after oxen to pull us and while he was gone a team came 
along which with some persuasion were prevailed upon to hitch to 
us they drew the load out and I halloed to Charlie to come back. 
He came just in time to, witness upset No 2. It appeared to be a 
very easy matter to upset in a sand pile at least the teamster thought 
so when the wheels on the lower side sank in above the hub and the 
whole wagon turned up above the hay shortly afterward as quiet 
and as easy as a feather bed could have done After a survey of con- 
ditions for a second time we found we were worse off than at upset 
No 1 for this reason we were without a fork Our fork in reloading 
had worked loose in the handle and as we had stuck it in the hay 
near the boom in the centre of the load we could not get at it with- 
out moving the whole load. Our boom we could draw out with the 
horse by loosening both ends but the fork was not [to] come at all. 
We sent word with the teamster across for a fork and the oxen and 
went to work to load with our hands until they came The oxen 
came but no fork as the farmer had never owned one. We procured 
one at an Indian house a mile off and soon loaded up and crossed the 
river. Camped within a mile of Quindaro in the woods. Charlie 
went into town and heard Gov Robinson making a speech he was 
giving Gov Walker fits about the troops at Lawrence 28 &c he got 
the letters and papers which were there and I received the letters & 
papers dated July 12 which appeared to be the only one written since 
I left. I was very much surprised at this circumstance though after 
considering the matter thought it all right 

Thursday July 23. Drove into town but could not sell our hay 
for what we considered it worth as it had settled almost one half in 
hauling 25 miles Drove over to Wyandot and sold it for thirteen 
dollars. MacCartney had not purchased a Reaper at St Louis and 
we could procure none here I walked over to Kansas City and found 
they had a few for sale but no seperate mowers all combined ma- 
chines The rope at the Ferry was cut and we could not cross with 
the team so we were forced to go home without accomplishing the 
object of our trip And another great reason was th[at] McCartney 
had the money or one hundred of our scant means though we reed a 

28. The charter of Lawrence was amended in the winter of 1856-1857, but the city was 
never organized under this charter and was therefore without municipal regulations. Not 
recognizing the authority of the territorial government, the city applied to the Topeka legisla- 
ture but failed to get a charter. In July, 1857, the Lawrence citizens organized and formed a 
charter tor themselves independent of legislative action. Governor Walker considering this a 
treasonable act" of the "rebellious" citizens of Lawrence, declared the town under martial 
law and sent troops there. Andreas, History of the State of Kansas, p. 326. 



278 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

letter from him at Quindaro in which he stated that he would either 
bring it or send it in a few weeks. Your letter was eagerly read and 
your kind offer I am happy to say was anticipated My letter con- 
tained an order for an article which is most needed in Kansas and as 
McCartney had 40 of my money I could do nothing towards buying 
a horse, with the residue. I suppose as he started on a marriage trip 
he will need it all We will make out a bill of eatables which you 
may make out among hands as it may suit you best and send it along 
with Beesons good John B may help you some as he may know 
what we may need, to some extent. 

Friday July 24 Got home safe about 5 Oclock found the boys 
anxiously waiting our arrival were much surprised that we did not 
sell our hay at Quindaro we were just one day behind in making 
the trip. We had intended to be on hand at the Free state meeting 
which went off July 23. Marcus J Parrotte 29 our candidate for 
Congress made a fine speech I was very sorry I missed it 

Saturday July 25 Mowed until noon enough for a load of hay to 
take to Kansas City Monday in the afternoon fixed up the wagons 

Sunday July 26 took a bath in Tuscarora and put on some beans 
to cook by the breakfast fire so that we could have pork & beans for 
supper and a piece of ham to take along to Kansas City. 

Monday July 27 took the hay up which we made Saturday in the 
afternoon it rained so in the night that it did not dry until 2 Oclock 
Started a little before Sundown for Kansas City traveled as far as 
Olathe and camped 

Tuesday July 28 Started early next morning and reached Kansas 
City about one Oclock Had our hay weighed at Westport Hay 
ladders wagon & all weighed 3180 A very fair load to haul 25 miles 
with our rats of mules and our poor rundown horse. Sold the hay 
that evening for $10 not a very fair profit to haul hay 25 [miles] 
& sell for 10. but to look at the subject in another way it is as much 
as ten made clear as we had to go to Kansas City for a mower and 
for some Goods for our neighbor Wilcox and the 10 for the hay added 
to the charges for back freight will make the trip pay and we have 
the mower beside 

Wednesday July 29 Bought a reaper and mower this morning of 
Walker & Chick Browns Patent Buckmaster & Wise Maker, Alton 
Illinois Could get no single mowers Price 150 gave a hundred & 
ten dollars down and for the remaining 40 gave our note or Charles 
Wood & myself gave our notes and John D['s] watch for security. 

29. Parrott, the Free-State candidate, was elected delegate to congress in October, 1857. 



CALDWELL: THE DIARY OF GEORGE H. HILDT 279 

They did not suppose our notes worth any thing but with the watch 
in their hands worth 115 to secure 40 & our notes they let us have it. 
We started about 3 Oclock & came out 3 miles or within about a 
mile of Westport when we missed Zack our dog & McCartney ['s] 
dog I took the horse and rode back while Charlie went on to West- 
port with the mules & load Found Zack takeing quite a comfortable 
snooze in the shade of a store box at the establishment where we 
bought our mower Went about 15 miles and camped. 

Thursday July 30th Started early and got home the rest of the 10 
miles before breakfast or before the boys cook breakfast about nine 
Oclock unloaded the reaper and commenced putting it up mowed a 
few rounds to see how it would work or to grease & oil up Think it 
may cut well We will give it a fair trial as it is a warranted machine 
Whittier 30 one of the proprietors of the olathe Hotel came down to 
our claim to night to tell us that our Cattle had been taken up at 
Little Santa fee. 31 Charlie will start in the morning to see if the 
report be true I hope it may we can use them now to haul hay &c 
or even work them on the reaper I do not think the knife would 
choke. 

Friday July 31 worked at our horse rake have invented a new 
patent which I think will work well can either use a tongue or 
shafts Should we be so fortunate as to see our Oxen at home to night 
we will use a tongue and work them Had a very refreshing shower 
to day revived the parched grass and helped the weak springs 
After supper Elick & I took one of Charlies mules and his horse and 
rode out to meet Charlie thinking as it was dark he might have some 
trouble with the oxen i e if he had them Had not ridden over a mile 
when we met him coming with but five of them. The man who had 
taken up these told him that a few days before he saw the reward 
notice he noticed that steer around with his cattle and that he had no 
doubt that he was still in the neighborhood and should they find him 
would bring him here. As they had offered 30 dollars reward for 
[them], Charlie paid him 25 for the five and brought them along. 
They looked very well have done nothing since they left but con- 
sult their own comfort would all make very good beef To insure 
their staying with us for some time at least we tied heavy blocks to 
their heads and [illegible] them well They lie down soon after and 
appeared to feel at home, but to our minds their travel to day added 
a great deal to their willingness [to] feel at home so quickly 

30. J. B. Whittier, a relative of the poet, settled in Olathe in the summer of 1857. He 
and Jerry D. Conner opened the first hotel in the town. They became managers of the Avenue 
House when it was built in the fall of 1857. Ed Blair, op. cit., pp. 87, 88. 

31. A town on the Kansas- Missouri border, now extinct. 



280 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Saturday August 1 Tried our mower to day it worked as well as 
a machine could in the hands of greenhorns. After oiling & tuning 
all round Charlie drove off and had not went more than a few feet 
until the machine choked as we thought it rubbed over the grass 
and the horses exerted them a great deal to take it along. After some 
examination we found that Charlie ['s] whip was the cause of all the 
difficulty as it had caught in the coggs and wound around until it 
had choked the wheels After much sport and joking about our green 
driver & finding the whip lash tarred well we started on. The ma- 
chine worked well could find no fault with it could mow just as we 
chose high or low without difficulty The only impediment here on 
the prairie are gopher hills little mounds on the prairie from 5 
inches to 2 feet high some perpendicular others sloping gradual 
with from 5 to 10 ft base &c The large ones are not so troublesome 
as the small ones. The knife runs right into them as the wheels on 
either side are on level ground Sometimes the wheels strike them 
when this is the case the machine goes right on leaving the grass not 
as evenly cut as the rest but does not make us stop and go around 
them The machinery is very simple and easily managed, though 
the best and most simple of all machinery is liable to get out of gear 
Only cut about three tons as we intended to experiment and know 
what the machine would do. Our neighbor Wilcox wishes us to cut 
20 tons for him and several at Olathe. I think we may find it profit- 
able employment until the grass is too much dried up to use for hay. 

Sunday Aug 2 Wrote to Joe Deardorff, Bill Hodge & somebody 
else 

Monday Aug 3 Worked our machine this morning until 2 Oclock 
then quit and went to the election voted for State officers Senator 
and representatives. 32 Only 42 votes were polled We went with an 
ox team and hay ladders as our mules and horse needed rest and old 
Birk [Berkshire] & Meiser [Mosier] accompanied us. Old Birk not 
so gassy as usual but voted all right We voted for the Topeka con- 
stitution at the same time and seperate ballot boxes were kept for 
each The constitution box was an old cigar box with a hole cut in 
the lid to receve the ballots and on the end which was visible was 
the word "Opera" emblematic of the scenes which transpired last 
summer, I suppose. Conner of the Hotel asked me whether I had 
heard from John Bear and then told me that his house was going up 
and that the man was using very good lumber better than any house 

32. Election of state officers under the Topeka constitution. 



CALDWELL: THE DIARY OF GEORGE H. HILDT 281 

which had been put up there yet. will not write until I hear from 
him. 

Tuesday Aug 4th Charlie & John went to cut hay for Wilcox with 
the machine and Elick & I hauled a part of what we had cut and 
staked it up The patent rake did not work as well as we expected 
and it took up a great deal of time fixing it 

Wednesday Aug 5 Kept on hauling and stacking until after 
dinner when we went over to the boys to rake up what hay the[y] 
had cut Took supper, at Wilcox's and eat some of a womans cook- 
ing Had a very good appetite and eat heartily. 

Thursday hauled hay in the morning one load and went to Wilcox 
and hauled for him as there was an appearance of rain all the rest of 
the day 

Friday Aug 7 finished our own hay and hauled for Wilcox until 
the rain prevented us took our suppers and came home to our cabin 
which turned rain admirably The hardest showers when the rain 
blew in every direction gave us no trouble. 

Saturday Aug 8 still raining this morning and a very poor look- 
ing hay day Old Birk this morning unloaded a load of scantling on 
his claim near the road and intend [s] putting up a shop or provision 
store I regret to say that the first house put up in Tuscarora must 
be a shop of that kind instead of a stone hotel or a building of some 
size He is in partnership with a Dutchman who is to attend the 
shop Continued wet all day. 

The old adage necessity is the mother of inventions was verified 
here to day, for my boot sole came off and I could procure none short 
of Quindaro and I was forced to make a last to mend it. which I 
did by taking some leather out of an old saddle flap which Mc- 
Cartney had brought along for that purpose and by the aid of 6 oz 
tacks I put it on quite neatly & securely, and the boots now which 
were worthless before will last until fall or until I can get a pair for 
the winter season. 

Sunday Aug 9th Wrote home to day nothing but Journal I fear 
my letters are getting stale but then consider that to keep a record 
of what I do & hear of others doing has been my chief object in 
Kansas. 

Monday 10 took Charlies mule over to Spring Hill 2 miles to be 
shod. An Indian had brought in some new potatoes which he asked 
25 cts for or about a cent a piece and they were not very large at 
that. He had beans and corn for sale at very exhorbitant prices I 
should have liked a mess of potatoes but at a cent a piece I thought 



282 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

it dear eating. Came back & took dinner at Wilcox's found Elick 
& John there they had been working oxen in the mower and the 
heat stopped them or stopped the oxen You may think [it] strange 
to hear that oxen will work in a machine but such is the fact. Mc- 
Cartney has one yoke of cattle seven years old which cannot well be 
beat as to work, they are not as large as many I have seen but are 
better broke than I supposed oxen ever could be. I can drive [them] 
any where with more ease than I could a span of horses indeed I 
fancy myself a No 1 ox driver My first impression was when oxen 
were named to work in the machine that the knife would choke but 
there is no difficulty on that ground with our machine the heat ap- 
pears to be the only obstacle Charlie started this morning for 
Quindaro with Walters our store keeper or Dutchman 

Tuesday Aug 11. John & I worked the oxen in the machine to day 
Elick raked up hay with a horse rake John & I finished our patch 
and brought the machine along home. Cut a small patch in the eve- 
ning for ourselves. 

Wednesday Aug 12 Charlie at home this morning I expected to 
receive three or four letters but not one came was much disap- 
pointed Says he sent a lot of Chindowans 33 to my friends hope 
you will get them 

Had a job of surveying to do to day for Moiser Charlies coming 
made us late starting but we got off at last. Set his corner for him 
and as the day was windy could not work very fast I would [give] 
anything if that old compass had a telescope and tripod yet, and 
then I think it would be the very thing for this rolling prairie coun- 
try Elick raked the hay John & I had cut and Charlie came over & 
helped measure all the mowing we had done for Wilcox and found 
it to be 22 acres and at $3 per acre would be sixty six he offered us 
$45 and Charlie would not take it We will split the difference with 
him on the breaking prairie arrangement and nothing less Saw 
some of the Indians today some of them wanted hay cut I should 
like to cut for them to see what kind of board they get up and how 
they cook. 

Thursday Aug 13 Charlie & I went to the timber to buy an acre 
or two from the Indians & cut hay for them to pay for it. Found 
none of them at home, the squaws were making hominy out of 
white corn it looked very nice, but they would not sell any. lent a 
load of poles to build a stable & wagon shed 20 feet square and cover 

33. The Quindaro Chindowan, a Free-State paper published at Quindaro. It was first 
issued May 13, 1857. 



CALDWELL: THE DIARY OF GEORGE H. HILDT 283 

it with hay for the winter John & Elick cut hay all day with the 
machine 

Friday Aug 14 Elick & I hauled in hay & John & Charlie worked 
the machine Saturday I started for Lawrence as it had rained some 
in the night and looked as if it would rain during the day for a horse 
rake the old fashioned revolving rake Charlie & John went to Santa 
fee to trade or try to exchange one yoke of oxen for a mule I ar- 
rived at Lawrence about 5 Oclock attended to my business pro- 
cured a rake & some papers and drove out of Walkers rebellious 
Lawrence about 7 miles and camped on Wakarusa Creek It was the 
first time that I camped on the open prairie alone. But I slept as 
sound as usual and did not wake up till sun up Harnessed up the 
mules and started for home 

Sunday Aug 16 Got home about % P a st 10 Oclock & found Elick 
making arrangements to start for Quindaro after letters If I do not 
receive any this time I will not soon again expect any The boys 
came home this evening from Santa Fee thoroughly drenched with 
rain as we had a very heavy shower in the afternoon They did not 
make a trade of any kind but brought along 14 dozens of oats [?] at 
40 cts per dozen and a piece of dried beef The Missouri State fair 
commences on the 29 of September, Tuesday & lasts four days We 
think of going down. 

Monday Aug 17 Still raining this morning and an idle day I think 
look anxious for Elick every minute It rained all day and nothing 
could be done Elick made his appearance about 12 O'clock to night 
with the letters & I received your letter dated Aug 10 with Dannys 
enclosed. A very quick trip. After reading our letters and telling 
each other the news we gave McCartney and his bride 3 cheers & a 
hearty welcome to our prairie home & went to bed in a much better 
humor than usual Hope the report is true Elick thinks it quite 
doubtful as he has written nothing to him to that effect. That only 
proves to my mind that the report is correct as young men are not 
apt to make many bosom friends in cases of this kind 

Tuesday Aug. 18. As soon as it was dry enough went to work and 
got up hay Wednesday worked in the morning and went to Olathe 
in the afternoon to attend a free state meeting Mr [ J. M.] Walden 
editor of the Chindowan was announced as speaker He disappointed 
us and did not come Towards evening we got together as many as 
possible and appointed delegates to attend the Convention at Grass- 



284 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

hopper falls 34 Mr Ansen Birkshire our neighbor was president of 
the meeting & your humble servant was elected a delegate It is 
altogether impossible for me to think of going as we are just be- 
gining to make things move in the mowing time & should one of us 
go we might as well all go as we could not do much here as it takes 
2 to mow & two to haul. The trip will take about a week perhaps 
get home Friday evening. I should like to go for I think that it will 
be the most important convention held in Kansas 

Wednesday Aug 19th Elick & I put up hay the rest of the week 

Sunday Aug 23 Charlie & I started for Quindaro about 5 O'clock 
after it had stopped raining Camped at Shawnee town and drove on 
next day No letters for me Charlie reed two or three. We were 
told of an emigrant aid [New England Emigrant Aid Co.] sawmill 
which could be had by any one who would put it up We went and 
looked at it on the levy found it too large for our use as it was a 40 
horse power engine An engine to drive a sawmill on Bull creek 
would pay now as there is no sawmill within 15 miles of here or 
about that distance from Olathe. And it would keep us employed 
during the winter should we choose to remain here. Started from 
Quindaro about 5 Oclock Monday eve 24 & reached home about 12 
feeling a little chilly the nights are sensibly colder than they were 
a few weeks ago 

Tuesday Aug 25 Hauled hay 

Wednesday Aug 26 heard of a stray horse in the neighborhood 
and as we needed such an article we concluded to take him up as a 
stray that is if we could catch him. So as soon as we could get our 
horse and mules rigged for the chase we started in the direction which 
had been pointed out to us. He was described as an old bay would 
work they supposed in among a drove of Indian horses which were 
escorted by a jet black stallion. After riding about 3 miles we came 
upon them & found them to be indian ponies with the exception of 
the old bay which they seemed to fight & drive off We all stopped 
in a ravine and made some preparations such as adjusting picket 
ropes used for larietts & tightening girths &c. Charlie & John had 
lariett ropes and while they were fixing up I rode in into the drove 
slowly so as not to fright them and found the old bay some distance 
from the rest as the stallion of the drove kept driving him out. He 
looked very nice and sleek alongside of our poor gaunt horse and 
mules and tossed his head disdainfully whenever I approached him 

34. The Free-State convention met at Grasshopper Falls on August 26, 1857, to decide 
whether to participate in the general election called by Governor Walker for October 5. 
Andreas, History of the State of Kansas, p. 162. 



CALDWELL: THE DIARY OF GEORGE H. HILDT 285 

By this time the boys rode up and we singled him out from the drove 
and drove him towards home & every now and then when an op- 
portunity would offer they would fling their larietts but to no pur- 
pose they would slide off of his sleek sides and fall on the grass 
After driving him a mile he broke back to the drove again and we 
concluded to try some other plan to capture him as the lariett we 
could do nothing with. We placed a slipnoose on the ground to 
catch one of his feet and I held the rope while the boys drove him 
up to it he jumped over it once but the second time he stepped in 
with his fore foot and I drew it quickly and he was ours He plunged 
forward three or four times and then stood perfectly quiet while we 
bridled and saddled him John D rode him home He had been 
ridden before as his back was sore with saddle marks We now hold 
him as a stray. Charlie started to night down to Beesons to get our 
money which McCartney had sent out. 

Thursday 27. Hauled hay to day and kept thinking about 
Mac['s] wedding &c how it happened that he did not get married 
and all waiting for Charlies return to hear the news & correct report. 
Charlie got home about 12 Oclock to night 

Friday 28 Charlie came to my bed this morning before I was up 
to tell me what kind of a trip he had had Found them all there 
every tad as Aunt Mary would say. Mrs Torry Augusta Redfield 35 
and all the Beesons Their goods had not come on yet and they had 
nothing to do but to cook & eat. Girls all idle and a splendid chance 
to make a visit. Mrs Torrey Charlie says told Gusta not to eat so 
much pork or bacon or it would make her coarse & she looked up 
wonderingly & said "what shall I eat then" Before they are many 
months in Kansas bacon will supply the place of chicken I think. 
Beesons wanted Charlie to come down with the machine and cut 
some hay for him say 8 or ten tons I think it very likely we will go. 

Saturday 29. Hauled hay to day & the boys commenced cutting 
a large patch about 20 acres cut all day we hauled one load in the 
evening to top out a stack 

Sunday 30 Not very well to day a little head ache lots of Com- 
pany Pintel McKaig Forrest Goer Moser 36 and a load of Quin- 
daro men stopped and took our letters 

Monday 31 Finished cutting hay in the patch commenced Satur- 
day & we hauled in with two teams 

35. Augusta Redfield was probably Mrs. Torrey's sister. 

36. Possibly J. F. McKaig, J. C. Forrest, Jonathan Gore, and J. Mosier, all living in 
Johnson county in 1857. Andreas, op. cit., pp. 625, 634. 



286 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Tuesday Sept 1 Moser came this morning with his oxen and we 
hauled with 3 teams until noon & until night with two put up 2 large 
stacks 

Wednesday 2 hauled hay with our team until noon and finished 
the patch John & I mowed after dinner in small patches and Elick 
fixed up stacks & Charlie went to the timber for post to fence around 
the stacks 

Thursday 3rd John & I mowed some for the Dutchman & Elick 
baked bread & cooked beans &c made a shingle herse axe helves &c 

Friday Sept 4 Hauled in our small patches until noon & helped 
the Dutchman in the afternoon 

Saturday Sept 5 Finished hauling for the Dutchman by noon & 
went to the timber after dinner for posts & fire wood. Charlie got 
home to night from Missouri had started Thursday morning to 
trade his oxen for anything except oxen. Made a trade for a grey 
horse thinks he did very well. Brought some green corn & some 
wild plums & 25 bus of oats Will take his oxen down & bring the 
horse up next week Sunday got up late Charlie started for Quin- 
daro about noon. I started after dinner to go to McCamish to hunt 
Elick's ox as we had heard he was there or one answering to that 
description Found the oxe by he did not prove to be the one I was 
hunting. Came after dark tired and hungry & we had not a bit of 
flour in the house and only about 1 qt of cornmeal & some green corn 
made our suppers on mush & green corn, and must live on that until 
tomorrow night when Charlie will be on hand with flour &c. 

Monday Sept 7 Dug post holes around the stacks along with 
John Elick baking bread & cleaning up the tent. At One Oclock 
we started for Princeton where [the] voters of Johnson Co were 
requested to meet to organize in companies for the protection of the 
ballot box 37 After hearing a few blood & thunder speeches an or- 
ganization was formed and Officers elected Bishop of Olathe John B 
knows him was elected Captain Elick First Sargent & John D Com- 
missary the other officers you would not know. The policy is not 
to go armed to the polls but to have them in the immediate neighbor- 
hood so that in case of necessity and that only, they are to be used 
to make nothing but a fair demand for our rights as citizens of 
Kansas, & have them we must in some way. 

Tuesday Sept 8 Cut hay for the Dutchman Charlie started for 

37. At the Free-State convention held at Topeka, July 15, 16, 1857, resolutions were 
passed authorizing James H. Lane to organize the people in the several districts to protect the 
ballot boxes at the coming election. Ibid., p. 161. 



CALDWELL: THE DIARY OF GEORGE H. HILDT 287 

Missouri to deliver his cattle and bring his horse & some seed wheat 
& provisions 

Wednesday Sept 9 Cut hay for ourselves until noon & after dinner 
hauled in a part of the Dutchman's We were visited to day by the 
most friendly indian Shawnee I have seen yet He gave us a great 
amount of information about his tribe about councils dances buffalo 
hunts &c His squaw had the ague and he gave her some blankets to 
lie on in the shade of the cabin while he yarned to us at dinner 

T[h]ursday Sept 10 Cut hay for ourselves to day Tried to haul 
the remainder of hans but the wind was too high we could do noth- 
ing. We broke the cast iron point of the mower the one which 
divides the grass. It ran into a gopher hill and snapped off like a 
pipe stem. Unhitched and young america had it fixed before night to 
work better than before. 

Friday Sept 11 Charlie & John cut hay until noon and Elick & I 
put in a row of posts around the stacks After dinner it rained and 
we did nothing of work line but wrote letters fixed up journals & 
harness &c 

Saturday Sept 12 All went horseback to Princeton where we were 
requested to meet to train We entered Princeton abreast six of us 
(Moser & the Dutchman accompanying us) some on tall horses and 
others on mules blind bridles halters and ropes making a curious as 
well as pleasing appearance. The company is called the "Olathe 
Border Guards" After sending an order for arms and going through 
some movements we came home though not with out being gassed up 
by the fearful and shown blue lodge 38 flags which were stuck up 
around Olathe & Princeton as guide posts to Missourians coming into 
the territory. After we got home Charlie & John concluded to go to 
Beesons this week and I will start for Leavenworth on the 15 leaving 
Elick at home in charge of affairs this week According [ly] the ma- 
chine was taken apart and loaded in a wagon and every thing got 
ready to start tomorrow early 

Sunday Sept 13. The boys left this morning leaving us alone to 
write letters &c. In the afternoon Elick & I rode over to McCamish 
& brought the ox home which I had found 

Monday Sept 14 Elick & I went down to the timber for posts 
brought home a load about dark Called at Wilcox's & got our 
clothes She is such a nice woman so motherly in the care of our 

38. Blue lodges were secret organizations of Proslavery men having for their purpose the 
extension of slavery into Kansas and other territory of the United States. John H. Gihon, 
Geary and Kansas (Philadelphia, 1857), p. 30. 



288 KANSAS HISTOKICAL QUARTERLY 

clothes & give[s] us directions about cooking &c just as if she had 
some interest in our welfare. 

Tuesday Sept 15 Started for Leavenworth on a black colt which 
we had caught expressly for the trip but 2 years old past and a very 
fine animal I did not know how he would stand the trip but from 
his make color & all I concluded that he could go as far as I should 
want to ride in a day. As I got in sight of the Kaw River it com- 
menced raining and rained or showered from that on until night. I 
crossed at Tolas [Toley's] ferry and stopped at his house & inquired 
the road and how far it was to the next house. I was 16 miles from 
Leavenworth & 7 miles to the next house It had cleared up some and 
I started on though the sun was not more than an hour high & the 
colt pretty well jaded I had [not] went far before another shower 
overtook [me] and I was forced to seek shelter in the woods I 
started on again & it still rained harder & harder and was getting 
quite dark I knew I had not traveled far and at any rate not more 
than half the distance to the next house. I had passed some indian 
houses at the edge of the timber & thought if it rained too much I 
would put for one of them which I was soon forced to do by a heavy 
gust of wind and rain coming directly in my face and my pony 
stopped and turned round to take it I however had no such inten- 
tion & put for an Indian house about % a mile off reached [there] 
thoroughly wet and enquired of the indian whether I could stay all 
night and he was almost too drunk to say yes, but he finally man- 
aged to get it out after a great many futile attempts The squaws 
went to work to get me up my supper and after supper made me a 
nice bed to sleep in with clean sheets & pillows. After drying my 
shirt & hanging up my coat & clothes I turned in & had just com- 
menced to snooze when I waked up and heard two other Indians 
outside more drunk than the Indian landlord & demanded an en- 
trance They came in loaded down with bottles jugs & flasks filled 
with whiskey. After taking a dram all around they commenced dry- 
ing themselves and then another dram & another offering me one 
every time and they drank & sung & cut up all night not letting me 
sleep one wink & every 15 minutes the Indian would come to my bed 
and say "Ugh sleep, have dram" and then to the others. 

Wednesday September 16 In the morning the bottles were so 
plenty that I knocked one over and spilled the contents. I immedi- 
ately asked how much & paid 25 cts for the accident though he had 
told me repeatedly that it only cost him 15 cts. After breakfast I 



CALDWELL: THE DIARY OF GEORGE H. HILDT 289 

found that my bill was 1.00 which added to the whiskey accident 
makes $1.25 for my night's lodging and not one wink of sleep. 

I started off and reached the Fort about 9 O'clock and commenced 
search for Leut Hildt 39 A company of Cavalry were on drill for 
inspection by Genl [William S.] Harney which was a pleasing sight 
to me to see their gaudy dress & equipments & their spirited horses, 
which they manage to turn so nicely with a six inch lever bit & spurs 
on each foot. Genl Harney is as grey as a rat and his white hair & 
whiskers contrast strangely with his military rig Found out at the 
Office that Lieut Hildt had left in the night for New Mexico and this 
company of cavalry which was being inspected was going to start 
for Utah this evening or tomorrow morning As John was not here 
I went over to Leavenworth City and bought myself a hat two 
woolen shirts note paper &c and started for home stopped at an old 
pennsylvanian's 8 miles out of Leavenworth. 

Thursday Sept 17 My colt as pert as you please and I concluded 
to come home by Quindaro & Inquire for letters, going that way, 
only about 53 miles from home which I thought I would try to make 
to day. Reed your letter dated Sept 6 with your account of circum- 
stances. Reed no letter from John or Joe D took dinner here & 
started for home. Reached home about 8 Oclock pretty tired & 
hungry with my % a hundred miles ride in one day on a two year 
old colt These Indian ponies you cannot kill its no use trying 

Friday Sept 18 did not do a great deal of work to day Sharpened 
some posts to drive in the ground & in the evening John D came back 
from Stanton accompanied by Bill Q[uantrill] and left Charlie there 
with the machine still cutting with a request that Elick or I should 
come down Saturday or Sunday eve and help work the machine 

Saturday Sept 19. Bill Q[uantrill] Moser [J. Mosier] [H. H.] 
Wilcox [James] Alexander Reeves [G. G. Reaves?] & Elick & I rode 
up to Olathe in our Ox wagon to hear a speech from a Mr. Leggett. 40 
While we were there some little dissatisfaction arose about the nomi- 
nation for sheriff (Charles Osgood) Some expressed an opinion that 
they did not consider him a true free state man. After some little 
discussion it was referred to the central committee to consider upon 
The speaker of the day came in the evening but could not speak as 

39. John McL. Hildt was breveted second lieutenant, Sixth infantry, July 1, 1856. Trans- 
ferred to Third infantry, February 18, 1857. Brevet lieutenant colonel, March 13, 1865, for 
gallant and meritorious service during the war. Thomas H. S. Hamersly, Complete Army and 
Navy Register of the United States . . . (New York, 1888). 

40. Probably James F. Legate who was living in De Soto, Johnson county, at that time. 
In 1858 he was appointed probate judge of the county. U. S. Biographical Dictionary, 
Kansas (1879), pp. 716, 717. 

530 



290 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

he had come on business exclusively. We came home cooked our 
suppers & after discussing politics went to bed 

Sunday Sept 20 Bill Q[uantrill] and I started for Stanton about 
noon afoot and thought we might reach it by nine or ten oclock. 
When we got within 3 miles of Stanton we stopped and turned into a 
shanty and tried to sleep. But the night was cold and we concluded 
to go on though we could scarcely get along as we were very tired 
We stopped 1% miles from Stanton at a farm house & they gave us a 
bed on the floor which was very exceptable & we had not been in the 
house fifte[e]n minutes until it commenced raining and rained right 
on until ten Oclock next day. 

Monday Sept 21 Started out in the rain for Beesons and reached 
there soon after breakfast They seem to accommodate themselves 
to the Kansas way of living and all appear lively & cheerful but 
Mrs Beeson she appeared somewhat down hearted though not a 
great deal Mrs Torrey will not live in their cabin more than three 
or four weeks, will move into town & keep hotel 41 All the Beesons 
have had the ague but Phebe & Gusta Redfield was sick with the 
fever when I was there. They need not tell me that they have 
selected as healthy a location as we have When I met Charlie he 
told me that he had the machine loaded and ready to start but the 
weather prevented After dinner we hitched up and Beeson hitched 
on his three yoke of cattle to help us up a slippery hill near his house 
after we got up we unhitched to make an early start, tomorrow 

Tuesday Sept 22 After bying 16 melons at ten cts a piece we 
started for Tuscarora. This is one of the greatest countries for 
melons I ever saw. We met some young gents going to steal some 
the other evening and they took 2 yoke of cattle One of the sixteen 
that we bought was so large that we were forced to cut it outside our 
cabin. And if the rind was of such a material to stand frost we 
should trouble ourselves no longer about a protection from winters 
blasts. 

Wednesday 23 Unloaded the machine & put it together & eat so 
many melons that I was sick on Thursday 

Thursday 24 Rested to day & went to bed in the afternoon all on 
account of the big water melons. 

Friday Sept 25 Started over to cut hay at Spring Hill for Mr 
Hovey 42 Came home in the evening found our council man Mr 

41. "Colonel Torrey sold his land as soon as he could and bought a building in Paola 
where he kept a hotel as long as he lived." Connelley, op. cit., p. 57. 

42. James B. Hovey settled on Little Bull creek in March, 1857. He was the first post- 
master at Spring Hill. Blair, History of Johnson County, Kansas, pp. 131-133, 135. 



CALDWELL: THE DIARY OF GEORGE H. HILDT 291 

E S Nash 43 and a lot of chaps who were on their way to Lawrence 
to procure arms for the "Olathe Border Guards" They intended to 
start at 3 Oclock with the Dutchmans team and take breakfast in 
Lawrence. Elick went along. 

Saturday 26 Finished cutting at Spring Hill. John D helped me 
to day has been harrowing his wheat ground to sow next week. 

Sunday 27. Doct [B. M.?] Jewett came here to day on his way to 
Northups to see if we could cut some hay for him next week We 
agreed to go and cut for him Monday Northup very sick & not ex- 
pected to live Was taken with the diarrhea and went through with 
the water cure treatment and that only which resulted in his hope- 
less weak condition the Doct has no hopes of his recovery. 

Monday 28 Went to Jewetts with the machine & commenced 
cutting the machine all out of order & did not cut an acre to day. 
The doctor went to Northups to day and he found him dead 

Tuesday 29 The machine did not work any better to day broke 
the reel and were forced to make another got it in order in the eve- 
ning Charlie went to Santa Fee to day for oats John D still putting 
in his wheat. 

Wednesday 30 Finished cutting for Jewett to day did not cut 
quite six acres in all 

Thursday Oct 1 raked up the hay & he paid me eleven dollars & 
75 cents & I came home Charlie at home from Sa[n]ta Fee & John 
& Elick putting in his wheat Elick young Nash & Case & the 
Dutchman started for Lawrence for the Sharps Rifles which were 
promised them when they were their last week left about 12 Oclock 
& expect to be home tomorrow night. 

Friday Oct 2 at Home to day as Charlie does not feel well enough 
to help me with the machine 

Oct 3 Saturday Charlie no better and I started this afternoon for 
Dr Barton and found him coming on the road to Butler [?] As it 
rained I was very glad to meet him. He prescribed for him for 
bilious fever jalap quinine &c 

Sunday Charlie not so well to day Oct 4. and the fever not yet 
broken A crowd at our cabin to all excitement about the election 

Monday Oct 5th Election day 44 John & Elick went over to 
Spring Hill to vote But could not do so on acct of the six months 

43. Edwin S. Nash was elected to the territorial council from Olathe in the fall of 1857. 
Ibid., p. 89. 

44. Election of members to the territorial legislature and a delegate to congress. Gover- 
nor Walker promised a fair, free election. 



292 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

residence 45 proscription as every man who offered to vote was chal- 
lenged. I went in the after noon to Olathe but did not offer my vote. 
About nine Oclock in this evening nine of us who had not been in the 
territory six months started for Lawrence to vote. Got up there 
about day light and voted as soon as the polls were opened The 
election was altogether different from those in the states Every one 
who came up to the polls voted and no questions were asked We 
reached home about 1 Oclock Tuesday night tired and sleepy 

Wednesday Oct 7 Rested to day. Elick started for Quindaro 
and John went to the timber to get rails to fence in his 13 acres of 
wheat. 

Thursday Oct 8 Tried to plow around the stacks with the young 
yoke of oxen but could not make them work. After the[y] had run 
l /2 nrile over the prairie with the plow at their heels, we unhitched 
them and quit Charlie well enough to be around 

Friday Oct 9 Started out this morning on the hunt of some prairie 
chickens armed with a shot gun and thinking that I might find some 
on Johns wheat I started over about sun up when I got over I saw 
a flock fly up out of the range of my gun and after waiting for two 
hours for more game I came home without any and found the horses 
harnessed & ready to go to Olathe to cut hay for [Charles] Osgood. 
John Charlie & myself all started up We made a nice commence- 
ment on an eight acre patch and took our suppers at the Olathe hotel 
& slept at Nash's cabin our council man 

Saturday Oct 10 got up at daylight and fed our teams and com- 
menced cutting finished at noon and moved the machine to Hend- 
ricks a proslavery man who has negroes where we will cut Monday 
if the weather is fine. 

Sunday Oct 11 wrote home to Grandfather Addie Miller & father 

Monday Oct 12 Went to mow at Hendricks along with John D 
Found Mrs Hendricks a very fine woman & a very good cook puts 
me in mind of Aunt Mary, commenced to mow on a very hard 
piece of ground very uneven and hard on the horses. 

Tuesday 13 To night Smith of Olathe came and wakened us up 
to go to Oxford 14 miles from [here] to get or take by force a judge 
or clerk of the election up to Lecompton and have him make oath 
before Gov Walker to the returns or that 1626 votes were actually 

45. An act establishing council and representative districts passed in February, 1857, made 
a six months' residence requirement for voters. Laws of the Territory of Kansas, 1857, p. 68. 



CALDWELL: THE DIARY OF GEORGE H. HILDT 293 

polled at Oxford. 46 A company of 25 men came down from Law- 
rence and were on their way and wished some one who knew some of 
them to go along and direct them to their houses. I had never been 
there neither had Elick & Charlie was not very well and one must 
stay with him so neither of us went Benj Dare 47 who knew of the 
judges & knew exactly where he lived volunteered to act as guide to 
the Company. The[y] were all armed with revolvers some of them 
2 Had an excellent dinner to day at Hendricks Ham boiled chicken 
potatoes baked pumpkin corn bread biscuit sweet milk butter milk 
tomatoes cucumbers watermelons, molases, jellies &c pumpkin pie & 
watermelon for desert They have sold $40 worth of watermelons 
this year and a wagon load are now ripe and yet you people think 
that we have nothing of this kind apples are 75 cts at Kansas City 
I do not eat many melons as I am afraid of them but the whole 
family little and big (and the[y] have 5 small children) eat them, 
when they are thirsty for a drink & not one of them has been sick 

Wednesday Oct 14 Finished at Hendricks to day & went to Lewis 
this evening a methodist preacher who is professor of a female 
seminary at Independence Mo a very jolly old soul 48 His claim 
joins Olathe on the North East 

Thursday Oct 15 this morning very cold and blustery and the 
lard oil froze up so that we could not work without warming it & we 
concluded not to do it Benj Dare at home again the expedition did 
not accomplish much, they were expected and a large company 
were prepared for them Benj was taken up and questioned very 
closely but the[y] could make nothing out of him and they let him 
go. He made his way back to the party and they left with all pos- 
sible speed. 

Friday Oct 16 Gov Walker went down to day report says to see 

46. The election returns from the Oxford precinct, containing not over a dozen houses, 
showed that 1,628 Democratic votes had been polled. On October 19, Governor Walker and 
Secretary Stanton issued a proclamation throwing out the entire vote of the Oxford precinct. 
Andreas, op. cit., p. 163. 

Returns of the Oxford election held October 5 and 6, 1857, were deposited with the His- 
torical Society, November 1, 1906, by J. R. Burrow, secretary of state. Names of voters and 
their votes were recorded on lined paper fifteen inches wide. Ends of the pages have been 
pasted together and the entire roll measures forty-five feet. The official recapitulation shows 
1,604 votes for Ransom and one for Parrott. R. Clarke, the forty-second voter, was the lone 
individual listed for Parrott. Election officials were: S. D. Barnett, G. D. Hand, clerks; 
James H. Nounnan, C. C. Catron, Batt Jones, judges. 

47. Benjamin F. Dare was one of three commissioners appointed in Johnson county in 
1857 to establish voting precincts and arrange for the election on the Lecompton constitution. 
In 1858 he bought the Avenue House in Olathe. While acting deputy postmaster in 1859 he 
rifled the mail, was found out and "left for parts unknown." The Kansas Herald of Freedom, 
Lawrence, December 26, 1857 ; Blair, op. cit., p. 88. 

48. Dr. W. H. Lewis conducted a school for young ladies in Independence, Mo., for a 
number of years. W. S. Woodard, Annals of Methodism in Missouri (Columbia, Mo., 1893), 
p. 339. 



294 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

for himself whether the returns are correct or not 49 He is afraid of 
his head I suppose or he would wink at it and let it go Free state 
men are bound to have their rights at all hazards and he knows it. 
He found out that but 150 votes were legal and the others were 
fraudulent. Went to Lewis this afternoon and commenced cutting 

Saturday Oct 17 Cut all day & raked it up We were at work in 
full view of Olathe and it presented quite a busy appearance car- 
penters at work teams drawing lumber lime kilns burning chil- 
dren playing and holloing the blacksmith's noisy hammer and the 
constant travel upon the Santa fee Road made us feel as if we were 
now w[h]ere somebody lived 

Sunday Oct 18 Wrote to day to Bill Hodge It was cold & rained 
all day 

Monday Oct 19 Elick and I went down to the timber after a load 
of rails. 

Tuesday Oct 20 mowed at Lewis to day The weather cold and 
disagreeable the ground froze hard and quite a heavy white frost 

Wednesday Oct 21 Today the scykle broke and we had it welded 

Thursday Oct 22 the scykle broke again at the weld and we put 
in the other one which we had left at Jewetts 

Friday Oct 23 finished to day at Lewis had mowed 20 acres 
under great disadvantages & made $40 

Saturday Oct 24 Went to Olathe to day collected $16 from 
Hendricks for his mowing and brought home a long necked pumpkin 
on horseback 3 miles and a cantelope He has the largest pumpkins 
I ever saw and the greatest lot of them. 

Sunday Oct 25 Cooked some of the pumpkin this morning for 
breakfast found it first rate 

Monday Oct 26 Rainy all day & could do nothing out of doors 
finished a letter commenced yesterday 

Tuesday Oct 27 Went to Olathe this morning and got some letters 
at the mail but none for me & heard nothing from John B 

Wednesday Oct 28 Started this morning for Quindaro & took one 
mule & expected to get a buggy at Leubenville[?] 3 miles East of 
Olathe as we had the promise of it yesterday. Were disappointed 
and had to come home, the last I will start on an uncertainty. 

Thursday Oct 29 Rainy & cool with a prospect of a rainy day 

Friday Oct 30 John D & Charlie started for Quindaro this 

49. On October 12, Governor Walker and Secretary Stanton passed through Lawrence on 
their way to Oxford. The Kansas Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, October 17, 1857. "They 
expressed their astonishment that so large a city which had polled 1,600 votes had escaped 
their notice since residing in Kansas." 



CALDWELL: THE DIARY OF GEORGE H. HILDT 295 

morning & intended getting a light wagon at Olathe. Found the 
wagon with the tire off & of course came home 

Saturday Oct 31 John & Charlie started with our own team & 
wagon & will be there tonight. I bored some holes with a post augur 
It did not work as a post augur should, but still I made some head- 
way. 

Sunday Nov 1 the prairie on fire all around us & no one but Elick 
& myself at home. Bill Q[uantrill] who has been with [us] for over 
a week left for Stanton this [morning] to get his clothes & Charlies 
guitar. It was a magnificent sight & had been I thought well repre- 
sented in paintings that I had seen. But there was some difference 
to look at the real thing itself coming towards 50 tons of hay worth 
$20 dolls a ton on the ground or $30 at Kansas City & the picture 
as we had taken the precaution to plow a few furrows away [from] 
the stacks we did not feel as uneasy as we otherwise should, but 
nevertheless the raging flame at every side excited us, & to night as 
I am writing the horison is light up at every side as if we were sur- 
rounded with furnaces and all of them were burning ore. We had 
been uneasy for some time about our large amount of hay at risk 
but now I shall sleep soundly as the prairie is burned all around 
them and in some directions for 10 miles beyond & they are safe 

Monday Nov 2 All alone to day Elick gone to Missouri to hunt 
his cattle Bill Q[uantrill] to Stanton after a few things to take 
along on the [buffalo?] hunt & John & Charlie gone to Quindaro to 
buy goods provisions &c Fixed up the stacks some as the hay had 
blown off of some of the stacks & this evening Bill came along 

Tuesday Nov 3 Bill & I went down to the timber & made some 
rails made 56 with one ax & with wooden wedges & walked 4 miles 
there and back. 

Wednesday Nov 4. Bill & I started this morning to haul the rails 
got a load on & broke the tongue & came home without the wagon. 
The boys at home to night with blankets Jewelry guns gloves 
calico &c. 

Thursday Hauled up some rails to day with the mules 

Friday Nov 6 Went to Spring Hill to collect a debt for mowing 
got the money & surveyed some for [David] Sprong & rode to Olathe 
to night bought 30 pds nails candles &c and came home tired 

Saturday Windy & rainy all day long and could do nothing with- 
out exposure 

Sunday Nov 8 The ground covered with snow this morning the 
first snow in Kansas has not melted a great deal yet at 5 Oclock in 



296 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the afternoon Our cabins leak snow if they do turn rain and this 
morning my breeches were stiff with snow but very singular none of 
us have the least symptoms of cold & all enjoy ourselves bravely. 

Monday Nov 9 Hauled rails to day from the timber & finished 

Tuesday 10th Nailed them on with Elicks assistance 

Wednesday 11 Rainy all day and enough to do to keep dry & 
warm. 

Thursday 12 Snow again this morning with sleet & a cool air 
John D went to Olathe & Elick went over to Winthrop to sell his odd 
ox we had intended to beef him but we can get another larger one 
cheaper & a much better one for beef 

Friday 13 Butchered to day and a cold ugly job it was Beef 
weighed about six hundred and very fat & tender. 

Saturday peddled out what beef we did not wish to keep though 
the wagon came home with a part of one of the % we will have no 
trouble to get it off this weather 

Sunday 15. Snow an inch deep this morning and we moved our 
stove into one of the other cabins as they were tighter and warmer. 

Monday 16 cold & disagreeable 

Tuesday 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 all cold & nothing could well be 
done Monday noon only four degrees above zero. 

24 Tuesday cold & disagreeable 

25 Wednesday weather pleasant and not cold 

Thursday 26 a meeting of the Free state men to consider upon 
the constitution framed at Lecompton I had the honor to be chosen 
president of the meeting and of course I presided with honor to my- 
self and the meeting. 

Friday 27 quite warm but damp 

28 Saturday rainy all day the land open for preemption do not 
believe it yet. 50 Hope it is so though. 

Sunday 29 An editor called to see us to day & took our names & 
called us quite clever young fellows He was from Cincinnati and 
interested in the Herald of Freedom office, [at Lawrence]. He put 
down Tuscarora Lake as he said to give it publicity. I will send you 
a paper with the account in if published 

Monday 30 A very pleasant day and we put up sod around two 
sides of our house making it much more comfortable to live in though 
it presents a very novel appearance to the beholder 

Tuesday Dec 1 Started this morning for Lecompton via Lawrence 

50. On November 19, 1857, the Shawnee Indian lands were thrown open for purchase and 
preemption. Wilder, Annals of Kansas, p. 198. 



CALDWELL: THE DIARY OF GEORGE H. HILDT 297 

& Gardner a little Free State Town 3 miles from Tuscarora directly 
west It has now a good stone hotel 30 by 40 and a very good neigh- 
borhood surrounding it The citizens of Lawrence have shares in it 
& are figuring for good roads & a great many of them to center there 
Stopped at Lawrence over night 

Wednesday 2 Started this morning for Lecompton got there 
about 12 Oclock Filed my intentions for all our boys and for my- 
self. Lecompton laid out in a hole on the river with a half moon 
bank intervening between the prairie and the town so that you can- 
not see the town until you are into it after partaking of a good 
dinner we returned to Lawrence in time to attend a free state meet- 
ing After the committee reported a series of resolutions read by 
"Jim Lane" Speeches were made by Lane Conway Davis Redpath 
Thatcher Bar Foster Vaughan "Miles Moore" Kob Phillips & Mc- 
Kay 51 After the reading of the 1st resolve of the resolution the 
noisy exclamation [s] of joy were so great that for ten minutes Lane 
could not proceed I have witnessed political meetings and heard 
applaudits but none so general and with so much of heart in them as 
the meeting at Lawrence of the down trodden and oppressed people 
of Kansas 

Thursday 3rd started for home sent a [Lawrence] republican 
home with the proceedings of the meeting last night and sent one to 
A Patrick of the advocate 

Friday 4th Made a stall to day for McCartneys horse 

Saturday 5 Helped set a man off a claim to day over at Alex- 
anders 52 

Sunday 6 had some beans to day for breakfast and past the time 
singing reading & writing 

Monday 7 pulled down a cabin which had been put on Alexander 
claim 

Tuesday 8 Hauled a load stone and fixed our cabin by lining it 
inside and stuffing the middle with hay 

Wednesday 9 Went down to Sprongs & brought up my compass. 

Thursday 10 Set a corner for Walters 

Friday 11 Laid out twent[y] acre field and dug or helped dig 33 
post holes 

51. Martin Conway, Dr. Davis, of Leavenworth, James Redpath, T. Dwight Thacher, 
Wm. V. B. Barr, of Iowa Point, Charles Foster, of Osawatomie, Champion Vaughan, H. Miles 
Moore, Dr. K. Kob, of the Atchison Zeitung, William Phillips, and William McKay. The 
Kansas Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, December 5, 1857. 

62. James Alexander's claim was the SE*4 sec. 34, T. 14, R. 23. Heisler & Smith, 
op. cit., p. 46. 



298 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Saturday 12 Dug 106 post holes 3 of us and thought we were 
doing very well. Two of us Conner & myself are to build the fence 
around 20 acres for our passage to St Louis and back The weather 
has been very fine all week almost like may days. While you people 
of the states are bundled up in your furs and over coats we are out 
at work in our shirt sleeves 

Sunday 13. I walked out over my farm and was pleased with [it] 
more than ever 

Monday 14 dug 120 post holes to day with Conner 

Tuesday 15 dug 100 holes to day 

Wednesday 16 finished digging the holes and set over one hun- 
dred posts 

Thursday 17 set some more posts and nailed on a few rails 

Friday 18 set all the posts he had and carried the rails around 

Saturday 19 nailed on the rails on one side and quit for the week 

Sunday 20 Went over to Gardner to day 3 miles from here to 
church for the first time in Kansas. Heard a young man try to 
preach on the resurrection and an old man exhorted in a manner 
which pleased the outsider very much 

Monday 21 Washed one pair of my drawers a woolen overshirt 
and a check shirt and some collars. Snow to day but nearly all off 
by noon 

Tuesday 22 Worked at the fence 

Wednesday 23 Worked at the fence 

Thursday 24 Worked at the fence 

Friday 25 Went into the timber and hauled a load of posts 

Saturday 26 Hauled a load of poles for Conners cabin 



T 



First Newspapers in Kansas Counties 

(Continued) 
1871-1879 

G. RAYMOND GAEDDEBT 
RUSSELL COUNTY 

The Kansas Pioneer, Bunker Hill, November, 1871. 
The Western Kansas Plainsman, Russell, April 25, 1872. 

HE first publication in Russell county was The Kansas Pioneer, 
a monthly real estate journal. It was published at Bunker Hill 
by Harbaugh, Corbett & Co., but printed at Abilene. Andreas wrote 
"it was an advertising sheet exclusively" and not entitled to any 
place in the history of the press. 1 The Russell Record, July 13, 
1876, however, called it a newspaper. The Abilene Chronicle an- 
nounced the first issue November 30, 1871: u The Kansas Pioneer. 
The above is the title of a spicy Real Estate paper just issued by 
Harbaugh, Corbett & Co., of Bunker Hill, Russell County. . . ." 
It quoted the Pioneer in a burst of propaganda as follows : 

Rev. W. B. Christopher, President of Illinois Colony [which was to settle 
near Bunker Hill], says: "I am astonished at the depth and fertility of the 
soil of this portion of Kansas, and the salubrity of the climate. On the sod we 
have raised good corn, finest vegetables of all kinds, including common and 
sweet potatoes, and have now a beautiful growth of winter wheat. More rain 
has fallen during the summer than I have ever known, except in rainy seasons. 
Myself suffering from a bronchial affection, have been wholly relieved. 
Although sleeping in the open air, and often wet with the penetrating rains, I 
have hardly coughed or sneezed since I came. Existence is no longer a load 
but a perpetual thrill of vitality." The air of Western Kansas is the true 
"Catarrh remedy," and "Consumptive's cure." Kansas Pioneer. 

Secondary authorities say the Pioneer was published only a few 
months. 2 The Society has no copy in its files. 

The first weekly newspaper in the county, The Western Kansas 
Plainsman, was started by A. B. Cornell at Russell in April, 1872. 
It was Republican in politics. The Kansas Daily Commonwealth, 
Topeka, announced the first issue April 30, 1872: 

We have received the first number of the Plainsman, a very creditable six- 
column paper, hailing from Russell, Kansas, and bearing the name of A. B. 
Cornell at the mast-head. The editor closes his salutatory thus: "Personally 

1. Andreas, History of the State of Kansas (Chicago, 1883), p. 1285. 

2. Ibid.; First Biennial Report of the State Board of Agriculture . . . 1877-8, p. 403. 
They called it the Pioneer. 

(299) 



300 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

we are somewhat of an oddity, for a printer for we neither smoke, chew or 
drink tanglefoot but at cim-ing we are equal to the emergency, so don't 
tread on our corns. Our motto is equal rights to all, tame submission to 
none." 

The Ellsworth Reporter, May 2, 1872, in announcing the paper, 
stated: "Mr. Cornell, its publisher, has a deep pocket and consider- 
able personal pride, which is a security that the Plainsman will live." 
According to Andreas and the First Biennial Report, the first num- 
ber of the Plainsman appeared April 25, 1872. 3 In October, 1876, 
it was sold to one Robinson, who removed it to Kirwin, Phillips 
county. The Society has two issues of the Plainsman, dated Sep- 
tember 4 and 11, 1875, listed as Vol. IV, Nos. 17 and 18. 

A close rival of the Plainsman was The New Republic, published 
at Bunker Hill by John R. Rankin. On July 13, 1876, the Russell 
Record, successor to The New Republic, made the following state- 
ment about the two rival papers: 

About the first of April, 1872, John R. Rankin landed at Bunker Hill, with 
a printing press and some material; and the first type setting in the county 
was done in the "Office" of the Buckeye House. Soon after, A. B. Cornell 
brought a printing office to Russell, and on the 25th of April, 1872, issued No. 
1, Vol. 1, of the Western Kansas Plainsman. Mr. Rankin was delayed some- 
what in receiving sufficient amount of material, so that the first number of his 
paper, the New Republic, did not appear until the 9th of May, 1872. These 
two papers entered fully into the spirit of rivalry between the two towns 
[Russell and Bunker Hill] during the county seat contest of that year. . . . 

On May 16, 1872, the Ellsworth Reporter announced The New Re- 
public as a new paper hailing from Bunker Hill. In the Society's 
collection is a good file of the Russell Record, commencing with the 
issue of July 13, 1876 ; but no copy of The New Republic, 

HARVEY COUNTY 
The Sedgwick Gazette, January 19, 1872. 

The authorities are mostly silent or in disagreement as to the first 
paper in this county. On June 1, 1883, Judge R. W. P. Muse wrote 
in the Arkansas Valley Democrat, Newton: 

The first paper published in the county was the Sedgwick Gazette, which 
was started in Sedgwick City, January 19th, 1871, by P. T. Weeks, and after a 
few numbers had been issued, was purchased by Dr. T. S. Floyd, who con- 
tinued its publication, until it reached its 23d number when he sold his press 
and material to parties in Wichita, and discontinued its publication. 

3. Andreas, op, cit,, p. 1285 ; First Biennial Report, p. 403. 



GAEDDEKT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 301 

In the article on Harvey county, Andreas confirmed Muse's state- 
ment except to state that Floyd published thirty-two instead of 
twenty -three numbers. However, in the article on Sedgwick county, 
Andreas wrote : 

The Gazette, independent in politics, was published through a portion of 
the year 1871, by Yale Brothers. The material was then moved to Sedgwick 
City (then in Sedgwick county), where the Sedgwick City Gazette was pub- 
lished a short time. 4 

The statement in the First Biennial Report reads: 

The Newton Kansan was the first newspaper published in Harvey county. 
Its publication was commenced at Newton, August 22, 1872, by H. C. Ash- 
baugh. ... It has always been strongly Republican. 5 

The same authority, reporting for Sedgwick county, stated: 

The Gazette, (formerly Cottonwood Falls Independent,) was the next paper 
published at Wichita, but it was soon removed to Sedgwick City. It was sub- 
sequently purchased by D. G. Millison, and returned to Wichita. Its name 
was changed to the Beacon, and it is still published as a Democratic paper; 
Capt. White, editor. 6 

Since the Society has no copy of the Gazette it was difficult to de- 
termine the facts. Secondary authorities agreed that early in its 
history Sedgwick City had a newspaper called the Gazette. As to 
the time when it appeared they were either silent or gave January 
19, 1871, as the date. A search in the newspapers unearthed a clue 
in the Chase County Leader of Cottonwood Falls, December 22, 
1871, which reads: "The Wichita Tribune, after missing three issues, 
comes again. It is now owned by Weeks & Follett, A. W. Yale hav- 
ing withdrawn." The personnel of the papers helped to connect the 
Tribune with the Gazette. An examination of the files of the 
Wichita Tribune disclosed that the secondary authorities were mis- 
taken in the date of the first issue. It also showed that the Gazette 
was first published in Cottonwood Falls as the Central Kansas In- 
dex, then in Wichita as the Tribune and finally in Sedgwick City as 
the Sedgwick Gazette. On January 12, 1872, the Chase County 
Leader stated: "Again on the Wing. The Wichita Tribune has 
moved to Sedgwick City." The Emporia News of the same date 
gave additional information: "The Sedgwick Gazette is the name of 
a new seven-column weekly to be published in Sedgwick." On Jan- 
uary 19 the News reported again: "The Wichita Tribune has moved 
to Sedgwick City. We hope the change will improve it." The next 

4. Andreas, op. cit., pp. 782, 1392. 

5. First Biennial Report, p. 234. 

6. Ibid., p. 413. 



302 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

week, January 26, the News supplied this missing information: "The 
Sedgwick Gazette, No. 1, has arrived. Mr. Weeks makes a good 
deal better paper than he did at Wichita, and one of the best in the 
Southwest." 

In following up the history of the paper a number of subsequent 
changes was discovered. In the Emporia News of May 10, 1872, 
occurred the following statement: ''The Sedgwick Gazette has been 
moved to Newton, and is now the Harvey County Gazette" This 
statement was confirmed in the Neodesha Citizen of May 24. On 
July 12, 1872, the News again reported on the Gazette: "The Har- 
vey County Gazette has moved back to Sedgwick City, and is again 
the Sedgwick Gazette." It gave as a reason for this move that 
"Newton is 'dead, financially/ ' The following week, July 19, the 
Chase County Leader summed up the history of the Gazette in these 
words: "The Central Kansas Index, (formerly published at this 
place,) alias Wichita Tribune, alias Sedgwick City Gazette, alias 
Newton Gazette, has moved back to Sedgwick City and is again the 
Sedgwick City Gazette." The Wichita Eagle of May 6, 1875, and 
the Newton Kansan of January 4, 1877, both reported that T. S. 
Floyd in October, 1872, sold the Sedgwick City Gazette to D. G. 
Millison of Topeka and Fred A. Sowers of Wichita who removed it 
to Wichita and changed its name to the Wichita Beacon. The Ga- 
zette was a typical frontier paper in that it changed places with the 
changes in financial and political prospects of the frontier towns. 

OSBORNE COUNTY 

Osborne County Express, Arlington, February or March, 1872, 

or 
Osborne City Times, February or March, 1872. 

Z. T. Walrond, author of "Annals of Osborne County," published 
in the Osborne County Farmer, of Osborne, wrote that the first num- 
ber of the Osborne City Times was issued March 11, 1872, and that 
the Osborne County Express first saw daylight March 16, 1872. 
These papers were established during the county-seat fight in the 
interest of the two leading towns, Osborne and Arlington. The 
Times, Walrond wrote, was printed at the office of the Topeka Com- 
monwealth by an editorial committee consisting of J. A. Boring, H. 
D. Markley and A. N. Fritchey. He listed a number of business 
firms advertising in the Times, thereby indicating that he had before 
him copies of the paper. Of the Express, he said it was printed at 
Concordia, in the interest of Arlington. It was edited by Mark J. 



GAEDDEBT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 303 

Kelley and contained advertisements of business men at Concordia, 
Beloit and Wagonda. 7 The Osborne County Farmer, March 13, 
1879, published the second installment of an article by A. Saxey, 
entitled: "A Sketch of Osborne County From Its Earliest Settlement 
to the Present Day." Referring to the county-seat election, Saxey 
wrote : 

Both these towns issued a paper advocating their claims for the honor. 
Osborne City had her paper, the Osborne City Times, printed at Topeka, while 
Arlington had her printing office in the town of Concordia. 

Andreas and the First Biennial Report did not mention the papers 
established in 1872. The first listed was the Osborne Weekly Times, 
started in January, 1873. 8 That there was a paper established that 
year called the Osborne Weekly Times was announced in the Beloit 
Gazette, February 13, 1873: 

The first issue of the Osborne Weekly Times, published at Osborne City, 
thirty-two miles west of us, made its appearance on last Saturday [February 
8]. The new paper is edited and published by F. E. Jerome & Co. In appear- 
ance it is excellent; in size with the largest west of us; in taste in selected and 
editorial matter it ranks with the best of country papers, and in general "make 
up" it does honor to the live people of Osborne city and the county. . . . 
It is the frontier paper of the Northwest. 

This no doubt was the second attempt to start the Times at Osborne. 
A contemporaneous newspaper report substantiates, in the main, 
the claims of Walrond and Saxey for the Osborne County Express. 
On February 3, 1872, the Republican Valley Empire, Concordia, re- 
ported : 

Mark J. Kelley, Esq. of the late Clyde Watchman, passed through town on 
Tuesday last, on his way to Osborne City, where he will hereafter reside, and 
issue the Osborne City Herald, from new material. . . . 

Apparently this failed to materialize, for on March 9, 1872, the same 
paper announced the appearance of the first issue of the Osborne 
County Express: 

We have received the first number of the Osborne County Express, published 
at Arlington, by M. J. Kelley. It is a neat six-column sheet, and well filled 
with matter pertaining to the interest of that county. Mark knows how to get 
up a live paper, and from what we know of the people of Arlington, we are 
confident the Express will be liberally sustained; it certainly ought to be. We 
wish the frontier paper abundant success. 

This places the first number of the Express during the last week of 
February or the first week in March, 1872. No contemporaneous 

7. Osborne County Farmer, Osborne, September 9, 1880. The Farmer in a series of 
articles published the "Annals" by Walrond. Wagonda, also Waconda, was in Mitchell 
county, a dead town. 

8. Andreas, op. cit. } p. 935 ; First Biennial Report, p. 353. 



304 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

information has been found, however, about the Osborne City Times 
of 1872. Until the claims of Walrond and Saxey in behalf of the 
Times can either be successfully challenged or else substantiated, it 
is impossible to say which paper was first in the county. The So- 
ciety has no copies of these papers. 

JEWELL COUNTY 
The Jewell City Weekly Clarion, March or April, 1872. 

The Clarion has no rival for priority in the county. The First Bi- 
ennial Report gave the date of the first number as March 24, 1872 ; 
Andreas merely gave March, 1872. 9 The Society has one copy dated 
August 30, 1872, listed as Vol. 1, No. 23. If regularly issued the 
Clarion should have appeared March 29. The Junction City Union 
announced it April 13, 1872: 

We have received the first number of The Jewell City Weekly Clarion, pub- 
lished in Jewell City, Kansas. We have filed it away in our cabinet of typo- 
graphical curiosities. 

The Kansas Daily Commonwealth, Topeka, did not publish the 
notice until April 21. The Clarion probably appeared during the 
last week of March or the first two weeks in April, 1872. W. P. Day 
was the editor and proprietor, assisted by W. D. Jenkins. It was 
Republican in politics. 

The Clarion was a small four-column folio. It was published for 
a year, then changed to the Jewell County Diamond, and later to 
the Monitor. 

RENO COUNTY 

The Hutchinson News, July 4, 1872. 

The first issue of the News was a souvenir edition "designed to 
attract settlers rather than to relate the happenings of the day for 
the local citizens who knew them by heart anyway," according to 
the Hutchinson News-Herald, commemorating the seventieth birth- 
day of Hutchinson. The first issue came out July 4, 1872, a four- 
page edition, numbering 5,000 copies. L. J. Perry was the publisher 
and Houston Whiteside the editor. Whiteside was too modest to let 
his name appear on the masthead, remaining incognito as "& Co." 
Perry also published the Western Spirit at Paola. It has been said 
that he cared so little about Hutchinson, the "Queen City of the 
Prairie," that he visited it but three times, "the first to find a 
partner to run the newspaper, the second to help print the first 

9. First Biennial Report, p. 250; Andreas, op. cit., p. 971. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 305 

issue and the third to hunt buffalo." 10 The paper was Republican 
in politics, supporting Grant. 

The printing machine, a Washington hand press, "arrived June 
27th on the first train to pull into town and was greeted by everyone 
of the 150 potential subscribers." n 

The first issue was largely devoted to a description of the great 
Arkansas Valley, Reno county (its soil, climate and general possi- 
bilities), and Hutchinson. This town boasted "two baseball clubs, 
a dozen croquet clubs, a glee club and not a single whiskey shop." 
The editor thought it was better to start a town with a church and 
a school house than with a whisky saloon. The Kansas Weekly 
Tribune, Lawrence, July 18, 1872, described the first issue of the 
News in these words : 

Number one of volume one of the Hutchinson News, is upon our table. It 
is a neat and sprightly paper, and finds its local items in Reno county, instead 
of foreign papers. It is for Grant and Wilson, and is brimful of life and spirit. 
The citizens of Reno county will help themselves by giving it a liberal support. 

The Society has a facsimile of the first issue of the News repro- 
duced July 2, 1932. Its regular file does not start until February 
17, 1876, although it has the issue of July 15, 1875. 

BARTON COUNTY 

Arkansas Valley, or Arkansas Valley Echo, Great Bend, 
July (?),1872. 

Most authorities agree that the Arkansas Valley is the name of 
the first newspaper published in Barton county. 12 However, an 
article written by a correspondent of the Topeka Commonwealth 
from Great Bend, published December 17, 1872, raises a question 
as to the name of the paper. The statement reads: "Our long- 
promised local paper, the Arkansas Valley Echo, is about to appear 
again. A press has been secured, set up, and ready for orders, and 
I think that the present week will find us with Echo No. 2." Ap- 
parently the statement refers to the same paper, the Arkansas Valley 
of Great Bend. On November 22, 1872, the Neodesha Weekly Citi- 
zen issued the following statement: "The material on which the 
Tioga Herald was printed is to be removed to Great Bend, Barton 
county, and a new paper started." Nothing more was found in the 
contemporaneous newspapers relating to the above statements. 

10. Hutchinson News-Herald, April 20, 1941. 

11. Ibid. 

12. Andreas, op. cit., p. 767, gave the date as 1872 ; First Biennial Report, p. 115, failed 
to give the date. 

& 30 



306 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

In 1912 the Great Bend Tribune published a Biographical History 
of Barton County which contained an article on the county's news- 
papers. The section relating to the Arkansas Valley reads: 

The first newspaper published in the county was The Arkansas Valley, edited 
by S. J. McFarren. There were but a few issues of this paper, the first edition 
being published in July, 1872. It was a seven-column paper. ... It was 
printed at the office of the Tribune in Lawrence, Kan., and was owned by T. L. 
Morris and others. The salutatory editorial in the paper consisted chiefly of 
an apology for publishing a newspaper in the heart of the Great American 
Desert. . . . The second number was issued in 1873. The outside was 
printed by A. N. Kellogg of St. Louis and was dated January 14, 1873, the 
inside printed later was dated January 27, 1873, and the advertisements were 
nearly all dated in April, 1873. . . . 

The price of the paper was $2.00 per year and since it was published only 
twice a year, the paper cost the subscribers $1.00 a copy. . . , 13 

The detailed description of the two issues make it appear that the 
author had copies of the newspaper before him when he wrote the 
article. If this could be established as a fact, most of the questions 
regarding the paper could be answered. 

In 1873 the name of this paper was changed to the Barton County 
Progress. The Society has no copies of the Arkansas Valley or the 

Progress. 

McPnERSON COUNTY 

McPherson Messenger, December 19, 1872. 

Andreas gave the date of the first issue of the Messenger as 
November, 1872. First Biennial Report had it December 19, 1872. 14 
The date on the first issue is December 19, 1872, but in it was the 
following statement: 

We date this issue for the week after it is issued in order to give us time 
to canvass some for advertisements and subscriptions. We do this in order to 
have as many of our subscribers commence with the first number as possible. 
We hope all who are interested in having a paper in McPherson county and 
every person in the county should be will come and subscribe, or send in 
their subscription at once. 

The first issue, therefore, was published December 12, 1872, a week 
earlier than the listed date. 

The editors and proprietors of this paper were A. W. and L. B. 
Yale. In politics they were Republican, although they considered 
themselves "more liberal in ... [their] views than some," say- 
ing: "We will always support man in preference to measures, and 

13. Biographical History of Barton County, Kansas (Great Bend Tribune, 1912), p. 61. 

14. Andreas, op. tit., p. 814; First Biennial Report, p. 308. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 307 

will denounce corruption in any party wherever we see it." It was 
their aim "to make a good live local paper that . . . [would] 
exercise an influence in bringing settlers to this county," to help 
develop its resources. 

The paper changed hands several times during the course of its 
existence. In August, 1873, A. W. Yale went into other business. 
This left L. B. Yale sole editor and proprietor. On August 21, 1873, 
the Messenger was closed out for debt and bought by the McPherson 
Publishing Company. On December 13, 1873, it came under the 
control of I. F. Clark and George W. McClintic, operating under the 
firm name of Clark and McClintic. Clark was chief editor. 15 Just 
when the Messenger folded up is not known. 

The Society has a broken file from December 19, 1872, listed as 
Vol. 1, No. 1, to December 27, 1873. The issues that should contain 
the information of the foreclosure are missing from the file. 

SMITH COUNTY 
The Smith County Pioneer, Cedarville, December, 1872. 

The exact date of the first number of the Pioneer is uncertain. 
Andreas and the First Biennial Report said it started in November, 
1872. Apparently this is not true. On January 4, 1873, the Junction 
City Union announced the first issue: 

We have received a copy of No. 1 of the Smith County Pioneer. We have 
heard of Smith county, but it is further out than we are acquainted. The 
Pioneer appreciates its calling, and goes in for local matters. Typographically 
it will barely pass, but then it is an awful ways out. May it grow with the 
country. It claims that Smith county has 2,500 of a population, and growls be- 
cause they have but one mail a week. 

On January 9, 1873, the Beloit Gazette announced that it had re- 
ceived "the first and second numbers of the Smith County Pioneer, 
published at Cedarville. The paper improves as it grows older." 
On July 4, 1876, the Rev. W. M. Wellman, speaking on the "History 
of Smith County," said the Pioneer made its appearance in Decem- 
ber, 1872. 16 

The question of priority also requires mention. On November 28, 
1872, the Beloit Gazette stated: "We are informed that a paper is 
about to be started at Smith Center, Smith county. We wish the 
enterprise success." No information has been found to show that the 
paper ever was established. On the contrary, in 1935, L. T. Reese, 
reporting on "Incidents of Early Days in Kansas," wrote that Levi 

15. First Biennial Report, p. 308; McPherson Messenger, December 13, 1873. 

16. The Smith County Pioneer, Smith Center, July 27, 1876, published the address. 



308 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Morrill from Hiawatha "was the first advocate of a newspaper in 
Smith Center. He set up a little hand press, talked newspaper, had 
no name for one and never made an issue." 17 This may explain the 
report in the Gazette. 

Andreas, the First Biennial Report, and the Pioneer of July 27, 
1876, stated that W. D. Jenkins started the Pioneer, that it was 
edited successively by Jenkins, Lew Plummer and Mark J. Kelley 
and that the office was sold to Levi Morrill in 1873, who removed 
it to Smith Center. 18 L. T. Reese, writing for the Smith Center 
Review, November 28, 1935, had a different story: 

. . one Sandy Barren [the father of James Barren, prominent lawyer of 
Colorado Springs] . . . operated a print shop in a dugout near a break on 
the bank of the river or creek near Cedar where he had taken a homestead 
some two or three miles south of the Solomon river at the foot of the bluffs. 

He published the first newspaper in Smith County. It was printed on a 
little disk hand press run by a crank like a corn sheller. This press was bought 
by one, Dr. D. Jenkins, a druggist of Kirwin and was transferred later to Will 
D. Jenkins who brought it to Smith Center and it has been known ever since 
as the Smith County Pioneer. 

The contemporaneous newspapers quoted above failed to give the 
names of the editors and publishers. 

On September 1, 1932, the Pioneer gave an interesting description 
of its inception: 

It was in a partially completed log shanty in the shade of a cottonwood tree 
on the banks of the Solomon river that the first issue of The Smith County 
Pioneer then known as the Kansas Pioneer was printed at the government 
designated county seat of Cedarville in 1872. The material and equipment, 
extremely crude as compared to a modern printing office, was carted in by ox 
team from the nearest railroad point some two hundred miles distant. The 
sponsors for the publication were members of the Cedarville Townsite com- 
pany, hardy pioneers to whom visions of future greatness for the embryo city 
took the form of reality. John Johnson, Nod Morrison, Vol Bottomly and Jim 
Johnson were some of the men who entertained those visions. . . . 

The reader will observe further contradictions in these quotations. 
The contemporaneous papers quoted above called the first issue 
Smith County Pioneer and not Kansas Pioneer. Contradictions as 
to type of building here are of minor consequence. 

From the start the Pioneer was a Republican newspaper, fighting 
its battles vigorously and persistently. It is one of the few original 
county papers which still carries on. The Society has a good file of 
it commencing with the issue of January 7, 1876. 

17. Smith County Review, Smith Center, December 5, 1935. 

18. Andreas, op. cit., p. 909; First Biennial Report, p. 428; Pioneer, Smith Center, July 
27, 1876. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 309 

LINCOLN COUNTY 
The Lincoln County News, Lincoln Center, March 5, 1873. 

The Society has the first issue of this paper. It bears date of 
March 5, 1873, and not 1872, as listed in the First Biennial Report. 
Andreas had the year correct but the day of the month as March 3. 19 
F. H. Barnhart was editor and publisher of the News. William C. 
Buzick joined him on the sixth number, operating under the firm 
name of Buzick & Barnhart, After an existence of a year and a half, 
the Neivs was leased to P. Barker, who changed the name to Lincoln 
County Patriot. 

In the first issue of the News the editor wrote that it would be a 
"home paper, devoted to the interests of Lincoln county and the 
Saline valley." In politics it would support "the principles of the 
Republican party, endeavoring to treat all questions with candor, 
and its opponents with justice." It would not be an organ of 
"cliques or rings," but it would strive to "maintain an honorable 
and manly independence, exposing and condemning wrong, whether 
found in the camp of the enemy or the house of its friends." 

Lincoln Center, later changed to Lincoln, had been made the 
county seat in the fall of 1872, about six months before the county 
had a newspaper. When the first issue of the News appeared the 
county had a population of about 500 voters and every voter oc- 
cupied 160 acres of the domain. 

The Society has the first thirty-eight numbers of the News, prob- 
ably the only copies in existence, and one copy of the Lincoln 
County Patriot, dated July 15, 1875. 

RICE COUNTY 
The Rice County Herald, Atlanta, May, 1873. 

The exact date of the first issue of this paper is unknown. An- 
dreas wrote: 

The Rice County Herald was started at Atlanta April 19, 1872, by a Mr. 
Frazier, and soon after it was sold to the Shinn Brothers. They sold it to 
Smith & Wallace, who soon after moved it to Peace, now Sterling. In 1875 it 
was moved to Hutchinson, Reno county. 20 

The First Biennial Report had practically the same information ex- 
cept that it gave only the year, 1872, as the beginning date. 21 
Charles R. Tuttle, in Centennial History of Kansas, published in 

19. First Biennial Report, p. 280; Andreas, op. cit., p. 1421. 

20. Andreas, op. cit.., p. 755. 

21. First Biennial Report, p. 383. 



310 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

1876, wrote that The Rice County Herald published at Peace was 
the only newspaper in the county. 22 Only one contemporaneous 
newspaper account referring to the first issue of the Herald has been 
found. The Ellsworth Reporter, May 8, 1873, made this statement: 

Rice county has a new paper, the Herald, which we hope will make a living. 
Rice needs the paper and the Herald is full of good tidings to its readers. 

The Reporter failed to mention the place of publication, nor did it 
give the name of the editor and publisher. If the announcement has 
reference to the first appearance of The Rice County Herald in the 
county, which no doubt it does, then the secondary authorities are 
in error. The Society has no copy of this paper. 

PAWNEE COUNTY 
The Larned Press, June 10, 1873. 

This paper has been listed as first in the county. Andreas and the 
First Biennial Report stated that the Press was established by W. C. 
Tompkins in 1873, and was Republican in politics. 23 A more de- 
tailed and descriptive statement of the first issue was written by 
Mrs. Isabell Worrell Ball, published November 17, 1899. It reads: 

June 10th, 1873, Wm. C. Tompkins published the first issue of the Larned 
Press. It was a three-column folio, the size of its pages was seven by nine 
inches, republican in politics, and had for its motto: "Westward the Star of 
Empire takes its way." In his salutation the editor says: "It is the most 
westerly paper printed in the state, and is probably the most petite. But small 
as it is, it is larger than its income." Its subscribers numbered 00,000 all 
dead heads. It was printed on a Washington hand press, and the type-setting 
was done mostly by the editor's two sons, Fred. M. and Willie F. Tompkins, 
aged eleven and twelve respectively. 24 

No newspaper announcement of the first number has been found. 
However, since Mrs. Ball quoted from the salutation, the date she 
gave, June 10, 1873, should be correct. The Society's file of this 
paper commences with the issue of October 20, 1876, listed as Vol. 
IV, No. 13. 

22. Tuttle, Charles R., A New Centennial History of the State of Kansas . . . (Law- 
rence, 1876), p. 644. 

23. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1351; First Biennial Report, p. 361. Andreas spelled Tompkins 
with an "h." 

24. Larned Eagle Optic, November 17, 1899. The title of the article is, "History of 
Pawnee County." 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 311 

CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY 
Howard County Messenger, Boston, July or August, 1873. 

Chautauqua county was not organized until 1875. The territory 
now included in Elk and Chautauqua counties was Howard county 
in 1874. Sedan, Boston and Peru, the three towns concerned in the 
following discussion, are reported having started newspapers before 
the change in organization. 

The Howard County Messenger of Boston no doubt was the first 
newspaper published in territory now included in Chautauqua 
county. It was published for some time at Howard before its re- 
moval to Boston. In a story Early Days in "Old Boston" Thos. E. 
Thompson referred to the removal of the Messenger from Howard to 
Boston as having occurred in August, 1873. The paper had been 
taken over by A. B. Hicks and moved to Boston in consideration of 
a small bonus paid by the Boston people. 25 On July 16, 1873, the 
Neosho County Journal, Osage Mission, reported the removal: 
"Boston, Howard county, is going to have a paper. The Howard 
City Messenger has been removed there." When the first issue was 
published in Boston is not known. However, on September 9, 1873, 
the Topeka Daily Blade quoted the Messenger. 

Wide Awake was a second contender for priority in this county. 
Andreas and the First Biennial Report stated that the first issue was 
published at Sedan "in June, 1874, by Joseph Mount, a mute." It 
was short-lived, having run only a little over a year when it expired 
in September, 1875. 26 Winnie Looby-Severns, in an address deliv- 
ered at Sedan January 30, 1928, said: 

The first newspaper in Peru was established by its owner, a deaf and dumb 
man by the name of Mounts. He came with his little "hand organ" late in 
1872. He called his paper The Wide Awake. His office was in his home, a 
small building or cabin. This structure was badly damaged by a storm, but he 
built over again. When the county seat was lost by Peru, he moved to Sedan. 
About this time Judge Moore and sons Elliott and Fletcher came to Peru. 
... [Mount finally sold to Moore.] 27 

The Society has one issue of this paper, dated July 10, 1875, and 
listed as Vol. I, No. 49. It is dated at Sedan, with Joseph Mount & 
Co. as publishers. If published regularly the first number should 
have appeared August 7, 1874. If allowance is made for removing 
the plant from Peru to Sedan, the first number probably was issued 

25. Thompson, Thos. E., Early Days in "Old Boston" (September 26, 1924), p. 3. 
Library of Kansas State Historical Society. 

26. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1217 ; First Biennial Report, p. 134. 

27. Looby-Severns, Winnie, Early History of Peru, Chautauqua County, Kansas, p. 11. 



312 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

in June or July, 1874, which would still disqualify it for first place 
in the county. 

The Chautauqua Journal is a third contender for priority. D. W. 
Wilder's Annals of Kansas under date of December, 1873, reads: 
"Kelly and Turner issued the Chautauqua Journal in Sedan." This 
paper was first published at Elk Falls as the Elk Falls Journal and 
the removal to Sedan did not take place until 1875 or 1876. Febru- 
ary 12, 1875, the Wilson County Citizen still quoted the Elk Falls 
Journal. On this subject Andreas wrote: 

The Chautauqua Journal was brought here from Elk Falls, where it had been 
established in 1873 by Ward & Pyle, who sold out in December of that year, 
to Kelly and Turner. After nearly three years, the removal to Sedan was 
made, where the firm continued the publication of the paper until January, 
1879. [In another place Andreas wrote that the Elk Falls Journal was removed 
to Sedan in 1875.] 28 

The Society does not have the first numbers of these three papers, 
and a search through contemporaneous newspapers has failed to re- 
veal announcements of their first publications. The information 
available, however, points to the conclusion that the Howard County 
Messenger of Boston was the first newspaper published in Chautau- 
qua county. 

PHILLIPS COUNTY 
The Kirwin Chief, about August 2, 1873. 

The Chief has been accepted as first in this county. W. D. Jenkins 
was the editor and proprietor. The First Biennial Report said the 
paper "was established in August, 1873, by W. D. Jenkins, under the 
direction of the Kirwin Town Company." Andreas wrote it was 
the "oldest paper in northwestern Kansas . . . established in 
August, 1872. . . ." 29 Andreas was mistaken in the year. The 
Society has an early issue of the Chief dated June 27, 1874, listed 
as Vol. I, No. 48. If published regularly the first number should 
have appeared August 2, 1873. The Junction City Union announced 
it August 16, 1873: 

The Chief is the name of a creditable newspaper venture at Kirwin, Phillips 
county. W. D. Jenkins is the editor. 

The Phillips County Post, of Phillipsburg, published a souvenir 
edition July 12, 1906, from which we quote the early history of the 
paper: 

28. Andreas, op. cit., pp. 1217, 1219. 

29. First Biennial Report, p. 365; Andreas, op. cit., p. 1514. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 313 

The Kirwin Chief (the first paper in the county), was established in August, 
1873, by W. D. Jenkins. He sold the paper to Capt. A. A. Thomas in the 
winter of 1874. In the fall of 1876, it was purchased by A. G. McBride and 
removed to Phillipsburg ; after six months it was again moved to Kirwin, and 
July 13, 1881, was sold to the Kirwin Chief Steam Printing Co., with Rev. 
G. W. Wood, as editor. Tom G. Nicklin took charge Nov. 30, '81, A. L. 
Topliff January 5, 1882, and T. J. Pickett July 20, 1882. . . . 

The Society's regular file of the Chief starts June 8, 1876. 

EDWARDS COUNTY 
Kinsley Reporter, September, 1873. 

The First Biennial Report and Andreas agree that the Kinsley 
Reporter made its appearance September 16, 1873, that it started 
as a monthly publication, changed to a fortnightly or semiweekly, 
and in 1875, to a weekly publication. 30 The Topeka Daily Blade 
announced the first issue of the Reporter October 6, 1873, saying: 
"The first number of the Kinsley Reporter, published at Peter city, 
by Mrs. C. C. McGinnis, has made its appearance." It failed to 
comment on the nature of the publication. In the issues of March 
14 and 28, 1878, the Edwards County Leader, of Kinsley, published 
a history of the county in which the author, J. A. Walker, listed Mrs. 
A. L. McGinnis publisher of the Reporter. In part it reads: 

In September, 1873, Mrs. A. L. McGinnis, sister to Mrs. W. F. Blanchard 
and F. C. Blanchard, issued the first number of the Kinsley Reporter, a spicey 
little newspaper which she continued to publish until it was merged into the 
Edwards County Leader, W. T. Bruer purchasing her press and type in 
January, 1877. 

Andreas and the First Biennial Report failed to mention the editor 
and publisher, however the state census records of Kinsley township, 
Edwards county for 1875, listed A. L. McGinnis, female, age 42, 
printer, but did not mention C. C. McGinnis. With A. L. was listed 
M. V. McGinnis, female, age 16. It is possible and probable that 
Mrs. C. C. and A. L. McGinnis refer to the same person, one re- 
ferring to her initials, and the other, to her husband's. 

The Society has four issues of the Reporter, the first bears the date 
of September 21, 1876, listed as Vol. Ill, No. 45. 

30. First Biennial Report, p. 200 ; Andreas, op. cit. f p. 1367. 



314 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

FORD COUNTY 
Dodge City Messenger, February 26, 1874. 

The grasshopper scourge followed closely on the heels of the Mes- 
senger, and no doubt helped force its suspension in 1875. A. W. 
Moore was editor and publisher. In the salutatory he wrote: 

Here we are. How do you like us? We dislike a long Salutatory with more 
words than sense promising great things which cannot be fulfilled (as is too 
often the case with editors in Kansas) but we merely say that we are here, 
in Dodge City, Ford County, State of Kansas, for the purpose of publishing 
a newspaper, earning and receiving our "chuck," and doing what we can to- 
wards promoting the interests of said county. The Messenger is an Indepen- 
dent or Neutral, paper reserving the right, however, to criticise the actions 
of our public servants both in high and low places to denounce public robbery 
and wholesale stealing and speaking a good word for those who merit it. ... 

In another place he told about the conditions in that western town: 
Dodge City, where we have cast anchor, contains a population of about three 
hundred souls. The city has gained an unenviable name, far and near but 
now, instead of those terrible scenes that we read of, being re-enacted, quietude 
reigns supreme. The desperadoes have all taken their departure, leaving the 
peace-loving citizens in possession. 

There are some sixteen business houses in the city all of which are doing 
a very fair business, so far as we can learn. . . . The shops around are do- 
ing a good business and the saloons are kept in good shape, and very orderly, 
by gentlemen who fully understand their business. . . . 

A. W. Moore went to Dodge City from Holton, where in 1867 he 
had established the Jackson County News, a Republican seven- 
column paper. 31 He removed his material to Dodge City to estab- 
lish the Messenger, a four-page, six-column paper. The Society has 
two issues, Vol. I, No. 1, dated February 26, 1874, and the issue of 
June 25, 1874. 

RUSH COUNTY 

The Walnut Valley Standard, Rush Center, December 24, 1874. 

This was the first newspaper published and printed in Rush 
county. William P. Tomlinson, a Republican, was the editor and 
proprietor. The Society has two copies of The Walnut Valley 
Standard published in this decade. The first is dated December 24, 
1874, but it carries no volume and number. It was printed on a 
single sheet with four columns to the page. The editor wrote: 

This first assay at printing in Rush county which we think will be ap- 
preciated by all interested in the welfare of the county, is purely an individual 

31. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1560; First Biennial Report, p. 238. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 315 

enterprise involving not a cent of expense to the county. A large edition has 
been worked off which we present to all with the compliments of the season. 

Doubtless the editor regarded this issue as Vol. I, No. 1, even though 
he failed to label it. Moreover, he wrote that it was the "first assay 
at printing in Rush county." There is no information to show that 
it had a rival for priority. 

Apparently the paper was not published regularly, as the next 
issue in the Society's file is Vol. I, No. 26, dated December 13, 1876 
nearly two years after the first number was published. According 
to the First Biennial Report the Standard was removed to La Crosse 
in the spring of 1877, and then to Ellis, Ellis county. The Society 
also has two copies of the Standard published at Ellis. 

Tomlinson was a native of Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1857 he 
was sent to Kansas by the New York Tribune as its correspondent, 
and in 1859 wrote a book on the territorial troubles, entitled, Kansas 
in Eighteen Fifty-eight. In the spring of 1871 he moved to Kansas, 
locating first at Council Grove, then at Rush Center. He was the 
first representative sent to the state legislature from Rush county. 
In later years he worked for the Topeka Commonwealth, was as- 
sociated with Charles K. Holliday in the publication of the Kansas 
Democrat, and later published a paper known as the Democrat. He 
died at Topeka June 13, 1901. 32 

ROOKS COUNTY 
The Stockton News, January 6, 1876. 

The News was established at Stockton by J. W. Newell in Jan- 
uary, 1876. It was Republican in politics. Newell purchased the 
press and material of the Lincoln County Patriot, removed it to 
Stockton in November, 1875, and issued the first number January 
6, 1876. 33 The Society has Vol. I, No. 15, of the News, dated April 
20, 1876. If published regularly the first number should be dated 
January 13, 1876. However, the Osborne County Farmer, of Os- 
borne, announced it January 14: 

The Stockton News has made its appearance. It is a neat, well edited six 
column sheet, is a credit to Mr. Newell the publisher, and will be an honor to 
the people of Rooks county if they support it handsomely. 

This indicates that the first issue may have appeared January 6, 
1876. 

32. La Crosse Chieftain, January 2, 1930. 

33. Stockton News, July 19, 1882; Andreas, op. cit., p. 1611; Risely, Mrs. Jerry Burr, 
"The History of Rooks County, Kansas," p. 9. MS. in library of the Kansas State Historical 
Society. 



316 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The News continued publication until September 30, 1909. Dur- 
ing the period of May, 1881, to April, 1882, it was published at 
Plainville. With the issue of March 28, 1883, it changed its name to 
The Western News, having earlier dropped Stockton from its title. 
The Society has a good file of this paper. 

NORTON COUNTY 
The Norton County Bee, Norton, January 1, 1877. 

The grasshopper scourge of 1874, the panic of 1875, and the sub- 
sequent depression period, no doubt greatly retarded the westward 
march of the Kansas frontier newspaper men. In 1872-1873, thirteen 
new counties established newspapers, whereas during the next three 
years there were only three: Ford and Rush in 1874 (although the 
Dodge City Messenger came in before the grasshopper invasion), 
none in 1875, and one in 1876. 

Andreas and the First Biennial Report gave the date of the first 
issue of The Norton County Bee as January 1, 1877, listing Harmer 
and Baker as the proprietors. The First Biennial Report added Nat. 
L. Baker, editor. 34 J. C. Swayze announced the initial number in 
the Topeka Daily Blade, January 10, 1877: 

The Norton County Bee is a new newspaper published at Norton in this 
State, by Harmer & Hugill. It is exceedingly country in appearance, but we 
suppose that is accounted for by the fact that it is exceeding [ly] far out in the 
country. It claims to be "intensely local" also. It has a worm fence around 
each page, which leads us to infer that it is opposed to the herd law. May it 
have better luck than the Locomotive. 

The Society has only one issue of the Bee, dated May 7, 1877, 
listed as Vol. I, No. 19, which places the first number January 1, 
1877. However, it gave A. F. Harmer as editor and publisher. No 
doubt the initial number was published by Harmer & Hugill as an- 
nounced in the Blade. According to Andreas the office of the Bee 
was removed to Leota, Norton county, in November, 1877; after 
a few months it was returned to Norton, and soon discontinued. 35 

STAFFORD COUNTY 
The Stafford Citizen, November 30, 1877. 

The first issue of the Citizen appeared November 30, 1877. It 
was printed at Sterling. Theo. L. Kerr was the editor and proprietor. 
Throughout its brief existence the editor boosted Pratt county. It 
lived and died before Stafford county was organized. With the 

34. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1063 ; First Biennial Report, p. 344. 

35. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1063. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 317 

organization of the county in 1879, Stafford city was included in this 
county, and the Citizen was honored as Stafford county's first news- 
paper. 

The editor did not commit himself politically. In "Our Bow" 
he wrote: 

In general politics we do not propose to take much of a hand at present, 
but when occasion shall arise, we expect to be found on the side of honesty 
and good government. In local politics, the Citizen will use its best en- 
deavors to assist in the selection of honest, capable men to office and will then 
watch them to see that they do their duty faithfully. 

But we consider it our chief mission at present to talk up the country and 
get it filled with settlers. 

More interesting than "Our Bow" was "Our Adieu," which fol- 
lowed in Vol. I, No. 31, dated June 28, 1878. It reads, in part: 

For thirty-one weeks we have been amusing ourselves at journalism; during 
which time we have acted in the capacity of editor, reporter, business manager, 
bookkeeper, compositor, proof-reader, pressman and devil; and must confess 
that it is a little the liveliest amusement we ever engaged in. On account of 
our limited financial resources we were obliged to do our printing at Sterling, 
which being thirty-three or four miles from our town of publication prevented 
us from making a flying visit to the beautiful little city we have had so much 
to say about, oftener than once in three or four weeks. During the last thirty- 
one weeks, however, our bump of imagination has increased to such an 
enormous size that we feel perfectly competent to write all the local news 
notwithstanding the many miles of prairie that hides from our view our country 
and people. . . . 

Kerr had but two reasons for dropping the newspaper business. 
The most important was, he could not make it pay; the second, 
which he considered a direct consequence of the first, his declining 
health. He therefore sold his subscription list and good will to E. B. 
Cowgill of Rice county who promised to publish the Stafford news 
in his paper. The Society has all thirty-one issues of the Citizen. 

BARBER COUNTY 
Barbour County Mail, Medicine Lodge, May 21, 1878. 

The Society has an incomplete file of this paper, including Vol. I, 
No. 1, dated May 21, 1878. 36 M. J. Cochran was the editor and pub- 
lisher. The paper was Republican in politics. In the "Salutatory" 
the editor wrote: 

We will say that while we have political views of our own and those of a 
radical nature, we do not think the growth of the county would be in any way 
materially aided by their advocacy. The only politics needed, in our judg- 

36. Andreas and the First Biennial Report gave the date of the first issue as May 20 and 
May 23, respectively. See Andreas, op. cit., p. 1523, and First Biennial Report, p. 110. 



318 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ment, in a new county, is economy in county management, and the selection 
of pure, noble-minded and honest men to fill the places of trust and profit, 
keeping an eye single to the advancement and substantial development of 
your county. 

Not many politicians would admit as much. 

Cochran published the last issue of the Mail March 6, 1879. On 
the editorial page he wrote that his interest in, and management of 
the Mail ceased. In the first issue of the Medicine Lodge Cresset, 
published March 20, 1879, the editors and proprietors, J. W. McNeal 
and E. W. Iliff, wrote that they had purchased the Mail on the fol- 
lowing terms : 

The terms on which we purchased the Mail were that we were to continue 
all paid up subscriptions until their time expires. Those who are in ar[r]ears 
we are to collect arrearages. . . . 

The Cresset therefore replaced the Mail. The issue of May 22, 
1879, announced IlifTs withdrawal and replacement by T. A. Mc- 
Neal, now of Topeka. The McNeals were brothers. The Cresset 
continued its publication until August 30, 1917, when it consolidated 
with The Barber County Index, of Medicine Lodge. Under this 
name the paper is still published. Cloyce M. and C. W. Hamilton 
are the present editors and publishers. 

KINGMAN COUNTY 
Kingman Mercury, June 14, 1878. 

Andreas was correct in saying: "The Mercury was the first news- 
paper published in Kingman county. It was established by J. C. 
Martin [formerly connected with the Chase County C our ant, of 
Cottonwood Falls], the first issue bearing date June 14, 1878." 37 
The Society has a good file of the Mercury, including Vol. I, No. 1. 

In the salutatory Martin wrote that he intended to devote his time 
to help make Kingman county "the equal of any in the State." He 
abhorred "long-winded salutatories and promises" never intended to 
be fulfilled, and closed with the quotation: 

Here's freedom to him that would read, 

Here's freedom to him that would write ! 

There's none ever feared that the truth should be heard 

But they whom the truth would indict. 

The Mercury started as a five-column folio. On June 13, 1879, 
Martin increased it to a seven-column, four-page paper. On August 
19, 1880, the paper changed hands, Martin sold to A. E. Saxey, who 

37. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1526. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 319 

changed the name to the Kingman Blade. Saxey continued the 
Blade till December 23, 1880, when he disposed of his interests to 
P. J. Conklin, editor and publisher of the Kingman County Citizen, 
of Kingman, who discontinued the Blade. 

GRAY COUNTY 
The Cimarron Pioneer, July 2, 1878. 

The first journalistic venture in Foote, now Gray county, was the 
Cimarron Pioneer. The paper was edited and published by Joseph 
E. Morcombe, formerly a correspondent of the Kinsley Graphic, and 
printed by the Dodge City Times. The Optic gave the date of the 
first issue as July 2, 1878. 38 On June 25, 1878, the Ford County 
Globe, of Dodge City, published a news item by "Dick" of Cimarron 
which told of the prospective newspaper venture: 

We are to have a newspaper here soon, we understand. The first issue will 
come out Saturday, June 29. We wish it much success, and as we have an 
enterprising editor, we think it cannot be otherwise. We understand it is to 
be called The Pioneer. 

On July 6, 1878, the Dodge City Times announced the first issue: 
The first number of the Cimarron Pioneer was issued last Tuesday [July 2] . 
It is edited and conducted by Jos. E. Morcombe, a young man of fine ability, 
and who gives promise of much usefulness. He is a fine writer and will adapt 
himself to the newspaper profession. The Pioneer is a credit to the growing 
town of Cimarron. We wish it unbounded success. 

Three days later, July 9, the Globe announced the first issue: 

The Cimarron Pioneer came to hand on Friday. Progress is to-day the 
touchstone of success and we feel that the publishing of the Pioneer is progres- 
sive enough for the most enthusiastic and consequently deserving of success. 
We welcome it to our table. 

The Kinsley Graphic announced the Pioneer July 13: 

The Cimarron Pioneer is the latest journalistic venture outside of Kinsley. 
Jos. E. Marcombe, late correspondent of the Graphic, editor. The Pioneer is 
indeed an oasis in the desert, and we wish it abundant success. 39 

According to the Dodge City Times the first issue of this paper ap- 
peared July 2. The Society has no copy of the Pioneer. 

The New West, Cimarron, was the second newspaper in the 
county. It was first published March 22, 1879, and was printed at 
Larned. The Society has a good file of it. 

38. The Optic, Cimarron, July 18, 1879. 

39. The Optic spelled the editor's name, Morcomb. See ibid. 



320 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

PRATT COUNTY 
Pratt County Press, luka, August 15, 1878. 

Andreas listed the Press as the first newspaper in Pratt county. 40 
It had no rival for priority. The first number no doubt appeared 
August 15, 1878. The earliest number in the Society's file is Vol. I, 
No. 3, dated August 29, 1878. If regularly issued the first number 
should be dated August 15. On August 22, the Weekly Bulletin, 
Sterling, announced the luka paper as follows: 

We have received Vol. 1, No. 1, of the weekly Pratt County Press published 
at luka, by [J. B.] King and [M. C.] Davis. The Press is a handsomely 
printed, spicily edited seven column folio. The proprietors say they know 
how to get up a county paper, and from the contents of the initial number we 
judge their words to be no vain boast. . . . 

The initial number was highly complimented by other Kansas 
papers. The Pawnee County Herald, of Larned, stated: "The paper 
is a very good looking seven column sheet, unusually well gotten up 
for a 'backwoods' paper." The Hutchinson Herald spoke of King 
and Davis as "both practical printers and experienced publishers. 
Their paper, the Press, is a credit to the locality." The Kansas 
City (Mo.) Daily Journal, said the Press was "exceptionally well 
gotten up. ... luka is sixty miles from a railroad station, but 
the pluck and energy displayed by Messrs. King and Davis is what 
makes success certain." The Daily Democrat, Pueblo, Colo., listed 
the paper as " 'independent' in politics." 41 

HARPER COUNTY 
Anthony Journal, August 22, 1878. 

Jasper S. Soule established the Journal in Anthony, August 22, 
1878. It was the official and only paper in the county, 42 started as 
a five-column folio. Before a year elapsed, however, another column 
had been added. Soule started the project to earn a living for 
himself and family. He proposed to make the Journal a "free, fear- 
less and independent'' publication. Anthony was selected because 
he regarded Harper "the 'banner' county of the 'Great Southwest,' " 
and the townsite attracted him. At the time of the first issue 
Anthony was four months old. 

Soule had learned the printers' trade in the office of the Walnut 
Valley Times, El Dorado, under the eagle eye of T. B. Murdock. It 

40. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1268. 

41. Pratt County Press, luka, September 5, 1878. The comments were given under the 
caption: "As Others See Us." 

42. Anthony Journal, September 5, 1878. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 321 

is of interest, therefore, to read what the master workman had to 
say about the product of his former apprentice. On August 30, 1878, 
Murdock wrote in the Times : 

We have received the first number of the Anthony, Harper county Journal, 
J. S. Soule editor and proprietor. Jasper learned the printing trade in the 
Times office and we can therefore claim him as one of our boys. His paper is 
a neat and well filled sheet and is a credit to the publisher as well as to the 
county in which it is printed, and if the people of that county don't give the 
Journal a handsome support they deserve to be without a newspaper at all. 
We hope to see Jasper make a success of it in his new venture. 

Soule sold the Journal to C. W. Greene April 26, 1879. 43 The 
Society has a good file of the Journal, including Vol. I, No. 1. 

HODGEMAN COUNTY 
Hodgeman Agitator, Hodgeman Center, March 1, 1879. 

W. W. Wheeland was editor and publisher of the Agitator, the first 
newspaper in the county, published and printed at Hodgeman Cen- 
ter. Andreas wrote that Wheeland was both editor and county 
clerk. 44 When the governor organized Hodgeman county, March 29, 
1879, he appointed Wheeland a temporary county clerk. However, 
this was nearly five weeks after the paper was established. 45 

In the ' 'salutatory," Wheeland informed his constituents that his 
subsistence was wholly dependent upon the subscription list and if 
they wanted a paper they had better cooperate. He admitted hav- 
ing come to Hodgeman Center to help make it the county seat (in 
which he failed) . The paper was definitely political, the editor con- 
ceded that he was "an uncompromising Republican." 

The Agitator was a neat five-column folio, and was favorably re- 
ceived by Kansas newspaper men. 46 The editor of the Ford County 
Globe announced the first issue in frontier language: 

Hodgeman county has a paper, not published on a buffalo chip, but a real, 
live newspaper, called the Agitator. We trust it will not wither and fade away 
from premature birth. 47 

The paper issued forty-five numbers, then discontinued. Andreas 
wrote: "The last number of the Agitator was issued January 10, 

43. Ibid., May 2, 1879. 

44. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1608. 

45. Hodgeman Agitator, April 5, 1879. 

46. Ibid., March 15, 1879. 

47. Ford County Globe, Dodge City, March 4, 1879. 

48. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1608. 



730 



322 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

1880, and with its demise, its editor went out of the office." 48 The 
Society has a good file of the paper. 

Two other newspapers were established in the county during the 
year 1879: The Republican, Fordham, which appeared April 9, 
1879, and the Buckner Independent. The Society's file of The Re- 
publican starts with Vol. I, No. 1, and of the Buckner Independent 
with Vol. I, No. 3, dated November 7, 1879. 

TREGO COUNTY 
Wa-Keeney Weekly World, March 8, 1879. 

The first newspaper established in this county was the Wa-Keeney 
Weekly World, with W. S. Tilton as editor and publisher. The first 
number appeared March 8, 1879. The Society's file starts with the 
second number, dated March 15, 1879. The World, started as a six- 
column paper, was enlarged to seven columns August 9, 1879, and 
was further enlarged to eight columns, October 29, 1881. It was 
folio in form, and Republican in politics. The Society has a good 
file of the Weekly World, changed March 21, 1885, to the Western 
Kansas World. 

The paper was favorably received. The editor of the Smith 
County Kansas Pioneer, of Smith Centre, described it as "a neat, 
newsy little six-column paper, and bears the 'imprint' of marked 
ability." 49 

The Society also has a good file of the Wa-Keeney Kansas Leader, 
the second paper established in this county. The first number was 
dated August 6, 1879, and was published by H. P. Stultz. 

FINNEY COUNTY 
The Garden City Paper, April 3, 1879. 

The Paper no doubt was the first newspaper published in the 
territory now Finney, then Sequoyah county. Kirk Himrod and 
Amos "Bonaparte" Balm were the editors and publishers. They 
made no political claim. The first number appeared April 3, 1879, 
as a lengthy five-column folio, thereafter it was published as a four- 
column, eight-page paper. 

The salutatory was very brief, but pointed: "Here we are. 
Shake!" To which D. R. Anthony of the Leavenworth Times re- 
plied: "Dr. Brown suggests that his ague pills are good for anything 

49. Wa-Keeney Weekly World, March 29, 1879. 
60. Garden City Paper, April 24, 1879. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 323 

of that kind." 50 The editor of The Weekly Bulletin, of Sterling, 
commented on this prospective newspaper venture: 

Garden City is to have a newspaper. It will be a five column folio, Himrod 
and Bairn, both long legged printers, will be the publishers. Kirk Himrod, the 
senior member of the firm, is well known to the people of this section. Amos 
Bairn, better known as "Bonaparte," has been employed in the job department 
of the Bulletin for a long time. Both of the boys are first-class printers and 
we wish them success in their enterprise, but fear they will have to skirmish 
right briskly to make a living the first year or so. 51 

The Ford County Globe carried the following description of the 
first number: 

Westward the newspaper takes its way. It seems that the first thing neces- 
sary to build up a new town or county is a newspaper. The newest and most 
suburban now on record is the Garden City Paper, published at Garden City, 
Sequoyah county, over a hundred miles west of Dodge. It is a very neat little 
five-column paper, very interesting to home-seekers, published by Himrod and 
Bairn. Himrod we know to be on the square in every respect. The paper is 
very ably and sensibly edited, and the people of Sequoyah should be proud of 
it.52 

The editors of the Paper commented on the large size of their 
county, saying, if it were five miles wider it would be exactly the 
size of the state of Rhode Island. The dimensions of Sequoyah ex- 
tended 24 miles east and west and 36 miles north and south, com- 
prising 864 square miles. The Society has a complete file of this 
paper. Numbers two and three were not published because the 
publisher had to move and lacked the necessary paper. 53 

51. The Weekly Bulletin, Sterling, March 27, 1879. 

52. Ford County Globe, Dodge City, April 8, 1879. 

53. Garden City Paper, April 24, 1879. 



(To Be Concluded in the November Quarterly) 



Bypaths of Kansas History 

STEAMBOATING ON THE MISSOURI IN 1842 
From the Daily Missouri Republican, Saint Louis, May 28, 1842. 

The steamer Edna, Capt. Martin, arrived here on Sunday evening, from 
Weston, Missouri river, having on board 931 sacks of wheat, 95 barrels of do, 
48 hogsheads of tobacco, 169 coils of rope, 228 bales of hemp, 20 barrels hemp 
seed, &c. &c., and 28 deck and 36 cabin passengers. 

The following memoranda may be interesting, as giving some idea of a trip 
500 miles down the Missouri. 

Weston is above Ft. Leavenworth, and, with the exception of the beginning 
of a settlement called latan, it is the westernmost town of the state. It con- 
tains at present about 400 inhabitants, and has been settled about three years, 
on public land never yet brought into market for sale. It is situated in the 
elbow of a bend of the river, on the north bank, between two rocky bluffs; 
has amongst others, several good looking frame buildings, and is probably as 
busy a place for its size, as any in the country. No soil can, in any part of 
the world, be richer than that of Platte county, in which it is situated. The 
county is well settled, and this whole country is settled up to the western line 
of the state, and even to the western line of Iowa territory north. Wheat, 
hemp, tobacco and corn thrive well here, and extensive preparations are mak- 
ing for a large crop of hemp next season, in all this section. The drought of 
the current year, which has continued the whole season, until last week, has 
materially retarded the growth of the wheat and hemp. Opposite Weston 
dwell the Kickapoo Indians, in a country as attractive as any yet settled by 
civilized man. Immediately above Weston, in the river, you observe bristling 
up almost a forest of snags, apparently obstructing steamboat navigation. Yet 
boats ascend nearly 2,000 miles above! 

The boat left Weston, Tuesday, 17, 4 o'clock, P.M. Stopped at Fort 
Leavenworth, the most beautiful spot on the banks of the Missouri. It is 
protected from the encroachments of this turbulent river by a natural wall of 
limestone, and occupies an eminence visible for several miles on the west and 
east. There is but one company of soldiers there at present, under the com- 
mand of Capt. Swords. 

Below the cantonment, observed upon the bank, several Indians of the 
Stockbridge tribe, originally from the western part of Massachusetts. They 
dwell just below the cantonment, on lands said to belong to the Delawares, 
and have the reputation of being a religious and orderly people. Their claims 
are now before a committee of congress. 

Passed two "Mackinaw boats" loaded with peltries, followed by a canoe 
filled with half naked Indians from the mountains. 

Wednesday, 18th. Owing to the numberless snags and sandbars in the river, 
the boats do not deem it prudent to run in the night, therefore "hauled up" 
for the night at Independence, upper landing. During a powerful shower of 
rain which overtook us in the morning at Liberty, an Indian of the Pottawat- 
tamie tribe came on board, and broke down the front door of the social hall, 
shivering it to atoms. He was knocked down forthwith in return, and carried 
out on shore, stunned, but not killed. . . . 

(324) 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 325 

WHEN TABLES REALLY "GROANED" 

From the Fort Scott Monitor, November 20, 1867, and Memoirs 
and Recollections of C. W. Goodlander of the Early Days of Fort 
Scott (Fort Scott, 1900), pp. 111-113. 

The dance and supper given by the "Pioneers of '57," last Thursday eve- 
ning, was the gayest party held in Fort Scott for a long while. It was a re- 
union of the old advance guard of civilization and settlement, coupled with a 
general invitation to all who wished to join them in the festivities of the 
occasion, and was gotten up "on the spur of the moment," yet a very large 
and enthusiastic crowd assembled to enjoy the dance; and more than that, 
to partake of the boasted "game supper," which, to say the least, was a 
sumptuous one, out-rivaling, as their bill of fare shows, any first-class hotel 
on the continent. The supper was prepared at the Wilder House, under the 
supervision of Chas. Dimon, Esq., the proprietor, and was perfection itself. 
Most of the wild game was killed by a party of hunters composed principally 
of the settlers or pioneers of '57. The following is the bill of fare as "dished 
up" at the Wilder House : 

PIONEER SUPPER. 

Wilder House. 
Fort Scott, Kansas, Nov. 14, 1867. 

BILL OF FARE. 
Twelve O'clock Supper. 

SOUP. 

Oyster. Colbert. 

FISH. 

Baked Black Bass. Broiled Red-horse. 

RELIEVE. 

Broiled Leg of Mutton, Caper sauce; 
Wild Turkey, Braised, with Oysters ; 
Ham, Champagne sauce; Broiled Prairie 
Chicken, Parsley sauce ; Rib of Antelope, 
a la Regeance ; Buffalo Tongue. 

COLD ORNAMENTAL DISHES. 

Chaudfroid of Faisant, a la Parisienne. 
Pattress de foie Gras, with jelly. 
Bastion of Rabbits, a la Shiloh. 
Bear Tongue, a la Carlotta. 
Boned Turkey, decorated with jelly. 
Boned Partridge, a la Pawnee. 
Brandt, ornamented with jelly. 
Sunfish au Beurre, de Montpelier. 



326 



KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 



ENTRIES. 

Rissoles of Jack Snipe, a la Pompadour. 
Fillet of Curlew, a la Rouenaise. 

Civit of Venison, with Port wine. 
Fillet of Wild Goose, a la Marmaton. 
Fillet of Teal Duck, a la Drywood. 
Fillet of Plover, a la Prairie. 

White Crane Salad, a 1'Osage. 
Woodcock Fricasee, a la Wolverine. 

Noix of Fawn, a la Balltown. 

Coon Chops, a la Marais des Cygnes. 

Sweet-bread, a la Toulouse. 

ROASTS. 

Beef, Wild Turkey, Killdeer, 

Buffalo, Saddle Venison, Gray Squirrel, 

Gray Duck, Fox Squirrel, Sage Hen, 

Goose, Wood Duck, Crane, 

Mallard, Red-head Duck, Black Bear, 

Brandt, Canvas-back Duck, Gray Duck, 

Opossum, with Persimmon Jelly, 
Butter-ball Duck. 



PASTRY. 



Persimmon Pyramid, 
American Dessert, 
Mince Pie, 
Dewberry Jelly, 
Pumpkin Pie, 
Paw-Paw Pie, 



Wild Fox Grapes, 
Black Walnuts, 
Hazel Nuts, 
Butter Nuts, 



Cocoanut Pyramid, 
Cantelope rum sauce, 
Strawberry Ice Cream, 
Champagne Jelly, 
Pretzels, 
Horn of Plenty. 



DESSERT. 



Bush Cherries, 
Paw Paws, 
Pecans, 
Apples, 
Coffee. 

WINE LIST. 

Champagne. 

Robinson & Co.'s Dry Verzenay. 
J. Sattler & Co.'s Green Seal Imperial, 
C. H. Haynes' Royal Rose. 
Van Fossen Bros.' Gold Seal. 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 327 

Linn & Stadden's Sillery Mouseaux. 
A. McDonald & Bro's. Monopale. 
J. S. Redfield & Co.'s Dry Sillery. 
Dr. J. H. Couch's Verzenay. 
Dr. B. F. Hepler's Cabinet. 
J. S. Redfield & Co.'s Imperial. 

Claret. 

Table, Medoc, Floirac, (D. Marie & Freres and 
Brandenburg, Freres), St. Julien, Chateau, 
Leoville, (first quality) Chateau Margux, Cha- 
teau Yquem, Chateau Lafitte, Chateau Griscoms. 

California Wine. 

Angelica, Los Angelos Vintage. 
California Port, Muscatel and Hock. 

Kansas Wine. 
Southern Kansas Wine Co. 
Imperial, W. T. Campbell's Vintage. 
Sparkling Catawba, Spring River Vineyard. 
H. B. Hart's Seedling "Bergunday." 
Still Catawba, (very still, no noise). 

Ale and Porter. 

Hack's Imported (Leavenworth) Ale. 
Newberry's London Porter. 

Another notable Kansas menu was prepared for the state legisla- 
ture in Topeka on January 22, 1872, when Grand Duke Alexis of 
Russia was honored with a banquet at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. The 
duke, third surviving son of Alexander II, czar of Russia, was tour- 
ing the United States by special train. He went west from Omaha 
on a buffalo-hunting trip, and visited Denver before returning east 
over the Kansas Pacific (now the Union Pacific) via Topeka. The 
official party included: Vice Admiral Possiet, Lieutenants Karl 
Tudor and Stordegraff of the Russian Imperial navy ; W. T. Machin, 
chancellor of state; Count Olsenfieff; Bodisco, consul gen- 
eral of Russia to the United States, and - Shuveloff, secre- 
tary of the legation. On the Plains the United States was repre- 
sented by Gen. P. H. Sheridan, Gen. George A. Ouster, Col. M. V. 
Sheridan, and Col. George A. Forsyth. After visiting the legislature, 
then in session, the duke returned to the hotel for the dinner. This 
is the "Bill of Fare" as printed in The Kansas Daily Commonwealth, 
January 23, 1872: 



328 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

BILL OF FARE. 

SOUP. 
Oyster, a la Possiet, Chicken, with Rice. 

FISH. 

Boiled White Fish, a la Maitre d'Hotel. 
BOILED. 

Pressed Corned Beef, Leg of Mutton, Caper Sauce, 
Chicken, Egg Sauce, Ham, Pickled Pork, Tongue. 

COLD. 

Corn Beef, Pork, Chicken Salad, Ham, Lobster Salad, 
Calf's Tongue. 

RELISHES. 

Chow-chow, Pickled Lilly, Mixed Pickles, Cauliflower, 

Gherkins, Club Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, 

Pickled Oysters, Celery, Cheese. 

GAME. 

Buffalo, Rabbit, Venison, Moose, Squirrel, Elk, Bear, Quail, 
Duck, Turkey, Prairie Chicken, Antelope. 

ENTRIES. 

Chicken Wings, Fricassed, 
Queen Fritters, a la Princess, 
Pigs Feet, Breaded, 
Scalloped Oysters, a la Stanton, 
Quail on Toast, 

Rabbits, a la Chasseur, 
Tenderloin of Beef, a la Royal, 
Oyster Patties, a la Rhine, 
Macaroni, aux Graton, 

Rice Croquettes, with Jelly, 
Prince Albert Pancakes, with Quince Jelly, 

Platons [?] of Chicken Liver, a la Bonaparte, 
Haricot of Mutton, a la Bourgoise, 
Squirrel, Crumbled and Fried, 
Deviled Ham, a la Italienne. 

ROAST. 

Turkey, Cranberry Sauce, Leg of Mutton, 

Mallard Duck, a la Mateloite, Ribs of Beef, 
Chicken, Oyster Dressing, Buffalo, Brown Sauce, 

Ham, Champagne Sauce, Antelope, Grape Jelly, 

Elk, Currant Jelly. 



BYPATHS OF KANSAS HISTORY 329 

VEGETABLES. 

Boiled Potatoes, Green Peas, String Beans, 

Parsnips, Lima Beans, Tomatoes, Hominy, 

Mashed Potatoes, Brown Potatoes, Cabbage, 

Mashed Turnips, Succotash, Corn. 

PASTRY AND PUDDING. 

Plum Pie, Strawberry Pie, Mince Pie, Peach Pie, 

Pound Cake Pudding, Cranberry Tarts, Fruit Cake, Ornamented, 
Cranberry Pie, Gold Cake, Jelly Roll, Pound Cake, 

Iced and Ornamented, 

Drop Kisses, Cocoanut Tops, 

Rose Jelly Cake, Lady Fingers, Silver Cake, 

Marble Cake, Leopard Cake. 

DESSERT. 

Vanilla Ice Cream, Almonds, Oranges, Pecans, 

Apples, Wine Jelly, Crab Apple Jelly, Brandy Jelly, 

Quince Jelly. 
French Coffee, Tea. 



A JUNCTION CITY EDITOR LOOKS AT HAYS 
From the Junction City Union, July 8, 1871. 

There is a row of saloons on the Kansas Pacific railway called Hays City. 
Having visited the place, we should call it the Sodom of the plains. Its 
history has been written, but never believed. We have remarked that its 
history has been written. In this we are mistaken. Only a faint glimmering 
of its wickedness has been put on record. The whole story of that town no 
man knoweth. Were the dead that sleep on the lonely hill behind the city to 
get up from their graves, they might be able to give reminiscences of the place, 
that would cause the hairs of the head to stand on end, and the blood to 
curdle in its natural channels. There are living witnesses, to whom we have 
listened, who can draw back the awful veil that hides them, and reveal to the 
understanding, acts of fiendish inhumanity too black to relate. It has been 
the rendezvous of thieves and robbers, of murderers and accomplished villains. 
The tale of its existence is a grand series of tragedies. But many of those 
desperadoes who have made Hays City a synonym of iniquity, and wreathed 
the laurels in its garland of infamy, lie buried near the spot where their 
diabolical crimes were committed. They have ceased to howl, and no more 
disturb their fellow men in the peaceful walks of life. 

Its saloons, as we have observed, are among its chief attractions. On en- 
tering one, you are astonished at the warlike appearance of the place, as it 
looks more like an arsenal than a bar room. The adroitness with which the 
skilled barkeepers there handle their weapons is a marvel. When a noisy 
crowd enters, the keeper of the arsenal retreats gracefully behind his fortifica- 
tions, and "smiles blandly upon his baffled pursuers." He is surrounded with 
a halo of knives and pistols, and strikes an attitude of defiance among the 



330 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

spigots. Immediately upon the least sign of hostile demonstrations, he dis- 
plays his skill as a marksman upon some unfortunate victim, and taking a 
piece of chalk in his hand, turns lithely to the french plate mirror at his back, 
and writes in large letters, "to be continued." This exhibition of trained 
dexterity wins for him the reputation of a "thorough-bred," and one not to 
be trifled with. Such scenes made up the daily routine of life there, in the 
days of Wild Bill, sometimes called William Severe, and they are yet 
frequently repeated in commemoration of the ancient chivalry of the city. 

It was our fortune to be in this fortress of sin on the Fourth of July, and 
we believe its people, or the people that were in it, did more celebrating to 
the square inch, than in any one town in the country. To say that the town 
was distracted on that day, or rather on that night, would be using a very 
tame phrase: The ball opened at early candlelight, and kept rolling until the 
stars had sunk from the heavens. The boys in blue fought their battles in 
the streets of the town with all their ancient vigor and vehemence. They 
Iseemed to revel in riot and dissipation. The soiled doves joined in the 
drunken carnival, and gave to the scenes of violence rather a thrilling and 
terrible cast. Strange to say nobody was killed. This fact is almost miracu- 
lous, and will be deemed a mistake by old residenters. 

Thus have we endeavored to give a brief sketch of Hays City by lamp light, 
though feeling that no pen can do it justice. On leaving it, we do not esteem 
it blasphemy to bid adieu in the following words addressed to the city of 
London, by Alexander Pope, one of the greatest of English poets 

"Dear, damn, distracted town, farewell 1 " 

Among those who celebrated at this far-off city of the plains, was Lord 
Campbell, brother of the Marquis of Lome, who was recently married to the 
princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria. This illustrious young nobleman 
has been making a trip through the great West, and evidently enjoyed every- 
thing, especially hunting buffalo and celebrating the Fourth of July. 

At the camp of the Sixth cavalry, about two miles from the city, on the 
classic banks of Big creek, everything glimmered like a sunbeam, and the fun 
and good times among the boys seemed to have no limit. Here it was our 
good fortune to meet Messrs. Ruggles, Keenan, and Hoffman, who were all as 
happy as a bundle of sun flowers. They welcomed us to their pavillion, which 
was well stored with the wherewithal to celebrate. String bands, brass bands, 
and bands that played on no instruments, either with strings, or of brass, gave 
spice and variety to the "day's doings." Towards the wee small hours, the 
vocalists, who were serenading, sang at a high pitch, for the benefit of those 
living in Hays City. The officer of the day interviewed them, not that he 
would deprive the youths of their innocent amusement, but because military 
discipline had certain regulations that could not be overlooked. 

We had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Loring, who was formerly stationed at 
Fort Riley, and is now with the Sixth cavalry near Fort Hays. 



WHEN GRASS GREW IN THE STREETS OF PARSONS 
From the Kansas State Record, Topeka, September 20, 1871. 
The prairie fire had to be fought in the streets of Parsons the other night. 



Kansas History as Published in the Press 

The history of the settlement along Coal creek, in southwestern 
Nemaha county, was reviewed by B. P. Redmond in a series of arti- 
cles beginning in the Seneca Courier-Tribune, April 14, 1941. 

On May 8, 1941, the Russell Record and The Russell County 
News published special historical editions celebrating the annual 
"Prairiesta." The Record reprinted an account of the arrival of 
the Northwestern colony at "Fossil Station," now Russell city, in 
1871, written by Russell Benjamin Pratt and first published in the 
Record, April 22, 1875. A feature, "Early Day History of Russell 
County," in the News, included sketches printed serially from March 
20 to May 1. This feature was continued in the News of May 15, 
22 and June 5. 

The Garnett Review issued a twenty-four page, seventy-fifth 
anniversary edition, May 15, 1941. The newspaper, which has un- 
dergone many consolidations, was begun as the Plaindealer in 1865 
by I. E. Olney. Histories of Garnett and its schools, newspapers, 
churches, lodges and civic organizations were published. Articles 
on Anderson county's oil industry and the founding of other towns 
in the county were also included. 

Sketches of early pioneer days in Neosho and Labette counties 
by Mrs. J. T. Coles were printed in the Erie Record, May 16, 1941. 

The twenty-second anniversary edition of The Plaindealer, Wichita 
labor newspaper, was issued May 23, 1941. Several historical arti- 
cles of interest to labor were featured. 

Experiences of 93-year-old Mrs. Armilda Williams, who was once 
a slave in Missouri, were briefly discussed by Harold Coats in the 
Topeka Daily Capital, May 26, 1941. 

An account of the first observance of Decoration Day in Bur- 
lingame in 1882 appeared in The Enterprise-Chronicle, May 29, 
1941. Featured in the article were the names of the men of Osage 
county who died while serving with the Union army. 

"Early History of Mound City," by the late E. 0. Morse, was 
printed in the Mound City Republic, May 29, 1941. This sketch 
was written in 1914 to commemorate the golden wedding anniversary 
of Mr. and Mrs. E. O. Morse. Fifty years before, on October 18, 
1864, when this Linn county couple were married in Dansville, N. Y., 

(331) 



332 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the Kansas militia was assembling in five border counties to resist 
Price's threatened invasion. At that time Morse was a captain in 
the Federal army. 

The history of the Blue Rapids Presbyterian Church appeared in 
the Blue Rapids Times, May 29, 1941. The church was organized 
May 1, 1870. The Rev. Charles F. Mussey was the first minister of 
the church, with twenty -three charter members. 

On June 18, 1941, the Marion Review issued a golden jubilee sup- 
plement dedicated to Father John M. Sklenar, who has served his 
church fifty years, spending thirty-eight years of this time in St. 
John Nepomucene Parish, in Pilsen. A biography of Father Skle- 
nar, by the Rev. Emil Kapaun, is also a history of the Catholic 
churches and school at Pilsen. 

A 48-page "Southwest Resource Edition" of the Garden City 
Daily Telegram appeared June 18, 1941. The special issue con- 
tained much information concerning livestock, crops and the indus- 
trial resources of the Garden City area. The story of the Soule 
canal, a fantastic failure in the early days of irrigation in the vicin- 
ity, is told in connection with an account of the present-day achieve- 
ments of irrigation. 

On June 26, 1941, the Riley Regent published an article "Looking 
Back Sixty-Two Years," by Chas. A. Southwick. It was recalled 
that the first newspaper published in what is now Riley, was the 
Riley Center News, dated January 19, 1879. Mr. Southwick stated 
that he wrote the article from memory and hoped old-timers who 
had additional information would respond. On July 3, an article 
entitled "Riley's First Newspapers," by Isaac Moon, was printed in 
the Regent. Moon stated he had in his possession a copy of number 
four of the first volume of the Riley Center News, dated February 
28, 1879. He was editor of the Riley paper during part of 1880 and 
1881. 

Celebrating the anniversary of its first year of publication The 
Quivira Chieftain, of Lyons, issued a twenty-eight page historical 
edition on June 27, 1941. Mrs. Roy Kinzie's article on the history 
of Lyons was of special interest. News photographs of local people 
and events, a weekly feature of the Chieftain, were also included. 



Kansas Historical Notes 

The American Association for State and Local History was organ- 
ized in New York City December 27, 1940. Immediate plans of the 
association include the publication of a new edition of the Handbook 
of Historical Societies in the United States and Canada, also a 
number of bulletins on such subjects as the organization of a local 
historical society, how to plan such a society's program of activity, 
how to write a local history, how to restore and care for historic 
sites, and how to produce historical plays and pageants. The asso- 
ciation plans to act as a clearing house for such activities. All local 
historical societies and individuals interested in history and its preser- 
vation are invited to become members. Both individuals and insti- 
tutions are eligible to membership, and those who apply not later 
than October 8, 1941, will be listed as founding members. Appli- 
cations for membership should be addressed to David C. Duniway, 
secretary-treasurer, Box 6101, Washington, D. C. C. C. Crittenden, 
of Raleigh, N. C., is president of the association. 

The program for marking the historic sites of Kansas on the 
state's major highways has continued during the summer. Titles, 
location and dates of placing other Kansas Historical Markers not 
previously announced in this section include: Mission Neosho, on 
US-59 in Christian church grounds at Shaw, Neosho county, June, 
1941 ; Fort Scott, on US-69 at the north city limits of Fort Scott, 
Bourbon county, June; Kansas City, Kan., on US-24 nine miles 
west of Kansas City, Wyandotte county, June; Lincoln County 
Indian Raids, on K-18 about two miles east of Lincoln, Lincoln 
county, June 1; Geodetic Center of North America, on US-24 and 
US-281 one-fourth mile north of Osborne, Osborne county, June 5; 
El Quartelejo, on US-83 ten miles north of Scott City, Scott county, 
June 8; Battle of Hickory Point, in roadside area bordering US-59 
one-fourth mile north of Dunavant, Jefferson county, June 22 ; Wa- 
conda, or Great Spirit Spring, on US-24 about three miles east of 
Cawker City, Mitchell county, June 22; The Chisholm Trail, on 
US-81 1% miles north of Wichita, Sedgwick county, June 25 ; Geo- 
graphic Center of the U. S., on US-36 one-third mile west of junction 
with US-281 (li/2 miles south of Lebanon), Smith county, June 29; 
Fort Hays, on US-40 at the east city limits of Hays, Ellis county, 
June 30; Indian Burial Pit, on US-40 four miles east of Salina, 
Saline county, July 4; Hollenberg Pony Express Station, on US-36 

(333) 



334 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

one-half mile east of junction with K-15E (three miles south of 
Hanover), Washington county, July 13; Father Juan de Padilla and 
Quivira, on US-50N and US-77 one mile south of Herington, Dick- 
inson county, July 20; Civil War Battle, Drum Creek Treaty, on 
US-160 about one mile east of Independence, Montgomery county, 
July 23; Chouteau's Island, on US-50 one mile west of Lakin, 
Kearny county, July 26. 

In 1939 A. E. Gledhill placed a stone marker on the homestead of 
Joseph Gledhill, in southeast Smith county, commemorating the 
settlement of Twelve Mile valley and the establishment in 1874 of 
the Twelve Mile post office in the home of Joseph Gledhill, who was 
a member of an Eastern colony which arrived in Kansas in 1871. 
The monument also marks the old Cawker City-Smith Center trail. 

On the death of William L. Huggins May 23, 1941, Harry A. Way- 
man became president of the Lyon County Historical Society. 
Judge Huggins was a founder of the society and had served as presi- 
dent since its organization in 1937. Mr. Wayman held the office of 
vice-president during the same period. 

Carl Florell recently discovered what is believed to be an Indian 
burial pit on his farm southwest of Courtland in Republic county, 
according to the Courtland Journal of May 29, 1941. Investigation 
of a "rocky ledge" revealed a smooth circular stone floor about 
eleven feet in diameter with a pit in the center. The skeletal re- 
mains which were found were old and powdered at touch. 

It was announced in the Kansas City (Mo.) Star, July 16, 1941, 
that an association has been formed to persuade congress to make 
a national park out of the Alexander Majors home and forty ad- 
joining acres, located at 8145 State Line Road, just outside Kansas 
City. Alexander Majors, a member of the famous freighting firm, 
Russell, Majors and Waddell, built the house in 1856. 

Inventories of the archives of eleven counties of Kansas have been 
published by the Kansas Historical Records Survey since its incep- 
tion in Kansas in 1936. Counties completed to date are: Bourbon, 
Cherokee, Franklin, Graham, Gray, Greenwood, Johnson, Mont- 
gomery, Osage, Seward and Shawnee. All historical materials in the 
courthouses of these counties, including the unpublished official docu- 
ments and records, were sorted and inventoried as part of the nation- 
wide Inventory of the County Archives series. The historical back- 
ground of each county and a detailed statement of its organization 
and the functions of its agencies accompany the archival guides, all 



KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES 335 

neatly mimeographed and bound. The survey is carried on by the 
Division of Community Service Programs of the Work Projects Ad- 
ministration. Mary Parkman, of Topeka, is state director and 
Harold J. Henderson, Topeka, is state supervisor. The Kansas State 
Historical Society has sponsored the project since September 1, 1939. 

On September 12, 1866, the University of Kansas opened its doors 
in Lawrence with three faculty members and forty-nine students in 
attendance. Not one of the students was ready for college work, and 
preparatory courses had to be arranged for all. In commemoration 
of the seventy-fifth birthday of the university, an illustrated 202- 
page history by Robert Taft, entitled Across the Years on Mount 
Oread, 1866-1941, was issued in the spring of 1941. The book, well 
edited and printed, consists of a series of historical sketches with 
pictures and photographs showing the growth of the school and its 
development into the state's foremost educational institution. The 
framers of the legislative act establishing the university cautiously 
provided for male and female branches. "The female branch may 
be taught exclusively by women, and buildings for that branch shall 
be entirely separate from the buildings of the male branch." From 
the beginning, however, at a time when coeducation was still in the 
experimental stage, all departments have been open to women as 
well as men. 

Vanguards of the Frontier, by Everett Dick, was published in the 
spring of 1941 by the D. Appleton-Century Company, of New York. 
The book is a companion volume to the author's Sod-House Frontier. 
In Vanguards, Dick has re-created the life of the forerunner of the 
homemaker in the vast territory west of the Mississippi river. He 
sought to discover the manner of living, dress, food, entertainment, 
and mode of life in general of the vanguards of the frontier the 
hunters and trappers, the Indian agents and mountain men, the 
soldiers and missionaries, prospectors and express riders, bullwhack- 
ers and lumberjacks, gamblers and bandits, ranchers and cattlemen. 
Theirs was a life of hardship and reckless adventure, romanticized 
in fiction, but in reality close to the savagery of the human and ani- 
mal inhabitants of the wilderness. This book offers adequate proof 
of a trapper's statement, quoted in the last chapter of the book: "It 
is easy to make a savage of a civilized man, but impossible to make 
a civilized man of a savage in one generation." 

An objective and thorough study of The Kansas Industrial Court, 
an Experiment in Compulsory Arbitration, by Domenico Gagliardo 



336 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

of Kansas University, was recently published by the university's 
committee on social science studies. The Kansas Industrial Court 
was created during the first administration of Gov. Henry J. Allen 
in an attempt to settle the coal strike of 1919, and to prevent new 
strikes. In the 264-page book Gagliardo describes the creation of 
the court and analyzes the characters of the three men who had im- 
portant parts in the court controversy: Governor Allen; William L. 
Huggins, author of the industrial court law and one of the judges of 
the court, and Alexander McWhirter Howat, leader of the mine 
workers of Kansas who fought the court bitterly during its existence. 
The court gained nation-wide attention during the five years it func- 
tioned, and the law, wrote Gagliardo, "was one of the most inten- 
sively litigated pieces of American labor legislation prior to the 
national labor relations act." The court began as a noble experi- 
ment in the regulation of relations between workers, employers, and 
the public, but it failed, because of its political, economic and legal 
weaknesses. 



THE 

Kansas Historical 
Quarterly 




Volume X Number 4 

November, 1941 



PRINTED BY KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT 

W. C. AUSTIN. STATE PRINTER 

TOPEKA 1941 

19-1043 



Contributors 

V. E. GIBBENS is instructor in English at Purdue University, La Fayette, Ind. 

G. RAYMOND GAEDDERT is curator of newspapers at the Kansas State His- 
torical Society. 




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Kansas Historical Markers 

UNTIL recent years it was the practice to erect historical markers 
on the sites where the events occurred. Frequently these 
places were inaccessible and usually the history consisted of a few 
words on a plaque or monument. It was assumed that only those 
already familiar with the facts would be interested. Today, how- 
ever, with thousands of tourists on the highways, history is being 
marked where those who ride may read. Inscriptions on roadside 
markers often tell of events that happened miles away, and the 
history of a region may be condensed in one text. 

Kansas has recently erected fifty-six of these modern markers. 
The project was sponsored by the Kansas State Chamber of Com- 
merce when Roy Bailey of Salina was president. It got under way 
in 1934 at a meeting attended by Mr. Bailey, Fred Brinkerhoff of 
Pittsburg, Samuel Wilson of Topeka, W. E. Archer of Hiawatha, and 
Frank Haucke of Council Grove, representing the State Chamber, 
and Kirke Mechem, secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society. 
Details of construction were worked out with engineers of the State 
Highway Commission after a study of similar signs in other states. 
In 1938, towards the end of Gov. Walter Huxman's administration, 
one marker was built. In 1940 Gov. Payne Ratner authorized D. J. 
Fair, director of highways, to erect fifty as the beginning of a pro- 
gram which he hoped would continue until all important sites were 
marked. 

These first fifty were chosen by the state committee from a list of 
one hundred prepared by the Historical Society. They are not 
offered as the principal historic sites in Kansas. A few of those 
selected were not marked because it was impossible to secure rights 
of way. Among the omissions are Shawnee Methodist Mission, 
Shawnee Baptist Mission, Leavenworth, Fort Leavenworth and 
Osawatomie. Many others will be noted. Kansas is so rich in 
history that several hundred markers could be placed. Continuation 
of the project rests with the governor and the Highway Commis- 
sion and the state of the budget. 

Inscriptions for the markers were written by Kirke Mechem, secre- 
tary of the Historical Society. Research was done by members of 
the staff. A vast and often contradictory collection of notes about 
each site was accumulated. Books, pamphlets, newspapers, govern- 

(339) 



340 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ment documents, maps, clippings and manuscripts by the hundreds 
were consulted. Controversies over dates, locations, names and 
events had to be settled. First drafts usually ran to several hun- 
dred words, to be condensed to one hundred and fifty. Sometimes 
as many as twenty-five revisions were necessary. Although ac- 
curacy was the first essential it was recognized that the texts must 
be more than a list of dates and names. The ideal was a blending 
of epigram, fact and poetry, obviously unattainable. The result is 
a series of inscriptions, however, which it is hoped will suggest some- 
thing of the color and variety of the state's history. 

For more than a year this Society has had the generous co- 
operation of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and the Highway 
Commission, which is responsible for building, placing and maintain- 
ing the markers. Fred Brinkerhoff, chairman of the Chamber of 
Commerce committee, Roy Bailey, Samuel Wilson, D. J. Fair, state 
highway director, R. B. Wills, state highway engineer, Leslie E. 
Edmonds, superintendent of public relations, and Franklin Rose, 
landscape engineer, have taken a personal interest in the program. 
Mention should also be made of Nyle Miller, research director of 
the Historical Society, who checked statements of fact with the 
records. 

The texts and locations of fifty-five of the markers follow. The 
fifty-sixth, the Geographic Center marker, appears as a picture. 



THE INDIAN AND THE BUFFALO 

THE BUFFALO WAS THE DEPARTMENT STORE OF THE PLAINS 
INDIAN. THE FLESH WAS FOOD, THE BLOOD WAS DRINK, SKINS 
FURNISHED WIGWAMS, ROBES MADE BLANKETS AND BEDS, 
DRESSED HIDES SUPPLIED MOCCASINS AND CLOTHING, HAIR WAS 
TWISTED INTO ROPES, RAWHIDE BOUND TOOLS TO HANDLES, 
GREEN HIDES MADE POTS FOR COOKING OVER BUFFALO-CHIP 
FIRES, HIDES FROM BULLS* NECKS MADE SHIELDS THAT WOULD 

TURN ARROWS, RIBS WERE RUNNERS FOR DOG-DRAWN SLEDS, 
SMALL BONES WERE AWLS AND NEEDLES, FROM HOOVES CAME 
GLUE FOR FEATHERING ARROWS, FROM SINEWS CAME THREAD 
AND BOWSTRINGS, FROM HORNS CAME BOWS, CUPS AND SPOONS, 

AND EVEN FROM GALL STONES A "MEDICINE" PAINT WAS MADE. 
WHEN THE MILLIONS OF BUFFALO THAT ROAMED THE PRAIRIES 
WERE EXTERMINATED THE PLAINS TRIBES WERE STARVED INTO 
SUBMISSION. A FEW SMALL HERDS SAVED THE BUFFALO FROM 
EXTINCTION AND THERE ARE NOW MORE THAN 22,000 IN 
NORTH AMERICAN GAME PRESERVES. A HERD MAY BE SEEN 

JUST SOUTH OF GARDEN ClTY. 

US-50S, at Garden City, 
Finney county. 



INDIAN BURIAL PIT 

SEVERAL HUNDRED YEARS AGO, PERHAPS MORE THAN A THOU- 
SAND, THIS VALLEY WAS INHABITED BY MEN WHOSE AVERAGE 

HEIGHT WAS PROBABLY WELL OVER SIX FEET. THESE WERE 
NOT THE INDIANS OF QUIVIRA, WHOSE "?-FOOT WARRIORS" 
CORONADO DESCRIBED IN 1541, BUT AN EVEN EARLIER PEOPLE. 
HERE THEY LIVED IN EARTH LODGES, TILLING THE SOIL, HUNT- 
ING AND FISHING, AND HERE THEY LEFT RECORDS OF UNUSUAL 
ARCHAEOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE. ONE MILE SOUTHEAST OF THIS 
MARKER IS A BURIAL PIT CONTAINING MORE THAN 140 SKELE- 
TAL REMAINS THAT DEMONSTRATE THE REMARKABLE SIZE AND 
STRENGTH OF THESE PREHISTORIC INDIANS. THE PIT WAS 
DISCOVERED IN 1936. IT HAS BEEN SCIENTIFICALLY EXCA- 
VATED, WITH THE SKELETONS STILL PRESERVED IN THE SAME 
FLEXED POSITIONS OF THEIR BURIAL CENTURIES AGO. AMONG 
THE OBJECTS FOUND IN THE PIT ARE PIECES OF POTTERY, A 
GRINDING STONE, PARCHED CORN AND BEANS. A STONE TOMA- 
HAWK, CEREMONIAL FLINT KNIVES, AND CLAM-SHELL BEADS 
AND EAR PENDANTS. 

US-40, about four miles east of 
Salina, Saline county. 

(341) 



WACONDA, OR GREAT SPIRIT SPRING 

MANY MOONS AGO, so RUNS AN INDIAN LEGEND, WACONDA, 

A BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS, FELL IN LOVE WITH A BRAVE OF AN- 
OTHER TRIBE. PREVENTED FROM MARRIAGE BY A BLOOD FEUD, 
THIS WARRIOR EMBROILED THE TRIBES IN BATTLE. DURING 
THE FIGHT AN ARROW STRUCK HIM AS HE STOOD ON THE 
BRINK OF A SPRING AND HE FELL MORTALLY WOUNDED INTO 
THE WATERS. WACONDA, GRIEF-STRICKEN, PLUNGED AFTER 
HIM. BELIEVING HER SOUL STILL LIVED IN THE DEPTHS, THE 
TRIBES FOR COUNTLESS AGES CARRIED THEIR SICK TO DRINK 
THE HEALING WATERS. HERE THEY CELEBRATED THEIR VIC- 
TORIES AND MOURNED THEIR LOSSES, NEVER NEGLECTING TO 
THROW INTO THE SPRING SOME TOKEN FOR THE GREAT SPIRIT. 
WACONDA SPRING, % MILE SOUTH OF THIS MARKER, is A 

MINERAL POOL ABOUT FIFTY FEET IN DIAMETER, SET IN A 
CURIOUS LIMESTONE BASIN. 

US-24, about three miles east of 
Cawker City, Mitchell county. 



CORONADO AND QUIVIRA 

EIGHTY YEARS BEFORE THE PILGRIMS LANDED AT PLYM- 
OUTH ROCK SPANISH EXPLORERS VISITED KANSAS. FRAN- 
CISCO VASQUEZ DE CORONADO, SEEKING GOLD IN NEW MEXICO, 

WAS TOLD OF QuiVIRA BY AN INDIAN CALLED THE TURK. 

HERE WERE "TREES HUNG WITH GOLDEN BELLS AND PEOPLE 
WHOSE POTS AND PANS WERE BEATEN GOLD." WlTH 30 PICKED 

HORSEMEN AND A FRANCISCAN FRIAR NAMED JUAN DE PA- 

DILLA, CORONADO MARCHED "NORTH BY THE NEEDLE" FROM A 
POINT IN TEXAS UNTIL HE REACHED KANSAS. HERE HE 
FOUND NO GOLD, BUT A COUNTRY HE DESCRIBED AS "THE BEST 
I HAVE EVER SEEN FOR PRODUCING ALL THE PRODUCTS OF 
SPAIN." THE TURK CONFESSED HE HAD DECEIVED THE SPAN- 
IARDS AND ONE NIGHT WAS STRANGLED. FOR 25 DAYS IN THE 

SUMMER OF 1541 CORONADO REMAINED AMONG THE GRASS-HUT 
VILLAGES OF THE QuiVIRAN INDIANS, THEN RETURNED TO NEW 
MEXICO. PADILLA WENT WITH HIM, BUT THE FOLLOWING 
YEAR CAME BACK TO QuiVIRA AS A MISSIONARY. LATER HE 
WAS KILLED BY THE INDIANS, THE FIRST CHRISTIAN MARTYR 
IN THE PRESENT UNITED STATES. NEAR THIS MARKER IS THE 

SITE OF ONE OF THE LARGEST VILLAGES OF THE "KINGDOM OF 

QUIVIRA." 

US-50N, west of 
Lyons, Rice county. 

(342) 



FATHER JUAN DE PADILLA AND QUIVIRA 

IN 1540 FRANCISCO VASQUEZ DE CORONADO MARCHED 
NORTH FROM MEXICO WITH 300 SPANIARDS IN SEARCH OF THE 
"SEVEN GOLDEN CITIES OF CIBOLA." WITH THEM WERE SEV- 
ERAL PRIESTS, INCLUDING JUAN DE PADILLA, A FRANCISCAN 

FRIAR. WHEN THE GOLDEN CITIES PROVED TO BE ONLY ADOBE 
PUEBLOS THE SPANIARDS WENT ON TO EXPLORE THE SOUTH- 
WEST AND PADILLA WAS AMONG THOSE WHO DISCOVERED THE 
GRAND CANYON. LATER HE MARCHED WITH A PARTY OF 30 
PICKED HORSEMEN TO THE LAND OF QuiVIRA IN KANSAS. FOR 
25 DAYS IN THE SUMMER OF 1541 CORONADO REMAINED 
AMONG THE GRASS-HUT VILLAGES OF THE QuiVIRAN INDIANS, 
THEN RETURNED TO NEW MEXICO. PADILLA WENT WITH HIM, 
BUT THE FOLLOWING YEAR CAME BACK AS A MISSIONARY. HERE 
HE WAS LATER KILLED BY THE INDIANS, THE FIRST CHRISTIAN 
MARTYR IN WHAT IS NOW THE UNITED STATES. ALTHOUGH 
THE EXACT PLACE OF HIS DEATH IS UNKNOWN THERE IS A 
MONUMENT TO PADILLA IN ClTY PARK IN HERINGTON. 

US-SON and US-77, one mile south 
of Herington, Dickinson county. 



EL QUARTELEJO 

IN SCOTT COUNTY STATE PARK THREE MILES NORTHWEST 
is EL QUARTELEJO, ONLY KNOWN INDIAN PUEBLO IN KANSAS. 
ABOUT 1650, IT is BELIEVED, TAGS INDIANS MIGRATED HERE 
TO ESCAPE SPANISH OPPRESSION. LATER THEY WERE PER- 
SUADED BY THE SPANISH GOVERNOR TO RETURN TO NEW MEX- 
ICO. IN 1706 JUAN URIBARRI FORMALLY TOOK POSSESSION OF 
THE VALLEY FOR SPAIN, CALLING IT SAN LuiS PROVINCE. 
SPANIARDS AND FRENCHMEN IN THE FRONTIER STRUGGLES OF 
THE 1700'S ALTERNATELY OCCUPIED THE OUTPOST. DRIFTING 
SOIL EVENTUALLY BURIED THE STRUCTURE AND NOT UNTIL 
1898 WERE THE RUINS EXCAVATED, REVEALING A TYPICAL 
PUEBLO WITH TRACES OF AN IRRIGATION SYSTEM. TODAY THEY 
ARE AGAIN BURIED BUT THE SITE IS MARKED BY A MONUMENT. 

NEAR HERE IN 1878 COL. WILLIAM H. LEWIS, COMMAND- 
ING TROOPS FROM FORT DODGE, WAS FATALLY WOUNDED IN A 
BATTLE WITH CHIEF DULL KNIFE AND HIS NORTHERN 

CHEYENNES. LEWIS WAS THE LAST ARMY OFFICER KILLED BY 

INDIANS IN KANSAS. 

US-83, 10% miles north of 
Scott City, Scott county. 

(343) 



PIKE-PAWNEE VILLAGE 

IN 1806 ZEBULON MONTGOMERY PIKE WITH TWENTY IN- 
FANTRYMEN CROSSED KANSAS ON AN EXPLORING EXPEDITION 

WHICH ENDED IN THE DISCOVERY OF PlKE^S PEAK AND HIS 
CAPTURE AND IMPRISONMENT BY A SPANISH FORCE. ON SEP- 
TEMBER 29 AT A PAWNEE VILLAGE EIGHT MILES NORTH AND 
FOUR MILES WEST OF THIS SIGN (TWO MILES SOUTHWEST OF 
REPUBLIC), PIKE HELD A COUNCIL WITH THE PAWNEE NA- 
TION. A SPANISH FLAG, LEFT SHORTLY BEFORE BY AN EXPE- 
DITION FROM MEXICO, WAS FLYING IN THE VILLAGE. PlKE 

TELLS IN HIS REPORT HOW HE PERSUADED THE CHIEFS TO 
RAISE AN AMERICAN FLAG IN ITS PLACE, THE FIRST RECORD OF 
THE FLYING OF THE FLAG IN PRESENT KANSAS. THE SITE OF 
THE VILLAGE, NOW OWNED BY THE STATE, IS MARKED BY A 
MONUMENT. 

US-36, near Republican river bridge 
at Scandia, Republic county. 



CHOUTEAU'S ISLAND 

IN THE SPRING OF 1816 AUGUSTE P. CHOUTEAU'S HUNTING 
PARTY TRAVELING EAST WITH A WINTER'S CATCH OF FURS WAS 
ATTACKED NEAR THE ARKANSAS RIVER BY 200 PAWNEES. RE- 
TREATING TO AN ISLAND FIVE MILES SOUTHWEST OF THIS 
MARKER THE HUNTERS BEAT THEM OFF WITH THE LOSS OF 
ONLY ONE MAN. IN 1825 INCREASED TRAVEL ON THE SANTA 
FE TRAIL BROUGHT A GOVERNMENT SURVEY AND CHOUTEAU'S 
ISLAND WAS LISTED AS A TURNING OFF PLACE FOR THE DANGER- 
OUS "JORNADA" TO THE CIMARRON. FOR A TIME THE RIVER 

HERE WAS THE MEXICAN BOUNDARY. WHEN MAJ. BENNETT 

RlLEY AND FOUR COMPANIES OF INFANTRY, SERVING AS THE 
FIRST MILITARY ESCORT ON THE TRAIL, ARRIVED IN 1829 WITH 
A WEST-BOUND WAGON TRAIN THE TROOPS WENT INTO CAMP 
NEAR THE ISLAND. THEY SPENT THE SUMMER FIGHTING OFF 
INDIANS, LOSING SEVERAL MEN AND PART OF THEIR OXEN. 

THE RETURN FROM SANTA FE OF THE CARAVAN WITH A MEXI- 
CAN ESCORT WAS CELEBRATED IN A COLORFUL EXCHANGE OF 
MILITARY INSPECTIONS. 

US-50, one mile west of 
I/akin, Kearny county. 

(344) 



OREGON AND SANTA FE TRAILS 

AT THIS POINT US-50 IS IDENTICAL WITH THESE FAMOUS 
TRAILS WHICH FROM THE MISSOURI RIVER FOLLOWED THE 
SAME GENERAL ROUTE. NEAR HERE THEY BRANCHED, THE 
WORDS "ROAD TO OREGON" ON A ROUGH BOARD POINTING OUT 
THE NORTHERN FORK. So SIMPLE A SIGN, ONE WRITER OB- 
SERVED, NEVER BEFORE ANNOUNCED SO LONG A JOURNEY. 

HERE A SECOND SIGN POINTED SOUTHWEST ALONG THE 
SANTA FE TRAIL. OF ITS 750 MILES, TWO-THIRDS LAY IN 
KANSAS. As EARLY AS 1821 PACK TRAINS HAZARDED THIS 

ROUTE BETWEEN THE MISSOURI AND SPANISH FRONTIERS. BY 

1825 IT HAD BECOME A COMMERCIAL WAGON ROAD. 
FROM 1840 TO 1870 THOUSANDS OF TRAVELERS PLODDED THE 

2,000 TORTUOUS MILES OF THE OREGON TRAIL, RECORDING 

WITH FEARFUL MONOTONY THE NEW GRAVES ALONG THE WAY. 
DOWN THE SANTA FE TRAIL WENT TROOPS BOUND FOR THE 
MEXICAN WAR OF 1846-1847. OVER THESE TWO ROADS, 
BRANCHING HERE INTO THE WILDERNESS, TRAVELED EXPLOR- 
ERS, TRADERS, MISSIONARIES, SOLDIERS, FORTY-NINERS AND 
EMIGRANTS, THE PIONEERS WHO BROUGHT CIVILIZATION TO 
THE WESTERN HALF OF THE UNITED STATES. 

US-50, one-fifth mile west of 
Gardner, Johnson county. 

COUNCIL GROVE 

IN 1825 GROWING TRAFFIC OVER THE SANTA FE TRAIL 

BROUGHT A GOVERNMENT SURVEY AND RIGHT-OF-WAY TREATIES 
WITH CERTAIN INDIANS. COUNCIL GROVE TAKES ITS NAME 
FROM AN AGREEMENT MADE HERE THAT YEAR WITH THE OSAGE 
NATION. INDIANS FARTHER WEST CONTINUED THEIR ATTACKS 
ON WEAK OR UNWARY CARAVANS. A LARGE GROVE ON THE 
RIVER HERE BECAME THE RENDEZVOUS WHERE WAGON TRAINS 
BANDED TOGETHER FOR SAFE TRAVEL AND TO MAKE REPAIRS 
FROM THE LAST AVAILABLE TIMBER. FREMONT'S EXPEDITION 
OF 1845 AND DONIPHAN'S TROOPS BOUND FOR THE MEXICAN 
WAR IN 1846 CAMPED ON THE SITE. IN 1849 THE OVERLAND 
MAIL WAS ESTABLISHED, WITH SUPPLY HEADQUARTERS HERE, 

FOLLOWED THE NEXT YEAR BY MONTHLY COACH SERVICE. 

TRAVEL TO SANTA FE THROUGH COUNCIL GROVE ENDED IN 
1866 WHEN THE UNION PACIFIC REACHED JUNCTION CITY. 

THIS AREA BECAME A KAW INDIAN RESERVATION IN 1846. 

WITH THE INDIANS CAME THE FIRST WHITE SETTLER WHO 
BUILT A TRADING POST. THE METHODIST CHURCH ESTAB- 
LISHED A MISSION AND SCHOOL HERE IN 1850. THE INDIANS 
IN 1872 SIGNED A TREATY FOR REMOVAL TO INDIAN TERRITORY, 
NOW OKLAHOMA. THERE ARE SEVERAL PLACES OF HISTORICAL 
INTEREST IN AND NEAR THE TOWN. 

US-50N, one-third mile east of 
Council Grove, Morris county. 

(345) 



KANSAS INDIAN TREATY 

IN 1825 PRESIDENT JAMES MONROE APPROVED A BILL PRO- 
VIDING FOR THE SURVEY OF THE SANTA FE TRAIL FROM MlS- 

SOURI TO NEW MEXICO AND THE MAKING OF TREATIES TO IN- 
SURE FRIENDLY RELATIONS WITH INDIANS ALONG THE ROUTE. 
A MILE WEST OF THIS SIGN, ON DRY TURKEY CREEK, A MONU- 
MENT MARKS THE SITE OF A COUNCIL ON AUGUST 16, 1825, 

BETWEEN U. S. COMMISSIONERS REEVES, SIBLEY AND 
MATHER, AND SON-JA-INGA AND FIFTEEN OTHER HEAD MEN 
OF THE KANSAS OR KAW NATION. NEGOTIATIONS WERE CON- 
DUCTED THROUGH "OLD BILL" WILLIAMS, A NOTED GUIDE AND 

TRAPPER. FOR A CONSIDERATION OF $800 IN CASH AND MER- 
CHANDISE THE CHIEFS PROMISED THAT THE TRIBE WOULD NOT 
MOLEST TRAVELERS. EARLIER, AT COUNCIL GROVE, A SIMILAR 
TREATY WAS MADE WITH THE OSAGE INDIANS. 

US-81, about five miles southeast of 
McPherson (near Elyria), 
McPherson county. 



PAWNEE ROCK 
ONE-HALF MILE NORTHEAST is PAWNEE ROCK, A FAMOUS 

LANDMARK ON THE SANTA FE TRAIL. As A LOOKOUT AND AM- 
BUSH, RISING FROM THE PRAIRIES WHERE MILLIONS OF BUF- 
FALO PROVIDED AN EASY LIVING FOR HOSTILE INDIANS, THE 
ROCK WAS ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS POINTS ON THE CEN- 
TRAL PLAINS. PIKE, WEBB, GREGG, DONIPHAN AND OTHER 

TRAVELERS MENTIONED IT IN THEIR JOURNALS. HERE 17- 
YEAR-OLD KIT CARSON, STANDING GUARD ONE NIGHT IN 1826, 

SHOT HIS OWN MULE, MISTAKING IT FOR AN INDIAN. TRAP- 
PERS, SOLDIERS, GOLDSEEKERS, FREIGHTERS AND EMIGRANTS 
CARVED THEIR NAMES IN THE STONE. IN LATER YEARS RAIL- 
ROAD BUILDERS AND PIONEERS STRIPPED THE TOP OF THE ROCK 
AND GREATLY REDUCED ITS ELEVATION. IT IS NOW A STATE 
PARK. A ROAD LEADS TO A SHELTER HOUSE AND MONUMENT 
ON THE SUMMIT. 

US-50N, west city limits of 
Pawnee Rock, Barton county. 

(346) 



WAGON BED SPRINGS 

TWO MILES SOUTHWEST WERE THE LOWER SPRINGS OF THE 

ClMARRON, AN "OASIS" IN DRY WEATHER WHERE SHORTCUTS 
OF THE SANTA FE TRAIL CONVERGED TO CONTINUE UP THE 
RIVER. THE MOST POPULAR CUT-OFF TURNED SOUTHWEST 
FROM THE ARKANSAS RIVER IN PRESENT GRAY COUNTY. THE 
60-MILE STRETCH BETWEEN THE TWO RIVERS, KNOWN AS THE 
"JORNADA/' WAS A PERILOUS ROUTE FOR MEN AND ANIMALS IN 
DRY SEASONS WHEN WAGON TRAINS OFTEN RAN OUT OF WATER. 
HERE ALSO FIERCE PLAINS INDIANS FREQUENTLY ATTACKED 
AND PLUNDERED THE CARAVANS. NEAR HERE IN 1831 THE 
NOTED WESTERN EXPLORER AND FUR TRADER JEDEDIAH SMITH, 
LOST FOUR DAYS WITHOUT WATER, WAS KILLED BY COMANCHES 
JUST AS HE REACHED THE RIVER. 

LATE IN THE HISTORY OF THE TRAIL A WAGON BOX SET IN 
THE WATER GAVE THE SPRINGS THEIR NAME. LlTTLE REMAINS 
OF THIS FAMOUS CAMPING PLACE, BUT WHEEL RUTS OF THE 
OLD TRAIL MAY STILL BE SEEN IN NEAR-BY AREAS. 

US-270, eleven miles south of 
Ulysses, Grant county. 



MISSION NEOSHO 

THE FIRST INDIAN MISSION AND SCHOOL IN PRESENT KAN- 
SAS WAS ESTABLISHED IN SEPTEMBER, 1824, ONE-THIRD MILE 

WEST OF THIS MARKER. BENTON PlXLEY, THE MISSIONARY, 
FOLLOWED CHIEF WHITE HAIR AND HIS BAND OF GREAT 
OSAGES WHO HAD MIGRATED FROM MISSOURI ABOUT 1815. 
THE NEW "MISSION ON THE NEOSHO" WAS A BRANCH OF 
HARMONY MISSION, OPERATED IN MISSOURI BY PRESBYTERIAN 
AND ASSOCIATED DENOMINATIONS. SEVERAL OSAGE TRIBES 
LOCATED NEAR BY, AND SOME OF THE CHIEFS AND THE INDIAN 
AGENT WERE ANTAGONISTIC TO PlXLEY. INDIAN ROWDIES 
OFTEN DISTURBED RELIGIOUS MEETINGS AND THE SCHOOL 

FAILED TO ATTRACT PUPILS. IN 1829 THE FIELD WAS ABAN- 
DONED. 

IN 1844 A. B. CANVILLE ESTABLISHED A TRADING POST 
AMONG THE OSAGES A LITTLE SOUTHEAST OF THIS MARKER. 
HERE ON SEPTEMBER 29, 1865, THE OSAGES SIGNED A TREATY 
WITH THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGREEING TO A REDUCTION 

OF THEIR RESERVE IN KANSAS. A FEW YEARS LATER THEY 
WERE REMOVED TO OKLAHOMA. 

US-59, on Christian church grounds 
at Shaw, Neosho county. 

(347) 



SHAWNEE FRIENDS MISSION 

IN 1825 THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BEGAN MOVING EAST- 
ERN INDIANS TO NEW LANDS WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. THIS 
SIGN IS ON A TRACT OF 2,500 SQUARE MILES ASSIGNED TO THE 
SHAWNEES. WITH THIS TRIBE CAME METHODIST, BAPTIST 
AND QUAKER MISSIONARIES. ONE MILE EAST AND A LITTLE 
NORTH THE QUAKERS ERECTED BUILDINGS IN 1836 AND OPENED 
A SCHOOL THE FOLLOWING YEAR. INDIAN STUDENTS, WHO 
LIVED AT THE MISSION, RECEIVED ELEMENTARY SCHOOLING, RE- 
LIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND TRAINING IN AGRICULTURE AND DO- 
MESTIC ARTS. HIGHEST RECORDED ENROLLMENT WAS 76. IN 

ITS LATE YEARS THE SCHOOL WAS ATTENDED MAINLY BY IN- 
DIAN ORPHANS. THE MISSION OPERATED ALMOST CONTIN- 
UOUSLY UNTIL 1869. A MARKER DESIGNATES THE SITE OF 
THE MAIN BUILDING WHICH WAS TORN DOWN IN 1917. 

Junction K-10 and US-50, near 
Shawnee, Johnson county. 



HIGHLAND PRESBYTERIAN MISSION 

IOWA, SAUK AND Fox INDIANS OF MISSOURI WERE RE- 
MOVED BY TREATY TO PRESENT DONIPHAN COUNTY IN 1837. 
WITH THEM CAME SAMUEL M. AND ELIZA IRVIN, PRESBY- 
TERIAN MISSIONARIES, WHO ESTABLISHED A LOG-CABIN MIS- 
SION AND SCHOOL. IN 1843 IRVIN AND HIS ASSOCIATE, WIL- 
LIAM HAMILTON, SET UP A PRESS (THE SECOND IN KANSAS) 
TO PRINT SCHOOLBOOKS AND RELIGIOUS WORKS IN THE IOWA 
LANGUAGE. A THREE-STORY STONE AND BRICK BUILDING OF 

32 ROOMS WAS COMPLETED IN 1846 ON A SITE ONE MILE EAST 
AND A LITTLE NORTH OF THIS SIGN. HERE INDIAN PUPILS RE- 
CEIVED ELEMENTARY SCHOOLING AND INSTRUCTION IN DOMES- 
TIC ARTS, MANUAL TRADES AND AGRICULTURE. REMAINS OF 
THE BUILDING MAY STILL BE SEEN. WlTH THE ORGANIZA- 
TION OF KANSAS AS A TERRITORY THE TRIBES WERE REMOVED 

TO DIMINISHED RESERVES AND THE MISSION WAS FINALLY 

CLOSED ABOUT 1863. 

US-36, one-fourth mile east of 
Highland, Doniphan county. 

(348) 



FORT SCOTT 

THIS WESTERN OUTPOST, NAMED FOR GEN. WINFIELD 
SCOTT, WAS ESTABLISHED BY U. S. DRAGOONS IN 1842 ON LAND 

RESERVED FOR NEW YORK INDIANS. IT WAS MIDWAY BE- 
TWEEN FORT LEAVENWORTH AND FORT GIBSON ON A MILI- 
TARY ROAD THAT EXTENDED FROM THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI 

RIVER TO LOUISIANA. BY 1853 THE INDIAN FRONTIER HAD 
MOVED WEST AND TROOPS WERE WITHDRAWN. TWO YEARS 
LATER THE BUILDINGS WERE AUCTIONED TO INCOMING SET- 
TLERS AND THE CITY OF FORT SCOTT GREW UP AROUND THEM. 
FROM 1855 TO 1860 THE TOWN WAS IN THE THICK OF THE 
TERRITORIAL STRUGGLE OVER SLAVERY AND IN 1858 IT WAS 
RAIDED BY MONTGOMERY AND HIS BAND OF JAYHAWKERS. 
DURING THE CIVIL WAR THE FORT WAS REESTABLISHED. IT 

BECAME UNION HEADQUARTERS AND SUPPLY DEPOT FOR SOUTH- 
EAST KANSAS AND WAS UNDER CONSTANT THREAT OF ATTACK 
UNTIL 1865. SEVERAL OF THE OLD FORT BUILDINGS MAY STILL 

BE SEEN ON THE PLAZA. 

US-69, at north city limits of 
Fort Scott, Bourbon county. 



OSAGE CATHOLIC MISSION 

THIS MISSION WAS FOUNDED IN 1847 FOR OSAGE INDIANS 
LIVING ALONG THE NEOSHO AND VERDIGRIS RIVERS. A MAN- 
UAL LABOR SCHOOL FOR BOYS WAS ESTABLISHED BY THE JES- 
UITS AND A DEPARTMENT FOR GIRLS BY THE bISTERS OF Lo- 
RETTO. HIGHEST RECORDED ENROLLMENT WAS 239. IN 1848 
THE FIRST CATHOLIC CHURCH IN SOUTHERN KANSAS WAS 
BUILT. DURING THE CIVIL WAR WHEN PROPERTY WAS LAID 
WASTE THROUGHOUT THE BORDER THE MISSION WAS ALWAYS 
SPARED AND SCHOOL WAS NEVER SUSPENDED. WHEN THE 
OSAGES MOVED TO INDIAN TERRITORY IN 1870 WHITE CHIL- 
DREN GRADUALLY REPLACED THE INDIANS. THE SCHOOL BE- 
CAME ST. FRANCIS INSTITUTION FOR BOYS AND ST. ANN'S 
ACADEMY FOR GIRLS. ST. FRANCIS CLOSED IN 1891 AND ST. 
ANN'S WAS DESTROYED BY FIRE IN 1895. NOTABLE IN SERVICE 
HERE WERE MOTHER BRIDGET HAYDEN AND FATHERS JOHN 
SCHOENMAKERS, JOHN BAX AND PAUL MARY PONZIGLIONE, 
THE LATTER AN ITALIAN NOBLEMAN. A TOWN, OSAGE MlS- 

SION, ORGANIZED IN 1867, BECAME ST. PAUL IN 1895. 

K-57, at east city limits of 
St. Paul, Neosho county. 

(349) 



ST. MARYS 

THIS CITY AND COLLEGE TAKE THEIR NAME FROM ST. 

MARY'S CATHOLIC MISSION FOUNDED HERE BY THE JESUITS 
IN 1848 FOR THE POTTAWATOMIE INDIANS. THESE MISSION- 
ARIES, WHO HAD LIVED WITH THE TRIBE IN EASTERN KANSAS 
FROM 1838, ACCOMPANIED THE REMOVAL TO THIS AREA. A 

MANUAL LABOR SCHOOL WAS OPERATED AT THE MISSION UNTIL 

1871. FROM IT DEVELOPED ST. MARY'S COLLEGE, CHARTERED 
IN 1869. THE COLLEGE IN 1931 BECAME A JESUIT SEMINARY. 
A BOULDER ON THE CAMPUS MARKS THE SITE OF THE FIRST 
CATHEDRAL BETWEEN THE MISSOURI RIVER AND THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS. BUILT OF LOGS, IN 1849, IT BECAME THE SEE 
OF BISHOP MIEGE, "BISHOP OF THE INDIANS." VICE PRESI- 
DENT CHARLES CURTIS, PART KAW INDIAN, WAS BAPTIZED IN 
THIS PARISH ON APRIL 15, 1860. 

THE MISSION WAS AN IMPORTANT STOPPING POINT ON THE 
OREGON TRAIL. HERE ALSO WAS THE U. S. POTTAWATOMIE 

AGENCY. THIS BUILDING STILL STANDS 600 FEET NORTH- 
WEST OF THIS MARKER. 

US-24, at east city limits of 

St. Marys, Pottawatomie county. 



MARYSVILLE 

A FEW MILES BELOW MARYSVILLE WAS THE FAMOUS FORD 
ON THE OREGON TRAIL KNOWN AS THE INDEPENDENCE, MOR- 
MON OR CALIFORNIA CROSSING. THERE THOUSANDS OF COV- 
ERED WAGONS WITH SETTLERS BOUND FOR OREGON, MORMONS 

FOR UTAH AND GOLDSEEKERS FOR CALIFORNIA CROSSED THE 
BIG BLUE RIVER. IN 1849 A FERRY AND TRADING POST WAS 
ESTABLISHED AT THE FORD BY FRANK J. MARSHALL, DESPITE 
CONSTANT DANGER FROM INDIANS. TWO YEARS LATER THE 
MILITARY ROAD BETWEEN FORTS LiEAVENWORTH AND KEARNY 
CROSSED THE RIVER AT THE SITE OF PRESENT MARYSVILLE, 
ONE MILE WEST. MARSHALL BUILT ANOTHER FERRY AND FOR 

YEARS HANDLED AN IMMENSE TRAFFIC. HE GAVE THE NAME 

OF HIS WIFE, MARY, TO THE TOWN THAT DEVELOPED HERE AND 
HIS OWN NAME TO MARSHALL COUNTY OF WHICH IT IS 
COUNTY SEAT. IN 1860 MARYSVILLE BECAME A STATION ON 
THE PONY EXPRESS. FOR MOST OF THE 1860's IT WAS AN 
IMPORTANT STOPPING POINT FOR COACHES OF THE GREAT OVER- 
LAND STAGE LINE. 

US-36, one mile east of 
Marysville, Marshall county. 

(350) 



FORT RILEY 

FREMONT'S EXPEDITION CAMPING HERE IN 1843 REPORTED 
GREAT NUMBERS OF ELK, ANTELOPE AND INDIANS WHERE THE 
REPUBLICAN AND SMOKY HILL RIVERS UNITE TO FORM THE 
KANSAS. IN 1853 FORT RILEY BECAME AN OUTPOST FOR THE 

DEFENSE OF THE SANTA FE AND OREGON TRAILS. FOR YEARS 

IT WAS AN ARMY HEADQUARTERS ON THE INDIAN FRONTIER. 
HERE IN 1866 THE FAMOUS TTH CAVALRY WAS ORGANIZED 
WITH LT. COL. GEORGE A. CUSTER SECOND IN COMMAND. IN 
1884 GEN. PHILIP SHERIDAN RECOMMENDED THE PRESENT 

TRAINING SCHOOL, THOUGH CLASSES WERE NOT HELD UNTIL 

1893. THE CAVALRY SCHOOL is BELIEVED TO BE THE LARGEST 
IN THE WORLD. 

THE ORIGINAL FORT WAS BUILT BY MAJ. E. A. OGDEN AND 
NAMED FOR GEN. BENNETT RlLEY. CAMP FUNSTON, NAMED 
FOR GEN. FREDERICK FUNSTON, WAS ESTABLISHED EAST OF 
THE FORT IN 1917. HERE MORE THAN 140,000 MEN WERE 
INDUCTED INTO WORLD WAR SERVICE. CONSTRUCTION OF THE 
SECOND CAMP FUNSTON BEGAN IN 1940. 

US-40, east of Junction City, in 
Fort Riley military reservation. 



ATCHISON 

ON JULY 4, 1804, LEWIS AND CLARK, EXPLORING THE NEW 
LOUISIANA PURCHASE, CAMPED NEAR THIS SITE. FIFTY YEARS 
LATER THE TOWN WAS FOUNDED BY PROSLAVERY MEN AND 
NAMED FOR SEN. DAVID R. ATCHISON. THE SQUATTER SOV- 
EREIGN, ATCHISON'S FIRST NEWSPAPER, WAS AN EARLY ADVO- 
CATE OF VIOLENCE AGAINST ABOLITION. HERE PARDEE BUT- 

LER, FREE-STATE PREACHER, WAS SET ADRIFT ON A RIVER RAFT 
AND ON HIS RETURN WAS TARRED AND FEATHERED. HERE 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN 1859 "AUDITIONED" HIS FAMOUS 
COOPER UNION ADDRESS UN MENTIONED BY LOCAL NEWS- 
PAPERS. 

DURING THE HEYDAY OF RIVER STEAMBOATING IN THE FIF- 
TIES ATCHISON BECAME AN OUTFITTING DEPOT FOR EMIGRANT 

AND FREIGHTING TRAINS TO UTAH AND THE PACIFIC COAST. 

IT WAS A BASE OF SUPPLIES FOR THE PlKE ; S PEAK GOLD RUSH 
AND IN THE EARLY 1860 J S WAS A STARTING POINT FOR THE 
PONY EXPRESS AND OVERLAND STAGE LINES. IN THIS PIO- 
NEER TRANSPORTATION CENTER THE SANTA FE RAILWAY WAS 
ORGANIZED IN 1860, MODESTLY NAMED THE ATCHISON & 
TOPEKA. 

US-59, at southwestern city limits of 
Atchison, Atchison county. 

(351) 



LAWRENCE 

LAWRENCE WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1854 BY THE EMIGRANT 
AID COMPANY, A NEW ENGLAND ORGANIZATION FORMED TO 
PREVENT THE NEW KANSAS TERRITORY FROM BECOMING A 

SLAVE STATE. WHEN THE FIRST LEGISLATURE ENACTED THE 
SO-CALLED BOGUS LAWS WITH SEVERE PENALTIES FOR OPPOS- 
ING SLAVERY LAWRENCE WAS THE CENTER OF FREE-STATE RE- 
SISTANCE. FREE-STATE NEWSPAPERS HERE FURTHER ANTAG- 
ONIZED PROSLAVERY OFFICERS. LATE IN 1855 1,500 PRO- 
SLAVERY MEN GATHERED TO ATTACK THE TOWN. FREE-STATE 
MEN CAME TO ITS DEFENSE, AMONG THEM JOHN BROWN. 

BLOODSHED WAS AVERTED BY A "PEACE TREATY." THE NEXT 
SPRING, HOWEVER, A "SHERIFF^ POSSE" OF SEVERAL HUNDRED 
MlSSOURIANS BURNED HOUSES, DESTROYED TWO NEWSPAPER 
PRESSES AND FIRED A CANNON INTO THE ELDRIDGE HOTEL ON 

THE PRETEXT THAT IT WAS AN ABOLITION FORT. 

DURING THE CIVIL WAR LAWRENCE WAS A HAVEN FOR 
RUNAWAY SLAVES AND WAS HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR UNION 
RAIDS INTO MISSOURI. ON AUGUST 21, 1863, QUANTRILL AND 
A BAND OF GUERRILLAS RAVAGED THE TOWN AND KILLED 

NEARLY 150 MEN. MONUMENTS TO THESE VICTIMS AND 
OTHER HISTORICAL MARKERS MAY BE SEEN IN THE CITY. 

LAWRENCE is THE HOME OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS AND 

HASKELL INDIAN INSTITUTE. 

US-24, three and one-half miles 
northeast of Lawrence, Douglas 
county. 



FIRST CAPITOL OF KANSAS 

THIS BUILDING WAS ERECTED IN 1855 IN THE NOW EXTINCT 

TOWN OF PAWNEE FOR THE FIRST LEGISLATURE OF THE TERRI- 
TORY OF KANSAS. THE MEMBERS WERE MOSTLY MISSOURIANS, 
FRAUDULENTLY ELECTED IN AN EFFORT TO MAKE KANSAS A 
SLAVE STATE. THEY CAME IN WAGONS AND ON HORSEBACK, 
WELL ARMED, AND CAMPED OUT ON THE PRAIRIE. THE SES- 
SION LASTED FROM JULY 2 TO 6. THE MlSSOURIANS WERE 

DETERMINED TO LEGISLATE NEARER HOME AND PASSED A BILL 
TO MOVE TO SHAWNEE METHODIST MISSION NEAR KANSAS 
CITY. GOVERNOR REEDER VETOED THE BILL, IT WAS PASSED 
OVER HIS VETO, AND THIS ENDED THE SESSION HERE. ALL 
OTHER ACTS, INCLUDING THE SO-CALLED BOGUS LAWS, WERE 
PASSED AT SHAWNEE MISSION. THIS BUILDING STOOD IN PAR- 
TIAL RUIN UNTIL ITS RESTORATION IN 1928 BY THE UNION 
PACIFIC RAILROAD. 

US-40, east of Junction City, in the 
First Capitol grounds, Fort Riley 
military reservation. 

(352) 



LECOMPTON SLAVERY CAPITAL 

THREE MILES NORTH is LECOMPTON, FAMOUS IN THE 
LATTER 1850'S AS HEADQUARTERS OF THE PfiOSLAVERY PARTY 
IN KANSAS. THE "BOGUS" LEGISLATURE OF 1855 MADE IT 
THE TERRITORIAL CAPITAL AND CONGRESS APPROPRIATED $50- 
000 FOR A CAPITOL BUILDING WHICH WAS NEVER COMPLETED. 
LECOMPTON WAS SERVED BY STAGECOACH, STEAMBOAT AND 
FERRY. WlTH A LAND OFFICE AND OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES, 
IT PROSPERED UNTIL THE DOWNFALL OF THE SLAVE POWER IN 
KANSAS. Gov. CHARLES ROBINSON AND MANY FREE-STATE 

LEADERS WERE IMPRISONED THERE DURING 1856-1857. STILL 
TO BE SEEN ARE THE LEGISLATIVE HALL IN WHICH THE LE- 
COMPTON CONSTITUTION WAS FRAMED IN 1857, AND THE 
ROWENA HOTEL, LONE SURVIVOR OF THE BOOM-DAY HOSTEL- 
RIES. 

"FORT TlTUS," HOME OF PROSLAVERY LEADER HENRY 
TlTUS, ATTACKED AND BURNED BY FREE-STATE MEN IN 1856, 
WAS 2 l /2 MILES NORTH OF THIS MARKER. THREE MILES 
NORTHEAST IS THE RESIDENCE BUILT BY ACTING GOV. FRED- 
ERICK STANTON IN 1857, NOW OWNED BY FORMER SECRETARY 
OF WAR HARRY H. WOODRING. 

US-40, three miles south of 
Lecompton, Douglas county. 



CAPITAL OF KANSAS 

TOPEKA WAS FOUNDED IN 1854 AT THE SITE OF 
FERRY WHERE A BRANCH OF THE OREGON TRAIL CROSSED THE 
KANSAS RIVER AS EARLY AS 1842. ANTI-SLAVERY LEADERS 
FRAMED THE TOPEKA CONSTITUTION, 1855, IN THE FIRST AT- 
TEMPT TO ORGANIZE A STATE GOVERNMENT. THE NEXT YEAR 
THEIR LEGISLATURE WAS DISPERSED BY U. S. DRAGOONS UNDER 
ORDERS FROM PRESIDENT FRANKLIN PlERCE. [So PlERCE 
WAS OMITTED WHEN TOPEKA NAMED ITS STREETS AFTER THE 
PRESIDENTS.] IN THE LATE 1850's NEGROES BOUND NORTH 
ON THE "UNDERGROUND RAILWAY" WERE HIDDEN HERE BY 
JOHN BROWN IN A CABIN WHICH MAY STILL BE SEEN. TO- 
PEKA BECAME THE CAPITAL IN 1861 WHEN KANSAS WAS AD- 
MITTED TO THE UNION AND THE SLAVERY CONFLICT FLAMED 
INTO REBELLION. 

AFTER THE WAR, IN 1868, THE SANTA FE RAILROAD, PRO- 
MOTED BY C. K. HOLLIDAY, A CITY FOUNDER, FIRST STARTED 

BUILDING FROM TOPEKA. THIS WAS THE BIRTHPLACE, IN 
1860, OF VICE PRESIDENT CHARLES CURTIS, PART KAW IN- 
DIAN, THE ONLY "NATIVE AMERICAN" TO REACH so HIGH AN 

OFFICE. 

US-75, one-fourth mile north of 
Topeka, Shawnee county. 
231043 

(353) 



ELWOOD 

ELWOOD, FIRST CALLED ROSEPORT, WAS ESTABLISHED IN 
1856. IN ITS HEYDAY SCORES OF RIVER STEAMBOATS UN- 
LOADED PASSENGERS AND FREIGHT AT ITS WHARVES AND EVERY 
15 MINUTES FERRYBOATS CROSSED TO ITS MISSOURI RIVAL, 
ST. JOSEPH. DURING THE 1850's THOUSANDS OF EMIGRANTS 

OUTFITTED HERE FOR OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. ON DECEM- 
BER 1, 1859, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, SEEKING THE REPUBLICAN 

NOMINATION, HERE FIRST SET FOOT IN KANSAS, AND SPOKE 
IN THE THREE-STORY GREAT WESTERN HOTEL. ELWOOD 
WAS THE FIRST KANSAS STATION ON THE PONY EXPRESS BE- 
TWEEN MISSOURI AND CALIFORNIA. CONSTRUCTION OF THE 
FIRST RAILROAD WEST OF THE MISSOURI RIVER BEGAN HERE IN 
1859. ON APRIL 23, 1860, THE FIRST LOCOMOTIVE, "THE 
ALBANY," WAS FERRIED OVER AND PULLED UP THE BANK 

BY HAND. ELWOOD'S AMBITIONS FOR GREATNESS WERE 
THWARTED, NOT BY ST. JOE, BUT BY THE RIVER WHICH UN- 
DERMINED THE BANKS AND WASHED MUCH OF THE OLD TOWN 
AWAY. 

US-36, one-fifth mile east of 
Elwood, Doniphan county. 



BATTLE OF BLACK JACK 

THIS "BATTLE" WAS PART OF THE STRUGGLE TO MAKE KAN- 
SAS A FREE STATE. IN MAY, 1856, PROSLAVERY MEN DE- 
STROYED BUILDINGS AND NEWSPAPER PRESSES IN LAWRENCE, 

FREE-STATE HEADQUARTERS. JOHN BROWN'S COMPANY THEN 
KILLED FIVE PROSLAVERY MEN ON PoTTAWATOMIE CREEK 

NOT FAR FROM THIS SPOT. IN RETALIATION HENRY C. PATE 

RAIDED NEAR-BY PALMYRA AND TOOK THREE PRISONERS. 
EARLY ON THE MORNING OF JUNE 2 BROWN ATTACKED PATE'S 
CAMP IN A GROVE OF BLACK JACK OAKS ABOUT % MILE SOUTH 
OF THIS SIGN. BOTH SIDES HAD SEVERAL WOUNDED AND NU- 
MEROUS DESERTIONS BEFORE PATE AND 28 MEN SURRENDERED, 

BROWN CLAIMING HE HAD ONLY 15 MEN LEFT. As EVIDENCE 
OF CIVIL WAR THIS FIGHT RECEIVED MUCH PUBLICITY AND 
EXCITED BOTH THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 

US-50, three miles east of 
Baldwin, Douglas county. 

(354) 



BATTLE OF HICKORY POINT 

IN SEPTEMBER, 1856, A BAND OF PROSLAVERY MEN SACKED 
GRASSHOPPER FALLS (VALLEY FALLS) AND TERRORIZED THE 

VICINITY. ON THE 13TH THE FREE-STATE LEADER JAMES H. 

LANE WITH A SMALL COMPANY BESIEGED A PARTY OF RAIDERS 
IN LOG BUILDINGS AT HlCKORY POINT, ABOUT % MILE SOUTH- 
EAST OF THIS MARKER. UNABLE TO DISLODGE THEM, LANE 
SENT TO LAWRENCE FOR ARTILLERY AND REINFORCEMENTS. 
COL. JAMES A. HARVEY RESPONDED NEXT DAY ONLY TO FIND 
THAT LANE HAD RAISED THE SIEGE AND DEPARTED. "SACRA- 
MENTO," HISTORIC MEXICAN WAR CANNON, WAS FIRED INTO 

THE BUILDINGS WITH LITTLE EFFECT, AND MEN PUSHING UP A 

BURNING HAYRACK WERE SHOT IN THE LEGS. THE SKIRMISH 
ENDED IN AN ARMISTICE, CELEBRATED, IT IS SAID, OVER A CON- 
SIDERABLE QUANTITY OF WHISKY. CASUALTIES WERE ONE 
PROSLAVERY MAN KILLED AND FOUR WOUNDED, AND FIVE 
FREE-STATE MEN INJURED. 

US-59, one-fourth mile north of 
Dtmavant, Jefferson county. 



KANSAS CITY, KANSAS 

IN JUNE, 1804, LEWIS AND CLARK, EXPLORING THE LOUIS- 
IANA PURCHASE, CAMPED WHERE THE KANSAS RIVER EMPTIES 
INTO THE MISSOURI. FORTY YEARS LATER THE WYANDOT IN- 
DIANS WERE MOVED HERE FROM OHIO. THEIR TRIBAL BURIAL 
GROUND, HURON CEMETERY, MAY STILL BE SEEN IN THE HEART 
OF THE CITY. THE TOWN OF WYANDOTTE WAS LAID OUT ON 
THE INDIAN VILLAGE SITE IN 1857. HERE THE CONSTITUTION 
UNDER WHICH KANSAS ENTERED THE UNION WAS FRAMED IN 
1859. THRIVING RIVER TRAFFIC SOON MADE WYANDOTTE AN 
IMPORTANT GATEWAY TO KANSAS. FROM HERE THE UNION 
PACIFIC IN 1863 STARTED BUILDING WEST ACROSS KANSAS. 

ALSO WITHIN PRESENT KANSAS ClTY WAS QuiNDARO, A 
RIVAL OF WYANDOTTE, FOUNDED IN 1856 BY FREE-STATE MEN. 
IN THE SOUTH PART OF TOWN IS THE SITE OF THE VILLAGE OF 
"THE PROPHET," A SHAWNEE WHO LED THE INDIAN FORCES 
AT THE BATTLE OF TlPPECANOE. WYANDOTTE AND OTHER 

TOWNS WERE MERGED INTO KANSAS ClTY, KANSAS, IN 1886. 

US-24, nine miles west of 
Kansas City, Wyandotte county. 

(355) 



MARAIS DES CYGNES MASSACRE 

NOTHING IN THE STRUGGLE OVER SLAVERY IN KANSAS DID 
MORE TO INFLAME THE NATION THAN THE MASS KILLING 

WHICH TOOK PLACE MAY 19, 1858, ABOUT FOUR MILES NORTH- 
EAST OF THIS MARKER. CHARLES HAMELTON, WHO HAD BEEN 
DRIVEN FROM THE TERRITORY BY FREE-STATE MEN, RETALI- 
ATED BY INVADING THE COUNTY WITH ABOUT 30 MlSSOURIANS. 
CAPTURING 11 FREE-STATE MEN HE MARCHED THEM TO A 

RAVINE AND LINED THEM UP BEFORE A FIRING SQUAD. FlVE 
WERE KILLED, FIVE WERE WOUNDED AND ONE ESCAPED BY 
FEIGNING DEATH. THE SITE AND ADJOINING LAND, OCCUPIED 
FOR A TIME BY JOHN BROWN, ARE PRESERVED IN A STATE ME- 
MORIAL PARK. A MONUMENT BEARING LINES FROM WHIT- 
TIER'S TRIBUTE TO THE VICTIMS STANDS IN THE TRADING POST 
CEMETERY WEST OF HERE. 

THE TOWN RECEIVED ITS NAME FROM AN INDIAN TRADING 
POST ESTABLISHED ABOUT 1834. A MONUMENT JUST EAST OF 
THE RIVER MARKS THE SITE. HERE, ALSO, IN JANUARY, 1859, 
JOHN BROWN DATED HIS FAMOUS "PARALLELS." 

US-69, at north edge of 
Trading Post, Linn county. 



FORT LARNED 

THIS WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT KANSAS POST ON THE 

SANTA FE TRAIL. ESTABLISHED IN 1859 AND CALLED CAMP 
ALERT, IT WAS RENAMED IN HONOR OF COL. B. F. LARNED. 
SOLDIERS STATIONED HERE ESCORTED THE MAILS AND PA- 
TROLLED A REGION NOTORIOUS FOR INDIAN KILLINGS AND 
PLUNDERED WAGON TRAINS. THE FORT ITSELF WAS SEVERAL 
TIMES BESIEGED. GENERALS HANCOCK AND CuSTER STARTED 
FROM HERE IN 1867 ON THEIR UNSUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN TO 
SUBDUE THE CHEYENNES AND SlOUX. IN THE MIDDLE 1860 *S 

THE POST WAS AN AGENCY FOR THE COMANCHES, KlOWAS AND 
APACHES. TROOPS WERE WITHDRAWN IN 1878, AND IN 1882 
THE RESERVATION WAS ORDERED SOLD TO SETTLERS. SEVERAL 

OF THE STONE BUILDINGS ARE IN USE TODAY ON THE FORT 

LARNED RANCH. THERE is A MARKER IN THE SMALL PARK 

ON THE OLD PARADE GROUND, % MILE SOUTH OF THIS SIGN. 

US-50N, six miles west of 
Lamed, Pawnee county. 

(356) 



HOLLENBERG PONY EXPRESS STATION 

BEGINNING IN 1860 THE PONY EXPRESS OPERATED LIKE A 
GIANT RELAY RACE BETWEEN THE MISSOURI RIVER AND THE 
PACIFIC COAST. ALONG THE OREGON TRAIL, THROUGH FORTS 
LARAMIE AND BRIDGER, AROUND THE GREAT SALT LAKE, 
RIDERS CARRIED THE MAIL THROUGH A WILDERNESS INFESTED 
WITH HOSTILE TRIBES. THEIR MOUNTS WERE INDIAN PONIES, 
NEARLY 500 ALTOGETHER, KEPT IN RELAY STATIONS EVERY 15 
MILES. AT EACH STATION TWO MINUTES WAS ALLOWED FOR 
TRANSFERRING SADDLEBAGS TO A FRESH PONY. EVERY FEW 
STATIONS A NEW RIDER TOOK OVER. DAY AND NIGHT, SUMMER 
AND WINTER, OVER SUN-BAKED PLAINS AND ICY MOUNTAIN 
TRAILS, THE SCHEDULE WAS MAINTAINED. WHEN THE TRANS- 
CONTINENTAL TELEGRAPH LINE REPLACED THE EXPRESS, 
PONIES AND RIDERS HAD MADE THE REMARKABLE RECORD OF 
18 MONTHS WITH ONLY ONE MAIL LOST. THE HOLLENBERG 
OR COTTONWOOD RANCH HOUSE FOUR MILES NORTH, BUILT IN 
1857, IS BELIEVED TO BE THE ONLY ORIGINAL AND UNALTERED 
PONY EXPRESS STATION. IT is NOW OWNED BY THE STATE. 

US-36, one-half mile east of 
junction with K-15E (near 
Hanover), Washington county. 



CIVIL WAR BATTLE, DRUM CREEK TREATY 

IN MAY, 1863, A MOUNTED PARTY OF ABOUT TWENTY CON- 
FEDERATES, NEARLY ALL COMMISSIONED OFFICERS, SET OUT 

FROM MISSOURI TO RECRUIT TROOPS IN THE WEST. SEVERAL 
MILES EAST OF HERE THEY WERE CHALLENGED BY LOYAL 
OSAGE INDIANS. IN A RUNNING FIGHT TWO CONFEDERATES 
WERE KILLED AND THE OTHERS WERE SURROUNDED ON A 
GRAVEL BAR IN THE VERDIGRIS RIVER ABOUT THREE MILES 
NORTH OF THIS MARKER. IGNORING A FLAG OF SURRENDER, 
THE OSAGES SCALPED AND CUT THE HEADS OFF ALL BUT TWO 
OF THE PARTY. THESE, WOUNDED, HID UNDER THE RIVER 

BANK AND ESCAPED. 

AFTER THE WAR WHEN SETTLERS BEGAN STAKING CLAIMS 
ON THE OSAGE RESERVATION, CONGRESS AUTHORIZED REMOVAL 

OF THE TRIBE TO PRESENT OKLAHOMA. IN 1870 A TREATY 

WAS SIGNED IN A GROVE ON DRUM CREEK, THREE MILES 
SOUTHEAST. IRONICALLY, THE CHEAP LANDS TO WHICH THE 
OSAGES WERE REMOVED BECAME A GREAT OIL FIELD AND FOR A 
TIME THEY WERE THE WEALTHIEST PEOPLE PER CAPITA IN 
THE WORLD. 

US-160, about one mile east of 
Independence, Montgomery county. 

(357) 



BAXTER SPRINGS MASSACRE 

ON OCTOBER 6, 1863, GEN. JAMES BLUNT AND ABOUT 100 
MEN WERE MET NEAR BAXTER^ SPRINGS BY WlLLIAM QuAN- 
TRILL AND SEVERAL HUNDRED CONFEDERATES MASQUERADING 
AS UNION TROOPS. As BLUNT'S BAND WAS PREPARING A 

MUSICAL SALUTE THE ENEMY FIRED. THIS SURPRISE ATTACK 
PREVENTED ORGANIZED RESISTANCE, AND THOUGH BLUNT ES- 
CAPED NINE-TENTHS OF HIS MEN WERE KILLED. THE RAIDERS 
ALSO ATTACKED LT. JAMES POND AND 95 MEN ENCAMPED AT 

THE SPRINGS. THIS FORCE WAS LIKEWISE CAUGHT OFF GUARD 
BUT RESISTED UNTIL THE ENEMY RETIRED. THESE BATTLE 
SITES ARE IN PRESENT BAXTER SPRINGS. A NUMBER OF THE 
VICTIMS ARE BURIED IN THE NATIONAL CEMETERY ONE MILE 
WEST OF TOWN. 

BAXTER SPRINGS WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1866 ON THE FORT 
LEAVEN WORTH -FORT GIBSON MILITARY ROAD. FOR SEVERAL 
YEARS IT WAS IMPORTANT AS A TRADING CENTER FOR TEXAS 

CATTLE. 

US-66, at Baxter Springs, 
Cherokee county. 



BATTLE OF MINE CREEK 

IN OCTOBER, 1864, A CONFEDERATE ARMY UNDER GEN. 
STERLING PRICE WAS DEFEATED NEAR KANSAS CITY. HE RE- 
TREATED SOUTH, CROSSED INTO KANSAS, AND CAMPED AT TRAD- 
ING POST. EARLY ON THE MORNING OF OCTOBER 25 UNION 

TROOPS UNDER GENERALS PLEASONTON, BLUNT AND CURTIS 
FORCED HIM FROM THIS POSITION, AND A FEW HOURS LATER 

THE BATTLE OF MINE CREEK WAS FOUGHT OVER THESE 
FIELDS. CONFEDERATE FORCES WERE THROWN INTO CONFU- 
SION AS THEY TRIED TO CROSS THE STEEP, SLIPPERY BANKS OF 
THE STREAM. IN THE CLOSE FIGHTING ON THE BOTTOMS HUN- 
DREDS OF REBEL SOLDIERS WERE CAPTURED, INCLUDING GEN- 
ERAL MARMADUKE, WHO WAS TAKEN BY A 20-YEAR-OLD 
PRIVATE. ALTHOUGH UNION FORCES MISSED A CHANCE TO 
DESTROY PRICE'S ARMY THE DEFEAT WAS DECISIVE ENOUGH TO 
END THE THREAT OF A REBEL INVASION OF KANSAS. ABOUT 
25,000 MEN WERE ENGAGED, MORE THAN IN ANY OTHER KAN- 
SAS BATTLE. 

US-69, about two miles south of 
Pleasanton, Linn county. 

(358) 



FORT BARKER 

ABOUT THREE MILES SOUTHWEST IS THE SITE OF FORT 

ELLSWORTH, ESTABLISHED IN 1864. Two YEARS LATER IT 
WAS RENAMED FORT HARKER FOR MAJ. GEN. CHARLES G. 
HARKER AND IN 1867 WAS MOVED TO THE SITE OF PRESENT 
KANOPOLIS. WHEN THE UNION PACIFIC REACHED HERE IN 
1867 THE FORT BECAME A STARTING POINT FOR STAGE LINES 
TO SANTA FE AND A FREIGHTING AND SUPPLY DEPOT FOR 
SOUTHERN AND WESTERN FORTS. 

THIS REGION WAS IN THE HEART OF THE INDIAN COUNTRY. 
MARAUDING PLAINS TRIBES KEPT TROOPS FROM THE FORT AL- 
MOST CONSTANTLY IN THE FIELD. HERE GENERAL SHERIDAN 
PLANNED HIS WINTER CAMPAIGN OF 1868-1869 WHICH FI- 
NALLY SUBDUED THE SOUTHERN INDIANS. OTHER FAMOUS 
GENERALS, INCLUDING GRANT, SHERMAN, HANCOCK, MlLES 
AND CUSTER, VISITED OR WERE QUARTERED AT HARKER. SOL- 
DIERS WERE STATIONED AT THE FORT UNTIL 1873. SOME OF 
THE BUILDINGS ARE STILL USED IN KANOPOLIS. 

US-40, one and one-half miles north 
of Kanopolis, Ellsworth county. 



FORT ZARAH 

IN 1825 THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SURVEYED THE SANTA 

FE TRAIL, GREAT TRADE ROUTE FROM WESTERN MISSOURI TO 

SANTA FE. TREATIES WITH THE KANSAS AND OSAGE INDIANS 

SAFEGUARDED THE EASTERN END OF THE ROAD BUT PLAINS 

TRIBES CONTINUED TO MAKE RAIDS. FORT ZARAH, AT THIS 
POINT, WAS ONE OF A CHAIN OF FORTS BUILT ON THE TRAIL TO 

PROTECT WAGON TRAINS AND GUARD SETTLERS. IT WAS ES- 
TABLISHED IN 1864 BY GEN. SAMUEL R. CURTIS AND NAMED 
FOR HIS SON, MAJ. H. ZARAH CURTIS, WHO HAD BEEN KILLED 
IN THE BAXTER SPRINGS MASSACRE OCTOBER 6, 1863. THE 
FORT WAS BUILT OF SANDSTONE QUARRIED IN NEAR-BY BLUFFS. 
FORT ZARAH WAS SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDED AGAINST AN AT- 
TACK BY 100 KIOWAS ON OCTOBER 2, 1868. IT WAS ABAN- 
DONED IN 1869. 

US-SON, three miles east of 
Great Bend, Barton county. 

(359) 



FORT DODGE 

FORT DODGE WAS ESTABLISHED HERE IN 1864 BY MAJ. GEN. 
GRENVILLE M. DODGE. IT WAS A SUPPLY DEPOT AND BASE OF 

OPERATIONS AGAINST WARRING PLAINS TRIBES. CUSTER, 

SHERIDAN, MILES, HANCOCK, "WILD BILL" HICKOK AND 
"BUFFALO BILL" CODY ARE FIGURES IN ITS HISTORY. THE 
SITE WAS AN OLD CAMPING GROUND FOR WAGON TRAINS AT THE 
WESTERN JUNCTION OF THE "DRY" AND "WET" ROUTES OF 
THE SANTA FE TRAIL. THE FIRST BUILDINGS WERE OF SOD 

AND ADOBE ALTHOUGH SOME OF THE TROOPS LIVED IN DUG- 
OUTS. SEVERAL OF THE STONE BUILDINGS ERECTED LATER ARE 

IN USE TODAY. THE FORT WAS ABANDONED IN 1882 AND IS 
NOW A STATE SOLDIERS* HOME. 

THE SPANISH EXPLORER, CORONADO, is BELIEVED TO HAVE 

CROSSED THE ARKANSAS RIVER A FEW MILES EAST OF HERE IN 

1541. 

US-154, at State Soldiers' Home, 
four miles southeast of Dodge City, 
Ford county. 



INDIAN TREATIES ON THE LITTLE ARKANSAS 

IN 1865 HUNDREDS OF PLAINS INDIANS CAMPED ON THESE 
PRAIRIES TO TALK PEACE WITH GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS. 
AMONG THEM WERE CHIEFS BLACK KETTLE AND SEVEN 
BULLS (CHEYENNE), LITTLE RAVEN AND BIG MOUTH 
(ARAPAHOE) , RISING SUN AND HORSE'S BACK (COMANCHE) , 
POOR BEAR (APACHE) , SATANTA AND SATANK (KIOWA) . FED- 
ERAL COMMISSIONERS WITH GREAT PRESTIGE AMONG THE IN- 
DIANS WERE GENERAL HARNEY, COLONEL LEAVEN WORTH, KIT 
CARSON AND WM. BENT. THE WHITES WANTED PEACE, UN- 
MOLESTED TRAFFIC ON THE SANTA FE TRAIL AND LIMITATION 

OF INDIAN TERRITORY. THE INDIANS DEMANDED UNRE- 
STRICTED HUNTING GROUNDS AND REPARATION FOR THE CmV- 
INGTON MASSACRE OF BLACK KETTLE'S BAND. TREATIES MADE 
HERE GAVE THE INDIANS RESERVATIONS SOUTH OF THE AR- 
KANSAS, EXCLUDED THEM NORTH TO THE PLATTE, AND PRO- 
CLAIMED PEACE. SEVERAL WHITE CAPTIVES WERE RELEASED, 
AMONG THEM A WOMAN AND FOUR CHILDREN FROM TEXAS. 
LATER BOTH SIDES CHARGED VIOLATIONS AND WARFARE CON- 
TINUED UNTIL THE MEDICINE LODGE TREATIES OF 1867. 
THERE is A MONUMENT ONE MILE WEST. 

US-81, four miles north of 
Wichita, Sedgwick county. 

(360) 



FORT HAYS 

THIS NOTED FRONTIER POST WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1865 TO 
PROTECT MILITARY ROADS, GUARD THE MAILS, AND DEFEND CON- 
STRUCTION GANGS ON THE UNION PACIFIC, WHICH ARRIVED IN 

1867. "BUFFALO BILL" CODY, SUPPLYING MEAT FOR RAIL- 
ROAD CREWS, RECEIVED HIS NICKNAME HERE. AT THIS POST 
HE WAS MADE CHIEF SCOUT OF THE 5TH CAVALRY AFTER A 

RIDE OF 350 MILES IN 60 HOURS WITH MILITARY DISPATCHES. 
GENERALS MILES, SHERIDAN AND HANCOCK SERVED AT FORT 

HAYS, AND FROM HERE GEN. GEORGE CUSTER LED HIS ?TH 

CAVALRY AGAINST MARAUDING INDIANS. IN 1889 THE FORT 
WAS ABANDONED BUT THE STONE BLOCK AND GUARD HOUSES 
ARE STILL TO BE SEEN SOUTH OF TOWN. 

HAYS CITY WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1867. FREE-SPENDING 
SOLDIERS, FREIGHTERS AND RAILROAD WORKERS SOON BROUGHT 
DANCE HALLS, SALOONS AND GAMBLING HOUSES. A BRIEF 
CAREER AS THE MOST LAWLESS TOWN ON THE FRONTIER RE- 
SULTED IN 50 "BOOT HILL" BURIALS. FOR A TIME "WILD 
BILL" HICKOK SERVED AS TOWN MARSHAL. 

US-40, at east city limits of 
Hays, Ellis county. 



FORT WALLACE 

BEFORE THE BUILDING OF THE UNION PACIFIC THE OLD 
DENVER ROAD CROSSED THESE PRAIRIES AND OVER IT PASSED 
SEVERAL OF THE FAMOUS FREIGHT AND STAGE LINES OF THE 
EARLY WEST. THE WILD PLAINS INDIAN BITTERLY FOUGHT 
THIS TRAFFIC THROUGH HIS HUNTING GROUNDS. FORT WAL- 
LACE, ESTABLISHED IN 1865 AS CAMP POND CREEK AND RE- 
NAMED IN 1866, WAS ONE OF FOUR MILITARY POSTS PROTECT- 
ING THE ROUTE. FROM 1865 TO 1878 IT WAS THE MOST AC- 
TIVE POST ON THE INDIAN FRONTIER. TROOPS WERE ALMOST 
CONSTANTLY IN THE FIELD AND THE FORT WAS SEVERAL TIMES 
BESIEGED. IN JUNE, 1867, 300 CHEYENNES UNDER CHIEF 
ROMAN NOSE RAIDED AN OVERLAND STATION NEAR BY AND AT- 
TACKED THE FORT, KILLING SEVERAL SOLDIERS. THE POST 
WAS ABOUT TWO MILES SOUTHEAST. IT WAS ABANDONED IN 
1882 AND NOTHING NOW REMAINS OF THE STONE AND WOOD 
BUILDINGS WHERE ONCE AS MANY AS 500 MEN WERE STA- 
TIONED. 

US-40, at Wallace, 

Wallace county. 

<361) 



THE CHISHOLM TRAIL 

AT THE END OF THE ClVIL WAR WHEN MILLIONS OF LONG- 
HORNS WERE LEFT ON THE PLAINS OF TEXAS WITHOUT A 
MARKET THE UNION PACIFIC WAS BUILDING WEST ACROSS 

KANSAS. JOSEPH McCoY, AN ILLINOIS STOCKMAN, BELIEVED 

THESE CATTLE COULD BE HERDED OVER THE PRAIRIES FOR SHIP- 
MENT BY RAIL. HE BUILT YARDS AT ABILENE AND SENT 
AGENTS TO NOTIFY THE TEXAS CATTLEMEN. THE TRAIL HE 
SUGGESTED RAN FROM THE RED RIVER TO ABILENE BUT TOOK 
ITS NAME FROM JESSE CHISHOLM, INDIAN TRADER, WHOSE 
ROUTE LAY BETWEEN THE NORTH CANADIAN RIVER AND THIS 
VICINITY. IN 1867 THE FIRST DRIVES WERE MADE AND DUR- 
ING THE NEXT FIVE YEARS MORE THAN A MILLION HEAD 
MOVED NORTH PAST THIS PLACE. EVENTUALLY THE RAILROADS 
AND THE BARBED WIRE OF SETTLERS CLOSED THE LONG TRAILS. 
BUT THE COWBOYS OF THESE GREAT DRIVES, LIVING IN THE 
SADDLE FOR MORE THAN A MONTH, SWIMMING FLOODED RIVERS, 

FIGHTING NIGHT STAMPEDES, HAVE BECOME THE HEROES OF 

AN AMERICAN EPIC. 

US-81, one and one-half miles north 
of Wichita, Sedgwick county. 



ABILENE, END OF THE CHISHOLM TRAIL 

AT THE END OF THE ClVIL WAR WHEN MILLIONS OF LONG- 
HORNS WERE LEFT ON THE PLAINS OF TEXAS WITHOUT A 
MARKET THE UNION PACIFIC WAS BUILDING WEST ACROSS 

KANSAS. JOSEPH McCoY, AN ILLINOIS STOCKMAN, BELIEVED 

THESE CATTLE COULD BE HERDED NORTH FOR SHIPMENT BY 
RAIL. HE BUILT YARDS AT ABILENE AND SENT AGENTS TO 
NOTIFY THE TEXAS CATTLEMEN. IN 1867 THE FIRST DRIVES 
WERE MADE AND DURING THE NEXT FIVE YEARS MORE THAN A 
MILLION HEAD WERE RECEIVED. ABILENE BECAME THE FIRST 
OF THE WILD CATTLE TOWNS WHERE GAMBLING PLACES, SA- 
LOONS AND DANCE HALLS COMPETED FOR THE COWBOYS* WAGES. 
GUN FIGHTS WERE FREQUENT AND SEVERAL PEACE OFFICERS 
RESIGNED. THE FIRST TO BRING ORDER WAS TOM SMITH WHO 
WITH BARE FISTS ENFORCED THE ORDINANCE AGAINST CARRY- 
ING FIREARMS. MORE FAMOUS WAS "WlLD BlLL" HlCKOK 

WHO BECAME KNOWN AS THE DEADLIEST "TWO-GUN" MARSHAL 
ON THE WESTERN FRONTIER. THERE ARE SEVERAL HISTORICAL 
MARKERS IN THE CITY. 

US-40, two and one-half miles west 
of Abilene, Dickinson county. 

(362) 



MEDICINE LODGE PEACE TREATIES 

IN OCTOBER, 1867, KIOWA, COMANCHE, ARAPAHOE, APACHE 
AND CHEYENNE INDIANS SIGNED PEACE TREATIES WITH THE 
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 15,000 INDIANS CAMPED NEAR BY 
DURING THE COUNCIL, AMONG THEM THE FAMOUS CHIEFS 
SATANTA, LITTLE RAVEN, PAINTED LIPS (NO, NOT A SQUAW) 
AND BLACK KETTLE. 500 SOLDIERS ACTED AS ESCORT FOR THE 
U. S. COMMISSIONERS. INTEREST IN THIS COLORFUL SPEC- 
TACLE WAS SO WIDESPREAD THAT EASTERN PAPERS SENT COR- 
RESPONDENTS, AMONG THEM HENRY M. STANLEY, WHO LATER 
WAS TO FIND LIVINGSTONE IN AFRICA. WHILE THE TREATIES 
DID NOT BRING IMMEDIATE PEACE THEY MADE POSSIBLE THE 
RAILROADS AND EVENTUAL SETTLEMENT. THE SITE OF THE 
COUNCIL WAS AT THE CONFLUENCE OF MEDICINE RIVER AND 
ELM CREEK, A LITTLE SOUTHWEST OF MEDICINE LODGE. 
EVERY FIVE YEARS A TREATY PAGEANT is REENACTED IN THIS 

AMPHITHEATER. IN MEDICINE LODGE THERE IS A COMMEM- 
ORATIVE MONUMENT ON THE HIGH SCHOOL GROUNDS. 

US-160, on Peace Treaty grounds, 
one mile east of Medicine Lodge, 
Barber county. 



LINCOLN COUNTY INDIAN RAIDS 

THE DESPERATE STRUGGLE OF PLAINS INDIANS TO KEEP 
OUT WHITE SETTLERS WAS A SUCCESSION OF RAIDS AND MASSA- 
CRES. THERE WERE SEVERAL ATTACKS IN PRESENT LINCOLN 
COUNTY. IN 1864 CHEYENNES ON A FORAY THROUGH THE 
SALINE VALLEY TRAPPED FOUR BUFFALO HUNTERS AGAINST A 
ROCKY LEDGE A LITTLE SOUTH OF THIS MARKER AND KILLED 

THEM AFTER A BITTER FIGHT. IN 1868 THREE WOMEN WHO 

HAD BEEN CAPTURED AND MALTREATED BY MARAUDING INDIANS 
WERE FOUND SEVERAL DAYS LATER HALF-DEAD ON THE PRAIRIE. 
IN 1869 TEN PERSONS WERE MASSACRED AND TWO WOMEN 
WERE CAPTURED ON THE SALINE RIVER AND NORTHWEST OF 
HERE ON SPILLMAN CREEK. FEDERAL TROOPS LATER RESCUED 
ONE OF THE WOMEN IN COLORADO. A MONUMENT TO THE 
VICTIMS OF 1864 AND 1869 STANDS ON THE COURTHOUSE 
SQUARE IN LINCOLN. 

K-18, two miles east of 
Lincoln, Lincoln county. 

(363) 



DODGE CITY, THE COWBOY CAPITAL 

FOR TEN YEARS THIS WAS THE LARGEST CATTLE MARKET IN 

THE WORLD AND FOR FIFTEEN IT WAS THE WILDEST TOWN ON 
THE AMERICAN FRONTIER. ESTABLISHED WITH THE COMING 
OF THE SANTA FE IN 1872, DODGE CITY BECAME THE SHIP- 
PING CENTER OF THE SOUTHWEST. THE HUNTERS WHO EX- 
TERMINATED THE BUFFALO HERE MARKETED SEVERAL MILLION 
DOLLARS WORTH OF HIDES AND MEAT. HUNDREDS OF WAGON 
TRAINS CARRIED SUPPLIES TO WESTERN TOWNS AND ARMY 
POSTS. BY 1875 MOST CATTLE TRAILS LED TO DODGE; IN 1884 
TEXAS DROVERS ALONE BROUGHT 106 HERDS NUMBERING 300,- 

000 HEAD. AS A RENDEZVOUS FOR HUNTERS, TRAPPERS, COW- 
BOYS, SOLDIERS, RAILROAD BUILDERS, BULLWHACKERS, INDIANS, 
SALOON KEEPERS, DANCE HALL GIRLS, THUGS AND GAMBLERS, 
THE TOWN BECAME NOTORIOUS FOR VICE AND VIOLENCE. Nu- 
MEROUS VICTIMS WERE BURIED ON BOOT HlLL. EVENTUALLY 
LAW WAS ENFORCED BY SUCH "TWO-GUN MARSHALS" AS BAT 
MASTERSON, WYATT EARP AND BILL TILGHMAN. 

NEAR DODGE CITY ARE THE SITES OF OLD FORT MANN AND 
FORT ATKINSON. THE SANTA FE TRAIL WHICH THEY WERE 
ESTABLISHED TO PROTECT MAY STILL BE TRACED ON THE 

NEAR-BY PRAIRIE. 

US-50S, one mile west of 
Dodge City, Ford county. 



LONE TREE MASSACRE 

IN 1874 TWENTY-SEVEN PERSONS WERE MURDERED BY IN- 
DIANS ON THE WESTERN FRONTIER OF KANSAS. SEVERAL 

TIMES DURING THE SUMMER WARRIORS BROKE AWAY FROM THE 
RESTRAINT OF THEIR RESERVATIONS IN INDIAN TERRITORY 
(PRESENT OKLAHOMA) AND MOVED NORTH KILLING AND 

PLUNDERING. ON AUGUST 24 CHIEF MEDICINE WATER AND 
A BAND OF TWENTY-FIVE CHEYENNES AMBUSHED SIX MEN OF 

A SURVEYING COMPANY ELEVEN MILES SOUTHWEST OF HERE. 
AFTER A RUNNING FIGHT OF THREE MILES THE OXEN DRAWING 
THE SURVEYORS' WAGON WERE SHOT. ALL THE MEN WERE 
KILLED AND THREE WERE SCALPED. TWO DAYS LATER THEIR 
BODIES WERE FOUND BY OTHER MEMBERS OF THE PARTY AND 
WERE BURIED TEMPORARILY IN A COMMON GRAVE NEAR A SOLI- 
TARY COTTON WOOD FIVE MILES SOUTH OF THIS MARKER. FOR 
MANY YEARS THE "LONE TREE" WHICH GAVE ITS NAME TO 

THIS MASSACRE WAS A FAMOUS LANDMARK ON THE PRAIRIE. 

US-54, one and one-quarter miles 
west of Meade, Meade county. 

(364) 



RED TURKEY WHEAT 

CHILDREN IN RUSSIA HAND-PICKED THE FIRST SEEDS OF 
THIS FAMOUS WINTER WHEAT FOR KANSAS. THEY BELONGED 
TO MENNONITE COLONIES PREPARING TO EMIGRATE FROM THE 
STEPPES TO THE AMERICAN PRAIRIES. A PEACE-LOVING SECT, 
ORIGINALLY FROM HOLLAND, THE MENNONITES HAD GONE TO 
THE CRIMEA FROM PRUSSIA IN 1790 WHEN CATHERINE THE 
GREAT OFFERED FREE LANDS, MILITARY EXEMPTION AND RE- 
LIGIOUS FREEDOM. HERE THEY PROSPERED UNTIL THESE PRIV- 
ILEGES WERE THREATENED IN 1871. THREE YEARS LATER 
THEY EMIGRATED TO KANSAS, WHERE THE SANTA FE RAILROAD 

OFFERED THOUSANDS OF ACRES ON GOOD TERMS IN MARION, 
HARVEY, RENO AND MCPHERSON COUNTIES, AND WHERE THE 
LEGISLATURE PASSED A BILL EXEMPTING RELIGIOUS OBJECTORS 
FROM MILITARY SERVICE. WlTHIN A MONTH AFTER LANDING 
IN NEW YORK THE MENNONITES PLANTED THE RED-GOLD 
GRAINS THEIR CHILDREN HAD SELECTED. THE HARVEST WAS 
THE FIRST OF THE GREAT CROPS OF HARD TURKEY RED AND 
ITS DERIVATIVES THAT HAVE MADE KANSAS THE GRANARY OF 
THE NATION. 

US-50S, one-half mile east of 
Walton, Harvey county. 



LAST INDIAN RAID IN KANSAS 

IN SEPTEMBER, 1878, A BAND OF HOMESICK NORTHERN 
CHEYENNES, CONSISTING OF 89 MEN, 112 WOMEN AND 134 
CHILDREN, STOLE AWAY FROM THEIR OKLAHOMA RESERVATION 
UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF CHIEF DULL KNIFE. ATTACKED 
BY SMALL TROOP DETACHMENTS AND COWBOYS THEY MOVED 
THROUGH KANSAS KILLING AND PLUNDERING. WESTERN 
COUNTIES WERE TERRORIZED, BUT FORT LEAVENWORTH DIS- 
COUNTED REPORTS AND DELAYED HELP. WEEKS LATER 149 OF 
THE INDIANS WERE CAPTURED IN NORTHERN NEBRASKA. 

MOST OF THEM WERE AFTERWARD KILLED IN PRISON BREAKS 

AND FEW WERE RETURNED TO OKLAHOMA. THEIR ESCAPE 
ACROSS THREE STATES PURSUED BY TROOPS FROM THREE MILI- 
TARY DEPARTMENTS WAS CONSIDERED A REMARKABLE FEAT. 
INNOCENT VICTIMS WERE FORTY KANSAS SETTLERS MURDERED 
ON THEIR FARMS. HERE IN DECATUR COUNTY NINETEEN 
WERE KILLED ON SAPPA CREEK. A MONUMENT STANDS IN THE 
CEMETERY ONE MILE EAST OF THIS MARKER. 

Junction of US-36 and US-183, at 
northern city limits of Oberlin, 
Decatur county. 

(365) 



CALDWELL AND THE CHISHOLM TRAIL 

A MILE SOUTHEAST OF THIS MARKER THE CHISHOLM TRAIL 
ENTERED KANSAS. IT TOOK ITS NAME FROM JESSE CHISHOLM, 

INDIAN TRADER, WHOSE ROUTE LAY BETWEEN THE NORTH 
CANADIAN RIVER AND PRESENT WICHITA. IN 1867 IT WAS EX- 
TENDED FROM THE RED RIVER TO ABILENE WHEN THE BUILD- 
ING OF THE UNION PACIFIC GAVE TEXAS CATTLE AN EASTERN 

MARKET. OVER THIS LONG TRAIL MORE THAN A MILLION 
HEAD WERE DRIVEN BEFORE THE SANTA FE BUILT SOUTH AND 

BROUGHT THE DRIVES TO NEWTON, 1871, AND THE NEXT YEAR 
TO WICHITA. INCOMING SETTLERS IN KANSAS SOON FENCED 
OFF THE LAND AND BY 1876 DROVERS HAD ABANDONED THE 
TRAIL. IN 1880, HOWEVER, THE RAILROAD BUILT TO CALD- 
WELL, ONE MILE NORTH, AND DRIVES WERE RESUMED. IT IS 
ESTIMATED THAT TWO MILLION LONGHORNS WERE DRIVEN 
ACROSS THE PRAIRIE HERE ON A ROAD THAT IN MANY PLACES 
WAS A QUARTER OF A MILE WIDE AND AS BARE AS A MODERN 
HIGHWAY. 

US-81, one mile south of 
Caldwell, Sumner county. 



OLD RUNNYMEDE 

TWO MILES NORTHEAST OF HERE, IN 1890, STOOD A TYPICAL 

ENGLISH VILLAGE. CURVING DRIVEWAYS LED TO ENGLISH- 
STYLE HOUSES SET AMONG ROWS OF CLIPPED HEDGES. NEAR BY 

WERE POLO GROUNDS, A STEEPLECHASE COURSE, A RACE TRACK, 
TENNIS COURTS AND A FOOTBALL FIELD. RED-COATED HUNTERS 
RODE TO HOUNDS ACROSS THE BUFFALO-GRASS PRAIRIE. FARMS 
AND ORCHARDS WERE MODELED AFTER ENGLISH ESTATES AND 
ON THE TOWNSITE A THREE-STORY HOTEL AND OTHER BUSI- 
NESSES WERE ESTABLISHED. THE PROMOTER OF ALL THIS 
BRITISH ACTIVITY WAS AN IRISHMAN WHO PERSUADED 
WEALTHY FAMILIES TO SEND SONS TO THE COLONY TO LEARN 
AMERICAN FARMING METHODS. IN PRACTICE RUNNYMEDE 
STRONGLY RESEMBLED A MODERN DUDE RANCH. ALTHOUGH AT 

ONE TIME A HUNDRED YOUNG ENGLISHMEN LIVED IN THE SET- 
TLEMENT, A NUMBER OF WHOM OWNED ESTATES, IT WAS A 
FAILURE AS A COLONY. WHEN HARD TIMES CAME OLD RUNNY- 
MEDE COLLAPSED AND MOST OF ITS REMITTANCE MEN RE- 
TURNED TO ENGLAND. TODAY WHEAT FIELDS COVER THE 
TOWNSITE. 

K-2, at Runnymede, 

Harper county. 

(366) 



OPENING OF THE CHEROKEE OUTLET 

AT NOON ON SEPTEMBER 16, 1893, MORE THAN 100,000 
PEOPLE LINED THE BORDERS OF THE CHEROKEE OUTLET LIS- 
TENING FOR THE PISTOL SHOTS THAT STARTED ONE OF THE 

WORLD'S GREATEST RACES. THE PRIZE WAS 8,000,000 ACRES OF 
LAND : A QUARTER SECTION OR A TOWN LOT TO EVERY ELIGIBLE 
SETTLER WHO COULD STAKE A CLAIM. FOR WEEKS 50,000 
HOMESEEKERS AND SPECULATORS FROM ALL PARTS OF THE 
COUNTRY HAD BEEN GATHERING TO MAKE THE RUN FROM THIS 
VICINITY. JOCKEYING FOR POSITION AS NOON APPROACHED 
WERE CITY CABS, BICYCLES, COVERED WAGONS, BUGGIES, OX 
TEAMS, INDIAN PONIES AND RACE HORSES. THOUSANDS PRE- 
PARED TO WALK AND OTHER THOUSANDS FILLED THE CARS OF 
SPECIAL RAILROAD TRAINS. WHEN THE PISTOLS WERE FIRED 
THE MAD RUSH BEGAN ALONG 400 MILES OF BORDER. BY 
NIGHTFALL THE OUTLET WHICH FOR CENTURIES HAD BEEN 
THE HOME OF THE INDIAN, THE COYOTE AND THE BUFFALO 
WAS A SETTLED LAND OF TOWNSITES AND HOMESTEADS. 

US-77, three miles south of 
Arkansas City, Cowley county. 



BOYHOOD HOME OF GENERAL FUNSTON 

FREDERICK FUNSTON, FIVE FEET FOUR AND SLIGHTLY BUILT, 
WENT FROM THIS FARM TO A LIFE OF AMAZING ADVENTURE. 
YOUTHFUL EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS IN THIS COUNTRY WERE 

FOLLOWED BY TWO YEARS IN THE ARCTIC FROM WHICH HE 

RETURNED DOWN THE YUKON RIVER 1,500 MILES BY CANOE. 
AFTER VENTURES IN LATIN AMERICA HE SERVED 18 MONTHS 
WITH CUBAN INSURGENTS, FIGHTING IN 22 ENGAGEMENTS AND 
REACHING THE RANK OF LIEUTENANT COLONEL. INVALIDED 
HOME SHORTLY BEFORE THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR, FUN- 
STON WAS MADE COLONEL OF THE 20TH KANSAS INFANTRY. 
IN 1901 HE PLANNED AND EXECUTED THE CAPTURE OF AGUI- 

NALDO, COMMANDER OF THE FlLIPINO ARMY. HE RECEIVED A 

CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR AND AT 35 WAS MADE A 

BRIGADIER GENERAL IN THE REGULAR ARMY. IN 1914, DURING 
INTERVENTION IN MEXICO, HE COMMANDED VERA CRUZ AS 
MILITARY GOVERNOR AND WAS THAT YEAR MADE A MAJOR GEN- 
ERAL. HE DIED IN 1917. THIS WAS THE HOME OF HIS 
FATHER, EDWARD H. FUNSTON, A MEMBER OF CONGRESS, 
1884-1894. 

US-59, four and one-half miles 
north of lola, Allen county. 

(367) 



GEODETIC CENTER OF NORTH AMERICA 

ON A RANCH 18 MILES SOUTHEAST OF THIS MARKER A 
BRONZE PLATE MARKS THE MOST IMPORTANT SPOT ON THIS 
CONTINENT TO SURVEYORS AND MAP MAKERS. ENGRAVED IN 
THE BRONZE IS A CROSS-MARK AND ON THE TINY POINT WHERE 
THE LINES CROSS DEPEND THE SURVEYS OF A SIXTH OF THE 

WORLD'S SURFACE. THIS is THE GEODETIC CENTER OF THE 
UNITED STATES, THE "PRIMARY STATION" FOR ALL NORTH 
AMERICAN SURVEYS. IT WAS LOCATED IN 1901 BY THE U. S. 
COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY. LATER CANADA AND MEXICO 
ADOPTED THE POINT AND ITS SUPPORTING SYSTEM AS THE BASE 
FOR THEIR SURVEYS AND IT IS NOW KNOWN AS THE "NORTH 
AMERICAN DATUM." WHAT GREENWICH is TO THE LONGI- 
TUDE OF THE WORLD, THEREFORE, A KANSAS PASTURE IS TO 
THE LINES AND BOUNDARIES OF THIS CONTINENT. IT MUST 
NOT BE CONFUSED WITH THE GEOGRAPHIC CENTER OF THE U. 
S. WHICH IS 42 MILES NORTH, IN SMITH COUNTY. 

US-24 and US-281, one-fourth mile 
north of Osborne, Osborne county. 

(368) 







CO 

El 



-- 

^ o 



Letters on the War in Kansas in 1856 

Edited by V. E. GIBBENS 
I. INTRODUCTION 

/ 1pHREE letters of John Lawrie, who fought with the Free-State 
1 men in the troubles in Kansas in 1856, were carefully copied by 
his brother Arthur in the latter's diary, and have just come to light. 
The letters, as will be observed, were written after John Lawrie had 
returned to Indiana in 1857. 

Only a few facts are known of John's life. He was born in New 
York City on August 8, 1824, being one of a family of four boys and 
two girls born to Alexander Lawrie, Scottish immigrant, and Sarah 
Coombe Lawrie. Of the children the most noted was Alexander, Jr., 
a popular portrait and landscape painter in Philadelphia and New 
York during the 1860's and 1870's. 1 The father was a merchant, but 
perhaps a none too successful one, for in 1852 he and his wife, ac- 
companied by their son Arthur and daughter Mary, settled on a 
farm near Chalmers in White county, Indiana. 

By February, 1854, John had joined his parents, and probably re- 
mained with them until he left in 1856 for a ten months' sojourn in 
Kansas. Whether he made a return trip to Kansas is merely con- 
jectural. 2 

He served throughout the Civil War with the troops from In- 
diana from April 23 to August 6, 1861, with the Tenth infantry 
regiment, Indiana volunteers, Company E, on a three-months' en- 
listment; and with Companies B and G, from September 19, 1861, 
to September 19, 1864, on a three-year enlistment. 3 According to 
his application for admission to the Indiana State Soldiers' Home, 
he reenlisted in December, 1864, and served until May 15, 1865, 
company and regiment not being given. 4 He held variously, as 
stated in the application, the ranks of private, corporal, and second 
lieutenant. 

A nephew's diary, which on May 19 referred to his having re- 
turned from the army on the day before, establishes his presence on 

1. Dictionary of American Biography (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1933), v. XI, 
p. 54. 

2. See the last sentence in the first letter. 

3. Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Indiana (Indianapolis, 18G6), v. IV, 
pp. 55, 158, and 166. 

4. The adjutant general's Report, so far as I have been able to discover, does not mention 
this period of service. If not, it would appear that the report was at fault. 

241043 

(369) 



370 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

the White county farm until 1867. The diary closes then, however, 
and two diaries of a niece and his brother Arthur, kept respectively 
in 1876-1877 and 1897-1899, do not mention him. He must have 
remained in Indiana, however, as when he applied in November, 
1899, for admission to the soldiers' home he wrote that he had re- 
sided in the state for nearly fifty years. 

He was admitted to the home on June 16, 1900, and except for an 
interval of slightly more than eight months, spent the rest of his life 
there. He died on January 14, 1905, at the age of 80 years. 

Since the main events related in the letters are already familiar 
(such as the dispersal of the legislature at Topeka on July 4, 1856, 
and the various battles mentioned) and books on this phase of Kan- 
sas history are numerous, 5 it has not been deemed necessary to ex- 
plain them in footnotes. 

II. THE LETTERS 6 

Wolf Mound Farm, White Co., Indiana 

Apl. 16th, 1857 
Dear Art, 

After an absence of ten months I now find myself again at home, 
and surrounded by old associations, among which prominently 
stands my long-neglected correspondence with you. It was my 
hope on my way home that when I reached it I would find you with 
Bob and Lizzy 7 and the little ones all living under the Lawrie roof- 
tree. But as I cannot talk to you face to face, I must talk to you 
through the mail, and tell you where I have been so long and what 
I have been about. 

When I left home on the fifteenth of last June I had no intention 
of making a home in Kansas. I intended in case I could find any 
organization ready to take the field against the Missourians, to use 
my utmost endeavors to change the attitude of the Free-State set- 
tlers from a defensive to an offensive warfare. When I reached 
Leavenworth, I was unable to find any organization of Free-State 
men, and could only tell one when I met him by his hanging head 
and subdued tone of voice. While remaining in this place, the Star 

5. J. N. Holloway, History of Kansas (Lafayette, Ind., 1868); Leverett W. Spring, 
Kansas: The Prelude to the War for the Union (Boston, 1885); and Sara T. L. Robinson, 
Kansas; Its Interior and Exterior Life (Boston, 1856), to name only a fi-w that have come to 
the attention of the writer of this introduction in his curiosity to check the account of the 
events related in the diary with historical accounts of the same happenings. [EDITOH'S NOTR: 
Lawrie was positive in statements concerning some things about which there is a great deal 
of controversy. His version, therefore, should not be fully evaluated until other contem- 
poraneous accounts are read.] 

6. A few corrections have been made in spelling, punctuation, and paragraphing, but, in 
general, the attempt has been made to leave the text as it stood in the diary. 

7. Brother-in-law and sister, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Telfer. 



GIBBENS: WAR IN KANSAS IN 1856 371 

of the West landed at the levee having on board the Chicago boys as 
prisoners, and fifty men could have released them and put them in 
possession of their arms, but there were a certain "five-thousand 
Missourians" who lived somewhere not far off that would be most 
grievously provoked should a rescue be attempted, and consequently 
none was attempted. 

Hearing that people held up their heads and spoke what they 
thought in Lawrence, I started for that point and soon found myself 
at home as far as a hatred of tyranny and a thirst for vengeance for 
the insult of the 21st of May was concerned. The people had con- 
cluded to try whether there was truth in the Border Ruffian asser- 
tion The Damned Yankees won't fight! There was quite a stir 
among the young men in the way of target-firing and drilling in 
order to prepare themselves for any emergency that might arise re- 
quiring them to contend with superior numbers, the only thing that 
thus far had held them back. I found that arms were really scarce. 
I expected to find plenty of improved fire-arms, and it was with the 
greatest difficulty I succeeded in getting an old condemned musket. 
I was looked upon with distrust by a great many persons in Law- 
rence, having the appearance of a spy in their eyes. It was com- 
plimentary, for my appearance seemed above my position to them; 
but it was very disagreeable. The only military company in town 
(the Stubbs) expected to attend the convention at Topeka on the 
second and third of July and the opening of the legislature on the 
Fourth, when it was expected they would be needed to defend the 
legislature against the Ruffians and troops of the U. S. I applied 
for admission into the company and was put off with rather evasive 
answers. I went up to Topeka, however, resolved to prove myself 
a true man when the trying time came. I found the people discuss- 
ing the propriety of defending the legislature against all who might 
attempt to disperse it. A few goddamned white-livered lawyers 
succeeded in getting through a resolution that it was the determina- 
tion of the Free-State men not to molest or hinder the U. S. troops. 
On the fourth of July at an hour before noon the troops charged into 
town and dispersed the legislature and retired again unmolested. 

I went back to the place where I worked near Lawrence, and did 
nothing but damn and curse lawyers and professional politicians 
until the sixth of August, when it was decided by some of the boys in 
town to go down to a block house erected by a company of Georgian 
robbers in the lower part of the territory and whip the robbers and 
burn the block house. I succeeded in obtaining permission to ac- 



372 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

company the Stubbs on this expedition. We all slept in one place 
that night so that we might be awakened at an early hour and depart 
unobserved. We marched from one o'clock in the morning until 
breakfast time when we camped on Coal creek, where we remained 
two hours awaiting the arrival of two wagons and our captain. We 
were here joined by the Waukarusa company and the Coal creek 
company, making our force some seventy strong. From this camp 
on we had a chance to ride over smooth going, and we only stopped 
long enough to bait the horses until we reached Bull creek right in 
the heart of the enemy's country, where we camped for the night 
some three hours after dark, having lost our guide about the middle 
of the afternoon. When the guard was appointed for the night, I 
had the honor of being selected for the post on extreme left of the 
camp for the first mounting. I was tired, sleepy and hungry, but I 
felt the importance of the trust placed in me and managed to keep 
awake without making much noise by biting my lips and tongue. 
Our camp had a deep ravine in the rear and a small ravine on each 
flank, and was kept perfectly dark and quiet. At about one in the 
morning of the eighth of August (my birthday) I heard the tramp 
of horses' feet in the direction we came from, apparently right in 
our trail. I knew that our guide was out and perhaps it might be 
him, but then again it might not. I began to get very wide awake 
indeed. Presently I caught a glimpse of two horsemen, which satis- 
fied me it was not the guide returning. I cocked my old musket and 
when they came within about a rod of me ordered them to halt, but 
instead of halting they clapped in their spurs and wheeled off to the 
right as fast as their horses would carry them. As quick as they 
wheeled I drew a bead on them and pulled, but the old musket didn't 
go, and before I could get ready again they had made some fifty 
yards when I let them have the buckshot and of course woke up the 
camp. Our captain inquired who had fired when I told him what 
had occurred, which I thought was discredited. In the morning I 
went out to see if I could find some proof in the shape of some of 
their arms which in their hurry they might have dropped, but only 
found a blood trail. When I was returning, I met four of our men 
who were putting out in the direction the two horsemen had taken 
in the night, and presently they returned with a saddled horse which 
had a couple of buckshot in him one on the right side of his rump 
and the other on the inside of his off hind leg. My credit raised 
wonderfully when it was seen I really shot at something, and it rose 
still more when it was afterward discovered that the two men I had 



GIBBENS: WAR IN KANSAS IN 1856 373 

shot at were Capt. Cook of the Bull creek Ruffians and one of his 
scouts. 

After the return of our guide we resumed our march in the direc- 
tion of the Georgian block house, yet some twenty-five miles dis- 
tant, and met with no incidents worthy of note until we reached the 
vicinity of the block house, where we were all rather anxious to see 
how the boys would behave under fire, many of them never having 
as yet heard singing lead. The night was rather dark, and the 
enemy showed no light and made no noise. Our captain (who by the 
way was an old man of wars man) reconnoitered the ground and 
concluded to lead us right on to the place and take it by assault as 
we had no artillery to storm the place with. The battalion was 
divided into two platoons, and the block house approached from 
toward its front and left so that in case we found it necessary to fire 
we could give them a destructive cross-fire. We went up as well as 
old veterans ever dared to go; and if there was any disorder at all 
whatever, it was occasioned by some of the boys rushing ahead too 
fast. The sound of our steady tramp! tramp! was too much for the 
garrison and they incontinently fled. We found about ten hundred 
pounds of bacon, some meal, several sacks of flour, a barrel of sugar, 
[and?] various articles recognized by many of our men as having 
been taken from Lawrence on the 21st of May, besides a number of 
letters written by Free-State men to their friends in the states which 
had been mailed in U. S. post offices, and probably had been ab- 
stracted in Missouri and forwarded to the Robbers of the Blue 
Lodge in order to give them whatever information they might possess 
of the prospects and conditions of their writers. After taking out all 
the provisions and military stores, we fired the block house and 
started home again by the light of it. On our return we had a most 
fatiguing time, but reached Lawrence without any incident occurring 
worthy of note. 

I found all our people well. I shall remain here until the middle 
of June when I intend returning to Kansas. 

Your affectionate brother 
John Lawrie 



374 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Wolf Mound Farm, White Co., Indiana 

April 19th, 1857 
Dear Art, 

According to promise I now resume my history of my adventures 
in Kansas. 

On our return to Lawrence there was some degree of hesitation 
manifested in regard to making an attack upon another fortified 
band of robbers who were occupying a stronghold near Washington 
creek, called Fort Sanders [Saunders named for J. P. Saunders]. 
The wiseheads succeeded in having a committee appointed and sent 
to wait on Major [John] Sedgwick of the U. S. army and represent 
to him the character and conduct of the Washington creek robbers 
and assassins. He told the committee they were mistaken in suppos- 
ing the colony at that place robbers and assassins, and advised them 
to make further inquiries into their real character, and if they did 
not prove to be well-meaning citizens, he would permit the Free- 
State men to drive them out. 

As if we were not already satisfied as to their character, the noble 
and heroic Major [D. S.] Hoyt was sent out to learn more of them, 
and they most basely murdered him and disfigured him by pounding 
the fleshy parts off his face and then putting some chemical sub- 
stance upon [it] to remove whatever might still be left by which he 
might be recognized. (This was the last of the influence of the god- 
damned lawyers and professional politicians in Lawrence.) In order 
to carry the stronghold of these Ruffians artillery was necessary. We 
had none, but the enemy had one at Franklin, about four miles from 
Lawrence. It was taken at Sacramento by Col. [A. W.] Doniphan 
and is still known as Old Sacramento. One night about seventy-five 
of us took the road to Franklin and while on the road learned that 
Jim Lane was along and would plan the attack. Just before enter- 
ing the town ten of our men were detailed under Lieut. Earle to make 
a demonstration in front of the buildings occupied by the garrison 
in which they had the cannon, while the main body of our men ad- 
vanced upon their rear. The ruffians were summoned to surrender, 
but they wouldn't do it, so we replied to their fire in such an effec- 
tive way that we drove them all into the center building, which was 
impervious to bullets, being constructed of logs. From this position 
they gave us a pretty hot fire, killing one man named Sackett and 
wounding two others, Gunther and Brooks. I had a position with 
my old musket close to a porthole in the rear of the log house, and 
by aiming at one flash and firing immediately at the next so dis- 



GIBBENS: WAR IN KANSAS IN 1856 375 

concerted their aim that no more of our men were struck after my 
first charge of buckshot reached them. (While I was getting my 
aim, I got a tap on the side of my hat and made the discovery that 
a man cannot hear the lead sing that strikes him.) As our fire 
didn't seem to make much impression on them, a wagon was loaded 
with hay and run up to the building which was furthest to wind- 
ward (which happened to be the post office) and set fire to; when 
our boys commenced singing out "There she goes!" "There goes the 
roof!" "Stand off, boys, maybe there's powder in it!" By and by it 
began to work on the garrison, and they screamed out "Quarter! 
Quarter! Quarter!" I spoke out pretty loud, "They are calling for 
water" "No," said they, "Quarters! Quarters! for God's sake, give 
us Quarters!" We told them to march out and stack their arms and 
we would do so, which they did in double quick time, and then we 
upset the load of burning hay, and not even the wagon was burned, 
saying nothing of the buildings ! After gathering up their arms and 
getting Old Sacramento mounted, we started back to Lawrence and 
arrived there safely, but sorrowing for the loss of a brave Michigan 
boy named Sackett. 

After taking this gun and before marching against Fort Sanders, 
it was necessary to run a lot of cannon balls for Sacramento. How 
do you suppose it was done where there was no means of melting 
cast-iron? I will tell you. A large chunk of wrought iron was sus- 
pended by a wire inside of the mould, and then the mould was filled 
up with type metal, made from type which had been thrown into the 
Kaw river by the Ruffians on the 21st of May! 

When everything was ready, we started for the Free-State camp 
on Rock creek, where we found a large body of our men waiting for 
us under the command of Capt. [Samuel] Walker. Here we camped 
for the night, and the next day started for Washington creek to try 
our hands upon a famous stronghold defended by four hundred of 
the enemy. Jim Lane commanded in person. Capt. Walker had 
charge of our cavalry. Capt. Beckerton [Bickerton] had charge of 
the artillery, and Capt. Cutter commanded our company, which 
acted as light infantry. Old Sacramento was stationed about forty 
rods directly in front of the fort, and Capt. Walker's command was 
divided on the right and left of it, while we advanced directly upon 
it until we came within about one-hundred yards, when we halted 
and were ordered to lie down. Before a shot was fired, we received 
the order "Up, Stubbs! Double quick, forward march!" and the 
way we put in to it was a caution. We scaled their stockade, rushed 



376 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

across their embanked breastwork and entered the fort in less time 
than I have been writing the account of the charge, and found that 
the enemy had acted on the old adage: 

Whosoever runs away 

Will live to fight another day. 

We followed on in the wake of the retreating Ruffians, charged 
through two deep ravines, and made the discovery that the enemy 
knew the country better than we did, at least that they knew more 
of their own whereabouts. We took a large quantity of arms at the 
fort besides considerable other plunder besides military stores, etc. 
Who should I see here but Bill Porter, busy loading a four-mule 
wagon with bacon, muskets, flour, powder, tents, etc., who exclaimed 
when he saw me: "Why, John Larry! who the hell would have tho't 
of seeing you here?" 

After taking out all we wanted, we set fire to the fort and fell back 
upon our camp of the previous night on Rock creek, where, as soon 
as we had supper, we received intelligence that [H. T.] Titus' gang 
had threatened to burn Judge Wakefield's house, and off we started 
across the country to pay our respects to the famous Col. Titus, who 
lived within one mile and a quarter of Lecompton. After a long and 
fatiguing march we encamped not far from Capt. Walker's place, 
but not until we had the pleasure of an accidental meeting with 
Col. Titus' gang of mounted robbers, who left us in a hurry minus 
two of their horses, we having killed the rider of one and taken the 
rider of the other prisoner. We were joined about daybreak by a re- 
enforcement from Lawrence and started immediately for Titus' 
place, but the Chicago boys got the start of the Stubbs and had the 
fun all over before we came up. Titus had one man killed and one 
besides himself wounded. We took nineteen prisoners, Titus among 
the number, contrary to the wishes of a great many of the boys, but 
he begged so like a whipped puppy so cringingly that he was 
thought too goddamned mean, too despicable to notice sufficiently 
to kill him. One of his negroes, who was out at the stable during 
the fight, said, "Massa Titus wanted six abolitionists for breakfast! 
Yah! Yah! Gorra Massy! guess he get his belly full dis monin'l" 
With the exception of military stores Capt. Walker allowed nothing 
to be taken, but consigned the stronghold and its contents to the 
flames. 

I forgot to state that the old gun Sacramento first spoke at this 
place in favor of the Free-State cause, and also circulated several 
copies of the Herald of Freedom amongst Titus' crowd. Titus said 



GIBBENS : WAR IN KANSAS IN 1856 377 

he had no idea we could hit the house at all at the distance the gun 
was placed, to say nothing of knocking the door and windows in 
with round shot and then filling the house with cannister. Capt. 
[Henry J.] Shombre of the Indiana company received a mortal 
wound in a charge he made upon the Ruffians' camp, which was 
about two-hundred yards north of the house. One or two others of 
our men received slight wounds ; Capt. Walker got a charge of buck- 
shot in his breast, but having on two or three woolen shirts they 
didn't penetrate the skin. During the fight it commenced raining, 
and fearing that our Sharps rifles would not be in fit trim for another 
fight until they were dried, Capt. Walker wouldn't allow us to march 
against Lecompton, as we desired him to do, and so we started back 
to Lawrence and arrived there safely without meeting with any ad- 
venture worthy of notice. . . . 

Your affectionate brother 

John Lawrie 

Wolf Mound Farm, May llth, 1857 
Dear Art & Bob :- 

After an unaccountable delay I again resume my narrative. In 
my second letter I left off in recounting the affair at Titus' fort and 
the capture of that gentleman and eighteen of his associates. Noth- 
ing very remarkable came under my observation after this affair 
until Governor [Wilson] Shannon came to Lawrence accompanied by 
Major Sedgwick of the U. S. cavalry to make a treaty with the rebels 
in our camp. He agreed to deliver up to us what prisoners his party 
had and the twelve-pound howitzer which [Samuel] Pomeroy so 
cowardly delivered over to the Ruffians on the 21st of May, in ex- 
change for the prisoners we held, and agreed to make no more war 
upon us. Major Sedgwick agreed to see the treaty carried out, and 
accordingly we escorted the prisoners back to Lecompton and made 
the exchange. The boys were delighted to see Betsy again, i. e., the 
howitzer. 

Soon after this Shannon resigned, and [Daniel] Woodson by vir- 
tue of his office became governor. He called out the Missourians, 
who came in great force. We were poorly off for powder, and our 
regiment was sent up to Topeka to escort the Plymouth company 
into Lawrence as they had a large supply and were not strong 
enough to force their way through. While we were on this duty, 
Ruffian [John W.] Reid with twelve-hundred men was playing such 
deviltry in the southern part of the territory that Jim Lane left 



378 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Lawrence with two hundred and fifty men in order to find Reid and 
give him battle. He came up to him at Bull creek and drove in his 
outpost before dark. The next day after a little skirmishing be- 
tween the scouts Jim formed his line of battle and advanced upon 
the Ruffians, but they got so homesick they started off immediately 
for Missouri and never stopped until they reached home. When we 
returned from our duty, we found an order awaiting us to join Jim 
Lane immediately and bring along extra rations and ammunition, 
which we obeyed. We had not proceeded over five miles before we 
met a dispatch from Jim Lane stating that we should return as the 
enemy had fled at his approach, and as he was not prepared to pur- 
sue them he was on his return to Lawrence himself. After this we 
treed a party in Lecompton, but as they complied with our demand 
of an unconditional release of all the Free-State men held by them 
in Lecompton, we withdrew. 

We had a great deal racing around the territory after the Ruffians, 
but somehow they were not to be caught, until on the 13th of Sep- 
tember Jim Lane treed two companies, Capt. Robinson's and Capt. 
[H. A.] Lowe's, at Hickory Point. They took refuge in the log 
buildings, and Jim sent us word to bring him Sacramento by the way 
of Topeka, which was the route he had taken in finding the Ruffians. 
In order that you may have an idea of the blunder Col. [J. A.] 
Harvey made as a military man, I will make a diagram of the dif- 
ferent localities. 8 

He had explicit orders to march by the way of Topeka, but in- 
stead of doing so he took us straight across the Delaware country 
to Hickory Point. When we got there, we were surprised in not 
finding Lane, but as we found the enemy we pitched in and made 
them surrender. The reason we missed Lane was that he had re- 
ceived [Gov. J. W.] Geary's proclamation and immediately with- 
drew his force and sent Harvey a countermand to his previous order 
by the route he had been ordered to come. After the battle we with- 
drew from Hickory Point about five miles and encamped at a place 
called Newell's Mills. 9 

This was the night of the 14th of September. On the night of the 
12th we were up all night at Franklin on the lookout for the advance 
guard of Reid's new army; on the night of the 13th we were march- 
ing all night against Hickory Point, so that on the night of the 14th 
we were pretty well worn out. 

8. A tracing of the map is also available. It is not reproduced here since the several 
places shown in the sketch were not all in their true positions in relation to each other. 

9. Now Oskaloosa. Andreas, A. T., History of the State of Kansas (Chicago, 1883), 
p. 502. 



GIBBENS: WAR IN KANSAS IN 1856 379 

About midnight we supposed the Kickapoo rangers were about to 
attack us, and just as old Tom Bickerton was about letting them 
have the contents of Old Sacramento we made the discovery that we 
were nearly surrounded by U. S. troops. Harvey made himself 
scarce, and we did the only thing we could under the circumstances 
surrendered because Fremont was to be elected then, and we were 
willing to go to hell with our boxes full of cartridges rather than do 
anything that would have a tendency to defeat his election. I laid 
down at Capt. Cutter's order my rifle, knife, and revolver, and never 
have seen them since. Capt. [T. J.] Wood of the U. S. cavalry said 
he would be personally responsible for the arms. We were taken to 
the U. S. camp near Lecompton and then had a realizing sense of the 
importance of the U. S. army. 

Boys, I will defer for the present an account of our prison life. I 
do not feel in the humor to write when I think of it. I can tell it 
by little snatches, but I am afraid I cannot do it justice with the 
pen. . . . 

Your affectionate brother 
John Lawrie 



First Newspapers in Kansas Counties 

(Concluded) 

1879-1886 

G. RAYMOND GAEDDERT 

MEADE COUNTY 
The Pearlette Call, April 15, 1879. 

FRANK S. Sullivan asserted, and evidence supports him, that the 
Pearlette Call was the first newspaper published in Meade 
county. 1 The first number was edited by A. Bennett, and published 
by Bennett and H. Lowry. After this issue it was A. Bennett, editor 
and sole proprietor. The paper was independent in politics. 

The history of the name of the settlement, which also is linked 
with the paper, has a slightly sentimental touch. The colony that 
settled in Meade county in 1879 came from Muskingum county, 
Ohio. Shortly after they arrived one of their number, Pearl Atkin- 
son, died, "the fairest and brightest of our jewels." J. T. Copeland 
suggested the name Pearlette for the settlement, and perhaps since 
Pearl was the first to be called away from the colony the paper was 
christened the Pearlette Call. 2 

Under the title "Exchanges" the editor made his bow to the Kan- 
sas press. He wrote: 

Brethren of the Kansas Press, greeting! We come to you cutting rather a 
sorry figure, we know. To be candid, we admit that you could say nothing 
too mean of our sheet; we could say amen to anything you might say. 

But gentlemen, remember that the Call is printed in a county which had 
scarcely a settler six months ago : that we are over 30 miles from a town, and 
but two houses on the way: that all of our material came 1,400 miles, and for 
two months was kicked around, hither and yon: that every word of our sheet 
was set up at the case without being written ; that our office is not over 4x6: 
and But why go on? we did the best we could; and perhaps some of you 
would have done no better. 

In another place he wrote : 

When we left Zanesville we thought we could get out the first issue of the 
Call in two weeks after our arrival in Meade County; but we found out dif- 
ferent after our arrival here. We found it took more time to build our house 
than we had any idea of; for before we left Ohio we knew of mite meetings 
building four sod houses in one evening, but some-how they can't be built so 
fast out here; because here we build by work, and there we built by wind. 

1. Sullivan, Frank S., A History of Meade County (Crane & Company, Topeka, 1916), 
p. 68. 

2. The Pearlette Call, April 15, 1879. 

(380) 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 381 

And after we got in our little house we found ourselves so cramped that 
things went very slow. Just think of a family of five living in a house 11 x 14! 

Then, in addition, put in a printing office, stamp factory, stencil shop etc., 
and you will wonder how we work at all as we often do. 

The Call also reflected the life and mirth of the colony. In the 
first number the editor tells about the scarcity of coal and wood, 
which induced the resourceful settlers to resort to the use of buffalo 
chips for fuel. The editor in an interesting manner describes how 
the women became adapted to them: 

It was comical to see how gingerly our wives handled these chips at first. 
They commenced by picking them up between two sticks, or with a poker. 
Soon they used a rag, and then a corner of their apron. Finally, growing 
hardened, a wash after handling them was sufficient. And now? Now it is 
out of the bread, into the chips and back again and not even a dust of the 
hands ! 

The Call started as a two-column, twelve-page folio, to be pub- 
lished semimonthly. The second number, however, did not appear 
until May 15. The next seven issues appeared semimonthly, then 
there was a gap between September 1, 1879, and January 10, 1880, 
following this the Call appeared weekly until it apparently was dis- 
continued May 8, 1880. 3 The Society has the first twenty numbers 
of this paper. 

NESS COUNTY 

The Ness County Pioneer, Clarinda, May 3-10, 1879. 

As the name suggests, the Pioneer was undoubtedly the first news- 
paper published in Ness county. F. Shelden was the editor and pub- 
lisher. The Wa-Keeney Weekly World of 1879, published Ness 
county news items which told of the establishment of this paper. 
On March 29, 1879, the traveling correspondent of the World, wrote 
of Clarinda: 

We also met Mr. Shelden. He expects to start a paper at this point some- 
time in the near future, if he receives enough subscribers to venture out on the 
sea of journalism. 

On April 12 the same paper carried the following statement: "The 
printing office is under way. They are laying the basement walls. 
The building is to be 14x36 feet." On May 3 a statement in the 
same paper read: "We expect to have a newspaper here this week." 
The following week, May 10, the World stated: "The printing outfit 
has arrived, and our editor, with his new head, is busy spreading the 
ink." While the above statement issued from the press of the Wa- 
Keeney Weekly World, The Ness County Pioneer flung its banner 

3. Ford County Globe, Dodge City, July 13, 1880. 



382 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

to the breeze. The front page carried the date of May 3 but the in- 
side had May 10. The first issue really served as numbers 1 and 2, 
for the next issue, dated May 17, was listed number 3. 

In the Topeka Daily Capital of June 30, 1935, under title: "Things 
Historical Are Preserved in Ness County," appeared the following 
item: 

Among the hundreds of things preserved of a historical nature is the com- 
plete bound volumes of the first newspaper, the Clarinda Walnut Valley Times, 
first published in 1879, down to the latest issues of the Ness County News, 
still in the hands of the family of the late J. K. Barnd, pioneer publisher. . . . 

Andreas stated that the Clarinda Walnut Valley Times, published 
by N. C. Merrill, appeared October 1, 1879, and was removed to Ness 
City in January, 1880, 4 where it became the Ness City Times. This 
statement agrees with contemporaneous newspaper reports. On 
October 6, 1879, The Ness County Pioneer announced the first num- 
ber of the Times: 

The Walnut Valley Times, Vol. I, No. 1 is out. Mr. Merrill the editor says 
he was forced into his position. Just so ! ! He wants to know "why he can't 
run a paper, even if he owns a townsite." We expect he can. 

In the same issue the editor of the Pioneer wrote: "We move this 
week to Sidney. . . ." 

The Pioneer was Republican in politics. Under the title, "To Our 
Reader," Shelden wrote: "We hope to make the Pioneer worthy of a 
place in the sod house, stone mansion, camp, or tent of every settler, 
a welcome visitor to all." 

Clarinda, at the time of the first issue, boasted a fine general store, 
a plow factory, operating to full capacity and the Clarinda Hotel. 
A drug store, printing office and a general store were still under con- 
struction. "The Clarinda plow," it was said, "is taking the lead 
with all who have used it." 5 

The Society has a good file of The Ness County Pioneer, including 
Vol. I, No. 1. 

GRAHAM COUNTY 

The Western Star, Hill City, May 15, 1879. 

The Western Star no doubt was the first newspaper published in 
this county. The first number may have appeared May 15, 1879. 
The Society has Vol. 1, No. 2, dated May 22. It listed Thomas 
Beaumont and T. J. Garnett as editors and publishers. The Hill 
City Times, August 22, 1940, gave the date of the first issue of the 

4. Andreas, A. T., History of the State of Kansas (Chicago, 1883), p. 1524. 

5. The Ness County Pioneer, May 3-10, 1879. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 383 

Star as May 15, 1879, but said the paper was published by Beau- 
mont, Garnett and McGill. Andreas gave the date as May 15 and 
listed Beaumont and McGill as editors. 6 However, the Norton 
County Advance, of Norton, May 22, 1879, announced the first issue 
as follows: 

The Western Star, Graham county's new paper, Vol. 1, No. 1, and published 
at Hill City by [Thomas] Beaumont and [T. J.] Garnett, has reached our 
desk. It is a five-column folio, and contains a considerable amount of local 
news. Its advertising patronage is light, but we think that it will increase 
and that the paper will, therefore, live. 

The Western Star of May 22, 1879, reflected the spirit and hap- 
penings of the county. In the "Local" column appeared the fol- 
lowing: 

The Star twinkles for all Graham county. . . . 
A Buffalo was seen north west of town Monday last. . . . 
There are large numbers of antelope in this county yet. . . . 
There is not a saloon in Graham county, which speaks well does it not? . . . 
Graham county has a great number of bachelors, and you can hear them 
sing: 

Bachelor's hall, I think it is best, 
Be drunk or be sober you can lie down and rest ; 
No wife to control you, no children to squawl, 
O, happy is the man that keeps bachelor's hall. . . . 
It is believed that there are 2,500 people in Graham county. . . . 
The emigration of the colored people from the Southern states still con- 
tinues, and will continue just as long as their rights are tampered with. We 
welcome them to our State and our county, and firmly believe that the emi- 
grants will be a source of untold wealth to our state. 

The Society has an incomplete file of the Star including issues of 
May 22 and December 25, 1879, to June 10, 1880. 

KEARNY COUNTY 
Lakin Eagle, May 20, 1879. 

The Society has eighteen issues of the Eagle, including Vol. 1, No. 
1. S. W. Taylor and R. H. Mitchell were the editors and proprietors. 
In the salutatory they wrote: 

Our purpose in starting a newspaper at Lakin, is to furnish southwestern 
Kansas with a medium with which to advertise its vast undeveloped resources, 
and to direct the homeseeking immigrant to the most available points to en- 
gage in stock raising or agriculture. 

Under the caption, "Does It Blow in Kansas?" the editors pro- 
duced a lengthy jest from which the following is quoted: 

As a truth and no fabrication, Kansas is not a windy country. We have 
6. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1061. 



384 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

here during twelve months of the year an imperceptible circulation of air 
from the south, west, north and east, (varied to suit one's taste and incon- 
venience) that in other states as in Colorado, Illinois and Nebraska, might be 
called high wind, but here it is considered nothing but a gentle zephyr. In 
some states they have high winds but NEVER in Kansas. 

A two gallon funnel turned flaring end windward and gimblet end down- 
ward will collect enough of Kansas zephyrs in seven hours to drill a hole in 
solid sand rock one hundred and eight feet deep. We never dig wells in 
Kansas. Condensed air does the work most successfully. 

It is terrible windy just across the line in Colorado but it never or we 
might say seldom ever blows in Kansas. 

The men here are all pigeon-toed and bow-legged. This is caused from an 
unceasing effort to stick the toes into the earth and trying to keep a strong 
foothold on terra firma. The gentlemen carry a pound of shot in each 
breaches leg to keep them (the gentlemen) right side up. 

Mrs. Carrie E. Davies produced an article entitled, "Lakin in 
1878," in which she wrote: 

. . . Of course, every wide awake town must have a paper, so a Mr. Deal 
and a Mr. Taylor came as editors and started our first paper and named it 
the Lakin Eagle. I do not think that it was much more than twenty inches 
long, but we enjoyed it just the same . . . 7 

Mrs. Davies was mistaken in one of the editors. The Eagle was a 
four-column folio, independent in politics. It changed hands several 
times during its short period of existence. The last issue the Society 
has is dated October 10, 1879. 

DECATUR COUNTY 
Oberlin Herald, June 12-19, 1879. 

The Historical Society has Vol. 1, No. 1, of the Herald. It bears 
two dates. On the front page is June 12, 1879, and on the third page 
June 19. J. C. Humphrey and James N. Counter were the editors 
and publishers. In the salutatory they said their aim was to furnish 
the citizens with a live, local paper, conducted in their interests. 
Politically they would adhere "strictly to the true principles of Re- 
publicanism," but reserved the right to "expose any rottenness or 
shystering should such ever be discovered within its ranks." They 
were willing to "support the educational, agricultural, religious and 
temperance interests of the county." 

In the first issue the editors explained that they had first shipped 
their printing material to another point in the county but when they 
heard of the rapid growth of Oberlin they concluded it was "no use 

7. The article was published in a book on Kearny county entitled, Prairie Breeze, 19S1, 
p. 96 ff. 



GAEDDEET: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 385 

to 'kick against the pricks' " and located at Oberlin. Describing the 
growth of this town they wrote: 

On a visit to this place in September last the town comprised two general 
stores (one frame and one sod), one log hotel, one log black-smith shop, one 
sod residence and one frame in course of erection. But to-day, after a lapse 
of only eight months, we can hardly realize that the change is real. . . . 

The editors then quoted the Atchison Daily Champion of April 22, 
1879, as follows: 

Oberlin, the young city of the Kansas frontier, is a wonder. A few months 
ago what was it? It was a beautiful strip of rich prairie, skirting the north 
bank of the Sappa, near the geographical centre of Decatur county a county 
that was principally known from being the scene of one of the most bloody 
and devilish outrages recorded in the annals of frontier life. But three or four 
log and sod tenements then marked its present site, without churches, societies, 
mercantile pursuits, manufacturing industries, or many of the influences of 
civilization; but with a few intelligent and determined settlers, who came to 
cultivate the soil, found homes, build churches and school houses, and convert 
the country into a land of progress, promise and prosperity. In less than one 
year this has all been done. Churches, schools, stores, hotels, shops and 
dwellings line the streets. The buildings are of good size (many of them large 
and imposing) substantially constructed and handsomely finished. Enterprise, 
liberality and industry, stimulated by the rapid settlement of the country, 
have wrought, as it were, in a few days, the wonderful transformation of a 
prairie settlement into a town full of vigor, life and business, with a future 
of unusual promise and commercial prospects before it. ... 

John A. Rodehaver, in 1873, pre-empted the section on which the 
town site of Oberlin was later located. 

The file of the first year of the Herald is incomplete and some 
copies are badly mutilated; other than that the Society has a good 
collection. The Oberlin Herald is still published. E. R. Woodward 
is the present editor and E. W. Coldren and Woodward are the 
publishers. 

RAWLINS COUNTY 

Attwood Pioneer, October 23, 1879. 

The first paper in this county, according to Andreas and other 
sources, was the Attwood Pioneer. 8 A. S. Thorne was the editor and 
Edwin and A. L. Thorne the publishers. "In politics, morals, tem- 
perance and religion," the paper stated, "we expect to stand where 
the best interests of the people and the Bible stand." 

In the salutatory the editor gave an interesting account of his life 
before he came to Atwood. It reads: 

To all readers of the Pioneer we extend a cordial "How d'ye do"? Four 

8. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1607. 

251043 



386 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

months ago we directed the Review, then being published in Millerstown, 
Butler county, Penn'a, to be closed, with a view to the removal of the office, 
presses and type to the new and flourishing State of Kansas. We had seen 
Kansas before, lived among her Indians, seen the scarcity of her timber and 
water, and experienced her drouth. We were among Kansas' first settlers, 
having landed at Atchison in November, 1857, and lived in Brown county until 
the fall of 1860; but, although absent so long, we had always had an abiding 
faith in Kansas. And since we came to the State again, we have not been 
disappointed. From Brown county which in 1857 was occupied by Indians 
and a few scattering settlers, we traveled westward (the course we had heard 
Empire takes its way) on and on and on, past railroads, highly cultivated 
farms, luxuriant orchards, acres on acres of cultivated forest trees, populous 
towns and cities, till, bewildered with distance, we had almost spanned the 
entire State. Our search for a home on public and unoccupied land brought 
us to Rawlins county, in the northern tier of counties, as the best unorganized 
county in the State, and Attwood, at the forks of the Beaver, as the most de- 
sirable and promising location in the county. 

So here we are, family, presses, type and all. We have located our land, 
built our sod house, set up our presses, distributed our type, dusted our fonts, 
cleaned off our galleys, adjusted our forms, set our sticks and our "devils" 
have gone to work with combed hair and sleeves rolled up. . . . 

Contemporary newspapers had words of praise for the Pioneer. 
On October 31, 1879, the Kansas Smith County Pioneer, Smith 
Centre, carried the following statement: 

The first number of the Attwood Pioneer is on our table, published at 
Attwood, Rawlins County, away out on the very outskirts of civilization in 
Northwestern Kansas, by Messrs. Thorne & Sons. It is truly the Pioneer 
paper of Kansas, and we take pleasure in bearing testimony to the fact that 
it does honor to the name. The Pioneer is a neat, newsy, well printed, all at 
home, six column paper, and is chuck full of western items, spicy locals and 
well written, solid Republican editorials. The Pioneer has the PIONEER'S best 
wishes for its continued success and prosperity. 

The editor spelled Atwood with two "t's" until May 12, 1880, when 
he changed to the present spelling of the word. The Society has a 
good file of the Pioneer, including Vol. I, No. 1. 

GOVE COUNTY 
* 

Grainfield Republican, January 28, 1880. 

The Republican appears to have been the first newspaper pub- 
lished in Gove county. The Society has Vol. 1, No. 1, of this paper. 
A. J. R. Smith was the editor and publisher. In the salutatory he 
wrote : 

The Republican will always be found as the earnest advocate of all those 
things that tend to develop the highest and best interests of the people, and 
the uncompromising foe of whatever tends to degradation and dishonor. No 
poor man struggling to gain an honest livelihood but will find a personal 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 387 

friend in the Republican and no man in any station in life striving for the 
moral, social and financial improvement of the country but will find an ally 
to the full extent of its powers. 

In his own way Smith described the founding of Grainfield by 
J. B. Beal of Abilene: 

Last July after making his will, having his photograph taken and kissing 
his wife goodbye, he landed in the wilderness. The first thing he did was to 
kill an antelope and the next thing was to eat it. (Mr. B. by the way is a 
terrible eater.) Then he dug a hole in the ground and persuaded Mr. Dryer 
to help him pile rock around it and sticks on top of that, and the first thing 
they knew they had the finest Hotel between Salina and Denver at a cost of 
$10,000. So he tore up his will, burnt his photographs and sent for hia wife 
and gave her back her kisses. And that is how Grainfield started. 

The real estate agents, Beal and Dryer, built the Occidental Hotel 
in the summer and fall of 1879. It had twenty-five rooms for guests, 
besides parlors and waiting rooms. Throughout its history the Re- 
publican carried a half -sheet front-page advertisement featuring the 
advantages of the hotel and advertising "for sale upwards of one 
million acres of the choicest lands belonging to the K. P. R. R. 
. . . in Gove, Sheridan, Wallace and Thomas counties." 

One of the necessities of Grainfield, wrote the editor, was the erec- 
tion of a flouring mill: "At present all our flour is brought from 
Salina or farther east. We have in the immediate vicinity of Grain- 
field not less than three thousand acres of wheat and a mill here 
would receive the patronage of the people for forty miles north, east 
and south." 

The type with which the Republican was printed was made at the 
Kansas City Type Foundry. The Society has a good file of this 
paper up to December 10, 1880, when it ceased coming. It was 
published occasionally until April, 1881, when it discontinued. 9 

LANE COUNTY 
Lane County Gazette, California, January 29, 1880. 

W. H. Lee was the editor and proprietor of the Gazette. It started 
as a small two-column, six-by-nine-inch, four-page paper, but soon 
changed to a large, six-column folio. Although in the first issue 
the editor did not commit himself politically, he showed Republican 
leanings in later issues. 

The original number carried but two advertisements, one by J. H. 
Pelham, "dealer in Groceries, Provisions and all the necessaries kept 
in a first class store," and that of the Gazette. The office was built 
by Frank Tingley. 

. Buffalo Park Express, January 22 and April 9, 1881. 



388 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

The paper showed frontier characteristics. It spoke of a new 
school house that was being built "a box house . . . 14 x 20 in 
size. When completed it will be used for Sabbath School, church 
services and all public meetings. This is a commendable enterprise 
and it is to be hoped that the people all over Lane county will follow 
the example as soon as possible." On the front page the editor told 
of the murder of John Bowers in Wichita county. The man accused 
of the act had been apprehended and taken into custody by the 
people of California, who had delivered him into the hands of the 
law in Trego county. The accused, however, had been allowed to 
depart in peace because "the governor, attorney general and other 
prominent officials" had decided "there was no law, either govern- 
ment, State or county, in this part of Kansas to punish murderers." 
The editor regretted the offense, but much more the fact that such 
criminals were permitted "to run at large without hindrance." While 
not in favor of mob rule, he asked whether it would not be well for 
the citizens to "adopt some plan of bringing criminals to sure and 
speedy justice?" 

Lee published the last issue of the Gazette on March 23, 1882. 
He wrote: 

The Gazette has been published regularly for a little over two 3'ears. Al- 
though the receipts have not at any time been more than sufficient to pay 
expenses (not counting labor), it has been kept up on the hope that there was 
a better time coming. As that time does not seem nearer now than when we 
first begun we have decided to suspend publication. This issue will therefore 
be the last. 

The Society has a good file of the Gazette. 

SHERIDAN COUNTY 
Sheridan County Tribune, Kenneth, June, 1880. 

Secondary authorities agree that the Tribune was the first news- 
paper published in Sheridan county. They also agree, and in this 
they seem to be mistaken, that the first number appeared in 1879, 
rather than 1880. Andreas wrote: "The Sheridan County Tribune, 
at Kenneth, was established the 1st of July, 1879, George N. Palmer, 
editor and proprietor." 10 Mrs. C. E. Toothaker of Hoxie wrote: 
"The first newspaper printed in the county was established there 
[Kenneth] in 1879. It was called the Sheridan County Tribune." n 
Contemporaneous newspaper accounts challenge the statements on 
the date. On June 3, 1880, the Buffalo Park Express carried the 

10. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1520. 

11. Manuscript on Sheridan county by Mrs. C. E. Toothaker, p. 5. Library, Kansas 
State Historical Society. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 389 

statement: "Our attention has been called to the first number of 
the Sheridan Co. Tribune a six column folio paper just started at 
Kenneth." On June 5, 1880, the Wa-Keeney Weekly World, under 
Sheridan county, announced: "This county has a newspaper, the 
Tribune published at Kenneth." Five days later The Norton County 
Advance, of Norton, published the following item: 

The Sheridan County Tribune, published at Kenneth, by Geo. N. Palmer, 
is the latest received addition to the frontier press. It is a pretty, newsy, all 
home print, six column paper and apparently is deserving success. 

The first issue of the Tribune in the Society's file is dated July 14, 
1881, listed as Vol. II, No. 6. If regularly issued it would place the 
first number on June 9, 1880. The Society has a file of this paper 
from July 14, 1881, to August 3, 1882. 

CHEYENNE COUNTY 
The Cheyenne News, Wano, October 2, 1880, and May, 1881. 

This no doubt was the first newspaper published in Cheyenne 
county. It was first printed as a part of the Republican Citizen, 
Atwood. The first number appeared in this paper October 8, 1880. 
It was headed: "THE CHEYENNE NEWS. Vol. I. No. 1. Wano, 
Kansas, October 2, 1880. By A. M. Brenaman." It was a two- 
column sheet, made up of local news and one advertisement, for 
"the only store in Cheyenne county, kept by A. M. Brenaman & Co." 
The editor of the Citizen said of it: 

We give place in our paper this week to The Cheyenne NewSj which will be 
found interesting and newsy. We hope that the News may grow until it can 
be bodily removed to Cheyenne to grow up with that splendid county. 

Five issues of the News appeared in the Citizen, dated as follows : 

Vol. I, No. 1, dated October 2, 1880, appeared in Citizen, October 8, 1880. 

Vol. I, No. 2, dated November 4, 1880, appeared in Citizen, November 5, 
1880. 

Vol. I, No. 3, dated November 11, 1880, appeared in Citizen, November 19, 
1880. 

Vol. I, No. 4, dated November 25, 1880, appeared in Citizen, November 26, 
1880. 

Vol. I, No. 5, dated January 14, 1881, appeared in Citizen, January 14, 1881. 

In the fifth number appeared the following statement: 

The Cheyenne News will not only be edited but published in Wano by May 
next. A printing press and printer are already engaged. 

On May 6, 1881, the Citizen quoted from the Cheyenne County 
News, and on May 21 the Wa-Keeney Weekly World stated: "This 
county [Cheyenne] now has a newspaper, the Cheyenne News, 



390 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

which is issued every two weeks." On July 10, 1885, the Cheyenne 
County Rustler, Wano, carried the following statement: 

The first paper published in Cheyenne (but published in Atwood) was the 
Wano News, by A. M. Brenaman, who edited five issues. The next was one 
issue of the Echo. We now have the Bird City News and the Rustler, 

On March 19, 1915, the Topeka Daily Capital carried an article on 
Cheyenne county in which it stated: "The first newspaper published 
in the county was the Wano News. It was printed at Atwood and 
passed away in its infancy." 

The Society has only the five numbers published in the Atwood 
Republican Citizen. 

COMANCHE COUNTY 
The Western Star, Coldwater, August 23, 1884. 

According to available information the Star was the first news- 
paper in Comanche county. John G. Cash was the editor and John 
and William Cash the proprietors. The paper has been listed as 
independent in politics, but its sympathies were Democratic. In 
the Comanche Chieftain of Nescutunga, it had a close rival. The 
first issue of the Star appeared the last week or two in August, 1884. 
The first number of the Chieftain came out the second or third week 
in September. The earliest number of the Star in the Society's file 
is dated September 20, 1884, listed as Vol. I, No. 5. If published 
regularly the first issue should have appeared August 23, 1884. 

The paper elicited favorable newspaper comment. On August 29, 
1884, the Barber County Index of Medicine Lodge, announced: 
"The Western Star is the name of a newspaper now published at 
Coldwater, Comanche county. It is a creditable sheet; full of local 
news and will no doubt look after the interests of that county." The 
Hazelton Express, September 4, described it as ". . . a six column 
folio, very neatly gotten up and ably edited by Cash Bros." The 
same day Lea's Columbus Advocate stated: 

At last the "long-felt want" has been supplied at Coldwater, Comanche 
county, Kas., in the way of a new paper, The Western Star, with Cash Bros, 
at the helm. It is a neat 5-column folio, and well filled with news and ad- 
vertising. Politically it is independent. Long may she live and shine to 
illuminate the entire country, so as to enable home-seekers in the far west to 
find their way through the dark and desolate country. 

The Pleasanton Herald on September 5 said: "The paper gives 
Coldwater a boom, and is chuck full of reading matter." The 
Advocate probably was mistaken in the size of the Star for other 
papers spoke of six columns. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 391 

In the issue of September 20, 1884, the Star had an interesting 
statement on Coldwater and its water supply: 

Coldwater still booms, and has over fifty houses finished, all painted or 
the work contracted. One hundred and seven more houses are under way. 
The city now enjoys a public well and pump, the water being raised by wind- 
mill. This is the best well in Southern Kansas, and supplies water for over 500 
people and over 1,000 head of cattle every day. The water is pure and good, 
and suitable to wash with. . . . 

The Western Star is still published. Mrs. H. V., Ward H., and 
Merle T. Butcher are the present editors and publishers. The 
Society has a good file of this paper commencing with the issue of 
September 20, 1884. 

CLARK COUNTY 
Clark County Clipper, Clark City, September 25, 1884. 

This paper started with Vol. I, No. 2. The editors explained the 
irregularity in these words: 

On account of the delay of our paper we could not get out an issue last 
week, although we had everything else ready. We leave one side just as it 
was, which will account for any mistakes in regard to time, etc. We will 
change the date of our first issue, subscriptions, advertising and all, to 
Sept. 25. . . . 

The Clipper was Republican in politics, Robert C. Marquis and 
James E. Church were the editors and proprietors. Under the cap- 
tion "Our Bow," they wrote: 

Believing that, in a new county, especially, harmony is of more impor- 
tance than the success of any political party, we shall, in local affairs, always 
aim to support the best man; but in State and National politics, we are Re- 
publicans. The columns of the Clipper, however, will be open for the dis- 
cussion of current topics, by any person, regardless of political proclivities. 

In the first number the editors wrote that they were "greatly in- 
debted to Mr. Bennett of the Garden City Irrigator for valuable 
service rendered," but failed to explain what it included. 

The name and place of publication changed with time. In the 
issue of October 2, 1884, appeared the statement: "Yesterday the 
name of our postoffice ceased to be Klaine, and quietly assumed the 
future name Clark. . . . Hereafter the name of this postoffice 
will be Clark." By November 6, 1884 (Vol. I, No. 8) , the paper had 
moved to Ashland. In explanation of this change the editors wrote: 

It will be observed that the place of publication of the Clipper has been 
changed from Clark City to Ashland. All in this vicinity are conversant with 
the circumstances connected with this move, but the facts are as yet, unknown 
to the outsiders. A few settlers feeling the need of a town in this county, 



392 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

organized themselves into a town company and founded Clark City. The 
town was prosperous enough until a rival sprang up which had capital to back 
it. This rival was laid out at the crossing of the two great trails of southern 
Kansas, and nearer the center of population of the county. With these facts 
before us, we have cast our lot with the town of Ashland, believing it will make 
the leading town of this county. In this move we are not alone. When all 
the buildings are here that are now under contract to move, more than half of 
Clark City will be in Ashland. . . . 

AsMand has since then remained the place of publication. 

The Clipper was favorably received. On October 7, 1884, the 
Harper Graphic stated: 

The Clark County Clipper is the latest. The "head" looks as if it was just 
coming up out of the prairie grass. Marquis & Church are the pilots and their 
first issue is a good one. They say the new town of Clark is booming, and 
we trust it will continue to prosper. Everyone here knows Robert and all his 
friends wish him success. 

The paper changed hands several times. Starting as the Clark 
County Clipper it changed, March 2, 1911, to the Ashland Clipper. 
On December 27, 1917, it announced consolidation with the Ashland 
Record, but the new paper continued as the Ashland Clipper. On 
June 30, 1927, the Englewood Times was consolidated with the Clip- 
per and both publications were issued as The Clark County Clipper. 
The paper is still published under this name. Walter C. Ray and 
Son are the present editors and publishers. 

The Society has a good file of the Clipper, including Vol. I, No. 2. 

KIOWA COUNTY 
Greensburg Rustler, January 15, 1885. 

The Rustler, according to available information, was the first 
newspaper published in this county. It was Democratic in politics. 
The Kinsley Graphic of Edwards county, just north of Kiowa 
county, announced the first number January 23, 1885 : 

We have received Vol. I, No. 1, of the Greensburg Rustler, edited by J. N., 
Crawford. The paper is very neat typographically, brimful of "ads" and ex- 
cept that it swears a little in the poetical effusions, does credit to the bustling 
little town it represents. 

On January 23, 1936, an article in the Greensburg News discussed 
some of the county's early newspapers and reported: "The Rustler 
is a Democratic paper edited by S. B. Sproule and claims to be the 
oldest paper in the county and established January 15, 1885." The 
first issue in the Society's file is dated April 15, 1886, listed as Vol. 
II. No. 14. If regularly issued it would place the first number on 
January 15, 1885. 



GAEDDEBT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 393 

On May 11, 1885, the Kansas City (Mo.) Journal published an 
article on Kiowa county, written by De Vera. It gave the following 
description of the Rustler, four months after its inception (already 
it had changed hands) : 

The Greensburg Rustler is a hebdomadal six column folio, with a consider- 
able amount of excellently selected news matter on the outside, and a vast 
amount of brain work on the inside. It is published by Messrs. Bolton & 
Canfield, and is a very creditable publication. Mr. Bolton, being the county 
superintendent of public instruction, and also a member of one of the best 
law firms in the county, is consequently unable to give the Rustler the benefit 
of his eruditic mind to any great extent; consequently Canfield is left to look 
after about all the work, mental and physical. . . . 

Two other papers, the Wellsford Register and the Democrat and 
Watchman, Dowell, were started in Kiowa county during this year. 
The Society has Vol. I, No. 3, of the Register, dated June 13, 1885, 
and Vol. I, No. 1, of the Democrat and Watchman, dated November 
28, 1885. 

THOMAS COUNTY 

Thomas County Cat, Colby, March 12, 1885, first paper 
published in the county. 

The Enterprise, Colby, March 19, 1885, first paper printed 
in the county. 

The Thomas County Cat, of Colby, was the first paper published 
in Thomas county, but the first paper printed there was The Enter- 
prise, of Colby. E. P. Worcester and D. M. Dunn were the editors 
and proprietors of the Cat; Brown and Son published The Enter- 
prise. One account of Thomas county, published in 1887, says: 

The first newspaper office was brought to the county by Brown & Son, in 
February, 1885. The office was located in J. R. Colby's house near the center 
of the county. They printed one issue of a paper called the Enterprise, on 
March 19. The second edition was never printed. Prospects looked too 
gloomy and the senior Brown being old and a little childish, gave as his rea- 
son for leaving the county that he was "afraid of the coyotes." The Enter- 
prise was the first paper printed in the county, although the first number of 
the Thomas County Cat bears date of March 12, 1885. 12 

On March 8, 1885, E. P. Worcester and family left Minneapolis 
for Thomas county. He had been foreman of the Minneapolis Mes- 
senger for more than a year. Prior to that he was publisher of two 
newspapers. D. M. and C. M. Dunn published the Messenger. The 

12. A Brief Sketch of Thomas County, Kansas, and the City of Colby, the Past, Present 
and Future of the Prettiest County in Kansas (Thomas County Cat, Job Rooms, 1887), p. 49. 

13. Minneapolis Messenger, March 12, 1885. The paper stated that the past week the 
Messenger, the Thomas County Cat, and the Solomon Valley Mirror had all been printed in 
the office of the Minneapolis Messenger. 



394 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

first issue of the Cat, therefore, was printed in this office. 13 When 
Worcester arrived in Thomas county he set up shop in H. W. Miller's 
sod house, near "Old Colby." His office consisted of: 

. . . a Washington hand press, fifty pounds of brevier, forty pounds of 
small pica and several fonts of type that could not be used to advantage in 
any other office except on the extreme frontier. ... At that time there 
was no store near the center of the county, and the town of Colby "was a 
rumor and the improvements a stake." 14 

Miller's sod house also served as a hotel and at night all available 
space was used for beds. Worcester therefore had to set up type 
during the day, and to prevent the wandering night prowler from 
pieing the type, he had to lock it in form every evening. The room 
was only 12 x 14 feet. Whenever the Cat was put to press, the only 
rack Worcester possessed had to be moved outside. 

The first month the Cat subscription books at the Colby post office 
showed only fourteen subscribers, but by 1887, the list had increased 
to 1,300. 15 Jessie Kennedy wrote of the year 1885: "Those were 
hard times. Native fuel was used almost entirely, with a few rail- 
road ties that floated up the Solomon thrown in for seasoning." 16 On 
March 19, 1885, the editor of the Cat wrote: "We take almost 
everything on subscription, but one thing we cannot take native 
fuel." 

In the salutation the Cat said merely, "Here's yer Cat." The edi- 
tor wrote : 

The Cat will purr for Thomas county, and what we deem the best in- 
terests of all her people. The Cat will be located at the new town site on the 
Dog. The Cat has velvet paws, but will not allow the fur to be stroked the 
wrong way. To all concerned it would be well to remember that a Cat has 
nine lives, and farther that a Cat is greatly attached to a place where located. 

The paper elicited interesting comments. The Mankato Review 
stated : 

. . . The Cat is yet rather small, six column folio, but if it catches plenty of 
rabbits may grow to large size. ... In politics it is Republican, and we 
think it plainly indicates that the party intends to maintain its supremacy in 
the state when it sends out young Thomas Cat missionaries to Republicanism 
the coyotes. . . . 17 

The Logan Freeman said: 

We imagine they are having a cat and dog time out in Thomas county, and 
the newspaper name is well chosen. But we should like to know on what part 

14. A Brief Sketch of Thomas County . . . , pp. 49, 50. 

15. Ibid., pp. 50, 61. 

16. Colby Free Press-Tribune, October 4, 1939. 

17. Thomas County Cat, Colby, April 9, 1885. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 395 

of the dog the cat is located. A Thomas cat usually selects the part of a dog 
farthest from the bark to make a location, and we should judge from the 
solidity of the reading matter that this cat has not been lacking in judgment. 
We suppose if the fountain head is a cat, the issue must be kittens, and we 
hope it may increase until the fur flies all over that part of Kansas. 18 

The Society has a good file of the Cat from March 12, 1885, to 
February 5, 1891. 

SCOTT COUNTY 
The Western Times, Scott Center, May 27, 1885. 

The Western Times, a weekly publication, undoubtedly was the 
first newspaper published in Scott county. Mrs. M. E. De Geer & 
S. W. Case were the editors and proprietors, Charles L. Waite was 
the publisher. The Times was a continuation of The Crusader, a 
monthly temperance publication, established in Chicago in 1874, 
and published by Mrs. De Geer and her daughter. 19 In January, 
1885, Mrs. De Geer came to Kansas and temporarily established 
The Western Times at Garden City, "Devoted to Western Immi- 
gration, Temperance and Justice." Under title, "Wedded," in the 
issue of January 30, 1885, listed as Vol. XI, No. 2, the Times stated: 

In the month of January, 1885, The Crusader and The Western Times 
joined hands and became one, henceforth to go forward together in the 
blending and extending of knowledge and principles calculated to educate 
and make the dependent masses happy, by becoming independent; for with- 
out self-reliant independence there can be no happiness. 

The Crusader, after years of reformatory and educational work, on the part 
of its editors, was devoted to temperance, literature, justice and the best in- 
terests of humanity, and took its stand, not in the ranks alone of the grand 
crusade of 1874 against intemperance, but as a leader among the advance 
guards of God's own army. We were at that time denounced as fanatic, 
trying to do too much, and were besought by many overcautious friends of 
the cause, not to mix politics (advocate prohibition) and temperance and let 
woman suffrage alone altogether. But knowing we were right that temperance, 
justice and equality were cardinal virtues, and that the God of battles was 
with us in that right, we moved steadily onward, and at the expiration of ten 
years, rejoice in the advancing millions that are now in the same onward 
march. . . . 

Mrs. De Geer, however, had interest in the Scott county ranch 
lands and soon directed her attention to the county northward. On 
May 13, 1885, the Times carried the notice: "Office of Western 
Times will be moved this week to De Geer ranch. We look for our 
post-office outfit every day." The following week, although still 

18. Ibid. 

19. American Newspaper Directory . . . (Geo. P. Rowell A Co., New York, 1877), 
p. 50. 



396 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

dated Garden City, the Times already boosted Scott county. A 
"postal" in this issue remarked in a teasing manner: "Let us know 
when you have lots for sale in De Geer." The next number, May 
27, 1885, was dated Scott Center. 20 This issue explained that Scott 
Center was a so called because of it being located in the exact geo- 
graphical center of Scott county." The article went on to describe 
the town as "two months old and consists of one store building 
30 x 40, one good sized hotel, one printing office and three dwellings. 
The town is situated on the highest point in the county yet excellent 
water is obtained at a depth of 45 feet." At the end of the article 
it said that The Western Times was printed by "Mrs. De Geer at 
the Center and is devoted to booming the county and publishing 
land office notices." Scott Center soon became Scott City. The 
change first appeared in the date line September 16, 1885. 

The Western Times continued to be published at Scott City till 
September 16, 1886, when it was moved to Sharon Springs, Wallace 
county. The first issue published there was dated October 16, 1886. 
Mrs. De Geer severed her connection as editor and proprietor of 
the paper in October, 1885, when Kate B. Russell, daughter of Mrs. 
De Geer, and S. W. Case assumed control. The change appeared 
first in the masthead October 28, 1885. Mrs. De Geer remained 
for some time as corresponding editor. The Western Times is still 
published at Sharon Springs. Harry F. Lutz is the present editor 
and publisher. The Society has an incomplete file of this paper, 
commencing with the issue of January 30, 1885. 

HAMILTON COUNTY 
The Syracuse Journal, June 12 (?), 1885. 

The Syracuse Journal was the first newspaper published in 
Hamilton county. The Kearny County Advocate, Lakin, made this 
statement when it announced the first number of the Journal, June 
13, 1885: 

Vol. I, No. 1, of the Syracuse Journal, published by Lester & Armour, has 
been received. It is a very nice and newsty] sheet and is a credit to its pub- 
lishers. It is the first paper ever published in Hamilton county, and the names 
hoisted at its head guarantees success. May their labours be crowned with 
their highest ambitions. 

In the earliest issue of the Society's file, dated July 17, 1885, listed 

20. Oliver S. Lawson, in "History of Sc9tt County, Kansas" (August, 1936), p. 70 (MS. 
in library of Kansas State Historical Society), mistakenly dated the first issue of The 
Western Times, published at Scott City, as March, 1886. The Scott City News Chronicle, 
June 24, 1937, was more accurate in listing it as "the spring of 1885." History of Kansas 
Newspapers . . . 185% to 1916 (Topeka, 1916), p. 311, was also in error. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 397 

as Vol. I, No. 6, the editors advertised that "The Syracuse Journal 
is the only newspaper published in Hamilton county." If the paper 
was issued regularly, the first number should have appeared June 
12, 1885. One of the founders of the paper was H. N. Lester, who 
was also one of the original members of the Syracuse colony. 21 
Associated with him as publisher of the Journal was one Armour. 

The Society has scattered issues of this paper for 1885, but a more 
complete file from 1886 on. The Syracuse Journal is the only paper 
in the county, begun in the early days, that has had a continuous 
history. At present Albert M. James is editor and publisher. 

GRANT COUNTY 
Grant County Register, Ulysses, July 21, 1885. 

Ulysses was less than a month old when the first number of the 
Register flung its banner to the breeze. A. Bennett was the editor 
and proprietor and Charles D. Majors the manager. It was an eight- 
page, five-column folio, independent in politics. The first number 
was printed at Lakin, because, to quote the publishers, "our press 
has not arrived." Under "Our Bow," Majors wrote: 

Ulysses wanted a paper, we wanted a location, and finding Grant with 
greater natural advantages than any unorganized county in the state, and 
sure to become one of the foremost, we have cast our lot here. We may be a 
few days or weeks, or even months ahead of the times in advance of the 
settlement but we are willing to wait. . . . Six weeks ago hardly a claim 
was taken in Grant county. Now there are over 500 actual settlers and they 
still come in swarms, and all who come locate. If the rush continues there 
will not be a vacant piece of land in the county. . . . 

The establishment of Ulysses, according to George Earp, one of 
the pioneer settlers of the county, was delayed by a Texas cattleman. 
He wrote: "We didn't start it [Ulysses] as soon as we expected, for 
a Texas cattleman was branding 18 or 20 thousand steers on the 
very spot we had picked out for the business center and we could not 
start our town till the Texas man moved away. 22 Under the caption, 
"Ulysses," the Register in the first issued stated: 

Everything is newness and bustle, but dispatch, haste, push is the motto. 
Where a month ago where on the 7th of June six thousand head of cattle 
were rounded up on a gentle western slope near a beautiful lake, and not a 
habitation of any kind within 7 miles, and only one within 15 miles, there is 
now a bustling, prosperous young city, and all the country round is dotted 
with the "settlements" of locators. 

Surely no such town ever before sprang up. The Arabian Nights have noth- 

21. Syracuse Journal, March 29, 1940. 

22. "Grant County Clippings," p. 11. Library, Kansas State Historical Society. 



398 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

ing like it. No such thing ever before happened in wonderful Kansas where 
towns spring up in a day, for here one month 16 townships with but one 
house a cattle ranch has a population of 500 souls the next month. . . . 

At this time ten new stores were under contract, said the paper, and 
the cry all over Kansas was "Ulysses or bust." 

As to Grant county, the editor wrote, it had not yet been "habili- 
tated." "You search on the present map for it in vain. But you will 
soon see it again. It was wiped out three years ago, but the next 
legislature will surely restore it." There was seldom a pessimist in 
those frontier counties, if we can trust the newspapers. 

The Society has a good file of the Register from July 21, 1885, to 
February 22, 1890, when it was merged with the Ulysses Tribune, 
published by George W. Perry. 

SEWARD COUNTY 
The Prairie Owl, Fargo Springs, August 27, 1885. 

County authorities are agreed that The Prairie Owl, of Fargo 
Springs, was the first newspaper published in Seward county. The 
Seward County C our ant, Springfield, November 11, 1887, carried 
the statement: 

The Prairie Owl, the first paper in the county, was recently moved from 
Fargo Springs to this county. The Owl has labored for the advancement of 
Seward county from its earliest settlement, and during the more prosperous 
days at Fargo Springs, it done noble work for the town, but when Springfield 
conquered in the fight, it quietly folded its wings and is now hooting for this 
city with as much earnestness as in the days agone. 

What the author meant to say, no doubt, was that The Prairie Owl 
had recently moved "from Fargo Springs to this town." 

The Liberal News, May 2, 1935, stated: 

C. L. Calvert was editor of the first paper printed in Seward county. It 
was The Prairie Owl, the first issue of which appeared at Fargo Springs, 
October 8, 1885. After a stormy career of about three years, the paper was 
moved to Springfield where it ceased publication in 1888. 

The earliest issue of this paper in the Society's file is dated Oc- 
tober 8, 1885, listed as Vol. I, No. 7. C. L. Calvert and Hays were 
the editors and A. B. Carr & Co. the publishers. The News leaves 
the impression that the first issue of The Prairie Owl published at 
Fargo Springs was dated October 8, 1885. If the paper was estab- 
lished at Fargo Springs, and there is no reason to question the as- 
sumption, and if it was issued regularly, the first number should 
have appeared August 27, 1885. In the first anniversary edition, 
August 26, 1886, the editor of the Owl wrote: "With our last issue 



GAEDDEKT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 399 

ended the first year of the existence of The Prairie Owl." He did 
not say whether or not all numbers had been published at Fargo 
Springs. 

Fargo Springs, which at one time was a thriving city, is today 
extinct. Not even the name is left on the map. Springfield, its 
erstwhile rival, likewise is no longer. In early days, however, the 
rivalry between these towns was so marked that no business man 
"in one town dared even to solicit business from the other town and 
so closely were the lines drawn that members of the church would 
have been ostracized had they dared attend communion service in the 
rival town. So thoroughly were they organized that all the voters 
in the county friendly to Springfield would assemble in that town 
and camp out on the night before an important election and next 
morning march in a body, heavily armed, to Fargo Springs, which 
was for a long time the voting place for both towns. . . ." 23 The 
following amusing incident was related in the Dodge City Daily 
Globe, December 26, 1922: 

The story is told of the night when word came to Fargo Springs that a 
bunch of men from Springfield were coming to clean up the town. The Fargo 
men, among whom were A. K. Stoufer and L. A. Etzlod, lay at the foot of the 
rise near the town all night guarding it from attack. Little did they dream 
at the time that the report had gone to Springfield to the effect that the 
Fargo citizens were planning a night attack there. And while the Fargo men 
lay at the foot of the raise on one side guarding from the Springfield men, on 
the other side of the raise all night long lay Springfield men on guard against 
Fargo. And neither suspected the presence of the other. 

The Society has a good file of The Prairie Owl from October 8, 
1885, to June 5, 1888, listed as Vol. Ill, No. 29. The first issue of 
the paper published at Springfield was dated October 6, 1887. 

LOGAN COUNTY 
Oakley Opinion, October 12, 1885. 

The Opinion, according to the records, was the first newspaper 
published in what is now Logan county. Originally the county was 
named after Gov. John P. St. John, but in 1887 the state legislature, 
by vote of 64 to 54, changed the name to Logan county, in honor of 
Gen. John A. Logan, the "Black Eagle of Illinois." In the first num- 
ber the editor, Edward Kleist, wrote that the Opinion was the "only 
paper published in St. John county," but expressed doubt that the 
new venture would bring him financial security : 

With the merits, responsibilities, duties and privileges of a newspaper in 

23. Kansas City (Mo.) Journal, October 18, 1911. 



400 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

view, the proprietor, editor, business manager, compositor, printer, etc., all 
personified in one being, has taken it upon himself to launch this sheet upon 
the troubled and rather treacherous waters of newspaper enterprise. 

Kleist was willing to take the chance, however, and promised his 
constituency that the paper would be published "in the interest of 
the public," that it would be "the slave of no man," but "the servant 
of all." 

His fears were well founded. Less than four years later he was 
forced to suspend business. Under the caption, "Demise," July 20, 
1889, he wrote: 

With this number the Oakley Opinion, after almost four years of hard 
labor, is laid to rest. It is unnecessary for us to enlarge upon the combination 
of causes that induce us to take this important step, for they have but one 
general trend, that of making the Opinion a financial failure. The suspension 
of the Opinion is not due, however, to our lack of faith in the town or 
country; on the contrary, we believe that both are on the threshold of 
prosperity and development. 

Edward Kleist's fate is the story of many other pioneer Kansas 
newspaper men. Years later while describing his early ventures, he 
wrote: 

When a young man I drove across the country from McCook, Nebraska, 
to Grainfield, Kansas. I took the train there for Oakley (I believe the station 
was named Cleveland at that time). I arrived early in September, 1884 
[1885?], and the next day met Judge Freeman and Mr. Hogue from Kansas 
City, of the Union Pacific Townsite Company, on Oakley's proposed townsite. 
There was only a depot, section house and water tank there then. 

That evening I started for Kansas City, Mo., purchased a small printing 
outfit and hurried back to have my print shop built. . . . 24 

The name of the townsite formerly was Cleveland, with Gilmore 
as post office, but owing to the fact that Kansas had another Cleve- 
land, in Kingman county, the town fathers decided to call it Oakley. 
The name was suggested by David D. Hoag, who laid out the town. 
In a letter to the editor of the Oakley Graphic, dated September 11, 
1931, Hoag explained that he named the townsite in honor of his 
mother Eliza Oakley (Gardner) Hoag. The railroad company had 
called it Cleveland, but he had been able to secure the change in the 
name. 25 

The Society has a good file of the Opinion, including Vol. I, No. 1. 

24. Oakley Graphic, September 9, 1932 

25. Ibid., September 18, 1931. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 401 

SHERMAN COUNTY 
The New* Tecumseh, Gandy, November 9, 1885. 

It is generally conceded that The New Tecumseh, of Gandy, was 
the first newspaper published in Sherman county. The editors in 
the first number referred to it as the pioneer paper in the county. 
W. E. Bissell and Gird published the paper until the third number, 
when Saxon and Bissell assumed control. The paper was named 
after "Old Tecumseh," nickname of Gen. William Tecumseh Sher- 
man in whose honor the county was named. The publishers thought 
the name New Tecumseh appropriate and suggestive of the progress 
and rapid development the county had undergone. The idea of the 
name was suggested by D. M. Dunn, editor of the Thomas County 
Cat, of Colby. 26 

The paper was moved three times. First published at Gandy, it 
was transferred to Leonard in March, 1886. By August 20, 1886, 
the post office of Leonard changed to Itasca. In November, 1886, 
the paper was moved to Eustis and remained there until January, 
1889, when it was moved to Goodland, where it suspended June 13, 
1889. The paper changed to the Sherman County Democrat with 
the issue of April 7, 1887. 

The Society has a good file, including Vol. I, No. 1. 

WICHITA COUNTY 
Wichita Standard, Leoti City, November 19, 1885. 

The Wichita Standard was established before Leoti had a post 
office. C. S. Triplett was the editor and publisher. The Standard's 
rival paper was the Coronado Star which first appeared December 
31, 1885. 27 

The two towns were only three miles apart, and the bitter rivalry 
which culminated in a bloody county-seat fight in 1886-1887, had a 
mild beginning in the first issue. The editor of the Standard wrote : 

We had intended to say nothing disparaging of the new town project in- 
tended as a rival to Leoti, nor of the parties having the matter in hand, be- 
ing liberal enough in our views to understand that they had a perfect right 
to build a new town if they wished to do so. . . . What we have to say 
is against the underhanded way in which the management is attempting to 
forward their prospects at the sacrifice of those of their neighbors, instead of on 
their own merits. . . . 

26. The New Tecumseh, Gandy, November 9, 1885. 

27. Topeka State Journal, May 19, 1923. The first issue of the Star in the Society's file 
is dated August 12, 1886, listed as Vol. I, No. 33. 

261043 



402 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

Before the contest ended the newspaper editors of the rival towns 
had exchanged harsh words and seven prominent Leoti citizens had 
paid with their lives for the victory in the county-seat fight. 28 

The paper is still published at Leoti, although the name has been 
changed from Wichita Standard to Leoti Standard. Bryant Holmes 
is the present editor and publisher. 

The Society has a good file of this paper, including Vol. I, No. 1. 

HASKELL COUNTY 
The Ivanhoe Times, December 12, 1885. 

The available records indicate that the Ivanhoe Times was the 
first newspaper published in what is now Haskell, then part of 
Finney county. George H. Apperson was the editor. The paper 
was Republican in politics. It was a four-page, seven-column folio. 
The Society's History of Kansas Newspapers (1916), p. 206, and 
the Sublette Monitor, June 12, 1930, mistakenly gave C. T. Hick- 
man as founder of the Times. His name does not appear in the 
masthead until May 22, 1886. 

The Times may have been the organ of the Ivanhoe Town Com- 
pany, formed in June, 1885, which carried a two-column, full 
length advertisement in the paper. 

The Sublette Monitor mentioned above very aptly said: "News- 
papers are the most fervent advocates of their territories. Some- 
times their enthusiasms exceed sound reasoning, but they keep 
tearing at the clouds and beckoning to the silver lining." This was 
especially characteristic of the frontier papers and the editor of the 
Times was no exception. In the salutation he wrote, among other 
things : 

The Times believes in Kansas, and has implicit faith in the "New West." 
It believes there is no state in the Union that has such vast and unlimited 
resources, so fine natural advantages, so energetic, intelligent and enterprising 
people, and such great possibilities for the future. It believes furthermore, that 
Southwestern Kansas in particular, is a country of which the half has not been 
told, and that the historian of the future will have to record of this section a 
progress and development unparalleled in the history of the world. . . . 

The Society has a good file of this paper from December 12, 1885, 
to November 18, 1892, when it was absorbed by the Santa Fe 
Monitor. 

28. Wichita Standard, March 10, 1887. 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 403 

WALLACE COUNTY 
Wallace County Register, Wallace, January 2, 1886. 

The Wallace County Register, of Wallace, no doubt was the first 
newspaper in Wallace county. The editor, S. L. Wilson, made the 
claim under the title, "Our Greeting," when he wrote: 

In presenting you with this, the first number of the Register, the first paper 
published in Wallace county, we are highly gratified with the seemingly 
auspicious circumstances which have brought us into this relation. While there 
has been no "long felt want" of a newspaper at this place nevertheless there 
are many in this community who have resided here for years, who will doubt- 
less appreciate the establishment of this branch of business in their midst, and 
give it their hearty support. ... In politics we are Republican, but our 
intention is to publish a newspaper in the interest of Wallace county and for 
the advancement of her local affairs. . . . 

In describing the territory to new settlers, he spoke of it as "a new 
and broader field, where the antelope has not yet ceased to graze 
and the track of the buffalo is scarcely washed out, in which there is 
opportunity for almost unlimited growth and development." The 
Union Pacific railroad crossed the center of the county from east 
to west, years before the county was reorganized. 

Two business firms that have attracted national attention were 
advertising their merchandise in the first number of the Register. 
Peter Robidoux, a swarthy French Canadian, won fame through his 
general store and the manner in which he closed it. He also operated 
a saloon in which for twelve years the doors were never locked. 
Moreover, he was a land baron owning 32,000 acres by the end of the 
World War. 29 In the memorable blizzard of 1886 when stock in 
the territory of the upper Smoky Hill river drifted more than fifty 
miles with the storm and perished along the fence of the Santa Fe 
railroad, it was said by men who were sent to skin the dead bodies 
that "one might walk from Garden City to the Colorado state line on 
the bodies of dead animals bearing the Robidoux brand, whose loss 
was estimated at more than 4,000 head." 30 

The fame of Thomas Madigan is due largely to the fact that he 
was Robidoux's competitor. The second number of the Register had 
the following description of their stores: 

There are two very large general stores in town, the one owned by Thomas 
Madigan and the other by Peter Robidoux. We use the word "general" in 
describing these places, in a very broad sense, as the reader will see by glancing 
over the advertisements of these establishments. These two gentlemen have 

29. Thompson, W. F M "Peter Robidoux: A Real Kansas Pioneer," The Kansas His- 
torical Collections, v. XVII, pp. 289, 290; Colby Free Press-Tribune, July 22, 1936. 

30. Thompson, W. F., loc. cit., p. 289. 



404 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 

been in business in Wallace for a number of years and there is scarcely any- 
thing called for that they do not keep and furnish. Their stocks are neces- 
sarily very large, worth many thousand dollars each, and are both kept in 
excellent condition. The business of each occupies three large rooms probably 
24 by 60 or 80 feet, and well filled. Here you find goods that would never be 
called for or seen in an eastern store. "Ranch supplies" are a specialty with 
them. A "cow-boy's" hat was a curiosity to us. It is what would be known 
as a white hat, broad brim, crown medium height and made of very thick 
material, impervious to the rain, and ornamented with a band of leather that 
frequently costs nearly as much as the hat, and the whole worth sometimes 
ten or twelve dollars. "Mexican" spurs and saddles and saddle trimmings, 
bridles, girths, pistol and knife holsters, and a thousand other paraphernalia 
not seen in the east. All these are carried in stock in these stores. 

Peter Robidoux's advertisement in the first number of the Register 
read: 

PETER ROBIDOUX PIONEER STORE OF WALLACE, KANSAS. 
Dealer in General Merchandise, Dry Goods, Notions, Ready Made Clothing 
and Gents Furnishing Goods, Hats, Caps and Gloves. "The Celebrated" Selz 
Schwab & Go's Boots, Shoes and Rubber Goods. Full line of Groceries and 
Provisions of all kinds. Flour, Feed & Baled Hay. Stockmen & Ranchmans 
Supplies. Hardware, Tinware, Barb Wire & Nails. Crockery, Glassware & 
Lamps, Oils, Paints and Brushes. Harness, Saddles, Blankets & Horse Covers, 
Farming Implements and Wagons. Terms after January 1, '86, strictly cash. 
Will not be undersold and guarantees satisfaction. Give me a Call. Peter 
Robidoux. 

His rival's advertisement read: 

THOS. MADIGAN, WALLACE, KANSAS, Has in store the largest, best 
and most varied Stock of General Merchandise in Western Kansas, and sells 
goods as low as they can be bought anywhere west of the Missouri River. 
Try Him For Dry Goods, Prints, Muslins, Flannels, Linens, Yarns, Crash and 
Notions. For Hats, Caps, Boots and Shoes. For Groceries of all Kinds, 
especially Coffees, Teas, Sugars, Spices, Syrups and Vinegar. Canned Goods 
and Fish, Green and Dried Fruits, Soaps and confections. Headquarters for 
Cigars and Tobaccos. A full stock of Hardware, Stoves, and Tinware, also of 
Queensware and Woodenware, Flour, Corn Meal and Feed. Ranch supplies 
of every description at very low prices wholesale and retail. Buy of Thomas 
Madigan and Save Money ! Store south of the Railroad. 

The Society has a good file of the Register, including Vol. I, No. 1. 

MORTON COUNTY 
The Frisco Pioneer, January 6, 1886. 

Two newspapers in Morton county competed for priority. The 
Frisco Pioneer, by Euphrates Boucher, appeared January 6, and the 
Richfield Leader, by D. L. Kretsinger, January 9, 1886. The Pioneer 
was Republican and the Leader Democratic in politics. Both papers 



GAEDDERT: FIRST NEWSPAPERS IN KANSAS 405 

referred to their county as Kansas. Under the title, "Kansas 
County," the Leader stated: 

We take it, that there is not a school boy in the land but what can tell 
you where Kansas county is, or at least where it ought to be, but owing to 
"an act" of a fool legislature last winter Kansas county was merged into, and 
made a part of Seward county. These veiy fellows are the chaps that we of 
Western Kansas are after this winter at the special session, and we propose to 
demand our rights, and restore the old lines as they were prior to '81. . . . 

In the issue of February 24, 1886, the Pioneer had changed the head- 
line from Kansas to Morton county. The Leader made the change 
March 6. 

In the introductory statement the editor of the Pioneer wrote : 
With this issue begins the initial number of the Pioneer. Just what suc- 
cess it will meet time will only tell. One thing is sure, it is a permanent in- 
stitution to begin with. It will be devoted to the building up of Frisco, 
particularly, and Kansas county generally, while the interest of the southwest, 
as well as the state will be looked after. Politically it will be Republican. 

Under "Greeting" the editor of the Leader wrote : 

Friends and fellow citizens of Richfield, Kansas county, the advent of the 
Leader is no blessing in disguise. Your